The Human Consciousness Now...Our World in the Midst of Becoming...to What? Observe, contemplate Now.
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
NEW YORK, Mar 11 2026 (IPS) - I have often been asked a simple but important question: How can we make it sustainable if we are not being compensated for it?
That question sits at the heart of a conversation we do not address enough. Somewhere between exposure and exploitation lies a line we still have not learned to draw clearly. And perhaps that is exactly where the real conversation on “inclusion” begins.
The cost of being seen, is probably the heaviest cost youth have to bear in pursuit of carrying the passion and aspirations they strive for when trying to make an impact.
As conversations around the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs continue to grow, one question remains: how far have we really come in shaping perspectives, and not just numbers?
Too often, inclusion is measured by attendance, representation, and diversity metrics. But inclusion is not just about presence. It is about value. It is about whether people are acknowledged, respected, and taken seriously for their contribution. Inclusion does not live in the excel sheets we fill or the rooms we temporarily occupy during events.
It begins where age, gender, ethnicity, and job titles are not weighed before credibility is given. This matters even more for young people.
A single voice, a single appearance, or a single statement is often framed as an opportunity. And sometimes, it is. But when visibility becomes a substitute for fair compensation, authorship, decision-making power, or real support, exposure stops being empowered and starts becoming exploitative.
Exposure on its own is not empowerment. Visibility can open doors, but it cannot replace fair structures. Being seen is meaningful only when it is followed by trust, ownership, opportunity, and value.
Too often, young people are handed advice when what they really need is access. They are mentored, encouraged, and told to keep going, yet rarely sponsored in the spaces that shape outcomes. If we want inclusion to move beyond symbolism, we must build cultures where support does not end at guidance.
It must extend into advocacy. Because for many underrepresented voices, the issue is not a lack of talent or preparation. It is the absence of someone willing to open the right door and say, this person belongs here.
The goal is not to reject exposure. Exposure can be powerful. But it cannot be the only thing being offered. Real inclusion begins when participation is respected, contribution is valued, and visibility leads to something more lasting. Being seen may open the door, but being valued is what makes inclusion real.
Bisma Qamar is Pakistan’s Youth Representative to the UN & USA chapter under the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP). Her work is centered towards learning and development and capability building initiatives, with a strong emphasis on creating inclusive and sustainable opportunities through “Bridging talent with opportunities” by upskilling individuals focusing on SDG 4 ( Education ) and SDG 5 ( Gender Equality )
https://www.un.org/youthaffairs/en/youth2030/about
IPS UN Bureau
BANGKOK, Thailand, Mar 11 2026 (IPS) - On 11 March 2011, the powerful 9.0 magnitude Tōhoku earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan, triggering a 40-meter Tsunami. Many coastal towns along Japan’s Pacific coast were devastated. Approximately 20,000 people lost their lives and around 470,000 were evacuated from their homes.
Beyond the immense human tragedy, the estimated economic losses ranged between US$154 billion to US$235 billion with severely damaged critical infrastructure, including transportation, energy systems, water supply and communications networks. The cascading impacts led to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, which intensified both hardship and environmental challenges.
Despite the devastation, the world witnessed extraordinary resilience
15 years later, we continue to honour those lost and the communities that were forever changed. Families rebuilt their homes, local governments restored services and the country prioritized recovery and disaster prevention. These experiences taught important lessons that have influenced global approaches to disaster risk reduction:
1. Early warning must be paired with community preparedness.Japan’s rapid early warning alerts in 2011 gave people precious seconds and minutes to act. What truly saved lives, however, was the country’s deeply rooted Bōsai Bunka – a culture of preparedness built on regular drills, community networks and shared responsibility. The event also showed that preparedness cannot remain static; systems, training and risk assumptions must continually evolve as science advances and hazards intensify.
2. Recovery should build long-term resilience, not just restore what was lost.
The scale of destruction forced communities and policymakers to rethink land use, coastal defenses, urban planning and future-oriented disaster response and recovery strategies. The idea of “Build Back Better” became a key part of rebuilding after the disaster. Reconstruction became an opportunity to reduce exposure, strengthen protective infrastructure, and re design communities with resilience at their core.
