IDN-InDepthNews

Europe2013-02-162023-07-10

Finland Should Spur Global Development

By Outi Hakkarainen* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

HELSINKI (IDN) – Finland is a North European nation with its own socioeconomic challenges, but globally it belongs to well-off countries responsible for engaging in the global development agenda. The Finnish government wants to be an accountable member of the international community, but its political will to be so does not always materialise.

Finland has not, for example, been able to reach the 0.7 % target for its development funding. On the other hand Finland’s current Development Policy Programme is positively founded on a rights-based approach. The challenge for Finnish civil society is to compel the government to improve its international performance.

VIDEOS2013-02-152023-07-10

Enough Food For Everyone

Indigenous Peoples2013-02-152023-07-10

Indigenous Peoples Find A New Dialogue Forum

By R. Nastranis | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

ROME (IDN) – The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, has opened a new chapter in its longstanding engagement with indigenous peoples, majority of whom live in rural areas and face the dual challenges of poverty and marginalization. They were offered an important platform of dialogue at the first meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum at IFAD.

Climate Change2013-02-142023-07-10

UNFCCC Partners With Yet Another African Bank

By Jaya Ramachandran | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

BONN (IDN) – The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat is joining hands with the East African Development Bank (EADB) to establish a regional collaboration centre in Ugandan capital Kampala, to increase African countries’ participation in clean development mechanism (CDM) projects.

An agreement for the purpose was signed by UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres, and the EADB Director General, Vivienne Yeda, on February 12.

ARMAMENTS2013-02-132023-07-10

Aiming at Global Disarmament by 2030

By Ramesh Jaura | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BERLIN (IDN) – An eminent Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda is calling for an “expanded nuclear summit” in 2015 to solidify momentum toward a world free from nuclear weapons and become the launching point for a larger effort for global disarmament aiming toward the year 2030.

With this in view, he hopes that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and forward-looking governments will establish an action group to initiate before year’s end the process of drafting a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) outlawing nuclear weapons, which are not only inhumane but also swallow some $105 billion year after year.

“A key factor . . . will be the stance taken by those countries which have relied on the extended deterrence of nuclear-weapon states, the so-called nuclear umbrella,” writes Ikeda, who heads Soka Gakkai International (SGI), a Tokyo-based lay Buddhist organization spanning the globe.

Middle East2013-02-122023-07-10

Syrian Civil War Grounded To A Stalemate

By Zachary Fillingham* | Geopoliticalmonitor.com
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

TORONTO (IDN) – Opposition troops in Syria have largely come to be referred to as the Free Syria Army (FSA), but this title belies the fact that the anti-Assad side of the civil war equation is composed of several disparate groups, all with conflicting visions for a post-Assad Syria. In reality, the FSA was born out of a group of largely Sunni Syrian Army deserters led by Riyad al-Assad, and that is likely more or less the composition that remains to this day.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT2013-02-102023-07-10

The Longest War is the War on Global Poverty

By Nimal Fernando* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – The ‘new year’ is already over a month old and all pointers are that at least one very old global issue is only that much older.

There is much reference to the ‘longest’ wars of the fiery kind, but less, perhaps, to the often silent, near-Sisyphean struggle against global poverty. Many concerned voices would argue that 2013 could be among the worst years in which to even embark on any kind of lasting progress on this front.

USA and Canada2013-02-092023-07-12

‘Coercive Diplomacy’ With Iran is Questionable

By Jeremy R. Hammond* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

TAIPEI (IDN | Foreign Policy Journal) – The January/February issue of Foreign Affairs features an article titled ‘Getting to Yes With Iran: The Challenges of Coercive Diplomacy‘ by Robert Jervis. By ‘Getting to Yes’, of course, Jervis means compelling Iran to obey Washington, and by the Orwellian phrase “Coercive Diplomacy”, of course, means issuing ultimatums and threats of criminal violence.

USA and Canada2013-02-082023-07-12

US-Israel: Peace Needs More Than Handshakes and Photo-Ops

By Ernest Corea* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – Hear those sounds? They are probably the echoes of Israel’s fervent supporters in the US erupting in hosannas when the White House recently confirmed that President Barack Obama is due to visit Israel in March 2013. On the same safari, he will stop over in Jordan and in the Palestinian territory universally known as the West Bank.

The visits are of regional and international significance because they raise the possibility that Obama intends to be directly engaged in the Middle East peace process and that this time around he will be more focused, and supported by more decisive aides, than he was during his administration’s previous attempt to support effective peace negotiations. That effort now lies as inert as road-kill on a highway.

ARMAMENTS2013-02-072023-07-10

33 States Push For Nuclear Disarmament

By J C Suresh | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

TORONTO (IDN) – Thirty-three Heads of State of Latin America and the Caribbean have pledged to work towards a world free of nuclear weapons and emphasized “the commitment to participate actively and share a common position at the High Level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Nuclear Disarmament” on September 26, 2013 in New York.