Digitalisation of birth registration system in Malaysia: Boon or bane for the hard-to-reach and marginalised?

Access to birth registration among the refugees, migrants, and undocumented or stateless individuals in Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia remains hindered largely due to their lack of legal status. This study identifies the barriers to birth registration faced by these communities, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, and explores the extent to which digital technologies may overcome or amplify these barriers. Findings are reported from a review of literature, websites, and media articles and semi-structured interviews with community-based organisations and community leaders representing the communities. The themes for the questions were structured based on Plan International's (2015) Step-by-step Guide for Identifying and Addressing the Risks to Children in Digitised birth registration systems. We identified that the digitalisation of birth registration poses more risks of exclusion than benefits to the marginalised communities without a secure and inclusive operating environment. Subject to an inequality assessment to evaluate and address the existing inequalities, a hybrid system that factors in the role of citizen facilitation hubs would be ideal for ensuring no one gets "left behind".

Financing for SDGs in India in Post Pandemic era - Challenges & Way forward

In 2015, a resolution known as Agenda 2030 was passed by United Nations General Assembly in which seventeen goals for Sustainable Development were laid down for global dignity, peace and prosperity. The post- pandemic era became full of uncertainties in pursuing those Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its implementation became a challenge especially for the developing economies like India. The country is facing a tremendous gap in arranging for resources to meet the climatic changes and attaining the SDGs. India requires 170 billion dollars per year from 2015-2030 to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals as per the estimation done by National Determined Contribution, a body setup after Paris agreement 2015 to monitor the efforts of the country towards reducing national emissions and adapting to climate change. There is a huge concern amongst the various agencies on exploring the ways to fill this financing gap especially after the economic slowdown seen in the post pandemic era. This research paper analyses the challenges imposed by the COVID 19 pandemic on financing for SDGs and also explores the options to mitigate them. The articles and research papers related to SDG financing are reviewed by the researchers to arrive at the above mentioned statements. This paper is an attempt to draw the attention of worldwide authorities towards this grim situation as sustainable finance is far from reality in India and requires immediate up scaling. © The Electrochemical Society

Recovering from the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic and Accelerating to Achieving the United Nations General Assembly Tuberculosis Targets.

In 2020, the novel COVID-19 pandemic replaced TB as the world's top cause of death from an infectious disease. The October 21, 2020 the UN Secretary-General report on progress towards implementation of the UNHLM political declaration on TB stresses that although high-level commitments and targets had galvanized global and national progress towards ending TB, urgent and more ambitious investments and actions were required, especially in lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic where associated public health measures and travel restrictions, have disrupted health services universally. The report sets out 10 priority recommendations to get the world on track to reach agreed targets by 2022. Political commitment is more critical than ever. COVID-19 diagnostic and vaccination health services need to be aligned to TB services with active early case finding in communities, engaging the private sector care providers and mitigation of fear and stigma. Healthcare staff and community workers and leaders need to be provided with COVID-19 vaccination and personal protective equipment. The UNHLM declaration committed to mobilize 15 billion USD per annum for TB, of which 13 billion USD is for TB care and 2 billion USD per annum for TB R&D. The Global Fund needs to increase funding for TB. Learning from the unprecedented speed of COVID-19 vaccine development, fastracking development and evaluation of TB vaccines is essential. World leaders need to urgently address and reverse the socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and these will determine to what extent they will impact on achieving TB targets.