Rural women are the innovators, leaders and changemakers at the core of our planet’s food systems. That’s why supporting them is essential to building a sustainable future. In honour of the International Day of Rural Women, we’re celebrating their vital contributions. In a new episode of IFAD’s Farms.Food.Future podcast, we explore how empowering women through training, access to resources, and leadership opportunities creates stronger rural communities and leads to measurable improvements in income, food security, and resilience.
Did you know that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of infant hospitalization worldwide? Each year it claims over 100,000 young lives. In this episode of Science in 5, WHO’s Dr Daniel Feikin shares how new immunization options can protect your baby.
While countries came together in the late 80s to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism, technology and the advent of virtual currencies have further complicated the tracking of illicit financial flows across borders. Over $51 billion in cryptocurrency was used by criminals last year to circumvent traditional banking regulations. Chady El Khoury is an assistant general counsel and heads the Financial Integrity Group at the IMF. In this podcast, El Khoury says the anonymity of virtual currency transactions is supercharging the ability for criminals to grow their empires.
The majority of the world’s refugees live in countries with fragile economies, where opportunities for employment and self-reliance are often limited. With displacement lasting more than a decade on average, the question of how refugees can build sustainable livelihoods has become increasingly urgent.
In this fifth episode of ILO's Refugees at work – What are their Prospects?, Professor Alexander Betts and Bisimwa Mulemangabo discuss how refugees navigate labour markets, the barriers they face, and the innovative ways they create livelihoods.
“Muslims in Nigeria say, well, there you go, this is a woman working in the international scene, and she's not shy or embarrassed to wear her culture or her religion and to stand proud with it.”
How does one out of five sisters from rural Nigeria grow up to be UN Deputy Secretary-General? Blessed with tenacity, determination and grit, Amina J. Mohammed has always been driven to improve the lives of her fellow human beings and our planet. Rising to the top of the United Nations, her vision has helped shape the world’s blueprint for a brighter future.
“One step at a time, this whole life is about a journey. Make each step count. It is about taking people with you. Don't do this alone. It's too heavy. You need people to cry with you, laugh with you.”
Amina is known for making the impossible possible, and has relied on a strong moral compass and the strength of her convictions across a long and varied career of service. In this episode, the UN Deputy Secretary-General and mother-of-six and grandmother to five reflects on what the Sustainable Development Goals have meant in her own life and shares what chocolate and traditional clothes have to do with strong leadership.
Photo: ©UN Photo/Daniel Getachew
“Every person that walks through the door is a new person, a new friend … if they leave the exam room with a smile and feeling hope, then you've done a good job.”
Whenever a new cancer patient entered her office in the U.S., Dr. May Abdel-Wahab knew she could help by palliating their pain and working towards a cure. Now, as Director of the Division of Human Health at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), she delivers hope to patients in places where treatment has until now been unavailable.
“So much can be done to treat cancer, but too many people in the developing world have no access to care. It's unthinkable. It's unfair.”
With global cancer cases expected to mount in the next two decades, the IAEA is equipping low- and middle income countries with training and radiotherapy to help more people survive the disease. In this episode, Dr. May Abdel-Wahab reflects on the outlook for cancer outcomes around the world, the challenges of anchoring new treatment centres, and shares how her upbringing taught her to see the world as one human family.
Photo: ©IAEA/Dean Calma
Every day, Peter Hawkins wakes up filled with determination to make a difference. As UNICEF's Representative in Yemen, he puts that boundless energy into helping young people survive one of the world’s most intractable humanitarian crises.
After a decade of conflict and collapse, a new generation of Yemenis are yearning for a better tomorrow: "So the children sit there in these classrooms with no walls, no floors, no desks, and learn, and they're proud about what they learn. And they come to me and say, ‘Look, don't worry, we will continue to learn. But if you can give us desks, if you can fill up the walls and you can give us a floor and a blackboard, it will be even better.’"
In this episode, Peter Hawkins reflects on the striking resilience of the people he serves, and shares how his upbringing in Ethiopia and service in Iraq taught him to never give up working for change. For him, the biggest challenge today is not so much about raising awareness, but about action, “It is so important to understand how one side of the world is so lucky and the other side of the world is still desperately poor, and how we bring those two together.”
Photo: ©UNICEF/MarwanMaresh
“It's tragic and it's unimaginable, but at the same time, people live their lives and they do the best they can, and they remain generous and warm, despite the circumstances that they live in. You go to these places and you see the worst and you see the best, and it's all in one package, and it is just something that really, really touches you. It's not like a regular job.”
