Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said the world is seeing an increase in crises, and unfortunately the international community is just looking to manage them, rather than find concrete solutions. “In this context of tensions between countries, we wish to warn against political polarization,” he said, underlining the need for...
The Pact along with its annexes, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations, was adopted by consensus, despite a last-minute proposal for an amendment by some countries, including Russia, Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Syria. The amendment sought to incorporate text calling for...
The Fifth Global Conference on Climate and SDG Synergy, held from 5-6 September in Rio de Janeiro, was convened as commitments on both fronts remain far off track. Moment of truth In opening remarks on Thursday, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed stressed the need for countries to act now. “We...
The UN is tasked with tackling many urgent issues of global importance, from humanitarian crises to peacekeeping operations and the climate crisis. This all comes at a cost, but not as much as you might think. With the 2024 budget recently approved, we crunch the numbers....
That’s the message from the UN’s trade and development body UNCTAD, which called on Tuesday for urgent reform of the international financial system to support the world’s 46 Least Developed Countries. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, these most vulnerable economies urgently require foreign investment to add...
Addressing the opening of the Council’s 54th session, Mr. Türk strongly condemned the “old, blunt, brutal politics of repression” as exemplified by a rise in military coups and the crushing of dissent – “in short, the fist”. Following military takeovers in Niger and Gabon, he insisted that the “unconstitutional changes...
Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), was speaking at the opening of the first global conference on the topic. Corruption costs the world roughly $2.6 trillion annually, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) – money that could go towards fighting hunger, providing healthcare, and ensuring all children have access...
Cities and towns have become the drivers of economic growth and now account for more than 80 per cent of global GDP. Yet, in 2020, over one billion inhabitants of urban areas were still living in slums or informal settlements, predominantly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. As urban populations grow,...
According to a new report by the UN Global Crisis Response Group, entitled A World of Debt, a total of 52 countries – almost 40 per cent of the developing world – are in “serious debt trouble”, Mr. Guterres said, backing calls for them to receive urgent fiscal relief. Last year global...
“The challenges are many and they are serious”, Amina Mohammed said, highlighting the plight of the planet. “Almost all our indicators on the climate and ecological crises are pointing in the wrong direction.” She praised China’s role in being an innovator and believer in the power of multilateralism to overcome...
There are so many conflicts, humanitarian disasters, extreme weather events and economic upheavals taking place in the world, that a new word is being used to describe the current state of affairs: the “polycrisis”. The word appeared in 2022, a year that began with tentative hopes that the global economy...
Amid growing food and energy crises stoked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an uncertain global economic outlook, and the escalating impacts of climate change, the 2023 Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Financing Sustainable Transformations, says that “urgent, massive investment” is needed to accelerate positive transformation of the electricity supply industry, farming, transportation and...