FORMER GHANAIAN LEADER TAKES HELM OF UN EFFORTS TO FIGHT SCHOOLCHILDREN’S HUNGER

The former president of Ghana, John Kufuor, today was named a Global Ambassador against Hunger – with a focus on the need to provide good nutrition for the 66 million children who go to school hungry every day – for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

"Ensuring that every child has proper nutrition has to be the goal of every world leader," Mr. Kufuor said. "I hope to inspire them all to strive for this goal."

With his appointment, he joins other ambassadors for the agency, including marathon run

ner Paul Tergat, the footballer Kakà, actress Drew Barrymore and former United States Senator George McGovern, in advocating on behalf of the world's poorest and hungriest.

With the number of hungry people in the world expected to top one billion this year, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said that Mr. Kufuor's support is crucial.

"John Kufuor not only talks the talk, but walks the walk," she said. "Ghana is a leader in nourishing its children and Ambassador Kufuor can be a leader in getting others to follow his good work."

As WFP Ambassador, the former Ghanaian leader will also stress the need to fight hunger on several fronts: investment in long-term agricultural development, funding the agency's work and helping the poor access affordable and nutritious food.

WFP – which feeds over 20 million young people every year – said that just over $3 billion is needed annually to reach all 66 million hungry school-age children.
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UN DRUG CHIEF CONGRATULATES GHANAIANS ON MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR COCAINE SEIZURE

UN DRUG CHIEF CONGRATULATES GHANAIANS ON MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR COCAINE SEIZURE
New York, May 22 2009 11:00AM
The head of the United Nations anti-drug agency today congratulated Ghana on the seizure of a multi-million dollar cocaine shipment in Port Tema earlier this week.

Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (<"http://www.unodc.org/unodc/index.html">UNODC), said the seizure "shows that law enforcement officials are getting better at reading the warning signs."

Ghanaian police and customs authorities, working in a Joint Port Control Unit which was established with the support of UNODC in 2008, discovered 72 kilograms of cocaine in a container from Ecuador. The shipment had a street value of around $ 7 million in Europe, UNODC <"http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2009-22-05.html">said.

UNODC said Ghanaian law enforcement officials used profiling techniques learned from the UN training, noting that perhaps insiders in the port of Ecuador are cooperating with people in Port Tema to smuggle drugs and falsify customs documents.

This is the second notable success for the Port Tema authorities within a year. Soon after the launch of the UNODC training programme, customs officers intercepted three stolen luxury cars in containers coming from Spain, the agency said.

"Criminal groups should learn that developing countries are no longer a safe haven for smuggling," stressed Mr. Costa.

UNODC said some 420 million sea containers move around the world every year, with only a tiny fraction of them being inspected.

UNODC and the World Customs Organization have designed the Container Control Programme to assist Governments in developing countries to establish effective controls over the movement of containers and make it harder for terrorists and other criminals to use these for smuggling.

That Programme is now operational in Ecuador, Ghana, Pakistan, Senegal and Turkmenistan, and will be extended to ports in Central Asia and Latin America, UNODC said.

West Africa is a key transit hub for drug shipments en route to Europe. A report released by UNODC in October 2008 claimed that at least 50 tons of cocaine from Latin America are entering West Africa every year, en route to Europe where the drug sells for almost $2 billion.
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GHANAIAN TROOPS JOIN UN MISSION IN CHAD, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

GHANAIAN TROOPS JOIN UN MISSION IN CHAD, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
New York, May 14 2009 12:00PM
Over 100 Ghanaian soldiers have joined the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the war-ravaged nations of Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR), it was announced today.

In a move welcomed by the mission, known as MINURCAT, 131 Ghanaian troops are in transit and will replace departing forces in the Farchana area of eastern Chad.

They will join 71 Ghanaian blue helmets deployed to <"http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/minurcat/">MINURCAT last March, and at full strength, the mission will include 800 peacekeepers from Ghana.

In September 2007, the Security Council approved the establishment in Chad and CAR, in concert with the European Union (EU), of a UN-mandated, multidimensional presence, including European Union (EU) military forces, to help protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid to thousands of people uprooted due to insecurity in the two countries and neighbouring Sudan.

On 15 March, UN peacekeepers took over the military and security responsibilities of EUFOR after the Council approved the deployment of an additional 5,500 blue helmets to serve with MINURCAT. However, deployment currently stands at half that level.

Eastern Chad faces an acute humanitarian challenge, with over 290,000 Sudanese refugees from the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, more than 180,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and a further 700,000 individuals among host communities in need of food, water and health care.

