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1. Comments Invited on ADB’s Long-Term Strategic Framework
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has begun a review of its Long-Term Strategic Framework (LTSF) that will determine the organization's future direction and vision to 2020. Civil society organization (CSO) representatives are among those who have been invited to participate in a series of consultation workshops being held in several countries through September. Comments can also be submitted through the website address below. For more information, contact Shigeko Hattori, Principal Planning and Policy Specialist, Strategy and Policy Department, at shattori@adb.org.
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2. Carbon Fund Promotes Clean Energy Projects
The ADB-managed Asia Pacific Carbon Fund has raised $151.8 million to co-finance Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in return for certified emission reductions. CDM allows industrialized countries to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries. Unlike other carbon funds, the Asia Pacific Carbon Fund pays its invested capital upfront, thereby helping projects close their financing gap and boosting the number of clean energy and energy efficiency projects. For more information, contact Josh Carmody, Senior Project Specialist (Clean Energy and Climate Change), Energy, Transport and Water Division, at jcarmody@adb.org.
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3. Philippine NGOs Target Groups at Risk of Contracting HIV/AIDS
A new ADB-financed project in the Philippines seeks to improve the effectiveness of the national and local responses to the epidemic among groups considered high-risk, such as intravenous drug users and overseas Filipino workers, in particular seafarers. Two local NGOs, Action for Health Initiatives and Remedios AIDS Foundation are contributing to the project's implementation. For more information, contact Emiko Masaki, Young Professional, Southeast Asia Department, at emasaki@adb.org.
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4. Grant Supports Better Services in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
ADB is helping the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) to improve the capacity of local government agencies to deliver services to northern rural communities, which are saddled with a high incidence of poverty. Through a $533,500 grant financed by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, ADB will support much-needed capacity building for project management and community-driven development among staff of the provincial agriculture and forestry office, the district agriculture and forestry extension offices, and the Lao Women's Union. For more information, contact Manoshi Mitra, Senior Social Development Specialist, Southeast Asia Department, at mmitra@adb.org.
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5. Lending for Sanitation Projects Set to Double by 2010
ADB aims to provide 200 million people with sustainable access to water supply and improved sanitation and double its $2.2 billion worth of sanitation and wastewater projects between 2006 and 2010. Efforts will focus on providing better facilities for individuals, preventing disease and providing a healthy environment for communities, and promoting financial viability of the provision of sanitation services in tandem with affordability for households. For more information, contact Kallidaikurichi Easwaran Seetharam, Principal Water Supply and Sanitation Specialist, Regional and Sustainable Development Department, at kseetharam@adb.org.
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6. Case Study Examines Self-Help Groups in India
The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Project in India has promoted improvements to water supply, sanitation, roads and slums. A component of the project's Community Development Program helped establish self-help groups of poor women from urban slums. A case study prepared by ADB's Operations Evaluation Department examines how the self-help group movement has changed the lives of women, from improving their living standards to increasing their collective bargaining powers. For more information, contact Walter Kolkma at wkolkma@adb.org, or Maya Sitaram at mayasitaram@gmail.com.
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7. NGOs Share Experience in HIV/AIDS Prevention
ADB's NGO and Civil Society Center (NGOC) held a workshop 18-19 August in Colombo, Sri Lanka for 12 NGO partners under a regional technical assistance. The partners shared project implementation experience and lessons learned at the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. The NGOs dialogued with parliamentarians during the congress to advocate for cooperation with NGOs to guarantee continuity and sustenance of accessible HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and support programs. For more information, contact Jennifer Francis, NGO and Civil Society Specialist, NGOC, at jfrancis@adb.org.
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8. Reports Brings Attention to Education and Health Needs in South Asia
The South Asia Economic Report, recently published by ADB, assesses that South Asian countries must meet the rapidly changing educational and health needs of their people if the region is to remain an international engine of economic growth. Despite the rapid economic growth of recent years, the quality of education and health care in South Asia remains worse than all other parts of the world except Sub-Saharan Africa. The region faces significant challenges to meet the relevant Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
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9. BID Challenge Supports Business Plans to Fight Poverty
The Business in Development* (BiD) Challenge is a worldwide business plan competition offering entrepreneurs the chance to develop and execute business plans that improve living standards in developing countries at a profit. By participating in the BiD Challenge, entrepreneurs gain access to professional coaches and business contacts, exposure to investors, and a chance to win prize money. The BiD Challenge is run by the BiD Network Foundation, an NGO based in the Netherlands. For more information, contact John van Duursen at John.vanDuursen@bidnetwork.org.
