The High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, the HLPF, takes place at the mid-point in pursuit of the 2030 Agenda and focuses on ways to accelerate the global recovery.
UNICEF, in partnership with UN-Habitat, began joint rehabilitation works in several schools to provide children a safe environment to learn. Othayma’s school in Nashabieh town, rural Damascus, was one of them.
Coupled with other extreme weather events, the ongoing drought caused widespread hunger and pushed thousands into near famine-like conditions. In the south of the country, where the land is arid and households more dependent on rain-fed agriculture, the issue of malnutrition is particularly acute. Crops are not only suffering from a lack of water, but have also been damaged by high winds and tiomena – sandstorms - which blow away the fertile topsoil. In these conditions, communities are struggling to grow key staples, including corn.
Reforming the global financial system, moving beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of economic progress, and addressing technology challenges are crucial to achieving a more just and equitable future for all, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said this week.
Our UN teams are on the ground in 162 countries and territories, coordinating joint programmes and tackling a range of priorities and initiatives — from climate action and food security to gender equality and safety of civilians.
In a session like no other, against a background of urgent global crises and at the mid-point towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN leaders and Member State representatives gathered in New York at the ECOSOC Segment on Operational Activities for Development to take stock of the UN development system’s progress and challenges ahead from 23-25 May 2023.
"When we started the reform process, no one foresaw that our country teams would be operating in such challenging conditions. Despite that, four years on, the reforms have succeeded."
"Resident Coordinators are now our backbone to translate global commitments into effective action on the ground.
Before these reforms, this link simply did not exist and there was a gap between intergovernmental outcomes and action by UN Country Teams.
This is no longer the case."
“I have never seen climate carnage on this scale.” This is what United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said when he arrived in Pakistan in September 2022, witnessing first-hand how devastating floods left large swathes of the country under water.
