Calls for Papers & Applications
Sustainability and Policy-making: Reconciling Short and Long-term Policy Needs
Abstract deadline: 15 March 2010
4th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance
Submission deadline: 24 May 2010
NVMP-StEP Summer School
Eindohoven, Netherlands & Hoboken, Belgium
Application deadline: 30 April, 2010
News
Education, Research and Sustainable Development
UNU and Vietnam National University Sign Cooperation Agreement
UNU Rector Konrad Osterwalder and VNU President Mai Trong Nhuan at the signing ceremony. Photo: Curtis Christophersen/UNU.
2010.03.05 • UNU and Vietnam National University intend to enhance coordination of their work and strengthen cooperation in education and research, especially the field of sustainable development. UNU Rector Konrad Osterwalder and VNU President Mai Trong Nhuan signed a Memorandum of Understanding at a ceremony held at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo today. Among other areas, activities will focus on capacity development, staff and student exchange, curriculum development and e-learning.
Several of UNU’s research institutes have programmes in Vietnam: UNU's Institute for Sustainability and Peace conducts activities on flood risk management and climate change adaptation; the Institute for Environment and Human Security has a number of post-graduate students working on vulnerability assessment in the Mekong Delta; and the International Institute for Global Health is planning programmes on health and climate-related issues. The UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health and the UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research also have programmes in Vietnam and planning to expand them.
Safety first
UNU Rector Appointed Shibuya Fire Chief for a Day
UNU Rector Konrad Osterwalder receives the certificate of investiture from Chief Hideaki Otake, becoming Shibuya Fire Chief for a day.
2010.03.01 • The Shibuya Fire Department enlisted the help of UNU in a hazardous materials and evacuation drill in the forecourt of UNU Headquarters today. UNU Rector Konrad Osterwalder was appointed Fire Chief for a Day by the Head of the Shibuya Fire Department Hideaki Otake.
Chief Osterwalder ably commanded a crack team of fire and rescue personnel while building staff were treated to an impressive display of 'hazmat' emergency response. Some of the more adventurous staff were evacuated from the building by fire crane. We are happy to report all were rescued safely.
Fire Chief Konrad Osterwalder addresses emergency response personnel whose devotion, discipline and expertise were very much in evidence. Photos: Jeremy Hedley/UNU
Speaking to the fire and rescue staff at the conclusion of the drill, Rector Osterwalder praised their devotion, discipline and expertise, all very much in evidence throughout the morning.
Sustainable Cycles
UNU-ISP Announces First Operating Unit in Germany
2010.02.26 • The United Nations University Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP) is pleased to announce the establishment of SCYCLE, its first operating unit located in Germany. SCYCLE (Sustainable Cycles) became operational on 1 January 2010 and integrates the activities of the former UNU/ZEF European Focal Point into its framework.
The intent of SCYCLE is to contribute to UNU-ISP objectives, primarily but not exclusively by enabling societies to reduce the environmental load of the production, use and disposal of electrical and electronic equipment to sustainable levels through the development and promotion of independent, comprehensive and practical research as a sound basis for policy development and decision making.
Take a deep breath…
Emotions in a Globalized World
2010.02.26 • A workshop on “Emotions in a Globalized World” was held at United Nations headquarters in New York earlier this month by the UNU Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP), and the Institut d’Etudes politiques et internationals at the University of Lausanne.
Passions, emotions and sentiments are at the core of everything we do, influencing our thinking and behaviour both consciously and unconsciously. Emotions such as sympathy, fear, anger, pride, jealousy and empathy are involved in all aspects of international relations — from conflict and peace to humanitarian aid and environmental politics. In its opening sentence, the UN Charter clearly appeals to our emotions with the call “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind”.
Yet there has been little research on emotions within international relations, despite their obvious centrality. The project “Emotions in a Globalized World” aims to address this gap, and build bridges between academic disciplines. At the workshop, expert scholars from sociology, anthropology, history and psychology presented research papers and reflected on how their disciplines have addressed the issue of human emotions. These insights and research models will inform a study of emotions in international relations to be conducted at a second workshop later in 2010, which will feature a range of practical case-studies. This research project will result in two edited volumes, expected in 2011.
For more information, contact Nicholas Turner, UNU-ISP.
Art by Matt Hertel.
"Seventeen lively essays"
Foreign Affairs on Which Way Latin America?
Foreign Affairs website looks at Which Way Latin America? Hemispheric Politics Meets Globalization, a UNU Press book edited by Andrew F. Cooper and Jorge Heine. Reviewer Richard Feinberg writes that the book is "an accessible compilation of 17 lively essays by senior international relations theorists that describe how Latin American nations-ever more democratic, divided, and assertive-are interacting with one another and with the fast-changing global system."
You can buy the book from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
New report: Recycling – from E-Waste to Resources
Urgent Need to Prepare Developing Countries for Surge in E-Wastes
In South Africa and China for example, the report predicts that by 2020 e-waste from old computers will have jumped by 200 to 400 percent from 2007 levels, and by 500% in India. In China, e-waste from discarded mobile phones will be about 7 times higher than 2007 levels and, in India, 18 times higher. Above, an e-waster dismantling and recycling factory in China. Photo: StEP-UNU
2010.02.22 • Sales of electronic products in countries like China and India and across continents such as Africa and Latin America are set to rise sharply in the next 10 years.
