What does it take to become a UN humanitarian work?

We interviewed Hovig Etyemezian, Head of Innovation at UNHCR, the UN Agency for Refugees to find out about his journey and how working in the field, in the frontlines, managing refugee camps logistics, finding ways to innovate in volatile situations teaches one to be agile and resilient, qualities he brings to his role as Head of Innovation at the UNHCR in Geneva.

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Interview with Mark Manly, head of donor relations and resource mobilisation at the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The UNHCR focuses on providing international protection and solutions for refugees, internally displaced people, and preventing statelessness. Their fundraising strategy relies on flexible annual funding from government donors and increasingly from the private sector, including individual donations and corporate contributions.

The organization has a presence in 140 countries and emphasizes integrating refugees into national programs when they cannot return to their homes due to continued conflict.

UNHCR aimed to raise $1 billion from private donors by 2025, surpassing this goal in 2022 due to the Ukraine crisis. They continue to highlight overlooked emergencies like Sudan to secure ongoing support.

We spoke about the demonization of immigrants and refugees by the hard-right pundits and how the news media can be an ally to counter misinformation and fake news.

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Seeking Common Ground in a World of Rivalry

The organization led by Justin Vaisse, historian and diplomat, is supported by the French government and private sector sponsors, including Microsoft.

There will be panels with AI companies and how they are engaging with governments, academics, and UN officials from Africa and Europe.

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith will be speaking on using AI in the humanitarian field, and their multiple partnerships with UN agencies in the areas of advanced disaster monitoring systems, and education projects with UNICEF, including the Learning Passport, and other digital literacy programs.

The Learning Passport is a Cambridge University-designed initiative launched with Microsoft’s support to ensure forcibly displaced children and young people can continue their education in their native languages, and not miss the school year due to war or civil conflicts that might take years to resolve, as they will need to temporarily settle in the host countries.

Microsoft is also working with Least Developed Countries and supporting the achievement of the SDGs targets by partnering with the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

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Watch my interview with Paris Peace Forum founder Justin Vaïsse, to find out more.

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I interviewed Bourhan Yassin, CEO of Rainforest Connection, a company that applies AI to acoustics for data insights to better inform conservation, preserve biodiversity, and protect the rainforests from illegal logging. They are currently working in 80 countries, including Brazil, where most of their work is happening.

RFCx works with audio to monitor species of wild birds for instance, to analyse the sounds of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, and works with indigenous communities to help them identify illegal logging, and to catalogue species to protect biodiversity.

They use satellites developed by Swarm, that operates ultra-small satellites for IOT devices, a company that was acquired by SpaceX in 2021.

We spoke about their projects in Brazil and how they are funded, and how Google.org supports their work alongside other philanthropic organizations.

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Interview with Brazilian Diplomat Camila Olsen on Promoting Brazil Abroad and Attracting FDI

Interview with Camila Olsen, Head of Trade, Investment, Agriculture and Energy Section at the Brazilian Embassy in Copenhagen

Today I interviewed the Brazilian diplomat Camila Olsen, head of trade investment, agriculture and energy at the Brazilian embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she oversees a portfolio of trade in agriculture, we also spoke about Foreign Direct Investment in Brazil, and how they are bringing the most relevant stakeholders to the table: academia, private and public sectors at the Embassy of Brazil and Denmark, in the division she works, which is promoting trade.

We spoke about trading commodities, Brazil's competitive advantage given its climate, and how it trades with the global south as a tropical country exporter of goods that cannot be farmed, or produced anywhere else.

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UN Secretary General Calls for a Global AI Regulatory Agency

These last couple of days have been quite busy on issues of AI and emerging tech governance at the UN and its agencies. We had the IGF meeting in Geneva with Maria Ressa and Vint Cerf, AI at the Security Council in New York, and the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Turk calling also for a study on the impacts of new technologies and the possible creation of a Special Rapporteur on Tech is being floated.

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“We need a learner’s mindset”, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on AI regulation and global governance for its impact on society and security.

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The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and many other international human rights treaties state that the right to housing under international human rights law is the right to live in peace, security and dignity.

The violation of the right to housing is often experienced by marginalized and disadvantaged groups including indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, ethnic and religious minority communities, people of color, migrants and refugees, women, single mothers, and LGBTQ+ persons.

I spoke with Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing and Global Director of The Shift. Her organization works with parliaments, and civil society actors on the principle that housing is a social good. We also spoke of her work with the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the aggravated housing situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and even more so now, in the Gaza Strip.

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Geneva, 6 October 2020 — Craig Newmark is backing media organizations that are committed to public interest journalism. News organizations that support and elevate democratic ideals.

Combating misinformation, analyzing how websites deploy trackers in visitors’ devices, fighting fake news, are some of the issues he is addressing.

What moves him? What are the challenges ahead for the news media nonprofits that he funded?

What is next? What areas will he be funding?

The UN Brief interviewed Mr. Newmark to find out more about his philanthropic endeavours.

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Dear Subscribers,

I am Maya Plentz, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The UN Brief. We cover the United Nations, the UN Human Rights Council, the WTO, and all specialized agencies in the UN system in Geneva, New York, Vienna, Nairobi and its regional offices around the world.

We cover the EU and other multilateral organizations that are convening private sector and governments to shape regulatory frameworks that support the rapid technological transformation of the various sectors of the global economy.

We interview technology executives and venture capital investors who are keen on financing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. They support democratic institutions and the ethical use of emerging technologies around the globe. These are leaders and tech companies that are harnessing technology to reduce economic inequalities. They create prosperity around the globe by integrating the most vulnerable citizens in the digital economy, be it in a developed or developing economy.

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