State of the Global Climate 2022
The years 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest in the 173-year instrumental record. Concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide methane and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2021 the latest year for which consolidated global values are available (1984–2021). The annual increase in methane concentration from 2020 to 2021 was the highest on record. Real-time data from specific locations show that levels of the three greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2022. This report shows that once again greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to reach record levels – contributing to warming of the land and ocean melting of ice sheets and glaciers rising sea levels and warming and acidifying of oceans. There are major gaps in the weather and climate observing networks especially in the least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS) which is an obstacle for climate baseline monitoring especially at regional and national scales and for the provision of early warning and adequate climate services. The United Nations Early Warnings for All Initiative spearheaded by WMO aims to fill the existing capacity gap to ensure that every person on Earth is covered by early warning services. Achieving this ambitious task requires sound observations and regular updates on key climate indicators as provided in this report.
Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2023
Mapping Resilience for the Sustainable Development Goals
Global warming will surpass 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels during the next decade due to greenhouse gas emissions. The constant rise in temperatures and related impacts combine with other pressures thus increasing risk and undermining resilience. The increasing interconnectedness of people and human systems increases the risk of compound and cascading crises. The maps in this report highlight a number of these resilience deficits that are holding back achievement of key sustainable development goals. At the same time the report’s action case examples show that this is not inevitable and how action is possible on every continent to stop the worsening spiral of risk and disasters and to accelerate SDG target achievement. Addressing resilience gaps will require the unprecedented scaling-up of resilience investment and adaptation action both from within the public and private sectors particularly for the most vulnerable countries. As these investments take time to mobilize and prepare delay will increase the inevitable costs. Action is needed now. Disaster risk reduction sits at the nexus between development humanitarian and climate change action and can help foster more-sustainable resilient action in each. Readjusting development pathways requires a re-examination of how prosperity is measured and a greater emphasis on resilience as key element of sustainable development today and in the future.
Guidelines for the Production of Statistical Data by the Prison System
In 2015 the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) and the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (UN-CCPCJ) endorsed the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS). ICCS is the international standard for defining and classifying criminal offences to produce and disseminate statistical data on crime and criminal justice. When statistics are compiled and distributed according to the comprehensive and standardized framework of ICCS it is possible to produce higher quality statistics as well as more articulated analyses of crime trends and patterns harmonized across the different steps of the criminal justice system and jurisdictions. Building on the process to implement ICCS at a country level and the report on crime and criminal justice statistics authored by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the National Institute of Statistics and Geography of Mexico these guidelines aim to provide advice to the prison system on the collection production and dissemination of high-quality statistical data that can assist in performing and continuously monitoring core functions improve the measurement of access to justice and promote the implementation of ICCS. This document comprises specific guidance for the police the prosecution service and the courts and the prison system. In addition guidance on how to develop an interoperable system of crime and criminal justice data more broadly is forthcoming.
The Space4water Project: Building Bridges for Knowledge Exchange
Today humanity faces a plethora of challenges related to water. As an effect of drought some regions’ populations see their water reserves gradually but surely emptying. Around 40 per cent of the world’s population is affected by water scarcity. Elsewhere people suffer from flash floods rising sea levels or extreme weather. Rising sea levels affect agriculture livelihoods biodiversity and coastal habitats that are home to 900 million people. The next step in fully tapping the potential of space assets to improve life on Earth is to democratize access to these transformative tools and scale their application to benefit communities worldwide. In a world riddled with inequalities we cannot let the space sector become yet another field of persistent gaps among and within countries. To advance access to space solutions for addressing water challenges the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) launched a dedicated Space4Water project at the beginning of the Water Action Decade in 2018. The Project with its three pillars of conference series web portal and community building addresses knowledge exchange between scientific communities policymakers intergovernmental organizations the private sector civil society and the public. Through these efforts we are strengthening communities amplifying the voices of Indigenous communities connecting them with professionals with the technical background to address their issues and sharing a vast range of learning opportunities at different knowledge levels.
