Friday, December 28, 2012

European Commission and Germany contribute €10 million to UNDP to help countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Click here for this in full @ : http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2012/12/european-commission-and-germany-contribute-e10-million-to-undp-to-help-countries-reduce-greenhouse-gas-emissions/

Listen / Download
Greenhouse gases
25 developing countries around the world are to get help in reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The help comes from the European Commission and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) that have each announced a €5 million contribution to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The joint Low Emission Capacity Building Programme – which now has a budget of more than €32 million – was launched in 11 countries in 2011 with contributions from the European Commission and BMU. Its' been since expanded to a further 14 countries in 2012 as a result of additional funding from the European Commission and the Government of Australia's Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and AusAID.
The Programme supports participating countries by helping them develop low-emission development strategies and nationally appropriate actions to reduce or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. It also helps these countries design systems for better measuring, reporting and verification of results.
Administrator of the UN Development Programme, Helen Clark said "There is an urgent need to act now to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change", adding that "This is a global challenge and requires global solutions" .
Donn Bobb, United Nations.
Duration: 1’13″

UNDP Special Representative of the Administrator, Mr Frode Mauring visits project sites in Gaza

UNDP Special Representative of the Administrator, Mr Frode Mauring accompanied by the Representatives of India, Brazil and South Africa, visit the project site of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Hospital in Gaza. 

The project, funded by the governments of India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), through UNDP/PAPP, consists of the rehabilitation of nine partially or totally destroyed floors and aims at enhancing access to public health and social services for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 

During the site visit, Dr. Khalil Abu Fuul, the Director of the Crisis Management Unit at PRCS, briefed the delegation on the ongoing status of work and highlighted that 65% of the project components has been completed. 

Furthermore, Mr Mauring, together with the Representative of Brazil, Mr Paulo Franca, visited the Sekka Bridge to check the damages caused as a result of the recent Israeli military offensive on Gaza. The “Construction of Al-Sekka Bridge” project was completed in October 2012, implemented by UNDP/PAPP and funded by the Government of Brazil.

UN Justice: The former Italian UN intern begins hunger strike for justice

UNJustice
UNJustice
@UNJusticeOrg

#UN intern on 1th day of #hungerstrike for #justice @UN unjustice.org/news122.htm @innercitypress @undpwatch @columlynch @lou_reuters @irinnews


 

20 December 2012
Dr di Giacomo, the Italian former UN intern, has announced in a letter to Ms. Axenidou, the Organization's Director of the General Legal Division, that beginning tonight, Rome time, he will go on hunger strike in protest against the continued delays in upholding the UN Legal Counsel’s undertaking to resolve his claim against Ms. Grant, a senior UN lawyer who was accused of defamation and calumny in a complaint to Office of the Attorney-General of Italy. 

The Organization has inexplicably ignored every request to negotiate a settlement of this dispute. The former UN intern has resorted to the hunger strike after over four years of less drastic attempts to persuade the UN Office of Legal Affairs to respect the UN Legal Counsel’s promise.

In Spain 1 in 3 young people is unemployed - but former Socialist Minister "bribes" her way into United Nations with spanish taxpayers money

The Spanish government stops paying the international fund


Click here for this story in full @ Periodista Digital: http://www.periodistadigital.com/economia/instituciones/2012/10/29/rajoy-corta-grifo-onu-mujeres-organismo-ficho-ministra-bibiana-aido.shtml


Bibiana Aído.
NY

El Gobierno español deja de pagar al fondo internacional

Rajoy corta el grifo a ONU-Mujeres, el organismo que fichó a Bibiana Aído

En total, desde 2006 España le ha donado 178 millones de euros

Geolocalización de la noticia
Periodista Digital, 29 de octubre de 2012 a las 17:42
El Gobierno de Mariano Rajoy cierra el grifo de forma definitiva a ONU Mujeres. El organismo en el que Bibiana Aído trabaja como asesora desde 2011 dejará de recibir las cantidades de dinero que recibía con Rodríguez Zapatero.
En total, desde 2006 España donó 178 millones de euros. Una ayuda que el actual ejecutivo no considera 'prioritaria' ya que España ya ha sido 'especialmente generoso en este aspecto'.

Según informa ABC, las aportaciones a este programa comenzaron en 2006. Las primeras se hicieron al antiguo fondo par la Mujer, Unifem, que alcanzaron los 8,16 millones de euros.

En los años siguientes la cuantía de la ayuda fue en ascenso. Así en 2007 el Estado español entregó 10,6 millones de euros, 74,07 en 2008, 32,11 en 2009, 33 en 2010 y 20 en 2011.

Click here for this story in full @ Periodista Digital: http://www.periodistadigital.com/economia/instituciones/2012/10/29/rajoy-corta-grifo-onu-mujeres-organismo-ficho-ministra-bibiana-aido.shtml

UNDP SCANDAL: Former Spanish Socialist Minister - gives 200 Million to UN-Women two months before leaving her job - than becomes the number #2 at the same United Nations Fund ...

CORRUPTION--CORRUPCION

Click here to read this in full @ El Confidencial : http://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2012/10/17/el-gobierno-de-zapatero-dono-200-millones-a-onu-mujeres-antes-del-fichaje-de-bibiana-aido-107164/



Un país comprometido con la mujer y la igualdad de género. España abandera el ránking de los países que más dinero destinan a combatir la violencia y la desigualdad de género entre hombres y mujeres. Un liderazgo mantenido en el tiempo durante los años en los que José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero ocupó la Moncloa. Desde 2006 hasta este año, el Gobierno ha donado más de 200 millones de euros al proyecto estadounidense de ONU Mujeres que fichó a Bibiana Aído, exministra de Igualdad, como asesora "especial" de la directora ejecutiva de ONU-Mujeres, el organismo que preside Michelle Bachelet. 

