united nations

Starting a Historic Trip with the United Nations

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — For too long the people of the Great Lakes region of Africa have suffered from conflict and insecurity. We need to bring peace, security, and development to the region with great urgency to build on an 11-country peace framework arrangement. I am joining with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on a historic trip to the region — the first ever taken together to Africa by the heads of our organizations. Watch the video of my crossing the Congo River, from Brazzaville to Kinshasa, at the very beginning of the trip.

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Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the UN Forum on Forests. Photo courtesy of IISD/Earth Negotiations Bulletin United Nations events, usually crowded with diplomats and technocrats, aren’t normally those which raise a lot of emotion – though there have been exceptions. I remember in particular the admonition from a delegate of Papua New Guinea to the UNFCCC COP a couple of years ago that if the United States wasn’t going to lead on tackling climate change, then it should at least get out of the way. Or last year in Doha, when the delegate from the Philippines complained that "… as we vacillate and procrastinate here, the death toll is rising" from a recent typhoon in his country.

Yesterday, the 10th Session of the UN Forum on Forests opened with an especially heartfelt plea from Turkey’s prime minister that departed from the usual platitudes of global leaders when it comes to the environment.

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Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the UN Forum on Forests. Photo courtesy of IISD/Earth Negotiations Bulletin Genellikle diplomatların ve teknokratların doldurduğu Birleşmiş Milletler etkinlikleri, bazı istisnalar olsa da normal olarak çok fazla duygusal toplantılar değildir. Özellikle birkaç yıl önce UNFCC COP toplantısında Papua Yeni Gine temsilcisinin eğer Amerika Birleşik Devletleri iklim değişikliği ile mücadeleye önderlik etmeyecekse en azından yoldan çekilmesi gerektiği yönündeki uyarısını hatırlıyorum. Veya geçtiğimiz yıl Doha’da yapılan toplantıda Filipinler temsilcisinin ülkesinde kısa süre önce yaşanan tayfun ile ilgili olarak "… biz burada kararsızlık içinde beklerken ve oyalanırken ölü sayısı yükselmeye devam ediyor" şeklinde şikayet ettiğini hatırlıyorum.

Dün BM Orman Forumu 10. Oturumu Türkiye başbakanının çevre konusunda küresel liderlerin olağan klişelerinden farklı olarak içten bir çağrısı ile açıldı. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Forumu şu sözlerle açtı:
“Eğer üzerimize giydiğimiz elbise Bangladeş’te 5 yaşındaki bir çocuğun umutlarıyla dokunduysa, eğer aracımıza koyduğumuz benzin Libya’da bir masumun kanıyla karıştıysa, eğer çocuklarımıza verdiğimiz çikolata Afrika’nın nehirlerine zehir kattıysa, eğer üzerimize giydiğimiz palto bir hayvan türünün yok olmasına sebep olduysa, evimizdeki mobilya yağmur ormanlarını yağmaladıysa, bu döngüden, böyle bir küreselleşmeden, böyle bir ticaretten rahatsız olmak, bunu derinlemesine sorgulamak ve buna çareler üretmek zorundayız…

MADRID -- One thousand days. That's all we have left to meet the Millennium Development Goals, a series of commitments to improve the lives of families in the developing world. I was just in Madrid to attend the United Nations' Chief Executives Board -- the heads of the UN agencies -- and we talked about the importance of setting targets to spur urgent action. Watch the video blog below to learn more.

Flags at the United Nations. UN Photos

This morning, I had the honor of speaking to the UN Security Council about an increasingly dangerous threat facing cities and countries around the world, a threat that, more and more, is influencing everything that they and we do: climate change.

World Bank President Jim Kim is in Russia right now talking with G20 finance ministers about the same thing – the need to combat climate change. Every day, we’re hearing growing concerns from leaders around the world about climate change and its impact.

If we needed any reminder of the immediacy and the urgency of the situation, Australia Foreign Minister Bob Carr and our good friend President Tong of Kiribati spoke by video of the security implication of climate effects on the Pacific region.

On Tuesday I traveled to the United Nations to talk to UNICEF's Executive Board and also to meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on moving forward with the important work that we do together. These meetings are key to delivering results because our UN colleagues and we are committed to working closely together. Making that happen requires many things, including a big dose of humility. Please watch the video for more on this.

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UNITED NATIONS | It has been a week of inspiring ideas and action plans at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. I met with a number of world leaders, including Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. We talked about the importance of creating jobs for ex-combatants, the pressing need for more energy sources, and more. You can hear my thoughts on our meeting in the video below.

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It’s not every day that you see a video in the back of a New York City taxicab asking people to tweet about ending global poverty. Though the most recent data tell us that global poverty has been declining, it’s shocking that some 1.3 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day.

That's half the amount of the base fare of a taxicab ride in Manhattan. It's not right.

The taxicab video, which is airing this week during the UN General Assembly, is part of a new conversation we’ve launched at the World Bank. We’re asking a simple question: What will it take to end poverty?

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คงไม่ใช่ทุกวันที่คุณจะได้เห็นวีดีโอที่หลังรถแท็กซี่ในนครนิวยอร์กขอให้พวกเราทวีตเกี่ยวกับการกำจัดความยากจนทั่วโลก แม้ว่าข้อมูลล่าสุดจะระบุว่าความยากจนทั่วโลกกำลังลดลง แต่ก็ยังเป็นที่น่าตกใจที่คนประมาณ 1,300 ล้านคนทั่วโลกยังชีพด้วยเงินน้อยกว่า 1.25 เหรียญสหรัฐต่อวัน

เงินจำนวนเท่านี้เป็นเพียงแค่ครึ่งหนึ่งของค่าโดยสารแท็กซี่ขั้นต่ำในเมืองแมนฮัตตัน ในนครนิวยอร์ค นั่นไม่ถูกต้องแล้ว

วีดีโอได้เผยแพร่บนรถแท็กซี่ระหว่างที่มีการประชุมสมัชชาสหประชาชาติในสัปดาห์นี้ และเป็นส่วนหนึ่งของบทสนทนาใหม่ที่เราได้เริ่มขึ้นที่ธนาคารโลก เรากำลังถามคำถามง่าย ๆ ว่า จะทำอย่างไรเพื่อกำจัดความยากจนให้หมดไป

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Chẳng phải ngày nào bạn cũng nhìn thấy một đoạn video chiếu đằng sau xe taxi ở thành phố New York đề nghị mọi người viết lên Twitter về việc chấm dứt đói nghèo trên toàn cầu. Mặc dù những số liệu mới nhất cho thấy đói nghèo toàn cầu đã và đang giảm dần, nhưng thật sốc khi biết rằng khoảng 1,3 tỉ người vẫn đang sống dưới mức 1,25 đô la Mỹ/ngày.

Số tiền đó chỉ bằng một nửa tiền mở cửa xe của một chuyến taxi ở Manhattan. Điều đó thật khó chấp nhận được.

Video trên taxi đang được trình chiếu trong tuần này khi mà cuộc họp đại hội đồng Liên Hiệp Quốc đang diễn ra, là một phần của cuộc đối thoại mới mà Ngân hàng Thế giới vừa khởi động. Chúng tôi chỉ đặt một câu hỏi rất đơn giản: Phải làm gì để chấm dứt đói nghèo?