Development

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 launch of the International Organization of Employers/Development Coordination Office “Playbook”, today:

Humanitarian workers in Sudan report that the security situation in the town of Ag Geneina in western Darfur is stable but remains tense and unpredictable.  More than 230,000 people were displaced by the conflict in Darfur since the beginning of 2021, more than four times the 53,000 displaced in all of 2020.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the virtual launch of the Global Development Hub at Imperial College, London, today:

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message to the Brazilian Development Forum, today:

Progress in protecting the world’s forests — and the people who rely on them — is at risk due to the devastating impacts of the coronavirus and the escalating climate and biodiversity crises, according to a new report released today by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Courtenay Rattray of Jamaica as High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.  He will succeed Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu of Tonga, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedication and commitment to the United Nations.

The first members of the International Organization for Migration’s emergency response team arrived in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines today to deliver essential shelter and emergency items to thousands of people forcibly displaced after the eruption of La Soufrière volcano.

Facing challenging virtual negotiations and a history of gridlock, the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development marked a major achievement today as it adopted its first consensus outcome document in five years, at the conclusion of its fifty-fourth session, with delegates praising the timely focus on links between food security, nutrition, sustainable development and the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.

Following the recommendation of the Secretary-General, after consultation with Member States, the General Assembly confirmed Achim Steiner of Germany as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for a further four-year term of office beginning on 17 June.