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Issue No. 86 - September 2008
Topic for September: Achieving the MDGs in Africa
In this issue:
Topic people are talking about:
“In developing countries, people are not always aware of human rights, nor of important UN activities so, I think that the UN Association in each country needs to make the people in the country aware of what the UN stands for”.
Dr. Hans Blix in an interview with External Economic Relations Magazine, Moscow, June 2008
www.eer.ru
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 Navanethem Pillay will succeed Louise Arbour of Canada as the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, who completed her five-year term on 30 June. Since 2003, Ms. Pillay has served as Judge on the International Criminal Court. Prior to that, she served – as both Judge and President – on the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
 Patricia O’Brien from Ireland, the newly appointed Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, is the first woman to have ever received this position in the history of the United Nations.
Jun Yamazaki of Japan has been appointed Assistant Secretary-General Program Planning, Budget and Accounts and Controller. He replaces Warren Sach, who now assumes the role of Assistant Secretary-General for Central Support Services, where he will be responsible for procurement, among other functions. He will retain the post of Secretary-General Representative for Pension Fund investments.
 Cheick Sidi Diarra, from Mali was appointed High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.
Christoph Flügge from Germany has been appointed to serve on the UN war crimes tribunal dealing with the worst offences committed during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.
 Belgian diplomat Johan Verbeke (left) was appointed the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Georgia. His previous post in Lebanon has been taken over by Michael C. Williams (right) of the UK as Special UN Envoy to Lebanon.
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DPI/NGO Conference
3-5 September, Paris
Human Rights Council, ninth session
8 - 26 September , Geneva
Twenty-seventh Meeting of States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
4 September, New York
Committee on the Rights of the Child
15 September - 3 October, Geneva
General Assembly, General debate
16 September – 1 October, New York
UNCTAD: Fifth Hearing with Civil Society
17 September, Geneva, 3-6pm
Theme 1: The global food crisis: addressing a systemic failure in development strategy
Theme 2: The global financial crisis and its impact on sustainable development
For more information and registration see:
www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=4551&lang=1
International Day of Peace
21 September
High-level Meeting on Africa’s Development Needs
22 September, New York
Millennium Development Goals High-level Event
25 September, New York
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Peace and Security
 Security Council Elections
The General Assembly will meet to elect five new members of the Security Council on 17 October 2008 to serve two-year terms. The five new members elected this year will replace South Africa, Panama, Indonesia, Belgium and Italy in January 2009. This election will see two seats (African and Latin America) with endorsed candidates (Uganda and Mexico) while the remaining seats (two for the Western European and Others Group and one for Asia) will be contested. Security Council Report has published a Special Report in these elections, looking at the candidates, the role of regional groups in elections and the rules of procedure governing the elections. Read the Report at:
www.securitycouncilreport.org/site/c.glKWLeMTIsG/b.4464545/
International Day of Peace (21 September)
Take a look at events taking place around the world and learn about ways to get involved on at:
www.peaceday2008.org
www.internationaldayofpeace.org
Development
 Taking Action on the MDGs – Youth Summit in India
The Global Youth MDG Summit will be taking place in Mumbai, India from 7-11 November 2008. The Indian Federation of UN Associations and WFUNA are co-organizers of this Summit, which will bring together more then 200 young people from around the world to study and take action on the MDGs. At the Summit, the participants will be divided into eight groups, each working on one MDG. They will attend panel discussions and workshops on the MDGs as well as practical training in film-making, project development and fundraising. At the end of the Summit, the participants will have created eight 5-minute films, and eight actions plans – one for each MDG. The films will be showcased by WFUNA at an event at the United Nations.
