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	Mandela Prizewinner from Namibia still bringing Sight to the Blind by See International, agencies Namibia   There was pure emotion in the face of Dr. Helena Ndume, more used to bringing sight to the blind than wiping away tears of her own.   According to friends, she was caught off guard by the rousing welcome awaiting her this past week at the Hosea Kutako International Airport after picking up the first U.N. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize in New York.   “This is not a Helena Ndume award. It belongs to Namibia,” she said as more tears welled up in her eyes. “We should not leave our people and leave them to be blind. It is not their fault that they are blind. I cannot lock myself in my practice when the nation needs me.”   According to the nonprofit SEE International based in Santa Barbara, California, Ndume has performed 30,000 pro bono surgeries for sufferers of eye-related illnesses in Namibia. The blind patients are filled with intra-ocular lens implants free of charge.   She was also vice chairperson of the Namibia Red Cross Society.   This summer she will collaborate with SEE on three programmes in Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The organisation expects 700 patients to regain their eyesight during the three-week course of the tour.   Ndume left Namibia for exile at age 15. She lived in Zambia, and Gambia where she completed secondary school, and Angola, before going to Germany to study medicine.   Growing up, she wanted to be a fashion designer. On her not-pursued fashion dream, she said, “Yes, I wanted to be a fashion designer but the Swapo secretary of education in our refugee camp (former Prime Minister Nahas Angula) said ‘No way! We do not need fashion designers in an independent Namibia. To come make clothes for who? We need doctors and I want you to be a doctor’,” she said.   She is currently the head of the Ophthalmology department at Windhoek Central Hospital, Namibia’s largest hospital, and is one of only six Namibian ophthalmologists.   Dr. Ndume’s Speech on Accepting the United Nations Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Award.   "Blindness is closely linked with extreme poverty. When a father or mother goes blind he or she may no longer be able to work and provide for the family. When a child goes blind, he or she may no longer be able to go to school and receive education. When a grandparent goes blind he or she may need constant care from the young family members.   In our developing world being able to see can often make a difference between surviving and starving. I am indeed fortunate to be able to contribute in a small way in making people’s lives a little better. Avoidable blindness is a tragic epidemic with far greater repercussions than many realize.   Did you know for example that one million people go blind each year? Or that every minute a child somewhere in the world loses his or her sight? Or that literally hundreds of billions of dollars are lost due to blindness?   According to the World Health Organisation, up to 80% of all cases of blindness could be easily prevented or treated, if the individuals only had access to vision care. I therefore take this opportunity to thank all the men and women who are at the front line in the fight against preventable blindness.   Non-profit Organisations like SEE International continue to spearhead eye campaigns in terms of organising the medical expeditions and provides the supplies so that volunteer doctors, like myself, continue our mission of ending preventable blindness worldwide, more so in the developing world where it is prevalent.   For all these reasons, I would like to encourage the Member States of the UN to recommit themselves to the goal of eliminating preventable blindness by the year 2020".   http://www.seeintl.org/ndume/ http://www.seeintl.org/ndumespeech/ http://www.iapb.org/vision-2020 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs213/en/ http://www.hollows.org.au/about-us/vision2020
	No Hiding From Sustainable Development by Jeffrey D. Sachs Earth Institute at Columbia University, agencies   Too many political leaders are ignoring a growing environmental crisis, imperiling their own countries and others.   Coastal areas around the world, are threatened by rising sea levels caused by human-induced climate change. Growing environmental threats are forcing their way into the headlines whether politicians or land developers like it or not. The bad news about mega-droughts and freshwater scarcity stretches from Brazil to California to conflict-ridden countries in the Middle East.   Sao Paulo"s metropolitan region of 20 million people is now on the verge of water rationing, an unprecedented threat for one of the world"s leading cities. In California, this winter has been another dry season in a bitter four-year drought, one of the most severe in the region"s history.   