Information and stories about United Nations.

Montreal Protocol Amendment Implemented in 2016
The Montreal Protocol, ratified by the United States in 1988, is an international treaty and aims to provide security and the foundations to eradicate the use of ozone-depleting substances. The initiative is also the only universal treaty to be ratified by all member states of the U.N. An amendment brought by all member states of the U.N. in October agreed to new plans to decrease the use of greenhouse gasses found in air conditioning and refrigeration technology.

Collaboration on plans to develop the Montreal Protocol Amendment to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) began a year prior to its passage by world leaders. HFC emissions are most prevalent in refrigeration and air conditioning technologies and have the vast potential to drastically increase global temperatures, as warned by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator (EPA), Gina McCarthy.

The United States has already taken action to eliminate the use of HFCs, as demonstrated by the Clean Air Act (CAA) and President Obama’s Climate Action Plan (CAP). The EPA reports that the president’s CAP initiative also calls for investment in more energy-efficient and environmentally safe alternatives to decrease amounts of greenhouse gas.

The EPA predicts HFC gas emissions to increase 20 times the current level over the decades in the near future. Timely attention to the phasing out of HFC emissions, due to the extremely high potency of the gas in ozone-depleting processes, is imperative to the success of environmental protection and sustainability. Sustaining current emissions of HFCs into the environment also has the potential to counterbalance existing efforts to phase out other ozone-depleting substances, as reported by the EPA.

However, in a press release from the president’s Office of the Press Secretary, results of the plans set forth to cut HFC and other greenhouse gas emissions in the private sector equate to, “taking 210 million passenger vehicles off the road for a year.” The World Bank also states, “consequences of climate change could cause an additional 100 million people into poverty by 2030.”

U.N. Sustainable Development Goals outline universal climate action as pivotal to ensuring beneficial development for countries in both the global north and south. The World Bank’s Climate Change Action Plan also provides a framework for global regions, recognizing variations in challenges and needs, to administer support and action plans should challenges arise due to the declining state of nature.

Amber Bailey

Photo: Flickr

Biometric Identification in Refugee Camps
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 65 million people are displaced because of armed conflict and persecution. More than 21 million are classified as refugees, which means they are protected by international law and cannot be forced to return to places where their lives and freedom are at risk. The UNHCR is using biometric identification technology in an attempt to keep track of so many people.

The logic for protecting and helping refugees through global humanitarian networks seems simple. People who travel thousands of miles to escape dangerous conflicts should have a safe place to work, raise their children and live their lives in peace. Yet the global refugee crisis shows us that many nations continue to struggle to meet the needs of refugees at their borders and efficiently deliver social services.

For instance, consider the rapid increase of Syrian refugees in response to the country’s ongoing civil war. Amnesty International reports that, as of February 2016, more than half the nation’s population is displaced. Over 4.5 million refugees have poured into the neighboring countries of Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. However, global resettlement efforts have only managed to successfully resettle 162,151 people, a mere 3.6% of the total refugee population.

While resettlement is the ultimate goal of refugee relief efforts, Syria’s neighbors lack the resources and capacity to do it all themselves. Until other nations agree to take in more refugees, one way to help refugees living in border camps is to register them with the UNHCR.

Once registered, refugees are eligible to receive social and medical assistance from various humanitarian organizations. Refugee status protects adults from refoulement (forced return to their war-torn place of origin) and protects children from military recruitment. Registration also helps keep families together and gives them opportunities to contact other friends and loved ones.

The UNHCR is working to deliver faster assistance to refugees by implementing a biometric identification registration system. Currently, refugee camps employ a combination of methods to register refugees, usually involving time-consuming paperwork and fingerprinting. Not only are paper records increasingly difficult to archive as the refugee population steadily climbs, but fingerprinting requires training. The UNHCR hopes biometric identification, designed in partnership with Accenture, will drastically expedite the registration process and help refugees receive faster care after making the life-threatening journey out of dangerous regions.

Biometrics refer to a set of measurements and analyses of physical characteristics to verify personal identity. In the context of refugee registration, biometrics refer to digitally stored fingerprints, iris data and facial images. Once collected, the data gets encoded into a personal ID, which refugees can use throughout UNHCR facilities. Many refugees are forced to leave home on a moment’s notice, without enough time to collect important personal documents. Biometric ID cards can provide them with a secure form of personal identification to use as they build a new life.

