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#11090 From: blds-tradepolAdmin@...
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:58 am
Subject: BLDS Update - Trade policy
blds-tradepolAdmin@...
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What's new in BLDS on Trade policy - 16 July 2009

British Library for Development Studies

Here are the latest additions to BLDS in your field of interest. You can access these print documents through the document delivery and interlibrary loan services at BLDS (see end for details).

Title: African imperatives in the world trade order: case studies on Kenya
Document type: book
Author (organisation): African Economic Research Consortium ; Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis
Editor: Mwega, Francis M. ; Nyangito, Hezron O.
Imprint: : African Economic Research Consortium
Year: 2005
Pages: 301 p
Subjects: KENYA ; AFRICA ; INTERNATIONAL TRADE ; AGRICULTURAL TRADE ; TRADE POLICY ; MANUFACTURING ; EXPORTS ; SERVICE INDUSTRY
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: MWEGA, Francis M. African imperatives in the world trade order.
Record number: 280695
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Trade preference erosion: measurement and policy response
Document type: book
Author (organisation): World Bank
Editor: Hoekman, Bernard ; Martin, Will ; Braga, Carlos Alberto Primo
Imprint: Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2009
Pages: 466 p
ISBN: 9780821377079
Subjects: TRADE PREFERENCES ; FREE TRADE ; TRADE LIBERALIZATION ; PREFERENTIAL TARIFFS ; GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES
Language: English
Location: OFFICIALS
Shelfmark: IBRD. Trade preference erosion
Record number: 280553
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Gender aspects of the trade and poverty nexus: a macro-micro approach
Document type: book
Author (organisation): World Bank
Editor: Bussolo, Maurizio ; de Hoyos, Rafael E.
Imprint: Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2009
Pages: 282 p
ISBN: 9780821377628
Subjects: TRADE ; POVERTY ; GENDER ; TRADE LIBERALIZATION ; HOUSEHOLD ; SOCIAL ACCOUNTING ; KENYA ; GHANA ; SENEGAL ; HONDURAS ; UGANDA
Language: English
Location: OFFICIALS
Shelfmark: IBRD. Gender aspects of the trade and poverty nexus
Record number: 280554
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Sustainable development and free trade: institutional approaches
Document type: book
Author (person): Alam, Shawkat
Imprint: Abingdon: Routledge
Year: 2008
Pages: 288 p
Series: Routledge studies in development economics ; 63
ISBN: 9780415412940
Subjects: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ; ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ; FREE TRADE ; ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ; INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: ALAM, Shawkat. Sustainable development and free trade
Record number: 280405
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Brick by brick: the building of an ASEAN economic community : a collection of economic reserach on ASEAN integration issues produced under the ASEAN-Australia Development Cooperation Program - Regional Economic Policy Support Facility
Document type: book
Author (person): Hew, Denis
Imprint: Pasir Panjang: ISEAS Publishing
Year: 2007
Pages: 250 p
ISBN: 9789812307323
Subjects: ASEAN ; ECONOMIC INTEGRATION ; FREE TRADE AREAS ; REGIONAL INTEGRATION ; SOUTH EAST ASIA
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: HEW, Denis. Brick by brick.
Record number: 280400
Request a copy through Document Delivery
Full-text articles from this journal available on AGORA - free to registered institutions in developing countries
   
Title: Ownership, technology and buyers: explaining exporting in China and Sri Lanka
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Wignaraja, Ganeshan
In: Transnational corporations, 17 (2), pp. 1-15
Year: 2008
Subjects: EXPORT POLICY ; TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER ; CLOTHING INDUSTRY ; CHINA ; SRI LANKA
Language: English
Location: OFFICIALS
Shelfmark: U.N. Centre on Transnational Corporations. Transnational corporations., 17,no.2 (2008), 1-15
Record number: 278868
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   

You can access the print documents listed above through the BLDS's document delivery and interlibrary loan services at: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/docdel.html

To subscribe to one of the many other BLDS Updates available, or to manage your subscription, visit: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/updates . To unsubscribe send an email to lyris@... with the subject: unsubscribe blds-tradepol
Please forward this BLDS Update to other interested colleagues.

The British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) is based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, UK. It contains the largest collection of economic and social development materials in Europe. Approximately 50% of the collection originates from the South.

Researchers are welcome to visit BLDS as a day member. For information please go to: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/users.html

To access the BLDS catalogue online, please go to: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/search

Please tell us what you think of the BLDS Updates. Send your comments to: i.budden@...

Thank you

BLDS

BLDS is funded by    DFID logo    IDS logo
The views expressed in this newsletter and on the BLDS website are the opinion of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of BLDS, IDS or its funders.
BLDS is one of a family of Knowledge Services at IDS
© Institute of Development Studies, 2008

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#11089 From: blds-povertyAdmin@...
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:57 am
Subject: BLDS Update - Poverty
blds-povertyAdmin@...
Send Email Send Email
 

What's new in BLDS on Poverty - 16 July 2009

British Library for Development Studies

Here are the latest additions to BLDS in your field of interest. You can access these print documents through the document delivery and interlibrary loan services at BLDS (see end for details).

Title: India's labouring poor: historical studies, c.1600 - c.2000
Document type: book
Editor: Behal, Rana P. ; Linden, Marcel van der
Imprint: New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd.
Year: 2007
Pages: 286 p
ISBN: 9788175964969
Subjects: INDIA ; POVERTY ; WORKING CLASS ; LABOUR ; HISTORICAL ANALYSIS ; COLONIALISM ; SOCIAL HISTORY
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: BEHAL, Rana P. India's labouring poor.
Record number: 281028
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Proceedings of the 5th bi-annual conference on microfinance development in Ethiopia, Benshangul, Assosa
Document type: book
Author (organisation): Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions
Editor: Admassie, Assefa
Imprint: Addis Ababa: AEMFI
Year: 2008
Pages: 211 p
Subjects: ETHIOPIA ; MICROFINANCE ; CREDIT COOPERATIVES ; RURAL DEVELOPMENT ; POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: ASSOCIATION OF ETHIOPIAN MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS. Proceedings of the 5th ...
Record number: 280601
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Ethiopian Economy
Title of part: Vol. 2
Document type: book
Author (organisation): Ethiopian Economic Association ; International Conference on the Ethiopian Economy, 5th, Addis Ababa, 2007
Editor: Alemu, Getnet ; Edilegnaw Wale
Imprint: Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Economic Association
Year: 2007
Pages: 241 p
ISBN: 9789994454068
Subjects: POVERTY ; HOUSING ; AIDS ; EDUCATION ; GENDER ; HEALTH ; FOOD AID ; ACCOUNTABILITY ; CIVIL SOCIETY ; ETHIOPIA
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: ETHIOPIAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference, vol. 2
Record number: 280569
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Agriculture, élevage et pauvreté en Afrique de l'Ouest
Document type: book
Author (organisation): Food and Agriculture Organization. Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Initiative ; African Economic Research Consortium
Editor: Mbaye, Ahmadou Aly ; Roland-Holst, David ; Otte, Joachim
Imprint: Dakar: CREA / FAO
Year: 2007
Pages: 207 p
ISBN: 9782912717184
Subjects: WEST AFRICA ; POVERTY ALLEVIATION ; LIVESTOCK ; AGRICULTURAL POLICY ; DEVELOPMENT POLICY
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: MBAYE, Ahmadou Aly. Agriculture, élevage et pauvreté ...
Record number: 280655
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Taking action to end extreme poverty: corporate report 2009
Document type: book
Author (organisation): MDG Centre, East and Southern Africa
Imprint: Nairobi: MDG Centre
Year: 2009
Pages: 35 p
ISBN: 9789290592433
Subjects: MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS ; POVERTY ALLEVIATION ; AFRICA
Language: English
Location: BasementIO
Shelfmark: MDG CENTRE, EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA. Taking action to end extreme poverty
Record number: 280621
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: The Women's manifesto, 2006: fulfilling the promises
Document type: book
Author (organisation): Uganda Women's Network
Editor: Ndawula, Christine Nankubuge
Imprint: Kampala: Uganda Women's Network
Year: 2006
Pages: 19 p
Subjects: WOMEN'S RIGHTS ; WOMEN ; DEMOCRACY ; GOVERNANCE ; PEACE ; HUMAN SECURITY ; POVERTY ; WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION ; HUMAN RIGHTS ; EDUCATION OF WOMEN ; REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ; UGANDA
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: UGANDA WOMEN'S NETWORK. Women's manifesto, 2006
Record number: 280625
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Gender aspects of the trade and poverty nexus: a macro-micro approach
Document type: book
Author (organisation): World Bank
Editor: Bussolo, Maurizio ; de Hoyos, Rafael E.
Imprint: Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2009
Pages: 282 p
ISBN: 9780821377628
Subjects: TRADE ; POVERTY ; GENDER ; TRADE LIBERALIZATION ; HOUSEHOLD ; SOCIAL ACCOUNTING ; KENYA ; GHANA ; SENEGAL ; HONDURAS ; UGANDA
Language: English
Location: OFFICIALS
Shelfmark: IBRD. Gender aspects of the trade and poverty nexus
Record number: 280554
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: A decade of microfinance institutions (MFIS) development in Ethiopia: growth, performance, impact and prospect (2008 - 2017)
Document type: book
Author (person): Amha, Wolday
Author (organisation): Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions
Editor: Alemu, Tekie
Imprint: Addis Ababa: AEMFI
Year: 2008
Pages: 118 p
Series: Occasional papers; no. 21
Subjects: ETHIOPIA ; MICROFINANCE ; FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ; LOANS ; SAVINGS ; POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: ASSOCIATION OF ETHIOPIAN MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS. A decade of microfinance institutions ...
Record number: 280600
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Development, a question of opportunity?: a critique of the 2006 World Development Report, Equality and Development
Document type: book
Author (person): Cling, Jean-Pierre
Author (organisation): Agence Francaise de Développement
Imprint: Paris: AFD
Year: 2005
Pages: 40 p
Series: Working paper / Agence Francaise de Développement ; 8
Subjects: DEVELOPMENT THEORY ; DEVELOPMENT POLICY ; POVERTY ALLEVIATION ; EQUAL OPPORTUNITY ; SOCIAL JUSTICE
Language: English
Location: BasementGP
Shelfmark: FRANCE. Agence Francaise de Développement. Working papers, 8.
Record number: 281237
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Dealing with drought: the challenge of using water system technologies to break dryland poverty traps
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Enfors, Elin I. ; Gordon, Line J.
In: Global environmental change : human and policy dimensions, 18 (4), pp. 607-616
Year: 2008
Subjects: SEMI-ARID ZONE ; DROUGHT ; WATER MANAGEMENT ; TANZANIA
Language: English
Location: SERIALS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: (32) GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE ..., 18,no.4 (2008), 607-616
Record number: 278993
Request a copy through Document Delivery
Full-text articles from this journal available on HINARI - free to registered institutions in developing countries
   
Title: Poverty-alleviation program participation and salivary cortisol in very low-income children
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Fernald, Lia C.H. ; Gunnar, Megan R.
In: Social science and medicine, 68 (12), pp. 2180-89
Year: 2009
Subjects: MEXICO ; CHILDREN ; POVERTY ; HEALTH ; ENDOCRINE SYSTEM ; POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Language: English
Location: SERIALS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: (32) SOCIAL SCIENCE AND MEDICINE., 68,no.12 (2009)
Record number: 281529
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: What is poverty?: a diachronic exploration of the discourse on poverty from the 1970s to the 2000s
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Misturelli, Federica ; Heffernan, Claire
In: The European journal of development research, 20 (4), pp. 666-684
Year: 2008
Subjects: POVERTY ; DEVELOPMENT THEORY
Language: English
Location: OFFICIALS
Shelfmark: EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTES. European journal of development research, 20,no.4 (2008), 666-684
Record number: 278943
Request a copy through Document Delivery
Full-text articles from this journal available on HINARI - free to registered institutions in developing countries
   
Title: Dynamics of poverty in Addis Ababa
Document type: book
Author (person): Netsanet Teklehaymanot
Author (organisation): Forum for Social Studies (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
Imprint: Addis Ababa: FSS
Year: 2009
Pages: 61 p
Series: FSS research report ; no. 3
ISBN: 9789994450282
Subjects: ETHIOPIA ; POVERTY ; URBAN AREAS ; TOWNS ; TRENDS
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: FORUM FOR SOCIAL STUDIES (ADDIS ABABA). Dynamics of poverty in Addis Ababa
Record number: 280603
Request a copy through Document Delivery
Full-text articles from this journal available on HINARI - free to registered institutions in developing countries
   
Title: Reclaiming value in international development: the moral dimensions of development policy and practice in poor countries
Document type: book
Author (person): Schwenke, Chloe
Imprint: Westport, Conn.: Praeger
Year: 2009
Pages: 173 p
ISBN: 9780313363344
Subjects: DEVELOPMENT THEORY ; ETHICS ; SOCIAL JUSTICE ; HUMAN RIGHTS ; EDUCATION ; LEADERSHIP ; SOCIAL PARTICIPATION ; CORRUPTION ; FOOD SHORTAGE ; CONFLICTS ; URBANIZATION ; MINORITY GROUPS ; UGANDA
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: SCHWENKE, Chloe. Reclaiming value in international development
Record number: 280646
Request a copy through Document Delivery
Full-text articles from this journal available on HINARI - free to registered institutions in developing countries
   
Title: Microeconomic efficiencies and macroeconomic inefficiencies: on sustainable fisheries policies in very poor countries
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Wilson, James R. ; Boncoeur, Jean
In: Oxford development studies, 36 (4), pp. 439-460
Year: 2008
Subjects: RENT ; ECONOMIC GROWTH ; FISHERY POLICY ; EFFICIENCY ; MICROECONOMICS ; MACROECONOMICS ; MADAGASCAR
Language: English
Location: SERIALS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: (32) OXFORD DEVELOPMENT STUDIES., 36,no.4(2008), 439-460
Record number: 278377
Request a copy through Document Delivery
Full-text articles from this journal available on HINARI - free to registered institutions in developing countries
   
Title: Begging as a means of livelihood: conferring with the people at the orthodox religious ceremonial days in Addis Ababa
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Woubishet Demewozu
In: African study monographs, Supplementary issue / the Center for African Area Studies, Kyoto University, 29 (19-30), pp. 185-192
Year: 2005
Subjects: ETHIOPIA ; POVERTY ; URBAN AREAS ; MARGINALITY ; SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR ; ECONOMIC BEHAVIOUR ; LIVELIHOODS ; INFORMAL SECTOR ; ETHNOGRAPHY
Language: English
Location: SERIALS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: (54) AFRICAN STUDY MONOGRAPHS: supplementary issues., no.29 (2005), 185-192
Record number: 277319
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   

You can access the print documents listed above through the BLDS's document delivery and interlibrary loan services at: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/docdel.html

To subscribe to one of the many other BLDS Updates available, or to manage your subscription, visit: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/updates . To unsubscribe send an email to lyris@... with the subject: unsubscribe blds-poverty
Please forward this BLDS Update to other interested colleagues.

The British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) is based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, UK. It contains the largest collection of economic and social development materials in Europe. Approximately 50% of the collection originates from the South.

Researchers are welcome to visit BLDS as a day member. For information please go to: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/users.html

To access the BLDS catalogue online, please go to: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/search

Please tell us what you think of the BLDS Updates. Send your comments to: i.budden@...

Thank you

BLDS

BLDS is funded by    DFID logo    IDS logo
The views expressed in this newsletter and on the BLDS website are the opinion of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of BLDS, IDS or its funders.
BLDS is one of a family of Knowledge Services at IDS
© Institute of Development Studies, 2008

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#11088 From: blds-microfinanceAdmin@...
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:56 am
Subject: BLDS Update - Microfinance
blds-microfinanceAdmin@...
Send Email Send Email
 

What's new in BLDS on Microfinance - 16 July 2009

British Library for Development Studies

Here are the latest additions to BLDS in your field of interest. You can access these print documents through the document delivery and interlibrary loan services at BLDS (see end for details).

Title: Proceedings of the 5th bi-annual conference on microfinance development in Ethiopia, Benshangul, Assosa
Document type: book
Author (organisation): Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions
Editor: Admassie, Assefa
Imprint: Addis Ababa: AEMFI
Year: 2008
Pages: 211 p
Subjects: ETHIOPIA ; MICROFINANCE ; CREDIT COOPERATIVES ; RURAL DEVELOPMENT ; POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: ASSOCIATION OF ETHIOPIAN MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS. Proceedings of the 5th ...
Record number: 280601
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: A decade of microfinance institutions (MFIS) development in Ethiopia: growth, performance, impact and prospect (2008 - 2017)
Document type: book
Author (person): Amha, Wolday
Author (organisation): Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions
Editor: Alemu, Tekie
Imprint: Addis Ababa: AEMFI
Year: 2008
Pages: 118 p
Series: Occasional papers; no. 21
Subjects: ETHIOPIA ; MICROFINANCE ; FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ; LOANS ; SAVINGS ; POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: ASSOCIATION OF ETHIOPIAN MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS. A decade of microfinance institutions ...
Record number: 280600
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Ethiopian microfinance institutions performance analysis report: bulletin 4
Document type: book
Author (person): Anebo, Tsegaye
Author (organisation): Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions
Imprint: Addis Ababa: AEMFI
Year: 2008
Pages: 55 p
Subjects: ETHIOPIA ; MICROFINANCE ; FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ; EFFICIENCY ; PRODUCTIVITY ; EVALUATION
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: ASSOCIATION OF ETHIOPIAN MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS. Performance analysis report: bulletin 4
Record number: 280607
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Development in saving and credit cooperatives in Ethiopia: evolution, performances, challenges and interventions
Document type: book
Author (person): Mekonnen Kassa
Author (organisation): Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions
Editor: Alemu, Tekie
Imprint: Addis Ababa: AEMFI
Year: 2007
Pages: 85 p
Series: Occasional papers; no. 19
Subjects: ETHIOPIA ; MICROFINANCE ; CREDIT COOPERATIVES ; SAVINGS
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: ASSOCIATION OF ETHIOPIAN MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS. Development in saving and credit cooperatives ...
Record number: 280599
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: The role of non-government organisations in microfinance
Document type: journal article
Author (person): O'Brien, Barclay
In: Savings and development : quarterly review / Centre for Financial Assistance to African Countries, 32 (1), pp. 103-115
Year: 2008
Subjects: NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ; MICROFINANCE ; FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Language: English
Location: SERIALS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: (361) SAVINGS AND DEVELOPMENT: quarterly review., 32,no.1 (2008), 103-115
Record number: 278840
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Ethiopian microfinance institutions performance analysis report: bulletin 5
Document type: book
Author (person): Peck, David ; W/Yohannes, Ephrem
Author (organisation): Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions
Imprint: Addis Ababa: AEMFI
Year: 2009
Pages: 60 p
Subjects: ETHIOPIA ; MICROFINANCE ; FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ; EFFICIENCY ; PRODUCTIVITY ; EVALUATION
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: ASSOCIATION OF ETHIOPIAN MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS. Performance analysis report: bulletin 5
Record number: 280608
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Becoming self-reliant: the impact of vocational training and behavioural skills : a case study among primary school leavers in Korogocho, Nairobi
Document type: book
Author (person): Schmidt, Gregor
Imprint: Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa
Year: 2008
Pages: 175 p
Subjects: KENYA ; SLUMS ; VOCATIONAL TRAINING ; PRIMARY SCHOOLS ; PRIMARY EDUCATION ; VOCATIONAL EDUCATION ; MICROFINANCE ; SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS ; SELF-RELIANCE
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: SCHMIDT, Gregor. Becoming self-reliant.
Record number: 280694
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   

You can access the print documents listed above through the BLDS's document delivery and interlibrary loan services at: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/docdel.html

To subscribe to one of the many other BLDS Updates available, or to manage your subscription, visit: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/updates . To unsubscribe send an email to lyris@... with the subject: unsubscribe blds-microfinance
Please forward this BLDS Update to other interested colleagues.

The British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) is based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, UK. It contains the largest collection of economic and social development materials in Europe. Approximately 50% of the collection originates from the South.

Researchers are welcome to visit BLDS as a day member. For information please go to: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/users.html

To access the BLDS catalogue online, please go to: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/search

Please tell us what you think of the BLDS Updates. Send your comments to: i.budden@...

Thank you

BLDS

BLDS is funded by    DFID logo    IDS logo
The views expressed in this newsletter and on the BLDS website are the opinion of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of BLDS, IDS or its funders.
BLDS is one of a family of Knowledge Services at IDS
© Institute of Development Studies, 2008

---
You are currently subscribed to blds-microfinance as: newsbox@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe send an email to lyris@... with the subject: unsubscribe blds-microfinance

#11087 From: eldis-csradmin@...
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 2:59 pm
Subject: Eldis Corporate Responsibility Reporter
eldis-csradmin@...
Send Email Send Email
 
eldis Gateway to Development Information
Eldis is one of a family of knowledge services at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK
Home page What's New Search Resource guides Newsfeeds Add your research

ELDIS CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTER
16 July 2009
http://http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/resource-guides/corporate-responsibility


This is our regular bulletin that highlights recent publications and announcements on corporate responsibility issues.

The documents are available without charge on the web. If you are unable to access any of these materials online and would like to receive a copy of a document as an email attachment, please contact our editor at the email address given below.

A CDROM with collections of documents from Eldis is also available to users with poor internet access. See details in the footer of this reporter.

Note: Have you seen the restructured Eldis Governance resource guide? Explore the guide here(http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/resource-guides/governance) to find themes and sub-themes relevant to you


In this issue:

  1. The causes and consequences of industry self-policing
  2. Coming clean and cleaning up: is voluntary disclosure a signal of effective self-policing?
  3. Self-regulatory institutions for solving environmental problems: perspectives and contributions from the management literature
  4. Corporate social entrepreneuership
  5. Down to the wire: the impact of transnational companies on sustainable electricity provision in developing countries: case studies in Argentina and Peru
  6. Measuring impact-beyond the bottom line
  7. New ILO Service helping enterprises with CSR

 The causes and consequences of industry self-policing

Authors: Short,J.L.; Toffel,M.W.
Produced by: Harvard Business School (2007)

Programmes encouraging firms to police their own regulatory compliance and voluntarily disclose the violations they find are becoming increasingly important elements of regulatory strategy, and may be beginning to displace traditional regulatory enforcement tools like inspection and prosecution.

This paper analyses the complex behaviour of corporate self-disclosure to identify the causes and consequences of confessing. It investigates what factors lead organisations to self-disclose violations that went undiscovered by regulators, and whether these self-disclosing organisations obtained any unofficial regulatory benefits, above and beyond formal penalty mitigation. It also evaluates whether self-policing promotes the regulatory objective of improving compliance records.

