United Nations

UN Meeting Emphasizes Comprehensive SDG Push

July 19, 2017

Demonstrating the single-minded prioritization of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across all parts of the UN system, a recent meeting between UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officials focused on "UN system-wide engagement in delivering the SDGs."
NGO Calls for Competitive Elections at UNHRC

July 19, 2017

Echoing similar calls of US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, Akshaya Kumar of Human Rights Watch asserts that the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) must hold competitive elections for its seats to prevent the election of notorious human rights violators through “clean slate” deals that allow countries to win seats without competition.
UN Report Pushes for More SDG Investment

July 19, 2017

UN officials are using a report purporting to show a lag in progress toward meeting the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) "to eradicate poverty, address climate change and build peaceful, inclusive societies for all by 2030" to push countries to ramp up their investments in achieving the comprehensive SDGs.
UN Official Criticizes US Policies on Gender Equality

July 18, 2017

In remarks during a roundtable on gender inequality in Washington, D.C., UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka expressed dismay regarding "unequal pay across the board" between US men and women and criticized as "fundamental" discrimination the lack of federally mandated paid maternity leave in the country.
UN Women Seeks "Gender Perspective" in Migration Compact

July 18, 2017

Raising the possibility that activists will use the UN compact on global migration, to be adopted in 2018, as a vehicle for "gender mainstreaming," UN Women recently produced a set of recommendations for countries to "integrate a gender perspective" into the compact's provisions and ensure it aims to make the "experience of migration" more "empowering" to women.
UN Agency Publishes "Climate-Resilient" Cookbook

July 18, 2017

At an event held in a Brooklyn restaurant, the UN Development Programme launched a cookbook of "climate-resilient recipes" to demonstrate how developing countries are adapting their cooking to cope with the impacts of global warming.
UNESCO Report Highlights Need for Improving Refugee Education

July 18, 2017

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has issued guidance on how countries hosting refugees must respect the global legal "right to education" in order to achieve the UN's "sustainable development" targets related to learning.
UN Chief Shows Prioritization of "Sustainability" Agenda

July 18, 2017

In a report presented to the UN Economic and Social Council, UN Secretary General António Guterres proposes an ambitious "repositioning" of the UN development system to improve the chances of achieving the organization's comprehensive social and economic agenda contained in the Sustainable Development Goals.
World Bank Retains Commitment to "Green" Finance

July 17, 2017

At a news conference in April, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim stated that his organization would continue funding "green energy" and other projects designed to limit the impacts of global warming in spite of the Trump Administration's apparent policy shifts away from global climate cooperation.
World Bank Uses "Open Data" Model to Pursue Energy Goals

July 14, 2017

The World Bank and its partners have launched an online platform called "ENERGYDATA.INFO" that makes publicly available a vast trove of data on energy systems around the world in pursuit of the achievement of ambitious sustainable energy targets embedded in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.