A Celebration of Women™

is honored to Celebrate the Life ,with the Women of Our World, of another Awesome Woman using her Life to help save our World and the meek living in Tanzania; some of which are just not capable of helping themselves due to circumstance.

This Amazing Woman is working for Positive Change and deserves our Celebration.

 
 
 
 

WOMAN of ACTION™

 

 

Helen Clark

 
 
 

Helen Clark continues her four country visit to Africa,

meeting May 11, 2010 with Tanzania’s:

Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Mustafa Mkulo

to discuss the country’s progress towards the MDGs, particularly on combating HIV/AIDS,

“… Empowering Women, and Enrolling Children in Primary School. ”

They also discussed how the “Delivering as One” programme has made a significant contribution to anti-poverty strategies and how to make Tanzania’s economic growth more inclusive to all Tanzanians.

Helen Clark was in Zanzibar yesterday where she met with the President of the island, Amani Abeid Karume. She also visited the Jozani-Chwaka Bay Conservation Area, the single most important site for the conservation of Zanzibar’s biodiversity.

UNDP supported the creation of the park and the Government of Zanzibar to put in place policies and legislative processes for the conservation of biodiversity there.

The Jozani-Chwaka Bay Conservation Area consists of a protected core area of 21 square miles and a buffer zone of 30 square miles. It is the single most important site for the conservation of Zanzibar’s biodiversity.

 

Chwaka Bay is a shallow open bay that supports the largest block of mangrove forest on Zanzibar and a wintering population of Crab Plovers, a species of bird that is unique in making use of ground warmth to incubate its eggs. The buffer zone of the protected area includes coral reef and a considerable variety of unique habitats.

 

 

The area is home to unique species of birds, plants, invertebrates and mammals,

 

 

including the Red Colobus Monkey and Ader’s Duiker, that are threatened, and the Zanzibar Leopard, which may have disappeared as it has not been recorded for two years.

 

 

The area is a growing tourist attraction. The Jozani Forest welcomes 20,000 visitors per year, more than 17% of the total visitors to Zanzibar. Traditionally the forest and surrounding areas have provided major forest resources, particularly timber, building poles, fuel wood, bush meat, and soil for shifting agriculture.

But degradation of the environment from unsustainable harvesting of forest resources, the growing tourism industry as well as the absence of alternative livelihoods has put a strain on the area’s biodiversity and ecosystem.

 

 

 

UNDP supported the creation of a National Park – which protects the Jozani Forest – and worked with the government in Zanzibar to enact policies and legislative processes for the conservation of its biodiversity, which is key to sustaining the livelihoods of the local communities.

The Jozani Forest is now managed by a community-led organization that gives 65 percent of the proceeds from managing the park back to the local community. Up to 90 percent of the association’s staff are locals from the villages situated within the national park.

In addition, the project has created opportunities for the sustainable management of natural resources. Thanks to a savings and credit schemes, it has provided cash to help new economic activities to grow. Alternative activities like mushroom growing, beekeeping, handicraft, vegetable farming and savings and credit have been established, curbing unsustainable practices and promoting livelihoods. The position of women has been enhanced through increased revenues.

 

“A lot of tropical forests are endangered, yet they are so rich in biodiversity,” said Helen Clark, adding that “this is the Year of Biodiversity 2010“.

Describing the Jozani-Chwaka Bay Conservation Area, she said “this is one of the top 25 biodiversity hot spots in the world“. “

It tells you how important it is to maintain this unique place, with its specific species of plants that produce so many benefits”.

“It’s been great to see UNDP mobilize resources, including from the GEF, to engage communities in the protection of these incredible forests and to see the community is able to benefit from micro-credit schemes, women able to generate more money, more children able to go to schools.

There can be a lot of positive spin-offs when the communities are engaged behind an initiative like this.”

 

HELEN CLARK

HELEN CLARK 2011

 

United nations Development Programme Administrator, Helen Clark has visited a rural hydroelectricity plant in Burunov Jamoat, Tajikistanin Tajikistan as part of a three day visit to the central Asian country.

