MEDIA REPORTS
INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
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2003
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NOVEMBER 2003
GEF APPROVES $224 MILLION
FOR 19 DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
The Global
Environment Facility Council has approved $224 million in grants for 19
developing-country projects that focus on biological diversity,
biosafety, climate change and international waters. The projects, which
will be managed by the GEF's three implementing agencies – UN
Development Programme, the UN Environment Programme and the World Bank,
will be co-financed by an additional $612.9 million from other sources,
including governments of the participating countries.
Links to further
information
UN Press Release, 25
November 2003
http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20031125/449_10765.asp
OCTOBER 2003
US REJOINS UNESCO
After a 19-year absence from
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,
the United States has rejoined the UN organization. Citing ineffective
management and an "anti-Western" bias, then President Ronald Reagan
withdrew from the organization in 1984. The decision to rejoin UNESCO
was announced by President Bush last September, and the US flag was
hoisted on 1 October 2003, joining those of the other 189 member States,
at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, with first lady, Laura Bush
representing the US at the organization's biannual general conference.
The return of the US is anticipated to boost the organization's two-year budget from $544
million to $610 million.
"This is a good day for UNESCO," UNESCO
Director General Koichiro Matsuura stated. "A new nation is joining
forces with us, bringing with it vast intellectual and cultural
resources, along with partnership and good will."
UNESCO was founded in 1946, with the
purpose of contributing "to peace and security by promoting
collaboration among nations through education, science and culture in
order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and
for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the
peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or
religion, by the Charter of the United Nations."
Links to further information
Planet Ark news story, 1
October 2003
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/22413/story.htm
SEPTEMBER 2003
UNEP ENHANCES PRESENCE IN
EAST ASIA
The United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has opened an office in Beijing,
China. Created in response to decisions taken by UNEP's Governing
Council to strengthen the agency's delivery of regional-level
programmes, the office will collaborate with China's State Environmental
Protection Administration and other ministries, and international and
non-governmental organizations in implementing programmes in
environmental assessment, law, education and training, management,
technology transfer and innovation and natural disaster prevention. The
new UNEP office will also develop and support projects under the Global
Environment Facility.
"With 1.3 billion people
and an official goal to quadruple economic growth by 2020, China's
environmental performance will not only determine the well being of its
own people but will have consequences for the whole planet," said Klaus
Töpfer, UNEP's Executive Director, at the opening ceremony of the new
UNEP office. Töpfer further added
that China has a "historic opportunity to leapfrog traditional polluting
technologies and adopt sustainable production and consumption policies."
UNEP's presence in East
Asia was further enhanced by a recent agreement by Japan to allow UNEP
to establish a regional coordination office in the city of Toyoma. Part
of an effort to promote the Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) – an
agreement made in 1994 between China, Japan, South Korea and Russia to
preserve the marine environment in Northeast Asia – the office will be
joined by another regional bureau to be set up in Pusan, South Korea.
The establishment of the two offices was outlined during the NOWPAP's
Sixth Intergovernmental Meeting held in December 2000.
Links to further information
UN Wire, 16 September 2003
http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20030916/449_8462.asp
Environment News Service, 19 September
2003
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2003/2003-09-19-03.asp
JULY 2003
GEF ESTIMATES DOUBLING OF
SMALL GRANTS BUDGET
The Global
Environment Facility's small grants budget is projected to double from
$30 million in 2003 to over $60 million in 2005, according to a GEF
business plan FOR 2004-2006 recently approved at the GEF Council meeting
in May. This increase in funding will augment the number of countries
participating in the GEF's Small Grants Programme, which offer
recipients up to $50,000 in grant money, and enable more NGOs and
community-based organizations to undertake projects that benefit both
the global environment and local communities in developing countries.
"GEF's Small Grants
Programme has made a huge difference in the well-being and environmental
health in thousands of local communities," said GEF's CEO and Chairman,
Mohamed T. El-Ashry. "Though the programme's grants are small compared
with the needs of our global environment, their impact is large – and
GEF is working closely with its partners to make the program's impact
even larger in the coming years."
The GEF has committed over
US$100 million since 1992 towards small grants that involve NGOs and
community groups in developing countries in addressing global
environmental problems in local communities. The GEF's Small Grants
Programme is administered by UNDP on behalf of the GEF.
Links to further information
World Bank press release,
1 July 2003
APRIL 2003
LEBANON TO HOST WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
The United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) has announced that Lebanon will host this year's World
Environment Day, the first Arab nation to do so in the event's 30-year
history. "We are very honored to have been chosen as this year's World
Environment Day host," said Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. "I
hope that by hosting this special day, Lebanon can build on
our quest
for a healthier, cleaner and more equitable nation that can act as a
beacon in the region and the world."
