Reporting the underreported about the plan of action for People, Planet and Prosperity, and efforts to make the promise of the SDGs a reality.
A project of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group with IDN as the Flagship Agency in partnership with Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.
By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) – Time is running out for countries to achieve the global goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). A new report warns that if current trends continue, up to 5 billion people will still be unable to access health care in 2030 – the deadline world leaders have set for achieving universal health coverage. Most of those people are poor and already disadvantaged.
By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) – “We need a new multilateralism to shift the world to sustainable tracks,” United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Liu Zhenmin, has accentuated in a conversation with the UN DESA ‘Voice’, which offers an insider's look at the world body in the area of economic, social and sustainable development policy.
It is produced by the Strategic Planning and Communications Services of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) with articles written by UN DESA staff. This is an electronic publication – no printed edition is generated.
By Jamshed Baruah
GENEVA (IDN) – A spike in heat stress resulting from global warming is projected to lead to global productivity losses equivalent to 80 million full-time jobs or 2.2 per cent of total working hours worldwide and global economic losses of US$2,400 billion in the year 2030, according to a new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO). The poorest countries and citizens will be worst affected. The new ILO report, Working on a warmer planet: The impact of heat stress on labour productivity and decent work , draws on climate, physiological and employment data and presents estimates of the current and projected productivity losses at national, regional and global levels.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – “We have no time to lose.” That’s the new mantra at the United Nations as the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo now appears almost unstoppable.
In a move to bolster efforts to contain the growing outbreak that has killed more than 1,200 people in 10 months, the United Nations on May 23 named David Gressly as the Emergency Ebola Response Coordinator (EERC).
By Ronald Joshua
ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – Africa’s future economic and social progress is under threat from alarmingly high levels of child hunger, and the severity and scale of the problem is such that it requires nothing short of a radical and transformative political and economic agenda, according to a new study released at the Eighth International Policy Conference on the African Child.
By Ronald Joshua
JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development, according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) scheduled to be realized by 2030. Goal 3 cannot however be achieved as long as people have to pay for medicines out-of-pocket and fall into poverty. This happens to 100 million each year.
With this in view, Dr Mariângela Simão, Assistant Director General for Medicines and Health Products at the World Health Organization (WHO) says: “Medical innovation has little social value if most people cannot access its benefits,” adding: “This is a global human rights issue – everyone has a right to access quality healthcare.”
By Jaya Ramachandran
ROME (IDN) – In the first-ever report of its kind FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, has presented surging and perturbing evidence that the biodiversity that underpins our food systems is disappearing – putting the global population’s health, livelihoods and environment under severe threat.
FAO’s State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture report, launched on February 22 warns that once lost, biodiversity for food and agriculture cannot be recovered.
By Ronald Joshua
ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – The Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD) has launched a New Strategic Plan (2019-2023) which envisions “a developed Africa with healthy and empowered children, youth and women”. The plan will make a significant contribution to the health and well-being of children, youth and women in Africa.
OAFLAD, which traces its roots to the Organization of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), has officially announced its new name – OAFLAD – during the 22nd Ordinary General Assembly in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – In view of the increasingly critical situation for ordinary Venezuelans, the United Nations remains committed to providing humanitarian support, based on “need, and need alone”, according to a senior aid official.
But the oil-rich country is not only suffering from food and medical shortages. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) noted that dozens of opposition politicians continue to face ongoing harassment in the South American country.
By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK | PORT VILA (IDN) – One month old Joy Nowai has become the world’s first child to be given a vaccine delivered commercially by drone in a remote island in the South Pacific country of Vanuatu, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on December 18.
The vaccine delivery through the state-of-the-art craft covered almost 40 kilometres of rugged mountainous terrain from Dillon’s Bay on the west side of the island to the east landing in remote Cook’s Bay, where 13 children and five pregnant women were vaccinated by Miriam Nampil, a registered nurse.
