16
May, 2008
======================
UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
FORUM ENDS WITH CALL FOR MORE INVESTMENT IN RESEARCH
The United Nations
Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) wrapped up its annual
session today by emphasizing the need for ramping up investment
in research and development in innovative and sustainable agricultural
technologies and infrastructure in poor countries.
The Commission, concluding
two weeks of discussions in New York, examined the obstacles
and barriers that have prevented sustainable development in
the areas of agriculture, land use, rural development, drought,
desertification and Africa. Countries will now follow-up on
these issues with policy recommendations at next year’s
meeting.
The session also
provided a foundation for international discussions on the global
food crises that will take place in the Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC) – of which the CSD is a subsidiary body
– next Tuesday in New York, and at the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) in Rome in early June.
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon, in an address earlier this week, said that “after
a quarter century of relative neglect, agriculture is back on
the international agenda, sadly with a vengeance. The onset
of the current food crisis has highlighted the fragility of
our success in feeding the world's growing population with the
technologies of the first green revolution and subsequent agricultural
improvements.”
The Secretary-General
stressed that agriculture needs invigorating. “We need
to work together to develop a new generation of technologies
and farming methods which make possible a second green revolution,
one which permits sustainable yield improvements with minimal
environmental damage and contributes to sustainable development
goals.”
Under-Secretary-General
for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang said: “We do
need to address the runaway food prices as an emergency. We
need to take quick, targeted action to deliver emergency food
aid to the people in need.” But he added that crisis management
was not enough. “We need to make sure it does not happen
again.”
Many countries expressed
concern that a number of factors had contributed to the present
situation, including climate change, unfair trade policies,
poor land management, biofuel production, and a lack of roads
and access to markets in rural agricultural areas.
Almost 60 ministers
attended the CSD, along with 680 representatives from 126 nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs). Representatives from civil society, including
women, farmers, science, business, children and youth, local
authorities, workers and trade unions, indigenous peoples and
nongovernmental organizations participated far more extensively
than in the past.
Participants also
elected Gerda Verburg, the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and
Food Quality in the Netherlands, as the next chair of the CSD
– the first time that the subsidiary body of ECOSOC will
be led by a woman.
* * *
22
April, 2008
====================
UN MEETING EXPLORES
HOW TO BOOST ECONOMIES OF LANDLOCKED DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
Experts from Asia
and Europe have gathered at a United Nations-backed meeting
which opened today in Bangkok to discuss progress made in efforts
to link landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) in the Asia-Pacific
region to sea ports.
The two-day talks
will centre around assessing developments since the adoption
of the UN’s Almaty Programme of Action in 2003, which
is the first global action plan negotiated at the ministerial
level that provides a framework for cooperation between landlocked
and the transit access developing countries, promising reductions
in red tape and transportation costs and time.
The meeting has been
organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific (ESCAP), along with the UN Economic Commission
for Europe (ECE) and the UN Office of the High Representative
for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries
and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS).
Presentations will
be made by LLDC Member States of ESCAP – Afghanistan,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia,
Nepal, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – and by transit countries,
including China, Iran and Russia.
Also kicking off
in Bangkok today is a meeting of 40 representatives from the
Asia-Pacific region to confer on how to boost employment in
the Pacific islands.
The Special Body
on Pacific Island Developing Countries of ESCAP meets every
two years, and the current gathering will take place from 22-23
April.
Participants will
talk about policies – including transport infrastructure
and promoting entrepreneurship and private sector growth –
to spur economic growth, which is key in creating jobs.
They will also discuss
how the UN can support efforts towards sustainable development
in the region.
* * *
8
October, 2007
======================
MIGIRO CALLS FOR ‘COALITION OF CONSCIENCE’
TO ACHIEVE GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT TARGETS
United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose
Migiro today called for a “coalition of conscience,”
backed by firm action, to achieve global development targets
focused on freeing humanity from poverty, hunger, disease and
illiteracy.
“The good news is that we have all the
resources in our command today to achieve this ambition in our
own generation,” she told the General Assembly committee
dealing with economic and financial issues. “We just cannot
afford to fail.”
Global poverty is one of the “most pressing
issues of our time,” trapping millions of children, women
and men, she stated, adding that nowhere is its grip tighter
than in Africa, where millions of lives quite literally hang
in the balance.
She said sharp social and economic disparities
in the global economy make it even harder to achieve the set
of internationally agreed anti-poverty objectives known as the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the target date of 2015.
