sustainable development

UN Environment is working with governments to collect internationally coherent data on fossil fuel subsidies that can help advance global efforts to address climate change. Gone are the days when you could fill up your car gas tank with US$20. Yet, despite the steady increases, gas prices are still artificially… »

The Science and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP), establishing a sense of urgency, deployed scientific analysis to set priorities to guide the investment of newly replenished funds allocated to solve our persistent and worsening global environment woes. At the Global Environment Facility (GEF) General Assembly (June 23-29) in Da Nang, Vietnam,… »

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… »

By Rita Joshi BONN (IDN) – In 2015, countries from around the world adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. In November 2016, the Paris Agreement on climate change entered into force, addressing the need to… »

By Manipadma Jena “Showing them a picture-book crow, I intone ‘kaak’ in Bengali, the State language. While others repeat in chorus, the tribal Santhali first-graders respond with a blank look. They know the crow only as ‘koyo’. They’ll happily roll out glass marbles to count… »

Evelyn Mbiza struggles with a wheelbarrow laden with multiple five litre containers filled with water while her eight-year-old child follows behind carrying another container as the two head home after spending several hours queuing for the precious liquid at a local borehole in Malbereign, a medium-income suburb in Harare, the… »

By Rita Joshi BERLIN | BONN (IDN) – Inspired by innovative and forward-looking concepts, the Global Festival of Ideas for Sustainable Development, the first in a series of annual forums to help achieve the United Nations-led Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) wrapped up in the German city of Bonn… »

Gandhi, the father of modern India, is best known in the West for his original method of struggle for the independence of his country, the doctrine of nonviolence. However, beyond the policy goals such as getting the independence of India and maintain the country’s unity through dialogue between… »

By Jose Rafael Quesada* SAN JOSE (IDN) – Costa Rica, a small Central American country with a population of barely 5 million inhabitants, has a high human development index (ranking 69th worldwide) and is considered a consolidated democracy in Latin America. High investments… »

Human Wrongs Watch Underlining the need for the sustainable industrialization of Africa, the United Nations General Assembly on 25 July 2016 unanimously adopted a resolution proclaiming the period 2016-2025 as the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa. By the terms of the resolution, which was adopted without a vote,… »