The Lid is On: Recent Episodes
United Nations
This flagship podcast series from UN News takes its name from the words that correspondents at UN Headquarters in New York hear each night, at the end of the working day. We highlight the in-depth human stories behind the UN’s work and the way that it touches and impacts ordinary lives around the world.
Just 35 hours later than advertised, the UN Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan wrapped up, with an agreement to triple the amount of climate finance paid to developing nations to $300 billion per year, by 2035.
The deal is a definite step forward, but the final sum is far less than the $1.3 trillion that climate experts say these countries need in order to adapt to the crisis.
On this episode, we look back at the second and final week of COP29, what was achieved, and what comes next.
Music by Joachim Harris, all rights reserved
LINKS
- UN News coverage of COP29: https://news.un.org/en/events/cop29
- All the agreements reached at COP29: https://unfccc.int/documents
COP29, this year’s UN Climate Conference, is being called the “climate finance COP”, because delegates are expected to sign off on a beefed-up funding target to replace the existing $100 billion per year commitment. The final figure the negotiators arrive at remains to be seen and it could be anywhere from a few hundred billion, to over a trillion dollars per year.
On this episode of The Lid Is On, we explain what has been achieved so far, and why the deal gavelled through on carbon markets is important. We also find out what the UN is doing to prevent the rush for the minerals needed for the climate transition turning into a “stampede for greed.’
- Correspondents in Baku: Nazrin Babayeva and Lara Palmisano.
- Music by Joachim Harris (all rights reserved)
- UN News coverage of COP29: https://news.un.org/en/events/cop29
The risk of the world’s major powers engaging in conflict is at its highest level since the Cold War, and the possibility of nuclear war breaking out is greater today than it has been for several decades.
On the final episode of Focus on the Future, Conor Lennon and Ben Malor from UN News concentrate on international peace and security, and how the Pact for the Future could help to reduce tensions.
We’ll hear from the UN’s heads of Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (and explain the difference between the two concepts), and the Director- General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who warns against “normalizing” the idea of using nuclear weapons.
- Our email: thelidison@un.org
- Summit of the Future Explainer: A new global peace plan for ‘uniquely dangerous’ times | UN News
- UN Web TV
- GA Debate page
- SDG Media Zone
- Invisible killer: What is antimicrobial resistance? | UN News
In the Pact for the Future UN Member States pledged to do more to fight the climate crisis, a subject that has dominated several sessions at UN Headquarters this week.
On Thursday’s episode of Focus on the Future, Conor Lennon and Sachin Gaur discuss some of the big climate-related events, including a General Assembly meeting on sea level rise.
The rate of sea level rise has more than doubled over the last three decades, causing havoc in low-lying and small island developing countries, driving populations away from their homes. The leaders of some of the most affected nations speak out.
Music by Joachim Harris, all rights reserved
LINKS
- Our email: thelidison@un.org
- High-Level Meeting on Sea Level Rise | General Assembly of the United Nations
- UN Future Lab
- UN Web TV
- What to expect at the United Nations general debate | UN News
- GA Debate page
- SDG Lounge
- SDG Media Zone
Reforming the Security Council, to make it more representative of today’s world, has been under discussion for decades. The subject made it into the Pact for the Future, adopted earlier this week. Does this mean that it is more likely to happen?
Global governance is the key theme of today’s show, which is dominated by the opening of the General Debate, when Heads of State, Prime Ministers and Presidents gather for speeches and backroom talks and deals.
Conor Lennon and Shanaé Harte from UN News break down the big issues at UN Headquarters on Wednesday’s edition of Focus on the Future.
Music by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved
LINKS
- Our email: thelidison@un.org
- What to expect at the United Nations general debate | UN News
- GA Debate page
- Home | UN Web TV
- Summit of the Future Explainer: Improving the way we run the world…and beyond | UN News
- Pact for the Future
Crippling debt burdens are holding many African countries back: some of them are paying more on repayments than on health, education and infrastructure.
On today’s show Conor Lennon is joined by Sachin Gaur from the UN News Hindi Unit, to cover the events focused on sustainable development and rethinking the entire international financial architecture. The big question is, how we can make it fairer?
Also, star wattage has been lighting up Headquarters. Edward Norton and Meryl Streep were among the artistic talents at HQ, advocating for the environment and Afghan women.
Music by Joachim Harris, all rights reserved
LINKS
- thelidison@un.org
- Summit of the Future | UN News
- Summit of the Future 2024 - United Nations | United Nations
- Home | UN Web TV
- FFD4 | Financing for Sustainable Development Office (un.org)
- SDG Lounge | Summit of the future
- Summit of the Future Explainer: The push to connect a digitally divided world and counter AI threats | UN News
- ‘Irrefutable’ need for global regulation of AI: UN experts | UN News
- Summit of the Future Explainer: Time to rethink ‘outdated and ineffective’ international financial architecture | UN News
On the first episode of Focus on the Future, our mini-series running throughout High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly, Conor Lennon and Shanaé Harte explain what the Summit of the Future is all about, how to bring back trust between countries and why UN HQ was full of young people all weekend!
Contact us: thelidison@un.org
LINKS
- UN News Summit of the Future page Summit of the Future | UN News
- Summit of the Future explainer Planning ahead: 5 things to know about the UN’s landmark Summit of the Future | UN News
- Summit of the Future main site Summit of the Future 2024 - United Nations | United Nations
- SDG Lounge SDG Lounge | Summit of the future
Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the numbers attending High-Level Week at UN Headquarters in New York have steadily ticked upwards, and this year is set to be a packed event.
If that sounds overwhelming, worry not. UN News is releasing a daily podcast mini-series, designed to make sense of it all.
Each episode of Focus on the Future will have a main topic linked to the focus of the day, and will include highlights from the GA debate, original interviews, and a colourful wrap up of the side events.
The production team welcomes any questions and suggestions: conor.lennon@un.org
The future of UN peacekeeping and the “new models” it needs to create to remain relevant in the 21st Century are set to be discussed at the landmark Summit of the Future taking place in New York from 22 September.
There are currently 11 UN missions around the world, mainly in Africa and the Middle East.
Their goal is to help countries torn by conflict to create the conditions for lasting peace.
Participants at the Summit of the Future will discuss, the global architecture for international cooperation, which includes peacekeeping.
Cristina Silveiro sat down with the head of UN peacekeeping operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix to take stock of how the UN and its partners can contribute to lasting peace.
Workers with the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, have some of the toughest assignments going in the humanitarian field, helping protect new mothers and babies often born in the midst of intense conflict zones.
For this episode of UN News’s flagship podcast, The Lid is On, two UNFPA representatives reflect on their life-saving work with UN News’ Shanaé Harte.
They discuss some of the most difficult challenges they've faced while providing insight into what changes can be made to improve women’s rights worldwide.
A Ugandan man, some of whose family and friends were abducted in the East African country, tells the story of his journey from war-torn childhood to becoming the youngest ever African nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Victor Ochen grew up in northern Uganda at a time when the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, was terrorising the region with violent abductions, forced child soldier recruitment, and widespread atrocities against civilians.
For 21 years the focus of his life was survival, struggling to find enough to eat in a variety of internal displacement camps.
To mark International Youth Day, UN News’ Julia Foxen spoke to Mr. Ochen about how his choice of nonviolence at only 13 forever transformed his life, highlighting the immense vulnerability of youth in conflict zones alongside their potential to transform the future of society.
The cultivation of sisal plants by some of the most vulnerable communities in southern Madagascar is helping to tackle desertification and allow people to stay on their land, thanks to a project by the UN Development Programme.
The seasonal Tiomena wind, a fiercely strong wind that blows over the coastline, has driven sandy soils across productive farmland forcing many people to give up their subsistence farming activities.
But the planting of sisal has helped to reverse the trend as Daniel Dickinson reports for the Lid is On Podcast from southern Madagascar.
Dominica is described as highly disaster-vulnerable: the country is regularly hit by hurricanes and, when the last one swept through in 2017, it caused huge devastation across the island.
The government, led by President Sylvanie Burton, the first woman and the first member of the indigenous Kalinago community to be the country’s Head of State, wants to make Dominica the world’s first ‘climate resilient country’. But, as the climate crisis threatens to lead to increasingly intense and frequent hurricanes, is this feasible?
Conor Lennon from UN News met President Burton and Lorenzo Sanford, the youngest-ever chief of Dominica’s Kalinago community to find out how they plan to achieve their goal.
The vast majority of small island developing States (SIDS) are heavily dependent on polluting, and expensive, fossil fuels for their energy needs: some spend around a quarter of their national budgets on imported fuel.
However, for Trinidad & Tobago, fossil fuels have been a boon to the economy: the country has exploited its oil and gas reserves for several decades and profited from the wealth. But now, those reserves are running low. Is this the moment for Trinidad & Tobago to kick the fossil fuel habit, and exploit the kinds of renewable resources that are abundant in SIDS?
Conor Lennon from UN News went to the capital, Port of Spain, to put the question to Sheena Gosine, a sustainable energy analyst at Trinidad’s Ministry of Energy; Kishan Kumarsingh, the head of Multilateral Environmental Agreements at the Ministry of Planning and Development; and Curtis Boodoo, lecturer and assistant professor at the University of Trinidad & Tobago, and an expert on the energy transition.
Like many island economies, Dominica experiences high youth unemployment, and recent events, in particular Hurricane Maria and the COVID-19 pandemic, have combined to make the search for work even harder.
A UN-backed initiative designed to improve the employment options for young Dominicans, Work Online Dominica, has been successful in helping them to overcome the barriers they face on a small, remote island.
Conor Lennon from UN News met aspiring photographer Josiah Johnson, a graduate of the programme, in Dominica’s capital, Roseau, to find out how he, and other young people, have benefited from Work Online Dominica.
Caribbean island nations are vulnerable to a host of extreme weather events, from hurricanes to floods and droughts, that are becoming more dangerous and intense as a result of the climate emergency.
UN News met with three of the most prominent young climate activists on Trinidad & Tobago, and learned of their frustration with current environmental legislation, and what they are doing to raise awareness of the crisis.
Conor Lennon spoke to Priyanka Lalla, a teenage climate activist and UNICEF Youth Advocate for the eastern Caribbean, Joshua Prentice, a climate and ocean scientist, and Zaafia Alexander the 18-year-old founder of an environmental NGO.
Dominica may have found a solution to cover all of its electricity needs, and even sell electricity abroad, without burning fossil fuels: geothermal energy. This power source is 100 per cent clean, cheap and practically limitless.
Conor Lennon from UN News meets Vince Henderson, Dominica’s Minister for Economic Development and Sustainable Energy, and Fred John, CEO of the Dominica Geothermal Development Company to find out if the country really is on its way to a clean energy future.
Small Island Developing States are particularly vulnerable to plastic pollution. As well as coping with a tsunami of waste washes up on their beaches every day, these countries – which are generally highly dependent on imports – generate a large amount of plastic waste of their own, and often struggle to manage it.
Plastic pollution has a detrimental effect on the health and livelihoods of people living in small island states, which often lack the means to effectively treat and process it. It’s not great for the economy either: tourists don’t want to hang out on dirty beaches, and marine litter can damage fishing stocks.
Conor Lennon from UN News went to Trinidad to see how the UN is working with civil society and the government to not only deal with the waste, but also find a way to reuse it, and take it out of the environment.
In Kosovo, where tensions remain high between the ethnic Albanian and ethnic Serb communities, the United Nations is leading efforts to promote open communication and dialogue.
The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) was established in 1999, well before the declaration of independence in 2008, and today plays a central role in promoting peace and security, and respect for human rights, in a region where memories of the wars of the late Twentieth Century, fought between the countries of the former Yugoslavia, are still fresh for many who suffered directly or lost loved ones.
On 22 April, Caroline Ziadeh, the head of UNMIK, briefed the Security Council on the current situation in Kosovo, and the ongoing tensions between the Albanian speaking and ethnic Serb population. After the briefing, she came into the UN News studios to explain that, despite the considerable difficulties, progress in bringing together the two communities is far from impossible.
The Haitian economy may be on its knees, but the gangs that control much of the capital Port-au-Prince seem to have little trouble obtaining guns, mainly from the USA.
The country is awash with weapons: according to experts convened by the UN Secretary-General, these “deadly arsenals” mean that gangs have “firepower that exceeds that of the Haitian national police,” and the problem is getting worse.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has reported an increase in the trafficking of increasingly powerful and sophisticated weapons into the country since 2021, such as AK47, AR15 and Galil rifles.
Sylvie Bertrand is the UNODC Regional Representative for Central America and the Caribbean and oversees the research teams tasked with documenting the sources, routes and distribution patterns of the illicit firearms fuelling violence in Haiti.
She spoke to Felipe de Carvalho from UN News about UNODC strategies to make a significant dent in the flow of arms to the beleaguered country.
April 7 marks three decades since the beginning of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. An almost unimaginable slaughter, which saw an estimated 800,000 people killed in just 100 days, and shocked the world.
Eric Eugene Murangwa was a football at the time, playing for Rayon Sports, one of the top teams in the country, based in the capital Kigali.
As a Tutsi, he was in extreme danger when the genocide began. But, despite being well know, he managed to survive, despite the attempts to kill as many Tutsis as possible. He says that football saved his life.
Thirty years on, Eric is living in the UK, working as a genocide education campaigner, and an advocate for sport for development and peace. He shares his extraordinary story of survival with Conor Lennon from UN News.
Now in its thirteenth year, the war in Syria shows no signs of letting up, and several foreign powers are active in the country, including Russia, the US, Turkey and Israel, which has stepped up its bombardments since the 7 October Hamas attacks.
