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Photo: IDN-INPS collage of pictures by from Commonwealth Secretariat. Left: Aelan Ltd hires local women from the next village to make organic products. Right: Adding value to coconut. Bottom: Vanuatu Deputy Prime Minister Bob Loughman wants the country to focus on value addition and moving up global value chains.

Ensuring the Future of Coconut, the 'Tree of Life'

By Josephine Latu-Sanft

For the eminent American actor and director Dustin Hoffman sunshine and coconut milk are "the two basic items necessary to sustain life". The German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht compared love to a coconut "which is good while it is fresh". In the Pacific, coconut is king, writes Josephine Latu-Sanft.

LONDON | PORT VILA (IDN) – Known as the ‘tree of life’, locals make use of every part of the tree to survive – the fruit for eating, husks for fuelling fires, fronds for making multiuse baskets, and the trunk for building houses.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 18 April 2019

Photo: Bogolo Kenewendo of Botswana is also adviser to the UN Secretary-General on digital cooperation. Credit: UN

Young Botswana Minister Is Opening Doors for Women and Girls

By Baboki Kayawe*

GABORONE (IDN-INPS) – Bogolo Kenewendo describes herself as having been “an ordinary Botswana child with an ordinary upbringing”. Kenewendo, poised and focused beyond her years, is being modest. At 32 she is Botswana’s youngest minister, in charge of investment, trade and industry.

She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics, specializing in macroeconomic policy, public debt management, export development and other trade-related fields.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 April 2019

Photo: Sudanese women preparing songs to celebrate ouster of O. al-Bashir

Sudanese Demands for a Civilian Government Remain Firm

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Protests that began over the skyrocketing price of bread and shortages of food and fuel have accomplished what few people believed was possible in a country ruled by a leader with an iron fist.

A Sudanese people’s movement was born on the streets of Khartoum. Hundreds of thousands of women and men hunkered down and braved attacks by anti-riot police.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 17 April 2019

WHO Forum on Medicines Calls for Fair Prices

By Ronald Joshua

JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development, according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) scheduled to be realized by 2030. Goal 3 cannot however be achieved as long as people have to pay for medicines out-of-pocket and fall into poverty. This happens to 100 million each year.

: Ronald Joshua; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 17 April 2019

Photo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s record on the economy compares unfavourably with his predecessor Dr.Manmohan Singh government’s growth, which for one year hit 10 percent and for a number of years was over 8 percent. Source: Press Information Bureau on behalf of Prime Minister's Office, Government of India.

Vibrant Democracy Is India's Trump Card against China

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Conversation with Manmohan Singh was always fascinating at the time he was prime minister of India. It was difficult to challenge his superior intellect. He could, in his calm, disciplined way, out-argue anyone. He saw where India was going with a degree of exactness that dwarfed other observers. On the economic front it was, for his Congress Party government, all about ending poverty which he thought doable, although achieving a fairer income distribution was much more difficult.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 16 April 2019

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres (on screen) makes remarks at the Financing for Development Forum of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Session 2019 on April 15. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

2019 A Defining Year for Implementing SDGs and the Paris Agreement

By António Guterres

The following are extensive excerpts from opening remarks of the UN Secretary-General to the 2019 ECOSOC Financing for Development Forum on April 15. This, he said, was “critical moment for governments, businesses, and societies to accelerate action for sustainable development”.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – We have the tools to tackle poverty, inequality, climate change and environmental pressures. They were defined in the great multilateral agreements reached in 2015: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Agenda for Action, and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 16 April 2019

Inadequate Funding Threatens Sustainable Development Goals

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Much to the United Nations’ dismay, desperately missing funds are imperiling realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Investments that are critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals remain underfunded and parts of the multilateral system are under strain, warned a new report as the fourth Forum on Financing for Development opened on April 15, 2019 at the UN Headquarters.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 15 April 2019

Radio Connects a Kyrgyz Community with the World

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SUUSAMYR, Kyrgyzstan (IDN) – Travelling on the new Silk Roads recently upgraded by the Chinese, one drives up through stunning mountains that are still covered by snow even as summer approaches. The road from Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek climbs up to a peak of about 4.000 meters before descending over 1500 meters to a picturesque valley to reach one of the remotest communities in the country, the village of Suusamyr home to about 1,300 traditionally nomadic people.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; CENTRAL ASIA; 15 April 2019

Photo: Around 15,000 farming households hit by Tropical Cyclone Idai will receive agricultural kits including early-maturing maize and bean seeds to grow their own food again. Credit: FAO

FAO Starts Giving Much-Needed Seeds to Cyclone Hit Mozambique

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK | ROME (IDN) – While clock is ticking to reboot agriculture as secondary growing season is .already underway, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has started distribution of much-needed seeds and tools in cyclone-ravaged Mozambique.

Nearly three weeks after the Tropical Cyclone Idai, which was one of the worst long-lived storms on record, that caused catastrophic damage in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, farmers in Mozambique have started to receive much-needed agricultural inputs.

: Santo D. Banerjee; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 April 2019

India Between Democracy and Religious Nationalism

By Milan Vaishnav

The following are extensive excerpts from the Executive Summary of a study on 'The BJP in Power: Indian Democracy and Religious Nationalism' published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.The views represented herein are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees. The article refers to the general elections under way in India, the country’s seventeenth held since independence in 1947. Nearly 900 million Indians are eligible to cast their ballots. – The Editor