Canada's Fantino hands out hudreds on millions of Canadian taxpayers money - forgets to ask how they are used by United Nations - doesn't even mention once the word "accountability". Can Canada afford Julian Fantino ?

Read this in full at US Politics: http://uspolitics.einnews.com/pr_news/116861334/minister-fantino-champions-canada-s-leadership-at-the-united-nations-general-assembly

Minister Fantino Champions Canada's Leadership at the United Nations General Assembly

OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 09/29/12 -- Yesterday, the Honourable Julian Fantino, Minister of International Cooperation, concluded a successful trip to the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Minister Fantino pressed for concerted international attention to advance maternal, newborn and child health; food security and nutrition; and responsible natural resource management in developing countries, as well as furthering Canada's diplomatic agenda.
Minister Fantino also encouraged Canadians to join in the global effort to eradicate polio by launching the Pennies and More for Polio Initiative with the Rotary Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Under this initiative, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will contribute $1 each to the World Health Organization's Global Polio Eradication Initiative for every $1 raised by Rotarians in Canada for polio eradication.

Showing Canada's leadership in advancing food security and nutrition, Minister Fantino and Anthony Lake Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), brought together stakeholders in the Scaling Up Nutrition event convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. This event reviewed progress over the past year and inspired further commitments in the fight against undernutrition, which affects the health and potential of millions of people in the developing world, particularly children.

Read this in full at US Politics: http://uspolitics.einnews.com/pr_news/116861334/minister-fantino-champions-canada-s-leadership-at-the-united-nations-general-assembly

Social Network "Wars": - A single FoxNews Story on UN Global Taxes beat Helen Clark on Facebook 23,000 likes (in two days) to 20,058 likes (in 4 years)

Helen Clark 20,058 Likes ( in four years)

vis-a'-vis

FOX NEWS 23,000 Likes (in two days)

Click here to read Fox News Story:

EXCLUSIVE: As the UN opens its General Assembly session, it is already thinking up new global taxes

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09/27/as-un-opens-its-general-assembly-session-it-is-already-thinking-up-new-global/#ixzz27xyf0ykG

Kevin Rudd says: " FAO and United Nations are to be blamed for food crisis - they are only printin reports instead of executing their mandate to really fight poverty and develop agriculture"

Click here to read this @ Nation.com.pk: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/international/28-Sep-2012/un-criticised-on-food-security

HONG KONG - Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday criticised the UN food agency for failing to do enough on food security, as fears mount of a repeat of the 2007-2008 food crisis.

Rudd told a conference in Hong Kong that the leadership of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), based in Rome, needed to get its act together and not just release “another set of reports”. “The fact that we’re having this kind of conference is an indictment of the failure of the FAO,” he told the meeting - titled “Feeding the world: Asia’s Prospect of Plenty” - which was organised by The Economist magazine.

“The execution of its mandate, which is food security, must now be done.“A practical programme against the billions of people who are hungry in the world today needs to be done - not another set of reports, not another set of committees. Action, action, action,” he told reporters later.

The FAO has called for “swift, coordinated international action” this month as a sharp rise in maize, wheat and soybean prices renews fears of a looming food crisis.Drought in the United States has pushed grain prices to record highs, and the FAO has cut its global 2012 rice output forecast due to low monsoon rainfall in India.

UN estimates say the world population is projected to increase by two billion people between 2012 and 2050 to around nine billion, with Asia accounting for more than half of the increase.“Hunger is the world’s most challenging problem,” UN World Food Programme China director Brett Rierson said.“There is a common perception that hunger is an African problem, but two-thirds of them are from Asia so hunger is here in Asia,” he said.

Manila-based Asian Development Bank warned in April that food shortages could slow poverty reduction, and a rise of 10 percent in domestic food prices could push 64 million more Asians into poverty.

This news was published in print paper. Access complete paper of this day.

Click here to read this @ Nation.com.pk: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/international/28-Sep-2012/un-criticised-on-food-security

AP EXCLUSIVE: Study- United Nations misconduct goes unpunished

This is an Associated Press Exclusive 

Click here to read this on CBSNews: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-57522020/ap-exclusive-study-un-misconduct-goes-unpunished/

NEW YORK — When U.N. staffers on peacekeeping missions were accused of misconduct or corruption over the last couple of years, more than two-thirds of them were exonerated by the U.N.'s internal tribunal system, according to research provided to AP by a whistleblower - protection group.

Extensive interviews conducted with current and former U.N. staffers in eight peacekeeping forces who lodged complaints against higher-ups found widespread frustration over "managers who committed misconduct and were rarely sanctioned," said the Washington-based organization, Government Accountability Project (GAP).

The U.N.'s tribunal system was reformed under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, at the insistence of the General Assembly, in 2009 but appears to be worse at rooting out mismanagement than the old procedures, according to the GAP study, which was being released publicly Friday.

After the reforms adopted higher standards of evidence and proof, GAP found 19 cases of misconduct allegations against peacekeeping staff over two years, of which 13 were exonerated -- 68 percent.

GAP's study showed, however, that in a 2 ½-year period before the reforms, nine misconduct cases were filed against peacekeeping staffers and just four were exonerated -- a 28.6 dismissal rate.

"Too often, bad apples are getting away with misconduct that they commit in the peacekeeping missions, at the expense of citizens across the globe," GAP international program staffer Shelley Walden, co-author of the study, told The Associated Press.

The United Nations is pledged to uphold justice worldwide. But as an international institution, its 75,000 staffers worldwide are ruled by an internal U.N. tribunal system that judges complaints of mismanagement, harassment or corruption. National courts do not have jurisdiction over U.N. employment issues.

GAP's research focused on the problems of whistle-blowers in the U.N. system who spoke out against mismanagement, corruption or harassment that can go as far as death threats and assault.

The most serious crimes are dealt with by having the United Nations discharge the staffer and send them to their home country for possible prosecution. This is how the U.N. handled several notorious cases of U.N. peacekeepers accused of rape or soliciting prostitution in Congo and Haiti.

Ban's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said in a statement late Thursday that the new system in place since 2009 is an important part of the "architecture" of accountability at the U.N. and is closely monitored with the intent of strengthening managerial accountability.

"The system is still evolving and, as such, it would not be prudent, at this point, to draw firm conclusions about the direction of the emerging jurisprudence," he said in the statement.

Part of the problem with the 2009 reforms, Walden said, is that it raised the standard of proof of misconduct, making it harder for whistle-blowers to make their complaints stick.

A report by Ban to the General Assembly in July verified that, saying that many cases "failed to meet the higher evidential and procedural standards" of the new tribunal system.

These also led to long delays in investigating some cases, Ban said. Some complaints were deemed not credible. And some cases were not pursued because managerial changes had already been made.

These "factors resulted in cases that were not pursued as disciplinary matters or closed with no measure," Ban said.

Walden said that "They are not pursuing as many cases, so the pendulum has swung back the other way."

The GAP report said that U.N. tribunal judges "have been hesitant to refer cases to the Secretary-General for possible action to enforce accountability." In almost tribunal 500 cases the GAP study examined, over a range from disputes over severance pay to actual threats and assaults, judges had asked Ban for enforcement only four times, and it was unable to find out if he had actually taken action in those four cases.

