UN AND HP BRING TECHNOLOGY TRAINING TO YOUTH IN AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the technology company HP announced today the opening of 20 training centres in Africa and the Middle East to expand youth entrepreneurship and information technology education.

The new centres, in Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, brings to 33 the number of centres in ten countries in Africa and the Middle East.

The HP Graduate Entrepreneurship Training through IT programme (GET-IT) provides training to unemployed youth and graduates between the ages of 16 and 25, and helps potential entrepreneurs acquire IT skills with the aim of becoming better placed to create and run their own businesses, UNIDO said. GET-IT courses teach practical IT solutions for daily business challenges in finance, management, marketing and technology management.

"The UNIDO-HP partnership aims at addressing the high level of unemployment among young people in developing countries by integrating them into the labour market through successful entrepreneurship," said Kandeh K. Yumkella, UNIDO Director-General.

Through its field office network in Africa and the Middle East, UNIDO identifies non-profit organizations eligible to become GET-IT partners and monitors the activities of these partners to ensure the sustainability of the programme, UNIDO said.

UNIDO, with 173 Member States, is a specialised agency of the UN system working towards improving the quality of life of the world's poor by helping countries achieve sustainable industrial development.
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UN PEACEKEEPING CHIEF ‘IMPRESSED’ WITH WORK OF BLUE HELMETS IN MIDDLE EAST

UN PEACEKEEPING CHIEF 'IMPRESSED' WITH WORK OF BLUE HELMETS IN MIDDLE EAST
New York, May 20 2009 7:00PM
The head of United Nations peacekeeping today praised the efforts of blue helmets in the Middle East who, along with their peers in volatile regions such as eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Darfur, face huge challenges.

Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Alain Le Roy said he "was quite impressed by the work done by the mission" in Lebanon, one of several operations he visited on a recent trip to the region.

Mr. Le Roy noted that no soldiers have been killed or wounded at the border between Lebanon and Israel since 2006, when the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (<"http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/">UNIFIL) was bolstered in the wake of the war between Israel and Hizbollah.

He also underscored the role UNIFIL played during the recent Gaza crisis as a deterrent from opening up another front for hostilities.

"The civilian population is extremely pleased by the presence of UNIFIL," said Mr. Le Roy, adding that Government officials in Israel and Lebanon had expressed appreciation for the mission.

The Under-Secretary-General noted that a few days after his visit, Israel handed over data and maps to the UN on the cluster munitions it fired over southern Lebanon during the 2006 conflict.

Voicing hope that ongoing talks will lead to a quick end to the dispute over Ghajar, a village that straddles the so-called Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel, he said that he continued to apply pressure on Israel to withdraw from the north of the dividing line.

In a related development, UNFIL reported that it has been informed by the Lebanese authorities of a number of Lebanese citizens who crossed the Blue Line into Israel, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters in New York.

She noted that UNIFIL is in the process of ascertaining all the facts concerning this issue, adding that "any illegal crossing would constitute a violation of the Blue Line and a violation of Security Council resolution 1701," the resolution that ended the 2006 war.

Mr. Le Roy also spotlighted the UN Disengagement Observer Force (<"http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/undof/">UNDOF), which was established by the Security Council in 1974 following the cessation of hostilities between Israeli and Syrian armed forces on the Golan Heights.

UNDOF is a "very small mission but it's an example of a traditional peacekeeping mission which still exists and is still very much appreciated. I saw with my own eyes another mission which is clearly making a difference," he said.
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Opinion: Spending And Support Sees Region Through Global Crisis.

In an opinion piece appearing in the FT, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Middle East Director Masood Ahmed writes, "Oil prices have dropped from $147 a barrel to between $50 and $60 over the past year, leading to a collapse of export revenues for Middle Eastern and North African oil producers.... Yet growth...remains higher than in many regions.... This year, the oil exporters of the [region] will see their non-oil gross domestic product... expand at more than 3.5 percent. Real GDP in the region...should also grow at about the same rate.... What explains this resilience?

Part of the explanation is that banks in the region had little exposure to the toxic assets that have created turmoil elsewhere. Also, countries in the region have not been affected to the same extent by the sharp declines in export volumes...or the withdrawal of capital flows.... Another dimension of the answer lies in decisive policy actions.... But the most important factor behind the resilience of the Middle East and North Africa is that the region's oil exporters have decided to maintain high levels of capital spending by drawing upon reserves accumulated during the boom years....

An important uncertainty is whether this resilience will remain if the recession in Europe is prolonged, which will be particularly important for North Africa.... Fortunately, most of the region's governments are adapting their fiscal and monetary stance and a few have also been able to draw upon the IMF and donors to supplement their limited financing capacity. But the best outcome for all countries in the region would be a speedy return to positive growth and well-functioning financial markets in the world as a whole...." [Financial Times/Factiva]