Einstein pointed out that “the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.” When sea-levels rise, resources run thin and politics enters the conversation, however, our…  Read more

Climate change has far-reaching impacts on human health and well-being. Changing temperature and rainfall patterns impact crop yield, food and water security, and nutrition.  Read more

As the UN and partners respond to humanitarian crises, an important focus is to ensure contribution to and complementarity with longer-term solutions that address the root causes of fragility.  Read more

As frequently volatile storms, floods and droughts indicate, the impact of both climate change and natural hazard risks is growing. Addressing these challenges, and ensuring that countries are able to…  Read more

The call was grim and urgent. Worsening power cuts had knocked out electricity at a hospital in southern Libya, leaving kidney patients without the dialysis that had been keeping them alive. After…  Read more

Eradicating poverty means expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the richness of the economy in which human beings live.  Read more

This month the world marks two key International Days: one for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October and the other for Disaster Risk Reduction, four days earlier. It’s appropriate that these two…  Read more

One of the first lessons we learned as kids was not to throw away food. Our family comes from a humble place. Our childhood includes stories of immigration, poverty and discrimination. Our parents’…  Read more

In the drylands of northern Ethiopia, climate change is a formidable foe to the communities who make their home across the rugged landscape. In one such community, known as Abrha Weatsbha, the…  Read more

Last month, hurricanes Maria and Irma laid waste to the Caribbean islands of Barbuda, Dominica, Puerto Rico, the British Virgin Islands, St. Martin and many more. Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of…  Read more

“To deny climate change is to deny a truth we have just lived.” With these words, delivered at the UN General Assembly on 23 September, the Prime Minister of Dominica alluded to the situation in his…  Read more

Sustainable Development Goal 16 calls on UN Member States to promote responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making, and to build effective, accountable and transparent…  Read more

In our age of conspicuous consumption and excess, it frightens us to know that one out of nine people ¬– or 815 million children, women and men – remain chronically undernourished. And according to…  Read more

I recently visited a number of countries on a monitoring mission for the joint IOM-UNDP Global Project on Mainstreaming Migration in National Development Strategies. Funded by Switzerland, this…  Read more

Over the past 20 years, the world has seen unprecedented progress of human development, as nearly 1.1 billion people have moved out of extreme poverty. But unfinished business remains. Today, roughly…  Read more