17 February 2009: In an op-ed published in the Financial Times, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former US Vice-President Al Gore call for using the economic stimulus that is needed to tackle the global economic crisis to launch a new green global economy.
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13 February 2009: “On the Frontlines of Climate Change,” an internet forum launched by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in partnership with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, has published a lead article on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).
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February 2009: The tenth session of the Human Rights Council will convene from 2-27 March 2009, in Geneva, Switzerland, and is expected to focus on the impact of the global economic and financial crises on the universal realization and effective enjoyment of human rights as the priority theme. Among other agenda items, the Council will consider a report by the High Commissioner on the relationship between climate change and human rights.
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16 February 2009: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Croatia has released the 2008 Human Development Report for Croatia, subtitled “A Climate for Change: Climate Change and its Impacts on Society and Economy in Croatia.”
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10 February 2009: The High-Level Meeting on African Agriculture in the 21st Century - Meeting the Challenges, Making a Sustainable Green Revolution, which convened from 9-10 February, in Windhoek, Namibia, adopted a declaration in which participants called for, among other measures, support to help African farmers adapt to climate change.
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February 2009: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has released four new issues of its Research Brief Series on adaptation of African agriculture to climate change. The Briefs are based on research under the project “Food and Water Security under Global Change: Developing Adaptive Capacity with a Focus on Rural Africa,” which is part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural research (CGIAR) Challenge Program on Water and Food.
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12 February 2009: The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is preparing for its 32rd Governing Council meeting, to be held from 18-19 February 2009, in Rome, Italy. The meeting will feature three roundtables on challenges for smallholder farmers focusing on: unpredictable markets and high price volatility; the risks and opportunities arising out of the growing demand for land; and research and innovation needs in the context of a rapidly changing climate.
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February 2009: The Capacity Development Workshop on Improving Agricultural Productivity, Water Use Efficiency and Strengthening Rural Livelihoods, took place from 28-30 January 2009, in Bangkok, Thailand. The event was organized by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), Division for Sustainable Development (DSD), in collaboration with the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and brought together representatives from governments, local authorities, UN Agencies and academia to share lessons learned and best practices in combating rural poverty.
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9 February 2009: The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a research center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) have initiated the establishment of a Platform for Translational Research on Transgenic Crops (PTTC). The Platform will combine the expertise of DBT and ICRISAT and build partnerships for agri-biotechnological research and development of products that meet the needs of agricultural growth and benefit poor farmers by improving their incomes.
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6 February 2009: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Asian Institute of Technology have produced a report titled “Freshwater Under Threat: South Asia,” which highlights, inter alia, the threat climate change poses to the freshwater supply of hundreds of millions of people.
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