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	“Mobilizing for Change” - Report on Civil Society Action & Millennium Development Goals by The North-South Institute Canada   Ottawa, June 2005   As people around Canada and the world join the call to action against poverty, The North-South Institute and the World Federation of United Nations Associations released today the 4th annual report on civil society engagement with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).   Entitled, WE the Peoples 2005- Mobilizing for Change: Messages from Civil Society, the report gathers information from civil society organizations around the globe - their opinions, priorities and actions - relative to the implementation of the MDGs and the Millennium Declaration...   At the United Nations Millennium Review Summit, being held in New York from September 14th to 16th, world leaders will meet to discuss the future of the United Nations, global collective security, and relations between rich and poor. This meeting will mark five years since the largest-ever gathering of Heads of State and government adopted the Millennium Declaration - and this year political leaders are urged to take actions to ensure the fulfillment of the Millennium Declaration.   This year's report of We the Peoples presents priorities that go beyond the UN Millennium Review Summit. It highlights opportunities for action, calling for greater commitment and a more advanced agenda. The report is a summary of the survey respondents review of the progress made over the past five years and lessons that need to be learned. The report is based on a consultative world-wide electronic survey offered in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. Out of the 439 survey respondents, almost 60 per cent are from the "global south" and the majority of respondents work at the national or regional level.   John Foster, NSI Principal Researcher (Civil Society), has coordinated all four annual surveys, and co-written the report along with Pera Wells of WFUNA.   "We the Peoples Report 2005 mirrors the opinions and actions of the groups which participated in the survey." explains Foster. "Our hope is that the report will increase the participation and actions of groups around the world campaigning for the Millennium Development Goals, as well as help them evaluate their strategies. We hope civil society activists use the report, act on it, raise the bar and transcend it," emphasizes Foster.   The messages from CSOs to the world leaders reported in We the Peoples 2005 include:   * Implement the Millennium Development Goals, but go beyond them. Get at the roots of poverty and growing inequality; remove the obstacles to universal human rights, health, and education; eliminate the dangers to our planet's climate and environment; and undertake urgent collective action to build and sustain peace everywhere.   * Strengthen the United Nations to assure development, social justice, peace, and security in our world.   * A dramatic result from this year's survey is the view from 70 per cent of the 439 worldwide respondents that the war on terror and on Iraq are having a negative impact on development work and on achieving the MDGs.   * The most serious obstacle to success against HIV/AIDS is the weakness of health service at the community level, lack of universal and equitable access to health care. There must be assured access to radically strengthened health systems. The right to health must be recognized nationally and internationally.   * Nearly 55 per cent of survey respondents want to see great inclusion of civil society in government policy deliberations.   * Almost 52 per cent of survey respondents believe progress on the development goals would be significantly improved through strategic partnerships with the private sector. Meanwhile, 49 per cent want to see mandatory standards of corporate social responsibility.   * The report concludes that climate change is probably the single greatest environmental threat, one that bears heavily on the poor. Global warming may exceed war or political upheaval as a producer of displaced people.   * Promoting and protecting the right to water, and advocacy against privatization of water and water systems, are priorities for a number of global CSOs.   The report also offers concrete actions that can be taken to help achieve the MDGs by 2015. Among these are included: engaging the public and political leaders through meetings and strategic campaigning to act on the Global Call to Action Against Poverty; as well as campaigning to support national or international initiatives geared to reduce poverty, improve trade terms, debt relief, and implement social support systems for education and health care among others.   We the Peoples 2005 is available in English and French at www.nsi-ins.ca and www.wfuna.org. Visit the related web page
	U.S. image abroad still Sinking by Jim Lobe Financial Times / Inter Press Service   August 2, 2005   "World Turning Its Back on Brand America", by Kevin Allison. (The Financial Times/UK )   The US is increasingly viewed as a "culture-free zone" inhabited by arrogant and unfriendly people, according to study of 25 countries' brand reputations.   The findings, published online today, will add to concerns that anti-Americanism is hurting companies whose products are considered to be distinctly "American".   The Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index found that although US foreign policy remained a key driver of hostility, dissatisfaction with the world's sole superpower might run deeper.   "The US is still recognized as a leading place to do business, the home of desirable brands and popular culture," said Simon Anholt, author of the survey. "But its governance, its cultural heritage and its people are no longer widely respected or admired by the world."   Keith Reinhard, president of Business for Diplomatic Action, a group of business leaders dedicated to improving the US's image overseas, said help from the private sector was needed to repair Brand America.   "Right now the US government is not a credible messenger," said Mr Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide, the advertising group. "We must work to build bridges of understanding and co-operation and respect through business-to-business activities."   Such initiatives could include lobbying for less stringent visa requirements for foreign students entering the US, increased cultural exchanges between US businesses and their foreign counterparts, and courses in diplomacy and foreign languages at business schools.   The US ranked 11th in the Brands Index, which asks people around the world to rate 25 countries according to their cultural, political and investment potential and other criteria. Australia received the highest overall score, with respondents expressing "an almost universal admiration of its people, landscapes and living and working environment", according to the report.   Although the US received high marks for its popular culture, it ranked last in cultural heritage, a measure of a country's "wisdom, intelligence, and integrity", according to Mr Anholt.   That the world takes a dim view of the US people will surprise most Americans themselves: the study's American respondents consistently placed the US at the top of all six categories polled.   © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2005   June 24, 2005 (IPS)   Two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Washington's image in Europe, Canada and much of the Islamic world remains broadly negative, according to the latest in a series of surveys of public opinion in 16 countries sponsored by the Pew Global Attitudes Project (PGAP).   While some of the hostility, particularly in Muslim countries immediately after the 2003 invasion, has abated somewhat, the overall opinion of the U.S. public voiced by the citizens of Washington's traditional allies and in the Islamic world has continued to fall over the past two years, according to the survey and accompanying analysis.   Consistent with pre-U.S. election surveys of foreign countries last fall, the re-election of U.S. President George W. Bush is seen almost universally as tarnishing the country's image abroad.   On specific issues relating to Iraq and Bush's ''war on terrorism,'' strong pluralities or majorities in all 16 countries except India and the U.S. said that the world was more dangerous without former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.   Out of the 14 countries where the question was asked, only in Poland did a plurality of respondents say that Bush's re-election inclined to them think of the U.S. more favorably. Twenty-one percent of Polish respondents said they thought better of the U.S. as a result of Bush's re-election; 18 percent said it made them think of the U.S. More negatively.   In all other countries -- Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Lebanon, Jordan, India -- pluralities or majorities said Bush's re-election made them feel worse about the U.S. by margins that ranged from three to one to as more than five to one (Turkey).   Only in India, was the margin less -- 35 percent of respondents there said it made them feel worse about the U.S.; 28 percent said it made them feel better.   Remarkably, 11 of the 16 countries, including Washington's traditional European allies, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Jordan, and Indonesia, all rated China more favorably than the U.S.   ''It's amazing when you have the European public rating the United States so poorly, especially in comparison with China,'' said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, who has co-ordinated the PGAP studies since they began in 1999.   Surprisingly, two countries that have had historically rocky relations with Beijing -- Russia and Indonesia -- also rated Washington less favorably in comparison.   Nonetheless, the survey found substantial improvements in Washington's image over the past two years in a number of the surveyed countries. In Russia, 52 percent of respondents rated the U.S. Favorably compared to 36 percent two years ago.   In Indonesia, 38 percent of the public gave the U.S. an overall favorable rating compared to 15 percent two years ago, an improvement which PGAP attributed in major part to the rescue and relief role played by the U.S. after last December's devastating tsunami.   Improvements were also found elsewhere in the Islamic world. In Lebanon, for example, favorable marks rose from 27 percent to 42 percent, and in Jordan, one percent to 21 percent. And while only 15 percent of Turks gave the U.S. a favorable rating in 2003, 23 percent did so this year -- down from 30 percent in the last PGAP poll for that country in May 2004.   Overall, however, solid majorities in all five predominantly Muslim countries covered by the survey still expressed unfavorable views of the U.S. in sharp contrast to the views expressed by predominantly Muslim countries surveyed by Pew just five years ago.   Washington is also seen as increasingly self-interested in its foreign policy in half of the surveyed countries compared to two years ago, particularly among its closest allies.   Asked whether Washington considers other countries' interests in pressing its policy goals, only 19 percent of Canadians said it did, compared to 28 percent in 2003; and only 32 percent of British respondents said so, compared to 44 percent two years ago.   In only three countries did a majority of respondents say that the U.S. did take into account other nations' interests: post-tsunami Indonesia (59 percent -- up from 25 percent in 2003); China (53 percent) and India (63 percent). (The question was asked in the latter two countries for the first time in 2005.)   Of the 15 foreign countries surveyed, India gave the United States the most favorable mark -- 71 percent; followed by Poland (62 percent), Canada (59 percent), and Britain (55 percent), and Russia (52 percent).   Significantly, U.S. citizens, who were also surveyed, appear to understand they have a significant image problem. Nearly seven in 10 U.S. respondents described the U.S. As ''generally disliked'' by people in other countries -- the most downbeat assessment of global popularity given by any national public in the survey.   By comparison, 94 percent of Canadians and 83 percent of Indians said they were liked abroad, while 32 percent of Russians and 30 percent of Turks said were liked by foreigners.   On specific issues relating to Iraq and Bush's ''war on terrorism,'' strong pluralities or majorities in all 16 countries except India and the U.S. Said that the world was more dangerous without former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.   Support for the war on terror has also slipped virtually across the board except in Indonesia, where it has reached 50 percent compared to 23 percent in 2003, Pakistan, where support has risen from 16 percent to 22 percent and Jordan (from 2 percent to 12 percent). The decline has been most dramatic in Spain, where support has fallen from 63 percent in May 2003 to 26 percent in 2005.   Asked about whether January's elections in Iraq contributed to a more or less favorable image of the U.S., European countries generally fell on the positive side of the ledger, while for predominantly Muslim countries, particularly in Indonesia, Turkey, and Lebanon, the elections actually appeared to have had a negative impact.   On the other hand, Bush's calls for more democracy in the Middle East were generally well received, except in Pakistan, Indonesia, and Turkey.   Majorities ranging from 50 percent (Spain) to 73 percent (Canada) of non-U.S. Respondents in NATO member-countries said they favored a more independent relationship vis-ŕ-vis the U.S.   Similarly, majorities in all 15 countries, ranging from 51 percent (Canada) to 85 percent (France), said the world would be better if a group of countries emerges as a rival to U.S. military power. By contrast, 63 percent of U.S. Citizens said the world would be better off if Washington remained its only military superpower.   The notion that China, whose economic growth is seen by pluralities or majorities in each country as benign, could emerge as a counterforce to the U.S. draws a more-mixed reactions, however.   Majorities in only Pakistan and Jordan (77 percent), Indonesia (60 percent) and Turkey (56 percent) said they though China's emergence as a military rival to the U.S. would be good for the world. Only about one in five respondents in Europe agreed.   Washington is also seen as a military threat, particularly in the Islamic world. Large majorities ranging from 59 percent (Lebanon) to 80 percent (Indonesia) of respondents there said they were either somewhat or very worried that their countries could be a target for attack by the United States.   © Copyright 2005 IPS - Inter Press Service
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