Helen Clark's Diary, December

2022 has been a year of great challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to take its toll around the world on human health and across societies and economies. It has also been yet another year of dramatic climate crises - the devastating flooding in Pakistan and Somalia's worst drought in decades, for example, have driven deeper impoverishment and hunger. Russia's attack on Ukraine on 24 February launched a brutal war in Europe with many dead, injured, and displaced, and with countless war crimes and human rights violations being committed. The war has also had global impacts relating to food and energy supply and prices.

I send season's greetings to all as we fervently hope that 2023 may see a turn for the better on the many issues which have made life so hard for so many. I will continue to do what I can to make our world a better place than it is today.