News

Our news page provides you with a round up of UN news related to economic development, humanitarian aid, climate change, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). You will find the summary of news articles together with a link to the news source.

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World Environment Day: COVID-19 crisis demands fundamental rethink

05 Jun 2020

The COVID-19 health crisis should be seen as a clarion call to “fundamentally rethink our relationship” with natural ecosystems and shrinking biodiversity, the UN cultural agency chief said on Friday, World Environment Day.

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Protect the environment, prevent pandemics, ‘nature is sending us a clear message’

04 Jun 2020

On this year’s World Environment Day, celebrated on June 5, the UN is drawing links between the health of the planet, and human health, and highlighting the importance of protecting biodiversity, the system that supports life.

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‘Global solidarity’ needed, to find affordable, accessible COVID-19 vaccine

04 Jun 2020

In the race to end the coronavirus pandemic, the UN chief reminded a virtual medical conference on Thursday that “a vaccine, by itself, is not enough”.  

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‘Stronger response’ key, to build a safer and more stable future: Guterres

03 Jun 2020

UN chief António Guterres is calling for greater unity and solidarity to defeat COVID-19 and build a better world in the wake of the global pandemic.

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Bicycles: Setting the wheels of change in motion during and after COVID-19 

03 Jun 2020

World Bicycle Day highlights the potential for transforming the way the world moves around, before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, helping create a healthier, more sustainable future, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

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‘Unprecedented’ financing needed to halt recession of ‘unparalleled proportions’: Mohammed

02 Jun 2020

As COVID-19 has halted economic activity and threatens social wellbeing across the globe, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) held a wide-ranging policy discussion on Tuesday, exploring financing options to address the pandemic and mobilize the resources needed for a proactive recovery.

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Put human rights at the centre of coronavirus response urges Muhammd-Bande

02 Jun 2020

The nations of the world must put human rights at the heart of their ongoing response to COVID-19 and ensure that everyone can enjoy “justice and peace” wherever they may be, the President of the General Assembly said on Tuesday.

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Yemen: ‘Hanging on by a thread’, UN chief requests funding to meet staggering humanitarian crisis

02 Jun 2020

More than five years of conflict have left Yemenis “hanging on by a thread, their economy in tatters” and their institutions “facing near-collapse”, the UN chief told a virtual pledging conference on Tuesday, calling for a demonstration of solidarity with some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. 

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Coronavirus a challenge, and opportunity, to fix remittances system than funnels billions home from abroad

02 Jun 2020

With a euro here and a dollar there, remittances – the money that migrant workers send home to their families – have been adding up in a big way to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals and lift tens of millions out of extreme poverty.

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‘Dogged pragmatism’ needed to save Ocean: UN Special Envoy

02 Jun 2020

‘Dogged pragmatism’ is needed to save the Ocean as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, according to the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean.

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FROM THE FIELD: COVID-19-related ‘tragedy’ unfolding in Yemen

01 Jun 2020

A “tragedy” fueled by the spread of COVID-19 which is unfolding in Yemen could affect millions of people there, an international UN-backed pledging conference is expected to hear on Tuesday.

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Why business needs to address the social impacts of COVID-19: an interview with Lise Kingo, UN Global Compact chief

01 Jun 2020

As businesses struggle to cope with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, they need to remain aware of their responsibilities as partners in efforts to build a sustainable future, says the outgoing head of the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative.

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Life and death for Yemen’s women and girls, as funding evaporates

30 May 2020

In mid-May, just as the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Yemen, funding for UNFPA’s life-saving reproductive health services dried up. The agency has been forced to suspend the provision of reproductive healthcare in 140 out of the 180 health facilities, it supports, meaning only 40 now remain.  

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Yemen: Amid spike in COVID-19 cases, UNICEF airlifts in badly needed health supplies

30 May 2020

A plane chartered by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) landed at Sana’a airport on Saturday with lifesaving supplies to help curb the spread of COVID-19 in conflict-torn Yemen.  

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Latin America and Caribbean: Millions more could miss meals due to COVID-19 pandemic

28 May 2020

Some 14 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean could experience severe food insecurity this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to projections released on Thursday by the World Food Programme (WFP).