The paper finds that:
  • highly scrutinised facilities are significantly more likely to self-disclose compliance violations as confessions are in effect coerced, since an additional inspection increases the probability of self-disclosure the next year by 10%
     
  • facilities with poor regulatory relations are subject to the most intensive regulatory scrutiny, and therefore have an even greater incentive to convince regulators that they have turned over a new leaf and are now more willing and able to comply with regulations
     
  • information and outreach efforts are very effective in encouraging facilities to self-disclose compliance violations
     
  • self-disclosing facilities are subjected to 21% fewer annual inspections suggesting regulators do indeed grant inspection holidays to self-disclosers
     
  • there is strong evidence that facilities compliance records improved subsequent to self-disclosure
These findings suggest an important role for self-policing within the context of a broader, deterrence-based regulatory strategy. The fact that self-disclosers improve their compliance records indicates that self-policing affects firm behaviour, and that confessions can serve as reliable indicators of these effects. However, while self-policing holds some interesting possibilities, it is not the panacea for shrinking regulatory budgets. The paper suggests a regulatory policy that recognises the ongoing importance of government regulation and regulators for the success of public-private regulatory partnerships.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=43925&em=160709?=corp

Back to list

Coming clean and cleaning up: is voluntary disclosure a signal of effective self-policing?

Authors: Toffel,M.W.; Short,J.L.
Produced by: Harvard Business School (2008)

This paper evaluates the self-regulatory practice known as self-policing among businesses, which involves encouraging regulated entities to monitor their own compliance with the law and report and correct violations they discover. The paper examines the following issues:
  • whether the self-policing required under the Audit Policy affects the behaviour of regulators and regulated facilities and the relationship between them
  • whether self-policing is associated with improved environmental performance at participating facilities
  • whether regulators reduce their scrutiny over self-policing facilities
The paper finds that:
  • compared to similar non-disclosing facilities, self-disclosing (self-policing) firms on average reduce the number of abnormal episodes in which toxic chemicals are released to the environment
  • this outcome arises from improvements made by the self-disclosers with clean compliance histories relative to non-disclosing firms with clean compliance histories
  • there is no evidence of improvement when self-disclosers are compared with non-disclosers among firms with poor compliance histories
  • regulators interpret the voluntary self-disclosure signal accurately, rewarding effective self-disclosers, but not ineffective self-disclosers, with an inspection holiday
This suggests that self-policing can enhance the environmental performance of facilities that are already good compliers, but that historically poor compliers do not see significant gains from self-policing. Regulators reward self-policing facilities that already had clean past compliance records with an inspection holiday, but do not significantly decrease scrutiny of poor past compliers, and are therefore effectively sorting the good facilities from the bad.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=43924&em=160709?=corp

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Self-regulatory institutions for solving environmental problems: perspectives and contributions from the management literature

Authors: King,A.; Toffel,M.W.
Produced by: Harvard Business School (2007)

This paper discusses how institutions can resolve environmental problems. The paper reviews the emerging management literature on self-regulatory institutions, suggesting that these institutions can provide practical solutions to environmental problems. Firms joining self-regulating institutions appear to believe that participating in these institutions will help them solve real problems, reducing market inefficiencies, reducing asymmetries in information, and facilitating coordinated investment in solutions to common problems. However, the paper notes that there is a need for caution in predicting the effect of self-regulatory institutions, since some self-regulatory institutions may simply be smoke screens deployed to prevent more effective stakeholder or government action.

The paper argues that the pursuit of individual gain plays a central role in the creation of these institutions and determines how they are understood and used. It however suggests that the meaning of these institutions may go beyond that justified by purely economic rationale as the actors observed in the empirical analysis could not predict how institutions would be used, and may even hold inconsistent goals. Participants could not always estimate costs and benefits either in the present or in the future.

The paper recognises that the institutions reviewed do not operate in isolation, but within the context of larger cultures or national regulations. Models that incorporate agents with limited rationality might help to explain how institutions interact. Some self-regulatory institutions are given social or political authority they do not appear to deserve, and the paper questions whether cultural traditions and perceptions might explain why firms are sometimes rewarded for participating in programs that neither improve their performance nor reveal hidden attributes.

The paper suggests that many more questions can be formulated from the literature reviewed and understanding how these problems are resolved will help clarify both the universal and unique aspects of using self-regulation to solve environmental problems.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=43919&em=160709?=corp

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Corporate social entrepreneuership

Authors: Austin,J.; Reficco,E.
Produced by: Harvard Business School (2009)

This paper discusses the concept of Corporate Social Entrepreneurship (CSE), a process aimed at enabling business to develop more advanced and powerful forms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSE is designed to produce a significant and comprehensive transformation of the way a company operates in order to generate greater societal betterment.

The analysis is based on a study of two companies that are considered to be pioneers in the practice of CSE: the Timberland Company, maker of outdoor apparel and accessories, and Starbucks Coffee, a prominent specialty coffee company, as well as a review of the practices of several other companies.

Te key elements of CSE are:
  • creating an enabling environment - for companies to move from their old approach to CSR to the CSE approach they must adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and cultivate an entrepreneurial environment that enables fundamental organisational transformation
  • fostering corporate social intrapreneurs - the CSE process is powered by multiple change agents or intrapreneurs: the role of social or corporate entrepreneur is not distinguishable from the role of manager, both roles coexist permanently, and corporations need to be entrepreneurial in order to innovate and go beyond their traditional managerial approaches
  • amplifying corporate purpose and values - one of the key focal points of CSE is company values: getting organisational values right is vital to advancing CSR, and CSIntrapreneurs need to ensure that social value generation (fulfilling social responsibilities) is seen as an essential component in companies mission and values statements
  • generating double value - entrepreneurship is about finding innovative ways to create value: CSE ensures that the purpose of corporations migrates from maximising returns to investors to optimising returns to stakeholders, who are defined as groups that are significantly affected by company actions and who can in turn impact the company
  • building strategic alliances - a vital part of the value generating strategies is collaborating with other organisations: these alliances are the vehicles for achieving what CSE refers to as extending the firms domain of competence and corresponding opportunity set through innovative leveraging of resources outside its direct control
The paper argues that CSE is not about managing existing operations or CSR programs - it is about creating disruptive change in the pursuit of new opportunities. It combines the willingness and desire to create joint economic and social value with the entrepreneurial redesign, systems development, and action necessary to carry it out. CSE constitutes fundamental change that can be particularly threatening and resisted, as it pushes the corporations actions more broadly and deeply into the social value creation area where the firms experiences and skill sets are less developed.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=43917&em=160709?=corp

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Down to the wire: the impact of transnational companies on sustainable electricity provision in developing countries: case studies in Argentina and Peru

Authors: Wilde-Ramsing,J.; Steinweg,T.; Reynolds,E.
Produced by: Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (2009)

This report addresses the impact of electricity provision by three companies on sustainable development in Latin America, specifically looking at Argentina and Peru. The report examines the corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and practices of these three transnational corporations (TNCs). Moreover, the report aims to improve the quality, the poverty-reducing capability, and the contribution to sustainable development of electricity provision in developing countries.

Increasing access to affordable electricity is vital for achieving sustainable development; however, the electricity industry is also a major source of air and water pollution. In this sense, the report underlines the absence of normative standards for sustainable electricity provision. Accordingly, the report recommends that critical issues, which form the basis for more transparent and effective guidelines for providing "quality kilowatts", should be identified.

The findings reveal that, although the companies claim sustainable development is among their top priorities, their approaches to sustainable electricity provision vary widely. Additionally, some results reveal that all companies have some difficulty in translating CSR policy into practice on the ground. Furthermore, the report concludes that:
  • many of the communities situated near electricity infrastructure live in insecure situations
  • TNCs are generally not serving the communities closest to their electricity generation facilities
  • there were occasionally negative environmental and public health impacts from the TNCs' activities
  • TNCs' engagement with communities is often limited to charity and philanthropic activities.
In general, the report finds that when a TNC has a well defined policy and implementation mechanism for a particular issue, the company tended to perform better on that issue in practice on the ground. Thus, CSR policies must be accompanied by programmes for ensuring and monitoring the implementation and translation of the policies into practice on the ground. Yet, such monitoring must involve representatives of key stakeholder groups, particularly unions, local communities, and local energy planners.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=43885&em=160709?=corp

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Measuring impact-beyond the bottom line

Produced by: World Business Council for Sustainable Development (2008)

Over the past few years, several companies have explored ways to measure the impact of their business activities on the societies in which they operate. These innovations have led to development a common approach to measuring business impact that can be used by all business sectors.

This publication presents the Measuring Impact Framework, and highlights the experiences and lessons learned from companies that have pioneered the thinking behind the Framework. It explains why measuring and understanding a companys impact is good for business and good for society.

Key features of the Framework include:
  • Grounded in what business does: based around activities and processes that companies do every day
  • Moves beyond compliance: attempts to answer questions about what business contributes beyond traditional reporting
  • Encourages stakeholder engagement: supports open dialogue with stakeholders to create a shared understanding of business impacts and societal needs, and to explore what business can and cannot do to address these needs
  • Flexible: designed for any business and/or industry at any stage in its business cycle, operating anywhere in the world
  • Complements existing tools: makes use of what is already out there
Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=43821&em=160709?=corp

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New ILO Service helping enterprises with CSR

Seeking information on how to put decent work principles into practice? The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has a new service specifically focused on helping enterprises who want to ensure that their operations are aligned with the principles contained in international labour standards the ILO HelpDesk. The service is free of charge, and requests are kept confidential.The HelpDesk is your one stop shop at the ILO. As the recognised international authority on international labour standards the ILO has a wide range of expertise on the content and application of labour standards, international trends and company-based case studies to draw upon. The Help Desk service will respond to company requests for advice or interpretations regarding specific issues; provide examples of answers to frequently asked questions, and give you access to a wide range of research, literature and publications in your area of interest. The Helpdesk can also assist you to access ILO technical expertise if you require assistance in implementing labour standards. To find out more, see: http://www.ilo.org/empent/Whatwedo/Publications/lang--en/docName--WCMS_106376/index.htm

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#11086 From: blds-econpolAdmin@...
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:53 am
Subject: BLDS Update - Economic policy
blds-econpolAdmin@...
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What's new in BLDS on Economic policy - 16 July 2009

British Library for Development Studies

Here are the latest additions to BLDS in your field of interest. You can access these print documents through the document delivery and interlibrary loan services at BLDS (see end for details).

Title: Peace and the public purse: economic policies for postwar statebuilding
Document type: book
Author (organisation): New York University. Center on International Cooperation
Editor: Boyce, James K. ; O'Donnell, Madalene
Imprint: London: Lynne Reinner
Year: 2007
Pages: 343 p
Series: Studies in multilateralism
ISBN: 9781588265166
Subjects: CONFLICTS ; STATE ; PEACE KEEPING ; INSTITUTION BUILDING ; PUBLIC FINANCE ; ECONOMIC POLICY ; FOREIGN AID ; UGANDA ; CAMBODIA ; GUATEMALA ; EAST TIMOR ; AFGHANISTAN ; PALESTINE
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: BOYCE, James K. Peace and the public purse
Record number: 280619
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Religious and economic reform: the Gaidinliu Movement and the Heraka in the North Cachar Hills
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Arkotong, Longkumer
In: South Asia : journal of South Asian studies, 30 (3), pp. 499-516
Year: 2007
Subjects: INDIA ; FOOD SHORTAGE ; AGRARIAN REFORM ; ECONOMIC REFORM ; RELIGIOUS PRACTICE ; TRIBES ; SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Language: English
Location: SERIALS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: (22) SOUTH ASIA: journal of South Asian studies, 30,no.3 (2007),499-516
Record number: 281345
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Sustaining reforms for inclusive growth in Cameroon: a development policy review
Document type: book
Author (person): Charlier, Florence ; N'Cho-Oguie, Charles
Author (organisation): World Bank
Imprint: Washington, D.C.: World Bank
Year: 2009
Pages: 266 p
ISBN: 9780821374030
Subjects: CAMEROON ; ECONOMIC REFORM ; ECONOMIC POLICY ; ECONOMIC GROWTH ; COMPETITION ; PRIVATE SECTOR ; ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS
Language: English
Location: OFFICIALS
Shelfmark: IBRD. Sustaining reforms for inclusive growth ...
Record number: 280648
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Family division in China's transitional economy
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Chen, Feinian
In: Population studies: a journal of demography, 63 (1), pp. 53-69
Year: 2009
Subjects: CHINA ; FAMILY ; HOUSEHOLD ; ECONOMIC REFORM
Language: English
Location: SERIALS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: (32) POPULATION STUDIES., 63,no.1 (2009)
Record number: 281277
Request a copy through Document Delivery
Full-text articles from this journal available on OARE - free to registered institutions in developing countries
   
Title: The importance of research for economic policy: the case of Senegal
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Diop, Abdoulaye Bara
In: Proceedings of the World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics, 2006 (), pp. 25-27
Year: 2006
Subjects: RESEARCH ; ECONOMIC POLICY ; SENEGAL
Language: English
Location: OFFICIALS
Shelfmark: IBRD. Annual Conference on Development Economics. Proceedings ..., (2006) 25-27
Record number: 281571
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Reforms for major new roles of the International Monetary Fund?: the IMF post-G-20 summit
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Griesgraber, Jo Marie
In: Global governance: a review of multilateralism, 15 (2), pp. 179-85
Year: 2009
Subjects: IMF ; GOVERNANCE ; ECONOMIC POLICY ; AID FINANCING ; ACCOUNTABILITY
Language: English
Location: SERIALS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: (112) GLOBAL GOVERNANCE., 15,no.2 (2009)
Record number: 281294
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Brick by brick: the building of an ASEAN economic community : a collection of economic reserach on ASEAN integration issues produced under the ASEAN-Australia Development Cooperation Program - Regional Economic Policy Support Facility
Document type: book
Author (person): Hew, Denis
Imprint: Pasir Panjang: ISEAS Publishing
Year: 2007
Pages: 250 p
ISBN: 9789812307323
Subjects: ASEAN ; ECONOMIC INTEGRATION ; FREE TRADE AREAS ; REGIONAL INTEGRATION ; SOUTH EAST ASIA
Language: English
Location: MONOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: HEW, Denis. Brick by brick.
Record number: 280400
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Financial liberalization, financial development and economic growth: evidence from Bangladesh
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Kabir, Sarkar Humayun ; Hoque, Hafiz Al Asad Bin
In: Savings and development : quarterly review / Centre for Financial Assistance to African Countries, 31 (4), pp. 431-448
Year: 2007
Subjects: FINANCIAL POLICY ; FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ; ECONOMIC GROWTH ; FINANCIAL MARKET ; FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT ; BANGLADESH
Language: English
Location: SERIALS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: (361) SAVINGS AND DEVELOPMENT: quarterly review., 31,no.4 (2007), 431-448
Record number: 278832
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: The impact of FDI inflows on R&D investment by medium and high-tech firms in India in the post-reform period
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Kathuria, Vinish
In: Transnational corporations, 17 (2), pp. 45-66
Year: 2008
Subjects: FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT ; RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ; ECONOMIC REFORM ; HIGH TECHNOLOGY ; CORPORATIONS ; TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS ; INNOVATIONS ; NEW TECHNOLOGY ; INDIA ; MEDIUM ENTERPRISES
Language: English
Location: OFFICIALS
Shelfmark: U.N. Centre on Transnational Corporations. Transnational corporations., 17,no.2 (2008), 45-66
Record number: 278870
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Interest rate reforms, financial depth and savings in Tanzania: a dynamic linkage
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Odhiambo, Nicholas M.
In: Savings and development : quarterly review / Centre for Financial Assistance to African Countries, 32 (2), pp. 141-158
Year: 2008
Subjects: SAVINGS ; INTEREST RATE ; FINANCIAL POLICY ; TANZANIA
Language: English
Location: SERIALS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: (361) SAVINGS AND DEVELOPMENT: quarterly review., 32,no.2 (2008), 141-158
Record number: 278843
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Financial sector reforms in Africa: perspectives on issues and policies
Document type: journal article
Author (person): Senbet,Lemma W. ; ~Otchere, Isaac
In: Proceedings of the World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics, 2006 (), pp. 81-120
Year: 2006
Subjects: FINANCIAL POLICY ; ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS ; AFRICA
Language: English
Location: OFFICIALS
Shelfmark: IBRD. Annual Conference on Development Economics. Proceedings ..., (2006) 81-120
Record number: 281574
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   
Title: Is industrial privatisation a viable economic policy for development?: an analysis of the privatization of public sector manufacturing industries in Pakistan
Document type: book
Author (person): Siddiqui, Zainab Hussain
Author (organisation): University College London. Development Planning Unit
Imprint: London: DPU
Year: 2007
Pages: 53 p
Series: DPU working paper ; no. 130
Subjects: PAKISTAN ; MANUFACTURING ; PRIVATIZATION ; PUBLIC SECTOR ; ECONOMIC POLICY
Language: English
Location: SERIALS COLLECTION
Shelfmark: (32) UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. University College. Development Planning Unit. DPU working papers, no. 130.
Record number: 281584
Request a copy through Document Delivery
   

You can access the print documents listed above through the BLDS's document delivery and interlibrary loan services at: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/docdel.html

To subscribe to one of the many other BLDS Updates available, or to manage your subscription, visit: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/updates . To unsubscribe send an email to lyris@... with the subject: unsubscribe blds-econpol
Please forward this BLDS Update to other interested colleagues.

The British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) is based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, UK. It contains the largest collection of economic and social development materials in Europe. Approximately 50% of the collection originates from the South.

Researchers are welcome to visit BLDS as a day member. For information please go to: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/users.html

To access the BLDS catalogue online, please go to: www.blds.ids.ac.uk/search

Please tell us what you think of the BLDS Updates. Send your comments to: i.budden@...

Thank you

BLDS

BLDS is funded by    DFID logo    IDS logo
The views expressed in this newsletter and on the BLDS website are the opinion of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of BLDS, IDS or its funders.
BLDS is one of a family of Knowledge Services at IDS
© Institute of Development Studies, 2008

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#11085 From: Charly POPPE <charly.poppe@...>
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:52 pm
Subject: [sos-wto-eu] Joint statement by Catherine Ashton and USTR Ron Kirk on bilateral trade issues + EU and Canada settle biotech trade dispute
charly.poppe@...
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http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/html/144043.htm

 

Joint statement by Catherine Ashton and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk on bilateral trade issues

Washington DC, 13 July 2009

 

United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk and European Union Trade Commissioner

Catherine Ashton met in Washington, D.C. to discuss bilateral trade relations. Building on

the successful conclusion of an agreement on the long-standing beef hormone dispute

on May 13, both sides agreed to intensify their bilateral engagement in order to find

solutions that will bring meaningful economic benefits to workers, consumers, and

businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. USTR Kirk and Commissioner Ashton issued

the following statement:

 

At our first meeting in March, we pledged to redouble our efforts to resolve bilateral trade

disagreements, some of which we have been discussing for many years. Through intensified

bilateral engagement, we believe we can find solutions that bring meaningful economic benefits

to stakeholders on both sides. We instructed our negotiators to identify and exploit new

opportunities for market-opening and economic integration.

 

Two months ago we registered our first success under this effort to intensify bilateral

engagement: the May U.S.-EU Memorandum of Understanding relating to the beef hormones

dispute, which underscored that even disagreements that have persisted for many years can

sometimes be set on a course towards resolution through pragmatic, problem-solving

approaches.

 

In our meeting we discussed potential ways forward on several other bilateral issues on which

we are prepared to intensify our engagement in the coming weeks and months.

 

We discussed steps that the United States and the EU could take to facilitate the lifting of

EU emergency measures, last modified in 2008, requiring that all U.S. shipments of longgrain

rice be tested prior to entering the EU for the trace presence of a biotech rice

product approved in the United States but not approved in the EU. Discussions on this

issue among European Commission and U.S. government agriculture and trade experts

will continue in the coming weeks.

We exchanged ideas on potential steps to address the WTO dispute on Section 110(5) of

the U.S. Copyright Act (the so-called “Irish music” dispute), which relates to music

licensing. We directed our staffs to explore new options on this dispute in the coming

weeks.

We agreed to initiate a practical dialogue on the trade implications of chemicals

regulation in the United States and the EU. We directed our staffs to discuss the

substantive agenda and format for this dialogue in the coming weeks.

We discussed the European Commission Trade Barrier Regulation Report on online

gambling and its implications for the WTO rights and obligations of the parties

concerned.

 

We also discussed the continuing efforts of the EU and other WTO members to reach

agreement on the terms of the EU’s importation regime for bananas. We share an interest in

resolving longstanding disputes on banana trade on terms acceptable to all concerned parties,

and will work with all parties to this end.

 

------------

 

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/html/144066.htm

 

EU and Canada settle WTO case on Genetically Modified Organisms

Geneva, 15 July 2009

 

The European Union and Canada have signed in Geneva a final settlement of the

WTO dispute that Canada brought against the EU in May 2003 regarding the

application of its legislation on biotech products. The mutually agreed solution

provides for the establishment of a regular dialogue on issues of mutual interest

on agriculture biotechnology. The EU and Canada will notify this settlement to the

WTO Dispute Settlement Body as a mutually agreed solution.

 

EU Trade Commissioner Ashton said: "The mutually agreed solution with Canada is a

clear sign that this type of dialogue works. I hope we can follow the same constructive

approach with Argentina and the United States."

 

EC regulatory procedures on genetically modified organisms are working normally, as

evidenced by 21 authorisations since the date of establishment of the WTO panel. The

European Commission has held regular discussions on biotech-related issues with the

three complainants in this case – Canada, Argentina and the United States - since the

adoption of the WTO panel report in 2006.

 

The settlement reached with Canada provides for bi-annual meetings between competent

services of the European Commission and Canadian authorities on agricultural

biotechnology market access issues of mutual interest, including:

 

GM product approvals in the territory of Canada or the EU as well as, where

appropriate, forthcoming applications of commercial interest to either side.

The commercial and economic outlook for future approvals of genetically modified

products.

Any trade impact related to asynchronous approvals of genetically modified products

or the accidental release of unauthorised products, and any appropriate measures in

this respect.

Any biotech-related measures that may affect trade between Canada and the EU,

including measures of EU Member States.

Any new legislation in the field of agriculture biotechnology.

Best practices in the implementation of legislation on biotechnology

This dialogue is aimed at an exchange of information that would contribute to avoiding

unnecessary obstacles to trade. The EU is not expected to modify its current regulatory

regime on biotech products, which was never subject to WTO challenge in itself.

 

Background

 

Following a complaint by the US, Canada and Argentina against the EU on the

application of its legislation on biotech products, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body

(DSB) adopted on 21 November 2006 three panel reports which found a violation of the

WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement on three grounds:

 

The application of a general de facto moratorium on approval of GM products from

June 1999 to August 2003

The existence of undue delays with respect to 23 product-specific applications (out of

the 27 cases considered by the Panel).

