United Nations

Waste collectors trained on best waste management practices to mitigate COVID-19 infection

This Short Note talks about how the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA Ghana), and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO Global) trained about 100 leaders of waste pickers and collectors groups in Accra and Tema on best waste management practices and procedures to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 infection.

E-commerce from a gender and development perspective

This policy review considers the opportunities e-commerce offers to women-led and womenowned small enterprises in developing and least developed countries (LDCs), and the challenges such enterprises face to engage in e-commerce. While a vast literature is available on e-commerce and UNCTAD has contributed to it, looking at e-commerce through a gender lens is a more recent endeavour. This publication aims to contribute to it.

The Effects of AI on the Working Lives of Women

This report, by the IDB, OECD and UNESCO, outlines current knowledge of the impact that AI systems have on women’s opportunities for work, and their position, treatment and status in the workforce. It does so by exploring how AI is used within and outside the workplace, and how it could be used in the future. It looks at the potential impact of new and emerging AI technologies on the skills that employers will require, on how women look for and are hired for jobs, and on how jobs are structured through automated monitoring and oversight.

Leaving no one behind: How a global instrument to end plastic pollution can enable a just transition for the people informally collecting and recovering waste

This report proposes a new approach to tackling plastic pollution. It focuses on empowering informal waste recovery systems (IWRS) and their workers. These workers, often overlooked, possess valuable skills and knowledge in waste collection. The report argues that current solutions often exclude them, harming their livelihoods and hindering waste management. Instead, it proposes using resources to support a smooth transition for these workers and their communities,essentially bringing them into the fold as key players in solving plastic pollution.

Integrated Waste Management in Africa: Focus on Circularity

This report presents an analysis of the implementation and results of the SWITCH Africa Green programme in the integrated waste management (IWM) sector focusing on the participating countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa and Uganda. It covers the strategic interventions in the waste sector notably municipal solid waste management, e-waste management, waste to energy (e.g. biogas production and briquette production), as well as industrial symbiosis (IS).

From Research to Action: using international cooperation to drive gender equality

This short report summarizes a Creative Economy Alliance (CEA) webinar hosted by the Cultural and Creative Industries global project (implemented by GIZ and the Goethe-Institut on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) and the World Bank’s Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) Project. The webinar focused on using international cooperation to drive gender equality within the creative economy.

Museums around the world in the face of COVID-19 2021

The cultural sector has been severely and persistently affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with museums particularly hard hit: the 2020 UNESCO report estimated that nearly 90%, or an estimated 85,000 institutions, had been closed for varying lengths of time. The role of museums in society is essential, as they are responsible not only for preserving heritage for future generations but also as central actors for promoting lifelong learning and equal access to culture and the dissemination of values on which humanity is based.