UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 182
Week of: Sunday, 9th December, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 13th December, 2007
Topical Issue(s):

" World Leaders and Experts meet in Bali, Indonesia to discuss climate Change. The UN Secretary-General stressed that the time of wavering is over and what is needed now is action. The head of the UN Economic Commission for Africa warned that climate change will put millions of Africans at risk of water stress and hunger.

" The General Assembly holds a two-day session to review progress made in improving the lives of children around the world. A young delegate from Namibia says that children are concerned about HIV/AIDS, education and lack of participation in the media.

" The United Nations and its partners appeal for $3.8 billion to help people in humanitarian crises around the world next year. Most of these crises have been caused by conflicts in Africa. The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator says that hundreds of thousands of people have benefited from relief assistance in Africa.

Producer/presenter: Derrick Mbatha
Editor: Ransford Cline-Thomas
Production Assistant: Nyi Nyi Teza
Studio Engineer: Zach Pruwit
Duration: 15'00"

RESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New York.

*** SIG TUNE *** (Please, play briefly, dip upon wave, and hold under narr.)
PRESENTER:

Hello and welcome to UN and Africa. I am Derrick Mbatha.

*** SIG TUNE ***: (Bring Sig Tune up briefly, dip and hold under)
PRESENTER:

In today's programme, world leaders gather in Bali, Indonesia, to discuss climate change.
CLIP 1: Abdoulie Janneh
"Climate change will put millions of Africans at risk of water stress and hunger and further threaten the livelihoods of those who reside in already degradated areas."

PRESENTER:

You will hear more on that in a moment. Also in this edition, the General Assembly holds a commemorative session on children.
CLIP 2: Longeni Matsi
"Ninety-three young people, aged eleven to eighteen, representing fifty one countries, despite our twenty different languages, we are united for one cause, to create a world fit for children."

And later in the programme, the United Nations humanitarian agency and its partners launch an appeal to fund emergency operations next year.

So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.

*** SIG TUNE *** (Bring up briefly, dip and hold under until first sentence)

Climate Change Poses a Particular Challenge to Africa

PRESENTER:

World leaders have gathered in Bali, Indonesia this week to discuss climate change and how to respond to the challenges it is posing for all of us. The high-level segment of the Bali conference started on Wednesday, with the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon making an impassioned appeal to world leaders to take action to address the problem. UN Radio's Diane Bailey reports.
NARRATOR:
After years of debates about what causes climate change it is now generally accepted that emissions of greenhouse gases have resulted in global warming. It is also recognized that there is a linkage between natural disasters and global warming. So, when United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the Bali conference on climate change, he made it clear that what is needed now is to start negotiations that will lead to a comprehensive agreement to stem global warming.
CUT 1: Ban Ki-moon
The science is clear. Climate change is happening. The impact is real. The time to act is now. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us that, unless we act, there will be serious consequences, rising sea levels, more frequent and less predictable floods and severe droughts, famine around the world, particularly in Africa and Central Asia, and the loss of up to a third of our plant and animal species.

NARRATOR:

As the Secretary-General noted, climate change does not affect all regions equally. He said that in fact those who are least able to cope are the ones being hit the hardest. Indeed, Africa will be hit very hard by the negative impact of climate change, and as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Abdoulie Janneh told the meeting in Bali, the continent deserves special attention.
CUT 2: Abdoulie Janneh

For us in Africa, this is a continent which stands to lose most by the impact of challenge of climate change and we are countries and communities whose fate is compounded by high levels of poverty, reliance on rain-fed agriculture, and other climate sensitive sectors such as fisheries, forestry and tourism. Climate change will put millions of Africans at risk of water stress and hunger and further threaten the livelihoods of those who reside in already degradated areas. This is why Africa deserves special attention and consideration.

