UN Insider

The Path Forward for Higher Education After COVID-19

UN Academic Impact Talks to Students from Several Countries

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – COVID-19 pandemic has forced more than 1.5 billion students in 165 countries out of school, enforcing the global academic community to explore new ways of teaching and learning, including distance and online education, according to UNESCO estimates.

This has proven challenging for both students and educators, who have to deal with the emotional, physical and economic difficulties posed by the illness while doing their part to help curb the spread of the virus, notes United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI).

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 10 July 2020

Photo: A seasonal worker at a store in Buga, Colombia. Credit: World Bank/Charlotte Kesl.

UN Chief Calls for Addressing ‘unprecedented’ impact of coronavirus on Latin America and the Caribbean

By UN News

NEW YORK (IDN) – As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the world, Latin America and the Caribbean have become a “hotspot of the pandemic”, the UN chief said on July 8, releasing a new policy initiative on how best to recover in a region already embroiled in poverty, hunger, unemployment and inequality.

The UN brief reveals that several countries in the region, are now among those with the highest per capita infection rates worldwide and shines a light on how the crisis is impacting vulnerable groups, including indigenous communities and women.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 10 July 2020

A Train Tour for Children of the World into 2030

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations for Grenada, Mr Denis G. Antoine, has authored an extraordinary children's book: Get on Board, Dear Children of the World. He served as a Vice President of the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly, marking the 70th anniversary of the world body.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 09 July 2020

#CopingWithCOVID Webinar for Young People

Taking care of mental health while living in the new normal

By UN News

NEW YORK (IDN)— The United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, Ms Jayathma Wickramanayake, will host the 9th session of the United Nations' #CopingWithCOVID webinar series on July 15 (livestream at bit.ly/CwCOVID9).

During this session — focused on young people’s mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic — the Envoy will be joined by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Queen Mathilde of the Belgians and six young people from around the world.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 09 July 2020

Photo: Women tend a community nursery created as part of a completed ITTO project to assist forest landscape restoration in Togo. Credit: ODEF

A Landmark Project Aims at Reforestation in Togo

Income Opportunities for Women

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) – Togo in West Africa is the venue of a milestone project between Soka Gakkai, a global community-based Buddhist organization and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). The two have signed a memorandum to launch a reforestation project offering income opportunities for women's groups in two rural areas of Togo.

The memorandum involving a donation of 10 million yen (US$93,300) for the initial one-year phase of the project was signed on July 1 at the Soka Gakkai (SG) headquarters in Tokyo. The project will kick off on September 1.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 05 July 2020

Wanted 'Information Volunteers' to Halt Viral Spread of COVID-19 Misinformation

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — Never before has there been a more pressing need for accurate, verified information as in the current situation marked by the Coronavirus spreading its tentacles around the world. Like the virus itself, Misinformation about COVID-19 spreads rapidly from person-to-person and heightens the risk to health disseminating fear and division.

Subsequently, to contain the disease and its impacts, people around the world require access to trusted, accurate information based on science and aiming at solutions and building solidarity within and between nations.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 02 July 2020

Photo: Johnson visited the British Virgin Islands after Hurricane Irma on 13 September 2020. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Boris Johnson's Merger of DFID – Will it Massacre UK’s ODA?

Viewpoint by Patrick I Gomes

The writer, Dr Patrick I Gomes, was Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States for five years until Angola's Ambassador to the European Union, Mr. Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti, took over on March 1. The 79-nation inter-regional body officially became the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) on April 5, 2020. Dr Gomes was previously Ambassador of the Republic of Guyana, to the EU in Brussels.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Global Partnerships; 01 July 2020

Photo: The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is providing services to displaced women and girls across northeast Syria. Credit: UNFPA Syria.

Put Women at The Centre of Syria Crisis Response

Viewpoint by Dr Natalia Kanem and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Dr Natalia Kanem is the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka Executive Director of UN Women.

NEW YORK (IDN) – As the Syria crisis enters its 10th year, the situation is especially dire for women and girls, with the effects of COVID-19 compounding the risks and hardships for millions of people inside the country and for refugees around the region.

Today nearly 12 million people in Syria require urgent humanitarian assistance and around 4 million depend on cross-border aid. Some 5.7 million Syrians have fled and are now residing in countries throughout the region.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 01 July 2020

Image: Small Island States at the forefront. Credit: Simon Sees at Flickr.

Sustainable Tourism and Fisheries Key to Growth in Post-COVID Pacific

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

The writer, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

BANGKOK (IDN) – Developing countries of Asia and the Pacific are experiencing unbalanced tolls of the COVID-19 pandemic. Grim milestones in infections and deaths have left countless devastated. Yet, we must look at the economic and social impacts in small island developing States (SIDS), where setbacks are likely to undo years of development gains and push many people back into poverty.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 June 2020

The Middle East Reeling Under COVID-19 Impact on Livelihoods and Food Security

By Bernhard Schell

AMMAN (IDN) – Highlighting the increasingly dire situation in countries across the Middle East, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that "deep humanitarian needs will worsen and new ones will emerge if the international community doesn't factor socio-economic aftershocks into our response and protect livelihoods and food security".