"The secretary-general has not upheld the rule of law within the organization," Walden said.

The appeals process "is almost never effective when it is higher level staff, I think that's a political problem within the insutution," George G. Irving, a private attorney who is a consultant to the U.N. Staff Union, told the AP. He was one of the experts interviewed by the GAP study.

"The tone at the top is really a problem -- you might get accountability at the lower levels," Walden said.

Ban's report summed up specific staff problems that had actually resulted in firing or other discipline over the past year, including:

-- seeking sexual favors from a job applicant.

-- making derogatory and sexual comments on fellow workers and storing pornography on a U.N. computer.

-- verbal abuse including threats to kill a supervisor.

-- beating a spouse, who was a U.N. volunteer, with a table, causing multiple injuries requiring hospitalization.

-- theft and sale of U.N. computers, radios cameras, and rolls of copper wire.

-- a "long-running and widespread" scheme to use forged U.N. airline vouchers for travel by unauthorized persons "and companies."

-- submission of phony dental care claims to the U.N.'s health insurance plan.

-- leaking information involving internal UN investigations "to the press and outside government agencies."

It appeared that even criminal activity may go unpunished. Ban's report said the U.N. had reported seven "credible" cases of criminal conduct by U.N. officials or experts on U.N. missions to national authorities, but he "is not aware of any action taken in respect of such cases by the Member States themselves."

___

On the Web:

Government Accountability Project:

www.whistleblower.org

U.N. chief's report on staff discipline:

www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol(equals)A%2F67%2F171&Lang(equals)E

A U.N. guide to the tribunal system:

www.un.org/en/oaj/dispute/faq.shtml?faq1

Click here to read this on CBSNews: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-57522020/ap-exclusive-study-un-misconduct-goes-unpunished/

Jens Stoltenberg gives $255.4 Million Norway Taxpayers money a year to UNDP to buy what? A partner who does everything ....and nothing ? No results, no audits, no access to financial expenditures...Way to go Jens !!

UNDP - United Nations Development Programme : Norway and UNDP reaffirm strategic partnership

09/27/2012 | 01:22pm US/Eastern

26 September 2012

Click here to read this @ 4-traders.com : http://www.4-traders.com/news/UNDP-United-Nations-Development-Programme-Norway-and-UNDP-reaffirm-strategic-partnership--15240619/ 

New York - UNDP Administrator Helen Clark has met with Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Minister of Development Cooperation Heikki Holmaas in the wings of the UN General Assembly and thanked them for Norway's strong partnership with UNDP.
Prime Minister Stoltenberg co-chairs the UN Commission on Life Saving Commodities for Women and Children which has today released its recommendations for increasing access to life-saving medicines and health supplies in the world's poorest countries, with a focus on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health.

The Commission's recommendation to stimulate research into new medical commodities for low and middle income countries is of particular interest to UNDP.

""UNDP is currently exploring opportunities to enhance South-South co-operation platforms for innovation and research and development for treating HIV and neglected tropical diseases, and looks forward to engaging further with the Commission," Helen Clark said.

Also high on the agenda of the high-level meetings was Norway and UNDP's quest for inclusive and green growth.

Combatting deforestation has been an issue Norway has addressed through its engagement with the UN-REDD Programme and where UNDP has been an important partner.

Helen Clark said UNDP was encouraged by the progress of UN REDD and looked forward to further cooperation with Norway on deforestation and related issues, including joining forces in making the private sector part of the solution in the sphere of sustainable development.

Having both participated in the Open Dialogue with the High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, Minister Holmås and Miss Clark further discussed UNDP's ability to implement a post 2015 agenda with focus on equity and sustainability.

In 2011, Norway was UNDP's third biggest donor with a total contribution of US $255.4.

Click here to read this @ 4-traders.com : http://www.4-traders.com/news/UNDP-United-Nations-Development-Programme-Norway-and-UNDP-reaffirm-strategic-partnership--15240619/

Hugo Chavez Cites Chomsky at UN General Assembly

Bolivian President Evo Morales, chewing on a coca leaf, urges a UN conference in Vienna to decriminalize coca production and remove coca from the UN list of banned substances

If you thought Obama-Care was the only tax your way - THINK AGAIN - United Nations is about to tax Americans directly (and seems you can't do anything about it)

EXCLUSIVE: As the UN opens its General Assembly session, it is already thinking up new global taxes

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09/27/as-un-opens-its-general-assembly-session-it-is-already-thinking-up-new-global/#ixzz27i6NWgO9

By George Russell

A 1 percent tax on billionaires around the world.  A tax on all currency trading in the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound sterling.   Another  “tiny”  tax on all financial transactions, including stock and bond trading, and trading in financial derivatives.  New taxes on carbon emissions and on airline tickets.  A royalty on all undersea mineral resources extracted more than 100 miles offshore of any nation’s territory.
The United Nations is at it again:  finding new and “innovative” ways to create global taxes that would transfer hundreds of billions, and even trillions, of dollars from the rich nations of the world — especially the U.S. — to poorer ones, in line with U.N.-directed economic, social and environmental development.
These latest global tax proposals have received various forms of endorsement at U.N. meetings over the spring and summer, and will be entered into the record during the 67^th  U.N. General Assembly session, which began this week. The agenda for the entire session, lasting through December, is scheduled to be finalized on Friday.
How to convince developed countries wracked by economic recession and spiraling levels of government debt – especially the U.S. — is another issue, which the world organization may well end up trying to finesse.
As the U.N. itself notes, in a major report on the taxation topic titled, “In Search of New Development Finance” -- the main topic at a high-level international meeting of the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) this summer -- “These proposals are subject to political controversy. For instance, many countries are not willing to support international forms of taxation, as these are said to undermine national sovereignty.”

The world organization, and its constellation of funds, agencies and programs, has been pushing “innovative financing” for nearly a decade.

