Interviews

The 2019 Human Development Report (HDR) – entitled Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st Century - was launched on Monday, in Bogota, Colombia.  

This year’s report shows that a new generation of severe inequalities in human development is emerging, even as the gap is narrowing, on many of the unresolved inequalities of the 20th century.  

Measles deaths and infections are spiking again globally, and Governments everywhere should do more to convince parents that it is safe to vaccinate their children.

That’s the message from the World Health Organization’s Dr Kate O’Brien, Director of Immunization and Vaccines.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, she describes the impact of a major outbreak of measles on the Pacific island nation of Samoa, where thousands of children have contracted the disease. 

UN agencies are assisting authorities in Samoa as they battle a measles outbreak which has killed more than 60 people, mainly babies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has flown in emergency medical teams from across the globe who are working alongside local colleagues in a mass inoculation campaign using vaccines supplied by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The UN also is supporting a national awareness campaign aimed at rebuilding trust following the deaths last year of two babies during routine vaccinations.

With Mali facing what one UN rights expert’s called dire political, economic and social upheaval, the UN-led humanitarian efforts in the country are vitally important to much of the population.

Mbaranga Gasarabwe is the UN Deputy Special Representative in Mali, where she oversees the work of 21 UN humanitarian agencies.

Volunteerism opens doors and impacts peace and development throughout local communities as well as on a national and global level, according to the chief of UN System Affairs and New York Office of UN Volunteers (UNV). 

Particularly for those excluded, it provides a concrete way to “impact their own lives and play a constructive role in their communities”, Naoual Driouich said, in an interview with UN News ahead of International Volunteer Day.

Can you imagine going to the gym for a 24-hour workout?

That’s what Peter Koopmans did between Sunday and Monday, to raise awareness and funds for child victims of sexual abuse, doing thousands of pull-ups, push-ups, and squat thrusts at UNAIDS in Geneva, starting at midday on Sunday – World AIDS Day.

If you were passionate about a cause, would you give up a well-paid job for it – even if it drove your parents mad?

That’s what Ya Wang from Beijing, China, did, and now he’s helping other volunteers to promote youth empowerment through concerts, through the organization, Up With People.

They’re on tour in Switzerland, which is where UN News’s Daniel Johnson caught up with Ya, along with fellow cast member Ahmed Hassan from Aleppo, Syria, who has his own story to tell.

The UN is working in Iraq on many fronts, including assisting the rebuilding of northern areas devastated during the war against ISIL terrorists, says the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator there.clennon

Marta Ruedas cites the World Bank and Iraq Government in estimating that reconstruction will cost $88 billion - but just over $1 billion has been received so far.

“It’s a drop in the ocean”, she said, while acknowledging that international funding has already helped “to improve the situation for millions of people”.

If we told you that greenhouse gas emissions are measured in gigatonnes, how many of them do you think we need to stop producing, if we’re to keep the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius in line with the Paris Agreement?

For the answer to that question – and some advice on how countries like Denmark and South Africa are doing their bit - here’s John Christensen, lead author of the UN Environment Programme’s Emissions Gap Report, speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

With unemployment in Gaza standing at 54 per cent, young people there are living “a daily existence in a nightmarish scenario”, according to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.

Jamie McGoldrick said Palestinian youth gaze across the Mediterranean at the lives of their European counterparts and wonder why they too cannot have a job, or buy a car, or afford to go on holiday.