NO 90   FEBRUARY-MARCH 2002

UN UPDATE

NGO & OTHER NEWS

FOCUS

FFD Calls for Era of Shared Progress Robinson: Human Rights Essential.. General Assembly Special Session on... SG's London Lecture on Sustanable... SG Outlines Conflict Prevention Strategy International Women's Day Celebrated ILO Establishes New Commission Day of Dialogue on Gender and FFD ILO/CAO Meetings on Civil Aviation.. UN: Number of Older People Rises 2nd Prepcom for the World Assebly on Aging Sierra Leone War Crimes Tribunal Established IFAD Calls for a more Balanced Approach FAO Regional Conference for Africa CEDAW Convenes 26th Session Outgoing WFP Executive Director Honoured Ad Hoc Committee on Human Cloning Meets Codex Agrees on Biotechnology Food Principles Working Group on GMOs FAO/WHO Convene Food Safety Regulators Forum Commission for Social Development Meets International Forum for Social Development GA Adopts Peacekeeping Report GA Adopts Resolutions on Elimination of Racism ECOSOC on Health, Education and Development Committee on the Rights of the Child UNESCO Report on Education in Latin America UNDP Launches the Equaltor Initiative CDB Ad Hoc Working Group Meeting Access to Research Initiative Launched WHO Study Calls for Tax on Tobacco WIPO Treaties to Prtotect Artists UNEP Releases Study on Dugongs

World News Syndicate Launched Interaction Reacts to Increased US Spending Global Gag Rule Restrictions Have Negative Impact Edelman PR Worldwide Survey Carter Center: Development Cooperation Forum Other News OAU Launches Tsetse Fly Eradication Campaign UN-NGO Cooperation Consortium to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan

Global Fund Calls For Proposals UN Campaigns for the Millennium Development Goals 46th  Session of the Commission on the Status of Women Second Session of the UNFF and the High-Level Forestry Roundtable Combating Child Labour: Building Alliances Against Hazardous Work Upcoming Global Events Calendar Guest Editorial:Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, Executive Director, (UN Habitat)