The latest report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry details a marked escalation of violence, over the last six months, and outlines the disastrous consequences for the civilian population: around 13 million have been forced from their homes, and 90 per cent are living poverty.
Conor Lennon from UN News asked Hanny Megally, the Deputy Director and Senior Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, and a member of the Commission of Inquiry, about the different forces involved in Syria, and the worrying resurgence of the ISIL terror group.
This episode of The Lid Is On focuses on cutting edge online technology, and the UN’s role in making sure that it benefits humanity, rather than causing us harm.
Proponents of AI point to the immense benefits these tools could bring to society, but the clamour for robust regulation of AI is growing louder. Similarly, the car industry is forging ahead with plans to ramp up autonomous driving technology, promising a safer future on the roads, but fears surrounding driverless “robot cars” persist.
Conor Lennon speaks to some of the government representatives, industry experts and UN officials working to allay these fears, and avoid an online “Wild West”, where criminals and bad actors can roam with impunity.
Thailand has been lauded for the progressive legislation it has passed into law which ensures that women and girls have the right to a range of sexual and reproductive health services, but many teenagers struggle to access the care they need. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has been working with organizations in the South East Asian country to make sure those young people receive the support they are entitled to.
Music Credit: Within the Earth by Ketsa
UN peacekeeping operations are facing more challenging political and security conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa and require the united and committed support from Member States. However, as the head of UN peacekeeping, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, tells the Lid is On podcast from UN News, a multiplication of crises, and divisions amongst Member States are complicating peacekeeping operations.
The UN chief has a strong message for those who say the absence of some key leaders is a blow to this year’s General Assembly week – rise to the moment and deliver on your promises. In this special edition of the Lid is On, we speak exclusively to Secretary-General António Guterres about the SDGs, climate change and much more.
Countries in Southeast Asia are coming together with the support of the UN to tackle what is being described as “one of the biggest drug-trafficking corridors in the world.”
Traditionally, the highly addictive drugs, opium and heroin were trafficked out of the region, but now more dangerous synthetic drugs are being manufactured in remote jungle laboratories in ever larger quantities.Closer collaboration across borders between law enforcement agencies is helping to slow down the illegal trafficking.
Daniel Dickinson travelled to the north of Thailand for this special edition of The Lid Is On.
Production credit: Pauline Batista, Music credit: Ketsa 'Within the Earth'
With the world currently recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and reeling from the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine, progress on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals remains slow.
So, can we pick up the pace in the seven years we have left in this decade, and get closer to realizing the Goals? And can Youth Leaders make a difference?
During the 2023 UN Youth Forum, Conor Lennon from UN News spoke to three exceptional young people in April, to get their perspective: Indian educator and social entrepreneur Richa Gupta, South Sudanese refugee advocate Nhial Deng, and Brazilian youth leader Lana Weidgenant.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
On today’s episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon speaks to three exceptional young changemakers who have been recognized by the UN for the contributions they are making to a more sustainable world.
Vee Kativhu is an award-winning education activist from Zimbabwe, American Paralympian Jamal Hill launched a foundation to cut the number of people who drown each year, and Karen Wang, from China, is the founder of a startup which provides carbon accounting software to help institutions meet their net zero goals.
This episode was recorded as an SDG Media Zone session, during the ECOSOC Youth Forum, which took place in April at UN Headquarters.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
The UN Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an inspiring group of young people from across the world, achieving great things in areas as diverse as gender equality, climate action, and health equity.
The current cohort were all in New York in April for the 2023 UN Youth Forum, an annual gathering where youthful changemakers can voice their opinions, contribute to policy discussions at the UN, and put forward innovative solutions to the challenges the world faces.
Conor Lennon caught up with three of the Leaders during the event: Sudanese women’s rights advocate Mayada Adil, Paul Ndhlovu, a voice for young people living with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, and Gibson Kawago, a social entrepreneur bringing clean energy to rural communities in Tanzania.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
In the final episode of Humanitarian Leadership Stories, a mini-series produced in collaboration with the UN Humanitarian Office, OCHA,we find out why there’s so much more to relief work than just delivering emergency assistance.
Daniel Johnson hears from humanitarians in hotspots such as Gaza, Haiti, and Libya, on why it’s essential to help those in chronic conflict zones to become more resilient.
- Post-production: Srdan Slavkovic
- Voice artist: Alex Williams
- Music: Ketsa, Night Whispers
For veteran UN Humanitarian Coordinator Imran Riza, holding the line on impartiality is key in emergencies. And he should know, having served as the Organization’s top relief official in Damascus, Syria.
Hear Imran’s story in episode five of Humanitarian Leadership Stories, a mini-series produced in collaboration with the UN Humanitarian Office, OCHA, which also includes fascinating insights from top UN top aid coordinators reflecting on their engagement in Burkina Faso, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, South Sudan and Somalia.
- Post-production: Srdan Slavkovic
- Voice artist: Alex Williams
- Music: Ketsa, Night Whispers
In episode four of Humanitarian Leadership Stories, a mini-series produced in collaboration with the UN Humanitarian Office, OCHA, we hear how tough discussions with warring sides are part and parcel of being a top UN relief coordinator.
This podcast also takes us to Nigeria, South Sudan, Jordan and Lebanon, where we’ll find out how the work of the UN’s relief chiefs is driven by putting vulnerable people first.
- Post-production: Srdan Slavkovic
- Voice artist: Alex Williams
- Music: Ketsa, Night Whispers
In the third episode of Humanitarian Leadership Stories, our mini-series produced in collaboration with the UN Humanitarian Office, OCHA, Daniel Johnson from UN News speaks to frontline relief veteran Najat Rochdi, about restoring hope to people in crisis.
It’s what Najat did, when she helped women facing gender-based violence in Lebanon, where she was the UN’s Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator. Daniel also finds out how the UN’s top aid officials in the Central African Republic, Jordan, South Sudan, and Somalia have taken steps to address the scourge of sexual violence and discrimination.
- Post-production: Srdan Slavkovic
- Music: Ketsa, Night Whispers
In the second episode of Humanitarian Leadership Stories, our co-production with OCHA, the UN Humanitarian Office, top UN relief officials explain how the key humanitarian principle of putting people in crisis first – and remaining accountable to them – guides their work.
Daniel Johnson hears how UN humanitarian coordinators go about their work, taking calculated risks where armed groups are concerned, and not shying away from standing up to authority either.
- Post-production: Srdan Slavkovic
- Music: Ketsa, Night Whispers
What makes a good aid chief? That’s the question we set out to answer in Humanitarian Leadership Stories, a mini-series produced in collaboration with the UN Humanitarian Office, OCHA.
Helping people in emergencies is part and parcel of being a humanitarian, but there’s a lot more to helping vulnerable communities than you might think, as we’ll hear, in this compelling podcast series.
In this first episode, Daniel Johnson from UN News talks to Susan Namondo-Ngongi on her time as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Eritrea.
- Post-production: Srdan Slavkovic
- Music: Ketsa, Night Whispers
Unless drastic changes are made the future of water looks bleak.
On World Meteorological Day, held on 23 March, Conor Lennon spoke to Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation, Lindsey Blodgétt, Former President of the World Youth Parliament for Water, and Maarten van Aalst, Director of the Dutch Royal Meteorological Institute, about the changes that societies need to make, in order to cope with the changing climate in the coming years.
This episode was recorded live as one of the SDG Media Zone sessions at the UN Water Conference, which took place between 22 and 24 March.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Water doesn’t respect borders, and 153 countries share basins. Water scarcity is increasing, and so is the potential for conflict: “Water for Cooperation” is one of the key themes of this year’s conference.
On this week’s episode Conor Lennon from UN News speaks to Suleiman Adamu, Nigeria’s Federal Minister of Water Resources, and Sonja Köppel, the Secretary to the UN Water Convention.
The recording took place as part of the SDG Media Zone, on the day that Nigeria joined the Convention, an international instrument designed to help iron out water disputes between countries.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
This year’s UN World Water Development Report warned of a global water crisis, unless international cooperation is rapidly stepped up.
On this week’s episode of The Lid Is On, recorded the day after the release of the study on 21 March, Conor Lennon speaks to Richard Connor, the editor-in-chief of the report, Kristin Meyer from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and Neil Dhot, from the International Federation of private water operators.
The conversation took place as part of the SDG Media Zone sessions at the UN Water Conference, held between 22 and 24 March.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
In the last of our mini-series recorded in The Gambia, we look at the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs, and how the UN is helping new companies to grow, bringing much-needed jobs to rural areas.
Conor Lennon meets Musa Darbo, who quit his well-paying job in the US to return home and start a rice business, in order to employ struggling smallholder farmers, and end The Gambia’s dependence on imported rice.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Gambia has the highest per capita emigration rate of any African nation; between 2015 and 2020 over 33,000 Gambians, mainly young men, left home in search of better opportunities in Europe, despite the low likelihood of success, and significant dangers.
Since the end of the dictatorship in 2017, thousands of migrants have returned, and the UN is helping them to find jobs and start small businesses, as well as running projects aimed at developing the wider economy, and dissuading others from making the perilous trip by convincing them that they can have succeed at home.
In the fourth episode of our mini-series recorded in The Gambia, Conor Lennon meets a returned migrant making a life for himself and his family in the capital, Banjul, after a traumatic, two-year-long attempt to reach Italy.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
When it comes to climate action, The Gambia can proudly lay claim to being the first country to meet its commitments under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreements.
But, like all developing countries, its people are suffering disproportionately from the effects of the climate crisis, particularly more unpredictable rainfall, and flooding.
In episode three of our mini-series recorded in The Gambia, Conor Lennon heads to the Central River Region, to find out how, with the support of the UN, rural communities are adapting to the changing environment and, at the same time, learning to becomes more self-sufficient.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Many women and girls in The Gambia are affected by “period poverty”, meaning that they are unable to afford menstrual products, which puts them at risk of infection, and discourages them from attending school.
In the second of our Lid Is On episodes recorded in The Gambia, one of the world’s least developed countries, Conor Lennon from UN News heads to Basse, in the rural Upper River Region, to find out how the UN is addressing period poverty, and providing employment for vulnerable women and girls.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
The Gambia, the smallest country on the African mainland, and one of the least developed countries in the world, has been going through a transition to full democracy since 2017, the end of a two-decade long dictatorship.
In the first episode of a mini-series recorded in The Gambia, Conor Lennon talks to Niania Dabo-Tourey, the country head of the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF, one of several UN agencies accompanying the country on this journey), about the ways they are supporting rural communities to adapt to the climate crisis, learn the skills they will need to start new businesses, and grow the economy in a sustainable way.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
It’s been a year since Russian forces invaded neighbouring Ukraine, the beginning of a conflict that led to the displacement of more than 14 million Ukrainians, and around 40 per cent of the population in need of humanitarian aid.
Several months into the fighting, Denise Brown took up her position as Resident Coordinator, the most senior UN official in Ukraine. She told Conor Lennon from UN News that, despite the huge challenges faced by the Ukrainian people, their defining feature has been their courage, and their determination.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
It is becoming increasingly clear that the climate crisis is having a major impact on migration flows, with millions forced to move from their homes as a result of a disaster, or because they have been affected by slower-moving environmental changes that leave their homes uninhabitable, such as desertification or sea-level rises.
On today’s show, Conor Lennon speaks to Felipe González Morales, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, on the need for consistent policies to address the impact of the climate emergency on migration.
Do you have suggestions, comments or story ideas for The Lid Is On? Email us at thelidison@un.org!
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, but independent, unpaid, and free to speak their minds, Special Rapporteurs occupy a curious space within the UN System.
To find out more about what it’s like to be a Special Rapporteur, and why they are willing to give up their time to cover what are, often, difficult situations, Conor Lennon invited three of them – Nazila Ghanea, Morris Tidball-Binz, and Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, into the UN studios, whilst they were in New York to brief the General Assembly on their findings.
Do you have suggestions, comments or story ideas for The Lid Is On? Email us at thelidison@un.org!
Music:: Within the Earth, Ketsa
$4.3 trillion: that’s the estimated cost of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a blueprint for a fairer future, covering all of the big issues facing the world, from eradicating poverty and hunger, to building societies free from fear and violence, and taking urgent action on climate change.
To help bridge that funding gap, UN chief António Guterres set up the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance (GISD) in 2019, made up of prominent business leaders from across the world.
To get a sense of the scale of the task, Conor Lennon speaks to Navid Hanif, the Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), Leila Fourie, CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and co-chair of the Alliance.
Do you have suggestions, comments or story ideas for The Lid Is On? Email us at thelidison@un.org!
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
It is becoming increasingly clear that the climate crisis is having a major impact on migration flows, with millions forced to move from their homes as a result of a disaster, or because they have been affected by slower-moving environmental changes that leave their homes uninhabitable, such as desertification or sea-level rises.
On today’s show, Conor Lennon speaks to Felipe González Morales, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, on the need for consistent policies to address the impact of the climate emergency on migration.
Do you have suggestions, comments or story ideas for The Lid Is On? Email us at thelidison@un.org!
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Californian teenager Kale Ilac’s dream is to become a diplomat. The 16-year-old, who is battling cancer, is hopefully on the way, thanks to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, who arranged for Kale and his family to take a special tour of the UN in January, meeting senior diplomats and UN officials.
On this episode of The Lid Is On, we follow Kale on his visit, which has inspired him to lead a life in service of others.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
UN News publishes stories in 10 languages, with the aim of ensuring that as many people as possible understand the impact of the United Nations, and in order to provide a reliable news source on a variety of platforms.
On today’s show, Conor Lennon speaks to Mita Hosali, who is in overall charge of the UN’s news output, as Deputy Director of the News and Media Division at the UN. They discuss the ways in which the concepts of news, information, and truth are seemingly being questioned as never before, how UN News can continue to fulfil its mandate, and what can be done to combat the growing scourge of disinformation.
