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  UN Staffers Depart Manhattan's Urban Canyons for Kenya's Leafy Capital Authors: Colum Lynch, Ayenat Mersie Publication: Devex Date: November 5, 2025 Click here for the article Summary: United Nations agencies including UNICEF, the UN Population Fund, and UN Women are transferring several hundred staff members from New York to Nairobi, Kenya, to reduce costs and position workers closer to program beneficiaries. 

Shared by Tom McDermott Click here for the article Summary UNFPA’s renewal of a 2016 memorandum of understanding with Israel’s development agency MASHAV on 11 June 2025 triggered a storm of internal protest. More than 150 staff signed a petition arguing the MoU jeopardizes the agency’s neutrality, credibility, and the safety of personnel working in Gaza, where Israeli attacks have left tens of thousands dead and devastated health infrastructure.

Shared by Tom McDermott "But the real crisis is that the most consequential reproductive decision a human being can make – when, whether and with whom to have a child – is being undermined."

Linkedin post shared by Niloufar Pourzand

Download the report by clicking here The UNFPA, UNICEF, UN-Women, PAHO and NBEC Maternal Health Analysis of Women and Girls of African Descent in the Americas brings together for the first time, comparative data across the Americas on the situation of Afrodescendant women’s maternal health. It finds that Afrodescendant women and girls are disadvantaged before, during and after pregnancy. Afrodescendant women and girls’ maternal deaths are particularly alarming. The analysis provides action oriented recommendations to reduce maternal mortality and ensure the highest attainable standard of maternal health for girls and women of African descent in the Americas in the short and medium terms.

Click here to download the report Global progress in reducing deaths of pregnant women, mothers and babies has flatlined for eight years due to decreasing investments in maternal and newborn health, according to a new report from the United Nations (UN). The report shows that over 4.5 million women and babies die every year during pregnancy, childbirth or the first weeks after birth - equivalent to 1 death happening every 7 seconds - mostly from preventable or treatable causes if proper care was available. “Pregnant women and newborns continue to die at unacceptably high rates worldwide, and the COVID-19 pandemic has created further setbacks to providing them with the healthcare they need,” said Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at the World Health Organization (WHO). “If we wish to see different results, we must do things differently. More and smarter investments in primary healthcare are needed now so that every woman and baby -...