TOP	World News Syndication Launched
	OneWorld, an international network of non-profit centres using the Internet to promote human rights and sustainable development, has announced a daily news syndication to the World News section of Yahoo! News, one of the most visited news sites on the Web. The syndication agreement between OneWorld and Yahoo! Inc. is the first daily non-profit world news syndication to a major corporate web portal. OneWorld on Yahoo! publishes five news stories every weekday which focus on events relating to human rights, world poverty, social justice, the environment and sustainable development, and makes an effort to reflect the views of groups normally excluded from media coverage. Peter Armstrong, Director of OneWorld International, says, “OneWorld has always been a trusted source of information on global issues through our own portal site www.oneworld.net. Our agreement with Yahoo! ensures that a wider audience worldwide will be able to read news stories from OneWorld, with our distinctive agenda–issues that matter most to people in this era of globalization. This syndication signals the fact that OneWorld has now become an established global news brand, bringing together the voices and concerns of people worldwide.” OneWorld has over 1,000 non-profit civil society partners including international bodies and NGOs ranging from United Nations agencies to Amnesty International and Greenpeace, as well as grassroots groups tackling poverty in developing countries. Contact: OneWorld International, Floor 17, 89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP, UK, telephone +44-20/7735 2100, e-mail <media@oneworld.net>, website (www.oneworld.net). Yahoo! website (http://news.yahoo.com/).
TOP	Interaction React to Increased US Spending
	InterAction, a US-based coalition of 160 international development and humanitarian NGOs active in more than 100 countries, has launched a five-year campaign entitled the Global Partnership for Effective Assistance. The campaign aims to bolster US overseas programmes by increasing development and humanitarian assistance, improving aid effectiveness and building international partnerships. InterAction’s five-year campaign also calls for aid programmes to be more effective and accountable. “It’s not only how much; it’s how,” InterAction President Mary McClymont said. “Effectiveness and accountability matter.” The Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA), part of the InterAction coalition, supports the development of self-sufficiency and empowerment programmes as resources can be invested in new communities when the goal of self-sufficiency is met, instead of working in the same area for an indefinite period of time. InterAction considers an improvement in the effectiveness of foreign aid to be a central part of its campaign designed to “reinvigorate America’s role,” with its partners, in building “safer, more stable and democratic societies.” Speaking during a Coherence in Development Roundtable at the International Conference for Financing for Development, held in Monterrey (Mexico) from 18-22 March, Ms. McClymont responded to the Bush Administration’s increased development aid. “I come here on the heels of the announcement by President Bush of a US$5 billion ‘Millennium Challenge Account’ in the US budget. This appears to be a turning point for US development policy, a significant signal our government recognizes that the United States must play a much larger role in fighting world poverty. But the initial three-year pledge must be seen as only the first instalment. “How should the money under this new initiative be spent to foster coherent development? First, these funds, and all US development assistance for that matter, should be aimed squarely at reducing poverty in the poorest developing nations by building people’s capacity and self-sufficiency through health, education, job and business skills, reducing hunger and improving the status of women and girls. “The design and implementation of this ‘new compact’ includes establishing and monitoring the criteria for which nations will qualify for funds. It should be done in full partnership with developing nations, NGOs, donors and others with a stake in the outcome. This compact should be struck in a way that makes recipients accountable to donors, and makes donors accountable to recipients. “We must also be mindful that there are poor nations that won’t meet the criteria under the new account, and people in them must not be forgotten. Even when governments aren’t deemed effective partners, ample development assistance must be provided to reach people through alternative channels, such as NGOs, local community groups and other private providers. “We can’t forget that stability is an important condition for effective development, which is why assistance for the displaced, disaster response and conflict prevention must rise in tandem with these new development funds in the budget. “In closing, a major pledge to good development must also be more than an episode in a 4-year administration. It must be a long-term commitment by the United States Government and the American people. That is why we are gratified to hear President Bush underscore America’s support for the international development goals of the Millennium Declaration. And that is why now the time has never been more appropriate to call on President Bush to develop a concrete plan that will spell out how America intends to do its part in meeting these goals, including clear benchmarks, a timetable and accompanying resources to do so.” Contact: Shanta M. Bryant, InterAction, 1717 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 701, Washington, DC 20036, USA, telephone +1-202/667 8227, e-mail <sbryant@interaction.org>, website (www.interaction.org).
TOP	Global Gag Rule Restrictions Have Negative Impact
	According to the global reproductive health agency Marie Stopes International (MSI), US President Bush’s 22 January 2001 decision to re-impose the Mexico City Policy or “global gag rule,” which denies US Government funding to international family planning groups that support abortion, has had far-reaching effects across the sexual and reproductive health sector. MSI and the international NGO community, both actively calling for an urgent review of this policy, say the US ban has resulted in the loss of much-needed services to many thousands of the world’s poorest women, with MSI programmes in sub-Saharan Africa being the hardest hit. Activities including mother and child healthcare, obstetrics, family planning, and programmes to prevent sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS are also being affected by the global gag rule, say MSI. “Following the terrible events of 11 September, many commentators have rightly pointed to the fact that we all now live in a completely different world,” said Patricia Hindmarsh, MSI’s Director of External Relations. “What’s needed now are bridge-building initiatives between the North and the South, developed and developing economies–not the wholesale demolition of years of dedicated work to empower and strengthen the lives of women.” Ms. Hindmarsh added, “The saddest part of all this is that the gag rule is unlikely to prevent or reduce abortions at all. On the contrary, being denied access to quality family planning services, more and more women will fall pregnant unintentionally and be driven into the hands of unsafe practitioners, with potentially devastating consequences to maternal mortality and morbidity rates.” Another NGO, Population Action International has produced an unofficial guide entitled What You Need to Know About the Global Gag Rule Restrictions, which provides information concerning which NGOs are subject or not to the policy. Contact: Tony Kerridge, Public Affairs Manager, MSI, 153-157 Cleveland Street, London W1T 6QW, UK, telephone +44-20/ 7574 7353, e-mail <tony.kerridge@stopes.org.uk>, website (www.mariestopes.org.uk). Population Action International, 1300 19th Street, NW, 2nd Floor, Washington DC 20036, USA, telephone +1-202/557 3400, fax +1-202/728 4177, e-mail <implement@popact.org>, website (www.populationaction.org/).
