In recognition of young people as positive agents of change, UNDP launched the 16 x 16 Initiative in 2019. The initiative spotlights and accompanies 16 young leaders, who bring to the forefront the major issues in their communities, countries and advance SDG Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
The overarching aim of the Paris Agreement is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure that global temperatures don’t rise more than 2C above pre-industrial levels this century, and ultimately pursue a scenario where temperature rise remains below 1.5C. NDC stands for a Nationally Determined Contribution. For the Paris Agreement goals to be achieved, every country needs to play its part.
UNHCR is expanding cash-based assistance so that the millions of people that it serves can meet their needs in dignity, are protected and can become more resilient.
Worldwide more than 140,000 people died from measles in 2018, according to new estimates from the WHO and CDC. These deaths occurred as measles cases surged globally, amidst devastating outbreaks in all regions. Most deaths were among children under 5 years of age.
We only have 10 years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. With food and agriculture being major players in these 17 objectives, FAO has recognized that a holistic approach is key. With a 10-year deadline in mind, FAO is quickening the pace of progress by finding and implementing innovative solutions, encouraging global best practices and working together with partners to achieve sustainable food systems for all. At COP25 FAO is renewing its commitment to create a world free from hunger and poverty and calls on partners of all kinds, around the world, to join it.
New equipment worth over €600,000 provided to the Government of Madagascar by the IAEA, means the country again has a functioning gamma camera for nuclear imaging, and its experts in many fields from soil science to isotope hydrology and mining research can pursue state-of-the-art research in support of the country’s development objectives.
In Belarus, Aliaksandr (Sasha) Audzevich serves as a UN Volunteer Inclusion and Disabilities Officer with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He is part of the UNDP-UNV Talent Programme for Young Persons with Disabilities, which enables youth with disabilities to acquire experience and contribute to the United Nations as UN Volunteers. Sasha shares his story on the occasion of International Volunteer Day 2019.
Wael Abu Ismael, Freeh Abu T’ema and Mossa Abu Taema are ambassadors of change to end early marriages in Khan Younis, a border town in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, where early and child marriages are common. They have undergone a training delivered by a community-based organization, the Future Brilliant Society, as part of UN Women’s Regional Men and Women for Gender Equality Programme. The ambassadors have prevented early marriages in 50 families and counting.
Peter Koopmans, who has been working for UNAIDS for 10 years, began the record attempt on World AIDS Day, 1 December, to raise money for a South African charity working to support sexually abused children and to increase awareness around HIV in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Mr. Koopmans has raised US$ 21,000 for the South African charity Bobbi Bear, which was supplemented by funds from UNAIDS World AIDS Day fundraising activities, bringing the total to well over US$ 25,000.
A community sponsorship pilot programme aims to provide wrap-around care to five families of refugees as they settle in the Basque Country. It stems from a collaboration between civil society groups, central and regional governments and UNHCR.
Our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through various mitigation measures—phasing out fossil fuels, increasing energy efficiency, adopting renewable energy sources, improving land use and agricultural practices—continue to move forward, but the pace is too slow, argues IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in this editorial.
The Juan Luis Vives school is located in the Valparaiso Penitentiary Centre, Chile. Founded in 1999, the institution provides basic and secondary education, and vocational training for detainees. The school was awarded the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy in 2015.
In the Bolivian countryside an appetizing industry has taken off, bringing a sweet new business to rural communities: chocolate production. When it comes to chocolate, Bolivia might not be the first place you think of yet - but thanks to the combined efforts of FAO, smallholder farming collectives and indigenous producers, it soon will be. Over the past five years, Bolivia’s chocolate producers have been quietly racking up the achievements and gaining global recognition for the quality of their products
Bombs were dropping in Yemen, but that didn’t stop one Yemeni woman from completing the task at hand: baking a massive cake. Her resilience was captured by documentary photographer Thana Faroq in an image now on display in a joint exhibit by UNCTAD, IOM and UNHCR. “I never stop craving something sweet,” she told Ms. Faroq, and this made her realize that her neighbours likely felt the same way, igniting a small business.
Out of 114 measured, 15 countries experienced the largest annual average percentage point declines in extreme poverty rate between 2000 and 2015. In each of these countries, an average of at least 1.6% of the population moved out of extreme poverty every year. Tanzania, Tajikistan and Chad top the list.