Environmental issues and sustainable development

The United Nations team in Afghanistan today released its new road map which prioritizes the needs and rights of those most vulnerable, including women and girls, children and youth, internally displaced persons, returnees, refugees, ethnic and religious minorities and focuses on essential services, among other things.

The country team in Egypt is addressing food insecurity - worsened by disrupted grain exports from the Russian Federation and Ukraine – by supporting vulnerable groups through cash transfers, vouchers, and food distribution, and providing fertilizers, loans and training to improve livelihoods to some 4,600 smallholder farmers.

The Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Programme and the mine action partner Foundation Suisse de Déminage have launched a programme for farmers most affected by the war in Ukraine to support smallholder farmers with plots smaller than 300 hectares and rural families growing food for their own consumption.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ flagship annual report, Global Trends in Forced Displacement, noted that by the end of 2022, the number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence and human rights abuses stood at a record 108 million people, up 19.1 million people from 2021, the biggest increase ever.

With the climate crisis generating an increasing threat to global peace and security, the Security Council must ramp up its efforts to protect the Organization’s peace operations around the world and lessen the risk of conflicts emanating from rising sea levels, droughts, floods and other climate-related events, briefers, ministers and delegates told the 15-nation organ.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought: “Her Land. Her Rights: Advancing Gender Equality and Land Restoration Goals”, observed on 17 June:

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the Member States briefing on the Climate Ambition Summit, in New York today:

The International Committee for the Red Cross relocated nearly 300 children from the Mygoma orphanage in Khartoum to a safer location. There the United Nations Children’s Fund is providing support for the children’s medical care, feeding and other needs and is working with authorities to identify foster families.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is supporting the Haitian Civil Protection General Directorate in coordinating the emergency response to the devastating floods and landslides that authorities say have killed at least 42 people and impacted more than 37,000 people, including displacing some 19,000 people.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for World Environment Day, observed 5 June: