NPR's global health and development team tells stories about life in our changing world, focusing on low- and middle-income countries also referred to as the Global South. And we keep in mind that we're all neighbors in this global village. NPR receives financial support for this team from the Gates Foundation. NPR is solely responsible for all content. Find more about NPR's standards and practices at NPR.org/ethics, as well as a list of our philanthropic supporters in our annual report.
Clean energy technologies have become more affordable around the world. Yet for many countries in the Global South, the cost of transitioning to a low-carbon economy remains disproportionately high. But not because the equipment is more expensive: in fact, solar and wind components are often imported at comparable prices around the world, as global manufacturing scale and trade have helped standardize hardware costs. Instead, the disparities in financing costs reflect the way the global financial system fails to adequately capture, differentiate and price risk.
Yet, even within these critical frameworks, voices from within the Global South, especially women from marginalized communities, are often excluded or misrecognized. Scholars such as Gayatri Spivak, Chandra Mohanty, and Lila Abu-Lughod have long argued that women in the Global South are not merely subjects of oppression but thinkers whose epistemic contributions are routinely devalued. They face layered forms of marginalization within both national contexts and transnational academic spaces, with epistemic injustice emerging as one of the most pervasive mechanisms of exclusion.
In contemporary times, architectural practice goes far beyond designing buildings or materializing ideas; it has become a multidimensional field, taking on broader and more complex roles. In contexts marked by inequality, environmental crises, and territorial disputes, architecture becomes a tool for negotiation, capable of mediating interests among diverse actors. In this scenario, architects also assume the roles of cultural translators, social facilitators, and, often, advocates for collective rights.
Rising sea levels could plunge more than 100 million buildings underwater by 2100, scientists have warned. The experts in Canada estimated how many buildings in Africa, Southeast Asia and Central and South America would be flooded by different sea level changes. Their assessment found that sea level rises of just 1.6 feet (0.5 metres) would flood three million buildings in the global south alone.
The China-hosted Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit concluded on Monday, highlighting Beijing's push to advance its vision for a new global security and economic order in the age of Trump 2.0. Joined by more than 20 world leaders, including from India and Russia, the bloc's largest summit wrapped up with a joint declaration signed by ten member states, pledging a deepened strategic alliance in the Global South.
The meeting seeks to coordinate concrete actions, including legal and diplomatic measures, against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, described by member states as genocide.
Through our collaboration, we hope to open up new ways of thinking about what a triennial like Sharjah can become over time - leaving behind tangible strategies and ideas that respond to the needs and challenges of contemporary urban centers across the Global South and beyond.
Educational infrastructure in the Global South serves as multifunctional spaces, enhancing not just education but community cohesion and development for all members.