National safeguard measures introduced by 6 Member States before the

establishment of the panel, which were found not to be based on an appropriate risk

assessment.

 

Subsequently, the EU and the three complainants (US, Argentina and Canada) agreed to

engage in technical discussions on biotech-related issues, which would not be limited to

issues of implementation of the WTO panel recommendations. The EU and the

complainants also reached an agreement for a 12-month Reasonable Period of Time for

implementation (i.e. until 21 November 2007). The complainants agreed to further extend

the RPT until 11 January 2008, where they would take stock of progress and decide the

way forward.

 

The complainants have taken different positions in view of the expiration of that extended

RPT:

 

(a) Argentina and Canada have agreed to several extensions of the RPT, most recently

until 31 December 2009 and 31 July 2009 July, respectively. Technical discussions with

Argentina and Canada have continued to date.

 

(b) The US made a general retaliation request on 17 January 2008. On 6 February 2008,

the EU objected to the US retaliation request. The matter was referred to arbitration

under Article 22.6 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding at the special meeting of the

DSB held on 8 February 2008. On 15 February 2008, and according to the sequencing

agreement concluded between the US and the EU, both parties requested the

suspension of Article 22.6 procedures. The chairman of the arbitration panel suspended

those procedures on 18 February 2008. Those procedures can only be resumed

following the examination of compliance of the panel report by the EU through an

arbitration procedure under Article 21.5 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU).

The US and the EU continued technical discussions in 2008. The last round of

discussions took place in October 2008.

 

------


1 of 1 File(s)


#11084 From: GIGA <goldstein@...>
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:36 am
Subject: Working Paper No 105
goldstein@...
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Dear Madam, dear Sir,

the GIGA Working Paper No 105 has now been published and is available free of charge at: www.giga-hamburg.de/workingpapers.

No 105 Alexander Stroh: The Effects of Electoral Institutions in Rwanda: Why Proportional Representation Supports the Authoritarian Regime

Abstract
While much has been written about the special design of Rwanda’s judiciary in order to handle the aftermath of the genocide in 1994, other institutional actions resulting from the 2003 constitution have rarely been addressed in research. However, the second (partial) parliamentary elections in September 2008 revealed some of the implications which the carefully designed electoral system has for Rwanda’s political development. As a starting point, the paper emphasises the need to link the debates on institutional design in divided societies with elections in authoritarian regimes. Under different regime types, “institutional engineers” may pursue different goals. The paper concludes that in the case of Rwanda proportional representation (PR) has been implemented to support undemocratic goals. PR limits the local accountability of politicians in a political environment in which the government is not controlled by a democratic opposition. Thus, Rwanda’s current PR system facilitates the maintenance of authoritarian power in the country, whereas small constituencies would establish closer links between the local populations and their representatives.


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das GIGA Working Paper No 105 ist erschienen und steht auf der Website kostenlos zum Herunterladen bereit: www.giga-hamburg.de/workingpapers.

No 105 Alexander Stroh: Auswirkungen des ruandischen Wahlsystems: Warum die Verhltniswahl das autoritre Regime sttzt

Zusammenfassung

Whrend das besondere institutionelle Design der ruandischen Justiz, das dazu dienen soll, die Folgen des Vlkermords von 1994 zu bewltigen, Gegenstand vieler Untersuchungen ist, wurden andere institutionelle Reaktionen der Verfassung von 2003 nur sehr selten betrachtet. Die zweiten (partiellen) Parlamentswahlen im September 2008 haben jedoch einige Folgen des sorgfltig entworfenen Wahlsystems des Landes fr dessen politische Entwicklung erkennen lassen. Fr die Analyse dieser Wahlen fhrt der Verfasser dieses Beitrags die Literatur zu Institutional Design in konflikttrchtigen Gesellschaften und zu Wahlen in autoritren Regimen zusammen und wertet sie aus. Dadurch kommt er zu folgendem Schluss: Zumindest im politischen Kontext Ruandas, in dem die Regierung nicht von einer demokratischen Opposition kontrolliert wird, weil diese entweder erfolgreich kooptiert oder von politischer Einflussnahme ausgeschlossen wurde, schrnken Verhltniswahlsysteme mit groen Wahlkreisen die Mglichkeit ein, Politiker lokal fr ihr Handeln verantwortlich zu machen. Daher trgt das ruandische Wahlsystem tendenziell dazu bei, autoritre Herrschaft aufrechtzuerhalten. Hingegen wren kleinere Wahlkreise, die mit der lokalen Bevlkerung enger verbunden sind, besser geeignet, eine kulturell und historisch angepasste Grundlage fr mehr politische Verantwortlichkeit gewhlter Politiker herzustellen.


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#11083 From: Global Training Center <news@...>
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:19 am
Subject: Export / Import Training Seminars & Webinars
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 Suddenly In Charge of Customs and Trade Compliance?
Growing Trend Among Companies
Have you found yourself suddenly responsible for the import and export departments in your company?

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And while your company was busy downsizing the US authorities responsible for export and import regulation were busy up sizing.  During 2008 and 2009 the US Government  implemented more sweeping regulatory changes with enhanced penalties than in the previous decade. Ignorance of the law is no longer a valid excuse for non-compliance!

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Export Documentation & Procedures
This seminar can help you expand your export business and provide stellar service to your foreign buyers. In-depth understanding of the export procedures along with studying the appropriate documentation offers the best advantage in making international trade successful.

[register] : 08-10-2009 : Windsor Locks, CT
[register] : 08-10-2009 : Cincinnati, OH
[register] : 08-11-2009 : Anaheim, CA
[register] : 08-11-2009 : Minneapolis, MN
[register] : 08-24-2009 : Greenville, SC

Can't attend in person? Consider our webinar. Same material, no travel, delivered live to your desktop.  See schedule below.

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Letters of Credit
Including UCP 600 and Alternative Payment Methods
Why guess about how to fully comply with Letters of Credit requirements when this seminar will help you get involved in the set-up process of the L/C. Learn the basic terminology, the significance of various documents, how to prevent and handle discrepancies.

[register] : 08-11-2009 : Cincinnati, OH
[register] : 08-12-2009 : Minneapolis, MN
[register] : 08-12-2009 : Anaheim, CA
[register] : 08-25-2009 : Greenville, SC

Can't attend in person? Consider our webinar . Same material, no travel, delivered live to your desktop.  See schedule below.

Includes $89 value book/study guide

Air & Ocean Transportation Logistics
Logistics Management for the International Supply Chain

Learn to control your international shipments by directly coordinating your documents with transportation rules and procedures. This seminar will take the fear out of international shipping.

[register] : 08-12-2009  : Cincinnati, OH
[register] : 08-13-2009  : Minneapolis, MN
[register] : 08-26-2009 : Greenville, SC

Can't attend in person? Consider our webinar . Same material, no travel, delivered live to your desktop.  See schedule below.

Includes $79 value book/study guide

Tariff Classification
A seminar recommended for Exporters, Importers and also for NAFTA qualification to determine the correct Tariff Classification Number and Schedule B Number. The classification and valuation of goods are a major decision for exporters and importers. Classifying goods is important not only for duty purposes, but also to determine whether the goods are subject to quotas, restraints, embargoes or other restrictions. This seminar interprets the HTS, therefore clarifying how to choose the tariff or Schedule B number.

[register] : 08-11-2009 : Windsor Locks, CT
[register] : 08-13-2009 : Anaheim, CA
[register] : 08-13-2009 : Cincinnati, OH
[register] : 08-18-2009 : Minneapolis, MN
[register] : 08-27-2009 : Greenville, SC

Can't attend in person? Consider our webinar . Same material, no travel, delivered live to your desktop.  See schedule below.

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NAFTA
Rules of Origin & Record Keeping

Know if your product should be shipped under the NAFTA Rules. Learn the rules to qualify and classify your goods under the NAFTA Agreement at this seminar. Then review in detail the NAFTA Certificate of Origin. This seminar prepares a company for shipping into Mexico and Canada under the NAFTA rules.

[register] : 08-12-2009 : Windsor Locks, CT
[register] : 08-14-2009 : Cincinnati, OH
[register] : 08-19-2009 : Minneapolis, MN
[register] : 08-28-2009 : Greenville, SC

Can't attend in person? Consider our webinar . Same material, no travel, delivered live to your desktop.  See schedule below.

Includes $79 value book/study guide

Import Documentation & Procedures
Reviewing the Harmonized Tariff Schedule Classification and General Rules of Interpretation will give you the background for importing into the United States. The Import Documentation seminar will cover entry procedures, valuation methods, liquidation process and much more to help the novice and experienced importer.

[register] : 08-06-2009 : Cincinnati, OH
[register] : 08-13-2009 : Windsor Locks, CT
[register] : 08-20-2009 : Minneapolis, MN
[register] : 08-20-2009 : Greenville, SC

Can't attend in person? Consider our webinar . Same material, no travel, delivered live to your desktop.  See schedule below.

Includes $79 value book/study guide

Import Audit
A seminar designed to help companies establish their "Standard Operating Procedures" to comply with the requirements under the Customs Modernization Act. Learn record keeping, how to apply the "reasonable care" standards, the six methods of evaluation and much more to protect yourself and the company from penalties.

[register] : 08-07-2009 : Cincinnati, OH
[register] : 08-14-2009 : Windsor Locks, CT
[register] : 08-21-2009 : Greenville, SC
[register] : 08-21-2009 : Minneapolis, MN

Can't attend in person? Consider our webinar . Same material, no travel, delivered live to your desktop.  See schedule below.
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$495 per day / per person

Go to www.globaltrainingcenter.com or call 800.860.5030 for more information or to register


Can't attend a seminar. Consider one of our webinars. Our webinars provide the same training as our seminars but with the convenience of staying home.  Our webinars are live and not recorded and you will receive the same materials, books, and a certificate upon completion.

Schedule:
[register] :: 07-27-2009  ::  Import Documentation & Procedures
[register] :: 07-28-2009  ::  Import Audit Compliance
[register] :: 08-18-2009  ::  Export Documentation
[register] :: 08-19-2009  ::  Letters of Credit
[register] :: 08-20-2009  ::  Air and Ocean Transportation
[register] :: 09-24-2009  ::  Tariff Classification
[register] :: 09-25-2009  ::  NAFTA Rules of Origin



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#11082 From: "MDF Training & Consultancy" <newsletter@...>
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:46 am
Subject: Project Management
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Project Management

 
 
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Making plans, motivating people , teamwork, negotiating, keeping stakeholders together, these are a few of the challenging tasks of  project and programme management. Again we organise a two weeks Project Management course from 24 August - 4 September.  

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#11081 From: Development Gateway <info.zunia@...>
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:52 pm
Subject: dgCommunities Is Now Zunia
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dgCommunities Is Now Zunia

Dear Members,

You have spoken and we have heard you. We have made changes to dgCommunities to better meet your needs. In order to reflect the improvements, we are also rebranding dgCommunities and calling it Zunia. Check out the new site at: http://www.zunia.org

The main improvements include:  

  •  Coverage of wider range of development issues
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Please take a look at the site and give us your input by filling out this brief questionnaire by July 20, 2009: http://www.surveymonkey.com

We are particularly interested in your feedback on the site’s look and feel, ease of use, site navigation and search. We would also like to hear your thoughts about how we can better engage development practitioners.

You should be able to access your Zunia account with your existing dgCommunities username and password. If you encounter any problems, please use the “forgot password” option or send us an e-mail at zunia@...

You will continue to receive alerts on the topics you signed up for on dgCommunities. To make changes to your subscription or get customized information on development issues, use the “Manage Filters/Alerts” option.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your involvement with the Development Gateway. We look forward to your continued support.

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#11080 From: Anita Kelles <kellesa@...>
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:22 am
Subject: [sos-wto-eu] free trade agreements in Asia
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fyi, the papers usually come available after the event
regards
anita

Subject: Events update from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:02:56 +0100

ODI Events Update 20090716 - HTML
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New event from ODI

 

Free Trade Agreements in Asia: Are they good for business?

24 July 2009 10:00-11:30
Overseas Development Institute
 

Speaker:
Ganeshan Wignaraja -
Principal Economist, Office of Regional Economic Integration, Asian Development Bank

Discussant:
Susan Prowse
- Programme Leader, Trade Policy, ODI

Chair:
Dirk Willem te Velde -
Director of Programmes, International Economic Development Group, ODI

 
A lively debate is taking place over the impact of free trade agreements (FTAs) on business in East Asia. On the one hand there are those who believe the agreements are harmful and disruptive and on the other hand some see net beneficial effects in terms of regional liberalisation and as a building block to multilateral liberalisation. This debate is yet to be resolved, in part because there has been a lack of enterprise level data to aid the process.
At this event Ganeshan Wignaraja, Principal Economist at the Asian Development Bank's Office of Regional Economic Integration, will present new evidence from surveys of over 800 East Asian firms (in Japan, China, Singapore, Korea, Thailand and the Philippines). This seminar seeks to address the critical question of whether the Asian system of multiple overlapping FTAs is harmful to business activity, particularly for Small and Medium Enterprises.
 

  An ODI public event
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#11079 From: "ProPoor.org" <news@...>
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:52 am
Subject: Newsletter -- July 16, 2009
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ProPoor.org Newsletter (July 16, 2009)

Below are the development news stories from South Asia, featured 'sign of light' and latest updates from the ProPoor community ...


Headlines:
Homegrown Solution to Water Crisis
A 30 per cent water cut imposed by the city of Mumbai is hardly a problem for residents of the Sealine Housing Society.
The Great Goan Land Scam
Goa's land allocation policy for SEZs has been indicted for massive irregularities by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
'Social business' Fights Malnutrition in Bangladesh
A joint venture between Grameen Bank and French dairy firm Danone gave birth to a unique business idea to provide nutritious yogurt to malnourished children in rural Bangladesh.
New Portal on RTI Launched in India
Citizen groups of Chandigarh have launched an interactive online portal on the Right to Information Act that allows visitors to share and disseminate information of public interest. The website includ ...
Read more news stories >>

Signs of Light:
The Mountain Man
To the people of the hills in the upper reaches of India Dr. Anil Joshi is no less than a messiah and what he has achieved is no less than a miracle.
Read more 'good news' stories >>

Blog News:
Course of NIRD on Organizing,mobilizing the rural poor for self help and empowerment : August 17-22, 2009, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
Invitation for Civil Society Organizations and Youth Volunteers - 2-12 August 2009, Orissa, India
Capacity building program for innovators - 18 July 2009, Chennai, India
Training Programe on Development Documentation on 7-8th August at Bala Vikasa PDTC, Warangal Andhra Pradesh
Climate change music video
"Microfinancing Livelihoods Orientation" Training - 23-25 July, 2009, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
Required: Communications Adviser for DFID
Announcement of NIRD Course on Community Mobilisation for Community Driven Development - Septemnber 1-5, 2009 at NIRD, Hyderabad, India
Inauguration of "eGyanKendra" - 11 July 2009, Dehradun, India
To learn about new NGOs and other stories added this week, read more on the ProPoor Blog >>

The ProPoor newsletter is emailed every week to 22806 subscribers. To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit our subscriptions page anytime.

Please contact us if you'd like to add an NGO to the ProPoor database or if you have any announcements or stories that might be of interest to the ProPoor South Asian development community.


#11078 From: FeedBlitz <FeedBlitz@...>
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:11 am
Subject: Lasagna and chips - Designing an online and face-to-face learning trajectory
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  1. Designing an online and face-to-face learning trajectory
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Designing an online and face-to-face learning trajectory

I co-facilitated an online trajectory about dairy development with dairy practitioners (for Heifer in collaboration with Agri-ProFocus) before a face-to-face learning event in the Netherlands. As the facilitator team of 3 we took an hour to look back at the process and formulate our lessons. I blogged it on the icollaborate blog, but thought I can cross-blog it here too. We used a Ning platform (private network with public face) to convene the participants. A huge advantage of the online process is that we have a secured continuous attention and more networking opportunities for the dairy specialists. We are now investigating options to continue as a network. In terms of impact on learning together I think this is huge compared to simply organising a face-to-face event. So here's the account of what we tried to achieve, what we achieved and what we'd do the same or differently next time.

What we tried to achieve:
The organizing team of three felt starting online could help with the following 4 things:

  1. Get to know each other so that a positive climate is created for learning together
  2. Better content-wise preparation for the learning event with the participants by sharing and discussing case studies online before the event
  3. Help to organize the logistics, in particular transport
  4. Disseminate and validate the draft toolbox developed by Heifer

A team of three facilitators was formed with a variety of skills; one was a dairy specialist from Heifer (not familiar with online exchange), one process facilitator from Agri-ProFocus and one consultant online facilitation (external). As always, time for preparation was short and the team met only once for about 2 hours to get to know each other, plan and divide tasks – and actually started the next day!

The design
There was one month left before the learning event, so that was the maximum time that could be used online. A dairy and development Ning platform was put together and a group of roughly 100 registered people from all over the globe were invited to the platform. The team chose to start parallel discussions: (a) the cases, (b) a thread of introductions, (c) an online game (two truths and a lie), (d) to ask for learning expectations and (e) logistics. The team agreed to communicate via mails and skype instant messaging and try to react within 24 hours to each others questions. Every week a message was sent out to all registered participants on the platform, tips from the facilitators were put on the homepage and updated when necessary and we made sure to welcome all participants with a personal note.

What happened?
Roughly half of the invited people responded (50) and signed up for the platform. Immediately, they started to invited others working in dairy development, so we reached a total of 94 participants on the Ning. The cases and introductions were very active threads and all cases received comments from people who had read them carefully. We noticed that we had to invest to get a first reaction to a question, after which more people followed. Almost half of the ‘Ningers’ could not participate in the event in the Netherlands. That brought us to the idea to make short videos to post back for the others who were not present. Unfortunately this person fell ill and nobody could take over. Therefore summaries were made and posted back to the Ning. The online facilitation took each of us 12-20 hours of online facilitation over the course of 4 weeks.

In the evaluation 62% of the participants in the learning event indicated they logged onto the online platform. The comments were appreciative: “It got me involved in the subject”, “I contributed and learned a lot”, “Everybody has a chance” and “Good preparation, great introduction, up-to-date information”

What did we achieve?
The online participation and discussions far exceeded the expectations of the organizing team, given the fact that most invitees are busy and not familiar with this type of online exchange. The case presenters on the learning event noted that people went deeply into the cases and they were able to go beyond trying to understand the case to a real analysis. There was a open, safe atmosphere which allowed people to be provocative and give constructive criticisms without others feeling attacked.

It is hard to measure the effect on the networking on the Ning. The online exchange allowed some acquaintance and dairy people are already well networked. Both factors helped to create a good atmosphere. Many people recognized faces from the ning and it probably helped to reduce anxiety levels because people had a clearer idea of whom to expect.

Most people carpooled- but it is hard to say whether that was a result of the ning. Only one person offered the carpool through the ning. We didn’t get a clear picture of the transport needs online. The draft toolbox was disseminated during the last week. Unfortunately we don’t have data how often it was downloaded (and less how often it was read).

What would we do the same and what to do differently if we’d had to organize it again?

We’re quite content and enthusiastic about the results, so we’d basically do the same thing we did. Investing in welcoming people, making sure a first person reacts online to questions, tips from the facilitator on the homepage and weekly summaries for all seemed to work well for this group of people with little online exchange experience. The focus on cases worked very well for the dairy professionals because it allowed them to go straight to the heart of their profession. The combination of skills within the team worked out well, as did the weekly or so skype teleconferences within the team. And of course part of the success can be contributed to the cases that appealed to the participants. Things to improve:

  • Plan enough time to make summaries of the ning discussions as an input for the face-to-face event. Since the reactions exceeded our expectations, making summaries was time consuming.
  • The icebreaker is good because it is low threshold activity for some participants. However, the ‘two truths and a lie’ was too complex. An easier icebreaker might get more reactions. One participant recognized the exercise from a face-to-face event, so you might go for a familiar icebreaker and translate it online.
  • Don’t combine two questions in one thread. One of the two questions might be ignored. Be very clear what your question is.
  • Navigation remained difficult. The lesson is to give priority to a very clear structure. However, for people who are new to ning or other online platforms the experience may remain chaotic, it is a learning curve for the participants. So it might also be good to allow more time for learning to navigate the online space, both for participants and facilitators!. An idea for participants may be to organize an online scavenger hunt on the forum or a teleconference for those who feel lost?
  • It might work better to focus attention of participant to plan case discussions one after the other rather than simultaneously. For instance, 2 cases per week. This helps to focus everybody’s attention. In our case, the period of 4 weeks was short for that because it takes more than a week to get a substantial amount of participants online.
  • Install analytics (eg. Google analytics) or ensure downloads via other sites that monitor the number of downloads so that you can monitor those data. For instance, you can upload a document on scribd.com and link to it on the Ning.

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#11077 From: Brookings Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies <cnaps@...>
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:02 pm
Subject: Regional Community Building, China's Missiles, CNAPS Visiting Fellowship
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July 15, 2009
Brookings Center for Northeast Asian Policy
In FocusNews & EventsResearch & CommentaryForward to a Colleague
IN FOCUS: REGIONAL COMMUNITY BUILDING
Asian Leaders at APEC Summit The Asia Pacific region has undergone fundamental changes since the Cold War. Once perceived as institutionally underdeveloped, a wide range of regional community building initiatives has transformed Asias institution-building and major power relations. In this CNAPS working paper, former visiting fellow Richard Weixing Hu writes that this institutional proliferation now poses challenges to regional community building, and explores how a stable regional architecture may be constructed. Read More >>
CROSS-STRAIT RELATIONS
Taiwan and China have made impressive progress over the last year improving relations in the political and economic arenas, but Chinas Peoples Liberation Army has continued to procure and deploy equipment that puts Taiwan at risk. Richard Bush points out that the rate of growth is a bit less than previous years but it still raises the question, what is going on?
Read More >>
VISITING FELLOWSHIP
Brookingss Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies (CNAPS) has substantially changed its Visiting Fellows program and will now host two classes of Visiting Fellows per academic year. CNAPS is currently accepting applications for the Spring 2010 session, which is open to professionals from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
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#11076 From: rw_viaemail@...
Date: Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:08 am
Subject: ReliefWeb Policy And Issues Updates
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Title - Managing Complexity: Political and Managerial Challenges in United
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Title - Guidelines for Incorportating HIV/AIDS Activities in
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Title - Humanitarian Exchange Magazine No. 43 - Feature: The Role of
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Title - Financing the Response to AIDS in Low- and Middle-Income Countries:
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Title - WFP Gender Policy 2009: Promoting Gender Equality and the
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Title - Africa Strategy 2009-2014
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#11075 From: "IRIN" <no-reply@...>
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:21 pm
Subject: Your daily selection of IRIN Africa English reports, 7/15/2009
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CONTENTS:

1 - AFRICA: Going into debt for health
2 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry
3 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher
4 - NIGER: Late rains put crops at risk
5 - SOMALIA: Mogadishu battle "marks turning point"
6 - SOUTH AFRICA: Storms affect 20,000 people in Cape Town
7 - UGANDA: "Invisible war victims" in the north require urgent attention -
officials


1 - AFRICA: Going into debt for health

DAKAR, 15 July (IRIN) - One in four families living in the world's poorest
countries borrows money or sells assets in order to afford health care,
according to the most recent issue of the US medical journal "Health Affairs".

