Inspired by innovative and forward-looking concepts, the Global Festival of Ideas for Sustainable Development, the first in a series of annual forums to help achieve the United Nations-led Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) wrapped up in the German city of Bonn after intensive debates and 'game playing' on March 3. The UN conference aiming to chart a new way of thinking on addressing some of the world’s most complex development challenges was hosted by the UN SDG Action Campaign in partnership with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) with the support of the German Government.

Accra would host the African Union (AU) Department of Social Affairs' three-day regional capacity building workshop on increased advocacy to ending child marriage through media engagement from Monday, February 27 to Wednesday, March 1. The workshop participants drawn from West and Central Africa would be from Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon and the Gambia.

A group of Arabic-speaking University students and community members are volunteering as tutors for Syrian refugee families residing in Hyde Park. The volunteering is facilitated by an organization called Sirat, which provides aid and community services to refugee families. According to its website, Sirat promotes the development of cultural expression, religious involvement, and community service, in line with the values of Muslim faith.

Acclaimed Children of the World International Children’s Choir will perform free concerts Sunday, February 26 at 8:30 and 10:45 a.m., at Coweta Assembly, 29707 E. State Hwy. 51 in Coweta. The concert is part of the choir’s “Rescue Tour,” a national tour to raise awareness about the challenges faced by millions of orphaned and disadvantaged children around the world.

Nearly 12 years ago, Hamdia Ahmed boarded a plane bound for America. She had spent nearly all her young life in the Dadaab in Kenya, the world’s largest refugee camp, along with hundreds of thousands of other Somalis fleeing civil war. [...] Now the 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Southern Maine is finding her voice advocating for Portland’s Muslim and immigrant community, which is on edge since Donald Trump was elected president using anti-immigrant rhetoric and vowing “America first” policies, such as tightening the borders.

The much-lauded ‘Responsible Tourism’ (RT) initiatives have won further recognition with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) describing them as a model for other tourist destinations across the world. The international tourism organisation also called for development of closer ties between Kerala Tourism and the UNWTO, emphasising the importance of further association to help take forward the message of sustainable tourism.

It started out in Washington. Then it went to Jakarta. Then across Africa. One version even showed up on Facebook. Within hours, a State Department dissent cable, asserting that President Trump’s executive order to temporarily bar citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries would not make the nation safer, traveled like a chain letter — or a viral video.

With only 41 percent of countries regularly producing data on violence against women and only 13 percent of countries having a dedicated gender statistics budget, the first-ever United Nations World Data Forum explored ways to close these data gaps on January 17. [...] The panel, titled 'Gender Data for Decision-making: Strengthening the Links,' was among the nearly 100 sessions and parallel events scheduled throughout the 15-18 January gathering in Cape Town, South African, of more than 1,400 data experts around the world.