And, unless action is stepped up to properly collect and recycle materials, many developing countries face the spectre of hazardous e-waste mountains with serious consequences for the environment and public health, according to UN experts in a landmark report released today by UNEP.
Issued at a meeting of world chemical authorities prior to UNEP’s Governing Council meeting in Bali, Indonesia, the report, Recycling — from E-Waste to Resources, used data from 11 developing countries to estimate current and future e-waste generation (such as old and dilapidated desk and laptop computers, printers, mobile phones, pagers, digital photo and music devices, refrigerators, toys and televisions).
Informal waste recycling in South Africa. Photo: StEP-EMPA
The report is being launched by UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner at a meeting of chemical experts prior to UNEP’s Governing Council in Bali, Indonesia. “This report gives new urgency to establishing ambitious, formal and regulated processes for collecting and managing e-waste via the setting up of large, efficient facilities in China,” he said.
Konrad Osterwalder, UNU Rector, said, “One person’s waste can be another’s raw material. The challenge of dealing with e-waste represents an important step in the transition to a green economy. This report outlines smart new technologies and mechanisms which, combined with national and international policies, can transform waste into assets, creating new businesses with decent green jobs. In the process, countries can help cut pollution linked with mining and manufacturing, and with the disposal of old devices.”
Details and media contacts (UNU-ISP)
Download the report:
Recycling — From E-waste to Resources
Sustainable Innovation and Technology Transfer Industrial Sector Studies
See also:
StEP and Basel Convention’s PACE to increase e-waste cooperation
The partnership will focus on the development of pilot projects in developing countries and economies in transition, trainings and curricula development, and policy assessment. Photo: StEP-UNU
2009.02.05 • In joint meetings on 1st Febr. 2010 and 4th Febr. 2010 the Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP) Initiative and Basel Convention’s Partnership for Computing Equipment (PACE) agreed to further strengthen its e-waste related cooperation and harmonization of activities. More than 50 representatives from the Basel Convention, Basel Convention Regional Centres, other UN organizations such as UNEP, UNDP and UNIDO, original equipment manufacturers, recyclers, refurbishers, associations, NGOs and academia mapped ongoing work and discussed future strategies at the UNU in Bonn, Germany.
Read more (StEP Initiative)
UNU-JGC concludes
Closing Ceremony of the UNU Joint Graduate Courses
The final graduates from the UNU Joint Graduate Courses. Photo: DNP Services
2010.02.12 • On Friday, 12 February 2010 UNU held the final closing ceremony of the six-year long UNU Joint Graduate Courses (UNU-JGC). The UNU-JGC were a cooperative activity initiated and lead by the UNU with twelve Japanese universities to jointly offer postgraduate courses which led to receiving credits towards students’ graduate degrees at their home universities in Japan.
The three master’s level graduate courses offered in 2009-2010 were: Human Rights and Humanitarian Assistance; Conflict Studies — Prevention, Peacemaking, Peacebuilding; and Development — New Challenges of International Development/Sustainability and Vulnerability in a Globalizing World (sponsored until 2008 by JICA).
The final session of the UNU-JGC saw the enrolment of 61 students, and those students who successfully completed the courses received a certificate of completion in addition to credits towards their degrees from their home universities. The UNU is grateful for the continued support and cooperation provided by JICA and the 12 cooperating universities in Japan.
“Rebuild confidence and trust”
Mexico’s Felipe Calderón delivers lecture at UNU on a fair agreement on climate change
Felipe Calderón: “The principle of consensus doesn’t mean in any way the capability of veto coming from three or four parties.” Photo: Jeremy Hedley/UNU
2010.02.02 • Mexican president Felipe Calderón delivered the 16th U Thant Distinguished Lecture to a standing-room-only audience at UNU today on the subject of a fair agreement on climate change.
Mr. Calderón emphasized the need to rebuild confidence and trust following the disappointing COP 15 climate summit in Copenhagen last December. Mexico will host the next major climate summit — COP 16 — in Cancún in November and December this year.
He said that developed countries have the responsibility to act on climate change, but that developing nations are now responsible for more than half of the total greenhouse gas emissions. “Emission reduction efforts by advanced economies are not enough,” he said, “We need everyone’s participation.”
While noting the difficulty of a complete consensus, Mr. Calderón added that “the principle of consensus doesn’t mean in any way the capability of veto coming from three or four parties.”
Mr. Calderón spoke of mitigation and adaptation initiatives in Mexico, notably those that sought to link climate change and poverty reduction: those who struggle to feed themselves and their families have little incentive to act against the more abstract threat of climate change, even though the longer-term consequences to them may be dire. “We have to change the existing economic order,” he said, and spoke of the need to solve the “intertemporal problem” of bringing the long-term benefits of investment in new technologies and energies to people today in the form of jobs and improved livelihoods.
