First conference and TRIALOG workshop on development cooperation in Macedonia

The conference under the title "Development Cooperation in the EU Integration Process” was held in Skopje, Macedonia on 21st October, 2008. The conference was organized by TRIALOG in cooperation with 3 local civil society organisations (CSOs) - Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC), Macedonian Helsinki Committee (MHC) and Sigme7.

The aim of the public conference was to raise awareness on EU development policies and to assess the required steps and actions in order for Macedonia to be able to actively participate in this field as a future EU member state. The conference was addressed by Mr. Ivica Bocevski, Vice-Prime Minister in charge of EU Integration, from the Government of the Republic of Macedonia. In his keynote address Mr. Bocevski stressed: “The Government is open to inputs from CSOs on issues relating to development” and added that the relationship between the Government and CSOs is the key to fully utilizing development capacities in the country. The conference was attended by around 40 representatives of CSOs, ministries, universities, international organizations and media.

The second day featured a workshop for interested CSOs to discuss the current situation, needs and possibilities for their future engagement in development cooperation. In the workshop entitled "Macedonian CSOs' future role in EU Development Cooperation" the participants learned more about the activities of NGDO platforms in Europe as well as current possibilities for their concrete involvement on project-level (Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development programme). At the end, concrete steps were agreed among 19 CSO representatives for further steps such as exchange of information, identification of best practices and identification of further organizations interested in future cooperation, meetings, study visits, roundtables etc. on development issues, and in working towards a possible creation of a Macedonian NGDO platform.

For further information, please contact TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer, Petra Kreinecker, p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at or MCIC Project Officer, Tanja Hafner Ademi, thf@mcms.org.mk

Links:
MCIC website, http://www.mcms.org.mk/
MHC website, http://www.mhc.org.mk/

Information provided by Tanja Hafner Ademi, MCIC, thf@mcms.org.mk

The EPAN Working Group meets again

Members of the CONCORD working group on Enlargement, Pre-Accession and Neighbourhood (EPAN) which is convened by TRIALOG met in the middle of October for one of the group’s twice-yearly meetings in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. The agenda included updates on the group’s work since the last meeting and brainstorming of ideas for next year’s work plan.

The group is divided into two subgroups. One focuses on the EU’s neighbourhood policy, and is currently preparing for the funding instrument’s (ENPI) mid term review next year through two case studies, looking at the situation in two neighbouring countries – Egypt and Ukraine. The second subgroup is working on pre-accession issues, including access of civil society organisations to funding under the relevant instrument (IPA) and preparing ways to contribute to this instrument’s mid term review in 2010.

The meeting agenda covered points related to CONCORD processes, such as the strategic framework that is currently being drafted, and preparations for the European elections 2009.

Other highlights were provided by the guest speakers – one from the city’s university, who gave an academic perspective of the current situation in Georgia; and a second from an organisation providing training to government departments in the Western Balkans.

The group elected two new members into the steering group, and has a long list of interesting things to do before it meets again as a full working group in March 2009, in Brussels.

For more information please contact TRIALOG Policy Officer, Rebecca Steel: Rebecca.Steel@concordeurope.org

Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG

Nov./Dec. 2008: TRIALOG training on EC funded development education projects

The EC Call for Proposals in "Public Awareness and Education for Development in Europe" within the "Non-State Actors and Local Authorities programme" is expected to be launched in November or December 2008. In preparation of this upcoming Call, TRIALOG will hold 3 decentralised training events: one in Latvia and two in cooperation with the "Global Initiative on Psychiatry" in Lithuania and Bulgaria, with the aim to prepare local development NGOs to actively participate in the EC call, to be aware of all related issues and successfully develop project proposals, possibly together with other European partners.

