September 24, 2018 No comments
‘Surge in financing’ needed to transform the world: UN chief
INTERNATIONAL, 24 September 2018, SDGs - A “surge in financing and investments” is needed to achieve the 2030 Agenda, the United Nations plan of action agreed by Member States, to transform the world, the Secretary-General said on Monday. António Guterres was speaking at the opening of the High Level Meeting on Financing the 2030 Agenda, at which he launched his Strategy to support Financing the 2030 Agenda. He was joined by Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), several Heads of State and Government, as well as senior representatives of leading companies – including the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates – and philanthropic foundations. The financing needs of the 2030 Agenda, said Mr. Guterres, are immense, in the order of between $5 and $7 trillion per...
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September 24, 2018 No comments
Youth2030: UN chief launches bold new strategy for young people ‘to lead’
INTERNATIONAL, 24 September 2018, Economic Development - The United Nations Secretary-General launched a new partnership strategy with the world’s 1.8 billion young people on Monday, to help put “their ideas into action”. Noting that it was “a rare treat” to see so many young faces at the UN, to launch the new “Youth2030” strategy, UN chief António Guterres highlighted a list of challenges “the largest young generation in history” faces today. He noted that “globalization, new technologies, displacement, shrinking civic space, changing labour markets and climate impacts,” were putting huge pressure on youth everywhere, adding that more than one-fifth of young people are not in employment, education or training; a quarter are affected by violence or armed conflict; and young people remain excluded from...
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September 24, 2018 No comments
At UN, countries pledge to be guided by Mandela’s legacy in working for a better world
INTERNATIONAL, 24 September 2018, Peace and Security - The United Nations General Assembly on Monday honoured Nelson Mandela with a pledge to build a just, peaceful and prosperous world and to revive the values for which the former South African President and anti-apartheid campaigner stood. At the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit, held in New York, Member States adopted the first resolution of the General Assembly’s 73rd session, “committing to demonstrate mutual respect, tolerance, understanding and reconciliation in [their] relations.” “We resolve to move beyond words in the promotion of peaceful, just, inclusive and non-discriminatory societies, stressing the importance of the equal participation and full involvement of women and the meaningful participation of youth in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security,” read...
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September 24, 2018 No comments
Global spotlight on world drug problem ‘is personal’ says UN chief a high-level UN event
INTERNATIONAL, 24 September 2018, Health - The United Nations focused a global spotlight on the world-wide drug problem during a high-level counter-narcotics event on Monday in which Secretary-General António Guterres flagged that this “is personal.” Drug addiction is “more than just a policy issue. It is personal.” Mr. Guterres said at the event, noting that “the reality is that drugs and addiction are not abstract issues.” “All of us have stories” and “it is our duty to act – and act now,” underscored the UN chief. He highlighted that he had lost a friend to drugs “at an unbearably young age, and also described how his sister had spent many years working as a psychiatrist at a drug treatment centre in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. “I saw...
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September 24, 2018 No comments
Yemen: Tackling the world’s largest humanitarian crisis
INTERNATIONAL, 24 September 2018, Humanitarian Aid - With three-quarters of the population requiring some form of basic assistance to survive, the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, now in its fourth year, has reached unprecedented levels of need. On Monday, ahead of the United Nation’s 73rd General Assembly high-level debate, a special event will focus on the humanitarian response across the country, its major achievements and its daily challenges, in an attempt to galvanize more international support. The figures of the crisis are staggering and near-impossible to grasp: 22.2 million in need of assistance, 8.4 million people severely food insecure, and a further 10 million that could fall under the same category by the end of the year, if action is not urgently taken.“It is bleak”, UN humanitarian...
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