The Biometric Identity Management System (BIMS) is designed to endure rugged field conditions like extreme heat, dust, humidity, power and connectivity outages. It’s relatively easy to operate, which is necessary in refugee camps where workers come and go on a regular basis and have varying levels of technological experience.

Accenture’s BIMS has already seen incredible success. The UNHCR piloted the technology at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi, where it rapidly enrolled and verified 17,000 of the camp’s refugees. Then, in Thailand, the BIMS added another 120,000 individuals to the international database of refugees.

The UNHCR has proved how an integrated database of biometric identification information can meet the growing demand for greater security and efficiency in the registration process. Once fully launched, the system can be used remotely or in high-risk areas to register refugees, verify their identity and improve the UNHCR’s ability to keep track of their needs.

Jessica Levitan

Photo: Flickr

Global Citizen Festival
Now in its fifth year, the popular and innovative online campaign of the Global Citizen Festival has called upon music fans to win political support in tackling issues including global education. The festival’s ongoing goal is to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.

The Global Citizen Festival kicked off its advocacy season by mobilizing fans to complete a number of tasks on their online platform. Strategically aligned with the U.N. General Assembly dates, users were encouraged to sign their name on poverty-related petitions, tweet photographs to world leaders and mobilize friends.

As an incentive, participants earned the chance to attend the Sept. 24 concert in NYC’s Central Park, which showcased a line-up of famous performers such as Rihanna, Selena Gomez and Metallica. Most importantly, participants felt like a part of a coalition that shapes poverty awareness, policy-making and the overall conversation of global poverty and inequality in international affairs.

On their website, Global Citizen explains, “The effects of small actions are not always obvious, but by working together specific and tangible outcomes are achieved.” In previous years, the organization has highlighted various initiatives to help mobilize support and successfully secure international funds for poverty-related issues such as sanitation, food resources and education.

In 2014, Global Citizen successfully mobilized 40,000 participants to sign a petition to support the Global Partnership for Education as well as send 2,284 tweets to Raj Shah, Administrator of USAID. This mobilization not only doubled the budget to $40 million for the 2014 financial year but enabled further commitment of $45 million in 2015 and an additional $70 million in 2016.

This year, one of Global Citizen Festival’s featured campaigns is Education Cannot Wait, which is timely as the fund launched in May and more pledges from world leaders are needed. The Education Cannot Wait Fund is a government fund for global education for children in emergencies. The fund strives to ensure that education is not disrupted for children in humanitarian, war and refugee crises.

According to the Education Cannot Wait Fund, approximately 75 million children ages 3 to 18 are currently out of school due to wars, natural disasters and other emergencies. Moreover, Evelyn Rodriquez-Perez, director of USAID’s Office of Education in Washington, D.C., states that the world is facing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, as conflicts in Syria and 35 crisis-affected countries disrupt education for 43 million children.

In a U.N. article, Special Envoy Gordon Brown stated, “We believe that this fund will offer young people hope because when we ask ourselves what breaks the lives of once thriving young children, it’s not just the Mediterranean wave that submerged the life vest, it’s not just the food convoy that does not arrive in Syria, it is also the absence of hope; the [..] certainty that there is nothing ahead to plan […] for, not even a place in school.”

With less than two percent of humanitarian aid going toward global education, hope for children and the significance of education in humanitarian crises as they help them recover from trauma, provide normalcy and rebuild their futures will continue to be disparate.

In acknowledgment, The Global Citizen Festival has called fans to advocate for the fund, asking citizens to reach out to world leaders from France, Switzerland, Canada, Kuwait, Finland, Germany and Denmark to commit to a pledge. These mobilizing efforts of the Global Citizen’s campaign will not only assist in securing more funding and increasing pledges by world leaders but will hopefully continue to make a big difference at future U.N. General Summits.

Priscilla Son

Photo: Flickr

 

Haitian Cholera Outbreak
The Haitian cholera outbreak in 2010 became endemic, after at least a century of the disease not posing a threat.

Spread through contaminated water, the infectious disease causes dehydration and severe diarrhea. It can even lead to death if left untreated, sometimes in just a few hours. The outbreak transpired just after a fatal earthquake occurred in the country.

