GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Photo: The G20 “Family Photo” at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Public Domain.

G20 Leaders Keep the Multilateralism Torch Alive

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK | BUENOS AIRES (IDN) – Going by the 31-point G20 Leaders' declaration titled 'Building consensus for fair and sustainable development', a plenty more drew the focus of the November 30-December 1 summit than preoccupation with shadow-boxing between the champion of 'America First ' and the rest of the world.

This must have been much to the satisfaction of UN Secretary-General António Guterres who, during press briefings at the beginning of the G20 meeting described the event as an essential forum, in view of a lack of confidence and high level of confrontation within the international community, because globalization has divided the world into winners and losers.

: Santo D. Banerjee; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; The Group of Twenty (G20); 02 December 2018

Photo: Lesotho has had its fair share of the climate change impacts owing to the El Nino crisis in the past years. Credit: Lesotho: Agence Kaolin

ACP Steps in to Rescue Africa from Climate Change Impacts

By Jeffrey Moyo

MASERU (ACP-IDN) – Three years ago, Lesotho, Southern Africa’s small mountain kingdom surrounded by South Africa, was hit hard by the drought that led to the driest season in the region in 35 years. In the tiny dynastic nation, the El Niño driven-phenomenon resulted in a fall in maize production, the country's staple food.

But now thanks to ACP, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, a group that was created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975, climate change impacts in African countries like Lesotho have met their match.

: Jeffrey Moyo; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 01 December 2018

Photo: African Penguin Credit: Mike Barth. Source: www.unep-aewa.org

AEWA - International Environmental Cooperation At Its Best

Viewpoint by Jacques Trouvilliez

Internationalism seems to be falling out of vogue, but Jacques Trouvilliez, Executive Secretary of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), holds his organization up as an example of how conservation objectives are being effectively achieved through cross-continental cooperation.

BONN (IDN) – The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) is a good, and certainly not the only example of international cooperation working well. It is a UN Treaty which operates on the basis of concerted actions. It has 78 members including the European Union with another 41 countries within its area eligible to join.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 30 November 2018

Photo: A boy watches the shore from a boat near Sirajganj, a community affected by severe erosion that has left many displaced. Sirajganj, Bangladesh. October 2016. Credit: IOM/Amanda Nero.

New Study Calls for USD 2.3 Billion Support to ACP Countries

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – A new study finds that the 79-nation African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group of States can boost climate action with technical and financial support amounting to a minimum of USD 2,317 billion. Capacity building, an important aspect of efforts to halt climate catastrophe, is expected to draw considerable attention at the forthcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in Katowice, Poland.

The urgency of climate action is underlined also by the new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It shows that global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rose again during 2017 after a three-year break, highlighting the imperative for countries to deliver on the historic Paris Agreement to keep global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 29 November 2018

Photo: The picture shows two women from Lesotho trafficked in South Africa. Credit: Sunday Times.

ACP Fights Human Trafficking, Migrant Smuggling in Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

BEITBRIDGE (ACP-IDN) – At the age of 39, Ndikonyaga Muleya hailing from Beitbridge, Zimbabwe’s border town with South Africa, has found illegal crossing into South Africa convenient.

Over the years he became experienced crossing into the neighboring country looking for casual jobs in Musina, also a South African border town with Zimbabwe, which he now frequents as an illegal transporter of undocumented Zimbabweans itching to cross into South Africa fleeing from this country’s mounting economic woes.

“I earn money from transporting people through unmanned crossing points into South Africa. I was also helped before when I started crossing to SA,” Muleya told IDN.

: Jeffrey Moyo; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 28 November 2018

Asia-Pacific Reviews Ambitious Targets of 1994 Cairo Conference

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana and Natalia Kanem

Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Dr. Natalia Kanem is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

BANGKOK (IDN) – Ministers and senior policymakers across Asia and the Pacific are gathered in Bangkok up to November 28 to focus on population dynamics at a crucial time for the region. Their goal: to keep people and rights at the heart of the region’s push for sustainable development. They will be considering how successful we have been in balancing economic growth with social imperatives, underpinned by rights and choices for all as enshrined in the landmark Programme of Action stemming from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, or ICPD.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 27 November 2018

Photo: Ambassador Hans-Peter Jugel, Germany’s deputy envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, and UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Isabelle Durant signed the official funding document on 22 November 2018.

Germany Backs UNCTAD to Help Africa Implement Continental Trade Deal

By Rita Joshi

BERLIN | GENEVA (IDN) – Eight months after the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), the first pan-African agreement of its kind, Germany has donated 1.6 million euros to UNCTAD, to help the UN's trade and development body work with African partners to implement the landmark continental pact on cross-border commerce.

"This is a big new step forward in the economic development of Africa," said Ambassador Hans-Peter Jugel, Germany’s deputy envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, adding that the African Union had sought UNCTAD's support to meet the aims of the AfCFTA.

: Rita Joshi; THE WORLD; Africa; 25 November 2018

Photo: Ambassador Azeez, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva. Credit: UNCTAD

Sri Lanka Chaired UNCTAD Commission Boosts Multilateralism

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – "We need to look at how best multilateralism can be advanced and strengthened rather than at theories that suggest a 'doomsday' scenario or the 'dawn of an era of post-multilateralism'," said Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to United Nations in Geneva.

He was addressing the 10th session of the Trade and Development Commission of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) following his election by acclamation as its Chairperson.

: Jamshed Baruah; UN INSIDER; 25 November 2018

Stop Preventable Scourge of Violence Against Women

By UN Women

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – To commemorate this year's International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Secretary-General's UNiTE Campaign is calling upon us to stand in solidarity with survivors and survivor advocates and women's human rights defenders who are working to prevent and end violence against women and girls. Our duty is not only to stand in solidarity with them but also to intensify our efforts to find solutions and measures to stop this preventable global scourge with a detrimental impact on women's and girls' lives and health.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 25 November 2018

Photo: The Ark of Return, the Permanent Memorial to Honour the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, located at the Visitors' Plaza of UN Headquarters in New York. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas.

UN Reviews Education Programme on Slave Trade, Warns of Racism

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Ark of Return by Rodney Leon, an American architect of Haitian descent, at the UN Headquarters in New Yok honours the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade that was perpetrated for over 400 years.

The permanent memorial was erected on March 25, 2015 – the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The Day also aims to raise awareness about the dangers of racism and prejudice manifesting itself in racial discrimination in the hands of populists in several European countries and the U.S.