UN DESA Voice November 2019

Monthly Newsletter, Vol 23, No. 11 – November 2019

Business giants worth $16 trillion commit to sustainable investment

Leaving for New York last month, Deanne Stewart, the CEO of one of Australia’s largest pension funds, told her daughter that she was going to join a new UN-led sustainable investors’ alliance, whose members manage around $16 trillion between them. Her daughter, who had recently led a successful campaign to ban single-use plastic from several local businesses, replied: “With 16 trillion dollars, mom, can you imagine what I could get done?”

Highlights

One world. One Net. One Vision ⁠— the 14th Internet Governance Forum

More and more of us seem to live our lives today in equal parts in the physical world and in cyberspace. From public discussion to education, to catching-up with friends and online commerce, a sizable portion of our social interactions now happens online. But while we have millennia of experience in managing our relations in the physical world, governance of the Internet is an area nearly as new as the web itself.

More than 125 Acceleration Actions already registered to speed up SDG implementation

At the recent SDG Summit, United Nations Secretary-General called for a Decade of Action to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. To support this effort, UN DESA’s Division for SDGs has set up a dedicated online mechanism to mobilize and publish new and ambitious SDG Acceleration Actions from national governments and all non-state actors.

Get involved

Know of an innovative public service institution? Nominate it now to the 2020 United Nations Public Service Awards!

We often take public services for granted. These services in public transportation, health care, education, social and emergency services are critical for a well-functioning society and they are primarily provided by public institutions. Most of the time, we are not aware of these important services, especially if they are effective, efficient and responsive.

Expert voices

More than a toilet: sanitation critical to anti-poverty efforts

The United Nations commemorates World Toilet Day every year on 19 November to draw global attention to the alarming statistic that 4.2 billion people live without adequate sanitation services. Ahead of this year’s celebration, we spoke to Madhushree Chatterjee, Chief of the Natural Resources and Interlinkages Branch of UN DESA’s Division for Sustainable Development Goals, who filled us in on this year’s plans and why sanitation plays a critical role for global efforts to eradicate poverty. “A toilet is not just a toilet—it’s a lifesaver, dignity-protector and opportunity-maker,” Ms. Chatterjee said.

Brave old world: UN DESA releases new report on ageing

Today, 703 million people in the world are aged 65 or older. By 2050 – or just 31 years from now, that number is projected to increase to a staggering 1.5 billion, according to the World Population Ageing 2019 Highlights recently released by UN DESA’s Population Division.

4-8 November 2019, St. George’s, Grenada	Workshop on Environment Statistics and Climate Change Statistics for the CARICOM Region
11-12 November 2019, Lima, Peru	Workshop on Energy Statistics for Latin American and Caribbean Countries
19 November 2019	World Toilet Day
25-27 November 2019, Christ Church, Barbados	Caribbean Regional Thematic Conference on managing a statistical organization in times of change
25-29 November 2019, Berlin, Germany	Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

World Council for Curriculum and Instruction (WCCI)