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UN DAILY NEWS from the
UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE
14 April, 2008 =========================================================================
BAN KI-MOON URGES IMMEDIATE AND LONG-TERM STEPS TO FIGHT ESCALATING FOOD CRISIS
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for both immediate and long-term measures to tackle the growing global food crisis, warning that it could not only push millions of people deeper into poverty but also have larger political and security implications.
“The rapidly escalating crisis of food availability around the world has reached emergency proportions,” he told a joint meeting in New York of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
“We need not only short-term emergency measures to meet urgent critical needs and avert starvation in many regions across the world, but also a significant increase in long-term productivity in food grain production, he said, citing the recent steep rise in prices and World Bank warnings that the crisis could mean “seven lost years” in the fight against global poverty.
“The international community will also need to take urgent and concerted action in order to avert the larger political and security implications of this growing crisis. The UN needs to examine ways to lead a process for the immediate and longer-term responses to this global problem,” he added.
Turning to the meeting’s five key themes, Mr. Ban called for building consensus around measures on development financing that would lead to more stable and predictable long-term resource flows to developing countries.
He noted that middle-income countries need better market access to foster their comparative advantages as well as technical assistance and knowledge sharing to help address critical gaps in their development processes, such as improving infrastructure, integrating into world financial markets and tackling persistent pockets of poverty and growing inequality.
Thirdly, citing trade as an engine of growth for the poorest economies, he appealed for increased investment and technology transfer from donors to help the least developed countries to broaden their exports through diversification and economic capacity-building, thus bolstering “aid for trade” support.
He also called for “innovative and robust regulation to protect financial systems and sustain continued growth and expansion,” warning that regulatory checks and balances have failed to keep pace with the “enormous growth” of recent years. “The current turmoil in world markets demonstrates that this gap is unsustainable,” he declared.
Finally he noted that long-term global economic growth and sustainable development is imperilled by climate change.
“Developing countries need external assistance – especially better technology and increased financing – to rise to this challenge,” he said, calling on the world community to use the run-up to a major climate change conference in less than two year time to implement new ways to finance adaptation and mitigation measures in developing nations.
Mr. Ban’s Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development, former French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, told a news conference he supported calls by World Bank President Robert Zoellick for a Marshall Plan to fight poverty and hunger.
“Indeed, what we are experiencing in different countries of the world on hunger, for example, shows that we really need to hurry,” he said, citing the urgent need to find new sources of financing for development. Steps considered have included voluntary measures or levies on such resources as stock exchange transactions and airline tickets.
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CHORUS OF CONDEMNATION AT MURDER OF UN POLICE OFFICER IN HAITI
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Security Council and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti have joined together to strongly condemn Saturday’s execution-style killing of a Nigerian police officer serving with the operation in the impoverished Caribbean country.
The plainclothes officer, a 36-year-old father, was with three other members of his formed police unit (FPU) near the cathedral in the Bel-Air district of the capital, Port-au-Prince, when he was dragged from his car and shot dead by unidentified gunmen, according to the mission, known as MINUSTAH.
The murder took place two days after another gun attack on three blue helmets serving with MINUSTAH, and comes amid violent unrest across Haiti over the past week because of a recent spike in the price of basic foods.
The mission said it has already opened an inquiry into the killing in collaboration with Haitian police officers. MINUSTAH “will pursue the authors of this abject crime with the strongest determination,” it added.
In a statement released by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban said he “learned with shock” of the killing of the police officer and offered his condolences to the man’s family, his colleagues and the Nigerian Government.
“The Secretary-General… emphasizes that peace and stability constitute essential conditions for social and economic development, as well as to promote investments and job creation, which, together with the immediate measures announced by the Haitian authorities, constitute the best ways, in the medium-term, to fight against the increase in the cost of living.”
Security Council members also decried the attack and stressed the need to maintain public order in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and the scene of widespread public protests against the rising cost of living.
In a press statement, the Council urged international donors to provide emergency relief as a priority to alleviate the suffering for Haitians. The World Bank has announced a $10 million grant to help the Government respond, with food to be allocated specifically for children and other vulnerable groups.
