Dear NGO Colleagues, “On this International Day of Families, I call on governments, civil society, families and individuals to support initiatives that bring people together across generations toward building a healthier world for all. “ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Families hold societies together, and intergenerational relationships extend this legacy over time.  There is [...]

The completion of the most recent IWGIA (International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs) yearbook, The Indigenous World 2013, is a timely reminder of the similarities between the problems faced by all indigenous peoples. The yearbook contains stories of peoples facing the same fundamental struggles, albeit with varying access to their rights. The past year has [...]

New Ways of Sustainable Living are Being Created! Recently attended was a session on ‘Designing the Transition to Sustainable Societies’ given by May East.  Her focus was on four areas: why we need transition, transition towns, ecovillages and how to communicate these. In regard to sustainable societies she very strongly stated, “Currently cities cover 2% [...]

Ms. Navi Pillay, while interacting with the NGOs at the UN Headquarters, New York on 10th May 2013, said “The civil society played a crucial role toward the adoption of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action  in 1993 at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Austria.  I myself was there among civil [...]

On April 29 I attended a briefing on the Five Year Action Plan for Youth, in which Ahmad Alhindawi of Jordan, the Envoy on Youth, spoke. At this briefing a few of the things I heard on volunteers included: there are about 13,000 youth volunteers, 60% are female and there are approximately 6,845 online volunteers. [...]

In 2000 world leaders gathered at the United Nations to agree on a set of eight targets for international development. Since then, the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs have become the single most important organizing principle of the international community’s fight against extreme poverty and disease. World leaders gave themselves a deadline of 15 years [...]

Recently I attended the briefing on the Five Year Action Plan for Youth. Today we have the largest generation of youth the world has known: 87% come from developing countries and half of those are in countries affected by war. In January 2013, in response to a General Assembly request,  the Secretary General appointed a [...]

AFRICA has been tipped as one of the world hot spots for foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth, but there are concerns that the development of the continent is being held back by a massive, illicit outflow of capital. The concern was flagged on Monday by aid organisation Oxfam International ahead of the World [...]