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UN DAILY NEWS from the
UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE
12 June, 2008 =========================================================================
BUILDING BLOCKS IN PLACE FOR AFGHANISTAN’S DEVELOPMENT, BAN TELLS PARIS SUMMIT
With the launch of Afghanistan’s own blueprint for development, fresh pledges from donors, the commitment of the Government and a strengthened United Nations mandate, the key elements for the rebuilding of the strife-torn nation are in place, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders gathered in Paris.
“These are the building blocks of our new partnership and of a new deal for Afghanistan,” Mr. Ban told the gathering, which he co-hosted with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The International Conference in Support of Afghanistan witnessed the launch of the Afghan National Development Strategy, the Government’s five-year plan to reduce poverty and promote economic and social development.
Mr. Ban said that the UN supports the Strategy’s concept of “Afghanization,” explaining that such a policy was not only about channelling more international assistance into Afghan institutions but to have all Afghans participate in the rebuilding of their country.
“Afghanistan’s development will in fact depend upon the aggregation of millions of decisions taken by Afghans every day in every district,” whether it be the decision by parents to send their children to school or not, the decision by farmers to grow opium or not, or the decision of young men to join the insurgency or not, he said.
The Secretary-General stressed the need for the international community to channel its funds more and more through Afghan structures, and for the Government to be able to account for the use of these funds with transparency and deliver results.
He also called the elections due to take place in 2009 and 2010 a “crucial test of the institutions that we have created together and of the confidence that Afghans have in them.”
In a declaration issued at the end of the conference, participants voiced their support for the Strategy which “will be our road map for joint action over the next five years and sets our shared priorities.”
The declaration added that the Afghan Government and the international community have today made “a commitment to a strengthened partnership, based on Afghan leadership, on a set of agreed priorities, and on mutual obligations.”
On the margins of the conference, Mr. Ban met with a number of officials, including NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, and United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
He also held meetings with President Hamid Karzai and Mr. Sarkozy, before leaving Paris for London, the next stop on his trip, which will also take him to Saudi Arabia.
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UN HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF WELCOMES UNITED STATES COURT RULING ON GUANTáNAMO BAY
The United Nations human rights chief has welcomed today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court that the country’s constitution extends to foreigners being held in Guantánamo Bay and that they have the right to challenge their detention in the civilian court system.
Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement that the detainees – some of whom have been detained for up to six years – have the right to a “prompt review” of the reasons for their detention.
“The Supreme Court has sent a vitally important message that the protections afforded by fundamental human rights guarantees extend to these individuals and that effective remedies must be available to them,” she said after the announcement of a ruling in the case, known as Boumediene v. Bush.
Ms. Arbour added that she welcomed the recognition by the court “that security and liberty are not trade-offs, but can be reconciled through the framework of the law, and that it is the courts that apply that law. This has long been the hallmark of American constitutionalism.”
The High Commissioner had submitted an amicus curiae – or “friend of the court” – brief to the Supreme Court as part of the case, arguing as a matter of constitutional law for the same conclusion that the court reached today.
After the ruling she said she hoped that, “now that these legal issues have been clearly and definitively settled, the civilian courts will be able to move promptly to assess the situation of individual detainees.”
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KOSOVO: BAN OUTLINES PLANS TO RECONFIGURE UN PRESENCE
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon unveiled plans today to reconfigure the structure and profile of the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) in the wake of Kosovo’s decision earlier this year to declare its independence from Serbia.
In a special report sent to the Security Council, Mr. Ban indicated his intention to adjust UNMIK in such a way that the European Union would play an enhanced operational role in the rule of law area under a UN “umbrella” headed by his Special Representative, in line with the original 1999 resolution that established the mission.
The Secretary-General has sent letters to both President Boris Tadic in Belgrade and Fatmir Sejdiu in Pristina informing them of the plans to reconfigure UNMIK and the broader international civil presence in Kosovo.
The letters also confirm the UN position of “status-neutrality” on the question of the status of Kosovo and detail the world body’s commitment to a dialogue with Serbia in six areas: police, justice, boundary management, Serbian patrimony, transport and infrastructure, and customs.
