Archive for October, 2011
Friday, October 28th, 2011
Dafina Gercheva
Great news from sunny Armenia! UNDP in Armenia successfully managed “to tame” solar energy, which is plenty in Armenia – around 300 sunny days annually – and transform the light and heat from the sun into electricity to be used for internal consumption as an alternative to the electricity from fossil fuel. Experts are telling us that the solar energy for each square metre in Armenia is equal to one barrel of oil! So how could we not use this opportunity to go more “green” and reduce UNDP’s carbon footprint?
Now, we all know that solar energy is recognized as the best alternative of fossil fuel and has many advantages. However while recognizing its economic and environmental benefits, sometime we are hesitant and skeptical in our actions to push for green initiatives as they are expensive, time consuming and often have long “payback” period.
(more…)
Tags:Armenia, Dafina Gercheva, green, solar energy, solar panels, UNDP
Posted in Climate change, Environment | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
Jelena Janjusevic PhD
Montenegro, a country with 650,000 citizens, has around 100,000 illegal buildings (according to estimates from the Ministry for Sustainable Development and Tourism). Since the average household size is 3.4 people, this could indicate that nearly half of the households have an irregular or illegal construction status (of course this would only be the case if irregular or illegal constructions were distributed equally among all households).
How did we find ourselves in this situation? A combination of factors, including: the lack of planning, lack of capacity in municipal construction inspections, the inflow of foreign direct investments between 2006 and 2009 (much of it directed to the construction business), inefficient local and central government control and the lack of awareness among citizens about the negative consequences, including:
- Damage to the landscape and environment
- No revenues to the local government from construction and communal fees
- No tax revenues
- Inadequate infrastructure networks
- Insufficient and non adequate public and social facilities
To tackle this issue, I believe that the Government has to provide an innovative solution as incentive for formalization. The issue is simply too big to tackle (demolishing 100,000 illegal constructions is certainly not an option, nor is increasing taxation giving chronic issues with tax collection). Experiences from other countries that have legalized abusive constructions does not seem a sustainable solution either.
(more…)
Tags:206, CO2, construction, energy efficiency, green development, housing, incentives, Jelena Janjusevic, legalization process, Montenegro
Posted in Climate change, Development, Environment, Poverty | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
Louise Sperl
When I recently had a chance to revisit a survey (pdf) on equality in politics from 2008 (from the Inter-Parliamentary Union), it struck me how the challenges outlined in the survey are still applicable. The survey asked parliamentarians what the major obstacles were for them in terms of running for election. The answers demonstrated considerable gender-based differences: For women, the major obstacles were domestic responsibilities and how to manage private and public life. Men listed the lack of support to the electorate and access to finance as top issues. Interestingly enough, questions of family life or how to balance private and public life did not feature among male Parliamentarians.
On their way into politics, women face a broad range of challenges, including cultural attitudes, balancing public and private responsibilities, biased reporting in media, lack of support provided by political parties, shortage of financing and campaign support – to mention a few.
(more…)
Tags:gender equality, Louise Sperl, parliament, UNDP, women, women in parliament
Posted in Gender equality, Governance | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
Clare Romanik
It’s easy for countries in transition to say that they don’t have money for sustainable local development. And local governments in these countries have even more right to say that because they are victims of unfunded mandates and decentralization of responsibilities without corresponding decentralization of financial resources.
But anyone can see from the new foreign cars, that there is money in developing and transition countries.
Much of that lost money is sucked up by corruption.
The Extraction Industries Transparency Initiative tries to bring to light how the big money from gas, oil, and minerals seems to miss the national budgets. But what about the smaller scale corruption in the energy sector?
(more…)
Tags:accountability, Clare Romanik, communication, corruption, local government, open data, open government, social services, transparency, UNDP
Posted in Anticorruption, Poverty | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
Andrey Ivanov
So far, inclusion efforts have failed to achieve their noble goals. A major reason for this is ‘sticking to a single dimension’ in a complex challenge. This approach is appealing because of its simplicity, but produces irrelevant (and potentially disastrous) results.
There are three dominating extremes when it comes to approaching the Roma issue. One is “exclusion is cultural” – attributing Roma status to cultural specifics of different groups. Indeed, culture matters (any anthropologist would agree) but, when driven to the extreme, this approach says “it’s all about race.” Any extremist party loves that. The second extreme says “it’s about discrimination” – attributing everything to human rights violations. Indeed, discrimination matters (any human rights activist would agree) but when driven to the extreme, this approach boils down to litigation procedure – and lawyers love that. The third extreme says “it’s about qualification and educational deficits” – attributing everything to capacity gaps. Narrow-minded market extremists love that – provide people with equal access to resources and capital and the market will do the rest.
(more…)
Tags:Andrey Ivanov, complexity, culture, Europe, human development, Human rights, neo-liberalism, poverty, racism, Roma, social exclusion, social inclusion
Posted in Poverty, Social inclusion | No Comments »
Monday, October 24th, 2011
Blythe Fraser
I think you will agree with me, our current web site design served us well in the past but needs a face lift. Time to become cool again!
Just kidding – if there’s one thing I’m serious about, it’s the importance of online communication for UNDP – making sure we communicate what we do, and that our website helps us achieve our goals (Currently gathering inspiration from: 10 Keys to Effective Non-Profit Organization Websites).
We recently advertised two posts and an internship – all connected to efforts already underway to make sure that our web site and online social media platforms support UNDP goals and that people have an informative, useful and engaging experience when they interact with us online.
