CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
e-CIVICUS
29 March – 03
April 2005
ISSUE No. 246
PUBLISHER
CIVICUS: World Alliance
for Citizen Participation
EDITOR
Florence Kiff
CONTRIBUTORS
Eric Muragana
Kelly Parkatti
ABOUT e-CIVICUS
e-CIVICUS provides
weekly news on civil
society worldwide, news
about the organisation and
its members and provides
links to useful electronic
and print resources aimed
at strengthening civil
society worldwide.
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CONTACT US
P.O. Box 933
Southdale, 2135
South Africa
FROM THE DESK OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
The absence of democracy at the World Bank
By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary General and Chief
Executive Officer
For an organisation that claims to promote good governance, the
current appointment process for the World Bank President is one
that lacks the very basic notions of democratic practice.
Understandably there has been a strong negative response both to the process by
which the World Bank President is appointed as well as with regard to the appointee
himself, Paul Wolfowitz. As a global governance body, which makes decisions and
implements activities that affect the lives of citizens around the world, the World Bank
should have an open process that competent citizens around the world should be
eligible to apply. Instead, the US President has a virtual right to appoint the President of
the World Bank and European countries have a similar right to appoint the head of the
International Monetary Fund. This is grossly unfair, unjust, and inappropriate and
undermines any claim the World Bank could make about democracy, good governance
or anti-corruption. Read the full message at
http://www.civicus.org/new/content/deskofthesecretarygeneral10.htm
CIVIL SOCIETY NEWS
Voter registration in Zimbabwe remains a
controversial issue
The importance of a reliable voter's roll is
essential to conducting credible and accurate
elections. In this regard, the accuracy and
credibility of the Zimbabwean voter's roll
remains a controversial issue. Read an overview of voter registration prepared by the
Electoral Institute of Southern Africa at
www.kubatana.net/html/archive/elec/050308grantm.asp?sector=ELEC
(Picture source: www.kubatana.net)
Civil society calls for the implementation of African Commission’s
Recommendations in Zimbabwe
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has sent an open letter to President Robert
Mugabe expressing its grave concern about the continuing abuse of human rights in
Zimbabwe and to call on him to ensure that the recommendations made by the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) in the report of its
2002 Fact-Finding Mission to Zimbabwe are implemented in full. Read the full letter at:
www.kubatana.net/html/archive/cact/050318hrf.asp?sector=CACT
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International Women's Tribune Centre reports on new resolutions passed at
Beijing +10
Six new resolutions were adopted at the 49th Session of the UN Commission on the
Status of Women (CSW) (28 February - 11 March, 2005 ), also known as Beijing + 10.
These resolutions were on: gender mainstreaming on national policies and programmes;
the viability of appointing a Special Rapporteur on discrimination against women;
reducing demand for trafficking; integrating a gender perspective in post-disaster relief,
especially in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami; indigenous women; and women's
economic advancement. Resolutions that had been carried over from previous CSW
sessions were also adopted, including: women, the girl-child and HIV/AIDS; the
International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women; the
situation of women and girls in Afghanistan; and the situation of and assistance to
Palestinian women. Read the full report at
www.civicus.org/new/content/InternationalWomen.htm
‘Get On Board’: African bus travels to Scotland to take message to G8 leaders
Get on Board is the epic 12,000 mile journey of a small African bus, a journey that starts
in Johannesburg on 31 March, and ends in Scotland on 6 July at the G8 gathering of
the world’s most powerful leaders. Rather than transporting passengers, it will be
transporting the messages of people from South and East Africa and bringing these to
the G8 leaders. These messages will form a challenge from the people of Africa to
world leaders to support, and not undermine, Africa’s own efforts to overcome poverty
and injustice. Get on Board will be meeting people living in extreme poverty- those
whose voices are rarely heard. The dedicated website will be launched on 31 March
2005 at www.action.org/getonboard. Read more about this ActionAid campaign at
www.civicus.org/new/content/GetOnBoard.htm
British overseas development aid support to oil
development leaves the poor worse off says new civil
society report
Platform Research, Friends of the Earth and Plan B have
released the report ‘Pumping Poverty: Britain ’s
Department for International Development and the oil
industry’ which investigates the role of British overseas
development aid in facilitating oil development. It finds that,
far from helping the world’s poorest people, such aid often
serves instead its wealthiest corporations, leaving the poor
worse off than before and aggravating global climate
change. The report has been endorsed by 20 civil society
organisations worldwide. Read the full report in PDF at
www.carbonweb.org/documents/Pumping%20poverty_web
.pdf or read the Executive Summary at
www.carbonweb.org/documents/Pumping%20poverty%20A3%20Summary.pdf. To read
these PDF documents, you may need to download Acrobat Reader at
www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html
Citizen consultations using ICT in Spain
Under the name of ‘Madrid Participa’, the City of Madrid has launched a series of citizen
consultations using new technologies with the objective of involving citizens in local
politics and evaluating the effectiveness of the electronic mechanisms of participation
used. The first e-consultation, which took place in June 2004, represented the largest e-
participation experience in Spain and one of the largest in Europe to date.
Approximately 130,000 citizens of Madrid were consulted on three key issues affecting
their district and were allowed to express their opinion through three different voting
channels: Internet, mobile phones and short messages (SMS). For more information
see www.madridparticipa.org/SiteDefaultPage

