Blogging Heads just launched a new series that examines foreign policy through the prism of the United Nations and other international institutions. In the debut, I interview the Enough Project's John Prendergast about peacekeeping in the Horn of Africa. Below, Prendergast discusses the state of play of the peace process in Darfur and offers elements of what an "all Sudan solution" might look like.

http://www.bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/7577?in=00:10:00&out=00:16:38

Both Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the Security Council issued strong condemnations of today's attack on former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Here is Ban's statement.

I am shocked and outraged by the assassination of Mrs. Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan People's Party and former Prime Minister. This represents an assault on stability in Pakistan and its democratic processes. I strongly condemn this heinous crime and call for the perpetrators to be brought to justice as soon as possible. I convey my heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Bhutto's family, her colleagues and to the people of Pakistan. While strongly urging for calm and restraint to be maintained at this difficult time, I call on all Pakistanis to work together for peace and national unity.

Calling on all Pakistanis to exercise restraint and maintain stability in the country, the Council underlined the need to bring the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of the "reprehensible act of terrorism" to justice, urging all States to cooperate actively with the Pakistani authorities in that regard.

The Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constituted one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism were criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed. It reminded States that any measures taken to combat terrorism complied with all their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law.

Posting will be light between today and the new year. Have a safe and happy holiday from all of us at UN Dispatch.

Pope Benedict will visit the United Nations next April and the Italian press is apparently bracing for some sort of showdown. Not so, says John L. Allen Jr. in an Op-ed in today's New York Times.

Benedict had no intention of making an anti-United Nations jeremiad. Like every pope since the birth of the United Nations in 1945, Benedict supports robust global governance, in a fashion that has long bewildered neoconservative critics of the United Nations in the United States and elsewhere. If there was anything remarkable in what he said, it's only that the Vatican's public-relations crew still hasn't found a way to keep the pope from making cosmetic missteps that distract attention from his message.

While the Vatican may have its differences with United Nations agencies over sex, it also sees the organization as the lone realistic possibility for putting a human face on international politics and economics -- what Pope John Paul II called a "globalization of solidarity."

In the latest entry in his blog about a massive health drive, Steven Phillips tells of us about the unlikely presence of a navy admiral in landlocked Mali. Cross posted on All Africa

It's 6 a.m. and my hotel phone wakes me. Just as well, because the malaria prevention medication I have been taking has been causing graphic nightmares. It's a message that Admiral Tim Ziemer, the coordinator for the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), would like me to join him on a field trip today to witness the Mali integrated Child Health Campaign in action. Having traveled with the Admiral previously in Angola - where ExxonMobil's local company is a major PMI supporter - I jump at this opportunity to view the campaign from his official government perspective.

We set out for the commune Dezan Coulibaly, about 100km east of Bamako, in a convoy of four United States Agency for International Development (USAID) cars. The police escort in the lead shoos away all manner of intervening human and animal traffic by waving a commanding extended arm out the passenger window.

The Admiral and I share our car with Christine Sow, the USAID Mali health team leader who provides our advance briefing. She just happens to be a bilingual PhD epidemiologist with extensive international development experience, married to a Malian and possessing the astute cultural knowledge and sensitivity of a seasoned social anthropologist. During our hour and half drive, Christine pulls back the cultural curtain of local practices, preconceptions and myths around malaria. For example, in the local Bambara language, there is no word for "malaria". Because of its ubiquitousness, "fever" says it all.

It's no secret to anyone who has spent time with the Admiral that he's a hands-on type of guy. A former Navy pilot, submarine hunter, and commandant of the Newport shipyard (the Navy's largest port facility in the world) Tim is simply locked in on getting the job done. Leading the PMI in 15 African countries and being accountable to President George W. Bush for results produces a certain decisive tone of resolve when he talks and steeliness of gaze when he looks. And the magnitude of his task requires him to look and talk with great frequency and precision.

Having arrived at our destination, we are received by a phalanx of local dignitaries who had waited patiently in the vast dirt lot in front of the community health center. We meet the Commune mayor, tribal elders, health committee leaders and local NGO representatives.

The Admiral goes beyond diplomatic protocol in graciously recognizing the personal efforts of those receiving us. He makes everyone feel genuinely valued and respected, yet he exudes an undercurrent of edginess and anticipation to get beyond ceremony and "drill down" to really understand how things are working.

We go inside the center and quickly wade through the now familiar throng of eternally patient mothers and noisy children receiving campaign interventions. Then we hop back in the cars for a 7km drive down a desolate dirt path to a nearby village.

We are escorted to the center of the village, a large dirt clearing ringed by mud huts. Ground, dwellings and sky are all hues of brown-grey and provide the perfect backdrop for the swirl of bright reds, oranges, yellows and greens of the flowing robes worn by the 150 or so village denizens gathered to meet us.

A quick glance around us reveals that we are in a location that time has apparently left untouched. No electricity, running water or visible evidence of anything that might not have been here in, say, the 12th century. We are given the traditional welcome of large wooden bowls of goat's milk, water and some less familiar liquids to quench our thirst.

We then begin another round of ceremonial speech-making when somewhat surrealistically we are jarred by a 21st century intrusion. The 'chef du village' takes a wireless microphone from his robe pocket and his voice is conveyed throughout the village by an acoustically perfect sound system.

