United Nations in India

India is critical in determining the success of the SDGs, globally. At the UN Sustainable Development Summit in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted, “Sustainable development of one-sixth of humanity will be of great consequence to the world and our beautiful planet. It will be a world of fewer challenges and greater hope; and, more confident of its success”. NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s premier think tank, has been entrusted with the task of coordinating the SDGs, mapping schemes related to the SDGs and their targets, and identifying lead and supporting ministries for each target. In addition, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has been leading discussions for developing national indicators for the SDGs. State governments are key to India’s progress on the SDGs as they are best placed to ‘put people first’ and to ensuring that ‘no one is left behind’. The UN Country Team in India supports NITI Aayog, Union ministries and state governments in their efforts to address the interconnectedness of the goals, to ensure that no one is left behind and to advocate for adequate financing to achieve the SDGs.

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25 September 2026

Right to development: A blueprint for unmet promises

Ahead of the 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking Declaration on the Right to Development this December, world leaders gathered at a High-Level Week meeting on Wednesday to map progress made and the 21st century challenges still ahead – from narrowing the digital divide to levelling the AI playing field – as the UN chief presented a “blueprint” to address promises that remain unfulfilled. What you need to know:The declaration broke new ground in the universal struggle for greater human dignity, freedom, equality and justice when the UN General Assembly adopted it in 1986The declaration can help provide guardrails on issues from AI to internet access, as well as accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development A legally binding treaty on the right to development has been in the works since 2018 What is the declaration?Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1986, it makes access to development an inalienable right.While a legally binding treaty has been in the works since 2018, the declaration states that everyone is “entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realised”. The declaration unequivocally puts people at the centre of the development process. Read the full declaration here.‘A call to action’UN Secretary-General António Guterres told world leaders the declaration’s anniversary is more than a moment of reflection, “It is a call to action.”For millions around the world, promises made in the declaration remain unfulfilled, “yet we know how to make it real,” he said, pointing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that “provide the blueprint to leave no one behind”.Under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the 17 SDGs contain goals and targets that are lifting people out of poverty and protecting their rights.Progress since the declaration’s adoption has been driven by the foresight, dedication and resilience of countries, communities and activists of all ages, he said.Extreme poverty has fallen dramatically, nearly half the world is now covered by some form of social protection, people are living longer and scientific and technological advances have transformed lives and livelihoods and expanded opportunity, he noted. New tests awaitBut today, the promise of development faces new tests, Mr. Guterres said, from widening inequalities and persistent food insecurity to rising debt, conflicts and economic instability that are impeding development and economic growth.In addition, the climate crisis is reaching devastating new levels each year, reminding the world that there can be no development on a degraded and unhealthy planet.While the digital revolution and artificial intelligence hold enormous potential to improve lives, these frontline technologies can also be drivers of exclusion and division.“The declaration unequivocally establishes development as a right and puts people at the centre of the development process,” he said.“Development, human rights and peace are not separate ambitions. They advance together. In today’s divided world, this vision can still unite us, and the Sustainable Development Goals are the roadmap to get us there.”What does people-centred development look like?UN agencies have long integrated human rights into projects around the world.The right to development extends to people enduring humanitarian crises and beyond – from war zones to disaster recovery.Here’s what putting people first means:Colombia: Indigenous Peoples’ groups have participated in the South American country’s peace accordsGaza: Women engineers are turning e-waste into opportunityNepal: Lethal floods in August wiped out communities that are now recovering and rebuilding better, with support from UN agencies Morocco: Vocational-training programmes are helping women launch income-generating activities in MoroccoSouth Sudan: UN peacekeepers built a reservoir to accommodate communities that had been fighting over scarce water resourcesVenezuela: UN agencies partnered to respond to deadly twin earthquakes in JuneThis article was first published here

