The Human Consciousness Now...Our World in the Midst of Becoming...to What? Observe, contemplate Now.
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 13 2026 (IPS) - Across the world, women remain vastly under-represented in political leadership, with the most powerful decisions still overwhelmingly made by men. In 2026, only 28 countries are led by a woman Head of State or Government, while 101 countries have never had a woman leader, according to the latest data released by Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women.
When women are shut out of political leadership, decisions that shape peace, security, and economic priorities are made without half of the world’s experience at the table. The new global data reveals stagnation, and in some cases regression, in women’s political leadership, particularly in executive government.
Key findings from the data released by IPU and UN Women include:
o Women hold just 22.4 per cent of cabinet minister positions globally, down from 23.3 per cent in 2024, marking a reversal after years of gradual progress.o Fourteen countries have achieved gender parity in cabinets, demonstrating that equal representation is possible, yet eight countries still have no women ministers at all.
o Women hold 27.5 per cent of parliamentary seats worldwide, up slightly from 27.2 per cent in 2025. The increase of just 0.3 percentage points marks the second consecutive year of the slowest growth recorded since 2017, highlighting how slowly women are advancing in political decision-making power.
o Women are also losing ground in parliamentary leadership. As of January 2026, 54 women serve as Speakers of Parliament globally, representing 19.9 per cent of all Speakers. This represents a nearly four-percentage-point decline from the previous year and the first drop in women Speakers in 21 years.
o Women in politics face rising hostility and intimidation from the public, both online and offline. Seventy-six per cent of women parliamentarians surveyed report experiencing intimidation by the public, compared with 68 per cent of men – a trend that deters women from seeking office and slows progress toward equal political power.
o Even when women reach leadership positions, they are often concentrated in a narrow range of portfolios traditionally linked to social sectors.
o Women lead 90 per cent of gender-equality ministries and 73 per cent of ministries responsible for family and children’s affairs, reinforcing long-standing gender stereotypes in political leadership. Men continue to lead almost exclusively ministries like defense, home affairs, justice, economic affairs, governance, health, and education.
“At a time of growing global instability, escalating conflicts and a visible backlash against women’s rights, shutting women out of political leadership weakens societies’ ability to respond to the challenges they face,” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.
“Women bring perspectives and experience that are essential for making better decisions, preventing conflict and building lasting peace. When women are fully involved in political leadership, countries are more stable, policies work better for people, and societies are better prepared to face the crises shaping our world today.”
“Parity is a moral imperative, because women have an equal right to shape the decisions that govern their lives. But it is also the smart thing to do. Institutions make better decisions when they reflect the societies they serve. They are better able to identify bias, design fairer responses, and earn public trust when women from all backgrounds are present, and influential, at every level,” said IPU President Tulia Ackson.
“The IPU has constantly proven that well-designed quotas and strong political will are essential to speed up change and ensure that women’s voices are heard in democratic decision-making. At the same time, men and women must work together as equal partners to transform political culture, challenge stereotypes, and build inclusive parliaments that reflect the people they represent,” said IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong.
Despite the slow pace of change, women around the world continue to push boundaries and assert their place in political life. Removing structural barriers, including discriminatory laws, violence against women in politics, and unequal access to resources, as well as challenging negative social norms, will be critical to ensuring women’s equal political leadership in the years ahead.
This year’s 70th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women – (which is scheduled to conclude March 19) the United Nations’ highest-level intergovernmental body that sets global standards for women’s rights and gender equality – is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reverse the rollback of women’s rights.
The future of democracy will be stronger, fairer, and more resilient when women are equally represented in decision-making at all levels.
IPS UN Bureau
KABUL, Mar 12 2026 (IPS) - In the bone-chilling Afghanistan winter, a woman was dragged into a public square early this year and publicly lashed for a crime she may or not have committed. According to the ruling handed by the Taliban Supreme Court, the woman and the male culprit who was jointly accused of extra-marital affair received 30 lashes each and a one-year suspended prison sentence. The sentence was carried out in the presence of several local officials and residents in a province whose name is left out to protect the victim.
For Roya, (not her real name), a woman whose life has already been scarred by years of psychological and emotional distress, 30 blows of lashes in corporeal punishment amounts to an extra dose of salt into her wound. She lost her husband six years ago, in a traffic accident, leaving her to raise five children as a single mother.
Faced with crushing poverty Roya has worked as a farm laborer on other people’s land, but with the onset of the winter and agricultural work drying up, she migrated to the city where she cleaned houses, washed clothes and hand-stitched embroidered men’s collars under the dim light of a lamp at night. Naqeeba (also not her real name), a neighbor who has known Roya for years, speaks approvingly of her great sense of dignity. The money she earned through this work was little, but Roya never asked anyone for help, says Naqueeba.
She tried to cover the costs of living in whatever way she could and it was the constant need to create job-seeking opportunities by frequent daily travels, which rather became labeled as improper marital relations, bringing on her punishment rather than reward.
“She became a victim of circumstances, not a criminal,” Naqeeba, says, adding, “the charge was false.”
According to Naqeeba, Roya didn’t even get a chance to defend herself. She was on her way home and nearby her own house when she was seized “like a dangerous criminal,” thrown into a vehicle, and taken away without anyone knowing where she was taken to or what she had been accused of.
