Poverty Reduction in Europe & CIS

Forum on Responsible Business Opportunities for Greek Businesses in Eastern Europe and the CIS, 2-3 April 2009

2 April 2009 - 3 April 2009
The Special Secretariat for the Development of International Programmes of the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) are organising a Forum on “Responsible Business Opportunities for Greek Businesses in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States”. The overall objective of the Forum is to explore business opportunities and investments by Greek businesses that have a positive impact on sustainable development and poverty reduction in the region.

Baseline Study on Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in the Western Balkans

19 November 2008

The Baseline study on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices in the Western Balkans is the first comprehensive CSR analysis conducted in the region. The report covers Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo/UNMIK, Montenegro and Serbia. It provides a detailed analysis of CSR practices in the region and illustrates existing drivers, barriers, and resources for CSR engagement and promotion. The reports makes a number of recommendations that can be widely utilized by all stakeholders involved in CSR implementation – including businesses, governments, civil society, academia, development partners, and the media – in assessing their current CSR policies and in designing new initiatives.

Multi-Stakeholder Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Inclusion in South Eastern Europe, 4-5 November, 2008

4 November 2008 - 5 November 2008
In cooperation with InWent - Capacity Building International, Germany and Serbian Chamber of Commerce, UNDP is organising the regional conference with an objective to discuss and exchange views about current development of Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Inclusion. At the same time, "Baseline Study on Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in the Western Balkans" funded by UNDP will be officially launched and presented.

Milking opportunities for participation in Armenia

28 August 2008

Armenia, 28 August 2008 – The participation of local people in making funding decisions for spending in their communities has great benefits in several areas: as well as promoting active citizenship and accountability in local budgetary decisions, such a budget methodology ensures live concerns are reflected in these decisions, with tangible impact on local economic development. This method for the implementation of UNDP projects is used alongside decentralization efforts in Armenia, and most recently gave birth to three new milk collection centres in the northern Tavush region.

From the street to the school, to the future

8 August 2008

Kyrgyzstan, 8 August 2008 – At the Youth Conference in Issyk-Kul, forty young leaders from vocational lyceums and universities developed skills in critical thinking, leadership and participation. The conference last week was organized by the UNDP project ‘Vocational Education for Street Children in the Kyrgyz Republic,’ which aims to ensure the right of a child to participate in the decision-making processes that impact their lives.  This event provided knowledge and skills to young leaders representing children from vulnerable families, orphans and street children obtaining vocational education in the lyceums of Bishkek.

Partner organizations invited to the conference to present their work included the UNV-UNDP Youth Programme, which provided information about the volunteer clubs and its activities, and the Center for Protection of Children, which conducted trainings on child participation, team building and leadership using interactive methods.

Social enterprise: a new answer to poverty

9 July 2008

Barcelona/region, 9 July 2008 – Today sees the launch of the publication Social Enterprise: A new model for poverty reduction and employment generation. Prepared by UNDP and the EMES European Research Network, this marks an important step toward raising the regional profile of social enterprise as a tool for community-based development. UNDP’s regional advisor on poverty reduction and civil society, Geoff Prewitt, explains what it’s all about.

Workshop : Advancing Youth Inclusion, Civic Engagement and Volunteerism towards Achievement of MDGs - Kiev, 1-2 July 2008

1 July 2008 - 2 July 2008
UN Volunteers and UNDP Civic Engagement Practice organized a two-day workshop “Advancing Youth Inclusion, Civic Engagement and Volunteerism towards Achievement of MDGs”. The workshop represents one of the key activities under the ongoing joint UNV/UNDP scoping project and was intended to deal with recent regional trends and developments influencing civil society and youth volunteerism including multi-sectoral partnerships. The specific experiences of individual countries in the RBEC region were also discussed. The main objective of the workshop was to contribute to formulating future UNDP/UNV interventions for the support of youth volunteering and civic engagement.

Finding value in cooperation

3 June 2008

Uzbekistan, 3 June 2008 – Small-scale agriculture in Uzbekistan has become much more important with the break up of the centralized model and the privatization of the sector. Land reform has resulted in over 200,000 new small private farms, which individually have limited technical skills and bargaining power. Throughout May 2008, the latest in a set of trainings on business skills was delivered to small-scale farmers in Uzbekistan, drawing on similar experiences in Indonesia.

Global economy, local effects: poverty in Ukraine

17 April 2008

Ukraine, 17 April 2008 — Many experts say that the excellent progress the whole East European region has made in reducing poverty in the last ten years is now being threatened by growing uncertainties in the global economy. At an international conference organised by UNDP, government executives from Eastern Europe, business leaders, international experts, think-tanks and NGOs shared their experiences of poverty alleviation and social inclusion through multilateral partnerships. The Conference’s participants called for an immediate response to resist further increases in poverty in Ukraine.

