ANTALYA, Turkey – Young people can lift the world’s 48 least developed countries out of poverty, provided governments invest in the education, empowerment and employment of millions of people poised to enter the labour force, top officials from these countries agreed here yesterday.

ISTANBUL–The World Humanitarian Summit concluded here today with a demonstrated resolve to live up to the pledge to leave no one behind, including the more than 60 million displaced, and women, children and other groups in crises. To do so, world leaders and participants from other segments of society committed to ensuring that “the vulnerable receive the global support they deserve to live in safety and dignity,” according to the Summit Chair’s Summary released at the end of the two-day forum.

ISTANBUL—An unprecedented commitment by countries across the world to scale-up investments in sexual and reproductive health to end all preventable maternal deaths of women, girls and newborns in crises, was announced today, the opening day of the World Humanitarian Summit. The countries also committed to stepping up actions to achieve Sustainable Development Goals on safe delivery, emergency contraception, voluntary family planning, as well as medical and psychosocial services for gender violence survivors.

Childbearing should always be safe, even in emergencies. This is the message that UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and United Colors of Benetton are shouting out as they roll-out a joint campaign, “Safe Birth Even Here”, at the World Humanitarian Summit, taking place in Istanbul, Türkiye, 23-24 May.

UNITED NATIONS, New York – Carmen Barroso, a Brazilian social scientist with long commitment to population causes, and the Childbirth in Dignity Foundation, a Polish organization promoting improved quality of care for Polish mothers and newborns, have won the 2016 United Nations Population Award. Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1981, the award recognizes outstanding achievement in the fields of population and health.

SANA’A, Yemen – A year of conflict in Yemen has led to 21.2 million people requiring some form of humanitarian assistance, with nearly half of them being women and girls. UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is increasingly concerned about the needs of an estimated 3.4 million women of reproductive age (between 15 and 49 years), of whom nearly 500,000 are pregnant and will give birth within the next nine months.

BEIJING, 18 March 2016 – A new phase has been agreed for South-South Cooperation on Population and Development, aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and underpinned by the principles of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

UNITED NATIONS, New York—Despite advances in recent years, girls continue to suffer from discrimination and exclusion just because they are young and female, warned Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. “For many girls,” added Dr. Osotimehin, “puberty marks an accelerating trajectory into inequality.” Investing in adolescent girls, he emphasized, can help boost their potential and achieve gender equality and progress for societies at large.

NEW YORK — A new multi-country initiative to accelerate action to end child marriage will help protect the rights of millions of the world’s most vulnerable girls, UNICEF and UNFPA said on International Women’s Day.

UNITED NATIONS, New York –Diana Kendi Makale, a journalist from Kenya, was selected as the winner of the first Efua Dorkenoo Pan African Award for Reportage on Female Genital Mutilation. Ms. Makale, who works for the QTV Nation Media Group, will be honoured during a ceremony to take place in Abuja, Nigeria, on Tuesday, 9 February. As the winner of the award, she will be trained for one month at The Guardian’s FGM Multimedia and Investigations Unit in London.

UNITED NATIONS, New York – UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is seeking $107.1 million to meet the urgent needs of more than 5 million women and girls from Syria affected by the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. About $51.93 million of the sum is to keep women and girls inside Syria healthy and safe, while $55.17 million will be used to tackle the special needs of refugees in neighbouring countries.