16-year-old Eva Jones didn’t consider herself an “advocate.” But this high school student and self-proclaimed “huge nerd,” from Hood River, Oregon, is by all accounts a rockstar advocate for gender equality and education. After founding a Girl Up Club at her school in 2017, Eva and her club have gone on to raise over $13,000 to support girls’ education in Malawi and Guatemala, worked with hundreds of girls to turn a refugee education bill into […]

Dr. Peter Hotez brings a unique perspective to his work. As a world-renowned vaccine scientist, he has spent his career studying “neglected tropical diseases” like malaria, West Nile Virus, and Zika in the planet’s most inaccessible and impoverished places. He and a colleague coined the term. Over the past three decades, he has developed lifesaving treatments for some of the deadliest illnesses — and witnessed the tragic consequences when vaccines are not available. He’s also

Peace seems to be a missing piece of many SDG conversations, but the lack of peace is showing up in many recent – and alarming – global reports. According to a new report from UN’s World Food Program (WFP) and Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), conflict is driving unprecedented levels of hunger: 56 million people are in need of food aid in eight conflict zones. Another report from UNICEF estimates that an unacceptable amount of

They defend the vulnerable and fight for human rights. They command forces and build coalitions for peace. And they take on the world’s toughest challenges. Women now make up half of the senior leadership team of the United Nations. Throughout the organization, from field operations to headquarters, women are leading the way in solving problems and creating change. They are our heroes. Or, as we say, (s)heroes. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has made gender equity

The ambitious transformation of the World Health Organization (WHO) took a huge step forward on March 6. Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced major organizational changes aimed at aligning processes and structures to reach WHO’s “triple billion” targets by 2023: Ensuring that 1 billion more people benefit from universal health coverage; 1 billion more people have better protection from health emergencies; and 1 billion more people enjoy better health and well-being. When Dr. Tedros first

The world is up against a multitude of environmental challenges — from climate change to biodiversity loss to plastic pollution — and we’re running out of time to tackle them. This week, the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) released the sixth edition of the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO6), its flagship report that provides the first comprehensive assessment on the state of our environment since 2012. Similar to the climate change reports from the Intergovernmental

In a world of division, young people are standing up for collective action. On March 15, thousands of young people in more than 100 countries and 1,600 cities and towns will take to the streets to march for greater ambition and urgent action around climate change. Part of their rallying cry is to push global leaders to uphold their commitments on the Paris Climate Agreement, signed by 196 countries back in 2015. Sparked by 16-year-old

Washington may be divided, but Americans across the country agree on the importance of the United Nations. According to polling from the Better World Campaign, the majority of Americans recognize the impact of the UN and support strong U.S. engagement. In fact, more than 1,800 people representing 45 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico recently traveled to the UN Headquarters in New York to show their support at the 2019 Global Engagement Summit. The annual

Editor’s note: This post was last updated March 27, 2019. A strong cyclone that hit southeastern Africa has caused widespread damage and dangerous flooding, leaving more than 1.8 million people in need in Mozambique. The storm may be one of the worst weather-related disasters ever to hit the Southern Hemisphere. Photo: Weather.com Cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique on March 14, before moving into the neighboring countries of Zimbabwe and Malawi as a Tropical Storm. An