Efforts are underway to move more workers around the world out of the informal or so-called “grey economy”.
The UN’s International Labour Organization estimates that up to 80 per cent of the workforce in developing countries is engaged in the informal sector.
Grey workers often experience unsafe conditions and can lack protection in terms of the payment of wages or overtime.
Iraq is facing a humanitarian “catastrophe” with ten million people expected to need aid by the end of 2015, the UN has warned.
An estimated 5.6 million people have already been displaced or affected by the ongoing violence between Government forces and the terrorist group ISIL.
As the conflict escalates the UN has appealed for almost US$500 million to cover the cost of providing shelter, food, water and other life-saving services over the coming six months.
Women in north-east India have learnt how to protect their community and boost their livelihoods in the face of extreme weather events.
Flooding in Odisha state is a constant problem and can lead to health problems and disrupt cultivation.
The United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, launched a project with the local authorities to empower women to not only cope with but also benefit from the inundations.
Two decades on from the genocide in which hundreds of thousands were slaughtered, the tiny East African state of Rwanda has been seeking a path to development and reconciliation.
With the support of the UN Development Programme, UNDP, Rwanda has rebuilt its economy and reduced poverty levels from 77 to 45 per cent.
Mark Betancourt has been speaking to Claver Gatete, Minister of Finance of Rwanda.
He began by asking him about the government’s priorities following the genocide.
Duration: 4’03”
The likelihood of the deadly Ebola virus re-emerging in West Africa has been put at around 50 per cent by the United Nations.
Over 11,000 people have died in an outbreak of the disease mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Liberia has been declared Ebola-free and cases have been declining in the two other worst affected countries.
But Peter Graaff, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) is warning against complacency.
Separatist rebels Boko Haram from Nigeria are terrorising vulnerable Cameroonians and “regrouping” for fresh attacks, the UN’s resident humanitarian coordinator in Cameroon said on Wednesday.
Najat Rochdi said the Nigerian rebels have crossed into Cameroon, kidnapping children and burning crops “whenever they can” in the far north of the country.
Amid fears of a serious cholera outbreak among the country’s 100,000 internally displaced, Rochdi describes the impact of Boko Haram’s “hit-and-run” tactics to Daniel Johnson.
Political leadership is needed to fight malaria which continues to kill over half a million people worldwide, but mainly in Africa.
That’s according to Herve Verhoosel, the New York Representative of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership which was launched by UN agencies and the World Bank in 1998.
Labour experts from around the world are spending the next two weeks focusing on how to boost the success of small and medium-sized enterprises or SMEs.
They’re meeting at the UN’s International Labour Conference currently underway in Geneva.
With two-thirds of the world’s workers employed in SMEs, policies to bolster their success is a priority of the Conference as Carla Drysdale reports.
Duration: 2’19”
Mohammed Assaf might not be a household name in the West, but to millions of people in the Middle East, he’s a hero.
That’s because the 25-year-old singer risked everything when he escaped from Gaza to take part in Arab Idol, a, Egyptian TV talent show, which he ended up winning.
Now a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN’s Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Assaf is in Geneva to raise awareness about its work at a one-off concert.
Africa has made progress in cutting the number of hungry people, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
In its first edition of the Regional Overview of Food Insecurity in Africa, FAO says that West Africa in particular made notable strides, reducing the prevalence of undernourishment by 60 per cent.
Bukar Tijani is the FAO’s Assistant Director-General based at the Regional Office for Africa in Accra, Ghana.
