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.

Elena Sam Pec takes a call on one phone while checking a text message on another in Puente Viejo, Guatemala, a mostly agrarian indigenous community that relies on wooden canoes to transport products and access services. UN-Women/Ryan Brown
Sima Bahous

Technology and Gender Equality—Bringing Women and Girls to the Centre of Innovation

Promoting gender equality in the realm of technology is indeed a matter of rights, but it goes beyond questions of justice. Women’s equal leadership in tech spaces will ensure that the technology of our future fosters sustainability and inclusion, not breakdown and division. 

Stéphane Jean

Supporting National Justice and Security Institutions: The Role of United Nations Peace Operations

While United Nations police, justice and corrections personnel represent less than 10 per cent of overall deployments in peace operations, their activities remain fundamental to the achievement of sustainable peace and security, as well as for the successful implementation of the mandates of such missions. 

Dr. Nazek El-Atab, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, won the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Rising Talent award in 2017. © l’Oréal Middle East
Shamila Nair-Bedouelle

The Lack of Gender Equality in Science Is Everyone’s Problem

How will we tackle today’s daunting challenges—such as climate change, biodiversity loss, water stress, viral epidemics and the rapid development of artificial intelligence—if we cannot call upon all of our best minds, wherever they may be?

Chef Zubaida Tariq selecting pulses at a grocery stall at Empress Market, a famous market in downtown Karachi, Pakistan. 17 March 2016. © FAO/Asif Hassan
Qu Dongyu

Keeping the Spotlight on Pulses: “Roots” for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security

Pulses have a broad genetic diversity, from which the necessary traits for adapting to future climate scenarios can be obtained through the development of climate-resilient cultivars. Science, technology and innovation are critical to responding to this pressing need. 

Wetlands in Lunda Norte Province, Angola, 2017. Yolande Conradie/Unsplash
Musonda Mumba

Why It’s Time for Wetland Restoration Now to Secure a Sustainable Future

World Wetlands Day, established by the United Nations General Assembly in resolution 75/317 of 30 August 2021, is celebrated on 2 February each year to raise awareness and increase people’s understanding of the critical importance of wetlands.

Debórah Dwork

Never Quite at Home: Holocaust Survivors’ Postwar Lives

This year, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme will explore how victims adjusted their ideas of home and belonging. It is an all too relevant subject in a world with more than 100 million refugees and forcibly displaced persons.

Credit: Safari Consoler/Pexels
Nobuo Yoshida and Haoyu Wu

Challenges to Accelerating the Pace of Poverty Reduction

Accelerating the pace of poverty reduction is a complex and difficult task. Instead of comprehensively analyzing the global poverty trend, this article discusses two major challenges to achieving the global targets: (i) the slow pace of poverty reduction in Eastern and Southern Africa and (ii) the lack of frequency and timeliness of poverty data.