Showing 1 - 10 of 21
Fighting maternal mortality's toll
News, Anne-Marie Slaughter & Mary-Ann Etiebet, Published on 02/12/2024
» No mother should give her own life to give life to another. Unfortunately, preventing maternal mortality remains a persistent global challenge. The third United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) commits countries to reduce their maternal mortality rate to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030. At the current pace, the world is projected to fall far short of this target, resulting in more than one million additional, overwhelmingly preventable deaths.
How is the world doing on SDGs?
Homi Kharas & John W McArthur, Published on 16/10/2024
» Any reader of the daily news could be forgiven for thinking the world is in decline. Amid so many conflicts and societal strains, the United Nations regularly warns that only 17% of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -- the economic, social, and environmental targets all countries set in 2015 -- are on track to be met by 2030, as agreed, leading many to wonder whether such goals still serve any purpose. But rather than succumb to pessimism, we would do better to examine where the world is making sound progress, where it seems stuck on autopilot, and where things are indeed moving backwards or approaching a tipping point for the worse.
The education policy that can bridge the gap
Oped, Bjorn Lomborg, Published on 11/10/2024
» Children's educational test scores are a major cause for concern across the world. Learning plummeted nearly everywhere during the Covid-19 pandemic -- but even before that, standardised test result measures in mathematics, science and reading were heading in the wrong direction.
Adapting to a hotter world
Oped, Editorial, Published on 08/05/2024
» The arrival of rains this week might have cooled off what has been an unusually hot season, which saw temperatures reaching 45C.
An uninvited guest for breakfast
Roger Crutchley, Published on 28/04/2024
» Last Monday morning breakfast was abruptly interrupted when my dog on his daily sniffing patrol came charging into the living room and began barking agitatedly at the sofa on which I was sitting. Although the hound regularly enjoys a healthy bark in the garden, he knows the house rules for indoors… strictly no yelping. So this blatant breach of barking etiquette had me a little concerned.
The push African women need to escape poverty
Oped, Rudo Kayombo, Published on 12/03/2024
» What do poverty, climate change, and conflict have in common? They are among the biggest challenges confronting Africa, and they all disproportionately affect women living in poverty or on the margins of society.
Lower-income nations' jab lessons
Oped, Benjamin Schreiber, Richard Mihigo & Ann Lindstrand, Published on 24/01/2024
» There was a global sigh of relief when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared in May 2023 that Covid-19 was no longer a public-health emergency of international concern. But there is no room for complacency. The pandemic has represented an urgent warning about weak health systems and has served as an impetus to strengthen them ahead of a possible new variant or the emergence of a new pathogen.
Cities can drive climate solutions
Oped, Michael R Bloomberg & Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Published on 06/12/2023
» Nation-states, presidents, and prime ministers are the players who garner the biggest headlines and the most media attention at each year's UN Climate Change Conference. Yet for the past decade, and with far less fanfare, cities, states, and regional governments (known as "subnationals") have been implementing the Paris climate agreement's guidance, even when their national governments have not. This has meant investing in clean-energy systems and other urban innovations to reduce emissions locally and sharing what works through networks like C40 and the Global Covenant of Mayors to accelerate progress on a larger scale.
China challenges US amid Gaza, Ukraine conflicts
News, Peter Apps, Published on 06/11/2023
» As US and European warships gathered in the eastern Mediterranean amid rising tensions around Israel last weekend, the carrier USS Ronald Reagan dropped anchor off Manila to quietly project the message that Washington would stand behind the Philippines in any conflict in the South China Sea.
Let's have green spaces everywhere
Oped, Zhimin Wu, Published on 20/10/2023
» A few years ago, a university professor came up with the "3-30-300" rule. It envisions a world where everyone can see at least three trees from their window, live in a neighbourhood with at least 30% tree cover, and be no more than 300 metres away from high-quality urban green spaces.