EXCLUSIVE: Report Slams $100M Aid Effort in Burma, But U.N. Plans to Keep Program Alive

George Russell

- FoxNews.com

- August 24, 2010

Despite an independent assessment of a $100 million United Nations Development Program aid effort in Burma that calls it “disappointing” and suggests that major portions be discontinued, the director of UNDP intends to keep it alive with as-yet unspecified fixes.

An independent assessment of a $100 million United Nations Development Program aid effort in Burma calls it “disappointing,” and “unsatisfactory,” and suggests that major portions of the program be discontinued next year. Nonetheless, the director of UNDP intends to keep it alive with as-yet unspecified fixes.

The assessment of the UNDP’s Human Development Initiative suggested there were “modest or only limited differences” between the Burmese villages that got UNDP support and those that didn’t.

Among the areas of negligible impact: health care, education and “food security,” meaning the vital business of whether the poorest were producing and saving enough food to eat in the military-controlled country also known as Myanmar.

CLICK HERE FOR THE ASSESSMENT REPORT

There will be no mention, however, of the wind-down suggestion in a condensed version of the assessment report that will be presented to UNDP’s 36-nation supervisory executive board when it holds a regularly scheduled session in New York City starting Aug. 30. (The U.S. is a board member.)

Instead, the head of UNDP, Helen Clark, suggests in her note to the board that the most criticized parts of the aid effort require a “revision of the program concept and design in order to enhance the impact on poverty.” Clark also holds out the possibility that the “strategic framework” of the programs might require only “modest changes” -- including closer cooperation with local elements of the brutal Burmese regime.

Clark recommends that the board give her the widest latitude to implement changes to the Human Development Initiative “as appropriate.”

CLICK HERE FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR’S NOTE

The issue of aid assistance to Burma -- which has largely cut itself off from the outside world -- is a hot-button issue, especially after the Obama Administration last week announced that it would support an international commission of inquiry to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Burmese regime. (Among other things, the regime has kept its chief critic, opposition political leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest since 2003.)

At the same time, international concern has been growing about whether the regime has been developing a clandestine nuclear program along the lines of its ally, North Korea, even as international aid agencies of all kinds commit hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aid to the country.

Making sure that UNDP’s funds stay out of government hands in military-dominated Burma was one of the strings attached from the virtual outset to the Human Development Initiative by UNDP’s executive board. Testifying to whether the arms-length distance has been kept is one of the annual tasks assigned to the independent assessors, who also take the opportunity to examine the effectiveness of UNDP efforts in the country.

For years, the assessors have given the program a clean bill of health on the issue of government involvement -- but they have also grown increasingly critical of the effectiveness of much of UNDP’s grass-roots “community development” programming, now under way in some 60 of Burma’s 325 townships -- in part precisely because it lacks greater government involvement.

Last year, the assessors told UNDP that it should be examining the relationship between the length of time the organization had been handing out aid and the impact of the assistance -- which led to this year’s unsettling conclusions that in many cases the impact had been less than significant.

The main focus of assessor skepticism is a double-barreled UNDP program known as the Integrated Community Development Project (ICDP) and a sister program, Community Development in Remote Townships (CDRT), which are administratively joined at the hip.

Ostensibly self-help programs, the community development initiatives have instead, the assessors say, become studies in mission-creep, in which aid-givers have grown their focus of assistance into primary health care, environmental concerns, HIV/AIDS relief, training and education and food security. The assessors quote one senior UNDP official as admitting that the Human Development Initiative is trying to do “everything under the sun.”

UNDP made matters worse, the report says, by expanding the program dramatically, adding to the resource stretch. Yet another complication was 2008’s Cyclone Nargis, which devastated coastal regions of Burma and further diverted aid efforts (though the report notes that with 500 people on the ground in its HDI programs, UNDP was in a good position to pitch in and help with Nargis). Finally, voluntary funding for the HDI effort has been tiling off, largely as a result of the increasingly hard-line behavior of the Burmese regime.

