News

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has urged greater international support for the more than 13 million Syrians who’ve been displaced in the past 10 years. 

Anastasie Obama, a Cameroonian woman who set up her own smoked shrimp business, has been recognized by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) as a Food Hero, for her contribution towards unlocking the potential of selling shellfish locally and abroad.

An Ethiopian farmer has been talking about how avocados have transformed the lives of not just his family but also of people living in his community.

The UN Food Systems Summit demonstrated the huge imbalances in the way we grow, produce, and consume food. But, as the UN Development Programme (UNDP) shows, we can farm and eat in a sustainable way that is good for us, and the planet.

Displaced families in Nigeria’s northeast are “knocking on the door of starvation”, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.

For the first time in two decades, extreme poverty is on the rise, the UN chief said in his message released on Friday, marking the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on 17 October.   

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, on Friday urged countries to step up reunification for Afghans whose families remain in the country or who are displaced across the region, as the humanitarian crisis in their homeland worsens. 

Although rural women and girls have an essential role in food systems, they still do not have equal power with men, therefore earn less, and experience higher levels of food insecurity, according to UN Women, the agency supporting countries to reach gender equality. 

In recent months, some 260 different clean-up operations have been undertaken across, aimed at protecting life under the sea, with the UN and European Union’s #EUBeachCleanUp campaign, managing to remove some 50 tons of trash from some of the EU’s finest shorelines.

On 8 October, loud and unusual applause reverberated around the chamber of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. A battle fought for decades by environmental activists and rights’ defenders, had finally borne fruit.

A Cameroonian woman who set up her own smoked shrimp business, has been recognized by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) for her contribution towards unlocking the potential of selling shellfish locally and abroad.

Farmers in Laos are rediscovering ancient practices by cultivating rice and fish in the same field after more modern farming methods are failing to provide them with a liveable income.

World Food Day is not only a reminder of the importance of what we eat to everyone on the planet, but also “a call to action to achieve food security around the world”, the UN chief said in his message marking the day on Friday.

A comprehensive negotiated political settlement is needed to end the violence in Yemen “once and for all”, UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg told the Security Council on Thursday.    

With global transport at a crossroads, government leaders, industry experts, and civil society groups are meeting in Beijing, China, for a UN conference to chart the way forward to a more sustainable future for the sector, and greater climate action overall. 

An ambitious project to raise awareness about rising insecurity and mass displacement in the Sahel has resulted in an original musical score from Mali songwriter Vieux Farka Touré. 

More than 100 countries on Wednesday committed to develop, adopt and implement an effective post-2020 global framework, that aims to put biodiversity on a path to recovery, by 2030 at the latest.  

Many developing nations remain unprotected against disaster, even though it is accepted that building community resilience has many benefits, beyond saving lives and livelihoods. 

Many developed countries have announced plans to ensure that fossil-fuel powered cars will be taken off the roads in the coming decades, but Jean Todt, the UN Special Envoy for Road Safety, stresses that, in developing countries, much more immediate concerns, such as access to public transport and reducing accidents, need to be addressed as a priority.

The COP26 climate change conference must be “a turning point” if countries are to limit global temperature rise in line with the Paris Agreement, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday. 

From electric cars and buses to zero-carbon producing energy sources, new and emerging technologies along with innovative policy changes, are critical for combating climate change. But to be effective, they must ensure that transport strategies benefit everyone, including the poorest, according to a new UN multi-agency report launched on Tuesday.

The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is worsening and funding for emergency aid is urgently needed to help 20 million people there, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.

From COVID-19 to the climate crisis and growing inequality, Secretary-General António Guterres underscored, at a financial meeting on Thursday, the importance of greater commitment and cooperation for a “more peaceful and prosperous future”.

Economies in the Asia-Pacific region need to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including to maintain their trade competitiveness as carbon taxes at borders threaten to rise, according to a new United Nations report.  

Amidst a growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, on Monday UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the world to take action during a “make or break moment” for the country. 

Ambitious national climate commitments are crucial for States to sustain a healthy, green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new UN health agency report launched on Monday in the lead-up to the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

With more than a million species at risk of extinction, countries must work now to achieve a sustainable future for people and the planet, Secretary-General António Guterres told leaders attending the UN Biodiversity Conference, which opened on Monday from Kunming, China.

Ongoing conflict and violence across Yemen continue to impact heavily on the country’s people who desperately need the fighting to end, so that they can rebuild their lives, the UN’s senior humanitarian official in the country said on Monday. 

A farmer in the central European country, Georgia, has been sharing her lifetime of knowledge with other women farmers in the region, saying that “there is nothing in agriculture that a man can do and a woman can’t.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on mental health worldwide, and action must be taken to “redress the glaring inequalities exposed by the pandemic”, including over access to vital services, declared UN Secretary-General António Guterres, ahead of World Mental Health Day, marked on Sunday.