24 November 2005 - CRINMAIL 733
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- NIGER: Millions Could Face Severe Food Shortages Again in 2006 [news]
- GENDER BASED VIOLENCE: 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence [campaign]
- CHILD POVERTY: Role of Social Protection in Securing Child Rights [publication]
- MACROECONOMICS: Budgets and Children's Rights [publications]
- DISCRIMINATION: Training Materials on Promoting Diversity [publication]
- CRIN SERVICES: Child Friendly Resources [call for information]
- EMPLOYMENT: Plan Timor Leste [job posting]
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Your submissions are welcome if you are working in the area of child rights. To contribute, email us at [email protected]. Adobe Acrobat is required for viewing some of the documents, and if required can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html If you do not receive this email in html format, you will not be able to see some hyperlinks in the text. At the end of each item we have therefore provided a full URL linking to a web page where further information is available.
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- NIGER: Millions Could Face Severe Food Shortages Again in 2006 [news]
[DAKAR, 23 November 2005] - Millions of people in Niger could face severe food shortages again next year if donor countries fail to maintain aid funding as the crisis slips from the international agenda, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Starvation threatened the lives of tens of thousands of children and left millions of adults hungry earlier this year after drought and locusts destroyed crops in the West African country, one of the world's poorest. "It will take only the slightest adversity to push families over the edge again," Gian Carlo Cirri, head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Niger, said in a statement.
Medical teams have been treating tens of thousands of malnourished children in eastern Niger, on the fringe of the Sahara desert. Emergency food supplies were airlifted to feeding centres around the region ahead of the October harvest.
But WFP - which has already supplied food aid to nearly three million people - said more than 1.2 million had cereal stocks that would last only three more months, while a further two million had enough to last a maximum of five months. It said it needed $20 million to extend its emergency operation until March next year or else food supplies could be disrupted within a matter of weeks.
Niger's government warned late last year that 3.6 million people faced severe hunger in the arid, landlocked country but donations only poured in on the scale needed in July after images of starving children were broadcast around the world.
Aid workers blamed donor nations for failing to heed appeals from UN agencies and from the government, pointing out that the cost to donors of saving a starving child is much greater than the cost of feeding them to avert a crisis.
[Source: Reuters]
To read the press release in full, go to:
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6636
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- GENDER BASED VIOLENCE: 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence [campaign]
Dates: 25 November - 10 December
The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Centre for Women's Global Leadership in 1991. Participants chose the dates, 25 November - International Day Against Violence Against Women - and 10 December - International Human Rights Day - in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasise that such violence is a violation of human rights. Since 1991, approximately 1,700 organisations in 130 countries have participated in the 16 Days Campaign.
The 16 Days Campaign has been used as an organising strategy by individuals and groups around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women by:
- Raising awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue
- Strengthening local work around violence against women
- Linking local and international work to end violence against women
- Providing a forum in which organisers can share new and effective strategies
- Demonstrating the solidarity of women around the world
- Creating tools to pressure governments to implement promises
Every year, the Global Centre composes a Campaign theme in consultation with women's human rights advocates world-wide and then circulates an announcement for the campaign as widely as possible. This year's 16 Days campaign theme, "For the Health of Women, For the Health of the World, no more Violence", emphasises the connections between women's human rights, violence against women and women's health, and the detrimental consequences violence against women has on the well-being of the world as a whole.
Addressing the connections between violence against women and the HIV/AIDS pandemic remains imperative. Violence limits women's ability to protect themselves against infection and can compromise access to a range of critical health information and services, including testing and treatment. This year, the theme of the UNAIDS World AIDS Campaign is "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise." The campaign demands governments keep their policy commitments related to HIV/AIDS. World AIDS Day (1 December) falls during the 16 Days campaign, which provides an ideal opportunity to remind governments that in order to keep their promises on HIV/AIDS they need to fulfil commitments on violence against women as well.
For more information, contact:
Centre for Women's Global Leadership
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
160 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8555 USA
Tel: + 1 732 932 8782; Fax: + 1 732 932 1180
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu
Visit: http://www.crin.org/violence/search/closeup.asp?infoID=6635
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- CHILD POVERTY: Role of Social Protection in Securing Child Rights [publication]
Plan UK has recently published a policy briefing on the importance of social protection for the poorest and most vulnerable children. The paper examines the new understandings of social protection and how these relate to child rights. It argues that social protection instruments, and in particular, cash transfers have enormous potential to reduce child poverty. However, in order to maximise the benefits for child wellbeing, social protection systems need to be grounded within a rights based approach and linked to wider development in a holistic manner.
The very poorest and most vulnerable children and their families have not largely benefited from development initiatives in recent years, as the slow progress towards the Millennium Development Goals demonstrates. Poverty is more than material and income deprivation; it also encompasses social deprivation. The poorest experience a lack of voice, are often socially excluded, and are vulnerable to a variety of risks.
