Good News Agency – Year VI, n° 4
Weekly - Year VI, number 4 – 11
March 2005
Managing Editor: Sergio Tripi,
Ph. D.
Rome Law-court registration
no. 265 dated 20 June 2000.
Good News Agency carries positive
and constructive news from all over the world relating to voluntary work, the
work of the United Nations, non governmental organizations, and institutions
engaged in improving the quality of life – news that doesn’t “burn out” in the
space of a day. Editorial research by Fabio Gatti. Good News Agency is
published in English on one Friday and in Italian the next. It is distributed free of charge through
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Information. The Association has been recognized by UNESCO as “an actor
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International legislation – Human rights – Economy and development – Solidarity
Health – Environment and wildlife – Culture and education
Almost half of the children in Georgia face the risk of mental retardation and brain damage caused by iodine deficiency
Tbilisi, Georgia, 3 March - The
Parliament of Georgia has made a major breakthrough in the fight against iodine
deficiency, adopting new legislation to outlaw imports of non-iodized salt. The
new law: “Prevention of Disorders Caused by Iodine, Micronutrients and Vitamins
Deficiency” will come into force in six months. (…)
The Law will contribute to a
National Policy on Food Fortification as well as setting standards for the
import and production of iodized salt and other fortified food products. It
also aims to strengthen State supervision and inter-agency coordination.
Measures will be put in place
over the next six months to ensure that the legislation is effective once it
comes into force. These include setting up reliable quality control mechanisms
as well as ensuring easy access to iodized salt for the population.
The law is the result of joint
efforts by the Government of Georgia and UNICEF. The active involvement of
Georgia’s First Lady Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs in the fight against iodine
deficiency has also led to positive changes. (…)
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_25324.html
24 February, Geneva -- The
World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC)
enters into force on Sunday 27 February 2005. This represents an historical
moment in public health, as the Treaty gives countries more tools to control
tobacco use and save lives. On the 27th, the provisions of the Treaty will be
legally binding for the first 40 countries that became Contracting Parties
before 30 November 2004.
Tobacco is the second leading
cause of death globally, causing nearly five million deaths a year. Estimates
show that it will prematurely kill ten million people a year by 2020 if current
trends are not reversed. Tobacco is the only legal product that causes the
death of half of its regular users. This means that out of 1.3 billion smokers,
650 million people will die prematurely.
Seventeen additional countries
have become Party to the treaty since 29 November. For these, and every country
which becomes Party from now on, the Treaty becomes legally binding 90 days
after their date of deposit of the instrument of ratification or equivalent at
the United Nations Headquarters in New York. (…)
Now, with the entry into
force, countries Party to the WHO FCTC are bound to translate its general
provisions into national laws and regulations. These countries, for example,
will have three years from the day it enters into force for that country to
implement measures to ensure that tobacco packaging has strong health warnings,
or five years to establish comprehensive tobacco advertising, promotion and
sponsorship bans, among others. (…)
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr09/en/index.html
Geneva, 25 February - The
plight of children who work in mines and quarries that are often dangerous,
dirty and can post a grave risk to their health and safety will be the focus of
the fourth World Day Against Child Labour, scheduled for 12 June 2005, the
International Labour Organization (ILO) said today.
The ILO estimates that some
one million children work in small scale mining and quarrying around the world.
(…) The experience of the ILO International Programme on the Elimination of
Child Labour (IPEC) - which has conducted pilot projects in Mongolia, Tanzania,
Niger and the Andean countries of South America - demonstrates that it is
feasible to eliminate child labour in dangerous conditions by helping the
mining and quarrying communities acquire legal rights, organize cooperatives or
other productive units, improve the health and safety and productivity of adult
workers, and secure essential services - such as schools, clean water and
sanitation systems - in these often remote regions.
The ILO launched the World Day
in June 2002 as a means of raising the visibility of the problem and
highlighting the global movement to eliminate child labour, particularly its
worst forms. This year, on and about 12 June, local and national organizations
and many children's groups are expected to join with ILO constituents around
the world to observe the World Day, which occurs during the annual
International Labour Conference in Geneva, and to emphasize the need for the immediate
removal of child workers from small scale mines and quarries.
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2005/12.htm
Sao Paulo, Brazil, February 25 – On March 8, International Women’s Day,
the World March of Women is launching the Women’s Global Charter for Humanity. The global launch is taking
place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where Brazilian women are holding a march. Joining
them will be women from Quebec, where the March was initiated, and delegates
from Cameroon, Congo and Burkina Faso, where the relay of the Charter will end
on October 17, 2005. (…)
Delegates
of the World March of Women gathered in Kigali, Rwanda, adopted the Charter on December 10, 2004. The Women’s
Global Charter for Humanity is a proposal to build a world where exploitation,
oppression, intolerance and exclusion no longer exist and where integrity,
diversity and the rights and freedoms of all are respected. It contains 31
affirmations describing the principles essential to the construction of such a
world. These affirmations are based on five values: equality, freedom, solidarity, justice and peace.