A Charge She Did Not Deserve
“This was not a simple blow. It was a strike that, as long as she lives, she will never be able to hold her head high again in this neighborhood”, Naqueeba explains further with her voice filled with anger and sorrow. She pauses and continues: “For a week, no one knew whether she was alive or what had happened to her until news of her public flogging emerged”.
The repeated public corporal punishments, especially against women, have not only instilled fear in society but also raised serious questions about justice, human dignity, and the status of women in today’s Afghanistan.
Roya’s story is not just the story of one individual; it reflects the suffering of thousands of women who live in silence under the weight of poverty, loneliness, and restrictions, and who are punished simply for being women. The day she was flogged marked the fourth public corporal punishment of women in that province in less than two months, during December and January a trend that has fueled waves of fear, anxiety, and silence, particularly among women in the region.
According to a report by Hasht e Subh Daily Media, in 2025, the Taliban publicly flogged 225 people in Kabul alone. This means that people were flogged at least every other day in the capital. Several other provinces carried out dozens of public floggings each.
The report reveals that confessions were often extracted under pressure. The accused were denied legal assistance and a fair trial. The Taliban rely on corporal punishment and public displays of force, which violate human rights and cause severe social and psychological consequences for the victims.
The Taliban abolished the Attorney General’s Office and shut down the Independent Bar Association of Afghanistan in November 2021, thus effectively blocking the path to legal defense.
In 2025, Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur along with other UN experts, on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, consistently condemned the Taliban’s increased use of public flogging and other forms of corporal punishment, describing them as “inhuman and cruel”. Throughout the year, he highlighted the alarming rise in these practices, noting that they often occur without due process or fair trial standards.
“The Taliban must immediately end the death penalty and all corporal punishment that amounts to torture or other cruel and inhuman treatment, and respect the rights and dignity of all detainees,” Bennett and other experts stressed.
IPS UN Bureau
Excerpt:
The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons.
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan & SHRINGAR, India, Mar 12 2026 (IPS) - Global wildlife is facing a deepening crisis as the latest United Nations assessment warns that nearly half of the world’s migratory species are in decline due to human activity, habitat destruction, and climate change.
The warning comes in the newly released State of the World’s Migratory Species: Interim Report 2026, which presents updated findings on population trends, conservation status, and emerging threats affecting animals that travel vast distances across continents and oceans.
Kelly Malsch, lead author of the State of the World’s Migratory Species: Interim Report 2026 and Head of Conservation, UNEP-WCMC.
Prepared by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) for the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, the report provides a comprehensive snapshot of how species that rely on migration for survival are increasingly under pressure across ecosystems.
According to the report, “the extinction risk of CMS listed species is rising”, with migratory animals exposed to a combination of threats along their routes, including habitat loss, overexploitation, pollution, and climate change.
The assessment shows that almost one in four migratory species listed under the Convention on Migratory Species is now globally threatened. Updated evaluations from the International Union for Conservation of Nature reveal that 24 percent of these species fall into threatened categories such as Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered.
One of the lead report authors, Kelly Malsch, who is also Head of Conservation, UNEP-WCMC told IPS news in an exclusive interview that the State of the World’s Migratory Species report, published in 2024, was the first comprehensive assessment of the situation facing migratory species. She says that the report identified overexploitation and habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation due to human activity as the two greatest threats to both CMS-listed and all migratory species. These main drivers remain unchanged since the first assessment.
“Since then, we find that 49 percent of migratory species populations conserved by the global UN treaty are declining (5 percent more in just two years, from 44 percent in 2024), and 24 percent of species face extinction (2 percent more, up from 22 percent in 2024),” Malsch said.
She added, “We do not know exactly how quickly these changes are happening, as the trends only come to light when the IUCN Red List for a particular species is updated. However, we do know populations of migratory animals are being lost at an alarming rate and that more needs to be done to turn things around for these amazing species given the changes in only two years.”
The report also notes that 34 species have shifted to a different risk category since the previous assessment. Of these, 26 species have moved into more threatened categories, while only seven have improved in status.
Many of the species moving toward greater risk are migratory shorebirds. Eighteen shorebird species have been reclassified into more threatened categories due to habitat degradation, climate impacts, and other human pressures.
The findings highlight the growing vulnerability of species that rely on multiple habitats across borders. Migratory animals often depend on breeding grounds, feeding sites, and stopover habitats located in different countries. Any disruption along these pathways can jeopardise their survival.
‘Action Needed to Improve Health of Biodiversity Globally’
The report also presents alarming trends in population decline. Nearly half of all migratory species assessed now show decreasing population trends.
According to the report, “the proportion of CMS listed species with a decreasing population trend now stands at 49 percent”, up from 44 percent previously recorded.
Scientists caution that the increase partly reflects improved monitoring data, but it still signals widespread ecological pressure across ecosystems.
Recent studies cited in the report confirm declining populations among migratory shorebirds, birds of prey across the African-Eurasian flyway, freshwater fish, sharks, and rays.
The global extinction of the Slender billed Curlew is one stark example of these trends. With no confirmed sightings since 1995, the species has now been declared extinct, underscoring the consequences of delayed conservation action. “Migratory species can be found around the world on land, in rivers, wetlands, at sea and in our skies – the declines we are seeing with this subset of species showcase that more action is needed to improve the health of biodiversity globally,” Malsch said.
