The Third Global Congress of Women in Politics and Governance will be held on October 19-22, 2008 at the Dusit Hotel, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines.  The theme of the congress is “Gender and Climate Change”.

Invited to this congress are women parliamentarians, women in decision - making and governance, environment organizations, youth Leaders and Media Practitioners
The overall purpose of the congress is to provide a forum for women legislators, and women in decision making and environment organizations at all levels, in formulating gender-responsive legislation and policies.

For more information: http://www.capwip.org

How have Asian countries been developing their National Sustainable Development Strategies? How has the environment fitted into the socio-economic development strategies? How far have Aisan governments gone to mainstream environmental issues into their practices and plans? What institutional mechanisms are in place to this effect? Can some lessons be learnt form the Asian organisations?

This conference will highlight the challenges and experiences of selected Asian countries in pursuing sustainable development.

Contact Moira Molina: Aidco-InfoPoint-Conferences@ec.europa.eu

The parliament of Brussels is inviting citizens to participate in the Citizens' Agora on climate change which will take place on 12 an 13 June 2008 in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Following the results of the recent World Climate Conference (Bali 2007), and pending the next global summits on the topic (Poznán in late 2008 and Copenhagen in late 2009), the European Union intends to use the whole of this year to look closely at all its policies in this field: energy, transport, agriculture, trade, the environments, development, social policy, research, eructation industry, etc.
The European Parliament is inviting European civil society to express its views freely and frankly on this crucial matter and to put forward its analyses and proposals, while also defining its own role in what is to be done.
All the relevant information is available on the following websites:
• FR: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/comparl/agora/agora_participation_fr.htm
• EN: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/comparl/agora/agora_participation_en.htm

“In the school of the world – learning from one another – shaping the global future”

FORUM Preseident Cliff Allum will be attending the 2008 Katholikentag conference in Germany on the 24th May. He will be taking part in the panel discussion “In the school of the world” organised by the Association for Development Cooperation (AGEH) and the Malteser Hilfsdienst, the Emergency Corps of the German Association of the Order of Malta (MHD) for the occasion of the Katholikentag 2008.

Content:
The globalisation of our world is a reality. Markets and communications have long since encompassed the globe, yet this is not the case for knowledge and understanding of different cultures. Foreignness continues to be more likely to provoke fear and exclusion than it does curiosity or openness to mutual approach.

There is no question that globalisation must be viewed as more than simply an economic reality. Of at least equal importance are intercultural exchange, joint learning and understanding, and consciously dealing with other value systems with a view towards mutual enrichment.

Successful personal encounters are a prerequisite for this development, and these encounters have long since become reality. Travels to foreign countries have become a regular occurrence, while companies offer their employees opportunities to work abroad, and specialists working for developmental organisations spend years living and working in their target nations. Young people seek such encounters by serving in volunteer organisations.

This panel discussion offers an opportunity to explore ways in which global learning can be successfully realised from a number of different perspectives. The following key questions will serve as the framework:

• What are the conditions for global learning and for intercultural dialogue and exchange?
• What are the experiences of people who engage in such learning processes?
• How do these experiences affect their subsequent lives – after returning to their home countries from abroad, for example?
• What is the relevance of personal experiences and learning processes for civil society, and what (political) framework conditions are necessary in order that these experiences can play a role in society?
• What are the limits to which global learning is subject?
• What ways are there to render a wealth of individual learning experiences useful for shaping a shared and sustainable global future?

The Strategic Framework on Climate Change and Development will articulate the Bank Group's vision on how to integrate climate change and development challenges without compromising growth and poverty reduction efforts.

This Framework will guide its global efforts as well as country operations, including policy dialogue, lending and analytical work.

Further information is available at www.worldbank.org/climateconsult

Stephen Lintner who heads the World Bank Group's safeguard policy will be in Sydney on 16 May and would appreciate meeting with members as part of the consultation process. The roundtable meeting will be held from 2.00pm on 16 May.

Would you please email Melissa Trethowan at mtrethowan@acfid.asn.au if you would like to attend.