Last Thursday, three UN peacekeepers from Sri Lanka were shot while on patrol in the capital, but their injuries are not considered life-threatening. On Saturday members of the national Senate voted to dismiss Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis.
In a separate statement MINUSTAH said it hoped a new government could be quickly formed and Haiti could return to its efforts to rebuild after years of misrule and suffering.
“The reform process must continue. At the same time, Haitians must work together to consolidate the stability and the progress which they have realised.”
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UN MISSION WELCOMES UNVEILING OF PRESIDENTIAL POLL DATE IN CôTE D’IVOIRE
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) today welcomed the announcement that the country’s much delayed presidential elections will now be held on 30 November this year.
The publication of the poll date “is one of the greatest achievements in the Ivorian peace process since the outbreak of the crisis more than four years ago,” UNOCI said in a press release issued in Abidjan.
Côte d’Ivoire became divided in 2002 between the Government-controlled south and the rebel Forces Nouvelles-held north, but last year’s Ouagadougou Peace Agreement paved the way for an end to the conflict and included a provision calling for free and fair elections to be held.
Presidential polls were to be held as far back as 2005, but have been delayed several times since then.
In its statement UNOCI encouraged all Ivorian parties “to consolidate the current momentum by demonstrating the same will to move ahead and the same commitment to public interest.”
However, in a mid-term report to the Security Council that was released today, the Côte d’Ivoire Group of Experts said it had gathered credible information that members of the defence and security forces of both the Government and the Forces Nouvelles are being trained in the territories of other UN Member States, a breach of a 2004 Council resolution.
The Group also voiced deep concern that UNOCI has been unable to inspect sites held by the Garde Républicaine to monitor the arms embargo established by the Council, and that Ivorian authorities routinely deny access to such sites, claiming that inspections are outside UNOCI’s mandate.
Turning to the area of customs, the Group said the major weakness of the embargo stemmed from the failure of Ivorian authorities to sensitize customs staff to be vigilant and not allow the export or imports of prohibited goods.
During the reporting period the experts were also informed by Mali that an attempt was made last December to export 31 rough diamonds, purportedly of Malian origin, through Bamako airport.
Exporting rough diamonds from Mali is illegal as the West African country is not a member of the Kimberley Process, the system set up in 2003 to prevent rebel groups and others from profiting from diamond sales.
The Group said the diamonds may be of Ivorian origin, it recommends that the Kimberley Process send a technical working group to Bamako to examine the seized diamonds.
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UNICEF TEAMS UP WITH V-DAY CAMPAIGN TO STOP RAPE IN DR CONGO
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the global movement to end violence against women and girls known as V-Day have launched a new partnership to end rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and ensure justice for the victims of this heinous crime.
The new partnership was announced by UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman and playwright and V-Day founder Eve Ensler on Saturday during V-Day’s tenth anniversary celebrations in the United States city of New Orleans.
“The goal of the campaign, Stop Raping Our Greatest Resource, Power to The Women and Girls of Democratic Republic of Congo is to stop the rape, empower women and girls and end impunity for these atrocious crimes,” said Ms. Veneman.
Hundreds of thousands of women and children, aged six months to 80 years of age, have been sexually assaulted in the DRC, where rape has been used as a weapon of war for years.
Ms. Veneman, who met with several rape survivors during a visit to the vast Great Lakes nation in 2006, noted that “these women’s lives have been profoundly marked by acts of brutality.
“It is urgent that we work together to put a stop to these inhumane acts of violence,” she stressed.
The agency, in partnership with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), is assisting thousands of women and girls in the DRC who have been assaulted and raped.
To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $50 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end the scourge. Among its many activities, it has reopened shelters and funded over 5,000 community-based anti-violence programmes and safe houses in places such as DRC, Haiti and Iraq.
The partnership between UNICEF and V-Day is just one of several UN initiatives to help women in the DRC who are victims of sexual violence. Last month, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) teamed up with civil society groups, NGOs and the Government to launch a nationwide public awareness campaign aimed at reducing the country’s appalling levels of sexual violence.
