Thorntree Café
News, events, gossip and information - If you would like to have a news item or event posted on this page, please contact us at arowett@oxfordhr.co.uk.
Events
2010 World Water Week in Stockholm: The Water Quality Challenge, 5 - 11 September 2010.
2010 World Water Week in Stockholm will mark the 20th anniversary of the event. The Stockholm International Water Institute is proud to prevent this years programme for the week. To find out more about the week please click here.
Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa conference: Building resilient cities, addressing urban disaster risk, South Africa. 8 - 10 September 2010.
The Annual Conference of the Institute is the biggest Disaster Management Conference in Africa, and routinely attracts more than 300 delegates. The Institute is recognized as the mouthpiece of the Disaster Management profession in Southern Africa and is recognized by the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) as well as the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR).
The conference provides an annual opportunity for a diverse range of stakeholders in disaster risk management from across Africa to gather and share skills, knowledge and experience. See here for more details.
Proposal writing and grants course for CMDRR practitioners, Nairobi, Kenya (or online). 13 - 17 September, 2010.
The aim of this course is to provide project and programme officers, managers, grant writers, and country directors with skills, concepts and guidelines to develop selling proposals, resource mobilization and funds management. See here for more information.
Political Economy Analysis in Action, ODI training course, UK. 22 - 24 September 2010.
This course is designed to equip professional advisers and programme managers of multilateral and bilateral development agencies and foreign ministries to identify key institutional challenges and opportunities to promote development in a variety of different contexts, and to draw operational conclusions for strategy, programme design, and ways of working. For more information please click here.
United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) online courses in the field of governance, development and microfinance 10 May 2010 - 17 December 2010.
The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is pleased to announce its upcoming online courses in the field of governance, development and microfinance. See link for more details. Developing tourism value chains to increase local linkages, 28 June - 1 July 2010 By the end of this course participants will be able to analyse tourism value chains in terms of their linkages with the wider economy to build a diagnosis of opportunities, constraints and entry points for development agents. The course will cover the progression from analysis through long-lists of potential strategies to a prioritised and balanced short-list of interventions. See here for details.
Governance and Leadership in Africa.
The Governance and Leadership in Africa programme at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, part of the University of London) provides a unique opportunity for participants to discuss and develop their knowledge of topical issues affecting the African continent. The programme will bring together public sector officials, civil servants and managers from African institutions, as well as participants from other countries working on Africa, to discuss issues of leadership and governance. Click here for more information.
International Institute of Rural Reconstruction announces nine training events, 14 - 25 March, 2011.
The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction is a small international development, research and training organization with over 80 years of grassroots experience working in people-centered, sustainable development in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Institute will be running nine different courses throughout March 2011. Please click here to find out more.
News
Call for papers: Violence Against Women.
Within the framework of UNESCO’s actions to combat violence against women and enhance women’s rights and empowerment, and building on its central objective of promoting research that supports evidence-based decision-making, the Social and Human Sciences Sector in collaboration with the University of Hull, U.K., is currently undertaking a program of research on men and violence against women, gendered poverty and legal socio-cultural factors influencing women’s access to freshwater. Click here to find out more.
Call for Applications: 2010 Global Development Awards and Medals Competition.
The Japanese Award for Most Innovative Development Project is a competitive grant program that provides an opportunity to practitioners of development to compete for grants worth US$30, 000 to help scale up their work. The grants are awarded to projects and/or organizations that are carrying out original and innovative work in the field. These projects are not theme based. However, projects must contribute to sustainable development. To find out more information please click here.
How will the world look in 2030?: The future climate for development.
Climate change will reverse years of work reducing poverty without strong, urgent action, according to a report released 20 July.
The future climate for development calls on governments and NGOs to build climate change into their economic development programmes to help low-income countries manage its impacts and seize new opportunities as the world shifts to a low-carbon economy.
The report, produced by independent sustainability experts Forum for the Future with support from DFID, explores how climate change will transform low-income countries over the next 20 years, causing profound social, economic and political changes as well as major environmental impacts (DFID, 20 July 2010). (Read more)
Amnesty International Report 2010: The State of the World's Human Rights
Amnesty International's annual assessment of the state of human rights worldwide. Click here to access the report.
Development Co-operation Report 2010
The Development Co-operation Report is the key annual reference document for statistics and analysis on trends in international aid.(OECD, 2010) (read more)
Charities expenses
Report says charities should not be required to disclose expenses, from Third Sector Independent Expert Group on Expenses says compulsory disclosure 'could damage public trust'. Charities should not be required to publish the expenses of their staff or individual trustees, the Independent Expert Group on Expenses has recommended. The group, which was set up by the NCVO and the Charity Finance Directors' Group in the wake of the MPs' expenses scandal, concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to justify a "wholesale expansion of expenses disclosure" in the sector.
"We found little indication from the Charity Commission or from those with an overarching view of the sector that widespread public concern about expenses exists either within the sector or on the part of the general public," the report says. Greater disclosure might lead to misinterpretation or suspicion and damage public trust and confidence, the report says.But it adds that there will often be reasons why disclosure is desirable for individual charities. "We encourage trustees to consider whether, in the context of their own organisations and in the interest of their stakeholders, they should go further and disclose the expenses of individual trustees and senior managers," it says.
The group, chaired by former charity commissioner Lindsay Driscoll, reminded charities that are required to comply with the Statement of Recommended Practice on Accounting by Charities, or Sorp, that they are obliged to disclose the total amount of trustee expenses, the nature of the expenses and the number of trustees involved. The Charity Commission should review the level of compliance with these Sorp requirements, the panel also recommended.
The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010
The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010, launched on 23rd June by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, shows that although the economic crisis took a heavy toll on both jobs and incomes around the world, its impact does not threaten achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target of cutting the rate of extreme poverty in half by 2015. The report highlights a number of successes, whilst also assessing the human impact of lack of adequate progress on many of the Goals (United Nations, New York, 23rd June).
NGOs launch 'Robin Hood' Tax campaign
Leaders of the UK's political parties are being called to support a global tax on the banks to help repair the human damage caused by the global economic crisis, protect public services at home, fight poverty abroad and help foot the bill for climate change.For more information click here.