-

The U.N. clearly hopes it can find a way to move ahead. “ Politically, tapping revenue from global resources and raising taxes internationally to address global problems are much more difficult than taxing for purely domestic purposes,” admits an ECOSOC document produced last April. But, it summarizes,  “the time has come to confront the challenge.”
Shortly thereafter, the tax proposals — known in U.N.-speak as “innovative methods of financing”-- got a limited endorsement from a group of government ministers and other heads of national delegations who attended a major ECOSOC meeting in New York City in July.
The global taxation idea was echoed this week by Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and also a U.N. Assistant Secretary General. Sachs was recently named by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to head a new intellectual lobbying group of experts called the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.  It “will work closely with United Nations agencies, multilateral financing institutions and other international organizations,” according to the Earth Institute website.
On Monday, the controversial economist, a vociferous supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement, called on President Obama to implement a carbon tax that in turn could be used to finance bonds, paying for investments to combat “climate change” -- one of the major focuses of the new solutions network.
Sachs was quoted by Bloomberg News as declaring that, “I’m happy to have the future pay for a lot of this. It doesn’t have to be current financed.”
In the midst of a heated U.S. national election campaign, any official endorsement of those views is unlikely.
Nonetheless, the U.N. is taking a longer view. The world organization, and its constellation of funds, agencies and programs, has been pushing “innovative financing” for nearly a decade, since the topic was discussed in depth at an international conference in 2002.  The topic was endorsed again at the failed Rio + 20 conference last summer, without much detail attached.
But the need for new revenue is becoming more urgent as the world’s rich countries, gripped in recession, no longer hand out foreign aid with the same generosity as before — though the total reached $133 billion annually last year--while the demands for huge additional amounts of money for social and climate issues continues to grow.
Earlier this year, for example, the overseers of a new, U.N.-sponsored  Green Climate Fund held their first meeting in Bonn to contemplate the spending of some $30 billion annually — rising to $100 billion by 2020 — to meet climate change needs in developing countries.  Where all that money will come from is still not clear.
The U.N.’s latest roster of tax possibilities certainly has what the New Development Finance Report calls “large fundraising potential.” Or, at least some of them do. An around-the-world tax of $25 per ton on carbon dioxide emissions in rich countries, the report says, could raise some $250 billion a year. That new billionaire’s tax would raise anywhere from $40 billion to $50 billion per year, the report estimates, though it adds that the idea “is not yet in any international agenda.”
CLICK HERE FOR A TAX LIST
The U.N. places the same estimated value on the proposed currency tax ($40 billion), and roughly the same thing on its proposed financial tax ($15 billion to $75 billion).
Even more innovative is a notion to, in effect, borrow the lines of credit allocated to rich countries themselves at the International Monetary Fund, and  “leverage” them to create new investment funds for the world’s poor. How to do this while preserving those credit lines as a reserve asset that rich countries could draw on when required, the report admits, remains to be seen.
Another “innovative” idea that may have trouble staying afloat is the notion of charging royalties on undersea minerals more than 100 miles offshore, within what are called “exclusive economic zones” — in effect, inside some country’s sovereign economic territory.
The sensitive issue here is that the world’s current “exclusive economic zones” extend 200 miles offshore — meaning that the U.N. is suggesting that it collect royalties on mineral wealth on half the “exclusive” territory, which it refers to in the report as part of the “global commons.”
For most nations, excluding the U.S., those 200 mile zones were established by the U.N.-sponsored Law of the Sea Treaty, known as LOST, which came into force in 1994 after it was signed and ratified by 162 countries. (The U.S. signed but has not ratified LOST; its 200-mile “exclusive economic zone” was established by presidential decree.)
The new, 100-mile royalty proposal in the U.N.’s financing report would require a new agreement to hand over proceeds from half of that territory to the U.N.-sponsored International Seabed Authority.
George Russell is executive editor of Fox News and can be found on Twitter @GeorgeRussell
Click for more stories by George Russell.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09/27/as-un-opens-its-general-assembly-session-it-is-already-thinking-up-new-global/#ixzz27i5rvR2y

Heritage Foundation: Obama’s Miss at the U.N.

Click here to read this @ Heritage Foundation: http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2012/09/obamas-miss-at-the-un

By Brett D. Schaefer
September 26, 2012

President Obama’s U.N. speech on Tuesday had clearly undergone substantial rewrites over the last few days. In the eleventh hour, the main goal became repairing the damage done by the administration’s inept response to riots in the Middle East and the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Typically, in advance of the president’s speech, the administration outlines its agenda for the upcoming U.N. session. Assistant secretary of state Esther Brimmer had the honors this year. Last Friday, she summarized this year’s priorities as follows:

1. Peace and Security: Implement “international sanctions on Iran’s illicit nuclear program,” strengthen “global nonproliferation and counterterrorism regimes,” bolster U.N. peacekeeping and conflict resolution, promote “greater global cooperation on atrocity prevention,” and oppose “unilateral Palestinian actions in the U.N. on issues that can only be achieved through direct negotiations.”

2. U.N. Reform: Lock in “last December’s historic 5 percent reduction in the U.N. regular budget,” strengthen accountability and oversight, and “support streamlining and greater effectiveness.”

3. Human Rights: Bring attention to “abuses worldwide in places like Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Sudan,” “strengthen U.N. human-rights and rule-of-law activities worldwide and promote gender equality,” and seek reelection to the Human Rights Council.

4.  Poverty Alleviation and Development : Press for “more effective and efficient support across the UN for poverty eradication and sustainable development.”

Usually, the president’s speech highlights and defines these goals, but Tuesday, President Obama barely addressed any of them. U.N. reform received no mention at all. Poverty and development was relegated to a six-sentence paragraph of generalities. Human rights arose only once the discussion turned to freedom of religion and expression surrounding the riots and assaults on U.S. embassies.

Key issues such as the humanitarian crisis in Syria, Iran’s nuclear program, and Israel-Palestinian peace were dispensed with just a few paragraphs of recycled rhetoric:

The president called for an end to the Assad regime, but unveiled no new ideas or any interest in acting outside of the Security Council, which is held hostage by Russia and China.

He correctly stated that a nuclear-armed Iran would “threaten the elimination of Israel, the security of Gulf nations, and the stability of the global economy [and] risks triggering a nuclear-arms race in the region.” He warned that “the United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” But since the administration stood by its conciliatory stance toward Iran and established no firm redline,  it is doubtful this speech reassured the Israelis and the world or did much to strike fear in the ayatollahs.

He called for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, which has been the U.S. goal for . . . roughly two decades. Obama offered no specifics on how to advance the stalled process. Worse, he falsely equated the two parties morally, as if one was not aiding and abetting terrorist attacks on civilians. He also failed to condemn Palestinian efforts to use the U.N. to bolster their statehood claims without negotiating with Israel.

The lion’s share of the speech was dedicated to condemning intolerance, beginning with a lengthy condemnation of a YouTube video, and continuing with repeated platitudes about a more inclusive world. To be fair, the president’s defense of free speech in the prepared remarks was far stronger than had been previously articulated by the administration. But this was undermined when the president added extemporaneously to the speech (my emphasis):

I know that not all countries in this body share this particular understanding of the protection of free speech. We recognize that. But in 2012, at a time when anyone with a cell phone can spread offensive views around the world with the click of a button, the notion that we can control the flow of information is obsolete. The question, then, is how we respond. And on this we must agree: There is no speech that justifies mindless violence.

The italicized improv lines give unwarranted credence to restrictions on freedom of speech by explicitly acknowledging different nations have differing definitions of such rights.

Moreover, the president’s statements ignore reality. The recent violence is unjustified, but it is not mindless. The rioters know why they are acting violently; it is often deliberate and coordinated. They believe it serves their goal of suppressing speech through intimidation. And it is too often tolerated or even supported by governments whose “particular understanding of the protection of free speech” allows for blasphemy laws, bans on hate speech, and other restrictions.

Bizarrely, the president backhandedly endorsed global efforts to restrict free speech, especially the “defamation of religions” resolutions offered by the Organization of the Islamic Conference in the U.N. and its Human Rights Council:

The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. Yet to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see when the image of Jesus Christ is desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is denied. Let us condemn incitement against Sufi Muslims, and Shiite pilgrims.

