Daily Brief logo

Good morning, it’s Kasmira and today we’re covering the last sprint in negotiations in Montreal to strike a deal to protect nature. Countries are due to discuss today the final draft of the agreement presented by China last night.

Responding to our questions last week, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke for the first time about widespread departures at the organisation. And finally, as the holidays near, we’ve recommended two exhibitions to explore on your days off in Geneva.

My colleagues will be back with you tomorrow but that’s it from me as I head off on maternity leave for the next few months. But before I go, I want to thank all our readers for your support this year and wish you a great start to 2023!

photo journaliste

Kasmira Jefford

19.12.2022


On our radar this week


Photo article

Delegates are gathered in Montreal until 19 December 2022 to negotiate an agreement on biodiversity. (Keystone/Paul Chiasson /The Canadian Press via AP)

🦌 Final stretch for nature talks. Ministers gathered in Montreal have this evening to thrash out a new biodiversity agreement, but divergences, mainly over how to fund conservation efforts, thwarted progress right until the last minute. In an attempt to find an agreement, the Chinese presidency presented a draft text on Sunday, that makes several concessions, including a target to preserve one third of the Earth's land and waters and the creation of a new fund for biodiversity under the Global Environment Facility (GEF). While dispelling fears of a no-deal scenario, the text is far from the ambitious agreement campaigners were hoping for.

Politico (EN)

International Geneva Moves

    Photo article

    Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks to journalists at a press conference organised by the Geneva Association of United Nations Correspondents (ACANU), 14 December 2022. (Keystone/Martial Trezzini)

  • ⚕️WHO chief: workplace ‘stress’ amid senior management shuffle. After weeks of silence following an internal email announcing a major senior staff shake-up, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus filled us in on a few details. He said the search was on to fill some of the roles, and admitted to employee “stress” since the start of Covid-19.
    Geneva Solutions (EN)

Also on the agenda


With the holiday season around the corner and conferences and events winding down for the year, we’ve picked two exhibitions that we’re looking forward to exploring on our days off – while keeping with themes close to International Geneva.

Photo article

(Credit: Annik Wetter Photography / FCG via Facebook)

📌 Until 29 January 2023 | Behold the Ocean. The Centre de la photographie Genève presents a visual storytelling project by German-Ghanaian photographer, Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah, documenting climate research in Patagonia. From December 2020 to January 2021, the Swiss-based artist accompanied a small Chilean team on a maritime expedition that took them through the Strait of Magellan to the glacier of Santa Inés, at the most Southern tip of the Americas. She captures the raw beauty and fragility of this environment.

Centre de la photographie Genève (EN)

📌 Until 8 January 2023 | Helvecia. A forgotten colonial history. While Switzerland has never had countries under its power, it has nevertheless collaborated with colonial powers in the appropriation of foreign lands and the slavery practice. This photographic exhibition by the Geneva Ethnography Museum (MEG) lifts the veil on a little-known aspect of Swiss history by meeting with the inhabitants of Helvecia in Brazil at the crossroads of an identity quest and digging into the past of this former Swiss colony.

Geneva Ethnography Museum (EN)

GS news is a new media project covering the world of international cooperation and development. Don’t hesitate to forward our newsletter!

Have a good day!

Avenue du Bouchet 2
1209 Genève
Suisse