For the past two years, Susan has been serving as a UN Volunteer with the UN Economic Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP). As the Occupational Safety and Health Officer, she has drafted a specific occupational safety and health policy, which is in the process of implementation.

Astrid Aulanier-Rebeschini (France) and Gilbert Kilimo (Kenya) are UN Volunteers working to combat accelerated nature degradation by promoting biodiversity conservation strategies. Astrid, who is 23 years old, supervises biodiversity management with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Benin. Her passion for issues related to biodiversity and global warming brought her to Cotonou. Her role as a UN Volunteer is to make a lasting impact on the lives of people through the implementation of projects to protect biodiversity.

The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) is a global initiative under UNDP that currently operates in 41 countries to create sustainable financial solutions that not only protect biodiversity, but also let it flourish. As part of the initiative, Joshua Mabeta, a national UN Volunteer Research Assistant with UNDP, has been working to achieve the broader biodiversity conservation goal by developing the Biodiversity Finance Plan.

National UN Volunteers have been playing a key role in providing healthcare to over 6,000 UN staff and their eligible dependents. They carry out daily walk-in consultations, emergency care, inpatient care, follow up of cases and healthcare promotional activities, with proper guidance from international UN Volunteers and senior medical staff, as stipulated in the UN Clinic Standard Operating Procedures.

When Aidana Yergaliyeva (Kazakhstan), Dayanch Hojageldiyev* (Turkmenistan), Malika Djalalova (Uzbekistan), Sara Kajevikj (North Macedonia), Parandzem Paryan (Armenia), Faris Mahmutovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Rusudan Khotivari (Georgia) joined their teams, many countries faced – and still face – difficult COVID-19 situations. But that didn’t scare them off.

Rita Chiara Mele, UN Volunteer Energy Specialist, UNDP Comoros In Small Islands Development States (SIDS) like Comoros, gender and climate change are deeply interconnected. For instance, in the clean cooking sector, women have limited access to modern cooking services and still use traditional biofuels such as firewood, which cause deforestation and increase community vulnerability to climate change. 

Bénédicte Kindji, from Benin, is an international UN Volunteer with UN Women. She supports the dissemination and availability of information, and is responsible for monitoring the office's legal issues. Additionally, Bénédicte assists in the management of administrative issues related to human resources, and promotes knowledge building and management.

Natalie Ismail is a UN Youth Volunteer serving as Youth Engagement and Water Scarcity Support Officer with UNICEF Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa, based in Amman, Jordan. She is the focal point for participatory action research in the region. Through this role, Natalie raises awareness and builds the capacity of young people for climate-related issues.

Landscape Restoration Project  Júlia Baena de Mesquita is an Environmental and Social Analyst with the World Bank in Burundi. She ensures that the World Bank’s social safeguards are applied to all the projects. By doing so, she guarantees that development is not done at any cost. This ranges from issues that stem from labour conditions to gender-based violence, and communities’ health and safety. 

In the region, more than 4.8 million Venezuelans have left the country towards other territories like Peru, where 57 percent live in overcrowded spaces (World Bank, 2020).