Posted on

Resource-rich Africa Well Placed to Transition to ‘Green Economy’ – UN official

Windmills along the coast of Tunisia, (picture-alliance/dpa)

28 March 2011 –Africa is well poised to take advantage of a host of opportunities on the continent for building a ‘green economy,’ one that generates decent jobs in an environmentally sustainable way, a senior United Nations official said today.

“This continent is in many ways the envy of the 21st century world,” Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told African ministers of finance, planning and economic development gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“Africa is rich in the kinds of natural resources that in many parts of the world have been over-exploited and diminished by centuries of unsustainable development,” he stated.

This includes not just precious and semi-precious metals, but also nature-based resources such as forests and biodiversity, which support tourism and could also underpin inventions and pharmaceutical breakthroughs.

At the same time, many parts of the continent are rich in so-called natural fuels such as wind, solar and geothermal.

“The fundamental question,” said Mr. Steiner, “is how will all this potential be harvested for the benefit of Africa’s citizens and in a way that promotes stability in Africa and beyond.”

He noted that the green economy is not a substitute for sustainable development, but a way of realizing it. “It is as relevant to developing economies and it is to developed ones; it is as central to more state-led economies as it is to more market-led ones. It is not a straitjacket, nor is it prescriptive.”

In February UNEP released a report outlining how investing 2 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 10 sectors can catalyze the transition to a green economy.

It also provided a global compilation of case studies from across the globe, including Africa, where forward-looking policies by governments are “watering the green shoots” of the global green economy.

One example is South Africa, whose Green Economy Plan focuses on investments that create more decent jobs, and where nearly $1 billion is being spent on railways, energy-efficient buildings, and water and waste management.

He also highlighted Kenya’s new green energy policy, including a feed-in tariff and 15-year power purchase agreement, which is catalyzing an initial target of 500 megawatts of energy from geothermal, wind and sugar wastes systems.

Later this week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit Kenya’s main geothermal sites, located north-west of Nairobi, to learn first-hand how these developments have been achieved, as well as how they are set to generate thousands of new jobs in the clean energy sector while reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels.

“The rest of the world can learn from Africa, but Africa can also learn from other continents,” said Mr. Steiner.

He added that the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development, set to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 – 20 years after the Earth Summit of 1992, could prove to be one of the most transformative moments in international affairs.

“In 1992, we could only perhaps glimpse the scale some of the challenges emerging on the radar from climate change and the loss of healthy, productive cropland,” he noted.

“But in the world of the here and now, many of those challenges have become all too real. There is an urgency to swiftly and decisively evolve the sustainable development agenda onto a far more focused and far reaching level.”

He said that the question now emerging is not whether a green economy is desirable but how to realize a green economy in practical terms.

“Rio+20 offers an opportunity to accelerate and scale-up transitions, already under way across this region and indeed across the world in order to catalyze growth and employment opportunities for around nine billion people by 2050,” he stated. “But in a way that also maintains and enhances the regional and global planetary services that underpin wealth generation in the first place.

“Africa’s experience on what has worked and what has not worked over the past two decades offers an invaluable foundation upon which a transformational outcome next year can be built.”

UN News Center
Share
Posted on

A Green Economy Statement by Achim Steiner to African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development

Delivered at the 2011 Joint Annual Meetings of African Union Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and the Economics Commission for Africa Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development

28 March 2011- Addis Ababa, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We meet some 13 months before what could prove to be one of the most transformative moments in international affairs.

Nearly 20 years after the Earth Summit of 1992-which established much of the sustainable development of the intervening years-nations are again traveling on the Road to Rio for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development 2012-or Rio+20.

In 1992, we could only perhaps glimpse the scale some of the challenges emerging on the radar from climate change and the loss of healthy, productive cropland.

But in the world of the here and now, many of those challenges have become all too real-there is an urgency to swiftly and decisively evolve the sustainable development agenda onto a far more focused and far reaching level.

There is now an essential need to implement the vision of 1992.

Two themes have been agreed in order to achieve that.

A Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication.

An International Framework for Sustainable Development.

What do they mean for the world and what do they mean for Africa in particular?

To my mind they could mean quite a lot if the countries of this Continent decide to fully engage on these twin agendas and through the numerous preparatory meetings of the coming months and year.

