UN – United Nations

Despite progress on many global development issues in recent decades, two destructive trends are on the rise – severe hunger and conflict/fragility – and it’s not by coincidence. Last week the 2018 Global Report on Food Crises was released. This third-edition report, prepared collectively by a dozen leading global and regional institutions including the European Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), aims to both elevate the […]

Eleven nations last week pledged an additional $15.3 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) to support the rapid response to international disease outbreaks and humanitarian health crises. Globalization means health crises can spread faster than ever. With more people displaced worldwide than at any time in the last 75 years and weakened health infrastructure in fragile and conflict-affected areas, there is greater potential for health emergencies to arise. We all have a stake in

The humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been described by the United Nations as “one of the world’s largest and most complex.” This recent Washington Post story outlines many of the challenges, such a quick upsurge in violence in some communities, difficulties delivering aid, and mass displacement. This crisis rarely makes the headlines, but it needs more attention, which is why we’re asking people to get involved and support the UN’s humanitarian

I just returned from a trip to Liberia, where I witnessed the end of the Liberia peacekeeping mission after 15 years of service. Liberia has a tumultuous past of violence, children forced to be soldiers, and the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, but what I saw in the present was heartening and hopeful. In fact, for the past 10 years, Liberia has been relatively peaceful under the leadership of then-President Ellen

One in three women worldwide suffer violence in their lifetimes. This staggering global data point makes clear that violence against girls and women is pervasive and a major obstacle to the fulfillment of girls’ and women’s human rights. Violence keeps girls and women from living life as they choose and prevents them from fully participating in society. Consider the millions of girls and women forced into child marriage, sold into human trafficking, and subjected to

In the heart of what many consider the world’s largest refugee camp, four midwives stand ready to spring into action. “We are here 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Jhumur Rani Saha proudly told me as I toured the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) clinic in Cox’s Bazar where she and her team work, a humble four room bamboo structure encircled by a dense thicket of makeshift shelters and tents. “At any time, a

In recent weeks, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has appeared across international headlines, as inspectors from the OPCW have been deployed to Syria to establish the facts around the allegations of chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria. So, what exactly is the OPCW and what does it do? The OPCW’s Creation and Mission The OPCW’s mission is to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention, the international agreement that bans chemical weapons, which

Although we may think about specific global issues like health, conflict, finance, and the environment as separate – and perhaps unrelated – challenges to be tackled independently, the reality is far from it. They are actually deeply connected, and our understanding, appreciation, and responses should be shaped accordingly. The fundamental linkages among climate, development, and humanitarian action are apparent this week as the United Nations convenes multiple moments for global progress: the Financing for Development