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The United Nations’ vast system has tackled everything from delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to providing crucial peacekeeping operations in conflict zones since it was established in the wake of World War II.
As the international body closes in on 80 years, questions about its relevancy and efficiency have sharpened from supporters and critics alike. Recent U.S. cuts to foreign assistance and the reevaluation of humanitarian contributions by other countries have forced a reckoning for the U.N.
The organization has long sought to highlight its unique role as the meeting place of global leaders, with an ambitious mandate to prevent another world war.
Staffers, however, say the U.N. does more than respond to civilians’ needs in war zones and debate resolutions in the Security Council.
“The things that are not on the radar of anyone, that nobody sees every day, that’s what we do everywhere, in more than 150 countries,” said Diene Keita, executive director for programs at the U.N.’s population agency.
Here are five things the U.N. does that you may not have known:
Providing training to women and girls who have faced gender-based violence
U.N. agencies facilitate programs worldwide focused on women, tied to education, financial literacy, employment opportunities and more. Among the most sensitive services provided are those for victims of gender-based violence.
In Chad, the U.N. Population Fund operates several rehabilitation programs for women and girls recovering from that trauma. One of them, Halima Yakoy Adam, was taken at age 15 to a Boko Haram training camp in Nigeria, where she and several other girls were forced to become suicide bombers. Adam managed to escape with severe injuries, while the others died in blasts.
Through U.N. programs on the islands of Lake Chad, Adam received health and reproductive services as well as vocational training. She is now working as a paralegal in her community to assist other women and girls.
“We are not created to stay,” Keita said of U.N. agencies’ long-term presence. “So this is embedded in what we do every single day. We have that humility in knowing that we make a difference, so that people do not need us the next day.”
Resettling refugees in Mexico
Images of refugees at U.S. and European borders show the migration crisis around the world. Often overlooked are the refugees who are resettled in communities outside American and European cities, ones that resemble their home countries and cultural upbringings.
Since 2016, the U.N.’s refugee agency has supported the integration of more than 50,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in Mexico. They arrived in southern Mexico and were relocated to industrial cities after being screened and granted asylum by the government.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees provides transportation, orientation and access to health, education and other social services. More than 650 companies have agreed to train and employ these people, whose labor has generated a $15 million annual contribution to the Mexican economy, according to the U.N.
According to U.N. estimates, 94% of these working-age refugees have secured formal employment within their first month in the country and nearly 90% of school-age children have enrolled in school. The U.N. program also provides what staffers describe as clear pathways to Mexican citizenship.
“Mexico has become a country where people forced to flee can find the stability they need to restart their lives with dignity,” Giovanni Lepri, the top U.N. refugee agency official in Mexico, said in March. “A strong asylum system and legal framework allows an effective integration of asylum-seekers and refugees.”
Eliminating exploding remnants of war
U.N. agencies are present throughout various phases of war, from delivering food, water and medical supplies in an active military zone to the iconic “Blue Helmets” — the military personnel deployed to help countries transition out of conflict.
Less attention is paid to efforts made after the dust has settled.
One of those initiatives, the United Nations Mine Action Service, was established in 1997 to facilitate projects aimed at mitigating the threat posed by unexploded munitions in countries years — and sometimes decades — after war.
The U.N. estimates that on average, one person is killed or injured by land mines and other explosive ordnance every hour.
In January, a 21-year-old man was harvesting olives in a Syrian orchard with two friends when they noticed a visible mine on the ground. Panicked, they tried to leave, but one of them stepped on a land mine and it exploded, amputating one of his legs above the knee.
A month later, in Cambodia, a rocket-propelled grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two toddlers when it blew up near their homes.
The U.N. program aims to work with communities in Syria, Afghanistan and Nigeria to safely locate and remove these remnants of war while providing education and threat assessments.
Since its inception, the U.N. says more than 55 million land mines have been destroyed and over 30 countries have become mine-free.
Teaching refugee girls self-defense in Kenya
In a refugee camp in northwest Kenya, dozens of girls 12 to 18 have gathered every Saturday at a women’s empowerment center to learn self-defense through a Taekwondo class.
The program, launched by the U.N.’s Population Fund last year, has focused on providing an outlet for girls who have either been victims of gender-based violence or are at risk of it after fleeing conflict zones in countries like South Sudan, Ethiopia and Congo.
The coaches are locals who understand the cultural and political dynamics their students face while living in a camp that is home to nearly 300,000 refugees.
The goal is to use sports activities to create safe spaces for women and girls to discuss various issues like period poverty, abuse and domestic conflict. The program, which the U.N. has replicated in Egypt and elsewhere, is funded by the Olympic Refuge Foundation.
Sex education by monks in Bhutan
Topics surrounding sex and reproductive issues were considered taboo for centuries in Buddhist communities. U.N. staffers have spent the past decade working with religious leaders in Bhutan and other countries in Asia to “desensitize” the topics they believe are crucial to a healthy society.
The campaign has led more than 1,500 nuns from 26 nunneries to hold discussions with community members around sexual and reproductive health and the prevention of gender-based violence.
Now, at least 50 monks are trained to provide counseling services on these topics to students across Bhutan’s 20 districts.
The U.N. says these partnerships, which began in 2014, have contributed to a decrease in maternal mortality, an increase in contraception use, and better reproductive care for pregnant women.
