Knowledge Centre : Organisations : United Nations
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- U.S. Gets as Much as it Gives to the U.N.
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"U.N. member states, and particularly its largest contributors, want to know if they are getting the most value for the dollars they contribute," says Mark P. Lagon, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary for international organisation affairs. But what he failed to tell the committee is what the United States, in turn, extracts from the United Nations -- financially and politically. According to the latest figures released by the U.N., the United States has consistently held the number one spot in grabbing U.N. procurement contracts, averaging over 22.5 percent of all U.N. purchases annually. (Thalif Deen, IPS News, 9 August 2006)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34291
(Added: Wed Aug 16 2006 Hits: 185)
- Africa Recovery
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The Africa Recovery office of the United Nations Department of Public Information seeks to provide timely and accurate news and analysis on the critical economic and development challenges facing the African continent. Its flagship publication is Africa Recovery magazine, which first appeared in 1987, but it also produces in-depth Briefing Papers, information kits, and other releases. Through these outlets, Africa Recovery examines the many issues that confront the people of Africa, its leaders and its international partners: economic reform, debt, education and health, women's advancement, conflict and civil strife, democratization, aid, investment, trade, regional integration, rural development and many other topics.
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/
(Added: Thu Jul 24 2003 Modified: Mon Jun 26 2006 Hits: 455)
- Alliance of Civilisations: report of the High-Level group
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Our world is alarmingly out of balance. For many, the last century brought unprecedented progress, prosperity, and freedom. For others, it marked an era of subjugation, humiliation and dispossession. Ours is a world of great inequalities and paradoxes: a world where the income of the planet's three richest people is greater than the combined income of the world's least developed countries; where modern medicine performs daily miracles and yet 3 million people die every year of preventable diseases; where we know more about distant universes than ever before, yet 130 million children have no access to education; where despite the existence of multilateral covenants and institutions, the international community often seems helpless in the face of conflict and genocide. For most of humanity, freedom from want and freedom from fear appear as elusive as ever. The Alliance seeks to address widening rifts between societies by reaffirming a paradigm of mutual respect among peoples of different cultural and religious traditions and by helping to mobilize concerted action toward this end. This effort reflects the will of the vast majority of peoples to reject extremism in any society and support respect for religious and cultural diversity. To guide this initiative, the Secretary-General has established a High-level Group of eminent persons. This is their report. (Alliance of Civilisations, November 2006)
http://www.unaoc.org/repository/HLG_Report.pdf
(Added: Fri May 25 2007 Hits: 157)
- An Evaluation of Humanitarian Information Centers (HICs) including Case Studies of HICs for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Liberia
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(ReliefWeb) August, 2004. The Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) is a common service of the UN System, managed by the Field Information Support Unit (FIS) of OCHA. The evaluation team was comprised of two independent consultants hired by USAID/ OFDA and DFID/ CHAD. The team was asked to examine the success of HICs in servicing the humanitarian community. Three case studies were to inform this - Liberia, Afghanistan and Iraq. This document looks at HIC performance in crisis stiuations, their role in decision-making and provides key recommendations for improving their effectiveness.
http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2004/hicevaluation-24aug.pdf
(Added: Fri Sep 17 2004 Modified: Fri Jul 14 2006 Hits: 392)
- Annan's difficult decade nears end
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As Kofi Annan's 10 years as head of the United Nations are nearing the end, the ambitious but low-key secretary-general can look back on a turbulent time that saw a mix of triumphs and difficulties for him and the world organization, the Financial Times writes in this analysis. Annan's roller-coaster ride includes receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, seeing the UN being marginalized by the U.S. over the invasion of Iraq, and lately returning to the center of several hot-spot world affairs, including Lebanon and North Korea. (Mark Turner, Financial Times, 10 October 2006)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3d9a2c3e-587e-11db-b70f-0000779e2340.html
(Added: Thu Oct 12 2006 Hits: 175)
- Approved Draft Outcome Document from September 13th
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(Reformtheun.org) Approved UN reform document for the 2005 UN World Summit.
http://www.reformtheun.org/index.php/united_nations/1397
(Added: Thu Sep 15 2005 Modified: Mon Jul 02 2007 Hits: 256)
- Better World Campaign: Resolve the crisis, don't shut down the UN
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By signing the petition on this website, you can help send a message to world leaders. Tell them you understand the indispensable role that the UN plays as an agent of peace and prosperity around the world and that it is imperative that every nation honor its commitment to keep the UN's work moving forward.
