Cost of gender inequalities in food and agriculture put at 1% global GDP
Closing the gender gap in productivity and wages would increase global GDP by nearly $1 trillion and reduce the number of food-insecure people by 45 million, FAO reports.
Global Issues
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Developing nations forecast to lose US$800B from debt and slowdown
UNCTAD said it expects global growth in 2023 to drop to 2.1% but only if the financial fallout from higher interest rates is contained to the bank runs and bailouts of the first quarter.
At 75, U.N. health agency is lightning rod for equity and cooperation
As the World Health Organization celebrated its 75th anniversary – commemorating World Health Day and the day its constitution took effect, recognizing health as a human right – the COVID-19 pandemic's lessons were inescapable.
Slower trade growth projected in 2023 mainly due to war in Ukraine
The World Trade Organization expects trade growth to slow to 1.7% this year because of Russia's war in Ukraine, high inflation, tight monetary policy and market uncertainty.
Putin, charged with war crimes, takes over U.N.'s most powerful arm
Russia's status as president of the U.N. Security Council, despite its leader waging an illegal war on Ukraine and facing war crimes charges, is bound up in a frozen-in-time power structure dating to the end of World War II.
Stockpiles of nuclear weapons available for use increased in 2022
The number of nuclear warheads that are available to nations for deployment reached 9,576 at the start of 2023, up from 9,440 a year earlier, according to a watchdog's new report.
Nations back ambitious clean water and sanitation goals this decade
The voluntary commitments that came from the conference – the first such gathering since a U.N. water conference in Argentina in 1977 – fall far short of a legally binding agreement like the 2015 Paris Agreement for climate change.
New IPCC report urges 'hope' and climate justice for most vulnerable
Almost half of the world’s population lives in regions highly vulnerable to climate change and where deaths from floods, droughts and storms were 15 times higher in the past decade.
Study says bottled water industry undercuts safe drinking water for all
It finds the expanding bottled water industry – expected to grow to US$500 billion a year in sales by 2030 – isn't aligned with the U.N.'s 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.
WHO chief calls 3-year pandemic 'a chaotic patchwork of responses'
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus offered three lessons the world must learn to be able to effectively cope with future global health crises.
U.N. panel prepares last report of series to shape climate policy
The head of the U.N.'s Nobel Prize-winning panel of climate experts called for quick action because "make no mistake, inaction and delays are not listed as options."
U.N. raises concerns about human rights records in over 40 nations
The U.N. human rights chief says that a quarter of all of humanity lives today in places that are affected by conflict, and unfortunately "it is civilians who suffer the most."
U.N.'s early warning climate plan for extreme weather picks up support
The U.N. chief called for the initiative saying as climate impacts worsen, it's unacceptable that a third of the world, mainly in least developed countries and small island developing states, isn't covered by early warning systems.
Negotiators clinch historic deal for high seas biodiversity
The treaty is intended to strengthen marine protections on the high seas, which are the international waters beyond the 200 nautical mile (370 kilometer) jurisdiction of coastal nations.
Male-only parliaments are becoming a thing of the past
Six nations now have gender parity or a slight women's majority: Rwanda (61.3%), Cuba (53.4%), Nicaragua (51.7%), and Mexico, New Zealand and United Arab Emirates (50%).
Nations work to update draft of WHO's proposed pandemic treaty
The treaty takes aim at the huge inequalities in health care and access to products such as vaccines, therapeutics and tests that the COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus.