World Information Transfer’s 22nd International Conference on … · 2020. 6. 18. · Conference...

Spring-Summer 2014, vol. XXVI No.1,2

Education brings choices.Choices bring power.

World Ecology Report is printed on recycled paper.

TABLE of CONTENTS

OPENING REMARKSDr. Christine K. Durbak H.E. Ambassador Yuriy A. SergeyevMr. Nikhil Seth

SUSTAINABLE WATER “Budapest Water Summit”Ambassador Zsolt Hetesy

SUSTAINABLE SANITATION: Health and Sanitation in post-2015 UN Development Agenda Ambassador Neo Ek Beng Mark

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY: “Putting Sustainable Energy to the Test”Dr. Andrew Sowder

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: “Rethinking Management of Development Organizations”Mr. Martin Johnson

SUSTAINABLE HEALTH: “Inspiring Smart Choices for Sustainable Health”Dr. Scott C. Ratzan

COMMEMORATING HOLODOMOR: “Reflections on a Tragedy”Professor Ray Gamache

CLOSING REMARKSAmbassador Thomas Gass

Sustainability Risks within the Tourism and Hospitality IndustryMr. Diarmaid B. O’Sullivan, Luncheon Speaker

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United Nations Headquarters, December 2, 2013

Special

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World Information Transfer’s 22nd International Conference on Health and Environment:Global Partners for Global Solutions “Sustainability Risks”

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Ambassador Zsolt Hetesy, Dr. Andrew Sowder, Dr. Scott C. Ratzan, H.E. Yuriy A. Sergeyev, Dr. Christine K. Durbak, Mr. Nikhil Seth, Professor Ray Gamache, Mr. Martin Johnson, Ambassador Neo Ek Beng Mark

Ambassador Zsolt Hetesy, Dr. Andrew Sowder, Dr. Scott C. Ratzan, H.E. Yuriy A. Sergeyev, Dr. Christine K. Durbak, Ambassador Thomas Gass, Professor Ray Gamache, Mr. Martin Johnson, Ambassador Neo Ek Beng Mark

World Ecology ReportWorld Information Transfer

Spring-Summer 20142

“We are living at the expense of the future by exhausting

the world’s resources”

Dr. Christine K. Durbak

Conference Chair and Founder, World Information Transfer, Inc.

Opening Statement

Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, col-leagues, ladies and gentlemen and students.

On behalf of World Information Transfer, I would like to express our deep appreciation to the Government of Ukraine for co-sponsoring the 22nd International Con-ference on Health and Environment: Global Partners for Global Solutions and the Missions of Hungary and Singapore for supporting it. I would also like to express our gratitude to H.E. Yuriy Sergeyev, Permanent Repre-sentative of Ukraine, Mr. Thomas Gass, Assistant Secre-tary General for Policy coordination and Inter Agency Affairs, UNDESA, Mr. Nikhil Seth, Director of the Di-vision for Sustainable Development, UNDESA our es-teemed speakers and the West Chester University and Rutgers University for bringing our student population, the future of this planet.

World Information Transfer is dedicated to studying the connection between environmental degradation and human health. In identifying solutions to remediate our environment we can improve the health and quality of life for Earth’s citizens. Each year for the past 22 years, I have been reciting a list of accomplishments that have galvanized the global community to attain sustainability. Unfortunately, with all the knowledge that all of us have gleaned, most of our leaders still do not have a deep connection to the earth, and our planet is continuing to degrade as well as the health of its inhabitants. “The world can get along,” as Dr. Robert Solow of MIT stated, “Without natural resources. Exhaustion is just an event, not a catastrophe.” But can the inhabitants, can we?

We have been listening to the ills of our planet since 1972 - the first United Nations Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden and have been con-scious that we are living at the expense of the future by exhausting the resources that will be needed by the coming generations. We continue to contaminate the air that we breathe, fill our land and water with waste

disposal, destroy our forests at an unprecedented rate, erode our fertile soil, destroy our ozone layer and con-tinue to exacerbate our climate and the extinction of millions of species.

We thought that environmental problems were attrib-utable to ignorance, inadequate government adminis-trations and multinational companies. To some extent that is still the case, there are countries that lack the nec-essary technologies due to the many difficulties they are facing. These difficulties include: lack of enabling en-vironments due to lack of good governance and rule of law and population explosion. Others still profit from the sale of pesticides and dumping of toxic material in the developing world.

We have learned that environmental issues are of in-ternational concern and need international collabora-tion. This growing awareness, however, is progressing at a much slower pace than the destruction of our habitat. A social order that was created by cultures without fun-damental world justice cannot sustain itself! We need to change the cultures, whether one of consumption or one that gives rise to increased populations, both are unsustainable. Our present civilization, our cultures, our values are endangering our world and it is up to the young generation, those that will lead the future to galvanize those that are unable or unwilling to attain a culture that will benefit future humanity. That is why I am so proud that each year at our Conferences we have large numbers of young people, as they need to hold all of us accountable since we already live at their expense and those in the future.

In conclusion I would like to end with a quote from Jonas Salk, medical researcher and developer of polio vaccine (1914-1995) who when asked, “Who owns the patent for this vaccine?” answered, “Why the peo-ple!” Thank you.

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Spring-Summer 2014

H.E. Mr. Yuriy A. Sergeyev

Permanent Representative of Ukraine

to the United Nations

Dear colleagues and distinguished guests, I am honored to represent Ukraine as a co-host of this essential open dia-logue at the United Nations. They give us an opportunity to discuss a number of the most relevant items on the United Nations development agenda. First of all, let me thank the co-organizers of this event, Dr. Christine Durbak and the World Information Transfer for being a sustainable host and partner for this conference during the past twenty-two years. I would also like to welcome our distinguished speak-ers of today, Ambassador Thomas Gass, Assistant Secretary General, Mr. Nikhil Seth the director of UN sustainable de-velopment, the representatives of the missions of Hungary and Singapore to the United Nations, and our colleagues from academia: Princeton and Columbia Universities, and from the Electric Power Research Institute.

Dear colleagues, Ukraine is confident that broad in-ternational discussion within the United Nations is a fundamental element in order to frame the national and global priorities for the future development programs of the United Nations. The topic of our conference is Sus-tainability Risks, however, let me say a few words that the world sustainable agenda is a long process, which was started almost fifteen years ago. In the year of 2000, the United Nations millennium declaration defined a glob-al vision of development in the form of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs. These goals have clear sys-tem of targets and indicators, as well as time frames for achieving them. Reaching the MDGs means real changes in people’s living standards.

In September of this year, the world leaders gathered in a special general assembly event to discuss the efforts made towards achieving the MDGs. It was highlighted that with the 2015 target date of the MDGs fast approach-ing, the outcome documents should focus on existing gaps and weaknesses of the MDGs, accelerating of imple-mentations, and looking forward to the post-2015 devel-opment agenda. The country stated that during the past thirteen years, we have achieved a lot, especially in pover-ty eradication and health care. Since 2004, and being the first post-Soviet country to adopt the MDGs, Ukraine has prepared a number of annual monetary reports. In Sep-tember 2013, Ukraine presented at the United Nations its third national report on acceleration of MDGs. This publication incorporates the assessments of 200 leading experts from various scientific and economic research in-stitutions. It is also available online.

Dear colleagues, there is no doubt that every devel-oping nation is striving to reach Millennium Develop-ment Goals and incorporate successful achievements into the post-2015 development agenda. In 2015, after the MDGs are achieved, the member states will need the new guidelines for their post-2015 agenda. We need to elabo-rate on the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs. The UN member states are now in the challenging process of outlining their positions for the issues of sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Macroeconomics and infra-structure development, as well as climate change, health, gender equality, and many other topics, I am sure that Director Nikhil Seth has much more to explain being the UN captain for the MDGs and SDGs. But I have to add that Ukraine, as well as other member states, are now in a challenging process of outlining the key priorities for the potential development strategies in the next decades. I would emphasize that Ukraine supports the activity of the general assembly Open Working Group on Sustain-able Development Goals, where the countries can discuss their SDGs priorities.

We are confident that national economy should grow and social standards should rise in the future decades. There-fore, energy should be definitely included into the SDGs agenda. However, the energy item for Ukraine’s economy is a multi-sided issue, and has the diversified approach for energy supply and production without compromising its sustainability. Renewable energy is becoming an integral part of the energy system, however, because of the cost, the infrastructure still remains a challenge. Ukraine’s reliance on alternative or renewable energy sources or burning of fossil fuels will not resolve economic and social development issues in the future. By saying that, I mean that over 50% of energy supply in our country is for use by peaceful atom. We believe that a sustainable nuclear approach should be taken into account by the member states, especially those which rely on such technology. The new approach must en-sure comprehensive consideration of security, social, and environmental aspects, particularly in priority areas such as ecological safety, comprehensive environmental conserva-tion, and prudent management. Only such approach will facilitate sustainable development of energy, especially gas efficiency and safety of its nuclear sector.

Having Chernobyl resolution on the General Assem-bly agenda, we are confident that immense experience, of almost thirty years of long activity on how to manage and revitalize the nuclear accident consequences, should not be lost for the international community. Dear colleagues, I try to shape the main ideas for the Ukrainian delegation in the United Nations development agenda, and now it is time to listen to the views and approaches of the distin-guished colleagues here. Thank you.

“Renewable energy is becoming an integral part of the energy system”


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Mr. Nikhil Seth

Director for Sustainable Development,

DESA, United Nations

Thank you Christine, Ambassador Sergeyev, distin-guished other representatives on this podium, and all you young people out there.

I have been coming to this conference now for several years. And it is such a pleasure for me to be with you and to interact with you and to learn what are your concerns and your priorities. I can of course, bring you what are the kind of priorities that the UN is focusing on and how are we looking at this rather complex issue of sustainabil-ity as we go ahead.

