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Top United Nations officials today underscored the need for urgent action to confront the myriad challenges facing the Central African Republic (CAR), as the Security Council considered Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s proposals for deploying a peacekeeping mission that will be tasked, first and foremost, with protecting civilians in the strife-torn nation.

With preparations under way to mark International Women’s Day this Saturday, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today released a set of recommendations for countries to ensure that women, girls and couples have access to the tools needed to avoid unwanted pregnancies, thereby improving health and allowing for better family planning.

Describing strife-torn Ukraine as “a country on edge”, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson today called for an end to the “provocative rhetoric” that was stoking tensions there, and stressed the readiness of the United Nations to facilitate meaningful dialogue among all the key parties to help ease the crisis.

Equality, inclusiveness and participation must guide the framing of the world agenda for sustainable development, the President of the General Assembly said today, urging Member States to ensure that women, young people and civil society participate fully.

Farmers in south-central Somalia – the country’s “grain basket,” which has been severely affected by conflict and drought in recent years – are for the first time growing and selling grain for other Somalis as part of a United Nations-supported initiative.

The United Nations today launched a new initiative to end the recruitment and use of children in Government forces in conflict by 2016, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressing that children should be armed with pens and textbooks, not guns.

Concerned by gunfire near its compound in Juba, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has called on all parties to respect the work and inviolability of UN premises, which are protecting some 43,000 civilians in its sites in the capital.

Widespread attacks and sieges on civilian areas in Syria by pro-Government forces are leading to mass casualties, malnutrition and starvation, says a United Nations-appointed human rights panel, which also cited inaction by the Security Council as an enabler for the escalating violence.

The top United Nations humanitarian official in South Sudan is sounding the alarm about the dire situation in the country, warning that the world’s youngest nation could collapse by year’s end if urgent action is not taken to help see its people through the current crisis.

The United Nations today launched a new phase of support in Sierra Leone with the transitioning of its political mission to a more development-focused UN presence, a sign of the West African nation’s sustained recovery from a brutal civil war and an example to follow for countries still grappling with conflict.