Presumably the president thought that he was being clever, turning the argument around on those calling for restrictions on free speech, but his argument can hardly be expected to persuade.

Overall, President Obama spent less time defending free speech than he did outlining a vague vision for a world with tolerance and diversity as its key ideals. Perhaps this lopsided emphasis sought to reinforce the administration’s dubious claim that only hateful speech is to blame for the attacks on our embassies, but the overall effect was to lend credibility to the notion that governments should be policing speech.

In reality, the video is a pretext. The problem the rioters have is with America and its values. But the president is either unable or unwilling to grasp this.

In the end, the president’s U.N. speech did not effectively defend freedom of speech, nor did it offer the world a compelling explication of U.S. foreign policy. Given his unwillingness to do the former, he should have at least attempted the latter.

— Brett D. Schaefer is the Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs at the Heritage Foundation. 

Click here to read this @ Heritage Foundation: http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2012/09/obamas-miss-at-the-un 

Heritage Foundation: Funding World Climate Initiatives

Click here to read this @ Heritage Foundation: http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/2012/09/funding-world-climate-initiatives

By David W. Kreutzer, Ph.D.
September 25, 2012

Testimony Before

The Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power

United States House of Representatives

September 11, 2012

My name is David Kreutzer. I am Research Fellow in Energy Economics and Climate Change at The Heritage Foundation. The views I express in this testimony are my own and should not be construed as representing any official position of The Heritage Foundation.

EPA and Foreign Grants

The Environmental Protection Agency’s funding of foreign grants is worrisome for reasons beyond whether the grants are affordable or whether they exceed the mandates of legislation. That the EPA has to pay other countries to fund their own environmental programs indicates a limited willingness on the part of these countries to fund them themselves. This hesitancy does not bode well for their willingness to bear the considerably larger burdens of implementing climate policies.
The unwillingness to fund their own programs is not the only sign that we should not expect developing countries to fall in line should the United States implement costly global-warming legislation. Negotiations in Copenhagen, Cancun, and Rio de Janeiro stumbled over the question of who was to contribute to the Green Climate Fund and how large the fund was to be.

Futility of Carbon Legislation

Though the magnitude of carbon dioxide’s impact on global warming is, in fact, not settled, even using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) figures shows that unilateral action on the part of the U.S. or even coordinated action of the Kyoto nations will not significantly moderate world temperature increases.[1] This is because the growth of carbon dioxide emissions will come overwhelmingly from developing nations for the next century and beyond. For example, China’s carbon dioxide emissions are now 50 percent larger than those of the U.S. while they were 40 percent below U.S. emissions in 2002.[2]
Though China’s total carbon dioxide emissions are significantly larger than those of the U.S., the per capita emissions are significantly smaller. Yet, to reach a worldwide emissions target that might stabilize warming (according to IPCC climate sensitivities), the EPA assumed that the developing world would implement policies that take them back to their 2000 level of emissions by mid century.[3] For many developing countries (including India) this would limit per-capita emissions to five percent, or less, of current U.S. levels; and even this low limit makes no accounting for likely population growth or for economic growth.

Can We Pay Them Enough?

Though many feel that it will not be enough to pay for the targeted carbon reductions, international climate negotiators established the framework for a $100 billion annual Green Climate Fund to be administered by the United Nations.[4] Most, if not all, of the $100 billion will come from the developed nations, and the U.S. will be expected to make the largest c

U.S. Climate Legislation Included Mechanism for Funding International Programs

The proposed cap-and-trade legislation of the previous two Congresses included provisions for distributing revenue from allowance sales (essentially sales of permits to emit carbon dioxide) to international adaptation funds.
The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008 [5]
In Section 4101, the authors established seven funds to receive the allowance revenue (money paid for emissions permits), including Number 4, “The Climate Change and National Security Fund.” Then, in Section 4804 of Subtitle H—International Climate Change Adaptation and National Security Program—the authors stipulated that all of the allowance revenue in the Climate Change and National Security Fund was to be used for the international adaptation program in Subtitle H.
American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (also known as the Waxman-Markey Bill)[6]
Part 2 of Subtitle E was “The International Climate Change Adaptation Program.” Section 494 specifies that designated allowance revenue is to be distributed in the form of bilateral assistance, distributed to multilateral funds or institutions, or some combination of the two. The U.N.’s Green Climate Fund would fit into this category.
Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (also known as the Kerry-Boxer Bill)[7]
Designated allowance distributions under Section 207—International Climate Change Adaptation and Global Security.
The American Power Act (also known as the Kerry-Lieberman Bill)[8]
Section 5005, International Climate Change Adaptation and Global Security Program, uses language nearly identical to that in Waxman-Markey to designate the distribution of allowance revenue among international programs.

Conclusion

EPA funding of foreign environmental programs is a clear sign that the foreign countries are unwilling to fund these programs themselves. It should be noted that the cost of these programs is a small fraction of the cost of those necessary for these countries to meet carbon emission targets set out by proponents of global-warming policies. So, this is yet another sign that any carbon legislation in the U.S. is likely to obligate U.S. energy consumers to bear not only the burden of our own policies, but the additional burden of paying foreign countries for their compliance. There is near universal agreement that without severe restrictions on the carbon emissions of the developing countries, no policy in the developed world will have sufficient impact to meet meaningful targets.
Though unadvertised, the significant additional burden of paying for the developing world’s compliance is known to those involved in climate negotiations and policy making. The U.N. has established a fund that will require developed countries to contribute hundreds of billions of dollars. U.S. energy consumers may not know about this obligation, but those negotiating on their behalf do. That every major cap-and-trade bill in the U.S. included mechanisms for contributing to this fund, or ones like it, makes clear that climate-policy makers in the U.S. intend to acquiesce to these demands for our wealth. Taken in this context, the EPA grants may be just the camel’s nose in the tent.

Click here to read this @ Heritage Foundation: http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/2012/09/funding-world-climate-initiatives

UNDP doing "holy work" with Coca Cola $$$ in Belarus: Holy springs in Mogilev Oblast opened for public

Click here to read this @ news.belta.by: http://news.belta.by/en/news/society?id=694405

27.09.2012 18:41

MOGILEV, 27 September (BelTA) – Holy spring wells in the village of Berezovichi near Bobruisk and in the village of Proshcha near Osipovichi were opened for the public after cleanup and landscaping on 26 September, BelTA learnt from the UNDP Office in Belarus.

The project Live Water - Purification of Spring Wells in Belarus is run by the interfaith mission Christian Social Service in partnership with the Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Belarus and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The project envisages cleanup and landscaping of four spring wells under the patronage of church communities of Mogilev and Vitebsk Oblasts. During a media tour journalists could familiarize themselves with the work that was done to clean up and landscape the spring wells near Bobruisk and Osipovichi. A trip to Vitebsk Oblast will be arranged in October after the completion of the cleanup of the other two holy spring wells.

