Weekending Sunday, 11 November 2007

ONLINE DATABASES MORE ACCESSIBLE FOR DEVELOPING STATES

6 November 2007 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Efforts to give developing states better access to important scientific environmental journals made significant strides this month. Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) has increased the number of member states involved in its initiative from 37 to 107. Representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Yale University, the International Association of Scientific Technical and Medical Publishers, and 340 international publishers came together to launch the initiative. The plan primarily provides services to people in higher income brackets – those who earn between $1,000 and $3,000 a year. “Providing practitioners, researchers and scientists with online access to scientific research on the environment has been a long-held dream and desire by institutions around the world,” said Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director. “It is not surprising that the scientific gap between the developed and developing countries has assumed great importance in the international development community,” said James Gustave Speth, Dean of Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and former Administrator of UNDP. The initiative offers one month of free service to nation-states, then asks for an annual fee of about $1,000. Fees are then invested in training activities in developing nations. The OARE initiative’s technology partner is Microsoft. OARE provides roughly 75 percent of the most celebrated scientific databases in the world.

UN GLOBAL COMPACT SEEN AS KEY FOR DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS

7 November 2007 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: This week at the United Nations in New York, business leaders gathered for a UN Global Compact panel to discuss how companies can help combat global poverty, contribute to environmental initiatives and uphold human rights and labor standards. Chaired by the secretary of the Second Committee, Finland’s Kirsti Lintonen, the discussion centered on ways to make the global market more sustainable and inclusive in order to spur global economic growth and help the world’s least developed countries through foreign direct investment. Though the Global Compact is not a legally binding agreement, its ten principles have been accepted by over 3,800 participants, including over 2,900 businesses in 100 countries around the world. The Global Compact was established in 1999 with the vision of facilitating partnerships between the private and social sectors to combat the negative impacts of globalization and “its discontents.” By engaging leaders from diverse sectors of society in developed and developing countries, as well as prominent executives from major multinational corporations, it provides businesses with a framework to build social legitimacy through both ensuring transparency and also supporting international development projects such as the Millennium Development Goals. Despite its noble intentions, critics say the lack of enforcement or accountability delegitimizes the Compact. Its members, however, disagree. “The Global Compact is a way to get these principles to become more widely accepted. We must keep on talking about the merits in embracing these principles,” Mr. Bunmi Akinremi, Deputy of Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa’s New York Branch told MediaGlobal. “If you are a responsible corporate citizen, nine times out of ten you get the support of society because it works in everyone’s interests. I’m not a big believer on the stick; the carrot force is much more effective.” Another representative from Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa agreed with Mr. Akinmeri, elaborating on the effectiveness of the Compact’s message. “If there are leaders in their own industry and their own capacity agreeing to this, that leadership by example will help spread the message,” she told MediaGlobal.

HUMAN SECURITY ADDS DIMENSION TO PROBLEMS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

7 November 2007 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The concept of human security, in which individuals are empowered to safeguard their rights to dignity and the freedom from want and fear, is emerging as an important element of national and international security agendas, said participants at Wednesday’s meeting of the Friends of Human Security, sponsored by the Japanese and Mexican missions to the United Nations. “Human security is an obvious response to a world of interconnected threats and challenges. It extends the understanding of security beyond the state and hopes for a more holistic approach focused on people,” said General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim. Climate change is a particularly important problem to address from a human security viewpoint, said Claude Heller, Mexico’s Permanent Representative to the UN. Environmental stresses caused by climate change can aggravate disputes and breed conflict, “affecting directly the security of individuals and states,” Heller said. Yet global climate change is a problem that cannot be solved by individuals alone. “You live with the consequences of the actions of others,” Heller told MediaGlobal, adding that, while the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) must develop domestic policies to address environmental degradation, “these national strategies work only if you have a framework of international cooperation.” The LDCs need technological and financial support, he said. “You cannot ask them to do what others can do.” Dimitri Alexandrakis, Deputy Permanent Representative of Greece agreed, adding that climate change must be addressed with individuals in mind. “We have to help vulnerable populations. At the same time, their dignity is involved as well,” he told MediaGlobal. “They need to be empowered and we need their feedback. The people on the ground, the people most affected, many times know far better than we do what their needs are and how best they can be tackled.”