The training events will focus on the following issues:
- Introduction into the topic of “Development Education and Awareness Raising”
- Introduction into European funding posssibilities, with focus on the budgetline “Non State Actors - Local Authorities”
- Partner search for EU-funded development education projects in Europe
- Explanation of the guidelines (Call for Proposal 2008)
- Elements of the logframe
- Eligible costs and the (EU-project-)budget

The dates for the training events are:
Vilnius (Lithuania): November 11-12
Riga (Latvia): November 25-27
Sofia (Bulgaria): December 4-5

Local development NGOs who would still like to register for one of the trainings, please contact TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer Petra Kreinecker at p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at or get in touch with your national NGDO platform representatives.

New EC website for the search of Call for Proposals

The EC has renewed its webpage with the searching function on Call for Proposals, which you can now find under the following address:
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?do=publi.welcome

What´s new?
The selection criteria are mainly the same, but additionally you have the possibility to limit the date-related search with the function “published before” and “published after”. The menue “Programme” allows a better overview due to a new subdivision into regional and thematic programmes.

Therefore you will now find the Calls for Proposals of the thematic programmes under their own headings, that means you will find all related Calls for “Non-state actors and local authorities” under that specific title (and no more under “others”).

Information provided by bengo; bengo eu-mail-info Nr. 239: 29.10.2008

New DEEEP Development Education Advocacy Toolkit

How to convince decision makers to support development education? The brand new Development Education (DE) Advocacy Toolkit, published by DEEEP, the Development Education Exchange in Europe Project, provides solid arguments and strategic advice on how to promote development education towards politicians, state authorities and within civil society organisations.

It consists of three parts:

• Arguments recalls the definition of development education and its relation to other fields like global learning or citizenship education. It outlines in eight arguments why development education is important and provides links to more detailed background information. Furthermore, it gives an overview on the situation of global education strategies and funding in Europe.
• Methods is a training module on advocacy strategy planning, including tips for successful lobbying and practical advice on meeting with decision makers.
• Examples shows three successful advocacy processes which led to better recognition of development education: The European multi stakeholder process, the way towards a national DE strategy in Spain and the strengthened support of the Polish government for DE.

The toolkit will be updated regularly in order to include latest data and evidence. You can download it for free from the DEEEP website: http://www.deeep.org/advocacytoolkit.html

For further information, contact: Tobias Troll, DEEEP Advocacy officer, at t.troll@deeep.org
Source: DE Times-October 2008, http://www.deeep.org/

CONCORD Manifesto for the 2009 European Parliament Elections

In June 2009 more than a half billion citizens of the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) will elect their representatives to the European Parliament for the 2009-2014 term. On this occasion, the CONCORD manifesto identifies and discusses three essential EU objectives, namely sustainable development, more and better development aid and democratic accountability and urges Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to act on them.

Trade, agriculture, environment, migration and many other policies have an impact on sustainable development. Yet, these policies have not sufficiently and directly contributed to poverty eradication and the promotion of human rights at the EU, as well as the global level. In addition, the fact that the implementation of these policies exacerbates the situation of people outside the EU is very often ignored.

To promote a responsible Europe, the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development CONCORD calls for a partnership between civil society and the European Parliament in order to uphold the right to sustainable development and responsible citizenship. In this regard, we believe that particular attention needs to be paid to climate justice and gender issues.

The CONCORD Manifesto is available at: http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/internetdocumentsENG/4_Publications/3_CONCORDs_positions_and_studies/CONCORD-EU-MANIFESTO-FINAL.pdf

For further information please contact Melis Alguadis melis.alguadis@concordeurope.org

Source: http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=4&language=eng

NGDO Experts meeting on civil dialogue in Ljubljana

The experts meeting "Strengthening dialogue on global development affairs between civil society and government” was held in Ljubljana on 22 – 23 October 2008. The event was organised by SLOGA, the Slovenian NGDO platform, in cooperation with the Austrian, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak NGDO platforms in the framework of the Regional Partnership Programme (RPP).

The aim of the meeting was to exchange experiences of different civil dialogue practices on global development affairs in Europe. The outcome was a framework for effective civil dialogue in the RPP participating countries. Among the participants were representatives of the Austrian, Hungarian, Czech, Irish and Slovenian NGDO platforms, as well as a representative of Eurostep, the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration.

