Ms. Catherine Braggs, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), briefed reporters on the desperate humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.  “The situation is acute and is expected to worsen towards the end of the year.”  She also said extreme food insecurity and an outbreak of cholera –which has killed 366 and infected 9,000 people countrywide has prompted an immediate UN call for action.

Many communities have now depleted their ability to provide clean water due to the collapse of the health and sanitation system. For a country that used to have a 90 percent record on school attendance– now there is little or no attendance in schools due to costs for transport and school fees. Currently, nine out of every 45 schools are closed and school attendance is below 50 percent countrywide –at 42 percent.

The UN has appealed for $100 million, the largest amount ever requested to assist 3 million people in desperate need of aid.

The alarming degradation of Zimbabwe’s economy and rise in social vulnerability are cited as causal factors.  United Nations officials had hoped that further deterioration of the humanitarian situation could be averted if, “following the initial political agreement reached between the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Population Front (ZANU-PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change in September, a government of unity can be created.” However, it appears these agreements have not prevented the growing humanitarian crisis.

Through the office of humanitarian coordination, Ms. Braggs says the main challenge is dealing with the increasingly urgent humanitarian needs of millions of vulnerable Zimbabweans. In the last several weeks, there has also been a vast closure of hospitals and a rapid drain of health care workers.

 

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UN Correspondent Tala Dowlatshahi is covering a UN briefing on Zimbabwe.

Inés Alberdi, Executive Director of UNIFEM ( the United Nations Development Fund for Women) and UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman gave an update on the current global financial commitments to the U.N. Trust Fund to Eliminate Violence against Women and to ask for more government support to UNIFEM’s “Say No to Violence against Women” campaign.

For women aged 15 to 44 years, violence is a major cause of death and disability.  Globally, there are increasing links between violence against women and HIV/AIDS. UNIFEM says women who have experienced violence are at a higher risk of HIV infection: a survey among 1,366 South African women showed that women who were beaten by their partners were 48 percent more likely to be infected with HIV than those who were not abused.

Trafficking, honor killing and harassment are included in the list of violent acts committed against females across the globe.

In the United States, four women die every day as a result of domestic violence.

The “Say No to Violence against women” campaign is a global advocacy and awareness-raising effort on ending violence against women, designed to support UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s multi-year united to end violence against women initiative.  UNIFEM aims to develop a global movement of people to demand that ending violence against women be a top priority for governments everywhere.

 

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The Brookings Institution held a discussion in which in unveiled “Voices of America: U.S. Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century,” a plan to improve U.S. public diplomacy.

“Power is diffusing into a larger and more diverse group of nations, non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations than ever before,” said Kristin Lord, a fellow at Brookings and author of “Voices for America.”

Lord called for the creation of a non-profit organization called U.S.A.-World Trust which would “conduct and commission research and analysis…and convey it in a form useful to public diplomacy practitioners.” It would also “tap the vast potential of the private sector…to engage companies, non-governmental organizations, universities, think tanks and others to work on innovative new initiatives” and “provide grants and venture capital to endeavors that advance the nation’s public diplomacy objectives.”

“The goal in all the instances would be to attract new talent and new voices to the challenge of improving U.S. public diplomacy,” said Lord.

The panelists agreed that one of the most important things the U.S. should do is listen to public opinions in foreign countries. “Listening conveys respect, and a lot of people in the Muslim world feel that we don’t respect them,” said Martin Indyk, Senior fellow at Brookings and Director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. “The consequence of listening is that you have to show that you’re going to change something about what you do as a result of listening. Otherwise, people get the sense you aren’t listening at all even though you say you are.”

Liz Hancock, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Public Health Advocate, says that 80,000 children under the age of five were treated in emergency rooms for toy related injuries in 2007 (0:32).

 

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Liz Hancock, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Public Health Advocate, says that although Congress passed legislation to stop the sale of toys containing toxic phthalates by February 10th, 2009, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published a legal opinion informing manufacturers that they will be allowed to sell these products until their inventory run out (0:20).

 

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Ambassador Richard H. Jones, Deputy Executive Director of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) sub-group the international Energy Agency, said the recent economic crisis could lead to a premature supply crunch in energy.

Speaking at an OECD discussion on “Energy Projections to 2030″, Jones said that this, among other findings, signals that the era of low energy prices is over.

Jones said that there is still a chance for energy and climate concerns to be addressed, citing the COP-15 United Nations Climate Change Conference set to be held in Copenhagen from November 30th to December 11th, 2009.

According to Jones, if a solution is not found it “wont be for a lack of resources or technology, but a lack of leadership.”

Martin Indyk, Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy speaks about the importance of public opinion in Middle Eastern countries. (1:14)

 

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Martin Indyk, Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy speaks about America’s image in the eyes of the Middle East public. (0:40)

 

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Carl Schmid, Director of Federal Affairs at the AIDS Institute, discusses the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and what groups have been most affected by the virus. (0:38)

 

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