It gives development organisations access to a broader pool of knowledge and resources to enhance their capacities, while it offers individuals worldwide additional opportunities to volunteer for development and contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

The OV service has enabled more than 900 non-profit development organisations (CSOs, government institutions, academic institutions, United Nations organisations) to benefit from the support of more than 9,500 individuals from 172 countries (60% women, 40% from developing countries in 2006) who:

• Provide technical expertise (e.g. advice on waste disposal, contract drafting)
• Support project and resources management (e.g. project planning, volunteers management)
• Contribute to knowledge management (e.g. data collection, database development)
• Facilitate communication and networking (e.g. newsletters production and translation, moderation of online discussion groups)

If you are interested in using online volunteers by posting an assignment, your first stop should be UNV's Online Volunteering service at www.onlinevolunteering.org

Newly published by youth volunteering promotion body v, ‘Innovations in International Youth Volunteering’ looks at lessons from youth-led volunteering around the world. Accompanying case studies demonstrate that empowering young people, across the spectrum, is the most important factor for innovation.

Click here for report. Click here for case studies.

FORUM member Focsiv have published a book that recounts the last 35 years of the Federation. Written by Sergio Marelli, director general of Focsiv and President of the Association of Italian NGOs, and Paul Lambrusco, a journalist of "Avvenire" and published by the North South series of Edizioni Paoline.

This book reconstructs a story that is not only that of Focsiv, but the story of a journey of policy awareness, which recognises in solidarity and international cooperation the high road to cultural integration and peace in the world.

Last year, more than 43 million people all over the world stood up and spoke out sending a clear and powerful message to governments: Keep your promises to end poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

This year we are inviting you to Stand Up and Take Action, to be a part of the growing global movement determined to stamp out poverty and inequality.

The scope of actions is broad and depends on what is relevant for each national or local context. Whether by a signed petition, a text message campaign, phone calls to local government representatives, face to face meetings with parliamentarians, local and national leaders - What's most important is that we Stand Up and take Action to make our demands heard loud and clear.

We will once again be aiming to break the world record for the most number of people to Stand Up Against Poverty. But even more importantly, you will be building on the momentum created over the last two years, a momentum which has already contributed to real progress. Thank you for all you have done to make Stand Up a strong movement and powerful force in the fight to end poverty and see the Millennium Goals achieved and exceeded. Let's resolve to make Stand Up and Take Action even more impactful in 2008.

Keep watching www.StandAgainstPoverty.org for information and updates!

New European member states are struggling to meet EU standards on development policy, says Simon Lightfoot. Click here for article.

Responding to Joni Hillman’s article published on the BOND website in March, Mary Ann Mhina argues that greater honesty is required about the complexities and impacts of development work. Click here for article.

Simon Maxwell explores how business and NGOs must work together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Click here for article.

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) - the world’s largest anti-poverty civil society alliance – brings campaigners together across more than 100 national coalitions and platforms.

United by the symbol of a white band, this year’s mobilisation is well underway with tens of millions of people set to take action against poverty as part of GCAP. Building on the growing movement - which reached 43.7 million people taking action on 17 October last year - the main focus is on holding political leaders to account for eradicating poverty and inequality.

From a gender equality focus on International Women’s Day back in March, a further series of key dates will see the global mobilisation calling for trade justice, debt cancellation, aid effectiveness, good governance and action by governments on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). At the European level, May sees a focus on more and better aid in the EU, and GCAP will play a key role ahead of and around the G8 Summit in Japan.

A peak period of mobilisation will happen across the world with 50 global days of action against poverty and inequality from 1 September to 20 October.

To mark the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights on 10 December, the alliance is also supporting and campaigning around the issue of freedom from poverty as a human right.

A diverse range of online and off-line public actions are taking place throughout the year on political opportunities and key dates including the Global Action Week of the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) (21-27 April), International Youth Day (12 August) and World Day for Decent Work (7 October). 

Strengthening political engagement and linking mobilisation more strongly with opportunities for policy change is a key part of this year’s strategy.

As in 2006 and 2007, GCAP is a partner with the United Nations Millennium Campaign on the Stand Up and Take Action mass citizen action happening internationally from 17-19 October. This will mark International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. In the last two annual events close to seventy million people called on governments to meet and exceed the MDG poverty targets.

A new initiative for GCAP in 2008 is participation in the Every Human Has Rights Campaign which is supported by Council of Elders comprised of leading world figures like Nelson Mandela, Bishop Tutu and Mary Robinson (www.everyhumanhasrights.org).  The core global messaging will be around freedom from poverty as a human right. Supporters will be offered a window to tell their personal stories via a bespoke Google Earth layer on Human Rights, sign the pledge online or in person, and get involved in human rights issues from a poverty perspective.

