Goal 3 - SDGs for All

The Poverty Trap Has Deadly Consequences

By J W Jackie

RENO, Nevada, United States (IDN) – The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out a global pathway to end inequality and improve the health of the world. The SDG agenda sets out the case very clearly that trade, healthcare, gender inequality, poverty, disease, environmental protection and a range of other key goals are all inextricably linked.

Therefore, those seeking to deliver the SDG agenda by reducing trade inequalities and boosting regional development will do well to keep in mind just how interconnected and far-reaching the SDGs are. JAPANESE

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 1; 06 July 2018

Photo: John Bob Ranck, Chief Executive Officer and President at Orbis International. Credit: Naimul Haq | IDN-INPS

Why Eye Care is Important – for Bangladesh and Other Countries

By Naimul Haq

DHAKA (IDN) – John Bob Ranck, also known as Bob, Chief Executive Officer and President at Orbis International, recently visited Bangladesh on a special mission. He travelled to some of the hospitals where Orbis as a partner has been supporting Bangladesh’s efforts in addressing avoidable blindness.

Bob, a retired United States Air Force Brigadier General, came to Bangladesh a few weeks after the memorable visit of the teaching hospital or better known as the Flying Eye Hospital’s (FEH) training programme in Bangladesh. (P49) FRENCH | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE | TURKISH | URDU

: IDN-INPS Editor; Project Articles; 16 March 2018

UNESCAP, Islamic Development Bank Sign Landmark Agreement

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – One of the world’s largest multilateral development banks, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), has launched 'Engage', a new digital platform which will promote technological and scientific solutions to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

IsDB President Dr. Bandar Hajjar announced on February 21 the launch of the new platform at an event hosted at Bloomberg's European Headquarters in London, together with UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Dr. Hayat Sindi, Chief Scientific Advisor to IsDB, and a group of business, innovation and development experts.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 2; 25 February 2018

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.