UN Gazeti
Wednesday 27 June 2007
Issue No. 227
UN Observances
UN IN KENYA
UNDP KENYA JOINS EQUITY BANK TO PROMOTE WOMEN IN BUSINESS
The FANIKISHA initiative is a joint effort by UNDP-Kenya and Equity Bank to promote Women Entrepreneurs in the country. UNDP estimates that 53% of rural women and 63% of urban women live below the poverty line. It is also estimated that 85% of businesses in the informal sector and 48% of small and micro-enterprises are owned by women who face the twin challenge of lack of business skills and financing.
Equity Bank will open three new branches in Nairobi to serve women only under a Kenya Shillings 5 billion programme with UNDP. The aim is to increase financial Aid to Women Entrepreneurs within the next 5 years. The Bank says the Funds will be used for medium and long term lending to increase women’s capacity and to expand their businesses. The lending initiative seeks to increase the competitiveness of businesses owned by women. An initial 2,000 business women have been selected for free training in the joint program as organized by UNDP, ILO and UNIDO.
For more information, contact Jemaiyo Chabeda, Email: jemaiyo.chabeda@undp.org
6 GOVERNMENTS, UN AGREE ON ‘ROAD MAP’ TO TACKLE HUNGER
The United Nations agencies at the forefront of the battle against hunger announced yesterday that six African Governments and the UN have agreed on a road map to tackle the root causes of rising hunger across the drought-plagued Horn of Africa, warning that the next major crisis could force more than 20 million people into needing emergency assistance.
The agreement – the result of Government-led consultations, supported by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) – includes a list of 170 successful projects that can be scaled up and expanded throughout the region, including growing trees, rehabilitating land, and digging water wells and irrigation systems
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
WFP TO KENYA TO ALLOW FOOD INTO SOMALIA
The United Nations food relief agency on 22 June 2007 appealed to Kenyan authorities to allow assistance for more than 100,000 people to be trucked into Somalia, where piracy is hampering deliveries by sea.
One hundred and forty WFP-contracted trucks carrying the food left the Kenyan port of Mombasa and were unexpectedly stopped at the Northeast Kenyan border crossing of El-Wak since they first started arriving there on 25 May.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN IN AFRICA
AGREEMENT SHOULD SYNCHRONIZE ACTIONS WITH AFRICAN UNION
A new agreement between the Security Council and its African Union (AU) counterpart will allow the two bodies to better harmonize their actions in the interest of international peace and security, the Council heard yesterday.
Four Permanent Representatives briefed the Council on the 15-member body’s recent week-long mission to Africa – the group visited Ethiopia, Sudan, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – in support of ongoing peace efforts across the continent.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
CHILDREN HARDEST HIT BY ZIMBABWE’S ECONOMIC PROBLEMS
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says it is deeply concerned about increased suffering for everyday Zimbabweans, particularly children, as a result of grave economic problems facing the southern African country.
“Every day in Zimbabwe the basic elements required for a healthy and happy childhood –affordable education, three meals per day, clothing and shelter – are being pushed out of reach for people,” said UNICEF’s Representative in Zimbabwe, Festo Kavishe.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SOCCER STAR LILIAN THURAM MEETS LIBERIAN YOUTH
A United Nations-backed initiative has brought French international football star Lilian Thuram to Liberia, where he encouraged thousands of youth to actively pursue peace.
Attending a series of events on Sunday, Mr. Thuram called on Liberian youth to eschew violence, drugs and war. “Violence is dangerous. To have a better life, you need peace to build and develop your beautiful and rich country,” he stated.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN BOLSTERS SECURITY MEASURES IN VOLATILE EAST OF DR CONGO
The United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is taking measures to help the authorities bolster security in the country’s troubled eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, a spokesperson for the world body said on Monday.
MONUC said UN peacekeepers, in cooperation with the Congolese Army, have conducted some 600 patrols in the two provinces in recent weeks, including more than half that figure in the course of last week alone as part of efforts to restore security and public safety.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN COLLEAGUES IN DR CONGO MOURN SLAIN JOURNALIST
United Nations colleagues are mourning the death of Serge Maheshe, a journalist for Radio Okapi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who was shot last week while entering a UN car.
Sebastien Lapierre, a former Radio Okapi colleague, recalled the victim as “one of the best journalists on our team” dedicated to covering breaking news events.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN TRIBUNAL BEGINS TRIAL OF RWANDAN PRIEST CHARGED WITH GENOCIDE
The trial before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) of a priest and former college rector charged with genocide, murder and extermination against the Tutsi ethnic group began on 22 June 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania.
Hormisdas Nsengimana, a priest and formerly a Rector of Christ-Roi College in Nyanza, Nyabisindu Commune in Butare Prefecture, is charged with four counts of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity for murder and extermination.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION TRIGGERING TENSIONS IN SUDAN
Environmental degradation is among the root causes of decades of conflict in Sudan, a new United Nations report argues, warning that the country is unlikely to see lasting peace unless it is addressed.
The UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) investigation “has shown clearly that peace and people’s livelihoods in Darfur as well as in the rest of Sudan are inextricably linked to the environmental challenge,” said Achim Steiner, the Executive Director of the agency, which carried out the Sudan Post-Conflict Assessment at the request of the new Government of National Unity and the Government of Southern Sudan.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNHCR HAILS PLANNED COOPERATION PACT WITH MOROCCO
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on 22 June 2007 welcomed Morocco's announced intention to sign a cooperation agreement with the agency, saying it would pave the way for improved coordination to help those who have fled to the North African country.
The announcement, made on Wednesday to coincide with World Refugee Day June 20, will pave the way for upgrading the status of the UNHCR office in Rabat.
UN AROUND THE WORLD
SG URGES RATIFICATION OF INTERNATIONAL TREATY BANNING TORTURE
Marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other United Nations officials yesterday roundly denounced the practice and called on all countries to ratify the international treaty that bans it.
To commemorate the Day, “let us speak with one voice against the perpetrators of torture, and for all who suffer at their hands,” Mr. Ban said in a message. “And let us build a better, more humane world for all people everywhere.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN OFFERS ASSISTANCE TO SURVIVORS OF SOUTH ASIA STORMS
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday pledged to support national efforts to provide emergency assistance to survivors of recent storms across South Asia, which have resulted in several hundred deaths in India and Pakistan.
Mr. Ban was “deeply concerned by the loss of life and serious damage caused by severe storms and flooding in parts of India and Pakistan,” his spokesperson said in a statement.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG URGES MEDIA TO FOCUS ON PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE IN MIDDLE EAST
Warning that recent violence has set back the Middle East peace process, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday urged media professionals and civil society representatives attending a United Nations-organized seminar in Tokyo to “explore creative approaches to spreading the message of peace and coexistence in these troubled times.”
“You meet at a very critical time,” Mr. Ban said in a message delivered by Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Kiyo Akasaka to the International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East.
For more information please contact http://www.un.org/news
UN HANDS OUT ANNUAL PUBLIC SERVICE EXCELLENCE AWARDS
From introducing an e-voting initiative in Switzerland to establishing a performance contracts scheme in Kenya, government departments, agencies and public bodies from 14 countries have won this year’s United Nations Public Service Awards.
The annual awards, handed out yesterday in Vienna during the 7th Global Forum on Reinventing Government, were set up in 2003 to reward and promote professionalism in the public sector around the world.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG CONDEMN DEADLY ATTACK ON UN PEACEKEEPERS
The Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have strongly condemned yesterday’s bomb attack in southern Lebanon that killed six UN peacekeepers and seriously wounded two others.
The peacekeepers from Spain and Colombia were on a patrol about 5:30 yesterday afternoon near the town of Khiyam, located in the eastern sector of UNIFIL’s area of operation, when the explosion occurred.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
DSG SAYS UN CAN BENEFIT FROM RESULTS OF GOOD GOVERNANCE
The United Nations stands to benefit from the results of a meeting on good governance bringing together elected officials, experts, business leaders and representatives of civil society groups, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told participants assembled in Vienna for the four-day conference.
Addressing more than 2,000 delegates attending the Seventh Global Forum on Reinventing Government, she emphasized that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, upon taking office, “singled out ‘the good name of the United Nations’ as one of its most valuable – and most vulnerable – assets.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN MEETING CALLS FOR MORE MALE FACILITATORS IN GENDER TRAINING
Increasing the number of qualified male trainers in gender training for security personnel is one of the key conclusions of an online expert-group discussion hosted by the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) and its partners in Santo Domingo.
The e-discussion, supported also by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces and the OSCE
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNICEF URGES MEASURES IN RESPONSE TO ABUSE OF ORPHANS IN IRAQ
Reacting to broadcast images of children in a Baghdad orphanage suffering “horrific neglect and abuse,” the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on 22 June 2007 urged the Iraqi Government to assess conditions nationwide and take measures to address the problem.
“Even in a country overshadowed by daily scenes of violence, these images are truly shocking,” said UNICEF Representative for Iraq, Roger Wright. “Making children suffer in this way is totally unacceptable.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNHCR SAYS PALESTINIANS WHO FLED IRAQ DESPERATELY NEED AID
Spotlighting the deteriorating conditions facing some 1,400 Palestinians who fled Baghdad and are stranded in camps on the Iraq-Syria border, the United Nations refugee agency yesterday called for international assistance to alleviate their plight.
“There is an urgent need for medical care as well as an immediate humanitarian solution and we urge countries in the region – and further afield – to help end their suffering,” Jennifer Pagonis, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNAIDS TO ENSURE PATIENT CONFIDENTIALITY IN HIV DATA COLLECTION
Aiming to protect the almost 40 million men, women and children living with HIV from potential stigma and discrimination, the main United Nations agency dealing with AIDS on 22 June 2007 released new guidelines to ensure that patient confidentiality is not compromised in the process of collecting and storing information on the virus.
The Interim Guidelines on Protecting the Confidentiality and Security of HIV Information were developed through a workshop supported by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
For more information on the United Nations and its activities, please visit the main U.N website at www.un.org or the U.N Kenya website at www.un-kenya.org |
