With debt‑service burdens in developing countries at a 20‑year high in 2024 and official development assistance (ODA) falling by 23 per cent in 2025, United Nations senior officials and ministers from Member States underscored the urgency of translating commitments into action under the Sevilla Commitment — the global blueprint for financing sustainable development — as the 2026 Financing for Development Forum opened.
The United Nations presence in South Sudan is both critical and constrained, the Security Council heard today, as speakers offered their visions for how the Organization’s peacekeeping mission should operate amid steep financial and operational challenges in the world’s youngest, yet highly fragile, nation.
The Commission on Population and Development wrapped up its fifty-ninth session today after a week of wide-ranging debate on how technology, data and research can advance the ICPD Programme of Action — even as delegates again failed to agree on a negotiated outcome.
As demographics shift around the world, some countries are learning how to manage rapidly ageing societies, while others are exploring the best ways to optimize their youth populations, the Commission on Population and Development heard today.
The General Assembly today heard explanations from China and the Russian Federation regarding their use of the veto on 7 April, when they rejected a Security Council draft resolution submitted by Gulf States aimed at securing freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions across the Middle East.
Amid a review of United Nations peacekeeping operations, the Security Council heard today that the challenging conditions in which these missions carry out the UN’s core purpose of helping to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” are being made more complex due to severe financial constraints.
The General Assembly today adopted a resolution on the role of diamonds in fuelling conflict, reaffirming that the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme helps implement sanctions on conflict diamonds and encouraging the widest possible participation and compliance.
Despite diplomatic progress aimed at ending the brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, senior officials today warned the Security Council that violence in the country’s east continues unabated — with millions of women and girls disproportionately affected — and risks jeopardizing an otherwise positive trajectory in the wider Great Lakes region.
Online algorithms can reinforce stigma by suppressing, deprioritizing and hiding sexual and reproductive health information, a 19-year-old youth advocate from Saint Lucia told the Commission on Population and Development.
Yemen must not be drawn into the escalating conflict in the Middle East, speakers told the Security Council today, stressing the need for de-escalation, political progress and urgent humanitarian funding for a country and people precariously positioned in a volatile region.
