UN reported: news on the United Nations system at work.

Can This Disaster Be Averted?

On 1 July, the World Food Programme (WFP) launched massive appeal to provide emergency food relief to six countries in southern Africa where a severe food crisis is affecting nearly 13 million people. It asked for $507 million to fund an operation that will feed 10.2 million people until the next main harvest in March 2003. "Southern Africa is already facing an extremely severe crisis, which will only worsen in the coming months", said James Morris, WFP Executive Director. The current emergency, caused by drought, lack of seed and fertilizer, cattle disease and inadequate access to markets and health services, is exacerbated by huge HIV/AIDS infection rates in an area where people are already mired in chronic poverty.

Data on More Affordable AIDS Drugs

Less than 5 per cent of the world's 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS can afford AIDS treatment. Most of the developing countries lack access to even the basic drugs needed to treat minor ailments. Often, essential drugs, including painkillers, antibiotics and tuberculosis drugs, are in desperately short supply. Even with significant recent reductions in the prices of anti-AIDS drugs, high prices prevent many from buying enough medicines.

Aiming to close the AIDS treatment and information gap in the developing world, a new United Nations survey helps poor countries track HIV medicines, testing kits and suppliers, and provide information on cheaper alternatives and appropriate suppliers for these drugs. Over 120 pharmaceutical products are covered in the updated "Sources and Prices of Selected Drugs and Diagnostics for People Living with HIV/AIDS", released by the UN Children's Fund, UNAIDS, the World Health Organization and Medecins Sans Frontieres. In addition to listing anti-retroviral medicines, it provides information on drugs used to treat a range of opportunistic infections and for pain relief, as well as for use in palliative care, treatment of HIV/AIDS-related cancers, and management of drug dependence.

Dust to Dust, to Hope

This year, dust from China reached North America, disrupting air travel and causing health problems. Land degradation, often considered a local issue, is now blowing across national boundaries and having an international impact. Dust storms are increasing, affecting areas that had previously never been thought of as having a problem. It affects as much as two thirds of the world's agricultural land, according to the UN Environment Programme, and causes the loss of 10 million hectares of arable land every year. Desertification is a main focus at the Johannesburg Summit. In the words of Hama Arba Diallo, Executive Secretary of the Convention to Combat Desertification, "dealing with land degradation can lead to win-win scenarios".

Empowered Women Reduce Hunger

"We will not reduce hunger unless we reduce poverty, and we will not reduce poverty unless we empower women and unleash their full potential as agents of social and economic progress and sustainable development." That was the statement made at the World Food Summit: five years later by Kunio Waki, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. Many small-scale food producers and a disproportionate number of the world's poor are women, he said. Providing them with access to credit, markets, technical advice, education and health care could improve the food supply of the world's poorest, Mr. Waki continued. Enforcing women's rights to own and inherit land could also help them escape poverty.

Waste Transformed into Income

Families in five communities in Dhaka, Bangladesh are turning household waste into cold hard cash. Using home composting kits designed in Sri Lanka and distributed through an initiative supported by the UN Development Programme, more than 1,800 families in poor areas of the country's capital are converting kitchen scraps to compost, which is then sold to increase their incomes. Scraps previously dumped in the street, where they were left to rot, are now placed in a barrel punctured with tiny holes to allow for air flow. The waste transforms into compost after three months, when it is removed from a small door at the base of the barrel. The compost collected from these families is regularly sold to a national fertilizer company.

Global Summary of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic as of 2001


People living with HIV/AIDS  Total                      40 million
                             Adults                   37.1 million
                               Women                  18.5 million
                             Children under 15 years     3 million

People newly infected        Total                       5 million
with HIV in 2001             Adults                    4.2 million
                               Women                     2 million
                             Children under 15 years       800,000

AIDS deaths in 2001          Total                       3 million
                             Adults                    2.4 million
                               Women                  1.1 milliion
                             Children under 15 years       580,000