(more…)
Tags:Blythe Fraser, branding, digital marketing, editing, internship, jobs, multimedia, opportunities, social media, UNDP, usability, web site, writing
Posted in Development 2.0 | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
Annie Demirjian
Much has been written recently connecting events in the Arab world and the transition experience of countries in the former Soviet bloc (see What does the Arab Spring Mean for Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus? from the Center for Strategic International Studies, as well our blog posts: Arab Spring – 4 lessons from the ‘North’ and From Arab spring to democracy for all seasons). Having joined UNDP’s Bratislava office from Iraq, I follow these discussions with great interest.
I just came back from the Tunis conference on anti-corruption in the education, health and water sectors (pdf) in Arab countries. I thought it would be worthwhile to share my thoughts on the connection between the transitional experiences between the two regions in these sectors in particular.
I had not participated in the Arab region discussion on anticorruption in two years and it was interesting to see how much progress has been made. Much work has been done, and almost all of the countries in the region were participating. Most countries have also established anticorruption institutions, parliamentary committees and are now focusing on sector related challenges. Many countries are still working on assessment tools and methodologies but, collectively, the region has the professional resources needed to support national institutions.
(more…)
Tags:Annie Demirjian, anticorruption, Arab spring, Armenia, corruption, education, Europe and CIS, health, ICTs, monitoring and evaluation, public administration reform, Romania, social exclusion, Tajikistan, Tunis, water
Posted in Anticorruption, Governance | No Comments »
Monday, October 17th, 2011
Andrey Ivanov
A fascist-leaning marginalized people? A racist society with nefarious institutions? I don’t see it that way. I see the failure to share the benefits of transition with the whole of society, and a lack of confidence in institutions and political representation. I see fatigue from more than two decades of transformation that has benefited few but excluded the rest. I see inequalities when it comes to opportunities, participation and benefits. Then comes the ethnic spin, recasting deep social rifts defined in racist terms.
It’s a fundamental misunderstanding to interpret recent clashes in Bulgaria as primarily ethnic. In my view, this is the classic case of a conflict fueled by social and economic despair disguised as ethnic. Indeed, many people are facing discrimination based on ethnicity, but if we go deeper, we find frustrated people excluded from society whose emotions have been manipulated for political reasons.
Many commentators rushed to voice their concerns, drawing parallels between this current conflict and fascist times. The narrative is dominated almost entirely by the ethnic and discriminatory dimensions of the problem, disregarding the systemic issues related to social exclusion. The effect that the economic crisis and social exclusion has on a people’s psyche is overlooked, as is the resulting receptiveness to extremism. Above all, the clashes reveal a high level of social exclusion in Bulgarian society – which translates into ethnic tension, not the other way around. It’s the slogans shouted at rallies that receive the attention, diverting attention from the fundamental causes of the disease (social exclusion) and instead focusing on its symptoms (ethnic intolerance).
(more…)
Tags:Andrey Ivanov, Balkans, Bulgaria, Central and Eastern Europe, education, minorities, poverty, Roma, social exclusion, social inclusion
Posted in Poverty, Social inclusion | 4 Comments »
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
Louise Sperl
I was excited when I learned about the recent adoption of legislated quotas in Montenegro. After Poland, this is yet another country in the region that’s introduced legislated quotas for women in the last twelve months. It is no secret that women are underrepresented in public decision making all over the globe – in parliaments, political parties, electoral management bodies and in public administration generally.
In countries in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States are no exception: 16 countries in the region fail to reach the global average of 19 percent representation in national parliaments.
Interestingly enough, there are considerable variations, with women’s representation ranging from 6.5 percent to 31.8 percent. In many countries women are also under-represented in decision-making levels in most areas of public administration.
(more…)
Tags:Albania, civil society, decision-making, democracy, elections, FYR Macedonia, gender equality, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Louise Sperl, parliaments, Poland, quotas for women, Slovenia, women
Posted in Gender equality | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
Ben Slay
Should national contributions to climate change be measured as greenhouse gases emitted by the countries in which they are produced? Or should they be “charged against” the countries in which the goods and services that generate these emissions are consumed?
This issue was highlighted by a new study (See: Growth in emission transfers via international trade from 1990 to 2008) that measures the “consumption” of greenhouse gas emissions by examining “virtual carbon trade” flows (i.e., greenhouse gas emissions associated with the export and import of goods and services), and then subtracting this “carbon trade balance” from countries’ reported emissions.
The study gives new impetus to questions like: If a share of Country A’s greenhouse gas emissions can be accounted for by exports that are destined for consumption in Country B, shouldn’t these emissions be ascribed to Country B?
On a similar note, The Guardian’s Duncan Clark argues that, when the emissions data are recalculated in terms of national carbon consumption rather than production, they show “a massive transfer of carbon from the poor world to the rich world.” According to this argument, “the rich world has been ‘offshoring’ or ‘outsourcing’ its emissions” to developing countries—exploiting a loophole in the Kyoto Protocol to reduce reported emissions by exporting them to poorer countries.
Do such arguments stand up? Is the rich world “gaming” the Kyoto system and frustrating global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
(more…)
Tags:Balkans, Ben Slay, carbon finance, carbon trade, Caucasus, Central Asia, China, climate change, Duncan Clark, economics, energy, energy efficiency, Europe, GHGs, Kyoto Protocol, Russia
Posted in Climate change, Development | No Comments »