With the bang of a gavel Saturday night, representatives of 195 nations reached a landmark accord that will, for the first time, commit nearly every country to lowering planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions to help avert the most drastic effects of climate change. The deal represents a historic breakthrough on an issue that has foiled decades of international efforts to address...

From November 30 - December 11 2015, world leaders will meet in Paris for the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Negotiations on climate change began at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, which launched the UNFCCC – a framework aimed at stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. The UNFCCC's...

You can participate in one of the largest gathering of women's rights advocates in the world! The 60th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from March 14 – 24, 2016. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world will attend. In...

Universal Children’s Day is celebrated every year on November 20 to mark the day when the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child was adopted in 1989. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a multilateral human rights treaty that promotes the rights of all children worldwide. All of the UN Member States as well as...

Transitioning from MDGs to SDGs at the UN

The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

In July 2015, in the final year of the 15-year MDG period, the UN issued a report on the successes and shortcomings in achieving the MDGs. Despite many successes, there is much work still to be done. Significant gains have been made toward many of the...

UN Financing for Development Outcomes of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA)

Agreed July 16, Addis Ababa

Critical Issues

Did not acknowledge common but differentiated responsibilities

It was not a transparent process

Northern/developed countries overwhelmed the G77 (the bloc of 134 developing countries, including China)

Sense of backsliding from Monterrey and Doha, rather than transformative progress

Addresses gender equality in terms...