Meetings Coverage and Press Releases

In progress at UNHQ

Economic and Social Council

ECOSOC/7034

Economic and Social Council Youth Forum Concludes with Calls to Retain Pandemic-Era Tools, Eliminate Structural Inequities Thwarting Young People’s Potential

With more than 19,000 participants joining virtually over its two-day session, the 2021 Economic and Social Council Youth Forum concluded today as the largest and most diverse gathering of young people in the United Nations history, amid calls to retain useful pandemic-era tools while addressing the structural inequities that have long held youth back from achieving their full potential.

ECOSOC/7033

Speakers Highlight Critical Role of World’s 1.8 Billion Young People in Achieving Sustainable Development, as Economic and Social Council Youth Forum Opens

After a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Economic and Social Council Youth Forum reconvened today in a virtual format to mark its tenth anniversary, with speakers emphasizing the critical role that the world’s 1.8 billion young people can — and must — play in “building back better” and fulfilling the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

ECOSOC/7028-PBC/137

Conflict-Sensitive COVID-19 Responses Key for Averting Deep Crisis in Many Countries, Speakers Warn Joint Economic and Social Council-Peacebuilding Commission Meeting

With the world still deep in the grip of COVID‑19, many countries find themselves no more than a crisis or two away from sliding into conflict, speakers warned today during a virtual joint meeting of the Economic and Social Council and the Peacebuilding Commission that focused on ways to forge solidarity and develop conflict-sensitive responses to the worst global pandemic in a century.

ECOSOC/7017

Economic and Social Council Fills Vacancies in UN-Women Executive Board, Elects Four Additional Members to Refugee Agency Committee

The Economic and Social Council today filled two regular vacancies in the Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN‑Women) and elected four additional members to the Executive Committee of the Programme of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

ECOSOC/7015-PBC/133

Deadlier Conflicts, Climate Change Threaten Cross-Border Herding in West Africa, Delegates Tell Economic and Social Council, Peacebuilding Commission

While nomadic herding has peacefully existed for centuries, the traditional practice is now facing increased pressure in West Africa and the Sahel region due to reduced land, scarce water, climate change and the proliferation of illegally armed groups, delegates told a joint meeting of the Economic and Social Council and Peacebuilding Commission today.