Mr. Ban is also planning to appoint a new Special Representative as part of the reconfiguration, which follows consultations with Belgrade, Pristina, the EU, Security Council Member States and the Kosovo Contact Group.
Today, while in Paris to attend an international conference on Afghanistan, Mr. Ban also discussed the situation in Kosovo during bilateral meetings with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
UNMIK has been in place since mid-1999 after NATO forces drove Yugoslav troops out of Kosovo that year amid deadly inter-ethnic fighting. On 17 February this year, the Assembly of Kosovo’s Provisional Institutions of Self-Government adopted a resolution declaring independence.
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UN AGENCIES DRASTICALLY REVISE APPEAL AS ETHIOPIAN DROUGHT INTENSIFIES
United Nations relief agencies and the Ethiopian Government have drastically increased their appeal for funding to help people caught up in the country’s drought and the resulting widespread crop failures as the number of Ethiopians affected by the crisis continues to soar.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today that more than $325 million is now needed to meet aid demands – nearly five times the $68 million that authorities and aid officials estimated was required just two months ago.
Emergency food supplies, water, sanitation, agricultural assistance and health-care are all priority items in the appeal, which is aimed at assisting 4.6 million people, a leap from the estimated figure of 2.2 million a few months ago.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes warned that some 75,000 children, already suffering acute malnutrition and illness, will deteriorate further unless there the world responds “quickly and seriously” to the crisis.
“The urgency of this launch cannot be overstated,” said Mr. Holmes, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. “Humanitarian agencies are already on the ground helping the Government of Ethiopia respond to the emergency, but limited resources are hampering the efforts of both the Government and its humanitarian partners to help those in need.”
Southern and south-eastern Ethiopia are among the hardest-hit areas, with humanitarian assistance most needed in three administrative states: Oromia, Somali Region and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR).
Seasonal rains have either failed completely or been extremely poor in many parts of the Horn of Africa country, hurting crop production, the availability of pastures and the raising of livestock. Rising food prices are also exacerbating the situation.
Mr. Holmes added that he was confident that Ethiopian authorities would facilitate the increased presence of UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to deal with the crisis.
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GREATER ACCESS TO EDUCATION KEY TO COMBATING CHILD LABOUR – UN
The United Nations is urging improved access to education as the right response to address the plight of the estimated 165 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 worldwide who are involved in child labour.
“Despite global progress in many areas, it is unacceptable that so many children must still work for their survival and that of their families,” Juan Somavia, Director-General of the UN International Labour Organization (ILO), said today on the occasion of the World Day Against Child Labour.
The ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) says that of some 218 million child labourers around the world, millions are either denied educational opportunities that would give them a better future or must balance work with education.
“For too many children, particularly children of poor families across the world, the right to education remains an abstract concept, far from the reality of daily life,” Mr. Somavia stated.
He noted that more than 70 million primary school-aged children are not enrolled in school. Many of these and other out-of-school children start working at an early age, often well below the minimum age of employment. And when a family has to make a choice between sending either a boy or girl to school, it is often the girl who loses out.
“Our challenge is to offer hope to the child labourers of the world by making their right a reality, ensuring that they have quality education and training which can lead them towards a future of decent work,” he said.
“This is essential to break the cycle of child labour and poverty. And it is a sound investment for individuals and society.”
To tackle child labour, ILO is urging governments to provide education for all children at least to the minimum age of employment, as well as education policies that reach out to child labourers and other excluded groups.
In addition, the agency is calling for properly resourced quality education and skills training, and education for all children and decent work for adults.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also sees education as the best weapon in the global fight against child labour and says recent data has provided hope. The number of children out of school has dropped from 115 million in 2002 to 93 million in 2006.
The agency says part of this success has come from new initiatives to bring down the cost of schooling, making it more accessible to more children, including the School Fee Abolition Initiative (SFAI) launched by UNICEF and the World Bank in 2005 to support countries in implementing school fee abolition policies.
The annual World Day is being marked in some 60 countries with events ranging from awareness-raising campaigns and artistic performances to competitions and photo exhibitions on child labour.
