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Sacred Himalayas for Water, Livelihoods, and Bio-Cultural Heritage

A high-level consultative meeting on the climate change impact in the southern slopes of the Eastern Himalayas concluded in Kathmandu with a roadmap for the planning of activities leading up to the proposed ‘Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas – Bhutan 2011’.

Delegates from the four participating countries – Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan – expressed their appreciation and pledged support for the sub-regional initiative started by the Royal Govt. of Bhutan, towards finalising climate adaptation plans that the Eastern Himalayan nations can use in their efforts to adapt to the changes happening in the region.

Experts presented four papers on water, energy, biodiversity and food security. They outlined the emerging issues, gaps and challenges in the region and suggested a way forward for carrying out national and regional consultations.

The high level meeting agreed to work together towards the Bhutan Climate Summit 2011 within national and regional adaptation frameworks by preparing individual country roadmaps on the water, energy, biodiversity and food security sectors. The meeting identified the names of lead agencies and/or institutions to take the process forward in each country and the region. Each country will serve as a lead country for one of the four themes: Bangladesh will lead in water, Bhutan in biodiversity, India in food security, and Nepal in energy.

The concluding session was attended by State Minister for Environment and Forest of Bangladesh, Dr. Hasan Mahmud; Minister of Agriculture and Forest of Bhutan, Dr. Pema Gyamtsho; Minister of Environment of Nepal, Mr. Thakur Prasad Sharma; and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, India, Mr. Jayant Mauskar. Senior government delegates, experts from government and civil society organizations, and representatives of international agencies including ICIMOD, UNDP, FAO and WWF also attended the meeting. Mr. Thakur Prasad Sharma, Minister of Environment, GON chaired the final session and delivered the closing remarks. In his speech, he highlighted the inter-dependencies, inter-relationship and inter-linkages between the uplands and lowlands situation in the Himalayas. He also emphasised the importance of Bhutan’s initiative to Nepal’s Mountain Alliance Initiative to highlight the impacts of climate change on mountain ecosystems. He called upon the delegates for a holistic approach. The Minister of Agriculture, Bhutan informed the gathering that the initiative taken by Bhutan aims to work for a vision of ‘Sacred Himalayas for Water, Livelihoods, and Bio-Cultural Heritage’ and that this is an action oriented effort. The state Minister of Bangladesh emphasized the need to address the social, economic and environmental challenges in an integrated manner. The leader of the Indian delegation highlighted the role of both modern and traditional knowledge.

By Ban Ki-moon (United Nations Secretary-General)

I am regularly inspired by the good will, talent and idealism of the young people I meet across the world.

This year’s commemoration of International Youth Day also marks the launch of the International Year of Youth, under the theme “Dialogue and Mutual Understanding”.

Today’s challenging social and economic environment warrant a special focus on youth. Eighty-seven per cent of people aged 15 to 24 live in developing countries. The global economic crisis has had a disproportionate impact on young people; they have lost jobs, struggled to find even low-wage employment and seen access to education curtailed. As economies slowly begin to stabilize, the needs of young people should be paramount.

This is a moral imperative and a developmental necessity. But it is also an opportunity: the energy of youth can ignite faltering economies. I am regularly inspired by the good will, talent and idealism of the young people I meet across the world. They are making important contributions to our work to eradicate poverty, contain the spread of disease, combat climate change and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. I call on Member States to increase their investments in young people so they can do even more.

During the International Year, the United Nations and its youth organization partners will focus on the need to encourage dialogue and understanding across generations, cultures and religions. In a world in which different peoples and traditions are coming into closer, more frequent contact than ever before, it is crucial that young people learn how to listen intently, empathize with others, acknowledge divergent opinions, and be able to resolve conflicts. Few endeavors are more important than nurturing these skills, and educating young people about human rights, for in them we not only see the next generation of leaders, but also crucial stakeholders of today. Let us also recognize that older generations themselves stand to learn a great deal from the experiences and examples of young people as they come of age in a world of accelerating interconnectedness.

