August 2008: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
(FAO), the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the International Fund
for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have announced a call for papers addressing
“Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural employment: differentiated
pathways out of poverty” to be presented at a global technical expert workshop
to be held in March-April 2009 (dates to be confirmed), in Rome, Italy. The
workshop comes as a follow up to recent international policy discussions on
rural employment, a central element in equitable growth and poverty reduction,
but which faces the challenges of the global food crisis and climate change.
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August 2008: The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has released the
UNECE/FAO Forest Products Annual Market Review, 2007-2008. The Review, based on
the theme ‘Green building's impact on the forest sector in the UNECE region,'
covers all forest products market sectors as well as interlinked policy
developments in the UNECE region of Europe, North America and the CIS.
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July 2008: This publication, released by Secretariat of the
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), responds to the need
for comprehensive multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral national coordinating
mechanisms to reduce, prevent and manage the impacts of natural hazards, as
expressed in, inter alia, the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (HFA) which
emphasized the importance of setting up National Platforms for disaster risk
reduction (DRR).
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6 August 2008: The World Bank, the UN International Strategy
for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction
and Recovery (GFDRR) have released an interactive report entitled ‘Climate
Resilient Cities,' which provides cities and their governments with guidelines
to reduce their vulnerability to climate change and strengthen disaster risk
management.
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6 August 2008: The UN Conference on Trade and Development's
(UNCTAD) Trade and Development Board hearing with civil society will address
the global food crisis as a systemic failure in development strategy, including
its relationship with climate change.
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5 August 2008: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
is coordinating efforts by the government of China and the organization of the
Games during the Beijing Olympics to provide timely and accurate weather
predictions and characterization of associated risk, which are critical to the
event.
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4 August 2008: In an address to the Joint Session of the
Mexican Senate and Chamber of Deputies, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon,
noted their pivotal role in bridging the local and global, highlighting the
three inter-related challenges faced by the world today, namely, a climate
crisis, a food crisis, and an emerging development emergency.
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August 2008: An opinion brief authored by Madeleen Helmer,
Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, Sarah La Trobe, Tearfund, and Silvia
Llosa, UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat, notes that
the humanitarian community has not engaged in climate debates, particularly
since attention focused on addressing the causes of climate change.
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3 August 2008: The fifteenth Summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), held from 2-3 August 2008, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, concluded with the adoption of the Colombo Declaration and the Colombo Statement on Food Security. In the Declaration, entitled “Partnership for Growth for Our People,” the Heads of State and Government reiterate the need for increased regional cooperation in tackling climate change, in particular for capacity building, the development of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, and awareness raising.
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1 August 2008: The fifty-fourth Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and associated events is taking
place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 1-10 August 2008. On 8 August, a workshop
on collaboration among Large and Small States through International
Organizations to Respond to Climate Change will be held to examine the
Commonwealth Climate Action Plan, which was adopted on 24 November 2007 in
Kampala, Uganda at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
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