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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It was meant to be a ground-breaking year for gender equality, but COVID-19 widened inequalities

24/07/2020 0 Comments read Education, Gender, Health & Science

Suhana Khan teaching children from her extended family in Kesharpur village in Rajasthan (India). Photo Credit: © Bodh Shiksha Samiti

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 24.07.2020 (IPS): Sixteen-year-old Suhana Khan had just completed her grade 10 exams in March, when India imposed a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Since then, she has been spending her mornings and evenings doing household chores, from cooking and cleaning to fetching drinking water from the tube well.

“I am really missing school. Nearly half the year has gone and we have no books and no teachers to teach. We don’t know if and when we will be able to resume our studies,” Khan, from Kesharpur village in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, told IPS. The disappointment is palpable in her voice. While teachers at the local government school are supposed to conduct online classes, most of the 350 households in the village have only one mobile phone with internet connectivity, which male members in the family take to work.

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India is main supplier of medical goods to UN

16/07/2020 0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 16.07.2020 (SciDev.Net): UN procurement of goods and services from developing countries, economies in transition and least developed countries reached an all-time high of $12.3 billion or 62 per cent of all supplies in 2019, says a newly released report.

Three developing countries — India (US$1.1 billion), Yemen (US$872 million) and United Arab Emirates (US$840.5 million) — were among the top five supplier countries, according to the report launched by the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) on 9 July.

UN procurement from suppliers in Asia rose by 15.3 per cent between 2016 and 2019. India was again the second largest supplier to UN organisations, while the US maintained the top spot (US$1.7 billion).

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