After drumming and exuberant dancing that with cajoling includes the unhip visitors, the Admiral takes the microphone. He extends the warm greetings of the President, Congress and the people of the United States to the government and people of Mali. He deservedly recognizes the village leadership and everyone gathered for their remarkable efforts in the fight against malaria. The villagers visibly hang on his every word. Facial expressions reveal a clear satisfaction with the Admiral's strong message of hope dispensed with American compassion and resolve. As his words flow, bonds are being forged with the village and continent.

Translating the Admiral's words is a two-step process. Christine converts English to French; then a local dignitary translates the French to Bambara, the tribal language. Christine and I notice that the Bambara version of each translated segment is about three times as long as the original. There is considerably more reaction, animated laughter and applause than the primary message might convey. We have a master Bambara showman at work.

Admiral Ziemer not only has a strongly inclusive message for Africa but also for PMI's international and U.S. partners. He has recognized and reinforced the important role of the business sector since the advent of PMI. In this context he asks me to address the village on behalf of ExxonMobil and the American business community.

I collect my thoughts and start by congratulating the commune for their projected astounding 95 percent participation rate in the campaign. My speech is suddenly interrupted by a stir in the crowd about 10 yards to my right. Two tall young men have just entered the yard carrying a tree branch around which is coiled a beefy, glistening six-foot boa constrictor. I stop dead in my delivery to try to get a fix on what's going on. The crowd's attention is similarly diverted. I rapidly determine that the snake is dead, because its severed head is impaled on a pole carried by one of the men. The chef du village shoos the attention-seeking caravan away but the damage has been done.

How do I get the crowd back? I have given my share of corporate PowerPoint presentations, but never quite encountered this. So I acknowledge the boa and the bravery of the men and ask for similar heroics in the fight against malaria. Things are back on track.

We conclude our visit with a lunch of grilled hacked mutton and watermelon on the shaded dirt patio behind the commune mayor's modest home. We are all touched by the outpouring of warmth and great hospitality of village leaders and community alike. For a day we were made to feel like members of one large extended family.

After a retracing of our steps back to Bamako, we are guests of Alex and Betsy Newton for dinner at their home. Alex is the USAID mission director in Mali, and he hosted a dozen local staff as a "bon voyage" gathering for the Admiral. Tim lauded the fine work of the mission and of their successful collaboration in the Measles-Malaria campaign. But already on his mind was the full agenda of policy and diplomacy events on his return to Washington DC in less than 36 hours.

As a business sector representative, public health professional and American citizen, I am gratified that Admiral Ziemer is on the job. When he was initially appointed for his position, it may not have been clear that the malaria world need an Admiral. Now almost no one is left unconvinced.

Since 1999, Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations as a semi-autonomous trustee state. Kosovo's "final status" -- independence from Serbia, integration into Serbia, or something in between -- has been one of the most vexing issues facing international diplomacy. On one side are ethnic Albanian Kosovars, who recently elected a prime minister running on the promise to bring independence to Kosovo. The United States and many European countries also support Kosovo's independence. On the other side are Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority population -- which largely boycotted the election, -- the Serbian government in Belgrade, and the Russians.

Accordingly, progress on Kosovo's final status is stalled. Last March, a compromise plan was put forward in which Kosovo would be granted independence, but under close international supervision and with robust protections for the ethnic-Serb minority. When that plan was sent to the Security Council, it was largely rejected by Russia, which asked for more time for negotiation. Today may very well be the last day of negotiations--and the Security Council is as deadlocked as ever.

What can we expect to happen? Last month, I asked United States Institute of Peace scholar Daniel Serwer. This is what he had to say.

Steven Phillips tells of the impact that American sports stars have on the campaign to make take life-saving health interventions to the children of Mali. Cross posted on All Africa.

Bamako, Mali

Ruth Riley led the University of Notre Dame to the women's NCAA Basketball title in 2001. The 6'5" center went on to win Olympic gold with the U.S. women's basketball team in Athens in 2004. More recently she was named MVP in the WNBA finals as she led the Detroit Shock to the WNBA championship in 2003.

Dwayne De Rosario is a dynamic mid-fielder for Major League Soccer's Houston Dynamo. As a Canadian citizen, he has represented his country as a member of his national team since the age of 16. He was recently named MVP of the 2007 Major League Soccer Cup, where he scored the winning goal.

Diego Gutierrez is an 11-year MLS pro midfielder for the Chicago Fire. He has been a member of five MLS championship-winning sides and received the Humanitarian-of-the-year award in 2007 from the U.S. Soccer Federation.

All three athletes are national spokespersons for the United Nations Foundation's Nothing But Nets campaign which is a partnership of faith based, sports, and business sector participants. ExxonMobil is a financial and program backer.

On this typically bright and hazy early Saturday morning in Bamako, we are off to the Madibo Keita Stadium, a 1960's Soviet-era construction to watch Ruth, Dwayne and Diego in action. Over 200 kids aged 8-16 are already there, decked out in appropriate athletic apparel and awaiting their instructions. The girls are guests of the Mali National Olympic basketball team and the boys are here with the national soccer coach. They represent a broad swath of Malian social strata and know they are among the few lucky ones to have been selected to the high honor of participating in a training clinic with the American athletes.

But before they are allowed to take the field for drills, the excited, hyperactive, but timid group of kids has a price to pay -- sitting still for a 25-minute world health organization-standard malaria training module.

