By MediaGlobal
AFGHANISTAN WINS SUPPORT FOR DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AT PARIS CONFERENCE
16 June 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Donors pledged about $20 billion to Afghanistan at a one-day conference in Paris, although Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, had expected $50 billion to cover the cost of schools, roads and other development projects that are necessary to rebuild the country. The United States was the biggest donor, with a pledge of $10.2 billion. Canada, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the World Bank also pledged large amounts. While donors have already promised around $25 billion since 2001, only $15 billion of this has been given, and Karzai continues to face considerable challenges in his attempts to stabilize the country and increase the living standards of Afghans. Rising levels of criminal violence and corruption fueled by the world’s largest opium harvest are undermining efforts by Karzai’s government and international donors working to strengthen the country. The Taliban insurgency is another critical issue. One reason for the continuing violence may be the number of troops in Afghanistan. “There are not enough troops and not enough coordination,” Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Senior Advisor to the Center for Defense Information, told MediaGlobal. Another serious issue is corruption. Kabul-based Integrity Watch Afghanistan reported that a recent study revealed that the majority of Afghans feel that less than 40 percent of foreign aid reaches the people it is meant for, and donors fear that officials will pocket the money, while the rest of the Afghans do not benefit from the funds disbursed. However, the conference also highlighted the country’s successes – Afghanistan can boast a popularly elected government, two million girls in school and a stunning 80 percent of the population with access to health services.
COURT RULING BANS AIDS VITAMIN TRIALS IN SOUTH AFRICA
16 June 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: A South African court ruled against 12 people, including David Rasnick, an American doctor who used to be an adviser to South African President Thabo Mbeki, in a decision meant to protect those suffering from HIV/AIDS from unsafe medical trials. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the South African Medical Association (SAMA) brought the case to the court, accusing Matthias Rath, a German doctor included in the court’s ruling, of conducting AIDS vitamin trials on poor communities. TAC and SAMA scored a victory with the court’s ruling – the court banned unauthorized vitamin trials on those who are infected with AIDS. “It is declared that the clinical trials conducted in South Africa are unlawful,” Judge Dumisani Zondi said in his ruling. Although Rath claims that his remedies are more effective than antiretroviral drugs, he has been barred from placing advertisements for vitamin pills that contain minerals such as iron and iodine. The TAC said that some of Rath’s patients died after taking vitamin supplements rather than relying on conventional treatments. “Any initiative that takes people off antiretroviral treatment will cause their death,” Aleza Summit, Program Officer at the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, told MediaGlobal. The South African government was also accused of not doing enough to stop the trials. But Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang denied this, although he had advocated the use of garlic and beetroot instead of antiretroviral drugs. South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world, with one in five adults infected and up to 1,000 people dying of AIDS-related sicknesses every day.
NEW PHASE OF UNICEF CAMPAIGN AGAINST MALNUTRITION LAUNCHED IN TOGO
16 June 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The Togolese region of Kara struggles with a 22.6 percent under-five malnutrition rate, significantly higher than the 10 percent emergency level. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has already established programs in the Savanes region in Togo, which has a 32 percent under-five malnutrition rate, and has reported much success. Following the same blueprint of the programs in Savanes, the programs in Kara will use a “community-based approach,” Aissa Mamadoultaibou, UNICEF Nutrition Specialist in Togo, told MediaGlobal. This approach “takes care of children suffering from moderate and chronic malnutrition without complication at the community level,” Mamadoultaibou explained. A unique aspect of these programs is the use of community health agents, who are “trained and mobilized in detection and treatment of malnutrition,” which make it possible to reach and treat 2,098 children in one day, as opposed to the 300 a month previously reached with nutrition rehabilitation centers alone. “UNICEF continues to support the opening of nutritional rehabilitation centers,” added Mamadoultaibou, “having already opened 134 centers in partnership with the Government, we think that we will open 200 new ones in the three most affected regions by the end of the year.” UNICEF aims to have new programs active in the third most affected region, the Maritime region, which has a 12.9 percent under-five malnutrition rate, by July 2008.