Do you have suggestions, comments or story ideas for The Lid Is On? Email us at thelidison@un.org!
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
On today’s episode of The Lid is On, Conor speaks to Melissa Fleming, the head of Global Communications at the United Nations, and host of award-winning podcast series, Awake at Night.
They discuss the growing dangers of online disinformation, the global impact of the Ukraine war, and the importance of communicating effectively about the positive difference the UN makes to millions around the world.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
In our first Lid Is On of 2023, we take a trip to Geneva, to meet our Palais des Nations correspondent Daniel Johnson, who gives us a virtual visit of the venerable building and its surroundings, and looks back at some of his favourite moments from 2022, in particular the interview that earned him a hug (a rare occurrence for journalists)!
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
For the last Lid Is On of the year, Conor Lennon invited some of his colleagues for a festive episode, to find out a bit more about them (discovering that one has even sung at Carnegie Hall), and how they wade through reports, studies and data, to tease out stories that demonstrate the real difference the UN makes to people’s lives every day.
May Yaccoub, head of the Arabic Unit, Matt Wells, head of the English Unit, and climate specialist Laura Quinones, share the topics that made the biggest impression on them in 2022, from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, to aid in Lebanon, and international climate agreements.
This is the fifth and final episode of Seeking Peace, a podcast from the Department of Peace Operations.
In this episode, Melanne Verveer from Georgetown University’s Institute for Women Peace and Security, examines the challenges and complex realities that women uniformed peacekeepers face.
We will hear from General Maureen O’Brien, who serves as the Deputy Chief of Military affairs at the UN, about her pioneering career.
Today, we bring you the fourth episode of Seeking Peace, a podcast from the UN Department of Peace Operations.
Melanne Verveer from Georgetown University’s Institute for Women Peace and Security, highlights the extraordinary women whose work defies expectations of traditional gender roles in peacekeeping.
Interviewees on today’s episode are Téné Maimouna Zoungrana leads the rapid intervention activities in the Ngaragba Prison in the Central African Republic, and Colonel Stephanie Tutton, Chief of Policy and Doctrine in the UN Office of Military Affairs.
In Episode 3 of Seeking Peace, a podcast from the UN Department of Peace Operations, Melanne Verveer from Georgetown University’s Institute for Women Peace and Security, focuses on women’s role in bringing about peace through politics.
We will hear from Mireille Laurier Affa'A Mindzie, the Senior Gender Advisor for the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Beatrice Epaye, a politician and educator from the Central African Republic, and Jeta Xharra, the director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Kosovo.
In Episode 2 of Seeking Peace, a podcast from the Department of Peace Operations, Melanne Verveer from Georgetown University’s Institute for Women Peace and Security explores women’s roles in peace negotiations and the implementation of peace agreements.
The interviewees in this episode are the UN Assistant Secretary General for Africa, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Maïga Aziza from Mali, the first-ever Member of Parliament to represent Timbuktu, and South Sudanese activist Alokiir Malual, about women’s involvement in peace negotiations, and the implementation of peace agreements.
This week, The Lid Is On has partnered with the UN Department of Peace Operations, to bring you five episodes from the latest season of their podcast, Seeking Peace.
In this episode, Melanne Verveer, the Executive Director of the Georgetown University's Institute for Women Peace and Security, and former United States Ambassador for Global Women's Issues, introduces inspiring activists from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the divided island of Cyprus.
On this week’s The Lid Is On, we’re introducing you to UNiting Against Hate, a new series from UN Podcasts.
Katy Dartford talks to those who have encountered hate speech first-hand, as well as activists and experts from around the world about how they are trying to counter it.
In this episode, she has an in-depth conversation with two organizations who monitor hate speech, and discusses with them the relationship between hate speech and disinformation.
Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, to ensure you don’t miss an episode!
Music: Backcomb, Ketsa
The world has never been more inter-connected, but this has made it easier than ever before to spread disinformation, hate speech, and information that divides, and causes fear and mistrust.
Intercultural dialogue has been described as an antidote to rejection and violence. But can it really make a difference in a world where toxic language and conflict make headlines, generate more clicks and, or so it often seems, wins votes?
On this episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon talks to Karabo Mokgonyana is an award-winning Activist and Lawyer from South Africa, and Gabriela Ramos, the Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO, the UN agency for education, science and culture.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
We though it was all over…it is now, we promise! We gave you the instant reaction to the final COP27 plenary session on what we though was the last podcast on the event, but then we decided to get an expert perspective from Selwin Hart, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Climate, and friend of the podcast.
Conor got to sit down with Selwin, and find out more about the progress that was made, where efforts need to be focused over the next 12 months, and why, despite the perilous state of the climate crisis, there is still hope for the future.
On this week's episode we're letting a new UN podcast take over! It's called amplifyHER, and it's a tribute to some of the best women artists, from around the world, working today.
Over the next 10 weeks, inspiring women musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds, talk to us from their homes and studios, about their challenges as women in a male-dominated industry, overcoming barriers, and what drives them to continue creating music.
The first episode features Milli, the fearless teenage superstar from Thailand, and the first artist from the country to perform solo at the world-famous Coachella Music festival, in 2022.
- UN Human Rights Council backs call for probe into Iran crisis
- Nearly 40 million children ‘dangerously susceptible’ to growing measles threat
- Racial discrimination panel calls for Xinjiang rights violation probe
COP27 officially ended on Friday, but no agreement was reached when Conor and Laura recorded their last podcast in Sharm El-Sheikh.But, despite the gloomy predictions of no deal, the COP27 outcome document was finally agreed, early on Sunday morning.Back home in New York after a 25-hour journey, Conor goes solo, to pull together a final COP episode of The Lid Is On. You can find all the details on the outcome document here.Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
It’s officially the last day of COP27, and the UN podcast team have their bags packed, ready to return home.
However, today did not see an outcome document agreed, and negotiating positions are reportedly still far apart on many issues.
Laura and Conor report on the current state of play, and run through some of the main takeaways from this COP, before waving goodbye to Egypt.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
UN Secretary-General António Guterres is back in Sharm El-Sheikh, in an attempt to nudge countries towards resolving their differences on contentious climate issues, and reaching an acceptable outcome to COP27. He boiled down the topics to three main areas: loss and damage, the emissions gap, and climate finance.
Conor and Laura were on hand in Egypt to make sense of the negotiations, and the reaction from activists and representatives of some of the countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis.
With just a couple of days to go at COP27, agreement on an agreed text – committing countries to move forward on measures to tackle the climate crisis – seems a long way off.
On today’s episode of The Lid Is On, Laura and Conor pick over some of the main areas of contention, and report on the highlights from Biodiversity Day.
Guests include the British singer Ellie Goulding, who is calling for improved coral reef protection, and the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Andersen, who is preparing the ground for a major UN biodiversity conference in December.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
The UN is leading calls for an end to fossil fuel use, but lobbying for gas has been a feature of this African COP, and there have been warnings that new gas and other fossil fuel projects are underway in many developing countries.
On Energy Day, there were stark reminders of the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also signs that the world is moving in the right direction when it comes to renewable energy.
Conor and Laura sniff out the gas story, and speak to energy experts about the prospects for a clean energy future, based on renewable energy sources.
The second half of COP27 has begun and there’s uncertainty in the air regarding the progress of negotiations in the packed conference venue.
Monday saw a focus on two main themes: water and gender. UN officials were at COP to prepare the ground and raise awareness for a major conference on water, due to take place next year, whilst senior leaders pointed out the inadequate representation of women in the climate action space.
Conor and Laura dissect the main events on this busy day, and Mary Robinson, the first woman Irish President and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, explains why the dandelion should be the symbol for the advancement of women leaders.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Subscribe to The Lid Is On on all major podcast platforms!
Saturday is a working day at COP, allowing negotiators just one day to catch their breath, before the really hard work of hammering out some kind of outcome document begins on Monday.
The theme of the day is agriculture and adaptation. We hear from the UN agencies that focus on agriculture (FAO and IFAD), and Conor and Laura explore options for sustainable diets. Beans and bugs are on the menu!
Subscribe to The Lid Is On on all major podcast platforms!Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
COPs are a marathon, not a sprint. During the first week, country negotiators set the parameters for the serious, and often exhausting, horse-trading that begins next week, when ministers fly in, with the aim of hammering out a consensus agreement by the end of the conference.
On today’s show, Laura and Conor speak to Selwin Hart, the UN Secretary-General’s special advisor on climate, and Rueanna Haynes, a climate negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), about the progress made so far; and Conor sits down with former supermodel turned environmental activist Lily Cole, on how to bring the huge environmental cost of the fashion industry under control.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
On Thursday, day four of COP27, the 2022 “10 Insights in Climate Science Report" was released, and the leading scientists involved declared that the world cannot adapt its way out of the climate crisis: emissions must be cut as a matter of urgency.
Conor and Laura discuss the report, and speak to climate activists and leading scientists on today’s show: one thing the two groups have in common is a focus on greenwashing, and compensating developing countries for the damage the crisis is inflicting on their economies and peoples.
Within the Earth, Ketsa
The world leaders who congregated in Sharm El Sheik for the first two days of COP27 have left and, whilst the climate negotiators get to work, the thematic days of the conference have begun.
Wednesday was finance day, with a host of side events around the pavilions discussing the often thorny issues surrounding climate finance. It was also the day that former US Vice-President Al Gore launched a project to provide accurate, granular emissions date, and revealed that, in many cases, emissions are much higher than previously reported.
Conor Lennon and Laura cover all this and more, on today’s COP27 podcast.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
It’s day two of COP27, and Laura and Conor are deciding on a good name for the podcast, and hunting for a good place to record the podcast! In the meantime, Laura followed the launch of the Net-Zero expert group’s report, which called out greenwashing, as well the other main events of the day.
Conor spoke to the UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, and Brad Smith – President of Microsoft and an SDG Advocate – about the UN plan to ensure that everyone has access to reliable early warning of extreme weather events and climate shocks, which could save millions of lives.
COP27, the UN climate conference, has begun in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Conor Lennon and Laura Quinoňes are at the high stakes event, for daily episodes of The Lid Is On, explaining the main issues of the day, and talking to some of the experts, activists and leaders.
Monday saw the Secretary-General give a forthright speech at the opening session, and it became clear that the vexed issue of “loss and damage” – how to compensate developing countries for the damage caused by the climate crisis – is likely to dominate discussion over the next two weeks.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
We’re just a few days away from COP27, the UN Climate Conference, which is taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from 07 November.
For this episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon and Laura Quiñones invited Selwin Hart – the Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Climate Action – into the studio to gauge the atmosphere before this high-stakes event.
You will also hear from Ilana Seid, Palau’s Ambassador to the UN, on the tense atmosphere during negotiations during last year’s climate COP in Glasgow, and Ian Fry, the first ever Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the context of climate change.
From Monday, Laura and Conor will present daily episodes of The Lid Is On from Sharm El-Sheikh, where they’ll bring you all the highlights from an event that aims to refocus leaders’ minds on the most pressing existential threat to mankind: the climate crisis. You can subscribe to the show on all major podcast platforms.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Nearly four decades on from the adoption of the UN Convention against Torture, there is evidence that it is still taking place in all regions of the world, even though it’s a recognized international crime.
On this week’s episode of The lid Is On, Conor Lennon met Claude Heller and Suzanne Jabour – the chairpersons of the UN Committee against Torture, and the Sub-committee on the Prevention of Torture – two independent human rights experts who attempt to convince countries to end the practice.
They explain that, in some countries and regions, torture is still seen thought to be a useful or acceptable part of interrogations, even though it has been shown to be ineffective.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Nearly four decades on from the adoption of the UN Convention against Torture, there is evidence that it is still taking place in all regions of the world, even though it’s a recognized international crime.
On this week’s episode of The lid Is On, Conor Lennon met Claude Heller and Suzanne Jabour – the chairpersons of the UN Committee against Torture, and the Sub-committee on the Prevention of Torture – two independent human rights experts who attempt to convince countries to end the practice.
They explain that, in some countries and regions, torture is still seen thought to be a useful or acceptable part of interrogations, even though it has been shown to be ineffective.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Most people are familiar with the phenomenon of refugees, those forced to flee their country of origin, because of a well-founded fear of persecution or, in some places, because of armed conflict or natural disaster.
But there is another, equally vulnerable category of people, who don’t cross international boundaries, but find it necessary to relocate to a different region of their country.
On today’s episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon met with Cecilia Jimenez-Damary – the outgoing UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons – on the link between conflict and the climate crisis, which is increasingly causing people to leave their homes in search of safety.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
It’s been thirty years since the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to create the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on 17 October 1992.
Great advances have been made in reducing global poverty since then, particularly in China and India, but the period has also seen significant increases in inequality, between and within countries.
To get a better idea of what progress has been made in dealing with poverty worldwide, Conor Lennon met Aye Aye Win, the President of the International Committee for October 17, which promotes the spirit and aims of the International Day, and Stacy White, an activist who advocates for some of the poorest people in New York.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
It’s World Space Week, a UN event celebrating the contributions of space science and technology to the betterment of the human condition.
This year’s theme is space and sustainability, with a focus on how the technology can help us to better understand climate change.
On this week’s episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon from UN News is joined by Niklas Hedman, the head of the UN Office on Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), and Maruška Strah, the head of World Space Week, to find out about the growing danger of space debris, and why artists need to join scientists on the moon, mars, and beyond.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Counter-terrorism is one of the lesser-known subjects covered by the UN, but attempts to improve international cooperation to combat terrorism have grown in recent years, particularly since the 2001 plane attacks against the US.
