By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK(IDN) – Tanzania-based WomenChoice Industries and Mukuru Clean Stoves of Kenya are the global winners of the SDGs and Her Competition that seeks to increase knowledge about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their potential impact on women, as well as to encourage private sector partners and share best practices and innovative ideas.

They were celebrated at a side-event on September 24, 2018 during the high-level week of the UN General Assembly. The contest – co-sponsored by the World Bank Group, UNDP, UN Women, and the Wharton School Zicklin Center – showcases women micro-entrepreneurs who are helping to achieve the SDGs through their businesses.…

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – A new United Nations report warns that “in a wide variety of countries,” both physical violence and legal prosecution are used against Indigenous Peoples defending their rights and lands. They are “criminalized”.

The report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, to the UN Human Rights Council describes how private sector interests collude with governments in coveting the lands of Indigenous Peoples for economic development projects.

She was Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues from 2005 to 2010, and actively engaged in drafting and adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. …

By J W Jackie

RENO, Nevada, United States (IDN) – The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out a global pathway to end inequality and improve the health of the world. The SDG agenda sets out the case very clearly that trade, healthcare, gender inequality, poverty, disease, environmental protection and a range of other key goals are all inextricably linked.

Therefore, those seeking to deliver the SDG agenda by reducing trade inequalities and boosting regional development will do well to keep in mind just how interconnected and far-reaching the SDGs are. JAPANESE…

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations in a major report has warned that the prospects of about 800 million of the world’s poorest people remain dire. Though the global economy is experiencing a moderate upturn, and momentum around sustainable investing is growing, the vast majority of investment is still short-term oriented and commitments by the international community to create sustainable economies are not being met.

The report Financing for Development: Progress and Prospects finds an increasing interest in socially responsible investing, but that is no substitute for a broader transformation in the financial system, it states, adding that the current system rewards investors, financiers and project managers that prioritize short-term profits.…

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | BRUSSELS (IDN) – While preparing for talks on future relations with the European Union (EU) after the Cotonou Agreement expires in February 2020, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is engaged in concerted efforts to reshape itself into “an effective global player” serving as a catalyst and an advocate for defending, protecting and advancing multilateralism, within the overarching framework of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

An important factor for this objective to be achieved, as the ACP Secretary-General, Dr. Patrick I Gomes, told IDN’s ‘UN Insider’, is the Revision of the Georgetown Agreement named after the capital of Guyana, where it was signed in 1975. The Revision would allow the ACP Group to deepen and widen its foundations.…