One World Week is an annual opportunity to join a worldwide movement of people taking action for justice locally and globally through local events to celebrate the diversity of cultures in our communities, joining together to learn and share in caring for the Earth and its resources and taking action for justice, equality, peace and fullness of life for all.

This guide is written for field staff working in both emergency and development-related programmes. Centering around participatory vulnerability analysis (PVA) it aims to assist field workers and communities to analyse people's vulnerability, draw action plans, mobilise resources and enact appropriate policies, laws and strategies to reduce their vulnerability to disaster.

In addition to the possible benefits from increased aid, what might also be the downside? From the recent G8 Summit to UN declarations, calls for a "Big Push" in official development assistance by OECD countries are becoming more frequent and pressing. In this working paper, CGD Research Fellow Todd Moss and Arvind Subramanian (IMF) highlight the importance of aid effectiveness.

Non-reciprocal preferential trade agreements allow least developed countries to benefit from lowered tariffs on certain products, to boost their access to international markets without the requirement of lowering their own tariffs in return. In the run-up to the WTO Summit in December, there has been debate over the value of these PTAs. Those not in favour argue that they distort the market and prevent multilateral free trade. Those supporting PTAs argue that their erosion will adversely affect developing countries, and especially small-scale producers. This link takes you to recent research compiled by the Eldis Trade editor.

Authors: Tooley, J.
Produced by: E.G West Centre for Market Solutions in Education, UK (2005)

This report argues that private, unaided schools, can play an important role in reaching the poor and satisfying their educational needs. Private education has an important role in helping the government meet its 'education for all' targets. But private schools could be improved, by creating revolving loan schemes to help infrastructural investment .Following the private schools' own example, scholarships could be extended, through private or public means, to ensure 'pupil passports', targeted at the poorest children, enable them attend private schools.

Time is ripe for some serious consideration to be given to the introduction of ICT-based education at various levels. The use of ICTs in education takes many forms including: the use of ICTs as learning tools, use in capacity building of teachers, use in distant learning, use in technical education, and use in dissemination of information on best practices. ICTs can be used as a potent medium to reach education to the excluded groups in society. The use of ICTs as learning tools can supplement and strengthen the institutional system since it can encourage self dependence and creative learning, besides providing new tools for enriching the student-teacher interface.

The challenge for everyone committed to democracy and human rights is how to trigger determined commitment from politicians to implement Resolution 1325 and its European sister resolution. In the aftermath of dictatorship and conflict, everyone talks of human rights and democracy – yet women find themselves having to fight for any voice at all. It seems that the situation of millions of women around the world still fails to arouse passions in "mainstream” politics. How does the scorecard look for the implementation of either the spirit or letter of these two great resolutions, five years later? Even now, very few women are included in peace negotiations or in politics in general in countries affected by conflict and war. Despite a plethora of conferences, advocacy from NGOs and good words from politicians, world leaders, diplomats and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, not enough has happened.

During the days of the G8 summit, London's Soho Theatre worked with South African and British schoolchildren, documenting its impact on their day-to-day lives. These diaries, woven with reports from the summit, are presented in a "thought-provoking and insightful new show", 18-22 October, in London.

Although the mining industry is an important economic sector in many developing countries, it has been heavily criticised by many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations for its impacts on the environment, human rights and social protection. The mining industry has recognised that these criticisms threaten its 'social licence to operate', and may lead to certain areas or even whole countries being 'off limits' to the industry. One part of the industry's response has been to develop environmental and social codes of conduct.

Reuters on Thursday examined the challenges of tracking financial donations to nongovernmental organizations dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa. There are thousands of NGOs in the region, and it is "unclear" how much money they have received and how the money has been spent, according to Reuters. Some of the funding is misspent and never reaches those who need it most, but the "main concern" is that the amount of funding NGOs receive is insufficient, Reuters reports.

UNHCR is at a critical point in its 54—year history. Set up to protect refugees, it is now poised to take on a leading role in protecting internally displaced people. The Emergency Relief Coordinator, the heads of the major relief and development organisations, NGO umbrella groups and the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement—which together comprise the UN's Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)1—on 12 September assigned the major responsibility for the protection of IDPs to UNHCR. The coordination and management of IDP camps and emergency shelter will also become UNHCR's responsibilities.

Leading up to the December 2005 World Trade Organization's (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, Pambazuka News will examine some of the issues regarding the WTO as it affects Africa. In the first of this series, we examine the relationship between African nations and the WTO.

A coalition of African civil society organizations has formed around the upcoming WTO meetings, under the umbrella of the African Trade Network. They comprise trade unions, agricultural organizations, faith-based groups, women’s collectives and non-governmental organizations, and argue that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are seriously undermining the rights of developing nations. The World Trade Organization is complicit in taking their goals further, and is leading to economic degradation and severe violations of the needs of people in African countries. The African Trade Network argues that the WTO has done little to meet the needs of developing countries, but have acted instead to further only the interests of their economies, which are often linked to corporate interests. In a collective statement, the Declaration of African Civil Society on the Road to the 6th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Hong Kong, the groups that gathered in Accra, Ghana from the 16-19th of August this year, declared that the double standards of those in power are undermining the ability of African countries to develop.

There are a number of specific issues that these African countries feel is important for the WTO to pay special attention to. The decisions made surrounding these particular matters will be important for Africa and Africans.

Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA)

Negotiations in the area of non-agricultural market access will prove important at the upcoming WTO meeting, as wealthier countries will inevitably try to push through extreme reductions in tariffs, while at the same time attempting to impose restrictions on the levels to which developing countries can raise tariffs in the coming years. The NAMA talks centre around industrial goods, but also include natural resources, and the goal of these talks is to open up the economy and make access to these products easier (for wealthy countries, at least). The African Trade Network has taken as their position the demand that African countries not accept proposals on tariffs, but should instead negotiate to define and limit tariff instruments and related policies.

Agriculture

Because African’s are so dependent on agriculture for food security, development and income, this is an extremely integral area for negotiations. The African Trade Network argues that developing countries are being forced to open their markets to exports from wealthy countries, while they protect theirs. Furthermore, that wealthy countries provide subsidies to their farmers, while poor countries cannot, is indicative of just one example of inequality. The African Trade Network therefore demands that African countries take no further reductions in tariffs for agricultural products, and gain access to the right to protect domestic producers, including the right to designate special products. Wealthy countries must eliminate all subsidies which enable them to dump artificially cheap goods in countries that cannot afford to protest otherwise.

Services

Liberalization and deregulation have been long imposed on African and other developing countries, and have had the effect of transforming services, which are fundamental human rights, such as health, education and water, into private, for profit facilities. African countries must protest these human rights violations, and open up more services sectors, while at the same time committing these under the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services.

Economic Partnership Agreements

In an attempt to further WTO interests, the European Union has been bargaining with African countries around the Singapore Issues, in order to enable market access to European goods and services in Africa, which go beyond what is required of African countries according to the WTO. The so-called goal of the Economic Partnerships is to promote sustainable development and contribute to poverty eradication. These were negotiations, which began in 2002 and were aimed at redefining trade between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). The African Trade Network believes that to succumb to these demands would only prove detrimental to African nations, and that their governments must call for an end to the reciprocity requirements between Africa and the EU.

The very existence and processes of the World Trade Organization is contentious to many African civil society organizations. Non-transparent and undemocratic processes, as well as a general environment of exclusion from mini-ministerial meetings, has meant that wealthy countries are able to resolve controversial issues in their favour, without protest, prior to the actual ministerial. The African Trade Network therefore campaigns for a stronger, more unified African force, involving an alliance of governments, so that African concerns and needs are met in a fair and equitable manner.

* Researched and written by Karoline Kemp, Commonwealth of Learning Young Professionals Intern, Fahamu

For last weeks profile on the background to this years WTO Ministerial, see: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=29838

A November forum will focus on the growing global phenomena of cities self-providing broadband networks for municipal and residential use. Major stakeholders including local governments and private enterprise will assemble to grapple with the many issues associated with metropolitan broadband.

Four Corners, an Australian investigative TV programme, has revealed that an Australian mining company has been implicated in a massacre of at least 100 people. According to eyewitness accounts and investigation reports obtained by Four Corners, dozens of people, mostly innocent civilians, were summarily executed by soldiers with the logistical assistance of the Australian company. The bloodbath happened in the remote south-eastern corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As crucial World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks approach in December, concerned citizens are invited to join a mass lobby in London on 2 November 2005 to demand that the UK government supports the call to make poverty history by delivering trade justice. The lobby is being organised by the Trade Justice Movement (TJM), in partnership with the Co-operative Bank. Another mass rally is planned for Brussels on 21 November 2005.

The October 17th message is: " Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty. " (F. Joseph Wresinski). The theme of the United Nations for the International day for poverty eradication 2005 is "Achieving the Millennium Development Goals - empowering the poorest of the poor." Since its creation, October 17th has been a day for those living in extreme poverty to speak out and for all citizens to consider how they can contribute to the eradication of extreme poverty. For more information follow the link.

All the commitments made by both donors and African countries to lift the continent out of poverty will be consolidated into one action plan and monitored on an annual basis, the Department for International Development announced. The leading Group of Eight nations have pledged universal access to HIV treatment by 2010. There has also been a commitment to set a date for the ending of export subsidies, which will give poor countries a fairer trading environment with the west. Anti-malarial drugs and treated mosquito nets will be available to 85% of Africans vulnerable to malaria by 2015. Meanwhile, African nations have pledged to undergo a review of democratic processes once every two years.

The UK's Department For International Development's new aid conditionality policy stresses that developing countries need to be equal partners in determining how aid is spent, and in setting specific goals on which aid disbursement will be conditional. A new report from Mokoro critiques the policy, arguing that the conditions are not being consistently applied or understood between countries, and lack clarity on the particular 'triggers' for aid disbursement or withdrawal.

More than 70 education ministers and high-ranking officials responsible for education will meet during UNESCO's General Conference in Paris (7-8 October) to explore practical ways to address Education for All challenges by building on positive examples from different parts of the world. The Round Table will be opened by Koochiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO. The case for education as a human right, tool of personal empowerment and means for cultural development will be reaffirmed.

There will be as many as 50 million environmental refugees in the world in five years' time. That is the conclusion of experts at the United Nations University, who say that a new definition of "environmental refugee" is urgently needed. They believe that already environmental degradation forces as many people away from their homes as political and social unrest.