World Bank

• 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 …

Development, Humanitarian Aid, Middle East, Migration, Refugees

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Ruth Messinger: A ‘Global Ambassador’ Pushing for Women’s Progress

Barbara Crossette

• July 20, 2016

In the political annals of New York, the 1990s boasted a strong presence of women not only in government but also at the United Nations. One such woman, Ruth Messinger, served as Manhattan borough president from 1990 to 1998, with time out in 1997 to run for mayor of New York City on the …

Development, Gender Violence, SDGs, Women

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The UN’s Support of Midwifery and the Serious Gaps That Remain

Lori Silberman Brauner

• December 21, 2015

Midwifery is one of the world’s most ancient vocations, its practitioners playing a prominent role dating back to the Bible. In much of the world, midwives continue to play an important role in maintaining the health of women and newborns. It should come as no surprise, then, that investments in this occupation, according to …

Africa, Health and Population, SDGs, UN Agencies, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

Peace Wins a Place in Several New UN Development Goals

Andrew Tomlinson

• August 29, 2015

A key new element in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that will be adopted formally in late September at the United Nations is the inclusion of goals and targets that go beyond the traditional development objectives of the Millennium Development Goals and address social transformation more broadly. In particular, the new framework singles …