“Thanks to the work done the spring wells got a new lease on life – a beautiful tent has been installed under the spring wells; the surrounding territory has been cleaned up and landscaped with walkways, benches and belvederes installed. It is noteworthy that local people took an active part in the work. Local residents will take care of the spring wells and the surrounding territories, while the quality of water in the springs will be regularly checked in specialized laboratories,” project manager Vasily Zavadsky said. He noted that spring wells have always been venerated by Slavic peoples. From ancient times people believed in the healing powers of spring wells. This pertains to the spring wells that were cleaned up in line with the UNDP project.

The most famous and venerated spring well in Belarus is the one in the village of Proshcha. The locality was first mentioned in historical documents in 1864. According to a legend, two blind travelers drank the water from the spring well, washed with it and saw the light. An icon of the Holy Virgin appeared on a tree near the spring well. Three times local residents carried the icon away to the nearest church, but each time in some miraculous way it returned to the same tree in the forest. A church was built in that exact place in 1864. Thousands of pilgrims from all over Belarus and abroad come to Proshcha to pray and wash with the holy water, which attests to the real healing properties of the spring well. The very word “Proshcha” testifies to the miraculous power of the water. The word means “pardon of sins”.

The major goal of the project is to improve access to clean drinking water, reduce the number of polluting runoffs and raise awareness of environmental issues and encourage people to take part in nature conservation activities. The project is financed by Coca Cola and the Global Environment Facility. The time frame of the project is 12 months.

Click here to read this @ news.belta.by: http://news.belta.by/en/news/society?id=694405

Pratibha Mehta: Women’s participation in government leadership drops in Asia-Pacific

Click here to read this @ Women News Network: http://womennewsnetwork.net/2012/09/26/womens-participation-asia-pacific/

School girls in Hanoi, Vietnam who have been part of a UN Women program in the arts are part of a growing empowered future women are hoping for in the region. Data shows however that the number of women in government leadership in Vietnam’s National Assembly (Parliament) are in decline. Image: Michael Fountoulakis/UN Women

(WNN/VNA) ASIA-PACIFIC: The number of women working for the National Assembly (NA) in Vietnam has declined in the past ten years, proven by its falling to 44th in the world rankings, according to a United Nations Development Programme study released on September 21.

Speaking at the launch of the study, UN Resident Co-ordinator and UNDP – United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative Pratibha Mehta said that in 1997, Vietnam ranked amongst the top ten countries with the highest number of women in parliament in the world.
However, after a decade, the number of women in government has remarkably reduced, accounting for only 24.4 percent of total candidates.

“It’s true that in countries such as Vietnam and Switzerland, this number is decreasing while it increases globally,” Pratibha said.

The situation doesn’t seem to be improving in Asia-Pacific, where the number of women in parliament, excluding those in Australia and New Zealand, is the lowest in the world.

On average, women account for less than 10 percent of ministers in Asia-Pacific while women hold slightly less than 20 percent of seats in parliament globally, the study released.

The study estimates that it will take 50 years for gender balance to be achieved in Asia-Pacific national legislatures if the increase in women’s participation in parliaments remained at its current pace.

To expand women’s empowerment in elected offices in Asia Pacific, the study recommends that these countries implement constitutional reform to expand the rights to vote and hold public office and remove all forms of sexual discrimination.

It also suggests using electoral finance and party laws in countries using proportional representation party lists and mixed electoral systems and gender rules to create equal opportunities for male and female members.

Click here to read this @ Women News Network: http://womennewsnetwork.net/2012/09/26/womens-participation-asia-pacific/

UNDP starts "printing" Carbon Certificates: big business involved - no one is watching, no one is accountable, no transparency on selection or endorsement of Certificates

As part of measures by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) to promote energy efficiency in Nigeria, Schneider Electric has been selected to implement a renewable energy project at the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN’s) headquarters’ building in Abuja.

According to the director general of the Energy commission of Nigeria, Sambo said the key barriers to successful energy efficiency practice in Nigeria include a lack of relevant policy, cost versus market ratios, a lack of information as well as wrong human behaviour.

He further reiterated that projects that help save energy, eventually save the environment as well as the economy.

The project, aimed at showcasing the Energy Commission of Nigeria’s building as a model for public lighting using renewable energy will include the replacement of all non compliant lighting fixtures in the building with Schneider Electric’s energy efficient LED lamps ‘In-Diya’

Click here to read this @ Business Day Online: http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/power/45083-undp-ecn-schneider-electric-set-to-implement-renewable-energy-project

Heritage Foundation: Living the High Life at the U.N.

By Brett D. Schaefer
September 25, 2012

Click here to read this @ Heritage Foundation: http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2012/09/living-the-high-life-at-the-un

Tomorrow, President Obama will make his fourth address to the United Nations General Assembly.  According to tradition, the U.S. leader will follow Brazil, which will officially kick off the start of the 67th session as the first speaker of the “General Debate.” Later that week, heads of state from Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Haiti will take their turn at the podium.

Why highlight these countries? They are among a select group of 49 “least developed countries” (LDCs) that receive substantial reductions in their assessed contributions to the U.N. 

How low you ask? Currently, the minimum assessment is 0.001 percent of the organization’s regular budget. That works out to and annual assessment of $25,852 per LCD.

By contrast, the U.S. is assessed 22 percent of the regular budget--$567 million for 2012. Thus, the U.S. assessment is more than 22,000 times that of the least assessed countries.

But that’s not all. LDCs are eligible for a travel allowance to attend the General Assembly. That’s right; the U.N. budget includes $2.2 million ($1.1 million per year or about $23,000 per eligible country) to pick up the travel expenses of five people to attend the General Debate. 
  
All told, after credits and travel allowances are applied, about two dozen countries pay roughly $500 to $1,000 annually in U.N. dues. Other countries also benefit from the travel subsidy, but have a higher assessment. 

The idea behind this subsidy, indeed behind the incredibly low assessments of many U.N. member states, is that poor developing countries lack the financial means to send representatives the General Assembly or pay anything more than token amounts for the U.N.  Indeed, the minimum assessment has been lowered several times to allow developing countries to “meet their priorities at home.”
Unfortunately, the leaders of these “poor” countries often fail to emulate this prioritization while hobnobbing in Turtle Bay:

• President Joyce Banda of Malawi will make her first trip to the U.N. General Debate this year.  She will not be alone.  According to the Nyasa Times, a “huge delegation that has accompanied the President including traditional leaders, clerics, Members of Parliament, relatives and ruling People’s Party cohorts.” The projected cost is 308 million Malawian Kwachas (over $1 million).
• During the 2011 General Assembly, President Ernest Bai Korom of Sierra Leone occupied—12 rooms—two entire floors of the Hyatt 48Lex. The hotel internet rates shown for the week of this year’s General Debate lists rooms from $1,596 per night to the penthouse suite at $5,596 per night.
• The New York Post reported last year that Rwandan President Paul Kagame stayed in the $16,000-per-night presidential suite at the Mandarin Oriental.
• Haitian president Michel Martelly was criticized last year for skimping on official meetings, while attending private dinners and parties.

This extravagance is not unusual. The New York Post article on Kagame details other delegations’ expensive hotel stays and even more expensive shopping sprees as does one published earlier this month on the Huffington Post. Indeed, New York hotels make a killing this time of year, jacking up rates in the knowledge that nearly all of the 193 U.N. member countries will be sending high level delegations that prefer to stay in penthouses close to Turtle Bay.

