🦠Are pathogens getting ahead of us? Three years after the Covid-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic, scientists at a Geneva conference warned that little has been done to beef up our biorisk defences, leaving us exposed to future outbreaks.

🇦🇫Aid groups fear UN exit could sink Afghanistan’s economy. A Taliban edict barring women from working with the UN has forced it to pause its work in Afghanistan as it decides how to work around it. But if the world body pulls out, it could tip the country’s economy over the edge.

♀️How much substance is there to the UN’s gender parity goal? In recent years, the UN has made gender parity one of its institutional priorities. But are numbers enough to ensure that women's representation is taking place?

⚛️Cern entices authorities over gigantic collider with green arguments. Its next-generation particle collider could see the light of day by 2040. To make the case for the CHF20 billion project, the European nuclear research centre’s selling point is the environment.

🚰Water crisis: where is the political leadership? The UN is seeking to accelerate global action to protect the world’s threatened water resources and provide safe drinking water for all by 2030. But it won’t be able to do so without addressing the political dimensions of water.

Patricia Koo Tsien, chairperson of the UN Ad Hoc Group on Equality for Women, and Armando Duque, chairman of the UN Staff Council, present a petition signed by 2700 staff members to secretary general Kurt Waldheim requesting an affirmative programme of action to end discrimination against women in the secretariats and agencies, 7 March 1975. (UN/Teddy Chen)

Historian Myriam Piguet on the fight for gender equality in the early years of the UN: “The UN Secretariat News was a monthly newspaper written by international civil servants for international civil servants. In the 1950s and 1960s, you would see a lot of comics that were quite sarcastic, making fun of the role of secretaries with the image of a sexually attractive, young and beautiful woman. They would also joke about the role of the elevator lady and the woman guide, and nobody would do or say anything about it.”

The MSF team walks through Pie de Pato, Chocó, towards a training day for community agents on 8 March 2023. (Geneva Solutions/Daniela Díaz Rangel)

Aid groups partner up with Indigenous communities in Colombia as conflict rages on. In Colombia’s Pacific region, ongoing armed conflict in isolated areas has spurred international aid groups to rethink how access can be ensured to vulnerable populations by training locals to respond to needs.

Russia-Ukraine war: What are the risks of escalation? Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is well into its second year with no end in sight. At a debate organised by Geneva Solutions, the Geneva Press Club and Le Temps, ambassadors to Moldova and Ukraine were joined by security, peace and migration experts to weigh the different scenarios that could unfold and what it means for Ukrainian refugees across Europe who are eager to go home but whose lives carry on despite the war. For the UN’s refugee protection chief Gillian Triggs, who also spoke at the event, the EU needs to start thinking long-term.