Economic Growth & Sustainable Development
Ageing Water Infrastructure: An Emerging Global Risk (UNU-INWEH)
https://inweh.unu.edu/ageing-water-storage-infrastructure-an-emerging-global-risk/
 By 2050, most people on Earth will live downstream of tens of thousands of large dams built in the 20th century, many of them already operating at or beyond their design life, according to a United Nations University analysis released on 22 January 2021. The report by the Canada-based UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), says most of the 58,700 large dams worldwide were constructed between 1930 and 1970 with a design life of 50 to 100 years, adding that at 50 years a large concrete dam “would most probably begin to express signs of aging.” Ageing signs include increasing cases of dam failures, progressively increasing costs of dam repair and maintenance, increasing reservoir sedimentation, and loss of a dam’s functionality and effectiveness — “strongly interconnected” manifestations, the paper says. The report says dams that are well-designed, constructed, and maintained can “easily” reach 100 years of service but predicts an increase in “decommissioning” — a phenomenon gaining pace in the USA and Europe — as economic and practical limitations prevent ageing dams from being upgraded or if their original use is now obsolete.
Food system impacts on biodiversity loss: Three levers for food system transformation in support of nature
https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/publication/food-system-impacts-biodiversity-loss
 This new Chatham House report, supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Compassion in World Farming, describes three actions needed for food system transformation in support of biodiversity, and sets out recommendations to embed food system reform in high level political events over the coming UN ‘Super Year’ for Nature. Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, with agriculture alone being the identified threat to 24,000 of the 28,000 (86%) species at risk of extinction. The global rate of species extinction today is higher than the average rate over the past 10 million years. In the last decades our food systems have been following the “cheaper food paradigm”, with a goal of producing more food at lower costs through increasing inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, energy, land and water. This paradigm leads to a vicious circle: the lower cost of food production creates a bigger demand for food that must also be produced at a lower cost through more intensification and further land clearance. The impacts of producing more food at a lower cost are not limited to biodiversity loss. The global food system is a major driver of climate change, accounting for around 30% of total human-produced emissions.
Global Climate Litigation Report – 2020 Status Review (UNEP)
https://www.unep.org/resources/report/global-climate-litigation-report-2020-status-review
 People, including children and indigenous communities, are increasingly turning to the courts to compel governments and businesses to respect and accelerate commitments on climate change. According to a report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), published on 25 January 2021, the number of climate change litigation cases has surged in the last four years and now stands at 1,550 in 38 countries (39 including the courts of the European Union). As of 1 July 2020, some 1,200 of these cases were filed in the United States and 350 in all other countries combined. The report noted this was almost double the number identified in an inaugural 2017 UNEP report on the subject. That document listed 884 cases in some 24 countries, of which 654 were in the United States and 230 in other nations.
Managing Infrastructure Assets for Sustainable Development: A handbook for local and national governments
https://www.un.org/development/desa/financing/document/un-handbook-infrastructure-asset-management
 This UN/DESA-UNCDF Handbook represents a significant contri-bution to the Financing for Sustainable Development agenda, advancing both thought leadership and action. Finalized in the crucible of the COVID-19 crisis, the Handbook brings global visibility to infrastructure asset management as a critical, high impact area for investing in local capacities to mobilize and manage financing for sustainable development, including in emergencies. With trendy focus on the ‘new and shiny’, old assets often go neglected, while new ones are built without putting in place effective asset management frameworks. Underinvestment in infrastructure maintenance has been estimated to cost some developing countries up to 2 per cent growth in GDP. The Handbook calls national and local governments to action and provides them with concrete guidance on how to ensure the resilience, sustainability and accessibility of existing and planned infrastructure investments. It contains practical tools to improve infrastructure asset management, plus recommendations on how to adapt them to socio-economic and environmental challenges of our time, including climate change and public health emergencies.
 Mapping for a Sustainable World (UN / ICA)
https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3898826
The book comprises four sections. Section 1 introduces the SDGs and their relation to geospatial data, describing SDG indicators and data transformations for mapping. Section 2 describes foundational design decisions in the cartographic workflow, including projections, scale, generalization, symbolization, typography, and visual hierarchy, among others. Section 3 introduces the common map types (e.g., choropleths, proportional symbols, dasymetric maps, bivariate maps, cartograms) and diagrams (e.g., bar graphs, scatterplots, timelines) for representing the SDG indicators. Finally, Section 4 discusses considerations for map use environments, such as audiences, user interfaces and interaction operators, mobile and web media, storytelling versus exploration, and open access.
 People’s Climate Vote: Results (UNDP)
https://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/km-qap/UNDP-Oxford-Poeples-Climate-Vote-Results.pdf
Almost two-thirds of over 1.2 million people surveyed worldwide say that climate change is a global emergency, urging greater action to address the crisis, results from a new UN climate survey revealed on 27 January 2021. Findings from UN Development Programme (UNDP)’s “People’s Climate Vote” – which covered 50 countries with over half the world’s population – also showed that people supported more comprehensive climate policies to respond to the challenges.
