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LOWC Update - #6
May 2006

An occasional, informal bulletin of news, events and resources for LOWC partners.

News

LWF treaty-body monitoring of women’s rights convention
In June and August, thirteen countries where there are LWF member churches and programs will be reviewed by the Committee on the Convention of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). During CEDAW, countries submit reports about the status of women in their countries, reporting specifically on education, violence against women, minority groups, employment, discrimination, among other issues. The Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC) follows the deliberations, which usually last 1-2 days per country. In the past we have submitted reports on behalf of LWF, which have led to the CEDAW experts asking the governments direct questions about issues we have raised. For example, a recent report from the Lutheran Church of Venezuela resulted in experts questioning the government about enforcement of laws punishing perpetrators of violence against women.

LWF Churches and World Service Programs and in these countries are encouraged to send LOWC 2-5 page “shadow reports” detailing issues covered by CEDAW. These reports are of great benefit to the CEDAW experts to further the application of this human rights treaty. One way to prepare these reports is to read what a government has submitted to the UN, and respond in detail to any of the issues they may have misrepresented or overlooked.

To read the country reports, or see the "issues and questions" up for discussion, go to: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/35sess.htm . NGOs also have time to present their concerns to the CEDAW committee. LOWC write reports on closure of the CEDAW sessions, and send them to member churches and programs. This year, we have reported on: Cambodia; Eritrea; Togo; Australia; Thailand; and Venezuela.

Countries up for Review at the 35th and 36th sessions:
May: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Guatemala, Malaysia, Malawi, Romania,

August: Chile, China (Hong Kong), Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Georgia, Mexico, Philippines, Uzbekistan

More information on the UN treaty bodies, including previous and new LWF treaty
body reports, can be found:
http://www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/OIAHR/OIAHR-Treaty_Bodies.html
You are also welcome to contact: Emily Freeburg

Debt Continues to Prevent Achievement of Development Goals
Despite appeals by Latin American civil society groups and the Jubilee debt movement, the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) concluded on April 5th without action to extend last year’s G8 debt deal to other regional multilateral banks.

Four Latin American heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) would benefit significantly from an extension of the G8 deal to include IDB debt. Bolivia, Guyana, Honduras, and Nicaragua will pay almost $1.4 billion over the next five years to the IDB, funds that with debt cancellation could instead be used to realize the Millennium Development Goals. In addition, as in other regions, a number of countries outside the HIPC framework still have significant poverty and sizable debt burdens, and meeting the MDGs there also requires debt cancellation.

On April 4th, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released provisional 2005 aid figures for its 22 member countries. Overall, official development assistance (ODA) increased significantly in 2005 to US $106.5 billion from the US $79.6 billion provided in 2004. The sharp increase in ODA levels was due to mainly to sizable debt relief operations and one-off relief for countries affected by the tsunami; the underlying growth in funding for development assistance was more moderate.

Debt relief totaled $23 billion in 2005 and grew by more than 400% between 2004 and 2005. In particular, there were large debt relief operations for Iraq and Nigeria, including $14 billion for Iraq alone in 2005. This forms a significant share of the $26.9 billion increase in ODA between 2004 and 2005. While such relief may be important and necessary, it does not constitute fresh funding for the achievement of the MDGs in the poorest countries and for the poorest people.

The growth in underlying funding for development aid was 8.7%, respectable but short of what is needed to reach the Millennium Goals. For some donor countries the slow pace of growth of new development assistance funding may leave them with substantial financial and institutional challenges in meeting commitments for increased aid in future years, particularly as the possibility to bolster ODA figures with debt relief will be largely exhausted in the next year or two.

Source: UN Millennium Campaign, for more information, visit
http://www.millenniumcampaign.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=grKVL2NLE&b=190470&ct=2148467

Outcome of elections for Human Rights Council
The UN General Assembly recently held elections for the newly created Human Rights Council, replacing the Commission on Human Rights. The new body will meet in Geneva at least six times a year, allowing for urgent crisis to be tackled more rapidly. The 47 elected council members will now be required to evaluate their own human rights status. However, opinions are mixed as to whether this spells the failure of the Council. Because of new requirements, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, noted that at least 11 countries described as perennial human rights violators chose not to run. In addition, all members of the Council will have their human rights records periodically reviewed which could result in a suspension from the council.

