Organizations

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and geopolitical cooperation among eight member nations that are primarily located in South Asia continent. Its secretariat is headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The idea for the SAARC was proposed on May 2, 1980, by Ziaur Rahman, then president of Bangladesh. The founding countries met for the first time in April 1981, and then in 1985, they created the SAARC Charter. They sought peace, stability, amity, and progress including improving the quality of life for all involved nations.

The first summit held in Dhaka on 8 December in 1985 led to its official establishment by the governments of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan was the first to have been accessed in the physical enlargement of the SAARC in 2007.

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The SAARC Secretariat was established in Kathmandu on 16 January 1987. Its role is to coordinate and monitor the implementation of SAARC activities, service the meetings of the association and serve as the channel of communication between SAARC and other international organizations.

The Secretariat comprises the secretary-general, seven directors, and the general services staff. The secretary-general is appointed by the Council of Ministers on the principle of rotation, for a non-renewable tenure of three years.

The SAARC policies aim to promote welfare economics, collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia, and to accelerate socio-cultural development in the region. Permanent diplomatic relations have been established with the EU, the UN, and other multilateral entities.

The official meetings of leaders of each nation are held; meetings of foreign secretaries, twice annually. The 18th SAARC Summit would be held in Kathmandu, Nepal in November 2014.

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The idea of regional cooperation in South Asia was discussed in at least three conferences: the Asian Relations Conference held in New Delhi on April 1947; the Baguio Conference in the Philippines on May 1950; and the Colombo Powers Conference held in Sri Lanka on April 1954.

SAARC does not have an official anthem yet as other regional organizations. However a poem by poet-diplomat Abhay K has spurred the search for an official SAARC Anthem Nepal’s foreign minister has expressed the need for SAARC anthem to connect SAARC nations.

SAARC activities are mainly concentrated in the following areas: agricultural and rural, biotechnology, culture, economic, energy, environment, funding mechanism, human resource development, information communication and media, people to people contacts, poverty alleviation, science and technology, security aspects, social development, tourism and, trade and finance.

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The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries. It was established as an international financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. Seventy-five percent of the world poor live in rural areas in developing countries, yet only 4% of official development assistance goes to agriculture.

The strategic policy of IFAD is detailed in Strategic Framework for IFAD 2011–2015: Enabling the Rural Poor to Overcome Poverty. Its headquarters is in Rome, Italy and is a member of the United Nations Development Group.

The current President of the IFAD is Kanayo F. Nwanze from Nigeria, who was elected for a second-term four-year term in 2013.

IFAD’s goal is to empower poor rural women and men in developing countries to achieve higher incomes and improved food security.

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Objectives

IFAD will ensure that poor rural people have better access to, and the skills and organization they need to take advantage of:

• Natural resources, especially secure access to land and water, and improved natural resource management and conservation practices
• Improved agricultural technologies and effective production services
• A broad range of financial services
• Transparent and competitive markets for agricultural inputs and produce
• Opportunities for rural off-farm employment and enterprise development
• Local and national policy and programming processes

All of IFAD’s decisions – on regional, country and thematic strategies, poverty reduction strategies, and policy dialogue and development partners – are made with these principles and objectives in mind. As reflected in the strategic framework, IFAD is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in particular, the target to halve the proportion of hungry and extremely poor people by 2015.

Poor people must be able to develop and strengthen their own organizations, so they can advance their own interests and dismantle the obstacles that prevent many of them from creating better lives for themselves. They must be able to have a say in the decisions and policies that affect their lives, and they need to strengthen their bargaining power in the marketplace.

IFAD tackles poverty not only as a lender but also as an advocate for rural poor people. Its multilateral base provides a natural global platform to discuss important policy issues that influence the lives of rural poor people, as well as to draw attention to the centrality of rural development to meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

Membership in IFAD is open to any State that is a member of the United Nations or its specialized agencies or the International Atomic Energy Agency. A state becomes a member of IFAD by ratifying the multilateral treaty known as the Agreement establishing the International Fund for Agricultural Development. The Governing Council is IFAD’s highest decision-making authority, with the Member States each represented by a governor and alternate governor. The Council meets annually.

