The equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs were lost in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recovery next year is likely to be slow – but it’s not all bad news, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, ILO’s Dorothea Schmidt-Klau maintains there is hope that the crisis will lead to new opportunities in the green economy, which is where young jobseekers in particular, should seek work. 

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

The head of the UN migration agency, IOM, is strongly advocating for governments everywhere to respect the “fundamental right of healthcare” when it comes to ensuring vulnerable migrants and the displaced get equal access to COVID-19 vaccines.

In an interview for UN News, António Vitorino wants migrants to be included in all plans. The agency’s Yasmina Guerda, began by asking the Director General to outline the overall impact of the pandemic on migrants and the displaced.

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Nearly 60,000 people from Ethiopia’s volatile Tigray region have now crossed the border to remote southeastern Sudan, after more than two months of fighting, many with just the clothes on their backs. 

The emergency has created a massive protection challenge for the UN refugee agency in Sudan, UNHCR, which is doing everything it can to provide what they need, as spokesperson Axel Bisschop tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson. 

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Migration is part of the modern world, and it is not going away despite a COVID slowdown, a UN official has told UN News.

Jorge Bravo from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), explained to Conor Lennon from UN News that the longer-term trend is showing an increase in the numbers of people leaving their countries of origin to live elsewhere.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

Compared to last year, everything is in place to successfully fight the devastating desert locust swarms that have been threatening food supplies and livelihoods across the Horn of Africa region, according to the senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official, in charge of forecasting the pest’s movements.

Charlotta Lomas spoke to Keith Cressman, who said that $80 million was still needed to control the scourge, through the coming months.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

After years of drought, and with what little the people of Madagascar have managed to grow, destroyed by flashflooding, more than 1.3 million are in crisis – and some are even eating ground-up clay just to survive.  

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, WFP’s regional director for southern Africa, Lola Castro, explains how the UN agency is helping by empowering communities to withstand future climate shocks

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

Homeworking has necessarily exploded since the COVID-19 pandemic took a grip on the world, from around 260 million people in 2019, to some 580 million in 2020.

A new ILO report, released on Wednesday, lays out the penalties paid by those now having to work from home, which include higher health risks, lower wages, and social isolation.

Sergei Soares, a labour economist at the ILO,  explained to Conor Lennon from UN News that the impetus behind the report was the fact that very few countries have ratified the ILO’s Home Work Convention.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

This week’s show features the week’s news headlines, an interview on the first post-COVID global survey on people’s priorities with UN75 chief Fabrizio Hochschild, and a rendition of one of the longest words in the indigenous Aymara language from Latin America – tune in to find out more… 

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

The world’s first global poll conducted during the COVID-19 crisis to ask people what their biggest needs, hopes and fears are, 75 years after the UN was founded, has turned up some surprising findings.

One of them, perhaps, is the fact that more people in low and middle income countries, than in rich nations, called for greater global solidarity for communities badly hit by the pandemic. UN News’s Daniel Johnson, spoke to Under-Secretary-General Fabrizio Hochschild, about meeting the needs of millions in the years ahead.

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Well over 2,500 migrants and refugees have been forced to sleep rough in Bosnia-Herzegovina for several weeks – on the European Union’s doorstep – despite the fact that suitable sheltered accommodation is available. 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, Peter Auweraert (Hour-Urt) chief of mission in Bosnia for the UN Migration Agency IOM, describes the difficulties of trying to find a quick solution to the urgent problem. 

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In this second podcast from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) marking the agency’s 75th birthday, Andre Vornic tracks how FAO helped make the dream of a “world of plenty” more of a reality in the post-World War Two period, in the fight against hunger and inequality.  

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The Security Council on Tuesday voted to end the hybrid UN-African Union civilian support operation for Darfur, UNAMID, beginning the drawdown on 1 January.

It marks the end of a force that can withdraw, knowing that government is now “in the right hands”, according to the UN Joint Special Representative, Jeremiah Mamabolo, although as he tells UN News in this exclusive interview it does not mean the UN is leaving.

Mr. Mamabolo begin by telling Abdelmonem Makki of our UN News Arabic team and a Darfuri himself, what UNAMID had achieved since 2007, beyond fulfilling its core mandate of keeping civilians safe.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

In this week’s show, comedian AK Dans explains how he’s on a mission to challenge stereotypes about his fellow refugees. We’ll have news headlines and insight on migration in Latin America and West and Central Africa, from regular guests Solange Behoteguy-Cortes, and Alpha Diallo, of the Information Service at UN Geneva. 

This post was originally published on Radio Free.