Go to: www.globalmdgsummit.org
 We the Peoples 2008: Getting to 2015: Building participation, seeking success
An ongoing survey-based joint project of WFUNA and the North-South Institute (www.nsi-ins.ca ), We the Peoples focuses on monitoring, informing and encouraging the contribution of civil society as part of the continuing mobilization to make poverty history. The 2008 report has special significance not only because it was published at the halfway point to the 2015 target of achieving the MDGs, but it is the first We the Peoples report focused on highlighting the critical role of youth in achieving the MDGs. The 2008 We the Peoples report is available at: www.nsi-ins.ca/english/research/progress/55.asp
MDG Blog
As part of the preparatory work for the upcoming High-Level Event on MDGs to be held at UN Headquarters on 25 September, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the United Nations Development Programme, with the support from the MDG Network and the UNDG MDG Policy Network, have launched a Blog on the MDGs. Everyone is invited to contribute! To participate, login and register at: www.mdg-gateway.org/MDG-Blog
Human Rights
WFUNA global civil society survey affirms the validity of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Using interactive online technology provided by the Millennium Project, WFUNA conducted a survey of civil society on twelve questions relating to the Universality of Human Rights. Over 840 written comments were submitted from respondents around the world on questions ranging from the balance between civil and political, and economic, social and cultural rights to the impact that science and technology have had on the implementation of human rights. The report was prepared as a contribution to the DPI/NGO conference held in Paris from 3 – 5 September. Paris. Read the report at: www.wfuna.org/site/c.rvIYIcN1JwE/b.3784197/k.4BB9/WFUNA_Seminars_on_Human_Rights.htm
 UNESCO Call for Nominations
UNESCO is calling for nominations for the first UNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights 2008. The Prize seeks to enlarge the scope of the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education, established in 1978. Its goal is to recognize outstanding contributions made by organizations and individuals to the cause of human rights through means of education and research. Nominations can be submitted by 15 September 2008.
For more information:
http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=12212&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
The 195th WFUNA Executive Committee meeting will be held from 2-4 October in Cyprus. The draft program and agenda are available in the UNA member section.
The reports of recent WFUNA meetings are now available on the website:
• 6th WFUNA annual Human Rights Seminar, Geneva from 13-16 July 2008
• Students for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World conference, Geneva from 13-16 July 2008
• 3rd WFUNA Asia/Pacific Model UN conference (APMUN 2008), Republic of Korea from 21-24 July 2008
• Meeting of UNA Representatives held in conjunction with APMUN 2008
 The UNA-Russia publishes the bi-lingual magazine External Economic Relations (EER). Maxim Fedorenko, Editor-in-Chief and Alexander Fedorenko, Investment Analyst visited the New York office of WFUNA in August to discuss ideas for collaboration. The magazine has recently featured WFUNA President Dr. Hans Blix and UN Under-Secretary-General Mr. Kiyotaka Akasaka. You can read EER at www.eer.ru.
 Annual Erskine Childers Lecture 2008: Who rules the world?
Lord Hannay of Chiswick will explore current global challenges and the role of the UN in maintaining international peace and security, the protection of human rights and the rule of law at a public meeting on 9 September 2008 from 7.00-8.30pm at the Friends House in London, England. Lord Hannay is the former UK Ambassador to the UN, and he has been Chair of the Board of UNA-UK since 2006. Erskine Childers was a former WFUNA Secretary-General. To register, email: vijay@vmpeace.org
 On 14 July 2008 the Peaceboat (www.peaceboat.org ) docked in New York during its 62nd around the world voyage. A day of peace-related activities was organized on the boat itself. Several representatives from WFUNA attended and set-up a booth to provide information about WFUNA’s activities on disarmament issues.
 Ms. Dania Roepke will be representing the WFUNA-youth Coordinating Committee at the 195th Executive Committee in Cyprus. She will present a report on the activities of WFUNA-youth since April 2008.
The WFUNA-youth Coordinating Committee launched the UNYA Project Database at, www.wfuna-youth.de/wordpress/projects-and-resources/project-database/ . The database is a platform for information about ongoing projects being carried out by UNYA's and can be used as a tool to generate new ideas and collaboration for future projects. The database will soon be filled with useful information including project descriptions, reports, resources such as operating procedures and handbooks, as well as a list of UNYA's and current projects they are carrying out.
 The UNA-Dominican Republic will be hosting the annual International Conference of the Americas (CILA2008), under the auspices of WFUNA from 15-19 October 2008, in Punta Cana. The conference will simulate 12 organs and commissions of the UN and other multilateral institutions, with more than 1,500 participants. CILA 2008 will host a UNESCO Regional Youth Forum, the first seminar-workshop for journalists about the UN and Global Issues, and observe the UN Stand Up Against Poverty Day.
