This is the final part of EU assistance to the Palestinian people in 2013 from the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI), bringing the total amount contributed from this instrument this year to €300 million.

The High Representative Catherine Ashton said: ”I am pleased to announce this assistance package to support Palestinian economic development on the day that the Palestinian Prime Minister Hamdallah is here in Brussels. The ultimate objective of the EU’s financial assistance remains the establishment of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security. Today we also discussed the difficult financial situation of the Palestinian Authority and the expectations for the meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) due to take place at the margins of UN General Assembly in New York.”

The High Representative and the Prime Minister also followed up on their discussions held in June during the High Representative’s visit to the Middle East. They talked about the deepening bilateral relations between the European Union and Palestine. The High Representative confirmed the EU’s support for the Palestinian state-building process and stressed the need for a strong and stable Palestinian government committed to reform and the rule of law. In the talks today, Catherine Ashton also expressed full support of the European Union for the ongoing Middle East peace talks.

EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, Štefan Füle, said: “We have to look beyond immediate financial help to the Palestinian Authority to provide longer-term sustainable support. We will also continue to support the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem to help ensure their access to services in East Jerusalem.”

The new financial assistance package has the following components:

• Governance: this funding aims to support governance in Palestine by helping municipalities investing in small infrastructure projects and improving management practices for better service delivery and by strengthening the efficiency of the PEGASE Mechanism (an instrument to channel EU and international assistance as a contribution to the building of the Palestinian State). Total value: €13 million.

• Support to the Private Sector: in order to promote sustainable, private sector-led social and economic development. The EU and PA recognise that only a dynamic and growing private sector will be able to create the jobs necessary to face the growing Palestinian population and gradually reduce the public wage bill, while generating the revenues required to fund essential public services. Total value: €11 million.

• Nablus East Water Treatment Plant: By helping to build the new plant, this project will contribute to the protection of water resources in the region and significantly reduce health risks caused by inadequately treated wastewater released in the environment, as well as allowing the re-use of treated wastewater. Total value: €20 million.

• Support to the Delivery of Community Services in East Jerusalem: for a number of years we have provided significant funds to deliver on the EU commitment to maintaining sustainable development, the dignity and welfare of East Jerusalem communities, in order to consolidate the possibility of reaching a future political agreement of the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states.

The actions will focus in particular on improving the living conditions of the Palestinian population living in East Jerusalem, through the protection of rights of vulnerable women and girls and to enhance women’s local employment opportunities.

Specific actions will support the development of the private sector in East Jerusalem, seek to improve living conditions of Palestinian families in the Old City as well as improving quality care and patient safety in East Jerusalem hospitals. These investments complement the €13 million of direct financial support provided to the East Jerusalem hospitals adopted earlier this year and channelled through a new window of the PEGASE mechanism which is now open to all donors. Total value: €8 million.

“I am glad to have this chance to talk with you, to discuss the most important and most pressing issue which will increasingly feature in your lives and coming generations,” Ban told a group of youth delegates attending UN climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany, in a videoconference.

“Climate change is a threat to development, the stability of countries and economies, and the health of the planet. Extreme weather is costing trillions of dollars and endangering lives and livelihoods all around the world.”

Ban told the delegates that youth would play a key role in his Climate Change Leaders’ Summit in New York in September 2014, to catalyze ambitious action on the ground, to reduce emissions and to strengthen climate resilience.

“When I say “leaders”, I’m talking about Government leaders,” Ban said. “But I’m also talking about leaders from business, finance and civil society, including youth. It is imperative that the powers of all change-agents be harnessed to tackle climate change- no one group can do it alone.”

“Use your power as voters and consumers,” Ban said, encouraging youth to get involved by reminding their political leaders of their moral responsibility to them and future generations and by adopting measures that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen resilience to climate shocks.

Ban, who was joined in the discussion by his Envoy on Youth, Ahmad Alhendawi, also heard messages from young people submitted for him via the online platforms of Twitter and Facebook.

