International Civic Engagement

UN Presents 2008 Public Service Awards

[Courtesy of the UN News Service]

The winners of this year’s United Nations public service awards should inspire governments around the world to step up their efforts to deliver vital basic services and improve the daily lives of their people, the Deputy Secretary-General said yesterday.

“Governments around the world need to break with ‘business as usual’ and engage in ever more innovative ways of delivering public services and of organizing the way they function,” Asha-Rose Migiro said yesterday at a Headquarters ceremony honouring the winners of the 2008 UN Public Service Awards.

She noted that while the private sector and civil society play a vital role in development, it is governments that have the “main role to steer development efforts and provide the necessary conditions for a stable, peaceful and prosperous society.

“It is governments that can ensure and facilitate access to quality services, such as health, education, sanitation facilities and water,” she added.

However, governments are facing a number of challenges, including the current food crisis, climate change and natural disasters, and are being challenged to do more with less and be more transparent and accountable. That is why the work of public institutions, such as this year’s winners, is so important, the Deputy Secretary-General noted.

“Your innovativeness and your leadership have made a meaningful difference in the lives of ordinary people. In your daily work, you found new and effective ways to deliver vital services to those in need,” she stated.

“Your exemplary initiatives should inspire all governments around the world – at all levels – to strive for excellence in public service,” added Ms. Migiro.

The award was established in 2003 to reward excellence and promote professionalism in the public sector around the world.

This year’s winners include Australia’s Job Access; Brazil’s Projeto Oficina-Escola de Artes e Ofícios de Santana de Parnaíba; India’s Programme of Communitization of Public Institutions and Services; Jordan’s Family Planning; Rwanda’s Common Development Fund; SADAD Payment System of Saudi Arabia; Singapore’s Home Ownership Programme; South Africa’s Transnet-Phelophepa Health Care Train; Spain’s Directorate General for Citizen Participation; Sweden’s Library 2007; Tunisia’s Orientation universitaire en ligne; and Juvenile Delinquency Domestic Violence and Family Violence Court of the United States.

At UN Summit, Ban Urges ‘Bold and Urgent’ Steps to Tackle Global Food Crisis

[Courtesy of UN News Service]

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders gathered at a United Nations summit in Rome to take “bold and urgent” steps to tackle the global food crisis, including boosting food production and revitalizing agriculture to ensure long-term food security.

Addressing the High-level Conference on World Food Security, Mr. Ban said that over 850 million people around the globe were short of food before the current crisis began. That number is estimated to rise by a further 100 million, and the poorest of the poor will be the hardest hit.

“The threats are obvious to us all. Yet this crisis also presents us with an opportunity,” Mr. Ban told the gathering, which is being hosted by the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). “It is a chance to revisit past policies. While we must respond immediately to high food prices, it is important that our longer term focus is on improving world food security – and remains so for some years.”

Emphasizing that the world needs to produce more food, the Secretary-General noted that production needs to rise by 50 per cent by the year 2030 to meet the rising demand. “We have an historic opportunity to revitalize agriculture – especially in countries where productivity gains have been low in recent years.”

Poverty Reflected in Children's Schools As Well As in the Home - UN Report

[Courtesy of the UN News Service]

Social inequality has a major impact on the kind of schooling children receive and poses a significant challenge to provide all children with equal learning opportunities, according to a report released yesterday by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“The data reveal how social inequality affects a child’s opportunity to learn. And clearly, no country – rich or poor – is immune to these disparities,” Hendrik van der Pol, director of UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics, said.

The report, which is based on a survey of 7,600 schools in 11 countries in Latin America, Asia and North Africa, reveals a particularly glaring gap between the resources available to urban and rural schools.

In India, the report found that 27 per cent of village schools have electricity compared to 76 per cent of schools in towns or cities. Only about half of the rural schools surveyed have enough toilets for girls and fewer than 4 per cent have a telephone.

In Peru, fewer than half of village schools are equipped with electricity, a library or toilets for boys or girls. Yet, in urban areas, nearly all schools have electricity, 65 per cent have enough lavatories and 74 per cent have libraries.

In general, village schools are in greater need of repair, according to the survey results. In Brazil, half the pupils in villages sit in run-down classrooms compared to fewer than 30 per cent of pupils in urban establishments.

