The African Development Bank Group’s “AFAWA: Banking on Women” campaign has been honored as Africa’s best Global Campaign at the 2026 Africa SABRE Awards, held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The recognition was announced during the PRCA South Africa Conference on 17 March, celebrating the Bank’s impactful communications highlighting its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in… [Read More]
Applications Open for TURAQTY JOL 7.0 Youth Eco Camp in Kazakhstan
Applications are now open for the Youth Eco Camp TURAQTY JOL 7.0, launched by the Kazakhstan National Federation of Clubs for UNESCO as part of its national eco-campaign promoting environmental awareness and sustainable thinking among young people across Kazakhstan. TURAQTY JOL is an educational initiative designed to instill a responsible attitude toward the environment and… [Read More]
Human Rights Watch Urges Hungary’s New Government to Restore Rule of Law and Rights
Human Rights Watch has called on Hungary’s incoming government to take swift action to restore fundamental rights, strengthen democratic institutions, and reverse years of democratic backsliding. The organization stressed that early steps—such as ending rule by decree, restoring judicial independence, and repealing restrictive laws—would signal a clear break from past governance. According to Lydia Gall,… [Read More]
Amnesty International Warns Venezuela Amnesty Law Risks Reinforcing Political Repression
Amnesty International has warned that the recently approved amnesty law in Venezuela must not be implemented in a way that reinforces political repression, nearly two months after its adoption. The organization raised concerns that the law, intended to grant freedom to individuals prosecuted or detained for political reasons, is being applied inconsistently and without clear… [Read More]
Sudan War Enters Fourth Year as UN Warns of ‘Abandoned Crisis’ and Rising Violence
As the war in Sudan enters its fourth year, civilians continue to face deadly violence, mass displacement, and widespread sexual abuse, prompting urgent warnings from the United Nations’s top humanitarian official in the country. Denise Brown, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, described the situation as an “abandoned crisis,” stressing that the conflict is marked… [Read More]
UNFPA Expands Access to Maternal and Newborn Health Commodities to Prevent Deaths
The United Nations Population Fund envisions a world where every pregnancy is planned, every childbirth is safe, and every young person can reach their full potential. Achieving this goal depends on ensuring access to quality-assured maternal and newborn health (MNH) commodities, which play a vital role in reducing preventable deaths. A recent technical brief highlights… [Read More]
UK Launches £132 Million Fisheries and Seafood Scheme to Support Coastal Communities
The UK Government has opened applications for a major £132 million investment aimed at supporting the fishing and seafood industries, as well as coastal communities across England. The funding will be delivered through the relaunched Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS), part of the broader Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund, over the next five years. The… [Read More]
Indonesia and UN Launch Climate Finance Programme to Strengthen Smallholder Resilience
The Government of Indonesia and the United Nations in Indonesia launched a joint programme on 9 April aimed at helping smallholder farmers manage climate risks by improving access to financial services and promoting sustainable agricultural practices. The initiative will be implemented in East Java and Lampung, two of the country’s key food-producing regions. Smallholder farmers… [Read More]
African Agrivoltaics Platform Initiative Launched to Boost Sustainable Energy and Agriculture in Africa
On 10 April 2026, the Consortium for Sustainable Agrivoltaics (C4SA) Foundation and the OECD Development Centre, in collaboration with Akademiya2063 and the UN Joint SDG Fund, hosted a full-day co-design workshop and officially launched the African Agrivoltaics Platform Initiative (AAPI) at the OECD Headquarters in Paris. The event brought together a wide range of stakeholders,… [Read More]
Barbados AMR Response: From Bench to Bedside
At the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory in Barbados, laboratory technologists play a crucial yet often unseen role in safeguarding public health. Their work involves identifying disease-causing organisms and determining effective antibiotics, which directly informs patient treatment, supports infection prevention, and strengthens national preparedness. This diagnostic function is essential in combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR), where… [Read More]
Strengthening AMR Surveillance: PAHO ReLAVRA+ Training 2026
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) convened the first ReLAVRA+ webinar of 2026, bringing together countries across Latin America and the Caribbean to strengthen regional capacity for measuring, interpreting, and responding to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The session marked an important step in advancing coordinated surveillance efforts and improving how countries use laboratory data to guide… [Read More]
Building Stronger AMR Surveillance in Haiti and DR
