CLIMATE CHANGE 2007, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, WMO/UNEP, 2007. The Summary for Policy Makers, 23 pages, dated 6 April 2007, is already available for downloading. Background: "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been established by WMO and UNEP to assess scientific, technical and socio- economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. It is currently finalizing its Fourth Assessment Report "Climate Change 2007". The reports by the three Working Groups provide a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the current state of knowledge on climate change. The Synthesis Report integrates the information around six topic areas." Release of the final report is planned in early May 2007.

ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN EASTERN CONGO, WFR, Winter 2007. Summary: " In response to horrific reports of rampant sexual violence from the international NGO community and Congolese women themselves, Women for Women International launched a multi-tiered programme of direct aid and emotional support, rights awareness and leadership education, vocational skills training and income-generation support in the DRC in May 2004 to provide services to the socially excluded Congolese women who endured, witnessed and survived these atrocities."

FEMINICIDE, THE KILLING OF WOMEN AND GIRLS, CitizenShift, 2007. From the website: "Feminicide is the systematic and deliberate killing of women and girls and it's happening worldwide. It's the murder of women in Mexico, Guatemala and Canada. It's the practice of female infanticide and sex selective abortion in parts of Asia. It's dowry killing and bride burning in regions of Africa and the Middle East; and too often, it's the end result of domestic violence that occurs behind the closed doors of every neighborhood in every city in every country in the world. Filmmakers Alex Flores and Lorena Vassolo take us to the disturbing situation in Ciudad Juarez, where women and girls are being kidnapped, raped and murdered with what appears to be total impunity from the law."

2007 WORLDWIDE QUALITY OF LIVING SURVEY, Mercer Human Resource Consulting, April 2007. From the website: "The 2007 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting has found that four of the world’s five top-scoring cities for health and sanitation are in North America. Calgary ranks top with a score of 131.7, followed by Honolulu, which scores 130.3. Helsinki – the only European city in the top five – follows closely in the rankings with a score of 128.5. Ottawa and Minneapolis take fourth and fifth places with scores of 127.2 and 125.7 respectively. Scores are based on the quality and availability of hospital and medical supplies and levels of air pollution and infectious diseases. The efficiency of waste removal and sewage systems, water potability and the presence of harmful animals and insects are also taken into account."

GOVERNANCE FOR THE FUTURE: DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT IN LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, UNDP, 2006, 372 pages. From the foreword: "Governance for the Future: Democracy and Development in the LDCs is the first United Nations Report to focus specifically on the challenges of governance faced by the 50 poorest nations in the world, collectively known as Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Jointly prepared by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and the Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), this publication emphasizes that to achieve sustainable development, LDCs must build transparent, accountable and effective democratic governance systems. Building a strong relationship between the state and its citizens is key to successful development and to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015."

GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, USHMM, April 2007. From the website: "The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has joined with Google in an unprecedented online mapping initiative. Crisis in Darfur enables more than 200 million Google Earth users worldwide to visualize and better understand the genocide currently unfolding in Darfur, Sudan. The Museum has assembled content -- photographs, data, and eyewitness testimony from a number of sources that are brought together for the first time in Google Earth." Downloading and installing Google Earth is required before the Crisis in Darfur presentation can be viewed.

WORLD ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 2007, IMF, April 2007. From the website: "The World Economic Outlook (WEO) presents the IMF staff's analysis and projections of economic developments at the global level, in major country groups (classified by region, stage of development, etc.), and in many individual countries. It focuses on major economic policy issues as well as on the analysis of economic developments and prospects. It is usually prepared twice a year, as documentation for meetings of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, and forms the main instrument of the IMF's global surveillance activities." Both the full text of the report and the supporting database are available for downloading.

