More Than 11 000 People Worldwide Say YES to Inclusion!

With its campaign SAY YES TO INCLUSION, LIGHT FOR THE WORLD is mobilising public support for the inclusion of persons with disabilities into development programmes.

With a High Level Meeting on Disability and Development taking place at the United Nations in New York on the 23rd September 2013, this campaign wants to bring a fresh voice to the debate. It sets out to encourage political leaders to take long-term decisions ensuring that all development programmes are inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities.

Over 11 000 people from 51 countries have said YES until now, by sending a photo or video of themselves making the YES sign in their local sign language. Check out the gallery to see the YESs collected so far.

Have you said YES yet?
This is a unique opportunity to show you and/or your organisation’s support to a fight against poverty that actively includes those who are often the most vulnerable members of the community: Send a photo or video of yourself, your team, your family making the YES sign to info@endexclusion.eu. Please also let us know where the photo was taken (town and country).

This campaign is an initiative of the End Exclusion – Let’s Enable the MDGs project, led by LIGHT FOR THE WORLD and funded by the European Union.

For more information, visit www.endexclusion.eu or contact info@endexclusion.eu.

Photo: Light for the World

Information provided by Jess Blijkers, Light for the World

EU-China-NGO-Twinning-Exchange-Programme

In order to strengthen alliances between civil society organizations in Europe and China the German Asia Foundation supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung launches the EU-China-NGO-Twinning-Exchange-Programme

The program is now open for applications.Deadline for application: 15th of June 2013 This exchange is designed as a twinning exchange, i.e. two organizations working on similar thematic issues exchange a member of their staff. Members of staff will be given the opportunity to work and study in Europe or China for 4-8 weeks. The period of stay in the partner country is scheduled for September/October (in Europe) and November/December (in China). The participants will take part in preparatory seminars. The goal of this program is to establish long-term cooperation between Chinese and European NGOs, to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and to obtain a better understanding of developments in both regions.

Participating organizations and participants should be able to provide an English working environment. Organizations from all thematic areas dealing with environmental and social justice are welcome to apply.

Please see the application document for detailed information.
Please send your application to the following address: eu-china-ngo-twinning@asienhaus.de.

For more information and any queries please contact: mailto:inga.gebauer@asienhaus.de

Information provided by German Asia Foundation

EC Annual Action Plan 2013: Rules and Priorities for Upcoming Calls

The European Commission (EC) has published its Annual Action Programme (AAP) 2013 for Non-State Actors and Local Authorities (NSA-LA) in Development.

The AAP contains rules and priorities for the upcoming calls under this programme as well as the amounts available for which country. This information is relevant when preparing concept notes under NSA LA calls for proposals. Detailed information is to be found in the Annexes. Relevant for activities in Global Education (Objective 2) is Action Fiche 11.

Thematic priorities for Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR) activities will be public support for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) agenda with focus on Africa and Policy Coherence for Development (PCD). Interventions supported under this programme will follow two main approaches, namely Global Learning either within or outside the formal education system and Campaigning/ Advocacy.

The indicative amount for 2013 for this component of the thematic programme amounts to EUR 28 million. For Local Authorities there will be additional an amount of EUR 7 million summing this up to EUR 35 million for raising public awareness of development issues and promoting development education in the European Union.

AAP 2013 is available here and Action Fiches here.
Dates for Calls are to be found here. 

Information provided by Ulrike Bey, TRIALOG

Czech Republic Becomes Member of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC)

On May 14, 2013 the Czech Republic has become a full member of OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and thus joined the world's 25 most developed donors which together provide as much as 95 % of total global development aid.

After 18 years of membership in OECD, the Czech Republic has completed its transformation from being a recipient to becoming a donor of development aid. Just in 1995, the Czech Republic joined OECD and renewed its national program of development assistance. Currently the Czech Republic provides 0,12 % of its GNI to aid.

