Africa

Women’s rights have steadily eroded in Afghanistan since 2021. Credit: UN Women
 
The recent blackout exposed how vital the Internet has become for Afghan women and how, when that connection is lost, hope fades and isolation takes hold.

By UN Women
NEW YORK, Oct 22 2025 (IPS)

When the Taliban recently cut off the Internet and phone networks across Afghanistan, millions of women and girls were silenced. For those with connectivity, the blackout severed their last link to the outside world – a fragile connection that had kept education, work, and hope alive.

Many women in Afghanistan still lack access to the Internet, a basic phone, or the literacy to use digital tools. For those that do, that connection is a rare lifeline to life-saving services and the outside world.

For now, access has largely been restored. But the message was clear: in Afghanistan, this valuable gateway to learning, expression, and services for women and girls can be shut down at any moment.

Afghan women are already banned from secondary and higher education, from most forms of work, and public spaces such as parks, gyms, and sports clubs.

Many women are also receiving humanitarian aid, including in earthquake-affected eastern Afghanistan, and among those returning – many forcibly – from Iran and Pakistan.

The digital and phone blackout intensified feelings of stress, isolation and anxiety among women and girls.

Women entrepreneurs participate in business development training in a UN Women-supported Multi-Purpose Women’s Centre in Parwan province, eastern Afghanistan in January 2025. Photo: UN Women/Ali Omid Taqdisyan

What happens when Afghan women and girls go offline?

In Afghanistan, the impact of Internet and phone blackouts falls more heavily on women and girls. It eliminates what is, for many, a final means of learning, earning, and connecting.

When women and girls lose Internet access, they lose the ability to:

• Access aid: Those who are connected can use the Internet or phones to find out about support available, and aid agencies rely on connectivity to continue operations.
• Learn about disasters: Recent data shows 9 per cent of women use the Internet to access information on climate disasters.
• Seek services and reporting mechanisms for survivors of gender-based violence or those at risk.
• Learn: Online classes and study groups were a lifeline for girls banned from secondary schools, and women banned from universities.
• Work: Online businesses are a vital source of income for many women to sustain their families after being pushed out of many formal roles.
• Connect: Social apps and social media provided safe spaces to support one another and exchange information.
• Be visible: For women already excluded from public life, the digital world is one the last places to exist and resist.

For more on what life looks like for women in Afghanistan today, see our FAQs.

Going dark in the middle of humanitarian crises

The national internet blackout started a month after a 6.0 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on 31 August, with major aftershocks continuing throughout September and the emergency response and early recovery continuing.

Despite facing many challenges, women-led organizations have played a crucial role delivering life-saving aid and services to women and girls affected by the earthquake, and Afghan women and girl returnees from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan.

During the blackout, NGOs were forced to halt humanitarian operations and cease field missions to emergency sites. Staff could not process payments or place orders for essential goods destined for women and their families.

When banks went offline, women affected by humanitarian crises were unable to access emergency cash assistance to buy essentials such as food.

The shutdown also made it much harder for survivors of gender-based violence to access help at a time when household tensions were rising across the country, and the risk of violence was escalating.

A UN Women team assessed the earthquake damage in Nurgal, one of the worst affected districts in Kunar province, northeastern Afghanistan.

Online livelihoods switched off

In Afghanistan, waves of directives banning women from most jobs and restricting their movement without a male guardian have systematically pushed them out of public life.

For many women entrepreneurs, the Internet offers a rare space to work, build small businesses, and sell their products – such as nuts, spices, handicrafts, clothes and artworks – to customers within Afghanistan and overseas.

“There is no space for us to work outside our homes,” explained business owner Sama*, from Parwan in eastern Afghanistan. “There’s also no local market where we can display and sell our products.”

With the support of UN Women, Sama built an online shop selling knitted bags, purses and jewelry.

“Through my online shop, I became well known,” she says. “I’m earning money, solving my financial problems, and becoming self-sufficient.”

When the blackout struck, women like Sama lost their only source of income overnight – a warning that for many Afghan women, connectivity is not a luxury, but a lifeline.

From blackout to global action

The Internet blackout in Afghanistan was a stark reminder that the digital world is not neutral. It can be space of empowerment. It can also be a tool of exclusion and isolation.

The stories of Afghan women remind us what is at stake: education, mental health, livelihoods, and hope. When women are silenced online, they are cut off further from opportunity and from the world.

How UN Women is supporting women and girls in Afghanistan

Through its flagship programme, Rebuilding the Women’s Movement, UN Women in Afghanistan partnered with 140 women-led organizations across 24 provinces and supported 743 women staff with salaries and training – amplifying resilience even as public life is restricted.

Read more about our work in Afghanistan.

*Name was changed to protect her identity.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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View of a plant owned by Aguas Antofagasta, a company created 20 years ago that now has three desalination plants to supply drinking water to 184,000 families in that desert city in northern Chile. Credit: Courtesy of Acades

By Orlando Milesi
SANTIAGO, Oct 22 2025 (IPS)

Desalination projects are booming in Chile, with 51 plants planned to process seawater and a combined investment of US$ 24.455 billion. However, these initiatives hardly benefit small-scale farmers, who are threatened by the prolonged drought, and cause environmental concerns.

A survey by the Capital Goods Corporation and the Chilean Desalination and Reuse Association (Acades) revealed that these projects, already in the engineering and construction phases, will add 39,043 liters of water per second in production capacity."Using seawater, desalinated or saline, and reusing wastewater relieves pressure on rivers and aquifers, ensuring water for people, ecosystems, and productive activities" –Rafael Palacios.

Fifteen of these projects belong to the mining sector, eight to the industrial sector, eight to the water utility sector, and 20 are linked to green hydrogen, a clean fuel but very water-intensive, which the country aims to be a major producer of.

Of the future plants, 17 are located in the desert region of Antofagasta, in the far north of this elongated South American country, which lies between the Andes mountain range and the Pacific Ocean.

There are 11 projects in the southern region of Magallanes, followed in number by the regions of Atacama, Coquimbo, and Valparaíso, in the north and center of Chile, which concentrate most of the investment.

Rafael Palacios, executive director of Acades, told IPS that this country “faces a scenario in which water availability in northern and central Chile could decrease by up to 50% by 2060, so we cannot continue to depend solely on continental sources.”

“Using seawater, desalinated or saline, and reusing wastewater relieves pressure on rivers and aquifers, ensuring water for people, ecosystems, and productive activities,” he emphasized.

Currently, 23 desalination plants are already operating in Chile with a capacity of 9,500 liters per second. They primarily serve mining needs, but also industrial and human consumption.

One of the large greenhouses for the hydroponic cultivation of vegetables irrigated with desalinated water, on the farm of one of the 90 members of the Association of Agricultural Producers of Altos de la Portada, in the northern Chilean region of Antofagasta. Credit: Courtesy of the Association of Agricultural Producers of Altos de la Portada.

Small-scale farmers benefit

Dolores Jiménez has been president for the last eight years of the Association of Agricultural Producers of Altos de la Portada, in Antofagasta. The association has 90 active members who collectively own 100 hectares where they have created a Hydroponic City.

“We have no water problems thanks to an agreement with Aguas Antofagasta. We have an oasis which we would otherwise not have without that agreement,” Jiménez told IPS by telephone from Antofagasta, the capital of the region of the same name.

Aguas Antofagasta is a private company that desalinates water in the north of this country of 19.7 million inhabitants. The company draws water from the Pacific Ocean using an outfall that extends 600 meters offshore to a depth of 25 meters.

In desalination, outfalls are the underwater pipes that draw seawater and return and disperse the brine in a controlled manner, far from the coast and at an adequate depth.

Founded 20 years ago, the company currently desalinates water in three plants in the municipalities of Antofagasta, Tocopilla, and Tal Tal, supplying 184,000 families in that region.

Dolores Jiménez, president of the Association of Agricultural Producers of Altos de la Portada, shows the strength of the crops thanks to the use of desalinated water that reaches small farmers due to an agreement with Aguas Antofagasta. Credit: Courtesy of the Association of Agricultural Producers of Altos de la Portada

In its project to supply the general population, it included the association of small-scale farmers who grow carrots, broccoli, Italian zucchini, cucumbers, medicinal herbs, and edible flowers.

“They support us with water from the pipeline that goes to Mejillones (a coastal city in the region). They financed the connection for us to fill six 30,000 liter tanks, installed on a plot at the highest point. From there, we distribute it using a water tanker truck,” informed Jiménez.

“Now, thanks to a project by the (state) National Irrigation Commission, we were able to secure 280 million pesos (US$294,000) for an inter-farm connection that will deliver water through pipes to 70 plots,” she added.

This will mean significant savings for the farmers.

Jesús Basáez in his farm in Pullally, on the central coast of Chile. There he grows quinoa, which he irrigates with highly saline water that the grain tolerates without problems. Previously, that saline water forced him to stop producing strawberries. Credit: Orlando Milesi / IPS

In Pullally, in the municipality of Papudo, in the central Valparaíso region, 155 kilometers northwest of Santiago, Jesús Basáez used to grow strawberries alongside a dozen other small farmers. But the crop failed due to the salinity of the groundwater, apparently caused by the drought affecting the La Ligua and Petorca rivers and proximity to the sea.

