Archive for December, 2011
Tuesday, December 27th, 2011
Dmitry Mariyasin @maryasin_undp
Sustainability is at the core of development. But there are diverse views on how it will affect the future growth of countries.
Few groups of countries are more important in shaping this debate than the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) – an informal but powerful and increasingly vocal group of large emerging economies). UNDP is currently engaged in a dialogue with the BRICS on sustainability.
Recently, UNDP and the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and the Russian International Trade Academy organized a seminar: Preparing for the BRICS summit in 2012: key themes for Russia.
The seminar was a chance to discuss possible themes of Russia’s engagement with its BRICS partners. The central topics that emerged included: sustainable development and innovation policy cooperation.
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Tags:Andrey Slepnev, Brazil, BRICS, Busan, China, Dmitry Mariyasin, green economy, Haoliang Xu, India, low carbon economy, Rio+20, Russia, Saulo Rodrigues Filho, South Africa, Sudhir Chella Rajan, sustainable development, UNDP
Posted in Development, Governance | No Comments »
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
Albert Soer and Balazs Horvath
Sustainable development calls for environmental sustainability, together with social and economic sustainability. Sustainability requires that all three elements jointly move from an unsustainable to a sustainable development path. In other words: it’s not development if it’s not sustainable. (See: speech of UNDP regional deputy director Jens Wandel – well worth the read.)
However, insisting on social, environmental, and economic sustainability simultaneously brings complexity, and we are faced with substantial unknowns, including:
- Assessing where we are,
- Defining where we want to be,
- Defining the path from where we are to where we want to be, and
- Defining how UNDP can support our partners.
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Tags:change, complexity, complexity theory, development, environmental sustainability, sustainable development, UNDP
Posted in Development | 10 Comments »
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
Zuzana Aschenbrennerova
See: Let’s make Slovakia more open this weekend (17-18 Dec) – part 1
Last weekend (17 and 18 December) Bratislava’s Design Factory was full of activists, programmers, designers and journalists. This colourful crowd set out to come up with ideas for an open Slovakia.
We managed to convince the award winning teams to tell us little more about their open ideas for Slovakia.
Tags:citizens, data, democracy, ideas, Okolo mna, open data, Open Slovakia, public administration, Zuzana Aschenbrennerova
Posted in Development 2.0, Social inclusion | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
Martin Jensen
Biogas plant, Uzbekistan
The weather is getting colder in Bukhara, and soon it will get colder – much colder – and farmers will have to worry about heating their farms.
Farmers are already heating their homes and green houses and soon the cowsheds will require heating as well. Most farmers have access to the national gas grid, but many are looking to alternative options for heating. One option is to produce biogas from livestock manure.
This is the reason why Bazarboy (pictured) has come from his town outside of Urgench to Bukhara. He already knows that the possibility exists to have his own gas production from animal manure and believes it would be a great way of securing alternative heating for the farm.
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Tags:agriculture, bio-fertilizer, biogas, Bukhara, business, farmers, greenhouse, Martin Jensen, Urgench, Uzbekistan
Posted in Environment, Poverty | No Comments »
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Annie Demirjian (Head of Governance team in Bratislava, currently with the United Nations/UNDP mission in Libya) @annedemir
Nothing like hitting the ground running after the new Government of Libya was formed.
After lots of horse-trading as to who will be appointed to which position, strategic planning and organizational work in the ministries, agencies, and institutions have begun. Of course it is hard to know exactly what is going on but at least the new political players are being placed in ministries and new organizational charts drawn.
What will the interface between the old guard (civil servants) and the new players in town is hard to say. Undoubtedly, changing of the guards will continue for a while to come.
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Tags:Annie Demirjian, capacity development, constitution, elections, governance, government, Libya, public administration reform, transitional government, UNDP, United Nations
Posted in Governance | No Comments »
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Eric Overvest, UNDP Country Director in Libya
I want to let the world know that Libyans are on the ball and let me tell you why.