Particularly worrying is the risk global economic
imbalances pose to a large number of developing countries, including
African and least developed countries, as well as countries
moving from conflict to reconstruction and development, she
said, stressing that donors must do more to keep their promises
on increasing development assistance flows and debt relief.
Foreign aid, while important, “is clearly
not enough,” she said, calling for open, fair, equitable
and non-discriminatory trading and financial systems.
Also addressing the committee, the Under-Secretary-General
for Economic and Social Affairs said that despite repeated calls,
no serious action has been taken to address global imbalances.
Sha Zukang warned that “changes in market
sentiments and investor confidence could trigger a hard landing
of the dollar and a disorderly adjustment of the global imbalances,
threatening prospects for the global economy and future growth.”
He said the slowing of global growth puts all
economies at risk, especially the developing countries, including
the many which depend on the demand for their products in industrialized
countries and on commodity price levels.
“Any marked decrease in developing countries’
earnings would severely affect resources available for making
the necessary investments to achieve the MDGs,” he added.
* * *
11
September, 2007
=========================
RECENT ECONOMIC GROWTH
IN AFRICA SHOULD BE MORE WIDELY DISTRIBUTED – UN ENVOY
The recent economic
growth among Africa’s poorest countries has been confined
mainly to those nations with rich mineral resources and has
not yet translated to a substantial reduction in poverty, the
United Nations envoy for those nations said today as he pledged
to spearhead efforts to better distribute the emerging wealth.
Cheikh Sidi Diarra,
who was appointed in July as the Under-Secretary-General and
High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked
Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, told
his first press conference at UN Headquarters in New York that
extreme poverty remains stubbornly high in the world’s
most vulnerable nations.
Nearly half of the
estimated 760 million people in the 50 States classed as least
developing countries (LDCs) live in extreme poverty, or on less
than $1 per day, he said.
Mr. Diarra said the
situation was harshest in sub-Saharan Africa, home to 34 of
the 50 LDCs and the only region in the world where the percentage
of people living in extreme poverty rose in the two decades
until 2001.
Although many countries
in that region are enjoying solid economic growth and receiving
greater amounts of foreign direct investment (FDI), they are
still concentrated in the countries with high amounts of mineral
resources.
Mr. Diarra said the
growth needs to be more evenly spread and he called on developed
nations to play their part by helping poor countries improve
their infrastructure and expand their export trade.
The envoy also promised
to focus on efforts to encourage good governance in LDCs, which
he stressed was a critical factor in ensuring they make economic
and social progress.
* * *
25
April, 2007
===========================
HAITI: ECOSOC
TEAM SEES PROGRESS BUT RENEWS CALL FOR ONGOING DEVELOPMENT AID
New York,
Apr 25 2007 4:00PM Just returned from a mission to Haiti, the
leader of a team from the United Nations Economic and Social
Council (<" http://www.un.org/docs/ecosoc">ECOSOC)
today painted a mixed picture of the Caribbean country, which
has experienced greater political stability and security in
recent months but still faces numerous development challenges
which he said must be met through a determined international
response.
“Our goal is to promote recovery and stability
and to ensure that Haiti receives the sustained, long-term international
support that it needs,” said Ambassador John McNee of
Canada, who led the ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Group set up to follow
the situation in Haiti and give advice to its Government on
its long-term development strategies.
The Group’s recent four-day trip to Haiti,
which followed a visit it made two years ago, aimed to assess
progress “and reinforce the UN’s long-term commitment
to the people of Haiti,” Mr. McNee said.
Members
of the team, which included representatives of Haiti, Benin,
Brazil, Chile, Spain and Trinidad and Tobago, met with senior
Government officials, staff of UN agencies, the UN Assistance
Mission in Haiti (<" http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/minustah">MINUSTAH)
and others. They visited the capital, including the notoriously
dangerous Cité Soleil neighbourhood, and also traveled
beyond Port-au-Prince.
Mr. McNee said the Group was still formulating
its recommendations, but he echoed the findings of their previous
report, which stressed that Haiti must remain on the international
agenda and receive more support.
“We were all struck by the magnitude of
the development challenges in Haiti,” he said, while adding
there were a number of encouraging factors, including measurable
political stability thanks to elections facilitated by MINUSTAH,
as well as a “considerable increase” in the level
of basic security.
In the past it would have been “unthinkable”
for the Group to visit Cité Soleil, walk freely down
the streets and speak with people there, he said, paying tribute
to joint UN-Haitian efforts to take on the gangs “in their
home turf.”
Mr. McNee tempered his optimism with a note
of caution. “In fairness, we should stress the fragility
of the situation and the huge challenge. It is one thing to
take on the gangs in this area – the real challenge is
finding employment and economic growth that will give people
incentive to take a peaceful path, not a criminal path.”
On the long-term economic strategy, he said
recommendations included boosting tourism, a mainstay of many
Caribbean economies, and agriculture. “Those are two potential
resources that Haiti has and offer possibilities for the future.”
* * *
3rd
April, 2007
===========================
AFRICA MUST NOT BE
LEFT BEHIND IN RACE TO ACHIEVE DEVELOPMENT GOALS – UN
ENVOY
The world will not
achieve the series of anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) if the poorest countries in Africa
are left behind, a United Nations envoy has told a conference
of the continent’s finance, planning and development ministers.
Anwarul K. Chowdhury,
UN High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked
Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS),
said global efforts to attain the MDGs must be harnessed more
closely with existing programmes such as the New Partnership
for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to accelerate economic
growth in Africa and ensure that poverty is defeated.
Some 34 of the 50
nations classified as Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are found
in Africa. NEPAD is a strategic framework adopted by African
leaders in 2001 to try to develop a more integrated approach
to tackling socio-economic underdevelopment.
“I have underlined
before that if the LDCs do not achieve the MDGs, neither will
the world as a whole,” Mr. Chowdhury told the conference
yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “With two-thirds of
the LDCs in Africa, we can confidently say that Africa has to
achieve the MDGs for the world to have any hope of doing so.”
The MDGs are a set
of eight targets for slashing social and economic ills –
from halving extreme poverty to stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS
and providing universal primary education – by 2015, and
were agreed to by world leaders at a UN summit in 2000.
Mr. Chowdhury added
that Africa must rein in its high rates of population growth,
which have been eroding its otherwise healthy economic growth
in recent years. Although the proportion of Africans living
in extreme poverty increased only from 44.6 per cent in 1990
to 46.4 per cent in 2001, the actual number of affected people
jumped by 38 per cent to 318 million because of soaring population
growth.
The High Representative
stressed the need for more transparency in both foreign assistance
provided to struggling African countries and the use of internal
resources to ensure that the poorest benefit most.
* * *
2nd
April, 2007
===========================
MIGIRO SAYS CREATING JOBS CRUCIAL TO ACHIEVING
KEY DEVELOPMENT GOALS BY 2015
Job creation will be vital in efforts to reach
the ambitious Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – a
set of targets to slash a host of social ills, such as extreme
poverty, by 2015, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose
Migiro said today.
Increasing employment is the “critical
link” between economic growth and poverty reduction, she
told a meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at
UN Headquarters in New York.
“Higher economic growth, while important,
must not be viewed as an end in itself,” Ms. Migiro said.
“For instance, last year’s robust worldwide expansion
did not lead to a corresponding reduction in unemployment or
poverty. Instead, the number of people living on less than $2
a day actually grew last year to reach 1.37 billion.”
Ms. Migiro also noted that unemployment disproportionately
affects youth, with that age group representing a quarter of
the global working population but nearly half of the unemployed.
“Globalization has lifted standards of
living for some, but it has left many more on the margins, unable
to enjoy its benefits,” she said.
“Addressing these disparities is a central
tenet of the Millennium Development Goals,” the Deputy
Secretary-General added, pointing out that as the target date
of 2015 approaches, “the world as a whole still lags in
the race to achieve all of these Goals.”
ECOSOC, comprised of 54 members elected by the
General Assembly, is a body which meets yearly to further economic
and social cooperation and development. Its mandate was enhanced
in 2005 during the UN World Summit to improve the effectiveness
of aid and monitor the implementation of targets, such as the
MDGs, agreed upon by Member States.
Today’s ECOSOC meeting was a preparatory
one for an annual ministerial review, set to take place later
this year, which will assess the progress, or lack thereof,
that the body has made in reaching objectives such as the MDGs.
Ms. Migiro called on the body to remember the
ties between agriculture, hunger and poverty, as three out of
every four of the world’s poor reside in rural communities.
“If we all join hands, we can still meet
the 2015 MDG deadline, we can advance against poverty and hunger,
and we can build a true partnership for development.”
