OON31.p65 1 19.01.04, 14:04 Cyan Visit of the UNESCO Director-General, Ko¿tiro Matsuura, to Russia The UNESCO Director- Art in the presence of minis- General visited the Russian ters, including ;irst Deputy ;ederation for the second Prime-Minister of R;, Ms. time 2526 November 2003 Karelova, Minister of ;oreign on the invitation of the Pres- Affairs, Mr. Ivanov, Minister ident of the Russian ;eder- of Culture, Mr. Shvydkoy, as ation, Mr. Vladimir Putin. well as Chairperson of the The programme of the visit Commission of the Russian included a meeting of Mr. ;ederation for UNESCO, Matsuura with Mr. Putin, Mr. ;ortov, Permanent Del- the participation of the egate of the Russian ;edera- UNESCO Director-General tion to UNESCO, Mr. Kala- in the meeting of the Presi- manov, Assistant to the dential Council for Culture UNESCO Director-General and Art, a meeting with the for Culture, Mr. Bouchenaki, ;irst Deputy Prime-Minister Director of the UNESCO of the Russian ;ederation, Mr. Vladimir Putin greets Mr. Ko¿tiro Matsuura Moscow Office, Mr. Quéau, Ms. Galina Karelova, and in the Kremlin and other representatives of participation at the ceremo- the UNESCO Headquarters. ny of awarding Mr. Matsuura with After the meeting with Mr. Putin in the Opening the meeting, President the title of Honorary Professor of Kremlin Ko¿tiro Matsuura made a Moscow State University. speech at the Council for Culture and (To be continued on p. 8) Contents: UNESCO UNA Visit of the UNESCO Director-General, Students and Journalists Discuss the Present Ko¿tiro Matsuura, to Russia ...................................... 1 and Future of the UN ............................................... 8 UNDP Announcing the UN Association of Russias UN Millennium Development Goals Open Perspectives Competition 2004 .................................................... 9 for Russian Regions ................................................ 2 UNICE) UN)PA Robbie Williams: Solo for Children ............................ 9 UNFPA Executive Director Visits Russia..................... 4 Telebridge Brings People Together OCHA in the Fight Against AIDS ....................................... 11 United Nations and NGOs Present WHO their Assistance Programme for Chechnya The Eighth Meeting of the High-Level Working and Neighbouring Republics in 2004 ........................ 6 Group on Tuberculosis in the Russian Federation . 12 UNHCR Russian and International Partners Meet To Mobilize UNHCR Assisted Ex-Inhabitants of Alina Camp Resources for TB and HIV/AIDS Control ................. 12 in Ingushetia ........................................................... 7 Launch of the WHO 3 by 5 Initiative ................... 14 Award to Sergio Vieria de Mello ................................ 7 Patients Rights: New Notional Accents International Film Festival on Human Rights .............. 7 and Outlooks for International Cooperation........... 15 UNESCO UNIC Meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee The UN and International Laws Future: of the UNESCO Volga Initiative ................................. 8 A Look from Moscow ............................................. 16 OON31.p65 1 19.01.04, 14:04 Black UN in RUSSIA UN Development Programme UN Millennium Development Goals Open Perspectives for Russian Regions A regional forum "UN Millennium Development Goals - Perspectives for the North-Western Region" was held in Syktyvkar, Komi Republic, on 20 November 2003 with support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The forum became one more of UNDP efforts to mobilize support for reaching Millen- nium Development Goals (MDGs) at the regional level in Russia and to help regional authorities and commu- nities use the MDGs as tools in establishing their development priorities. Representatives of the Komi Republic authorities, public sector, education institutions, academia and mass media participated in this meeting. A UN Country Team delegation, headed by Mr Eric Brunat, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, on behalf of Mr Stefan Vassilev, UN Resident Coordinator, UNDP Resident Representative took active part in the fo- rum's work as well. UN in Russia presents an extract of Mr Brunat's speech addressed the participants of the forum. Achieve universal primary educa- Among the Millennium Develop- tion; ment Goals, Goal No. 1 (halving the Promote gender equality and em- proportion of people living in ex- power women; treme poverty) occupies the most Reduce child mortality; prominent position. Today, more Improve maternal health; than 1.2 billion people one in ev- ComBat HIVAIDS, malaria and ery five on Earth survive on less other diseases; than USD 1 a day. Ensure environmental sustainaBil- ity; The world needs a clear understand- Develop a gloBal partnership