6. New Resources

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2006, UNDP, 9 November 2006, 440 pages. Subtitle: Beyond scarcity: Power, Poverty, and the global water crisis. "In a world of unprecedented wealth, almost 2 million children die each year for want of a glass of clean water and adequate sanitation. Millions of women and young girls are forced to spend hours collecting and carrying water, restricting their opportunities and their choices. And water-borne infectious diseases are holding back poverty reduction and economic growth in some of the world’s poorest countries."

LIVING PLANET REPORT 2006, WWF, 2006, 44 pages. "The Living Planet Report is WWF's periodic update on the state of the world's ecosystems. It describes the changing state of global biodiversity and the pressure on the biosphere arising from human consumption of natural resources. It is built around two indicators: the Living Planet Index, which reflects the health of the planet’s ecosystems; and the Ecological Footprint, which shows the extent of human demand on these ecosystems. These measures are tracked over several decades to reveal past trends, then three scenarios explore what might lie ahead. The scenarios show how the choices we make might lead to a sustainable society living in harmony with robust ecosystems, or to the collapse of these same ecosystems, resulting in a permanent loss of biodiversity and erosion of the planet’s ability to support people."

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS: GLOBAL PATTERNS, UNODC, October 2006, 128 pages. "This United Nations report shows that virtually no country in the world is unaffected by the crime of human trafficking for sexual exploitation or forced labour. It underlines that global efforts to combat trafficking are being hampered by a lack of accurate data, reflecting the unwillingness of some countries to acknowledge that the problem affects them."

ISLAMIC DEVELOPMENT BANK REPORT 2005-2006. Islamic Development Bank (IDB), 2006, 171 pages. "The Annual Report highlights new policy initiatives launched by the Bank and presents an annual review of the operational activities and financial performance during 1426H (2005-2006). Major developments in the world economy and recent economic performance of member countries provide the setting for the IDB Group to achieve its strategic objectives; namely, poverty alleviation, promotion of economic cooperation and Islamic finance. The Annual Report, 1426H consists of six chapters covering these strategic objectives and begins by examining economic performance and major developments affecting member countries. It then turns to presenting role of IDB Group in fostering economic development, forging intra-trade and economic cooperation, enhancing the role of Islamic finance, investing in human capital, achieving institutional effectiveness, and financial results."

SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION GUIDE FOR YOUTH, Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention (C2P2), 2006, 40 pages. "C2P2, through the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, has developed a booklet for youth on the topic of sustainable consumption. Sustainable consumption is about making smart choices that meet consumer needs in less material and pollution intensive ways. This emerging global issue is being addressed by industry, governments and the public in local, national and international forums. The booklet has been compiled specifically for youth between 14 and 18 years old. It in entitled "Consume This – Buying That Matters" and can be downloaded free of charge from www.c2p2online.com/youth. The information and resources provided in the booklet help to raise awareness among youth about the effects that their choices have on the environment. By illustrating simple ways to reduce personal environmental impacts the booklet empowers youth to participate in sustainable consumption activities in their own lives and in their communities. It also provides a strong foundation for considering smart choices as buying power of youth increases."

CATHERINE OF SIENA VIRTUAL COLLEGE. Catherine of Siena Educational Trust, UK. "The Catherine of Siena Virtual College aims at reaching out to these groups: 1. Women university and college students in developing countries who have no access to good feminist courses. By enrolling in our courses, they will benefit from the best international scholarship while receiving academic credit for such studies. 2. Women training for leadership roles in Christian Churches, such as parish ministers, women religious, women teachers, etc. who would profit from studying the specific female angle of belief and ministry. 3. Women in later life with access to the internet who want to update themselves on the latest research and thinking on issues that affect women. 4. Lecturers, teachers and other men who want to equip themselves for better service to their female parishioners and students."

WORLDWIDE PRESS FREEDOM INDEX 2006, Reporters Without Borders, 23 October 2006. "New countries have moved ahead of some Western democracies in the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, .... while the most repressive countries are still the same ones. North Korea, Turkmenistan, Eritrea the worst violators of press freedom. France, the United States and Japan slip further. Mauritania and Haiti gain much ground."

2006 Professional Forresters' Resource Guide. "The 2006 Professional Resource Guide will help you locate everything you need in products and services in forestry and natural resources, whether you are out in the field or inside the office. This year the online Professional Resource Guide is searchable - search for companies based on geographic location, name, or category or view the entire guide. If your company or organization would like to be listed in the Professional Resource Guide, please contact Claire E. Dougherty, Society of American Foresters, claired@safnet.org or safweb@safnet.org."

GEO YEAR BOOK 2006. "The GEO (Global Environment Outlook) Year Book 2006 is the third annual survey of the changing global environment produced by the United Nations Environment Programme, in collaboration with many world experts in environmental research and action. The Year Book includes global and regional overviews. It highlights the linkages between environmental well-being, vulnerability and poverty; records recent findings on the value of ecosystem services; and describes new research findings on polar and ocean changes that may prove a turning point in the urgency of our awareness and response to global change."

