The President of the UN General Assembly made an impassioned call on Tuesday to "strengthen momentum" towards making the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a reality, calling them a "masterplan for humanity". Peter Thomson was briefing Member States on his SDG implementation strategy, and he called on "all actors" to "view our world through the [...]
A film festival has been held for the first time in Beirut, Lebanon, in an attempt to expose the plight of Syrian refugees settling in the country. Mirielle Girard, the UN's Refugee Agency's (UNHCR) representative in Lebanon, said that the festival is aimed at showing people what is "behind the statistics". She added that xenophobia [...]
Explosives experts sent to Goma following attack on peacekeepers Explosives experts have been despatched to the scene of an attack on Tuesday which left one girl dead and 32 UN peacekeepers injured in the town of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). According to news reports, the peacekeepers, all from India, were [...]
Social spending in the Asia-Pacific region remains low compared to the rest of the world, leading to slow economic growth in some countries and lack of protection for children. That's according to Christopher de Bono, UN Children's Fund's (UNICEF) Chief of Communication for the East Asia and Pacific region. Governments from across the region have [...]
Listen to a bulletin of news and features from United Nations Radio, with Dianne Penn and Matthew Wells. In today's programme: Experts say this year is shaping up to be the hottest on record. And Governments in Asia-Pacific push to achieve healthier economies to invest more in children.
Developing countries are to receive dedicated support to help limit tobacco use through a project unveiled on Tuesday by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control will take the lead in helping low and middle-income countries, or LMICs, to implement policies designed to reduce smoking. Matthew Wells has more. If current [...]
Haiti cholera mass vaccinations get under way A mass cholera vaccination campaign has begun in Haiti targeting more than 800,000 people, one month after Hurricane Matthew flattened large areas of the Caribbean island. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the vaccines will be given in the 16 communes that have had suspected cholera [...]
A new generation of sustainable bamboo houses that take just 20 days to build could be part of the answer to making cities more sustainable and resilient. That's the view of Oliver Frith, a director of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, which showcased one of its new houses at the recent Habitat III [...]
