News

In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and its continuing impact, the global economy could see a “somewhat less severe, though still deep” recession through 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected in its latest global economic outlook. 

Extreme weather and climate events have increased in frequency, intensity and severity as result of climate change and hit vulnerable communities disproportionately hard, a new UN report has said, calling for greater investment in effective early warning systems to strengthen countries’ resilience. 

With nations facing multiple crises simultaneously and extreme weather events witnessing a dramatic rise over the past few decades, the UN Secretary-General has called for strengthening disaster risk governance to build a safer and more resilient world. 

In reviewing, assessing and acknowledging the effects of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, enslavement and colonialism, the groundbreaking Durban World Conference of 2001, represented a “milestone” in the common fight against racism, xenophobia and related intolerance, the UN human rights chief said on Monday. 

The need for the World Food Programme, the recipient of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, to exist is starker than ever. From conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to flooding in South Sudan, and the civil war in Yemen, man-made and natural disasters are leaving tens of millions of people unsure if they will have enough food for themselves and their families to survive on.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that “our health systems are inadequate”, the UN chief told a ministerial meeting on Thursday, citing weak structures and unequal access to healthcare as “major reasons” why the coronavirus has killed one million people and infected more than 30 times that, globally.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the way consumers shop online, the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD, said on Thursday, announcing results of a survey of some 3,700 consumers across nine countries. 

Belarus has been rocked by mass demonstrations, and violent state crackdowns, since the disputed August presidential election that saw Alexander Lukashenko returned to power. In this blog, Joanna Kazana-Wisniowiecki, the UN Resident Coordinator in Belarus, explains what the unrest means for the Organization.

Global trade is showing signs of bouncing back from a deep, COVID-19-induced slump, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has said, with the caveat that any recovery could be badly disrupted by the future course of the pandemic and how societies react. 

Economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean will be slower than the return to productivity following the subprime mortgage crisis more than a decade ago, the head of the UN’s office for the region, ECLAC, said on Tuesday. 

Thousands of children continue to suffer grievously as unrelenting violence persists across eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday, expressing deep concern.  

Violent protests sparked by the murder of a high-profile legal scholar are threatening to push Haiti into a spiral of instability, Special Representative Helen La Lime told the Security Council on Monday, as she outlined UN efforts to help overcome the impasse engulfing the country.

Commemorating World Habitat Day, on Monday, top UN officials called for urgent action to provide low-income families and vulnerable populations with affordable housing with security of tenure and easy access to water, sanitation, transport and other basic services. 

An ambitious plan to make one of the world’s largest and most complex railway networks a net zero carbon emitter by 2030 is moving full steam ahead, although without the steam, thanks, in part, to support from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Luis Jose Faife, a UN refugee agency (UNHCR) worker from Mozambique, survived the devastation of Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which killed more than 600 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, and displaced some 2.2. million people, in March 2019. Now COVID-19 is posing a new challenge to humanitarian workers, and they people they help.

An educator and rights defender who has spent more than 20 years rescuing exploited and trafficked children in Colombia, represents “the best of us”, the UN refugee chief said on Thursday, as she was named the winner of this year’s Nansen Refugee Award.

Regularly updated coverage of the UN Summit on Biodiversity, where activists and senior UN officials are calling for urgent action on biodiversity for sustainable development.  

The economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic “are as bad as we feared”, the UN Secretary-General said, as he warned that the international community must act now if it is stave off a global recession, which could wipe out decades of development gains. 

New approaches and solutions are needed to address worsening food loss and waste, the UN Secretary-General has said, in a message marking the first ever International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste Reduction. 

With one in three women around the world affected by gender-based violence – a crime that skyrockets more than 200 per cent in conflict settings – Nobel laureate Nadia Murad brought governments and UN leaders to task on Monday, for failing to provide the resources needed to create meaningful change for traumatized communities.

Every year, an estimated $88.6 billion, which is equivalent to 3.7% of Africa’s GDP, leaves the continent in the form of illicit capital, according to UN trade and development agency UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa Report 2020, launched on Monday.

Top UN officials working to preserve the natural world are urging “action now” ahead of a crucial biodiversity summit this week, where world leaders will reaffirm their commitment to the cause. 

The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, declared that United Nations reform is “the need of the hour”, as he addressed world leaders in a video address to the General Debate of the General Assembly, on Saturday.

The fall-out from the COVID-19 pandemic is adding a “deadly layer of complexity” to the global challenge of preventing more people from falling into poverty, a view articulated in a photographic exhibition sponsored by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The UN is warning of an impending hunger pandemic across the world, partly a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the World Food Programme (WFP) preparing to launch an unprecedented food aid operation, UN News spoke to WFP Assistant Executive-Director Valerie Guarnieri, on the devastating rise in hunger, and the scale of funding needed to feed those most vulnerable.

Humanitarians have stepped up assistance to communities “on the brink”, who have been affected by devastating flooding in Africa’s Sahel region, where several hundred thousand people have been displaced by seasonal rains.

Tax abuse, money laundering and corruption, plague the global financial system, a high-level UN panel reported on Thursday, launching an interim report that underscores the need for urgent reforms to achieve the 2030 Global Goals (SDGs).

Live coverage of the High-Level UN Climate Change Roundtable, featuring UN chief António Guterres, designed to rally momentum for more ambitious action to limit global warking and ensure sustainable post-pandemic recovery plans.    Highlights UK and UN to co-host December climate event.  Watch roundtable live on UN Web TV  

With the COVID-19 pandemic having disrupted plans to hold the annual international UN climate meeting - known as the COP - this year, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom have announced that they will instead co-host a “landmark global event” on 12 December, the fifth anniversary of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

An emphasis on sustainable development and fighting climate change will benefit countries around the world as they recover from the unprecedented economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, says the UN Development Programme, (UNDP).