Welcome to our annual effort to translate all that impenetrable UNGA-speak

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Image: Reuters/Yana Paskova
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The UN General Assembly (aka UNGA, because if a UN initiative doesn’t have an acronym, it doesn’t exist) is back for its 74th edition.

Like every year, the UN has taken New York hostage with its mix of diplomats, development specialists, traffic, meeting fatigue, and the ultimate Quartz favorite: atrocious event titles. People who work in, or with, the UN are surely fluent in obscure international bureaucratic language. But because the UN is supposed to be for everyone, we are, for the third time, here to absolve our service journalism duty and turn the jargon into normal words. Let’s start with the 74th UNGA title:

Galvanizing multilateral efforts

for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion

Hello, the world is full of poor people who can’t get a good education and are discriminated against, plus we broke the weather: We. Gotta. Move.

Scaling Solutions

and Impact to Shift Systems

Y’all have all these good ideas but nothing ever changes, try harder

Putting the U in UHC

—Financing for the Furthest Left Behind

This is not about you, it’s about U—U for universal (health coverage). Do you have money for very poor people without doctors?

Multi-sectoral Action

to Take Forward the Commitments of the UN High Level Meeting on TB

Last year we promised we were going to fight tuberculosis, this is how that’s going

Accelerating Achievement of the SDGs

: Reflections from the High-Level Council on Leadership & Management for Development

The bosses say at this pace we are never going to meet the development goals by 2030

Buying Medicines Better

: Deploying Smart Procurement to Accelerate Universal Health Coverage

Where to buy cheaper drugs

Exploring Solutions

for Multi-Morbidities Prevention and Control

So many diseases! How do we stop them all?

People-Private-Public-Professional

Partnership for Building an Ecosystem for Universal Health Service Delivery in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe needs a health care system. We want everybody’s help

Intrapreneurship

: Shifting the System from Within the System

We’re here fixing capitalism, one pun at a time

Impact of Green Bond (Afforestation)

Intervention in Climate Mitigation and Adaptation

Investing in environmental projects helps address the climate emergency

Seeing the Road to UHC

: Eradicating Poor Vision in a Generation

Bad eyesight is still a problem in many places, let’s solve it

Accelerating multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder action and investment to achieve UHC

: Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Like-Minded Group of Countries Supporters of Middle-Income Countries (MICs)

Several ministers meet to discuss supporting countries still on their path toward universal health coverage