Cities, towns and surrounding areas act as powerful magnets for innovation, culture and opportunities, alluring talent and investment. Urban living has already been embraced by more than half of the world's population, and projections indicate that nearly 70 percent of us will live in cities by 2050. Urban areas can also be an inequality trap, with overcrowding, pollution, poor infrastructure and social injustice. While there isn't a one-size-fits-all formula for attaining sustainable urban development, the UN’s New Urban Agenda offers guidance and strategy. When the urban landscape is well planned and managed, it can be a transformative force to accelerate the SDGs.

UNOPS is increasing access to educational and training opportunities, income-generating activities, gender-sensitive health services and safe drinking water for women living in rural areas across Africa.

Agriculture, energy and mining dependence can leave an economy vulnerable and people poor, especially in developing countries.

The global economy is at a crossroads, where divergent growth paths, widening inequalities, growing market concentration, and mounting debt burdens cast shadows on its future.

Over the last six months, UNCTAD has crunched the numbers on nearly 50 SDG indicators across 90 countries. The timely data underscores the pressing need for swift and targeted action.

The 2023 International Day for South-South Cooperation (12 September) takes place a week ahead of the UN SDG Summit and is an opportunity to raise awareness of the practical actions to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals at the halfway mark to the 2030 target. South-South cooperation is a manifestation of solidarity among peoples and countries of the South that contributes to their national well-being, their national and collective self-reliance and the attainment of internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Apply today to participate in She Wins Africa, an International Finance Corporation initiative that offers training, support, pitching and networking opportunities to help women entrepreneurs access financing and succeed. The program provides investment readiness training, business skills training, pitching and matchmaking opportunities, all critical to helping women-led startups scale up their businesses. She Wins Africa is open to women-led startups operating in sub-Saharan Africa in any sector. Applications close on September 15th, 2023.

UNCTAD reports global public debt has reached colossal levels, standing at $92 trillion in 2022. This five-fold surge in public debt levels since 2000 demands immediate action to tackle the escalating crisis affecting developing countries. On average, African countries pay four times more for borrowing than the United States and eight times more than the wealthiest European economies. A total of 52 countries – almost 40 percent of the developing world – are in serious debt trouble with half of all developing nations spend a minimum of 7.4% of their export revenues on servicing external public debt.

Fashion has one of the most powerful marketing engines that influences the identities, values, and actions of billions of people. This, in turn, impacts consumption patterns, a central factor in reducing the sector's climate impact. UNEP and UN Climate Change launched the Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook, a guide with an interactive version, on how to align consumer-facing communication in the fashion industry with sustainable targets in accordance to the Paris Agreement. Its purpose is to reduce the carbon print and overconsumption, demand action, and inspire sustainable lifestyles.

Syrians are laying down roots in their places of refuge and have valuable skills and knowledge that they can use in their host communities. IFAD grants are helping refugees fulfil their potential.

The recently launched Productive Capacities Index will help countries make more accurate diagnostics and measurements of their economic performance. By measuring the economy from an input perspective across eight core components of productive capacities, the PCI more fully captures economic potential and highlights key areas for development policy focus. Stronger productive capacities help countries move towards long-term national development goals and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. With UNCTAD’s support, more countries are adopting the PCI to establish data-driven and evidence-based policies. 

Small-scale farmers in developing countries are only one flood, one drought or one failed harvest away from ruin. IFAD asks "Tomorrow is a new day. What will it look like?" 

In the words of rice farmer Deur Sok, the difference the 2.3km canal built in 2022 as part of a World Food Programme-backed project is making in Sambour, a commune in central Cambodia’s Kampong Thom province is tremendous. Changing weather patterns in the past few years have caused an unpredictable succession of drought and flooding, which spelled disaster for farmers relying on so-called wet season – or rainfed – rice cultivation. Farmers in the region had seen their plants wilt when there was not enough water – or washed away when there was too much. The canal has broken their dependence on erratic weather events and as a result, their yields have more than doubled.

Over 50 per cent of remittances are sent to households in rural areas, where 75 per cent of the world's poor and food-insecure live. Rural households rely on these flows for improving their livelihoods. Globally, the accumulated flows to rural areas over the next five years will reach US$1.5 trillion. This International Day of Family Remittances (16 June) focuses on promoting digital technologies to enhance financial inclusion in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The Day also aims at achieving the cost reduction target of 3% as mentioned in the Sustainable Development Goal 10.c.

Garin Kaka is one of three "opportunity villages" that form part of an initiative by UNHCR, together with the Niger government and local leaders, to provide refugees with a more sustainable alternative to living in camps. After being relocated to Garin Kaka, Jamilla met Hamsou after joining the peanut oil cooperative, one of several income-generating projects in the village which UNHCR partner, Action pour le Bien Etre, helped to start up. Jamilla is the president of the cooperative of 20 refugees and local women who work together to produce peanut oil.