Issue No. 88 – November 2008
In this issue:
• Message from Hans Blix, President
• Who's Who at the UN
• What's Happening at the UN
• UN Partnerships in Action: The ThreePillars
• WFUNA Highlights
• UNA of the month: UNA Israel
• Millennium Project Highlights
Topic people are talking about:
• Overview
• UN Perspectives: Peter Salama, Chief of Health, UNICEF
• UNAs and Global Health
• NGOs on the Move
• Book Recommendation
• Film Recommendations
 “Now, more than anytime since the formation of the United Nations, the peoples of the world are facing complex and interconnected crises. We face severe challenges regarding the supply of energy, water, and food. We meet other challenges in the fields of health and demography, climate change, resource depletion and ecosystem devastation.
A central function of the United Nations is to provide global norms. It is within the United Nations system that world leaders should come together to work out norms and guidelines for equitable and sustainable solutions to the crises that the world is facing.
The financial order of the world needs to be reformed. It must be like a blood circulation providing nourishment and vigor to all parts of the world. Measures need to be taken to shift resources to meet urgent common global tasks like the protection of the climate and the development of poor countries. The global military expenditures, estimated to be $1.47 trillion, are wildly excessive and must be drastically reduced worldwide”.
Dr. Hans Blix’s message to UNAs on UN Day, 24 October 2008 (You can read the full UN Day message from Hans Blix in English, Spanish, French and Chinese at www.wfuna.org)
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 Michael Williams, from the United Kingdom, is the newly appointed UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon. He will ensure that the activities of the UN Country Team are closely coordinated with the Government of Lebanon, donors and international financial institutions in line with the overall objectives of the UN in Lebanon.
 The Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace Wilfred Lemke, is set to become a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Role of Sports in Society. The 17 members of the Council, influential leaders from governmental and non-governmental bodies, the private sector and international sports organizations, will convene for the inaugural summit to be held in Dubai, 7-9 November.
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General Assembly, 63rd session
16 September – December, New York
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 42nd session
20 October -7 November, Geneva
Interactive Panel of the UN General Assembly on the Global Financial Crisis
30 October, New York
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 41st session
3 – 21 November, Geneva
International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict
6 November
10th UNEP National Committees in Europe and Civil Society Forum
7 – 18 November 2008, Geneva
Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, 9th session
24 – 28 November 2008, Geneva
Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus
29 November-2 December 2008 Doha, Qatar
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Civil Society Analysis of First Committee Progress
Reaching Critical Will along with other organizations including WFUNA is monitoring the sessions of the First Committee. The group’s publication, the First Committee Monitor provides a summary of all the topics that have been discussed during the week. Subscribe to The Monitor at:
www.reachingcriticalwill.org/political/1com/FCM.html
The Security Council Report has published a Special Research Report on the Peacebuilding Commission: www.securitycouncilreport.org/site/c.glKWLeMTIsG/b.4673567
Office of Legal Affairs launched the "Audiovisual Library of International Law" available at: www.un.org/law/avl
 The Interactive Panel of the United Nations General Assembly on the Global Financial Crisis, 30 October 2008
The President of the General Assembly convened a panel, composed of Prof. Joseph Stiglitz (USA), Prof. Prabhat Patnaik (India) and Prof. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (Japan) to open up a dialogue at the UN on the global financial crisis. Member states discussed the issues - please see the report on the meeting at
www.un.org/ga/president/63/interactive/gfc.shtml
On 27-28 October 2008, NGOs met for the Geneva Component of the Civil Society Development Forum, organized by CONGO. The Outcome Document of the New York Component of the Forum held in June 2008 was discussed. NGOs in Geneva focused on two main substantive topics: the global food crisis and the human rights and development nexus. The CSDF New York Outcome Document is available at:
www.ngocongo.org/index.php?what=news&id=10489
More on the Geneva Component of the CSDF at:
www.ngocongo.org/index.php?what=news&id=10495
 On October 17-19 nearly 117 million people stood up and took action in over 2000 events across more than 100 countries for the Stand Up and Take Action against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals campaign, to demand that world leaders keep their promises to end poverty and inequality. Many UNAs organized their own Stand Up events. In the Dominican Republic, the over 1,500 students and volunteers participating in the CILA 2008 conference, all dressed in white, held a Stand Up event on the beach at Punta Cana, while photographs were taken from a helicopter.