Even while admitting that Burma is a “difficult and unpredictable” environment for HDI, however, the assessors state firmly that UNDP’s own problems with community development programs are the most significant. Among them: lack of clear focus; inability to show that it has accomplished much beyond the delivery of tangible goods, such as fertilizer; lack of staff training; and perhaps most importantly of all, lack of any clear strategy to wean the people they are helping off continued outside assistance.

The U.N.’s fabled bureaucracy also takes a toll: the assessors note that an “inexplicable number” of reports are prepared by UNDP aid-givers each month at the local level, with some technical specialists estimating they spent 20 percent to 30 percent of their time creating paperwork.

Not much of it apparently has to do with how the aid beneficiaries themselves view things: as the assessors delicately put it, “There is presently no adequate mechanism for feedback from beneficiaries within any of the HDI structures.” UNDP, however, told the assessors it is currently working on a pilot project to do that.

Not all of the UNDP efforts in Burma are viewed as critically by the assessors as the organization’s community development work. Its micro-finance projects in Burma get good marks, though the assessors note that the country’s poorest residents are not benefiting.

The assessors also admitted that the UNDP “impact study” upon which its conclusions were based might itself be flawed, through lack of baseline data and other possible failings. But their report underlined that the survey methodology was considered “robust” by a specialist brought in to design the investigation.

In concluding, the independent experts acknowledge that UNDP itself is unlikely to make any changes before its current authorization for the aid program expires next year. But then it says, a “major revision” of the program is called for “to enhance impact on poverty.”

The experts also note, perhaps in tacit acknowledgment of a previous decade of unimpressive results, that UNDP itself “may come to a different conclusion.”

George Russell is executive editor of Fox News.

David Morrison's new "NetAid Scheme" called Micro-finance

BUSINESSDAY

CBN, UNDP train microfinance bank operators on quality services

WEDNESDAY, 11 AUGUST 2010 01:08 HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

After a seemingly failed attempt at extending banking services to the poor in the rural areas, concerned parties such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have resolved to take both managers of microfinance banks and other stakeholders for a re-training in a bid to reduce the un-banked population.

It has been discovered that majority of the poor, but economically active, meant to be served by microfinance banks do not know about the operations of the industry. Some of them, according to BusinessDay investigations, shy away when they hear about saving or borrowing from microfinance banks.

Observers say this is a major challenge which the operators need to tackle in order to achieve the objective of the institution. Evelyn Nwaka, soup condiment seller, does not know about the operations of microfinance banks, but expressed willingness to open an account with one. Also, Yemi Jamiu, a groundnut seller, needs money to grow her business but said she was afraid of borrowing from a microfinance bank.

In a move to assist such a population, the UNDP, in conjunction with CBN has begun a two-week training programme for managers and stakeholders in the micro-finance industry. The training progamme is scheduled to hold in two batches, commencing from August 2, to 13, and 16 to 27 for the first and second batches, respectively.

In a telephone interview, Uche Ubani, managing director, Peniel Microfinance Bank Limited, Lagos, said the essence of the training was to make sure that the stakeholders saw the need of taking to their responsibilities. Kabiru Nasidi, UNDP representative, urged participants at a formal opening of the programme in Abuja to make use of the opportunity presented by the programme to upgrade their knowledge on how to provide small loans to the poor to enable them grow their businesses.

Olubunmi Adetunbi, development associate of the programme, said the training would broaden participants' understanding on how to deliver inclusive operations and provide them with tools to improve performance. Nasidi further assured that the training would help the participants to develop practical skills to manage, improve and expand microfinance services to the poor.

Kingsley Moghalu, deputy governor, Financial System Stability, CBN, had stressed the need for regular training sessions for microfinance bank operators as against so much emphasis on capital by most people.

"People emphasise too much on capital in this country, they do not understand that you can have all the capital in this world, yet your bank can fail because you have poor corporate governance. There are other things you have to do; people who run microfinance banks need to be well-trained. They need to understand the concept of microfinance bank. It is not commercial banking. They have different models. It was for this reason we are undertaking the training programmes for operators in the sector. Henceforth, before you run a microfinance bank you have to pass an examination that the CBN will organise so that you are sure you know what you are doing," Moghalu said.