On today’s episode of The Lid Is On, Jennifer Bramlette from the UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED), and Adam Hadley from Tech Against Terrorism, a public-private partnership, join Conor Lennon to talk about the pervasive threat posed by the use of online technology by terror groups, and how Governments can fight back.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Counter-terrorism is one of the lesser-known subjects covered by the UN, but attempts to improve international cooperation to combat terrorism have grown in recent years, particularly since the 2001 plane attacks against the US.
On today’s episode of The Lid Is On, Jennifer Bramlette from the UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED), and Adam Hadley from Tech Against Terrorism, a public-private partnership, join Conor Lennon to talk about the pervasive threat posed by the use of online technology by terror groups, and how Governments can fight back.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
On this week’s episode of The Lid Is On, we look at how the issue of the climate emergency has been raised during the opening session of the latest General Assembly session (UNGA77).
This week, we've heard powerful speeches by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, star-studded events and gatherings at UN Headquarters, and hundreds of events taking place in New York, capitalizing on the global attention the city receives, when so many world leaders are in town.
As well as Mr. Guterres, the episode features the voices of former New York mayor and climate envoy Michael Bloomberg, and the new head of the UN Climate (UNFCCC), Simon Stiell.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
On this week’s episode of The Lid Is On, we look at how the issue of the climate emergency has been raised during the opening session of the latest General Assembly session (UNGA77).
This week, we've heard powerful speeches by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, star-studded events and gatherings at UN Headquarters, and hundreds of events taking place in New York, capitalizing on the global attention the city receives, when so many world leaders are in town.
As well as Mr. Guterres, the episode features the voices of former New York mayor and climate envoy Michael Bloomberg, and the new head of the UN Climate (UNFCCC), Simon Stiell.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
This week we bring you a bonus episode of The Lid Is On: an exclusive interview with UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
On the eve of High-Level Week, when leaders from around the world gather at UN Headquarters in New York, Nargiz Shekinskaya from UN News sat down with Mr. Guterres to discuss some of the key international issues on his agenda, including the climate crisis, the need to urgently transform education, and how to tackle the worrying rise in xenophobia and hate speech.
This week we bring you a bonus episode of The Lid Is On: an exclusive interview with UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
On the eve of High-Level Week, when leaders from around the world gather at UN Headquarters in New York, Nargiz Shekinskaya from UN News sat down with Mr. Guterres to discuss some of the key international issues on his agenda, including the climate crisis, the need to urgently transform education, and how to tackle the worrying rise in xenophobia and hate speech.
World leaders will soon be flying into New York, for High-Level Week at the UN General Assembly.
On Friday, the Peace Bell at UN Headquarters was rung by the UN Secretary-General and President of the General Assembly, and hundreds of young students filled the Economic and Social Council chamber, to reflect on this year’s theme for International Day of Peace, End Racism, Build Peace.
Conor Lennon from UN News went along to the commemorations, and met some of the young people, activists and celebrities taking part. This episode also contains a lookahead to some of the key events taking place during the busiest week of the year for most people working at Headquarters.
World leaders will soon be flying into New York, for High-Level Week at the UN General Assembly.
On Friday, the Peace Bell at UN Headquarters was rung by the UN Secretary-General and President of the General Assembly, and hundreds of young students filled the Economic and Social Council chamber, to reflect on this year’s theme for International Day of Peace, End Racism, Build Peace.
Conor Lennon from UN News went along to the commemorations, and met some of the young people, activists and celebrities taking part. This episode also contains a lookahead to some of the key events taking place during the busiest week of the year for most people working at Headquarters.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education are severe and will only be fully understood in the years to come, says Costa Rica’s former education minister, Leonardo Garnier.
Mr. Garnier is the Special Advisor to the Transforming Education Summit, which takes place during the opening days of the 77th session of the General Assembly.
On this week’s episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon sits down with the Special Advisor to find out why the UN is putting such a focus on education, amid so many competing global issues and crises, and how lessons can be learned from a previous education crisis, in the 1980s.
Music: Ketsa, Within the Earth
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education are severe and will only be fully understood in the years to come, says Costa Rica’s former education minister, Leonardo Garnier.
Mr. Garnier is the Special Advisor to the Transforming Education Summit, which takes place during the opening days of the 77th session of the General Assembly.
On this week’s episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon sits down with the Special Advisor to find out why the UN is putting such a focus on education, amid so many competing global issues and crises, and how lessons can be learned from a previous education crisis, in the 1980s.
Music: Ketsa, Within the Earth
Next Wednesday the UN marks the third International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. However, the skies are far from clear of air pollution. Only a month ago, the World Health Organisation warned that practically all the air we breathe is polluted, and that it’s killing around seven million people every year.
Ahead of the International Day, Conor Lennon from UN News spoke to Martina Otto and Nathan Borgford-Parnell from the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, which is hosted by the UN Environment Programme.
They discussed the evolving science surrounding the issue, the extent to which air pollution is improving – if at all – and why international collaboration is essential, if the number of annual deaths is to be addressed.
Music: Ketsa, Within the Earth
On this week’s Lid Is On, Conor Lennon speaks to two experts on racism against people of African Descent, on the insidious nature of everyday racism, the importance of reparations, and why an acceptance that the wealth of developed countries is built on the back of oppressed, Black people, is liberating for people of all races.
Dominique Day is a human rights lawyer, and the chairperson of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent. Verene Shepherd is a social historian, and the chairperson of the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
This episode was recorded ahead of International Day for People of African Descent, which is marked on 31 August, with support from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Music: Ketsa, Within the Earth
Uganda’s status as a refuge has seen large numbers escaping conflict in neighbouring and nearby countries, in particular South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and living in relative safety.
Whilst many are living in refugee camps administered by the UN in the north of the country, such as the Bidi Bidi settlement, others have made their way to the capital, Kampala, and some are making an impact on Uganda’s alternative music scene.
Conor Lennon from UN News visited the headquarters of the Nyege Nyege record label in Kampala, which hosts a range of strikingly original artists from several countries, many of whom live on-site and collaborate with other musicians, whilst they develop their style, working towards critical and financial success.
Music: Ketsa, Within the Earth
Okubani Market is located in northern Uganda’s Yumbe District, within the Bidibidi refugee settlement which, during the South Sudan civil war, was the largest settlement of its kind in the world.
The market is a vital economic hub for refugees from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the host community, which suffered years of insecurity at the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
For the last of our mini-series recorded in northern Uganda, Conor Lennon from UN News visited Okubani, to see how the support of the local government and the UN is helping those living in the region to improve their livelihoods.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Hundreds of millions of people do not have access to electricity, seriously hampering their ability to improve their development prospects.
In Arua, northern Uganda, where employment rates are low and poverty is high, the UN is supporting a company that is providing pay-as-you-go solar energy services, putting the benefits of electricity in reach of villagers who would otherwise never be able to afford it.
In this, the third episode in our mini-series recorded in Uganda, Conor Lennon from UN News heads to Arua to see the impact that solar power is having on people’s lives.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
In Lumonga village, situated in a remote part of the West Nile region of northern Uganda, smallholder farmers have traditionally been cut off from the banking system, and been forced to rely on small savings and loans from their community to survive hard times.
For the second episode in our Lid Is On mini-series recorded in northern Uganda, Conor Lennon from UN News went to Lumonga village, to see how digital technology is helping the farmers to get connected, and have a better chance of getting the finance they need to buy basic equipment, grow more crops, and sell more produce.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Northern Uganda has higher poverty and less employment that the south of the country, which is why the UN is backing projects aimed at boosting the regional economy.
In “Developing northern Uganda”, a special four-part mini-series, we go to Yumbe and Arua districts, to see how the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is helping to create sustainable employment prospects for local people.
In this episode, Conor Lennon from UN News visits Honey Pride, a social enterprise supported by UNCDF, and meets one of the hundreds of beekeepers whose lives have been improved since the business began.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
For the last episode in our mini-series exploring some of the ocean-related issues facing Barbados, Conor Lennon went to one of the sea turtle nesting grounds on the southwest of the island.
He met members of the Barbados Sea Turtle Project, which has been successful in restoring the turtle population on the island, despite a host of challenges, including the climate crisis.
This series was produced in the run-up to the 2022 UN Conference, convened to bring fresh impetus to science-based solutions, and start a new chapter of global ocean action. On this website, you will find a host of videos and text stories, as well as more episodes of The Lid Is On, on ocean-related subjects.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
In our third episode looking at ocean-related issues facing the eastern Caribbean island nation of Barbados, released in the run-up to the UN Oceans Conference, we turn to the issue of the coral reef.
Barbados’s reef has been declining for decades, hit by decades of pollution and the climate crisis. CORALL, a volunteer organization supported by the UN, is showing that it is possible to bring life back to the reef, by carefully growing coral in nurseries off the coast.
Conor Lennon from UN News went to visit the nurseries, to find out if it will be possible to bring the reef back to its former glory.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
This is the second in a four-part mini-series, released in the run-up to the UN Oceans Conference, exploring some of the ocean-related issues facing the eastern Caribbean island nation of Barbados.
This episode focuses on the pollutants that, for decades, have poured into the coastal waters, a result of agriculture and the development of the island. In recent years, the government, with the support of the United Nations, has sought to use nature-based solutions to rectify the damage.
Conor Lennon went to the National Botanical Gardens of Barbados, to find out how a national hedgerow planting project is aiming to hold water in the soil, and reduce the amount of harmful substances reaching the sea.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
In a four-part mini-series, released in the run-up to the UN Oceans Conference, we explore some of the ocean-related issues facing the eastern Caribbean island nation of Barbados.
This episode concentrated on the worrying spread of sargassum seaweed, which arrived unannounced in 2011, and has been a regular fixture on much of the coastline ever since.
There’s no single answer to why the seaweed is clogging up the beaches and waters, but many scientists believe that the climate crisis is at least partly to blame.
Conor Lennon went to Barbados for UN News, to find out what effect sargassum is having on the island’s environment, and why some entrepreneurs on the island, and UN scientists, believe that it could eventually have a positive effect on the economy.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
“We can’t heal by ignoring what happened” – that’s one of the key demands for greater racial justice in the United States, from the founder of the influential 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones. For this latest edition of our ‘Lid is On’ podcast, she sat down with UN News’s Ben Malor to discuss the need for a deeper reckoning with the history of slavery at home, and worldwide - including the “essential” provision of reparations for Black Americans, today.
Kaylee Werner was a teenager when a gunman attacked the Tree of Life Synagogue in the US city of Pittsburgh, on October 27, 2018. It was the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the nation’s history, with 11 people killed and nine injured.
Kaylee, who is Jewish, wasn’t at the synagogue that day, but she bears the scars: one of her relatives was killed, and she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She now campaigns for religious tolerance and gun control.
In this episode of The Lid Is On, we look at how the attack has changed Kaylee’s life, and how to combat antisemitism and other form of religious hatred.
International Humanitarian City (IHC) in Dubai, the world’s largest humanitarian hub with some 135,000 square metres of warehouse space, has been transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, medical supplies far outstrip other emergency items stored at IHC, in terms of volume and dollar value, and the amount of material held at the hub has grown exponentially in the last few years.
But the pandemic has provided hard-earned lessons for those in charge, with CEO Guiseppe Saba calling for changes to ensure that the humanitarian sector responds better to the next global emergency.
Conor Lennon from UN News went to the IHC for the latest episode of The Lid Is On, to speak to some of those responsible for getting desperately needed supplies to those who need them, as quickly as possible.
As the UN independent expert on contemporary racism and intolerance, Tendayi Achiume leads a worldwide effort to combat related human rights violations and tackle systemic racism, through fact-finding missions on the ground, investigating alleged violations, and submitting her findings to the UN Human Rights Council and General Assembly in New York.
The Zambian-born law professor tells UN News that it was as an undergraduate that she became fascinated with the potential and power that international law has to ease human suffering, and help transform societies.
In this special edition of our Lid is On podcast - part of our multimedia coverage surrounding the 20th anniversary of the historic Durban Declaration to counter racism – Mita Hosali speaks to Ms. Achiume about where we stand now, two decades on.
Music credit: 'Told You So', by Ketsa
Growing up in California’s Silicon Valley, African-American Derrick León Washington took note of the socio-economic disparity around him, and knew early on, there was something unjust about what he saw.
Given the opportunity to explore dance as a teenager, he saw most weren’t so lucky, leading him on a mission to explore how he could be of service to his community and beyond.
In this UN News Lid is On podcast hosted by Natalie Hutchison - part of our coverage marking the 20th anniversary of the milestone declaration against racism signed in Durban, South Africa - Derrick shares his trajectory from shy and curious youngster, to professional anthropologist, and his recent work as a senior human rights fellow here at the United Nations.
At times it seemed that a COP26 resolution was still hours or even days away but, on Saturday evening, a final document was finally adopted, despite the misgivings expressed by many countries at revised language regarding fossil fuels.
COP26 President, Alok Sharma, seemed close to tears at one point, betraying the enormous pressure felt by so many of those closely involved with the negotiations.
In the last episode of the Lid Is On from COP26, Conor Lennon and Laura Quiñones discuss the outcome of the conference, the Glasgow Climate Pact.
Music: 'Within the Earth' Ketsa
With negotiators still haggling over the details of the COP26 final declaration, Conor Lennon and Laura Quiñones look back over two extremely busy, sleep-deprived weeks of announcements, protests and hopeful pronouncements.
Thanks for tuning into the Daily Lid Is On episodes from Glasgow, and please subscribe to our flagship news podcasts! You can also subscribe to our newsletter: https://news.un.org/en/newsletter/climate-change
In theory it is the penultimate day of COP26, but this is dependent on negotiators reaching a final agreement, with many thorny details still to be ironed out.