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SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN WELCOMES AGREEMENT ON KENYA’S COALITION GOVERNMENT
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the agreement on a grand coalition Government in Kenya formed by both major parties following months of post-election violence in which 1,000 people were killed and more than 300,000 others forced to flee their homes.
“The Secretary-General encourages both parties to urgently address” issues related to finding a solution to the root causes of the crisis, a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said.
Those causes include land reform, national cohesion and unity, poverty and inequity, unemployment, reform of the public service and transparency and accountability in government.
The violence erupted after disputed elections in December in which President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner over opposition leader Raila Odinga.
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LACK OF FUNDING COULD PUT HALF A MILLION IN CHAD AT RISK, WARN UN AID OFFICIALS
United Nations humanitarian officials have repeated their appeal for funds to support nearly half a million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Chad, noting that less than 20 per cent of the $290 million requested last December has been provided.
Only $51 million has been received so far for the 2008 Humanitarian Appeal for Chad, which covers 70 projects proposed by eight UN agencies and 14 non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said he was still hopeful that donors will respond generously to the appeal.
“But if funding trends do not significantly improve in the coming months, this could have devastating consequences for nearly half a million people who heavily rely on humanitarian assistance for their survival,” he warned.
In addition to the more than 180,000 IDPs who have fled internal conflict in the east of the country, Chad also hosts over a quarter of a million refugees from the Sudan, and more than 57,000 refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR).
Solofo Ramaroson, head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) field office in Chad’s eastern town of Abéché, also cautioned that “should our life-saving operations ever be interrupted, whether due to lack of funding or to insecurity, the current crisis would seriously deteriorate within a short period of time.”
Humanitarian actors in Chad are set to meet in May to revise the humanitarian needs and the requirements for the response.
The acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, Eliane Duthoit, noted that the 2007 Humanitarian Appeal for the country was the “best-funded worldwide,” having received 99 per cent of the $274 million requested.
The contributors to this year’s appeal include Canada, Finland, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United States.
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AFTER FAILURE TO REACH PEACE DEAL IN NORTHERN UGANDA, UN ENVOY TRIES FRESH TACK
The United Nations envoy heading efforts to end the conflict that has ravaged northern Uganda for two decades will contact the key parties to assess the way forward after the Government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) failed last week to sign a permanent peace agreement, a UN spokesperson said today.
Joaquim Chissano, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the LRA-Affected Areas, will try to see what can be done now to support the peace process, spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters.
“We were obviously expecting a different outcome,” she said, adding that the UN has yet to make a full assessment of the situation. “In the best of cases, this will be only a temporary setback to the process, but we cannot say at this point.”
Ugandan Government forces have been fighting the LRA in the north of the country since the mid-1980s and during the conflict the rebel group has become notorious for its human rights abuses.
A series of accords struck by the two sides earlier this year raised hopes that they could reach a permanent, wide-ranging agreement ending the conflict, and last week LRA leaders were expected to emerge and sign a deal mediated by the Government of Southern Sudan. But that did not happen.
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IRAQ: UN BACKS CONFERENCE TO PREVENT RECURRENCE OF CHOLERA OUTBREAK IN KURDISTAN
A United Nations-backed international conference is under way in Iraq’s Kurdistan region to draw up measures to prevent a recurrence of last year’s cholera outbreak, which saw more than 30,000 people fall ill with acute watery diarrhoea.
“Last year’s crisis demonstrated how crucial it is to embark on concerted efforts to urgently improve the delivery of basic services to the population in order that another outbreak of cholera does not occur again this year,” UN Development Programme (UNDP) country director Paolo Lembo told the gathering of the disease, which is spread by drinking contaminated water and in extreme cases can be fatal.
“The United Nations will do everything it can to support such efforts,” he said, citing the need for the international community’s assistance given the risks for the region of another outbreak.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Iraq Staffan de Mistura and Kurdistan Regional Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani are patrons of the conference, and UNDP, the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are participating.
