Health & Well Being

A Staged Default: Sri Lanka’s Sovereign Bond Debt Trap and IMF’s Spring Meetings Amid Hybrid Cold War – Part 1

This is the first in a series of three articles.

Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake *

Debt cancellation, not asset stripping is the need of the hour!

COLOMBO (IDN) — In Cherry Blossom lined Washington DC in the glare of global media April 18-23 Sri Lanka became the poster child of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF), Spring Meetings. The strategic Indian Ocean island’s pathetic plight featured on major media and television channels that craft the global narrative, with images of people in queues amid food, fuel, and medicine shortages due to its crashing currency, soaring cost of living and ‘Arab Spring’ style protests.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 24 April 2022

Photo: An aid worker from the UN refugee agency attends to a baby at a UN-supported health center in the northern region of Burkina Faso. OCHA/Giles Clarke.

Private Sector Has a Pivotal Role in Achieving Universal Health Coverage in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Viewpoint by Massimiliano Colella

The author is the chief executive officer of Evercare.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (IDN) — With public debt reaching record highs both in developed and emerging markets—and with even more financial volatility following the COVID-19 pandemic—government budgets have been stretched thin. Underfunding in healthcare versus competing priorities has led to heavily burdened systems in emerging markets that are often struggling to keep up with increasing demands.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 22 April 2022

Photo: United Nations headquarters in New York, seen from the East River. CC BY 2.0

UN Opens its Doors to Visitors – After a long Pandemic Lockdown

By Rodney Reynolds

UNITED NATIONS, (IDN) — After more than two years of on-again, off-again pandemic lockdowns, the United Nations will soon return to normal—and re-open to the public.

The move comes amid reports of new infections from Covid-19, with mandatory masks still in force in New York city’s public transit systems, including buses and subways.

: Thalif Deen; UN INSIDER; 22 April 2022

Photo: Handful of tourists in a deserted Khaosan which was before the pandemic filled with street stalls and tourists. Credit: Pattama Vilailert.

Street Vending: Covid Seems to Have Killed a Bangkok Icon

By Pattama Vilailert

BANGKOK (IDN) — Street vendors have been an iconic attraction for millions of tourists that visited Bangkok each year before the COVID-19 pandemic. In perfect tune with the Thais' approach to enjoying life to its fullest, including eating and shopping, street vendors have set their carts in the heart of Thai people and Bangkok for a century, serving both Thais and foreigners.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 20 April 2022

Sustainable Development Threatened by 'Finance Divide' and COVID-19

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) — The crippling cost of debt financing for many developing countries has hamstrung their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, forced cutbacks in development spending, and constrained their ability to respond to further shocks, according to a new United Nations report.

: Radwan Jakeem; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 15 April 2022

Photo: Tourists from Russia previously accounted for the seventh-largest share of visitors to Thailand with around 1.5 million travelling to Thailand in 2019. Source: Economic Times.

Ukraine War Hits Russia's Tourism Industry

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) — Russia's tourism, both in-bound and out-bound, is severely hit by the war-ravaged crisis that unfolded in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine late February. For more than two years, the tourism industry was affected due to the widespread Covid-19 that shattered the world.

Industry operators say that the impact on tourism due to Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine has pushed the United States and Canada, European Union, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries to impose a series of sanctions, which are currently affecting the smooth operation of tourism business.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 14 April 2022

UN’s Goal of Poverty & Hunger Eradication by 2030 is “Highly Unlikely, if not Impossible”

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A projected rise in global poverty this year—with over a quarter of a billion more people joining the ranks of the world’s poor—threatens to undermine the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the General Assembly back in 2015.

One of the primary goals, listed high-up as number one, was the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2030. But neither is likely to be reached on deadline.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 13 April 2022

Photo source: Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific for 2022

UN Report Calls for Asia-Pacific to Focus on Inclusive Recovery

By Krishan Dutta

BANGKOK (IDN) — With an eye on the continuing uncertainty over the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased global risks, the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific for 2022, has called for anchoring the region’s economic recovery and progress in “a new social contract” of inclusiveness to protect the vulnerable from future shocks.

: Krishan Dutt; UN INSIDER; 12 April 2022

How the Portuguese Language Countries Are Facing Challenges

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW | LISBON (IDN) — After two and half decades of its existence as a popular multilateral forum for Portuguese-speaking countries, the Confederação Empresarial da CPLP has been looking at multifaceted and diverse opportunities to strengthen the organization and to improve mutual cooperation among the member-governments which are geographically located in separate continents.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 11 April 2022

Photo: SGI president Daisaku Ikeda. Credit: Seikyo ShimbunPhoto: SGI president Daisaku Ikeda. Credit: Seikyo Shimbun

Overcoming Impact of Pandemic and Climate Crises Crucial, Says Eminent Buddhist Preacher

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) — 2022 marks seven years since the United Nations adopted 17 interlinked global goals, termed as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all" by 2030.