Women should not die…. ….when they give life

DANIDA, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen School of Global Health, are joining forces again this year to put focus on maternal mortality in connection with Mother's Day on 12 May.

More than 20,000 yellow to-go coffee cups with messages about maternal health and teenage pregnancies will be distributed on DSB trains across Denmark to draw attention to the challenge of reducing maternal deaths, especially amongst young mothers.

Photo: Peter Sørensen

Some offices are still empty and you occasionally loose you sense of direction. But all in all we have settled in our new premises. After more than 20 years in different offices around Copenhagen the various UN organisations present in Denmark are finally moving in under the same roof. Our home from now on will be the newly built UN City at Marmorvej in Copenhagen’s Nordhavn.

For too many months, if they survived the night, Syrian children and their families have been waking to day after day of shelling, shooting and fear.

And each day, in Syria and its neighbouring countries, one of the largest humanitarian aid efforts in United Nations’ history has been providing a lifeline to millions of people.

Photo: WFP/Daouda Guirou

Mexico City, 14 March 2013—Norway, Australia and the United States lead the rankings of 187 countries and territories in the latest Human Development Index (HDI), while conflict-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo and drought-stricken Niger have the lowest scores in the HDI’s measurement of national achievement in health, education and income, published today in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2013 Human Development Report.

Photo: WFP/Abeer Etefa 

“We need to educate, we need to get information out, we need to prevent early marriage and stop early pregnancies. We need to let young people in Mozambique know what their rights are, give them access to the services they need to live a healthy youthful life. Such valuable knowledge will pave the way for them to make informed choices about their future – and the future of Mozambique”, said HRH The Crown Princess of Denmark in her capacity as UNFPA patron during her visit to Mozambique last week.

COPENHAGEN, 21 February 2013 --

“Ask not only what growth will do for equity, but what equity will do for growth.” 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged a stronger global partnership to advance progress on the development targets world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015, as a new United Nations report finds that significant gains risk slowing due to declining aid.

“The report paints a troubling picture,” Mr. Ban told reporters as he launched the 2012 MDG Gap Task Force Report at UN Headquarters in New York. “It is clear that we need a stronger global partnership to achieve the MDGs by the 2015 deadline.”

Positive results of development and the related progress in developing countries are not usually given much space in the media. Today this changed, as UN representatives entered the streets to participate in the campaign ”The World’s Best News”, spreading the message that development works and the fight against poverty actually yields substantial results.