Sneak Preview: The 2nd Edition of TRIALOG´s Partnership Fair

With few days left, the Partnership Fair is well taking shape and seems to be on the right track.

150 civil society representatives from 25 different countries have successfully submitted project proposals and will join the Partnership Fair in Vienna between 15th and 17th of February 2010. The event will include:

• Presentations on EuropeAid funding mechanisms and civil society perspectives on these mechanisms,
• a Market Place where participants have the possibility to directly present their own organisations,
• Expert Presentations on partnerships and partners such as the local authorities, on how to write a project proposal and on how to finance these projects
• and, most importantly, concrete work on project ideas and shaping up project proposals for future calls.

The ideas received so far are as varied as the participants, ranging from gender-related topics and the empowerment of women as development actors or volunteering in development, to raising awareness about poverty, tackling environmental challenges or dealing with inter-Platform cooperation on development issues. These topics make us think that the event will set itself to be a very productive ground for future proposals and this was precisely the purpose.

Looking forward to welcoming all in Vienna.

Information provided by Andra Tanase, TRIALOG

EuropeAid: Forecast of upcoming calls

On February 10, 2010, EuropeAid published an updated forecast of upcoming global calls for proposals. Among them, the calls of the thematic programme "Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development" (on Development Education; Coordination, Cooperation and Networking Activities; Global, Multicountry/regional Initiatives; In-country Interventions) which are expected to be published on March 15, 2010, but also calls of other thematic programmes (Investing in People, Environment, European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights) are listed.

For more information, please see: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/funding/documents/call_forecast.pdf Please note that the table includes a forecast only of thematic calls for proposals that have not yet been launched and for which guidelines and application forms are not yet available on the EuropeAid website. The information contained in the table is indicative only and subject to change.

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/funding/documents/call_forecast.pdf

GLEN Multipliers Training Cycle 2010 has kicked off

It is already the 7th year that the Global Education Network of Young Europeans (GLEN) will train over 100 young Europeans to become global education multipliers. The participants are being recruited in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Malta, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany and France. Once recruited, the participants will take part in a year-long training cycle that will take them from theory, through experience right into the practice of global education.

GLEN Multipliers Training Cycle (MTC) consists of four phases. First the participants attend two Multipliers Training Seminars, where they receive the first training in global education topics and methodology. They are also trained in team work and intercultural communication, as the next phase that follows are the Internships. In tandems and tridems, the young people participate in a three-month long internship provided by civil society organisations in the countries of Africa, Asia and Caucasus. The topics of internships vary from social work, through education to sustainable tourism and related issues. Once the participants are back home, they start planning and then carry out a Global Education Activity on a local, national or European level, based on their experience from the South. The last phase of the Cycle is the RENew Seminar, where all the participants meet again to evaluate, reflect, exchange and network for new joint global education activities.

The new development in the 2010 edition of the GLEN MTC is the Transfer Seminar. After last year’s successful pilot, the Transfer Seminar has become a regular offer of GLEN. The Transfer Seminar is focused on transferring the experience of living and working in countries of the Global South into global education activities in Europe and will take place in November 2010.

For more information please visit http://www.glen-europe.org/ or write to Kasia Szeniawska: kasia@glen-europe.org

Information provided by Kasia Szeniawska, GLEN

CSO Empowerment in Belarus

Lithuanian NGO Information and Support Centre in cooperation with Belarussian Centre for Social Innovations this year launch a two-year Project to facilitate the development of a sustainable social policy in Belarus, in particular on poverty reduction and social inclusion. The project is financed by the European Commission.

Due to political restrictions and the informational isolation of the country, non-governmental organisations lack knowledge, skills and capacities to effectively address poverty reduction and social exclusion issues and establish cooperation with relevant authorities. Moreover, Belarussian NGOs have fragmental communication and informational channels with other relevant organizations from the EU. Belarussian regional and even local authorities being under direct regulation of the central government, take a passive role in the execution of their functions, having little understanding of the international policies and no capacities and instruments to develop and implement social strategies. The Belarussian general public is also accustomed to the top-down approach and takes little initiative to participate in the process at local level.