They are led through their malaria paces by Elizabeth McKee Gore, the head of the Nothing But Nets campaign, and the lead of our visitor delegation. Elizabeth can make cold liver oil go down like birthday cake, and predictably does.

The girls go off with Ruth to an indoor court and the boys with Diego and Dwayne to the outdoor field to engage in two hours of intensive drills and skills training. Ruth has a natural magnetic attraction with kids. They clearly regard her with awe and reverence, and are probably asking whether they will ever be able to make lay-ups and fade-away jumpers with such casual assurance.

The boys are not surprisingly simultaneously more aloof and intense than the girls. Evidence that they are part of a soccer-mad Africa abounds. Their jerseys bear the names of Henry, Eto'o, Diarra, Essien, and Diof—testimony that there is a higher status than to be an African playing professional soccer in Europe, especially in the U.K. Premier league.

After the kids are strategically exhausted from the drills, the athletes gather them in seated circles to deliver more malaria messaging of the type only they can convey with conviction. To be able to become community leaders and robust athletes in Mali, the kids are told, they must not allow themselves to succumb to malaria. Prevention and recognizing early symptoms and getting rapid treatment are the keys. The kids attentively take it all in, especially because from the corners of their eyes they detect bundles of bed nets and a cornucopia of athletic goods and gifts that await them.

Over the course of the past few days of delegation travel, we have come to know Ruth, Dwayne and Diego. They are not only great athletes, but also exceptional human beings. And here in Mali they are more than ambassadors of hope, but also a vital bridge linking the common interests of American and African continents and people.

Diego and Dwayne are here with their wives, Ginna and Brandy respectively, and the couples are away from their young children. They are actively aware of resource and opportunity disparities between the two continents and are resolved to deploy their "star power" to do something about it. Ruth is in the same league. She has already been to Angola, Nigeria, and South Africa on similar Nothing But Nets and other outreach visits.

It is telling that all three picked malaria and Nothing But Nets as the platform for their personal mission and humanitarian zeal. I ask myself "why," then I ask them. Their wisdom and heart shines through. They intuitively understand the importance of mobilizing a largely unaware American public to face the devastating human scourge of which they know so little. And the athletes know that to have credibility with their legions of American fans, they must first confront that scourge face-to-face.

I observed that it was the three athletes in our delegation who found our local hospital visits to be the most emotionally stirring and physically shocking. Seeing malnourished and emaciated children and some obtunded and glass-eyed with cerebral malaria is difficult for anyone. But for Ruth, Dwayne, and Diego this seemed an abstract notion until they were confronted with the harsh physical reality. So their message to the aspiring young Malian footballers and basketball players took on a more urgent and strident tone... as will their overtures to their fan-bases on their return home. Now they will all be speaking with the conviction of experience.

In a nonbinding resolution, the UN General Assembly has called for a moratorium on the death penalty.

Among the countries joining the United States in opposition to the European-led measure were Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Opponents argued that the resolution undermined their national sovereignty. Two similar moves in the 1990s failed, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the new vote was "evidence of a trend toward ultimately abolishing the death penalty."

Ban also said, "Today's vote represents a bold step by the international community...I am particularly encouraged by the support expressed for this initiative from many diverse regions of the world."

UPDATE: Louise Arbour, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, explains her opposition to the death penalty in today's Los Angeles Times.

Kobayashi's gyrations aside, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned today that the world food supply is shrinking and food prices are rising at an unprecedented rate. From the New York Times:

The agency's food price index rose by more than 40 percent this year, compared with 9 percent the year before -- a rate that was already unacceptable, [UN FAO Chief] Jacques Diouf said. New figures show that the total cost of food imported by the neediest countries rose 25 percent in the last year, to $107 million.

At the same time, reserves of cereals are severely depleted, the agency's records show. World wheat stores declined 11 percent this year, to the lowest level since 1980. That corresponds with 12 weeks of the world's total consumption, much less than the average of 18 weeks' consumption, in storage during the 2000-2005 period.

Dr. Steven Phillips, ExxonMobil's Medical Director for Global Issues and Projects, reflects on the huge campaign to reach millions of children and adults in Mali with life-saving health interventions. Cross posted on All Africa.

Bamako, Mali

Under the merciless rays of an insistent sun which pierces a perennially brown dust-laden sky, we take our positions as international VIPs in a huge dirt schoolyard on the outskirts of Bamako. We are here for the official launch ceremony for the country's integrated health campaign week, and awaiting Mali's president.

The yard is festooned with banners urging parents to bring their children to vaccination posts. It is packed with hundreds of strategically-placed school children sitting in the dirt-layered rows around the perimeter. Scores of Malian guests are bedecked in rainbow-colored flowing robes with matching hats. Westerners are in formal business attire. The VIPs sit in overstuffed lounge-chairs planted in the dust and mercifully shaded under tent enclosures. The stage is set for the arrival of President Amadou Toure.

The audience warm-up includes a half-dozen speakers and animated folklore theatre with actors speaking Bambara playing parts of villagers. The Mali audience laughs uproariously. Prancing children kick up more dust.

The mayor of the commune and the health commune and the health minister speak from a makeshift podium in the middle of the schoolyard. ExxonMobil is mentioned along with several other contributors as a vital partner in the campaign. Then, flanked by generals in splendid military regalia, the president takes the podium. Along the way he stops to receive an impromptu gift from a Major League Soccer player in our delegation -- a Houston Dynamo jersey, which he holds up to the cheers of a gleeful crowd.