He then switched to quinoa, which tolerates salinity well. Today he is known as the King of Quinoa, a grain valued for its nutritional properties and versatility, which was an ancestral food of Andean highland peoples and has now spread among small Chilean farmers.

Basáez has three hectares planted with white, red, and black varieties of quinoa, which he irrigates with water obtained from a well, as he told IPS during a visit to his farm.

The public University of Playa Ancha, based in the city of Valparaíso, installed a mobile desalination plant on his farm that uses reverse osmosis to remove components from the saltwater that are harmful for irrigation. Pressure is applied to the saltwater so that it passes through a semipermeable membrane that filters the water, separating the salts.

After successful tests, Basáez is now about to resume his strawberry cultivation.

“It was three years of research, and it was concluded that it is viable to produce non-brackish water to grow strawberries again. The problem is that the cost remains very high and prevents replicating this experience for other farmers,” he said. The mobile plant cost the equivalent of US$ 84,000.

The mobile desalination plant installed on Jesús Basáez’s farm to research the high salinity of the water at the site. For three years, teachers and students from the University of Playa Ancha, in the central Chilean region of Valparaíso, researched how to reduce the water salinity on this agricultural property. Credit: Orlando Milesi / IPS

Debating the effects of desalination

Since 2010, Chile has been facing a long drought with water deficits of around 30%. There was extreme drought in 2019 and 2021, and the country benefited from a normal period in 2024, although the resource deficit persists, in a country where water management is also privatized.

A report from the Climate and Resilience Center of the public University of Chile, known as CR2, indicated that current rates of groundwater use are higher than the recharge capacity of the aquifers, causing a decline in reserves.

In the 23 already operational desalination plants, seawater is extracted using outfalls that are not very long, installed along the coastline of a shore that has numerous concessions and uses dedicated to aquaculture, artisanal fishermen, and indigenous communities.

The main problem is the discharge of brine following the industrial desalination process.

“I will never be against obtaining water for human consumption. Although this highly concentrated brine that goes to the seabed has an impact where a large part of our benthic resources (organisms from the bottom of water bodies) are located. On a local scale, except in the discharge area, this impact has never been evaluated,” Laura Farías, a researcher at the public University of Concepción and at CR2, told IPS.

“There is literature that points out that there is undoubtedly an impact. There are different stages of biological cycles, from larvae to settled organisms. There is even an impact on pelagic organisms that have the ability to move. And also an impact at the ecosystem level,” the academic specified by telephone from Concepción, a city in central Chile.

She added that this impact is proportional to the volume of desalinated water.

Jesús Basáez, in the municipality of Papudo, poses showing a mature quinoa plant in one hand and in the other a container designed to sell each kilogram of the grain he produces in its white, red, and black varieties. Credit: Orlando Milesi / IPS

According to Farías, the water crisis has led to desalination being part of the solution, despite its impact on marine ecosystems, coastal vegetation, and wildlife.

“It is a maladaptation, because in the end it will have impacts that will affect the coastal inhabitants who depend on those resources,” she emphasized.

There are currently initiatives to legislate on the use of the coastal zone, but according to Farías, they seek to “normalize, regularize, and standardize those impacts, after these plants already exist and there are others seeking approval.”

Palacios, the director of Acades, has a different opinion.

The concerns about the environmental impact of desalination on coastal ecosystems are legitimate, but current evidence and technology demonstrate that this impact can be managed effectively, he says.

“In Chile, recent studies show no evidence that the operation of desalination plants has so far caused significant environmental impacts, thanks to constant monitoring and advanced diffusion systems,” he detailed.

He added that “in most cases, the natural salinity concentration is restored within two or three seconds and at less than 20 meters from the outfalls.”

Palacios explained that research by the Environmental Hub of the University of Playa Ancha “confirms increases in salinity of less than 5% within 100 meters.” And in areas like Caldera, a coastal city in the northern Atacama region, they are “less than 3% within 50 meters, limiting the areas of influence to small zones.”

“We are already implementing the first Clean Production Agreement in desalination and water reuse, promoted together with the (state) Agency for Sustainability and Climate Change, advancing towards voluntary standards for sustainable management, transparency, and strengthening the link with communities,” he emphasized.

Credit: Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters via Gallo Images

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Oct 21 2025 (IPS)

When thousands of Georgians filled the streets of Tbilisi in 2023 to protest against their government’s proposed ‘foreign agents’ law, they understood what their leaders were trying to do: this wasn’t about transparency or accountability; it was about silencing dissent. Though the government was forced to withdraw the legislation, it returned with renewed determination in 2024, passing a renamed version despite even bigger protests. The law has effectively frozen Georgia’s hopes of joining the European Union.

Georgia’s repressive law is just one example of a disturbing global trend documented in CIVICUS’s new report, Cutting civil society’s lifeline: the global spread of foreign agents laws. From Central America to Central Asia, from Africa to the Balkans, governments are adopting legislation that brands civil society organisations and independent media as paid agents of foreign interests. Foreign agents laws are proliferating at an alarming rate, posing a growing threat to civil society. Since 2020, El Salvador, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe have all enacted such laws, while many more states have proposed similar measures.

Russia established the blueprint for this architecture of repression in 2012, when Vladimir Putin’s government introduced legislation requiring any civil society organisation that received foreign funding and engaged in broadly defined ‘political activity’ to register as a foreign agent. This offered an impossible choice: accept a stigmatising designation that effectively brands organisations as foreign spies, or cease operations. Russia repeatedly expanded its crackdown, and by 2016, at least 30 groups had chosen to shut down rather than accept the designation. The European Court of Human Rights has unequivocally condemned Russia’s law as violating fundamental civic freedoms, yet this hasn’t prevented other states eagerly adopting the same model.

The pretence that these laws promote transparency is fundamentally disingenuous. Civil society organisations that receive international support are already subject to rigorous accountability requirements imposed by their donors. In contrast, governments often receive substantial foreign funding yet face no equivalent disclosure obligations. This double standard reveals the true purpose of these laws: not transparency, but control. In practice, almost any public interest activity can be deemed political under foreign agents laws, including human rights advocacy, election monitoring and efforts to strengthen democracy. States deliberately leave definitions vague and broad to allow discretionary enforcement and targeting of organisations they don’t like.

The impacts can be devastating. Nicaragua provides a particularly extreme example of the use of foreign agents laws to dismantle civil society. President Daniel Ortega has used such legislation as part of a comprehensive repressive arsenal that has shuttered over 5,600 organisations, roughly 80 per cent of all groups that once operated in the country. State security forces have raided suspended organisations, seized their offices and confiscated their assets, while thousands of academics, activists and journalists have been driven into exile. With only state-controlled organisations remaining operational, Nicaragua has become a full-blown authoritarian regime where independent voices have been eliminated and civic space has slammed shut.

In Kyrgyzstan, a foreign agents law passed in March 2024 has had an immediate chilling effect. Organisations have scaled back their activities, some have re-registered as commercial entities and others have proactively ceased operations to avoid fines for non-compliance. The Open Society Foundations closed its long-established grant-making office in the country. Meanwhile, in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele’s government imposed a punitive 30 per cent tax on all foreign grants alongside stigmatising labels and registration requirements, forcing major civil society organisations to shut down their offices.

Foreign agents laws impose systematic barriers through complex registration processes, demanding reporting requirements and frequent audits that force many smaller organisations to close. The threat of harsh penalties – including heavy fines, licence revocations and imprisonment for non-compliance – creates a climate of fear that frequently leads to self-censorship and organisational dissolution. By restricting foreign funding while offering no measures to expand domestic funding sources, governments make civil society organisations dependent on state approval, curtailing their autonomy. And by forcing them to wear the stigmatising ‘foreign agent’ label, governments ensure they lose public trust, making it harder to mount a defence when further crackdowns follow.

Yet there are grounds for hope. Civil society has shown remarkable resilience in resisting foreign agents laws, and street mobilisation and legal challenges have sometimes stalled or rolled back these measures. Ukraine’s rapid reversal of its 2014 foreign agents law following mass protests showed that immediate pushback can come when the political moment is right. Ethiopia changed its restrictive 2009 law in 2019, while Hungary was forced to drop its 2017 law following a 2020 European Court of Justice ruling. In May 2025, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Constitutional Court suspended a foreign agents law, recognising it violated freedom of association.

International legal pressure has been vital. The European Court of Human Rights’ categorical condemnation of Russia’s legislation established crucial precedents. These decisions provided a foundation for challenging similar laws elsewhere. However, authoritarian governments may adapt their strategies and implement new versions of restrictive legislation, as seen in Hungary’s 2023 introduction of a new ‘sovereignty protection’ law.

The acceleration of this trend since 2020 reflects broader patterns of democratic regression around the world. Authoritarian political leaders are capitalising on legitimate concerns about foreign interference to create legal tools that serve their repressive agendas. The danger extends beyond current adopters. Bulgaria’s parliament has rejected foreign agents bills five times, yet a far-right party keeps reintroducing them. Turkey’s autocratic government shelved its proposed law following public backlash in 2024, only to reintroduce an amended version months later.

Coordinated resistance is essential before foreign agents laws become normalised. There’s an urgent need for international courts to expedite consideration of cases and develop emergency procedures for situations where civil society faces immediate threats. Democratic governments must avoid adopting stigmatising legislation, impose targeted sanctions on foreign officials responsible for enacting foreign agents laws and provide safe haven for activists forced to flee. Funders must establish emergency mechanisms with rapid-disbursement grants, while civil society must strengthen international solidarity networks to share resistance strategies and expose the true intent of these laws.

