Lexy Blog

  Broadband Internet is failing to reach billions of people living in the developing world, including 90 per cent of those living in the poorest nations, according to a new United Nations report that offers country-by-country data on the state of access around the globe. The State of Broadband, produced by the UN Broadband Commission and released this week, reveals that 57 per cent of the world’s people remain offline and unable to take advantage of the enormous economic and social benefits the Internet can offer. The report, which comes ahead of this week’s summit in New York at which world leaders will adopt the 2030 Agenda which contains the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), stresses that access to information and communication technology (ICT), particularly broadband Internet, has the potential to serve as a major accelerator of development. The importance of ICT connectivity is specifically recognized in the SDGs. “The UN Sustainable Development Goal

The United Nations Secretariat Building in New York will be illuminated this evening with massive projections relating to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ahead of the three-day special UN summit beginning on Friday. “Starting at 7:30 p.m. until 10 p.m., we expect to illuminate the building with [images] relating to the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as images related to the 70th anniversary of the United Nations,” Under-Secretary-General for Public Information Cristina Gallach said in a statement, noting that filmmaker Richard Curtis produced the project. The projections were developed in collaboration with the Global Goals campaign and 59 Productions. The filmed footage will be edited into a four-minute film to be shown at the Global Citizen Festival on 26 September and broadcast around the world as part of international coverage of the event. The Global Goals campaign – funded by Mr. Curtis and launched at UN Headquarters earlier this month – aims t

  Programs supported by the Global Fund have saved 17 million lives up to the end of 2014, according to the Results Report 2015 released by the Fund. The Fund says that it is on track to reach 22 million lives saved by December 2016, the end of the current replenishment period. This is the first time since July 2012 that the Global Fund has included a lives saved figure in its results announcements. At that time, the Fund estimated that through programs it had supported, 8.7 million lives had been saved. Since then, the Fund has been working on refinements to its methodology for estimating lives saved. The Global Fund said that the increase in the number of lives saved is partly due to improved data collection and methodology and partly due to scientific advances, innovative solutions and increased global support. The report said that by the end of 2014 programs supported by the Fund also resulted in 8.1 million people receiving antiretroviral treatment (up 22% ove

In Nigeria, children who are not stunted or wasted remain in a minority. Nonetheless, the annual public investment required to totally avert stunting sits at $837million. Nutrition can be a driver of change or a barrier to progress, and, according to the Global Nutrition Report being released today in New York City, there are actions leaders of every country should be taking to end malnutrition in all its forms. Among the report’s key findings: One in three members of the global population is malnourished, and the problem exists in every country on the planet — yet, the strategies (or “high-impact interventions”) available to resolve it are not being implemented due to lack of money, skills, or political pressure.  “When one in three of us is held back, we as families, communities, and nations cannot move forward,” said Lawrence Haddad, lead author of the study and senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute ( IFPRI ). He conti