From March 8 till October
17, women of the World March are organizing a Relay to pass the Charter around
the world. The Relay will last till October 17, 2005, International Day for the
Eradication of Poverty. During the Relay, women will hold public education and
information activities about the Charter, challenge their elected
representatives, and question public opinion. (…) The World March of Women is a
global feminist action network made up of 5500 women’s groups from 163
countries and territories. The World March of Women is struggling for an end to poverty and violence against women.
Addis Ababa, 7 March -
The Ethiopian Youth Forum held its seventh session on the subject of ‘Youth and
Unemployment’ on Friday 4 March.
Following a full day meeting where the results of a survey on
Unemployment and Youth conducted among high school students in Addis Ababa, Nazreth
and Debre Zeit towns were presented, the Forum participants developed ten
recommendations which were presented to H.E. Hassen Abdella, Minister of Labor
and Social Affairs. The Forum also began work on developing a ‘Youth Plan of
Action on Unemployment’ which will be presented to stakeholders including
Government, NGO, UN agency, media and civil society organizations.
In his
opening statement Mr. Robert Okello, Director of Office of Policy and Programme
Coordination of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa said: “This
gathering serves as another wake-up call to all of us in our obligations to
give consideration to the youth development agenda of African countries, both
at the national and regional levels. It is my personal pleasure, as the Director
of the ECA Division working on youth related issues, to note that today’s Forum
is taking place right at the time when ECA is developing strategies for
fulfilling the promise we made last October to devote the next African
Development Forum (ADF) to youth issues, under the theme “Youth for Leadership
in the 21st Century”.
In his
statement Mr. Hans Spruijt, on behalf of the UNICEF Representative, said: “I
had the privilege of observing some of your discussions at the symposium and
one thing that all of you made absolutely clear to everyone sitting in those
meeting rooms was that youth are not just the future of Africa – youth are the
present. If you are the present, then it is imperative that you are engaged in
the development agenda and made partners in all social, economic and political
spheres. That is the only way that any
meaningful change for the better is going to take place in countries like
Ethiopia where youth make up such a large segment of the population.”
For
further information contact UNICEF Communication: igetachew@unicef.org
New
York, 7 March - Rural women must be at the centre of poverty reduction
strategies if real progress is to be made towards achieving the Millennium
Development Goals, the plenary of the 49th Session of the UN Commission on the
Status on Women was reminded today. “It
is crucial to put rural women’s needs and priorities at the centre of
development efforts if hunger and poverty are to be eradicated,” said Phrang
Roy, Assistant President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD).
More
than 75 per cent of the world’s 1.1 billion extremely poor people live in rural
areas of developing countries. The majority are women. Speaking on the eve of International Women’s Day, Roy said IFAD
prioritized the economic empowerment of women as one of the fundamentals for
broad-based economic growth and poverty reduction. For this to be possible, women need secure
access to productive resources such as land, water for agriculture and
financial capital. (…)
On Wednesday 9 March, IFAD
will bring together policymakers, development practitioners and activists at a
high-level round-table discussion on Rural Women’s Access to Land and Property.
The following day, Thursday 10
March, IFAD will co-host an event on the issue of gender, land and water with
the International Land Coalition (ILC). The Coalition, of which IFAD was a
founder in 1996, is an alliance of intergovernmental, governmental and
civil-society organizations.
For more
information: Farhana Haque-Rahman, Chief, Media Relations, Special
Events and Programmes f.haquerahman@ifad.org
By
Olivier van Bogaert
4 March - Not so long ago we were exchanging insults with ecologists. Today we
are working hand in hand with them – Guy Decolvenaere, GD-Groupe Decolvenaere. These are remarkable words of a Belgian
entrepreneur with two logging concessions and two wood processing sites in the
dense forests of south-east Cameroon who only several years ago saw
environmental groups, like WWF, as an impediment to his company’s way of doing
business.
When WWF set up a conservation
project in 1998 in this part of Cameroon, with particular emphasis on
sustainable forest management, the logging industry was not happy.
At that time management plans
were rare within logging concessions throughout the 30,000km2 area that the
project covers, with little consideration given to environmental concerns and
unsustainable logging practices. But years of work on the ground by WWF to
raise awareness on the issue, and to bridge the gap between local communities and
multinational companies operating in the same area, have radically changed the
picture, or the forest, as the case may be.
