culture

Helen Clark, the Administrator for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), ranks 21st on the Forbes’ list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

Before heading the UN agency in 2009, she was New Zealand’s first female Prime Minister a decade earlier and held the office for three consecutive terms.

Helen Clark says “It was tough getting to the top”. But first, she gives Forbes’ journalist Moira Forbes a short version of her long job description.

Duration: 4’58”

Aaron Ng’ambi, a Zambian student studying in Hawaii hopes to be a cabinet minister in his country one day.

He is part of a group of students who were at the United Nations recently to participate in a workshop for the Model UN on how things are done inside the Organization’s chambers.

In the Model UN or MUN as it is called, students around the world play the roles of ambassadors in simulated sessions of the General Assembly or the Security Council.

As role players, they do research and debate a wide range of issues on the agenda of the General Assembly.

A Model UN (MUN) Workshop was held recently at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to provide student leaders actively involved in organizing MUN programmes with a thorough understanding of how the General Assembly and the Security Council work.

Rahmad (Nando) Fernanda, President of the Association of International Youth Exchange Programs Alumni of Indonesia, participated at the workshop.  Nando tells UN Radio’s Beng Poblete-Enriquez what he learned and would pass along to the students interested in participating at a Model UN in his country.

Duration: 3’00”

World Water Week is being observed from 1 to 6 September, to highlight the importance of this resource which is critical for food production.

Despite progress that is being made in increasing crop yields, challenges such as water scarcity and increasing salinity of land due to climate change can hamper further growth in agricultural productivity.

The steady return of normalcy and stability in Somalia is these days demonstrated by the return of the International Football governing body, known by its French acronym, FIFA.

During the years of conflict, all FIFA activities and events in Somalia were held in neighbouring countries like Djibouti.

However, with the improvement of security in the country, FIFA held the first ever grassroots training course in Somalia this month.

Derrick Mbatha reports.

(Source: UNifeed)

Duration: 3'40"

Amina J. Mohammed, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning. [UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz][/caption]UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling for bold action from government and leaders around the world for the achievement of anti-poverty goals and clear progress on sustainability.

August 19, 2013 marks 10 years since the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad was bombed and the UN lost 22 of its staff and humanitarian agency workers.

World Humanitarian Day is the day designated by the UN General Assembly to coincide with the anniversary of the Baghdad bombing to pay tribute to all the aid workers around the world who lost their lives in carrying out their duties.

The United Nations says there are approximately 810 million persons aged 60 years or more in the world in 2012 and by 2050, this number is projected to grow to more than two billion.

By then, older persons will outnumber the population of children from birth to 14 years of age for the first time in human history.

Asia has more than half, 55 per cent, of the world’s older persons, followed by Europe, which accounts for 21 per cent of the total.

Beng Poblete-Enriquez has more.

Duration: 3’47”

To mark the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples on 9 August 2013, actress and activist Q'Orianka Kilcher has teamed up with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to speak up for the right of the 370 million indigenous peoples across the world to live and work in dignity.

Duration: 1’02”

The Afgoye corridor just West of the Somali capital Mogadishu was once known for being the area with the world's largest concentration of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), during Somalia's years of conflict.

In 2011, Somali National Army (SNA) backed by African Union Forces in Somalia (AMISOM), pushed the Islamic extremist group al Shabaab out of the capital and other areas like Afgoye, but many of Afgoye's residents still remain in tented camps and struggle to get food and other basic necessities.

Beng Poblete-Enriquez has more:

Duration: 2’30”