Opinions
Fit for whose purpose? Private funding and corporate influence in the United Nations
A critical issue repeatedly arising in the post-2015 negotiations relates to responsibility. There is shared responsibility, the preference of rich countries who would like to shift traditional official development assistance (ODA) and other “burdens” given the “rise” of some developing coun...
Don’t let food be the problem: Producing too much food is what starves the planet
In May, the United Nations announced that while globally there are 200 million fewer hungry people than there were 25 years ago, twice as many African countries are now suffering food crises. Moreover, Pacific islanders’ access to sanitation facilities is declining, and just over half of that popu...
Did the U.N. financing for development conference deliver?
ADDIS ABABA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A major United Nations summit to finance ambitious global development goals, from giving free education to all to dealing with climate change, fell short of developing countries' expectations with few aid pledges....
Ruthless power and deleterious politics: From DDT to Roundup
Morton Biskind, a physician from Westport, Connecticut, was a courageous man. At the peak of the cold war, in 1953, he complained of maladies afflicting both domestic animals and people for the first time. He concluded that the popular insect poison DDT was the agent of their disease. DDT, he said, ...
Address to the Second World Meeting of the Popular Movements
Pope Francis spoke about the problems faced by the poor and indigenous peoples at the Second World Meeting of the Popular Movements at the Expo Feria Exhibition Centre in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, on Thursday....
Regime change for humanitarian aid: How to make relief more accountable
The global humanitarian system, already under considerable strain, will soon be tested as never before. In 2013, the gap between the funds available for humanitarian aid and estimated global needs reached $4.5 billion, leaving at least one-third of the demand unmet. The gap seems certain to widen, a...
Big Corn vs. Big Sugar could have a sweet outcome for taxpayers
In the never-ending fight against corporate welfare, the forces of fairness and economic rationality may have found a winning strategy: Divide and conquer....
So much for trickle down: only bold reforms will tackle inequality. Even the IMF recognises the vicious circle in which inequality breeds instability,...
Christine Lagarde took time off last week from grappling with the Greek debt crisis to make a speech about inequality. The managing director of the International Monetary Fund chose a nautical metaphor first used by John F Kennedy....
Why developing countries should stop discriminating against agriculture: A short history of agricultural trade policies over the past 40 years
The following post by former IFPRI senior researcher Alberto Valdés is part of an ongoing series of blog stories celebrating IFPRI’s 40th anniversary. Each story authored by current and former IFPRI research staff highlights a key research topic through the years from the personal perspective of ...
Agriculture will drive Africa’s rise to economic power
I was in Mali recently where I met a woman, Maimouna Coulibaly, who several years ago left her job in the United States and returned to her home country to start a seed company called Faso Kaba. She quickly and confidently ramped up production, from 100 tons per year to over 1,000. She is eager to k...
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