When the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), released its annual report on global trends in June, it showed, for the twelfth year in a row, record numbers of displacement, around 120 million people. Conflict remains the key factor behind the figures, and the report noted that the climate crisis is often a driver of that conflict. On the ground, in the countries particularly affected, the UN is working closely with governments and civil society to support development, in the face of these problems, so...

War-torn Sudan is facing a looming famine and the world’s largest displacement crisis as the conflict between rival militaries that started last April grinds on and the situation deteriorates on the ground. UN News’s Khaled Mohamed spoke with Justin Brady, who leads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the country. Speaking from Port Sudan, where most aid agencies are now based, Mr. Brady warned that “the images starting to come out from some areas are...

More than 60 elections are taking place in 2024 and, whilst 90 per cent of people say they want to live in a democracy, many are voting for people and systems that are restricting their rights. The UN has expressed concern about this “democracy paradox”, and that fact that some governments and governance systems are becoming increasingly repressive.  Conor Lennon from UN News discusses the issue with Sarah Lister, the Head of Governance at the UN Development Programme, and Iain Walker, the...

Each year on 20 June, the world celebrates World Refugee Day with forced displacement surging to historic new levels across the globe, according to the 2024 flagship Global Trends Report from refugee agency UNHCR. UN News’s Pauline Batista sat down with UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Mary Maker from South Sudan, at UN Headquarters in New York, who discussed the importance of education and inclusion for refugees to ensure the mantra “leave no one behind” becomes a reality – especially in refugee...

The resilience of women-led organizations to continue working across Gaza to benefit their communities is “an inspiration”, the Special Representative for UN Women in the region said on Wednesday in an interview with UN News. Maryse Guimond from the Palestine Office of the UN agency advocating for gender equality described her first mission to the war-stricken enclave since before hostilities began and outlined how they are collaborating with other agencies, providing resources suck as food,...

Some 3.2 billion people, or almost one third of the global population, are affected by desertification and land loss according to the UN’s most senior official dealing with the issue. The loss of land through drought and desertification, which is being driven, in part, by climate change, can have huge impacts on agriculture, development, migration and national and regional economies and sometimes leads to conflict. Ibrahim Thiaw is the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat...

It has now been over 1,000 days since the Taliban, the de facto authorities in Afghanistan, banned education for girls beyond sixth grade, a figure described by the Executive Director of the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, as “a blatant violation of their right to education” resulting in “dwindling opportunities and deteriorating mental health”. To raise awareness and support Afghan Girls, Education Cannot Wait, the global fund for education in emergencies and crises, has launched a new phase...

The UN’s digital technology agency (ITU) launches ‘UN Virtual Worlds Day’ on Friday a pioneering event designed to integrate the metaverse – ‘an integrated ecosystem of virtual worlds’ – to improve how societies and governance work to greater benefit the public.  Virtual reality offers new opportunities for reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ITU experts believe, and the broader UN community sees tangible benefits if it’s used wisely. In an interview with UN News’ Anton...

Nuclear power has been a source of optimism and fear since the mid-Twentieth Century.  On one hand, it evokes the destructive power of nuclear bombs, the catastrophic explosion of Chernobyl, the Fukushima disaster or, more recently Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Europe’s largest, which has come under fire since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. But the image of nuclear power got a boost at the end of 2023, at the COP28 UN Climate Conference in Dubai. The 198 countries...

Eight months into the war in Gaza, families have been forced to adapt to what humanitarians often call “negative coping strategies” to survive, as unemployment reaches a staggering 80 per cent. For many in the Gaza Strip, this has meant sending their children out to work, despite the dangers, the UN labour agency, ILO, has warned. Details of this worrying development the wider devastating economic impact of the conflict in Gaza and the West Bank are outlined in a new report from the...

The plastics industry needs to show more responsibility and put their money where their mouth is on cutting harmful waste and pollution, especially as it impacts small island States. That’s according to Director General of the Pacific islands environment agency, SPREP, Sefanaia Nawadra of Fiji, who told UN News the outcome document adopted at last week’s SIDS4 conference in Antigua and Barbuda does not go far enough on ocean management and cutting pollution. Mr. Nawadra told Matt Wells that...

The international community must continue to pay attention to the humanitarian situation in Yemen, where hunger and malnutrition remain chronic after nearly a decade of war. That’s the opinion of Najwa Mekki, Chief of the Strategic Communications Branch at the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, in New York. Ms. Mekki is fresh from a visit to Yemen, where Government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and Houthi rebels are battling for power. The conflict has been further compounded by...