NARRATOR:

Mr. Janneh said that African countries have placed high expectations on the Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol whose main aim is to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases. Developed countries have been urged to take a lead in cutting down their greenhouse gas emissions while developing countries, many of which are in Africa, are being encouraged to reduce their own emissions of these harmful gases. Again the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa.
CUT 3: Abdoulie Janneh
Any fair global climate policy must therefore take into account the related potential economic, social and environmental losses. No doubt, adaptive measures could help reduce the damages.

NARRATOR:
Mr. Janneh said that unfortunately, Africa does not have the capacity to implement the required measures to reduce the negative impact of climate change. Meanwhile, the head of UN-Habitat, Anna Tibaijuka who is also participating in the Bali conference stressed the need to consider action at the local level as part of global efforts to combat climate change. One example she cited in Africa is in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan.
CUT 4: Anna Tibaijuka
Finally it is local action that will deliver global goals. UN-Habitat will be pushing this in all spheres of life, whether you are talking about deforestation. Imagine in Darfur. Whether you are talking about peace building, there are two million people displaced in Darfur. If they were to go back to their villages, God willing, they would immediately cut down 16 million trees. So UN Habitat will be there in Darfur trying to teach these people using alternative construction techniques. This is where we come in climate change.

NARRATOR:

It is hoped that the world leaders gathered in Bali can, as the Secretary-General put it, come up with a roadmap to a more secure climate future, coupled with a tight deadline that will produce a deal by 2009. Reporting for UN Radio, I am Diane Bailey.
STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC
General Assembly Holds Session on Children

PRESENTER:

Senior government officials, including ministers, gathered in New York this week to children. The meeting was a follow up to the General Assembly special session on children held in 2002 which adopted a document entitled "A World Fit for Children". At that meeting, governments committed themselves to promote the well being of children. The highlight of the meeting this week was the participation of children themselves. And taking advantage of their presence, the president of the General Assembly, Srgjan Kerim of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, proposed that a child delegate address the opening of the session.
KERIM: May I take it that the General Assembly agrees to hear a statement by a child delegate at this opening meeting.

(GAVEL SOUND)

It is so decided. I now give the floor to the child delegate, a young gentleman from Namibia, Longeni Matsi.

(APPLAUSE)

MATSI: Good morning ladies and gentlemen, young boys and girls. My name is Longeni Victorious Matsi and I am from Windhoek, Namibia. I am going to read to you a text that has been prepared by all the children. Ninety-three young people, aged eleven to eighteen, representing fifty one countries. Despite our twenty different languages, we are united for one cause, to create a world fit for children. Five years ago children like us spoke for the first time in this General Assembly and they presented a document called "A World Fit for Us". Since then, we young people have been taking action to make that world a world fit for us. We have raised our voices and taken responsibility for those issues that directly impact us.

PRESENTER:

Following his presentation, I caught up with Longeni Matsi, who is also involved in a radio programme for children in Namibia, to find out some of the issues they are concerned about and what they are doing to address them.
MATSI: Mostly it is we bring the children's objectives, their expectations. We bring them together for them to be met and we try to solve their problems: the disasters of HIV and AIDS, the lack of education and children participation in media. Children don't have opportunities to have a say to be heard.

MBATHA: Tell me about the message that you have brought to the United Nations as an African young man from Namibia.

MATSI: We would like to benefit more, and they wished me all the luck to bring back useful information that can help our economy and nation.

MBATHA: You say that one of the concerns that you have as an African children is the spread of HIV AIDS. How is it affecting children's lives in Africa?

MATSI: Their family members are being evicted by the disease. The environment around them is decreasing. So it is very bad for the future children.

MBATHA: What about education? You say that education is one of the major concerns for children in Africa.

MATSI: Mainly, there is also a tradition that boys should go to school and girls should stay at home and prepare the housing and caring for the children. So it's a whole gap in the economy.

MBATHA: Where do you go to school in Namibia?

MATSI: I am very thankful I have the opportunity to go school at the Academic Secondary School in Windhoek.

MBATHA: What would you like to be in the future?

