Two young entrepreneurs see the potential in tiger nuts

Prince Oppong was studying science at the University of Cape Coast when he had the idea.

“One day, after lectures, I saw a woman selling tiger nuts, so I asked myself why do we only sell the raw nuts and not process it into milk?”

Despite their name, tiger nuts are not nuts, but tuberous sedge grass rhizomes (cyperus esculentus lativum). They are widely cultivated the world over and are extremely high in fibre, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.

In the west they are gaining recognition as a ‘super food’. In…

by Jamil Akhtar

Masooma is a community mobilizer at Dareecha, an organization working to raise awareness about, and the prevention of, HIV/AIDS. Photo: UNDP/Jamil Akhtar

What is the bigger tragedy — never finding your true self or finding it and not being allowed to profess it?

What is worse — not being acknowledged at all or having your existence derided? What is better — finding safety in silence and invisibility or facing violence for claiming your place in the world?

Speak to any transgender person in Pakistan and they can tell you countless heart-wrenching tales of cruelty, oppression, exploitation, apathy, and disenfranchisement that they have had to suffer throughout their life. …

The nine Indigenous cultures recognized in Suriname represent only four percent of the country’s population of 586,000 people. Including the Lokono ethnic group, who primarily live near coasts and rivers. Photo: Adobe/Rene

Captain Theodorus Jubitana was born in a small village Tapoeripa in Nickerie District, Suriname, on 10 April 1965. He was the ninth of 11 children in a Lokono family and grew up in a modest home. He involved himself in local politics, was a tireless campaigner for Suriname’s Indigenous community, and eventually became chairperson of the Association of Indigenous Village Leaders, and leader of the Amazon Party Suriname. He was a husband, father to six children and a much-loved pillar of his community.

In July, Captain Theo died from COVID-19, one of more than 650 people lost to the pandemic…

As the COVID-19 pandemic approaches its third year, it is clear the world faces an uncertain future shaped by economic and social crises. Effective global partnerships at all levels will be vital to surmounting the difficulties thrown up by the pandemic, as well as the climate crisis.

In this context South-South cooperation — partnerships that draw upon the solidarity among peoples and countries of the ‘Global South’ — is more important than ever to breaking the cycle of poverty and instability and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

South-South cooperation is at the heart of UNDP’s support to help countries achieve their development goals. UNDP uses its expertise to foster experience and expertise.

The 2021 commemoration of the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation will…

UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner arrives in Haiti following the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the island on 21 August 2021. Photo: UNDP
and United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed magnitude earthquake that hit the island on 21 August 2021. Photo: OCHA/Matteo Minasi




More than 2,200 people have died from the 7.2 magnitude earthquake, which…

“I needed to go. The pull of Everest was stronger for me than any force on Earth.” — Tensing Norgay Sherpa, mountaineer

A sherpa hauls supplies on the south side of the Everest Base Camp trek, at an altitude of 17,900 feet (5,500 m).
A mountain guide hauls supplies on the south side of the Everest Base Camp trek, at an altitude of 17,900 feet (5,500 m). Photo: Shutterstock
  1. The mountains of Asia, including Himalayas and the Hindu Kush, contain every one of the world’s mountains higher than 7,000 metres.

They began forming 50 million years ago when the Indian subcontinent crashed into Asia, a process that continues to this day. Mount Everest, at 8,849 metres, straddles China and Nepal. Its Nepali name, Sagarmatha, means “Goddess of the Sky”.

Safai Saathis (waste pickers) sort materials at Swachhta Kendra facility in Patna, India. Photo: UNDP India

Little do the locals and tourists visiting the parks of Indore — the largest metropolitan city in central India — know that the chairs and benches that they are sitting on are made out of plastic boards generated from plastic waste, collected door to door, sorted and then shredded.

While riding a vehicle in Delhi and around the National Capital Region, you probably wouldn’t realize that several metric tonnes of shredded plastics contributed to the construction of the roads. The housing units and vendor kiosks in Sircilla, Telangana have a similar hidden back story.

Photo: Antartida Films

The first birds awaken as a winter morning fog covers the coast of Punta del Diablo, a small coastal town in eastern Uruguay.

The town sits between the Atlantic Ocean and the 17,500 hectare Black Lagoon, and the ocean breeze shapes the dunes where the psamófilo or ‘sand friends’ live; trees, shrubs, and herbs that are particularly adapted to this environment.

Native trees such as the Arrayàn, Chal Chal and Curupì, are increasingly threatened by alien species, unplanned urban development, and unsustainable tourism.

Only 4.8 percent of Uruguay’s land is now covered by native forests.

WASEP artisans at work. Photo Credit: UNDP India

The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the India state of Maharashtra. There have been a huge number of infections and several thousand deaths. The economic fallout has left many jobless.

Women artisans in Mumbai, and nearby Thane have seen a massive drop in sales. Their financial burdens have mounted as their family members lost jobs.

The women artisans living in the northern outskirts and western parts of Mumbai, famous for their folk paintings, found a way out by manufacturing aesthetically designed ‘Warli’ masks.

Warli is an indigenous tribal art practiced for hundreds of years by the Warli tribe, and is one…

71-year-old Basanti Sethy, 71, uses her newfound digital skills to pay for her utilities online. Photo Credit: UNDP India

Basanti Sethy, 71, a widow living in Gojabayani slum of Bhubaneswar finds her smartphone opening windows to a new world. The realization of what technology can do dawned on her when she started using the PhonePe mobile app to pay for her utilities.

“I have started using Ola to book auto ride and I have started paying online for electricity and other bills using PhonePe,” she says happily.

Sethy also periodically shops for medicines using other apps and looks up for information about COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital illiteracy has prevented large sections of the elderly and people living with disabilities in…

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