17 July 2017 – Prize-winning photographs taken by students from around the world – currently exhibited at United Nations Headquarters in New York – encapsulate their own ideas and feelings about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Photos have the power to go beyond borders, which makes it an ideal medium to connect young people from all over the world,” said Kaoru Nemoto, Director of the UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Tokyo, which organized the exhibition “Spotlight on SDGs.”

With 17 goals and 169 targets, communicating the SDGs to the public has proven to be a challenge in many countries.  

But engaging youth is vital to successful implementation of those objectives by 2030, a target year for the international community to eradicate poverty, address climate change and build peaceful, inclusive societies for all.

In fact, young people played a key part in shaping the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and they, as agents of change, are expected to lead efforts to translate this vision into reality.

With this in mind, UNIC Tokyo and Sophia University put their heads together and came up with a student photo contest with special cooperation from Getty Images Japan.

“This partnership-driven photo contest encouraged young students to think hard about SDGs at their doorstep, visualize their perspective through their creativity, and have fun,” Ms. Nemoto told UN News.

Titled “My View on SDGs,” the contest encouraged students to reflect on the Goals, communicate their feelings in a photograph and share it with other people.

Over 600 submissions were received from students from 47 countries on five continents.

First prize went to a photo portraying a volunteer removing a tire from a beach in Lima, Peru, taken by a local university student, Nicolas Monteverde Bustamante.

“I was shocked and saddened by the number of tires strewn across the beach in a conservation area in Callao, near Lima,” said the 23 year old.
“The pollution of the ocean is one of the worst problems humanity faces at this time. Our culture of consuming and throwing away indiscriminately is poisoning our cities, our lands, our ocean, and finally, ourselves. It is in our hands to make our ocean a better place for all, without tires and trash.”

Photo/Pang Yunian, 25, China (Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan)

“In the town of Shwe Kyin, in Myanmar, households have no electricity,” said 25-year-old Pang Yunian, from China, who was among the contest winners. “Yet, the villagers decided to prioritize education and used limited resources to build a primary school a few years ago.”

Photo/Karin Imai, 20, Japan (Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan)

“My photo is simply a snapshot of a normal landscape in Japan,” said 20-year-old Karin Imai, Japan, whose entry also won a prize. “Yet for some reason, this tiny plant growing in the midst of tall trees caught my eye.”

She said its relative size seemed to emphasize, rather than diminish, its strength and willpower to grow.

“I also wanted to convey the importance of small discoveries as the same philosophy applies to the furthering of the SDGs… The accumulation of these small discoveries and actions will carry us towards a brighter and more sustainable future.”

The exhibition is on view through 10 August at UN Headquarters. 

Ms. Nemoto said that the exhibition coincides with the convening of the High-Level Political Forum on sustainable development – a mechanism UN Member States have mandated to carry out regular voluntary reviews of implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

“These prize-winning photos have been brought to UN Headquarters with an aim to encourage viewers to take ownership of SDGs as change makers,” she said.

UNIC Tokyo and Sophia University are co-sponsoring a second SDGs Student Photo Contest and are calling for entries by the 31 August deadline.

17 July 2017 – Senior United Nations officials today called for regional and international support to stabilize newly liberated Mosul and to create conditions for peace and development throughout Iraq.

“The historic liberation of Mosul should not conceal the fact that the road ahead is extremely challenging,” the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Ján Kubiš, told the Security Council.

He praised the Iraqi security forces and international partners for “an exceptional effort” to save and protect civilians during the military drive to liberate the Iraqi city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known by its Arabic acronym, Daesh, and for showing a readiness to be held accountable for violations.

The effort was “in stark contrast” to ISIL, which showed “absolute disregard for human lives and civilization” by booby-trapping and destroying homes and critical monuments, indiscriminately shelling civilians, and by having civilians “butchered” by females and brainwashed children suicide bombers.

“To turn the gains of the military victory into stability, security, justice and development, the Government will have to do everything possible to give the people back their lives in security and dignity,” said Mr. Kubiš, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

De-mining, stabilization and reconstruction efforts to allow the return of displaced people, as well as the elimination of ISIL cells and militias, are among the priorities.