On the one hand the nations of this Continent face the same challenge that now faces every country on Earth.

How to grow and how to generate good and decent jobs, but in a way that does not push humanity’s footprint beyond planetary boundaries.

But Africa has many challenges and opportunities that are unique.

While not diminishing the challenges, let me set aside these issues as they are well known and familiar to everyone in this room.

Let me instead dwell on the opportunities.

Firstly, this Continent is in many ways the envy of the 21st century world.

Africa is rich in the kinds of natural resources that in many parts of the world have been over-exploited and diminished by centuries of unsustainable development.

Many rapidly developing economies are also finding scarcities are now emerging too.

I am not just referring to precious and semi-precious metals.

But also nature-based resources such as forests and biodiversity-biodiversity that underpins tourism, but which will also underpin the inventions and pharmaceutical breakthroughs of the emerging biological age.

Land too, which as we know, is increasingly attracting investors from overseas for growing crops to feed their growing and more affluent populations.

Meanwhile, many parts of this Continent are rich in what one might term natural fuels-wind, solar, geothermal; hydro both large and small and perhaps soon the possibility of wave energy.

Meanwhile Africa is now undergoing some of the fastest-if not the fastest-urbanization rates in the world and in many places and in many ways almost from scratch.

I could go on. But the fundamental question is how will all this potential be harvested for the benefit of Africa’s citizens and in a way that promotes stability in Africa and beyond.

In an economic mode of the 20th century-or in a way that maximizes the true value of these resources.

In a way that weighs all the economic, social and environmental options rather than just one or two-

Will Africa’s forests be exported as logs to overseas buyers?or will they be managed in ways that reflect not only their commodity value but their multi-trillion dollar services they provide for the Continent but also the world?

Will the urbanization of Africa leapfrog the unsustainable paths of Europe, the United States or the development paradigms of many rapidly emerging economies in Asia or Latin America?

Because the fact is that in many parts of the world, countries will have to re-build and retrofit sustainability into their economies if sustainable development is to be realized.

Whereas in Africa you have the chance to build it up and build it into your growth early on.

Honorable delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

UNEP’s work on the Green Economy and now the work of many organizations and institutions world-wide have gone from theory to the potential for a new development reality in just two to three years.

It is not a substitute for sustainable development, but a way of realizing it.

It is as relevant to developing economies and it is to developed ones: it is as central to more state-led economies as it is to more market-led ones.

It is not a straight-jacket, nor is it prescriptive.

The Green Economy is about shaping public policy including market mechanisms and fiscal strategies in a way that unleashes the private sector into a more meaningful notion of wealth creation that achieves the aims outlined above.

Our report-Towards a Green Economy-which was presented to environment ministers attending UNEP’s Governing Council in Nairobi in February, outlined how investing 2 per cent of global GDP in 10 sectors can catalyze that transition.

It also provided a global compilation of case studies from across the globe, including Africa, where forward-looking policies by governments are watering the green shoots of that Green Economy everywhere.

  • Uganda – policies to promote organic agriculture have generated 200,000 certified farmers and exports growing from close to $4 million in 2003 to nearly $23 million now
  • Rwanda’s initiative on forest ecosystem restoration is another landmark in the shift
  • The Democratic Republic of Congo’s accessing of the emerging potential under the UN’s Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (UN-REDD) is another.
  • The solar power partnership between countries in North Africa and European companies under Desertech promises to be transformational.
  • South Africa’s Green Economy Plan with a primary focus on investments that create more decent jobs, and related to this, investments in infrastructure-nearly $ 1 billion is being spent in railways, energy efficient buildings, and water and waste management..
  • Kenya – its new green energy policy, including a Feed-In Tariff and 15 year power purchase agreement, is catalyzing an initial target of 500MW of geothermal, wind and sugar wastes-into-energy systems: a rise in the country’s installed capacity of over 40 per cent.

Indeed later this week UN Secretary-General Ban ki-moon will visit Kenya’s main geothermal sites north west of Nairobi to learn at first hand how these developments have been achieved.

And how they are also set to generate thousands of new jobs in the clean tech, clean energy sector while reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels.