For more information click here

Civil society actors from the European neighbourhood gathered in Slovenia on 2 April 2008, for an ECAS/CNVOS conference on giving a stronger voice to civil society in the European neighbourhood, hosted by the Slovenian Presidency of the EU.

An NGO roundtable the day before allowed civil society representatives from countries to the east of the EU’s border and the Western Balkans to share findings from a questionnaire that had been disseminated around NGOs in each country. Presentations generally showed that civil society has rarely been consulted during negotiations on EU agreements. There were however also reports of promising developments in several countries, such as Croatia, where the government is actively engaged in improving relations with civil society.

The main conference programme included speakers from EU institutions, national authorities and civil society organisations from all over the region. Topics ranged from the role of the EU in promoting civil society development in its neighbourhood, including the Western Balkans, to involving civil society in the “aid effectiveness” agenda. Working group sessions split participants into groups discussing the Western Balkans and Turkey, and eastern European ENP (European Neighbourhood Policy) partner countries and Russia.

The conference produced the “Ljubljana Declaration”, a text based on findings from the ECAS country reports and fine-tuned during the conference. The declaration calls on EU institutions and national governments to listen to civil society, develop a long-term strategy for its sustainability and put the partnership principle into practice – treating civil society actors as partners rather than beneficiaries. The declaration also asks for the capacity of small organisations to be strengthened and a supportive environment for NGO sustainability to be created.

When the merger process is complete, CUSO and VSO Canada will become one entity in Canada, and will be the North American member of the international VSO Federation. The Federation’s secretariat and headquarters are in London, England, and the members organizations are based in the Philippines, Kenya, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Canada. Organisations in Ireland and India are expected to join the VSO Federation shortly.

The new, merged North American organization will be called CUSO-VSO. It will continue the work that both CUSO and VSO Canada have been doing for many years. That work aims to fight poverty and promote social justice, by mobilising human and financial resources through volunteer recruitment, program development, public engagement and related activities.

CUSO-VSO will also continue to be an active partner with other Canadian volunteer cooperation agencies in all the joint initiatives we are undertaking together.

"We believe this merger offers great opportunities for all involved to broaden the scope of our work, increase its effectiveness and achieve greater impact." said Mary Stuart Executive, Director VSO Canada and Jean-Marc Mangin, Executive Director, CUSO.

The involvement of a diverse range of actors in international institutions and national governments is
now considered essential for action on global priorities. In 1997, under Kofi Anan’s leadership, the United Nations launched a broad programme of institutional change and reform, a key part of which was intended to engage non-state actors into the UN system on all levels. The Cardoso Panel report published in 2005 again stressed that the UN should become a more ‘externally-orientated organisation’, stating that ‘constructively engaging civil society is a necessity for the United Nations, not an option. The engagement is essential to enable the Organisations to better identify global priorities and to mobilise all resources to deal with the task at hand’.

The various UN bodies have responded to the call to become more ‘externally orientated’ in different measures. Most obviously, CSOs are now able to attend General Council meetings and operational partnerships between NGOs and UN bodies are becoming more established. There has also been a marked increase in more ad-hoc and innovative processes whereby members of civil society seek to engage in the UN system. These include multistakeholder dialogues, internet -based consultations, and local and regional NGO hearings. Examples range from the UNCTAD hearings with civil society, private sector and academia, to the multistakeholder dialogues at the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), to the private sector consultations for the Global Compact.

The new UN/CSO forums illustrate a more concerted effort to involve non-state actors into UN decisionmaking processes. However the quality and the procedure of the forums varies considerably across the board. In the best cases, the more innovative processes have enhanced the quality of decision making, increased ownership of decisions, improved accountability and transparency of the process and enriched the final outcome through a variety of views and experiences. In the least successful cases, such processes have hampered the intergovernmental
search for common ground and excluded groups from the forum. In addition, due to the number of different processes emerging, each with their own distinct set of procedures, there is a
danger that the interface between the UN and civil society is becoming confusing and unproductive.

Stakeholder Forum maintains that there are key components of any engagement process that can enhance its quality, and ensure that CSOs are adequately consulted and informed throughout the process. The Ford Foundation has commissioned the Stakeholder Empowerment project, an eighteen month review of civil society engagement in the UN system. The project will identify the most innovative and participatory mechanisms by which CSOs have been included in UN decision making. The research will focus on three areas of engagement; information sharing, policy recommendations, and policy making. Through a detailed analysis of a number of case studies and extensive consultation with participants and facilitators, the project will develop a set of good
practice guidelines.

