UNDP
Now
Defers Programs in Yemen & Bahrain, Won't Provide Copies
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 2 -- On Saturday April 30, the UN Development Program
announced it was postponing the presentation of its program for Syria
to its Executive Board's June meeting, due to the crisis there.
Inner
City Press
immediately on April 30 asked UNDP, and published a
piece
questioning, why UNDP was not similarly postponing programs still on
the June agenda for Yemen and Bahrain.
Two
days later,
UNDP has responded to Inner City Press that the programs in Yemen and
Bahrain are also being deferred:
From:
Sausan
Ghosheh [at] undp.org
Date: Mon, May 2, 2011 at 11:50
AM
Subject: RE: Press Qs on deadline re Bahrain, Yemen, etc
To:
Matthew Lee [at] InnerCityPress.com
Hi
Matthew,
As per your questions below:
UNDP
reviews
content and submission schedules of country programme
documents in the context of development priorities in each country.
UNDP has taken the decision to defer the submission of its upcoming
five year programme documents for Yemen and Bahrain to the Executive
Board pending further review. This is to ensure that the new
programmes address the evolving development needs of the people of
both countries.
Inner
City Press
had asked for copy of the program documents, which unlike for other
countries were not put on the UNDP website. This and other questions
remain pending.
UN's Ban and Yemen's Saleh, UNDP's Amat
Al Alim
Alsoswa not shown
But one Inner City Press question, about seeming conflict of
interest, was answered. Inner City Press asked:
On
Yemen,
please state whether former Saleh minister Ms. Amat Al Alim
Alsoswa has recused herself from consideration of Yemen programs
Please also state, on deadline, whether Ms. Amat Al Alim Alsoswa or
any family member would be covered by the immunity deal negotiated
between Saleh and the Gulf Cooperation Council Please provide copies
of the program documents for Yemen, Bahrain and the Syria documents,
on deadline.
And
UNDP answered:
UN
staff
are all international civil servants who act in accordance with
the United Nations’ standards and norms. Ms. Amat Al Alim Alsoswa
assumed her post as Assistant Secretary General and Director of the
Regional Bureau of Arab State in 2006 after leaving her official
functions with the Government of Yemen. Ms. Alsoswa is not part of
any political discussion or agreement taking place in or on Yemen.
But how does one head up Arab States for UNDP without
taking part in discussions on Yemen? Watch this site.
* * *
As
UNDP
Postpones
Syria Program, Proceeds on Bahrain & Yemen in June,
Continues in Sudan, Sri Lanka
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April
30 -- The UN
Development Program on Saturday announced
that
it is
removing its program for Syria from the agenda of its June Executive
Board meeting, due to “the crisis” there.
But
still on the
agenda
for
the June meetings, so far unremarked on, are UNDP program
for also crisis-ridden Middle East countries like Bahrain and Yemen,
as well as Zimbabwe.
So what are UNDP's standards?
Bahrain
has
seen,
with military support from Saudi Arabia, the pursuit of protesters
into hospitals and the use of
mercenaries from Pakistan and Yemen.
In
Yemen, despite
Gulf Cooperation Council intervention, protests are still being shot,
while longtime strongman Saleh is being offered immunity.
Why
postpone only
program in Syria, and not Bahrain or Yemen? As correctly
questioned,
the UNDP website does not have links to program documents for these
countries as it does for others.
Also
in
the
Middle East, UNDP until the end funding training for police in Egypt
which advocates said involved presenations from human rights abusers,
not defenders. Until exposed by Inner City Press, UNDP in
Libya had Aisha
Gaddafi as a “Good Will Ambassador.”
Meanwhile,
UNDP
continues
program in Sudan, which bombs civilians and clinics in
Darfur and uses militia in the South, and in Sri Lanka, where a UN
Panel of Experts report released last week describes the current
Rajapaksa government as killing tens of thousands of civilians. The critique
triggering
UNDP's Syria announcement also correctly mentions
previous UNDP programs with dictators in North Korea and Myanmar.
If
UNDP is to
reconsider programs, as it should, it should be done across the
board, and on some kind of objective basis. Instead, UNDP throws
belated bones on a politicized basis and hopes to weather the storm.
Watch this site.
* * *
Under Gadhafi, UNDP has
Praised Libya on MDGs & UN Women, Contra Ban
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February
22
-- As questions
mount
about
the UN's coddling of
dictators in the Middle East and North Africa, Secretary General
Ban
Ki-moon and his spokesman have claimed that the UN, through the UN
Development Program and its Human Development Report, have been
criticizing the region's lack of democracy for years. Click here
for
UN's
February 17 answer to Inner City Press.
But
the UN
system's coordinator for Libya, UNDP
official Costanza Farina, has in
fact been praising Gadhafi's regime. She has said, “''Libya has
made immense progress and is well positioned among the countries
that
will be able to say that they have reached 8 of the Millennium
Objectives in 2015.” And click
here, 2010 "UNIC Tripoli organizes Reception at UN House in
celebration of UN Day."
She
has also praised
Gadhafi on women's rights, as Libya is on the board of UN
Women:
“the
UN chief for Libya, Costanza Farina, said that the fight against
violence against women was one of the priorities of the agencies
operating in the country and announced that the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), thanks to a contribution from the Dutch
embassy in Tripoli, would be able to support the programme
financially. Farina added that Libya is one of the 41 members elected
to the executive committee of the new UN Women agency, which was
created on July 2 to show the desire of governments to respect women.
Farina also said that "Libya confirmed the equality in rights
between men and women in 1969.”
Maybe
she
is
unaware,
as “local
UN
officials
said, the new coordinator of the UN
in Libya, Costanza Farina, credited only last June 1, is located in
Geneva.”
As of February
22, UNDP Libya had a
blank press release page.
On February
17,
Inner City Press had asked
Nesirky
Inner
City
Press:
Is
there any thought of using the existing UN programs on
the ground, whether it is UNDP or otherwise? There was some
criticism of this training of police in Egypt prior to the — there
was criticism by NGOs that it didn’t bring in human rights
activists but rather Government people. Is there some thinking of
how — the UNDP website about Libya hasn’t been updated now in
several months, I guess — it seems to some, due to the turmoil. What
about these UN…?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Who
might
that be? Who is it, these people who think it
might be?
Inner
City
Press:
People
that look at it and have seen that it was updated
all the way, until suddenly there was turmoil in the country and then
it is not updated any more. What’s the role, according to the
Secretary-General, of the existing UN programmes in countries like
Libya and Yemen, where Helen Clark visited and didn’t say anything
about democracy?
UN's Ban & Gadhafi, MDG and woman's right praise
not shown- erased?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well,
there
are lots of, as you know, across the region,
there is a UN presence in different constellations; country teams
with different components, whether it is UNDP or other UN agencies,
funds and programmes. Of course, given that they are already on the
ground, given that they have been working there in different
capacities on different projects, they are well placed to be further
involved. But this is part of a bigger picture, and it is being very
carefully coordinated.
Inner
City
Press:
Is
there any change of policy? I guess I am saying,
given that the announcement today that the UN is sort of taking
cognizance of all this, is there, is that…?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well,
Matthew,
it’s hardly an announcement today. This
is something that has been said consistently for a number of weeks
now. And indeed, further back, as you know, the Human Development
Reports on the Arab world have been saying this for the best part of
a decade. So, okay, thank you very much.
What
have
the
UN
and UNDP been saying about Gadhafi, other than praising MDG
achievements and women's rights in Libya? Watch this site.
, 
