SDGs

Indigenous women’s groups perform a Tlalmanalli opening ceremony to kick off the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico.
UN Women/Dzilam Mendez

UN Women’s feminist roadmap tackles triple crises of jobs, care and climate 

16 September 2021
Global

The UN’s gender equality and empowerment organization on Thursday published a flagship feminist plan for economic recovery and transformation, which aims to learn the lessons of the past, and seize the opportunity to handle COVID-related crises better.

People in sanction-targeted countries like Venezuela sink into poverty because they cannot get the essential services they need.
OCHA/Gema Cortes

Punishment of ‘innocent civilians’ through government sanctions must end: UN experts 

11 August 2021
Global

Unilateral coercive measures by some governments are denying many people around the world the right to personal development, as well as holding back sustainable national development, four independent UN human rights experts said on Wednesday. 

The low-lying archipelago, Tuvalu, in the Pacific Ocean is reclaiming land as it fights the effects of climate change.
UNDP Tuvalu

UN climate science talks open amid heatwaves, floods and drought

26 July 2021

Negotiations began on Monday to approve a UN science report which will anchor high level summits later this year, charged with boosting climate action worldwide.

Collen Vixen Kelapile of Botswana, the newly-elected President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
UN Photo/Mark Garten

New ECOSOC President aims to maximize ‘reach, relevance and impact’

23 July 2021
Global

The role of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in promoting development has become “even more critical” as a way of guiding and informing the COVID-19 pandemic response worldwide, Collen Vixen Kelapile said on Friday, speaking for the first time as the UN body’s president. 

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity aims to provide solutions to help humans live 'in harmony with nature' in places like the Amazon forest in Brazil.
IMF/Raphael Alves

UN body unveils new plan to end ecological destruction, ‘preserve and protect nature’

13 July 2021
Global

Equitably “redirecting, repurposing or eliminating incentives” that harm biodiversity by at least $500 billion per year is just one of the 21 ambitious targets of a new draft agreement released by a UN body in the lead up to the landmark November climate conference, COP26, in the United Kingdom.

 

A woman sorts French beans that she harvested at a cooperative farm in Taveta, Kenya.
© FAO//Fredrik Lerneryd

Conflict, climate change, COVID, forces more people into hunger

12 July 2021
Global

Global hunger levels have skyrocketed because of conflict, climate change and the economic impact of COVID-19; and one in five children around the world is stunted, UN agencies warned on Monday. 

Psychologists are supporting vulnerable teenagers across eastern Ukraine as the COVID-19 lockdown takes its toll on their mental health.
© UNICEF/Aleksey Filippov

Child mental health crisis ‘magnified’ by COVID, warns UN chief

8 July 2021

Half of the world’s children experience violence on and offline in some form every year, with “devastating and life-long consequences” for their mental health, the UN chief warned a symposium on the issue on Thursday.

A child stands near a water pump surrounded by floodwaters in Gatumba, located near Bujumbura in Burundi.
© UNICEF/Karel Prinsloo

Water-related disasters throw up complex challenges, threaten lives and jobs

25 June 2021
Global

The global climate crisis is “exacerbating and intensifying” water-related disasters, jeopardizing lives and livelihoods, the UN chief said on Friday at a major sustainable development symposium.

Women in Burundi tile the soil with hoes in preparation for planting.
©FAO/Giulio Napolitano

UN chief: Desertification and drought destabilizing well-being of 3.2 billion people 

16 June 2021
Global

Land degradation from climate change and the expansion of agriculture, cities and infrastructure “undermines the well-being of 3.2 billion people”, the UN chief said on Wednesday in his message for World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. 

A midwife prepares medicine for a two-week-old HIV-positive baby in Uganda.
© UNICEF/Jimmy Adriko

Step up HIV fight, to end AIDS ‘epidemic of inequalities’ by 2030 

8 June 2021
Global

Although the world has made “great strides” since the first case of AIDS was reported, four decades ago, the UN General Assembly President said on Tuesday that the “tragic reality” is that the most vulnerable remain in jeopardy.