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25 September 2026

Guterres: ‘Cracks have become canyons’ as world faces four tests of power

Humanity faces four defining “tests of power” – around war or peace, inequality, climate change and AI – that will determine whether the world moves towards a new era of cooperation or deeper division, the UN chief warned the General Assembly on Tuesday.Key pointsUN chief urges binding international cooperation on AI governance, warning that life-and-death decisions must never be handed to machinesCalls for Security Council reform, highlighting the continued “indefensible” absence of permanent African representationFor the first time in its history, UN has achieved full gender parity across senior leadership and staff With roughly 100 days remaining in his term as UN Secretary-General, António Guterres delivered a wide-ranging speech that framed the world’s most pressing crises not as isolated problems, but as different expressions of the same underlying struggle over how power is exercised and by whom.“The greatest power is not the power to dominate. It is the power to build a future that works for everyone,” he said, presenting his annual report of the Organization.Describing a decade of eroding international norms – from civilians targeted in war, and humanitarian workers killed, to international law “cast aside” and fraying trust between nations – he said power itself is being fundamentally reshaped in three ways:Emergence of new State powersSignificant transfer of authority from governments to private corporations and individualsGrowing role of AI and autonomous weapons in decisions once reserved for humans“The faultlines in our world are widening,” he said. “Cracks have become canyons.”Rather than accepting fragmentation as inevitable, he called for galvanizing cooperation and a truly global network built on interdependence and shared rules while warning against sliding into rival blocs with separate economic and security systems, a scenario he has termed in recent years the Great Fracture.No real ceasefire in sightPointing to cascading crises across the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan and Myanmar, Mr. Guterres argued that so-called ceasefires have often amounted to little more than “lesser fires”, with civilians continuing to pay the price.He renewed calls for compliance with International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders regarding Gaza and warned that settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank threatens to extinguish the two-State solution.He also condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a clear violation of the UN Charter.Renewing longstanding calls for Security Council reform, he singled out the continued absence of permanent African representation as “unjust and indefensible” given the 15-member organ’s founding in a starkly different geopolitical era.‘Equality is not a dream; it is a decision’Highlighting the gap between record global wealth and the billions still lacking access to food, clean water, education and healthcare, he said inequality is not merely an economic issue but a question of power over opportunity, resources and self-determination.He reiterated his long-held view that the international financial system leaves developing nations crushed by debt while facing climate disasters they did little to cause. In this vein, he called for faster debt relief, bolder multilateral development banks and fairer access to Special Drawing Rights created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).Devoting particular attention to gender inequality, he announced that the UN has achieved full gender parity across senior leadership, headquarters staff, and professional roles for the first time in its history.“Equality is not a dream; it is a decision,” he said, citing progress at the UN as proof that entrenched power structures can change.Twin challenges: Climate and AIOn climate change, Mr. Guterres said the crisis is the “most profound intergenerational power imbalance”, warning of a near-certain breach of the 1.5°C threshold.Calling for polluters to “pay” and for developed nations to triple adaptation funding, he pointed out that major oil companies are reaping substantial profits since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while global adaptation finance for developing countries remains a fraction of that sum.Turning to AI, the Secretary-General warned that power is increasingly concentrated in data, computing capacity and algorithms, advancing faster than humanity’s capacity to govern it.“The danger is not technology,” he said. “The danger is technology without accountability.”Outlaw killer robotsGuard rails on AI must be built, the UN chief said, adding that children must never become the test-subjects for unregulated systems.“Life-and-death decisions must never be surrendered to machines,” he warned. “Killer robots must have no place in our future.”To address this, he called for a multilateral AI risk management framework with independent oversight, stating firmly that children must never become test subjects for unregulated systems and that life-and-death decisions must never be surrendered to machines.Stronger, not weakerMr. Guterres reaffirmed that peace, development and human rights are inseparable pillars of the UN Charter, rejecting any notion that dignity and rights can be divorced from security and opportunity.In the face of global catastrophe more than 80 years ago on the battlefields of World War Two, the United Nations was created as an act of defiance of hope, of people who refuse to surrender the future to fear and of countries that know their futures are bound together.Pledging to carry the “spirit of resolve” through his remaining time in office, he vowed to continue championing the UN Charter’s values, even after leaving his post as Secretary-General.“The world does not need a weaker United Nations,” he said. “It needs a UN strong enough to face the world as it is and determined enough to build the world as it should be.”This story was first published here