The second annual Latin American and Caribbean Regional UNA-WFUNA-UNIC meeting will be held in conjunction with CILA2008. For details, go to: www.unadr.org
The UNA-Democratic Republic of the Congo will hold its Model UN conference in Kinshasa from 23-24 October 2008.
The Stockholm Model UN (SMUN) will be held from 21-23 November 2008. Go to: www.smun.se
 Stephanie Alenda from France is the Model UN and Education Program Coordinator in the New York office. She received her Master’s Degree in Development Economics in July 2008 and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics. Formerly a middle school supervisor, Stephanie has worked in a major French trade union as a national representative. She studied in Tennessee for a year, and her travels have led her to volunteer teaching English and French in Morocco and China. Last summer, she completed an internship with Religions for Peace. Stephanie speaks fluent French and English. Email at Alenda@wfuna.org
 Laila Haddad, interning at the Geneva office, is a Master of Public Diplomacy student at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communications. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of California Riverside. During an internship in 2007, Laila helped with the WFUNA Millennium Project's "State of the Future" report and studied journalism at the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C. Her areas of interest are human rights, humanitarian aid, and conflict resolution. Email: LHaddad@wfuna.org
 Marielle Schuijt from the Netherlands is the Membership and MDG Programs Coordinator at the New York office. She is Graduate student in European Policy at the University of Amsterdam where she has been studying intercultural communication, human rights law, policy making and international relations. Marielle has lived in Alcalá de Henares, Spain with the Erasmus program. Apart from her studies she has been active in a student society and was working at a bank for three years. Marielle speaks Dutch, Spanish and English. Email: Schuijt@wfuna.org
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 The 2008 State of the Future Report of the Millennium Project will be launched in collaboration with WFUNA and the UN Department of Public Information at the UN Bookstore this September in New York.
The Arabic, English, German, Korean, Russian and Spanish versions of the Executive Summary available at:
www.millennium-project.org/millennium/sof2008.html
Initial pre-publication press coverage is available at the Millennium Projects newsroom:
www.millennium-project.org/millennium/press.html
High school students can enter the Global Millennium Prize at:
www.globalmillenniumprize.org
The Millennium Project has a new Node in Bolivia chaired by Veronica Agreda, Vice Chancellor of the Franz Tamayo University. During a recent visit to the new Node, MP Director Jerome Glenn gave the keynote address at a conference on climate change and food security, held press conferences in three cities in Bolivia, and had meetings with representatives of the private and public sectors. The Franz Tamayo University presented Mr. Glenn with an honorary Doctorate and named a new center on environmental research and training after him.
Topic of the Month: Achieving the MDGs in Africa
 This September, at the mid-point of the global effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, two High-Level Events will be held at UN Headquarters on the issues of the MDGs and Africa. The first one takes place on 22 September, and addresses Africa’s Development needs. World leaders will come together to review and renew their commitments to Africa’s development, to focus attention on how to address the challenges and, most importantly, to focus on the way forward.
To read the entire article, click here >>
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Mr. Lamin Manneh from Gambia, who is the Strategic and Regional Programme Adviser for Africa at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), joined the organization in 1996. He started in the UNDP country offices in Sierra Leone and Liberia before moving to New York in 2001.
Could you tell us how you became involved with the UN?
I worked for the African Development Bank (ADB) for 10 years. We supported development in Africa through loans - both commercial and non commercial - for infrastructure development, education and health sector facilities and for private sector development. The ADB work was really interesting, but I found the UNDP attractive because it is more flexible and opened up opportunities to make an impact on African development and capacity problems in a broader way than you can through a financial institution.
Where and how is the greatest progress being made in Africa to achieve the MDGs?
For those of us who have been working extensively on the MDGs, the focus tends to be on the challenges. I think if one is not careful, that overshadows the progress that has been made.
Overall, Africa has made significant progress and has achieved many targets in areas such as access to education, addressing gender parity, and access to portable water. The rate of new HIV/AIDS infections is mostly stabilized. Although we cannot do very much about the people already infected, except for the provision of care, I think the situation is still encouraging in terms of effort.