Today, in what seems like a
complete turn around, Guy Decolvenaere’s company has in place management plans
for its logging concessions, recently announcing that it will work with WWF's
Central African Regional Programme Office (CARPO) towards forest certification
and timber labelling using Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards.
“We have chosen FSC
certification because of its complete programme, namely forest exploitation,
protection and respect of biodiversity, and social aspects that take into
consideration the improved livelihood of local populations,” said Guy
Decolvenaere, Director of GD-Decolvenaere in Cameroon. “We have also decided to
work with WWF because not only are they experts in matters of sustainable
forest management, they are permanently on the ground to give a helping hand.”
Decolvenaere is hoping to
obtain a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label by the end of this year. When
this happens, they will be the first logging company to receive such a label in
tropical Africa. (…)
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/africa/stories/news.cfm?uNewsID=18956
Rome 4 March 2005 – About
30,000 families in nine districts of Al-Dhala in central Yemen will be able to
grow more crops and raise healthier animals through a project that will
introduce new farming technologies. The families will also gain access to
credit.
The US$22.8 million project
will be financed by a US$14.4 million loan from the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD). The loan agreement was signed today at IFAD
headquarters by Lennart Båge, President of IFAD and Ahmed Mohammed Sofan, the
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation for Yemen.
Farmers in this area plant
crops on small rainfed plots of land and have little money to pay for
fertilizer. They rely on livestock for food and animal power for agricultural
production, but do not have easy access to medicines or veterinary services to
keep their animals healthy. As a result, yields are low, and poverty acute.
“This project will revive and
modernize many elements of the traditional way of life,” says Mohammed Hassani,
country programme manager of Yemen. “It will make water harvesting systems more
efficient, help herders gain access to animal medicines and train women in
basic finance so informal credit schemes become even more potent.” (…)
http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2005/22.htm
Vienna, Austria, 3 March, 2005
- Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC),
Antonio Maria Costa, and UNIDO Director-General Carlos Magariños, today signed
a Memorandum of Understanding to improve their abilities to fight drug
trafficking and improve development in some of the poorest nations on earth.
Afghanistan, Colombia, Laos, Morocco, and Nigeria are all plagued with
underdeveloped private sector enterprise, rampant drug trafficking, or both.
These nations will be the first to benefit from the new agreement. (…)
UNIDO aims to improve the
economic development of small and medium sized business enterprises, to assist
the private sector in agro-industrial development, and to eliminate corruption
to improve industrial performance. For UNIDO, this cooperation agreement is a
new one in the series of strategic partnerships in the UN Reform context,
following those already concluded with WTO and UNDP.
The main focus of the UNODC
will be improving disposal of seized narcotics, and ensuring that the methods
of disposal adhere to UNODC sustainable livelihood policies. UNODC will also
work to improve the efficiency criminal justice systems in developing countries.
The organizations will work together to improve technical research and analysis
and to better control the disposal of chemicals both locally and globally.
http://www.unido.org/en/doc/34989
2 March - UNDP has recently
unveiled a major regional initiative--the Silk Road Regional Programme (SRRP),
aiming at reviving economic and cultural links bridging China and the Central
Asian countries. This programme is inspired by the ancient tradition of the
Silk Road, and will promote modern forms of cooperation supported by advanced
technologies.
“Regional cooperation is a key
to help meet the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty and promoting
growth and equality,” said Khalid Malik, UNDP Resident Representative in China,
at a press conference to announce the outcome of the inception meeting of the
SRRP, which took place from 15-17 February in Beijing, China.
The discussions during the
two-day meeting between the five participating countries - Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and China – marked the beginning of a
strategic dialogue focusing on implementation of the SRRP. This initiative will
focus on strengthening cooperation in three areas - trade, investment and
tourism - between China and the four Central Asian countries.
The Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation (SCO) will be a key partner to the programme, as it will provide a
regional platform for dialogue among the countries concerned, as well as
between their public and private sectors. (…)
At meeting held in UN headquarters in New York Germany becomes new State
member of ECLAC
The Federal Republic of Germany was
welcomed into the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
17 February 2005 - The Federal
Republic of Germany yesterday was welcomed into the Economic Commission for
Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) as a full member, at a meeting of the 23rd
Committee of the Whole of this regional United Nations body, held today in New
York with the participation of delegates from 34 member and four associate
countries.
Germany is one of the most
active European countries in terms of technical cooperation with ECLAC, through
German's Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the
German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), and for some years has been its
main bilateral cooperant, as well as having historical, cultural and economic
ties with the region. ECLAC now has 42 member and seven associate states,
including six other European countries: Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands,
Portugal and the United Kingdom.
