Quality Education

Photo: Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust, Rio de Janeiro credit: UN Academic Impact

Taking Action to Repair Our World

By Ramu Damodaran

The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd first appeared in the #WhyWeCare, @ImpactUN on February 5.

NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) – “Nostalgia for the present“ is a phrase I once heard (or think I have), and it came to mind when reading a response received to last week’s (January 29) column and its looking back on CTAUN’s quarter-century of affirmation and affection. The question asked was straightforward; had CTAUN (Committee on Teaching) been able to “convene” over the past year? The answer, which I missed noting in my nostalgia for the past, is yes…three times actually.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 07 February 2021

Mixed Feelings in Kenya's Pumwani Slums as Schools Open

By Francis Kinyua*

NAIROBI (IDN) – After being closed for nine months, schools in Kenya reopened to start a new term and resume the school year that was disrupted in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the morning of January 4, the streets were swarmed with elated children wearing colourful uniforms marching to their schools.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Quality Education; 27 January 2021

Photo: Musicians perform at a concert in India, in December 2019, prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: UNICEF/Srikanth Kolari.

Culture Struggling to Survive COVID-19 Impact

By Jaya Ramachadran

PARIS (IDN) – The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has urged adequate policies and actions to help the culture sector weather the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout. The sector employs more than 30 million people globally. It has been hit much harder than expected.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 01 January 2021

Photo: Collage of Indian Ambassador Brajendra Navnit with WTO Director Roberto Azevedo and front of the WTO.

Science Has Delivered the Vaccines, The WTO Should Make Them Accessible and Affordable

TRIPS waiver proposal from India, South Africa and other members

Viewpoint by Brajendra Navnit

The author is Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The views expressed are personal.

GENEVA (IDN) – A proposal by India, South Africa and eight other countries calls on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to exempt member countries from enforcing some patents, and other Intellectual Property (IP) rights under the organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, known as TRIPS, for a limited period of time.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 December 2020

Photo: Poster for International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Credit: UN Women

US Policing and Militarism Perpetuate Sexual Violence

Viewpoint by Olivia Pace*

The original version of this article was published on Waging Nonviolence and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

PORTLAND, Oregon (IDN) – From the forces of policing to the military, these arms of the US state claim to be arbiters of justice and safety in the most superficial way. In reality, not only do these forces fail to create safety or bring justice to survivors of sexual violence. These systems actively perpetuate sexual violence and gendered violence on their own.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 07 December 2020

COVID-19 Shatters Hopes for Industrial Advance in Africa

But the Next Decade Might Trigger the Change Needed

Viewpoint by Jenny Larsen*

VIENNA (IDN) – Industrial development in Africa has been sluggish for some decades. Now, as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic kick in, hopes for better progress, at least in the short term, appear to be fading. But if countries grasp the right opportunities, the next decade can deliver the industrial change needed to meet the challenges ahead.

Industrialization and development go hand in hand. There is hardly a country in the world that has developed without building a strong manufacturing base. But for Africa – sometimes referred to as the continent of the future – the fruits of industrialization have often seemed just out of reach.

: Europe Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 November 2020

UNAI Celebrates 10th Anniversary Stressing Partnership with Universities Worldwide

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), launched in 2010 as an initiative to align colleges and universities with the work of the United Nations, celebrated its 10th anniversary on November 18. The program has more than 1500 members in 147 countries, all applying their academic inquiry, research and innovation to solving some of the world’s greatest challenges while educating the next generation of global leaders.

: Caroline Mwanga; UN INSIDER; 19 November 2020

Pressing Need to Ensure Responsible African Digitalisation

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – The profound importance of data is underlined by the fact that the United Nations is measuring progress towards the 17 ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the help of a global network working together to ensure the new opportunities of the data revolution.

Youth are being referred to as the "torchbearers" of the 2030 Agenda and have a pivotal role to play both as beneficiaries of actions and policies under the Agenda and as partners and participants in its implementation. Indeed, both explicitly and implicitly, the 2030 Agenda calls for the development and activation of sound, evidence-based youth policies and actions to ensure its full realization.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; THE WORLD; Africa; 04 November 2020

Photo: An attack on the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in the city of Kumba, in the country’s Southwest Region, by armed terrorists taking the lives of six children and leaving over a dozen seriously injured. Source: Netzfrauen.

Brutal Attacks on Bilingual School in Cameroon

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A long-running conflict between Cameroon's French and English-speaking communities brought new horror on October 24 with an attack on the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in the city of Kumba, in the country’s Southwest Region, by armed terrorists taking the lives of six children and leaving over a dozen seriously injured.

Communications Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi called it "a terrorist act of unbearable cruelty and barbarity".

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 27 October 2020

Photo. Mauritanian students return to school after several months of school closures due to COVID-19. Credit: UNICEF/Raphael Pouget

Financing and Political Will Critical to Avert A ‘Generational Crisis’ Triggered by COVID-19

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The world is at risk of suffering “a generational catastrophe”, as COVID-19 wreaks havoc on the education of students globally, the Secretary-General António Guterres has warned.

In a video message to the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Global Education Meeting (GEM), on October 22, he reminded delegates that the pandemic had had a “disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable and marginalized children and youth”.