SDGs

© UNICEF/Vlad Sokhin

Amid global ‘learning crisis’, Parliaments can ensure adequate resources for education, says UN Assembly President

17 February 2020
Global

Education is the “great equalizer” and Parliaments have a major role to play in scaling up action to ensure that adequate financial resources are allocated to education, girls’ education and technical and vocational training throughout in national budgetary processes, the President of the UN General Assembly said on Monday.

© UNICEF/Dusko Miljanic

Victim-centred laws ‘paramount’ to combat online sexual abuse against children

11 February 2020
Global

Comprehensive national strategies are urgently needed to prevent child sexual abuse online and other Internet issues for children, independent UN human rights experts said on Tuesday, Safer Internet Day.

© UNDP India

With science ‘held back by a gender gap’, Guterres calls for more empowerment for women and girls

10 February 2020
Global

Fewer than 30 per cent of the world’s scientific researchers are women: that’s just one of the statistics showing how many challenges remain for women and girls in the scientific field, as the world marks the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, on Tuesday.

Screenshot from Oceanix

World Urban Forum: cities must be ‘at the heart’ of sustainable development 

9 February 2020

The official opening of the 10th Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF) took place in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, with UN chief António Guterres telling delegates that cities and towns were crucial to deliver sustainable development across the globe during the next decade. 

Daniel Getachew

AU Summit: Guterres calls for ‘collective, comprehensive, coordinated’ response to challenges facing Africa

9 February 2020
Africa

The challenges facing African nations are “complex, multi-faceted and far-reaching" but a “collective, comprehensive and coordinated” response by the global community will build on the momentum that already exists to help the continent thrive, the UN chief told the African Union Summit on Sunday. 

© UNDP/Vlad Sokhin

2020: the year for action, to ‘rise up’ and safeguard ocean life 

5 February 2020
Global

With the ocean in deep crisis, members of civil society and philanthropic organisations are urging governments and corporations to take bold action to safeguard the ocean.  After a two-day preparatory meeting in New York ahead of June’s UN Ocean Conference in Portugal, activists handed over what they termed “A Blue Call to Action” to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, on Wednesday.  

WMO/Ulla Nordlinder

Ocean Conference has potential to be a ‘global game-changer’

4 February 2020

The second global Ocean Conference taking place in Portugal in a few months’ time promises to be “a critical moment” for the health of life under water and on land, the President of the UN General Assembly said on Tuesday, as preparations got underway.

ILO/R. Lord

‘Spectre of poverty’ hangs over tribes and indigenous groups: UN labour agency

3 February 2020

Indigenous and tribal communities are around three times more likely to face extreme poverty than others with women “consistently at the bottom of all social and economic indicators”, UN labour experts said on Monday.

UN-HABITAT

The digital building blocks of better communities

31 January 2020
Global

In cities and communities across the world, citizens of all ages and backgrounds are getting the chance to literally play an important role in redesigning their public spaces, thanks to an innovative collaboration between the UN, and the company behind the popular computer game Minecraft.

WFP/Simon Pierre Diouf

New UN finance panel to push Global Goals forward

28 January 2020
Global

The President of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday encouraged Member States to support a new panel that has been set up to help make the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a reality, by 2030.