Strong action against diabetes, cancers, heart disease and chronic lung ailments must be integrated into the global development agenda, panellists at a Headquarters press conference on non-communicable diseases said this afternoon.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
The 2010 Global Model United Nations Conference, to be held in Malaysia this July, would reinforce the Organization’s efforts to build bridges between cultures, officials of the world body, the Permanent Mission of Malaysia and the Commonwealth Secretariat announced today.
With the massive international relief effort continuing to gain traction in Haiti, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was rolling out its “cash-for-work” initiative, aimed at providing temporary work and offering Haitians a chance to play a vital role in rebuilding their earthquake-devastated country, a senior agency official said today.
Amid a climate of economic and financial insecurity, environmental peril and persistent social exclusion, the United Nations Commission for Social Development would endeavour during its current session to adopt resolutions that would help chart the future of social development policies within the framework of greater participation and accountability, that body’s Chairman said today.
Press Conference on ‘The Power of Muze Concert: A Prelude to Human Security’
Ambassador Gérard Araud, of France, which holds the Security Council’s rotating Presidency this month, told reporters today that the 15-member body would kick off its work with a briefing tomorrow from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on his recent travels, as well as on the massive humanitarian effort underway in earthquake-devastated Haiti.
Describing the humanitarian situation in Haiti as the “main absolute priority”, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country said today that the United Nations was working hard to address it through a complex water and food distribution effort aimed at feeding 2 million people before the end of February.
While the overall relief operation in Haiti was making solid progress, “there’s a long way to go before we can feel satisfied about reaching all the people who need aid,” the United Nations humanitarian chief told reporters today, as he provided a snapshot of the massive relief effort underway some two weeks after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the tiny nation, flattening much of its infrastructure and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without food and shelter.
A top official of the European Union naval operation working to squash piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast lauded this afternoon the Chinese Government’s decision to add a warship to that operation.
The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia this morning formally adopted a mode of cooperation between China and the Western naval coalition patrolling the Gulf of Aden, Carl Salicath, its Chairperson, said at Headquarters today.