President's Page: Advancing sustainability in SEG

2022 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-7
Author(s):  
Maria Angela Capello

In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In this framework, development is conceived as an integrated approach to elevate the quality of life by raising economic progress with environmental protection considerations. This vision evolved into the formulation in 2015 of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to mitigate the hazards of climate change and to contribute to the development of society in every aspect, establishing targets to be attained by 2030. As an example, SDG 13: Climate Action calls for initiatives to moderate climate change within development frameworks. SDG 14: Life Below Water and SDG 15: Life on Land also call for more sustainable practices in using the earth's natural resources. The world is not making progress against the SDGs fast enough to achieve all the goals within the established timeline, yet with international agreements and specific actions, the success rate is growing incrementally.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (7A) ◽  
Author(s):  
Omololu Fagunwa ◽  
Afolake Atinuke

Modernisation has thrown humanity and other forms of life on our planet into ditch of problems. Poverty, climate change, injustice, environmental degradation are few of the shared global problems. The United Nations SDGs are set as blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. The SDGs are well structured to address the global challenges we face including poverty, inequalities, hunger, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The SDGs have been driven mainly by international donors and ‘professional’ international development organisations. The world is left with 10 years to achieve these ambitious goals and targets. Various reviews indicated that little has been achieve on overall, and the SDGs will not be reality if new strategy is not in place to bring inclusion. Microbiology, the scientific discipline of microbes, their effects and practical uses has insightful influence on our day to day living. We present how microbiology and microbiologists could increase the scorecard and accelerate these global goals. Microbiology contribution to peace, justice, gender equality, decent work and economic growth will be also highlighted among others. The pledge of Leave No One Behind will fast track progress and microbiology is better position to make this work.


Author(s):  
Khairiah Salwa Mokhtar ◽  
Nurulhasanah Abdul Rahman ◽  
Mahmod Sabri Haron

Objective - The rapid growth in the ageing population necessitates a more intensified effort to include patients of all ages in global sustainable development. While many countries struggle to manage their ageing populations, efforts to ensure adequate health are alarmingly unconvincing. In fact, the spread of infectious diseases, especially Tuberculosis (TB), within the ageing population remains a threat to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Studies related to the ageing population in Malaysia are rather limited and their perspectives on infectious disease patients are often neglected. Methodology/Technique – Therefore, this study aims to investigate the perspective of ageing tuberculosis patients on preventive measures and to what extent their behaviour helps Malaysia to comply with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Of 1,600 patients to whom questionnaires were sent, 1,368 completed questionnaires that were used for further analysis. This study was conducted in 2015 within selected states of Malaysia with high occurrence rates of TB cases. Finding - This paper confirmed that TB patients in this study possessed high TB knowledge especially among male and married patients with low household income. Also, the findings revealed that most TB patients understood that smoking increases the risk of TB infection, yet, they did not quit smoking which explains that majority of them have been diagnosed with TB for more than five years. Despite the patients possessed high TB knowledge, results on their attitude towards family, friends, and neighbours indicated that the patients did not distance themselves from others which might cause infections. In fact, in terms of TB practices; most patients still reluctant to wear facial mask in public. Novelty - Hence, the strategies to end the TB epidemic in Malaysia by 2035 should be improved so that the quality of life for the ageing population can be assured. Type of Paper: Empirical. Keywords: United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); Malaysia; ageing population; infectious disease; tuberculosis (TB); patient; healthcare; policy Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Mokhtar, K.S; Rahman, N.A; Haron, M.S. 2020. Complying with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals: A case of the Malaysian ageing population, Global J. Bus. Soc. Sci. Review 8(1): 01 – 11. https://doi.org/10.35609/gjbssr.2020.8.1(1) JEL Classification: I12, I19


Author(s):  
Ardelia Karisa ◽  
Stefanny Lauwren

Climate change has been one of the most significant concerns for the United Nations. As a result, the United Nations held a summit in 2019, inviting several notable speakers in the field. One of them is a young teenager from Swedish, Greta Thunberg. Greta Thunberg is a prominent climate activist who delivered a speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019, which is about how people and the government need to limit global warming. Her address became viral and garnered attention from many media, and roused a massive youth-led climate rally. Thus, this study analyzed her speech as the object of the study and employed a descriptive qualitative method. The study scrutinized 54 clauses through transitivity analysis from Hallidayan Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) to understand the processes in the address and its function. This current study has revealed that the speaker’s dominantly used material process (37%) to describe the damage to the environment done by people. The use of relational process (31.5%) describes climate change's effects on the world and her life. The mental process used in 16.7% of the data provokes guilt and responsibility, as she pointed the audience as the actors that cause climate change. The behavioural process (7.4%) shows that Thunberg will not stay quiet on climate crisis when her generation is the one who will suffer from it. Existential process (3.7%) is used to describe the existing problems, while verbal process (3.7%) is used in quoting the high-profile politician to prove that none of their promises have been fulfilled.


Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leehi Yona ◽  
Marc D. Dixon ◽  
Richard B. Howarth ◽  
Anne R. Kapuscinski ◽  
Ross A. Virginia

Young people are both among the generations to be most affected by climate change and critical advocates for climate action. In the face of growing urgency surrounding the climate crisis, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has become an important institutional framework for political progress. We developed a community-based participatory action research project centered on youth involved in the COP climate negotiations. A “leverage points” approach guided our research; this paper is the first time the framework has been applied in an international negotiations context. Our findings point to the structural power, networks, and paradigms that youth might engage with for international climate justice work. We identify actionable leverage points through which youth organizers might increase their social power in the COP process to bring about climate action. Many of these leverage points are rooted in dynamics of power, which we expand upon and connect to broader literature. Moving forward, these findings can benefit and inform the strategies of youth as they participate in the COP process.


Author(s):  
Bruno Charbonneau

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has failed the COVID-19 test, unable to promote or facilitate multilateral cooperation in dealing with the outbreak. This is worrying given its relevance as a principal organ of the United Nations (UN) that could enable or constrain international cooperation and given the need for such cooperation in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The failure of the UNSC to respond adequately to the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the historical limits of the UNSC as a forum for international cooperation. It also suggests that highlighting and debating UNSC reforms are not sufficient or even productive ways to move forward, especially in the context of the challenges that pandemics and climate change represent for global cooperation. It is far from clear if the UN system can change the global structures on which it was built. What does seem clear is that the UNSC is not where one will find the seeds of change for reimagining global order.


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