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GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT CALLS ON STATES TO RESIST ‘TEMPTATION OF PROTECTIONISM’
Countries should resist the “temptation of protectionism” because free trade and the broader process of globalization have brought people closer together and play an important role in reducing poverty, the General Assembly President has told an international meeting on democracy and development.
Speaking last night to the opening of the Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade, held in the Qatari capital, Srgjan Kerim said that free trade agreements have become “the engine of regional integration,” citing the examples of pacts involving the European Union (EU), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“Democracy fosters openness and open societies tend to trade more and freely,” Mr. Kerim said, stressing that countries can always achieve more when they work together rather than when they operate alone.
“Globalization has further accentuated and strengthened the nexus of relations between democracy, development and free trade, increasing our mutual interdependence, the complexity and density of relationships between our economies, societies, politics and individuals; and, the speed at which we need to face changes and interact with each other.
“This has led to a proliferation of actors in the international arena. Influential individuals, civil society groups, think tanks, corporations and religious institutions operate internationally and have created new social and economic networks.”
Today’s biggest global problems, including climate change, terrorism and sustainable development, can only be solved when countries cooperate in “a new kind of internationalism that puts the well-being of the individual and communities at its centre.”
Mr. Kerim warned that “the temptation of protectionism remains to this very day. It needs to be resisted, all the more so as free and fair trade also has its immediate benefits. It is essential to reducing poverty.”
While in Doha, Mr. Kerim also held bilateral meetings with Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani and with the country’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor al Thani.
The leaders discussed the role of Qatar in the work of the UN and the priority activities of the 192-member Assembly during this session, including preparations leading up to the review conference of the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus on financing for development. This gathering is slated to take place in Doha from 29 November to 2 December.
At the Forum in Doha, the Assembly President also held talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
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UN-BACKED PROGRAMME FOR CLEAN ENERGY PROJECTS PASSES 1000 MILESTONE
A mechanism under the United Nations-backed Kyoto Protocol that allows industrialized countries to generate credits through investment in emission reduction projects in developing countries reached a milestone today, approving its 1000th clean energy project.
The project in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 34,000 tons annually, according to a news release issued by the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the parent treaty of the Kyoto Protocol.
To be registered with the Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and then earn Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits, projects must pass a rigorous process of approval and independent third-party monitoring designed to ensure that emission reductions claimed by a project are real, verifiable and additional to what would have taken place without the project.
Rajesh Kumar Sethi, Chair of the CDM Executive Board, who signed off on the project at a joint coordination workshop in Bonn, Germany, noted that with 1,000 projects in 49 countries in just two and a half years, the mechanism has shown its potential.
At the same time, “it’s clear that there is still much greater potential that can be realized, while respecting the imperative of ensuring environmental integrity and making the mechanism as simple as possible,” said Mr. Sethi.
The Bonn workshop brought together about 240 representatives of CDM regulatory implementers and national stakeholders who discussed, among other things, registration of CDM projects and issuance of CERs, emissions baseline setting and monitoring methodologies, and accreditation of third-party certifiers.
The CDM has been hailed as one of the Kyoto Protocol’s greatest successes by UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, who said that it “provided developed countries with a degree of flexibility in how they meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.”
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DARFUR: UN AND AFRICAN UNION ENVOYS TO HOLD MORE CONSULTATIONS IN SUDAN
The United Nations and African Union envoys spearheading international efforts to resolve the five-year conflict wracking Darfur will tomorrow begin a four-day visit to Sudan to hold consultations with the movements that have not signed previous peace agreements in the region.
The aim of the consultations involving the UN’s Jan Eliasson and the AU’s Salim Ahmed Salim is to brief the parties on informal discussions held in Geneva last month with regional and international partners to the peace process and to seek their views on the way forward, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters today.
The main focus of the consultations will be on the need to improve the security situation across Darfur, which is affecting not only humanitarian operations and the work of the hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping mission (known as UNAMID), but the political process as well, she said.
The visit by Mr. Eliasson and Mr. Salim will take place a week after consultations were held in the capital, Khartoum, and the southern city of Juba with the Government, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) – the former rebels from the separate north-south civil war that ended in 2005 – and one of the Darfur movements, the United Resistance Front (URF).
