For those wondering why Afghanistan is such a mess and why so much of the international community got it so wrong during the post-2001 recovery process, the just published Cost of War report by Oxfam is a good place to start. As experienced aid workers and other observers have been trying to tell the Americans, British and others for the past eight years, you cannot work in Afghanistan without understanding the past. Billions of dollars plus countless lives have been wasted because policymakers have failed to understand the country. Too many mixed agendas, whether Iraq, hunting down Al Qaeda or counter-narcotics, have also detracted from the real issues at hand. Interesting, too, is that fact that many of the Afghans interviewed cited rule of law and an end to impunity by those responsible for torture and other crimes against humanitty as among the top concerns. As Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director of Oxfam International points out, “Afghanistan needs more than military solutions. It needs support for agriculture, better infrastructure and schools and health services must improve.”

The decision by the 63rd UN General Assembly on 11 September to request and authorize the creation of a UN agency for women got lost in the other big news stories last month, including the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh and the High Level Summit on Climate Change being convened by Ban Ki-moon. But if handled adroitly, the new organization could have a big and profound impact, writes Essential Edge contributor Michael Keating, director of the Africa Progress Panel Foundation of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in Geneva.

The World Climate Change 3 conference which is being held at Geneva's International Convention Center this week is focusing on adaptation, rather than trying to curb carbon emissions.  The politically onerous task of trying to actually stop or at least slow down global warming is being left to the Copenhagen Conference in December, and that is being billed as the make or break event for the future of the planet--or atleast for the future of the human race on this particular planet.  WCC3 is proof, if any were needed, that Climate Change is already a nasty reality that can no longer be ignored much less halted in the foreseeable future. Is Switzerland exempt?  Not exactly. Speaking to a group of Media 21 journalists,  the Global Humanitarian Forum's CEO-Director General, Walter Fust, noted that the Swiss government is already being forced to consider the effect that melting permafrost will have on the country's highway system. Cows are another issue.  Swiss cattle reportedly give off more greenhouse gas in the form of methane than all the cars with less than three-litre motors in Switzerland. Scientists in Lausanne have been investigating dietary changes that may reduce the methane. Garlic looks like a winner.