Sustainable Environment and Sustainable Development - The World has a chance to keep a millennium promise this December

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Another big event I missed because of real life/day job was 350.org and the more than 3000 extraordinary climate actions across nearly every country, from the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef to the summit of Mount Everest. Click to see the events map:

The 350 day of action is named for 350 parts per million, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere that scientists say would be the safe for the climate. (At the moment, we're at 387 parts per million and climbing fast.) Most immediately, 350 is the number world leaders need to lead with as they prepare to meet in Copenhagen this December to draft a new global climate treaty.

Quick links to more info about 350.org:

Of course, all this is leading up to the Copenhagen summit in December when 192 nations of the world gather again as they did back in 2000 and made the millennium promises which still remain unfulfilled. One particular fulfilled promise is now endangering us all unless positive and real action is taken and that is Millennium Development Goal 7 Environmental Sustainability.

What is becoming ever more apparent is the connection between global climate and poverty. CARE is thought of as an organization helping the poor in the far flung regions of the world, but it too is taking a stand against climate change.

CARE is working toward a world where people living in poverty can create opportunities despite the obstacles they face. But the reality about climate change is that it makes poor people even more vulnerable. Agricultural production is declining in the poorest developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Less reliable rainfall is effecting planting seasons, crop growth and livestock health, and leading to increased malnutrition.

In Zimbabwe, women make up 75 percent of the labor force in agriculture, and their livelihoods depend almost exclusively on natural resources. Droughts and the occasional cyclone, combined with limited resources for irrigation, left many women either waiting for the rainy season or suffering through floods that destroyed their crops and devastated their landscape. CARE worked with them to better manage their scarce water resources and modify their farming techniques in order to adapt to new climate conditions.

As President Obama told the United Nations recently, "Developing nations are already living with the unfolding effects of a warming planet: famine and drought, disappearing coastal villages and the conflict that arises from scarce resources. Their future is no longer a choice between a growing economy and a cleaner planet, because their survival depends on both."

The international community is negotiating a new agreement to guide global efforts to address climate change. These negotiations will conclude in Copenhagen, Denmark, in fewer than 50 days! The United States must help lead those efforts and forge strong agreements that cap emissions to prevent catastrophic warming and respond effectively to climate change affects already in motion.

Please contact your senators today and urge them to take the necessary steps to make the United States a global leader in the fight against climate change!

P.S. CARE has launched a new Web site just about climate change. Click here to view all the resources we have made available.

No Leadership or Consensus Regarding Climate Change as Nations Meet

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The New York Times now has the same storyline as the China Daily News and that is that the new climate change agreement is in trouble. The problem is that there is neither a consensus nor a leader arising to form the consensus required as called for in this Note from the Secretary-General to Heads of States and Governments on Mobilizing Political Momentum for Copenhagen.

SCIENCE / ENVIRONMENT | September 20, 2009 No Climate Change Leader as Nations Meet
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR: As nations gather for a major summit meeting on climate change, none want to take the lead in fighting for significant international targets.

While virtually all of the largest developed and developing nations have made domestic commitments toward creating more efficient, renewable sources of energy to cut emissions, none want to take the lead in fighting for significant international emissions reduction targets, lest they be accused at home of selling out future jobs and economic growth.

The problem is that there isn't consensus at any geographical level even when there should be common goals.

SOUTH ASIA: Disunity Hovers over a Region Battling Climate Change - IPS ipsnews.net

KATHMANDU, Sep 20 (IPS) - As the Copenhagen Conference on climate change draws nearer, South Asia, which appears poised for severe threats from the impacts of climate change, faces a stiff challenge on two fronts.

For one, South Asia’s member states – home to half the world’s poor – need to convince the developed world to take steps toward the mitigation of future climate-related risks in the region.

For another, divergence of ideas among these countries over some crucial issues arising from the impact of this global concern on the region is a potential stumbling block to training some of the global climate change spotlight on South Asia.

The World Bank World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change demonstrates that this lack of cooperation and lack of consensus will most negatively impact the poorest of countries.

As Neil Bird of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Blog tells, us we still have long way to go on climate change: seven issues to consider from the World Development Report 2010.

Everyone talks about reaching a global deal over a successor to the Kyoto Agreement at Copenhagen, but as the World Bank’s new World Development Report comprehensively outlines there is a long way to go to secure an adequate response to tackling climate change.

The video makes a very important point in it's opening and that is that the World Development Report focuses on the impact of climate change on the developing world's struggle to rise out of poverty.

Our interest in climate changes starts and ends in many ways with our interest in development.

Marianne Fay - Co-director of World Development Report and
Chief Economist, Sustainable Development Network

Related Posts:

• One of the Morally Urgent Questions of Our Moment

• 7th of 8 days: 8 Goals Personal Stories behind the Millennium Development Goals

• 2 Steps Forward, 2 Degrees Back

• Different Paths to Saving the Climate - All Up Hill

• Two Pathways For Having Your Say on Climate Control

Taking Global Actions to Protect the Global Climate

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Besides the Stand Up Take Action Against Poverty event in October, the next important event that this blog will be tracking is the World Climate Forum in Copenhagen in December of this year. Here are two pathways to learn from and help with this important goal below.

