The Lid is On

Vanuatu’s national parliament doesn’t have a single woman member, but two activists from different generations are committed to changing the gender politics of the island nation.

In the second episode of Island Voices, a three-part podcast series produced by the UN Office for Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS), law student and activist Georgilla Worwor, and Anthea Arukole, a former political advisor to the Vanuatu Government, discuss their political ambitions.

In the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, young women are taking their long boards to the water, refusing to accept the idea that surfing is only for men.

Risma has been surfing since a very young age and, in the face of the challenges that come with being a woman pioneer in a male-dominated sport, she has reached a highly competitive level, and is inspiring a new generation of girls and young women to ride the waves.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated 76 years ago this week, and to mark Holocaust remembrance day in late January, the corridors of UN Headquarters are normally filled with the stories of survivors who come to bear witness. 

But this year, the annual commemoration programme was held online for the first time ever, due to COVID-19, under the theme “Facing the Aftermath: Recovery and Reconstitution after the Holocaust”.  

Hunger is often associated with developing countries, but food insecurity is also present in higher income countries, including the richest country in the world, the United States.

The UN wants more people to understand that a way to effectively tackle the problem, and take a big step towards ending hunger, is to reduce the billions of tonnes of food that are lost and wasted each year.

In the midst of COVID-19, we have an historic opportunity to look at the world as it is, based on the facts, and then focus on collective solutions, according to a special project undertaken by the United Nations this year to mark its 75th anniversary, and the fifth anniversary of the game-changing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Tune in to this special edition of our Lid is On podcast -Nations United: Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times, hosted by Hollywood great, Julia Roberts.

Although COVID-19 continues to dominate the headlines, a host of other global challenges have not gone away, such as conflict, famine and the existential threat posed by climate change.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, will try to refocus attention on some of these themes at the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly, which opens this week.

If you’re wondering what the UN is doing to help prevent the kind of disaster that’s befallen Beirut, the Organization has an entire office dedicated to lowering the risks.

For this latest Lid is On podcast from UN News, Conor Lennon’s been finding out how the Office for Disaster Risk Reduction works tirelessly to persuade governments to put it at the heart of their decision-making.

The manufacture of ukuleles by a company in Hawaii is helping to promote Hawaii’s culture of aloha - reflecting love, kindness, understanding and compassion, with the added benefit of reforesting the US Pacific Ocean state.

For this latest in our Lid is On podcast series, from UN News, Daniel Dickinson reports from the iconic US island state, where climate action is mingling with an ancient Pacific culture.

Music: Hawaiian Supaman by Del Beazley;  He Alii Ka Aina
by Cody Pueo Pata.
Both songs played and sung by Joe Souza.
 

As the coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, in developing countries it’s rural girls who are proving to be the most vulnerable to abuse during economic collapse and lockdown.

That’s the view of a young woman activist from Uganda, Zahara, who in this special edition of our Lid is On podcast, hosted by the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, joins the agency’s chief Natalia Kanem, plus leading child rights NGO, Plan International’s AB Albrectsen, in conversation to talk about the challenges facing women and girls during this unprecedented health crisis.