As we launch this International Year, let us acknowledge and celebrate what youth can do to build a safer, more just world. Let us strengthen our efforts to include young people in policies, programmes and decision-making processes that benefit their futures and ours. 

(Source: http://www.un.org/en/events/youthday/sg.shtml) 

UNAIDS Outlook Report 2010

New UNAIDS report shows that young people are leading the prevention revolution, with 15 of the most severely affected countries reporting a 25% drop in HIV prevalence among this key population. New global opinion poll shows that AIDS continues to be of major importance for the public around the world.

The new UNAIDS Outlook report outlines a radically simplified HIV treatment platform called Treatment 2.0 that could decrease the number of AIDS-related deaths drastically and could also greatly reduce the number of new HIV infections. Evidence shows that new HIV infections among young people, in the 15 countries most affected by HIV, are dropping significantly as young people embrace safer sexual behaviours.

Also in the report, a sweeping new UNAIDS and Zogby International public opinion poll shows that nearly 30 years into the AIDS epidemic, region by region, countries continue to rank AIDS high on the list of the most important issues facing the world.

And an economic analysis makes the case for making health a necessity, not a luxury, outlining the critical need for donor countries to sustain AIDS investments and calling on richer developing countries to invest more in HIV and health.

The report was launched in Geneva ahead of the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna. The UNAIDS Executive Director, Mr Michel Sidibé, stressed that innovation in the AIDS response can save more lives. “For countries to reach their universal access targets and commitments, we must reshape the AIDS response. Through innovation we can bring down costs so investments can reach more people.”

According to UNAIDS’ estimates there were 33.4 million people living with HIV worldwide at the end of 2008. In the same year there were nearly 2.7 million new HIV infections and 2 million AIDS-related deaths.

Treatment 2.0 saves lives:

Treatment 2.0 is a new approach to simplify the way HIV treatment is currently provided and to scale up access to life saving medicines. Using a combination of efforts it could bring down treatment costs, make treatment regimens simpler and smarter, reduce the burden on health systems and improve the quality of life for people living with HIV and their families. Modelling suggests that compared with current treatment approaches, Treatment 2.0 could avert an additional 10 million deaths by 2025.

In addition, the new approach could also reduce new HIV infections by up to 1 million annually if countries provide antiretroviral therapy to all people in need, following revised WHO treatment guidelines. Today, 5 million of the 15 million people in need are accessing these life-saving medicines.

“Not only could Treatment 2.0 save lives, it has the potential to give us a significant prevention dividend,” said Mr Sidibé, speaking at the launch of the report.

Young people leading the prevention revolution:

A new UNAIDS study shows that young people are leading the HIV prevention revolution. HIV prevalence among young people has declined by more than 25% in 15 of the 25 countries most affected by AIDS. These declines are largely due to falling new HIV infections among young people.

In eight countries—Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe—significant HIV prevalence declines have been accompanied by positive changes in sexual behaviour among young people.

For example, in Kenya there was a 60% decline in HIV prevalence between 2000 and 2005. HIV prevalence dropped from 14.2% to 5.4% in urban areas and from 9.2% to 3.6% in rural areas in the same period. Similarly in Ethiopia there was a 47% reduction in HIV prevalence among pregnant young women in urban areas and a 29% change in rural areas.

Young people in 13 countries, including Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Malawi, are waiting longer before they become sexually active. Young people were also having fewer multiple partners in 13 countries. And condom use by young people during last sex act increased in 13 countries.

There are 5 million young people living with HIV worldwide, making up about 40% of new infections.

By Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director

World Population Day: On this day, the UN marks the anniversary of the day, in 1987, when the world's population exceeded 5 billion. This is a day to think about population-related issues in an ever more crowded world.

Every country counts its people. The numbers tell decision-makers about current and future needs. “Everyone counts” is the theme for this year’s World Population Day.