As Ambassador Sergeyev has mentioned, we did de-fine a set of goals 13 years ago which were called the Mil-lennium Development Goals. They focused on the basic human deprivations. They focused on issues like poverty, on hunger, on health, on education, on gender equality and empowerment, on environmental sustainability. But what I would like to challenge you all is to think of the poorest person you’ve ever known. And to think what are the forces that act on this person which prevent him from moving up and having a life of dignity, a life of respect, a life where his hunger and his other needs are taken care of. What are the complex forces that act upon this individual?

I am giving you this challenge only because I want to help you find a segway into what the UN is doing in de-fining a post 2015 development agenda which not only looks at the minimum deprivations as we defined in the MGDs, but we go much beyond. And in doing so, let’s look at the individual. Let’s look at this poor person. The poorest person you’ve ever met. And let’s look at the forces that are acting on him or her. Now clearly, of course, its poverty, its income poverty, its hunger, its edu-cation, its health, its lack of services, access to health fa-cilities, it’s the environment that is working against him, it’s the oppression and the inequalities that they face, it’s the discrimination that is faced in many communities in poor parts of the world. But there are a whole set of other forces that are acting on this individual. It’s the en-vironment that he lives in, the kind of sanitary facilities,

the availability of water, poor air quality, the threat to life and limb, the lack of security. These are the second set of forces that are acting on this individual. And there are a third set of forces that acting on this individual. These are called the slow onset events. Events like climate change, the state of our oceans and what that is doing to the avail-ability of proteins and nutrition to them. It’s the loss of biodiversity. It is land degradation.

So you have these three sets of forces which are pre-venting this person from breaking out from the cycle of poverty and deprivation and to moving into high trajec-tories where a person can enjoy a life of dignity. So how can we address these challenges? How do we make sure that by 2030 and beyond, none of these forces operate on this individual where the individual can break away from all this to live a life of dignity?

And for that the UN is now grappling with what they call the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), goals which go much beyond and will look much more deep-ly into these issues than the Millennium Development Goals did. And here I want to come to the concept of sus-tainable development. Because sustainable development essentially looks at the forces which are economic forces; these are forces which meet the economic aspirations of individuals. There are social forces which meet the social aspirations of people to move up on the social ladder. And of course there are these other environmental forces which prevent that individual breaking out.

So it is this intersection of economic, social and envi-ronmental forces. And unless they are seen in their to-tality, in a holistic way, we are not going to succeed in breaking out from this trap of poverty and deprivation. Sustainable development is a tool to look at, in an inte-grated way, decision-making and other processes which will meet people’s economic aspirations. Because that’s the core that motivates people - their economic aspira-tions - to look at their social aspirations and to look at their environmental fears together in a holistic way. And that is what we are trying to do in the SDGs to look at the whole series of issues, the intersection of these issues.

It is for these reasons that I’m very happy that your topic today focuses on two crucial issues: Health and the Environment. These are very closely intertwined and you cannot discuss one without looking at the other. And we know what these intersections are. But it is our ability to see these intersections more forcefully and in all the cross-impacts they have on each other, the negative and the positive spin-offs that they have on each other which is crucial.

And I see from your program that you have a rich pro-gram where you are looking at different facets of these intersections. So the way in which you discuss these, the way in which you set these, the way in which you develop

“Sustainable development is a tool ...which will meet people’s economic aspirations.”


Spring-Summer 2014

ideas around these intersections, that is the core of sus-tainable development. So it is very important that while you are looking at sustainability issues, on the issues of environment and health, you do explore all these issues.

Now let’s look at what are these intersections between environment and health and how can we have a mutu-ally reinforcing process when taking actions on the envi-ronment, taking actions on health will be mutually sup-portive to one another. Let’s look at local issues. I want to look at the global commons’ issues, issues like climate change, oceans and land deforestation, loss of biodiver-sity and so on a little later. But I want to first look at what are the intersections between environment and health.

First, I think in large parts of the world sanitation is such an important issue and open defecation; the billions of people who don’t have toilet, and what that does to local health is appalling in terms of dysentery and other diseases, the deaths that causes, how all this gets into the water system and the kind of impacts that has. So I would say that clean sanitation and safe sanitation is one of the most important environmental intersections with health.

The second one is the whole issue of waste manage-ment. Particularly in the cities it is going to be a very im-portant determinant of sanitary conditions in which peo-ple live.

The third is air quality. We know how, for example, is-sues like motorized transportation, factories using not very clean processes of production, what that does to the partic-ulates in the air. And how that impacts upon health, respir-atory health, the illnesses which are generated by the lack of clean air. The millions of women and children who die because of not using clean cook stoves. They use biomass for cooking. And what that does to the smoky environments in small rooms and the impact that has on people’s lives.

Then of course the whole issue of water quality. The issue of chemical pollution, the issue of urban congestion that we live in, And remember, as we look to the future, this issue of sustainability is your agenda. It is an agenda for the future generations. And as we look twenty thirty years into the future, urbanization will be one of the most strongest trends in changes in the way people live and work and how that is going to impact on the infrastruc-ture of cities. And how I mentioned all these things on sanitation, on water, on air quality, and on chemical pol-lution, on particulates in the air, how all these are going to make in a large part- particularly in the developing world- urban health for people to have a healthy life.

So these are forces that’ll be acting at the local level. And many of these solutions, they have be local. They have to be done by the mayors, by local governments, by municipalities, by citizens groups who have to focus on the ways in which the air quality has to be improved and the ways in which the water quality has to be improved.

So these are the local manifestations of the impact of the environmental health. Then we look at the global issues. Issues like climate change and what that’s doing to the vec-tor borne diseases, increasing temperatures and what that means for malaria for example. And what that has to do with water availability and so on. So there is a whole set of issues which are generated by our lack of taking seri-ous action on mitigating climate impacts and how that’s impacting on local health. And this is an issue which is not given as much prominence as it deserves. When we look at climate change, we normally switch our minds totally to water issues which are on melting ice, rising sea levels, on extreme weather events. But all these have deep implica-tions on human health which we must not lose sight of. And on oceans, what we are doing by over exploiting our fish stocks, by making less protein available to people and what that means for nutrition and health.

So there are lots of intersections whether you look at global issues or you look at local issues, and the impact it has on human health. Health is at the core of sustainable development. It is a right and a goal in its own right. It is

also a means of measuring success across the whole sus-tainable development agenda. That’s why it’s important for a meeting like yours to bring to the governments the importance that the health agenda has in meeting the needs of the future we want, to meeting the healthy needs of our future generations. Health encompasses broad well being. It’s not only the absence of diseases. Univer-sal health coverage and equitable access to quality basic health services are issues raised by many governments and by non-state actors. Other important issues which have come up in the UN’s considerations of how to look at SDGs are health promotion, prevention and treatment.

Communicable diseases are still a burden in many countries but many non-communicable diseases increas-ingly affect all countries highlighting the need to promote healthy diets and lifestyles. There is a need to address ac-cess and health needs of persons with disabilities. The discussions that are taking place between governments have highlighted the importance of equal access of wom-en and girls to health care services, including addressing women sexual and reproductive health and ensuring uni-versal access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable modern methods of family planning. Ageing population is the other demographic trend which is posing a major healthcare challenge in many countries. There is an over-lap between the health risks facing the young and the old.

So how do we break through all this? How do we get these intersections? We should focus on getting basic

“Health encompasses broad well being. It’s not only the absence of diseases”


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Ambassador Zsolt Hetesy

DPR, Permanent Mission

of Hungary to the UN

SUSTAINABLE WATER

“Budapest Water Summit”

Thank you Christine, Distinguished Ambassador, Colleagues, Ladies and

Gentlemen. It’s a pleasure for me to brief you on one of the most

critical issues in front of us for Sustainable Development, which is the issue of water, and on the Budapest Water Summit, that was held in October 2013.

At the Rio+20 Conference Hungary announced its intention to organize an International Water Summit in order to promote common understanding of water and sanitation issues. The Summit built on a lot of similar events, such as the Stockholm Water Conference, the wa-ter co-operation conference in Tajikistan, and the events sponsored by the Friends of Water group in New York, which is coordinated by Hungary, Tajikistan, Singapore, Finland, and Switzerland.

The Budapest Water Summit was the last event of the International Year of Water Co-operation. The Summit had approximately 1,400 participants from 105 countries and around 40 were represented at the ministerial level. We were proud of the fact that we had all stakeholders around the table: academia, science, finance, and civil society. The Summit adopted a Summary under the ti-

tle “Sustainable World is a Water Secure World”. This summary is not a negotiated text, rather it reflects the general vision of all stakeholders at the conference.

According to this vision, in order to achieve sustain-able development, a stand-alone “water” goal is needed with SMART(ER) (specific, measurable, attainable realis-tic and timely) targets that are evaluated and reevaluated as time goes by. Within the “water” goal, four areas will have to be addressed: — Achieve universal access to safe drinking water and

sanitation— Improve integrated and cross-sectorial approaches to

water management— Reduce pollution and increase collection, treatment

and re-use of water— Increase resilience against the water related impacts of

global changesOn access related issues, there is general agreement

to tackle the unfinished business of the Millennium De-velopment Goals and to continue the work to achieve universality. Even though global access to water is higher than before, many countries are not on track to reach MDG sanitation targets by 2015. Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is a human right issue. Our first tar-get is, therefore, to achieve full access to safe drinking water, as well as gender responsive sanitation and hygiene services by 2030. It needs not only to take care of the households, but also, schools, hospitals, workplaces and people in crisis situations. Water and sanitation are cross cutting issues that will help deal with poverty eradication, human rights, and health.

