World stumbling into a new era of risk
23/5/2022: World leaders are failing to prepare for a new era of complex and often unpredictable risks to peace as profound environmental and security crises converge. A new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute argues that cooperation is essential for managing the environmental and security crises, along with the risks they create.
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
World health statistics to 2020
20/5/2022: Latest statistics published by the World Health Organization reveal the extent to which the Covid-19 pandemic has set back global progress on both life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. The two decades prior to the pandemic saw a doubling in global spending on health, of which approximately 80% occurred in high-income countries.
Source: World Health Organization
COVAX calls for urgent action to close vaccine equity gap
20/5/2022: Nearly 18 months after the first administration of a COVID-19 vaccine, only 16% of people in low-income countries have received a single dose – compared to 80% in high-income countries. Vaccine inequality continues to cost lives and increase the threat posed by potentially more dangerous variants of the virus.
Source: The Vaccine Alliance
UNDP calls for increased investment in energy access for all
19/5/2022: Finance for electricity is falling in the 20 sub-Saharan African and Asian countries with the highest proportion of people who lack energy access. The Sustainable Energy for All Forum in Rwanda has called for more investment to help 759 million people, 1 in 10 worldwide, do not have access to electricity.
Source: UN Development Programme
UN High Commissioner’s credibility at stake in China visit
19/5/2022: Michelle Bachelet's itinerary later this month includes the first visit to China by a UN human rights commissioner since 2005. Bachelet has previously asserted that she would require “unfettered” access to Xinjiang, the Uyghur region, but the terms of her visit have not been disclosed.
Source: Human Rights Watch
What the Russian invasion means for Syria
20/5/2022: Russian military intervention allowed the Assad regime to brutally reassert its control over much of Syria. The Ukrainian conflict will entrench the status quo, further complicate negotiations over a political transition, and worsen the humanitarian conditions in the country.
Source: Inter Press Service
Countries review progress on global migration compact
19/5/2022: The UN is reviewing progress towards implementing the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, adopted by governments in 2018 to establish rights-based legal pathways for migration. At least 8,436 migrant deaths were recorded globally between 1 January 2019 and 24 November 2021, the result of unregulated migration by human traffickers.
Source: UN News
East Africa and Ukraine: two very different responses
19/5/2022: East Africa faces its second famine in a decade but barely registers in the news. Funds and equipment pour into the war effort in Ukraine whilst only 3% of the total UN 2022 appeal for Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya had been funded to date.
Source: FP2P
Weather-related hazards trigger record global displacement
19/5/2022: Disasters continued to trigger most internal displacements globally, with 23.7 million recorded in 2021. Weather-related hazards accounted for 94 per cent of this total, many of which were evacuations in the face of cyclones and floods that struck densely populated areas of Asia and the Pacific region.
Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
Nations must act together to end crisis of food insecurity
18/5/2022: The number of severely food insecure people has doubled to 276 million in just two years, with more than half a million experiencing famine conditions. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that there is no effective solution to the food crisis without reintegrating Ukraine’s food production, as well as the food and fertilizer produced by Russia and Belarus, into world markets.
Source: UN News