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Showing posts with label SDGs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SDGs. Show all posts

Monday, July 16, 2018

CoFo to examine forest contribution to SDGs - NaijaAgroNet

The Heads of forestry services and other senior government officials from around the world will participate in the Committee on Forestry (CoFo) meeting held at FAO in Rome, Italy, report NaijaAgroNet.

The Committee on Forestry, NaijaAgroNet gathered, will also examine what contributions forests could make to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Participants, NaijaAgroNet reports, will identify emerging policy and technical issues affecting the forestry sector.

Some of the agenda, NaijaAgroNet reports, include halting deforestation, managing forests sustainably, restoring degraded forests and adding to worldwide tree cover - forests, trees play crucial roles in food security, drinking water, renewable energy, and rural economies and they provide around 20 percent of income for rural households in developing countries.

In particular, the Committee on Forestry will explore the contributions that forests can make to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and discuss actions related to the contributions of forests to food security and nutrition, including within the context of climate change.


The COFO meeting will be opened with a message from FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, while, the keynote speakers consist of Maithripala Sirisena, President of Sri Lanka, Daniel Gustafson Deputy Director-General (Programmes), FAO, Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Minister of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia; and Tomasz Chruszczow Special Envoy for Climate Change, Ministry of Environment, Poland.

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Pix: Forest, courtesy FAO

Friday, December 15, 2017

Modern slavery: SDGs & unending African malaise?

Recent exposure of internally African modern slavery markets calls for joining of forces beyond the African Union and European Union joint summit in Abidjan, writes REMMY NWEKE.
 
Preamble:
Historically, the slavery in Africa dates way back prior to 1793. A visit to the Badagry suburb in Lagos and slavery gateway, would leave any discerning mind a wet chronicle; how the community leaders then sold a human being for a ceramic cup and some for a bottle of hot-drink, equally known in the local parlance as foreign ‘gin’, yet another for a goldsmith design, that will not be of value either to be adorned at occasion or move about easily due to its weight.

From Badagry in Lagos to somewhere in Kumasi in Ghana, the story was definitely the same, then you find the slave trade outlet after agonizing stay and dehumanizing in the section of point of no return.

At first when I visited Badagry and Kumasi, my assumption was that we have and must put this kind of histories in the past and sojourn with the present in order to make progress as required, hence, when DigitalSENSE Business News made its debut a few years ago; the cover reflected on “How tech-giants promote child-labour” by some of the mobile device manufacturers in the same cheap labour with bottom design being to highlight the implications of that being a modern day slavery.

And as the world progressively develop in the areas and applications of the information and communication technologies (ICT), one thinks that such news as 21st century slavery or still modern slavery should have become a bygone over half a decade later.

40 million in modern slavery:
Defined as modern ways of exploitation ranging from forced prostitution and forced labour to forced marriage and forced organ removal, as well as human trafficking, debt bondage, descent-based slavery and child slavery, according to antislavery.org.

But latest data from a recent report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Walk Free Foundation, in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) which came in two parts, showed that some 40 million people are currently in modern slavery and 152 million in child labour around the world, aged between 5 and 17, within the 2016 alone.
NaijaAgroNet also gathered that this new data revealed that the United Nations (UN's) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly on goal 8.7, will not be achieved unless efforts to fight modern slavery and child labour are radically augmented.

In addition, NaijaAgroNet reports that the new estimates indicated that women and girls are disproportionately affected by modern slavery, accounting almost 29 million, or 71 per cent of the overall total. Women, they said, represent 99 per cent of the victims of forced labour in the commercial sex industry and 84 per cent of forced marriages. 

The research revealed that among the 40 million victims of modern slavery, about 25 million were in forced labour, and 15 million were in forced marriage. While child labour remain concentrated primarily in agriculture with 70.9 per cent, almost one in five child labourers work in the services sector, whereas estimated 11.9 per cent of child labourers work in industry. 

The ILO Director-General, Mr Guy Ryder, noted that the message his office sent with the latest research findings alongside its partners, remain very clear; “the world won’t be in a position to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals unless we dramatically increase our efforts to fight these scourges. These new global estimates can help shape and develop interventions to prevent both forced labour and child labour.” 