حالة المناخ العالمي 2022
The years 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest in the 173-year instrumental record. Concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide methane and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2021 the latest year for which consolidated global values are available (1984–2021). The annual increase in methane concentration from 2020 to 2021 was the highest on record. Real-time data from specific locations show that levels of the three greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2022. This report shows that once again greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to reach record levels – contributing to warming of the land and ocean melting of ice sheets and glaciers rising sea levels and warming and acidifying of oceans. There are major gaps in the weather and climate observing networks especially in the least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS) which is an obstacle for climate baseline monitoring especially at regional and national scales and for the provision of early warning and adequate climate services. The United Nations Early Warnings for All Initiative spearheaded by WMO aims to fill the existing capacity gap to ensure that every person on Earth is covered by early warning services. Achieving this ambitious task requires sound observations and regular updates on key climate indicators as provided in this report.
2022 年全球气候状况
The years 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest in the 173-year instrumental record. Concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide methane and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2021 the latest year for which consolidated global values are available (1984–2021). The annual increase in methane concentration from 2020 to 2021 was the highest on record. Real-time data from specific locations show that levels of the three greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2022. This report shows that once again greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to reach record levels – contributing to warming of the land and ocean melting of ice sheets and glaciers rising sea levels and warming and acidifying of oceans. There are major gaps in the weather and climate observing networks especially in the least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS) which is an obstacle for climate baseline monitoring especially at regional and national scales and for the provision of early warning and adequate climate services. The United Nations Early Warnings for All Initiative spearheaded by WMO aims to fill the existing capacity gap to ensure that every person on Earth is covered by early warning services. Achieving this ambitious task requires sound observations and regular updates on key climate indicators as provided in this report.
Состояние глобального климата в 2022 году
The years 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest in the 173-year instrumental record. Concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide methane and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2021 the latest year for which consolidated global values are available (1984–2021). The annual increase in methane concentration from 2020 to 2021 was the highest on record. Real-time data from specific locations show that levels of the three greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2022. This report shows that once again greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to reach record levels – contributing to warming of the land and ocean melting of ice sheets and glaciers rising sea levels and warming and acidifying of oceans. There are major gaps in the weather and climate observing networks especially in the least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS) which is an obstacle for climate baseline monitoring especially at regional and national scales and for the provision of early warning and adequate climate services. The United Nations Early Warnings for All Initiative spearheaded by WMO aims to fill the existing capacity gap to ensure that every person on Earth is covered by early warning services. Achieving this ambitious task requires sound observations and regular updates on key climate indicators as provided in this report.
Inequality and the Tails
Education, Urban Poverty and Migration
Millet Prices, Public Policy and Child Malnutrition
The Breadth of Child Poverty in Europe
Transnational Families, Care Arrangements and the State in Costa Rica and Nicaragua
Nicaragua has the second-highest emigration rate in Central America behind El Salvador and 40 per cent of Nicaraguan households receive remittances. In contrast to migrants from other Central American countries however Nicaraguan migrants are more likely to move within the region to Costa Rica than to the United States. This paper is concerned specifically with the implications of migration within Central America for family life. Focusing on the case of Costa Rica and Nicaragua the paper argues that the provision of care in Nicaraguan transnational families occurs in the context of multiple insecurities both historical and contemporary. In this sense migration represents both a solution to the insecure climate of care provision and a source of further insecurity. The paper frames this analysis within scholarship on the privatization of care work caregiving in transnational families and historical patterns of diverse family configurations. It then draws on more than 24 months of ethnographic research between 2009 and 2016 including interviews and participant observation with migrants living in Costa Rica and their families in Nicaragua to show how Nicaraguan families develop strategies based on a history of informal and flexible caregiving. In particular marriage informality and grandmother caregiving are highlighted. While these informal strategies allow families to navigate the challenges migration and family separation entail they also contribute to continued vulnerability and reinforce the gendered burdens of caregiving within transnational families.