The Czech Republic is the first country among the new EU member states which becomes a part of this prestigious club. “The decision of DAC to offer the Czech Republic full membership is wonderful news, a positive assessment of the transformation which the Czech development cooperation has gone through. Czech development cooperation is to a great extent professional. There is still a long way to go, but we are approaching the experienced donor countries“, says Šimon Pánek, the director of the Czech NGO People in Need. At the same time, becoming a full member of DAC represents further requirements for the Czech Republic on the effectiveness of its national development assistance program. “I hope that our membership in DAC will contribute to a higher quality of the provided aid, of its system and the way it is distributed, in accordance with the basic principles of development cooperation“, adds Šimon Pánek.

The recommendation of OECD in this sense focuses mainly on the issue of so called “tied aid“, meaning aid where the donors condition the realization of the development project by purchasing only goods and services from its own country. “The purpose of the Czech development assistance shouldn´t be a support of the Czech goods or services“, explains Jana Milérová, the director of FoRS - the Czech Forum for Development Cooperation. Šimon Pánek appreciates that: “the Czech programs and projects are mostly designed in order to really help and not to primarily support the interests of donor or implementing entities.“ The first step for the Czech Republic is to establish a monitoring of the tied aid, which will permit its reduction. By entering DAC, the main international forum for development assistance, the Czech Republic, so far an observer, can better profit from the shared international experience. The possibility to vote on the Committee decisions and become actively involved in the debate on the future of development assistance is another important gain.

Among other countries that initiated the preparation process of entering DAC or at least expressed an interest to do so, belong Slovenia, Slovakia and Poland. The last member which entered DAC was Iceland this March.

For more information, please contact Jana Milérová, the director of FoRS - the Czech Forum for Development Cooperation, jana.milerova@fors.cz

Source: Press Release from FoRS available here. 

Making Migration a Driver for Development

The EU Commission has released a new communication that looks at how migration can contribute to development. Entitled “Maximising the Development Impact of Migration”, the communication will provide the starting point for the EU’s position at a meeting on migration and development to be held in October. According to Andris Piebalgs, the EU Commissioner responsible for Development, “migration should be recognised as a driver of inclusive economic, social and environmental development” which is reflected in the EU Commission’s work with nearly €1 billion’s worth of migration-related projects have been put in place.

Read more here. 

Source: CONCORD EU Monitoring Newsletter from 23/05/2013

Vote and Share Your Ideas: You can Change the NGO Sector

These are challenging times for the fight against poverty and injustice. The current unsustainable economic model and its consequences requires new answers from all of us. CONCORD needs to take on a new role and tell citizens, professionals and politicians a new and sharper story about who we are and what we believe in.

How will my idea make a difference?
Because it feeds directly into the solutions that CONCORD will use to help reshape the future of NGOs. On June 5-6, 2013 CONCORD will hold its 10th General Assembly where we will discuss your ideas, your concerns and concrete suggestions for action. Write your own ideas and suggestions in 1 of 4 categories – Give up 10 votes to any ideas you or others come up with.

Got questions?
Feel free to write us at soledad.briones@concordeurope.org

Participate online!

Information provided by CONCORD

Strengthen Links with the Western Balkans

Under the title “Civil Society Transformations on the Way to the European Union”, Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations (TACSO) hosted an international Conference from 17 – 19 April 2013 in Zagreb, Croatia. TRIALOG director Christine Bedoya was in Zagreb and spoke about TRIALOG's experience in "Linking EU and Western Balkans through Development Cooperation".

The Conference presented experiences and challenges, which the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are facing in the countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey, during the European Union (EU) accession process. Interesting speakers with experience in civil sector guaranteed that the Conference covered various topics that were not opened before. Christine Bedoya reports, that there is a very high interest of Balkan CSOs to participate in development projects on European levels, also beyond IPA funding. Under the new EC funding guidelines it is expected that also Balkan countries will be eligible to apply for Development Education grants.

Find out more about the conference on the TACSO website and download the TRIALOG presentation here.

Source: TACSO /TRIALOG

Towards Post-2015 with Unique Experiences: Discussion in Latvia

LAPAS invites you to discuss: Towards Post-2015 with Unique Experiences: Is there anything to contribute from EU12 perspective? Special guests A.Piebalgs (European Commissioner for Development) and René Mauricio Valdés (UNDP).