3. Disaster risks cross borders and so must our solutions.
Tsunami waves travel across oceans and supply chains which link economies around the world. Furthermore, climate change does not know boundaries. The Tōhoku disaster underscored that no country can face such risks alone. Now 61 years in operation, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System represents multilateral early warning system in the world (see Figure 1). International cooperation, shared data and coordinated preparedness are essential to reducing global disaster risk.
Source: International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC)
Together, these lessons highlight Japan as a global leader in tsunami preparedness and multi hazard risk management, strengthened by its longstanding commitment to sharing knowledge worldwide.
Scaling Japan’s preparedness culture globally
The lessons of Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami played a significant role in shaping the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, later reinforced in Asia and the Pacific through ESCAP Resolution 71/12 on strengthening regional mechanisms for its implementation.
This framework helped move the world’s focus from reacting to disasters to managing risks before they happen. Since then, the culture of preparedness has grown to focus more on inclusion, better risk communication and solutions led by local communities, with 131 countries now reporting having national disaster risk reduction strategies in place.
Moreover, Sustainable Development Goal 11 calls for making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, and specifically, target 11.5 aims to reduce disaster-related deaths and economic losses. Unfortunately, Asia and the Pacific represent the most disaster impacted region in the world, with rising losses from disasters recorded in the 2026 SDG Progress Report.
However, hope prevails: Japan’s post-2011 approach to reconstruction is an example of SDG 11 in practice: risk-informed urban planning, stricter building codes, ecosystem-based coastal protection, and community-based emergency preparedness. Today, 81 per cent of Pacific Ocean basin countries now have tsunami hazard assessments – the first step to understanding and preparing for the risk. This proves that, even though hazard events are inevitable, we can take measures to ensure they do not become disasters.
Japan’s commitment to transboundary resilience building is also evident through the country’s longstanding membership within the ESCAP multi-donor Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness.
Through this regional funding mechanism, Japan and fellow donors from the region and worldwide translate accumulated experience into practical cooperation – reinforcing systems that enable early hazard detection, faster community notification, and the saving of lives.
Most recently, the Trust Fund has supported a comprehensive tsunami preparedness capacity assessment across the region, helping countries identify gaps in early warning, coordination and last-mile communication to strengthen basin-wide resilience.
In an era of intensifying climate risks and cascading crises, remembrance must be reinforced by collective actions.
Temily Baker is Programme Management Officer, Disaster Risk Reduction Section, ESCAP and Sofia Bilmes is Intern, Disaster Risk Reduction Section, ESCAP
IPS UN Bureau
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 11 2026 (IPS) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Munich speech last month seemed to seduce the European elite behind President Trump, against the ‘Rest’, especially the resource-rich Global South.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Recognising the deliberate ‘wrecking-ball’ demolition of the post-1945 world order, February’s 62nd Munich Security Conference theme was ‘Under Destruction’.
Billed as the world’s leading forum for international security, the conference programme made clear whose interests and security were prioritised.
In its first year, Trump 2.0 bombed ten nations, besides threatening aggression against four other Latin American nations, but none were represented at Munich!
The Munich conference shed all pretence of objectivity and diplomacy on Iran, applauding Israeli-led military intervention to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz emphasised the world’s return to great power competition after the post-Cold War ‘unipolar moment’, making his loyalty clear.
At Davos in January, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney noted that Trump 2.0’s geopolitical “rupture” had forced many to abandon earlier illusions.
Dangerous new trends have been emerging, hardly any ‘order’. Trump insists US supremacy must be even more dominant, isolating rather than confronting rivals.
K Kuhaneetha Bai
Trump’s predecessors’ ‘rules-based order’ had offered a legal and diplomatic fig leaf to subordinate other states to US supremacy.
Now, Washington repudiates the very framework it demanded others accept, instead of the ostensibly universal but sometimes inconvenient ‘rule of law’.
Instead of diplomatic and commercial negotiations, economic and military threats prevail. Without velvet gloves of soft power, the mailed fists of military force and economic weaponry are exposed.
Reuniting the West
Rubio welcomed this “new era in geopolitics”, urging better transatlantic relations while reiterating Trump 2.0’s demands for Europe to pay more, albeit more gently.