He noted that the Governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait had confirmed their willingness to assist the Government of Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, and urged all of Iraq’s partners to “stay on course.”

In addition, the Iraqi Government has to work for national settlement and societal reconciliation within the country, as well as to enter into negotiations with the Kurdistan Regional Government, the UN envoy said.

ISIL would ultimately be defeated only “through inclusive solutions, addressing the grievances, needs and aspirations of the Iraqi people,” noted Mr. Kubiš.

He reiterated the UN’s commitment to facilitating the national settlement process and supporting grassroots reconciliation efforts. Also, with ISIL pushed out of Mosul and the people held by the group freed, the UN is “repositioning” its response to supporting survivors of sexual violence and helping to integrate them back into their communities. The UN is also working to ensure that children arrested for terrorism-related charges are transferred to juvenile institutions.

Security Council meeting on the situation concerning Iraq. Ján Kubiš, Special Representative for Iraq and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).Photo: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

‘Fighting may be over, humanitarian crisis is not’

Some 700,000 civilians have been displaced from Western Mosul, according to UN figures.

Speaking via videolink from Baghdad, UN Deputy Special Representative Lise Grande told journalists in New York that the top priority right now is to reach civilians who might still be in Mosul’s old city.

“We believe perhaps hundreds of people are still there,” said Ms. Grande, who is also the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq. She noted that in the last week of fighting some 12,000 people were evacuated. The majority of them are children and the elderly, who without sufficient water or food were too weak to even walk on their own.

Triage stabilization units established right on the front lines by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) received up to 100 patients per hour, spending about 4 minutes to stabilize each patient, before passing him or her on to a field hospital.

“The fighting may be stopping but the humanitarian crisis has not,” noted Ms. Grande.

Of the 54 residential districts in western Mosul, 15 are heavily damaged, “basically flattened,” Ms. Grande said, 23 are moderately damaged and 16 neighbourhoods have light damage.

The UN estimates the costs to stabilizing these areas and making them liveable to be more than $700 million, of which $237 million would be for the moderately and lightly damaged areas and $470 million for the more destroyed neighbourhoods.

“That is double the estimate for stabilization,” Ms. Grande said, due to fighting which was “so fierce and so much worse that what anyone else experienced.”

The UN has requested nearly $1 billion in assistance to aid the people in Mosul, with a focus on re-establishing crucial services so that people can safely return home to western Mosul.

Meanwhile, in eastern Mosul, which has been liberated since January, “schools are open, businesses are thriving, the city is recovering,” said Ms. Grande.

Since the beginning of the fighting last year, about 940,000 civilians fled Mosul. Nearly all have been housed and are receiving direct assistance, an outcome that Ms. Grande called “very positive.”

The UN official attributed the ability of aid workers to stay “one step ahead” due to the UN’s early contingency planning under the Government’s leadership and a flash appeal that was 100 per cent funded; Iraqi forces’ commitment to protecting civilians during the battles; and strong civilian-military liaison communication.

She noted that an additional 100,000 civilians are expected to flee their homes by the end of this year, as Iraqi forces start to reclaim new areas in other parts of Ninewa and Anbar Governorates and in Kirkuk Governorate, where ISIL still holds territory.

17 July 2017 – Globally, nearly 13 million infants – almost one in ten – did not receive any vaccinations last year, putting them at serious risk of potentially fatal diseases, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said today, urging greater efforts to extend the reach of health services.

“Every contact with the health system must be seen as an opportunity to immunize,” stressed WHO’s Director of Immunization, Dr. Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, noting that most of those who remained un-immunized were also the same as the ones missed by health systems. “These children most likely have also not received any of the other basic health services. If we are to raise the bar on global immunization coverage, health services must reach the unreached,” he added.

According to WHO and UNICEF estimates, 6.6 million children received their first dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccines but did not complete the full, three dose DTP immunization regimen (DTP3).

Full completion of the vaccination series doses is critical to ensure the highest level of protection against those diseases.

Furthermore, according to the UN agencies, since 2010, the percentage of children who received their full course of routine immunizations has stalled at 86 per cent (116.5 million infants).

