News headlines in July 2019, page 9

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 05 (IPS) - Ulrika Modeer* is Director of UN Development Programme's Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy & Susanna Moorehead* is Chair of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Developmentuniversally adopted in 2015, is a plan to create a better and more sustainable future for all in just 15 years, through 17 Sustainable Development Goals (the SDGs). It sounds implausible.

UPPSALA, Sweden, Jul 05 (IPS) - When Africa's free trade area launches on 7 July, a key player will be missing. However, Victor Adetula, head of research at Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) in Sweden, predicts that Africa's largest economy, Nigeria, will gradually open up and join the project.

WASHINGTON DC, Jul 04 (IPS) - Marian Starkey is Senior Director of Publications at Population Connection. She has an MSc in Population and Development from the London School of Economics.

Knowledge is power, but with the caveat that said knowledge is based in fact. Otherwise, it's misinformation.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 04 (IPS) - As the focus of Australian politics shifts away from refugee and asylum-seeker policies, the government avoids accountability for inhumane actions.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 04 (IPS) - A military strike on a detention centre for migrants in Libya that claimed dozens of lives on Tuesday Jul. 2 has reignited a debate over the poor treatment of the mainly African people who transit through the turbulent country.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 04 (IPS) - Environmental and humanitarian action is often understood as two different sectors. However, the lack of awareness regarding its intersections could lead to further long-term devastation.

OVALLE, Chile, Jul 04 (IPS) - Children from the neighboring municipalities of Ovalle and Río Hurtado in northern Chile are harvesting rain and recycling greywater in their schools to irrigate fruit trees and vegetable gardens, in an initiative aimed at combating the shortage of water in this semi-arid region.

USPANTÁN, Guatemala, Jul 03 (IPS) - Because the government has never provided them with electricity, indigenous communities in the mountains of northwest Guatemala had no choice but to generate their own energy.

NEW YORK, Jul 03 (IPS) - Sri Lanka continues to be on a security alert long after the devastation caused by a string of bombings on Easter Sunday this year.

Raisa Wickrematunge, Editor of Groundviews, told IPS: "There has been a tightening of security. There are now security checks being carried out outside hotels and shopping malls - either through scanners or bag and body searches".

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 03 (IPS) - How effective is the global war on drugs?

The latest statistics released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are staggering: 35 million people across the globe currently have a substance use disorder, and as of 2017, 585,000 people have died worldwide as a result of drug use.