Mois : avril 2006

They say about themselves: The Development Gateway puts the Internet to work for developing countries. We provide innovative Internet solutions for effective aid and e-government – increasing access to critical information, building local capacity and bringing partners together for positive change.

More than one billion people worldwide now use the Internet. Half of these people are in developing countries and we expect their number to triple in the next five years. So the Internet is no longer just a tool for the rich. It is enabling unprecedented interaction within and across borders in developing regions, unleashing productivity and facilitating new solutions to old problems. The Development Gateway is helping capture this momentum to ensure that the benefits extend to as many people as possible.

They started a discussion about ‘What Events Will Make the Most Difference in Changing the Aid Industry?’ – Almost everyone–from aid donors to recipients–seems to agree that changes are needed in delivering overseas development assistance to make it more effective in reducing poverty. What events of the next year might make the most difference in making the system more effective? Please add your comments in the box on the right. Thanks for participating in this important discussion.

Linked with our presentation of Sompop Jantraka – Thailand.

Project: Development and Education Program for Daughters & Community Center DEPDC.

Location: Mae Sai,Thailand and Mekong sub-region (including Laos, Burma and the Yunnan Province of China). Across Asia, tens of thousands of children are being sold into prostitution or hard labor.

Sompop Jantraka has put his life on the line to save young women sold into prostitution by poor farming families. He is also proving that these women can be far more valuable to Thailand as educated members of the work force than as sex slaves.

Jantraka offers the poor families of young women between the ages of 8 and 18 (who are often desperate for income and easily deceived by brothel owners) an alternative to sending their daughters into prostitution by providing the girls with education, job training and employment assistance. Eight different projects focus on children at risk, children’s rights, child sexual abuse and forced labor.

Since 1989 when he founded the Daughters Education Program, Jantraka’s work has directly affected more than 1,000 children. Starting with an initial group of 19 students, the program is now supporting more than 360 girls and boys.

Jantraka considers education and training the keys to allow these girls to find alternative employment, improve their communities and reach their full potential.

Continuer la lecture de « Development and Education Program for Daughters & Community Center DEPDC, Thailand »

Linked with our presentatio of Irene Fernandez – Malaysia.

Linked also with our presentation of Petition of Complaint to the National Human Rights Commission SUHAKAM.

The Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development APWLD is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organization. It is committed to enabling women to use law as an instrument of social change for equality, justice and development. It has a consultative status at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC).

Objectives: To enable women in the region to use law as an instrument of change for the empowerment of women in their struggle for justice, peace, equality and development. To promote basic concepts of human rights in the region as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminations Against Women (CEDAW) and other relevant international human rights instruments.

We of APWLD believe that the concept of law includes the legal system as well as the customary practices. Law plays a critical role as it can promote or inhibit women’s access to resources as well as their participation in development processes. Legally sanctioned hierarchical gender structures, production modes and socio-cultural relations need to be seriously addressed by all stakeholders. New social structures require new legal instruments. Knowledge of the law, legal processes and one’s rights is a process of empowerment. (Read more on this page).

See also Network & Links.

linked with our presentation of Netsanet Mengistu – Ethiopia.

And linked with our presentation of towards helping women to fulfill their responsibilities.

PROGYNIST, Women Empowerment Indigenous NGO:

Mission: PROGYNIST is an indigenous non political, non religious and not-for- profit NGO established to promote the welfare and contribution of Ethiopian women to the political, socio-economic and environmental development and management of their country.

PROGYNIST believes that empowering women is strengthening civil society and acknowledging its role in sustainable development.

To ensure such sustainability, PROGYNIST focuses on projects uplifting women’s economic status by employing gender-fair and environment friendly technology.

Fields of Intervention:

Assisting women to gain access to credit, Business Development facilities, and other institutional support mechanisms through Meklit Micro Finance Institution (the establishment was initiated by Progynist for this purpose)

Conducting non-formal education on a variety of syllabus for women and access to primary education for children who could not get the opportunity to go to school.

Continuer la lecture de « PROGYNIST »

First of all: Please read the 2006 May 24 Action Pack.

Linked with our presentations of Annelise Ebbe, and of War on Iraq,

The Programme of the WILPF, Womens International League for Peace and Freedom, is Economic and Social Justice, Respect for the Environment – and the Foundation of Peace.

WILPF PROGRAM AND PLAN OF ACTION 2004 -2007

Building a Culture of Peace: The heart of WILPF’s work from its founding almost 90 years ago to the present is to study and make known the roots of conflicts and wars and to strive for their eradication. It is to help build a society without war, one in which there will be economic and social justice, respect of all human rights of women, men, children and the rights of every living thing; a society in which every person participates fully in decision-making. Our task is to help construct this necessary foundation upon which a durable peace can be achieved.

We remain united in achieving that goal in spite of the turbulent times history has brought us through and today challenges us in unprecedented ways. We are challenged by the violence in our societies and the increasing number and the intensity of national and regional conflicts in all parts of the world. We are challenged by the erosion of human values that gave birth to the United Nations Charter and to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international standards and laws. We are challenged by the marginalization of the United Nations and the return to unilateralism where a powerful state and a few allies impose their economic and political doctrines and military rule on others, by force if needed. We are challenged by the powerful transnational corporations’ control of resources and the economic and social policies of nations to amass profits for their shareholders at the cost of meeting citizens’ needs. We are challenged by the dangers the new weaponry and military strategies represent to all humanity and the environment.

Continuer la lecture de « Womens International League for Peace and Freedom »