The alternative to coordinated action is to watch idly as independent voices are systematically silenced. Civil society’s right to exist and operate freely must be defended.

Inés M. Pousadela is CIVICUS Head of Research and Analysis, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org

 

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British heavyweight Lawrence Okolie is set to headline a card in Nigeria in December, saying it "will be a historic moment for Africa, my family and my career".

South Africa return to the top of the table and eliminate Pakistan from the World Cup with a 150-run win on the DLS method in a rain-plagued match in Colombo.

Global forests remain in crisis, a new report says. Credit: Dirk Erasmus/Unsplash

By Umar Manzoor Shah
SRINAGAR, Oct 21 2025 (IPS)

The Forest Declaration Assessment 2025 warns that global forest loss remains alarmingly high, with little sign of improvement.

The report, released on October 14, by a coalition of international research groups and civil society organizations, states that nearly 8.1 million hectares of forest were destroyed in 2024 alone, leaving the planet 63 percent off track to meet the zero-deforestation goal pledged under the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration and other global commitments.

The report describes 2025 as a “dangerous midpoint” in the decade of forest pledges. It says, “Global forests remain in crisis. Despite the indispensable role of forests, the verdict is clear: we are off track on halting and reversing deforestation by 2030.” Forests, the report notes, are “non-negotiable infrastructure for a stable planet,” providing livelihoods to more than a billion people and sheltering 80 percent of terrestrial species.

The report says COP 30 is a “pivotal” opportunity to move to concrete action on forests from the mere commitments.

Under Brazil’s leadership, holding the COP presidency, countries are expected to forge stronger links between climate, forests, and biodiversity by expanding commitments across the land sector,” the report states, adding that this includes scaling innovative finance for standing forests, advancing deforestation- and conversion-free supply chains, supporting resilient food systems, and upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

It calls for forest commitments to be embedded in the next round of NDCs so that the Global Stocktake drives tangible national and international progress.

One of the main report authors, Erin Matson, in an exclusive interview with Inter Press Service, said that the reasons behind the failure to reduce deforestation are many and complex, but they include drastically misaligned finance stemming from an economic system that rewards activities that harm forests over conserving standing forests.

“Both public and private finance are misaligned; for example, USD 409 billion on average per year (2021-2023) is spent globally on environmentally harmful agricultural subsidies versus only USD 1.7 billion spent on payments for ecosystem services by agricultural producers. And in 2024, the 150 financial institutions assessed by Forest 500 had USD 8.9 trillion in active financing to companies most exposed to deforestation risk in their supply chains.”

According to Matson, weak governance is characterized by endemic corruption (which allows well-resourced criminal networks and elites to profit from illegal or illicit forest destruction with impunity), inadequate and mistargeted law enforcement (which often targets small-scale actors who engage in illegal or illicit forest clearing but lets the bigger culprits go free), and insecure land tenure rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities (which severely limits their ability to manage and protect their forest territories).

“Another reason is lack of political will and short-termism. By and large, most leaders in government, business, and finance have, over the last decade, tended to prioritize policies and approaches that deliver short-term wins (like economic growth and increased profits) without tackling the fundamental risks and harms from nature loss that undermine future, medium- and long-term economic and social stability and prosperity,” Matson said.

Rising Losses, Failing Promises

According to the assessment, deforestation rates have barely shifted since 2015, when governments and companies began making strong commitments to forest protection. The 8.1 million hectares lost in 2024 were far above the annual ceiling of 5 million hectares needed to stay on track. Most of this destruction occurred in tropical regions, where 94 percent of all global deforestation took place. The resulting emissions were staggering—4.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, more than the annual emissions of the European Union.

“Every year the curve isn’t bent, we fall further behind. Deforestation continues at the same rate we saw ten years ago. That’s not a slowdown—it’s stagnation,” reads the report.

The hardest hit were primary tropical forests, which store vast amounts of carbon and support irreplaceable biodiversity. About 6.7 million hectares of primary forest were destroyed in 2024, releasing 3.1 billion metric tons of CO₂—nearly 150 percent of the U.S. energy sector’s annual emissions. The report calls this “an ecological and climatic emergency” and warns that much of this loss is irreversible.

“These forests take centuries to form. Once primary forest is gone, no restoration project can bring it back in a generation. The damage is permanent within our lifetime,” claims the report.

The Amazon Basin remains the epicenter of global forest degradation and fire-related emissions. Fires in the Amazon in 2024 released 791 million metric tons of CO₂, exceeding the total emissions of Germany. Bolivia lost 9 percent of its remaining intact tropical moist forests, while Brazil accounted for half of all degradation in the Amazon Basin.

Agriculture Drives Most Forest Loss

The report identifies permanent agriculture as the leading cause of deforestation, responsible for 86 percent of global forest loss over the past decade. Forests are being cleared for crops, pastureland, and plantation commodities like palm oil, soy, and rubber. Mining, infrastructure expansion, and land speculation add further pressure.

Domestic consumption is a major factor. For instance, in Latin America, the region’s consumption of beef and pasture products is the primary cause of deforestation.

In contrast, deforestation in Asia and Africa is tied to a broader range of export commodities. Recent studies cited in the report show that developed nations, especially the United States and several European countries, drive substantial biodiversity loss abroad through imported goods. Between 2000 and 2015, the 24 most industrialized countries caused an estimated 13 percent of global forest biodiversity loss through international trade.

The assessment also notes that “corruption, weak law enforcement, and poor land tenure systems” contribute significantly to deforestation. These governance failures allow illegal land grabs and unregulated clearing, undermining conservation efforts.

According to Matson,  commodity-driven deforestation is complex because it is caused by several factors, including patterns of commodity demand, both for domestic consumption and international trade; trade regulations and tariffs that can shift commodity production areas and flows; domestic land use dynamics like land speculation, where the value of land is considered to increase once forest has been cleared; and weak law enforcement (69-94% of tropical deforestation is estimated to be illegal).

“To change this pattern, we need multiple actions that would complement each other. An investment in just, equitable, and responsive law enforcement to tackle illegal deforestation and make it unprofitable to clear land illegally. Trade regulations that disallow the import of commodities produced on land deforested after a certain date (like 2020), combined with investments in traceability systems and due diligence regulations to ensure that these regulations can be enforced,” she said.

Matson pitched for the adoption and enforcement of due diligence regulations to address deforestation related to domestic consumption of commodities.

“We need efforts and campaigns that aim to shift consumption patterns, where culturally appropriate, for example, reducing meat consumption in high-income, high-consuming countries, shifting to plant-based proteins, and shifting to consumption of certified deforestation-free commodities.”

Fires and Degradation Multiply the Threat

While deforestation removes entire forests, degradation weakens those that remain. In 2024, about 8.8 million hectares of tropical moist forests were degraded, twice the level compatible with halting degradation by 2030. The report calls degradation an “invisible crisis,” often overlooked in policy debates but just as damaging to biodiversity and climate stability.

Fire-induced degradation, particularly in the Amazon, was the primary driver of these losses. Extreme droughts, poor forest management, and deliberate burning for land clearing have made fires more destructive.

As per the report, the Amazon burned on a scale we haven’t seen in decades. These fires are no longer isolated events—they are symptoms of a stressed ecosystem pushed beyond its limits.

The report warns that degraded forests are far more likely to be deforested later, creating a cycle of decline. Data from Latin America, Africa, and Asia shows that once canopy cover falls below 50 percent, the risk of full deforestation rises sharply.

Degradation is a red flag. The report says that when forests start losing structure, deforestation often follows.

Monitoring degradation remains a major challenge due to limited global data. Most national reporting focuses only on tree cover loss, not on forest health or ecosystem function. The report urges governments to integrate degradation indicators into climate and biodiversity frameworks.

“We consider forest degradation a ‘silent crisis’ because forest degradation is extremely widespread and damaging to forest health and resilience, but it often goes unnoticed because it’s harder to detect and track than deforestation. Unlike deforestation, there is no globally agreed definition or standardized monitoring approach for forest degradation. Countries reporting to the FAO’s Forest Resources Assessment can set their own national definitions under the FRA 2025 guidance. This makes it difficult to compare data across regions or to capture the cumulative impacts of logging, fires, and other disturbances on forest quality,” Matson said.

She added that other frameworks have encouraged countries to set forest degradation definitions and monitoring criteria, such as REDD+—so the countries where degradation monitoring is most advanced are the ones that have advanced REDD+ programs.

“Where there are incentives to accurately monitor and report degradation, systems do improve. Forest degradation contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and also impacts biodiversity, so countries should set relevant targets, as a first step, within their NDCs (nationally determined contributions) and in their NBSAPs (national biodiversity strategies and action plans),” Matson said.

Restoration Efforts Show Potential, But Lag Behind

Despite grim trends, the assessment highlights some positive developments. As of September 2025, restoration projects were active across 10.6 million hectares of deforested and degraded land. These efforts include reforestation, agroforestry, and natural regeneration programs, mostly in tropical regions.

However, the figure represents only 0.3 percent of the global forest restoration potential, far below the 30 percent target set under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Monitoring continues to be another area of weakness. Much of the available data comes from fragmented or overlapping sources, such as the Restor database and national observatories. The report warns that without unified global tracking, restoration progress will remain poorly understood.

