Interviews United Nations

The plastics industry needs to show more responsibility and put their money where their mouth is on cutting harmful waste and pollution, especially as it impacts small island States.
That’s according to Director General of the Pacific islands environment agency, SPREP, Sefanaia Nawadra of Fiji, who told UN News the outcome document adopted at last week’s SIDS4 conference in Antigua and Barbuda does not go far enough on ocean management and cutting pollution.
Mr. Nawadra told Matt Wells that the latest breakthrough in talks towards a global plastics treaty, known as the Bridge to Busan Declaration, was a positive step in the right direction as long as major producers sign on.

The international community must continue to pay attention to the humanitarian situation in Yemen, where hunger and malnutrition remain chronic after nearly a decade of war.
That’s the opinion of Najwa Mekki, Chief of the Strategic Communications Branch at the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, in New York.
Ms. Mekki is fresh from a visit to Yemen, where Government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and Houthi rebels are battling for power.
The conflict has been further compounded by the war in Gaza, with Houthi attacks against the shipping trade in the Red Sea and their recent seizure of 11 UN national staff.
Ms. Mekki spoke to UN News’s Ezzat El-Ferri about her visit and the need to build on ‘fragile’ progress made so far on the humanitarian front.  
 

Sharks and dugongs serve as barometers of the marine ecosystem, but many people overlook their critical roles, perceiving sharks as menacing figures and dugongs as mythical creatures.
Ahead of World Oceans Day on 8 June, UN News’s Jing Zhang spoke with Gabriel Grimsditch, a programme management officer at the UN Environment Programme’s marine and coastal ecosystem unit based in Nairobi, Kenya.
In this exclusive interview, Mr. Grimsditch delved deep into the fascinating world beneath the waves, shedding light on the importance of these often misunderstood creatures in maintaining the health and balance of our oceans.

A devastating war in Sudan has left 800,000 people trapped in El Fasher in the west of the vast country, UN humanitarians warned on Friday, as they reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire to allow lifesaving aid in.
The development comes as disturbing details continue to emerge of an alleged attack on the village of Wad Al-Noura in Jazira state south of Khartoum which left more than 100 dead, including dozens of children.
To find out more, UN News’s Daniel Johnson spoke to Jill Lawler from the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF. She’s working in Sudan and knows the area where the attack took place well. 

UNICEF has released a new child nutrition report that highlights severe levels of child food poverty due to inequity, conflict, and climate crises.
The new report found that millions of children under five have difficulty accessing nutritious and diverse diets necessary for developmental growth.
UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, and a lead writer for the report, Harriet Torlesse, spoke to UN News and said one in four children globally are surviving on extremely poor diets, consuming just two or fewer of the major food groups.
She said there is no reason children should grow up in child food poverty when we are aware of solutions to assist them. UNICEF is calling on governments and donors to “position the elimination of child food poverty as a policy imperative, particularly to achieve the sustainable development goals of malnutrition.

With only six years to the 2030 deadline, humanity is alarmingly off track in the bid to reach the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. 
Keeping track of progress is a gigantic task but one of the global tech giants – Google - is answering the call.  
At the recent AI for Good Global Summit, Melike Yetken Krilla, who’s in charge of Google’s relations with international organisations, brought UN News’ Anton Uspensky up to speed on big data solutions such as Data Commons for the SDGs, a platform aggregating data on the Goals, and Flood Hub – which provides early warning of natural disasters.