In 2022 the World Health Organization set out to reduce its reliance on earmarked funding that ties projects to donor requirements. Member States agreed to raise their 'assessed contributions' from 16% of core budget towards 50% by 2031, and began carrying it out with a 20% increase for
The inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance meets in Geneva on 6 and 7 July, immediately followed by the seventh AI for Good Global Summit running through to 10 July. More than 50 UN agencies are partners, and the recently appointed Independent International Scientific Panel on AI reports into
The G7 finance ministers met in Paris on 18 and 19 May 2026, consulted Brazil, India, Kenya and South Korea, and annexed to their communique a statement titled the G7 Principles for Mutually Beneficial International Partnerships. Twenty-six of thirty-four OECD DAC members cut official development assistance in 2025.
On 14 May the United States announced an additional $1.8 billion for the UN's humanitarian operations, channeled through the country-based pooled funds that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs administers. The contribution brings total US support since December to $3.8 billion across 21
On 25 April 2026, fighters from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jamat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin and the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front struck Bamako, Kidal, Gao, Sevare and Kati simultaneously. Mali's Defence Minister Sadio Camara was killed by a suicide truck bomb at his residence in Kati.
Two months ago, USG Rosemary DiCarlo briefed the Security Council on critical minerals. Trade in raw and semi-processed minerals reached approximately $2.5 trillion in 2023, more than 10% of global trade. Demand could triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040. More than 70% of global cobalt extraction occurs
The Resident Coordinator system is being 'recalibrated', the third revision in eight years. On 1 April, the DSG briefed Member States on what the latest round will involve:the UN Development Coordination Office reorganised into two divisions, country teams better configured to context, expanded regional surge support, and
The 2025 Financing the UN Development System report, published by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and the MPTFO in September, records 81% of 2023 contributions to UN operational activities for development and humanitarian assistance as earmarked. Core funding was 19%. The total earmarked figure for the UN development system in 2022
The case for a well-resourced UN development system has never been principally about redistribution from wealthier industrial economies to poor, struggling ones. The UN's development pillar were premised on the connective tissue of stability: the governance capacity, the public health systems, the coordination functions that make societies
The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is reviewed every five years by its 191 member states, with the aim of producing a consensus document on compliance and next steps across the treaty's three pillars: disarmament, non-proliferation, and peaceful nuclear energy. The last three conferences (2005, 2015, 2022) failed
Russia convened the five permanent Security Council members in October to draft the joint letter that formally launches the selection of the next UN Secretary-General. The P5 agreed on a text modelled closely on the 2015 letter and presented it to the ten elected members as something close to
The WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference this week will need to address a growing hole in the organisation's authority and influence, and what's filling that gap. MC14 convenes in Yaoundé five weeks after the US Supreme Court struck down Trump's IEEPA tariffs as