Moreover, at this Committee of
the Whole meeting, José Luis Machinea, ECLAC Executive Secretary, presented two
major economic and social reports on Latin America and the Caribbean. He noted
that in 2004 the region's economic growth recovered, climbing to 5.5%, making
it possible to reduce poverty by 1% over the previous year, although with no
change in the region's poor income distribution. (…)
Yokohama, Japan, 4 March – The
United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Japan have
forged a partnership to promote human security through school feeding. "WFP believes that providing a
nutritious meal at school is a simple but concrete way to ensure that this will
be the first-ever millennium free from hunger, and there's no more urgent place
to start than Africa." said John Powell, WFP Deputy Executive Director,
concluding a two-day annual consultation with government officials in Tokyo.
As part of the Millennium
Development Goals, world leaders pledged to halve the percentage of the world's
population that go hungry by 2015. WFP believes that one of the surest ways to
achieve this goal is to provide malnourished children with both food and education.
The agency is the largest organiser of school feeding programmes in the
developing world, currently reaching some 16 million children. It aims to
increase that to 50 million children by 2007. (…)
Japan and the World Food
Programme share a strong commitment to Africa and discussed challenges facing
the continent such as HIV, hunger and peace-building. As the largest
humanitarian actor in Africa, WFP invested some US $1.5 billion (¥155 billion)
in food aid for Africa in 2003. Japan has placed increasing importance on
Africa since hosting the first Tokyo International Conference on African
Development (TICAD) in 1993. (…)
Bangkok, 2 March – Restoring
livelihoods and rehabilitating the coastal environment top the list of new
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) post-tsunami initiatives in
Thailand. These areas of long-term recovery support were announced today by Hafiz
Pasha, Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and Pacific, during his
last stop on a two-week trip through Asian countries hardest hit by the
tsunami. His trip included Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia ending today in
Thailand, where he visited devastated Kao Lak communities in Phang Nga
Province.
“The initial phases of
emergency relief resulting from the Thai tsunami have ended, yet thousands of
people remain affected,” says Mr. Pasha. “UNDP is now looking towards
assistance for long-term recovery and reconstruction of tsunami-hit regions
along the Andaman coast, with the pressing task of restoring livelihoods and
hope for the future.”
UNDP estimates that over
120,000 people have been adversely affected in Thailand’s fisheries sector
alone. Nearly 500 fishing villages along the Andaman coast are seriously
affected, nearly 30,000 households dependant on fisheries have lost their means
of livelihood, and over 4,500 fishing boats have been destroyed or damaged.
UNDP will support community-managed small grants projects to help restore basic
sources of income. This support will include micro-grants for repairing of
productive assets such as fishing gear and boats. Returned money will be
reinvested into a community revolving fund to finance training and planning for
alternative livelihoods, as well as the integration of disaster mitigation
measures where appropriate.
Special consideration will be
given to maintaining traditional livelihoods and indigenous culture while
promoting alternative livelihoods. Villages participating in this scheme are in
Phang Nga, Ranong and Krabi provinces, and include sea gypsy and Muslim
communities on Koh Lanta and Koh Sai Dam. (…)
http://www.undp.org/dpa/pressrelease/releases/2005/march/pr2mar05.html
Displaced families in the tsunami
affected region of Colombo, Sri Lanka will receive 350 emergency relief kits in
the first shipment of such packages, thanks to generous donations.
Washington, DC, March 2 –Some 350 families displaced by the tsunami
will receive critically needed emergency relief items thanks to a surge of
donations and support from a Maryland church community, the staff of an
international relief organization and transportation companies in the United
States. Sri Lankan families, huddled in
one of three camps set up in the east cost town of Komari, will receive
emergency kits thanks to the initiative of a Counterpart staffer who mobilized
support and resources from her congregation and from shippers.
Yang Hee Kim, Counterpart
International's Transportation Manager and Export Specialist in its Community
and Humanitarian Assistance Programs (CHAP) division, spearheaded the kits
project and brought it to fruition. In
addition to generous cash donations for the purchase of the supplies, church
members of the local Gaithersburg, Maryland Hosanna Methodist Church joined Kim
after their Sunday service a few weeks ago to assemble the kits. Along with
this support, Kim also found unwavering cooperation from the freight forwarding
company John S. Connor, Inc. and Austrian Airlines, which both donated their
shipping services to deliver the kits to Colombo, Sri Lanka. (…)
http://www.counterpart.org/dnn/Default.aspx?tabid=49&metaid=F43K2958-2bc
Celebrating five years of connected development:
www.onlinevolunteering.org
Bonn, 1 March –
The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme’s Online Volunteering (OV)
service, which connects non-profit and nongovernmental organizations working in
the South with people willing to volunteer their skills over the Internet,
marks its fifth anniversary today.
