Upcoming Events

UNDP and the EMES European Research Network will launch their joint study, Social Enterprise: A New Model for Poverty Reduction and Employment Generation on 9 July 2008. The launch will take place in Barcelona, Spain at the International Conference entitled, ‘The Third Sector and Sustainable Social Change: New Frontiers of Research’, which is being convened by the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR) and EMES. The study focuses on Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Representatives of EMES and UNDP, which commissioned the publication, will present the main findings and highlight the opportunities and challenges for social enterprises. The publication is the product of a three-year project bringing together academics, researchers, practitioners and international-development professionals. The project focuses on measures to promote social enterprises, especially their potential to reduce social exclusion and generate employment. For more information, please contact Geoff Prewitt, Civil Society Adviser at UNDP’s Bratislava Regional Centre (geoff.prewitt@undp.org).

The Central European University and UNDP will hold a course entitled, ‘Sustainable Human Development - Regional Challenges and Responses’ in Budapest from 7-18 Jul 2008. The course will be policy oriented and bring together practitioners, mid- and high-level policy makers, academics, and civil-society activists from the region as well as experts on issues of human development and the Millennium Development Goals. The aim of the course is to address deficits in understanding and to apply the concept of sustainable human development to the region. Instructors and facilitators will be from the Bratislava Regional Centre, various universities, and UNDP country offices. For more information please contact Mihail Peleah, Research Assistant at the Bratislava Regional Centre (mihail.peleah@undp.org).

Tbilisi, Georgia will host an exhibition entitled, ‘Climate-Friendly Technologies’ to demonstrate examples of technologies useful for mitigation and adaptation. The show will demonstrate the need and the opportunities for developing climate-friendly technologies in Georgia. The exhibition is supported by the UNDP Georgia project ‘Enabling activities for the preparation of Georgia’s second national communication to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’. The exhibition will take place in July. For more information and exact dates, please contact Marina Shvangiradze (marina.shvangiradze@undp.org.ge).

The conference entitled ‘Adaptation of Forests and Forest Management to Changing Climate with an Emphasis on Forest Health: A Review of Science, Policies and Practices’ will take place in Umeå, Sweden on 26-28 August 2008. Scientists, forest managers, and policy makers from around the world will come together to share knowledge about the impact of changes in climatic conditions on forests, and on the implications of these changes for forest health, management and conservation. Information about keynote speakers, topics covered by the conference, and the voluntary sessions are available on the conference website (www.forestadaptation2008.net).

The European Conference on Applied Climatology (ECAC), together with the Annual Meeting of the European Meteorological Society (EMS), will be held in Amsterdam from 29 September to 3 October 2008. The theme of the conference is the understanding of, and adaptation to, the current and future climate. ECAC will serve as a platform where experts and scientists on climate will communicate with policy makers who are responsible for the implementation of adaptation strategies. As adaptation to climate change is a global issue, the conference organizers would like to especially encourage people from non-European countries to attend. For more information, please visit http://meetings.copernicus.org/ems2008.

From 1-12 December 2008 the City of Poznan in Poland will host the United Nations Climate Conference, a major forum that brings together the COP14 (the 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), along with the 4th Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The Conference is organized by the Secretariat of the UNFCCC and hosted by the Government of Poland. It is envisaged that the two-week session will be attended by 8,000 participants: more than 190 government delegations headed by ministers for the environment or climate change, international institutions, environmental, business and research non-governmental organizations, and the media. For more information, please visit http://unfccc.int. or www.cop14.gov.pl.