Why Release of Two Journalists in Ethiopia Does not Signal End to Press Crackdown

On January 10, radio journalists Darsema Sori and Khalid Mohammed were released from prison after serving lengthy sentences related to their work at the Ethiopian faith-based station Radio Bilal. Despite their release and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's promise earlier this month to free political prisoners, Ethiopia's use of imprisonment, harassment, and surveillance means that the country continues to be a hostile environment for journalists.

Internet Shutdowns in Africa Stifling Press Freedom

“The internet for journalism is now like the air you breathe,” said Befeqadu Hailu, an Ethiopian journalist and a member of the Zone 9 blogger collective who was arrested in April 2014 and charged with terrorism. “Without the internet, modern journalism means nothing.” Yet, the internet is something that journalists in multiple African countries are often forced to do without.

The UN’s Blind Spot for Conflict Prevention

As the world struggles to respond to conflicts and the people fleeing them, UN insiders are also struggling to advance a ‘shift in mindset’ to help prevent these crises from happening in the first place.

Uncertainty Mars Potential for Peace in South Sudan

Nearly one month after UN Security Council members visited troubled South Sudan, disagreement reigns over even the limited outside measures proposed to try to bring the security situation in the world's newest country under control.

Analysis: Why the UN Needs a “Peace Industrial Complex”

In a world where annual defence spending is over 1.6 trillion dollars and the UN Peacebuilding Fund receives less than 700 million dollars, it would seem that the military industrial complex is unwaveringly entrenched.

Mongolia’s Poorest Turn Garbage into Gold

Ulziikhutag Jigjid, 49, is a member of a 10-person group in the Khan-Uul district on the outskirts of Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar, which is producing brooms, chairs, containers, and other handmade products from discarded soda and juice containers.

Divisions over Gender Complicate Development Agenda

As the U.N. focuses on refining its Post-2015 Development Agenda, divisions surrounding issues of population and development continue to plague consensus on a universal way forward.

Finding the Needle in the Post-2015 Haystack

How will the U.N. prioritise the goals of its Post-2015 Development Agenda? Which goals deserve more funding? And which goals will help the most people? These are the questions that the Copenhagen Consensus Centre (CCC) seeks to answer.

Torture, Starvation & Deaths Captured Digitally Inside Syria

It plays like a Hollywood movie. A former member of the Syrian military police, later codenamed “Caesar”, smuggles digital memory sticks containing photographs of corpses displaying signs of severe torture and starvation -- in his shoe. That was between September 2011 and August 2013. But now comes the question of accountability.

African Nations Need Industrialisation and Economic Transformation

Youth represent 40 percent of the African continent’s population. This number is expected to rise over the next 20 years and represents the population bearing the brunt of African economies’ failure to create sufficient jobs and address poor economic management.

U.N. Buzzes Over Vector Borne Diseases

In many countries across the world, the bite of a small insect can mean death. These vector borne diseases, the theme for the annual World Health Day (WHD) 2014, are deeply intertwined with many other developmental issues.

Getting into CAR, When so Many Want to Get Out

In a country suffering from what the U.N. has called “ethno-religious cleansing”, a “disappeared” state structure and “unacceptable sectarian brutality,” gaining access to the population of the Central African Republic has proven a difficult and sometimes deadly task for humanitarian workers.

Sudan & South Sudan Aid Efforts Dramatically Underfunded, Says U.N.

Sudan and South Sudan represent two of the most serious and worsening humanitarian crises on the planet, yet U.N aid efforts in both countries are receiving dramatically less funding and attention than is necessary, according to a senior U.N official.

Japanese Global Health Fund Targets Diseases of Developing World

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund) has allocated 12 million dollars to three recent projects targeting tuberculosis and some of the developing world’s most neglected diseases, which affect over one billion people.

WFP Airdrops Food in South Sudan

A lack of access and a desperate need to deliver food to starving people in remote areas of South Sudan has forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to initiate food airdrops.

U.N. Envoy to Afghanistan on Election Hopes & Challenges

With the Afghan election date set for April 5, 2014, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ján Kubiš, outlined his expectations as well as his concerns for a successful democratic process in the country.

What We Can Learn from Child Soldiers

In 2003, Moses Otiti, a 15-year-old from Uganda, was walking in a group with his father when members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) ambushed them.

As Crimea Referendum Nears, Tensions Rise

With the referendum on Crimea only days away, the sense of emergency at the United Nations, over the impact a vote could have on the already volatile crisis in Ukraine, has continued to rise.

As Tensions Flare, OPCW Indicates Positive Developments

Tensions over the Ukraine crisis dampened the positive brief on the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons, made to the UN Security Council by Sigrid Kaag, the Special Coordinator of the Joint Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

UNRWA Aid to Yarmouk Repeatedly Thwarted

Despite the absence of access in recent days, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) continues to press for a security agreement in Yarmouk, which would support more comprehensive aid distribution to the starving population.