2020 marks the beginning of the UN’s Decade of Action.

In an interview with Conor Lennon from UN News, Amina Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary-General, outlined the many reasons to be positive about the impact the Agenda is having on people’s lives, even if progress has not been as fast as hoped.

In the days following the earthquake ten years ago that killed around 220,000 Haitians, the sounds of praying, shouting and yelling filled the streets and a sense that “this was the end of the world”.

That’s one of the powerful memories from survivor Michèle Montas, the former UN Spokesperson who had just returned home to live in her native country, when disaster struck. She spoke to UN News’s Cristina Silveiro.

• Syrian conflict has ‘erased’ children’s dreams: new UN report 

The top UN emergency relief coordinator in the Philippines said on Thursday that his team is anxious to see the full evacuation of vulnerable citizens completed as the Taal volcano continues to erupt.

Sunday’s major eruption caused widespread destruction, and it’s feared that there could be a “catastrophic” eruption over the coming days or weeks, said humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA’s team leader, Mark Bidder, talking to Julia Dean.

More than 100 wildfires are still raging across Australia, with record-breaking temperatures and drought contributing to the loss of more than six million hectares of land that is home to some of the most unique plants and animals in the world.  In an interview with UN News, John Scanlon, Special Envoy for the African Parks non-profit organization and former Secretary-General of CITES - the UN-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - said that the increasing threat to biodiversity must be “lifted up to the international agenda”.  

• Investigation continues into mystery virus