UN – United Nations

This post is co-authored by Kaysie Brown, UN Foundation Special Adviser and Head of Policy Planning and Megan Roberts, UN Foundation Deputy Director of Policy Planning By now you have probably seen the headlines and know that the recent G7 Summit, hosted by Canada, was one of the most tumultuous the group has seen. Tensions around the U.S. decision to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel reached a crescendo following President Trump’s early departure and […]

As part of our “Americans in the UN” project to share the stories of Americans who work for the United Nations, we connected with the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Neal Walker, who serves as UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine. In his current role, Walker reports on human rights violations, leads humanitarian action, supports recovery efforts in war-torn government held areas of Eastern Ukraine, and supports reform and development. Walker grew up in

Three years into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how are we doing? The good news: Child deaths continue to decline, more people have access to electricity, and we achieved SDG 17.8 to launch a technology bank that will help countries in poverty better leverage science and technology. The not so good news: After years of decline, global hunger is on the rise, driven by conflict and climate change. (You can learn more here.) No

Out-of-pocket spending on health care continues to increase around the world – accounting for 50% of total health care spending in African countries and up to 80% in some South Asian nations. This spending pushes millions of people into poverty each year. For many families, choosing between their next meal and lifesaving health care remains a harsh and costly reality. The movement toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC), well-captured in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, just released new data on the amount of people forcibly displaced worldwide: a record 68.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes because of violence, conflict, and persecution. That is greater than the populations of California and Texas combined. No one wants to be a refugee, nor should it be how we define people. These are moms and dads, daughters and sons; they are teachers, nurses, engineers, entrepreneurs,

World leaders have promised to end poverty, reduce inequalities, and tackle climate change by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Now that we’re three years into the SDGs, how are we doing? The new Sustainable Development Goals Report from the UN provides reasons for concern, but also hope. Most of all, it provides reasons for all of us to step up our efforts to achieve the SDGs. The report was released ahead of

On a hot day in June, Senators met in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. to discuss the issues of global warming and the greenhouse gas effect. “We have only one planet. If we screw it up, we have no place else to go,” warned Senator J. Bennett Johnston from Louisiana. Among the experts who testified was Dr. James Hansen, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who hammered home three

Recently, Americans from across the country and across political lines gathered in Washington, D.C. to urge Congress to support strong U.S. leadership in the United Nations. During the United Nations Association of the USA’s annual Leadership Summit, members held over 300 meetings on Capitol Hill to support a fully funded UN. What were the key messages from their visit? Here are three takeaways from the 2018 UNA-USA Leadership Summit: A Broad Group of Americans Support

In a few weeks, the global development community will come together at the UN to assess progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. Three years into SDG implementation, we know one thing for sure: We will not achieve this ambitious agenda without significant financing. Current estimates suggest that achieving the SDGs will require $5-7 trillion in annual investments – a figure that will be impossible to meet without