Global Cooperation May 2007

In this issue
African Civil Society Forum
Civil society on Commonwealth Foundation Website
Employment and Decent Work for All
New Publications
Coming Events
African Civil Society ForumThe theme of the meeting held in Addis Ababa was Democratizing Governance at
Regional and Global Levels to Achieve the MDGs
ICSW participated in the forum held in March 2007 that brought together 250
participants representing 150 NGO and civil society organisations from 32 countries ofthe five African Regions.
The forum was convened by the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with
the United Nations (CONGO) together with the African Women’s Development andCommunication Network (FEMNET)
This meeting was made possible with contributions from the Swiss Agency for
Development and Cooperation (SDC), the UN Economic Commission for African(UNECA), the African Union (AU) and the International Organisation of theFrancophony (OIF).
The forum aimed to establish an independent space for African civil society to have alarger voice at both regional and global levels. The forum was organized to develop aframework for African civil society to formulate and advance their advocacy strategies atnational, regional and global levels.
Discussion centered on:
MDGs• Participants spoke of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from a rightsbased approach including gender equality and employment (decent work) issues.
• There was general agreement that with the current trend, the MDG targets will not be
met. To improve the chances of meeting the targets the forum urged participants toseek a deeper engagement and partnership with their governments and international
institutions at regional and global levels.

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Democratizing Governance
The forum participants stressed the relevance of good governance and the participation ofcivil society as prerequisites for sustained progress in the achievement of the MDGs. The
overarching theme of global governance was addressed through three thematic lenses:
Peace and Security; Governance and Human Rights; Development, Trade and Finance.
UN Reform
The forum considered the Secretary General’s report In larger freedom. The report gives
equal weight and value to peace, development and human rights issues. Delegates
acknowledged the role of civil society in the reform process. Delegates registered theirappreciation of the new impetus and support for civil society engagement coming fromthe United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
GenderOn gender, participants recognized that a gender perspective and gender equality havenot fully been mainstreamed into previous civil society gatherings. The forum expressedcommitment to the development of a coherent policy of gender mainstreaming which isinter-generational and which impacts on advocacy policies and strategies.
Youth
Delegates acknowledged youth as agents of social and political transformation. Theystrongly encouraged and supported their participation at all levels.
Strengthening Civil Society and Self-assessment
Civil society organisations saw the need to put their houses in order, both at the collective
and individual levels. This is necessary if civil society is to have a critical role inprocesses that further peace, development and human rights issues.
Outcomes
A major outcome of the African Civil Society Forum 2006 was consensus oncontinuation of the forum so Africa is permanently on the international agenda. This
recommendation was endorsed by the organisers as well as the support agencies. For
ICSW, this means that there is an opportunity for renewed engagement each year withdelegates from all over Africa. ICSW could therefore use this opportunity to: further
ICSW advocacy campaigns by planning side events at this meeting in consultation with
CONGO; contribute by adding ICSW African membership voices to the international
agenda by working with CONGO at the yearly event; use the opportunity to strengthen
and further discussion with regional and continental blocks such as AU, UNECA, UNHR,
and other regional offices based in Addis Ababa.
Civil society on Commonwealth Foundation Website.
The Commonwealth Foundation has launched a new area on its website to better present
the 80 Commonwealth Associations (civil society organisations) including ICSW that arerecognised by the Foundation.
Each association is assigned to one of the three Programme areas of the Foundation,
Governance and Democracy, Sustainable Development and Culture and Diversity.
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/about/CA/.

