Number 12 | 2019

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK | BUENOS AIRES (IDN) – South-South and triangular cooperation has triggered over decades the vigorous economic growth of countries of the global South such as Brazil, China, India and the Gulf States, and proved to be an important solution for many of today’s development challenges. It should, therefore, be seen as a critical complement to North-South cooperation, says a new report by the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group) and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC).

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (IDN) – Global gross domestic product has doubled since 1970, enabling immense progress, and lifting of billions of people out of poverty. At the same time, this economic growth has been fueled by a relentless demand for natural resources. At no point in time nor at any level of income, has our demand for natural resources wavered, notes the Global Resources Outlook 2019.

"Our consume and throwaway models of consumption have had devastating impacts on our planet," says the report presented during the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, Kenya, March 11-15.

By Shanta Roy

NEW YORK (IDN) – The U.S. threat to penalize and impose economic sanctions against judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) – if they bring charges of war crimes against American troops in Afghanistan – has sparked an avalanche of criticisms from human rights groups, think tanks and civil society organizations (CSOs).

The strong protests have come from the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), among others.

By Reinhard Jacobsen

VIENNA (IDN) – More than 2 billion people live without safe water at home. One in four primary schools have no drinking water service, with pupils using unprotected sources or going thirsty. More than 700 children under five years of age die every day from diarrhea linked to unsafe water and poor sanitation. Globally, 80 percent of the people who have to use unsafe and unprotected water sources live in rural areas.

These are some of the facts reflecting stark reality on the ground, making the motto of the World Water Day 2019 – "water for all by 2030" as envisaged in the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 6 to "ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all" – sound like a pious wish.

By Caroline Mwanga

New York (IDN) – UN Member States have agreed to safeguard and improve women's and girls' access to social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure, ensuring that their design and delivery is transformed to prevent discrimination and create a "level playing field" for women and girls.

This is the upshot of the two weeks of intense dialogue, the 63rd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63), concluded March 22 in New York.

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – Stretching from the Gulf of Guinea in the west to the Rift Valley in the east, the Congo basin is the beating heart of African biodiversity. Spanning 530 million hectares across six countries – Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo – the basin contains some 70 per cent of the continent’s forest cover and is home to one of every five species on our planet.

By Lisa Vives and Sean Buchanan

NEW YORK | LONDON (IDN) – An estimated 1.7 million people in Mozambique were in the path of Tropical Cyclone Idai when it hit southern Africa on March 15, with upwards of 900,000 people affected in Malawi and thousands more in Zimbabwe.

With the World Food Programme (WFP) reporting that the scene of devastation is one of “inland oceans extending for miles and miles”, the major challenge now facing the region is how to get aid to those most affected.