Many of today’s global leaders recognize our common threats—COVID, climate, the unregulated development of new technologies. They agree that something needs to be done about them. Yet that common understanding is not matched by common action.
Having commenced my role as UN Resident Coordinator in China almost one year ago, it is a privilege to lead the United Nations in China in this new year and at this auspicious moment as the Games return to Beijing.
"It is young people who can tip the balance to the right side in the fight against climate change," reminded Manal Bidar, a young activist from the city of Agadir, Morocco, who is committed to climate action.
Afflicted by decades of conflict, recurrent climatic shocks, disease outbreaks and poverty, Somalia was often called a ‘failed state.’ The narrative is now changing, and although fragile, Somalia is on a path to stability and the resilience of the Somali people is second to none.
Children returning to schools, workplaces re-opening, and vaccines all seemed to point to a return to normal but like 2020, 2021 has been a year of hope, loss, and uncertainty for people around the world. Stories of innovative ways to connect, protect our planet from climate change, and ways we, as a society, have joined forces to protect each other from the pandemic that has ravaged all our lives.
Not all innovations are based on new technologies. Sometimes, they have to do with procedures or practices — that is, how people work together. That’s largely the case with a new method of responding to climate shocks and other humanitarian emergencies. Climate change is driving more extreme and frequent natural hazards, and that means that humanitarian need will only increase.
The United Nations Country Teams from Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina recently completed a ten-day mission by visiting several communities in the largest dry forest in the world and the second-largest forest biome in South America: the Gran Chaco, which extends over an area of over 1,14 million square kilometres, distributed in central and northern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia and western Paraguay.
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