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Commission for Social Development, 45th Session - Chairman’s Summary on Full
Employment and Decent Work for All
The following are some messages drawn for the Chairman’s Summary• “Full and productive employment and decent work for all are key elements ofsustainable development.”• “Globalization has both positive and negative affects.”• “The challenges of achieving full employment and decent work require acomprehensive approach at the national and international levels”.
• “Creating an enabling environment, based on an integrated and coherent set ofpolicies at the national and international levels is essential.”• “Work alone is not enough to provide a decent living”• “. . . economic growth alone does not automatically lead to the creation of jobs.”• “Macroeconomic policy is an important instrument for employment generation anddevelopment, and full employment and decent work should be given a more
prominent role in macroeconomic policy and not treated as peripheral or residual
objectives.”• “Monetary policies of central banks can contribute to employment generation,
principally through exchange rate, interest rate and credit policies.”• Structural conditions have a strong impact on the prospect of employment generationin an economy.”• “…there is a need for capacity building of ministries and institution that are directly
responsible for designing and implementing comprehensive social and employment
policies.”• “In a world where goods and large sums of money are freely moving across border,
people should be able to move too; . . . ”
The ICSW submission on Full Employment and Decent Work for All
placed emphasis on the “decent work” part of the theme. ICSW drew attention to
many examples of “indecent work” Sadly the Chairman failed to recognise that workcanbeindecent.
The
Chairman’s
Summaryisat(http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/csd/csocd2007/Documents/ChairSumm_FEDW.pdf
The ICSW submission is at http://www.icsw.org/whatsnew.htm
New Publications
Why Is Africa Constrained from Spending ODA?
Drawing on the research of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) own Independent
Evaluation Office, the author reports in this One Pager on “Why Is Africa Constrained
from Spending ODA?”, The author concluded that the IMF concerns about safeguarding
macroeconomic stability in Africa prevented governments from spending over 70 per
cent of the Official Development Assistance that they received during 1999-2005.
Available online at: http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCOnePager34.pdf
Absolute poverty measures for the developing world, 1981-2004
New World Bank publication by Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion of theDevelopment Research Group. WB Policy Research Working Paper 4211, April
2007.
The authors report new estimates of measures of absolute poverty for thedeveloping world over 1981-2004. A clear trend decline in the percentage of people whoare absolutely poor is evident, although with uneven progress across regions.
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They find more mixed success in reducing the total number of poor. Indeed, thedeveloping world outside China has seen little or no sustained progress in reducing thenumber of poor, with rising poverty counts in some regions, notably Sub-Saharan Africa.
Available online (24pp) http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4211&r=ltv
New from UNRISD
The Rise and Development of the Global Debt Movement: A North-South Dialogue
For decades, the debt issue has remained a front-runner—or perhaps even the frontrunner—on the agendas of civil society organizations and movements throughout theworld.
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BF3C2/setLanguageCookie?OpenAgent&langcode=en&url=/80256B3C005BCCF9/search/2A35FE558DCA39A0C12572C9002F6D79?Op
enDocument
Political Space for Non-Governmental Organizations in United Nations World Summit
Processes
World conferences and summits held under the auspices of the United Nations haveprovided a new political space for involvement of non-governmental organizations.
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BF3C2/setLanguageCookie?OpenAgent&langcode=en&url=/80256B3C005BCCF9/search/119D7568A3373C47C12572C900444EFF?OpenDocumentThis is just a sample of new publications from UNRISD. There a many new papers on
water supply including country specific papers on Malaysia, Great Britain, Hungary,France and Colombia. There is a report on 10 Years after Beijing; Political and Social
Economy of Care; Gender Equality in Arabic, Chinese and English. All UN ResearchInstitute for Social Development publications can be found at http://www.unrisd.org/.

Coming events
ICSW Europe: European Region conference: Equal opportunities for individuals,
groups and nations 14th to 16th June 2007, Vilnius University (Universiteto Street N 9/1,
Vilnius, Lithuania):
http://www.fsf.vu.lt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=853&Itemid=1273.
Editor: Denys Correll. Contributor: Roselyn Nakirya Programme Coordinator Africa
Website: www.icsw.org
Email icsw@icsw.org
International Council on Social Welfare
C/O MOVISIE Netherlands Centre for Social Development
P.O. Box 19129 DC Utrecht
The Netherlands
If you do not wish to receive this publication please email icsw@icsw.org and put
Unsubscribe GC Newsletter in the subject line

