UNHCR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/search?page=&comid=4a0950336&cid=49aea93a7d&scid=49aea93a40

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UNHCR: Bay of Bengal boat movements manageable with regional cooperation
4 December 2015

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UNHCR welcomes the Conclusions of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council on Statelessness
4 December 2015
The UNHCR Director of the Bureau for Europe, Vincent Cochetel, welcomed the adoption of the first EU Council Conclusions on statelessness, on 4 December 2015, which acknowledge the importance of identifying stateless persons and strengthening their protection.

“By adopting the Conclusions, the Council took a significant step forward towards a comprehensive approach to statelessness in the European Union” said Cochetel “Adopting new statelessness determination procedures and improving the existing ones is instrumental to identify and reduce the number of stateless people, strengthen their protection and eliminate the risk of discrimination against them.”

Among other provisions, the Conclusions invite the European Commission to launch exchanges of good practises among Member States and encourage the active coordination of national contact points, through the European Migration Network. In addition, the Council welcomes the UNHCR 10-year #IBELONG campaign to end statelessness by 2024.
UNHCR estimates that there are more than 600,000 stateless people living in Europe, over 400,000 in the European Union. “In particular, conflict and displacement are placing children at greater risk of statelessness.” added Cochetel “This is due to a combination of factors, including difficulties in acquiring birth certificates, increased family separation, gaps and gender discrimination in nationality laws and inadequate civil registration in countries of birth, including in Europe.”

UNHCR calls on Member States to actively identify and protect stateless persons and those at risk of statelessness, and welcomes the active role of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union in putting statelessness on the EU’s agenda. UNHCR looks forward to continuing working with European institutions in this respect.

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UNHCR concerned by violence at Greek border, calls for improved security
3 December 2015

IOM / International Organization for Migration [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.iom.int/press-room/press-releases
Selected Press Releases

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IOM Begins Canadian Refugee Resettlement Operations in Lebanon
12/04/15
Lebanon – IOM, in collaboration with the Canadian government, UNHCR and partners, today began refugee resettlement operations in Lebanon.

IOM Monitors Greece-FYRoM Border Amid Security Concerns
12/04/15
Greece – The situation at Greece’s border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRoM) is extremely tense.

Better Policies Needed to Help Migrants, IOM Tells Special Meeting in Bangkok
12/04/15
Thailand – “Bad policies are unintentionally subsidizing the smugglers,” says IOM’s Director General William Lacy Swing.

IOM Highlights Needs of Deported Afghan Minors
12/04/15
Afghanistan – Unaccompanied minors make up the largest group of vulnerable Afghans returning from Iran, yet the needs of the children who make this dangerous cross-border journey are often overlooked.

IOM Aids Cyclone-Hit Communities in Socotra, Yemen
12/04/15
Yemen – In the first two weeks of November 2015, two cyclones, Chapala and Megh, made landfall across the southern coast of Yemen. As part of ongoing support to the affected population, IOM provided humanitarian assistance to over 2,000 vulnerable internal displaced families on the island of Socotra.

IOM Helps Stranded Malian Migrants to Leave Libya, Return Home
12/04/15
Mali – On Tuesday (1/12) IOM, in collaboration with the Libyan and Malian authorities, helped 170 stranded Malian migrants, including 20 women and 150 men, to return home from the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

IOM Tanzania Targets Health, Mobility and HIV Prevention on World Aids Day
12/04/15
Tanzania – HIV / AIDS remains a major public health issue around the world and has been responsible for over 35 million deaths to date. Migrants and mobile populations are recognised as being at a high risk of HIV infection as they frequently face marginalisation, exclusion and various barriers to accessing health promotion and care.

IOM Cote d’Ivoire Assesses Counter Trafficking Project on Liberian Border
12/04/15
Côte d’Ivoire – IOM Cote d’Ivoire has led a two-day evaluation mission to the town of San Pedro on the Liberian border as a part of its Akoma counter trafficking project.

IOM, Canada Open Processing Center in Amman, Jordan for Canada-bound Refugees
12/01/15
Jordan – IOM, together with its partners, began the process of registering Syrian refugees slated for resettlement in Canada from Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

Children Account for 20% of Maritime Arrivals to Europe in 2015: IOM and UNICEF
12/01/15
Germany – IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre and UNICEF shows that children make up at least one in five of the 870,000 arrivals to Europe in 2015.

Migrants Should Not be Left Behind in Fight to Eradicate AIDS
12/01/15
Switzerland – With 15 million people already accessing life-saving HIV treatment, UNAIDS estimates that the world is on the fast track to end AIDS.

