UNITED NATIONS, Feb 13 2014 (IPS) — Last week, I had the privilege of attending the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, an annual event that deals with a subject that is very close to my heart.  The summit gathered together amazing people: Nobel Prize winners, thought leaders, heads of state, corporate innovators, and academicians to deal with the paramount challenges of the 21st Century all focused on three pressing dimensions of sustainability:  food, water and energy.

Clearly these are critical to the future of humanity. Right now, about one in eight of the human beings with whom we share this planet lives without adequate drinking water. Almost that many lack food security.  And nearly one in five people manage without the additional power and options that electricity affords.

How to meet current needs, without compromising the prospects of generations who will follow, is a very complicated issue. It was encouraging to see so many brilliant and committed scientists, economists and development specialists working so hard on the innovations and ideas that can help us produce, distribute and use precious resources more efficiently and equitably.

Tarja Halonen, former President of Finland
who co-chairs the High- Level Task Force for ICPD — International Conference on Population & Development Credit: Todd France Photography, 2012. Used with permission from IPS.

…how nurses can take care of themselves whilst handling trauma situations and empower themselves to better meet the challenges of trauma care and healing... 
 

…to sensitize, enrich, encourage and empower nurses in Mumbai — to reach out to the ever-demanding global needs…. helped to realize their nursing potential to contribute to the growing needs of our ‘Global Village.’

Lindiwe Dlamini nurses her six-week-old baby boy. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

In Nepal, many children who suffer from malnutrition belong to young mothers. In fact, teen marriages and pregnancies are common and over 23 percent of women give birth before they are 18 years old. Credit: Naresh Newar/IPS