GLOBAL EMPLOYMENT TRENDS FOR YOUTH, ILO, 2006. "This report adds to growing evidence of a global situation in which young people face increasing difficulties when entering the labour force. One of the principal findings is that a global deficit of decent work opportunities has resulted in a situation in which one out of every three youth in the world is either seeking but unable to find work, has given up the job search entirely or is working but still living below the US $2 a day poverty line. Without the right foothold from which to start out right in the labour market, young people are less able to make choices that will improve their own job prospects and those of their future dependents. This, in turn, perpetuates the cycle of insufficient education, low-productivity employment and working poverty from one generation to the next. The report, therefore, adds urgency to the UN call for development of strategies aimed to give young people a chance to make the most of their productive potential through decent employment. This report provides empirical research as well as quantitative assessments of the realities of youth labour markets to build an analytical starting block from which countries can identify the main challenges facing youth for the process of designing the policies most suited to their particular situations."

STERN REVIEW ON THE ECONOMICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, HM Treasury, UK, 30 October 2006, 700 pages. "The most comprehensive review ever carried out on the economics of climate change.... It has been carried out by Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the Government Economic Service and former World Bank Chief Economist. Sir Nicholas said today: "The conclusion of the Review is essentially optimistic. There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we act now and act internationally. Governments, businesses and individuals all need to work together to respond to the challenge. Strong, deliberate policy choices by governments are essential to motivate change. But the task is urgent. Delaying action, even by a decade or two, will take us into dangerous territory. We must not let this window of opportunity close." The Executive Summary, and the entire report, can be downloaded from the Index Page.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH WORLD REPORT 2006, Human Rights Watch, 2006, 544 pages. "This report 2006 contains information on human rights developments in more than 60 countries in 2005 ... "Practice what I preach, not what I do" is never terribly persuasive. Yet the U.S. government has been increasingly reduced to that argument in promoting human rights. Some U.S. allies, especially Britain, are moving in the same disturbing direction, while few other powers are stepping in to fill the breach.... This hypocrisy factor is today a serious threat to the global defense of human rights."

WORLD HEALTH REPORT 2006, World Health Organization, 2006. "This report contains an expert assessment of the current crisis in the global health workforce and ambitious proposals to tackle it over the next ten years, starting immediately. The report reveals an estimated shortage of almost 4.3 million doctors, midwives, nurses and support workers worldwide."

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2006, Amnesty International, 2006. "During 2005 some of the world’s most powerful governments were successfully challenged, their hypocrisy exposed by the media, their arguments rejected by courts of law, their repressive tactics resisted by human rights activists. After five years of backlash against human rights in the "war on terror", the tide appeared to be turning."

G8 PROMISE TO AFRICA DATA REPORT 2006, Debt AIDS Trade Africa (DATA), 2006. "The G8 strode forward down the promised path on debt, but have shuffled with a halting half-pace on aid, while falling backwards on trade. The campaigners around the world who got the G8 close to the right path in the first place must now encourage them to accelerate down it. After a slow start in 2005 a faster pace is now needed or the G8 Africa targets will be missed."

HUNGER REPORT 2006, Bread for the World Institute, 2006, 5 pages. "HUNGER 2006 has a powerful, yet simple core message. By strengthening nutrition assistance, we can achieve immediate progress against hunger. That goes for right here in the United States as well as elsewhere. There is simply no better way to make rapid progress in reducing hunger than by providing direct nutrition assistance to vulnerable groups like pregnant women and children, people stricken with diseases, and the elderly."

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS REPORT 2006, United Nations, July 2006, 32 pages. "This report shows that some progress has been made. This should provide the incentive to keep moving forward. But .... there is still a long way to go to keep our promises to current and future generations."

TRENDS IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 2006, United Nations, April 2006, 33 pages. "At the political level sustainable development has grown from being a movement mostly focusing on environmental concerns to a widely recognized framework utilized by individuals, governments, corporations and civil society that attempts to balance economic, social, environmental and generational concerns in decision-making and actions at all levels...."

WORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS 2006, World Bank, April 2006, 240 pages. This "is the World Bank's premier annual compilation of data about development. The 2006 WDI includes more than 900 indicators in over 80 tables organized in 6 sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links."

GLOBAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REPORT 2005-2006, World Economic Forum, 2006, 293 pages. This report "uses the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), covering a total of 115 economies in 2005-2006, to measure the degree of preparation of a nation or community to participate in and benefit from ICT developments."

BRIBE PAYERS INDEX (BPI), Transparency International, Berlin/Brussels, 4 October 2006. "Overseas bribery by companies from the world’s export giants is still common, despite the existence of international anti-bribery laws criminalising this practice, according to the Transparency International 2006 Bribe Payers Index (BPI)."