Disease and threatened migratory routes affect birds. The Egyptian Vulture is affected by poisoning, electrocution, and poaching. Credit: Sergey Dereliev, (www.dereliev-photography.com)
Disease Outbreaks and Environmental Threats
In addition to habitat destruction and climate change, emerging threats such as disease outbreaks are affecting migratory wildlife.
The report notes that highly pathogenic avian influenza has caused mass mortality events among migratory birds and marine mammals recently. The virus has affected species ranging from African Penguins and pelicans to cranes and sea lions.
Researchers warn that long-lived migratory species are especially vulnerable to such disease outbreaks because even small increases in mortality can affect their long-term survival.
Infrastructure development is another major challenge. Expanding road networks, fences, pipelines, and railways are fragmenting migratory routes used by terrestrial mammals such as gazelles and wildebeest.
These barriers restrict seasonal movements that animals rely on to access breeding areas and food resources. In some cases, they have already triggered dramatic population declines.
Malsch said that to protect migratory paths that cross borders, the global conservation community needs to take actions that safeguard, link, and restore important habitats for these species – this means making sure that vital areas for migratory species (like Key Biodiversity Areas) are officially recognised as protected and conserved. Ensuring that these areas are effectively managed and connected.
“Ensuring ecological connectivity through wildlife corridors provides important stepping stones for migratory species. Wildlife corridors can exist at many different scales, ranging from wildlife overpasses that allow animals to safely cross roads to vast transboundary landscapes and seascapes that support migrations spanning thousands of miles. There is a need to understand where and how ecological corridors are already effectively conserving migratory species. UNEP-WCMC are working on a database of ecological corridors that will help the global conservation community with this challenge and crucially aid in identifying key gaps in the existing network,” Malsch said.
She added that there are various inspiring examples from around the world of collaborative initiatives focused on restoring connectivity at landscape scales.
The Wildlife Connect initiative – led by WWF and including CMS – is helping conserve the jaguar. Credit: Gregoire Dubois
“For example, the Wildlife Connect initiative – led by WWF and including CMS as a partner – works to protect and restore ecological connectivity across key landscapes, such as a focal landscape in the Pantanal-Chaco region – spanning Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay - where the initiative works across this large transboundary landscape to identify and protect ecological corridors for wide-ranging species like the Jaguar. ”
Severe Decline in Fish Populations
The report highlights migratory fish as one of the most threatened groups globally. Freshwater fish populations have declined by an average of 81 percent since 1970, according to the Living Planet Index cited in the study.
Habitat fragmentation caused by dams and river regulation is one of the primary drivers behind these losses. Large river basins such as the Amazon, Mekong, Congo, and Niger face increasing pressure from hydropower development, which disrupts migratory pathways for fish and other aquatic species.
Sharks and rays are also experiencing severe declines. Their populations have fallen by roughly half since 1970, largely due to overfishing and bycatch.
Scientists warn that several groups, including sawfishes, devil rays, and hammerhead sharks, are now among the most threatened vertebrates in the oceans.
Signs of Conservation Success
Despite the overall negative outlook, the report highlights several conservation successes that demonstrate the impact of coordinated global efforts.
The Saiga Antelope, once devastated by disease outbreaks and poaching, has shown a strong recovery in parts of Central Asia. The species has improved from Endangered to Near Threatened due to strengthened anti-poaching efforts, habitat protection, and community engagement in Kazakhstan.
Another success story is the Scimitar horned Oryx. Once extinct in the wild, the species has been reintroduced in Chad and now maintains a growing wild population of more than 500 individuals.
Marine turtle populations also show encouraging trends. Many nesting populations are now stable or increasing due to conservation measures such as protected nesting beaches and reduced hunting.
“As many river systems flow across international borders, governments can come together multilaterally and take urgent, coordinated efforts to reverse declines in freshwater migratory fish populations. While advocating for specific interventions is beyond the scope of this report, the first State of the World’s Migratory Species report highlighted a range of recommendations, including the urgent need to minimise the impacts of planned infrastructure on migratory species. Restoration efforts also have an important role to play,” Malsch said.
According to her, in river systems that have been badly fragmented by dams, restoration could involve the removal of barriers at strategic locations. For some species, the effects of barriers can be reduced by adding fish passages or by adjusting how dams operate to keep natural water flows, like maintaining proper water levels in downstream areas or important floodplain habitats.
Migratory fish would also benefit from measures to reduce water pollution and to ensure any fishing pressure is sustainable, through measures such as the seasonal closure of fisheries or protections at key spawning grounds, or improved monitoring of cross-border populations.
“There are clear actions that can be taken to improve outcomes for freshwater fish, but we need to act with pace,” she said.
Critical Habitats Still Underprotected
Scientists, as per the report, have identified thousands of important biodiversity sites worldwide. Of the 16,589 Key Biodiversity Areas globally, more than 9,300 have been identified as important for migratory species. Yet many of these locations remain inadequately protected. On average, only about 52.6 percent of the area within these critical habitats is currently covered by protected or conserved areas.
This gap leaves many species vulnerable during crucial stages of their migration cycles. Experts say that better mapping of migratory routes and stronger international cooperation are essential for safeguarding wildlife that crosses multiple national borders. The report calls for intensified global action to protect migratory wildlife and their habitats by 2032 under the Samarkand Strategic Plan for Migratory Species.
