September 2017 - Home - SDGs for All

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A Joint Media Project of
the Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group with IDN as the Flagship Agency
and Soka Gakkai International in Consultative Status with ECOSOC

Month:

Myanmar May be Able To Learn From Sri Lanka To Resolve the “Bengali” Problem

By Jayasri Priyalal*

SINGAPORE (IDN) – The Rohingya crisis and influx of refugees to Bangladesh is headline stories in the media at present. As a Sri Lankan I could note the similarity of the conflicts of statelessness that prevailed in Sri Lanka then and Myanmar at present, and Sri Lanka’s approach to solving the crisis with India could be a framework for Myanmar to follow.

In 1948 when Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain, the island nation was left with about one million Tamils who were called “Indian Tamils” in Sri Lanka. They were brought to Sri Lanka from South India from the lowest Dalit caste to work in tea plantations that were set up on land the British confiscated from Sinhala peasants, who refused to work in those plantations. Thus the presence of these Tamils was deeply resented by the Sinhalese. British have created a stateless community who were neither Indian nor Sri Lankan citizens. (P24) HINDI｜JAPANESE …

Making the 3rd Industrial Development Decade for Africa a Reality with Actions on the Ground

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – When the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Resolution to declare 2016-2025 as the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA III) in August 2016, it stated: “Africa remains the poorest and the most vulnerable region in the world.” And this despite the two previous decades.

The Resolution A/RES/70/293 noted “the need for the continent to take urgent action to advance sustainable industrialization as a key element of furthering economic diversification and value addition, creating jobs and thus reducing poverty,” and contributing to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Agenda with 17 Goals and 169 targets was adopted in September 2015. The Resolution reaffirmed “the importance of industrialization in supporting Africa’s own efforts towards sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and accelerated development.” (P23) ARABIC｜FRENCH | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SWAHILI
…

Over 110 Countries Commit to Halt Land Degradation

By Jaya Ramachandran

BERLIN | ORDOS CITY, China (IDN) – Land degradation is one of the planet’s most pressing global challenges. A third of the world’s land is degraded. But the good news is that by the end of the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on September 16, 2017 in China’s Ordos City, 113 countries had agreed to specify concrete targets, with clear indicators, to reverse degradation and rehabilitate more land.

A new global roadmap to address land degradation was also agreed. The UNCCD 2018-2030 Strategic Framework is regarded as the most comprehensive global commitment to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) in order to restore the productivity of vast swathes of degraded land, improve the livelihoods of more than 1.3 billion people, and to reduce the impacts of drought on vulnerable populations. (P22) ｜JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
…

Experts Explore Pathways for the Global Compact for Migration

By Julia Rainer

VIENNA (IDN) – “Smuggling of migrants, trafficking in persons and contemporary forms of slavery, including appropriate identification, protection and assistance to migrants and trafficking victims,” was the title of the Fifth thematic session of the UN General Assembly hosted on September 4-5 by the United Nations Office in Vienna (UNOV).

The event aimed at supporting the inter-governmental process designed to lead to the adoption in 2018 of a global compact on safe, orderly and regular migration – a goal agreed by the member states when adopting the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants in September 2016.

Louise Arbour, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for International Migration, and Secretary-General of the session, opened the discussion with a strong appeal to the member states.…

Critical Thinking, Civic Values, Urged for Sustainability

By A.D. McKenzie

PARIS (IDN) – Given the rampant technological changes taking place, it’s impossible to predict what the world will look like in even 20 years, and only the development of critical thinking and common civic values will help humankind to deal with the future.

That is the viewpoint of Sonia Dhillon Marty, head of a foundation that is seeking to “foster civic engagement” through art, architecture, design, sustainable farming and technology”, as she puts it. “If we are together, people will listen, politicians will listen,” Dhillon Marty said during a conference in Paris, September 12-13 at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).…

Water, Food and Energy Security for All is Possible

By Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General

Following is the text of a speech given by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (1997-2006), the founding chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation, and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, on September 7, 2017 at the ‘Making Waves’ conference in Afsluitdijk (English: Enclosure Dam), a major causeway in the Netherlands, constructed between 1927 and 1932. It is being reproduced courtesy of the Kofi Annan Foundation. – The Editor.

