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.
By Ngala Killian Chimtom
YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon (IDN) — While African forest elephants have traditionally been thought of as playing a destructive, negative role in forests, the big munchers are now seen as critical to saving a climate in peril.
Scientists now suggest that the perceived destructive nature of the African forest elephant through its feeding habits is good for the forests' health and the global climate. (P32) FRENCH | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE | SPANISH
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK, 7 March 2023 (IDN) — Once on the decline, global hunger has reversed course over the last ten years, as multinational food companies increasingly replace domestic production and leave populations “food insecure.”
According to a recent Greenpeace International report, food imports from factory farms have jumped 650 per cent in Kenya alone, making huge profits for a handful of corporations and generous dividends for their shareholders.
By Farai Shawn Matiashe
MUTARE, Zimbabwe, 5 March 2023 (IDN) — Every morning, Mercy Mubatsa fetches water from a tap outside her home in Penhalonga, a mining area 263 kilometres (163 miles) outside the Zimbabwean capital Harare, her anxiety is heightened.
In March last year, mercury and cyanide deposits from artisanal gold mines in Penhalonga were detected in Lake Alexander, about 32 kilometres from the mines, that supply water to her home.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY, 04 March 2023 (IDN) — Education contributes to many of the Sustainable Development Goals. It reduces poverty, drives sustainable economic growth, prevents inequality and injustice, leads to better health —particularly for women and children—and helps to protect the planet.
The COVID-19 pandemic has, more than ever, put the education of children, adolescents and young people at risk and has caused the largest education disruption ever in history. The pandemic is exacerbating pre-existing challenges in access to education and quality learning and skills, and the impacts of the crisis continue to disrupt the education of millions of children and adolescents across the globe.
By Jaya Ramachandran
GENEVA, 4 March 2023 (IDN) — Multiple crises including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, growing inequalities, rising debt burdens and economic shocks are strongly affecting world's 46 Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
They face the challenge of high debt costs because they do not have sufficient cash to provide essential services. In the last decade, debt service costs in LDCs have increased from around 5% in 2011 to over 20% today.
By Jeffrey Moyo
CAPETOWN, South Africa, 01 March 2023 (IDN) — Thirty-seven-year-old Lwandile Zwane of Khayelitsha and her two daughters have their super by 4 pm to beat the six-hour electricity outage across Capetown.
Characterized by slum settlements, Khayelitsha is a township in South Africa’s Cape Town where power outages have not spared many poor South Africans as the African country contends with energy shortages.
A UN News Special
UNITED NATIONS, 25 Feb 2023 (IDN) — Multilingual education is a critical key to razing inequalities and promoting human rights for all, UN officials said to mark International Mother Language Day. Commemorating the world’s languages—all 6,700 of them—since 1999, the 21 February aims at celebrating ways of showcasing the world’s linguistic tapestry, committing to the preservation of the diversity of languages as a common heritage, and working for quality education—in mother tongues—for all, said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK, 17 Feb 2023 (IDN) — In view of the failure of the global financial system to effectively cushion the impacts of current global crises on the Global South—the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing climate emergency—the UN has called for an increase of about $500 billion each year by world's most developed nations to finance the crucial 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs).
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY, 16 Feb 2023 (IDN) — Universities are sometimes seen as ivory towers aloft from the communities they are supposed to serve. But, in reviving a sector that was badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, universities are now taking the lead in working with the communities to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
By Rodrigo Pérez
SANTIAGO, Chile (IDN) — As many as 131.3 million in Latin America and the Caribbean have had to forego nutritious foods in 2020 because of the higher average daily cost of healthy diets in the region compared to those in other areas of the world. According to the new United Nations report Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2022, in 2019, the figure amounted to about 123 million. (P31) JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN | PORTUGUESE | SPANISH