for ing of why gloBal poverty endures, development. where and what the biggest obstacles are and what needs to Be done to The Millennium Development address them. A lack of sustained Mr Eric Brunat, UNDP Deputy Goals message is simple: escaping poverty-reducing growth has been Resident Representative addresses poverty traps requires countries to identified as one of the major oBsta- the forum's participants reach certain critical thresholds cles to achieving a significant reduc- for health, education, infrastructure tion of poverty. Economic growth The new century opened with an un- and governance that will enable alone is not enough. Growth can Be precedented declaration of solidari- them to achieve sustainable human ruthless or it can Be poverty-reduc- ty and determination to rid the world and economic growth. These ing depending on its pattern, on of poverty lets remind that at the thresholds, in turn, can be reached structural aspects of the economy beginning of this century a child of only through stronger partnerships and puBlic policies. Consider that, less than ten years dies of hunger among all development actors and according to UN statistics, poverty each 7 seconds, as well as around through increased international ac- has increased in some countries that 100,000 people a day! In 2000, the tion, including trade expansion, actually have achieved overall eco- UN Millennium Declaration, adopt- debt relief, technology transfers and nomic growth, and over the past two ed at the largest-ever gathering of aid provision. decades, income actually worsened heads of state, committed countries in 33 of 66 developing countries. rich and poor to doing their best The Millennium Development Goals to eradicate poverty, promote hu- are not proposing yet another pana- Therefore, all countries especially man dignity and equality and achieve cea or one-size-fits-all solution to the those that are doing well on average peace, democracy and environmen- worlds problems. Rather the MDGs but with entrenched pockets of pov- tal sustainability. At the 2000 sum- seek to highlight the key areas of in- erty should implement policies that mit the UN General Assembly also tervention that should guide nation- strengthen the links Between eco- asked the UN Secretary General to al efforts and international support. nomic growth and poverty reduc- prepare a road map for achieving the The MDGs also provide a means for tion. Growth is more likely to bene- Declarations commitments. The re- benchmarking and assessing devel- fit poor people if it is broadly based sulting 8 UN Millennium Develop- opment progress. Any policy re- rather than concentrated in a few ment Goals, to be reached by 2015 forms, institutional changes or bud- sectors or regions, if it is labour in- or earlier, are as follows: get reallocations may be implement- tensive (as in agriculture) rather than ed in a more efficient manner if cen- capital intensive (as in oil) and if gov- Halve the proportion of people liv- tered on concrete time-bound objec- ernment revenues are invested in ing in extreme poverty; tives. human development such as basic 2 OON31.p65 2 19.01.04, 14:04 Black UN in RUSSIA UN Development Programme The private sector is levels. At the gloBal level, the Sec- similarly an impor- retary General is to report annually tant player in the de- to the General Assembly on velopment process as progress towards a sub-set of the it creates joBs and MDGs and to report more compre- raises incomes. Pri- hensively every two years. These re- vate Businesses ports support a dynamic campaign should support the to help keep poverty issues centre Millennium Devel- on the national and global develop- opment Goals in a ment agenda. variety of ways: through corporate The world has made tremendous philanthropy, tech- progress in its knowledge and prac- nology transfers, tice of development policies. The Meeting with Mr Ivan Kulakov, Chairman of the greater investment, Millennium Development Goals State Council of the Komi Republic etc. aim to Bring this knowledge and health, education, nutrition and wa- practice together in a more coher- ter and sanitation services. Growth National efforts, both public and ent framework that recognizes the is less likely to Benefit poor people if private, may still leave a large re- need for a multi-pronged approach it is narrowly Based, if it neglects source gap in terms of Millennium to addressing the roots of develop- human development or if it discrim- Development Goals implementa- ment problems and significant inates in the provision of puBlic ser- tion. ;illing this gap may require progress has been made based on vices against rural areas, certain re- additional technical and financial the promises of partnership in re- gions, ethnic groups