The debates were focused on advantages and disadvantages of various civil dialogue types (structured vs. informal) according to the experiences of the participating platform and governmental representatives, and on possible improvements of development consultation processes. It was stressed that the RPP significantly contributed to the establishment of civil dialogue with the ministries responsible for development cooperation in Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary and Slovenia, and improved NGDO abilities for advocacy work.

After the meeting, the platforms shall now work on the implementation of the proposed framework for dialogue. The implementation shall be adopted to the national circumstances, based on answers to the following questions:
-what is the communication culture in our country? Is informal consultation with state officials on the basis of personal contacts common or is our cooperation with the government regulated by law? Should we have a combination of both dialogue practices?
-what is our expertise? What kind of expertise does our government expect from us?
-should we become more flexible within the platform in order to shorten the reaction time to respond to the government?
-should our government work more on securing the NGDOs voice in the decision-making?

For further information please visit:
SLOGA webpage: http://www.sloga-platform.org/
RPP webpage: http://www.eu-platform.at/english/start.asp?b=872

Information provided by Anja Mesic, SLOGA, anja.mesic@sloga-platform.org

World without poverty: Development day in Bratislava

The Bratislava development day took place on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October 2008 in the premises of the University Library of Bratislava. The event consisted of two parts – an official one and attendant events.

The official part was arranged as an interactive public discussion, based on existing experience of Slovak organizations actively involved in development cooperation and focused on topics related to the Slovak Official Development Assistance system, including upcoming steps of Slovakia as a donor country, which are necessary to reach the Millennium Development Goals. Apart from the panel on "Slovakia and Development Cooperation", another panel and discussion dealt with the "Global Dimension of Development Cooperation".

International guests from the beneficiary countries as well as other development cooperation experts guaranteed a highly professional debate. The audience highly appreciated the presence of very interesting international guests - Mary Alice Onyura, Director of the Rescue Dada Centre (Mwangaza rehabilitation centre for drug addicted street children) from Nairobi, Muturi Mwangi, farmer and Member of Kenyan National Parliament and Louis Michel, Commissioner responsible for Development and Humanitarian Aid, European Commission.

In parallel with the official part, the attendant events comprised stands of member NGOs of the Slovak NGDO platform MVRO incl. the possibility to buy fair trade products, a photo exhibition about Kenya and South Sudan, paintings by young articsts from Nairobi etc. The programme was concluded by short movie screenings about development aid topics and a "volunteer fair" with volunteers presenting their experiences and informing about volunteer opportunities.


The Development Day in Bratislava was organized within the project „Building support in Austria and Slovakia for reaching the Millenium Development Goals“, financed by the European Commission and Slovak Aid. Find more information about the event on the website of the Slovak NGDO platform MVRO: http://www.mvro.sk/humanitarian-aid-world-without-poverty-development-day.html

Information provided by Lenka Nemcova, MVRO

Evaluation conference of the Regional Partnership Programme in Budapest

The Regional Partnership Programme (RPP) was a unique initiative of the Austrian platform (now called "Global responsibility") focusing on development cooperation among 5 European countries: Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria. The aim of the RPP, that started in 2005 and is finishing at the end of 2008, was to strengthen the capacities and the visibility of development cooperation in the participating Central European countries as well as to improve cooperation between them at the regional level.


A pilot project fund with the amount of EUR 1.100.000 was made available, financed jointly by the Austrian Development Cooperation (70%) and by the governments (20%) and NGDOs (10%) of all participating countries. Through these calls for proposals for pilot projects, some of the "newcomer" NGDOs were for the first time able to gain applicable knowledge in proposal writing, reporting and implementation of development projects.


