SDGs

A man kicks a soccer ball up the street during lockdown in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg.
IMF Photo/James Oatway

Vaccine inequity triggers ‘huge disconnect’ between countries

17 May 2021
Global

Although COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to decline globally for a second consecutive week, the UN health agency chief said on Monday that “a huge disconnect” is mounting between some highly vaccinated countries, which see the pandemic as largely resolved, while huge waves of infection continue to grip others where shots are scarce. 
 

Under the UN-backed COVAX initiative, UNICEF ships COVID-19 vaccine syringes from a warehouse in Dubai Logistics City, United Arab Emirates.
© UNICEF/Ruel Pableo

Islamic social financing initiative aims to help economic recovery, pandemic response

11 May 2021

As the world continues to grapple with the health and economic crisis sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN and Islamic Development Bank teamed up on Tuesday to help the most vulnerable. 

Peatland forests like this one in central Kalimantan, Indonesia, can store harmful carbon dioxide gasses.
CIFOR/Nanang Sujana

Guterres renews zero-emissions appeal to avoid falling into climate abyss

6 May 2021

All countries should commit to zero carbon emissions by 2050 if the world is to avoid a disastrous 2.4 degree Celsius temperature rise by the end of this century, UN Secretary General António Guterres said on Thursday.

Online retail or e-commerce sales have increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unsplash/rupixen

Global e-commerce jumps to $26.7 trillion, fuelled by COVID-19

3 May 2021
Global

Parts of the online economy have boomed since COVID-19 began, while some pre-pandemic big-hitters have seen a reversal of their fortunes in the last year, amid widespread movement restrictions, UN economists have found.

Children use their tablet at a UNICEF supported learning centre in a village on the outskirts of Kassala, in Eastern Sudan.
© UNICEF/Shehzad Noorani

Don’t let the digital divide become ‘the new face of inequality’: UN deputy chief

27 April 2021
Global

Without decisive action by the international community, the digital divide will become “the new face of inequality”, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed warned the General Assembly on Tuesday. 

Sunlight streams through a forest in Germany.
Unsplash/Sebastian Unrau

‘Make-or-break moment’ for forests

26 April 2021
Global

Forests are at the core of our efforts to restore our relationship with the natural world, the deputy UN chief said on Monday at the UN Forum on Forests. 

The impacts of COVID-19 have rendered one-in-eight young people, the majority of whom are girls, without access to education. Pictured are Ethiopian girls learning about the harmful practice of female genital mutilation (FMG).
© UNICEF/Meklit Mersha

Youth Forum: UN chief calls for ‘tangible improvements’ in the face of injustice, poor governance

7 April 2021
Global

Leaders across the world need to “move beyond platitudes” about young people, and deliver a better future for them all, Secretary-General António Guterres told the 10th Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum on Wednesday. 

Women work in a vegetable garden in a village in Senegal. The village is part of the
© FAO/Eduardo Soteras

More climate action needed during ‘make-or-break year’ for people and planet 

31 March 2021
Global

The world needs “a major breakthrough” to slow the pace of climate change and build resilience to protect the most vulnerable from increasingly severe and frequent climate impacts, the deputy UN chief told a crucial high-level meeting on Wednesday, looking ahead to November’s COP26. 

An interconnected network of greenery across Medellín city in Colombia has significantly improved the lives of its citizens.
Unsplash/Mike Swigunski

UN-Habitat report calls for cities post-pandemic to lead the way to a fairer, greener, healthier future

30 March 2021
Global

A new report on pandemics and cities from UN-Habitat, points the way to how hard-hit urban centres can reduce the impact of future outbreaks and become more equitable, healthy and environmentally friendly.

Fish swim around a coral reef in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt.
Coral Reef Image Bank/Alexander

Biodiversity at risk, threatens human survival, UN forum hears 

24 March 2021
Global

As the living tissue of the earth, biodiversity is “intimately linked to human health” the head of the UN’s scientific agency told a global forum on Wednesday, noting that “we are part of that living tissue”.