UN brewing up new -- and expensive – global 'sustainability development goals'

Click here to read this in full at Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/10/03/un-brewing-up-new-and-expensive-global-sustainability-development-goals/

EXCLUSIVE: The United Nations is planning to create a sweeping new set of “sustainable development goals” for the planet that will likely require trillions of dollars of spending on poverty and the environment, a drastic reorganization of economic production and consumption -- especially in rich countries -- and even greater effort in the expensive war on climate change.

It’s an agenda that its prominent boosters have declared will make the next 15 years “some of the most transformative in human history,” although the exact nature of the goals themselves, and how they are to be achieved, is unclear.

Cihan Sultanoğlu (a Turk) is trying hard to repair history with Armenia with UN money !

Click here for this story @ ArmRadio: http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/10/07/undp-and-its-partners-join-efforts-to-restore-historical-cultural-heritage-in-gyumri/

The city of Gyumri is gifted with rich historical and cultural monuments. During centuries a unique architectural style has been formed in Gyumri, with more than 1,600 historical-architectural buildings covering an area of about 220 hectares. Most of them were built in the same period – 19th and beginning of 20th centuries. However, during the recent years the city’s historical and cultural heritage has suffered due to the 1988 devastating earthquake and insufficient funding and investments by public and private sectors. This, in its turn, hindered community development and investment flows to the second largest city of Armenia.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Armenia and the RA Ministry of Culture, with the financial support of the Government of Italy, initiated a project aimed at regeneration of the urban environment in the city of Gyumri, thus making it more attractive place to live, visit and work and contributing to its socio-economic revival. Within the framework of the project, one of Gyumri’s historical buildings, constructed in 1860-1913 and considered as a constituent part of history and architecture of the city, was renovated to serve as a public library for the residents of the city.

Liberia: EPA, UNDP to Launch Climate Change Project

Click here for full story at AllAfrica: http://allafrica.com/stories/201310071148.html

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is expected to formally launch a project titled, "Strengthening Liberia's capability to Provide Climate Information and Services to Enhance Climate Resilient Development and Adaptation to Climate Change".

A UNDP release said the project is aimed at setting up an Early Warning System to help Liberia adapt to the negative impact of climate change in the face of economic development.

According to the release, conference is being supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the Least Developed Country's Funds (LDCF) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with co-financing from UNDP and the Government of Liberia.

UN Whistleblower Wasserstrom on TI Report: Total Lack of Institutional Accountability

Click here to read this in full at GAP: http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/44-2013/3009--un-whistleblower-wasserstrom-on-ti-report-total-lack-of-institutional-accountability


Noted Peacekeeping Mission Whistleblower Available for Comment

(Washington, DC) – Earlier today, Transparency International UK's Defence and Security Programmereleased a new report, Corruption & Peacekeeping: Strengthening Peacekeeping and the United Nations. Government Accountability Project (GAP) client and pioneer UN whistleblower James Wasserstrom is available to the media to comment on the report's findings that need additional focus, and make recommendations about how the international body can take steps to achieve real accountability.

Wasserstrom made the following statement:

Transparency International has done a fine job in highlighting many of the issues of corruption in UN peacekeeping missions. This report is just the latest strong piece of evidence in a string that proves the United Nations lacks basic measures of real accountability in its peacekeeping missions and institutional headquarters, and continues to pay nothing more than lip service to transparency and accountability. 

As one who has personally fought corruption in one such mission – the UN Mission in Kosovo – and paid the price for whistleblowing, I take an even firmer stance on the paramount issue of stemming wrongdoing in these critical tasks. The United Nations' failure over decades to seriously address its own obvious and long-standing deficiencies in fighting internal corruption is absolutely unacceptable. The band-aid approach to solving problems, all superficial acts for public consumption or appeasement of the international community, fall well short of real progress that achieves real accountability for international taxpayers and the billions they have provided to this just cause.

Wasserstrom is available to comment to members of the media on the report. Please contact GAP Communications Director Dylan Blaylock at dylanb@whistleblower.org, 202.457.0034 ext 137 or 202.236.3733 to arrange a phone interview. Please note that Wasserstrom is based in Asia.

UNDP becomes a parking lot for New Zealand's Labour MPs...(After all those great things Labour did in NZ now they can change the world ...as well)

Click here to read this article in full @ NZHerald:http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10866354 

Charles Chauvel. Photo / File

Labour MP Charles Chauvel is resigning from Parliament to take up a job with the United Nations in New York.

Mr Chauvel, a List MP, said he had resigned effective from March 11.

He will work for the UN Development Programme organisation former Prime Minister Helen Clark leads - as an advisor on Parliamentary Development and Democratic Governance.

