IN THIS ISSUE:
EVENTS
1. Gender
2. NGOs
NEWS
1. NGOs
2. Machreq/Maghreb
REPORTS & BOOKS & ARTICLES
1. Gender
2. Gender & ICT
3. ICT
4. Machreq/Maghreb
5. NGOs
6. Poverty
7. Trade/Economics/Microfinance
WEBSITES
1. Gender
2. NGOs
_______________________________________________________________________
EVENTS
1. GENDER:
International Day for the Elimination of
Violence against Women. This
will take place on November 25, and is sponsored by the United Nations with the
theme of “Not a Minute
More,” to raise awareness and explore issues
related to violence against women. http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/november25/
2. NGOs:The Lorenzo Natali Prize 2004.
Nomination deadline: 31 October 2004. Created by the European Commission in
1992, the Lorenzo Natali Prize for Journalism is awarded each year to “journalists from the written and on-line press who
stood out for their remarkable understanding and particular involvement in
reporting on Human Rights and Democracy. In 2004, the EC will award a prize for
each of the five world regions: a) Europe, b) Africa, the Arab world, Iran and Israel
3) Asia and the Pacific, 4) Latin America and the Caribbean.
All the nominated journalists will be the EC's hosts of honour at the awards
ceremony in Brussels
in December 2004. Winners will receive a Trophy and Euro 10,000”. http://www.nataliprize.info/ 
NEWS
1. NGOs:
Forced Evictions in Egypt - Joint
Urgent Action Appeal.Lead: “After forced evictions, the Egyptian Government
authorities threaten further eviction of homeless families from their Relief
tents. The Egyptian Centre for Housing Rights (ECHR), HIC-MENA and HIC-HLRN are
calling all concerned organizations and individuals to send protest letters to
the Egyptian authorities insisting on the protection of the 18 vulnerable
tent-dwelling families in al-Wahayid. The letters should also denounce the
official policy and practices of forced evictions, house demolitions and further
dispossession of impoverished citizens. ECHR also urges respondents to protest
the Egyptian authorities’
official refusal to provide legal assistance and gratuitous physical violence
carried out against the citizens especially in al-Duwiqqa.”For more info and/or sample letters write to
echr@echr.org  or urgentactions@hlrn.org 
see http://www.hlrn.org
Bank Computer Donation Program.
The Bank has launched a program that will
donate over 12,000 computers to needy groups around the world. “The machines, from more than 100 Bank offices, will be
distributed over the next nine months to non-government organizations,
community and non-profit groups that are primarily involved in health care,
education, social services, youth and job training. Each computer will be
loaded with a new operating system as well as software, donated by ‘Teachers without Borders’ that can help users earn a Certificate of Teaching
Mastery. World Links, a nongovernment organization that specializes in working
with youth, will
receive approximately 5,000 of the computers to use in their world-wide
educational programs.”http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20267661~menuPK:34457~pagePK:64003015~piPK:64003012~theSitePK:4607,00.html
Muslim clerics raise HIV/AIDS awareness. Derived from an IRIN News article: "The United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) in Kyrgyzstan
has teamed up with the State Commission on Religious Affairs and local Muslim
clergy to launch a unique campaign against HIV/AIDS that aims to educate
religious leaders”.http://topics.developmentgateway.org/hiv/rc/ItemDetail.do~1022885~intcmp=00001?itemId=1022885&intcmp=00001 
2. MACHREQ/MAGHREB
Agreement to Build and Repair Schools
in Iraq. Lead: “The
Bank signed a $60 million grant agreement with Iraq’s Ministry of Education to finance construction of new
buildings for over 100 schools and to make urgent repairs to140 primary and
secondary schools across 18 governorates. Financed by the Iraq Trust Fund, a
multi-donor trust fund administered by the Bank, the project focuses on schools
that are overcrowded or housed in unsafe buildings. The Emergency School
Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Project was signed during an international
donors meeting in Tokyo”.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20267584~menuPK:34464~pagePK:64003015~piPK:64003012~theSitePK:4607,00.html
REPORTS & BOOKS & ARTICLES
1. GENDER:
BBC Article: Saudi Women Barred from
Voting. Summary of BBC article: "The Saudi
interior minister has said women will not be allowed to vote in the country's
municipal elections starting in February 2005."  http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender/rc/ItemDetail.do~1022677~intcmp=00001?itemId=1022677&intcmp=00001
Eye to Eye - Women Practising Development
across Cultures. Edited by Susan Perry
and Celeste Schenck, this publication by Zed Books, is a “collection of articles/essays that spans economics,
politics, law, education and literature - examining the role of culture in the
development process. The focus is on seven crucial debates within the field of gender and
development”.http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender/rc/ItemDetail.do~1022825~intcmp=00001

Gender, Conflict and Development. Lead: “This volume is organized around major themes such as female combatants,
sexual violence, formal and informal peace processes, the legal framework,
work, the rehabilitation of social services and community-driven development.