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UN PEACEBUILDING COMMISSION ADDS CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC TO ITS AGENDA
The Central African Republic (CAR) today became the fourth country to be placed on the agenda of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, which was set up to help countries emerging from conflict avoid the slide back into war or chaos.
The 31-member body, meeting at UN Headquarters in New York, agreed to the CAR move after a request earlier this year from the Government of the impoverished country, which has also been beset by armed attacks, widespread banditry and massive internal displacement in recent months.
CAR joins Burundi, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone on the agenda of the Peacebuilding Commission, which was established by the UN at the end of 2005. It is tasked with marshalling resources from around the world and providing strategic advice to post-conflict States.
President François Bozizé told today’s meeting that the CAR is emerging from a long cycle of recurring socio-economic and political crises and that his Government is working to rebuild State institutions, particularly the judiciary.
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LEBANESE FARMERS RECEIVE GOATS AND COWS AS PART OF UN ASSISTANCE PROJECT
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has handed out the first batch of 1,600 goats and 200 cows to farmers in southern Lebanon as part as its programme to assist them recover from livestock losses accrued during the war in mid-2006.
About 450 families living in 40 villages south of the Litani river are expected to eventually benefit from the $1.9 million programme, FAO announced today, adding that it will also include animal feed and training.
The batch of goats and cows will allow farmers to resume their production activities, including milk production and processing into local yoghurt and cheese.
An assessment by FAO found that southern Lebanese farmers lost more than 20,000 goats and 1,600 high-yielding milking cows as a result of the war between the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and Hizbollah in 2006.
Nacif Rihani, an animal production expert with FAO, said animals and feed meeting international standards of productivity and health were found for the programme, despite rapidly rising market prices.
Aside from the livestock programme, the agency is also helping more than 600 horticulture farmers by distributing high-quality vegetable seeds and fertilizer and establishing greenhouses with improved design to maximize crop production.
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BAN PAYS TRIBUTE TO 50 YEARS OF NEPALESE CONTRIBUTIONS TO UN PEACEKEEPING
Fifty years after Nepal first sent peacekeepers to serve in United Nations operations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today thanked the small Asian country for its continuous contribution since then to UN missions around the world.
Nepal has contributed 60,000 peacekeepers to 40 different missions in the past five decades, Mr. Ban said in a message released to mark the 50th anniversary, noting that the country is one of the five biggest providers of troops or police officers to UN missions.
“Today, Nepal and four other nations of the South together contribute nearly half of the UN’s peacekeepers around the world,” he said, adding that more than 60 Nepalese peacekeepers have died in service.
Currently more than 110,000 men and women are deployed in conflict zones for the UN, monitoring agreements, maintaining the peace and providing stability, whether in uniform or as civilian staff.
“They train police, disarm ex-combatants, support elections and help build State institutions. They build bridges, repair schools, assist flood victims and protect women from sexual violence,” Mr. Ban said.
“They uphold human rights and promote gender equality. Thanks to their efforts, life-saving humanitarian assistance can be delivered and economic development can begin.”
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UGANDA: UN INDUSTRIAL AGENCY SUPPORTS NEW COMPUTER REFURBISHMENT BUSINESS
A new computer refurbishment centre was opened today in the Ugandan capital Kampala with the support of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The centre, to be run by Uganda Green Computers Company, aims to supply affordable personal computers to small businesses in Uganda.
“Fostering entrepreneurship is critical to economic growth in Africa. No economy can thrive and be competitive without dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises,” Kandeh K. Yumkella, Director-General of UNIDO, said in a statement. “We are enthused by this project because PC refurbishment centres provide one of the missing links for many micro and informal businesses in the country.”
The centre’s goal is to refurbish 10,000 quality-brand PCs a year and to resell them at a retail price estimated to start at $175, one third of the price of a new business PC.
For its distributor network, the Uganda Green Computers Co. relies on District Business Information Centres, which UNIDO has established throughout the country to support small enterprises.
The new centre will re-use working components, such as memory, resell high-value material, including copper and circuit boards, and locally recycle simple materials such as steel and plastic. The centre will work with regional or global recyclers for the proper disposal of toxic substances such as lead glass.