www.standagainstpoverty.org
Applications for the third round of funding from the UN Democracy Fund will be accepted from 10 November to 31 December 2008. Applications have to be submitted online in English or French. Apply directly on the website: www.un.org/democracyfund
Year of Human Rights Learning
WFUNA collaborates with Soka Gakkai International, OIDEL and Pax Romana in coordinating the work of the NGO Working Group on Human Rights Education and Learning (HREL) of CONGO. The Working Group was created in 2006 with the aim to ensure effective participation of NGOs in the processes of global policy making on human rights education in relation to the UN institutions, principally the UN Human Rights Council and other relevant bodies. In preparation for the International Year of Human Rights Learning the Working Group will organize a series of side events on Human Rights Education during the 10th Session of the Human Rights Council in March 2009. For more information: www.ngocongo.org/index.php?what=committees&id=53
WFUNA would like to invite UNAs to contribute to a WFUNA side event on Human Rights Education to be held in Geneva in March 2009. Please contact Ms. Martinetti at the WFUNA office in Geneva ( martinetti@wfuna.org ) if interested in joining the NGO Working Group on HREL and participate in its activities.
 WFUNA would like to feature the 60th Anniversary celebrations of UNAs in next month’s UN Connections. Please email a brief description of your UNAs activity and photos to: molnar@wfuna.org
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The 195th WFUNA Executive Committee meeting took place in Nicosia, Cyprus, from 2 – 4 October. A report on the meeting is in the members section of the website. For the first time, a brief video was produced which will be posted on YouTube next week.
WFUNA Secretary-General, Pera Wells, participated in the civil society events at the World Bank/IMF Fall meeting in Washington, 10 – 11 October. The NY office has been sending reports and statements on the UN’s response to the global financial crisis to UNAs.
On 24 October 2008, UNAs around the world celebrated UN Day. Some highlights include:
•  The UNA-Belgium-Flanders organized a panel discussion on EU/UN-relations and on the Doha Financing for Development Conference. The debate was attended by about 100 participants.
• The Indian Federation of UNAs together with Bharat Soka Gakkai observed UN Day at Krishna Menon Bhawan, Indian Society for International Law in New Delhi.
•  Throughout the country, UNA-Norway, assisted by UN veterans, pupils from UN schools, and members of UN University student groups, distributed close to 5000 peace roses to passers-bys. Each rose had a card attached with congratulations and an invitation to visit UNA-Norway’s homepage to take the UN Day Quiz. UNA-Norway’s regional offices were involved in a great variety of activities including public debates, film screenings, art exhibitions, concerts, theatre performances, religious services, conferences, seminars, as well as the hoisting of UN flags at schools, hotels and official buildings.
• The UNA-Spain announced that Stéphane Hessel, a French diplomat born in Germany, who took part in the writing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was selected as the winner of the XXIX Peace Prize. The UNA awards this prize each year to a person or an institution outstanding in the human rights and peace field.
• The UNA-Sudan organized a public festival that included seminars, a display of UN books, and screening films related to the UN and WFUNA.
•  Focusing on the topic of human rights, UNA-Uganda celebrated at an event organized in partnership with the UN and NGOs in Kampala. Activities included a human rights quiz for school children, speeches from the UN Resident Coordinator and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and an exhibition on the activities of UNA-Uganda.
 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. At the end of the Summit, the participants will have created eight short films – one for each MDG. The films will be showcased by WFUNA at an event at the United Nations. Go to: www.globalmdgsummit.org
 In the context of the International Conference of the Americas (CILA 2008) hosted by the UNA-Dominican Republic under WFUNA auspices from 15-19 October 2008, representatives of the UNAs of the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Suriname and Venezuela, representatives from five UNICs in the region, a staff member of the WFUNA Secretariat, and an observer from The Bahamas met to discuss collaboration in the context of the UN’s Global Model UN (GMUN) conference.
