Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About
UN Document
In its continuing efforts to draw attention to important international developments and issues that fall outside the media spotlight, the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) has launched a new list of “Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About.”
“Our list presents a wide spectrum of matters of concern to many, many people around the world, and we look forward to working with media everywhere to help raise the profile of these stories,” said Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, during the launch of the 2005 list at UN Headquarters in New York.
As in 2004, when the Ten Stories initiative was inaugurated, the new list includes stories on an array of issues and from several geographical regions. Some of the stories on the list focus on troubling humanitarian emergencies and conflict situations, but they also highlight such vital areas as human rights, health and development.
“We know that journalists can’t cover everything,” said Mr. Tharoor, “but we feel that people around the world need to know more about these critical stories.”
The list has been prepared in consultation with UN offices and programmes, many of which provided their views and ideas on issues they believed would benefit from greater media exposure. As happened last year, the final selection was DPI’s alone. While the stories are ranked from 1 to 10, their ranking is not a reflection of their relative significance.

Somalia: Steps on a path to fragile peace in a shattered country 
Somalia is looking at its best chance for peace in 15 years as the reconciliation process moves into a new and crucial phase and with UN poised to ramp up its humanitarian assistance. But rampant insecurity poses a steep challenge to this endeavour as most international media give the country a wide berth.
The Story 
The country that used to dominate coverage a decade ago as a symbol of a collapsed state has been left out of media limelight lately, although the nation is facing a crucial challenge. The ongoing fragile reconciliation process represents Somalis’ best hope since the 1990s of rebuilding their nation in peace. At great risk, a fledgling government-in-exile, formed through a national conference involving most of the rival factions, is trying to establish itself in the country from its base in neighboring Kenya. However, rampant insecurity, fueled by arms embargo violations and continued factional violence, poses steep challenges to this endeavour. 
The insecurity has also kept the presence of international media to a minimum at a time when this story needs a bright light from the outside helping to put all parties on notice that the world is watching. Greater media exposure can also help to mobilize humanitarian aid to the country which continues to face drought and famine in addition to the recent deaths and damage to its coastline and fishing villages from the recent Indian Ocean Tsunami. Meanwhile, the United Nations is providing humanitarian and development aid as best it can under the conditions, while preparing a stepped-up political presence that could solidify the reconciliation process and help Somalis establish a working government. The Security Council has welcomed the establishment of the Transitional Federal Government and has urged the international community to lend political and economic support. 
The Context 
•	Somalia is the only country in recent history that has endured such a prolonged period of state collapse. 
•	During a recent whistle-stop tour of the country, leaders of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) were well-received by Somalis, but they dared not even venture into the capital, Mogadishu, still awash with guns and gangs. 
•	Somalis continue to suffer from intermittent clan conflicts and recurrent droughts. The country is home to 400,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 800,000 returnees. 
•	Although recent rains have provided some respite, four consecutive years of drought have led to massive livestock losses. Overall, the drought has resulted in a livelihood crisis, indebtedness and economic stagnation. 
•	Somalia consistently ranks among the lowest in the world on key indicators of human development, amid high mortality and malnutrition rates. 
•	According to UN relief officials, top aid priorities include the delivery of assistance in water and sanitation, health and education sectors to the most vulnerable groups, including IDPs, returnees and minorities who represent 20 percent of the population. 
For further information 
UN Political Office for Somalia, Nairobi:
Babafemi Badejo, Officer-in-Charge, Tel: (tie line): +1 212 963 3085 or 3096; +254 2 622 695; E-mail: babafemi.badejo@unon.org 
UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA): 
Haile Menkerios, Director, Africa I Division, Tel: +1 212 963 0239, E-mail: menkeriosh@un.org; 
Rehana Ahmad-Haque, Desk Officer for Somalia, Tel. +1 212 963 2502, E-mail: haque@un.org

Tragic blind spot in health care for women 
A little known campaign to prevent crippling childbirth injuries could spare tens of thousands of women each year from incapacitating health problems and social ostracism caused by obstetric fistula.
The Story
“It is better to be blind than have fistula,” said one young woman. “...at least people help you.” Fistula – now unknown to most people in the western world – is an entirely preventable medical and social tragedy. Caused by complications during childbirth, when emergency obstetric care is not available, the condition results in long-term, chronic incontinence and can lead to kidney disease and even death. Damage to the nerves in the legs leaves some women unable to walk. In 95 per cent of cases, the baby dies. Without treatment, prospects for work and family life are greatly diminished. Women suffering from fistulas are ostracized by their communities and abandoned by their families. Many become beggars and eventually die from untreated infections. 