GENEVA (IDN-INPS) – I can’t think of a more symbolic and inspirational location to promote innovative solutions around water, food and energy than the iconic Afsluitdijk. The dam is a masterpiece of Dutch engineering and a symbol for the country’s centuries-long fight against flooding from the sea.…

Safe Piped Water Remains a Luxury Across Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

MWENEZI; Zimbabwe (IDN) – Raviro Chawuruka scoops out sand from a well on a stream bank closer to her rural home in Rutenga, 443 km west of Harare, in Mwenezi district in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo Province.

At the age of 72, Chawuruka says she has known no rest while scavenging for water, this as she daily battles it out with the sand-filled water well in the vicinity of her home. She stands out among millions of Africans to whom piped water still remains a luxury, decades after several African nations gained independence from their former colonisers: Zimbabwe over 37 years ago.

According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency, 65 percent of Zimbabwe’s 14 million people such as Chawuruka are domiciled in rural areas, where they have become the number one victims of lack of piped water. (P21) ｜JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | CHINESE TEXT VERSION PDF |
…

UN Chief Pleads for “a Surge in Diplomacy for Peace”

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has stressed the pressing need for increased diplomacy on vexatious global issues, broad adherence to the aims of the landmark Paris climate accord, wider engagement with the world’s youth and dedicated efforts to ensure gender parity across the UN system.

In an interview with UN News in the run-up to the 72nd Regular Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 72), which will convene at UN Headquarters in New York on September 12, Guterres said the UN “must be an instrument for a surge in diplomacy for peace.” Guterres, the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, and the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), took up his post on 1 January 1, 2017.…

China Hosts A Milestone UN Conference on Land Degradation

By Rita Joshi

BONN | ORDOS CITY (IDN) – A new strategy aimed at achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) by 2030 will be a major outcome of the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which opened in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China, on September 6.

This is the first Conference hosted by China out of the three 1992 Earth Summit’s Rio Conventions – on biological diversity and Climate Change, according to UNCCD Executive Secretary Monique Barbut. The target to be achieved between 2018 and 2030 has indicators to measure change. It provides “an organizing principle that we can all rally behind and achieve a specific change.”

“The UNCCD is the global custodian of this target and there is now a new sense of purpose and common cause. Of the 169 countries that declared in 2013 that they are affected by land degradation or drought, more than 110 have …

南部アフリカの都市住民を襲う貧困

Slums like this have emerged over the years as poverty erupts in an area called Lion's Den, 20km outside Chinhoyi town in Mashonaland West province in Zimbabwe. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IDN-INPS 【ハラレIDN＝ジェフリー・モヨ】

人生のある局面において、彼女はジンバブエ国鉄の有能な会計士であった。ジンバブエの首都ハラレから２５キロ離れた南東部にある人口の多い非正規居住区エプワースに住む彼女が今送っているのは、「転落人生」である。

５年前に夫を亡くし、３人の子を持つシュバイ・チコトさん（４８）は、この数年で貧困層に転落してしまった数多くの南部アフリカの都市住民のひとりにすぎない。そんなチコトさんは、今後１３年間であらゆる形態の貧困を根絶するとの目標を国連が掲げたことについて、特に何とも思っていない。…

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Month:

Myanmar May be Able To Learn From Sri Lanka To Resolve the “Bengali” Problem

Making the 3rd Industrial Development Decade for Africa a Reality with Actions on the Ground

Over 110 Countries Commit to Halt Land Degradation

Experts Explore Pathways for the Global Compact for Migration

Critical Thinking, Civic Values, Urged for Sustainability

Water, Food and Energy Security for All is Possible

Safe Piped Water Remains a Luxury Across Africa

UN Chief Pleads for “a Surge in Diplomacy for Peace”

China Hosts A Milestone UN Conference on Land Degradation

南部アフリカの都市住民を襲う貧困

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