Global

New Year’s Day a reminder of need for action to prevent newborn deaths: UNICEF

The world will welcome more than 392,000 babies on New Year’s Day, according to estimates from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). 

Sub-Saharan Africa faces grave hunger challenges in 2020: UN food relief agency

At the dawn of the next decade, a new World Food Programme (WFP) forecast of global hunger hotspots has revealed that escalating hunger will challenge sub-Saharan Africa in the first half of 2020.

2019: The UN News year in photos

From sustainable development to economic development, and human rights to humanitarian aid, UN News provides daily coverage across all of the Organization's  key issues – health, migration, climate change and so much more.

Deadly decade: UNICEF reports three-fold rise in verified attacks on children since 2010

Conflicts around the world are lasting longer and claiming more young lives, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said on Monday, as the agency reported that over this ‘deadly decade’, there has been a three-fold rise in verified attacks on children since 2010 – an average of 45 violations a day. 

Guterres's message for 2020: In world of turmoil, youth are its ‘greatest source’ of hope

As the world enters 2020 with “uncertainty and insecurity all around”, the United Nations chief maintained that the world’s young people are its "greatest source” of hope.

General Assembly approves $3 billion UN budget for 2020

The UN General Assembly on Friday adopted a budget of $3,073,830,500 for the United Nations to cover the year 2020 . 

Accelerating towards a fairer future

Cutting child mortality by a third in Brazil, reaching carbon neutrality in Finland and redirecting trillions of dollars of investment to funds that promote sustainability: these are some examples of initiatives from governments, civil society and the private sector, designed to speed up the UN’s goal of achieving a fairer society for all.

UN chief offers the world wishes for ‘peace and a blessed New Year’

While visiting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres extended wishes for a peaceful Christmas and a blessed New Year. 

The 2010 – 2020 UN News Decade in Review, part two

With the 2020s now in full view, welcome to the second in our three-part series looking back at some of the major UN-related stories of the past decade. In part two, we take in the years 2014 to 2016, which saw the worst outbreak of Ebola ever recorded; new hope that the climate crisis could be tackled by world leaders, through the historic Paris climate agreement; a UN mission in Colombia to facilitate a much-awaited peace process; and the launch of the UN’s 2030 Agenda, a plan of action for people, the planet and prosperity.

Thursday’s Daily Brief: tobacco burn-out, cholera cases down, ‘shifting the needle’ on climate

Among today’s stories: more men are quitting nicotine than ever before, a big drop in cholera cases was recorded between 2017 and 2018, and the UN calls on developed countries to raise their climate ambitions, following the disappointment of COP25.