SDGs

The FlipFlopi dhow, a 9-metre traditional sailing boat made from 10 tonnes of discarded plastic, will be the first boat of its kind to launch a world expedition on 24 January, 2018.
UN Environment

Boat made of recycled plastic and flip-flops inspires fight for cleaner seas along African coast

12 February 2019
Africa

After completing a historic 500km journey from the Kenyan island of Lamu to the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, the world’s first ever traditional “dhow” sailing boat made entirely from recycled plastic, known as the Flipflopi, has successfully raised awareness of the need to overcome one of the world’s biggest environmental challenges: plastic pollution.

Girls studying science in Viet Nam. Globally, while more girls are attending school than before, girls are significantly under-represented in STEM subjects in many settings and they appear to lose interest in STEM subjects as they reach adolescence.
UN Women Viet Nam/Pham Quoc Hung

More women and girls needed in the sciences to solve world’s biggest challenges

11 February 2019
Global

Many of the world’s biggest problems may be going unsolved because too many women and girls are being discouraged from the sciences.

Five-year-old Kiara makes a sale in a commuter train car in Buenos Aires, the capital. She has been working in the Subte, the city’s mass transit system, selling hairpins and other cheap goods, since she was three years old.
UNICEF/ Sebastian Rich

As inequality grows, the UN fights for a fairer world

8 February 2019
Global

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – the UN’s blueprint for a better and more sustainable future for all – calls for a reduction in inequality between and within countries. Nevertheless, global inequality is increasing. So what can be done?

A girl being vaccinated against measles. Photo: UNICEF/Heather Papowitz
UNICEF/Heather Papowitz

Measles in Europe: infection rates highest in a decade, says UN health agency

7 February 2019
Europe

Although more children than ever before are being vaccinated against measles across Europe, overall infection rates are the highest in a decade, and a three-fold increase on last year, according to new data published on Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Khair (left) is the father of seven children, who is no longer able to feed them. The drought has destroyed his land in Daykundi Province, Afghanistan; and this year he harvested nothing. (June 2018)
UNICEF/Adrak

Guterres underlines climate action urgency, as UN weather agency confirms record global warming

6 February 2019
Global

In the wake of data released by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO), showing the past four years were officially the ‘four warmest on record,’ UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for urgent climate action and increased ambition, ahead of his climate summit in September.

 

A vendor sells produce at his stall in Bangladesh.
World Bank/Scott Wallace

Food choices today, impact health of both ‘people and planet’ tomorrow

6 February 2019
Global

The food we eat has huge potential to improve both human health and environmental sustainability, but too often today it is posing a threat to both people and planet, according to a new report by the EAT-Lancet Commission, launched on Tuesday at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

A joint ILO-UNICEF report is urging action to ensure that social protection reaches all children, like 6-year-old Mustafa who works with his father in an industrial area of Baghdad, and protects them from poverty and deprivation.
Photo: UNICEF/Wathiq Khuzaie

Nearly two-thirds of children lack access to welfare safety net, risking ‘vicious cycle of poverty’

6 February 2019

More than six in 10 children globally lack access to social protection, leaving them particularly vulnerable to falling into chronic poverty, the UN said on Wednesday, warning also that some governments are cutting State cash entitlements, amid continuing economic uncertainty.

The Global E-wasteMonitor 2017.
Source: ITU

Environment and health at increasing risk from growing weight of ‘e-waste’

24 January 2019

Around 50 million tonnes of electronic waste, or e-waste, is being thrown away each year, according to a new joint United Nations report – which exceeds the combined weight of all the commercial airliners ever made, or alternatively, enough Eiffel Towers to fill the whole of Manhattan.

Eight-year old attends the second grade in the Guinea-Bissau village of Ponta Nova.
UNICEF/Pirozzi

‘Education transforms lives’ says UN chief on first-ever International Day

24 January 2019
Global

Education is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development because it gives people across the world the skills needed to realize all 17 Global Goals (SDGs), said the UN chief on Thursday, marking the first-ever International Day of Education.

On 17 October 2018 in Indonesia, Saiful and Gilang walk over the rubble and past the fallen mosque, carrying salvaged metal they hope to sell. Rubble and broken houses are all that remains of Belaroa, Sulawesi, which was completely destroyed by a powerful earthquake on 28 September 2018.
© UNICEF/UN0250967/Watson

Extreme weather hit 60 million people in 2018, no part of the world spared

24 January 2019
Global

With some 60 million people affected by extreme weather in 2018, according to a new study, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) called for better management of the issue worldwide, in a statement published on Thursday.