The Budapest Water Summit realized that besides ac-cess related issues, the world must tackle other challenges if it wants to achieve real sustainability. Additional chal-lenges that need to be considered are: — Climate adaptive water strategies — Trans-boundary issues — Ecosystem services — Capacity development— Hydrological extremes

In order to achieve cross-sectorial approach in water management, the suggestion of the Summit is to take the goals and targets out of the silos; make them intercon-nected and comprehensive; and look at the drivers that

health services to all. We should focus on global partner-ships for health and for the environment. We have tried over the past so many years to integrate these economic, social and environmental issues into this theorem of sus-tainable development. I think deliberations, your delib-erations here, your ability to bring all these issues togeth-er in comprehensive sustainable development goals and a post 2015 development agenda will help shake up gov-ernments into viewing things differently, of reorienting their decision-making. So I hope your wonderful agenda today and your ability to look at different aspects of this problem will enrich the way in which governments also will ultimately look at these issues. And I hope that you do find a way. I hope that World Information Transfer will be able to bring the messages you hear at the meeting to the relevant bodies to make sure that in our pursuit of this over-arching agenda for the future, for the next 15 years, we have these perspectives brought together in a sensi-ble and a meaningful policy oriented way. In a way which inspires policy makers, which inspires people, which in-spires communities and brings about the change that we want to see in the world.


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make those goals attainable and sustainable.Climate adaptive water strategies: Achievement of

good water governance is suggested through Integrat-ed Water Resources Management (IWRM). We suggest IWRM strategies to be in place in all countries by 2020 to foster the implementation of efficient water access, en-ergy, food strategies that protect ecosystems. This means that governments will have to know how much water they have, how they use it, and make sure that they use it in a balanced way. Balance needs to be reached between the needs of agriculture, cities, industries and the need of ecosystems, future generations. Countries must also take into consideration the trends of urbanization, migration, population dynamics, and climate change, and have to achieve more with less water. Water productivity should be doubled by 2025.

Trans-boundary issues: Water knows no boundaries, it does not abide by political borders, therefore challenges cannot be tackled exclusively at the national level. History tells us that countries can either fight for water or choose to cooperate on this issue. It seems to us that the sec-ond option is much more productive than the first one. Therefore, international law based agreements on water management, water sharing, data sharing etc. should be in place and implemented for all trans-boundary catch-ments ad aquifers by 2030.

Ecosystem services: The target on ecosystem services tries to achieve intergenerational equity, the preservation and possible rehabilitation of our environment, in a time when growing need for access and use will put additional pressure on water systems. There is saying that ”An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.” This is a les-son learned from the developed countries that customar-ily polluted their water sources then spent billions trying to make it potable again. This method only solves half of the problem, since even if drinking water is potable, the deterioration of the ecosystem and the pressure on environment, biodiversity still remains. Sustainability is about the maintained integrity of our systems. Therefore the Summit also suggested targets on wastewater man-agement and pollution reduction:— By 2025 reduce the pollution emission originating

form municipal agricultural and industrial wastes by half.

— The efficiency of waste water collection and treatment at the level of human settlements will be doubled and the efficiency of waste water re-use will be increased by 75%.

— The volume of industrial water recycling will be in-creased by 50%.

— By 2030 the inflows into watercourses, as measured in N and Pl loads, will be reduced by 25%.

— Diffuse pollution to freshwater and costal waterways from urban and agricultural land will be halved. Hydrological extremes: Hydrological extremes

(floods, droughts) happen with increasing frequency and have greater and greater impact on lives, creating set-backs in the economic, environmental and social pillars of development, wiping out previous gains.

Building resilience against extremities requires effort, regulations, resources, but it can be done. It also requires knowledge, data on drought or flood affected areas and a predictive system that looks into the future, so countries can take different measures to take care of extremities and mitigate their impact. It also frequently requires changes in policies, based on changing circumstances. Just to give you one example: In Hungary, we had a 300 year old approach to floods, which was to let the floodwaters go through the country as quickly as possible, without caus-ing much damage. The problem with that approach is that now we have droughts in the country. Therefore, we started to reevaluate our concept in order to retain some of the flood water to be used for agricultural or other pur-poses during the drought seasons. — To increase resilience against water related global

change impacts, the Summit suggested:— By 2030 all countries halve their population exposed

to high water-related disaster risk under natural haz-ards by developing resilient water infrastructure and non-structural measures.

— By 2025 universal access to basic risk maps and early warning for extreme natural hazards will be provided.

— By 2020 ensure that the population without protec-tion from water-related hazards below 10 year return period is safe.

— By 2025 reduce annual groundwater depletion rate by 50%.


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— By 2030 ensure that the population without protec-tion from water-related hazards below 50 year return period is safe.A word on Monitoring: There is a saying, “What you

can’t measure, you can’t manage.” Many countries and the world itself still lack good data management system on water related issues. Once we can monitor and meas-ure water availability, use, water extremities and other is-sues at the national level, it will have an enormous posi-tive effect on our ability to deal with water related issues. Therefore, the goal is to develop science based national water assessments that are updated every five years and will be in place everywhere. By 2020, national water as-sessments will drive the comprehensive global UN water assessments. Through such a tool, an improved coordi-nated international response capacity will be in place, fa-cilitating capacity development programs worldwide.

Conclusion:Water must feature in the new global development

agenda through a dedicated Sustainable Development Goal. Such goal should encompass:

All major water-related issues: access to drinking wa-ter, sanitation, wastewater treatment, disaster manage-ment, international cooperation, etc.

A robust inter-governmental process to monitor, re-view and assess progress is to be set up.

None of the world’s noble development goals can be reached without water. Investing in water is investing in development, human rights and in peace. Thank you.

Minister Counsellor Neo Ek Beng Mark

Permanent Representative

of Singapore to the UN

SUSTAINABLE SANITATION: Health and Sanitation

in post-2015 UN Development Agenda

(initiative of the Republic of Singapore

adopted by the General Assembly)

Thank you Dr. Christine Durbak, Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev, fellow panelists, ladies and gentlemen. I thank the organizers for giving me the pleasure of speaking today. I echo what the previous speakers have said on sanitation, but I will speak more narrowly on water and its linkages to sanitation and hygiene. My dear friend Ambassador Seth has already given you the broad global perspective on the water challenge. My short statement here will be more focused on water and its linkage with sanitation and hygiene.

As the speakers have said before, inadequate sani-tation remains a pressing global challenge. 2.5 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation and more than 1 billion people still defecate in the open. Inadequate sanitation is a major contributor to health problems and disease. A disease like diarrhea causes 760 thousand preventable child deaths each year. What this number means is that almost every two minutes a child will die from diarrhea because of a lack in access, most likely a lack in access to proper sanitation facilities. It also results in increased health care costs, work and edu-cation also suffers, and girls do not go to school because of the lack of safe and proper sanitation. Women and girls constantly risk harassment and sexual assault with-out access to proper sanitation facilities.

Increasing access to improved sanitation is still a work in progress. The MDG sanitation target, MDG 7C, is the most lagging of them all, and it will not be achieved before 2015. In fact, if we look at the current rate, it will only be achieved around 2075. Therefore, it is imperative that all parties double their efforts to make as much progress as possible on the MDG target in the time remaining and to ensure that the issue of sanita-tion, water and hygiene, which we call, the wash, is a key part of the SDGs and is carried forward from the MDGs to the post-2015 development agenda. That is why we support the recent UN Secretary General’s call to ac-tion on sanitation. From our point of view, sanitation is something that countries, big and small, developed and developing, have to deal with.

For example, Singapore’s land area is about 700 square meters, just slightly bigger than the island of Manhattan. Nevertheless, extending sanitation services to Singaporeans took years of planning and commit-ment. When Singapore became independent in 1965, only 45% of the population had access to proper sanita-tion. It was only 3 decades later that all Singaporeans had access to proper sanitation. This required the Gov-ernment of Singapore to clean up rivers, relocate busi-ness and industries, resettle squatters, and create new infrastructure. Singaporeans themselves had to change longstanding behaviors and habits over time. In this re-


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gard, we continue to take steps to overcome our natural constraints in this domain. About 40% of Singapore’s water needs are severed from importing water, mainly from our neighbors in Malaysia. To ensure an adequate supply of water, and to ensure the security of the supply of water, we rely on an integrated network of reservoirs, water desalination, and water reclamation. For exam-ple, through advanced membrane technology, we purify used water to drinkable standards. We call this, “new wa-ter” or as the UN Secretary-General himself called it, a bit hyperbolically, the elixir of life.

It is against this backdrop of our national experi-ence, and the global challenge of sanitation, that we ini-tiate and sponsor the UN General Assembly resolution earlier this year, that designated the19th of November as, World Toilet Day, in the context of sanitation for all. The resolution was adopted by consensus and cospon-sored by 121 other countries. The inaugural commem-orative event for World Toilet Day took place just re-cently. World Toilet Day is always commemorated on the 19th of November, and it went well. All the speak-ers at the event reinforced the message that toilets and sanitation continue to be a global challenge and echo the call to action to achieve the sanitation target under the MDGs. Equally important, there was also a consen-sus that sanitation, as well as water and hygiene, should be positioned prominently in the SDGs and the post-2015 development agenda. This corresponded with the outcomes of the discussions on, “Water and Sanitation at the 3rd meeting of the Open Working Group on sus-tainable development goals,” in May this year.

In this regard, UNICEF and World Health Organi-zation Joint Monitoring Program on Water Supply and

Sanitation has done significant work in consultation with stakeholders in identifying targets and indicators for WASH, a fact sheet that was prepared by them and outlines various targets and indicators for potential standalone goals on water, sanitation and hygiene.

Following are the four main targets that they are pro-posing:— Target one, by 2025, no one practices open defeca-

tion and inequalities in the practice of open defeca-tion have been progressively eliminated.

— Target two, by 2030, everybody uses a basic drink-ing water supply, and hand washing facilities when at home, all schools, and health centers. Provide all users with basic drinking supply and adequate sanita-tion, hand-washing facilities and menstrual hygiene

facilities. And furthermore, inequalities and access to each of these services should have been progressively eliminated.

