Apr 21, 2021

The OECD Recognizes the UN Secretariat’s Central Role in Development

OpEd: modernizing calculations for official development assistance has resulted in stronger support for the SG’s development agenda.

by Sebastian Borchmeyer. Read more on PassBlue.

Recovery efforts on Fiji, after Cyclone Yasa swept through the island nation aided by the United Nations Development Program’s Pacific Office, January 2021. — The United Nations Development Program’s Pacific Office offered recovery help after Cyclone Yasa swept through the island nation of Fiji, January 2021. The author of this essay explains how modernizing calculations for official development assistance to the UN has resulted in stronger support for the secretary-general’s development agenda.

For 60 years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has measured money flows to developing countries. It adopted the benchmark standard for foreign aid, which it coined Official Development Assistance — or ODA — in 1969.

In 2020, the OECD Development Assistance…

Is Burma’s Army in Trouble? Yes, Says a Top Former UN Adviser on the Country

Exclusive interview with Vijay Nambiar, a special adviser to Kofi Annan & Ban Ki-moon, charged with following events in Burma/Myanmar.

by Barbara Crossette. Read more on PassBlue.

The military of Burma/Myanmar, called the Tatmadaw, celebrating Armed Forces Day in 2021 and its Feb. 1 coup over the democratically elected government. WIKIPEDIA

For more than a decade, from 2004 to 2017, Vijay Nambiar was a special adviser to United Nations secretaries-general Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon, charged with following events in Burma, which the military generals renamed Myanmar in 1989. …

Major Afghanistan Peace Talks; Spoilsport Russia; Wartime Sexual Abuse in the Pandemic

This Week @ the UN: summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization.

by Ivana Ramirez. Read more on PassBlue.

Children of the St Clare Orphanage in Juba, South Sudan

Afghanistan mega-peace talks in Istanbul; Russia the spoiler; could a Latin American woman lead the UN down the road or sooner?

You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. …

Six Latin American Women Who Could Be the UN Leader Down the Road

These Latin American women are being informally mentioned as potential candidates to run for SG, most likely for the five-year term starting in 2027.

by Maurizio Guerrero. Read more PassBlue.

Silvia Rucks, a Uruguayan who is the United Nations resident coordinator in Chile, July 30, 2018.

Six Latin American names are being circulated in regional political circles as possible candidates to become the first woman to lead the United Nations, while the current secretary-general, António Guterres, will most likely be re-elected for the upcoming five-year term, starting in 2022. …

This Feminist Is Putting Women at the Peace Table

A q and a with Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, the founder of the Global Network for Women Peacebuilders.

by Sonah Lee-Lassiter. Read more on PassBlue.

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza in the organization’s base in New York City, March 2021. Photo Credit: John Penney

In 2010, Maria Victoria (Mavic) Cabrera-Balleza founded an organization to help and advocate for the rights of women and girls globally, but it was her childhood experiences that first politicized her. …

Russia, the Current Big Spoiler in Advancing Global Gender Rights

An April UNSC debate on sexual violence in conflict will address victims’ care over the responsibility of countries to stop abuses & prosecute perpetrators.

by Barbara Crossette. Read more on PassBlue.

Human-rights advocates around the world are assessing how much lasting damage could still be done to universal human rights…

America’s Forbidding Legacy on the Southern Border

OpEd: A source of the migration influx from Central America is “America’s indiscriminate and criminal meddling” in that region.

by Stephen Schlessinger. Read more on PassBlue.

Vice President Kamala Harris is now in charge of resolving the migration problem at the United States-Mexico border. The author, a US historian, argues that one source that has been driving the migration influx from Central America is “America’s indiscriminate and criminal meddling” in that region over seven-plus decades. A caravan of migrants reaching Mexico, above, in November 2018. RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ/IOM

While the United Nations focuses fitfully on its own long string of refugee problems, President Joe Biden has tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to resolve the problems of migration at the United States-Mexico border. There are legitimate reasons for Americans to be concerned…

Myanmar’s Coup Crisis Persists; Global Bias Against Older People; Vietnam Is in Charge

This Week @UN, our summary highlighting the most important news from Turtle Bay.

by Ivana Ramirez. Read more on PassBlue.

Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the head of the UN mission in Mali, said of the recent massive assault on Chadian peacekeepers: “The vigorous response shown by the peacekeepers based in Aguelhok following the complex terrorist attack of this morning, April 2, deserves to be written down in gold letters in the history of UN operations.”

The Myanmar crisis isn’t going away; global bias against older people; Vietnam leads the Security Council; Chadian peacekeepers killed and wounded in Mali.

You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. …

A Latin American Pact on the Environment Is Picking Up Speed, but Brazil and Others Need to Ratify It

OpEd: A 2018 agreement is “gaining space in the Latin American agenda.” The only problem is, Brazil has not ratified it.

by Gabrielle Alves. Read more on PassBlue.

An image 3 people in traditional dress who took part in a 2019 meeting of indigenous people which drew thousands, in Brazil.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Regional cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean is declining, with intergovernmental organizations, such as the Organization of American States and Mercosur, nearly paralyzed or underperforming because of political divergences among member states, weak commitments and lack of resources…

The Pandemic Reveals the Disturbing Depths of Ageism, Especially for Women

Ageism, a new study finds, is “prevalent, ubiquitous and insidious” and not getting enough global attention.

by Barbara Crossette. read more on PassBlue.

*In Brooklyn, N.Y., a cafe on the Coney Island boardwalk draws people of all ages, soaking up the sun in the pandemic, October 2020. JOHN PENNEY*

During more than a year of tracking the parameters of Covid-19, medical science has made one thing clear: the virus hits the elderly hardest. Yet their vulnerability is often taken as fate. A new international study disagrees. Prejudice, institutional bias and societal discrimination…