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS NEWS

Annan’s recommendations echo worldwide

United Nations Secretary -General Kofi Annan's recommendations in his new report, ‘In
Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All’,
(http://www.un.org/largerfreedom/) have started receiving responses from governments
and civil society organisations from around the world. The report, which represents the
Secretary -General's contribution to the Millennium Summit+5 that will take place from
14-16 September 2005, makes recommendations on tackling the challenges of poverty,
security and human rights. This includes increasing official development assistance
(ODA), tackling climate change, laying down an anti-terrorism treaty as well as creating
a UN peace-building commission and a UN human rights council. The report looks at
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the context of an even larger
development agenda, which is listed in the annex under the subheadings of freedom
from want, freedom from fear, freedom to live in dignity, and strengthening the UN.
Read the full report at www.millenniumcampaign.org

Advocating for sexual and reproductive health in the context of five year review
of the Millennium Declaration
Family Care International (FCI) have produced the first in a series of background
briefing papers on the Millennium Declaration review process that is taking place this
year. This is part of a multi-faceted, collaborative strategy being implemented by FCI
and colleagues to ensure that world leaders recognise and acknowledge the critical
importance of sexual and reproductive health for development when they gather for the
high -level meeting in September. It is also aimed at ensuring that targets and indicators
on sexual and reproductive health are incorporated into the targets and indicators under
the eight Millennium Development Goals when they are revised following the
September meeting. To obtain a copy of the report, contact Shannon Kowalski-Morton,
Program Officer, Global Advocacy at skowalski@familycareintl.org

CAPACITY BUILDING

CIVICUS releases
Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) Online Campaigning Toolkit for Civil Society
Civil society organisations who are or would like to be involved in the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) can now build MDG campaigns with a free online toolkit
released by CIVICUS. The seven chapter toolkit, with printable chapt ers in Word and
PDF, provides a framework for the development of strategies customised for different
national and regional contexts. It provides basic information on the MDGs, advice on
how to plan a campaign, a range of essential campaigning tools, practical campaigning
skills as well as a number of case studies on MDG campaigns that have been taking
place around the world. It also provides useful campaign resources and links to UN
support and to other organisations with similar aims. The toolkit is available on the
CIVICUS website at www.civicus.org/mdg/1-1.htm

RESOURCES

Human and Institutional Capacity Building : Landscape Analysis of Donor Trends

in International Development
By Anne Whyte, Issue #2, 2005, Rockefeller Foundation Series
This report consists of 1) an overview of historic trends in donor support and the
evolution of ideas about capacity building among donors (1960-2003), 2) a review of the
principal modalities used by donors to build professional competencies with examples
drawn from the donors reviewed, 3) a review of some main donor agencies active in
building professional capacities organised by multilateral organisations, bilateral donors,
foundations and others, and 4) a concluding section on some issues raised by the
landscape review and some emerging principles for capacity building to provide an
agenda for discussion. The report is available online as a PDF file at
www.rockfound.org/Documents/707/hicb_whyte_donortrends.pdf

CONFERENCES/EVENTS/BRIEFINGS

CSID 6th Annual Conference - Democracy and

Development: Challenges for the Islamic
World
22 - 23 April, 2005, Washington, DC, USA
The Centre for the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID) presents this conference with
six panels on: Internal Resources and their Relevance, Paradigms for Economic
Development, Open Forum: Voices of Muslim Democrats, The Impact of Globalisation
on Democratisation and Development, Women and Political-Economic Development,
US Policy toward Democratic Reforms in the Muslim World, Barriers to Development,
and Identifying Conceptual & Functional Pre-Requisites for Democratisation in the
Muslim World. To view the tentative programme or to register for the conference, see
www.islam-democracy.org