* * *
30
January, 2007
===========================
UN SUPPORTS LAUNCH
OF THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF AFRICAN FOOTBALL TO BOOST DEVELOPMENT
Counting down to
the 2010 soccer World Cup in South Africa, and boosting the
continent’s efforts to improve education and health through
sport, the African Union (AU), South Africa and Ethiopia have
nominated 2007 as the International Year of African Football,
an initiative welcomed by the United Nations as part of its
global drive linking sport with development.
The launch, which
took place on Monday at the AU summit in Ethiopia, was also
tied in to the 50th anniversary of the Confederation of African
Football (CAF). Director of the UN New York Office of Sport
for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), Djibril Diallo, represented
the sports-related activities of the agencies, funds and programmes
of the UN at the historic event.
“The year 2007
will see a rolling programme of activities in AU Member States
with a view to sharing the pride that a FIFA (Federation Internationale
de Football Association) global event will be held for the first
time on this continent,” the UNOSDP said in a press release.
“The initiatives
are meant to create a new consciousness with regard to the contribution
of football, and sport in general, at the national level and
in local communities to support AU programmes especially in
the areas of education, health, development and peace.”
The day-long launch
took place in the presence of Heads of State and Government
and leaders of 53 Member States of the AU, and also in attendance
were FIFA President Sepp Blatter, CAF President Isaa Hayatou,
along with several famous African footballers.
Mr. Diallo met with
South Africa’s Minister of Sport to discuss ways that
UNOSDP can support the ministry’s efforts and those of
the South African Local Organizing Committee to help promote
activities related to the FIFA World Cup 2010. Initiatives will
be launched in consultation with the AU through the various
country offices of the UN in the next three years.
UNOSDP, which is
headed by the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General for Sport
for Development and Peace Adolf Ogi, is the key UN body representing
sport for development and peace on behalf of the UN system.
* * *
16
January, 2007
==============================
BAN
KI-MOON AND US PRESIDENT STRESS JOINT PARTNERSHIP DURING TALKS
In his first meeting with United States President
George W. Bush since assuming office as Secretary-General, Ban
Ki-moon said the two leaders mutually pledged to work together
to try to achieve the goals of peace and increased global prosperity.
Mr. Ban told reporters after his talks with
Mr. Bush at the White House in Washington, D.C. that the pair
had had “a very good, very useful meeting” in which
he stressed the value of a strong partnership between the UN
and the US.
“The United Nations needs the strong and
active participation and strong support of the United States,
as the UN and the US have a shared objective of promoting human
rights, democracy and freedom and peace and security, as well
as mutual prosperity,” he said.
Mr. Ban said they discussed key regional issues,
including the Darfur crisis in Sudan, the Middle East, Iran,
Iraq, Somalia and the nuclear programme of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The Secretary-General added that Mr. Bush’s
assurances and comments underlined his confidence that the world
body “can have a very mutually cooperative and good relationship
in the future” with the US.
Asked by a reporter about a newspaper column
written by John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the UN,
Mr. Ban said Mr. Bolton had raised some good points among his
suggestions for reform measures at the UN.
“The United Nations should change, with
much more efficiency and effectiveness and mobility and the
highest level of ethical standards,” he said. “I
am very much committed to carry out this reform, and I need
the strong support of all Member States and the staff of the
United Nations in carrying out these reform measures.”
During his visit to Washington, Mr. Ban met
both Democratic and Republican members of the US Congress, including
key members of the Senate and House committees dealing with
foreign relations. He also addressed the Center for Strategic
and International Studies, outlining his view of his priorities
in office and on the future of the UN-US relationship.
* * *
30
October, 2006
=====================
ANNAN STRESSES DEVELOPMENT
ROLE AT FIRST EVER MEETING OF THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM
United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan today stressed the importance of using the worldwide
net to promote global development as he opened the first ever
Internet Governance Forum by encouraging participants to use
the four-day gathering to foster dialogue and cooperation.
More than 1,200 participants
comprising government, private sector and civil society representatives,
including academic and technical communities, are expected to
gather in Athens until Thursday to hold interactive discussions
on issues related to Internet governance, including freedom
of expression, access, multilingualism and others.
“With more
than 1 billion users worldwide and still growing dramatically,
the Internet has outgrown its origins as a network run by and
for computer specialists. Indeed it has become too important,
for almost every country’s economy and administration,
for Governments not to take an interest,” Mr.
