This story explores how sustainable development could be achieved through new models, more specifically passing from top-down commitments to a bottom-up delivery. The financing conversation must evolve to a local scale, and Resident Coordinators of the UN are playing a catalytic role in order to achieve this goal. Indeed, “the SDGs can be won at the last mile—but only if we start putting the first dollars where they matter most.”

Beyond Capitals: Financing the Frontlines of Sustainable Development

At UN Headquarters in New York, Karla Quintana, head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria (IIMP), warned that time is running out to find the hundreds of thousands who disappeared during the country’s long conflict.

Established by the UN General Assembly in 2023, the IIMP was created to address one of the conflict’s most painful legacies, the widespread and ongoing disappearances affecting nearly every Syrian family.

“Everyone in Syria knows someone who has gone missing,” Ms. Quintana told UN News, emphasizing that uncovering the fate of the missing must be a collective effort.

In conversation with UN News’s Ezzat El-Ferri, she underscored that the search must be Syrian-led and internationally supported, driven by the families who have long fought to learn the truth about their loved ones.

Audio: Ezzat El-Ferri, UN News
Music: ‘Rise and Shine’ by Audiobinger
Secretary-General’s September 2025 report on the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria: https://docs.un.org/en/A/80/359

‘Time running out to locate Syria’s missing’, warns head of UN-backed body

• Gaza City ‘almost deserted’ as the war enters its third year
• WHO warns Gaza’s health system ‘on the brink of collapse’ ahead of regional health summit
• UN and city leaders warn of housing emergency across Europe

Audio credit: Katy Dartford, UN News


UN News Today 08 October 2025 - Gaza updates, housing crisis in Europe

Olukemi Ibikunle, a corrections officer from Nigeria serving with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) is the winner of the third United Nations Trailblazer Award for Women Justice and Corrections Officers. She spoke to UN News's Fabrice Robinet, who started by asking her about her role in Peacekeeping. 

Photo: Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed (right) presents the Trailblazer Award to the 2025 winner Olukemi Ibikunle, a correctional officer from Nigeria deployed to MONUSCO.

CLIP - Nigerian Peacekeeper Wins 2025 UN Trailblazer Award

UN aid worker Olga Cherevko who is in Gaza describes the scenes there overnight into Thursday after news broke of a potential ceasefire agreement. Here she is now talking to UN News.

Gaza jubilant at news of initial peace agreement

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Gaza ceasefire deal. 

CLIP - UN Secretary-General's remarks to media stakeout on Gaza, 09 October 2025

UNICEF’s spokesperson, Ricardo Pires, tells UN News that the hope is that this moment is the "beginning of the reconstruction of Gaza, of the reconstruction of children's lives". 

Audio Credit: Felipe De Carvalho, UN News 

CLIP - UNICEF’s spokesperson, Ricardo Pires, on Gaza

• Gaza: Aid supplies are on standby, we are ready to deliver, says UN chief
• Condemnation for deadly Myanmar airstrike on civilians
• Despite war in Sudan, relief teams get vaccines to vulnerable populations: UNICEF

Audio credit: Daniel Johnson, UN News

UN News Today 09 October 2025 - Gaza ceasefire, Myanmar, Sudan

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Friday welcomed the Nobel Peace Prize committee’s decision to name Maria Machado as this year’s laureate, in recognition of her work promoting the Venezuelan people’s democratic hopes.

“We congratulate Maria Corina Machado on being announced as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize,” said OHCHR spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan. “This recognition reflects the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections, for civil and political rights and for the rule of law. The High Commissioner has consistently spoken out in support of these values.”

The 58-year-old activist who was barred from running in last year’s presidential elections, lives in hiding inside Venezuela and was briefly detained after attending an opposition rally in January. She was rapidly released reportedly following international pressure.



Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Machado’s values represent best hopes of Venezuelans: OHCHR

About four million people are now displaced across Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and neighbouring countries — two-thirds more than five years ago. Conflict, insecurity, limited access to services and the effects of climate change are driving families from their homes and straining already fragile host communities, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) warned.

“Women and children represent 80 per cent of the forcibly displaced population in the region, and gender-based violence remains a pervasive concern,” said Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde, UNHCR’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa. “People face violence, forced recruitment, movement restrictions and arbitrary detention, and many are taking increasingly dangerous journeys.”

The displacement crisis has shuttered 14,800 schools and more than 900 health facilities, leaving three million children without access to education and millions without critical care. Food insecurity has become a growing trigger for flight as climate shocks intensify competition over scarce land and water.
UNHCR stressed that Sahel countries cannot face these challenges alone. The agency is urging renewed international commitment and solidarity to support protection, stability and self-reliance for displaced families, warning that humanitarian access and funding shortfalls are severely undermining life-saving assistance.

CLIP – Four million displaced across the Sahel amid rising violence and climate shocks: UNHCR

• Ukraine’s front-line communities among millions enduring a global mental health crisis
• Gazans on the move after ceasefire deal, aid teams appeal for open access
• UN rights office hails new Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado from Venezuela

Audio credit: Daniel Johnson, UN News

UN News Today 10 October 2025 - Gaza, Ukraine, Nobel Peace Prize

Bringing together the United Nations development system to deliver on the Global Goals for people and planet.

Beyond Capitals: Financing the Frontlines of Sustainable Development

UN Sustainable Development Group

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