Attending a high school prom is a rite of passage, and missing out on it is never forgotten. As we mark the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a special performance of the acclaimed Broadway musical comedy The Prom, about just such a small-town drama, brought together actors, UN diplomats, and celebrity activists to underline a serious message that resonates around the world: LGBTI equality should be the norm, but regrettably still […]

On December 10 and 11, countries will meet in Marrakech, Morocco to adopt the first-ever global agreement on a shared approach to international migration: The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. With more than 258 million migrants currently living outside their country of birth – and that number expected to rise – the need for a common, cooperative approach to migration has never been more urgent. Migrants, who are entitled to the same

In its earliest days, the United Nations Foundation committed to championing the rights of girls and women, in allegiance to the vision of equality enshrined in the UN Charter and because the dignity and agency of girls and women is essential for a more peaceful and prosperous world for all. 2018 was a year of challenge, but also change. Geeta Rao Gupta, the Executive Director of the 3D Program for Girls and Women and UN

On December 11, TIME magazine announced a group of journalists — Jamal Khashoggi of the Washington Post, the surviving staff of Maryland’s Capital Gazette newspaper, the Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, and Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo – as its 2018 “Person of the Year” for “taking great risks in pursuit of greater truths, for the imperfect but essential quest for facts.” The United Nations Foundation is honored that one of these journalists

2018 was a memorable year for the global health community – from a new strategy to new partnerships to new challenges for progress. In May at the World Health Assembly, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus set forward a bold, new vision in the 13th “General Programme of Work” to support countries in reaching all of the health-related targets in the Sustainable Development Goals. The “Triple Billion” Targets set forth in this

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the World Economic Forum website. 2018 will go down in the record books as one of seemingly incessant geopolitical acrimony. For many policymakers, the imminent turn of the calendar offers brief respite – a moment to clear one’s head and take stock of the most salient challenges on the horizon. What core problems need to be solved amid fast-shifting strategic alliances and the cacophony of public debates? Ultimately,

Data has been the fashionable topic in sustainable development this year, but it’s always top of our minds at the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. When we were created in 2015, we were tasked with a big job: to bring partners together and make sure that the opportunities of the data revolution were available to, and being used by, everyone working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It’s all about the relationships, so

Reading the news can be depressing, but that doesn’t mean global progress isn’t happening. Even though it doesn’t often make the headlines, the international community is coming together to act on some of our major challenges – and it’s working. In many ways, lives are getting better because people came together at the UN to collaborate and act. While it’s easy to focus on everything wrong in the world, let’s not forget the wins. And