Global Progress Spring 2011

Connecting people, ideas and resources to help the UN solve global problems.

GLOBAL

PROGRESS SPRING 2011

Innovative Partnership Paves Way for a Measles-Free Nigeria

Staff Highlight

Photo: Eric Porterfield

For the last 10 years, I’ve seen thousands of children cry after being pricked by a needle for a vaccination against measles — a deadly disease that is preventable by one quick, albeit painful, shot.

I witnessed it again recently in northern Nigeria, as the country launched an integrated, nationwide measles campaign to protect 31 million children. Every child aged 9 months to 5 years is receiving a measles vaccine. In addition, an oral polio vaccine is being given to newborns through 5-year-olds.

Americans, who haven’t seen widespread measles outbreaks in decades, might be surprised to learn that measles still kills more than 450 people each day, and that children are still at risk of paralysis from contracting polio.

But we are making progress. A decade

ago, more than 700,000 children died from measles every year, but the mortality rate has declined by 78 percent worldwide and more than 90 percent in Africa. Strengthening routine immunization systems and increasing the capacity of trained health workers from prior health campaigns have paved the way for the elimination of measles.

Thanks to the leadership of Nigeria’s Ministry of Health, UN agencies, and nongovernmental organizations, and the support of traditional and religious leaders ahead of and during immunization campaigns, measles and polio have nearly been eliminated in Nigeria.

As I witnessed during this and many other trips, integrated campaigns are one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to eliminate polio and measles. The same children, who are often in the hardest-toreach places, need to get immunizations for each disease. The elimination of both can and should move forward together; it would be a missed opportunity not to put a stop to them both at the same time.

But we can’t do this alone. Funding shortfalls are threatening recent gains. The Nigerian government is one of the African countries leading the way in financing immunization campaigns. However, these diseases spread like wildfire, and recently

Photo: Eric Porterfield

Andrea Gay, Executive Director of Children’s Health at the UN Foundation, blogs from the field.

even Nigeria has seen measles and polio outbreaks because not all of the children have been reached. The donor community must step up to support the elimination of measles and the eradication of polio as soon as possible so we can build on our gains, not lose them.

These shots, no matter how painful they are for those brief seconds, offer a lifetime of health and promise for millions of children in Africa and around the world. n A version of this article first appeared on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Impact Blog on Feb. 2, 2011.

NBA Star Power Helps Senegal Save Lives For Andrea Gough, manager of the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets, the bottom-line impact of this anti-malaria campaign was never more vivid than during a door-to-door trek, alongside USAID and the local Ministry of Health, to deliver life-saving bed nets through the neighborhoods of Rufisque, a port city in Senegal, West Africa.

Gough visited Senegal in August 2010, traveling with UN Foundation colleagues and a delegation of nearly 20 NBA Legends, players, and coaches who were getting their first look at what their league has helped make possible through the Nothing But Nets campaign.

“These visits really put the meaning of Nothing But Nets in

perspective for me,” says Gough, who was making her first visit to Africa since joining the UN Foundation staff in 2006. “We work with our partners and supporters year-round to raise awareness and funds for life-saving bed nets. It is amazing to see how a $10 donation from a basketball fan can turn into a bed net hanging inside someone’s home on the other side of the world.

Seeing that end result and interacting with the families whose lives will benefit really hit home, and was incredibly energizing for the hard work ahead.”

Adrianna Logalbo, Gough’s colleague and Nothing But Nets founding director, agrees. Logalbo’s position has allowed her to (See Senegal, p.2)

www.unfoundation.org

2

From Our President In this spring issue, we focus on ways we are helping the United Nations create innovative solutions to big problems. From forming building blocks to combat climate change and secure energy access for all, to streamlining and financing the procurement of life-saving health supplies, we are working with the UN and our partners to address the world’s toughest challenges with 21st-century solutions.

