9 results for tag: UN

Building and Bridging Central Asia

By Ambassador Natalia Gherman  I was appointed by Secretary-General António Guterres to be the Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, (UNRCCA) on September 15, 2017. UNRCCA is an interesting assignment. The mission is one of the smallest United Nations Special Political Missions but covers an absolutely enormous territory that bridges Europe and Asia. Together with my staff, I am charged with supporting the Governments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in their efforts to jointly face a wide array of challenges that are at the top of the ...

Security Sector Reform as a Tool for Development

In its 2017 report, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) highlighted that security and justice institutions are often the main interface between states and the populations they are meant to serve. However, the states protracted ineffectiveness or poor governance can leave the door open for conflict to escalate. DCAF’s Dr. Hans Born spoke with VantagePoints to share his thoughts and experience on how an effective and robust security sector reform (SSR) process can be an important tool for peace and development. How did you get interested in the work of SSR? I was raised knowing that democracy is a good system to ...

A Spirit of Service: Technologists Are Advancing UN SDGs

There are many wonderful, bold projects around the world, not just in the US, being developed in answer to the world’s most pressing problems, from giving identity to the most vulnerable to trafficking, giving banking to the unbanked, transparency in food supply chain, and tokenizing activities to give everyone financial inclusion in this data-driven economy.

Addressing the Animal Origins of Infectious Diseases

"We’ve found over the past few years that about 70 percent of new and reemerging infectious diseases have an animal origin. We have found that these diseases are spilling over into humans, and we think a lot of that has to do with humans encroaching more and more into animal spaces."

Economic Empowerment is a Civil Right

"Operation HOPE is the first nonprofit banker in the United States. Our programs serve as a model for economic empowerment that have been acknowledged by President Bill Clinton, Oprah, the United States government, and other leaders and partners around the world. "

The Impact of Private Funding and Research on Lupus

"In the lupus community, we’re all driven by the same goal - improving the lives of people with lupus - but there are silos. The culture of research and collaboration around drug development and working with industry doesn’t yet fully exist."

Bridging the Gaps Between Intentions and Outcomes

"Structures are the organizing components of how you’ll work together. Without a structure, you have people doing things, but cohesion is missing. This makes it hard to prototype and move forward from failure or to the next success. Without a structure, the odds are high that you’ll be unable to do what you said you would do."

Combating Tropical Diseases and Poverty in Nicaragua

"Tropical diseases and conditions in the area are especially dire for the local people given the level of poverty in the area. Nicaragua is the second most impoverished area in the western hemisphere, and according to the World Health Organization, only 6.3% of Nicaraguans have health insurance."

Institutional Memory at the United Nations

"One of my goals was to maintain an institutional memory for the UN because everything that’s going on in the world comes through the Secretary-General’s office. You might assume that much of this material has already been digitally captured through email or other sources, but it hasn’t."