We all have to acknowledge a simple fact: Africa is growing.

Coming from a smaller nation in Central Europe, I have learned pretty soon how important are agreed rules, cooperation, respect for partners and, most of all, willingness to listen and find common solutions.

U.N. employees, including senior leadership, should be selected based on merit and competence while continuing endeavors to achieve gender parity and geographical balance.

I'm a career diplomat. I spent 30 years as a diplomat, out of which seven years as foreign minister. I've always believed in the United Nations as a centre of multilateralism and multilateral diplomacy.

The tourism industry has considerable potential to be a sustainability role model in its role as a buyer of goods and other services, from building materials and green construction standards to farm produce.

You may or may not agree with Obama's policy prescriptions, but they are, by and large, serious attempts to deal with the biggest issues we face: a failing health care system, oil dependency, income stagnation, and climate change.

If we want to prevent both climate and ecological catastrophes, the key task is to minimise the amount of land we use to feed ourselves, while changing the way the remaining land is farmed. Instead, governments almost everywhere pour public money into planetary destruction.

I don't believe that there is anybody who denies climate change in the Democratic caucus. Everybody accepts that it is a real problem.