It’s time for an honest re-assessment of the state of education worldwide in order to embrace technology-enhanced learning, promote both technical and soft skill development, and achieve a mindset of lifelong, agile training that can tackle an uncertain future of work.

As Germany assumes one of ten elected seats in the UN Security Council it can seize the moment to contribute to the regeneration of one of the cornerstones of the rules-based international order.

With Africa’s working-age population estimated to grow 70% by 2035, the international trends that will limit Africa’s industrial opportunities could also promote tradable services and agri-businesses that create jobs and prosperity for the continent.

We are on the verge of significant scientific breakthroughs in understanding what is likely to make someone vulnerable to modern slavery, and in tailoring programming and policies accordingly.

The IPCC’s stark warning that we have only 12 years to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius seems to have fallen on deaf ears, which will have dire consequences and trigger climate crises in vulnerable regions like Africa.

With thousands of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean in 2018, successfully identifying victims requires practical steps towards a coordinated regional response that overcomes bureaucratic ambiguity and administrative inaction.

As part of a pattern of recent international agreements which tend to be high on ambition and low on hard law, the Global Compact on Migration could be both a warning for future diplomacy and a conceptual framework for those who would like to see a rational approach to migration emerge over time.

To tackle the water quality data gap, extensive government water monitoring networks could shift to additionally gather project data through citizen-led monitoring activities.

If governments do not embrace unconventional water resources, achieving SDG 6 will be as difficult as getting water from a stone — and the consequences for water-scarce regions will be dire.

World Water Day 2018 is a reminder that global water security will not be achieved through business-as-usual approaches, and will depend on efforts to use and expand nature-based solutions.

The potential to achieve Sustainable Development Goal water targets will depend on a hybrid of technologies that improve water measurements and data underpinning indicators of progress.

For decades, China has successfully implemented afforestation programmes to counter desertification. But, while planting more trees will reduce erosion, it is also worsening China’s water crisis.

At the two-year mark of the Sustainable Development Goals, a new policy support system provides authoritative evidence to help governments set clear paths to achieving water-related targets.

The Sendai Framework, while falling short of expectations on many fronts, took some important steps towards integrating lessons from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Experiences from Fukushima show that providing channels for public participation and dialogue is a crucial first step towards ensuring a sustainable recovery for communities impacted by complex disasters.

Knowing how key resilience is following a disaster, small-scale fishers of Japan’s Tohoku region offer support to Chile’s artisanal fishers impacted by a recent tsunami.

The Ministry of the Environment of Japan and UNU collaborate to produce a video documentary about the decontamination efforts in areas affected by radiation from the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Documentary filmmaker Kaori Brand reflects on the experience of producing this 30-minute video on the recovery efforts of the fishing communities hit by the March 2011 tsunami.

The resilience demonstrated by communities in Japan’s Tohoku region may be one of the best modern-day lessons on what the rest of the world can do to prepare for disasters and the consequences of climate change.