Annan said in a speech read out by Nitin Desai, Special Adviser
for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
“The challenge
therefore is to bring two cultures together: the non-governmental
Internet community, with its traditions of informal, bottom-up
decision-making, and the more formal, structured world of Governments
and intergovernmental organizations.”
“The Internet
Governance Forum is well placed to contribute to that effort
by fostering dialogue, and by giving voice to a wide range of
views, including developing-country individuals and institutions
involved in Internet governance.”
The Forum, which
is not a decision-making body, grew out of the 2003 and
2005 WSIS, during which the contentious issue of Internet Governance
was one of the most widely debated. As a result, Heads of State
and Governments asked Mr. Annan to set up the Forum.
“I am very
encouraged that during the preparatory process, all stakeholders
acknowledged that the Internet can play a powerful role in helping
developing countries to advance their economic and social well-being,
and agreed on the development dimension as overarching priority
of the Forum.”
“Today, the
Forum enters uncharted waters. Its mandate… calls on it
to serve not as a convenor of Governments, but of all stakeholders.
The Forum will thus have to develop procedures and practices
for cultivating meaningful cooperation among these disparate
partners. While this will be a challenge, the Internet lends
itself particularly well to this search for new forms of global
collaboration.”
Over the next four
days there will be eight main sessions and more than 30 workshops,
covering the following themes relating to Internet governance:
openness – freedom of expression, free flow of information,
ideas and knowledge; security – creating trust and confidence
through collaboration; diversity – promoting multilingualism
and local content; access – Internet connectivity, policy
and cost.
* * *
23
October, 2006
========================
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
PLEDGES TO WORK MORE CLOSELY WITH REGIONAL GROUPS FOR DEVELOPMENT
In an effort to attain
global development goals, better monitoring of the environment
and to enhance peacebuilding and conflict resolution, the United
Nations General Assembly has pledged to work more closely with
regional and other organizations.
The Assembly, voting
unanimously on Friday, adopted four resolutions aimed at enhanced
cooperation with the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization,
the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization, the Inter-Parliamentary
Union, and the International Organization of la Francophonie.
All four resolutions
seek to consolidate the ties of the UN system and the organizations
towards the “furtherance of shared objectives and the
promotion of cooperation in resolving international economic,
social, cultural and humanitarian problems,” the Assembly
said.
During the debate,
nearly 40 speakers urged the world body to take advantage of
the expertise and on-the-ground experience of regional and local
groups to assist in key areas, including promoting equitable
development, in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs);
monitoring environmental degradation and the use of natural
resources; and even conflict resolution and peacebuilding, a
particular concern for speakers from Africa, the Pacific island
States, and the wider developing world.
* * *
4
October, 2006
==========================
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
NEED MORE AID TO BENEFIT FROM GLOBALIZATION – UN TRADE
OFFICIAL
Openness and market
access are sometimes not enough to allow developing countries
to benefit from economic globalization because they lack the
knowledge and infrastructure to produce goods and services and
need increased foreign aid and investment, a top United Nations
trade official said today.
“In fact, some
have argued that trade liberalization has in some cases resulted
in de-industrialization and even greater poverty,” UN
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General
Supachai Panitchpakdi told a high-level panel discussion in
Geneva on the topic of “UNCTAD, development, and the way
forward.”
“Only investment
in the productive sector will create employment, increase household
income and reduce poverty over the long term,” he said,
citing especially the world’s 50 least developed countries
(LDCs).
Such countries “simply
lack the capacity” to benefit from globalization, Mr.
Supachai noted. They do not have “the ability to produce
goods and services, the knowledge needed to create a broad industrial
base and the infrastructure that enables countries to trade
and communicate.”
It is necessary to
strengthen managerial and entrepreneurial skills in developing
countries and to bolster the Aid for Trade programme, which
aims at helping such countries take advantage of export opportunities,
he added.
* * *
27
September, 2006
===============================
TOURISM IS KEY WAY
TO BRING WEALTH FROM RICHEST TO POOREST COUNTRIES – UN
Marking
World Tourism Day, the United Nations today highlighted the
major role the industry plays in combating poverty in developing
countries.
“Tourism
is now well recognized as one of the key ways to bring wealth
and experience from the richest to the poorest countries,”
UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary General Francesco
Frangialli said in a message.
The agency
released an e-booklet on its website underlining tourism’s
multifaceted role in promoting development, from its role as
the world’s largest service sector to the part it plays
in establishing contacts, recognizing diversity and practicing
tolerance.