En 2006, dos años antes de crear el ministerio de Igualdad que dirigiría Bibiana Aído hasta su extinción, el por entonces presidente del Gobierno José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero dedicó de los fondos públicos 8,8 millones de euros para Unifem, el Fondo de Naciones Unidas para la Mujer. Una cantidad que se elevó hasta los 16,8 millones de euros en el siguiente ejercicio. Las aportaciones son mínimas si se compara con el chorreo de dinero que el Gobierno destinaba al mismo fondo a partir de 2008, cuando Zapatero es reelegido presidente del Gobierno y Bibiana Aído sube al Ejecutivo como ministra de Igualdad.

España inyectó más de 76 millones de euros a la ONU entre 2008 y 2009, convirtiéndose en el país que más dinero abonaba a la causa (una cuarta parte del montante global que aportaban todos los países del mundo) y coincidiendo en el tiempo con la aparición de los primeros brotes de la crisis que todavía asola al país. Ser la nación que más dinero invertía a la causa sirvió como razón de peso para que la organización compensase a España colocando en abril de ese mismo año a Inés Alberdi, esposa del exgobernador del Banco de España, Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez, al frente de la dirección ejecutiva del Fondo de Desarrollo de Naciones Unidas para la Mujer (Unifem).
Ya con la hermana de la exministra Cristina Alberdi involucrada de lleno en el proyecto desde Estados Unidos, el Gobierno socialista se volcó de lleno en la organización. Pronto llegó la creación de ONU-Mujeres, una nueva agencia que englobaría Unifem y otros tres fondos y organismos que en Naciones Unidas se dedicaban a asuntos relacionados con la promoción de las mujeres, y con la que España contribuyó en 2010 ofreciéndoles otros 35,18 millones de euros, una cantidad que duplica la aportación hecha por Noruega, el segundo país que más dinero invertía en el proyecto (17,2 millones de euros anuales).

En 2011, el último año en el que Zapatero se mantuvo en el poder, España siguió imbatible en el Top One de los países más comprometidos con los proyectos de igualdad de género de la ONU. Esta vez, con la crisis ya de lleno azotando a los españoles, la aportación del Ejecutivo central superó los 20 millones de euros, once millones más que la cantidad que abonó Reino Unido y Noruega.
Lluvia de millones mientras la crisis se agudizaba

Con el ministerio de Igualdad desaparecido del organigrama oficial del Ejecutivo desde octubre de 2010, Bibiana Aído dejó su cargo como secretaria de Estado en junio de 2011 para trabajar codo con codo con la expresidenta de Chile. Muchos relacionan este ‘fichaje’ como medida compensatoria a la abultada cantidad de subvenciones que el Gobierno socialista entregó durante seis años consecutivos al proyecto estadounidense y que ahora solventaría colocando a la gaditana en un puesto bien remunerado (unos cien mil euros anuales) en Nueva York.

Tras la caída del PSOE del Ejecutivo central tras las elecciones del 20-N, los presupuestos del 2012 guardaron 9,2 millones de euros más para el proyecto que trabaja Bibiana Aído en Nueva York. Por ahora, el Ejecutivo de Mariano Rajoy todavía no ha abonado ni un solo euro de lo prometido.

Click here to read this in full @ El Confidencial : http://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2012/10/17/el-gobierno-de-zapatero-dono-200-millones-a-onu-mujeres-antes-del-fichaje-de-bibiana-aido-107164/

Friday, December 21, 2012

Pakistan government is not capable to manage foreign aid projects - allows UNDP/UNOPS to charge 16.5% for every $$ as a fee


Click here to read this in full @ UNDP Pakistan: http://undp.org.pk/a-memorandum-of-understanding-signed-by-the-federal-judicial-academy-and-the-united-nations-development-programme-undp-un-office-for-project-services-unops-by-the-legal-empowerment-of-the-poor-programme.html


A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today between the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) organized by the Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP) programme. The Honorable Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Mr. Justice Nasir ul Mulk was the chief guest. The event was attended by senior judges from the superior courts, UN officials and media.
Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk , Honorable Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; Pervaiz Chawla, Director General of Federal Judicial Academy; Jean-Luc Stalon, Country Director (a.i.) UNDP; Mikko Laienjoki, Country Director UNOPS
The event is a landmark achievement for UNDP and the Federal Judicial Academy since it is for the first time that the FJA signed the MoU with a development agency. This agreement between the two parties would formally shape the partnership in areas of policy engagement, infrastructure and IT support, capacity building and research and advocacy. For UNDP, this agreement represents a complete plan of action for modernizing the judicial academies and transforming them into centers of excellence.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Jean Luc Stalon, Country Director (a.i.) UNDP said, “We see this as an investment in the future of the entire justice system in Pakistan. It reflects our faith in the ability of this system to meet the expectations of the poor and vulnerable citizens of this country. It reflects our trust in the Federal Judicial Academy to lead the way toward this vision.”


In his Keynote Address, Mr. Pervaiz Chawla, Director General of FJA said, “The goals sought by the LEP Programme are in complete alignment with the vision of the Federal Judicial Academy. LEP seeks to improve access to justice for the poor and vulnerable which is our very raison d’être.”

The LEP programme was initiated by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and implemented by the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), to support the ongoing efforts of the justice sector service delivery. LEP is part of UNDP Pakistan’s broader agenda for the Rule of Law and Access to Justice and intends to work in 37 districts across all provinces for improving justice sector service delivery for the poor and vulnerable, working closely with the judiciary, bar councils, prosecution, ombudsmen offices and prisons. The programme aims to secure the delivery of legal rights and services by key institutions to the vulnerable segments of society, in parallel to creating demand and awareness amongst the right holders. .