UK Backs Lifesaving IOM Operations in South Sudan
12/01/15
South Sudan – The United Kingdom has increased its support of IOM’s lifesaving operations for vulnerable populations across South Sudan. Needs remain immense two years into the crisis, with an estimated 1.7 million people internally displaced and millions more in urgent need of assistance.

Cameroon Internal Displacement Tops 158,000
12/01/15
Cameroon – According to the first round of IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), 158,316 people or 27,919 households are now internally displaced in the Far North region of Cameroon.

IOM Senegal, Spain Launch Youth Centre for Entrepreneurship Training
12/01/15
Senegal – A Centre for Training and Assistance to Entrepreneurship was officially launched on Friday 27th November in Guédiawaye, on the outskirts of Dakar, by Senegal’s Director of the National Agency for the Promotion of Youth Employment (ANPEJ).

IOM, Partners Host Workshop to Address Irregular Migration in Southern Africa
12/01/15
South Africa – Following the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) Conference held in Zimbabwe in July 2015, IOM, UNHCR, UNODC, UNICEF and Save the Children International yesterday (30/11) jointly launched a regional stakeholder workshop to facilitate technical discussions for the implementation of priority actions identified at the 2015 Ministerial MIDSA.

Singaporean Students Pilot Interactive Counter Trafficking App
12/01/15
Thailand – IOM’s IOM X Campaign, along with its partners USAID, the U.S. Embassy Singapore and Microsoft, yesterday presented the findings from IOM X Connect Singapore – its pilot outreach project aimed at raising public awareness for the issue of human trafficking in Singapore.

UN Women [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.unwomen.org/news/stories
Selected Press Releases

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“Women and girls are essential climate actors” —Lakshmi Puri in Paris
Date: 04 December 2015
Remarks by UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri at GLOBE International’s annual legislators’ summit dubbed “Towards Coherence and Impact” at the Assemblé Nationale of Paris, 4 December 2015.

Empowering and including women and girls with disabilities
Date: 02 December 2015
Women and girls with disabilities remain at the margins of decision-making and work on gender equality. For too long, the specific needs of women with disabilities have been invisible, both to the advocates of women’s rights and those of disability rights

Statement by UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka for World AIDS Day
Date: 01 December 2015
In her statement for World AIDS day, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka highlights the importance of breaking down barriers that stop women and girls demanding health care services and realizing their rights

UN launches regional programme to eradicate child marriage
Date: 30 November 2015
In Panama City on 24 November, on occasion of the beginning of the 16 days of activism and the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the regional offices of UN Women, UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organization, presented a new joint programme for the eradication of child marriage.

WHO & Regionals [to 5 December 2015]

Improving the quality of care at birth
4 December 2015 — Worldwide, the majority of maternal and newborn deaths occur around the time of birth, typically within the first 24 hours after childbirth. Most of these deaths are preventable. WHO’s new “Safe Childbirth Checklist and Implementation Guide” targets the major causes of maternal and newborn complications and deaths, including post-partum haemorrhage, infection, obstructed labour, preeclampsia and birth asphyxia.

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First ever global estimates of foodborne diseases
3 December 2015 — Almost one third (30%) of all deaths from foodborne diseases are in children under the age of 5 years, despite the fact that they make up only 9% of the global population. This is among the findings of WHO’s “Estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases” – the most comprehensive report to date on the impact of contaminated food on health and wellbeing. The report estimates the burden of foodborne diseases caused by 31 agents – bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins and chemicals.
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Global Alert and Response (GAR) – Disease Outbreak News (DONs)
:: 4 December 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – Saudi Arabia
:: 3 December 2015 Zika virus infection – Venezuela
:: 3 December 2015 Zika virus infection – Mexico
:: 3 December 2015 Zika virus infection – Paraguay
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30 November 2015
:: WHO Regional Offices
WHO African Region AFRO
No new digest content identified.

WHO Region of the Americas PAHO
:: The health challenges posed by urbanization must be addressed through cross-sector policies, experts say (12/03/2015)
:: PAHO/WHO and Foreign Medical Teams Examine How to Strengthen Emergency Response to Outbreaks and Disasters (12/01/2015)
:: Data from 17 countries and territories in the Americas point to elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis (11/30/2015)

WHO South-East Asia Region SEARO
No new digest content identified.

WHO European Region EURO
:: More than 23 million people in the WHO European Region fall ill from unsafe food every year 03-12-2015
:: Papers invited for Public Health Panorama 30-11-2015

WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region EMRO
No new digest content identified.