The RPP evaluation conference, held in Budapest on 25-26 September 2008, proved that the programme was a great success for the participating new member states and their platforms. The conference was a good opportunity for exchanging experiences made during the RPP among pilot project holders as well as their respective platforms and the official governmental representatives. Many of the pilot project holders stressed that the partnership with an Austrian NGDO, that was a precondition when applying for a project, allowed a mutual learning experience and facilitated networking that can be used for future cooperation. On the whole, 58 projects – 35 on development awareness and 23 on development cooperation were funded, with 53 different organisations participating from 5 countries.

In the framework of the RPP also a number of workshops and trainings has been organised to increase the capacities of platforms, eg. on "understanding EU development cooperation" and workshops on advocacy, lobbying and networking. Experience sharing among platforms proved to be very helpful, since many participants were facing similar problems with establishing a sustainable dialogue with the official side. The RPP proved to be a useful bridge between old and new member states. The programme contributed to cross border networking among platforms and opened up a forum for dialogue between MFAs and platforms. Therefore, a concept for continuing the cooperation will be developed among platforms and governments.


Find out more about the Budapest conference and RPP activities under http://www.eu-platform.at/english/start.asp?b=872
Download the brochure "Learning by doing" which summarises RPP activities from 2005-2008: http://doku.cac.at/rpp_broschure_a5_druckfertig_ansicht.pdf

Information provided by Danijela Janosevic, RPP

European NGOs challenge the EU on the financial crisis’ impact on the poor

Against the backdrop of rising food prices and a growing global economic crisis with detrimental impact on the world’s poor, European development Ministers convened at an informal meeting in Bordeaux. European civil society representatives addressed the ministers, urging them to fulfil their responsibilities to increase financial flows to developing countries, as well as actions to clamp down on capital flight.

CONCORD, the European Confederation of Development NGOs urged ministers to agree an ambitious and specific common EU position for the United Nations “Financing for Development” summit which starts on 29 November. Citizens in developing countries have little impact on the decisions of global traders who have abused and destabilised the financial system, but they will feel the effects of the financial crisis for years to come. The civil society organisations present in Bordeaux called for low-income countries to also be represented at the proposed Bretton Woods II conference to ensure their interests are represented when the financial system is reviewed.

Henri Rouille d’Orfeuil, President of Coordination SUD, the platform of French development NGOs, commented “It is essential that at this time of crisis Europe looks for a way forward, and does not signal that it is walking away from its political commitments and abandoning developing countries.”

“Money leaked through capital flight from developing countries to rich countries is an estimated 300 billion euros per year,” says Alex Wilks, Director of the European Network on Debt and Development. “This is an unforgiveable situation, and European governments must immediately take action to regulate the many European tax havens.”

CONCORD called upon EU Member States to agree a strong and unified European position on the Doha Financing for Development process. They urged heads of State to attend the conference in November to ensure real progress can be made in reforming the financial system in the interests of all citizens in Europe and in developing countries.

For further information, please visit http://www.concordeurope.org/

Source: CONCORD Press release, 30th September, 2008; Information provided by Agnes Philippart, CONCORD

The EU and its neighbourhood in a changing world

The Polish think tank, demosEUROPA – Centre for European Strategy, has published a report/policy paper about "The European Union and its neighbourhood in a changing world. Defining a new strategic relationship with the Eastern and Southern neighbours." The publication is available by following this link:
http://www.demoseuropa.eu/upload/editor/demos/File/demosEUROPA_The%20European%20Union%20and%20its%20neighbourhood%20in%20a%20changing%20world..pdf

Information provided by Marta Pejda, Polish NGDO platform Grupa Zagranica, marta@zagranica.org.pl

Joint EC funded project to stop malaria calls for public support

Malaria continues to be a major threat to health and development in many endemic countries, leading to about 1 million deaths annually. STOP MALARIA NOW! is a two-year awareness campaign of nine non-governmental organisations from Germany, Italy, Kenya, Poland, Spain and Switzerland aiming to increase awareness about malaria and to remind European decision-makers of the urgency to act in order to prevent more than one million malaria-deaths every year and to combat malaria in the long-run. The search for a new member state partner in the project consortium was facilitated by TRIALOG and the cooperation with the Polish NGO further deepened during a TRIALOG training in preparation of the EC Call to which the consortium applied successfully.

