ECSP Celebrates UN Week

ECSP congratulates the United Nations on its 59th anniversary and prepares to celebrate United Nations Week (October 18-24) with the UN Association of the National Capital Area. A full schedule of activities kicks off with a meeting at the Wilson Center featuring Jan Vandemoortele (Principal Advisor and Poverty Reduction Group Leader, United Nations Development Programme) speaking on the Millennium Development Goals on October 19th at 10 a.m. To RSVP, click here.

This celebration caps a year of fruitful collaboration between the UN and ECSP:

• UNEP's Klaus Toepfer Launches Understanding Environment, Conflict, and Cooperation at the Wilson Center
  ECSP collaborated with UNEP to publish this groundbreaking report, which finds fertile ground for peace in environmental cooperation. Lack of data, however, prevents early warning of environmental conflict. The report builds on a December 2003 conference hosted by ECSP.
• Preventing Environmental Threats to Security: Recommendations for the High-Level Panel on Global Threats, Challenges, and Change
  The Environmental Change and Security Project recently provided input to the Secretary-General's High-Level Panel, convened to analyze emerging global security threats. Panel member and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft asked a group of international experts to recommend ways the UN could mitigate the threats posed by climate change, population growth, and other environmental problems (cosponsored by the UN Foundation).
• UNAIDS and the Wilson Center are planning a joint meeting series examining some of the global challenges posed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic
  • Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, will speak on AIDS in the second wave states (such as China and India) on November 30th
  • Kathleen Cravero, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, will discuss women and AIDS on November 10th
  • Ulf Kristoffersson, Director of Office on AIDS, Security and Humanitarian Response, will speak about the relationships between HIV/AIDS and security in 20 January 2005

Event Details
The US and the UN: Working Together to Achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Woodrow Wilson Center, 6th Floor, Joseph H. and Claire Flom Auditorium

More than four years have elapsed since world leaders gathered at the United
Nations and adopted the Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a
global partnership to reduce poverty, improve health and promote peace,
human rights and environmental sustainability. The Declaration generated the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a series of quantified targets for
ending extreme poverty by 2015.

How much progress has already been made in achieving these goals? And what needs to be done to move toward them with greater certainty? These questions will be the focus of this forum whose principal speaker is a key United Nations leader in the implementation of the MDGs. Jan Vandemoortele brings to his present position a long career in the United Nations system, including positions with both the International Labor Organization and UNICEF —where he headed UNICEF's work on social policy— with special emphasis on Africa. Within the UN family he has a growing reputation as an effective speaker, in university lectures, in public forums, and in TV and radio appearances. After his presentation, the session will be open to comments and questions from the audience.