The deadline has been extended until 14 November 2008 for the registration of organisations and activities at the WSF 2009.
The WSF is an annual event where social movements, networks, non-governmental organisations, and other civil society members meet to promote a world based on justice.
The 2009 World Social Forum (WSF) will take place in the city of Belem (Brazil) from January 27 to February.
In this first stage, only organizations may register and propose self-managed activities and the whole process will be done exclusively through this website.
The registrations for individuals will be open soon and later to journalists and communicators.
Period of registration for organisations and activities is from 7 October to 7 November 2008.
Caritas Internationalis will not send a delegation from Rome to Belem, but asks
Caritas members to use this blog to let others know that they’re going and if they will be organising events.
We ask those who register their organisation to the WSF and to activities/events to please send us a message (communicate so as a response to this blog or email Nicholson@caritas.va), so that everybody can know who is doing what and join the virtual Caritas WSF community ahead of travelling to Belem and getting together for the Forum.
To kick things off, SELACC (Caritas Latin America and Caribbean), with the leadership of Caritas Brazil, Cristina Dos Anjos ( National Director and Coordinator for Gender Issues for the region); Caritas Argentina, Cristina Calvo (Coordinator of Advocacy activities for the region) and Patricia Tancredi (Communication Team Coordinator for the region) is organizing one event, two days before the WSF reflecting on the issue Caritas and Sustainable Development (global warming, environment, mines, etc).
Caritas Brazil is also taking care of the practical things like accommodations, place for the Seminary. Please contact Caritas Brazil as soon as possible for further information.
SELACC will be sending more information about the preparation for the WSF and for the Seminary.
Aviso a todas las Caritas: Abiertas las inscripciones al Foro Social Mundial
Prorrogada hasta el 14 de noviembre la fecha límite para inscribirse para las actividades en el FSM 2009 .
El FSM en un acontecimiento anual, en el que los movimientos y redes sociales, las ONG y otros miembros de la sociedad civil se reúnen para promover un mundo que se base en la justicia.
El Foro Social Mundial de 2009 (FSM) se celebrará en el ciudad de Belén (Brasil), del 27 de enero al 1 de febrero.
En esta primera etapa, sólo las organizaciones podrán inscribirse e proponer actividades auto-organizadas y todo el proceso se hará exclusivamente por el sitio web: http://www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br/?set_language=es
La inscripción individual se abrirá pronto y sucesivamente para periodistas y comunicadores.
El periodo de inscripción para las organizaciones y actividades es del 7 de octubre al 7 de noviembre de 2008.
Caritas Internationalis no enviará una delegación de Roma a Belén, pero le pide sus miembros que utilicen su blog para informar a los demás de sus planes: si piensan ir y si organizarán actividades.
Pedimos a aquellos que inscriban a su organizaciones al FSM y a las actividades/actos que, por favor, nos envíen un mensaje (como respuesta a este blog o un mensaje a nicholson@caritas.va), con el fin de que todos puedan saber lo que hacen los demás y unirse a la comunidad virtual de Caritas para el FSM, antes de viajar a Belén y unirse a los demás para el Foro.
Para empezar, SELACC (Cáritas América Latina y Caribe), bajo la dirección de Cristina Dos Anjos ( Directora nacional y Coordinadora de Asuntos de Género en la región); Cristina Calvo (Coordinadora de Acciones de Incidencia en la región) y Patricia Tancredi (Coordinadora del Equipo de Comunicaciones de la región), ambas de Cáritas Argentina, están organizando un seminario de dos días, antes del FSM, que reflexionará sobre el tema:“Caritas y el desarrollo sostenible (calentamiento mundial, medio ambiente, minas, etc.).
Caritas Brasil se está ocupando también de las cuestiones prácticas, como el alojamiento, el lugar del seminario, etc. Por favor, pónganse en contacto con Caritas Brasil, lo antes posible, si necesitan más información.
SELACC enviará ulterior información sobre la preparación del FSM y el seminario.
Para contactar Caritas Brasil, hagan click en el siguiente enlace: http://www.caritas.org/worldmap/latin_america/brazil.html
Appel à toutes les Caritas: l’inscription au Forum social mondial est ouverte
Le Forum social mondial est un événement annuel qui réunit mouvements sociaux, réseaux, organisations non gouvernementales, et d’autres membres de la société civile afin de promouvoir un monde basé sur la justice.