Former Africa minister Malloch-Brown advises oil firm on African expansion

• 
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• Rajeev Syal and Solomon Hughes
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 July 2010 17.04 BST
• Article history

Lord Malloch Brown pictured in 2005 at a UN oil-for-food programme meeting in New York. Photograph: Jeff Zelevansky/REUTERS

Just 12 months after resigning from the government, Lord Malloch-Brown, the former Foreign Office minister for Africa, has become an adviser to an oil firm that is expanding its interests on the continent.

Vitol, the Swiss-based oil firm, has previously been fined for paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussain's regime. It recently entered talks to take over oil businesses in 19 African countries.

The disclosure about the talks and that Malloch-Brown, the Labour peer and former UN deputy secretary general, is a consultant to the firm, has raised concerns among Labour MPs over former ministers who have left government and gone into lucrative, private-sector, jobs closely related to their ministerial roles.

Sir Peter Soulsby, a Labour member of the Commons' political and constitutional reform committee, said: "There ought to be much tougher rules on the jobs that ministers take when they leave office. Taking this particular job at the very least shows an unfortunate lack of judgment."

Malloch-Brown, 57, joined Gordon Brown in July 2007 as part of the former prime minister's "government of all the talents". Her was also made a life peer. He stood down from office in July last year, for "personal and family reasons".

His new role has been approved by the advisory committee on business appointments, which advises ex-ministers on jobs taken within two years of leaving office.

Vitol is in negotiations with Shell Oil Products Africa for the potential acquisition of their businesses in several countries, including Egypt, Togo Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana and Namibia. It already has interests in Ghana and Cameroon.

In 2007, the firm admitted paying illegal kickbacks under the UN oil-for-food programme and agreed to pay $17.5m in restitution and fines.

The oil-for-food scheme was designed to use proceeds from Iraq's sales to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian aid, to alleviate the impact of international sanctions.

In 2006, when Malloch-Brown was chief of staff to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, he defended the organisation's oil-for-food programme from claims of fraud by telling the security council that "not a penny was lost from the organisation".

Malloch-Brown, who is also a consultant to Southwest Energy, an Ethiopian oil firm, defended his new role and dismissed claims of a potential conflict of interest. "My knowledge of Africa was not gained as a British minister. Rather I was recruited into government because I had worked extensively on African and international issues throughout my career. My activities today continue to reflect that," he said, adding that he had never been in contact with Vitol during his time at the UN, nor had any dealings with the company when he was a minister.

When in government, Malloch-Brown quickly gained a reputation for making colourful comments. The then foreign secretary at the time, David Miliband, who is 11 years his Malloch-Brown's junior, was said to have been upset when he the latter told a newspaper: "It's fine for me to be, for the first time in my life, the older figure, the wise eminence behind the young foreign secretary." He also raised eyebrows when he said that Tony Blair and George W Bush were "joined at the hip".

Other ministers who worked under Gordon Brown and who have taken up private-sector jobs include Lady Vadera, a former business minister who is now advising the authorities in Dubai, and Lord Carter of Barnes, the former head of strategy at No 10, now marketing chief for Alcatel-Lucent telecoms group. Ruth Kelly, the former education secretary, was appointed as senior strategic manager for HSBC. John Hutton, the former energy minister and defence secretary, has become an adviser to Eversheds, the law firm, and is joining the board of the US firm Hyperion Power Generation, which sells nuclear reactors.

Malloch-Brown, who is also a consultant to correctSouthwest Energy, an Ethiopian oil company, defended his new role this week and dismissed any allegations of a potential conflict of interest. "My knowledge of Africa was not gained as a British minister. Rather I was recruited into government because I had worked extensively on African and international issues throughout my career. My activities today continue to reflect that," he said.

He added that he had never been in contact with Vitol during his time at the UN, nor had any dealings with the the company when he was a minister.

"As part of my due diligence prior to starting my consulting appointment, I have discussed the oil-for-food issue and reviewed the steps that have been taken by Vitol to ensure that the necessary lessons have been learnt and the right compliance programme put in place," he said. He declined to say how much he would be paid for the role.

A spokesman for Vitol said the timing of Malloch-Brown's recruitment, and the decision to negotiate to take over parts of Shell's operations in Africa, was a coincidence. "This type of expansion activity is something that Vitol has been looking at for some time."

