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Last Updated: Feb 14th, 2008 - 23:22:17 |
Press Release
UN Launches Maternal Health Fund
15 FEBRUARY 2008 NEW YORK (Pacnews) ------ A new thematic fund for maternal health has been created to boost global efforts to reduce the number of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth. The fund, established by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, will also encourage developed countries and private sponsors to contribute more to saving women's lives.
Every minute a woman dies due to complications in pregnancy or childbirth, adding up to half a million women dying every year. Another 10-15 million women suffer serious or long-lasting illnesses or disabilities.
”No woman should die giving life,” said UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. “To have a healthy society, you have to have healthy mothers”
In many countries, however, progress in maternal health has been slow. In some, the situation has actually deteriorated over the last 20 years. The reason is insufficient political will and inadequate resources, as women's health is often pushed off the agenda in favour of other priorities.
“It is critical to invest in women if we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals,” said Ms. Obaid. “We urge countries to dedicate more resources to improving national health systems, training skilled birth attendants and promoting family planning. Millions of deaths and disabilities could be prevented, if every woman had access to reproductive health services.”
Improving maternal health and reducing maternal deaths are at the heart of Millennium Development Goal number 5.
The thematic fund, which UNFPA has established in partnership with governments, United Nations organizations and other international partners, will help countries increase their access and use of quality maternal health services that would reduce maternal deaths and disabilities. It will also increase the capacity of health systems to provide a broad range of quality maternal health services, strengthen mechanisms to reduce health inequities, and empower women to exercise their right to maternal health.
The thematic fund will focus on supporting 75 countries with the greatest need. The goal is to raise US$465 million during 2008-2011……PNS (ENDS)
www.unfpa.org/safemotherhood/mediakit
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.
Feb 15, 2008, 23:21
Press Release
Indo-Pacific Coral Reefs Disappearing More Rapidly Than Expected
Corals in the central and western Pacific ocean are dying faster than previously thought, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have found. Nearly 600 square miles of reef have disappeared per year since the late 1960s, twice the rate of rainforest loss.
The reefs are disappearing at a rate of one percent per year, a decline that began decades earlier than expected, the researchers discovered. Historically, coral cover, a measure of reef health, hovered around 50 percent. Today, only about 2 percent of reefs in the Indo-Pacific have coral cover close to the historical baseline
“We have already lost half of the world's reef-building corals,” said John Bruno, lead study author and associate professor of marine ecology and conservation in the department of marine sciences in UNC-Chapel Hill's College of Arts and Sciences.
The study provides the first regional-scale and long-term analysis of coral loss in the region, where relatively little was known about patterns of reef loss.
The Indo-Pacific contains 75 percent of the world's coral reefs and has the highest coral diversity in the world. High coral cover reefs in the Indo-Pacific ocean were common until a few decades ago, the researchers found.
Bruno and Elizabeth Selig, a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences' curriculum in ecology, compiled and analysed a database of 6,000 quantitative surveys performed between 1968 and 2004 of more than 2,600 Indo-Pacific coral reefs. The surveys tallied coral cover, a measure of the ocean floor area covered by living corals. Scientists rely on coral cover as a key indicator of reef habitat quality and quantity, similar to measuring an area covered by tree canopy as a gauge of tropical forest loss.
Coral cover declined from 40 percent in the early 1980s to approximately 20 percent by 2003, the researchers found. But for Bruno and Selig, one of the most surprising results was that coral cover was similar between reefs maintained by conservationists and unprotected reefs. This consistent pattern of decline across the entire Indo-Pacific indicates that coral loss is a global phenomenon, likely due in part to large-scale stressors such as climate change. But for Bruno and Selig, one of the most surprising results was that coral loss was just as extensive on some of regions most intensely managed reefs.
The results of the study have significant implications for policy makers and resource managers searching for ways to reverse coral loss. “We can do a far better job of developing technologies and implementing smart policies that will offset climate change,” Bruno said. “We can also work on mitigating the effects of other stressors to corals including nutrient pollution and destructive fishing practices.”
Although reefs cover less than one percent of the ocean globally, they play an integral role in coastal communities, Bruno said. They provide economic benefits through fisheries and tourism and serve invaluable services like buffering from storms. When corals die, these benefits quickly disappear
Coral disease, predators, rising ocean temperatures due to climate change, nutrient pollution, destructive fishing practices and sediment run-off from coastal development can all destroy reef communities.
“Indo-Pacific reefs have played an important economic and cultural role in the region for hundreds of years and their continued decline could mean the loss of millions of dollars in fisheries and tourism ,It's like when everything in the forest is gone except for little twigs,a few lone trees” Selig said.
The results were published Aug. 8, 2007, in the online journal PLoS One.
The research was funded by a grant by the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency's Science to Achieve Results program… Article from Science Daily http://www.sciencedaily.com
Feb 15, 2008, 20:57
Press Release
Cook Islands leading the way in tabling Freedom of Information Bill
14 FEBRUARY 2008 RAROTONGA (Pacnews) ------ The Cook Islands makes history this week as the first Pacific island country to introduce official information or freedom of information legislation into parliament.
The official information bill was tabled in parliament yesterday by deputy prime minister Sir Terepai Maoate, who has been a strong advocate to get the legislation in place.
Once passed, the act will give the public greater access to government information. The act will be administered by the ombudsman's office.
Sir Terepai said there is a 12-month period before the act comes into force, which was requested by ombudsman Janet Maki.
She explained that after the act is passed, an awareness programme will be run over the following 12 months to give heads of ministries and government officials the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the requirements of OI legislation.
Ms Maki said she has held discussions with her New Zealand counterpart and has informed the NZ ombudsman's office that technical assistance will be needed to review the Cooks' situation and make recommendations on how best to implement the act.
According to Ms Maki, if the act is brought into force straight away there is the danger that ministries will not know their responsibilities under it or would take too long providing information, "and this would defeat the whole purpose of the act".
The 12 months will also allow departments to upgrade record keeping and get all their records in order. She says some government departments need to be more accountable with the information they keep.
Sir Terepai said government officials should not be uneasy about the act or uncomfortable with releasing official information to the public.
“If they have done the best job they can, why should they be afraid of the public knowing what they do? People working for government have to be aware that they have to do the right thing... all the time.”
Sir Terepai said another positive result will be that the act will make public servants work better and harder.
It will also give people the right to ask for information, and this imposes a duty on governments to respond to the inquiries of its constituents by providing information on request.
It also requires governments to proactively disclose information to the public rather than conducting its activities in secret…….PNS (ENDS)
Feb 14, 2008, 22:40
Press Release
Tiny nations urged UN Security Council to Punish CO2 Offenders
The world's small island nations are calling for the U.N. Security Council to help protect their lands and resources by using its authority to demand reductions of carbon dioxide emissions, and to penalise those nations that fail to comply.
“It is the obligation of the Security Council to prevent an aggravation of the situation,” Palau's ambassador Stuart Beck told delegates attending a two-day General Assembly meeting on climate change in New York
Describing the devastating impact of changing climates on small islands of the Pacific region, Mr Beck said many people living along the coastlines are moving out of their ancestral lands because they have lost their sources of livelihood due to the rising water levels.
“While we do not have all the answers,” said Mr Beck, “we are not unmindful of the scientific certainty that excessive greenhouse gas emissions are the cause of this threat to international security and the existence of our countries.”
Speaking on behalf of small island nations, he urged the 15-member Council to consider imposing mandatory emission caps on all states and use its power to impose sanctions in order to encourage compliance.
“Larger countries can build dikes, and move to higher ground,” he said. “This is not feasible for the small island states who must simply stand by and watch their cultures vanish.”
Mr Beck was not alone in urging the Council to consider the issue of climate change as a threat to international security. Speaking on behalf of the Pacific Island Forum at last year's Council debate, ambassador Robert Aisi of Papua New Guinea expressed similar views.
In a speech, Mr Aisi described climate change as “no less a threat” to small island states than “the dangers of guns and bombs to larger countries” He said the Pacific island countries were likely to face massive dislocations, similar to flows sparked by conflict.
The two-day thematic debate was organised by the General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim, who thinks it was now crucial for the world body to sustain the momentum generated by last December's historic Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia.
In Bali, 187 countries agreed to launch a two-year process of formal negotiations on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Under the so-called Bali Roadmap, key issues during the upcoming negotiations will be adaptation, mitigation, the deployment of climate-friendly technology and financing.
“Many countries cannot wait until the effects of mitigation targets have an impact,” Mr Kerim said. “We need both targets and immediate practical actions that can help the most vulnerable adapt to climate change.”
He called on the over 100 delegates from member states and organisations in attendance to consider what the U.N.'s goals should be following the Kyoto Protocol's expiration in 2012, as well as how to link the fight against climate change with efforts to bolster development.
In addition to official delegates, the meeting was also attended by prominent figures from the private sector investing in clean technologies and celebrities from the entertainment industry.