It notes
that tourism is bigger than cars, agriculture or electronics;
thatit generates $800 billion a year in international tourist
spending – a sum that will more than double by 2020; and
that it creates millions of jobs, both directly in transport,
restaurant lodging and travel firms and indirectly in agriculture,
commerce and manufacturing.
Tourism
represents 40 per cent of global service trade and 6 per cent
of total world trade and over the past decade grew in the poorest
49 countries at six times the rate of Europe.
The 150-member
UNWTO, a specialized UN agency, is the leading international
organization in the field of tourism, serving as a global forum
for tourism policy issues and practical source of tourism know-how.
* * *
22
September, 2006
===========================
AFRICAN
COUNTRIES UNDERLINE PROBLEM OF EXTREME POVERTY DURING ADDRESSES
TO UN DEBATE
Extreme
poverty remains the greatest danger facing humanity, African
nations told the United Nations General Assembly today as they
outlined the challenges they face in attempting to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the target date of 2015.
Rosemary
Museminali, Rwandan Minister of State for Cooperation, reminded
delegates at the Assembly’s annual debate that 40 per
cent of the world’s population – or about 2.5 billion
people – live on less than $2 a day, and more than 800
million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition.
“For
sub-Saharan Africa, the statistics are even more staggering:
in most cases 60 to 70 per cent of national populations live
on less than $1 a day, while life expectancy at birth is less
than 50 years,” she said.
Mrs. Museminali
said improving the standard of governance and raising the levels
of official development assistance (ODA) from industrialized
countries were critical if sub-Saharan Africa is to attain the
eight MDGs, which were agreed upon at the Millennium Summit
in New York in 2000.
But she
said the most serious challenge is the surging price levels
of key fossil fuels and the burden that is placing on African
countries that have to import these energy sources, a theme
adopted by Youssouf Ouedraogo, Burkina Faso’s Foreign
Minister, in his address.
Mr. Ouedraogo
said the recent jump in oil prices had pushed Burkina Faso towards
developing bio-fuel technology using by-products from its cotton
industry.
Calling
for a revamp of the international trade regime, he said the
current system was not free or equitable and punished Burkinabe
cotton producers.
Lamenting
the lack of progress towards the MDGs, Navinchandra Ramgoolam,
the Prime Minister of Mauritius, voiced concern that the world
is relying too much on the trickle-down effect to reduce poverty,
“instead of taking a bottom-up approach.”
The result
is that “globalization does not seem to be living up to
its promises,” Mr. Ramgoolam concluded, insisting that
it must be transformed into a wider process so that everyone
can share in its benefits, and not just the few.
* * *
12
September, 2006
========================
GENERAL
ASSEMBLY REVIEW OF MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT OPENS THIS WEEK
In a bid to identify
ways to maximize the development benefits of migration and to
reduce difficulties, representatives of over 120 governments,
including some 90 ministers, will convene in New York this week
for the first-ever plenary session of the United Nations General
Assembly on migration issues.
“We are only
beginning to learn how to make migration work more consistently
for development,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in
a report prepared in anticipation of the meeting. “Each
of us holds a piece of the migration puzzle, but none has the
whole picture. It is time to start putting it together.”
In addition to the
plenary debate, the meeting will bring ministers and delegates
together in informal round table discussions on themes such
as monies sent home by workers abroad, or “remittances;”
the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons; and partnerships
between and among countries.
Conceived and scheduled
more than two years ago by the General Assembly, the 14-15 September
High-level Dialogue follows a period of intense public attention
to the cross-border movement of people, and a quickening pace
of multilateral talks on migration.
The report of the
Secretary-General on international migration and development
estimates that 191 million people live in countries other than
where they were born. It notes that migration does not follow
only a South-to-North track. One third of the world’s
migrant stock are workers and families from developing countries
living in developed nations; one third have moved from one developing
country to another, and another third have migrated from a developed
country.
By the most recent
estimate, $173 billion in remittances from migrants was sent
to homes in developing countries in 2005. In the developed world,
immigrants often fill certain work force shortages or take jobs
that are unwanted locally, reduce the extent of population ageing
and help to maintain the solvency of social pension systems,
and stimulate demand and economic growth, the UN report finds.
* * *
11
July, 2006
=======================
OFFICIAL
DEVELOPMENT AID GROWS, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO MEET GOALS: UN REPORT
Donor countries’
official development assistance (ODA) to poorer nations has
grown markedly in the past few years due to various relief efforts,
but funding to meet international development goals has actually
dropped off, according to a report presented today to the United
Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in Geneva.
