Disarmament blog: Towards a World Free of Land Mines0

• DIPLO Blog, Public diplomacy
• 4th December 2019

Skip to content Aidan Liddle
UK Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament
4th December 2019 Geneva, Switzerland
Disarmament blog: Towards a World Free of Land Mines The Norwegian capital Oslo is where, in September 1997, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) was concluded, and also where the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and its founder Jody Williams, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the following year. So although the Convention is often known as the Ottawa Convention, after the city where the negotiations were opened in 1996 and where it was formally signed in December 1997, Oslo has a good claim to be at least one of its spiritual homes.
It felt like a homecoming then when last week, the now 164 States Parties, along with observer States, international organisations and civil society, returned to Oslo for its 4th Review Conference. The Conference took stock of progress since the last Review Conference in Maputo in 2014, and adopt..

Greening the Macedonian environmental behaviour: Let’s try a proven approach0

• DIPLO Blog, Public diplomacy
• 3rd December 2019

Skip to content Besart Ljachi
Chevening Scholar
Guest blogger for UK in North Macedonia
Part of Chevening Conversations UK in North Macedonia
3rd December 2019 Skopje, North Macedonia
Greening the Macedonian environmental behaviour: Let’s try a proven approach It is that time of the year again. The air gets foggy and our vision blurry, but ironically, this is the time when we can clearly see (and smell) our most critical issue. According to the World Health Organization, around 2,574 deaths annually can be attributed to the air pollution. In addition, the World Bank has calculated a 250 million EUR price tag that this problem brings to our economy, which represents a cost equal to significant 3.2% of the GDP.
In a true reflection of Chevening values, the Macedonian Chevening Alumni Association achieved to bring its expertise and network into play, aiming to address this grave issue. The “Greening Western Balkans’ Environmental Behaviour” conference approached environmental behaviour f..

Floods in Pibor0

• DIPLO Blog, Public diplomacy
• 28th November 2019

Skip to content Chris Trott
UK Ambassador to South Sudan
Part of UK in South Sudan
28th November 2019 Juba, South Sudan
Floods in PiborImagine you are living in a country that is facing a major humanitarian crisis and a civil war. And then it starts raining. Not for a day or two but solidly, for months. The town you are living in, with a population of around 40,000 people, is one of the poorest and most remote in the country, and is situated on a flood plain. Gradually the water rises and you realise that unless you act quickly nothing is going to survive.
So you abandon your home, build a series of mini dykes round the three highest spots in the town and then frantically try to prevent them from being breached as the water level slowly peaks. And then it sits there, for weeks on end. And you are crammed into the space of a school yard with 7,000 others trying to survive. But every journey involves waist deep water and a trudge through mud of the consistency of treacle. Everyone in th..

Floods0

• DIPLO Blog, Public diplomacy
• 28th November 2019

Skip to content Chris Trott
UK Ambassador to South Sudan
Part of UK in South Sudan
28th November 2019 South Sudan
FloodsImagine you are living in a country that is facing a major humanitarian crisis and a civil war. And then it starts raining. Not for a day or two but solidly, for months. The town you are living in, with a population of around 40,000 people, is one of the poorest and most remote in the country, and is situated on a flood plain. Gradually the water rises and you realise that unless you act quickly nothing is going to survive.
So you abandon your home, build a series of mini dykes round the three highest spots in the town and then frantically try to prevent them from being breached as the water level slowly peaks. And then it sits there, for weeks on end. And you are crammed into the space of a school yard with 7,000 others trying to survive. But every journey involves waist deep water and a trudge through mud of the consistency of treacle. Everyone in the town is affec..

Greening Western Balkans’ Environmental Behaviour0

• DIPLO Blog, Public diplomacy
• 28th November 2019

Skip to content Frosina Antonovska
Chevening Scholar
Guest blogger for UK in North Macedonia
Part of Chevening Conversations UK in North Macedonia
28th November 2019 Skopje, North Macedonia
Greening Western Balkans’ Environmental Behaviour When it comes to tackling any of the environmental threats that humanity is faced with today, the first key challenge is to raise the awareness of the problem and the need for change of behaviour. This is a worldwide quest, and definitely not unique to the Western Balkan region. However, it is evident that Western Balkan countries are lagging behind in this process, and that they have many common issues to overcome.

That is why we decided that the focus of the annual Macedonian Chevening Alumni Association (MCAA) conference this year should be exactly “Greening Western Balkan’s environmental behaviour”. We tried to tackle the key environmental awareness raising drivers from all relevant perspectives, beginning with the classical approach, and closi..