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 In November, UNYA-Switzerland is organizing a UN workshop at the Palais des Nations with the participation of the UN Youth Delegates of Switzerland. 40 participants will have the opportunity to learn about the UN system, the mission and work of the UN agencies, the history of the organization, and a brief review on what the UN has achieved and what is to be expected from the future.
 UNYA-Tanzania is establishing “UN Club” programs in all 25 regions of the country. Through these clubs, the government’s corruption prevention agency is working with the UNYA to develop an anti-corruption campaign in schools. In addition, the UNYA is developing an international youth partnership model with Save the Children to develop training materials to teach children and youth about human rights.
 The Making Commitments Matter initiative celebrated UN Day in several countries simultaneously. For example, the U.S. Country Team organized a networking event in Boston, and the Turkish Team in Ankara met with local university students, youth associations, and Model UN groups. To find out more about MCM visit: www.makingcommittmentsmatter.org
MCM is currently recruiting new members. Applicants should be between the ages of 18-35, have a working knowledge of English and be able to commit 10 hours per week to the initiative. For more information please contact Erin at erinjmonaghan@gmail.com.
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The Stockholm Model UN (SMUN) will be held from 21-23 November 2008. For details, go to: www.smun.se
The UNA- China will hold its Model United Nations on Human Rights Council from 14-16 November 2008.
The UNA-Tanzania and YUNA will hold its Model United Nations in December 2008 during the UN week in Tanzania.
Organized by the UNYA-Turkey, the Model UN Turkey (MUNTR) will be held from 9-13 March 2009 in Ankara. For more info, visit: www.muntr.org
First Global Model UN under UN Auspices will be on the MDGs
The United Nations Department of Public Information, in partnership with WFUNA is organizing the first annual Global Model UN (GMUN) conference at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, from 5 to 7 August 2009. Held for the first time under UN auspices, the theme for this University-level Model UN conference will be “The Millennium Developments Goals -- Lifting the bottom billion out of poverty”. GMUN plans to invite the most outstanding delegates from Model UN conferences around the world, as selected by their peers – it aims to be the first truly global Model UN. For more information go to: www.un.org/gmun
 Claudia Maffettone is the Youth Program Coordinator at the WFUNA office in New York. She has a Bachelors degree in International Relations and Diplomacy. Claudia has been a member of MSOI, the Italian UNYA, for six years. She took part in several Italian Model UN Conferences, and represented MSOI at seminars and youth exchanges in the frame of the European Youth in Action Program. As a board member of MSOI, she organized projects and workshops at the national level with permanent missions, institutions and NGOs on topics related to the UN, international affairs, and multilateral cooperation. Claudia is a member of the Making Commitments Matter Initiative, and has been on the board of other international youth associations.
email: maffettone@wfuna.org
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The UNA-Israel was founded in 1960 and is one of the oldest UNAs in the region. It works to promote the values and norms of the UN and to disseminate information and stimulate discussion about human rights and global matters in Israel.
The UNAs activities include monthly meetings that attract approximately 40-50 participants, where ambassadors and other national and international experts hold lectures and seminars on recent matters related to human rights and the UN. Other activities include organizing secondary school-level Model UN conferences, and international seminars assisted by WFUNA.
The organization has approximately 200 members, of which a large percentage is actively involved in carrying out its various activities. To strengthen UNA Israel's work on youth, it is planning to set up a youth group.
To read the entire article, click here>>
The September issue of Future Survey has come out with a two-column excellent summary of the 2008 State of the Future.