Northern CAR has also been affected by a spill-over from Darfur as well as by displacement resulting from other armed conflicts.
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AFRICAN YOUTH REACH KILIMANJARO’S SUMMIT TO HIGHLIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE – UN

AFRICAN YOUTH REACH KILIMANJARO'S SUMMIT TO HIGHLIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE – UN
New York, Mar 6 2009 6:00PM

A team of disadvantaged African youth has scaled Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania as part of a United Nations-backed campaign seeking to draw attention to the negative effects of climate change.

The 10 youth – from Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana – reached the summit of Africa's highest peak yesterday as part of the fourth annual ascent organized by Kilimanjaro Initiative, a Nairobi-based non-governmental organization, in partnership with the UN.

Upon reaching the peak under the banner of the "UNite to Combat Climate Change" campaign, they called Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who himself flew over the mountain last weekend and saw first-hand how there is less water in the streams and less snow on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.

When the climbers reach the bottom, they reported on their findings to Janos Pasztor, the Director of the Secretary-General's Climate Change Support Team.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has warned that rising temperatures, increased rainfall and extreme weather conditions will dramatically change where and how people live in cities.

Changing climates does untold damage to economic and public infrastructure and stretches the ability of urban centres to accommodate displaced populations, leading to unemployment, deteriorating educational facilities, inadequate health care systems and a possible rise in crime in urban centres, according to the agency.
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MASSIVE UN POLIO IMMUNIZATION CAMPAIGN UNDERWAY IN WEST AFRICA

MASSIVE UN POLIO IMMUNIZATION CAMPAIGN UNDERWAY IN WEST AFRICA
New York, Feb 27 2009 2:00PM

Some 53 million children under the age of five, including every girl and boy in Nigeria, have been targeted by a mass polio immunization campaign across West Africa, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced today.

The door-to-door polio eradication drive is planned to sweep through eight countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Togo, and Nigeria, aiming to reach every child even in the remotest of areas.

The campaign, employing 162,000 trained immunizers, will attempt to stop last year's outbreak which hit northern Nigeria and spread to six countries in West Africa after the wild polio virus had already re-infected Niger in 2007, as well as Chad and Cameroon in Central Africa.

"The highest priority was to reach every child in Nigeria, which was one of the four endemic countries, and in the high-risk areas across the region," said Miranda Eeles, a spokesperson for UNICEF.

The total cost of the campaign is $29 million for the seven countries, with an additional $38 million for Nigeria, including the cost of the vaccine, operational costs, social mobilization and surveillance.

The campaign, which kicked off today and started earlier this month in Ghana, involves the health ministries of all the countries, as well as support from UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Rotary International, among others. It is being organized as part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Contracted through contaminated food, water and faeces, polio is a highly infectious and incurable viral disease, which mainly affects children under five, attacking the nervous system. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs, and among those paralyzed, five to 10 per cent die when their respiratory muscles become immobilized.
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AFRICAN YOUTH TO CLIMB KILIMANJARO, JOINING UN CAMPAIGN FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

AFRICAN YOUTH TO CLIMB KILIMANJARO, JOINING UN CAMPAIGN FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
New York, Feb 25 2009 2:00PM

A group of young people from impoverished urban areas in Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana, will set off on a gruelling trek to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro under the United Nations banner to draw attention to the effects of climate change.

Ten underprivileged youth will join 25 other people from the private and public sectors in the fourth annual ascent to the "rooftop of Africa" organized by the Kilimanjaro Initiative, a Nairobi-based non-governmental organization (NGO), in partnership with the "UNite to Combat Climate Change" global campaign.

"This year's climb will highlight – with the melting ice of Mount Kilimanjaro as a backdrop – how global warming has a direct impact on the living conditions of individuals and communities throughout the world," said Wilfred Lemke, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace.

"By raising awareness about the impact of global warming, including in populated urban areas, the Kilimanjaro Initiative will assist in the achievement of MDG [Millennium Development Goal] 7 of 'ensuring environmental sustainability,'" he added.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned that rising temperatures, increased rainfall and extreme weather conditions will dramatically change where and how people live in cities.

The change in climate does untold damage to economic and public infrastructure and stretches the ability of urban centres to accommodate displaced populations, leading to unemployment, deteriorating educational facilities, inadequate health care systems and a possible rise in crime in urban centres, according to the agency.

At the top of Kilimanjaro, the group will use a satellite telephone to call Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who is currently on the South African leg of a tour that will take him to Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Egypt.

Mr. Ban is also due to fly over the receding ice cap of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, on his way to the city of Arusha to visit the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
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