WHO Western Pacific Region
No new digest content identified.

UNAIDS [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/

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The Executive Director of UNAIDS commends the President of South Africa for his bold leadership on HIV
02 December 2015 |

UNAIDS Executive Director appoints Tobeka Madiba Zuma, First Lady of South Africa, as UNAIDS Special Advocate
02 December 2015 |

On World AIDS Day 2015, Executive Director of UNAIDS calls on countries to quicken the pace of action
01 December 2015 |

Three new agreements announced with the potential to expand access to innovative HIV treatment in low- and middle-income countries
HARARE/GENEVA, 30 November 2015—The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI), UNAIDS, and UNITAID announce today three new agreements that could increase access to more sustainable HIV drug regimens at reduced prices, pending stringent regulatory approval and/or World Health Organization (WHO) pre-qualification.
These agreements have the potential to increase access to state-of-the-art HIV treatment regimens for people living with HIV in low- and middle- income countries. The regimens are expected to be more durable and produce fewer side effects than existing drugs and are included in the revised 2015 WHO consolidated guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV infection…

UNAIDS welcomes release of new guidelines from the World Health Organization on the use of antiretroviral medicines
30 November 2015 |

UNAIDS urges countries across Africa to Fast-Track their response to HIV
30 November 2015 |

UNFPA United Nations Population Fund [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.unfpa.org/press/press-release

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December 2015
Press Release
Essential Health Needs of Women Often Neglected in Assistance after Natural Disasters, Conflicts
UNITED NATIONS, New York, 3 December 2015 –The health needs of women and adolescents are too often neglected in humanitarian response to natural disasters and conflicts around the world…

UNDP United Nations Development Programme [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter.html
Selected Press Releases

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Nations Unite for Oceans: New GEF Publication Captures 20 Years of Ocean Sustainability Impacts
Dec 4, 2015
This publication highlights how GEF grant funding has been very effective in helping to transform key ocean sectors such as shipping, fisheries and coastal wastewater management, at global, regional and national scales, on a path towards sustainability.

World AIDS Day: record drop in cost of HIV treatment
Nov 30, 2015
Through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-Global Fund partnership, the cost of the HIV medicines has dropped to an unprecedented US$100 per person per year in Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Mali, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

UNDP Administrator Helen Clark: Development gains need to be spread more evenly to leave no one behind in Lao PDR
Nov 29, 2015
The occasion of UNDP Administrator Helen Clark’s official visit to Lao PDR was the 12th High Level Round Table Meeting. Helen Clark made a keynote speech to the plenary session, emphasising Lao PDR’s commitment to the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its 8th National Socio-Economic Development Plan.

UN Division for Sustainable Development [to 5 December 2015]
http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/
SDGs: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics

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Join the SDGs natural language processing and data visualization challenge!
4 Dec 2015 – An open challenge to identify and visualize the relations among the recently adopted sustainable development goals (SDGs) has been launched by the Division for Sustainable Development and Unite Ideas. The challenge consists of building an automated tool that extracts from a set of UN publications all the messages that relate to the relationships between urban development (SDG 11) and all the other SDG areas, and then visualizes the results.

The winning solution will be announced on 15 February 2016. The best solution or solutions will be showcased on the UN Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform and on the Unite Ideas website, and may be featured in the Global Sustainable Development Report. More information

UN Statistical Commission :: UN Statistics Division [to 5 December 2015]
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/default.htm
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/commission.htm
http://unstats.un.org/sdgs/

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Open consultation on proposed global SDG indicators coded as ‘grey’ to be launched on 9 December 2015
An open consultation will take place on the proposed SDG Indicators that currently coded as ‘grey’, indicating that further discussion on them is still needed. The consultation will be open from Wednesday, 9 December to Tuesday, 15 December to both observers (non-IAEG Member States and representatives of regional commissions and regional and international agencies) and other stakeholders (civil society, academia and private sector) for technical comments.

