Latest News - Payee

‘Global solidarity benefits us all’: Spain makes the case for development funding

Funding cuts to international development have cast a pall over a major UN-led international conference set to address the huge challenges faced by countries in the Global South. Despite this sobering backdrop, Eva Granados, Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation, insists that global solidarity is still alive, despite indications to the contrary.

The interim authorities in Syria have taken important steps in recent weeks to address past violations, the Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the country said on Friday in an update to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The head of UN Peacekeeping affirmed the critical role played by the “blue helmets” in Lebanon and Syria during a press conference at Headquarters in New York on Friday.

As the Foreign Ministers of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) signed a draft peace agreement in Washington this Friday, tensions and violence continue to grip eastern DRC.

A decade after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), development is facing serious headwinds – including what UN officials describe as a “silent crisis” of surging debt service payments in low-income countries.

Three years into the conflict in Sudan, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) continue to pursue a military solution, violating international law and the rights of civilians in the process.

Myanmar is spiralling deeper into humanitarian catastrophe, the UN’s top human rights official warned on Friday, as escalating military attacks, crippling aid restrictions and collapsing international support push millions toward starvation and despair.

Attacks with short-range drones killed at least 395 civilians and injured 2,635 between February 2022 – the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – and April 2025, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission (HRMMU) has reported.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, warning that the humanitarian crisis has reached “horrific proportions” and that the world must not let the suffering of Palestinians be overshadowed by other regional conflicts.

The first delivery earlier this week of urgently needed medical goods to enter Gaza in months will provide scant relief to the enclave’s people, who continue to be shot and killed in their search for food, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

More than a decade after Asian and Pacific nations launched a campaign to ensure every life is counted, millions across the region still remain “invisible” – born, living, and dying without formal recognition.

As the Central African Republic (CAR) prepares for upcoming elections, the country continues to grapple with a fragile security and humanitarian context, the UN Security Council heard on Thursday.

Deadly hostilities continued along the front-line regions of Ukraine on Wednesday, displacing civilians and damaging civilian infrastructure, the UN has reported.

The conflict-impacted people of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) urgently need much more international assistance than they are getting today, the UN’s top aid official said on Thursday.

It wasn’t an average Thursday morning in Manhattan. In the early hours, UN diplomats (and UN News) hit the streets in their sneakers – from Times Square to East River – following a route that traced the shape of “UN@80”.

The UN is monitoring the situation in Kenya in the wake of deadly antigovernment protests on Wednesday.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are increasingly being subjected to forced displacement and land seizures, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, reported on Thursday.

Most families in the Gaza Strip are surviving on one meal a day and one-third go entire days without eating as a result of Israel’s continued bombardment of the enclave, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and partners.

When Bashar Al-Assad ruled Syria, his regime was widely accused of profiting from the production and trafficking of Captagon, an illicit synthetic drug that is most commonly abused by users in the Middle East.

The rapid depletion of the remaining fuel stocks in the Gaza Strip is threatening efforts to keep critical lifelines up and running, the UN reported on Wednesday.

Dozens of civilians – including children and school staff – were killed or wounded in Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian cities this week, in what UN human rights monitors described as a “foreseeable” tragedy caused by strikes on populated areas.

It’s been 10 years since the Addis Ababa Action Agenda was established to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world’s roadmap for ending poverty, protecting the planet and tackling inequalities.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Wednesday that his “number one priority” is for its inspectors to return to Iran’s nuclear sites to evaluate damage caused by recent bombing and to verify stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.

The UN Secretary-General has warned that the world today is failing to protect civilians from mass atrocity crimes, calling for a renewed global commitment to the Responsibility to Protect – a principle adopted two decades ago that remains, in his words, “a moral imperative” and “an unfulfilled promise.”

When Sila, a young woman from Idlib in Syria, was three years old, she woke up to missiles falling around her, forcing her and her family to flee their home.

Although nearly 92 per cent of the global population now has basic access to electricity, more than 666 million people still live without it, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to urge greater financial support for renewable energy.

Helping those with less isn’t charity – it’s a shared investment in a better future. Yet global development financing is under strain. An upcoming UN conference in Sevilla, Spain, aims to change that by mobilizing large-scale investment for a more just and sustainable world.

A fragile ceasefire brokered by the United States between Iran and Israel appears to be holding, marking a tentative halt to a dangerous regional escalation that included airstrikes, retaliatory missile attacks and mounting civilian casualties.

Member States heard on Tuesday how the UN is progressing with a new plan to ensure the world body remains effective, cost-efficient and responsive to the billions of people it serves.

Libya once again stands at a critical juncture in its political transition, after armed clashes erupted in Tripoli last month, further destabilising the country, the UN Special Representative for the country told the Security Council on Tuesday.