Sharks and dugongs serve as barometers of the marine ecosystem, but many people overlook their critical roles, perceiving sharks as menacing figures and dugongs as mythical creatures. Ahead of World Oceans Day on 8 June, UN News’s Jing Zhang spoke with Gabriel Grimsditch, a programme management officer at the UN Environment Programme’s marine and coastal ecosystem unit based in Nairobi, Kenya. In this exclusive interview, Mr. Grimsditch delved deep into the fascinating world beneath the...

A devastating war in Sudan has left 800,000 people trapped in El Fasher in the west of the vast country, UN humanitarians warned on Friday, as they reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire to allow lifesaving aid in. The development comes as disturbing details continue to emerge of an alleged attack on the village of Wad Al-Noura in Jazira state south of Khartoum which left more than 100 dead, including dozens of children. To find out more, UN News’s Daniel Johnson spoke to Jill Lawler...

UNICEF has released a new child nutrition report that highlights severe levels of child food poverty due to inequity, conflict, and climate crises. The new report found that millions of children under five have difficulty accessing nutritious and diverse diets necessary for developmental growth. UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, and a lead writer for the report, Harriet Torlesse, spoke to UN News and said one in four children globally are surviving on extremely poor diets, consuming just two or...

With only six years to the 2030 deadline, humanity is alarmingly off track in the bid to reach the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.  Keeping track of progress is a gigantic task but one of the global tech giants – Google - is answering the call.   At the recent AI for Good Global Summit, Melike Yetken Krilla, who’s in charge of Google’s relations with international organisations, brought UN News’ Anton Uspensky up to speed on big data solutions such as Data Commons for the SDGs, a...

Since the Taliban took back power as the de facto authority in Afghanistan in 2021, women’s rights have come under attack. Today, the country barely makes the headlines despite the ongoing suppression of women’s rights and humanitarian crises, such as earthquakes and recent floods. Jorge Moreira da Silva, the Head of the UN Office for Project Services, recently returned from a visit to Afghanistan to inspect some of the Office’s initiatives.  He told Mayra Lopes from UN News that, despite...

The potentially transformative effects of Artificial Intelligence have been brought into focus by the UN in recent days, following a major conference in Geneva: the AI For Global Good Summit. The title of the event says it all: how is the technology being used to further UN-endorsed goals, such as reducing inequality, tackling the climate crisis, and supporting sustainable development. But the fact that we need to promote “AI for Good” is perhaps also an acknowledgement of fears that AI can...

Restoring land, halting desertification and building resilience against drought are the focus of World Environment Day on 5 June. Up to 40 per cent of the world’s land is already degraded, while more than three billion people worldwide are negatively impacted by drought, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). UN News’s Julia Dean in Canberra spoke with UNEP’s Coordinator for Nature Action in Asia and the Pacific, Makiko Yashiro, about the 2024 campaign and why these are such...

A medical epidemiologist working with the Indian Ocean Commission’s One Health initiative says that the number of ministers from small island States attending this week’s SIDS4 Conference in Antigua and Barbuda shows there is real “political commitment” to take urgent action. Dr. Lovena Preeyadarshini Mangroo of Mauritius says although all five island nations that make up the Commission have similar problems, each country is different and must be properly understood before prevention and...

The developed world must increase support for small island developing States “not as an expression of generosity but of responsibility”, the UN’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction has said. Kamal Kishore – who also heads up the Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) - was speaking to UN News in Antigua and Barbuda as the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4) came to a close on Thursday. He told Matt Wells that SIDS have always been...

Nearly eight months of war in Gaza have devastated the enclave’s hospitals and clinics but many skilled medical professionals are still there and committed to being part of its future, a senior UN World Health Organization (WHO) official told UN News. “There's a lot of very capable health professionals in Gaza, and they should be very much part - they should actually be the focus - of any reconstruction and any rehabilitation process,” said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in...

They may be small islands in size – but the countries of the Caribbean are huge exporters of culture and need to remind younger generations at home of why they should feel proud of where they come from. That’s according to Claire Nelson, a Jamaican based in the United States and founder of the advocacy-based Institute of Caribbean Studies, who’s been attending this week’s SIDS4 conference taking place on the twin island of Antigua and Barbuda. After taking part in a side event on the role of...

Major Radhika Sen, an Indian peacekeeper deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has received the 2023 United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. Major Sen worked in the DRC from March 2023 through April 2024, where she amplified women’s voices, created safe spaces for men and women to work together, and promoted gender-sensitive peacekeeping.  She will receive her award from UN Secretary-General António Guterres during a ceremony on Thursday; she is the second...

How artificial intelligence (AI) can help advance efforts to build a more just and inclusive global future, for both people and the planet, is the focus of a two-day forum that opens in Geneva on Thursday. The annual AI for Good Global Summit, organized by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), brings together leading experts in the field of AI and digital solutions to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues – from emerging AI applications to governance and ethical...