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.unep.org/newscentre/?doctypeID=1
Selected Press Releases

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Commitments Made to Reduce Black Carbon, Methane and Hydrofluorocarbons
Cutting Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Critical to Success of Global Climate Response
05/12/2015

Significant Efforts to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions Across UN – New Report
The report details the emissions from 65 United Nations organizations, covering over 250,000 personnel around the world.
04/12/2015

UNEP Releases Full Version of Emissions Gap Report
The full Emissions Gap Report can be downloaded from UNEP Live.
04/12/2015

‘Whole System’ Approach Needed to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Experts Say at Climate Meeting
Appropriate Management of Natural Resources at Centre of Solutions to Climate Change, Says International Resource Panel
30/11/2015

RSPO Commits to Orangutan Crisis via GRASP
An estimated 70,000 orangutans remain in the wild, but the majority are found on Borneo. The fires shattered already fragmented populations and left orangutan rehabilitation centers overwhelmed by rescued apes.
30/11/2015

UNISDR UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.unisdr.org/archive
Selected Press Releases

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Lawmakers link global development agenda
4 Dec 2015
Hundreds of legislators from around the world have gathered on the sidelines of the COP21 climate summit to focus on harnessing low carbon development to eradicate poverty and better protect people against disasters.

Central Java acts on forest fires
3 Dec 2015
Thirty-five cities and districts in one of the world’s most disaster-exposed countries, Indonesia, have come together to declare their commitment to reduce disaster risk following months of devastating forest fires which have released huge quantities of greenhouse gases into the

Vulnerable States call for zero emissions
1 Dec 2015
Leaders of the world’s most climate fragile states have issued a call for full decarbonisation of the world economy, 100% renewable energy by 2050, and zero emissions by 2050 to keep the world on track for below 1.5°C warming and to reduce disaster risk.

UNESCO [to 5 December 2015]
http://en.unesco.org/news
Selected Press Releases

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International Expert Meeting on the Responsibility to Protect as applied to the Protection of Cultural Heritage
04 December 2015
UNESCO organized an International Expert Meeting on the Responsibility to Protect as applied to the Protection of Cultural Heritage from 26 to 27 November 2015. The primary purpose of the meeting was to discuss the concept of Responsibility to Protect and its possible application to the protection of cultural heritage.

Participants included 22 distinguished specialists and practitioners representing various international governmental and non-governmental organizations in this field, including Mr Adama Dieng, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide as well as the Secretariat of the 1954, 1970 and 1972 Conventions.
The meeting was opened by Francesco Bandarin, Assistant Director-General for Culture a.i. and continued with an exchange of views on relevant aspects of the topic with a focus to operationalize this concept on a bilateral and multilateral level. Mechtild Rössler, Director of the Division for Heritage, closed the meeting, by highlighting the need for broad cooperation and complementaries among organizations.

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UNESCO and The Nippon Foundation join forces to promote the human rights of persons with disabilities through ICTs
03 December 2015

President of UN General Assembly welcomes UNESCO’s leadership in 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda
02 December 2015

Participants of UNESCO symposium call to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions in Iraq
01 December 2015

UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/allpress.html?ref=fp

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Statement on the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
Vienna 2 December 2015 –

Today is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, an important day to reflect on the suffering of human trafficking victims who may be enslaved by this pitiless crime.
Human trafficking directly effects fragile societies and communities and has the reach to undermine attempts at promoting sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the UN General Assembly this year, specifically recognises the challenge of human trafficking.

Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals on gender equality seeks the elimination of trafficking and sexual and other forms of exploitation, while Goal 8 stresses the need to take measures to eradicate human trafficking.

Our efforts must protect vulnerable young people, especially women and girls, from human trafficking and assist the victims, so they can become survivors.

The platform for our resistance is the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its protocol on human trafficking, as well as the UN Convention against Corruption.

Using the convention and the protocol, information can be shared, joint operations undertaken, and victims protected and supported.

Sufficient funding is a priority particularly through the UN Trust Fund for trafficking victims. Data is essential for action and we must chase down criminals’ profits wherever they flow.

Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals underscores the importance of ending trafficking and all forms of violence and torture of children.

We must work collectively to ensure this outcome. Otherwise, we risk a lost generation of girls and boys whose lives have been utterly destroyed by human trafficking.

A generation separated from their loved ones and cruelly exploited by criminals. Children traumatised and living without education, without healthcare and often without hope.

On this day, I call on every country and person to do their utmost to rid the world of human trafficking.