To accomplish these goals, we need a strong U.S.-UN partnership. Today, the UN is working with the United States in every corner of the world to promote democracy, protect human rights, and deliver humanitarian aid using new and creative approaches.

Yet, at a time when the majority of Americans support the UN, the new Congress is contemplating the biggest reduction in our nation’s history of U.S. investments in foreign assistance and global partnerships. In order to have a healthy and well-functioning UN, it is essential for the U.S. to pay its dues to the UN on time and in full.

President Obama has crafted a budget for 2012 that would do just that, ensuring that taxpayer dollars will have the maximum impact in protecting U.S. interests in places like Iraq and Haiti. In fact, the UN pays the same to run its current 16 peacekeeping missions for a year as the U.S. pays to wage one month of war in Iraq, making UN peacekeeping a bargain for Americans.

Consider what is at stake if our Congress were to cut this funding, as you flip through the pages of this newsletter and read about the programs underway to help women and children UN Foundation Chairman, Ted Turner, and lead healthy lives, President, Senator Timothy E. Wirth to combat climate change, and to empower the next generation of global leaders. It is clear that the UN is making our world a better place for every one of us.

As a valued UN Foundation supporter, I hope you will help us to amplify the message that a strong UN is critical and renew your support by taking some of the actions we discuss in this newsletter. By raising awareness through your social media channels, making a donation, or signing a petition, together we can confront old problems with new solutions and ensure that future generations can enjoy many more springs to come.

Sincerely yours,

Timothy E. Wirth

To learn more, visit www.unfoundation.org

(Senegal, continued from p.1) work closely with Nothing But Nets partner organizations, and she has made multiple trips to Africa to introduce their representatives to the good work their support makes possible.

“I love looking at our work through the eyes of people like the NBA players who were with us in Senegal,” says Logalbo.

“There’s a ‘wow’ factor that’s very gratifying to witness. The trips are also tremendously valuable for me when I go back to the United States to meet with partners and supporters who don’t have the opportunity to visit Africa. I’m able to discuss the real-life impact of malaria on African communities, describe just how community health workers ensure that every family is covered with a net, and talk to donors about how thrilled families are to receive the nets.

No matter how many times I’m there, the experience is never less than life-changing.”

Negin Janati, the third member of the Nothing But Nets team, had the added benefit of being able to contrast the scenes in Senegal with those in the many U.S. cities she visited as part of the campaign’s 29-city “Buzz Tour.” As the Nothing But Nets tour bus pulled into Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, and other cities, Janati Andrea Gough in Senegal during had the chance to speak with anti-malaria bed net distribution. thousands of people to encourage them to join the movement to end malaria.

“Many of the thousands we met on the Buzz Tour were learning about malaria for the first time,” said Janati, communications officer for Nothing But Nets and the UN Foundation’s global health programs. “Our simple message, that malaria kills and a $10 donation can send a life-saving bed net to a family in Africa, really resonates. Whether they are students or professional athletes, people feel inspired when they learn that they can have a part in ending this disease. The NBA players who helped us distribute bed nets in Senegal felt the same way, and were moved to spread the word and continue to help.”

No sooner had Gough, Logalbo, and Janati returned from their trip, their eyes turned to their campaign’s next big push: A call-to-action to get a net to every family who needed one in the Central African Republic, where the United Nations had identified an urgent need. Nothing But Nets teamed up with singer/actress Mandy Moore and Population Services International to deliver 837,000 nets by the end of 2010.

We are thrilled to announce that — thanks to thousands of supporters across the country and the world — Nothing But Nets reached the goal in early January, and successfully delivered a lifesaving bed net to every family in the Central African Republic in less than six months.