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than two million women are living with fistula in developing countries and that an additional 50,000 to 100,000 new cases occur each year. Doctors campaigning to bring the dimensions of fistula to world attention say it could be prevented if young girls married later, had adequate medical care during pregnancy and received emergency obstetric care if they developed complications. In developing countries however, only 58 per cent of women deliver their babies with the assistance of a professional midwife or doctor and only 40 per cent give birth in a hospital or health centre. 
“Obstetric fistula is a double sorrow because women lose their babies and they lose their dignity,” says Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). “UNFPA hopes that the Global Campaign to End Fistula will eventually make fistula as rare in Africa and Asia as it is in other parts of the world.” 
The Context
•	At risk are women living in remote rural areas with little access to medical care. 
•	A Global Campaign to End Fistula, launched two years ago by UNFPA and global partners, is able to provide only partial support to about 30 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. 
•	It costs only $300 to restore the health and dignity of a woman suffering from fistula, but that’s way beyond the means of people in countries where annual income is much less than that. 
•	In February 2005, the Global Campaign and the Nigerian government supported restorative surgery for 545 women in just two weeks. Nigeria may have as many as 800,000 women with fistula. 
•	The success rate for fistula repair can be as high as 90 per cent. 
•	If current demand for family planning services in developing countries was were met, maternal deaths and injuries could be reduced by 20 per cent or more. 
•	Fistula has been eliminated in Europe and North America through improved obstetric care. 
For further information
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA): 
Micol Zarb (New York), Media Officer, Tel: +1 212 297-5042, E-mail: zarb@unfpa.org

Northern Uganda: A humanitarian crisis that demands sustained focus 
A humanitarian tragedy has been unfolding in the northern part of Uganda -- its impact on some of the most vulnerable groups, especially children, is a story that demands close and continuous attention. 
The Story 
While the situation in Uganda has received growing international scrutiny over the past year, continued and sustained attention to the tragedy of civilians – particularly children – caught in the deadly conflict in the north of the country remains a high priority. United Nations relief officials have repeatedly expressed concern about the neglected humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda, where up to 1.6 million people have been displaced by the conflict with the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), notorious for its campaigns of lootings, murders, mutilations and abduction of children to serve its militia. To provide context, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the area is close to that of Darfur, Sudan, but the plight of Ugandan children is especially troubling. 
“It is mind-boggling how little international attention there has been and also how difficult it has been over the years to fund the work for the children, the reintegration of the children who have escaped, and a real response to the crisis in the north,” says Jan Egeland, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). According to OCHA, conditions in the IDP camps across the north are poor, despite improvements over the last year and a half. Medical care and water and sanitation are well below standards. Insecurity has been a major limiting factor, and this is linked to the relatively small humanitarian presence in the north. 
The context 
•	Uganda has rich agricultural potential but more than half the population lives in abject poverty with insufficient food to eat. 
•	The World Food Programme (WFP) provided emergency supplies to a record 2.8 million people in 2004, but a shortfall on resources threatens WFP’s delivery capacity this year. In the northern Karamoja district alone the numbers dependent on food assistance were expected to quadruple from 117,000 people in March to 570,000 in April. 
•	Families living outside the camps continue to shepherd their children into secure lodgings at the end of each day for fear that the LRA will raid their villages at night and carry them off. According to UNICEF there were 11,000 of these ‘night commuters’ in the district of Gulu alone in March 2005. 
•	In 2004, UN sought $158 million for Uganda as part of its overall $1.7 billion appeal for 2005. Most of the funds were targeted to providing basic goods and services such as clinics, clean water and sanitation, food and supplies. 
For further information
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
Stephanie Bunker, Spokesperson (New York), Tel: +1 917 367 5126; E-mail: bunker@un.org; 
Eliane Duthoit, Head, OCHA, Uganda; Tel: +256 31 242 806; E-mail: duthoit@un.org; 
Jane Namulindwa, Information Officer, OCHA, Uganda; Tel: +256 31 242 809; E-mail: namulindwa@un.org.

Sierra Leone: Consolidating a hard-won peace 
They have ended the conflict, disarmed thousands of combatants, freed thousands of child soldiers and watched over democratic elections. But now that the UN’s peacekeepers may soon be leaving, the world must remain committed to helping the country overcome the many challenges to its fragile peace.