The Founding chairman, Walk Free Foundation, Mr Andrew Forrest, pointed to the fact that as a society humanity still have 40 million people in modern slavery, on any given day shames mankind. “If we consider the results of the last five years, for which we have collected data, 89 million people experienced some form of modern slavery for periods of time ranging from a few days to five years. This speaks to the deep seated discrimination and inequalities in our world today, coupled with a shocking tolerance of exploitation. This has to stop. We all have a role to play in changing this reality – business, government, civil society, every one of us.” 

Libya Slave Market exposed:
Then, came, the news on Libyan Slave Market in the northern Africa. The fact is that most Africans remain divided with some sympathizing with the victims who have to journey via the unpleasant route to Libya with hope of making it to Europe.

The alarming aspect is that most victims that got trafficked actually paid to be exported via Libya and often ended up being stranded without any food or money, hence some end up in doing drugs, prostitution and odd jobs after being sold between $400 and $600 in order to survive. From most stories, told by the surviving returnees, they paid initially between $1000 and $6000; for self-export into slavery.

As at the time of filing this report, some 6,000 Nigerians have been repatriated back home with everyone having ugly stories abound, while the Nigerian High Commission in Libya, said some Nigerians, even refused to go home.

Freely become slave:
NaijaAgroNet reports that another school of thought disputed if what is happening in Libya Slave Market is precisely a slave trade? According to the proponents of this thought, some of the victims voluntarily paid about $6,000 each, to reach the shores of Libya for onward movement to Italy and other European cities, where they look forward to being secured and revel in a so-called better life ... regrettably, “From there they became victims of their own choices. Nobody came into Nigeria or Ghana or Cameroon to pick them as slaves; rather they went there by themselves and with their own money, but their ‘Points men’ and ‘points women’ had invariably other ideas in their heads.

Also, the proponents considered these victims as not more than slaves who are only fit to work menial jobs in the family homes of Europeans, and for that their traffickers tagged them with the price of $400 each for the Europeans to buy and herd them to their homes for domestic chores!
These proponents insisted that a quick conversion of $6,000 into Nigerian Naira will tell you that these "slaves" were never poor people by any equation, because the amount here is about N2.6 million spent by each "slave" to freely become "slaves" in Europe, and by simple reckoning, poor people have no such cash in any part of the world.

This school of thought was saddened on the so-called modern slavery story, because evidences have shown that in some communities in Nigeria, “it is the parents or families that raise such huge sums for their children, especially for daughters, to go to Italy or other European cities to become sex slaves and send large sums of dollars home. At best, the above narration is not slavery since it was not forced one; rather a deliberate consent to be sold into slavery."

Whereas appreciating the United States-based Cable News Network (CNN), they posited, it's good that CNN broke the story of this self-induced slavery, and it's also good that Nigeria's federal government sent in aircrafts and brought back home her own contingent of ‘rich slaves.’

Can AU & EU summit mitigate?
This story, directly or indirectly influenced the outcome of a summit of African Union (AU) and European Union (EU) in Cote d’ Ivore capital, Abidjan, setting a goal of immediate repatriation of some 3,800 migrants languishing in a camp near Tripoli. They also insisted on stamping out horrific abuse of African migrants, some of them Nigerians, in Libya where thousands are suffering in a vast, lawless territory. Just as head, AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat noted, there are hundreds of thousands more estimated about “400,000 to 700,000,” who are stranded. Yet, experts pointed out a daunting array of hurdles including from extracting migrants in perilous situations, to giving them incentives to stay back when they return home.

For the International Organisation for Migration Europe Director, Eugenio Ambrosi had told AFP by phone from Brussels. “It is a step in the right direction. It is a little bit too much to think it will solve the slavery issue, but it would definitely mitigate (it) to some extent.” Emphasising that the summit also showed there was now ‘international watchdog pressure’ that could be brought to bear on the criminal gangs but it must be ‘sustained.’

The drive proclaimed at a meeting on the summit sidelines organised by French President Emmanuel Macron, which gathered eight other EU and African countries as well as the AU, EU and United Nations representatives; hinting that the UN-backed Libyan government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj had identified and granted access to the worst camps to enable the returns of people who want to go home.