Laboratories play a critical but often invisible role in public health by generating the data that guides how infections are diagnosed and treated. When this information is accurate, standardized, and consistently interpreted, it becomes essential in addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a growing global threat that makes many infections increasingly difficult to treat. In January 2026,… [Read More]
Strengthening a Caribbean Community of Practice
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) team has been actively engaging with regional and international partners across the Caribbean in early 2026 to strengthen coordination, share knowledge, and advance collective action against AMR. These efforts are supported in part by the UK Fleming Fund–backed initiative “Strengthening Antimicrobial Resistance Response in the Caribbean,”… [Read More]
From Dialogue to Action: Pacific Climate Mobility Shift
Pacific communities are already experiencing the direct impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels, stronger storms, saltwater intrusion, and shifting coastlines. These environmental pressures are forcing families and communities to make difficult choices about whether to stay in place, adapt to changing conditions, or relocate. While some communities have already moved, many others are… [Read More]
Sweden Fossil Fuel Production Ban: Lessons on Symbolic Climate Wins
Sweden implemented a ban on fossil fuel exploration and extraction in 2022 despite not being a fossil fuel producer, positioning itself as part of a wider global shift toward supply-side climate policy. The study finds that the ban succeeded due to a combination of strong political entrepreneurship, weak organised opposition, and existing policy precedents, and… [Read More]
New Nepal Initiative to Finance Local Climate Action
An initiative to strengthen Nepal’s response to climate change at the local level has been launched in Kathmandu through the UN Capital Development Fund’s Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) Facility, in collaboration with Nepal’s Ministry of Forests and Environment and supported by the Governments of Australia and Sweden. The programme aims to help local governments… [Read More]
Closing Ethiopia’s Digital Finance Gap for Women Civil Servants
Sara Wolelaw, a diplomat at Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, initially believed the national Digital Financial Literacy campaign was intended mainly for entrepreneurs and tech professionals, but after participating, she gained confidence in using digital payments, mobile money, and other financial tools and now actively encourages other women in her ministry to adopt them. She… [Read More]
Building Financial Resilience Amid Funding Pressures
Higher education systems across the Commonwealth are facing increasing financial pressure as universities are expected to deliver more in areas such as skills development, innovation, productivity, and social cohesion, while simultaneously dealing with declining public funding, rising operational costs, and expanding expectations. In response to these challenges, the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is launching… [Read More]
How to Strengthen Youth Rights and Voices in Health
Young people today face a wide range of interconnected challenges that impact their physical, mental, and social well-being, including rising mental health pressures, social exclusion, economic uncertainty, digital risks, and climate-related stress. These challenges are further shaped by broader factors such as education, employment opportunities, social protection systems, and access to inclusive services. In response,… [Read More]
UN Names Ghana’s Gbeho Special Envoy to South Sudan
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Ghana’s Anita Kiki Gbeho as the new Special Representative for South Sudan and Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), succeeding the late Nicholas Haysom of South Africa. Guterres acknowledged Haysom’s leadership and long service to the UN while announcing the new appointment. Gbeho brings… [Read More]
How Vanuatu’s UN Climate Proposal May Change Climate Accountability
A draft United Nations resolution on climate change is being negotiated to transform the International Court of Justice’s 2025 Advisory Opinion into concrete global action and stronger accountability for states. The ICJ opinion, though non-binding, confirmed that protecting the climate system is a legal obligation under international law and that failure to address greenhouse gas… [Read More]
UNDP and Japan Boost Community Resilience in Afghanistan
The Government of Japan and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have launched a new initiative in Afghanistan titled “Resilient Income Solutions Empowering Alternative Livelihoods” (RISE) to support vulnerable communities facing climate shocks, economic instability, the collapse of the poppy economy, and increasing returnee pressures. Funded with USD 2.35 million and running from March 2026… [Read More]
Mongolia Launches Hazardous Chemicals Elimination Project with UNDP & GEF
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with Mongolia’s Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry (MoFALI) and with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), has launched a six-year project titled “Eliminating Hazardous Chemicals from Supply Chains in Mongolia.” The initiative aims to phase out toxic and hazardous chemicals from the country’s wool,… [Read More]
























