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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.


SGI Soka Gakkai International

 

Photo: With the lockdown to fend off the spread of COVID-19, many Southern Africans, have lost their jobs and switched to vending on the streets where they engage in cat and mouse games with police enforcing lockdown rules. Consequently, the game to survive still remains tough for most Africans as they battle to support their children amid schools closure. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo | INPS-IDN

By Jeffrey Moyo

MUSINA, South Africa (IDN) – His three teenage children play home-made paper ball on the dusty streets of Musina, exercise books scattered on the veranda of their rented home in the South African border town with Zimbabwe. Yet Gerald Gava, the children's 47-year old father, lies on a reed mat spread on the veranda, apparently with nothing to do after he stopped working three months ago as the lockdown took toll on the construction company that employed him.

Gava, who is a migrant from Zimbabwe, said even his children have had to remain home as schools also shut down, thanks to the coronavirus that has pounded the entire globe. (P13) JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SWAHILI

Project Articles

mage by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback

The writer is a market analyst and commentator. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – It is understandably tempting to drop all the blame for America’s catastrophic response to COVID-19 on the big desk in the Oval Office. But there’s more to the story than epic incompetence, grift and delusion at the highest levels of government. The stark divide in the level of health care from testing to treatment is divided by wealth and the legacy of systemic racism.

Goal 3

Image credit: istolethetv/Flickr

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Almost forgotten in the story about the Coronavirus is the story of AIDS. The drive to deal with it, the search to find medicine to cure it, and the self-discipline by homosexuals only began in 1981, when the disease was discovered, and its causes understood.

It was a stroke of luck that AIDS was discovered so quickly. Another five or ten years could have easily passed before it was detected. Then it would have rampaged through societies all over the world.

Goal 3

Photo: WHO Headquarters in Geneva, North and West sides. CC BY-SA 3.0

Viewpoint by Prabir Purkayastha

The writer is the founding editor of Newsclick.in, a digital media platform. He is an activist for science and the free software movement. This article was produced in partnership by Newsclick and Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW DELHI (IDN) – Microbes do not recognize borders. We are all safe only when everybody is safe. In a pandemic, to attack the only body we have for global cooperation endangers everyone. That is why the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) is dangerous not only for the United States, but for all of the world.

Goal 3

Photo: Dr Medhin Tsehaiu, who has worked with UNAIDS since 2011, and is UNAIDS Country Director based in Nairobi, Kenya. Credit: UNAIDS.

Kester Kenn Klomegah* Talks to UNAIDS Expert

MOSCOW (IDN) – For over three decades, Africa has fought HIV/AIDS and is now battling another pandemic, COVID-19, that has shattered the continent's economies. While adequate measures have been taken to halt the spread of the pandemic, Coronavirus has increased the financial burden. But HIV/AIDS experts say strengthening health institutions and commitment by political leaders (African governments) as well as development and international institutions could help to achieve adequate solutions especially in developing countries such as those in Africa.

Goal 3

Photo: Collage of images of ESCAP Executive Secretary, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana; UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau's Director, Kanni Wignaraja; and ADB Vice-President Bambang Susantono.

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana (ESCAP), Kanni Wignaraja (UNDP) and Bambang Susantono (ADB)*

BANGKOK (IDN) – As lockdowns ease in countries across Asia and the Pacific in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is clear—a return to business as usual is unimaginable in a region that was already off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The virtual High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development recently convened governments and stakeholders across the globe to focus on the imperative to build back better while keeping an eye on the Global Goals.

Goal 3

Photo: Many of the huge numbers of people not covered by social insurance programmes are informal workers, low-waged, women and young people, refugees and migrants, and people with disabilities – and they are the ones hardest hit by this crisis. Photo: UNDP Bangladesh/Fahad Kaizer

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – A new report by the United Nations is pleading for the immediate introduction of a Temporary Basic Income for the world’s poorest people, arguing that this could slow the current surge in COVID-19 pandemic cases by enabling nearly three billion people to stay at home.

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report estimates that it would cost from $199 billion per month to provide a time-bound, guaranteed basic income to the 2.7 billion people living below or just above the poverty line in 132 developing countries.  JAPANESE

Goal 1

Photo: In Argentina, UNDP has developed a social media campaign promoting inclusive finance. #PlataSinBanco ("money without bank") explains current alternatives to withdraw money from a local ATM, even without a debit card or bank account. Credit: UNDP Argentina

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) —Latin America is scrambling to contain surging COVID-19 infections while confronting near-certain recession and related impacts. But polices that prioritize poor and vulnerable people can help mitigate the region’s already extreme poverty and inequality, says a new study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Before the pandemic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected only 1.6 percent economic growth for the region in 2020, with recessions in several countries. In April, it projected a contraction of 5.2 percent, with almost every country in recession. However, tourism-dependent Caribbean nations could see GDP plunge between 5 and 10 percent—worsening the region's chronic poverty, inequality, and insecurity.

Goal 1

Photo (top): Pastoralist with herd, Horn of Africa. Credit: Katherine Bundra Roux, IFRC

Viewpoint by Rhoda Peace Tumusiime

The writer is a member of the Malabo Montpellier Panel and former AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union Commission (AUC).

ENTEBBE, Uganda (IDN) – Livestock have long been the insurance policy of Africa’s poorest, with even a single goat or a chicken providing a buffer against economic hardship and hunger.

But as Covid-19 forces many to fall back on these safety nets, the need for more long-term support of the continent’s livestock sector is laid bare.

Goal 3

Image credit: UN

UN Academic Impact Talks to Students from Several Countries

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – COVID-19 pandemic has forced more than 1.5 billion students in 165 countries out of school, enforcing the global academic community to explore new ways of teaching and learning, including distance and online education, according to UNESCO estimates.

This has proven challenging for both students and educators, who have to deal with the emotional, physical and economic difficulties posed by the illness while doing their part to help curb the spread of the virus, notes United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI). (P11) CHINESE | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE

Project Articles

  1. What the EU's Corona Fundraising Tells us about Global Solidarity
  2. COVID-19: How Brazil Became the World's 2nd Worst Hit Country
  3. Sustainable Tourism and Fisheries Key to Growth in Post-COVID Pacific
  4. The Middle East Reeling Under COVID-19 Impact on Livelihoods and Food Security
  5. The Media Can Stimulate Sustainable Development in Africa

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