United Nations

In a new study, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated that over the past two months, the volume of trade through the Suez Canal has fallen by a whopping 42 per cent. “With major players in the shipping industry temporarily suspending Suez transits, weekly container ship...

21 February 2024Economic Development Today’s multilateral arrangements – global and regional organizations and major development banks – are “not up to the job” of helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the deputy UN chief said on Tuesday. The 11th Asia-Pacific...

Speaking at a conference on addressing development challenges of middle-income countries (MICs), in Rabat, Morocco, Amina Mohammed said recent crises have laid bare inequalities and exposed stark contrasts. “While developed countries have been able to protect and swiftly support their...

Lenovo Group, LG AI Research, Mastercard, Microsoft, Salesforce, Telefonica, GSMA network of mobile phone operators, and INNIT have pledged to “integrate the values and principles” of UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI when designing and deploying AI systems. The announcement came at...

Since 7 October when Israel launched its military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the militant group’s terror attacks in southern Israel that left some 1,200 dead and more than 250 taken hostage, Gaza health authorities have reported at least 25,700 killed and some 63,740 injured. In...

The report paints a bleak picture of socio-economic conditions since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, with the erosion of women’s rights and a banking system near collapse, identified as major areas of concern. The Afghan economy has not recovered from the cumulative 27 per cent...

10 January 2024Economic Development Global unemployment is expected to rise this year, with growing inequality and stagnant productivity also a cause for concern on the economic horizon, the UN labour agency ILO said on Wednesday. Just over five per cent of the world’s workforce is without...

The COVID-19 pandemic affected hundreds of millions of lives, caused millions of deaths and inflicted devastating impacts on humanity. After three years of unprecedented global efforts, on 5 May the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency...

The flagship forecast launched in New York on Thursday indicates that last year’s stronger-than-expected GDP growth coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic masked short-term risks and structural vulnerabilities in the world economy. The sombre short-term outlook is based on persistently high...

WHO said that 88 countries have no minimum age at which e-cigarettes can be bought and 74 countries have not implemented any e-cigarette regulations. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries to ramp up prevention measures, saying that “kids are being recruited and trapped at an...

The new findings from the UNICEF research wing focus on Member States of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU). Analysing child support policies among the group of developed economies, the report finds that despite an overall decrease in...

That’s the message from the UN’s trade and development body UNCTAD, which called on Tuesday for urgent reform of the international financial system to support the world’s 46 Least Developed Countries. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, these most vulnerable economies...

Global perspective Human stories A view of the General Assembly’s 2021 meeting on the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by US against Cuba. 2 November 2023Economic Development The UN General Assembly is expected to vote on its annual...

31 October 2023Human Rights A UN poverty expert called on the CEOs of Amazon, DoorDash and Walmart on Tuesday to address allegations that wages at the US-based corporations are trapping workers in poverty, forcing them to rely on US Government benefits to survive. In separate letters to...

The UN chief’s visit comes as the crisis in the Gaza Strip enters its third week following the 7 October incursion by Hamas militants into Israel and Israel’s subsequent declaration of war. Late last week the UN adopted a resolution calling for a humanitarian truce, but the past few days have...

23 October 2023Human Rights With 735 million people going hungry last year and three billion unable to afford a healthy diet, the world is “going backwards on our goal of zero hunger by 2030”, the UN chief told the Committee on World Food Security on Monday. Addressing the UN-backed body...

19 October 2023Economic Development The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday issued a call for better regulations over the use and potential mis-use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the healthcare industry. Its new publication emphasises the importance of establishing safe and...

António Guterres was speaking at the third international forum on China’s Belt and Road initiative, which has funded and built roads, power plants, bridges, ports and other facilities across developing countries over the past decade. Although infrastructure “is the foundation of everyday life...

With the Internet holding a critical role in navigating these complexities, the 18th annual Internet Governance Forum hosted by the Government of Japan is under the overarching theme, ‘The Internet We Want – Empowering All People.” Mitigating the risks Considering the rapid tech advances...

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reported that world economic growth is expected to decelerate from three per cent last year to 2.4 per cent through 2023, with limited signs of a rebound in 2024. These figures underscore the urgent need for reform of the global financial...