TOP	Edelman PR Worldwide Survey
	Edelman PR Worldwide’s second annual survey shows that Europeans continue to trust NGOs twice as much as government and substantially more than corporations or the media, while in the United States, trust in NGOs is approaching parity with business and government. The study also reveals that American attitudes toward corporate social responsibility now reflect opinions in Europe. Speaking on the role of NGOs in global governance at the World Economic Forum in New York, Richard Edelman, President and CEO of Edelman PR Worldwide, said NGOs are “…the true credible source on issues related to the environment and social justice.” He added that “Even with global recession and the events of 11 September, NGOs have strengthened their position. In Europe, NGOs fill the trust void left by weak government. In the US, the pre-eminent position of business of a year ago is now changed to a power-sharing arrangement with NGOs and government. The failures of companies such as Enron and Railtrack further threaten the position of authority of the private sector.” “There is a growing social imperative for companies and brands on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Jonathan Wootliff, Managing Director of Edelman’s Stakeholder Strategies unit in Brussels and New York. “Nine of ten opinion leaders in Europe and America believe companies should continue efforts to become more socially responsible despite the recession. Nearly 80% of European and American opinion leaders want NGOs and business to partner on tough issues.” Mr. Wootliff continued, “It is clear that NGOs can demand a seat at the table, without resorting to the street.” opinion leaders are defined as “media and policy attentive adults aged 35-64, with college educations and household incomes greater than US$75,000.” Other findings from the study include: —In Europe, NGOs continue to be rated higher than the top-rated corporations by a margin of nearly two to one. —In both Europe and the US, treating employees well and honesty with the public are rated as most important among the corporate attributes studied. More than eight in ten Europeans and seven in ten Americans rate corporate social behaviour and environmental responsibility as highly important. Nine in ten opinion leaders in each market say that companies should continue their social responsibility initiatives in times of economic recession. —Most Europeans and Americans say they try to purchase, and are willing to pay more for, products produced in a socially responsible manner and agree that brands should signal something wholesome about their corporate parents. —Half of all Europeans and one-third of Americans try to avoid purchasing brands or products of companies being boycotted by NGOs. —Europeans and Americans overwhelmingly agree that NGOs should cooperate more with business and government while corporations should be doing more to foster relationships with NGOs. For most, such cooperation does not jeopardize NGO credibility. —Just under half of all respondents in Europe and the US feel it is all right for NGOs or activists to take to the street in protest of brands and their corporate parents despite the violent anti-globalization protests witnessed in Seattle and Genoa. StrategyOne, Edelman PR Worldwide’s research unit, surveyed 850 opinion leaders across the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom between 9-22 January 2002 regarding their attitudes toward business, NGOs, government and the media. Contact: Mark Bennett, Director, Global Communications, Edelman PR, telephone +1-212/704 8129, fax +212/704 0078, e-mail <mark.bennett@edelman.com>, website (www.edelman.com/).
TOP	Carter Center: Development Cooperation Forum
	The United States-based Carter Center hosted a high-level development cooperation forum under the theme Human Security and the Future of Development Cooperation, from 21-22 February 2002, to explore development strategies and the obstacles to achieving development in impoverished countries. The presidents of four Carter Center Global Development Initiative (GDI) country partners–Albania, Guyana, Mali and Mozambique–detailed their countries’ experiences in developing poverty reduction strategies with the help of the international community. Among the participants were World Bank President James Wolfensohn, United Nations Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, development ministers of several donor countries and other high-level representatives of international financial institutions. Participants called attention to the lack of progress towards achieving the goals adopted at the Millennium Development agreed by 189 countries at the September 2000 Millennium General Assembly in New York (see focus page 29). Recent reports from the UN and World Bank indicate these goals, which include reducing extreme poverty by half by 2015, providing education, improving health and preserving the environment, will not likely be met, and in some instances, conditions are deteriorating. Although more than one billion people live in abject poverty, participants noted there is a lack of political energy in rich countries to help their poorer neighbours. “The Forum called attention to the urgent need to move beyond rhetoric and put into action a plan in which resources are fully committed,” said former US President Jimmy Carter. “The consensus of nations on how to fight global poverty has never been as strong as it is today.” “The urgent need for more effective development cooperation to greatly reduce human suffering and all the ills that such suffering spawns cannot be overstated,” said GDI Director Edmund Cain. “…We have been able to demonstrate how effective cooperation can be improved through broad participation and nationally driven sustainable development strategies. Only through such strategies will it be possible to identify, adopt and implement the policies and practices needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.” Citing the increasing interdependence of developed and developing countries, participants said that the wealthiest countries must commit greater financial resources through more aid and debt relief and create greater access to markets. At the same time, developing countries must take steps to reduce corruption and use aid more effectively. Mr. Carter noted that the GDI would continue to develop National Development Strategies (NDS) with its partner countries, bringing together civil leaders, business leaders and representatives of NGOs to contribute to the process. “A National Development Strategy strengthens democracy and respect for human rights by reinforcing democratic institutions and supporting a more participatory, cooperative, and democratic culture,” the former President said. “When citizens have a greater stake in formulating the NDS, and feel that it is their own, they view their democratic institutions with a greater sense of legitimacy.” Contact: The Carter Center, 453 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, Georgia 30307, USA, telephone +1-404/331 3900, fax +1-404/420 5145, website (www.cartercenter.org).
