Blogs & Opinions

Good Incentives, Bad Timing: Crop Substitution, Coca Cultivation, and Aerial Spraying in Colombia

Oct 17, 2019 | Daniel Mejia, Mounu Prem and Juan Vargas

According to figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in 2017 the extent of coca cultivation in Colombia reached a record high…

The Paradox of Plenty and Its Impact on Gendered Policy

Oct 17, 2019 | Eliana Cusato

Access to and distribution of natural resources are often at the root of violent conflict. Yet it is only over the last few decades that…

Letter from Buganda: Let Us Rise Together and Stand for Her Land

Oct 16, 2019 | Cizzy N. Kiyaga

Buganda is a major subnational kingdom in central Uganda. While over 10 million people live and work on land owned by the kingdom, the land…

Coming Out! Gender Diversity in the Food System

Oct 16, 2019 | Paula Gioia

In the current global context, discrimination is used as a tool to preserve and support authoritarian and far-right political movements. Immigrants and refugees are denied…

Drugs, Gold and Guns Bring Terror and Death to 400-Mile Waterway in Colombia

Oct 16, 2019 | Billy Briggs

For traditional communities on the River Atrato in the Chocó region, the snaking waterway is life itself, playing a central role in their cultural, economic…

From Poor Harvests to a Lack of Property Rights: The Struggles of Sindhi Rural Women

Oct 15, 2019 | Shiza Malik

Celebrated on the 15th of October every year, International Rural Women’s Day often goes unnoticed in Pakistan, just as the voices of the millions of…

Women Help Feed the World. Why Can't They Own Land?

Oct 15, 2019 | Karol Boudreaux

In rural areas around the world, the face of a farmer is increasingly a woman’s. 

From the paddy terraces of Asia to the maize fields of…

How Fires Threaten Syria's Security

Oct 15, 2019 | Justin Schon, Robert D. Field, and Michael J. Puma

Fires are proliferating. By the end of September, over 4,500 active fires had been detected in Syria during 2019. From May through June, 2,106 of…

Review Finds That UK Policy and Practice on Conflict and the Environment Needs Improving

Oct 14, 2019

An analysis of the UK’s environmental conduct before, during and after armed conflicts has found considerable room for improvement in both practice and reporting. With a…

Why Women Farmers Deserve the Right to Identity

Oct 14, 2019 | Shipra Deo

In a workshop with a group of agronomists who work in agriculture extension in India, I ask the participants to draw the picture of a…

Around the World, Young People Are Driving Climate Innovation

Oct 14, 2019 | Climate Justice Resilience Fund

2019 will be remembered as the year young people took to the streets around the world to fight for their future.

Inspired by Greta Thunberg and…

From Rajasthan to Mexico: Why Gender Matters at the Heart of The Energy Transition

Oct 13, 2019 | Costanza Burstin, Mouna Chambon, Morgane Ollier, and Cécile Spanu

In 2013, the climate negotiations (COP19) culminated with a promising consensus for women across the world: gender was voted as an independent agenda item in…

Climate-Justice and Gender-Justice Have to Go Hand-in-Hand

Oct 11, 2019

“We demand that the new European Commission secures equal rights for everyone – and that they work hard to smash the gender-gap, both inside and…

The Next Big Opportunity for Gender Equality?

Oct 11, 2019 | Ewa Lewandowska

The movement for a circular economy has focused on the environmental and business impacts of circularity, with far less interest (from researchers and policymakers) dedicated…

Fishing for Equality and Sustainability

Oct 9, 2019 | Jamie Wen-Besson and Catherine Wahlen

In a wooden boat on the estuary of the Densu River in Ghana, Cecila dips a salinator into the water and declares that the salinity…

Bomb Cyclones and Breadbaskets: How Climate, Food, and Political Unrest Intersect

Oct 8, 2019 | David Harary and Sunny Petzinger

The torrential downpour, ice, and eventual flooding of the US plains on March 15 and 16 left ranchers stunned. The aptly named "Bomb Cyclone”—the official…

Liberia: Denied for Decades, Women Lead Land Rights Campaign in Bong

Oct 8, 2019 | Mae Azango

Gormah Mulbah and her five children were thrown out of their home last year after her husband died. Her late husband’s family was angry she…

Land Reform Has Failed the Women of South Africa

Oct 7, 2019 | Sobantu Mzwakali

The government’s plan to combat the plight of women’s landlessness has been shown to have borne little fruit thus far, when the report of the…

Empowering Africa's Women Farmers

Oct 7, 2019 | Ruth Meinzen-Dick

More than 60% of all employed women in Africa south of the Sahara work in agriculture. Yet the region’s women farmers often reap a meager…

Investing in South Sudan Oil Could Add Fuel to the Flames

Oct 6, 2019 | Brian Adeba and Megha Swamy

A major oil and power conference kicks off in Cape Town this week with South Sudan expected to actively seek companies and announce exploration licences…

Afghanistan: Water Management for Peace

Oct 4, 2019 | Said Hashmat Sadat and Nastrat Sayed

In the optimistic view, Afghanistan is closer to peace today than at any time in the past decades. The presidential election last weekend may have…

For Bosnian Women, No Justice—and No Seats

Oct 3, 2019 | Riada Asimovic Akyol

Both men and women suffer the consequences of wars, but conflicts and humanitarian disasters around the world tend to disproportionately affect women and children. Additionally,…

The Hidden Work of Post-Conflict Recovery

Oct 2, 2019 | Jay Lingham and Melissa Johnston

Sri Lanka 2011. It is two years since a brutal civil war ended, with the UN reporting tens of thousands of civilians killed in the final…

Custom, Caste System Deny Land Rights to Asian Women, Indigenous People

Oct 2, 2019 | Rina Chandran

Women, lower-caste and indigenous people across Asia are failing to benefit from land reform laws because of custom and deep-rooted social biases, land rights activists…

International Law Is Failing the South China Sea

Oct 1, 2019 | Shirley Wang

When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing on August 29, expectations were high that progress would be made on the South…

This October on Agrilinks: The Role of Gender in Agriculture

Oct 1, 2019 | Krista Jacobs

Gender influences which crops are grown, which animals are raised, and which technologies are used. It influences how households earn a livelihood and manage risk,…

From Commitment to Action: Inclusion of Women's Voices in Commonwealth Priorities for Gender Equality

Sep 30, 2019 | Myn Garcia

Women from across the Commonwealth met in advance of the 12 Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting (12WAMM) on 16 and 17 September to discuss policy recommendations to accelerate national, regional, and global action…

Taking SDG 5 (Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment) Seriously in the Forestry Sector

Sep 30, 2019 | Carol Colfer and Dominique Lyons

In the lead-up to the 25th IUFRO World Congress being held in Curitiba, Brazil from 29 Sept. to 6 Oct., a group of scientists from around…

Advancing United Nations Responses to Climate-Related Security Risks

Sep 30, 2019 | Karolina Eklöw, Camilla Born, and Malin Mobjörk

The security implications of climate change have increasingly been debated in the United Nations Security Council. Yet, there is a growing concern by many UN…

Reclaiming the WPS Agenda: it's Time to Talk About the Elephant in the Room

Sep 27, 2019 | Mohbuba Choudhury

Displacement levels in Bangladesh as a result of the influx of Rohingya refugees has had a detrimental impact upon the local environment. The arrival of…