Millennium Development Goal 7. Environmental Sustainability is necessary to the long term viability of Millennium Goal 1. End Hunger as it will be developing countries that will suffer the worst impact on food producing industries.

Over 100,000 participants from 182 countries voted in the Avaaz global poll - 96% of people said, YES, let's go all out on climate this month and commit to a "global wake-up call" to world leaders on September 21st by donating $25.00 or whatever you can afford.

The goal of our wake-up call is a big one: to convince the world's leaders to meet at the final climate talks in Copenhagen this December and sign an ambitious, fair and binding treaty to stop catastrophic climate change.

Talks on the treaty have been building for years. Now, less than 100 days from Copenhagen, we're nearing a tipping point -- and a huge global roar could make the difference.

If we take this on, we won't be alone. Avaaz has been working closely with a new, massive coalition of global civil society groups, from Oxfam to WWF to Greenpeace, to multiply the world's voices for climate action. The joint campaign's name is Tck Tck Tck -- the sound of a ticking clock, as time runs short. Every group involved shares the vision of success in Copenhagen, and we can't succeed without everyone. The question is -- should Avaaz make this climate wake-up call its #1 priority through September 21?

From the United Nations Foundation on Climate Change and Copenhagen:

Dear Brian,

Disappearing land. Displaced communities. The end of indigenous cultures. These aren't consequences of war -- they're the disastrous effects of climate change.

For years we've associated climate change with polar bears and rising sea levels -- things that few of us come in contact with. But the truth is that climate change is just as much about people -- our decisions, our homes, our lives. Unless we act with urgency to reduce global warming, it is our lives and the things we enjoy that will be changing.

The UN is already hard at work to address this crisis. Since 2007, world leaders have been working on a comprehensive global agreement to combat climate change, with talks set to culminate this December in Copenhagen, Denmark.

But for change to really take root, we need people to help people. You have the power to pull together and influence the future of climate change, while we can connect you and your ideas to the global UN family.

Leading this campaign is UN Foundation president Timothy E. Wirth, formerly a U.S. Senator and Undersecretary of State. Senator Wirth has helped shape climate change policy for over 20 years, from chairing the historic Hansen hearings that first brought the dangers of climate change to a broad audience, to today's efforts to adopt meaningful climate action both in the U.S. and internationally.

So we have world governments, policy-makers, and environmental groups involved -- the only piece missing is you. Will you join us and help take action against climate change?

We'll be sending out information soon about Copenhagen and your stake in it, plus details about what you can do to pitch in. So look to your inbox for more on the most important part of the climate change discussion -- people.

With best wishes,





Reid Detchon
Vice President, Energy and Climate Program

Donate | Tell-a-friend | View in browser

1800 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036
© United Nations Foundation

Related Posts:

• RealClimate for Real Change to a WiserEarth

• One of the Morally Urgent Questions of Our Moment

Different Paths to Saving the Climate - All Up Hill

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I was the 5,767th person to sign (click) the petition "Press Senate on Climate Legislation". They are at the time that this post is ready at 5,881. So they are beyond their modest goal of 5,000 signatures and should probably raise it to 10,000. My added two cents was taken liberally, in true slacktivist fashion, in large part from Millennium Development Goal No. 7. Environmental Sustainability,

We need to recognize that environmental sustainability is part of global economic and social well-being of our entire planet. We must stop the exploitation of natural resources such as forests, land, water, and fisheries-often by the powerful. Reducing poverty and achieving sustained development must be done in conjunction with a healthy planet in our natural world rather than continuing to harm the most vulnerable people in the world who depend on natural resources for their livelihood.

Though in my defense, I still believe that these issues need to be made main stream, which means getting the slacktivists and Internet onlookers on board. It also means linking up the worldwide concerns of the Millennium Development Goals and locally focused programs and actions. So, please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/588190272

They say that it takes just 30 seconds, but that it can truly make a difference, which is no doubt true. However, there appears to be two parallel paths that this process is taking. One is by governmental bodies which does not seem to be doing that well, despite the Obama administration's repenting of past practices by the United States. Still as they say petitions only succeed by word of mouth, and every signature makes a difference! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/588190272

Two stories from Global Warming by GinaMarie Cheeseman help explain the difficulty of making the "do as we say, not as we do" argument by the First World Nations. The first is U.S. Ranked Seven of Eight on Climate Change.

The U.S. is ranked seven in the G8 Climate Scorecard, in a recently released study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and global insurance company Allianz SE.

So we are not leading by example. The second was G8 Summit Talks on Climate Change a Bust.

