GLOBAL COOPERATION NEWSLETTERMay 2010
In this edition
2010 Joint World Conference on social work and social development
New book - Global crossroads in social welfare: emergent issues, debates andinnovations across the globe
Civil Society Statement to the 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
The 2010 edition of the African Economic Outlook (AEO)
Has the IMF abandoned neo-liberalism?
Cluster munitions
Black Sea policies
New online directory of civil society organizations
New publications from the World Institute for Development Economics Research(UN WIDER)
2010 Joint World Conference on social work and social development: The Agenda

ICSW, IASSW and IFSW are working together not only on the conference but also on building thesocial work and social development Agenda for the next decade. The action Agenda for social workand social development for the next decade aims to create synergies in civil society to create a
global agenda for people-centred sustainable social development.
ICSW has prepared three policy papers. The briefs are:
The global financial crisis,
The social potection floor initiative, andHuman trafficking
Available from the ICSW website under ‘Coming Global Events’:
http://www.icsw.org/globalev/globalev.htm.
The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) is contributing three papers to The Agenda
process. They are:Service user/consumer involvement and social work,
Poverty eradication: the role of social work, andAgeing and older adults.
Available from: http://www.ifsw.org/p38001915.html.
The International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) has prepared three papers on:
Youth issues and social work,
Disability and mental health, andDisaster interventions.
Available from: http://www.iassw-aiets.org/conrerence_guestbook.php.

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New book - Global crossroads in social welfare: emergent issues, debates andinnovations across the globe
This new volume brings together a cross-section of papers
presented at the 33rd International Council on Social Welfare(ICSW) conference in Tours, France, in July 2008. The
volume provides a window into the conference themes
through original papers by individuals working acrossdisparate national settings as well as commentaries from theeditors. It offers great insight into the multiplicity of waysthat nations and communities are responding to thechallenges of globalisation as well as internal demands forgreater social justice and equality mechanisms for civilsociety. To obtain the book go to www.socialcomparison.org
and click “volumes” or Amazon.
http://www.amazon.de/Global-Crossroads-Social-Welfare
Innovations/dp/3941482777/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=booksintl-de&qid=1274360393&sr=1-1.

The book will also be available to Hong Kong conference participants for half the retail price and will
be on display at the ICSW stand at the conference. For further information contact the editors:
eelieth@yahoo.fr, herrmann@esosc.eu, or vsheen@fastmail.com.au.

Civil Society Statement to the 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
The Commonwealth Foundation is distributing the Port of Spain Civil Society Statement to the 2009
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The statement can be obtained by visiting:
http://www.cfc2010.org/downloads/CPF_2009_Final_Statement.pdf.
The Port of Spain Statement is a powerful document that can help the whole Commonwealth work
toward a more transparent and sustainable future. Further information can be obtained from Marcie
Shaoul, Communications Manager, Commonwealth Foundation: m.shaoul@commonwealth.int.

The 2010 edition of the African Economic Outlook (AEO)The 2010 African Economic Outlook was launched at theAfrican Development Bank’s annual meeting in Abidjan,
Côte d'Ivoire on 24th May 2010. This year’s edition finds thecontinent reeling from the effects of the world’s deepest
and most widespread recession in half a century. Many
countries are at risk of falling far off track to achieving theMillennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty
and hunger by 2015. The good news is that the region has
proved remarkably resilient to the downturn. Average
growth is expected to rebound in 2010 and 2011, although
the recession will leave its mark. The 2010 African
Economic Outlook is online at:
http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/.

Has the IMF abandoned neo-liberalism?

http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/dv/file58920.pdf
In this neat two-pager, Terry McKinley, Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London concludes that: "despite having recently raised expectations about reforms in
its fundamental policy stance, the IMF remains a long way from jettisoning the neoliberal
underpinnings of its governing macroeconomic framework”.

Cluster munitions
Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 2The UK has become the 32nd country to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions (seehttp://www.clusterconvention.org/). The instrument of ratification was deposited at the UN in New
York on 4th May 2010. The treaty will now enter into force for the UK on 1 November 2010.
The Convention is recognised as one of the most significant disarmament treaties of recent years,prohibiting the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions. The Cluster Munitions(Prohibitions) Act 2010 (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2010/ukpga_20100011_en_1) which
received Royal Assent on 25 March 2010, implements the UK's international obligations under thetreaty.

