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Mental health and psychosocial support must be seen as integral to all humanitarian, peacebuilding and development programmes across the UN, the Secretary-General said on Wednesday.  

António Guterres was speaking at a high-level event on Mental Health Interventions for Peacebuilding in Conflict and Humanitarian settings. 

Although UN peacekeeping missions can help put a country on the right track following conflict, only a commitment from national governments can keep it there over the long term, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told a Security Council meeting on Wednesday to examine support for the transition towards lasting peace.  

Mr. Guterres shared four lessons learned from the UN’s experience in peacekeeping and peacebuilding, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan.

While 80 per cent of citizens in high and upper-middle income nations have had a dose of COVID-19 vaccine, that figure stands at just 20 per cent for those living below the top tiers, according to a joint statement issued by UN and partner agencies, responsible for the multilateral COVAX initiative to provide equal access for all. 

It’s a year since the innovative scheme was born, in a bid to guarantee timely access to everyone, regardless of their income, status or location, to life-saving jabs, as the pandemic gripped the world. 

Around 90 per cent of people go through their daily lives breathing harmful polluted air, which has been described by the United Nations as the most important health issue of our time. To mark the first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, on 7 September, UN News explains how bad it is and what is being done to tackle it.

Disasters such as cyclones, floods, and droughts are more connected than we might think, and human activity is the common thread, a UN report released on Wednesday reveals.

Even with the emergence of the new Mu COVID-19 variant, the Delta strain remains the top concern globally, appearing to “outcompete” others, senior officials with the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

“I think the Delta variant for me is the one that's most concerning because of the increased transmissibility,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the agency’s Technical Lead for COVID-19, speaking during an online question and answer session.

The General Assembly on Tuesday held a High-level Forum on the Culture of Peace, focused on building resilience and a fair recovery against the continued ravages of COVID-19. 

Opening the event, the President of the General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, said “the global pandemic has arguably brought humanity closer together.” 

With extreme weather events increasingly impacting countries across the world, the deputy UN chief on Monday underlined the importance of limiting temperature rise to the internationally agreed goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

“The entire planet is going through a season of fire and floods”, Amina Mohammed told a high-level meeting on climate action, primarily hurting fragile and vulnerable populations in rich and poor countries alike. 

Two-thirds of refugee children might never get to secondary school, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday, as it called for an international effort to confront “critically low” levels of school and university enrolment.

Recent progress “is now under threat,” said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi, describing it as “a task we cannot afford to shirk”.

Poverty in Lebanon has drastically increased over the past year and now affects about 74% of the population, warned the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) on Friday.