Le Forum social mondial (FSM) de 2009 se déroulera dans la ville de Belém (Brésil) du 27 janvier au 1er février.
En cette première phase, seules les organisations peuvent s’inscrire et proposer des activités autogérées ; la procédure se fera exclusivement au moyen du site web: http://www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br/?set_language=en
Les inscriptions pour les particuliers seront ouvertes, tôt ou tard, aux journalistes et aux communicateurs.
Les dates pour les inscriptions des organisations et des activités sont du 7 octobre au 7 novembre 2008.
Caritas Internationalis n’enverra pas une délégation de Rome à Belém, mais demande aux membres Caritas d’utiliser ce blog pour faire savoir aux autres qui y va et les événements que l’on organise.
Nous demandons à ceux qui inscrivent leur organisation au FSM et aux activités/événements de bien vouloir nous envoyer un message (communiquez-le en réponse à ce blog ou par courriel à nicholson@caritas.va), de manière à ce que chacun puisse savoir qui fait quoi et s’unir à la communauté virtuelle de Caritas au WSF, avant de se rendre à Belém, et pour que tous puissent se rassembler pour le Forum.
Pour donner le coup d’envoi, SELACC (Caritas Amérique latine et Caraïbes), avec les responsables de Caritas Brésil, Cristina Dos Anjos (Directrice nationale et Coordinatrice pour les questions de parité hommes-femmes pour la région), de Caritas Argentine, Cristina Calvo (Coordinatrice des activités de plaidoyer pour la région) et Patricia Tancredi (Coordinatrice de l’équipe de communication pour la région), organise un événement conjoint, deux jours avant le FSM, pour réfléchir sur la question Caritas et le développement durable (réchauffement de la planète, environnement, mines, etc.).
Caritas Brésil s’occupe également des aspects pratiques, comme le logement, les places pour le séminaire. Pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez contacter Caritas Brésil dans les plus brefs délais.
SELACC vous enverra plus de renseignements concernant la préparation du FSM et du séminaire.
Voici le contact pour Caritas Brésil: http://www.caritas.org/worldmap/latin_america/brazil.html
will like to participate at the wsf
Y a-t-il des informations sur ce sujet dans d’autres langues ?
requesting participation in the World Social Forum
I am here at a forum newcomer. Until I read and deal with the forum.
Let’s learn!
requesting participation in the World Social Forum
hi admin people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch
IT is very necessary for the youth to take action against the depletion of the world’s natural resources since they are our future and need to be taken care of and exploiting them sustainably.There have been several meetings held by world leaders to address such issues but little effort has been done to solve the problem and i think if we the youth rise up and make the whole world hear our voices something good would be done.
WHY CLIMATE CHANGE MATTERS TO GHANA
INTRODUCTION
Ghana is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol on Climate which entered into force 16 February 2005. Ghana’s Parliament ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on 26 November 2002. Therefore Ghana binds itself to meeting the obligations under the Convention and the Protocol for achieving stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to minimize the effects of climate change. However climate change will continue to have huge and lasting impacts on ecosystems and food production worldwide. Ghana must work to prepare for and adapt to these impacts.
1. WHY CLIMATE CHANGE MATTERS TO GHANA
Climate change will have serious permanent effects worldwide, but for Ghana, and other developing countries, it is critical to consider climate change as a development issue. Integrating climate concerns in development is critical for Ghana in order to ensure the long-term achievement of the Ghana development goals, in particular the goals of the Ghana Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and Millennium Development Goals.
Climate variability challenges the success of poverty reduction programs since relief and rehabilitation efforts reduce development budgets, and simultaneously, lost assets reduce the ability of the poor to cope with the host of current stresses.
Climate change increases the vulnerability of poor people by adversely affecting their health and livelihoods and undermining the growth opportunities, which are crucial for poverty reduction.
Climate change will significantly aggravate water stress, reduce food security, increase impacts from extreme weather events, displace many people (due to floods, droughts and sea level rise) and potentially increase the transmission of vector and water borne diseases.