After the end of the Cold War, Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations urged defending the ‘Judaeo-Christian’ West against the ‘Rest’, including Catholic Latin America.
In Munich, Cuban-American Rubio reinvented himself as a White Christian European, warning his European audience that the West is under threat.
For Rubio, “the West had been expanding” to “settle new continents, build vast empires extending out across the globe” over the last five centuries.
His history obscured Western imperialism’s dispossession, exploitation and slaughter of indigenous peoples worldwide, especially in the Global South.
Praising the superiority of European civilisation and values, he lamented setbacks to these “great Western empires” due to “godless communist” and “anti-colonial” uprisings after the Second World War.
Rather than progress inspired by the 1776 US Declaration and War of Independence, for Rubio, national self-determination was a civilisational setback.
“We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline”. For Rubio, no more ‘liberal’ human rights, freedom and democracy rhetoric.
He did not hesitate to invoke racist, white supremacist mythology and crusader ideology to demand stronger militaries to defend Western civilisation.
The renewed Western alliance will share their common civilisational identity, bound by “Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry”.
Ethno-chauvinistic beliefs about race, religion and culture are the new bases for solidarity and authority. ‘Defending Christians’ became the pretext for the US 2025 Christmas Day bombing of Nigeria.
Another Western century?
Rubio appealed for pan-European Western unity against multilateralism and other threats, calling for increased military spending and immigration controls.
He urged Europe to “take back control” of ‘Western’ industries and supply chains. After all, NATO allies have joined the US in seizing foreign assets at will.
Vassal-like and desperate for reassurance after a year of Trump’s blatant contempt and threats, the audience welcomed his speech with a standing ovation.
Fearing Washington might negotiate with Moscow over Ukraine without them, European leaders have intensified demands for all-out war against Russia.
Rubio is working to secure critical minerals supplies against “extortion from other powers”, including Europe, through opaque bilateral agreements secured with threats.
Trump 2.0 is making military threats for profit, including post-war ownership, mining and other rights. For many, NATO’s US-Europe divide is not over peace, but rather sharing Ukraine war costs and spoils.
While funding for European welfare states and other ‘social’ purposes continues to fall, military budgets continue to spike, as demanded by Trump.
Meanwhile, Merz has invoked military Keynesianism to justify Germany’s largest-ever military budget since the Cold War, aimed at strengthening NATO.
Ostensibly to strengthen national security, the Trump administration has cut social programmes. Instead, US military spending is being prioritised.
Meanwhile, the US Congress has shown support by approving a larger War Department budget than the Pentagon requested.
Armaments contracts have mainly benefited established companies, while the ‘tech bros’ increasingly supply newer weapons and related systems using artificial intelligence.
Following Trump, the European elites are strengthening their already powerful militaries and securing commercial deals for their own advantage, rather than defending the peaceful multilateral cooperation they once advocated.
IPS UN Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 2026 (IPS) - We have heard it all:
• When a woman raises her voice, she’s too emotional.
• When she stands her ground, she’s too difficult. • When she leads, she’s too ambitious.
• If she wears dark suits they whisper ‘why does she always look like a man’
• But oh my gosh! if she shows up in a colorful dresses and high heels….
• When women lead nations through crises they are lucky.
• Yet if they stumble, it becomes the biggest crisis on earth.
Yes, we have heard it all.
As have generations of women before us – even more directly, and with this tone:
“You act like a woman”. “You run like a girl”.
As if it is something to be ashamed of. Yet history has proved otherwise.
The facts are crystal clear.
We don’t have to negotiate them again.
• When girls remain in school, economies grow, all over the world.
• When women participate in the workforce, productivity rises all around the world.
• When women sit at peace tables, agreements last longer, all around the world.
• When women lead institutions, they are more resilient.
So, ladies, it’s time to flip the narrative. Today we are reclaiming #Likeawoman, boldly and proudly.
As sports star Serena Williams once said: you call us crazy, we’ll show you what crazy can do.
Especially in the midst of backlash, when it can feel as though, we are forced to fight the same old battles again and again.
