GLOBAL COOPERATION NEWSLETTER
July 2009
In this edition

Civil society meets on development effectiveness
UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis
DfID White Paper
News from West Africa
Response to article in June Global Cooperation
UNRISD Research and Publications
Civil society meets on Development Effectiveness Prague, June 2009.
In the Paris Declaration (2005) governments and donors made commitments to increasing
aid effectiveness. The Paris Declaration became an important document which frames somecritical challenges to existing models of development cooperation and sets out principles toaddress them. For the past few years, civil society organisations (CSOs), donors,
governments and other development actors have been discussing and monitoring progressin implementing the Paris Declaration. Donors and governments have raised the question ofwhether the principles of the Paris Declaration can also be applied to civil society
organisations.
In the period preceding the Third High Level Forum in Accra (September 2008), CSOs
agreed that the Paris Declaration is relevant, but not applicable to CSOs for three main
reasons:
 It does not reflect CSO priorities and the many diverse roles of CSOs indevelopment.
 CSOs were not involved in negotiations and thus ownership was not
ensured.
 CSOs want to measure themselves against “development effectiveness”
and not “aid effectiveness”.
The Czech NGDO Platform FoRS, Czech Forum for Development Cooperation chose thetopic CSO Development Effectiveness for their programme during the Czech Presidency of
the EU. (First half of 2009). 170 CSO representatives from Europe, Africa and othercontinents met to discuss effectiveness principles.
Mr. Charles Abbey, Executive Director of African Development Programme (ADP) andICSW Vice President participated in the conference.
In the conference proclamation the conference participants concurred that the added
value of the CSOs in development cooperation is, among others, based on four particular
aspects:
1. Access and commitment to use grassroots knowledge of local conditions, contexts andmotivations
2. Sensibility to human rights, understanding and empathy
3. Genuine partnership based on common vision and interests
4. Diversity of actors in terms of legal status, size, experiences or roles.
The conference statement is at http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/statement.pdf.
Presentations are at http://www.fors.cz/en/eu_presidency/seminars_conferences.
During the conference the Swedish International Development Agency representative Ms.
Camilla Lindstrom presented SIDA’s New Policy for Civil Society which included:
 Capacity development is an important aspect of all support (guided by theorganisation’s own priorities).
Global Cooperation Newsletter
Page 1Support development of a favourable environment for civil society in terms of
institutional, legal, political and administrative work.
 Support to CSOs should follow established principles on aid effectiveness such as
local ownership, core support and increased harmonisation with other donors.
http://www.dev-practitioners.eu/thematic-groups/civil-society-development.html

UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis

There has been limited or critical reporting of the UN Conference. The President of the UN
Assembly said that the summit was a success as it agreed on a G-192 document. Finding
a consensus agreeable to all countries inevitably involves compromise. The outcomes
which you can access (see below) are much more comprehensive than the limited
statements that came out of the G8 and G20 meetings.
UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis
http://www.un.org/ga/econcrisissummit/
Outcome document in all UN languages
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/CONF.214/3&Lang=E
Draft of the Stiglitz Commission Report
http://www.un.org/ga/president/63/interactive/financialcrisis/PreliminaryRe
port210509.pdf

DfID White Paper

The UK Government on 6th July 2009 launched its latest White Paper on International
Development. Alison Evans Director, Overseas Development Institute (ODI) commented
that three critical themes were apparent (Extracts follow. The full text can be read at
http://blogs.odi.org.uk/blogs/main/archive/2009/07/06/dfid_white_paper_poverty_reduction.aspx)
The first is interdependence; the acknowledgement that the success and security of
those in developing countries has a profound effect on success and security elsewhere.
The global financial crisis has proved this interdependence, with financial turmoil in one
part of the world proving a strong catalyst for economic turmoil almost everywhere else.
The White Paper points to the need for a new approach that puts more emphasis on
tackling development in the difficult places, such as conflict affected and fragile states;on better international working, including with the emerging powers; on broader anddeeper partnerships with civil society and the private sector; and on more joined up
working across the UK government.
A second key theme relates to working in fragile states. This is the first White Paper
since 1997 to prioritise the challenge of development in conflict-affected and fragile
contexts, and that is most welcome.
The third critical theme is climate change. The long march of climate change will be agame changer for development everywhere. The White Paper points clearly to theimportance of leadership from rich countries to stop this becoming a development
disaster for poor countries. The challenge here is to ensure that climate commitments
made at the UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December will be far reaching
and binding.
Alison Evans expressed some concerns about the White Paper. While the White Paper
presents a fairly robust vision of UK involvement in development, it gives a more limitedsense of what DFID and the UK will be doing less of in future years.
There is relatively little on how aid will be delivered differently or the difficult choices that
DFID needs to make to deliver the transparency, scrutiny and accountability promised in
the White Paper. Budget support is mentioned infrequently. Does this mark the beginningof the end for DfID’s enthusiasm for such support?
Alison Evans said that in general, the White Paper confirms that the UK Government does
see international development as the right thing to do. It pinpoints the crucial link
between international development and national self-interest, particularly with its new
and welcome emphasis on fragile states. In short, it is a valiant attempt to walk thatdifficult – and often blurred – line between morality and pragmatism.
The white paper (4.6MB or 1.5MB low resolution can be downloaded fromhttp://www.dfid.gov.uk/About-DFID/Quick-guide-to-DFID/How-we-do-it/Building-ourcommon-future/
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News from West Africa

