UN News Daily Guide: Mandela Peace Summit, Global Goals, Youth and Yemen

24 September 2018 UN Affairs

As the United Nations enters its biggest weeks of the year with a plethora of events, speakers and leaders’ meetings, UN News will be preparing a daily guide to help you navigate what’s going on and keep abreast of the world-changing decisions that are made in the hallways of UN headquarters in New York.

Here’s what you need to know for Monday 24 September (please note all timings are based on the New York time zone, Eastern Daylight Time, or EDT):

Uniting for peace

Setting the tone a day before the General Debate starts at the General Assembly, the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit will be held on Monday at 9:30 am, marking the centenary of the birth of South Africa’s first democratically-elected President and global civil rights icon. Member States are expected to adopt a historic Political Declaration declaring 2019-2028 the “Nelson Mandela Decade of Peace,” and calling on all world leaders to “redouble efforts to pursue international peace and security, development and human rights”.
>> Follow the event via livestream or via Twitter with #Mandela100.

Advancing the SDGs

For those interested in sustainable development, there’s a lot going on today, starting with a high-level meeting on Financing the 2030 Agenda at 3pm, bringing together some of the UN’s highest officials, including Secretary-General António Guterres and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Heads of State and Government, and private sector leaders.
In parallel, the annual UN Global Compact Leaders Summit returns, focusing once again on strengthening the public-private dialogue to achieve the 2030 Agenda. With an impressive list of speakers, the event begins at 9 am and can be livestreamed here.
All week long, keep an eye on the SDG Media Zone — an ongoing series of live interviews, panel discussions and other digital content — which, starting today, will showcase some of the initiatives that the global community is working on to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). You can watch, like, share and follow the buzz using #SDGLive.
Finally, with 1.8 billion children and adolescents in the world, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has made it a priority for the UN System to reset its focus on youth. On Monday, at 12 pm, he will officially launch the UN’s “Youth Strategy”, to empower youth across the world. Watch live here and follow the conversation with #Youth2030.

Focus on humanitarian issues

The day will also offer a number of humanitarian-related events including a high-level meeting on the Humanitarian Response in Yemen, at 1:15 pm, with UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock. As the country is now in its fourth year of intensified conflict, with unprecedented levels of humanitarian need, the world must not look away. You can watch it live here.
Another event, happening at the same time but available to view later, will focus specifically on Protecting the health and rights of women and girls in Yemen and South Sudan.
Finally, a high-level side event on the possibility of establishing a Global Compact on Refugees will start at 10 am.

Go further...

The above is only a curated selection of high profile events. For a comprehensive list of everything you can watch online, this calendar should provide the answers.

And if you feel a bit lost and haven’t quite caught up with everything that has been going on ahead of the 73^rd General Assembly so far, here are a few ways of catching up fast: