Young Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots organize street festivals to promote peace and tolerance
Citizens have been behind much of the progress in the Cyprus conflict and the building of a positive relationship between the two communities. Cypriot civil society has forged a network called Peace it Together, supported by UNDP, which has accumulated a wealth of knowledge on the role of citizens in peace building and reconciliation (See: the Peace Exchange).
The future role of Cypriot civil society in pushing for peace on the island will depend on the ability to sustain a pluralistic political narrative and press for progress in both national and international fora.
A chance for this will come this month (15 May 2012) when representatives of civil society organizations supported by UNDP will speak at the British Parliament in a public debate.
I fell in love with the idea of social innovation last year after hearing about the experience of our colleagues from UNDP in Armenia. So I was really happy when we established a partnership with Internews Network to organize a similar event in Ukraine – the Innovation Lab.
After 48 hours participating in the Innovation Lab, I can say with certainty that it is one of the most exciting, unpredictable and productive experiences in my professional life. In the course of two days a group of absolutely different people came up with prototypes for solutions to specific social issues they are trying to solve. It really works!
Defining and tracking the meaning of progress is an old challenge. From time immemorial people have been aware that money is merely a means – and not a goal of its own.
We know that apart from income, other important parts of life provide meaning for people. Some are difficult to quantify, but this does not make them any less relevant. Unfortunately, people tend to forget the obvious. For decades mainstream policy thinking was hijacked by a different paradigm – one built around the assumption material gain translated into human development and happiness. Read the rest of this entry »
To mark World Day for Safety and Health at Work, we accompanied Fatma Terlik, health and safety focal point for the UNDP Partnership for the Future Programme in Cyprus, as she toured various on-going construction sites.
With more than 55 civil works contracts awarded in the past five years – ranging from 10,000 to 25 million euros each – and approximately 800 workers employed – health and safety quickly became a priority issue for UNDP in Cyprus. Fatma’s site inspections are all-encompassing, as she inspects personal protection equipment, scaffolding, emergency situation plans, first aid, manual handling and tools to make sure they meet standards.
Is it time to reset the global development agenda? Will world leaders
be bold enough to agree on new sustainable development goals?
Tarja Halonen, former President of Finland and Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator will discuss those and other questions ahead of the Rio+20 summit at the Kapuscinski development lecture in Helsinki on Monday, 7 May 2012.
I will be tweeting live from the lecture via @undplive and @UNDP_Europe_CIS. Join the conversation with @helenclarkundp & @tarjahalonen on #rioplus20 and use #undplive in your tweets! Feel free to ask questions too.
As mentioned in my previous post, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a process which involves a review of the human rights record of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. The second review round will commence in May 2012. It will last 4.5 years and will focus on “inter alia, the implementation of the accepted recommendations and the developments of the human rights situation in the State under Review”.
I’ve just returned from the launch of the first ever energy efficient kindergarten in our country. It’s days like this – when the result of our efforts become ever so tangible – that I particularly love this work.
I am proud that it took less than five months for our team to completely refurbish a 50 year-old Skopje building that was in a pretty bad shape. We changed the windows, the façades, the roof and we installed a hot water solar system – using approaches that will minimize the payback period (yours truly along with the ‘green team’ also planted a few flowers for the latest spruce up!). Our estimates are that the energy savings of the kindergarten will amount to almost 60%!
On April 24-25, the National Council for Sustainable Development in Montenegro and UNDP will organize a 2-day meeting on sustainable development in Kolasin (tip for the would-be tourist: around this northern city there are a number of hidden gems worth exploring).
The event is Montenegro’s contribution to a global dialogue on sustainability and an opportunity for the country to consolidate the platform it will present at the global Sustainable Development Conference, the Rio+ meeting in June.
There are several dominant themes of the meeting:
How does Montenegro deal with the legacies of its economic past- energy intensive industries and heavy reliance on foreign direct investment- in a resource-constrained world?
Can green economy deliver on a promise of social equity, in addition to competitiveness and low emissions?
How can tourism and agriculture reduce regional economic imbalances?
Where are the most immediate opportunities for renewable energy and energy efficiency in Montenegro?
Educating young people to be healthy has always been a top priority for educational institutions, but it’s even more important for health promoting schools.
A health promoting school strives to be a healthy example for living, learning and working, like school №4 in Novograd-Volynskiy of the Zhytomyr region.
A school building itself influences the health of students and teachers, and school №4 was built 30 years ago, and as it often happens, the infrastructure of the building hasn’t been upgraded since. When you use something for such a long time without repairing it (especially sewage systems), problems appear. Some toilets stopped working, there were long lines for the restrooms during breaks, and around lunchtime, a bad smell started to spread in the corridors.
The school principal’s Valentyna Silvertyuk said it had a negative impact on the students’ physical and mental health.
RT @MarijaNovkovic: No single prescription for #dev. Best practice or best fit? Embrace experimentation and make small changes. Adapt to ... 19 hours ago
RT @gquaggiotto: Owen: Development policy needs stop looking the missing ingredient. Rather we need to harness & shape evolution #kapu19 hours ago
RT @gquaggiotto: "From best practice to best fit" --> we need a #globaldev sector promoting experimentation #kapu19 hours ago