“The
drop in ODA (excluding special purpose grants) leads to less
ODA available as a source of budgetary resources, thereby limiting
the efforts of developing countries to pursue the goals,”
Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a note conveying a statistical
review of trends in development cooperation.
“The
trend must be reversed,” he maintains.
The report
recalls that during the early 1990s, the ODA share of donor
countries’ gross national income shrank to a low of 0.21
per cent, but the pledges made by donors to increase such aid
at the International Conference on Financing for Development,
held in Monterrey, Mexico in 2000, stemmed the fall.
By 2005
ODA had recovered to reach a high of $106.5 billion, with the
share of ODA to gross national income equal to 0.33 per cent.
Aid for development programmes and projects recorded the largest
increase in many years, the report says.
It points
out, however, that the recent recovery in aid flows has been
mainly the result of debt relief for Iraq and Nigeria and emergency
aid to the tsunami-affected countries in the Indian Ocean.
Aid toward
meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the set of
targets agreed upon at the 2000 World Summit to reduce extreme
poverty and other global ills by the year 2015, falls far short
of the estimated $150 billion projected.
In addition
to calling for increased funding targeting to the MDGs, Mr.
Annan also advocates putting fewer conditions on the use of
ODA by developing countries, so that they can take a greater
degree of “ownership”
in their own development programmes.
Introducing
the report at the ECOSOC session in Geneva today, UN Under-Secretary-General
for Economic and Social Affairs José Antonio Ocampo said
the timing of the ODA review is particularly significant, since
efforts are now underway to establish a forum for development
cooperation attached to ECOSOC, as called for by the 2005 World
Summit.
* * *
10
July, 2006
===================
STRONG
GROWTH TREND FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES THREATENED BY VOLATILITIES:
UN REPORT
Developing
countries, including the poorest 50 among them, are on track
in
2006 to continue the impressive 6.0 per cent growth rate of
the past two years, but are threatened by volatility in commodity
prices and interest rates, according to a new United Nations
report.
“Primary
commodity exporting countries should be vigilant about the risk
of a sharp reversal in prices,” according to the UN World
Economic Situation and Prospects, released at the current session
of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in Geneva.
The report
predicts that the 50 least developed countries (LDCS) will reach
an unprecedented overall growth rate of over 7 per cent this
year, as compared with 2.7 per cent for the industrialized world.
Burgeoning
economic expansion in some large developing economies, particularly
China, has continued to push demand for primary commodities
along with non-economic factors such as geopolitical uncertainty
and market speculation.
But such
factors, the report warns, are highly volatile, and could be
made more so by such possibilities as a sudden and sharp devaluation
of an already weakened dollar due to high United States debt.
Given such
threats and in order to protect and consolidate the broad-based
world economic growth of the last few years, the report says
that greater international cooperation is required, particularly
to redress the global imbalances while avoiding recessionary
adjustment in the US.
“Coordinated
global adjustment will require measures that will stimulate
savings in the deficit countries and domestic demand in the
surplus countries,” it says.
* * *
7
July, 2006
===================
SENIOR
UN ECONOMIC OFFICIAL SAYS ‘POLICY COHERENCE AT ALL LEVELS’
NEEDED FOR DEVELOPMENT
Stressing
the importance of dealing comprehensively with social and economic
issues in view of their impact on poverty and hunger, a senior
official from the United Nations Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC) said today that policy coherence at all levels and
across all sectors was needed to successfully achieve development
goals.
In a panel
discussion focusing on the best ways to achieve economic growth,
poverty reduction and development, Hjalmar W. Hannesson, ECOSOC
Vice-President, also highlighted that because global poverty
was a multidimensional problem no single sector could provide
a complete eradication strategy.
Mr. Hannesson
opened the discussion by noting that the impact on poverty and
hunger of social and economic issues was often context-specific
and could not be dealt with in a “one-size-fits-for-all”
manner. “Policy coherence at all levels and across all
sectors needed to be ensured for the successful achievement
of development goals,” he said.
Nora Lustig,
Director of the Poverty Group, Bureau for Development Policy
of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) told the panel that four
basic principles should guide Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)-based
National Development Principles. The MDGs are a set of eight
targets for tackling poverty, illiteracy and other global ills
by 2015.