4Global Cooperation June 2007

In this issue
UN University
Transnational Institute (TNI)
Electronic access to journals on social work and social policy
Exchange rate imbalances – impact on developing countries
ODA and Africa
IMF and Aid
Medicines in developing countries
Social protection in healthUN coherence
NGO accountability
Madrid expert seminar
In this issue ICSW will introduce you to two important international organisations.
United Nations University Comparative Regional Integrations Studies
http://www.cris.unu.edu
The United Nations University Comparative Regional Integrations Studies (UNCRIS) is
located in Bruges, Belgium. It is a research and training programme of the United
Nations University that is driven by the following questions:
Question 1:
What is happening in the world - Past, present and future - with regard toregional integration processes?
Question 2:
What governance structures are emerging through regional integration?
Question 3:
How can regional integration contribute to peace and human security in theframework of the UN?
Question 4:
How can regional integration contribute to the development of Least
Developed Countries?
Question 5:
How do people and societies deal with regional integration?
Right click on the Questions to get more information

Transnational Institute (TNI)
http://www.tni.org (website in English and Spanish). Founded in 1974, the Transnational
Institute (TNI) is an international network of activist-scholars committed to criticalanalyses of global problems. The TNI aims to provide intellectual support to the moves tohave a world that is democratic, equitable and environmentally sustainable.
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TNI seeks to create and promote international co-operation in analysing and finding
possible solutions to global problems including militarism and conflict, poverty andmarginalisation, social injustice and environmental degradation.
TNI engages in research, policy advocacy and civil society networking activities.
* The Alternative Regionalisms programme addresses the question of alternative
development from the perspective of social movements and regional coalitions of civilsociety organisations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It facilitates cross-regional
exchanges on a South-South and South-North basis through a series of People’s
Dialogues.
* The Drugs and Democracy programme analyses global trends in drugs policy. It
promotes a pragmatic approach to tackling illegal drugs based on harm reduction
principles. Its work on drugs and conflict in the Andean/Amazon region, Afghanistan andBurma forges connections between illicit drugs and wider issues of demilitarisation,
democratisation, public health promotion and poverty reduction. These are then reflected
in attempts to influence the policy debate at UN and regional decision-making levels.
* The New Politics programme engages with innovations by social movements,
progressive political parties and governments worldwide. It stimulates new thinking andpolicy in participatory democracy, political organisation, urban governance and rural
democratisation.
* The Environmental Justice project monitors negative impacts of pollution trading uponenvironmental, social & economic justice. It works to develop community-led responses.
* The Militarism and Globalisation project analyses the changing global frameworks formilitary intervention and the spread of new security infrastructures. It focuses on defence
industrial reorganisation and the accountability of foreign military bases.
* The Water Justice project promotes participatory, public sector water as the most viablemeans to achieve the goal of water for all. It facilitates the creation of new regional andglobal networks to promote public-public co-operation in the water sector. TNI also
publishes a Public Services yearbook on the impact of privatisation and experiences ofpublic sector reform globally.
The TNI is based in Amsterdam The Netherlands
Quick response needed if you are interested in social work and social policy.
Sage Publications are offering free online access to all Social Work and Social Policy
journals until June 30th 2007.
Journals include: International Social Work; Journal of Social Work;
Qualitative Social Work; Affilia; Research in Social Work Practice; Critical Social
Policy; Journal of European Social Policy; Global Social Policy.
To access the journals, https://online.sagepub.com/cgi/register?registration=FT71926