The 36th Summit of Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads ofState and Government at its Meeting in Nigeria in June 2009 approved the ECOWAS
Labour Policy for the region.
The Executive Director of African Development Programme (ADP) and ICSW Vice
President Charles Abbey was a member of the Experts Group that considered andreviewed the Draft Labour Policy in 2008.
The Labour Policy has seven key pillars including the labour and employment vision for
the region, the scope of its application, objectives, guiding principles, framework for its
making it operational, areas of interaction and process of implementation.
The Labour Policy’s Plan of Action seeks to pursue five priority programmes over four
years including the pursuit of international labour and employment norms, promotion ofdecent work, social security for all, promotion of social dialogue as well as regional
integration. http://news.ecowas.int/presseshow.php?nb=038&lang=en&annee=2009

Response to article in June Global Cooperation

David Culverhouse, Executive Director, Council for International Development, New
Zealand responded to the article on Sri Lanka - Controversial Criticism of International
NGOs. Mr. Culverhouse says the article “completely confuses a number of issues – allunrelated”. His full comments follow.
“Firstly the issue of the Sri Lankan government trying to prevent international reportingof atrocities and war crimes by denying access to the area by international NGOs. (Thisis not to suggest that all atrocities are committed by one side. Both sides in this conflict– as in most conflicts – have questions to answer.) The suggestion by the Sri Lankan
President that international NGOs should be building community centres while heavy
artillery shells are falling and people are dying from lack of access to medical care andthe simple necessities of life is bizarre, and has no relevance to any discussion on lifting
effectiveness of humanitarian relief.”“You correctly report that “There is wariness against NGOs who are involved in social
reforms, peace building and calling for an end to the war," Perera said.”The governmentis cautious of international NGOs involved in humanitarian work as they are believed tobe conduits of information [from conflict zones] to the international community".
“Secondly the muddying of the issue by bringing in discussion of ways that “theinstitutional framework - whether the U.N., banks [World Bank/IMF], or international
corporations” work. These (World Bank, IMF etc) are not NGOs - and they have long
been criticized by NGOs for imposing conditions on developing countries that appear to
be more focused on the interests of western counties than developing ones, mainly
because developing countries are excluded from influencing decision making.”“You correctly report that “British Prime Minister Gordon Brown echoed this sentiment in
his call for a paradigm shift in the leadership structure at the World Bank and IMF traditionally controlled by the U.S. and Europe”.
“Thirdly there is a real issue on whether or not local staffing can reduce costs, but during
a major war local staff are usually unable to operate freely in a climate of intense
suspicion. All international NGOs are committed to as much local staffing as conditions
allow.”“Your report misses the main point of the original article: Development: Asian NGOs Must
Lead in Asia by Feizal Samath http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46577
To simply throw together unrelated comments is hardly informative reporting on a realissue. However the quality of your reports are usually much better than this, and I do
find the rest of the newsletter useful and informative”.

