InDepthNews, Author at IDN-InDepthNews

UN INSIDER2017-05-312023-07-10

Disaster Risk Reduction Must Take Account of People’s Lives

This is the second of two reports from the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction conference held in Cancun, Mexico, from May 22 to 26.

By Ek Soria

MEXICO CITY (IDN) – Over the last century, population growth and unplanned urbanisation, overexploitation of natural resources and the effects of climate change have dramatically increased the economic, social and cultural costs of disasters.

A disaster should be understood as a correlation between natural phenomena such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruption or phenomena caused by industry and people, such as deforestation, environmental pollution, and economic, social and cultural and physical conditions in vulnerable communities, including poor health, poorly constructed homes, unstable soils, poor location of dwellings through ignorance or territorial displacement caused by extractive projects, apathy and indifference, and lack of organisation and popular participation.

UN INSIDER2017-05-312023-07-10

UN Chief Urges World To Rally Behind Paris Agreement

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – “Climate action is not just a necessity but an opportunity to forge a peaceful and sustainable future on a healthy planet,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told a gathering of students, business leaders and academics at the New York University Stern School of Business on May 30.

Amidst reports that President Donald Trump was poised to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Guterres called for sustained action to meet the global challenge and to ensure a peaceful and sustainable future for all.

UN INSIDER2017-05-302023-07-10

People Must Not Be Ignored in Disaster Risk Reduction Planning

This is the first of two reports from the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction conference held in Cancun, Mexico, from May 22 to 26.

By Ek Soria

MEXICO CITY (IDN) – The 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction conference, held in Cancun from May 22 to 26, brought together disaster risk managers, policy makers and leaders from the private, scientific and civil society sectors to discuss the commitments of States to absorb, adapt to and recover from disasters in a timely and efficient manner.

High on the agenda was assessment of global progress in implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction adopted in Sendai, Japan, in 2015 as a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognises that the State has the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders including local government, the private sector and other stakeholders.

OPINION2017-05-302023-07-10

The Cold War Warrior Brzezinski Sometimes was Very Wrong

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In a maudlin sort of way there is a funny story that Zbigniew Brzezinski, who died on May 26, sometimes told. It was when he was national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter. It was his job to take any calls from the military on a suspected incoming nuclear attack. In a matter of seconds he had to evaluate it and decide whether to tell the president, even if he was asleep. It did in fact happen on one occasion.

He was awakened in the middle of the night to be told that it looked like a Soviet pre-emptive nuclear attack was on its way. He told the general that he would give him 5 minutes to double-check his information. (The warning time before impact was around 20 minutes.) After 4 minutes the general called [JP1] back and said it had been a false alarm. Afterwards [JP2] Brzezinski was asked if he had woken his wife. “No”, he said. “If she was going to die, better it was in her sleep.”

ARMAMENTS2017-05-292023-07-10

It’s High Time to Ban the Bomb

Viewpoint by Alice Slater

Alice Slater serves on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War, which first carried the article.

NEW YORK (IDN) – On May 22, the Chair of an exciting UN initiative formally named the “United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination” released a draft treaty to ban and prohibit nuclear weapons just as the world has done for biological and chemical weapons.

The Ban Treaty is to be negotiated at the UN from June 15 to July 7 as a follow up to the one week of negotiations that took place March 27-31, attended by more than 130 governments interacting with civil society. Their input and suggestions were used by the Chair, Costa Rica’s Ambassador to the UN, Elayne Whyte Gómez to prepare the draft treaty. It is expected that the world will finally come out of this meeting with a treaty to ban the bomb!

Africa2017-05-282023-07-10

UN Chief Underscores the Need to Invest in Africa’s Youth

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN | TAORMINA (IDN) – The Group of Seven (G7) leaders has in its ‘Taormina Communiqué‘ underscored that “Africa’s security, stability and sustainable development are high priorities”. But it has yet to respond to UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ specific call for the need to invest in young people, with stronger investment in technology and relevant education and capacity building in Africa.

The two-day G7 summit in Italy, in which the leaders of six other industrial nations – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the U.S. also took part, concluded on May 27 in Taormina, a hilltop town on the east coast of Sicily, Italy.

UN INSIDER2017-05-282023-07-10

Funding Needs for UN’s 2030 Development Agenda Skyrocket – to Trillions of Dollars

By Shanta Rao

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – As the United Nations assesses the implementation of its 2030 Agenda for Development, including its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the estimated funding needs keep skyrocketing — from the initial millions and billions to trillions of dollars annually.

The President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji, said on April 18 that SDG financing, including the eradication of extreme poverty by 2030, is going to cost about $6 trillion annually — and then to a hefty $30 trillion through 2030.

At the same time, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), which outlines the implementation of the 17 SDGs, points to an infrastructure gap of some $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion annually in developing countries, while estimates of the global gap generally range from $3 trillion to $5 trillion annually.

UN INSIDER2017-05-282023-07-10

Promoting Peace and Security Through Interfaith Dialogue

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Mission of Kazakhstan to the United Nations focused early May on ‘Interfaith and Inter-Ethnic Dialogue as a Key Instrument to Promote Peace and Security, an Inclusive Society and State Building’, with Kazakhstan’s Minister for Religious Affairs and Civil Society, Nurlan Yermekbayev, as a keynote speaker.

The importance of this event on May 12 is underscored by the fact that Kazakhstan is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the two year-period 2017-2019. The Security Council is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, tasked with the maintenance of international peace and security.

Africa2017-05-272023-07-10

Blazing the Trail with Coffee Culture in Cameroon

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

YAOUNDE (ACP-IDN) – Hermine Tomaino Ndam Njoya is arguably Cameroon’s largest coffee farmer. Her farm spans some 150 hectares, and she depends on the labour of a whole village to keep the farm alive.

But what sets her apart is not just the size of her farm. What makes her different is that she is a woman excelling in a venture generally reserved for men.

Growing up in her native Noun commune in Cameroon’s West Region, she saw her parents tend their coffee farm with great care. “So I fell in love with coffee,” she says, smacking her lips after a sip of the aromatic drink.

UN INSIDER2017-05-262023-07-10

A Change of Guard at the WHO

By Laurie Garrett

Since 2004, Laurie Garrett has been a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Garrett is the only writer ever to have been awarded all three of the Big “Ps” of journalism: the Peabody, the Polk, and the Pulitzer. Her expertise includes global health systems, chronic and infectious diseases, and bioterrorism. (Full Bio and Contact). This article first appeared on 25 May 2017.

GENEVA – For the first time in its seventy-year history, the World Health Organization (WHO) will, effective July 1, be led by a nonphysician, an African, and a person from the global South. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia campaigned in an unprecedented election that gave 186 nations equal voice and saw three globetrotting candidates plead their cases.