Thanks to collective efforts and the safe classroom and remote learning models set in place, more than a million students returned to school in Costa Rica. With the United Nations' support, Costa Rica has become one of the first countries to open its educational institutions on time, providing security and inclusion for thousands of children, adolescents, and young people.
The conclusion of the Africa Regional Review meeting, hosted by the Government of Malawi, kicks off a series of meetings and events leading to the the landmark Fifth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) taking place in Doha, Qatar in early 2022.
Yemenis currently live through the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, a disaster compounded by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and severe economic crisis. Two thirds of Yemenis need humanitarian assistance to survive. More than 16 million people will face hunger this year.
Today, the United Nations Joint SDG Fund announces a US$41 million portfolio to catalyze strategic financing to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The allocation expands the Joint SDG Fund’s investments to date to US$223 million, encompassing programming in 112 countries for Integrated Social Protection and SDG Investments.
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.
Gita Sabharwal, UN Resident Coordinator in Thailand, and Patchara Benjarattanaporn, Thailand Country Director for UNAIDS, call for an end to discrimination against people living with HIV, and recognition of the contribution they make to Thai society.
One piece of technology almost any economic planner would have wished for in 2020 is a crystal ball. That’s because traditional tools like previous years’ projections, trends and models have been left in the gutter in the wake of a brutal pandemic that has paralyzed the global economy.
A resurgence of violence in the Central African Republic in December 2020 caused 5,000 Central Africans to seek refuge across the border in Cameroon. A 30-minute drive from the border, Gado’s refugee site is already home to more than 26,000 Central African refugees who had previously fled from violence in 2014. Teams of carpenters are already working to build shelters.
While the prospect of vaccines in 2021 provides hope in defeating this virus, UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s message that ‘there is no panacea in a pandemic’ is clear. Robust public health measures centred around the scientifically proven steps that prevent the spread of COVID-19 remain the most practical response. To its credit, China has set a good example by adopting this approach, as I have witnessed firsthand.
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.
Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women
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