Thursday was also Cities, Regions and Infrastructure day, and our team in Glasgow – Conor Lennon and Laura Quiñones – talk to mayors, activists, and a record-breaking explorer, to get a feel for the progress that is, and isn’t, being made to make cities more liveable and inclusive.
Music: "Within the Earth', Ketsa
It’s looking more and more likely that electric vehicles will dominate the roads of the most developed countries within the next few decades. But will the Global South become the world’s dumping ground for old, polluting cars?
In today’s episode of The Lid Is On from COP26, Conor Lennon and Laura Quiñones speak to some leading experts from the road, shipping and aviation sectors about sustainable fuels and electrifying transport, and get some of the reactions to the draft COP26 final text, released by the UK presidency on Wednesday morning.
Music: 'Within the Earth', Ketsa
Little Amal, the giant puppet of a Syrian refugee girl was, literally, the biggest figure at COP26 on Tuesday, where the main theme was gender.
She took to the main stage today, alongside Samoan climate activist Brianna Freuan, who reminded delegates that women and girls bear the brunt of the climate crisis.
The day also focused on issues surrounding science and innovation so, in today’s episode of The Lid Is On from COP26 in Glasgow, Conor Lennon and Laura Quiñones explore how hard it can be to communicate scientific information, and the potential impact of low-cost, readily available technology including…the power of dance!
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Even if we were to cut all the world's greenhouse gas emissions tomorrow, we would still be left coping with rising temperatures and an unpredictable climate. That’s why adaptation is, literally, a hot topic at COP26.
Nevertheless, the annual $100 billion promised for climate finance in the 2015 Paris Agreement – half of which was to be earmarked to help developing countries to cope with the climate crisis – has yet to materialize.
In today’s Lid Is On podcast from COP26, Conor Lennon and Laura Quiñones talk to UN officials and activists about adaptation and, with the conference past the half-way point, they take stock of week one.
And if you want to know more about climate adaptation and resilience, subscribe to the UN Environment Programme's excellent Resilience podcast, hosted by Lis Bernhardt and Marcus Nield: https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/podcast/resilience-global-adaptati...
Music: "Within the Earth", Ketsa, and "Into the Amazon", Emily Burridge
Mankind’s impact on the planet is causing it to react against us, provoking extreme weather events in every corner of the world.
But there is a growing realization that, rather than inventing new technology to tackle the climate crisis, we can harness nature to help us solve the problem.
In today’s episode of the Lid Is On, Conor Lennon and Laura Quinones explore nature-based solutions, from forests to seaweed, and mangroves.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
The anger of climate activist Greta Thunberg, one of the leading voices of the demonstrations in Glasgow City Centre on Friday, threatened to drown out the events taking place within the COP26 conference centre.
Yet, there were many youth voices inside, engaging with government leaders, the UN and others. On today’s episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon was at the venue, whilst Laura Quinones stayed in town to follow the protests.
Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa
Energy was the main theme of COP26 on Thursday, with a particular focus on ending the world’s reliance on coal.
However, to achieve the UN’s aim of achieving clean and reliable access to energy for all by 2030, all countries need to speed up the transition away from all fossil fuel sources, and switch renewable sources.
On today’s COP26 episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon and Laura Quinones sift through the day’s main announcements, find out why clean cooking could be a low-cost way to save hundreds of thousands of lives, and why Togo’s government is banking on solar technology to lift its citizens out of poverty.
Day three of COP26 was dominated by climate finance: how to ensure that the financial sector moves definitively away from fossil fuels and instead invest in initiatives that push the global economy towards sustainability.
Conor Lennon and Laura Quinones share the main stories of the day, and explain why, in the context of climate change, insurance is interesting (it really is!).
They also share some words in Welsh, Doric, Quechua, and Cuyonon!
Several new pledges were made on the second day of COP26, the UN climate conference, but the reforestation commitment made by the public and private sector attracted the most attention.
In today’s Colombia-tinged COP26 episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon and Laura Quinones discuss the main events of the day, as well as Prince William, methane, and sausage rolls.
The 26th UN climate conference, or COP, opened with a World Leaders Summit on Monday, and a characteristically blunt speech from UN chief António Guterres. It’s the start of a mammoth two-week event, which some are calling the last best chance to save the planet.
Conor Lennon and Laura Quinones are on the ground throughout the conference, to give you a flavour of what it’s like to be in Glasgow, and to speak to some of those involved, from climate change activists, to artists, UN leaders and more.
Follow all of our Special COP26 coverag here: https://news.un.org/en/events/cop26
You can also subscribe to our daily COP26 newsletter here: https://news.un.org/en/newsletter/climate-change
Kaylee Werner was a teenager when a gunman attacked the Tree of Life Synagogue in the US city of Pittsburgh, on October 27, 2018. It was the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the nation’s history, with 11 people killed and nine injured.
Kaylee, who is Jewish, wasn’t at the synagogue that day, but she bears the scars: one of her relatives was killed, and she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She now campaigns for religious tolerance and gun control.
In this episode of The Lid Is On, we look at how the attack has changed Kaylee’s life, and how to combat antisemitism and other form of religious hatred.
For UN Secretary-General António Guterres, this is a pivotal moment for mankind, which is on the brink of global catastrophe, but has the tools to create a fairer, cleaner world, if the political will can be found.
In September, Mr. Guterres outlined his vision of how international cooperation needs to develop over the next 25 years, in “Our Common Agenda”, which lays out a pathway for a sustainable future.
For this special episode of The Lid Is On, Assumpta Massoi from UN News sat down for an exclusive interview with the UN chief, to talk Afghanistan, gender equality, and why world leaders need to “wake up, change course, and unite”.
Music credit: Music credit: Ketsa, Within the Earth
Andrew Young’s long and eventful career saw him at Martin Luther King’s side during the civil rights era, becoming the first African-American US Ambassador to the United Nations under Jimmy Carter, and subsequently a two-term Mayor of Atlanta.
But the man he looked up to was Ralph Bunche, one of the earliest officials at the United Nations, and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In this episode of The Lid Is On, Mr. Young shares his memories of Ralph Bunche, and what made him such an impressive figure in the history of the UN.
When it started, less than a decade ago, Formula E, the fully electric car racing championship, struggled to be taken seriously by the motorsports industry.
But today, major manufacturers are queuing up to be involved in the series, which is growing in popularity, just like the electric cars it has been designed to promote.
Backed by the UN, Formula E’s success is part of the biggest push ever - from governments, manufacturers, and consumers - to end our reliance on polluting, fossil-fuelled engines.
For this latest Lid Is On podcast, Conor Lennon has been talking to some of the major players involved, to find out what the sport, and the industry, are doing to advancing sustainable development, and fight the climate crisis.
Music credit: Ketsa, Within the Earth
Refugee farmers who grew up cultivating crops in Somalia have returned to the land, albeit in the United States, decades after fleeing their country’s civil war.
They’ve been resettled in the US state of Maine after living for years in UN-supported refugee camps in Kenya.
They are among thousands of Somalis who fled persecution and conflict in the Horn of Africa country who benefitted from resettlement programmes in third countries like the US.
For this latest Lid is On podcast from UN News, Daniel Dickinson reports from Maine.
The unprecedented rise in people requiring humanitarian assistance will continue unless countries collaborate better to combat conflict, climate change and disease, including COVID-19.
That’s the firm belief of the UN’s top aid official, Mark Lowcock, who leaves this week after four years heading its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
He spoke in depth to UN News’s Dianne Penn.
Music credit: Ketsa, ‘Wounds’
Today, women are still in the minority across Vanuatu’s Police Department, but times are changing.
When Sergeant Bianca Simeon joined the Vanuata Police Maritime wing 11 years ago, she was their first woman recruit. Inspector Lili Joel is one of only two women superintendents, and Sera Bula Joseph is one of the rare women police engineers.
In the final episode of Island Voices, a three-part podcast series produced by the UN Office for Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS), Sergeant Simeon and her colleagues describe the challenges they face, and the commitment needed to succeed in the Police Force.
Vanuatu’s national parliament doesn’t have a single woman member, but two activists from different generations are committed to changing the gender politics of the island nation.
In the second episode of Island Voices, a three-part podcast series produced by the UN Office for Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS), law student and activist Georgilla Worwor, and Anthea Arukole, a former political advisor to the Vanuatu Government, discuss their political ambitions.
Critical of the current make-up of the parliament, Ms. Worwor and Ms. Arukole are convinced that bringing more women into politics at a national level will improve leadership and decision-making in the country.
In the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, young women are taking their long boards to the water, refusing to accept the idea that surfing is only for men.
Risma has been surfing since a very young age and, in the face of the challenges that come with being a woman pioneer in a male-dominated sport, she has reached a highly competitive level, and is inspiring a new generation of girls and young women to ride the waves.
”Solwota Sista” is the first episode of Island Voices, a three-part podcast series produced by the UN Office for Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS), which looks at the ways that women in Vanuatu are attempting to break down barriers, participating in areas of island life traditionally reserved for boys and men.
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The role that buildings have to play in climate change rarely gets the same level of attention as issues such as energy production or transport, but they are a significant part of the problem. The UN estimates that, in 2019, emissions from buildings hit an all-time high, accounting for more than a third of all energy-related greenhouse gases.
However, widely available technology, and tried-and-tested building techniques, can drastically cut the amount of energy required to heat and cool buildings – by up to 90 per cent – at a reasonable cost.
In New York, home to UN Headquarters, these techniques are now being put into practice, and older buildings are being “retrofitted” with the latest materials, for the benefit of residents, and the environment.
Conor Lennon went to visit some New York projects that could help the City and State to achieve its strict and ambitious climate goals.
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Energy efficient projects in New York City.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated 76 years ago this week, and to mark Holocaust remembrance day in late January, the corridors of UN Headquarters are normally filled with the stories of survivors who come to bear witness.
But this year, the annual commemoration programme was held online for the first time ever, due to COVID-19, under the theme “Facing the Aftermath: Recovery and Reconstitution after the Holocaust”.
For this latest edition of our Lid is On podcast, Ana Carmo brings you some of those voices of survival, along with the poignant contribution of German leader, Angela Merkel, and leading UN officials, speaking out against intolerance and racism, with neo-Nazism seemingly on the rise.
Music Credits: Cantor Julia Cadrain; and violinist and UNESCO Artist for Peace, Renaud Capuçon performing Nigun from the Baal Shem Suite by Ernest Bloch. Mr. Capuçon is accompanied by the pianist, Guillaume Bellom.
Hunger is often associated with developing countries, but food insecurity is also present in higher income countries, including the richest country in the world, the United States.
The UN wants more people to understand that a way to effectively tackle the problem, and take a big step towards ending hunger, is to reduce the billions of tonnes of food that are lost and wasted each year.
Ahead of the first International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, on 29 September, Conor Lennon from UN News visited a community kitchen in Brooklyn, New York, to find out how reducing food loss and waste can make a big difference to some of society’s most vulnerable.
The event was co-organized by the FAO and UN Environment Programme Liaison Offices in New York, the Permanent Missions of Andorra and San Marino to the United Nations, Rethink Food and Collective Fare.
In the midst of COVID-19, we have an historic opportunity to look at the world as it is, based on the facts, and then focus on collective solutions, according to a special project undertaken by the United Nations this year to mark its 75th anniversary, and the fifth anniversary of the game-changing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Tune in to this special edition of our Lid is On podcast -Nations United: Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times, hosted by Hollywood great, Julia Roberts.
Although COVID-19 continues to dominate the headlines, a host of other global challenges have not gone away, such as conflict, famine and the existential threat posed by climate change.
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, will try to refocus attention on some of these themes at the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly, which opens this week.
In this special edition of our Lid is On podcast, UN News’s Arabic chief, May Yaacoub spoke exclusively to Mr. Guterres, to find out what his priorities are for the event, in a year upended by crises on multiple levels.
Music credit: Within the Earth, Ketsa
If you’re wondering what the UN is doing to help prevent the kind of disaster that’s befallen Beirut, the Organization has an entire office dedicated to lowering the risks.
For this latest Lid is On podcast from UN News, Conor Lennon’s been finding out how the Office for Disaster Risk Reduction works tirelessly to persuade governments to put it at the heart of their decision-making.
The manufacture of ukuleles by a company in Hawaii is helping to promote Hawaii’s culture of aloha - reflecting love, kindness, understanding and compassion, with the added benefit of reforesting the US Pacific Ocean state.
For this latest in our Lid is On podcast series, from UN News, Daniel Dickinson reports from the iconic US island state, where climate action is mingling with an ancient Pacific culture.
Music: Hawaiian Supaman by Del Beazley; He Alii Ka Aina
by Cody Pueo Pata.
Both songs played and sung by Joe Souza.
As the coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, in developing countries it’s rural girls who are proving to be the most vulnerable to abuse during economic collapse and lockdown.
That’s the view of a young woman activist from Uganda, Zahara, who in this special edition of our Lid is On podcast, hosted by the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, joins the agency’s chief Natalia Kanem, plus leading child rights NGO, Plan International’s AB Albrectsen, in conversation to talk about the challenges facing women and girls during this unprecedented health crisis.
Music credit: Heart Chakra, by Ketsa
While many in the developed world are home schooling via Zoom and other online tools these days, in South Sudan, it’s old-fashioned radio that’s proving the best way to keep children on track with schoolwork.
The country is still recovering from a brutal, seven-year civil war, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed. The UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, has a mandate to protect civilians and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, that includes providing advice on limiting the spread of the virus.
UNMISS also runs Radio Miraya, a highly trusted news source, currently broadcasting educational programming for the many children who, due to COVID-19 measures, are unable to be in the classroom.