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22 September 2026

2197, Not 2030: The Long Road to Gender Equality

With a 13% reduction in funding for gender equality and a 28% reduction in funding for women’s rights organizations between 2023 and 2024, the goal of achieving gender equality by 2030 is slipping out of reach. At the current rate of progress, gender equality is projected to be achieved only by 2197, more than 160 years after the UN’s 2030 deadline. This stark realization has been brought forward by the Gender Snapshot 2026 report, released by UN Women and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).The findings of the Gender Snapshot 2026 report reveal a political retreat from gender equality that is crosscutting, measurable, and compounding. From 2020 to 2026, women’s share of seats in parliaments has declined in 54 countries, while one in three institutional mechanisms for gender equality has had its institutional power eroded over the past two years. Of these mechanisms, around one in four have seen their operating budgets cut over the same period, and nearly one in ten have lost control of their budget altogether. Funding for gender equality has fallen to its lowest level since 2021, with funding for women’s rights organizations most impacted. Meanwhile, amid funding cuts, 42 per cent of UN entities report a weakening of their gender equality efforts.The concentration of political power remains stark: six in seven countries are led by men. Women continue to face systemic barriers at every stage. The cost of running for office can exceed 100 times a country’s average per-capita income, excluding many women before the race even begins. In some countries, as many as eight in 10 women running for office face violence in public life. During electoral campaigns, 8 in 10 women candidates for parliament and 6 in 10 candidates for local government experience psychological, sexual, economic and/or physical violence. And when women do reach cabinet, they are still disproportionately steered away from the portfolios that command the highest security and economic power. Close to nine in 10 defense ministers and more than eight in 10 finance ministers are men.The road to justice and safety is even longer. Women comprise only 29.0 per cent of prosecutors in cases of gender-based violence and discrimination and are underrepresented in public service positions relative to their share of the national population in 62.1 per cent of countries. Only 31 out of 175 Chief Justices globally are women. Despite their abilities and contributions, women and girls, who neither choose nor lead conflicts, are sidelined from ending them. “The evidence is clear: when women lead, societies are stronger, economies are more resilient and outcomes are better for everyone. Yet as long as power remains concentrated in institutions that systematically exclude women, societies will continue to fall short of their full potential. Equality cannot be achieved without equal access to power—because equality without power is not equality at all,” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous. "The data leave no room for ambiguity: at current rates gender equality remains 171 years away. What the Gender Snapshot 2026 shows is that this is not inevitable — it is the result of choices, made visible through data. Investing in gender equality, institutions, and the statistical systems that hold them to account is not a cost. It is the fastest route back to the 2030 Agenda's promise of equal power for all," said Li Junhua, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.The pattern extends beyond government. Women hold only six per cent of corporate Chief Executive Officer positions globally, occupy just 11.6 per cent of managerial positions in Central and Southern Asia and lead fewer than 20 per cent of the highest courts, leaving the decisions shaping business, law, employment, and the global economy overwhelmingly in the hands of men.The findings of the report come at a consequential moment for the multilateral system. World leaders are gathering for the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA81) as the United Nations moves towards selecting its tenth Secretary-General – a position that no woman has held in the UN’s 80-year history. As governments debate the future of multilateralism, the report argues that no vision for the future of the world is credible without women and girls having an equal share of power in shaping it.As 2030 draws nearer, not a single SDG 5 indicator is currently on track yet. UN Women and UN DESA are calling for a reversal of the political retreat on gender equality - and for power to be shared more equally. This can be ensured by giving women an equal voice in political and economic decisions, properly funding gender equality institutions, protecting women’s rights organizations and civic space, and ensuring women have equal power to shape the decisions that affect economies, peace and security, technology and public life.Read more here Written by UNIC Intern Aishvarya Thakur***

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21 September 2026

The world comes to New York: What’s at stake this General Assembly High-Level Week