The assessment calls for broader monitoring under the UN’s Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring (FERM), which combines quantitative data with qualitative information on project effectiveness and local participation. Governance and Finance Gaps Persist.

The report stresses that progress depends on systemic shifts, not isolated successes. While countries like Brazil have reduced deforestation through strong enforcement and inclusive land-use planning, others have seen gains erased by political change or weak implementation.

Financing for forest protection and restoration remains grossly inadequate. The report finds that forest-positive finance is still a fraction of the funds supporting activities that harm forests, such as fossil fuel subsidies and industrial agriculture. It calls for reforming financial systems to redirect capital toward sustainable land use.

The assessment also highlights that Indigenous and local communities remain underrepresented in forest decision-making, despite managing some of the world’s most intact ecosystems. Expanding legal recognition of land rights and ensuring community participation are described as “non-negotiable conditions” for progress.

“Like most topics covered in the report, barriers to scaled-up restoration are complex and are mainly financial, governance-related, and structural. Restoration is often underfunded because returns are only realized over the long term, and ecological benefits—like carbon storage, water regulation, or biodiversity—are not fully valued in markets. Public funding for restoration tends to be short-term or project-based, while private finance shies away due to high perceived risks, unclear revenue models, or a simple lack of investable projects or initiatives,” said Matson.

She says that on the policy side, many countries lack clear land tenure, long-term incentives, and enabling frameworks for restoration at scale.

“Integrating restoration into national climate, biodiversity, and rural development plans—and aligning finance, tenure, and monitoring systems accordingly—would incentivize and corral collective action to develop overarching, landscape-scale restoration approaches that move beyond scattered, individual projects,” Matson said.

Deforestation and Market Dynamics

With only five years left before the 2030 deadline, the report states that incremental changes will not be enough. “This crisis cannot fade into the background noise,” it states. “Isolated successes will not save the world’s forests. We need structural reform that makes forest protection the rule, not the exception.”

Experts say that reversing current trends will require coordinated action across agriculture, trade, and finance. Governments must close legal loopholes that allow deforestation-linked products to enter markets. Companies must trace and disclose their supply chains. And international lenders must align funding with environmental goals.

“In the medium to long term, we need to make preserving and sustainably managing forests more attractive and more profitable than even legal deforestation. And that requires shifting the financial incentives—subsidy reform; establishing payments for keeping standing forests standing, like the Tropical Forests Forever Facility; and increasing payments for ecosystem services programs for farmers and foresters,” Matson said. “A lot of deforestation is highly responsive to market dynamics—when the price of gold goes up, we see much more deforestation for gold mining. So, counterbalancing those harmful financial incentives with positive ones must be a part of any permanent solution to the deforestation crisis.”

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Excerpt:

Closing legal loopholes that allow deforestation-linked products to enter markets and getting international lenders to align funding with environmental goals are key to ending deforestation, says Erin Matson, one of the lead authors of the Forest Declaration Assessment 2025.

Higher income and fintech expansion boosted credit growth, even as monetary policy remained effective. Credit: IMF

By Swarnali A. Hannan, Daniel Leigh, and Rui Xu
WASHINGTON DC, Oct 21 2025 (IPS)

At 15 percent, Brazil’s monetary policy interest rate (called Selic) is one of the highest among major economies. Yet in 2024, bank credit grew by 11.5 percent and corporate bond issuance rose by 30 percent.

This credit expansion—in the face of high policy rates—benefited many individuals, households, and companies. But it also raised questions about the effectiveness of monetary policy itself. In other words, why did the central bank’s efforts to cool down the economy, by making financing more expensive, seem not to be working?

Our analysis, in the context of Brazil’s latest yearly economic review (the Article IV consultation), shows that concerns have been largely unwarranted and that monetary policy transmission in Brazil remains effective. Indeed, recent data indicates that credit growth is starting to slow down.

So, what exactly has been happening?

Even as monetary policy was doing its job as intended, we saw two other factors playing a critical role: strong income growth and the country’s success in expanding financial inclusion. These factors boosted the demand for credit and its supply.

A committed central bank

Brazil’s was the first major central bank to hike rates during the pandemic. After a period of easing, it started a new tightening cycle in September 2024. These decisions have been appropriate and guided by the need to bring inflation and inflation expectations down to its 3 percent target.

The country’s twelve-month inflation rate reached 5.1 percent in August, down slightly from the previous month, but still well above target this year. Inflation expectations are also projected to stay above target over an eighteen-month horizon. This explains the rise in policy rates since the pandemic, in line with standard inflation-targeting principles.

How effective is monetary policy transmission?

To gauge the effectiveness of Brazil’s monetary policy tightening, our report estimates how changes in the central bank’s policy interest rate pass through to bank lending rates paid by households and businesses.

We find that a 1 percentage point increase in the policy rate raises lending rates by around 0.7 percentage point after four months. To raise average lending rates in the economy by one percentage point, the monetary policy rate must increase by about 1.4 percentage points, since roughly 40 percent of total credit is comprised of government-directed loans that are less responsive to policy rate changes.

The analysis also suggests that since 2020, corporate lending rates have become more responsive to changes in the basic rate. This may in part result from the 2018 reform of Brazil’s large development bank, BNDES, which aligned its lending rates with long-term market rates.

Bank-level analysis shows corporate loans adjust faster than consumer loans, likely due to tighter margins and more experienced borrowers. In turn, payroll-backed consumer loans are the least responsive because of rate caps.

What drove credit growth

Although Brazil’s monetary policy is working, credit growth has been strong over the past few years. This was due to both cyclical factors and structural changes. On the cyclical side, Brazil’s economy has grown faster than expected, with low unemployment and rising incomes driving higher credit demand.

Moreover, Brazil has been making significant structural changes that have increased financial inclusion and credit availability.

The rapid expansion of fintech lenders gave more people access to credit. In 2024, digital banks and other fintech lenders accounted for a quarter of the credit card market and over 10 percent of non-payroll personal loans.

Increased competition reduced banking-sector concentration and lowered average lending rates of incumbent banks. In addition, bond-market financing for corporates as a share of GDP tripled in the last decade, driven by tax-exempt debentures. All these factors supported credit growth.

With a 15 percent basic rate, Brazil’s central bank has administered a strong dose of monetary tightening to temper credit growth and return inflation and expectations to target. New loan volumes have been falling since April, further suggesting that the treatment is working.

More broadly, Brazil’s economy is showing signs of moderation amid tight monetary and fiscal policies and elevated global policy uncertainty. Overall, our research shows that concerns about the lack of effectiveness of monetary are proving to be largely unwarranted and that monetary policy transmission in Brazil remains active.

Daniel Leigh is IMF mission chief for Brazil; Swarnali A. Hannan is a deputy division chief in the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department; and Rui Xu is an economist in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department

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Mwavita Rohomoya sits with her four children in front of her drink stall in Minova, Kalehe territory, South Kivu province, DR Congo, on 23 April 2025. Minova is one of the first areas in South Kivu to be affected by the resurgence of violence, one of the immediate consequences was the rise in prices of staple foods and essential goods. UNICEF’s cash transfer programme helped families meet their urgent needs—buying food, finding shelter, and accessing healthcare—while also enabling some, like Mwavita, to invest in small-scale income-generating activities. Credit: UNICEF/Christian Mirindi Johnson

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 20 2025 (IPS)

In 2025, unprecedented cuts to foreign aid and humanitarian funding have exacerbated global hunger crises, leaving millions without access to food or basic services. Funding shortfalls have forced aid agencies to scale back or suspend lifesaving programs in some of the world’s most food-insecure regions, particularly across the Global South—exacerbating already dire conditions caused by conflict, displacement, economic instability, and climate shocks.

On October 15, the World Food Programme (WFP) released a report, A Lifeline At Risk: Food Assistance At A Breaking Point, which illustrated the impact of funding shortfalls to their programs in the context of six countries: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan,and Sudan. In these nations, funding cuts have had devastating consequences, with entire communities being pushed to the brink of starvation.

“We see significant reductions in our operations and the operations of our partners,” said Ross Smith, WFP’s Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response. “That goes from cutting people completely off of assistance, reducing rations, and reducing the duration of assistance. Many vulnerable people are completely without a safety net or a landing pad at this point in time.”

The report highlighted that the number of people in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance has surged to a record high of 295 million in 2025—coinciding with major reductions in foreign aid and humanitarian funding from key donors, including the United States. As a result, WFP has been forced to drastically scale back its operations, grappling with an estimated 40 percent cut in funding that has severely limited its ability to deliver lifesaving support to the world’s hungriest populations.

WFP warns that recent funding cuts could “severely undermine global food security”. It is estimated that roughly 13.7 million people who are dependent on food assistance from WFP could be pushed into emergency levels of hunger, with children, women, refugees, and internally displaced people being disproportionately affected.

“These cuts are triggering additional food insecurity that in itself could have impacts at both national and regional levels,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, Director of WFP’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Service.

WFP notes that the full extent of the impact of these funding cuts to food assistance will not be immediate, but will unfold in the coming months. “This is why we call it a ‘slow burn’ in the report,” said Bauer. “Because the cuts haven’t fully fed through the system yet to all countries and communities.”

