Author Archives: Mukesh Kapila

International Literacy Day: Learning is our most powerful weapon

9 September 2022 – Mukesh Kapila This article first appeared on 8th September 2022 as a TRTWorld Opinion 8th September was International Literacy Day. Millions of people worldwide still can’t read and write. We must do much better. Growing up in India, my earliest memory is of my grandmother learning to chalk her name inContinue reading “International Literacy Day: Learning is our most powerful weapon“

Is the UNOPS reform glass half-full or half-empty?

29 August 2022 – Mukesh Kapila In exposing misconduct and mismanagement at UNOPS through a dozen or so articles in this series, some common themes have emerged to explain how egregious misdeeds including profiteering, fraud, and corruption got embedded at the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), enabled by an unaccountable leadership that enjoyedContinue reading “Is the UNOPS reform glass half-full or half-empty?“

Reviving borderless humanitarianism

24 August 2022 – Mukesh Kapila This article was first released in The National on 22 August; see original here.   I ducked under the thin blue string across the dirt track that demarcated Sudan and South Sudan. It was 2013 and I was there to examine the humanitarian situation in the Nuba Mountains. TheContinue reading “Reviving borderless humanitarianism“

How  the dodgy business of UNOPS is enabled from Geneva

How did the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) make the money that allowed it to construct the fraud-ridden and corruption-infested S3i enterprise? A key trail leads to Geneva – the centre of a remarkably brazen enterprise generating immoral profits.

If the world is producing enough food for all, why is global hunger rising?

22 July 2022 – Mukesh Kapila The world is getting hungrier although we still produce enough food for everyone. Can we just blame conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the climate change crisis? In any case, the current food dilemma cannot be solved by technical fixes or charitable tinkering……. READ: Our beloved hummus is threatened asContinue reading “If the world is producing enough food for all, why is global hunger rising?”

Is health a bridge-for-peace or a tool of war?

4 July 2022 – Mukesh Kapila We have a record number of deadly and no-holds-barred conflicts raging around the world ranging from endless wars such as in Syria and Yemen, and grinding civil wars such as in Ethiopia’s Tigray and in Myanmar. As well as smouldering ones such as in Afghanistan. And, of course, new viciousContinue reading “Is health a bridge-for-peace or a tool of war?”

No time for complacency: Somalia’s unfolding catastrophe

24 June 2022 – Mukesh Kapila This article was first released in The Conversation on 21 June 2022. Somalia is on the brink of catastrophe. A recent assessment suggests that 7.7 million Somalis need emergency aid right now, a similar number to those affected by the Ethiopian famine in 1984, one of the worst humanitarian disasters in history. About one millionContinue reading “No time for complacency: Somalia’s unfolding catastrophe”