The Story
UN peacekeepers could soon be leaving Sierra Leone after a five-year mission that has brought peace and raised hopes for a better future. But while the media focus might have shifted to other crises, the world must remain committed as the country battles to overcome the many challenges that remain. 
UNAMSIL has been one of the UN’s most visible successes, having deployed in the wake of a brutal civil conflict that left at least 75,000 dead and many more maimed. The UN disarmed more than 72,500 combatants -- including some 20,000 child soldiers -- and shepherded a peace process towards the creation of a new national government. It has helped regularize the nation's diamond-mining -- the fuel for its bitter conflict -- for the benefit of the entire country. However, Sierra Leone remains one of the world’s poorest countries, and the UN-supported peace is fragile. The nation's borders are porous, the surrounding West Africa sub-region is unstable, unemployment is widespread and there is a large pool of ex-combatants who could take up arms again.
The Context 
•	The last peacekeepers are expected to leave by December 2005 pending a decision by the Security Council. Currently numbering some 3,200 “blue helmets”, the UN force in Sierra Leone had as many as 17,500 military personnel at its maximum strength. They maintained security as government forces were re-constituted. The United Nations oversaw democratic elections and resettled thousands of refugees. 
•	Peace is not sustainable without justice: The UN-founded Special Court for Sierra Leone began war crimes trials in 2004 against 13 indictees. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission recently completed its work and produced a report identifying the root cases of the conflict that have yet to be addressed – poverty, corruption, lack of justice, disrespect for human rights. 
•	Sierra Leoneans remain concerned that the closure of the UN mission would threaten the fragile peace and give reason for supporters of the war crimes indictees to cause mischief. However, the UN is not leaving altogether. A considerable post-UNAMSIL presence, comprised of UN programmes and agencies, will continue its work. In addition, an International Military and Training Team led by the United Kingdom will remain in the country, at least until 2010 to train the Sierra Leone armed forces. 
•	A border dispute with neighbouring Guinea could threaten stability if it remains unresolved. External security is less than assured unless the army is well-equipped and better-trained. 
•	Unemployment, especially among the youths, who make up the majority of the population, is rampant. Mismanagement of natural resources, including diamonds, could be a source of conflict as poverty levels rise. 
For further information
United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL):
Sheila Dallas, Officer-in-Charge, Public Information Section, Tel: +1 212 963 9588, ext. 6583, E-mail: dallas@un.org; 
Daniel Adekera, Spokesman, Tel: +1 212 963 6588, ext. 6817, E-mail: adekera@un.org
United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations: 
Nick Birnback, External Relations/Media Affairs Officer, Phone: 1-917-367-5044, E-mail: birnbackn@un.org
United Nations Department of Public Information Susan Manuel, Chief, Peace and Security Section, Phone: 1-212-963-1262, E-mail: manuels@un.org
Sierra Leone Special Court: Allison Cooper, Chief, Press and Public Affairs, Tel: +39 083 1257 034; 1 212 963 9915 x1787034, Mobile: +232 76 655 237, Fax: +39 0831 257001, E-mail: coopera@un.org; SCSL-pressoffice@un.org
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): 
Cassandra Waldon, Communications Specialist, English- and Portuguese-speaking Africa (New York), Tel.+ 1 212 906-6499, E-mail: cassandra.waldon@undp.org
Peter Ngu-Tayong, Communications and External Relations Specialist (Sierra Leone), Tel: +232-76 865691, E-mail: peter.ngu.tayong@undp.org; 
Zoe Dugal, Information Officer for UNDP’s Arms for Development initiative (Sierra Leone), Tel: +232-76 662290, E-mail: dugal@undpafd.org

Actors for change: The growth of human rights institutions
Defending human rights has a new tool in its arsenal. More than 100 national institutions have emerged in recent years to protect the rights of vulnerable groups. They are increasingly active in a wide range of human rights causes, from the prevention of torture and discrimination to conflict resolution.
The Story 
What does an improved status of the Tsaatan minority in Mongolia have in common with the rescue of child soldiers in Uganda, the probe into decades-old cases of forced disappearances in Mexico or documents on the training of police in Northern Ireland? All of these examples reflect a promising trend – a growing role and effectiveness of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights. “Building strong human rights institutions at the country level is what in the long run will ensure that human rights are protected and advanced in a sustained manner,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed in a 2002 report. And that’s what – away from the media spotlight – appears to be happening. 
