Monitoring the status of forests through Geographic Information Systems - a Pilot project in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Geographic Information System (GIS) technology leverages the capacity of geographical data to address social, economic, business, and environmental issues at local, regional, national, and global scales.
The World Resources Institute has recently published on its website an interactive map viewer featuring data on roads, logging and mining concessions, protected areas and detailed forest change in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This pilot project is extremely interesting as it represent a new way to promote worldwide  public awareness on problems of preservation and sustainable development of the environment in developing countries.

Above you can see a small map with the main information on the status and exploitation of forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On the World Resources Institute you can visit the interactive map, developed in collaboration with ESRI, which provides more comprehensive information.

At the end of November, the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, held in Busan, will assess the impact and progress of development aid

In September 2008, development partners came together for the Third High Level forum in Ghana. At Accra, donors and partner country governments recognised that strengthening national ownership of development required a wider dialogue that fully includes parliaments, local authorities and civil society organisations as well as south-south cooperation.
The Accra Agenda for Action gave new impetus to the Paris principles. Agreement was reached on:

1. Predictability. Donors provide, when possible, 3- to -5 year estimates of their planned aid.
2. Country systems. Partner countries strengthen their capacities; developing country systems are used to deliver aid as the first option.
3. Conditionality. Donors switch from prescriptive conditions about how and when aid money is spent to conditions based on the developing country’s own development objectives.
4. Untying. Donors relax restrictions that prevent developing countries from buying the goods and services they need from whomever and wherever they can get the best quality at the lowest price.

Ministers from across the globe, from both developing and donor countries, government representatives, parliamentarians, civil society organisations and private sector representatives will convene for the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness at the Bexco convention centre in Busan, Korea, from 29 November to 1 December 2011.

Approximately 2000 delegates will review global progress in improving the impact and value for money of development aid and make new commitments to further ensure that aid helps reduce poverty and supports progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
At the end of the proceedings, will be publish the Busan Outcome Document to further enhance efforts globally and within countries to make aid more effective in reducing poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

further info:
http://www.aideffectiveness.org/busanhlf4/

Ban Ki-moon UN Secretary-General elected for a second mandate on 21 June 2011

Ban Ki-moon - United Nations Secretary-General

The United Nations General Assembly on 21 June 2011 reappointed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to another term that will run from Jan. 1, 2012, to Dec. 31, 2016.
The appointment follows last week’s U.N. Security Council recommendation that endorses a second term for Ban, the eighth person to serve as secretary-general of the global body after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007.

As always in these sort of occasions you have pros and cons reactions........

PROS

“In a complex, difficult international environment, you have strengthened the role and the visibility of the United Nations by adopting reform measures; launching exciting, innovative initiatives; and calling faithfully and constantly for respect for human rights, the rule of law and the other values rooted in our Charter,” Deiss told the assembly, as reported by the U.N. News Center. Following the decision, Joseph Deiss, president of the U.N. General Assembly, lauded Ban for his “remarkable leadership.”

European Union leaders were quick to congratulate Ban. “Since becoming High Representative, I have developed a very close relationship with Ban Ki-moon. We are both firm believers that global problems call for multilateral solutions. He knows that in all three pillars of the UN’s work (security, development and human rights), he can count on the European Union’s support,” said EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy and European Commission Vice President Catherine Ashton in a press release.

“Under his leadership the UN has played a decisive role in tackling issues of global nature from tackling climate change to peace and security, development and eradication of poverty. We look forward to continue the good cooperation between the European Union and the United Nations in the future,” they said.In a joint statement, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed Ban’s second term.

CONS

Ban has received strong criticism from the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the UN internal audit unit, stating that the secretariat, under Ban's leadership, is "drifting into irrelevance"

For Anwarul Chowdhury, a former U.N. undersecretary-general and high representative, as well as a former U.N. Security Council president, earlier criticized as “opaque” and “non-democratic” the U.N. Security Council’s recommendation that Ban be given a second term.