It’s a new day in Damascus. But what about New York? For the last 14 years, the United Nations’ role in Syria has been relegated to the circumscribed (but vital) task of supporting the humanitarian needs of millions of Syrians. Now, there is an opportunity for the UN and the broader international community to support Syria’s political transition, post-conflict recovery, and reconstruction. These are areas in which the United Nations, in other contexts, has established a decent track rec...| UN Dispatch
When the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, it had all the makings of a monumental catastrophe. The Secretary-General at the time, Ban Ki-moon, was not the same kind of jet-setting international peace negotiator as his predecessor, Kofi Annan. So Ban made a wise decision: he tapped the former Secretary-General to be his special envoy for Syria. At the time, Annan was riding high as an ex-diplomat, having successfully negotiated a political settlement to a deadly and high-stakes internal confli...| UN Dispatch
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released its annual assessment of global humanitarian needs today. It’s a grim document. The report, known as the Global Humanitarian Overview, surveys the dozens of man-made and natural disasters around which the UN has mounted a response over the current year. It also projects the crises expected to demand international attention in 2025. The report estimates that 305 million people across 32 countries and 9 r...| UN Dispatch
Listeners will no doubt remember the devastating Ebola outbreak of 2014–2016. More than 28,600 people were infected, and 11,325 people died across several countries in West Africa. One of the hardest-hit places was Sierra Leone, where nearly 4,000 people lost their lives. In the years since, scientists and civil society advocates have raced to develop and implement a vaccine to protect against future outbreaks. That vaccine works—and works well. It was tested during outbreaks in the Democ...| UN Dispatch