Asia

Community health worker meets a family in his village in rural Laos to discuss family planning. File
UNFPA/Micka Perier

No access to contraception for 200 million women worldwide

25 January 2016
General News

Some 200 million women around the world who want contraception have no access to it, according to the United Nations.

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Helen Hai.
UNIDO

Goodwill ambassador has high hopes for African industrialization

22 January 2016
General News

The world is witnessing the beginning of the African industrialization “movement,” according to the Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

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Shahd, 11 years old, Yemen, 2015.
UNICEF/UNI196752/Mahyoob

Lack of humanitarian aid “deprives people of hope”

22 January 2016
General News

The lack of aid for people in need around the world is depriving them of “hope and dignity” according to the co-chair of a UN panel looking at the issue of

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Improvements in an incentive payment system for midwives in India has led to healthier mums and babies.
World Bank

Improved payment system in India means healthier mums and babies

15 January 2016
General News

Improvements in an incentive payment system for midwives in India has led to healthier mums and babies.

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Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Shamshad Akhtar.
ESCAP

Reviving domestic demand key to robust and sustainable growth in Asia-Pacific – UN report

14 January 2016
Against the backdrop of a global economic slowdown, reinvigorating domestic and intra-regional demand plays a crucial role in reviving economies in Asia and the Pacific, according to a newly released-United Nations report, which also recommends a proactive fiscal policy emphasising productivity and addressing inequalities in the region.
El Niño threat puts world in “unchartered territory”. File
UNOCHA

El Niño threat puts world in “uncharted territory”

8 January 2016
General News

Drought and crop failure in some parts of the world, unseasonal rainfall and flooding in others: these are some of the conditions brought on by the current El Niño phenomenon.

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UNHCR's High Commissioner Filippo Grandi speaks at his first press conference as head of the agency.
UNHCR/Susan Hopper

New High Commissioner confronts changing refugee crisis

7 January 2016
General News

A New Year…and a new chief at the helm of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Filippo Grandi on Thursday held his first press conference as UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

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Lassina Zerbo. UN File Photo/JC McIlwaine

North Korea urged to halt nuclear tests

6 January 2016
General News

The United Nations continues to monitor developments in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) following the country’s testing of a nuclear bomb.

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (top left) meets with senior advisers, including Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson (foreground right), on the underground nuclear test announced by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on 6 January. Also pictu
UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN chief says DPRK nuclear test “deeply troubling”

6 January 2016
General News

A hydrogen bomb test carried out by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has drawn strong condemnation from the United Nations.

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UNAMA workshop in Kabul.
UNAMA

Empowerment of Afghan women promoted by UN

6 January 2016
General News

Finding practical solutions to the challenges that Afghan women face accessing education and health services was the focus of a day-long workshop held recently in the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul.

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