Week Ahead in New York and Geneva

Week In Geneva

The Least Developed Countries Report 2024

Leveraging Carbon Markets for Development

Launch of the UN Trade and Development report on LDCs. Focus on the environment, and the carbon credits market in Least Developed Countries, and how to build trust as so many institutions, banks, and companies are being accused of greenwashing.

Listen to Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of the UN agency for Trade and Development and Rolf Traeger, Chief, UN Trade and Development Policy Analysis and Research, and lead author of the report.

Week Ahead In New York

Empowering Older Women and Strengthening Rights

How?

Investing in Equality and Addressing the Funding Gap for Older Women

Thursday, November 7, 2024 - 10:00-11:00 AM ET

This is a virtual presentation only. Use this link to watch online.

HelpAge International has recently released a new report, Investing in Equality: Addressing the Funding Gap for Older Women, that focuses on older women’s lifetime of disadvantage and discrimination, the bleak picture of donor spending, and empowering and strengthening their rights.

To bring you cutting-edge, data-driven information, we are focusing this program on a presentation of the report and its implications. This interactive program will help us craft directions for our work on older women and the economic and social gaps.

Week Ahead In Bogota

Ending Violence Against Children

Source: WHO

WHO is supporting the first-ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, to be held in Bogota, Colombia, 7-8 November. This first-of-its-kind event brings more than 120 countries, with over 80 Ministerial attendees, to agree to landmark commitments to end childhood violence.

Half of all children globally -- close to 1 billion -- suffer some kind of violence, whether at home, at school, in the community or online, including physical punishment, bullying, and emotional and sexual abuse. 

Commitments made at this historic event, which is hosted by the Governments of Colombia and Sweden together with the WHO, UNICEF and the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children -- will seek to drive down this violence -- whether through legal protections, promoting children’s safety wherever they live, go to school or play, and/or responding to the needs of child victims.

This includes several pledges to ban corporal punishment -- affecting 6 out of 10 children worldwide. 

Listen to WHO and UNICEF experts speak today in Geneva on the magnitude of the problem. There is reason for optimism thou, as this first-ever conference brings high-level officials to the table to commit to implementation of policies and legislation enforcement.

Travel Destinations in the Americas in Demand

Brazil Tops the List for Beach Holidays Over Christmas

Source: UNIC United Nations Information Center in the Caribbean

According to data from Amadeus' Navigator360™, North America continues to be the most popular and searched for destination in the region, seeing 13% growth in September to December compared to the same period last year.

The third report in the series, Travel Insights: Focus on Americas, September to December 2024, highlights the top travel trends for the region and is designed to support National Tourism Administrations (NTAs) and National Tourism Organizations (NTOs), Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) and private sector companies to drive tourism in their regions.

Most Researched Destinations

The top 10 most searched destinations remain the same as in 2023, with the U.S., Canada, and Mexico topping the list. Demand for beach destinations over the holiday season continues to trend, as searches for Mexico stand out with 19% growth for the period analyzed. The highest growth rate in destinations was seen by Chile (29%), followed by Colombia (27%), and Peru (24%).

The report reveals some insights into the subregions for the final four months of the year:

• North America – travelers from the U.S., UK, Canada, and Brazil provide the top search volumes for the region with New York City as the top searched for destination.  

• Central America – Costa Rica and Panama remain at the top of the list for traveler interest. El Salvador has seen significant growth (25%)

• Caribbean – Puerto Rico has risen to be the second most searched destination, behind the Dominican Republic. Curaçao has seen the highest growth as demand from South American travelers continues to rise.

• South America – Traveler interest remains strong, with Brazil as the top destination and Florianópolis topping the list of cities with the highest growth in travelers' interest from 2023.

A noteworthy trend can be seen in the resurgence of Chinese travelers, largely due to the improved air connectivity and the easing of travel restrictions. When looking at North America, China is in the top 30 origin markets based on search volume, with a 53% growth in travelers searching for trips to the Americas compared to 2023. Japan saw a similar significant growth rate of 40%.