I am honored to be named as a “Global Advocate for Youth” for the United Nations Foundation with a mission to help engage young people in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals and a world of opportunity for all. I am immensely proud of this distinction for many reasons, but today I want to focus on just one. In my life, I have had the opportunity to be many things: I am a professional soccer player, an entrepreneur, […]

By Kaysie Brown and Dinah McLeod United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been known to say, “We need to marry the private sector’s greatest strengths with the public sector’s greatest challenges.” At first blush, it may seem odd – the notion of international development and business communities working together. After all, as the story goes, a business’ bottom line is to generate profit, while development is the responsibility of policymakers or NGOs. But we are in a

The 69th World Health Assembly, held last month in Switzerland, highlighted some of the world’s most pressing global health issues, including climate change – an issue that doesn’t always appear in global health conversations, but is directly linked to the health of people everywhere. Christiana Figueres, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary, addressed the assembly, devoting her discussion to the nexus between climate change and global health. Figueres began her

“We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world on to a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind.” These words are in the preamble of the Sustainable Development Goals, a global to-do

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” reads Article I of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. While we have made significant progress on human rights over the past 69 years, we will never fully realize these words while millions of people face violence and discrimination because of whom they love. Yesterday, the United Nations Foundation participated in a meeting convened

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) seized the occasion of the second UN Environment Assembly from May 23-27 in Nairobi to launch six regional environmental outlooks – detailed reports that assessed the state of the environment in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Pan Europe (EU, Southeast Europe, and Central Asia), North America (U.S. and Canada), Latin America and the Caribbean, and West Asia (nominally the Middle East and North Africa). For the first time, regional assessments were developed to establish

On July 7-8, the World Health Organization and the government of France will host the Second Global Conference on Health and Climate in Paris to focus on building healthier societies through implementation of the Paris climate agreement. The conference will focus on the connections between health and climate change, and how the public health community can get more involved in the effort to combat climate change. In conjunction with the conference, we are sharing seven quotes on the

From July 11-20, the United Nations will host the High-level Forum on Sustainable Development to assess progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 connected goals to address our social, economic, and environmental challenges. Adopted by world leaders at the UN last year, the Sustainable Development Goals are a global to-do list to end extreme poverty, protect the health of the planet, and a create a future where every person lives with opportunity and dignity

Four years ago on July 11, global leaders from the United Nations, governments, and civil society gathered in London for an historic conference to catalyze action for girls and women. They were driven by the belief that every girl and woman deserves the right to plan if and when to have children; yet many face barriers in accessing the family planning information, services, and supplies they want and need. That’s why more than 20 governments came together