In Pakistan, the minister of water and energy recently declared that, “Under the present situation, in the next six to seven years Pakistan can be a water-starved country." In Iran, the Hamoun wetlands bordering Afghanistan are disappearing, posing a grave threat to the local population.   Looking back, it is also clear that a decade-long drought in neighboring Syria helped to trigger the unrest that escalated into a catastrophic civil war, with at least 200,000 Syrians dead and no end to the violence in sight. The drought had displaced an estimated 1.5 million people and caused food prices to soar, leading to a spiral of protest, crackdown, and eventually war. Though drought does not explain all of the ensuing violence, it certainly played a role.   Each of these droughts reflects a complex mix of factors: long-term climate change, short-term or decade-long weather patterns, growing populations rising demand for freshwater, mismanagement of local resources, and, of course, a lack of political attention and will. Every drought must therefore be confronted locally, addressing local realities.   Yet the global message is also clear: the world"s growing population (now at 7.3 billion, but likely to reach eight billion by 2024 and nine billion by around 2040), human-induced climate change, and the overuse of freshwater for irrigation and urban needs (especially when cities are built up in dry regions) are all fueling the potential for catastrophe.   Recent research indicates that these trends are likely to intensify. Almost all studies of human-induced climate change show that the Mediterranean region, including security hotspots like Libya, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, and Syria, is likely to experience a further significant decline in rainfall, compounding the drying trend that has occurred during the past quarter-century.   Likewise, a recent study by my colleagues at Columbia University"s Earth Institute has shown that human-induced climate change is likely to cause increasingly frequent mega-droughts in the second half of this century.   In September of this year, world leaders will gather at the United Nations to adopt a set of Sustainable Development Goals to address these rising threats.   Those who want to hide from reality will find that they no longer can. That is because our new reality is one of droughts, heat waves, extreme storms, rising sea levels, and unstable climate patterns. Unless we act with foresight and base our actions on scientific evidence, water stress, food insecurity, and social crises will not be far behind. In other words, today"s mounting threats cannot be covered up. The Age of Sustainable Development must be built on openness, participation, and science.   * Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is also Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals. http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics   * A few links exploring the Post 2015 Development Agenda:   http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs http://sd.iisd.org/ http://www.beyond2015.org/ http://www.participate2015.org/ http://www.worldwewant2015.org/ http://www.worldwewant2015.org/inequalities http://www.worldwewant2015.org/es/node/283328 http://cesr.org/article.php?list=type&type=157 http://www.fao.org/post-2015-mdg/home/en/ http://www.srfood.org/en/equality-or-bust-for-post-2015-global-development-goals-un-rights-experts   http://www.unicef.org/post2015/ http://www.unicef.org/post2015/index_69527.html http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/ http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_86337.html http://socialprotection-humanrights.org/   http://blogs.oxfam.org/en/blogs/16-01-15-experts-say-inaction-climate-change-top-global-risk-next-decade http://www.wfp.org/stories/ending-hunger-3-things-need-happen-after-paris-agreement http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/achieving-zero-hunger-combining-social-protection-propoor-investments http://theelders.org/article/paris-climate-agreement-gives-us-momentum-build http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2015-12-12/agreed-climate-deal-offers-frayed-life-line-worlds-poorest-people http://careclimatechange.org/historic-climate-deal-signals-hope-for-the-poor/ http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/press-releases/general/cop21-the-red-cross-red-crescent-urges-states-and-partners-to-implement-the-paris-climate-agreement-with-a-focus-on-the-people-most-exposed-at-risk-and-vulnerable/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/features/the-2015-paris-climate-summit/ http://www.irena.org   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16702&LangID=E http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/345727/icode/ http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/COP21.