Conservation measures must focus on restoring habitats, protecting migratory corridors, reducing overexploitation, and addressing the impacts of climate change. “Action to restore, connect and protect important habitats and reduce the pressures facing migratory species is urgently required to secure their future,” the report reads. It adds that without coordinated international action, many of the planet’s most remarkable animal migrations could disappear within a generation.
“Recovery is possible when countries come together to take urgent, coordinated action to protect species. Malsch stated, “We know conservation works when focused efforts reduce underlying pressures head-on and consider the local context.”
She added that for Saiga, protection of key habitats and dedicated efforts to tackle poaching in a coordinated way have allowed this unique species to bounce back. For marine turtles, progress has been made to protect nesting beaches, prevent and reduce the direct taking of turtle eggs and adjust fishing gear to reduce bycatch of marine turtles.
“This combination of dedicated actions by governments, coastal communities, and fishermen is making all the difference. These are the types of focused approaches, directly targeting the main pressures, that need to be replicated to help other species.”
IPS UN Bureau Report
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Mar 12 2026 (IPS) - The US/Israeli war on Iran might be like messing with a hornets’ nest, spreading fear and chaos all around. The Israeli government claimed that the war was a “preventive” measure to address an immediate threat of Iran constructing a nuclear bomb. However, this war has obviously been meticulously planned over a long period of time and it now seemed to be the right time to put this plan into action. The Iranian air defences had been weakened through earlier attacks, while recent Israeli strikes decapitated Hezbollah’s Lebanese leadership, Iran’s allies north of Israel. With Gaza destroyed and Syria’s unreliable Assad gone, Netanyahu had succeeded in securing his party’s coalition with the far-right and could continue to count upon the support of the Trump Administration, providing Israel with a free hand vis-à-vis the Palestinians and turning a blind eye to the massacre of civilians. The U.S. is continuously supporting Isreal with missile-defence systems, coordination, cooperation, and intelligence sharing.
It appears as if the U.S./Israeli forces now intend to bomb everything in Iran – from its highest leaders, down to police stations and thus hope that Iran will exhaust its defence capacities. The aggressors furthermore claim they intend to achieve an Iranian regime change. However, even if Iran’s ninety-two million people now are trapped between a bloody war and a repressive regime it is highly unlikely that a tolerant government will emerge from a battered rump version of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is more probable that such a state will be governed by leaders even more determined to cling to their power after gaining more confidence after overcoming a terrible crisis. U.S. actions seem to be more improvised than Israel’s and it seems that they have not learned from the Afghanistan failure, i.e. the difficulties in achieving and maintaining a regime change through military means.
The U.S. government rejoiced from the killing of Ali Khamenei – a mid-ranking cleric who did not meet the constitutional requirements of being a marja, i.e. a cleric enabled to make legal decisions for followers and clerics below him in rank. Instead, Khamenei was during his 36 years and six months in power forced to rely on his close ties with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Now, in spite of the fact that the Iranian revolution’s father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had declared that “hereditary succession is sinister, evil, and invalid,” Khamenei’s son has been elected as Supreme Leader. So far Mojtaba Khamenei has acted in the shadow of his father and few Iranians have heard him speak. He has not made any public appearances, never given a sermon, or made any declarations; just working in close relation with the leaders of IRGC.
Whereas the Iranian Army acts as protector of the nation’s sovereignty, the IRGC “safeguards” the Islamic Republic. With more than 125,000 members it serves as Iran’s coast guard, operates a media outlet called Sepah News, and controls the nuclear program. From its origins as an ideological militia, the IRGC now controls nearly every aspect of Iranian politics, economy (including energy and food industries), as well as the nation’s social life. It counts upon a paramilitary volunteer militia with 90,000 active personnel. One of IRGC’s branches is the Qods Force, which specialises in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations.
The presence, terror and fear created by IRGC have made it difficult for any internal opposition to get organised. In Iran there is nothing akin to the African National Congress with leaders like Nelson Mandela. If a leader would arise from the mess created by the U.S. and Israel it would more likely be a man like Alia Ardashir Larijani, a former commander of the IRGC who holds a B.Sc. in computer science and mathematics, as well as a PhD in Western philosophy.
Larijani has served as deputy minister in various cabinets, been head of the Republic’s broadcasting service, and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. Larijani also served as Iran’s top nuclear envoy. However, in late March 2025 he stated that if Iran would be attacked by the United States and Israel, the nation would have no other choice than to develop nuclear weapons. Larijani is accused of having played a key role in the deadly crackdown against opposition protests that gripped the country in January this year. Since the end of December 2025, he is regarded to be the de facto leader of Iran and after originally opposing the election of Mojtaba Khamenei, Larijani has now rallied his supporters behind the newly elected Supreme Leader.
Apart from the fear of an internal collapse of the Islamic Republic of Iran, there are concerns about the economic effects of the current war. Beyond the physical damage, Epic Fury has been quite costly for the Trump Administration that so far has deployed nearly half of the United States’ air power and roughly a third of its naval assets. So far, the Pentagon has not released an official estimate of the cost of the war, but it is currently believed to be USD 2 billion per day. Meanwhile, stocks have plunged all over the world and the price of crude oil spiked from USD 65 per barrel to USD 120 after the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquified gas passes, had been effectively closed.
