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News for a Sustainable World
Published by The Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group
with IDN-InDepthNews as the Flagship Agency
Download Sustainable Development Observer
Dear Reader,
We are pleased to send you Edition 46 | 2021. This weekly is the flagship news product of the Non-Profit International Press Syndicate Group with registered offices in Canada, Germany, Japan and Singapore, and correspondents around the world. Feel free to share and re-publish articles pro bono mentioning the source. Previous editions are available on https://newsletter-archive.indepthnews.net. Your feedback is most welcome.
Kind regards from the Non-Profit
International Press Syndicate
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) — If we are going to create a better world in the post-pandemic era higher education (HE) systems need to be more flexible and accessible, and governments need to be made to understand that funding the public university sector is essential to creating more equitable and socially stable societies. This is the message that came out clearly from the World Access to Higher Education Day (WAHED)—a day-long virtual conference coordinated from London and held on November 17 titled “Who will go to University in 2030?”.
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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — As Russia/Nato passions are stirring once again, we should wind the clock back to seven years ago when the Ukraine crisis began. What’s it all about?
The demonstrators in the Maidan, the central square of the capital, Kiev, were motivated by the arguments over a trade agreement with the EU, then being negotiated.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Saint-Louis, the old colonial capital of Senegal, was built in the 17th century at the mouth of the Senegal River and was the capital of French West Africa until 1902. But these days rising sea levels have created a flooding threat that has already seen entire villages lost to the Atlantic.
Guet Ndar, a district of Saint-Louis, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Mosques, homes and a school there have already been lost to coastal erosion.
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Viewpoint by Simone Galimberti
Simone Galimberti is the Co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not-for-profit NGO based in Nepal. He writes on volunteerism, social inclusion, youth development and regional integration as an engine to improve people’s lives.
KATHMANDU (IDN) — As forecasted by many, the Glasgow Summit has been, eventually, a flop on most counts.
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By Johann Ivanov*
ACCRA (IDN) — Africa is facing a severe employment crisis. But if nothing is done to find a solution, it could get much worse in the not-too-distant future, as World Bank projections from 2017 show: By 2035, Africa’s working age population will expand by 450 million. At the same time, however, only 100 million jobs are expected be created in the same period. And that was before the Covid-19 pandemic hit: Africa was severely affected and its economies experienced a contraction by 2 per cent in 2020. UNECA estimates that almost 30 million Africans have been pushed below the extreme poverty line.
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By Josefa Babitu
* The writer is a final year Journalism student at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji Islands. This article is a collaboration between University of South Pacific’s student’s newspaper Wansolwara and IDN-InDepthNews.
SUVA, Fiji Islands (IDN) — “I have never been in a situation where I’ve had to fight for our right to breathe clean air,” says Sydel Whippy, a resident of Lami, an urban township north-west of the Fijian capital Suva.
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By Kurt Reynolds
LONDON (IDN) — When the COP26 climate change summit ended in the early hours of November 13, the results were mostly dismissed as a major disappointment not only by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at Glasgow but also by former world leaders.
Mary Robinson, Chair of the Elders, an independent group of former global leaders working together for peace, justice and human rights, rightly summed it up, when she declared: “People will see this as a historically shameful dereliction of duty”.
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Viewpoint by M.K. Bhadrakumar *
This article was produced in partnership by Indian Punchline and Globetrotter. M.K. Bhadrakumar is a former Indian diplomat. Source: Globetrotter
NEW DELHI (IDN) — The information war is so intense nowadays that unsung melodies are often more alluring that the sung ones. The lines from English poet Shelley’s famous ode To a Skylark come to mind — ‘In the broad day-light / Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight…’
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) marked its 75th anniversary with a star-studded cast of artists and world leaders. Among the participants was American actor Forest Whitaker, a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation since 2011.
His organization, the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI), works jointly with UNESCO in South Sudan, Uganda and Mexico—areas affected by conflict and violence. In 2012, the WPDI launched the Conflict Resolution Education program in the U.S. In South Sudan, the WPDI trained former child soldiers and orphans to become peacemakers for their communities.
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Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) — About a third of global gas emissions come from agriculture and land use, yet, the final communiqué of COP26 failed to make any direct reference to the relationship between climate action and the world’s food systems. This is at a time, when the World Food Program (WFP) has warned that up to 45 million people in 43 countries are on the brink of a famine.
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viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana and Gillian Triggs
While Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is Executive Secretary of ESCAP, Gillian Triggs is Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, UNHCR.
BANGKOK (IDN) — Most countries in the Asia-Pacific region are on track to reach universal birth registration by 2030: an incredible achievement and a significant milestone in realizing human rights and equality. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed, many weaknesses remain in official recording systems, creating gaps in knowledge about the population and affecting how authorities respond to crises and reach those in greatest need.
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By Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW (IDN) — During his first official visit to Moscow under the military rule in Mali, Abdoulaye Diop, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, held extensive discussions with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The discussions on November focussed on increasing bilateral cooperation in economic sectors. But particularly significant was Russia's military assistance to strengthen the position of the new government and to fight rising terrorism in the Sahel region.
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Viewpoint by Sugeeswara Senadhira*
COLOMBO (IDN) —Considering that half of the world’s container ships, one third of the world’s bulk cargo traffic and two thirds of the world’s oil shipments traverse through the Indian Ocean, the importance of the peace and security of the ocean cannot be overestimated. Furthermore, maritime transport and logistics are a major component of the Blue Economy, which is the future hope for the economies hit by pandemic and recession.
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Viewpoint by Sabira Coelho and Christopher Yee
This article was issued by Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.
FIJI (IDN) — In June 2021, the Pacific Climate Change Migration and Human Security (PCCMHS) programme hosted the regional civil society consultation on climate-related mobility. The online consultations were organised by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and provided an opportunity for civil society representatives from around the Pacific to review the human security implications of climate change-related migration, displacement and planned relocation, share experiences about how climate-related mobility is impacting communities and talk towards the development of a regional based solution.
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By Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW (IDN) — Senior policy experts have advised Russia to make its Africa policy a derivative of the country's overall foreign policy objectives taking into account the Continent's human capital and natural resources.
The 'Situation Analytical Report', as it is titled, was prepared by 25 policy experts, as part of a programme sponsored by the Russian Foreign Ministry. It was headed by Sergei A. Karaganov, Dean and Academic Supervisor of the Faculty of World Economy and International Relations of the National Research University's Higher School of Economics (HSE University). Karaganov is also the Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy.
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By Norman Solomon and Jeff Cohen*
SAN FRANCISCO (IDN) — A few days after the November 2 election, the New York Times published a vehement editorial calling for the Democratic Party to adopt “moderate” positions and avoid seeking “progressive policies at the expense of bipartisan ideas.” It was a statement by the Times editorial board, which the newspaper describes as “a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values.”
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