But this raises some basic questions.

Is it really necessary for countries whose populations are extremely poor to send large delegations to New York at enormous expense? Haiti, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and many other U.N. member states have per capita incomes around $2 per day or less.

The Malawian government justified its trip saying it “is a rare opportunity for the president to garner support from development partners world over to assist Malawi.” Other governments similarly argue that it is really these side meetings that matter.

But must they go in person, every year? Bear in mind, these countries have diplomats permanently stationed in New York to represent them. What about video conferencing with or telephoning donors? Moreover, most bilateral and multilateral aid donors have embassies and missions in Malawi and other developing countries. Their very purpose is to meet with the government and facilitate cooperation.

Additionally, if these nations can afford tens of thousands, even millions, of dollars for penthouse suites and large entourages to go to the U.N. each fall, why do they need $23,000 in travel allowances from the U.N.?

Finally, shouldn’t it cost a nation more to belong to the U.N. than it does for them to send their president to New York City each fall for 15 minutes on the global soap box?

The vast disparity between financial obligations is a key reason why U.N. reform and budgetary restraint are so difficult. When countries pay virtually nothing into the U.N., it is little wonder that they pay scant attention when its budget increases or its programs are mismanaged.

Just a few things to ponder when you see someone haranguing the assembled leaders at the U.N. this week or get stuck in Manhattan gridlock arising from endless motorcades.

--Brett D. Schaefer is the Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs at The Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org).

Click here to read this @ Heritage Foundation: http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2012/09/living-the-high-life-at-the-un

Time to integrate traditional and formal justice | Olav Kjørven

http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourperspective/ourperspectivearticles/2012/09/26/time-to-engage-with-customary-justice-olav-kjorven.html

26 Sep 2012

Women take an active part at a village meeting in India.Photo: Sephi Bergerson/ UNDP India

In some developing countries, informal or traditional justice systems resolve up to 80 percent of disputes, over everything from cattle to contracts, dowries to divorce. Disproportionately, these mechanisms affect women and children. A new report, commissioned by UNDP, UNICEF, and UN Women and produced by the Danish Institute for Human Rights, provides the most comprehensive UN study on this complex area of justice to date. It draws conclusions based on research in Bangladesh, Ecuador, Malawi, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and 12 other developing countries. These systems, it concludes, are a reality of justice in most of the countries where UNDP works to improve lives and livelihoods and government capacities to serve. The evidence illustrates the direct bearing such systems can have on women and children’s legal empowerment, covering issues from customary marriage and divorce to custody, inheritance, and property rights. It’s time to engage squarely with customary justice systems and integrate them into broader development initiatives aimed at guaranteeing human rights and access to justice for all. These systems are often far more accessible than formal mechanisms and may have the potential to provide quick, inexpensive, and culturally relevant remedies. But traditional development models have for years paid them little Read More

UNDP - Multi-Partner Trust Funds

More than ever, the UN system is stepping up its efforts to enhance coherence and efficiency at the country and global levels and to increase joint UN activities. Against this background and in the context of humanitarian, transition, reconstruction and development programmes, the UN system, national authorities and donors are establishing Multi-Donor Trust Funds (MDTFs) and Joint Programmes (JPs) that use the pass-through fund management model.

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Go to the MPTF Office Gateway

UNDP and the International Financial Institutions (IFIs)

http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/partners/international_financialinstitutions/

The IFIs are an important source of development funding. They account for a large portion of the other resources (non-core) received by UNDP, as partners, particularly programme country governments, increasingly realize the added value brought by UNDP. Other resources received directly from IFIs (grants to UNDP) and through government cost-sharing reached an approximate $1.39 billion in 2004.

The majority of these resources is mobilized by UNDP Country Offices from the Regional Bureau for the Latin America and the Caribbean region providing support to the implementation of projects/programmes funded by governments with resources drawn from loans from the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank. The implementation of projects/programmes funded from direct grants to UNDP plays a more important role in the other regions.

A "tripartite" relation

Be it loans or grants, the tripartite relation: Government-IFI-UNDP is key to making this form of cooperation work. In this partnership, government leads on the technical side in the preparation of the project/programme (mostly with the support of the IFI and at times UNDP), the IFI provides financial resources (loan or grant) and UNDP supports the implementation of the projects.

Apart from partnering around the provision of development services, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and Millennium Development Goal processes provide unique opportunities for strengthening this partnership at the policy and upstream level- especially at the country level - and the capacity of country offices to deliver is fundamental to sustaining them. This is even more important as IFIs, particularly the World Bank, begin to participate in new modalities for delivering technical cooperation, placing new demands upon the capacities of programme countries.

UNDP has entered into formal agreements with some of the IFIs (the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank), and is working on additional agreements.

UNDP and the UN

http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/partners/united_nations/

As part of its mandate, UNDP has a key co-ordinating role in the United Nations Development Group (UNDG).
UNDP is helping to reinforce joint action on development in such forums as the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations. Over the past years it has played an important role in fostering coordination in summits such as Financing for Development 2002 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002.

MPTF Office Gateway

UNDP acts as fund administrator for the UN system. In particular, the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF Office) provides a one-stop shop with focused support and service to UN Country Teams (UNCTs), national governments and donors. It enhances the UN’s accountability for its growing role in MDTFs that use the pass-through fund-management modality established in the context of humanitarian, transition, reconstruction and development programmes. The GATEWAY provides real-time data refreshed every two hours for staff of participating UN Organizations and for stakeholders in country and at headquarters.

United Nations: - Featured Events from 24 - 28 September 2012

High-level event on “Intensifying the efforts for global elimination of female genital mutilations” (co-organized by the Permanent Missions of Benin and Burkina Faso)
Monday, 24 September 2012, from 15:00 to 17:00 in Conference Room 5 (NLB).
[All members of permanent missions and permanent observer missions are invited to attend. For further information, please contact the Permanent Mission of Benin (e-mail beninewyork@gmail.com; tel. 1 (212) 684-1339); or the Permanent Mission of Burkina Faso (e-mail bfapm@un.int; tel. 1 (212) 308-4720).]

Panel discussion on “Alternative policy approaches to drug control in Guatemala that seek to be more effective in protecting security and human rights, as well as promoting social and economic development” (with the President of the Republic of Guatemala) (organized by the Permanent Mission of Guatemala)
Tuesday, 25 September 2012, from 15:30 to 16:30 in Conference Room 7 (NLB).
[Members of permanent missions and permanent observer missions are invited to attend. For registration and further information, please contact Ms. Jennifer Pérez, Permanent Mission of Guatemala (e-mail eventos@guatemalaun.org; tel. 1 (212) 679-4760, ext. 242).]