GLOBAL MONITORING REPORT 2007 (GMR2007), World Bank, 13 April 2007. From the website: "The 2007 Global Monitoring Report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) assesses the contributions of developing countries, developed countries, and international financial institutions toward meeting universally agreed development commitments. Fourth in a series of annual reports leading up to 2015, this year's report reviews key developments of the past year, emerging priorities, and an assessment of performance drawing on numerous indicators. Subtitled "Confronting the Challenges of Gender Equality and Fragile States", the report highlights two key thematic areas —gender equality and empowerment of women (the third MDG) and the special problems of fragile states, where extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated." The entire report can be downloaded, as well as a 20 page overview. Make sure you browse the Online Atlas of the Millennium Development Goals.

REPORT ON THE SEXUALIZATION OF GIRLS, APA, 2007. This is a very important report, as it shows the harmful effects of the sexualized images of girls. These include eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression. The APA website provides an Executive Summary (HTML), an Executive Summary (PDF), and the complete Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls (PDF). There are separate web pages about What Parents Can Do, and a directory of media literacy resources for Empowering Girls. This is the bottom line for parents: "Parents can teach girls to value themselves for who they are, rather than how they look. Parents can teach boys to value girls as friends, sisters, and girlfriends, rather than as sexual objects."

OPEN EDUCATIONAL (OER) MOVEMENT, Report to The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Daniel E. Atkins et. al., OERderves, February 2007, 80 pages. See also the new OERderves website, from which the report can be downloaded in either PDF or DOC format. "Central to the report is the idea of 'The Brewing Perfect Storm' and the creation of an Open Participatory Learning Infrastructure." This is another educational horizon that ICT is making visible in conjunction with the process of globalization.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT BEST PRACTICES GUIDE, United States Conference of Mayors, January 2007, 82 pages. From the letter of transmittal: "The past few years have clearly illustrated America’s vulnerability to an uncertain energy future. Similarly, the emerging threat of global climate change, due largely to widespread fossil fuel use, has made it clear that business as usual, as far as energy use is concerned, is not sustainable. To remain competitive as the global economy expands and puts greater strain on traditional fuel supplies, the United States, in our view, must develop a comprehensive strategy of fuel diversity, and a combination of conservation, alternative forms of energy and modern energy technologies. Furthermore, rising energy costs and the threat of widespread blackouts here, and the unpredictability of energy supplies from abroad require leadership at all levels in attaining energy independence, security, and reliability." What about leadership in moderating consumption?

IDB SUSTAINABILITY REVIEW 2006, IDB, 23 April 2007. From the announcement: "The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) released its second Sustainability Review in April 2007. The review tracks the Bank’s progress in promoting social and environmental sustainability in IDB-financed projects in its member countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.... The IDB is the primary source of multilateral development financing in Latin America and the Caribbean, fostering sustainable economic and social development and reducing poverty in the region through its lending operations, leadership in regional initiatives, research, knowledge dissemination activities, institutes, and programs." The report is available online in English and Spanish.

HUMAN CAPITAL, OECD, 2007. OECD Summary: "The world's economy is changing. Globalisation means jobs move from country to country, while computers and advanced communications are changing the way business works - and the sort of work we do. Today, the value of skilled, complex and creative work is growing fast. As a result, economic success for countries and for individuals relies increasingly on human capital - our knowledge, skills learning, talents and abilities. How can societies raise human capital and ensure everyone gets the education they need at every stage of life, from early childhood to adulthood? Drawing on the unique resources of the OECD, Human Capital explains these issues using straightforward language and examples drawn from the real world. "Human Capital" - an essential introduction to a subject we're going to be hearing a lot more of in the years to come." Brian Keeley, OECD, 20 February 2007.

THE GROSS INEQUITIES OF GLOBAL IMBALANCES, Terry McKinley and Alex Izurieta, UNDP International Poverty Centre, Brasilia, Brazil, February 2007. "The huge size of current global economic imbalances is unprecedented. Such imbalances are both unsustainable and inequitable (see the IPC webpage on the State of the World Economy, e.g., Working Papers #12 and #23). A few rich countries are running large current account deficits. One in particular, the US, is running a deficit about 3.5 times larger than the deficits of all other OECD countries combined .... Current global imbalances not only pose huge dangers; they also cause a grossly inequitable distribution of global resources. Capital is 'flowing uphill' to rich countries—overwhelmingly to one rich country, the US."

