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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: Kevit Desai, the Principal Secretary in Kenya‘s State Department of Vocational and Technical Training, speaking during the launch of BEAR II project in Nairobi. Credit: Justus Wanzala | IDN-INPS

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (IDN) – Soaring unemployment and loud rumblings of discontent from the labour market about the mismatch between skills offered in learning institutions and industry needs in Kenya and the East African region has led stakeholders to swing into action to reverse the trend.

One approach is being spearheaded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) which, in collaboration with Kenya’s Ministry of Education, is promoting and supporting Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) systems in the country and the Eastern Africa region.

Goal 4

Photo credit: CTBTO

By Reinhardt Jacobsen

VIENNA (IDN) – "Now more than ever, this type of diplomacy has a particular importance," said Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of Cuba, in a high-level session of the 2nd CTBT Science Diplomacy Symposium at the Vienna International Centre.

"The challenges that define the 21st century such as nuclear disarmament, climate change, food security, and poverty reduction have scientific dimensions. No country will be able to solve these problems by itself; those are global troubles which require global solutions and collaboration," she added.

Goal 4

Photo: Seventeen-year-old Mathias Bragi Ölvisson lives in the agricultural village of Fludir, South Iceland, where his family have a large farm. He has known about the SDGs since these were agreed in 2015. Credit: Elin Hannibalsdottir.

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – Iceland has decided to spearhead publicity for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by setting up a 12-person council of young people aged between 13 and 18, under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

Over 140 young people applied for the 12 places and, according to Nilsina Larsen Einarsdottir, coordinator of the project, “all of them had many brilliant ideas, so the choice was extremely difficult.”

Einarsdottir, who works with UNICEF in Iceland as a specialist in child and youth participation, has teamed up with the PMO for the project.

Another set of young people will be recruited next year for the same purpose. (P03) ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | TURKISH

Goal 4

Image credit: UNESCAP

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.

Goal 2

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).

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

Goal 3

Aisha Shaaban sits in her wooden stall at Mchikichini market in Dar es Salaam waiting for her customers. She’s among women recently trained on women empowerment and how to avoid Gender violence. Credit: Kizito Makoye | IDN-INPS

By Kizito Makoye

DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) – Despite efforts to promote gender equality, women and girls in Tanzania are still marginalised and largely under-utilised citizens – often suffering from discrimination and violence from their male counterparts due to a biased male-dominated system which often pushes women to the brink of survival.

However, in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), various initiatives are being implemented to empower women, although they still face obstacles that prevent them from reaching their full potential. (P40) ARABIC | HINDI | ITALIAN | SWAHILI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

Goal 4

Photo: The children of Namokanda community in West Bengal who have formed the ‘Shishu Panchayat' consisting of school-going children. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS

By Kalinga Seneviratne

NAMOKANDA, West Bengal, India (IDN) – Six years ago this remote village of 130 households about 80 km from Santiniketan – the hometown of famous Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore – was a small picturesque village community surrounded by paddy fields, but without a sustainable development concept.

Today it is a confident community with most households having access to water and sanitation, and most of its children in school aspiring to go to university. One of the community leaders is even doing research in development communication at the famous Visva-Bharati University, India’s first ‘institute of national importance’, set up by Tagore.

Goal 4

Photo: Monks and nuns taking a Buddhist Volunteer Spirit for Communication training course at the BDP’s Training Center, Wat Nakhoun Noi, Nasaythong District, Vientiane Credit: Toung Eh Synuanchanh.

By Toung Eh Synuanchanh

This article is the 19th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

BEUNGSANTHUENG, Laos (IDN) – A quiet revolution is taking shape in rural Laos, where environmentally-conscious village Buddhist monks are teaching people morality and meditation to spearhead a movement mobilising the people to economically develop their communities for living in harmony with nature rather than destroying it in the name of development.

At the Ban Beungsanthueng community, in Nongbok District in Khammouane Province of Laos, about 400 km south of the capital Vientiane, monks educate the villagers in Sila (Buddhist morality) and the way to live a good life (Right Livelihood), while protecting the environment. In this nominally communist country, the monks explain the linkage between humans and nature to villagers, and its importance to their livelihoods and well-being.

Goal 4

Photo: Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta on a state visit to Ghana in July 2017. Credit: Malta President's Website

By Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta

Following are extensive extracts from the speech delivered by Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta, at the 17th session of the UNIDO General Conference 'Partnering for Impact: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals' in Vienna on November 27, 2017. Li Yong was re-appointed for a second term (2017-2021) as the Director General of the Organization at the opening of the session. – The Editor

VIENNA (IDN) – Two years have passed since the adoption of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030. Its seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are still the main benchmark for the international community, to work for the aspirations of humanity, for effective global development in a holistic and an integrated way.

Goal 1

Photo: A panel of experts discussing mental health challenges faced by adolescents at the 11th World Congress on Adolescent Health in New Delhi. Credit: Stella Paul - IDN | INPS

By Stella Paul

NEW DELHI (IDN) – For three years, 13-year-old migrant Manasa spent nine hours a day picking chilli on a neighbour’s farm in southern India’s Guntur district.

But when a team of local health activists conducting a door-to-door survey in her village in the summer of 2015 found that students had stopped attending school, the finding was shared with a senior official in the provincial government who ordered the village heads to crack down on those employing children on their farms.

Along with 20 others, Manasa was rescued and sent back to school where she is now in her fifth year and dreams of becoming a teacher some day.

Across India and the world, credible data and evidence gathered by the governments and NGOs have been helping improve the lives and health of thousands of adolescents like Manasa. (P30) ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | TURKISH

Goal 4

  1. Giving Visibility – and Land Rights – to the Indigenous
  2. Experts Explore Pathways for the Global Compact for Migration
  3. Critical Thinking, Civic Values, Urged for Sustainability
  4. Eastern Spirituality Could Help Sustainable Development
  5. Education Key to Promoting Sustainable Development

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