IDN-InDepthNews

News Media, SYNDICATION2016-01-122023-07-12

‘A Poverty-Free World is Possible’, Says Amina Mohammed

An Interview by Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor*

In this exclusive interview, the United Nations Secretary-General’s former special adviser on post-2015 development planning, Amina Mohammed, talks about the evolution of the process, the commitments made, the challenges ahead, and why the goals, if implemented, could transform the world.

Africa Renewal (AR): What were the lessons learned from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and how did they shape the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

Amina Mohammed (AM): With the MDGs, we only addressed the symptoms. We didn’t really address the root causes of such development challenges as gender inequality, lack of access to clean water and the insufficiencies of health services. We’ve learned through this experience that having a set of goals directs people to discuss, create partnerships and find investments to execute plans. We’ve also learned to agree on the means of implementation. With the MDGs, we agreed to finance them after the goals were adopted, so we were always running after the money. This time, finance is part of the package.

GLOBAL ISSUES2016-01-122023-07-10

‘I See A World Without Poverty’, Says Amina Mohammed

An Interview by Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor*

Africa Renewal (AR): What were the lessons learned from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and how did they shape the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

Individual Journalists, SYNDICATION2016-01-122023-07-12

Obama’s Often Overlooked Success In Foreign Policy

LONDON – Make no mistake. Barack Obama is going to go down in history as one of the great American presidents. At home he has confronted poverty, ill-health, racism, gun laws, unemployment, immigration and the criminal justice system – with amazing tenacity, sometimes to great effect, even though the Republicans have fought him tooth and nail over every attempt at reform.

DEVNET2016-01-112023-07-10

A Practical Way Out of Chronic Poverty

TOKYO (IDN) – Poverty alleviation has been on the agenda of development cooperation since the early 1970s: Robert McNamara declared in 1973 that the World Bank’s mission is to eradicate poverty by 2000, and three years later the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), comprising world’s major donors, adopted the Basic Needs Approach. But the major challenge for the development community has been to find an effective method to provide substantial relief to the poor and deprived.

For some time, this issue was considered ideological, of a choice between growth and distribution. The last attempt at establishing a policy framework from an ideological perspective was the DAC’s policy declaration of 1996: Shaping the 21st Century; the Contribution of Development Cooperation. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE

UN INSIDER2016-01-112023-07-10

UN General Assembly Down The Memory Lane

NEW YORK – Marking the 70th anniversary of the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on 11 January 2016, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the body has truly become the “Parliament for all people.”

In fact, before there was a UN Secretary-General, a Security Council or an iconic Headquarters in New York, there was the General Assembly, the most representative body ever of world nations, meeting for the first time in a London hall facing Westminster Abbey, the 1,000-year-old coronation site of Britain’s kings and queens.

SYNDICATION, UNITED NATIONS2016-01-112023-07-12

UN Peacekeeping Chief Warns Of ‘Still Fragile’ Peace In Mali

NEW YORK (INPS | IDN) – The United Nations peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous has warned that, despite considerable progress, the peace process in Mali remains fragile, and stressed the need to urgently address political, security and humanitarian challenges.

Since the last consultations in October 2015, efforts by Malian authorities, parties signatory to the agreement, international mediators and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali MINUSMA had helped reinforce the dialogue between the Government and the movements, Ladsous, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told the Security Council on January 11.

GLOBAL ISSUES2016-01-112023-07-10

ADB Committed To Support Asia’s Development Needs

By Devinder Kumar | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

MUMBAI (IDN) – With the urban population in Asia expected to grow by 1.1 billion over the next two decades, 20% of respondents to a blog poll by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) believe that “transforming the region’s sometimes chaotic, polluted and poverty-blighted cities into competitive, equitable, and environmentally sustainable urban spaces should be a priority in 2016”. The blog poll was conducted in December 2015.

SYNDICATION, UNITED NATIONS2016-01-092023-07-12

Netanyahu Will Torpedo Obama’s Reported Bid To Head The UN

BERLIN (INPS | IDN) – In an unprecedented bid, U.S. President Barack Obama plans to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the United Nations Secretary-General and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has got wind of the plan, is determined to lead the effort in thwarting the bid, reports the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, cited by The Jerusalem Post.

While Ban’s second term as the UN Secretary-General ends on December 31, Obama’s finishes in January 2017. The U.S. Presidential election is due on November 8, 2016.

GLOBAL ISSUES2016-01-092023-07-10

Israel To Thwart Obama’s Reported Plan To Run UN Chief

By Ramesh Jaura | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

BERLIN (IDN) – In an unprecedented bid, U.S. President Barack Obama plans to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the United Nations Secretary-General and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has got wind of the plan, is determined to lead the effort in thwarting the bid, reports the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, cited by The Jerusalem Post.

While Ban’s second term as the UN Secretary-General ends on December 31, Obama’s finishes in January 2017. The U.S. Presidential election is due on November 8, 2016.

News Media, SYNDICATION2016-01-092023-07-12

The ‘Mission Impossible’ Of UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine

By Richard Falk*

Makarim Wibisono announced his resignation as UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine, to take effect on March 31, 2016. This is a position I held for six years, completing my second term in June 2014.

The prominent Indonesian diplomat says that he could not fulfill his mandate because Israel has adamantly refused to give him access to the Palestinian people living under its military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“Unfortunately, my efforts to help improve the lives of Palestinian victims of violations under the Israeli occupation have been frustrated every step of the way,” Wibisono explains.