A Contemporary View of 'Family' in International Human Rights Law and Implications for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This paper examines the interplay between the obligations related to the ‘family’ that States have assumed through various human rights treaties adopted over the decades and the recent commitments undertaken under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. International human rights instruments recognize the ‘family’ as the fundamental unit of society and include a variety of rights and obligations pertaining to the family. These obligations must be respected in all laws policies and interventions pertaining to the family. Under the 2030 Agenda States committed to achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions in a balanced and integrated manner. Through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its 169 targets the 2030 Agenda seeks to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Given this context this paper explores critical questions such as: If families have changed over time what is a ‘family’ today? How do critical human rights principles such as equality and non-discrimination the best interests of the child and the right to live a life free of violence shape the understanding of family? How should these human rights obligations guide the adoption of public policies that impact the family? How should policies and programmes ensure respect of the rights of all families tailored to the diversity of families within a country?
Family transition in South Asia: Provision of social services and social protection
Family may be defined as a group of persons related to a specific degree through blood adoption or marriage. The difficulty is that comparative data on the family in the broad definition of the term are not available. The available statistics relate to households defined by location community or living arrangements. Surveys and censuses usually cover all households not merely family households. Nevertheless the latter type constitutes a major proportion enabling the characteristics of the totals to be identified as those of family households. For many demographic socio-economic and political reasons family members may disperse and consequently the size of the household could be reduced although the size of the family would remain unchanged. In Asian countries most young people live with their parents after marriage and later move to another place whenever custom imposes or the economic condition of the new couple permits. Lloyd and Duffy (1995) believe that beyond this natural ebb and flow of family members families are becoming more dispersed. Young and elderly adults spouses and other relatives who might otherwise have shared a home are now more likely to live apart from one another. In 2004 the United Nations observed the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family. Thus it appears timely to review some of the trends such as fertility marriage dissolution migration urbanization and ageing that affect the family in the region.
Labour costs and competitiveness in the Latin American manufacturing sector, 1990-1998
This article analyses the reduction of labour costs as a factor which helps to raise the competitiveness of industrial enterprises. It first reviews non-wage labour costs both for workers with permanent contracts and those with only temporary contracts or with no contracts at all in order to show the differences that exist in non-wage labour costs according to the type of contract of the workers or their unregistered status and the impact of these differences on the labour costs for each type of worker and the average labour costs. It then goes on to consider the evolution of labour costs in industry and the different levels they assume according to the deflator used because of the changes in relative prices which accompanied the early years of the economic and trade openness process which has taken place in the region. It then analyses the evolution of labour costs in industry by type of contract and the changes in the average labour costs in the sector brought about by the dual strategy of reducing non-wage labour costs and changing the contract structure of industrial employment; describes the effect of exchange-rate lag on average labour costs and competitiveness and calculates how the latter would have evolved if there had not been such a lag. Finally some proposals are made for raising the competitiveness of labour in the countries of the region.
UNCTAD insights: FDI in the digital economy: A shift to asset-light international footprints
The digital economy is becoming an ever more important part of the world economy. It is revolutionizing the way we do business and it has important implications for foreign direct investment (FDI). However little systematic analysis has been done to investigate the investment patterns of digital multinational enterprises (MNEs). This study conducted in the context of UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2017 (WIR17) is an attempt to fill some of the gap in knowledge and to provide an impetus for future research. It proposes a new interpretative framework for the digital economy builds an extensive sample of digital and ICT MNEs and profiles their international operations. Its main findings are that MNEs in highly digitalized industries have a “lighter” FDI footprint than traditional MNEs; they tend to concentrate their operations in a few highly developed countries and their investment patterns are shaped by fiscal and financial motives more than those of traditional MNEs. As digital technologies and business models tend to disseminate across the broader economy this may suggest the onset of a new era of international production and MNE internationalization paths. This paper sheds light on the methodology underpinning the analysis in WIR17 to ensure full replicability and to prepare the ground for further work in the area. It also builds further on the discussion in WIR17 proposing broader implications for international business and new avenues for future research.
