Viewpoint by Richard Kozul-Wright
The writer is Director of Globalization and Development Strategies, UNCTAD.
GENEVA (IDN) – The COVID-19 crisis is stress testing the capacity of governance arrangements to deal with unexpected shocks.
Results point to considerable variation at the national level, but it’s difficult to give anything above a B minus to the response at the multilateral level.
UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report Update sets out how South-South cooperation, though not a substitute for a proper international response to the crisis, can point towards a better future.
By Jaya Ramachandran with IOM Press Release
GENEVA (IDN) – In the face of the number of rising new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has expanded the scope of its Global Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) to include far-reaching interventions that aim to mitigate the dire health and socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. A revised appeal was launched on April 15 for $499 million to support vital preparedness, response and recovery activities in over 140 countries.
By Kainga Seneviratne
SINGAPORE (IDN) – The small Southeast Asian island republic of Singapore has been praised by both global business leaders and the international media for its openness to global trade and professional talent movements. It has made this nation of just over 4 million people – 1 million of who are foreigner – one of the richest nations in the world on a per-capita basis.
But, the open economic policy that has led to this may have run its course with locals becoming increasingly resentful of having to compete with “foreign talent” for jobs.
By Reinhard Jacobsen
BRUSSELS (IDN) – A new set of European Commissioners has taken office in Brussels. The main migration focus of the previous cabinet of Commissioners was halting migration – which led to deals with third countries on stopping and returning refugees and migrants. People evacuated from Libya, for example, are brought to Niger and Rwanda, where they are processed before those successfully registered as refugees are taken to Europe – often after long processes filled with uncertainty.
By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) – With “uncertainty and insecurity all around”, Secretary-General António Guterres has described young people as “the greatest source of hope”. In welcoming the New Year, he said: “The United Nations stands with you and belongs to you”.
According to the UN chief, the current situation is characterized by: Persistent inequality and rising hatred. A warring world and a warming planet. Climate change is not only a long-term problem but a clear and present danger, he said. “We cannot afford to be the generation that fiddled while the planet burned.”
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- Goal 8
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE (IDN) – India’s needs to redouble its efforts to reduce stunting among its children not only because this would improve their mental and physical development, learning capacity and life chances but also, to meet the 2022 deadline set by its National Nutrition Mission and enable the world to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
According to India’s National Family Health Service-3 and 4 (NFHS-3 and 4) figures, the proportion of its children under five years of age that are stunted declined from 48% in 2006 to 38% in 2016. While the decadal decline is significant, the reduction per year was just 1%. (P13) HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | THAI
By Paul Akiwumi
The writer, a national of Ghana, is UNCTAD's Director of the Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes. This article was first published in The EastAfrican, print edition (20-26 July 2019).
GENEVA (IDN-INPS) – Meskerem is a middle-aged Ethiopian woman, who runs a café and bakery with ten employees in an affluent neighbourhood of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Meskerem once sold corn-cobs on the street but could barely make a living. She decided to go door-to-door to sell coffee and bread to security guards, and construction workers.
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 Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the international community started implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), efforts on some of the Goals have been successful “in a number of areas”, but on the whole “progress has been slow or even reversed”, notes the UN, adding that the most vulnerable people and countries continue to suffer the most and the global response has not been ambitious enough.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
BUKHARA, Uzbekistan (IDN) – The city of Bukhara was a major trading hub of the ancient Silk Routes that connected Asia to the Arab world and Europe. With the Uzbekistan government’s lifting of restrictions on foreign tourists in 2016 and global interests on the ancient Silk Routes gathering momentum, this 2000-year-old city is poised to become a major tourist hub of Central Asia.
The city grew up nourished by the merchants that arrived from Persia, India, China and Russia and it was a popular and important resting point in the development of these routes between the 10th and 17th centuries. (P06) ARABIC | CHINESE | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | TURKISH