TOP	OTHER NEWS
	OAU Launches Tsetse Fly Eradication Campaign
	The Organization of African Unity (OAU), collaborating with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has launched a new campaign to eradicate the tsetse fly in Africa. The parasitic carrier of sleeping sickness affects as many as 500,000 people, 80% of whom eventually die, and causes more than US$4 billion in economic losses annually. Once considered under control, a resurgence of the tsetse poses a major threat to public health. In some regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, sleeping sickness is killing more people than any other communicable disease, including HIV/AIDS, according to WHO. “Africa is now ready to combat the tsetse fly,” said Peter Salema, Deputy Director of the joint FAO/IAEA division of nuclear techniques in food and agriculture in Vienna. “It is a root of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, a devastating problem that has been allowed to fester because there was a perception it could not be solved, and because it is a problem of the rural poor.” The method introduces hundreds of thousands of sterile male flies into the breeding population of a target region. The sterile males are able to mate and produce sperm, but the eggs in the female do not develop. A similar programme has made the island of Zanzibar tsetse-free for five years. IAEA says the technique of sterilizing insects is a standard method of controling insect populations, and that it has been successfully used on the Mediterranean fruit fly in South America and on the New World screw-worm fly in North and Central America. The tsetse, about the size of a house fly, infests 37 sub-Saharan African countries–32 of them among the 42 most heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) in the world, and the range of the fly is expanding. IAEA says the tsetse fly has turned much of the fertile African landscape into an uninhabited “green desert,” spreading sleeping sickness and killing three million livestock animals every year. Much of Africa’s best land–particularly in river valleys and moist areas, where the potential for mixed farming is good–lies uncultivated, while tsetse-free areas face collapse from overuse by humans. The fly is the carrier of the single cell parasite, trypanosome, which attacks the blood and nervous system of its victims, causing sleeping sickness in humans and nagana, or animal trypanosomosis, in livestock. Contact: IAEA, PO Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria, fax +43-1/26007, website (www.iaea.org/worldatom). OAU, PO Box 3243, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, telephone +251-1/517700, fax +251-1/512622, website (www.oau-oua.org/). More information on the tsetse fly can be found on the WHO website (www.who.int/emc/diseases/tryp/index.html).
TOP	UN-NGO COOPERATION
TOP	Consortium to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan
	Agriculture, the largest and most important sector of the Afghan economy, has been devastated by war and drought in the country. The Future Harvest Consortium to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan was created to help restore food production capabilities and replenish depleted seed stocks. It consists of research institutes, relief and development organizations, universities and aid agencies, including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), CARE International, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Future Harvest, US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the International Development Research Center (IDRC). The consortium will send information-gathering teams to Afghanistan to evaluate the situation to develop long-term sustainability and will work with experts with extensive working experience in Central Asia. “What is unique about the consortium is that members are committed to ensuring that science is placed up front in the recovery effort,” said Avtar Kaul, Senior Technical Advisor of Agriculture and Natural Resources, CARE. “We need to make sure that recovery efforts are based on a real understanding of Afghan agriculture so they meet the real needs of affected communities. Science-led recovery efforts, supported by grass-roots level interventions, will rapidly put the country’s agriculture on the road to recovery.” The first priority of the consortium is providing foundation seeds and replenishing seed stocks in the country. Approximately 3,500 metric tonnes of seed will be made available to farmers for the spring planting and another 10,000 metric tonnes for the autumn. The consortium hopes to provide 125,000 metric tonnes of seed over three years. Apart from reintroducing crops such as wheat, maize, barley, chickpeas and lentils, the consortium will introduce improved seeds that more productive and disease-tolerant as well as new seed varieties bred to grow in conditions similar to those in the country. ICARDA Director-General, Adel El-Belagy, said that when the rains failed for the third consecutive year, farmers were unable to stay on their land. Therefore restoring the seed supply is crucial to help people displaced by war and drought to return to their land. The consortium aims to create the critical mass of seed needed for the Afghan farmers to produce enough of their own to achieve food security, so that food aid programmes can be eventually phased out. The consortium will also help revitalize the country’s livestock, of which an estimated 50% has been lost. It will do this by helping farmers keep present livestock alive while the animal population is regained, and by supplying vaccines for the animals. Other priorities for the consortium include land and water management, and rebuilding the horticultural sector. According to consortium members, most of the Afghanistan’s irrigation infrastructure will need reconstruction. Before the Soviet invasion in 1978, the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in Afghanistan were renowned in the region for their high quality. Most of these crops have been displaced by poppy cultivation for illegal drug production. The present Afghan Government is committed to eradicating poppy cultivation, but needs to provide viable alternatives. The consortium plans to help in this sector by encouraging farmers to cultivate fast-growing vegetables and fruits such as melons and carrots, which will bring in high returns. The consortium, which has received US$12 million from USAID and IDRC, hopes that Afghanistan will be able to revive its farming sector and become self-sufficient in food by 2007. “If Afghanistan is going to get back on its feet, and if we are going to diminish dependency on food aid programmes, development programmes are going to have to make sure that they provide Afghan farmers with appropriate technology and policies,” said Mr. El-Beltagy. “That means putting science at the head of the line.” Contact: Amy Ekola Dye, Future Harvest, PMB 238, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20006-1846, USA, telephone  +1-301/652 1558, e-mail <info@futureharvest.org>, website (www.futureharvest.org).
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