Lesson #16 - "Organizing" the 21st Century World

I did the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. This organization is a subset of the United Nations, obviously. Essentially this organization is designed to create cooperation between it's members through education, science and culture in order to ensure justice, respect for the rule of law and respect for human rights.

UNICEF: United Nations International Children's Emergency Funding

Started in 1946 to supply food and protection to children who were in countries affected by WWII.

became a permanent group in 1953 in the United Nations

-Relies on funding from governments
-Provides protection and well-being to children who are in abusive and or violent situation
-Helps with children orphaned by AIDS
-Early childhood wellness: healthcare, nutrition, safe water, basic sanitation

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) began in 1969 as the United Nations Fund for Population Activities. The UNFPA works in more than 140 countries, territories and areas. Roughly three quarters of the staff work in the field. The majority of the work involves providing supplies and services to protect reproductive health. This organization encourages participation by young people and women to help rebuild their societies who are affected by poor reproductive health. There is a lot of effort directed at prevention of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/Aids.

NATO:
Also known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; the headquarters can be found in Brussels, Belgium. Founded in 1949 to defend against Russia. The organization is a system of collective defense where the member countries agree to mutual defense in response to an attack from an external party. Much of Europe and all of North America (besides Mexico) are members.

European Union

The European Union is and economic and political partnership comprised of 27 member states. The EU was founded in November, 1993. Their main job is to keep the peace between the citizens of the 27 countries. There are 3 main bodies that make up the EU: the European Parliament (representing the people of Europe), the Council of the European Union (representing national governments), and the European Commission (representing the common EU interest). The EU has developed a single market through a standardized system of laws. These laws allow for freedom of trade, movement and services. 16 member states have developed a common currency, the euro.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

OECD was founded in 1948 to help reconstruct Europe after WWII It's an international organization made up of about 30 countries that accept the development of free market and representative democracy for the economy. The OECD annual budget is around $510 million. The U.S. is the largest contributer then Japan, Germany, U.K., and then France. Most of these countries have high income economies HDI (Human Development Index) The countries compare common problems, international policies, economics, trade, education and employment.

The World Trade Organization is a negotiating forum started in 1995. Because the world is so complex, it helps to have one place to negotiate. It has set rules that help regulate goods and services and commerce. It also has GATT's (General agreement on tariffs and trade) that provide rulings on the trade system. Its goals are to promote peace, handle disputes and provide more choices for consumers. They believe that freer trade cuts costs of living, raises incomes and stimulates economic growth. Their system makes all countries equally important in discussion and encourages good and well functioning governments.

The World Bank:

Established: 1945
President: Robert B. Zoellick

The World Bank is an international financial institution assists many developing countries and also assists developing programs. There are two different groups within the World Bank: the international bank for deconstruction and development and the international development association. The first group consists of 185 countries and the latter consists of 168 countries.

The Bank’s mission is:

1. Build capacity; strengthening governments
2. Infrastructure creation: That helps encourage the growth of business while protecting the individual
3. Development of Financial System
4. Combating Corruption
5. Research, consultancy and/or training

ASEAN - Association of Southeast Asian Nations

A coalition of countries in Southeast Asia including:
Originals - Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand,
Added later - Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

It was formed in 1967 with the goals of accelerated economic growth, social progress and the protection of peace.

They passed a treaty banning all nuclear weapons in the whole region in 1997. That's pretty chill.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was created in 1967. The purpose of the group is to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world. WIPO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and is headed by Francis Gurry.

WIPO reaches decisions by consensus, with each Member State entitled to one vote. This is important because there is a significant North-South divide in the politics of intellectual property.

A lot of the important work at WIPO is done through committees, including the Standing Committee on Patents (SCP), the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), the Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE), and the Intergovernmental Committee (IGC) on Access to Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, and the Working Group on Reform of the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

The World Heath Organization (WHO) is a group that coordinates with the UN and addresses the worlds heath problems. This organization goes to various countries helping with outbreaks of different diseases or medical crises.

