Tread Softly

4/11/2024: The UN Biodiversity Conference in Cali, Colombia was suspended before a crucial agreement on funding for a new global fund for nature. However, delegates made strides on corporate payments for genetic data and formal representation for Indigenous people. 

Source: Devex

31/10/2024: Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), a nonprofit specializing in conflict-related data collection, has recorded  nearly 19,000 deaths in the first 15 months of the conflict in Sudan. They estimate an additional 43,500 deaths caused by indirect factors such as the absence of emergency care, the breakdown of vaccination programs and a lack of essential food and medicine.

Source: The Conversation

31/10/2024: A report issued by UN Food Agencies classifies 22 countries where acute hunger is at high risk of worsening between November 2024 and May 2025 due to the combination of conflict, economic instability, and climate shocks. Palestine, the Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali remain at the highest alert level.

Source: World Food Programme

24/10/2024: The 2024 UN Emissions Gap Report tells us that nations must show a massive increase in ambition in new Nationally Determined Contributions, the promises updated every five years. As things stand, current NDCs put the world on track for a global temperature rise of 2.6-2.8°C this century. Even worse, policies currently in place are insufficient to meet even these NDCs.

Source: UN Environment Programme

7/6/2024: Somalia was elected unopposed by the UN General Assembly after the African Union agreed in principle earlier this year. Being a member of the Council is a turnaround for Somalia’s stature on the international stage, having been under UN sanctions until last December. Somalia had last served on the Council in 1971-72 term, during the reign of the Siad Barre regime.

Source: The East African

5/6/2024: The UN Refugee Agency estimates that more than 2.9 million refugees worldwide will need resettlement next year, the rising number driven by mass displacement situations and the emergence of new conflicts. In 2023 96,311 refugees were resettled by states, an increase of 65 per cent compared with the year before.

Source: The UN Refugee Agency

3/6/2024: Signatories of the Paris Agreement pledged to come up with a new finance goal before 2025. And the pressure to up the target is growing. Negotiators are laying the groundwork for a new climate finance goal ahead of the COP 29 summit later this year. 

Source: DW

2/6/2024: In the aftermath of recent economic shocks, three African countries – Zambia, Ghana, and Ethiopia – have defaulted on their debt, and 10 others, including Kenya and Rwanda, have slid into a high risk of debt distress. At meetings of the African Development Bank, African leaders have laid out their demands for the new financial architecture.

Source: The East African

1/6/2024: Demonstrating poverty reduction is a mainstay of political success in India and also relevant to global progress. A government agency reports that multidimensional poverty fell from 24.85 per cent to 14.96 per cent over the period 2015-2021. But the challenges of data collection, reliability and manipulation, mean that India's statistics on poverty must be treated with scrutiny.

Source: East Asia Forum

31/5/2024: A statement by Principals of the UN's Inter-Agency Standing Committee warns that more than 800,000 civilians are bracing for an imminent large-scale attack in the city of Al Fasher. They fear a nightmare scenario in which famine will take hold in large parts of Sudan and more people will flee to neighbouring countries.

Source: World Health Organization