— Target three, by 2040, everybody uses adequate sani-tation when at home. The proportion of the popula-tion not using an intermediate drinking water supply service at home should have been reduced by half. The excreta for which half of schools, health centers, and households with adequate sanitation are safely managed, echoing what Ambassador Seth said about wastewater management and waste management as-pects. And inequalities to each of these aspects have progressively reduced.

— Target four, all drinking water supplies, sanitation, and hygiene services are delivered in a progressively affordable, accountable, financially and environmen-tally sustainable manner.

What the four targets are trying to say, is that not only do we have to carry on with what we are doing with the MDGs, it has got to be carried forward to the SDGs and the post-2015 development agenda. It’s got to be sustainable and has got to encompass the various cross-cutting elements that intersect with the Wash domain. One very important example is the needs of gender, the needs of the disabled, in terms of getting access to prop-er sanitation and water supply.

This is merely one grouping’s outline of how a stan-dalone goal would look. But I would say that we are cur-rently working with like-minded countries to bring such a framework of similarly articulated frameworks of a stan-dalone goal with targets and indicators on water sanita-tion and hygiene into the intergovernmental negotiations of the SDGs and the post-2015 development agenda. Not only are we looking for a standalone goal for water, sani-tation, and hygiene, we also plan to highlight the cross-cutting nature for water, sanitation, and hygiene for other potential sustainable development goals and post-2015 development goals. For example, in areas of sustainable resources management, inclusive and sustainable basic living standards, etc. It’s important to bring in the cross-cutting elements that water, sanitation, and hygiene have.

Finally, while governments have a primary role, in-ternational organizations, the private sector, civil society groups, all have a role to play. All stakeholders need to work together to ensure that the pressing issue of water, sanitation, and hygiene, continue to get the global, nation-al, regional, and local attention that it urgently requires.

“We rely on an integrated network of reservoirs, water desalination and water reclamation.

We purify used water to drinkable standards”

“...toilets and sanitation continue to be a global challenge...under the MDG’s”


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Dr. Andrew Sowder

Ph.D., CHP, Project Manager,

Electric Power Research Institute

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY:

“Putting Sustainable Energy to the Test”

It is a pleasure to be back, once again, and thank you to everyone for inviting me. I am a project manager for EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute. EPRI was initially established to address issues related to the reli-ability of electricity and has since expanded to benefit an international membership. The landscape of electric power generation continues to evolve, as many factors influence the role various energy generation technolo-gies can play in providing reliable, affordable, environ-mentally responsible electricity. I focus on electricity for this presentation based on the key role access to elec-tricity plays in determining the quality of life for popu-lations around the globe. There is a clear correlation between having access to affordable, safe and reliable electricity and human and environmental health. The current trend shows with increasing access to electrical supplies, there are better outcomes for economic devel-opment, health outcomes, infant mortality drops, and overall quality of life improves.

The story of sustainable energy, specifically electric-ity, is one that encompasses not only the generation technology itself, for example, the windmills, the solar panels, or the hydroelectric dams, but also the infra-

structure needed to transport the electricity from source to end use, i.e., “the grid,” which includes all the wires, poles, transformers, insulators, substations, sensors, and control systems. While present-day grid technology has certainly expanded and developed far beyond its rudi-mentary 19th Century beginnings, the growing demand for renewable electricity generation is beginning to push electricity grids and their operators in new ways that threaten the stability and reliability of electric supplies. Sustainable energy sources are those that produce little or no carbon, pollutants, or emissions and are depleted upon use. From a national standpoint, they can serve to reduce the dependency on foreign sources of fuel sup-plies and reduce the consumption of natural resources for energy generation. One takeaway is to think about fossil fuel resources not as bad actors, but as a precious resource that are better used as raw materials for pro-ducing plastics and petrochemicals.

The business of electricity supply has generation at centralized locations and requires delivery and distri-


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bution to the end points of use in homes, businesses, and industries. Importantly, this is endeavor a zero-sum game. A reliable electricity supply under the current par-adigm, requires he grid operator to continuously match what’s being generated with what’s being used. There cannot be a lot of excess electricity floating around on the grid, and any imbalances have to be compensated by turning on and off some of the generation side of the equation or by curtailing some of the demand. Only some types of power plants can be turned on and turned off on short notice.

Expanding generation from renewables, like wind and solar, present particular challenges for grid reli-ability. Unlike traditional base load electricity sources that are predictable and constant, like coal and nuclear power, wind and solar generation are inherently vari-able over timescales ranging from seconds to days. At short timescales, a gust of wind, or a passing cloud, can result in rapid, dramatic increases or decreases in electricity output. Days of calm air or cloudy weather can completely eliminate wind and solar contributions. Moreover, periods of peak generation from wind and so-

lar are not always in sync with periods of peak demand. While these challenges currently limit the rate at which renewables can be brought online, they are not insur-mountable if innovations in storage, like super-efficient batteries, large fly wheels, or compressed air, material-ize. In terms of demand management, smart appliances can be created that negotiate independently when to turn on and off. And more changes are needed as well. The marketplace needs to change, regulations need to change, and the control of the grid itself needs to change. The use of renewable energy is becoming a real-ity within the US as well as other countries like Germany, Spain, and Ireland.

So, how does the landscape for renewable energy look for 2035, for example? In 2010, 10% of the US electric-ity supply came from renewable energy sources, includ-ing hydro power, 20% from nuclear, and the remaining 70% from carbon intensive fossil fuels. Renewables are expected to expand to around 14-16% over the next two decades, nuclear is expected to drop just below 20%, and the final balance still provided by fossil fuels. Remember that the de-mand for electrical power is increasing. Satisfying this increased demand will require increasing actual generation capacity from renewables, while at the same time replacing aging or obsolete power plants. Keeping pace with electric power demand is in and of itself a real challenge.

In conclusion, the chal-lenges are many, and solu-



tions are neither simple nor cheap. We have to change the way we operate our grid and our power supply. We have to be more flexible and resilient. We also have to increase connectivity between countries, national grids, and regional grids. We have to change the way our ener-gy markets work, the way the regulations work, our poli-cies, and simply the way the operators work. As someone from an R&D organization, I would say that technology will play a key role, but by no means the only role, in ad-dressing future energy challenges, including those pre-sented by the expansion of renewables. Thank you.

Mr. Martin Johnson

President and CEO, Isles Inc.

Princeton Univ. Executive Committee

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT:

“Rethinking Management of

Development Organizations”

Thank you Dr. Durbak. Good morning, it’s an honor to be here for the first time. For roughly 40 years in the United States, there have been community development organizations, these are NGO’s, Non-Governmental Or-ganizations, engaged in work in communities across the country. Up until the recession, there was about 3000 of these organizations, and several hundred of them have gone out of business since the recession. But this is an interesting moment in time to take a look back and see what the impact of those organizations have been, how they’ve been managed, and how to bring this to the next generation, which is going to connect us to the health and environment issues of the conference today. There is a growing number of groups out there, including our own, that are rethinking the way this has been done for

all those years and I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this.

So what’s been the results of those organizations across the country? The record is fairly mixed, there have been some organizations that have done a very good job, but they’re primarily focused on housing. This means when you’re in the midst of a recession like the one we’ve just experienced and the land values get hit hard, those organizations get hit hard. It also means if they’re just addressing housing, that they’re not address-ing some other critical needs in those communities. The notion of these communities as complex systems sort of flies in the face of organizations that have focused in on just one part and hope to do re-development with just a focus on this one issue like housing development.

Isles is an organization that engages in housing de-velopment, and we do it in places that are important. We just have a little different mission, our mission isn’t to build homes for people who need it, and our mission is to foster self-reliant families in healthy sustainable com-munities. A nine world mission. There are two buckets, there is family self-reliant and healthy sustainable com-munity. So at the end of the day, at the end of the year, that’s what we care about.

Over thirty two years we’ve asked one question, what is the most powerful cost effective way to get to our mis-sions outcome? Those things involve developing homes, developing parks, we develop urban agriculture, and gardens. We also have self-reliant activities, some of them are focused on financial services for people who get into debt, and we have some interesting financial products. We also work to train young people who have dropped out of school. In Trenton, for example, only 48% of the freshman that enter high school will gradu-ate in four years. We have this enormous challenge of finding new ways to educate these young people who are having enormous impacts on our neighborhoods. We also are training them in construction trades and we have a green job training facility. So for adults who have a high school diploma, they’re learning how to in-stall solar panels and provide energy efficiency work in buildings.

So why do we care about this stuff? Why do we care about urban areas and sustainability? Well more than half the planet now lives in cities. High density com-munities, like cities and older suburbs, have the lowest carbon footprint. Even the most energy efficient house out in the suburbs with a Prius, has a larger footprint than folks in the inner city that can walk back and forth to work, to schools, and to local stores. Unhealthy cities, especially in places like New Jersey, are driving sprawl. Families are fleeing these areas, and I’ll talk a little more about that flight. But that is gobbling up the open


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spaces and people are continuing to vote with their feet, moving out into places where it’s making it harder and harder to provide public transit and to deal with the sus-tainability issues long term. We also have an interesting political alignment that’s happening, which is families are fleeing the cities, moving into first ring suburbs, creating opportunity for both the first ring suburbs and inner cities populations to come together. It’s been an interesting thing to witness what has happened at the federal level, with the Obama administration, and where politics are aligning there around the suburbs and the critical nature of these swing districts. But for a variety of reasons, it’s important that we link the suburbs now with inner cities.

I’ll give you a quick glimpse of what’s going on in our town. From 1940 to today there has been a depopulation within the city of Trenton and suburban growth in Mer-cer County. This is the picture of suburban sprawl. It’s bottoming out it seems, but that’s almost entirely due to international immigration. From an environmental health perspective, we have found some extraordinary environmental challenges through our work over the last 32 years, and we are focusing on trying to find way to eliminate these threats. In particular, by far the most dangerous place for a child to be, is in their home. We have tested roughly 3000 homes in the city of Trenton alone, that is about 12 % of the total number of units, and this is cross sampling not just units that are in poor condition, but middle class units as well. We found that roughly 66 percent are too poisonous for children to be in because of the lead and dust in the homes. This isn’t children chewing on base boards and getting poisoned, this is a piece of cheese falling on the countertop. This is an important issue because it’s not from industrial sites that this lead poisoning is going on. In the cur-rent school system of Trenton NJ, roughly 38 % of all students are lead poisoned, so it’s impacting their IQ.