  The authors calculated almost 26 percent of 3.6 billion surveyed people - most
often the poorest households with little or no health insurance - used "hardship
financing" from 2002 to 2004 to cover health costs.

  Out-of-pocket payments accounted for 70 percent of health payments in
low-income countries compared to less than 15 percent in richer countries,
according to an independent 2007 study of global health insurance programmes.

  Countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa have tried to varying degrees to follow
the author's call for "prepayment mechanisms that reduce (or for the poor,
eliminate) charges at the point of care [to] mitigate the economic risk that
out-of-pocket payments pose for families."

  Liberia

  Widowed after her husband was killed during Liberia's civil war, Mary Dewh, a
39-year-old mother of four, told IRIN she alone covers her family's health care
costs. "When my son was hospitalised with malaria two weeks ago and the bill
came to US$50, I did not have enough money for him to be discharged from the
hospital." She said a neighbour loaned her money so her son could come home.

  In 2007 Liberia tested lifting health care fees for basic care in public health
centres, but Solomon Bah, a doctor in the capital Monrovia told IRIN free care
is not easy to find now in cities.

  "[There is a] little bit of free service in rural communities where people can
not afford [health care]. But that is done on a smaller-scale basis. Patients
are shouldering their own responsibility to settle their medical bills. The
government does not have that much of money to have free medical service for
everyone," said Bah.

  The Ministry of Health is undergoing a national review of user fees.

  Ghana

  Since 2005 the government has introduced a national health insurance programme,
which has enrolled 54 percent of the population as of the end of 2008, according
to the government.

  In a recent independent evaluation of the insurance programme,  60 percent of
those interviewed expressed frustration at delays in enrolment and difficulty
buying medicines at pharmacies under the plan, but all surveyed agreed health
care costs had fallen.

  As of September 2006, only 22 percent of workers in the informal sector had
enrolled, according to the government; Seventy percent of Ghana's work force is
in the informal sector.

  The government announced in early 2009 a "restructuring" of the insurance
programme - which is estimated to cost more than $600 million a year - to
improve claims management, increase medical services for communicable diseases,
improve access to free maternal care and "better respond to the need of the
population".

  Burkina Faso

  Since 2005 the government of Burkina Faso has covered health costs for
under-five children suffering from severe forms of malaria at the cost of almost
$1 million a year, according to Laurent Moyenga who heads the country's national
anti-malarial programme.

  In addition, the country has paid more than US$4 million a year since 2006 to
women giving birth and for newborn care during their first week of life, said
Jeanne Nougtara, the director of family health subsidies in the Ministry of
Health. "We cannot cover all illnesses and believe children are at highest risk
to deadly diseases in their first seven days," Nougtara told IRIN.

  But even with this help, patients are still struggling, said a health employee
from Yalgado Oudraogo hospital in the capital Ouagadougou, who preferred to
remain anonymous. "Every day patients beg the night guards to let them leave at
night because they fear not having enough money to pay for their hospital stay."

  pt/bo/pc/aj

[ENDS]


2 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry

JOHANNESBURG, 15 July (IRIN) - If the global economy were to rebound in 2010,
sub-Saharan Africa would still be one of the world's poorest and most vulnerable
regions, and have more than half its food insecure people, says an examination
of the impact of the economic slowdown on food security.

  The trade deficits created by the 2008 food price crisis, lagging agricultural
productivity, and political instability in countries like Somalia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo will make it hard for many countries in the region
to recover, said the Food Security Assessment 2008-09  by the US Department of
Agriculture's Economic Research Services (ERS).

  The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which derived the number from
the ERS assessment, said there were now more than a billion people hungry
worldwide.

  With the full effect of the financial downturn difficult to predict, the
assessment developed scenarios for the 70 poorest countries in five regions -
sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a regional organization of former
Soviet republics - taking into account projections by the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) in its updated World Economic Outlook in January 2009.

  In the first scenario the ERS projects a drop in export earnings, affecting a
country's capacity to import and bringing a decline in food consumption. The dip
in export earnings reflects regional declines in economic growth projected by
the IMF: 50 percent in decline in export growth in North Africa and sub-Saharan
Africa, 40 percent in Asia, 60 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and
in the CIS.

  In the second scenario, a 50 percent slump in the capital inflows that finance
imports is added to the factors in the first scenario. A third scenario looked
at the impact of the slowdown if a full economic recovery were to take place in
the rest of the world in 2010.

  Sub-Saharan Africa

  Though sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 25 percent of the population in the
70 countries, it has 47 percent of the food-insecure people, the assessment
noted.

  The region has become increasingly dependent on cereal imports, which have
risen from around 10 percent of its supplies in the late 1980s to more than 20
percent at present. "Therefore, when international [cereal] prices rise, the
ability to import is likely to fall, given the limited financial capacity of the
region."

  A drop in export earnings, as in the first scenario, would bring a three
percent rise in the number of food insecure. Among the worst affected would be
countries that have done well economically in recent years such as Angola, which
has benefited from high oil prices.

  In the second scenario, which takes financial inflows into account, the number
of food-insecure people in the region would increase by nine percent, or 36
million.

  Cape Verde, Cte d'Ivoire, Lesotho, Mauritania and Senegal are experiencing
rising food insecurity because of their growing dependence on imports, while in
Eritrea, Somalia and Sierra Leone, which are highly dependent on foreign aid,
food insecurity is likely to deepen.

  Sub-Saharan Africa's share of food aid has grown "from roughly a third to well
over half" of the world total since 1999, noted the assessment.

  Asia

  Asia is the region least dependent on food imports, and its food-security
situation was "good, in relative terms". However, a decline export earnings
would affect food security in the region "deeply, with the number of
food-insecure people increasing by 11 percent. This comes after the Asian
countries experienced the highest export growth relative to other regions (over
10 percent per year since 2000)".

  If there is a decline in export growth and a cutback in net capital inflows,
the number of food-insecure people in Asia is projected to increase by 13
percent in 2009 - relative to the food-security baseline - driven by the impact
of the economic shock in Bangladesh and the Philippines.

  Despite its economic strides, a drop in capital inflows into Bangladesh would
leave 40 percent of its more than 153 million people food insecure; in the
Philippines the number of hungry could jump to around 20 percent of the
population of more than 96 million.

  The food security outlook in Asia over the next 10 years shows that just over
20 percent of this region's population would be food insecure, largely because
of an expected slowdown in population growth.

  "After averaging two percent per year throughout the 1990s, Asia's population
growth is projected to slow to about 1.4 percent per year through the next
decade, thereby reducing pressure on resources," the assessment noted. The food
security situation in India, the world's second most populous country, is
expected to improve.


  jk/he[ENDS]


3 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher

DAKAR, 15 July (IRIN) - Since the Sphere Project first published in 2000 its
handbook outlining minimum standards in disaster response, much has changed in
the aid world. Climate change is the new disaster, humanitarian reforms have
reorganized the aid system introducing cluster leads for emergency sectors, and
millions more disaster-affected people live in towns rather than rural areas.

The Sphere Project, a collaboration of international NGOs and the Red Cross
Movement to improve quality disaster responses, is updating its handbook
outlining best practices in food aid, nutrition, health, water and sanitation
and emergency shelter.

The updated guide, known as the Sphere handbook, will reflect the increasing
complexity of the aid world and more explicitly address civil-military
relations, disaster risk reduction and early recovery, environmental impact,
psychosocial support and the role of cluster leads in humanitarian response.

Nine disaster response sectors - among them education, protection, and early
recovery - are headed up by either UN agency or NGO cluster leads to help
provide more coherent, coordinated emergency interventions.

Despite an increasingly crowded market-place of new aid quality guidelines and
best practices, Adam Poulter, head of the humanitarian team at NGO Care
International, told IRIN that Sphere still stands out. "The Sphere handbook is a
bit like the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".if you are starting afresh on a
sector and need some guidance, use Sphere. It is an all-in-one book and you can
travel with it."

The new handbook, expected to be published in 2010, will provide links to more
in-depth companion guides in a number of sectors, including livelihoods and
emergency education, and to other quality standards such as the Humanitarian
Accountability Project's  Sphere project manager John Damerell told IRIN.

Humanitarian cluster leads are now charged with developing standards and
guidelines in their sectors' disaster response - be it shelter or protection.
But Graham Saunders, international shelter head for the International Federation
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), told IRIN this is a complementary
rather than competitive process.

"Sphere is the starting point, it's the 'what', while the clusters can provide
the 'how-to'."

The IFRC also heads the international emergency shelter cluster. Saunders is one
of 22 experts consulting on Sphere's revisions.

Creating ambitious new standards while keeping the handbook short is a
challenge, said Saunders."It is always going to be a dilemma to provide simple,
consistent, clear, concise yet comprehensive guidelines, but we must try."

Realistic?

Equally challenging is maintaining such standards when there is inadequate
funding, access difficulties, resource limitations, and other barriers,
according to aid workers.

Ensuring no queues at water sources last more than 15 minutes, one of the
current Sphere standards, have rarely been met in camps in Darfur or eastern
Chad, aid workers told IRIN.

"This issue comes up all the time," said IFRC's Saunders. "But there is no value
in having standards that are bad practice - we don't need the lowest common
denominator," he told IRIN.

He added: "Denying people 3.5m2 of covered living space can compromise safe
separation of the sexes, which means a women's shelter might have to be built,
or it could lead to higher transmission of respiratory infections, requiring
more frequent health check-up visits."

Saunders told IRIN the guidelines are a tool to be adapted to each context, and
stressed the revised handbook should give better guidance on how to do this.

"If the standards are not met, there will always be other consequences. The
problems don't go away.if you can't meet the standards you don't give up,"
Saunders said.

aj/pt

[ENDS]


4 - NIGER: Late rains put crops at risk

NIAMEY, 15 July (IRIN) - Low rainfall has disrupted the planting season
throughout Niger as farmers who sowed seeds in May are forced to replant when
their first crops died, according to the national association of farmers.

"There are real concerns with the planting season this year," the association's
coordinator, Djibo Bagna, told IRIN.

Idrissa Halidou in the semi-arid village of Torodi near the border with Burkina
Faso told IRIN he lost his first planting. "We had planted in May, but lack of
rains forced us to plant again."

Halidou told IRIN he is "tapping into his cereal stock to face the lean season."

The period between plantings and harvests typically lasts from June to
September.

Nationwide, almost 8,000 out of 11,000 villages had reported to the government
first plantings by 30 June.

In 2009 late rains have resulted in "plants withering in dry pockets.in certain
localities, especially during the first 20 days in May", according to the
government's 30 June inter-ministerial report on rain and agriculture, which
characterized rainfall in most parts of Niger as "weak to moderate".

The national farmer association's Bagna said in some regions at this time last
year, crops had already begun to grow.

Farmers in Diffa, a commune in the southeast, told IRIN the first rain of the
season arrived on 14 July, a month later than in 2008.

Delayed rains have resulted in pastures that are "progressively degrading in
quality", causing pastoralists to seek rain-fed pastures elsewhere for their
animals. The most affected areas are Diffa and Maradi in the south, according to
the government's 10 July rain report.

Late rains coincide with rising food prices, according to the government's
weekly system of information on agricultural markets (SIMA), which reported that
as of the first week of July, the prices of millet and maize were three percent
higher than the previous week, while sorghum was five percent more expensive -
costing up to US$42 for 100kg.

Prices for millet, sorghum, rice and maize are up to six percent higher than
this time last year, according to the government's price index.

pt/aj

[ENDS]


5 - SOMALIA: Mogadishu battle "marks turning point"

NAIROBI, 15 July (IRIN) - Al-Shabab, Somalia's Islamist opposition group, has
suffered its first serious military setback in fighting in the capital,
Mogadishu, giving the government a much-needed morale boost, say analysts.

  "Whether the tide has turned against them is too early to tell but they have
taken a beating [in fighting on 12 July]," a Somali observer, who requested
anonymity, said.

  Clashes between the Islamist insurgents and the forces of President Sheikh
Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, backed by African Union (AU) peacekeeping troops, known as
AMISOM, reportedly left at least 51 people dead and injured 212, locals said.

  "Most of those who died [on 12 July] were combatants," Ali Sheikh Yassin,
deputy chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Human Rights Organization, told
IRIN.

  Other sources said the insurgents lost significant territory. "They have been
pushed from a number of neighbourhoods in north Mogadishu which they had
controlled," said one.

  "Silver lining"

  The Somali observer said groups such as Al-Shabab were not known to care how
many [fighters] they lost in a given battle, but the setback may have "a silver
lining to bring to the fore differences of strategy and approach within them and
between them and their allies Hisbul-Islami [led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a
former ally of President Ahmed]".

  The observer said some parts of the opposition had argued that since they
controlled most of the country, the fighting should stop to allow people to
return home.

  "This group favours dialogue with the government from a position of strength,"
he said, adding that "there are some who even want to talk, not only to the
government, but to the international community".

  The more radical elements insist they could remove the government by force
"within days".

  "Sunday [12 July] reinforces the position of those who favour some sort of
dialogue," the observer said. "How the government uses this opportunity is a
different matter."

  He said if the government were to take advantage of the opposition's setback it
needed to put its house in order. "The first it [the government] must do is
bring its forces under one command. There are at least three or four militia
fighting on the government side with no central command."

  The government must also restart dialogue with those in the opposition willing
to talk, he added.

  Labour Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir, who is also acting Minister of Information,
said the government "never wanted more fighting but was forced into it. While
[Sunday's] fighting was regrettable, it was necessary. For over two months, we
have been under attack. We must deal with these anti-peace elements."

  Jaw-jaw not war-war

  However, Hayir said the government would still pursue reconciliation.

  "We are still open to dialogue with those willing to talk," he said. "Any
grievances they have can be and should be resolved through dialogue. We are
hopeful that after Sunday many will realize they will never achieve anything
through the barrel of the gun.

  "This was an opportunity for them [some of the opposition] to re-evaluate their
positions."

  However, Timothy Othieno, a regional analyst at the London-based Overseas
Development Institute, told IRIN the fighting and reported capture of foreign
combatants "may not drastically change the situation".

  He said the reported involvement of AU troops could complicate "AMISOM's
position as an impartial player in Somalia and it will be interesting to see how
they [AMISOM] rectify their position".

  Othieno said there was always a question over AMISOM's neutrality and it was
just a matter of time before it was drawn into the war with the militant groups.

  "Therefore, this latest situation does actually highlight the precarious
position AMISOM peacekeepers in Somalia find themselves in," he added.

  However, a Somali journalist in Mogadishu said the fighting was "a turning
point for AMISOM, the government and the insurgents".

  For the government, the journalist said, AMISOM's involvement showed that with
a little help, "they can actually push back these guys [Al-Shabab]", adding that
Al-Shabab now knows that "the international community was serious when it said
it will support the government".

  He added: "I think there is going to be a lot of re-evaluation by all sides."

  ah/mw/oa[ENDS]


6 - SOUTH AFRICA: Storms affect 20,000 people in Cape Town

JOHANNESBURG, 15 July (IRIN) - More than 20,000 residents in 63 informal
settlements in the South African port city of Cape Town have been affected by
severe winter storms.

  Charlotte Powell, spokesperson for the city's Disaster Risk Management
department, told IRIN: "The whole environment is wet."

  She said the city had established six emergency shelters to provide hot meals
and disburse humanitarian assistance, such as blankets, non-perishable foods and
baby formula, after an appeal to Cape Town's residents for donations.

  Unlike much of South Africa, Cape Town experiences its main rainfall during the
winter months from May to September, while rapid urbanization has resulted in
the establishment of informal settlements on land that is often unsuitable.

  Powell said people arriving in the city during the summer months, when rainfall
is low, were often not aware until the winter months that they had built
rudimentary shelters on water courses or wetlands, which were prone to flooding.

  The weather forecast for the next few days is that the rain will stop, followed
by clear skies and low temperatures.

  go/he[ENDS]


7 - UGANDA: "Invisible war victims" in the north require urgent attention -
officials

KAMPALA, 15 July (IRIN) - The elderly, orphans and very sick are Uganda's
"invisible war victims" who urgently need help to transit from life in the
internally displaced people's camps to a normal existence, officials said on 14
July.

  Norbert Mao, Gulu district council chairman, told IRIN the decline in the
financial commitment to the peace, recovery and development plan - designed to
re-ignite progress at community and local government level in the region - had
made the transition from emergency to recovery difficult for the vulnerable in
IDP camps.

  "The old, the orphans and the terminally ill are stuck in camps and as other
people have ventured out to go back home, they cannot return and their rights
over many issues are compromised. They require [a] big investment from the
international community to help them return home," Mao said by telephone from
Gulu, which was the epicentre of two decades of war between government forces
and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels.

  His comments coincided with a visit by Walter Kaelin, representative of the UN
Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), to
northern Uganda to talk to IDPs and communities that have returned home about
their challenges.

  Kaelin met government stakeholders at central and district level, as well as UN
and other international organizations, the World Bank and donors.

  Okot Ogong, who heads a parliamentary group of legislators from the affected
region, told IRIN: "These people have returned but they are without any support.
Their right to food is gravely undermined because they did not get enough seeds,
while many are not getting security because the police are sparsely deployed;
most water points were destroyed or not in place in many areas.

  "Education is in shambles as there are no teachers and no classrooms, while
parents cannot afford secondary education for their children."

  Mao proposes that the bulk of the more than US$600 million three-year
government recovery package for the region should be spent in the first year if
it is to have any impact on the ground.

  "If we upload much of the package in the first year it will have a dramatic
impact. But so far it is still [vague] and there is no transparency as to who
will do or is willing to do what," he said.

  This financial year, the government has committed some 100 billion shillings
($48 million) to the recovery package.

  vm/mw[ENDS]


What's hot? Check IRIN's most popular articles:
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[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions
expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member
States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes
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#11074 From: Bretton Woods Project <subs@...>
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:57 pm
Subject: [BWP Newswire] 15/07/2009 - best stories about the World Bank and IMF from the past week
subs@...
Send Email Send Email
 
Please find below a selection of news stories related to the World Bank and IMF
of the past week, brought to you by the Bretton Woods Project.

*NOTICE* the Bretton Woods Project has just released the latest edition of the
Bretton Woods Update (No.66 June/July 2008). To read our latest analysis of news
related to the IFIs see:
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/update/66/index.shtml

News stories we added in the previous seven days:


World Bank volte-face on finance and development?
http://political-finance.blogspot.com/2009/07/world-bank-volte-face-on-finance-a\
nd.html
Political Finance, 15 July 2009

Latvia PM says talks with IMF tough
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8608441
Reuters, 15 July 2009

Latvia to cut government staff drastically to meet IMF conditions
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/07/14/ap6651811.html
Associated Press, 14 July 2009

China airs views on monetary reform but no big stir at G8 summit
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE5691G520090710?sp=true
Reuters, 10 July 2009

IMF rules the roost in Pakistan
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/1\
0-Jul-2009/IMF-rules-the-roost
The Nation, 10 July 2009

US Congress overwhelmingly rejects watering down their authority over IFI policy
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-overwhelming-rebukes-obama-signing-sta\
tement-2009-07-09.html
The Hill, 9 July 2009


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#11073 From: "IRIN" <no-reply@...>
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:13 pm
Subject: Your daily selection of IRIN Asia English reports, 7/15/2009
no-reply@...
Send Email Send Email
 
CONTENTS:

1 - AFGHANISTAN: Unsafe housing puts Kabul residents at risk
2 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry
3 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher
4 - MYANMAR: Lack of care for landmine victims


1 - AFGHANISTAN: Unsafe housing puts Kabul residents at risk

KABUL, 15 July (IRIN) - Most people in the Afghan capital Kabul live in illegal,
unplanned and sub-standard houses that are prone to natural disasters and lack
water and sanitation facilities, according to government officials.

  "Of the [estimated] five million people currently living in Kabul, at least
three million are residing in illegal and unplanned houses," Abdul Wahab Sadaat,
deputy director of city services at the Kabul Municipality, told IRIN.

  "These houses - which make up about 75 percent of the houses in Kabul - are
also vulnerable to earthquake, floods and other natural disasters," said Sadaat.

  Over the past seven years some militia commanders and powerful groups have
seized and sold public property and land, creating a crisis of unregulated
urbanization in the capital, officials in the municipality and in the Ministry
of Urban Development said.

  The rapid and mostly unplanned urbanization in Kabul has brought about serious
environmental, health and social problems
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75508].

  The population of Kabul has grown substantially, from about one million in 2001
to about five million in 2009, exhausting the city's already limited natural
resources, particularly underground water reserves, say government and
independent specialists.

  "Should the use of underground water continue at its current pace, by 2020 the
capital will suffer a serious water shortage," said Noor Ahmad Jawad, a
meteorologist at Kabul University.

  Meanwhile, many of the mushrooming squatter communities lack water, proper
sanitation and health facilities, while waste management in Kabul is becoming a
major concern [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73691].

  Rapid population growth and urbanization, coupled with limited resources, have
put a heavy burden on Kabul's environment and air quality which, according to
health officials, hastens the death of more than 3,000 people annually
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82639].

  "Greater Kabul"

  Officials privately concede they are unable to resolve the crisis of illegal
houses in Kabul because of the magnitude of the problem involving millions of
people and the involvement of influential individuals who have profited from
unregulated urbanization.

  Instead, the government and several private companies have drawn up plans for a
"Greater Kabul", which is expected to be built on 740 sqkm to the northeast of
the city in the next 15-20 years.

  "The new, greater Kabul plan addresses all the shortages and problems which we
currently have in Kabul city," said Sadaat.

  The new city, which will accommodate 1.5 million people initially and three
million in the long run, will require US$35.5 billion over 16 years, of which
$24 billion should come from the private sector and $11.5 billion from the
government and donors, according to officials.

  The population in Kabul is predicted to surpass eight million by 2025.

  The new city looks good on the map, but specialists question whether the people
who have built illegal and sub-standard houses in Kabul will be willing or able
to pay for new houses in the greater Kabul.

  ad/at/mw

[ENDS]


2 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry

JOHANNESBURG, 15 July (IRIN) - If the global economy were to rebound in 2010,
sub-Saharan Africa would still be one of the world's poorest and most vulnerable
regions, and have more than half its food insecure people, says an examination
of the impact of the economic slowdown on food security.