http://www.dontshutdowntheun.org/
(Added: Wed May 31 2006 Hits: 331)
- Beyond Pragmatism: Appraising UN-Business Partnerships
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In recent years, the United Nations (UN) has emerged as one of the principal proponents of public-private partnerships, considered by many to be a key instrument of development and an ideal to be emulated. The authors of this paper argue that idealizing the concept and its normative content, as well as the feel-good discourse that infuses much of the mainstream literature, risk diverting attention away from various tensions and contradictions that characterize UN-business partnerships. (Peter Utting and Ann Zammit, UNRISD, October 2006)
(Added: Thu Jan 25 2007 Hits: 141)
- Burma: Security Council Should Impose Arms Embargo
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The United Nations Security Council should impose and enforce a mandatory arms embargo on Burma because of continuing massive violations of human rights says Human Rights Watch. India, China, Russia, and other nations are supplying Burma with weapons that the military uses to commit human rights abuses and to bolster its ability to maintain power.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/10/10/burma17066.htm
(Added: Fri Oct 12 2007 Hits: 89)
- Can the Anchor Hold? Rethinking the United Nations Environment Programme for the 21st Century
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This publication assesses the performance of UNEP as the mandated anchor institution for the global environment. The report takes a look at UNEP's performance in regards to key functions that are necessary for an effective international environmental organization and offers policy recommendations for governments, UNEP, and the UN Secretary-General on steps for reform. This report aims to reinvigorate the debate on the architecture of global environmental governance in the context of larger UN reform discussions. (Maria Ivanova, Global Environmental Governance Project, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, September 2005)
http://www.gegdialogue.org/Ivanova-FESReport7.pdf
(Added: Mon Oct 16 2006 Hits: 170)
- Commentary: When members agree, UN's soft power is hard
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The United Nations has limited so-called hard power, with moderate funds and no standing army, but it has considerable "soft power," that is, a legitimacy and ability to persuade governments to act responsibly, says Harvard University professor Joseph S. Nye. The Daily Star (Lebanon) (11/14)
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=86739
(Added: Thu Nov 15 2007 Hits: 58)
- Critical Choices The United Nations, Networks, and the Future of Global Governance
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Profound and continuing change in our global environment -- social, political, and economic -- today demands commensurate changes in our institutions of global governance, not least in the institution that lies at the core of the international system, the United Nations. The organization faces a series of critical choices in responding to these fundamental challenges. Creative new arrangements are needed urgently to allow governments, other organizations, both public and private, and individuals around the world to work together to address pressing global problems -- from weapons control, to the lack of adequate global labour standards, to climate change -- as they arise. This report examines one such set of arrangements: global public-policy (GPP) networks.
http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-9312-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
(Added: Mon Dec 04 2000 Modified: Tue Sep 26 2006 Hits: 424)
- Declining Poverty in Latin America? A Critical Analysis of New Estimates by International Institutions
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Indicators of progress in overcoming poverty in Latin America have been heralded recently by international institutions. Yet a closer look at data from the World Bank and the United Nations reveals contradictions that are not easily resolved by reference to the underlying methodologies. This paper provides an introduction to how poverty is measured, what the data indicate about trends in poverty, and reasons to tread cautiously in interpreting it as evidence of progress or stagnation (Helwege & Birch, September 2007).
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/wp/07-02LatinAmPoverty.pdf
(Added: Wed Dec 19 2007 Hits: 87)
- Development at Risk: Rethinking UN-Business Partnerships (PDF)
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Jan. 2004 by Ann Zammit, co-published by the South Centre and UNRISD In recent years there has been an upsurge of initiatives that engage companies and the United Nations in collaborative ventures that are commonly called partnerships. Under the umbrella of "UN-business partnerships" are a variety of initiatives, involving, for example, specific projects, global health programmes and ulti-stakeholder initiatives such as the Global Compact. These new relationships have attracted considerable attention and controversy. For some, they constitute a pragmatic way of sensitizing the business community to development issues and improving the developmental impacts of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. Partnerships are part and parcel of contemporary policy trends associated with corporate social responsibility and good governance. For others, partnerships constitute a mechanism through which large corporations can gain undue influence over the public policy process and enhance their image and competitive advantage. In the case of the Global Compact, there are concerns that such gains are being achieved in return for relatively little, given the weak mechanisms that exist to ensure that companies actually adhere to the nine human rights, labour and environmental principles promoted by this initiative. (PDF format - 2777Kb)
http://www.southcentre.org/publications/developmentatrisk/newrisk.pdf
(Added: Fri Jan 30 2004 Modified: Thu Dec 08 2005 Hits: 439)
- DEVELOPMENT: Climate Change Deepening World Water Crisis
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When U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last January, his primary focus was not on the impending global economic recession but on the world's growing water crisis (Thalif Deen, 19 March 2008).
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41659
(Added: Tue Mar 25 2008 Hits: 33)
- Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
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ESCAP plays a unique role as the only intergovernmental forum for all the countries of the Asian and Pacific region, in the absence of a regional grouping similar to the Organization of African Unity (OAU) or the Organization of American States (OAS). Indeed it spawned two of the region's vital institutions -- The Asian Development Bank and the Mekong River Commission. ESCAP gives technical support to member Governments for socio-economic development. The assistance comes through direct advisory services to Governments, training and sharing of regional experiences and information through meetings, seminars, publications and inter-country networks.