89 percent of Saudi Arabia’s oil shipments used to pass through the Strait, while Kuwait and Qatar shipped 100 percent, Iraq 97 percent and the United Arab Emirates 66 percent. Qatar has so far been worst hit, particularly since it took the place of Russia for liquified gas exports to Europe. Kuwait has now been forced to suspended its production and export of crude oil and liquefied natural gas (of which it is second to the U.S. as the world’s largest provider).
Winners of this situation are large net energy exporters outside the Gulf whose ability to sell abroad remains unaffected, such as Norway, Russia and Canada, and to a lesser degree Nigeria and Angola. Not the least the U.S. is a winner thanks to its expanding fracking industry. At the other end of the spectrum sit economies where energy imports account for a large share of their GDP. This group includes countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India and China, as well as most European economies including France, Germany and the UK.
It has even been speculated that the war on Iran is a means of USA to hurt China’s economy. In 2025, China bought more than 80 percent of Iran’s shipped oil, around 12 percent of China’s crude oil imports, while approximately 3 percent came from Venezuela (now subjugated by the U.S.).
In 2021, China and Iran signed a 25-year strategic partnership, meaning that China promised to invest USD 400 billion in exchange for keeping Iranian oil flowing. China does not view its “alliances” in the same way the West does, meaning that its government does not sign mutual defence treaties and will not come rushing to its allies’ aid. However, an unpredictable and dysfunctional actor as the U.S. has become under the Trump administration is a great source of unease for Beijing. Worries worsened by the fact that China’s annual economic growth target has reached its lowest level since 1991. Even as Beijing continues its rapid development of high-tech and renewables industries the country is currently battling with low consumption levels, a prolonged property crisis, and a huge local debt.
A big economy like China’s, as well as other wealthy nations, might find means to mitigate rising oil prices, but it’s much worse for smaller, poorer nations. Disruptions to energy supply as a result of a prolonged conflict will have far greater ramifications economically in the Global South than in the West. As an example, a country like Bangladesh, which is particularly dependent on Middle Eastern oil, not least for its garment industry, has already imposed daily limits on fuel sales after panic buying and stockpiling raised concerns about supply. Furthermore, approximately 13 million Bangladeshi expatriates are currently supporting the country’s economic stability through their remittances, of them 8 million live and work within the Middle East.
The same is true of Pakistan, with over 11 million Pakistanis living and working abroad, mainly in the Gulf states. In January 2025 alone, the country received USD 3 billion in remittances, reflecting a 25 percent year-on-year surge. Furthermore, Pakistan shares a 900-kilometre border with Iran and a collapse of Iran into civil war is a constant worry for Pakistan, which also maintains a military relationship with Saudi Arabia with an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 Pakistani troops stationed in the kingdom. If the situation worsens, as Saudi infrastructure is hit any further, it is only a matter of time that Saudi Arabia will ask Pakistan to contribute towards its defence. Pakistan’s border areas with Iran and its huge Shia population (generally well-disposed towards their fellow believers on the other side of the frontier) are already highly volatile and if internal strife within Iran spills over the border, the fallout for Pakistan would be severe. Pakistan is furthermore recently engaged in a war with Afghanistan. On 6 March, Pakistan carried out air strikes in more than twenty locations across Afghanistan, while the Taliban targeted dozens of Pakistani border posts.
Other neighbouring nations to Iran are equally nervous. In Turkmenistan prices have almost doubled compared with pre-war levels. With an average salary of around USD 714 a large portion of the population is hard hit, since Turkmenistan is importing a considerable amount of industrial goods from Iran – like steel, construction materials, and petrochemicals, as well as food and household items that constitute a critical lifeline for many of its residents.
Turkey is also alarmed by the present situation and worries what will happen if Iran collapses into warring factions. If the U.S./Israel confrontation with Iran deepens, particularly in ways that involve regime change with a spillover effect on Turkey, or security implications as a result of expanded U.S./Israeli cooperation with hostile Kurdish militants, this war could quickly evolve into another fault line in U.S.-Turkish relations.
To sum up – the U.S./Israel attack on Iran is very unlikely to result in a regime change, but might instead result in a chaotic and bloody collapse of the entire country. The war is a high-risk game that might have dangerous effects not only on Iran and its immediate neighbours, but the entire world as well.
IPS UN Bureau
ST. PAUL, Minnesota, USA, Mar 12 2026 (IPS) - As birthrates continue to decline in many industrialized countries, anxious governments are running out of schemes to keep women procreating.
In the US, millionaires and billionaires are lining up to donate to Trump’s “baby bonus” savings accounts. Trump accounts give parents $1,000 for all babies born between now and 2028, plus whatever private donors add.
Late last year tech billionaires Michael and Susan Dell donated $6.25 billion to them. The accounts are part of Trump’s far-Right pronatalist agenda, and also part of the broader trend of governments using heavy-handed pronatalist policies, ranging from bribes to outright coercion, to convince women to have more babies and shore up the supply of future workers, taxpayers, and soldiers.
These interventions are notoriously ineffective. A recent Heritage Foundation report recommended using economic incentives to convince American women to have more babies, “with preferences for larger-than-average [families],” while shaming those who choose to have fewer or no children.
A family in South Korea, which has the lowest Total Fertility Rate in the world (0.8).
But it also admitted, “Other nations have tried to reverse declining birthrates through financially generous family policies, none has succeeded. Government spending alone does not ensure demographic success.”