The project will aim:

• To encourage Belarussian civil society to participate actively in the development and implementation of social policy and strengthen cooperation among Belarussian CSOs;
• To establish a platform for cooperation of Belarussian CSOs and local communities with local authorities and other stakeholders;
• To empower Belarussian NGOs to participate in policy dialogue;
• To establish partnerships between Belarussian and EU CSOs.

For more information about the Lithuanian NGO Information and Support Centre and the project please visit http://www.nisc.lt/ or contact info@nisc.lt.

Information provided by Olia Zuravliova, NGO Information and Support Centre

Slovenia: Visit from Afghanistan

Between 20th and 22nd January, 2010, the Slovenian NGDO Platform SLOGA hosted Mrs. Fatima Gailani, president of Afghan Red Crescent and Mr. Abaceen Nasimi, journalist and project manager of Institute for War and Peace Reporting. The purpose of their visit was to raise awareness on Afghanistan, the needs of Afghan civil society, their views on the role of international community and the role of Slovenia in Afghanistan. Within the 2 days Mrs. Gailani in Mr. Nasimi met with Slovenian president dr. Danilo Turk, representatives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and development minister Dragoljuba Benčina, representatives of Ministry of Defence and minister dr. Ljubica Jelušič, Chamber of Commerce, mufti, Red Cross, media and Slovenian NGOs.

In the meeting with NGOs that took place on January 21, Mrs. Gailani (Mr. Nasimi arrived to Slovenia only on Thursday evening) explained the role and activities of Red Crescent in Afghanistan. More than 41 000 volunteers included in the organization work all over Afghanistan and have access to places many other organizations don’t have. Mrs. Gailani emphasized that this access is possible also due to their neutrality: “If you are neutral, people will respect you and it will be possible to work everywhere.” Mrs. Gailani also highlighted that military reinforcement in Afghanistan without development aid will not bring any changes. It is therefore crucial to create jobs and enable a decent life for the Afghani people for a peaceful future of Afghanistan.

Information provided by Marjan Huc, SLOGA

Debating MDGs and the role of Slovenian development institutions

In the first days in 2010, the Slovenian NGDO platform SLOGA organised a roundtable on the implementation of MDGs and the role of Slovenian development institutions, civil society and others in achieving efficient development aid. The roundtable gathered NGO representatives as well as representatives of MFA, Division for International Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture and the Faculty of Social Sciences. Participants agreed that Slovenia has made an important step forward in the field of raising its official development assistance and improving its efficiency. Slovenia has even increased its ODA in the time of financial crisis. However there is a room for improvement, specially in regard to the role of Slovenian parliament and broader public. It was agreed that civil society organisations play an important part within the Slovenian development mechanism. In the future more emphasis will be given to better coordination of development aid, inclusion of economic actors and to better professional support to development policy.

Information provided by Marjan Huc, SLOGA

Images of Africa and global South in fundraising campaigns?

Slovenian NGOs have stepped on the path of the European debate on images and messages in communication material and public campaigns. Various fundraising campaigns that took place in Slovenia in the last quarter of 2009 triggered the discussion and the round table Images of Africa and global South in fundraising campaigns. Organized by the African Centre of Slovenia and Slovenian NGO platform for development cooperation and humanitarian aid SLOGA on 14th December 2009, the participants of the round table – NGOs, students and academics – exchanged views on ways mainstream fundraising campaigns are carried out and looked for best practices in Slovenian space. The participants emphasized dehumanizing images and stereotypes of Africa that these public campaigns promote. While recognizing the reality of poverty in Africa the panellists agreed that this is a one-sided story and images of passive Africans waiting for help from the West should be challenged. A panellist from the Faculty of Education introduced the in Europe already well known concept of development pornography that she felt was the most adequate term for describing the topic of the debate: use of shocking images of people in the global South living in poverty as part of campaigns by NGOs to encourage general public into donating money.

This round table was only the beginning of a wider discussion on the topic. African Centre of Slovenia and SLOGA are already planning new events in 2010 on the topic and within this frame a promotion of Code of Conduct on Images and Messages.

