Home - SDGs for All

Actions Needed to Protect Wild Species and Natural Habitats

UN Summit on Biodiversity Provides an Opportunity

Viewpoint by Amy Fraenkel

The writer is Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).

BONN (IDN) – The UN Summit on Biodiversity was meant to galvanize commitments to stop the impending biodiversity crisis, and to underscore the need for effective actions in a new Global Biodiversity Framework. Few could predict that it would take place in the middle of a deadly global pandemic — which in all likelihood was brought about by human activities that exploit wild animals and nature.…

Fiji’s Tourism Workers Turn to Farming and Fishing As COVID-19 Ravages the Industry

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – The COVID-19 crisis has hit tourism-dependent Pacific Island countries severely. Fiji, the largest of these states, is feeling the impact badly, with laid-off workers of tourism-related industries, such as hotels and travel companies, turning to farming and fishing for survival. Because of its larger land mass and fishing grounds in the sea, Fiji’s population is trying to cushion the impact depending on their natural resources.…

Beijing +25: Overcoming 21st Century Challenges to Deliver for Africa’s Women

Beyond legislation, countries must tackle negative social norms and rising bias.

Viewpoint by Angela Lusigi *

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action signed in 1995 committed the world to ending discrimination, promoting women’s rights and advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.

This Platform for Action remains a guiding framework for realizing women’s rights. African countries have responded by translating commitments to action in twelve critical areas of concern including environment, decision making, the girl child, economy, poverty, violence, human rights, education, institutions, health, media, and armed conflict through continental, regional and national frameworks.…

Call For “Another ‘Paris’ Moment to Mobilise Action on Biodiversity for Sustainable Development”

Viewpoint by Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti

The writer is Secretary-General of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS)

BRUSSELS (IDN) – 2020 marks the end of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011 – 2020) and the 20 global biodiversity targets (Aichi targets). The mission of the Strategic Plan was to “take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure that by 2020, ecosystems are resilient and continue to provide essential services, thereby securing the planet’s variety of life and contributing to human well-being and poverty eradication.”…

UN At 75: How the Law of The Sea Has Shaped A More Fair and Equal Society

Viewpoint by Michael W. Lodge

Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) based in Jamaica.

KINGSTON (IDN) – In his address to the United Nations Economic and Social Council in July 2020, reflecting on what kind of UN we need at the 75th anniversary, the Secretary-General of the UN called for strengthened and renewed multilateralism, geared towards the overarching goals of peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development. (P18) GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
…

Transforming Agriculture for Food, Nutrition and Livelihoods

By Busani Bafana

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (IDN) – Horticulture farmer Prosper Chikwara, grows cabbages, spinach and kale on the idyllic family farm, 20km north of the city of Bulawayo. Word of mouth is no longer enough to sell his produce.

He now grows on order because it no longer guaranteed there will be buyers at his gate when the crops are ready for harvest.

Six months ago, Chikwara, supplied 20 000 kg of vegetables to wholesalers in the city of Bulawayo. He is now selling less than half of his produce since the Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown was imposed.…

UN Releases Special 2020 Broadcast Calling for Collective Action

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In a significant move to mobilise global support, the United Nations, Project Everyone and 72 Films are launching ‘Nations United – Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times’. A first of its kind film has been released September 19 on the UN YouTube channel and global broadcast networks. Watch video

The importance of the move lies in the fact that with just ten years to go for the 2030 deadline, implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is far from satisfactory. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening decade of global progress.…

The Great Green Wall Is Paving the Way Ahead to 2030

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – The Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative has over the past 13 years restored close to 20 million hectares of land, according to a report released on September 7 at a virtual meeting of environmental ministers from Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti together with regional partners, international organizations and development agencies.

The GGW Initiative was launched in 2007 under the leadership of the African Union Commission and Pan-African Agency, and with the financial support from the government of Ireland. (P17) JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SWAHILI
…

Collage of the mass grave at the Killing Field of Choeung Ek with the leader of the Killing Fields on the left. Source: Wikimedia.

Death of The Leader Of “The Killing Fields” Raises Questions

Will there be more genocides that the world will ignore until it is too late?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – One of the cruellest men ever to have lived died on September 2 in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Kaing Guek Eav, popularly known as “Duch”, was 77 and had been convicted of mass torture by the UN/Cambodian war crimes court. He was the only one of the five defendants to admit his crimes. In July 2010 in a trial I witnessed first-hand he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

According to Seth Mydans, the New York Times’s correspondent in Cambodia at the time of the rule of Pol Pot who founded the guerrilla movement, the Khmer Rouge, “he was a schoolteacher before the Khmer Rouge came to power. He took his revolutionary name from a children’s book about an obedient schoolboy named Duch. ‘I wanted to be a well-disciplined boy who respected the teachers and did …

Ladakh Buddhist Monk Leads A Campaign for Peaceful Resolution of Border Conflict

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – When India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation foreign ministers’ meeting in Moscow on September 10, Wang noted that it was “normal for India and China to have differences as two neighbouring major countries”.

According to India’s NDTV network, he added, as Asia’s emerging powers, India and China need to cooperate and not confront each other, and promote mutual trust, not suspicion. (P15) JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | HINDI
…

Watch out for our new project website https://sdgs-for-all.net

Actions Needed to Protect Wild Species and Natural Habitats

Fiji’s Tourism Workers Turn to Farming and Fishing As COVID-19 Ravages the Industry

Beijing +25: Overcoming 21st Century Challenges to Deliver for Africa’s Women

Call For “Another ‘Paris’ Moment to Mobilise Action on Biodiversity for Sustainable Development”

UN At 75: How the Law of The Sea Has Shaped A More Fair and Equal Society

Transforming Agriculture for Food, Nutrition and Livelihoods

UN Releases Special 2020 Broadcast Calling for Collective Action

The Great Green Wall Is Paving the Way Ahead to 2030

Death of The Leader Of “The Killing Fields” Raises Questions

Ladakh Buddhist Monk Leads A Campaign for Peaceful Resolution of Border Conflict

NEWSLETTER

STRIVING

MAPTING

MAPTING

Copyright © 2016-2023 International Press Syndicate