Nor can such policies achieve what Heritage calls “success.” Trying to raise birthrates by incentivizing women to have babies not only undermines hard-won reproductive rights, it’s a waste of money.
Such spending is not a priority for U.S. taxpayers, as most Americans do not see falling birth rates as a crisis. Instead, they overwhelmingly want the government to address untenably high child care costs. But a one-time Trump account infusion makes no dent in high costs of raising children and other barriers to motherhood.
Just as recent cuts to SNAP and Medicaid disproportionately affect marginalized women and children, Trump accounts benefit least those who need help most. By the Administration’s own calculations, the accounts will benefit wealthy parents disproportionately.
This shouldn’t be surprising. Trump accounts and other pronatalist policies aren’t really about empowerment or saving families or supporting children. They are a bid to make more white Americans, part of a larger nativist program which includes cracking down on immigration from African and Muslim countries, detaining and deporting non-white people in huge numbers, and even abandoning former U.S. efforts to fight child exploitation and trafficking.
These policies overtly stoke panic about falling birthrates, and tacitly uphold the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy theory.
That makes support for pronatalism from some progressives especially disturbing. Even if their intent is not nativist, advocating policies that push women to have more children is anti-feminist and fundamentally at odds with reproductive agency.
And even when such policies intend to serve feminist goals–for example Finland’s generous parental leave and child and health care—they fail to raise birthrates. That’s because the biggest factor in childbearing decisions isn’t affordability; it’s empowerment.
Nobel prizewinning economic historian Claudia Goldin has shown high birthrates are no longer tied to economic prosperity, as women increasingly choose education and careers over traditional family roles. In fact, she found an inverse relationship between per capita income and fertility. “Wherever you get increased agency,” she said, “you get reduction in the birth rate.”
Another study across 136 countries confirms this: whenever women achieve reproductive agency, birthrates decline, whether the economy is growing or shrinking.
But hundreds of millions of women and girls are denied this agency. Over 640 million alive today were child brides (including in the US). Over 220 million have an unmet need for contraception. More than half of pregnancies are unintended—121 million annually. Cuts in USAID and other aid programs make the situation more dire.
Despite birthrates declining in many countries, global population is going up, projected to swell by 2 billion to 10.4 billion by the 2080s, with vast ecological and social consequences. Extreme climate events are expected to kill more than a billion people and displace up to 3 billion this century, most in countries where women and girls are disempowered and fertility rates remain high. Pronatalism will only make ecological and social crises worse.
We need new policy thinking that recognizes this and embraces the many advantages of declining fertility and less growth. As fertility rates fall, female labor participation will increase and gender pay gaps will narrow.
As median age rises, changing demographics could enable policy shifts that improve wages and conditions for workers and extend job opportunity to billions on the sidelines who want work but don’t have it.
There is no lack of good ideas, from economic models that center wellbeing and rethink growth to radical ecological democracy. Exploring them requires getting off the endless growth treadmill that enriches elites at the expense of the rest of us. We must stop treating women like reproductive vessels for making more people to serve the economy, and start reshaping our economies to serve more people and the planet.
Nandita Bajaj is executive director of the NGO Population Balance, senior lecturer at Antioch University, and producer and host of the podcasts OVERSHOOT and Beyond Pronatalism. Her research and advocacy work focuses on addressing the combined impacts of pronatalism and human expansionism on reproductive and ecological justice.
IPS UN Bureau
Mar 11 2026 (IPS) -
CIVICUS discusses the situation in Venezuela following US intervention and the ousting of President Nicolás Maduro with Verónica Zubillaga, a Venezuelan sociologist who specialises in urban violence, state repression and community responses to armed violence.
Verónica Zubillaga
Is the recently announced amnesty a real opening or a strategic manoeuvre?
We are at an unprecedented crossroads. Venezuela and its Chavista regime, under US tutelage and despite two decades of anti-imperialist rhetoric, are reconfiguring themselves in such a way that some opening could result. However, there is still a risk that an authoritarian model will be consolidated, with economic and humanitarian concessions, but without real democratisation.
The release of political prisoners — a constant demand in all negotiations with international support, and a low-cost form of early opening for the interim government that has taken over from Maduro — could function as a stepping stone towards democratisation. The restoration of civil, political and social rights will be a difficult and lengthy struggle in this context of such deprivation, in which our rights have been violated for so long.
In the first half of February, there were partial and gradual releases, but hundreds of people remained in detention. The enactment of the Amnesty Law on 19 February has accelerated the releases.
The announcement was presented as a political concession, not as a recognition of the extensive human rights violations committed by Maduro’s government. There has been no mention yet of initiating processes to seek the truth, hold those responsible accountable, provide reparations or dismantle the repressive apparatus, which are urgent.
We therefore need to react with caution. The release of people deprived of their liberty for political reasons is essential, but it cannot replace a broader agenda of justice, reparation and institutional transformation.
How has civil society worked to keep this issue at the centre of the debate?
The cause of political prisoners is cross-cutting. There are detained people of different ages, social classes and political backgrounds. In a society as polarised as ours, this is one of the few causes around which there is broad consensus.
After the results of the presidential election of 28 July 2024, which the opposition clearly won, were disregarded, it was mainly people from the working classes who took to the streets to protest. Many young people, including teenagers, were arrested and imprisoned. This situation significantly deepened the social dimension of the problem, highlighted the break between the ruling party and its traditional base and consolidated the brutally authoritarian nature and illegitimacy of Maduro’s government.