The UN Secretary General is requested by the UN General Assembly to submit to its 63rd session beginning September 2008 a report on the status of Follow-up to the International Year of Volunteers (IYV) 2001 including proposals for marking IYV+10 in 2011. A one-day consultative meeting at the Geneva Headquarters of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) was organised on the 13 December 2007 by the IFRC and UNV for a representative group of stakeholders in volunteerism (largely network organisations with extensive outreach both regional and international) to discuss options for drawing up the UN Secretary General’s report. Participants were drawn from civil society, private sector, the research community and the United Nations system. UNV, as the focal point in the United Nations for IYV and its follow-up, would undertake parallel consultations with Governments and the UN system.

Click here to read a full report of this consultation.

On 3 March, Cliff Allum was invited to work with Austrian Agency Horizont3000 and German Agency AGEH through the Trialog project to act as a resource person for organisations in the New Member States of the EU who are interested in establishing international volunter programmes. Cliff made a presentation at day one of the week long study tour at AGEH's headquarters in Koln, Germany. He focused on models of international volunteering across the world, identifying the different ways in which a programme could be established.

Cliff commented: "It is really important, in the spirit of international volunteering, that we share our experience of working in this area for many years in the hope that it will assist these emergent programmes, while also learning about the challenges they face in strating a programme from scratch with little or no resources."

Those on the study tour included people involved with governmental and non-governmental organisations from countries such as Poland, Lativa, Lithuania, Cyprus, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Click here to view an article on the visit.

Click here to view presentations from the visit.

Andrew Scott outlines five broad areas of concern .

Carbon offsetting cancels out or neutralises the emission of greenhouse gases in one place through the avoidance or reduction of emissions somewhere else.  Offsets can be generated by activities such as energy efficiency, renewable energy and forestry projects.  The exchange is mediated through a market mechanism, the carbon market, with the sale and purchase of emission reductions in units of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).

Read the full article

BOND working group, UK Water Network, believes that immediate action must be taken.

This is an important year for the world's poor. The United Nations has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation, and throughout it End Water Poverty campaign will be highlighting, and working hard to change, the scandalous fact that over 2.6 billion people - 40% of the world's population - do not have a safe, clean or private place to go to the toilet.

Sanitation is in crisis. There is compelling evidence that sanitation brings the greatest returns on investment of any development intervention (roughly US$9 for every US$1 spent). Yet it remains one of the most neglected and off-track of the UN Millennium Development Goal targets (agreed by all world governments to halve poverty by 2015).

Read the full article

NGOs need to be more effective - and to show that we are, writes BOND's Joni Hillman

Pressure from donors, beneficiaries, the public, media and other stakeholders - are compelling organisations to ask themselves some difficult questions.

With an independent scrutiny body for charities being proposed and rumours of standards being imposed by donors, the external pressures on the sector to improve its effectiveness are mounting.

Read the full article

The habitual quandaries of ineffective aid modalities in Sierra Leone have historically been a cause of great concern. Indeed, “old habits die hard,” but as a new report written by the European Network for Debt and Development (Eurodad) and Sierra Leone’s Campaign for Good Governance points out, these habits must certainly be laid to rest.

The report, entitled “Old Habits die hard: Aid and accountability in Sierra Leone,” is a revealing piece that analyses the quantity and quality of aid to Sierra Leone and the progress that has been made to make it more effective for addressing poverty reduction in the country.

The study finds that serious gaps in donor and government transparency and only piece-meal progress by donors in implementing the Paris Declaration are hindering the potential of aid to address the many needs of Sierra Leoneans. As Thomas Johnny, Policy Research Manager for ActionAid Sierra Leone points out, “for aid to be accountable it is interesting to know all the information about the aid that is coming in and for what purpose.”

Eurodad and CGG make a number of recommendations to various stakeholders relevant to aid effectiveness. These include radically reducing the number and scope of conditions that donors attach to budget support, as well as improving transparency and funding predictability. The Sierra Leonean Government is also called upon to improve their negotiating standards with donors and recognise the crucial role of civil society organisations in the policy process. Recommendations for civil society include improving networking, organisation levels and communication channels.

The research was based on literature review and interviews carried out in Sierra Leone in September 2007. Moreover, it is part of a series of seven aid effectiveness case studies that will contribute to a headline report to be launched by Eurodad in March 2008.

Click here to read the report.

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