We also have heat islands, this is where the absence of vegetation and thermal mass makes the land hotter by 10 to 15 degrees. By overlaying a thermal map, a map of vegetation, and a map of the poorest neighborhoods, you find that the poorest are the ones with the least veg-etation and in turn, they are the hottest. The implica-tions of that are perhaps self-evident for utility costs as well as behavior outcomes. It’s important for us to find ways to cool cities.

We train young people in the construction trades while they’re getting a high school diploma. We care a lot about life skills training and we’re doing both online and offline academic training for them as they’re en-gaged in community development for their neighbor-hoods. We have a financial solutions arm to the organi-zation. You can’t talk about self-reliance without talking

about money, and how to build assets. We’re very inter-ested in promoting savings accounts, home ownership, as well as helping people get out of debt. We have anoth-er arm of the organization that’s focused on green job training for unemployed and under employed workers. We run a subsidiary arm of the organization with local people who have been trained, they are in box trucks going around and renovating houses, making them en-ergy efficient. Where it gets really interesting is when we can combine clean-up of houses, eliminating the lead threats, and doing the weatherization at the same time. The scopes of work are related enough that in a very cost effective way we can do this, which should be done ten times more quickly than it’s currently done in Trenton and it should be done elsewhere in the country. Finally we have an arm of the organization focused on commu-nity planning and development. This is involving com-munity people in decision making in their neighbor-hoods. What should happen here? Not just from a land use perspective, but from a social services perspective. We also use master planning as a way to train people to make decisions as a group, to understand that the loud-est doesn’t win, to understand what the implications are for decision making long term and then to help imple-ment plans once they’re made.

Green buildings and parks for us is a way to focus in on the long term cost reduction and increasing quality of life for people so they don’t have to flee. We’ve done about 400 homes in the city of Trenton. We’ve converted some former factory buildings into mix-use facilities. We have an Urban Agriculture arm, we have sixty school and community gardens which are growing food on va-cant land. Since cities are depopulating, it does create the opportunity to grow tens of thousands of pounds of food now in the city, which has an important impact on public health outcomes, especially child health out-comes.



So how do you manage organizations that are no longer focused in on taking care of poor people, but in-stead focusing in on self-reliance? How do you manage staff who really want to do stuff for people but if they re-ally need to do stuff for people, they might have to find another place, because we need to focus on services and products that people choose to use and those services and products that are going to foster self-reliance. We’ve tried to extricate the word program from our lexicon as an organization, we talk about products and services, not programs. We talk about regional forces that are un-dermining local work, because you cannot address some of these problems by just working locally. We’ve set up a NGO that is state-wide in NJ to organize at the suburban level allowing leaders in the suburbs to come together with leaders from the city to make decisions and address those regional forces.

We have to be able to not just do stuff, because doing stuff is important, but the real magic here is in the learn-ing, that’s the thinking process. We don’t typically get funded to think, we get funded to do things. Our job is to be as smart as we can while we are doing things, and be able to manage data, be able to manage contracts, we’re using salesforce.com now, we’re integrating it across the organization and coming up with better success meas-ures as a result of that. The only way to have integrity in this work is to not rely on one source of funding.

We have 300 plus different institutional sources of funds, private and public. Less than half of our money comes from the public sector, and that gives us the abil-ity to keep our eyes on the prize. We also have to think more about growth in economies than just the same old economies of scale. What used to be if you just increase your production, unit costs are going to go down. Econ-omists understand that very well, but there is something else going on here. By doing these multiple services under one roof, they are economies of scope. It’s a lot

simpler to have one president of all these organizations, under one umbrella, and have those activities bump into each other. This way we can learn how to integrate the health of the home with the energy efficiency of the homes and training local and young people in that pro-cess. It becomes much cheaper to do it this way, but we don’t understand it well enough. Our success measures will have to be better developed.

Finally, the role of the environment. It’s very impor-tant for us not to separate out critical issues, develop-ment, people who are in need from the critical issues of the environment. It allows us to not just improve health outcomes by taking away the environmental haphazard, but also allows us to connect up to the environmental community. Lastly, there are the key decision points. For us, we have to take ideas, what are the best ideas from around the world and around the country, and then fig-ure out how to move those into developing services. Fi-nally, what is our contribution to a broader change in agenda? Is it the technical assurance to others or the policy changes? I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today, thanks a lot.

Dr. Scott C. Ratzan

VP Global Corporate Affairs,

Amheiser Busch; Prof. Columbia

University School of Public Health

SUSTAINABLE HEALTH: “Inspiring Smart Choices for

Sustainable Health”

Thank you Dr. Durbak, ambassadors, excellences, distinguished guests and panelists. Ladies and gentle-men it’s great to be here and hopefully, I will share some ideas for the post 2015 world in an area that we’ve been working on called, inspiring smart choices. I work for AB inBev, which stands for Anheiser Busch inBev and is the world’s largest brewer. We’re engaged with water, ag-riculture, energy and all sorts of activities, but health is what I’m trained in. I’m going to speak as a public health physician here today about a variety of areas. “Health as the most important foreign policy issue of our time,” has been spoken in many places. The Lancet is a strong pub-lic health journal and I’m going to talk about the post 2015 role of health literacy and some new ideas. We’ve been talking about some big ideas and the challenges that we face in the area of water and environment, but if you look at what the world economic forum did a few years ago, they wanted to see what were the risks, and


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these of course were economically based on price col-lapse and oil shock. It reminds us that chronic disease, something that’s preventable, is a likely risk that we face and will cost the world a lot of money. We could have a pandemic threat that can threaten all sorts of transpor-tation and abilities for anything with cross-border trade and what have you. Finally there is something that we see each day, or hear each day, climate change. All of these have health and environmental issues and its no surprise that World Information Transfer is engaged in the center of this.

How many legs does the elephant have? The world we live in here is constructed with ambiguity. Is it water? Is it energy? Is it education? Is it health? Is it infectious disease? All of these are obviously intertwined and the United Nations is the right place for this kind of dia-logue. The Director General of the World Health Or-ganization, Dr. Margaret Chan, reminded us of health as a component in sustainability. I think the key here is that health contributes to sustainability and is a founda-tion of prosperity. If this were a strong economic group, we could show up to 20% of GDP in some countries be-ing spent on health. But sustainability challenges and health have found their way twice now in the United Nations, first with the HIV crisis and second in the early 2000’s, despite the fact that it was over 15 years at that point. The 2011 UN General Assembly on non-com-municable diseases reminded us of the real challenges. Without going into great scope here, it’s clear that the UN resolution and member states agree that the quality of life and most prominent non-communicable diseases are linked to common risk factors and those are social determinants of health. The final piece is that part of the resolution and political declaration was supported by all of the countries in the UN, and stated that health is not just science and medicine but also has education and health literacy involved, and that is the next phase of what I’d like to talk about.

How can we galvanize society to look at health litera-cy? There’s been a lot of talk on that and after WW2 and the Bretton Woods organizations were set up, WHO had a preamble, reminding us that its about informing peo-ple, informing opinion, and active cooperation. Getting people engaged on the part of the public is of the ut-most importance in the improvement of health. Despite that, we often have a top-down approach in many coun-tries, although we are now having more engagement. The ministerial declaration from ECOSOC in 2009 re-minded us that health literacy is an important factor for ensuring significant health outcomes, and in this regard calls for the development of appropriate action plans to promote health literacy. The Chinese Health minister shared that they have 66 measures.

Now other countries have measures, for example, the United States has a measure for health literacy listed in the Affordable Care Act. We have to obtain, interpret, understand, and make appropriate health decisions. This is the definition that I worked on with co-author Ruth Parker. This is the foundation of a national action plan. 34 States and the European Union member states, 14 countries, and Switzerland have also conducted sur-veys on health literacy. There is a belief that if you give people not only education, but also change the system in a way that makes it simpler, better health decisions will be made. Health literacy is not just about what you learn in school, and it’s not just about making the sys-tem simpler, but it’s bringing those into the center of the health literacy framework. That’s where a lot of groups have been working.

How do we do this better? I am a public health physi-cian and if you ask me what are the three biggest exam-ples of what has made the biggest difference to expand life expectancy in some countries, my answer is not what you think, and that would be to say that it was the advent



of antibiotics. The answer as a physician is not giving people vaccines though we have eliminated smallpox and are close to getting rid of polio, its education, and it’s particularly women’s education. The systematic anal-ysis of 175 countries for over 30 years that Lancet pub-lished showed that more than half of the reductions in child deaths are linked to gains in women’s educational attainment. Hence not only UNICEF’s work or others that work at the UN but the continued focus on build-ing education and on building a health literate society will make a huge difference. It also has an impact on the whole community’s well-being, on the elimination or eradication of poverty, and we know that it can make a huge difference in social development. So our hope is that we move from health literacy to a broader agenda. How do we do that?

To me it’s not a have your cake and eat it too or a pie in the sky. I don’t think it’s a difficult idea that we could have sustainability with health literacy if we start to link health, education, and diplomacy. This is a lot of what we’re doing here today. I thank Christine for the intro on the innovation working group and we tried to look at some of that for the Every Woman Every Child initiative.

The next thing I’m going to say, you will think, “Wow this is out of sequence! Nobody said road safety. United Nations is involved with road safety? The World Health Organization is involved with road safety?” Well, as an incommunicable disease, road safety accidents are the 8th leading cause of death today and are projected by the UN to be the 5th leading cause of death, beating diabetes and certain cancers, by 2030. Now what’s be-ing done in that regard? There are a lot of things that could be done but I’m going to pose some ideas where I think the smart choice idea can help make a difference. And when you see these demographics on road safety, it shows that engineering, science, and development can make a huge difference.