Date: 14.06.2013
Time: 11:30 - 15:30
Place: MFA, Kr.Valdemāra ielā 3, Riga, Latvia
Working language: English
Registration till 02.06.2013 by filling the registration form 

Background
In September 2010, the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals requested the United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) to make recommendations to advance the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015. In order to respond to this task the UNSG has initiated a broad process of consultations and debates aimed at defining a “development framework” to substitute the current Millennium Development Goals when their deadline is reached in 2015. Thousands of civil society organizations worldwide have actively participated in consultations. Often they have initiated consultations and launched their own events. CONCORD as the European NGO confederation for relief and development has taken an active role in shaping the new development framework.

The aim of this debate is within EU12 (EU member states after 2004):
• to understand the role of NGOs in framing post-2015 agenda;
• to examine the negotiation results at EU level and worldwide;
• to get to know if there are EU12 specific objectives for post-2015 framework;
• to inspire national level activities to stir up debate in EU12.

Agenda available online.
 
There is a possibility for all participants to share their information on development cooperation, development education, post-2015.

The discussion is organised in cooperation with Nordic Council of Ministers, Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, TRIALOG. Project partners: Finnish NGDO Platform to the EU, Eastern Europe Studies Center, Estonian Roundtable for Development.

If you have any additional questions, please contact Evija Goluba: evija.goluba@gmail.com 

Information provided by LAPAS

The Romanian Development Camp: New Strategic Perspectives for the Romanian Development Cooperation

The Romanian NGDO Platform FOND will organise together with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 6th edition of the Romanian Development Camp (RDC) from 15th to 17th of July 2013. This is a unique event which takes place annually and aims at reuniting the national community of actors active in development cooperation: governmental actors, civil society, experts from European and international donors, partner countries, academia, local authorities, mass-media and the private sector.

This year’s edition is part of a process which started in 2012 and initiated a multi-actor revision of the national strategy on development cooperation. As a result, a joint action plan and policy recommendations for 2012-2013 were disseminated among the main important actors. This edition will bring new strategic perspectives for the Romanian development cooperation, based on other EU countries and experiences. The main focus will be to discuss the first draft of the new national strategy.

Among the guests invited will be representatives from European institutions - EC, OECD, EU countries, Romania’s partner countries (Republic of Moldova, Egypt, and Tunisia). The sessions will be structured in a very participatory way, giving the opportunity to share ideas, best practices and solutions and to ensure a proper participation and input from all the stakeholders. The RDC will also engage the national community in the European debates on relevant topics such as Beyond 2015 and Multiannual Financial Framework, 2014-2020.

FOND invites representatives from EU12 Platforms to join this event. If you have experience with similar processes on elaborating/ revising development cooperation strategies and working with the relevant institutions in this field, please contact the Romanian NGDO Platform, Adriana Zaharia, Liaison Officer – adriana.zaharia@fondromania.org (deadline 3rd of June, 2013).

Information provided by Adriana Zaharia, FOND

A Decent Life for All: European Development Days 2013

European Development Days (EDDs) is Europe's premier forum on development cooperation committed to eradicating poverty and ensuring a sustainable development by engaging international organisations, business, political, academic and civil society leaders to shape a new development agenda. It brings together thousands of development stakeholders, practitioners and advocates, in informal sessions for though-provoking debates, exchanges of best practices, networking and brainstorming of creative solutions.

Thread, themes and topics
The thread of this year's edition, which will take place in Brussels from 26-27 November 2013, is the post-2015 debate and the need to build a consensus for a strong common European position in advocating a joined-up approach to address global poverty and sustainable development. The working title is "A decent life for all by 2030 - Building a consensus for a new development agenda".

This year's forum will be structured around four themes:
- Scaling up and improving the ongoing work
- Upholding universal rights and values
- Ensuring inclusiveness and sustainability
- Acting together in coherence

To discover the topics to be addressed during the 8th edition of the European Development Days, please consult the Programme overview and visit the website.