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Statement on World AIDS Day
01/12/2015

UN-HABITAT United Nations Human Settlements Programme [to 5 December 2015]
http://unhabitat.org/media-centre/news/
[Selected Announcements]

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Guiding Principles for Climate City Planning Action
Posted December 4, 2015

Africities 2015 kicks off with urbanisation taking centre stage
Johannesburg 01 December 2015—The Africities 2015 kicked off in Johannesburg on Sunday with urbanisation taking the centre stage. In his official opening speech, South Africa’s Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation gave UN-Habitat a vote…
Posted December 1, 2015

UN-Habitat and UNAIDS present new report at Africities
Johannesburg, 30 November 2015—Cities have a primary role to play to Fast-Track the end of the AIDS epidemic by 2030 says report by UN-Habitat and UNAIDS.
Posted November 30, 2015

FAO Food & Agriculture Organization [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.fao.org/news/archive/news-by-date/2015/en/
Selected Announcements

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New knowledge-sharing initiative to measure and reduce food loss and waste
FAO, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the CGIAR research program on Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) today launched a new initiative to enhance global cooperation on measuring and reducing food loss and waste.
4-12-2015

Soils are endangered, but the degradation can be rolled back
The Status of the World’s Soil Resources produced by FAO’s Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils brings together the work of some 200 soil scientists from 60 countries. Its publication coincides with World Soil Day which is celebrated on 4 December and also the end of the UN International Year of Soils 2015 an initiative which has served to raise global awareness on what has been described as “humanity’s silent ally”.
4-12-2015

Council highlights climate change and SDGs for FAO’s work in 2016-17
FAO’s executive council today closed its 151st session today, welcoming the Organization’s budgetary focus and renewed emphases on themes such as climate change and nutrition that cut across traditional disciplines and technical divisions. The Council, the equivalent of FAO’s board of directors, also welcomed FAO’s work with the Sustainable Development Goals approved at the United Nations this autumn.
4-12-2015

Food prices fall in November amid robust global inventories
Major food commodity prices fell in November, reversing about half of their rise in the previous month, as the cost of internationally-traded staples fell across the board except for sugar. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 156.7 points in November, down 1.6 percent from its revised October average and 18 percent below its value a year earlier.
3-12-2015

Google and FAO partner to make remote sensing data more efficient and accessible
Google and FAO have agreed to work closely together to make geospatial tracking and mapping products more accessible for countries. The three-year partnership between Google and FAO is designed to foster technological innovation and expertise and enhance capacity building efforts by working to make applications of digital tools easier to use and apply.
1-12-2015

IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.ifad.org/media/press/index.htm

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Top media fail to connect climate change, migration and food security, says new report
Paris, 4 December 2015 – Top news media are failing to identify climate change as a contributor to some of the world’s biggest crises, including migration, food insecurity and conflict, says a new research report funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and presented at the 21st UNCCD Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris today.

“The media, whether local or global, are among the world’s most influential institutions and how they shape the climate change narrative remains vitally important,” said IFAD President, Kanayo F. Nwanze, about why his organization sponsored the research. “If the world becomes aware of how climate change threatens our food security or why it is a catalyst for migration and conflict, then we can expect better support for policies and investments that can pre-empt future crises.”

The report, “Food, Migration and Climate Change: The Untold Story,” was prepared by Sam Dubberley, a journalist and Director of Kishnish Media Ltd. The research was conducted in September and includes an analysis of eight popular and highly influential news outlets in the United Kingdom and France, including the BBC, Channel 4, TF1, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Le Monde, Libération and France 2…

WMO World Meteorological Organization [to 5 December 2015]
https://www.wmo.int/media/?q=news

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Climate Risk Early Warning Systems initiative launched at COP21
2 December 2015
The governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Luxembourg and The Netherlands have agreed to give more than US$80 million to equip up to 80 countries with better climate risk early warning systems.
Countries from Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and, more broadly, nations in Africa will be the first to be supported from the so-called Climate Risk Early Warning Systems (CREWS). They are on the frontline of the most dramatic consequences of climate change and the least equipped with efficient early warning systems.

UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.unido.org/en/news-centre/news.html

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Technology can deliver inclusive and sustainable industrial development: Industrial Development Report 2016
VIENNA, 2 December 2015 – The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) today launched its flagship publication, the Industrial Development Report (IDR) 2016…

New open data platform adds further transparency to UNIDO’s inclusive and sustainable industrialization work
VIENNA, 2 December 2015 – A new platform launched this week by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as part of its transparency initiative provides details on all ongoing programmes and projects.

UNIDO forum focuses on partnerships as a way to move Sustainable Development Goal 9 into action
VIENNA, 1 December 2015 – The fourth Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development Forum that ended today in Vienna focused on ways the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) can contribute to advancing…

UNIDO and the EU launch new report on joint cooperation
VIENNA, 30 November 2015 – A new report on the cooperation between the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the European Union (EU) from 2005 to 2015 was today launched in Vienna.

