By MediaGlobal
ENDING FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION IS AN UPHILL BATTLE IN MANY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
28 April 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Ten United Nations agencies came together last month in an effort to combat female genital mutilation (FGM), a common practice in many sub-Saharan African nations. FGM has been recognized as a significant stumbling block to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Not the least among the challenges facing the UN agencies is convincing FGM-practicing nations that the action is harmful to women. “Evidence shows that communities are willing to eliminate the practice when we use a respectful, culturally mindful approach and when the drive to change comes from inside, [for example from] the community itself,” Geoffrey Keele, Communications Officer for UNICEF told MediaGlobal. In communities such as Senegal and Egypt, FGM is becoming less popular. In Senegal, the decrease is due in part to informal educational programs created by UNICEF and others. In Egypt, Coptic communities are convincing people to end the ritual by making it an issue of self-reliance and responsibility. “Many local non-governmental organizations are also active in countries across Africa, the Middle East and South Asia,” Keele added.
ADDRESSING DROUGHT CRUCIAL TO FOOD CRISIS SOLUTION
28 April 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Drought and unsustainable water management have been key contributing factors to the current global food crisis, said the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) in a recent press release. Drought has already disrupted food production and exports in many areas. “In particular, a rise in the price of rice has been exacerbated by drought in Australia, a major rice exporter,” UN/ISDR Secretariat Director Salvano Briceno told MediaGlobal. “Drought is predicted by the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] to increase due to climate change, and therefore reducing drought risk needs to be prioritized in agricultural and development policy as soon as possible.” Because drought is a gradual phenomenon, countries can build their defenses against rising temperatures and dryer seasons with good planning, such as better water management and scaled-up use of available risk-reduction tools and programs to tackle drought and desertification, according to the ISDR. “Drought creeps,” said Briceno, “so we can outrun it. But this will take a genuine mindset and policy shift towards the ethos that prevention is better than cure, and serious political and economic commitment to saving harvests and lives on a global economic level.”
CLIMATE INFORMATION SEMINARS TO BENEFIT FARMERS IN WEST AFRICA
30 April 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Extreme weather conditions are impeding sustainable farming in the Sahelian countries of West Africa, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Climate change contributes to the vulnerability of individual farms, threatening food security in the region. The WMO is working to improve weather predictions and boost both food production and farmers’ profits. The agency has planned to educate over 10,000 farmers in five countries – Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal – through traveling seminars. “The seminars will provide information to the farmers on the current weather and climate risks to their production systems and how the future climate change is likely to impact their production systems,” Dr. M.V.K. Sivakumar, Chief of WMO’s Agricultural Meteorological Division, told MediaGlobal. “We will inform them about the current advances in climate science such as seasonal to inter-annual climate forecasts and medium range weather forecasts, which could provide them information to facilitate decisions on cropping strategies and operational decisions on farms,” Sivakumar added. The end goal of the seminars is to secure farmers’ self-reliance by informing them about effective weather and climate risk management and the sustainable use of natural resources for agricultural production, said the WMO in a recent press release. The seminars typically last an entire day and are in centralized locations in different regions of the five Sahelian countries.
GLOBAL COMPACT NETWORK PROMOTES CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY IN NAMIBIA
1 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Recognizing the development potential of public-private partnerships, Namibian businesses joined the Global Compact, an international corporate citizenship initiative, launching the Namibian UN Global Compact Network in Windhoek, Namibia on April 23. “Local networks are probably the most important part of the Global Compact,” Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Chairman of the Foundation for the Global Compact, told MediaGlobal during meeting of Global Compact board members, held Thursday at UN Headquarters. The Compact brings businesses around the world together to combat corruption and promote human rights, labor standards and environmental protection. Local networks are crucial to the success of the compact, Moody-Stuart said. “It’s how we can get businesses, affiliates of international companies, local companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, how we can get them, together with local civil society organizations [and] international civil society, to work together.” Speaking at the launch of the network, Namibian Prime Minister Nahas Angula noted that the Compact was an important step toward the government’s own agenda of private sector development, and urged businesses, particularly in the mining, fishing and tourism industries, to join. Aligning diverse business objectives with the central principles of the Compact requires strong commitment and partnerships at local levels, Moody-Stuart added. “We don’t solve problems here in New York. We may set frameworks, which we hope will have an impact, but the problems are solved country by country.”
WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY FOCUSES ON FREE PRESS AND COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
1 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Access to information for all is considered a fundamental right, yet attacks on journalists continue all over the world, with perpetrators rarely facing prosecution. May 1 is World Press Freedom Day, which stresses the importance of free speech and a safe reporting environment. While public access to information empowers people and gives them the opportunity to control their lives, technological advances have increased access to information. Brazil has been particularly successful in expanding Internet access. Currently, Brazil has 42.6 million Internet users, reflecting a 752 percent between 2000 and 2007. However, a digital divide remains. Only 22.4 percent of Brazilians are connected to the Internet. No further surveys of information access have been conducted because “it is very difficult to measure the impact of steps taken to enhance access of information,” Norberto Moretti, Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN, told MediaGlobal. While the U.S. has adopted the Freedom of Information Act, which requires the government make U.S. government records public, there are still nations which have not adopted any such law, leaving their citizens with little access to the information they need to hold their governments accountable. In the case of China, this shortcoming was highlighted by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in late 2002, when the domestic press was told to report that the outbreak was a rumor. Only after the death toll rose did the Chinese government admit that there was an outbreak. As Richard Winfield, Chairman of the World Press Freedom Committee, said, “Sunshine is the best disinfectant.”
