By Neena Bhandari

SIEM REAP/BATTAMBANG, Cambodia (IDN) – The once conflict ridden, impoverished country of Cambodia has made significant strides towards stability and progress, but it is still facing several socio-economic development challenges.

In 2016, it became a lower middle-income country after recording an annual average economic growth of seven percent over the past decade. “The country’s economy has trebled and the number of people living in poverty has halved in the last 15 years. We have to set development issues in the context of those successes,” says Nick Beresford, United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Cambodia Country Director. (P Extra)
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By Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The Asian economies are picking up speed again. After the big hit from Wall Street when the bank, Lehman Brothers, collapsed in a heap in 2008, sending shock waves everywhere, a recovery is now in the works.

How many child deaths in the Third World did these bankers cause? Another question is will future growth be like the past – fast but severely inequitable? The same growth before 2008 that reduced absolute poverty created a widening gulf between the haves and have-nots.

But isn’t that sufficient for the day, many ask? Absolute poverty must be the key mark of progress – raising incomes, giving people more money to seek education for their children or medical care or filling the coffers for the state so that it can fund bore holes in the countryside and sewers in the urban slums.…

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

Without peace, development is impossible, and without development, peace is not achievable, but without women, neither peace nor development is possible, writes Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations. He is an internationally recognized initiator of the UNSCR 1325 as the President of the UN Security Council in March 2000.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The biggest annual gathering of activists on women’s issues from all parts of the world converging at the United Nations ended on March 24 after its two-week meeting. That gathering is the regular sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women. This year it was the Commission’s 61st session (UN CSW 61). Many of the participants at these sessions have direct grassroots connections with their feet on the ground and understand the challenges and obstacles – physical, economic, political, societal, cultural and attitudinal – which women face on a daily basis.…

By Fackson Banda

Fackson Banda is Programme Specialist in the Bureau of UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC).

PARIS (IDN) – As social media expands, journalism is more special than ever: This is the conviction expressed by participants at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) colloquium, aptly titled ‘Journalism under fire: challenges of our times’.

The event took place on March 23, a day after the bureau of UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) wound up its 61st meeting, having approved support for almost 50 media projects especially in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).…

By Shanta Roy

Women make 77 cents for every dollar men earn. Up to 90 percent of women workers are informally employed. Advancing women’s equality in total could bring a potential boost of 28 trillion dollars to global annual gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The statistics unveiled at an annual meeting of women at the UN were disturbingly revealing: On a global average, women only make 77 cents for every dollar men earn.

There is still a “myriad of laws” in over 150 countries which openly discriminate against women, affecting more than three billion worldwide – and relating to virtually every aspect of women’s lives. (P Extra)
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By Guy Berger

Guy Berger is Director, Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development.

PARIS (IDN) – While global controversies around “fake news” continue unabated, UNESCO holds two events at its Paris HQ this week which will give more insight into the issues.

First up is an annual meeting on media development, held by the eight UNESCO Member States who serve on the Bureau of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC).…