¹ú²úAV

The past year was marked by increasingly complex crises for our world ¨C poverty, inequality, hunger and rising unemployment; an uneven and uncertain global economic outlook; the escalating climate emergency; and conflicts, in particular the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. In every case, the poorest and most vulnerable people and communities are hit hardest.

Meanwhile, human rights are under assault, worsened by widening economic and social gaps and the lingering effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Women and young people continue to be shut out of economic, civic and social spaces, denying entire societies their contributions and ideas. Shrinking civic space, the rapid spread of mis- and disinformation and rising hate speech and misogyny are pushing people apart at a time when we need unity and solidarity more than ever.

We face the highest levels of geopolitical mistrust and competition in decades. Sharp divisions are growing within countries and across the global community. Countries and entire regions are turning their backs on one another, leaving the urgent and essential business of jointly shaping a better future to wither on the vine.

At the same time, humanity continues to grapple with balancing the great promise of technological innovations such as artificial intelligence and social media with the need to address clear threats to people¡¯s rights to safety and privacy.

Little Amal, a giant puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl, stands next to the Non-Violence sculpture, also known as The Knotted Gun, at United Nations Headquarters. Since July 2021, Little Amal has travelled over 9,000 km across 12 countries, representing all children fleeing war, violence and persecution (New York; September 2022). UN Photo/Mark Garten

Nevertheless, as the present report shows, the women and men of the United Nations are determined in our efforts to address those crises and set humanity on a new path to peace, stability and prosperity. In the report, I highlight inspiring examples of our determination, based on our belief that a better world is not only necessary, but within our grasp.

Nowhere are the needs greater than in the midst of emergencies.

In 2022, together with our partners on the ground, we coordinated humanitarian response plans for 216 million people across 69 countries and territories and delivered life-saving assistance and protection to nearly 160 million people in urgent need. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we mobilized a record $30 billion in humanitarian aid.

We responded to regional crises across the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, which face a deadly combination of drought, poverty, insecurity and the looming risk of famine. We reached 17 million people in the Horn of Africa with humanitarian assistance in 2022, and some 20 million people across the Sahel.

In Afghanistan, the United Nations and our partners reached more than 26 million people in 2022 with humanitarian assistance and protection, including in previously inaccessible locations, while pushing back against the unacceptable curtailment of women¡¯s and girls¡¯ rights, in particular their access to education and livelihoods.

¹ú²úAV is the beating heart of the United Nations. In 2022, our teams deployed a wide range of tools to prevent, mitigate, manage and resolve conflicts, while protecting the people affected by them.

Ant¨®nio Guterres, Secretary-General, oversees departing ships involved in the Black Sea Initiative. To mitigate global food insecurity and its humanitarian impact, the Secretary-General proposed the Black Sea Initiative to T¨¹rkiye, the Russian Federation and Ukraine (Istanbul, T¨¹rkiye; August 2022). UN Photo/Mark Garten

Around the world, we redoubled our pursuit of peace, from the United Nations-brokered truce in Yemen, to our 41 special political missions and offices and 12 peacekeeping operations. The ¹ú²úAVbuilding Fund committed $231 million to supporting peacebuilding efforts across 37 countries, with more than a third of those funds dedicated to supporting women and young people.

In Ukraine, the United Nations stayed and delivered, supporting close to 16 million people through our humanitarian response plan.

To mitigate global food insecurity and its humanitarian impact, we proposed the Initiative on the Safe Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs from Ukrainian Ports (Black Sea Initiative) to T¨¹rkiye, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. As at mid-June 2023, the Initiative had enabled the export of over 32 million tons of grain and other foodstuffs, with over half of food exports going to developing countries. Meanwhile, the United Nations continued its efforts under the Memorandum of Understanding between the Russian Federation and the Secretariat of the United Nations to facilitate the unimpeded access to the global markets of Russian food products and fertilizers, which are not subject to sanctions. We will continue to press for a just and sustainable peace, in line with the Charter of the United Nations.

We are collaborating with regional organizations, including the African Union, to build the foundations of peace in countries that have seen too little of it.

In 2022, we continued to rally countries around the urgent need to end the threat from weapons of mass destruction through important meetings on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the Review Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction.

Young people engage in driving water action in the SDG media zone at United Nations Headquarters (New York; March 2023). UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

The first ever United Nations Global Congress of Victims of Terrorism gave a voice to people who have a critical role to play in efforts to fight this scourge around the world.

Our country teams worked tirelessly throughout the past year to help Governments build stronger and more equal economies, societies and systems that can support their people.

And yet, halfway to 2030, progress on the Sustainable Development Goals has stalled and, in some cases, even gone into reverse.

Developing countries are victims of a dysfunctional and unfair global financial system that denies them the financing and debt relief that they need to invest in renewable energy, universal social protection, quality education, decent job creation, universal health coverage, sustainable food systems, infrastructure and the digital transformation.

To address the global financing crisis, we launched a Sustainable Development Goal stimulus proposal to accelerate achievement of the Goals, with the aim of mobilizing $500 billion in new investments. Through the stimulus proposal, we target three actions on which the current international financial architecture can deliver results: (a) addressing costly debt and growing debt distress; (b) massively boosting affordable long-term financing; and (c) expanding contingency funds for countries in need.

The Transforming Education Summit placed education back on the global agenda and resulted in commitments to revamp education systems for the modern world, recover ground lost in education during the pandemic and unlock the potential of technology for girls¡¯ education.