GLOBAL COOPERATION NEWSLETTER
January 2012

In this edition
Joint world conference Stockholm
Petition for the Social Protection Floor Initiative
A review of the progress towards the MDGs in Commonwealth countries
Parliament Magazine
Publication Global the international briefing
Punishing the poor
Children in armed conflictPunishing the poor
Who Cares? HIV and AIDSChildren and social protection in the Middle East and North Africa
OECD Publications – costing MDGs and paying for long-term careSouth Bulletin: Bracing for a new global financial crisis
Norwegian evaluation report on the breakdown of the Sri Lankan peace process

Joint world conference Stockholm July 2012
Planning is proceeding at full pace for the 2012 joint world conference of the International
Association of Schools of Social Work, ICSW and the International Federation of Social Workers.
At the close of the call for abstracts 2,000 had been received. Registrations are flowing in so we willbuild on success of the 2010 joint conference in Hong Kong. For registration go to
http://www.swsd-stockholm-2012.org/

Petition for the Social Protection Floor Initiative
In order to eradicate the extreme poverty of the world, The International Labour Organization (ILO)
and the World Health Organization (WHO) have coordinated the Social Protection Floor Initiative(SPF-I) as a joint UN effort to build a global coalition committed to supporting countries in building
national social protection floors for their citizens.
A Social Protection Floor (SPF) is the first level of a comprehensive national social protection systemthat helps to realize human rights for all through guaranteeing universal access to essential
services and social transfers in cash or kind to guarantee income security, food security, adequate
nutrition and access to essential services.
This signature campaign can be used as a tool for lobbying at national and global levels.
Please spread the word and invite your friends to sign this petition as well
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/signature-campaign-social-protection-floor.html

A review of the progress towards the MDGs in Commonwealth countries
The Commonwealth Foundation is calling for expressions of interest from researchers, academics,
civil society organisations and policy think tanks to participate in a review of the progress towards
the MDGs in Commonwealth countries.
The review process takes into account the 14 Commonwealth country case studies in the Breaking
with Business as Usual: Perspectives from Civil Society in the Commonwealth on the Millennium

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Development Goals (MDGs) report and assesses progress that has been made since it waspublished 2005. Breaking with Business as Usual provided an overview of progress towards thegoals in the Commonwealth, based on national reports by governments and civil society. It
examined the contribution of civil society organisations (CSOs) to the MDG agenda and suggested
ways in which this could be enhanced. It analysed some of the variables - conflict, loss of humanresource capacity and ecological shocks - that could affect MDG attainment. Specially commissioned
papers informed the report - Cameroon, Ghana, Grenada, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Pakistan,Samoa, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, and Zambia. Expressionsof interest are open to applicants from the above countries. Deadline 10th February 2012
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/Howwedeliver/Civilsocietycapacitydevelopment/Knowledgegeneration/BreakingpointthepostMDGAgenda

Parliament Magazine
For those interested in European matters the Parliament Magazine is agood resource. The magazine’s website states “Each fortnight theParliament Magazine guides you through the maze of European politics. In
the first issue of 2012 includes coverage of employment, social affairs.
Inclusion commissioner László Andor writes on the European year of active
ageing and intergenerational solidarity 2012.
http://www.theparliament.com/magazines

Publication “Global the international briefing”
Global: the international briefing is an editorially independent magazine commissioned by
the Commonwealth Secretariat, and launched at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetingin Trinidad and Tobago in 2009.
The magazine states that it balances “the expertise of global leaders, the insights of the world’s
foremost writers and thinkers and the real life experiences of ‘ordinary’ citizens”. The last edition
for 2011 had interesting articles including an overview of international NGOs; an interview with thehead of UN Women, Madame Bachelet and a whole section on extractive industries.
http://www.global-briefing.org/

Children in armed conflict
Following the launch of the working paper on “Children and justiceduring and in the aftermath of armed conflict,” which aims to bringconceptual clarity to the mechanisms through which children afflictedby armed conflicts can seek justice, NGLS interviewed Messeh Kamara,former President of the Children’s Forum Network and a victim ofarmed conflict in Sierra Leone. Go to http://www.unngls.org/spip.php?article3589

Punishing the poor

In collaboration with ATD Fourth World Movement, the Permanent
Mission of Peru to the UN, and the International Council on HumanRights Policy (ICHRP), the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and
Human Rights hosted a panel discussion entitled “Punishing the poor:
Exploring measures in social policy that penalize, segregate, control orundermine the autonomy of people living in poverty.” The discussion
followed the release of the Special Rapporteur’s report (A/66/265) on
extreme poverty and human rights

http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/EPoverty/A.66.265.pdf More information is available
online. http://www.un-ngls.org/spip.php?article3590

