Goal 17 - SDGs for All

Photo: In a desert area located on the west coast of Australia. The lake looks pink because of Dunaliella. Credit: Midori Kurahashi.

The Biomass Shore Project – A Leading Model For Next-Generation Innovation

Viewpoint by Midori Kurahashi

The author is Project Associate Professor, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the University of Tokyo, Japan.

TOKYO (IDN) – Worldwide forest fires and the abnormal heat experienced last summer are still fresh in our memory. Many people throughout the world had a sense that some kind of unsettling change is happening. Even so, response is slow and measures are not being taken. One reason for this is that the world is driven by people who believe that the cost of stopping global warming is too great for the achieved effect. (P21) GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH

: IDN-INPS Editor; Project Articles; 02 January 2019

Photo (left to right): Ms. D. Walsweer-Sore, ACP Secretariat; Stefano Manservisi, European Commission's Director-General; Professor Robert Dussey, ACP Chief Negotiator; Rimnick Pato, Foreign Minister of Papua New Guinea.

A Critical Year Ahead For EU's Ties With 79 ACP Countries

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – 2019 will be a crucial year for relations between the European Union (EU) and 79 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) – uniting more than half of all UN member countries and representing over 1.5 billion people.

The current partnership, governed by the Cotonou agreement, is one of the longest-standing and most comprehensive framework for cooperation between the EU and developing countries. The current agreement expires in 2020. Therefore, the new agreement needs to be both finalised and approved by then.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 17; 28 December 2018

Decline in External Finance to Developing Countries Endanger Global Goals

By Krishan Dutta

PARIS (IDN) – "Donor countries have not followed through on their 2015 promise to expand development finance flows," said OECD Development Co-operation Director Jorge Moreira da Silva, launching a landmark report at the Paris Peace Forum.

He was commenting on an important finding of the report that external finance to poor countries is declining, despite a promise by the international community three years ago to increase development finance flows, in particular through private investment.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 17; 12 November 2018

Photo: ESCAP Executive Secretary Dr. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana. Credit: ESCAP

New ESCAP Chief Aims at Deepening Regional Cooperation

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK | BANGKOK (IDN) – Dr. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), is convinced that the organization has the opportunity to lead from the front.

"The Asia-Pacific region has in recent decades seen remarkable social and economic progress," says Dr. Alisjahbana who officially took office on November 1 in Bangkok. Much of this success has been built on strong foundations – on the richness and diversity of its cultures, and on the energy of the people who have changed the world by transforming their own economies, she adds.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 17; 06 November 2018

Photo credit: University of Zanjan, Iran.

UN Announces 'SDG Hubs' Connecting Universities with 2030 Global Agenda

By Ramesh Jaura

NEW YORK (IDN) – The critical role of academia in general and the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) in particular in advancing the goals of the United Nations Charter was underlined when the Organization celebrated the 73rd anniversary of its entry into force on October 24.

In view of the fact that universities play a vital role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015, UNAI announced its new SDG Hubs around the world. These are UNAI members selected as models for their innovative engagement related to the SDGs.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 17; 29 October 2018

Photo: Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner Md Kamal Hossain visiting Rohingya camp Kutupalong. Credit: Md Mojibur Rahman Rana.

A Crisis Within a Crisis for the Rohingyas

By Naimul Haq

DHAKA, Bangladesh (IDN) – Despite a well-coordinated effort to address the Rohingya refugee crisis in Cox’s Bazar, a coastal town bordering Myanmar, some major challenges still need attention.

The local administration admits that with over one million forcibly displaced Myanmar citizens arriving in such a short time, it is indeed difficult to manage the environmental damages and rising crime rates faced by the local people. (P16) | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

: IDN-INPS Editor; Project Articles; 21 October 2018

'Permainan SDGs 2030' Membangkitkan Minat di Jepang

Oleh Ramesh Jaura dan Katsuhiro Asagiri

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) – Laporan mengatakan bahwa saat Albert Einstein berusia sekitar lima tahun dan terbaring di tempat tidur, ayahnya memberinya sebuah kompas saku magnetik untuk dimainkan. Dia membolak-balikkannya, bertanya-tanya bagaimana jarum itu selalu tahu untuk menunjuk ke arah utara.

Takeo Inamura dan Nobuhide Fukui berbagi rasa ingin tahu yang sama tentang bagaimana 17 Tujuan Pembangunan Berkelanjutan (SDGs) dari Agenda Tahun 2030 untuk Pembangunan Berkelanjutan, para pemimpin dunia yang menyetujui pada bulan September 2015 di KTT PBB bersejarah di New York, dapat benar-benar mengubah dunia.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Languages; Indonesian; 18 October 2018

El 'Juego de los ODS 2030' despierta un creciente interés en Japón

De Ramesh Jaura y Katsuhiro Asagiri

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) - Los informes indican que cuando Albert Einstein tenía unos cinco años y estaba confinado en la cama, su padre le dio una brújula magnética para jugar. La giró y la giró, preguntándose cómo la aguja siempre sabía apuntar hacia el norte.

Takeo Inamura y Nobuhide Fukui compartían una profunda curiosidad acerca de cómo los 17 Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) de la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible, que los líderes mundiales adoptaron en septiembre de 2015 en una histórica Cumbre de las Naciones Unidas en Nueva York, podrían realmente transformar el mundo.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Languages; Spanish; 18 October 2018

Photo: The Port of Salvador on All Saints Bay, Bahia, Brazil. As one of the bigger, emerging economies reliant on commodity exports, Brazil can expect some economic improvement, according to a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report. Credit: World Bank/Mariana Ceratti

Foreign Direct Investment on Decline, Leaves Developing Countries Unaffected

By Ronald Joshua

GENEVA (IDN) – Foreign direct investment is critical for developing and emerging market countries. Their companies need the multinationals' funding and expertise to expand their international sales. The countries need private investment in infrastructure, energy, and water to increase jobs and wages. In fact the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 2017 report warned that climate change would hit them the hardest.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 17; 15 October 2018

Photo: APFC Convener and World Vision International's Sudarshan Reddy Kodooru (with microphone) flanked on his right by Nobuyuki Asai, Program Coordinator in the SGI Office of Peace Affairs in Tokyo; and on his left by Ajit Hazra, World Vision International; and Atallah FitzGibbon, Islamic Relief Wordwide. Credit: SGI

Engaging with Faith and Faith Actors on Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development

Viewpoint by Sudarshan Reddy Kodooru

The author is Convener of the Asia Pacific Faith-based Coalition (APFC*) for Sustainable Development and Regional Director, Faith & Development, East Asia at World Vision International. The following is based on his speech during APFC's first annual meeting on August 29-31, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan. – The Editor

BANGKOK (IDN) – We live in an age unparalleled by any other and hovering at the intersection of various and often-competing forces. Any traces of the thin veneer of isolation have been wiped away by globalization. Today, we face challenges incomparable in magnitude to any previous age, many look to faith for developmental solutions.