By Ngala Killian Chimtom

YAOUNDE (ACP-IDN) – “You are welcome back home”, said Cameroon Prime Minister Philemon Yang, setting the tone for a five-day event intended to woo the Cameroonian diaspora to invest in its country of origin.

With eyes set on 2035 as the year Cameroon should attain emergence status, public authorities are doing what they can to fast track the country’s economic growth, constrained as it is by a draining battle against terrorist group Boko Haram and falling oil prices on the international market.

As a result, Cameroon is now turning to its diaspora to help the troubled economy of the Central African country.…

By J. Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Nearly eighteen months after the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit – officially came into force, Secretary-General António Guterres is concerned that the UN Development System is not delivering on the ambitious agenda.

In his remarks to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on July 5, the UN Chief said: “The 2030 Agenda is our boldest agenda for humanity, and requires equally bold changes in the UN development system . . . Yet we all know that the system is not functioning at its full potential.”…

By Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO

Following is the text of the Foreword the UNESCO Director-General wrote for the ‘2017 Report of the Joint Media Project’ of the International Press Syndicate Group, with IDN-InDepthNews as its flagship agency and the Soka Gakkai Internationa (SGI). The Report can be accessed on line at http://www.sdgsforall.net/https://www.sdgsforall.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Striving_for_People_Planet_and_Peace_2017.pdf. – The Editor

PARIS (IDN-INPS) – The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), charts a new vision for cooperation over the next 15 years, to ensure prosperity and well-being for all societies, while protecting the planet and strengthening peace. Inclusivity, integration, and universality. These are three hallmarks of the SDGs, and they represent the most ambitious and comprehensive agenda ever seen – to leave no one behind.…

By Phil Harris

ROME | PARIS (IDN) – Signalling a major achievement for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Arab world, Sharjah has been named World Book Capital 2019 by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The honour is recognition of the emirate’s pioneering role in supporting and expanding the local and regional publishing industries, promoting reading to become an intrinsic cultural practice, as well as embracing intercultural, knowledge-based dialogue.

The award was announced at a meeting in The Hague of an advisory committee comprising representatives of the International Publisher’s Association (IPA), the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and UNESCO. | GERMAN |
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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The United Nations is often scapegoated for the falling short of its peacekeeping troops and deployments. Why are they not in Syria or Yemen, Libya or along the Palestinian/Israeli border? Why did the U.S. and the UK make it impossible for the few UN troops present at the onset of the genocide in Rwanda to have their numbers significantly augmented? As a result those few on the ground had no choice but to withdraw when some of their members were killed and their genitals stuffed in their mouths.

All good questions if not easy to answer. In Syria, for example, where exactly would they be deployed? But a better question is why didn’t they go in at the beginning of the civil war when things weren’t so complicated and Al Qaeda and ISIS were not around?…

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Jayathma Wickramanayake of Sri Lanka is the new UN Envoy on Youth. She succeeds Ahmad Alhendawi of Jordan. Announcing this appointment, Secretary-General António Guterres said he was grateful for Alhendawi’s dedicated service in addressing the needs and rights of young people, bringing the work of the United Nations closer to them.

The success of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development depends on empowering young people as rights-holders, agents of change and torchbearers, Guterres said.

“Having represented and motivated global youth development on an international level since the age of 21, notably during high-level United Nations initiatives including the declaration of World Youth Skills Day,” the announcement on June 20 added, Wickramanayake “has also played a key role in transforming the youth development sector at the national level, notably through the creation of a large movement for civic and political engagement of young people named ‘Hashtag Generation’.”…

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – Global opium production increased by one-third in 2016 compared with the previous year, primarily due to higher opium poppy yields in Afghanistan, and coca bush cultivation increased by 30 percent mainly as a result of increased cultivation in Colombia.

Following a period of decline, there are also signs that cocaine use is increasing in the two largest markets, North America and Europe. These are among the findings reported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in this year’s World Drug Report, released on June 22.

In a statement at the launch of the report, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov stressed that while the outcome document of the 2016 landmark UN General Assembly special session on the world drug problem contains more than 100 concrete recommendations to reduce demand and supply, this is not enough.…