We should not allow Durban to be the graveyard of the Kyoto Protocol

Archive for November, 2011

We should not allow Durban to be the graveyard of the Kyoto Protocol

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

Daniela Stoycheva and Gabriela Fischerova

There are rumors in the corridors of Durban (and beyond) that Canada is planning to officially withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. Although neither denied nor confirmed at the moment, they disrupt the momentum of the negotiations. The US position—repeated in its press conference on Monday afternoon—that it does not favor discussing a broader agreement at this time, is adding another layer of complexity.

Another sour drop are the discussions that occurred at the last meeting of the Transitional Committee for the design and transparency of the Green Climate Fund, which took place in October. The meeting, which had aimed to conclude discussions ahead of COP 17, ended without consensus to adopt the Committee’s final report. The report was sent to the COP for consideration and approval; however, some think this will be a “bargaining chip” to be traded off later in the negotiations.

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Tags:Daniela Stoycheva, Durban, Gabriela Fischerova, Kyoto Protocol
Posted in Climate change, Environment | No Comments »

Save Tomorrow Today – or maybe not… The first day in Durban

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Daniela Stoycheva and Gabriela Fischerova

194 countries are currently meeting in Durban for two weeks to decide how the future of the international climate change regime will look like in the next decade. 35,000 participants are expected to attend the conference in Durban, including Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Angelina Jolie and the Princess of Monaco.

The first day was “business as usual”: general statements reiterating the already known positions. Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa, expressed his hopes that COP17 (that’s how people in the field call the meeting) will deliver balanced and positive outcomes. Other senior speakers – including the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Cristiana Figueres, the president to the previous meeting (yes, you guessed right!, COP16) Patricia Espinosa (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico), the current president South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the president of Angola and the vice-president of Chad all expressed their positive expectations for the conference.

However, a few minutes later, when the formal plenary session of the COP17 had started, the by now familiar problems with the adoption of the agenda took place (see here for our account of previous drama related to the agenda definition in Bangkok).

The time for negotiations is very limited, considering the complicated agenda and the fact that the high level talk will start on December 6th.

Will tomorrow bring a breakthrough? Watch this space…

Tags:Daniela Stoycheva, Gabriela Fischerova
Posted in Climate change, Environment | No Comments »

Green Tourism in Uzbekistan: A view from the field

Monday, November 28th, 2011

By Soraya Soemadiredja, LGSP Intern, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

In the midst of a chaotic exhibition hall, visitors to the Tashkent International Tourism Fair (TITF) were drawn to a trickling waterfall set against a backdrop of a panoramic view of mountains. This was the booth for Zaamin. The mountain scenery was photographically reproduced to transplant the visitor from the middle of Tashkent city to the soothing, lush green mountain forests of Zaamin. Visitors including industry specialists from Uzbekistan and beyond came for the calming display and stayed to learn more about the unique tourism endeavour between the local government, the Uzbek government and the UNDP’s Local Governance Support Project (LGSP).

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Tags:green tourism, Soraya Soemadiredja, Uzbekistan, zaamin
Posted in Environment | No Comments »

Exploring the link between migration and tuberculosis in Central Asia

Friday, November 25th, 2011

By Christoph Hamelmann

The European/Central Asian region has the highest rate of multi-drug- and extensively-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR and XDR TB respectively, in practitioner’s jargon) in the world. According to WHO, there are currently an estimated 81,000 people with MDR or XDR TB in the region. Most of them do not receive a proper diagnosis and treatment.

At the national level, health systems often do not have enough capacity to identify and treat cases. The situation is further worsened by the substantial amount of (partially illegal) labor migration in the region. Moving to another country means that diagnoses get hidden or delayed and treatment interrupted.

Drug resistant TB is not purely a health issue. It has economic repercussions as well. Compare the costs of just a few Euro for a normal TB treatment course with thousands of Euro per person for all costs related to dealing with drug-resistant TB. WHO is estimating that we need to invest US $ 5.2 billion over the next 5 years for a reasonable action plan; without it, the final bill will be definitely larger.

