At the beginning of the year, the Government of Indonesia announced that it had administered more than 280 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. With over 79.6 per cent of the national population receiving at least one dose and 54.8 per cent fully vaccinated, Indonesia celebrated achieving its national vaccination target by the end of 2021.
In the early 1990s Uzbekistan, the double landlocked country in Central Asia, had just emerged as an independent state from the Soviet Union. With a fragile economy and developing industrial sector, these were challenging times for the newly autonomous country. Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, remembers this period well, having spent the early days of his career working for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in the Regional Office for Central Asia. In Uzbekistan he witnessed first-hand the challenges in expanding healthcare and other essential services.
Our UN teams are on the ground, working with governments and key stakeholders to bolster countries’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, helping ensure a smooth recovery. They tackle a range of multi-faceted priorities and key initiatives on a daily basis—from climate action to gender equality and food security—and utilize innovative approaches to problem-solving to better serve communities. Below are some highlights of their work this month.
The celebration to mark the thirty-year anniversary of Bosnia and Herzegovina's accession to the United Nations began last week with a formal programme at the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo and continued with the second edition of the UN's #ImagineChange Festival at the Square of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Trg BiH).
“The weather here’s a lot drier for longer these days,” says Althea Spencer, the treasurer of the Mount Airy Farmers group, which is based in Northern Clarendon. “If you don’t have water, it makes no sense to plant seeds because they will just die.”
Tongogara Refugee Camp (TRC), located in Chipinge District of Zimbabwe has become a safe haven where nationalities from different countries in Africa have learned to live together and exchange their diverse life experiences. It is a space where tolerating the next person’s way of living is the norm, while also adapting to a different setting away from home.
As Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group, I am deeply troubled over recent decisions and proposals to markedly cut Official Development Assistance (ODA) to service the impacts of the war in Ukraine on refugees.
