By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) – The COVID-19 crisis has hit tourism-dependent Pacific Island countries severely. Fiji, the largest of these states, is feeling the impact badly, with laid-off workers of tourism-related industries, such as hotels and travel companies, turning to farming and fishing for survival. Because of its larger land mass and fishing grounds […]
UN Releases Special 2020 Broadcast Calling for Collective Action
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – In a significant move to mobilise global support, the United Nations, Project Everyone and 72 Films are launching ‘Nations United – Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times’. A first of its kind film has been released September 19 on the UN YouTube channel and global broadcast networks. The importance […]
New UN Report Warns of Future Pandemics If ‘Business as Usual’ Continues
By J. Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – A new UN report has underlined the importance of biodiversity in addressing climate change, and long-term food security, and concluded that action to protect biodiversity is essential to prevent future pandemics. The fifth edition of the UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook report, released on September 15, has warned: “The […]
The Great Green Wall Is Paving the Way Ahead to 2030
By Rita Joshi BONN (IDN) – The Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative has over the past 13 years restored close to 20 million hectares of land, according to a report released on September 7 at a virtual meeting of environmental ministers from Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti together with regional […]
Of Joyce, Univ. College Dublin and Sustainable Development
By Ramu Damodaran The writer is Chief of the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), an initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the UN. The following article was published on the UNAI website. NEW YORK (IDN) – An old college friend, Pramesh Ratnakar, shared with me William Butler Yeats’s recollection of his first meeting, […]
COVID-19 Pandemic Threatening Peace and Security
By Rosemary DiCarlo UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Following are extensive excerpts from Ms DiCarlo’s briefing to the Security Council on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on peace and security. NEW YORK (IDN) – It is sobering to realize that the risks the Secretary-General identified to this Council on 2 July are […]
UN Report Presents A Unified Assessment of The Critical State of Our Earth System
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – As global temperatures continue to hit new highs, the choice, according to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, is between “business as usual, leading to further calamity, or using the recovery from COVID-19 to provide a real opportunity to put the world on a sustainable path”. Speaking at […]
World Leaders Call for Funds to Stop COVID-19 Generation from Being Locked Out of the Classroom
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK (IDN) – As country lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic come to an end, an immediate priority is the fate of 30 million children who may never return to school, warns a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report. With this in view, former world leaders, […]
Feminism in The Spotlight at South African Book Fair 2020
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – “Feminism: Our Bodies, Our Truths” will take centre stage at the upcoming South African Book Fair taking place virtually from September 11-13 at the culmination of South Africa’s National Book Week. Featured speakers include Mishumo Maduma, Terry-Ann Adams, Jen Thorpe and Anelile Gibixego in discussion […]
Cameroon Decides to Save Last Intact Forest in Central Africa
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Good news is rare for those toiling to save the environment, but environmentalists could finally share the excitement of hard-won success. The government of Cameroon announced on August 14 it was cancelling plans to log some 170,000 acres of the Ebo Forest, home to hundreds […]