UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK

Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About

In its continuing efforts to draw attention to important international developments and issues that fall outside the media spotlight, the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) has launched a new list of “Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About.”

“Our list presents a wide spectrum of matters of concern to many, many people around the world, and we look forward to working with media everywhere to help raise the profile of these stories,” said Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, during the launch of the 2005 list at UN Headquarters in New York.

As in 2004, when the Ten Stories initiative was inaugurated, the new list includes stories on an array of issues and from several geographical regions. Some of the stories on the list focus on troubling humanitarian emergencies and conflict situations, but they also highlight such vital areas as human rights, health and development.

“We know that journalists can’t cover everything,” said Mr. Tharoor, “but we feel that people around the world need to know more about these critical stories.”

The list has been prepared in consultation with UN offices and programmes, many of which provided their views and ideas on issues they believed would benefit from greater media exposure. As happened last year, the final selection was DPI’s alone. While the stories are ranked from 1 to 10, their ranking is not a reflection of their relative significance.

(all files are in Adobe PDF)

1.   Somalia:  Steps on a path to fragile peace in a shattered country
Somalia is looking at its best chance for peace in 15 years as the reconciliation process moves into a new and crucial phase and with the UN poised to ramp up its humanitarian assistance. But rampant insecurity poses a steep challenge to this endeavour as most international media give the country a wide berth.

2.   Tragic blind spot in health care for women
A little known campaign to prevent crippling childbirth injuries could spare tens of thousands of women each year from incapacitating health problems and social ostracism caused by obstetric fistula.

3.   Northern Uganda: A humanitarian crisis that demands sustained focus
A humanitarian tragedy has been unfolding in the northern part of Uganda -- its impact on some of the most vulnerable groups, especially children, is a story that demands close and continuous attention.

4.   Sierra Leone: Building on a hard-won peace
They have ended the conflict, disarmed thousands of combatants, freed thousands of child soldiers and watched over democratic elections. But now that the UN’s peacekeepers are leaving, the world must remain committed to helping the country overcome the many challenges to its fragile peace.

5.   Actors for change: The growth of human rights institutions
Defending human rights has a new tool in its arsenal. More than 100 national institutions have emerged in recent years to protect the rights of vulnerable groups. They are increasingly active in a wide range of human rights causes, from the prevention of torture and discrimination to conflict resolution.

6.   Cameroon: Farming in the dark
Poor farmers have little chance of getting a fair price for their produce if they don’t know how much markets beyond their villages are willing to pay. The internet is leveling their playing field through schemes such as INFOSHARE, which is giving access to the latest market news to thousands of remote cocoa and coffee farmers in Cameroon.

7.   Island after the hurricane:  Grenada struggles to recover from devastation
It’s not just the money! Three months before the tsunami grabbed world headlines, the island paradise of Grenada was ripped by Hurricane Ivan. The world responded generously at the time, but seven months later most of the country’s housing remains in ruins; an example of how disaster recovery needs the sustained support of the international community.

8.   Behind closed doors: Violence against women
Its statistics are alarming, the spread global, the human cost staggering, but the problem of gender-based violence often lacks the consistent media spotlight it warrants.

9.   A viable alternative: Curbing illicit drugs through development 
Four million peasant farmers are harnessed by poverty and drug lords to the cultivation of coca leaf and opium poppy. Most would rather be doing something else. The UN is showing them a way out.

­10. Environment and health: New insights into spread of infectious diseases
Scientists have offered the world another good reason to protect the environment. They have identified a loathsome catalogue of infectious diseases that have revived and thrived in places where natural habitats are altered or degraded by loggers, road and dam builders and urban encroachment.

(Revised on 25 May 2005)