DOHA, 7 March — Overcoming the digital divide through investment in broadband infrastructure will help those living in least developed countries leverage economic opportunities in a world that is increasingly moving online, speakers stressed today as the fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries held its third day of debates, which also featured States offering to share their development experience with the international community.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) resumed its seventy-seventh session, speakers today called on colleagues to help the Secretariat rejuvenate the Organization by creating a more efficient, agile and dynamic system for managing thousands of employees around the globe, while chiding each other for failing to agree in the past five years on ways to overhaul the human resources system.

Highlighting the new opportunities digital technology is creating for women and girls around the world, speakers renewed calls for investments to bridge the gender digital divide, ensure a safe digital environment and ensure the full participation of women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and math, as the Commission on the Status of Women opened its annual session today.

Syria’s full cooperation with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is essential to closing all outstanding issues related to its initial and subsequent declarations, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today during its monthly briefing on implementation of resolution 2118 (2013) on elimination of the country’s chemical weapons programme, highlighting that long-standing identified gaps, inconsistencies, and discrepancies remain unresolved.

​​​​​​​The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Commission on the Status of Women, in New York today:

Six months after devastating floods struck Pakistan, the United Nations and its partners have reached more than 7 million people with food and other essential services, including life-saving interventions for children. Yet only 30 per cent of the Floods Response Plan has been funded so far.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

The current year will be a “make-or-break” one for South Sudan, marking the start of a recent — and singular — 24-month extension of its transition process, United Nations officials told the Security Council today, warning against any further delays in implementing the young nation’s Revitalized Peace Agreement.

​​​​​​​DOHA, 6 March — Structural transformation — through measures such as increased market access, industrial development, export diversification and capacity-building — is required to bolster the stagnating economies of many least developed countries, speakers stressed today as the fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries concluded its second day of high-level thematic round tables.