MODEL FOR SELF-FINANCING ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS FOR THE WORLD’S POOR, T. E. Manning, Stichting Bakens Verzet (NGO "Another Way"), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1 March 2007. This is a planning model for "sustainable fully ecological poverty alleviation in rural and poor urban environments, incorporating an innovative package of social, financial, and productive structures, with basic services necessary for a good quality of life for all, a leading role for women, and numerous renewable energy applications." It can be downloaded and used free of charge. To download the model and instructions go STICHTING BAKENS VERZET. The Model leads you step by step through a programme for the drafting of your own self-financing, ecological, sustainable integrated development project. The basic texts for your project have been prepared for you. They need to be adapted where necessary to the requirements of your project area.

WORLD POPULATION PROSPECTS: THE 2006 REVISION, United Nations Population Division. From the press release: "The world population continues its path towards population ageing and is on track to surpass 9 billion persons by 2050, as revealed by the newly released 2006 Revision of the official United Nations population estimates and projections." For more population data, including recent updates on international migration trends, see the Population Division Home Page.

GENDER EQUITY INDEX 2007: PROGRESS AND REGRESSION, Social Watch, 2007. From the website: "The Gender Equity Index (GEI) has been developed by the Social Watch Research Team to measure inequities in different areas of women's and men's everyday lives around the world. The 2007 GEI ranks 154 countries by measuring women's relative economic activity, education and empowerment. This year's GEI report additionally focuses on progress or regression in achieving gender equity over the 2004-2007 period. The relevant data have also been analyzed regionally. An analysis of the 2007 general values reveals first of all that the gender gap persists in all countries of the world!" See the geography of gender equity.

GLOBAL INTEGRITY INDEX 2006, Global Integrity, 2007. From the website: "The Global Integrity Index assesses the existence and effectiveness of anti-corruption mechanisms that promote public integrity. More than 290 discrete Integrity Indicators generate the Integrity Index and are organized into six key categories and twenty three sub-categories. Prepared by a lead researcher in the country and then blindly reviewed by additional in-country and external experts, the Integrity Indicators not only assess the existence of laws, regulations, and institutions designed to curb corruption but also their implementation, as well as the access that average citizens have to those mechanisms."

INEXCUSABLE ABSENCE: Why 60 Million Girls Still Aren't In School and What to do About It, Maureen Lewis and Marlaine Lockheed, Center for Global Development, December 2006. From the website: "The widespread neglect of the education of girls is one of the most distressing problems in the world today, which blights their future and damages the rest of the society as well. This is a very welcome report on an extraordinarily important problem, and I hope it will receive the attention it richly deserves." - Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate and Lamont university professor of economics and philosophy, Harvard University.

PROMISING DEMOCRACY, IMPOSING THEOCRACY: Gender-Based Violence and the US War on Iraq, MADRE, New York, 6 March 2007. From the online press packet: "MADRE has released a groundbreaking report on the incidence, causes, and legalization of gender-based violence in Iraq since the US-led invasion. Amidst the chaos and violence of US-occupied Iraq, women—in particular those who are perceived to pose a challenge to the political project of their attackers—have increasingly been targeted because they are women. Today, they are subjected to unprecedented levels of assault in the public sphere, "honor killings," torture in detention, and other forms of gender-based violence."

COMMITMENT TO DEVELOPMENT INDEX 2006, Center for Global Development, 2007. From the website: "Rich and poor countries are linked in many ways—by foreign aid, commerce, migration, the environment, and military affairs. The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) rates 21 rich countries on how much they help poor countries build prosperity, good government, and security. Each rich country gets scores in seven policy areas, which are averaged for an overall score." In terms of environmental performance, the overall rank shows Fargo, ND, to be the highest (best) and Detroit, MI, to be the lowest (worst).

