The Coronavirus Pandemic and Sustainable Development. Case Study: Romania

The coronavirus pandemic has affected all states in the world and the measures taken by governments to limit the spread of coronavirus have also left their mark on sustainable development goals, slowing their implementation or even regressing to some of these goals. In the context in which the pandemic affected the Romanian economy and all segments of the population in all areas of the country, especially vulnerable groups, leading to an increase in existing disparities, the rapid implementation of sustainable development goals is the core of a sustainable and equitable recovery. This paper presents effects of coronavirus pandemic on the sustainable development in Romania, especially on the objectives like no poverty, "zero" hunger, health and well-being, quality education, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure and low inequalities, but also the solutions identified by various international bodies to reduce this impact. Thus, the first part of the paper is a theoretical one, which presents the concept of "sustainable development" and analyses specialized studies that have presented the objectives of sustainable development, including studies that have shown the negative or positive effects of the coronavirus pandemic on these objectives. The second part of the paper presents a descriptive analysis of the stage of sustainable development in Romania, after one year of coronavirus pandemic. In carrying out this paper, qualitative research was used, based on methods such as descriptive analysis, analysis of official statistical data, study of reports and reference papers and synthesis of conclusions.

Adoption of Sustainable Development Goals Through Redefining the Process and Achieving Happiness

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals officially come into force upon the signing of 193 countries arranged by the United Nations, and the time duration for achieving the goals is 2030. In view of the goals, this study redefines the process of 6 SDGs: (1) no poverty; (2) zero hunger; (3) quality education; (4) gender equality; (5) peace, justice, and strong institutions; and (6) partnership for the goals. The signing countries are not legally bound to achieve the goals. It comes into force as gentlemen commitment. For the purpose of study, secondary data, bulletin, papers, articles, holy books, and in-depth interviews with some experts based on open-ended questionnaires have been taken. Upon analyzing the study, the authors found that to achieve the SDG competition for good works understanding that work is worship, sharing prosperity in terms of monetary and non-monetary aspects like knowledge with poor and marginal people, truthfulness in education with opportunity for all, building mindset for treating all genders as human, transparency and justice from court as well as social leaders, trust among all stakeholders in enterprise, corporation, society, and state are essentially required. The study has also shown that happiness comes to mind when a person can pay for others. These will also be supportive for achieving all other SDGs.

The Common Goals of BAZNAS’ Zakat and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) according to Maqasid Al-Sharia Perspective

This study aims to explain the common goals of zakat and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the perspective of maqasid al-Sharia. Zakat programs developed by the National Board of Amil Zakat (BAZNAS), especially in the economic, social and humanity, health, and education fields are in line with the SDGs programs launched by the United Nations, especially the programs number 1-4 namely no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, and quality education. By using the maqasid al-Sharia approach, the SDGs programs that are included in the level of urgent needs (daruriyyah) and in accordance with the purpose of zakat, take precedence in its implementation such as the Mustahik Economic Empowerment Institute established by BAZNAS to improve the quality of life of mustahik. (Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan tujuan umum zakat dan SDGs dari perspektif maqasid al-Sharia. Program-program Zakat yang dikembangkan oleh Badan Amil Zakat Nasional (BAZNAS) khususnya dalam bidang ekonomi, sosial kemanusiaan, kesehatan, dan pendidikan sejalan dengan program-program tujuan pembangunan berkelanjutan (SDGs) yang dicanangkan oleh PBB, khusunya program no poverty, zero hunger, good health and weel-being, and quality education. Dengan menggunakan pendekatan maqasid al-Sharia, maka program-program SDGs yang masuk dalam tingkat kebutuhan yang mendesak (daruriyyah) dan sesuai dengan tujuan zakat, diutamakan dalam pengimplementasiannya seperti Lembaga Pemberdayaan Ekonomi Mustahik yang didirikan BAZNAS dengan tujuan untuk meningkatkan kualitas hidup mustahik.)

Assessment processes and principles related to Food Security that Zimbabwe can rely on for insight.

Increasing frequency and intensity of food insecurity in Zimbabwe, amidst heavy investment in Disaster Risk Reduction efforts threaten the achievement of the Zero Hunger target by 2030. The need to interrogate assessment practice need not be overemphasized. An interpretive–constructivist paradigm guided this study, while desktop review, focus group discussions and individual interviews were the main data collection tools. A purposively selected sample, of 85participants from Bulilima, Gwanda, Mangwe, and Umzingwane districts was used. These districts share similar social and cultural characteristics and hazards. The sample consisted of District development coordinators (DDCs), Environmental Management Agency, Rural District Council (RDC) chief executive officers, councillors, traditional leaders (chiefs), NGO managers, and heads of schools, deemed to bring depth into the study. NVivo software was used in data analysis to establish order, structure, and meaning, to ensure coherence, consistency, and quality of research findings and deductions. The study found that the term, “assessment” was variedly understood across disciplines and levels of responsibility, due to the existence of parallel assessment regimes that fragment and weaken assessment practice. Hence, the need to make capacity-building, training and education and stakeholder participation a permanent feature in Zimbabwe. This will promote correct understanding and application of the terms, and increase the knowledge of DRR practice. Assessment practice challenges emanate from the manner in which stakeholders do assessments. Hence, the need for attitude change and commitment to the pooling of all the resources towards the assessment practice, and adherence to standards and principles that govern assessment.

