JOB PURPOSE:
Assist Transferred and Local staff by supplying a Support and Secretarial services.
OTHER REQUIREMENTS
A minimum of 12 years schooling with completion of at least a one year Secretarial Diploma/Certificate plus a minimum of 3 years experience as a Secretary, typist or Administration Clerk with Word Processing knowledge and skills
UNIQUE RESPONSIBILITIES
• Secretarial and Administrative duties
• Administrative and Logistical support service
Assist with finding suitable residences to be leased, negotiations of Lease Agreements, Liaison with Landlord on lease obligations. Assist with the arrangements when residences are transferred back to owners i.e. painting, repairs, maintain service provider database, assist with obtaining quotations for furniture, stationery, maintenance and service. Complete requisition, orders, and goods received forms, place orders in accordance with instructions, maintain register for stationery, complete VAT and exoneration forms to be submitted. Filing of documents, assist with maintenance of domestic furniture and equipment. Contact service providers for maintenance, ensure that maintenance/service is satisfactory completed. Ensure that all Embassy vehicles are insured, request for Embassy Diplomatic cards. Maintain Library Register (books, CDs and DVD)s.
• Client information service and Image building
VEHICULE: RENAULT KANGOO COMBI DIESEL CLIMATISE AVEC RADIO K7
ANNEE: 2006
PUSSANCE: CV7
HTHD: A DEDOUANER
KM : 64 009
CONTACT: H TURPIN
TEL: 33 865 19 59
DATE DE CLOTURE : 29 MAY 2012
FORMULAIRE A RETIRER AU NIVEAU DE L'AMBASSADE D'AFRIQUE DU SUD, DAKAR
Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma is in New York to preside over South Africa assuming the presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of January.
The UNSC presidency rotates monthly among its member states alphabetically, and the Council is organised in such a way that it is able to function continuously.
The International Relations Department says South Africa will use its presidency to explore concrete measures to strengthen the relationship between the UN and regional organisations, in particular the African Union, in the area of conflict prevention, management and resolution on the African continent.
"We will certainly take advantage of these important occasions to advance our international relations policy objectives, including supporting the African Agenda, South-South and North-South cooperation, with a view to promoting democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights," said President Zuma.
Zuma and President Tarja Halonen of Finland will co-chair the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP), which aims to formulate a new plan for achieving sustainable development and meeting the Millennium Development Goals and other development objectives. ?
Since its establishment, the panel has explored approaches to growth that would translate into effective socio-economic development and poverty reduction. - BuaNews
After months of preparation and a marathon two weeks of negotiations that ended in the early morning hours of 11 December 2011, the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference or COP17/CMP7 came to an end at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban. Parties have delivered a breakthrough on the future of the international community's response to climate change, whilst recognizing the urgent need to raise their collective level of ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep the average global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius. The Parties thanked the COP17/CMP7 President, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, for her leadership in guiding the conference to produce a positive outcome. Durban expectations There were two main tasks that the UN wanted the conference to accomplish. One related to building the institutions that would help support the developing countries response to climate change. The second pressing task for governments was to answer the question of how they would move forward together to achieve their agreed goal to limit the average global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius, and how to review progress towards that goal between 2013 and 2015. A decision on the future of the Kyoto Protocol was also a central part of the Durban outcomes. The Kyoto Protocol is the only legally binding treaty the world presently has to combat climate change, and it is important that governments safeguard what they had worked on so long to agree and develop, and what has proven effective. The process During the first week of the Conference negotiators worked on the technical aspect of the negotiations. The officials were joined by no fewer than 12 Heads of State and Government, as well as 130 ministers, during the High-Level Segment which started on 6 December 2011. At the opening of the COP17/CMP High-level Segment, President Jacob Zuma said: "We are agreed that this global challenge requires a global solution. However, different positions still prevail on some critical points. It is important that there is common ground on the elements that will remain critical in reaching any agreement. These are multilateralism, environmental integrity, common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities, equity, and honouring of all international commitments and undertakings made in the climate change process." The outcomes in