Let’s look at the share of vehicles in the world. It con-tinues to grow in countries that were not set up for ve-hicles for as long as the United States. 80% of the traffic fatalities are where 52% of the vehicles are, in middle income countries. We have a responsibility in countries that are having more road accidents than we’ve seen in others, and middle-income countries have this without investment in these areas. The number 1 cause of death for people aged 15-29 is road safety accidents. Looking at the numbers, accidents happen for a variety of rea-sons that may not even involve the person that is driving that car. There are lots of things that can be done and this is a non-communicable disease opportunity.

We don’t have to just approach road safety with en-gineering roads or having cars with air bags all around them, we have come up with some ideas that are able to make a difference. These are scientifically based on a variety of fields. Many of you have studied them and many of you are engaged in them on a daily basis such as: social psychology, sociology, public health, demogra-phy, and communication. There are even some new ar-eas such as behavioral economics that supposedly help people move to make appropriate decisions. We think that in the public health field, we can help people make smarter choices by integrating these areas. We have come up with a smarter choice paradigm, and I am say-ing we, as I have been working on this with Dr. Allison Goldberg, who is sitting in the front row with me here. We’re also looking at this from an academic standpoint of how the individual interacts with the environment and the system. They are all intertwined. We believe that this can be done in a way that really helps people make decisions on a daily basis.

What do we eat inside and outside the home? What is safety like on the playground, in sports, or in recrea-tion? Do you wear a helmet or do you have necessary precautions? What are the medical decisions that need to be made, whether its screening or a flu shot? There are also social engagements. I live in Princeton and I do not know if you’ve heard about Princeton but if you’ve heard of this meningitis outbreak in Princeton, what does it re-ally mean to the University there? There is also intimacy. Obviously all sorts of pieces have been discussed on HIV. There are other areas such as substance use and substance abuse, and more importantly, prudent public policies that help people make the smart choice or the appropriate choice that’s right for them in the right context.

We mentioned these road safety accidents that are huge when you look at the number, with 2.4 million fa-talities a year. There’s been a resolution at the UN Gen-eral Assembly and there has been a decade of action that’s ongoing. So what can be done? Some of these are with the other Bretton Woods institutions such as the


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World Bank in terms of road safety management, safer roads and mobility, safer vehicles from private and pub-lic sector engagement, safer road users, which is proba-bly one of the biggest challenges (not only to get people to have a seatbelt in their car but to make them wear it and use it), and then, finally, how quickly can we get a post-crash response, which can be as simple as getting people fluids at the side of an accident.

There are also technological solutions. How do I also know that in this room there are more smartphones than there are watches? How can we use these technologies to make a difference? As you see there have been collisions and combinations of things that have happened in the past, but there might be new areas that we can move be-yond both the seatbelt and the airbag. The third piece here is the idea of alcohol interlocks. They are simple, you blow into them and some sort of device that locks your car. Only 28 countries have laws that address all of these areas, this is a place that prudent public policy and smarter choices can make a difference by bending the curve away from those 2.4 million deaths. An example of merging these ideas is when I was growing up, seatbelts were not put in cars, even-tually some people put seatbelts in cars but many didn’t use them. Then they had to put bells and whistles and people still didn’t use them. Then they put laws in place and peo-ple still didn’t use them. Then they had enforcement of those laws, and then they had campaigns to enforce those laws and to remind people. Now people use seatbelts. It is the same thing with airbags. Now they have become man-datory on all levels. What can we do to think about new technologies in other areas?

As you can see, these are proven technologies that have made a difference. I do not necessarily think that a pedestrian airbag is going to be the answer but I give people credit for innovation. The good thing about in-novation is that 95% certainty is not the threshold but this is the first generation where it might be. Allison and I wrote a paradigm for health diplomacy on behalf of the

innovation working group and submitted this as a green paper to the post Millennium Development Goals. Basi-cally we used the same lexicon as the MDG’s and added other pieces. I’m speaking from the private sector, 11 years before I was in the US agency for international de-velopment in the public sector, before that I was in the non-profit sector, before that the academic sector. All of us have ideas and we think that this health diplomacy paradigm with open communication and collaborative cooperation is the way to go in order to have synergies.

My company tried something interesting in terms of bridging health literacy, health diplomacy, and road safety in China and we launched this global, Be Respon-sible Day in 2013. There was a mini movie with a famous NBA player, Yao Ming, where he and Shanghai police put together what it’s like to be a designated driver and how drinking impairs driving. It had private-pub-lic partnership and in a matter of three months it had 130 million downloads. We’re hoping that it will change people’s behavior although you cannot change behav-ior without awareness. Here is an example, some of the funding that comes from it goes to build schools which ties into the whole health literacy piece and hopefully will have a sustainable outcome. I think we can make sustainable health a part of post-2015 health decisions and it can also determine how well we use our water, how we don’t waste water, and how we use our energy. Smart-er choices can obviously tie into what we do in daily life. Health education and health literacy should be embed-ded in schools, not for just tomorrow, but for our next generation. Finally, technology innovations to advance public-private partnerships for road safety is something I would like to see happen in my generation. I think that we have the wherewithal to do it and we have the people on this panel to help that happen as well. I am looking forward to more opportunities and thank you Dr. Durbak from World Information Transfer and all of the people on the panel.



Dr. Ray Gamache

Professor, Department of Communication, Kings College, Pa.

COMMEMORATING HOLODOMOR: “Reflections on a Tragedy”

Dr. Durbak, Ambassador Ser-geyev, ambassador Gass, colleagues, it is certainly an honor to be here. This morning, we’ve heard presenta-tions about the importance of sustainability regarding many natural resources. The story that I’d like to share with you chronicles what happens when sustainability is denied to arguably any nation’s most important re-source, its people, and when the sovereignty of the peo-ple is utterly and perniciously destroyed. That event is the Holodomor, which means to kill by starvation. If you have never heard of it, you are not alone. Four years ago, I knew nothing about it either. Why so few people know about and recognize this tragedy was part of the reason I wrote the book, Gareth Jones – Eyewitness to the Holodomor. Thanks to technology, it is very difficult to keep very important social and political events from reaching a worldwide audience. Protests like the 2004 Orange Revolution in Kiev, the 2007 Saffron Revolution in Yangoon, Burma, and the 2011 Arab Spring Uprising

in Tahir Square were captured by courageous individu-als using cell phones or hidden video cameras to trans-mit images of the quest to secure human rights. Now imagine a scenario in which millions of people are being systematically starved to death. Every last morsel of food has been forcibly removed from homes, armed guards patrol fields, and children are used to catch anyone at-tempting to steal grain. The borders have been sealed so that people cannot leave their villages, and anyone attempting to flee is forcibly returned to face starvation. People caught taking more than five stocks of grain are shot as saboteurs. Imagine people killing their own chil-dren simply because there is no food. And there are no cell phones to alert the world, to capture the deprava-tion, the despair, the desperation of entire villages with absolutely nothing to eat.

Eighty years ago, these were the very conditions in the socialist republic of Ukraine, as well as the Kuban area of the North Caucasus, and in the Lower Volga. Into

those conditions, one courageous young man entered in March 1933. His name was Gareth Jones, a twenty-seven- year-old journalist from Barry, Wales. He was in the U.S.S.R. because he knew that conditions there were terrible, and people had alerted him that a famine was about to engulf millions of people. So with his own money, he traveled to Moscow, arriving there on March 4th. Almost immediately, he began roaming the streets, seeing people who were begging for money so that they could buy bread that they hoped to take back to Ukraine with them. Unlike most west-ern journalists stationed in Moscow, Jones was fluent in Russian as well as French and German. He had already traveled into the Soviet countryside in 1930 and 1931. On those trips, Jones documented what was happening to peasant farmers as a result of Stalin’s Five-Year Plan to increase industrialization and to socialize agriculture. Jones found individual farmers from some of the rich-est agricultural land in the world forced onto collectiv-ized farms, and forced to give up their livestock. Jones was appalled at the conditions he found on those two trips, especially in 1931 when people began telling him that conditions were so bad, they were starving. Millions of prosperous farmers, known as Kulaks because they were successful, were either shot or exiled. Families were forced from their villages, loaded onto trains and sent north to cut wood in the forests of Siberia. Many died of starvation, disease, and exposure to brutally harsh con-ditions.

The bad harvest of 1931 was followed by another in 1932, due to a lack of seed and draft power, fields left idle, weeds and infestation.

In February 1933, the Soviets issued a decree, ban-ning western journalists from travelling outside of the cities. Despite the travel ban, Jones, thanks to his posi-tion as foreign affairs advisor to David Lloyd George, the former prime minister of Great Britain, was afford-ed access to interview almost any official or commissar in Moscow. Jones was well-known within the highest lev-el of governments. He had a diplomatic passport, and his visa had been furnished free of charge from the So-viet ambassador to Great Britain. On March 10th, 1933, Jones boarded a slow train bound for Kharkov. But he

“Thanks to technology, it is very difficult to keep very important social and political events from

reaching a worldwide audience”


Spring-Summer 2014

had no intention of taking the train all the way there. His intent was to get off the train and walk unescorted through villages and collective farms.

