Global Voices
์ค๋ ์ฑํฅ
๊ธฐํ
The seed guardian of Brazilโs Caatinga
In Minas Gerais, Brazil, a catingueiro shares his home with the memory of his ancestors and generations of plant varieties.
๐ ๊ตญ์ ๊ธฐ๊ตฌ ยท "GENERATION" ยท ์ด 8๊ฑด
ํํฐ ๋ณด๊ธฐํ์ฌ ์ง์
50.0
0 = ๋ถ์ ์ฐ์ธ
50 = ์ค๋ฆฝ
100 = ๊ธ์ ์ฐ์ธ
์ต๊ทผ 7์ผ ๊ธฐ์ค 5,981๊ฑด์ ๋ถ์ํ ๊ฒฐ๊ณผ, ๋ด์ค ์ฌ๋ฆฌ์ง์๋ 50.0(๊ท ํ)์ ๋๋ค. ๊ธ์ 0๊ฑด(0.0%)ยท์ค๋ฆฝ 5,981๊ฑด(100.0%)ยท๋ถ์ 0๊ฑด(0.0%)์ด๋ฉฐ, ์ค๋ฆฝ ๋น์ค์ด ๋๋ ทํ๊ฒ ๋์ต๋๋ค. ์ฑํฅ ์ง์๋ ์ข ํฉ 0.0(์ค๋ ๊ท ํ)์ ๋๋ค.
In Minas Gerais, Brazil, a catingueiro shares his home with the memory of his ancestors and generations of plant varieties.
Countries: Ukraine, Norway Source: Government of Norway Norway is entering into a new agreement with the EU to strengthen Ukraineโs energysecurity. Norway will provide NOK 425 million to help Ukraine rebuild a more resilientenergy system. After more than four years of full-scale war, Russian attacks have placed large parts of Ukraineโs energy system under severe pressure. Ukraine urgently needs support for repairs, spare parts 4and fuel. At the same time, it needs to reduce the vulnerability of its energy supply over time through more local and renewable energy production. Norway is now providing NOK 425 million (approximately EUR 40 million) for decentralised energy production, renewable energy, battery storage and flexible local energy systems. This funding will strengthen the resilience of Ukraineโs energy supply, help speed up recovery and keep critical services running. โUkraine must get through the coming winter while building an energy system that is less vulnerable to attack. In cooperation with the EU, Norway is providing NOK 425 million to strengthen Ukraineโs energy security. This funding will help Ukraine meet urgent needs while also contributing to its recovery, modernisation and path towards EU membership. Winter may seem far away, but preparations must be made now,โ said Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide. โNorwayโs contribution represents promises in action. It will help Ukraine to prepare for the next winter and to come closer to the EUโs energy system, towards its place in the EU. Focusing on renewables and decentralised energy generation contributes to Ukraineโs energy security. It also brings Ukraine further in line with the current priorities of the EU through the green transition,โ said European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos The support will be channelled through the EUโs Ukraine Investment Framework. This arrangement is designed to mobilise additional financing from banks and other financial institutions. If the projects develop as expected, parts of the funding may eventually be reused for new energy projects in Ukraine.
Country: Ukraine Source: REACH Initiative Please refer to the attached file. Context and Rationale More than four years after the escalation of the full-scale war in Ukraineยน, the humanitarian situation across the country remains severe, with needs persisting among large segments of the populationยฒ. Over time, the crisis has increasingly shifted from an acute emergency towards a more protracted and entrenched humanitarian context, as prolonged displacementยณ, repeated disruptions to essential services, and continued insecurity have increasingly shaped the living conditions of affected populations.โด While humanitarian needs have remained consistently high, their nature and underlying drivers have continued to evolve over time, reflecting the long-term consequences of a prolonged conflict and the growing strain on households and communities across Ukraineโต. In the lead-up to the 2025-2026 winter season, Ukraine witnessed an intensification of repeated attacks targeting civilian and critical infrastructure, including energy facilities, schools, healthcare facilities, and other essential public infrastructureโถ. During the winter period, these sustained attacks resulted in a significant loss of electricity generation capacity across the country, leading to widespread planned and unplanned power outages, alongside disruptions to other essential utility services such as heating and water supplyโท. Combined with low temperatures, these disruptions further exacerbated humanitarian needs among affected populations, especially energy-related vulnerabilities across Ukraine. To monitor the evolution of humanitarian needs during the winter period, REACH Ukraine conducted the fourth round of the Calibration Assessment between January and February 2026. The assessment aimed to provide a mid-year update to the findings of the 2025 Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA)โธ conducted in June and July, collecting updated information on humanitarian needs, reported challenges, and barriers faced by conflict-affected population, informing the humanitarian response. The assessment sought to support an understanding of how humanitarian and sectoral needs evolved over the course of the year, particularly in the context of seasonal shift and winter-related vulnerabilities. The ongoing consequences of the crisis continued to disproportionately affect frontline areasโน, where active hostilities, insecurity, displacement, and damage to civilian infrastructure remained most severe.ยนโฐ In line with this, one of the key priorities outlined in the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) focused on populations residing close to the frontline. The HNRP identified approximately 3.1 million people in need of humanitarian assistance for the frontline response.ยนยน In addition, f indings from the 2025 Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) further confirmed that both the prevalence and severity of unmet humanitarian needs correlated with proximity to the frontline, with about more than a quarter of households residing in frontline oblasts classified as being in extreme need ยนยฒ. Additionally, anticipated seasonal challenges in living conditions and exacerbation of winter-related vulnerabilities contributed to an estimated 1.7 million people being targeted for winterisation assistance during the 2025-2026 winter season. This factsheet provides an overview of humanitarian conditions in the prioritized frontline areas identified in the 2026 HNRP. It presents selected humanitarian indicators across eight frontline oblasts: Chernihivska, Dnipropetrovska, Donetska, Kharkivska, Khersonska, Mykolaivska, Sumska, and Zaporizka oblasts. Although Odeska Oblast is classified as a frontline oblast under the methodological framework, it was not included in this output because the oblast falls almost entirely within the โbeyond 50 kilometres from the frontlineโ zone. The prioritization for this analysis focused on oblasts that also included areas located within 0 to 50 kilometres from the frontline, in order to better reflect needs among populations living in areas prioritised under the HNRP strategic focus on the most vulnerable close to the frontline.