These Principles
are the inclusion of specific pro-MDG policies which do not
rely solely or primarily on trickle-down economic growth; the
need to ensure broad consistency between macro and growth policies,
and pro-MDG policies; a selection of pro-MDG policies that were
pro-growth in the long run; and the setting of minimum standards
for all population groups and regions that do not rely solely
on the performance of national averages.
Today’s
discussions were the latest during ECOSOC’s annual session
that will run through 28 July. ECOSOC, the UN’s principal
body for coordinating and advancing development policy, coordinates
the work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, 10 functional commissions
and 5 regional commissions, receives reports from 10 UN funds
and programmes and issues policy recommendations to the UN system
and to Member States. The 54-member Council meets every year,
alternating between New York and Geneva.
In a related
development, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has
hailed ECOSOC’s adoption on Wednesday of a Ministerial
Declaration on full and productive employment and decent work,
saying it would help strengthen efforts by the UN and the multilateral
system aimed at creating jobs, cutting poverty and providing
new hope for the world’s 1.4 billion working poor during
the next decade.
“This
move presents the extraordinary opportunity to mainstream the
goal of full and productive employment and decent work for all
into the regular activities of all relevant UN organizations”,
said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.
* * *
22
June, 2006
=================
UN
OFFICIALS LAUD CIVIL SOCIETY EFFORTS TO END POVERTY IN LEAST
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
Senior United
Nations officials and diplomats today hailed the efforts of
civil society groups to combat poverty in the world’s
least developed countries (LDCs) and stressed that governments
must hear the strong call of these organizations for action
to help the world’s poorest people.
“We
hope to see a civil society that really is influencing the decisions
that this intergovernmental body, the United Nations, arrives
at,” said Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown,
addressing the General Assembly’s Civil Society Hearing
on LDCs, held in New York.
The hearing
provided an opportunity for participants from non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), civil society groups and world business
to exchange views with Member States on progress in realizing
targets agreed in the 10-year Programme of Action for LDCs,
which was adopted in 2001 in Brussels.
Welcoming
the participants, some of whom were able to travel to the hearings
thanks to support from the UN, Mr. Malloch Brown challenged
them “to not limit your advocacy to today but to take
it back to the national level and to make sure that you seek
to influence the position of governments when they assemble
here in September.”
“You
bring to our deliberations the reality of a world where millions
of women, children and men are overwhelmed by poverty and disease,”
said General Assembly President Jan Eliasson.
Civil society
had demonstrated its strength by focusing attention on issues
affecting the poor in developing countries, but more must be
done to accelerate growth in those States through “unrelenting
support and effective implementation” on the part of all
concerned, he added.
The UN’s
High Representative for the LDCs, Landlocked Developing Countries
and Small Island Developing State, Anwarul Chowdhury, said civil
society’s ability to forge coalitions that transcend borders
must help the development cause of LDCs. “Indeed, civil
society, NGOs and the private sector are already playing a big
role but I urge greater engagement with the specific needs of
the world’s 50 poorest nations,” Mr. Chowdhury said.
Simon Idohou,
Chairman of the LDCs Group and Benin’s UN Ambassador,
said, “Everyone stands to gain when governments, NGOs
and the private sector work together.”
Civil society
actors attending the hearing underscored the importance of greater
transparency and accountability in policy and the decision-making
process. Arjun Karki, coordinator of the NGO LDC Watch, said
that during the remaining five years of the Programme of Action
there should be increased emphasis on pro-poor policies. He
further called for adequate representation and participation
of women and other vulnerable groups in policy formulation.
“Demand-driven
and responsive initiatives need to be encouraged, based on principles
of gender justice and equality, so that we can benefit from
investments and even generate our won wealth,” Mr. Karki
said.
Today’s
informal interactive civil society hearing was part of a series
of meetings, round tables and panel discussions being held in
advance of a September General Assembly review of the implementation
of the Programme of Action.
* * *
26
May, 2006
=================
WITH
NEW HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AWARD, ANNAN HAILS THAI KING AS EXAMPLE
FOR THE WORLD
Secretary-General
Kofi Annan today presented the United Nations first Human Development
Lifetime Achievement Award to King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand,
hailing the monarch’s tireless 60-year-long efforts to
help the poorest and most vulnerable people in his kingdom as
an example to the world.
“Your
Majesty has made an extraordinary contribution to human development.
As the world’s ‘Development King,’ Your Majesty
has reached out to the poorest and the most vulnerable people
of Thailand – regardless of their status, ethnicity or
religion –
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