If we are to raise the bar on global immunization coverage, health services must reach the unreachedJean-Marie Okwo-Bele, WHO Director of Immunization

Of the estimated 10 million children, in 64 countries out of 194 WHO member States which have not achieved this target, 7.3 million live in fragile situations or in humanitarian emergencies, including countries affected by conflict. Four million of them also live in just three countries – Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan – where access to routine immunization services is critical to achieving and sustaining eradication of diseases such as polio. Similarly, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine recorded less than 50 per cent coverage for DTP3, last year.

In the battle against measles, 85 per cent of children globally received the first dose by their first birthday but only 64 per cent received the second dose.

A little girl, 1 year old, held by her mother during a medical examination in Ukraine. Ukraine is one of the countries that recorded less than 50 per cent coverage for DTP3 last year. Photo: UNICEF/ Pirozzi

Additionally, concerted effort is required in the progress against rubella (which can cause hearing impairment, congenital heart defects and blindness and other life-long disabilities), which has seen global coverage increase from 35 per cent in 2010 to 47 per cent last year.

Furthermore, global coverage of more recently-recommended vaccines are yet to reach half the world’s children. These include vaccines against major killers of children such as rotavirus, a disease that causes severe childhood diarrhoea, and pneumonia. Vaccination against both these diseases has the potential to substantially reduce deaths of children under five years of age, a key target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Inequities in immunization coverage

According to WHO-UNICEF data, many middle-income countries still lag behind in the introduction of newer and more expensive vaccines and disparities persist within countries, implying the need for more work to reduce inequalities related to household economic status, mother’s education as well as those living in rural and urban areas in many countries.

Stressing the importance of immunization as one of the most “pro-equity” interventions currently available, Robin Nandy, Chief of Immunizations at UNICEF, stated: “Bringing life-saving vaccines to the poorest communities, women and children must be considered a top priority in all contexts.”

Immunization currently prevents between 2-3 million deaths every year, from diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and measles. It is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions.

17 July 2017 – If the world is to eradicate poverty, address climate change and build peaceful, inclusive societies for all by 2030, greater efforts are needed to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a United Nations report presented today by Secretary-General António Guterres.

&#8220Implementation has begun, but the clock is ticking,&#8221 stated Mr. Guterres. &#8220This report shows that the rate of progress in many areas is far slower than needed to meet the targets by 2030.&#8221

Using the most recent data available, the annual SDGs report provides an overview of the world’s implementation efforts to date, highlighting areas of progress and areas where more action needs to be taken to ensure no one is left behind.

Despite advances, accelerated efforts needed

While nearly a billion people have escaped extreme poverty since 1999, about 767 million people remained destitute in 2013, most of whom live in fragile situations.

Despite major advances, an alarmingly high number of children under age five are still affected by malnutrition. In 2016, an estimated 155 million children under five years of age were stunted.

Between 2000 and 2015, the global maternal mortality ratio declined by 37 per cent and the under-five mortality rate fell by 44 per cent. However, 303,000 women died during pregnancy or childbirth and 5.9 million children under age five died worldwide in 2015.

In the area of sustainable energy, while access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking climbed to 57 per cent in 2014, up from 50 per cent in 2000, more than 3 billion people, lacked access to clean cooking fuels and technologies, which led to an estimated 4.3 million deaths in 2012.

From 2015 to 2016, official development assistance rose by 8.9 per cent in real terms to $142.6 billion, reaching a new peak. But bilateral aid to the least developing countries fell by 3.9 per cent in real terms.

Progress is uneven

The benefits of development are not equally shared. On average, women spent almost triple the amount of time on unpaid domestic and care work as men, based on data from 2010 to 2016.

Economic losses from natural hazards are now reaching an average of $250 billion to $300 billion a year, with a disproportionate impact on small and vulnerable countries.

Despite the global unemployment rate falling from 6.1 per cent in 2010 to 5.7 per cent in 2016, youth were nearly three times more likely than adults to be without a job. In 2015, 85 per cent of the urban population used safely managed drinking water services, compared to only 55 per cent of rural population.

&#8220Empowering vulnerable groups is critical to ending poverty and promoting prosperity for everyone, everywhere,&#8221 stated Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.

Harnessing the power of data

Effectively tracking progress on the SDGs requires accessible, reliable, timely and disaggregated data at all levels, which poses a major challenge to national and international statistical systems.