For the German speakers, there an article on the Millennium Project at:
www.medianet.at/images/stories/medianet_products/feature/MN226_Feature.pdf
www.medianet.at/primenews/news/feature-sofis-entscheidung.html
The executive summary of the 2008 State of the Future is now available in Chinese, German, Spanish, Azeri, English, Arabic, Korean, and soon the French translation will be available at: www.millennium-project.org/millennium/new.html
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The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, France, Indonesia, Norway, Senegal, South Africa and Thailand issued the Oslo Ministerial Declaration on 20 March 2007. They expressed the urgent need to broaden the scope of foreign policy to include trade policies, conflict and crisis management, the environment, human resources for health, emerging infectious diseases, natural disasters, and response to HIV/AIDS. Health as a foreign policy needs a stronger strategic focus on the international agenda through building bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation for global health security.
Health security is a cross-cutting issue area within the United Nations. The World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the UN system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends. WHO published the 2008 World Health Report in October. http://www.who.int/whr/en/ .It documents a number of failures and shortcomings that have left the health status of different populations, both within and between countries, dangerously out of balance.
To read the entire article, click here>>
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 Peter Salama is a physician and epidemiologist. He is the Chief of Health at UNICEF. Mr. Salama did his medical training in his home country of Australia and his postgraduate training in public health at Harvard University. The first thing he did after his medical training was to join the NGO “Médecins sans frontière” (Doctors without borders) where he was first exposed to international health and international refugee issues. He went on to do further studies at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and with them went on a mission to the Pakistani-Afghan border right after September 2001. Shortly afterwards he returned for a second time to Afghanistan to run UNICEF’s Health Program there. He moved to New York and became the head of UNICEF’s Health Program in 2005.
1) Could you tell us about the health programs that UNICEF is currently working on?
UNICEF is one the largest organizations involved in global health. We spend more then 1.5 billion dollars in the health related areas each year. UNICEF is the largest procurer, for example, for vaccines and the largest procurer and provider of insecticide-treated bed nets for the prevention of malaria.
The first program, and perhaps the most important one, is the maternal and newborn child health program. The second is the HIV program which has a strong emphasis on the treatment of HIV positive women and children and the prevention of the transmission of HIV from mothers on to their children. The third area is immunization. This is the program that has historically been associated with UNICEF, particularly under James Grant in the 1990s, when immunization rates went from 20% to 80% in a decade.
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Together with the Ministry of Healthcare, UNICEF and partner NGOs, the UNA-Armenia publishes “MDG Progress Reports” analyzing the progress made by the Armenian government towards the achievement of the MDGs in their country. Two recent reports focused on maternal health and reducing child mortality.
 The UNA-Canada runs the “Healthy Children, Healthy Communities (HC²)” program to empower children to identify their vision of a healthy life and take action on middle childhood health. HC² engages young people and their communities in understanding how to live healthier lives and in identifying factors which would enhance or prevent this. UNA-Canada consulted with child health stakeholders across the country, with young people themselves and with the Canadian public in developing this program. www.unac.org/hchc/en/index.php
 Due to recent fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes and find shelter in the bush, mountains, or in neighboring villages or countries, and are now facing serious health risks from a lack of proper sanitation, nutrition and shelter. To respond to this crisis, the UNA-DRC has been running the Insecticide Treated Mosquito Bed Nets Campaign since May 2008. The UNA provides free insecticide treated bed nets to the most vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women, victims of sexual violence, decommissioned child soldiers, refugees and orphaned children. In addition to the distribution of bed-nets, UNA-DRC holds educational workshops on malaria prevention. www.unadrc.org
The UNA-Dominican Republic organizes projects and activities involving hundreds of young people who travel to rural communities and volunteer their time at HIV positive children’s shelters and rural schools. The UNA conducts a vaccination program.
UNA-Israel – please see UNA of the month.
In celebration of the 2008 World No Tobacco Day in May, the UNA-Nigeria in collaboration with the Nigerian Heart foundation and the UN Information Centre, organized a forum on “Tobacco-Free Youth”. The topic of this debate was, “Does exposure to tobacco advertising influence the youth to become regular users of tobacco?”
