By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit opens a new era for a repositioned African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP Group) to continue and deepen its decisive role in supporting all 79 member states “to achieve the 17 SDGs as the basis for the Sustainable Development of their societies and our only home we have for humanity”.

The basis and raison d’étre of the ACP is development and this implies “ending poverty in all its forms everywhere” (SDG 1). The unity and solidarity on which the ACP is founded provides a unifying force in adopting measures to end poverty, says a policy paper.…

By Reinhard Jacobsen

AMSTERDAM (IDN) – Since the first cases of HIV were reported more than 35 years ago, 78 million people have become infected with HIV and 35 million have died from AIDS-related illnesses, says UNAIDS, a United Nations organization that is leading the global effort since1996 to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to the latest figures available, in 2017, 36.9 million people were living with HIV and 21.7 million with HIV on antiretroviral therapy. 1.8 million were newly infected with HIV in 2017.…

By Amina Mohammed

Following are extensive extracts from UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the informal briefing on the Secretary-General’s meeting on financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in New York on July 27, 2018. – The Editor

UNITED NATIONS (IDN-INPS) – As we look ahead together, our focus is clear: to advance implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the 2030 Agenda and to mobilize the means to turn vision into reality.…

By Ramesh Jaura

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – The outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has expressed “acute concerns” over the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the situation in the occupied Gaza Strip, which in recent months has escalated dramatically, with the potential to generate threats to peace across a far broader region.

His concerns were affirmed when UN News reported on July 24 that intense diplomatic efforts by the United Nations and Egypt had helped avoid another Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza that appeared just “minutes away” over the previous weekend.…

Viewpoint by Katherine O’Neill*

MARRAKECH (IDN) – The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has the lowest female employment rate of anywhere in the world. Though most countries in the MENA region, including Libya and Iran, have seen gradually increasing rates of working women, Morocco’s female labour force participation (FLFP) rate has actually decreased since 1999, now sitting at 26 percent, according to Brookings.

This decline not only contradicts global and regional trends, but also comes despite significant efforts both by the Moroccan government and NGOs to increase women’s education, in hopes of improving their employment opportunities. The World Bank estimates that higher FLFP rates could result in a 25 percent average increase in household income, something which would dramatically improve the lives of men, women, and youth in the region.…

By Shanta Roy

NEW YORK (IDN) – When the United Nations commemorated World Youth Skills Day on July 16, there was one strong underlying theme that overshadowed the event.

Despite marked progress in the role of youth in a society increasingly characterized by high technology and artificial intelligence, the new generation, particularly in the developing world, was still lagging far behind in the fast-moving digital world.

Addressing a High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development on July 16, the UN’s Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed pointed out a realistically depressing fact: globally, over 291 million children attend primary schools without any electricity. …

By Kwame Buist

ROME (IDN) – In its recently released Annual Report 2017, the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – a specialised agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries – promises to leverage core resources of 1.2 billion dollars to fund a programme of loans and grants totalling 3.5 billion dollars over the 2019-2021 period.

Ninety percent of these core resources will be allocated to low-income and lower-middle-income countries, with about 45 percent being channelled to sub-Saharan Africa, and 50 percent to Africa as a whole.…