When Max Hidalgo was 13 years old, his parents sent him away.

A new ground-breaking global youth initiative was launched on Monday to invest in and scale up youth-led solutions and engagement.

The UN agency dedicated to improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide (UNFPA) appealed on Monday for $2.5 billion by 2030 to help avert potential “dire consequences” surrounding pregnancies and maternal deaths.

Lack of basic water and sanitation services at health facilities has put around 1.8 billion health workers and patients at higher risk of COVID-19 infection and other diseases.

The UK, which is hosting next year’s UN Climate Conference, announced that it will cut emissions by 68 per cent, compared to 1990 levels, within the next five years, and the European Union bloc committed to a 55 per cent cut over the same time period.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed just how important it is for all countries to have strong health systems that provide the entire population with quality services when and where they need them, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has stressed.

Addressing the financing gap to provide COVID-19 vaccines for everyone, everywhere, is an urgent priority, World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.

It found that between 2000 and 2017, the number of mountain people vulnerable to food insecurity in developing countries grew from 243 million to almost 350 million.

This year’s International Mountain Day highlights the social, economic and ecological value of mountain biodiversity as mountains account for 30 percent of the key biodiversity areas on the planet.

In 2019, the UN system continued to make steady progress towards reducing its environmental footprint, recording decreases in emissions and implementing advanced environment management systems.