In cooperation with well-known Swedish restaurants and the coffee shop Barista Fair Trade Coffee, the UNA-Sweden runs the School Feeding Program, offering children in poor areas free lunch at school, something which has several positive effects for the children themselves as well as for their families, communities and countries.
www.fn.se/om-oss/in-english
 In the spring of 2001, UNA-USA launched its Global Health Initiative (GHI) to "tell the UN's story" in the global health arena, by highlighting the United Nations' health agenda, and the successful initiatives and strategies that have made significant advances in battling infectious disease, child and infant mortality, and other global health challenges. http://www.unausa.org/
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 The Global Health Council is the world's largest membership alliance dedicated to saving lives by improving health throughout the world. It is a U.S.-based membership organization that was created in 1972 to identify priority world health problems and to report on them to the U.S. public, legislators, international and domestic government agencies, academic institutions and the global health community. The Council is currently running projects such as the Global Malaria Action Plan, which presents a comprehensive overview of the global malaria landscape, and an evidence-based approach to deliver effective prevention and treatment to all people at risk. www.globalhealth.org
 Bill and Melinda Gates created the Gates Foundation in 2000 because they believe in the principle that every human life has equal worth. The foundation works with organizations around the world that are using innovative methods to improve health in developing countries. They support advocacy efforts to build awareness of global health challenges, develop new ways to finance health programs, and improve health data. In September, Bill Gates announced that he will be putting $168 million towards the development of next-generation malaria vaccine. www.gatesfoundation.org/global-health
 Action for Global Health is a cross-Europe network of NGOs and charities, calling for Europe to act now to enable developing countries to achieve the health Millennium Development Goals by 2015. AGH was formed by 15 non-governmental organizations and charities, with current partners based in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the UK and Brussels. www.actionforglobalhealth.eu
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 With the publication of the report on 14 October, WHO hopes to start a global conversation on the effectiveness of primary health care as a way of reorienting national health systems. Primary health care was officially launched in 1978, when WHO member states signed the Alma Ata Declaration. That was 30 years ago. A few countries pursued the ideal. But, says WHO Director-General Margaret Chan: "The approach was almost immediately misunderstood." Primary health care was misconstrued as poor care for poor people. It was also seen as having an exclusive focus on first-level care. In the World Health Report, WHO proposes that countries make health system and health development decisions guided by four broad, interlinked policy directions: universal coverage, people-centered services, healthy public policies and leadership.
www.who.int/whr/2008/en/index.html
 This book offers a fresh contribution to the understanding of the impact that illnesses have had on world history. The periods discussed span from the Biblical accounts of epidemics, through the Justinian plague, to the miscalculated 1976 influenza epidemic. Dr. Bray covers the Plague (the scourge of medieval Europe), malaria, yellow fever, smallpox, typhus and cholera. The author offers a comprehensive evaluation of many other works, both scientific and historical, which provide a vast basis for research on this subject.
 The book covers the fundamentals of global aging and health and provides real-world models from countries and regions that offer the best practices in current approaches. Global Health and Global Aging presents information about leadership and governance challenges as well as insights about aging in different cultures and countries in all regions of the world.
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 Filmed in more than 20 countries, Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge looks closely at the most critical health threats facing the world today. This six-part PBS documentary series presents the compelling stories and real-life drama of those who are proving that solutions are indeed possible - and that lives can be saved right now, the world over. www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival
 A Closer Walk is a documentary on AIDS and the people affected by the disease on a global scale. It’s rendering of the world through the prism of AIDS takes the viewer to locations in the U.S., Ukraine, Uganda, South Africa, India, and Haiti, and offers personal stories of children, women, and men who are affected by the disease. Those caring or advocating for people living with AIDS are featured prominently in the film as well. Go to: www.acloserwalk.org
 From award-winning filmmaker Rory Kennedy, Pandemic: Facing AIDS takes a unique look at the global AIDS epidemic, melding intimate personal stories of people living with AIDS in Uganda, India, Brazil, Thailand and Russia and what is being done to battle the disease that kills 8,000 people a day. It reveals the heartaches and triumphs of real people coping with the stigma and effects of this devastating epidemic. Go to:
www.docurama.com/productdetail.html?productid=NV-NVG-5620-NVG-9572
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