Click here to read this in full @ UNDP Pakistan: http://undp.org.pk/a-memorandum-of-understanding-signed-by-the-federal-judicial-academy-and-the-united-nations-development-programme-undp-un-office-for-project-services-unops-by-the-legal-empowerment-of-the-poor-programme.html

New UN climate ploy: Institutionalize payments for still-unspecified 'loss and damage'

by George Russell,

Click here to read this is full @ Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/12/19/new-un-climate-ploy-institutionalize-payments-for-still-unspecified-loss-and/#ixzz2FelKtec2

The United Nations is pushing for a novel way to get billions of extra dollars from Western nations by imposing a retroactive penalty for still-unspecified losses and damages that can be laid at the doorstep of rich countries for their longstanding production of greenhouse gases.

The notion was vigorously opposed by the U.S. at the talks, which concluded in Doha on Dec. 8 -- even though the U.S. has never ratified the Protocol. But that did not stop the assembly of more than 195 nations from rolling the idea forward to their next meeting, in Warsaw next December.

In the meantime, the Kyoto parties are calling for more research “to further the understanding of and expertise on loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change.”

In other words, the Protocol nations do not yet even know how exactly to define the loss and damage concept, especially the sort associated with “slow-onset” change associated with rising seas and desertification. Yet in their final resolution on the topic they underlined that “the lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as reason for postponing action.”

CLICK HERE FOR THE RESOLUTION

UNDP throws more $$CASH$$ into voter registration in Yemen - if anything goes wrong - please don't blame UNDP (as usual)

Click here to read this in full @ Reliefweb: http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/united-nations-development-programme-reconfirms-its-strong-commitment-and-support

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reconfirms its strong commitment and support to the transitional process through its continued support to Yemen’s update to the Voter Registry, Constitutional Referendum and post-Referendum elections by the signing of an agreement in the amount of 27 million SEK (approximately US $4 million) with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for the implementation of the Support to the Elections during the Transitional Period (SETP) project in Yemen. The agreements were exchanged on Monday, December 17, 2012 by the Ambassador of Sweden, Senior Country Director of UNDP, the Vice-Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Elections and Referenda (SCER), and the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation at the latter’s office.

The SETP project aims to support the planning and administration of voter registration, the constitutional referendum, and remaining elections of the transitional period; to support inclusive electoral legal framework reform and to increase participation of civil society, political parties, women, youth and persons with disabilities in electoral processes.

“Sweden is now the first contributor for the preparation of voter registration efforts and the coming referendum" said Gustavo Gonzalez, UNDP Yemen Senior Country Director, who led the UNDP delegation. Stressing on the importance of the electoral reforms for fair and impartial elections, “If the National Dialogue is at the heart of the transitional process, elections are what sustains its beat. Elections bring political legitimacy and inclusiveness. Sustainable development in Yemen is unthinkable without a strong democracy. This is why UNDP is strongly investing in elections.”

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Joe Torsella of USUN admits failure: "United Nations is at 8.6% overbudget"


By next December the budget achievement of last year could disappear & we'll have returned to business as usual. A net 8.6% increase. 


Breaking News: UNDP is studying the possibility of offering post-disaster assistance to Rockaways County in New York

LEADER WITH A VISION

Click here for this story in full (video) : http://vimeo.com/55647072

For One Day on Earth 12.12.12 Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, toured the Rockaways in New York City to see first hand the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. She visited homes that have been made unlivable due to the onset of mould and that are being rebuilt by Respond and Rebuild a small volunteer group working in the area.



Face of the Day (Helen Clark)

Courtesy of Whale Oil Beef Hooked: http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/tag/helen-clark/


Secretary-General returns to $2.9 Million dollar "eco-friendly" office.

Click here for this in full at UN DPI: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43790&Cr=secretary-general&Cr1=#.UNE5v4XK49A

 

 



Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right), accompanied by Chef de Cabinet Susana Malcorra, returning to his usual office at the completion of renovation. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Leaked UN/IPCC Report Predicts ‘Irreversible’ Climate Change

Click here to read this in full @ ENS News Service: http://ens-newswire.com/2012/12/17/leaked-un-report-predicts-irreversible-climate-change/

WASHINGTON, DC, December 17, 2012 (ENS) – A leaked early draft of the UN’s latest climate change study shows human activities to be responsible for climate warming that will take centuries to reverse, even if greenhouse gas emissions were to stop right now.

“Many aspects of climate change will persist for centuries even if concentrations of greenhouse gases are stabilised. This represents a substantial multi-century commitment created by human activities today,” states the draft report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Blogger Alec Rawls leaked the draft on his website: www.stopgreensuicide.com.

Environment News Service (http://s.tt/1xdq0)

While America is mourning the Newtown's tragedy: Ban Ki-moon gets an armored vehicle made-in Korea


Click here to read this in full @ Motor Authority: http://www.motorauthority.com/image/100413217_un-secretary-general-ban-ki-moon-checks-out-his-armored-hyundai-equus--image-hyundai

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon checks out his armored Hyundai Equus - image: Hyundai

 





Monday, December 17, 2012

UN Gateway (another one) to UN's work on climate change


cop18cmp8_533_small.jpg
(Doha, 8 December 2012) At the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar (COP18/CMP8), governments have taken the next essential step in the global response to climate change. Countries have successfully launched a new commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol, agreed a firm timetable to adopt a universal climate agreement by 2015 and agreed a path to raise necessary ambition to respond to climate change. They also endorsed the completion of new institutions and agreed ways and means to deliver scaled-up climate finance and technology to developing countries.
“Doha has opened up a new gateway to bigger ambition and to greater action – the Doha Climate Gateway.  Qatar is proud to have been able to bring governments here to achieve this historic task. I thank all governments and ministers for their work to achieve this success. Now governments must move quickly through the Doha Climate Gateway to push forward with the solutions to climate change,” said COP President Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah.

