As part of the United Nations-driven process to craft a new sustainable development agenda, a spectacular line up of global artists will hit the stage tonight at the world body's New York Headquarters to add their voices and talents to the unprecedented global conversation under way to build the future we want. 

China has made a significant contribution to international peace and security in the 25 years it has been taking part in United Nations peacekeeping operations. People's Liberation Army personnel have built and repaired more than 8,000km of roads, defused 8,700 landmines and other explosive devices and treated in excess of 60,000 patients. The missions are an important facet of the nation's soft power; praise has been won and goodwill generated. 

UN working group devising the sustainable development goals (SDGs) has pared down its list of proposed target areas from 19 to 16, raising hopes of a more concise framework for challenges such as eradicating poverty, ensuring equality and tackling climate change.

The United Nations estimates that people in sub-Saharan Africa spend roughly 40 billion hours per year collecting water, and what they do find is often unsafe to drink. In some parts of Africa, finding potable water can be a six-hour endeavor. Roughly 3.4 million people die every year from water-related disease. The water shortage is a major life-threatening problem that affects as many as 1 billion people on the continent alone, but it's not as though you can just snap your fingers and make water magically appear out of thin air. Or can you? 

Canada and other wealthy countries should increase their foreign aid budgets to meet global spending targets, the Secretary-General of the United Nations says. Speaking at the close of a three-day summit on maternal and child health, Ban Ki-moon said many countries have committed to spending about 0.7 per cent of their gross national income on development assistance by 2015. “Unfortunately, at this time, there are only five countries who are meeting this target,” Mr. Ban said.

The aid situation in Syria—which has been dire ever since the start of the civil war—reached a desperate new low in May, with reports of government forces starving the residents of Homs to force a ceasefire, and with the NGO Mercy Corps revealing last week that the Assad regime had kicked its workers out of Damascus in retaliation for the group’s work in rebel-controlled areas. The United Nations has also publicly admitted that it has been threatened with imminent expulsion from the capital if it seeks to deliver aid elsewhere in the war-torn country.

UN Women today launched a major campaign in the lead-up to the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the historic Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. A year of activities around the world will aim to mobilize governments and citizens alike to picture a world where gender equality is a reality and to join a global conversation on empowering women to empower humanity.

“International humanitarian law requires that parties to the conflict at all times distinguish between civilians, civilian objects and military objectives,” she said. “Sustained rocket and barrel-bomb attacks on populated areas of Aleppo are being carried out in grave violation of international humanitarian and human rights law.