This year’s observance of International Literacy Day highlights the central role of literacy in the empowerment of women.  Literacy transforms the lives of women, their families, communities and societies.  Literate women are more likely to send their children, especially their girls, to school.  By acquiring literacy, women become more economically self-reliant and more actively engaged in their country’s social, political and cultural life.  All evidence shows that investment in literacy for women yields high development dividends.

Women’s literacy has gained greater prominence on political agendas over the past decade, ever since the World Education Forum, in Dakar, at which governments set the goal of halving the number of adult illiterates by 2015.  The UN Literacy Decade, running from 2003 to 2012, has given further impetus to reducing illiteracy.  Illiteracy rates are dropping, yet approximately one adult in six is still unable to read or write; two out of three illiterate adults are women. 

The world needs increased funding and sustained advocacy for quality literacy programmes that empower women and ensure that girls and boys at primary and secondary level do not become a new generation of young illiterates.  The International Literacy Prizes awarded by UNESCO today to programmes in Cape Verde, Egypt, Germany and Nepal are examples of excellence and innovation.  Each is tangible proof of literacy’s profound and positive influence on women living in very different circumstances – from rural environments to immigrant urban communities.  Such programmes deserve to be widely replicated and expanded.

Every literate woman marks a victory over poverty.  On this International Literacy Day I urge governments, donors, non-governmental organizations and all development partners to make literacy accessible to women everywhere.  Literacy is an essential foundation for development and prosperity.  Empowering women through literacy empowers us all.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon established in June 2010 an advocacy group of eminent persons to try to galvanize support worldwide towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their target date of 2015.  

“We need to emerge from the September Millennium Development Goals summit with concrete national action plans for realizing the Goals. These advocates can help us get there,” Mr. Ban stressed. Each of the group’s members have been asked to focus their advocacy efforts on specific Goals.

The MDG Advocacy Group, composed of high-profile individuals supporting the Secretary-General in building political will and mobilizing global action for the MDGs, held its first meeting in Madrid, Spain, on 16 July. The Advocates who were present, who come from Chile, China, Denmark, France, South Korea, Nigeria, South Africa/Mozambique, Sweden and the United States, recorded brief video messages, as did UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Antonio Banderas. The videos are posted on the UN YouTube channel:

Here are some advocate videos from the members:

Jan Eliasson - Advocate for the Millennium Development Goals

Michelle Bachelet - Advocate for the Millennium Development Goals

Antonio Banderas - UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Millennium Development Goals

Akin Adesina - Advocate for the Millennium Development Goals

This note is to provide you with guidance on the observance of World Humanitarian Day, 19 August 2010. World Humanitarian Day was established by the UN General Assembly in December 2008 to "contribute to increasing public awareness about humanitarian work and the importance of international cooperation and to commemorate all humanitarian and United Nations and associated personnel who have worked in the promotion of the humanitarian cause, and those who have lost their lives in the course of duty."  On 19 August, 2003, 22 people died in the bombing of the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, among them the Special Representative of the Secretary-General Sergio Vieira de Mello. The World Humanitarian Day is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the pursuit of humanitarian service.

In addition to commemorating those who lost their lives in pursuit of a humanitarian cause, the Day is also held to emphasize current humanitarian needs and challenges worldwide, such as threats to humanitarian aid workers by conflicting parties, challenges in reaching the people needing assistance and the increasing complexity of the humanitarian environment due to food price shocks, global market turbulence, water shortages and climate change. Particular focus will be placed on the people on whose behalf humanitarians serve.

There are three objectives for the Day this year: to draw attention to humanitarian needs worldwide; to explain, in simple, visual terms what humanitarian aid work entails; and to remember those who have lost their lives in humanitarian service.

The Day will focus on the diversity of the humanitarian community, and aims to describe who humanitarians are and what they do. An official ceremony will take place at UNHQ on 19 August, led by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes.

The UN Office of the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has developed a range of promotional and background materials.

