A report out today from the United Nations Economist Network features contributions from UNU-WIDER’s Carlos Gradín and UNU-MERIT’s Neil Foster-McGregor – respectively writing on inequalities and the emergence of digital technologies. The report examines five megatrends: climate change; demographic shifts, particularly population ageing; urbanisation; the emergence of digital technologies; and inequalities – that are affecting economic, social and environmental outcomes. Efforts...
‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution cannot function without high quality data, statistics and knowledge products, as these are fundamental for evidence-based policymaking and monitoring inclusive and sustainable industrial development.’ Fernando Cantu Bazaldua, Chief Statistician, UNIDO This was the guiding theme for an international working group tasked with launching a new index, which will measure the environmental, social and corporate governance performance of public and private sector entiti...
Imagine being born in rural India. Imagine being Swapnali Sutar. You come top of your class in primary school and are able to enter secondary education. You work hard and your dream of becoming a veterinary doctor gradually seems possible. Until one day COVID-19 stops the world in its tracks. Your school and teachers are able to offer classes online, but your education and future remain at risk because your village has zero internet connectivity. This Indian girl managed to find a temporary work...
Dr Katie Kuschminder has won a ‘Starting Grant’ from the European Research Council. Designed for postdocs with between two and seven years’ experience, the 1.5 million euro grant will enable Katie to form her own research team, which will focus on reintegration governance for migrants. Katie summed up her ‘Reintegrate’ project as follows: “Increasing numbers of people are returning to their origin countries after they migrate. This can be voluntary return or a...
Prof. Bartel Van de Walle assumed the directorship of UNU-MERIT on 1 September 2020, and during his first day in office led an interactive welcome talk with staff online and in person. He then took time out to speak with the United Nations Regional Information Centre in Western Europe (UNRIC), contributing in Dutch and French to their ‘Faces of the UN‘ series. Bartel talked about his challenges and priorities and how, in New York in 2001, he suddenly shifted focus from abstract mathe...
It is with deep sadness that we bring you the news that our colleague and friend Ibrahima Sory Kaba passed away on 1 September 2020, at the age of 32. Ibrahima started at UNU-MERIT as a PhD fellow, and completed his PhD thesis entitled ‘Aggregate Fluctuations and Development: Essays on Macroeconomic Volatility and Economic Growth’ in 2019. After his period as PhD fellow, he took up a teaching position at UNU-MERIT’s sister department, MILE, at Maastricht University’s School of Business and Econo...
Forty-five years ago today ― on 1 September 1975 ― the United Nations University (UNU) commenced operations in Tokyo with a staff of fewer than 30 individuals and an annual budget of just over 3 million USD. Today, UNU has grown into a global organisation with a presence in more than a dozen countries, a personnel complement of some 670, and an annual budget of nearly 55 million USD. The mission of UNU remains unchanged: to contribute, through collaborative research and education, to efforts to ...
Ongoing war and conflict, starting in the late 1970s, have made Afghanistan a major emigrant country. For more than four decades, most Afghan families, including my own, have migrated either internally or externally, mainly for safety....
Amid profound instability unleashed with the Libyan civil war and rival factions vying for power, conditions facing the roughly 650,000 migrants who remain in Libya have been dire. Those living in the community are vulnerable to extortion, violence, and slave-like work conditions, while migrants held in detention centres may experience overcrowding, sexual abuse, forced labour, torture, and deprivation of food, sunlight, and water. Amid entrenched fighting around Tripoli, including a deadly airs...
While the end of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet in sight, there is growing focus on the ways and means to build back better, by resetting the way we produce, consume, socialise and interact. What are the possibilities of tomorrow, and how can countries leverage them to reset their economies in the post-COVID world? The Future Possibilities Report 2020, which was released in partnership with the UN75 initiative, sets out to answer that question by identifying six transforma...