The speech is brief, but the president makes his point. This is an opportunity for the entire country to support critical government health and child survival goals. The international community is here to help, and now the mothers and fathers of Mali must do their part by bringing their children to community health posts.

As he concludes, the president takes deliberate strides to navigate his way across the yard to a bed net distribution post. A huge crush of humanity rapidly encloses him. Dozens of mothers with flocks of young children attempt to squeeze through a phalanx of VIPs, reporters, and cameramen to receive free bed nets from the hands of their president. I decide to hang back thinking that personal safety trumps a brief exposure to local press.

A few hours later, we are in a caravan of three SUVs making our way to the town of Segou, about 250 kilometers southeast of Bamako on the inland Niger Delta. We are spending two days in the district to have a first-hand view of campaign mechanics at the village level. On the way to Segou we pass several roadside villages comprised of a few dozen randomly scattered mud huts, with no signs of commercial activity, except for long snaking rows of women and children outside a central hut. This seems a very incongruous sight until the riders in our vehicle finally put it together. Yes, these must be mothers already queuing for the campaign.

The following day we see campaign sites in three small villages, all looking strikingly similar. A rectangular set of tables with health aides and assistants staffing three stations: the first station provides oral interventions (polio vaccine, vitamin A, and a de-worming pill). The second a measles shot. And the third, two long-lasting nets for each household. In addition the fingernails of each child and the mother are marked with indelible ink to discourage repeat visits.

But for our visiting delegation the shock is the queue. Starting as early as 7:00 am, two hours before the health posts even open, mothers begin forming long lines holding and tugging their children behind. The lines are far less than ordinary, but far more disciplined than outright chaos. They wait standing patiently for hours until their children are served. Before the campaign is concluded in four days, it is expected that fully 95 percent of all children under the age of five in the entire country will have received their package of interventions.

What accounts for this level of social cohesiveness (public health professionals call this social mobilization)? In our villages the chef du village received word of the campaign from their district health officer weeks ago. With their endorsement, the village health and women's committees were recruited to help.

Another key form of mobilization is by griots. These are families within a village with a minstrel-like tradition of singing or chanting the local news. As they walk through the village on their daily rounds they are the human news kiosks of the village. The griots and the women's committee made their rounds through each village as early as 4 am on the day of the campaign to stimulate the turnout. As this phenomenon repeats itself throughout Mali's 15,000 villages, some 2.8 million children are brought to campaign posts.

In the African development world we hear much about the importance of political will. This typically refers to an African head of state demonstrating leadership through direct involvement in a social issue. It is assumed that only a president's will can truly mobilize broad grassroots national action.

This integrated campaign strikingly reinforced the validity of this perspective. President Toure's few words had a monumental impact on his people. Griots chanted up and down every village alley, women elders knocked on hut doors at 4:00 am and colorful-robed women lined up in the hot dust.

United Nations staff around the world observed a minute of silence yesterday to honor the victims of the recent attacks in Algiers. 17 UN staff died in the attack.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "The Algiers attack will never deter us in our vital work around the world, regardless of threats to our staff...Our communal efforts to help those who suffer [and] to help peace must be redoubled."

More

Via the UN News Center, here is Secretary General Ban's statement on the successful, if last minute, resolution of the Bali conference.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the outcome of the landmark United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in which 187 countries today agreed to launch a two-year process of formal negotiations on strengthening international efforts to fight, mitigate and adapt to the problem of global warming.

After almost two weeks of marathon discussions, delegates have agreed on both the agenda for the negotiations and a 2009 deadline for completing them so that a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions can enter into effect in 2013.

On the second day of a visit to Mali, Dr. Steven Phillips, ExxonMobil's Medical Director for Global Issues and Projects, tells of the logistics of a campaign to get bed nets, which protect people against malaria, to hundreds of thousands of people. Cross posted on All Africa.

The long-lasting insecticide-treated net (LLIN) is one of the main weapons in Africa's arsenal against malaria. Based on the continent's distribution of the disease, the estimated annual need of sub-Saharan Africa's 700 million population is 60-80 million nets. When properly used in sleeping areas, LLIN's could decrease childhood cases and deaths from malaria by at least 50 percent.

Some have "run the numbers" on how to save lives with bed nets. It goes something like this: Multiply the nets needed by the cost of nets delivered. Multiply this by five to cover the five-year effective useful life of a net. Bottom line: for $3-4 billion, Africa could be blanketed by the requisite nets.

The Mali integrated child health campaign has allowed our observation team to "get our hands dirty" in looking at the details of how nets are moved from production site to the end of the road. In previous similar campaigns in Nigeria and Angola, ExxonMobil sponsored the United Nations Foundation and the World Health Organization "logisticians" to provide supply chain management support, and to study how to make delivery of nets more efficient on a broad country scale.

Now here in Bamako, I sit down with Steve Lutterback of PSI, a global health NGO, and Doug Mole of the Canadian Red Cross. They have provided full-time logistical support to the campaign for LLIN distribution for the past seven months. Over drinks at the Lybia Hotel, I ask them to map the supply chain of nets for this campaign (we have only 10 minutes for this diversion because they have to get back to REAL work.)

