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Ahead of International Day, UN and Smurfs team up to promote happiness and sustainable development

18 March 2017 – Every person &#8211 no matter how big, small or blue &#8211 can make the world more peaceful, equitable and healthy, the United Nations today told young people at a special ceremony for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that included the Smurfs and a handover of the key to Smurfdom.

Voice actors from the upcoming animated movie Smurfs: The Lost Village joined 1,500 students from the international Model UN conference to celebrate the upcoming International Day of Happiness, which focuses on personal well-being, and the SDGs, which include decent work for all, education and health services.

In a special blue carpet presentation, the United States stars of the movie &#8211 Demi Lovato, who voices &#8220Smurfette&#8221, Joe Manganiello who is &#8220Hefty&#8221 and Mandy Patinkin or &#8220Papa Smurf&#8221 &#8211 honoured three young students promoting the SDGs in their communities with a symbolic key to the Smurfs Village in recognition of their work.

&#8220On behalf of all Smurfdom, thank you for your work in awakening everything, in your community, through you social media, all over the world, in the ways that you have chosen to encourage people everywhere to make this world a better place for those who are so vulnerable in every way imaginable,&#8221 Mr. Patinkin told Karen Jerath, Sarina Divan and Noor Samee.

VIDEO International Day of Happiness 2017 – Small Smurfs Big Goals

Ms. Jerath, who is 20 years old, invented a containment device that could prevent offshore oil spills and ensure the protection of marine life. She was joined by Ms. Divan, 17, who expanded a UN Foundation girl empowerment initiative at her high school and beyond, and Mr. Samee, also 17, a UNICEF blogger and advocate on social justice issues.

Given a giant key with the SDG multi-coloured logo by UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Cristina Gallach, the students were told &#8220the world needs you to continue.&#8221

&#8220Never be afraid to speak up and to make this world a wonderful, beautiful, hopeful, optimistic place full of freedom, joy, justice and dignity, good food, good water, good opportunities for people everywhere, forever,&#8221 said Mr. Patinkin.

The &#8220Small Smurfs Big Goals&#8221 campaign was created to encourage people to visit SmallSmurfsBigGoals.com to find out how to contribute to achieving the SDGs, and to share information, ideas and images on social media.

As part of today’s festivities, the UN Postal Administration unveiled a special edition stamp sheet featuring the Small Smurfs Big Goals campaign.

The stamps, which feature images of the Smurfs and the SDG logos, were presented by UN Assistant Secretary-General for Management, Stephen Cutts, and the Belgian Ambassador to the United Nations, Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve.

The event, held at the UN General Assembly in New York, was organized by the UN, UNICEF and UN Foundation, ahead of the International Day of Happiness marked annually on 20 March.

In 2015, the UN launched 17 SDGs that seek to end poverty, reduce inequality, and protect our planet &#8211 three key aspects that lead to well-being and happiness.

Along with New York, celebrations were held around the world to mark the campaign and the SDGs.

On Monday, the film cast along with the UN, UNICEF and UN Foundation will be at the Empire State Building to turn the iconic tower blue in honour of the International Day of Happiness and the Small Smurfs Big Goals campaign.

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UN – Top News Stories • • • •

News story: Priti Patel will double public donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee East Africa Crisis Appeal this weekend

In response to the unprecedented public support for the Disasters Emergency Committee East Africa Crisis Appeal, this weekend the UK Government will match pound for pound the next £5 million donated by the public.

This is in addition to the £5 million match funding already donated by the UK Government which helped Britain raise a phenomenal £12 million for the DEC appeal in just 24 hours.

International Development Secretary Priti Patel said:

I want to say a huge thank you to the British people. Once again, the life-saving generosity of the British public has exceeded all expectations with their response to this vital cause. I’ve seen first-hand how every penny really does make a huge difference to saving lives across East Africa. That’s why the Government will double donations up to £5 million this weekend to make your money go even further.

The Great British public has acted without hesitation to stop people dying of famine and hunger. Right now UK funded aid is reaching those most in need with food, water and emergency healthcare. Now it’s time for the international community to step up and follow Global Britain’s lead before it’s too late.

This new support will double the impact of the public’s own donations up to an additional £5 million and ensure that charities working on the ground can reach even more people in need.