Developing nations refused to agree to a global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction of 50 percent by 2050. The the G5 (Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa) and Egypt met with G8 countries during the summit in L’Aquila, Italy. G8 nations agreed to an 80 percent reduction by 2050, but did not have specific plans for reducing GHG emissions.

Here is the Los Angeles Times story by Christi Parsons and Jim Tankersley July 9 2009cited in the post.

Climate impasse at G-8 summit leaves nations mired Developing countries refuse to back targets set by the Group of 8, which balk at any swift moves of their own.

Reporting from Washington and L'Aquila, Italy — Developing nations led by China and India refused Wednesday to back lofty but long-term targets proposed by the Group of 8 industrial nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions, balking at reluctance by leaders of the world's biggest economies to move more quickly on their own.

The other path is a more emergent path illuminated by Kosmos Journal Personal to Planetary Transformation and the work of Paul Hawken, who was cited in the post One of the Morally Urgent Questions of Our Moment.

• Diigo tags: environmental, collaboration, innovation

  • Our World

    We are living in a time of whole system transition on a personal and planetary scale that affects every aspect of life as we know it. Patterns of possibility are emerging that have never before been available to all the earth’s people and to the whole planet. Two million organisations are working toward ecological sustainability and social justice, according to Paul Hawken. Millions of individuals are self-organising to make a better world in spite of the negative factors that threaten to destroy us. Technological innovations and collective wisdom have created unprecedented opportunities for change. The revolution in communication technologies and the Internet have made it possible to connect all people in the world for the first time in human history. The new science of consciousness is revolutionizing our attitudes and worldviews, and the interdependence of all life is now an established scientific fact.

Finally, a third path laid out by Al Gore. I do agree with the concept that sustainability, including environmental sustainability, is good for the bottom line of business.

Al Gore: 15 Ways to Avert a Climate Crisis

Al Gore lays out 15 ways to avert climate crisis through our personal and professional lives. He plays a brief slide show and provides examples of many of the ways that these steps are being used in action. Speaking to a business audience at the TED conference he also points out important steps that businesses can take to influence climate change. This talk is available on streaming video and MP3 download from the TED.com website.

Turns out that I have about 20 past posts, provided here, having something to do with MDG7.

2 Steps Forward, 2 Degrees Back

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This is a cut-and-paste post from a variety of sources dealing with Millennium Development Goal 7. Environmental Sustainability, offering a number of useful links and opportunities for participation. Trouble is that time is now short. A moment of good news along the pathway, but then the realization that the pathway still continues uphill. The good news, tempered with a call for more needed action on the horizon, came from both the Union of Concerned Scientists and Care2. Last month in June:

House of Representatives took a historic vote to pass comprehensive climate legislation legislation that would put in place a nationwide plan to rein in global warming pollution and create an entirely new, cleaner approach to our nation's energy system.

But we will need your help to put a strong bill over the finish line. Specifically, you can help turn up the heat on the Senate to act quickly and ensure that we enact a final bill that helps build a revitalized clean energy economy, while reducing the threat of global warming.

Learn more about the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the Climate 2030 Blueprint, key elements of comprehensive climate legislation, why the time to act is now, and how UCS is working to ensure passage of a strong climate

The vote for the American Clean Energy Security Act on the House floor came to an ultimate margin of a mere seven votes, 219-212. Let's pause for a moment to celebrate our success -- and then gear up for what is sure to be a similarly tight vote in the Senate.

Read more about today's victory at Care2's Cause Channels, and leave a comment with your reactions to this sweeping climate bill.

The path get even steeper when we move from the national stage to the international stage of the G8 talks in Italy and later the global summit in Copenhagen. I am personally disappointed that Canada is among this group.

Avaaz has let us know that the the world has just months left to agree on a binding global climate treaty, this is the leaders' last in-person negotiation before the make-or-break Copenhagen summit, but that at the upcoming G8 summit, Canada, Japan, and Russia are trying to veto the 2-degree limit.

Avaaz has put together a worldwide petition, which-- an Avaaz team in Italy will deliver it directly to world leaders and through spectacular stunts on Thursday, (tomorrow) bringing global media attention to shame the climate-wreckers and press them to back down.

We urgently need at least 100,000 signatures -- click to sign:

The G8 leaders -- joined by eleven other heads of government at a parallel "Major Economies" meeting next door -- represent more than 80% of climate emissions.

We know last-moment pressure can change their policies: Canada's Harper, Japan's Aso, and other leaders could face elections, they can't afford global embarrassment. Sign the petition, send it to friends, and help rescue the climate target now:

They were at 93,757 when I signed. Found at the Global News Sources of this blog more news from IRIN GLOBAL: Twelve countries on climate change hit-list.

SOURCES FROM AVAAZ:

• G8 summit key to global efforts on climate change
• Background on 2 degrees threshold: "'Too late to avoid global warming,' say scientists"
• Canada, Russia Considered Climate 'Bad Boys' Among G8 Nations
• Make-or-break summit as G8 gamble on climate and economy
• EU's Barroso seeks two degrees Celsius pact at G8

Finally, some inspiration for the long journey along the path.

Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming introduces a new generation of writers and photographers with a personal connection to global warming. The 67 essays and images in this anthology are drawn from nearly 1,000 submissions about beloved places, people, plants, animals, and activities at risk from a changing climate—and the efforts that individuals are making to save what they love. A foreword by author Barbara Kingsolver serves as a powerful call to action.

The essays we selected represent a variety of perspectives, voices, and experiences. The authors follow in the long tradition of great American environmental writers, like Henry David Thoreau, who have broadened our awareness and sharpened our perspective about the world we share. And they are inspiring action to protect our planet from global warming.

7th of 8 days 8 Goals Personal Stories behind the Millennium Development Goals

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Getting close to the end of the United Nations Millennium 8 video special on the Millennium Development goals. This video focuses on the personal stories and struggles around achieving Goal 7 - Environmental Sustainability.

UN Millennium Campaign Goal 7 Environmental Sustainability
Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs.

Related Posts:

• RealClimate for Real Change to a WiserEarth
  

• One of the Morally Urgent Questions of Our Moment

• Corn Ethanol Is Not Smart Bioenergy Period
  

• Despite current economic climate Science moves forward Will USA provide leadership for a better world?
  

• Social responsibility,seeking the good
  

• Small Interventions = Big Difference is not only doing good work it's also good strategy

RealClimate for Real Change to a WiserEarth

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I received an email from Timonie Hood of WiserEarth thanking me for sharing Paul Hawken's video with my One of the Morally Urgent Questions of Our Moment post. She also asked that I share information on WiserEarth itself which I am glad to do.

Paul Hawaken founded WiserEarth to connect individuals and organizations working on social justice and environmental issues.

Here is some more information on the organization.

• About WiserEarth - WiserEarth

  WiserEarth helps the global movement of people and organizations working toward social justice, indigenous rights, and environmental stewardship connect, collaborate, share knowledge, and build alliances.

  Diigo tags: green, environmental, global

  • "There is nothing like WiserEarth.
    Its' community directory, made by us and for us, has over 100,000 organizations working for just and lasting change."

    
    

    Jon Ramer, USA
  
  

Another update I wanted to make to that post was to also mention RealClimate.org, a site mentioned by Bill McKibben in his MITWorld talk. Between the two of them you have hard scientific data and a wise vision that can have a global reach for a better world that could last for at least the next millennium.

RealClimate

About RealClimate

Filed under:

• Extras
  

RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. We aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion here is restricted to scientific topics and will not get involved in any political or economic implications of the science. All posts are signed by the author(s), except 'group' posts which are collective efforts from the whole team. This is a moderated forum.

RealClimate

We've often been asked to provide a one stop link for resources that people can use to get up to speed on the issue of climate change, and so here is a first cut. Unlike our other postings, we'll amend this as we discover or are pointed to new resources. Different people have different needs and so we will group resources according to the level people start at.

They have a section For complete beginners:

• Start here
  • Filed under:
    
    • IPCC
      
    • FAQ
      
    • Climate Science
      

    Diigo tags: realclimate, green, environmental, global
    

One of the Morally Urgent Questions of Our Moment

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I ran across two resources on the Web relating to Millennium Development Goal No 7. Environmental Sustainability. One was this video Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest and WiserEarth.

Copyright Bioneers, http://www.bioneers.org 2007 which was featured in the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seanotes article on Paul Hawken author of Blessed Unrest.

The other was this MITWorld Video on Bill McKibben and the 350 project. The 350 project sets 24 October 2009 as the INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CLIMATE ACTION.

• The Most Important Number in the World | MIT World

  “Just a sleep-deprived activist and organizer.” That’s how environmentalist Bill McKibben describes his current incarnation, with writing career in abeyance while he proselytizes about the danger of climate change. The plight he first wrote about as hypothesis in 1989 has evolved into “deeply rooted consensus.” By 1995, world climatologists agreed: “Human beings are heating up the planet.”

  Diigo tags: mdg7, MIT, sustainability, environmental, 350

  • McKibben saw the way ahead as harnessing the Internet’s multiplicative power. In 2007, with the help of six students and email’s exponential impact, 1,400 simultaneous demonstrations took place countrywide. “The thing just went viral,” McKibben exclaims, “…the biggest day of grass-roots environmental activism since the first Earth Day in 1970.” Social networking and cell phones proved most effective tools for mobilization.
  
  
  • From Martin Luther King, Jr., McKibben absorbed principles of righteous activism. The good fight must be “creative…determined…joyful.” In closing, McKibben cautions “nature does not grade on a curve.” Global warming “is the morally urgent question of our moment.”