Speaking at a news conference Monday, Sir Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, proposed the creation of an “international war room”, a politically-independent gathering of scientists, economists and others to catalyse the public sector, businesses, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and governments to act on a large scale.
“The war room will be a unique combination of entrepreneurial muscle, the best possible data and the power to mobilise resources and influence policy,” he said.
Mr Branson has offered a US$25-million- prize to encourage scientists and inventors to explore technical solutions to climate change.
In a separate press conference, the U.N.'s top climate change official, Yvo de Boer, however, warned that an increased emphasis on technology “is not going to come unless rich countries take on ambitious reduction targets.”
Independent environmental experts welcomed Mr Branson's ideas, but some were sceptical about their viability.
“Unfortunately, on the climate change priority list, the last things are: 'war rooms', 'battle plans', and half-billion-dollar prizes,” said Dr. Michael Dorsey, who teaches environmental studies at Dartmouth College.
”We must, however, say 'yes!' to more room for renewables in the market place; green plans at municipal to national levels; and ending the billion-dollar prizes governments give to the fossil fuel sector each year,” he told IPS.
Mr Dorsey is also critical of the role of the World Bank in combating climate change.
In his view, the Bank needs to take “its own medicine by following its Extractive Industries Review and reverse its 15:1 support of fossil fuels over renewable by five factors each year until 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.”
“The world's 20 wealthiest nations don't need to put money into Branson's prize fund,” said Mr Dorsey. “If they want to match Branson's gift, they should direct their contributions toward fully funding the Adaptation and Mitigation Fund, before 2012.”
Mr Branson's energy and carbon footprint, according to Dorsey, “would be better spent doing shuttle diplomacy amongst peer CEOs -- especially in the petroleum sector, and energy production area…….Article from IPS, website: http://www.ipsnews.net
Feb 14, 2008, 20:35
Press Release
ANZ Bank confirms its commitment to Fiji through ongoing investments in customer service
13 FEBRUARY 2008 SUVA (Pacnews) ------- ANZ Bank today confirmed its commitment to Fiji by continuing its investment in making banking easier for our customers through introducing new products and services and adding additional ATMs to new locations.
In Suva today during a visit to ANZ’s operations in Fiji, ANZ Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mike Smith said Fiji was one of ANZ’s most important markets in the region.
“We’ve been here for 128 years and over that time we have continued to invest in the business, our staff and the community,” Mr Smith said.
“Today ANZ is the leading bank in Fiji. Our customers are being served with a state-of-the-art telling system, the largest ATM fleet in Fiji, a new small business sector that will better service this growing market and a unique rural banking model which takes banking to remote locations.
“Investments in technology will continue to play an important part of our future growth in Fiji and we will be rolling out a new Internet Banking platform for our customers over the next 18 months. Already, our operations hub, Quest, is leading the way in the ICT industry in Fiji, creating employment and supporting our business across the Pacific and in Asia,” Mr Smith said.
The Pacific is an important market for ANZ and this is underscored by the investment ANZ has made over the past few years in the region to deliver more convenient banking for customers, including the addition of 110 ATMs, 1,000 EFTPOS machines and 15 new branches.
Mr Smith said Fiji’s geographic location, its deep water ports, two universities, a well-educated workforce and its good infrastructure make it a logical hub for the Pacific.
”The strength of ANZ’s business and the size of its operations provide the bank with the opportunity to make a contribution to developing better outcomes for Fiji and other countries in the Pacific,” Mr Smith said.
“We can play a role in the future development of the region by continuing to invest in programs like our rural banking initiative, by working with companies and Governments to facilitate private sector investment; and by providing support for sustainable industries in the region such as tourism, manufacturing and services.
Mr Smith said. “We can also facilitate and market cross border trade to allow the region to better access international markets.”
Mr. Smith’s trip to Fiji is part of a programme of visits to the Pacific following his appointment as CEO of ANZ in October 2007. Last week he visited PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. During this trip he will meet with the Interim Finance Minister, Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor, staff and customers.
“Over the past two weeks I’ve really enjoyed meeting some of our 1,800 staff in the Pacific, visiting branches and meeting local customers and community leaders,” Mr Smith said…..PNS (ENDS)
For more information please contact Inoke Bainimarama Marketing Manager
ANZ Fiji Level 7, ANZ House Suva, Fiji
T (679) 3213 715
F (679) 3213 742
M (679) 9908 298;
Email: inoke.bainimarama@anz.com
Feb 13, 2008, 22:36
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