World Bank

Day 3, UN General Assembly’s Big Week: Africa Wants a Permanent Seat in the Security Council

• September 22, 2022

Many African leaders who spoke at the United Nations General Assembly so far seem to all want the same thing: a permanent seat at the Security Council table. “Africa has waited long enough and will not wait any longer,” Ali Bongo Ondimba, Gabon’s president, said to the gathering on Sept. 21. The continent of …

Africa, General Assembly, Security Council, Terrorism

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SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

Softening the Pain of the World’s Food Disaster: Brazil’s Ambitions in July

Damilola Banjo

• July 7, 2022

Brazil will try to push for a softening of global sanctions on Russia to free up essential food supplies and ease access to fertilizers internationally. Ambassador Ronaldo Costa, the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations, hinted at such action in an exclusive interview with PassBlue. Costa said that conversations in the Security Council …

Humanitarian Aid, Latin America, Security Council Presidency, UN Peacekeeping

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SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

Albania, Chairing the Security Council, Seeks Global Justice for Past and Present Atrocities Everywhere

Damilola Banjo

• June 2, 2022

The lack of accountability on a range of human-rights abuses and atrocities committed by countries and others across the world will be highlighted during Albania’s first open debate as rotating president of the United Nations Security Council this month. Prime Minister Edi Rama will be chairing the June 2 meeting at UN headquarters in …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, International Justice, Security Council, Security Council Presidency

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THIS WEEK @UN

Further Souring of Ethiopian-UN Relations; Deep-Sea Mining Dangers; Polish-Belarusian Standoff

Anna Bianca Roach

• November 12, 2021

PassBlue probes the global body granting licenses to mine the deep seas; UN staff detained in Ethiopia; global famine rises. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, Mexico’s president proposes a plan …

Africa, Asia, Climate Change, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, Middle East, Migration, Myanmar, Refugees, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

What Now, António?

Thomas G. Weiss

• June 16, 2021

António Guterres soon will be recrowned Secretary-General after Manhattan’s five-member Electoral College, the permanent members of the Security Council, send its recommendation to the General Assembly for a ceremonial vote. In 2016, his election was an unusually transparent process — at least by United Nations standards — with contenders vetted by the General Assembly; …

SDGs, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS

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Where Is Brazil as the UN Marks Its 75th Anniversary?

Adriana Erthal Abdenur and Maiara Folly

• August 12, 2020

RIO DE JANEIRO — This year marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. Amid the major economic and geopolitical effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is a time to reflect on the successes and failures of the UN system, Brazil’s role in its story and what needs to be done to improve the …

Climate Change, Governance, Human Rights, Latin America, SDGs

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COVID-19

The Pandemic’s Cruelty Visits the World’s Children

Barbara Crossette

• June 18, 2020

There are about two billion young children in the world today, ranging from infancy to 14 years old, and most of them live in developing nations in the global south. That is also where the Covid-19 pandemic is spreading the fastest. Three of the top 10 countries in numbers of rapidly rising cases, as of …

Covid-19, Development, Education, Secretary-General

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COVID-19

Global Emergency Funds Must Not Be Pocketed for Corruption

Frank Vogl

• May 28, 2020

Fears abound as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the poorer nations of the world, not only about appalling levels of death and economic depression but also about criminal opportunism. Never before have agencies in the United Nations system, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other official lenders and aid agencies moved on …

Covid-19

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

Nikki Haley Revs Up: ‘We’re in the Money’

Irwin Arieff

• March 5, 2019

Two months after leaving the United Nations, Nikki Haley has assembled a political network that is laying the groundwork for a possible presidential run in 2024, or even in 2020 — should her mentor Donald Trump not run. The best thing about it from her point of view? The scheme will enable her to …

Nikki Haley Watch, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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TAKE A LOOK

Unsafe Food, a Killer in Poor Nations, Needs Government Action

Barbara Crossette

• February 6, 2019

Poverty’s companions — hunger, malnutrition and recurring sickness — do not have to be the inevitable fate of people in low-income countries, the World Bank said in a recent report. But from national governments to farmers to market stallholders and their customers, making food safer has not been recognized and tackled as a major …

Health and Population, SDGs, Take a Look

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Climate Talks Bypass the Poorest, Who Endure Polluted Homes

Barbara Crossette

• December 18, 2018

Today and every day around the world, in bleak rural villages and the poorest urban neighborhoods, millions of people are igniting small fires to cook their meager meals, brighten dark homes or scare away intruders at night. The number of people using small fires is not small. Climate scientists estimate that three billion people …

Africa, Asia, Climate Change

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Financing the UN: Payers, Pipers and Tunes

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• December 7, 2017

GENEVA — Change is in the air again on First Avenue. Among numerous reform options being bandied about, none will be more consequential than those on financing the United Nations system. There are the sledgehammer arguments: drastic slashes in funding by Washington and other donors could precipitate dramatic change. As we have argued in …

UN Agencies

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Why Would Anyone Want This Job? The WHO Prepares to Elect a New Chief

Susan Manuel

• April 24, 2017

GENEVA — In late May by secret paper ballot, all 194 member states of the World Health Assembly that have paid their dues will cast their votes for one of three final candidates in the first-ever election of the planet’s top doctor: the director-general of the World Health Organization. The candidates are Tedros Adhanom …

Africa, Asia, Health and Population, SDGs, UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Women’s Rights Must Be Backed by Legal Rights, a New Coalition Insists

Barbara Crossette

• February 28, 2017

More than two decades have passed since a series of dynamic international conferences in the 1990s — on human rights, reproductive choices and broad empowerment for women — inspired and encouraged women around the world to raise their hopes in many ways. Subsequently, there have been gains in female education at all levels, a …

Development, Gender Violence, Women

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A Poverty-Easing Plan to Help Displaced People and Their Host Countries

Tino Calabia

• December 9, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C. — One year ago, almost 1 percent of the world’s population, about 65 million people, had been forcibly displaced from their homes. That is a population size that would constitute a nation larger than Britain or would be the world’s 21st-largest country. But instead of creating their own country, the majority of the …