Following his speech, Mr. Calderón was joined on stage by Yoichi Funabashi, editor-in-chief of the Asahi Shimbun and Kazuhiko Takeuchi, UNU vice-rector, for a discussion moderated by Hironori Hamanaka, chair of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies.
Watch the lecture online:
16th U Thant Lecture with Felipe Calderón
Sustainability, technology, financing
Follow-up conference on International Year of Sanitation held at UNU
His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince of Japan, Honorary President of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, addresses the conference. Photo: United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation Secretariat
2010.01.29 • The world is well on its way to meeting the Millenium Development Goal of safe drinking water, however the sanitation target has remained, until recently, among the least advanced of MDGs. Forty-one per cent of the global population is still lacking access to basic sanitation. Access to basic sanitation facilities is essential for anyone wishing to live a healthy, dignified life.
The International Year of Sanitation (IYS) in 2008 changed the situation by helping countries, organizations and citizens to open debate and galvanize action for better sanitation. During the year, countries formulated national policies and budgets dedicated to sanitation. To review and share the activities of the IYS and identify the next steps to achieving this critical MDG, the government of Japan, in collaboration with UNU and the Asian Development Bank, hosted the follow up conference of the International Year of Sanitation on the 26th and 27th of January.
In the conference, the way forward towards achieving MDG sanitation and beyond was discussed in order to deliver sustainable sanitation service to every citizen of the world. Participants agreed that three key areas for sanitation — sustainable sanitation embedded in society, locally tailored technology, and securing finance — are crucial to achieving a breakthrough for better sanitation and accelerating the work towards achieving the MDG sanitation goals in next 5 years.
United Nations Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water & Sanitation
Reporting courtesy of Shinichi Asazuma of the International Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
Human Rights in North Korea
Vitit Muntarbhorn gives final press conference at UNU as Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the DPRK
Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn speaks at his final press conference at UNU as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Photo: Jeremy Hedley/UNU
2010.01.22 • The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK, Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, visited Japan from 16 to 22 January 2010. He was accompanied by an official of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The aim of his visit was to assess the impact of the DPRK’s human rights situation on Japan.
At his final press conference today at UNU, Professor Muntarbhorn stated that "the Six-Party talks targeted to denuclearizing the DPRK are stalled due to the intransigence of the DPRK. Resumption of talks on this front would indeed help to provide positive space for humanitarian discourse and related action - directly or indirectly. From a human rights angle, the abduction question remains a primary concern between the DPRK and Japan with international and regional implications."
This was his final official visit to Japan, as his term (a maximum of six years for a Special Rapporteur under UN rules) is due to expire in the middle of this year.
Press Statement from Prof. Muntarbhorn
GIS for environmental research and management
UNU and ESRI Inc. sign agreement for cooperation
UNU Rector Konrad Osterwalder and Michael Gould, director of higher education and industry solutions at the Environmental Systems Research Institute. Photo: Curtis Christophersen/UNU
2010.01.20 • United Nations University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation with the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc (ESRI), the world’s leading software development company of geographic information systems (GIS), the ArcGIS series.
UNU recognizes GIS as an important tool for environmental research and management. At the signing ceremony held at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo, Rector Osterwalder and Dr. Michael Gould, ESRI’s Director of Education, confirmed the continued partnership between the two organizations. This partnership has been valuable in supporting the research of UNU and the implementation and training of GIS. The MOU covers 15 UNU entities, and additional agreements will be worked out on how individual projects and programs will be supported. The possibility of developing new application modules that incorporate UNU research results will also be explored.
Rector Osterwalder mentioned that “This programme is being introduced at a very appropriate time, when UNU is moving towards a degree-awarding university. We expect that this MOU will promote the enhanced use of spatial information and modeling in UNU’s research and education in the future.”
In the news:
Geographic software environment role lauded
Japan Times/Kyodo
New from UNU Press
Usable Thoughts
Michael H. Glantz and Qian Ye
Short quotations are often used to stimulate thought and evoke discussion. The intention of this book is no less ambitious. Drawing upon a series of quotations taken from the World Meteorological Organization-sponsored publication, Climate: Into the 21st Century, the authors set out to encourage thought and discussion on the earth’s climate system, including its interrelatedness to human society and the environment, the impact of climate variability, and climate extremes and change. Read more…
Download our 2009-2010 catalogue
(12 MB PDF)
UNU Lectures
U Thant Lecture Series
The U Thant Distinguished Lecture Series is a forum through which eminent thinkers and world leaders speak on the role of the United Nations in addressing the challenges facing the world’s peoples and nations in the twenty-first century.
Nansen Lectures
The Fridtjof Nansen Memorial Lecture is held annually in a number of capitals around the world to commemorate the birth of the Norwegian explorer, scientist, humanist and Nobel laureate, Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930).
Fridtjof Nansen Lecture Series
Nagai Lectures
Named in honour of the late Dr. Michio Nagai, minister of education, science, and culture of Japan, these lectures provide a forum for eminent members of the international community to speak on issues related to education.
Sixth Michio Nagai Lecture (Video portal)
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