Ghana

Climate change is now a scientifi cally established fact. Th e exact impact of greenhouse gas emission is not easy to forecast and there is a lot of uncertainty in the science when it comes to predictive capability. But we now know enough to recognize that there are large risks, potentially catastrophic ones, including the melting of ice-sheets on Greenland and the West Antarctic (which would place many countries under water) and changes in the course of the Gulf Stream that would bring about drastic climatic changes.
Prudence and care about the future of our children and their children requires that we act now. Th is is a form of insurance against possibly very large losses. The fact that we do not know the probability of such losses or their likely exact
timing is not an argument for not taking insurance.
We know the danger exists. We know the damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions is irreversible for a long time. We know it is growing with every day of inaction.

This year’s Human Development Report looks at an issue that profoundly influences human potential and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.
Throughout history human progress has depended on access to clean water and on the ability of societies to harness the potential of water as a productive resource. Water for life in the household and water for livelihoods through production are two of the foundations for human development. Yet for a large section of humanity
these foundations are not in place.
The word crisis is sometimes overused in development. But when it comes to water, there is a growing recognition that the world faces a crisis that, left unchecked, will derail progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and hold
back human development. For some, the global water crisis is about absolute shortages of physical supply. The Report rejects this view. It argues
that the roots of the crisis in water can be traced to poverty, inequality and unequal power relationships, as well as flawed water management policies that exacerbate scarcity.

Since its creation in 1966, UNDP has been at the centre of the United Nations’ operational development system, working both at the grassroots level to help build national capacities for sustainable development, and as a leader in development thinking, as demonstrated by its flagship Human Development Reports and its contributions to critical issues such as global public goods and democratic governance. In many ways, it is this important nexus—connecting countries to
knowledge and ideas and working with them to strengthen the capacity needed to tackle development challenges—that is UNDP’s hallmark.
With the advent of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the last few years have seen UNDP scale up its activities in a major way.
UNDP is working at the conceptual level with a wide range of partners to advocate or
the policy and institutional changes needed to fight poverty more effectively and achieve the MDGs. From elections support in Liberia and Haiti, to recovery efforts after decades of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to helping countries deliver services to their citizens in countries with much stronger economies but huge social challenges such as Brazil and Indonesia, UNDP also works with countries in a very practical way to help build the institutional capacity needed to promote, support and accelerate human development and sustainable growth.