Across much of the Global South, formal housing markets fail to reach the people most in need of affordable homes. Recognizing incremental, community-driven housing systems is essential for achieving inclusive, climate-resilient cities
Global
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As conflicts grow more protracted, climate shocks intensify, and aid budgets shrink, gender equality cannot be treated as optional. Women’s leadership and rights must be central to effective humanitarian action
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Inequality is undermining progress across the SDGs, distorting economies, politics, and societies alike. Tackling it will require structural economic transformation, political will, and stronger global coordination
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Safe, affordable water in urban areas is central to sustainable development, yet progress remains uneven. To close this gap, cities need to adopt integrated, evidence-based approaches that build resilient and equitable services in practice
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Universal health coverage – a central target of the SDGs – seeks to guarantee access to essential health services without financial hardship. Achieving it, however, requires confronting the inequalities in access and quality that coverage alone cannot resolve
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We have built an intricate understanding of the dynamics between climate change, environmental systems, and resource use. We have also made huge strides in developing tools to analyze and model data. Why, then, are we not using this science to direct policy?
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Education can be a powerful force for shifting unequal gender norms, but schools do not transform them automatically. Embedding gender equality in education systems at scale – and defending that work against growing backlash – requires sustained political commitment, institutional reform, and public support
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Stopping polarization from destroying democracy
Peace and security
Political polarization is pushing many democracies into mutually hostile camps with conflicting views of reality. Restoring democratic health will require citizens and leaders to shift the focus from what divides society to what binds it
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Conflict and displacement are driving a largely overlooked crisis in maternal nutrition, with grave consequences for women, babies, and long-term development. Protecting mothers’ health is one of the most effective ways to save lives and advance progress across the SDGs in fragile settings
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Can the UN still make peace?
Peace and security
With the Security Council divided and the UN’s wider credibility under strain, member states are looking to the next Secretary-General for a fresh vision of peacemaking. But what can one leader realistically do to restore the organization’s influence on peace and security?