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10. Fellowship Opportunity Offered to Third Sector Practitioners
The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society* is pleased to announce a unique fellowship opportunity: the spring 2008 Emerging Leaders International Fellows Program. The program provides leadership training through applied research and professional mentorships for young scholar-practitioners in the nonprofit sector. This year's program will focus on the topics of community foundations, as well as corporate social responsibility and diaspora philanthropy. The deadline for application is 13 September 2007. For more information, contact Amal A. Muhammad, Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, at cpcs@gc.cuny.edu.
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11. CSO Visitor: Save the Children UK
This regular feature spotlights one of the many CSOs whose representatives have recently met with ADB staff at the institution's headquarters in the Philippines.
Save the Children UK is a registered charity in the United Kingdom. It works internationally to end child exploitation, neglect, and suffering through policy, campaigning, programmatic and emergency response work.
The international NGO focuses on four key issues: education, health, hunger, and child protection. It also works on four crosscutting themes affecting the quality of life for children globally: children's rights, HIV/AIDS, poverty and economic justice, and emergencies. For example, Save the Children UK advocates more resources to be invested nationally and internationally in reducing childhood poverty, and policies that ensure that those resources actually reach the poorest children. It also promotes policies and programs to remove the economic causes that make it difficult for poor families to protect and care for their children.
Save the Children UK employs about 4,500 persons and works in 52 countries globally. For example, in West Bengal, India, Save the Children UK is helping to prevent children being sent or trafficked from their villages to work in Kolkata as domestic servants or other people's houses. Research has revealed that child domestic workers are routinely subjected to abuse. In Pakistan, the organization provides credit to carpet-weaving families so that their children are not forced to work in order to pay off debts, About 2,800 children have been enrolled in school as a result of its credit program, and the income of 1,600 families has doubled as a consequence.
Another program implemented by Save the Children UK aims to tackle child trafficking across the borders of Cambodia, Lao PDR, People's Republic of China, and Viet Nam. The program assists children who have been trafficked and promotes legal reform.
On 25-27 July 2007, Edelweiss Silan, Regional Cross-Border Project Coordinator, Save the Children UK (Southeast and East Asia Regional Office) participated in a workshop on the findings and experiences of the ADB regional technical assistance project, "Preventing the Trafficking of Women and Children and Promoting Safe Migration in the Greater Mekong Subregion. To learn more about Save the Children UK, see: www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/38.htm*.
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12. Training Courses and Workshops in 2007
A listing in this section does not imply ADB endorsement or availability of financing for participants.
- Introduction to Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation, 10-14 September, Oxford, UK. Contact: INTRAC; e-mail: training@intrac.org; tel: +44 01865 263040; website: www.intrac.org*.
- International Development NGO Training Program, 10 September - 10 December, Portland, Oregon, USA. Contact: Green Empowerment, PWYP; e-mail: dexter@greenempowermentorg; tel: +1 503 284 5774; fax: +1 503 460 0450; website: www.greenempowerment.org/NGOSkillsTraining_session5_.pdf*.
- 11th Praxis Annual Commune on Participatory Development, 11-22 September, Hyderabad, India. Contact: PRAXIS; e-mail: info@praxisindia.org; tel: +91-11-41642348 to 51; website: praxisindia.org/workshop/index.asp*.
- Management Development Program on "Leveraging Human Potential: Human Resource Development for NGOs," 17-21 September, Anand, Gujarat, India. Contact: Madhavi Mehta, Institute of Rural Management Anand; e-mail: madhavi@irma.ac.in; tel: +91 2692 260181; fax: 91 2692 260188 website: www.irma.ac.in*.
- Foundations for Project Management for International NGOs, 24-28 September, Manila, Philippines. Contact: Leslie Sherriff, LINGOS; e-mail: leslie@lingos.org; tel: +1 253 680 9738.
- Practical Financial Management for NGOs: Getting the Basics Right, 5-9 November, Bangkok, Thailand. Contact: MANGO; e-mail: training@mango.org.uk; tel: +44 (0)1865 423818; website: www.mango.org.uk/training/calendar.aspx*.
- Strategic Financial Management for NGOs: Managing for Financial Sustainability, 12-14 November, Bangkok, Thailand. Contact: MANGO; e-mail: training@mango.org.uk; tel: +44 01865 423818; website: www.mango.org.uk/training/calendar.aspx*.
- Asia Pacific Fundraising Conference, 12-16 November, Luisita, Tarlac Province, Philippines. Contact: Rica Alejandrino-Lane, Fundraisers Network for Development Philippines; e-mail: info@fundphilippines.org; tel: +63 917 791 5290; website: www.fundphilippines.org/*
- Sixteenth International Management Appreciation Programme for Voluntary Agencies, 19 November-14 December, Anand, Gujarat, India. Contact: Madhavi Mehta, Institute of Rural Management Anand; e-mail: madhavi@irma.ac.in; tel: +91 2692 260181; fax: 91 2692 260188 website: www.irma.ac.in*.
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