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A renewed focus on boosting the production of millets and highlighting their benefits, is critical to reducing over-reliance on more commonly grown crops, boosting diverse diets, and food security. That’s especially true during periods of natural disaster when food becomes scarce, according to Dr Nancy Aburto, an agriculture expert at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 

Panel discussions exclusively made up of men, or ‘manels’ need to stop, says Valerie Julliand, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Indonesia. Ms. Julliand has taken steps to promote gender parity by pledging that the UN will only participate in panels which include women’s voices.

Dramatically increasing global manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, and ensuring equitable access, is the fastest way to end the pandemic, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. 

The threat of new volcanic eruptions from Mount  Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have triggered thousands of residents to flee from the eastern city of Goma, the UN humanitarian office said on Friday.  

The world is far from achieving equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, a tragedy that must be avoided at all costs, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday during an online conversation on fair access to these lifesaving treatments. 

UN humanitarians expressed deep concern on Friday about serious and ongoing abuses carried out against displaced civilians who are also facing dire food insecurity in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, after months of conflict. 

Independent UN human rights experts called on Friday for a European body of intergovernmental experts to stop legislation supporting coercive mental health measures. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought “a tsunami of suffering”, taken over 3.4 million lives and 500 million jobs, while wiping trillions of dollars from global balance sheets, Secretary-General António Guterres told business leaders on Thursday, appealing for equitable vaccine distribution worldwide. 

With fears that one of the world’s most active volcanoes could erupt again in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is warning that up to 400,000 – nearly 280,000 children – could be displaced and in need of protection or support, if the current exodus continues.

Annual investments in nature-based solutions will have to triple by 2030, and increase four-fold by 2050, if the world is to successfully tackle the triple threat of climate, biodiversity and land degradation crises, according to a new UN-backed study published on Thursday.