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.

News
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UN working at ‘full speed’ to prepare for humanitarian mission to Ethiopia’s Tigray

04 Dec 2020

The UN’s humanitarian coordination office, said on Friday that it was doing its utmost to secure aid access to Ethiopia’s Tigray region, after a deal was struck to reach displaced civilians, following weeks of fighting between federal and regional forces.

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Vanuatu graduates from list of least developed countries

04 Dec 2020

The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has graduated from the status of least developed countries (LDC), becoming the sixth ever country to achieve the milestone, since the category was created in 1971. 

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Yemen: Unchecked violations ‘may amount to war crimes’, Security Council hears

03 Dec 2020

UN experts called on the Security Council on Thursday, along with the international community at large, to put an end to the “surreal and absurd dimension” of human rights violations engulfing war-torn Yemen, where abuses continue unchecked.    

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Amid ‘unprecedented’ needs, UNICEF asks for $6.4 billion to help 190 million children

03 Dec 2020

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday, launched a $6.4 billion emergency funding appeal to reach more than 190 million children affected by humanitarian crises amidst the coronavirus pandemic. 

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Revealed: The cost of the pandemic on world's poorest countries

03 Dec 2020

More than 32 million of the world’s poorest people face being pulled back into extreme poverty because of COVID-19, leading UN economists said on Thursday, highlighting data showing that the pandemic is likely to cause the worst economic crisis in decades among least developed countries (LDCs). 

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COVID-19 could push over 1 billion into extreme poverty, finds UN report

03 Dec 2020

An additional 207 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by severe long term impact of the coronavirus pandemic – bringing the total number to more than 1 billion – by 2030, a new study from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has found. 

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Ethiopian Government and UN strike deal for ‘unimpeded’ humanitarian access in Tigray

02 Dec 2020

The UN on Friday announced that agreement has been reached with the Ethiopian Government to allow “unimpeded, sustained and secure access” for humanitarian supplies to reach those in need across areas now under its control in Tigray.

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The Handmaid’s Tale: making a drama out of a crisis

02 Dec 2020

The Handmaid’s Tale, an award-winning television series, may be about a fictional “alternative reality”, but the show’s creators have gone to great lengths to ensure that references to themes such as climate change, human rights abuses, and refugees, are as real and accurate as possible, by collaborating closely with UN experts.

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UN chief launches plan to revitalise Beirut as ‘beating heart of Lebanon’

02 Dec 2020

Against the “grim background” of tragic explosions that destroyed much of central Beirut in early August, the UN chief on Wednesday offered a new multi-agency plan to help the Lebanese people move forward, following months of political gridlock.  

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2020 may be third hottest year on record, world could hit climate change milestone by 2024

02 Dec 2020

Global pressure on wages from COVID-19 will not stop with the arrival of a vaccine, the head of the International Labour Organization (ILO) warned on Wednesday, coinciding with a major report showing how the pandemic had slowed or reversed a trend of rising wages across the world, hitting women workers and the low-paid hardest.  

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Climate Action: It’s time to make peace with nature, UN chief urges

02 Dec 2020

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has described the fight against the climate crisis as the top priority for the 21st Century, in a passionate, uncompromising speech delivered on Wednesday at Columbia University in New York.

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COVID-19’s impact on wages is only just getting started, ILO warns

02 Dec 2020

Global pressure on wages from COVID-19 will not stop with the arrival of a vaccine, the head of the International Labour Organization (ILO) warned on Wednesday, coinciding with a major report showing how the pandemic had slowed or reversed a trend of rising wages across the world, hitting women workers and the low-paid hardest.

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Cut fossil fuels production to ward off ‘catastrophic’ warming: UN-backed report

02 Dec 2020

Countries must decrease production of fossil fuels by 6 per cent per year, between 2020 and 2030, if the world is to avert "catastrophic” global temperature rise, a new UN-backed report has found. 

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UN humanitarian office puts Yemen war dead at 233,000, mostly from ‘indirect causes’

01 Dec 2020

Almost a quarter of a million people have died in Yemen’s war, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on its website on Tuesday, confirming the huge toll from a conflict that has ravaged Yemen’s economy and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

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With challenges, COVID-19 also saw initiatives helping migrants: Guterres 

01 Dec 2020

The Global Compact for Migration, adopted by countries in 2018 as a comprehensive framework for cooperation on international migration, is “taking root in promising ways”, the UN Secretary General said on Tuesday. 