Mr Chauvel said Ms Clark was not involved in his selection - "I don't think she even knows I have the job."

He said he had been a member of the UN Global Commission on HIV and the Law for the past two years and had found that work challenging.

"The new full-time role with the UN presents a similar opportunity to make a difference and I look forward to the challenges that it will present."

Former MP Carol Beaumont is next on Labour's list - followed by Kelvin Davis.

SYRIA SCANDAL: Did United Nations in Syria cleared this "dual-use" facility in Homs to become a UNFCCC vendor?

At the same time the Syrian regime of Bashir Al-Assad began the brutal repression that would quickly spin the country into civil war—and culminate with the use of chemical weapons against its own citizens-- Syrian officials were officially registering a deal with the United Nations agency sponsoring the world's largest carbon-trading scheme for an industrial complex known for years as a “dual-use” facility in the government's production of the same weapons of mass destruction.

Click here to read this story in full @ Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/23/un-emissions-trading-project-has-links-to-syria-chemical-weapons-arsenal/

Helen Clark's interview on Forbes

“When you’re talking about the next development agenda… you have to be talking about peace, justice, government, and rule of law, as well as the outcomes we want—to eradicate poverty and have people succeeding in their education, living longer, and so on…we have to build a better world,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark in a wide-ranging interview with the Skoll World Forum’s Rahim Kanani on the state of global development today. The full interview can be found below

http://www.forbes.com/sites/skollworldforum/2013/09/03/helen-clark-of-undp-on-how-to-build-a-better-world/

Romano Prodi, another high profile Socialist on UN payroll - told to go to work in Mali or otherwise leave !

EXCLUSIVE: As the United Nations begins to gear up for its new session this month, there are signs that austerity is reaching even the highest levels.

Romano Prodi, former president of the European Commission and onetime prime minister of Italy, is being, in effect, downsized as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s part-time special envoy for the vast and turbulent area of sub-Saharan Africa known as the Sahel, one of the world’s poorest regions.

Click here for this story in full at: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/03/un-downsizes-high-profile-special-envoy-amid-signs-donor-fatigue/?test=latestnews#ixzz2e4wokQaa

Chinese chief of RBAP wants to change UNDP image and perception -- will he succeed ?

The new Director of the of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says it is time to have an honest dialogue with some of its government partners so that they see UNDP, not as a donor, but rather as a trusted development partner.

Mr Haoliang Xu assumed his role as the new director on September 2.

A Chinese national, Mr. Xu has held various leadership positions in UNDP, most recently as Deputy Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

“I am very excited about my new role. I believe that the significant unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) remains the defining challenge of our time. Accelerating MDG progress and meeting the original deadline of 2015 must remain a top priority. Over the years, UNDP has been playing a valuable role in the achievement of MDGs. My new assignment as head of UNDP operation in Asia-Pacific gives me an opportunity to work with our partners to bring together all the threads of MDGs in the region to build an inclusive, sustainable and resilient Asia-Pacific,” Mr. Xu said in his first meeting with the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific staff at UNDP headquarters in New York.

Click here for full story here: http://matangitonga.to/2013/09/04/undp-director-seeks-breakthrough-partner-attitudes

UN making money with carbon certificates - no one asks for accountability as to what does UN do with all this "surplus" ? !

The trust for the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism, the operator of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas credit program, had an operating surplus of $82 million in the 18 months through June 30, as offset supply increased.

Fees and other income amounted to $141 million in the period, compared with expenses of $59.2 million, according to data in a statement on the website of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Bonn-based trust was holding $201 million, including funds carried over from the previous period, the UN said.

Click here for full story at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-04/un-carbon-credit-program-reports-82-million-surplus-to-june.html

United Nations in North Korea hit hard by Syria conflict - - no one wants to give money for Kim Jong-un

The World Food Programme (WFP) has revealed that food support for North Korea hit a two-year low during the month of August. According to WFP, cited by Radio Free Asia (RFA), food aid to North Korea this year has shown a declining trend since February: more than 3000 tons in January; 6000t in February; 4000t in March and April; 3000t in May and June; 2900t in July; and 2050t in August, the lowest amount of food aid given since 200t in August of 2011.

Click here for this story in full at: http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00100&num=10929

UN needs to clean up and simplify its language for UN Climate Decisions - in order for people to understand it !

That’s the contention of a new paper from FIELD, the London-based Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development. The organisation, which tries to make international law processes more understandable and accessible, recommends that the 195 countries and other parties negotiating through the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) “consider an entirely new structure and style” for their decisions.

Click here for more on this story: http://www.trust.org/item/20130905161654-d6mw8/?source=hpeditorial