They may not be explicitly under the auspices of the United Nations, but the scope of what they grapple with is global and it will effect us for the next millennium and beyond depending upon what we do today. I am combining both because they seem to work well together providing visions for possible pathways and stirring reasons for those pathways. Also like the online organizing campaign and that it will be happening soon after the Stand Against Poverty event October 16, 17 and 18.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Change.org provides many pathways to change

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I recently started doing more with Change.org. I already highlighted the fundraiser page FightAIDSTuberculosisMalaria in previous posts, in this post I want to highlight some of the other pathways one can take. I am just starting, taking small steps.

The great thing about Change.org is that you can work at a number of different levels. You can create your own profile as I did. You can also work at a global level like with the Clinton Global Initiative University. One reason behind this post is to find recruits for this cause. Let me know if you do decide to pledge. That is only the beginning though the Clinton Global Initiative University provides a number of different ways for people, especially young people in college to participate.

One of my areas of growing interests has been Social Entrepreneurship. The Change.org site socialentrepreneurship.change.org provides 10 Ways to Get Involved with Social Entrepreneurship which I am summarizing below.

1. Read
2. Reach Out
3. Fundraise
4. Volunteer or get an internship
5. Advocate: One of the things that often distinguishes social entrepreneurs is their desire not only to remedy a problem, but to change the social landscape that allowed that problem to happen in the first place. The intention of this blog is to provide support through 1,2,3 and 5. I realize that it is only a small contribution, but it sometimes seems that if we could be millions to make small contributions, to just become aware of the challenges, we could make a substantial difference.
6. Go to the source and LISTEN: The most important thing anyone who wishes to create change can do is to spend time with and learn from the communities experiencing the poverty, injustice, and inequality you wish to address.
7. Enroll: Increased interest in social entrepreneurship has prompted business schools like Haas at Berkeley and Kellogg
8. Enter a Competition: A great way to test an idea is to enter a university business plan competition such as the Global Social Benefit Incubator, or even an online competition like ideablob.com or changemakers.net. I have lent online support to these efforts in my other blog before, but should start again.
9. Always challenge yourself: For aspiring social entrepreneurs, or even just those interested the field, it’s as if not MORE important to read criticism like Michael Edwards “Just Another Emperor” and constantly reflect upon your own ambitions. This is one I need to take a look at. I came into this with a particular perspective on business practices and social activism.
10. Start your own organization:
    

Change.org has a whole host of ideas of how to create positive change.

We've tapped into this energy with our Ideas for Change in America, and today we held a press event at the National Press Club in Washington DC to announce the winners of the competition. The 10 winning ideas reflect the diverse interests of the millions of people calling for change across the country, and include ideas for securing universal heath care, LGBT rights, and sustainable green energy. All winning ideas can be viewed at www.change.org/ideas .

- So as the Change.org Team always signs off,

Have a great weekend!

Human Development - The Measurement of Human Endeavors

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The Human Development concept

Human Development is a development paradigm that is about much more than the rise or fall of national incomes. It is about creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interests. People are the real wealth of nations. Development is thus about expanding the choices people have to lead lives that they value. And it is thus about much more than economic growth, which is only a means —if a very important one —of enlarging people’s choices.

Human Development Reports

One instrument for the measurement of such efforts are the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Reports. The reports provide not only a measurement of success, they also provide the motive for such efforts.

Eradicating poverty everywhere is more than a moral imperative - it is a practical possibility. That is the most important message of the Human Development Report 1997. The world has the resources and the know-how to create a poverty-free world in less than a generation.

Human Development Index and Human Poverty Index

There is a choice about the type of metric that could be used Human Development Index or HDI, "an index combining normalized measures of life expectancy,literacy, educational attainment, and GDP per capita for countries worldwide." versus Human Poverty Index , "a measure of the extent to which people in a country are not benefitting from development". Although both are important and should be used, this post will focus on the Human Development Index.

"(T)he HDI is a pathway for researchers into the wide variety of more detailed measures contained in the Human Development Reports."

Wikipedia provides a List of countries by Human Development Index, the table below provides a historical perspective from 1975 to 2005 of a selected set of countries.

Rank (2005)	Country	1975	1980	1985	1990	1995	2000	2005
12	United States	0.870	0.890	0.904	0.919	0.931	0.942	0.951
63	Malaysia	0.619	0.662	0.696	0.725	0.763	0.790	0.811
70	Brazil	0.649	0.685	0.700	0.723	0.753	0.789	0.800
81	China	0.530	0.559	0.595	0.634	0.691	0.732	0.777
128	India	0.419	0.450	0.487	0.521	0.551	0.578	0.619

The new Statistical Update was released on December 18, 2008, and compiled on the basis of data from 2006. According to the new data, the United States, China and India have gone down in HDI and ranking, Malaysia and Brazil went up in HDI but stayed the same ranking.