Avoiding the humanitarian trap: The ‘Nobelization’ of food aid

Despite the significant role that hunger relief has played in global emergency response efforts throughout much of the last century—notably showcased with the 2015 naming of ‘Zero Hunger’ as the second Sustainable Development Goal, and more recently when the World Food Program was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize—significant hunger and malnutrition remain. Concerningly, past crises have demonstrated the potential for hunger relief efforts, particularly the provisioning of food aid, to undermine the ability of Global South countries and communities to recovery fully from shocks. This commentary takes a critical look at the role of food aid during extended crises and presents several thoughts for how aid agencies and Global North governments can continue to work toward Zero Hunger while simultaneously supporting Global South economies and cultures.

Biofloc Microbiome With Bioremediation and Health Benefits

The biofloc system has recently attracted great attention as a cost-effective, sustainable, and environmentally friendly technology and expected to contribute toward human food security (Zero Hunger SDG 2). It is also expected that this endeavor can be adopted widely because of its characteristics of zero water exchange and reduced artificial feeding features. In the biofloc system, the flocs which are generally formed by aggregation of heterotrophic microorganisms, serve as natural bioremediation candidates. These microbes effectively maintain water quality by utilizing the nutrient wastes, mostly originated from digested, unconsumed, and metabolic processes of feed. Additionally, the flocs are important sources of nutrients, mainly a protein source, and when these are consumed by aquaculture animals they improve the growth performance, immunity, and disease tolerance of host against pathogenic microbial infection. Here in this review, we focus on recent advances that could provide a mechanistic insight on how the microbial community developed in the biofloc system helps in the bioremediation process and enhances the overall health of the host. We have also tried to address the possible role of these microbial communities against growth and virulence of pathogenic microbes.

Digital Humanism and Global Issues in Artificial Intelligence Ethics

In the fight against pandemics and climate crisis, the zero hunger challenge, the preservation of international peace and stability, and the protection of democratic participation in political decision-making, AI has increasing – and often double-edged – roles to play in connection with ethical issues having a genuinely global dimension. The governance of AI ambivalence in these contexts looms large on both the AI ethics and digital humanism agendas.

A chickpea genetic variation map based on the sequencing of 3,366 genomes

Zero hunger and good health could be realized by 2030 through effective conservation, characterization and utilization of germplasm resources1. So far, few chickpea (Cicerarietinum) germplasm accessions have been characterized at the genome sequence level2. Here we present a detailed map of variation in 3,171 cultivated and 195 wild accessions to provide publicly available resources for chickpea genomics research and breeding. We constructed a chickpea pan-genome to describe genomic diversity across cultivated chickpea and its wild progenitor accessions. A divergence tree using genes present in around 80% of individuals in one species allowed us to estimate the divergence of Cicer over the last 21 million years. Our analysis found chromosomal segments and genes that show signatures of selection during domestication, migration and improvement. The chromosomal locations of deleterious mutations responsible for limited genetic diversity and decreased fitness were identified in elite germplasm. We identified superior haplotypes for improvement-related traits in landraces that can be introgressed into elite breeding lines through haplotype-based breeding, and found targets for purging deleterious alleles through genomics-assisted breeding and/or gene editing. Finally, we propose three crop breeding strategies based on genomic prediction to enhance crop productivity for 16 traits while avoiding the erosion of genetic diversity through optimal contribution selection (OCS)-based pre-breeding. The predicted performance for 100-seed weight, an important yield-related trait, increased by up to 23% and 12% with OCS- and haplotype-based genomic approaches, respectively.

Towards Achieving Food Security in Nigeria: A Fuzzy Comprehensive Assessment of Heavy Metals Contamination in Organic Fertilizers

In the quest towards achieving the Zero hunger agenda of the sustainable development goals by 2030, the utilization of organic fertilizers, for soil amendment purposes, has been posited as a feasible alternative for overcoming the negative impacts of inorganic fertilizers. Despite its manifold benefits, the use of untreated and improperly treated organic materials in agricultural production is however capable of introducing toxic metals in the soil-plant systems causing health and agro-environmental impacts. In this study, available organic fertilizers use by Nigerian farmers were selected and analyzed for nutrient values and most importantly, heavy metal contamination. The degree of contamination in each sample was modeled using fuzzy comprehensive assessment. The manure samples possessed optimum nutritional values; the nitrogen, phosphate, and potash contents ranged from 0.91 – 7.44, 0.06 – 1.61, 0.14 – 0.58% respectively. The fuzzy algorithm results categorized all the organic fertilizers as pristine, with a membership degree ranging from 35 to 99%. However, an excessive level of toxic contamination, with a membership function between 3 to 33% was observed. The major contaminants were identified as Zn, Cr, and Cd with an individual contribution of 16, 29, and 33% respectively. Adequate remediation techniques and good management practices that reduce the concentration of heavy metals in the organic fertilizers especially that of Zn, Cr, and Cd, should therefore be promoted among the producers and users of these soil improvers in Nigeria.