SDGs

What can trade unions do to constrain Africa’s spiralling sovereign debt crisis?

Hod Anyigba: By actively countering the interests of finance and multinational corporations, trade unions serve as a vital voice, ensuring that workers are not left to shoulder the burdens of economic downturns alone. In this collaborative effort, trade unions play a pivotal role in advocating for equitable [...]Read the full article

Bolivia's contraband markets: an unsustainable lifeline in a country where informality abounds

8 April 2024

Bolivia’s contraband markets: an unsustainable lifeline in a country where informality abounds

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

Reducing inequalities and amplifying women's voices: feminist diplomacy as an effective response to crises?

2 April 2024

Reducing inequalities and amplifying women’s voices: feminist diplomacy as an effective response to crises?

‘Feminist foreign policy’ is an evolving concept aimed at improving women’s rights around the world through diplomatic relations. Its scope can range from funding development projects aimed at fostering gender equality to increasing women’s representation in the diplomatic sphere and giving them a [...]Read the full article

Kenya's ambitious affordable housing project faces major legal obstacles as opposition grows

28 March 2024

Kenya’s ambitious affordable housing project faces major legal obstacles as opposition grows

“A multi-faceted approach is necessary to address the housing needs of urban workers and the urban poor effectively.”Read the full article

Bolivia's “people of the water” attempt to forge a life after the disappearance of Lake Poopó

25 March 2024

Bolivia’s “people of the water” attempt to forge a life after the disappearance of Lake Poopó

Bolivia’s second largest lake has been completely dried out since 2015. This is due to global warming, which is accelerating evaporation – already very high at 4,000 metres altitude – as well as the mining industry, which consumes a significant amount of water. The Uru Murato people are trying to [...]Read the full article

Peasants fight for land access to acquire food sovereignty worldwide

22 March 2024

Human rights

Peasants fight for land access to acquire food sovereignty worldwide

“We know there is no future for this capitalist food system. It has to die but it is not yet dead. In this process, food sovereignty activists act as collective midwives that are giving birth to a new system.”Read the full article

Solar power is improving the lives of millions of refugees

11 March 2024

Solar power is improving the lives of millions of refugees

Solar is the energy of choice in refugee camps around the world that are turning to clean energy, whether at the initiative of UN agencies, humanitarian groups or governments.Read the full article

Lessons from Latin America on the impact of platform cooperativism and collective bargaining on algorithmic management

14 February 2024

Lessons from Latin America on the impact of platform cooperativism and collective bargaining on algorithmic management

Atahualpa Blanchet: Platform cooperativism represents more than just an alternative employment model: it also offers a vision of hope for building a more equitable and participatory world of work in the digital age.Read the full article

Mining in the 21st century Hispanosphere and beyond: transition, resistance and empowerment

5 February 2024

Mining in the 21st century Hispanosphere and beyond: transition, resistance and empowerment

The global digital and energy transition is increasing the demand for minerals. At the same time, resistance against projects is rising, support networks are being woven and initiatives to guarantee the rights of communities and decent working conditions are being [...]Read the full article

The emptying out of rural areas and the accompanying brain drain are fuelling inequality in the EU's most depopulated regions

29 January 2024

The emptying out of rural areas and the accompanying brain drain are fuelling inequality in the EU’s most depopulated regions

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

In Dar es Salaam, tree mapping is helping to build urban resilience and combat flooding

8 January 2024

In Dar es Salaam, tree mapping is helping to build urban resilience and combat flooding

In Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, the World Bank-funded Resilience Academy is mapping the city’s tree cover as a way of protecting and restoring the city’s ever-shrinking green space.Read the full article

22 December 2023

Goodbye 2023: our recommended Equal Times reads of the year

Tamara Gausi: To round up the year, each Equal Times editor picks the stories that have stayed in their heart and mind, long after publication.Read the full article

20 November 2023

Turkey: Europe’s rubbish dump

“The fact that Turkey continues to buy plastic waste from the EU while producing so much plastic itself is due to the growth of the recycling sector. But there’s also another problem here. Research shows that only nine per cent of the plastic produced to date can be [...]Read the full article

Death, injury and disease: the battle to improve working conditions in South Asia's shipbreaking yards

17 November 2023

Death, injury and disease: the battle to improve working conditions in South Asia’s shipbreaking yards

Every year, thousands of ships around the world reach the end of their lives. The vast majority meet their end in South Asia, where, every year, almost 70 per cent of the vessels are dismantled on just three beaches, often with no regard for the workers’ health and [...]Read the full article

In crisis-ridden Lebanon and Afghanistan, already deficient public services are in a desperate state

9 November 2023

In crisis-ridden Lebanon and Afghanistan, already deficient public services are in a desperate state

“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

Malawian demographer Eliya Zulu: “Africa's youthful population could drive the continent's socio-economic transformation”

6 November 2023

Malawian demographer Eliya Zulu: “Africa’s youthful population could drive the continent’s socio-economic transformation”

“The question is: can the world ignore Africa? The fact that other regions don’t have youthful populations means that Africa has an opportunity to actually help address labour shortages elsewhere and the rest of the world will have Africa’s young people to go and contribute to development. But [...]Read the full article

Women face increasing pressure in Paraguay, a country deeply rooted in conservative values

26 October 2023

Human rights

Women face increasing pressure in Paraguay, a country deeply rooted in conservative values

“There are really no favourable expectations. This is going to be above all a time of resistance for women and minority groups.”Read the full article

Unemployment and older workers: overcoming the barriers to decent work

9 October 2023

Unemployment and older workers: overcoming the barriers to decent work

At the same time as consideration is being given to extending our expiry date as workers, there are people in the last stage of their careers who simply cannot find a job.Read the full article

The world is failing to meet SDG 8: how to achieve decent work for all by 2030?