  The trade deficits created by the 2008 food price crisis, lagging agricultural
productivity, and political instability in countries like Somalia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo will make it hard for many countries in the region
to recover, said the Food Security Assessment 2008-09  by the US Department of
Agriculture's Economic Research Services (ERS).

  The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which derived the number from
the ERS assessment, said there were now more than a billion people hungry
worldwide.

  With the full effect of the financial downturn difficult to predict, the
assessment developed scenarios for the 70 poorest countries in five regions -
sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a regional organization of former
Soviet republics - taking into account projections by the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) in its updated World Economic Outlook in January 2009.

  In the first scenario the ERS projects a drop in export earnings, affecting a
country's capacity to import and bringing a decline in food consumption. The dip
in export earnings reflects regional declines in economic growth projected by
the IMF: 50 percent in decline in export growth in North Africa and sub-Saharan
Africa, 40 percent in Asia, 60 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and
in the CIS.

  In the second scenario, a 50 percent slump in the capital inflows that finance
imports is added to the factors in the first scenario. A third scenario looked
at the impact of the slowdown if a full economic recovery were to take place in
the rest of the world in 2010.

  Sub-Saharan Africa

  Though sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 25 percent of the population in the
70 countries, it has 47 percent of the food-insecure people, the assessment
noted.

  The region has become increasingly dependent on cereal imports, which have
risen from around 10 percent of its supplies in the late 1980s to more than 20
percent at present. "Therefore, when international [cereal] prices rise, the
ability to import is likely to fall, given the limited financial capacity of the
region."

  A drop in export earnings, as in the first scenario, would bring a three
percent rise in the number of food insecure. Among the worst affected would be
countries that have done well economically in recent years such as Angola, which
has benefited from high oil prices.

  In the second scenario, which takes financial inflows into account, the number
of food-insecure people in the region would increase by nine percent, or 36
million.

  Cape Verde, Cte d'Ivoire, Lesotho, Mauritania and Senegal are experiencing
rising food insecurity because of their growing dependence on imports, while in
Eritrea, Somalia and Sierra Leone, which are highly dependent on foreign aid,
food insecurity is likely to deepen.

  Sub-Saharan Africa's share of food aid has grown "from roughly a third to well
over half" of the world total since 1999, noted the assessment.

  Asia

  Asia is the region least dependent on food imports, and its food-security
situation was "good, in relative terms". However, a decline export earnings
would affect food security in the region "deeply, with the number of
food-insecure people increasing by 11 percent. This comes after the Asian
countries experienced the highest export growth relative to other regions (over
10 percent per year since 2000)".

  If there is a decline in export growth and a cutback in net capital inflows,
the number of food-insecure people in Asia is projected to increase by 13
percent in 2009 - relative to the food-security baseline - driven by the impact
of the economic shock in Bangladesh and the Philippines.

  Despite its economic strides, a drop in capital inflows into Bangladesh would
leave 40 percent of its more than 153 million people food insecure; in the
Philippines the number of hungry could jump to around 20 percent of the
population of more than 96 million.

  The food security outlook in Asia over the next 10 years shows that just over
20 percent of this region's population would be food insecure, largely because
of an expected slowdown in population growth.

  "After averaging two percent per year throughout the 1990s, Asia's population
growth is projected to slow to about 1.4 percent per year through the next
decade, thereby reducing pressure on resources," the assessment noted. The food
security situation in India, the world's second most populous country, is
expected to improve.


  jk/he[ENDS]


3 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher

DAKAR, 15 July (IRIN) - Since the Sphere Project first published in 2000 its
handbook outlining minimum standards in disaster response, much has changed in
the aid world. Climate change is the new disaster, humanitarian reforms have
reorganized the aid system introducing cluster leads for emergency sectors, and
millions more disaster-affected people live in towns rather than rural areas.

The Sphere Project, a collaboration of international NGOs and the Red Cross
Movement to improve quality disaster responses, is updating its handbook
outlining best practices in food aid, nutrition, health, water and sanitation
and emergency shelter.

The updated guide, known as the Sphere handbook, will reflect the increasing
complexity of the aid world and more explicitly address civil-military
relations, disaster risk reduction and early recovery, environmental impact,
psychosocial support and the role of cluster leads in humanitarian response.

Nine disaster response sectors - among them education, protection, and early
recovery - are headed up by either UN agency or NGO cluster leads to help
provide more coherent, coordinated emergency interventions.

Despite an increasingly crowded market-place of new aid quality guidelines and
best practices, Adam Poulter, head of the humanitarian team at NGO Care
International, told IRIN that Sphere still stands out. "The Sphere handbook is a
bit like the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".if you are starting afresh on a
sector and need some guidance, use Sphere. It is an all-in-one book and you can
travel with it."

The new handbook, expected to be published in 2010, will provide links to more
in-depth companion guides in a number of sectors, including livelihoods and
emergency education, and to other quality standards such as the Humanitarian
Accountability Project's  Sphere project manager John Damerell told IRIN.

Humanitarian cluster leads are now charged with developing standards and
guidelines in their sectors' disaster response - be it shelter or protection.
But Graham Saunders, international shelter head for the International Federation
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), told IRIN this is a complementary
rather than competitive process.

"Sphere is the starting point, it's the 'what', while the clusters can provide
the 'how-to'."

The IFRC also heads the international emergency shelter cluster. Saunders is one
of 22 experts consulting on Sphere's revisions.

Creating ambitious new standards while keeping the handbook short is a
challenge, said Saunders."It is always going to be a dilemma to provide simple,
consistent, clear, concise yet comprehensive guidelines, but we must try."

Realistic?

Equally challenging is maintaining such standards when there is inadequate
funding, access difficulties, resource limitations, and other barriers,
according to aid workers.

Ensuring no queues at water sources last more than 15 minutes, one of the
current Sphere standards, have rarely been met in camps in Darfur or eastern
Chad, aid workers told IRIN.

"This issue comes up all the time," said IFRC's Saunders. "But there is no value
in having standards that are bad practice - we don't need the lowest common
denominator," he told IRIN.

He added: "Denying people 3.5m2 of covered living space can compromise safe
separation of the sexes, which means a women's shelter might have to be built,
or it could lead to higher transmission of respiratory infections, requiring
more frequent health check-up visits."

Saunders told IRIN the guidelines are a tool to be adapted to each context, and
stressed the revised handbook should give better guidance on how to do this.

"If the standards are not met, there will always be other consequences. The
problems don't go away.if you can't meet the standards you don't give up,"
Saunders said.

aj/pt

[ENDS]


4 - MYANMAR: Lack of care for landmine victims

YANGON, 15 July (IRIN) - Hundreds of landmine victims every year never receive
adequate rehabilitation assistance, according to the International Campaign to
Ban Landmines (ICBL).

  While there are no exact figures, the group says the numbers are "substantial".
Myanmar is second only to Afghanistan in terms of landmine casualties in Asia.

  NGOs believe the casualty figures over the past five to six years have been
increasing.

  "The landmine problem in Burma is alarming," Afredo Ferrariz Lubang, regional
representative for the NGO Nonviolence International in Bangkok told IRIN,
citing at least one case a day.

  "Not only does it pose a threat but it is crippling Burma's future on a daily
basis," he said.

  Access to services remains "inadequate", ICBL said.

  Widespread use

  Landmines have long been used along the borders with Thailand and Bangladesh
where Myanmar's government has been battling armed rebel groups.

  In December, ICBL reported widespread landmine use in Karen, Karenni, Rakhine
and Shan States and the Tenaserrim and Pegu Divisions.

  In addition to domestically produced mines, Myanmar has also obtained and used
Chinese, Indian, Italian, Soviet and US-manufactured mines, ICBL says.

  "The Burma army continues to use landmines. Not only on the border with
Thailand, but all over the Karen, Karenni and Shan states of eastern Burma,"
David Eubank, director of the Free Burma Rangers, an organisation providing
medical and other assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs), told IRIN
from Chiang Mai, Thailand.

  Some reports suggest that prisoners have been forced to assist in mine-clearing
efforts, while Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the government of planting
mines around rice crops in areas cleared by the military during
counter-insurgency operations.

  "It's a fairly common practice - particularly in conflict areas in Karen
state," David Scott Mathieson, Burma researcher for HRW told IRIN from the Thai
border town of Mae Sot. "The idea is to deter civilians from returning to their
villages to collect their belongings or tend their crops."

  Despite reporting difficulties, some 438 casualties were recorded in 2007
compared with 243 in 2006, Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, research coordinator for the
Landmine Monitor, which provides research to ICBL, told IRIN. "That's an 80
percent increase."

  Of those injured in 2007, the latest figures available, 47 people died, up from
20 deaths in 2006 - although those numbers are also not conclusive.

  Access to services

  In 2007, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stopped assisting
three physical rehabilitation centres run by the Ministry of Health and three
centres run by the Ministry of Defence.

  It continues, however, to support the Myanmar Red Cross's outreach prosthetic
programme in the southeast, the area worst affected by landmines.

  According to ICRC's annual report for 2008, 223 amputees who might otherwise
have been unable to travel were helped to the Hpa-an centre to receive
appropriate care.

  In 2008, 5,419 patients (including 694 women and 371 children) received help at
the ICRC-supported physical rehabilitation centre, including 1,031 new patients
(including 69 women and 30 children).

  While prosthetic limbs are available to refugees along the Thai border at
refugee camps and at the Mao Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, as well as through Thai
hospitals, for those inside the country, access remains poor.

  Limited service is available on the Bangladesh and Indian borders.

  Myanmar's government remains one of more than 30 countries in the world that
has not signed up to the 1997 Ottawa Convention, an international agreement
banning the use of anti-personnel mines.

  contributor/ds/mw

[ENDS]


Free humanitarian photos for non-profits: http://www.irinnews.org/photo.aspx

 IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis:
http://www.irinnews.org

[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions
expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member
States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes
is permitted. Terms and conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx

IRIN partners: Canada, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, South
Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, UNEP and the IHC. More information:
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#11072 From: "IRIN" <no-reply@...>
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:38 pm
Subject: Your daily selection of IRIN Middle East reports, 7/15/2009
no-reply@...
Send Email Send Email
 
CONTENTS:

1 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry
2 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher


1 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry

JOHANNESBURG, 15 July (IRIN) - If the global economy were to rebound in 2010,
sub-Saharan Africa would still be one of the world's poorest and most vulnerable
regions, and have more than half its food insecure people, says an examination
of the impact of the economic slowdown on food security.

  The trade deficits created by the 2008 food price crisis, lagging agricultural
productivity, and political instability in countries like Somalia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo will make it hard for many countries in the region
to recover, said the Food Security Assessment 2008-09  by the US Department of
Agriculture's Economic Research Services (ERS).

  The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which derived the number from
the ERS assessment, said there were now more than a billion people hungry
worldwide.

  With the full effect of the financial downturn difficult to predict, the
assessment developed scenarios for the 70 poorest countries in five regions -
sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a regional organization of former
Soviet republics - taking into account projections by the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) in its updated World Economic Outlook in January 2009.

  In the first scenario the ERS projects a drop in export earnings, affecting a
country's capacity to import and bringing a decline in food consumption. The dip
in export earnings reflects regional declines in economic growth projected by
the IMF: 50 percent in decline in export growth in North Africa and sub-Saharan
Africa, 40 percent in Asia, 60 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and
in the CIS.

  In the second scenario, a 50 percent slump in the capital inflows that finance
imports is added to the factors in the first scenario. A third scenario looked
at the impact of the slowdown if a full economic recovery were to take place in
the rest of the world in 2010.

  Sub-Saharan Africa

  Though sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 25 percent of the population in the
70 countries, it has 47 percent of the food-insecure people, the assessment
noted.

  The region has become increasingly dependent on cereal imports, which have
risen from around 10 percent of its supplies in the late 1980s to more than 20
percent at present. "Therefore, when international [cereal] prices rise, the
ability to import is likely to fall, given the limited financial capacity of the
region."

  A drop in export earnings, as in the first scenario, would bring a three
percent rise in the number of food insecure. Among the worst affected would be
countries that have done well economically in recent years such as Angola, which
has benefited from high oil prices.

  In the second scenario, which takes financial inflows into account, the number
of food-insecure people in the region would increase by nine percent, or 36
million.

  Cape Verde, Cte d'Ivoire, Lesotho, Mauritania and Senegal are experiencing
rising food insecurity because of their growing dependence on imports, while in
Eritrea, Somalia and Sierra Leone, which are highly dependent on foreign aid,
food insecurity is likely to deepen.

  Sub-Saharan Africa's share of food aid has grown "from roughly a third to well
over half" of the world total since 1999, noted the assessment.

  Asia

  Asia is the region least dependent on food imports, and its food-security
situation was "good, in relative terms". However, a decline export earnings
would affect food security in the region "deeply, with the number of
food-insecure people increasing by 11 percent. This comes after the Asian
countries experienced the highest export growth relative to other regions (over
10 percent per year since 2000)".

  If there is a decline in export growth and a cutback in net capital inflows,
the number of food-insecure people in Asia is projected to increase by 13
percent in 2009 - relative to the food-security baseline - driven by the impact
of the economic shock in Bangladesh and the Philippines.

  Despite its economic strides, a drop in capital inflows into Bangladesh would
leave 40 percent of its more than 153 million people food insecure; in the
Philippines the number of hungry could jump to around 20 percent of the
population of more than 96 million.

  The food security outlook in Asia over the next 10 years shows that just over
20 percent of this region's population would be food insecure, largely because
of an expected slowdown in population growth.

  "After averaging two percent per year throughout the 1990s, Asia's population
growth is projected to slow to about 1.4 percent per year through the next
decade, thereby reducing pressure on resources," the assessment noted. The food
security situation in India, the world's second most populous country, is
expected to improve.


  jk/he[ENDS]


2 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher

DAKAR, 15 July (IRIN) - Since the Sphere Project first published in 2000 its
handbook outlining minimum standards in disaster response, much has changed in
the aid world. Climate change is the new disaster, humanitarian reforms have
reorganized the aid system introducing cluster leads for emergency sectors, and
millions more disaster-affected people live in towns rather than rural areas.

The Sphere Project, a collaboration of international NGOs and the Red Cross
Movement to improve quality disaster responses, is updating its handbook
outlining best practices in food aid, nutrition, health, water and sanitation
and emergency shelter.

The updated guide, known as the Sphere handbook, will reflect the increasing
complexity of the aid world and more explicitly address civil-military
relations, disaster risk reduction and early recovery, environmental impact,
psychosocial support and the role of cluster leads in humanitarian response.

Nine disaster response sectors - among them education, protection, and early
recovery - are headed up by either UN agency or NGO cluster leads to help
provide more coherent, coordinated emergency interventions.

Despite an increasingly crowded market-place of new aid quality guidelines and
best practices, Adam Poulter, head of the humanitarian team at NGO Care
International, told IRIN that Sphere still stands out. "The Sphere handbook is a
bit like the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".if you are starting afresh on a
sector and need some guidance, use Sphere. It is an all-in-one book and you can
travel with it."

The new handbook, expected to be published in 2010, will provide links to more
in-depth companion guides in a number of sectors, including livelihoods and
emergency education, and to other quality standards such as the Humanitarian
Accountability Project's  Sphere project manager John Damerell told IRIN.

Humanitarian cluster leads are now charged with developing standards and
guidelines in their sectors' disaster response - be it shelter or protection.
But Graham Saunders, international shelter head for the International Federation
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), told IRIN this is a complementary
rather than competitive process.

"Sphere is the starting point, it's the 'what', while the clusters can provide
the 'how-to'."

The IFRC also heads the international emergency shelter cluster. Saunders is one
of 22 experts consulting on Sphere's revisions.

Creating ambitious new standards while keeping the handbook short is a
challenge, said Saunders."It is always going to be a dilemma to provide simple,
consistent, clear, concise yet comprehensive guidelines, but we must try."

Realistic?

Equally challenging is maintaining such standards when there is inadequate
funding, access difficulties, resource limitations, and other barriers,
according to aid workers.

Ensuring no queues at water sources last more than 15 minutes, one of the
current Sphere standards, have rarely been met in camps in Darfur or eastern
Chad, aid workers told IRIN.

"This issue comes up all the time," said IFRC's Saunders. "But there is no value
in having standards that are bad practice - we don't need the lowest common
denominator," he told IRIN.

He added: "Denying people 3.5m2 of covered living space can compromise safe
separation of the sexes, which means a women's shelter might have to be built,
or it could lead to higher transmission of respiratory infections, requiring
more frequent health check-up visits."

Saunders told IRIN the guidelines are a tool to be adapted to each context, and
stressed the revised handbook should give better guidance on how to do this.

"If the standards are not met, there will always be other consequences. The
problems don't go away.if you can't meet the standards you don't give up,"
Saunders said.

aj/pt

[ENDS]


 IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis:
http://www.irinnews.org

[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions
expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member
States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes
is permitted. Terms and conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx

IRIN partners: Canada, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, South
Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, UNEP and the IHC. More information:
http://www.irinnews.org/donors.aspx

This mail is from a non-reply e-mail address. Contact IRIN at:
feedback@.... Revise or stop your subscription:
http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions ]

Subscribed Email: newsbox@yahoogroups.com

#11071 From: contact@...
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:56 pm
Subject: Business & human rights: Weekly Update
contact@...
Send Email Send Email
 
We apologise for recent problems with our website - our IT firm is working hard
to remedy them, and we will be moving to new servers.  Thank you for your
patience.

Weekly Update: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre - 15 Jul 2009

CLICK THIS LINK FOR ALL TOP STORIES added past 7 days / Principales noticias /
Articles de premier plan:
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Topstories?date=2009/07/15

Espaol: ver abajo  -  Franais : voir ci-dessous

* Report on gender consultation by UN Special Representative John Ruggie - held
29 Jun, New York
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/664390

* SOMO "Overviews of controversial business practices in 2008" on: Aegon, Ahold,
AkzoNobel, Heineken, Philips, SBM Offshore, TNT
- statements/responses by 5 of the companies
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/SOMOreports

* Calvert removes Weyerhaeuser from social index for failing to meet standards
on indigenous peoples' rights
- Weyerhaeuser response
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/241174

* "Well Oiled - Oil and Human Rights in Equatorial Guinea": Human Rights Watch
report says govt. enriching itself at expense of citizens
- full report includes responses by Chevron, Devon, ExxonMobil, Hess, Marathon
- Vanco Energy did not respond to Human Rights Watch
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/676275

* Merck & "Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative" announce partnership to
develop treatments for neglected tropical diseases
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/462702

* "Blood Money on Wall Street" - Vanguard & Fidelity's rejection of shareholder
resolutions on genocide "repulsive," says column in Wall Street Journal
- article includes comments by Vanguard; statement from Fidelity website also
provided
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/957809

* Liberia: Global Witness & Publish What You Pay welcome transparency law to
ensure full disclosure of extractive firms' payments to govt.
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/890439

* India: Madras High Court rejects Dow Chemical plea to restrain Bhopal disaster
demonstrators
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/732321

* Report urges forestry industry to address conflicts with local people
- provides examples of steps taken by APRIL, Aracruz, Congolaise Industrielle
des Bois/DLH, Mondi, Sappi, Stora Enso, Weyerhaeuser
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/467055

* European Commission call for tenders for study on human rights legal framework
applicable to EU-based companies operating in other regions
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/995234

* UK: Government-commissioned inquiry into deaths in construction industry
recommends making directors legally responsible for health & safety
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/640852

* GlaxoSmithKline creates 50 million fund to treat African children with AIDS -
UK Parliamentarian welcomes the pledge, but says working with UNITAID would have
wider impact
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/683277

* Brazil: 174 workers found in slave-like conditions at Rotavi Industrial
charcoal factory
- company denies responsibility
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/676603

* Rwanda: Starbucks opens support centre to help farmers improve coffee quality,
attract better prices
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/475631

* Ukraine: NGO Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union annual report highlights
workplace fatalities & injuries, labour rights abuses, child labour,
environmental impacts on health - worst polluters listed
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/747207

* USA: Gay men allege discrimination at Chico's Tacos restaurant by All American
Intl. Security guards
- Chico's Tacos declined to comment to ABC-7
- All American Intl. Security stands by their security guards
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/999655

* Colombia: Muriel Mining rejoinder regarding alleged impacts on indigenous
communities, local NGOs role (further to previous Updates)
- includes links to all relevant materials
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/MandeNorte

* Global Action on ArcelorMittal comments on ArcelorMittal's response re alleged
health & safety abuses, environmental harms, displacement in 7 countries
(further to 27 May Update)
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/487882

* Conference, London, 18-19 Sep: "European Developments in Corporate Criminal
Liability" (registration fee)
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/385368

* Middlesex Univ. (UK) offers Masters in Business & Human Rights, to start
autumn 2010
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/343223

* Espaol: Argentina: Secretara del Trabajo y Fundacin Alameda son agredidos
en inspeccin a taller textil denunciado por explotacin laboral y trata de
personas
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/232740

* Espaol: Guinea Ecuatorial: Human Rights Watch reclama mayor transparencia en
la gestin de riqueza procedente del petrleo
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/419522

* Espaol: Panam: Trabajadores protestan por salud y seguridad en proyecto
portuario de Alvarado & During, Vergel & Castellanos
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/925004

* Espaol: Chile: Ambientalistas preocupados por proyecto de empresa SQM cuyo
estudio de impacto ambiental acumula 82 reparos, principalmente sobre uso de
agua
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/221233

* Espaol: Colombia: Respuesta de Muriel Mining a ONG ABColombia refirindose a
supuestos impactos sobre pueblos indgenas y rol de ONGs locales (en seguimiento
a previas Actualizaciones)
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/MandeNorte

* Espaol: Merck y "Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative" acuerdan
desarrollar tratamientos para enfermedades tropicales ms olvidadas
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/317718

* Espaol: Argentina: Localizan en quinta hortcola trabajadores bolivianos en
"condiciones infrahumanas"
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/877222

* Espaol: Guatemala: 5 mil indgenas marchan contra construccin de planta de
Cemento Progreso por potencial contaminacin de ros
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/761360

* Espaol: Chile: Codelco colabora con iniciativa de educacin superior para
jvenes indgenas
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/708914

* Franais : Zimbabwe : Le gouvernement retirera l'arme des champs de diamants
- vise la conformit avec le Processus de Kimberley
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/210575

* Franais : Une certification prochaine des minerais de la Rpublique
dmocratique du Congo
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/803634

* Franais : Afrique : L'acquisition de terres par les socits trangres peut
soulever les craintes des populations de perdre l'accs aux sources
d'alimentation
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/804878

* Franais : CARE & Lafarge dans un partenariat pour tendre ses programmes de
sant, dvelopper un outil d'valuation de l'impact social & conomique de
l'entreprise
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/454790

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des Actualits hebdomadaires prcdentes:
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#11070 From: "Lina Georgiadou - YES" <officer@...>
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:31 pm
Subject: YES Newsletter - July 2009
officer@...
Send Email Send Email
 
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2, JULY 2009
IN THIS ISSUE:

HEADLINES
INNOVATION
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
YES NEWS
MEMBER'S CORNER
EU AGENDA
HEADLINES

The 1st G8 Young Business Summit

July 2-3 2009, Young Entrepreneurs from the G8 countries and YES, the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs gathered together in Stresa to discuss how to apply innovative solutions to the current financial and economic situation and they came up with a joint declaration on how to set a path towards a sustainable and thriving growth that was delivered. More entrepreneurial culture and greater ecological, technological and industrial relations innovation are the calls that the young entrepreneurs will be passing on, via the Italian Youth Minister, to the G8 duty President, ahead of the Summit to be held in L'Aquila from 8 to 10 July.

