SDGs for All ニュースレター2021年10月号

Youth Group Fights to Save Indigenous Land on The Palawan Island in the Philippines

By Nena Palagi

PUERTO PRINCESA, Palawan, Philippines (IDN) — It is a feat unimaginable by any modern standard. Six young people from this remote island of Palawan, in the Philippines, have taken on the goliaths of land ownership, and won. They got over 40,000 hectares of land legally declared as protected habitat with the direct endorsement from the Indigenous custodians. INDONESIAN | JAPANESE | KOREAN

Nations Protecting “Greedy” Pharma Companies Threaten Global COVID-19 Recovery

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — The European Union (EU), United Kingdom, Japan and Australia are holding the world hostage by refusing to support a waiver of COVID-19 vaccine patents for the world to recover from the pandemic. The World Trade Organization (WTO) remains at an impasse for one year.

COP26: Protect Peace and Justice at the Climate Change Summit

Viewpoint by Arunabha Ghosh and Isabel Studer Noguez

While Dr Arunabha Ghosh is CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water, Dr Isabel Studer-Noguez is Director of Alianza University of California-Mexico. Both sit on the international expert panel for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) initiative Environment of Peace.

STOCKHOLM (IDN) — When world leaders meet in Glasgow for the climate change summit (COP26) (October 31-November 12), they should be aware that their decisions will cast a long shadow over the future both of climate and security.

WTO Extends Measures for LDCs to Access Knowledge, But Why not Go the Whole Way?

Viewpoint by Teresa Hackett

The writer is Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager at Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL). She oversees the development and delivery of a unique, copyright service for libraries in developing and transition countries, providing specialist resources in multiple languages, and individual assistance on legislative issues.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (IDN) — When members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) recently agreed to extend the transition period by which Least Developed Countries (LDCs) must apply WTO rules on intellectual property, it was a welcome decision.

As Asia Grapples ‘Living With COVID-19’ Media May Need to Shed Adversarial Culture

Viewpoint By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — Indonesia’s popular tourism islands of Bali opened for tourism October 14, while Thailand announced that from November 1 vaccinated travellers from 19 countries will be allowed to visit the kingdom including its tourism island of Phuket. Both those countries’ tourism industry, which is a major revenue earner, has been devastated by over 18 months of inactivity that have impacted on the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people.

UN Concerned About Afghans Facing Hunger and Economy in “Free Fall”

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK | ISLAMABAD (IDN) — A senior UN official has painted a grim picture of Afghanistan with 23 million people facing hunger; malnourished children overflowing in health facilities; 70 per cent of teachers working without salaries; and millions of students—who are the country’s future—out of school.

Coastal Developing Countries Count on A Sustainable Ocean Economy in the Aftermath of COVID-19

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN | UNCTAD) — Barbados, Belize and Costa Rica are looking beyond the pandemic and climate shocks by developing and implementing national trade strategies strongly linked to resilience, conservation and the sustainable use of their marine resources.

Women’s Empowerment and Yoga in Rural Morocco and in Your Life

Viewpoint by Catrin Waters

The writer is a student at University of Virginia in the U.S. and a volunteer with the High Atlas Foundation, a U.S./Moroccan non-profit organization focused on sustainable development.

VIRGINIA, USA (IDN) — Before you read this, I challenge you to pause and ask your body the question: how do you like the thoughts I think about you?

When we make an active choice to listen to ourselves, we access the power of introspection. But as you likely realized within the first sentence of this article, that often isn’t comfortable. It is almost taboo to honestly ask yourself how you are, and even rarer to have the skills needed to be able to listen to the response.

COVID-19 & the Global South: From Crisis Response to Sustainable Development

By Rachel Gisselquist

HELSINKI, Finland (IDN) — Around the world, the pandemic, and the measures taken to address it, have had far reaching effects on poverty, inequality, and governance.  And even as the need for global action has increased, many wealthy countries have turned inwards — with closed borders, stockpiling of vaccines, and prioritizing of resources for their own populations.

Without Tourists Thailand’s Famous Massage Industry on The Brink of Collapse

By Pattama Vilailert

BANGKOK(IDN) — Thailand’s famous tourist industry has been synonymous with its traditional massage parlours and treatment centres. But the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns are having a serious impact on the industry and may force foreign takeovers. The continuous lockdowns have impacted savagely on the spa and massage business. JAPANESE | TAGALOG | THAI

Enable Digital Equity For All Ages

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

The writer is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

BANGKOK (IDN) — The growing number and share of older persons in Asia and the Pacific represent success stories of declining fertility and increasing longevity; the result of advances in social and economic development. This demographic transition is taking place against the backdrop of the accelerating Fourth Industrial Revolution. But COVID-19, with its epicentre now in Asia and the Pacific, has exacerbated the suffering of older persons in vulnerable situations and demonstrated the fragility of this progress.