For each theme, it analyzes how conflict changes gender roles. It also offers
policy options that might be considered to build on positive aspects while
minimizing adverse changes.”http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=4189616
Gender and Migration in Arab States: The
Case of Domestic Workers. This
publication is written by Esim, S.and Smith, M. (ed), 2004. It presents an ILO
regional review in addition to four country studies from Bahrain, Kuwait,
Lebanon and United Arab Emirates.
For this publication perform a search at; http://www.siyanda.org/search/
Learning from Experience: Strengthening
Organisations of Women with Disabilities. This case study analyses the experiences and lessons learnt from the
Disabled Women's Programme in Nicaragua.
For this publication perform a search at:http://www.siyanda.org/search/
Domestic Violence Resource Manual and
Leaflets. “Domestic violence is the most prevalent form of
violence against women. Help & Shelter in Guyana has involved a public
education strategy which involves a series of activities to raise awareness -
ranging from five minute sermons to five
day workshops”. http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender/rc/ItemDetail.do~1012404~intcmp=00001
2. GENDER & ICT:
Gender and ICTs: Cutting Edge Pack. This pack produced by BRIDGE (2004) answers
questions such as who benefits from ICTs? Who is dictating the course of ICTs?
Is it possible to harness ICTs to serve larger goals of equality and justice?
Lead: “Dramatic changes brought about by ICTs
have created new economic and social opportunities the world over. Their use,
however, continues to be governed by existing power relations. Amidst this
inequality are individuals and organisations that are working tirelessly to use
these technologies to further gender equality and social justice” http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports_gend_CEP.html
3. ICT:
Building knowledge societies: the Renewal
of Democratic Practices in Knowledge Societies. This paper looks at the “political
consequences of knowledge societies (social groups using ICTs to communicate
knowledge), in particular the policy implications for promoting democracy and
good governance. It examines the evidence for the relationship between use of
the Internet and indicators of civic engagement”.Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC15657
ICT as an Enabler for Growth, Development
and Competitiveness: Implications for national and International policies and
actions. Summary: "An interactive debate
among Governments, private-sector representatives and civil society on the role
of ICT as an enabler for growth and competitiveness in developing countries”. Included in the site is a summary of the conclusions
of the session.http://topics.developmentgateway.org/knowledge/rc/ItemDetail.do~1012790~intcmp=00001
 4. MACHREQ/MAGHREB:
A Year in Iraq. This is a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) report
that highlights emergency relief and reconstruction aid delivered to Iraq by USAID
and the Coalition Provisional Authority during the 12 months since the fall of
Saddam Hussein in April, 2003. http://topics.developmentgateway.org/ngo/rc/ItemDetail.do~1012568~intcmp=00001 
5. NGOs:
NGOs v the World Bank: who is the real
champion of the poor? This paper
by Sebastian Mallaby asks whether “NGO advocacy groups are acting against the interests of the poor and of
international development through unreasonable criticism of the World Bank and
similar agencies”. Lead:
"The Bank designs a reasonable project, which inevitably has flaws. NGOs
seize on these flaws and add a large sprinkling of inflammatory rhetoric. The
World Bank pulls out, but the project goes ahead anyway, without the Bank's
social and environmental safeguards". http://www.eldis.org/questioning
 
Health Status Statistics. These statistics derived from the UN are ones for the
MENA region. They particularly highlight statistics for Algeria, Egypt,
Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. The statistics not only
reveal trends in health but also trends related to technological consumption
i.e. the amount of internet users, television sets per thousand etc. http://www.comminit.com/pdf/MENATrendsTheDigitalPulse.pdf
Civil Society Budget Monitoring For
National Accountability. This
report covers the key lessons learnt and conclusions following a three day
budget tracking workshop held in Malawi in February 2004. The prime
objective of the workshop was “to
bring together individuals and representatives of organisations involved in
budget monitoring, or developing monitoring processes and tools, with a view to
developing a supportive community of practice of those organisations/ individuals”. http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000837/Oxfam_Malawi_CS_Workshop_Report_Feb2004.pdf
6. POVERTY:
Bartering for Food: The Connection between
Culture, Famine, and Poverty. Lead:
“A close relationship exists between culture and blocked access to food.
