The UN’s trade and development body has downgraded its global economic growth projection for 2022 to 2.6% from 3.6% due to the Ukraine war and to changes in macroeconomic policies made by countries in recent months. While Russia will experience a deep recession this year, significant slowdowns in growth are …
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has launched an urgent international appeal for US $2.5 million emergency funding to help flood victims in Mozambique. Director general of FAO Jacques Diouf said, "Around US $2.5 million is needed to help Mozambique's farmers get back to farming as quickly as …
the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (unccd) recommended close regional cooperation amongst countries for measures to check desertification during a meeting held in New Delhi recently. Within this framework, the Regional Action Programme for Asia has identified six Thematic Programme Network areas. India will host the Thematic Programme Network …
Delegates representing more than a hundred governments have agreed to set-up a permanent United Nations ( un ) body to protect forests. This was decided at the Fourth Session of the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF). The world's forests are in grave danger with only 20 per cent of the …
The United Nations has decided to prepare a US $50-million action plan for the cyclone-affected areas of Orissa. A grade 5 cyclone hit the state on October 29. The super-cyclone ravaged numerous villages, killed thousands and rendering many homeless. Many villages still are submerged and can only be reached via …
The United Nations (un) has asked for immediate steps for cleaning the River Danube of wastes generated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (nato) bombing. Water from the Danube is used for drinking purposes in the downstream nations Romania and Bulgaria. According to Pekka Haavisto, head of the United Nation …
The United Nations General Assembly is holding a special session to draw up a strategy for limiting the world population, keeping in view the sharp divisions that exist on issues such as abortion, family planning and sex education in schools. The session is being held to review the decisions and …
The rapid increase in small-mining in poor nations, often employing women and children, is taking a heavy toll by way of fatalities and diseases, said the International Labour Organisation (ILO). On an average, there has been a 20 per cent rise in the past five years in 35 countries studied …
According to United Nations World Food Program (UNWFP) official, David Morton, the continuing famine in North Korea is comparable to the Ethiopian famine in the mid-1980s. He said large-scale assistance would be needed for at least three years to turn the situation around. The food disaster has produced a generation …
Oceans. The first thoughts that strike the mind are of vastness, depth, large expanses of blue-green water, aquatic life, hidden treasures and waves lapping the shores. Think some more and the realisation may dawn that we do not really appreciate all the services that they provide. Rich in marine flora …
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has called upon various governments to closely work with the Convention to Combat Desertification, a body fighting for reversal of dryland degradation. "The most effective actions for preventing dryland degradation are often the same actions needed to protect biological diversity or minimise the risk …
Massive relief operations are underway to rescue tens of thousands of people who became victims of Hurricane Mitch, mostly in Nicaragua and Honduras. The death toll, which is estimated to be over 10,000 is expected to rise due to hunger and disease (Down To Eartk Vol 7, No 14). According …
IN AN effort to combat malaria, four United Nations' organisations - the UN International Children's Fund, the UN Development Programme, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank - joined forces under the slogan "Roll Back Malaria" (RBM) on October 29. Malaria is one of the most widespread diseases affecting …
Various , United Nation (UN) agencies - United Nations' Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nation's Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nation's Industrial Development Programme (UNIDP) - will be releasing funds to the tune of US $69 millions, to phase-out ozone-depleting substances. The programme will be approved at the meeting of …
Programmes providing small loans are not effective for reducing poverty, stated a report published by the United Nations Department for Economics and Social Affairs. The micro credit concept has gained a lot of popularity during the last 10 years. But according to the report, the programmes had many limitations when …
TESTS carried out by France and Switzerland have not found any presence of vx, a poison gas on Iraqi warheads. These findings are contrary to those of the US, which had shown presence of the deadly nerve substance on the warheads. If the findings are confirmed, then Iraq's argument that …
THE United Nations (UN) initiative to grant indigenous people the right to self-government has come under severe criticism from the leader of Australia's One Nation Party, Pauline Hanson. Hanson's speech stating that the declaration supporting "self-determination" for indigenous people would destroy Australia's sovereignty has forced the Australian government to review …
The International Seabed Authority (ISA), the United Nations' agency responsible for administering the Law of Sea Treaty, has started discussions on a code to govern the recovery of minerals from the international seabed. Delegates from 138 countries are meeting at the ISA's headquarters in Jamaica over the next three weeks, …