Dealing with traffickers & punishment:
Additionally, the Macron group decided to work with a task force, involving the sharing of Police and intelligence services, to “dismantle the networks and their financing and detain traffickers,” he said, even as they pledged to freeze the assets of identified traffickers, while AU will set up an investigative panel and the UN could take cases before the International Court of Justice.

While saluting this as progress, commentators pointed to big practical problems, which begin with the need for African countries to respond rapidly to the need for travel documents so that evacuees can leave quickly.

“Something has to be done for people in this situation, obviously. But from an operational and logistical point of view, the evacuations are very complicated,” said Matthieu Tardis, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations in Paris. Adding, “Doing it on a major scale raises the question of cooperation with the Libyan authorities and of their authority across the country. On top of that, it’s hard to see how you can walk into unofficial camps and other places to evacuate migrants, especially when they are controlled by traffickers.”

Unofficial camps:
Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord is opposed by a rival administration in the east of the country, backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar. Just as there is the question of support for those who go home — an influx that adds to a poor country’s economic and social burden.

For Yves Roland Houeto, the coordinator of an Ivorien Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) called the Pan-African Association of Children and Young Workers (AACYW), said he saw no signs West African governments were ready to offer serious economic prospects to keep the young at home.

Governments cannot just offer returning migrants some money and supplies when they land back in their country’s airport. As said by Houeto “As soon as their supplies and money run out, they will leave again,” noting that in Grand Bassam, a coastal city of 80,000 people less than an hour’s drive from Abidjan, that every month, around 10 young people leave the area for Europe.

Summary:
Of immediate commendation must be given to government and people of Uganda for accepting to habour some of the victims from Libya, pending their final repatriation to their home countries. And given the scenes above, there is a lot to be done by the governments and African Union Commission, especially in enthroning good governance in most African countries.

Until such a time, the situation in Southern Cameroun needed to be nipped on the bud. It will also send the signal that AUC is ready alongside the sub-regional organisations, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Walk Free Foundation, and International Organization for Migration (IOM) to work the talk. Of course, with the support of European Union, so as make the youth see the reality on ground rather than propaganda and the time to start was like yesterday, that is, if we intend to make inroads into the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 8 - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all; in combination of 8.7 – which centres on forced labour.

Therefore, it’s imperative to agree with the earlier submission that unless efforts to fight modern slavery and child labour are jointly tackled and radically too to complement each other, any effort towards this may be in vain.

And time to start is now, after all, because, at this time it cannot be said to be a stitch in time that saves nine, but efforts at remedying  the situation is and must be commendable, whilst determinations to make the required change on modern slavery, must start from the homes and immediate societies, backed by good governance as its bedrock.

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Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Commission urges ICT use to drive SDGs

The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development has urged policymakers, the private sector and other partners to make deployment of broadband infrastructure a top priority in strategies to accelerate global development and progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reports NaijaAgroNet.

A statement presented at the 2017 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), which is ongoing in New York City 10-19 July 2017 to guide global efforts on the achievement of the SDGs.

The Commission, a high-powered community, including top CEO and industry leaders, senior policy-makers and government representatives, international agencies, academia and organizations concerned with development – outlines the many ways that broadband can improve global sustainable development, and in so doing, better the lives of millions around the globe.

These include addressing basic needs such as healthcare and food production, and helping lift people out of poverty through e-commerce opportunities and job growth, monitoring climate change and planetary processes, and bridging the digital gender divide.

"We must work together," said the Commission in its statement, "to harness the opportunities and benefits of ICTs, new and emerging technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, as well as broadband-based technologies, while safeguarding against their downsides and risks. This will be critical to achieve the SDGs and realize the future we want. Let us seize the historical opportunity of the SDGs to build a model of sustainable development anchored by universal access to affordable broadband technologies and digital literacy in order to fulfil a future where no one is left behind."

"The theme of the 2017 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development is 'Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world'. The Broadband Commission statement to the HLPF highlights the critical role of ICTs to do so, and outlines the fundamental role broadband technology can play in helping the world achieve its most pressing sustainable development goals," said Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary-General. "Their statement urges HLPF attendees to recognize the need for the global roll-out of broadband infrastructures, devices, applications and services to make progress towards achieving the SDGs."