In recognition of the International Year
of Freshwater, the theme of this year's World Environment Day will be:
Water – Two Billion People are Dying for It! World Environment Day
celebrations will take place in Beirut and around Lebanon on 5 June 2003 under the aegis of the Lebanese Ministry of Environment. During the
event, UNEP's Global 500 Awards will also be presented. These awards are
made to individuals and organizations that have made outstanding
contributions to the protection and conservation of the environment.
Links to further information
UNEP
Press Release, 30 April 2003
World Environment Day homepage
UNEP CALLS FOR
DEPLETED URANIUM STUDY IN IRAQ
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is calling for an
international field study to assess alleged depleted uranium (DU) sites
in Iraq.
"Given the overall environmental concerns during the conflict, and the
fact that the environment of Iraq was already a cause for serious
concern prior to the current war, UNEP believes early field studies
should be carried out," said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Töpfer. "This
is especially important to protect human health in a post-conflict
situation." Any assessment would focus on the extent to which DU on the
ground can filter through the soil and eventually contaminate
groundwater, and the possibility that DU dust could later be
re-suspended in the air by wind or human activity, with the risk that it
could be breathed in. "
Depleted uranium is still an issue of great
concern for the general public, and an early study in Iraq could either
lay these fears to rest or confirm that there are indeed potential
risks, which could then be addressed through immediate action," he
added.
UNEP, through its Post-Conflict Assessment Unit, has conducted such
assessments in the past, particularly in Kosovo in 2001, Serbia and
Montenegro in 2002 and, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2003.
A report recently released by
UNEP confirms for the first time that depleted uranium from weapons used
in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1994 and 1995 has contaminated local
supplies of drinking water at one site, and can still be found in dust
particles suspended in the air.
In
addition to its work in the Balkans, UNEP has recently published
post-conflict assessments on Afghanistan and the Palestinian
Territories. In April, UNEP will publish a desk study on the Iraq
environment that will provide the necessary background information for
conducting field research. This research will examine risks to
groundwater, surface water, drinking water sources, waste-management and
other environment-related infrastructure, factories and other potential
sources of toxic chemicals, and biodiversity.
Links to further information
UNEP Press Release, 6 April 2003
UNEP Post-Conflict Assessment Unit
MARCH 2003
WORLD BANK AND GEF PROMOTE CONSERVATION IN PERU
The World Bank recently approved the
implementation of a project financed with a US$14.8 million grant from
the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to ensure biodiversity
conservation in Peru. The Participatory Management of Protected Areas
project aims to involve civil society and the private sector to manage
up to six biodiversity-rich protected areas in Peru. "Peru is one of the
world's great centers of biodiversity," said Pierre Werbrouck, a World
Bank project manager. "This project offers local communities a way of
participating directly in the conservation of a global treasure." In
addition to World Bank and GEF funding, the project is also being
financed by contributions of $2.5 million from Finland, $6.6 million
from Germany and $4.4 million from the Netherlands.
Links to further information
World Bank press release, 18 March 2003
AFRICA CELEBRATES FIRST ENVIRONMENT DAY
The first Africa Environment Day was held
on 3 March 2003 throughout the continent. Africa Environment Day, which was established
by the African Union (AU) at the Durban Summit last July, is intended to
examine ways of protecting the environment and promoting the exchange of
information between African countries on environmental issues. African
governments organized conferences, roundtable discussions and workshops
to mark the occasion. Governments also agreed to focus on
anti-desertification and anti-drought programmes, especially through a
ban on the over-exploitation of natural resources on the continent.
Africa Environment Day was created to compliment World Environment Day,
which is commemorated each year on 5 June. The main international
celebrations of this year's World Environment Day will be held in the
Shenzhen, China.
Links to further
information
UNEP Press release, 3 March 2003
UNEP and World Environment Day
FEBRUARY 2003
FAO AND LIBYA SIGN AGRICULTURE AGREEMENT
The United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) signed several agreements with Libya to
help finance agricultural projects in Africa. The agreements, totaling
more than US$21 million, will be used to enhance agricultural production
and enhance food security in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Sudan and Niger.
Libya will contribute US$9.3 million to the project. In addition, Libya
signed on to an agreement on the Development of a Seed and Propagation
Material System, which is designed to develop and modernize the
country's agricultural sector. Mohamed Al-Madani Al-Azhari, Secretary
General of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) and the
Director of the Seeds Centre signed the agreements in Tripoli on behalf
of the Libyan government. Henri Carsalade, FAO's Assistant
Director-General for Technical Cooperation, signed for the FAO in Rome.
Links to further
information
FAO press release, 20 February 2003
http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2003/14220-en.html
FAO Technical Cooperation Department
homepage
http://www.fao.org/tc/
NEW TREATY ON ENVIRONMENTAL
DECISION-MAKING FINALIZED
A new international
environmental treaty that will assess countries' environmental draft
plans, programmes, policies and legislation has been finalized. Under
the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE),
the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) was concluded
after two years of negotiations by European, North American and Central
Asian countries.