“Being able to step in to help fill this crucial need makes us all proud,” said Logalbo. “The great news is, we are making progress. This is a long-term effort, and we intend to continue working to save lives and bring an end to malaria deaths in Africa once and for all.” n

3

Keeping the Faith While Spreading the Nets A founding partner of the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign, the United Methodist Church has raised more than $15 million for malaria prevention and treatment with its Imagine No Malaria campaign. The church, in partnership with Nothing But Nets, recently helped distribute 3 million long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed nets to families in Sierra Leone, where malaria is a leading cause of death. Working in tandem with the Ministry of Health, this effort contributed to the goal of reaching every family in the country.

Many church leaders in Africa are already working in their communities to help deliver life-saving medicines and health treatments. The UN Foundation is working with our faith-based partners to build on this foundation to deliver more nets while strengthening access to health care in Africa.

The Lutheran Malaria Initiative will launch this year and provide similar opportunities for Lutherans throughout the U.S. to get involved. Like the United Methodist’s campaign, Lutheran malaria programs serve people in the most remote parts of Africa, where government health care is often unavailable. To learn more about how the UN Foundation partners with faith-based organizations to help the UN solve global problems, visit www.unfoundation.org. n

“We can reach our hands across the ocean to Africa and save lives by coming together to eliminate deaths from malaria.”

Bishop Thomas Bickerton

Photo: UMC

The UN Foundation has teamed up with the United Methodist Church and U.S. Lutherans to engage their congregations in the movement to end malaria. For nearly five years, the UN Foundation has been working with faith leaders like Methodist Bishop Thomas Bickerton to connect with groups across the country to help their peers across the globe.

With support from the UN Foundation, the United Methodist Church launched Imagine No Malaria, a campaign that aims to raise $75 million, and Lutheran World Relief and the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod will soon launch the Lutheran Malaria Initiative to raise $45 million for the prevention and treatment of malaria.

Malaria takes the life of a child every 45 seconds — an unacceptable rate for a disease that is both preventable and treatable. The UN Foundation’s faith-based partners are bringing their combined congregations of more than 14 million people together to raise funds and awareness to save lives by combating malaria in Africa. The UN Foundation has provided grants as well as technical assistance to both Imagine No Malaria and the Lutheran Malaria Initiative to support the campaigns and develop their programs.

A young boy stands with a net near a Sierra Leone home. Malaria is a leading cause of death in his country.

Melinda Gates recently stated, “There is one more proven way to save a huge number of lives, and that is giving mothers and fathers the ability to decide how many children they will have, and when they will have them.

My ability to plan my family is something I took for granted as a woman living in the United States.” More than 215 million women around the globe want to have control over how many children they have and when they have them, but cannot because they lack access to reproductive health and family planning services.

The world’s nations agreed to address these issues and ensure universal access to family planning and reproductive health services at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. For these goals to be fulfilled and for the world to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, every one of these women needs access to high-quality international reproductive health and family planning.

The proof is clear. When women have access to voluntary family planning, they are more empowered, their health and that of

Photo: UN Photo Library

Putting Family Planning Decisions in Women’s Hands

More than 215 million women around the globe want to have control over how many children they have and when they have them, but cannot because they lack access to services.

their families improves, economic growth increases, global poverty decreases, political security is enhanced, and the environment is protected. Fulfilling the unmet need for family planning would reduce maternal mortality by 32 percent. Universal access is achievable if donor governments, including the U.S., contribute their share of funding.

In recent years, many have fallen short of their commitments.

U.S. leadership is key to ensuring that women around the world have the opportunities and tools to plan their families. That is why the UN Foundation is leading the Strengthening U.S. Leadership on International Reproductive Health and Family Planning Initiative. By working with partners and acting as a bridge between the funding community, policymakers, and nongovernmental organizations, the UN Foundation will help bolster U.S. leadership on international reproductive health and family planning and connect the U.S. with the UN on these issues.

The Strengthening U.S. Leadership on International Reproductive Health and Family Planning Initiative is a collaborative effort of the UN Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Summit Foundation, the Wallace Global Fund, and an anonymous donor. For more information, contact reprohealth@unfoundation.org. n

4

Hewlett Packard Steps Up to Promote Apps for Health projects promise to transform health outcomes by collecting and analyzing a remote patient’s health data in real time, diagnosing patients remotely, and advancing awareness, education, and research.

