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Flagship Reports |
Economic, digital and energy transformations are reshaping the world at extraordinary speed. Yet billions of people remain excluded from the opportunities these changes bring, according to the World Social Report 2026: The New Economics of Social Inclusion: Making Transformations Work for All. The report emphasizes that social inclusion is essential for building more productive, resilient and sustainable societies.Despite global progress, inequalities persist. In 2025, 58 per cent of workers worldwide were informally employed, 27 per cent of young women aged 15 to 24 were not in employment, education or training, and 2.2 billion people lacked internet access. Climate change further…
Policy Briefs |
Social protection is both a human right and a key driver of sustainable development, with the power to lift and keep households out of poverty, build resilience to shocks and strengthen social cohesion.¹ Recent global shocks—including the lingering effects of COVID-19, food, fuel and energy price volatility, and climate-related disasters—have exposed how quickly households can fall into poverty when basic protections are weak. This is true in several Pacific small island developing States (SIDS), where significant coverage gaps leave people highly vulnerable when things go wrong.²Expanding social protection systems does not mean doing everything at once. In contexts where poverty, labour…
Policy Briefs |
Platform-mediated work—labour or services provided through digital platforms, including location-based ser-vices such as ride-hailing and delivery, as well as online freelancing and microwork—has become one of the most visible expressions of digital transformation in labour markets. By connecting workers and clients through apps and online platforms, it can expand access to income-earning opportunities. At the same time, many platform workers operate outside standard employment relation-ships, often as own-account workers without regular or continuous ties to a single employer, which can limit access to labour protections, collective bargaining and social protection.In many cases, work is…
UN General Assembly Reports on Social Development |
The report presents efforts made from February 2024 to January 2026 to leverage sport for development and peace and implement the United Nations Action Plan on Sport for Development and Peace. In so doing, it assesses the capacity of the Secretariat to support effective implementation of the Action Plan through 2030 and beyond and support effective efforts across the sport for development and peace landscape. Drawing on inputs from Member States, United Nations entities and other stakeholders, the report demonstrates that sport continues to gain recognition as a cross-cutting contributor to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in advancing health and well-being, gender equality,…
UN General Assembly Reports on Social Development |
The report focuses on ensuring the practical implementation of the commitments reaffirmed in the Doha Political Declaration of the “World Social Summit” under the title “the Second World Summit for Social Development”. The Declaration reaffirms the core commitments of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and renews them in the context of a world that is more unequal, shock-prone, fragmented and rapidly changing. The report underscores that financing remains the immediate and necessary enabling condition for implementation, and that progress will depend on financing that is adequate, affordable, predictable and aligned with social development priorities. It also highlights…
UN General Assembly Reports on Social Development |
A/81/212 - Released on 13 August 2026: The report provides an analysis of longevity as a defining demographic transformation of the twenty-first century and examines its implications across interconnected policy domains. As life expectancy rises across regions, extended lifespans are reshaping planning assumptions in health systems, labour markets, social protection frameworks, education systems and public finance. The report emphasizes that longevity is not confined to a single sector, but constitutes a cross-cutting governance issue requiring coherent whole-of-government approaches to address the opportunities and challenges associated with longer lives. It highlights the importance…
UN General Assembly Reports on Social Development |
The report assesses progress made in mainstreaming disability inclusion across development policies and programmes, the elimination of discrimination and barriers that impact disability inclusion, strengthening access by persons with disabilities to basic services that impact well-being, such as education, healthcare and social protection, improved data collection and enhanced participation of persons with disabilities in decision‑making.It analyses available data and good practices undertaken by Member States, United Nations entities, civil society organizations and other relevant stakeholders to translate these measures into practice, and concludes with recommendations to further promote…
UN General Assembly Reports on Social Development |
The report examines the current state of rural poverty and the structural constraints that continue to impede its eradication. It places emphasis on how land-related challenges – including degradation, fragmentation, inequalities and tenure insecurity – shape poverty in rural areas. Evidence indicates that land degradation, poverty, and food insecurity and malnutrition intersect to create acute vulnerability hotspots. Restoring soil health and reversing degradation through sustainable land management on existing croplands could substantially narrow yield gaps and strengthen the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of producers, with benefits for ecosystem services that humans rely on for…
UN General Assembly Reports on Social Development |
The report reviews progress, gaps and challenges in eradicating poverty and examines key drivers, including inequalities in access to education, health and social protection, climate related vulnerabilities, conflicts, constrained fiscal space and economic shocks. It highlights that progress remains uneven and insufficient, with structural inequalities, limited social protection coverage and increasing exposure to shocks constraining progress. The report underscores the need for integrated and shock-responsive policies and presents selected actions taken by the United Nations system. It concludes with recommendations to accelerate progress towards the eradication of poverty and the…
UN ECOSOC Reports on Social Development | , UN General Assembly Reports on Social Development |
The report is focused on good practices in family policymaking in response to the megatrends of technological change, demographic change, urbanization, migration and climate change and shows that integrating family-oriented approaches in response to megatrends, through supportive services, inclusive planning and participatory governance, has been essential to protecting and empowering families and building equitable societies. It also contains reviews of family-oriented policies and programmes enacted by Member States in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as reported in voluntary national reviews during the period 2020–2024. The report reveals that family-oriented…