The aim of the Protocol is to provide
extensive public participation in government decision-making in numerous
development sectors, including land-use planning, transport, agriculture
and industry. Under the Protocol, the public will not only have the
right to know about plans and programmes, but also the right to comment
on environmental decisions. Such participation of the public in
strategic decision-making builds on the practice of the UNECE Convention
on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context and the
UNECE Ǻarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation
in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters.
The SEA Protocol is expected to be
formally adopted and signed at the upcoming Ministerial 'Environment for
Europe Conference' in Kiev, Ukraine, scheduled for 21-23 May
2003. Although negotiated under the UNECE, the Protocol will be open to
all members of the United Nations.
Links to further information
UNECE press release, 7 February 2003
Draft UNECE Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment
UNECE "Environment for Europe" Process
UNDP TO HELP FUND AFRICA'S NEPAD
The United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) has pledged a US$1.9 million funding package to support the New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). The contribution is part
of a broader $3.5 million project expected to draw funding from
additional international partners.
The NEPAD agenda, a programme of the
recently formed African Union (the successor of the Organization of
African Unity – OAU), is aimed at promoting sustainable development and
economic growth on the African continent. In addition to providing
institutional support to the NEPAD Secretariat, the UNDP funding will
help: promote political governance and democracy in Africa; create a
Technical Support Facility to allow NEPAD to mobilize expertise from a
variety of disciplines; establish a NEPAD Advisory Panel; translate the
concept of the "new partnership" into development cooperation policies,
principles and practices that ensure African ownership; and promote in
African countries NEPAD objectives in tandem with the Millennium
Development Goals.
"We know that NEPAD has enormous
potential, and UNDP, through its Regional Bureau for Africa, is
demonstrating our commitment to seeing the initiative succeed," said
Abdoulie Janneh, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for
Africa. "The assistance we are providing will help give NEPAD's
Secretariat and management organs the wherewithal to take concrete and
progressive steps that will advance NEPAD and allow it to increase its
reach across the continent."
Links to further information
UNDP press release, 13 February 2003
http://www.undp.org/dpa/pressrelease/releases/2003/february/13feb03.html
NEPAD homepage
http://www.nepad.org/
FAO APPEALS FOR DONATIONS FOR SOUTHERN
AFRICAN HUNGER CRISIS
The United Nations Food and Agricultural
Organization (FAO) has requested US$15million in aid to help more than a
half a million households in southern Africa that are facing a severe
food and health crisis. The appeal follows several FAO humanitarian
assistance assessment missions to southern Africa in December 2002 and
January 2003.
"This emergency is unlike any other
humanitarian crisis," said Anne Bauer, Director for FAO's Emergency
Operations and Rehabilitation Division. "The causes are complex and
merit a sustained and comprehensive package of relief and recovery
efforts that focus on the most vulnerable groups." According to FAO, the
southern Africa food crisis is the result of drought, chronic poverty,
land degradation and HIV/AIDS.
Primary assistance will be given for
projects in southern Africa that aim to improve skills and increase the
supply of agricultural inputs, such as seeds, hand-tools and fertilizer,
while promoting crop diversity, labor-saving technologies and resistance
to drought. The projects will also replenish small livestock and improve
nutrition. "This comprehensive package of relief and recovery efforts
will improve the self-reliance of agricultural families and reduce their
vulnerability and dependence on food aid," Bauer said.
Links to further
information
FAO press release, 17 February 2003
http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2003/13800-en.html
IFAD CELEBRATES 25 YEARS
The International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD), based in Rome, Italy, is celebrating its 25th
anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, Italian President Carlo
Azeglio Ciampi, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and IFAD President
Lennart Båge will jointly inaugurate IFAD's Governing Council meeting,
to be held from 19-20 February 2003. Ministers of finance and
agriculture and other senior officials from IFAD's 162 member states, as
well as representatives of the United Nations, international
organizations, financial institutions and non-governmental
organizations, will also attend the meeting.
Through its work in the world's most
disadvantaged areas, IFAD helps to achieve two Millennium Development
Goal targets – the promise to halve the proportion of people whose
income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people who
suffer from hunger. However, IFAD's president warns that without more
global action and investment on behalf of the poor throughout the
developing world, none of the Goals are likely to be achieved by their
2015 target date.
"Agriculture is how most poor rural
people make their living and the real engine of economic growth in most
developing countries," IFAD President Båge said in a recent press
release. "Yet, global investment in agriculture and the rural sector has
fallen sharply – by almost 50% in the decade between 1988 and 1999.
Clearly, increasing our investment in agriculture and rural development
is absolutely essential to achieving the Millennium Development Goals."