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16049&LangID=E http://www.wmo.int/media/content/wmo-2015-likely-be-warmest-record-2011-2015-warmest-five-year-period http://reliefweb.int/report/world/shock-waves-managing-impacts-climate-change-poverty http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4626 http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/food-insecurity-index/ http://www.mrfcj.org/news/ http://www.iied.org/what-do-least-developed-countries-want-cop21 http://theelders.org/news-media/climate-change http://careclimatechange.org/   http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdgs http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2013/7/post-2015-long-paper#view http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/focussdgs.html http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.html http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ http://www.whiteband.org/en/content/post-2015 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Poverty/Pages/Post2015Development.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/MDG/Pages/Stories.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15505&LangID=E http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13063&LangID=E http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Development/Pages/PromotingHRbasedfinancialregulationmacroeconomicpolicies.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15592&LangID=E http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Climatechangestragictollonhealth.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Development/Pages/NewsFeatureStoriesPromotingahumanrights.aspx   http://post2015.org/ http://www.unrisd.org/ http://www.un-ngls.org/IMG/pdf/UN-NGLS_Post-2015_Regional_Consultation_September_2013.pdf http://www.ethicsandinternationalaffairs.org/2014/eliminating-extreme-inequality-a-sustainable-development-goal-2015-2030/ http://www.ipsnews.net/topics/inequality/ http://www.ipsnews.net/news/development-aid/poverty-mdgs/ http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/sustainable-development-goals   http://www.irf2015.org/ http://www.irf2015.org/blog http://www.irf2015.org/post-2015-round-around-web-world-resources-institute-0 http://www.iied.org/tag/post-2015-agenda http://www.iied.org/tag/sustainable-development-goals-sdgs http://www.whiteband.org/en/news/14-01-07-open-working-group-side-event-implementing-just-inclusive-equal-and-sustainable-develo http://webtv.un.org/watch/what-can-the-post-2015-development-agenda-achieve-for-persons-with-disabilities-2nd-meeting-of-the-high-level-political-forum-on-sustainable-development-side-event/3664934986001/ http://www.saferworld.org.uk/what/post-2015 http://www.action2015.org/who-we-are/   http://www.fian.org/news/article/detail/fian-demands-human-rights-for-all-in-post-2015-agenda http://post2015.iisd.org/category/post2015-themes/post2015-inequalities/ http://post2015.iisd.org/news/aina-report-highlights-seven-key-messages-on-inequalities/ http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/opinions-and-positions/opinion-pieces/2013/feedback-on-the-report-by-the-high-level-panel-of-eminent-persons-on-the-post--2015-development-agenda/ http://www.beyond2015.org/news/people-know-what-they-want-and-need http://www.ids.ac.uk/news/people-and-institutions-must-work-together-to-address-inequalities-that-characterise-extreme-poverty   http://www.beyond2015.org/news/beyond-2015-reaction-special-events-outcome-document-press-release http://www.beyond2015.org/sites/default/files/Beyond2015_Reaction_UNSG_Synthesis_Report.pdf http://www.cesr.org/downloads/RF_letter_SG_nov17.pdf http://www.networkideas.org/news/mar2013/pdf/Inequality_Letter.pdf http://cesr.org/article.php?id=1532 http://www.cesr.org/article.php?id=1512 http://www.rightingfinance.org/?p=1038 http://www.rightingfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/full-response.pdf http://www.cesr.org/article.php?list=type&type=157 http://www.cesr.org/article.php?id=1576 http://www.cesr.org/article.php?id=1578 http://cesr.org/article.php?list=type&type=157 http://cesr.org/article.php?id=1504   http://theelders.org/article/one-flaw-sustainable-development-goals-may-make-difference-between-success-and-failure http://sd.iisd.org/news/odi-provides-scorecard-on-sdgs-recommends-early-action/#more-299925 http://sd.iisd.org/news/civil-society-focus-shifts-toward-sdg-advocacy-implementation/299135/ http://www.together2030.org/en/ http://deliver2030.org/ http://www.wfuna.org/post-2015 http://tapnetwork2030.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/TAP_Toolkit_FINAL_web.pdf http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Poverty/Pages/AnnualReports.aspx Visit the related web page
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