A statement added that the peer's new consulting agreement began last month and had been properly disclosed on the Lords website. "Lord Malloch-Brown provides consulting services on geo-political issues of importance to the Vitol group, including current and potential future business in Africa," it read.

U.N. cuts pre-2012 Kyoto offset estimate by 3 percent

(Reuters) - A United Nations agency cut its forecast on Wednesday for pre-2012 Kyoto Protocol carbon offsets by 3 percent, estimating that only 981 million tonnes will come to market by the end of 2012.

Under Kyoto, efforts to cut greenhouse gases can be outsourced to emerging countries such as China and India through investment in clean energy projects registered under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) scheme.

Investors receive offsets in return, called Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs), which can be used toward emissions reduction goals or sold for profit.

"The issuance in July was extremely low, only 2.5 million CERs. Due to this and the 22 projects rejected (recently) ... we decreased our projection for the amount to be available by the end of 2012," the UNEP Risoe Center said on its website.

Around 76 million more CERs could come soon from projects on the issuance waiting list, it added.

CER supply forecasts are of particular interest to utilities and industrial firms in the European Union, which can use CERs for compliance under the bloc's emissions trading scheme.

Issuance dropped in July due to the phase-in of new procedures, a UN spokesman said last month.

The UN's climate change secretariat has issued a total of 423.6 million CERs to date.

Future issuance may be in jeopardy after the CDM's executive board last week rejected 22 projects seeking approval under the scheme, which would have cut 12.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2012, and said it would conduct another spot check at the offices of the CDM's largest emissions cut verifier.

Det Norske Veritas was suspended in late 2008 for three months for procedural breaches. Analysts said this and subsequent suspensions at three other emissions auditors since have choked the flow of CERs to market.

UNEP Risoe estimated in July that 1.012 billion CERs would be issued by the end of the 2012, when Kyoto's first leg ends. That was up from a record low prediction of 975 million made in June.

The agency's pre-2012 CER estimate has been sliding steadily as it has trimmed over 100 million CERs since the beginning of the year. The estimate is now around half the number predicted in 2007.

Supply concerns have caused the CER futures curve to become backwardated, with spot prices at 12.18 euros a tonne on Wednesday, trading around 10 cents above the Dec-10 futures and nearly 40 cents above the Dec-12s.

Average wholesale CER prices, or the initial price paid to the project owners, were around 9.50 euros per tonne late last week, according to analysts IDEAcarbon.

(Reporting by Michael Szabo; Editing by Jane Baird)

USUN - Remarks by Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, at a Security Council Debate on Kosovo and

Rosemary A. DiCarlo
Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations
U.S. Mission to the United Nations
New York, NY
August 3, 2010

Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to welcome Foreign Minister Jeremic and Foreign Minister Hyseni back to the Council this afternoon. I’d also like to thank Special Representative Zannier for his thorough briefing and his service as the Secretary-General's Special Representative in Kosovo.

Mr. President, let me begin by addressing briefly the July 22nd Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice.

It has been the hope of the United States that the delivery of this opinion would be a springboard for Kosovo and Serbia to move beyond the debates of the past and pursue cooperation to support peace and stability in the Balkans. The Advisory Opinion decisively affirmed the view of the United States and many other countries that Kosovo's 2008 Declaration of Independence was in accordance with international law and did not violate Resolution 1244.

We believe that the ICJ Opinion will encourage those countries that have not done so, to now recognize Kosovo. Mr. President, Kosovo is a special case, and is not a precedent for other conflicts. The ICJ Opinion recognized that the Declaration of Independence of Kosovo had to be considered within the factual context that led to its adoption. Including, as the Court’s Opinion described, the framework established by Resolution 1244 to resolve a humanitarian crisis in Kosovo and the developments in the 2005-2007 UN brokered final status process, which, despite exhausted efforts, was unable to yield a mutually agreeable outcome on Kosovo’s status.

Kosovo is an independent, multiethnic democracy. Its independence is irreversible, its borders inviolable. We call now on Kosovo and Serbia to work together on practical issues that will move both states forward on their respective paths to Euro-Atlantic integration.