UNRISD Research and Publications

The Welfare State in Microstates and Small States
The welfare state emerged historically as a top-down solution to the problem of how tosecure social protection and security in the context of an urbanised self-contained
Global Cooperation Newsletter
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capitalist economy with a commodified labour market.
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BF3C2/setLanguageCookie?OpenAgent&langcode=en&url=/80256B3C005BCCF9/search/3BD6AEF49C6944BFC12575E40054D508?OpenDocu
ment
The Power of Jurisdiction in Promoting Social Policies in Smaller States
This paper is a thematic paper for the joint UNRISD and Commonwealth Secretariat
project on Social Policies in Small States. It aims to present a more positively criticalassessment of the predicament of smaller states, and how their jurisdictional status andpowers can be conceived and converted into economic resources.
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BF3C2/setLanguageCookie?OpenAgent&langcode=en&url=/80256B3C005BCCF9/search/4B98B7CE58337C02C12575E400557235?OpenDocu
ment
Religion, Politics and Gender Equality: Public Religions Revisited
The aim of this paper is to revisit the argument first presented in “Public Religions in theModern World” (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994) in order to ascertain theextent to which the theoretical-analytical framework developed there needs to be
critically revised and expanded in response to two main challenges. The first arises fromthe global imperative to develop comparative analytical frameworks which are applicablebeyond Western Christian contexts. The second challenge derives from the equally urgent
need to place the politics of gender equality and the related religious-secular debates into
the centre of any discussion of "public religion" anywhere in the world today.
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BF3C2/setLanguageCookie?OpenAgent&langcode=en&url=/80256B3C005BCCF9/search/010F9FB4F1E75408C12575D70031F321?OpenDocu
ment
Religion: Ally, Threat, or just Religion?
This paper is a feminist response to José Casanova’s thematic paper on “Public Religions
Revisited”. It diagnoses that, given the fact that religions can threaten gender equality, it
is not surprising that campaigners for gender equality have found themselves at odds
with religious authorities, or that feminists have looked to the spread of secular principles
and attitudes as a welcome engine of change. In the course of the twentieth century theearlier association between feminism and religion largely dropped away. While individual
women continued to locate their commitment to gender equality in their religious faithand beliefs, the public discourse regarding the rights of women and equality of the sexes
became almost entirely secular, and was more often linked to socialist or communist
ideals.
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BF3C2/setLanguageCookie?OpenAgent&langcode=en&url=/80256B3C005BCCF9/search/B585808EFB5EF3D2C12575D70032A30F?OpenDocu
ment
The content of this Global Newsletter may be freely reproduced or cited provided thesource is acknowledged. Views do not necessarily represent policies of ICSW.
Newsletter Editor: Denys Correll – Executive Director.
Guest contributor: Charles Abbey Vice President
ICSW C/- MOVISIE Netherlands Centre for Social Development
PO Box 19129
3501 DC Utrecht
Netherlands
Website www.icsw.org Email: icsw@icsw.org
If you wish to cease receiving this newsletter, please click 'here' and give us your nameand email address.

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GLOBAL COOPERATION NEWSLETTER
August 2009
In this edition
Latin America Preparatory Seminar for the 2010 Joint World Conference
UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis
Living up to commitments: 2009 UNDP annual report (for 2008)
Pensions at a Glance 2009: Retirement-Income Systems in OECDCountries
Latin America Preparatory Seminar for the 2010 Joint World Conference

Latin American members of ICSW met with civil society and representatives ofgovernment in Montevideo Uruguay. The Seminar was called “Social politics in the 21stCentury – National strategies in the region”. The Uruguayan Minister for Social
Development, Mtra. Marina Arismendi gave a stimulating opening address. Minister
Arismendi said the government of President Tabare Vazquez Rosas has been in power
since 2004 and that during the last five years has worked to undo the worst excesses of
neo-liberalism including reversing the privatisation of public services. Minister Arismendi
said simply that privatisation of public goods had not worked. The government hasreformed the tax system and made it simpler using the changes to bringing about social
reformation. The government has focussed on long term policies in the context of
ensuring citizens have food to eat, a roof over their heads and access to education.

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The ICSW Regional President for Latin America and the Caribbean – Danilo
Santos de Miranda spoke on - Strengthening national and regional advice.
He said that the politics that guides development should target the
reduction of social inequalities. He said the first commitment of humandevelopment should be sustainability in the context of establishing a social
pact which takes into account citizens’ expectations of their future andtheir quality of life.
Mr de Miranda said we are faced with the first effects of the economic crisis. The
International Labour Organisation estimates that there are 2.5 million unemployed in
Latin America. Countries including Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and
Venezuela have developed measures of support to stop further damage to theireconomies and societies. In this sense the subject of the Seminar “social politics” isfundamental. The international crisis will not affect all countries equally, although therate of unemployment will be high for poor men, women and youth.
Danilo Santos de Miranda referred to the need for ICSW to have healthy structures thatare capable of meeting the commitment to promote social development.
In that sense, it is urgent we establish a coherent set of actions that reaffirm ourcommitment to social protection, social development, resources and infrastructure forhealth, education, knowledge, participation, sustainability and citizenship.