Here is the story of how each of the 2.26 million nets will make their way into the hands of a pregnant Malian mother and all mothers with children under age five (The nets were funded by a consortium including the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative, the Canadian Red Cross, Malaria No More, and the UN Foundation's Nothing But Nets campaign.):

Orders were placed with a manufacturer who sourced the nets from Vietnam, seven months pre-campaign. The nets were contained and shipped in 58 "high cube containers" (40 x 9-1/2 x 8 feet), from Vietnam to a sorting transit point in Spain. Each container holds about 38,000 nets.

The cargo was sorted and re-loaded to a second ship for its journey through the Straits of Gibraltar and down the West African coast to Dakar, Senegal. It took 55 days for the shipment to arrive in the port of Dakar.

Over the next two to three weeks the cargo was transported over 1,200 kilometers of road and rail to Bamako, Mali. It required a further seven days to clear customs.

The 58 containers were transferred to the only three warehouses in the country large to store them. They filled the three 1100 square-metre warehouses.

The distribution plan called for 40 health districts to receive shipments in six regions of the country over a radius of 600 km from Bamako. A single transport company won the tender and used 60 runs by 40 trucks to deliver bales of uncrated nets. Transport was about 50 percent on "tire roads" which are paved, and 50 percent on unpaved dirt roads. It required ten days to accomplish this phase. Many of the roads would have been impassable in the rainy season. The paradox was striking – the nets could only be delivered reliably during the dry season, when malaria risk is the lowest.

From the 40 district locations nets were subdivided for shipment to 975 health centers. It took one to 10 days to accomplish this. While awaiting trans-shipment, the bales of nets were often subject to "outdoor warehousing" with a hired security guard sitting on top of the bales to prevent theft.

From the health centers, the nets were sent to 2,000-3,000 distribution points with a radius of 5-20 km. This was accomplished via a variety of transportation modes including bicycle, donkey-cart, camel and "push-push", a local cart-like conveyance pushed by human power.

For mothers who could not make it to the final distribution points, mobile teams on bicycles and motorcycles would deliver the nets to their villages and dwellings. In the end, all of Mali's 15,000 villages are covered.

Elapsed time: seven months. Number of people coordinating logistics: six. Lost or damaged nets: none.

Listening to Doug and Steve's animated description of their activities left me in awe and wonder. Their enthusiasm, single-minded commitment, and utter conviction that there was no barrier that they could not overcome were clearly evident. This was the source of my awe.

The source of my wonder was the disconnect between the bold overtures of some global campaigners and the gritty reality on the ground. Some think malaria requires a good calculator and money. Figure out the aggregate need, fund it, and procure the requisite commodities. This both discounts the complexity of the delivery of goods to the end beneficiary and undervalues the overwhelming diligence, creativity and dedication of the on-the-ground implementers.

The bed net logistics story reminds us that the integrated Mali child health campaign supplies a package that includes four other interventions: vitamin A, polio and measles vaccinations, and de-worming medication. They all have logistics too.

Nearly at the end of this morning's press conference in Mali announcing the launch of the national integrated health campaign, a representative from WHO noted a possible loss in translation. Admiral Ziemer, who leads the President's Malaria Initiative, was seated beside him. The WHO representative noted that, as Mali is landlocked, they didn't use the word "Admiral." He helped the audience out: it's basically the same as "General." His quip reinforced the logistical difficulties of this campaign, in that it is being carried out in a landlocked nation the size of California and Texas

All five health interventions (the long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets that Nothing But Nets helps provide, the Vitamin A, the deworming medicine, and the polio and measles vaccines) all require special treatment. As Steve Lutterbeck from PSI explained at a briefing earlier today, the bed nets alone fill 50 40-foot containers, the contents of which must be the distributed to 50 medical centers and 1000 distribution points throughout Mali. The vaccines must be kept cold and, even so, can only be away from true refrigeration for three days. Mali is the size of California and Texas combined, and some of the distribution points are beyond Tombouctou.

The Admiral himself cut an impressive line. He spoke earnestly and concisely about the importance of the campaign: "This is literally the most important thing going on in the world at this moment." Whether you agree or not, it certainly puts some things in perspective and makes one wonder why there isn't greater awareness in places like the U.S. This is the main reason Nothing But Nets is here. We're taking partners and spokespeople from the United Methodist Church, the WNBA (superstar Ruth Riley), ExxonMobil, and MLS (superstars Dwayne DeRosario and Diego Guttierez) out into the field to get some context. We'll all be reporting back.

Very big news coming out of Bali today. Read the Times' gripping account of how the last second deal went down. Dan Shepard, who has provided excellent updates for us on JavaBlend offers his grounds-eye view of the 11th hour deal.

by Dan Shepard, Information Officer, UN DPI

It was one day late but countries achieved a major breakthrough on international climate change action at 2:31pm Bali time on Saturday. It was not without high drama featuring plenty of twists and turns along the way on a day when many delegates had planned to catch flights home.

It even took the special intervention of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to exhort delegates to complete what seemed like hopelessly deadlocked talks.

Yodhoyono called on countries to complete "the most difficult mile," of an "exhaustive marathon." He told delegates that we could not allow "the human race and the planet to crumble because we cannot find the right words."

The Secretary-General, who returned to Bali after a visit to Timor-Leste, said he was reluctant to speak again to the conference but that he was disappointed in the progress that had been made. "The hour is late. It is time to make a decision." He appealed to delegates not to "risk everything you have achieved so far."