Bauer warned that escalating hunger amid dwindling aid could have far-reaching implications that could exacerbate existing crises, citing rising rates of child marriage, increased school dropouts, heightened social instability, increased displacement, and growing economic and political turmoil. Furthermore, WFP has recorded increased rates of malnutrition among children in refugee communities, with many of these children experiencing lifelong health challenges as a result.

One of WFP’s most pressing challenges has been the reduction of disaster preparedness programs for some of the world’s most crisis-prone countries, as resources are redirected to sustain emergency food assistance for the most affected populations. In Haiti, WFP has been forced to suspend its hot meals program for displaced families and cut monthly rations in half, as the nation continues to struggle with record levels of hunger.

Bauer noted that Haiti’s contingency stock of humanitarian aid has been fully depleted and, for the first time since Hurricane Matthew in 2016, WFP has been unable to replenish it. The agency continues to closely monitor Haiti’s food security situation.

Similarly, Smith reported that conditions in Afghanistan have worsened considerably over the course of the year, with fewer than 10 percent of the country’s 10 million food-insecure people now receiving humanitarian aid. “We expect pipeline breaks as early as November and can currently only provide (limited) winter assistance,” said Smith, noting that less than 8 percent of those in need of winterization support will receive it.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), WFP has been forced to cut its operations from targeting 2.3 million people to just 600,000 and warns that its resources could be entirely depleted by February of next year without additional funding. In Somalia, WFP’s reach has also been drastically reduced, with the agency now able to assist less than 25 percent of the people it supported last year.

In Sudan, WFP has managed to assist roughly 4 million people in August—half of them in hard-to-reach areas such as Darfur and South Kordofan. “We are shifting away from what used to be a very large program, in the absence of significant government support for many people, to one now that is famine prevention that is moving from hotspot to hotspot,” said Smith. In neighboring South Sudan, WFP has redirected its limited resources to prioritize civilians experiencing the most extreme levels of hunger.

According to the report, WFP has recalibrated its food assistance priorities in the face of dwindling aid budgets and shrinking staff, choosing to focus on famine prevention efforts and distributing food rations that reach fewer people but cover basic needs. Bauer added that it is imperative for humanitarian aid groups to align with local actors and continue to closely monitor levels of hunger. “The data and analytics – they’re the humanitarian community’s GPS,” Bauer said. “We’re taking the risk of losing our way without the data. So the data must flow.”

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Morocco want to be a "strong contender" at all levels of global football after beating Argentina to win the Under-20 World Cup for the first time.

Disasters touch everyone but are not felt equally. Women often take longer to rebuild their livelihoods after a crisis and may face additional barriers in accessing the resources to facilitate a quicker recovery. Credit:: UNDP Nigeria

By Raquel Lagunas and Ronald Jackson
NEW YORK, Oct 20 2025 (IPS)

Climate and environmental challenges are hitting harder and more often, reshaping people’s lives around the world. While disasters touch everyone, their impacts are not felt equally. The most marginalized, especially women and girls, are too often the first to suffer and the last to recover.

Social roles, discrimination and economic inequalities amplify the risks women face in times of crisis and undermine communities’ capacity to rebuild their livelihoods. Placing gender equality at the heart of disaster risk reduction (DDR) isn’t only a matter of fairness, but a key to a more resilient future for all.

UNDP is working with partners to translate this vision into action, by advancing equality and inclusion at every stage of disaster risk reduction, from preparedness to response and recovery. Drawing on our experience we see five powerful ways women’s leadership and meaningful participation can strengthen communities’ ability to withstand and recover from future shocks.

Women’s leadership strengthens resilience 

At UNDP, we actively open doors for women to shape decisions and policies at every level, from local committees to national platforms. We draw on their expertise and perspectives while amplifying the leadership and innovation they already bring to building resilience.

By investing in women’s ideas and supporting their initiatives, we help unlock solutions that ripple across communities, strengthening food security, sustaining livelihoods, and driving progress on every front.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Feminist Coalition for Climate Justice, supported by UNDP, has improved working conditions for over 75,000 women, trained 1,500 women officials in energy and climate management, and opened new opportunities for women-led enterprises.

Meanwhile, in Chad, with support from France through the Global Women, Peace and Security initiative, women’s cooperatives have combined climate-smart agriculture, solar irrigation, and early warning systems to reduce flood risks and support recovery, showing how women-led approaches can strengthen risk reduction measures, preparedness, livelihoods and peacebuilding, even in fragile settings.

Unpaid care responsibilities grow during crises, as disasters disrupt schools, health systems and basic services, placing even greater pressure on women. Credit: UNDP Haiti

Resilience relies on care

Resilience depends on care, and women shoulder more than three-quarters of the world’s unpaid caregiving, supporting children, older adults, people with disabilities and entire communities. These responsibilities grow during crises, as disasters disrupt schools, health systems and basic services, placing even greater pressure on women.

Recognizing and prioritizing care in disaster management, through early warning systems, safe spaces, and continuity of essential services, helps protect lives and speeds up recovery for everyone.

UNDP supports countries to integrate care into disaster and climate strategies. In Honduras, Cuba, Belize and Guatemala, a geo-referenced care mapping tool helps to identify gaps in childcare, eldercare and disability-inclusive services. In Honduras, this analysis helped authorities identify ‘care deserts’ in flood- and landslide-prone areas, prioritize safe-space upgrades, and ensure that care continuity is factored into evacuation and rehabilitation plans.

In Ukraine, the ‘Mommy in the Shelter’ initiative transformed a basement into a child-friendly refuge activated during air raids, linking early warning with ongoing maternal and childcare support, even in acute conflicts.

Gender data means better planning and better response

Good planning starts with good data. Without information that is broken down by sex, age, and disability, disaster risk reduction policies can miss the unique needs and strengths of different parts of the community, especially for marginalized groups. High-quality gender disaggregated data helps ensure that strategies are targeted, effective and inclusive.

Last year, UNDP increased sex-disaggregated data and gender analysis in 20 countries affected by crisis. Cuba, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Samoa and Yemen developed early warning systems that strengthen women’s engagement and leadership.

In Ethiopia, disaster risk reduction measures helped women-headed households recover from landslides, while in Armenia, inclusive risk assessments led by women fed directly into local development and recovery plans.

With strong data, broken down by sex, age and disability, disaster risk reduction policies can address the specific needs of different parts of societies, including marginalized groups. Credit: UNDP Türkiye

Institutions equipped with gender capacities are better equipped for resilience

Resilient communities start with resilient institutions. When organizations, from national authorities managing risks, to local risk committees, embed gender considerations into their policy, planning and programming, good intentions turn to real progress, moving from rhetoric to routine.

Guatemala’s national disaster risk management authority set a new standard by earning UNDP’s Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions. This means gender mandates, data and participation, including for Indigenous women, are woven into local risk management. Stronger institutions like these are better equipped to meet people’s needs and build lasting resilience.

Breaking down barriers, building resilience

Despite real progress, gaps remain. Gender equality is still too often sidelined across disaster, climate, humanitarian and development efforts. Let’s work together to make women’s leadership, care and inclusion central to every plan and policy.

Together, we can:

• Make women’s leadership non-negotiable in DRR decision making and financing. 
• Direct more capital to women’s resilience, including through risk financing, social protection, and support to women-led enterprises. 
• Centre care in preparedness and continuity plans so alerts translate into protection for caregivers, children, older persons and persons with disabilities.
• Strengthen national and local institutional capacities to apply a gender lens to how risks are managed, from efforts to prevent, prepare, respond to and recover from hazardous events. 
•  When these measures are consistently applied, communities everywhere will be better able to face challenges and confidently bounce back.

Raquel Lagunas is Global Director of Gender Equality, UNDP; Ronald Jackson is Head of the Disaster Risk Reduction, Recovery for Building Resilience, UNDP

Source: UN Development Programme (UNDP)

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Tsholofelo Msimango pictured at her home in Brakpan, near Johannesburg. Credit: TB Alliance/Jonathan Torgovnik

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Oct 20 2025 (IPS)

When Tsholofelo Msimango joined a small trial of a new drug regimen for tuberculosis (TB) treatment a decade ago, she had no idea whether the medicines she was about to be given would help her.

But having already spent six months in hospital after developing extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), the most lethal form of the disease, which at the time was barely curable—three-quarters of people with XDR-TB were thought to die before they even received a diagnosis and only a third of those who got treatment survived—Msimango decided she had little to lose.

“I had my doubts, of course, as to whether it would have any success,” she tells IPS.  “But to be honest, at that point all I could think about was that it might make me better, that I might be able to get out of hospital and go home. I was ready to take that chance. I’m glad I did. That trial saved my life—I am sure of it,” she says.

Msimango, who was 21 at the time, from Brakpan in South Africa, was one of 109 participants in the Nix-TB trial of a new drug regimen that ran across three sites in the country between 2015 and 2017.

Until then, typical treatment for the most severe drug-resistant forms of TB would involve patients taking daily doses of a potent cocktail of pills—dozens in some cases—as well as injections for sometimes as long as two years.

The side effects of such regimens can be horrific—deafness, kidney failure and psychosis have been reported—and there are high rates of treatment drop-out, leading not only to a worsening of the patient’s own condition but also to the further spread of the worst strains of the disease among communities.

The Nix-TB trial tested an all-oral six-month drug regimen, which was a combination of the drugs pretomanid, bedaquiline and linezolid (BPaL).