Related link:
Code of Conduct on Images and Messages, presented at the Development Education Forum (DEF) in Malta in October 2006, and approved by CONCORD General Assembly in June 2007:
http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/code-of-conduct-on-images-messages.pdf

Information provided by Marjan Huc, SLOGA

AidWatch Aid Cuts Briefing published

The CONCORD AidWatch group has published a briefing “EU Aid in Jeopardy?”, which contains updated information since the 2009 report, suggesting that the EU and individual member states are off-track on meeting current aid target commitments.

This year is a key milestone, as EU member states agreed to meet a collective target of 0.56% GNI by 2010. Recent figures however show that EU aid in 2008 was a mere 0.4% of GNI. Despite the financial crisis, Belgium, Spain and the UK are making some progress towards the goals, whereas most new member states (NMS) are not close enough to their individual 0.17% target. Poland’s aid for 2009 was around 0.08% of GNI and the Czech Republic is around 0.13%. At the extreme, Latvia has cut its bilateral aid down to almost zero.

With the briefing, European NGOs are calling on the EU to step up efforts towards this year’s 0.56% collective target. National platforms of development NGOs are encouraged to use the briefing in their lobbying activities – whether it is through contact with MEPs, asking them to raise questions around the topics highlighted by the briefing; with national parliamentarians in the committee responsible for aid; with government officials to reemphasise key messages about aid or to member organisations and partners for information.

PDF versions of the briefing can be downloaded from the CONCORD website: http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/extranetdocumentsENG/NavigationPrincipale/06.Publications/06_3_PositionsandStudies/CONCORD-EU-aid-briefing-dec09-PDF.pdf

If you would like hard copies, please send your request to AidWatch Coordinator Alessandro Bozzini: Alessandro.BOZZINI@concordeurope.org

Information provided by Rebecca Steel-Jasińska, TRIALOG

Commissioner hearings have drawn to a close

2010 started with an intensive schedule of hearings in the European Parliament. The reselected José Manuel Barroso, President of the last European Commission and set to continue for the next five years, put forward the 26 Commissioner-designates chosen by the member states for sessions during which MEPs were able to question the candidates’ knowledge of their dossiers and judge whether they were appropriate for the jobs.

Catherine Ashton’s hearing on 11 January assessed her suitability for the newly-created post of High Representative for External Relations. The Foreign Affairs Committee posed many questions on the new institutional set up that created her role, including on the new European External Action Service, which she said would be subject to full scrutiny by the European Parliament. Other topics covered in the three-hour session included the coordination between her and other international affairs commissioners; human rights and her views on specific countries such as Afghanistan and Iran.

Andris Piebalgs is the Latvian Commissioner-designate for development. His hearing was also seen as fairly successful, as he convinced the parliament of his commitment to the key development aim of fighting poverty, as well as speaking on aid effectiveness, the impact of climate change on developing countries and the coordination needed among European policy makers. His aims for the next five years include the success of the Millenium Development Goals, ensuring aid commitment targets are met, policy coherence for development and respect for human rights.

Štefan Füle is the Czech Commissioner-designate who will deal with enlargement and neighbourhood policy. He brought a personal perspective to the session, saying that ‘enlargement is more than just a public policy and more than a commissioner’s portfolio. It has transformed my country, my life and the whole of Europe.’ He confirmed his central importance of the Copenhagen criteria for those countries wishing to join in the next few years and dealt with questions regarding enlargement fatigue. In terms of neighbourhood policy, Mr Füle said he would devote as much time to the East as to the South and strongly declared his belief that the neighbourhood policy is a coherent approach that allows the EU to strengthen its relationships with all the neighbours, while allowing the EU to tailor these relations according to the individual country.

After a stormy hearing in which Commissioner-designate for humanitarian aid Rumiana Jeleva was accused of a conflict of interests due to her shares in a consultancy firm in Bulgaria, a replacement , Kristalina Georgieva, was put forward. Unlike Ms Jeleva, Ms Georgieva has a certain amount of experience in the portfolio due to her previous position as vice-president in the World Bank group. She had her hearing on 3 February and then the European Parliament voted on the new European Commission as a whole on 9 February 2010.