With the slogan “Show your face against malaria” STOP MALARIA NOW! calls for public support to increase political, strategic, and financial commitments on behalf of European governments to fight the illness. Everyone is encouraged to upload his or her photo on the campaign website as a sign of support. All photos will be included in an Africa-shaped photo mosaic, which will be handed to the European Commission and other relevant decision-makers at the end of 2009. Every single photo makes a difference.

Join campaigners across the globe and be a part of an international action against malaria. Take action and show your face against malaria using the following link: http://www.stopmalarianow.org/your-face.html

For further information please contact Antje Mangelsdorf, Project Coordinator, STOP MALARIA NOW! at: info@stopmalarianow.org

Information provided by Antje Mangelsdorf, STOP MALARIA NOW!

Volunteer Network Project in Cyprus

Every year thousands and thousands of people volunteer for different causes all over the world. It has become a ‘second nature’ of individuals to offer their services to the many sectors that always need volunteers - whether it is the health sector, education sector, environment sector, arts and culture sector, youth or development sector.

As it has been seen worldwide what volunteers can achieve for a good cause, the Turkish Cypriot organisation 'The Management Centre' along with the Greek Cypriot partner 'The NGO Support Centre' has been implementing the Volunteer Network Project within the island in order to raise awareness for volunteerism. Nearly all civil society organisations (CSOs) in Cyprus require the assistance of volunteers to help them meet their organisations' goals.

Through extensive advertising of the volunteer network project, posters, brochures and stickers have been created and disseminated to all ends of the island. Meetings with a steering committee and an advisiory board have been convened throughout the lifecycle of the project so that the project team has always been in touch with what the CSOs wanted to achieve and what they understood by the term ‘volunteer’. Television advertisements and radio annoucements have been accepted by most of the media who supported the projects aims. The project has already managed to match individuals with CSOs and still continues to do so.

A volunteer website http://www.volunteercyprus.org/ has been established and is frequently updated. A database of CSOs needing volunteers and individuals that want to be a volunteer has been created and will be uploaded to the website.

For further details on the island-wide project and how to become a volunteer in Cyprus please contact Tulin Aker taker@mc-med.org or Tanyel Oktar toktar@mc-med.org.

Information provided by Tulin Aker, taker@mc-med.org

Millenium Development Goals Report 2008

According to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals Report 2008, "the world has made strong and sustained progress in reducing extreme poverty, but this is now being undercut by higher prices - particularly of food and oil - and the global economic slowdown".

Find the UN report at the following link:
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/The%20Millennium%20Development%20Goals%20Report%202008.pdf

To read about the high-level event in New York on 25 September 2008, convened by the UN Secretary-General and the President of the UN General Assembly to renew commitments to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and to set out concrete plans and practical steps for action, please visit: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/

Source: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals

Terra Viva Grants: Website about grants in the green sector

Terra Viva Grants is a new website for identifying where to look for grants in the "green sectors" of international development. The website includes profiles of about 300 grant makers worldwide in agriculture, energy, environment, and natural resources.

The profiles of grant makers can be browsed in lists, or searched in a database to speed up filtering and comparison. Users can search for grants made by foundations and NGOs, companies, government organizations, and international organizations. Grants are for technical assistance (development projects), education and capacity building, research, and prizes and awards.

Access to the website is free. Visit it at: http://www.terravivagrants.org/
Terra Viva Grants welcomes partners who are willing to recommend grant-making organizations to add to the profiles, and to translate the site into languages other than English. For further information or if you would like to place a link to Terra Viva Grants on your website, please contact Jan Laarman at terravivagrants@gmail.com.

