UN Insider

UN Acclaims VODAN's Contribution to Fight COVID-19 in Africa

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) — The United Nations has commended VODAN-AFRICA for their innovative approach to "data sharing and re-use under the present COVID-19 circumstances". The Virus Outbreak Data Network is a system of sharing data on Coronavirus that ensures that the information remains in the country that generated it, rather than being exported and unavailable to local doctors and scientists.

The network includes computer scientists and health data management experts, clinicians and social scientists from all of the participating countries. Presently, these include Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Liberia and Zimbabwe.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 March 2021

Photo: The UN Human Rights Council meeting room in Geneva. Credit: ohchr.org

Indian Dilemma Over UNHRC Resolution on Sri Lanka

Viewpoint by Sugeeswara Senadhira

COLOMBO (IDN) — New Delhi is in an unenviable situation over the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) resolution on Sri Lanka as it would not be in India’s long-term interest to pave way for the international body to be provided with an opportunity to directly interfere in an internal affair of a member of the world community, especially a country in South Asia, where India is the superpower.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 10 March 2021

Image credit: University College of Dublin (UCD)

African Women See No Reason to Hail Int'l Women's Day

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — March 8 marks the UN's International Women's Day — an occasion meant to be a global celebration. But with more and more women suffering each day, there is little to rejoice in Africa, say many women leaders from the continent.

"International Women's Day should celebrate the fruits of decades of activism. But on a continent where those who stand accused of sexual abuse often get rewarded rather than punished, what is there to be proud of?," said Cameroonian journalist Mimi Mefo Takambou.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 08 March 2021

Women Need to Claim their Space in Leadership

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) — Women have key contributions to make to leadership across all sectors, communities and societies from politics and corporations to sports and STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), diverse leadership benefits everyone, says UN Women, the global champion for gender equality. "Leaders need to represent the people they serve to best understand their wants and needs."

This year on International Women’s Day, UN Women is celebrating women’s leadership in all its forms and calling for women and feminists across the world to claim their space in leadership and decision-making.

: Caroline Mwanga; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 07 March 2021

The Future Is Better with Women in Every Decision-Making

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women Executive Director

[Also available in: ar |es | fr | ru | zh]

NEW YORK (IDN) — International Women's Day (March 8) this year comes at a difficult time for the world and for gender equality, but at a perfect moment to fight for transformative action and to salute women and young people for their relentless drive for gender equality and human rights.

Our focus is on women's leadership and on ramping up representation in all the areas where decisions are made—currently mainly by men—about the issues that affect women's lives. The universal and catastrophic lack of representation of women’s interests has gone on too long.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 07 March 2021

Photo credit: The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Share of Women Parliamentarians Reaches 'All-Time High'

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) — There is a long way to go to achieve gender parity. But a new report reveals that the share of women parliamentarians worldwide reached more than 25 per cent in 2020 marking a historic step. Women in Parliament report was launched on March 5 ahead of the International Women’s Day on March 8.

"It gives me great pleasure to announce that for the first time, women now account for more than a quarter of parliamentarians worldwide," Secretary-General of UN partner the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Martin Chungong said at the UN Office in Geneva. "The global average of women in parliament has now reached 25.5 per cent." 

: Jamshed Baruah; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 06 March 2021

More Women Researchers in Developing Nations Than in the Rich

By Jaya Ramachandran

PARIS (IDN) — While women make up 33.3% of researchers in the global average, in South and Southeast Asia, several countries are achieving gender parity, according to data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics for 107 countries covering the years 2015–2018.

This is the case for Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand, for instance. The most recent addition is Sri Lanka, where women accounted for 46% of researchers in 2015, up from 24% in 2006.

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Sustainable Industrialisation; 06 March 2021

Photo: Ethiopian refugees fleeing clashes in the country's northern Tigray region, rest and cook meals near UNHCR's Hamdayet reception centre after crossing into Sudan. Credit: © UNHCR/Hazim Elhag

Humanitarian Situation Getting from Bad to Worse in the Horn

By S. Gianesello

BRUSSELS (IDN | EEPA) — As the UN Security Council prepared to meet on March 4 to talk over the humanitarian situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the situation in the Horn of Africa was getting from bad to worse with reports of ethnic targeting and cleansing. The meeting was requested by Ireland, joined by other members of the UN Security Council.

Diplomats stated there is no assurance that the closed-door meeting will produce a joint statement. The Security Council held several meetings over the situation in Tigray since the beginning of the conflict, on November 4, 2020. The last Council meeting was held on February 2, 2021.

: Europe Editor; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 03 March 2021

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Leads A New Era for the WTO

Viewpoint by Yvonne Bartmann*

This article first appeared on International Politics and Society, an e-Journal published by Germany's Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's office in Brussels.

GENEVA (IDN) — When problems proliferate, expectations tend to be high. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is facing many problems, indeed a whole raft of them. Accordingly, there’s a lot of pressure on its new Nigerian Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Not just because of the state of the WTO, but also because she’s its first female and first African leader. So it's on Okonjo-Iweala now to fix the WTO's many problems.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 02 March 2021

A Woman, a Latin American and a Future Force of Change

By Isabella Duque Muñoz

This article first appeared as one of Youth Community's Spotlight Stories on February 26, 2021, as a part of UNODA's #Youth4Disarmament Initiative.

BOGOTA (IDN) — As a Colombian, I grew up in a nation marked by violence and armed conflict. These matters seized my interest from a very young age; learning about them felt vital to understanding my country and the factors that drive conflicts around the world.

In 2016, Colombia signed a historic peace agreement and began a process of laying down arms. Witnessing these developments confirmed my passion for issues of peace, security and disarmament, as well as development in emerging countries. I wanted to get involved and make my own contribution.