Establishing social protection packages can be an important contribution to ending this cycle of extreme poverty and of realising the rights of the poorest and most vulnerable in the South. Indeed the need for social protection is becoming more acute as traditional support structures are eroded by the impact of factors such as globalisation, conflict, migration, climate change and HIV/AIDS. Comprehensive social protection packages could include: social safety nets, including both cash transfers and in kind mechanisms such as the abolition of education user fees - appropriate legislative measures - livelihood promotion.
The South African government introduced a Child Support Grant in 1998 and early studies suggest that these benefits are well targeted at the poorest families. There is also growing evidence that the provision of pensions has striking benefits for children. In both South Africa and Brazil, the provision of pensions has seen better nutrition and increased school attendance, especially for girls. In South Africa, 30 per cent of the value of the pension is spent on grandchildren.
Children are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of poverty and can in fact be the biggest indirect beneficiaries of social protection systems. Even modest amounts of cash provide households with regular and predictable incomes. If delivered over a period of time, this can reduce people's vulnerability to shocks, allow them to accumulate assets, and improve their own livelihoods.
For more information, contact:
Plan UK
5-6 Underhill Street, London, NW1 7HS, UK
Tel: + 44 (0)20 7482 9571; Fax: + 44 (0)20 7482 9778
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.plan-uk.org
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6634
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- MACROECONOMICS: Budgets and Children's Rights [publications]
* "Making Cash Count: Lessons from cash transfer schemes in east and southern Africa for supporting the most vulnerable children and households"
A new report has been released, assessing the use of cash transfers as a means of combating chronic poverty, food insecurity and increasing HIV and AIDS in east and southern Africa. The report 'Making Cash Count' has been produced by Save the Children, HelpAge International and the Institute of Development Studies.
It explores the lessons learned from selected schemes in Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zambia, considers the ways children, their carers and families benefit from the transfers, and discusses different design, implementation and management issues.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6637
* "First Introduction to Working for Child Rights from a Budget Perspective"
Save the Children Sweden recently published a booklet on article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: "With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international co-operation." In addition, one of the key messages of the G8 Conference this year was the importance of following-up on how aid is used and what the results of aid are.
"First Introduction to Working for Child Rights from a Budget Perspective" demonstrates how different countries are monitoring the implementation of children's rights from a budget perspective and how this information can be used.
NGOs are the best organisations to follow-up if States are actually allocating resources to meet the goals of the Convention. The results of the analysis of budgets can and should be the basis for advocacy work. In this way the premise of the book ties-in with the G8 statement. This kind of analysis will also be important when the UN Study on Violence against Children is completed.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6633
For other publications on the same issue, go to:
http://se-web-01.rb.se/Shop/Products/ProductCategory.aspx?menu=1§ion...
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- DISCRIMINATION: Training Materials on Promoting Diversity [publication]
Save the Children UK has produced a manual containing an extensive collection of exercises to train staff on issues of diversity and non-discrimination. "Making A Difference: Training Materials to Promote Diversity and Tackle Discrimination" covers diversity awareness; assessment and analysis; action planning and gathering information and is designed to all staff, including those with little or no experience of diversity programming.
These materials should help programme staff analyse how discrimination impacts on the lives of children, in order to plan effective programming responses. They have been designed to be used within organisational systems in the International Save the Children Alliance (such as country and thematic planning and review processes and global impact monitoring), but also more widely by colleagues in other organisations wishing to explore issues of diversity and discrimination. The materials have been piloted by Save the Children UK's Angola, Bangladesh and Wales country programmes.
The Manual is available to download at the link below.
For more information, contact:
Katherine Chambers
Save the Children UK
1 St John's Lane, London, EC1M 4AR, UK
Tel: + 44 20 7012 6400; Fax: + 44 20 7012 6963
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6632
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- CRIN SERVICES: Child Friendly Resources [call for information]
CRIN (Child Rights Information Network) is currently developing a new website to be launched next year. It will include a new section for children, with listings of organisations that can help them, and child friendly resources on child rights.
We are therefore gathering information on such organisations and resources as well as educational materials for parents and teachers. The types of resources we are looking for include books, brochures, leaflets, posters, websites, games, videos, etc on children's rights.
We would be grateful if you could forward details of your resources to [email protected], or direct us to your favourites ones.
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- EMPLOYMENT: Plan Timor Leste [job posting]
Plan Timor Leste wishes to recruit a Senior Programme Manager to support consolidation and growth of its work in Timor. Reporting to the Country Director, the Senior Programme Manager has responsibility for programme planning, monitoring and evaluation, field oversight, Government liaison and programme partnerships. The position is Dili based but will require frequent field visits and some overseas travel.
The successful candidate should have strong development programming and management experience, good operational knowledge of Timor Leste and of current and emerging development issues. S/he should be highly motivated and dynamic, able to work independently and be fluent in both English and Tetun.
Plan is a Global NGO that works in over 45 countries to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of life of deprived children and families. Plan has been working in Timor since 2000, and in partnership with the Government and other NGOs implements nation-wide programmes in Early Childhood Development, Health, Learning and Water/Sanitation.
Application deadline: 12 December 2005
For more information, contact:
Helen Gallagher
1 Bairo Central Dili, Timor Leste
Email: [email protected]
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