Development

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees is gravely concerned by the rapidly increasing number of Sudanese refugees crossing into eastern Chad due to escalating violence in Sudan’s North Darfur region, with nearly 20,000 people — mostly women and children — arriving in the past two weeks alone.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s closing remarks at the 2025 Economic and Social Council Financing for Development Forum today:

Bretton Woods institutions are playing a crucial role in ensuring financial stability and promoting development, their representatives said today, even as some speakers expressed concern about their private-sector-first approach.

In Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs notes that the depletion of critical stocks there goes far beyond food. One example is trauma-related medical supplies, which are running out at a time when the number of people injured in mass casualty incidents continues to increase.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the 2025 Economic and Social Council forum on financing for development follow-up, in New York today:

With two months to go before world leaders meet in Seville to discuss financing for development, speakers at an Economic and Social Council forum on that topic put forth an urgent call for global cooperation in restructuring debt and revitalizing international trade.

In Somalia, flash floods have impacted nearly 30,000 people in different parts of the country. Authorities say at least four people have been killed in the past week. Humanitarian officials note that the rains come after months of dry conditions that decimated water sources and grazing land.

The Commission on Population and Development failed to adopt an outcome document today as it concluded its fifty-eighth session, with delegates sharply divided about support for sexual and reproductive rights, and some questioning commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Declining fertility rates, persistently high child mortality rates, international migration, and a surge in urbanization over the past several decades have significantly shaped global population trends — and will continue to do so, the Commission on Population and Development heard today.

Overstretched, underfunded health systems that cannot meet the needs of the most vulnerable are undermining gains made towards sustainable development, the Commission on Population and Development heard today as it entered the third day of its current session.