$22.5 billion needed to help 91 million people in 2018: UN relief chief A record level of aid funding – more than $22.5 billion – is needed to deliver lifesaving assistance around the world in 2018, the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator said on Friday. Announcing the Global Humanitarian Appeal, Mark Lowcock said that an estimated [...]

Listen to our daily bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, presented by Dianne Penn and Daniel Johnson. In today’s programme: It's World AIDS Day and we hear why men are critical to ending the epidemic by 2030; and: A senior UN official tells us a proposed international agreement on migration must be [...]

Global HIV/AIDS response still "lagging behind" despite progress Despite major progress on ending the AIDS epidemic, parts of the global response to battling the HIV virus are still "lagging behind", the UN chief said on Friday. In a statement to mark World Aids Day, António Guterres said that men were less likely to know if [...]

Ambitions of zero infections, zero deaths and zero stigma when it comes to AIDS cannot be achieved without addressing worrying trends seen with men. That's the view of Simon Bland, head of the  UNAIDS  office in New York, who says ending the epidemic by 2030 means getting men, who are less likely to access healthcare [...]

"Several countries" with influence on the Syrian conflict have said that they will do "all that they can" to ensure the evacuation of hundreds of critically ill men, women and children from a besieged opposition stronghold outside the capital Damascus, a senior UN adviser said on Thursday. Briefing journalists in Geneva, Jan Egeland said that [...]

Put children at centre of global migration agreements: UNICEF Commitments to protect children should be central to global agreements on migration and refugees. That's the opinion expressed by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in a report published on Thursday. It was launched ahead of a two-day meeting in Mexico next week that will feed into [...]

Listen to our daily bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, presented by Matt Wells and Dianne Penn. In today's programme: Hopes are rising for the evacuation of thousands from the besieged suburban enclave which the UN says is now the "eye of the hurricane" in Syria's civil war; and: We'll hear from [...]

The UN plays a "dynamic" role as a "knowledge-broker" bringing together governments, experts and the private sector to help development in the southern hemisphere. That's according to Ahmed Hussein Ahmed, Regional Advisor for the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). He's one of the senior officials who have been facilitating discussions this week in Antalya, [...]

Space technology helping UNDP improve the lives of people in need Space-based applications and technologies are helping the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)  to deliver its projects in a faster, more efficient and safer way, according to a senior official there.  Bruce McCarron, the Director of UNDP's Office of Operations, Legal and Technology Services, cites [...]

Efforts need to be stepped up to prevent terrorist groups from destroying and trafficking cultural heritage during conflict situations, the UN Security Council was told on Thursday. Making the appeal was the recently appointed head of UN cultural agency, UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, in her first briefing to the chamber. Dianne Penn reports. The UNESCO Director-General [...]