The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has launched a new Peace Fellows programme to increase participation in the country’s peace process. It brings together representatives from all 10 states and three administrative areas to share information about the 2018 Peace Agreement, with a focus on education.
The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat has a new draft Global Biodiversity Framework to guide actions worldwide through 2030 to preserve and protect nature, and its essential services to people. It will serve as the basis for negotiations at the Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China, in October.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for World Population Day, observed on 11 July:
Unrelenting drought in southern Madagascar is forcing hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports. At least 1.35 million people need emergency food and nutrition assistance. Acute malnutrition in children under 5 has almost doubled over the last four months.
Facing challenging virtual negotiations and a history of gridlock, the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development marked a major achievement today as it adopted its first consensus outcome document in five years, at the conclusion of its fifty-fourth session, with delegates praising the timely focus on links between food security, nutrition, sustainable development and the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.
Population experts from the United Nations and Governments around the globe explored populating ageing and other emerging demographic trends, and weighed innovative ways to collect and use data, as the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development continued its annual session today.
United Nations staff report that, despite recent improvements in humanitarian access, the situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray remains alarming, with conflict in some areas restricting humanitarian movement and response. Insecurity in Tigray’s east zone last week reportedly impacted the movement of more than 20 relief trucks.
Public health researchers examined links between the planet’s rapidly evolving food systems, emerging social trends and access to healthy, nutritious human diets, as the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development continued into the third day of its annual session.
Experts today outlined innovative approaches to transform global food systems — assuring that an end to hunger can be within reach — as the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development opened the second day of its annual session.
As COVID-19 continues to expose links between gender inequality, food insecurity and poor access to health care and reproductive rights, the global community has an obligation to build back better, fairer and more sustainably for the estimated 10 billion people who will inhabit the planet by 2050, the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development heard today, as members opened their fifty-fourth session.
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohamed’s opening remarks at the fifty-fourth session of the Commission on Population and Development, held today:
Nearly half of women in 57 developing countries are denied the right to decide whether to have sex with their partners, use contraception or seek health care, according to the United Nations Population Fund’s 2021 flagship “State of World Population” report, released today.
The United Nations Human Rights Office in South-East Asia reports that 500 peaceful protesters have been killed and 2,600 others detained by security forces in Myanmar since 1 February. It is asking States in the region to protect people fleeing violence and ensure that refugees and migrants are not forcibly returned.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released new data today saying that nearly 12 million women lost access to contraception due to pandemic-related disruptions, leading to some 1.4 million unintended pregnancies. However, health systems in many of the 115 countries adapted and continue to provide services.
In Mozambique, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) today launched a $12 million humanitarian appeal to urgently provide life-saving sexual and reproductive health and protection services to 330,000 women, girls, and youth who have been impacted by the humanitarian crisis in Cabo Delgado and COVID-19.
The number of civilians killed and injured in Afghanistan rose following the start of peace negotiations in September, according to report released today by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the Organization’s human rights office. The country remains among the deadliest for civilians.
The United Nations and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research hosted an online discussion on how to prioritize actions to recover more equitably from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 100 participants from 60 countries attended, including those responsible for $100 billion annually in global research investments.
Fighting in Afghanistan’s Kunduz Province has displaced 52,000 people since 16 August following attacks by a non-State armed group and responsive strikes by national security forces. A surge of United Nations staff is under way to boost humanitarian capacity in Kunduz and a joint assessment team was deployed.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for World Population Day, observed on 11 July:
Wildlife crime threatens both biodiversity and human health, according to a new United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report. It finds that many illegally trafficked animals may spread diseases to people, and the pangolin — a possible source of COVID-19 — remains the most trafficked mammal in the world.