At a time of mounting geopolitical tensions and overlapping global crises, leaders will tackle a packed agenda that includes conflicts and international security, climate change, pandemic preparedness, sea-level rise, the fight against racism and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).The high-level week of the UN General Assembly’s 81st session unfolds against a backdrop of growing divisions between countries and pressure on the multilateral system. The session will be presided over by newly elected Assembly President Khalilur Rahman of Bangladesh under the theme: “Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all.”The world’s biggest diplomatic gatheringThe centrepiece of High-Level Week is the General Debate, which begins on 22 September. Over several days, presidents, prime ministers and senior representatives of all 193 UN Member States will address the General Assembly from its iconic green marble podium.The speeches provide a global snapshot of national priorities and concerns, with conflicts, economic challenges, humanitarian crises, climate change, development and emerging technologies expected to feature prominently.Yet much of the diplomacy takes place behind closed doors, where hundreds of bilateral and multilateral meetings offer leaders a rare opportunity to meet allies, partners and rivals in one place. Can the world still meet the 2030 deadline?Ahead of the General Debate begins, leaders will gather on 18 September for the annual SDG Moment.In 2015, countries adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals aimed at tackling challenges ranging from poverty and hunger to education, clean water and access to energy by 2030.With less than five years remaining, the meeting will focus not only on assessing progress but also on highlighting practical solutions that can be expanded and replicated elsewhere.Climate action in a warming worldOn 23 September, UN Secretary-General António Guterres will convene world leaders for a High-Level Event on Climate Action and the Just Transition.With global temperatures continuing to rise, discussions will focus on accelerating the shift to renewable energy, expanding climate finance for developing countries and strengthening support for communities already experiencing the impacts of climate change.The following day, leaders will turn their attention to sea level rise, one of the most visible consequences of global warming. For many small island developing States and low-lying coastal communities, rising seas are already threatening homes, infrastructure and freshwater supplies.The meeting aims to strengthen international cooperation and mobilise support for countries most at risk. Preparing for the next pandemic On 25 September, Heads of State and Government will revisit the lessons of COVID-19.The pandemic demonstrated how quickly a local outbreak can become a global emergency and exposed major inequalities in access to vaccines, medicines and other essential resources.Leaders meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response will discuss how to strengthen health systems, improve readiness, and ensure a more equitable international response to future health crises.Rights, equality and inclusionAnother major meeting on 23 September will mark the 40th anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted by the General Assembly in 1986. The declaration established that development is about more than economic growth, emphasizing participation, opportunity and equity.On 28 September, the UN will also commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, one of the principal international frameworks for combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.The anniversary provides an opportunity to assess progress and examine why discrimination remains a persistent challenge in many parts of the world.Keeping nuclear disarmament on the agendaThe series of major meetings concludes on 29 September with a high-level plenary meeting marking the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.Nuclear disarmament was among the first issues addressed by the United Nations, yet nearly eight decades later nuclear weapons remain part of the global security landscape. The UN continues to regard their complete elimination as its highest disarmament priority.‘We the peoples’This year's High-Level Week takes place at a moment when international cooperation is under strain. From armed conflicts and climate change to widening inequality, countries face a growing number of challenges that no nation can solve alone.Reflecting on the opening words of the UN Charter, Secretary-General António Guterres recently offered a reminder of the organization's founding purpose:"Not we the powerful. Not we the victorious. We the peoples – all of us – bound by a single conviction: that we are safer, stronger and more human when we stand together."Over several days in September, world leaders will have an opportunity to demonstrate how far they are prepared to turn that principle into action.A changing of the guardThe 81st session will also be the final General Assembly session to begin under António Guterres as Secretary-General. His second and final term ends on 31 December 2026, concluding a decade at the helm of the Organization.The process of selecting his successor is already under way. The next Secretary-General will take office on 1 January 2027, inheriting an Organization confronting many of the same challenges likely to dominate this year's High-Level Week.This story was first published here

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13 September 2026

UN Chief urges reform of global institutions for a multipolar world at BRICS Summit

