KOFI ANNAN, Secretary-General
of the United Nations (1996-2006), for his lasting
contributions to peace and security, and his commitment
to help the world's poorer nations in their fight
to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, as envisaged
in the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 20 (IPS) - When
Kofi Annan leaves the United Nations next week after
an eventful 10-year tenure 
as
secretary-general, there will be one prized possession
he says he will virtually hand-carry: the Inter Press
Service (IPS) International Achievement Award 2006.
"After 10 exhilarating years as
secretary-general, it is humbling to be recognised
for doing what you love to do," he told a gathering
of nearly 300 U.N. staffers, ambassadors and representatives
of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) at the annual
IPS award ceremony held at the U.N. delegate's dining
room Tuesday
Before accepting the IPS trophy, Annan
said: "By now, our bags are all packed so this
will be the one award -- the IPS International Achievement
Award, not the Nobel Prize -- that I'll be carrying
with me by hand as (my wife) Nane and I head off for
our vacation."
"I
am truly honoured by this award, especially as it
comes from members of the world's press corps. Yet
it feels right to conclude with one final farewell
to you, my friends and sparring partners in the press:
You have kept me on my toes and sometimes in the throes
over all these years," he added.
Both the United Nations and Annan won
the Nobel Peace Prize back in 2001, one of the highest
accolades he had received during his career as secretary-general.
Annan rose from the middle ranks of
the U.N. system to its upper echelons over a period
of 44 years -- first, as assistant secretary-general,
then as under-secretary-general, and finally secretary-general.
"I am convinced that I could not
have attained even half of what this IPS International
Achievement Award ascribes to me if it weren't for
the power of the press, and organisations like IPS
in particular, to convey not only the U.N.'s exhaustively
documented shortcomings, but also report on the organisation's
invaluable and transformative work," he said.
Turning to IPS Director-General Mario
Lubetkin seated on stage, Annan said: "As secretary-general
of the United Nations, as a Ghanaian and as an African,
I have always appreciated your reporting."
"Your coverage of the United Nations
and my career here began at essentially the same time.
Ever since, you have reported on the United Nations
with a uniquely developing world perspective, and
you have allowed us to hear, and to be heard by, many
of the people to whom the United Nations matters most."
Taking a dig at the some of the newspapers
in the mainstream media, and particularly the neo-conservative
Fox News U.S. TV network -- which have occasionally
conducted a virtual political vendetta against him
-- Annan said: "Of course, not all press is created
equal. It is no mere coincidence that I am receiving
the IPS 
Achievement
Award and not, say, the FOX and Friends Award."
His remarks were greeted with laughter and cheers.
Lubetkin said the IPS Board of Directors
had decided last July to give its 2006 award to Annan
for his lasting contributions to peace, security,
development, gender empowerment and human rights.
He said IPS, a 42-year-old news agency
which has promoted the cause of developing nations,
also recognises the commitment by Annan to help the
world's poorer nations in their fight to reduce extreme
poverty and hunger, prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS
and battle environmental degradation -- as envisaged
in the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
IPS has followed both Annan's and the
U.N.'s achievements and reported them over these years,
through its vast network of more than 350 journalists
in 150 countries and in 22 different languages, Lubetkin
said.
"Today, we honour Mr. Annan's outstanding
leadership in the pursuit of the very mission for
which the United Nations was created in 1945: a world
seeking global peace, political stability, recognition
of human dignity and the pursuit of human development,"
he said.
As a news agency with a similar vision
of the future, Lubetkin said IPS considers it imperative
to recognise the personal commitment of Kofi Annan
towards the advancement of the concerns of the world's
poorer nations in their fight against poverty and
hunger, and their battle against the spread of HIV/AIDS.
"We would also praise him for his
firm commitment to environmental sustainability. We
honour the Secretary-General for his consistently
strong advocacy of human rights, including responsibility
to protect, and respect for humanitarian law."
His promotion of gender empowerment
addresses a key issue of societal development and
the attainment of larger freedom for all, Lubetkin
added.
He also pointed out that Annan gave
more than two-thirds of his life to serve the United
Nations, which continues to embody the hopes and aspirations
of over six billion people in the world today.
"Over the past 42 years since its
creation, IPS has gained broad recognition as a global
news agency which has made a valuable contribution
to the understanding of the United Nations and its
global mission -- and also of the constantly evolving
challenges in developing countries," Lubetkin
noted.
"
We
are confident that Mr. Annan's services to humankind
will not end on Dec. 31. We hope we will have the
opportunity to provide him with the information and
communication element he will need in projecting his
future vision to the people of the world," he
added.
Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo of South
Africa, the keynote speaker at the award ceremony,
said: "In the past 20 years, IPS has sought out
many well-deserving recipients of the IPS Award whose
voices have not been silent about the conditions of
the poor and marginalised people of the world."
"I believe that in honouring Kofi
Annan with the International Achievement Award for
2006, IPS may have finally honoured one who not only
personalises the vision of its founders but perhaps
is one of its most deserving recipients," said
Ambassador Kumalo who is also chairman of the 132-member
Group of 77, the largest single bloc of developing
nations at the U.N.
The South African envoy said the stories
of the developing world are not easy to tell. They
are complex and do not lend themselves to easy headlines.
But IPS has been telling the story remarkably well
since its founding 42 years ago.
Ambassador Kumalo said the lack of technology
and resources in the developing world has been successfully
exploited as an advantage by the developed countries
that have relied on their global media companies to
tell their side of the story.
"Even those of us serving in the
United Nations have often been reduced to searching
for the morning headlines in the newspapers, radios
or television to find out which issues we are supposed
to support or oppose."
"
Even
our own capitals are reduced to learning about issues
being debated in the United Nations from the perspective
of the international media companies of the developed
world that are often used to set the agenda at the
United Nations," he said.
"It has therefore been helpful
and even refreshing that Kofi Annan was available
to tell the other side of the global story that often
was not in line with the accepted international consensus
carefully cultivated by the major powers using their
international media companies," the G77 chair
added.
Past recipients of the IPS award, which
was established in 1985, include Gracha Machel, former
First Lady of South Africa (1998); Danielle Mitterrand,
former First Lady of France (1991); Boutros Boutros-Ghali,
former U.N. Secretary-General (1996); Martti Ahtisaari,
former President of Finland (1994) and the Global
Call to Action Against Poverty (2004). (END
/ 2006 / by Thalif Deen)