Click here for full access @ :  http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/climatechange/pages/gateway/the-negotiations/template/news_item.jsp?cid=37700

NyTimes: Doha: Weirdly Tame and Dispirited


Click here for this in full @ NyTimes: http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/doha-weirdly-tame-and-dispirited/

The annual United Nations climate change negotiations this year in Doha, which wrapped up on Dec. 8, seemed weirdly tame and dispirited. There was minimal press coverage and, as Jennifer Haverkamp of the Environmental Defense Fund observed, there were “no people in polar bear suits, no passionate youth doing skits, no melting ice sculptures—no real infusion of energy.”  There was also no solid agreement on how to confront the threat of global warming by slowing the seemingly inexorable rise of heat-trapping emissions or by helping poor nations mitigate the inevitable damage or, preferably, both. That was not weird. These conferences have not produced a binding document since the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, which was itself flawed because it asked nothing of big developing nations, and, partly for that reason, was never ratified by the United States Congress.

Nicholas Stern comments on outcome of United Nations climate change summit in Doha

Click here for this in full @: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/Media/Releases/2012/MR071212-nicholas-stern-climate-change-summit-doha-outcome.aspx

Saturday 7 December 2012
 
Commenting on the outcome today (7 December) of the United Nations climate change summit at Doha, Qatar, Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy at London School of Economics and Political Science, said:

“The Doha Gateway Package represents modest but important progress from last year’s summit in Durban, which set out the principles of an international agreement in 2015 for action by both rich and developing countries to tackle climate change. Doha has laid out a work programme through which countries can reach agreement in 2015. The decisions taken in Durban and Doha both take into account that although rich countries, with 1 billion people, have been responsible for the bulk of historical emissions of greenhouse gases, developing countries, with 6 billion people, now emit about half the annual total, based on either consumption or production. It is vital that all countries reduce emissions and that rich countries take a lead in both creating low-carbon growth for themselves and in supporting developing countries to find a new and sustainable approach to growth, development and poverty reduction.

Joint Press Conference with Helen Clark in Iraq

Kaarina Immonen of Finland Deputy Special Representative for Central African Republic

Secretary-General Appoints Kaarina Immonen of Finland Deputy Special


Representative for Central African Republic


United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Kaarina Immonen of Finland as his Deputy Special Representative in the Central African Republic.  Ms. Immonen will also serve as United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator.

She succeeds Bo Schack of Denmark, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his long and continuing service to the Organization, and his commitment to peace consolidation and stability in the Central African Republic.  The Secretary-General would also like to extend his gratitude to Modibo Touré for his contribution to United Nations efforts in his capacity as Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. in that country.

Ms. Immonen brings more than 16 years of experience in conflict prevention and recovery, development and field operations management to her new position.  Prior to her latest appointment, she served in various capacities at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), including United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Moldova, from 2007 to 2012.

She was UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in the Russian Federation and held a similar position in Georgia.  Having started her career as a Junior Professional Officer in the Congo, she went on to other UNDP assignments in Viet Nam, Rwanda, Kenya and Cambodia.

Ms. Immonen holds a master’s degree in political science and international relations from the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute for International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.

Green Activists Close To Despair After UN Climate Confab

Click here for this in full @: http://www.climatechangedispatch.com/home/10808-green-activists-close-to-despair-after-un-climate-confab

Doha Climate Summit Ends In Disgrace 


At the end of another lavishly-funded U.N. conference that yielded no progress on curbing greenhouse emissions, many of those most concerned about climate change are close to despair. --Barbara Lewis and Alister Doyle, Reuters, 9 December 2012

The United Nations climate talks in Doha went a full extra 24 hours and ended without increased cuts in fossil fuel emissions and without financial commitments between 2013 and 2015. However, this is a "historic" agreement, insisted Qatar's Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, the COP18 president. --Inter Press Service, 10 December 2012

Climate negotiators at the most recent conference on global warming were unable to reduce expectations fast enough to match the collapse of their agenda. The only real winners here were the bureaucrats in the diplomacy industry for whom endless rounds of carbon spewing conferences with no agreement year after year mean jobs, jobs, jobs. The inexorable decline of the climate movement from its Pickett’s Charge at the Copenhagen summit continues. The global green lobby is more flummoxed than ever. These people and these methods couldn’t make a ham sandwich, much less save Planet Earth. –Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest, 9 December 2012

UN chief errs again on climate change


Click here for this in full @: http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/12/14/un-chief-errs-again-on-climate-change

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon often makes serious climate science mistakes. However, his December 5th statements at the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar set a new low even for the UN chief.

“The climate change phenomenon has been caused by the industrialization of the developed world,” said Ban. “It’s only fair and reasonable that the developed world should bear most of the responsibility.” “Climate change is happening much, much faster than one would understand,” he added. “The science has plainly made it clear: it is the human beings’ behaviour which caused climate change, therefore the solution must come from us.” Ban is wrong on all counts.

The United Kingdom’s Met Office announced recently that there has been no overall warming, or cooling, of the planet for 16 years. As the November 29th open letter to the Secretary General from 134 experts “qualified in climate-related matters” explained, “Whether, when and how atmospheric warming will resume is unknown. The science is unclear. Some scientists point out that near-term natural cooling, linked to variations in solar output, is also a distinct possibility.”

Stanford talk by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

By Sarah L. Bhatia

Click here for this in full @:  http://aparc.stanford.edu/news/un/

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will present a free public talk at Stanford on Thursday, Jan. 17.



Ban, who is the eighth secretary-general of the UN, will speak about the UN's role in creating opportunities out of the challenges posed by today's rapidly transitioning world.
"Times of transition are times of profound opportunity," he recently said during his acceptance speech for the Seoul Peace Prize. "The decisions we make in this period will have an impact for generations to come.”