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY RISKS MISSING ‘CRUCIAL MONTHS’ TO AVERT FAMINE IN SOMALIA, SAYS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE
2 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The food situation is rapidly deteriorating in Somalia, with over 2.5 million people in need of food aid, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Violent conflict, drought and inflation, together with rising global food prices have left this East African country on the brink of famine. The World Food Programme (WFP) launched an emergency appeal for increased food aid to the region, where up to half the population faces hunger in the coming months if the late spring rains fail, as experts expect. “These crucial three, four months between the first signs of a famine emerging and the response in terms of food aid from the international community are crucial months which, if they are lost, lead to extremely adverse consequences,” Olivier De Schutter, the new UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, told MediaGlobal during a press conference Friday, noting that supplies arrived too late to stave off recent famines in Malawi, Niger and Ethiopia. After thousands had already starved, and the food aid came “at a moment when new harvests, sometimes, were put on the market, so that the international assistance was actually competing with the food local producers were putting on the markets,” he said. He added that relief organizations must deliver supplies quickly and have effective exit strategies, so as not to undermine local producers, who, once the food crisis has passed, “may find that on the domestic markets it’s very difficult to obtain a good price for their produce if international aid flows are coming in either for free or for very low prices.” The number of people needing food aid in Somalia has increased by more than 40 percent since January, while cereal prices have risen 110 percent to 375 percent in the last year, according to the FAO.
MOVIE STAR SPEAKS UP ON BEHALF OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS
2 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: It may not have been as wild as the excitement George Clooney caused at the United Nations, but Nicole Kidman made her statement. “I still find it impossible to wrap my head around the fact that just by being born a woman, you are at risk of the most appalling and probably most widespread human rights violation of our time,” said Kidman, referring to violence against women in the world. “Violence is literally an issue that transcends borders, religion, race [and] gender,” Nanette Braun, UNIFEM Communications Specialist, told MediaGlobal. Kidman was launching UNIFEM’s (United Nations Development Fund for Women) Say NO to Violence against Women campaign, a global Internet-based advocacy effort to ending violence against women. More than 100 organizations have signed on as partners and over 200,000 individuals have petitioned on behalf of the campaign. “[Violence against women] is still shrouded in shame and silence,” said Kidman. Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General said that this is, “probably the most pervasive human rights violation. One in three women will be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime.”
GLOBAL HAPPENINGS
For May
Project for Nuclear Awareness’s Conference
Philadelphia, PA (10 May 2008): MediaGlobal is co-sponsoring a one-day, multidisciplinary conference together with the Project for Nuclear Awareness and a dozen partner organizations to “connect the dots” on the environment, security, and global health. Experts, advocates, and interested citizens will be brought together at the Sheraton University City Hotel Ballroom in Philadelphia, PA for a discussion on engaging more people in these critical issues.
For tickets information, click: www.projectfornuclearawareness.org/news.aspx/pub/4/id/45
International Workshop on HIV/AIDS 2008
Varadero, Cuba (4-9 May 2008): Organized by the Cuban Society for Immunology and Latin American Association of Immunology, it will explore latest experiences in HIV/AIDS.
Email: tapanes@ipk.sld.cu or Rolando.tapanes@gmail.com
www.sci.sld.cu
First Global Business Conference and Competition for Off-Grid Lighting in Africa
Accra, Ghana (5-8 May 2008): The World Bank Group and its partners are proud to announce Lighting Africa 2008, the first global business conference and development marketplace competition for off-grid lighting in Africa. The conference is designed for investors, financiers, private firms, end users, and development agencies to showcase and expand business opportunities targeting low-income populations in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Website: www.lightingafrica.org
Fashion Africa 2008
Nairobi, Kenya (8-11 May 2008): This exhibition is the place to discover the latest ideas and attract a whole new audience. FASHION AFRICA will be the international meeting point for fashion designers / companies to showcase their new fashion and style products, innovations, equipment and concepts from the fashion industry.
Website: www.arabianexposition.com
International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training
Accra, Ghana (28-30 May 2008): The 3rd International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training is the premier gathering place for all experts and stakeholders engaged or interested in ICT-based projects in Africa.
Website: http:// www.elearning-africa.com
SOURCE: South-South Solutions http://tcdc1.undp.org/enews/index.html
Development agencies and non-governmental organizations are welcome to send details of upcoming conferences for inclusion in our HAPPENINGS column.
Contributors: Nosh Nalavala, Sheana Laughlin, Adelia Saunders, Joe Deaux and Shipra Prakash
MediaGlobal is a leading provider of information on global development issues facing vulnerable countries in Africa and Asia. Leaders of developed countries, the global media (with media in developing countries), policymakers in donor countries, non-governmental organizations, Permanent Representatives of Missions to the United Nations and key personnel in the United Nations Secretariat, its agencies and managers in the field worldwide read MediaGlobal’s newswire stories. Contact: media@mediaglobal.org . United Nations, Room S-301, New York, NY 10017. Tel: (212) 963-9878. Fax: (609) 716-1297 Website: www.mediaglobal.org
WE WOULD VERY MUCH APPRECIATE YOUR FEEDBACK Email: Nosh Nalavala at media@mediaglobal.org