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.…

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – While progress has been achieved in realizing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations in September 2015, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has warned that “the drop in extreme poverty remains uneven across regions, within countries and between various social groups.”

Addressing the opening of the fifty-sixth session of the Commission for Social Development (CSocD56), she however remarked: “At the global level, we have experienced impressive reductions in extreme poverty. Significant progress has also been made in improving access to schooling and healthcare, promoting the empowerment of women, youth, persons with disabilities, older persons and indigenous populations.”…

By Tae Han Goo

SEOUL (IDN) – South Korea, often cited as a leading example of how sound economic policies can drive growth and development, blazing a trail from poverty to advanced industrialisation throughout the 1970s and 1980s, will have a greater impact on international development cooperation if it manages to produce a clear plan to increase aid volumes in line with its stated ambitions, according to a new OECD Review.

All the more so because building on its reputation as a development success, the country – officially known as the Republic of Korea – now plays a highly valued role on the global stage, sharing its knowledge with others and helping to bridge the divide between developing and developed country interests.…

By Heather Wokusch*

This is the eighth and last in a series of reports on the Vienna UN Conference from January 10-12, 2018, which discussed actions and challenges linked to the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) and in the spirit of SDG 17. The Vienna Liaison Office of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) organized this Conference co-ordinated by Heather Wokusch. – The Editor

VIENNA (IDN) – Women across the world face discrimination in accessing economic resources. As the resulting disparity hinders a range of development goals, such as reducing poverty and improving the welfare of children, a multidisciplinary conference at the United Nations Vienna recently explored possible solutions.…

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations is on way to improving tools available for designing sustainable development policies, and building a search engine for people working on solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for accessing relevant knowledge on science, technology and innovation.

The UN Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT) announced on February 12 that a team from the University of Southampton, a public research university in the United Kingdom, had won the Unite Ideas #SDGInsights challenge for its methodology to identify drinking water service in Liberia.…

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | MUNICH (IDN) – UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned against a repeat of what happened with the League of Nations and the threat of a nuclear conflict, stressed the need for breaking the Gordian knot in the “broader Middle East”, called for establishing an international legal framework for “cyberwars between States”, and asked the international community to build a consensus on regulating the “so‑called Internet of things.”

Guterres was speaking at the opening ceremony of the three-day Munich Security Conference that concluded on February 18. Its motto “To the Brink – and Back?” seemed an apt description of the situation confronting today’s world.…

By Jaya Ramachandran

VIENNA (IDN) – The United Nations has taken an important step towards preventing incitement to violence that could lead to atrocity crimes. More than 150 religious leaders from around the world, member states and UN officials, gathered in Vienna to discuss the implementation of the Plan of Action launched by Secretary-General António Guterres in July 2017 at a meeting of the world body’s Headquarters in New York.

Guterres said: “All religions teach respect for life and recognize human beings as fundamentally equal. These principles summon us to show respect for all human beings, even those with whom we might profoundly disagree or whose cultures might seem alien.”…

By Helen Hemblade*

This is the seventh in a series of reports on the Vienna UN Conference from January 10-12, 2018, which discussed actions and challenges linked to the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) and in the spirit of SDG 17. The Vienna Liaison Office of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) organized this Conference co-ordinated by Heather Wokusch. – The Editor

VIENNA (IDN) – Violence against women is often considered something private that happens in people’s homes, beyond help of the outside world. We take for granted that victims always have the choice to seek help. We concentrate on how this happened to the victim instead of who committed the act. We fail to address patterns in the crime’s continuation.…