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United Nations University

The United Nations University (UNU) is a global research and postgraduate teaching organisation headquartered in Japan. The mission of the UNU is to contribute, through collaborative research and education, to efforts to resolve the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations, its Peoples and Member States, working with leading universities and research institutes and functioning as a bridge between the international academic community and the United Nations system.

The University encompasses 14 institutes located in 12 countries around the world. Through postgraduate teaching activities, UNU contributes to capacity building, particularly in developing countries. As part of the UN family of organisations, the University maintains close working relationships with other UN agencies, programmes, commissions, funds and convention secretariats.

The UN University undertakes cross-cultural, interdisciplinary research (utilising innovative, science-based techniques and methodologies to study important global processes and elaborate forward-looking solutions) and targeted foresight and policy studies (aimed at developing policy-relevant prescriptions and evaluating the feasibility and comparative advantages of each option). It provides postgraduate-level education (degree-oriented programmes and specialised training focused on problems and solutions rather than academic disciplines) and capacity development activities (aimed at helping developing and transitional countries to enhance local potential to address current problems/confront emergent challenges). It also promotes knowledge sharing and transfer (to deliver relevant information about UN University research, current scientific advances and best practices, in a timely manner and in a usable form, to those who most need it and can best use it).

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Displaying 41 - 60 of 154 articles
A child plays in a street in the port village of Paquitequete near Pemba, northern Mozambique. The region suffered decades of neglect, and major gas projects have failed to deliver local benefits. Photo by Alfredo Zuniga/AFP via Getty Images

Mozambique’s difficult decade: three lessons to inform next steps

Sam Jones, United Nations University and Finn Tarp, University of Copenhagen

The development strategy based on foreign investment in natural resources projects has not delivered economic growth or security. What’s needed is an inclusive vision based on local realities.
A crossing guard stops traffic as students arrive at École Woodward Hill Elementary School, in Surrey, B.C., Feb. 23, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Student achievement depends on reducing poverty now and after COVID-19

Louis Volante, Brock University; Don A. Klinger, University of Waikato; Livianna Tossutti, Brock University, and Melissa Siegel, United Nations University

Comprehensive early childhood education, mental health support, internet connectivity and post-secondary funding are part of reducing the consequences of poverty so all students may excel.
Textile workers at the Fine Spinners clothing factory in Uganda. Jon Rosenthal/Alamy

Many African countries had a surprise manufacturing surge in 2010s – it bodes well for the years ahead

Gaaitzen de Vries, United Nations University; Emmanuel B Mensah, University of Groningen; Hagen Kruse, University of Groningen, and Kunal Sen, United Nations University

Industrialisation was key to long-term economic growth in the west and Asia. After years of going in the wrong direction, new research suggests that many African countries have seen a turnaround.

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