European Parliament hearings website: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/hearings/default.htm?language=EN

Information provided by Rebecca Steel-Jasińska, TRIALOG

Project "Donate a smile" between Slovenia and Montenegro

The Institute KROG is a Slovenian NGO whose main fields of activities are humanitarian work, developmental cooperation, education, social care, media, culture and art activities. Since 2005, the organisation has been carrying out the project "Donate a Smile" which has focused on rehabilitation of children from South-Eastern Europe; so far from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. In 2010 and 2011, the Institute also plans to offer a rehabilitation programme for children from Montenegro.

The rehabilitation programme targets socially handicapped and abused (physically, psychically and sexually) children in primary schools and children without one or both parents from rural areas, who are victims of: bad economic and social position of their parents and the place where they live, trafficking of human beings, discrimination, violating of children rights, intolerance, bad educational possibilities, lack of psycho-social help etc. Among them there are also families who came back home after the war but they do not have settled their residence status. They have no job or education possibilities and still have to cope with discrimination and after-war hate.

Among the goals of the project are: to enable children to have vacations and spend an active and unstressed time during the rehabilitation and have at least a short “runaway” from their everyday life; to improve the psycho-social condition of children and to show possibilities of co-living of different ethic groups, intercultural dialog, tolerance and reintegration.

For more information about the project and the Institute KROG, please visit http://www.zavod-krog.si/ or contact info@zavod-krog.si

Information provided by Emina Hadžić, Institute KROG

Peipsi Forum VII: Cross-border cooperation on the EU external borders

On December 2-3, 2009, it was already the seventh occasion for the Peipsi Center for Transboundary Cooperation to organise the Peipsi Forum in Tartu, Estonia. This time, it was entitled "Cross-border cooperation on the EU external borders: Environment, use of shared natural resources and regional development".

Peipsi Forum is a regular event that brings together major stakeholders in the regional development and cross-border cooperation in the Estonian – Russian border area but this year participants came also from other Baltic Sea region countries and even transboundary Dniester River region (Moldova-Ukraine).

Most of the Estonian – Russian border area is occupied by the Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe, the fourth largest lake in Europe in terms of surface area. This is why issues concerning the transboundary water management have always been an important topic on the Peipsi forums’ agenda. This topic was especially important at this Peipsi Forum 2009, the year which was announced by the United Nations as Year of Transboundary Waters.

In earlier years, discussions at Peipsi Forum focused mostly on topics of the local cross-border cooperation but since 2004 Estonia became a member of the EU and the Estonian – Russian border area is now EU external border; more attention at Forums was paid to the discussions on implementation of the EU strategies and initiatives in this region. The EU policies increasingly affect not only economic and social development on the Estonian side of the border area but also the dynamics and character of the cross-border cooperation with Russia.

This year around 90 participants of Peipsi Forum discussed on topics of the EU Baltic Sea Strategy, adopted by the European Commission in 2009, the EU Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Eastern Partnership. You can read more on Peipsi Forum at: http://www.ctc.ee

Information provided by Margit Säre, Peipsi Center for Transboundary Cooperation, margit@ctc.ee

Romania doubled its ODA budget for 2010

The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will allocate 3, 8 million euros in 2010 for the Official Development Assistance budget. In 2009 the ODA budget was less than 2 million euros. According to an interview given to Euractiv Romania, Mihaela Rutjens (Head of Division for Official Development Assistance, Romanian MFA) mentioned that 2 million euros from the 2010 budget will be used for implementing projects in the Republic of Moldova. Mrs. Rutjens believes this substantial increase in the ODA budget is a proof that our country wants to accomplish its commitments (as a EU member, Romania must allocate 0, 17% GNI for ODA in 2010). All activities reported as Romanian ODA in 2008 amounted up to 100 million euros, although the target for 2010 is over 200 million euros (0, 17% GNI).

Information provided by Adela Rusu, Romanian NGDO platform FOND

Development Discourse in Romania: from Socialism to EU Membership

"Development Discourse in Romania: from Socialism to EU Membership" is the title of the PhD thesis written by Mirela Oprea in 2009 at the Università di Bologna, Italy.