15	▼ (3)	United States	▼ 0.950
63	▬(0)	Malaysia	▲ 0.823
70	▬ (0)	Brazil	▲ 0.807
94	▼(13)	China	▼ 0.762
132	▼ (4)	India	▼ 0.609

We should not see measurement as a limitation. It is what we are measuring that needs to be examined. Below is a 2007 video from TED featuring Hans Rosling of GapMinder, who amazes his audience with his statistical presentations. One conclusion of his measurements is that countries that look first to the welfare of their people will have a better and more sustainable economic ascendancy. The current economic global crisis created by the pursuit of wealth, for wealth, by the wealthy has reversed and further threatened any previous gains. The response should not be to stop but to apply the paradigm put forward by Hans Rosling to the global community.

Related posts: The Ledger of Human Development - Accounting For Change

Insights From dgCommunities

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Some recent explorations through the dgCommunities sites revealed some interesting insights into the topics that this blog has been pondering lately. One line of thought has been the immensity of the challenge facing the effort to implement the Millennium Development Goals. More so now that the world is facing a financial crisis. Raising the question as what are NGO's or change-agent organizations doing in light of this?

NGOs Pare Down in Face of Financial Crisis

Some of the biggest development and humanitarian NGOs are laying off staff or revising programmes for 2009 as their income streams flatten because of the global financial crisis. Fundraising experts of three of the world's top NGOs - Oxfam GB, Save the Children UK and World Vision USA - said programme growth will slow in 2009 as a result of the squeeze.

There are other actions that can be taken that don't depend as much upon a large flow of financing to fund massive projects. Providing knowledge for empowerment or broad based solidarity is a form of action for which the Internet is especially suited. This blog is being defined, along with countless others, as a "small voice" blog. A description well suited for sites with minimal resources but a wealth of good metta. This blog and my other have been exploring the tools available on the web to reach others through social media, but there is also a wisdom in the use of those tools. Kasem Ali wrote about this January 8, 2009. I have summarized to a substantial degree below as a set of quick notes to be learned and applied, and his original article should be read.

A Triumph of Trust: Five Principles of Nonprofit Social Media Strategy

Nonprofits are getting a grip on the fact that their stakeholder have the tools to reach as many people as they do and that there are powerful opportunities to be pursued as a result. Broadly speaking, this is seen as the challenge of social media. Too many organizations are treating their vocal stakeholders as either journalists with whom they must be careful, or as followers to whom they must market. Drawing from my experience in treating journalists as human beings, this article describes five principles of social media strategy that chart a better way.

(1) Don't Take It Personally: Assume that most of the time, most people will have little interest in what you have to say.

(2) Tell the Truth: Don't lie. Don't sanitize. Don't obfuscate. Sound like a real person.


(3) Make Their Job Easy: Study what people write and share. Figure out what else they need when they're considering your stuff and give it to them.

(4) Be a Useful Source: Look at what they write, discover their current sources and what is useful about them. Determine what kind of information makes them look good, and give them that.

(5) Prioritize Your Efforts: Invest more in those for whom your strategies are working and for whom your resources are useful, even if they have smaller audiences.

This level of established trust can become a basis for the sustainable development of grassroots empowerment. The Millennium Development Goals will not work as long as the model for overcoming poverty is donor in control and recipient in compliance. A level of grassroots empowerment must be established. The grassroots empowerment must also be nurtured into viable social and economic systems, but it has to be grown internally by the community itself. The Mercy Corps is one organization taking on this type of work.

Mercy Corps - Be the Change

Mercy Corps focuses on working in countries in transition, where communities are struggling to recover from political or economic collapse, conflict or natural disaster. Experience has identified community-led and market-driven programs as the critical factor in helping communities sustainably rebuild and recover. Key to this approach is enabling communities to mobilize successfully for action.

Sustainability Field Study: Understanding What Promotes Lasting Change at the Community Level

This report reviews the research and contributes meaningful data to the longer term impact of community mobilization program.

SUSTAINABILITY FIELD STUDY
Understanding What Promotes
Lasting Change at the Community Level
December 2007
Preface

The results of this study confirm the design hypothesis: that a carefully managed process of community mobilization can both increase the sustainability of community development investments and contribute to shifting outlooks and behaviors of communities to be more open and self-sufficient in decision-making and problem-solving. When programs work collaboratively with well-intentioned but under-resourced local government representatives, prospects for sustainability become greater. To increase sustainability, development programs must seek out committed government representatives and invest in their capacity alongside informal community leaders, building an understanding of transparent, accountable and participative processes for engaging communities in their own development. Additionally, programs should reach out to youth to help expand their opportunities for income generation and foster tolerance and community commitment.

SUSTAINABILITY FIELD STUDY
Understanding What Promotes
Lasting Change at the Community Level
December 2007
IX. CONCLUSION

FAO not Schwartz part 2- Opposing Pathways to Ending World Hunger and Malnutrition

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My last post dealt with the global efforts of the FAO to address the global challenge of world hunger and malnutrition. I took my usual public policy wonk approach that the organizational infrastructure and business-like strategy were as important as social relevancy and moral inspiration. The ability of the FAO to conduct evaluations of past activities at an in depth level was as important as its laudable intention to be more proactive in its future endeavors.