CORRUPTION IMPACTS POOR THE HARDEST, REPORT SAYS
16 June 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Widespread corruption in Asia and the Pacific impacts the region’s poor the hardest, according to a new report released by the United Nations. The report illustrates the degree to which corruption pervades every sector of society, from hospitals that demand bribes for beds and government-subsidized medications to schools whose teachers appear on the payroll but never actually show up. Research shows that in countries with high rates of corruption, less of the gross domestic product (GDP) goes into investment, and the countries exhibit lower rates of growth. Scarce public resources tend to be channeled into high-profile –- and often uneconomical — projects at the expense of necessary but unspectacular infrastructure projects such as water and power grids in rural areas. Furthermore, less is invested in education and other methods of building human capital. But while it is the large-scale tales of corruption that tend to dominate headlines, Anuradha Rajivan, Head of the UNDP Regional Human Development Report Unit, points out that equal attention needs to be paid to the corruption that does not capture headlines. Much focus on corruption tends to gravitate around government corruption, but Rajivan pointed out that the private sector’s role must also be addressed. “The term ‘petty corruption’ is a misnomer, somehow implying that it is less significant,” she told MediaGlobal. “It is better called ‘retail corruption’ given its spread, the very large number of people it affects, its everyday prevalence in daily lives, its persistence, and the high share of incomes of the poor it diverts.”
BOOMING COMMERCE IN FISHING INDUSTRY BENEFITS DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
17 June 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) discussed world fish production and set up guidelines for sustaining the fishing industry at the 11th session of the FAO Sub-Committee on Fish Trade. In 2007, the world export value of fish and fish products climbed to a record US$92 billion. Fish production now represents 38 percent of total world exports. Half of international fish trade originates in developing countries, whose net export revenues from fish are currently estimated at $25 billion. The soaring global demand for fish products serves as a significant benefit for the developing countries by generating economic activity, creating employment, stabilizing incomes and increasing government revenues. The FAO endorsed a set of voluntary guidelines intended to support developing countries, allowing them to benefit fully from the market demand. “The purpose of the Technical Guidelines is to provide practical guidance and advice to policy makers, the fish industry and fisheries managers on how to implement the trade-related aspects of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. They apply to all FAO members, creating a level playing field,” William Emerson, FAO Senior Fishery Industry Officer and Secretary of the FAO Sub-Committee on Fish Trade, told MediaGlobal. “At the same time, they provide a framework by which countries can make sure that international trade in fish and fishery products does not compromise the sustainable development of fisheries and responsible utilization of living aquatic resources. We hope to see these guidelines help establish a stronger seafood export industry in the developing world, one that has fair access to markets and which manages the resource base upon which it depends in a responsible and sustainable manner.”
IMPOVERISHED PEOPLE CAN HELP STOP DESERTIFICATION
17 June 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Desertification has been described as one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time, and it is poor farmers and herders in developing nations that bear the brunt of its effects, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) reported on World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. However, it is also those at the front lines of this problem who can now be part of the solution. “Poor people play a crucial role in combating desertification and dryland management. Especially women. It is they who have the skills in managing the natural local resources and the environmental knowledge passed on through women in their traditional role of providers of food, water and firewood,” Jessica Thomas of IFAD told MediaGlobal. IFAD reports that nearly half the world’s poor live in dry and marginalized lands, and poorly conceived agricultural practices, traditional or intensified, only make things worse as poor populations have no choice but to adopt short term-survival methods, putting more pressure on increasingly scare local resources. “The more land that is degraded, be it by over-grazing, soil erosion, the wrong kinds of farming practices, or diminishing rainfall, the more arable land is taken out of the picture,” Thomas said.