After a morning of false starts and false hopes, mis-communications and misunderstandings, countries agreed on a roadmap to launch negotiations toward a global, comprehensive agreement to address climate change. The Bali decision sets out an agenda that frames the discussions that will take place over the next two years and sets a deadline of 2009 to complete the negotiations.

After agreement was reached, the Secretary-General issued a statement strongly welcoming the outcome and saying that the Bali Roadmap achieved all three of the main objectives. "The Bali Roadmap that has been agreed is a pivotal first step toward an agreement that can address the threat of climate change, the defining challenge of our time."

But the agreement did not come painlessly. On a key provision, concerning the obligations of developing countries in the future negotiations, India, speaking for developing countries, said that alternate wording had been agreed to during the night. And then Bangladesh said that language concerning the least developed countries and small island states had been omitted. The Philippines said the phrase "on the basis of equity" had been omitted. And then the United States said it could not accept the formulation that was put forward but offered to keep working until an agreement could be found.

Then South Africa, responding to the US, said developing countries had voluntarily moved to accept new obligations for their national actions on climate change that were "measurable, reportable and verifiable," a concession that only a year ago, he said, "would have been unthinkable." South Africa asked the US to reconsider its position.

Then an avalanche of countries took the floor in support of the developing country position, many asking the US to state their reservations separately and not block a consensus.

US Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky took the floor again and said the US wanted a roadmap and wanted to be part of the roadmap.

"We are very committed to long-term greenhouse gas emission reductions," and she said the US would work with other large emitters to halve global emissions by 2050. And then she said the US "will go forward and join the consensus," which was followed by a thunderous ovation.

"It feels like we are in a movie with lots of plots," said the delegate from Egypt.

After full adoption by the plenary, countries thanked the US for joining the consensus and thanked the secretariat of the Climate Change Convention and the Indonesian government for hosting the Conference.

by Dan Shepard, Information Officer, UN DPI

It was one day late but countries achieved a major breakthrough on international climate change action at 2:31pm Bali time on Saturday. It was not without high drama featuring plenty of twists and turns along the way on a day when many delegates had planned to catch flights home.

It even took the special intervention of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to exhort delegates to complete what seemed like hopelessly deadlocked talks.

Yodhoyono called on countries to complete "the most difficult mile," of an "exhaustive marathon." He told delegates that we could not allow "the human race and the planet to crumble because we cannot find the right words."

The Secretary-General, who returned to Bali after a visit to Timor-Leste, said he was reluctant to speak again to the conference but that he was disappointed in the progress that had been made. "The hour is late. It is time to make a decision." He appealed to delegates not to "risk everything you have achieved so far."

After a morning of false starts and false hopes, mis-communications and misunderstandings, countries agreed on a roadmap to launch negotiations toward a global, comprehensive agreement to address climate change. The Bali decision sets out an agenda that frames the discussions that will take place over the next two years and sets a deadline of 2009 to complete the negotiations.

After agreement was reached, the Secretary-General issued a statement strongly welcoming the outcome and saying that the Bali Roadmap achieved all three of the main objectives. "The Bali Roadmap that has been agreed is a pivotal first step toward an agreement that can address the threat of climate change, the defining challenge of our time."

But the agreement did not come painlessly. On a key provision, concerning the obligations of developing countries in the future negotiations, India, speaking for developing countries, said that alternate wording had been agreed to during the night. And then Bangladesh said that language concerning the least developed countries and small island states had been omitted. The Philippines said the phrase "on the basis of equity" had been omitted. And then the United States said it could not accept the formulation that was put forward but offered to keep working until an agreement could be found.

Then South Africa, responding to the US, said developing countries had voluntarily moved to accept new obligations for their national actions on climate change that were "measurable, reportable and verifiable," a concession that only a year ago, he said, "would have been unthinkable." South Africa asked the US to reconsider its position.

Then an avalanche of countries took the floor in support of the developing country position, many asking the US to state their reservations separately and not block a consensus.

US Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky took the floor again and said the US wanted a roadmap and wanted to be part of the roadmap.

"We are very committed to long-term greenhouse gas emission reductions," and she said the US would work with other large emitters to halve global emissions by 2050. And then she said the US "will go forward and join the consensus," which was followed by a thunderous ovation.

"It feels like we are in a movie with lots of plots," said the delegate from Egypt.

After full adoption by the plenary, countries thanked the US for joining the consensus and thanked the secretariat of the Climate Change Convention and the Indonesian government for hosting the Conference.

Via All Africa, it seems that Ban is growing increasingly frustrated by member states' refusal to lease helicopters to the peacekeeping mission in Darfur. In a message to a meeting of Nobel Peace Laureates in Rome, Ban said, "In the past weeks and months, I have contacted, personally, every possible contributor of helicopters -- in the Americas, in Europe, in Asia. And yet, not one helicopter has been made available yet."

The Los Angeles Times yesterday picked up on the helicopter crunch--something we've been writing about here for weeks. The Times, though, began its editorial by asking "Is there a world helicopter shortage that nobody told us about?" As a matter of fact, there is. Still, all that means is that member states must make Darfur a priority commensurate to the amount of lip-service that member states pay to the issue. And the The Times quite rightly shines light on the startling gap between member states' rhetoric and action on Darfur.