Playing for the Planet Annual Impact Report
https://playing4theplanet.org/2020annual_impact_report/
 Want to capture the attention of millions of young people and raise awareness about the climate emergency? Then talk to the video gaming industry. Levelling up, going faster, scoring higher and taking on the impossible is not just what it takes to achieve gaming stardom. They are exactly what it will take to confront urgent global challenges. A recent report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and partners analyses the impact of the Playing for the Planet Alliance, an initiative that taps the power of the gaming industry to encourage action on climate change. Supported by UNEP, GRID-Arendal and Playmob, the alliance brings together 29 major gaming companies, which can reach over 1.2 billion players. In 2020 – a year in which many were confined to their couches – more than 110 million players were also supporting green initiatives like tree planting through activations in games like Angry Birds and Subway Surfers, promoted in the Google Play Store. And Sony Interactive Entertainment surpassed its own energy efficiency standards, launching the Play Station 5 with reduced power consumption modes.
Productive Capacities Index (PCI) (UNCTAD)
https://unctad.org/topic/least-developed-countries/productive-capacities-index
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has launched a new tool to help developing countries improve their development policies, reduce poverty and build economic resilience to negative shocks such as the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated economies across the world. The Productive Capacities Index (PCI) is an online portal with publications, manuals, resources and tools that allow policymakers to measure their countries’ performance in achieving their national development goals, as well as their ability to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
State of Economic Inclusion (SEI) Report 2020: The Potential to Scale (World Bank)
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/34917
 Economic inclusion programs, which help boost income and assets of the world’s poorest, are on the rise in 75 countries, reaching approximately 20 million poor and vulnerable households, and benefitting nearly 92 million individuals. This surge comes at a crucial time, as more than 700 million people around the world face extreme poverty, a number on the rise for the first time in two decades. According to the World Bank’s new report, published on 26 January 2021, economic inclusion programs – usually a combination of cash or in-kind transfers, skills training or coaching, access to finance, and links to market support – are fast becoming a critical instrument in many governments’ large-scale anti-poverty strategies. And they are likely to continue, especially in areas affected by conflict, climate change, and shocks, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2020 (UNEP)
https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2020
 As temperatures rise and climate change impacts intensify, nations must urgently step up action to adapt to the new climate reality or face serious costs, damages and losses, a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report finds. Adaptation – reducing countries’ and communities’ vulnerability to climate change by increasing their ability to absorb impacts – is a key pillar of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The agreement requires its signatories to implement adaptation measures through national plans, climate information systems, early warning, protective measures and investments in a green future. The UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2020 finds that while nations have advanced in planning, huge gaps remain in finance for developing countries and bringing adaptation projects to the stage where they bring real protection against climate impacts such as droughts, floods and sea-level rise. Public and private finance for adaptation must be stepped up urgently, along with faster implementation. Nature-based solutions – locally appropriate actions that address societal challenges, such as climate change, and provide human well-being and biodiversity benefits by protecting, sustainably managing and restoring natural or modified ecosystems – must also become a priority.
Urban Observatories: A Comparative Review
https://unhabitat.org/urban-observatories-a-comparative-review
 A new report, released on 28 January 2021, provides a review of ‘urban observatories,’ which explores the various features, functions, and activities these institutions have and perform and reveals the critical role urban observatories play in knowledge mobilisation and urban governance. The Report has been released alongside a companion working paper and podcast, both focused on the COVID-19 crisis, and was produced jointly by the Connected Cities Lab at the University of Melbourne, University College London Department of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Public Policy (STEaPP), and UN-Habitat. This first-of-a-kind landscape review examines ‘urban observatories,’ which are boundary-spanning institutions working at the interface between knowledge production and decision-making that perform an explicit monitoring role on a range of urban issues in one or more human settlements. It builds upon earlier scholarly research on knowledge mobilisation for urban governance and developing a global science to guide city policy. It also informed a recent scholarly publication on urban observatories’ role in mobilising urban knowledge for sustainable development against the context of the COVID-19 crisis. Further, the report is complemented by a working paper and associated podcast episode, which focus on the value observatories demonstrated as well as the challenges they faced during COVID-19, drawing on the experiences of six case study observatories.
Waste Wise Cities Tool: Step by Step Guide to Assess City Municipal Solid Waste Management Performance through SDG 11.6.1 Indicator Monitoring (UN Habitat)
https://unhabitat.org/waste-wise-data
UN-Habitat has launched the Waste Wise Cities Tool (WaCT), an innovation that cities can use to evaluate and improve their municipal solid waste management performance. This method is based on the definition of the SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) indicator 11.6.1 and generates critical information and parameters through primary data collection to establish better waste and resource management strategies and action plans, as well as to mobilise funds and engage stakeholders of the waste chain.
