Development

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed's remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the Economic and Social Council Operational Activities segment, today:

Five years after the 2017 influx into Bangladesh of Rohingya refugees, food security in Cox’s Bazar remains a top priority, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports.  A joint response plan calls for $943 million to help the refugees and their host communities; 25 per cent of the funds will go to fight hunger and malnutrition.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message to the World Tourism Organization Sustainable Development Goals Global Startup Competition, in Madrid today:

The United Nations development system is better positioned thanks to recent reforms but more can and must be done to improve its effectiveness at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out a decade of achievements in some countries, delegates told the Economic and Social Council today at the opening of its three-day segment on operational activities for development.

The Secretary-General welcomed the beginning of consultations between Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Bougainville government, following a referendum on Bougainville’s political future held in 2019.  The consultations mark an “important step” in the implementation of the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement.

Countries must up the ante on development cooperation, which is vital to tackle the dual challenge of recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting climate change, speakers said today as the Economic and Social Council concluded a two-day forum on the subject.

The global COVID-19 pandemic is testing international development cooperation like never before, magnifying existing challenges, but also creating a unique opportunity to embrace risk-informed approaches in the final push towards the Sustainable Development Goals, speakers said today as the 2021 high-level meeting of the Development Cooperation Forum got under way.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the Futures Festival — Raise Your Hand:  a youth-led livestream on education financing — today:

The United Nations team in Madagascar is helping authorities to address record-high food insecurity and surging severe acute malnutrition caused by droughts, sandstorms and caterpillar plagues in the south of the island.  Authorities and the United Nations launched a flash appeal in January for nearly $76 million.

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message to the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development, “Promoting Peace in the Age of Compound Risk”, today: