WHAT´S NEW
EU/DEVELOPMENT: EU CONFIRMS SUPPORT FOR MDGS
Brussels, 14/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 14 June, the EU Council of Minsters adopted its conclusions on the United Nations´ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), stating that despite the current economic crisis, the EU was firmly committed to supporting achievement of the MDGs around the world by 2015. The ministers argue that this is still achievable if the entire international community makes a strong political commitment to this end, changing policy as necessary and taking action. Stressing the collective responsibility of all and sundry, the EU member states repeat their commitment to devote 0.7% of GDP to development aid by 2015.
Read moreAdmitting that the EU will not achieve its intermediate goal of spending 0.56% of GDP on aid in 2010, the conclusions call on member states that are falling behind to take realistic, verifiable action to achieve the required levels of aid by 2015. The conclusions set out the EU´s position for the United Nations high level meeting in New York on 20-22 September.
RUSSIAN PHOTOGRAPHER OLGA SVIBLOVA ON THE JURY
Our competition has a new jury member. Olga Sviblova is the director of the Moscow House of Photography. Since 1996 she has been Art-director of the International Month of the Photography in Moscow "Photobiennale" and festival "Fashion and style in photography".
Olga is also the curator of numerous exhibitions of Russian photography and contemporary Russian art which were organized in the biggest museums and exhibition halls in Russia and all over the world.
Between 1996 and 2010, she organized more than 500 exhibitions of Russian photography abroad, in Moscow and in other Russian cities. In 2007 and 2009 she was the curator of Russian pavilions at the 52th and 53rd Venice Biennales of Contemporary Arts.
BETTER CARE FOR NEWBORNS CRUCIAL FOR MDG GOAL ON CHILD DEATHS
Improving newborn care in the first month of life is essential for reducing child deaths in developing countries, according to a global update on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) presented in the World Health Statistics 2010.
Read moreGlobally about 40% of deaths in children under five years old are estimated to occur in the first month of life, most of which occur in the first week. For the first time, this report provides the major causes of these deaths among newborns. The report also shows that deaths among children under five have dropped by 30% from 12.5 million in 1990 to 8.8 million in 2008.
With five years remaining to the MDG deadline in 2015 there are some striking improvements in some health MDGs: the percentage of underweight children is estimated to have declined from 25% in 1990 to 16% in 2010, HIV infections dropped 16% between 2001 and 2008 and the percentage of the world’s population with access to safe water has increased from 77% to 87%, enough to reach the MDG target.
However, the global results mask inequalities between countries and regions. Some countries have been held back by conflict, poor governance, or humanitarian and economic crises. "But several low-income countries have made substantial progress in reducing child mortality, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Rwanda," says Ties Boerma, Director of WHO’s Department of Health Statistics and Informatics.
According to the report, nine countries in Africa and 29 outside Africa are on course to meet the MDG target for reducing malaria, but in 2008 an estimated 243 million cases of malaria still caused 863 000 deaths, mostly in children under five years old.
New HIV infections have been reduced globally by 16% between 2001 to 2008. In 2008 2.7 million people were newly infected with HIV; more than 4 million people in low- and middle-income countries were receiving antiretroviral treatment by the end of 2008 but that left more than 5 million people untreated.
Existing cases of tuberculosis (TB) are declining as more people are being successfully treated. TB mortality among HIV-negative people has dropped from 1.7 million in 2001 to 1.4 million in 2008.
World Health Statistics 2010 is an annual report based on more than 100 health indicators reported by WHO's 193 Member States. These data provide a snapshot of global health trends. However, timely, accurate health information is hard to obtain in some parts of the world.
More information about WHO’s health statistics can be found at:
http://www.who.int/whosis/en/index.html
Fact Sheet: Progress and the health-related Millennium Development Goals
TH!INK ABOUT IT BLOGGING FOR DEVELOPMENT
TH!NK3: Developing world is the third round of the European Journalism Centre's widely acclaimed international blogging competition series. The competition brings together more than 100 bloggers from around the world for a five-month blogging competition aimed at creating a “buzz” on development issues in the lead up to the development in the lead up to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals Review Summit in September 2010.
Read moreThe participants of TH!NK3, called "TH!NKers, are journalism students, academics and experts from 27 EU Member States, neighbourhood countries and beyond. Their objective in TH!NK3 is to write and report about global cooperation and sustainable.
TH!NK3: Developing World launched on 23 March, 2010 in Brussels will run from 24 March, 2010 to 31 August, 2010.
TH!NK3: Developing World will also offer the project's top bloggers the chance to cover the issues from the field via reporting expeditions to Asia, Africa and New York City. In order to qualify for these awards, participants must blog at least 20 times throughout the competition
Read more about TH!NK3: Developing World - http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/about/
THE UNITED NATIONS CONVEYS MYRTIS MESSAGE IN FAVOUR OF THE 21ST CENTURY CHILDREN
5th century BC Athenian daughter Myrtis, the central figure of the exhibition "Myrtis: Face to face with the past" of the Goulandris Natural History Museum in Kifissia sends a strong message to the world on the elimination of children mortality in the 21st century.
By Eleni Mpistika, published in the Greek daily Kathimerini
Her face is the magnet and her "voice" has become a message sent through the United Nations: “2500 years ago, my death was inevitable. In the 5th century BC we had neither the knowledge nor the means to fight deadly illnesses...
However, you, the people of the 21st century, have no excuse. You possess all the necessary means and resources to save the lives of millions of people. To save the lives of millions of children like me who are dying of preventable and curable diseases.
2,500 years after my death, I hope that my message will engage and inspire more people to work and make the Millennium Development Goals a reality. Listen to me. I know what I’m saying. Never forget that I’m much older and therefore much wiser than you”.
The news is that Myrtis was chosen by the United Nations to take part in the campaign entitled "We Can - End Poverty Now” for the promotion of the MDGs which were adopted at the Millennium Summit in 2000 when 189 world leaders gave their promise to "fight poverty" and signed a declaration on achieving these goals by 2015.
Among the influential persons recruited to sensitize people about the salvation of human beings, especially children, from preventable and curable diseases that nevertheless still cost the lives of many, it was natural to choose Myrtis, the 11 year-old Athenian, whose skull was found in good condition by archaeologists along with 150 other skeletons in 1994-1995, in Kerameikos.
Worldwide it is estimated that the global prevalence of typhoid fever is between 16 million and 33 million cases annually, with 500,000 to 700,000 deaths. And what gives Myrtis the absolute right to speak and excite minds, is that nearly 9 million children aged under 5 die every year of preventable and curable diseases. Let´s listen to her. As she says, her wisdom comes from very far away from the 5th century BC Athens, which gave the lights of civilization and eternal values worldwide…
