Women’s sexual and reproductive rights are at the heart of sustainable development, experts say. Credit: Fahim Siddiqi/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 2 2012 (IPS) – Gathered at the Ford Foundation in New York Monday, international luminaries, family planning experts and women s rights activists repeatedly expressed a common sentiment: “I cannot believe that we are still having this discussion today.

They were there to mark the launch of a new 26-member to galvanise support behind the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

That conference took place nearly two decades ago, in Cairo, Egypt in 1994. It resulted in a Programme of A…

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 2012 (IPS) – Researchers unveiling critical trial results of a potentially major anti-malaria vaccine are expressing disappointment that the drug’s efficacy levels have proved lower than they had anticipated.

The malaria plasmodium. Credit: Image by Ute Frevert; false color by Margaret Shear/cc by 2.5

Following on decades of research, the third phase of testing on a vaccine known as RTS,S found that the drug reduced malaria rates among infants (age six to 12 weeks) by about a third, far lower than expected.

The study, funded largely by the B…

Demanding rights for nuclear workers. Credit: National Union of General Workers.

TOKYO, Mar 11 2013 (IPS) – Japan has promised to scrap the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors that faced the world’s worst nuclear accident. But Hiroyuki Watanabe, councillor in Iwaki City located 30 kilometres from the accident site, greets such intentions on the second anniversary of the disaster on Monday with misgiving.

“I see problems in Fukushima increasing, not decreasing. One of the biggest issues facing the country is the lack of qualified workers in Japan who can meet the enormous challenges ahead,” he told IPS.

Iwaki City lies in Fukushima prefecture, and was affecte…

Bumblebee pollinating Aquilegia vulgaris. Credit: Roo72/cc by 3.0

WASHINGTON, May 3 2013 (IPS) – A major study by the U.S. government’s environment and agriculture agencies has suggested a strong link between the use of certain pesticides and the widespread deaths that have afflicted honey bee populations around the world in recent years.

Still, the , released Thursday, does not suggest limiting the use of these pesticides, nor does it recommend immediate action to impose a temporary ban, as was announced this week in a landmark decision by the European Union. Rather, the report offers technical tweaks while urging additional research on the…

Young Bangladeshi women raise their fists at a protest in Shahbagh. Credit: Kajal Hazra/IPS

KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 2013 (IPS) – “If I am thirsty and want a bottle of Coca-Cola I can get it, no matter where in the world I am. Why can’t I get contraceptives or sexual heathcare?” asked Carlos Jimmy Macazana Quispe, a youth representative from Peru currently in Kuala Lumpur for the third edition of the Women Deliver global conference on the health and well-being of women and girls.

A member of the Lima-based (INPPARES), a non-profit organisation that helps young Peruvians learn about sexual and reproductive rights, Quispe was expressing frustration th…

KIEV, Jun 28 2013 (IPS) – The Ukraine is facing a “real threat” of a return of polio as well as outbreaks of other serious diseases such as mumps, rubella and measles because of a combination of state inefficiency and public mistrust of vaccinations, health experts have said.

The country has one of the lowest vaccine coverage rates in Europe, especially among children, and cases of some preventable diseases have soared in recent years.

International health officials say they are working with the Ukrainian authorities to improve immunisation rates, but fear that there could be major disease outbreaks in the future and lives endangered unless progress is made on raising vaccination rates.

“There is a very real risk that polio could return and that there could…

MONTEVIDEO, Aug 16 2013 (IPS) – Representatives of 38 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean meeting this week in the Uruguayan capital urged governments in the region to consider modifying their laws on abortion, which are among the most restrictive in the world.

The calls on “States to consider amending their laws, regulations, strategies and public policies relating to the voluntary termination of pregnancy in order to protect the lives and health of women and adolescent girls, to improve their quality of life and to reduce the number of abortions”.

The document was adopted at the end of the first session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which ran Monday through Thursday.

Daptnhe Cuevas, of…

Volunteers find ways to raise awareness about suicides. Credit: Sujoy Dhar/IPS

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India , Oct 30 2013 (IPS) – When Sarath, 29, a security staffer with a private firm in Kattakada town in India’s southern Kerala state hanged himself at his office premises, his death became a grim reminder of what statistics in the country have been showing for some time now: more and more young Indian men are succumbing to socio-economic pressures and are committing suicide.

Sarath had been depressed for a while, everyone around him said, allegedly over debt arising from a bank loan.

According to statistics released earlier this year by the Nati…

A group of drug users in a Dhaka suburb. Credit: Shafiqul Alam Kiron, Map/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 7 2013 (IPS) – An internal United Nations draft document leaked last weekend has offered outsiders a rare look at longstanding disagreements between member states over the course of U.N. drug policy.

The document, first publicised by the Guardian and obtained by IPS, contains over 100 specific policy recommendations and proposals from member states, many at odds with the status quo on illicit drug eradication and prohibition.“Countries feel real pain. But they are being told they should strengthen interdiction.” — Guatemala’s U.N. Ambassador Gert Rosenthal