Asked where he envisioned youth playing the biggest role in building the momentum needed to tackle climate change, Ban told the youth leaders that it was up to all youth to challenge their peers, leaders, prime ministers, mayors, congress people, senators, and professors to take action.

“You are in the middle of a great transition era. To address climate change, we need fresh and innovative ideas.” Too often, he said, adults work to preserve business as usual and the status quo. “Young people approach problems with new ideas and a new perspective.”

Ban added that he would continue to press for action on climate change until the end of his term, at which point he would “pass the torch to you. That’s your job.”

“Are you ready to take up the challenge?” Ban asked the youth representatives at the end of the discussion. The delegates responded with an enthusiastic wave of hands.

The youth delegates are part of a group known as YOUNGO in the climate negotiations, or youth non-governmental organizations. Liam Upson of the United Kingdom Youth Climate Coalition moderated the discussion and said the group has been speaking for young people around the world since the round of climate talks in Copenhagen and ensures that “the voices of current and future generations are heard.”

“Governments bear the responsibility for disaster risk reduction. But the level of risk is also related to the where and the how of investment by the private sector, which is responsible for 70 to 85 per cent of worldwide investment in new buildings, industry and critical infrastructure,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the launch of the latest global assessment report (GAR13) by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

Entitled Creating Shared Value: the Business Case for Disaster Risk Reduction, the report, which carried out reviews of disaster losses in 56 countries, found that direct losses from floods, earthquakes and drought have been underestimated by at least 50 per cent. In this century alone, losses from disasters amount to some $2.5 trillion.

“Let us not shy away from the meaning of these numbers: Economic losses from disasters are out of control,” Mr. Ban said. “They can only be reduced in partnership with the private sector, including investment banks and insurance companies. For too long, markets have placed greater value on short-term returns than on sustainability and resilience. At long last, we are coming to understand that reducing exposure to disaster risk is not a cost but an opportunity to make that investment more attractive in the long term.”

The report highlights how the transformation of the global economy over the last 40 years has led to rapid increases in disaster risk in low-, medium- and high-income countries, with the search for lower costs and higher productivity driving business into hazard-prone locations with little or no consideration of the consequences on global supply chains.

“In a world of ongoing population growth, rapid urbanization, climate change and an approach to investment that continually discounts disaster risk, this increased potential for future losses is of major concern,” said Margareta Wahlström, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Of the 1,300 small- and medium-sized businesses in six disaster-prone cities in the Americas surveyed by the report, three-quarters have suffered business disruptions related to damaged or destroyed power, telecommunications and water utilities. However, only a minority of them – 14.2 per cent in the case of companies with fewer than 100 employees – had a basic approach to crisis management.

“In the wake of the global financial crisis, disaster risk stands as a new multi-trillion dollar class of toxic assets of unrealized liabilities. The catastrophic economic losses from the Japan earthquake/tsunami, floods in Thailand and the destructive Super Storm Sandy show clearly the extent of what is at stake.”

The report stressed that prevailing business models in urban development, agribusiness, and coastal tourism – three key investment sectors – continue to drive disaster risk, and calls for partnerships between the government and private sector to put in place and improve crisis management strategies

“The beginnings of changing attitudes in the private sector now need to transform into a more systematic approach to disaster risk management in partnership with the public sector to make the world a safer place,” Ms. Wahlström said, adding that this will be a major focus of the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction to be held in Geneva next week.

“They face a more complex, and daunting set of circumstances than the developing countries that embarked on industrialization after 1950,” the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) warned. “These changing and challenging circumstances require new thinking, and in particular new paradigms to guide researchers, policy makers, and international development organizations in the future.”

The book, presented in London and entitled ‘Pathways to Industrialization in the Twenty-First Century: New Challenges and Emerging Paradigms,’ analyzes the circumstances and challenges facing developing countries in industrialization, and offers fresh ideas for new paradigms to carry forward industrial policy in the future.

It was co-edited by UNIDO Director of the Development Policy, Statistics and Research Branch Ludovico Alcorta, and is the result of a study prepared by UNIDO in partnership with the UN University’s World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) and the Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT).

