UN Interviews

When an emergency strikes, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, aims to get life-saving supplies moving within 72 hours. UNICEF’s emergency response includes health, water and sanitation, education and recreation kits, as well as critical support for vaccine cold chains. At its major humanitarian supply hub in Copenhagen, Denmark, emergency kits are pre-positioned and ready to be dispatched to countrie...

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to support agriculture across Africa, helping farmers access weather, crop and market information. But the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says better connectivity, reliable infrastructure, relevant data and digital skills are needed to ensure smallholder farmers can benefit from these technologies. Meshack Malo, FAO’s Deputy Regional Repr...

Acts of terrorism driven by hateful ideologies continue to injure, harm and kill thousands of innocent people each year. For Hassan Ndugwa – a survivor of the 2010 terrorist attack targeting a screening of the football World Cup Final in Kampala, Uganda – the experience became a call for action. Angered by the misrepresentation of Islam in the aftermath of the attacks, Mr. Ndugwa and a fellow surv...

When a major disaster strikes, the first hours are critical. Within 48 hours of receiving a formal request from an affected country, the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) system can deploy a team of experts to support national emergency response. The teams, managed and trained by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), bring together specialists from differ...

Can fashion help bring people together as well as set trends and mould culture worldwide? Fashion designer and environmentalist Runa Ray believes it can. Her exhibition Repurposing Fashion: Reimagining Peace, now open at UN Headquarters in New York, transforms discarded textiles into works of art carrying messages of peace from 30 countries. Speaking to UN News' Cristina Silveiro, she explain...

Scaling up Ebola response in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo must include measures such as increased surveillance, more transport options to bring patients to treatment centres and greater engagement with the public. That’s the message from Dr. Anne Ancia, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Representative in the country, speaking from Bunia – the epicentre of the crisis. She told U...

Colombia's search and rescue operations continue after Monday's magnitude 7.4 earthquake, which has killed at least 111 people. The United Nations is now assessing where its presence and resources can be most useful. UN Resident Coordinator in Colombia María José Torres Macho said the Government has already reached out to the UN, and the Organization has teams on the ground in some of th...

With the worst Ebola outbreak in the history of DR Congo still raging, UN peacekeepers must continue to protect civilians from both the virus and violence at the hands of multiple armed groups operating in the region, the Force Commander there has told UN News. MONUSCO's General Ulisses de Mesquita Gomes said 'blue helmets' had increased their presence to ensure civilians are fully...

Every day, judges make decisions that change lives forever. They do so while reckoning with some of the worst of human nature, overwhelming workloads and constant public scrutiny - pressures that can ultimately affect the quality of justice they deliver. The Honorable Rangajeeva Wimalasena, Judge of the National and Supreme Courts of Papua New Guinea, told UN News that judicial well-being is not s...

Operating in some of the world’s worst humanitarian hotspots, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) aviation service is the backbone of emergency relief efforts and a lifeline for isolated communities. From war-torn Sudan to Ebola-affected eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and beyond, millions of civilians rely on aid to survive. In turn, more than 680 humanitarian organizations worldwide count...

Little progress has been made for the future management of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which an estimated 20 per cent of the world’s oils and gas supplies pass and which is now effectively closed as Iran and the United States continue to ratchet up strikes and counterstrikes. That’s according to the head of the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO), Arsenio Dominguez...

For Elisha Acheampong Darko, the climate crisis is personal. Since losing his friend to a flood in Ghana, which he attributes partially to climate change, Mr. Darko has worked to empower young people to fight for climate justice. As an undergraduate student at the University of Education, Winneba, in Ghana, Mr. Darko founded Join Me Today, a youth-led organization dedicated to protecting the envir...

As demand continues to grow for the critical minerals that power our mobile phones, electric cars and more, who’s looking out for the mainly indigenous peoples whose territories contain the vast majority of these natural riches? Tackling the issue from a human rights angle is UN Human Rights Council-appointed independent rights expert on climate change, Eliza Morgera, who’s been talking to UN News...

Too often, children are casualties of war. Sometimes, they’re even forced to fight. That’s the case in South Sudan, where UNICEF – the UN Children’s Fund, together with the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) – work with the Government to support the release and reintegration of underage fighters. Daniel Johnson spoke to the agency’s South Sudan Chief of Child Protection, Brendan Ross, from the cap...

On the Tanzanian archipelago of Zanzibar, the Government and local businesses faced a challenge: they relied on surveys conducted only once per year, making it difficult to quickly respond to travelers’ needs. Following conversations with the Tanzanian government on how to advance development and grow the tourism industry, the UN Development Programme, or UNDP, created a platform called Jozani AI...

An upsurge in violence in Haiti could be in anticipation of more “assertive operations” by the recently formed UN-backed Gang Suppression Force as rival gangs in the beleaguered Caribbean Island nation fight for control of territory and resources. Gangs control the vast majority of the capital Port-au-Prince, and terrorize the population with murder, rape and kidnapping for ransom. Some 1.5 millio...

Professor Serigne Gueye, a Senegalese urologist and world expert on obstetric fistula, has spent decades helping women recover from one of the most devastating – yet preventable – childbirth injuries.  Honoured with this year’s UN Population Award, he has treated patients across Africa, trained surgeons from more than 45 countries and championed access to quality maternal services. In an inte...

As governments, industry leaders and researchers gather in Geneva on Monday for the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance and the AI for Good Summit, a UN expert says managing artificial intelligence responsibly will require action from everyone, not just policymakers. Professor Kaveh Madani, Director of the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health, told UN News’s Nathalie Mina...

As drones, artificial intelligence and new weapons transform modern warfare, Ukraine has become one of the world's most mine-contaminated countries, creating new dangers for civilians while threatening global food security and recovery.  In an interview with UN News, Paul Heslop, Chief Mine Action Adviser at the  UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine, explains how drones have fundam...

A night of heavy strikes across Kyiv has left children and families facing widespread destruction, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine. At least 20 people are now reported to have been killed in the Kyiv attacks. UNICEF is also deeply saddened by reports of a seven-year-old girl killed in the Dnipro region on Thursday. Speaking to UN News’s Evgeniya Kleshcheva after visiting so...

As synthetic drugs spread into new markets and traffickers develop increasingly potent substances, the global drug landscape is becoming more complex, unpredictable and dangerous, the  2026 World Drug Report reveals. In an exclusive interview with UN News, Chloé Carpentier, lead researcher on the report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), warned that powerful new synthetic opioids, p...

Five days after two deadly earthquakes struck north-central Venezuela, the UN says the emergency is far from over.  With search-and-rescue operations continuing, Vanessa May, Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the stricken South American nation, told UN News’s Victoria Fernandez that families who have lost their homes and loved ones will nee...

Following the earthquakes in Venezuela, teams from 27 countries continue searching for people trapped beneath the rubble.  From La Guaira, the most affected region, families describe the agonizing wait, while the United Nations coordinates the response and expands assistance for those who have lost their homes.

Women and girls in Gaza and the West Bank continue to face severe challenges due to conflict and displacement, while funding cuts have undermined access to healthcare and protection services. The UN agency responsible for maternal and reproductive healthcare, UNFPA, is warning that humanitarian needs remain immense, with services for mothers and babies under growing strain. Nestor Owomuhangi, the...

A new generation of HIV prevention tools could help reshape the global response to the virus which has led to the deaths of over 44 million worldwide – but without sustained funding, political commitment and community leadership, millions more risk being left behind. Ahead of next week’s High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, Mandeep Dhaliwal, Director of the Prosperity and Well-being Hub at the UN Devel...