GLOBAL COOPERATION NEWSLETTER
June 2009
In this edition

Strengthening civil society in Africa
Combating human trafficking
Private sector participation in African infrastructure: Is it worth the risk?
What is poverty reduction?
New Zealander heads up United Nations Development Programme(UNDP)
Controversial criticism of international NGOs
New book 'The global social policy reader'
The state and civil society in Africa: A North African perspective
African Economic Outlook goes online
Donors support for poor countries in crisis
Strengthening civil society in Africa
ICSW has just conducted a three day capacity building programme for nationalumbrella councils in Eastern and Southern Africa. The capacity building
programme was based on feedback from member councils that attended the firstworkshop held in Mauritius in 2007.
At the conclusion of the Mauritius workshop participants completed national plans
to be submitted to their boards. Before this workshop in Johannesburg eachparticipant provided ICSW with a progress report on the implementation of theplans. Many success stories emerged including training programmes for board
members, governance manuals, new strategies for budget influence, growth inmembership of national councils, new forms of recognition of national councils bygovernment and adoption of value and policy statements by the boards ofnational councils.
An outcome of this workshop is the establishment of an area on the ICSW
website where members will be able to share documents with other councils.
The ICSW workshop was co-sponsored by the Southern Africa Development
Community Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (SADC-NGO) and theSouth African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO). One of the presentations atthe workshop was on the SADC CNGO engagement with SADC.
ICSW is committed to the engagement of civil society in the Paris Declarationand the Accra Plan of Action on aid effectiveness or as it is increasingly described– development effectiveness. This subject was addressed in the workshop.
As a result of a needs analysis, a day was devoted to policy analysis. Theintention was to better equip national councils to develop policy advice togovernment.
Mobilising resources for national councils is a fundamental part of the job ofexecutive directors. The participants (most of whom were executive directors)
shared knowledge on their sources of income and exchanged information on
trends in fund raising.
Further work was done on project planning and management with the emphasison the “Logical Framework Approach”. The aim of this session was to provide
participants with an overview of the logical framework analysis.
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The final session was led by Professor Viviene Taylor who is the author of thereport prepared for the African Union “Social protection in Africa: An overview ofthe challenges”.
In addition to the participants from Southern Africa, five presidents or
representatives of ICSW regions were engaged in the workshop. (Central andWest Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, North East Asia andEurope).
Evaluations completed by the participants indicated a high level of satisfaction
from their participation in the workshop. A more substantial report of thecapacity building workshop will be circulated to members.
Following the workshop the global Board of ICSW met in Johannesburg.
The workshop was made possible by elected officers of ICSW contributing many
voluntary hours. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency(Sida) provided the resources and a representative of Sida attended part of theworkshop and the Board meeting.

