Not all innovations are based on new technologies. Sometimes, they have to do with procedures or practices — that is, how people work together. That’s largely the case with a new method of responding to climate shocks and other humanitarian emergencies. Climate change is driving more extreme and frequent natural hazards, and that means that humanitarian need will only increase.
During the pandemic, violence cases against women increased significantly in Honduras. The country has the highest femicide rate in the Latin American region.
Every year around the world, thousands of volunteers from dozens of professional backgrounds join missions in different UN agencies to work in the field. All volunteers serving across 150 countries and territories are coordinated by an agency called UN Volunteers, or UNV for short.
“Persons with disabilities are capable and equal. It is time the world understands that,” says Antonio Palma, a UN Volunteer at the Resident Coordinator’s Office in Guatemala.
Disabled people in Haiti who have been driven from one temporary shelter to another as result of an earthquake, fire and mounting gang violence have been finally able to find a safe home, just ahead of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities marked annually on 3 December.
The United Nations Country Teams from Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina recently completed a ten-day mission by visiting several communities in the largest dry forest in the world and the second-largest forest biome in South America: the Gran Chaco, which extends over an area of over 1,14 million square kilometres, distributed in central and northern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia and western Paraguay.
Hunger rose more sharply than in any other region between 2019 and 2020, reaching 59,7 million people, its highest point since 2000. Food insecurity affects 267 million people and 106 million adults present obesity.
UN teams are tirelessly working with authorities and partners to respond to the ongoing pandemic and other multifaceted challenges across the globe. Today, we highlight some of the coordinated efforts.
More than a million people in Burkina Faso have been displaced from their homes, victims of ongoing conflict and poverty. Nevertheless, following a recent visit to the central and northern regions of the country, Barbara Manzi, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Burkina Faso, says she met a resilient people keen to find their own solutions, to a better future.