The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has joined the UN Sustainable Development Group – gathering all UN entities working to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030
During the 2nd half of 2020 and the 1st quarter of 2021, 22 new cases of poliomyelitis (polio), a deadly viral disease, were detected in Benin. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination campaigns were carried out to stem polio transmission.
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.
During the pandemic, violence cases against women increased significantly in Honduras. The country has the highest femicide rate in the Latin American region.
Guljahan Tanalova has her hands full.
She is raising a son alone, and she is coordinator of a new project providing social services for people with disabilities in the city of Ashgabat, in Turkmenistan. She herself has a disability resulting from a musculoskeletal disorder.
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.
Maman Sylvie, who lives in Brazzaville (Republic of Congo), believes that being diagnosed as HIV positive should not be the equivalent of a death sentence, and has dedicated her life to helping people with HIV in the Republic of Congo.