Since the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted in 1993 the so-called Paris Principles -- minimum standards concerning national human rights institutions – many countries have worked with the UN to establish or enhance such bodies. What often goes unnoticed, however, is that these institutions, already numbering more than 100, are increasingly active in a wide range of human rights causes. 
The Context 
•	The majority of existing national institutions can be grouped in two broad categories: “human rights commissions” and “ombudsmen.” Less common, but no less important, are the “specialized” national institutions which function to protect the rights of a particular vulnerable group. 
•	Such national institutions are not set up to replace the UN human rights organs or non-governmental organizations working in the same area. Their role is complementary, and a strengthening of such institutions can only enhance the effectiveness of both national and international human rights machinery. 
•	In January 2005, the Independent Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan launched a report, A Call to Justice. Thanks to this bold initiative, for the first time Afghans were asked to express their views on vital issues of peace, security and justice. 
•	The Danish Institute for Human Rights is creating a knowledge database to raise awareness of the specific impact and consequences of anti-terrorism legislation. 
•	The official probe into the forced disappearance of 532 people in Mexico during the 70’s and early 80’s had limited results until the Mexican National Human Rights Commission intervened and was able to throw light on that tragic episode. 
•	Established as an outcome of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement 1998, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has investigated and supported through courts key cases on issues covering all political and religious viewpoints. 
•	The National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia has made a significant contribution to securing the rights of the Tsaatans, the smallest ethnic minority in the country, residing in an isolated mountainous area. 
•	Despite the challenges of working in conflict areas, the Ugandan Human Rights Commission has investigated reports of recruitment of child soldiers and made recommendations on their reintegration into society. 
•	The National Human Rights Commission in India has been making efforts to create an environment in which economic, social and cultural rights could be better promoted and protected. 
For further information 
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): 
Orest Nowosad, Coordinator, National Institutions Unit, Capacity Building and Field Operations Branch Tel. +41 22 917 92 23, E-mail: onowosad@ohchr.org 

Cameroon: Farming in the Dark
Poor farmers have little chance of getting a fair price for their produce if they don’t know how much markets beyond their villages are willing to pay. The internet is leveling their playing field through schemes such as INFOSHARE, which is giving access to the latest market news to thousands of remote cocoa and coffee farmers in Cameroon.
The Story
 Knowledge is power, and lack of knowledge about markets and prices is a key factor in keeping poor farmers around the world “dirt poor.” African producers of cocoa and coffee, for example, earn as little as one twelfth of the international market rate for their crops. In the dark over the prices being realized in local as well as world markets, they remain at the mercy of middlemen, traders and corporations. What is true in Africa, is equally true in Asia or Latin America. 
Increasing farmers’ access to knowledge of markets and prices has long been a central plank in efforts to break out of the poverty cycle. It is a strategy now given a massive boost by the opportunities new information technology can provide in helping to bring knowledge to even the remotest farming community. One example of this new potential is a technical assistance project called INFOSHARE, which is giving commodity producers access to the information they need to negotiate better prices and get their produce into higher-paying markets. Cameroon, with about 900,000 cocoa and coffee smallholders, is testing the system and early interest indicates it will expand into other countries and crop sectors as soon as 2006. Villagers without access to the internet will be able to get this information twice daily from national radio broadcasts and use it to set prices that are both fair and realistic. It is estimated that greater market transparency in Cameroon will enable small-scale farmers to increase their returns by 10 to 15 per cent. INFOSHARE is run by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which has designed this information-sharing database system and has trained government staff in its use. It is part of INFOCOMM, an UNCTAD internet portal that provides, free-of-charge, pricing, product and market information on some 20 commodity sectors. INFOCOMM is currently being used by 12 to 15 million people worldwide, 60 per cent of them in developing countries. 
The Context 
•	When average world commodity prices rise, profits tend to go mostly to large trading companies, not to the small-scale farmers. For example, although in 2003 the prices of cocoa and coffee rose 27 per cent, coffee farmers have seen their share of the take from a package of coffee sold off the supermarket shelf fall from 37 per cent in the early 1990s to between 6 and 8 percent in the new millennium. Cocoa producers get about 7 per cent of the supermarket value. 
