Stacey

Zammit

The Sarayaku people of eastern Ecuador have declared their traditional Amazonian home as Kawsak Sacha — a living forest with rights.

On Mindanao, in the Philippines, the Manobo people have created a local and regional governance structure for their lands, including Bagani, or warriors, to police the area against logging and poaching.

Of the many issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps the most unsettling is that it is likely to be only a beginning — that the world is threatened with future plagues brought on by factors such as environmental degradation and human encroachment on animal habitats.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that some 60% of human diseases already originate from animals. As urban areas spread across the world, and forests are chopped down, zoonosis — the jump of pathogens such as viruses from animal to human — becomes more likely and common.

For over a decade, data advocates have reserved one day out of the year to celebrate open data.  Now, more than ever, the world has turned to open data to support in addressing the complex and unprecedented challenges of our times.  The ongoing global pandemic, systemic racism and global poverty, are but a few of the global issues that require openness and transparency, if we want to eradicate them as the most pressing social, economic and political problems of our day.  

The theme for International Women’s Day this year was 'Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World’.  It celebrated and highlighted the remarkable efforts made by women and girls around the globe to shape a more equitable future in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.