Articles

With an economic toll of an estimated at $57.7 billion, the study estimated the cost to be equivalent to three and a half times the 2019 GDP of the occupied Palestinian territory’. Moreover, it indicated that the minimum cost of eliminating poverty in the West Bank had increased six times between 1998 and 2007 – from $73 million to $428 million. “We’re talking about the reproduction of despair in the in the West Bank and Gaza”, said Richard Kozul-Wright, UNCTAD Director of Division on...

Farzeen Alam, a Bangladeshi entrepreneur, was laughed off when he approached banks for a loan to start his farming business: today, Oggro Dairy is helping to lower unemployment, particularly amongst marginalized youth. Oggro Dairy is the first social enterprise dedicated to agriculture in Bangladesh. Founded in 2007 by Mr. Alam, the enterprise works with farmers across the country, producing a variety of agricultural products such as milk, potato, corn, and orchids. The aim is to create...

The coronavirus pandemic will likely cost the global tourism sector $2 trillion in lost revenue in 2021, the UN’s tourism body said Monday, calling the sector’s recovery “fragile” and “slow.” According to the latest forecast by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the same amount was lost in 2020, making it one of the sectors hit hardest by the health crisis. Despite recent improvements, the report warned that demand for travel could be further affected by “uneven...

Securing the funding needed for sustainable development by involving as many actors from different sectors as possible, is more urgent than ever, amid a widening “trust deficit” between the haves and the have-nots, the UN Deputy Secretary-General said on Monday. Speaking at the Building Bridges Summit for sustainable finance in Geneva, Amina Mohammed urged all those present from Government, the private sector, international organisations and civil society, to do more to push ahead with a...

Global trade is expected to be worth about $28 trillion this year – an increase of 23 per cent compared with 2020 – but the outlook for 2022 remains very uncertain, UN economists said on Tuesday. This strong growth in demand – for goods, as opposed to services – is largely the result of pandemic restrictions easing, but also from economic stimulus packages and sharp increases in the price of raw materials. According to UN trade and development body UNCTAD, although worldwide commerce...

Some 2.9 billion people still have never used the internet, and 96 per cent live in developing countries, a new UN report has found. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the estimated number of people who have gone online this year actually went up, to 4.9 billion, partially because of a “COVID connectivity boost”.   This is good news for global development, but ITU said that people’s ability to connect remains profoundly unequal – as many hundreds of millions...

Heralding South Africa’s and Botswana’s decision to report the appearance of the Omicron coronavirus mutation last month, the UN health agency repeated that it will take another two weeks before more is known about how transmissible and how dangerous it actually is. Speaking in Geneva, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier stressed that data suggesting that Omicron was highly transmissible was only preliminary. Unnecessary travel bans He also repeated WHO advice against blanket travel...

With productivity-boosting measures, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement could reduce poverty and inequality while spurring sustainable and inclusive growth, according to a report launched on Wednesday by the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD. The Economic Development in Africa Report 2021, underscores the importance of infrastructure financing that helps link up urban and rural areas, and equal access to opportunities and resources. The free trade area, which...

Around two months into a six-month residency at Dubai Expo, the UN Hub has already attracted a large number of visitors, including several delegations from UN Member States. Dena Assaf, the UN Resident Coordinator for the UAE, and Deputy Commissioner-General of the UN at Expo, says that the event is a unique opportunity to highlight the aims and messages of the Organization. “This Expo is different from other Expos in the sense that the UAE government decided to use it to express the...

“The earthquake which struck south-west Haiti in August impacted mostly rural populations, and obviously farmers were affected a lot. Many lost their houses as well as their grain and seed stores which collapsed in the tremor; the land of some farmers was also damaged due to landslides. In some cases, fissures could be seen as the ground opened up. FAO has supporting farmers in Jérémie long before the earthquake, but our work here is now as important as ever. Farming has always been...