There is another level of discussion that goes beyond the efforts of the FAO and United Nation's efforts to the basic philosophy behind the best means of addressing these problems. My inspiration once again comes from the End POVERTY / Fim POBREZA group forums. How we see the problem will influence how we see any potential solutions. One of group's members used a famous bet to frame the debate.

The ongoing debate centers around a bet between Noble Prize winning scientist Paul Ehrlich and the famous American economist Julian Simon. The metric of the bet was the price that five metals reached on the Chicago Stock Exchange in the following decade. Ehrlich claimed that population growth would raise the demand and the price of metals. The metal lost value, and Ehrlich lost that particular bet.

Paul Ehrlich wrote the controversial best-seller the Population Bomb in 1968 which made projections about the catastrophic consequences of population explosion. Ehrlich was trained as an entomologist and has an affinity for systems and seeing the big picture. Ehrlich follows in the tradition of English philosopher Thomas Malthus, who in the eighteenth century posited "his hypothesis that (unchecked) population growth always exceeds the growth of means of subsistence" creating a Maltusian catastrophe. His "Essay on the Principle of Population" also influenced Darwin's theories.

Losing that particular wager did not stop the debate, the question is whether Ehrilich's work on population is still relevant. Taking the affirmative, the blog Yale Environment 360 discusses the matter in The Population Bomb: Has It Been Defused?

The Ehrlichs are sometimes ridiculed because Paul’s original book predicted hundreds of millions of deaths from famine in the 1980s, when we were bailed out by the Green Revolution. But they are right to question the new orthodoxy that technological fixes will always save the day. For myself, I fear that when the Wall Street Journal talks about a revival of Malthusian fears, it reflects a tendency to excuse those guilty of overconsumption, while instead blaming the poor for their poverty and our planetary predicament.

Fred Pearce
Environment consultant for New Scientist magazine

Others are still supportive of Simon, for example Jeffery Goldberg's article in the Atlantic, The Population Bomb That Bombed.

Ehrlich is now leading the Center for Conservation Biology research at Stanford University in California, and still holds to his central thesis: the earth is nearing its limit of sustainability of human life. Ehrlich's current work was featured in Wired Magazine back in March of this year, Population Bomb Author Tackles Cultural Evolution.

My own personal view is an attempt to find a middle path that incorporates both perspectives. Defining the problem as Ehrlich does, but recognizing the viability of Simon's arguments. This blog continues to be against an unfettered free market approach to economics and at the same time support social entrepreneurial efforts incorporating effective business discipline. Ehrlich proposes a Fix For Next Extinction: Educate Women. Where I come somewhat closer to siding with Simon is in applying the solutions. Finding that middle path, however, continues to be an ongoing debate with myself.

Related Posts -

FAO not Schwartz part 1 - Global Plan of Action Addresses a Global Challenge Hunger

FAO not Schwartz part 3 - A World Tragedy Too Long

Change Initiative to Empower Adolescent Girls Investing in the Girl Effect

Social responsibility,seeking the good

FAO not Schwartz part 1 - Global Plan of Action Addresses a Global Challenge Hunger

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FAO members approve $42.6 million reform plan.

I have been learning more about the work of the FAO, (Food and Agricultural Organization) of the United Nations, inspired by some of the discussion at End POVERTY / Fim POBREZA.

Back in November of this year, the FAO member countries agreed to a $42.6 million, three-year immediate plan of action to enable the FAO to “reform with growth”. The recommendations were based upon an independent external evaluation (pdf) (View as HTML) completed last year and form the foundation of a strategy though which the United Nations Calls for New World Agricultural Order. Here is a draft addressing both an immediate Plan of Action for FAO Renewal, and a rationale for "Why reform?" (pdf)- (View as HTML) More insights are provided by MIJARC President George Dixon Fernandez in his review of the special session of the FAO convened (pdf) - (View as HTML) 18 – 22 November 2008, in Rome.

To my mind the evaluation and the plan of action are of equal importance. Evaluation is an important aspect of what FAO does.

The policies for evaluation of these programmes have been set by member countries in the Governing Bodies and the Director-General. Evaluation is designed:

• a) for accountability on results, particularly in terms of evidence of contribution to sustainable impacts for the benefit of member countries; and
• b) to assist decision-making by the Governing Bodies, the Organization’s management and individual member countries as part of a results-based approach to decision-making.

The introduction in 2000 of an enhanced results-based planning model for FAO has made it somewhat easier to identify the outcomes and impacts (objectives) towards which programmes are working

The FAO did not avoid criticizing its own programs. One program sponsored and evaluated by the FAO was Telefood. Their evaluation highlighted some of the shortcomings of the program.

TeleFood events have not made their audiences aware of the causes of hunger, at the international ,national or local levels and of the multifaceted FAO activities in policy development, emergency response and field projects.