Since
its launch in March 2000, some 30,000 people have joined the OV service, with
more than half taking on an assignment.
This
support has reached more than 600 organizations from the North and South who
work to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, empower women, educate children,
stop the spread of killer diseases like Aids, and cure other development ills
identified as priorities within the framework of the Millennium Development
Goals.
Connected
at home, in school or universities, in the office, or in libraries, online
volunteers complement the work of these organizations by carrying out a
multitude of tasks. Examples of engagement include: developing fundraising
strategies to expand operations, building networks to generate support for
projects, translating documents to achieve greater outreach, and creating
websites to publicize and promote. (…)
To
find out more about how the OV service and online volunteers are contributing
to development, please visit the OV service’s special anniversary website:
http://www.unvolunteers.org/infobase/events/OV_celebration/index.htm
Monrovia (ICRC), 24 February –
Anxious to play an active role in helping Liberians return to villages they
once fled to escape fighting, the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) has distributed tools to more than 65,000 families living in 1,300
villages. (…)
The ICRC has placed the tools
in the care of committees made up of village chiefs, elders and women's
representatives. They will ensure that everyone in the community has access to
them. (…) Rural families need to clear brush from their lands and rebuild their
houses before the planting season. The next step will come with the
distribution of 1,430 tonnes of rice, bean and vegetable seed to these
communities in March and April, before the end of the planting season. Last
year, the ICRC distributed tools and seed to 30,000 families in Liberia.
By Maureen Vaught and Vukoni
Lupa-Lasaga
24 February - Rotary leaders attending the International
Assembly in Anaheim, California, USA, marked Rotary's 100th birthday by
participating in a hands-on initiative to feed the hungry.
All of the 525 district
governors-elect in Anaheim, their trainers, and senior leaders repacked more than
58,000 pounds of canned food at the warehouse of Second Harvest Food Bank of
Orange County, California, near the assembly venue on 23 February. In addition,
they saved more than $26,000 from the cost of that day's lunch by eating a
simple meal of soup and bread.
The Orange County food bank is
part of a network operating under the umbrella of America's Second Harvest, a
nonprofit organization based in Chicago.
RI President-elect
Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar, initiator of the centennial anniversary effort, presented
a check for $26,731.08 to Robert Forney, president and CEO of America's Second
Harvest, at the warehouse. (…) Many district governors-elect expressed how
significant it was to spend the first day of Rotary's second century doing a
volunteer project. All of the incoming governors were so moved by the
experience that each is taking home as a souvenir an empty box from the Second
Harvest warehouse. (…)
http://www.rotary.org/newsroom/events/news01.html
CARE is participating in The
ONE Campaign to rally Americans to fight the emergency of global AIDS and
extreme poverty. Through The ONE Campaign, each ONE of us can make a
difference. Together, as ONE, we can change the world.
By directing an additional ONE
percent of the U.S. budget toward providing the most basic needs — and fighting
the corruption that wastes precious resources — we can help transform the
futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries.
Sign The One Campaign
Declaration today and add your name to the list of people who think more should
be done to fight AIDS and poverty.
With an additional ONE percent
of the U.S. budget, we can
ONE percent of the U.S. budget
is $25 billion, and redirecting that much money would have to be done over
time. Directed to honest governments, private charities and other
organizations, this support would provide the tools and resources they need to
really make a difference.
Show your support at: http://my.care.org/campaign/a205100000
http://www.careusa.org/newsroom/featurestories/2005/feb/20050207_one_campaign.asp
Geneva/New York, 4 March - The
World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
today announced that countries are on target to halve deaths from measles, a
leading vaccine-preventable killer, by the end of the year. Global measles deaths have plummeted by 39%,
from 873 000 in 1999 to an estimated 530 000 in 2003 .
The largest reduction occurred
in Africa, the region with the highest burden of the disease, where estimated
measles deaths decreased by 46%. (…)
Measles is an important cause
of childhood deaths. Only a decade ago,
measles killed millions of children each year and affected 30 million more,
leaving many with life-long disabilities like blindness and brain damage. (…)
The dramatic decline in measles deaths is made possible through the commitment
of governments to fully implement the WHO/UNICEF strategy for sustainable
measles mortality reduction.
The strategy seeks to achieve
routine measles immunization coverage of at least 90% in every district and to
ensure that every child from nine months to 14 years of age receives a
"second opportunity" for measles immunization through routine
services or supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) every three to four
years. The SIAs have proven especially effective. From 1999 to 2003, more than
350 million children throughout the world were vaccinated against measles
through SIAs. (…)
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_25308.html
MSF teams on bicycles, motorbikes and
boats are inoculating close to 35,000 children between birth and 15 years
against all routine antigens, with children older than 5 years receiving
protection against measles.