Durban Speaking at 5:10am at the conclusion of the Conference, Minister Nkoana-Mashabane thanked all Parties for their dedication, hard work and for the spirit of Ubuntu and compromise that prevailed during the Conference. "I applaud you for what you have been able to accomplish here in Durban. You were prepared to show the required political will to move this process forward. It is without any doubt in my mind that we have 'worked together to save tomorrow, today!'". The Minister said the decisions that had been taken were "truly historical". Decisions reached at COP17/CMP7 Governments decided to adopt a universal legal agreement on climate change as soon as possible, but not later than 2015. Work will begin on this immediately under a new group called the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. Governments, including 35 industrialised countries, agreed to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol from 01 January 2013. To achieve rapid clarity, Parties to this second period will turn their economy-wide targets into quantified emission limitation or reduction objectives and submit them for review by 01 May 2012. This is highly significant because the Kyoto Protocol's accounting rules, mechanisms and markets all remain in action as effective tools to leverage global climate action and as models to inform future agreements. A significantly advanced framework for the reporting of emission reductions for both developed and developing countries was also agreed, taking into consideration the common but differentiated responsibilities of different countries. In addition to charting the way forward on reducing greenhouse gases in the global context, governments agreed to the full implementation of the package to support developing nations, agreed last year in Cancun, Mexico (COP16/CMP6). This means that urgent support for the developing world, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable to adapt to climate change, will also be launched on time. The package includes the Green Climate Fund, an Adaptation Committee designed to improve the coordination of adaptation actions on a global scale, and a Technology Mechanism, which are to become fully operational in 2012. Whilst pledging to make progress in a number of areas, governments acknowledged the urgent concern that the current sum of pledges to cut emissions both from developed and developing countries was not high enough to keep the global average temperature rise below two degrees Celsius. They therefore decided that the UN Climate Change process shall increase ambition to act and will be led by the climate science in the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report and the global Review from 2013-2015. Key decisions: Green Climate Fund • Countries have already started to pledge to contribute to start-up costs of the fund, meaning it can be made ready in 2012, and at the same time can help developing countries get ready to access the fund, boosting their efforts to establish their own clean energy futures and adapt to existing climate change. • A Standing Committee is to keep an overview of climate finance in the context of the UNFCCC and to assist the Conference of the Parties. It will comprise 20 members, represented equally between the developed and developing world. • A focussed work programme on long-term finance was agreed, which will contribute to the scaling up of climate change finance going forward and will analyse options for the mobilisation of resources from a variety of sources.
Adaptation
• The Adaptation Committee, composed of 16 members, will report to the COP on its efforts to improve the coordination of adaptation actions at a global scale. • The adaptive capacities above all of the poorest and most vulnerable countries are to be strengthened. National Adaptation Plans will allow developing countries to assess and reduce their vulnerability to climate change.
• The most vulnerable are to receive better protection against loss and damage caused by extreme weather events related to climate change.
Technology
• The Technology Mechanism will become fully operational in 2012. • The full terms of reference for the operational arm of the Mechanism - the Climate Technology Centre and Network - are agreed, along with a clear procedure to select the host. The UNFCCC secretariat will issue a call for proposals for hosts on 16 January 2012. Support of developing country action • Governments agreed a registry to record developing country mitigation actions that seek financial support and to match these with support. The registry will be a flexible, dynamic, web-based platform. Other key decisions • A forum and work programme on unintended consequences of climate change actions and policies were established. • Under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, governments adopted procedures to allow carbon-capture and storage projects. These guidelines will be reviewed every five years to ensure environmental integrity.
• Governments agreed to develop a new market-based mechanism to assist developed countries in meeting part of their targets or commitments under the Convention. Details of this will be taken forward in 2012. ISSUED BY THE PRESIDENCY OF COP17/CMP7
Ladies and Gentlemen of the media,
Welcome to the official opening press conference for COP17/CMP7. I trust that this briefing will provide valuable information on the Conference and the expectations thereof.