The sad thing is, this sort of dynamic has played itself out since member states started calling Darfur a genocide in 2004. The crunch for helicopters is simply the latest manifestation of member states' real disinterest in mustering the political will to offer Darfur some relief.

by Dan Shepard, Information Officer, UN DPI

There might have been snow and sleet in New York today, but looking casual and relaxed, New York City Mayor Bloomberg came to the Bali Climate Conference to sign a pledge by world mayors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050. London Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron joined Bloomberg in signing the pledge.

Bringing a taste of New York to Bali, Bloomberg said people like to leave conferences with real deliverables. He called said in the "real world," processes "that change the world evolutionary rather than revolutionary," and says cities were already taking major strides forward to deal with the issue. It is important that people around the world see that governments understand that there is an issue and a healthy debate about what to do to solve the problems and who will pay and how fast to do it and what order to do it is part of the process that will lead us in the right direction."

Mayors, he adds, are the one who are held accountable to their public everyday on a wide range of issues, from improving public health and encouraging economic growth. As a result, Bloomberg says, cities should be given more say in a convention like this because in the end we're the ones for most of the changes that will actually have to do the work.

Early Wednesday evening, youth from around the world took the stage to speak a simple truth to the delegates at Bali. In a press conference convened in conjunction with UNICEF, youth spoke about the effects of climate change on their homes, the need for action, and the formation of a global youth movement.

More from the press conference below the fold.

by youth delegate David Solheim

"A two degrees rise in global temperatures is not acceptable. It is not a target. Two degrees risks falling off a cliff into global climate catastrophe," said Amanda McKenzie, of Australia. "As young people, we’d like a better insurance policy."

The press conference underscored the importance of involving young people in the process of addressing climate change. People under the age of 30 constitute 48% of the world’s population and will likely shoulder the burden of a changing climate should international talks lead to inaction by policymakers. To many young people around the world, these figures prove that youth deserve a seat at the negotiating table.

Over the past two weeks, hundreds of youth from over 20 nations and every region of the world have descended upon the United Nations Climate Change Conference to encourage their delegations to put aside domestic excuses and rally around a brighter future for their children.

Pre-conference rumblings of a global youth movement are being realized here in Bali, as young people are networking in the fashion of the 21st century. Text messages, wiki, and Google docs abound.

Wednesday's press conference left little doubt that international youth are collaborating to send a clear message, and that if they can cooperate so effectively, so too must national leaders.

Youth from the United States are here in Bali because we are worried about our future. Climate change is a threat to the safety, health, and livelihood of the world's citizens. Unlike our government, youth in the US recognize the moral obligation we all share to take strong action to ensure our future.

Back home, we are organizing on campuses and in communities. Our ranks are growing every year. I'm here representing SustainUS, a nonprofit organization run entirely by volunteers under the age of 26. We represent just a small portion of the movement in the states. We are getting involved at every level – from raising awareness and education to influencing local, state, and federal policy. Last month, 6,000 young people gathered for Powershift, the largest citizen conference on climate change ever. We are building our capacity and building (or repairing) bridges with the international community. Together, we are building a global movement.

As young people, we have a large stake here in Bali. We need strong, effective action and a clear path for international collaboration. We believe the US delegation here in Bali is out of touch with the concerns of the American public. We ask them to take seriously their responsibility to our country and their children.

Youth will inherit the outcomes of Bali. The world is watching, the youth are rising, and we invite you to join us.

by Dan Shepard, Information Officer, UN DPI

The big question today is when the Bali conference will finish. And how it will conclude. The negotiations went deep into the night, or morning, on Thursday, and few people actually expect things to wrap up before Saturday morning.

There's not too much news right now. There are new meetings of ministers, and then there smaller groups, "friends of the chair" groups and somehow this is supposed to sort itself out -- but by when? There are questions over how long the conference can actually continue, when ministers have booked flights home, and how long the conference facility will be available.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has extended his visit to Bali in order to continue forging ahead with efforts to bring about a successful conclusion to the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

UN spokesperson Marie Okabe said, "The Secretary-General has decided to remain in Bali longer than originally scheduled because of the very critical phase of the negotiating process at the Climate Change Conference...The successful launch of the negotiation process is a top priority for the Secretary-General, as well as the defining issue of our time, and he will devote as much effort as needed."

More

Al Gore calls on all countries to do what they can to make Bali a success.

By all accounts, Al Gore gave an electrifying speech in Bali today -- and he did not avoid naming names. From the AFP:

Gore...told the packed conference room that he was no longer in office and "not bound by diplomatic niceties."

"So I am going to speak an inconvenient truth," said Gore, referring to the climate film that won him an Oscar. My own country, the United States is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali. We all know that," he said to loud cheers.

"But my country is not the only one that can take steps to ensure that we move forward from Bali with progress and with hope."

The Canadian Press is also eating up the fact that Gore made a reference to professional hockey, not-so-subtly implying that the Canadian government could learn a thing or two NHL greats Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Hull. Canada, you see, has said that it will not sign onto emissions reduction targets unless the United States does so first.

"One of the most famous ice-hockey players in history was asked the secret of why he was so good," Gore said. "He was the best passer in the history of the game, Bobby Hull. Others might disagree (and say) Wayne Gretzky.

"And he said in response to the question: 'I don't pass the puck to where they are - I pass the puck to where they're going to be'."

"Over the next two years, the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now. You must anticipate that."

