The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, explicitly excluded the world’s five largest emitters of greenhouse gasses – China, the United States, Russia, India and Japan – from his Climate Ambition Summit, held Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The United Kingdom, another major polluter, was notably absent from the summit, amid reports […] Continue reading ->
NEW YORK CITY – There has been little progress in expanding universal health service coverage (UHC) since the last UN High Level Meeting (HLM) meeting on the issue in 2019, and trends in financial protection are even worsening, with catastrophic out-of-pocket spending increasing when compared to 2015.  The final draft of the political declaration for […] Continue reading ->
World leaders, representatives of international development and humanitarian organizations, and UN delegations gathered in Geneva on Monday to rally financial support for Pakistan’s recovery from the devastating floods that hammered the country last year. Pakistan has appealed for $16.3 billion to assist it to rebuild the country, and almost half this amount had been pledged […] Continue reading ->
The United Nations General Assembly voted to hold a summit of heads of state and other world leaders next year to find fair, long-lasting solutions for the global inequities and inadequate responses that the COVID-19 pandemic has all too painfully highlighted. Delegates to the 193-nation assembly overwhelmingly approved the resolution in a consensus vote on […] Continue reading ->
As the 150th Executive Board Meeting of the WHO closed Saturday, attention focused on the inability of the WHO governing board to reach consensus on critical issues that it had debated – including a more sustainable financing framework as well as a clear way forward on a proposed new pandemic legal accord, reforms of global […] Continue reading ->
As pandemic treaty negotiations kick off again at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva this week, countries face a stark choice. Will they decide to move ahead on a new system that vests an independent entity with greater powers to monitor their own national alert and responses – in the name of faster pandemic […] Continue reading ->
The 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) opens today (Tuesday 14 September). The UN’s roots lie in determination that the horrors of World War II – millions of lives lost, economic devastation and genocide – should never happen again.  This year’s General Assembly session is considering multiple global catastrophes, from climate change […] Continue reading ->