Black Sea policies

Democracy and good governance in the Black Sea Region
The fourth policy report of the Commission on the Black Sea on ’Democracy and Good Governancein the Black Sea Region’ by Franz-Lothar Altmann, Johanna Deimel and Armando Garcia Schmidt has
been released. Available from: http://www.blackseacom.eu/policy-reports/.
The authors assess the quality of the existing democratic institutions and identify common
structures in the political and societal development of the Black Sea region by comparing ten
countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Greece (the consolidated west and south of the region);
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova (the conflict-ridden states); and Russia and Ukraine.
Based on this cross-national comparison the authors present a series of policy recommendations
touching upon state aid and civil society support inter alia.
A 2020 vision for the Black Sea
The Commission has sought in this vision document to promote an inclusive strategy taking into
account the needs, priorities and interests of all stakeholders in four essential areas: peace andsecurity, economic development and welfare, democratic institutions and good governance and,finally, regional cooperation. The Commission has come to an understanding that the region’s futurelies in further democratisation and economic integration with the wider world. On civil society theCommission says: “The involvement of civil society in policy making and their linkages in relation togood governance should be encouraged. Efforts should also be made to facilitate cooperation
between civil society organisations in Black Sea countries including the conflict regions. Businessorganisations such as chambers of commerce, employers’ organisations and trade unions should
also be encouraged to talk to one another in order to find and propose regional solutions forcommon problems”.
The Commission on the Black Sea is a civil society initiative, jointly developed and launched in 2009by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, Gütersloh; the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation (BST GMFUS), Bucharest; the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), Ankara; and theInternational Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS), Athens. Among members of the Commission on
the Black Sea are a former vice prime minister, former ministers, current and formerparliamentarians, public intellectuals and scholars from the whole Black Sea region, the European
Union and the United States.

New online directory of civil society organizations (CSOs)

The UN Civil Society and Outreach Unit have launched a new online directory of civil society
organizations (CSOs). CSOs work in various fields of social development: poverty eradication, social
integration, employment, youth, ageing, health, family, disability, indigenous peoples andcooperatives. The Directory is available online at: http://social.un.org/ngodirectory and will beavailable in a CD-ROM
format soon. For further information contact Mr. Amine Lamrabat at lamrabat@un.org.

New publications from the World Institute for Development Economics Research(UN WIDER)Southern engines of global growth
Edited by Amelia U. Santos-Paulino and Guanghua Wan
http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/books-and-journals/2010/en_GB/Southern-Engines-ofGlobal-Growth/.
The poor under globalization in Asia, Latin America and Africa
Edited by Machiko Nissanke and Erik Thorbecke
http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/books-and-journals/2010/en_GB/poor-under-globalizationasia/.
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World Development Special Issue: Globalization, poverty, and inequality in Latin America(forthcoming)
Guest Editors: Machiko Nissanke and Erik Thorbeck
http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/books-and-journals/2010/en_GB/wd38_6/.
WIDER Working Papers
Urbanization and the South Asian enigma: a case study of India
Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis and K. S. Jameshttp://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/working-papers/2010/en_GB/wp2010-37/.
The (evolving) role of agriculture in poverty reduction: an empirical perspective
Luc Christiaensen, Lionel Demery, and Jesper Kuhl
http://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp2010-36.html.
Drivers of poverty reduction in lagging regions: evidence from rural Western China
Luc Christiaensen, Lei Pan, and Sangui Wang
http://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp2010-35.html.
A model of destructive entrepreneurship
Sameeksha Desai, Zoltan Acs, and Utz Weitzel
http://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp2010-34.html.
UNU Policy Briefs
Linking globalization to poverty in Asia, Latin America and Africa
Machiko Nissanke and Erik Thorbecke
http://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/pb2010-03.html.
Promoting entrepreneurship in developing countries: policy challenges
Wim Naudé
http://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/pb2010-04.html.
Information on all of WIDER's publications is available the WIDER website:
http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/.
The content of this Global Newsletter may be freely reproduced or cited provided the source isacknowledged. Views do not necessarily represent policies of ICSW.
Newsletter Editor: Denys Correll, Executive Director.
ICSW C/- MOVISIE Netherlands Centre for Social Development
PO Box 19129
3501 DC Utrecht
Netherlands
Website www.icsw.org Email: icsw@icsw.org
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