Parliamentary meeting on “Parliaments and the rule of law: Toward justice for all” (co-organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), with the sponsorship of the Permanent Mission of Italy)
Wednesday, 26 September 2012, from 15:00 to 18:00 in Conference Room 3 (NLB).
[Open to members of parliament attending the opening of the General Assembly, as well as representatives of permanent missions, observer offices and civil society organizations duly accredited to the United Nations. For further information, please visit www.ipu.org/splz-e/unbrief12.htm; or contact Ms. Karin Riedl, IPU (e-mail ny-office@ipu.org); or Ms. Judit Arenas, IDLO (e-mail jarenas@idlo.int).]

High-level event on “Multilateral partnership in MDG’s acceleration: Experience from implementation of Nigeria’s MDGs Conditional Grant Scheme at the subnational Level” (co-organized by the Permanent Mission of Nigeria and the United Nations Millennium Campaign)
Thursday, 27 September 2012, from 10:00 to 13:00, at the Millennium United Nations Plaza Hotel.
[Members of permanent and permanent observer missions are invited to attend. For further information, please contact the Permanent Mission of Nigeria (e-mail saniedem@yahoo.co.uk; tel. 1 (646) 267-9200).]

Sixth Ministerial Meeting in support of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) (co-organized by the Friends of the CTBT (Australia, Canada, Finland, Japan and the Netherlands) and the Co-Chairs of the Article XIV Conference of the CTBT (Mexico and Sweden))
Thursday, 27 September 2012, from 10:00 to 10:45 in Conference Room 4 (NLB).
[All members of permanent missions that are signatories to the CTBT are invited to attend. For further information, please contact Ms. Claire Elias, Permanent Mission of Australia (e-mail claire.elias@dfat.gov.au; tel. 1 (212) 351-6622).]

High-level launch of the United Nations Guidance for Effective Mediation (co-organized by the Executive Office of the Secretary General and the Permanent Missions of Finland and Turkey, on behalf of the Group of Friends of Mediation)
Thursday, 27 September 2012, from 11:00 to 13:00, at the Permanent Mission of Turkey (821 United Nations Plaza, 8th Floor).
[Members of permanent missions and permanent observer missions are invited to attend. For registration and further information, please contact Ms. Tuba Yanilmaz, Permanent Mission of Turkey (e-mail tuba.yanilmaz@mfa.gov.tr; tel. 1 (212) 450-9114).]
Parliamentary meeting on “Parliaments and the rule of law: Toward justice for all” (co-organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), with the sponsorship of the Permanent Mission of Italy)
Wednesday, 26 September 2012, from 15:00 to 18:00 in Conference Room 3 (NLB).
[Open to members of parliament attending the opening of the General Assembly, as well as representatives of permanent missions, observer offices and civil society organizations duly accredited to the United Nations. For further information, please visit www.ipu.org/splz-e/unbrief12.htm; or contact Ms. Karin Riedl, IPU (e-mail ny-office@ipu.org); or Ms. Judit Arenas, IDLO (e-mail jarenas@idlo.int).]

High-level event on “Multilateral partnership in MDG’s acceleration: Experience from implementation of Nigeria’s MDGs Conditional Grant Scheme at the subnational Level” (co-organized by the Permanent Mission of Nigeria and the United Nations Millennium Campaign)
Thursday, 27 September 2012, from 10:00 to 13:00, at the Millennium United Nations Plaza Hotel.
[Members of permanent and permanent observer missions are invited to attend. For further information, please contact the Permanent Mission of Nigeria (e-mail saniedem@yahoo.co.uk; tel. 1 (646) 267-9200).]

Sixth Ministerial Meeting in support of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) (co-organized by the Friends of the CTBT (Australia, Canada, Finland, Japan and the Netherlands) and the Co-Chairs of the Article XIV Conference of the CTBT (Mexico and Sweden))
Thursday, 27 September 2012, from 10:00 to 10:45 in Conference Room 4 (NLB).
[All members of permanent missions that are signatories to the CTBT are invited to attend. For further information, please contact Ms. Claire Elias, Permanent Mission of Australia (e-mail claire.elias@dfat.gov.au; tel. 1 (212) 351-6622).]

High-level launch of the United Nations Guidance for Effective Mediation (co-organized by the Executive Office of the Secretary General and the Permanent Missions of Finland and Turkey, on behalf of the Group of Friends of Mediation)
Thursday, 27 September 2012, from 11:00 to 13:00, at the Permanent Mission of Turkey (821 United Nations Plaza, 8th Floor).
[Members of permanent missions and permanent observer missions are invited to attend. For registration and further information, please contact Ms. Tuba Yanilmaz, Permanent Mission of Turkey (e-mail tuba.yanilmaz@mfa.gov.tr; tel. 1 (212) 450-9114).]

Singapore to pay for another UNDP Global Centre for Public Service Excellence

Click here to read this @ TodayOnline.com: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120926-0000093/Spore,-UNDP-to-set-up-centre-for-Public-Service-Excellence

S'pore, UNDP to set up centre for Public Service Excellence

Updated 12:43 PM Sep 26, 2012

 

SINGAPORE - Singapore and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have signed an agreement to set up a Global Centre for Public Service Excellence.

UNDP administrator Helen Clark and Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Law, K Shanmugam, inked the deal in New York today.

"Strong and responsive public services have a profound effect on the opportunities and quality of life of all people," commented Ms Clark.

Ms Clark said the purpose is to create a place where the best thinking on public service policies, strategies and institutional innovation can be consolidated and shared with senior policy makers around the world.

Mr Shanmugam said the new research centre marks a new chapter to Singapore's long history of cooperation with the UNDP.

He hopes it will serve as a useful platform for the sharing of Singapore's development experience and best practices in public service with other countries.

The centre will be operational by the end of the year and will be located in Singapore.

The centre will analyse and disseminate the latest information and practices from think-tanks, universities and policy makers in Singapore and other countries in the area of public services.

Its research and policy papers will also seek to inform civil servants across the region and beyond on the state of play and the long-term implications of efficient public services that meet the needs of citizens.

The centre will be located at Heng Mui Keng Terrace, near the National University of Singapore.

An interim director has already been designated for the centre. CHANNEL NEWSASIA

Click here to read this @ TodayOnline.com: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120926-0000093/Spore,-UNDP-to-set-up-centre-for-Public-Service-Excellence

UN Sanctions Committee letter to Francis Gurry ( S/AC.60/2012/OC.42 )

Click here to read the letter in full

http://wipo.int/export/sites/www/about-wipo/en/oversight/pdf/sanctions_committee_iran.pdf

Click here to read the letter in full

http://wipo.int/export/sites/www/about-wipo/en/oversight/pdf/sanctions_committee_iran.pdf

Ban Ki-moon's major cover up on WIPO scandal continues - Sanction Committee says they "never prohibited" Iran and/or North Korea to receive high tech equipments

Click here to read this @ http://www.ag-ip-news.com/news.aspx?id=28445&lang=en

Decision of UN Sanctions Committee on WIPO’s Technical Assistance to Iran

26-Sep-2012 | Source : AG-IP News | Visits : 173

 

GENEVA - The United Nations (UN) committee charged with overseeing implementation of Security Council resolutions relating to the Islamic Republic of Iran has confirmed that World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) technical assistance to the Islamic Republic of Iran does not violate United Nations resolutions, a press release by the organization stated.