There is also an important gender dimension. While many young men are in prison, it is women – mothers, sisters and other relatives – who have organised committees, vigils and public actions demanding their release. Symbolically, the figure of the grieving mother demanding the release of her children is particularly powerful. It is a symbol that appeals to the Latin American imagination about women and their cries for democratisation, justice and reparation in the context of crumbling authoritarian regimes.
Recently, the demand for the release of political prisoners has also been raised by the student movement in its call for a rally at the Central University of Venezuela. After a year and a half of brutal repression following the 2024 election, which emptied the streets and created a climate of widespread fear, any public demonstration is a significant sign that could trigger a chain of progressive demands and the vindication of civil, political and social rights.
What has been the impact of the USA’s renewed interest in Venezuelan oil?
It is clear that the Trump administration is fixated on oil and investment opportunities and completely disregards democracy and human rights. The part of the opposition represented by María Corina Machado has been stunned by its exclusion from key decision-making despite its efforts to gain Donald Trump’s attention. This exclusion has altered the internal political balance.
Historically, there has been tension within the Venezuelan opposition between those who favour resorting to external pressure and those who prioritise internal negotiation strategies. Since 2014, two main strategies have coexisted: one that is more confrontational, demanding the immediate end of the government, and another favouring negotiation or elections. Civil society mirrors these same divisions. One of the difficulties of the Venezuelan process is this constant fragmentation and internal disagreements within the opposition. As the government has become more authoritarian, these divisions have prevented more powerful coordinated political action. It is important for the opposition to coordinate strategies and, instead of wearing itself down in these disagreements, coordinate efforts to move strategically between confrontation and negotiation.
Whenever the opposition has managed to coordinate, as in the 2015 legislative and 2024 presidential elections, it made significant gains. During the 2024 campaign led by Machado, the opposition achieved an unprecedented level of coordination, generating enormous collective hope, particularly with regard to the prospect of family reunification in a country with over eight million migrants. This situation affects people of all social classes and political ideologies. But in response, the government redoubled its repression and consolidated the dictatorship. This led to frustration, demobilisation and further fragmentation. The opposition lacked a long-term strategy to sustain its gains and withstand setbacks. This is still one of the biggest challenges today.
What should the international community do to contribute to real democratisation?
The international community, and Latin American states in particular, could have taken a firmer stance after the 2024 electoral fraud. Silence and a lukewarm approach weakened the defence of democracy. Now it should not repeat that mistake. Beyond Maduro’s profound delegitimisation, the US military operation in Venezuela is a sign of what could happen to any Latin American country under the US government’s new national security strategy.
With the USA as an imperial power primarily concerned with its geostrategic interests and oil resources, demands for democratisation may take a back seat. An authoritarian model that is economically stable but without real democratisation could become entrenched.
In this context, the USA’s prioritisation of energy interests is worrying. It is an unprecedented scenario in which external intervention and the permanence of the ruling party in power coexist. The situation is highly volatile, and this has only just begun. A period of instability and political violence could follow if the civil-military coalition in power breaks down, which may happen given the tradition of anti-imperialist discourse rooted in the armed forces during the two and a half decades of Chavista rule.
Ironically, the USA’s focus on energy interests could result in the defence of sovereignty becoming a new unifying cause for the Venezuelan opposition, potentially leading to basic agreements between the ruling party post-Maduro and the opposition to defend Venezuelan oil interests. What’s at stake is recovering politics as an exercise involving conflict and struggle, as well as recognition and exchange for democratic coexistence — something we have lost, particularly over the past decade.
CIVICUS interviews a wide range of civil society activists, experts and leaders to gather diverse perspectives on civil society action and current issues for publication on its CIVICUS Lens platform. The views expressed in interviews are the interviewees’ and do not necessarily reflect those of CIVICUS. Publication does not imply endorsement of interviewees or the organisations they represent
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DODOMA, Tanzania , Mar 11 2026 (IPS) - A cloud of steam rises from a giant aluminium pot as Maria Joseph, a middle-aged cook in a toque blanche and faded apron, plants her feet firmly on the tiled kitchen floor. With both hands clasped around a wooden paddle, she plunges deep into the mound of rice, threatening to burn at the bottom.
With a steady lift of her wrists, she draws the grains upward in methodical turns, bringing the lower layer to the top. The rice rolls in soft waves but never spills over the rim. Beads of sweat gather on her forehead as steam curls around her face. She does not flinch. She circles the paddle along the pot’s edge, scraping carefully, with the precision of a scalpel.
Not long ago, this same kitchen at Bunge Girls Secondary School in Tanzania’s capital, Dodoma, would have been engulfed in smoke. The air would sting her eyes and claw her throat. By lunchtime, her voice would rasp from hours over crackling firewood.
“The smoke was too much,” she says
“And it took a long time to prepare food,” she recalls.
Her relief tells a larger story, stretching beyond the kitchen walls.