Mr. Eliasson and Mr. Salim have repeatedly reiterated their calls for the parties to the Darfur conflict, which have claimed more than 200,000 lives and displaced nearly 2.5 million others since 2003, to end all violence and prepare for substantive talks aimed at devising a durable peace.
The parties cannot fight and prepare for peace talks at the same time, the envoys have said, stressing that a reduction is violence is vital if progress is to be made on the political front.
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PROGRESS IN KEY AREAS WILL IMPACT UN DRAWDOWN IN LIBERIA, SAYS TOP OFFICIAL
Challenges related to security, rule of law and economic development must be addressed if Liberia is to solidify the progress made so far and the United Nations is to successfully draw down its presence there, the world body’s top official in the West African nation said today.
“The hope and tranquillity we see today is tempered by a tenuous and fragile peace,” Ellen Margrethe Løj, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia, told a meeting of the Security Council today.
She pointed out that while the overall situation in Liberia was stable, recent months have witnessed several incidents of violence on rubber plantations and in diamond mining areas, as well as mob violence. Such incidents highlight the need for security sector reform in the country, which is rebuilding after a devastating civil war.
The security of the country continues to rely heavily on the presence of the police and military forces of UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), which is headed by Ms. Løj. “This is clear evidence that peace has not taken firm roots and it is not yet time to declare victory and leave the country,” she stated.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a report issued last August, outlined a drawdown plan for both the military and police component of UNMIL to be carried out in several stages, resulting in 9,750 peacekeeping troops and UN police on the ground in Liberia at the end of 2010.
The plan is contingent on a number of core benchmarks, particularly relating to the Liberian National Police (LNP), military forces and rule of law institutions.
Speaking to reporters after the Council meeting, Ms. Løj noted that there are concerns among Liberians that UNMIL would depart the country prematurely, leaving behind a security vacuum. “The Mission is trying to assure the public that the drawdown is taking place so as to minimize threats to the security of the country and also to deal with any serious disruptions,” she stated.
The drawdown plan, Ms. Løj pointed out in her briefing to the Council, “is intended to provide the time and space needed for Liberia to build up its own police and military forces and progressively assume full responsibility for national security.”
Progress is being made, although slower than expected, in the training and restructuring of the new Armed Forces of Liberia, Ms. Løj reported, adding that any further delays will prevent the new army from becoming fully operational before late 2009, and impact on the timeline for UNMIL’s drawdown.
The reform of the LNP “constitutes a bigger challenge,” she stated, emphasizing the need to focus on improving the quality and professionalism of the officers, enhancing management and providing the LNP with the equipment and resources required to perform effectively.
Deficiencies in the justice system – including lack of adequate funding, shortage of qualified personnel, lack of infrastructure, low salaries and corruption, pose another major challenge – stated Ms. Løj, adding that many Liberians have little confidence in such as system.
“Liberians do not trust the system. They do not trust the Liberian police. They do not trust the justice system, and they are all too quick to return to the civil war mentality of fending for themselves,” she told journalists.
She also highlighted the need for economic growth, particularly to reduce the high unemployment rate, which poses a “serious security threat.” Crucial in this regard will be implementing the country’s new national poverty reduction strategy.
To address gender-based violence in Liberia, UNMIL and the UN Country Team are supporting the Government in finalizing the national gender policy. The Government has also developed a national action plan against gender-based violence to deter and prosecute rape cases and approved a new rape law.
In a related development, Ms. Løj and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf have jointly commissioned a peace park in a suburb of the capital, Monrovia, in recognition of the contributions of former UN envoy Alan Doss to the rebuilding and prosperity of the country.
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UN RELIEF CHIEF OPTIMISTIC OF GREATER HUMANITARIAN COOPERATION FROM GULF STATES
United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said today he was reasonably optimistic of building over time greater partnerships between UN agencies and the Gulf Arab States, which have a tradition of bilateral donations, in channelling humanitarian contributions multilaterally.
