By Manipadma Jena New Delhi, Aug 12 2019 (IPS) – “The Perfect Storm” was a dire prediction that by 2030 food shortages, scarce water and insufficient energy resources together with climate change would threaten to unleash public unrest, cross-border conflicts…
Category: Development
$54.8 mn to improve living in BD coastal chars: IFAD
Rome, 8 August 2019 – More than 342,000 people in southeast Bangladesh living on coastal chars created by silt deposits will benefit from new financing for a project to reduce poverty and hunger and develop rural livelihoods. People living on…
Don’t fear the scooter
by Alon Tal Tel Aviv – Electric bicycles and scooters are taking a lot of heat. Concerns about traffic fatalities, terrorized pedestrians, and urban lawlessness have led a growing chorus of politicians and media commentators to conclude that the technology…
14 water development projects being implemented in Rajshahi
Public health engineering department (DPHE) has been implementing 14 water supply and sanitation improvement projects involving more than Taka 99.94 crore to provide safe drinking water to people here. Abujar Masudar Rahman, Superintending Engineer of DPHE, here told BSS that…
Will a global fund help deliver UN’s development agenda?
By Thalif Deen UN, Jul 19 2019 (IPS) – The United Nations, which has been tracking both the successes and failures of its highly-ambitious Agenda for Sustainable Development, has warned that “progress has been slow” in many of the 17…
Inclusion, empowerment, equality must for sustainable dev
The world’s people are demanding “transformative change that is fair and sustainable,” Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday, calling on government leaders to use the upcoming slate of key United Nations meetings in September to “kickstart a decade of delivery…
‘Recognise non-state actors’ roles in implementing SDGs’
Dhaka, July 13 (UNB) – Speakers at a dialogue in New York said non-state actors including NGOs, think tanks, media and private sectors, in developing countries like Bangladesh, are playing a critical role in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Poor nations not liable for emissions ‘collected thru ages’
12 July 2019 – Citing climate change as being caused by “emissions accumulated throughout history”, the head of China’s Xiamen Airlines told the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York on Friday that heavy carbon…
Unlock opportunities for sustainable development: UN Chief
UN, July 11 – As the number of people on the planet continues to rise, UN Secretary-General António Guterres marked World Population Day by highlighting the close link between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and demographic trends – urging…
Sustainable development needs fundamental governance changes
New York, 8 July 2019: “The world is off-track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Most governments have failed to turn the transformational vision of the 2030 Agenda into real transformational policies. Even worse, xenophobia and authoritarianism are on…
Dhaka-Beijing strategic ties helpful for prosperity in Asia
Dhaka, July 6 (UNB) – China has conveyed Bangladesh that the strategic partnership of cooperation between the two countries will be ‘helpful in a big way’ towards the prosperity and stability in Asia and beyond apart from serving the mutual…
World is off track in its education commitments for 2030
Almost a third of the way to the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals, new UNESCO projections prepared for the UN High-level Political Forum show that the world will fail its education commitments without a rapid acceleration of progress.…
The Tivare Dam disaster in Maharashtra, India
July 6, 2019 SANDRP Late that night of July 2, shouts of “Dharan Futla, Dharan Futla” (The dam has breached!) saved the already-scared 62-year-old Narayan Gaikwad and his family, as the family ran to a nearby hill. Tivare Dam (Longitude:…
Why environmental and humanitarian action must be linked
By Tharanga Yakupitiyage UN, Jul 4 2019 (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. With the growing number of crises…
Why failure to buy Rooppur plant goods on trust not illegal
Dhaka, July 2 (UNB) – The High Court on Tuesday issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain as to why their failure to procure furniture, pillows and other household products for the officials and employees of Rooppur Nuclear…
Women’s rights are key in slowing down population
By Sivananthi Thanenthiran UNITED NATIONS, Jun 25 2019 (IPS) – The increase in world population by 2 billion in the next 30 years will present a serious global challenge especially if we do not find new paradigms of development thought…
Is there a co-relation between human development & SDGs?
By Pedro Conceição UN, Jul 1 2019 (IPS) – “People are the real wealth of nations,” began the first Human Development Report (HDR). That 1990 report marked a turning point in the global development debate. During the second half of…
No dev work that damages environment: experts
Dhaka, June 29 (UNB) – Stating that no development effort will be effective if it ruins the ecological and environmental balance, speakers at a public dialogue on Saturday urged the government to ensure a more environment-friendly budget. Poribesh Bachao Andolon…
Create new world based on social feeling: Dr Yunus
Bangkok, June 28 (UNB) – Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus here on Friday shared his thoughts on “super happiness” encouraging his global audience to join hands for creating a new civilization based on “social feeling, sharing and caring” coming out…
Poorest nations weighed down by fastest growing populations
By Thalif DeenReprint| UN, Jun 24 2019 (IPS) – With a new report projecting a rise in population, specifically in Asia and Africa, the United Nations has warned that continued rapid population growth presents enormous challenges for sustainable development in…
White House unveils $50 billion Palestinian economic plan
Washington, Jun 23 (AP/UNB) — The Trump administration on Saturday unveiled a $50 billion Palestinian investment and infrastructure proposal intended to be the economic engine to power its much-anticipated but still unreleased “deal of the century” Middle East peace plan.…
Budgetary reform for sustainable development in BD urged
Dhaka, June 21 – Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan), a civil society platform of Bangladesh called for budgetary system reform for sustainable development. The platform recommended the budgetary system be reformed to effectively impact the country’s sustainable development at roundtable programme…
11 infrastructure projects involving Tk 80bn okayed at Ecnec
Dhaka, Jun 18 (UNB) – The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday approved 11 projects involving an overall outlay of Tk 8,053 crore. The approval came from the Ecnec meeting held at NEC conference room here…
Indian envoy visits Khagrachhari BD-IND Moitree Bridge site
Khagrachhari, June 16 (UNB)- Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das visited the under-construction Bangladesh-India Moitree Bridge-1 and Ramgarh land port here on Sunday. While visiting the sites Riva Ganguli said, “Moitree Bridge and land port will increase scopes…
Asia-Pacific Region falters on UN development goals
By Thalif Deen UN, Jun 14, 2019 (IPS) – UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told a Chatham House meeting in London last week that the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), one of the legacies of the late Secretary-General Kofi Annan,…
BD to bring a quarter of population under social safety net
Dhaka, June 13 – The government is going to bring nearly a quarter of the families in the country under the social safety net programmes in the next financial year. The government has planned to allocate Tk. 74,367 crore in…
India’s most significant innovations have roots in civil society
By Apoorva Oza Ahmedabad, Gujatar, India (IPS) – When we look at some of the things we take for granted in India today, there is a common thread to all of them. Every single one. They all originated from civil…
Submersible pumps bring smile on Barind people face
Submersible pumps have brought boon for the people of drought-prone Barind area here, supplying safe drinking water to over 2.80 lakh marginalized people including 68,000 ethnic minority ones. Apart from this, more eight lakh people in 38 Union Parishads (UPs)…
Scaling up agroecology for sustainable development
In April 2018, the FAO hosted the Second International Symposium on Agroecology, following the first in 2014. With the main objective of moving from dialogue to action, the Symposium brought together different stakeholders and catalyzed inter-disciplinary dialogue and collaboration. The…
1,670 families rehabilitated in the home of poor scheme
The government in its home for poor scheme has rehabilitated a total of 1,670 homeless families and widows of six upazilas of the district. The homes were constructed at a cost of Taka one lakh each as part of the…