Baraka, 3 March - Médecins
Sans Frontières (MSF) has started to vaccinate approximately 35,000 children
and 5,000 pregnant women in the Fizi territory, on Lake Tanganyika in South
Kivu province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The accelerated vaccination
campaign covers all 34 so-called 'aires de santé' of the Fizi health zone,
including hard to access areas such as the Ubwari peninsula and the Hautx
Plateaux region of Fizi.
MSF teams on bicycles,
motorbikes and boats are inoculating close to 35,000 children between birth and
15 years against all routine antigens, with children older than five years
receiving protection against measles. Up to 5,000 women are receiving
anti-malaria prophylaxis. 'The campaign is needed to improve the general health
status in the health zone which has been neglected over the years', says Lorena
Bilbao, the project coordinator in Baraka.
The campaign has been
initiated by MSF to complement the gaps in the coverage of the routine
vaccination campaign that started in 2004. So far, 23% of children had been
vaccinated against measles and only 9% against diphteria, whooping cough and
tetanus.
MSF expects to complete the
first phase of the campaign by mid-March; the second and third phase will
follow shortly after. The campaign is organized in close collaboration with the
local and provincial medical authorities, as well as UNICEF.
Sokoto, Nigeria, 1 March — By
Day 8 of “Fistula Fortnight,” 348 women with obstetric fistula had been
surgically treated by a team of Nigerian and volunteer international doctors at
four sites in northern Nigeria. Dozens more women will receive treatment over
the two-week period that ends on 6 March. (…)
Obstetric fistula is a
devastating childbirth injury that occurs when a woman endures prolonged
obstructed labour, sometimes for days at a time, without the benefit of skilled
medical intervention. Often, the baby will die and the woman will suffer
chronic incontinence. Women affected by fistula may be abandoned by their
husbands, ostracized by their communities and blamed for their condition.
Studies indicate that as many
as 800,000 Nigerian women could be living with fistula, with an estimated
20,000 new cases each year. (…) The Nigerian Government, at federal, state and
local levels, has played a crucial role in making the Fortnight a success. The
Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs have provided and
distributed equipment and supplies and have mobilized funds for rehabilitation
programmes. (…)
http://www.unfpa.org/news/news.cfm?ID=572
22-nation synchronized immunization
campaign to reach 100 million children as virus spreads to Ethiopia
25 February, Dakar/Harare/Geneva/Evanston
-- A mass polio immunization drive starting today across Africa gained greater
urgency from reports that a child has contracted polio in Ethiopia, the first
case there in four years. The cross-continental drive – spanning 22 countries and
reaching 100 million children – is the first in a series of 2005 campaigns to
stamp out polio in Africa, which saw a fierce resurgence last year endangering
global eradication efforts. With polio now in its low-transmission season, the
next few months are critical to stopping the virus.
Countries joining the
campaigns this round include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and
Eritrea on the southern and eastern edges of the epidemic. In the west, Côte
d’Ivoire is rejoining the effort for the first time since civil unrest halted
activities last November, causing months of concern after the country was
re-infected early on in the regional epidemic. (…)
On the other side of the
continent, Sudanese health officials in the wake of the Nairobi peace accord
are cooperating to immunize children in both the north and south. Next door,
Ethiopia is concentrating on activities along its northern and western borders,
where the new case was found. Sudan convened earlier this month nine
neighbouring countries to discuss cross-border immunization coordination. (…)
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr10/en/index.html
UNFPA responds to reproductive
health needs in rebuilt communities and among migrants in tsunami region
Phuket, Thailand, 24 February — Responding to critical needs in Thailand’s tsunami-affected communities, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is expanding its support for maternal and child health and family planning services and HIV prevention. Working with Thai health authorities and NGO partners, UNFPA will offer training, research, supplies and equipment to ensure that newly built communities in four hard-hit provinces have adequate reproductive health information, counselling and services.
The Fund will also help the
World Vision Foundation of Thailand to meet reproductive health needs in
communities of migrant workers from neighboring Myanmar.
UNFPA has allocated emergency
funds and is undertaking additional fund-raising to carry out these efforts.
(…)
http://www.unfpa.org/news/news.cfm?ID=566
Kashara, Nepal, 2 March – WWF
Nepal is providing support to the country's largest national park by
constructing an enclosure to raise two orphaned rhinos The two greater
one-horned rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) include a female who was rescued four
years ago after its mother was killed by a tiger, and a male who was rescued
after being washed away and separated from its mother about eight years ago.