Photo: Datadyne

The mHealth Alliance (mHA) received a two-year, $1 million donation from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) to improve health care and health systems around the globe using mobile technology. This grant will support the mHA’s core activities, including Health UnBound, or HUB, an online meeting place for those who care about transforming health systems to improve health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. HUB will also provide the data and case studies needed to inspire ongoing innovation and promote the national scalability of existing mHealth pilot projects.

The donation will also help the mHAled Maternal-newborn mHealth Initiative, which seeks to reduce maternal and newborn mortality through the power of modern information and communications technologies, especially mobile.

Launched in 2009 by the UN Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Vodafone Foundation, the mHA advances “mHealth,” or the use of mobile devices to deliver quality health care in some of the most remote areas in the world, revolutionizing the way health information is delivered, accessed, and used. Particularly in developing countries where disease burdens are disproportionately high, innovative mHealth

Cell phone technology is helping people access health information around the globe.

For example, with a mobile phone in a remote village, a health care worker can remotely diagnose disease, track outbreaks, and manage health data, even if the village has little or no health infrastructure. A simple text message can remind a patient to take medicine or come in for a checkup. mHealth can also track the progress of vaccination campaigns and measure drug supplies to avoid running out.

With more than 5 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, mobile networks and devices are almost everywhere, providing

viable pathways for delivering critical information and supporting women and providers’ needs in a timely and efficient manner. From aiding front-line health care workers to diagnose signs and symptoms of complications, to facilitating cost coverage and transportation to health care facilities, mHealth solutions have the potential to dramatically increase access to proper health care and save the lives of mothers and newborns.

“We feel a strong obligation to global health from both a business and social impact perspective and are committed to helping to improve lives and change the health care equation for people around the world with the mHealth Alliance,” said Gabi Zedlmayer, vice president of global social innovation at HP. In 2011, the mHA will continue to expand its thought leadership role through cutting-edge research on health impacts, business models, the economics of mHealth, maternal health, and evaluation. The mHA will also convene the key mHealth players at two premier annual events: the inaugural GSMA-mHA Mobile Health Summit in Cape Town in June 2011 and the thirdannual mHealth Summit in Washington, DC, in December 2011. n

Cooking Shouldn’t Kill Cooking shouldn’t kill. That’s why Martha Stewart highlighted the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves on the Dec. 22 episode of The Martha Stewart Show. The show’s viewers were informed about the dangers posed by exposure to smoke from traditional cookstoves and were encouraged to get engaged in the clean cookstoves movement.

Every year, 1.9 million people die from exposure to smoke from traditional cookstoves and open fires. Cookstove smoke contributes to a range of chronic illnesses and acute health impacts, such as early childhood pneumonia, emphysema, cataracts, lung cancer, bronchitis, cardiovascular disease, and low birth weight. The World Health Organization estimates harmful cookstove smoke to be the fourth worst overall health risk factor in developing countries.

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves — a partnership of governments, nonprofit organizations, UN agencies, and the private sector, led by the UN Foundation — is working to create a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. Leslie Cordes, interim executive

www.unfoundation.org

director of the Alliance, said, “We were delighted to have the chance to educate the American public about the unique role clean cookstoves can play in saving lives; almost 2 million people a year die from diseases associated with exposure to cookstove smoke. Martha Stewart, with her millions of loyal viewers, provided us with an invaluable opportunity to raise awareness about this little-known global health issue.”

The Alliance is also reaching out to those already involved in the cookstoves sector and was featured at the recent Partnership for Clean Indoor Air Forum in Lima, Peru. At the forum, more than 400 stove manufacturers and project developers from around the world gathered to discuss aspects of the clean cookstoves industry essential to ensuring the global production of clean, efficient, and safe cookstoves and the ways in which the sector can bring improved cookstoves to scale.