Ban's initiatives as UN secretary-general have focused on promoting sustainable development; empowering women; supporting countries in crisis or instability; generating new momentum on disarmament, arms control, and nonproliferation; and strengthening the UN. Among his many activities as secretary-general, he has successfully raised major pledges and financing packages for aid and crisis response, established the agency UN Women, and introduced new measures to promote UN transparency and efficiency.

Ban Ki-moon is pro Lesbian and Gay Community, makes it clear in a twitter


UNDP Senegal: post 2015 Development Framework

UNDP: Statement by the United Nations Development Programme, on post-2015 development framework to take shape in Senegal

Click here for this in full @: http://www.polity.org.za/article/undp-statement-by-the-united-nations-development-programme-on-post-2015-development-framework-to-take-shape-in-senegal-11122012-2012-12-11

Representatives from government, regional and international bodies, the private sector and civil society from across Africa are gathering today in Dakar to discuss top priorities to be included in the global development framework beyond 2015, which will be debated at the UN General Assembly in September 2013.

While efforts continue across Africa to achieve the time-bound Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), this two-day forum is part of unprecedented consultations to build a collective vision, to be endorsed by African Ministers and ratified by Heads of State at the African Union’s May 2013 Summit.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Ban Ki-moon needs translation...when uncle Helen speaks at Doha


Scotland will give $$$ to Malawi thru UNDP to provide "Energy for All"

SCOTLAND AND UN "ENERGY FOR ALL' DEAL
Electric Light & Power
People in Malawi and other developing countries will have better access to clean energy thanks to action by Scotland and the United Nations. Scotland's Sustainable Energy for All partnership with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) will deliver ...

Leadership Academy for Muslim Women

Leadership Academy for Muslim Women
The Nation
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Social Development and Human Security Ministry will officially launch the innovative new programme at 2pm, with a joint partnership signing. Of the roughly 7,000 political positions in villages and ...

UNDP to give $144 Million for rural Burma

UNDP confirms 3-year plan for rural Burma
Mizzima News
UNDP-logo The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is to implement a three-year new program in Burma providing US $144 million for various projects, many of which are scheduled to be initiated in rural and border areas, state-run media reported ...

State of denial: the UN and the protection of its whistleblowers

Click here to read this @ UN Justice: http://unjustice.org/news121.htm


7 December 2012

UNJustice has learned with grave concern and sense of shock that the UN Secretary-General, through the UN Legal Counsel, H.E. Ms. Patricia O’Brien, has just lodged a cross-appeal to the United Nations Appeal Tribunal (UNAT) seeking to have 16 paragraphs (numbers 60-76) of a United Nations Dispute Tribunal (UNDT) ruling redacted. On 12 July 2012, a landmark UNDT ruling suggested that former UN staffer Ms. Vesna Dzuverovic suffered retaliation and “RECOMMEND[ed her case] to the Secretary-General for sympathetic review with a view to bringing substantive justice and closure to it” [para. 74 UNDT/2012/105, original emphasis].
The UNDT also tried to send a very important message to the Secretary-General about the importance of effectively upholding the UN whistleblowing policy, noting that, exceptionally in this case:
“This recommendation is made bearing in mind the special measures that have been put in place with regards to the protection of whistleblowers who risk their jobs, professional lives and livelihoods by courageously seeking to expose wrong-doings within the Organization.
The United Nations, being the foremost international Organization for setting standards for governments and other organizations, needs to review the case of this Applicant as this will serve not only the ends of justice but also to reassure whistleblowers that they are indeed protected” [paras. 75 and 76 UNDT/2012/105].
 
Following these findings, on 7 September 2012, Ms. Dzuverovic wrote to the Secretary-General pleading for the UNDT recommendation to be accepted and to be provided with a remedy. However, her letter received no reply and she had no option but to reiterate her request through a formal appeal to the UNAT.
The position of the Secretary-General is incomprehensible. The UN whistleblowing policy is a major element of the UN reform agenda and a first step in preventing retaliation is its recognition.
Last year, on 14 October 2011, following a film screening of "The Whistleblower" at the U.N. Headquarters, the Secretary-General declared that “[the film] underscores how important it is to speak out against abuse or injustice... Those who do so, in good faith, must not be punished ... We need to promote a culture in which people feel free and obliged to raise their voices in the face of wrongdoing and abuse."
Surprisingly, the cross-appeal now lodged by the Secretary-General constitutes an alarming backtracking of the UN whistleblowing policy which goes exactly in the opposite direction of the UNDT recommendation, sending the wrong message that protection of UN whistleblowers should not exist and impunity should be offered to all those who may choose to victimise or retaliate against fellow UN colleagues who have made credible allegations of misconduct.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

For Whom Do the FAO and Its Director-General Work?


Click here to read this story in full @: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/goswami041212.html

by Rahul Goswami
 
For farmers small and large?  For the tens of millions of food-consuming households, poor or just getting by?  For the governments and bureaucracies of small countries who want to import less and grow more?  For the organic cultivators on their small densely bio-diverse plots?  Or for the world's large food production, trading, and retail corporations, whose influence is wide and whose power is vast?

There is the continuing if travel-stained hope -- held by so many of us, those who work at humble stations in the food and agriculture sector -- that, of all those whom the director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO of the United Nations) does work for, it is not that last.  But, since 2011 June, when José Graziano da Silva became the head of the FAO, the signs have been otherwise, and they are growing stronger with each passing month...

Click here to read this story in full @: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/goswami041212.html

Heritage.Org: U.S. Should Put U.N. Climate Conferences on Ice

Click here to read this story on Heritage.org: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/12/climate-change-us-should-work-outside-of-united-nations-climate-conferences

By and
December 5, 2012

The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is currently holding its 18th meeting in Doha, Qatar. The two-week conference ending on December 7 is intended to jump-start the stalled negotiations on a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Midway through the meetings, it is clear that very little of substance will transpire, which has been the case for years.