The enclosure is being built,
with support from WWF's Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) Programme and the Bill Jordan
Foundation-UK, in a natural setting at Kashara near the headquarters of the
Royal Chitwan National Park in order to protect the rhinos from futher tiger
attacks. In the absence of an enclosure, a 17-month old rhino raised in the
park was recently killed by a tiger on 21 January 2005. (…)
Mortality of wild animals due
to natural calamities and poaching has resulted in increased numbers of orphans
within the country's protected areas. These orphaned animals are more
vulnerable than those in the wild. Behavioral changes are apparent among
human-reared orphan animals, which reduce the chances of their adaptability and
survival in the natural habitat. However, organizations, like WWF, are doing
everything they can to make sure the animals return to the wild. (…)
Italy funds new project to improve
water management among Nile basin countries
Rome, 2 March -
The ten countries within the Nile River basin will benefit from better access
to information on the availability, use and development potential of the Nile
resources they share, thanks to a new project aimed at improving water resource
management in the region, FAO announced today.
The
US$5 million project, funded by the Government of Italy, will be implemented by
participating country governments with assistance from FAO. The project will be
carried out under the umbrella of the Nile Basin Initiative, a regional
partnership launched by the Nile riparian states in 1999 to facilitate the
common pursuit of sustainable development and management of the Nile’s waters.
(…)
With
an average per capita gross domestic product of US$400, far below the African
average, the ten countries that share the Nile—Burundi, the Democratic Republic
of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and
Uganda—can ill afford further delays in making the most of this important
resource.
The
project will support basin-wide initiatives to integrate technical water
resource and water use data with demographic, socio-economic and environmental
information to examine how specific policies and projected water use patterns
will affect water resources in the Nile riparian countries.
Geneva, 1 March - Portugal is
the 16th country to ratify the Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication
and Ground-level Ozone, which will, consequently, enter into force on 17 May
2005. The Protocol was originally adopted on 30 November 1999 in Gothenburg
(Sweden) and signed by 31 countries. It is the eighth to take effect under the
Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution of the United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
The Gothenburg Protocol is a
major step forward in the development of international pollution controls. It
aims at controlling several pollutants and their effects through a single
agreement. The Protocol sets new targets for emission cuts by 2010 for sulphur
dioxide, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). It also sets,
for the first time, targets for ammonia controls. Countries whose emissions
have the most severe health or environmental impact and whose emissions are the
cheapest to reduce will have to make the biggest cuts.
The Protocol also sets limit
values for specific emission sources (e.g. combustion plant, electricity
production, dry cleaning, cars and lorries) and requires best available
techniques to be used to keep emissions down. VOC emissions from such products
as paints or aerosols will also have to be cut. Finally, farmers will have to
control ammonia emissions (manure, artificial fertilizer). (…)
http://www.unece.org/press/pr2005/05env_p02e.htm
Nairobi/Geneva, 1 March — The Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and the Regional Seas Programme have joined forces in the fight against coastal pollution with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Nairobi last week.
The main area of cooperation
is the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes in order to prevent
coastal and marine pollution. Marine litter is targeted through the
environmental management of plastic waste, used lead-acid batteries and used
oils and lubricants. The two organisations will raise awareness on hazardous
waste and marine pollution and support each other with technical and legal
training.
The Basel Convention is the
world’s most comprehensive environmental agreement on hazardous and other
wastes. It has over 160 Parties and aims to protect human health and the
environment from the inappropriate management of hazardous and other wastes.
(…)
Many of the joint activities
will be carried out using the 13 Basel Convention Regional Centres (BCRCs) as
platforms for regional cooperation with the various Regional Seas Programmes.
The 13 BCRCs are located in Argentina, China, Egypt, El Salvador, Indonesia,
Nigeria, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovak Republic, the South Pacific
Regional Environment Programme (Samoa), South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and
Uruguay. (…)
1 March - Koïchiro Matsuura,
Director-General of UNESCO, and Frederick D. Gregory, Deputy Administrator of
the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), today
signed a cooperation agreement at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C.
According to the agreement, UNESCO will benefit from NASA’s expertise in the
earth sciences and space technology to strengthen its work in the conservation
of World Heritage sites and monitoring of Biosphere Reserves. This expertise
will also contribute to UNESCO’s work relating to natural hazards, as well
education and capacity building.
UNESCO’s particular concern is
to improve the access of Member States to the benefits of NASA’s expertise,
remote sensing data, and science research results. This cooperation should
increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of conservation work. It should
also reinforce Member States’ ability to mitigate the effects of natural
hazards, a top priority in view of the recent tsunami disaster and the focus of
several UNESCO programmes. In the field of education, cooperation with NASA
will broaden the scope of UNESCO’s Space Education Programme and other activities
aiming to raise interest in science.
