GLOBAL COOPERATION NEWSLETTER
September/October 2007
In this edition:
Strengthening Civil Society in Africa
World Social Security Forum
Helping the bottom billion (New book)
Civil society and the research nexus
Report on lower-income countries with tax-financed pensions

Global Social Policy Journal

New from UNRISD
2007 Social Watch Report
2008 ICSW 33rd Global Conference on Social Welfare
Strengthening Civil Society in Africa
Executive directors and Presidents of national councils from 17 countries of Southern andEastern Africa have just completed intensive training to strengthen their councils. The
training in Mauritius was organised by ICSW in partnership with the SADC Council of Non
Governmental Organisations (SADC CNGOs) and the Mauritian Council of Social Service(MACOSS). The programme was made possible through the support to ICSW by thegovernments of Finland and Sweden. This training is the beginning of a process tostrengthen national councils and further training will be conducted in other ICSW regions.
The programme used the technique of shared learning which forms part of ICSW’s Global
Programme of South – South cooperation. At the end of the programme the participants’evaluations were consistently enthusiastic.
The programme started with speeches by two Ministers of the Government of Mauritius - theHon Sheilabai Bappoo Minister of Social Security, National Solidarity and Senior Citizens’
Welfare and Reform Institutions and Hon Madan Dulloo Minister of Foreign Affairs,
International Trade and Cooperation. Both indicated the importance they see in astrengthened civil society to engage with government on welfare and development issues.
The training examined why we need strong national councils or umbrella organisations ineach country. National councils are the building blocks of ICSW membership. It has been along standing policy of ICSW to have only one member national council per country.
Participants discussed the absolute imperative of bringing together civil society interests in acommon voice. A strong voice enables civil society to balance the influences of other interest
groups eg the commercial sector. Key to a credible national council or umbrella organisation
is a broad membership that includes thematic groups and non government organisations
working in the field of welfare and development.
A very popular segment looked at the challenges facing an executive director. In theconcluding evaluations, the subject of board/president relations with the executive director
was in high demand for the next training.

Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 1

Also popular with participants was work done on developing a value base and connecting thisto policy. Without a value base a national council is subject to “value drift”. The “drift” ismost likely to occur when national councils continually respond to crises without firstestablishing the value base. Creating “value anchors” or “beacons” as one participant
described them, helps avoid value drift caused by changing influences in the national council.
Establishing values provides the base line for council policies. Values have to be tangible andnot vague. If a national council is to be successful in influencing policy it needs to bring
together the variety of interests that form the membership of the council. The first part ofthis cohesion is establishing the value base line.
A practical part of the programme was the examination of how members of the SADC CNGOs
would contribute to the April 2008 SADC conference on “Poverty and Development”. The
participants agreed to organise country civil society consultative meetings on issues theywould like to flag during the forthcoming poverty conference. These issues will becoordinated by the SADC CNGO secretariat.
Many times in past editions of this newsletter reference has been made to the need for civilsociety to take an active part in influencing government budgets. Thus this was a part of thetraining.
Fundraising was the last interactive session. Despite the talk of supporting civil society toengage with governments and other stakeholders, real commitment by international
agencies and governments is lacking. National councils are the basic building blocks of civilsociety’s influence in any society. The amount of support they get is very limited. At thisstage it is only Sida (Sweden) and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland at global levelthat show real understanding of the importance of supporting organised civil society. Somegovernments are giving support at national level.
One participant observed that African civil society has been adversely affected by aninternational architecture of development which is donor driven. African civil society needs tobuild its own development architecture.
At the end of the programme participants prepared work plans for their own councils. The
plans were related to the content of the three days training. These plans will form part of themanual that ICSW is writing on strengthening national councils. A more detailed report ofthe training will be placed on the ICSW website in the next few weeks.
World Social Security Forum
Over a thousand leading policy makers in social security met in Moscow in September for theFirst World Social Security Forum. Positions on social security are becoming increasinglyclear. “The world does not lack the resources to eradicate poverty. It lacks the rightpriorities”. (Juan Somavia Director General of the International Labour Organisation - ILO)
Michael Cichon Director of the Social Security Department at the ILO debunked three myths:
that poorer countries cannot afford social security, that social security expenditure acts toundermine economic growth and that the benefits of national economic growth aresystematically shared by all. Mr. Cichon argued that a basic package of universal social
security benefits should be possible for all countries. This would cost no more than 5 percent of national GDP.
Mr Cichon quoted research that showed that social security reduces poverty by at least 50%
in almost all OECD countries and similarly social security reduces inequality by at least 50%
in the same countries. In two African countries a minimum social security package reduced
poverty by 40%.
Concluding his comments Mr Cichon said we need four things:
1. International consensus on growth with equity
2. More experience with implementation of schemes
3. Strengthening national capacities
administration of social security

