The Southeast Asian country is the most prone to natural hazards in the world, and these hazards are becoming more intense due to climate change. The UN has been working alongside the authorities in the Philippines to prepare for a wide range of disasters, as the UN Resident Coordinator in the...
Maria José Torres Macho travelled to Antarctica with the UN chief, António Guterres, ahead of the global climate conference, COP28, which is getting underway in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates: “The sleeping continent hides under its beauty, its undeniable role as a key climate regulator for the planet. While...
Earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic activity and other natural disasters regularly cause destruction and the loss of life in parts of the Caribbean. On the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction marked annually on 13 October, UN Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Didier Trebucq and Nahuel Arenas, regional chief...
Stephen Jackson, the UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya, reflects on the 2022 elections, which saw an effective partnership with the Government and private-sector rise to the occasion to take down fake news. “No one is born with hate. Hate is taught, and then hate spreads. Over recent years, social media...
“After the civil war, which claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, a comprehensive peace agreement was signed in August 2003 in Accra, Ghana. Since then, Liberia has sustained a period of uninterrupted stability; transforming from one of the most volatile to one of the most peaceful nations in West...
Lisa Singh, who is the UN Resident Coordinator in Mauritius and Seychelles, was speaking ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit +2 which is taking place in Italy from 24 to 26 July. “This is a particularly compelling time to be the Resident Coordinator for a small island state like Mauritius....
Leading efforts by 25 UN entities and several partners for the last four years, she has been reflecting on efforts to achieve national sustainable development priorities that tap into Mozambique’s immense resources and potential. © UNCDF/Arete/Lisa Murray Myrta Kaulard, United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Mozambique from July...
“Since my arrival in Madagascar as the UN Resident Coordinator at the end of 2020, the country has been hit by unprecedented cyclones and experienced the most severe drought in 40 years. Coupled with other extreme weather events, the drought caused widespread hunger and pushed thousands into near famine-like conditions....
When my mandate began, in 2018, it was not long after the end of the dictatorship [The two-decade rule of Yahya Jammeh]. The new Government was already embracing several reforms simultaneously, reviewing the constitution, the judiciary, and the security sector, and the UN had allocated funds for peacebuilding. Women working...
Denise Brown is the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine. Based in the capital Kyiv, she works alongside around 20 UN agencies with some 2,600 staff, the majority Ukrainians. She spoke to UN News about the challenges of supporting communities in a country at war. “Conditions have been pretty...
“I visited several cholera treatment centres in the most affected neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince and saw heart-breaking scenes; children who were so malnourished, it was difficult to insert a drip into their arms or legs; adults who were clearly very ill. What immediately struck me was the intense smell of chlorine...
“The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the largest population of internally displaced people on the African continent: 5.9 million people, including 700,000 newly displaced people this year. The DRC is also hosting over 500,000 refugees and asylum-seekers (mainly from Burundi, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan). The factors...