Goal 3 - SDGs for All

Image: The Birth Control Necklace consists of 30 drop-shaped beads (average length of a woman's monthly cycle), whereby each bead represents one day in a woman's monthly menstrual cycle. Credit: Aktion Regen

Ensuring Access to Sexual and Reproductive Rights – A Global Challenge

By Julia Zimmerman*

This is the fifth in a series of reports on the Vienna UN Conference from January 10-12, 2018, which discussed actions and challenges linked to the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) and in the spirit of SDG 17. The Vienna Liaison Office of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) organized this Conference co-ordinated by Heather Wokusch. – The Editor

VIENNA (IDN) – Of the numerous and significant challenges currently facing women and girls globally, access to sexual and reproductive rights is high on the list. Experts in the field of women’s sexual and reproductive health are trying to assure access and to spread knowledge about harmful practices.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 3; 31 January 2018

Photo: Dr Poonchai Chitanuntavitaya, Chief Medical Officer of Social Health Enterprise, supervising his trainees while giving massages to visitors to the school for marginalised children, supported by a foundation set up by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, to empower the students to break into the medical field through an unconventional career path that is providing a multi-faceted approach to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Thai Doctor Creating Multi-Faceted Approach to Sustainable Development

By Kalinga Seneviratne

CHANTABURI, Thailand (IDN) – A passionate, socially conscious doctor in this rural farming community in the north-east of Thailand is working with a school for marginalised children, supported by a foundation set up by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the second daughter of late King Bhumibol who died in October 2016.

The school aims at empowering the students to break into the medical field through an unconventional career path that is providing a multi-faceted approach to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). (P41) INDONESIAN | ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE | TAGALOG | THAI

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 3; 19 January 2018

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the global Universal Health Coverage Forum on December 14, in Tokyo, Japan. UN Photo/Curtis Christophersensik

Global Forum Underlines Need for Universal Health Coverage

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | TOKYO (IDN) – Nearly half of the world's population of 7.6 billion lacks access to essential health services at present and for almost 100 million people health expenses are high enough to push them into extreme poverty.

Against this perturbing backdrop, revealed by a recent report, a global Forum in Tokyo has underlined the need to extend by 2023 the health services coverage to 1 billion additional people and halve to 50 million the number of people being pushed into extreme poverty by health expenses.

The year 2023 is the midpoint towards 2030, the target date for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), says the 'Tokyo Declaration on Universal Health Coverage' emerging from the global Universal Health Coverage Forum 2017 from December 12-15.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 1; 16 December 2017

Photo credit: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

The Global Fund To Fight AIDS Asked to Change Criteria Discriminating Poor Countries

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – As this year's World AIDS Day campaign – My Health, My Right – kicks into high gear, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has called on The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to end the use of Gross National Income (GNI) per capita as part of the Fund's grant eligibility criteria, and thus stop discriminating poor countries.

The Los Angeles based AHF is the largest nonprofit HIV organization that provides HIV care to more than 833,000 patients in 39 countries globally, including in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean and the United States. (P34) CHINESE TEXT VERSION PDF | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | URDU

: IDN-INPS Editor; Project Articles; 26 November 2017

Photo: UNFPA does a lot of work in Sierra Leone especially with regards to maternal health. Credit: Joan Erakit | IDN-INPS

Freetown Flooding Raises Concern About Maternal Healthcare

By Joan Erakit

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - In the early hours of August 14, disastrous weather took to Freetown as the city was flooded with torrential downpour. Shortly after, a mudslide followed dragging countless homes down a suburban hillside in slushy red dirt in Regent, east of Freetown. The Red Cross reported at least 200 people dead as aid organizations and local authorities rushed to the scene.

In a statement attributable to the Spokesperson of the UN Secretary-General, Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told IDN that, “the Secretary-General is saddened by the deaths and devastation caused by the mudslide and flooding in the town of Regent, Sierra Leone, and throughout Freetown,” adding, “the Secretary-General extends his condolences to the people and Government of Sierra Leone for the loss of life and destruction caused by this natural disaster.”

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 3; 15 August 2017

UN Development Agenda Found Falling Behind in Reaching Goals

By Shanta Rao

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – As part of its the Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations is determined to “to leave no one behind” in its strong commitment to ensure the elimination of extreme poverty and hunger by the year 2030, which is an integral part of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world leaders in September 2015.

But in a new report released July 17, the UK-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI) points out that only 25 of the 44 countries presenting their progress on SDGs at the UN’s High Level Political Forum (HLPF), which concludes July 19, are ready to meet the central commitment of “leaving no-one behind.” The report has been released to coincide with the UN’s 10-day HLPF.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 3; 17 July 2017

An opium poppy field in Afghanistan, the country which supplies 90 percent of the world’s heroin. Credit: Public Intelligence

Opium Production Up and Cocaine Market Thriving

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – Global opium production increased by one-third in 2016 compared with the previous year, primarily due to higher opium poppy yields in Afghanistan, and coca bush cultivation increased by 30 percent mainly as a result of increased cultivation in Colombia.

Following a period of decline, there are also signs that cocaine use is increasing in the two largest markets, North America and Europe. These are among the findings reported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in this year’s World Drug Report, released on June 22.

In a statement at the launch of the report, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov stressed that while the outcome document of the 2016 landmark UN General Assembly special session on the world drug problem contains more than 100 concrete recommendations to reduce demand and supply, this is not enough.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 3; 25 June 2017

Leaders of the five largest Nordic countries announce support for sustainable development goals (SDGs). Credit: Nordic Cooperation

Nordic States Support Sustainable Development Goals

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – Leaders of the five largest Nordic countries recently announced support of the Nordic countries as a whole for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed under UN auspices.

The initiative, called Nordic Solutions to Global Challenges, was initially flouted in 2015 when the Paris Agreement on climate change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development were adopted. As part of the Agenda, 17 SDGs were outlined.

Since the UN climate change in Paris in 2015 (COP 21), the programme has been further developed and was launched at a meeting of the Nordic Council of Ministers on May 30, attended by the Prime Ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. (P14) GERMAN｜JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH

: IDN-INPS Editor; Project Articles; 18 June 2017

Photo: Girls from the Safeguard Young People programme in Malawi, which provides sexual and reproductive health information, helps young people access health services, and offers leadership training. Credit: UNFPA Malawi/Hope Ngwira.

Why Spending 30 Dollars a Year on Each Adolescent Is Essential

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) - Less than 30 dollars spent per person per year can work wonders for adolescent health and education, finds a new study commissioned by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

The report has been published in The Lancet on the eve of the World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington D.C. from April 21 to April 23, 2017, where finance and development leaders from 188 countries were slated to discuss the critical need to invest in adolescents.

The Lancet is an independent, international general medical journal purported to make science widely available so that medicine can serve, and transform society, and positively impact the lives of people. (P04) ARABIC | HINDI | SPANISH | SWAHILI | TURKISH ｜JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 3; 20 April 2017

Sport as a Tool for Achieving SDGs

By Desmond Brown

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (IDN) – Investing in sport can help reduce spiralling health costs and promote education, social cohesion and gender equality, says a new guidebook published by The Commonwealth.

The recommendations of the guidebook, titled ‘Enhancing the Contribution of Sport to the Sustainable Development Goals’, are important to the Caribbean, where chronic and communicable diseases are devastating to individuals and community, threatening the quality of life and becoming an increasingly negative factor in the region’s development.

Guyana, for example, spends on average 4.6 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare every year, equivalent to 200 dollars per capita. (P03) JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF