Afghanistan: Lifesaving services cut as Taliban bars women aid workers

Afghanistan: Lifesaving services cut as Taliban bars women aid workers

“All of us at the United Nations are suffering from a reinforcement of the ban on females working with us…We are simply unable to operate without females,” said Arafat Jamal, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Representative to Afghanistan, a day after agencies warned that the de facto authorities’ measures have impacted life-saving assistance for hundreds of […]

Pakistan floods leave villages cut off as monsoon devastation continues

Pakistan floods leave villages cut off as monsoon devastation continues

Aid agencies are continuing to work tirelessly to reach the hardest-hit areas. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said nearly 800 people have died since late June – almost three times the toll during the same period last year. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has been hardest hit, where flash floods and landslides swept away homes and […]

Lifesaver: Study shows vaccine campaigns cut deaths by nearly 60 per cent

Lifesaver: Study shows vaccine campaigns cut deaths by nearly 60 per cent

The study, conducted by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in collaboration with Australia’s Burnet Institute, and published in the authoritative British Medical Journal (BMJ) Global Health, analyzed 210 outbreaks across 49 low-income countries over a 23-year period. It found that rapid vaccine deployment during outbreaks of cholera, Ebola, measles, meningitis and yellow fever, had led to […]

UN chief calls for major reforms to cut costs and improve efficiency

UN chief calls for major reforms to cut costs and improve efficiency

Briefing Member States in New York on Monday Mr. Guterres outlined wide-ranging effort to revamp how the UN system operates – cutting costs, streamlining operations, and modernizing its approach to peace and security, development and human rights. “These are times of peril,” he said, “but they are also times of profound opportunity and obligation. The […]