Achieving gender equality is foundational to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and underscore that youth are not just future leaders, but current architects of a more inclusive global society. As the world faces pushback on women’s rights, this session will highlight how young advocates and activists are using digital innovation and grassroots organizing to dismantle gender-based violence and economic inequality.
Moderator
Aishworya Shrestha, Young Leader for SDGs, UN Youth Office
SPEAKERS
Hanna Mulugeta Melaku, Youth Reference Group
Yasmine Aburaya, Founder of Your Voice Initiative and Youth Leader in Gender Equality and Civic Engagement
Source: United Kingdom UK Parliament (video statements)
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee hears evidence from a range of witnesses as part of its inquiry into fairness in the food supply chain.
Witnesses:
Mark White, Groceries Code Adjudicator
Richard Thompson, Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator
Rohit Kaushish – Chief Economist at Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)
Andrew Opie – Director of Food and Sustainability at British Retail Consortium
Jo Gilbertson – Head of Fertiliser at Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC)
Source: United Kingdom UK Parliament (video statements)
As part of the inquiry into screen time and social media, MPs on the Education Committee question policy directors at TikTok, Meta, Roblox, and Snapchat around what they are doing to ensure safety of their users.
Witnesses:
Ali Laws – Director of Public Policy for Northern Europe at TikTok
Rebecca Stimson – Director of Public Policy UK at Meta
Laura Higgins – Senior Director, Community Safety and Civility at Roblox
Sanjit Gill – Head of Policy (UK and Ireland) at Snapchat
Professor Pete Etchells – Professor of Psychology and Science Communication at Bath Spa University
Professor Victoria Goodyear – Professor of Physical Activity, Health and Wellbeing at University of Birmingham
Professor Amy Orben – Research Professor at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences at University of Cambridge
Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)
Will stablecoins play an important role in payments? We contribute novel empirical evidence on this question using high-frequency changes in the stock prices of incumbent payment firms around the passage of major stablecoin legislation.
Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)
Rare earths are critical to manufacturing but supply chains are concentrated. We quantify disruption costs and show that coordinated industrial policy can de-risk supply chains affordably—framing REE policy as an insurance problem.
Speakers
Andrea Paloschi, Research Department, IMF
Christian Bogmans, Research Department, IMF
Africa is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, warming faster than the global average and facing disproportionate climate impacts despite contributing the least to global greenhouse gas emissions. This is particularly evident in the growing pressures that climate change is placing on water resources and systems across the continent. As water underpins agriculture, livelihoods, ecosystems, and energy production, water-related climate impacts are deepening inequalities and threatening sustainable development across Africa.
African youth are driving critical climate innovations, advancing practical solutions, and changing the continent’s climate future. This dialogue aims to spotlight Africa’s youth innovators at the forefront of addressing climate change impacts, highlighting their leadership in building resilient communities, strengthening water security, and advancing global climate solutions.
Moderator
Damon Hamman, Graduate Student, New York University, Centre for Global Affairs.
SPEAKERS
Ms. Eugenia Boateng, Founder and Executive Director of African Diaspora Youth Hub, FABA (For Africa, By Africa) Institute
Mr. Jabri Ibrahim, UN Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change
Mr. Sibusiso Mazomba, UN Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change
Briefing by Anita Kiki Gbeho, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for South Sudan and Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, on Sudan and South Sudan – Security Council, 10139th meeting.
Presenting the report, the newly appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General for South Sudan and Head of UNMISS, Anita Kiki Gbeho, said, the operating environment in South Sudan “has become more complex,” since the last mandate renewal.
Gbeho said, “political tensions, escalating security incidents and humanitarian pressures increasingly reinforce one another. Economic stress, climate related shocks, and the spill-over from the conflict in Sudan compound these challenges.”
She told the Council the security situation “remains deeply concerning, as “fighting between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement / Army in Opposition, particularly in Jonglei, has intensified, and in some cases been accompanied by inflammatory rhetoric.”
Civilians, Gbeho said, “continue to bear the brunt.”
She stressed that “challenges facing South Sudan cannot be resolved through military means,” and added that “sustained political pathway anchored in inclusive dialogue remains essential.”
Gbeho said, “as the Security Council deliberates on the renewal of the UN mandate, it is important to recognise the dilemma we collectively face. The scale and urgency of needs on the ground are not yet matched by the type of sustained commitment and investment required to meet the ambition of sustainable path to peace.”
At this critical juncture for our ocean, endurance swimmer and UNEP Patron of the Oceans Lewis Pugh joins the Executive Director of UNEP Inger Andersen for a powerful conversation on the state of the seas.
From the frontlines of polar swims to high-level environmental negotiations, they explore the urgent priorities for UNOC-3 — from plastic pollution and marine biodiversity to blue finance and the 30×30 global commitment. With insights from Pugh’s headline-making Shark Swim campaign and UNEP’s science-backed strategies, this session challenges world leaders to match the ocean’s resilience with bold, immediate action to secure a sustainable future for all.
Speakers:
– Lewis Pugh, UNEP Patron of the Oceans
– Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP
Moderator:
– Martina Donlon, Officer-in-Charge, Sustainable Development Section, UN Department of Global Communications
Join us during the UN Ocean Conference from June 9-13 and hear about the transformation and solutions needed to accelerate action on the SDGs.
The Conference aims to drive urgent action to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. Ocean science, pollution, fishing, maritime transport, biodiversity, financing and cooperation are among the issues to be tackled.
Organized by the UN Department of Global Communications, the SDG Media Zone takes the conversation out of the policy sphere and into the public discourse through impactful in-depth interviews and conversations on global issues that matter to people everywhere.
