News headlines in 2018, page 18

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 13 (IPS) - A new landmark initiative aims to make quality data and tools available to the international community in order to combat an "existential crisis": land degradation.

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 13 (IPS) - Josef Benedict is a civic space research officer for global civil society alliance, CIVICUS. Powdery white beaches. Crystal clear turquoise water. Palm trees swaying in the breeze.

This is the postcard picture of paradise that comes to mind when tourists think of Fiji. But for many citizens of the South Pacific's largest island nation, and its media, the reality is anything but blissful.

KUMASI, Ghana, Nov 12 (IPS) - Yaw Owiredu Mintah from Ghana has been working as an all-round processor of bamboo and rattan trees since the 1980s. And while he says that he can do most things with bamboo like weaving, framing and finishing, he admits, "I need to improve my skills and designs because all of us are, most of the time, doing the same things."

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Nov 12 (IPS) - Janet Cherono is Norwegian Refugee Council's Program Manager in Maiduguri.

The number of people who have been affected by cholera in northeast Nigeria has increased to 10,000. The disease is spreading quickly in congested displacement camps with limited access to proper sanitation facilities.

JINJA, Uganda, Nov 12 (IPS) - Colvince Mubiru had heard about cage fish farming on Uganda's lakes. The small business owner decided to try his hand at it and spent USD8,000 to set up farming cages for Nile Tilapia on Lake Victoria, expecting to reap a huge profit. But just six months into his enterprise, he made huge losses.

MUMBAI, India, Nov 12 (IPS) - With 81 percent of India's employed workforce being in the informal sector, we can't afford to ignore their potential. Here's how entrepreneurship could offer a solution.The image of the ‘struggling' daily wage labourer in India is one that stakeholders from across the development sector aspire to transform. Financial security, quality living conditions, and opportunity to thrive are the buzzwords in a conversation about the needs of this bracket. These workers—usually associated with the informal or unorganised sector—are assumed to represent the outliers of the national economy.

ROME, Nov 12 (IPS) - Despite the fact that Pakistan's industrial and services sector continue to grow in importance, what happens in the agriculture sector remains critical to the performance of Pakistan's economy and the wellbeing of its people.

GENEVA, Nov 11 (IPS) - A century later, the consequences of the end of World War I are still today resound from the Middle East, including Syria and Kurdistan, to the shaping of financial and economic policies in Europe.

SOUSA, Brazil, Nov 09 (IPS) - Dozens of trucks used to leave São Gonçalo every day, carrying the local agricultural production, mainly coconuts, to markets throughout Brazil, including the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, more than 2,000 kilometers away.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 09 (IPS) - Marco Napoli, who passed away on November 6, began his early professional career as a New York-based correspondent for several international news organizations, including the Italian Il Progresso News, back in the 1960s, long before he was Regional Director, IPS North America.