We need to draw lessons from all our efforts, especially after this year which is the mid-point for achieving the MDGs. All analyses indicate that ensuring political commitment is crucial. In those countries, like Benin, Gambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and Senegal where the leadership has given political support to MDGs, we have seen faster progress despite resource challenges. We have to make sure that political commitment to the MDGs is galvanized and sustained.
To read the entire article, click here >>
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 When the Millennium Declaration was adopted with unprecedented unity at the turn of the century in the year 2000, the reality of pursuing a common future by all nations seemed eminent. Enshrined in this Declaration was a set of eight goals: the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For the first time, all nations agreed to combine their resources in order to achieve a minimum development agenda for the world, with clear targets, within a fifteen year time frame.
Speaking at a conference in New Delhi recently, the WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy addressed this topic spot on. ”The starting points are simple: we live in an interdependent world where go-it-alone policies and actions are not enough to achieve collective results; nor are they any longer sufficient to even achieve country-specific goals” said Lamy “ … today's global challenges can no longer be met by individual action. Collective action is needed. And this collective action needs to be and to be felt as legitimate; all actors need to participate in its design in order to feel ownership.
To read the entire article, click here >>
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 Studying and taking action on the MDGs, especially when it relates to Africa, has been a priority for many UNAs. Below is a selection of various activities:
Former UNA-USA intern Amanda Teckman learned about an internship opportunity at UNA-Uganda through WFUNA. Here is what she had to say about her experiences in Kinshasa this summer:
“As an intern at UNA-Uganda, I was able to work with them on their main goal of promoting and achieving the Millennium Development Goals throughout Uganda. The organization has created innovative methods for promoting the MDGs in Uganda, including developing a civil society organization network to better realize the MDGs, starting a piggery project aimed at poverty reduction, organizing an event in which students sensitized their communities about recycling and waste management, and making the first Uganda Model United Nations conference possible. UNA-Uganda is an organization that is making a difference in the lives of thousands of Ugandans and I was privileged to be a part of it. Check out the new UNAU website: www.unauganda.net ”.
Since 2005, the UNAs of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Sweden, have had a joint program called the Lake Victoria Project. The program consists of capacity building and organizational development of the three East African UNAs, lobbying for the MDGs in the region. HIV/AIDS and sustainable development are their main focuses.
The UNA-Democratic Republic of Congo has implemented a project to prevent the spread of Malaria, in support of the 6th MDG. It helped to distribute supplies, such as 5000 mosquito bed nets to pregnant women and poor families, reaching over 7500 people in rural areas of the country.
 For UNA-Hungary it has been a priority issue to promote the public awareness and the local realization of the MDGs through its publications, conferences and seminars, especially within Africa. A full-day conference on Africa (“The Future of Development Policies and Changing Priorities: Africa”) was held in 2005 with more than 200 participants. MDGs were high on the agenda of this Conference. The proceedings of the Conference have been published in a 150-page book in English. All of the UNAs publications can be obtained free of charge.
 UNA-USA 's Hero Youth Program is an awareness-building and fundraising campaign to end HIV/AIDS in Africa. This program, partnered with USAID, aims to improve the livelihood of children across the sub-Saharan region. It was launched in June of 2006, taking groups of American students to work with their African peers, helping to build schools and develop civil society. www.unausa.org
 Students Partnership Worldwide (SPW) is the global leader in engaging and supporting young people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to address the urgent health, education, and environmental issues in their lives. SPW recruits and trains 18-28 year-olds to serve as Volunteer Peer Educators (VPEs). These VPEs live full-time in rural communities for 6-12 months and conduct health, environmental and education programs. SPW currently has almost 1,000 volunteers, 85% of whom are from the host program countries, who work in partnership with volunteers from Europe, North America, and Australia. www.spw.org
 OneWorld Africa was founded in 1999 in Zambia to promote sustainable development and social justice across Africa through the use of Information Communication Technology to share knowledge. http://africa.oneworld.net
 Africa Action is the oldest organization in the US working on African affairs. They work with activists and civil society groups throughout the country to change the policies of the US government and international institutions in order to support African struggles for political, economic and social justice. Currently, Africa Action is actively engaged in advocacy and activism in ending the genocide in Darfur, and since 2001 in a campaign to end HIV/AIDS in Africa. www.africaaction.org
 WaterAid is the world's leading champion of safe water, effective sanitation, and hygiene promotion. WaterAid works in 11 countries throughout Africa. Specifically, they have helped over 920,000 people gain access to safe water, effective sanitation, and hygiene promotion throughout Uganda. In Ethiopia, they helped set up and now host the Ethiopian Country Water Partnership (ECWP), the Ethiopian branch of the Global Water Partnership, an international network focused on promoting integrated water resource management. www.wateraid.org .