Battles from 80 years ago when another so called “difficult woman” Dr. Hansa Metha from India showed what #ChangeLikeA Woman can achieve.
By insisting to change one word in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, she changed the whole meaning of it – affirming that “all human beings” and not only men are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Especially, dear girls out there.
Next time they tell you again that gender sensitive language or standing up for our reproductive rights is something “woke” Resist like women.
Resist #Like Hansa Metha and remind them that women`s rights are nothing new but have been embedded in the DNA of this institution from the very beginning.
And marking International Women’s Day in 2026 #LikeAWoman means that we will not stop fighting for equal representation and women’s rights – indeed #LikeAwoman: empathetic and ambitious – in suits, and in colorful dresses.
Until the women of Afghanistan are free, and girls worldwide are not being forced anymore to marry before they finish school.
Until we see justice for survivors of sexual abuse, whether it occurs at home or as part of exploitative sexual slavery networks, as exposed in the Epstein files.
Until women are equally paid and represented, whether in newsrooms, in boardrooms, in governments, and yes, at the helm of this institution – our United Nations.
IPS UN Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 2026 (IPS) - The ongoing military conflict between Ukraine and Russia—which began February 2022, with no visible signs of ending—has triggered major arms transfers to Europe.
According to the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the volume of major arms transferred between states increased by 9.2 per cent between 2016–20 and 2021–25.
And states in Europe more than trebled their arms imports, making it the biggest recipient in the region.
Total exports by the United States, the world’s largest arms supplier, increased by 27 per cent. This included a 217 per cent increase in US arms exports to Europe, according to new data published by SIPRI, available at www.sipri.org.
The increase in global arms flows was the biggest since 2011–15—and was “overwhelmingly due to the growth in transfers to Ukraine” (which received 9.7 per cent of all arms transfers in 2021–25) and other European states.
Besides Europe and the Americas, arms imports to all other world regions decreased.
Dr M.V. Ramana, Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security, and Director pro tem, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, told IPS the continued increase in the arms trade, with some European countries and the United States engaging in the vast majority of such trade, is deeply concerning.
It should be seen in the backdrop of growing military expenditure around the world (reaching an estimated $2.7 trillion in 2024), an intensified round of great power competition, as well as the collapse of arms control, and new technologies like AI-based targeting systems and drones being used in warfare, he said.
“These weapons and other technologies are not merely sold and stored by recipient militaries, but used in attacks on civilian populations—the last few years have seen major attacks in innocent people in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Ukraine, and Iran”.
Although some of these imports are being rationalized as responses to various perceived threats, he pointed out, these actions in turn will increase threat perceptions in other countries, leading to a feedback loop resulting in more and more arms being sold and used.
“Much of this money flows to companies that profit from making weapons and facilitating death. Just in the United States, during roughly the same period covered in SIPRI’s report, from 2020 to 2024, private firms received $2.4 trillion in contracts from the Pentagon, approximately 54% of the department’s discretionary spending of $4.4 trillion over that period,” said Dr Ramana.
The United States supplied 42 per cent of all international arms transfers in 2021–25, up from 36 per cent in 2016–20, according to the SIPRI report, released March 9.
The US exported arms to 99 countries in 2021–25, including 35 in Europe, 18 in the Americas, 17 in Africa, 17 in Asia and Oceania and 12 in the Middle East.
For the first time in two decades, the largest share of US arms exports went to Europe (38 per cent) rather than the Middle East (33 per cent). Nevertheless, the top single recipient of US arms was Saudi Arabia (12 per cent of US arms exports).
‘The US has further cemented its dominance as an arms supplier, even in an increasingly multipolar world,’ said Pieter Wezeman, Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme.
‘For importers, US arms offer advanced capabilities and a way of fostering good relations with the USA, while the USA views arms exports as a tool of foreign policy and a way of strengthening its arms industry, as the Trump administration’s new America First Arms Transfer Strategy once again makes clear.’
Dr. Natalie Goldring, who represents the Acronym Institute at the United Nations on conventional weapons and arms trade issues, told IPS the SIPRI report is in effect a snapshot of a continually changing world situation.
