News

Immediate action is needed to respond to the severe drought that is ravaging communities in Kenya’s dry regions – categorized as Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) - the UN’s humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said on Friday. 

Secretary-General António Guterres voiced his shock on Thursday after the Ethiopian Government declared seven UN staff persona non grata, ordering them to leave the country within 72 hours.  

With just one month left until the COP26 climate change conference, countries must do more to reduce emissions, finance climate action and support mitigation, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the final official ministerial meeting in Milan, Italy, on Thursday. 

With the climate crisis already devastating lives and incomes, young people will be critical to driving global action forward, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told participants attending the Pre-COP Youth Event in Milan, Italy, on Thursday.

That half-eaten apple tossed in the trash bin after lunch is contributing to the staggering mountain of food wasted globally, at a time when more than 800 million people still go to bed hungry, UN agencies said on Wednesday, marking the International Day to increase awareness of this issue.

The first-ever stocktake of Africa’s forests and landscapes, which was released on Wednesday finds slow progress in repairing Africa’s degraded lands and urges ramped up efforts for climate action.

The world needs a new approach to allow as many people as possible to access digital data across borders, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on Wednesday. 

A lack of food, hunger and malnutrition affect every country in the world, the UN said on Tuesday, in an urgent appeal for action to reduce the amount of food that’s wasted.

Almost two years into the COVID-19 crisis, a huge divergence in the recovery is undermining global trust and solidarity, according to a new policy brief on jobs and poverty eradication, outlined by UN chief, António Guterres on Tuesday. 

Apart from disastrous economic consequences, the COVID-19 pandemic has also amplified the climate and security crisis in the Sahel, said Niger’s Minister of Foreign Affairs during the country’s turn to speak at the UN General Assembly. 

The world’s poorest countries will remain on the margins of the global economy if States are unable to boost economic production, and the international community fails to provide more support, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warned.

Tourism “touches almost every part of our economies and societies”, enabling the historically marginalized, and “those at risk of being left behind, to benefit from development”, declared UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday, marking World Tourism Day.  

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in mid-August, the world has continued to watch anxiously, as the fate of women and girls throughout the country hangs in the balance.

How can the world come together to radically change the way it produces and uses energy, as part of efforts to hold back climate change and to ultimately give humanity a more secure future on planet earth? That’s the question that over one hundred countries, organizations and businesses will be discussing at the United Nations on Friday at the High-level Dialogue on Energy, the first meeting of its kind in 40 years.

South Sudan continues to be “plagued” by violence and corruption, the Human Rights Council heard on Thursday, jeopardizing the young nation’s efforts to establish lasting peace and put it on the road towards sustainable development. 

No region is immune to climate disasters the UN chief told the Security Council on Thursday, warning that “our window of opportunity” to prevent the worst climate impacts is “rapidly closing”.

The crisis in Yemen, now in its seventh year of war, continues unabated, with thousands of people displaced and millions “a step away from starvation”, the UN Humanitarian Relief Coordinator said on Wednesday during a high-level side event on the margins of the 76th General Assembly.

Afghanistan’s girls and women are showing “bravery” in the face of real “fears and pressures” following the formation of the new, de-facto authorities in Afghanistan,  according to a UNICEF member of staff, one of the few westerners to remain in Kabul.

COVID-19 has set back progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), undermining decades of development efforts, according to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).  

There has been little sign of improvement in the diets of the world’s youngest children over the last ten years, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday. 

Afghanistan’s health system is on the brink of collapse, the head of the World Health Organisation, WHO, warned on Wednesday. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday welcomed important commitments made towards climate action by the world’s two largest economies, as the 76th High Level Debate began in New York.

The President of Colombia on Tuesday warned that many developing countries have increased their fiscal deficit to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, putting at risk their financial capacity to act on other priorities, such as climate change.

Speaking alongside the UK Prime Minister in New York on Monday the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has called on world leaders for “decisive action now to avert climate catastrophe.” 

Despite the economic devastation wrought by COVID-19, the new technology sector continued to thrive and prosper last year, the UN’s intellectual property agency said in a new report published on Monday.

The 11,000 square meters ‘ephemeral fresco’ was created by Swiss artist Saype. It shows two children building the world of the future and represents, among other messages, the participation of young people in the United Nations. 

Thousands of Haitians continue to take refuge in neighbours’ houses, makeshift shelters, chapels or informal displacement sites, a month after a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the west of the Caribbean island where they live. That’s according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) which has been assisting in recovery efforts. 

Unless wealthy nations commit to tackling emissions now, the world is on a “catastrophic pathway” to 2.7-degrees of heating by the end of the century, UN Secretary General António Guterres warned on Friday.

At a virtual event on Friday commemorating the International Day of Peace, the UN chief saluted the “voices, vision and commitment of young people in shaping a more peaceful world”.

Lebanon’s enduring economic crisis risks reversing decades of gains in people’s wellbeing, the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.