This brings total UK Government match funding for the DEC Appeal to £10 million.

The UK’s support will go directly to the Disasters Emergency Committee Appeal and provide vital and life-saving emergency supplies.

The Disasters Emergency Committee brings together 13 leading UK aid agencies to raise money at times of humanitarian crisis in poorer countries. By working together we can raise more money to save lives and rebuild shattered communities.

Notes to editors:

Donations can be made at www.dec.org.uk or by calling 0370 60 60 610.

  • £25 could provide a month’s supply of life-saving peanut paste to a malnourished child.

  • £60 could provide clean drinking water for two families for a month.

  • £100 could provide supplies to a clinic treating severely malnourished children for a week.

UK support to Somalia:

  • In Somalia, more than 6 million people have no reliable access to food and there are 360,000 acutely malnourished children. All the signs are pointing to a famine as bad, or worse, than the one in 2011 which killed 260,000 people. The UK is acting now to prevent this.
  • We recently announced humanitarian support for Somalia worth £100 million to respond to famine warnings, on top of a further £10 million announced by the International Development Secretary Priti Patel during a recent visit to Somalia.
  • This £110 million of UK aid support will provide:
    • Up to 1 million people provided with emergency food assistance
    • Over 600,000 starving children and pregnant and breastfeeding women provided with nutritional interventions
    • Over 1 million people provided with safe drinking water and hygiene
    • More than 1.1 million people provided with emergency health services.
  • Global Britain will bring the international community together in London for a conference later this year to agree future support to Somalia, which is firmly in the UK’s interes‎ts.

UK support to South Sudan:

  • The situation in South Sudan is dire. Children will die tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, until the South Sudanese authorities allow food and life-saving aid to reach those most in need.

  • Famine has now been officially declared in some parts of South Sudan – the first declaration of famine anywhere in the world for 6 years. 100,000 people in Unity State (Leer and Mayendit Districts) are now at risk of starvation.

  • Almost 5 million face the daily threat of going without enough food and water and 3 million people have been forced from their homes because of ruthless violence and widespread rape.

  • The UK was one of the first major donors to respond to the UN’s appeal to South Sudan and we are leading the way by making sure millions of people in South Sudan get urgently needed food, water and medicine, as well as longer term support to provide much-needed education.

  • The UK has announced £100m for 2017/18 that will provide:
    • food for over 500,000 people
    • life-saving nutritional support to more than 27,500 children
    • safe drinking water for over 300,000 people
    • emergency health services for over 100,000 people
    • livelihood support for over 650,000 people and
    • vaccinations for over 200,000 livestock.
  • The UK is also leading the way in providing support for the region, bolstering help for neighbouring countries such as Uganda (almost £50 million over the last 3 years) to cope with the influx of refugees from South Sudan.
  • In 2016, the UK’s support to Uganda has provided: food for 650,000 people including 45,000 children; shelter for 56,250 people; blankets, water containers and sanitary towels for 64,000 people; and vaccinated 210,000 children.
  • The UK will not look the other way while people suffer: the Government of South Sudan must put an end abuses and deliver long-lasting peace.
  • The international community now needs to step up alongside Global Britain to stop famine spreading and help support stability in South Sudan and the region, which is firmly in our interests.
  • It is first and foremost the responsibility the country’s leaders to alleviate the pressure on its people, and to stop obstructing the UN, as well as NGOs, who are delivering vital lifesaving aid to the South Sudanese people and ultimately create lasting peace and stability.

UK support to Kenya:

  • We are responding early and working with the international community to prevent a repeat of the Horn of Africa crisis in 2010/11.
  • Our support at an early stage has helped mitigate the impact of droughts, saving lives and reducing the need for costly and often late humanitarian appeals.
  • We have provided 11,500 children under 5 with nutrition.
  • The Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP) – supported by UK aid – aims to reduce poverty and hunger, and build economic resilience for the most vulnerable people in the 4 poorest arid and semi-arid land (ASAL) counties (Turkana, Mandera, Marsabit and Wajir). It covers an area is equivalent to 91% of the UK and 60% of the beneficiaries are women.
  • HSNP provides small regular cash transfers as an alternative to food aid to support around 600,000 people, empowering people to make decisions about what they need, cutting out the middle man and reducing waste. Payments are made to households and work out at around £3.33 per person per month, paid every 2 months.
  • HSNP can also rapidly scale up to reach a further 1.5 million people by providing emergency cash transfers to prevent the effects of drought. To date, on the basis of satellite early warning data, HSNP has scaled up support 11 times since 2015, including 3 times in response to the current drought.
  • All payments are made electronically through biometric systems which are some of the most secure in the world, and mean British taxpayers can be sure that the help they provide goes directly to the less fortunate, not those trying to abuse the system.
  • HSNP is now a flagship programme of the Government of Kenya, managed by the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) as part of the wider National Safety Net Programme (NSNP). The Government now funds over a third (34%) of the programme, having started contributing in 2013. And the Government will be taking on increased costs in future.