For more information on the Alliance and its upcoming activities, please visit our website at www.cleancookstoves.org. n

Martha Stewart, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, and Aaron Sherinian, the UN Foundation’s Executive Director of Public Affairs, on The Martha Stewart Show.

5

A New Strategy for Climate Change Over the past several years, a comprehensive global climate agreement has drifted out of political reach. Even as thermometers rise, the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters, the United States and China, have balked at emission caps.

Yet national and state governments around the world are showing a way forward on climate, moving toward a new economy characterized by the smarter use of energy and the technological innovations needed to make clean energy affordable.

The UN Foundation has advocated for just such a building block strategy since 2009, promoting steps that nations can take in their own economic self-interest that will also reduce their harmful emissions. At the December UN climate talks in Cancún, much of the world community moved toward this approach.

The Cancún Agreements encouraged the world to act on climate change through a number of separate measures on deforestation, technology cooperation, adaptation, and finance, independent of a global agreement.

Similar building opportunities exist on energy efficiency, renewable energy, agriculture, land use, and the reduction of methane, refrigeration gases, black carbon, and other powerful warming agents.

When world leaders gather in Rio de Janeiro next year to discuss sustainable development, the theme will be the green economy, a field in which the U.S. cannot afford to lag.

China is already setting the pace on energy efficiency — improving 20 percent over the past five years with a commitment to sustain and expand those gains — and on renewable energy, in which China’s leaders reportedly plan to invest $738 billion over the next decade.

China is far from alone. The other BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, and India), along with Japan, Korea, and the European Union, have taken impressive steps in the same direction. In the U.S., states have led even as Congress has failed to act. For example, California voters overwhelmingly rejected an oil industry attempt to overturn the state’s comprehensive global warming law in last November’s election, paving the way for similar initiatives in other states.

To invest in the momentum of a green and renewable energy economy, the UN General Assembly has designated 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. UNEnergy, supported by the UN Foundation, will lead a Global Campaign for Universal Energy Access built around national actions, working toward the overarching goal of achieving universal energy access by 2030.

The core of the building block strategy is to accomplish what we can today and use that as a base to build toward more difficult goals tomorrow. This will engender trust among nations and confidence that the transition to a low-carbon economy is both possible and beneficial. n

Girl Up Dazzles Washington, Empowers Teens The UN Foundation’s Unite for Girls Tour came to Washington, DC, on Jan. 15 to inspire hundreds of local teens to show the world that they care about the health, education, and future of girls in developing countries.

Noted fashion photographer Nigel Barker, Grammy-winning recording artist Estelle, members of the Washington Mystics WNBA basketball team, and Miss Teen Maryland, Kirsten Nicholson, helped draw youth to the event at the Boys & Girls Club in the city’s Anacostia neighborhood.

“As the father of a young daughter and son, I can attest to the undeniable power and spirit of today’s youth,” said Barker. “This program will give a girl in DC the opportunity to help a girl in Malawi buy school supplies.”

Encouraging American girls to give back, the Girl Up campaign, launched by the UN Foundation last summer, is raising awareness about the 600 million adolescent girls living in developing countries who lack

UN Foundation Efforts Combat Climate Change Energy is essential to economic development, but the world’s dependence on coal and oil is harmful to public health and the environment. The UN Foundation’s Climate & Energy Team works with the UN to move the world toward a safer, cleaner, more equitable, and climate-friendly energy future through programs including the following:

• The Energy Future Coalition builds bridges between business, labor, and environmental groups willing to explore broad-based and nonpartisan solutions. By promoting improvements in energy efficiency and the greater use of solar, wind, and biofuels, the Coalition aims to ease the transition to a new energy economy.

• The “25 x ‘25” initiative is a rallying cry for renewable energy and a call for America to get 25 percent of its energy from renewable resources such as wind, solar, and biofuels by 2025.