Turning to the Secretary-General's report, let me make three additional points about the progress that Kosovo has made in recent months.

First, the Secretary-General's report notes several areas in which Kosovo is consolidating its multiethnic democratic institutions, including by implementing the decentralization of power from central to municipal authorities that is envisioned in Kosovo's constitution.

The recent elections in the newest Kosovo Serb-majority municipality of Partesh demonstrate the progress Kosovo is making toward ensuring the participation of all communities in its institutions.

Second, the Secretary-General points out the challenges posed by economic difficulties. Last month, Kosovo signed a Stand-By Agreement with the IMF. In the run-up to the signing, Kosovo's institutions showed their maturity and responsibility by passing four major financial reforms into law in one month in order to meet the Agreement's conditions.

Third, regarding security, the overall number of security incidents has decreased during this reporting period. The Kosovo Police, with the assistance of EULEX, has demonstrated its growing capacity to protect all of Kosovo's communities. In late May, the Kosovo Police, along with EULEX and KFOR, quickly responded to clashes among large groups of Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbs over illegal, parallel elections and prevented the incident from escalating. In late June, the Kosovo Police provided security for a large demonstration in connection with Vidovdan celebrations. The Kosovo Police is increasingly filling crucial roles once performed by the international community.

Without incident, it has taken responsibility for security at a patrimonial site previously guarded by KFOR, and, alongside EULEX, it is currently investigating the July violence related to the opening of the Citizen Services Center in Mitrovica and the shooting of a Kosovo Serb member of parliament.

In addition, there has been progress in returns and the reintegration of returnees, supported by municipal authorities and the central government, with the protection of the Kosovo Police and KFOR.

But as the Secretary-General has pointed out, the absence of reconciliation continues to risk unrest. For example, some returning ethnic Serb families experienced harassment and attacks. My government regrets the loss of life and injuries that accompanied the opening of the Citizen Services Center in North Mitrovica last month, and we urge that those responsible for these criminal acts be held accountable. The Center has remained open, and it continues to provide necessary services to those most in need in the local community.

Efforts to promote stability have been hindered by threats of violence against those who seek to participate in the legitimate institutions of Kosovo's government. We strongly condemn the death threats targeting judges appointed to the Mitrovica District Court and intimidation directed at Kosovo Serbs who work with Kosovo's institutions. We call on all parties to take firm steps to halt incitement to violence.

Mr. President, let me reiterate our hope that Kosovo and Serbia will use the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion as an opportunity to work together to resolve technical issues that can improve the daily lives of their citizens. Further, we welcome the European Union's efforts to assist both countries in realizing their European perspective.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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Pessimism Clouds Climate Meeting

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

This time last summer, there was considerable optimism that the world’s nations just might be able to approve a pact to limit a global increase in greenhouse gases at a United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen last December.

That meeting, overseen by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, ended with a weak agreement known as the Copenhagen Accord. It was an aspirational political statement with no clout, not a legally binding treaty. A small number of the 190 countries in attendance never even endorsed the document.

The Copenhagen Accord set a goal of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels without being at all specific about how nations would meet that measure. Likewise, without being very clear about who would write the check, it called for hundreds of billions of dollars to flow from wealthy nations to countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

This week in Bonn, negotiators are meeting to prepare for this year’s annual climate meeting, COP-16 (the 16th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), which opens in late November in Cancún, Mexico. There is little optimism this time around. Even the few areas of agreement that were hailed as great accomplishments in the Copenhagen Accord seem to be back on the negotiating table.

The negotiating document for the Bonn session, which ends on Friday, leaves open – once again — whether the goal of a new treaty should be to limit the temperature rise to 1 degree, 1.5 degrees or 2 degrees Celsius.

Delegates will have to decide anew whether developed countries should “commit to a goal of mobilizing” $100 billion to support poorer nations or should be “assessed contributions of 1.5 percent of the G.D.P.”

Likewise, the negotiating document suggests that delegates will be revisiting emissions reductions goals for richer nations: Should developed countries, as a group, be required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by “75 to 85 percent,” or “at least 80 to 95 percent,” or “more than 95 percent” from 1990 levels by 2050?