CARBON TAXES MAY DISPROPORTIONATELY IMPACT DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, EXPERTS SAY
17 June 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Carbon taxes have leapt to the forefront of the international conversation on climate change, yet many question whether they can be implemented equitably. Tariq Banuri, Senior Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute told MediaGlobal that while carbon taxes might provide incentives to curb emissions, “they will do so essentially by squeezing out the poor.” Developed countries currently account for 70 to 80 percent of carbon emissions, but the emissions of the developing world are quickly increasing. Considering that the British government’s Stern Report suggests that global emissions will have to be cut by 80 percent by 2050, it seems almost certain that any policy with global impact will have to address both the developed and the developing world. In a panel discussion on carbon taxes held at the United Nations this Tuesday, Chief of Fiscal Affairs at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Michael Keen advocated a uniform tax across countries, in which distribution issues would be addressed by other means. But Banuri countered that any global compensatory measures aimed at offsetting the distributional impact of a flat carbon tax would be difficult to implement. “No international policy can be devised in such a way that it does not have explicit or implicit domestic distributional implications,” he said.
FIFTH INTERNATIONAL POLAR DAY LAUNCHED: LAND AND LIFE DAY
17 June 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The International Polar Year 2007-8 (IPY) is an international and interdisciplinary research effort centered on the Polar Region. Over 50,000 participants across more than 60 countries are contributing to IPY’s diverse research activities. IPY’s main purpose is to communicate its recent findings about polar regions directly to the public, particularly to teachers and students. It hosts International Polar Days, each with a different topic, to educate the public on the IPY’s various discoveries. The first of IPY’s eight events took place 1 March 2007 and their last is planned for March 2009. The fifth International Polar Day focused on Land and Life. “In this ‘Land and Life’ day we want to draw attention to the terrestrial ecosystems of polar regions, and to the geographic aspects such as the permafrost and the lake and river systems. All of those systems show substantial changes in recent years, and we want to highlight that those changes relate to global warming and have impact on polar plants and animals and the entire polar landscape,” Dr. David Carlson, IPY IPO Director, told MediaGlobal. This Polar Day was held in conjunction with the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP) and TUNZA International Children’s Conference to raise public awareness about polar science. Carlson explained the benefits of International Polar Days. “First, we promote IPY. Second, students learn about an aspect of polar science, through written materials, activities, and live events. Third, the participants themselves join a worldwide network of other schools and other students interested in polar science and climate change – they can ‘see’ themselves as part of a global concerned network that reaches out to many countries, not just those in polar regions.”
URBANIZATION’S IMPACT ON OCEANS TO BE HIGHLIGHTED BY UNITED NATIONS AT WORLD EXPO
19 June 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: During the World Expo 2010, to be held in Shanghai, China, the United Nations will take part in a global interactive conversation on urban development, as participants from around the world gather to exchange ideas on the Expo’s theme -“Better City, Better Life.” With more people migrating to cities than ever before, rapid urbanization is having a profound – and primarily negative – effect on the environment, particularly on the world’s oceans. “Cities are moving increasingly toward the coasts,” Dr Awni Behnam, one of the principle designers of the Expo’s UN Pavilion, said in an interview. “Soon 75 percent of the world will be living within 100 km of the ocean, so there’s this nexus between urbanization and the impact humans have on the ocean. And that impacts the climate.” The UN Pavilion will be organized around the idea of “One Earth, One UN,” and one of its focus areas will be managing the impact cities have on surrounding ecosystems. “There’s no other planet we can escape to. We have to look at this issue in its totality and how it affects our environment, the climate, the ocean, the earth,” Behnam said, noting that the design of the pavilion will express the core values of the United Nations. “We are not individual self-sustaining parts, we all are feeding into a single project and that is the ultimate end, of how to create happiness in people that would lead to peace,” he said.