•	Another reason poor farmers don’t profit from price gyrations on the world market is that they must sell at harvest because they can’t afford to stockpile. Any gains go to middlemen and traders. 
•	Without information on which to base their production, small-scale farmers also have no way to hedge against overproduction. With advance information, they could plant less or attempt to diversify. 
•	Some agricultural commodity markets are also in disarray as a result of genetically modified strains which disenfranchise poor producers. These strains are now raised in one fourth of the world's cottonfields - up from 2 per cent in 1997. Poor producers and harvesters don’t see a penny from most of these crops because they are planted and managed by cartels. 
•	Like INFOSHARE, several other projects around the world are helping poor people improve their lives. In rural India, the Infothela is a vehicle resembling a rickshaw which uses a pedal generator to keep an onboard computer running, providing free wireless internet access to people in remote villages. Infothela services include: “human ATMS” -- microfinance corporation employees travel to villages to disburse loans; on-line futures trading, offering predictability to farmers’ sales prices; biometric identification, and remote disbursement of credit to farmers for their warehouse contents. The project is organized by the Indian Institute of Technology. 
For further information
UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD):
Olivier Matringe, Economist, Tel: +41 22 917 5774, E-mail :olivier.matringe@unctad.org 
Mehmet Arda, Head, Commodities Branch, Tel: +41 22 917 5790; E-mail:  mehmet.arda@unctad.org 

Island after the hurricane: Grenada struggles to recover from devastation
Its not just the money! Three months before the tsunami grabbed world headlines, the island paradise of Grenada was ripped by Hurricane Ivan. The world responded generously at the time, but seven months later most of the country’s housing remains in ruins; an example of how disaster recovery needs the sustained support of the international community.
The Story 
Oceans away from last December’s tsunami, the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada is living proof of how difficult it can be to translate outpourings of international assistance into recovery and reconstruction. In September of 2004, Hurricane Ivan swept the Caribbean taking 80 per cent of Grenada’s infrastructure with it and devastating the spice and tourist industries. The world responded generously to the calamity, which killed 39 of the tiny nation’s 103,000 people and left 90 per cent of the nation’s 28,000 houses in shambles. But seven months later, the ‘Spice Island’ – famed for its nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, ginger and cloves – is still struggling to pull itself back together.
Most of the nutmeg trees which made Grenada the world’s second-largest producer, were uprooted by Ivan and although the cruise ships are returning with tourists, most of those who serve them have yet to rebuild their homes. “It’s been slow, slow going,” reports Michelle Gyles-McDonnough, Liaison Office Coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Barbados. “Technical capacity even before the hurricane was modest in most sectors, but now progress has been severely impacted. We have yet to rebuild certain basic systems to a degree that will allow us to move forward.”
Grenada's experience is mirrored in the city of Bam, Iran, as it struggles to recover from the 2003 earthquake. Both make clear that disaster recovery is a long term affair that needs sustained support from the international community.
The Context 
•	Grenada’s housing target is the reconstruction of 1,000 homes in 2005. As of March, only 23 homes had been rebuilt with government assistance, with another 50 under construction. It is estimated that some 10,000 homes will need to be constructed with public aid. 
•	With thousands of people traumatized by the disaster, the need to deal with the psychosocial dimension of this crisis has become an important element of the recovery process, which the government is trying to address by formulating a national wellness programme. 
•	Among positive developments, having received relatively high funding and attention from the international community, the education sector is on the road to recovery. All schools have reopened, although some are operating in shifts. Most buildings have made at least temporary repairs.
  
For further information 
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): 
Gerard Gomez, Regional Disaster Response Advisor (Panama), Tel. +507 317 1748, E-mail: gomezg@un.org; 
United Nations Development Programme(UNDP): 
Theo Gittens, Communications Officer (New York), Tel. + 1 212 906 5013, E-mail: thomas.gittens@undp.org; 
Michelle Gyles-McDonnough, Coordinator, UNDP Liaison Office, St. George's, Grenada, Tel: +473 439 5599, E-mail: michelle.gyles.mcdonnough@undp.org. 

Behind closed doors: Violence against women
Its statistics are alarming, the spread global, the human cost staggering, but the problem of gender-based violence often lacks the consistent media spotlight it warrants. 
The Story
 Violence against women and girls is a universal problem of epidemic proportions, but its human cost often remains invisible. At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. The abuser is usually someone known to the victim. 