The United Nations (U.N.) sent peacekeepers to Haiti to help with the damage but failed to screen them for cholera or build them sufficient toilet facilities. As a result, cholera-infected wastewater flowed into Haiti’s main river — a main source for washing, cooking, cleaning and drinking. By 2011, over 470,000 cases of cholera were reported, with 6,631 connected deaths.

Immediate Response

Within days of the Haitian cholera outbreak, the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP), along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its partners, established a national surveillance system to track cases of the disease.

Treatment and prevention materials were also quickly developed, and thousands of healthcare workers were trained. Together, the organizations reduced the initial mortality rate of four percent to less than one percent, saving an estimated 7,000 lives.

However, thousands of people continue to become sickened each year by cholera. Haiti’s water and sanitation infrastructure require major improvement for any significant, long-term progress to be made.

The U.N.’s Reaction

After denying any responsibility for over five years, the U.N. has now officially admitted to a role in the Haitian cholera outbreak.

The deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq, recently sent out an email saying, “over the past year, the U.N. has become convinced that it needs to do much more regarding its own involvement in the initial outbreak and the suffering of those affected by cholera.” He wrote that a “new response will be presented publicly within the next two months, once it has been fully elaborated, agreed with the Haitian authorities and discussed with member states.”

Although this statement fails to put blame on the U.N. or to indicate a change in its legal position — that it is absolutely immune from legal actions — it does represent a significant step forward for the U.N.

Looking Forward

Haiti launched a National Plan to eliminate cholera from the country in 2013. The 10-year-long plan focuses on water and sanitation, health and preventing further infections.

However, the plan is terribly underfunded. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) pledged over $125 million toward this program, $19 million of which was received; the plan is anticipated to top a total of $2.2 billion in investments.

Nigel Fisher, Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General in Haiti said, “It’s a big challenge. We have to raise literally billions of dollars. And this requires sustained support and commitment. That’s what we are here for. We, all of us partners, have a moral obligation to stay the course with cholera. Not just to lower the incidence of cholera, but to eliminate it from Haiti.”

Alice Gottesman

Photo: Flickr

Malaysia_Poverty
The Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia is not a desperately poor country. Poverty in Malaysia is fairly low — the percentage of citizens at or below the national poverty line was 0.6 percent in 2014. Life expectancy and the infant mortality rate are about the same as in the U.S. and the GDP is growing.

Reducing poverty in Malaysia has come a long way since 1990 when the United Nations introduced the Millennium Development Goals. The first goal for the U.N. — to halve the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day by 2015 — was reached in Malaysia.

However, Malaysia has significant poverty and income inequality lurking just below the surface. While extreme poverty in Malaysia (income of less than $1.25 per day) is down to less than one percent, more than 25 percent of the population lives on less than $5 per day. Furthermore, about 60 percent of Malaysian families live on less than $1600 a month according to Al Jazeera.

About 20 million of the 30 million people in Malaysia live on the peninsula and approximately 72 percent of the population is urban.

The area in the need of the most support is the rural sector of Sabah on the island of Borneo. Borneo is a large island shared by Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia so migration around the island is common.

The country is now home to about 2 million immigrants due to migration and recent political turmoil in neighboring Thailand. At this time there is no process for asylum seekers in Malaysia.

Both legal and illegal immigrants are known to be treated harshly and do not receive government support. It is imperative for the Malaysian government to address the needs of migrants as they make up over 10 percent of the population.

Malaysia also has relatively high levels of income inequality. The GINI index measures how much income levels deviate from totally equal distribution. Malaysia places higher than most countries, including all of its neighboring countries and the United States, with a GINI index of 46.2.

Malaysia stands out among its surroundings despite these problems. Nations like Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines all hover around a 25 percent poverty rate and an infant mortality rate that is between three and seven times higher than Malaysia.

Malaysia is also the only country among them with a functional and robust social welfare system. It is clear that further steps must be taken but remarkable progress has been made to reduce poverty in Malaysia in the past few decades.

John English

Photo: Flickr

Sustainable DevelopmentThe High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) will meet in July 2017 at the U.N. Headquarters in New York to discuss the U.N. 2030 Agenda, which was adopted on September 25, 2015 at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. The theme of the forum is “Leaving No One Behind,” and it will meet from July 11 to 20.

The HLFP replaced the Commission on Sustainable Development in 2013 and meets every four years under the U.N. General Assembly and under the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) during other years.