ICSW congratulates Consejo Uruguayo de Bienestar Social and its
President Mirtha Crevoisier for the initiative in conducting a valuableseminar of direct relevance to vulnerable groups in Latin America.
Speakers and participants came from Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay.

Subjects covered in the Seminar included; child and adolescent welfare; politicalstrategies for children and adolescents; active ageing and long term care; active ageing;social work contribution to the building of social policies; the axis of ethics and politics insocial work practice; and education in social work.
Speeches presented at the Seminar will soon be available on the ICSW website:
http://www.icsw.org/region/la.htm. Details of the 2010 Joint World Conference of theInternational Association of Schools of Social Work, International Federation of Social
Workers and ICSW can be found in Chinese, English, French and Spanish at
http://www.swsd2010.org/en/index.html.

Prior to the seminar
representatives of some
ICSW Latin American
members met with theRegional President andglobal Executive Director
to plan future developmentof ICSW in the region

UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis

Last month (July) we reported briefly on the UN conference on the world financial andeconomic crisis and its impact on development. Here is a bit more – theGlobal Cooperation Newsletter
Page 6

recommendations. Thanks to Selim Jahan, Director, Poverty Practice, Bureau forDevelopment Policy UNDP and Rob Vos, Director, Development Policy and Analysis
Division with UNDESA for this summary.
First, on the global governance system, the following recommendations were made: The global economic governance system needs to develop effective monitoringmechanisms that could flag potential problems.
 National governments need to be assisted in conducting their assessment of the
impact on the livelihood and welfare of different demographic groups.
 To minimize the impact of the crisis, it is important to reduce dependency on exports.
Developing countries urgently need to build their own domestic demand for goods
and services by improving livelihoods and raising income, especially for those fromthe rural areas who are mainly engaged in agriculture.
 There has been a significant increase in the level of developing countries’ participationin the international financial regulatory bodies such as the Basel Committee on
Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the Financial Stability Forum (FSF). However there is
still room for improvement in the representation of small and medium countries aswell as non-financial stakeholders.
Second, the following challenges have been particularly highlighted:
 Almost all of the $1.1 trillion promised by the G20 for aid is the form of loans. This
would raise potential debt problems in the future.
 Concerns have been expressed for conditionalities attached to IMF loans. Even though
the IMF has claimed changes of its policy, the effect of the policy change still remains
to be seen.
 The current global financial system is not representative enough. It needs not only
greater representativeness and legitimacy but also new coordination mechanisms.
National self-interests tend to guide policies and hence get in the way of global
cooperation and regulation.
Third, the implications of the crisis to the development of Africa and to vulnerable
populations around the developing world have been reiterated: The current crisis should not divert attention from core development issues in Africa.
Out of the $28.3 billion pledged by rich nations to Sub-Saharan Africa by 2010 at the
Gleneagles Summit, only $9.4 billion (less than a third) was actually delivered. The
current crisis is expected to further affect the delivery of aid.
 Low-income commodity-dependent countries should increase their output share ofmanufacturing in national income through proper industrial policies.
 Vulnerable groups such as the poor, women, elderly and people with disabilities areamong the biggest victims of the crisis. NGOs, grassroots organisations in particular,
have played a critical role in attending to the needs of the vulnerable at a community
level and in making sure their voices are heard in times of crisis.
 Links between education, training and work should be revisited. National ministries
such as Health, Labour and Education, should work together to tailor education andtraining to fit labour market conditions and individual needs.
The following link will take you to feedback:
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/CONF.214/3&Lang=E.
Commentators noted that developing countries, including those that are ODA-dependent
today – would seek to reduce their reliance on North-South relationships. The question
for the UN development system is how best to position itself as the axis tilts away fromits traditional North-South bearings toward stronger South-South links. For example, thefinal Outcome Document stated that International Financial Institutions (IFI) programmes
should not contain “unwarranted pro-cyclical conditionalities.” Is the UN ready to contest
these conditionalities in its partnership with IFIs?


Donors were encouraged to meet established ODA targets, but more needs to be
done. The UN should continue advocating those including the Gleneagles scenarios.
Northern NGOs can exert pressure more effectively on their own governments tomeet ODA commitments.
Certain issues received relatively less attention. These included the Paris Declarationand green recovery in conjunction with climate change.
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There continues to be a lack of representation of the poor in the decision making
process, leading to unrealistic development premises and inadequate North-Southdevelopment approaches. For example, it was suggested that a national consultation
process that started from local levels especially in rural areas, could lead to more
equitable global solutions.

