UN country teams across the world are playing a critical role as they support local and national authorities to rollout vaccination efforts. They are also taking immediate and proactive measures to curtail the rise of Ebola cases in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea.
In January, tropical storm Eloíse killed at least 6 people in Mozambique. That number might seem low, but the true impact is much greater. The storm also displaced 18,000 people and has affected a total of 250,000. It also caused considerable damage to 76 health centres and 400 classrooms.
Life can be hard in the rural villages of southern Niger. Sometimes, like last year and the year before, insects destroy the crops. And not least of all, there’s the weather. The mercury can soar past 40 degrees in the hot season, and the rains can come hard and fast in the wet season. One day, recalls Asma Abdou, “A heavy rain started to fall at 4:00 in the afternoon. At 7:00, I put the children to bed under a mosquito net”—that’s to protect them from insect-borne diseases such as malaria.
COVID-19 threatens the health and nutrition of almost two billion people in Asia and the Pacific alone. The pandemic is devastating already fragile circumstances for billions worldwide. UN teams across the globe are aiding to address some fundamental challenges to people’s safety, and health and food security. Today, we highlight some of the coordinated efforts.
Since COVID-19 changed our world forever, expressions of alarm and fear have comingled with optimism and hope. Across our planet, our global community has adapted to new social norms, suffered extreme losses and braces for the medium to long-term impacts of a drastic economic crisis.
By the end of 2020, COVID-19 had killed nearly 2 million people and left many millions more with lasting injury. It also led to larger crises in health, jobs, education, domestic violence, migration, and more. That’s a lot of fires to put out. But the United Nations is built to deal with many challenges at once.
As the world wraps up 2020, we recognize the continued coordinated efforts of the UN teams worldwide. Today, we highlight some of the work taking place across the globe.
We are facing a devastating pandemic, new heights of global heating, new lows of ecological degradation and new setbacks in our work towards global goals for more equitable, inclusive and sustainable development.