UN Secretary-General António Guterres told leaders at the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Sunday that today's world looks very different from 1945, and that global institutions need to change with it. He said the world is moving toward multipolarity, which can bring more balance to global systems — but only if bodies like the UN Security Council and the Bretton Woods institutions are reformed. He tied this to the Summit's theme of resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability. He then raised four priorities.Financing: Developing countries are mobilizing more of their own resources, he said, but still need much more international support to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. He called for developing countries to get a bigger say in the global financial system, for development banks to grow and unlock more private investment, and for better debt relief for poorer nations. AI: Guterres said artificial intelligence could compress decades of progress into just a few years, but warned its power is concentrated in a handful of companies and countries. Left unchecked, he said, this would widen gaps in income, opportunity, security and sovereignty. He thanked BRICS nations for backing the UN's new AI Scientific Panel and Global Dialogue on AI Governance, and asked for support for two new funds meant to give developing countries the computing power, data and skills they currently lack. Climate:Pointing to worsening heat, floods, wildfires and glacier melt, he said the world will soon pass the 1.5°C limit and must keep that overshoot as small and short as possible. That means moving faster away from fossil fuels, cutting methane, and protecting nature. He repeated calls for rich countries to deliver on existing climate finance promises — $300 billion a year, tripled adaptation funding, and more support for loss and damage — and said there had been "enough plundering" of critical minerals from developing countries.Peace:Citing Gaza, the wider Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan, Guterres called on all countries to respect the UN Charter and international law, including sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the peaceful settlement of disputes. He closed by saying all countries share responsibility for strengthening a multilateral system, with the UN at its centre, that works for everyone. During his two day visit to India, the Secretary-General also met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit. While speaking to an Indian newspaper, Guterres said the UN Security Council is paralysed and warned that the world’s major powers have not recognised the limits of their power. During his visit the Secretary-General also interacted with the UN Country Team in India to discuss the UN’s work and priorities in the country. ***

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Press Release

24 September 2026

UNCCD COP17

I would like to begin with a simple proposition:Healthy land is not an environmental luxury. It is productive capital. And drought resilience is not a sectoral concern. It is a sustainable, inclusive, economic growth.That distinction matters — because how we define the challenges determine how we will find the durable solutions.When land degrades and has been exhausted, we see the consequences in farmers’ and herders' incomes and household poverty. But we also see them in food-price inflation, declining agricultural productivity, lost jobs and export earnings. More importantly, pressure on water and energy systems, we see rising insurance losses, displacement and migration, and greater demands on already constrained public budgets.And when drought takes hold, governments pay an increasing price— through emergency responses, food and energy subsidies, reconstruction, lost tax revenues and, too often, additional borrowing.So, this is simultaneously a fiscal issue, a livelihood issue, a productivity issue, and a macroeconomic stability challenge, an environment crisis, and ultimately, we see development exacerbated.And yet our financial architecture still largely treats land degradation as an environmental externality — rather than as a deterioration of the productive asset base of an economy. As Environment Minister I experienced this firsthand in my country. That must change.The economics should compel us to act.On current trends, we are on course to invest only around $77 billion a year of the $355 billion that is needed annually. That gap gives us annually $278 billion. But here is the thing that should concern every finance minister; the estimated cost of inaction is already at least $878 billion a year, and that doesn't account for the lives that have been lost.The other side of that equation should interest every investor. Investments in restoration could generate approximately $1.8 trillion in annual benefits. For every dollar invested, the estimated economic return ranges between 7 and 30 dollars. So perhaps, as Yasmin said earlier this morning, we are asking the wrong question.The question is not, "Can we afford to finance sustainable land use?" It's more likely that we should be asking the question, "How much longer can economies afford not to?First, countries can make land and drought resilience a sovereign economic priority.That means