To mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, two UNU PhD fellows discuss their research on the impacts of COVID-19 in Africa and offer thoughts on the vital importance of female representation in science.

A coordinated effort to tackle COVID-19 and climate change is essential to ensure the human rights and livelihoods of migrants, refugees, and displaced populations are safeguarded during and long after the pandemic.

As the COVID-19 pandemic compounds a series of disease outbreaks in Central Africa, solutions depend on understanding the connections between ongoing conflict, forced migration, health systems, and gaps in water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Sub-national actors, networks, and resources will be vital to support migrants as they respond to the impacts of COVID-19 and face new barriers that compound their existing vulnerabilities.

With staggeringly low representation of black females and males among academic staff, and emerging evidence that blacks in academia are the victims of institutional and student bias, what can be done to ensure constructive change and a ‘mindshift’ across the system.

Although non-violent resistance may at first seem weak and inefficient in the face of oppression, it has proven to be a very strategic tool in the hands of marginalised communities to redress structural imbalances and claim rights to justice and self-determination.

Progress on women’s health has been uneven, but by working together, we can create a better and healthier world for women and for all.

A UNU working paper provides new evidence tracing the rise of populism in Brazil to regional economic shocks caused by a process of trade liberalisation that began in the early 1990s.

75 years after the UN emerged in a war-ravaged world, its Member States are once again presented with a transformational moment in the face of global issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

The COVID-19 pandemic is increasing existing economic and social inequalities across employment, technology, gender equality, and vaccine access amid rising economic nationalism.

Current data on the interlinkages between water, climate change, conflict, and migration can help inform policymaking to improve the well-being of migrants and populations in vulnerable settings.

To tackle the water quality data gap, extensive government water monitoring networks could shift to additionally gather project data through citizen-led monitoring activities.

If governments do not embrace unconventional water resources, achieving SDG 6 will be as difficult as getting water from a stone — and the consequences for water-scarce regions will be dire.

World Water Day 2018 is a reminder that global water security will not be achieved through business-as-usual approaches, and will depend on efforts to use and expand nature-based solutions.

The potential to achieve Sustainable Development Goal water targets will depend on a hybrid of technologies that improve water measurements and data underpinning indicators of progress.

For decades, China has successfully implemented afforestation programmes to counter desertification. But, while planting more trees will reduce erosion, it is also worsening China’s water crisis.

The Sendai Framework, while falling short of expectations on many fronts, took some important steps towards integrating lessons from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Experiences from Fukushima show that providing channels for public participation and dialogue is a crucial first step towards ensuring a sustainable recovery for communities impacted by complex disasters.

Knowing how key resilience is following a disaster, small-scale fishers of Japan’s Tohoku region offer support to Chile’s artisanal fishers impacted by a recent tsunami.

The Ministry of the Environment of Japan and UNU collaborate to produce a video documentary about the decontamination efforts in areas affected by radiation from the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Documentary filmmaker Kaori Brand reflects on the experience of producing this 30-minute video on the recovery efforts of the fishing communities hit by the March 2011 tsunami.

The resilience demonstrated by communities in Japan’s Tohoku region may be one of the best modern-day lessons on what the rest of the world can do to prepare for disasters and the consequences of climate change.