With debt‑service burdens in developing countries at a 20‑year high in 2024 and official development assistance (ODA) falling by 23 per cent in 2025, United Nations senior officials and ministers from Member States underscored the urgency of translating commitments into action under the Sevilla Commitment — the global blueprint for financing sustainable development — as the 2026 Financing for Development Forum opened.
The Commission on Population and Development wrapped up its fifty-ninth session today after a week of wide-ranging debate on how technology, data and research can advance the ICPD Programme of Action — even as delegates again failed to agree on a negotiated outcome.
As demographics shift around the world, some countries are learning how to manage rapidly ageing societies, while others are exploring the best ways to optimize their youth populations, the Commission on Population and Development heard today.
Online algorithms can reinforce stigma by suppressing, deprioritizing and hiding sexual and reproductive health information, a 19-year-old youth advocate from Saint Lucia told the Commission on Population and Development.
The Commission on Population and Development began its week-long session on Monday with speakers urging greater investment in data, research and digital systems so rapid technological change accelerates sustainable development instead of widening global inequality.
The Economic and Social Council filled vacancies in 17 of its subsidiary and other related bodies today, through secret ballot elections, nominations, appointments and by acclamation.
The world must think beyond traditional indicators and reimagine a global economic architecture no longer stacked against developing countries, the Economic and Social Council heard today, as experts called for systems that reflect every nation’s real potential.
International taxation must keep pace with a world in which economic activity is not tied to physical location, the Economic and Social Council heard today during a series of three panel discussions on international tax cooperation.
The Commission on the Status of Women concluded its seventieth session today, with delegates adopting a text on “women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS”, and many airing pent-up concerns over the Agreed Conclusions adopted last week, which they argued had been weakened by unprecedented objections of some Member States.
Gender justice, whether on a remote island or in digital spaces, must be grounded in the lived realities of young women and girls, civil society speakers from around the world told the Commission on the Status of Women today.
