In December, the latest international climate negotiations at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) made headlines around the world, as expected – but, as UNU-MERIT researcher Sanae Okamoto argues in an op-ed written for The Japan Times, two major achievements of this year’s conference went largely unnoticed by the press. Firstly, the topic of health was brought to the fore – with the first-ever Health Day featured in a COP programme – and secon...
Episode 12 of the Director’s Corner Podcast series: Director Bartel Van de Walle speaks with Sanae Okamoto, researcher at UNU-MERIT In this conversation, Bartel and Sanae discuss – among other related topics – the findings of a new report from the United Nations University Climate Resilience Initiative (titled ‘Building Climate Resilience: Lessons from the 2021 Floods in Western Europe‘), which Sanae co-authored. Specifically, they touch on the following points: 🔸 ...
For many researchers working on projects that spanned international borders, the imposition of travel restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid change in ways of working. Drawing on their own experience and those of colleagues of carrying out fieldwork during the pandemic, UNU-MERIT researcher Talitha Dubow and PRIO researcher Marta Bivand Erdal propose practical recommendations to support a more collaborative mode of fieldwork, which might be among the building bloc...
“My dear colleagues, the strength of our United Nations is YOU – our committed and dedicated personnel. Events have moved at alarming speed over the past two weeks. This crisis is unprecedented. And I’m proud of how – together – you are adapting so quickly. I understand the enormous stress that measures to contain the virus are putting on you and your families. Many of you, like me, are working away from loved ones and worrying deeply about them, and working from home can feel isolat...
UNU-MERIT is closely monitoring the situation with regard to the COVID-19 outbreak, and will re-evaluate its policy on a daily basis. Directives and recommendations from central and local authorities in the Netherlands, as well as from the UN(U) will be followed immediately. Currently, this means that we have implemented the following measures. First, all teaching at Master’s and PhD level will be conducted online instead of in-class. This will involve some disruption of normal teaching sc...
A joint post by Praem Mehta and Katie Kuschminder The human rights violations and targeted violence against Rohingya communities in Rakhine State, Myanmar have forced over 687,000 people to flee to Bangladesh since 25 August 2017. As of 30 March 2018 there are now more than 898,000 Rohingya refugees living in overcrowded, inadequate camp conditions in Cox’s Bazar. The crisis is thus far from over. With the monsoon season imminent, heavy rains and flooding will increase the vulnerability of camp ...
This year’s 19th European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) took the guiding theme of ‘Demographics & Diversity in Europe – New Solutions for Health’. As the leading event of its kind, the Forum aims to develop European health policy with input from national and regional authorities and decisionmaking bodies. Its main supporters include the European Commission and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. From 28-30 September 2016, UNU-MERIT’s Prof. Angela Brand and Researcher Seba...
Health is one of the core elements in human capital development and is explicitly presented under Goal 3, which aims to “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. This goal is far more inclusive than its predecessor and seeks to put the issue high up on the 2030 Agenda....
In the weeks approaching the one-year anniversary of the death of Alan Kurdi, another picture — again of a child in crisis — drew the world’s attention back to the heavy toll of insecurity for some of the most vulnerable populations. In contrast to the picture of Alan Kurdi, which inspired a call for more inclusive humanitarian responses in the face of escalating flight, the images of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, dazed and dust-covered in an ambulance after a Russian airstrike in Aleppo, have p...
How can we encourage more people to lead active lives, not only in general but also in an educational setting? We know that obesity and health problems are linked to a lack of exercise and we see a clear relationship between leading an active life and better health in general. Both feature a great deal in academia, but a less studied area is the impact of a healthy, active life and movement on educational performance. Academics have studied the relationship between moving and thinking and the re...