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Yemen: Humanitarians seeking $2.41 billion to keep aid flowing amid COVID-19 pandemic

28 May 2020

UN agencies and their global partners are seeking $2.41 billion to fight COVID-19 spread in Yemen while continuing to support millions affected by the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

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COVID-19: A ‘new and deadly threat’ for civilians caught up in violence

27 May 2020

Innocent civilians trapped in violence now face “a new and deadly threat” from COVID-19, the UN chief told the Security Council on Wednesday, warning that the pandemic is “amplifying and exploiting the fragilities of our world”.

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‘Lockdown generation’ of young workers will need extra help after COVID-19, urges UN labour chief

27 May 2020

Further evidence of the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on the global job market has emerged in a new study by the UN labour agency, which on Wednesday said that more than one in six young people have stopped working since the onset of the pandemic.

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‘Business unusual:’ How COVID-19 could change the future of work

27 May 2020

Millions of people around the world have been working remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic and now experts are asking whether this “business unusual” could be the future of work, at least for those people whose job doesn’t require them to be tied to a particular location.

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Yemen aid lifeline near ‘breaking point’: UN food agency

26 May 2020

Humanitarian aid projects to war-torn Yemen are reaching breaking point, and some $870 million is needed to continue giving life-saving assistance to millions of vulnerable people for the next six months, the World Food Programme (WFP), warned on Tuesday.

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Guterres commends India and Bangladesh for life-saving work in face of deadly Cyclone Amphan

23 May 2020

  The UN chief António Guterres commended the governments and people of India and Bangladesh on Saturday, for their life-saving efforts ahead of devastating Cyclone Amphan, wishing those survivors injured and affected by the disaster, a speedy recovery.

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Build back better and preserve biodiversity after COVID-19 pandemic: UN chief

22 May 2020

Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic must also lead to countries uniting to preserve the natural world, in line with global commitments to achieve a better future for all people and the planet, top officials with the United Nations said on Friday, the International Day for Biological Diversity.

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Yemen: Coronavirus transmission likely widespread, decimating ‘collapsed’ health system, UN warns

22 May 2020

War-torn Yemen’s health system has ‘in effect, collapsed” under the strain of a widening COVID-19 outbreak, with epidemiologists estimating that the virus could spread faster and more widely than in many other countries, the UN warned on Friday.

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Cyclone Amphan’s trail of destruction in Bangladesh and India

21 May 2020

UN humanitarians and partners are working hard to assist the people of Bangladesh and India suffering from the impact of Cyclone Amphan, which made landfall on Wednesday, wreaking havoc, causing high tidal surges, flooding and embankments to collapse. 

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Asia-Pacific nations commit the whole region to ‘defeat’ COVID-19

21 May 2020

Gathering together at the top UN intergovernmental body in Asia and the Pacific on Thursday, countries of the vast region of more than four billion people, urged greater measures that reinforce global solidarity in ending the COVID-19 pandemic.

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International Tea Day: Trusty cuppa represents ‘crux’ of today’s issues – UN General Assembly president

21 May 2020

Art, culture, heritage, and a source of livelihood for millions. Because tea is so much more than just a drink, on Thursday, at a virtual event commemorating the first-ever International Tea Day, the president of the UN General Assembly lauded the plant for its role in pursuing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

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FROM THE FIELD: Nature ‘strongest ally’ to building sustainable planet

21 May 2020

Nature is humankind’s ‘strongest ally’ to help build a sustainable planet, according to a Malaysian biodiversity expert, whose organization is supported by the UN Development Programme, (UNDP).

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Human development backslides, education at global levels ‘not seen since the 1980s’

20 May 2020

School closures, to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, have left some 60 per cent of the world’s children without an education, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said in its new report, launched on Wednesday.

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Stand in solidarity to preserve Africa’s hard-won progress, urges UN chief

20 May 2020

The coronavirus pandemic threatens the hard-earned gains Africans have made throughout the continent, the UN chief said on Wednesday, urging the world to stand in solidarity with the people, “now, and for recovering better”.

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Syria: UN relief chief appeals for renewal of lifesaving cross-border aid operation

19 May 2020

The UN’s top aid official has urged the Security Council to renew a mechanism that provides lifesaving assistance to millions of desperate people in northwest Syria, through cross-border deliveries from Turkey.