UNEP is in discussions as to how to integrate and computerize all these different renewable energy components in order to maximize efficiencies in the evolving Kenyan grid and in ways that may also benefit the planned East African Power Pool.

The rest of the world can learn from Africa, but Africa can also learn from other Continents.

Currently only 25 per cent of the world’s waste is reused or recycled-a waste of raw materials and a waste of opportunities for transforming hazardous, informal jobs into decent, formal ones.

  • The Republic of Korea has, through a policy of Extended Producer Responsibility, enforced regulations on products such as batteries and tyres to packaging like glass and paper, triggering a 14 per cent increase in recycling rates and an economic benefit of $1.6 billion
  • Brazil’s recycling already generates returns of $2 billion a year, while avoiding 10 million tones of greenhouse gas emissions; a fully recycling economy there would be worth 0.3 per cent of GDP

Ladies and gentlemen,

As we head down this Road to Rio, the question now emerging is not whether a Green Economy is desirable but how to realize a Green Economy in practical terms.

Firstly, all countries are at different points in their development path and with different mixes of sectors.

How you realize a Green Economy in say Nigeria or Mauritania will no doubt be different in say South Africa, Sudan or Gabon.

Secondly, it is loud and it is clear that good public policy is central and that the cross fertilization of experience and directions already being implemented in and outside Africa are invaluable.

Third, directing domestic investment flows into sustainable wealth generation that reflects national circumstances, deals with multiple challenges and realities and maximizes multiple opportunities is key.

Fourth-the role of the international lending and financing institutions, from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to regional development banks and bilateral assistance flows, need to support national transitions to a Green Economy.

Rio+20 offers an opportunity to accelerate and scale-up transitions, already underway across this region and indeed across the world in order to catalyze growth and employment opportunities for around nine billion people by 2050.

But in a way that also maintains and enhances the regional and global planetary services that underpin wealth generation in the first place.

Africa’s experience on what has worked and what has not worked over the past two decades offers an invaluable foundation upon which a transformational outcome next year can be built.

Africa’s determination to adopt a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy development path can also inspire others to take the kinds of next steps that can ensure that both poverty eradication and wealth generation happens faster for those that need it most.

Africa’s decision to engage fully on the Road to Rio will make it an equal partner in a new era where sustainability, equity and fairness win out over instability, imbalance and the interests of the few over the many.

Indeed investing analytical and political capital in this process may be one of the best investments that you as ministers could make in Africa’s future.

It may well define Africa’s strategy for new kinds of wealth generation that in turn may define a new and more sophisticated era of trade and cooperation with the rest of the world and a fast track to prosperity for many if not all of this Continent’s citizens.

United Nations Environment Programme
Share
Posted on

Why S/he Is Not All That Into You

You tried every trick your Mom taught you. You’ve practiced every skill you learnt from your room-mates in college but this girl is not budging. The guy doesn’t just seem to notice you. Well, before you take it personal, you may have to read a new scientific discovery that may be responsible for your situation.

Scientists have identified a chemical in the brain that controls sexual preference in mice. The chemical is called Serotonin. Researchers in China report that Male mice bred without serotonin lose their preference for females.

Serotonin belongs to a group of compounds called neurotransmitters, which are chemical substances that carry impulses from one nerve cell to another. It is the first time a neurotransmitter has been credited with playing a role in sexual preference in mammals, the scientists claim. The report is available in the Journal Nature.

Now Summary of the experiments:

The scientist bred male mice whose brains were not receptive to serotonin. They also had control mice that were not modified and have the brains receptive to serotonin.

They conducted a series of experiments on the two group of mice. The results undeniably showed that the first group had lost the preference for females shown by unmodified males.

When presented with a choice of partners, they could not show any preference for either males or females.

In fact the modified males were as ready to mount on the fellow males and mate with them as they do to female mice. When serotonin was later injected into the brain of mice which lacked the tryptonphan hydroxylase-2 gene (a gene needed to produce serotonin), their preference for the girl mice was restored. They were now chasing and working hard to mount on the females and mate with them.

You’ve tried the valentine day teddy bear thing, the birth card with red arrows, and the invitation to youth program at church but none of these worked. But you think you’re hot and, in fact, people say you’re hot. It may be a good idea not to take it personal but attribute it to the lack of Serotonin in his or her brain. Doesn’t that make you feel good?

Disclaimer: This is a high level scientific discovery but I have tried to simplify the report for your comprehension. Please note that there are dangers in drawing conclusions about human sexuality from such a study. It is provided for your information only.
Share
Posted on

In Africa, 10% of Pregnancies Experience Pre-eclampsia, But New Findings Bring Hope

In African, pre-eclampsia occurs in 10% of pregnancies

Scientists say they have identified genetic errors that appear to increase a pregnant woman’s chance of getting the condition called pre-eclampsia.

Pre-eclampsia is an abnormal state of pregnancy characterized by hypertension, fluid retention and albuminuria. If not detected and managed early it can be potentially life-threatening.

Approximately four in every 100 women develops this problem of high blood pressure and leaky kidneys during pregnancy. Black women are more likely to get high blood pressure and preeclampsia than white women. In African, pre-eclampsia occurs in 10% of pregnancies, which is significantly higher than the global average of approximately 4%.

Now researchers have found a faulty DNA which may be blamed in some cases. The report is presented in the journal PLoS Medicine. It is a discovery that could lead the way to identify and treat women at risk before it becomes life-threatening.

The US researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis analyzed DNA from over 300 pregnant women.

Sixty of these were healthy women but were hospitalized because they developed severe pre-eclampsia. The remaining 240 were women were under surveillance for other health complications. Forty of these also went on to develop pre-eclampsia.

Researchers analyzed the DNA from the subjects and found that some genetic errors were shared by five of the 60 healthy women and seven of the 40 “higher-risk pregnancy” women who developed pre-eclampsia.

The faulty DNA were located on genes that play a role in regulating immune response, confirming the suspicion that scientists had that pre-eclampsia could be provoked by hitches in the immune response. Generally, women with autoimmune diseases such as lupus have an increased risk of pre-eclampsia

The researchers plan to study more pregnant women and other genes to further their understanding.

Currently, the best way to stop the progress of pre-eclampsia is to deliver the baby. This contributes to the statistics of pre-mature babies who are at increased risks of several complications.

Further studies into these faulty genes may help to establish a protocol to identify women at increased risk of pre-eclampsia and put them on increased surveillance as early as possible in their pregnancy.

In communities where access to medical services is limited or unaffordable such as common in most African countries, these findings reveal promising potential for women in their pregnancies.

Share
Posted on

Canadians Make Malaria Breakthrough

Mother and daughter sleep under mosquito net to prevent bites from the parasite carrying mosquito

Lana Haight, Postmedia News

SASKATOON — Scientists in Saskatoon have developed an inexpensive malaria treatment that will help the million people who die every year from the infection.

“This is the most important drug in the treatment of malaria today. The World Health Organization says it should be the first line of defence,” said Patrick Covello, a senior research officer at the National Research Council in Saskatoon.

Covello and his team figured out a way to produce a difficult-to-cultivate chemical needed to build effective malaria drugs.

The breakthrough was announced Friday at the National Research Council Plant Biotechnology Institute.

The best drugs available to fight malaria are made with artemisinin, a compound derived from the sweet wormwood plant found in parts of Asia and Africa. But cultivating and harvesting the plant and then extracting artemisinin is time-consuming and labour intensive, says Covello. And the supply of the natural compound is also dependent on weather and growing conditions.

In 2003, Covello began work to identify the genes in the wormwood plant that produce the protein that leads to artemisinin.

“We identified four genes in what we call the pathway to artemisinin in the plant,” he said in an interview.

Meanwhile, University of California at Berkley researchers found they could develop a precusor to artemisinin by introducing chemicals into yeast.

Covello contacted Amyris Technologies, a spinoff company from the Berkeley research group, to suggest it use the genes his group had identified in the wormwood plant. When two of the genes identified in Saskatoon were introduced to the yeast compound developed at Berkeley, the production of artemisinin doubled.