ALLIANCE BETWEEN EUROPE AND DEVELOPING NATIONS CRUCIAL TO FACING CLIMATE CHANGE

7 November 2007 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has revealed that an ‘alliance’ between the European Union and developing nations will be crucial to combating the dire effects that climate change will have on the world’s poorest people. Key initiatives will include responses to water shortages, migration and the sustaining of climate-friendly economic development. “Climate change is a global issue, but the world’s least developed and other poor countries are the most vulnerable to the possible effects of climate change,” said Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of WMO. The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are expected to be hit first and hardest by the effects of a changing climate. “A partnership with the European Union, like the Global Climate Change Alliance, can indeed be a way forward, since its benefits will also be global,” said Jarraud. More funding is needed to help those living in the poorest areas of the world. The WMO also stressed the need for regional cooperation to tackle the issues of environmental transformation. The WMO focuses on capacity building, food security, water resource management and a broad range of other environmental issues. “These countries have much fewer resources to prepare accordingly,” Jarraud added, “If populations must leave their livelihood due to sea level rises, millions will be forced to other regions of the world.”

ARID ENVIRONMENT MAKES NAMIBIA ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE TO IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

7 November 2007 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The Prime Minister of Namibia has concluded that climate change is real and his country is already feeling its effects, reports The Namibian. While addressing a training workshop on managing climate change in Namibia, Prime Minister Nahas Angula noted that he is not an environmental expert, but he has seen changes in the environment throughout Namibia, especially in the North where he grew up. “In that part of the country oshanas, or floodplains, are no longer supporting the same type of vegetation that used to grow there a few decades ago, especially thatch grass, which is vital for our rural communities,” he said. There have also been shifts in rainfall patterns. “For example, instead of the rains coming in September or October, they now come in January or February,” Angula added. Namibia is especially vulnerable to the impact of climate change due to its arid environment and reliance of farming and fishing. At high risk are agriculture, water, coastal zones and marine resources. If climate change is not addressed in the country, groundwater resources could decline and affect crop and livestock farming, Angula said. The workshop was hosted by the UN Development Programme and discussed climate change mitigation, risk management and sustainable human development throughout Africa.

ATTACKS ON SCHOOLS INCREASE WORLDWIDE, REPORTS UNESCO

8 November 2007 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Getting an education is becoming increasingly dangerous, according to a UNESCO study of targeted attacks against students, teachers and educational institutions. The study, launched Thursday at UN Headquarters, reports that violence against education has increased dramatically over the last three years. While data is limited and attacks are thought to be significantly under-reported in many regions, the study, titled “Education under Attack,” found Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Nepal, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Thailand and Zimbabwe to be among the most affected. All but Nepal, whose civil war ended in 2006, are currently in conflict. “Education is a very soft target and schools are rarely defended, the children are vulnerable,” Brendan O’Malley, the report’s author, told MediaGlobal. Education is an integral part of peacebuilding, O’Malley said, and the terrorizing of students and teachers by military or insurgent forces may compromise reconciliation efforts and limit future development. In a world where many conflicts spring from deeply rooted cultural differences between groups, schools can play a major role in sustaining peace. Segregated schools or school systems that offer unequal education to different groups can exacerbate conflicts. “If you want children to understand each other, then [they] need to interact, [they] need to work with each other,” O’Malley said, adding that if education does nothing to break down myths of “the other”, or if schools themselves foster cultural prejudices, “it makes it harder to make peace, it makes it harder to make compromises. An education can work to change things if it becomes education about mutual understanding.”

ANNUAL TB CONFERENCE SPURS CALL FOR MORE ADEQUATE HEALTH SERVICES IN SOUTH AFRICA

7 November 2007 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: In the wake of the 38th Annual Conference on Tuberculosis (TB) held in Cape Town, South Africa this week, thousands of activists took to the streets to demand improved TB education, prevention, treatment and research to find a cure. The conference was the first of its kind to be held in the Southern Hemisphere, providing activists with the opportunity to adopt a Global Call for Declaration on TB. This calls on delegates to take more robust action on the epidemic that has been ravishing many parts of Africa – particularly South Africa. “This is important as Southern Africa is experiencing an extremely large and deadly TB epidemic, fuelled by a HIV epidemic. The response has been inadequate; new infections and needless deaths continue unabated,” the statement declared. TB kills approximately two million people worldwide annually. The most adversely affected are those living with HIV, for whom TB is a leading cause of death. The document reports that an approximate 70,000 people died in 2005 as a result of TB. Despite increased attention to the issue, many claim the government’s response continues to be insufficient. TB prevention programs and care is also inadequate, as programs are centralized and fail to reach the most vulnerable. The declaration has been endorsed by a number of NGOs and calls for a four-pronged approach to treating TB; this includes controlling the infection rate by testing HIV positive people for TB, “integrating and decentralizing TB and HIV services, and preventing and treating drug resistant TB.”