The Lid is On

On the first episode of Focus on the Future, our mini-series running throughout High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly, Conor Lennon and Shanaé Harte explain what the Summit of the Future is all about, how to bring back trust between countries and why UN HQ was full of young people all weekend!Contact us: thelidison@un.orgLINKSUN News Summit of the Future page Summit of the Future | UN NewsSummit of the Future explainer Planning ahead: 5 things to know about the UN’s landmark Summit of the Future | UN NewsSummit of the Future main site Summit of the Future 2024 - United Nations | United NationsSDG Lounge SDG Lounge | Summit of the future

Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the numbers attending High-Level Week at UN Headquarters in New York have steadily ticked upwards, and this year is set to be a packed event.If that sounds overwhelming, worry not. UN News is releasing a daily podcast mini-series, designed to make sense of it all.Each episode of Focus on the Future will have a main topic linked to the focus of the day, and will include highlights from the GA debate, original interviews, and a colourful wrap up of the side events.The production team welcomes any questions and suggestions: conor.lennon@un.org 

The future of UN peacekeeping and the “new models” it needs to create to remain relevant in the 21st Century are set to be discussed at the landmark Summit of the Future taking place in New York from 22 September.There are currently 11 UN missions around the world, mainly in Africa and the Middle East.Their goal is to help countries torn by conflict to create the conditions for lasting peace.Participants at the Summit of the Future will discuss, the global architecture for international cooperation, which includes peacekeeping.Cristina Silveiro sat down with the head of UN peacekeeping operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix to take stock of how the UN and its partners can contribute to lasting peace.

Workers with the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, have some of the toughest assignments going in the humanitarian field, helping protect new mothers and babies often born in the midst of intense conflict zones.For this episode of UN News’s flagship podcast, The Lid is On, two UNFPA representatives reflect on their life-saving work with UN News’ Shanaé Harte. They discuss some of the most difficult challenges they've faced while providing insight into what changes can be made to improve women’s rights worldwide.

A Ugandan man, some of whose family and friends were abducted in the East African country, tells the story of his journey from war-torn childhood to becoming the youngest ever African nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.Victor Ochen grew up in northern Uganda at a time when the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, was terrorising the region with violent abductions, forced child soldier recruitment, and widespread atrocities against civilians.For 21 years the focus of his life was survival, struggling to find enough to eat in a variety of internal displacement camps.To mark International Youth Day, UN News’ Julia Foxen spoke to Mr. Ochen about how his choice of nonviolence at only 13 forever transformed his life, highlighting the immense vulnerability of youth in conflict zones alongside their potential to transform the future of society.

The cultivation of sisal plants by some of the most vulnerable communities in southern Madagascar is helping to tackle desertification and allow people to stay on their land, thanks to a project by the UN Development Programme.The seasonal Tiomena wind, a fiercely strong wind that blows over the coastline,  has driven sandy soils across productive farmland forcing many people to give up their subsistence farming activities.But the planting of sisal has helped to reverse the trend as Daniel Dickinson reports for the Lid is On Podcast from southern Madagascar.

Dominica is described as highly disaster-vulnerable: the country is regularly hit by hurricanes and, when the last one swept through in 2017, it caused huge devastation across the island.The government, led by President Sylvanie Burton, the first woman and the first member of the indigenous Kalinago community to be the country’s Head of State, wants to make Dominica the world’s first ‘climate resilient country’. But, as the climate crisis threatens to lead to increasingly intense and frequent hurricanes, is this feasible?Conor Lennon from UN News met President Burton and Lorenzo Sanford, the youngest-ever chief of Dominica’s Kalinago community to find out how they plan to achieve their goal.

The vast majority of small island developing States (SIDS) are heavily dependent on polluting, and expensive, fossil fuels for their energy needs: some spend around a quarter of their national budgets on imported fuel. However, for Trinidad & Tobago, fossil fuels have been a boon to the economy: the country has exploited its oil and gas reserves for several decades and profited from the wealth. But now, those reserves are running low. Is this the moment for Trinidad & Tobago to kick the fossil fuel habit, and exploit the kinds of renewable resources that are abundant in SIDS?Conor Lennon from UN News went to the capital, Port of Spain, to put the question to Sheena Gosine, a sustainable energy analyst at Trinidad’s Ministry of Energy; Kishan Kumarsingh, the head of Multilateral Environmental Agreements at the Ministry of Planning and Development; and Curtis Boodoo, lecturer and assistant professor at the University of Trinidad & Tobago, and an expert on the energy transition.

