Africa: Safety of Human Rights Defenders in Exile Imperiled By Host Countries' Declining Civil Rights

Home Away From Home is the theme of World Refugee Day 2023. However, for many, including human rights activists who have fled their homes, a decline in civil rights in their host… Read more »

South Africa: Making the Impossible Possible, Chronicles of an Ambassador's Lifelong Frontline Battle to End Leprosy

In 1974, Yohei Sasakawa accompanied his father to a leprosy hospital he had funded. He saw leprosy patients inside the hospital still and expressionless. The smell of leprosy… Read more »

Africa: Negotiations Must Accelerate Climate Action and Save Vulnerable Countries #AfricaClimateHope

Vulnerable countries, banking on robust climate negotiations, want an inclusive funding package to help them with the devastating impacts of climate change. Read more »

Africa: A Climate Finance Goal That Works for Developing Countries #AfricaClimateHope

After years of failing to meet climate finance commitments, the new climate finance goal under discussion this week in Bonn is critical, but without supporting reforms of the… Read more »

Africa: Does Artificial Intelligence Need a Regulatory UN Watchdog?

The frighteningly rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have triggered the question: is there a UN role for monitoring and regulating it? Read more »

Africa: AI Genie Is Out of the Bottle - UN Should Take the Challenge to Make It Work for the Good of Humanity

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury is Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations and Founder of the Global Movement for The Culture of Peace. Read more »

Africa: We Can Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals but It Will Take Courage & Urgent Transformations

The world is at a crossroads. This week, the United Nations Secretary-General, government ministers and senior leaders are gathered in New York at the ECOSOC Financing for… Read more »

Africa: International Human Rights Law As a Tool to Stop Rising Homophobia in Africa

Imagine your government enacted a law where you and all people of your race or economic status were imprisoned for extended periods, with some facing the death penalty, simply for… Read more »

Africa: Should Internet Access Be Declared a Basic Human Right?

The United Nations defines human rights as "rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status". Read more »

Africa: Vulnerable Countries Need Action On Loss and Damage Today and Not At COPs to Come #AfricaClimateHope

In March 2023, more than 600 people died in Malawi after Tropical Cyclone Freddy dumped heavy rain, flooding the southern part of the country, displacing over half a million… Read more »

Africa: Transforming Education With Equitable Financing

With schools now reopened around the world, countries are called to take transformative action on education financing to recover and accelerate learning for all children,… Read more »

Egypt: Govt Moves Ahead with Privatising 32 State Entities to Cope with Economic Fallout

Egypt intends to sell shares in 32 state-owned businesses within a year, including three banks, two military-owned businesses, and numerous businesses in the energy and… Read more »

Africa: Ending Discrimination Against Women in Family Law Is Vital for Economic Progress

Discriminatory family laws and policies that restrict women's access to educational opportunities, employment, inheritance, property ownership and equal pay, are making women… Read more »

Mauritius: Quo Vadis Republic of Mauritius?

Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim is Former President of the Republic of Mauritius Read more »

Kenya: Solar Powered Freezer Improving Immunization Coverage in Hard-to-Reach Rural Villages

Up until 2019, nurses in three health facilities located in the semi-arid south-eastern Kenya region of Makueni County struggled to bring critical health services closer to a… Read more »

Africa: Breaking the Link Between 'Polycrisis' and Poverty

This year marks the halfway point-- eight years in and eight years out-- of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty and reduce inequalities. Read more »

Africa: International Women's Day, 2023 - Empowere Her

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women's Day, March 8. Read more »

Africa: Interwoven Global Crises Can Best Be Solved Together

When global crises are interlinked, they overlap and compound each other. In such cases, the most effective solutions are those that work at the nexus of all these challenges. Read more »

Africa: A Vital Partnership for the 2030 Agenda

Flexible and predictable funding allows UN agencies to respond promptly and with agility in times of crisis. In countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen, and Ukraine, UNDP implements… Read more »

Cape Verde: Cabo Verde Launches Blue Bond on Regional Sustainable Finance Platform

On 20 January, the world's best sailors arrived in Mindelo, Cabo Verde, completing the initial leg of the 2023 edition of The Ocean Race. Coinciding with this stop was the launch… Read more »

Africa: The Value of Strong Multilateral Cooperation in a Fractured World

The multilateral system, even in the face of heightened geopolitical tension and big power rivalry, remains the uniquely inclusive vehicle for managing mutual interdependencies in… Read more »

Africa: Why U.S.-Africa Relations - and Africa - Matter More Now Than Ever

President Biden and leaders of 49 invited African countries and the African Union met in Washington last month for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit - a meeting that all parties hope… Read more »

Zimbabwe: Greening the City Gets Community Treatment in Zimbabwe

It's a typical story in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city. With the failure to provide services such as refuse collection by the local municipality, township residents dump… Read more »

Africa: Conflicts, Climate Change Threaten Sprouting of Africa's Great Green Wall #AfricaClimateCrisis

Escalating conflict and climate change threaten the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI), an ambitious land restoration project across Africa. Read more »

Africa: War, Famine, Disease, Disasters - 2022 - a Year Staring At Apocalypse

A year that started with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and is ending with famine in Africa, while still spreading death and misery through an enduring pandemic and a deteriorating… Read more »