By Curtis Moore, Independent Consultant and a Former Counsel, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works

It is Thursday of the second week of the climate negotiations in Bali, which is the traditional day to reach agreement--or not--at international global warming negotiations. But do not confuse an agreement -- if there is one, and there almost certainly will be--with a solution. A Bali roadmap may be a great accomplishment, but it is not a solution, nor will it lead to one. A solution is what is desperately needed because the peril posed by global warming is far more grave and imminent than all but a few realize.

The Earth is approaching--some believe it may have already passed--a half dozen tipping points. These are infinitesimally small changes that trigger sudden, often violent and irreversible change. Because of the extended delay from the development of science until its restatement by the IPCC, none of these considerations is before negotiators in Bali. But one government in the world has considered these facts, then adopted the most comprehensive, multifaceted and aggressive program to combat global warming in the world. That government, which will come as no surprise to many, is California.

One of the great flaws in the negotiations process is that policies are developed on science as expounded by the 2,000 participants in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It, in turn, reaches its conclusions considering only studies published in "peer reviewed" literature, meaning they have been scrutinized closely by expert scientists. This means the science elaborated by the IPCC is rock solid, but three to five years old, so when negotiators from throughout the world gather annually to craft policies, they may be utterly ignorant of the newest science, even if has profound implications. That is certainly the case in Bali.

In the last five years, thanks in part to improved super computers and new information, but also due to the inspiration of some, scientists looking for answers to troubling and unexplained environmental changes, serious shortcomings in the assumptions on which the negotiating process is based have been revealed.

First, scientists knew that a variety of pollutants excluded from the Kyoto Protocol tropospheric ozone, or smog, for example, and carbon monoxide the colorless, odorless gas emitted by every tailpipe and smokestack--cause global warming. But because they had short lifetimes--meaning they are destroyed by a variety of chemical reactions in the atmosphere or by other means--they were thought to be much less important than the so called "long lived" gases. But in fact, it is now clear the majority of today's warming is due to these short-lived pollutants.

Second, some pollutants were not then known to be significant causes of warming. Black carbon, like the soot emitted by diesels, for example was not seriously considered for inclusion in the Protocol. It now turns out, however, that it is a major cause of warming, especially where it darkens snow and ice, thus increasing the absorption of sunlight. Moreover, black carbon now appears to not only cause melting by warming areas like Greenland, Alaska and Siberia, but also by actually changing the way that snow melts, accelerating the process. This may account for the fact that while warming in the Arctic is roughly what computer models predict, melting is much, much faster, perhaps twice the speed of predictions.

Third, some pollutants and sources were excluded from coverage because, in theory, they are subject to other international agreements, but also because the true magnitude of their contribution to global warming was not accurately known. Ships, for example, are excluded. But recent estimates place are that they account not for a small amount of pollution, but an immense quantity: between 15 and 30 percent of global emissions of oxides of nitrogen, a pollutant that helps form smog, for example. Indeed emissions from ships are roughly equal to those of the continent of either Europe or North America. Aircraft are also excluded, even though they injects immense amounts of carbon where it can be most dangerous, at high altitudes and over the Arctic.

Negotiators also left chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the industrial chemicals like DuPont's Freons that destroy stratospheric ozone, out of global warming coverage, supposedly because they were subject to another international regime, the Montreal Protocol to Protect the Ozone Layer. Chemicals subject to Montreal are regulated, however, solely to address their impacts on stratospheric ozone. As a result, the chemical–again, one made by DuPont–now used as a chilling agent in the air conditioners of cars and trucks was allowed on the market as a CFC replacement even though it was known at the time to be a powerful cause of global warming.

Perhaps worst of all, the true atmospheric lifetime of the chemical that will be the single largest contributor to global warming, carbon dioxide--created when carbon-rich fuels like coal, oil and wood are burned--was greatly underestimated. Although there was some uncertainty as to CO2's lifetime, there was a consensus that one century was about right. Instead, it is now known that after even 1,000 years, one third of CO2 being emitted now will still be in the system.

The upshot of this miscalculation of CO2's lifetime is that even if emissions were to cease this instant, it would be over a century before the full cooling benefit would be realized. These are grim realities, but as is often the case, there are solutions, if only policy-makers will address them.

Because the lifetimes of the short-lived pollutants range from a few days to weeks to a few years, reducing them can produce near-term cooling. HFC-134a, the DuPont chemical used in car air conditioners, has 3,400 times the warming power of CO2 on a molecule-to-molecule basis, and a lifetime of about 12 to 15 years. Thus, if the entire world were to ban use of the chemical in automotive air conditioners, as Europe is doing starting in 2011, there would be cooling benefit before children born today graduated from high school.

For the other short-lived pollutants that cause global warming, the health payback would be immense. Black carbon kills and ozone both kills and causes asthma. The global annual total surely is in the hundreds of thousands of deaths and tens of millions of illnesses. Reduce them, and needless sickness and death would be avoided--and reduce them we must.

One Government realizes this: California.

It was in California that the link between cars and smog was first established, where the first pollution control technologies were mandated and the first statewide regulatory program for air pollution was installed. It was California that gave birth to solar photovoltaic cells to generate electricity from sunlight, where turbines to generate electricity were installed in huge numbers and where the most aggressive and effective energy conservation requirements in the world were developed.

After reviewing new science and examining what regulations and new technologies could achieve, the California legislature adopted not one law, but an entire suite. They deal with the near, mid and long term; cover transportation, electricity generation, and industrial processes as well as residential and commercial activities. They require reductions right away -- "early actions,"