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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.
By Jamshed Baruah
NEW YORK (IDN) — In the face of dramatic reversals in global progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), urgent action is required by the international community to improve developing countries’ access to affordable finance.
Inaugurating the four-day Forum on Financing for Development (FfD Forum) on April 25, ECOSOC President Mr. Collen V. Kelapile, Botswana's Permanent Representative to the UN said: “…The ambition of sustainable development for all is facing perhaps its greatest threat since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda seven years ago.”
Viewpoint by Massimiliano Colella
The author is the chief executive officer of Evercare.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (IDN) — With public debt reaching record highs both in developed and emerging markets—and with even more financial volatility following the COVID-19 pandemic—government budgets have been stretched thin. Underfunding in healthcare versus competing priorities has led to heavily burdened systems in emerging markets that are often struggling to keep up with increasing demands.
By Rodney Reynolds
UNITED NATIONS, (IDN) — After more than two years of on-again, off-again pandemic lockdowns, the United Nations will soon return to normal—and re-open to the public.
The move comes amid reports of new infections from Covid-19, with mandatory masks still in force in New York city’s public transit systems, including buses and subways.
Viewpoint by Nandi Jasentuliyana
The writer is a former Deputy Director-General, United Nations.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (IDN) — Sri Lanka is experiencing a severe foreign exchange and debt crisis resulting in a shortage of food, fuel, power, and every other commodity to be purchased at exorbitant prices that the suffering masses cannot afford, forcing them to the streets protesting against the governing authorities.
By Krishan Dutta
BANGKOK (IDN) — With an eye on the continuing uncertainty over the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased global risks, the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific for 2022, has called for anchoring the region’s economic recovery and progress in “a new social contract” of inclusiveness to protect the vulnerable from future shocks.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah*
MOSCOW | LISBON (IDN) — After two and half decades of its existence as a popular multilateral forum for Portuguese-speaking countries, the Confederação Empresarial da CPLP has been looking at multifaceted and diverse opportunities to strengthen the organization and to improve mutual cooperation among the member-governments which are geographically located in separate continents.
By Bernhard Schell
DUBAI (IDN) — Entrepreneurship, innovation, and investment in a post-pandemic recovery as vehicles to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the focus of a United Nations forum that opened in Dubai on March 28 under the aegis of Dubai Exhibition Centre at Dubai Expo 2020.
Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake
The writer, Dr Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, is a Sociocultural and Medical Anthropologist based in Colombo. Her latest publication is 'Multi-religiosity on Contemporary Sri Lanka: Innovation, Shared Spaces, Contestation".(Routledge 2022)
COLOMBO (IDN) — Necessity is the mother of invention: Protests are mounting by people from all walks of life in all parts of Sri Lanka against the soaring cost of living, food and fuel shortages, black outs, lockdowns, forced Covid injections, and the sale of national assets by the ruling dual US citizen Rajapaksa led regime in Colombo.
Viewpoint by Mahinda Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) — Disruptions from war, impacts of climate, and the growing inequities in wealth distribution are some main factors that drive over 160 million international migrant workers to seek work for a living in overseas countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the 3-D jobs (dirty, dangerous, and difficult) that migrant workers face in their host country while exposed to precarious work.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.