By Ourania Roditi *

This is the first 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) – “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” This profound remark by the 16-year old 2014 Nobel Peace Laureate Malala Yousafzai underlines a self-evident truth, which has yet to be reflected in global reality.…

By Kalinga Seneviratne

NAMOKANDA, West Bengal, India (IDN) – Six years ago this remote village of 130 households about 80 km from Santiniketan – the hometown of famous Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore – was a small picturesque village community surrounded by paddy fields, but without a sustainable development concept.

Today it is a confident community with most households having access to water and sanitation, and most of its children in school aspiring to go to university. One of the community leaders is even doing research in development communication at the famous Visva-Bharati University, India’s first ‘institute of national importance’, set up by Tagore.…

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

YAOUNDE (IDN) – “It was like I was watching a horror movie” is how the bishop of Mamfe diocese in Cameroon’s South West Region described the scene he saw in the village of Kembong village.

Mgr Andrew Nkea had visited the village in the wake of the deaths of four soldiers late December, killed by unknown assailants (although the government claimed they were secessionists). In a retaliatory move, Cameroonian soldiers had incinerated the whole village.…

By Ramesh Jaura

The following article is based on an interview with Hirotsugu Terasaki, the Director General of Peace and Global Issues of the lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International (SGI), in Tokyo, Japan. SGI was the sole Buddhist organization that participated in the Vatican Conference on nuclear disarmament on November 10-11, 2017.

BERLIN | ROME (IDN) – There was an air of surprise when religious leaders and representatives of civil society, officials of State and international organizations, eminent academics, Nobel Laureates, and students, gathered in the Vatican City against the backdrop of an escalating face-off between the U.S. and North Korea.…

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN | VIENNA (IDN) – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund for International Development (OFID) has joined hands with the United Nations atomic energy agency in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 on ending hunger, achieving food security

Backed by the OFID grant of US$ 600,000, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) projects will benefit especially poor farmers in developing countries in Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal and Vietnam.…