The United Nations refugee agency and the world body’s top envoy on international migration have applauded European Union (EU) authorities’ proposals for dealing with refugees and migrants arriving in Europe via the Mediterranean, calling for swift implementation of the reforms “for the urgent purpose of saving lives.”
While developing economies in the Asia-Pacific region continue to fare well in comparison to the rest of the world, structural weaknesses, like infrastructure shortages and excessive dependence on commodities will continue to hamper their growth potential, a new United Nations report on the region says, calling for greater economic inclusivity if sustainable development is to succeed.
Calling for greater “social protection” for women as the United Nations draws up a new development agenda, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has cited alarming statics, including that some 800 women die in child birth every day, only 28 per cent of employed women receive cash benefits during their maternity leave, and that child poverty is rising in 18 of 28 countries in the European Union.
A new United Nations-backed report on the link between forests and food production and nutrition says that woodlands could be the key to ending hunger and will be intimately linked to the global fight against climate change.
The head of the United Nations body tasked with setting the global environmental agenda today stressed the need to limit the use of dangerous chemicals and to find a solution to the masses of electronic waste building up around the world, as a Conference of Parties to three major Conventions on the subject began in Geneva today.
Each day some 500 children die from road traffic crashes, thousands more are injured and the situation is only getting worse, the United Nations warned today as it launched #SaveKidsLives, a global campaign to generate action to make streets safe for children.
“I have seen more and more women with child-delivery problems suffer needlessly,” said midwife Florence Djihoun, 48, at her UNFPA-supported clinic in Cotonou, Benin.
Jeffrey Sachs explains why it is urgent for the world to change direction and embark on a more sustainable path, what he hopes countries will achieve during this critical year, and what it will take to truly end poverty.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban K-moon and the General Assembly President Sam Kutesa today drew attention to the importance of the Organization’s cooperation with regional partners to shape a “bold new vision” for a post-2015 development agenda, as well as to tackle the world’s myriad pressing challenges.
Through a new set of transformative Sustainable Development Goals, countries will have a roadmap and the means to end extreme poverty and protect the planet, says the UN Secretary-General's Special Advisor on Post-2015 Development Planning
Deliberations beginning this week at the eleventh session of the UN Forum on Forests present an unprecedented opportunity to forge an international forest policy for the next 15 years that will be aligned with the new sustainable development agenda expected to be adopted in September.
Asia-Pacific policymakers, together with business and civil society representatives from around 40 countries in the region, today agreed to a landmark financing strategy to mobilize the region’s immense financial resources for inclusive and sustainable growth.
On 28 April, the Secretary-General met with His Holiness Pope Francis at the Vatican and later addressed senior religious leaders, along with the Presidents of Italy and Ecuador, Nobel laureates and leading scientists on climate change and sustainable development.
