(UN News)* —The UN’s top relief official warned on Wednesday [that the global humanitarian system has reached breaking point, with funding cuts forcing life-or-death decisions over which aid programmes to sustain and which to shut down.
UNOCHA/Giles Clarke | Aid programmes in Yemen are already being forced to shut down due to lack of funding.
Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters at a briefing in New York that the current crisis was the most severe challenge to international humanitarian work since World War II.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 11 2025 (IPS)* – NATO geopolitical strategy has now joined the ‘coalition’ of Western geoeconomic forces accelerating planetary heating, now led again by re-elected US President Donald Trump.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Industrial Revolution Economic development is typically associated with the spread of industrialisation over the last two centuries.
The Industrial Revolution involved greater energy use to increase productive capacities significantly.
Burning biomass and fossil fuels greatly expanded mechanical energy generation. The age of industry in the last two centuries has thus involved more hydrocarbon combustion to increase output.
Uneven development has also transformed population geography.
(UN News)* —Haiti is in freefall. Gangs are tightening their grip on the capital, violence is spreading, and “suffering permeates all social strata” in a nation teetering on the brink, according to the UN human rights office’s designated expert on the country, William O’Neill.
After his fourth visit to assess conditions on the ground, Mr. O’Neill briefed journalists at UN Headquarters in New York, describing a nation overwhelmed by pain and despair. “I hate to sound like a broken record,” he said, “but the situation is more dire each time I go”.
Despite the efforts of the Haitian National Police (PNH) and the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission, the threat of the capital falling under full gang control looms larger than ever.
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 2025 (IPS)* –– Faced with an impending cash crisis primarily due to non-payment of dues by the US and over 100 other member states– along with threats of a US withdrawal from the world body– there were widespread rumors the United Nations was re-costing and reducing its approved budget for 2025 while deciding to freeze hiring new staffers.
The UN Secretariat building in New York City, where staff of the UN Secretariat carry out the day-to-day work of the UN. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías
The United States currently pays about 22% of the United Nations’ regular budget and 27% of the peacekeeping budget. As of now, the United States owes $1.5 billion to the UN’s regular budget.
And, between the regular budget, the peacekeeping budget, and international tribunals, the total amount the US owes is $2.8 billion.
PORTLAND, US, Mar 4 2025 (IPS)* –As the world’s population increased five-fold since the start of the 20th century, the changes in the geographic distribution of the billions of people across the planet have been ongoing and significant.
In contrast to the rapid growth of the high fertility countries like the DRC and Nigeria, some of the largest populations in 1950, such as Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, have grown relatively slowly during the recent past. Credit: Shutterstock.
Those continuing changes in the distribution of the world’s population have weighty economic, political, social and environmental consequences (Table 1).
(UN News)* — Amid deep cuts to global humanitarian funding, the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund, CERF, on allocated $110 million to neglected crises across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The UN’s top aid official, Tom Fletcher, said that more than 300 million people urgently need assistance.
But funding has been falling annually, and this year’s levels are projected to drop to a record low.
GENEVA, 7 March 2025 – On this year’s International Women’s Day, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, warns that critical funding shortages are leaving displaced women and girls at unprecedented risk.
Reports of conflict-related sexual violence have surged by 50 per cent in recent years. Yet funding shortfalls are forcing humanitarian organizations to cut essential services in crisis-affected regions.
Gender equality is a must for a world of zero hunger; where all women, men, girls and boys can exercise their human rights, including the right to adequate food.
This is why the pursuit of gender equality and women’s empowerment (Sustainable Development Goal 5) is central to fulfilling the World Food Programme (WFP)’s mandate.
(UN News)* — The basic rights of women and girls are facing unprecedented growing threats worldwide, from higher levels of discrimination to weaker legal protections -and less funding for programmes and institutions which support and protect women.
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UN Women’s latest report Women’s Rights in Review 30 Years After Beijing, published ahead of the UN 50th International Women’s Day on 8 March, shows that in 2024,nearly a quarter of governments worldwide reported a backlash on women’s rights.
(UN News)* —A decline in democracy and harmful content spread on social media platforms are helping to drive a backlash against feminism, and the growth of misogynistic and retrograde ideas about the roles of men and women and society.
UN Women Colombia | March for Women’s Rights during the 16 days of activism in Colombia.
The pushback against gender equality is one of the findings in a major report from UN Women, the UN agency for gender equality, on the progress made so far in advancing women’s rights worldwide.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 