With their accession to the European Union, twelve new countries - Romania among them - (re)entered the international community of international donors. This thesis collects evidence for improving our understanding of this process that sees the co-optation of twelve new countries to the dominant theory and practice of development cooperation. As the Executive Summary reveals, the thesis is a critical reflection of constructing the ‘new’ Member States as‘new’, inexpert donors that need to learn from the ‘old’ ones. It gathers data that suggests that conceiving of the ‘twelve’ as ‘new’ donors is both historically inaccurate and value-ladden. On one hand, Romania’s case-study illustrates how in the (socialist) past at least one in the group of the twelve was particularly conversant in the discourse of international development. On the other hand, the process of co-optation, while being presented as a knowledge-producing process, can also be seen as an ignorance-producing procedure: Romania, along with its fellow new Member States, takes the opportunity of ‘building its capacity’ and ‘raising its awareness’ of development cooperation along the line drawn by the European Union, but at the same time it seems to un-learn and ‘lower’ its awareness of development experience in the (socialist) past.

Thanks to the friendly permission of the author, the full text of the thesis is available for download from the TRIALOG website:
http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/oprea_mirela_development-cooperation-discourse-in-romania.pdf

For more information or exchange of views, you can contact Mirela Oprea at: mirella.oprea@gmail.com

Information provided by Anita Bister, TRIALOG

Black Sea NGO Forum: Final report and latest newsletter

The final report of the second edition of the Black Sea NGO Forum (‘NGOs in Times of Crisis’) is now available online at http://www.blackseango.org/; or use the direct link to the 32 pages report (incl. all the speeches, reports of different sessions, participants etc.): http://www.blackseango.org/library/Black%20Sea%20NGO%20Forum%202009/BSNF%202009.pdf (see also related article in December 2009 TIS: http://trialog-information-service.blogspot.com/2009/12/black-sea-ngo-forum-2009-ngos-in-times.html)

A direct outcome of the Black Sea NGO Forum is The Black Sea NGO Newsletter. It aims to bring more information on each other’s activities around the year as well as on other NGO-related issues that can help improve NGO work and common understanding. The latest issue, No.5, Winter 2010 (as well as former issues) are available for download from http://www.blackseango.org/pagini/black-sea-ngo-newsletter.php. Direct link to the latest issue: http://www.blackseango.org/library/Newsletter/BlackSeaNGO%20Newsletter%205.pdf

Information provided by Iuliana Rada, Civil Society Development Foundation

Danish Initiative: Keep Your Promises to the Poor!

The Danish EU-NGO Platform has launched the first Citizen’s Initiative under the Lisbon Treaty: Keep Your Promises to the Poor! The aim is to collect 1 million signatures raising awareness about the fact that European leaders do not deliver on the aid promises they have given. The initiative will be used to make a breakthrough in the global fight against poverty and is supported by AidWatch. Use the following link to give the world’s poor a voice: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/promises/

Source: Infomail 13.01.2010, published by Global Responsibility, Austrian Platform for Development and Humanitarian Aid

Welcome and a big thank you to TRIALOG interns: Filiz, Gabi and Christoph

We are happy that our work is currently supported by three interns.

In the Brussels TRIALOG office, Filiz Aytac has already started to get familiar with different topics of EU development policy and structures as well as with TRIALOG and CONCORD work and enlargement issues. Filiz was born in Turkey, studied in Paris and London and has previous work experience in the NGO field as well as with EU institutions. She will support TRIALOG in its cooperation with Turkey and Cyprus, attend and report back from relevant Brussels events as well as support our Policy Officer in the coordination of the work around the working group EPAN (Enlargement, Pre-Accession and Neighbourhood). At the moment, she is completing a paper on the impact of the EU Blue card on development cooperation policies and its implications on the countries of origin and destination. Filiz will stay with us until end of June 2010.

