Latest News

The United Nations agricultural agency today signed a $15 million agreement with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to boosting the capacity of developing countries to track key agricultural data – information considered essential to good policy-making and that will help track progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

While announcing a strategic action plan to deal with the issue, the United Nations health agency today called for a whole-of-society approach to address the double burden of malnutrition which affects populations across south-east Asia, particularly women and girls.

On the eve of International Literacy Day, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on governments and their partners, including in the private sector, to join forces for universal literacy and build peaceful, just, inclusive and sustainable societies – a vision set out in the new global development agenda.

Seeking $150 million for aid efforts in Afghanistan, the top United Nations relief official today called on the international community to urgently scale up its support for the war-torn country so that it can meet the rising humanitarian needs of more than one million people who are on the move, either internally displaced or returning from neighbouring countries.

An annual meeting of State Parties to the United Nations-backed pact banning cluster bombs ended today in Geneva, with an agreement on a target to complete by 2030 clearance of these explosive remnants of war that kill large numbers of civilians.

The United Nations deputy chief said today that collective global action is needed to overcome barriers to implementation of States’ legal commitments to protect populations from atrocity crimes – the principle known as “responsibility to protect” or R2P.

A new United Nations report has indicated that global manufacturing growth is expected to remain low in 2016 due to weakened financial support for productive activities.

In a hard-hitting speech, the United Nations human rights chief has strongly warned against the impact that populists and demagogues are having on society, and called for more effort to safeguard human rights law.

Health ministers in south-east Asia today reaffirmed their commitment to achieve the target of controlling, eliminating and eradicating neglected tropical diseases (NTDS), with the United Nations health agency voicing its support for their efforts.

There is an urgent need for greater headway in education without which, on current trends, the world will be half a century late for achieving the education-related goals contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, according to a new United Nations-backed independent report.