For more information follow the links here or here.


€100 million EU micro-finance facility to help unemployed start small businesses

On July 2, 2009 the European Commission has proposed to set up a new microfinance facility providing microcredit to small businesses and to people who have lost their jobs and want to start their own small businesses. It will have an initial budget of €100 million, which could leverage more than €500 million in a joint initiative with international financial institutions, in particular the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group.

For more information follow the link.


The priorities of Sweden's EU presidency

Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union during the second half of 2009. The Swedish Presidency's vision is of a strong and effective Europe that will focus in the following areas: Climate, environment and energy, employment, enlargement, competitiveness and economic growth, a more secure and open Europe and improving the EU's commitment to the Baltic Sea.

For more information follow the link.

  INNOVATION

The good entrepreneur: one idea to change the world

An exciting new competition has just been launched under the title "The good entrepreneur: one idea to change the world". The competition has been created in a partnership between CNBC, the leading business and financial news television channel and Allianz, one of the leading integrated financial services providers worldwide and aims to identify entrepreneurs across Europe with environmentally responsible, innovative business concepts that are based on making a contribution to the protection of the environment. The "Good Entrepreneur of 2009" will receive a prize package worth more than 250,000 euros. The package includes exposure on CNBC as well as comprehensive business support from Allianz.

Applications close on 31 July 2009

For more information follow the link.

Go back on top

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

European Innovation Platform for Eco-innovation-Call for proposals

The objective of the call is to reinforce the action of the European Innovation Platform on Eco-innovation under the Europe INNOVA initiative. The Commission points to eco-innovation as one of the main fields that can provide large opportunities in terms of wealth creation and growth sustainability and proposes eco-innovation as an area offering promising prospects for the emergence of an innovation friendly lead-market.

Closing date for submission of your online application: 16 July 2009

For more information follow the link.


EU e-skills week-Call for tenders


This call is related to the organisation of a major awareness raising campaign related to the Commission's Communication on "e-Skills for the 21st Century: Fostering Competitiveness, Growth and Jobs". Several activities will be organised at European and national level during the "EU e-Skills Week" which should take place in March 2010. The service contract will aim at providing a framework for: awarenees raising, stimulating partnerships through promotion, informing a wide public, encouraging and suppporting the organization of national e-skills events, etc.

Closing date for submission of your online application: 31 July 2009

For more information follow the link.


Action Europe INNOVA: Development and testing of better services in support of Innovation Management II


The objective of this new activity is to support the further use of the most promising tools and instruments developed under Europe INNOVA. The call is primarily addressed to innovation support providers having the experience in rendering services in innovation management and regular contacts with SMEs, with a good EU geographic coverage, i.e. ability to reach SMEs in at least all 27 EU Member States.

Closing date for submission of your online application: 31 August 2009

For more information follow the link.

Go back on top

  YES NEWS

YES EXECOM, 24-27 September 2009, ISTANBUL "Face the challenges: New and renewable business"

On September 24-27 TUGIAD, the Turkish member-federation of YES will host the last YES EXECOM meeting for 2009, in Istanbul. TUGIAD will lead this three-days-event with a high-level conference with prominent speakers addressing the current issue of new and renewable business. Furthermore, there will be Business-to-Business meetings and other networking activities along with magnificently organised social events.

For more information follow the link.


YES launches the YES Global Partners

YES-The European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs launched a new group of associates, the YES Global Partners. Members of this group are to be business associations from all over the world who are interested to attain a vision on entrepreneurship from the youth perspective. The aim of this collaboration project is to extend the development possibilities of our aspiring young entrepreneurs through mutual network expansion, business opportunities, share of best practises and continuous education.

For more information follow the link.

Go back on top

  MEMBER'S CORNER
mc

TUGIAD meets Ukrainian businessmen

On May 29, 2009 TUGIAD, the Turkish member-federation of YES brought together Turkish and Ukrainian businessmen under the premises of the Ukrainian Chamber of Industry and Trade to discuss cooperation and trade opportunities on automotive and spare parts, food, home textile, health, transportation, machinery and spare parts, furniture, iron and steel, tourism, auditing and consulting, services, packaging and IT sectors, in a mission that lasted for four days. Mr. Kucuk underlined the importance of bilateral trade between Turkey and its neighbours and underscored that TUGIAD pioneers this, especially with Iran and Syria and now with Ukraine

For more information follow the link.

Go back on top

  EU AGENDA
 

Brokerage for SME in ICT technologies and business
Date: 10 July 2009,
City: Kufstein
Country: Austria
Event web page: click here

Business alignment programme
Date: 16 July 2009
City: Westminster, London
Country: UK
Event Webpage: click here


Industrial Relations in Europe Conference 2009
Date: 22-24 July 2009,
City: Fatih
Country: Turkey
Event webpage: click here


FP7 - Research for the Benefit for SMEs
Date: 4 August 2009,
City: Osnabruck
Country: Germany
Event webpage: click here


Creative Economy and Beyond (CEB) Conference 2009
Date: 9-10 August 2009,
City: Helsinki
Country: Finland
Event webpage: click here


4th European Conference on Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Date: 10-11 August 2009
City: Antwerp
Country: Belgium
Event page: click here



Go back on top




This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.



 
YES-European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs is a pan European organization representing up to 40,000 individual entrepreneurs from 16 countries and aiming at improving the economic and social performance of European entrepreneurship.

YES - European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs
1, Avenue de la Joyeuse Entree, B - 1040 Brussels
tel: +32 22803425
fax: +32 22803317
Skype: yesforeurope
mailto: secretariat@...
website: www.yes.be


--


#11069 From: "Gea Meijers" <gea@...>
Date: Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:49 pm
Subject: [E-newsletter] WIDE Newsletter, Number 6 - News from June 2009
gea@...
Send Email Send Email
 
 

WIDE Newsletter, Number 6, 2009 
News from June   

 

 

 



 
1)
WE CARE! Feminists highlight care work in the context of the global systemic crises

2) Women’s Working Group: No commitments to reforming the financial architecture!

3) WIDE Publication ‘Financing for Development and Women Rights: a critical review’

4) New resources
5) Calls for participation

6) New publications

 

Globalising
gender equality
and
social justice

 

 

   

WE CARE! Feminists highlight care work in the context of the global systemic crises

By Natalie Giorgadze


The 2009 WIDE Annual Conference, entitled ‘WE CARE! Feminist responses to the care crises’ was held in Basel, Switzerland, from 18 to 20 June. This year’s conference was hosted by WIDE Switzerland, the WIDE Swiss platform.

 

“We care about care!” was the motto that brought 200 economists, feminist activists, academics, experts and gender equality professionals together, providing a unique opportunity for collective analysis, networking, strategising and joint action between feminist advocates from different countries of the world.

 

In the context of current financial, economic, social and environmental crises, women demanded a transformation of the neo-liberal market model that gives preference to capital growth and efficiency, in which care work is marginalised, into a sustainable, gender-equitable and rights-based economic model. As stated by Christa Wichterich, a German sociologist, publicist and gender consultant: “The common sense of market citizenship has to be changed to social citizenship that integrates into economic models and policies.” The current financial and economic crises increase the burden of informal care work on women. As Isabelle Bakker, professor at York University explained: “The current crisis leads to a socialisation of risks for the wealthy and privatisation of those for the majority.. For more and more people paid care work will become less accessible.

 

“In the context of the global systemic crises the burning issue for feminists is the question of care .Issues of care, reproductive work and social work have until now not been addressed properly and still sustain the system that we highly criticise as feminists,” said Bndicte Allaert, WIDE Executive Director.  

 

The first day of the conference gave insight on the notions and concepts of care economy and care provision. Participants came to a deeper analysis of three thematic areas of the care economy – paid formal and informal care work, food chains and care crisis, and body politics and care regimes – during the parallel sessions of the interactive second day. The last day evaluated the interlocking global crises and their effects on the provision of and access to care. Feminist activists, academics and gender professionals endorsed alternative models of economy, development and welfare and went back home with ‘a suitcase of proposals’ to put forward for re-shaping European, national and international policies. 

 

Patricia Muoz, Chair of the WIDE Network: “I believe that there are alternatives indeed, on micro, meso and macro level. The slogan of economic growth at whatever cost and fallacious beliefs of export-led economies, which will bring fresh funds to Europe to pay for our well-being, does not hold. We are aware of that and we believe that there is a space for policy reform, there is a vacuum here: we want to re-politicise the economy and we want to rejuvenate mobilisation – this is the crucial challenge for us!”

 

The WIDE Annual Conference 2010 will take place in Romania. Feminists gathering there will address issues of globalisation and migration and their impact on women’s livelihoods. The Romanian organisers promise a remarkable conference with a key highlight: the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the WIDE Network!  

 

WE CARE!   www.widenetwork.wordpress.com

 

Do you want to know more about the WIDE Annual Conference? Visit our blog at www.widenetwork.wordpress.com: read stories; listen to the interviews; enjoy beautiful pictures and watch the videos! You can also download presentations from the plenary sessions and various workshops.

The blog is your space to share reflections and opinions on the issues discussed at the conference!
 

 

  

Women’s Working Group: No commitments to reforming the financial architecture!

By Mirjana Dokmanovic

 

The Women’s Working Group for Financing for Development (WWG), of which WIDE is a core member, is highly disappointed by the outcomes of the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development (24–26 June 2009 at UN Headquarters in New York).

 

At the summit, UN Member States talked a lot about crisis, but showed no real commitment to act. The adopted Outcome Document, instead of securing genuine reforms, provides weak vocabulary in inviting states and international financial institutions (IFIs) to combat negative impacts of the global financial crisis. On the positive side, women are recognised as facing greater income insecurity and increased burdens on family care than men are, so mitigation measures should take this into account. However, no one single concrete action has been adopted towards providing global financial and economic regulation, such as new debt architecture, a Global Economic Council, a Global Panel on Systematic Risks in the World Economy and a Global Reserve System, as outlined in the ‘Stiglitz Commission’ Report. 

The UN’s role is prescribed to a limited arena of humanitarian assistance and development cooperation. This is a clear attempt to shut out the G-192 from the global economic governance system. 


Two members of the WWG, Kinda Mohamadieh, Arab NGO Network for Development, and Mirjana Dokmanovic, WIDE, had a chance to speak at one of the roundtables and to call the UN for immediate reform of the
irresponsible financial governance system of IFIs and for structural and rights-based responses to the global economic crisis.

Despite disappointing outcomes from the summit, the WWG stresses that women will continue to demand economic and gender justice in the UN!

 

For further information:

Read the official documents of the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis at:

 http://www.un.org/ga/econcrisissummit/

 

Read the WWG’s Statement at:

http://62.149.193.10/wide/download/WWG.pdf?id=985

 

Read the Civil Society Background Document at: http://www.ffdngo.org/sites/default/files/Final_CS_Background_Document.pdf

 

For any other information:

Contact Luisa Antolin, luisa[at]wide-network.org. 

 

Ten days of actions: countdown to commitments

The WWG has participated in civil society events entitled ‘Ten Days of Actions: Countdown to Commitments’, that were organised in advance of the UN conference, including the ‘People’s Voices on the Crisis’, on 20 June. The event highlighted the social and environmental impact of the financial, food, energy and climate change crises, and brought together activists from all over the world to give testimony on how their lives and communities have been directly affected by this systematic crisis.

Civil Society Crisis Watch website: http://www.ffdngo.org/cs-crisis-watch

 

  

WIDE Publication ‘Financing for Development and Women Rights: a critical review’


Author: Carmen de la Cruz, published by WIDE, June 2009

 

In the last decade, the way in which development is conceptualised and implemented has changed significantly, and so have the political contexts in which this implementation takes place. This has had implications on how gender equality and women’s empowerment is being achieved. Currently, in most official development circles, gender equality, as a development objective, is currently considered as a cross-cutting issue which lacks conceptual clarity and clear, measurable objectives. This situation further increases the persistent breach between official rhetoric and action. At the same time national, international and systemic challenges of gender equality call for taking action in an adverse context made worse by the current international financial, food and environmental crises, all of which arise from an unstable background marked by obscure competitive market processes. The vision of justice underpinning development disappeared sometime at the beginning of this new century, giving way to a focus on growth, in which gender equality lost strength both in discussions and in policy implementation. There has been a significant decrease in the international aid commitments to support women’s rights, and grassroots organisations could barely find financial support.

 

This new publication aims to help to analyse the meaning of the new proposals for development aid and its effectiveness, and examines the reforms of financing for development from a gender perspective. It looks at the implementation of the UN Monterrey agenda that was set in 2002. And in this framework, it focuses on the agreement and implementation of the OECD-DAC Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005). The Paris Declaration is an important part of the process that is referred to as the development of so-called ‘new architecture’ in aid or ‘new aid modalities’. In 2008 the improvements in the implementation of the Consensus of Monterrey (Doha, November 2008) and the Paris Declaration (Accra, September 2008) were evaluated, generating significant debates and propositions from the various stakeholders. Women’s organisations and networks across the world have instigated an important advocacy process in these spaces and, together with other actors from civil society, have developed several proposals.

 

The publication reviews the current debates about development, as well as the background for this new aid architecture, and analyses the international frameworks for financing for development and women rights, as well as governments’ commitments for resources. It also summarises and analyses all the contributions to the aid effectiveness agenda from a gender perspective.

 

The publication concludes that a dual track could be followed in the immediate future. On the one hand, it is necessary to expand on the existing demand for gender equality as laid out in current agendas and fulfil the agreed international commitments on aid reform. On the other hand, it is important to review the feminist agenda and its link to development from a wider angle. The possible key aspects to make progress in the current debates are: the re-politicisation of the feminist project and its responsibility towards development, providing answers in a currently intricate international arena; the re-vitalisation of the rights discourse and practice based on the ethics of economic justice, and not on an instrumental reading where women are regarded as useful to development policies; and the encouragement of a true gender architecture within the global development system.

 

The publication was written by Carmen de la Cruz and has been translated from Spanish into English.


To download the publication:http://www.wide-network.org/index.jsp?id=228

 

 

New resources

 

Facilitator Guide for Gender Training


Gendernet has launched a new online resource developed to support the design and delivery of gender training in a development context. The guide has been developed by the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in the Netherlands and is intended, in particular, for gender focal points (GFPs) and other persons with a responsibility to train others on gender.

 

The guide draws on a series of courses organised by KIT for Gendernet in 2008. The guide is not a training of trainers manual but rather a resource to support the GFPs and other trainers. It is comprised of instructions, notes and tips, resources, presentations and training modules. The guide contains a series of building blocks that can be adapted to the needs of the individual user.

 

Find out more here:http://www.konsnet.dk/Default.aspx?ID=18173

The fourthpillar.org – new interactive domain


The International Monetary Fund has developed thefourthpillar.org, an interactive website where civil society organisations (CSOs) can submit materials and offer feedback. The main tool in the site is a forum/discussion board where members can post ideas, questions, and documents for other members to comment.  CSOs in developing countries are especially urged to organise their own regional discussions on the site. There will be limited options for video-conferencing, especially with Southern-based CSOs.

 

Visit the website at: www.thefourthpillar.org

 

Calls for Participation

 

The Western Balkan countries on their way to the European Union, 31 August to 3 September 2009, Palic, Serbia

  
The aim of this meeting is to contribute to a reliable understanding of the sense, purposes and implications of joining the European Union and of timely and qualitative preparation for this cultural, sociopolitical, economic, technological and epochal project of the Western Balkan countries.

 

Application forms and abstracts of the papers should be mailed in paper or electronic form no later than 31 July 2009

 

More details at: http://www.eccf.su.ac.yu/tid/english.htm

 

World Trade Organization's Public Forum, 28-30 September, 2009

 

The 2009 World Trade Organization (WTO) Public Forum ‘Global Problems, Global Solutions: Towards Better Global Governance’ is scheduled to take place between 28 and 30 September 2009 at WTO headquarters in Geneva.

 

Over the past few years, the WTO Public Forum has firmly established itself as an important opportunity for governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academics, businesses and students to come together to discuss issues regarding the multilateral trading system.

 

At a time of global financial crisis, a downturn in the global economy, and with protectionism on the rise, the Forum is more important than ever in helping to find global solutions. This year's Forum will look in particular at the role of the multilateral trading system and the Doha Round of negotiations within the context of the current global economic crisis.

 

For additional details on the Public Forum 2009, go to:http://www.wto.org/english/forums_e/ngo_e/forum09_background_e.htm

Gender & Development journal calls for papers on gender and the economic crisis

 

In July 2010, the international journal Gender & Development will publish a Special Issue on Gender and the Economic Crisis. It will be co-edited by Caroline Sweetman of Oxfam GB and Professor Ruth Pearson of the Centre for Development Studies, University of Leeds.

 

The editors hope the Special Issue on the economic crisis will result in:

·   mapping, learning and networking;

·   clearer knowledge of good research, activism and support at grassroots level; and

·   increased knowledge on the part of development researchers, policymakers and activists about how to support women's rights and gender equality in the context of crisis.

 

Contributions are invited from development researchers and workers who have experience to share with their peers and with policymakers and decision-makers in development agencies and governments. Deadline for submissions is 31 July.

 

Find out more here:http://www.genderanddevelopment.org/

Gender and transformation: women in post-socialism

 

The Gender and Transition Workshop at the NYU Center for European and Mediterranean Studies invites speakers to submit proposals for talks for the academic year 2008–2009. The topic can be about any issue on gender in relation to eastern and central Europe and the former Soviet Union, including the Baltic countries and Central Asia. It should not be a general topic, but cover some specific area of research, activism, or expertise – for example (but not excluding related topics), on gender and NGOs in the region, on gender policy in the region, on feminist political theory and the region, on current political and economic developments and the region etc.

 

The workshop is a small, informal and friendly group of about 20 feminist scholars, activists and journalists that has been meeting for almost 15 years. We have general background information, so general talks are not relevant for this group.

 

For more information, contact: Sonia Jaffe Robbins, sjr1991[at]gmail.com; Nanette Funk, nanfunk[at]earthlink.net; or Janet Johnson, Johnson[at]brooklyn.cuny.edu

 

 

New Publications

 

Trade - A Driving Force for Jobs and Women's Empowerment? Focus on China and India

  
Christa Wichterich counters the mainstream argument that trade has the potential to be a driving force for jobs and for women’s empowerment. She presents evidence from China and India, where past trade liberalisation has distorted the labour market at the particular expense of women’s working conditions, opportunities for quality employment and social relations with regards to women’s dual burden as breadwinners and reproductive workers.

 

Read more:http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/global/06389.pdf

 

A new report by the Heinrich Bll Foundation on the gender implications of the new global climate finance architecture

 
Climate change is real, it is happening already, and its impacts on people are not gender-neutral. It is affecting men and women all over the world differently, especially in the world’s poorest countries and amongst the most vulnerable people and communities. As women and men have different adaptive and mitigative capabilities, the financing instruments and mechanisms committed to climate change activities in mitigation and adaptation need to take these gender-differentiated impacts into account in designing and operationalising funds as well as concrete project financing.

 

For further information and to access the report, please go to:http://www.boell.org/docs/DoubleMainstreaming_Final.pdf 
 

 Harvest Reaped but Hard to Reach: The Food Crisis and Women in the Global South 

 

In 2008, the world was alarmed by the shortage of food, especially staples such as wheat, rice and corn. This crunch was further aggravated by the soaring prices of fuel, and now by the gripping economic and climate crises.

 

But the food crisis is not the result of the unavailability of food sources. Instead, it exposes the flaws of the neo-liberal model that has created various forms of scarcity amid abundance in the name of profit – resulting in captive politics, massive poverty, environmental degradation and even cultural homogenisation.

 

This Women in Action issue, Harvest Reaped but Hard to Reach: The Food Crisis and Women in the Global South, aims to strengthen a Southern gender analysis of the food crisis and its various manifestations in the lived experiences of women and communities, as farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, activists and scholars.

 

For more information, check the link below:http://www.isiswomen.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1239&Itemid=1 
 

Paying the Price for the Economic Crisis 

  
New research by Oxfam International uncovers a hidden aspect of the global economic crisis – its impact on women workers in developing countries. Preliminary findings from Oxfam’s research with women in global supply chains show that the crisis is having a devastating impact on their livelihoods, their rights, and their families. Women are often first to be laid off, with employers leaving pay outstanding and evading legal obligations to give notice and pay compensation, and governments turning a blind eye, with devastating knock-on effects.

 

Read the report at:http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/economic_crisis/downloads/impact_economic_crisis_women.pdf

 

New UNIFEM assessment: economic stimulus packages must factor in differentiated impact on women 

  
The UNIFEM rapid assessment study analyses stimulus packages in 10 Asia-Pacific countries, including China and India. The region’s economy is being deeply impacted by falling exports, reversals in domestic and foreign migration, tight credit markets and fiscal budgets. The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) estimates that 24 million people in Asia are in danger of losing their jobs in 2009, with women and young people showing greatest vulnerability.

 

The report recommends that economic stimulus packages need to reflect on the gender-based realities and respond with gendered policies. The study evaluates the benefits from increased social spending on health, education and basic sanitation, which will benefit women and reduce pressure on them to take on unpaid work.

 

For more information, follow the link:http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/financial_crisis_conference_2009/event.php?EventID=252

Global Trends in Women's Access to Decent Work 

 

Maria S. Floro and Mieke Meurs argue that the changes in labour markets and labour relations and the reduction of spending for social protection have worsened women’s access to decent work.

 

Accordingly, women shoulder the double burden of paid and reproductive work – a handicap that could be solved by social policy that enables men and women to balance both their paid and reproductive work responsibilities. The authors demand capacities for increased gender-aware economic analysis which in their view is crucial to bring to light gender inequalities and promote a move towards decent work for women.

 

The report can be found directly under:http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/global/06399.pdf

10 case studies from different regions of the world that mobilised women to make a difference 

 

AWID’s Building Feminist Movements and Organisations (BFEMO) initiative undertook a series of 10 case studies from different regions of the world that had mobilised women to make a difference. The case studies are not a full representation of current women’s movements but rather an initial effort to document an interesting variety of movements’ experiences.

