"Game-changers" in 2017 will allow for positive year says UN President "Positive" developments can be expected across the world in 2017 despite the ongoing conflicts and humanitarian crises that typified 2016; that's according to the President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson. The PGA, as he is known, presides over the General Assembly which [...]

Cameroon is "paying the price" for its generosity taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees, without having secured extra resources. That's the view of Najat Rochdi, Humanitarian Coordinator for the UN Development Group, in the West African country. The Cameroonian government together with the UN and partner organizations, launched a US$310 million response plan on [...]

Climate change threatening coral reefs One of the planet's most important ecosystems, coral reefs, is under threat from climate change. That information comes from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), citing research published recently in a scientific journal. UNEP said coral reefs are home to at least one-quarter of all marine life and generate roughly US$375 [...]

There are "still children whose lives are threatened" three months on from the devastating hurricane which hit Haiti, according to the UN Children's Fund, (UNICEF). Speaking from the capital Port-au-Prince, UNICEF communications chief, Cornelia Walther, said that they were grateful for the emergency funding provided by donors in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, but more [...]

A fragile ceasefire is largely holding in Syria but "tremendous dramas" are still being played out by the people of the war-torn country, the UN warned on Thursday. The war in Syria has lasted almost six years. United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura expressed the hope that proposed talks between the warring parties in [...]

The number one priority for the UN's Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in the year ahead is fighting the "nexus between terrorism and transnational organized crime." That's according to the man leading the crime-fighting agency, Yuri Fedotov. UNODC's Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, released a few days ago, showed there was a growing [...]

An "emergency response" to a rise in HIV infections in Libya, has been launched by the World Health Organization (WHO). A lack of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in the North African country, to treat the virus that leads to AIDS, resulted in the deaths of 10 adolescents last year. The UN health agency says there were [...]

Listen to a bulletin of news and features from United Nations, with Matthew Wells and Dianne Penn. In today's programme: two Moroccan peacekeepers have been ambushed and killed in the Central African Republic – we'll have the latest details from the UN mission there. And, former child soldiers should be seen as victims, not security [...]

  US$310 aid appeal for Cameroon An appeal for US$310 million has been launched to provide life-saving assistance to 1.2 million people in northern and eastern Cameroon, the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, has reported. The regions are facing challenges such as malnutrition and high levels of food insecurity in addition to hosting hundreds of thousands [...]

"Volunteering" is contagious in a positive way according to a representative from a Kenya based organisation, who attended a UN-supported conference on volunteering, recently held in Mexico. According to the UN, more than one billion people globally offer their time and experience for free every year. Volunteerism is seen as a powerful means of tackling [...]