IFAD has been fighting hunger and poverty
in rural areas since 1978 and is the only UN agency that focuses
exclusively on the rural poor. Its approach involves designing,
implementing and financing, with low-interest loans and grants, projects
and programmes that meet the specific needs of poor communities. Since
it began, IFAD has invested US$7.7 billion in 628 rural development
projects in 115 countries and territories.
"Our efforts to fight poverty in rural
areas are crucial to world security," Båge added. "Debilitating poverty
and hunger are sources of disease, civil strife and instability. The
consequences of poverty are not limited by national boundaries, but
present growing risks throughout the world. Poverty can only be reduced
by ensuring that all people have the opportunity to achieve their full
potential. Only when this happens can there be a solid foundation for
peace, stability and sustainable economic growth."
Links to further information
IFAD Homepage
http://www.ifad.org/
IFAD press release, 13 February 2003
http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2003/5.htm
JANUARY 2003
MOROCCO TAKES OVER G-77 CHAIR
In a formal ceremony held at UN
Headquarters in New York on 16 January 2003, Morocco formally took over
the Chair of the Group of 77 (G-77) and China. Thanking Venezuela for
leading the Group in 2002, Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamed
Benaissa said that his country would spare no efforts in representing
the collective interests of the Group in 2003, particularly in
addressing globalization. "The greatest challenge which confronts our
Group lays in the adaptation to globalization," Foreign Minister
Benaissa said in a speech. "It is high time to remedy dysfunctions of
the global economy and imbalances of international structures in the
fields of finance, trade, technology and investment so that
globalization could be beneficial to all."
Attending the handover ceremony, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan congratulated Morocco on its new
appointment, but stressed the difficult challenges that lay ahead,
including the need to address human rights of immigrants and
trade-related intellectual property rights. "Morocco assumes this
responsibility at a challenging time," Annan stated. "This requires the
political leaders from both the developing and developed countries to
strengthen cooperation."
The G-77 was established on 15 June 1964
by 77 developing countries at the end of the first session of the UN
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. Today, the Group
numbers 133 nations, making it one of the largest coalitions in the UN.
Rotating the Chair on a yearly and regional basis, the G-77 provides the
means for developing countries to promote its collective economic
interests and enhance its joint negotiating capacity on major
international issues.
Links to further information
G-77 press release, 16
January 2003
http://www.g77.org/news/
Statement by UN
Secretary-General, 16 January 2003
Statement by Moroccan
Minister of Foreign Affairs, 16 January 2003
http://www.g77.org/Speeches/011603.htm
KENYAN HONEY PRODUCER WINS SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT AWARD
Honey Care Africa, a small, socially responsible Kenyan honey producer,
has won the prestigious $30,000 Equator Prize. The award, sponsored by
UNDP in partnership with the Government of Canada, IUCN-The World
Conservation Union, the Nature Conservancy and others, honors community
projects that represent outstanding efforts to reduce poverty through
the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Honey Care's
business model, which has helped double the incomes of some of Kenya's
poorest people, enables local farmers to become beekeepers via a
small-scale financing programme. "Our company has a very simple vision,"
says the company's general-manager Farouk Jiwa. "It's about people, the
planet and profits. We believe they can all co-exist and not be mutually
exclusive." As a recipient of the Equator Prize, Honey Care will be
involved in a 2003 campaign to improve community-based knowledge, as
well as help transfer its successful environmentally-friendly business
practices at the national and international level.
Links to further information
World Bank press release, 8 January 2003
UNEP MARKS 30 YEARS
Marking UNEP's 30th anniversary, UNEP
Executive Director Klaus Töpfer said in an end of the year editorial
that 2003 was a defining moment in the long march towards a more
environmentally-sound, sustainable and healthier world. "I believe we
have, as a result of the negotiations and agreements that have marked
2002 and culminating in the World Summit on Sustainable Development
(WSSD), witnessed some real stirrings of intent, some clear routes of
progress, that can transform the fine words of previous years and
decades into real and genuine action," Töpfer said. He also added that
the Plan of Implementation agreed at the WSSD has targets and timetables
on issues such as fisheries, wildlife, sanitation and drinking water.
Looking ahead to the future, Töpfer said that UNEP has every intention
of living up to new and increasing responsibilities, "not only in this
30th year of UNEP's birth, but in the months, years and decades to
come." Kicking off what is expected to be a busy year for the
international environment organization, the 22nd Session of the UNEP
Governing Council and the Global Ministerial Environment Forum will be
held at UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya from 3-7 February (see ENB's
upcoming coverage at
http://enb.iisd.org/unepgc/22gc/).
Links to further information
UNEP Executive Director's End of Year
Editorial, December 2002
http://www.unep.org/home/Documents/2002_ED.htm
UNEP Governing Council meeting
http://www.unep.org/GoverningBodies/GC22/
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