For this episode of our flagship UN News podcast, the Lid Is On, Conor Lennon reports on the radio renaissance underway, in the world’s youngest country.
Music credit: Ketsa, ‘Within the Earth’
Countries must not forget routine lifesaving immunizations for diseases like measles, while racing to find a vaccine that will save millions of lives and end the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s the message from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) vaccination programme director, Professor Kate O'Brien, who’s been talking in-depth to UN News for this latest Lid is On podcast, stressing also the importance of getting the facts, as misinformation rages online.
Music credit: Ketsa, ‘Live With No Fear’
In this special edition of our Lid Is On podcast, from UN News, we hear from independent UN human rights expert, Tendayi Achiume, who warns that apart from the coronavirus that’s destroying so many lives and transforming societies around the world, a virulent xenophobia and tide of racial hatred has also been unleashed, aided by what she calls “entrepreneurs of intolerance”.
Music credit: Ketsa: “Within the Earth”, and “Awaiting Her Return”
Yuriko was just a 12 year-old growing up in Hiroshima, when the devastating mushroom cloud enveloped the city in the morning of 6 August 1945.
Kathleen Burkinshaw’s novel The Last Cherry Blossom, tells Yuriko’s extraordinary survival story, a journey inspired by the life of the author’s mother, laying bare the importance of nuclear disarmament.
For this edition of our podcast show, The Lid is On, Ana Carmo spoke to Ms. Burkinshaw when she came to talk about the book, at the UN Bookshop in New York last year.
Music Credit:Hiroshima by Pierce Murphy.
Audio Credit: 1945: Year of Decision, United Nations.
A photography project to document the ‘humanity, and quiet dignity’ of workers in the United States has been launched by the UN’s specialized agency, the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The aim of the project, which comes as ILO celebrates its 100th birthday, is to look at the working lives of Americans across the country and listen to their hopes and fears for the future.
For this edition of our flagship podcast show, The Lid is On, Daniel Dickinson joined ILO on the road as it reached the southern US state of Louisiana.
Music credit: Audiobinger, Rise and Shine
A group of survivors devastated by terrorism in the Lake Chad region of Africa, are taking small steps towards building new lives and livelihoods.
In Cameroon alone, there are some 250,000 internally displaced people and around 100,000 refugees, forced to flee their homes due to a brutal insurgency which was originally led by Boko Haram – it’s now splintered into a number of different extremist Islamist armed groups.
In this West African country, men and women have been taught to produce artisanal goods for sale as a means to boost their meagre incomes. Meanwhile, young people are learning about the dangers of joining radical groups.
In this special edition of our Lid is On Podcast, Daniel Dickinson reports from Maroua in the Far North region of the country.
Music credit: Ketsa, Sad Moments
Ahead of the UN’s Climate Action Summiton 23 September, the Secretary-General urged Member States to come with“concrete” solutions to the climate crisis, not just speeches.
On Monday, some Member States rose to that challenge. Kicking off the 74th General Assembly session at UN headquarters in New York, delegates presented long-term strategies to achieve carbon neutrality throughout the day-long Summit, aspringboard for action on climate solutions.
In this special Climate Summit edition of our flagship Lid is On podcast, participants explained just how they plan on doing their part, owning the pledge to curb carbon emissions as outlined in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.
Music credit: Audiobinger, China Town
What are the UN’s top priorities, and can countries make more progress towards lasting peace, prosperity, and essential climate action?
UN Secretary-General António Guterres is urging the nations that make up the 74th General Assembly to provide “concrete answers” to the big challenges of our time.
In this exclusive UN News interview, Melissa Fleming, new head of Global Communications here at the UN, talks to António Guterres for our Lid Is On podcast, about the power of effective international cooperation, on the road to 2030.
Music Credit: Stage 1 Level 24 by Montplaisir.
Survivors of terrorist atrocities in the Lake Chad region of Africa have been telling UN News about how they have been able to overcome the horror of kidnapping and being forced to watch their own close family members being executed.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and many thousands killed across the region over the past decade or so, as a result of a terrorist insurgency which continues to this day.
For this special edition of our Lid Is On podcast, Daniel Dickinson travelled to the north-east of Cameroon to meet two survivors of terrorism who are trying to rebuild their lives following the unspeakable acts committed against them and their families.
Who wants the death of the UN?
This provocative question is the title – translated into English from Qui veut la mort de l’ONU? in French – of a new book by Romuald Sciora and Anne-Cécile Robert, two French journalists and experts in international affairs.
In it, they argue that the United Nations is often unfairly held responsible for a lot of the ailments of the world: war, famine, health and environmental crises…
For this new edition of The Lid Is On podcast, Yasmina Guerda spoke to them while they were visiting UN Headquarters in New York, about what, in their view, needs to happen to safeguard the Organization’s future.
Music credit: Massive Attack, by Podington Bear.
We’ve never had it so good – that’s the data-driven message delivered at UN Headquarters this month, by one of the world’s foremost public intellectuals, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker.
He was delivering the Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) Inaugural Presidential Lecture, with the journalistically counter-intuitive declaration, that humankind is more peaceful, prosperous, healthy and free, than ever before.
For this latest UN News Lid Is On podcast, Matt Wells caught up with Professor Pinker who explained why the Sustainable Development Goals are one of the most “glorious, noble, thrilling” achievements of all time.
Music credit: Audiobinger, Rise and Shine.
We have been “absolutely shameful stewards” of the environment, according to Academy Award-nominated actor and activist Alec Baldwin, who stopped by our UN News studio with his wife Hilaria after they spoke at the launch of a new UN-backed report that links food and health with a sustainable planet.
While bantering amicably, the couple shared their ardent belief that it is important to eat healthily – for themselves, their budding family and Mother Earth itself.
For this edition of our Lid Is On podcast, the celebrity couple sat down with Liz Scaffidi after helping launch the EAT-Lancet Commission report here, in their native New York.
The story of how a group of around 60 Jews imprisoned by the Nazi regime in the Warsaw Ghetto secretly worked on archiving their rich history in wartime Poland, has powerful resonances today, as journalists continue to be killed simply for telling the truth.
That’s the view of writer-director-producer Roberta Grossman, and executive producer, Nancy Spielberg – sister of legendary Hollywood director Stephen Spielberg – whose new film “Who Will Write Our History” was screened recently at UN Headquarters.
For this edition of our Lid Is On podcast from UN News, they sat down with Jessica Jiji during the UN’s Holocaust remembrance commemorations in New York, to talk about their film and the extraordinary members of the clandestine “Oyneg Shabes” group, who were prepared to “die writing”.
Opioids account for over three-quarters of deaths associated with prescription drug misuse. In late January, David Sheff and Vicky Cornell joined a panel discussion on addiction organised by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Mr. Sheff’s memoir about his son’s addiction has been turned into a major Hollywood movie, and Ms. Cornell was married to Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, whose suicide she has attributed to prescription drugs that altered his mental state.
Conor Lennon from UN News interviewed Mr. Sheff and Ms. Cornell for this episode of The Lid Is On, and heard how their experiences have led them to believe that changes to the health care system play a key role in addressing the crisis.
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As the UN’s International Year of Indigenous Languages begins, ancient mother-tongues under threat of extinction across the world, need to be seen as a “symptom” of a much wider struggle.
That’s the view of one leading linguistics professor in New York, Daniel Kaufman, who founded the non-profit Endangered Language Alliance in 2010, focussing on immigrants whose languages are dying out.
For this edition of our Lid Is On podcast from UN News, Matt Wells went to meet him, and also spoke to some indigenous community members who say their whole identities are increasingly at risk.
Daniel Kaufman, linguistics professor, and founder and executive director of the Endangered Language Alliance. UN News/Matt Wells
The UN has played a major role in many lives around the world, from helping elections pass of peacefully to averting famine and deadly conflict, often working behind the scenes.
Award-winning producer James Manos, Jr. was so taken by the sacrifices some staff make in service to the UN and the greater-good, he’s written a pilot for a new television series focused on women staffers and the sacrifices they make to ensure the Organization’s goals are met.
Marking World TV Day, Mr. Manos and top screen actress, Serinda Swan, spoke to UN News’s Liz Scaffidi, for this latest edition of our Lid Is On podcast series.
Music credit: Despedida from FMA, by Dee Yan-Key
In this special edition of our Lid Is On podcast series, we’re bringing you a roundup of the most listened-to audio of 2018 here at UN News.
Join Natalie Hutchison to find out what resonated the most with our audio partners and listeners around the English-speaking world during another eventful year.
Music credit: Rise and Shine, by Audiobinger.
The livestock industry is responsible for a staggering amount of greenhouse gas emissions, with a single beef burger taking up to 450 gallons of water to produce.
The UN is ramping up awareness on the issue, and two companies who make “plant-based meat” alternatives to beef, were recently named “Champions of the Earth” by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), in recognition of their contribution to more sustainable eating.
Conor Lennon from UN News went along to see how the new generation of meat-free meals are going down with the notoriously hard-to-please burger-loving public of New York City.
It’s easy to get lost in the argument over who needs to do the most to stop global warming, but the fact is, everyone needs to do their bit and “we’re all responsible.”
That’s one of the guiding principles for Satya Tripathi of India, who in this latest Lid Is On podcast from UN News, from the crucial COP24 climate change conference in Poland, says we need to focus on bettering our immediate environment and taking collective responsibility for the planet.
In his role as Assistant Secretary-General for the UN environment agency, UNEP, in New York, he’s been taking part in talks over the future of climate action in Poland, and explained to our Yasmina Guerda, what India has been doing to fight global warming, region by region.
Music Credit: China Town, by Audiobinger.
What’s it really like to be a victim of child trafficking? The founders of non-profit, Street Art for Mankind, that fights child trafficking using art from around the globe, are trying to provide the answer.
The exhibit, called “UN-ji,” made its way to UN headquarters in New York last month, bringing art, sounds, and smells, to help visitors gain insight into the issue and contribute to ending trafficking for some 150 million victims worldwide.
For this latest edition of our UN News Lid is On podcast, Natalie Hutchison went along to find out more.
Not many school commutes involve having to go through checkpoints and body searches, but that’s the daily reality for some 163 Palestinian youngsters in Hebron, a bustling city in the southern part of the West Bank.
During a recent visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Reem Abaza, of UN News, went inside the closed zone for this edition of our Lid Is On podcast, to speak with students and teachers from Qurtuba School.
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A major escalation in fighting between Hamas militants and Israeli forces across the Gaza border, has placed further strain on medical facilities there that are already overwhelmed.
For this special edition of our Lid Is On podcast, the head of our UN News Arabic unit, Reem Abaza, reports from the Al-Shifa Hospital, where dozens of victims of violence are undergoing often years of treatment, in the face of cutbacks and funding crises.
UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jamie McGoldrick, during his visit of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. UNRWA/Khalil Adwan
In this week’s episode of our flagship podcast, The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon from UN News looks at the United Nations' efforts to make big business part of the solution for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 - not much more than 11 years away.
His guest is Dan Thomas, Head of Communications from UN Global Compact, the world’s biggest corporate sustainability initiative, with a mission to bring companies in line with universal principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
They discuss how the UN managed the convince big business to sign up to the Compact, and why more and more companies are realising that Sustainable Development and profit can, and do, go together.
We'll also hear from Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, Teressa Szelest, a President at the chemical company BASF, and Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever.
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This week’s episode of the Lid Is On comes to you on World Cities Day, which it's hoped will foster cooperation among countries in meeting the challenges of urbanization, and contribute to sustainable development of cities and big towns everywhere.
For many years, the world has seen an inexorable movement from rural areas to urban centres, as people search for jobs, access to services and generally improved life prospects. However, many large cities have become hotspots of inequality and exclusion, a problem that has grown since the 1980s.
The UN has been trying to combat this trend, launching global campaigns and initiatives to bring about fairer cities.
Conor Lennon took a trip out the door of UN Hedquarters in New York, to see how community gardens have become one effective and low-cost way to build stronger neighbourhoods.
Soretta Rodack, Board Member of the 6BC Community Garden, in the East Village of New York. UN News/Conor Lennon
Koi Carp pond in the 6BC Community Garden, East Village, New York City.UN News/Conor Lennon
Disarmament is too important to be left to the experts.
That’s the view of Renata Dwan, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), who says young people and civil society have a vital role to play in arms control, at this turbulent time in world history.
For our latest Lid Is On podcast, from UN News, Paulina Greer talks to her about ridding the world of nuclear and other weapons, and she explains why that’s not just some utopian dream these days – it’s a practical necessity.
Music credit: Shell Shock, by Audiobinger.
How can the United Nations, created in the aftermath of the Second World War, stay relevant to today’s young people?
At this year’s High-Level Week of the General Assembly, the UN Secretary-General launched the Youth2030 Strategy, an ambitious plan to get the UN to step up its support for the empowerment of young people, and harness their talents for the global good.
For this edition of our UN News flagship podcast, the Lid Is On, Conor Lennon talked to some of the exceptional young talents invited to UN headquarters during the week, and was joined in the studio by activist and advocate for migrants and refugees, Tolu Olubunmi, who is advising the UN on the way it communicates with young people.
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Many of the world’s 821 million hungry people could be fed if less food was thrown away, according to the United Nations.
The UN’s human settlements agency, UN Habitat, estimates that globally some 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted each year.
A reduction in that shocking figure, presents what the agency has called “an enormous opportunity for tackling food insecurity.”
For this edition of our flagship podcast, The Lid Is On, marking World Food Day, Daniel Dickinson reports from New York on how small actions, could make a big difference when it comes to tackling global hunger.
