united nations

Trajectories for the sustainable development goals

At the UN Sustainable Development Summit, in September 2015, the leaders of 193 member states of the United Nations formally adopted an ambitious agenda for sustainable development for the next 15 years. The 2030 Agenda embeds the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), comprising 17 goals and 169 targets. These goals and targets cover economic, social, and environmental dimensions of development, offering a comprehensive view of what is needed for sustainable human well-being.

Here are some facts that you might not know:

Over the last 60 years, Guatemala has lost almost half of its forests, much of it due to illegal logging.
Built-up area around Lake Laguna in the Philippines has more than doubled between 2003 and 2010.
The mining sector accounts for 10-15 percent of total water use in Botswana.

Do these numbers just seem like bits of trivia? In fact, these are all important results that came out of natural capital accounting (NCA) – a system for generating data on natural resources, such as forests, energy and water, which are not included in traditional statistics. NCA follows standards approved by the United Nations to ensure trust, consistency and comparison across time and countries.

The results above are among the numerous NCA findings that are being generated every year, with support from a World Bank-led global partnership called Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES). In response to the growing appetite for information on NCA, WAVES has set up a new Knowledge Center bringing together resources on this topic.

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Women: Just when you thought it was safe to leave the kitchen, drive, vote, or wear pants, think again. Try Googling “Women should not,” and watch what the autocomplete function brings up. Top responses include “be allowed to vote,” “be in combat,” and “be in church.” This glimpse of the deep and pervasive sexism in our collective conscious inspired a UN ad campaign featuring women’s faces with their mouths covered in these slurs.

© Memac Ogilvy & Mather Dubai/UN Women

These disturbing messages did not emerge out of nowhere. They reflect social norms, and their rigid persistence reminds us that norms change slowly, when they change at all. According to the World Health Organization, at least 35% of the world’s women have been assaulted at some point, and many men and boys have also been victimized, particularly when their behavior goes against dominant norms.

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — For too long the people of the Great Lakes region of Africa have suffered from conflict and insecurity. We need to bring peace, security, and development to the region with great urgency to build on an 11-country peace framework arrangement. I am joining with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on a historic trip to the region — the first ever taken together to Africa by the heads of our organizations. Watch the video of my crossing the Congo River, from Brazzaville to Kinshasa, at the very beginning of the trip.

Also available in: Türkçe

Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the UN Forum on Forests. Photo courtesy of IISD/Earth Negotiations Bulletin United Nations events, usually crowded with diplomats and technocrats, aren’t normally those which raise a lot of emotion – though there have been exceptions. I remember in particular the admonition from a delegate of Papua New Guinea to the UNFCCC COP a couple of years ago that if the United States wasn’t going to lead on tackling climate change, then it should at least get out of the way. Or last year in Doha, when the delegate from the Philippines complained that "… as we vacillate and procrastinate here, the death toll is rising" from a recent typhoon in his country.

Yesterday, the 10th Session of the UN Forum on Forests opened with an especially heartfelt plea from Turkey’s prime minister that departed from the usual platitudes of global leaders when it comes to the environment.

Also available in: English

Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the UN Forum on Forests. Photo courtesy of IISD/Earth Negotiations Bulletin Genellikle diplomatların ve teknokratların doldurduğu Birleşmiş Milletler etkinlikleri, bazı istisnalar olsa da normal olarak çok fazla duygusal toplantılar değildir. Özellikle birkaç yıl önce UNFCC COP toplantısında Papua Yeni Gine temsilcisinin eğer Amerika Birleşik Devletleri iklim değişikliği ile mücadeleye önderlik etmeyecekse en azından yoldan çekilmesi gerektiği yönündeki uyarısını hatırlıyorum. Veya geçtiğimiz yıl Doha’da yapılan toplantıda Filipinler temsilcisinin ülkesinde kısa süre önce yaşanan tayfun ile ilgili olarak "… biz burada kararsızlık içinde beklerken ve oyalanırken ölü sayısı yükselmeye devam ediyor" şeklinde şikayet ettiğini hatırlıyorum.

Dün BM Orman Forumu 10. Oturumu Türkiye başbakanının çevre konusunda küresel liderlerin olağan klişelerinden farklı olarak içten bir çağrısı ile açıldı. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Forumu şu sözlerle açtı:
“Eğer üzerimize giydiğimiz elbise Bangladeş’te 5 yaşındaki bir çocuğun umutlarıyla dokunduysa, eğer aracımıza koyduğumuz benzin Libya’da bir masumun kanıyla karıştıysa, eğer çocuklarımıza verdiğimiz çikolata Afrika’nın nehirlerine zehir kattıysa, eğer üzerimize giydiğimiz palto bir hayvan türünün yok olmasına sebep olduysa, evimizdeki mobilya yağmur ormanlarını yağmaladıysa, bu döngüden, böyle bir küreselleşmeden, böyle bir ticaretten rahatsız olmak, bunu derinlemesine sorgulamak ve buna çareler üretmek zorundayız…

MADRID -- One thousand days. That's all we have left to meet the Millennium Development Goals, a series of commitments to improve the lives of families in the developing world. I was just in Madrid to attend the United Nations' Chief Executives Board -- the heads of the UN agencies -- and we talked about the importance of setting targets to spur urgent action. Watch the video blog below to learn more.

Flags at the United Nations. UN Photos

This morning, I had the honor of speaking to the UN Security Council about an increasingly dangerous threat facing cities and countries around the world, a threat that, more and more, is influencing everything that they and we do: climate change.

World Bank President Jim Kim is in Russia right now talking with G20 finance ministers about the same thing – the need to combat climate change. Every day, we’re hearing growing concerns from leaders around the world about climate change and its impact.

If we needed any reminder of the immediacy and the urgency of the situation, Australia Foreign Minister Bob Carr and our good friend President Tong of Kiribati spoke by video of the security implication of climate effects on the Pacific region.

On Tuesday I traveled to the United Nations to talk to UNICEF's Executive Board and also to meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on moving forward with the important work that we do together. These meetings are key to delivering results because our UN colleagues and we are committed to working closely together. Making that happen requires many things, including a big dose of humility. Please watch the video for more on this.

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UNITED NATIONS | It has been a week of inspiring ideas and action plans at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. I met with a number of world leaders, including Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. We talked about the importance of creating jobs for ex-combatants, the pressing need for more energy sources, and more. You can hear my thoughts on our meeting in the video below.

united nations

Trajectories for the sustainable development goals

Natural Capital Accounting: Going beyond the numbers

Women Should Not Be Free from Violence? Think Again!

Starting a Historic Trip with the United Nations

An Emotional Start to the 10th UN Forum on Forests

10. BM Orman Forumuna Duygusal Başlangıç

Jim Yong Kim: Targets Will Help Fight Against Poverty

Talking to the UN Security Council about Climate Change

Humility and the Power of Working Together

Compelling Ideas at the UN: Energy, Health, Education and #whatwillittake

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