Combating human trafficking

The Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the United Nations Office on Drugs andCrime (UNODC) recently launched a Handbook for parliamentarians on
Combating Trafficking in Persons. Launched in April 2009 during the 120th IPU
Assembly in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), the Handbook stresses that trafficking inpersons is a form of modern-day slavery – a human rights violation that
constitutes a crime against the individual and the State.
The Handbook, the 16th in the series of IPU handbooks, is intended to encourage
parliamentarians to take an active part in halting human trafficking. It contains acompilation of international laws and good practices developed to combat humantrafficking. The handbook offers guidance on how national legislation can bebrought in line with international standards by, for example, defining trafficking
in persons and criminalizing all its forms. It outlines measures to prevent
commission of the crime, to prosecute offenders and to protect victims. It also
contains advice on how to report on human trafficking and how to enlist civilsociety in the cause.
The handbook can be obtained in English or French in print version or PDF byvisiting http://www.ipu.org/english/handbks.htm#traffickingp
Readers can read more on trafficking in the 10 member countries of ASEAN in
the ICSW study Trafficking and Related Labour Exploitation in the ASEAN Region
ICSW, November 2007 to be found at http://www.icsw.org/region/seap.htm
Private Sector Participation in African infrastructure: Is it worth therisk?
Author: Kate Bayliss
Series: Working Paper # 55
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCWorkingPaper55.pdf
The current strategy to attract private sector participation in utility provisionfocuses on reducing risk to the private sector. However, the author argues, therisk is simply transferred to governments, taxpayers and end-users.
What is poverty reduction?
Owen Barder raises fundamental questions about the purpose of aid transfers.
For many donors the purpose is “poverty reduction” but in the relatively narrow
sense of growth that reduces poverty. But poverty reduction has otherdimensions, including enabling the poor to live better lives through long-term,
redistributional transfers while their country is developing, even with programs
that might not contribute to growth. Barder’s key concern is that the focus on
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reducing current and future poverty and between addressing the causes andsymptoms of poverty. This is an important paper for practitioners and students
on the way the aid system works.
http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/1421599 (PDF, 714 KB)
New Zealander heads up United Nations Development Programme(UNDP)
Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark was appointed as
Administrator of UNDP in April 2009. When taking up her appointment HelenClark vowed to sharpen her agency’s focus on cutting poverty despite themultiple crises currently facing the world. UNDP is the largest of the
independently-funded UN agencies and, under its special General Assembly
mandate, leads the world body’s work on sustainable development andpromoting good governance in the developing world.
“I also want to communicate more widely the work of UNDP – we have much toour credit and the story must be told,” she said.
Controversial Criticism of International NGOs
President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa criticised international NGOs sayingthat despite the presence of many foreign NGOs in the former LTTE rebel
headquarters town of Kilinochchi, no sustainable development has taken place.
"None of these organisations have built community centres, roads and houses, or
have provided electricity, water or other facilities to the people," he was quoted
as saying in thestate-run Sunday Observer.
Hironobu Shinbuya, CEO of Save the Children Japan (SCJ), in an interview withIPS, frowned on ‘foreign’ experts’ tendency to impose untested - often
prohibitively expensive - western solutions on local communities.
Shinbuya said, "I am not knocking down western ways… I am only saying thatsome of the institutional framework - whether the U.N., banks [World Bank/IMF],
or international corporations - needs a paradigm shift in the way they work".
At the G20 summit last month, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown echoed thissentiment in his call for a paradigm shift in the leadership structure at the WorldBank and IMF - traditionally controlled by the U.S. and Europe.
Shinbuya’s perspective has found a resonance with Sri Lankan aid workers whoagree that Asian NGOs could achieve much more locally than western NGOs.
Jehan Perera, director of the foreign-funded National Peace Council, which ispromoting a peaceful end to the country’s ethnic conflict, says Shinbuya’s view isvery much in line with the Sri Lankan government’s perception of western NGOs.
"There is wariness against NGOs who are involved in social reforms, peacebuilding and calling for an end to the war," Perera said. "The government iscautious of international NGOs involved in humanitarian work as they are
believed to be conduits of information [from conflict zones] to the international
community," he said.
(Extracts from Feizal Samath http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46577)
New Book 'The global social policy reader'
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'The global social policy reader' collects together for the first time acomprehensive range of key papers by international leaders in the field from awide range of sources that explain the concepts, actors and processes that
constitute global social policy. The Reader will have broad appeal among
undergraduate and postgraduate students in a range of social science subjects.
For more information check:
https://www.policypress.org.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=10227&products_id=1725 The book is available through the website with a 20% discount.
The State and civil society in Africa: A North African perspective
African journal of Political Science and International Relations, February 2009,
Hamdy A. R. Hassan. This paper looks at the concept of civil society in the Araband African regions. It provides a historic overview of Arab and African civilsociety development, including civil society’s relation with the State and analyses
the political, bureaucratic and economic constraints for civil society in theseregions.
http://www.academicjournals.org/ajpsir/PDF/Pdf2009/Feb/Hassan.pdf
African Economic Outlook goes online
Information on Africa and its economy is now at AfricanEconomicOutlook.org.
You can find on the site comprehensive analyses of African economies, placed intheir social and political contexts. This website claims it is the only place where
African countries are examined through a common analytical framework, allowing
youtocompare
economic
prospects.
http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/
http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/fr/\
Donors support for poor countries in crisis
In May 2009 Members of Development Assistance Committee (DAC), the world’s
major donor countries, and other donors, have adopted an Action Plan to support
poor countries trying to cope with the economic and financial crisis.
Globally, aid has risen and most donors are so far holding to their promises in
the face of the crisis. But, despite this trend, some DAC members havedecreased their aid and others are unlikely to meet their commitments.
In the Action Plan, Members of the DAC agree to assist developing countries by: Meeting their existing aid commitments, in particular in Africa.
 Helping low-income countries finance both short- and long-term priorities.
 Making the most effective possible use of aid.
 Financing international institutions in a timely and predictable manner.
 Tackling the crisis using all instruments available, not just official aid.

http://www.oecd.org/document/22/0,3343,en_2649_33721_42851542_1_1_1_1,00.html

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Newsletter Editor: Denys Correll – Executive Director.
ICSW C/- MOVISIE Netherlands Centre for Social Development
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