ON WORLD REFUGEE DAY, DEBATE OVER “CLIMATE REFUGEES” CONTINUES
20 June 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Friday marked World Refugee Day, spotlighting the plight of the increasing number of people around the world displaced by war, famine and persecution. But another class of the displaced, who currently lack the official refugee status that would mandate their protection by the international community, is struggling to be heard. “Climate refugees,” or those driven from their homes by rising seas or changing weather conditions, could number in the hundreds of millions as man-made global warming submerges islands, changes cropping patterns and increases the incidence of droughts, floods and violent storms. “It’s important today to include the migration dimension into the climate change debate,” regardless of the formal status of those displaced, Jean-Philippe Chauzy, Head of Public Information for the International Organization for Migration, said in an interview with MediaGlobal. “Climate change [and] environmental degradation will have an impact on human migration and mobility,” he added. Also on Friday, the president of the tiny Pacific island of Kiribati, whose highest point lies just two meters above sea level, appealed to Australia to take in islanders displaced by rising sea levels, which threaten to completely submerge Kiribati in as little as 50 years. While Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have been asking their less vulnerable neighbors for similar guarantees for years, there is an increasing level of public awareness of impending environmental threats, Chauzy said, elevating the problem in the public consciousness. “These are issues that need to be addressed now, you can’t wait until there’s no access to drinkable water on some of the small low-lying islands,” he said. “You basically need to think about these issues now and find some kind of comprehensive, initially probably regional response, to those population movements.”
The Singapore International Water Week and the World Cities Summit
Singapore (23-27 June 2008): The Singapore International Water Week will set the stage for policymakers, industry leaders, experts and practitioners to address challenges, showcase technologies, discover opportunities and celebrate achievements in the water world. The World Cities Summit will focus on issues related to good governance, urban development, environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness.
Website: http://www.siww.com.sg/
International Conference on Groundwater and Climate in Africa
Kampala, Uganda (25-28 June 2008): The conference seeks to bring together water and climate scientists from research/academic institutions, government departments, and private sector as well as representatives from international agencies, donors and consortia in order to share knowledge and expertise, and thereby improve current understanding of the impact of climate and development on groundwater resources in Africa.
Website: http://www.gwclim.org/
China-OECD Multi-stakeholder Symposium on Government Approaches to Encouraging Responsible Business Conduct
Paris, France (26-27 June 2008): All countries are facing the challenges of promoting sustainable development and conditions which facilitate responsible conduct on the part of business. As the world economy becomes more integrated, OECD countries, together with China and other emerging countries have a shared responsibility to meet these challenges. OECD countries have taken steps to do this, including the adoption of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises to ensure that their companies work in harmony with the local societies everywhere they operate.
Website: http://www.oecd.org/document/53/0,3343,en_2649_34863_39384629_1_1_1_1,00.html
GIN2008 Conference: Facilitating Sustainable Innovation
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands (26-28 June 2008): The challenges that will be raised at the conference are: how to evoke successful innovations on a regional and commercial scale within a shifting paradigm towards sustainable development. Conference participants will work together to respond to the conference challenge: How do we create a context in which sustainable innovations can succeed? The conference outcome will include a manifesto on Creating Sustainable Pathways with concrete recommendations how to create sustainable innovations on a regional level. All sessions at the conference will contribute to the manifesto.
Website: http://www.greeningofindustry.org/gin2008.htm
Fifth The Center for Global Development and The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
Washington DC (27 June 2008)
Website: http:// www.pcf5.london.ac.uk
Workshop on Biodiversity and Climate Change
Kushiro, Japan (29 June-4 July 2008): Co-organized by the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the Kushiro International Wetland Centre, in partnership with Japan-UNDP Partnership Fund and the Secretariats of the Ramsar Convention and the Convention on Biological Diversity, this workshop aims to support the sharing of scientific facts and policies on biodiversity, wetlands and climate change, provide analytical knowledge to understand and practically use the scientific data and documentation, facilitate exchange of ideas and strengthen the Kushiro/UNITAR network of experts in wetlands, biodiversity and climate change.
Website: http://www.unitar.org/hiroshima/programmes/kushiro08
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, Shipra Prakash, Emily Geminder, Alina Haddad, and Nadia Khan
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
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