In 2002, the Council of Europe declared violence against women a public health emergency and a major cause of death and disability for women 16 to 44 years of age. A World Bank report estimated that violence against women was as serious a cause of death and incapacity among women of reproductive age as cancer, and a greater cause of ill-health, than traffic accidents and malaria combined. A 2003 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the costs of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceed $5.8 billion per year: $4.1 billion in direct medical and health care services and almost $1.8 billion in productivity losses.
For the most part, the human cost of gender-based violence is invisible. Fear and shame continue to prevent many women from speaking out, and data collected is often insufficient and inconsistent. Even in countries that enjoy relative peace and prosperity, many women are living in a constant state of insecurity. 
The Context 
•	Violence against women occurs in all regions and countries and much of it is invisible. Police in countries around the world say that many rape victims do not report the crime. 
•	Often, countries reporting the incidence of violence are the ones doing the most to counter it. 
•	In the Dominican Republic, reports indicate that in cases of violence against women, the aggressors are partners or former partners of the victims in 40-68 per cent of the cases. In Georgia, it has been reported that 50% of families experience some form of domestic violence. In India, statistics indicate that 14 wives are murdered by their husbands’ family every day. 
•	According to a 2002 report by the World Health Organization, studies in Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa and the US have shown that 40-70 per cent of women who have been murdered were killed by their intimate partners, usually in the context of an abusive relationship. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that in the United Kingdom 40 per cent of female homicide victims are killed by their husbands or boyfriends. 
•	A study in Sweden found that 70 per cent of women had experienced some form of violence or sexual harassment. Statistics from the Netherlands show that about 200,000 women are subjected to violence each year by their intimate partners. 
•	It has been reported that 6 in 10 women in Botswana are victims of domestic violence, while in Moldova, 31 % of girls and young women (ages 16-19) are reported to have experienced sexual violence. 
For further information
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): 
Lucinda O’Hanlon, Assistant to the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Tel. +41 22 917 9615, E-mail: lohanlon@ohchr.org 
UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM): 
Nanette Braun, Communications Officer, Tel: +1 212 906 6829, E-mail: nanette.braun@undp.org; 
Leigh Pasqual, Media Officer, Tel: +1 212 906 5463, E-mail: leigh.pasqual@undp.org

A viable alternative: curbing illicit drugs through development 
Four million peasant farmers are harnessed by poverty and drug lords to the cultivation of coca leaf and opium poppy. Most would rather be doing something else. The UN is showing them a way out.
The Story
The fight against illicit drugs hardly lacks media spotlight, especially when authorities intercept a large shipment or arrest a drug kingpin. Far less visible – but no less important – are efforts to nip the blight in its bud, so to speak, by curbing the cultivation of illicit drug crops such as coca leaf and opium poppy, which often remain the sole source of income for an estimated four million desperately poor farmers worldwide. Enter “alternative development” -- a process that offers legal options to communities dependent on income from illicit activities. This is “the only way ahead to combat illicit activities from inside, working on farmers’ well-being rather than on their fears”, says Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Turkey and Thailand were the first countries in the world to succeed in the sustainable elimination of illicit opium cultivation, thanks to Government will and the provision of alternative livelihoods. The Thai Government worked closely with the UN on projects in the nation's highlands that offered poor ethnic minority villagers and farmers economic alternatives to drug crops. In Colombia, the UN agency teamed up with the Government and the supermarket giant Carrefour to wean farmers from illicit crops by assuring them of income from legal activities. Carrefour gives free space in its supermarkets to the produce from such projects and even buys the products at a loss during market downturns. In Laos, UNODC is helping the Government to meet a pledge to end opium cultivation by the end of this year, removing some five tons of heroin from the international drug market. For the world’s third highest illicit opium producing country, this is a steep challenge, but remarkable gains have already been made.
The Context
•	There are an estimated 4 million growers of illicit crops, most living below the poverty line, with roughly 50 per cent of their income realized through drug-crop cultivation. 
•	Experience has shown that, given alternative income options, farmers and their families are quick to abandon drug cultivation and embrace legitimate opportunities to make a living. 
•	Since 1974, Turkey has been free of illicit opium cultivation. Licit poppy cultivation is continuing, without diversions, to serve medical needs. 
•	Thailand has been opium free since 1993. In less than a decade, Laos and Myanmar have reduced opium production by 78 per cent. 