The divisions between industrialized and developing nations over climate policy seem even deeper than they were six months ago. China, which has long acted as a spokesman for developing countries, scolded developed countries on Monday for failing to accept their “historical responsibility” for climate change and urged them to do more in the way of emissions cuts, according to Xinhua, the government news agency.

The European Union, which has led the way in vowing to reduce its emissions, complained that some of the options included in the negotiating text seem “outside the realm of what is achievable,” according to reports from the conference by the Third World Network. Indeed, many scientists say that limiting climate change to 1 or 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is probably impossible.

Diplomatic feud over Kashmir remarks grips United Nations

Published: Wednesday, Aug 4, 2010, 15:42 IST
Place: United Nations | Agency: PTI

Despite damage control efforts, a diplomatic feud rages over remarks that were put out by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon's office last week, which called for calm in Kashmir and indicated support for the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan.

The UN appears to be backtracking on its position after India has registered a complaint that the remarks were unwarranted. India wanted the UN to distance itself from the remarks that it asserts are being used by separatists and Pakistan government to claim that the international community is on their side.

The UN communicated to the Indian government that the remarks were not a statement made by the secretary general but a "press guidance that was taken out of context."

Ban's chief spokesperson Martin Nesirky said that this information was not a statement made by Ban but it was "information provided by the Secretariat (and) distributed by the spokesperson's office."

Ban's associate spokesperson Farhan Haq, who is of Pakistani-origin, who originally sent the information by email to journalists, said that while this was not a statement made by Ban, "it was all generated by the UN."

Despite India's objections, Haq has maintained that the contents of the e-mail reflected the views of the UN chief.

The nature of the remarks, however, does not sound like a "press guidance" and at this point the UN is struggling to resolve the situation without completely disowning its remarks.

The email circulated by Haq had said that Ban was "concerned" over the prevailing security situation in Kashmir over the past one month and called on "all concerned to exercise utmost restraint and address problems peacefully."

The remarks in the e-mail also touched on the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan. "He (Ban) encourages both
sides to rekindle the spirit of the composite dialogue, which
was initiated in 2004 and had made encouraging progress on
some important confidence building measures, and to make
renewed efforts to address outstanding issues, including on
Jammu and Kashmir," the e-mail had said.

The Indian side pointed out that on the day the remarks went out, no questions were raised on Kashmir during the regular press briefing at the UN. The communication sent by the UN to the Indian government also noted that no questions were raised on Kashmir.

However, correspondents here from Pakistan have been asking questions on Kashmir on a regular basis. The UN initially did not respond to the questions and Ban himself avoided commenting on it when asked directly about the unrest.

On the other hand, questions had not been raised at any stage with reference to the composite dialogue. Therefore it remains unclear why reference to these talks was included in the statement.

Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi yesterday cited Ban's remarks while asking the Indian government to "exercise restraint" in Kashmir.

In an effort to appear more neutral, the clarification, which was sent by the UN to the Indian government, noted that the violence was also being stoked "on accounts of terror or otherwise."

At the same time, questions about the tensions in Kashmir continue to be posed, mostly by the correspondents from
Pakistan at the UN. Nesirky yesterday said he had no comments
on more civilian deaths in the region.

UN urges calm as wheat hits two-year high

By Jack Farchy

Published: August 4 2010 11:20 | Last updated: August 4 2010 20:00

Wheat prices surged more than 7 per cent on Wednesday to a fresh two-year high even as the United Nations attempted to quell growing panic in the markets.

CBOT September wheat rose to a fresh peak above $7.30 a bushel, the highest since September 2008, amid rising alarm over the state of the wheat crop in the Black Sea region, which has been ravaged by the worst drought in more than a century. The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation said that fears of a repetition of the 2007-08 food crisis were unjustified.

But it also cut its forecast for global wheat production by 25m tonnes to 651m tonnes, making the biggest revision in 20 years, and warned that a continuation of the current weather conditions could affect planting of the next Russian crop, with “potentially serious implications” for global wheat supplies in the 2011-12 season.