The Executive Board, responsible for overseeing the general operations of IFAD and approving loans and grants, is composed of 18 members and 18 alternate members. The President, who serves for a four-year term (renewable once), is IFAD’s chief executive officer and chair of the Executive Board. The current, and fifth, President of IFAD is Kanayo F. Nwanze, who was elected for a first four-year term in 2009.

IFAD has 173 member states. This includes 171 UN members states along with the Cook Islands and Niue.

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Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an international organization and economic cartel whose mission is to coordinate the policies of the oil-producing countries. The goal is to secure a steady income to the member states and to collude in influencing world oil prices through economic means.

OPEC is an intergovernmental organization that was created at the Baghdad Conference on 10–14 September 1960, by Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Later it was joined by nine more governments: Libya, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Indonesia, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, Angola, and Gabon. OPEC was head-quartered in Geneva, Switzerland before moving to Vienna, Austria, on September 1, 1965.

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Venezuela and Iran were the first countries to move towards the establishment of OPEC by approaching Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia in 1949, suggesting that they exchange views and explore avenues for regular and closer communication among petroleum-producing nations.

OPEC was formed at a time when the international oil market was largely dominated by multinational companies, the ‘seven sisters’. OPEC’s ‘Policy Statement’ states that there is a right of all countries to exercise sovereignty over their natural resources. Because OPEC is an organization of countries (not oil companies), individual members have sovereign immunity for their actions.

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OPEC membership is open to any country that is a substantial exporter of oil and that shares the ideals of the organization. OPEC had 12 member countries, including founder members Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Venezuela. Because its member countries hold the vast majority of crude oil reserves and nearly half of natural gas reserves in the world, the organization has considerable power in these markets.

In the 1970s, OPEC began to gain influence and steeply raised oil prices during the 1973 oil crisis in response to US aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War. It lasted until March 1974. OPEC added to its goals the selling of oil for socio-economic growth of the poorer member nations, and membership grew to 13 by 1975.

Currently, worldwide oil sales are denominated in U.S. dollars, changes in the value of the dollar against other world currencies affect OPEC’s decisions on how much oil to produce.

An organization consisting of the world’s major oil-exporting nations. OPEC is a cartel that aims to manage the supply of oil in an effort to set the price of oil on the world market, in order to avoid fluctuations that might affect the economies of both producing and purchasing countries.

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The International Criminal Police Organization, or INTERPOL, is an intergovernmental organization facilitating international police cooperation. It was established as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) in 1923 and adopted its telegraphic address as its common name in 1956.

INTERPOL is the second largest international police organization after the United Nations by member states, with 190 member countries. The organization’s headquarters is in Lyon, France. Its current Secretary-General is Ronald Noble, a former United States under Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement. Succeeding Khoo Boon Hui, its current President is Deputy Central Director of the French Judicial Police Mireille Balestrazzi. Interpol maintains seven regional bureaus.

Interpol work focuses primarily on public safety, terrorism, crimes against humanity, environmental crime, genocide, war crimes, organized crime, piracy, illicit traffic in works of art, illicit drug production, drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering, white-collar crime, computer crime, intellectual property crime and corruption.

INTERPOL facilitate international police cooperation even where diplomatic relations do not exist between particular countries. Organization prohibits ‘any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character’.

Interpol’s aims

• To ensure and promote the widest possible mutual assistance between all criminal police authorities, within the limits of the laws existing in the different countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• To establish and develop all institutions likely to contribute effectively to the prevention and suppression of ordinary law crimes.

INTERPOL in fact, is an international police organization to extend co-operation for coordinated action on the part of member countries and their police forces which may furnish or request for information or services for combating – international crime.

