"Investments in closing the digital gender divide yield huge dividends for all. The United Nations is committed to working with girls so that this generation, whoever they are and whatever their circumstances, can fulfil their potential." - UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.
For anyone who doesn’t speak Arabic, Awqaf might be a strange-looking word. It’s pronounced “AW-kaf,” and it means to “stand still, hold still, not let go.” It’s also a form of philanthropic giving.
The UN Secretary-General on Sunday said he was committed to ensuring that the Organization is a place where “youth voices are heard, and their ideas lead”, as he spent the day in Barbados which tomorrow hosts a major UN conference on trade and development, focused on the need to build a global green economy and recover equitably from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since it started in 2011, the war in Syria has killed or injured around 12,000 children and pushed over 90% of the country’s children into poverty. Millions of other Syrians have fled to the relative safety of nearby countries—including Jordan, which is now home to some three million registered refugees. That includes some 2.3 million from Palestine and almost 700,000 from Syria. Nearly half of the Syrians are under age 18.
After years of preparations and engagement, and a postponement of one full year due to COVID-19, Expo 2020 will open its doors to in-person visitors on 1 October 2021 for six months. In keeping with past practice and the great value of convening at world Expos, and at the invitation of the Government of the United Arabi Emirates, the United Nations will be present at Expo 2020 in Dubai.
Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of the Belgians paid an in-person visit to UN House in Brussels, the headquarters of several agencies, funds, and programmes of the UN in the Belgian capital, as well as a virtual visit to the UN in Liberia. During her meeting with representatives from UN organisations, Her Majesty discussed the main priorities of the UN, and in particular the implementation of the SDGs.
The world is in trouble. We need look no further than the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which UN Secretary-General António Guterres called “code red for humanity.”
Chanel Bernard, 29 years-old, is from Pestel, a township in Haiti's Grand'Anse department, located some 80 kilometers from the city of Les Cayes. The 90,000 inhabitants of this town nestled between the sea and the mountains live according to the rhythm of the market days—Wednesdays and Saturdays— and the flow of ships unloading their goods from neighbouring cities into the port.
