Global Partnerships

Photo: The Fourth BIMSTEC Summit was held in Kathmandu, Nepal on 30-31 August 2018. Credit: BIMSTEC.

BIMSTEC Viable, Though SAARC Deadlocked

By Sugeeswara Senadhira

The author is Director (Research & International Media), Presidential Secretariat in Colombo. This article first appeared in Ceylon Today on September 3, and is being reproduced with the author's permission. – The Editor

COLOMBO (IDN-INPS) – Sri Lanka, as the new Chair of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) has a special responsibility of ensuring speedy cooperation of the member states of the Bay region. Though this is not an easy task, Sri Lanka is fortunate because it can get maximum support from the regional super economic power, India, for this endeavour.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 04 September 2018

Photo: Lake Chad map. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Conference Comes to the Aid of Drought-Stricken, Boko Haram Terrorised Lake Chad Region

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of Europe's powerhouse Germany, which joins the UN Security Council next January as a non-permanent member for 2019-2020, has pledged 100 million Euros (116 million USD) in emergency aid until 2020 to lessen the sufferings of over 10 million people in Africa's crisis-ridden Lake Chad region. This is in addition to 40 million Euros already earmarked to aid political stability in 2018 and 2019.

Maas, who was opening a two-day high-ranking international donor conference in Berlin on September 3 said the Lake Chad region – once a crucial interface between the Sahara and the southern part of Africa – is "one of the greatest humanitarian disasters of our times".

: Ramesh Jaura; THE WORLD; Africa; 03 September 2018

Photo: PepsiCo Sustainable Agriculture's Water Project uses technology and agricultural skills to reduce global water use. Credit: PepsiCo

Asia Society Names a Global Company CEO as 'Game Changer'

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Asia Society, in partnership with Citi, has announced the Indian-born Indra K. Nooyi as Game Changer of the Year for 2018 in recognition of her "life-saving collaboration with the United Nations on food, nutrition, global water, climate, and women’s empowerment issues."

Asia Society President and CEO Josette Sheeran – also UN Secretary-General António Guterres' Special Envoy for Haiti since June 2017 – said: "In my United Nations work, I have witnessed firsthand her (Nooyi's) humanitarian leadership." She described her as "truly a transformational leader."

: J Nastranis; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 25 August 2018

Image: 2030 SDGs Game. Credit: Imacocollabo

'2030 SDGs Game' Arouses Growing Interest in Japan

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) – Reports have it that when Albert Einstein was some five years old and confined to bed, his father gave him a magnetic pocket compass to play with. He twisted and turned it, wondering how the needle always knew to point towards the north.

Takeo Inamura and Nobuhide Fukui share a similarly profound curiosity about how the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, world leaders adopted in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit in New York, could really transform the world.

And, what could be done to bring home to the common man and woman that there is no magic wand to realize the grand vision of SDGs, to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind?

: Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 23 August 2018

Africa's Emerging Markets Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks

By Emmanuel Tita Sama*

LAGOS (IDN) – As emerging markets race to join the digital revolution they are fast being hijacked by cybercriminals, who are preying on the fledgling IT environment with potential security weaknesses and using them to launch attacks on territories with more advanced defence strategies.

The United Nations recently reported that, shockingly, only 38 percent of countries globally, have a published cyber security strategy, which has highlighted that there is a huge chasm between countries in terms of awareness, understanding, knowledge and the ability to deploy cyber security capabilities and programs "to ensure a safe and appropriate use of technology as an enabler for economic development".

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 August 2018

Photo: Izumi Nakamitsu, United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, briefs the Security Council as it considers the situation in the Middle East. 5 February 2018. © UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Advancing Disarmament Within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu

The author is Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. This article first appeared in UN Chronicle, Vol. LV No. 2 2018 | August 2018.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – The idea that disarmament and arms control are connected to development is not new. Article 26 of the Charter of the United Nations recognizes disarmament as a precondition for durable peace, security and development by calling for the maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion of the world’s economic and human resources for arms.

For a long time, however, disarmament has largely slipped off the development agenda. This is despite overwhelming evidence that excessive arms accumulation diverts needed resources from development and fuels armed conflict and violence, leading to unnecessary death and suffering, social inequality and environmental degradation. Hence, the failure to establish effective disarmament and arms control systems is devastating to socioeconomic development, peace and security, and human well-being.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 10 August 2018

The ACP Group Deepens Ties with the EU for Global Actions

By Phil Pascal

The writer is a Caribbean journalist and Commentator on development issues. This is the second article in a two-part Series on the next stage of ACP-EU relations in the Post-Cotonou Agreement with the EU. In the earlier commentary the writer explained the principles and processes by which the ACP Group has set about establishing the inclusive and participatory inter-governmental framework for negotiations of a Post-Cotonou Partnership Agreement (PCPA).

BRIDGETOWN (ACP-IDN) –The single undertaking of the new Agreement builds on the successes of the present one signed in Cotonou, Benin in West Africa for a 20-year period. But it also shows evidence of being ready to critique weaknesses and adapt seriously to the changing circumstances – political, economic and cultural – of the 21st century.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 08 August 2018

The ACP Group Reinventing for a Stronger Post-Cotonou Agreement with the EU

By Phil Pascal

The writer is a Caribbean journalist and Commentator on development issues. This is the first article in a two-part Series on the next stage of ACP-EU relations in the Post-Cotonou Agreement with the EU.

BRIDGETOWN (ACP-IDN) – The historic partnership agreement between 107 industrialized and developing nations – known as the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) and the European Union – will expire on February 29, 2020. Negotiations on a successor agreement impacting more than 1.5 billion people of states constituting more than half of the UN membership are set to officially begin on October 1, 2018, according to reliable EU sources.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 08 August 2018

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres (centre left) during the high-level meeting on United Nations reform convened by the United States. On his left is United States President Donald Trump. 18 September 2017. United Nations, New York. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten.

UN Chief Begins To Walk The Talk For Promised Reforms

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has taken a vital step towards creating a '21st century UN' by introducing wide-ranging reforms to the way the world body works and how it delivers on its mandate – thus translating into action the announcement of his intention soon after taking office in January 2017.

Guterres has appointed Jens Wandel of Denmark as Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Reforms. An official announcement on July 31 said: "The Secretary-General has decided to establish a reform coordination structure under the joint leadership of the Deputy Secretary-General and the Chef de Cabinet to ensure a unified and cohesive change management programme across all three reforms, with dedicated teams to service each individual stream."

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 06 August 2018

Photo: Trade ministers or representatives, including Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing (front row, sixth from left), from 16 countries gathering on July 1, 2018 in Tokyo for the Fifth Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Intersessional Ministerial Meeting. Credit: XINHUA

Asia's Evolving 'Free' Trade Deal May Not Benefit Workers

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – A Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – a "free" trade agreement between the 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its major trading partners in the region – is expected to be signed later this year. But labour unions and workers' rights advocates in the region fear that the secretive six-year negotiations will further erode workers’ rights in the Asian region, while strengthening the hands of investors who may even be able to sue governments for changing laws such as setting minimum wages, that would erode their profitability.