Challenges in achieving the sustainable development goal on good health and well-being: Global governance as an issue for the means of implementation
To formulate health development policy and strategies aimed at the Sustainable Development Goal 3 which seeks to ensuring health and well-being for all it is indispensable to revisit the issue of global health governance in the wake of the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa. The issue of global health governance is also relevant in the Asia-Pacific region where Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) influenza A (H1N1) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) were health security threats. The failure to respond timely and effectively to the health crisis was derived from a few factors that are relevant to the means of implementation necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. During ordinary times efforts to enhance health systems should include building the core capacities of the International Health Regulations (IHR) which should be supported not only by the World Health Organization (WHO) but also through coordination among diverse multilateral and bilateral organizations as part of their health development cooperation programmes associated with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. To enhance preparedness for handling health crises the organizational capacities of WHO and its regional offices need to be strengthened. In addition coordination among WHO and other actors should be facilitated in accordance with the situational categories based on the combination of (a) the capacity of the country where an outbreak of an infectious disease is occurring and (b) the severity and magnitude of that infectious disease.
The implementation of small and medium-sized enterprise development in the rice sector of Myanmar: Empirical research findings
Major features of Ethiopia’s new investment law: an appraisal of their policy implications
This paper analyses the major features of the 2020 Ethiopian investment law and their policy implications. The law has liberalized many areas of the Ethiopian economy to pave the way for increasing the private sector’s share and diminishing the Government’s role. It adopted the negative list approach to liberalization to simplify the process of determining investment fields that are open for foreign investors. It laid out procedures for handling investors’ grievances and for resolving investor–State disputes principally through domestic institutions. It also obliges investors to discharge their corporate social responsibilities. The paper argues that these features of the law demand transparent efficient and competent government institutions to properly regulate and protect investments and to attain sustainable development as the ultimate goal of the law. For this purpose it also argues that two factors are essential: ensuring effective institutional coordination and supplementing the mandatory corporate social responsibility requirements with voluntary engagement. In addition it contends that the Government needs to strengthen linkages between foreign and domestic investment promote decent jobs and sustainability enhance human resources and infrastructure and build a stable political system to reap the significant development benefits of investment as envisaged in the investment law. The paper also suggests that other countries in Africa and beyond can benefit from applying these lessons in designing or reforming their investment policies to maximize the sustainable development gains from foreign investment.
World Humanitarian Data and Trends 2018
World Humanitarian Data and Trends is an annual OCHA publication which highlights major trends in the nature of humanitarian crises their underlying causes and drivers and the actors that participate in crises prevention response and recovery. Beyond providing statistics the report uses infographics to display trend analyses that show how the humanitarian landscape is evolving and how the humanitarian system can be more effective in a rapidly changing world. Data used in the report comes from a variety of sources and partners. The report is structured in three main sections: ‘the year in review’ which provides an overview of the humanitarian landscape in terms of funding capacity crises and appeals a ‘regional perspectives’ section and ‘trends challenges and opportunities’ which provides case studies on issues that impact humanitarian operations. The report is anchored in the Agenda for Humanity launched at the World Humanitarian Summit held in May 2016. Highlights for 2018 include new case studies on protracted crises – the length of international response the distribution of funding and people targeted for aid over time – as well as case studies on using artificial intelligence to track displacement supporting local action through country-based pooled funds and attacks on education and healthcare facilities. The report aims to provide a “one-stop” shop for policy makers researchers and humanitarian practitioners to have an evidence-base and advocacy tools for humanitarian assistance. This report is one part of OCHA’s efforts to improve data and analysis on humanitarian situations worldwide.