Saúl arrived in South America full of enthusiasm for this project. He was eager to put his professional and educational background in applied social research and data analysis at the service of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), especially, SDG2, achieving zero hunger. As part of the Resilience and Emergency Team within FAO, Saúl loved the idea of being able to contribute to increasing agricultural production with a resilient approach, emphasizing collaboration with vulnerable rural communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear the importance of food security like never before. UN Volunteers are playing an important role in fighting hunger during the global crisis. Currently, there are 51 UN Volunteers serving with FAO globally, including 12 UN Volunteers in Europe and Central Asia region.

Despite significant improvement in food security during the last 20 years, many Vietnamese face undernutrition, overnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. To ensure food systems contribute to better nutrition, it is essential to strengthen the capacities of various stakeholders including national governments, academia and the private sector, to mainstream nutrition in their policies and investments.

Last year "Myropolis" gathered nearly 200 young people from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts (regions) to build city of peace: teenagers participated in educational and artistic activities that helped them to learn how to conduct negotiations for peace and recovery – important knowledge when you live in the conflict affected areas. Many of participants never left their villages before "Myropolis" sessions. Situation in these lands is really fragile and challenging: no descent roads, villages are very difficult to reach, parents do not allow children even to leave the houses.

In 2019, over 600 UN Volunteers took part in onsite trainings designed to build a community and grow the skills and competencies that are key to serving with the UN. From February onwards, COVID-19 restrictions made in-person workshops impossible. Hence, it was clear we wanted to create a virtual space to facilitate learning and enable exchange among volunteers.

In North East Nigeria, 7.1 million people are in need of urgent, life-saving humanitarian assistance in 2019, due to insurgency and climate crises. Many of them lost all their assets (internally displaced persons), some try to recover from the crises (returnees) and some are struggling to survive with food aid (host communities). Tiruneh Debena reports that all these people are exposed to hunger, unable to ensure sustainable basic food needs for their families in the last nine years. 

Faced with the challenges caused by climate change, 194 countries have come together and created the Green Climate Fund (GCF), through which they hope to mobilize funds to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation) and to achieve the adaptation of vulnerable populations in developing countries.

UNV and the crocodile skin industry? This surely was different from what most UNV assignments revolved around. Jerome Montague’s description of assignment reads as follows: To fully understand what this assignment is about, one must look at the bigger picture. Papua New Guinea achieved independence from Australia in 1975 and was needed to establish its own economy.

Informal settlements are rapidly growing as Africa urbanizes, and a key marker of this growth is the glaring spatial inequalities being witnessed across the continent. In Nairobi, for example, 63-70 per cent of people live in informal settlements (UN, 2015), occupying only 6 per cent of urban land (UN Habitat, 2017).

UN Youth Volunteers, who receive a monthly living allowance and a benefits package, can be impactful resources to support monitoring and evaluation efforts.