As a civil society support organization, through our studies, we work with young people under the age of 14 to 35 in the states of Florida, Maryland, San Diego, and Boston via our administrator programs and our Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) program in the context of mental health during the transition and after COVID-19. We think many young people and others could innocently fall victim to a justice problem, due to mental health, as we have noticed 30% of people with families in the affected areas of the northern United States, in particular the closest families, in addition 35% of our young people have started to lose their lucidity and to start using all kinds of drugs to spend time and 35% think that they have nothing in life yet, we think that this could push a negative effect over the next year!
Due to the complement of our 2020, 2022 annual program, which includes three guidelines down, we plan to increase the various activity guidelines in these locations indicated to help this group prevent this serious situation as we can find more recently, that's why as a complement to our program, we can work on a justice and mental health support program that can support our young people. A judicial prevention program adapted to the reality of people struggling with a mental health problem and facing justice, and other activities within the social framework of our green jobs program for a green economy.
With the situation of the COVID-19 crisis, which has caused several thousand deaths worldwide, more precisely in the United States, the majority of Americans are traumatized either by the loss of a mother, a woman, a husband, a child and sometimes an entire family. We will supervise and support more than 400 people and organizations affected by the COVID-19 crisis through our job creation and training program on green jobs for a green economy. For this, we will work with doctors and lawyers psychologists, who will provide training every week through our 4 intervention sites for a period of more than 24 to 48 months depending on our funding means, through this program we wish to directly supervise 1600 people and more than 250,000 people indirectly.
This program has a budget and the plan of activities to be carried out in the national or international part depends on the conditions of the donors.
Reimaging Education for Sustainable Future Living
AISES, NCERT, ASER report 2019 shows India's learning crisis that one in three students in Class III cannot read small text. 2018 report states that 28 % of Class V students could solve a division problem. Analysis conducted by Uttarakhand School Education department also shows several gaps within the state such as reading, writing skills, knowledge of subject topics, mathematical ability. As systemic changes required continuous working and time for visible performance. Change, transformation will come through working gradually taking a step-by-step approach.
As per data from various studies, quality education and 21st century skills are ignored in mainstream education. To bridge this gap, HRDEF provide quality skilful education, problem solving, creativity, communication, design and computing. Building capacity for citizenship, values and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) among school students and youth so that they will be able to tackle future challenges. HRDEF is using games, projects, and hands-on approaches for interactive learning. HRDEF took alternative education as a drive for betterment, and counselled low-income mothers to provide education to their children especially daughters for better life under our GOAL program. Held sessions for mothers, daughters in the slum areas about digital literacy as new avenues for the future. To empower girls trained in our GOAL program, we started learning centers in under-served communities, where they teach kids from class 1 to 8 to earn livelihood.
HRDEF conducts teachers and student’s development programs for capacity building on ICT, SDGs, climate change, disasters, STEAM, and works towards Sustainability, SDGs, Green, Swachh, and Sustainable Living. We are addressing issues of quality learning and sustainable development through ICT, hands-on activities in a curriculum- based way supported by research inputs and driven by a new learning paradigm based on cognitive science, neuroscience, AI, makers approach. Through GOAL program, our students and youth become motivated, equipped with self-confidence to excel in life and will be able to create sustainable future. We visit communities of low-income groups and schools and spread messages through workshops and talks.
A way forward
In light of COVID-19, the need for online education backed by good technological practices is required by everyone for sustainable healthy future. HRDEF imparts computer training to underserved women and children to empower them with technology so that they understand present system and be part of it. It acquaints stakeholders about their rights; informs them about SDGs and techniques to improve their understanding of local issues It asks business to actively address environmental risks and opportunities, and have efforts underway with business in the areas of
climate, water and food; focus on social dimension of corporate sustainability mainly women's empowerment, children, indigenous peoples, people with special needs through education and in implementing the SDGs. Quality education with student’s engagement is lacking in the current situation, thus we need a mix of digital, online education module with the traditional approach. Besides this, hands-on, real-life learning objects motivate both girls, boys for quality learning, SDGs, and solving world problems.
“Towards a Decade of Accelerated and Transformative Action”
The Hellenic Association of Political Scientists submits the present statement on transformative action against persisting global challenges, addressing the 2020 Economic and Social Council High Level Segment.