Nonetheless, the FAO said two years of record crops had replenished global inventories sufficiently to cope with lower production this year. “The world wheat market remains far more balanced than at the time of the world food crisis in 2007-08 and fears of a new global food crisis are not justified at this point,” the agency said.

The 2007-08 crisis followed three years of poor harvests, which drew down global inventories to historically low levels. The fall in stocks drove up the cost of agricultural commodities from corn to rice, causing them to surge to record highs. There were food riots in countries including Haiti to Bangladesh. Then, the price of wheat rose above $13 a bushel.

The severe drought in Russia has come on the back of recent bad weather in other growing regions such as Canada, pushing wheat prices up 60 per cent in little more than a month. Forecasts for the Russian grain crop have been falling daily, with the agriculture ministry’s most recent projection at 70m-75m tonnes, down from 85m tonnes a fortnight ago.

Some private sector analysts, however, believe the harvest will be as low as 63m tonnes. If they are right, the FAO’s forecast, which predicts Russian grain production of 72m tonnes, may have to be revised again when it is updated in September.

Abdolreza Abbassian, senior grains economist at the FAO, said the sharp revision reflected the market’s increasing dependence on the Black Sea region, which has a history of erratic yields. “For the 20 years I have followed grain markets we have never made such a drastic revision to our forecast over two months,” Mr Abbassian said. “This shows the growing importance of the region. It is really a wake-up call.”

The European Commission on Wednesday projected European Union cereal production in line with the average of the past five years but below last year’s levels.

Gold rebounded above $1,200 an ounce for the first time in almost two weeks on rising expectations of looser US monetary policy. The yellow metal notched up its sixth consecutive daily gain, up 1.2 per cent at $1,199.50 a troy ounce, having previously hit a peak of $1,202.85.

In oil, Nymex September West Texas Intermediate hit $82.47 a barrel.

Additional reporting by Stanley Pignal in Brussels

Bike initiatives tied to United Nations schemes

The City of Milwaukee 2010 Bicycle Master Plan may deserve a closer look now that we've been warned about the connection between cycling initatives and a United Nations plot.

Dan Maes, a Republican running for governor in Colorado, heroically raised red flags about the subversive elements of biking at a recent campaign rally, according to the story from the Denver Post. (Milwaukee-area cyclist Russell Jobs, no stranger to conspiracy theories, uncovered the story earlier today.)

Maes' bicycle baiting was directed at Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, a Democratic candidate for governor, and an apparent supporter of U.N. sanctioned plots such as bike-sharing.

From the Post story: "This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms," Maes said.

He added: "These aren't just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to."

Maes said in a later interview that he was referring to Denver's membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an international association that promotes sustainable development and has attracted the membership of more than 1,200 communities, 600 of which are in the United States.

Ex-US prosecutor accuses UN chief of hiring bias

By JOHN HEILPRIN (AP) – 28 minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS — An accomplished former U.S. prosecutor has filed a grievance accusing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of blocking his hiring to the U.N.'s top investigative post because of discrimination based on gender and nationality.

The dispute over Robert Appleton's appointment is the latest salvo in a high-stakes fight within the world organization over how to fix the U.N.'s long-troubled internal watchdog agency. U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said Wednesday that Ban's office could not comment on matters before the tribunal.

Appleton's 76-page application to the U.N. Dispute Tribunal, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, said that Ban's refusal to hire him is a breach of the U.N. Charter and General Assembly resolutions.

He is seeking $1 million in damages and up to about $500,000 in lost wages and benefits.

Appleton headed the U.N.'s special white collar fraud unit, known as the Procurement Task Force, that operated with great success from 2006 to 2008. It found 20 significant corruption schemes, leading to several felony convictions and sanctions against dozens of U.N. vendors.

The General Assembly created it in the wake of the scandal over the $1.8 billion bilked from the oil-for-food program that had been aimed at easing Iraqi suffering under U.N. sanctions.

During two global recruitment rounds in 2008 and 2009, an internal hiring panel selected Appleton from among about 70 applicants as the sole qualified and suitable candidate to serve as permanent head of the investigation division within the U.N.'s Office of Internal Services, or OIOS.