"Pilru โ Songs of resistance is a community-led initiative dedicated to documenting, protecting, and reclaiming the handcrafted musical instrument passed across generations by Adivasi Tharu and Kumhar communities of the Tarai"
Country: Pakistan Sources: Government of Pakistan, World Health Organization Please refer to the attached file. Original article on WHO Pakistan website Pakistan ranks among the top five countries worldwide for absolute reductions in child deaths thanks to vaccination. It has averted 2.6 million child deaths from preventable diseases, eradicated smallpox, reduced paralytic polio cases by 99.8% and ensured neonatal tetanus-free areas for 80% of the countryโs population. 22 April 2026, Islamabad, Pakistan โ Over the last five decades, since the founding of Pakistanโs Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in 1978, Pakistan has protected over 160 million children and 130 million mothers with life-saving vaccines in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners. Thanks to medical science, Pakistan eradicated smallpox in 1976 and paved the way for the launch of an immunization programme that has ever since averted 2.6 million child deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases, proving that, for every generation, vaccines work and save lives. Globally, vaccines have saved 154 million lives since 1974, and Pakistan ranks among the top 5 countries worldwide for absolute reductions in child deaths as a result of vaccination. Since 1994, powered by the medical science behind vaccines, Pakistan has reduced paralytic polio cases by 99.8% โ from an estimated 20,000 cases to 31 in 2025. To read more...
Country: World Source: Global Polio Eradication Initiative At this yearโs World Health Assembly in Geneva, delegates debated some of the worldโs most difficult and divisive issues. Discussions touched on conflict, humanitarian crises, geopolitical tensions and the growing pressures facing global health systems. At times, the debates reflected a world that feels increasingly fragmented. And yet, amid all these differences, one thing stood out with remarkable clarity: every Member State remained united behind one common goal โ the eradication of polio. Countries that disagree profoundly on many political issues nevertheless continue to stand shoulder to shoulder when it comes to protecting children from lifelong paralysis. Iran and Israel. Russia and Ukraine. Countries from every region, every political system and every level of development all reaffirmed their commitment to achieving and sustaining a polio-free world. One colleague observing the Assembly discussions described this as a โLichtblickโ โ a German word meaning a โray of hopeโ. It is a fitting description. Because in todayโs world, polio eradication represents something much greater than a disease programme alone. It is one of the few remaining examples of a truly universal humanitarian cause โ one capable of uniting governments, civil society, health workers and communities around a shared human objective. That unity matters. And perhaps there are lessons in it for the broader future of global cooperation. Throughout the Assembly, delegates also repeatedly returned to another important question: what should the future global health architecture look like in an increasingly complex and fragmented world? One message emerged particularly clearly from those discussions: global health cannot be driven by governments alone. Member States repeatedly emphasized that civil society, communities and local actors must remain central to both decision-making and implementation. In many ways, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) already represents one of the strongest examples of this model in practice. For more than three decades, governments, multilateral organizations, scientists, frontline health workers and civil society partners such as Rotary International have worked side by side toward a shared humanitarian goal. The result has been not only extraordinary progress toward eradication, but also the creation of one of the largest and most effective public-private partnerships in global health history. At a time when the world is actively reflecting on how to strengthen multilateral cooperation and global health systems, there may be important lessons to learn from the GPEI experience โ particularly the recognition that lasting progress depends not only on institutions, but also on communities, trust and shared ownership. This spirit of cooperation was also reflected in broader Assembly discussions on climate change, air pollution and energy poverty, where Member States and partners emphasized the need for coordinated global action and stronger community-centred health systems. While these challenges differ in nature, they share an important lesson with polio eradication: no country can solve them alone, and lasting progress depends on trust, partnership and collective responsibility. Together, GPEI partners have reduced wild poliovirus cases globally by more than 99.9%. In doing so, they have also built something much larger: surveillance systems, laboratories, emergency operations centres, community trust networks and outbreak response capacities that today support broader health security efforts worldwide. But perhaps most importantly, they have built trust and common ground. History has shown repeatedly that polio eradication efforts can create space for dialogue even in the most difficult environments. During the civil conflict in Cรดte dโIvoire in the early 2000s, local Rotary members helped bring together government and opposition forces to negotiate temporary ceasefires so