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SDGs for All

SDGs for All is a joint media project of the global news organization International Press Syndicate (INPS) and the lay Buddhist network Soka Gakkai International (SGI). It aims to promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative goals and targets. It offers in-depth news and analyses of local, national, regional and global action for people, planet and prosperity. This project website is also a reference point for discussions, decisions and substantive actions related to 17 goals and 169 targets to move the world onto a sustainable and resilient path.

Photo: Accra Central. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – The Africa Climate Week, which is being hosted by Ghana from March 18–22 in Accra, is the first of three annual regional climate events this year – the latter two being the Latin America & Caribbean Climate Week and the Asia Pacific Climate Week.

According to the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the collective goal of these Climate Weeks is to support the implementation of countries' Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and climate action to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In so doing, they bring together a diverse array of international stakeholders in the public and private sectors around the common goal of enhancing climate action.

Goal 13+14+15

Image credit: UN Women

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has stressed the need for "transformative shifts, integrated approaches and new solutions" to achieve gender equality, as envisaged in Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the road map for a sustainable future by 2030.

"Current trajectories show existing interventions do not suffice," she said ahead of the celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2019, at which UN Women is celebrating its 2019 theme of “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change”, along with hosting hundreds of festivities around the world through the organization’s global network.

Goal 5

Photo: A wide view of the room as Secretary-General António Guterres (at podium) makes remarks at the opening of the 40th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 25 February 2019. Credit: UN Photo/Violaine Martin

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – People’s rights are under fire “in many parts of the globe,” but there is no need to lose hope, because powerful grassroots movements for social justice have made great strides, according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

While the Human Rights Council was the “epicentre” for dialogue and cooperation on all human rights issues such as civil, political, economic, social and cultural, beyond its doors, other key voices were also demanding their rights and making their voices heard, particularly “youth, indigenous people, migrants and refugees”.

Goal 16

Photo: BWC Workshop in Cameroon. Credit: UNODA

By Ronald Joshua

GENEVA (IDN) – The activities funded by the European Union are making a difference on the ground and are helping countries to develop their capacities against the threat of proliferation of biological weapons by States or non-States actors.

This was one of the conclusions at an EU side event that was organised in the margins of the annual meeting of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in Geneva in December 2018 to present project activities under the EU Council Decision 2016/51 in support of the Convention.

Goal 16

Photo: Photo: Many associated biodiversity species, such as bees, are under severe threat. Credit: FAO/Zinyange Auntony

By Jaya Ramachandran

ROME (IDN) – In the first-ever report of its kind FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, has presented surging and perturbing evidence that the biodiversity that underpins our food systems is disappearing – putting the global population’s health, livelihoods and environment under severe threat.

FAO’s State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture report, launched on February 22 warns that once lost, biodiversity for food and agriculture cannot be recovered.

Goal 2

Photo (from left to right): Noboru Yamaguchi (Japan); Yang Xiyu (China), Chung-in Moon (South Korea), Kevin Clements (Coordinator: Toda Institute), Joseph Yun (USA), Georgy Toloraya (Russia). Credit: Yukie Asagiri.

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – Nearly 66 years have passed since the Armistice Agreement formally brought about "a complete cessation of hostilities" of the Korean War. One year later, Chinese Premier and Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai proposed a peace treaty. But U.S. Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, refused – leaving a final peace settlement on the Korean Peninsula hanging in the air.

The signed Armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has separated North and South Korea since the Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.

Goal 16

Photo: While more girls are attending school than before, they are significantly under-represented in STEM subjects in many settings and they appear to lose interest in STEM subjects as they reach adolescence. Credit: UN Women Viet Nam/Pham Quoc Hung

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – Nearly 90 per cent of future jobs will require some form of ICT (information and communication technology) skills, according to a new World Economic Forum report, 'The Future of Jobs'. The fastest growing job categories are related to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), and recent studies indicate 58 million net new jobs, in areas such as data analysis, software development and data visualization.

The United Nations is concerned that women and girls will not be in a position to benefit from emerging opportunities because too many of them are being discouraged from the sciences.

Goal 5

Photo: Open-pit mine Montepuez, considered the world’s most lucrative ruby operation. Source: Gemfields

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A British mining company has agreed to pay over $7 million to settle claims including allegations of torture and murder at ruby mines in the northeast of Mozambique. The brilliant red stones, worth millions, have been worn by international actresses Mila Kunas, Bel Powley, and Sophie Cookson, among others.

The company, Gemfields, chose to pay community members living near its Montepuez ruby mine on a “no admission of liability” basis that settles a claim of human rights abuses over a decade brought against it by local villagers.

Goal 8

Photo: Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar to safety in Cox's Bazar. Credit: UNHCR/Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo

Viewpoint by Vincent Auger*

United Nations aid agencies and partners launched an appeal on February 15 to raise $920 million to assist more than 900,000 refugees from Myanmar and the more than 330,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis hosting them.

MACOMB, Illinois, USA (IDN) – Eighteen months after being driven from their homes in Myanmar by what UN officials described as a campaign of genocidal violence by the military, the situation facing Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh remains perilous. Hundreds of thousands of people live in camps (the camp in Kutupalong alone houses more than 600,000 people), relying on aid from the World Food Program and help from the government of Bangladesh.

Goal 8

Photo: Numbers of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean may have dropped in 2018, but at a heavy human cost. Source: MSF Sea.

By Klara Smits

BRUSSELS (IDN) – After his visit to Austria, Libya’s foreign minister Mohammed Sayala told the Kuwaiti News Agency on January 31 that Libya’s southern borders have now become Europe’s borders. Illegal migration could not be stopped at the Mediterranean Sea, he argued. Therefore, he promised that on the February 20, Libya will present the EU with a policy to cooperate on ‘protecting’ those southern borders. The plan will also include border agreements with Chad, Niger and Sudan.

Goal 8

  1. Africa's First Ladies Launch Strategy to Promote Health
  2. African Leaders Put Rich Nations on Notice That Days of Cheap Resources are Ending
  3. Bangkok Meeting Reviews Programme of Action for LLDCs
  4. UN Committed to Providing Humanitarian Aid to Venezuelans
  5. Morocco's Indigenous People Cry for Sustainable Development

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Striving for People Planet and Peace 2019

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