When people face hunger, particularly when they face famine, they frequently
turn to cultural traditions in search of a safety net. A good example is the
use of barter, which increases in breadth and intensity as food supplies grow
shorter. Barter is still used under normal circumstances by some indigenous
groups in rural areas. But for most people, especially in urban and semiurban
settings, barter is a last resort, a falling back on traditions of the past in
order to survive a crisis in the present”.http://topics.developmentgateway.org/culture 
7. TRADE/ECONOMICS/MICROFINANCE:
The Global Trade & Technology Network. This article
relates the the Global Trade & Technology Network (GTN) which is a USAID
program that promotes economic growth in developing countries through trade,
investment, and technology transfer. ‘GTN assists small- and medium-sized enterprises to build trade linkages,
identify investment’. http://topics.developmentgateway.org/trade/rc/ItemDetail.do~1012837~intcmp=00001
Risk Instability and the Pattern OF
Foreign Direct Investment in the Middle East and North
Africa Region.
This publication is from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Lead: “The need to account for stability in investment risk
is particularly important for countries in the Middle East
and North Africa (MENA) region, which historically have a higher level of
instability associated with investment risk than developed countries. This
paper presents an empirical analysis of risk instability of foreign direct
investment (FDI) within the MENA region, in addition to recommending possible
ways of reducing risk instability. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2004/wp04139.pdf
New ESCWA Publication: “Response to Globalization”.
ESCWA published a study on “Responding to Globalization: “Responding
to Globalization: Connecting Stock Markets to Achieve Regional Integration in
the ESCWA Region”. It was commissioned by its Member states as part of
the commission’s agenda for
2002-2003. The “issues and challenges facing Member States in
connecting regional stock markets were designated, with special emphasis given
to all manner of technical details, be they in relation to companies,
legislation and organization, and needed infrastructure”.http://www.escwa.org.lb/
WEBSITES
1. GENDER:
A New Highlight on the Development Gateway
Discusses Intra-household Gender Disparities and Access to Food. By visiting the Gender and Development page on the
development gateway a series of articles and research can be found about gender
and its related topics. http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender
GENIA Toolkit for Promoting Gender
Equality in Education. This is
produced by UNESCO. The GENIA toolkit provides a collection of practical
resources for gender focal points in Asian Ministries of Education (MoE). For this
report perform a search at; http://www.siyanda.org/search/
2. NGOs:
The International Volunteer Programs Association. According to its website IVPA is, "an alliance of non-profit,
non-governmental organizations based in the Americas, that are involved in
international volunteer and internship exchanges. IVPA encourages excellence
and responsibility in the field of international aid”http://topics.developmentgateway.org/ngo/rc/ItemDetail.do~1012547~intcmp=00001?itemId=1012547&intcmp=00001
Millennium development goals Internet
Portal. The UNNGLS (United Nations Non-Governmental
Liaison Service), an interagency programme of the United Nations that promotes
cooperation between the UN system and Non-Governmental Organizations on
economic and development issues, has launched a new internet portal on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). The portal is available at http://www.un-ngls.org/mdg
Working with a new league of virtual
volunteers. Lead: “Volunteers from around the world are helping
organizations that serve communities in developing countries - without leaving
their own communities. These online volunteers translate documents, write
articles, research data, build websites, mentor young people, design logos, and
engage in many other projects to benefit organizations serving people in the
developing world”. Online
volunteers are volunteers without frontiers. www.onlinevolunteering.org/why_volunteer.htm
The International Volunteer Programs
Association. IVPA is, according to its website, "an alliance of nonprofit,
nongovernmental organizations based in the Americas, that are involved in
international volunteer and internship exchanges. IVPA encourages excellence
and responsibility in the field of international volunteerism”http://topics.developmentgateway.org/ict/rc/ItemDetail.do~1012546~intcmp=00001?itemId=1012546&intcmp=00001
Involving the Community: A Guide to
Participatory Development Communication. This guide introduces “participatory
development communication concepts, discusses the effective two-way
communication approaches and presents a methodology to plan, develop, and
evaluate effective communication strategies”.
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/poverty/rc/ItemDetail.do%20~1011834~intcmp=00001?itemId=1011834&intcmp=00001
Toolkit: Proposal Writing and Fundraising. Providing “practical suggestions for applying for funding and proposal writing,
this toolkit is based on interviews with experienced research fundraisers in
both developing and developed countries”. http://www.gdnet.org/online_services/toolkits/proposal_writing