•	Colombia is the world’s leading supplier of coca/cocaine; in 2003, it produced 67 per cent of the global supply of cocaine. But it has decreased its coca cultivation by nearly 50 per cent, from 160,100 hectares in 1999 to 86,000 hectares in 2003. 
•	Goods produced as part of UNODC’s Colombian alternative development programme generated $2 million in 2004, with Carrefour accounting for over half of those sales. 
•	In Afghanistan, an alternative development project includes promotion of opportunities for self-employment and small-scale commercial enterprises, introduction of a rural credit system, and training programmes for women in basic family health and livestock production, but faces daily the challenge presented by continued instability and insecurity in many areas. 
For further information 
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: 
Colombia: 
César Guedes, Drug Control and Crime Prevention Officer (Vienna). Tel: +43 1 26060 5209, E-mail: cesar.guides@unodc.org; 
Sandro Calvani, Representative (Bógota), Tel: +57 1 619 8259, E-mail: sandro.calvani@unodc.org 
Afganistan: 
Miwa Kato, Programme Management Officer (Vienna), Tel: +43 1 26060 4498, E-mail: miwa.kato@unodc.org; 
Doris Buddenberg, Representative (Kabul), Tel: +93 70 27 9698, E-mail: doris.buddenberg@unodc.org 
Lao PDR: Mohamed Al-Mulla, Programme Management Officer, (Vienna), Tel: +43 1 26060 5404, E-mail: mohamed.al-mulla@unodc.org; 
Mr. Klaus Nyholm, Representative, (Vientiane), Tel: +856 21 42 3204, E-mail: klaus.nyholm@unodc.org

Environment and health: New insights into spread of infectious diseases
Scientists have offered the world another good reason to protect the environment. They have identified a loathsome catalogue of infectious diseases that have revived and thrived in places where natural habitats are altered or degraded by loggers, road and dam builders and urban encroachment.
The Story 
The impact of human activity on the environment takes numerous forms, many of them well publicized, but experts seem to have now identified another side effect of this interaction that has direct implications for people’s health. 
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) cautions that the loss of forests, road and dam building, the spread of cities, the clearing of natural habitats for agriculture and mining and the pollution of coastal waters are promoting conditions under which new and old pathogens -- bacteria, viruses and micro-organisms causing diseases -- can thrive. UNEP notes that intact habitats and landscapes tend to keep infectious agents in check, whereas damaged, altered and degraded ones shift the natural balance, thereby triggering the spread to people of new and existing diseases. UNEP also points to possible linkages with climate change which can alter temperatures to the advantage of carriers such as mosquitoes or stress the environment and alter habitats to such a degree that people migrate as “environmental refugees”. 
The World Health Organization has noted the appearance of at least 30 new diseases in the last two decades “to threaten the health of hundreds of millions of people.” 
The Context 
•	A team from Johns Hopkins University in the US found that even a 1 per cent increase in deforestation in Peru increases the number of malaria-bearing mosquitoes by 8 per cent. The study showed that the insects "ran wild" after 30 to 40 per cent of the forest was destroyed. Mosquitoes can transmit more than 100 viruses known to infect humans, including: dengue fever, yellow fever, and sometimes fatal encephalitis and haemorrhagic fever. 
•	Rapid, unplanned urbanization has been identified as the major driving force behind an explosion of dengue fever, from less than 1,000 cases per year in the 1950s to a situation in which some 2.5 million people are at risk today. 
•	The highly pathogenic Nipah virus, which was until recently found only in Asian fruit bats in Indonesia and Malaysia has been tied to forest loss. UNEP's Global Environment Outlook report observes that a combination of forest fires in Sumatra and deforestation in Malaysia forced the bats into closer contact with domestic pigs which gave the virus its chance to spread to pig farmers in the late 1990s. 
•	A study from gem-mining areas in Sri Lanka has shown that the shallow pits left behind by the miners are ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes and epicentres of malaria. 
•	In the United States, cases of the tick-borne Lyme disease in New York and Connecticut have surged as humans have moved into forested areas where tick-carrying deer thrive. 
For further information 
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): 
Eric Falt, Spokesman/Director, Division of Communications and Public Information, Tel: +254 20 623292, E-mail: eric.falt@unep.org; 
Nick Nuttall, Head of Media, Tel: +254 20 623084, E-mail: nick.nuttall@unep.org; 
Marion Cheatle, Officer in Charge, Division of Early Warning and Assessment, Tel: +254 20 623520, E-mail: marion.cheatle@unep.org