through

Global Cooperation Newsletterneedsanalyses

andimproved

Page 2

4. An international convention on basic social security benefits and an established global
bottom line for social development.
A speaker from Zimbabwe backed Mr Cichon’s comments referring to the lack of political will
to introduce basic social security. Much more on the Forum can be found at
http://www.issa.int/wssf07/index.html
Helping the Bottom Billion: Is There a Third Way in the Development Debate? (FromCGD Development Update 11th September 2007)
Paul Collier's new book, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and WhatCan Be Done About It, argues that many developing countries are doing just fine and thatthe real development challenge is the 58 countries that are economically stagnant andcaught in one or more "traps": armed conflict, natural resource dependence, poor
governance, and geographic isolation. In a review of the book recently published in Foreign
Affairs, CGD research fellow Michael Clemens explores whether or not Collier's proposedsolutions constitute a practical middle path between William Easterly's development
pessimism and Jeffrey Sach's development boosterism.
Civil society and the research nexusUNRISD Deputy Director Peter Utting presented a paper on 'Reflections on the International
Forum on the Social Science-Policy Nexus' given to the Intergovernmental Council of theManagement of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme,16-18 July 2007, UNESCO, Paris.
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BF3C2/setLanguageCookie?OpenAgent&langcode=en&u
rl=/80256B3C005BE6B5/search/80B3F0994A151A3DC125737800318E1D?OpenDocument
Utting accurately observed that “by focusing on researchers and policy makers, other keyactors in the policy process were perhaps marginalized, particularly those engaged inadvocacy. Key in this regard are civil society organizations, activists, think tanks, and actionresearch”.
Report on lower-income countries with tax-financed pensions
The International Social Security Association (ISSA) has published a report Developments
and Trends: Supporting Dynamic Social Security. It is available on the ISSA Website
http://www.issa.int/engl/homef.htm
The report points to a series of lower-income countries where tax-financed pensions support
vulnerable older people and also benefit households, communities and local economies. Theresearch looks at programmes in Samoa, Namibia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bolivia andLesotho.
The findings confirm that even small cash transfers represent a significant and cost-effective
source of support for vulnerable population groups and have a measurable impact on
improving health and reducing poverty.
Global Social Policy Journal
Each four months a new issue of Global Social Policy is released. Every member of ICSW
receives the journal as a membership benefit.
In each edition there is an amazing resource of what has been happening on the global andregional scenes. The latest edition (7.3) http://www.icsw.org/whatsnew/globpub.htm#gsp
covers:Millennium Development Goals report
G8 Summit Germany – comments on the results of the Summit by various actors
OECD review of development cooperation
Global Forum on Migration and Development and other reports on migration
Labour issues
Human rights
Indigenous issues
Gender equality – three reports
UN reforms
World Bank – new directions under Zoellick?
Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 3

Regional social policy – reports and papers
Health including World Health Assembly, health regulations, social determinants of healthand lots on health systems.
HIV/AIDS – UN General Assembly and new reports
Social protection – new works on MDG related development strategies, ILO on decent work
agenda and more on that from the OECD.
Education – reports from conferences, the World Bank
Habitat, land, housing – reports on water and population issues
Trade and social policy – WTO issues.
Southern Voices covers reviews of MDGs in Asia, CSO meeting in Ghana on trade, material
from Organisation of American States, the Caribbean and Pacific Islands Business Forum.
New from UNRISD
Identity, Power and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
A series of seminars is being convened to disseminate the results from the research project‘Identity, Power and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’, under the programme on ‘Identities,
Conflict and Cohesion’.
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BF3C2/setLanguageCookie?OpenAgent&langcode=en&u
rl=/80256B3C005BE6B5/search/0580742379B3EADAC125734F003684DC?OpenDocument
New Book: Staking their Claims, Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility
in South Africa
This new volume asks about the responsiveness of South African corporations to their socialand environmental responsibilities. It also questions whether business is generally proactive
in redressing the legacy of apartheid given the extremes of economic inequality. It breaks
new ground in emerging from a tradition of applied social sciences rather than industrial
sponsorship.
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BF3C2/setLanguageCookie?OpenAgent&langcode=en&u
rl=/80256B3C005BE6B5/search/3C7440095F3E3389C125734B00450552?OpenDocument
2007 Social Watch Report
The 2007 Social Watch Report focuses on the theme of Global Social Policy, or Global Social
Security, to be more precise. The report is titled: "In Dignity and Rights: Making theUniversal Right to Social Security a Reality". You can access the Report and the related
databases on the internet
at: http://www.socialwatch.org/en/informeImpreso/tablaDeContenidos2007.htm
2008 ICSW 33rd Global Conference on Social Welfare
Date: 30th June to 4th July 2008
Venue: Tours, France
Contact Information: http://www.icsw2008.org/ and comite.service.francais@wanadoo.fr
This will be the 80th Anniversary of ICSW. The theme of the conference is Social Work, Social
Protection and Social Development: Where have we been? Where are we going?
The content of this Global Newsletter may be freely reproduced or cited provided
the source is acknowledged. The views expressed in this publication are notnecessarily the policy of ICSW.
Newsletter Editor: Denys Correll – Executive Director
ICSW C/- MOVISIE Netherlands Centre for Social Development
PO Box 19129
3501 DC Utrecht
Netherlands
Email: icsw@icsw.org
Tel: +31 30 789 2226

Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 4