The outgoing head of OIOS, Inga-Britt Ahlenius of Sweden, who stepped down last month after five years, had left the position unfilled from mid-2006. The agency has two other divisions for audits and inspections.

She recalled in a confidential report last month to Ban that severely criticized his leadership how she tried unsuccessfully nine times since late 2008 to fill the job by persuading Ban to hire Appleton.

Ban refused to approve Appleton's hiring as permanent head of the investigation division based on his new policy requiring all senior-level appointments to be chosen from among a field of three qualified candidates that reflect a degree of geographical diversity and include at least one woman.

During the second round, she said, particular emphasis was placed on trying to meet Ban's requirement that there be a candidate, and two women were selected for interviews but did not make the final cut.

Ban and his senior advisers have tried to contain the damage from Ahlenius' leaked 50-page "end-of-assignment" report by telling reporters in a series of news conferences and statements that Ahlenius failed to comply with Ban's new hiring policy.

Consultants found the OIOS' investigation division to be ineffective after the U.N.'s oil-for-food inquiry, in which Appleton, a former supervisory federal prosecutor at a branch office in Connecticut, had served as a special counsel.

Lacking a permanent director, the investigation division has been run by a series of acting directors.

Appleton said in his application that Catherine Pollard, the assistant secretary-general for human resources, made an "inappropriate attempt" to influence the hiring by pushing Ahlenius to interview four more candidates and the sole internal candidate, Michael Dudley, who is the division's current acting director.

Appleton said Dudley's wife, who has a senior-level U.N. post, is a colleague of Pollard's. Dudley e-mailed colleagues within the division in the past week to deny he tried to influence the hiring through his wife's connection to Pollard.

He said in the e-mail obtained by AP that he applied to be the permanent director in 2009 because after seven months as the acting director "it would appear odd if I was not at least considered." He said he was interviewed, but never heard what happened next.

In her report, Ahlenius noted that Pollard wrote Ban's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, to argue for taking a more "flexible approach" toward academic requirements and "suggested that the internal candidate should be considered."

Nambiar told AP last year that more candidates should have been considered because he refused to believe "there's only one man for this job" or that "there's nobody else except an American who can do this job."

Pollard told reporters last month that the job would have been filled "a lot sooner" if Ahlenius had followed Ban's policy. "It was all about policy, not about a particular personality," Pollard said.

The tribunal to which Appleton applied, which only began operating in July 2009 as part of a new U.N. system of internal justice, was set up by the 192-nation General Assembly to handle grievances by current and former staff members. Its judgments can be appealed to another U.N. tribunal.

Appleton said in his application that Ban and his so-called Senior Review Group that handles senior-level appointments improperly rejected his candidacy by "attempting to politicize the staffing process at OIOS" rather than address the U.N.'s failure to attract more qualified women or more diverse nationalities.

It says Ban and his senior advisers failed to appreciate or follow the U.N.'s hiring rules — seriously undermining Ahlenius' supposed independence as the U.N.'s undersecretary-general for oversight.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Slain Senior Hamas Terrorist was Employed by UN

Senior Hamas commander Issa al-Batran was killed Saturday in an Israeli airstrike that followed a Grad rocket attack on the city of Ashkelon. While several news outlets reported details of Batran's past, including previous attempts on his life, they failed to note a major component of Batran's personal life: his day job as a United Nations-employed schoolteacher.

Batran taught at a UN school in Al-Bureij. According to the Bethlehem-based Maannews agency Batran worked in the school at least until January 2009, and possibly beyond that time.

His job as a schoolteacher was mentioned by Maan and other Arab news outlets in 2009, when several members of the Batran family were killed in an airstrike during the counterterror operation Cast Lead. At that time, his senior position in Hamas was not mentioned.

Hamas has vowed to avenge Batran's death.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) has faced controversy in the past for its ties to Hamas. In 2004 UNRWA's then-Director Peter Hansen caused a stir when he told a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist, “I am sure there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll. And I don’t see that as a crime.”

In March 2009, Hamas swept the UNRWA union elections, winning 17 out of 27 seats. A short time later, UNRWA's Gaza director, John Ging, called on UN employees in Gaza to play down their affiliation with local terrorist groups or face dismissal.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)