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Multiple unending conflicts, climate change and a glaring disregard for long-established international humanitarian law are set to leave a staggering 305 million people in need of lifesaving assistance next year, the UN’s top aid official warned on Wednesday.

From planting a billion trees in Zimbabwe, in southern Africa, to exporting products from the moringa tree in Mali and developing a climate action-focused board game called “Rescuing Penguins," in Costa Rica, a group of young people has been recognized by the UN for making a positive impact in the fight to counter desertification, land degradation and drought.

Every year, the launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview is an opportunity to highlight where needs are greatest - and how much funding is needed to help some of the most vulnerable people on earth. We'll be bringing you news from the events taking place in Kuwait, Nairobi and Geneva, hosted by the UN's new Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher. UN News app users can follow here. 

The plight of children impacted by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was the focus of debate in the UN Security Council on Wednesday. 

Droughts across the world are intensifying and have become a “slow onset, silent killer” to which no country is immune, according to the UN’s most senior official working on desertification, drought and land restoration issues.

The ongoing escalation of violence in northwest Syria linked to the wider conflict in Gaza and Lebanon has left civilians dead and injured, hospitals “overwhelmed” with healthcare attacks on the rise, the UN warned on Tuesday.

Decisive action is needed to address the financial challenges facing developing nations, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said on Tuesday in remarks to the Second Preparatory Committee for the Forth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4).

More than 2,000 people have been impacted by a new Israeli evacuation order issued in Khan Younis governorate in Gaza, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, reported on Tuesday. 

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has secured early funding commitments of $1.5 billion for 2025, as global forced displacement surges to 123 million people worldwide. 

The United Nations has condemned deadly shelling on Zamzam camp, the largest site for internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Darfur region of Sudan.

People around the world are facing devastating consequences as the land that supports livelihoods, helps to regulate climate and protect biodiversity becomes increasingly degraded due to climate change and mismanagement. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification is meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss how to regenerate the land and secure all of our futures. UN News app users can follow here.

Three billion people around the world are suffering the impact of poor and degraded land which will “increase levels of migration, stability and insecurity among many communities,” according to the newly-elected President of a UN-backed conference on desertification, drought and land restoration which is taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

A record number of oral statements are expected to be presented to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as highly awaited public hearings on States’ legal obligations with respect to climate change got underway on Monday.

Countries negotiating a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution concluded their fifth session in the small hours of Monday in Busan, Republic of Korea, with plans to reconvene in 2025.

An area the size of Egypt, around 100 million hectares, of healthy and productive land is being degraded each year due to drought and desertification, which is being driven mainly by climate change and poor land management. 

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season officially concludes this weekend, leaving a trail of destruction, loss of life and massive economic damage across the Americas and the Caribbean, the UN meteorological agency reported on Friday.

As families uprooted by the war in Lebanon begin to return home following a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah militants, UN humanitarians warned that needs remain "staggering" for devastated communities. The situation is dire in Gaza too, where the enclave's people are struggling to survive "relentless bombardment and deprivation", says the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.

Pay packets around the world rose 1.8 per cent in 2023 and continued their positive trajectory in this first half of this year, rising by 2.7 per cent on the back of a strong post-COVID global recovery, the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.

As the Lebanon ceasefire deal entered into force early Wednesday based on the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 – facilitated by UN peacekeepers UNIFIL and bolstered by an international monitoring committee - UN humanitarians committed to supporting communities uprooted by the war that have already started returning home.

Addressing the General Assembly on Tuesday, President Philémon Yang called for urgent collective action to address the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and stressed the shared responsibility of UN bodies to safeguard global peace and security.

As the security situation in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince rapidly worsens due to ongoing gang violence, the United Nations is adjusting its operations to ensure the continued delivery of critical humanitarian assistance.  

With 2024 the deadliest year for aid workers on record, the Security Council must clearly condemn attacks against them and ensure accountability for perpetrators, a senior official with the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Tuesday. 

With all eyes on a possible ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, UN humanitarians condemned unrelenting violence there, in Gaza and in Israel. Stay tuned for live updates from UN headquarters and the field. UN News app users can follow here.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk lent his weight to growing ceasefire calls in Lebanon on Tuesday, as senior Israeli cabinet members were reportedly due to meet on a deal to end more than a year of conflict with Hezbollah militants, sparked by the war in Gaza.

Talks began in Busan, South Korea, on Monday aiming to clinch a legally binding deal on plastics pollution, led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The United Nations remains concerned by the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon between Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Force (IDF), as well as the widespread destruction and death across the Blue Line, the Secretary-General’s Spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said on Monday. 

Timor-Leste, a young island nation in Southeast Asia, is particularly vulnerable to the ravages of the climate crisis. A combination of technology, community knowledge and UN support could help to ensure that casualties and damage are kept to a minimum, the next time extreme weather hits.

UN climate negotiations wrapped up early on Sunday morning in Baku, with wealthy countries pledging to invest at least $300 billion a year to the global fight against climate change. Developing countries who had been seeking more than $1 trillion in support called the deal an “insult” and said that it failed to provide the critical support they needed to effectively tackle the climate crisis.

Families fleeing from besieged areas of northern Gaza are leaving homes and shelters with just the shirts on their backs, Louise Wateridge, Senior Emergency Coordinator for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, told UN News on Saturday.

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday called for some $16.9 billion to address the escalating global hunger crisis – or roughly what the world spends on coffee in just two weeks.