• The Global Alliance for Clean

access to basic Cookstoves is a more than $60 needs such as edumillion public-private partnership cation and health to save lives, improve livelihoods, care. empower women, and combat Girls attendclimate change by creating a ing the event had thriving global market for clean the opportunity to and efficient household cooking travel through an solutions. interactive display, passport in hand, to learn about girls Girl Up Teen Advisors Darya just one girl, we make a positive just like them all Pishevar and Isabella Solimene impact on a community, even a leading the High Five Banner at around the world. nation.

During the experi- the Unite for Girls Washington, Funds raised through Girl Up ence, they discov- DC Pep Rally. will support UN programs that help ered how they can help make the future the hardest-to-reach girls in countries such as brighter for their counterparts in developing Ethiopia, Guatemala, Liberia, and Malawi. countries. The Unite for Girls Tour has Campaign supporters are encouraged to give visited metropolitan areas across the nation a “High Five” to girls in developing countries and will continue throughout this year.

— to take five minutes to learn about the For millions of girls, it is a struggle to issues facing girls and to donate $5 or more get access to basic things like health, educato provide girls with basic needs such as tion, and safety. A global campaign “for access to school supplies, clean water, health girls, by girls” can change that. By helping services, safety from violence, and more. n

6

The development community unanimously agrees that the efficiency of development aid is a priority. Yet every year, thousands of children around the world die from easily preventable diseases, such as malaria, polio, and measles, because of major inefficiencies in procuring health supplies and disbursing grants.

These inefficiencies result in warehouses and clinics having either not enough or a surplus of life-saving health supplies, such as vaccines and anti-malaria bed nets.

This leads to untreated patients and expired drugs.

To help solve this problem, the UN Foundation, with help from Dalberg Global Development Advisors and funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has worked with partners to develop and manage the Pledge Guarantee for Health (PGH), a new financing mechanism to accelerate donor funds and streamline the procurement of life-saving health supplies.

The process is new, but the goal of the PGH is timeless: to reduce childhood deaths from easily preventable diseases more quickly and effectively. The PGH streamlines the flow of aid dollars and reduces inefficiencies and premiums that governments pay on health commodities due to bottlenecks in the process for distributing grants.

With support from the PGH, a commercial bank issues a letter of credit to a manufacturer, who then provides health

Photo: Jumbe Ngoma, World Bank, Lusaka

Breaking Logjams and Red Tape to Save Lives

Family receives anti-malaria bed net in Zambia.

supplies such as vaccines, anti-malaria bed nets, or reproductive health commodities.

The bank recoups its capital when the donor disburses its funding.

Recently, the PGH completed its first transaction: a $4.8 million deal to provide anti-malaria bed nets to 1.6 million people in Zambia. The bed nets arrived at the end of December, three months ahead of schedule and before the peak of the potentially deadly rainy season.

The UN Foundation worked with the government of Zambia, the World Bank, UNICEF, Stanbic Bank Zambia, the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria on this deal. In Zambia, once the

guarantee was issued, it took the government of Zambia and UNICEF workers less than three weeks to deliver the bed nets to the district level. Preliminary estimates suggest that accelerating this procurement potentially averted tens of thousands of malaria cases, saving the lives of thousands of children in Zambia, who are more at risk of catching malaria during the rainy season.

This new financing model accelerates recent progress in the fight against malaria in Zambia. From 2006 to 2008, the percentage of Zambian households owning at least one anti-malaria bed net increased from 38 to 64 percent.

“While Zambia has made tremendous progress in malaria prevention in recent years, the recent resurgence reported by the World Health Organization highlights the need to remain vigilant and ensure that nets are not only financed, but arrive on time,” said Ray Chambers, the UN SecretaryGeneral’s Special Envoy for Malaria. “The success of this innovative deal provides us with an important new tool in the fight to end deaths from malaria by 2015.”

