Post-pandemic Asia Pacific lags on climate SDG – UN

25/03/2022 0 Comments read Environment & Development

Impacts of COVID-19, climate change and human-made crises have further disadvantaged vulnerable groups, including rural populations, poorer households, women and people with severe disabilities, says a UN report. Tai O fishing village on Lantau Island in Hong Kong. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 25.03.2022 (SciDev.Net): The Asia Pacific region has significantly regressed on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to climate action and responsible consumption and production, moving the region further away from the 2030 goalpost, according to a UN report.

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (ESCAP) 2022 Asia-Pacific SDG Progress Report, launched on 17 March, notes that inequality in the region has widened due to impacts of COVID-19, climate change and human-made crises. It says vulnerable groups, including women, rural populations, poorer households and people with severe disabilities, have been disadvantaged the most as a result.

“The sole focus on economic recovery post-pandemic is likely to hinder progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, which was already lagging to begin with,” Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, UN Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP’s executive secretary, tells SciDev.Net. “As the region strives to build back better and recover, the 2030 Agenda can serve as a guiding mechanism for both economic and social development”.

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Students’ yearn return to school

13/10/2021 0 Comments read Education

Altamash and his brother being taught by their elder brother at their home in Delhi, India.

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 13.10.2021 (SciDev.Net): A “generational catastrophe” looms as government’s prioritise opening of malls overs schools, resulting in huge learning losses. As many as 117 million children globally are still affected by full school closures due to COVID-19 lockdowns, according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

“You can’t open shopping malls and keep the schools closed,” UNESCO’s director of division for policies and lifelong learning systems Borhene Chakroun, tells SciDev.Net. “Governments have to take policy measures now to prevent a generational catastrophe in the future. They should reopen schools as soon as the sanitary situation allows and use closing them as the last resort.”

As of mid-September 2021, nine countries — Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka — in the Asia Pacific region have fully closed their schools due to COVID-19, accounting for 105 million or 10 percent of total students. As many as 51 million are primary school students, according to UNESCO.

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Conure cheer amidst Coronavirus

31/12/2020 3 Comments read Features

By Neena Bhandari

Turbulent, terrible, torturous is probably how many would describe Year 2020. It exposed and widened the social, economic and political frailties and fault lines, relegating important environment, development and other health issues to the backburner, and stalled progress made in the key Sustainable Development Goals of education and gender. While timely lockdowns did help in slowing the transmission and spread of the virulent virus, confined isolation made the plight of the vulnerable worse.

2020 began with my annual trip to meet family and friends in India, which included a memorable visit to Amritsar and the Wagah Border. I returned to Sydney via Singapore, a week before the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on March 11^th. On the flight I wore a mask, which I had hurriedly purchased before departing Delhi on a cold, hazy February night.

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