(…)
Nairobi, 25 February - In February 2002, at its seventh special session, the UNEP Governing Council unanimously adopted a decision requesting the UNEP Executive Director to prepare a desk study outlining the state of environment in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to identify areas of major environmental damage requiring urgent attention.
The following year the
Executive Director’s report "Desk Study on the Environment in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories" was submitted to the UNEP Governing Council at
its 22nd Session in Nairobi, February 2003. The report focussed on water
quantity, water and soil quality, wastewater, solid waste, hazardous waste,
environmental administration, biodiversity, and land use. It made 136
recommendations on a range of environmental topics. (…)
At the 23rd session of the
Governing Council, which took place from 21-25 February 2005, UNEP reported on
the progress made over the past two years in implementing recommendations of
the Desk Study, which included needs assessments through field missions, a
series of capacity building seminars, and mediation and facilitation.
Among others, the UNEP Desk
Study recommends to reactivate the Environmental Experts Committee (EEC)
established by the Oslo Agreements. In February 2005, UNEP organized a
bilateral meeting between Israeli and Palestinian delegations, which took place
in Helsinki, Finland (…) The outcome was a decision to hold a meeting of the
EEC, which has not been convened since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in
September 2000. (…)
Governments also agree to strengthen
UNEP’s finances and work in areas from water and gender equality to disaster
preparedness and scientific assessment
Nairobi, Kenya, 25
February – Governments today took an
important step forward in reducing the health and environmental risks from
mercury, a heavy metal linked with a wide range of medical problems. Under an
expanded mercury programme, they have asked the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) to conduct a study on the amounts of mercury being traded and
supplied around the world. Mercury, a
heavy metal linked with effects such as damage to the nervous systems of
babies, is used in products such as fluorescent light bulbs, dental fillings
and thermometers.
Action is also to be taken on
improving the communication of the risks of mercury to vulnerable groups. These
include pregnant mothers whose babies may be at risk if they eat too much
mercury-contaminated fish or marine mammals such as seals. Governments also
agreed to promote ‘best available techniques’ for reducing mercury emissions
from chemical factories and other industrial sites.(…) Governments, who have
been attending UNEP’s 23rd Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment
Forum, also agreed to review the success of the new programme in two years
time. (…)
3 March - Education for children is accorded a high
priority in all regions of Sri Lanka and even more so since the tsunami.
Parents and local authorities stress the importance of reopening classrooms in
the stricken areas so as to give children the feeling they are returning to a
normal routine. However, many schools are still being used as temporary shelter
for families who lost their homes in the disaster.
In Kaddaikadu, northern Sri
Lanka, 323 families took refuge in the local school after the tsunami destroyed
their homes in the village of Mullian. But on 17 January, they moved off the
premises, preferring to live under tarpaulins so that their children could
return to school.
Some of the families were able
to find shelter with relatives or friends and, by 5 February, the ICRC had
installed tents for the remaining 210 families on land adjacent to the school.
Two days later, the ICRC provided each family with essential household items
(buckets, mats, bedsheets, cooking pots, plates, cups and towels). (…)
Throughout Sri Lanka, the
authorities are trying to move families out of schools by providing them with
alternative shelter. The ICRC has agreed to supply 5,000 tents for this
purpose, over 3,000 of which have already been set up. The organization is also
helping to build basic infrastructure for transit camps and, along with other
international organizations, it is providing water and sanitation facilities.
Young citizens of America's
"Second City" will soon be able to savor the delights of one of the
oldest civilizations and a country where Jesus was baptized and where Moses saw
the Promised Land.
Washington, D.C. February 20 -
Young citizens of America's "Second City" will soon be able to savor
the delights of one of the oldest civilizations and a country where Jesus was
baptized and where Moses saw the Promised Land.
Counterpart International is
making these exchanges possible through a new venture designed to strengthen
relationships between American and Jordanian youth. This is being done now the
development organization has been given the nod to coordinate community linkage
activities between Jordan and its expatriate community in Illinois.
Under the Aqaba Pilot Program,
children will build relationships through school-to-school pairings, book
clubs, and e-buddy communications, while Counterpart establishes a pipeline of
resources through bilateral community partnerships linked to the Jordanian
Diaspora in Chicago.
Counterpart will help build
technical capacity for educational institutions in Aqaba, Jordan, as well as
equip students with skills to prepare them for the local labor market.
The United States Department
of State has committed more than US $293 million over the past four years
through the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) for such programs. (…)
* * * * * * *
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April.
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