Shuttered classrooms in Gaza mean a ‘lost generation’, warns UNRWA chief

Education is always the first public spending to be cut in a crisis and the last to be restored, according to the UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown.But on Thursday he announced a new $1.5 billion commitment to invest in education for those children and youth most in need, powered by the game-changing International Finance Facility for Education.The former British Prime Minister told UN News’s Ben Malor the cash injection would help get tens of thousands of students back to school – part of a wider, innovative plan to prevent whole generations of children from losing out.

With 70 years of experience in the safe commercial use of nuclear energy, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says all countries need to follow internationally agreed safety standards, and that safety is the absolute priority.That’s according to Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA’s Director General, who is taking part in the High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly in New York.In an interview with UN News’s Nargis Shekinskaya, Mr. Grossi said an apparent willingness by Iran’s new Government to resume nuclear inspections and dialogue was a positive development, and he addressed the perilous situation facing nuclear power plants in Ukraine and Russia.

“We need quick reform of the international financial architecture. It simply doesn't work in terms of addressing the financing and the debt challenges that Africa is having.”That’s the view from Claver Gatete, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), taking part in a discussion organized by Africa Renewal earlier this week.UNECA brings countries together alongside the African Union to boost key development issues such as financing, climate action and new technology.He told UN News’s Julia Foxen about the need for fairer global financial systems and greater investment in climate adaptation efforts. 

With an alarming uptick in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) worldwide, stakeholders will be gathering on Thursday for a High-Level Meeting to discuss ways of combating the growing superbug scourge.UN News’s Felipe de Carvalho caught up with Yvan Hutin, Director of Surveillance, Prevention and Control at the AMR Division at the World Health Organization (WHO), who’s in New York for the summit.One key concern is the impact that the brutal wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan are having on the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant strains.

Children make up half of Gaza’s entire population of over two million, but none have been able to attend school since the 7 October attacks triggered nearly a year of devastating war.Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, told UN News during an interview in New York on Tuesday that the longer the fighting goes on, the greater the chance of losing an entire generation.For 75 years, UNRWA has provided free basic education to millions and the agency is determined to reopen classrooms as soon as possible.Mr. Lazzarini told Khaled Mohamed what impact the constant targeting of schools and civilian infrastructure was having on Gazans as daily airstrikes continue.

Devastating Israeli airstrikes on communities in southern Lebanon on Monday sent thousands fleeing with little but the clothes they were wearing, according to the UN peacekeeping force in the country, UNIFIL.Amid fears of an all-out war in Lebanon not seen since 2006, UN News’s Nancy Sarkis has been speaking to UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti, to find out what he’s been hearing about this new escalation that’s linked to the ongoing war in Gaza.

“Imagine if every decision we made, we had to think about future generations,” Anne-Marie Slaughter said, discussing the Pact for the Future at UN Headquarters on Sunday.The former White House policy chief was part of the high-level advisory board for the Pact – adopted by world leaders that day – put together by Secretary-General António Guterres, which formed the centrepiece of the Summit of the Future.She told UN News’s Julia Foxen that the General Assembly was becoming an increasingly important player in advancing global peace and security.

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the youth volunteer movement in the war-torn country has been growing and is now ten times larger than before hostilities began.That’s according to 20-year-old Tetiana Kravchuk, who is a member of the Young People Advisory Board of the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, in Ukraine, where she advises on the 2025-2030 Country Programme and youth development projects.UN News’s Evgeniya Kleshcheva caught-up with her in the margins of the Summit of the Future at UN Headquarters in New York and began by asking how the movement has evolved since February 2022.

Haiti is facing a “catastrophic and cataclysmic” human rights situation according to the UN’s designated expert on rights issues in the Caribbean island nation, William O’Neill.Attacks by gangs, executions, kidnappings for ransom, violence against women – including  rape – as well as corruption, inmates dying in jail and a paralyzed judicial system, are just some of the rights challenges the country is facing.And now Haitians are becoming frustrated at the slow pace of international efforts, particularly the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission, to help the country to combat these problems, according to Mr. O’Neill.The human rights expert has just finished a 12-day mission to Haiti.Daniel Dickinson spoke to him from the capital Port-au-Prince and began by asking how ordinary Haitians are coping. 

Amid intensifying strikes either side of the Israel-Lebanon border linked to the war in Gaza, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that some 1,500 people are still in hospital from this week’s extraordinary attack on mobile communication devices, reportedly targeting the Hezbollah armed group. Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, the UN health agency’s Representative in Lebanon, said that almost 3,000 injured people were rushed to hospitals after the pager and walkie-talkie explosions. Medical teams struggled to handle the massive influx of patients in the country where the “tension is increasing every day”, said the WHO official.He spoke to UN News’s Nancy Sarkis.