Information provided by Jan Laarman, Terra Viva Grants

International Fellowship Programme: Call for Applications

The International Fellowship Programme for Learning and Exchange in Philanthropy (IFP) invites applications and searches for host institutions for its fourth round, beginning in spring 2009. This programme offers European foundation and NGO staff (young leaders as well as executives) the opportunity to work for up to 6 weeks in non-profit host institutions abroad. For every programme cycle, approximately 10 to 15 fellows are accepted. Two categories of fellowships (fully funded and partly funded) have been defined.

The deadline for applications is Friday, 14 November 2008. Fellowships will usually take place between March and September 2009, with a minimum duration of three and a maximum of six (in exceptional cases eight) weeks. Detailed information and the application form are available at http://www.efc.be/ifp.

The IFP was launched in 2005 by a group of European and international donors. From 2005 until 2008, a total of 51 fellows were supported, working in fields such as the environment, youth, community development and business-NGO relations.

Information provided by European Foundation Centre, ifp@efc.be

Nov. 8, 2008: Conference on Youth Inclusion and Youth Participation in Cyprus

On Saturday, 8 November 2008 youth from Cyprus will meet with other youth from 11 European Union countries at the "European Conference on Youth Inclusion and Youth Participation" in Larnaca, Cyprus. They will hear from distinguished leaders across Europe, present results of an International Youth Survey, discuss outputs of regional youth Structured Dialogues held in Cyprus, Italy and Romania and present a joint declaration on citizenship and youth participation across Europe.

This conference is part of the European Union Youth in Action Programme project called "UCYVROK" which is short for "Uniting for Citizenship and participation: Youth promoting Vulnerable groups' Rights, Opportunities and Knowledge". The UCYVROK project is coordinated by a Cypriot non-governmental organisation, Future Worlds Center, and is implemented in partnership with eleven youth non-governmental organisations from across Europe.

Confirmed speakers at the conference include Panayiotis Demetriou, MEP from Cyprus, and Jaco Cilliers, Programme Manager from the United Nations Development Programme - Action for Cooperation and Trust (UNDP-ACT).

For more information please visit http://fwcis.blogspot.com/ or contact Project Coordinator Larry Fergeson at Future Worlds Center, larry.fergeson.cyprus@gmail.com

Information provided by the Future Worlds Center, Cyprus, futureworldscenter@gmail.com

Nov. 15-17, 2008: European Development Days, Strasbourg

The third edition of the European Development Days (EDD), a meeting of different development cooperation stakeholders and decision makers organised by the European Commission, will take place in Strasbourg (France) on November 15-17, 2008.

This year, the central theme will be "local authorities and development"; eg. twinning initiatives between local authorities in the "North" and "South" will be encouraged. A lot of organisations, including NGOs, will present themselves in the so-called "Development Village".

Humanis, a French network of NGOs from the Strasbourg region, is inviting to a common reflection on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 entitled "European Meeting of NGO networks: key actors for development aid". The meeting will bring together NGO networks from old and new EU member states in order to share experiences and practices, to identify the expectations of each network and to build partnerships. A few parallel workshops will be offered. TRIALOG Director Christine Bedoya will lead a workshop on cooperation between NGO platforms from old and new EU member states and participate in the conference debate on "European NGO Platforms : Essentials Actors for Development Cooperation." Download the meeting programme from http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/european_meeting_ngo_networks.pdf.
For further information on the Humanis meeting, please visit http://www.humanis.org/ or contact Julie Martineau, martineau@humanis.org.

For more information and the agenda of the entire Development Days please visit the official EDD website: http://www.eudevdays.eu/Public/index_en.html

Sources: http://www.eudevdays.eu/Public/index_en.html and information provided by Julie Martineau, Humanis.

Nov. 15-23, 2008: Global Education Week

The tenth annual European Global Education Week (GEW) will take place from the 15th to the 23rd of November 2008, at the initiative of the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe.

