What COVID-19 can learn from climate change: establishing crisis governance
In 2020, we are faced with two simultaneous global crises. The only comfort we may take from this is that both climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic require systems of global governance, and establishing this for one will most likely benefit the other. Climate change experts shed light on this hypothesis at a panel discussion […]
Protect workers during and after lockdowns, urges UN labour agency
Sang Huachao/ Huachao Sang, a doctor from Jiangsu Province is looking at patients’ documents in a shelter hospital in Wuhan. Marking the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has urged States to take action to prevent and control COVID-19 in the workplace. “The safety and health of our entire workforce […]
As famines of ‘biblical proportion’ loom, Security Council urged to ‘act fast’
FAO/IFAD/WFP/Michael TeweldeIn 2019, Ethiopia experienced the fifth-worst food crisis of all the countries on earth. The world is not only facing “a global health pandemic but also a global humanitarian catastrophe”, the UN food relief agency chief told the Security Council on Tuesday via video link. WFP Chief warns of hunger pandemic as #COVID19 spreads. […]
Onset of COVID-19 pandemic boosts support for international cooperation
Initial results of a UN initiative to help decide the future direction of the Organization have revealed overwhelming support for international cooperation, which has grown significantly since COVID-19 began spreading around the world. The data, gathered from hundreds of conversations, and an online survey involving some 186 countries, form part of the United Nations’ 75th […]
UN heads warn of coronavirus risk in weakest countries
The heads of all the UN’s major agencies have issued a graphic warning of the risk of coronavirus to the world’s most vulnerable countries after disclosing that international donors had pledged around a quarter of the $2bn the UN requested for its emergency Covid-19 response in March. In an open letter shared before publication with the Guardian, […]
WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 15 April 2020
When the nations of the world met to form the United Nations in 1945, one of the first things they discussed was establishing an organization to protect and promote the health of the world’s people. They expressed that desire in the constitution of WHO, which says that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of […]