COST OF THE WAR ON TERROR SINCE 9/11, Amy Belasco, CRS Report to Congress, 14 March 2007, 45 pages. The complete title of the report is: "The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11." From the Summary: "With enactment of FY2007 appropriations, Congress has approved a total of about $510 billion for military operations, base security, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans’ health care for the three operations initiated since the 9/11 attacks: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) covering Afghanistan and other counter terror operations, Operation Noble Eagle (ONE) providing enhanced security at military bases, and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Iraq."

WORLD DATABASE ON PROTECTED AREAS (WDPA), UNEP-WCMC PROTEUS, 2007. From the website: "The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is recognized by decision-makers and policy advisors around the world as a unique and valuable resource. The WDPA is maintained by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre in collaboration with the World Conservation Union (IUCN) on behalf of a consortium of organizations. The System Design Specification, Data Flow, Project Plan, and Gantt Chart are available for download.

ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS: BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEBATES, Ethan Goffman, ProQuest-CSA, April 2007. From the introduction: "Economic activity that harms the environment creates present or future losses to humans in the form of damaged health, lower productivity, depleted natural resources, and reduced enjoyment of nature. Environmental economics seeks to quantify these losses and determine the most efficient way to reduce them, as well as to compare the cost of environmental damage to the cost of mitigation. To analyze the costs and benefits of reduced environmental damage, economists must compare changes in economic well being today with changes in economic well being in the future. This involves judging the extent to which future generations will have higher income and better methods for mitigating pollution effects." Includes a list of key citations, a list of resources, and a glossary. The table of contents is as follows:

• Introduction
• Using Economics to Regulate the Environment
  • introduction
  • marginal abatement costs
  • the real world
• Ecological Economics: Altering Assumptions
• Growth & the Environmental Kuznets Curve
• The Kyoto Treaty & Environmental Economics

COUNTDOWN 2015, ICPD, 2007. According to the website, Countdown 2015: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All is an initiative dedicated to assessing the progress and mapping the future for the key goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in 1994." The website is available in English, Spanish, French, and Italian. It includes sections on news, resources, youth, European activity, and a directory of links to several websites with useful resource information and data, notably maps showing the global geographic distribution of reproductive risks. It is provides a gateway to the ICPD AT TEN report card and the supporting database of 133 countries. In the ongoing process of balancing practical priorities and sexual morality, this website provides a knowledge base for the practical facts of life.

FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION, WHO, April 2007. This is a new website, recently launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide comprehensive information on the health impacts of female genital mutilation. According to the introduction in the home page: "Despite more than 25 years of efforts to curtail its practice, female genital mutilation (FGM)—defined by WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as “the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for cultural or other nontherapeutic reasons”—is still a deeply rooted tradition in more than 28 countries in Africa and in some countries in Asia and the Middle East. In the world today there are an estimated 100 million to 140 million girls and women who have been subjected to the operation. Currently, about 3 million girls, the majority under 15 years of age, undergo the procedure every year."

IMITATION, MIMETIC THEORY, RELIGIOUS & CULTURAL EVOLUTION, April 2007. From the home page: "Sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation, the Metanexus Institute, and the Travis Research Institute of Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, this two year project brings together some of the world’s most prominent scientists, philosophers, and religious scholars in an attempt to explore current theories of human imitation and their converging implications for contemporary psychosocial, religious, and scientific thought." A mimetic analysis of the scapegoating mechanism used by a religious institution to neutralize a crisis has already been presented in this newsletter (March 2006 to August 2006). It is hoped that an improved mimetic analysis of the same process can be articulated as a result of new insights provided by mimetic theory.