More information: http://www.ipsterraviva.net/Europe/article.aspx?id=3321

Walk the World to Fight Hunger
On Sunday 21 May 2006, hundreds of thousands of people will be taking part in Walk the World all over the globe! Walk the World is a day of action to call for the end of child hunger. In 2005 more than 200,000 people walked in 91 countries in 266 locations. This year more than 750,000 people are expected to take part in more than 100 countries. The Walk begins at 10 am in New Zealand, and continues through all time zones until the last walk at 10 am in Western Samoa . For more information, visit www.civicus.org/new/media/WalkWorldFightHunger.doc 

Global White Band Day 2006
Global Call to Action against Poverty national coalitions around the world will launch a month of mobilisation on 16 September 2006, which will build up to a climax on a global white band day on 17 October 2006 - the International Day on the Eradication of Poverty. During the month, countries around the world will undertake an array of actions, with Global White Band day potentially including white band demonstration with local music. National coalitions will decide on their ‘political policy’ messages and targets for the month of mobilisation. For more information, see www.whiteband.org/News/gcapnews.2006-04-07.6976876507  or visit www.atd-quartmonde.org/accueil-uk.html

New Research and Reports

HIV/AIDS Donors Focus on Aid Coordination
In January, representatives from three of the main AIDS organizations – the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank AIDS program, and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) – met to discuss how their aid coordination can be improved. This initiative is extremely welcome as the volume of resources for fighting HIV/AIDS has increased in recent years, as have the number of donors involved.

Improving donor aid practices is a crucial component in meeting the Millennium Goals, and is explicitly part of MDG 8. Aid effectiveness is severely reduced when recipient countries face the challenges of trying to coordinate the demands of multiple donors, many of whom have overlapping aid programs and objectives. The meeting produced a report that outlines how these major players in the health sector will work together. The report outlines plans to focus on procurement and staff coordination, joint annual implementation reviews, and improving common country HIV/AIDS strategies.

For more information, you can download the official report: http://www.cgdev.org/doc/blog/Coordshort.pdf

Resources

How to File Complaints on Human Rights Violations:
A Manual for Individuals and NGOs
This web-based manual gives an overview of the many UN treaty bodies covering human rights. http://www.unesco.de/c_humanrights/

From Microfinance to Macro Change: Integrating Health Education and Microfinance to Empower Women and Reduce Poverty
By the end of 2004, 66 million very poor people were reached with micro credit. 83.5% of the clients are women. Many believe that microfinance can maximize its potential by integrating other complementary services within the infrastructure of the financial services. This advocacy booklet calls for integration of reproductive health education with microfinance services in developing countries. It presents individual stories, case studies and dramatic findings to show the impact this combination can have on reducing poverty and improving individual lives. The booklet also offers eight concrete recommendations for action.

The document can be found on the UNFPA's website by following this link: http://www.unfpa.org/publications/detail.cfm?ID=265

Women's ICT-based enterprise guidebook
This guidebook, entitled ‘Supporting Women's ICT-Based Enterprises’, provides practical guidance on how to advocate, initiate and improve IT sector micro-enterprises for women in developing countries. It includes case and story evidence, best practice advice sheets, and frameworks for analysis and evaluation. For more information, visit www.womenictenterprise.org

Peer to Peer education programs
Standards for Peer Education Programs
This tool provides a framework of essential components for any peer education program, as well as tips and examples from around the world. It includes a description of 52 recommended standards from five categories (planning, recruitment and retention, training and supervision, management and oversight, and monitoring and evaluation). This tool is organized to be user-friendly for various readers and purposes, and includes a booklet and a four-page version for managers to take with them on site visits.

Theatre-Based Techniques for Youth Peer Education: A Training Manual is intended for program managers and youth peer educators who are interested in adding a theater component to their reproductive health and HIV prevention activities or in strengthening a theater component that is already part of a program. It contains four peer theater training workshops, a series of theater games and exercises that can be used in trainings, and information on developing and building a peer theater program.

Both of these tools resulted from a collaboration between the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Family Health International. They were produced for the Youth Peer Education Network (Y-PEER), a project coordinated by UNFPA. To view the Standards for Peer Education Programs and Theatre-Based Techniques for Youth Peer Education, please visit http://www.fhi.org/en/Youth/YouthNet/Publications/peeredtoolkit/index.htm . To request a printed copy, please send your name, organization, and complete mailing address to youthnetpubs@fhi.org .

This issue of LOWC Update has been produced by Dennis Frado, Emily Freeburg and Dan Pieper.