The initiative is part of a partnership between UNIDO and Microsoft to support opportunities for small businesses in Uganda. The partners, working with governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), aim to reach one billion people who don’t have access to computers, by 2015.
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UN ENVOY FOR GREECE, FYR OF MACEDONIA TALKS ON NAME ISSUE TO VISIT REGION
The United Nations mediator in talks between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia said today that he will soon head to the region for further discussions in an effort to produce a breakthrough in the long-running dispute over the name of the latter country.
Matthew Nimetz, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for the talks between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, held a meeting today at UN Headquarters in New York with ambassadors representing the two countries.
He told journalists later that both Athens and Skopje “expressed resolve to get back to work and see whether we can have a breakthrough on this issue.”
Mr. Nimetz said he planned to visit the region soon for further talks, although he added that no new proposals are currently on the agenda.
“I wouldn’t say the gap is closer [or that] the gap has been narrowed, but I say that the area of discussion is more focused.”
Mr. Nimetz has frequently held talks with the two sides in recent months to try to reach a deal, but he said in March that there has been no progress on the issue, despite an acknowledgement by both sides that a solution was in their best interests.
The Interim Accord of 13 September 1995, which was brokered by the UN, details the difference between Athens and Skopje on the name issue. It obliges the two sides to continue negotiations under the Secretary-General’s auspices in a bid to reach agreement.
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UN CONFIRMS SECURITY PLANS FOR UPCOMING IVORIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
The United Nations mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) has confirmed that coordinated security arrangements will be in place with the aim of providing conditions for a successful presidential election in Côte d’Ivoire which is scheduled for November.
UNOCI announced to reporters yesterday that the initiative will involve the Ivorian army, the former rebel Forces Nouvelles, UN peacekeepers in Liberia (UNMIL) and Cote d’Ivoire, and the Security Council-mandated French force Licorne. They will secure Ivorian borders and provide security inside the country during the voting period.
“We are absolutely committed to the free movement of Ivorian voters,” UNOCI Force Commander General Fernand Marcel Amoussou said.
The Force Commander of UNMIL General Chikadibia Obiakor said that the security arrangements will be in place from 19 June on the border between Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia.
Earlier this week a Security Council delegation met with officials in the country’s capital, Abidjan, where they discussed the ongoing peace process in the West African nation and the presidential election.
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IRAQI REFUGEES IN IRAN HELD UP BY RED TAPE AND BORDER CLOSURES, UN SAYS
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that some 300 ethnic Arab Iraqi refugees in Jahrom camp in southern Iran have been waiting since last year for security clearance from the Iraqi authorities before they can return, while another 200 refugees in the camp have also expressed interest in returning to their home country.
Complicated clearance procedures have delayed repatriation for some refugees – until recently applications were sent via Amman, Jordan, to Baghdad for processing. In addition, there have been sporadic closures of the borders at Shalamcheh and Mehran since April for security reasons.
“I used to work in a cement factory for shelter construction,” 50-year-old Iraqi Abdul Karim told the UN refugee agency. “After I registered for repatriation, I sold all my equipment, thinking it would take one to two months. Now we're hearing that security clearance has not come. How long should we wait? My children and I have no jobs. We didn't know it would take this long,” he added.
Mr. Karim is among hundreds of thousands of mostly Shia Muslims who fled persecution under the late President Saddam Hussein's regime and sought refuge in Iran between the 1970s and the early 1990s. Many returned home in the second half of the 1990s.
The fall of the Baathist regime in 2003 led to another wave of returns from Iran, most of them ethnic Arabs.
“Unlike the gradual nature of the influx, repatriation took place overnight,” said Shokrollah Kazemifar, the director-general of Iran's Bureau of Aliens and Foreign Immigrant Affairs in Ahwaz, south-western Iran, near the Iraqi border. “Once they decided to go, they demolished their homes and took everything.”
Gaitrie Ammersing, UNHCR's protection officer in Ahwaz, noted several reasons for this: “Some refugees say the security situation and job opportunities are gradually improving in southern Iraq. They also tell us it is now much easier to obtain Iraqi documents upon return.”