The Institute for OneWorld Health, the American-based organization that has led the project to develop the semi-synthetic artemisinin, and pharmaceutical company Sanofi-aventis jointly announced on Friday that the drug company is preparing to ramp up production using the genes identified in Saskatoon.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has already contributed $42.6 million toward the American research, is also supporting the production of the drug to ensure it will be available on a not-for-profit basis for the developing world.

“The idea is to provide the developing world with antimalarial drugs at the lowest possible cost and, in addition, to provide a very stable supply because this yeast-fermentation process is shorter term and more reliable than growing the plants themselves,” said Covello.

Covello understands that Sanofi-aventis will begin commercial-scale production in 2012.

The federal government has spent $869,000 over eight years to support the Saskatoon research.

“Our government is committed to improving the health of women and children in developing countries,” said Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology, in a government news release.

“This new development in the production of a malaria treatment represents a major development in the fight against the disease. It will strengthen Canada’s position as a world leader in health research and provide a reliable and affordable solution.”

The Vancouver Sun
Share
Posted on

The Square Kilometre Array Belongs in Africa

Rod Marcel

Dear Readers,

Africa is bidding to host the world’s most powerful radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). When constructed, in 2025, it will have 50 times greater sensitivity than any other radio telescope on Earth. The SKA will probe the edges of our universe, even before the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang. This telescope will contribute to answering fundamental questions in astronomy, physics and cosmology, including the nature of dark energy and dark matter.

South Africa is leading the African bid and has already legislated to create 12.5 million hectares of protected area – or radio astronomy reserve. This area is also referred to as the Karoo Central Astronomy Advantage Area, offering low levels of radio frequency interference, very little light pollution, basic infrastructure of roads, electricity and communication.

The human story began in Africa and it can also be the place where we find answers to the story of our universe. Please help us bring the SKA project to Africa by informing the readers of Talk Afrique about the project and the advantages of the South African SKA bid. I’ve created a comprehensive resource that you’re welcome to explore and borrow from:

http://skaafrica.com

Please let me know if you have any questions or need more information.

Thank you,

Rod

—
Rod Marcel
rod@skaafrica.com
www.skaafrica.com

Share
Posted on

Early Humans Began in Southern Africa, Study Suggests

By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News

Modern humans may have originated from southern Africa, an extensive genetic study has suggested.

Data showed that hunter-gatherer populations in the region had the greatest degree of genetic diversity, which is an indicator of longevity.

It says that the region was probably the best location for the origin of modern humans, challenging the view that we came from eastern Africa.

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Hunter-gatherer groups in southern Africa were among the most genetically diverse populations

“Africa is inferred to be the continent of origin for all modern human populations,” the international team of researchers wrote.

“But the details of human prehistory and evolution in Africa remain largely obscure owing to the complex histories of hundreds of distinct populations.”

‘Very exciting’

Co-author Brenna Henn, from Stanford University, California, said the team’s study – the most comprehensive of its kind – reached two main conclusions.

“One is that there is an enormous amount of diversity in African hunter-gatherer populations, even more diversity than there is in agriculturalist populations,” she told BBC News.

This is a landmark study, with far more extensive data on… hunter gatherer groups than we have ever had before, but I am cautious about localising origins from it”

“These hunter/gatherer groups are highly structured and are fairly isolated from one another and probably retain a great deal of different genetic variations – we found this very exciting.”

Dr Henn added: “The other main conclusion was that we looked at patterns of genetic diversity among 27 (present-day) African populations, and we saw a decline of diversity that really starts in southern Africa and progresses as you move to northern Africa.”

She explained that the team’s modelling was consistent with the serial founder effect. This refers to a loss of genetic variation when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from the original, larger population.

“Populations in southern Africa have the highest genetic diversity of any population, as far as we can tell.

“So this suggests that this might be the best location for (the origins) of modern humans.”

‘Landmark study’

Chris Stringer, a leading palaeontologist based at the Natural History Museum, London, said: “The new paper… suggests that the genes of the Namibian and Khomani bushmen (southern Africa), Biaka pygmies (Central Africa) and the Sandawe (East Africa) appear to be the most diverse, and by implication these are the most ancient populations of Homo sapiens.”

Professor Stringer, who was not involved in the study, added: “This is a landmark study, with far more extensive data on… hunter gatherer groups than we have ever had before, but I am cautious about localising origins from it.”