Nearly three months after Myanmar’s strongest earthquake in a century, more than six million people remain in urgent need of assistance, as the disaster compounds a humanitarian crisis driven by years of conflict, political turmoil and mass displacement.

Tobacco use still claims over seven million lives a year, the World Health Organization warned on Monday, calling for greater efforts to limit its use amid rising interference from the global tobacco industry.

In an age marked by conflicts, disease, dysfunction and mental health challenges, yoga offers a steady, time-trusted path to help find calm and harmony within – and without.

The world is facing a health financing emergency, according to Dr. Kalipso Chalkidou, Director for Health Financing and Economics for the World Health Organization (WHO).

10d

Almost 4.5 million maternal, stillborn and newborn deaths were recorded in 2023. What if there was a clear path to saving 83 percent of these people? To saving 3.7 million mothers, unborn children and babies annually?

12d

Since conflict erupted in Sudan, more than a million people have fled to neighbouring South Sudan, seeking refuge from escalating violence that has displaced 12.4 million people and plunged over half the Sudanese population into food insecurity.

15d

Escalating gang violence in Haiti has displaced a record 1.3 million people, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday.

16d

With over half of the Sudanese population in need of aid and lean season rapidly approaching, the UN Chief for Humanitarian Affairs once again sounded the alarm about the crisis unfolding in Sudan on Thursday.

16d

Two counties in the Upper Nile State of South Sudan are sliding into famine, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned after a new update was released on Thursday from the UN-partnered food security classification system, the IPC.

17d

With 2024 confirmed as the hottest year on record, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a stark warning: the climate crisis is also a health crisis – and it’s already claiming lives.

18d

The global fertility slump isn’t down to young people turning their backs on parenthood – it’s due to social and economic pressures stopping them from having the children they want, says a new UN report.

23d

AIDS-related deaths have dropped to their lowest level since 2004, but progress remains precarious, with the disease still claiming one life every minute. The impact of funding cuts is severe, causing widespread disruption to HIV services and threatening hard-won gains.

23d

As hostilities rage in Sudan, access constraints and devastating funding cuts are isolating rape survivors and pregnant women from essential health services, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency UNFPA said on Thursday.

29d

In Ituri, a province in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), intensifying conflict, intercommunal violence and mass displacement are forcing hundreds of thousands of children out of school.

29d

For most nicotine users today, their first experience with the drug is a flavoured product – making it easier, and more appealing, to try.

31d

The 78th World Health Assembly concluded Tuesday in Geneva, marking several major milestones in global health. Delegates adopted the world’s first pandemic agreement and approved a significant boost in core funding for the World Health Organization (WHO).

31d

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned of an escalating public health crisis in Sudan, as conflict and mass displacement continue to drive a surge in disease, particularly cholera and malaria.

32d

As the war between rival militaries in Sudan continues, the World Health Organization (WHO) has raised alarm over the escalating health emergency, driven by ongoing violence, mass displacement, collapsing health systems and poor conditions inside refugee camps.

33d

Alcoholic drinks, especially beer and spirits, may raise the risk of pancreatic cancer, a new UN study has found.

36d

Some patients are easy to diagnose. They walk into a clinic and explain their symptoms. They can afford to pay for healthcare and access it seamlessly.

36d

Five days – that is how long it took Dah, a 14-year-old prospective mother from Côte d’Ivoire, to give birth. The child was stillborn and she developed obstetric fistula.

39d

After three years of negotiations sparked by the COVID-19 crisis, countries have adopted the world’s first-ever international agreement to better prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemics. The new accord marks a major step towards ensuring stronger global cooperation to protect lives and avoid the devastating consequences of future outbreaks.

40d

The 78th World Health Assembly opened on Monday with a broad appeal to global solidarity, as delegates from around the world gather in Geneva to confront mounting health, climate, and financial challenges – and finalise a global treaty to head off the next pandemic.

41d

Could the world be better prepared for the next pandemic? As nations continue to deal with COVID-19’s lasting effects, that question is at the heart of an international agreement set to be negotiated in Geneva.

42d

An international pandemic prevention treaty, three years in the making, is set to be adopted this week in Geneva. Rehman Hassan, a prominent member of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) Youth Council, is confident the accord could make a huge difference to the way that the world reacts to pandemics.

43d

As world leaders meet in Geneva to negotiate a new UN-brokered agreement on pandemic preparedness, we revisit frontline doctors, community advocates, a youth volunteer and a journalist who lived through the storm of COVID-19. Their voices are just a few among millions that show why this moment matters.

43d

Amid reports that Israeli strikes across Gaza overnight into Friday killed at least 64 people, aid teams once again pushed back strongly at allegations that aid is being diverted to Hamas, demanding an end to Israel’s blockade.