moving it from the margins of environment ministries into national development strategies, medium-term fiscal frameworks, public investment plans and sovereign financing strategies.Finance ministries should know the value of their natural capital — and the fiscal exposure created by its degradation.Countries can begin to identify and phase out or repurpose subsidies that incentivize land degradation, inefficient water use and unsustainable agricultural practices — and redirect those resources towards farmers, herders, pastoralists and businesses investing in sustainable production.They can use environmental taxes, land-degradation charges and payment-for-ecosystem-services schemes to change incentives.And they can develop sovereign green and sustainability-linked bonds, resilience bonds and debt instruments whose financing terms are linked to measurable land, water and resilience outcomes.This is not simply about finding new money.It is also about making the trillions already flowing through national economies work differently.Second, we must turn investable potential into investable opportunities.There is private capital looking for long-term returns. There are farmers, SMEs and communities with viable solutions. Too often, however, the two do not meet.Projects are too small. Risks are perceived to be too high. Tenures are too short. Currency risk is too great, and revenue streams from ecosystem services remain uncertain.This is precisely where innovative finance has a role.We need blended-finance platforms that use concessional resources strategically to absorb risks rather than simply finance individual projects.We need guarantees and first-loss instruments that can crowd in institutional investors.We also need aggregation vehicles capable of bringing thousands of small farms and restoration investments together into portfolios of sufficient scale.We need greater use of drought insurance, parametric insurance and other risk-transfer instruments — connected to investments in prevention and resilience rather than simply paying after disaster strikes.And we need to build revenue models around the multiple benefits that healthy land produces — food, water, carbon, biodiversity, livelihoods and resilience — rather than expecting a land-restoration project to survive on a single revenue stream.Third, our multilateral development banks and international financial institutions must be bolder and more responsive.We should ask ourselves a difficult question.If land degradation threatens sovereign balance sheets, why is financing land restoration still largely organized project by project, grant by grant?MDBs have powerful balance sheets. The challenge is to use them with greater catalytic effect.That means using guarantees, risk-sharing instruments and concessional capital much more systematically to mobilize private finance.It also means using concessional resources where they have the greatest multiplier effect — to take risks that commercial investors cannot, rather than financing what markets can already finance.It means expanding local-currency financing, because farmers and local businesses should not bear foreign-exchange risks they cannot manage.It means moving from isolated projects towards country platforms and portfolio approaches, where governments, MDBs, development finance institutions, philanthropies and private investors can combine capital around nationally determined land and drought-resilience priorities.And it means recognizing investments in natural capital and resilience as part of the MDBs’ core development mandate — connected to food security, jobs, infrastructure, fiscal resilience and economic transformation.The objective should not simply be to increase the amount of concessional finance available.It should be to increase the amount of total finance that every concessional dollar mobilizes — while ensuring that finance reaches the communities and producers managing the land itself.COP17 gives us an opportunity to change the economics of this agenda.Imagine if we leave Ulaanbaatar and are committed to three things:Quantifying the economic and fiscal cost of land degradation and drought — and reflect it in national economic planning.Identify the public expenditures, subsidies and financial regulations that can be reformed to shift domestic capital towards healthy land.To work with MDBs and international financial institutions on national investment platforms capable of using concessional finance and balance sheets to mobilize capital at scale.Because ultimately, innovative finance is not primarily about inventing ever more sophisticated financial instruments,It is about changing where risk sits, changing the incentives that shape investment, and changing our understanding of what constitutes economic infrastructure.Soil is infrastructure.Watersheds are infrastructure.Rangelands are productive assets.And resilience is an investment in the future productive capacity of an economy.The countries that understand this earliest will build economies that are more productive, more resilient, more food-secure and less vulnerable to the shocks that increasingly define our age.The economics are compelling.The instruments increasingly exist.What we now need is the political and financial ambition and courage to deploy them at scale.I thank you.