With human well-being constituting the core of the 2030 Agenda, attention should be initially drawn to ongoing human suffering around the world. The Hellenic Association of Political Scientists stresses the need for this decade to be informed by fruitful conflict resolution and reconciliation processes. Inclusive negotiations should be encouraged by mediators and third parties as the first step towards the dual goal of restoring balance of power and ensuring durable peace in conflict zones. Inclusion from a more gender-oriented perspective is also required. Purposeful inclusion should go beyond sensitive gender language in the agreements to allow for active female engagement in transitioning societies.
Moving to another area, the environment keeps being exposed to a series of persisting threats. What causes even greater apprehension is the gradually growing academic research on the positive correlation between climate change and war onsets. Adherence to collective action is essential for progress. The financial benefits arising from sustainable economic growth should not be dismissed. Environmental protection itself contributes to economic growth by, for instance, promoting trade of air pollution control technologies. The Hellenic Association of Political Scientists sees ongoing investment in research strategy for environmental technology as a crucial step in moving towards more sustainable lifestyles. Leading international actors in the area of environmental protection could develop a carrot and stick approach through a sustainable development investment program, in order to advocate investment in economies that support sustainable development in practice, while discouraging reward of those markets with little commitment.
Gender equality also follows a path of slower progress. Discrimination of women and girls are still among the greatest contemporary human rights challenges. The issue is systemic requiring a deeper change, a transformation of power structures. Civil society organizations have developed innovative practices for encouraging gender equality, and they have invested resources in collecting data on the issue. Given states have become gender equality pioneers ensuring full political rights for women and working on the constant improvement of their welfare systems to strengthen societal gender equality.
With these dynamics at place, cooperative governance can foster the objectives of the fifth goal for sustainable development, providing more holistic opportunities for power redistribution in contemporary societies.
Finally, the Hellenic Association of Political Scientists believes that science has a distinctive role to play in this last decade of transformative action. Scientific research results in knowledge production relevant to sustainable development and has policy implications, which are often useful in finding new patterns of success. Therefore, political action should be guided by scientific networks aiming at as effective as possible implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Hellenic Association of Political Scientists is grateful for having had the opportunity to express its views on the topic of the 2020 High-Level Political Forum.
HAUK is a humanitarian organisation, delivering disaster relief and development programmes around the world for nearly 30 years. We are a faith-based organisation, inspired by the Islamic values of; excellence, accountability and transparency, compassion, justice, empowerment, trust and respect. These values are core humanitarian values, and they guide us in serving the people we help.
The themes of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) run through all of our work.
One of our cross-cutting themes is climate change and the environment (SDG13), which we believe is a necessity given the increasing need for everyone to play their part in creating a more sustainable world. We also strive to focus on the unique problems faced by women and girls in poverty and conflict (SDG5), as well as the inclusion of vulnerable people and the protection of children, because no community or society can be truly sustainable when the most marginalised people are left behind (SDG10).
A project that demonstrates our experience in sustainable development is our Resilient Communities programme in Pakistan, 2018. During this project, we promoted sustainability firstly by mobilising villages to establish community organisations in order to come up with development plans. We also arranged for training to impart skills such as community management, decision-making and bookkeeping, which could all be passed on to other villages and future generations.
We worked with the local Agriculture Extension department to train local farmers in kitchen gardening methods, promoting the community growing its own food and water- efficient crops. We ensured that long-term links were established between communities and relevant government departments.
We also upgraded solar water pumps in the area and were able to reach out further and install deep water wells close to villages.
Finally, we directly helped the poorest people via the provision of goats, including livestock training and vaccinations, to 120 families.
In total, this project benefited over 14,800 people at the time, but its impact will continue to be felt by people who pick up these sustainable development techniques from the communities we initially targeted.
Recommendations
To conclude, we make the following three recommendations to the international community, which we believe will boost sustainable development over the next decade and well into the future:
Involve communities – We can all have big ideas for projects and people’s needs when it comes to sustainable development, but it is absolutely necessary to have communities on board as they will be key to ensuring long-term success.
Ensure that Governments play their part – This may sound obvious, however from our experience it is much easier to promote sustainable development when Governments work closely with communities, to make sure that they adapt to the sustainable development measures put in place.
Promote enterprise – When working on our sustainable development projects, it is clear that the power of small businesses to provide a livelihood for owners and the people they serve is key to sustainable development.