Through PGH transactions, health supplies are procured up to eight months faster and commodity premiums are reduced as much as 83 percent. With the success of the PGH and other mechanisms aiming to make aid more efficient, there is reason to believe that more innovations of these types in the international development community are possible. n

One of the UN Foundation’s priorities in 2011 will be continued support for the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. The UN Foundation has partnered with the UN to drive progress on this signature initiative of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Every Woman Every Child is a global effort that supports the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. This initiative mobilizes resources and catalyzes public-private partnerships, recognizing that bold, coordinated action is needed to improve the health of hundreds of millions of women and children around the world, which in turn improves the lives of all people. By facilitating outreach among civil society, academia, the private sector, and governments, the UN Foundation was able to secure vital pledges and focus interna-

www.unfoundation.org

tional attention on preventing the deaths of millions of women, newborns, and children.

Over the next five years, resources will be utilized to enhance financing, strengthen policy, and improve service delivery for the most vulnerable women and children. Key outcomes of the Every Woman Every Child effort will include saving 16 million lives by 2015, preventing 33 million unwanted pregnancies, protecting 120 million children from pneumonia and 88 million children from stunting, advancing the control of deadly diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS, and ensuring access to quality facilities and skilled health workers.

The UN Foundation will continue to support this initiative to help prevent the deaths of millions of women, newborns, and children. For more information, please visit www.everywomaneverychild.org. n

Photo: UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN Brief: Every Woman Every Child

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the launch of the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.

7

UNA-USA GLOBAL CLASSROOMS Program Inspires Future Leaders ®

viewpoints from among the 192 UN member-states, students improve key literacy skills while gaining awareness of ideas and trends that most deeply affect their generation. The topics for discussion on Feb. 5 included biofuels, malaria and infectious diseases, malnutrition, the rights of indigenous people, and the situation in Afghanistan.

Sharon Shambourger of Life Sciences Secondary School in Manhattan has been a Model UN advisor for seven years and has attended more than a dozen Global Classrooms ® conferences in that time. Shambourger has “watched students mature from rather school/neighborhood-oriented, to truly global citizens. They welcome others’ opinions, are surprised by what they find doing research on a given country, and often leave high school with a desire to study foreign affairs in college. Model UN students are searching for answers to tomorrow’s problems.”

Founded more than a decade ago,

Photo: Milan Stanic

On Feb. 5, more than 700 students from 41 New York-area schools had the unique opportunity to debate and propose solutions to pressing international issues at the Global Classrooms ® New York City Model UN Conference. Held at the City College of New York, the event brought together students from area schools who came prepared to tackle some of the world’s most pressing global concerns.

The day started with welcome addresses from Ambassador Joseph H. Melrose of the U.S. Mission to the UN, City College Provost Dr. Juan Carlos Mercado, and Ed Elmendorf, executive director of the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA). Ambassador Melrose stressed the significance of what the students were there to accomplish — mobilizing support for international cooperation.

Model UN requires students to master the art of consensus building while designing and drafting resolutions to some of the world’s most complex matters. Representing

Life Sciences Secondary School students win “Best Delegation” for the General Assembly Committee at the Global Classrooms ®, New York City Model UN Conference.

Global Classrooms ® has developed the only comprehensive program of study and instruction based on Model UN. The program brings global issues education and the Model UN experience to public schools across the U.S. and a diverse array of schools around the world. For more information, please visit www.globalclassrooms.org. n

New Energy for Women’s Equality July 2010 in an effort to streamline the UN system to better address the needs of women and girls. The four UN agencies and offices that merged to form UN Women include: the UN Development Fund for Women, the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Photo: Stuart Ramson/Insider Images for the UNF

On Jan. 24, Michelle Bachelet, executive director of UN Women, the agency promoting women’s rights and full participation in global affairs, laid out a 100-day action plan to encourage international gender equality. The plan sheds light on issues that force women to shoulder more than their fair share of the world’s challenges and recognizes the capacity they have to make progress on global issues.

