Join millions of other concerned citizens around the world today and take a stand --literally--against global poverty. Today, the Stand Against Poverty Campaign is organizing its second annual international event. Last year, over 43 million people Stood Up to demand that world leaders keep their promises to end poverty and inequality. This year Stand Against Poverty Plans to exceed that number and break a new record in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Join the global movement and tell world leaders to support the Millennium Development Goals!
Mark forgot to mention another advantage that Iceland has going for it heading into tomorrow's Security Council election: dessert. The UN Delegates' Dining Room -- whose fare, particularly for those with a sweet tooth, can do wonders to bring countries together -- has been colonized by Iceland with gastronomical gusto. NYT's Neil MacFarquhar asks whether this will be enough for a country suffering a banking crisis.
crepes "Icelandic Pancakes Folded with Jam of Mixed Berries and Whipped Cream" certainly can't hurt.
(Image from flickr user eaortmann using a Creative Commons license)
Would two buffet tables groaning with delicacies exclusively from Iceland persuade any of the 192 member states that can vote this Friday that Iceland deserves their support? "Well, they have to try to convince people with pancakes because they don't have any money left," said one European diplomat walking past.Sarcasm aside, a strong commitment to combating climate change will boost Iceland's credentials more than sweets, but
From 1961. Check it out.
...for open seats on the United Nations Security Council. The key race to watch is for the two open seats reserved for the Western Europe and Others Group (in UN-speak, WEOG). Three countries: Austria, Iceland and Turkey are vying for these two slots, making this the only competitive race for open, non-permanent seats on the council. (Yes, Iran is technically running against Japan. But that race won't exactly be tight.)
To win a seat on the council a country must receive the votes of two thirds of the General Assembly. Voting is done by secret ballot and Iceland, Austria and Turkey have been politicking hard. (Read this post on what happens if no clear winners emerge from the first round of voting.) Iceland is touting it's clean energy infrastructure as reason why it deserves a seat. (Iceland's president, though, admitted that its current financial crisis might hurt its chances). Turkey may have received a boost this week by reportedly gaining the support of Latin America. Austria, for its part, is throwing a party at the Metropolitan Club on the eve of the vote.
So far, there is not much action on Intrade. Predictions, anyone?
I don't know how I missed this on Global Handwashing Day, but UNICEF enlisted the services of "the world's biggest preschool band," the multi-platinum winning Australian quartet "The Wiggles," to get the important message of handwashing out to kids.
I'm convinced.
Tonight's Debate is supposed to be about domestic policy, but we'll chime in when we can onTwitter.
H/T to David Roodman who has written a critically important post on the excellent Center for Global Development's blog. The graph shows the trends in foreign aid from Norway, Sweeden and Finland before after a 1991 banking crisis hit the Nordic countries. As you can see, it took some time for Sweden and Norway to get back to their pre-crisis foreign aid spending levels. Finland never fully recovered. Roodman posts a second graph showing how Japan's foreign aid expenditures also plummeted after the 1990 stock and real-state bubble burst. Like Finland, Japan has not returned to pre-bubble foreign aid spending (adjusted for inflation).
Why is this important? The countries listed above are the world's most generous donors of foreign aid in terms of the percentage of their GDP that goes to foreign development assistance. As this graph shows, we can expect even the most generous countries to scale back their foreign development assistance as the world economy turns sour.
Here in the United States the percentage of our GDP that goes to foreign aid is pretty minuscule--the United States offered $25 billion in official foreign development assistance last year. The Obama campaign has promised to double that amount to $50 billion. But recently, Obama and Biden have said that given the current economic situation they will not be able to fulfill this promise as quickly as they would have liked. If past is prologue, it looks like even the most generous countries on the planet will not be able to pick up the slack. The world's poor are in for rough times in the coming years.
by Anita Sharma, North America Coordinator, UN Millennium Campaign
I admit I was a little nervous about U.S. participation in the global Stand Up and Take Action mobilization. With less than a week to go, the annual effort to join millions worldwide in the fight against global poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is happening in the shadow of the biggest financial melt-down of my lifetime. But instead of withdrawing, people are coming together to show that we care about combating global poverty. At times like this it's all the more important that we live up to our commitments and work harder to support those in need. In poor countries around the world, 50,000 children die each day of poverty-related causes, yet this crisis has not received the urgency or attention it demands. The economic crisis is having a dramatic impact on people who already struggle to survive grinding poverty and are the least able to cope with issues like high food and fuel prices.
But we know we can be the first generation to end extreme poverty. In 2000 world leaders got together at the United Nations and pledged to achieve the Millennium Development goals and outlined the shared responsibility to end poverty, disease and illiteracy and to protect our environment. We are more than half-way to 2015 and while tremendous achievements have been made, we still have a way to go. Challenges like the food and energy crisis, climate change and now the financial emergency, mean it's more important than ever that we keep our promises.
A featured post on the site for Blog Action Day 08 -- in which UN Dispatch is enthusiastically participating -- bears the headline "Donate Your Piracy Savings to Reduce Poverty." My first thought, naturally, went to the pirates wreaking havoc off the coast of Somalia. And while it turns out that this post refers to illegally downloaded music and videos, I can't help but hope that some Somali pirates might be blog readers, and consider donating some of their millions of dollars in ransom to a more deserving cause than expensive cars and fancy houses.