The survey also found wide variations in how much parents were expected to contribute financially. In Tunisia, the parents of one-third of pupils were asked to pay for textbooks. This was the case for 24 per cent of pupils in Argentina and almost 10 per cent in India. Sri Lanka was the only country to provide textbooks for free to virtually all students.

“It is disturbing to think that students get more or less resources based on where they live. But that is just part of the story,” says Yanhong Zhang, one of the authors of the report. “The inequalities in school resources are linked to their socio-economic status. In effect, these children are subject to a double-jeopardy – with fewer resources at home and in school.”

According to the study, teachers and principals in schools serving socially-disadvantaged children tend to report lower levels of pupil motivation and more behavioural problems. In these schools, teachers were generally dissatisfied with salary, parental support, class size and access to classroom materials.

The UNESCO survey was carried out in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, India, Malaysia, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Uruguay.

Further Sharp Increases in Global Food Prices 'Likely' - UN Report

[Courtesy of the UN News Service]

Further sharp price hikes and continued volatility in markets for food supplies appear to be likely for the next few seasons, according to a report released yesterday by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the run-up to a summit on the global food crisis which is being held in Rome early next month.

FAO lists 22 countries that it says are particularly vulnerable to food price increases because of high levels of chronic hunger and because they are net importers of both food and fuel. The report cites Eritrea, Niger, Comoros, Haiti and Liberia as being especially at risk.

“We hope that world leaders coming to Rome will agree on the urgent measures that are required to boost agricultural production, especially in the most affected countries, and at the same time protect the poor from being adversely affected by high food prices,” said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.

The report says that increases in domestic food prices, even by moderate rates of 10 to 20 per cent, can have immediate negative impacts on poor households that spend a large part of their income on food staples.

Protecting the most vulnerable in rural and urban areas will require targeted direct food distribution, food subsidies and cash transfers, as well as nutritional programmes including school feeding, FAO says.

The agency also calls for the distribution of seeds, fertilizers, animal feed to small-scale farmers through vouchers or smart subsidies.

Member States Elect 15 Countries to Serve on UN Human Rights Council

[Courtesy of the UN News Service]

Fifteen countries from around the world have been elected to serve on the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) for three-year terms starting next month after one round of balloting yesterday among Member States at UN Headquarters in New York.

Zambia, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Gabon were chosen in that order to fill the four vacant African seats on the 47-member panel, according to a formula that allots seats among regions.

The three seats up for grabs in the Latin America and the Caribbean region – successful candidates in each category must obtain an absolute majority of valid votes cast by the 192 General Assembly members – went to Chile, Brazil and Argentina.

In the Eastern European category, Slovakia and Ukraine won the two available seats, while Serbia was unsuccessful.

Six countries contested the four positions distributed to Asian States, with Japan, Bahrain, the Republic of Korea and Pakistan winning the most votes to join the panel, and Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste missing out.

The closest contest occurred in the race for the two vacant seats in the Western European and Other States category. France scored 123 votes and the United Kingdom picked up 120, edging out Spain, which garnered 119 votes.

General Assembly spokesperson Janos Tisovszky told reporters that there were 190 valid votes and two invalid votes in the Western European and Other States category. Ten of the valid votes cast were abstentions.

Some of the successful candidates had been due to retire on June 19, when their current term on the HRC expires – they were Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, Ukraine, Brazil, France and the United Kingdom.

Under Council rules, members serve for three-year periods and cannot run for immediate re-election after two consecutive terms. Overall, the 47 members include 13 from Africa, 13 from Asia, six from Eastern Europe, eight from Latin America and the Caribbean, and seven from Western Europe and Other States.

UN-Backed Summit to Spotlight Private Sector's Role in Tackling Climate Change

[Courtesy of the UN News Service]

The United Nations will take part in a global meeting next year to assess how a new global climate change policy can also address the needs of the business community.

The World Business Summit on Climate Change, which will take place next May in Copenhagen, Denmark, seeks to ensure that the successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol will provide the right incentives to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

Along with the UN Global Compact – the world body’s voluntary corporate citizen initiative – the gathering will be convened by the Copenhagen Climate Council, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

Organizers expect hundreds of top executives, government officials, leading experts and heads of civil society to attend to assess how the private sector can play a role in addressing global warming through innovative business approaches, new joint ventures and the development of low-carbon technologies.