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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Abuja hosts fifth policy dialogue on SDGs

The fifth High Level Policy Dialogue on development planning begins in Abuja tomorrow with the theme ‘Mainstreaming the Sustainable Development Goals into National Development Plans’ reports NaijaAgroNet.

This three-day meeting, NaijaAgroNet reports, follows the endorsement of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development by African countries who are trying to domesticate the process, thus offering them an opportunity to align national visions and development strategies to the global SDGs.

The dialogue, NaijaAgroNet gathered gives participants an opportunity to discuss key issues for Africa’s transformation, sustainable development priorities and aspirations, in the light of the continent’s commitments to the SDGs as they continue to mainstream and domesticate the SDGs into national planning processes.

Top Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Nigerian government officials and other guests would be in attendance.

The High Level Policy Dialogue, NaijaAgroNet reports commences Wednesday, June 28, 2017 and would last till Friday, June 30, this year.


NaijaAgroNet further reports that Africa’s top policymakers will attend the meeting being hosted by ECA and the Nigerian Government. 

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Saturday, June 17, 2017

SDGs: Civil society needs conducive environment to thrive

The Lagos State Coordinator of the Civil Society Coalition on Sustainable Development (CSCSD), Dr. Adeshina Bello has called on the government at all levels to create a sustainable and conducive environment for the coalition to thrive in carrying out its mandate to the society, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking at a one-day coalition Sustainable Development Conference in Lagos, held at Justice, Peace and Development Centre (JDPC), Bello noted that the environment must be conducive for the members of the coalition including private sector, social sectors, academia, mass media and other stakeholders to ensure that sustainable development  goals are maximally achieved.

“I equally call on drivers of every sector of the economy to collaborate with the government to ensure rapid development today and forever,” he said.

Bello expressed optimism on the anticipated synergy emanating from the conference so as to drive rapid and lasting development not only in Lagos State, but in Nigeria and the world at large.

He pointed out that a conference like this is an indispensable platform or the state and national development and particularly at a period like this in the history of Nigeria.

“Hence, it is very vital for every stakeholder to identify the SDGs, streamline their activities toward maximally achieving the SDGs, identifying gaps, opportunities challenges and be ready to partner with other stakeholders to achieving abundant durable development in all spheres of life,” he urged.

The coordinator further listed the 17 items in the Sustainable Development Goals to include end poverty, end hunger, ensure good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, good jobs and economic growth.

Additionally, he listed industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production;  climate change action, life below water; sustainable use of ecosystem, forest and combat desertification; access to justice for all; and revitalize global partnership.


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Friday, September 9, 2016

SDGs implementation: Ban Ki-moon stresses importance of finance

The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon has stressed the importance of financing and other support mechanisms in implementing the global goals for sustainable development and climate action, reports NaijaAgroNet.
He also urged further efforts by G20 countries to fulfilling their commitments to SDGs and climate action.
“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a universal, integrated and transformative plan of action for peace and prosperity for all on a healthy planet,” Mr. Ban told a session on inclusive and interconnected development during the G20 Summit happening in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.
Referencing the 2030 Agenda on 17 global goals adopted by the UN General Assembly last September, he said that achieving them requires balanced, inclusive and sustainable economic growth. 
"The Addis Ababa Action Agenda, adopted in Ethiopia last year, provides a global framework for financing the 2030 Agenda implementation. It aligns all financing flows and policies with sustainable economic, social and environmental development," he said.
Mr. Ban also pointed out that the G20 Action Plan to support implementation of the 2030 Agenda is testament to your commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,” the UN chief said, acknowledging China’s leadership for mainstreaming sustainable development in the work of G20.
Mr. Ban also applauded the leaders of France, Germany, Japan, Mexico and the Republic of Korea for initiating inter-ministerial coordination mechanisms on implementation of the global goals, calling upon all G20 leaders to follow “these good examples.”
“Implementing the 2030 Agenda will strengthen our collective ability to address short-term risks and build long-term resilience. This is why it is essential that sustainable development is fully integrated into a global macroeconomic policy framework,” Mr. Ban said.
The G20 initiative on supporting industrialization in Africa and least developed countries will strengthen their inclusive growth and development potential, he said.
The UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) report provides a comprehensive framework in this regard. Increased investments in infrastructure and industry, access to finance, sharing and transfer of technologies, trade facilitation, capacity building and improving enabling environments can support the transformation needed, he added.
The G20’s financial support to the Paris Agreement on climate change, adopted last December in France, is crucial, the Secretary-General emphasized. “Now it is time to ensure we live up to our commitments on climate finance, including the commitment to provide $100 billion for the Green Climate Fund,” he said, describing this as “an important step” to support developing countries’ efforts to implement the climate accord.
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Saturday, November 14, 2015

