When it comes to climate action, The Gambia can proudly lay claim to being the first country to meet its commitments under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreements.
But, like all developing countries, its people are suffering disproportionately from the effects of the climate crisis, particularly more unpredictable rainfall, and flooding.
Many women and girls in The Gambia are affected by “period poverty”, meaning that they are unable to afford menstrual products, which puts them at risk of infection, and discourages them from attending school.
In the second of our Lid Is On episodes recorded in The Gambia, one of the world’s least developed countries, Conor Lennon from UN News heads to Basse, in the rural Upper River Region, to find out how the UN is addressing period poverty, and providing employment for vulnerable women and girls.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, but independent, unpaid, and free to speak their minds, Special Rapporteurs occupy a curious space within the UN System.
$4.3 trillion: that’s the estimated cost of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a blueprint for a fairer future, covering all of the big issues facing the world, from eradicating poverty and hunger, to building societies free from fear and violence, and taking urgent action on climate change.
To help bridge that funding gap, UN chief António Guterres set up the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance (GISD) in 2019, made up of prominent business leaders from across the world.
Californian teenager Kale Ilac’s dream is to become a diplomat. The 16-year-old, who is battling cancer, is hopefully on the way, thanks to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, who arranged for Kale and his family to take a special tour of the UN in January, meeting senior diplomats and UN officials.
On this episode of The Lid Is On, we follow Kale on his visit, which has inspired him to lead a life in service of others.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
UN News publishes stories in 10 languages, with the aim of ensuring that as many people as possible understand the impact of the United Nations, and in order to provide a reliable news source on a variety of platforms.
For the last Lid Is On of the year, Conor Lennon invited some of his colleagues for a festive episode, to find out a bit more about them (discovering that one has even sung at Carnegie Hall), and how they wade through reports, studies and data, to tease out stories that demonstrate the real difference the UN makes to people’s lives every day.
This is the fifth and final episode of Seeking Peace, a podcast from the Department of Peace Operations.
In this episode, Melanne Verveer from Georgetown University’s Institute for Women Peace and Security, examines the challenges and complex realities that women uniformed peacekeepers face.
We will hear from General Maureen O’Brien, who serves as the Deputy Chief of Military affairs at the UN, about her pioneering career.
Today, we bring you the fourth episode of Seeking Peace, a podcast from the UN Department of Peace Operations.
Melanne Verveer from Georgetown University’s Institute for Women Peace and Security, highlights the extraordinary women whose work defies expectations of traditional gender roles in peacekeeping.
Interviewees on today’s episode are Téné Maimouna Zoungrana leads the rapid intervention activities in the Ngaragba Prison in the Central African Republic, and Colonel Stephanie Tutton, Chief of Policy and Doctrine in the UN Office of Military Affairs.
In Episode 3 of Seeking Peace, a podcast from the UN Department of Peace Operations, Melanne Verveer from Georgetown University’s Institute for Women Peace and Security, focuses on women’s role in bringing about peace through politics.
We will hear from Mireille Laurier Affa'A Mindzie, the Senior Gender Advisor for the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Beatrice Epaye, a politician and educator from the Central African Republic, and Jeta Xharra, the director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Kosovo.