General News

Holding timely elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be a pivotal moment in the history of the country.

That’s what the head of the UN Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) told the Security Council during a briefing on Thursday.

Martin Kobbler welcomed the publication in January of the global calendar for presidential and legislative elections scheduled for November 2016.

Derrick Mbatha reports.

Duration: 2'29"

Efforts are under way to get the United Nations to declare an international year of plant health, to highlight its importance for food security.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that pests and diseases can have disastrous consequences on agricultural production.

FAO is this week hosting the annual meeting of the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) at its headquarters in Rome.

‘The right to health is a human rights issue’, according to a senior professor at the University of Philippines.

Experts have been meeting at UN headquarters to discuss how women’s access to health is disproportionately affected to poverty.

Elizabeth Pangalangan at the University of Philippines is a strong advocate for better access to reproductive healthcare as a means to end poverty.

Cathrine Hasselberg has been speaking to the professor about some of the challenges women in the Philippines face.

Duration:3’05"

At the beginning of the year only 22 per cent of all national parliamentarians across the world were female, according to the UN.

Women face several obstacles in participating in political life, such as discriminatory laws and cultural barriers, says the director of the Centre for Multiparty Democracy in Kenya.

Cathrine Hasselberg reports.

Duration: 2'49"

An important step has been taken in the future management of natural and man-made disasters according to the head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)

Margareta Wahlström was speaking at the conclusion of a major world conference on reducing the risk of disasters that has been taking place in the Japanese city of Sendai.

She described reducing risk as “the bridge” between climate change and sustainable development.

Nan Zheng discussed the outcome of the conference with Ms Wahlström.

Duration: 3’26”

The intensity and frequency of natural disasters across the globe threaten to slow down the development of countries, according to the World Bank.

The Bank notes that the impact of disasters on gross domestic product (GDP) is 20 times higher in developing countries than in industrialized nations.

Rachel Kyte, the World Bank’s Special Envoy for Climate Change is one of hundreds of delegates attending the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction which has been taking place in Sendai, Japan.

Women and girls must be part of the planning and implementation of policies dealing with disaster risk reduction, according to the head of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, the Executive Director of UNFPA was speaking in Sendai, Japan, where he is attending the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.

He said countries must understand that women are not just victims but are also change agents who must work together with men to respond to disasters in a more holistic way.

Conflict in Africa’s Sahel region is the biggest threat to saving lives in one of the poorest places on earth, according to the UN aid chief in charge there.

Robert Piper, who’s UN Regional Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Sahel, said that in the last 12 months alone, more than one million people have been displaced by fighting in countries including north-east Nigeria and northern Mali.

Giving clear early warnings in disasters that can be understood and acted upon by everyone is critical to reducing the impacts on people, according to the head of the UN weather agency.

Michel Jarraud, the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is attending the Third World Conference on Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan.

The way the international community has been responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic over thirty years can provide lessons on how to tackle critical disease outbreaks and other pandemics in the future.

That’s according to Steven Klaus, Director of the UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Regional Support Team for the Asia and Pacific Region.