Global Partnerships

Image credit: Global Call to Action Against Poverty.

UN Development Goals Can be Best Achieved with Civil Society Participation

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A coalition of over 1,000 civil society organizations (CSOs) from 127 countries, under the umbrella of the Global People’s Assembly (GPA), has declared that the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be best achieved—and on its 2030 deadline—only with the active participation of civil society.

“Seven years after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals—almost halfway to the 2030 deadline—the visionary promise of social justice and a rights-based, equitable and ecologically just world for all appears to be a distant dream,” warns the coalition.

: Thalif Deen; UN INSIDER; 26 September 2022

Shanghai Organization Could Unite Region’s Big Powers to Drive the Global Economy

By Kalinga Seneviratne

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (IDN) — For the first time, the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) attracted international and regional media attention because the Ukraine crisis has made the region’s powerhouses China, Russia and India major players in the global economy.

The 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO took place in the historical city of Samarkand, in Uzbekistan, on September 15 and 16.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Central Asia; 21 September 2022

Photo: Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Uzbekistan 2022. CC BY 4.0

An Inexorable Multipolar World Order

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) — Despite the mayhem around the world—war in Ukraine, geopolitical confrontations, myriad of sanctions, energy crisis, hyperinflation, climate catastrophes, and unrelenting health issues—a few countries in the Eastern hemisphere held two noteworthy summits perhaps in an effort to bring some sense and stability to our deeply convoluted world.

: Somar Wijayadasa; THE WORLD; Central Asia; 20 September 2022

Photo: Multi-Religious panellists at the Congress. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | INPS-IDN

“God” Needs to Make Way for Global Multi-religious Peace Alliances

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 50th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports.

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (IDN/LCN) — There were over 250 religious leaders from across the world attending the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions on September 14-15, with over 90 per cent of them representing Islamic and Christian traditions.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Central Asia; 19 September 2022

Photo: Pope Francis delivering his inaugural keynote speech at the Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in the Kazakh capital on September 14. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | INPS-IDN Multimedia Director

Kazakhstan, the Centre of a New Route of Global Relationships?

By Kalinga Seneviratne

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (IDN) — Pope Francis has raised the prospect of Kazakhstan becoming the centre of a new route connecting the East and West, but this time a route that builds on human relations and respect.

Kazakhstan was once the meeting place of traders and travellers travelling from the East to the West, known as the Silk Route. In the 21st century, the Chinese are trying to revive these routes via railways and highways to promote trade across the world known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 17 September 2022

Photo: Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev speaking at the closing ceremony of the Seventh Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions on September 15 in the Kazakh capital. Credit: Akorda press service.

Kazakhstan: A Bridge Between West and East

By Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kazakhstan

As Kazakhstan hosted on September 14-15 the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, an influential US magazine National Interest published an article by the Kazakhstan President where he dwells on the significance of the two-day congress amid rising global tensions. The following text was re-published by The Astana Times newspaper.

BERLIN | NUR-SULTAN (IDN) — At times like this, we need to build bridges, not walls.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 16 September 2022

Despite Many Setbacks, The World Is Becoming Happier

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — High moments aside, do we know what happiness is? Is the world becoming a happier place? Are we happier than our parents' or grandparents’ generations? What could give us a little more happiness?

"Homo Sapiens has been around for about 8,000 generations, and for most of that time, life has been rather unpleasant. Most humans who have ever lived have done so under despotic regimes," wrote Stephen Krasner in Foreign Affairs in March 2020. Life expectancy, he points out, didn’t begin to increase until 1850, just seven generations ago, and accelerated only after 1900. It is still accelerating.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 30 August 2022

Photo: TICAD8 participating heads of delegations pose for the official family photo. TICAD Tunisia.

Japan Strengthens African Ties with Generous Pledge of Investment

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — African heads of state and a Japanese delegation are meeting to discuss “African-led” development at a meeting in Tunisia. Financial aid was discussed.

Tunisian President Kais Saied welcomed the participants to the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development—or TICAD— from August 27-28 in Tunis, where Japan promised $30 billion in investment in African aid to be delivered over three years, with smaller amounts also available for African food security.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 29 August 2022

Photo: India's Foreign Minister speaking at Chulalongkorn University. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne

India Is Moving Up From 'Look East Policy' To 'Act East Policy'

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) — External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has emphasized that India is keenly interested in the countries to its East, spreading right across East Asia into the Pacific. Speaking at Thailand's prestigious Chulalongkorn University on August 18, he explained "India's Vision of the Indo-Pacific" and indirectly went on to distance itself from the US military priorities for Indo-Pacific.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; South Asia; 20 August 2022

Image: A collage of Tim Peake, an astronaut of the International Space Station by the British/European Space Agency (timpeake.com), with a special apple tree grown from seeds taken into space. The tree was planted on the Vienna International Centre (VIC) grounds on 26 September 2021 to inspire future generations of space scientists.

Bringing the Benefits and Peace of Space to Humanity

A new UNOOSA head is to be appointed soon

By Aurora Weiss

VIENNA (IDN) — Legend has it that a young Isaac Newton was sitting beneath an apple tree contemplating the mysterious universe. Suddenly —"boink!''—an apple unexpectedly hit him on the head. He experienced his "aha moment!". In a flash of light, he understood that the same force that brought the apple crashing toward the ground also keeps the moon falling toward the Earth and the Earth falling toward the sun: gravity. We are talking about real space Affairs in practice, which debuted in his book Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1869).