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COVID-19 can spark new generation of social protection measures: UN chief

01 Dec 2020

While COVID-19 has wiped out important development gains in mere months, with extreme poverty rising for the first time in decades, the pandemic could spark the transformations needed to achieve stronger social protection systems, the UN Secretary-General said on Tuesday.  

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UNHCR asks Ethiopia for urgent access to 96,000 Eritreans cut off without food

01 Dec 2020

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, appealed to Ethiopia on Tuesday for urgent access to 96,000 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, saying the month-long conflict in Tigray had left them without vital supplies.

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UN appeals for $35 billion to help world’s ‘most vulnerable and fragile’ in 2021

01 Dec 2020

A record 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection next year, a near- 40 per cent increase on 2020 which is “almost entirely from COVID-19”, the UN’s emergency relief chief said on Tuesday. 

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Growing potatoes in the air: agricultural innovation in Rwanda

30 Nov 2020

A Rwandan entrepreneur is pioneering the use of innovative farming technology that, he believes, is set to play a major role in feeding the growing population in his country, amid increasing pressure on arable land.

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UN refugee agency appeals for $147 million to support thousands of Ethiopians fleeing to Sudan

30 Nov 2020

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has launched an appeal for $147 million to support as many as 100,000 people fleeing Ethiopia’s Tigray region into neighbouring Sudan, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Monday.

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UN condemns ‘brutal and callous’ attack on civilians in north-east Nigeria

29 Nov 2020

Denouncing attack, on Saturday, targeting civilians in Nigeria’s restive Borno state, a senior UN humanitarian official called on the authorities to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice. 

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First Person: ‘people with disabilities are the greatest untapped resource on the planet’

29 Nov 2020

Worldwide, persons with disabilities experience higher levels of unemployment and economic inactivity than non-disabled persons. Ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Mike Hess, US-based entrepreneur and founder of the Blind Institute of Technology, spoke to UN News as part of the International Labour Organization (ILO) photography project "Dignity at Work: The American Experience".

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Rising hunger in drought-stricken southern Madagascar forcing families to eat insects: WFP

27 Nov 2020

Hunger is on the rise in southern Madagascar due to consecutive years of drought,  affecting half the region’s population, or 1.5 million people, and forcing most families to eat insects, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Friday. 

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Address water scarcity ‘immediately and boldly’, urges UN agriculture agency chief 

26 Nov 2020

More than three billion people live in agricultural areas with high levels of water shortages and scarcity, the UN agriculture agency said in a new report launched on Wednesday. 

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‘Incredibly hard’ winter beckons for Syrians, more assistance urgently needed 

25 Nov 2020

More than three million people across Syria require assistance through what is likely to be an “incredibly hard” winter, the acting deputy UN Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council on Wednesday, highlighting that those displaced remain “particularly vulnerable”.  

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UN report finds Gaza suffered $16.7 billion loss from siege and occupation

25 Nov 2020

Israel’s military operations and prolonged closure of Gaza, has caused economic damage of $16.7 billion between 2007 and 2018, driving the poverty rate up almost fourfold compared to what it might have otherwise been, the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD said in a report published on Wednesday.

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Afghanistan conference draws donor pledges and calls for lasting ceasefire 

24 Nov 2020

International donors pledged financial and political support for Afghanistan’s peace process at the 2020 Afghanistan Conference in Geneva on Tuesday, anticipating a sustainable ceasefire that will help the country rebuild and heal after decades of conflict. 

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‘Foundational and necessary change’ needed to heal post-COVID world

24 Nov 2020

With the COVID-19 pandemic precipitating one of the world’s worst health, socioeconomic and humanitarian crises in over a century, the UN chief told a high-level discussion on Tuesday to seize the opportunity “to make real, foundational, and necessary change”. 

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Desert Locust resurgence worries in Horn of Africa, reports UN agency

24 Nov 2020

The Desert Locust crisis, which struck the greater Horn of Africa region earlier this year, could re-escalate as recent strong winds carried small mature yellow swarmlets from southern Somalia into eastern and northeastern Kenya, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said. 

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UN ‘extremely concerned’ for safety of Tigray civilians in regional capital, as refugee numbers grow

23 Nov 2020

The UN on Monday said it was “extremely concerned” over the safety of civilians across Ethiopia’s Tigray region, as fighting between Government troops and those loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) reportedly continued, with the Ethiopian Prime Minister having called on opposition forces to surrender the capital Mekelle, by Wednesday.