The outcome document includes language on issues raised by developing countries
especially for creating their own policy and fiscal space. These provide a basis for follow
up that could expand the UN’s role, provided the UN has the capability to engage
credibly. There are important references to follow up actions such as an “ad-hoc openended working group of the General Assembly” mandated to follow up on the Outcome
Document after the UN General Assembly in September 2009. ECOSOC is asked to makefurther recommendations, and consider the “possible establishment of an ad hoc panel ofexperts on the world economic crisis and its impact on development”.
Full contributions can be accessed at the UN conference website:
http://www.un.org/ga/econcrisissummit/edis.shtml.

Living up to commitments: 2009 UNDP annual report (for 2008)“This report sums up UNDP’s success in navigating the past year. As
UNDP supports developing countries in how they address the current
economic and financial crisis, it is staying true to the shared sets ofvalues as set out by the Millennium Declaration. UNDP will stay thecourse as spelled out in the UNDP Strategic Plan 2008-2011 and focus
its efforts on reducing poverty, promoting democratic governance,
supporting crisis prevention and recovery efforts and achieving
sustainable development results in energy and environment, efforts
thatarecrucialtoachieving
the
MDGs.”
http://www.undp.org/publications/annualreport2009/index.shtml.

Pensions at a Glance 2009: Retirement-Income Systems in OECDCountries

Pension and retirement policies have changed dramatically in recent years, as
governments have tried to balance the goals of adequate retirement incomes and thelong-term financial sustainability of pension systems in the face of population ageing.
Pensions at a Glance 2009 provides a consistent framework for comparing pension
policies between countries along with reliable data.
Chapter 1 examines the implications of the present financial and economic crisis on
pension systems. Which countries and which individuals are most affected? What cangovernments do to help and which policies should they avoid?
Chapter 2 looks at incomes and poverty of older people, looking at trends over the past
two decades. In many countries, the position of pensioners has improved relative to the
population as a whole, but there remain pockets of old-age poverty.
Chapter 3 updates the analysis of pension reforms in the second edition of Pensions at a
Glance. How have pension systems changed in the period 2004-08?
Chapter 4 considers coverage of voluntary private pensions, extending the analysis tolook at how this varies with age and earnings. It also evaluates five different policies toexpand coverage.

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Multilingual summaries can be found at the on-line bookshop in French, German, English,
Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Swedish, Chinese, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian,
Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Slovak, Czech, Portuguese, and Turkish.
http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?lang=EN&sf1=identifiers&st1=97892640
60715#MultiLingualSummaries
Country-specific highlights
Australia: Superannuation funds have been heavily hit by the financial crisis, with real
losses of 26.7% in 2008... More than one in four Australian seniors lives in poverty on
international measures...
Austria (in German): Austria has the second highest public spending on pensions inOECD countries... The pension replacement rate (pension entitlements relative toearnings) of 80% is much higher than the OECD average of 59%...
Canada (forthcoming)
France (en Français): The over-65s rely more on public transfers for their income
than almost anywhere else... Reforms have substantially cut future pension benefits fortoday’s workers by around 20% for average earners... Coping with high public pension
expenditures and population ageing will require working longer and a more diversified
retirement-income system...
Germany (in German): The German pension system has so far been less affected by
the crisis than many other OECD countries... Replacement rates for low-earners are thelowest within the OECD at 43.0%...
Ireland: Ireland’s private pension funds have been heavily hit by the financial crisis,with real losses of 37.5% in 2008... More than 30% of Ireland’s pensioners live inpoverty (on international measures)...
Italy (in Italian): Italy had the highest public pension spending of OECD
countries... Legislated changes that would have increased the pension age and reduced
benefits to reflect increased life expectancy have been postponed...
Japan: Japan is the OECD’s ‘oldest’ country, with just 2.6 people, of working age forevery person aged over 65... Public pensions in Japan are projected to provide thesecond lowest pensions relative to individual earnings of OECD countries.
The full report can be obtained from the OECD http://www.oecd.org/document/49/0,3343,en_2649_34757_42992113_1_1_1_1,00.html.
Paperback + Free PDF Price: €35 $47 £29 ¥4300 Standard shipping included.
The content of this Global Newsletter may be freely reproduced or cited provided thesource is acknowledged. 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
If you wish to cease receiving this newsletter, please click 'here' and give us your nameand email address

Global Cooperation Newsletter

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