Bolivia’s urban contraband markets are a reflection of the country’s economic, social and historical reality. Operating on the margins of legality, they provide a vital lifeline for many families and reveal a complex relationship between necessity, informality and economic [...]Read the full article
Europe is ageing. Fewer and fewer Europeans are being born, and while younger generations increasingly concentrate in large cities, much of the remaining territory is falling behind in development. Long an existential problem in Eastern Europe, these trends are increasingly fuelling inequality [...]Read the full article
Twenty years ago, cotton growing employed almost 20 per cent of the Syrian population. Ravaged by the war, the sector is now being relaunched, particularly in the Idlib region, under the control of an autonomous government led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. But the latest harvest [...]Read the full article
José González was one of the countless migrants who risk crossing into the United States in search of a better life. But after years spent pursuing an American dream that is inaccessible to most, he returned home to the Sierra de Durango in north-west Mexico where he found the good life working [...]Read the full article
“In the media, migrants are usually treated as number or statistics. Cinema, on the other hand, allows their personal stories to be told. It gives a voice to individuals.”Read the full article
“All our field observations show that people’s livelihoods are profoundly affected for many years after they are evicted. So why continue along this path?”Read the full article
Jesús A. Núñez Villaverde:“There is no indication that, in the fight for the spoils, either of the two warring generals is willing to budge, at least until they see what their loyal troops can do with their weapons. Adding to the gloomy outlook, the mediators in the peace negotiations have decided to suspend the talks [...]Read the full article
Eastern DR Congo is once again faced with a major influx of people displaced by the war. With authorities failing to respond adequately, the local population has taken matters into their own hands, providing concrete solutions and reinventing political [...]Read the full article
“Both countries have one thing in common: the absence of social protection policies. This exacerbates social exclusion and poverty of the populations in both Lebanon and Afghanistan.”Read the full article
“The risk of depopulation is real. Although they feel a deep attachment to their douars, those who have the opportunity will not wait for the lengthy reconstruction process. Migration will primarily affect the younger generation, who will likely move to already overcrowded [...]Read the full article
Luc Triangle:“Most poor people in the world work. The systematic attacks on unions significantly reduces the ability of working people to secure and defend decent wages. Wages are not a neat calculation based on supply and demand and the price of labour; they are born from a bargaining [...]Read the full article
Despite medical breakthroughs, the stigma attached to HIV remains firmly entrenched in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the impact on those affected is devastating. Structural and economic inequalities are also hindering access to effective [...]Read the full article
Indigenous peoples are often among the workers most discriminated against and in the most precarious jobs, but they have an ally in the trade union movement to help defend their rights and improve their social and working conditions. Māori, Sami and Mapuche trade union leaders talk to Equal [...]Read the full article
Against a backdrop of globalisation and fierce competition between economies, with automation, digitalisation and artificial intelligence for the masses moving ahead at full speed, which approach to education (without falling into dichotomies) is best suited to respond to these [...]Read the full article
“The first five years of a child’s life is so important, because that’s when 80 per cent of the brain develops. The environment where they grew up, the type of human interaction and stimulations they have…can grow strong foundations for their wellbeing and future [...]Read the full article
“In addition to being a health crisis, the pandemic has resulted in a global restructuring of our living and working conditions,” says Chilean psychologist Alondra Carrillo, former spokesperson for the Coordinadora Feminista 8M and member of the Constitutional Convention of [...]Read the full article
Jesús A. Núñez Villaverde:Global military spending has continued to rise for the eighth year in a row. Seen from a traditional state security perspective – which generally assumes that more weapons means more security – this could be interpreted as good news. But is [...]Read the full article
Despite the sheer scale of the informal economy hindering the financing of social protection, pragmatic solutions are being sought to ensure some kind of health cover for workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Read the full article
Estimates put Ghana’s housing deficit at about 1.8 million units. This translates to about six million people out of a population of approximately 33 million in need of housing. However, these figures do not account for the quality of available [...]Read the full article
Between 2,500 and 3,000 workers have come together to file a case in Scotland against James Finlay Kenya, accusing the company of creating the terrible working conditions that have caused them life-limiting musculoskeletal injuries.Read the full article
The armed conflict has created new employment opportunities for all Syrians, both men and women. Many believe that the war has led to the ‘democratisation’ of the civilian sector since 2011 and, significantly, to the qualitative participation of women in areas with social [...]Read the full article
The disintegration of Lebanon’s police force is undermining law and order in a country ravaged by crisis after crisis. Many of the non-governmental initiatives emerging to restore a sense of security on the streets are reminiscent of some of the dark chapters of the Lebanese civil [...]Read the full article
Some 30,000 women are currently in prison in Egypt for failing to pay off small loans. NGOs are fighting for a relaxation of the law on debt.Read the full article
Why are evangelical churches in Latin America increasingly influencing the region’s political, social and economic agenda? Argentine sociologist Ariel Goldstein provides some insight into the phenomenon.Read the full article
Frédéric Thomas:The CTH (Haitian Workers’ Confederation) and the CTSP (Public and Private Sector Workers’ Confederation) reassert their firm anchorage in the Haitian social movement and their commitment to promoting a ‘transition of rupture’, with the support of an international solidarity [...]Read the full article
In Ghana, where people in positions of authority are generally treated with deference, a group of young protesters recently took to the streets to demand the resignation of the President – a first. What does this mean for the country’s protest culture, and [...]Read the full article
The Indian trade union SEWA has created childcare cooperatives and a home-based elderly care service that are boosting the economic participation of women care workers by solving their own caregiving needs.Read the full article
Certified organic farming accounts for just 1.5 per cent of the world’s agricultural land, with some 72 million hectares managed by three million farmers in 187 countries.Read the full article
Like women, the elderly and people with mental health issues, the working poor and people with multiple jobs are also likely to sleep worse, wake up worse, make more mistakes and sustain more injuries.Read the full article
Luis Linares:While the journey that migrants take to cross the US border can be perilous, those who are deported face another series of trials upon their return home, including stigma, shame, and difficulty reintegrating into families and finding [...]Read the full article
With worsening agrarian conditions, farmers like Supriya are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. The rising cost of agricultural inputs and falling prices for farm produce spells total disaster for the country’s 263 million agricultural [...]Read the full article
Hard hit by the pandemic and several years of economic woes, Brazil’s poor population is once again experiencing disturbing levels of food insecurity, affecting nearly 125 million people, that is, almost six out of ten Brazilians.Read the full article
With impoverished populations regularly engaging in artisanal gold mining, fatal accidents are becoming increasingly commonplace. Critics point the finger at negligent mining companies and inadequate oversight legislation.Read the full article
The country’s economic collapse has left four out of five Lebanese living below the poverty line. With power outages and shortages of essential goods commonplace, access to drinking water has become a daily emergency.Read the full article
Thirty years after the killings of anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, Sicilian civil society is still working hard to keep saying “no” to the mafia.Read the full article
When excessive levels of debt are reached, the dialogue between creditors and debtors is often broken. In Belgium, debt mediators are at hand to re-establish this dialogue and enable both parties to reach an agreement.Read the full article