 

The case studies were undertaken by researchers identified by AWID’s BFEMO team and gender advisers in different regions. A case guideline was developed to broadly obtain comparative data on the origins, structures, strategies and impacts of the movements. The studies were conducted and documented between July 2007 and February 2008.

 

Read more and download the 10 case studies here:http://www.awid.org/eng/About-AWID/AWID-News/Changing-Their-World

 

 DAC Guiding Principles for Aid Effectiveness, Gender Equality and Women's empowerment 

 

This document was produced by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Network on Gender Equality and is intended to complement the existing DAC guidelines on gender equality. It takes the five principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness as entry points to make recommendations to donors and partner country governments in meeting their commitments to achieving gender equality and women's empowerment – and the overall goal of poverty reduction.

 

Read the document at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/14/27/42310124.pdf

 

 

About the WIDE newsletter

 

Editors: Gea Meijers & Natalie Giorgadze

Proofreader: The Write Effect, Oxford, UK


Contributing to this issue
: Mirjana Dokmanovic, Gea Meijers and Natalie Giorgadze.
The opinions and analysis provided in the newsletter are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions of WIDE.

 

 

 

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#11068 From: Cecilia Olivet <ceciliaolivet@...>
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:42 am
Subject: [sos-wto-eu] Regional Integration: an opportunity to face the crises
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International Conference of governments and social movements
"Regional Integration: an opportunity to face the crises”

21 and 22 July 2009, Consejo Nacional del Deporte,
Asunción del Paraguay


Co- Organisers
Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA), Iniciativa Paraguaya para la Integración de los Pueblos, People’s Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms (PAAR), Focus on the Global South and Transnational Institute (TNI)

In cooperation with
Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA), Southern African People’s Solidarity Network (SAPSN), People’s SAARC, Solidarity for Asian People's Advocacy (SAPA), TWN Africa, Trade Strategy Group, Jubilee South, REBRIP, Transform Europe, ATTAC France, Ecologistas en Acción

Supported by
Paraguayan Presidency Pro-tempore of Mercosur


Regional Integration: an opportunity to face the crises

Finding solutions to the crises (economic, energy, food and climate) is urgent, and today it is at the core of the agenda of both social movements and governments. For countries in the different regions, regional integration appears as a way to overcome the global economic crisis through the development of solidarity and dynamic intra-regional economic ties.

In this context, re-thinking regional integration as a solution to the crisis can give a powerful impulse to building an alternative development project in each region (Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe) that is more sustainable and equitable than the current development model which countries follow today.

However, the current regional spaces are contested arenas. It is crucial, therefore, that social movements and governments search and seek for common strategies.

The objective of this International Conference will be to advance the debate among governments, regional/international bodies, policy makers, parliamentarians and social movements from the following regions: Mercosur, Andean Community, ALBA, SADC, SAARC, ASEAN and EU about the possibilities to respond to these crises through regional alternatives and a model of regional integration that promotes a change in the development model of the regions.

The Conference is organised as a series of round tables for dialogue bringing together parliamentarians, governments and civil society representatives from Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe.

***See full programme attached***

What is the Initiative People’s Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms?

The initiative People’s Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms, involves regional alliances such as Hemispheric Social Alliance (Latin America), Southern African People’s Solidarity Network- SAPSN (Southern Africa), Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy – SAPA (South East Asia), People’s SAARC (South Asia) as well as organisations and networks in Europe, including Transnational Institute (TNI), that struggle for “Another Europe”. These networks and the organisations part of them, share a strong commitment on the need to RECLAIM the regions, RECREATE the processes of regional integration and ADVANCE people-centered regional alternatives.

The People’s Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms is an effort to promote cross-fertilisation of experiences on regional alternatives among social movements and civil society organisations from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe and contribute to the understanding of alternative regional integration as a key strategy to struggle against neoliberal globalisation to broaden the base among key social actors for political debate and action around regional integration.

Specifically, it aims to build trans-regional processes to develop the concept of “people's integration”, articulate the development of new analyses and insights on key regional issues, expose the problems of neoliberal regional integration and the limits of the export-led integration model, share and develop joint tactics and strategies for critical engagement with regional integration processes as well as the development of people’s alternatives.

For more information visit: www.alternative-regionalisms.org

This Conference was made possible with the contribution of Oxfam/Novib, Oxfam Internacional, Cristian Aid and Action Aid

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#11067 From: "Mari Kuraishi, GlobalGiving" <amcquade@...>
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:44 am
Subject: Get a $10 gift card when you donate today
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GlobalGiving.com
 

Dear Friend,

It’s an exciting week for all of us at GlobalGiving.  Because of your ongoing support, the GlobalGiving community has contributed over $20 million to support good works all around the world.

Because of donors like you, over 1600 aid projects in 113 countries have received funding through GlobalGiving. To celebrate and say thank you to our donors, we’re giving away $10 GlobalGiving Gift Cards to the next 100 people to donate to a project on our website this week.  So donate now!

But our work is far from finished.  Currently, there are hundreds of projects that need your help.  Recently many of our donors have given to projects like Girl Effect—a Nike Foundation-sponsored initiative empowering girls worldwide.  Others have donated to environmental conservation projects in Africa, like the Trees and Water for Masai Project.  The list of projects are endless.

We encourage you to give to whatever project is closest to your heart.  All of our projects are vetted, vouched for and come with the GlobalGiving Guarantee.

Give now to receive your gift card!

Give Now at GlobalGiving.com

Thank you for your continued support,

Mari Kuraishi and the GlobalGiving Team

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#11066 From: "The Drum Beat" <drumbeat@...>
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:35 am
Subject: New Job Vacancies, Opportunities, Consultants, and Materials - Development Classifieds
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Development Classifieds - July 15 2009

from The Communication Initiative partnership
...where communication and media are central to social and economic
development...
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1. Community Engagement Advisor - International HIV/AIDS Alliance - Lesotho
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2. Director of Fundraising - Panos London - London, United Kingdom
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10. Design, Management, and Evaluation of HIV/AIDS Programmes - September 14-25
2009 - Arusha, Tanzania
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Kingdom
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Knowledge - August 31 - September 3 2009 - Kumasi, Ghana
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#11065 From: "Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark" <mailservice@...>
Date: Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:02 am
Subject: Update of webpage: Weekly update from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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Weekly update from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The following documents have been updated or added to the website of the Foreign Ministry:

Focus on results and challenges in DANIDA’s annual report 2008
Danish development assistance increased by USD 101.4 million in 2008, bringing the total to USD 2.8 billion. This amounts to 0.82 per cent of the Danish GNI. That places Denmark among only five countries in the world to exceed the UN target of 0.7 per cent.




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#11064 From: "IRIN" <no-reply@...>
Date: Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:22 pm
Subject: Your daily selection of IRIN Africa English reports, 7/14/2009
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CONTENTS:

1 - AFRICA: Detecting stealth sleeping sickness
2 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable
3 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires
4 - SOMALIA: Vulnerable children hardest-hit in Mogadishu fighting
5 - SUDAN: Improvements in education - but mainly for the boys
6 - WEST AFRICA: Region still unprepared for pandemic flu


1 - AFRICA: Detecting stealth sleeping sickness

DAKAR, 14 July (IRIN) - Up to tens of thousands of people in Africa who are
infected with trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, go undiagnosed
because the only way to detect the deadly infection is through blood exams and a
painful expensive lower back puncture, according to the Geneva-based Foundation
for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND).

  "It is incredibly difficult now to detect the infection," Joseph Ndung'u,
FIND's head of trypanosomiasis programme, told IRIN. "The parasite numbers are
low. We are required to puncture the lumbar region [lower back] and examine the
spinal fluid through a microscope in order to determine whether parasites have
entered the brain."

  Once the infection - transmitted by the tsetse fly - penetrates  the brain, it
can attack the central nervous system.

  FIND is evaluating a microscope that is expected to cost several times less
than standard microscopes currently used for diagnoses. "This new microscope can
be used in the field and does not require an expensive laboratory with a
darkroom," said Ndung'u.

  The NGO is also researching molecular detection that does not require a
sophisticated lab or specialized personnel, as well as a rapid test, which
Ndung'u told IRIN is "highly feasible".

  "Right now, there must be a good technician to draw out the spinal fluid
carefully, a microscope, centrifuge and someone who is able to count the number
of white blood cells.Endemic areas are not likely to have all this," said
Ndung'u.

  If caught early, trypanosomiasis can be cured within a week of hospitalization,
said the FIND scientist. "But when the disease progresses to an advanced stage
and parasites have entered the brain, the only available medication can be toxic
in up to 10 percent of patients."

  The arsenic-based Melarsoprol is one of the drugs currently used for advanced
infections.

  World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 80 percent of late-stage
trypanosomiasis patients who do not respond to treatment, die. "The medicine is
toxic and a lot of effort has been put in an unsuccessful search for a safer
medication," said Ndung'u.

  FIND's Ndung'u said that while surveillance has improved and helped reduce
human deaths, the disease has typically resurged after occasional dips. "The
moment you start ignoring a disease is when it turns into an epidemic."

  Trypanosomiasis epidemics have taken place in Uganda and the Congo Basin
between 1896 and 1906 and in a number of African countries in 1920 and 1970.

  FIND's Ndung'u told IRIN that more than 90 percent of infections are currently
reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "This sleeping sickness disease is
like a sleeping giant. It goes underreported, especially during periods of
conflict, and by the time it receives national attention, a large proportion of
the population is infected."

  The FIND scientist cited reports in recent years in which there was a more than
30-percent prevalence in some endemic countries.

  Ndung'u told IRIN that the sleeping sickness disease prevalence is "grossly
underestimated" because many areas have no surveillance, and not all countries
report to WHO trypanosomiasis infections and deaths.

  pt/aj

[ENDS]


2 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable

JOHANNESBURG, 14 July (IRIN) - The growing number of accidental explosions in
military arms and ammunition storage facilities across Africa has highlighted
the need for minimum standards in stockpile management in the continent, says a
South Africa-based think-tank.

  "These ammunition stockpiles pose a significant threat and have enduring
consequences in vulnerable and fragile societies, and as such need to be
adequately managed and/or disposed of by making use of the correct mechanisms
and best practice guidelines," the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) noted in
the latest of a series of reports on munitions storage.

  "Arms and ammunition stockpiles are becoming increasingly unstable due to age
and, in many cases, unintentional mismanagement," Ben Coetzee, Senior Researcher
at the ISS Arms Management Programme, told IRIN.

  "Since 2007 several explosions occurred in Mozambique and at least one in
Tanzania, resulting in hundreds of injuries and many deaths. Seen in this light,
there is an urgent need to re-evaluate the current principles of ammunition
stockpile management."

  In the past decade there have also been accidental explosions in military
storage facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Guinea, Nigeria,
Angola and Sierra Leone.

  tdm/he[ENDS]


3 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires

NEW YORK, 14 July (IRIN) - "Despite popular opinion that non-profits are all
sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya together, they do have to manage
their resources, and any way they can reduce their expenses by managing those
well, I think is an opportunity for them," said NGO representative Barbara
Wallace of InterAction, one of 800 attendees at a trade fair involving more than
110 corporations, NGOs, UN agencies and government aid bodies in Washington DC
last week.

  From pharmaceuticals and insecticides to innovative waterproofing, security and
insurance, for-profit businesses hawked their wares to non-profit organizations
at Aid+Trade, one of the largest events of its kind.

  Wallace, vice-president of membership for InterAction, the largest coalition of
US-based international NGOs with 183 members, told IRIN: "Non-profits have to
buy services just like everybody else. I mean it's not like everything is
donated, because it simply isn't, and an opportunity for procurement people from
non-profits, CEOs from non-profits to visit a place where they can meet
competitors for what they're going to buy, and negotiate deals that might reduce
the price, I see as an advantage."

  InterAction hosted workshops and panel discussions with over 800 participants,
100 speakers and 40 different sessions. The fair was hosted by International Aid
& Trade, a London-based body.

  Director Sula Bruce was enthusiastic: "What it does is provide an opportunity
for companies to really communicate on an open, visible platform with the aid
agencies they are serving - UN, governmental or NGO. International Aid & Trade
enables humanitarian agencies to meet a cross-section of companies, which
assists them in securing the best prices for the goods and services they use."

  For the UN such events are part of an essential partnership with the business
world. "It serves an important and legitimate function. The UN and wider UN
humanitarian community must procure capital equipment, goods and services to
effectively fulfil their missions," Will Kennedy, senior programme officer at
the UN Fund for International Partnerships, told IRIN.

  "I personally don't see a conflict of interest here. All goods and services
procured by UN humanitarian agencies go through well established and fairly
rigorous competitive bidding processes."

  Sandless sandbags and other innovations

  The wares on show include the familiar, such as water-purifying equipment; the
novel, like an all-in-one raincoat and tent; as well as services, including
satellite communications and insurance. Bruce highlighted Active Engineering's
JakPak, an all-in-one waterproof jacket with "the built-in versatility of a
personal sleeping environment" billed as "a critical new resource for first
responders and disaster victims".

  Sentry Group, a Michigan-based company, introduced a multifunctional enclosed
trailer unit - the Sentry 5000 - capable of providing quickly deployable
electrical power, heating and cooling, communication and lighting as a single,
towable unit. It claims to be able to purify about 13,000 litres of water a day.

  Flood Inhibiting and Defense Organization (FIDO) displayed lightweight,
portable sandless sandbags that can stop intrusive water, activating instantly
on contact, billed as non-toxic and 100 percent biodegradable.

  Security is never far from the minds of NGOs and several exhibitors dealt with
issues ranging from mine clearance to protection from hostile elements, such as
L-3 CyTerra mine-detectors or and Clements International insurance services,
including for political risk and kidnap for ransom.

  Building ties

  At the 2007 fair in Geneva, the London-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), and
UNOSAT, the UN's Operational Satellite Applications Programme, realised that
their respective maps - MAG's showing unexploded ordnance and UNOSAT's showing
the location of water - could be used to establish settlements for displaced
people with sufficient water but away from dangerous areas.

  For Africare, an American-led NGO: "We actually have an opportunity to see what
new products are out there," said J. Margaret Burke, director of management
services, "[and] it gives an opportunity for NGOs to see each other as well as
the vendors."

  Summing up the position of many in the NGO world to possible ethical wariness
over the linkage between businesses and NGOs, Catholic Relief Services said its
presence did not represent an endorsement of the event, other presenters, the
exhibitors, or any of the suppliers.

  "That having been said, humanitarian organizations need supplies," spokesman
John Rivera told IRIN. "We buy lots of supplies locally, i.e. in the countries
where we operate, but we need other materials and seek the most efficient and
cost-effective way of getting what we need to where we need it. We are thankful
to have a vibrant market in the sort of basic materials we need."

  ma/bp/mw

[ENDS]


4 - SOMALIA: Vulnerable children hardest-hit in Mogadishu fighting

MOGADISHU, 14 July (IRIN) - At only 14, Ali Hussein Sid is already the sole
breadwinner of his family, his father having been killed in Somalia's ongoing
civil war and his mother seriously injured when a mortar landed on their home in
the capital, Mogadishu.

As a shoe-shiner, Sid sometimes goes home empty-handed as customers are hard to
come by in war-torn Mogadishu, where fighting between government troops and
Islamist insurgents has been most intense in recent months.

"My family depends on what I make shining shoes in the city but sometimes I go
back home without making a cent," he told IRIN on 13 July. "I feel very alone
when I am faced with a problem."

The situation for orphaned and vulnerable children such as Sid is especially
critical in Somalia as there is no government support and assistance for them.

The absence of a central government since the ousting of President Siad Barre in
1992 resulted in the collapse of the government's support system for the
vulnerable across the country.

Ahmed Dini, a civil society activist and member of Peace Line Group, a local
NGO, said orphaned and vulnerable children had borne the brunt of Somalia's
18-year civil war.

"A lot of the orphans and vulnerable children lost their parents in the ongoing
violence," Dini said. "They are among the people facing the hardest times in the
whole country; in fact the most vulnerable people in the country now are the
orphans as they were forced to flee from their homes yet they do not have
fathers to be responsible for them."

He said the numbers of children on the streets was continuing to rise as the
conflict worsens.

Dini said the children just wanted a childhood. "When we talk to them, they want
to go to school and play football. They basically want to be children."

There is a new phenomenon of children taking care of other children "because
both parents have died and there are no relatives to help", Dini said.

He said the long civil war had eroded the social support network that sustained
Somalis.

"The absence of [a] government structure is the greatest factor causing daily
problems [for these children]," Dini said. "It would be good to get a
strengthened institution that would care for young Somali orphans."

Meanwhile, Sid continues to struggle to make ends meet in his home in Howl-Wadag
district of Mogadishu.

"My father died last year and my mother was seriously injured when a heavy
mortar landed on our old home," Sid told IRIN. "No one cares about us. We need
to go to school and we deserve to get our rights [just] as those children whose
parents are alive."

Sid appealed to the international community and Somalis in the diaspora to help
orphaned and vulnerable children.

"I am requesting different relief organizations to assist us; my family and I
are in a critical condition, we need help," he said, adding that food and
education were their most urgent needs.

yhh/js/ah/mw

[ENDS]


5 - SUDAN: Improvements in education - but mainly for the boys

MALAKAL, 13 July (IRIN) - School enrolment across Southern Sudan has trebled
since the 2005 peace agreement, but the number of girls in class has remained
significantly lower than for boys, a new report said.

  Commissioned by the Southern Sudanese Education, Science and Technology
ministry, the report on Socio-Economic and Cultural Barriers to Schooling in
Southern Sudan attributed the low female enrolment to socio-cultural values,
norms and practices, with economic realities superimposed on them.

  "These factors exert their influence from birth, through the child-rearing
practices followed by different communities, initiation and marriage, to old
age," it noted. "In some communities. the girl-child is prized for the labour
she provides to the family, and for the dowry she brings. This pushes up the
opportunity cost of educating a girl, and exposes her to early marriage."

  The report was released on 7 July by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) to mark
Girl's Education Day in Southern Sudan. Only one in five children was in school
during the war, it noted, but only one girl in 100 completed a full course of
primary schooling. The region has the lowest school enrolment in the world.

  "Southern Sudan is considered one of the regions that are seriously off-track
in as far as attainment of the Millennium Development Goals is concerned as well
as that of attaining universal primary completion," it said.

  After the peace agreement, gross enrolment rose by about 23 percent in 2003 and
by 35 percent in 2008, and is projected to rise by 55 percent in 2011.

  "Following the launch of the Go-To-School initiative on 1 April 2006, enrolment
has risen from the wartime estimate of 343,000 to 850,000 by December 2006, and
to over 1.3 million by December 2007," the report of a study conducted between
August and October 2008, stated.

  The schools, however, still lack adequate facilities, including appropriate
sanitary provisions for girls. In 2005, more than 80 percent of school-children
had no bench to sit on and only 33 percent of schools had latrines. There is
also a shortage of trained teachers.

  In some communities, boys were missing school because they had to look after
cattle or go fishing, noted the study, while the girls in some schools
experienced sexual harassment, early pregnancy and child-to-child violence.

  Marriage a priority

  A school head in Malakal, Upper Nile State, said many girls could not study to
higher levels because they were expected to get married.

  "Many guardians are still reluctant to let their girls go to school," Williams
Gatmon, the head of Both Diu basic school, told IRIN in Malakal. "Among the
Southern Sudanese, it is very important for a girl to marry and bring home the
dowry."

  "The girls particularly find it hard to go to higher schools," Gatmon said on 7
July.

  Set up by the Southern Sudanese government in 2002, mainly to cater for
returnee children, the school had 75 female students out of 500 pupils. The
girls, aged eight to 20, were enrolled in all classes from four to eight.

  The school teaches in English, except for a year-eight Arabic class.

  The numbers were higher at Akobo town primary school in Jonglei State. The
school, which has classes one to eight, had enrolled 960 girls out of 1,695
children from ages six to 20, according to the headmaster Bhan Tut.

  There were two female teachers on the staff of 23. "The school has received a
lot of support since the [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] - books and other
supplies," Tut told IRIN. "The challenge is to pay the teachers on time. As we
speak, we last received salaries in April."

  eo/mw[ENDS]


6 - WEST AFRICA: Region still unprepared for pandemic flu

DAKAR, 14 July (IRIN) - Should an outbreak of severe pandemic influenza occur in
West Africa, most countries in the region would be armed with plans that look
good on paper but are untested and underfunded, according to health experts.

"Only a few African countries have started to get ready for the potential
disruptions a severe influenza pandemic would cause society," Liviu Vedrasco,
West Africa'S pandemic readiness adviser for the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed 94,500 cases of H1N1/09
worldwide with 429 deaths as of 7 July. Of these cases, 140 are in Africa, which
has not recorded a H1N1/09 death.

Most African governments have developed plans to respond to a severe influenza
outbreak, Dr. Michel Yao, WHO's West Africa emergency focal point, told IRIN.
But countries now need to implement these plans by training public service staff
tO set up pandemic influenza surveillance systems and identify vulnerable
groups, among other actions.

Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria have gone further than Sub-Saharan
neighbours by integrating pandemic flu response plans into their wider disaster
preparedness procedures, according to OCHA.

In Nigeria, the ministries of information and agriculture are working with the
health ministry to outline their joint response, said the health ministry's
epidemiology director, Abdul Nasidi.

"We have established a command centre. We are also trying to expand our pandemic
response plan.and we are working with the federal government to import more
stocks of Tamiflu [a flu-inhibiting drug] to cover at least 10 to 20 percent of
the population," he told IRIN.

In the Senegalese capital Dakar, a pre-existing infectious diseases committee is
now meeting weekly to plan the country's response, Awabadhily Bathily,
epidemiology adviser at the Senegalese Ministry of Health told IRIN. Where only
health staff attended before the latest flu outbreak, the interior and livestock
ministers are now also participating, she said.

National plans need to integrate flu preparedness into wider emergency response
plans, outline how each sector would respond - from defence forces to health
clinics and address special needs for vulnerable groups, said OCHA.

But some of the systems the Senegalese Ministry of Health has set up are not
operational - including an H1N1/09 information telephone hotline that plays
music  instead of providing information.

Space limitations in the national H1N1/09 focal point hospital "Hpital
Principal" prevent patients' isolation, which the US Center for Disease Control
(CDC) recommends for flu victims at the early stage of an outbreak.

WHO raised the level of influenza pandemic alert to the highest alert phase 6 on
11 June 2009 to capture the virus' global spread.

The current strain has been only moderately severe to date, but when the
northern hemisphere's flu season beings in October, OCHA fears more dangerous
strains could develop.

A severe outbreak could disrupt world financial markets; cause public services,
including health facilities and schools to collapse; shut down borders and
disrupt law and order, OCHA has warned.