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Press Release

25 August 2026

UNCCD COP17

Let me begin by bringing warm greetings of Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, and by thanking you, Mr. President, and the Government and people of Mongolia for bringing COP17 to Ulaanbaatar, and for the extraordinary warmth and generosity you have shown all of us.The care that Mongolia has brought to hosting this COP can be felt everywhere, and your personal leadership, Mr. President, has made it clear how much the discussions in these very difficult global times, week mean to Mongolia and to the wider world, to multilateralism – and we are deeply grateful for that.Mr. President, Ladies and gentlemen,Here in Mongolia, the birthplace of Gengis Khan, and for communities across the world, land is life, and land is livelihoods, especially for our nomads and indigenous peoples.In 2023 and 2024, a summer drought followed by a severe dzud led to the loss of more than seven million livestock. Herds built over generations disappeared.For many families, the loss took away their assets, their income and the means to recover before the next difficult season.What Mongolia endured is part of a crisis that is unfolding across the world. Since 2000, droughts have increased in frequency and duration by 29 per cent. By 2050, three out of every four people could be affected.This room brings decades of lived experiences and expertise in responding. Many of you have developed national plans, tested solutions, and learned what works in your own countries.Now we need to turn that experience into delivery: by restoring land at scale, financing national action and putting the people who live in and from the land in the lead.Let’s start with the scale.Scale means moving beyond individual projects and putting national plans to work- ones that leave no one behind.Up to 40 per cent of the world’s land is degraded, weakening food production and livelihoods.Individual projects can prove what works, but they cannot restore land at the scale and with the sense of urgency that is needed.More than 70 countries have developed national drought plans with support from the UNCCD. Many of you have done that work. You know best what your countries need.The challenge now is to have the fiscal space so that those plans can go from resolutions to reality.Here in Mongolia, sustainable rangeland management protects pastoral livelihoods and the land. Across the Sahel, communities are restoring degraded land and making it productive again. The initiative of the AU great green wall is one that demonstrates this.The settings differ, but the lesson is the same: restoration strengthens resilience when it protects how people make a living and thrive.Scale also means connecting restored land to water and the wider economy. Producers need the infrastructure, skills and technology to reach markets, selling what they produce, and this includes through the new era of technology and e-commerce.All of this takes national programmes, cooperation across borders and investment that stays in place long enough for restored land to recover. And that brings me to the next point:Scaling up depends on predictable and sustainable financing, the means of implementation.Countries need long-term investment that follows their national priorities and stays in place long enough for restored land to recover and prosper. And public finance can help reduce the risk and bring in private investment for approaches that have already proven their value.We already have tools to move this forward. The Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership and its Investment Facility can help countries turn drought plans into funded programmes. Business4Land can bring companies into that effort.But those tools will only make a difference if countries can reach them and can use them.You should not be asked to develop national plans and then be left to search for the means to deliver them. Finance has to be in place to invest in the priorities that countries have set for themselves.Finance gives countries not only the means to act, but to grow their economies.The people who live from the land must inform the decisions that shape its future.Pastoralists managing rangelands and farmers rebuilding depleted soil bring the knowledge of generations. They understand what their land can sustain in a way that no one else can.As you decide how restoration will be financed, bring those people into the decisions from the beginning, co-creating with them.Give them secure rights and a genuine say over how investment will be deployed.Putting people, women and men, in the lead also means ownership and improving their outcomes: restoration can create skilled work and new sources of income. Those jobs should be decent, allowing growth and prosperity, inclusion, and social protection must be an integral part of that safety net.The Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions was built to deliver exactly that pairing. In Indonesia and Bhutan, they are already proving it can be done. COP17 can bring the same approach to land restoration, connecting investment in soil health with investment in the people doing the work.But jobs and income are only part of the equation. There is a much more fundamental issue of power.We cannot ask people to restore land while denying them meaningful rights over that land.And nowhere is that contradiction clearer than for women.Eighty-six per cent of the countries that report their land tenure data to the United Nations show fewer women than men with secure rights over agricultural land.But when women are given rights over the land they work, they restore it — and they keep restoring it. Mali has shown this in its demonstrations.In Bandigara, a woman named Florence Banou is leading a women’s cooperative that restores degraded land and expands local food production. When the municipality saw the results, it granted the cooperative four acres to expand its work.Four acres may look small against a global restoration target, but for those women, it meant land they could rely on, and room to grow their livelihoods.Access to land is only the beginning. Women also need access to finance, skills, technology and markets so they can build businesses and keep more of the value their work creates.Restoration should not leave women doing the work while others capture the economic benefits. It should give them a greater stake in both the land and the prosperity that it creates.And COP17 is an opportunity to give communities everywhere the same chance.Finally, let me say that on each of these three aspects – going to scale, providing sustainable and predictable finance with a people centered approach - the United Nations will continue to do its part and support Member States in that endeavor.For us, the work begins in the communities at the country level.The UN80 reforms are making our support more responsive and easier for governments to use: a single country team, working with a single joined-up strategy, under the leadership of our resident coordinators.Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,Healthy land gives people something fundamental: the ability to build a future where they already belong and can thrive.COP17 can put that future within reach by matching national ambition with finance and trusting the people who steward the land to lead.The land has sustained humanity throughout history.Let’s leave Ulaanbaatar ready to sustain and to protect this land in return.Thank you.[END]

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Press Release

25 August 2026

UN Secretary-General’s Press Conference on the UN’s Efforts to Uphold Navigational Rights and Freedoms

