UN Agencies

Globetrotters Alert: You May Soon Need a Vaccine Passport

February 15, 2021

Even with vaccines steadily rolling out in many countries, the end of the Covid-19 pandemic is hardly on the horizon. As countries continue to weave in and out of shutdowns, curfews, virus variants and new deadly waves, the travel and tourism industries are being devastated. In the first 10 months of global shutdowns, tourism worldwide fell more …

Covid-19, Health and Population, UN Agencies

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THIS WEEK @UN

US Nominee Grilled on China; Guterres’s Top Goals for 2021; UN Tech Envoy Put on Leave

January 29, 2021

by Ivana Ramirez

Biden’s nominee for UN envoy faces the Senate; Guterres’s main focus in 2021; the UN’s brand-new tech envoy accused of harassment. You are reading This Week @UN, a summary of the most pressing issues facing the international organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s press briefings, original PassBlue reporting and other sources. …

Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

UN Agencies Are Not Exactly Zooming Toward Open Meetings

January 25, 2021

by Toby McIntosh

WASHINGTON — With United Nations entities meeting mostly virtually in the Covid-19 pandemic, it is a good time for more of them to hold open sessions. But no transparency trend has materialized in the nearly yearlong pandemic so far. Having surveyed 27 core UN organizations to learn whether they conduct open meetings and issue …

UN Agencies, WORLDVIEWS

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Hey, Biden-Harris Team, What About the UN?

November 17, 2020

by Stéphanie Fillion

President-elect Joe Biden’s first message to fellow world leaders was clear: America is back. But there’s a glaring omission in his foreign policy plan: the United Nations. After four years of the Trump administration’s defunding and leaving UN organizations and agreements, the United States’ relationship with the UN is ripe for revival. But what, …

UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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As the Nobel Peace Prize Is Awarded to the World Food Program, Famines Loom

October 10, 2020

by Clair MacDougall

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — David Beasley, the head of the World Food Program, this year’s just-announced Nobel Peace Prize winner, has warned that the number of people facing starvation could double next year, to 270 million, if the agency is unable to raise enough money to cope with the crisis. “2021 is going to be …

Humanitarian Aid, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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‘Cowboys’ May Be Running the World Food Program, but Donations Keep Coming

October 27, 2019

by Dulcie Leimbach

The World Food Program may be receiving millions of more donations from the Trump administration than under past presidencies, but its management is skidding around amid complaints of sexual harassment, retaliation, abuse of authority and, most startling, rape, according to a new external survey. Under the leadership of David Beasley, a former South Carolina …

UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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The UN Palestinian Refugee Agency Is in Hot Water, Again

August 5, 2019

by Thalif Deen

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which has been undermined by a sharp cut in United States contributions, has been embroiled in a scandal that threatens to jeopardize its very future. A report from the agency’s Ethics Office has found “credible and corroborated” evidence that the senior management of Unrwa engaged in “sexual …

Middle East, Secretary-General, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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China, Gaining Power in the UN, Could Win FAO Leadership

June 18, 2019

by Barbara Crossette

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has existed at the periphery of UN agencies and been a focus of critics almost since its founding in 1945, as the vehicle for ending hunger and achieving food security. Based in Rome, the FAO has 194 member nations and many projects designed to raise the standards …

UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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Pressures Mount for Deeper Investigations Into the UN Trade Group

May 12, 2019

by Barbara Crossette

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, riven internally by disputes over its mission and future direction, may be in trouble. Faced with questions about its basic competence from board members and outside investigators, accusations have been gathering about unsatisfactory statistical work and laxity in meeting UN standards and regulations for spending reports …

UN Agencies

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With Scandals Rife Across the UN, Are Managers at Fault?

April 24, 2019

by Barbara Crossette

A sea of new or lingering allegations of harassment and corruption in numerous agencies and programs in the United Nations system appears to be washing over a sprawling organization battered by scandal. Poor or careless management and oversight, from top to bottom, is partly to blame, but so is persistent, overt politicization of high-level …

Gender-Based Violence, Special Report, UN Agencies

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WORLDVIEWS

The Strange Bedfellows of Unesco World Heritage Sites

February 11, 2019

by Jeffrey Laurenti

In the fall — before the caravan, before the firings, before the shutdown, before the wall — Melania Trump concluded her first solo goodwill tour with a photogenic visit to the Great Pyramid and Sphinx of Egypt, the only surviving complex of the seven wonders of the ancient world. “It was a nice opportunity …

UN Agencies, Unesco, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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Is This a Case of Nepotism at the UN’s World Food Program?

October 19, 2018

by Dulcie Leimbach

A son of David Beasley, the World Food Program executive director, worked briefly this year for the UN agency, but it is not clear what his status was, given original discrepancies. Beasley is a former governor of South Carolina, and the agency’s largest donor is the United States. Among dozens of names, Beasley is …

UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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BOOKS

The UN Is Complicated, So Here is a Dictionary to Help Figure It Out

June 2, 2018

by Helmut Volger

To provide readers who want information about the United Nations that is intelligent and concise yet comprehensive is a challenging task for every author: he or she must outline a puzzling system of principal organs, specialized agencies, programs, funds, commissions and committees that produces large piles of resolutions, declarations and conventions on topics such …

BOOKS, UN Agencies

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UN Agencies Moving Into Blockchain to Help People in Crisis Settings

February 27, 2018

by Kacie Candela

Blockchain technology emerged alongside Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency powering digital payments through a peer-to-peer system, currency trading and even, in some cases, black-market transactions. Now, some United Nations agencies are using blockchain to provide basic identification to refugees and others in developing countries as well as for specific actions like helping refugees obtain food …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Poverty, Refugees, UN Agencies

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

The UN World Food Program Boss, Mixing Work With Religion?

January 31, 2018

by Dulcie Leimbach

David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Program, based in Rome, posted a prayer at the top of his Twitter page in early January, reading: “My prayer for 2018: Peace. Our path to Zero Hunger begins with peace.” The page, @dbeasley1, is a hybrid of personal tweets and professional news about his …