Around 70 per cent of the world’s electricity needs could be provided by solar power in the Sahel region of Africa, according to the recently launched UN Support Plan for the region. Rachel Kyte, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, believes that the Sahel is on the “cusp of a revolution” where solar can provide electricity to communities on and off the regional grid. She spoke to UN News’s Daniel Dickinson in Niger, one of the countries in the Support Plan.

International migration “has been with us forever”, and a safe and orderly means of facilitating it is “in everybody’s interest”, Louise Arbour, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on International Migration, told UN News as the final round of negotiations on a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration took place at UN Headquarters in New York.

UNHCR appeals for aid amid harrowing Eastern DRC violence

More than 800,000 displaced face cold and heavy rain in Ethiopia: IOM

Yemen: IOM resumes voluntary repatriations from Hudaydah port

Iceland to take US seat on Human Rights Council

It’s “high time” the international community decided how best to embrace the potential benefits of digital technology - and protect against its unexpected negative consequences - a senior official from a panel of tech experts appointed by UN chief António Guterres said on Thursday.

North Korea has very clear humanitarian needs which the international community can help to resolve, the UN’s top humanitarian official said on Thursday, after his first visit to the country, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  Relief chief Mark Lowcock described how one in five children there, suffers from stunted growth. He told Daniel Johnson a lack of funding and international sanctions was hampering the delivery of vitally needed food and medicines, “which isn’t what anybody wants”.

The views of women and girls are crucial to the future of countries like Niger, which has been described as being on the cusp of “hope and despair”, according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden and President of the Security Council, Margot Wallström. Daniel Dickinson asked her about the importance of seeing conditions in the field for themselves.

UN chief announces new expert group for positive digital technology change

Global migration compact to ‘harness the benefits’ of regular migration

UN envoy recounts ‘horrific’ testimonies from South Sudanese

Accountability call for targeted South Sudan violence against civilians

Thai cave boys spared thundershower forecasts ahead of rescue: WMO

Indigenous peoples are among world’s poorest, says UN deputy rights chief

It’s like a mini UN General Assembly for sustainable development.  Starting this week, nearly 50 countries are voluntarily briefing the world about what they’ve done to reach the Sustainable Development Goals, and looking for ideas on what more they could do.