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.
Catastrophic Consequences Feared
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) — The United Nations has warned that the Horn of Africa is facing an unprecedented drought emergency, which will unleash catastrophic consequences. Communities in the region are in the midst of a likely fifth consecutive failed rainy season. They may face a sixth failed season in March-May 2023. (P28) ARABIC | GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
UNICEF Warns of Funding Shortfall in The Face of Drought
By Devendra Kamarajan
NAIROBI (IDN) — UN Children's Agency UNICEF has urged the international community to "commit to responding now for what might hit the Horn of Africa" in 2023, "and in the years to come".
UNICEF Deputy Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Lieke van de Weil said on December 22: “We need a global effort to mobilize resources urgently to reduce further devastating and irreversible damage to children in the Horn of Africa. We must act now to save children’s lives, preserve their dignity and protect their futures.”
Viewpoint by Roopa Dhatt & Samiratou Ouedraogo
Roopa Dhatt is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health. Samiratou Ouedraogo is the Coordinator and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health, Francophone West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
WASHINGTON DC (IDN) — If there were a Harvey Weinstein in health, we probably wouldn’t know about it. Not because sexual harassment in the health workforce isn’t widespread—we know that it is and not because women don’t want to report their experiences of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH) at work—we know that they do; but because across much of the world’s health systems, there are simply no feasible reporting or legal mechanisms in place that women health workers can use with confidence.
By Robert Johnson
PARIS (IDN) — Though ODA-official development assistance from members of the OECD’s DAC-Development Assistance Committee rose to a new high last year, it amounted to the equivalent of only 0.33 per cent of their combined GNI-gross national income, thus falling short of a United Nations goal to reach an ODA/GNI ratio of 0.7%.
The biggest ODA givers by volume in 2021 were the United States (USD 47.8 billion), Germany (USD 33.3 billion), Japan (USD 17.6 billion), the United Kingdom (USD 15.7 billion), and France (USD 15.5 billion).
Nature-Based Solutions Could Generate 20 million New Jobs
By Jaya Ramachandran
GENEVA (IDN) — A joint report by three UN organisations says that 20 million jobs could be created by further harnessing the power of nature to address the major challenges facing society, such as climate change, disaster risk and food and water insecurity.
According to the report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), investing in policies that support Nature-based Solutions (NbS) would generate significant employment opportunities, particularly in rural areas. (P27) HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced 13 grants totalling more than $19.2 million to strengthen local and regional investigative journalism in Nigeria.
The initiative, awarded through the foundation’s Nigeria program, seeks to reduce corruption by supporting Nigerian-led anti-corruption efforts that advance accountability, transparency, and civic participation.
By Joseph Maina
NAIROBI (IDN) — Seven years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, Kenya has made significant strides towards the realisation of the SDGs. Official sources cite “remarkable progress” made towards achieving the goals. SDGs and other development initiatives are well anchored in its long-term development blueprint dubbed Vision 2030, as well as a robust constitutional framework under the Constitution of Kenya 2010 that has a strong Bill of Rights and principles that are good drivers of Agenda 2030.
By Jaya Ramachandran
GENEVA | LONDON (IDN) — Climate uncertainty is creating health threats for thousands of migrants as overcrowding and pollution place huge stresses on humanitarian organisations’ ability to provide sanctuary in refugee camps, a new study reveals.
Locating camps in disaster-prone or climate hotspot areas increases their vulnerability and, coupled with stress from overcrowding that increases pressure on water, sanitation, and hygiene resilience (WaSH), leads to the overexploitation of resources.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Every year, on December 1, World AIDS Day is commemorated. People worldwide unite to show support for those living with HIV and remember those who have passed on from AIDS-related illnesses.
Ten years ago, HIV had infected at least 10 per cent of the population in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Some 50,000 infections were reported in the U.S. per year over the same period.
By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — At unoccupied swathes of land behind houses in Bloomingdale, a medium-income suburb in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, numerous maize fields and vegetable gardens have emerged as urban dwellers enduring economic hardships switch to backyard farming.
Zambia, despite emerging from an economic crisis during former President Edgar Lungu’s reign that ended last year, has dozens of urban dwellers taking up agriculture to supplement their earnings. (P26) JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SWAHILI
