Gender apartheid, climate mobility, mega-election year : Goats and Soda

Nobel peace prize honoree Malala Yousafzai is calling for an end to “gender apartheid.”

COVID is no longer a global health emergency but will the coming year see a “cholera comeback”?

And if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by election coverage here in the U.S. for the November event, keep in mind that 2024 is going to be a “mega-election year” on Earth — more elections than ever in the history of elections, some election watchers say.

These are a few of the buzzwords in the world of global health and development and humanitarian causes that we cover for Goats and Soda. We talked to specialists in these fields to create a list of terms that we’ll likely be hearing in the year ahead — both new coinages as well as tried-and-true buzzwords that still are top of mind.

Gender apartheid

In a December speech, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai drew attention to the persecution of women and girls by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Speaking in South Africa, Yousafzai pointed out how leaders like Nelson Mandela confronted and criminalized racial apartheid at the international level, “but gender apartheid has not been explicitly codified yet. That is why I call on every government, in every country, to make gender apartheid a crime against humanity.”

The Pakistani activist, who as a teenager was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen for advocating girls’ education, was echoing long-held concerns over the Taliban’s countless edicts to remove women from public life since the militant group seized power in Afghanistan. It remains the only country in the world that bans girls from school beyond sixth grade. In October, a joint statement by scholars and civil society organizations urged governments to codify the crime of gender apartheid through the United Nations, saying “the…