Read more on: FEATURE: Number crunchers in the spotlight ahead of UN World Data Forum

While data availability and quality have steadily improved over the years, statistical capacity still needs strengthening worldwide. The global statistical community is working to modernize and strengthen systems to address all aspects of production and use of data for the SDGs.

The SDGs Report 2017 is based on the latest available data on selected indicators of the global SDG indicator framework, prepared by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) with inputs from a large number of international and regional organizations.

17 July 2017 – Civilians lives &#8211 including those of women and children &#8211 continue to be lost at record high levels amid a worsening toll of suicide attacks, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan said today, calling on anti-government forces to stop indiscriminate attacks against civilians as well as on the Government to stop using mortars and rockets in populated areas.

&#8220The human cost of this ugly war in Afghanistan &#8211 loss of life, destruction and immense suffering &#8211 is too far too high,&#8221 said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Tadamichi Yamamoto, in a news release today.

&#8220The continued use of indiscriminate, disproportionate and illegal IEDs [improvised explosive devices] by anti-government elements is particularly appalling and must immediately stop.&#8221

According to the UN Mission’s 2017 Mid-year Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Afghanistan, 1,662 civilian died (up two per cent on the same period last year) and 3,581 were injured (down one per cent) between 1 January and 30 June 2017.

Many of those casualties occurred in a single attack in Kabul city on 31 May, when a truck bomb killed at least 92 civilians and injured nearly 500. This was the deadliest incident documented by UNAMA since 2001.

Women and children in the country continue be particularly affected. In the report, the UN Mission noted that so far this year, 174 women were confirmed killed and 462 injured (an overall rise of about 23 per cent), reversing a decline documented in 2016.

The statistics in this report, horrifying though they are, can never fully convey the sheer human suffering of the people of AfghanistanUN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein

Child casualties, overall also increased by one per cent, with 436 deaths (a nine per cent increase) and 1,141 injuries, it added, highlighting that the use of pressure-plate IEDs and aerial operations in civilian-populated areas led to substantial increases in both women and child casualties.

Also in the news release, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights underscored that behind each death or injury, there is a broken family, unimaginable trauma and the brutal violation of people’s rights.

&#8220Many Afghan civilians are suffering psychological trauma, having lost family and friends, and are living in fear knowing the risks they face as they go about their daily lives. Many more have been forced from their homes and suffered lasting damage to their health, education and livelihoods,&#8221 he stated.

&#8220The continuing national tragedy of Afghanistan must not be overlooked.&#8221

Highest number of casualties occurred in Kabul

The UNAMA report also highlighted that 40 per cent of all civilian casualties during the six-month period were due to anti-government forces using IEDs, such as suicide bombs and pressure-plate devices.

In total, anti-government forces caused the deaths of 1,141 people and injured 2,348. These deaths and injuries represent 67 per cent of the total number of civilian casualties, with 43 per cent attributed to the Taliban, five per cent to Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), and the rest to unidentified attackers.

Also in the report, the UN Mission noted continued efforts by the Afghan security forces to reduce civilian casualties resulting from ground engagements, which represent the second leading cause of deaths and injuries.

Pro-government forces were responsible for 327 civilian deaths and 618 injuries, a 21 per cent decrease compared with the same period last year, although UNAMA noted a 43 per cent rise in civilian casualties during aerial operations (95 deaths and 137 injuries).

In terms of locations, 19 per cent of the casualties occurred in the capital, Kabul and deaths and injuries increased in 15 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, mainly due to increased attacks by anti-government forces. After Kabul, the highest numbers of casualties occurred in Helmand, Kandahar, Nangarhar, Uruzgan, Faryab, Herat, Laghman, Kunduz and Farah provinces.

Recommendations

In its recommendations, the report has called on anti-government forces to stop targeting civilians and to enforce directives from the Taliban leadership calling for an end to such attacks. It has also urged the Government to stop using weapons such as mortars and rockets in civilian populated areas, and to disband pro-government militias and similar groups.

It also recommended ongoing support from international military forces to support and train the Afghan national army.

In the news release, the UN Mission also noted that the report includes only those incidents that have been confirmed after a thorough verification process, meaning that the actual figures could be higher.