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Who Cares? HIV and AIDSAt the centre of the HIV/AIDS response are the 12 million people who needcare and treatment. Those who are ill require support from carers whoprovide physical, social and psychological support. Yet these carers –essential actors in the response – are often invisible to the system that relieson them.
The writers argue that focusing on the carer, at the household level, directs
assistance where it is most effective and most needed, respects humanrights and helps achieve the millennium development goals in health.
Authors: Anit Mukherjee, Marilyn Waring, Meena Shivdas, Robert Carr
ISBN No: 978-1-84929-019-7 Publication date: October 2011 Price: £15.00
http://publications.thecommonwealth.org/who-cares--809-p.aspx

Children and social protection in the Middle East and North Africa: a mapping
exercise

ODI Working Papers 335, October 2011
Authors: Rachel Marcus and Paola Pereznieto with Erin Cullen
and Nicola Jones.
This ODI Working Paper maps key social protection initiatives
and stakeholders at national level in the Middle East and North
Africa, with a specific focus on child-sensitive social protection.
Conclusions suggest that all countries in the region are home toa range of social protection initiatives, and in each country
there is a complex jigsaw of different interventions, as well as
different modalities for their provision.
http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?utm_source=news
letter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20111027&id=603
8&title=social-protection-children-middle-east-north-africaunicef

OECD Publications
Revisiting MDG Cost Estimates from a Domestic Resource Mobilisation Perspective
PDF – 1.63Mb Vararat Atisophon, Jesus Bueren, Gregory De Paepe, Christopher Garroway, JeanPhilippe Stijns. This paper aims at providing an estimate of the resource envelope required in orderto achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on the global level. As widely acknowledgedby previous contributors to this literature, modelling the cost of achieving the MDGs poses many
data and methodological challenges.
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/development/revisiting-mdg-cost-estimates-from-a-domesticresource-mobilisation-perspective_5k9h6vwx0nmr-en
Help Wanted? Providing and Paying for Long-Term Care
As life expectancy pushes into the late 70s for men and well into the 80s for women, ever more
people want help in order to be able to live their lives to the full for as long as possible. How will
demographic and labour market trends affect the supply of family and friends available to care for
us? Can we rely on family carers as the sole source of support for frail seniors? Should family carers
and friends be better supported, and if so how? Can we attract and retain care workers - is it just amatter of paying them better? Will public finances be threatened by the cost of providing care in
the future? What should be the balance between private responsibility and public support in caregiving? Can we reduce costs by improving efficiency of long-term care services?
http://www.oecd.org/document/23/0,3746,en_2649_37407_47659479_1_1_1_37407,00.html

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South Bulletin: Bracing for a new global financial crisis
South Centre, Issue 56, 3 October 2011 www.southcentre.org
The South Bulletin focuses on the recent deterioration in the state of the global economy and theeffects this will have on developing countries. Below are the highlights of the Bulletin
Bracing for a New Global Financial Crisis by Martin Khor: Developing countries are bracing
themselves to face the hazards of a new global financial and economic crisis.
The End of Recovery and Start of a New Global Downturn by Yilmaz Akyüz:
A Lot of Uncertainties and Volatilities Facing Developing Countries: by Dr Yaga Venugopal
Three possible scenarios as the South faces the next crisis: by Dr Charles Soludo, former
Central Bank Governor of Nigeria, on why developing countries have to prepare now for the nextcrisis and the three scenarios on how the world could approach the global financial turbulence.
Recent Developments in the Agenda of Global Financial Reform: The introduction andconclusion on the state of reform of the global financial regulation regimes is presented by Andrew
Cornford, a specialist on global financial policy issues.

Norwegian evaluation report on the breakdown of the Sri Lankan peace process
From ICSW Sri Lanka member National Peace Council
Sri Lanka's internal war and terrorism lasted for three decades and ended in May 2009 with themilitary defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The overall cost in terms of lives
lost, property destroyed, development opportunities foregone, emotional suffering and migration ofSri Lankans is incalculable. The bitterness and animosity caused by the last stage of the war would
be a permanent scar on the inter-ethnic relations unless there is a genuine reconciliation between
the government and the Tamil leaders on the one hand and between the ethnic communities on theother.
The willingness of the Norwegian government to subject its peace initiative to independent scrutiny,
even critical scrutiny as in this case, is an example of transparency and openness. Now that the war
is over, the National Peace Council urges Norway and the international community to support Sri
Lanka to achieve a political solution and post-war development. Members of the international
community, including the United States, European Union, India and Japan that were directlyinvolved in the peace process need to continue with their efforts to ensure peace with justice in SriLanka.
For the full report Pawns of Peace Evaluation of Norwegian peace efforts in Sri Lanka, 1997-2009
Report 5/2011 – Evaluation go to http://www.soas.ac.uk/development/news/file72788.pdf
The content of this Global Newsletter may be freely reproduced or cited provided the source isacknowledged. Views do not necessarily represent policies of ICSW.
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