A person in the United States is awakened: a devastating hurricane is coming to their area and they need to evacuate their home. As they are in a car, looking out of the window, the person is probably feeling quite relieved, but they do not know who to thank. A name that may come to one’s mind is the weather companies like The Weather Channel or AccuWeather, but in reality the person owes gratitude to the United Nations — more specifically its World Meteorological Organization agency — and its collaboration with the United States’ National Weather Service. 

 The international cooperation of the United Nations for over 75 years evidently has saved countless numbers of lives throughout the globe. Not only does its agencies give out early warnings to people in a path of a natural disaster, but the organization as a whole also airlifts humanitarian aid into ravaged countries like Yemen, promotes human rights around the globe, and upholds established international laws. In an age where division has been used as a political tool around the world, the United Nations has been a steady force in its attempts to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals such as no poverty and no hunger.

According to the United Nations Development Programme website, before the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established in 2012, a group of targets called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) guided the United Nations to levels of success for 15 years. From the work of the United Nations, based on the data from the previously-mentioned website, more than one billion people were lifted out of extreme poverty since 1990, child mortality has decreased more than fifty percent since the 1990s, and HIV in addition to AIDS infections have dropped to levels around forty percent of what it was previously.

When celebrating the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, one still has to be cautious about the future. Although the services of the United Nations have improved the world from the time before 1945, one has to note that poverty, climate change, and inequality are just some of the malevolent forces humanity needs to deal with over the next few decades. Notably, as the international organization looks back at its 75 years of existence, it also directs people towards the future. In a video on its website, the United Nations notes the year 2045 and what humanity could accomplish at the organization’s 100th anniversary: a change “that will shine a light on our children’s tomorrow.”