MATSI: I would like to be an entrepreneur or an engineer.

MBATHA: And what do you need to do to prepare for that?

MATSI: I need to be very clever at school. I need to be very hard working and to achieve my future objectives.

PRESENTER:

Longeni Matsi, a young man from Namibia.

STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC
UN Appeals for $3.8 Billion for Humanitarian Assistance for 2008

PRESENTER:

The United Nations humanitarian agency and its partners on Monday appealed for close to $4 billion to help people in humanitarian crises around the world. The appeal was launched in Geneva by the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes and his partners. UN Radio's Ransford Cline-Thomas reports.
NARRATOR:
The appeal for next year comprises ten consolidated appeals for the Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the occupied Palestinian territory, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, the West African region and Zimbabwe. And, as the list shows, nine of the ten emergencies for the appeal are in Africa. Launching the appeal, the head of United Nations emergency relief operations, John Holmes, said 2007 has not been a good year for millions of disaster victims. On the African continent the conflict worsened in Somalia and Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo continued to face problems. He pointed out, however, that despite these problems and challenges, humanitarian workers were able to assist people in need.
CUT 1: John Holmes

For example, we were able to provide safe water and sanitation to 455,000 displaced people in Somalia to care for 240,000 Sudanese refugees in the harsh and difficult environment of eastern Chad, and the delivery of urgently needed food aid to 2.2 million Zimbabweans.

NARRATOR:

The High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, who participated in the launching of the appeal, said that with the impact of climate change, there are more and more disasters. He pointed out that in addition to that there are new man-made emergencies, such as conflicts.
CUT 2: Antonio Guterres

Conflict is emerging due to all kinds of reasons in which, of course, the competition for resources, more people, less water. For instance, Darfur is also the proof of that, a pattern of growing population for two decades with decreasing rainfall. All these aspects are multiplying crisis and are making crisis more and more complex.

NARRATOR:
Akoi Bazzie from Liberia experienced first hand the devastating impact of conflict. Joining the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator during the launch of the appeal, he described the ordeal he suffered at the age of fifteen when civil war broke out in his country and unfolded into a nightmare.
CUT 3: Akoi Bazzie
Rebels killed my father. I was separated from my family. And to this day through all these long years I have not seen any of my relatives. I had nowhere to live for two years and was on the run seeking safety in the jungle. I was scared of being captured by rebels who would turn me into a child soldier. I wandered on the border between Liberia and Guinea with the echo of gun shoots ringing inside my head.

NARRATOR:
In Liberia, of course, the source of the conflict was to a large extent, the desire of certain people to control the mining of diamonds. But, as Dr. Robert Glasser, the Secretary-General of CARE International explains, climate change, which exacerbates natural disasters, is one of the causes of suffering and conflict in Africa.
CUT 4: Dr. Robert Glasser

The prolonged drought in Darfur has demonstrated how climate variability can also contribute to and exacerbate situations of acute conflict.

NARRATOR:

And so, as in previous years, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners need funding in order to continue to help people in humanitarian crises in Africa. The head of United Nations relief operations, John Holmes, says that donors have consistently asked relief agencies to make sure that consolidated appeals for funding contain better evidence and analysis of what is needed and to be very clear on the projects to be funded.
CUT 5: John Holmes
We have made good progress on this front with particular examples of this being the appeals for Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo because the country teams of each of these two countries have devised and applied objective and rigorous method to rate the priority of each projects so that in a situation where funds are obviously limited, donors know where they should be looking first.

NARRATOR:
The United Nations says that funding for humanitarian programmes this year has shown a slight improvement over previous years. Reporting for UN Radio, I am Ransford Cline-Thomas
SIG TUNE (Bring up briefly, dip and hold under)
PRESENTER:
And that's all for this edition of UN and Africa. Our Production Assistant was Nyi Nyi Teza and our sound engineer was Zach Prewit. I am Derrick Mbatha saying bye bye.

*** CLOSING MUSIC ***