Inclusive and sustainable industrialization key driver of Agenda 2030, say participants at UNIDO General Conference
VIENNA, 30 November 2015 – Inclusive and sustainable industrial development lies at the core of UNIDO’s mandate, it is one of the main drivers for sustainable development and will be crucial for achieving the 2030 Agenda…

ITU International Telecommunications Union [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/index.aspx?lang=en#.VF8FYcl4WF8

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ITU statistics symposium underlines enormous untapped potential of ICTs to improve socio-economic development
Global statistics experts focus on power of big data, ICT innovation and the emerging ‘Internet of Things’
Hiroshima, 3 December 2015 – More than 600 participants from 88 countries, including Deputy Prime Ministers, government ministers, vice-ministers, Directors-General and leaders from business, academia and United Nations agencies met in Hiroshima, Japan, from 30 November to 2 December to attend ITU’s World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS-15).

The event opened with a special ceremony commemorating ITU’s 150th anniversary, followed by a Ministerial Roundtable focusing on ICT as a driver of sustainable development, and a Leaders Dialogue on the topic of future ICT trends, policies and measurement challenges.

Participants addressed a wide range of topical issues including big data, progress in measuring the socio-economic impact of ICTs, ICT statistics and the Sustainable Development Goals’ monitoring framework, strategies to measure ICT innovation, and the use of data generated by the Internet of Things to drive ICT development…

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ITU supports Zimbabwe to deliver health care services through ICTs
Geneva, 1 December 2015 – The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) signed a cooperation agreement on 25 November for the extension of telemedicine services to rural and remote clinics and hospitals in Zimbabwe.
Through this new project, the Ministry of ICTs Postal and Courier Services of Zimbabwe will receive assistance from ITU in the development of e-health sector policies and regulations. The overall objective of the project is to use ICTs to improve delivery and provision of quality, cost effective, affordable and accessible health services, particularly to remote and disadvantaged areas…

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ITU releases annual global ICT data and ICT Development Index country rankings
Korea ranks in first place in global ICT Development Index (IDI)
Geneva, 30 November 2015 – ITU’s flagship annual Measuring the Information Society Report, released today, reveals that 3.2 billion people are now online, representing 43.4% of the global population, while mobile-cellular subscriptions have reached almost 7.1 billion worldwide, with over 95% of the global population now covered by a mobile-cellular signal.

The report also notes that all 167 economies included in the ITU’s ICT Development Index (IDI) improved their IDI values between 2010 and 2015 – meaning that levels of information and communication technology (ICT) access, use and skills continue to improve all around the world.

The Measuring the Information Society Report is widely recognized as the repository of the world’s most reliable and impartial global data and analysis on the state of global ICT development, and is extensively relied upon by governments, international organizations, development banks and private sector analysts worldwide.

“ICTs will be essential in meeting each and every one of the 17 newly-agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, “and this report plays an important role in the SDG process. Without measurement and reporting, we cannot track the progress being made, and this is why ITU gathers data and publishes this important report each year.”…
:: ICT Development Index [interactive site]
:: Pdf Full Report http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/mis2015.aspx

US Department of State [to 5 December 2015]
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/index.htm
Selected Announcements

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-12/04/15 U.S. Pledges Additional Humanitarian Assistance for Refugees and Migrants in Europe; Office of the Spokesperson; Washington, DC
The United States today announced a contribution of nearly $24 million in new humanitarian assistance from the United States to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that will help the UN organization to assist refugees and migrants throughout Europe who now face the onset of winter, especially those in Greece, the Balkans, and other parts of Europe. UNHCR’s critical assistance includes providing food, water, and temporary shelter, as well as establishing areas to screen and process arriving refugees and migrants who may need assistance or legal protection.

12/01/15 Cultural Heritage Risk Reduction Program for Libya; Office of the Spokesperson; Washington, DC
As part of its ongoing efforts to help Libya preserve its cultural heritage, the U.S. Department of State sponsored a workshop for Libyan museum professionals, November 29–December 1, in support of Libya’s national inventory of museum objects. The workshop was held in Tunis and was organized by Oberlin College with the participation of the Tunisian Institut National du Patrimoine (National Heritage Institute).
This workshop was the first of five sessions being organized to address critical cultural preservation and protection needs in Libya. Future sessions will cover the looting and illicit trafficking of cultural objects, advanced archaeological site documentation methods, and community engagement in the protection of Libyan cultural heritage…

11/30/15 Joint Statement on Donors’ Pledge of $248M USD to Least Developed Countries Fund to Support Climate Change Adaptation; Office of the Spokesperson; Washington, DC