We are under no illusion that this Conference will be an easy process. However, we are optimistic that it will be the place where the international climate change negotiators will arrive at some agreement on the pressing issues that need to some resolution within the next two weeks. As we have mentioned before, Durban is the end of the line for many pressing issues, like the second Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as those outstanding issues of the Bali Action Plan and the Cancun Agreements that require operationalisation. The trust that was rekindled in Cancun is still fragile, and this Conference is the ideal opportunity for Parties to strengthen this trust. Within the Party-driven process and the procedures of the UNFCCC, we intend to ensure that this Conference is balanced, fair and credible and that it preserves and strengthens the multilateral rules-based response to climate change. In this regard, the approach to reach a balanced, fair and credible outcome must be directed by the principles that form the basis of UNFCCC climate change negotiations. These principles include multilateralism, environmental integrity, fairness (common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities, equity) and honouring of all international commitments and undertakings made in the climate change process. This brings me to the major impression that I have formed over the past year, during the formal and informal discussions, which is that the Durban Conference needs to be the place where the international climate change family faces its own demons and heals the wounds of mistrust and misunderstandings. At this point I wish to share with you my assessment of what we need to do to create the environment from where Parties would be able to work together. Here in Durban, we need to show the world that we are ready to tackle and solve our very real problems in a practical manner. It has been suggested that we approach Durban in a problem-solving mode and find ways to provide the required re-assurances to one another. Durban will be a decisive moment for the future of the multilateral rules-based regime which has evolved over many years under the Convention and its Kyoto Protocol. The first Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol is about to come to an end.
In the negotiations, the fate of a second Commitment Period is made dependent on the decision on the legal nature of the outcome of the negotiations under the Convention, as it is a question that has been left unanswered from Bali. It is also clear that if this question is not resolved, the outcome on other matters in the negotiations will become extremely difficult. A solution must therefore be found.
The multilateral rules-based system must prevail for the world to effectively address the global problem of climate change. The system must also give the required re-assurances that our response to climate change cannot depend on the domestic measures alone, as there will then be no assurances that all Parties will do what needs to be done. Re-assurances are required that all Parties will work in a manner that will not jeopardise the gains made over the past decades; that adequate and sustainable long-term funding will be delivered, that implementation of all agreements will continue without an implementation gap occurring and finally the re-assurance that there is a shared vision that all Parties need to do more and do so urgently.
In addition, it is important that the Cancun Agreements must be operationalised, including the establishment of the key mechanisms and institutional arrangements agreed to in Cancun last year. Adaptation is an essential element for any outcome as it is a key priority for many developing countries, particularly Small Island Developing States, Least Developed Countries and Africa. The current fragmented approach to adaptation must be addressed in a more coherent manner and there should be equal priority given to adaptation and mitigation. It is important that any process has to be adequate enough to adhere to the principle of environmental integrity. It is in this respect that the low level of ambition continues to remain a serious concern. The Green Climate Fund represents a center piece of a broader set of outcomes for Durban, especially since the developing countries clearly demand a prompt start for funding as it would unlock many other pressing issues and would allow them to reach their objectives in this regard. The climate change negotiation process is still recovering from the serious setbacks it has suffered over the years and a trust deficit needs to be overcome. Therefore, in Durban, Parties from across the spectrum are asking from each other specific re-assurances that would enable all to move forward: Developing countries want to be re-assured that developed countries will honor their emission reduction obligations, as well as to provide the necessary means of implementation that would assist them to also do their part. Developed countries want to be re-assured that all of them would take up their fair share of actions and not walk away from commitments, while they also wish to be assured that bigger developing countries, who are also major emitters, would indeed also take up the responsibility to reduce emissions for the greater good of all. Durban needs to be the place where these re-assurances are provided to each other and from where the fragile trust building process amongst all Parties can continue. We need to show the world that Parties are ready to address the problems in a practical manner. My approach will be to focus on solving problems and, therefore, I will need the assistance of all Parties to work together to find solutions for the problems caused by climate change. The issue therefore at stake is what we will do now or immediately and what we need to do in the future. I am confident that all Parties will make a special effort and show the required leadership to creatively provide these assurances that can lead to consensus on all the outstanding issues. It is only by Working Together that we will be able to Save Tomorrow Today.
