Partnerships for the Goals
Stretching for growth
As stretch targets for the world, the Sustainable Development Goals offer a game plan for harmonizing the demands of a fast-growing human population with a dwindling finite natural resource base. Business, government and civil society need to work together in radically new ways to meet them.
Partnering with peoples
Indigenous people are disproportionately represented among the destitute; they constitute approximtely five per cent of the world's population, but make up 15 per cent of the world's poor. The majority of them have historically faced social exclusion and marginalisation. Their levels of access to adequate health and education services are well below national averages. And they are especially vulnerable to the consequences of environmental degradation.
Women’s rights as human rights
The Africa we want
“Go softly in the world: if it is harmed, it cannot return.” This traditional African proverb reflects an awakening understanding in the continent that the environment is key to unlocking its great potential. So far, despite being filled with vast natural resources, Africa has been unable to harness them to bring about long-lasting peace, prosperity and good governance. But this is beginning to change.
Bridging the gaps
In the last two years something incredibly positive has happened. The often-criticised United Nations has given the world the biggest gift: the Sustainable Development Goals. The Global Goals have moved the conversation about sustainability from “why?” to “how?”. The facts are incontrovertible – we must act, now – and the Goals lay out the agenda. Working out how to find solutions for the sustainability challenges of energy, cities, food systems, waste, water and mobility is now on everyone’s agenda.
The Conventions
GEF-7 will cover the last stretch of the global Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the first years of a successor framework. It is thus coming at a critical point in time and a strong replenishment is necessary in order to maximize efforts for achieving the global biodiversity targets (Aichi Targets) by 2020. A significant GEF replenishment for biodiversity will also provide a strong political signal and lay solid financial groundwork for a comprehensive and impactful successor agreement post-2020 and its enhanced national implementation.
The environmental dimension of peace
It is not by coincidence that Colombia is placing the protection and sustainable use of our biodiversity at the centre of our long-term development plans. Our natural endowment is among the most diverse in the world: with only 1 per cent of the planet’s surface, our territory harbours 10 per cent of all known species and a forest area comparable to the size of Kenya.
Refashioning the future
2015 marked a remarkable moment in governance for sustainable development. The world gained a set of universally agreed goals, an agreement on how they would be paid for, and another agreement, again universal, that we would manage the global economy so as to limit warming to well below 2°C.
Zimbabwe’s farmers struggle to feed the nation
Les radios communautaires: La voix des pauvres
La lutte des Africaines pour l’égalité
Lutter contre les inégalités en Afrique
Combattre la pauvreté en Afrique
En quête de signes de reprise
Les droits pour les femmes d’Afrique du Nord
Lutte contre le sida en Afrique: À la croisée des chemins
L’Afrique face aux changements climatiques
L’Afrique fait appel aux fonds d’urgence
La Chine au coeur de l’Afrique
« Le don de la Chine à l’Afrique ». Le nouveau siège de l’Union africaine, un imposant immeuble de 20 étages à Addis-Abeba est ainsi décrit parce que la Chine a pris en charge les frais de construction (200 millions de dollars) de ce complexe ultramoderne. Le plus haut bâtiment d’Éthiopie, achevé en décembre 2011, à temps pour un sommet de l’UA organisé le mois suivant, comprend une salle de conférence de 2 500 places.