Opia Kumah advises Nigeria to take advantage of MDG lessons in implementing SDGs

NaijaAgroNet:

The Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Nigeria, Mr. Opia Kumah has advised Nigeria to take advantage of lessons learnt from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to tackle implementation of the recently promulgated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reports NaijaAgroNet.
Addressing the State-level workshop on ‘Data Mapping for the Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria” at the weekend in Kaduna, Mr. Kumah who was represented by the Economic Advisor in the state, Ojijo Odhiambo, described workshop as timely given its coming two months after the highly successful national-level meeting on the same subject held in Abuja and hardly two weeks after the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDGs Indicators Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.
“As you are well aware, the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators which brings together member states of the United Nations, Nigeria included, and regional and international agencies, was created by the United Nations Statistical Commission in March this year with the mandate of proposing a global indicator framework,” he said.
The results of this global initiative, he said, will be considered by the Statistical Commission at its 47th session in March 2016. He stressed that the work of the group has nonetheless become an important reference point and input into national level activities related to data for monitoring and reporting on the SDGs.

While the Inter-agency and expert group is yet to complete its work, he pointed out that it is now clear that the international community favours a limited number of indicators for monitoring progress towards the SDGs.
“In the area of poverty, for instance, the group has just adopted the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) as an indicator for measuring progress towards the SDGs,” he said.
Emphasising that this is a clear testimony of the desire of the international community to capture and measure progress towards the SDGs in more qualitative and comprehensive terms. 
“As we deliberate on the indicators for measuring progress in Nigeria over the next two days, we should therefore keep in mind the need to evolve and adopt those indicators which are broad, qualitative and contextually relevant to our unique national situation,” he charged.

According to Kumah, regarding data for the SDGs implementation, monitoring and reporting, the critical challenge facing Nigeria is not the lack of knowledge of what needs to be done but rather how to apply the available knowledge and lessons learnt from the MDGs implementation over the past fifteen years.
“The country has learnt invaluable lessons from the MDGs implementation process. We fully appreciate the challenges that the country faces with respect to data. We know what works and what does not. We know where the gaps are. We know where the bottlenecks are. We know which indicators are particularly problematic to measure. We ought to use this rich knowledge base to evolve the most plausible implementation strategies for tracking, capturing and processing the SDGs indicators in a comprehensive, coordinated and efficient manner,” Kumah said.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @ITRealms
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Monday, September 28, 2015

Zero hunger, key for realization SDGs


 
The Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) José Graziano da Silva has told world leaders at United Nations headquarters that zero hunger is the only guaranty for  realization of the entire set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, NaijaAgroNet reports.
Information from FAO stated that fourteen of the 17 new SDGs are related to FAO's historic mission, the Director-General noted, adding that the second goal - which is "to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture" - must be urgently pursued as rapid progress on that front is the key to the other goals, he added

"We have given ourselves an enormous task,that begins with the historic commitment of not only reducing but also eradicating poverty, hunger in a sustainable way. We can only rest when we achieve zero hunger," Silva said.

NaijaAgroNet recalledthat the SDGs follow and expand on the Millennium Development Goals, established in 2001 and ending this year, which set a hunger reduction target that was met by more than half of the countries monitored by FAO. But nearly 800 million people still suffer from chronic undernourishment.

A majority of the world's poor and hungry live in rural areas, and improving their livelihoods is the core challenge.

He also reminded world leaders that in the next 15 years an additional investment of 160 dollars, about N31,848per year per person living in extreme poverty is needed to end hunger, NaijaAgroNet learnt.
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