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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

A Negotiated Peace Alone Will End Russia's War on Ukraine

This article was issued by CNN and is being republished with the author's permission.

Viewpoint by Jeffrey D. Sachs

NEW YORK (IDN) — There is only one answer to the war in Ukraine: a peace deal.

The two-pronged US strategy, to help Ukraine overcome the Russian invasion by imposing tough sanctions and by supplying Ukraine's military with sophisticated armaments, is likely to fall short. What is needed is a peace deal, which may be within reach. Yet to reach a deal, the United States will have to compromise on NATO, something Washington has so far rejected.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 21 April 2022

US Urged to Restore the UN-Backed 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) — More than 40 former government officials and leading nuclear non-proliferation experts have expressed strong support for an agreement that returns Iran and the United States to comply with the 2015 nuclear deal. The accord between Iran and the major world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 2231.

: Radwan Jakeem; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 21 April 2022

Remembering ECHELON: The First International Mass Surveillance Program

By Mila Bera

BELGRADE (IDN) — Ask a family member or friend how much they value their online privacy and you'll usually get a noncommittal answer that belies their disinterest. In fact, most people don’t have a clue how much their privacy is really worth. Governments and their agencies have no such doubts; they set the price on your privacy long ago.

: Europe Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 20 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

Image: The political construction of the left-right divide in French Parliament. Source: Ideology Theory Practice.

The Left-Right Divide Since the French Revolution

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — It goes back to the French revolution of 1789. At the Revolutionary Convention the most radical of the insurgents decided to seat themselves on the left side. “Why not on the other side, the right side, the place of rectitude, where law and the higher right resided, when man’s best hand could be raised in righteous honour?” wrote Melvin Lasky in Britain's intellectual monthly, Encounter. “Anyway, they went left, and man’s political passions have never been the same.”

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 19 April 2022

Photo: Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka on April 13, 2022 in front of the Presidential Secretariat. CC BY-SA 4.0

Sri Lanka: The Story of the Situation Going from Bad to Worse

Viewpoint by Alan Keenan

This article was issued by the International Crisis Group and is being republished with their permission. Alan Keenan is Senior Consultant at the Crisis Group.

BRUSSELS (IDN) — Protests, which had been building from late February in response to Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis in nearly 75 years of independence, have now morphed into a nationwide uprising. Protesters are demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the removal of the Rajapaksa family from politics.

The protest wave gained momentum as the results of the government’s financial and economic mismanagement became increasingly visible amid rapidly disappearing hard currency reserves and widespread shortages.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 April 2022

Image: The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a backwater event founded in 1997, has become a meeting place for Asian and European business and political leaders who see this meeting as much more significant than the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting held in Davos, Switzerland.

Would the New Globalization Have an Eastern Face, If Western-Led Globalization Ends?

Viewpoint by E. Ahmet Tonak and Vijay Prashad *

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

NEW YORK | NORTHAMPTON (IDN) — An article written by authors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge for Bloomberg on March 24 sounded the alarm to announce the end of “the second great age of globalization.” The Western trade war and sanctions against China that predated the pandemic have now been joined by the stiff Western sanctions imposed against Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 18 April 2022

Image: DevPolicy Blog | Thilina Panduwawala

Nero Is Fiddling in Milan: Sri Lanka's Neglected Crisis of Diplomatic Representation – Part Two

This is the second in a series of two articles. Please click here for Part One.

Viewpoint by ALA Azeez

ROME (IDN) — In a further measure aimed to reduce the pressure on the declining foreign reserves, the foreign ministry announced over the past months, plans to close down some of Sri Lanka's missions abroad. It is not clear what criteria was applied and if any other missions have been identified for possible closure.