United Nations Radio

shelter for Haiti

Six months after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake ravaged Port-au-Prince and left some 1.6 million Haitians homeless, less than 2 per cent of the $10 billion pledged to help rebuild the country had been received. That according to the Haitian Government's Special Envoy to the Secretary-General in a statement to the Economic and Social Council during a joint event of its operational and humanitarian segments, on transitioning from relief to development in the Caribbean nation.  Leslie Voltaire said "We still have not moved into the recovery phase", adding that the distinction between earthquake victims and those of chronic poverty has been erased. He said the Government has set up clusters to coordinate emergency aid, but efforts to exchange information have been problematic. The main challenge now he said, is to increase Haitian firms' ability to absorb aid, as they had been able only to absorb 5 to 10 per cent of pledged assistance.   Meanwhile, during a panel discussion on lessons learned from the experience in Haiti, Vice President of the Economic and Social Council Alexandru Cujba of Moldova said the magnitude and complexity of Haiti's disaster was a critical test for the international community's ability to provide swift, effective and coordinated responses.

UNAIDS Outlook Report

UNAIDS touts a new treatment that can drastically cut deaths and stop the spread of HIV

Ten million AIDS deaths could be averted by 2025 and a million new HIV infections prevented every year under a radically simplified HIV treatment programme.  Word of this comes in the UNAIDS Outlook report released this week in Geneva.  UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe says its Treatment 2.0 calls for a simpler approach to tackling HIV - one he says that can drastically cut the number of AIDS-related deaths and help to stop HIV from spreading.

The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) wants to emphasize the need for women's work to be validated once and for all

women's conference

The commitment of Governments to continue advancing along the road towards equal rights and opportunities for men and women was reaffirmed "as the only way to achieve true freedom and democracy in societies", at the start of the 11th Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean now being held in Brasilia.  Brazil's Minister of Foreign Affairs Celso Amorim told the opening that "the equality issue is directly related to the gender issue."  He said "We therefore reaffirm our commitment to strengthening the role of women both in the national and the international realms, adding that "Gender parity is very important, and the gender perspective should be mainstreamed into all social indicators."

Producer: Donn Bobb
Duration: 14'22"