News headlines in March 2019, page 7

PORT OF SPAIN, Mar 15 (IPS) - Trinidad and Tobago unveiled its monitoring, reporting and verification system in mid-March with a flourish, with government authorities underscoring the launch of the Monitoring, Reporting, Verification as a milestone in that country's efforts to reduce its emissions in line with its commitments under the 2016 Paris agreement.

RÍO DE JANEIRO, Mar 15 (IPS) - "More than 50 countries in the world have discriminatory laws against people affected by Hansen's disease. There is also a lot of discrimination in the public administration…and in society," Alice Cruz, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members, said in this interview with IPS (in Spanish, with English subtitles).

ILLINOIS, United States, Mar 15 (IPS) - The latest UN Food and Agriculture Organization's annual Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition Report highlighted drought as one of the key factors contributing to the continuing rise in the number of hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa. And in South Africa, the Government's Crop Estimates Committee announced that the country would harvest 20 percent less maize in 2019 because of drought conditions. 

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 15 (IPS) - With the decision to found a regional coalition to promote rights and greater participation in national and international forums and decisions, the First Latin American and Caribbean Assembly of Organisations of People Affected by Hansen's disease, popularly known - and stigmatised - as leprosy, came to an end.

KINGSTOWN, Mar 14 (IPS) - From an influx of sargassum in near-shore waters, to fish venturing further out to sea to find cooler, more oxygenated water, fishers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are battling the vagaries of climate change. The country is doing what it can to respond.

BANGKOK, Thailand, Mar 14 (IPS) - Wendell Balderas is Media & Communications Manager & Mary Assunta is Senior Policy Advisor, Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA)*

International Women's Day on 8 March recognized and celebrated the progress women are making globally. The day also acknowledged the risks, exploitation and suffering many continue to endure.

RÍO DE JANEIRO, Mar 14 (IPS) - Known scientifically as Hansen's disease, leprosy carries a symbolic burden from the past that people affected by the disease and experts from around Latin America are fighting, including the terminology used.

YAMBIO, South Sudan, Mar 13 (IPS) - Almost a month to go ahead of the traditional rainy season in Gbudue State, 430 kilometres west of South Sudan's capital, Juba, smallholder farmers are already tilling their land as they prepare to plant purer, drought-tolerant seeds.

PUNTLAND, Somalia, Mar 13 (IPS) - Hawa Aden Mohamed is founder of The Galkayo Centre, an organisation based in Galkayo, Puntland, Somalia, which educates and protects girls from female genital mutilation (FGM) and other forms of violence. It is the local partner of international group Donor Direct Action.

Aisha Elias Adan was abducted on the evening of February 24th at a market in Israc village, Puntland, Somalia.

Her body was carelessly dumped in front of her family home the following morning. A doctor's report showed that she had been brutally gang-raped.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 13 (IPS) - IPS is reissuing this piece that appeared in Mar 5, 2018 in memory of the author Victor Tsang, who tragically passed away on Sunday in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, along with 156 others. There were 21 United Nations officials on board the flight. The fatalities included people from 35 countries, including 32 Kenyan citizens, 18 from Canada, nine from Ethiopia, eight from Italy, China and the US, and seven from the UK and France.

This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by IPS on the occasion of this year's International Women's Day on March 8.

Victor Tsang is UN Environment gender expert and Shari Nijman, UN Environment communication officerWhen Mandelena became a mother, she was only 16. During the prolonged dry season in Gwor County, South Sudan, her community saw crops failing and cattle dying. Children stopped going to school because of hunger and women and girls had to walk up to five hours every day to collect water.