SUSTAINABILITY

Photo: EU trade mission led by Brussels-based Trade Affairs Officer of the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission, Roberto Cecutti visited the Kingdom of Lesotho's capital, Maseru, from 14-15 March 2018. Credit: European Union.

Lesotho Looks Forward To Post-Cotonou ACP-EU Agreement

By Ntsoaki Nkoe

MASERU (ACP-IDN) – Lesotho, a landlocked kingdom encircled by South Africa, like many other member states of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group, has benefited from partnership with the European Union (EU) through financial assistance from the European Development Fund (EDF) and trade under preferential conditions, says Finance Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro.

The current ACP-EU partnership agreement adopted in 2000 in Cotonou, Benin, to replace the 1975 Lomé Convention and Georgetown Agreement – expires in February 2020. Work has begun to lay the groundwork for the future partnership between the ACP countries and the EU. The current agreement provides for the opening of negotiations by the end of August 2018 at the latest.

: UN Bureau; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 16 June 2018

You Can Help Achieve Zero Land Degradation

By Monique Barbut

The writer is Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, and the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCDD) based in Bonn, Germany. This viewpoint underlines the importance of June 17 that marks every year the celebration of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought (WDCD). – The Editor.

BONN (IDN) – Are you overwhelmed by the depressing news coming at you daily? Conflict, forced migrants, famine, floods, hurricanes, extinction of species, climate change, threats of war … a seemingly endless list. It might surprise you, but you can really make a difference on many of these issues.

Just like every raindrop counts towards a river and every vote counts in an election, so does every choice you make in what you consume. With every produce you consume, you strengthen the river of sustainability or of unsustainability. It is either a vote in favor of policies that spread 'social goods' like peace and poverty eradication or 'social bads' like – conflict or grinding poverty.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 15 June 2018

Experts Debate Digital Media's Role in Tackling Global Inequalities

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BONN (IDN) – 'Global Inequalities' was the theme of this year's Global Media Forum (GMF) hosted by the German public international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and much discussion focused on whether the digital media tools are a panacea or a hindrance to achieving a more equitable world.

In an opening address, Germany's Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, Michelle Muentefering said that inequalities exist not only in the economic sphere, but also in the information field where balance and participation is lacking. "In the 1990s great expectations were placed on digital media (but) last few years have been sobering, the expected equality did not happen."

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Reduced Inequalities; 14 June 2018

Photo: María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ecuador and President-elect of the General Assembly’s 73rd session, speaks to journalists following her election by the Assembly. 5 June 2018. United Nations, New York. UN Photo/Manuel Elias.

UN General Assembly Elects Fourth Woman As President In More Than Seven Decades

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In its more than seven-decades-long history, the UN General Assembly has elected only the fourth woman to helm the 193-member organ. Ecuador's María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, a former Minister for National Defence, is President of the 73rd session of the General Assembly, which opens on September 18.

Her woman predecessors as General Assembly presidents were: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India (1953-1954), Angie Elisabeth Brooks of Liberia (1969-1970), and Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain (2006-2007).

Espinosa received 128 votes, surpassing the required simple majority of 96. The only other candidate, Mary Elizabeth Flores Flake of Honduras, received 62 votes.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 11 June 2018

Photo: Sea ice plays an important role in the climate and ecosystems of the Arctic and Antarctic. (©2008 fruchtzwerg’s world.).

Climate Change Is The Central Challenge For Humanity

Viewpoint by Franz Baumann

This article is based on Talk given to the UN Association of New York 23 May 2018. Dr. Franz Baumann joined the UN Development Program in 1980 and began working in the UN Secretariat in 1985. He retired in 2015 as an assistant secretary-general, special adviser on environment and peace operations, after working about a dozen assignments under five secretaries-general, in four duty stations and on three continents. Dr. Baumann is now a visiting professor at New York University. – The Editor

NEW YORK (IDN) – The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, by training a physicist and by temperament not given to hyperbole, last November called Climate Change “the central challenge for humanity.”[1] I will try to explain why this is by no means an alarmist, but an acutely realistic assessment.

: Franz Baumann; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 06 June 2018

UN Chief Guterres Calls For Beating Menacing Plastic Pollution

The world must unite to “beat plastic pollution” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message for World Environment Day, noting that microplastic particles in the ocean, “now outnumber stars in our galaxy”.

: UN Bureau; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; United Nations; 05 June 2018

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres (centre) addresses the General Assembly on the repositioning of the UN Development System. To his left is Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and at right is General Assembly President Miroslav Lajčák. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Sustainable Development Now at the Heart of the UN

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations General Assembly has approved a landmark consensus resolution, which Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed assures will allow the world body to transform a "cacophony" of efforts under way to make sustainable development a reality into a "symphony".

Secretary-General António Guterres has described the plan as "the most ambitious and comprehensive transformation of the UN development system in decades," paving the way for a new era of "national ownership" of development, supported by the whole UN system, in a tailored fashion, allowing countries to pursue sustainable economic and social development.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 04 June 2018

Photo: Joint Press Conference with Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, Ekaterina Zaharieva (second from left), and Jamaica's Minister of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade, Kamina Johnson Smith (third from left), flanked by ACP Secretary General Dr. P I Gomes (second from right). Credit: ACP Press.

107 ACP-EU Countries Walk The Talk On Global Governance

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS | LOMÉ (ACP | IDN) – African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the European Union will walk the talk on global governance by organising joint activities during United Nations conferences this year, according to co-presidents of the Joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers.

The Council issued a joint declaration reaffirming its commitment to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and to the attainment of the long-term goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

The joint activities ACP and EU have agreed are: the UN high-level political forum (HLPF) on sustainable development in July, the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in September, and the 24th Conference of Parties (COP24) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December.

: Robert Johnson; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 03 June 2018

Mamadou and Ramatoulaye Opt Out Of Migrating To Europe

Following is the text of an epilogue in Chapter 6, titled 'recommendations and conclusions' of Economic Development in Africa Report 2018: Migration for Structural Transformation, published on June 1, 2018 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). – The Editor.

GENEVA (IDN | UNCTAD) – The news on the radio about Libya goes on. Mamadou listens again. The news report is about migrants who make it to Libya – only to get trapped into slavery.

His mind goes back to the sounds of the radio at his parents’ modest home one fateful day in early August 1999. Two Guinean boys, Yaguine Koïta and Fodé Tounkara, from Conakry had been found in the undercarriage of a plane in Brussels. They were dead. Lying next to them, in a plastic bag, were their birth certificates and a letter. Mamadou can still hear the voices of despair, commenting on the fate of those boys who had written of their hopes and of their anguish living in Africa in that letter.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 June 2018

Photo: India's top beach destination Goa commits to #BeatPlasticPollution. Credit: World Environment Day.

Grassroots India Beginning To Beat Plastic Pollution

By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE (IDN) – A 32-year-old Rajeswari Singh launched on a six-week marathon mission on World Earth Day setting out to walk some 1,100 kilometres from Vadodara in western India to reach New Delhi on World Environment Day on June 5, spreading a simple message 'Stop using plastic', and accentuating it by forgoing all the way any kind of plastic packaged drinks or food.

In fact, she hasn’t used any kind of plastic over the past decade. Besides, her message echoes the theme of this year's World Environment Day – 'Beat plastic pollution' – with India, among the world’s top ten consumers of plastic, playing global host.