Its results—the regimen had a 90 percent treatment success rate —werehailed as groundbreaking by experts, and the trial proved to be a landmark moment in the fight against the world’s most deadly infectious disease.

Msimango says that until she joined the trial, she had been taking “lots of pills and having injections.” The latter, she says, had stopped working against the disease.

But not long into the trial, she noticed a change. Before the trial she had struggled to keep weight on because of her illness and treatment.

“It was when I started to gain weight that I began to think that the treatment was working. We had check-ups, including for weight, every week and when I saw myself putting on weight, I knew then that I was getting better,” she says.

By the end of the trial, she says she felt like a different person.

Tests showed she was free of TB.

“Of course I was excited about the fact that I could finally stop taking medicines, and because I was then healthy and free of TB and could live a normal life again, but I was also excited about the fact that I was going to be able to finally leave hospital after a year and go home.

“I had already been in hospital for seven months before the trial started, and then another six months for the trial, and it was hard being away from home for a year. The hospital was a long way from where I lived so it was very hard for my mother to come and visit me and bring me things,” she says.

Tsholofelo Msimango and her son at her home in Brakpan, near
Johannesburg. Credit: TB Alliance/Jonathan Torgovnik

But while now healthy and free of TB, the disease has continued to play a large role in Msimango’s life.

She decided she wanted to help others affected by TB. Today she is a TB community advocate and educator and helps to recruit people for medical studies.

“I would recommend to anyone that if they get the chance to take part in a study like the one that I got to take part in, that they should go for it,” she says.

Now a mother to a young boy, she says she speaks to him about what she went through and about TB so that he understands about the disease and the risks it poses.

“I talk to my son about what happened to me, why I was in hospital and why I now work in the TB community. I tell my son and his friends about TB and what can be done to stop its spread and how they can help, for instance, by covering their mouths when they cough,” she says.

“Actually, I tell my story a lot because I hope it might help other people,” she adds.

Another participant in the trial, Bongiswa Mdaka, says the same.

“I talk to people all the time about TB and my experience with it—I’m very open about it. If I see someone has been coughing for more than two weeks, I tell them about the disease and about getting tested and treated as early as possible,” she told IPS.

Speaking from her home in Vereeniging, Gauteng, Mdaka, who was 27 when she started the trial, said that, like Msimango, it changed her life.

“The trial was a lifesaver for me. It not only changed my life but saved it. It gave me a second chance. Ten years ago, before the trial, the situation for people with XDR-TB was not good. I was diagnosed with MDR-TB and when my condition continued to get worse, I was hospitalized. I was in the hospital for three days and they told me that no, I don’t have MDR-TB; I have XDR-TB, the worst I could have. It was like hearing a death sentence.

Tsholofelo Msimango’s late mother, Zeldah Nkosi. She says her mother was a “pillar of support” during her time when she had TB. Credit: TB Alliance

“So when the people doing the trial came to me, it seemed like a godsend. I had no major expectations—I just hoped that I would get better. Today I am healthy and free of TB. I’m strong. I have a family and a normal life. Life is good,” she said.

Speaking to experts who were involved in the trial, it becomes clear that going into it, no one knew how important it would eventually prove to be in the future of TB treatment.

Dr. Pauline Howell managed the patients during the Nix-TB trial at the Sizwe Tropical Diseases Hospital in Johannesburg, where Msimango was a patient.

“Prior to the Nix trial we knew that treatment was too long, too toxic, worked in less than half of people afflicted with TB, and in those diagnosed with XDR TB (per the pre-2021 definition), only 20 percent were still alive after 5 years. I was still junior in clinical trials in 2015, but it was clear to everyone that knew anything about XDR-TB that replacing the extended treatment, which included at least 6 months of injectables, and all the other drugs (the kitchen sink approach) with just three drugs made us more than a little anxious,” she told IPS.

But like many of the trial’s participants, she saw relatively quickly how well the treatment was working.

“When trial participants started telling newly admitted patients about this trial and brought them to the research site before we had had a chance to speak with them, that was speaking loudly. When certain patients, who had been admitted for over two years, were suddenly starting to respond to TB treatment and culture convert, it was wonderful to celebrate with them, Howell, who is now Clinical Research Site Leader at Sizwe Tropical Disease Hospital, said. “When patients were relocating from the Eastern Cape to Gauteng just to get access to the trial, we knew this was the treatment we’d also want for ourselves and our loved ones.”

“There are definitely a few [trial participants] who may not have survived without this treatment, but for the majority, they were able to get back to their lives faster, potentially cause fewer onward infections and suffer less loneliness and other repercussions of having drug-resistant TB,” she added.

However, while the trial had an immediate effect on its participants, its results, which suggested the enormous potential of the regimen, paved the way for BPaL to revolutionize TB treatment.

“I had no idea that this trial would be the first step towards changing the treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis worldwide,” Howell said.

“It’s good to remember that although TB is deadly, it is curable, and the side effects of the BPaL/M regimen are common but predictable and manageable. A decade ago, patients put an end to rental agreements for their homes, quit their jobs, told their partners to move on and their families took out funeral policies. These days, patients sit in front of me and say, ‘I have been here for two weeks already! I need to get home and back to my life’. It makes my head spin how much has changed, partially due to the Nix trial,” she added.

In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed BPaL with or without another drug, moxifloxacin (M), and BPaL(M) is today the preferred treatment option for drug-resistant TB.

According to data from the TB Alliance, the nonprofit group that developed pretomanid, BPaL and BPaL-based regimens, they treat about 75 percent of the overall number of drug-resistant TB cases treated annually. This number is projected to soon reach 90 percent.

Meanwhile, the group says, the regimens have already saved more than 11,000 lives and USD 100 million for health systems globally and by 2034 are expected to save an additional 192,000 lives and health systems almost USD 1.3 billion.

In some countries classed as having high-burden TB epidemics, they have already altered the TB landscape significantly.

“In South Africa, which adopted the BPaL/M guidelines in Sep 2023, we are seeing a single-digit percentage lost to follow-up for the first time in the history of our TB programme,” she says.

But the regimen’s potential may be in danger of not being fully fulfilled as richer nations cut foreign aid budgets, impacting funding that has traditionally helped support disease and other healthcare programmes in poor countries.

“The eternal challenge with TB is how closely it is tied to lack of access, poverty, substance use, being undomiciled and general lack of funding to overcome these challenges… Unfortunately, as long as there is poverty and lack of access, political will and funding, TB will continue to live side by side with us,” said Howell.

“Some people now can’t get their medications because of these cuts,” said Msimango. “They’re costing people’s lives.”

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

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Excerpt:

Before the successful Nix-TB trial, which took place in South Africa from 2015 to 2017, patients with extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) had to follow a complicated treatment plan for the deadliest form of the disease.

Thousands of mourners attend the state funeral of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Nairobi.

By Orlando Milesi
SAN ANTONIO, Chile, Oct 17 2025 (IPS)

Maritime transport is key for Chile, which has 34 free trade agreements with countries and blocs of nations, one of the broadest trade networks in the world with access to over 86% of the global gross domestic product (GDP).

In 2024, this South American country surpassed US$100 billion in exports for the first time, mostly of copper, forest products, fresh fruits, fish, and organic foods. In turn, it imported US$78.025 billion, mostly diesel oil, clothing, accessories, and footwear.

Faced with growing trade, experts predict enormous port demand by 2036 in this long and narrow South American country squeezed between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean.



To avoid a collapse in 10 years, the San Antonio Outer Port project will triple the capacity of Chile’s main route for the exit and entry of products.

San Antonio currently handles 29% of the tonnage of maritime foreign trade, 34% of exports, and 71% of Chile’s imports by value.

The high agricultural and mining production from Chile’s central area, which contributes 59% of the country’s GDP and is home to 63% of its 19.7 million inhabitants, passes through this port.

The outer port will allow for the movement of six million containers thanks to two new port terminals, 1,730 meters long and 450 meters wide, with eight new berthing fronts for state-of-the-art container ships.

The total estimated investment for the project is US$4.45 billion, which will be financed by the government and by international companies applying for concessions.

The first months of 2026 will be key for awarding the dredging works, the construction of the breakwater, the protective infrastructure for the new port, and for learning the authorities’ decision on the environmental impact of the San Antonio Outer Port works.

Measures will be taken to mitigate that impact, including the protection of two wetlands located on port land and support for the work of fishermen in nearby coves. To decarbonize, the port project will also use energy produced from renewable sources.

San Antonio, 110 kilometers west of Santiago and south of the historic port of Valparaiso, which it has surpassed in relevance, is aiming for a revival by promoting the largest port infrastructure project in Chile’s history.

It currently provides 10,200 direct jobs to port workers with an average monthly income of US$1,110.

San Antonio aims to consolidate its ninth place among the largest ports in Latin America and expand its role in the movement of cargo to and from Asia and the Americas.

Its managers also seek to show that infrastructure development can be harmonized with the protection and improvement of environmental conditions through a project that is a model of sustainability.

Colonel Michael Randrianirina is sworn in as the new president of Madagascar at a ceremony in the capital.

A female merchant was crossing a bustling street in Hanoi, Vietnam. Despite economic development over five decades, development gaps in Asia and the Pacific remained. Credit: Unsplash/Jeremy Stewardson

By Sudip Ranjan Basu
BANGKOK Thailand, Oct 17 2025 (IPS)

The Asia-Pacific region has long served as a springboard for transforming socio-economic implementation gaps into development opportunities. With the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals fast approaching, policymakers are stepping up efforts to translate policy announcements into tangible impacts.

