Month: March 2020

UN launches major humanitarian appeal to keep COVID-19 from ‘circling back around the globe’

UN Photo/Mark Garten UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launches a COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan with Under- Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock, WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. To confront the unprecedented worldwide challenge posed by the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, top UN officials on Wednesday, launched a massive humanitarian appeal to […]

Coronavirus update: new WHO fund, Guterres calls for ‘prudence, not panic’

UN Photo/Loey Felipe A man wearing a face mask to prevent infection by the COVID-19 virus walks on the streets of a semi-deserted New York City. In a video message recorded on Friday afternoon, UN chief António Guterres assured the world that the COVID-19 virus will peak, and the global economy will recover but, until […]

More support needed for victims of sexual abuse by UN personnel

MONUSCO/Michael Ali The UN Trust Fund in support of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse has supported women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo receive vocational trainings like mushroom farming. (October 2018) Although measures to support victims of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) committed by UN personnel are proving effective, there is still room to do more, the senior official leading […]

2020 UN & Australia Sustainable Partnerships Forum Update

At this stage, we are continuing with our planning for the 2020 UN & Australia Sustainable Partnerships Forum but we are reviewing this on a daily basis. If a ban on gatherings prevents the event going ahead, we will notify everyone as soon as we possibly can.

UN programme to help spare millions from child marriage, extended to 2023

©UNFPA-UNICEF Nepal/KPanday Millions of girls have been able to avoid “an unwanted marriage and an unwelcome end to their childhood”, since the launch four years ago, of a joint UN agency programme, the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday. The UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage, a multi-country initiative to help […]

Coronavirus: Pandemic alert should be trigger for countries to do more against COVID-19

Unsplash/Aalok Atreya Countries must “double-down” on their efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus, the UN health agency said on Wednesday, after announcing that the global emergency can now be described as a pandemic. UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the declaration as “a call to action – for everyone, everywhere.” Speaking in Geneva, World […]