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The first cohort of Afghan students arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and started language courses at ALMA University, October 2019. Photo: UNDP Kazakhstan
Esuna Dugarova

Progress Towards Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: The UNDP Journey

As the largest development actor, UNDP holds a key responsibility to ensure progress towards gender equality and sustainable development.

A street scene from the Republic of Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo provided by Tabitha Kwon.
Tabitha Kwon

COVID-19: What You Should Know About Masks

The Republic of Korea was able to lower its infection rate without the kind of strict, cross-border restrictions and lockdowns that were imposed in other countries.

AntĂłnio Guterres

Marking 75 Years of the Charter of the United Nations

At a time when the world is wrestling with the COVID-19 pandemic, rising geopolitical tensions and growing climate disruption, the Charter points the way to the solidarity we need today and across generations.

A view from the UNTV studio as the Security Council holds an open video conference in connection with the situation in the Middle East (Yemen). Seated is John Montenero, Senior Broadcast and Conference Operator at the Office of Information and Communicati
Walter Dorn

UN Technology to Cope with COVID and Beyond

Today and into the future, technology will be used by good and bad actors, and the United Nations should be ahead of the technology curve.

A small island in the sea. 6 March 2020. Photo by Loeng Lig on Unsplash
Karen Sack

Protecting Ocean Health Will Protect the Health of Humankind

We may not be able to gather to celebrate the ocean right now, but the global health crisis should sharpen our resolve to protect our blue planet.

Small-scale fishing boat off the coast of Malindi, Kenya. ©Nina Wambiji
Lazarus Ombai Amayo

Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: Impacts on Kenya’s Marine and Coastal Environment

With the emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Kenya’s coastal and marine landscape has changed in ways that were unimaginable just a few months earlier.

Tepuy Kukenan in the Gran Sabana, Canaima National Park, Venezuela. ©Paolo Costa Baldi
Leo Heileman

Celebrating and Safeguarding Biodiversity to Prevent the Next Pandemic

Making our cities and rural areas more resilient and restoring degraded lands and forests will reduce our vulnerability to future zoonotic diseases and help mitigate climate change while maintaining our biodiversity, water supply and planetary health.

The cotton-top tamarin, one of the smallest primates, is found in northwestern Colombia. Photo: cuatrok77
Guillermo FernĂĄndez de Soto

The Transformative Change We Need to Live in Harmony with Nature

The global trend of biodiversity loss is threatening our survival as a species and the future of our planet.

Mrs. Gurdev Kaur at her sewing machine, stitching masks for people in need. Moga, Punjab, India. April 2020. Photo by Ms. Raman Gill.
Lyubov Ginzburg

Ninety-Eight-Year-Old 'Corona Warrior' Rises to the Challenge

At a time when, in the words of United Nations Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres, "we need every ounce of solidarity", the story of 98-year-old Gurdev Kaur Dhaliwal of Moga, who stitches masks for the poor, is the ultimate manifestation of unity of purpose.

Major Stefano Parisi (left) of UNIFIL helps hand over equipment and other accessories to Naqoura Municipality in south Lebanon as part of the mission’s effort to assist local communities fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. 31 March 2020. UN/Pasqual Gorriz.
Stefano Parisi

Serving as a UNIFIL Peacekeeper During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The support of my family and the opportunity offered by UNIFIL have propelled me, as a United Nations peacekeeper, to play an active part in this global, unconventional war for the good of the humankind.

National Chief Perry Bellegarde of the Assembly of First Nations, Canada, addresses the High-level event of the General Assembly at the conclusion of the International Year of Indigenous Languages (2019), 17 December 2019. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
Perry Bellegarde

Indigenous Peoples Confronting the Pandemic: NÄ«sƍhkamātowin wāhiyaw itƍhtēmakan

Viruses don’t discriminate, but governments, institutions and social systems do. Infectious diseases like COVID-19 follow the channels carved by centuries of prejudice and inequality.

Sia Sandi, student midwife from the School of Midwifery in Masuba, Makeni, on placement at Makeni Regional Hospital, Bombali District, Sierra Leone, August 2013. UNFPA/Abbie Trayler-Smith
Padmini Murthy

Women’s Leadership in Promoting Global Health and Well-Being

Globally, women bear the burden of disease disproportionately and face premature death due to gender-based inequities; these negative indicators are reflected in discrepancies with regard to access to basic health care services, nutrition and educational opportunities.

Community health volunteer makes a home visit. © Samy Rakotoniaina/Management Sciences for Health
Gavin Yamey, Justice Nonvignon and Cordelia Kenney

Modernizing Our Public Health Systems to Be Ready for the Next Pandemic

Today, many countries are still in crisis mode, doing what they can to control their COVID-19 outbreaks through measures such as social distancing, case detection and isolation, and treating hospitalized patients. Beyond the crisis stage, they will need improved public health capabilities to prevent a COVID-19 resurgence and to be ready for future pandemics.

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed holds a virtual briefing with the Group of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) on the COVID-19 response. United Nations, New York, 30 April 2020. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Olof Skoog

Proof Positive: COVID-19 Shows the Necessity of Multilateral Responses—and Global Solidarity

Although we are still in the most acute phase of the pandemic, it is already time to prepare for the day after. We need to make sure to “recover better”: better preparedness to tackle future similar crises, better governance, and more sustainable economic and social systems.

Secretary-General António Guterres speaks at the informal virtual meeting of the 2020 ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development follow-up: "Financing Sustainable Development in the Context of COVID-19". 23 April 2020. ©UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven

COVID-19 and the Alliance for Multilateralism

The world must prepare better for the next pandemic. COVID-19 should be an opportunity to strengthen the global health security system and enhance pandemic preparedness, prevention and response. The multilateral system needs to adapt and reform to “recover better”.