Today, conflicts in different regions are converging in their impact on the world's most vulnerable people.In the Middle East, ongoing attacks and the disruption of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea – around Bab al-Mandab – are constraining the movement of energy, fertilizers and other essential commodities.In the conflict following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, attacks are threatening shipping routes vital for the export of oil, grain and other agricultural products.These crises are choking arteries of global trade and squeezing the global food system especially hard.The result is clear: higher prices, deepening hunger, weaker harvests, and greater suffering – especially for the world’s most vulnerable people.In the Strait of Hormuz alone, transits have come to a near standstill.Meanwhile, oil prices remain about 33 per cent higher since the start of the conflict.Global container rates are 84 per cent higher than a year ago. And the costs of fertilizers and other essential inputs are also sharply increasing. Navigational rights and freedoms are not abstract principles.They are international law.Those rights and freedoms are vital for international peace and security – and for the flow of food, energy and essential goods on which billions of lives depend.And so my appeal is clear.We need:Full respect for international law -- including the law of the sea and international humanitarian law;Protection for civilian shipping, infrastructure and civilian seafarers;The upholding of navigational rights and freedoms;An immediate end to attacks against commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure in the Black Sea;The full restoration and respect of navigational rights and freedoms in the Strait of Hormuz;And an end to attacks against shipping in the Red Sea and around Bab al-Mandab.Maritime chokepoints must never become instruments of coercion.And the world's food supply must never become collateral damage of conflict.In March, I established a Task Force to develop and propose practical mechanisms including to address humanitarian needs triggered by the Strait of Hormuz crisis.This particular effort is led by the Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services, UNOPS – and includes UNCTAD, the International Maritime Organization, and the International Chamber of Commerce. They have worked with others to develop a practical and time-bound confidence-building mechanism focused initially on fertilizers and related raw materials -- but with the ability to be extended to other products.The mechanism would not authorize passage through the Strait of Hormuz or alter the rights or obligations of any Member State under international law.Sovereign decisions remain entirely with participating Member States.The United Nations would serve as a neutral facilitator.The purpose is simple: to reduce immediate risks, support more orderly and predictable transit, and help rebuild the confidence necessary for diplomacy and de-escalation.It can be operationalized quickly.International support for this effort has been encouraging, particularly from vulnerable countries that understand what is at stake when maritime lifelines are disrupted. What is needed now is the cooperation and political will of the parties.I urge all concerned to engage seriously and constructively.This mechanism is not a substitute for fully restoring navigational rights and freedoms, or for the political solutions needed to end these conflicts.But it is a practical first step.A demonstration that, even amid conflict, it is possible to reduce risks, protect civilians and safeguard the movement of essential goods.The alternative is continued disruption, deeper mistrust and mounting hardship for people far beyond the regions directly affected.But I want to be very clear. The unimpeded exercise of navigational rights and freedoms is a cornerstone of peace, security and shared prosperity and must be respected.Protecting it is a legal obligation and a humanitarian imperative.And today, more than ever, millions of vulnerable people around the world depend on the collective ability of all parties to uphold it.Thank you.Question & AnswersQuestion: Thank you very much Mr. Secretary-General. Edith Lederer from the Associated Press, and we hope you enjoyed your vacation. Can you please tell us some details, explicit details of how this mechanism is going to work? And have you discussed it with the parties and what was their reaction? Thank you.Secretary-General: The head of UNOPS has been in intense contacts with all the countries involved in order to see the possibility of putting in place a mechanism that would be a mechanism of registration, verification of the ships carrying, at least in an initial stage, fertilizer and related products, but of course, open to others, and with a deconflicting mechanism in Oman. We have everything ready to do it. Of course, it can only be done if the countries that are involved in this conflict all agree to accept the mechanism. It will be a mechanism of verification, of monitoring and deconflicting in order to make sure that these products would be circulating without impediment.Question: Just a quick follow up. When are you planning to propose this to them? Are there going to be some meetings about this?Secretary-General: We have already had, all the parties involved have a detailed knowledge of how the mechanism would work.Question: Thank you, Secretary-General, Gabriel Elizondo from Al Jazeera English. A follow up to that question. Sir, the IRGC has already claimed that they control the Strait of Hormuz. Under this mechanism, would the UN still need authorization from the IRGC or Iranian authorities?Secretary-General: Let's be clear, our position is that freedom of navigation must be respected in all circumstances. What we say is that if at a certain moment this is not yet possible, we would be ready, with the agreement of the parties, we would be ready to have a mechanism that, of course, would not exercise the sovereign rights of states. This would need the sovereign agreements of the states involved. Thank you very much.

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