According to the Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, the goals of the Forum include to guide the execution of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), give suggestions about the 2030 Agenda, incorporate and apply science and international experiences and track the SDG.

The President of the ECOSOC, Oh Joon, stated that the Forum also aims to focus on the national ownership of the SDGS and incorporating the Goals into development plans.

Among its many objectives, the Forum will review the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs with help from reviewers from 22 countries across the world. The President of ECOSOC stated that the reviews are part of the new ways that the Forum works to secure that the world achieves the 2030 Agenda amidst changing global conditions.

The Forum will also take into account the inaugural report entitled “Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals” presented by Wu Hongbo, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for ECOSOC. The document is the first real report of the progress of the 17 SDGs.

As Wu said in an interview, eliminating poverty is both “the greatest global challenge” and a “requirement for sustainable development” that the Forum aims to address with improved methodology.

Although the HLPF is just one event among the many that it will take to create a sustainable, poverty-free world, the deliberations of the Forum are a crucial first step to continual progress.

Addie Pazzynski

Photo: Flickr.

Sustainable Development

From Sept. 4 to 5, heads of state and government from nineteen countries and the European Union will gather in Hangzhou, China for the 11th G20 summit. The theme of this year’s conference is “Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy”, a motto which many officials and experts find encouraging.

In an interview with the Xinhua News Agency, China’s state-owned media outlet, Atsushi Sunami, the vice president of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo, explained that the G20 summit could forge consensus on implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Adopted by the U.N. last fall, the 2030 Agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aims to end poverty and hunger by the end of the third decade in the 21st century.

Sunami also called on countries to work together and build innovation across borders. The conference in Hangzhou, in his view, could jump-start the dialogue on open innovation and inclusive development.

Also speaking with Xinhua, Peter Thompson, who will be the president of the upcoming 71st Session of the U.N. General Assembly, voiced his support for the summit’s theme as well as the U.N.’s desire to work with the G20 organizers. “We will certainly be doing our part here at the United Nations in terms of the G20 outcome to make sure it’s built into the international implementation plans,” he said.

Likewise, Daniel Funes de Rioja, President of the International Organization of Employers (IOE), expressed his hope that the G20 summit will be a step in the direction of inclusive development. “Prosperity requires growth, investment, technology and innovation, with employment and social coverage for all,” according to de Rioja.

Indeed, while the G20 is primarily a forum for leaders of the developed world, developing countries are also starting to make their voices heard.

Senegal, which will be present at the summit in Hangzhou, sees the G20 as a platform to call attention to African issues as well as an opportunity to explore solutions. Alioune Sarr, the country’s commerce minister, told China Central Television (CCTV) that the conference will highlight the necessity of poverty eradication and inclusive development on the continent.

The G20 has consistently underscored the importance of international cooperation when it comes to solving the world’s problems, and the renewed emphasis on inclusive development and shared prosperity is certainly a welcome change.

Philip Katz

Photo: Flickr

U.N. SDGsThe United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are not exclusive to the realm of government policy. The business and science communities can help address climate change and fight poverty as well.

According to the 2016 U.N. Global Compact-Accenture Strategy CEO Study, 87 percent of executives embrace the SDGs and are willing to reevaluate the way their companies do business.

The State of Responsible Business Report 2016, published by business intelligence company Ethical Corporation, found that the level of business engagement with U.N. SDGs is highest in the Asia-Pacific region at 54 percent.

This ranking was followed by 46 and 37 percent in Europe and North America, respectively. These results indicate that companies in or near the developing world are, in fact, the most eager to work toward achieving sustainable development.

On specific goals, Ethical Corporation determined that more than half of its customers are willing to engage on climate action, decent work and economic growth, as well as responsible consumption and production (these agendas rank 13, 8 and 12 out of the 17 U.e. SDGs).

By region, African companies are more focused on the goal of quality education, whereas businesses in the Asia-Pacific are more inclined to climate action.

Liam Dowd, the managing director of Ethical Corporation, pointed out that engagement on the goals of no poverty and zero hunger (one and two on the list of SDGs) is lower. Mr. Dowd said that engagement is likely because these targets are more general in scope and require cooperation with other sectors, not because companies are turning a blind eye to these issues.