Students’ Advocacy
As part of its broader push to promote clean cooking energy, Bunge Girls Secondary School has launched a student-led Energy and Clean Cooking Club, placing teenage girls at the centre of a national transition away from polluting fuels. The initiative links lived experience with policy reform, aligning closely with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
By promoting affordable and cleaner fuels, the club advances SDG 7 on Affordable and Clean Energy. By addressing indoor air pollution that kills thousands of Tanzanians each year, it supports SDG 3 on Good Health and Well-Being. By easing the disproportionate burden of firewood collection and smoke exposure on women and girls, it reinforces SDG 5 on Gender Equality.
The integration of energy literacy into school life strengthens SDG 4 on Quality Education, while reducing reliance on charcoal contributes to SDG 13 on Climate Action and SDG 15 on Life on Land by curbing deforestation. Through collaboration between government, schools and private actors, the initiative reflects SDG 17 on Partnerships for the Goals.
What makes the club distinctive is that it moves the clean cooking debate from ministerial boardrooms into teenage hands.
Students of Bunge Girls Secondary School in Dodoma pose for a group photo during the launch of their Clean Cooking Energy Club, an initiative placing Tanzanian schoolgirls at the forefront of Africa’s transition away from polluting fuels. The student-led club links classroom learning to the global push for clean energy access, as governments and development partners intensify efforts to reduce household air pollution affecting 2.3 billion people worldwide. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS
A Costly Dependence on Biomass
Headmaster Richard Msana remembers the strain of the old system.
“When we were using firewood, we spent 10.5 million Tanzanian shillings (about US$4,000) in just three months. It was a heavy burden for the school,” he says.
Desperate for relief, the school switched to improved charcoal. Smoke reduced slightly, but costs remained high.
“With improved charcoal, we were spending about 2,753,334 Tanzanian shillings (around US$1,000) every month,” Msana says. “It was still expensive.”
The turning point came under the government’s clean cooking initiative. Through a public–private partnership supported by the Ministry of Energy, the school secured a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) system. One tonne of gas now lasts two months.
“Using gas, we have reduced our monthly costs from 2,753,334 to 1,355,300 shillings (about US$500),” Msana says. “It has saved us a lot of money. And this energy is friendly to users, especially our cooks.”
Inside the renovated kitchen, soot-stained walls have been cleaned. Pots boil over controlled blue flames instead of crackling embers.
Back at the stove, Maria lifts the lid and releases another rush of steam.
“I enjoy cooking using these modern stoves,” she says. “They don’t emit smoke. My eyes no longer itch.”
A National Target
During the club’s launch ceremony, Deputy Minister for Energy Salome Makamba laid out the government’s ambition.
“Our goal is that by 2030, every household and every institution will be using clean cooking energy,” she said. “The use of clean cooking energy has increased from 6.9 percent in 2021. Today, in 2025, we have reached 23.2 percent.”
The initiative comes at a right time. At the 2024 Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa, global leaders pledged a record US$2.2 billion to accelerate the shift from polluting fuels.
Globally, an estimated 2.3 billion people still cook with polluting fuels, according to the International Energy Agency. In sub-Saharan Africa, biomass remains dominant, driving deforestation, indoor air pollution and rising carbon emissions.
In Tanzania, the institutional gap remains stark. Of more than 30,000 large institutions — schools, hospitals and prisons serving over 100 people daily — only 1,136 use clean cooking systems. The rest depend largely on biomass.
From Textbooks to Kitchens
At the school courtyard, members of the Energy and Clean Cooking Club routinely gather. With notebooks and measuring cups, they test boiling times between charcoal and gas. They calculate household charcoal expenses. They sketch diagrams showing how smoke accumulates in poorly ventilated kitchens.
“My parents think gas is too expensive,” says Form Five student Rehema Mallya. “But when you show them how much they spend on charcoal every week, they start to think differently.”
For 16-year-old Lilian Massawe, the issue is personal.
“If my grandmother had a better cooking stove, she would not be coughing every night,” she says.
Across Tanzania, household air pollution linked to traditional cooking methods kills an estimated 33,000 people annually, according to government figures. Women and children bear the brunt.
Firewood collection exposes women and girls to risks of violence. Babies tied to their mothers’ backs inhale toxic fumes in poorly ventilated kitchens. For many families, charcoal is not a preference but a necessity shaped by poverty and limited infrastructure.
Financing the Shift
Officials say affordability is key. Through microcredit and pay-as-you-go models, households can acquire improved cookstoves or LPG systems without paying the full cost upfront.
The transition is also seen as an economic opportunity, particularly for women as distributors and technicians of clean cooking technologies.
“The transition to clean cooking is not a government project alone,” Makamba said after the club launch. “It requires citizens, schools, religious institutions and community leaders.”
A Generation Steps Forward
Back at the school courtyard, the afternoon bell rings, but the discussion continues.
“Energy is not just electricity,” one student says. “It is about health, forests, climate — and our mothers.”
Club members are collecting data from their households and plan to present their findings to local officials. For many, the mission is deeply personal.
“When I explain to my mother why smoke is dangerous, she listens differently,” says Susanna Kibona, one of the club’s clean cooking champions.
Tanzania’s clean cooking transition is not simply about replacing stoves. It is about reshaping habits, redistributing knowledge and widening participation in decisions that shape daily life.
At Bunge Girls Secondary School, teenage girls are stepping into a debate once reserved for policymakers. They are connecting kitchen smoke to climate commitments and household spending to national reform.
“We are getting prepared to be better leaders of tomorrow,” Mallya says.
Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.
IPS UN Bureau Report