Ultimately however at the core of this problem are social determinants of health and inequitable access to health services.

For the above reasons, I welcome next week’s high-level meeting on “Migration and tuberculosis: cross border care and control in Central Asia” in Almaty. I am looking forward to reviewing the outcomes of the meeting and, perhaps most importantly, to helping with the implementation plan coming out of the event. Watch this space for updates.

Tags:Central Asia, Christoph Hamelmann, migration, tuberculosis, who
Posted in Development, Health, HIV | 3 Comments »

Young men & women building the new Libya………..

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

By Annie Demirjian (Head of Governance team in Bratislava, currently with the UN/UNDP mission in Libya)

among thousands of graffitis in the streets of Tripoli

As events continue to unfold on daily basis in Libya – this week the capture of Seif el Islam Qadhafi – there are some wonderful developments behind the scenes and away from the media limelight.

I am working at the Ministry of Capacity Building, with the Minister himself and his senior staff. We are reviewing issues pertaining to public sector and public administration reform, including civil service reform and eventually ‘rightsizing’ the government. In a normal situation this is a challenging task but in today’s Libya this reform agenda is absolutely daunting. After my first meeting with the Minister, his senior staff and UN colleagues, I was somewhat overwhelmed as to where to start the job of public administration reform.

The next day, I moved with my computer to the Ministry, in the Prime Minister’s Office, and then my true learning began about Libya and Libyans.

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Tags:Annie Demirjian, capacity building, government, Libya, Twitter
Posted in Disaster response, Governance, Human rights | 1 Comment »

Edgeryders: can young Europeans’ voices become policy recommendations?

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

By Alberto Cottica, Project Manager, Council of Europe
^{(The views in this post are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect UNDP’s own view)}

Young Europeans are having trouble completing their transition towards full independence. The problem is deeper than it seems because our social model is based on the status of full-time, long term employment that unlocks important social and economic rights (in France, where I live now, if you don’t work you have no right to health care). This generates tensions, because it forces young people to fight for this status at all costs, even as it becomes more and more difficult to obtain and even if many of them would like to explore different options. The result: 20% of 15-34 years old, in Europe,are not in employment, education or training. It is not even a matter of being young anymore. Young people are in the line of fire, but citizens of all ages are losing autonomy.

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Tags:Alberto Cottica, Edgeryders
Posted in Governance | No Comments »

Moving towards the next generation of anti corruption tools

Friday, November 18th, 2011

By Francesco Checchi

Recently I had the opportunity to work together with colleagues from the OECD Directorate for Education and UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning on a corruption risk assessment in the education sector of an Eastern European country (to be published soon). This activity is part of our programme to develop new strategies, tools and programmes to tackle corruption in the delivery of basic public services.

The social impact of corruption in public services is obvious, especially in developing countries: high-level corruption in the form of the diversion of funds means fewer resources of a lower quality in already over-burdened systems. Low-level (petty) corruption, such as informal payments, means that the poorest and most vulnerable citizens either have to dedicate significant portions of their incomes for services that are supposed to be received free of charge, or are denied those services altogether.

Addressing corruption in sectors like health and education builds upon more generic anti-corruption efforts in the public sector as a whole and complements the work being done in areas like procurement, oversight mechanisms, enhancing transparency and the accountability of the public administration.

In my recent project, we utilized a methodology, developed by the OECD, providing guidance for:

identifying shortcomings in key areas of the education system which may lead to corruption;
identifying shortcomings in the preventive framework which would allow actors and stakeholders in education to bypass the anti corruption rules
formulating policy recommendations on how to close these gaps.

The final report will help the Ministry of Education to design policies and regulations that streamline the administration of schools and universities as well as the system regulating the hiring, promotion and dismissal of teachers and other personnel working in schools.

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Tags:anti corruption, Francesco Checchi
Posted in Anticorruption | No Comments »

Voices from Eurasia

Archive for November, 2011