Staying Up-to-Date with UN Foundation

Happy New Year, and thank you for your continued partnership and support, which make our work helping the United Nations deliver for everyone, everywhere possible! As 2019 gets underway, we face a world of conundrums and contradictions. Extreme poverty is at its lowest-recorded level, yet wealth is concentrated in the…

Progress needs protectors. In 2018, it was starkly clear that many of the gains we’ve made in improving lives are under threat around the world — from climate change, conflict and violence, discrimination, inequality, political division, and a lack of empathy. But as the year reaches its end, we’re focusing…

First Lady. Feminist. Icon. Eleanor Roosevelt shaped the post-WWII world — and her legacy remains as powerful as ever — Exactly 70 years ago — on December 10, 1948, just after midnight — the United Nations General Assembly saw its first standing ovation for a single delegate. One by one, members representing 51 nations across the globe rose from their chairs to honor a 64–year-old woman seated among them.

It’s a global pandemic that will affect one in three women in her lifetime. It’s one of the most common human rights violations on the planet. It remains one of humanity’s greatest hurdles to achieving global progress. Gender-based violence comes in many forms — from domestic abuse and sex trafficking…

By Elizabeth Cousens and Jeffrey Feltman One hundred years ago, nearly to this day, a bloodletting that had convulsed the world for four years came to an end in a train car. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, World War I ended…

Jobs in science and technology are some of the fastest-growing worldwide — and innovations in these fields will be crucial for tackling global challenges from climate change to cybersecurity. Yet half of the world’s population still face profound gaps in access to education and employment, especially in the fields of…

By Kathy Calvin, President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation If you ask Gatluak Ramdiet why the United Nations matters, his answer is simple: “If the UN didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be here today.” For nearly half of his childhood, Gatluak and his brother relied on humanitarian assistance to…

From the CEO of Starbucks to the Prime Minister of Barbados, the Global Climate Action Summit saw leaders from all sectors stepping up the fight against climate change. More than 4,000 citizens, businesses, activists, and officials convened in San Francisco to learn how we can tackle climate change together —…

By Susan Myers, Senior Vice President of the United Nations Foundation It was a moment you might see on any school bus anywhere in the world: Children jostling and yelling in excitement at the outset of a field trip. …