News

Boats are floating on the still surface of a bay in Northwest Tanzania. I have come to a village in the Kigoma region to do research on small-scale fishing and the value chain from lake to market. I am here to look especially at the different roles played by men and women, to identify gender-based b...

“Worldwide about a billion people defecate in the open — including 600,000 in India. So when Sikkim in the far northeast of India was declared ‘Open Defecation Free’ in 2016, we were curious. How did this small state, capped by Himalayan peaks and dotted with Buddhist monasteries, ...

When people ask me where I’m from, I pause. I take a deep breath and try to decide if I should give the long story or the short story. I was born in Abergavenny, a small town in Wales. When I was one year old, we moved to Hong Kong, and spent an amazing 10 years living there....

“Peru is at a critical juncture politically, economically and socially,” says Dr. Michiko Iizuka. “Their economy has been growing significantly for the past 10-15 years and during that period, poverty has decreased – but now economic growth is slowing due to the decline in commodit...

The Dutch government’s refusal to allow Turkish ministers to visit Rotterdam and address the large number of Dutch-Turkish citizens on how to vote in the Turkish constitutional referendum of April 16 was a game-changer in the Dutch elections....

Stakes are always high in peace operations, so decent training is vital for the various roles of peacekeepers, the implementation of the mission mandate and for ensuring operational unity, coordination and coherence. ...

The UN wants to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. But, as many of us are acutely aware, the SDGs are not only ambitious but also complicated. A kaleidoscope of grand visions, the 2030 Agenda aims to rebuild our world from the ground up, in a work plan covering everything from the en...

Hunger and food security are two of the most pressing issues for the UN – issues only made harder by climate change and armed conflict. Against this backdrop, UNU-MERIT joined a global challenge: to draft and debate a plan in support of SDG#2 — and end hunger. Higher education is changing: tra...

After months of fighting, Iraqi Security Forces have finally regained control of the eastern half of Mosul, the last urban stronghold of Islamic State in Iraq. They are now advancing on the city’s west. The recapture of the northern Iraqi city will be a strategic victory for Iraq and its internation...

EU leaders have agreed to a plan that will provide Libya’s UN-backed government €200 million for dealing with migration. This includes an increase in funding for the Libyan coastguard, with an overall aim to stop migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean to Italy....

Set amid a rapidly changing backdrop, our roundtable discussed the many systemic challenges to UN peacekeeping. The session was part of the ‘Future Force‘ conference held in The Hague, 9-10 February 2017, co-organised by Ortrun Merkle, Diego Salama and Pui-hang Wong of UNU-MERIT. Speaker...

Female research scientists are more productive than their male colleagues, though they are widely perceived as being less so. Women are also rewarded less for their scientific achievements....

Today nearly half of all migrants are women – women migrating not just as partners and dependents but also as independent agents in search of work and opportunities. Yet, once they arrive, they are often marginalised and prevented from enjoying their rights....

Brexit will hurt both the Brits and the Continental Europeans, no matter how the negotiations unfold. Some of the divorce pains will be in terms of cold hard cash. But the worst damage could come from Brexit undercutting the very soul of the EU – i.e., the gradual increase in understanding each othe...

A PhD can be a game-changer for your career, especially at a research institute or international organisation. But not for everyone. Paul Caldron, one of our recent GPAC2 graduates, is a medical doctor approaching the end of his career – and in many ways he valued personal over professional developm...

My father’s great grandparents had come from Indonesia and my mother’s great grandfather had come from mainland China in search of a better life. I therefore also wondered whether I had a future in Iloilo City in the Philippines or if I would also need to become a migrant in order to have a better f...

Taking a stand for evidence-based approaches, we delivered a course on Science Reporting at the City of Knowledge in Panama, 12-16 December 2016. The workshop title, ‘Reach & Turn’, referred to reaching out, turning heads, and shifting mindsets – in many ways the core of communications....

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is taking place in Davos, Switzerland, and the issues being discussed include education, gender and work. A world away, the work of PhD Fellow Brenda Yamba considers child carers and high school attendance in Southern Africa — particularly how they manage, despit...

Maastricht University (UM) has risen to 4th place in the 2016 Times Higher Education (THE) ‘150 Under 50’ ranking for the best young universities in the world. Having held 6th place for the last three years, UM said it was “proud to have its continued efforts, for example toward in...

‘Public Policy & Governance Beyond Borders’ is the guiding theme of this year’s Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) international conference, to be held in Brussels on 13-14 July 2017. We are now delighted to announce that MGSoG/UNU-MERIT (Maastricht U...