The Global Education Week (also known in some countries as One World Week) supports teachers, youth leaders, young people and other formal and non-formal educational constituencies to engage in education for global citizenship; and enhances the effectiveness of this endeavour nationally and throughout Europe, through co-ordination of initiatives and sharing of best practices. All schools and youth organisations in the Council of Europe’s member States are invited to take part in the event, as well as any other interested educational practitioners.

For more information, e.g. about national contacts and activities, please visit the Global Education Week webpage: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/nscentre/GE/GEW/0GEW2008_en.asp#TopOfPage

Source: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/nscentre/default_EN.asp

Advance Notice: WorldAidsConference 2010 in Vienna

Following the World Aids Conference 2008 in Mexico City, Vienna will host the next WorldAidsConference from July 18-23 in 2010.

The World Aids Conference seeks impact on the emerging epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. 33.2 million people live currently with HIV, the majority in sub-Saharan Africa, 1.6 million in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Between 2001 and 2007 the number of HIV positive people has grown by 150% in this region.

Nearly 90% of the newly reported HIV diagnoses in this region in 2006 were from two countries – the Russian Federation (66%) and the Ukraine (21%). Numbers from the Central Asian countries are increasing continuously. Regarding the mode of transmission, as far as reported in 2006, it was attributed to injecting drug use in two thirds of cases, but in more than one third it was ascribed to unprotected heterosexual intercourse. Migration and trafficking makes particularly women highly vulnerable to become infected.

In the Austrian capital where 15 years ago the UN World conference on Human Rights took place, the link between HIV/Aids and Violations of Human Rights will certainly be a focus. The International Aids Society (http://www.iasociety.org/), the main organizer of the conference, hopes that political leaders, scientists, NGO activists and HIV positive people themselves will be able to participate and take the opportunity to present their work and ideas and exchange experience with actors of other world regions who are involved in the fight against the pandemic.
Development NGOs from new member states and accessing countries are invited to participate! Contact the Community Forum Austria (CFA), an NGO Network which prepares the civil society participation in the conference and the global village – an NGO Fair, where it will be possible to have a stand.

For further information on the 2010 conference please contact Christine Keplinger from CFA at keplinger@aids.at or have a look on the internet page of the upcoming conference: http://www.aids2010.org

Further links:
The Austrian Aids Assistance Organisation in Vienna coordinates the CFA: http://www.aids.at. The Austrian Action Alliance against HIV/Aids consists mainly of NGDOs working with HIV/Aids affected people in their projects and is part of CFA: http://www.aidskampagne.at. World Vision Austria is member of both networks: http://www.worldvision.at/

Information provided by Lisa Sterzinger, World Vision Austria, lisa.sterziner@worldvision.at

WIDE conference 2008: Feminist visions for a just Europe

The WIDE Annual Conference 2008 "Feminist Visions for a Just Europe" took place in The Hague, Netherlands, on October 9-11.

The conference documentation including some presentations, radio- interviews and the daily feminist news are available on the following websites:

http://www.wide-network.org/
http://feministvisionsforeurope.blogspot.com/

Source: http://www.wide-network.org

DE Times - October 2008

The new issue of the Development Education (DE) Times is now available on the website of DEEEP, the Development Education Exchange in Europe Project.

Download it from http://www.deeep.org or use the direct link http://www.deeep.org/fileadmin/user_upload/downloads/DE_Times/DE_Times_October_2008.pdf

Information provided by Chiara Tripepi, DEEEP

CONCORD Flash - Summer 2008

The summer issue of the CONCORD Flash - which reports the latest news from the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development - was released in October.

During the three months (July-September) there were four major development-related meetings: the G8, the UN Development Cooperation Forum, the Accra High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness and the meeting of EU development ministers. In collaboration with other civil society organisations, CONCORD mobilised its forces to make its voice heard at these events.

Download the Flash from the publication section of the CONCORD website http://www.concordeurope.org/ or use the direct link: http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/internetdocumentsENG/4_Publications/1_CONCORD_Flash/Flash2008/Summer-Flash-EN.pdf

Information provided by Agnes Philippart, CONCORD