Environmental issues and sustainable development

Senegal’s armed forces were approved today to receive funding from the Elsie Initiative Fund to assess barriers to the participation of women in United Nations peace operations.  Senegal is the sixteenth largest troop-contributing country and has 987 personnel deployed as of February 2022, of whom 38, or 3.8 per cent, are women.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the high-level virtual meeting of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative for Accelerated Implementation of the 2030 Agenda, held today:

Home to 80 per cent of all terrestrial species and hailed as “the lungs of the planet” for their ability to generate oxygen, forests hold boundless potential to help solve the most pressing global challenges, speakers in the United Nations Forum on Forests stressed today, as they offered alternatives to the many activities threatening their health, from logging and oil exploration to well-intentioned but ill-conceived conservation efforts.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the Head of States meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNCCD) COP15 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, today:

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which chairs the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, presented this year’s Wangari Maathai Forest Champions Award to activist Cécile Ndjebet of Cameroon.

In Haiti, clashes resumed between gangs in Port-au-Prince, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.  In the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets, violence has displaced more than 1,200 people.  Dozens of houses were burned and a hospital in Marin was looted.

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message to the XV World Forestry Congress, in Seoul, today:

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message to the Conference on Sustaining Peace Amidst the Climate Crisis: The Role of Data Science, Technology and Innovation, in Berlin, today:

Before leaving Kyiv today, the Secretary-General said that, while he would keep pushing for a full-scale ceasefire, the United Nations would also keep striving for immediate practical steps to save lives and reduce human suffering, including through local cessation of hostilities and safe passage for civilian and supply routes.

In Haiti, violent clashes between gangs in the capital have displaced several hundred people and preliminary data indicates at least 20 civilian deaths, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.  United Nations agencies are helping the Government to assess emergency needs in impacted areas.