In the Vienna Head Office, Christoph Omann from Austria and Gabi Thomasová from Slovakia are taking active part in the preparation of the TRIALOG Partnership Fair which will in February gather 150 people in Vienna to support NGOs from across Europe to get in contact with each other and design joint development (education) projects for the future. Christoph is a student of International Development with a focus on political science and geography at the University of Vienna, he also did a previous internship at an environment and human rights organization in Argentina. Gabi completed two master studies in Bratislava and the Netherlands and finished a postgraduate programme in Vienna. She lived and collected working experience in the USA, Netherlands, Austria and Slovakia and worked with various state and civil society organisations as an intern. Thanks to Gabi and Christoph the logistical preparation of the Partnership Fair is well on track!

We welcome all three colleagues in our team and thank for their invaluable support!

Information provided by Anita Bister, TRIALOG

Global Fund Training Manual

As an African-European initiative, the STOP MALARIA NOW! initiative does not only want to raise public awareness about malaria as a global health and development issue and mobilize European decision-makers to make stronger political, financial and strategic commitments in the fight against malaria. Advocating for additional resources is only one side of the coin. It is just as important that particularly small NGOs which mostly carry out their activities in rural areas and therefore make an essential contribution to reach universal coverage get access to international funding.

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is the main financing instrument for malaria programs, providing 60% of all international funding for malaria. But application for funding from the Global Fund as well as the participation in its decision making processes remains complex for many civil society organizations.

Especially the work of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) is indispensable in the fight against malaria and other poverty related diseases. It is therefore even more important that they receive financial support so that international funding reaches the people most in need.

This is why STOP MALARIA NOW!, in cooperation with two partner organizations in Kenya, has developed a training curriculum as well as a respective manual to strengthen the knowledge and the capacities of CBOs to apply for funding from the Global Fund.

The new Training Manual is available for download from: http://www.stopmalarianow.org/fileadmin/redaktion/Publications/Training_Manual.pdf

Information provided by Antje Mangelsdorf, STOP MALARIA NOW!

Austrian NGO searches for partners from Czech Republic

The Austrian organisation "Südwind Niederösterreich" is searching for project partners from Czech Republic (NGOs from different fields - e.g. development or environmental - or municipalities, with co-financing resources) for a joint project in the area of food security and climate change. The project proposal has to be submitted by March 23, 2009.

Please find more information on the project idea in the following file: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/suedwind-noe.pdf
The contact person in Südwind Niederösterreich is Alice Scridon: alice.scridon@oneworld.at, http://www.suedwind-noewest.at/

Information provided by Alice Scridon, Südwind Niederösterreich

Serbian NGO searches for EU partners, preferably from Slovakia

A Serbian organisation is searching for a partner from Slovakia (or another EU country) for a joint project proposal within the EC call "Strengthening Serbia-EU Civil Society Dialogue". The proposed activity is a computer camp for children in a region in Serbia where almost half of the population is Slovak. For more information and contact details, please refer to the following document: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/serbia_sk-compcamp.pdf"
Interested organisations should contact directly the Serbian partners.

Information provided by Radoslava Konjevic, Project CompCamp

World Vision seeking Development Education Consultant

World Vision Austria, World Vision Germany and World Vision Romania are now seeking a consultant for an EU funded project.

Project Description: The 3 year project "Youth envisioning the future in Europe and Africa- strengthening capacity for innovative approaches to Development Education" aims at involving youth aged 14 to 18 in peer-to-peer education. The project is conducted in 3 different EU countries: Germany, Romania and Austria. It has a different topic for every year: HIV/AIDS in 2010, Child and maternal health in 2011, and food security in 2012.

Required Qualifications: The assigned consultant has a pedagogic background and already collected experience in composing and generating teaching material. He/She has experience in teaching youth aged 14/18 as to be able to evaluate different methods with regards to their values for the package. The consultant has, at least a proven basic understanding of the 3 different yearly topics. He/She has proven proficiency in writing and speaking German and English.

For more information, please see the Terms of Reference http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/tor_final-28ian2010.pdf, or contact Johannes Backhaus: johannes_backhaus@wvi.org.

Deadline for submitting your proposal including a realistic timetable and a final price (VAT included) is February 22, 2010.