(Added: Thu Jan 04 2001 Hits: 462)
- Enough reform at UN to avert funding crisis?
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As the United Nations keeps busy with new efforts on peacekeeping efforts, AIDS and human rights, the big question looming over the world body is whether the United States and other big donors will follow through on threats to freeze funding by end of June. To this writer, the key question is whether the countries will determine that sufficient reform has taken place at the UN. (Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor, 19 June 2006)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0619/p02s02-wogi.html
(Added: Tue Jun 20 2006 Hits: 192)
- Expenses At U.N. Balloon 25 Percent
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This article assesses the extra funding requested by the UN from its donors and some of the reasons behind the increased budget (21 March 2008, The Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032003445.html
(Added: Tue Mar 25 2008 Hits: 34)
- FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP)
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The some 175 staff of the regional office work together to alleviate poverty and hunger in the region by promoting the pursuit of food security - the access of all people at all times to the food they need for an active and healthy life. The aim is to meet the needs of both present and future generations by promoting development that does not degrade the environment and is technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable.
(Added: Tue Aug 22 2000 Hits: 472)
- Financing Adaptation: Why the UN's Bali Climate Conference must mandate the search for new funds
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Oxfam estimates that adapting to climate change in developing countries is likely to cost at least $50bn each year, and far more if global greenhouse-gas emissions are not cut fast enough. Yet international funding efforts to date have been woeful. In the year that the world's scientists made the science irrefutable, the world's policitians must now deliver the finance needed so that the most vulnerable countries can cope with the new reality that they face (Oxfam, 4 December 2007).
(Added: Tue Dec 11 2007 Hits: 68)
- Five Yearly Report on New Zealand's Progress in Complying with the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
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This is New Zealand's 15th, 16th and 17th Consolidated Periodic Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Report covers the legislative, judicial, administrative or other measures adopted in the review period which give effect to the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. (Ministry of Foreign Afairs and Trade, 8 March 2007)
http://www.hrc.co.nz/hrc_new/hrc/cms/files/documents/08-Mar-2007_18-22-19_CERD__FINAL_v1.doc
(Added: Tue Apr 03 2007 Hits: 167)
- Flags of Inconvenience?: The Global Compact and the Future of the United Nations [PDF Format]
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by Dr. Jem Bendell No. 22-2004 ICCSR Research Paper Series - ISSN 1479-5124 The Global Compact is an important initiative within the terrain of corporate social responsibility. In addition, it could play an important role in the future of the United Nations, for good or for ill. As it has grown, the role, effects, and accountability of the initiative have generated some concern. Criticisms are reviewed, and suggestions made for addressing them. A new programme of work is proposed for the Compact, which would see it moving towards a systems view of corporate responsibility. As it is an inter-governmental body, the UN's member states are not 'flags of inconvenience' to be held at arms length, but central to the UN's role and profile. Therefore the future of the Compact must consider how corporations can help and not undermine States in better serving "we the peoples." The argument is made that corporations should support the Compact in this new agenda as an application of a more meaningful concept of 'corporate citizenship' - specifically the obligation to be held to account by one's community. [PDF Format - 393kb]
http://www.globalpolicy.org/reform/business/2004/flags.pdf
(Added: Mon Feb 09 2004 Modified: Wed Oct 18 2006 Hits: 282)
- From promise to practice: Strengthening UN Capacities for the Prevention of Violent Conflict [PDF]
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By Chandra Lekha Sriram and Karin Wermester (International Peace Academy, May 2003). This report reviews the achievements, opportunities and challenges of conflict prevention. While the promise of conflict prevention has risen to the fore of international policy agenda since the end of the 1990s, its practice and effectiveness remains elusive. The concept of conflict prevention expands the scope of peacebuilding temporally and spatially, calling for the early prevention of violent conflict and the prevention of further outbreaks through "structural" as well as "operational" initiatives. The challenge, of course, is that violent conflict can be hard to predict and prevent effectively.
http://www.ipacademy.org/pdfs/PROMISE_TO_PRACTICE_FINAL.pdf
(Added: Mon Aug 01 2005 Modified: Fri Feb 16 2007 Hits: 176)
- Give women's issues stronger UN profile
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The United Nations is facing a sea change in coming months as Secretary-General Kofi Annan prepares to step down. Stephen Lewis, Annan's AIDS envoy to Africa, is taking the opportunity to push for the creation of a new International Agency for Women with the mandate, expertise and funding to champion women's rights, health and security. (Toronto Star, 9 July 2006)
(Added: Tue Jul 11 2006 Hits: 229)
- Global challenges: accountability and effectiveness
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In this paper Academic David Held argues that the complex nature of today's globalisation requires a reinforcement of international law and the multilateral institutions and a change of direction in the governance of the world economy.
http://www.progressive-governance.net/publications/publications.aspx?id=2212
(Added: Fri Apr 11 2008 Hits: 35)
