The competition aims to harness the power of music to help combat child labour, which affects 152 million children worldwide.The Music Against Child Labour Initiative, which brings together musicians to raise awareness of child labour, is launching a song competition on 3 February 2021 to mark the UN International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour.

Global Partnership for Education's (GPE) youth leaders are supporting GPE’s financing campaign to transform education systems in the lowest income countries in the world. As the coronavirus pandemic puts school and learning further out of reach for children globally, they are raising the alarm and calling for support to education.

With support of President Emmanuel Macron as well as the patronage of UNESCO, the second edition of the Global Sports Week is taking place from 1 to 5 February 2021 in Paris. The theme of this year edition is “F​or an innovative and sustainable sports economy - reinvention in action​” and is structured around 6 ‘SHIFTS’ - lifestyle, equality, power, data, climate and health.

Democracy was dealt a major blow in 2020. Almost 70% of countries covered by The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index recorded a decline in their overall score, as country after country locked down to protect lives from a novel coronavirus. The global average score fell to its lowest level since the index began in 2006.