U.N. set to create new women's entity

The General Assembly of the United Nations voted Monday in favor of a draft resolution consolidating all U.N. agencies and divisions addressing women's issues into a single entity.
Called for is the amalgamation of the following:
► the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues (OSAGI);
► the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW);
► the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM); and
► the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW).
The move was partly driven by the lack of a centralized voice for gender issues in the U.N. labyrinth. As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated:

'U.N. gender architecture lacks a recognized driver. It is fragmented. It is inadequately funded, and insufficiently focused on country-driven demands.'

To remedy such fragmentation and underfunding, the entity is expected to have a budget of approximately $ 1 billion and its own Under Secretary-General, who will report directly to the Secretary-General.

Tasks for the entity are much less clear. The draft resolution only states that the consolidation will "take into account the existing mandates" of the agencies to be merged.

Last-minute opposition to the resolution by member states such as Cuba, Egypt, Iran and Sudan allegedly resulted in the absence of a specific mandate for the composite entity -- an absence that led Oxfam to label such opposition "deplorable." Secretary-General Ban needs quickly to draft a mission statement, organizational chart, funding plan, and executive board proposal for General Assembly approval.

The consolidation initiative first had been proposed amid discussions about U.N. reform, which began during the tenure of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Advocacy around this week's resolution was led by a group called Gender Equity Architecture Reform. GEAR now is pressing for the timely appointment of an under secretary-general for the entity as well as full funding.

Worldwide Food Insecurity

The Food and Agriculture Organization has developed a new statistic for measuring food insecurity. Called "Depth of Hunger," the new statistic measures the daily calorie deficit experienced by undernourished people. It makes for stark reading. Congo and Haiti top the list --undernourished people in those states consume 400+ fewer calories per day than the needed minimum. (credit for World Food Programme map showing most affected areas in red)
There are very few success stories, and even those are hardly cause for joy. Mozambique for example has reduced the calorie deficit of its undernourished people from 400 calories/day in 1990 to 320 calories/day in 2005. During the same period the percentage of Mozambique's population food insecurity fell from 59% to 38%. At least their trajectory is moving in the right direction, even though the absolute number of malnourished people is still painfully high.
What is particularly startling about the Depth of Hunger statistic is how remarkably consistent the daily calorie deficit has remained for food insecure people over the past 20 years. Across the world, the story remains the same: the prevalence of hunger has remained stubbornly high. Eight hundred and fifty million people do not have enough to eat. Think about that stark fact. That is roughly one in five people on the planet.
These facts are particularly depressing because they come despite high profile UN efforts under the Millenium Development Goal and World Food Summit banners. (Again, there are a few bright spots: Nicaragua, for example has reduced food insecurity from 50% of its population to 22%.)
We have a long way to go if we are going to achieve the goal of halving by 2015 the number of people who experience hunger.
This Valentine's Day, my gift of love is a contribution to Oxfam.

What girls can be

'My brothers, they will study. They can hope for different things. What
can I be?'

So concludes Mary Jordan's poignant page 1 story from the Washington Post. The speaker is Jyotsna Patadia, 15. Like the girls at left depicted at Oxfam's website, Jyotsna is consigned to work in western India's "salt pans." She lives alone in a hut at the pans, a 7-hour walk from her home village. The money she earns helps to support her family -- including her younger brother, who enjoys "electricity, a television, plenty of water, cousins dropping by," and going to school.
Jordan writes that Jyotsna's story is familiar

in much of the developing world, and particularly South Asia. In India, half the women older than 15 are illiterate, twice the rate for men, and millions of poor girls are pulled out of school to help at home, often when they are 10 to 12 years old.

This is another tide whose turning is overdue.

Storms Over the Caribbean

Those of us in the U.S. who monitored the tracks of recent hurricanes and tropical storms Fay, Gustav, and Hanna continue to worry about the impact on the Gulf region of the United States, Florida, and the East Coast.
New Orleans, still recovering from the effects of 2005 Hurricane Katrina and the governmental neglect, abuse, and discrmination that intensified its horrific effects, remains of particular concern.
This time, federal, state, and local officials appeared to act quickly: millions were evacuated in advance (and were provided some means to do so) and better public and private services were in place. Still, damage to homes, businesses, and lives is extensive. Years after Katrina, survivors are still suffering from slow assistance for housing repairs or replacement, lack of health care, and educational access for children. Officials have yet to recognize these concerns as human rights issues.
Now Hurricane Ike threatens the region again. Evacuees from New Orleans deliberate whether to return in the face of new hurricane threats (or how to survive economically if they delay returning).

Keeping the Caribbean Visible
Those who have relatives or friends in the Caribbean watched in horror as initially brief news reports also indicated that Caribbean islands such as Haiti (credit for photo above left: Oxfam) (the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and already subject to a UN peacekeeping mission as a crucible of international political, strategic, military, and economic conflict), Cuba, and the Turks and Caicos received multiple direct hits within days of each other.
Even those small island governments that have tried to follow international guidelines on risk reduction, disaster preparedness, and treatment of internally displaced persons, cannot address the overwhelming scope and rapidity with which these disasters have occurred.

Information and Ways to Help
Caribbean-Americans in U.S. immigrant communities are already doing what such communities always do -- calling or e-mailing relatives and friends (if lines still work), sending money to repair or rebuild homes, and packing up medicines and clothing to repair lives. But the need is massive, particularly in Haiti. In that country alone hundreds have died in the city of Gonaives. According to news reports this morning, 80 per cent of the homes in Turks and Caicos sustained serious damage, as did key businesses. Obviously, the aftermath will require long-term commitment.
Here are a few resource sites, but readers should feel free to add information in the comments section:
► CNN List of Private Aid Agencies (International and U.S.)
► ReliefWeb (professional coordination site for humanitaran agencies)
► Oxfam (update page on Haiti)
► UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
► Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
► Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement

Polar bears against poverty

Protesting polar bears -- rather, Oxfam activists in furry costumes -- raised awareness of the disproportionate harm that global warming does to the globe's poor as the U.N. Climate Change Conference got under way this week in Bali, Indonesia, as we've detailed above. (photo credit: Supri/Reuters)