A report released today by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) points to historic gains overall for the world’s children, notably in under-5 mortality rates and primary education, since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted in 1989. Yet many of the poorest children have yet to feel the impact.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
More than 210,000 people in Chad have been affected by widespread flooding following heavy rains over the past few months and need food, shelter and non-food items, according to the Chadian Red Cross. The United Nations and humanitarian partners plan to scale up the aid response, but have very limited resources.
The Secretary-General remains deeply concerned about developments in Bolivia and has appointed a Personal Envoy who will be travelling to La Paz today to engage with all Bolivian actors and offer United Nations support in efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis, including through inclusive elections.
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a pilot programme to prequalify human insulin to increase treatment for diabetes in low- and middle-income countries — part of WHO’s efforts to address the growing diabetes burden. Some 65 million people with type 2 diabetes need insulin, but only half of them can access it, largely due to high prices.
Pneumonia is preventable but this forgotten epidemic remains the leading killer of children under the age of five, claiming more than 800,000 lives last year, or one child every 39 seconds, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today, which is World Pneumonia Day.
The Food and Agriculture Organization launched a $7.1 million project supported by the Global Environment Facility to make forest data more accessible, transparent and available. The project aims to help developing countries to meet the Paris Climate Agreement's enhanced transparency requirements, and will benefit 26 targeted countries.
An estimated 60,000 young refugees and migrants, who arrived in Italy between 2014 and 2018 as unaccompanied children, still require support to ensure their successful transition into adulthood, a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund and the High Commissioner for Refugees finds.
Food prices rose in October for the first time in five months as international sugar and cereal quotations climbed significantly, FAO reports. Wheat and maize export prices increased sharply due to reduced crop prospects as rice prices slipped, owing to subdued demand and prospects of an abundant basmati harvest, FAO said.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that four incidents of unexploded ordnance injured eight children in Syria on 4 November. The United Nations called on all parties to the conflict to allow clearance and education activities, given that 11.5 million people live in affected areas.
The first flight of humanitarian aid organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) arrived in Somalia today to help more than 20,000 people cut off by the worst flooding in years.