vaccination teams could safely respond to a polio outbreak in the north of the country. Those humanitarian discussions later helped open channels for broader peace negotiations. More recently, synchronized vaccination campaigns have continued across parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan despite periods of heightened political tension. In Gaza, extraordinary humanitarian coordination helped enable vaccination campaigns that successfully interrupted outbreak transmission. Again and again, the effort to protect children from polio has demonstrated that even where politics divides, humanity can still unite. Of course, the world faces many urgent challenges. Financing pressures, conflicts, competing priorities and humanitarian crises all place strain on global health systems and international cooperation alike. But perhaps that is precisely why polio eradication matters so much today. Because it reminds us that multilateralism can still work. That collective action remains possible. And that even in a divided world, there are still causes capable of bringing humanity together around a shared purpose. The world is now closer than ever to eradicating polio forever. But the final phase matters precisely because every remaining case is not simply a statistic โ it is a child whose life will be permanently affected by paralysis. That is why this effort continues to matter so deeply. If we succeed, the achievement will not belong to one country, one organization or one generation alone. It will belong to all of humanity.
Country: Bangladesh Source: United Nations Population Fund SHERPUR, Bangladesh โ Banessa Bibi, now in her nineties, cannot remember how many children she brought into this world. She only recalls the three daughters and two sons who survived. In her village, childbirth once meant labouring in the dark corner of a room into the hands of an unskilled birth attendant. Little had changed even by the time her two daughters, Jamena and Jamila, had children. For both, the consequences were devastating. Jamila, now 45, experienced severe complications as she delivered her second child at home. Prolonged obstructed labour caused an obstetric fistula, a traumatic childbirth injury. Preventable and treatable Obstructed labour is a deadly condition if not urgently treated โ and treatment is both well established and available in most referral health facilities. Usually, this means a Caesarean section delivery. When women are unable to access care, the consequences can include death of the baby, death of the mother, or long-lasting physical injuries like obstetric fistula. The fistula, a hole in the birth canal, often causes incontinence and stigma. Women with this injury are often ostracized. Preventing and treating obstetric fistula is a human rights imperative, according to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, which is the UNโs sexual and reproductive health agency. A flicker of hope After her obstructed labour, Jamila was left with regularly leaking urine and a foul odor coming from her body. Out of shame and humiliation, she withdrew from public life for two decades. Even her own granddaughter refused to go near her, she described. Jamila still shudders recalling years of feeling trapped in isolation. When she first learned her fistula could be cured by doctors at the UNFPA-supported Dhaka Medical College Hospital, she finally felt a flicker of hope. Two free surgeries followed, bringing the miracle of recovery. โThey gave me my life back,โ Jamila said. โAt first, I was scared of what would happen to me. But their kindness, counselling and stories of other recovered women gave me strength. For the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, Jamila could breathe freely, sit comfortably beside others and live with dignity. Jamena, 55, also developed an obstetric fistula while delivering the first of her seven children. For years, she concealed her injury, fearing she might lose her job as a domestic worker. In 2025, after hearing about her younger sisterโs surgery, she started to believe that healing might be possible for her too. With support from a UNFPA-supported fistula coordinator, Jamena sought treatment. Today, both sisters are healthy. They laugh, work, socialize and move through their community without fear or shame. A better future For as long as anyone can remember, gaps in maternal healthcare services in Sherpur had left pregnant women at high risk of fistula. But today, midwives conduct weekly outreach sessions, bringing maternal healthcare directly to local community clinics and reaching women who might otherwise never seek care. This includes midwives deployed by UNFPA with funding from Global Affairs Canada. UNFPA has also trained healthcare workers in the area, helping to dismantle long-standing barriers to care. As maternal health services improve, childbirth complications are being addressed, helping to prevent obstetric fistula from happening in the first place. And health teams are in place to provide comprehensive follow-up and treatment if it does occur. Even deep-rooted notions that home births are cheaper and less "troublesome" than going to a hospital are shifting through public awareness campaigns supported by UNFPA and the Government of Bangladesh. Banessa and her daughters lived a painful reality, one shared by generations of women in the past โ but not the future.
Three Dominican ecologists and environmental managers explore how protecting ecosystems, conserving resources, and promoting sustainability represent meaningful acts of patriotism that safeguard communities, biodiversity, and future generations across the nation.