SDGs

Conservation and sustainable use can work together to protect the plants and animals living in forests.
©UNEP/Jessica Kerr

Shrinking forests need bold action to safeguard their biodiversity

22 May 2020

Amidst alarming rates of deforestation and land degradation, urgent action is needed to safeguard the biodiversity of the world's forests, according to a new United Nations report, released on Friday.

Women queuing for food rations in Cameroon practice social distancing to help combat the spread of COVID-19.
WFP/Glory Ndaka

Stand in solidarity to preserve Africa’s hard-won progress, urges UN chief

20 May 2020
Africa

The coronavirus pandemic threatens the hard-earned gains Africans have made throughout the continent, the UN chief said on Wednesday, urging the world to stand in solidarity with the people, “now, and for recovering better”.

Noel Dickinson is a research technician for the Breadfruit Institute at Hawaii's National Tropical Botanical Garden.
ILO Photo/John Isaac

Cultivating a taste for traditional crops in Hawaii

16 May 2020
Americas

Hundreds of millions of people go hungry around the world, and there are fears the COVID-19 pandemic could make matters worse. In Hawaii, researchers think that bringing back overlooked, traditional crops, could help feed many vulnerable people. As part of an ongoing series focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals and ahead of International Day of Biodiversity marked annually on 22 May, UN News travelled to Hawaii with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to see how researchers are trying to cultivate a taste for indigenous crops.

 

A beach clean-up in Mumbai, India, illustrates how plastic debris in the ocean leads to the deaths of millions of seabirds every year (file photo).
UN Environment Programme

COVID-19 could help turn the tide on ocean health in Asia-Pacific

13 May 2020
Asia Pacific

The COVID-19 pandemic could help turn the tide on the well-being of oceans in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a UN report published on Wednesday.

UNDP in Ukraine worked with community groups to provide protection masks and suits to medics to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
UNDP Ukraine/Maksym Kytsiuk

UN sustainable energy project in Ukraine finds a new role: fighting COVID-19

12 May 2020
Europe

A United Nations project to promote energy efficiency among Ukrainian homeowners has found a second life – informing 1.8 million of the nation’s citizens on how to combat the COVID-19 virus.

One-year-old Lighton receives her pediatric HIV medicine at the same time at home every day in Mbarara, Uganda.
© UNICEF/Karin Schermbrucke

UN issues ‘wake-up call’: Don’t sideline AIDS response during COVID-19 crisis

11 May 2020
Global

As the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus, decades of advances made in the battle against HIV are under threat, noted two UN agencies on Monday, point out that disruptions to treatment could cause hundreds of thousands of HIV-related deaths.
 

Female particpants at the Investment in Equality in Science, Technology and Innovation in the Era of Digitalization for Sustainable Development event.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías

COVID-19 makes universal digital access and cooperation essential: UN tech agency

5 May 2020
Global

As the COVID-19 pandemic reshapes the way in which we work, keep in touch, go to school and shop for essentials – across the world – it has never been more important to bridge the digital divide for the 3.6 billion people who remain off-line.

Vulnerable people in developing countries like Bangladesh are expected to be hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNDP Bangladesh/Fahad Kaizer

COVID-19 pandemic exposes global ‘frailties and inequalities’: UN deputy chief

3 May 2020
Global

The COVID-19 pandemic which has swept across the developed and developing world is “exposing the frailties and inequalities of our societies,” according to the UN Deputy Secretary-General.