“The encouraging thing I found was that there was a recognition of the need to, of the desirability of working more closely together with the United Nations humanitarian system and the international humanitarian system more widely,” Mr. Holmes told a news conference in New York following a visit to Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
“I wasn’t there asking for money for any particular cause or any particular fund or any particular request. It wasn’t that kind of visit. It was more like trying to create the kind of partnerships, long-term partnerships… which I think are appropriate,” he said, calling his talks very constructive and noting that the message he was carrying was not new.
“I was pointing out for them the advantages of channelling resources where they want to give them through the international system in the sense that we have already through our existing mechanisms established needs, established priorities and established projects which can be funded multilaterally in a very transparent and accountable way,” added Mr. Holmes, who is also Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.
“I am reasonably optimistic that over time these kinds of discussions will bear fruit in the form of better partnerships and a more multilateral channelling of resources from these countries to the international humanitarian system. But I am not expecting a sort of instant results right now.”
Asked about the situation in Gaza, where crossing points with Israel have been closed, Mr. Holmes said it remained grim but there was a marginal improvement last month when twice as many lorry-loads of goods got through as in February. But that was still a very low base since February’s figures were only 10 per cent those of the same period in 2007.
“It still leaves the inhabitants of Gaza very, very substantially short of what it is they need to lead a normal and decent life. Nevertheless it is a marginal improvement from the situation we saw in February and we will be pressing for that to go on improving,” he added.
“We have been discussing with the Israeli authorities how we can try to persuade them to allow more goods in even if they’re not going to lift the embargo or blockade altogether.”
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EUROPEAN FOOTBALL CLUBS TEAM UP WITH UN TO SCORE AGAINST WORLD HUNGER
The Association of the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) today mustered its more than 900 member clubs to support the United Nations in its fight against hunger in the latest case of international sports teaming up with the Organization to advance humanitarian causes.
UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf signed a cooperation agreement in Lisbon with David Richards, EPFL President and Chairman of England’s Premier League, to promote a series of initiatives to sensitize the public on issues related to food security, including fund-raising.
“The two organizations believe that the power of football is a key tool in development and in advocating for the fight against hunger and towards the achievement of the first Millennium Development Goal (MDGs) – to reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and poverty in the world by 2015,” FAO said in a news release.
“With this strategy, the two organizations hope that football will become a tool for advocacy with the ultimate goal of improving living conditions for the world’s poorest people and a means to mobilize resources in the fight against global hunger.”
EPFL consists of 27 member and associated member leagues, comprising more than 900 football clubs across Europe. Top European players already helping FAO in its fight against hunger include former star of Juventus and Inter, Italy’s Roberto Baggio, and Spain’s Raúl Gonzalez, captain of Real Madrid. Both are FAO Goodwill Ambassadors.
Last month, FAO signed a similar agreement signed with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to mount solidarity campaigns, such as national or regional food security programmes, TeleFood projects and cultural and sporting events held to promote the development of agriculture, nutrition and the environment.
These initiatives, in the framework of World Food Day and TeleFood activities, will draw attention to the plight of the more than 850 million hungry around the world and raise funds to support FAO micro-projects to help families and poor communities to produce their own food.
One example, among the more than 2,500 small-scale existing projects in 130 countries, are school gardens where students learn how to grow their own crops and breed livestock, and also benefit from meals at school prepared with the food they produce.
The campaign is but the latest in a whole series of collaborations between UN agencies and world sport, which has seen the likes of football legends Ronaldo and Zinédine Zidane shooting against poverty, the European Swimming League in “a race against time” to prevent deaths from unclean water and the Cricket World Cup batting for the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the battle against HIV/AIDS.
Similar initiatives have involved the International Rugby Board, American football stars, marathon runners and Formula One auto racers.
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QUICK PROGRESS ON MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS ‘OBVIOUSLY POSSIBLE’ – MIGIRO
Although many countries remain off track in meeting the ambitious Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that seek to slash hunger poverty and a host of other social ills by 2015, quick and significant progress is obviously possible, according to Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.