The past four years have demonstrated conclusively that there is no international consensus for action. The U.S. should refuse to attend future U.N. conferences on climate change, call for a moratorium on future conferences unless there is a fundamental shift in position among key countries, and focus its efforts on alternative forums involving key countries. Further, the U.S. should prevent and remove unilateral attempts to address climate change that have adverse economic effects and no environmental benefit.

Talking in Circles
 
The U.N. has been the central forum for discussing climate change issues for more than two decades. The U.N. led the effort to create the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988, which released its first report in 1990 and, unsurprisingly, confirmed the global warming theory and laid the foundation for an international agreement to address the issue. The 1992 Rio Earth Summit produced the UNFCCC, wherein countries pledged to consider actions to limit global temperature increases and cope with the resulting impact of climate change.

The high point of UNFCCC efforts was the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, which established binding restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions in 37 industrialized countries, including principally the European Community, by an average of 5 percent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008–2012.

The U.S. is not a party to the Kyoto Protocol, and supporters of the pact point to this fact to justify its failure. In reality, even accepting all IPCC model assumptions, shortcomings of the agreement—particularly the exemption of major developing country sources of greenhouse gas emissions, loopholes, and other ruses that allow some developed countries to largely avoid emissions reductions—ensured that the Kyoto Protocol would do virtually nothing to reduce emissions and have no detectable impact on climate change.[1] The bottom line is that even with perfect compliance and U.S. participation, Kyoto would not significantly arrest projected global warming.

The past four years have seen successive annual U.N. conferences (Copenhagen in 2009, Cancun in 2010, Durban in 2011, and Doha this year) frantically trying to reach agreement among nearly 200 countries on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. In essence, these conferences have succeeded only in wresting vague pledges from developed countries to reduce emissions, contribute funds to help developing countries adapt to climate change, and meet again to try to negotiate a binding treaty by 2015.

An Unworkable Premise
 
The problem is that the basic approach is unworkable. The Kyoto Protocol essentially placed the entire economic burden of addressing climate change on a few dozen countries while asking nothing from more than 150 countries. Perhaps this makes sense if the industrialized countries alone could address the issue by reducing emissions, but that is impossible.

The primary source of greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly the developing world. For a number of reasons—including sluggish economies and a shift toward energy sources (such as natural gas, nuclear, or renewable energy) that emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions—most industrialized countries have seen their emissions stabilize or fall. In fact, U.S. emissions are at their lowest level since 1996, according to the U.N.[2] China surpassed the U.S. as the largest source in 2006, and its emissions were 45 percent higher than America’s in 2009 (the most recent year available). Other developing countries are also rapidly increasing their emissions as their economies develop.

Developing countries, primarily India and China, have made it quite clear that they have no appetite to slow economic growth or stop using fossil fuels to curb emissions. In fact, according to a recent report from the World Resources Institute, there are proposals to build nearly 1,200 coal-fired power plants worldwide totaling over 1.4 million megawatts. China and India alone account for 76 percent of the proposed build.[3]

For this reason, Canada, Japan, and Russia refused to sign onto a new agreement committing them to emissions reductions unless major developing country emitters were also included. Understandably, they see little benefit in undermining their economic growth and their citizens’ prosperity for the sake of a symbolic gesture that, in the end, would not significantly alter the trajectory of emissions growth.
All of this leaves aside, of course, outstanding uncertainty about the accuracy of UNFCCC claims on climate change, the magnitude and pace at which the climate is changing, its causes, and whether the costs of emissions reductions might be better used in other ways. Specifically, the famous “hockey stick” used by the UNFCCC for years to illustrate global warming has been proven to be fabricated,[4] the models used to predict future temperatures have been unable to replicate past temperatures, and global temperatures have stabilized over the past 15 years.[5] Environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg and other experts suggest that the costs of emissions mitigation are prohibitive and that countries should focus on other, more urgent development problems.[6]

U.S. Should Be a Leader
 
Proponents of the U.S. taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions often argue that if the U.S. acts, the rest of the world will follow suit. As the developing world has made it clear, this is not the case. Instead, the U.S. is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars attending and financing these conferences and, ironically, encouraging unnecessary emissions from those sent to represent their countries, industries, or interests at these unproductive meetings. Instead, the U.S. should demonstrate real leadership by:
  • Undertaking independent efforts to more accurately determine the severity of climate change and verify U.N. claims.
  • Working with a smaller group of nations through informal arrangements such as the Major Economies Forum to undertake appropriate steps that are both cost effective and effective in reducing warming.
  • Refraining from attending future U.N. climate change conferences and calling for a moratorium on conferences that emphasize financial transfers and reinforce the flawed, ineffective Kyoto methodology of differentiated responsibilities.
  • Resisting and ceasing attempts to address climate change unilaterally. This includes removing onerous and unnecessary regulations on fossil fuels that are driving up the cost of energy, stopping wasteful and ineffective attempts to subsidize carbon-free energy sources, and preventing an implementation of a carbon tax. Attempting to address greenhouse gases unilaterally comes at great cost to the taxpayer and energy consumer for no meaningful environmental impact.
A More Effective Way
 
Efforts to address climate change do not need to be hammered out at a U.N. conference. Indeed, by working with a smaller group of key players, the U.S. is far more likely to negotiate a more effective and less costly strategy to address climate change without the tangents that bog down U.N. negotiations.

Instead of letting the U.N. funnel negotiations toward an unrealistic, grossly expensive agreement, the U.S. and other key nations should work outside the U.N. to hash out a realistic, effective strategy by which they are prepared to abide.

