In 2019, the illegal wildlife trade reached staggering levels. Pangolin scales and ivory were being trafficked in massive quantities from Africa to Asia, exposing a network of crime syndicates operating at an industrial scale. The sheer volume of these shipments marked a disturbing milestone, one that revealed the global reach …
The publication, The Right to Information in Times of Crisis, part of UNESCO’s World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development series, examines norms and principles concerning the right to information during public health crises, and highlights the importance of free access to information in mitigating the impact of …
Protect the Progress: Rise, Refocus, Recover, 2020 highlights that since the Every Woman Every Child movement was launched 10 years ago, spearheaded by the United Nations Secretary-General, there has been remarkable progress in improving the health of the world’s women, children and adolescents. For example, under-five deaths reached an all-time …
COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world to its core. Asia-Pacific leaders are simultaneously struggling to save lives and livelihoods. Working from home, online pedagogy and telemedicine are the new normal. This has exposed the region’s urban-rural digital fault line and fragility of its digital networks. Optical fiber cable (OFC) is …
The world in 2020 is in a state of flux. While much progress has been made globally over the past ten years in expanding access to, and adoption of, broadband infrastructure and services, significant challenges remain in tackling digital inequalities, addressing the current widespread impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and …
With less than 10 years to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), action is still not happening at the speed or scale required - despite a groudswell of ambition and action from organisations of all sectors and sizes. This report offers an end -to-end overview of exactly how business …
This report seeks to advance the actionable understanding of an emerging set of approaches for data-driven food systems across stakeholders. It explores opportunities for data to enable better decision-making, advance business, product and partnership models, and empower stakeholders across the value chain. It highlights examples showcasing these models in practice. …
The water quality of five major rivers in the country, including the Ganga, deteriorated during the coronavirus-induced lockdown due to factors like release of sewage and no fresh water discharge from the upstream, the Central Pollution Control Board said. The water quality of Ganga, Beas, Chambal, Sutlej and Swarnarekha did …
The world economy is experiencing a deep recession amid a still-unchecked pandemic. Now is the time to hammer out a plan for global recovery, one that can credibly return even the most vulnerable countries to a stronger position than they were before. The status quo ante, is a goal not …
This report is based on a survey of 1,400 people affected by conflict and displacement in eight countries, and more detailed surveys and needs assessment in a total of 14 countries. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) research found that these communities have suffered widespread loss of income since the pandemic …
The report assesses the consumption emissions of different income groups between 1990 and 2015 – 25 years when humanity doubled the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. During 2020, and with around 1C of global heating, climate change has fuelled deadly cyclones in India and Bangladesh, huge locust swarms …
Over the past months, as the world has sought desperately to deal both with the medical impacts of the virus and to prepare a response to its many secondary effects, research on COVID-19 has accelerated. However, there is limited research on the social impacts of COVID-19 and on the consequences …
In reply to a question, whether there has been a drop in average persondays generated under MGNREGA due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar , Minister Of Rural Development said in Rajya Sabha that on the contrary, there has been an increase of 52.11% in total employment generation …
UNHCR is mandated to provide protection, assistance and solutions for refugees, asylum-seekers, returnees, stateless persons, internally displaced people and others of concern to the Office, of whom there were 86.5 million at the end of 2019. With COVID-19 sweeping the globe, more than 20 million people worldwide are confirmed to …
In a statement, eight UN organizations stress that international transport and integrated supply chains are critical in recovering from COVID-19 achieving the SDGs. They call upon governments to embark on the process to review international and regional trade agreements, as deemed necessary, and ensure they contain provisions to facilitate trade …
The report covers political, security, socio-economic, human rights and humanitarian developments in the Sudan from 3 June to 8 September 2020 and contains an update on the planning process for the establishment of the Mission.
New analysis reveals the number of children living in multidimensional poverty – without access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation, or water – has increased by 15 per cent since the start of the pandemic. The number of children living in multidimensional poverty has soared to approximately 1.2 billion due …
The world was already off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even harder both to achieve the Goals and to monitor progress where it is being made, according to a new report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of …
The point of the report is to track (and promote) progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, and the big thing standing in the way of that progress right now is the pandemic. People living just above the extreme poverty line who have fallen below it because of COVID-19 were obviously …
As the pandemic persists, developing Asia is projected to contract by 0.7% in 2020—the first regional GDP contraction since the early 1960s. Developing Asia excluding the newly industrialized economies will also contract by 0.5%. Growth is forecast to rebound to 6.8% in 2021, but this will still leave GDP next …
To deal with the sharp economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of India has announced a slew of packages estimated to be about ten per cent of India’s GDP. While there is a lot of debate on the adequacy and effectiveness of the economic packages, there is …
