UNU Annual Report, 2005 - United Nations University

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Sharing global prosperityAlthough the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) give aid to Africa a new emphasis,flows to Africa have trended downward overthe last decade. As a consequence, moreAfricans now live in poverty. A better understandingis required of what drives aid volumesto Africa, and precisely how these flows impacton African economies. A UNU-WIDER specialissue of the Journal of International Developmenton “Aid to Africa” was published in November,while publications resulting from the UNU-WIDER conference on “Sharing GlobalProsperity” will appear in 2006.Higher education in IraqAn article written by UNU-ILI Director Reddy,following his attendance at a UNESCOconvenedRoundtable on the Reconstructionof the Iraqi Higher Education System, elicitedconsiderable interest in the press and on radioworldwide. Although two wars and sanctionshad dealt crippling blows to the Iraqi highereducation system, the Iraqi academic communitycontinued to function and offer a universityeducation to a sizeable number of students.The roundtable discussed contingency measuresto rescue Iraqi universities from theircurrent predicament.While such contingency measures are to beapplauded, it is necessary to think about longtermreconstruction of Iraq’s higher educationsystem. This will require a holistic nationaleffort to establish a modern and progressiveuniversity system that can produce the highlevelskills, research, and scholarship soessential for the reconstruction of the country.Workshops to be organized at UNU-ILI seek topromote the capabilities needed to achieve sucha major change.African-Asian Development UniversityNetworkAt the Asian–African Summit 2005, in Jakarta,ministers of Asian and African countriesadopted a “New Asian-African StrategicPartnership Plan of Action” that calls, amongother items, for “developing a network amonguniversities, libraries, research institutes andcentres of excellence in Asia and Africa” topromote sustainable development, integratethese countries into the world economy, andenhance competitiveness. UNU-ILI participatedon the African team that undertook a prefeasibilitystudy and, in partnership with theAsian team, submitted a draft proposal to aworking group in New York. UNDP has beena key partner in the early discussions, and thegovernment of Japan formally announced itssupport of the initiative at the global summit atthe United Nations in September. UNU continuesto work with Japanese authorities andUNDP and, in the next stage, with UNESCO onthe proposed network. In a related effort, UNUCentre prepared the framework for a project tocreate an “innovation support centre” foreducation in Africa, in cooperation with theMinistry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scienceand Technology of Japan.Regional integration for developmentUNU-CRIS activities related to monitoring andassessing regional integration led to an editedvolume published in 2005 and another scheduledfor 2006. In the latter book, experts fromregional organizations, universities, andindependent think tanks in Africa, Asia, thePacific, and Latin America will present theirexperiences, analytical insights, and proposals.In March, UNU-CRIS organized a panel on“Federalism in International Relations” inBrussels for policy makers and researchers fromEurope, South America, and Africa, andpresented a background paper on “Federalismand Global Governance”. In May, UNU-CRISorganized a conference on “The Future of EU–Andean Community Relations” for researchersand high-level policy makers from the tworegions, and a panel on “Competition andComplementarity between Global and RegionalPublic Goods” at UN Headquarters (where itpresented a paper on “Regional Cooperationand the Provision of Regional and GlobalPublic Goods”).18UNU ANNUAL REPORT 2005
Socio-cultural aspects of integrationWithin the framework of the network ofexcellence on Global Governance,Regionalization and Regulation: The Role ofthe EU (GARNET), UNU-CRIS is involved in ajointly executed research project on NormativeIssues of Regional and Global Governance, coordinatedby the University of Florence. UNU-CRIS’s research deals with the problématiqueof regional identity: how people and societiesperceive their identities in the context of thegrowing importance of regional integrationprocesses. UNU-CRIS participated in the firstproject workshop, “Political Identity andLegitimacy in the European Union”, held inFlorence in September. As part of a jointlyexecuted research project on Gender, Space,and Global Governance, co-ordinated by theUniversity of Bielefeld (Germany), UNU-CRISis conducting research on Constructing and Deconstructingthe ACP (African, Caribbean, andPacific) Group Actors, Strategies, andConsequences for Development.Nutrient-based dietary standardsUNU-FNP is finalizing a global scientificreview intended to lead to the harmonization ofapproaches for developing nutrient-baseddietary standards. The current lack of harmonizationmakes it difficult to resolve differencesthat arise in setting national and internationalnutrient standards, designing national andinternational food policies, and enhancing thetransparency of the application of nationalstandards to trade and other regulatory/normative activities. Resolution of thesedifferences is most problematic for developingcountries. UNU-FNP commissioned 10 state-ofthe-artpapers related to the harmonization ofpresent approaches that served as core documentationfor a jointly planned and sponsoredUNU/FAO/WHO consultation at UNICEF inFlorence, Italy, in December.Capacity development• Twenty-three UNU Fellows from 14 developingcountries attended the annual six-monthUNU Fisheries Training Programme (fromSeptember) in Iceland.• The UNU-CRIS Ph.D. Bursary Programmeenabled four Ph.D. students from developingcountries to continue their training at UNU-CRIS. Three recent graduates also undertookunpaid trainee positions.• UNU-CRIS developed a module on regionalstudies as part of the Master’s DegreeProgramme in International Peace Studies,University for Peace (Costa Rica); a seminarat the College of Europe (Belgium); a moduleon regional integration in Europe for asummer course at University of South Pacific(Fiji); and a training programme on RegionalIntegration and Macro-Economic PolicyCoordination, in cooperation with UNECATrade and Regional Integration Division.• In 2005, eight interns spent three months inthe UNU-WIDER Ph.D. Research InternshipProgramme, while four scholars participatedin the three-month UNU-WIDER Sabbaticaland Visiting Scholars Programme. Otherresearchers spent up to a month collaboratingwith UNU-WIDER staff on projectresearch and giving presentations oftheir work.• A UNU-WIDER programme for youngPh. D. candidates from developing countriessupported four African country teamsworking on a project to help build thecapacity of African researchers in simulatingthe distributional impact of policy reforms.• Twelve African experts participated in a oneweekprogramme at UNU Centre jointlyorganized by UNU, the Centre for the Studyof International Cooperation in Education(Hiroshima, Japan), Japan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA), and UNESCO.• Five UNU-Kirin Fellows from Asia completedtheir 12-month training programme at theNational Food Research Institute (NFRI), inTsukuba, Japan, in March, while five newFellows began their training in April.Numerous capacity development activitiesfocused on the theme of Development andPoverty Reduction were conducted in 2005.RESEARCH THEMES: DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY REDUCTION19
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UNU Annual Report, 2005 - United Nations University

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