44d

In just two years, between 2019 and 2021, life expectancy worldwide fell by 1.8 years – the largest fall in recent history according to the World Health Organization (WHO), in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

45d

In a remote village clinic in the Bamyan Province in Afghanistan last week, a group of teenage girls were given potentially life-saving reproductive health advice, excited by the small kit of menstrual supplies they had been given.

‘Global solidarity benefits us all’: Spain makes the case for development funding

Syria: UN commission hails recent action to address past violations

Lacroix upholds role of UN Peacekeeping in Lebanon and Syria

DR Congo: Despite efforts towards a political solution, violence still rages in the east

New UN report charts path out of debt crisis threatening global development

Sudan: ‘Fighting shows no signs of abating,’ senior UN official tells Security Council

Myanmar human rights crisis deepens as aid collapses, attacks intensify

Short-range drone attacks deepen crisis on Ukrainian frontlines

Guterres calls for immediate Gaza ceasefire as humanitarian crisis reaches ‘horrific proportions’

Gaza: Health system crumbles amid growing desperation over food, fuel

Millions remain invisible – but Asia-Pacific leaders pledge change by 2030

Upcoming elections ‘crucial opportunity’ for Central African Republic, UN top official tells Security Council

Ukraine: Increasing hostilities displace civilians, limit humanitarian access

DR Congo: Conflict survivors ‘have been through hell,’ says UN aid chief

Eighty years on, UN Charter marked by reflection, resolve – and a run

UN calls for restraint after deadly Kenya protests

UN rights office sounds the alarm over forced displacement in the West Bank

‘Our kids cry for food’: Most Gaza families survive on one meal a day

Despite the fall of Assad, the illicit drug trade in Syria is far from over

‘Fuel for Gaza is a matter of life and death,’ UN warns

UN rights mission condemns civilian toll in deadly missile strikes on Ukraine

Sevilla conference on development financing shows optimism for multilateralism

Iran: Return to inspections top priority for UN nuclear agency

Responsibility to Protect: An unfulfilled promise, a ray of hope

‘A moral failure’: Security Council hears about grave violations against children caught in war

Energy access has improved, but more funding is needed to address disparities: WHO

$1 towards a girl’s education = $3 for the global economy: That's how development works

Energy access has improved, but more funding is needed to address disparities: WHO

UN urges renewed diplomacy on Iran nuclear deal, hails Tehran-Tel Aviv ceasefire as ‘significant achievement’

Bold new initiative aims to strengthen and improve the UN, senior officials tell Member States

Aftermath of Tripoli clashes puts Libya’s fragile stability to the test

‘Still reeling’: Myanmar quakes worsen humanitarian crisis in fractured country

Tobacco control efforts protect three-quarters of the world’s population, WHO report finds

‘One Earth, One Health’: Yoga Day provides respite in a tumultuous world

WHO warns of a health financing emergency

Make midwives universally accessible and save millions of lives, WHO urges

Without urgent funding, global hunger hotspots are set to grow, UN warns

World News in Brief: Rights abuses in Haiti, Sudan war sees exodus to Chad, food trade optimism

World News in Brief: ‘Indifference and impunity’ in Sudan, ICC judges speak out against sanctions, respiratory diseases overlooked in Europe

Famine stalks two counties in South Sudan as fragile peace is threatened

Climate emergency is a health crisis ‘that is already killing us,’ says WHO

Social and economic barriers, not choice, driving global fertility crisis: UNFPA

AIDS still killing one person every minute as funding cuts stall progress

World News in Brief: Women’s health in Sudan, childhood wasting, Belarus trade unions, Guatemala child rights violation

World News in Brief: Education suffers amid DR Congo violence, WHO greenlights RSV vaccines, more hurricanes ahead for Haiti

Flavoured nicotine products driving youth addiction, WHO warns

Pandemics to pollution: WHO Assembly delivers landmark health decisions

Sudan war exacerbates risk of cholera and malaria: UNICEF

Sudan conflict triggers regional health crisis, warns WHO

What’s your poison? Alcohol linked to higher risk of pancreatic cancer

Public health champions honoured for work ‘beyond the call of normal duty’

‘A silent crisis’: Obstetric fistula affects 500,000 women, yet it’s fully treatable

Nations adopt historic pledge to guard against future pandemics

World Health Assembly opens amid high-stakes pandemic treaty vote, global funding crisis

Countries set to adopt ‘vital’ pandemic preparedness accord

Pandemic accord can be a ‘gamechanger’ for marginalised communities, says youth advocate

Pandemic heroes stepped up in 2020 – now they’re asking world leaders to do the same

Gazans ‘in terror’ after another night of deadly strikes and siege

‘The world is failing its health checkup,’ says WHO

Funding cuts in Afghanistan mean ‘lives lost and lives less lived’