Catégorie : Civil Society

Linked with Boualaphet Chounthavong – Laos.

Village Focus International envisions a world in which every community has the capacity, opportunity, and legal right to improve its quality of life. VFI’s mission is to invest in local staff and leaders working to design and implement
projects that create positive change in their own communities by bridging international support to local action. (full text).

Non-profit U.S.-based organization empowering communities and leaders in Laos, Cambodia, and Southern India. Incorporated in 2000 by a group of Lao people and two Americans who have worked together for over ten years. Grassroots model that differs from large development organizations, known to be ineffective and wasteful, by keeping overhead costs low and emphasizing local leadership. (full text).

Homepage;
Child Protection & Empowerment; Village Life & Leadership; Natural Resource Management; Fair Trade; Newsletter;
Contact us.

Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge regime, responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people, brought Cambodia’s flourishing society to a halt in 1975. The resulting years of war, isolation, and uncertainty lasted until 1998. (full text). Continuer la lecture de « Village Focus International VFI »

OSI-New York and OSI-Budapest are separate organizations that operate independently, yet cooperate informally with each other. This website, a joint presentation, is intended to promote both organizations’ interests, while maintaining their respective transparency. (Information-Programme).

OSI Offices: OSI is based in New York City and cooperates with the Hungary-based OSI-Budapest. OSI-New York is exempt from United States income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Together with OSI-Budapest, OSI-New York provides administrative, financial, and technical support to the Soros foundations. OSI-New York operates initiatives, which address specific issues on a regional or network-wide basis internationally, and other independent programs. OSI-New York is also the home of a series of programs that focus principally on the United States. In the United States, OSI has offices in Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. In addition to Budapest, other offi ces outside the United States are located in Brussels, London, and Paris.

The Soros Foundations Network;
Grants, Scholarships, Fellowships;
Resource Center;
Initiatives;
Site-map;
Contact us inside of our website.

Continuer la lecture de « The Open Society Institute OSI »

Linked with Manfred Max-Neef – Chile, with The Max-Neef Model of Human-Scale Development, with Statements at the World Future Council.

CEPAUR is largely dedicated to the reorientation of development in terms of stimulating local self-reliance and satisfying fundamental human needs. More generally, it advocates a return to the human scale. CEPAUR acts as a clearing-house for information on the revitalisation and development of small and medium-sized urban and rural communities; it researches new tools, strategies and evalutive techniquest for such development, assists with projects aiming at greater local self-reliance and disseminates the reulsts of its research and experience. In Human Scale Development, published in 1987 in Spanish and later in English, Max-Neef and his colleagues at CEPAUR outline a new development paradigm based on a revaluation of human needs. Needs are described as existential (having, doing, being) and as axiological (values) and the things needed to satisfy them are not necessarily dependent upon, or commensurate with, the kinds or quantities of economic goods available in any given society. The book seeks to counter the logic of economics with the ethics of well-being. (full text on the website of The Right Livelihood Awards).

The Center is described also on the following websites:
Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation;
Foundation for deep ecology;
Peace Proposal.com;
Globalization and Megatechnology.

NCCR Central Asia is part of The National Centre of Competence in Research NCCR North-South (site is hosted at the University of Berne/Switzerland (in german), and their Center for development and environment: (in english). Works together with the Swiss Development Cooperation.

Swiss cooperation in Central Asia started with Kyrgyzstan in 1993 and Uzbekistan in 1994. Tajikistan received humanitarian aid during the civil war (1993-97), which had later been replaced by technical and financial assistance. Through the Swiss Cooperation Offices in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Switzerland implements projects which aim to achieve a sustainable change in the region. Some of the regional projects include limited activities in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Motivation for support: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are members of the Swiss-led voting group at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and at the Bretton Woods Institutions (International Monetary Fund, World Bank). Swiss active involvement in the region is supported by the Swiss government’s understanding that global security and prosperity will not be achieved as long as a huge gap separates the developed and the underdeveloped world. (full text).

Continuer la lecture de « North-South research of NCCR in Central Asia »

(Homepage in english) – (Homepage in russian)

Read: The Central Asian Human Development Report HDR 2005.

about: Mission and objectives: Central Asian Gateway Internet website was created with aim to provide access to information on socio-economic development of Central Asian states. This information, its comprehension and practical use allow to promote sustainable development, productive exchange of best practices, encourage of network activity carried out by various institutions, citizens, and other counterparts engaged in constructive activity.

CAG Mission Statement: CAG portal will facilitate knowledge sharing and information exchange for sustainable socio-economic development and integration of Central Asian countries.

CAG goals and objectives:

Continuer la lecture de « The Central Asian Gateway »