I arrived here a few months ago and reclaimed the UNDP office that was looted during the revolution. Very quickly we found another office in a residential district and opened the UNDP shop for business.
While it took the new Libya some time to organize and form a transitional government, once they formed it, they hit the ground running. We, in the international community, are now trying to catch up with fast developments throughout the country (See: Libya rebuilds).
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Tags:civic education, disarmament, Eric Overvest, Libya, SURGE, Tufts College, UNDP, University of Tripoli
Posted in Disaster response, Governance | 1 Comment »
Friday, December 16th, 2011
Alessandra Bravi
In preparation for the April 2011 conference devoted to the United Nations Central Asia Regional Risk Assessment in Almaty, UNICEF sponsored a background paper to provide an overview of the social and economic vulnerabilities of households and assess social protection systems in the region.
The results are alarming. While poverty rates have declined and living standards have improved due to growth in income and consumption, the global financial crisis showed how easily and quickly improvements can be eradicated. The surge in food prices during the first half of 2011 alone created significant stresses on poorest households in the region.
What can be done to prevent this from happening again? UNICEF’s policy brief on social protection in Central Asia suggests better targeting existing assistance programmes, and creating new ones where needed. It also provides detailed recommendations that could turn the past crisis into an opportunity to overcome structural vulnerabilities and reduce poverty.
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Tags:Alessandra Bravi, Central Asia, economic crisis, food prices, Kyrgyzstan, policies, poverty, social protection, Tajikistan, UNICEF, World Food Programme
Posted in Poverty, Social inclusion | No Comments »
Friday, December 16th, 2011
Eva Vozarova
Opening data can be tough
Open data is a new gold mine – it provides a new kind of very valuable wealth. But first you need to know how to get the treasure out of the heaps of dirt.
Slovakia has the opportunity to start mining this treasure and use its benefits right now. Literally. In September this year, we joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) - an international initiative for improving transparency and accountability of governments through new technologies. Now we need to find out how to do this.
It isn’t only up to the government, to come up with ideas and solutions. On the contrary – this task, to a great extent, lies on citizen’s shoulders.
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Tags:Bratislava, Eva Vozarová, Fair Play Alliance, Iveta Radičová, open data, open government, Open Government Partnership, Open Ideas for Slovakia, Slovak Republic, Slovakia
Posted in Development 2.0 | No Comments »
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Zack Taylor
Are Europe and Central Asia immune from the types of violence that have turned many Latin American cities into veritable war-zones?
The grievances, predicaments and injustices motivating the violence affecting the favellas of Rio are certainly radically different from those impacting Bishkek or Belgrade. Violence must be looked in terms of failing to manage conflict and provide opportunities.
When these failures occur, they tend to do so quickly and dramatically. We see development gains evaporate overnight with the depressingly predictable result of destroyed businesses, broken infrastructure, the disappearance of foreign direct investment, and anemic growth that only benefits the elite.
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Tags:armed violence, Central Asia, conflict, development, fragile states, Latin America, social inclusion, violence, Zachary Taylor
Posted in Development, Disaster response | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
Abdulla Abdukhalilov (text collected and translated by Aziza Umarova)
When I entered the room and started my training, people were surprised and confused. A reserved whisper descended through the class and I knew it was because of me. In the first minutes of my training I felt as though I had been thrown in the deep end.
During my years of teaching I have consistently faced similar reactions with every new group attending my classes and trainings. Time and time again I grit my teeth and summon up the courage to start presenting. It usually takes me about five minutes and then the hesitation and confusion melts away. People start listening. At the conclusion of my talk, when it comes time for discussion, we spend hours talking through the issues we addressed.
I have been able to show that a person should be judged based on their competence, rather than a cliché set in society’s mind.
(more…)
Tags:Abdulla Abdukhalilov, Djizak, Human rights, local governance, Namangan, people with disabilities, Uzbekistan
Posted in Governance, Human rights | No Comments »