Television Trust
for the Environment - TVE International:
Television
Trust for the Environment is a non-profit organisation founded in
1984 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) the World
Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Carlton (formerly Central TV) in
order to promote global public awareness of sustainable development
through television and other audio-visual media.
TVE's
editorial boundaries are broadly set out in Agenda 21 the blueprint
for sustainable development in the 21st century agreed by the world's
government at the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit. In addition
TVE places special emphasis on meeting the needs of TV and other
av producers, civil society organisations and film distributors
in the South and the economies in transition.
Since
1984 TVE's editorially independent output has been cross-thematic
with priority given to voicing the needs of the poor and to ensuring
gender balance in both subject matter and production processes,
support for good governance and the improved management of natural
resources. It has produced and co-produced over 1000 hours of broadcast
programming and operates the world's most comprehensive environment
and development video library accessible on-line to users throughout
the world. TVE's programmes have won over 200 international awards.
TVE is registered non-profit with status in Japan, the Netherlands,
Sri Lanka, USA and UK; and it has a network of 46 video resource
centres (vrc's) which aim to become a self sustaining network.
TVE
and the Urban Challenge:
With half of humanity already living in towns and cities urbanisation
has been an important theme for Television Trust for the Environment
(TVE) for several years; and it has worked closely with DFID, UN-Habitat
and the European Commission to cover urban issues since it was first
set up. Underpinning much of TVE's recent urban coverage has been
the sustainable solutions strand, 'Hands On-Earth Report', which
has featured over sixty projects showing ways in which people, communities
and companies are coming up with creative ways to tackle urban poverty
and address environmental degradation in both the North and South.
The
2002-3 'Hands On' urban focus looks specifically at community challenge
funds showing how new schemes are by passing traditional 'aid' methods
and reaching poor communities through local government mechanisms
to create long term sustainability. 'Funding the Future' which was
shown on BBC World TV in August 2002 saw how locally run community
funds are making a difference by providing long term affordable
credit to the urban poor. Items include:
- Banking on the Barrio,
Brazil: For women and traders finding a way off the streets
of Fortaleza is impossible when they have nowhere to live and
no family to help. In Fortaleza, Banco des Palmas doesn't discriminate
for this bank is run by locals and even has its own credit card.
Here, a loan for a room means the chance to break away from middlemen
and change their lives.
- Breaking Even, Zambia:
Rehabilitation may be an internationally agreed objective for
prisoners but with crimes rates rising world-wide knowing what
to do with increasing numbers of people locked up is a global
issue. So when DFID's C3 fund was approached for monies which
would increase prisoner skills and provide a much-needed local
park it seemed a win-win project.
- New Age, Thailand:
As people live longer the need for savings schemes to meet their
needs is ever more acute. The 'elderly funds' in Thailand are
part of a wider move to provide people with money for schemes
which they design and run. In the Southern province of Satun a
group of elderly locals have bought a rubber plantation as a communal
asset with a revolving fund to loan out interest - a sin in Islam.
- Youth Rules OK, UK:Minutes
from up market Notting Hill (location of Europe's largest carnival)
a Youth Parliament meets to discuss how those on other side of
W9 live. Determined not to be ignored by local politicians they've
told them their needs and are running their own funds.
- Drain Gang 2, Pakistan:
From the squatter districts of Karachi to the backstreets of Faisalabad
the world famous Orangi Drain Gang has spread its knowledge of
how to manage urban sewage works through the use of a fund and
good relationships with the local council.
Coming
up in 'Hands On-Ideas to Go' are examples of how city farms
are meeting the needs of the urban poor in Ecuador and how micro-entrepreneurs
in Uganda are benefiting from new Challenge funds. To find out more
on past and present 'Hands On-Earth Report' check out the tve website:
www.tve.org
TVE
Output for the 2001 City Summit:
In 2001 TVE produced a wide range of urban programmes to coincide
with City Summit in New York with its flagship TV series, Earth
Report and sister series, Life turning their attention to the problems
bought about by rapid urbanisation. Though covering similar issues
the approach of the two strands was distinct. Life illustrated the
main issues on the City Summit agenda and interviewed the experts;
while Earth Report gave people who live in the 'shanty' towns a
chance to articulate their main concerns and showed how they are
rising to the challenge. For more on each of these outputs go to
the TVE website and look up Earth Report - Land Rites and Streetwise-A
view from the People; and City-Life. Each series covered inspirational
stories in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe.
Other
TVE - Library Programmes:
Other past programmes which have brought out the urban challenge
in relation to people and the environment include:
- Brave New World - reports
from Bolivia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua on steps to build sustainable
societies;
- The Good Society - poor
communities around the world give their version of what makes
a 'civil society';
- Battle Of Seattle -
the dawn of new people power. How environmentalists helped scupper
WTO plans to speed up economic globalisation;
- Growing Up - Promises
to Keep - following the story of six, mainly city, kids born at
the time of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit;
- Coping with Catastrophe
- how inexpensive investment could save life during natural disasters;
Toxic Pizza - how a beleaguered town in the Ukraine is facing
up to the contamination of the Soviet Era;
- White Smoke Rising -
how a cement works in Estonia is choking a town with dust and
seeing if new foreign owners will stop the pollution and make
a profit;
To
order any of the programmes please contact: TVE Sales, Prince Albert
Road, London NW1 4RZ. Tel: ++ 44 207 586 5526; Fax: ++ 44 207 586
2343; e-mail: sales@tve.org.uk
or order on line: www.tve.org
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