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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FAO head urges G20 to invest in a healthy planet for healthy food

22 Jul 2021

The head of the UN food relief agency called on the world’s richest nations on Thursday to invest more in sustainable living, to feed the world’s growing population.  

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Liverpool’s historic waterfront removed from World Heritage List

21 Jul 2021

Historic docklands and buildings in the UK city of Liverpool have been removed from the UN cultural body UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites, it announced on Wednesday.

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Chess calms nerves, improves mental health throughout pandemic 

19 Jul 2021

Marking World Chess Day on Tuesday, the UN is celebrating the fact that while COVID-19 has forced most sports to scale down, this ancient game of intellect, not brute strength, has demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability throughout months of lockdown worldwide.

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Fewer women than men will regain work during COVID-19 recovery: ILO 

19 Jul 2021

Fewer women will regain jobs lost to the COVID-19 pandemic during the recovery period, than men, according to a new study released on Monday by the UN’s labour agency.  

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FROM THE FIELD: Cameroon’s displaced, get hooked on fish

18 Jul 2021

Cameroonians who have been displaced by conflict and climate change in the north of the West African country are turning to aquaculture as an alternative source of income, thanks to support from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

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Gearing up humanitarian assistance for Palestine refugees

17 Jul 2021

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will received an additional $135.8 million after signing an agreement with the United States on Saturday establishing shared goals in support of humanitarian assistance, development, and refugee protection. 

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Act now to provide COVID-19 vaccines for all: ECOSOC President

16 Jul 2021

Ensuring COVID-19 vaccines for all will be critical if the world is to defeat the pandemic, the President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Munir Akram, said on Friday in his address to the closing its high-level segment.

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UN deputy chief warns of ‘hurricane of humanitarian crises’ 

16 Jul 2021

There is a “bloody surge” impacting humanitarian crises around the world, with civilians in conflict zones paying the highest price, the UN deputy chief told the Security Council on Friday. 

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Deadly flooding, heatwaves in Europe, highlight urgency of climate action

16 Jul 2021

Heavy rainfall that has triggered deadly and catastrophic flooding in several western European countries, is just the latest indicator that all nations need to do more to hold back climate change-induced disasters, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday.

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‘Deeply negative impact’ of COVID pandemic, reverses SDG progress

15 Jul 2021

Closing a key international development forum on Thursday, the deputy UN chief observed that a year of “immense challenges” has reversed progress on meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

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EU urged to consider impact of new climate plan on developing countries

14 Jul 2021

Although a new European Union (EU) climate plan unveiled on Wednesday could change global trade patterns to favour countries where production is relatively carbon efficient, its value in mitigating climate change will likely be limited, the UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD, has warned. 

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UN chief says race to reach SDGs ‘can and must’ be turned around 

13 Jul 2021

The COVID pandemic has taken four million lives, devastated the global economy, pushed a further 124 million people into extreme poverty and continues to inflict profound suffering – dramatically impacting progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN chief said on Tuesday at a key international forum. 

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UN body unveils new plan to overturn ecological destruction, ‘preserve and protect nature’

13 Jul 2021

Equitably “redirecting, repurposing or eliminating incentives” that harm biodiversity by at least $500 billion per year is just one of the 21 ambitious targets of a new draft agreement released by a UN body in the lead up to the landmark November climate conference, COP26, in the United Kingdom.  

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UN appeals for faster passage for aid convoys to Ethiopia’s Tigray

13 Jul 2021

UN humanitarians appealed on Tuesday for far quicker access to Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, after the first aid trucks in days to reach the local capital, Mekelle, encountered multiple checks delaying their arrival.

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‘Tremendously off track’ to meet 2030 SDGs: UN chief  

12 Jul 2021

Between 720 and 811 million people in the world faced hunger in 2020 – some 161 million more than for 2019  – the UN Secretary-General said on Monday; “new, tragic data”, which indicates the world is “tremendously off track” to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. 