Looking back since 1970s, the region’s development trajectory has been shaped by a series of crises that triggered transformative policy responses. By engaging strategic partnerships, countries in the region are well-positioned to promote shared prosperity for both people and the planet.

Anchoring crisis-driven policy shifts
In the 1970s, technological advances—particularly in agriculture—ushered in a new era. The introduction of high-yield crop varieties, known as the Green Revolution, boosted food production and rural incomes, laying the foundation for the emergence of a middle class. However, the decade also exposed vulnerabilities, as volatility in global commodity and energy prices exposed the risks of external shocks.

The 1980s brought further challenges. Rising oil prices and global interest rates strained national budgets across developing countries. The cost of servicing external debt crowded out investments in productive sectors, highlighting the risks of over-reliance on foreign aid.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis marked a watershed moment. Currency collapses, triggered capital flight and trade disruptions, leaving deep scars and prompting shifts in political governance and economic policy across the region.

By the early 2000s, optimism returned. Trade and investment surged, regional value chains expanded, and ICT-driven growth integrated economies more deeply into the global economy. Globalization was widely seen as a pathway to long-term prosperity.

Yet the 2008 global financial crisis shattered this euphoria. Inflation soared, investor confidence plummeted, and trade contracted.

Fast forward to the COVID-19 pandemic, which once again exposed lingering vulnerabilities: socio-economic inequality was deepened, jobs prospects dimmed, overdependence on supply chain became more pronounced, technological monopolies were revealed, and environmental fragility was clearly manifested. The pandemic reinforced the urgent need for adaptive policy frameworks.

These crisis episodes underscored the importance of coordinated policy action in an interconnected landscape, reinforcing the lesson that growth without adequate and shared outcomes is unsustainable.

Adjusting to changing socio-economic realities
The development journey has been marked by complexity and diversity. A comparative analysis over recent decades reveals recurring patterns: energy and food price volatility and tightening financial conditions have consistently tested policymakers. Rising interest rates in advanced economies have reignited debt concerns in developing countries, threatening economic stability and undermining progress.

Simultaneously, intensifying geopolitical competition is reshaping trade relationships, investment flows and technology transfers. Policymakers must navigate these shifts while advancing national development priorities and adapting to evolving dynamics.

These pressures have prompted to diversify its sources of economic growth and strategic engagements. Despite impressive achievements in social development, long-term stability and impact-driven outcomes hinge on governments’ ability to manage external shocks, anticipate risks, and promote cross-border economic cooperation and accelerate climate action.

Recent policy shifts signal a move toward structural transformation. Governments are spearheading industrialization, accelerating green energy transitions and pioneering sustainable financing mechanisms. This marks a shift from short-term crisis management to building medium- and long-term socio-economic progress.

The pandemic years further emphasised the need for adaptive policies—ones that can absorb unexpected shocks while maintaining progress toward stability.

Adapting through policy lessons
The development experience, particularly the least developed countries, the landlocked developing countries and small island developing States, offers valuable insights into building institutional capabilities and preventing future crises. Four strategic policy insights emerge:

Price stability matters: Volatile prices have repeatedly undermined development gains. Strategic foresight and balanced economic policy planning are essential to safeguard progress.
Fiscal buoyancy is critical: Excessive external borrowing has triggered past crises.

Creating fiscal space, mobilizing domestic resources, scaling blended finance and implementing coordinated debt management frameworks are vital for development.

Crisis preparedness requires coordination: The 1997 and 2008 crises showed that no country can respond effectively in isolation. Strengthening institutions is crucial for early warning systems, policy dialogue and coordinated action.

Sustainability is key to people-centred development: Climate change, socio-economic disparities and institutional inefficiencies pose long-term risks. Integrating sustainability into strategies and promoting technological transformation are no longer optional; they are imperative.

Turning points
The Asia-Pacific region’s development story is one of transition, and transformation. Connecting these turning points reveals a region that has consistently learned from its challenges and leveraged them to advance policy solutions.

The path ahead is promising, but policies must adapt to address shifting socio-economic dynamics, structural and climate change vulnerabilities, and emerging geopolitical realignments. These efforts must be anchored in regional cooperation, inclusive dialogue, and coordinated action, particularly through platforms such as ESCAP.

While governments play a central role, long-term progress will depend on the collective engagement of the private sector, academia, civil society and regional institutions. With strategic convergence, the Asia-Pacific region is well-positioned to overcome today’s uncertainty and shape a better future for all.

Sudip Ranjan Basu is Secretary of the Commission, ESCAP

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17 2025 (IPS)

The US hostility towards the UN is threatening to escalate, as a cash-starved world body is struggling for economic survival.

Addressing the UN’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee last week. Ambassador Jeff Bartos, U.S. Representative for U.N. Management and Reform said: “President Trump is absolutely right – the United Nations can be an important institution for solving international challenges, but it has strayed far from its original purpose”.

“Over 80 years, the UN has grown bloated, unfocused, too often ineffective, and sometimes even part of the problem. The UN’s failure to deliver on its core mandates is alarming and undeniable. “

The United States has been, by far, the largest funder of the UN since its founding. Based on the most recent scales of assessment, the United States provides more funding to the UN than 180 other nations combined, he pointed out.

“For the United States, the era of business as usual is over. During the Main Session, we will work with this Committee to achieve deeper cuts to wasteful spending and stronger accountability, with a relentless focus on results”.

The reductions already proposed in special political missions, the closure of unnecessary field offices, and the consolidation of executive offices, are the kind of decisions that must become the rule, not the exception.

Addressing the General Assembly last month, President Trump remarked: “What is the purpose of the United Nations? It’s not even coming close to living up to [its] potential.”

Dismissing the U.N. as an outdated, ineffective organization, he boasted: “I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never a phone call from the United Nations offering to help in finalizing the deal.”

But UN’s political ineffectiveness is due primarily to the role played by the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council—the US, UK, France, China and Russia–who are quick to protect their allies accused of human rights violations, war crimes or genocide.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has officially withdrawn or is in the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), and has ceased funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Which triggers the question: what’s the fate and economic survival of the UN against an aggressive Trump administration?

Dr Alon Ben-Meir, a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU), told IPS there is no other way to describe how the Trump administration is treating the UN other than self-defeating and detrimental to the US’s national interests, while substantially eroding America’s influence worldwide.

“It is hard to fathom how on earth Trump, who wants to ‘Make America Great Again,’ demonstrates such blatant hostility towards the only global organization in which the United States has, over the years, played such a pivotal and leading role that surpassed any other country since the UN’s creation in 1945.”

The statement by US Ambassador Bartos, he argued, is at best inaccurate and at worst totally wrong. It has never been a secret that the UN is overdue for significant reforms, beginning with the United Nations Security Council and many other UN agencies.

Dismissing the UN’s vital work on many fronts in one brush, however, and cutting humanitarian assistance on which millions in poor countries depend, or withdrawing from vital UN agencies, is unconscionable and highly damaging to the US’ leadership and national interests, he said.

“By what logic does the Trump administration justify its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), whose primary function is coordinating global health responses to crises such as pandemics, and setting international health standards?”

“One would think that the Trump administration would strongly support such an organization that serves US interests from a global health perspective and would only bolster the US influence by playing a significant role in improving its functions”.

How can the Trump administration explain its withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which promotes and protects human rights worldwide through international cooperation?

By withdrawing from this organization, Trump forsakes any role that the US could play in preventing human rights abuses, which leads to fewer global checks on human rights abuses and weaker international standards.

Trump may care less about human rights violations, but how does withdrawing from such an organization serve the US’ overall national and global interests? he asked.

James E. Jennings, PhD, President, Conscience International, told IPS support for the United Nations organization is vital to global health and stability.,

“Those who have worked on the front lines of UN agencies’ responses to wars, natural disasters, and famines throughout the world cannot imagine the degree of inhumanity involved in taking food out of the mouths of babies, refusing to educate children, and letting disease and epidemics rage. This is not politics, it is bullying, and the world should see it for what it is”.

He said there is a pattern in Mr. Trump’s behavior that is easily exposed, Every one of his perceived enemies, as for example in the majority Democratic states of California and Illinois, he describes in the most terrible terms as crime-ridden and out of control.

“Within three days after he sends in ICE storm troopers to places like Washington DC who do nothing except display their muscle, suddenly that city or state is peaceable and under control.“

Trump brags that things are fine now in Portland, Chicago, and other such places, when no real change can be detected except that some normal citizens have been roughed up. Theatrics may win voters but does not in any way solve problems, said Dr Jennings.

The same technique can be observed on the international scene. After deprecating and sidelining UN peacemaking efforts, which go deeply into the issues, he makes phone calls to leaders of countries on the verge of hostilities and claims that he has ended seven wars, which is nonsense.

“By sidelining the UN, he simply wants to dominate it. With the US the biggest donor supporting the organization, there is a fair chance that he can succeed in bending it to his will unless national leaders, US citizens, and people everywhere are resolute in opposing his plans”, declared Dr Jennings.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Thousands of mourners fill the streets of Nairobi from the airport to the Kasarani Stadium to pay their respects.