2. HOW GHANA CAN PREPARE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS
Ghana faces a whole host of development challenges apart from climate variability and change, such as the threat of HIV/AIDS, land degradation and deforestation, loss of biodiversity and demographic changes, including rapid urbanization, which increase her vulnerability. Climate change is an additional vulnerability which should not be overlooked in addressing poverty reduction and sustaining growth. First, broad actions must be undertaken to strengthen the capacity of land and water resource management and the capacity of the poor to cope with climate variability – such as improving human resources, strengthening institutional systems, providing food security and putting public finances on a sound financial footing.
Second, specific interventions are needed to cope with the particular challenges that climate change presents for traditional systems of resource management. Many traditional systems rely on sharing resources to lessen the impact of a climatic event, but climate change will likely devastate whole geographic areas and thus overwhelm traditional systems of management. The result is a huge increase in the role of government support.
Ghana must seek to take incremental interventions now to mainstream climate concerns in development planning so that climate change impacts on poor people are significantly reduced in the years to come.
These interventions should be integrated into the national budget framework and coordinated by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government Rural Development and Environment and its implementing agencies particularly Environmental Protection Agency, to allow Ghana to assess climate change against other priorities and ensure that adaptation is not seen as a standalone activity.
3. GHANA MUST BE PROACTIVE TO BENEFIT FROM POTENTIAL FINANCIAL MECHANISMS AVAILABLE FOR SIGNATORIES TO THE CONVENTION
The cost of taking preventive action now is much lower than paying the price later. Already many governments, civil society groups and international organizations are paying more attention to climate change adaptation.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol holds great potential to promote technology development and transfer and can assist Ghana in attracting foreign direct investment in the energy, transport, waste, industry and land use change and forestry sectors where there are clear potential to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
4. MAIN ECONOMIC AREAS AND SECTORS THREATENED BY CLIMATE CHANGE IN GHANA
Historical climate data observed by the Ghana Meteorological Agency indicate that temperature will continue to rise on average of about 0.6 degrees Celsius, 2.0 degrees Celsius and 3.9 degrees Celsius by the year 2020, 2050 and 2080 respectively, in all ecological zones in Ghana. Rainfall is also predicted to decrease on average by 2.8%, 10.9% and 18.6% by 2020, 2050 and 2080 respectively in all agro-ecological zones.
Scenarios of sea level changes with respect to 1990 mean predicts an average rise of 5.8cm, 16.5cm and 34.5cm by 2020, 2050 and 2080 respectively. Already at the current sea level, the east coast of Ghana, in particular the Keta area is experiencing an annual coastal erosion rate of 3 meters.
Climate Change will impact:
Water resources – especially in international shared basins where there is a potential for conflict and a need for regional coordination in water management; threat to energy security through hydropower generation and impacts on fisheries.
Agriculture – food insecurity resulting from declines in agriculture production as a result of declining soil fertility due to water stresses.
Natural resources productivity and biodiversity that might be irreversibly lost.
Human health, as a result of increase incidences of vector-, water-, and air-borne diseases, especially in areas with inadequate health infrastructure, leading to loss of manpower and decreased productivity and tremendous impact and to extent some failure of and/or stress on the National Health Insurance Scheme.
Coastal zones vulnerable to sea-level rise, particularly roads, bridges, buildings of historical importance and serving as tourist sites/attractions, and other infrastructure that are exposed to flooding and other extreme events.
Land Management – exacerbation of desertification by changes in rainfall and intensified land use poses a serious threat to land resources.
National revenue could decline as a result of the impacts of climate change on cocoa production.
Energy (hydropower) production – decreasing as result of impact of climate change on water resources.
Tourism – because of impact of climate change on coastal infrastructure and natural parks and ecosystems
Women and the poor – climate change impacts greatly on women and the poor because they depend mostly on natural resources and economic sectors (like agriculture) that are susceptible to climate change.
FACTS ABOUT THESE IMPACTS
Water Resources: Ghana is among other countries in Africa with the lowest conversion factor of precipitation to runoff, averaging 15%. Current trends in major river basins in the country indicate a decrease in runoff of about 30% over the past three decades. Reservoir storage shows marked sensitivity to variations in runoff and periods of drought. Akosombo dam has reached critically low levels, threatening hydropower generation and industrial activity, which poses a great to Government’s effort in ensuring growth through the private sector.
