One of the guiding principles of the ACC Network is that it should involve the participation of a broad cross-section of stakeholders, including civil society. This is because many civil society organizations (CSOs) - from farmers' and workers' organizations, to NGOs, research institutes, trade unions and cooperatives - possess crucial knowledge about what does and does not work in their communities and their voice should be heard in rural development efforts.
Importantly, the numbers of CSOs taking part in the ACC Network are growing. As of November 1999, CSOs are members of 26 Thematic Groups in Africa (Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Congo Dem. Rep., Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe); in Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Mongolia, Philippines, Viet Nam); in Latin America and the Caribbean (Bolivia, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela); and the Near East (Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia).
For further information on civil society in the ACC Network on Rural Development and Food Security, read "Building a pluralistic network - encouraging civil society participation in country-level Thematic Groups".
The UN Department of Public Information has launched an enhanced Civil Society web site on its home page describing ways in which the UN is building partnerships with civil society. The site offers links to UN agencies, non-governmental programmes, the 40 major issues facing the United Nations and calendars of events.
A water cycle in short supply, overexploitation of tropical forests and marine fisheries, agricultural productivity undermined by land degradation, air pollution at crisis point - these are some of the emergencies threatening the environment that are assessed in UNEP's recently released Global Environment Outlook (GEO-2000). Based on contributions from UN agencies, individuals and environmental institutes, the report traces progress in confronting existing problems and points to grave risks that have emerged since publication of GEO-I in 1997, namely: nitrogen's harmful impact on ecosystems, the rise in the severity and frequency of natural disasters and the increasing pressure inflicted on the environment by refugees. The report concludes by setting out recommendations for immediate and concerted action by all stakeholders to integrate environmental concerns into decision-making.
The number of the world's population living in absolute poverty continues to grow - from approximately 1.5 billion today to 1.9 billion by 2015 - underlining the need for effective development policies. The latest edition of the World Bank Development Report 1999/2000 stresses that globalization and localization - integration of the world economy and the increasing demand for local autonomy - are two of the most important factors shaping development as we enter the new century. According to Shahid Yusuf, the leader of the report's team, "Countries will either prosper or falter on how effectively they can grab on to these two forces and harness their energy". The report proposes strategies and approaches to meet development challenges and, importantly, includes Selected World Development Indicators, an essential resource on recent development trends.
According to recent information from the Administrative Committee on Coordination indicates that there are reportedly some 300 UN Theme Groups established around the world. Of these UN groups, 115 are devoted to HIV/AIDS, reflecting the magnitude of the problem and the will of the international community to tackle the pandemic.
'AIDS is more than an epidemic; it is a human development crisis", so said Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS at the XIth International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Trasmitted Diseases in Africa (Lusaka, Zambia, 12-16 September). Nowhere has the impact of HIV/AIDS been more disastrous as in Africa: it is estimated that 34 million Africans have been infected with HIV and almost 12 million have died. At the Lusaka meeting, representatives from the Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank reiterated their commitment to tackling the war against HIV/AIDS and outlined how they have joined forces with African governments, donor countries and pan -African and other international organizations to create an International Partnership Against Aids in Africa. The partnership aims to promote increased action by the global community, by focusing on such such areas as youth, in order that all African countries will have established comprehensive national AIDS programmes within the next decade.
UNAIDS is in the process of collecting best practice materials on approximately 50 specific topics relevant to HIV/AIDS. Each topic will contain the following elements: an advocacy document outlining the UNAIDS point of view; a technical update aimed primarily at managers of HIV/AIDS projects and programmes; case studies on action in a specific region, country, or region; presentation graphics that can be used for speeches; key written and audio-visual materials; and a summary booklet of best practices.
FAO was the first UN agency to undertake a detailed and systematic sectoral analysis of the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS on rural economies. FAO's actions were motivated by increasing evidence that the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially in Africa, would intensify existing labour bottlenecks in agriculture; increase widespread malnutrition; add to the problems of rural women, especially female-headed farm households arising from gender division of labour and access to land rights/resources; and deepen the debt crisis by reducing agricultural exports.
HIV/AIDS related activities conducted by FAO focus on the following two aspects: the impact of HIV/AIDS on food security and agricultural development; and the reponse of rural populations and institutions at the local, national and international levels to the challenges of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Read 'The Impact of HIV/AIDS on agricultural and rural development institutions
Agriculture has many functions in society, from achieving food security to helping to build the economy, safeguard the environment and foster social equity. These multiple roles were reviewed by over 200 participants from 100 countries at the Cultivating our Futures, FAO/Netherlands Conference on the Multifunctional Character of Agriculture and Land - MFCL (12-17 September 1999, Masstricht, Netherlands).
The main outcome of the six-day Conference, a sequel to the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, Rio, June 1992), were recommendations and policy options for future action which will contribute to discussions at the political level during the forthcoming Eighth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-8) (24 April-5 May 2000).