Over the last two centuries, the experiences of the first wave of industrialized countries in Europe and the United States, and the more recent experiences of the East Asian Tigers (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China, India, and Viet Nam), have illustrated the transformative nature of industrialization, Alcorta said.

“There are reasons to believe that industrialization will continue to be one of the major engines of growth, transformation, and socioeconomic development. Industrial development enables a more rapid advancement toward developed country living standards. But many challenges remain, and new challenges have arisen,” he added.

“These include: integration into global value chains; the shrinking of policy space in the present international order; the rise of the Asian driver economies; new opportunities provided by resource-based industrialization; the accelerating pace of technological change in manufacturing; how to deal with jobless growth in manufacturing; creating adequate systems of financial intermediation; and how to respond to the threats of global warming and climate change.”

UNIDO’s mission UNIDO) is to promote and accelerate sustainable industrial development in developing countries and economies in transition. In recent years, it has assumed an enhanced role in the global development agenda by focusing its activities on poverty reduction, inclusive globalization and environmental sustainability.

It carries out two core functions: as a global forum, it generates and disseminates industry-related knowledge; and as a technical cooperation agency, it provides technical support and implements projects.

New figures in the ILO’s Global Employment Trends 2013 show that 42 per cent of workers in developing countries – nearly 1.1 billion workers – are now “middle-class,” living with their families on more than US$4* per person per day. The rise is particularly marked in East Asia.

Since 2001, an additional 400 million workers have joined the ranks of the middle- class, with their incomes sufficient for their families to consume between US$4 and $13 a day per person. This is a doubling of the number of workers in the emerging middle class. A further 186 million workers are now living on more than $13 a day.

By 2017, the ILO estimates that an additional 390 million workers in the developing world could be middle-class.

“Over time, this emerging middle-class could give a much needed push to more balanced global growth by boosting consumption, particularly in poorer parts of the developing world,” said Steven Kapsos, one of the authors of the report.

Middle-class workers can invest more in health and education, leading to healthier and more productive lives. In turn, this means higher productivity and faster economic development, Kapsos explained.

The rise in the middle-class has been matched by a fall in the numbers of workers living in extreme poverty – living on less than US$1.25 a day. Some 397 million workers now fall in this category – a drop of 281 million since 2001.

Another 472 million are living on between US$1.25 and $2 a day, a drop of 35 million since 2001.

But the number of “near poor” -those living on between US$2 and $4 a day – has increased by 142 million in the past decade, making a total of 661 million people.

Many of these “near poor” are not covered by social insurance, and risk slipping back into poverty in the event of an economic crisis.

In South Asia, 92 per cent of the workforce is either poor or near poor, while in Sub-Saharan Africa, 86 per cent of workers are in these categories.

“Much work remains to be done to raise productivity levels and expand the number of quality jobs, in order to spur the growth of the developing world’s middle class.Unfortunately, the crisis affecting global labour markets threatens to slow progress,” concluded Kapsos.

This year’s International Literacy Day, observed annually on 8 September, hard a special focus on the fundamental relationship between literacy and peace.

“We must not allow conflict to deprive children and adults of the crucial opportunity of literacy. Literacy is a fundamental human right, and the foundation of all education and lifelong learning,” the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, said in her message for the Day, which the agency has been marking for more than four decades.

She added that literacy transforms the lives of people, allowing them to make informed choices and empowering them individuals to become agents of change.

“Lasting peace depends on the development of literate citizenship and access to education for all. Amidst political upheaval and escalating violence in many parts of the world, literacy must be a priority in the peace-building agenda of all nations,” she stated. Peace and sustainable development are interdependent, and it is crucial for the two to develop and strengthen simultaneously, Bokova continued.

“Literacy is also a development accelerator, enabling societies to grow more inclusively and sustainably,” she noted. “Literacy programmes can become a key component of future development strategies, opening new opportunities and skills for all.”

This year marked the end of the UN Literacy Decade, proclaimed in 2002 to galvanize government action worldwide against illiteracy. Over the decade, and despite considerable effort and some major achievements, 775 million people are still considered non-literate, of whom 85 per cent live in 41 countries.