Natural Resources Management and Biodiversity: Land-use changes as a result of population and development pressures will continue to be the major driver of land-cover change in Ghana, with climate change becoming an increasingly important contribution factor by 2050. Resultant changes in ecosystems will affect the distribution and productivity of plant and animal species, water supply fuelwood, and other services. Losses of biodiversity are likely to be accelerated by climate change. Projected climate change is expected to lead to altered frequency, intensity, and extent of vegetation fires, with potential feedback effects on climate change. The formal and informal sectors of our economy are strongly based on natural resources: agriculture, logging, eco-tourism, pastoralism and mining are dominant. Climatic variations that alter the viability of these activities, for better or for worse, have very high leverage on the economy.
Human Health: Human health will be adversely affected by projected climate change. This effect will be felt more strongly in some countries than others but there is a clear need to understand the likely effects in Ghana in order to develop strategies to mitigate such effects and to understand the extent adaptation that may occur. In addition, the increased burden likely to impose on the National Health Insurance Scheme should be understood. The need for medical facilities to cope with the increased demand resulting from more patients suffering from malaria, meningitis (CSM) and other water/vector borne diseases. Temperature rises will extend the habitats of vectors of diseases such as malaria. Droughts and flooding, where sanitary infrastructure is inadequate, will result in increased frequency of epidemics and enteric diseases. More frequent outbreaks of fever could result from increased rainfall. Increased temperature of coastal waters could aggravate cholera epidemics in coastal areas.
Food Security: Recent studies carried out as part of the vulnerability of agriculture to climate change in Ghana indicate that climate change, through increased extreme weather events, will worsen food security decreasing for example maize yield by 7% by 2020. As a result of water stress, inland fisheries will be rendered more vulnerable because of episode drought and habitat destruction. Ocean warning also will modify ocean currents, with possible impacts on coastal marine fisheries. Farming systems that are predominantly along riverbanks will suffer during period of intense rainfall resulting in floods.
Settlements and Infrastructure: The basic infrastructure for development-transport, housing, services-is inadequate now, yet it represents substantial investment by our government. An increase in damaging floods, dust storms, and other extreme weather events would result in damage to settlements and infrastructure and affect human health. Most of Ghana’s infrastructure particularly industry and the only two ports, are along Coasts. Sea-level rise, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion, and flooding will have significant impacts on coastal communities and the economy as a whole.
Desertification: Climate change and desertification remain inextricably linked through feedbacks between land degradation and precipitation. Climate change might exacerbate desertification through alteration of spatial and temporal patterns in temperature, rainfall, solar insulation, and winds. Conversely, desertification aggravates carbon dioxide (CO2)-induced climate change through the release of CO2 from cleared and dead vegetation and reduction of the carbon sequestration potential of desertified land. Although the relative importance of climatic and anthropogenic factors in causing desertification remains unresolved, evidence shows that certain arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas have experienced declines in rainfall, resulting in decreases in soil fertility and agricultural, livestock, forest, and rangeland production. Ultimately, these adverse impacts lead to socio-economic instability. Potential increases in the frequency and severity of drought are likely to exacerbate desertification.
Coastal Erosion: Ghana has a coastal land stretch of about 550 kilometers, with some areas well below sea level. The eastern coast of Ghana is currently being subjected to an alarming rate of erosion of 3 meters per annum. Cost estimates made in the year 2000 indicates the cost of protecting all shorelines at risk with populations greater than 10 persons per km2 with seawalls is US$ 1.14 billion. The protection of only the important areas reduces that cost to US$590 million.
“when the voice of the people become so loud the government has no alternative but to listen” Martin Luther King Jnr.
Kenneth Nana Amoateng
Abibimman Foundation
Ghana National Youth Coalition on Climate Change ( GNYCCC)
P.O.BOX BT 1 Tema
Flat 1/A 74 Site 3
(OPP T.DC),Commmunit 1
Tel# 022213918
Mob# 0244023651
Tema-Ghana/African
tks for the effort you put in here I appreciate it!
hey i just wanted to introduce myself
I wana participate in this forum.
Just wanted to say hello all. This is my first post.
I came to learn alot here.
Hi.
What should I do to upload avatar in my profile?
Thanks.
c’est interessant , merci pour l’info !