UNITED NATIONS, Mar 7 (APP):United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on parties to the conflict in Syria to allow a humanitarian convoy to complete the delivery of supplies to Douma in eastern Ghouta planned for Thursday.
The latest convoy by the UN and its partners could not complete the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to 27,500 people in Douma because of insecurity in the besieged enclave of eastern Ghouta, where the fighting reportedly killed more than 100 people on Monday alone.
“Nearly half of the food carried on the convoy could therefore not be delivered. Moreover, a part of the medical and health supplies to be included for delivery was removed by the Syrian authorities,” UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a statement issued Tuesday, noting that the last time an inter-agency convoy reached eastern Ghouta this year was 14th February.
“The Secretary-General reminds all parties of their obligation under international humanitarian law and human rights law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure at all times and of the basic responsibility to ensure the necessary protection of all humanitarian organisations, personnel, facilities and other relief assets,” Dujarric added.
Eastern Ghouta, located near the capital, Damascus, has been under heavy bombardment, with more than 400,000 people experiencing shortages of food, fuel, medicines and drinking water.
The secretary-general urged all parties to fully implement the newly adopted UN Security Council Resolution 2401, which demands an immediate cease-fire across Syria to allow humanitarian access and urgent medical evacuations.
Syrian government troops intensified efforts in mid-February to retake Eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel stronghold in the country. Air strikes and fighting on the ground have caused a dire humanitarian situation, which Guterres has described as “hell on earth” for the 400,000 inhabitants.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 7 (APP):Latest data on development progress for children reveals that more than half a billion live in countries where the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are quickly falling out of reach, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Wednesday.
More than half the world’s children live in countries where we either can’t track their SDG progress, or where we can and they are woefully off-track, Laurence Chandy, UNICEF Director for the Division of Data, Research and Policy, said in a statement.
The 17 Goals, set by the landmark 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, are the framework for creating a future of peace, dignity and prosperity for all on a healthy planet, by 2030.
Early assessment of progress toward achieving the SDGs confirms an alarming lack of data in 64 countries, as well as insufficient progress in 37 countries where the data can be tracked.
“The world must renew its commitment to attaining the SDGs, starting with renewing its commitment to measuring them,” Chandy asserted.
UNICEF’s Progress for Children in the SDG Era, is the first thematic performance assessment report toward achieving the global targets that concern children and youth.
The report raises the alarm that 520 million children live in countries that lack data on at least two-thirds of child-related SDG indicators, or lack sufficient data to assess their progress,“ rendering those children effectively uncounted.”
Where sufficient data is available, the scale of SDG target challenges remains daunting.
The report warns that without accelerated progress, 650 million children live in countries where at least two-thirds of the SDGs are either out of reach or whose lives could actually be worse by 2030.
The report tracks five fields of progress “health; learning; protection from violence and exploitation; a safe environment; and equal opportunity” and quantifies in human costs how far the world is currently expected to fall short of the global goals.
Projections show that between now and 2030 ten million additional children would die of preventable causes before their fifth birthday and 31 million would be stunted, due to lack of adequate nutrition.
Moreover, 22 million children would miss out on pre-primary education; 150 million girls would marry before their 18th birthday; and 670 million people, many of them children, will still be without basic drinking water.
“Two years ago, the world agreed on an ambitious agenda to give every child the best chance in life, with cutting-edge data analysis to guide the way,” said Chandy. “And yet, what our comprehensive report on SDG progress for children reveals plainly is an abject lack of data,” he added.
While renewing efforts to address the global data-deficiency, the report calls for recognizing that strong national data institutions and capacity take time and investment to develop.
Three principles underpinning this work are to build strong measurement into service delivery systems; systematic and coordinated efforts to ensure all countries have minimum data coverage for children; stronger shared norms on data concerning children, including more effectively identifying vulnerable children while protecting their privacy.
While each government is ultimately accountable to generate the data that will guide and measure achievement of the goals, the international community has an obligation to partner with them to make sure the SDG targets are met.
“Most countries do not have the information even to assess whether they are on track or not. Children around the world are counting on us “and we can’t even count all of them,” he concluded.

BEIJING, March 7 (APP):A Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Wednesday said that the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China aimed to promote connectivity, advance international cooperation and achieve the common development of all relevant countries.
“Many participants of the Belt and Road cooperation are developing countries with underdeveloped economies, a huge gap in and a great demand for infrastructure construction,” Geng Shuang said during his regular press briefing.
He said that the following the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, the Belt and Road Initiative had provided these countries with new opportunities and possibilities for shoring up weak links, breaking the bottleneck, improving the livelihood and developing their economies.
“This is one of the important reasons why this initiative is welcomed by a large number of developing countries,” he added.
The spokesperson said that when advancing the international cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative, China always followed the market principles and common international practices and attached importance to debt sustainability.
“In May last year, the Joint Communiqué of the Leaders Roundtable and the Belt and Road Financing Guiding Principle released at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation underlined that the Belt and Road projects should give equal consideration to the sustainability of economy, society, finance, environment, and debt, “ he added.
He said that since its inception five years ago, the Belt and Road Initiative had been echoed and endorsed by over 100 countries and international organizations, adding,” Now it has become the largest platform for international cooperation and the most welcomed international public good.”
Gen Shuang said, “If it really will bring about so many risks, as certain people said, then I believe it will be impossible for this initiative to win widespread popularity and achieve so much progress.”
As to whether the Belt and Road Initiative is good and its projects can deliver tangible benefits, no one knows better than the participating countries and their people.
He believed that the participating countries would bear their own interests in mind to make the choice and decision that can best meet their own development needs.
When asked to comment on reports that the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based think tank recently issued a study, saying that the loans provided under China’s Belt and Road Initiative would significantly elevate debt risks in some countries, including Pakistan, Montenegro and Djibouti, he said, “In principle, we usually do not make specific comments on the viewpoints of media, think tanks, experts and scholars.”