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UN-HABITAT Executive Director meets climate conference youth delegates
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

13/12/2007
Bali, Indonesia

The Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, on Thursday held talks with youth leaders representing 11 countries from around the world on the sidelines of the UN climate change conference.


She explained the agency's work on cities, urbanization and climate change, emphasizing the important role that cities play as contributors to the problem of global climate change and as centers for developing viable solutions. She highlighted the need to empower urban youth, particularly in developing countries, so as to promote environmentally and socially sustainable cities.

Earlier, she joined the United Nations top officials at the high-level segment of the climate change talks to appeal to delegates from some 150 nations to take urgent action to tackle global warming. It was no coincidence, she said, that climate change had emerged at the forefront of international debate at the same time, and virtually at the same pace, as the world becomes urbanised.

“This is because urbanisation brings about irreversible changes in our production and consumption patterns. How we plan, manage and live in our growing cities determines, to a large extent, the pace of global warming,” she said in a keynote address. Meanwhile, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon extended his stay in Bali as the climate change talks reached a critical phase.

“The Secretary-General has decided to remain in Bali longer than originally scheduled because of the very critical phase of the negotiating process at the Climate Change Conference,” UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters.

“The successful launch of the negotiation process is a top priority for the Secretary-General, as well as the defining issue of our time, and he will devote as much effort as needed.”

On his third day in Bali, Mr. Ban held intensive bilateral discussions with government ministers – the environmental ministers of China, India and Japan, China’s Minister of National Development and Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources – and business leaders attending the three-day high-level portion of the Conference.

Also meeting with Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, who arrived Thursday in Indonesia, where the two conferred on the current state of negotiations and key issues, including technology dissemination and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.
Additionally, they discussed how the negotiation process can proceed, as well as the Adaptation Fund, which aims to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries.


December 18, 2007 | 8:20 AM Comments  0 comments

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Kenya slum dweller gets UK degree
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic



A Kenyan slum child inspired by finding a Manchester University prospectus on a rubbish tip says he is overjoyed to realise his dream of getting a degree.
Sammy Gitau was initially refused a visa to attend the UK university as he had only two years of formal education.

He grew up in crime-ridden Mathare slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where from the age of 13 he was the family breadwinner after his father's murder.

He sold drugs and battled addiction before turning his life around.

'Slum potential'

The University of Manchester describes his achievement in winning a master's degree as "a miraculous journey".

"It feels wonderful; it feels wonderful," Mr Gitau told the BBC's Network Africa about receiving his MSc degree in international development project management.


"It makes me look back and see myself, see those difficult times, and also, importantly, realise we have potential people in the slums.
"We have other people who are just like me."

Mr Gitau, 35, once came close to death after a drugs overdose and said it changed his life.

"After the drugs put me in a coma, I remember hearing hospital staff telling me I was going to die and when you are dying, you make a deal with God," he said.


"You just say, 'Get me out of here and I will do anything. I will go back and stop children going through the same kind of life as me.'"

Once out of hospital he began a project to help children in the slum where he grew up.

Mathare is the most crime-ridden of all Nairobi's slums where organised outlawed gangs reign supreme.

Mr Gitau's community resource centre used donated containers as classrooms and with three volunteers taught children skills like carpentry, tailoring, computer skills and baking.

It costs $100 a month to run and is estimated to have helped some 20,000 slum children.

This work brought him to the attention of European Union officials working in Kenya, who, on hearing of his dream, helped him apply to the University of Manchester's School of Environment and Development.

The university decided his vast experience on the ground made him eligible to study and paid his course fees; his living costs were funded by charitable donations.

"I found it humbling to teach Sammy - it really is a remarkable achievement," the University of Manchester's programme director Pete Mann said.

Mr Gitau says he will continue to direct his education and his energies at improving life for others in Mathare slum.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7141804.stm

December 17, 2007 | 6:43 AM Comments  0 comments

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UN HABITAT Messengers of Truth Rocks Mannheim
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Socially conscious music and lyrics from UN-HABITATs “Messengers of Truth” echoed throughout the city of Mannheim last week in a concert billed Different Experiences, One Groove. The concert organized by UN-HABITAT, in cooperation with the cooperation of BASF, the Popakademie - Baden-Wurttemberg and the city of Mannheim featured Messenger of Truth Gidi Gidi from Kenya, who was recognized for his longtime support to the UN-HABITAT initiative. Rolf Stahlhofen of Germany, Samsaya representing Norway and India and Lam of Sudan were also featured in the concert during which they were named as the newest Messengers of Truth.

Keeping in line with the Messengers of Truth aim to inform and raise awareness of young people on the UN Millennium Development Goals and sustainable urbanization issues, a workshop involving youth representatives from Germany, Hip-Hop artists and independent labels operating in Germany was held to discuss and exchange views and share experiences on how music can empower and inspire young people to take a proactive stand on issues of their concern and to be involved in decision-making processes that affect their lives.

In a panel discussion, moderated by the University of Mannheim and in a series of Jam sessions, Messengers of Truth, Gidi Gidi, Lam, Samsaya and Rolf Stahlhofen, in the presence of young people from around Mannheim, pledged to work closer together to share the fusion of their voices and the positive vibes that had come together in Mannheim. The artists agreed to form a Messengers of Truth All Star Band and meet again in Nairobi early next year to put up a musical stage for raising funds for youth empowerment projects that are solving critical issues related to young people around the world. The Popakademie has also offered to team up with UN-HABITAT, Messengers of Truth and urban youth to write lyrics that highlight sustainable urbanization issues.

The “Messengers of Truth (MOT) Programme” was launched in 2004, during the World Urban Forum 2, held in Barcelona, Spain. The long-term aim of the Programme is to empower urban youth through musical, artistic and spoken expression towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, whilst at the same time addressing sustainable urbanization issues in their cities. The strategy of the “Messengers of Truth Programme” is to raise catalytic funding in support of the following actions:

•Reach out to and inform disenfranchised youth living in slums and inner cities on the Millennium Development Goals;
•Empower youth groups by providing them with a voice and legitimizing their participation in national and local decisions affecting their livelihoods; and
•Support youth development and empowerment initiatives and to capture and disseminate lessons learned from experience.