Uphold people’s rights to deliver genuine sustainable development
The COVID19 pandemic has further exposed the unsustainability and unjustness of the current development paradigm. As thousands suffer and die from the disease and healthcare systems are pushed beyond their capacities, millions more working people, women, the urban poor, and rural communities are negatively affected by quarantine measures and lockdowns as job losses and hunger increase. The pandemic has plunged the already troubled global economy into a recession which can derail efforts towards sustainable development. These impacts show precisely why accelerated actions and transformative pathways towards genuine sustainable development, led by and for the people, are essential.
While increased immediate humanitarian responses are needed, acceleration towards sustainable development will require doing away with “business as usual” during, and more so, after the pandemic. Maintaining the neoliberal and monopoly capitalist structures, would only serve as fuel for already broken engines. Conditions of debt dependence, corporate tax evasion, and regressive tax regimes that encouraged austerity and drains on public coffers, while placing the burden on the people, must be reversed. International economic and finance policy tools must be shifted to serve people’s needs. Stimulus packages should not bail out corporations but instead, should directly benefit the poor.
Bloated military budgets and debt servicing should be realigned towards spending for sustainable development such as building stronger public healthcare systems, quality education for all, adequate social protection, sustainable local food systems, and environmental protection. Any initiative on sustainable consumption and production, such as energy and other infrastructure projects, should move beyond the efficiency approach by ensuring ecological balance and people’s rights are respected. Likewise, harmful trade agreements should be rescinded. The current unequal and undemocratic global trade regime must be replaced with one that fosters complementarity and solidarity within and among nations, and that upholds peoples’ right to development.
Transformation towards sustainable development will only happen if democratic governance and the people’s right to actively participate in development are upheld and protected from authoritarianism and militarism. Massive state surveillance and worsening repression must not be tolerated during and after the pandemic.
Governments must support people-led solutions that are already being practiced by communities on the ground such as agroecology, collective farming and community- supported agriculture, and cooperatives. Finally, support for community initiatives must be complemented by protection from corporate take-over and resource grabs, and accountability mechanisms that will hold duty bearers to account. All in all,
implementing the measures stated above, will help ensure an equitable, healthier, and sustainable future.
Imamia Medics International welcomes the opportunity provided by the 2020 ECOSOC High Level Segment to address approaches and policies that can accelerate progress towards the realization of the 2030 Agenda and bring the most transformative changes in development pathways. Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages must remain a priority to maximize impact across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), recognizing that health is both a precondition indicator and an outcome of successful sustainable development. Better health is essential to achieving all three pillars of sustainable development-economic, social and environmental. As such, universal health coverage, public health promotion, and tackling the growing epidemic of non-communicable disease must remain global priorities.
With at least half of the global population still not fully covered for even essential health services, pathways to universal health coverage (UHC) present a significant opportunity to enhance cost-effective, quality assured health services including preventative care. Among other things, UHC models can strengthen health responses by increasing health systems’ capacity, addressing inequalities in the global disease burdens to ensure vulnerable populations are covered, and alleviating the economic burden of poor health.
In addition to UHC, there must be an integration of health solutions to improve access and efficiency for care, reduce costs and achieve better outcomes. Community-level clinics should be amplified to provide patients simple, low-cost methods for preventative care, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of diseases including non- communicable diseases.
Despite political recognition of the epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the response by the global community has been slow in addressing this #1 cause of death and disability worldwide, allowing the epidemic to grow and hampering progress on sustainable development. NCDs, estimated to cause cumulative global economic losses of $47 trillion USD by 2030, hamper economic growth by adversely affecting productivity and diverting resources from global productivity to treating disease. In addition, people of lower education and economic status are disproportionately affected by NCDs by being increasingly exposed to NCD risks. Addressing the social determinants of NCDs and health will enhance progress towards poverty eradication and accelerating sustainable development. Finally, the natural environment has a significant impact on human health. Unsustainable environmental systems aggravate NCD risks and directly add to the growing NCD burden. NCDs are a significant threat to achieving the SDGs and NCD prevention and control must be integrated into sustainable development policies and programs.
Finally, to ensure significant strides are being made and include the most vulnerable, health equity monitoring is essential in public health. Countries must be able to
describe and monitor their population’s health and well-being needs to understand and address them. We must invest in comprehensive health information systems, particularly in lower-income countries, to monitor progress towards health equity.
Countries must also ensure populations that live in extremely vulnerable circumstances within their borders, including refugees and people displaced by conflict and humanitarian crisis, are included within the health information systems as well as receiving lth services and education.
78. Institut International pour les Droits et le Développement