PORTLAND, US, Mar 4 2025 (IPS)* –As the world’s population increased five-fold since the start of the 20th century, the changes in the geographic distribution of the billions of people across the planet have been ongoing and significant.
In contrast to the rapid growth of the high fertility countries like the DRC and Nigeria, some of the largest populations in 1950, such as Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, have grown relatively slowly during the recent past. Credit: Shutterstock.
Those continuing changes in the distribution of the world’s population have weighty economic, political, social and environmental consequences (Table 1).
(UN News)* — Amid deep cuts to global humanitarian funding, the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund, CERF, on allocated $110 million to neglected crises across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The UN’s top aid official, Tom Fletcher, said that more than 300 million people urgently need assistance.
But funding has been falling annually, and this year’s levels are projected to drop to a record low.
GENEVA, 7 March 2025 – On this year’s International Women’s Day, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, warns that critical funding shortages are leaving displaced women and girls at unprecedented risk.
Reports of conflict-related sexual violence have surged by 50 per cent in recent years. Yet funding shortfalls are forcing humanitarian organizations to cut essential services in crisis-affected regions.
Gender equality is a must for a world of zero hunger; where all women, men, girls and boys can exercise their human rights, including the right to adequate food.
This is why the pursuit of gender equality and women’s empowerment (Sustainable Development Goal 5) is central to fulfilling the World Food Programme (WFP)’s mandate.
(UN News)* — Humanitarian agencies warned on Friday that ongoing Israeli military operations in the northern West Bank are exacerbating an already dire situation for displaced Palestinians.
The UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) reports that Israeli authorities have started demolishing more than 16 buildings in Nur Shams refugee camp,after destroying more than two dozen homes over the past week in the occupied West Bank.