 WHAT IS A ‘GOOD PRACTICE’? A framework to analyse the Quality of Stakeholder Engagement in implement-tation and follow-up of the 2030 Agenda
https://bit.ly/3po36yp
Developed by UN DESA and UNDP, this analytical framework is a tool to enable governments, stakeholders and development partners to examine and strengthen the quality of their stakeholder engagement practices at different stages of the 2030 Agenda cycle, including considering the impact of COVID-19. It is hoped that this tool will help improve stakeholder engagement practices, foster dialogue, and support the sharing of lessons learned and good practices. Readers and users are strongly encouraged to share their feedback on and experiences with the framework with us so we can document them on an ongoing basis in a dedicated space on the SDG16 Hub.
WIPO-WTO Colloquium Papers
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/colloquium_papers_e/colloquium_search_e.htm
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the WTO have launched a new webpage providing comprehensive access to the WIPO-WTO Colloquium Papers, a joint academic effort aimed at stimulating analysis and debate on intellectual property (IP) issues, particularly of interest to developing countries. The launch marks the 25th anniversary of the bilateral agreement between the two organizations which laid the foundation for cooperation in providing technical assistance to the developing world. The new webpage provides a complete list of all articles published in the journal WIPO-WTO Colloquium Papers, listed in reverse chronological order from the most recent. The articles can be browsed by title and author, or searched according to key word, author’s name, title or full text.
Working from home: From invisibility to decent work (ILO)
Report in English, Executive Summary in English, French & Spanish: https://bit.ly/39qn58R
 Those working from home, whose number has greatly increased due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, need better protection, says the International Labour Organization (ILO) in a new report, released on 13 January 2021. Since homeworking occurs in the private sphere it is often “invisible”. In low- and middle-income countries for instance, almost all home-based workers (90 per cent) work informally. They are usually worse off than those who work outside the home, even in higher-skilled professions. Homeworkers earn on average 13 per cent less in the United Kingdom; 22 per cent less in the United States of America; 25 per cent less in South Africa and about 50 per cent in Argentina, India and Mexico. Homeworkers also face greater safety and health risks and have less access to training than non-home-based workers, which can affect their career prospects. The report also shows that homeworkers do not have the same level of social protection as other workers. They are also less likely to be part of a trade union or to be covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
World Economic Situation and Prospects 2021 (UN DESA)
 The United Nations warned on 25 January 2021 that the devastating socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt for years to come unless smart investments in economic, societal and climate resilience ensure a robust and sustainable recovery of the global economy. In 2020, the world economy shrank by 4.3 per cent, over two and half times more than during the global financial crisis of 2009. The modest recovery of 4.7per cent expected in 2021 would barely offset the losses of 2020, says the latest World Economic Situation and Prospects. The report underscores that sustained recovery from the pandemic will depend not only on the size of the stimulus measures, and the quick rollout of vaccines, but also on the quality and efficacy of these measures to build resilience against future shocks.
#YourVoiceYourFuture Report: Turning challenges into solutions (AU / EU / UNICEF)
https://uni.cf/3ohcKRO
 Participation in decision-making, quality education, internet access and the climate crisis are among the main concerns for children and young people in Africa and Europe, according to U-Report polling data released on 22 January 2021 by UNICEF, the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU). Almost half of all young people polled feel excluded from political decision-making processes that affect their lives, the poll findings show. While an overwhelming majority of the polled young people (91%) would like to have more say in the political decisions that shape their lives, 48% feel completely left out. The main obstacle they cite (59%) is lack of access to policymakers. The findings are included in the report #YourVoiceYourFuture, a joint effort between the AU, EU and UNICEF that brings together results and recommendations from four U-Report polls across Africa and Europe. Altogether, 450,000 young people between 14 and 35 years old voiced their views on key topics that affect their future and are relevant to the partnership between Africa and Europe.
Youth Solutions Report 2020
https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/democratic-governance/youth-solutions-report-2020.html
 The Youth Solutions Report is a flagship annual report under the Sustainable Development Solutions Network featuring youth-led solutions that offer sustainable solutions to the world’s biggest challenges. The Youth Solutions Report 2020, the fourth edition, captures key lessons and insights from 50 youth-led initiatives contributing to the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Selected by an Advisory Panel comprising world-leading experts and crowdsourced from a vast network of partners, these youth-led solutions demonstrate the transformative role of young people in the realization of the 2030 Agenda. The Report also includes analysis by a range of partners on how to address barriers that hinder the contribution of young people to sustainable development.
