Sustainable Development Goals were struggling before Covid-19
30/7/2021: Two international development experts argue that the UN's Sustainable Development Goals were over-ambitious from the start. Poor progress towards 2030 targets should not be blamed entirely on Covid-19.
Source: Inter Press Service
UK Parliament votes down 0.7% aid target for years
13/7/2021: Politicians in the United Kingdom have voted against restoring the country’s 0.7% aid budget and instead passed a motion that economists say effectively ends the government’s commitment to the target. NGOs were universal in their condemnation of the vote’s outcome.
Source: Devex
How protected are protected areas?
6/7/2021: The UN biodiversity conference in Kunming this October will consider a new 2030 target to designate 30% of the planet's land and marine areas as protected. But a series of reports have questioned the capacity of many countries to deliver standards that fulfil protected status.
Source: China Dialogue
Kenya tops world in growth in new electricity connections
8/7/2021: The latest progress report on the Sustainable Development Goal for energy finds that Kenya has increased access to electricity faster than other countries. This outcome stems from Kenya’s last-mile connectivity programme, targeting rural areas.
Source: The East African
Sustainable development report shows devastating impact of COVID
6/7/2021: The world was not on track to meet the 17 Sustainable Development Goals before COVID-19 struck, and now the challenge has been magnified many times over, according to a new flagship UN report. In addition to almost four million deaths due to the coronavirus, between 119-124 million people have been pushed back into poverty and chronic hunger.
Source: UN News
Billions risk being without access to clean water by 2030
1/7/2021: Latest global data from the World Health Organization and UN Children’s Fund reveals that access to safely managed drinking water at home increased only from 70 to 74 per cent between 2016 and 2020. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of universal coverage by 2030 will require a quadrupling of the current rate of progress.
Source: UN News
Reflections on humanitarian affairs by outgoing UN "relief chief"
16/6/2021: Mark Lowcock reflects on his four years as UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. His greatest single concern is whether the world can find a set of arrangements for geopolitical collaboration necessary to manage the really big crises.
Source: UN News
Palm oil: What’s the big deal?
16/6/2021: Palm oil has become an ingredient in so many of our daily staples. But more than 90% of palm oil is produced in the regions of Borneo, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, where the land being cleared is tropical rainforests. Is this as bad as we are led to believe?
Source: DW
Beijing wants more children, but only a certain kind
15/6/2021: The Chinese government has announced that it will allow all couples to have three children, an increase from two. But one-child, two-child or three-child policies are all the same. All are infringements on women’s reproductive rights: treating human beings as instruments of achieving the goals of the state.
Source: The Interpreter
ICC: New chief prosecutor divides opinions in Africa
15/6/2021: Karim Khan, the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, is taking up his mandate at a critical moment. In the 18 years of the Court's existence, prosecutors have managed to secure just five significant convictions.
Source: DW