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  2. Blog on SDG16

Blog on SDG16

Guatemala’s supreme audit institution’s work to promote education on good governance in schools…

Supreme audit institutions play a key role in promoting accountability, integrity, transparency and in ensuring the quality of public spending for the benefit of citizens. In recent years, the Office of the  Comptroller General of Accounts of the Republic of Guatemala has developed several programs that aim to promote these values in the national education system. The “Sowing seeds of transparency” program In accordance with the Inter-institutional Cooperation Agreement between the… Read More

Gambling away our future

In our time of multiple, complex and interacting crises – think for a moment about the following three opening sentences: “If all goes well, the history of mankind has only just begun. Mankind is about two hundred thousand years old. But the earth will remain habitable for hundreds of millions of years to come – enough to end disease, poverty, and injustice forever, enough to create heights of flowering that are unthinkable today.”In our time of multiple, complex and interacting crises – think… Read More

Go far, go together

An oft-quoted African proverb says that if you want to go fast, go alone; and If you want to go far, go together. This message of working together in partnership is echoed in the theme of this year’s United Nations Public Service Day, celebrated every year on 23 June, as decided by the UN General Assembly. [1] Taking its lead from the 2022 theme of the United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF), which will review progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17, the 2022 UN… Read More
There is no Planet B

A Hippocratic oath for the coming generations

Climate change is the biggest health challenge in the world today. It poses a steadily increasing direct and indirect threat to future generations. Humans are facing unprecedented challenges, first and foremost related to climate change, nature loss and embedded in this also issues related to health and food security.  The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change claims that ‘climate change is the greatest global health threat facing the world in the 21st century, but it is also the… Read More

Access, authentication and preservation: three keys to boosting the integrity and inclusivity of…

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes in Goal 16 that all should have access to information as a part of ensuring access to justice for all and ensuring accountable and inclusive institutions. Recognizing this shared goal, in 2015, the Law Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) created the IFLA Statement on Government Provision of Public Legal Information in the Digital Age to set a clear standard that… Read More

Effective, accountable and inclusive institutions are critical for the recovery from COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to Africa’s sustainable development prospects. The pandemic has reversed progress on the overarching goal of eradicating poverty in all its forms everywhere. The pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity, inequality, unemployment and informality. For the first time in a decade, global poverty has increased, with the United Nations estimating that the pandemic has pushed more than 114 million people into extreme poverty. African countries face fragile… Read More

Making national institutional arrangements for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals more…

Strong and effective institutions are paramount to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is well recognized in the Agenda itself. However, five years after the start of the implementation of the Agenda, governance issues remain at the forefront. The 2021 edition of the World Public Sector Report, published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), looks in detail at changes in… Read More
Doctor holding a cellphone

International Practice on Digital Health Certificates

Overview Globally, we see ongoing discussions on how vaccine-certificates could be part of the effort to reopen the economy and an increasing need collaborate and support cross border verifications of vaccine certificates. This led to the idea to leverage on the Digital Government Exchange (DGX), a platform that the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office and the Government Technology Agency Singapore formed in 2016. DGX facilitates dialogue amongst GCIOs and public sector leaders from… Read More

Are some countries “rich enough” that they purchase for the lowest price?

Sustainable public procurement (SPP) provides Governments with the opportunity to move beyond procuring only from suppliers that deliver the least expensive products, to prioritizing procurement from suppliers that respect human rights and the environment. Since public procurement, on average, represents 13 to 20 per cent of gross domestic product, SPP has the potential to provide a major boost to sustainable development and could be seen by many countries as a strategic priority. However, to… Read More

Links between SDGs 2 and 3: Perspectives of Eatology

A key feature of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the multi-layering of links among the Goals. While this may add to complexities in implementation, it also gives rise to potential synergies and integration and to positive spillover impacts among the Goals. In this blog, I would like to share my thoughts on two SDGs – SDG2 on ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable… Read More
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Higher Education and the Really Big Challenges

Our humanity and our planet exist in a time of great challenges. Billions of our fellow human beings still live in great poverty - and are thus denied a decent life. The inequalities in living conditions, wealth and power are enormous. Oppression of women, corruption and lack of democracy remain major challenges. Global health risks, increasingly frequent and intense natural disasters, violent extremism, terrorism and the associated humanitarian crises and forced displacements of people do… Read More

Digital Government Initiatives in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic must be inclusive

In a year where people worldwide have had to engage in social distancing, mask wearing and a range of unique behaviors to stop the transmission of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), it is easy to think that we are more divided than ever – physically and socially. But on the ground, we often see a different picture - there is real cooperation.  Across the world we witness people help each other – including among frontline public servants, such as our healthcare workers, teachers, sanitation… Read More