Additionally, cooperation is precisely what the business and international communities are hoping to achieve. At the SDG Business Forum held in New York on July 19, 2016, the U.N. Global Compact and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) signed a memorandum of understanding on encouraging business participation in the U.N. 2030 agenda.

According to the Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net), the U.N. SDGs also have the potential to involve more everyday citizens in scientific research and make initiatives more people-oriented.

Elizabeth Pollitzer, the managing director at Portia, a company that aims to help women across science disciplines, argued that the “SDGs can be a beacon for innovation in the way research programmes are designed to include the people who are meant to benefit.”

In turn, increasing citizen engagement is an initiative that governments, the scientific community and other NGOs can improve upon.

For the development community, the U.N. SDGs have become points of cooperation with the science and business communities. They have enormous potential to bring about more responsible research and corporate strategies.

Philip Katz

Photo: Pixabay

Common_Good_Initiative

The Common Ground Initiative was unveiled at the Cannes Lions advertising festival on Friday, June 24 to a crowd of some of the industry’s top leaders. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon shared the stage with some of advertising’s most powerful CEOs to make the announcement.

The initiative is a plan to produce and distribute advertising about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nation’s set of 17 goals for improving living conditions around the world. The ads will run in publications such as The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, the Daily Mail and Le Figaro, to name a few.

The collaborative effort between the rival companies is unprecedented, even more so when considering that both the ads and media time were gifted pro-bono for the cause.

However, considering the importance of the SDG’s, the necessity of raising awareness in participating countries cannot be understated. It is especially vital considering that there are no legal mandates pushing countries towards adopting the SDGs.

The Wall Street Journal interviewed Jan Eliasson, the deputy secretary-general of the U.N. In his interview, Eliasson argued that raising awareness of the goals would add pressure on governments to take a stand on some of the issues in question.

A 2013 survey by the European Commission found that only six percent of the European Union was aware of the U.N.’s previous initiative, the Millennium Development Goals, despite their success. The U.N. hopes that Common Ground will inspire more countries to reach the 2030 date for the current goals.

According to the Jamestown Sun, the first set of advertisements will focus on everyday people agreeing that the goals of the SDG’s are more important any rivalries between interested parties, implying that everybody should be a strong supporter of the U.N.’s goals.

In debuting the initiative, the advertising companies issued the following statement: “By working in partnership to support the Sustainable Development Goals, we want to demonstrate that even fierce competitors can set aside their differences in order to serve a wider common interest.”

Sabrina Santos

Photo: U.N. Multimedia

Plan International

Plan International recently announced a multi-organizational partnership to help track the U.N.’s global goals for gender equality.

The goals for gender equality stem from the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals, adopted in 2015, aim to vastly improve the living conditions around the world.

The central focus of this project is gender inequality. Plan International decided to collect relevant data and use it as a benchmark to determine the amount of progress.

Partner Organizations for Gender Equality

To do so, they partnered with several organizations. These include the International Women’s Health Coalition and KPGM. In addition, Plan International chose the ONE Campaign and Women Deliver.

Plan International chose these organizations because their previous work and values align with those of Plan. However, some organizations bring additional value to the table.

For instance, KPMG has a history of partnership building in the private sector. They also have a strong data tracking history with their Change Readiness Index. That index will be especially important in the project’s next few months.

The project’s first step is to sift through the data that already exists. They can then determine what is relevant to their goals for gender equality and what is not.

In an exclusive interview with Mary Bridger, the Engagement Manager for Plan’s SDG tracking initiative, she said, “We don’t feel that you can truly comprehend the realities for girls and women until you look beyond the quantitative data and find out what the lived realities for these individuals are (i.e. you can measure the geographic proximity of a school to girls, but until you ask them whether they feel safe on public transportation, you don’t know the true barriers).”

Prioritizing Gender Equality

For now, the project’s next goal is to work with their partners to push the scope of their research and develop the tools necessary to allow them to best capture those lived realities.

Bridger underscored the importance of this campaign when she said, “Plan International’s purpose is to work towards all children fulfilling their rights, focusing on excluded and vulnerable groups so that no-one is left behind. However, we have recognized the urgent need to prioritize girls as the most marginalized group whose rights are violated most.”

Plan International and their partner organizations all believe that meeting goals for gender equality will have a ripple effect within local communities and even worldwide.

Sabrina Santos

Photo: Talent Culture