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Category: DEVNET

DEVNET

Building an Efficient Asian Network for Disaster Risk Reduction

Viewpoint by Toshiaki Kitazato*

TOKYO (IDN) – In the January 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, Kobe City – with its population of 1.5 million – was hit hardest by strong tremors. Nearly 6,500 people lost their lives

Eighteen years later, Japan suffered a great disaster yet again, followed by the massive tsunami caused by the earthquake in deep sea crusts in the Pacific Ocean on March 11, 2013. The East Japan Great Earthquake Disaster not only caused more than 20,000 death casualties but also destroyed the nuclear power plant buildings in Fukushima.

In Indonesia, great tsunamis were generated by the Sumatra earthquake in 2004 that recorded more than 220,000 death casualties in total in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India etc. Four years later, more than 87,000 people were killed by a devastating earthquake in Sichuan province of China. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE

DEVNET

Geothermal Energy for the Future – “Geo-Max”

This advertorial is part of IDN’s media project jointly with Global Cooperation Council and DEVNET Japan.

TOKYO – The increased occurrence of severe hot weather and record heat waves is creating disastrous situations for many people, but in some areas they do not possess sufficient resources – such as air-conditioning facilities and electricity to run those facilities – for protecting themselves. Solving the lack of access to air-conditioning systems will help thousands of people cope with global warming.

DEVNET

A Practical Way Out of Chronic Poverty

TOKYO (IDN) – Poverty alleviation has been on the agenda of development cooperation since the early 1970s: Robert McNamara declared in 1973 that the World Bank’s mission is to eradicate poverty by 2000, and three years later the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), comprising world’s major donors, adopted the Basic Needs Approach. But the major challenge for the development community has been to find an effective method to provide substantial relief to the poor and deprived.

For some time, this issue was considered ideological, of a choice between growth and distribution. The last attempt at establishing a policy framework from an ideological perspective was the DAC’s policy declaration of 1996: Shaping the 21st Century; the Contribution of Development Cooperation. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE

DEVNET

UN Sees Key Role for Women in Post-2015 Development Agenda

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The United Nations, which has launched an intense world-wide campaign to ensure the full implementation of its post-2015 development agenda, is unequivocal in asserting that gender equality and women’s empowerment are indispensable to the realization of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world leaders last September.

And Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is emphatic in his resounding political message: the world will never achieve 100 percent of its development goals until and unless 50 percent of its people — namely women—are treated “as full and equal participants in all realms.”

Reaffirming this message, Assistant Secretary-General Lakshmi Puri, deputy executive director of UN Women, told IPS gender equality and women’s empowerment are indispensable to the realization of sustainable development. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE

DEVNET

Helping Achieve Sustainable Development Goals

TOKYO (IDN) – In March 2013, I established DEVNET Tokyo, now DEVNET Japan, as this East Asian country’s sole branch of Devnet International, which enjoys since 1995 a Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Before launching Devnet Tokyo, I was engaged as an entrepreneur in manufacturing, processing, sales and distribution with focus on agriculture, fisheries, livestock and forest industries. Based in my hometown in the Yamaguchi prefecture in Japan, I had expanded my business and built a huge distribution network worth more than 55 billion yen (approximately $4.5 billion) annual turnover at the peak time. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE

DEVNET

Study Unveils How Big Philanthropy Shapes Development Agenda

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Global development policy is being increasingly influenced not only by “big business” but also by “big philanthropy”, warns a new study released here.

“They have become influential actors in international policy debates, including, most importantly, how to address poverty eradication, sustainable development, climate change and the protection of human rights”. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE

DEVNET

Renewable Energy Can Sustain Growth in ‘Emerging Asia’

KUALA LUMPUR (IDN) – The need for sustainable development, aligning multiple economic and environmental priorities, stressed by the leaders of the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies, in their Manila declaration on November 19, has been reiterated in a new report that forecasts a robust growth for ‘Emerging Asia’ in 2015 and in the next five years. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE

DEVNET

UN Targets ‘Hidden Source’ for Development Funding

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The United Nations has estimated a hefty funding requirement of over 3.5 trillion to 5.0 trillion dollars per year for the implementation of its ambitious post-2015 development agenda, including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), approved by world leaders in September.

But at least one key question remains unanswered: how will the UN convince rich nations and the world’s multinational corporations to help raise the necessary trillions to reach those global goals, including the eradication of poverty and hunger by 2030? SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE

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