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With the Paris Agreement on climate change entering into force today, famed chefs Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca are joining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG Fund) to tackle climate change from a different perspective: sustainable cooking.

As Haiti struggles to recover from the massive destruction wrought by Hurricane Matthew, which pummelled the tiny island one month ago today, the United Nations warned that while its seems as if “the world has moved on,” Haiti’s needs are vast, exemplified by the nearly 600,000 children being stalked by disease, hunger and malnutrition and in need of assistance.

The ongoing conflict in South Sudan has led to immense suffering and displacement, with an average of 3,500 people fleeing the country each day to neighbouring countries, prompting the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), national authorities, and other humanitarian actors to race to create safe and humane conditions for arrivals – 90 per cent of whom are women and children.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) today warned that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) fighters have taken some 1,600 civilians to Mosul city in an attempt to shield themselves from airstrikes, and that nearly 400 women from Kurdish, Yezidi or Shi’a Muslim communities in Tal Afar are now being held captive.

A number of children and pregnant women were among the 240 people reported to have drowned off the coast of Libya while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea this week, the United Nations Children's Fund said.

As the Paris Agreement on climate change enters into force, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for the same determination going forward to implement the Agreement as well as to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

After an independent inquiry found that the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) failed to protect civilians as deadly violence broke out in and around its premises in the capital, Juba, in July, the top UN peacekeeping official today announced that he has established a task force to carry out the probe’s recommendations, which include ensuring greater accountability of the mission’s leadership.

With some 546,000 women of reproductive age in Haiti affected by Hurricane Matthew, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has urged greater attention to women’s vulnerability in the aftermath of the storm, which devastated not only people’s livelihoods but health facilities and other vital infrastructure.

Strongly condemning repeated violations of the ceasefire arrangements by the Plateforme and Coordination in and around northern Mali’s restive Kidal town, the United Nations Security Council today warned that such acts threaten the viability of the peace agreement in the country and called on the armed groups to immediately cease hostilities and return to dialogue.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed today the announcement of the adoption of the new Constitution in Côte d'Ivoire by the Commission Electorale Indépendante, which followed the 30 October constitutional referendum.