If people and their characteristics aren’t counted, governments can’t plan. If identification is not granted, it is impossible to track progress over a lifetime. If a birth certificate indicates a need for schooling, that informs the education system. If death records specify, to the extent possible, cause of death, health systems can be oriented to meet actual needs. If death records specify causes related to HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, pregnancy and childbirth, specific health services can be prioritized. Government planning depends on local and regional information that is supplemented by interviews with the groups most concerned. Such data makes it possible to meet real needs.

Good data is critical for evidence-based policies and programmes for improving people’s lives. Yet while timely and reliable data is routine in richer countries, many resource-constrained developing countries struggle to conduct the censuses and surveys that they need for effective planning.

For the past 30 years, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has played a lead operational role in helping to build countries’ capacities for data collection and analysis. A current focus of UNFPA support is successful implementation of the 2010 round of population and housing censuses (2005-2014).

In 2009, UNFPA supported 77 governments’ national population and housing censuses and paved the way for other censuses in 2010. This work is often complex, as in Iraq, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Sudan. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, UNFPA is promoting new data collection technologies and assisting Bosnia and Herzegovina to conduct a census. In Africa, UNFPA is helping to analyze data collected by recent censuses in Chad, Liberia and Nigeria. All these countries could not complete their censuses in 2000 and Liberia’s successful census ended a period of more than 30 years in which no statistical work could be done. In Asia and the Pacific, the enumerations have successfully concluded in Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Viet Nam and censuses are being prepared for East Timor and Mongolia. In Latin America and the Caribbean national statistical institutes are participating in training to enhance skills for data collection and
analysis.

Census data reveals compelling characteristics about employment, education and health services in countries. It provides information about population growth, the movements of people, age structures, poverty levels, urbanization and the spatial distribution of a country’s population. Countries can use that information to plan investments, save lives and improve opportunities for present and future generations.

With world attention focused on achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and the upcoming MDG10 Summit at the United Nations in September, the availability of consistent and comparable statistical information has become even more crucial. Data for development plays a prominent role in monitoring progress, assessing and realigning plans and strategies, and conducting effective advocacy. Data, and public access to it, contributes to transparency and accountability.

International network of education activists announces united protests for autumn 2010. Students from around the world will stage actions on June 16 against the increasing privatisation of public education and as part of the “Day of United Symbolic Actions”.

October/November 2009 saw massive protests internationally against the increasing privatisation of public education and the problems that come with it, as well as for free and emancipatory education freely accessible to all like never before!

The past few months were used to strengthen the network between education activists worldwide and awareness was spread that each group will be more successful uniting in struggle globally. After all problems are to a great extend identical.

The “International Student Movement” is an independent platform making use of various tools the internet offers to enable an extensive flow of information and general communication between activists in Australia, Nepal, the U.S.A., Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and anywhere else in the world.

Hundreds of people concerned with education from many different regions of the world came together at the Ruhr-University in Bochum (Germany) for the “European Education Congress” at the end of May 2010 to exchange visions and tighten relations across the borders. The congress once again clearly showed that the increasing costs for individuals to access education, budget cuts in public spending on education, an increasing influence of business interests through especially set up boards and a constant de-democratisation of educational institutions – just to name a few – are far from being local or national issues, but are indeed problems people everywhere are facing. As Mutiara Ika a student activist in Indonesia puts it: “This struggle simply knows no borders!” and continuing “free and emancipatory education is simply a pre-condition for any society deeming itself to be democratic!”

Therefore education activist groups decided to increasingly act together in their protests in the future. As a first step some of them decided to declare June 16^th a “Day of United Symbolic Actions”.

On that day groups in various locations worldwide will publicly announce the up-coming “Global Wave of Action for Education”, which is currently being co-ordinated and expected to kick-off with a huge day of action across the U.S.A. on October 7^th and continuing with occupations in Italy and across Europe. At some stage groups in Africa, Asia and elsewhere will join as well.