“Many countries are proving this,” Ms. Migiro told a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union yesterday in Cape Town, South Africa, citing increased public school enrolment, reduced child mortality thanks to massive vaccination campaigns, with 3 million more children surviving annually compared with the year 2000.
“And we know the ingredients for success. Strong government leadership. Good policies that support private investment. And sound strategies for scaling up public investments. “The international community must back these favourable conditions with financial and technical assistance,” she said.
“Our ambitious vision for a better world is still within reach, but we need all States to follow through on their commitments. Developing countries, yes, but especially those which are already more developed,” she added, calling for immediate rigorous and concerted national and international action to push back the frontiers of poverty, especially in light of skyrocketing food prices.
Ms. Migiro noted that parliaments are key to achieving the MDGs, by showing political will in legislation and budget allocations. In developed countries in the North, parliaments should contribute to government efforts to honour their commitment to allocate 0.7 per cent of gross national income to official development assistance whose latest figures are in steep decrease.
In the developing countries of the South, parliaments should not only be preoccupied by domestic issues but relate to what is taking place at the regional as well as the global level, she said.
“They must press to ensure that their governments mobilize resources, set strategies and adopt policies geared toward reaching the MDGs. And they should participate in formulating poverty reduction strategies and monitoring efforts to carry them out,” she added, stressing the importance of accountability, good governance and human rights.
Turning to climate change, Ms. Migiro noted that negotiations in Bangkok earlier this month agreed on a work programme to move forward towards crafting a new international climate change agreement.
“Now is when the real work begins, and given the magnitude of the challenge ahead, actors from across the spectrum – not just government negotiators – need to be involved,” she said.
“Governments at the national and local level need to work closely with intergovernmental organizations, the private sector, the media, civil society and individuals from around the world. As we seek to galvanize public opinion, Parliaments are uniquely poised to assist in this global alliance for action,” she added.
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FRESH POLLING FOR NEPAL’S CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY NEEDED IN 98 CENTRES – UN
Nepal’s Election Commission has announced that re-polling following last week’s historic Constituent Assembly election will be required in 98 stations out of some 20,000 across the country, a spokesperson for the United Nations said today.
Marie Okabe told reporters that the re-polling in the 98 stations, covering 21 constituencies and 12 districts, will be completed within a week.
Meanwhile, ballot counting in the 10 April polls is under way in 132 constituencies, mostly focusing on the results for the first-past-the-post ballots.
The UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) is providing technical assistance and advice to Nepal’s Election Commission, which is fully responsible for all aspects of the preparation and conduct of the election.
UNMIN district electoral advisers remain in the districts throughout the re-polling and counting process.
In a statement issued after the close of polls last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed “to all parties to remain calm while awaiting the results.”
Once elected, the Constituent Assembly will draw up a new constitution for the South Asian nation that emerged from a decade-long civil war that claimed an estimated 13,000 lives until the Government and Maoist rebels signed a peace accord in 2006.
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UN ENVOY IN FRESH TALKS ON FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA NAME ISSUE
The United Nations envoy tasked with helping Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia resolve their dispute over the official name of the latter country will fly to the region this week to try to reactivate efforts to settle the issue.
Matthew Nimetz, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, is scheduled to be in Skopje on Thursday and then Athens on Friday, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters today.
A follow-up round of discussions is then expected to take place, probably in New York, Ms. Okabe added.
Mr. Nimetz told journalists last month that there had been no progress on the “name issue,” despite intense efforts in recent months to broker a solution and the acknowledgement by both sides that a solution would be in their best interests.
The envoy had proposed several compromise names but Skopje and Athens remained far apart on what they considered to be a satisfactory name for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Interim Accord of 13 September 1995, which was brokered by the UN, details the difference between the two countries on the issue. It also obliges the two sides to continue negotiations under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General to try to reach agreement.
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EMERGENCY UN AID REACHES 400,000 AFGHANS HIT BY RISING FOOD PRICES
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has distributed assistance to some 400,000 Afghans hit by soaring wheat prices, but warned that the most vulnerable will continue to need aid for a while as the record high prices show no sign of abating.
