"In a way, he has a vision that is more eclectic, more theoretical than somebody like Helen Clark, who would be more practical and policy-minded. But their concerns are more or less the same: the future of the planet and sustainable development. They simply take different approaches."...

 “Does having women in power empower women per se?” This was the bold question put to Helen Clark, former chief of UNDP, during a one-hour debate co-hosted by UNU-MERIT and Maastricht University — and it was a question that got a suitably robust response! PhD fellow Ibrahima Kaba, our moderator for the afternoon, peppered and quizzed Ms. Clark about prospects for Africa, the future of the UN, and the viability of the Sustainable Development Goals. Given her recent run to be th...

‘Leave no one behind’ is one of the boldest commitments in the UN’s 2030 Agenda. But what exactly does this mean? UNU-MERIT’s Prof. Shyama Ramani and Dr. Maty Konte joined the Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development in Bonn, March 2018, to explain our work and efforts in this regard. In so doing they stressed the importance of research, outreach, and evidence-based policymaking to ensure that truly no one is left behind....

Governments worldwide have pledged to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. But given the scale of the task, not even national governments can manage alone. This has sparked a new phenomenon: whereby non-governmental players – from start-ups to social enterprises to multinationals – are aligning strategies and working toward the same sustainable ends. This new reality is also an opportunity to study how these supposedly ‘selfish’ players can be corralled for the common good. ...

Reports on the fight against global poverty are often optimistic — sometimes too optimistic. Part of the problem is “our” reliance on a simplistic measure, which draws an absolute poverty line of $1.90 per day in so-called 2011 international purchasing power parity. What can we do differently and where should we draw the line in our attempts to eradicate extreme poverty? The leading international source on poverty statistics, the World Bank, has many sophisticated measures avai...

The UN wants to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. But, as many of us are acutely aware, the SDGs are not only ambitious but also complicated. A kaleidoscope of grand visions, the 2030 Agenda aims to rebuild our world from the ground up, in a work plan covering everything from the environment to education to peace and security. And linked to the 17 goals, there are 169 targets and 230 indicators. For The Economist magazine: “these are ambitions on a Biblical scale and not in a go...

In 2013, India became the fourth country in the world (after Russia, the United States and the European Union) and the only emerging nation to launch a Mars probe into space. But it remains part of the group of 45 developing countries with less than 50% sanitation coverage, with many citizens practising open defecation, either due to lack of access to a toilet or because of personal preference. According to the Indian census of 2011, only 46.9% of the 246.6 million households in India had their ...

“We should… recognize the United Nations for what it is – an admittedly imperfect but indispensable instrument of nations working for a peaceful evolution towards a more just and secure world order.” These words, written over half a century ago by Former UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, remain as true today – on UN Day 2016 – as they were back in 1957. On 24 October we celebrate ‘UN Day’ which commemorates that fateful day in 1945 when the UN Charter entered into force. For the last 71 ye...

The world is an unfair, unequal, insecure and unhealthy place for about half its population. Around 30% of ‘us’ have no access to adequate healthcare when needed, and 40% face a complete or near-complete loss of income security when a personal or a national economic crisis strikes. At least a third of the global population live in abject poverty (under US$3.10 per day) – i.e., the cruellest form of insecurity. Every second child is poor and 5-10 million children die every year of preventable cau...

A country’s ability to close the fiscal gap is based on its tax revenue, and there are three clear reasons for this. First, since the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda, implementation is mainly the responsibility of the countries themselves, not NGOs or the private sector....