UN News May 1 and May 2

WOMEN HOLD KEY TO BREAKING OUT OF GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS, STRESSES MIGIRO
New York, May 1 2008 6:00PM
Not only do women suffer the most from global problems, such as the current crisis arising from the surge in food prices, but they can also contribute the most to its solutions, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said today.

In a keynote address to the Women’s Foreign Policy Group in New York, Ms. Migiro pointed out that the world is faced with an “unprecedented” rise of food prices, plunging many developing countries into a crisis that threatens to thwart efforts to achieve the global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“The advances we have seen in achieving this collective vision for a better world could all be undermined by rising food prices,” she said.

Highlighting some of the effects of the crisis, Ms. Migiro noted that families that do not have enough to eat are being forced to make terrible choices, such as deciding between food or medicine, or choosing whether to send their children to school or to the fields where they might earn money to help the family.

“And it’s women who are hit the hardest,” she said. “The development emergency engulfing whole communities is taking its heaviest toll on women.”

The crisis has prompted Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to form a new UN Task Force, bringing together heads of UN bodies along with international financial institutions, experts and leading global authorities to address the issue. He has also pointed out that the crisis offers an opportunity to re-invest in agriculture in Africa.

“Helping African farmers can have a decisive impact on women’s lives,” Ms. Migiro said, noting that for the most part it is women – who make up 80 per cent of Africa’s farmers – that are out there under the hot sun, tending the fields and harvesting crops.

“But the same women hit hardest by the food crisis are ready to hit back,” she added, stressing that with the right support, they can move their communities from subsistence farming to commercial farming and even industry. This is crucial not only for the continent but for the world, which is just not producing as much food as it consumes.

“We need to do much more… to empower women. Women can drive the Green Revolution in Africa. They hold the key to breaking out of the food crisis; to educating the young; to peace, progress and prosperity,” the Deputy Secretary-General stated.
2008-05-01 00:00:00.000

CLIMATE CHANGE COULD IMPERIL POVERTY GOALS, ECOSOC HEARS
New York, May 2 2008 6:00PM
The Economic and Social Council ECOSOC should send a strong message that efforts to achieve the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals MDGs could be reversed if climate change is not addressed, its President Léo Mérorès told Council members today.

In a discussion aimed at exploring the relationship between the development goals and climate change, Mr. Mérorès noted that several countries are off track in achieving the MDGs and said that climate change could further hamper countries’ efforts to make headway.

ECOSOC’s high-level ministerial session this summer will focus on climate change and development, and Mr. Mérorès said ministers should take action on development and climate change.

“In order to achieve the MDGs by the 2015 target date,” he said, “we do not only need to step up our efforts particularly targeted at specific MDGs, but also need to step up our efforts to address the challenge of climate change. Otherwise, we risk seeing hard earned fragile economic and social progress reversed by the negative effects of climate change.”

“Climate change is, fundamentally, a sustainable development challenge,” said Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang, which involves not only environmental protection but also economic and social development.

“While the list of challenges might seem daunting,” Mr. Sha said, “we should firmly reject a ‘gloom and doom’ approach. Today, we have the tools to tackle poverty and climate change in an integrated and balanced way.”

He added that to move forward, it will be necessary “to bridge the divide between actors on the environment and on development which, despite our past efforts, continues to exist.”

Ogunlade Davidson, a co-chair of one of the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, asserted that there was no question that climate change was occurring, and that despite the claims of climate sceptics, the evidence showed that the cause of climate change was due to human activity, not natural causes.

But he said it was possible to mitigate the emissions that cause climate change, although “not if we continue to do what we are doing.” He said climate policy alone will not solve the climate change policy and that many other policies must be considered, including taxes, subsidies, trade policies, access to modern energy, bank lending policies and insurance policies.
2008-05-02 00:00:00.000