Longreads: Women and Political Power, Developing Countries Turn to Each Other for Conservation, Skills Are the Test of Progress

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The new Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum inspired tweets and stories all over the world, including this one in Bloomberg Businessweek highlighting the finding that women represent only 20% of elected officials.  Also check out the gender inequality data visualization in Slate.  Biodiversity and ecosystems popped up on Twitter during the UN biodiversity meeting in Hyderabad, India, in October. While developed countries doubled pledges for conservation, India also made headlines when it announced a $50 million grant to help developing countries preserve biodiversity. The move, along with other examples of recent conservation efforts by emerging countries, hints of a future in which larger developing economies “play a more active role in saving the environment – not just at home, but also abroad,” reports the New York Times blog, India Ink.  With global youth unemployment at critical levels, a new Education for All Global Monitoring Report finds that 20% of young people in developing countries don’t have enough education or skills for work.  Kwame Akyeampong, an Education for All senior policy analyst, looks at the situation for themost vulnerable and disadvantaged youth in his native Ghana in an Al Jazeera opinion piece.  Once available only to paid subscribers, academic research papers are now increasingly accessible through open access publishing, according to a story in The Guardian. “The exponential rise in open access publishing shows no sign of slowing down,” writes Stephen Curry, a professor of structural biology at Imperial College. 

Gender Inequality Index
(Graphic Source: Slate)

World Economic Forum: The Global Gender Gap Report 2012
“The rankings are designed to create greater awareness among a global audience of the challenges posed by gender gaps and the opportunities created by reducing them.”

New York Times: Developing Countries Turn to Each Other for Conservation
“When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged money for helping developing countries meet conservation goals at the United Nations summit on biodiversity… conservationists and policymakers applauded the promise.”

Al Jazeera: For Ghana's Young People, Skills Are the Test of Progress
“Ghana has to invest in its most marginalised and disadvantaged youth to create a more equal society.”

Guardian: The Inexorable Rise of Open Access Scientific Publishing
“A new study shows that the rise of open access publishing of academic research is faster than anyone had previously realized.”