Category: UN INSIDER

By Bradnee Chambers

A native of Haliburton, Ontario, Dr. Bradnee Chambers is the Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).

BONN (IDN | CMS) – There is nothing more Canadian than nature. It pulses through our veins and it has been part of our identity since the founding of Canada 150 years ago. It defines our history and will define our future. This is why it was such an honour for Canada to host World Environment Day 2017 with its theme “Connecting People with Nature”.  

Catherine McKenna, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change said that she was proud and excited that Canada was chosen as this year’s host country and encouraged her fellow citizens to join the celebrations, and to recommit to leaving a healthier environment for future generations.

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (IDN) – As soon as dusk falls, Petina Dube emerges from her house balancing a sack full of garbage which has been lying uncollected in her yard amid reports that the municipal garbage collectors have no fuel to carry out their job across many residential areas in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.

At the age of 43, Dube, a resident of Warren Park high density suburb in Harare, apparently does not care where the garbage will go after she dumps it. “I am honestly not worried about where this garbage will end up; I will just dump it by a stream not far from here,” says Dube.

But  for many environmental experts like Happson Chikova, who holds a degree in environmental studies from Zimbabwe’s Midlands State University, waste dumped anywhere eventually ends up in oceans and this spells bad news for marine life.

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Disarmament, non-proliferation and nuclear security have been the critical priorities of Kazakhstan’s national policy since the Central Asian republic’s independence in 1991 and from the time of joining the United Nations in March 1992.

Also as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for two years beginning January 1, the country has been working with unrelenting determination to promote disarmament and non-proliferation as the sine qua non of the world body.

“The position of Kazakhstan remains stable and consistent,” Ambassador Kairat Umarov, Kazakhstan’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, said at the UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on June 2.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.