Tread Softly

5/6/2025: Since the Trump administration’s January dismantling of USAID, the world’s largest bilateral donor to the education sector, delivery partners have had to cancel 396 education programs in 58 countries. The sector must now seek innovative financing mechanisms to survive.

Source: Devex

5/6/2025: The international landscape in mid-2025 is characterized by a retreat from liberal institutionalism, as seen by the US withdrawal from the UN Sustainable Development Goals. An alternative approach champions flexible coalitions of countries and groups bound by shared values and interests.

Source: Devex

5/6/2025: If fully enacted, the Trump administration's 2026 budget cuts would bring funding to its lowest level since before World War II, just 0.03% of the country’s gross domestic product, compared to a 0.3% average across the last decade.

Source: Devex

4/6/2025: The Trump administration's 2026 budget request excludes any funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which provides vaccines to lower-income countries. Similar cuts affect the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the UN Population Fund.

Source: Devex 

3/6/2025: The UN Refugee Agency is concerned that more than 844,000 Sudanese refugees have crossed into Chad since April 2023, far exceeding the number received during the previous two decades.

Source: UN Refugee Agency

1/6/2025: An informal survey of almost 1500 readers sheds light on opinion about the UN Secretary-General's plan to reshape the UN system. The most popular proposals are merging the peace and security departments and unifying human rights efforts into a single department.

Source: PassBlue

29/5/2025: Greenpeace Africa has brought together over 40 Nigerian civil society groups to launch the Climate Justice Movement, the first of its kind in the country. Similar launches have taken place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and Ghana. The movement promotes collaboration among grassroots groups, advocating for environmental justice across the region.

Source: Inter Press Service

28/5/2025: A new report released today by the UN Development Programme reveals that the agency has mobilised $870 billion for sustainable development in emerging economies between 2022 and 2024. UNDP collaborates with governments, financial institutions, and private-sector partners to reduce investment risks, strengthen public financial systems, and unlock capital.

Source: UN Development Programme

28/5/2025: The European Commission has published a proposal that would allow member states to send asylum seekers to countries with which they have no connection. Human Rights Watch believes this would undermine good faith implementation of the letter and spirit of international human rights and refugee law.

Source: Human Rights Watch

28/5/2025: The UN Secretary-General is seeking to eliminate 20% of jobs across the UN Secretariat, which employs some 35,000 people. The proposed cuts are designed to prepare the world body for a massive reduction in U.S. financial support.

Source: Devex