Global

2019 Human Development Report says business as usual will not solve new generation of inequalities.
UNDP

Inequality threatening human development, new global UN report warns

9 December 2019
Economic Development

Despite global progress in tackling poverty, hunger and disease, a “new generation of inequalities” indicates that many societies are not working as they should, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) argues in its latest report released on Monday. 

In developing countries, the United Nations Development Programme says that funds lost to corruption are estimated at 10 times the amount of official development assistance.
UNDP

Corruption thwarts attempts to build a better world and ‘must be fought by all, for all’

8 December 2019
Economic Development

As we enter a decade of ambitious action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), stepping up efforts to eradicate corruption and promote good governance is “essential…to deliver on our global pledge to leave no one behind”, the UN anti-crime chief has said.

UN peacekeepers in the Mopti region of central Mali during a military operation.
MINUSMA/Gema Cortes

UN evaluates progress in improving peacekeeping performance

6 December 2019
Peace and Security

The international community on Friday took stock of action to improve UN peacekeeping in line with a Security Council resolution aimed at enhancing performance at all levels, both at Headquarters in New York and in the field. 

The Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital at Motootua provides the people of Samoa with numerous health services and facilities, including the Youth Friendly Center.
© UNICEF/Sa'o Mulivai

Thursday’s Daily Brief: Samoa measles epidemic, Dozens die off Mauritania, Volunteer Day and Zambia’s food troubles

5 December 2019
Health

A recap of Thursday’s top stories: Dozens of migrants drowned off Mauritanian coast; measles grip Samoa as social media campaigns spread misinformation worldwide; UN chief on lifting landlocked countries from poverty; Guterres lauds volunteer spirit and millions face food insecurity in Zambia.

A mother holds her 3-month-old baby as he receives a vaccination against measles at a health centre in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
© UNICEF/Karel Prinsloo

Measles ‘misinformation campaigns’ through social media, fuel rising toll

5 December 2019
Health

Measles deaths and infections in 2019 are set to “substantially exceed” last year’s toll when more than 142,000 people died from the preventable disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) says in November 2018 two in three children in the Central African Republic need humanitarian assistance.
UNICEF/Ashley Gilbertson

Partnerships key to taking landlocked countries out of poverty: UN Chief

5 December 2019
Economic Development

The challenges faced by landlocked developing countries (LLDCs), some of the poorest in the world, can be overcome through more effective partnerships, UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared on Thursday, at a conference held at UN Headquarters in New York.

The Tanzanian Maasai landscape has witnessed a dramatic increase in soil erosion.
University of Plymouth/Carey Marks

Soil erosion must be stopped ‘to save our future’, says UN agriculture agency

5 December 2019
SDGs

Although soils are essential for human well-being and the sustainability of life on the planet, they are threatened on all continents by natural erosion, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on World Soil Day, calling for their protection.

A woman selling flowers in Vietnam's tourist-laden Hanoi wears a mask to mitigate breathing in polluted air.
UN News/Elizabeth Scaffidi

Greener tourism: Greater collaboration needed to tackle rising emissions

4 December 2019
Climate and Environment

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is calling for enhanced cooperation between the transport and tourism sectors to combat climate change.

Humanitarian workers provide food rations to refugee at the Lóvua settlement in Angola. (March 2018)
© UNHCR/Omotola Akindipe

Wednesday’s Daily Brief: 2020 humanitarian plan, malaria latest, greener tourism, people key to SDGs, Fall Armyworm

4 December 2019
Humanitarian Aid

A recap of Wednesday’s stories: A record number of people will need humanitarian aid in 2020; WHO calls for more funding to protect women and children from malaria; the transport and tourism sectors are urged to tackle carbon emissions; a group of rights experts want to see more people helping make the SDGs a reality; Fall Armyworm pest sparks new global action plan; and how the UN is helping impoverished landlocked nations develop.

A panoramic view outside Kathmandu, Nepal.
UN Photo/Gill Fickling

From landlocked to land-linked: how the UN is helping some of the world’s poorest countries

4 December 2019
Economic Development

How can the international community turn some of the world’s poorest, landlocked countries, into thriving, land-linked nations? On Thursday, at UN Headquarters, Member States will renew commitments they have made, to eradicate poverty in the 32 countries designated as Landlocked Developing Countries, or LLDCs.