If peacekeeping is heading in the direction of more proactive use of force in the most dangerous conflicts in the world, is there a role for the historically risk-averse Japan?

Although China’s ban on waste imports has forced Japan to find alternative avenues to recycle the nation’s plastic, it should also be seen as an opportunity for the Japanese government to revise its policies to the benefit of its citizens, businesses and oceans.

Once the richest country in Latin America, Venezuela is now suffering from the highest inflation rate in the world and enduring an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Could a government-led venture into cryptocurrencies help buoy the country above socio-economic collapse?

A decades-long drive to advance information and communication technology in Malaysia has vaulted the country to become a leading Asian economy and set a course for sustained growth.

After many years of bloodshed in Syria, it is crucial to examine how the UN’s peacekeeping progress in other contexts could inform a new mission in Syria underpinned by regional actors, a mandate to fight terrorism, and a strong political strategy.

Nearly three years after adoption of the SDGs, much greater effort is required to improve SDG 16 implementation links between national and subnational governance institutions.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees living in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh are still in need of water and sanitation support, and the approaching monsoon season will exacerbate water-related health problems. While there has been rapid progress to prepare for this challenge, more must be done to ensure a safe, disease-free environment for all.

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.

Efforts to end open defecation through rapid installation of low-cost pit latrines must be cautious of the potential impacts on groundwater and human health.

Despite the immense scale of freshwater systems at the centre of SDG 6, ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all will require an approach that scales up from communities to better understand how water is used in daily life.

A recent spate of natural disasters serves as a reminder that communities must be better prepared for disruptions of critical infrastructure such as electricity and water service, which can go off-line in a matter of minutes and impact millions of lives.

While government mandates for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals are expected to eventually “trickle down” to cities, a group of frontrunner cities is creating progress on the ground ahead of national instructions.

Habitat III is an opportunity to pave the way for culturally and contextually sensitive solutions to the challenges of rapid urbanisation in small island developing states.

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.