However, before he got off the train, he encountered one communist, who, seeing Jones was a foreigner, de-nied there was famine. The incident on the train ap-peared in articles written by two Pulitzer Prize winning American journalists, who were present at a press con-ference Jones gave in Berlin on March 29th upon his return from the U.S.S.R. H.R. Knickerbocker of the New

York Evening Post, quotes Jones directly, “In the train, a communist denied to me that there was famine. I flung a crust of bread, which I had been eating for my own supply, into a spittoon. A peasant fellow passenger fished it out and ravenously ate it. I threw an orange peel into the spittoon, and the peasant again grabbed it and devoured it. The communist subsided.” Jones certainly knew that by dropping the piece of bread and placing it in the spittoon, somebody would eat it. His intentions were to provoke a reaction in response to the commu-nist’s denial. He challenged the communist’s claim that there was no famine by throwing a crust of bread and an orange peel, providing evidence of what Jones saw as his moral imperative to confront oppression. It is one form of emotional commitment, the mode of denunciation, a perspective in which compassion is combined with in-dignation and anger, and turned into an accusation of the perpetrator.

Jones got off the train at a small station shortly be-fore crossing the border from Great Russia to Ukraine. He then began walking along the railroad tracks, where he encountered many people who were homeless and hungry. In one diary entry, Jones writes, “Everywhere I talk to peasants who walk past, they all had the same story. ‘There is no bread. We haven’t had bread for over two months. A lot are dying.’ The first village had no more potatoes left and the store of beetroot was run-ning out. They all said, ‘The cattle are dying. We used to feed the world, and now we are hungry. How can we so, when we have so few horses left? How will we be able to work in the fields when we are weak from want of food?’” Jones then described an encounter he had with a bearded peasant, “His feet were covered with sack-ing. We started talking. He spoke in Ukrainian Russian. I gave him a lump of bread and cheese. ‘You couldn’t buy that anywhere for 20 rubles. There just is no food.’” In a Daily Express newspaper article, Jones quotes this bearded peasant. “In the old times,” he bewailed, “that field was one pure mass of gold. Now, it is all weeds.” The old Ukrainian went on moaning. “In the old days, we had horses and cows and pigs and chickens. Now we are dying of hunger. In the old days, we fed the world. Now, they have taken all we had away from us, and we

have nothing. In the old days, I should have bathed you welcome, and given you my gifts, chickens and eggs, milk and fine white bread. Now we have no bread in the house, they are killing us.”

What is most remarkable about this exchange is how Jones conveys the lifestyle changes forced upon the peo-ple by the mandates of the Five-Year Plan. Jones contin-ued this thematic thread as the bearded peasant took him to his cottage, where he encountered the man’s daughter and three little children, two of whom were swollen. In the diary, he writes, “There was in the hut a spindle, and the daughter showed me how to make thread. The peasant showed me his shirt, which was homemade, and some fine sacking, which had also been homemade. But the Bolsheviks are crushing that. They won’t take it. They want the factory to make everything.”

Jones ends this encounter by noting that the hut had eight icons in it. “He was an orthodox, and said that most believe, but they had closed the church. In one vil-lage, the church had been turned into a grain store.” The suppression of religion was another one of the themes that Jones documented on his journey. In both the diaries and the newspaper articles, he contrasts the strong faith of the older generation with the atheism of the youth. In the next diary section, he notes, “Ask chil-dren outside hut, ‘God?’ ‘Of course not, there is no god,’ they reply.” He quotes another peasant, “They tried to take away my icons, but I said I am a believer, not a dog. When we all believed in God, we were happy and lived well. When they tried to do away with God, we became hungry.”

Jones was indeed fortunate not to have been ar-rested during this walk through villages and collective farms. Two weeks later, the Soviets discovered that he had reported to the world about the famine ravaging the countryside. They immediately began a campaign to smear his reputation and nullify his reporting. That villainy was perpetrated by Walter Duranty, the New York Times correspondent stationed in Moscow, who ca-bled a story that was published on March 31st, in which Duranty called Jones’ reporting, “a big scare story with thousands already dead, and millions menaced by death and starvation. Its author is Gareth Jones.” By denigrat-ing Jones by name, Duranty, the highest paid and best-owned journalist at that time, not only effectively denied that a famine was raging in Ukraine, but he set in mo-tion a tragedy that has persisted for eighty years. The Soviet foreign minister, Maxim Litvinov, cabled David Lloyd George, to protest. Of course, Jones instantly be-

“In February 1933 Soviets issued a decree,banning western journalists”



came a marked man, barred from the Soviet Union, and shunned by people like Lloyd George.

The tragedy of the Holodomor stems from the con-fluence of three tributaries: from denials by officials of the former USSR and by officials in today’s Russia that Stalin was not responsible for the needless deaths of more than four and one-half million people by star-vation and nearly two million people exiled from their homes; from the failure of Western governments to ac-knowledge its part in denying the famine; and from the reluctance on the part of governments and institutions today to recognize the Holodomor as a genocide perpe-trated by the Soviet Union.

Due in large part to the efforts of Raphael Lemkin, the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was unanimous-ly adopted on December 9, 1948. The Convention es-tablished genocide as an international crime in times of both war and peace. The Convention’s definition of genocide is strictly limited by the perpetrator’s “intent to destroy in whole or in part”; the characterization of the victim group; and the acts committed.

In 1953, Lemkin articulated why the Holodomor was a genocide when he addressed the rally of large-ly Ukrainian American protestors in New York City to mark the 20th anniversary of the famine. As reported in The Ukrainian Weekly, Lemkin reviewed the fate of mil-lions of Ukrainians who died “victims to the Soviet Rus-sian plan to exterminate as many of them as possible in order to break the heroic Ukrainian national resistance to Soviet Russian rule and occupation and to Commu-nism.” In his analysis of Stalin’s genocidal intent against Ukrainians, Lemkin delineated a four-prong attack on Ukrainian sovereignty. One, destruction of the intelli-gencia; two, destruction of Ukrainian churches; three, destruction of the peasantry by starvation, through dekukalization, forced collectivization, murderous pro-curements, and the exporting of almost two million tons of grain; and four, destruction of the Ukrainian people through a process of dispersion, deportation, exile, and repopulation. These are the very actions Gareth Jones describes in his newspaper articles.

Following along these lines, Professor Alexander J Motyl has recently argued that the famine of 1932-33 must be seen as one of a number of Soviet mass killings perpetrated by a genocidal regime.

To be sure, the Holodomor was the result of a bru-tal agricultural policy called forced collectivization. But, more important, the death of millions of Ukrain-

Ambassador Thomas Gass

Assistant Secretary-General,

DESA, UN

Closing remarks

Thank you Dr. Durbak, and Excellences, professors, and ladies and gentlemen. Allow me at the closing of this Conference, to express particular thanks to the Gov-ernment of Ukraine and the World Information Trans-fer organization for this initiative and its substantive, re-freshing and enlightening contribution to the follow-up of the Rio+20 Conference and the shaping of the post-2015 development agenda.

Today’s Conference has touched on vital aspects of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, including sustainable energy, sustainable sanitation, sustainable health, technology for sustainable development and food insecurity.

As my colleague Nikhil Seth pointed out in his open-ing remarks, this Conference helps give concrete form to the term “science-policy interface”, by bringing ex-perts and intergovernmental policy-shapers and policy-makers together in a space in which we can draw lessons from concrete examples and initiatives.

“Lemkin articulated why the Holodomor was a genocide”

“I see the reaffirmation of a clear health-environment nexus that intersects with

other nexuses that have been identified”

ian peasants was the direct consequence of the Soviet regime’s unwillingness to alleviate the massive famine that collectivization had unleashed in Ukraine and of its adoption of closed-border policies that intensified the Holodomor’s impact and permitted it to run its deathly course.

Gareth Jones’ reporting of the famine was an example worth emulating. Jones not only challenged the might of Stalinist repression, disregarded personal safety, and sacrificed personal and professional advancement, but he paid the ultimate price for profession when he ven-tured into Mongolia in 1935, was captured, and held for ransom, and ultimately shot to death by Chinese ban-dits. Some believe shot at the behest of Soviet’s secret police. His death serves as a reminder of our own moral responsibility to never forget the victims of the Holodo-mor. Thank you.


Spring-Summer 2014

One of the important lessons of Rio+20, which is be-ing reiterated in the deliberations of the Open Working Group on the SDGs is that the 26 plus issues that were identified in the Future We Want outcome document, including health and the environment, need to be dis-cussed and tackled concretely through partnerships in a cross-cutting manner.

This was also very much the spirit of today’s discus-sions. Out of today’s Conference, I see the reaffirmation of a clear health-environment nexus that intersects with other nexuses that have been identified and discussed elsewhere, such as the water-energy-food nexus.

Health for all in a sustainable, salubrious environ-ment can only be achieved if there is sustainable energy for all, sustainable water and sanitation for all, and nu-tritious food for all and access to relevant technology.

Health cannot be isolated from all these other fac-tors that influence human health, which in the prosper-ous parts of this world and the prosperous parts of poor countries are taken for granted.

Health, the environment and partnerships, for their promotion, need to be an integral part of the post-2015 development agenda. By mid-century, we will be living in a world that may have grown from the present 7 bil-lion to some 10.3 billion people.

Already the world population is consuming one and a half times the annual capacity of the Earth to gener-ate itself. We are depleting natural capital rather than regenerating it.

Alongside the over-consumption by the fortunate in both rich and poor countries, over a billion people are severely deprived in terms of basic needs for health, food, water, energy, sanitation and education.

Accelerating climate change, now confirmed with 95 per cent certainty by the Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change (IPCC), to be caused by humans, is putting the present and future livelihoods at risk.

Increasingly frequent natural disasters, food short-ages and rising food prices, scarcer water and deterio-rating soils are affecting health and well-being of people everywhere, but most severely in the poorest countries.

Accordingly, Member States of the United Nations as well as major groups and other stakeholders are relying on five guiding principles for post-2015 development agenda: (1) leave no one behind; (2) keep sustainable development at the core of the agenda; (3) transform economies for jobs and inclusive growth; (4) build peace

and effective open accessible institutions for all; and (5) forge a new global partnership.

At the center of the post-2015 development agenda are expected to be a set of sustainable development goals. The goals of the new development agenda will need to build on the progress achieved through the mil-lennium development goals.