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UN Results portal
COVID-19: an informative guide: advice for journalists, January 2021 (WHO/Europe)
Global Report on Health Data Systems and Capacity, 2020 (WHO)
Contact tracing is a key element of WHO’s recommended approach to control the spread of COVID-19 by breaking the chains of human-to-human transmission. By effectively embedding risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) principles in contact-tracing efforts in the context of COVID-19, compliance with contact-tracing efforts is safeguarded and transmission of COVID-19 is slowed or halted, ultimately reducing death and disease due to COVID-19 and mitigating the negative impact on health-care systems and economies. This document provides guidance to health authorities at all levels to improve the success rate of contact tracing by informing efforts with RCCE principles, evidence and activities, and provides ready-to-use tools for professionals involved in contact-tracing efforts to inform their practices with RCCE principles and likewise improve their success rate.
The global system for pandemic alert and response is “not fit for purpose”, highlighting the need for a new framework in the wake of COVID-19, experts appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an interim report presented on 19 January 2021. 
Vaccine misinformation management field guide: Guidance for addressing a global infodemic and fostering demand for immunization
#Vaccines4All
held virtually on 26 January 2021
The handbook, developed by the United Nations with the generous support of the Folke Bernadotte Academy – the Swedish Agency for Peace, Security and Development – seeks to contribute to the operational readiness and capacity of United Nations practitioners to implement the youth, peace and security (YPS) agenda. For the United Nations, the development of the handbook was led by the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Development Programme and the Peacebuilding Support Office in the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, in consultation with a task force including various United Nations entities represented at global, regional and country levels, as well as Folke Bernadotte Academy partners. The handbook is intended to be used by country, regional and global teams in the United Nations system, but it can also provide insights and guidance to field practitioners beyond the United Nations, including other international or regional organizations, national counterparts, youth-led and youth focused organizations, movements and networks, and peacebuilding organizations.
On 28 January 2021, UN Women, in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) and the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) launched a new handbook that provides practical, peer-to-peer guidance for police to enable an effective and gender-sensitive response to violence against women and girls and complements existing global and country-specific training materials for law enforcement. Less than 
In Iraq, some 1.2 million children remain in need of education. Girls and women are affected disproportionately due to socially constructed gender norms, and those who have been internally displaced have reported increased sexual and gender-based violence, child, early and forced marriage, as well as economic and financial abuse. In some rural areas, girls are prevented by their families to attend school, and the role of mother and caregiver is encouraged over participating in the formal workforce. According to the report, released on 24 January 2021, these gender divisions have been further reinforced by ISIL. In territories under its control, girls and women have been subjected to heinous crimes and abuses. The report details a range of minority groups who have experienced rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, trafficking and torture.
International Migration 2020 Highlights presents key facts and messages regarding international migration globally and by region during 2000-2020, based on the 2020 revision of the international migrant stock data set, which provides updated estimates of numbers of persons living outside their country of birth, classified by age, sex and origin, for 232 countries and areas. This Highlights also reviews policies and programmes to promote planned and well-managed migration and provides an overview of SDG indicator 10.7.2 on the number of countries with migration policies to facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, used for measuring progress toward the achievement of SDG target 10.7.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) with support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is stepping up global co-operation on the use of humanitarian drones, which are a game-changer for fast, accurate, disaster impact assessment and response. With growing threats from famine and climate change, it is hoped a new online platform will help respond to the challenges ahead, as currently being demonstrated in the response to tropical storm Eloise in Mozambique. To ramp up engagement from leading public, private and academic experts, WFP have launched the platform (
The report is the fifth of its kind mandated by the General Assembly through the 2010 United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons. It covers 148 countries and provides an overview of patterns and flows of trafficking in persons at global, regional and national levels, based primarily on trafficking cases detected between 2016 and 2019. As UNODC has been systematically collecting data on trafficking in persons for more than a decade, trend information is presented for a broad range of indicators. As with previous years, this edition of the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons presents a global picture of the patterns and flows of trafficking (Chapter 1), alongside detailed regional analyses (Chapter 6) and country profiles. In addition, this Report provides four thematic chapters. Chapter 2 of the Report examines how poor socioeconomic conditions are used by traffickers to recruit and exploit victims. The third chapter expands on patterns of child trafficking and the roles that extreme poverty, social norms and familial backgrounds play in this form of trafficking. Then, the fourth chapter focuses on trafficking for forced labour and explores the specific economic sectors that are more vulnerable to trafficking. Finally, the fifth chapter presents emerging patterns on internet technologies that are used by traffickers to facilitate recruitment and exploitation.
When international experts gathered at UNODC’s headquarters in Vienna back in 2016 to develop a sport-based intervention that would help reduce youth crime and drug use, the guiding principle was that it had to be informed by existing evidence on what did and did not work. Building on this, and recognizing the evidence about the benefits of developing life skills among youth, UNODC created the