Information provided by EDD Secretariat

Putting People and Planet First: Business as usual is not an option

Human rights and a focus on the multidimensional scope of poverty should be at the centre of the agenda that replaces the Millennium Development Goals - due to expire in less than two years’ time - according to a new position from CONCORD’s Beyond 2015 European Taskforce. The report was presented to the European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs, and the European Commissioner for the Enivironment Janez Potočnik on 2 May in Brussels.

Progress on healthcare and education but poverty still major problem
The United Nations established 8 anti-poverty goals in the year 2000, with huge progress achieved in areas such as healthcare, education and millions more have access to safe drinking water. Yet poverty still affects billions of people across the world. And the world is a very different place to when the goals were designed at the turn of the century. A number of challenges, such as climate change, have emerged while others such as inequality have taken deeper root, while the systems by which we live our lives have been shown to serve the interests of only a select few, unsustainable and destructive in the long term.

A new approach to tackling poverty
The position proposes that poverty be looked at from a multi-dimensional perspective that encompasses a shortage of capabilities, choices, security and power as well as resources such as income. “Measurements of Gross Domestic Product fail to capture the entire picture as benefits of growth are not shared equally. We therefore propose focusing on a well-being measure rather than having a goal on income poverty alone which would be used as an overarching indicator comprehensively measuring the outcome of the whole framework. “
The interlinked nature of issues must be reflected in a comprehensive post-2015 framework which addresses all three dimensions of sustainability (social, economic and environmental).

Not just for developing countries
Given the nature and scale of the global challenges the world is facing, it is no longer possible to imagine a framework which is designed predominantly for implementation by developing countries. The post-2015 framework must be universal, with global goals pertaining to all countries and all countries contributing to their achievement. Key principles for a post-2015 framework First and foremost, the principles of human rights like equality, and nondiscrimination, participation, empowerment and responsibility. Therefore the most marginalised must be prioritised including girls’ and women’s empowerment through gender equality.

Download the report here.

Source: CONCORD

The CIVICUS State of Civil Society 2013 Report

The State of Civil Society 2013 Report presents insights from over 50 civil society experts from around the world.

Alongside the report, CIVICUS – World Alliance for Citizen Participation is publishing a draft methodology for an Enabling Environment Index (EEI) that seeks to measure how well countries around the world are doing on creating positive conditions for civil society.

Amidst the challenges facing civil society, the CIVICUS State of Civil Society 2013 report highlights good practices around the world and challenges on the horizon for citizens and civil society around the world.



Download the full report or read its summary.








Source: CIVICUS

Guide to European Funding for the Non-profit Sector

If you are looking for funding opportunities, this guide, published by European Citizens Action Service (ECAS) represents an essential starting point to finding your way through the labyrinth of EU funding.

The Guide provides you not only:
- Information on relevant internal and external Budget lines along with useful contact details
- Information and contact details on the Pre-Accession Instrument and the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument as well as the Structural Funds
- Advice on co-funding, including a list of European Foundations

But also:
- An overview on how the EU Budget is created and operates
- Handy tips on how to gain EU funding
- A look forward to future funding developments

Download the order form and send it to publication@ecas.org



Source: ECAS

Comics for Equality: A Creative Call for Migrant Artists

The “ComiX4= Comics for Equality Award” is a competition for artists with migrant backgrounds living in an EU country or in a country on the way to EU membership (Western Balkan and Turkey).

The Award is part of the a project funded by the European Union and is led by Africa e Mediterraneo  (Italy), in partnership with NGO Mondo (Estonia), Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation (Bulgaria), ARCA (Romania) and Grafiskie stasti (Latvia). The project fosters intercultural dialogue to combat racism, xenophobia and discrimination in Europe, with a particular focus on Italy, Bulgaria, Estonia, Romania and Latvia.

Until 30th of June 2013, comic strip authors can submit their contributions under the three categories: The fight against racism, stories of migration and stereotypes and win EUR 1000.

For details, please see the call or visit the project website.


Comic: www.comix4equality.eu


Information provided by Michela Bignami, Africa e Mediterraneo