Brett D. Schaefer is Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, and Nicolas D. Loris is the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Yannick Glemarec, the master mind behind the UNDP Carbon Certificates and the mechanism to maximise income for the organization

UNDP keeps secret the number of Carbon Certificates it holds or it has endorsed thru its projects around the world


Click here to view this video here @ UBRAINTV: http://www.ubraintv.com/watch.php?id=547

Interviews

Yannick Glemarec, Director of Climate Finance, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), UNDP-GEF Executive Coordinator

Yannick Glemarec

Director of Climate Finance, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)
UNDP-GEF Executive Coordinator

www.undp.org



Click here to view this video here: http://www.ubraintv.com/watch.php?id=547

Helping Africa by talking about it with rich Japanese donors ! No one knows the truth behind Administrative overhead that Helen Clark charges to cover her lavish style living at Trump towers in New York.

Helen Clark: Keynote Address at the JICA Symposium on The Tokyo International Conference for African Development

30 November 2012

Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator
Keynote Address at the JICA Symposium on
The Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD)
United Nations University HQ, Tokyo, Japan
30 November 2012, 5pm (local time)

I am very pleased to be able to attend this symposium hosted by JICA, because of the strong partnership between UNDP and Japan, and our shared commitment to development in Africa. This co-operation takes place under the framework of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), and today we reflect on its two decades of support for Africa.

A fantastic interview of two main brains behind UNDP's REDD initiative. You need a consultant to explain the work that the full-time Analyst supposedly does.

These are the brains behind the upcoming Global TAX on Carbon

Click here to view this video here @ UBRAINTV: http://www.ubraintv.com/watch.php?id=548

Interviews

Nina Kantcheva & Silje Haugland, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)

Nina Kantcheva, Consultant, Stakeholder Engagement

Silje Haugland, Programme Analyst, UN-REDD, Environment & Energy Group
UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)

www.un-redd.org


Click here to view this video here @ UBRAINTV: http://www.ubraintv.com/watch.php?id=548

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Pro-poor means this at United Nations



Click here to read the Decision of Executive Board of World Food Programme on housing subsidy for WFP Executive Director. Read on the last page how they refer to housing subsidy the FAO Director general receives.


Friday, November 30, 2012

Is Ban Ki-moon supporting a 1-state solution in Palestine?

Click here for this story @ NY Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/u-n-twitter-accidentally-calls-single-state-solution-mideast-article-1.1210543
One character can make all the difference in what some consider a Freudian tweet.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the need for two states – one for the Palestinians, the other for Israelis – to bring peace to that war-torn region. But that is not the message announced by the U.N.’s official Twitter handle @UN.
 
“On Day of Solidarity with Palestinians, Ban Ki-moon stresses urgency of reaching 1-state solution,” U.N. Information Officer Nancy Groves tweeted at 2 p.m. EST Thursday.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/u-n-twitter-accidentally-calls-single-state-solution-mideast-article-1.1210543#ixzz2DiICZlji


One character can make all the difference in what some consider a Freudian tweet.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the need for two states – one for the Palestinians, the other for Israelis – to bring peace to that war-torn region. But that is not the message announced by the U.N.’s official Twitter handle @UN.
 
“On Day of Solidarity with Palestinians, Ban Ki-moon stresses urgency of reaching 1-state solution,” U.N. Information Officer Nancy Groves tweeted at 2 p.m. EST Thursday.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/u-n-twitter-accidentally-calls-single-state-solution-mideast-article-1.1210543#ixzz2DiICZlji
United Nations social media page goes out with type-o.

UN


The official United Nations Twitter account posted an erroneous tweet, saying the U.N. Secretary-General supports a one state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

One character can make all the difference in what some consider a Freudian tweet.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the need for two states – one for the Palestinians, the other for Israelis – to bring peace to that war-torn region. But that is not the message announced by the U.N.’s official Twitter handle @UN.
 
“On Day of Solidarity with Palestinians, Ban Ki-moon stresses urgency of reaching 1-state solution,” U.N. Information Officer Nancy Groves tweeted at 2 p.m. EST Thursday.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/u-n-twitter-accidentally-calls-single-state-solution-mideast-article-1.1210543#ixzz2DiHlRjox
United Nations social media page goes out with type-o.

UN


The official United Nations Twitter account posted an erroneous tweet, saying the U.N. Secretary-General supports a one state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

One character can make all the difference in what some consider a Freudian tweet.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the need for two states – one for the Palestinians, the other for Israelis – to bring peace to that war-torn region. But that is not the message announced by the U.N.’s official Twitter handle @UN.
 
“On Day of Solidarity with Palestinians, Ban Ki-moon stresses urgency of reaching 1-state solution,” U.N. Information Officer Nancy Groves tweeted at 2 p.m. EST Thursday.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/u-n-twitter-accidentally-calls-single-state-solution-mideast-article-1.1210543#ixzz2DiHlRjox

The Gaza Strip - Facts, Figures and UNDP’s Response to the Ongoing Crisis

With Palestine upgrading its status at the United Nations General Assembly the UNDP is getting ready to upgrade its relation with Gaza Government (or Hamas)





In Zambia: UNDP signs a partnership with the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection



Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection conducts “Household Access to Economic, Social and Cultural rights” survey in Kasama, Kabwe and Livingstone PDF  | Print |
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Kasama, November 2012 – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) entered into a new partnership this year, with Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR).  JCTR is a research, education and advocacy team that promotes study and action on issues linking Christian Faith and social justice in Zambia and Malawi.  One of UNDP’s core components of this year’s support to JCTR is “Household Access to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” survey in three selected urban areas of Zambia – Kasama, Kabwe and Livingstone.