League of Arab States:

- The main goal of the league is to "draw closer the relations between member States and coordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries."

- The League is an organization of Arab states in Southwest Asia, and North and Northeast Africa. - It was formed in Cairo, Egypt in 1945 with 6 members. It's been growing over the years, and it currently has 22 members.

- It has served as a discussion table for the member states to coordinate their policy positions, to deliberate on matters of common concern, to settle some Arab disputes, and to limit conflicts such as the 1958 Lebanon crisis.

- It seems like they've been trying to do a lot of good things: the league has played an important role in shaping school curricula, advancing the role of women in the Arab societies, promoting child welfare, preserving Arab cultural heritage, dealing with labor issues, encouraging measures against crime and drug abuse ... etc..

- The decisions of the League are binding only for those states that have voted for them.

International Monetary Fund

The IMF is an terrible organization that is responsible for quite a bit of poverty and suffering. While its supposed purpose is to loan money to developing countries to help with economic stability and development, in practice it is a tool of Western (in particular U.S.) imperialism. Because the U.S. has veto power over all IMF decisions, it can choose to only bail out poor countries if they adopt the Washington Consensus, a neoliberal greatest hits album of reforms such as privatization and gutting the welfare state, opening already disadvantaged countries up to be sucked dry by Western Corporations. So yeah death to the IMF.

OPEC

(organization of petrolium exporting countries)
made up of 12 countries.
those included are: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela
headquarters in vienna since 1965
accounts for 2/3 of the worlds oil reserves

OPEC's influence on the market has been widely criticized. Several members of OPEC alarmed the world and triggered high inflation across both the developing and developed world when they used oil embargoes in the 1973 oil crisis.

The United Nations General Assembly is the general gathering were all the countries get together to discuss issues and such. It is the only section of the UN were all the countries have equal power/representation.

The United Nations Security Council is responsible for international peacekeeping. It's main responsibilities include establishment of international sanctions and authorization of military action. The Five Permanent Members are: China, France, Russia, UK, U.S.

The African Union is an intergovernmental organization that consists of 53 African states. It was established on July 9th, 2002. The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a twice-yearly meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The African Unions objectives are "to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent, to promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples; to achieve peace and security in Africa; and to promote democratic institutions, good governance and human rights."

Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)is an international organization that has 118 members. It was founded in April of 1955 mainly to thwart the Cold War. The purpose of this organization is to ensure the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of non-aligned countries. They are against all forms of aggression, occupation, domination, and great powers/bloc parties. They represent 55% of the world's population and nearly 2/3 of the United Nation's members. After the Cold War ended, the NAM has struggled to find relevance.

OIC
Organization of the Islamic Conference
Is a group of 57 Islamic Countries that meet and agree on certain issues regarding Islam.
They meet once every three years. the do not support the destruction of israel or deny the holocaust.

WFP
World Food Program
The Largest Humanitarian Organization in the UN and the food aid branch of the United Nations. Goals:

-Saving lives in refugee and other emergency situations
-improve the nutrition and quality of the most vulnerable people at the most vulnerable/critical parts of their lives
-help build assets and promote the self reliance of poor people and communities; particularly through labor intensive work programs

OAS is an international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States.[1] Its members are the thirty-five independent states of the Americas. It is the world's oldest regional organization. The goal of the member nations in creating the OAS was "to achieve an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence." The Organization's official languages are Spanish, English, Portuguese, and French, the national languages of the majority of its member nations.

the G8 or Group of 8 is a forum of eight powerful countries in the northern hemisphere (USA, Canada, France, GB, Italy, Japan, Russia, Germany). They have meetings that they self-importantly call summits once a year where they talk about important things like global warming. It's basically just a cool countries' clique.

Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation: It's a forum of 21 Pacific rim countries dedicated to dedicated to enhancing the economic growth in the Asian-pacific community. They do this through an annual meeting, termed the APEC economic leaders meeting, in which they discuss issues that have to do with cooperating on regional trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation.