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The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched a $10 million appeal to assist The Bahamas as the country continues to recover from the devastation brought on by Hurricane Dorian just over a month ago.

Our top stories for Friday: Day of the Girl Child celebrated around the world; city mayors lead on climate fight; humanitarian alarm rising over Turkey’s Syria offensive; history’s made as countries step forward to tackle global statelessness; Burkina Faso violence forces 500,000 from their homes; 'white extremist’ use of social media in attacks must be curbed.

City bosses are “the world’s first responders to the climate emergency” UN chief António Guterres declared on Friday, at an international mayors’ summit in Copenhagen.

Airstrikes and a ground offensive by Turkey in northern Syria against Kurdish forces have left civilians dead and forced tens of thousands to flee, UN agencies said on Friday, amid fears of another “humanitarian catastrophe” in the war-torn country. 

A recap of Wednesday’s stories: Alarming accounts of women mistreated in childbirth; UNICEF enters new world of cryptocurrency funding; UN chief condemns synagogue attack in Germany; mission chief calls on DR Congo political class to build on progress; UN celebrates mail services around the world.

A staggering 2.2 billion people already suffer from eye conditions and visual impairment today, but the global need for eye care is set to increase “dramatically”, with lack of exercise a key factor, the UN health agency said on Tuesday, unveiling its first ever report on vision across the world.

Waste can have a devastating effect on public health, the environment, and the climate, but cutting-edge innovation and technology can provide improved, cheaper solutions to the challenge, and help cities and communities to see waste as a business opportunity. This was the message marking World Habitat Day, on Monday, with a focus on waste management.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) pledged on Friday to work hand in hand with the people of the Pacific to improve nutrition, and mitigate the worst effects of climate change, which pose an existential threat to many island nations across the region. 

Enough food is produced today to feed everyone on the planet, but hunger is on the rise in some parts of the world, and some 821 million people are considered to be “chronically undernourished”. What steps are being taken to ensure that everyone, worldwide, receives sufficient food?

A spike in the number of refugees reaching Greek island reception centres is likely to worsen the situation in already “dangerously overcrowded” facilities there, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday.  

Despite global turbulence and economic uncertainty, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh told the General Assembly on Friday evening that her country has often been cited as a “development miracle”.

In his address to the UN General Assembly’s general debate on Friday, the Prime Minister of India outlined how the world’s largest democracy has embodied the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its work towards “peace, development and progress in the world”.

A short roundup of events and statements making the news at UN Headquarters on this Thursday, of General Assembly high level week.

The UN Security Council on Thursday failed to reach consensus on either of two competing resolutions on a cessation of hostilities in Idlib, Syria: the last province in the war-torn nation that is still largely held by rebel forces.

Safe water and access to proper sanitation are essential to eradicate poverty, build peaceful societies and ensure that no one is left behind on the path towards sustainable development, according to the 2019 UN World Water Development Report, launched on Tuesday in Geneva. 

When countries of the Global South forged an historic technical cooperation deal among themselves 40 years ago, digital technology was a thing of the future, but developing nations have come a long way since then.

It is within our power to make 2019 the “year of transformative solutions” and “avoid the disastrous effects of climate change“, which threaten ecosystems, the global economy, health and security, the UN Deputy Secretary-General told delegates gathered in Nairobi for the UN Environment Assembly, on Thursday.

A wheelchair-bound Pakistani mother who yearned to visit a park without worrying about ramp access, and a young South Sudanese woman who dreams of having affordable health care, were among the speakers opening the United Nation’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s rights on Monday.

Under the theme “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change”, the United Nations hosted its flagship event celebrating International Women’s Day on Friday to recognize unsung women from across the world, and encourage innovation to transform lives.

Women’s empowerment and gender equality are “essential to global progress”, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed in his message for International Women's Day which this year puts “innovation by women and girls, for women and girls”, at the heart of efforts to achieve gender equality.

Inequality continues to drive rights violations everywhere, but some countries have made significant progress in tackling the problem, not least in women’s rights, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday.

The older refugee and migrant children get, the less likely it is that they will get a quality education: less than a quarter of the world’s refugees make it to secondary school, and just one per cent progress to higher education. Even for migrants who settle in wealthy, developed host countries, accessing university is an uphill struggle.

The UN agency leading the global effort to end AIDS, said on Tuesday that a new case of a patient who has been “functionally cured” of HIV infection, is greatly encouraging, but there is still a long way to go before the illness can be eradicated.

States should do more for an estimated 93 million children with disabilities who are “among the most likely to be left behind and the least likely to be heard”, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said on Monday.

Shifting to renewable energy could save up to 150 million lives by the end of the century amid concerns that six billion people regularly inhale air “so polluted that it puts their life, health and well-being at risk”, a UN-appointed independent rights expert said on Monday.

Underwater life is severely impacted by an “onslaught of threats,” but we already have the tools to positively influence ocean conservation, the UN said in a statement marking 2019 World Wildlife Day which, this year, is celebrated under the theme “Life Below Water: for people and planet.”

Migration and sustainable development are “deeply interconnected” and the 2030 Agenda, the UN’s blueprint for a sustainable future for all, will not be achieved if we do not “comprehensively include migrants,” the President of the General Assembly said on Wednesday.

“I think it's almost a joke that it will take the world so long to create women empowerment, particularly as we know that there’s an economic upside in empowering women in the range of $28 trillion.”

Addressing parliament elected officials from around the world gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Thursday for an annual hearing, UN chief António Guterres called for their support on legislation and financing of global solutions to global problems, such as climate change, uncoordinated migration and the dangers of some new technologies.

At a time of rapid urbanization, cities face challenges that are global in nature but require “the full engagement of local authorities” for multilateral solutions, the head of the United Nations agriculture agency told a special gathering of mayors on Tuesday.