UN telecomms agency chief: One third of humanity still offline

PNP DeskMarch 7, 2024September 18, 202404 mins

Doreen Bogdan-Martin underscored ITU’s wide-ranging brief, emphasizing its pivotal role in fostering connectivity across the globe. Founded in 1865 as an international telegraph association, today ITU champions two paramount goals: universal connectivity and sustainable digital transformation. The first woman in the post, Secretary-General Bogdan-Martin highlighted the stark digital divide impacting women and marginalized communities. Women…

Afghanistan’s economy has ‘basically collapsed’: UNDP

PNP DeskMarch 7, 2024September 18, 202406 mins

Kanni Wignaraja, Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, who recently visited the country, told correspondents in New York that 69 per cent of Afghans are “subsistence insecure” – meaning they do not have enough basic resources. “Something that really hit me … was the harsh impact of continuous natural disasters,” she…

5 ways to accelerate women’s economic empowerment

PNP DeskMarch 7, 2024September 18, 2024011 mins

“This year’s theme – invest in women – reminds us that ending the patriarchy requires money on the table,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement for the International Day. “This all depends on unlocking finance for sustainable development so that countries have funds available to invest in women and girls,” he said, calling…

Gazans ‘stalked by hunger, disease and death’ warns UN’s top aid official

‘They destroyed us’: North Gazans flee homes in search of food and shelter

PNP DeskMarch 7, 2024September 18, 202409 mins

For months, the UN has been warning of a looming famine, particularly in northern Gaza as everything needed to sustain life has either been destroyed or simply run out. This is now being translated into , not as a result of shells and bullets, but for lack of proper nutrition – or any nutrition at…

Zero Waste Day: UN calls for a war on garbage

Earth’s ‘life support system’ is being destroyed by global business paradigm, UN expert warns

PNP DeskMarch 6, 2024September 18, 202405 mins

In a hard-hitting report to the Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur David Boyd underscored that current business practices, particularly large coporations, pose a severe threat to the planet’s ecological integrity. ‘Colossal impacts’ of the ultrarich Mr. Boyd emphasized the “colossal impacts” on natural resources, which are being consumed six times faster than the planet can…

Stories from the UN Archive: UN General Assembly’s first female president

PNP DeskMarch 6, 2024September 18, 202402 mins

Ms. Pandit was a veteran politician and leader in her own right but also came from a family background steeped in politics, including her brother, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister following the country’s hard-won independence from a near century of British rule. An active Indian nationalist, she was also the first Indian woman to…

Path to low-carbon construction is clear as mud

PNP DeskMarch 6, 2024September 18, 202407 mins

“Not many architects think that climate change is something that they need to think about, but we’re trying to change that,” says Rosie Paul, co-founder of Bangalore-based architecture firm Masons Ink. “For us, it’s obvious that climate change directly affects the shelter that you’re going to live in, and you need to start building resilient…

11 months into Sudan war, ‘world’s worst hunger crisis’ looms

PNP DeskMarch 6, 2024September 18, 202405 mins

The northeast African country is already in the grip of the world’s largest displacement crisis, the UN World Food Programme, WFP, noted. Fighting between the Sudanese Army and a rival group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has left thousands dead and eight million displaced. A staggering 14 million children are in desperate need…

Allow more aid into Gaza now, pleads UN health agency chief

PNP DeskMarch 6, 2024September 18, 202407 mins

These are “children who survived bombardment, but may not survive a famine”, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros said on X, formerly Twitter. Accompanying the WHO chief’s warning, video testimony from Kamal Adwan Hospital’s paediatric unit highlighted the massive scale of needs which UN humanitarians and partners have been unable to relieve, citing aid…

UN envoy calls again for removal of restrictions on Afghan women

PNP DeskMarch 6, 2024September 18, 202404 mins

Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council, Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), said that recent arbitrary arrest of Afghan women for alleged Islamic dress code violations was having a chilling effect among the wider female population, “many of whom are now afraid to move in public,” she said. “The denial of women and…