Information provided by Chiara Tripepi, DEEEP

Job vacancy at International Disability and Development Consortium

The International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) is currently looking for an Administrative and Finance Officer, based in Brussels. Closing date for applications is 14 February 2010. The job advert is available on the following website: http://www.iddcconsortium.net/joomla/index.php/job-opportunities
Direct link: http://www.iddcconsortium.net/joomla/images/IDDC/jobs/100127_iddc_admin_and_finance_officer.doc

Information provided by Pia Wurzer, IDDC

February 15, 2010: Western Sahara’s unresolved issues, Ljubljana

Western Sahara Support Society and Institute for African Studies invite to the international syposium "Western Sahara’s unresolved issues" which will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Monday, 15th February 2010.

The symposium will be a space for reflection, coordination and planning of solidarity actions with the Saharawi people; it aims to be a space for discussion and exchange for all those interested in adding new ideas and projects learning from them, being an open window and an amplifier of the widespread solidarity movement related to the Saharawi struggle and of struggle itself and to make people aware of the actual conditions in the western Sahara conflict.

The expected outcome of the symposium is to put the hypothesis to the test by providing a broad overview of the different courts which may contribute to the implementation of the rights of the Saharawis. In doing so, the symposium is pursuing a pragmatic approach. It seeks to isolate the solutions that the judicial world can offer to a conflict that drags on. At a more general and theoretical level, this symposium offers a reflection on the political role that law can play for peoples living under foreign domination.

Download the detailed programme (incl. information on keynote speakers) from: http://www.sloga-platform.org/attachments/854/Z%20Sahara%20vabilo.pdf For further information and seminar participation please contact: wsahara.symposium@gmail.com.

Information provided by Marjan Huc, SLOGA

ESoDoc 2010: European Social Documentary

ESoDoc - European Social Documentary is an EU's Media training initiative which focuses on a special genre of documentary production that is particularly suitable for the new multiplatform world: documentaries that draw attention to human rights, social justice and environmental protection, particularly in the developing world. ESoDoc wants to prepare professionals for the markets of tomorrow and make them part of the changing audiovisual world. ESoDoc offers three 1-week sessions held over a 6-month period, during which participants, either individually or in groups, develop a documentary film project.

ESoDoc is looking for documentary filmmakers and producers, NGO and NPO sector professionals with audio-visual experience, and New Media Professionals who want to realize www projects according to the spirit of ESoDoc or collaborate with others.

Application Deadline is March 5, 2010. For more information, please visit: http://www.esodoc.eu/

Information provided by Eleonora Psenner, ZeLIG

March 20-21, 2010: WatSan Workshop, Lithuania

The Austrian Red Cross offers the opportunity to learn more about water, sanitation and hygiene in the context of emergency situations and development cooperation. A watsan induction workshop will be held on 20th and 21st March 2010 in Lithuania. The application process is open until 15th February. Find more information (Flyer and Application Form) at: http://www.roteskreuz.at/i18n/en/development-cooperation/watsan. The training is co-funded by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO), costs of accommodation and catering will be covered.

Information provided by Jürg Graf, Austrian Red Cross

July 5-10, 2010: Development Education Course, Ireland

The Galway One World Centre (GOWC), a development education centre based in the West of Ireland, is offering a week-long development education course approved under Grundtvig/Comenius. The course is taking place from July 5th to July 10th and includes sessions on Racism, Gender/Sexism, Aid, Debt, etc. and is aimed primarily at educators (teachers, community & youth workers, adult education providers, etc.) but is also open to others interested in the topics.

For further information and booking fees please download the brochure and booking form from http://galwayowc.ning.com/events/how-does-the-world-look-to-you or contact the Galway One World Centre directly at info@galwayowc.org. A reduction of the fee to 300 EUR or application for sponsorship is possible upon previous request.

The GOWC is also offering a course on exploring images of inclusion and diversity in film and digital media entitled "Thinking outside the Box" which is also approved under Grundtvig/Comenius. This course is scheduled to run from June 2nd to June 6th to coincide with the Galway African Film Festival. Further details from the Grundtvig/Comenius database or the One World Centre.

Information provided by Galway One World Centre