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Eddie Ndopu: "People with disabilities need to be in leadership"
Eddie Ndopu: "People with disabilities need to be in leadership" | Global Stage | GZERO Media

Eddie Ndopu: "People with disabilities need to be in leadership"

As many as 98% of disabled children in the developing world “never see the inside of a classroom” or go to school at all, says Eddie Ndopu. He could have been one of that vast majority. Born in Namibia, he was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and expected to live for only five years. Now 33, Ndopu is a leading advocate for human rights and accessibility for all.

GZERO’s Tony Maciulis caught up with Ndopu at the UN General Assembly this week. The two discussed his role as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Advocates, a prominent position he shares alongside leaders including Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, and Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President Brad Smith. He hopes to bring a “fresh” perspective to the discussion of global development and help leaders understand the needs of the most vulnerable people, including those with disabilities.

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Youth representative Ayakha Melithafa, speaks during the opening of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit 2023, at U.N. headquarters in New York City.

Reuters

UN General Assembly day one: Not a Vanity Fair event

The first big day of the UN General Assembly proved to be character-building for those who dared to venture outside without gumboots or an umbrella.

The skies above Turtle Bay were tinged in silver-gray as delegates from 193 countries descended on the UN headquarters for the 78th General Assembly.

Monday was something akin to a warm up: Much of the focus in the Assembly hall was on the UN’s lofty Sustainable Development Goals, essentially a global to-do-list, including targets like poverty and hunger eradication. Progress so far, however, has been spotty as only 15% of the goals are even on track.

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2023 UN General Assembly's top objective, according to António Guterres
2023 UN General Assembly's top objective, according to António Guterres| GZERO World

2023 UN General Assembly's top objective, according to António Guterres

Every year, world leaders and top diplomats descend on New York City for the annual UN General Assembly, or "UNGA," as it's known. And this year's UNGA promises to be a blockbuster week, given the array of urgent global challenges facing the United Nations. From an unending war in Ukraine, lurching into its third year, to a climate-battered planet that UN Secretary-General has described as "Global Boiling," to growing hunger and poverty worldwide, there's plenty to discuss.

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Shocks making it harder to meet Sustainable Development Goals
Can we still meet the SDGs? | GZERO Media

Shocks making it harder to meet Sustainable Development Goals

After the pandemic and now the global food crisis, meeting the UN's Sustainable Goals by the 2030 deadline will be a tall order.

But actually it's previous systemic challenges aggravated by those crises that are undermining the push to achieve the SDGs, Kathryn Hollifield, from the World Bank's Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, explained during a livestream discussion on the global food crisis hosted by GZERO Media in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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