UN Insider

Photo: Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta on a state visit to Ghana in July 2017. Credit: Malta President's Website

Need to Perceive Africa from an African Point of View

By Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta

Following are extensive extracts from the speech delivered by Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta, at the 17th session of the UNIDO General Conference 'Partnering for Impact: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals' in Vienna on November 27, 2017. Li Yong was re-appointed for a second term (2017-2021) as the Director General of the Organization at the opening of the session. – The Editor

VIENNA (IDN) – Two years have passed since the adoption of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030. Its seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are still the main benchmark for the international community, to work for the aspirations of humanity, for effective global development in a holistic and an integrated way.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 27 November 2017

Photo credit: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

The Global Fund To Fight AIDS Asked to Change Criteria Discriminating Poor Countries

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – As this year's World AIDS Day campaign – My Health, My Right – kicks into high gear, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has called on The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to end the use of Gross National Income (GNI) per capita as part of the Fund's grant eligibility criteria, and thus stop discriminating poor countries.

The Los Angeles based AHF is the largest nonprofit HIV organization that provides HIV care to more than 833,000 patients in 39 countries globally, including in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean and the United States.

: J C Suresh; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 26 November 2017

Climate Change Hopes Vanish into Thin Air

By Andrea Vento*

ROME (IDN) – The great hopes for a historical understanding to contain global warming in the wake of the proclamations of world leaders prior to the recent UN climate change conference in Bonn have evaporated.

The ‘climate’ of confidence surrounding the conference – held in Bonn from November 6 to 17, officially known as the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) and presided over by Fiji – soon disappeared into thin air as environmental experts looked at what, if anything, had been achieved.

Criticism has centred on the failure to establish either a "compliance control committee" or a "sanctioning mechanism" against countries which do not respect the commitments they have entered into.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 26 November 2017

Sri Lanka’s 'Vision 2025' Development Programme Gets Going

By Indrajit Coomaraswamy

Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy is Governor of the Sri Lanka Central Bank. The following, a rather comprehensive view of the state of the Sri Lankan economy, is based on a statement made at the United Nations on 20 November 2017. – The Editor

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Sri Lanka has experienced a 27-year separatist conflict in the North and East of the country and two youth insurrections in the South (1971 and 1988-90). Tens of thousands of our people, most of them young, lost their lives. While there was complex causality behind these episodes, arguably the most significant explanatory factor was the mismatch between the expectations of and the opportunities for our young people.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 24 November 2017

The World's Poorest Need Funding for Access to Modern Energy

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – The world's 47 least developed countries (LDCs) are "the battleground" on which the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will be won or lost, Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD has warned, adding that it is high time for donors to meet aid commitments.

The 2030 Agenda includes an explicit goal for energy – Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, to 'ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all'.

"The central role of access to modern energy in achieving the other SDGs means that meeting SDG 7 will be central to the success or failure of the 2030 Agenda as a whole," says Kituyi, introducing The Least Developed Countries Report 2017.

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Affordable Clean Energy; 23 November 2017

Image: Snapshot of the video statement of Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women Executive Director. Source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otfF4szlESo

Violence Against Women and Girls is Not Inevitable

Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

The writer is UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. Following is the text of the statement titled 'A life without the threat of violence for everyone: leave no one behind' released on 16 November launching 'Sixteen Days of Activism against Gender Violence' ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 25 November 2017. – The Editor

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - The initial response to the outpouring of ‘#MeToo’ around the world has been of outrage at the scale of sexual abuse and violence revealed. The millions of people joining the hashtag tide showed us how little they were heard before. They poured through the floodgate, opening up conversations, naming names and bolstering the frailty of individual statements with the robustness of a movement.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 23 November 2017

Photo: Briefing by Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

UN Envoy Expresses Hope and Concern About the Gaza Accord

By Santo D. Banerjee

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – A senior United Nations official has emphasized the urgency to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and to return the enclave to full civilian and security control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) as agreed in the Cairo accord on October 12, 2017, described as a "landmark development".

According to media reports, the agreement between the Fatah and Hamas factions allows the Palestinian government to resume its responsibilities in Gaza. A statement released by Egypt, which facilitated the accord, said the Palestinian government should assume its full responsibilities to manage the enclave by December 1, 2017.

: Santo D. Banerjee; THE WORLD; Middle East; 21 November 2017

Photo: A new road being constructed in Bamyan in 2013. Credit: UNAMA

Religious Scholars Discuss Peace-building in Afghanistan

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Religious leaders came together in support of efforts to build a culture of tolerance and non-violence in Afghanistan at an event organized by the Bamyan regional office of UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

More than 30 scholars, including female scholars from different religious institutions attended the event to discuss and review their role in building a peaceful society, UNAMA reported on November 20, 2017.

"Religion is a key factor in peace-building," said Ibrahim Khalili, a scholar, stressing that religious leaders, by virtue of their standing in communities, can be a positive force for building peace among local communities.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 20 November 2017

Photo: UN Security Council in a session in November 2017. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten.

Security Council Delegation Visits Kabul Before Kazakhstan Assumes Presidency for January

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Kazakhstan is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018. Ambassador Kairat Umarov, the Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the United Nations, chairs the Council's Committees 1988 on the Taliban movement and 1267 on ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida.

Nearly two months ahead of Kazakhstan assuming the Council's rotating presidency for January 2018, Ambassador Umarov led a Security Council delegation to Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. With the visit from October 28 to 31, the Security Council wanted to familiarize itself with the situation on the ground and receive first-hand information on how effectively sanction measures against the international terrorist organizations are being implemented.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 20 November 2017

Photo: COP23 Venue. Credit: German Environment Ministry

Further, Faster, Together On Climate - From Bonn To Katowice

By Ramesh Jaura

BONN (IDN) – The two-week long intensive and multilevel talks concluded in Germany's former capital city in the early hours of November 18 tasking the negotiators to focus on 'Where are we, where do we want to go and how do we get there?' before they meet in Poland in December 2018.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat said the Bonn Climate Conference – officially known as COP23, the 23rd session of the Conference of Parties to the Convention – had become "launch-pad for higher ambition".