The World Business Summit is expected to produce recommendations to be forwarded onto world leaders negotiating a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, expiring in 2012. Those talks are scheduled to wrap up at a key UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2009, also to take place in Copenhagen.

Africa Fastest Growing Market in Communication Technology, Says UN

[Courtesy of the UN News Service]

Africa has been the fastest growing market worldwide in communication technology over the past three years and will continue to emerge as an important market for the industry, according to the head of the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Speaking at the opening of a major trade fair for the African telecommunications industry this week in Cairo, Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the ITU, said the African information and communication technologies industry “is an exciting place to be. Market liberalization continues and most countries have established regulatory bodies to ensure a fair, competitive and enabling environment.” The trade fair, called “ITU Telecom Africa,” was inaugurated by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

A report released by the ITU said that growth in Africa’s mobile telephone sector had “defied all predictions.” Africa had 65 million new subscribers in 2007 alone and mobile phone penetration has risen from just one in 50 people in 2000 to one third of the population today. Mobile phone use is now more evenly distributed across the continent. At the beginning of the century South Africa accounted for over half of all Africa’s subscribers, but by last year almost 85 per cent were in other countries.

But the report also says that growth in Internet access has not kept pace. In 2007 it is estimated there were some 50 million Internet users in Africa, about one person in 20. In sub-Saharan Africa only 3 per cent of the population is online. The average monthly Internet subscription is almost $50, close to 70 per cent of average per capita income.

UN Secretary-General Convenes Inaugural Meeting of Food Crisis Task Force

[Courtesy of the UN News Service]

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday convened the inaugural meeting of a high-level task force of senior United Nations officials aimed at addressing the food crisis, noting that there was an urgent need to help the millions of people already suffering.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban said that he recognizes that skyrocketing prices of basic food commodities “is essentially linked to the global demand for food exceeding supply,” but cautioned that “the drivers of the crisis are complex and the consequences are varied.”

The task force – which brings together the heads of many of members of the UN family, as well as leaders of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund – seeks to “promote a unified response to the global food price challenge in support of governments and affected populations.”

Yesterday’s gathering centered on creating a comprehensive plan to tackle the soaring food prices. This strategy will encompass both short and longer-term measures – including food aid and social protection – to alleviate the impact of the crisis on the hardest hit.

The elements of the task force’s plan will be presented at next month’s high-level meeting in Rome hosted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on global food security.

Last week, the Secretary-General appealed to world leaders to join him at that meeting. “Please come with fresh ideas. It is time for real commitment and real action,” he said.

Task force members urged countries not to take actions that would aggravate the current surge in food prices, and stressed that nations need to allow in food supplies, from such organizations as the UN World Food Programme (WFP), for humanitarian purposes without obstructions.

Over the coming weeks, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes, the task force’s coordinator, and Assistant Secretary-General David Nabarro will consult with Member States as required, while the task force itself will meet as needed.

UNPAN Upgrades Portal

The United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) has upgraded its portal at http://www.unpan.org.

UNESCO Portal on Higher Education Institutions

I received the following announcement from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation last week:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has established a Portal on Higher Education Institutions that is now available online at: http://www.unesco.org/education/portal/hed-institutions.

The Portal provides access to (1) higher education institutions sanctioned either by government or other competent authorities and (2)  general information about higher education, accreditation, quality  assurance and related subjects in various countries. It is an entry point  to each country's institutions and information and not a centralized  database or international "list." The Portal has been developed by an International Steering Group convened by UNESCO that has been working for the past several years.   We at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) have been  part of this effort. The Portal currently includes information from 12 countries and will be expanded to incorporate additional countries over  time. The information from individual countries is made available through  links on the Portal site. Each country's data remain within the control of  the participating country and have not been transferred to UNESCO. For the  United States, the Portal includes links to the CHEA and USDE databases of  institutions and programs accredited by U.S. accrediting organizations  recognized by CHEA or USDE or both.  The U.S. site also includes  access to information about credential evaluation and financial  assistance. The Portal will assist students, faculty, administrators, employers and  other interested parties with reliable and useful information about higher education institutions and accreditation or quality assurance bodies.