This New York fast food restaurant cuts down on food waste by donating unserved food. UN News/Daniel Dickinson
This is the first in a series of special episodes of The Lid Is On, recorded during High-Level week of the General Assembly, and featuring some of the many experts, UN officials and politicians who filled UN Headquarters during late September 2018.
Conor Lennon kicks off with a look at digital technology, and how it is being used to tackle some of the world's biggest problems, from climate change to disaster relief.
This episode includes interviews with Claire Melamed, CEO of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD); Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, Botswana's Minister for Investment, Trade and Industry; Rebecca Morgan, director of Google Earth; and Amanda Pitt and Stefania Tressari from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that about 800,000 people died in 2016 by their own hand, mostly in low- and middle-income countries.
As this week marks World Suicide Prevention Day, WHO is appealing to countries to develop suicide prevention strategies and a toolkit has been developed to help communities address the issue effectively.
In this episode of our Lid is On podcast, Yasmina Guerda spoke to WHO’s focal point for suicide prevention, Dr. Alexandra Fleischmann, and to Sheilla Akwara, a singer from Kenya who survived several suicide attempts herself and who is now working with youth to share messages of hope.
Music credit: "Watershed"by Soularflair.
Audio Engineer: Carlos Macias.
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How do you run one of the biggest refugee camps on the planet?
That’s the task facing UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, one of several international agencies which are helping hundreds of thousands of mainly Rohingya Muslims in a place called Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh.
They fled their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and sought shelter in Bangladesh, following a military clearance operation 12 months ago that’s been likened to a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” by former UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
In this episode of our Lid is On podcast, Daniel Johnson from UN News spoke to UNICEF’s Simon Ingram, who recalled the “hell on earth” he found last August, and what has been done to help youngsters since then, despite massive ongoing challenges.
Music credit 'Sun' by, Alan Spiljak
In a report released in July, the UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate for the Security Council (CTED), warned of a growing threat: the return of foreign terrorist fighters, or FTFs.
Member States estimate that there could up to 30,000 ISIL fighters in Iraq and Syria. A significant proportion of them are foreigners, and the majority of the European nationals return home.
As awareness of the risk grows, CTED has been providing Member States with advice and guidance on how to manage the risk posed by foreign terrorist fighters.
For the latest episode of our Lid is On podcast, we asked David Wells, political analysis and research Unit coordinator for CTED, to explain the challenges and potential solutions to the problem.
Music credit: "Fater Lee" by Black Ant.
Throughout his term as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein has never been afraid to speak up for the vulnerable and condemn abuse.
As the first Asian, Muslim and Arab in the post, his appointment in 2014 was a landmark moment. Amongst many notable achievements, his UN career has taken in the establishment of the International Criminal Court, establishing the legal definition of the crime of aggression, and a groundbreaking report into sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping operations.
In this episode of our Lid is On podcast, to mark the end of his four-year term in office on 31 August, Zeid gave UN News an extensive interview, looking back over some of the most consequential moments of his time in the role.
Music credit: "Skin in the Game", by Soularflair
“Never give up”. Is the motto of Ben Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg post-war US Military Tribunals, and at 99 years of age, he is still a tireless, and fearless, fighter for human rights and justice.
After the war, Ferencz was drafted into the Trials at a time when the very concept of war crimes was barely understood. Just 27 at the time, he found himself prosecuting former SS officers responsible for the deaths of thousands of men, women and children.
He went on to campaign for the establishment of international law, including the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and to ensure restitution and rehabilitation for the victims of Nazi war crimes.
Video screen capture Ben Ferencz
For this episode of our Lid is On podcast from UN News, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, invited Ben Ferencz to our New York studio to talk about the ongoing fight for universal human rights.
Music credit: "Sunken Streets" by Sro.
Young women are increasingly being groomed as reluctant suicide bombers in the impoverished Lake Chad region of central Africa.
The extremist group Boko Haram which originated in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri is now causing terror in neighbouring countries including Chad.
In this special The Lid Is On podcast from UN News, Daniel Dickinson travelled to Chad to listen to the experience of one teenage girl who survived after being sent by Boko Haram to blow herself up at a busy weekly market.
A veteran de-miner who has witnessed some of the worst damage explosives can inflict on civilians, says he has never seen anything like the situation in Mosul, the last stronghold of the extremist group ISIL in Iraq, which was finally liberated just over a year ago.
Paul Heslop of the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said that, although teams have cleared nearly 30,000 grenades, artillery shells, aircraft bombs, and other deadly devices, “we’re just starting to scratch the surface”.
Mr. Heslop has worked in mine clearance for more than two decades and even took the late Princess Diana into Angola’s mine fields, back in 1997.
In this episode of our podcast, The Lid is On, he tells Dianne Penn how removing mines and bombs literally clears the path for peace and development.
Music credit: Judas Goat (Featuring Hicham Enouiti), by Filastine.
It’s time for the United Nations to play a bigger role in disarmament, according to UN chief António Guterres, calling for concrete, practical actions to promote peaceful conflict resolution. Among those actions is to maximize the benefits of the technological revolution.
Known as “frontier technology”, the field of scientific and technological innovation could produce new tools to maintain peace and security around the world.
Daniel Johnson discusses the various ways that the UN is looking to incorporate such technology in its disarmament agenda.
The UN Special Envoy for Global Education is on a mission to convince wealthy donors that investing in good teachers and classrooms is an investment in our collective future.
For this edition of our UN News podcast, the Lid Is On, we invited former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to sit down with three young ambassadors from Kenya, Nepal and Guinea, for a lively conversation about the real difference that education dollars can make to peace, security, and sustainable growth across the world.
Music credit: China Town, by Audiobinger.
Putting pain eloquently on paper is just one of the gifts that has made Belgian-born Israeli cartoonist Michel Kichka a celebrated artist, but perhaps his most “overwhelming” and profound journey began when he put pen to paper and started work on a graphic novel examining the impact of his own father’s trauma surviving the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
After presenting his new novel to students at an event organized as part of The Holocaust and the UN Outreach Programme, he sat down with Cristina Silveiro for our Lid Is On podcast, to talk family, art, and how it all began with a cartoon Nazi.
Music credit: Sad Moments, by Ketsa
Every six seconds, somebody is killed or seriously injured on the road, adding up to 1.25 million deaths each year.
For this latest Lid Is On podcast from UN News, we’ll hear from three of the leading voices involved in the new UN Road Safety Trust Fund, launched this month, which is committed to “accelerating progress” in saving the lives of pedestrians, drivers, and cyclists across the world.
Music Credits:
Live with No Fear andSun of the Most High by Ketsa
Interviewees:
- Jean Todt, UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Road Safety
- Olga Algayerova, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe
- Saul Billingsley, Executive Director of the FIA Foundation
Digital cash vouchers powered by the revolutionary technology behind the Bitcoin cryptocurrency are helping the UN ensure that food aid is getting to where it’s needed most.
For our latest Lid Is On podcast, Dianne Penn talks to the World Food Programme’s (WFP) innovation chief, Robert Opp, about the new, cost-effective and secure technology that’s making a difference to the lives of thousands of refugees.
Music credit: Within the Earth, by Ketsa
Robert Opp’s team at WFP is also behind the innovative ShareTheMeal app which helps provide food for children in need, for as little as $0.50 per day. Details here.
Just because more laws are being passed protecting media freedom across the world, it doesn’t mean that governments will respect them, or allow citizens to use them.
That’s one of the “conflicting trends” to emerge from the latest World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development report, from UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.
For this latest edition of our Lid Is On podcast, from UN News, Matt Wells has been talking to one of the lead researchers behind the report.
Music Credit: China Town by Audiobinger
How does a child end up working for a terrorist organization that’s responsible for killing his own father?
That’s one of the questions addressed by a new report from the UN University (UNU) that’s drawn on two years of fieldwork.
For out latest Lid Is On podcast, Matt Wells has been talking to Siobhan O’Neil, leader of the Children and Extreme Violence Project for UNU.
An activist who has mobilized young people in West Africa to lobby against practices that are harmful to girls will now be advocating for change across the entire continent.
Jaha Dukureh from The Gambia was recently named the first ever Regional Goodwill Ambassador for Africa with UN Women, the United Nations entity that champions gender equality and the empowerment of women.
For our latest Lid Is On podcast, she’s been telling Dianne Penn she can already see signs that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and child marriage are on the way out.
Music Credit: State of Mind by Audiobinger
Cuts in UN funding for Gaza’s Palestine refugees threaten to push the entire community “over the edge”, combined with what one senior official has called the “combustible cocktail of humanitarian, political and security challenges” facing the territory.
That’s the key concern of Sikham Al-Khalout, a Palestinian mother-of-seven, who has watched her family’s standard of living tumble in recent months, to the point where they are struggling to survive.
For this latest edition of our UN News podcast, ‘The Lid is On’, we’ll hear from inside Gaza and talk to the new Director for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip.
MUSIC CREDITS: Roll On, by Ketsa
Olem Ben, Olem Ben, by Turku, Nomads of the Silk Road
The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) will close at the end of March 2018.
Over its nearly 15 years of operations, the peacekeeping mission has helped bring back peace and stability to the West African country.
In January, Liberia carried out its first peaceful democratic transition in more than 70 years, with the election of President George Weah, who succeeded Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – Africa’s first elected woman head of state.
Napoleon Viban is the head of UNMIL Radio, the peacekeeping mission’s station, which has been a driving force in bringing Liberians together after years of brutal conflict.
In this podcast, he shares with UN News his hopes for Liberia’s continued transition and development, as the UN Mission exits the country.
Viban also explains the role he and his staff at the station hope to play by staying on air and continuing to serve the Liberian people, with news and programmes that will help strengthen stability and democracy.
It’s exactly 25 years since the UN created a new international emergency response team to respond to disasters around the world.
Officially known as the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination system (UNDAC) the team pools expertise from Member States, to rush to the aid of fellow Member States, hit by sudden-onset emergencies.
On Monday, the different countries that fund UNDAC from all the continents of the world, met for their yearly-gathering in Geneva.
The team is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and it was founded in 1993.
Over the past 25 years, UNDAC has responded to more than 281 emergencies in over 100 countries; ranging from floods, to earthquakes and man-made disasters, borne out of conflict.
For this podcast to mark the anniversary, UN News brought together four team members, who have always got an emergency bag packed by the door, and ready to go.
Music Credit: No Need Sleep by Ketsa
She describes herself as “only an ordinary woman”, but Eva Lavi made an extraordinary contribution inside the UN’s General Assembly Hall in January, fulfilling what she said was her God-given destiny, to bear witness to the evil of the Holocaust.
Ms. Lavi is the youngest survivor to be saved from the Nazis by the German industrialist Oskar Schindler — just a little girl when she was added to “Schindler’s List”.
Before reaching the relatively safe-haven of his factory in Czechoslovakia, she survived the horrors of the gas chambers in Auschwitz.
She was one of the two main speakers at the UN’s annual Holocaust Memorial Ceremony, which took place on 31 January at UN Headquarters in New York.
For this edition of our UN News Lid Is On podcast, she talks to Matt Wells about the vivid memories she has of escaping death; losing her childhood; building a new life in Israel, and never losing the sense of guilt that she lived, while so many millions died.
On her journey from Auschwitz to the UN’s main podium, she tells us “I owe it to God.”
Music excerpts taken from the 2018 Holocaust Memorial Ceremony, courtesy of The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme.
This year’s UN Response Plan for Yemen, describes the war-torn country as “the worst man-made humanitarian crisis” in the world, with more than 22 million people – around three-quarters of the total population – in need of help.
Over the past few years, it’s the voice of Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick, that has been drawing the world’s attention the most loudly, and the most often, to Yemen’s plight.
He had extensive experience as a senior manager with the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA), before arriving in Yemen, in December 2015, and for our latest UN News interview podcast, he explains why he’s just stepped down from the job, and what it has been like to oversee one of the most difficult and challenging aid operations in the world.
Mr McGoldrick tells Matt Wells that to deliver aid to an increasingly desperate population in Yemen, there’s “no point in getting angry, there’s no point in getting frustrated, the point is to get smart”.
Music Credits:
White Throated Sparrow, by Rebecca Foon.
Taking Flight by Chuck Lovejoy. Licensed by OMNI.
Somali refugee ZamZam Yusuf has a message for any neighbours who think she doesn’t have the right to call Leicester, in the English Midlands, home.
“I would like to offer you a cup of tea” at my house, says the 30-year-old mother-of-four, who came to UN Headquarters in January, as world leaders prepare to debate the first ever global compact for migration.
Her university in the United Kingdom has taken the academic lead in furthering the UN’s Together campaign, on behalf of the millions who are on the move, whose basic rights are being denied.
Too often, said UN chief António Guterres - launching his 2018 report on refugees and migrants – their positive contribution is being overshadowed by the plight of a “desperate minority” forced to live in the shadows by countries that violate their rights.
ZamZam came in to our Lid Is On podcast studio, at UN Headquarters in New York, to describe her extraordinary journey – just one of the millions that are being taken each year, in search of a better life.
Duration: 21’40”
MUSIC CREDITS: Forth Then Fall by Ketsa
Feature Photo: ZamZam Yusuf holding the UN's Together Campaign Logo, at UN Headquarters in New York. UN News/Matt Wells
He was one of the UN’s very first staff members, and 72 years on, Robert Kaminker is still advocating for peace and the power of the organization to ultimately “save the world”.
Although he retired in the early 1980s, his enthusiasm for explaining how the UN works and can help people everywhere lead better lives, never waned.
At 90, he is still hosting a weekly radio show in his native France, called “L’ONU vous concerne”, which translates as “The UN Matters”.
He still returns to UN Headquarters in New York from time to time – a journey he first made by sea, in 1946, on board an aircraft carrier.