He said that the ranges of these groups were currently quite limited, but rock paintings by ancient populations that had been linked to the Bushman hinted that they were once far more widespread.

“It seems more likely that the surviving hunter-gatherer groups are now localised remnants of populations that formerly ranged across much of sub-Saharan Africa 60,000 years ago,” he told BBC News.

Professor Stringer said that he no longer thought that there was a single “Garden of Eden” where we evolved. Instead, he said, “distinct populations in ancient Africa probably contributed to the genes and behaviours that make up modern humans”.

[ad#Adsense-200by200sq]

Share
Posted on

International Women’s Day, 2011: Time to Make the Promise of Equality a Reality

Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director, UN Women
Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director, UN Women

A hundred years ago today, women across the world took an historic step on the long road to equality. The first ever International Women’s Day was called to draw attention to the unacceptable and often dangerous working conditions that so many women faced worldwide. Although the occasion was celebrated in only a handful of countries, it brought over one million women out onto the streets, demanding not just better conditions at work but also the right to vote, to hold office and to be equal partners with men.

I suspect those courageous pioneers would look at our world today with a mixture of pride and disappointment. There has been remarkable progress as the last century has seen an unprecedented expansion of women’s legal rights and entitlements. Indeed, the advancement of women’s rights can lay claim to be one of the most profound social revolutions the world has seen.

One hundred years ago, only two countries allowed women to vote. Today, that right is virtually universal and women have now been elected to lead Governments in every continent. Women, too, hold leading positions in professions from which they were once banned. Far more recently than a century ago, the police, courts and neighbors still saw violence in the home as a purely private matter. Today two-thirds of countries have specific laws that penalize domestic violence and the United Nations Security Council now recognizes sexual violence as a deliberate tactic of war.

But despite this progress over the last century, the hopes of equality expressed on that first International Women’s Day are a long way from being realized.  Almost two out of three illiterate adults are women. Girls are still less likely to be in school than boys. Every 90 seconds of every day, a woman dies in pregnancy or due to childbirth-related complications despite us having the knowledge and resources to make birth safe.

Across the world, women continue to earn less than men for the same work. In many countries, too, they have unequal access to land and inheritance rights. And despite high-profile advances, women still make up only 19 per cent of legislatures, 8% of peace negotiators, and only 28 women are heads of state or government.  

It is not just women who pay the price for this discrimination. We all suffer for failing to make the most of half the world’s talent. We undermine the quality of our democracy, the strength of our economies, the health of our societies and the sustainability of peace. This year’s focus of International Women’s Day on women’s equally access to education, training, science and technology underscores the need to tap this potential.

The agenda to secure gender equality and women’s rights is a global agenda, a challenge for every country, rich and poor, north and south. It was in recognition of both its universality and the rewards if we get this right that the United Nations brought together four existing organizations to create UN Women.  The goal of this new body, which I have the great privilege to lead, is to galvanize the entire UN system so we can deliver on the promise of the UN Charter of equal rights of men and women.  It is something I have fought for my whole life.

As a young mother and a pediatrician, I experienced the struggles of balancing family and career and saw how the absence of child care prevented women from paid employment.  The opportunity to help remove these barriers was one of the reasons I went into politics. It is why I supported policies that extended health and childcare services to families and prioritized public spending for social protection.  

As President, I worked hard to create equal opportunities for both men and women to contribute their talents and experiences to the challenges facing our country. That is why I proposed a Cabinet that had an equal number of men and women.

As Executive Director of UN Women, I want to use my journey and the collective knowledge and experience all around me to encourage progress towards true gender equality across the world. We will work, in close partnership, with men and women, leaders and citizens, civil society, the private sector and the whole UN system to assist countries to roll out policies, programs and budgets to achieve this worthy goal.    

I have seen myself what women, often in the toughest circumstances, can achieve for their families and societies if they are given the opportunity. The strength, industry and wisdom of women remain humanity’s greatest untapped resource. We simply cannot afford to wait another 100 years to unlock this potential.

About the author: Michelle Bachelet is the first Executive Director of UN Women, a newly formed UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. She is the former President of Chile.

SOURCE UN Women

[ad#Adsense-200by200sq]

Share