SIPRI, she said, uses five-year periods to help reduce volatility, but even so, intense geopolitical swings can be difficult to capture. This period reflects the Ukraine arms buildup after the Russian invasion in 2022 as well as Israel’s nearly-complete destruction of Gaza following the Hamas attack in 2023.
“Since the most recent US and Israeli attacks on Iran are taking place in 2026, they’re not covered in the SIPRI report. Those attacks may result in even more arms transfers from the US to Israel, in addition to substantial domestic resupply in both countries”.
The dependence of Israel’s military on US arms transfers, she said, is neither secret nor new. But SIPRI’s statistics make the point quite strongly.
From 2021-2025, the United States was responsible for 68 percent of the value of major weapons transferred to Israel. Germany supplied an additional 31 percent.
That could give those two countries tremendous influence over Israel and its ability to continue carrying out attacks in Gaza and elsewhere – if they chose to exercise it.
“Unfortunately, thus far, the US and German governments have shown little interest in restraining their weapons transfers, despite the enormous numbers of Palestinians who have been wounded or killed by the Israeli military, and the economic devastation the Israeli military continues to cause in Gaza and elsewhere,” said Dr Goldring.
The US share of the world’s arms market is likely to increase going forward if US President Donald Trump’s recent plans are implemented. In February 2026, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Establishing an America First Arms Transfer Strategy.”
The stated intent of this policy is to increase US arms sales – there’s no attempt at subtlety. Instead, the policy calls for development of “a sales catalog of prioritized platforms and systems that the United States shall encourage our allies and partners to acquire.”
As is so often the case, the US policy fails to demonstrate understanding of the complexities and potential negative consequences of arms transfers.
Instead, it’s focused on short-term economic factors and benefits for military contractors. The policy also assumes that this year’s weapons recipients will retain stable governments for the lifetime of these weapons systems.
This approach increases the risk of US military personnel being forced to fight our own weapons if the recipient governments turn out not to be stable, declared Dr Goldring.
Middle East arms imports fall
Meanwhile, according to SIPRI, arms imports by states in the Middle East shrank by 13 per cent between 2016–20 and 2021–25. Three of the world’s top 10 arms importers in 2021–25 were in the region: Saudi Arabia (6.8 per cent of global imports), Qatar (6.4 per cent) and Kuwait (2.8 per cent).
More than half of arms imports to the Middle East came from the USA (54 per cent), while 12 per cent came from Italy, 11 per cent from France and 7.3 per cent from Germany.
‘Gulf Arab states shape arms import trends in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia having been the region’s largest importer since 2011–15 and Qatar now its second largest after more than doubling its imports between 2016–20 and 2021–25,’ said Zain Hussain, Researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme.
‘With a number of regional tensions and conflicts, Gulf Arab states are working to strengthen relations with long-standing suppliers like the USA and France while also seeking new suppliers.’
Israel was the world’s 14th largest arms importer in 2021–25, with its imports rising by 12 per cent between 2016–20 and 2021–25.
In 2021–25 the USA supplied the largest share of Israel’s arms imports (68 per cent), followed by Germany (31 per cent).
Throughout the multi-front war stemming from Israel’s large-scale military offensive in Gaza beginning in October 2023, Israel continued to receive arms from various suppliers, including F-35 combat aircraft, guided bombs and missiles from the USA.
https://www.sipri.org/publications/2026/sipri-fact-sheets/trends-international-arms-transfers-2025
IPS UN Bureau Report
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 9 2026 (IPS) - On International Women’s Day (March 8), global leaders and advocates gather around the rallying cry to strengthen justice systems for all women and girls in a time of increasing pushbacks on gender equality.
The United Nations held its annual observance of International Women’s Day on March 9, commemorating the day and the beginning of the 70th session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW), which will be held from 9-19 March. This year’s theme is on “Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls”. Stakeholders will participate in meetings and side events throughout the next two weeks to deliberate over the issue of justice for women and girls across multiple, complex contexts.
Speakers at the commemorative event, held in the General Assembly Hall, all called for increased investments into strengthening justice systems and to ensure accountability. No country has achieved true gender parity, and in recent years has seen the backsliding of rights for women and girls.