In a letter to WIPO Director General Francis Gurry, the Chairman of the Committee Néstor Osorio, said “I wish to convey the Committee’s understanding that nothing in Security Council resolutions 1696 (2006), 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and 1929 (2010) prohibit the proposed project as described in your letter aimed at assisting Iran in developing technical capacity for intellectual property rights protection.”

The letter also advises early consultation with the Committee. WIPO has already put in place measures to ensure that all managers must refer to WIPO’s Office of the Legal Counsel (OLC) for guidance and clearance any activity proposed in a country subject to UN sanctions. OLC will, wherever necessary, consult the appropriate UN sanctions committee.

This letter follows a similar communication from the committee overseeing implementation of Security Council resolutions relating to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) which also said that WIPO assistance to DPRK does not violate UN resolutions.

 

Click here to read this @ http://www.ag-ip-news.com/news.aspx?id=28445&lang=en 

FAO accused of “promoting the destruction of peasant and family farming”

Click here to read this in full @ Social Watch: http://www.socialwatch.org/node/15373


Published on Thu, 2012-09-20 07:28

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FAO director-general José Graziano da Silva. (Photo: FAO/Ozan Kose)

Relevant environmental and peasant groups declared themselves “shocked and offended” because the heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) called on governments to embrace corporations as the “main engine” for global food production growth. In a collective statement, the civil society organizations said the FAO is abandoning its mission by “promoting the destruction of peasant and family farming” and the “land grabbing”.

The appeal to private companies for doubling their investments “in the land […], in machinery and seeds” in “a vast swathe of land stretching from Mongolia in Central Asia to Morocco in North Africa” was made by Jose Graziano da Silva, director-general of the FAO, and Suma Chakrabarti, president of the EBRD, in an article published by The Wall Street Journal on September 6.
“The simple truth is that the world needs more food, and that means more production. There is plenty of room for agricultural growth in the areas in which the EBRD operates […]. The private sector can be the main engine of such growth,” Da Silva an Chakrabarti wrote.

“The private sector needs to double investment in the land itself, and in machinery and seeds. Investment in storage, transport and trading infrastructure are the key not only to ensure that food reaches its intended destination but also to build buffers against adverse shocks and droughts. Some of the infrastructure investment could be done jointly with governments in appropriately structured joint ventures,” they added.

La Via Campesina, GRAIN, Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC), the World March of Women, the ETC Group and the Latin American Articulation of Movements Toward ALBA warned in a joint statement that “the heads of these two influential international agencies make a clear call for a world wide increase in private sector investment and land grabbing.”

Click here to read this in full @ Social Watch: http://www.socialwatch.org/node/15373

How can Canadians afford Julian Fantino's continuing throwing $134.8 Millions to UNDP without accountability and transparency? Say "STOP" to Canadian government throwing your money away to unaccountable and non transprent UN Agencies like UNDP !

Click here to read this @ 4-traders.com: http://www.4-traders.com/news/UNDP-United-Nations-Development-Programme-UNDP-thanks-Canadian-Government--15225668/

UNDP - United Nations Development Programme : UNDP thanks Canadian Government

09/26/2012 | 02:39am US/Eastern

25 September 2012

New York - Canada's Minister of International Cooperation Julian Fantino and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark met today in the wings of the UN General Assembly to discuss ongoing cooperation and issues of common concern.

Renowned for its leadership in promoting human development at home and internationally, Canada is a long-standing core partner of UNDP and has a strong presence on UNDP's Executive Board. In 2011, Canada disbursed US $134.8 million to UNDP activities mainly in the most vulnerable countries.


Major democratic governance initiatives in Afghanistan and Haiti are notable recipients of Canadian Government support.


During the meeting many issues were raised, including resilience building in fragile settings, democratic governance, gender empowerment, accelerating achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the post-2015 development agenda.


Helen Clark thanked the minister for Canada's strong support for development.


"As one of our largest contributors, Canada is a critical ally in providing UNDP with a predictable funding base so that we can plan ahead effectively and deliver development results where they matter most," Helen Clark said.


Risk management, cost effectiveness and other approaches to improve programming and coordination are also key priorities for the Canada and UNDP partnership.

Canada is ranked sixth on UNDPs most recent annual Human Development Report.

Click here to read this @ 4-traders.com: http://www.4-traders.com/news/UNDP-United-Nations-Development-Programme-UNDP-thanks-Canadian-Government--15225668/

Will Obama consider private donations to United Nations - tax deduction ? How would business "donation" be accounted for ?

Click here to read this @ 4-traders.com: http://www.4-traders.com/news/UNDP-United-Nations-Development-Programme-Businesses-commit-to-improve-lives-of-more-than-34-mil--15224958/

UNDP - United Nations Development Programme : Businesses commit to improve lives of more than 34 million people

09/25/2012 | 01:57pm US/Eastern

25 September 2012

New York - A broad range of companies from corporations to social enterprises made new commitments Tuesday to the Business Call to Action (BCtA) that will improve the lives of more than 34 million people worldwide, through market-based approaches that will accelerate development while generating new profits.

Nokia (Finland), Itaú Unibanco (Brazil), ITOCHU Corporation (Japan), kurkku (Japan), Hybrid Social Solutions (Philippines), Novozymes A/S (Denmark), Unicharm Corporation (Japan), Honey Care Africa (Kenya), Zoona (Zambia), Sorridents (Brazil), and Waste Capital Partners (United States) all made their pledges here through BCtA, a global initiative to promote poverty reduction and sustainable social and economic development.

"These new company commitments demonstrate that the private sector is a strong partner in our collective drive to reduce poverty and achieve inclusive growth," said Sigrid Kaag, Assistant Secretary-General and Assistant Administrator, UN Development Programme (UNDP).

"Through innovative partnerships, targeted investments, and inclusive business models that respond to the needs of people in underserved communities, the private sector contributes to sustainable development."


Company plans include providing affordable, renewable energy products to off-grid communities and empowering micro-entrepreneurs with access to credit and technical training, which will provide stable livelihoods and increased incomes.

The commitments came at BCtA's annual meeting alongside the 67th UN General Assembly, which opened Monday. They aim to rally energy and expertise around development and expansion of business models that bring access to goods, services, and livelihood opportunities to low-income communities.

More than 150 leaders from business, government, and civil society convened to discuss the powerful role that business can play in accelerating progress towards the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Since the founding of the BCtA in 2008, more than 55 companies have responded to the call to contribute to the advancement of the MDGs by committing to improve quality of life of the world's poor.

Collectively, members have set specific, time-bound targets to advance the MDGs through business ventures in agricultural development, healthcare and nutrition, financial inclusion, access to energy, education, water and sanitation, housing, and gender equality.

BCtA member companies have to date employed more than 238,000 people and provided professional training opportunities to more than 575,000 in 42 middle- and low-income countries. 
Over the lifetime of BCtA member initiatives already in progress, more than 80 million people will gain expanded access to energy, 75 million will experience improved health outcomes, and 40 million people will gain access to financial services.

Teodora Berkova (BCtA); teodora.berkova@undp.org; Tel: +1 212-906-5194 

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