4.	Growing Hope Across Borders: The Great Green Wall, Africa's Epic Response to Global Challenges Led by Senegalese Women. ©Makewaves – UNCCD
Tarja Halonen

Securing Women’s Land Rights for Increased Gender Equality, Food Security and Economic Empowerment

This World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, governments must immediately eliminate legal barriers to women and girls’ ownership or inheritance of land. 

Bryan Stevenson

Countering the Legacy of Enslavement with Hope and Justice

As the world’s preeminent international organization, the United Nations is the only institution that can connect the multiple players and partners implicated in the global tragedy of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans.

Rose Tonga married at 18 years, suffered obstetric fistula for 21 years. She has now received treatment and regained her dignity, thanks to UNFPA and partners. ©UNFPA South Sudan
Bridget Asiamah

Twenty Years of Progress Is Not Enough: We Must Act Now to End Obstetric Fistula

Obstetric fistula can be prevented when there is access to quality, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and information. 

Forest biodiversity in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, Ecuador, 28 February 2019. Fährtenleser, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Edward Norton

Protecting the Tree of Life: The Path Forward

Though we humans share the earth with the rest of its life forms, and we are an integrated part of its biodiversity, we have an outsized impact on the health of the planet. 

Richard Gowan

The United Nations General Assembly Can Do More to Address Threats to Peace and Security

Historically, the General Assembly has played a large role in peace and security in periods when the Security Council is severely divided.

An argan tree in a valley near Tafraoute, Morocco. Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/Wikimedia Commons
Omar Hilale

Cultivation of the Argan Tree Can Help Combat Climate Change and Support Sustainable Development

The proclamation of the International Day of Argania by the General Assembly reflects the mobilization of the international community around the important cause of safeguarding and preserving the argan tree. 

Dutch tall sailing ship Oosterschelde near Cabo Verde, 2012. Photographer: Arthur Smeets  © Shipping Company ‘Oosterschelde’
Stewart McPherson

The DARWIN200 Global Voyage

A decade in the making, the DARWIN200 project centres on inspiring a new wave of exceptional environmental leaders by training and empowering some of the world’s top young (from 18 to 25 years of age) conservationists.

Runners from 88 countries gathered in New York on 1 November 2003 to participate in the International Friendship Run, a four-mile course to Central Park. Many of the runners carried their national flags. UN Photo/Evan Schneider
Pegah Zohouri Haghian

Celebrating the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace

The United Nations acknowledges sport’s role as a vehicle for building and sustaining peace through its capacity for dialogue and trust-building, and in the way it promotes tolerance and respect (SDG 16).

© Li Nan | Dreamstime.com
Mariana Lopez and Karima Wardak

The Digital Last Mile: Where the Achievement of Human Rights, Sustainable Development and Women’s Empowerment Meet

As the United Nations catalytic finance entity for the world’s 46 least developed countries, one of the critical tasks of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is supporting the creation of gender-inclusive digital economies. 

Storm clouds and lightning, Nikolaev, Ukraine, 19 June 2021 From the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) 2023 Calendar Competition. Yurii Bershadskiy
Petteri Taalas

The Future of Weather, Climate and Water across Generations

The history of WMO data exchange is a success story of scientific collaboration and coordination to save lives and livelihoods.

The population of the southern regions of Madagascar has historically suffered multiple deprivations, a situation that has become a humanitarian crisis due to the impact of El Nino. UNICEF/Lalaina Raoelison
Gilbert F. Houngbo

Take Time to Reflect on Water

We need two things to happen at once: the United Nations must take the global lead on water as a critical issue, and water must be mainstreamed across all other intergovernmental processes related to sustainable development.

Ifigeneia Kontoleontos

Celebrating French, a Global Language Connecting, Mobilizing and Uniting People Towards a Sustainable and Just Future

La Francophonie brings together 88 States and Governments from the northern and southern hemispheres, united by a common language and values, and representing a melting pot of cultural diversity.