Robert came into our Lid Is On podcast studio, to talk to Matt Wells about those early pioneering years as the UN took shape, and to explain why he’s still tirelessly advocating on its behalf.
Music credits:
The International Rag, by Collins and Harlan.
Rainy Nights (accordion), by Dana Boulé
Audio clip, UN Audio-Visual Library: UK Prime Minister Clement Attlee, 1st Meeting of UN General Assembly - 10 January 1946, London, UK
Feature Photo: Robert Kaminker at the Lid Is On podcast studio in UN Headquarters in New York. Photo: UN News/Matt Wells
Astronaut Chiaki Mukai broke all the way through Earth’s stratosphere to become the first Japanese woman in space.
For this latest edition of our podcast series, The Lid Is On, she sat down with Dianne Penn at the recent High Level Forum on Space, held in Dubai and organized by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) together with the United Arab Emirates Space Agency.
It marked the second time that representatives from the global space sector met to discuss how they can contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which address challenges such as tackling poverty, inequality and the impact of climate change.
Chiaki said that thrilled as she was to be out among the stars, she was even more excited to return to Earth.
Having dreamed of seeing the planet from space, she tells Dianne of the pride she felt in its beauty, and the connection that binds all living things together.
Duration: 25'14"
Music credit: Ketsa – Angel Falling
Defending the vulnerable from attack is one of the important duties of a UN peacekeeper, but what do you do when you come across a secret safe that may contain weapons, hidden away in a camp designed to protect civilians?
That’s one of the real-life dilemmas facing a UN police patrol in this latest edition of our podcast series from UN News, The Lid Is On.
We’ll be taking you inside one of the Protection of Civilian sites, where thousands of South Sudanese civilians have been sheltering during years of conflict, under the watchful eye of UN blue helmets from countries across the world.
Daniel Dickinson has been working as the Spokesperson for the UN Mission there, UNMISS, since early this year, and we asked him to report on the behind-the-scenes work that its troops and police get involved in every day, to try and ease the suffering of the world’s youngest nation.
Music credit: Ketsa - Lighting the Night
The UN chief has called the plight of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh a “humanitarian and human rights nightmare”.
So what has it been like trying to ease the suffering on the ground?
For this latest edition of our UN News podcast, The Lid Is On, we’ll take you inside the biggest and fastest exodus of refugees since the Rwanda genocide of 1994.
More than 600,000 Rohingya - a Muslim minority based in northern Myanmar for generations, who've been denied citizenship – have fled for their lives across the border.
We asked the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, to put us in touch with some of the aid workers who have been dealing with the crisis since the beginning.
Music credit: Ketsa: Where the river run.
[gallery link="file"]
How do you overcome years of sexual slavery, despite scars which will always remain?
Grizelda Grootboom knows the answer, and in September, she joined the Secretary-General at the UN’s main podium, to tell her story.
She came to urge the General Assembly to adopt a Political Declaration to end the scourge of human trafficking, telling delegates that they had to put victims’ needs first.
UN chief António Guterres called for trafficking to become a “real priority for international cooperation”.
“It’s so important to hear the voices of survivors,” said Grizelda.
Afterwards, she spoke at length to Cristina Silveiro, for this latest edition of our podcast series, The Lid Is On.
Duration: 39'55"
Music credits: Ketsa: “Sad Moments” and “Catch me Falling”
South Sudan has known no respite since fighting broke out last July, following the collapse of a peace deal between the government and opposition forces.
People in Africa’s newest nation have witnessed "barbaric" acts of violence carried out by armed groups, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), such as the sexual assault of women and girls and the kidnapping of boys for forced drafting.
The number of South Sudan refugees in Uganda has now passed the one million mark.
Another one million or more are being hosted by Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.
It has become Africa’s largest refugee crisis and the world’s third largest after Syria and Afghanistan.
But it receives less attention and is chronically under-funded.
In this latest episode of our UN News podcast series, The Lid is On,Jocelyne Sambira has been looking into Uganda’s innovative approach to integrating refugees into society and how it’s impacting the local communities.
Duration: 14'52"
The Lid is On is also available on Sound Cloud.
Episodes of the UN Radio podcast series “The Lid is On”:
Hollywood helps highlight Europe's 20th Century refugee crisis: "The Lid is On" podcast classic
Lawyer runs 40 marathons to highlight water, sanitation issues
Saving the “blue heart” of the planet: the Ocean podcast
Podcast: A tale of happiness, biking from India to Sweden for love
The man who defined genocide: 'The Lid is On' podcast classic
The power of bearing witness: how rape became an act of genocide
Countering young violent extremists: one ex-jihadist talks to The Lid is On
Ending AIDS is within reach: The Lid is On, with Kenneth Cole
Hunting an indicted war criminal in the former Yugoslavia: The Lid is On podcast
“Film can change the world”: The Lid is On, with Gillian Anderson
Three comedians walk into the UN: Our seriously funny new podcast
The Lid is On: Oscar-nominated "Brooklyn" proves perfect platform for UN Radio podcast
A charity runner who does not particularly enjoy running has completed 40 marathons in 40 days to raise awareness about the global goal of providing all people with clean water and sanitation by 2030.
Mina Guli’s quest spanned six continents where she ran along the banks of six of the world’s major rivers, including the Amazon and the Nile.
The Australian lawyer was at United Nations Headquarters recently to talk about her amazing journey in support of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which calls for access to clean water and sanitation for everyone.
The UN says water and sanitation are “at the very core” of sustainable development as they are critical to the survival of people and the planet.
Listen to her incredible story in this latest episode of our UN podcast, The Lid is On, presented by Dianne Penn.
The Lid is On is also available on Sound Cloud.
Sylvia Earle, perhaps the world’s best known woman marine scientist, literally fell head over heels in love with the ocean as a little girl.
“I got knocked over by a wave on the New Jersey Shore when I was three-years-old and the ocean got my attention,” says the veteran oceanographer, who has also earned the sobriquet “Her Deepness.”
She will be one of the special guests attending the UN Ocean Conference in early June, but ahead of that major event to help repair and sustain the “blue heart” of the Earth, she came to UN Headquarters to talk to Matthew Wells for our podcast series, The Lid Is On.
The Lid is On is also available on Sound Cloud.
An Indian man who cycled across eight countries to be reunited with his sweetheart in Sweden has shared his story at the United Nations.
Pradyumna Kumar Mahanandia, known as PK, made the incredible journey in the mid-1970s.
He and his wife Charlotte Von Schedvin, known as Lotta, have been together ever since.
Their story is told in the book ‘The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love’ by Swedish journalist and travel writer, Per J. Andersson.
For the latest episode of our podcast The Lid is On, Dianne Penn brought the three of them together in our studio at UN Headquarters in New York, for a wide-ranging conversation about love, life and happiness.
The Lid is On is also available on Sound Cloud.
During the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, “rape was as much a tool of genocide as the machete,” the UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Bangura has said.
Women from the ethnic minority Tutsi group in the African country were “systematically targeted and raped” during that period, investigations by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda or ICTR uncovered.
The courageous testimonies of the rape survivors later provided the evidence required for the ICTR to prosecute rape as a war crime and act of genocide.
The so-called “Akayesu trial,” named after Jean Paul Akayesu, a former mayor of Taba town in Rwanda, has been touted as one of the most successful UN-backed transitional processes.
It’s also been featured in a documentary film called “The Uncondemned” by Michele Mitchell and the late Nick Louvel.
As the Rwandan women sat behind a curtain in the courtroom in Arusha, Tanzania, recounting in painful detail the brutal and violent sexual assaults they endured during the genocide, they had no idea they would make history and that by doing so, they would give hope to other rape survivors in war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and more.
Jocelyne Sambira presents this latest edition of our podcast series, The Lid is On.
Duration: 21'41"
The Lid is On is also available on Sound Cloud.
Episodes of the UN Radio podcast series “The Lid is On”:
Countering young violent extremists: one ex-jihadist talks to The Lid is On
Ending AIDS is within reach: The Lid is On, with Kenneth Cole
Hunting an indicted war criminal in the former Yugoslavia: The Lid is On podcast
“Film can change the world”: The Lid is On, with Gillian Anderson
Three comedians walk into the UN: Our seriously funny new podcast
The Lid is On: Oscar-nominated "Brooklyn" proves perfect platform for UN Radio podcast
Listen to a special holiday season programme: a look back at the best of our new podcast series launched in 2016, The Lid is On. It’s the phrase you hear at the close of business each day at UN Headquarters, when the meetings are over. We thought it was a distinctive name for our more relaxed, in-depth and conversational-based show that highlights some of the extraordinary personal stories that surface here at the UN. Matthew Wells highlights three of our favourite interviews from the series.
Duration: 10'00
The “virulent spread” of violent extremism is posing a “direct assault” on the UN Charter and human rights around the world according to the UN, led by a new generation of young terrorists.
In the latest edition of our podcast The Lid Is On, we’ve been talking in-depth to a former supporter of the Taliban extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mubin Shaikh, about how the UN and Member States can turn the terrorist tide.
“When I was 19 (I believed) you could change the world overnight, and you could do it through violence” said Mr Shaikh, a Canadian, who went on to become a government counter-terrorism operative, and is now studying for a PhD in the United Kingdom.
He was part of a High Level Thematic Conversation on Children and Youth affected by Violent Extremism, at UN Headquarters in June.
Matthew Wells sat down with him for our latest podcast.
Music credits for this edition of The Lid Is On: Ryan Little, “The Winds”. Darksunn, “Fremen”.
The Lid is On is also available on Sound Cloud.
Ending AIDS means controlling the spread of spread of HIV and lessening the impact on people’s lives, says the UN agency fighting the epidemic, UNAIDS.
It says the number of people on anti-retroviral treatment today has surpassed the amount of new infections each year.
In our latest podcast, you’ll hear from fervent advocates who are battling HIV and AIDS, like fashion designer Kenneth Cole, singer and songwriter Annie Lennox and the charismatic Loyce Maturu, a young girl living with HIV.
The Lid is On is also available on Sound Cloud.
Two United Nations policemen have been talking about the “horror stories” they heard from the families of victims of an indicted war criminal from the former Yugoslavia.
The two policemen, Vladimir Dzuro from the Czech Republic and Kevin Curtis from the United Kingdom, made history in 1997 when they delivered the very first alleged war criminal to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), based in The Hague.
The arrest was the first of many and, according to the current Prosecutor of the tribunal, contributed to one of the UN’s greatest success stories.
In the latest episode of the UN Radio podcast series The Lid is On, we hear how the relentless determination, meticulous planning and cunning of two men inevitably led to the arrest of indictee Slavko Dokmanovic.
The Lid is On” is also available on SoundCloud.
Credits: Produced by Matthew Wells with research by Janie Cangelosi and Carmen Cuesta Roca. The music in this edition of The Lid is On was accessed on Creative Commons: “The Sigh” by thanvannspinnen is licensed under CC Sampling+ 1.0: “The Trickster,” by Steven O’Brien: “Hot Core,” by Geert Veneklaas is licensed under CC BY-NC 3.0 “Suspense,” by Ashram is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 “Run Hilde Run (cello, bass, strings loops)" by Nickleus is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
A “weapon of change” against the global scourge of human trafficking: that’s how the director of the film that’s the focus of our latest podcast, hopes his movie that’s fuelling a movement, will be used.
SOLD is the story of one 13-year-old Nepalese girl’s journey into sexual slavery, and eventual emancipation.
One of the stars of SOLD, Gillian Anderson, the actress best-known for her role in television’s X-Files, says it’s a shining example of how “film can change the world”.
The author, actress and activist tells us that combating sex trafficking of young women and girls, has now become her number one priority when it comes to advocacy.
No country can claim to be free of trafficking, and in this latest episode of our podcast The Lid is On, we feature an interview with one survivor, who lives within a few miles of UN headquarters in New York.
You’ve heard all the jokes about comedians walking into a bar, but what happens when a trio of self-described “chuckleheads” dedicated to fighting climate change, walk into the UN?
We recorded the result, for our latest episode of The Lid Is On, UN Radio’s new podcast series.
Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad and Maya Rudolph are the stars of The Angry Birds Movie, due to be released in May.
The internationally-renowned Hollywood comedians were at UN headquarters recently to help inspire climate action, towards a more sustainable and happier future, for us all.
It’s a tale of how a bunch of angry mobile game characters, finally saw green, with tears and plenty of laughter along the way.
Dianne Penn has the full story.
“The Lid is On” is also available on SoundCloud:
The decision by the star of Oscar-nominated movie, Brooklyn, to accept the UN’s invitation to visit, provided the perfect opportunity for UN Radio to pilot its first full-fledged podcast.
The moving story about one young woman’s migration from small-town Ireland to Brooklyn, New York, in the early 1950s, led to a screening and discussion on the whole issue of modern migration and the refugee crisis, at UN Headquarters in New York, earlier this month.
Both writer Colm Tóibín, on whose novel the film is based, and the movie’s star, Saoirse Ronan, were on hand to speak about how the film’s plot mirrored many aspects of their own lives.
The UN Radio team worked with the UN’s Creative Community Outreach Initiative, to secure interviews, even managing to sit them down to talk in the iconic General Assembly hall.
But the biggest surprise, according to producer and presenter of the inaugural podcast pilot, Matthew Wells, was the way in which the UN staff at the screening, together with friends from around the world, identified so closely with the big themes raised by the film.
In the podcast, writer Colm Tóibín, says that every modern-day refugee and every migrant has an epic story, that deserves to be heard.
Ms Ronan tells UN Radio: “I feel like it is incredibly special that our film is being screened here, and that we have a chance to be included in the immigration conversation.”
Brooklyn is nominated for the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Ms Ronan), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Nick Hornby).
"The Lid is On" is also available on SoundCloud.