UN Spokesperson Farhan Haq answers common questions about the UN’s budget, including how the UN gets its money, how it prevents fraud and waste, what is spent on humanitarian operations, and how the cost of peace compares to the price of war.

In April 2022, Afghanistan’s de-facto authorities banned all cultivation of opium poppy under strict new laws. Opium is the essential ingredient for manufacturing the street drug heroin, and the class of medical prescription opioids which millions rely on for pain medication worldwide.

While the 2022 harvest was largely exempted from the decree, the Taliban have strictly enforced the ban this year, aggressively eradicating poppy plantations and leaving farmers with limited economic opportunities.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of migrants try to reach Europe, crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Thousands of them die or go missing.

Imagine growing up with your mother telling you to stop playing video games, and then discovering that you have acquired such a useful skill that the United Nations hires you as a video game expert.

Australian businesswoman and athlete Mina Guli ran 200 marathons across the world in the space of a single year to draw attention to the urgency of our global water crisis.

Her 200th and final marathon took her to the steps of United Nations Headquarters in New York, where she met with world leaders as they gathered for the first UN Water Conference in 50 years to accelerate action on the crisis.

The global population has reached 8 billion, what does this mean for the future of our world?

Dr. Rachel Snow of the United Nations Population Fund is here to answer your questions.

Cocaine trafficking is surging worldwide and coca cultivation soared 35 per cent from 2020 to 2021, a record high and the sharpest year-to-year increase since 2016.

A new UN report details how the supply surge matches a steep growth in demand, with many regions showing a steady rise in cocaine users over the past decade. While the cocaine market remains quite concentrated in the Americas and parts of Europe, the report warns that there is a strong potential for a large expansion in Africa and Asia.

Mariam Leigh is a small-scale farmer in the Central River Region in The Gambia. Like many smallholders, she struggled to make ends meet, not being able to afford agricultural equipment nor fertilizer for her farming. Mariam joined Maruo Farms, a local rice production company founded by Musa Darboe, a Gambian entrepreneur returning from the USA.

In November 2022, the world population eclipsed 8 billion people. For many of us, it represented a milestone that the human family should celebrate — a sign that people are living longer, healthier lives and enjoying more rights and greater choices than ever before.

The relationship between reproductive autonomy and healthier lives is an uncontested truth: as women are empowered to make choices about their bodies and lives, they and their families thrive — and their societies thrive as well.