Others say it is getting harder to survive in Iran. “Life is hard here. I work nearby but it's not always easy to find jobs,” said Attaye Heidari, who has lived in south-western Iran's Bani Najjar camp for the last 16 years. “I'm hard pressed and thinking about return. I believe life will be better in Basra.”
More than 18,000 Iraqi refugees in Iran have been assisted home since November 2003, mostly to areas such as Baghdad and the southern governorates. Numbers peaked in 2004, with over 12,500 returns. Some 230 have repatriated from Iran to the north and south of Iraq so far this year.
The UN refugee agency does not encourage returns to Iraq at the moment, due to the fragile security situation. But it provides some assistance to those who insist on going. This includes interviewing them to make sure return is voluntary and providing a cash grant to help them with transport and initial reintegration costs. And recent developments may help speed their return.
“A new Iraqi consul has been set up in Ahwaz, which should expedite the process instead of going through Amman and Baghdad,” explained Carlos Zaccagnini, UNHCR's representative in Iran, during a recent visit to the camp. “It will cost US$25 for each family to apply for security clearance there.”
There are an estimated 54,000 registered Iraqi refugees living in Iran today, the large majority of them living outside camps, in urban areas.
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TO SUPPORT TIMORESE ECONOMY, UN MISSION AIMS TO INCREASE LOCAL PURCHASING
The United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) is aiming to increase its support for long-term economic recovery in the fledgling nation by increasing purchasing of goods and services available in the country.
The Mission is supporting the Buy Local: Build Timor-Leste campaign by encouraging its staff members to spend their money locally in support of businesses in their communities.
The campaign is an initiative of the Peace Dividend Trust, following a study by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) in 2005 that found that increasing peacekeeping and partners’ expenditure in post-conflict States has a positive effect on local economies by creating employment and building the private sector capacity.
The Mission itself is also purchasing locally where possible and is working to assist local businesses meet the standards and procedures required to bid for UNMIT contracts.
Atul Khare, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Timor-Leste and head of UNMIT, urged everyone at the Mission to buy locally and increase support to local businesses.
“The stimulation of the private sector is essential for the socio-economic growth of Timor-Leste and we support the initiatives of the Peace Dividend Trust,” he said.
The Peace Dividend Trust is now working in two countries – Timor-Leste and Afghanistan – and is looking to increase its presence in other countries where there are UN peacekeeping operations.
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UN DRUGS CHIEF PRAISES WORLD’S LARGEST CANNABIS BUST IN AFGHANISTAN
The head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today congratulated the Afghan authorities for finding and destroying what is believed to be the world’s largest seizure of drugs, with the support of NATO troops.
Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of UNODC, today congratulated the Minister of the Interior of Afghanistan, Zarar Ahmad Moqbel, for the seizure of 236.8 tons of hashish with a potential wholesale value of $400 million, according to the NATO operation in Afghanistan.
“This is a massive seizure, and a major success for counter-narcotics in Afghanistan,” Mr. Costa said.
“Notorious for being the world’s biggest producer of opium, Afghanistan has also become a major source of cannabis resin,” Mr. Costa added.
UNODC estimates that some 70,000 hectares of cannabis were grown in 2007, up from 50,000 in 2006 and 30,000 in 2005. Afghanistan appears to be overtaking the world’s top cannabis grower, Morocco, where the multi-billion dollar cannabis harvest halved from 2003 to 2006.
“The international community needs to provide more support to curb Afghanistan’s drug problem”, the UN drugs chief stressed as an international conference in support of Afghanistan got under way in Paris.
Mr. Costa praised the recent decision by the Security Council to adopt a resolution calling on all UN Member States to tighten international and regional controls on the manufacture and trade of chemical precursors, which are needed to make heroin, and prevent their diversion to illicit markets.
“This should make heroin production a riskier business,” Mr. Costa said.
The head of UNODC also urged Member States to take action against individuals and entities that finance terrorism from drugs, by listing them, freezing their assets, and banning their travel.
“Drugs are financing terrorism and insurgency in Afghanistan. The Security Council has created a list, but there are still no names on it. I urge governments to come forward with the names and evidence needed to bring the most wanted drug traffickers to justice,” Mr. Costa added.
