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More than 300 CEOs, Heads of State, UN and civil society leaders attended the United Nations Private Sector Forum (PSF) on 26 September to discuss the role of business in implementing the world's 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In these stormy days in world politics there are two fundamentally different types of political and financial policy leaders: those guided by an optimistic image of man, who put forward a clear vision for the future of mankind, and those whose smallmindedness leaves no room for any image of man. Looking backward, they seek only to defend their power and evil deeds of the past—even though they are no longer defensible. In the dramatic changes of the coming weeks, we will only be able to solve the problems confronting us if we succeed in winning the European nations and the United States to the new paradigm represented by the economic policy of the BRICS states and the "win-win" perspective of China's New Silk Road.

As world leaders continued their Summit on the Sustainable Development Goals, UN Women and China co-hosted a landmark event on 27 September on gender equality and women’s empowerment at which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared that the new Global Goals could not be achieved “without full and equal rights for half of the world’s population, in law and in practice.”

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to be adopted on September 25 by the United Nations sets out a global framework to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development by 2030, building on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000. As the first ever global agreement setting a universal, comprehensive agenda for action, the 2030 Agenda includes an ambitious set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 associated targets, mobilising all countries and stakeholders towards their achievement and affecting domestic policies. The 2030 Agenda also includes the United Nations Addis Ababa Action Agenda adopted in July which sets out the different means necessary to implement the 2030 Agenda, including domestic resources, private finance and Official Development Assistance (ODA).

Pope Francis delivered a wide-ranging address before world leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, urging global action to protect the environment and end the suffering of "vast ranks of the excluded," saying that “human beings take precedence over partisan interests.”

Faj Attan neighbourhood in Sana’a, Yemen, is regularly hit by airstrikes. Most of the population has left.

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador David Beckham (centre) with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (l) and UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake (r) at the opening of the ‘Assembly of Youth' digital installation at UN Headquarters

Two young refugees wait with their parents to go to emergency accommodation in Nickelsdorf, Austria, earlier this month. Austria is facing an unprecedented arrival of refugees, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ahead of the UN Sustainable Development Summit from 25-27 September, and to mark the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, a 10-minute film introducing the Sustainable Development Goals is projected onto UN Headquarters.

Business activity on eastern shore of Lake Chad where life goes on in Chad despite the insurgency