By Dr Himanshu Pathak
HYDERABAD, India, Oct 16 2025 (IPS)

When crops fail, people move not by choice, but by necessity. As families are displaced by droughts and failed harvests, the pressures do not always stop at national boundaries. In short, hunger has become one of the most powerful forces shaping our century.

From the Sahel, the vast semi-arid belt stretching across Africa from Senegal to Sudan and the Horn of Africa to South Asia’s dry zones and Southeast Asia’s coastal farmlands, climate shocks are undermining food production and disrupting communities across the Global South.

In the Sahel, prolonged drought and poor harvests, among other factors, are driving migration north through Niger and Mali toward North Africa and, for some, across the Mediterranean.

Across South Asia, recurrent floods and heat stress have displaced millions in India and Bangladesh, while in Southeast Asia, rising seas are forcing coastal farmers and fishers inland.

These pressures are magnified by rapid population growth, especially in the Sahel, where the population is projected to more than double by 2050, placing immense strain on already limited arable land.

The same story is unfolding across the globe. In Central America’s drought-stricken Dry Corridor, years of crop failure are pushing families to leave their farms and migrate north in search of food and safety.

Safeguarding the right of people to remain where their families have lived for generations, now depends on enabling communities to produce more food from every hectare, even as conditions grow harsher.

This World Food Day (October 16), we must view food security not only as a humanitarian concern, but through the prism of peace and stability.

History shows that when people cannot feed their families, societies fracture and conflicts occur. The world’s most strategic investment today is in the hands that grow our food and not in walls or weapons.

By investing in climate resilient crops such as the drought and heat tolerant varieties developed by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and expanding access to scientific innovation and improved seeds, we enable communities to withstand climate shocks, secure their livelihoods, and remain in their traditional lands instead of being forced to migrate by a crisis not of their making.

These positive impacts are already visible, but they must now be scaled up dramatically to match the magnitude of the challenge.

The World Bank estimates that up to 216 million people could be forced to migrate within their own countries by 2050 as climate impacts intensify most of them in Africa and South Asia.
Investing in resilient food systems in the Global South is one of the most effective and humane strategies for ensuring regional and ultimately global stability.

The UNDP estimates that every dollar invested in sustainable agriculture today saves seven to ten dollars in humanitarian aid and migration management later.

At ICRISAT we witness this every day. Across Africa and Asia, we work with governments and communities to turn drylands, some of the harshest farming environments on Earth, into zones of opportunity.

In India’s Bundelkhand region, stretching across southern Uttar Pradesh and northern Madhya Pradesh our science-led watershed interventions have turned what were once parched and deserted wastelands into thriving, water-abundant croplands.

In Niger, climate-resilient seed systems are now transforming uncertainty into productivity. From drought-tolerant sorghum and pearl millet to digital tools that guide farmers on planting and water management, science is helping people stay and thrive where they are.

These few examples show that solutions exist. What is missing is scale and that requires more sustained investment.

Developed nations have both the capacity and the self-interest to act. Supporting food systems in the Global South should also be seen as insurance against instability.

A world where millions are forced to move in search of food and water will be a world without stability anywhere.

FAO’s 2025 World Food Day theme, “Hand in Hand for Better Food and a Better Future”, captures what this moment demands, a deeper investment in science that make a real difference, and genuine partnership.

Across the Global South, collaboration is already strengthening through the ICRISAT Center of Excellence for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture as nations share knowledge, seeds, and strategies to build resilience together.

Yet the North, too, has a vital role to play in recognition that hunger and instability anywhere can threaten prosperity everywhere.

The future of food security, peace, and climate resilience must be built together.
As the climate crisis tightens its hold, the world must choose, act now to strengthen the foundations of food and farming, or face the growing cost of displacement and unrest.

This World Food Day let us remember that peace, like harvests, depends on what we sow today.

Dr Himanshu Pathak Director General, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Dr Himanshu Pathak is Director General, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

The community gets together to repair a school in the city of Saraqib, located south of Idlib, that was destroyed by bombing during the Assad regime. Credit: Sonia Al Ali/IPS

By Sonia Al Ali
IDLIB, Syria, Oct 16 2025 (IPS)

The war has deprived thousands of Syrian children of their right to education, especially displaced children in makeshift camps. Amidst difficult economic conditions and the inability of many families to afford educational costs, the future of these children is under threat.

Adel Al-Abbas, a 13-year-old boy from Aleppo, northern Syria, was forced to quit his education after being displaced from his city and moving to a camp on the Syrian-Turkish border. He says, “I was chasing my dream like any other child, but my family’s poverty and the harsh circumstances stood in my way and destroyed all my dreams.”

Adel had hoped to become an engineer, but he left school and gave up on his goal. He replaced books and pens with work tools to help his impoverished family secure life’s necessities. He adds, “We are living in extremely difficult conditions today; we can’t even afford food. So, I have to find a job to survive and help my family, especially after my father was hit by shrapnel in the head, which caused him a permanent disability.”

Adel’s mother is saddened by her son’s situation, saying to IPS, “We need the income my son brings in after my husband got sick and became unable to provide for our family. In any case, work is better than an education that is now useless after he’s been out of school for so long and has fallen behind his peers.”

Reem Al-Diri, an 11-year-old, left school after her family was displaced from rural Damascus to the city of Idlib in northern Syria. Explaining why, she speaks with a clear sense of regret: “I loved school very much and was one of the top students in my class, but my family decided I had to stop my education to help my mom with the housework.”

The young girl confirms that she watches children on their way to school every morning, and she wishes she could go with them to complete her education and become a teacher in the future.

Reem’s mother, Umayya Al-Khalid, justifies her daughter’s absence from school, saying, “After we moved to a camp on the outskirts of Idlib, the schools became far from where we live. We also suffer from a lack of security and the widespread kidnapping of girls. So, I feared for my daughter and preferred for her to stay at home.”

Causes of school dropout

Akram Al-Hussein, a school principal in Idlib, northern Syria, speaks about the school dropout crisis in the country.

“School dropouts are one of the most serious challenges facing society. The absence of education leads to an unknown future for children and for the entire community.”

Al-Hussein emphasizes that relevant authorities and the international community must exert greater efforts to support education and ensure it does not remain a distant dream for children who face poverty and displacement.

He adds, “The reasons and motivations for children dropping out of school vary, ranging from conditions imposed by war—such as killings, displacement, and forced conscription-to child labor and poverty. Other factors include frequent displacement and the child’s inability to settle in one place during the school year, as well as a general lack of parental interest in education and their ignorance of the risks of depriving a child of schooling.”

In this context, the Syria Response Coordinators team, a specialized statistics group in Syria, noted in a statement that the number of out-of-school children in Syria has reached more than 2.5 million, with northwestern Syria alone accounting for over 318,000 out-of-school children, with more than 78,000 of them living in displacement camps. Of this group, 85 percent are engaged in various occupations, including dangerous ones.

In a report dated June 12, 2024, the team identified the key reasons behind the widening school dropout crisis.

A shortage of schools relative to the population density, a shift towards private education, difficult economic conditions, a lack of local government laws to prevent children from entering the labor market, displacement and forced migration, and a marginalized education sector with insufficient support from both local and international humanitarian organizations are seen as the causes.

The team’s report warned that if this trend continues, it will lead to the emergence of an uneducated, illiterate generation. This generation will be consumers rather than producers, and as a result, these uneducated children will become a burden on society.

Initiatives to Restore Destroyed Schools

The destruction of schools in Syria has significantly contributed to the school dropout crisis. Throughout the years of war, schools were not spared from destruction, looting, and vandalism, leaving millions of children without a place to learn or in buildings unfit for education. However, with the downfall of the Assad regime, several initiatives have been launched to restore these schools. This is seen as an urgent and immediate necessity for building a new Syria.

Samah Al-Dioub, a school principal in the northern Syrian city of Maarat al-Nu’man, says, “Syria’s schools suffered extensive damage from both the earthquake and the bombings. We have collected funds from the city’s residents and are now working on rehabilitating the school, but the need is still immense and the costs are very high, especially with residents returning to the city.” She explained that their current focus is on surveying schools and prioritizing which ones need renovation the most.

Engineer Mohammad Hannoun, director of school buildings at the Syrian Ministry of Education, states that approximately 7,400 schools across Syria were either partially or completely destroyed. They have restored 156 schools so far.

Hannoun adds, “We are working to rehabilitate schools in all Syrian regions, aiming to equip at least one school in every village or city to welcome returning students. The Ministry of Education, along with local and international organizations and civil society, are all contributing to these restoration efforts.”

Hannoun points out that the extensive damage to school buildings harms both teachers and students. It leads to a lack of basic educational resources, puts pressure on the few schools that are still functional, and causes a large number of students to drop out, which ultimately impacts the quality of the educational process.

As part of their contingency plans, Hannoun explains that the ministry, in collaboration with partner organizations, intends to activate schools with the available resources to accommodate children returning from camps and from asylum countries. This effort is particularly focused on affected areas that have experienced massive waves of displacement.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in 2025, 16.7 million people, including 7.5 million children, are in need of humanitarian support in the country, with 2.45 million children out of school, and 2 million children are at risk of malnutrition.

The phenomenon of school dropouts has become a crisis threatening Syria’s children, who have been forced by circumstances to work to earn a living for their families. Instead of being in a classroom to build their futures, children are struggling to survive in an environment left behind by conflict and displacement.

 

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