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UNESCO DEPLORES LATEST KILLING OF AFGHAN JOURNALIST
The United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom today condemned the recent assassination of an Afghan journalist working in the south of the strife-torn country.
Abdul Samad Rohani, a Pashto service reporter for the BBC World Service in Helmand province, was reportedly abducted last Saturday, a day before his body was discovered in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
He is the fourth journalist to have been murdered in Afghanistan in the past year, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said in a statement that improving the safety of journalists working in Afghanistan remains a priority for the agency.
“Using violence to muzzle journalists is an unacceptable breach of the basic human right of freedom of expression and of the right of members of the public to make informed decisions about their lives and their future,” he said, adding that “freedom of expression is essential for building sustainable democracy.”
His statement echoes similar remarks from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which voiced its sadness at the killing of Mr. Rohani on Monday.
Mr. Matsuura has also written to the BBC – which lost another reporter last weekend, Nasteh Dahir Farah, who was killed in Kismayo, Somalia – expressing his support for their work.
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UN HELPS CHINESE AUTHORITIES SEARCH FOR RADIOACTIVITY AFTER QUAKE
Training and equipment supplied by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has helped emergency workers search for sources of radioactivity during rescue work following the massive earthquake that hit China’s Sichuan province last month.
In the two weeks immediately following the earthquake, a team of radioactive source search and recovery experts fanned out across all disaster-stricken areas. The teams used radiation detection equipment to pinpoint the location of 50 sources and safely recover all of them, according to China’s National Nuclear Safety Administration. Most of the sources were used in industry.
Under an IAEA Technical Cooperation Project launched in early 2007, staff from Chinese national authorities were trained in how to search for radioactive sources, and to then control and dispose of them safely.
A series of week-long national training workshops on recovery was attended by some 100 Chinese search team members from each of the country’s 31 provinces.
“At the time of the training workshops, we had no clue that the training and equipment would be used in such a disaster,” explained Nabil Lutfi, the IAEA Programme Management Officer responsible for organizing the workshops.
In addition to the training that Chinese authorities received, the IAEA made an in-kind contribution of radiation detection and search equipment.
The 7.9-magnitude earthquake of 12 May devastated China’s mountainous Sichuan province, killing an estimated 69,000 people and causing extensive property damage.
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UNESCO CHIEF WELCOMES LITERACY WORK OF US FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH
The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has welcomed the announcement by United States First Lady Laura Bush that she will host a second international literacy meeting in New York in her capacity as Honorary Ambassador for the UN Literacy Decade.
Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura said in a statement that Mrs. Bush’s “hard work and dedication have encouraged other First Ladies across the globe to speak out in support of literacy, and have propelled national governments and other key partners to step up their commitments in this area.”
Mrs. Bush will host a symposium on literacy in New York in September which will draw together the conclusions of six regional UNESCO conferences in the last two years and identify next steps. The first White House Conference in Support of Global Literacy was convened by Mrs. Bush in 2006.
This year represents both the mid-term of the UN Literacy Decade and the halfway point towards the 2015 target date for achieving Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“Unless efforts are redoubled to reach the over 774 million adults in the world who still cannot read or write, then these development objectives will not be met,” Mr. Matsuura said. “The need to tackle female illiteracy is of particular urgency. Women account for two-thirds of all adult illiterates. Yet, we know that female literacy – with its proven benefits for health, nutrition, education and household income – is important for reaching every one of the MDGs.”
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CORRUPTION HITS ASIA-PACIFIC’S POOR THE HARDEST, UN SAYS IN NEW REPORT
Pervasive corruption is a stranglehold on the lives of the Asia-Pacific region’s poor, limiting their access to education and health services, according to a new United Nations report released today, which also highlights innovative ways in which communities are striving to fight the problem.
Launched today in Jakarta, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) report, “Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives,” notes that anti-corruption efforts usually focus on exposing the ‘big fish.’
But it is ‘small fry’ corruption – from the salaries of fictitious teachers to doctors demanding cash payments from poor, pregnant women to deliver their babies – that impacts people’s day-to-day lives and threatens the achievement of the global targets aimed at halving poverty by 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“Hauling the rich and powerful before the courts may grab the headlines, but the poor will benefit more from efforts to eliminate the corruption that plagues their everyday lives,” says Anuradha Rajivan, Head of the UNDP Regional Human Development Report Unit.
