Poverty

Photo: Children riding a bicycle in Tuvalu. Credit: UNDP | Silke Von Brockhausen

Quarter of Pacific Islanders Living Below ‘Basic Needs Poverty Lines’

By Sean Buchanan

NEW YORK (IDN) – While there has been progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over the past four years, some vulnerable small island developing states (SIDs), such as those in the Pacific, are losing momentum in the run-up to 2030.

In 2015, the United Nations set out a vision for “people, planet, peace and prosperity” through partnership and solidarity, when it adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. To date, however, many SIDs still face persistent challenges linked to poverty, inequality and climate impacts.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 15 July 2019

Photo: West Africa has seen impressive economic growth over the past two decades, but the benefits are going just to a tiny few elites at the top. Credit: Oxfam International

West Africa ‘Least Committed’ in Africa to Fighting Inequality

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – “African countries, especially those in West Africa, are simply not doing enough” to “ensure that no one is left behind”, declares a new report, unveiling shocking figures that underline extreme inequality and poverty rampant in the region. West Africa is the African region “least committed to the fight against inequality”, says the report titled ‘The West Africa Inequality Crisis’.

And this in a year that marks the fourth year of the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to address global challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change and environmental degradation – as envisaged in Goal 1, Goal 10 and Goal13.

: Ramesh Jaura; THE WORLD; Africa; 13 July 2019

New Report Calls for Breathing Life into Global Goals

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – A new report finds that while the global community talks a lot about sustainability goals, it does not invest enough in implementing them. The industrialized countries play an ambivalent role in their implementation. On the one hand, they come closest to fulfilling the goals, but on the other, they obstruct by incurring environmental and economic costs for third countries due to high living standards and consumer preferences.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 08 July 2019

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.