Week in Review

Hello,

Happy Friday all and welcome to a jam-packed Week in Review. This weeks highlights include: a powerful report from Save the Children, nothing ‘general’ at all about the General Debate at the General Assembly, Jeff Sachs on a model for well-being and a new interactive map of the Americas.

Untold Atrocities - The Story of Syria’s Children (Save the Children)
The violent conflict devastating Syria has had a catastrophic effect on the nation’s children. With news and information sources on the ground limited, this powerful report from Save the Children breaks away from the traditional human rights report format; it provides a collection of testimonies from children and parents about their experiences so far. Untold Atrocities’ paints a disturbing picture of the horrors Syrian children are facing.  

In the Spotlight: The General Debate at the General Assembly
The conflict in Syria and the inaction of the Security Council has been a hot topic at the 2012 General Debate. The annual debate at the UN General Assembly takes place amid a 'time of turmoil and transition’. Ban Ki-moon has called on World Leaders to overcome divisions, do more to address sobering challenges; he has stated that the UN can only be as strong as members choose to make it and urges delegations to find courage, tenacity of purposes.

Finding the Keys to National Prosperity (Project Syndicate 27.09.2012)
Jeffrey Sachs writes for Project Syndicate about how to go about creating the model economy and what lessons can be learnt from various global winners. He argues that the most successful economic reforms are made by adapting policy successes of other countries to local conditions.

Quote: ‘So here is one model economy: German labor-market policies, Swedish pensions, French low-carbon energy, Canadian health care, Swiss energy efficiency, American scientific curiosity, Brazilian anti-poverty programs, and Costa Rican tropical happiness.’ Jeff Sachs, Project Syndicate 2012

Mapping the Americas (IDB)
This interactive map of the Americas combines statistics, photos and maps to highlight key IDB financed projects that aim to create projects sustainable economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The map was a huge hit at the recent OECD Seminar on Innovative Approaches to Turn Statistics into Knowledge.

That’s all from me this week. Stay up to date with progress related news and events by following Wikiprogress on Twitter and ‘liking’ us on Facebook.

Yours in Progress,

Philippa Lysaght