By Federico Mayor Zaragoza and Mario Soares*

BARCELONA, Jun 1, 2012 (IPS) – We are all going through a period of great confusion and uncertainty.

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By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 1, 2012 (IPS) – As the international community readies for a global mega- conference on sustainable development in Brazil mid-June, the United Nations is determined to practice what it preaches to the outside world: improve resource efficiency and drastically reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions.

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By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, May 31, 2012 (IPS) – Canada, in a dramatic political turnaround, has signaled its willingness to recognise water and sanitation as a basic human right.

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By Kanis Dursin

JAKARTA, May 31, 2012 (IPS) – Misradi, a 58-year-old farmer from the Jelok neighborhood in Pacitan, East Java, some 524 kilometres east of Jakarta, has found a way to reduce his monthly expenses by 30 percent: instead of buying produce from the local market, he and his family now harvest most of their vegetables from their own yard.

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Busani Bafana interviews SAMEER DOSSANI, ActionAid International advocacy coordinator

BULAWAYO, May 31, 2012 (IPS) – It is vitally important that governments and civil society organisations start transitioning to a more sustainable global food system in order to achieve lasting development.

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Rousbeh Legatis interviews MOHAMED BÉAVOGUI of the International Fund for Agricultural Development

UNITED NATIONS, May 30, 2012 (IPS) – As Africa’s Sahel region faces a new food crisis, smallholder famers hold the key to making future development policies sustainable. Continue Reading

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

KATHMANDU, May 30, 2012 (IPS) – After years of working out of a small, dimly-lit office in a crowded bazaar here, Yug Tamrakar has just moved up a gravel road to occupy five floors of a new building, where sunlight pours through large glass windows.

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By Julio Godoy

PARIS, May 30, 2012 (IPS) – The reproductive rights agenda, from improving women’s access to education to systematic family planning to reducing birth rates and combating poverty, has become a cornerstone of most industrialised nations’ development policies toward the least developed countries (LDCs), comprised primarily of sub-Saharan African states.

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By Claire Ngozo

LILONGWE, May 29, 2012 (IPS) – As she sits down to watch the 8pm news on TV, Mercy Kamphoni from Chamtulo Village in Malawi’s Mangochi lake district looks elated. She still cannot believe that she is the new proud owner of a television set, refrigerator and radio.

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By Mariela Jara

LIMA, May 29, 2012 (IPS) – For ages, rural women in the Peruvian highlands have been selecting and storing seeds, ensuring their preservation. But the authorities have failed to tap into this storehouse of knowledge and experience, despite the contributions it could make to the design of effective policies for adaptation to climate change, which poses a growing threat to the women’s livelihoods. Continue Reading