"Pandemic influenza should be on the national security agenda of countries.
Parliaments should be discussing it and should allocate sufficient resources to
address response needs," said Vedrasco. "This is not just a health issue; it is
a whole-of-society problem."

WHO is supporting six laboratories in Africa - in Algeria, Cote d'Ivoire,
Senegal, two in Nigeria and South Africa - to test and treat H1N1/09, helping
countries set up surveillance systems, assisting governments to create national
response plans and is sending limited stocks of Tamiflu to treat H1N1/09 to
countries worldwide.

Preparing for a flu outbreak may not seem urgent, said Vedrasco, but to "see it
that way is to miss an opportunity."

"Through preparing for a severe influenza pandemic, governments could.improve
prevention control and response capacities for other infectious diseases and
disasters. History brings opportunities every now and then, and some of these
have the potential to foster long-term change."

aj/gc/pt

[ENDS]


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#11063 From: "IRIN" <no-reply@...>
Date: Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:14 pm
Subject: Your daily selection of IRIN Asia English reports, 7/14/2009
no-reply@...
Send Email Send Email
 
CONTENTS:

1 - AFGHANISTAN: Cost of insecurity impedes humanitarian work - analysis
2 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable
3 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires
4 - PHILIPPINES: Sharp increase in IDPs after Mindanao bombings


1 - AFGHANISTAN: Cost of insecurity impedes humanitarian work - analysis

KABUL, 14 July (IRIN) - Armoured vehicles, armed escorts, blast-resistant walls
and other security measures have made humanitarian work in Afghanistan more
expensive and risky than ever before, say analysts.

  Movement of humanitarian convoys and protection of staff and facilities have
also become costly and challenging because of widespread attacks and threats.

  "Due to insecurity in some regions of the country, WFP [the UN World Food
Programme] has had to take extra measures to ensure the safety of its staff, as
well as the safe delivery of its food, and these have related costs," Susannah
Nicol, WFP's information officer in Kabul, told IRIN.

  In 2008, 30 attacks on WFP food aid convoys were reported, resulting in the
loss of 1,200MT of food, valued at US$700,000. So far this year, 12 attacks have
been reported with a loss of 42MT of aid, WFP said.

  Attacks on humanitarian convoys - which were uncommon in the past - have
increasingly discouraged commercial truck drivers from transporting aid to the
volatile south and east of Afghanistan. Drivers who still do the job demand more
money, armed escorts and no identifying insignia.

  One private truck driver said he charges 100 percent more than two years ago to
carry aid to southern Kandahar Province.

  "Costs to move food to areas considered by the UN as 'no-go' areas can be
expensive. However, the high [charges] ensure that WFP [aid] gets to its
destination," said Nicol. WFP has more than seven million beneficiaries across
the country.

  Cost factors

  While large swathes of the country, mostly in the south and east, are no-go
zones for most agencies, the increasing use of armoured vehicles, barricaded
compounds and restrictions on movement have also had an impact on operations in
relatively safe areas, such as Kabul, where many organizations recommend
armoured vehicles for their staff.

  Dozens of armoured vehicles - each costing more than $100,000 - have been
imported by international aid organisations over the past few years while
customs officials said papers for dozens more were being processed.

  However, some organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) prefer not to use them.

  "Armoured vehicles are both expensive and inconsistent with the nature of our
work," Patrick Hamilton, deputy head of the ICRC delegation, told IRIN, adding
that the organisation was more inclined to seek security guarantees for its
staff and activities through negotiations with warring parties and host
communities.

  However, the ICRC's modus operandi is extremely difficult, if not impossible,
for other aid agencies to replicate, specialists say.

  According to Antonio Donini of the Feinstein International Center (FIC), an
international research body on humanitarian issues, the social compact between
aid workers, local communities and combatants has been rapidly breaking down
because of perceptions and widening misunderstandings.

  "The ability of humanitarian agencies to address urgent need is compromised by
internal and external factors, ie, both by the organization and modus operandi
of aid agencies on the ground, and by an extremely volatile and dangerous
operating environment," said Donini in a briefing paper in March 2009.

  Risks for nationals

  Insecurity has restricted the ability and willingness of many international aid
agencies to send international staff to volatile areas, so some have sought to
recruit local residents to run programmes and execute projects. Sending
qualified Afghans to insecure provinces has also proven difficult.

  "In many instances positions have been advertised with attractive salaries -
higher than other [secure] areas - but people don't apply for jobs in insecure
provinces," Hashim Mayar, deputy director of ACBAR, an umbrella body of about
100 local and international NGOs operating in Afghanistan, told IRIN.

  "People don't want to risk their lives by working for NGOs in insecure
provinces," he said.

  Assessment missions to over half the country are being conducted by air because
of restrictions on road movements, even in armoured cars, say observers, with
additional cost implications.

  "Flights are certainly far more expensive than road missions," said Mayar.

  Lack of direct access prompts some aid agencies to adopt so-called
"remote-control" projects, which make aid action vulnerable to mismanagement and
corruption, according to a joint case study by Overseas Development Institute,
Integrity Watch Afghanistan and Humanitarian Policy Group.

  Consensus-building

  A report by the UN Secretary-General has forecast a bleak year for civilians
and aid workers. As insecurity intensifies, aid agencies inevitably review their
security procedures and apply appropriate mitigating measures.

  The ICRC says it will continue avoiding armed escorts and demonstrating its
impartial credentials and emblem. "We seek security through local acceptance and
support," said Hamilton.

  Others, including Donini, advise aid agencies to negotiate a "humanitarian
consensus" with all warring parties and neighbouring countries as the UN did in
the 1980 and 1990s.

  "Immediate steps should be taken to build a relationship of trust with all
parties to the conflict," said Donini.

  ad/at/mw

[ENDS]


2 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable

JOHANNESBURG, 14 July (IRIN) - The growing number of accidental explosions in
military arms and ammunition storage facilities across Africa has highlighted
the need for minimum standards in stockpile management in the continent, says a
South Africa-based think-tank.

  "These ammunition stockpiles pose a significant threat and have enduring
consequences in vulnerable and fragile societies, and as such need to be
adequately managed and/or disposed of by making use of the correct mechanisms
and best practice guidelines," the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) noted in
the latest of a series of reports on munitions storage.

  "Arms and ammunition stockpiles are becoming increasingly unstable due to age
and, in many cases, unintentional mismanagement," Ben Coetzee, Senior Researcher
at the ISS Arms Management Programme, told IRIN.

  "Since 2007 several explosions occurred in Mozambique and at least one in
Tanzania, resulting in hundreds of injuries and many deaths. Seen in this light,
there is an urgent need to re-evaluate the current principles of ammunition
stockpile management."

  In the past decade there have also been accidental explosions in military
storage facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Guinea, Nigeria,
Angola and Sierra Leone.

  tdm/he[ENDS]


3 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires

NEW YORK, 14 July (IRIN) - "Despite popular opinion that non-profits are all
sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya together, they do have to manage
their resources, and any way they can reduce their expenses by managing those
well, I think is an opportunity for them," said NGO representative Barbara
Wallace of InterAction, one of 800 attendees at a trade fair involving more than
110 corporations, NGOs, UN agencies and government aid bodies in Washington DC
last week.

  From pharmaceuticals and insecticides to innovative waterproofing, security and
insurance, for-profit businesses hawked their wares to non-profit organizations
at Aid+Trade, one of the largest events of its kind.

  Wallace, vice-president of membership for InterAction, the largest coalition of
US-based international NGOs with 183 members, told IRIN: "Non-profits have to
buy services just like everybody else. I mean it's not like everything is
donated, because it simply isn't, and an opportunity for procurement people from
non-profits, CEOs from non-profits to visit a place where they can meet
competitors for what they're going to buy, and negotiate deals that might reduce
the price, I see as an advantage."

  InterAction hosted workshops and panel discussions with over 800 participants,
100 speakers and 40 different sessions. The fair was hosted by International Aid
& Trade, a London-based body.

  Director Sula Bruce was enthusiastic: "What it does is provide an opportunity
for companies to really communicate on an open, visible platform with the aid
agencies they are serving - UN, governmental or NGO. International Aid & Trade
enables humanitarian agencies to meet a cross-section of companies, which
assists them in securing the best prices for the goods and services they use."

  For the UN such events are part of an essential partnership with the business
world. "It serves an important and legitimate function. The UN and wider UN
humanitarian community must procure capital equipment, goods and services to
effectively fulfil their missions," Will Kennedy, senior programme officer at
the UN Fund for International Partnerships, told IRIN.

  "I personally don't see a conflict of interest here. All goods and services
procured by UN humanitarian agencies go through well established and fairly
rigorous competitive bidding processes."

  Sandless sandbags and other innovations

  The wares on show include the familiar, such as water-purifying equipment; the
novel, like an all-in-one raincoat and tent; as well as services, including
satellite communications and insurance. Bruce highlighted Active Engineering's
JakPak, an all-in-one waterproof jacket with "the built-in versatility of a
personal sleeping environment" billed as "a critical new resource for first
responders and disaster victims".

  Sentry Group, a Michigan-based company, introduced a multifunctional enclosed
trailer unit - the Sentry 5000 - capable of providing quickly deployable
electrical power, heating and cooling, communication and lighting as a single,
towable unit. It claims to be able to purify about 13,000 litres of water a day.

  Flood Inhibiting and Defense Organization (FIDO) displayed lightweight,
portable sandless sandbags that can stop intrusive water, activating instantly
on contact, billed as non-toxic and 100 percent biodegradable.

  Security is never far from the minds of NGOs and several exhibitors dealt with
issues ranging from mine clearance to protection from hostile elements, such as
L-3 CyTerra mine-detectors or and Clements International insurance services,
including for political risk and kidnap for ransom.

  Building ties

  At the 2007 fair in Geneva, the London-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), and
UNOSAT, the UN's Operational Satellite Applications Programme, realised that
their respective maps - MAG's showing unexploded ordnance and UNOSAT's showing
the location of water - could be used to establish settlements for displaced
people with sufficient water but away from dangerous areas.

  For Africare, an American-led NGO: "We actually have an opportunity to see what
new products are out there," said J. Margaret Burke, director of management
services, "[and] it gives an opportunity for NGOs to see each other as well as
the vendors."

  Summing up the position of many in the NGO world to possible ethical wariness
over the linkage between businesses and NGOs, Catholic Relief Services said its
presence did not represent an endorsement of the event, other presenters, the
exhibitors, or any of the suppliers.

  "That having been said, humanitarian organizations need supplies," spokesman
John Rivera told IRIN. "We buy lots of supplies locally, i.e. in the countries
where we operate, but we need other materials and seek the most efficient and
cost-effective way of getting what we need to where we need it. We are thankful
to have a vibrant market in the sort of basic materials we need."

  ma/bp/mw

[ENDS]


4 - PHILIPPINES: Sharp increase in IDPs after Mindanao bombings

MANILA, 14 July (IRIN) - Displacement levels on the war-ravaged Philippine
island of Mindanao have risen to more than 430,000, according to data from the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and other sources.

  This marks a significant increase in the number of internally displaced people
(IDPs), from an estimate of 290,000 by the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) in mid-June.

  However, DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral, whose office is the lead agency for
IDPs, stressed the scale of the problem was not enough to categorize it as a
humanitarian crisis.

  "There is still no humanitarian crisis, but there is certainly a requirement
for humanitarian assistance, which we have been able for the most part to
provide," she told journalists in Manila on 13 July.

  Cabral confirmed there had been a spike in the number of IDPs, as heavy clashes
between government forces and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) intensified [see: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85199] in
June, culminating in last week's bomb attacks.

  "A few days will pass and the number of IDPs will decrease again because they
will go back to their areas," she said.

  Most of the displaced are staying in some 150 government evacuation centres,
such as schools, or with family or friends, in the three conflict-affected
provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and North Cotabato, the country's
National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) [see: http://ndcc.gov.ph/home/]
reported.

  Describing the situation as "very fluid", Cabral, who cited figures closer to
300,000, noted that the number of displaced was actually much higher than
officially reported, especially in recent weeks.

  The nearly year-long conflict was also beginning to strain the government's
finances, Cabral said, noting that it had already spent more than US$10 million
in humanitarian assistance since fighting began in August, while international
aid agencies have spent nearly as much.

  "That's a lot of money that could have been spent on development projects, if
we did not have to spend it this way," she said.

  Food deliveries resume

  Cabral's comments followed an announcement by the World Food Programme (WFP)
that it was resuming food distributions to Mindanao following the bombings.

  The three bomb attacks, which killed at least eight and wounded over 100 on the
island of Jolo and the cities of Cotabato and Iligan where the agency maintains
sub-offices, were blamed on the MILF and the smaller militant group Abu Sayyaf,
which denied responsibility.

  "With travel restrictions being lifted, WFP was able to begin distributions to
just under 17,000 families in the municipalities of Datu Odin Sinsuat, Sultan
Kudarat, Sultan Mastura, South Kabuntalan and North Kabuntalan in the province
of Maguindanao, as well as in the city of Cotabato," WFP country director
Stephen Anderson said, adding that the agency had provided 11,700MT of food to
more than 500,000 people in six Mindanao provinces in the past 11 months.

  Operations on the islands of Basilan and Jolo, where the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu
Sayyaf largely operate, remain suspended.

  "We plan to continue to monitor the situation," he said, stressing that WFP
"stands ready to continue its complementary support to conflict-affected" areas.

  Coordination challenge

  Anderson said one of the key challenges was coordination efforts with the
government, especially in monitoring numbers in IDP camps. "One of the major
challenges we've had to face is the fact that the situation is very fluid. There
has been quite a bit of fluctuation in the numbers," Anderson said.

  "It's a situation that involves tens of thousands of families. It's serious and
they do require assistance. But at the same time, assistance is forthcoming even
as there are operational challenges that are being addressed."

  While there has been some improvement on the ground in terms of camp management
and logistical support, Anderson said "continuing action is needed to sustain"
this.

  Intense fighting began in August after the MILF, which has been waging a
separatist rebellion since 1978, broke a five-year-old ceasefire and launched
coordinated attacks across Mindanao after a high court decision scotched a
proposed deal that would have granted them control over what they claim are
ancestral lands.

  At the height of the fighting in September, more than 600,000 people were
displaced, although many of them have since returned to rebuild their villages.

  jg/ds/mw

[ENDS]


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 IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis:
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[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions
expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member
States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes
is permitted. Terms and conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx

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#11062 From: "IRIN" <no-reply@...>
Date: Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:38 pm
Subject: Your daily selection of IRIN Middle East reports, 7/14/2009
no-reply@...
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CONTENTS:

1 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable
2 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires
3 - ISRAEL: Crackdown on illegal migrants and visa violators


1 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable

JOHANNESBURG, 14 July (IRIN) - The growing number of accidental explosions in
military arms and ammunition storage facilities across Africa has highlighted
the need for minimum standards in stockpile management in the continent, says a
South Africa-based think-tank.

  "These ammunition stockpiles pose a significant threat and have enduring
consequences in vulnerable and fragile societies, and as such need to be
adequately managed and/or disposed of by making use of the correct mechanisms
and best practice guidelines," the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) noted in
the latest of a series of reports on munitions storage.

  "Arms and ammunition stockpiles are becoming increasingly unstable due to age
and, in many cases, unintentional mismanagement," Ben Coetzee, Senior Researcher
at the ISS Arms Management Programme, told IRIN.

  "Since 2007 several explosions occurred in Mozambique and at least one in
Tanzania, resulting in hundreds of injuries and many deaths. Seen in this light,
there is an urgent need to re-evaluate the current principles of ammunition
stockpile management."

  In the past decade there have also been accidental explosions in military
storage facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Guinea, Nigeria,
Angola and Sierra Leone.

  tdm/he[ENDS]


2 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires

NEW YORK, 14 July (IRIN) - "Despite popular opinion that non-profits are all
sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya together, they do have to manage
their resources, and any way they can reduce their expenses by managing those
well, I think is an opportunity for them," said NGO representative Barbara
Wallace of InterAction, one of 800 attendees at a trade fair involving more than
110 corporations, NGOs, UN agencies and government aid bodies in Washington DC
last week.

  From pharmaceuticals and insecticides to innovative waterproofing, security and
insurance, for-profit businesses hawked their wares to non-profit organizations
at Aid+Trade, one of the largest events of its kind.

  Wallace, vice-president of membership for InterAction, the largest coalition of
US-based international NGOs with 183 members, told IRIN: "Non-profits have to
buy services just like everybody else. I mean it's not like everything is
donated, because it simply isn't, and an opportunity for procurement people from
non-profits, CEOs from non-profits to visit a place where they can meet
competitors for what they're going to buy, and negotiate deals that might reduce
the price, I see as an advantage."

  InterAction hosted workshops and panel discussions with over 800 participants,
100 speakers and 40 different sessions. The fair was hosted by International Aid
& Trade, a London-based body.

  Director Sula Bruce was enthusiastic: "What it does is provide an opportunity
for companies to really communicate on an open, visible platform with the aid
agencies they are serving - UN, governmental or NGO. International Aid & Trade
enables humanitarian agencies to meet a cross-section of companies, which
assists them in securing the best prices for the goods and services they use."

  For the UN such events are part of an essential partnership with the business
world. "It serves an important and legitimate function. The UN and wider UN
humanitarian community must procure capital equipment, goods and services to
effectively fulfil their missions," Will Kennedy, senior programme officer at
the UN Fund for International Partnerships, told IRIN.

  "I personally don't see a conflict of interest here. All goods and services
procured by UN humanitarian agencies go through well established and fairly
rigorous competitive bidding processes."

  Sandless sandbags and other innovations

  The wares on show include the familiar, such as water-purifying equipment; the
novel, like an all-in-one raincoat and tent; as well as services, including
satellite communications and insurance. Bruce highlighted Active Engineering's
JakPak, an all-in-one waterproof jacket with "the built-in versatility of a
personal sleeping environment" billed as "a critical new resource for first
responders and disaster victims".

  Sentry Group, a Michigan-based company, introduced a multifunctional enclosed
trailer unit - the Sentry 5000 - capable of providing quickly deployable
electrical power, heating and cooling, communication and lighting as a single,
towable unit. It claims to be able to purify about 13,000 litres of water a day.

  Flood Inhibiting and Defense Organization (FIDO) displayed lightweight,
portable sandless sandbags that can stop intrusive water, activating instantly
on contact, billed as non-toxic and 100 percent biodegradable.

  Security is never far from the minds of NGOs and several exhibitors dealt with
issues ranging from mine clearance to protection from hostile elements, such as
L-3 CyTerra mine-detectors or and Clements International insurance services,
including for political risk and kidnap for ransom.

  Building ties

  At the 2007 fair in Geneva, the London-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), and
UNOSAT, the UN's Operational Satellite Applications Programme, realised that
their respective maps - MAG's showing unexploded ordnance and UNOSAT's showing
the location of water - could be used to establish settlements for displaced
people with sufficient water but away from dangerous areas.

  For Africare, an American-led NGO: "We actually have an opportunity to see what
new products are out there," said J. Margaret Burke, director of management
services, "[and] it gives an opportunity for NGOs to see each other as well as
the vendors."

  Summing up the position of many in the NGO world to possible ethical wariness
over the linkage between businesses and NGOs, Catholic Relief Services said its
presence did not represent an endorsement of the event, other presenters, the
exhibitors, or any of the suppliers.

  "That having been said, humanitarian organizations need supplies," spokesman
John Rivera told IRIN. "We buy lots of supplies locally, i.e. in the countries
where we operate, but we need other materials and seek the most efficient and
cost-effective way of getting what we need to where we need it. We are thankful
to have a vibrant market in the sort of basic materials we need."

  ma/bp/mw

[ENDS]


3 - ISRAEL: Crackdown on illegal migrants and visa violators

TEL AVIV, 14 July (IRIN) - Immigration inspectors have launched an operation
aimed at deporting nearly 300,000 illegal migrants and visa violators, according
to Tziki Sela, head of the enforcement unit at Israel's new Immigration
Authority.

  "We will carry out the deportations with the [maximum] measures of care and
consideration and a humane attitude, but we are serious and we will deport all
illegal migrant workers and visa violators," Sela said.

  The Israel Immigration Authority replaced the Immigration Police on 2 July. Its
200 inspectors have undergone a three-week course and been given full police
authority.

  According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), visa violators are asylum seekers
detained in areas where they were not allowed to reside, or whose visas had
expired.

  Many NGOs and human rights activists voiced their concerns over the new
operation, fearing a repeat of the scenes witnessed in Tel Aviv in 2003-2005
when the Immigration Police conducted a much criticized and often brutal manhunt
aimed at deporting illegal migrant workers.

  At that time, some 145,000 migrants were reportedly deported or left Israel
voluntarily, many of them were from Ghana, the Philippines, China, Romania,
Thailand and some other African countries.

  "The operation will resemble that of 2003-2005 in the aspect that we intend to
do our job; it will take us a long time to detain and deport all illegal
residents, but we will do it," Sela said, adding that his inspectors had already
been subjected to threats and physical attacks by activists and migrants.

  Asylum seekers whose status had not yet been determined and had violated their
permits and migrant workers awaiting deportation would be held in detention
centres, including Ktziot in the southern Negev, where families of asylum
seekers, including infants and children, have been held since July 2007.

  Question of minors

  On 8 June, Israel's Knesset held an urgent meeting of its child welfare
committee to discuss the issue of minors and detention during the new operation.

  Lawmakers Ilan Gilon and Nitzan Horowitz criticized the Immigration Authority's
intention to detain the children of migrant workers and asylum seekers. Horowitz
said those children might not be Jewish but they were Israelis as they had been
born there.

  In 2006, Israel granted legal residency status to more than 600 children of
migrant workers born in Israel out of some 860 requests filed.

  On 12 June, Horowitz initiated a new draft law preventing detention of children
under 14 and restricting detention of minors over 14.

  "We will arrest families with children starting from 1 August. We will not act
within the education or the medical system to detain children or patients, we
give the parents a choice - they are welcome to approach us and we will make
sure that their relocation is done with minimum difficulties; if not we will
have to detain them," Sela explained.

  "We intend to fund plane tickets, help with any debt collection from employers
and supply a small allowance to all those who willingly approach us. So far,
some 50 illegal migrant workers have come forth and asked for our assistance in
returning to their homeland," he said.

  Some say that the recent clampdown on illegal migrants is related to the
economic slowdown and growing unemployment in Israel. According to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Outlook no. 85 -
Israel report issued on 24 June, Israel's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is
expected to contract by 2 percent in 2009 and unemployment rise to 8.5 percent
from 6.1 percent in 2008.

  While immigration inspectors distributed pamphlets calling on the migrant
community to take advantage of the offer, NGOs and activists mobilized to
prevent detentions by patrolling the streets of southern Tel Aviv and warning
migrant workers and asylum seekers about the ongoing operation and holding
weekly demonstrations.

  td/at/mw[ENDS]


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