In the past few weeks, the agency has handed out about 30,000 tons of food in Kabul, as well as in the east and south of the country, WFP Country Representative Rick Corsino told reporters in the capital today. It expects to finish the first round of distributions in Kabul by next Sunday.
In January, the UN and the Afghan Government appealed for more than $80 million to help over 2.5 million people facing food shortages due to the soaring price of wheat, the most important food crop in the country.
Mr. Corsino announced that nearly all of the $78 million requested for food has been provided by 10 donors – United States, Canada, Denmark, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland and Norway.
“I am really happy to be able to report today that the appeal has essentially been fully resourced,” Mr. Corsino said.
While the appeal has gone well, the concern now is what happens in a few months’ time. “Very few people think that the factors that came into play pushing the price of wheat up to record highs in the early part of this year are going to disappear,” he stated.
“What this means of course is that those people most affected by the higher prices are unlikely to get too much relief,” he added.
While there is usually a seasonal reduction in the price of wheat when the harvests arrive both in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr. Corsino said he does not expect it to be such that the prices will return to what they were a few years ago.
Another concern is how productive Afghanistan’s cereals crop will be this year. “It is still too early to tell, but there has been some concern raised both by the UN and the Government that the crop this year may not be as good as expected,” he noted.
“So together, the Government and the UN continue to watch that and continue to look at interventions that may be necessary in the short, in the medium and in the longer term to assist Afghans who have been hurt by the higher food prices and who potentially might be harmed by a poorer crop this year.”
Several senior UN officials have called for urgent measures to tackle the global food price crisis, which threatens to hit the world’s poor the hardest and to lead to increased tensions and unrest.
The past few weeks have witnessed violent protests over the increased costs of wheat, maize and rice in a number of countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Senegal, Morocco and, most recently, in Haiti, where several people have died in riots.
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RULE OF LAW KEY IN ATTAINING GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS, SAYS UN ANTI-CRIME CHIEF
The head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has called on countries to give priority to the rule of law which he says is one of the keys to achieving the set of anti-poverty targets world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“Where the rule of law is weak or absent, crime and corruption hold back development and democracy. This can cause conflicts, mass poverty and environmental degradation, creating further instability,” UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa told the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which opened its 17th session today in Vienna.
“Stronger justice and integrity can break this vicious circle,” Mr. Costa added, stressing the role of the rule of law in helping States make progress toward the MDGs.
The current session of the Commission, which runs until Friday, is focusing on ways of preventing violence against women. This is a particularly important issue in conflict and post-conflict situations, stated the Executive Director, where women and girls are especially vulnerable to becoming victims of human trafficking.
Mr. Costa also highlighted a number of other global concerns, such as the dangerous links between drugs, crime and terrorism across Africa, which he noted “is a major windfall for criminals, a funding source for terrorists and insurgents, and a grave threat to us all.”
Drawing attention to the threat posed by the illegal trade in weapons, which contributes to other crimes such as terrorism and drug trafficking and the deaths of millions every year, Mr. Costa urged States to ratify and implement the UN Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms.
He also stressed the need to focus on “green crimes,” stating that “the way that our environment is being destroyed is, quite literally, criminal.”
Crimes such as dumping hazardous waste or illegal logging not only damage the environment, he noted, but they also plunge many countries where pollution, deforestation and population displacement lead to conflict and hamper the achievement of the MDGs into deeper poverty. In particular, Mr. Costa urged countries “save the lungs of our p***t by stopping the illicit trade in forest products.”
The UNODC chief also highlighted the need to work more closely with the private sector and labour unions to tackle economic fraud and identity-related crime, as well as the need to address crime in urban areas. “With half of the world’s population now living in urban centres, we need to stop drugs, crime and terrorism from creating failing cities,” he stated.
He added that the fight against crime requires the mobilization of all segments of society. “Schools, places of work, religious groups, the media, and the film and entertainment industries all have a role to play. Most of all, we must curb demand for illicit goods and services that are the incentive for criminal activity – whether trafficked people, drugs, weapons, forest products, rare species, cigarettes, or precious metals.”
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