“Petty corruption is a misnomer,” she adds. “Dollar amounts may be relatively small but the demands are incessant, the number of people affected is enormous and the share of poor people’s income diverted to corruption is high.”
Combating corruption makes more political sense now than ever before, especially in sectors like water and electricity, health and education, as it “not only confers credibility to the government, it also greatly promotes everyday citizen satisfaction,” stresses the report.
In the Asia-Pacific region, politicians are seen as the most corrupt group in government followed by the police, with the judiciary running a close third, according to the report. Nearly one in five people claim to have paid a bribe to police during the previous year.
In addition, giving bribes for admission to a hospital – or for new mothers even to see their babies in a maternity ward – is common in South Asia. “One survey of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka found that health workers often demanded bribes for admission to hospital, to provide a bed, or to give subsidized medications,” says the report.
The report also shows that higher levels of corruption are correlated with fewer children attending schools and higher dropout and illiteracy rates. An extreme type of education corruption is found in ‘ghost teachers’ who may be on a payroll but never set foot in a classroom, and even ‘ghost schools’ exist.
At the same time, the report highlights how some communities are fighting the scourge. For example, in the rural, one-teacher schools of Rajasthan, India, where teacher absentee rates have topped 40 per cent, a local non-governmental organization came up with a novel solution that required teachers to take a photo of themselves with the students at the beginning and end of each day using cameras with tamper-proof date and time functions in order to get their maximum salary. As a result, the number of days that children were actually taught each month increased by one third.
Enacting, and enforcing, the right anti-corruption legislation has also made a difference in countries. In China a law was introduced in 2006 stipulating that staff members of schools and hospitals would face criminal penalties for seeking bribes or receiving kickbacks. The former Commissioner of the State Food and Drug Administration was subsequently convicted on charges of accepting more than $850,000 in bribes.
The report suggests a number of ways to tackle the problem of corruption, including raising salaries for doctors, teachers and other civil servants so they do not have to rely on bribes to make a living, and using information technology and e-governance to make administration more transparent.
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UN FOOD AGENCY APPEALS FOR NAVAL ESCORTS FOR SHIPMENTS TO SOMALIA
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) appealed today to naval powers to help protect its food-delivery ships from pirate attacks, saying that as many as two million Somalis could go hungry without this protection.
A Dutch frigate is scheduled to finish escort services for WFP on 25 June. Despite an upsurge of piracy in Somali waters – according to the International Maritime Bureau there have been 31 attacks so far this year – no WFP ships have been targeted since the escort system started last November.
“Without escorts, our whole maritime supply route will be threatened,” WFP Country Director Peter Goossens said. “Shipping companies are reluctant to sail unescorted to Somalia, and we have no offers to take over from the Royal Netherlands Navy.”
WFP says that millions of Somalis are suffering from a combination of insecurity, drought and high food and fuel prices.
“If relief shipments slow down, we could face a major catastrophe,” Mr. Goossens added, saying that WFP is trying to scale up food distributions to avoid a disaster.
Malnutrition is on the rise in Somalia. An unusually harsh dry season and poor April-June rains, which followed a succession of droughts and poor harvests, have led to increasing hunger in the central region of the country.
The situation is compounded by conflict, hyperinflation, the weakness of the Somali shilling, high unemployment and high food and fuel prices.
Some 80 per cent of WFP food for Somalia arrives by sea. From mid-November until now, a succession of French, Danish and Dutch frigates have escorted 27 ships loaded with 112,500 tons of WFP food – enough to feed nearly 1 million people for six months.
WFP says that relief food deliveries by sea are essential. High commodity prices in East Africa have prompted WFP to purchase food in South Africa and the food agency plans to ship 220,000 tons of food by sea to Somalia between June and December, to reach a total of 2.4 million people per month by December.
Experts fear that the number of people requiring food assistance later this year could reach 3.5 million people – nearly half the total population.
Without urgent new contributions, WFP warned it will run out of food for Somalia in September.
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