UN Interviews

How can we tackle the lack of digital access that many developing countries face?

And how can we use digital tools to save our environment, fight inequality and help all nations benefit from the online economy? These are some of the challenges that the UN trade and development body, known as UNCTAD, is focusing on during this year’s eCommerce Week, from 25 to 29 April.

To find out more, UNCTAD’s Sarah Toms speaks with her colleague Torbjorn Fredriksson and Andy Yen, founder of Proton Technologies, about the latest innovative solutions that could help us achieve more inclusive development in our digital world.

Yessie Mosby is best known as one of the “Torres Strait Eight”, the activists from the islands north of the Australian mainland, who complained to the UN Human Rights Council that the government was not doing enough to protect them from the effects of the climate crisis.

In this interview with the UN’s Julia Dean, recorded earlier this month, Mr. Mosby described the devastating effects of the rising sea levels and extreme weather events in recent years, and his fears for the future.

He started by describing the deep connection that he and his community have to the islands, which have been home to his people for some 70,000 years.

In the West African country of Senegal, the most common form of human trafficking among children is forced begging.

Alline Pedra, a Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), is working with authorities in Senegal on procedures to prevent, investigate and prosecute cases of human trafficking.

UNODC’s Louise Potterton spoke to the anti-human trafficking expert for UN News.

Ms. Pedra began by explaining why children were being victimized.

Repeated warnings of the effects of the war in Ukraine on developing countries reached a new pitch on 13 April, when UN humanitarian agencies said that millions of displaced families across eastern Africa will fall deeper into hunger, as food rations dwindle, amid a lack of sufficient funds, meaning more than 70 percent of refugees in need do not receive enough to eat.

And that same day, the Secretary-General, António Guterres, launched a report detailing the disastrous consequences of the Ukraine war for those who rely on grain supplies sourced from the country.

Joyce Msuya, the UN’s deputy emergency relief chief, joined us in our UN News studio and told Conor Lennon that she had noticed back in 2021 that the hunger crisis was growing - well before the Russian invasion began.

Resilience among ordinary Ukrainians is remarkable but if the war goes on much longer, it threatens 20 years of development gains, the UN Development Programme (or UNDP), has warned.

From Lviv in western Ukraine, here’s Manal Fouani, UNDP lead in the country, describing to UN News’s Daniel Johnson the many and varied challenges that the country faces, seven weeks since the Russian invasion began.

As UN agencies warn of an impending famine situation in Somalia, a prolonged drought crisis in the entire Horn of Africa region is threatening to turn into a catastrophe.

A combination of the impacts of climate change, conflict and COVID-19 has created ‘the perfect storm of horror’, with the war in Ukraine pushing food and fuel prices up, according to UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Mohamed M. Fall.

He’s been in Ethiopia this week assessing the impact of the regional drought on families and children, and started by telling UN News’s Joshua Mmali, what he has seen on his trip, not far from the border with Somalia.

A new low in the war in Ukraine has made headlines around the world this week, with the discovery that hundreds of civilians have been killed in the city of Bucha, in areas previously controlled by Russian troops.

Early testimonies from survivors indicate that the victims were “directly targeted” and killed, according to the UN rights office, OHCHR. Responding to claims from Russia that the incident is nothing more than fake news, here’s spokesperson Liz Throssell, talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

Although Africa “pollutes less” as a continent than others such as Europe or the Americas, it’s suffering disproportionately from the impact of climate change, with drought and flooding having a profound impact on food security and agriculture.

Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, a UN Assistant Secretary-General, and Director-General of the African Risk Capacity Group, a specialised agency of the African Union (AU) managed by the World Food Programme (WFP), was recently in Dubai taking part in the Entrepreneurship and Investment Forum there. UN News’s Anshu Sharma caught up with him on the sidelines of the event.

In this interview, he speaks about what the region needs to do in terms of disaster risk reduction and the five-year early warning plan to boost climate action in the African continent.

As the first Expo to be held in the Middle East, the mega-event was forced to delay its opening, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but ultimately, it attracted 23 million visits.

Maher Nasser, Director of the Outreach Division and UN Commissioner-General at Expo 2020, spoke to UN News’s Anshu Sharma who was in Dubai, for the closing day. He described its impact, and the legacy that it is providing, years into the future.

This week saw the UN launch an ambitious bid to stop the spread of common, mosquito-borne diseases – known as “arboviruses” - which threaten more than half the world’s population.

The main target of the initiative is four of the most common arboviruses: Dengue, Yellow fever, chikungunya, and Zika.

Here’s the World Health Organization’s Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove now, telling UN News’s Daniel Johnson all about how the Global Arbovirus Initiative plans to share expertise on bug-busting across continents.