UN Interviews

While Giovanni Pintor was right in the middle of what turned out to be a devastating car accident, the only thing on his mind was what he would tell his mother.

But that turned out to be the least of his worries after his two brothers were killed when their car lost control on a notoriously deadly bend in his native Sardinia, in Italy.

Today, the 25-year-old youth activist and UN staff member uses a creative approach that involves hip-hop concerts and street basketball tournaments to show how young people can be agents for change.

He talks to UN News’ Daniel Johnson about his road safety association Adesso Basta, which translates to “that’s enough”.

In the second episode of their Weekly Tradecast, UNCTAD talks to Paul Akiwumi, Director of the Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programme division. Soaring food and energy prices are hitting especially hard as the region struggles with the impact of the pandemic and climate change.

The continent of 1.4 billion people relies heavily on grain and other essentials from Ukraine and Russia – exposing them to shortages and crippling costs that imperil development. Mr. Akiwumi, who led the production of the UN trade and development body’s latest Economic Development in Africa Report, says that to cope with this crisis and insulate itself for the future, Africa must rethink how it diversifies its economies to attract investment and narrow huge income gaps.

In the first episode of UNCTAD’s Weekly Tradecast, the organization’s Secretary-General, Rebeca Grynspan, talks about the global cost-of-living crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine.

What can be done to support vulnerable countries and people who will suffer the most from rising food, energy and fertilizer prices?

More than four months since the start of the war, people globally are facing a cost-of-living crisis not seen in more than a generation – in a world already grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

The United Nations Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance warned in a recent report that an estimated 1.6 billion people in 94 countries are exposed to at least one dimension of the crisis, which threatens to unleash an unprecedented wave of global hunger and destitution.

Children and women worldwide, are the most likely to die in road crashes. But Nneka Henry says that doesn’t make road safety only an issue for youth or gender - it’s a development challenge for all of society.

Ms. Henry is the Head of the United Nations Road Safety Fund. UN HOPE Fellow, Diedra Sealey, spoke with her just ahead of the first ever High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on Improving Global Road Safety, taking place in New York this week.

Closing the UN Ocean Conference on Friday, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Miguel de Serpa Soares, spelled out the challenges that still need to be addressed to ensure lasting protection and the restoration of our Ocean. 

Looking back on the week, Mr. Soares sat down with UN News’s Eleuterio Guevane. He started by laying out what the conference had achieved.

Each of us can do three things to help save our oceans: vote, promote solutions to existing problems such as pollution, and try to buy more sustainably.

Those are the key takeaways from Emanuel Gonçalves, marine ecologist, conservationist and chief scientist of the Oceano Azul Foundation, who’s come to take part in the UN Ocean Conference, in Lisbon.

UN News’s Ana Carmo started by asking him about the importance of including the high seas in marine protection.

Interlinking the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 – Life Below Water – and Gender Equality, the UN Ocean Conference this week is aiming to increase women’s participation and leadership in ocean related issues.

Women continue to be under-represented in ocean related issues, with most in the sector, stuck on land, “and getting very little pay”, says Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, President of the World Maritime University, based in Sweden.

On Tuesday, Ms. Doumbia-Henry took part in an event on the margins of the Conference, focused on boosting women’s representation in ocean sustainability and conservation.

She spoke to UN News’s Ana Carmo, who’s also in the Portuguese capital.

Ocean health is at a critical stage, and radical changes need to be made by people everywhere to allow sustainable management and development.

Knowing that women continue to be under-represented in the field of ocean protection, particularly in decision-making roles, experts at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, are calling for an action plan to change that.

Ana Carmo who’s at the conference for UN News in the Portuguese capital, spoke to Maria Damanaki, founder of Leading Women for the Ocean.

UN humanitarians raised the alarm on Tuesday over frightening levels of child hunger in northeast Nigeria that are linked to more than a decade of violence by non-State armed groups.

In the three states where needs are greatest – Borno, Adamawa and Yobe - more than 1.7 million children under five, are already at risk of serious malnutrition.

With more, here’s the UN’s Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

“Ocean literacy” is defined as how you understand the ocean influences you, and how you in turn, influence what happens to the ocean, however small your impact might be in helping the seas survive for future generations.

Empowering people to become more responsible and protect ocean resources, is the way that the UN Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes we can all unlock innovative ocean science solutions.

Francesca Santoro is in charge of ocean literacy at UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), based in Venice.

Ms. Santoro explained to UN News’s Ana Carmo, what ocean literacy entails, and how the involvement of younger generations is crucial to help restore the ocean.