UN Interviews

United Nations
  • 4.5 (4)
  • NEWS COMMENTARY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY
UN Interviews Podcast

UN News interviews a wide range of people from senior news-making officials at Headquarters in New York, to advocates and beneficiaries from across the world who have a stake in helping the UN go about its often life-saving work in the field.

  1. 3 DAYS AGO

    Haiti: Successive crises limit time for recovery of vulnerable farming households

    A series of crises is making it difficult for Haiti’s most vulnerable farming households to work their land, recover from natural weather events and build their livelihoods according to a senior representative of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Extreme weather, including hurricanes, as well as the effects of climate change and now rampant insecurity have dramatically impacted successive growing seasons leaving around five million Haitians hungry. The Caribbean island nation of 11 million people is largely rural and agriculture employs about half of the workforce. FAO’s director of emergencies, Rein Paulsen, has visited Haiti and spoke from the capital Port-au-Prince to UN News’ Daniel Dickinson at about a farming community he visited in Grande Anse in the southwest of the country.

    10 min

  2. 4 DAYS AGO

    Agricultural assistance is key to feed hungry people in war zones: FAO

    Amid the brutal war in Gaza and fears of famine, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is providing Palestinian livestock holders with veterinary kits to keep their animals healthy and disease-free. This is just one example of the UN agency’s work to ensure food security and economic stability in conflict zones, including the West Bank, Ukraine and Sudan. To find out more about these efforts, UN News’s Nancy Sarkis in Geneva spoke to FAO Deputy Director Beth Bechdol.

    8 min

  3. 4 DAYS AGO

    IOM seeks $13.3 million to scale up response in Yemen

    Over half a million people have been severely impacted by unprecedented flooding and windstorms in Yemen. The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been working in the hardest-hit areas providing emergency shelter, cash assistance, and clean water. But the agency is facing significant challenges, including limited resources and ongoing conflict, which complicates relief efforts, according to Matt Huber, IOM’s Acting Chief of Mission in Yemen Talking to UN News’s Abdelmonem Makki, Mr. Huber said that IOM has just launched a $13.3 million appeal to scale up its response to meet the growing needs in the country.

    13 min

  4. 6 DAYS AGO

    ‘Work to be done’ to ensure Haiti security support mission can make progress

    More work needs to be done to ensure the success of the multinational security support mission which has deployed to Haiti to help the national police address chronic levels of violence and instability. That’s according to Bob Rae, Canada’s Ambassador to the UN and the newly elected president of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The mission, which is not a UN peacekeeping operation, began deploying in June and has experienced some notable gains including shifting the area of operation of some of the gang activity in the capital Port-au-Prince away from two key hospitals and the main port. But, talking to UN News’s Cristina Silveiro following a visit to the Caribbean island nation, Mr. Rae said it was impossible to say the country “had turned a corner”.

    8 min

  5. SEP 3

    First ever guidance issued on antibiotic pollution to fight rise of superbugs

    This is Daniel Johnson for UN News. Superbugs – or bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics – continue to be a major worry for the medical community and health authorities, because if they emerge and spread globally, life-saving drugs will no longer work. As part of the global effort to prevent such antimicrobial resistance, the UN World Health Organization on Tuesday launched the first-ever guidance for manufacturers of antibiotics on what to do with their wastewater. The guidance has been developed in partnership with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and its launch is timed ahead of the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on antimicrobial resistance on 26 September. With more, here’s Kate Medlicott, Team lead of sanitation and wastewater in the UN health agency’s Department of Climate, Environment and Health, who I caught up with in Geneva.

    6 min

  6. SEP 2

    Gaza: anxious parents come in their thousands for polio protection for children, says UNRWA

    The fighting hasn’t stopped in Gaza but that hasn’t prevented tens of thousands of parents from making sure that their children are given the first of two polio vaccines. The UN-led initiative inoculated 15,000 youngsters in one school-turned-shelter in central Deir Al-Balah on Monday, according to Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA. Talking to Daniel Johnson from UN News on Monday, she described the challenge of rolling out the campaign where, to be successful, 90 per cent of Gaza’s children under 10 will need to be vaccinated – right now, and again in four weeks.

    9 min

  7. AUG 28

    West Bank: ‘Constant fear’ amid soaring Israeli settler violence

    The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Wednesday condemned Israel’s military escalation in the occupied West Bank, calling for attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to stop, along with settler violence and the forcible transfer of Palestinians. Ajith Sunghay, Head of OHCHR in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told UN News that as the situation deteriorates even further - against the backdrop of war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza - people live in fear”. He told Abdelmonem Makki a large number of settlers are entering Palestinian communities in the West Bank to attack herders or farmers, and “we’re seeing more and more backing of the IDF of settlers”.

    10 min

  8. AUG 23

    Lebanon: OCHA official urges more funding to meet civilian needs

    Civilians in Lebanon - particularly in the volatile south - are grappling with constant threats of violence, high levels of displacement and economic deprivation, as the standoff between Israel and Hezbollah militants continues in the shadow of the Gaza war. Fadel Saleh, from the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) in Lebanon, told UN News that tens of thousands of people are unable to access basic services such as water facilities – while crucial civilian infrastructure such as markets and farms have been severely damaged amidst the cross-border exchange of fire.   He told Khaled Mohamed any “uncontrolled conflict” that erupts could impact up to a million people, while “controlled conflict” will still affect 250,000, calling for a major increase in humanitarian funding for Lebanon.

    8 min
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UN News interviews a wide range of people from senior news-making officials at Headquarters in New York, to advocates and beneficiaries from across the world who have a stake in helping the UN go about its often life-saving work in the field.

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