Since the 90 Tajikistan has faced difficulties with energy supplies and Tajikistan still experience electricity blackouts, especially during the winter.

4But the country has abundant water resources and a great potential for hydro energy UNDP partnered with local communities in to repair a mini hydro power plant and install two new turbo-generator units, each with a capacity of 100 kilowatts. The mini hydro power plant had been not been used since 1976.
One of the mini hydro power plant’s serves the nearby village with a total number of 60 households and the second will be completed by August 2011.

The hydro plants allows the village to have year round electricity including the locale clinic, a 700 student school and kindergarten. This is especially important during winter when they cannot access electricity provided by the main grid.

The locals named the new mini hydro power plant Nurofar, which means “bringing light.”

The mini hydro power plant will eventually be connected to the main grid, selling its electricity during the summer when there are no electricity shortages, helping to make the mini hydro power plant economically sustainable.
Tajikistan is the third stop for Helen Clark on a four country visit to Central Asia. She traveled next to Uzbekistan. Ms Clark met with country and community leaders to discuss progress on achieving the Millennium Development Goals, support regional cooperation between the five countries, and to strengthen the response to environmental challenges and energy needs in Central Asia.

Remarks for UNDP Administrator Helen Clark
Global Launch of the 2011 Human Development Report
“Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All”
2 November 2011, Copenhagen

“This report says the rate of progress we saw in the last 40 years cannot be maintained unless we get these equity, sustainability issues and challenges tackled. And the impact in the worst case scenario, which is put in this report, is that countries that are already low on the Human Development Index would see widening inequalities and very little progress if the challenges aren’t tackled.”

It is a pleasure to be launching the 2011 Human Development Report, “Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All”, in Copenhagen.

Let me first extend my congratulations to you, Madam Prime Minister, for your historic election last month as Denmark’s first woman Prime Minister. Denmark is a close partner of UNDP, and we look forward to working closely with you and your government. As the UN Secretary-General noted in his visit to this city last month, Denmark is on the front lines of global progress on development and environmental protection, providing leadership in international fora and through its own national example.

What is Human Development?

The first global Human Development Report was launched in 1990, and called for a paradigm shift in the measurement of development progress to put people at its very centre. It defined human development as a process of enlarging people’s freedoms, choices and capabilities, and created the Human Development Index (HDI) in order to move beyond the traditional GDP measure for assessing the state of development.

The HDI incorporated indicators for education and life expectancy alongside that for material well-being. It and the human development paradigm overall have informed the work of policy makers, academics, and development actors alike. The indices associated with the annual Human Development Reports have evolved over time to capture more nuances of human development and to reflect inequities in distribution better, but the underlying, people-centered approach to measurement of development progess has remained constant.

Over the years, the annual Human Development Reports have tackled a range of pressing global challenges, from gender inequality, to migration, to water scarcity, and much more. Their collective intellectual legacy is notable.

In 1990 the first Report laid the foundation for the ideas and concepts integral to the human development paradigm which now form part of mainstream thinking about development. In 1994, the Report launched here in Copenhagen introduced a new concept of human security.

This 2011 Human Development Report addresses a central challenge of the twenty-first century: achieving equity and environmental sustainability by treating them not as independent issues, but as goals which are inextricably linked to continued human development progress. This perspective can inform debate on sustainable development as the world prepares for the Rio+20 Summit, and will help guide our thinking toward the post-2015 framework for development goals.

The 2011 Human Development Report

Finding ways to make human development progress truly sustainable for the seven billion people who now live on our planet and for generations to come is a central challenge of the 21st century. The international community must find pathways to development which maintain ecosystem balance and reduce inequalities within and between nations.

Last year’s twentieth anniversary Human Development Report celebrated the advent of the human development paradigm by focusing on how equity, empowerment, and sustainability acting together expand people’s choices. The Report looked back on trends in human development over the past forty years and documented significant progress, especially among the poorest countries. Those in the lowest 25 per cent of the HDI rankings had improved their overall HDI achievement by 82 per cent, twice the global average, leading to a reduction in inequality between countries at the top and the bottom.

