Environmental issues and sustainable development

The United Nations is mobilizing to help fight COVID-19 in the Dominican Republic, where about 37,000 cases and 800 deaths are confirmed.  The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is supplying ventilators while Rome-based food agencies led a virtual farm training to help people generate additional income.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the launch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) International Livestock Research Institute Zoonotics Report, in New York today:

In Kenya, the World Food Programme (WFP) has launched cash transfers and nutrition support for nearly 280,000 people struggling to survive from the impact of the virus on informal settlements in Nairobi.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohamed’s remarks to the Recover Better Together Action Forum, in New York today:

In Nepal, the United Nations team is helping the Government cope with the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting the repatriation of Nepali migrants returning from the Gulf and Southeast Asia at entry and transit points, with quarantine sites and isolation centres.  Some 25,000 returnees are expected in this first phase.

A new United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report finds that universal child benefits such as cash payments or tax transfers — crucial to fighting child poverty — are only available in 1 out of 10 countries.  Officials say that they are needed now more than ever amid the economic fallout of COVID-19.

For the first time since 2018, the World Food Programme has been able to send a humanitarian convoy from Kenya directly into South Sudan through the Nadapal Border crossing.  The nine-truck convoy carried 280 metric tons of food, enough to feed 20,000 people for a month.  The route’s reopening cuts travel times in half.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, following consultation with the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, announced today the appointment of Elizabeth Maruma Mrema of the United Republic of Tanzania as Executive Secretary to the Convention.

The United Nations humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock, has released $40 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to address health emergencies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including a new Ebola outbreak in the city of Mbandaka, in north-western Équateur province.

UNDP announced the winners of the eleventh Equator Prize, recognizing indigenous communities that create innovative, nature-based solutions to biodiversity loss and climate change.  They are from Canada, Myanmar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico and Thailand.