With more people dying due to COVID-19 this year than in 2020, the UN Secretary-General argued on Tuesday that “the only way out of a global pandemic – and out of this unjust and immoral situation – is through a global vaccination plan.” 

The UN refugee Agency, UNHCR, is “appalled by a series of deadly attacks” on displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the agency’s spokesperson told journalists on Tuesday in Geneva.

The head of the UN health agency has criticized “blunt” and “blanket” measures taken by countries in the past few days to stop the spread of the Omicron variant. 

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 (IPS) - Carbon offset markets allow the rich to emit as financial intermediaries profit. By fostering the fiction that others can be paid to cut greenhouse gases (GHGs) instead, it undermines efforts to do so.

BLANTYRE, Malawi, Nov 29 (IPS) - Ellena Joseph, a small-scale maise farmer in Chiradzulu District in Southern Malawi, finished preparing her field early in October.

As of last Friday, more than 95,000 people have been officially registered as disappeared in Mexico. That includes a worrying increase in the number of women and children, a trend that has worsened during the pandemic, with migrants particularly at risk.  

Securing the funding needed for sustainable development by involving as many actors from different sectors as possible, is more urgent than ever, amid a widening “trust deficit” between the haves and the have-nots, the UN Deputy Secretary-General said on Monday. 

Unless leaders tackle stark inequalities, the world could face 7.7 million AIDS-related deaths over the next 10 years, the Joint UN Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) warned on Monday in a new report.

WASHINGTON DC, Nov 29 (IPS) - Many women in Pakistan remain financially excluded. In 2020, only 7% of the female population had a formal account.

One of the reasons for this is that agent networks — the bridge between the cash economy and digital financial services — remain largely inaccessible to many women. Approaching policy and regulation through a gender-intentional lens that considers prevailing social norms can help regulators affect positive change in this arena.

The UN Secretary-General on Monday called on all Middle East States to transform the vision of a region with no nuclear weapons, or other weapons of mass destruction, into a working reality.