6 October 2023

The world is failing to meet SDG 8: how to achieve decent work for all by 2030?

Giulia Massobrio: “Since 2018, the ITUC has been calling for a new social contract in line with SDG 8. This contract includes six demands that are crucial to achieving truly sustainable development: from rights-based and climate-friendly jobs to wage justice and greater democracy in global [...]Read the full article

Can humanity avoid the “nightmare scenario” that could be caused by mounting space junk?

22 September 2023

Can humanity avoid the “nightmare scenario” that could be caused by mounting space junk?

Seven decades of exploitation by the world’s leading space agencies have left the Earth’s orbit cluttered with debris, which has been causing problems for the planet. These problems have been exacerbated by the private sector’s entry into the space race over the last five [...]Read the full article

Women across the world struggle to find emancipation and empowerment through work

14 August 2023

Women across the world struggle to find emancipation and empowerment through work

Acquiring new skills, enriching social relations and, above all, achieving a degree of financial independence: these are just some of the benefits that women around the world seek through access to decent employment.Read the full article

Are our education systems helping to create emancipated human beings or simply preparing human resources?

7 August 2023

Are our education systems helping to create emancipated human beings or simply preparing human resources?

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

How do we create a future of work that centres on the wellbeing of people?

24 July 2023

How do we create a future of work that centres on the wellbeing of people?

In an environment of accelerating automation and digitalisation, will lifelong learning be the key to staying in our chosen job or profession? How should we address the challenge of informal work? What will happen to jobs impacted by the climate crisis? And what role will trade unions play in [...]Read the full article

What social responsibilities should private companies have?

22 June 2023

What social responsibilities should private companies have?

Vicente Salas: “Many of the proposed initiatives for change and groundbreaking reform start from a recognition of the limitations of nation states to act in cooperation. Instead, these reforms seek to turn companies/legal entities into the implementing arms of public objectives and [...]Read the full article

Water and hunger: Venezuela's water crisis threatens food security

16 June 2023

Water and hunger: Venezuela’s water crisis threatens food security

Venezuela ranks number nine in the world in renewable freshwater resources. However, the state, which is responsible for supplying these resources, guarantees neither their quality nor their availability.Read the full article

In Spain, public and private actors are helping the rural elderly to “age with dignity in their villages”

31 May 2023

In Spain, public and private actors are helping the rural elderly to “age with dignity in their villages”

As rural areas increasingly empty out, communities are left with fewer and fewer resources, whether public or private, to address dependency and loneliness. Elderly inhabitants are forced to choose between living alone or spending the final stage of their lives in a nursing home far from their [...]Read the full article

Around the world, trade unions are championing LGBTQI+ rights in the workplace

16 May 2023

Around the world, trade unions are championing LGBTQI+ rights in the workplace

Trade unions – which consider solidarity and the respect of the human rights of all people as fundamental principles – have a crucial role to play in challenging discriminatory laws, supporting the LGBTQI+ community at work and ensuring that we live in a more inclusive and respectful [...]Read the full article

New capital cities, deforestation and social apartheid: the parallels between Brazil and Indonesia

12 May 2023

New capital cities, deforestation and social apartheid: the parallels between Brazil and Indonesia

“A striking parallel between both stories of the new capital cities is how both projects only reinforce a colonial state, in spite of their promoters claiming the opposite. Both projects dominate and destroy the life spaces and territories of forest communities for economic and political [...]Read the full article

Bogotá's Indigenous street children are the face of Colombia's unrelenting cycle of violence

10 May 2023

Bogotá’s Indigenous street children are the face of Colombia’s unrelenting cycle of violence

Forcibly displaced by the armed conflict, Indigenous children are forced to grow up early living on the streets of Bogotá.Read the full article

Ordinary working people are being priced out of Accra and pushed into inadequate housing

8 May 2023

Ordinary working people are being priced out of Accra and pushed into inadequate housing

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

In India, the sporting dreams of rural athletes are being washed away with climate change

5 May 2023

Culture

In India, the sporting dreams of rural athletes are being washed away with climate change

Recurring floods are forcing emerging sportsmen and women from rural India to quit their sports or severely reduce their training in order to help support their families, whose livelihoods have been negatively impacted by extreme weather events caused by climate [...]Read the full article

Syrian women make advances in the face of war

26 April 2023

Culture

Syrian women make advances in the face of war

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

This is how our work will be shared with algorithms and robots

19 April 2023

This is how our work will be shared with algorithms and robots

Job automation could affect the quality of work more than the quantity. The issue is not machines taking over our jobs but pushing us into poorer quality employment. The best way to avoid this is to invest in preventive training and to call on companies to act [...]Read the full article

17 April 2023

Foresters in Gabon struggle to make their voices heard in international discussions on environmental protection

Gabon’s timber industry, which employs nearly 7 per cent of the country’s working population, is struggling to adapt to often burdensome environmental policies adopted by the international community.Read the full article

Trade union freedom in Morocco: more an aspiration than a right

29 March 2023