Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are five issue areas that will be discussed at the UN General Assembly in late September, ranging from climate action to protecting small islands. 

• What role do donors play in each of these issue areas? How is funding a primary concern for problems like universal healthcare coverage and financing the SDGs? 

• Review the key themes from last year's UN General Assembly. 

Every September, diplomacy gets a major moment: The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which brings together world leaders to discuss urgent global issues and create shared plans of action to tackle them.

You may be asking yourself, Why does this matter to me? Here’s why: Global problems cross borders and affect all of us. Global problems require global solutions. At the UN General Assembly, leaders from around the world will discuss the challenges that impact our lives and how to develop partnerships and ideas to solve them together.

That’s why this September, it matters to your life what world leaders say and do at the UN.

This year’s “high-level week” of UNGA — which takes place September 21 to September 27 — will focus on key issues that affect everyone, everywhere: Fighting climate change; expanding affordable, quality health care; halting growing inequality; and unlocking resources to achieve all of this.

So what does this look like exactly? In addition to speeches from each world leader, the UN will host five summits this year that will examine specific issues:

  • Climate Action
  • Sustainable Development Goals 
  • Universal Health Coverage
  • Financing for the SDGs
  • Protecting Small Island States 

Read the full article about key issues to watch for at UNGA by Jenni Lee at the United Nations Foundation.