Ban Ki-Moon launches Aakash 2 at UN (An Indian tablet - made in China)



Thank God for DRC crisis - $$$CASH starts pooring in for cash-strapped UN Agencies

UN agencies resume humanitarian operations in conflict-affected DRC



Click here for this story in full @ NZWeek: http://www.nzweek.com/world/un-agencies-resume-humanitarian-operations-in-conflict-affected-drc-30535/


GENEVA, Nov. 27 — The United Nations humanitarian organizations were able to resume assistance to internally displaced people (IDPs) in 12 sites around Goma, capital city of conflict-affected North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), UN agencies said Tuesday.
Elisabeth Byrs, spokesperson of the World Food Program (WFP), said WFP emergency food distributions have been completed in 10 of the 12 IDP sites.

The organization carried out a rapid food security assessment over the past weekend. Many cases of malnutrition have been identified among IDPs during the assessment, she said.

WFP urgently required 114 million U.S. dollars to meet the emergency food and cash voucher requirements of new IDPs and to provide complementary relief, early recovery and resilience support over the next six months.

Adrian Edwards, spokesman with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), told reporters that the UNHCR and its NGO partners have been working over the weekend to deliver WFP food, as well as soap and water containers.

Is UNDP getting ready for a DOOMSDAY ?

Deutsche Post DHL and UNDP launch the third “Get Airports Ready for Disaster” training in Indonesia

Click here to read full story @ : http://logisticsweek.com/feature/2012/11/deutsche-post-dhl-and-undp-launch-the-third-get-airports-ready-for-disaster-training-in-indonesia/

The Indonesian government, Deutsche Post DHL and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on 21 November launched a four-day “Get Airports Ready for Disaster” (GARD) training programme at Polonia Airport in Medan and Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport in Banda Aceh.

The training aims to improve capacities of airport personnel so they can handle high volume of incoming goods and increasing number of passengers during the aftermath of a disaster. Similar trainings took place in 2009 and 2011 at the Mutiara Airport in Central Sulawesi, Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in South Sulawesi, Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali and El Tari in East Nusa Tenggara.

SCANDAL: In Pakistan United Nations charge 75% for every $$Dollar that supposedly goes to procure Polio Vaccines

THE BARE TRUTH 
Where is ISLAMIC DEVELOPMENT BANK $LOAN$ for POLIO eradication goes in Pakistan ?


Click here to read this in full @ International Herald Tribune: http://tribune.com.pk/story/472026/operational-costs-weigh-heavily-on-anti-polio-push/
< >

Operational costs weigh heavily on anti-polio push

Published: November 28, 2012

Official documents show that more than 50% of the total programme cost will go to two foreign organisations – WHO and Unicef. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD: 
Running a polio eradication initiative is no mean feat. Within its massive head, only about one-third goes into the actual procurement of vaccines.

That’s the easy part.
The rest is be provided to two United Nations agencies and a govt body as ‘operational costs’ – ie, the cost of surveying the areas and millions of households to be targeted across Pakistan and then actually delivering the medicines to the millions of households over a span of three years.
In Pakistan, two international agencies will be paid the largest chunk to undertake this process.
The polio vaccine procurement cost of the three-year Emergency Plan for Polio Eradication stands at $106.6 million, or Rs9.7 billion – 35% of the total Rs27.5 billion earmarked for the recently cleared three-year campaign programme – which seeks to eliminate polio by 2015.
Official documents show that more than 50% of the total programme cost will go to two foreign organisations – the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is responsible for operations and surveillance, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), responsible for vaccine procurement and communication.

WHO will have the larger share of the pie, charging a total of $86.5 million or Rs7.9 billion –28.9% of the total programme cost. Similarly, the Unicef is charging $67.3 million or Rs6.2 billion – 22.3 % of the total cost.

To finance the project, the federal government has almost finalised a loan agreement with the Islamic Development Bank for the provision of $227.2 million or Rs20.7 billion. The IDB will charge a 5.1% markup. The World Bank will also provide a loan of $24 million for the programme.

Despite the huge allocation for the emergency programme, experts say its success hinges on the success of ongoing polio campaigns. They are of the opinion that unless routine coverage increases to 90% from the existing below 45%, the emergency programme will not succeed.


The programme was recently cleared by at meeting of the Central Development Working Party, headed by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Dr Nadeemul Haque. It will become operational from January next year.
The stated objective of the emergency programme is to stop wild poliovirus transmission throughout the country.
As many as 33.4 million children under the age of five are targeted under this programme.

UNCIEF

Unicef will charge $21.1 million, or roughly Rs2 billion, as social mobilisation cost and another $36.2 million, or Rs3.3 billion, as “ongoing social mobilisation” cost. Furthermore, it will charge “7% for programme support cost” ($4.9 million) and another “9% for programme support cost” ($5.2 million).

An official working closely on the programme said that the 9% additional cost was unfair and needed to be settled. The agency is also charging 4.5% as procurement services charges.

World Health Organisation

WHO is charging roughly $73 million, or Rs6.6 billion, as operational cost and $8.8 million as surveillance cost. It is also charging $4.9 million or 7% of the total amount as programme support cost.

Officials added that, since 1994, WHO has established its surveillance networks at district levels, which the government has decided to use. However, despite years of surveillance, polio coverage remains behind the targets, highlighting issues in monitoring.

In addition to the international agencies’ charges, the government has also earmarked $36.1 million, or Rs3.2 billion for its own operational cost.

PM’s Polio Monitoring Cell 

The PM’s Polio Cell is allocated $1.1 million, or Rs98.7 million, as operational cost. An amount of Rs38.9 million is allocated for holding meetings and conferences, while telephone bills for three years have been estimated at Rs2 million. An amount of Rs400,000 has been fixed for gifts, while Rs10.3 million has been allocated to the PM’s Cell for running vehicles.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2012.