Category: UN INSIDER

By Santo D Banerjee

NEW YORK | VIENNA (IDN) – Human trafficking is a global problem particularly affecting people fleeing armed conflict, including women, children, internally displaced persons and refugees who are forced into modern slavery that fetches its perpetrators some $150 billion.

The UN Security Council is determined to put an end to this serious crime and violation of human rights, and has passed a resolution, which the Executive Director of the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, describes as “historic”.

“The resolution offers a powerful recognition by the international community that persons desperately fleeing armed conflict are especially vulnerable to trafficking in persons and to other forms of exploitation,” said the UNODC Chief, according to UN Information Service (UNIS) in Vienna.

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | KINSHASA (IDN) – Considering that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the world’s largest producer of cobalt ore, and a major producer of copper and diamonds, has never had a peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960, the current political crisis does not come as a surprise.

But the killing of a peacekeeper from South Africa deployed with the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) in North Kivu on December 19 has precipitated the situation.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the killing and called on the country’s “authorities to ensure that this attack is investigated and its perpetrators are brought to justice”. Attacks against UN peacekeepers are unacceptable,” according to a statement issued by Ban’s spokesperson.

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – Early December three UN agencies UNDP, UNESCO and UNFPA organized a three-day youth mobilizing program at the UNESCAP building here called ‘Case for Space’ (C4S) touted as a campaign led by over 60 partners in the region to raise awareness and advocate for the promotion of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region.

Yet, it was dominated by mainly European and American speakers and consultants, with the project being led by a UK-based activist group Restless Development, which made many participants from the region to wonder whether the SDG agenda is being hijacked by westerner activists.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Among several unresolved issues the outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon leaves behind is the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. In his final report to the Security Council on December 16, he said it saddened him that his last such briefing brought no sense of optimism for the future.

While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not the cause of the wars in the Middle East, resolving it could help to create momentum for peace throughout the region. He recalled that in 1947, acting on the basis of General Assembly resolution 181, the world had recognized the need for a two-State solution and had called for the emergence of “independent Arab and Jewish States”.

BONN (IDN-INPS | UN News Centre) – Together with the Government of Germany, the United Nations SDG Action Campaign offered a behind-the-scenes tour of the Global Campaign Center in Bonn, a new hub that will deliver on the Campaign’s mandate to inspire action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“The Center will equip the Campaign to deliver on its mandate to foster buy-in of the SDGs among all stakeholders, facilitate mechanisms for public engagement in SDGs participatory monitoring and accountability, and create an open and inclusive SDG people’s action platform. We look forward to working side by side with our neighbours in the Knowledge Center for Sustainable Development of the UN System Staff College and the broader UN Bonn family,” said Mitchell Toomey, Global Director the UN SDG Action Campaign.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Antonio Guterres, who takes over as the United Nations Secretary-General on January 1, 2017, delivered on his pledges on gender parity and geographical diversity when he confirmed three key appointments on December 15.

In a statement he confirmed, as widely expected, that he is appointing Amina J. Mohammed of Nigeria as his Deputy Secretary-General. He also announced the appointment of Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil as his Chef de Cabinet.

“I also intend to create the position of Special Advisor on Policy, and to appoint Ms. Kyung-wha Kang of the Republic of Korea to this new role,” Guterres said.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations has honoured activists for their relentless commitment to biodiversity protection: India’s Dr. Vandana Shiva, Founder and Director of Navdanya, Mexico’s Dr. Alfonso Aguirre-Muñoz, Executive Director of Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas, A.C., and Russia’s Dr. Yury Darman, Director of WWF-Russia Amur Branch.

They received the prestigious MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity at an Award Ceremony on December 2, 2016 in Cancún, Mexico, in conjunction with the high-level segment of the thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

By Siddharth Chatterjee

NAIROBI (IDN) – President Uhuru Kenyatta warmly welcomed dozens of U.N Agencies, development partners and senior Government officials to the State House on November 2, 2016 to discuss the joint development plan from 2014-2018.

He is perhaps the only head of state in Africa to take on this responsibility personally and believes in the transformational power of the Government-UN partnership to address national priorities for sustainable development. (Speech/audio)

The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) is a critical document that guides government and U.N, partnership, ensuring the UN system is fit for purpose and contributes effectively to national development priorities.

By Ronald Joshua

GENEVA (IDN) – As the first year of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030 comes to a close, a new United Nations report finds that a group of 48 countries is falling further behind the rest of the world in terms of economic development.

The proportion of the global poor in those countries has more than doubled since 1990, to well over 40 per cent, and that the situation will not be remedied unless the international community takes concerted action.

“These are the countries where the global battle for poverty eradication will be won or lost,” said UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi, launching the Report. “A year ago, the global community pledged to ‘leave no one behind’, but that is exactly what is happening to the least developed countries (LDCs).”

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” This ambitious goal three enshrined in Agenda 2030 that vows to “leave no one behind” has made rather a modest advance – particularly in regard to combating malaria – as countries inch towards marking the first year anniversary of Sustainable Development Goals.

Sustained and sufficient funding for malaria control is a serious challenge, warns the World Malaria Report 2016. Despite a steep increase in global investment for malaria between 2000 and 2010, funding has since flat-lined. In 2015, malaria funding totalled US$ 2.9 billion, representing only 45% of the funding milestone for 2020 (US$ 6.4 billion).