The plan envisions improving women’s access to leadership in their communities and countries, ending violence against women, supporting women’s roles in resolving conflict and promoting peace, bolstering economic opportunities for women, and placing gender equality high on the agenda of national and local planning and budgeting.

“I am determined that UN Women will be a catalyst for change, offering new energy, drawing on longstanding ideas and values, and bringing together men and women from different countries, societies, and communities in a shared endeavor,” Bachelet said.

UN Women — formally known as the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women — was established by the General Assembly in

A female UN peacekeeper joins Kathy Calvin, CEO of the UN Foundation, left, and Michelle Bachelet, executive director of UN Women and former president of Chile, after visiting a Peace Hut, a forum for community justice, in rural Liberia. Bachelet and Calvin commemorated the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day in Liberia by learning firsthand from women about the challenges they face.

Training Institute for the Advancement of Women.

Bachelet said UN Women will focus on five core principles: enhancing implementation of international accords by national partners, backing intergovernmental processes to strengthen the global framework on gender equality, advocating gender equality and women’s empowerment, promoting coherence with the UN on women’s issues, and acting as a global broker of knowledge and experience.

The new agency, which will receive a boost in funding, formally launched on Feb. 24 during the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the global policymaking body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and the advancement of women. UN Foundation Chairman and business leader Ted Turner spoke at the launch. He was joined by host Juju Chang of ABC News and a handful of other speakers, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, HRH Princess Cristina of Spain, and activist and actress Geena Davis. Bachelet also co-hosted a high-level briefing to reaffirm the UN’s commitment and actions to advancing the rights of adolescent girls, so that they can enjoy an empowered present and a prosperous future. n

NONPROFIT U.S. POSTAGE

PAID PERMIT NO. 114 LANGHORNE, PA

1800 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20036 www.unfoundation.org

INSIDE:

• • • • •

Keeping the Faith While Spreading the Nets A New Strategy for Climate Change Girl Up Dazzles Washington, Empowers Teens Cooking Shouldn’t Kill New Energy for Women’s Equality

John Sample Sample 23430 Maiden Lane New York, NY 283837

Disaster Relief 2.0 OpenStreetMap project, to name a few examples.

Technology is not a solution to all problems, but in the right conditions, it can enable powerful development and disaster relief work. The rise of text messaging and web-based services creates an opportunity for people affected by humanitarian crises to participate actively in development and disaster relief work — innovation harnessed to serve those who stand to benefit most from it. n

Photo: WFP/Dane Novarlic

Photo: UN Photo/Logan Abassi

As natural disasters and civil conflicts increase worldwide, so does the need for new and lower-cost technologies that help people navigate these crises. Today there are more than 5.3 billion cell phone subscriptions globally, with the fastest-growing mobile markets in emerging economies. Even in places where there are no paved roads or running water, mobile networks are connecting the unconnected.

Mobile Internet use is also on the increase, fueling the rapid growth of web-based social networking. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most-populous nation in the world, with more than 600 million regular users.

New technologies and innovative uses of existing technologies are improving disaster preparedness, prevention, and response. The UN Foundation has partnered with the Vodafone Foundation, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative to explore how technological innovation can reshape information-sharing in humanitarian emergencies.

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 killed more than 200,000 people, leveled many government and UN offices, and destroyed valuable information including maps and census data. The earthquake also revealed online and mobile technologies’ potential to support the relief effort.

After the earthquake, concerned citizens and survivors used collaborative technologies to provide important information, i.e., they “crowdsourced.” They posted details about missing persons via Google’s PeopleFinder; uploaded the location and needs of survivors, some still trapped in rubble, via the online mapping tool Ushahidi; and helped map the Haitian capital through the Sahana Foundation’s

Above: Locals walk the shattered streets of Haiti. Right: In Port-au-Prince, a new antenna and vital satellite equipment are put into place by a telecommunications expert.