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Reporting the underreported about the plan of action for People, Planet and Prosperity, and efforts to make the promise of the SDGs a reality.
A project of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group with IDN as the Flagship Agency in partnership with Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.


SGI Soka Gakkai International

 

Photo: Women fruit and vegetable vendors chat at a market in La Paz, Bolivia. Source: UN News/Unsplash/Lesly Derksen

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The world is lather about the jump in world food prices in world food prices. Just this last weekend the Minister of Agriculture of Egypt was saying that, without assured grain supplies from Russia and Ukraine, he expected a rise of widespread malnutrition.

As long ago as 1974, when grain prices had just quadrupled, all the nations of the world meeting at the World Food Conference in Rome promised that by the end of the century “no child would go to bed hungry”. After a steady increase in aid for agriculture for a number of years the momentum slowed.

Goal 2

Image: Beachcomber Resort Island. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne.

By Sheryl Lal and Akansha Narayan*

NADI, Fiji (IDN) — Though Fiji Islands was unaffected by the first wave of COVID-19, its tourism sector, the lifeblood of the economy, has been devastated by border closure across the world due to the pandemic in the past two years. Thus, when the Fijian Tourism Expo (FTE) returned after a break of two years, Fiji Tourism’s CEO Brent Hill was in an upbeat mood, especially because they have been able to attract over 500 participants to the Expo in these competitive times for the travel industry. But, having experienced the vulnerabilities, sustainability was very much in focus during presentations at the event here.

Goal 3

Photo: Africa braces for food price inflation as Russia-Ukraine war continues. Anatolii STEPANOV / FAO/AFP

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — Life is no longer the same for Zimbabwe’s shop owner, 34-year-old Richwell Mhasi in the capital Harare who has had to park his car at home, switching to his bicycle, cycling to and from work amid the rising prices of fuel since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war this year.

In South Africa’s Musina town closer to the border with Zimbabwe, widowed 43-year-old Laziwe Muleya living in a shack with her three children has now turned to wood fire as she can no longer afford the price of gas for cooking. (P06) ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SWAHILI

Goal 2

Photo: Fiji Indians have made a significant contribution to the economy of Fiji. Pictured here are some Fiji Indian women with Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama. Source: Stuff, NZ

By Ravindra Singh Prasad

SUVA (IDN) — Every year on May 14 Fiji’s Indian community mark the day when the first shipment of their ancestors came here as indentured labourers to work in British sugarcane plantations established in their Pacific Ocean colony.

Girmitiya is how they came to be known over time—the name derived from the term Girmit, a corruption of the English word, agreement.

Goal 8

Image credit: togetherforgirls.org

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A new study concludes that investments in girls’ education have failed to deliver economic equality for women.

The researchers found that while such investments have delivered many other benefits—including better health outcomes for women and their families—the economic returns are often disappointing. (P05) JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH | THAI

Goal 5

Image: Irpin, Ukraine, Kutsenko Volodymyr/Shutterstock

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness
It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair — A Tale of Two Cities 1859

Viewpoint by Joseph Camilleri

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

MELBOURNE, Australia (IDN) — These opening lines of Charles Dickens’s great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution, offer us a remarkable insight into humanity’s current predicament.

Goal 16

Photo: Protestors at a February 2022 rally against Russia's invasion of Ukraine march past the statue of Tsar Alexander II in Senate Square in Helsinki. CC BY 2.0

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is an Ambassador, former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affair, and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Charter of the United Nations consolidated important norms of international law. Its Preamble affirms the decision to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind”. At the time of its adoption, the world was deeply shocked by two successive wars that directly involved Europe and other regions. In spite of the lofty purposes expressed in the Charter, several armed conflicts in many parts of the globe have marked the seventy-seven years of the United Nations’ existence. (P04) GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE

Goal 16

Image: Migrant logistics centre on the Belarus/Poland border, November 2021 Djordje Kostic/Shutterstock

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf

BONN (IDN) — At present, historical analogies are very often used to explain reasons for or against the causes of the war in Ukraine or to describe the horrors of this war with historical arguments. Some of these comparisons are downright perfidious, like equating Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin.

Goal 16

Image Credit: Alliance Sahel

By Annalena Baerbock

Following is the text of a speech by Germany's Minister of Foreign Affairs at the “Sustaining Peace amidst the Climate Crisis: The Role of Data Science, Technology & Innovation" Conference on May 2-3 in Berlin.

BERLIN (IDN) — The climate crisis is a threat to our world, to our lives.

Many of you have known this for years.

Goal 13+14+15

Photo: President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana gives opening remarks at the ECOSOC Financing for Development Forum, 25 April 2022. Credit: UNDESA/Predrag Vasic

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which primarily include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2030, are in deep financial trouble.

The goals have been severely undermined by the cumulative effects of several factors, including the economic fallout from the war in Ukraine and, most importantly, the widespread COVID-19 pandemic which has had a devastating impact on both the world’s rich and poor nations. (P03) JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH | SWAHILI | TURKISH

Project Articles

  1. Usaha Kaki Lima: Tampaknya Covid Telah Membunuh Ikon Bangkok
  2. Ukraine War Could Drive Millions Elsewhere into Starvation
  3. Street Vending: Covid Seems to Have Killed a Bangkok Icon
  4. UN’s Goal of Poverty & Hunger Eradication by 2030 is “Highly Unlikely, if not Impossible”
  5. Safeguarding The Blue Pacific from Any Further Nuclear Contamination

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