UK support to Ethiopia:

  • In 2017, a new drought is hitting Ethiopia hard. Over 13 million people are currently in need of food assistance; this figure is likely to rise.
  • Across the country, 9.1 million people are without access to water, and 1.9 million need support to prevent their cattle dying. 3 million children and pregnant women are projected to be acutely malnourished by May. People urgently need access to clean water, food and healthcare.
  • In response to the continuing drought, the UK has increased much needed support to Ethiopia by giving an extra £11.5 million to provide around 800,000 people with lifesaving clean water, basic food, and emergency nutrition to malnourished children. This will provide emergency nutrition treatment to 25,000 malnourished children, clean water for 100,000, people and will provide vaccination and treatment to 600,000 cattle.
  • Ethiopia is hosts over 800,000 refugees, mainly from South Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. New refugee arrivals from all 3 countries will continue to increase.
  • The humanitarian situation is worsening. Forecasts for the upcoming spring rains are poor, and the lack of rainfall means there will continue to be humanitarian needs, particularly for water and food, throughout 2017.
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HM Government • • •

Smarter use of natural resources can inject $2 trillion into global economy by 2015 – UN

17 March 2017 – The United Nations has found that smarter and more efficient use of the world’s natural resources today can yield an “environmental win-win’ by injecting $2 trillion into the global economy by 2050 while also offsetting the costs of ambitious climate change action.

Citing new research from the International Resource Panel in anews release today, Erik Solheim, Head the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), called it “an environmental win-win.”

The global population, which is set to grow by 28 per cent, is predicted to use 71 per cent more resources per capita by 2050. Without urgent steps to increase efficiency, the global use of metals, biomass, minerals – such as sand – and other materials will increase from 85 to 186 billion tonnes per year by 2050.

The report, “Resource Efficiency: Potential and Economic Implications,” which was commissioned in 2015 and released in Berlin at the G20 meeting, found that while investment in ambitious climate action would cause a 3.7 per cent fall in per capita gross world product by 2050, more sustainable use of materials and energy would not only cover the cost of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, but also add an extra $2 trillion to the global economy by 2050.

“By making better use of our planet’s natural gifts, we will inject more money into the economy to create jobs and improve livelihoods,” Mr. Solheim stressed. “At the same time we will create the necessary funds to finance ambitious climate action,” he added.

Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Erik Solheim. UN Photo/JC McIlwaine

The report analyzed four paths that countries could take over the next three decades, ranging from ‘business as usual’ to a scenario where they adopt both ambitious climate policies and improve resource efficiency.

For example, between 2005 and 2010, a programme in the United Kingdom recycled or reused seven million tonnes of trash destined for the landfill. This move saved six million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, close to 10 million tonnes of virgin materials and 10 million tonnes of water. It also increased business sales by £176 million, reduced business costs by £156 million and created 8,700 jobs.

Although other key findings point to uneven economic gains of resource efficiency and slower resource extractions, which would reduce revenues and affect jobs in some industries – such as mining and quarrying – countries still stand to gain more by implementing compensation and transfer policies to ease the transition to more efficient practices, than by continuing to support inefficient activities, according to the report.

In addition to economic benefits, the analysis illustrates that resource efficiency and climate action would reduce global resource use by around 28 per cent in 2050 compared to current trends.

For G7 countries, resource efficiency, coupled with ambitious climate action, would increase Gross Domestic Product by $600 billion in 2050 ($600 per person, or 1 per cent).

The International Resource Panel is a group of experts in natural resource management hosted by UN Environment.

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UN – Top News Stories • • • •