Justice is the “non-negotiable foundation of rights”, said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous. As women’s rights are confronted with an “ever virulent and adaptative” pushback that continues to threaten their place in society. “In its face, we do not back down, we redouble our efforts, we rise higher.”
“Today’s conversation is about closing the gap between the rights women are promised and the justice they actually experience, said Sade Baderinwa, WABC-TV News Anchor. “For the first time in a long time, many young women are questioning whether the progress they were promised is real… Women around the world are asking the same question: “Are we still moving forward?” And the answers will be shaped by the choices we make right now. Progress does not move on its own. It moves because people insist that it must.”
Women’s contributions have demonstrably proven to advance economies and peaceful agendas. Annalena Baerbock, President of the UN General Assembly, reminded the room that within the context of the United Nations, women’s rights are “embedded in this institution from the very beginning”, as seen with the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which included key contributions from delegates from India, Pakistan and the Dominican Republic.
When it comes to legal protections, women have only 64 percent of legal rights compared to men. According to UN Women, this leaves them vulnerable to discrimination, violence and exclusion. The rights of women and girls are not enforced equally across the world. Systemic inequalities further complicate this for women and girls and prevent them from seeking justice, such as lack of access to those systems, societal discrimination or fear of retaliation.
“Despite widespread recognition of women’s rights,[…] access to justice remains deeply unequal. Around the world, women and girls still hold only a fraction of the legal rights afforded to men. Discriminatory laws and practices continue to fail the very women they are meant to serve,” said Earle Courtenay Rattray, the Chéf de Cabinete to the UN Secretary-General.
“It’s hard to bear the knowledge that the distance between the promise of equality and the experience of it are yet still so far apart for so many,” said Anne Hathaway. The award-winning actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador remarked on the continued efforts of the generations of activists and survivors to advocate for equality in the face of injustice.
“Are we not all tormented that societal progress for all women has, in large part, been in response to extreme gender violence? Are we not tormented by what women like Gisèle Pelicot, Virginia Giuffre and Malala Yousafzai, to name three amongst half the world, have had to endure? These women and girls had the bravery to demand justice when horrific violence was forced on them, and in doing so, by honoring their own right to dignity, changed the world? Are we not tormented by this cost of change?”
Nobel Laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai addresses the addresses the United Nations Observance of International Women’s Day 2026. Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS
In the face of such systemic injustices, the work and resilience of women and girls must be encouraged and celebrated, Hathaway said.
“Our choosing to celebrate today does not signal that we are here to accommodate injustice. Our celebration today affirms our determination to outlast it.”
Justice has been further complicated in the present age where modern technology can be used to improve access but is also weaponized to enact harm and discrimination. In times of conflict, where women and children are often made most vulnerable, their rights are threatened even when international law call for their protection. There is increasing impunity within systems of inequality that permit the violations of rights.
“Never have I seen so many children suffering from war and violence. Injured and dying at the hands of unaccountable leaders,” said Malala Yousafzai, education activist and Nobel Laureate. She referenced recent events in the Middle East where missile strikes hit schools in Iran, killing more than 150 children.
Afghan musician and singer Sunbul Reha (at podium) addresses the United Nations Observance of International Women’s Day 2026. Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS
“True justice does not defend the humanity of children in one place then ignored in another. It is not selectively applied…We must ask ourselves why justice is a privilege extending to some and withheld from others.”
Afghanistan is an example of the consequences of rolling back hard-fought rights and legal protections. Since the Taliban took control in 2021, women and girls there have seen a steady rollback of their rights and have been forced out of participating in public life. Yousafzai demanded leaders to “move from sympathy to accountability” in addressing this ongoing crisis. Afghan women and girls are asking for their recognition in law so that the “long work of justice can begin”, she said.
“I know what it means when a girl’s work is silenced. I have lived it,” said Sunbul Reha, an Afghan singer and musician. “Rights that took generations to win are evaporating before our eyes. And still, I remain hopeful. Because girls like me are still learning… Women continue to speak up for their rights, and young people everywhere refuse to give up the fight.”
Reha urged the delegates in the room to fight to “block the erosion” of women’s and girls’ rights. “There are millions of girls standing in spirit with me. They are counting on all of us, and they are counting on you.”
IPS UN Bureau Report