Development – Career Meaning

The price of peace and development: Paying for the UN

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.

World News in Brief: UNCTAD development finance call, Nepal quake update, religious freedom in Nicaragua

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 value to their economic output,…

Türk blasts ‘politics of repression and division’, stresses freedom and development link

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 in government” such as the…

Better data on corruption can reduce its impact, support sustainable development

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 to quality education. “Developing a…

Urban planning must factor in needs of migrants, sustainable development forum hears

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, slums expand even faster, UN…

‘Crushing’ debt crisis spells development disaster for billions: UN chief

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 public debt reached a record…

UN deputy chief praises China’s investment in tackling climate change, forging ‘new development pathway’

“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 challenges through collection action, pointing…

Funding a better future for all: 5 things to know about the Financing for Development Forum

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 would begin to recover from…

‘Green industrial age’ can be sustainable development breakthrough

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 construction. There are signs of…

Right to development can save world from ‘destructive spiral’: Türk

Adding her voice to the High Commissioner’s call for action, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed warned in a video message that the right to development has “yet to be realized by billions of people” who were “hurting (while) the planet is burning. The world cannot wait.” Marking the 35th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the…