Business Opportunities in South East Europe- Vienna, 22 November 2007

22 November 2007
The Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organized a meeting on ‘Business Opportunities for Austrian Businesses in South East Europe’ within the framework of the UNDP Growing Sustainable Business (GSB) Initiative Programme. The Meeting took place on 22 November 2007 in Vienna, Austria. The Forum was intended for Austrian companies that were interested in engaging in responsible investment, mainly in the high potential sectors of Energy & Environment and Agro Processing. The overall objective of the event was to promote investment by Austrian businesses in South Eastern Europe, with positive impact on sustainable development.

Localizing the MDGs: The role for local leaders and using disaggregated data for local development

21 November 2007 - 23 November 2007
The training event aims to strengthen the capacity of local stakeholders to mobilize all stakeholders for local development planning and budgeting and for improved usage of disaggregated data in local development decisions to support the achievement of the MDGs. By understanding the importance of and sources for sub-national data, the objective is to assist communities to set MDG targets that are tailored to local realities. The resulting targets and indicators would be incorporated into local development strategies and used to monitor their progress. The workshop is based on two training programmes developed and implemented by UNDP: “Local leadership for localization of the MDGs” and “Building Capacity and Statistical Literacy for MDG monitoring”.

National Essay Competition for students on the Millennium Development Goals

13 November 2007

United Nations in Uzbekistan is pleased to announce the launch of the 2007-Second Annual Essay Competition for students on the Millennium Development Goals in Uzbekistan. The National Essay Competition is organized by the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office in Uzbekistan in partnership with UNDP, UNIC, UNICEF, UNODC, UNV and UNAIDS. 
 

Sub-regional CoP meeting on Human Development and Social Inclusion

9 November 2007
The technical workshop will bring together UNDP and UNV programme and project staff, and few experts from the countries of the Western Balkans and some EU new member states. It is expected that the workshop will increase awareness about the links between the MDGs and the EUs Social Policy, provide opportunity to exchange experiences and lessons learnt from new EU member states and clarify UNDP’s role and niche with respect to social inclusion and the linkages with UNDP’s core mandates of human development and human rights. The workshop is planned for one day following the “Quality of Life Survey” conference organized by the Croatian CO on November 8th.

The UN, Google and Cisco Unveil Online Resource in the Fight to Decrease Global Poverty

2 November 2007

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the project, called MDG Monitor, and highlighted the urgent need to increase global cooperation.  The site is available at www.mdgmonitor.org.

MDG Monitor Tracks Progress to Development Goals.

It’s Time to Help Others!

30 October 2007

Kosovo Safe Houses get supported with equipment

29 October 2007

Kosovo safe houses for victims of domestic violence and trafficking received new equipment in the campaign as the part of a wider drive, in the month of anti trafficking announced by the Prime Minister of Kosovo Mr. Agim Çeku. 

Global Meeting of Growing Sustainable Business Initiative- Vienna, 16-20 October 2007

17 October 2007 - 20 October 2007
Global Meeting of the Growing Sustainable Business Programme (GSB) was organized from 17 – 20 October 2007 in Vienna, Austria with an objective to bring together GSB global team (GSB Brokers) of 15 countries from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia to discuss programme achievements, operational changes, future challenges and the ways how to address them. The new Private Sector Development Strategy was presented which stands for a new platform for the UNDP in working with private sector.

NHDR 2007 launched in Poland

19 September 2007

Warsaw, September 19, 2007. Today UNDP Poland launched together with the Chancellery of the President of Poland our 2007 NHDR "Education for labour" (report coordinated by Janusz Czamarski). The event gathered over 100 specialists dealing with education and labour market, including those from private sector. It was also attended by parliamentarians and ministers - including education and regional development at the level of ministers and other on vice-ministerial levels.

UNESCAP/ADB/UNDP Regional Action Plan Urges Governments to Pay More Attention to the Social Agenda

20 July 2007

BISHKEK, 20, July 2007  – Participants at a UNESCAP, ADB, UNDP development forum have called on North and Central Asian governments to channel the benefits of strong economic growth in recent years to lagging social sectors, by improving educational and health care services.

Support to private sector to ensure pro-poor growth

11 July 2007

Development actors must offer targeted support, keyed to local conditions, if private entrepreneurship is to help reduce poverty, argues the latest edition of newsletter Development & Transition, which will be presented at the International Media Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility in Kyiv on 12 July.