INTERPOL’s vision is “Connecting Police for a Safer World”, yet a safer world cannot be achieved by police alone. It is a collective responsibility, requiring a global alliance from governments, businesses and civil society.

Interpol’s Command and Coordination Centers offer a 24/7 point of contact for national police forces seeking urgent information or facing a crisis. The original is in Lyon with a second in Buenos Aires added in September 2011. A third is scheduled to open in Singapore in September 2014.

The Second International Police Congress met in Vienna, Austria, and set up the International Criminal Police Commission (I.C.P.C.) was successfully founded as the direct forerunner of Interpol, and official Headquarters in Vienna. The I.C.P.C. operated satisfactorily until the outbreak of the Second World War but was essentially a European organization.

INTERPOL acknowledges the need to work in partnership with other organizations in order to combat international crime. A number of cooperation agreements with other international organizations, including the United Nations and the European Union. Several international conventions and bilateral treaties mention INTERPOL as a means to transmit sensitive and confidential criminal intelligence.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is an agency of the United Nations that coordinates its environmental activities, assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices. It was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972 and has its headquarters in the Gigiri neighbourhood of Nairobi, Kenya. UNEP also has six regional offices and various country offices.

UNEP promote and facilitate sound environmental management for sustainable development, UNEP’s global and cross-sectoral outlook is reflected in its organizational structure, its activities and is personnel.

UNEP works through its divisions, regional, liaison and out-posted offices, plus a growing network of collaborating centres of excellence. UNEP also hosts several environmental conventions, secretariats, and inter-agency coordinating bodies.

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The Secretariat of Governing Bodies (SGB)The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for supporting the governing bodies of UNEP, which consists of the United Nations Environment Assembly (formerly the Governing Council) and its subsidiary inter-sessional body, the open-ended Committee of Permanent Representatives. SGB organizes and services all meetings of the governing bodies.

SGB also provides the main channel of communication with Governments and works closely with other UNEP divisions and regional offices to provide timely information on the programme and activities of UNEP in support of Governments. SGB coordinates UNEP’s relations with the Permanent Missions to UNEP, Ministries of Environment and other relevant authorities.

Its activities cover a wide range of issues regarding the atmosphere, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, environmental governance and green economy. It has played a significant role in developing international environmental conventions, promoting environmental science and information and illustrating the way those can be implemented in conjunction with policy, working on the development and implementation of policy with national governments, regional institutions in conjunction with environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs). UNEP has also been active in funding and implementing environment related development projects.

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UNEP has aided in the formulation of guidelines and treaties on issues such as the international trade in potentially harmful chemicals, transboundary air pollution, and contamination of international waterways.

The World Meteorological Organization and UNEP established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. UNEP is also one of several Implementing Agencies for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol, and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. The International Cyanide Management Code, a program of best practice for the chemical’s use at gold mining operations, was developed under UNEP’s aegis.

UNEP work encompasses:

• Assessing global, regional and national environmental conditions and trends
• Developing international and national environmental instruments
• Strengthening institutions for the wise management of the environment

UNEP acts as a catalyst, advocate, educator and facilitator to promote the wise use and sustainable development of the global environment.UNEP’s main activities are related to : climate change; including the Territorial Approach to Climate Change (TACC); disasters and conflicts; ecosystem management; environmental governance; environment under review; harmful substances; and resource efficiency.

Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in February 2007, a “Paris Call for Action” read out by French President Jacques Chirac and supported by 46 countries, called for the United Nations Environment Programme to be replaced by a new and more powerful “United Nations Environment Organization (UNEO)”, also called Global Environment Organisation now supported by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to be modelled on the World Health Organization. The 46 countries included the European Union Nations but notably did not include the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China, the top four emitters of greenhouse gases.

In December 2012, following the Rio+20 Summit, a decision by the General Assembly of the United Nations to ‘strengthen and upgrade’ the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and establish universal membership of its governing body was confirmed.

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