Speaking Out for People, Planet and Peace

Viewpoint by Dr Ameer Ali

The writer is a lecturer in economics at the School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, Western Australia.

PERTH (IDN) – The July 7 'Rally of the Un-Enlightened', that fizzled out without the expected turnout of 10,000 Buddhist monks, was the most emphatic demonstration yet by the majority Sinhala Buddhists that they would not allow hatred and bigotry to hijack the millennial legacy of peaceful coexistence of different religions and cultures in Sri Lanka. 

By Kizito Makoye with Goodhope Amani

DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) – It is a typically hot and humid afternoon in Gongo la Mboto on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam and Abdullah Nyambi is busy shoving plastic waste into a giant metal kiln with an iron rod ready to make pavement slabs.

With a shiny yellow breathing mask perched on his nose, Nyambi briskly mixes the melting plastic while methodically sprinkling sand on it to make it stiff. “We use any type of plastic to make the slabs,” says Nyambi, with trails of sweat soaking his yellow T-shirt. A plume of black smoke rises into the sky as fierce fire obliterates the plastic material and turns it into a thick liquid.

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The attack on “the liberal idea” by Vladimir Putin in his long interview in the Financial Times at the end of June is still vibrating in my mind.

First, I’d like to know if the Russian people share his views on immigration. In Britain and the U.S., despite the anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions of Prime Minister Theresa May and President Donald Trump, most people, according to polls, are more pro-immigration than they are against.

By Caroline Mwanga with SDSN News

NEW YORK (IDN) – The 2019 US Cities Sustainable Development Report by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s United States Network (SDSN USA) finds that there will be significant work to do across the board if the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 (SDGs) are to be achieved by 2030. This is the SDSN’s third city-level report ranking 105 US cities on progress towards realizing SDGs.

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – A new report finds that while the global community talks a lot about sustainability goals, it does not invest enough in implementing them. The industrialized countries play an ambivalent role in their implementation. On the one hand, they come closest to fulfilling the goals, but on the other, they obstruct by incurring environmental and economic costs for third countries due to high living standards and consumer preferences.

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – As host city to the United Nations, New York is making the most of its position through its ambitious Global Vision, Urban Action (GVUA) platform that uses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a common framework for building a better city for its people and their environment. This programme links multiple New York departments through shared sustainability objectives—and it has been selected as a good practice in a new UN DESA database of SDG actions, which could be scaled up or replicated around the world.

By Jamshed Baruah with WTO News

GENEVA (IDN) – Aid for Trade initiatives must keep up with the evolving needs of developing countries and environmental protection to remain relevant and inclusive. Least developed countries (LDCs) will need continued support even as they graduate to a higher economic status, and climate change pressures will require targeted responses as well, says the World Trade Organization (WTO) summing up the discussions during the Aid for Trade Global Review on July 4-5, 2019.

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – "Over the past 40 years the ACP and the EU have promoted a unique trade and development cooperation model that inspires global North-South cooperation," said Viwanou Gnassounou, Assistant Secretary-General of the ACP Group of States, at the 'Aid for Trade' Global Review 2019.

"Evidently from the post 2020 EU-ACP trade cooperation, the objective of maintaining inclusiveness while seeking to achieve greater integration into the global economy and promoting sustainable development remains central going forward," added Gnassounou.

Viewpoint by Mukhisa Kituyi

The following are extended excerpts from UNCTAD Mukhisa Kituyi's Secretary-General blog on UNCTAD Website. In the face of barriers and protectionism, says the writer, the multilateral trade rulebook needs to be revised to ensure that it can deliver its full development potential.

GENEVA (IDN) –The multilateral trading system provides a unique international regime that regulates the conduct of sovereign nations in trade policy. Its norms, principles and institutions have served many of its member countries to overcome the so-called ‘prisoners’ dilemma’ in their strategic interaction with trading partners, where individually rational behaviour leads to collectively inefficient outcomes. This has helped increase international cooperation in multilateral market-opening and rule-making and has boosted trade flows around the world.

Its new fundamental research division could help the company regain international favour and outmanoeuvre the U.S.

By Karen Hao | Technology Review

The writer is the artificial intelligence reporter for MIT Technology Review. In particular she covers the ethics and social impact of the technology as well as its applications for social good. This article first appeared in MIT Technology Review.

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, USA (IDN) – In just the past week, the U.S.’s stance on China’s Huawei has become very confused. On Saturday [June 29], during the G20 summit, President Donald Trump announced that he would ease restrictions on the company, allowing U.S. companies to sell goods to it once again. But by Tuesday [July 2] an email sent to the Commerce Department’s enforcement staff, seen by Reuters, reiterated that Huawei should still be treated as on the blacklist.

Viewpoint by M Emilia Berazategui

The writer is Global Advocacy Coordinator at Transparency International. This article first appeared on Voices for Transparency – a collection of articles, stories, analyses and opinions from the anti-corruption movement curated by Transparency International. All views and statements represent those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Transparency International.

BERLIN (IDN) – After 11th-hour negotiations at last week’s [June 28-29] G20 summit in Osaka, the assembled leaders reached consensus on a communiqué through which they sought to identify shared solutions to some of the most pressing challenges faced by the global community.

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Parliamentarians from the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa gathered here for a three-day international forum at the initiative of the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, to discuss the development of international parliamentarism and the most pressing national, regional and global issues, and agree on some effective approaches to determine the future of mankind in the modern world.

The agenda included topical issues on international security and stability, the development of a digital economy, youth and environmental policies. The Russia-Africa parliamentary conference was held within the framework of the forum.