IDEOLOGIES OF WAR AND TERROR, April 2007. From the introduction to the website: "What is the source of the power of ideologies? Why do people become attached to ideologies to the extent that they are willing to die and kill in their name? This Website seeks to explore the psychological roots of our attachment to structures of thought that generate destruction and self-destruction within societies and civilizations. Political violence occurs in the form of events that we call war, genocide and terrorism. Some people view these events as the consequence of consciously formulated plans or strategies. Others observe these events and see mindless rage or aggression. We propose that political violence occurs when people act upon or act out propositions contained within ideologies."

GLOBAL LEARNING PORTAL (GLP), upgraded April 2007. Summary: "The Global Learning Portal is a public-private partnership between AED, Sun Microsystems, and USAID. It aims at expanding the educational resources available to primary and secondary school teachers in developing countries. The collaborative Web site allows visitors to become members and benefit from a wide range of services. GLP has recently launched an online course tool. The tool—called Moodle—can be used to create and conduct different courses for its members. Moodle can be used in a number of ways to engage learners in self-paced lessons. It can also be used to create files that can be printed, or used on computers with no internet connectivity. For more information, please visit the Global Learning Portal (Summary by Thomas Bekkers, Development Gateway Communities, 10 April 2007).

PUBLISH OR PERISH, Anne-Wil Harzing, Professor of International Management, University of Melbourne, Australia. Her website provides resources and tools for researchers in international and cross-cultural management. One of these tools is Publish or Perish (the Windows version 1.7 was released 9 March 2007), and is available for downloading free of charge. The program installs easily and works like a charm. It retrieves and analyzes academic citations from the Advanced Google Scholar Search and, for a given author (or journal, or set of keywords) calculates the total number of papers, total number of citations per paper, and several indices of research productivity and quality. These numerical indices may be useful mostly for academic evaluations, but just getting a list of papers published (1000 max) is of great value for the online researcher who needs to find out quickly who has published what, when, and where in a given knowledge domain. Clicking on any citation brings up the Google Scholar listing, so one more click and you are reading the paper in your browser. It would be nice to have a similar tool for analysis of Google News.

GLOBALISATION FOR THE COMMON GOOD - This web site just launched and still under construction, but the Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative (started in Oxford, 2002), sounds like the kind of thing we need: "Committed to spirituality, compassion and respect for others, truly religious people must not allow their religion to be hijacked and abused in this way by exclusivist ideologues. We must make a stand together for peace, understanding, mutual respect, dialogue and justice. We must welcome religious diversity and concede that no single religion can claim a monopoly of Truth. Indeed, at this time in our history and journey- facing globalisation, global warming, aids and more- we need each other far more than in the past, and the future of our world demands that we teach to our students, parishioners and communities the value and benefits of dialogue, co-operation and interdependence."

KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY (KAM), World Bank Institute, 20 March 2007. From the website: "The KAM is a user-friendly interactive Internet-based tool that provides a basic assessment of countries' and regions' readiness for the knowledge economy. It is designed to help client countries identify problems and opportunities that they may face, and where they may need to focus policy attention or future investments, with respect to making the transition to the knowledge economy." The point of contact for more information is Faythe Agnes Calandra.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH WEB, a community website from IOP Publishing (UK). From the website: "This website is a resource to help scientists, policymakers and campaigners keep up to the minute with the latest news and views on environmental science topics. Basically, the site covers all aspects of environmental science, from climate change to biodiversity, from renewable energy to pollution, from economics to environmental legislation, and from health issues to sustainability." It is linked to the Environmental Research Letters (ERL), a new open-access journal serving the whole environmental science research community. Several points of contact are listed.

GEO-NETWORK OPENSOURCE, FAO, WFP, and UNEP, 2007. From the website: "GeoNetwork opensource is a standardized and decentralized spatial information management environment, designed to enable access to geo-referenced databases, cartographic products and related metadata from a variety of sources, enhancing the spatial information exchange and sharing between organizations and their audience, using the capacities of the internet. This approach of geographic information management aims at facilitating a wide community of spatial information users to have easy and timely access to available spatial data and to existing thematic maps that might support informed decision making." Plenty of documentation and tutorials at the home page, GeoNetwork opensource Community website.