2020 has been a banner year for the long-overdue push to appoint women to the notoriously male-dominated leadership ranks of UN peacekeeping and political missions—a sign that the UN's gender parity strategy is making progess. This article provides a preview of some of the data from the UN Senior Appointments Dashboard that CIC and the Center for Global Affairs will soon launch, showing both real gains for gender parity, and a more nuanced picture of how well the UN is addressing the complementary priority of regional diversity.
On September 25th, during the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, leaders from around the world came together to call for a fair and equitable approach to the development, production, and distribution of vaccines for COVID-19. Speakers at this high-level event highlighted the vision and status of the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), discussed ongoing research and development, and issued a call to action for member states, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, and other key stakeholders to support a People's Vaccine. This short video shares highlights from the discussion.
Over the past two years, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has worked to contain its tenth and largest Ebola epidemic. This Congo Research Group group report, the first of three focusing on the epidemic, examines the public health aspects of the response—particularly the creation of a parallel health system funded by international donors. Despite clinical advances, these parallel structures significantly compromised the efficacy of the response, potentially prolonging the epidemic and contributing to violence.
The UN secretary-general’s third report on peacebuilding and sustaining peace launches this week. CIC’s briefing examines the new report, finding that it moves the prevention agenda forward in several respects, and identifies key opportunities for prevention to take root in the UN’s practice, especially as the UN and its partners work to respond to the crises unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new book by Barnett Rubin, senior fellow and director of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project at CIC, was recently published by Oxford University Press. Afghanistan: What Everyone Needs to Know is a concise introduction to the issues facing Afghanistan today.