The millennium development goals have inspired the world to reduce by more than one half, the percentage of those living in absolute poverty. Yet inequality across and within countries – including in access to health and a clean environment – has increased since the dawn of the new millennium. We need to finish the job started by the millennium development goals, so as to ensure the social inclusion of all those who are deprived and to protect future generations from deprivation. The new development agenda will need to give special attention to ensuring jobs for all, including in particular youth, who in some regions face over 50 per cent unemploy-ment. The new development agenda will also need to heal the planet by counteracting the depletion of natu-ral capital through decoupling economic growth from natural resource use. Health for the planet is invariably and directly linked to health for humans.

The acute economic and fiscal crises that most re-gions face today is leading to reductions in the social safety nets on which many people depend, including in key sectors such as health and education. Health and education are often the first victims of fiscal austerity in both poor and rich countries.

Today’s event should play an influential role, both through its outcome as well as the work of the individual countries and organizations represented here, to ensure a health and environment sensitive to post-2015 devel-opment agenda, with a set of global partnerships to im-plement it. I thank you.

Mr. Diarmaid B. O’Sullivan

Senior Advisor, Hospitality

and Tourism Industry

Sustainability Risks within the

Tourism and Hospitality Industry

Excellency’s, Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gen-tlemen. It is my pleasure and honor to be with you here today, in such distinguished and influential company. Let me thank you, Dr. Christine Durbak, and World Information Transfer personally for allowing me to be part of a very timely discussion, please join me in giving thanks for the work that World Information Transfer

“Health and education are often the first victims of fiscal austerity in both

poor and rich countries”



have done in the interest of the public and environment over the last twenty six years.

I am Diarmaid O’ Sullivan, a young veteran of the Hospitality and tourism industries both in a national and international capacity. Most recently as First Vice President of Tourism Development for NYC & Compa-ny, New York’s official tourism and marketing agency.

In this role, I oversaw strategic initiatives in the U.S. and 25 countries to achieve Mayor Bloomberg’s goal of attracting 50 million annual tourists to New York by 2012. I have also worked with Millennium and Copthorne, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of FT, New York Water Taxi and various International hotels in Europe.

Today I want to talk about an industry that we all participate in on a daily basis whether we are aware or unaware of it. Tourism and Hospitality, and in particular Sustainability Risks within the Tourism and hospitality Industry.

In the modern world, tourism growth continues to be one of the largest and dynamically developing sectors of

external economic activities. We are currently witnessing an unprecedented num-

ber of tourists traveling around the world and crossing over multiple borders, over one billion in 2012 accord-ing to the World Tourism Organization.

The surge is attributed to a multitude of factors, but one particular catalyst stands out, rising disposable in-come in the BRIC countries. In addition to increasing levels of international travel, it is estimated that anoth-er five to six billion people travel in their own country every year

Here in the US the industry outperformed the entire wider economy in 2012, growing faster than other nota-ble industries such as manufacturing, financial services and retail.

From a sustainability perspective the global travel landscape is growing and expanding, but this is limited to a select few regions. There are responsibility factors which need to come to the fore in order to maintain this level of growth, and also ensure protective measures are taken to ensure environmental degradation and exploi-tation is supported by legislation and international law.

Globally the distribution of International tourism as an industry is unequal. Western European countries has 70% of the world total tourist market and represents 60% of all foreign currency inflows. Around 20% belongs to

the States of America, less than 10% to Asia, Africa and Australia altogether.

This year’s theme of World Tourism Day; Tourism and Water really brings to the fore, an issue that sectors of the industry has attempted to address but with ques-tionable success.

To put it in perspective the hospitality industry in the United States of America alone sold over 430 million hotel room nights in the first five months of 2012. If you stop for a moment and think about the water usage of this small percentage out of the total hotel room nights sold each year globally you realize the responsibility the industry has in finding solutions to this massive life threatening issue.

While many hotels have common programs such as Towel Replacement, the consumer view such efforts as a service reduction and not a water saving tactic. It is up to us to educate our guest on their role in reducing their “water footprint” during their stay. Several hotel companies have taken it upon themselves to address the issue, however I believe now is the time for the Tourism industry as entity to adopt and approve global measures that will show our employees, customers, governments and many other entities that we are taking responsibility for our part in this global problem.

Earlier this year I visited Haiti at the invitation of the global NGO, GOAL USA, I experienced the enormous positive impact of their WASH program. A simple pro-gram that begins by bringing water to communities and teaching them about conservation and sanitation.

At today’s conference several key headlines and phrases were used:

. Capacity development

. Country ownership

. Do more with less (water)

. Education The Tourism industry fits comfortably into each one

of these headlines and phrases and as most of us hear realize tourism is usually the main source of income for countries such as Haiti and it is this incomes that helps people move away from their dependence on organiza-tions such as NGO’s

Just remember that every trip that is taken helps to boost our global economy by trillions of dollars actually representing 9% of global GDP and supports 260 mil-lion jobs worldwide. That’s almost 1 in 11 of all the jobs on our planet. So, thanks for playing your part in Travel & Tourism – one of the world’s greatest industries.

Now is the time to harness this industry’s public ac-cess to not only develop solutions but to implement them also. Thank You

“Sustainability is the integrity of our systems”


Spring-Summer 2014

World Information Transfer, Inc., (WIT) is a not-for-profit, non-govern-mental organization in General Consultative Status with the United Na-tions, promoting environmental health and literacy. In 1987, inspired by the Chornobyl (Ukrainian spelling) nuclear tragedy, in Ukraine, WIT was formed in recognition of the pressing need to provide accurate actionable information about our deteriorating global environment and its effect on human health. WIT exercises its mandate through:• World Ecology Report (WER). Published since 1989, the World Ecology

Report is a quarterly digest of critical issues in health and environment, produced in four languages and distributed to thousands of citizens throughout the developing and developed world.

• Health and environment conferences: Since 1992, WIT has convened annual conferences, held at United Nations headquarters on the grow-ing clinical evidence supporting the link between environmental deg-radation and its effect on human health. The Conferences have been co-sponsored by UN member states and its organizations and has been convened as a parallel event to the annual meetings of the Commission on Sustainable Development. The scientific papers from the Conferences are available on our website.

• Health and Development CD ROM Library. This project consists of a li-brary of CDs each of which focuses on a subject within the overall topic of Development and Health information. The CD ROM library, developed with our partner HumanInfoNGO offers one bridge across the “digital divide” for developed and developing countries. The project is continu-ous with future topics being developed.

• Health and Development CD ROM Library for Ukraine. WIT developed a country specific library disk for distribution in schools and centers in Ukraine. The CDRom was distributed with the assistance of UNDP and our Regional Directors.

• Humanitarian Aid. In conjunction with the K.Kovshevych Foundation, WIT provides humanitarian aid to schools, and orphanages in areas dev-astated by environmental degradation.

• Internship. World Information Transfer (WIT) offers internships in New York City. Our goal is to encourage future leaders of health and en-vironment issues. Our interns spend the majority of their time at the United Nations Headquarters. There are 3 sessions, fall, spring and summer - all require applications.

• Scholarship Program. With the support of the K. Kovshevych Founda-tion, WIT offers scholarships to intellectually gifted university students in need of financial assistance to continue their studies in areas related to health and environment.

• www.worldinfo.org WIT provides through its web site science based in-formation on the relationship between human health and the natural environment, including the papers from the WIT’s annual conferences, the archived World Ecology Reports, and our new Ecology Enquirer, an e-newsletter written by our Interns targeted to young people.

World Information Transfer

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TRANSLATIONS:Chinese: Josephine AuSpanish: Patricia Munoz TaviraUkrainian/Russian: Oleh Harasevych

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World Information Transfer is a Non-Profit, Non-Governmental Organization in General Consultative Status with the United Nations, Promoting Health and

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Board of DirectorsDr. Christine K. Durbak, CHAIR & CEORoland DeSilvaEXECUTIVE VICE CHAIRDr. Claudia Strauss VICE CHAIRCarolyn T. ComittaSECRETARYMargarita PappasTREASURER

Dr. Oksana BaczynskyjDr. Bernard D.GoldsteinCary GranatAmb. Valeriy KuchinskyDr. Philip J. LandriganDr. Patricia MyskowskiDr. Maria PavlovaDr. Scott RatzanProf. Mark RobsonDr. William N. Rom



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An international non-governmental organization in general consultative status with the United Nations, WIT has been active since 1987 in promoting environ-mental health and literacy.

WIT also convenes one of the world’s premier inter-national conferences on health and the environment. Titled “International Conference on Health and the Environment: Global Partners for Global Solutions,” these forums gather international experts who present scientific papers addressing the link between degrad-ing environments and diminished human health. Con-vened as a parallel event to the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, the con-ferences have been held since 1992, with the 2013 event the 22nd such conference.

WANGO awards recognize non-governmental organ-izations from throughout the world that demonstrate

The recipient of WANGO’s 2013 Environment Award is World Information Transfer (WIT). Dr. Christine K. Durbak, Founder and Chair of WIT, received the award from WANGO Secretary General Taj Hamad on December 2nd at the 22nd International Conference on Health and Environment: Global Partners for Global Solutions, held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

“Education brings choices, choices bring power” - Christine K. Durbak, Founder of WIT

Dr. Claudia Strauss, Vice Chair, WIT, Master of Ceremonies.

exceptional effort, service, innovation, and excellence. Previous recipients of the environment award include the Green Belt Movement (received in 2003, a year before the founder, Dr. Wangari Maathai, received the Nobel Peace Prize), the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, Buccoo Reef Trust, Altai Foundation, and Ecotropica.

In presenting the 2013 environment award to Dr. Durbak, WIT Founder and Chair, WANGO Secretary General Taj Hamad noted that the WANGO Awards Committee was impressed with the dedi-cation and very substan-tial accomplishments of WIT in its promoting of environmental health and bringing awareness and accurate actionable information about the impact of a deteriorating global environment on human health.

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