6th ISPCAN Asian Regional Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect

16 - 18 November, 2005, Singapore
This year’s conference, with the theme ‘Protecting Children: Asian Perspectives and
Beyond’, hopes to attract participants locally and from the Asia region, including North
Asia , South Asia and South East Asia . Participants shall be professionals involved in
the prevention of child abuse and neglect working in the following fields: Medical/
Healthcare sector, Government Ministries and Government Welfare Agencies,
Voluntary Welfare Organisations, Education Sector, Child Care Sector, Law
Enforcement Agencies, including the Police and the Judiciary. For further information,
email Sue Lee, Conference Secretary (slee@childrensociety.org.sg), or Ginny Lim,
Conference Coordinator (glim@childrensociety.org.sg), or see
www.ispcansingapore.com

SCHOLARSHIPS/AWARDS

IWMF Public Health Fellowship Programme

Application Deadline: 15 April, 2005
The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) invites women
journalists from Africa and Asia to apply for the Public Health Fellowship
Programme, a new initiative aimed at improving coverage of public health
issues in developing countries. Two journalists will be selected for the six-month
fellowship, which has two components. For the first four months, fellows will work with
advisers at leading US media outlets to create individualised training plans aimed at
increasing their understanding of coverage of public health issues in the US and how
editor s and producers work with reporters to cover those issues. For the last two
months, fellows will return to their home countries to complete specialised public health
journalism projects. All applications should contain a project proposal supported by the
fellow's employer. For more information, visit www.iwmf.org/programs/8702 or e-mail:
fellowship@iwmf.org.
Call for Contributions: Building feminist movements and organisations: learning
from experience
Submission Deadline: 30 April, 2005
AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development) is gathering insights into
feminist organisational strengthening and movement building. What processes make a
strong women’s organisation? How can we move beyond our fragmented feminist and
women’s movements? AWID proposes to reflect on and share these and other
questions by bringing together a collection of essays and case studies depicting
organisational experiences in the women’s movements and organisations. Contributions
that are selected will receive an honorarium of $1000 US to be used towards
organisational strengthening activities. Selected contributions will also be published by
AWID and highlighted at the 10th International AWID Forum on Women s Rights in
Development, 27- 30 October, 2005, in Bangkok, Thailand. The call is available in
Arabic, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. For further information and guidelines,
please see www.awid.org/femo or contact Anahm Russo at arusso@awid.org.

COURSES/WORKSHOPS

Decision Making and Problem Solving Workshop

22 & 23 May, 2005, Cairo, Egypt
Application Deadline: 1 May, 2005
International Center for Etudes (ICE) is offering this workshop that aims to help
participants appreciate the role of decision making and problem solving in the
managerial process and to comprehend the dynamics of teams and the role of
participation in decision making and problem solving. For further detailed information
see www.ice-egypt.com/may7.php

4th International Human Rights Academy

16 - 29 October, 2005, Cape Town, South Africa
Application Deadline: 1 June, 2005
The Human Rights Centre of Ghent University (Belgium), the Netherlands Institute of
Human Rights (SIM) at Utrecht University (The Netherlands), the Faculty of Law of
University of the Western Cape (South Africa) and the International Federation of Health
and Human Rights Organisations (IFHHRO) offer this course designed to provide high
quality legal education in comparative international human rights and in humanitarian
law, with emphasis on the practical aspects in the various fields including health.
Courses include the Universal System of Protection of Human Rights, the Regional
Systems of Protection of Human Rights, International Criminal Law, and International
Humanitarian Law and Transitional Law. Lectures are given by prominent academic and
non -academic speakers from all continents. For more information, see
www.law.ugent.be/pub/humanrightsacademy

APPOINTMENTS

Child Protection Adviser

Save the Children-UK/UNICEF
Location: Maldives
Application Deadline: 5 April, 2005
www.civicus.org/new/jobs_info.asp?id=255
Researcher (Romania/Bulgaria/Slovakia/other eastern/central EU countries)
Amnesty International, International Secretariat
Location: London, UK
Application Deadline: 13 April, 2005
www.civicus.org/new/jobs_info.asp?id=254

Training Manager
Heifer International
Location: Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Application Deadline: 20 April, 2005
www.heifer.org/Inside_Heifer/ Jo b_Opportunities/Training_Manager_3517.shtml

Secretary-General
West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF)
Location: Not Specified
Application Deadline: 29 April, 2005
www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=27337

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