Evaluation Brief 10 Evaluation of TeleFood

All of this can be placed under the ongoing discussion as to how to best address the challenge of world hunger and malnutrition. There is always the heartfelt, fully justified and understandable urge to do something to relieve suffering. There is also the need to make sure that such programs are effective in their impact, efficient in their use of resources and sustainable.

Related posts -
FAO not Schwartz part 2- Opposing Pathways to Ending World Hunger and Malnutrition

FAO not Schwartz part 3 - A World Tragedy Too Long

Financial Fears * Global Challenges * Some Potential Answers

Memo to Obama Transition Team and World Re: Environmental To-do List

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I am a a member of the group Eco20/20 at Diigo.com. The most prolific member of that group is Energy Net. Below are just some of the links he has made available recently. These are the ones I thought had a particular tie in with the Millennium Development Goal 7. Environmental Sustainability.

• Eco-Report to Obama Transition Team - Add comment Diigo Tags: energy energy.news ecology
• Gore's Poznań speech is online: "We cannot negotiate with the facts." - Add comment Diigo Tags: energy energy.news climatechange gore
  
• Old Coal Mines Adapted to Generate Geothermal Energy - Add comment Diigo Tags: energy energy.news geothermal coal
  
• Green Car Congress: Report: China to Put 60,000 New Energy Vehicles Into Trials in 11 Cities - Add comment Diigo Tags: energy energy.news cars
  
• Climate Control: Germany Reaches Kyoto Emissions Commitments - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Add comment Diigo Tags: energy energy.news kyoto germany climatechange
  
  

World Wide HIV/AIDS Looking For Solutions

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This final post in the series looks at global resources available to help overcome this challenge. The resources cited below were found at SciDev.Net of Science and Development Network, which "is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to providing reliable and authoritative information about science and technology for the developing world."

AIDS Education Global Information System

AEGiS, a non-profit organization that is a web-based reference for HIV/AIDS information. AEGiS is a virtual HIV/AIDS library containing reference materials and late-breaking information from HIV/AIDS-specific publications and news sources from around the world. [I must admit to having seen an article on SciDev which raised some ethical concerns, but I can't find it now]

International AIDS Vaccine Initiative

IAVI’s mission is to ensure the development of safe, effective, accessible, preventive HIV vaccines for use throughout the world. IAVI is a global not-for-profit, public-private partnership working to accelerate the development of a vaccine to prevent HIV infection and AIDS. Founded in 1996, IAVI researches and develops vaccine candidates, conducts policy analyses, and serves as an advocate for the field with offices in Africa, India, and Europe.

The World Health Organization's approach to HIV/AIDs is to recommend that Universal voluntary testing, immediate treatment can reduce HIV cases

26 November 2008 | GENEVA -- Universal and annual voluntary testing followed by immediate antiretroviral therapy treatment (irrespective of clinical stage or CD4 count) can reduce new HIV cases by 95% within 10 years, according to new findings based on a mathematical model developed by a group of HIV specialists in WHO. The findings were published in The Lancet¹ today to stimulate discussion, debate and further research.

Finally, what of the future? One perspective comes from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Health equity, the financial crisis and Obama: Where next?

Amartya Sen put it succinctly when he commented on the report; ‘this WHO Commission has concentrated on the badly neglected causal linkages that have to be adequately understood and remedied’.

Global health debates too often focus on biomedical aspects of health and those working in this area rarely have space, place, opportunity or desire to link up with those working on the social science aspects.

During his campaign, for example, Obama pledged to increase spending on child and maternal health, and not at the expense of related important areas like HIV and AIDS. These policies are reinforced by a focus on health infrastructure (see the policy for Global Health Infrastructure by 2020), which will be vital to ensure equitable and context-specific service delivery. Another area in which the Obama administration is singing in tune with the Commission’s report is the focus on improving health-care systems to prevent the ‘brain drain’ of health human resources i.e. health professionals leaving the South for better pay in richer countries.

Finally, a story on a private/public partnership with community-based focus as a model for the future to address global health care. DHL partners with UNICEF to empower communities to improve child survival in Maharashtra via India Press Release by R & PM Edelman on 11/18/08. DHL's grant will fund a three-year UNICEF project to empower communities to improve child survival rates in 1,000 villages in Maharashtra.

"The partnership with DHL is a good example of the private sector taking the initiative to champion developmental concerns in rural India complementing the Government's commitment to 'inclusive growth'," said Mr.Vijay Satbir Singh, Secretary of Women & Child Development in Maharashtra, at the partnership ceremony launch.

"Community involvement is the key to sustainable development. If we are serious about improving child survival and reducing maternal mortality, we must give youth and their families the tools that will enable them to survive and lead healthy lives," said Karin Hulshof, UNICEF Representative in India.

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World Wide AIDS the Tragedy
World Wide AIDS Day Business Struggles Business Answers