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.jpeg) The Bottom Billion Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
by Paul Collier
In this universally acclaimed and award-winning book, Paul Collier reveals that fifty failed states concentrated mostly in Africa and Central Asia--home to the poorest one billion people on Earth--pose the central challenge of the developing world in the twenty-first century. The book shines much-needed light on this group of small nations that are dropping further and further behind the majority of the world's people, often falling into an absolute decline in living standards. Collier analyzes the causes of failure, pointing to a set of traps that ensnare these countries, including civil war, a dependence on the extraction and export of natural resources, and bad governance. Standard solutions do not work, he writes; aid is often ineffective, and globalization can actually make matters worse, driving development to more stable nations. What the bottom billion need, Collier argues, is a bold new plan supported by the Group of Eight industrialized nations. In The Bottom Billion, he offers real hope for solving one of the great humanitarian crises facing the world today.
.jpg) Reinventing Foreign Aid
By William Easterly
The urgency of reducing poverty in the developing world has been the subject of a public campaign by such unlikely policy experts as George Clooney, Alicia Keyes, Elton John, Angelina Jolie, and Bono. And yet accompanying the call for more foreign aid is an almost universal discontent with the effectiveness of the existing aid system. In Reinventing Foreign Aid, development expert William Easterly has gathered top scholars in the field to discuss how to improve foreign aid. These authors, Easterly points out, are not claiming that their ideas will Make Poverty History. Rather, they take on specific problems and propose some hard-headed solutions.
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 The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo
HBO, 2008
Today, in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, rape is taking place on a scale that is almost unimaginable. In the last ten years, hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped - but their suffering goes unacknowledged. Instead, they are invisible, shamed and mute. Above all, the film highlights first-person accounts of dozens of rape survivors, who recount their stories with pulverizing honesty and immediacy. Heart-wrenching in its portrayal of the harsh realities of life in Congo, the film provides inspiring examples of resiliency, courage and grace, while serving as a call to action for anyone with a conscience. www.hbo.com:80/docs/programs/thegreatestsilence/index.html
 Sowing Seeds of Hunger
Bullfrog Films, 2003
The HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has crippled the agricultural community while forcing children to undertake the responsibilities of farming. As Sowing Seeds Of Hunger shows, the fallout from this pandemic extends beyond agriculture, undermining development in the region while endangering the lives of orphans and widows.
Produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with the Television Trust for the Environment, a London-based independent film company.
www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/l3ssh.html
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UNA of the Month: UNA-Togo
The United Nations Associations of Togo (ANU-TO) was created in 2006 and has been working since then primarily on development issues. ANU-TO conducts studies in the field and raises public awareness on the Millennium Development Goals.
They have been working on the following projects:
• A study was conducted about the education sector in Togo upon recommendation from UNDP on the role of parents in making the system more effective by taking action such as prioritizing sending their children, both boys and girls, to school and
emphasizing the importance of education in the home. ANU-TO shared the results of the study with parents and educators.
• ANU-TO organized workshops in five schools in Lome to raise awareness amongst children on the HIV-AIDS.
• A workshop was held on 13March 2008 in Lome by the Togo Ministry of Environment. UNA-TO was an important actor in this event. The country signed the UN convention on climate change on that occasion and created a national committee for climate change.
In addition to their work on the MDGs, on 29 April 2008, a conference on the theme “Students for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World” was held at the University of Lome. The ministry of Higher Education, who is also the President of the United Nations National Commission, was patron of that event. The main goals were to inform the students about disarmament and to launch the competition organized by WFUNA. Over 20 Togolese students submitted posters to the Student competition.
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