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, […]
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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 […]
COVID-19: impact could see 195 million job losses, says ILO chief
The rapidly intensifying economic effects of COVID-19 on the world of work are proving to be far worse than the 2008-9 financial crisis, with cutbacks equivalent to nearly 200 million full-time workers expected in the next three months alone, the UN labour agency said. The warning comes almost three weeks after the International Labour Organization (ILO) […]
UN General Assembly: The world’s ‘town hall’ remains open during COVID-19 crisis
Although it seems the whole world is on lockdown as countries follow health guidelines to curb the spread of COVID-19, the global “town hall” at UN Headquarters in New York remains open for business, albeit with a technical twist. That’s the message from Ambassador Mari Skåre, Chef de Cabinet to the President of the UN General Assembly, speaking […]
The Pandemic Forces UN Women to Shelve the Feminist Forums Until 2021
April 3, 2020 by Barbara Crossette UN Women is postponing two long-planned international meetings designed to give civil society groups a leading role in advancing gender rights 25 years after a landmark 1995 Beijing conference on women. The two sessions of the Global Equality Forum that had been planned for Mexico City in May and Paris in July will […]
IPA, WHO and UNICEF launch Read the World on International Children’s Book Day to support children and young people in isolation
UNICEF/UN0319172 NEW YORK/GENEVA, 2 April 2020 – Much-loved children’s authors are joining an initiative to read extracts of their books to millions of children and young people currently living in isolation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the World is a collaboration between the International Publishers Association (IPA), the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. It kicks off today, […]