Like many island economies, Dominica experiences high youth unemployment, and recent events, in particular Hurricane Maria and the COVID-19 pandemic, have combined to make the search for work even harder.A UN-backed initiative designed to improve the employment options for young Dominicans, Work Online Dominica, has been successful in helping them to overcome the barriers they face on a small, remote island.Conor Lennon from UN News met aspiring photographer Josiah Johnson, a graduate of the programme, in Dominica’s capital, Roseau, to find out how he, and other young people, have benefited from Work Online Dominica. 

Caribbean island nations are vulnerable to a host of extreme weather events, from hurricanes to floods and droughts, that are becoming more dangerous and intense as a result of the climate emergency.UN News met with three of the most prominent young climate activists on Trinidad & Tobago, and learned of their frustration with current environmental legislation, and what they are doing to raise awareness of the crisis.Conor Lennon spoke to Priyanka Lalla, a teenage climate activist and UNICEF Youth Advocate for the eastern Caribbean, Joshua Prentice, a climate and ocean scientist, and Zaafia Alexander the 18-year-old founder of an environmental NGO.

Dominica may have found a solution to cover all of its electricity needs, and even sell electricity abroad, without burning fossil fuels: geothermal energy. This power source is 100 per cent clean, cheap and practically limitless.Conor Lennon from UN News meets Vince Henderson, Dominica’s Minister for Economic Development and Sustainable Energy, and Fred John, CEO of the Dominica Geothermal Development Company to find out if the country really is on its way to a clean energy future.

Small Island Developing States are particularly vulnerable to plastic pollution. As well as coping with a tsunami of waste washes up on their beaches every day, these countries – which are generally highly dependent on imports – generate a large amount of plastic waste of their own, and often struggle to manage it.Plastic pollution has a detrimental effect on the health and livelihoods of people living in small island states, which often lack the means to effectively treat and process it. It’s not great for the economy either: tourists don’t want to hang out on dirty beaches, and marine litter can damage fishing stocks. Conor Lennon from UN News went to Trinidad to see how the UN is working with civil society and the government to not only deal with the waste, but also find a way to reuse it, and take it out of the environment.

In Kosovo, where tensions remain high between the ethnic Albanian and ethnic Serb communities, the United Nations is leading efforts to promote open communication and dialogue.The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) was established in 1999, well before the declaration of independence in 2008, and today plays a central role in promoting peace and security, and respect for human rights, in a region where memories of the wars of the late Twentieth Century, fought between the countries of the former Yugoslavia, are still fresh for many who suffered directly or lost loved ones.On 22 April, Caroline Ziadeh, the head of UNMIK, briefed the Security Council on the current situation in Kosovo, and the ongoing tensions between the Albanian speaking and ethnic Serb population. After the briefing, she came into the UN News studios to explain that, despite the considerable difficulties, progress in bringing together the two communities is far from impossible.

The Haitian economy may be on its knees, but the gangs that control much of the capital Port-au-Prince seem to have little trouble obtaining guns, mainly from the USA.The country is awash with weapons: according to experts convened by the UN Secretary-General, these “deadly arsenals” mean that gangs have “firepower that exceeds that of the Haitian national police,” and the problem is getting worse.The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has reported an increase in the trafficking of increasingly powerful and sophisticated weapons into the country since 2021, such as AK47, AR15 and Galil rifles. Sylvie Bertrand is the UNODC Regional Representative for Central America and the Caribbean and oversees the research teams tasked with documenting the sources, routes and distribution patterns of the illicit firearms fuelling violence in Haiti.She spoke to Felipe de Carvalho from UN News about UNODC strategies to make a significant dent in the flow of arms to the beleaguered country.

April 7 marks three decades since the beginning of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. An almost unimaginable slaughter, which saw an estimated 800,000 people killed in just 100 days, and shocked the world.Eric Eugene Murangwa was a footballer at the time, playing for Rayon Sports, one of the top teams in the country, based in the capital Kigali.As a Tutsi, he was in extreme danger when the genocide began. But, despite being well know, he managed to survive, despite the attempts to kill as many Tutsis as possible. He says that football saved his life.Thirty years on, Eric is living in the UK, working as a genocide education campaigner, and an advocate for sport for development and peace. He shares his extraordinary story of survival with Conor Lennon from UN News.