Due to US pressure, the UN General Assembly has voted to cut $600 million from the UN Peacekeeping budget. The impact on women and girls must be addressed, or the cuts could cause serious harm, say PhD fellows Ortrun Merkle and Diego Salama. Women walk past UN peacekeepers at South Darfur’s Attash refugee camp, January 2017. Due to budget cuts, the mission will reduce its troop numbers from 13,000 to less than 9,000 by 2018. Ashraf Shazly / AFP The United Nations General Assembly has voted...
UN Day, 24 October, marks the anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Charter in 1945. Seventy years on we take a critical look at the internal and external challenges of the ‘UN family’ – with a particular focus on coordination and leadership. Reforming the UN System – Diego Salama Eight years ago, while interning at the UN Information Centre in Lima, my director invited me to a Country Team meeting. It was my first chance to meet all the UN heads of agency in Peru, and I remember how exc...