Poverty

Photo: Foreign corporations exploit Africa's mineral resources leaving a big hole for the people. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Pillaging of Mineral Resources Leaves Behind Poverty Holes for Africans

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (IDN) – More than a decade ago, he lost his home as diamond miners from China razed it to the ground searching for the gems. Still, today, 74-year old Tobias Mukwada lives with his family in shanty thatched huts they erected hoping that perhaps one day the Chinese diamond merchants would remember them and offer them a decent home.

But for the poverty-stricken Mukwada and his family, it may be a wait in vain.

Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe ordered Chinese diamond miners out of the mining fields in the country’s eastern highlands in 2016.

: Jeffrey Moyo; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 June 2019

Photo: Portrait of Pardhi tribal community members, Maharashtra, India (7 June 2019). Credit: UNICEF | Sri Kolari

World Population Expected to Reach Nearly 10 Billion by 2050

Yet Another Challenge to Global Goals

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK (IDN) – Compared to 7.7 billion today, around 8.5 billion people are expected to inhabit the planet Earth within little more than a decade, and almost 10 billion by 2050, with only a few countries accounting for most of the increase, says to new United Nations report.

The World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights, published by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), provides a comprehensive overview of global demographic patterns and prospects. The study concludes that the world’s population could reach its peak around the end of the current century, at a level of nearly 11 billion.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 17 June 2019

Photo: High level participants and representatives from the least developed countries following the opening session of the Global Conference on Scaling-Up Energy Access and Finance in the Least Developed Countries on May 30. Credit: UN-OHRLLS.

Boosting Energy Access and Finance in Poorest Countries

Viewpoint by Youba Sokona

The following are extensive extracts from keynote remarks by Youba Sokona, South Centre's Senior Adviser on Sustainable Development, at the Global Conference on Scaling-up Energy Access and Finance in Least Developed Countries in Beijing, China. The United Nations Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) and the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO) organised the conference with the support of the UN system on May 30-31, 2019.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 09 June 2019

79-Nation ACP Moving into a New Era of Global Partnerships

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – To bring "Asia and the Americas into closer bonds of friendship" with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and "strengthen South-South solidarity", Secretary-General Dr. P. I. Gomes is keen to "build bridges with India on technical cooperation" and initiate a "new partnership" with Peru. He was speaking at the 'ACP Day' celebrations.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 08 June 2019

Child Hunger Threatens Africa’s Social and Economic Future

By Ronald Joshua

ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – Africa’s future economic and social progress is under threat from alarmingly high levels of child hunger, and the severity and scale of the problem is such that it requires nothing short of a radical and transformative political and economic agenda, according to a new study released at the Eighth International Policy Conference on the African Child.

The report pleads among others for: (i) political commitment at the highest political level; (ii) a constitutional or legal commitment to ensure that no child goes hungry and to make it obligatory for governments to provide universal access to a minimum acceptable amount of food for all children; and (iii) provision of targeted social safety nets and school-feeding programmes across regions and communities.

: Ronald Joshua; THE WORLD; Africa; 23 May 2019

Inadequate Funding Threatens Sustainable Development Goals

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Much to the United Nations’ dismay, desperately missing funds are imperiling realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Investments that are critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals remain underfunded and parts of the multilateral system are under strain, warned a new report as the fourth Forum on Financing for Development opened on April 15, 2019 at the UN Headquarters.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 15 April 2019

Moving the ACP Group to Centre Stage of Multilateralism

Viewpoint by Dr. Patrick I. Gomes

The writer is the Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP).

BRUSSELS (IDN) – In today’s global situation that bears the features of turbulence, fragility and an increasingly precarious balance between peace and possible nuclear annihilation, the role and relevance of the United Nations Organisation has assumed unparalleled importance.

It was a perceptive comment of the late Nelson Mwalimu Mandela, who in his landmark speech to the United Nations on October 3, 1994, posed the question and demanded a response to what he considered to be the enduring imperative confronting the United Nations today, more than ever.

: Dr. Patrick Gomes - ACP Seretary-General; OPINION; 31 March 2019

Photo: Amazigh women in a village with an association that cultivates an olive tree nursery. Credit: Peter J. Jacques

Morocco's Indigenous People Cry For Sustainable Development

By Peter J. Jacques

The writer is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, USA. He recounts what Indigenous Amazigh people told him during field work in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

ORLANDO (IDN) – Life and death for whole communities hang in the balance of achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that include eliminating poverty, conserving forests, and addressing climate change, passed by the United Nations unanimously in 2015. Take for example, the Indigenous Amazigh people who live in the mountains around Marrakech. They are representative of people who need to be served first by sustainable development.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East & North Africa; 10 February 2019

3,500 Lose Jobs As New Currency Shortage Hits Zimbabwe

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Over 3,500 youth officers have been laid off as part of the nation’s shortage of currency amid efforts to streamline the wage bill. It was explained that the layoffs would save the country a substantial amount while the nation’s economy is limping.

Public Service Commission secretary Jonathan Wutawunashe said the layoffs were in line with the transitional stabilization program as announced by Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube in the 2019 national budget last November.

The measures, Ncube said, "will yield annual financial savings to be channeled to critical areas of health and education, as well as infrastructure".

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 08 January 2019

Photo: Coal-fired power plant. Credit: ozone.unep.org

New Agreement Seeks To Resist Powerful Greenhouse Gases

By Devendra Kamarajan

NAIROBI (IDN) – A new agreement signed in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, promises to fight global warming. Known as the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, came into force on January 1, 2019.

According to UN Environment, it will reduce the projected production and consumption of powerful greenhouse gasses termed as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by more than 80 per cent over the next 30 years.