All materials on World Humanitarian Day are available in all six UN languages from here, the non-branded website set up for WHD 2010. The short film, PSAs and other materials are available on YouTube and through the official OCHA Facebook page:

MESSAGE TO SPECIAL MINISTERIAL MEETING FOR THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL REVIEW IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Photo: UNDP Lao PDR/Harish Murthi

Ten years ago, Heads of State and Governments made a solemn promise to spare no effort to fight extreme poverty and inequalities, and to build a global partnership for development by 2015.

Next month, world leaders will return to New York to assess progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and, we hope, agree on strategies and concrete steps to accelerate progress so that we can fulfil the promises that were made.

 To date, the global record is mixed: there have been many important gains, but much remains to be done.

Despite the recent food, energy and economic and financial crises, the developing world remains on track to halve extreme poverty from its 1990 level.  A number of countries have registered major successes in combating hunger, improving school enrolment and child health, expanding access to clean water and HIV treatment, and controlling tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases. These improvements have happened in some of the poorest countries, demonstrating that the MDGs are indeed achievable.  Read more

MPI and UNFPA prepare workshop and essay competition

More than 140 countries worldwide will observe World Population Day around 11 July by emphasizing the importance of data for development. In this regard, the Department of International Cooperation of the Lao Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, are preparing the first World Population Day Workshop to be held in Vientiane on July 23 at the International Cooperation and Training Center (ICTC). The event is addressed to university and college students, teachers, researchers, experts and wider public.

The workshop is an academic forum expected to promote the World Population Day and its 2010 theme: “Everyone Counts”. This year World Population Day highlights the importance of data for development. The focus is on the 2010 round of the population and housing census, data analysis for development and UNFPA’s lead role in population and development. Read more

Remarks_Remarks by Ms Sonam Yangchen Rana,UN Resident Coordinator

To celebrate the annual World Blood Donor Day on June 14th, the United Nations Volunteers Programme in Lao PDR invited all UN staff to donate blood at UN house. The Lao Red Cross generously supplied personnel and equipment to make this event possible. The day was dedicated to all those, who through their generosity, save thousands of lives everyday across the globe by voluntarily giving blood.  Read more

Opening Remarks by Ms Sonam Yangchen Rana, UN Resident Coordinator 

Biodiversity, the incredible variety of life on Earth that sustains us,is in peril. Species are becoming extinct at the fastest rate ever recorded.  Most of these extinctions are tied to human activities that are polluting and depleting water resources, changing and degrading habitats and altering the global climate.  From frogs to gorillas, from huge plants to tiny insects, thousands of species are in jeopardy. 

The theme of this year’s World Environment Day, “Many Species. One Planet. One Future”, echoes the call of the International Year of Biodiversity to stop this mass extinction and raise awareness about the vital importance of the millions of species that inhabit our planet’s soils, forests, oceans, coral reefs and mountains.  Our health, well-being and sustainable future depend on this intricate, delicate web of ecosystems and life.

The global host of the 2010 World Environment Day celebration is Rwanda.  This small country in the Great Lakes region of Africa is rapidly earning a reputation as a green pioneer.  Home to 52 threatened species, including the rare mountain gorilla, Rwanda is showing how environmental sustainability can be woven into the fabric of a country’s economic growth.  Despite its many challenges, including poverty and widespread land degradation, the “land of a thousand hills” is working to reforest, embrace renewable energies, pursue sustainable agriculture and develop a green vision for the future. 

This year, Kigali will be the heartbeat of a global, multicultural, intergenerational celebration of our planet, its millions of species and the countless ways in which life on Earth is interconnected.  On World Environment Day, I appeal to everyone – from Kigali to Canberra, from Kuala Lumpur to Quito – to help us sound the alarm.  Get involved, speak out.  Learn and teach others.  Show leadership and help clean up.  Reconnect with nature, our life force.  Together, we can develop a new vision for biodiversity: Many Species. One Planet. One Future.