As part of the celebrations for the Day, UNESCO has brought together representatives from these 41 countries to examine the lessons learned over the decade and identify ways of accelerating progress to meet the Education for All (EFA) goals established by the world’s governments in 2000 for a 50 per cent improvement in literacy levels worldwide by 2015.

The EFA goals are made up expanding early childhood care and education, providing free and compulsory primary education for all, promoting learning and life skills for young people and adults, increasing adult literacy, achieving gender parity and improving the quality of education.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his message for the Day, said the global movement for education needs a big push, and that is why he will be launching a new Education First initiative later this month.

The initiative focuses on three priorities: putting every child in school, improving the quality of learning and fostering global citizenship.

“I call on world leaders and all involved with education to join this initiative. The cost of leaving millions of children and young people on the margins of society is far greater than the funds required to reach the international goals for education,” he stated.

“Ask any parent what they want for their children, even in war zones and disaster areas where food, medicine and shelter might be considered the highest priorities, and the answer is the same: education for children. Ask any child what he or she wishes to be when they grow up, and the answer is rooted in education. Education is the gateway to fulfilling those aspirations.

“A literate world is a more peaceful world, and a more harmonious and healthy world,” Mr. Ban added. “On this observance of International Literacy Day, let us pledge to join together to move the literacy agenda forward.”

Other events taking place at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters include the award ceremony for the 2012 UNESCO literacy prizes, and the nomination of singer and songwriter A’salfo as a Goodwill Ambassador to contribute to the agency’s efforts to fight against exclusion, discrimination and injustice.

“Donor countries have fallen well short of their aid commitments and development assistance declined last year because of budget cuts, increasing the shortfall to $167 billion,” the lead author of the World Economic and Social Survey 2012: In Search of New Development Finance, which contains the proposals, Rob Vos (photo), said in a news release.

“Although donors must meet their commitments, it is time to look for other ways to find resources to finance development needs and address growing global challenges, such as combating climate change,” he added. “We are suggesting various ways to tap resources through international mechanisms, such as coordinated taxes on carbon emissions, air traffic, and financial and currency transactions.”

Produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), this year’s issue of the annual report on global development found that development aid declined in real terms in 2011, highlighting the need for additional and more predictable financing from new sources.

The report notes that while existing initiatives to fund programmes in the developing world have been successful, the scope for scaling them up or replicating them is too limited to meet the needs for developments financing in the next coming decades, and new funding sources need to be tapped.

Some of the new mechanisms to raise funds which were identified in the report include a tax on carbon dioxide emissions in developed countries, a tiny currency transaction tax, and earmarking a portion of the proposed European Union financial transaction tax. These measures would yield substantial revenues of $250 billion, $40 billion and $71 billion per year, respectively, for international cooperation.

“Such taxes also make economic sense, as they help stimulate green growth and mitigate financial market instability. In short, such new financing mechanisms will help donor countries overcome their record of broken promises to benefit the world at large,” said Mr. Vos, who serves as the Director of DESA’s Development Policy and Analysis Division.

According to DESA, a financial transaction tax (FTT) would also help to reduce the profitability, and thus the volume, of computer-operated high-frequency trades, which can be disruptive to equity markets. In addition, the tax would not be felt by non-financial customers and would fall on a sector that is not heavily taxed already.

“The FTT is a progressive tax inasmuch as poor people engage in relatively few transaction with financial institutions and the rich engage in many,” DESA states in briefing note on the potential of FTTs. “Financial and currency transaction taxes are technically feasible and economically sensible. They could readily provide the means of meeting global development financing needs.”

The World Economic and Social Survey 2012: In Search of New Development Finance also notes that current financing resources in many low-income countries have focused on allocating funds to fight specific diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and that while this has brought benefits for disease control, it has also contributed to the fragmentation of health systems in these countries.

The report concludes that it would be better to find new resources for a “global fund for health” which would support the improvement of countries’ overall health systems.