This year’s Report is forward looking. It asks whether we can expect the positive trends of the last forty years to continue and improvements to be sustained for the people who will live on this planet over the next four decades. It is an ambitious Report, using information on trends in environmental degradation and widening inequality to make a range of projections on what our world could look like in 2050.

The Report also issues a warning: that escalating environmental hazards threaten to slow or reverse the notable progress of previous decades. The impact in the worst case scenario is projected to be worse for countries which are low on the HDI, leading to widening inequalities between high HDI and low HDI countries.

Key Messages
The Report’s central message is that equity and sustainability are inextricably linked – that one will not be achieved without the other. It raises a number of issues which are important for our understanding of this relationship and offers guidance for moving forward on both dimensions.

First, while environmental risks such as climate change, deforestation, air and water pollution, and natural disasters affect all members of society, they do disproportionately affect the most vulnerable. They suffer a double burden of deprivation from being more vulnerable to the wider effects of environmental degradation and having less resilience. They must also cope with threats to their immediate environment from insufficient and/or unclean water, indoor air pollution from unhealthy cooking and heating methods, and poor sanitation.

Second, the Report argues that these patterns of inequity and unsustainability are shaped by disparities in power at the global and national levels. For example, at the global level the voice of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) must work hard to be heard in climate change negotiations above the clamour of the larger and more powerful, even though the SIDS stand to be among the most affected. At the national level, evidence from the HDR suggests that gender inequalities are related to land degradation and to the pattern of mortality from indoor and outdoor air pollution.

The Report highlights the positive synergies which exist between greater equity and sustainability and which offer win-win-win solutions for achieving both. For example, investments in access to renewable energy, clean water, and improved sanitation will advance equity, sustainability, and human development. Stronger accountability and democratic processes can also improve outcomes. Successful approaches rely on community management of natural resources, inclusive institutions which pay attention to disadvantaged groups, and cross-cutting approaches which co-ordinate budgets and mechanisms across government agencies and development partners.

The third message of the Report is that financing for environmental and social protection needs to increase. It advocates possible new public financing mechanisms which merit serious consideration, including a currency transaction tax which was identified by the Leading Group on Innovative Financing as the most viable of the sources explored. The infrastructure to support such a tax is already in place. A tiny levy would generate substantial revenues for development – just 0.005 per cent levied on currency trading would yield some $40 billion annually.

The Report identifies pathways for people, local communities, nations and the international system to promote environmental sustainability and equity in mutually reinforcing ways.
For example, it points to innovative national anti-poverty initiatives with some evidence of positive environmental impact locally, and at relatively low cost, in India, Brazil, and Mexico. It also cites other win-win solutions from Malawi to Ethiopia and Indonesia where rural living standards have been raised by improving sanitation and land conservation. Such programmes can encourage better stewardship of ecosystems, such as forests and water resources, while at the same time reducing poverty and inequality.

2011 Indices and Rankings

As in previous years, the 2011 Report includes a detailed ranking of countries based on the Human Development Index. Notably this year, the Report covers a record 187 countries and territories – up from 169 in the 2010 Report.

According to this year’s Report, some 1.7 billion people in 109 countries are living in ‘multidimensional’ poverty. That number is significantly larger than the 1.3 billion people estimated to live on or below US$1.25 a day, which is the measure used in the UN Millennium Development Goals. This reminds us again that tackling poverty and advancing human development is about more than lifting income – important as that is.

Conclusion

This Human Development Report offers powerful arguments for making development more equitable to make it more sustainable – for people today and for generations to come. It argues that the technology, the good policy models, and the resources exist to achieve equity and sustainability for all.

The ultimate goal of human development is to expand peoples’ choices and give all people the opportunity to lead lives which they value. That has been the guiding principle for the annual Human Development Reports. This year’s Report offers new insights on how to move human development forward and overcome the inequity and unsustainability which currently constrain its advance.

 
 

 

A Celebration of Women™

Supports the Amazing Works of this Caring, Loving & Powerful , Tower of Strength…

 

 

Brava, Helen!