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Correcting Global Imbalances with Exchange Rate Realignment? No thanks! – One
Pager Using a new World Macroeconomic Model, the three authors, Francis Cripps,
Alex Izurieta and Terry McKinley, examine the projected impact of exchange-rate
realignments on current huge global imbalances. Specifically, they examine scenarios
based on continuing depreciation of the U.S. dollar and appreciation of the currencies ofChina and other Asia countries. They conclude that such realignments have a ‘beggarthy-neighbour’ impact, benefiting mostly the United States and worsening the growthprospects of developing countries. This One Pager is an output from IPC’s ongoing
research programme, The State of the World Economy. Available online
at: http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCOnePager38.pdf
Using ODA to Accumulate Foreign Reserves in Sub-Saharan Africa? – One Pager
Costas Lapavitas argues in this One Pager that the current practice of sub-SaharanAfrican countries of using Official Development Assistance (ODA) for excessive reserve
accumulation acts as a substantial barrier to attaining the MDGs. Drawing on an
evaluation by the International Monetary Fund Independent Evaluation Office, the author
notes that ODA should be used, instead, for its intended purpose, namely, importing real
resources into the economy and boosting economic growth and development. A major
reason that developing countries have stockpiled reserves is that they have liberalized thecapital account instead of managing it. This One Pager continues the debate on ODA andMacroeconomic Policies initiated by One Pagers #34 and #35.
Available online at: http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCOnePager37.pdf
The IMF and Constraints on Spending Aid – One Pager by David GoldsbroughA recent report by the Independent Evaluation Office of the IMF suggests that the IMF isconstraining the spending of aid in Africa. The author disputes the suggestions that suchspending limits are due to IMF’s excessively low inflation targets (see One Pager 34).
The reason, according to the author, lies in the often unwarranted implicit assumptions
the IMF makes about how the real economy will respond to changes in fiscal deficits andpublic spending.
Available online at: http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCOnePager35.pdf
Better Forecasts of Demand for Medicines in Developing Countries Could Save
Millions of Dollars--and Lives
From Center for Global Development (CGD) Update 30th May 2007
(Right click for hyperlink or http://www.cgdev.org/content/article/detail/13788/
Rich countries and private philanthropies spend billions of dollars every year to buy
medicines for poor people in developing countries but the lack of reliable demand
forecasts creates shortages and raises prices. CGD is proposing a practical new solution: aneutral third party--neither buyer nor seller--to aggregate information on anticipateddemand and use it to produce reliable forecasts. Developing countries, pharmaceuticalcompanies, and public-private health partnerships are urging that the proposal be
implemented.
Extending Social Protection in Health
The International Labour Office, GTZ (The German international cooperation enterprisefor sustainable development) and WHO have released the publication Extending Social
Protection in Health. http://www2.gtz.de/dokumente/bib/07-0378.pdf
7It is a challenge to every country and government to provide social protection systems inhealth which adequately respond to the needs of citizens while keeping within the boundsof available resources. Resource-poor nations are in a particularly difficult situation.
Their scarce resources have to be shared among many priority areas of development.
Health is the area where the needs are greatest. The problems are exacerbated by highpopulation growth rates and epidemics such as AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Many
countries, along with their development partners, have worked on different national orregional models of sustainable health care financing.
UN Coherence
Newsbrief from FES New York, No. 4/2007, 30th May, 2007
In May a group of representatives from civil society organizations met with the new UN
Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro (Tanzania) to discuss therecommendations of the “High Level Panel on UN System-Wide Coherence”. NGOs
called for an early implementation of the panel’s proposal to strengthen and restructure
the gender architecture of the United Nations into one single entity led by an UnderSecretary-General. Others cautioned against a “one size fits all” approach to development
and voiced the concern that the UN might be moving away from its norm-setting
role. More information on the Coherence Panel follow-up process is available at the UNNGLS website: www.un-ngls.org
NGO Accountability
The One World Trust has an interesting article by Monica Blagescu in its May 2007
edition. The title of the article is Shifting the focus: what is the role of grantmakers inenabling NGO accountability?
In the article Monica states: “Recently we have witnessed attempts to build a case against
NGOs, suggesting that they are undermining national sovereignty and democracy andhave no relationship to any real public”. The article can be found at
http://www.oneworldtrust.org/?display=accnewsmay07
International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) - European Region – International
Expert Seminar on Social investment and social protection as productive factors
The role of decent work and social integration for an economically successful andsocially cohesive society
Madrid (Spain), 5th to 7th October 2007
Hosted by the Comité Espagñol para el Bienestar Social (CEBS) secretaria@cebs-es.org
Editor: Denys Correll
Email icsw@icsw.org
Website: www.icsw.org
International Council on Social Welfare
C/O MOVISIE Netherlands Centre for Social Development
P.O. Box 19129 DC Utrecht
The Netherlands
If you do not wish to receive this publication please email icsw@icsw.org and put
Unsubscribe GC Newsletter in the subject line8