Vivian van de Perre’s calling is to help nations transition from conflict to peace. Now the deputy head of peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), she leads a life-saving operation in the rebel-held city of Goma.
A recent peace accord has raised hopes of an end to the violence that has plagued eastern DRC for the past three decades. In this episode, recorded before the peace agreement, Vivian van de Perre reflects on the impact of funding cuts on active war zones, on peacekeeping as a delicate balancing act, and shares why she falls for every place she serves.
“[Losing colleagues is] heartbreaking, and you can't think about it all day long, because it will be so demoralizing you have to keep going. Nobody expects to not come back.”
Photo: ©United Nations/MONUSCO
“[Serving refugees] is not a job, it's a mission, and there's always fire in the belly that keeps you wanting to do more, but also never giving up. This is the UNHCR I joined.”
Yacoub El Hillo spent more than thirty years serving refugees and displaced people in some of the world’s worst conflict zones. But when cataclysmic war erupted in his hometown of Khartoum, Sudan, the Regional Director for Africa at the United Nations Development Coordination Office (DCO) had to help his own family flee the violence.
“I don't think there's any home in Khartoum that was spared … the assumption is that everything is gone.”
Having served in more than 16 duty stations, from Liberia to Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan, Yacoub El Hillo has rarely seen any conflict as devastating as the one currently decimating Sudan. In this episode, he reflects on the scale of the human suffering there, looks back on a rich and varied career with the UN, and shares why all nations deserve a chance to strive for a brighter future.
Photo: ©OCHA Syria
“You know, what am I doing every day for human beings, particularly those who are in, you know, a much more challenging situation, we need to support their courage, their resilience, their need to survive...and their rights.”
With her background in human rights law, Georgette Gagnon was once said to represent the conscience of war. Currently serving as the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, she has been devastated by the sweeping loss of rights for women and girls there.
“You used to see across the country hundreds of girls going to school... Now, of course, you don't see that, and it's heartbreaking. It's such a huge loss for the entire society,” she says.
Afghanistan has one of the highest numbers of people in need of humanitarian support, and drastic cuts to humanitarian assistance affect access to critical care for millions. In this episode, Georgette Gagnon shares her hopes and fears for a country close to her heart, and reflects on a career serving in some of the world’s toughest places, from Syria to Sudan and Libya.
Photo: ©UN photo/UNAMA/Tahmina Osta
The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeated its call for the release of an employee detained by the Israeli military following attacks on a WHO guesthouse and its main warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, on Monday.
Substantial amounts of medical supplies and medicines have been lost, while the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate rapidly, said WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn. Despite the “huge blow” to Gaza’s already crippled health system, the veteran emergency medic insisted that WHO will stay and deliver for the people of Gaza, despite the increasing challenges.
Here he is now, with UN News’s Daniel Johnson.
Photo:© WHO/Pierre Albouy
As we mark the 2025 Nelson Mandela International Day, we re-wind and re-play an archive UN Radio programme by Ben Malor looking back at the struggle against apartheid and the campaign for Mandela's release in which the United Nations played an important role — archive special programme for the first commemorative Mandela Day in 2010. Photo:© UN Photo/Greg Kinch
ILO Senior Researcher Pawel Gmyrek joins Manjula Selvarajah, technology columnist and host at CBC Radio One (Canada), to unpack the findings of a new ILO Working Paper on generative AI and jobs. The conversation explores how GenAI is transforming the world of work, the methodology behind the ILO’s refined global exposure index, and what policymakers, workers, and employers should keep in mind as the technology evolves.
Investing in the future of communities that are most likely to migrate to other countries is more effective than spending money on reinforcing border security according to Amy Pope, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Ms. Pope was speaking on the sidelines of the UN’s Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development Sevilla, Spain. The Conference was a crucial opportunity to push for financial reforms and boost investment in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 global goals adopted by all UN Member States to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure healthy lives for all by 2030, including Goal 10.7 on the orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people.
UN News’ Matt Wells spoke to Ms. Pope and began by asking her how sustainable development is linked to migration issues.
With over 5.5 billion people online - nearly all of them active on social media - digital platforms have become the main arena for public debate.
But a steady rise in misogynistic content online is fuelling a toxic environment that not only silences women and girls but also reinforces harmful gender norms, the UN Agency for gender equality, UN Women, warns.
Experts say that addressing this trend requires more than just protecting girls. It also means building a world where boys are free from the pressures of toxic masculinity and restrictive gender expectations.
UN Women’s Kalliopi Mingeirou, who leads the effort to end violence against women and girls, outlined to UN News’s Ana Carmo the alarming spread of online misogyny – and what can be done to stop it.