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Conflict, climate change, COVID, forces more people into hunger

12 Jul 2021

Global hunger levels have skyrocketed because of conflict, climate change and the economic impact of COVID-19; and one in five children around the world is stunted, UN agencies warned on Monday. 

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FROM THE FIELD: South Sudan’s displaced youth, help power change

10 Jul 2021

Young people who were displaced by conflict in South Sudan have returned home to power change in their community.

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Secretary-General welcomes Ethiopia’s pledge to allow humanitarian access to Tigray

09 Jul 2021

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed Ethiopia’s commitment to ensuring aid workers can access the war-ravaged Tigray region, his Spokesperson said in a statement on Friday. 

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Syria: UN chief welcomes Security Council extension of vital cross-border aid operation

09 Jul 2021

The UN chief has welcomed a decision on Friday by the Security Council to extend the UN cross-border aid operation in northwest Syria for another 12 months, providing a lifeline for more than 3.4 million people in need, including some one million children.

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A third of Haiti’s children in urgent need of emergency aid: UNICEF

09 Jul 2021

Nearly a third of all children in Haiti – numbering around 1.5 million - are in urgent need of emergency relief due to rising violence, insufficient access to clean water, health and nutrition, said the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF on Friday.

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Time running out for countries on climate crisis front line

08 Jul 2021

The world’s running out of time to limit global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius, a matter of life or death for climate vulnerable countries on the front line of the crisis, the UN Secretary General reiterated on Thursday.

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Child mental health crisis ‘magnified’ by COVID, warns UN chief

08 Jul 2021

Half of the world’s children experience violence on and offline in some form every year, with “devastating and life-long consequences” for their mental health, the UN chief warned a symposium on the issue on Thursday.

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Amid COVID job losses, ‘high food prices are hunger’s new best friend’, WFP warns

08 Jul 2021

Job losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic combined with high food prices are making it hard for millions of families to get enough to eat, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Thursday. 

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UN appeals for resupply of aid and fuel in Tigray region

06 Jul 2021

Humanitarian operations have been gradually resuming in the war-ravaged Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, but resupply of aid and fuel for civilians caught up in the fighting is urgently needed, the United Nations said on Tuesday, citing information from its emergency relief agency, OCHA.  

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Sustainable development report shows devastating impact of COVID, ahead of ‘critical’ new phase

06 Jul 2021

The world was not on track to meet the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) before COVID-19 struck, and now the challenge has been magnified many times over, according to a new flagship UN report that indicates countries must take ‘critical’ steps on the road out of the pandemic, during the next 18 months.

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South Sudan: UNICEF warns of ‘desperation and hopelessness’ for children 10 years after independence

06 Jul 2021

Ten years after South Sudan achieved independence, more children there are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance than ever before, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Tuesday. 

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Japan: UN chief praises work of emergency responders in wake of deadly landslide

05 Jul 2021

The UN chief on Monday extended his condolences to the families of those who died in a landslide, which struck the Japanese coastal city of Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture, over the weekend.

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First Person: ‘Syrians still have ambition and hope’

03 Jul 2021

As a witness to the impacts of Syria’s internal conflict over the last decade, Bassel Al-Madani, a young engineer and former volunteer with the UN, was inspired to set up Entrepioneers 2030, a group that rallies youth to get involved in shaping the future of their country. 

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FROM THE FIELD: 4.4 million Nigerians facing ‘catastrophic food conditions’

02 Jul 2021

Some 4.4 million people in Nigeria are facing what the UN humanitarian office, OCHA, is describing as “catastrophic food conditions”.

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400,000 in Tigray cross 'threshold into famine', with nearly 2 million on the brink, Security Council told

02 Jul 2021

Senior UN officials appealed on Friday for immediate and unrestricted humanitarian access to Tigray – and a stop to deadly attacks on aid workers - as the Security Council held its first open meeting on the conflict in the restive northern Ethiopian region.