Search for Common Ground Burundi

Linked with Christine Ntahe – Burundi.

Founded in 1982, Search for Common Ground works to transform the way the world deals with conflict – away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving. We work with local partners to find culturally appropriate means to strengthen societies’ capacity to deal with conflicts constructively: to understand the differences and act on the commonalities.

In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and in response to ongoing instability in the Great Lakes Region, Search for Common Ground (SFCG) opened its first office in Africa in 1995 in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura. With satellite offices in Ngozi and Makamba, SFCG in Burundi operates a national programme that uses a variety of mutually enhancing methods targeting multiple sectors of society. Through community peace-building and media work, SFCG in Burundi informs and educates the public about pertinent issues, builds the capacity of journalists and civic leaders, and strengthens the potential for inclusive participation in local communities. SFCG in Burundi consists of the radio-production facility Studio Ijambo, the Community Outreach Team, and the Victims of Torture Project.

Throughout the 1990s, a civil war fought mainly along ethnic lines raged in Burundi and ultimately claimed the lives of nearly 300,000 people. The signing of the Arusha Peace Agreement in August of 2000 laid the foundation for a stabilising domestic security situation in most of the country and, in August 2005, former Hutu rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza was elected president becoming the nation’s first democratically elected president since 1993.

Continuer la lecture de « Search for Common Ground Burundi »

Public Broadcasting Service PBS.org

Concerning the Darfur Conflict, linked with Workers World, and with Understanding Sudan – The Darfur conflict.

PBS programs and education services enrich the lives of all Americans. PBS, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, is a non–profit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation’s 348 public television stations. A trusted community resource, PBS uses the power of noncommercial television, the Internet and other media to enrich the lives of all Americans through quality programs and education services that inform, inspire and delight. Available to 99 percent of American homes with televisions and to an increasing number of digital multimedia households, PBS serves nearly 90 million people each week.Learn more about PBS through the links on this PBS-page.

See PBS’s report on SUDAN, the Darfur Situation.

Open Plans Home

Last modified 2006-06-02 – Welcome to http://openplans.org/, a free wiki-based community organizing and project management tool.

OpenPlans, a site dedicated to helping communities organize virtually to effect real world change, is currently running a beta testing version of the software here at www.openplans.org.  The site will continue to evolve as we roll out bug fixes, new features, and enhanced functionality.

OpenPlans is wiki-based. This means that most pages are editable by members of the site. Membership is free and it takes just seconds to register. Once you log in, you may start your own project or contribute to an existing one. We hope you use OpenPlans to share information, coordinate tasks, and build momentum around your project.

OpenPlans is the work of The Open Planning Project (TOPP), a New York City-based non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing citizen and public interest group participation in community planning processes through technology. TOPP imagines OpenPlans as a free, hosted, and shared suite of community organizing tools, and we look forward to providing you with an ever-increasing toolkit for getting things done.

We will soon be adding a user’s guide. In the meantime, logged in users can visit our Sandbox project to experiment with using the system.  Once in the sandbox, click the « edit » tab to change the text and layout of the page.  You can link to existing pages in the project by enclosing the page title in double parenthesis.  You can also create new pages this way; if you enclose text that does not match an existing page title in double parenthesis, this text will become an « add link », which will create the new page when followed.

Let us know what you think using our contact form; we love and need your feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Business Development Services (BDS) Forum

The BDS Forum is a database and discussion forum on different BDS strategies. We do not support « the only one BDS approach » – monopoly but complementary business development strategies proved in practice like the moderate BDS approach including commercial BDS providers as well as NGOs, local city administrations, public providers and self-help organisations. Your contributions are welcome!

BDS Media:

  • BDS Internet Portals
  • BDS email based Newsletter
  • Business Information Handbooks
  • BDS Reader
  • BDS Library (download)

Strategies and Trainings:

  • BDS Toolkit
  • BDS Trainings
  • BDS Success Stories
  • BDS Lessons learnt
  • Capacity Building and Networking
  • Monitoring and Evaluation

Business Information Services:

  • Start your Business
  • Business Registration
  • Business Planning
  • Bookkeeping and Cost Calculation
  • Marketing Strategies
  • Import-Export and Trade Fairs
  • BDS with Business Associations
  • Taxation
  • Supply Markets
  • Laws and Regulations
  • Standards and Quality

Business Development Services (BDS) comprise a wide range of non-financial services provided by private suppliers (BDS providers) to entrepreneurs who use them to efficiently operate and make their businesses grow. The types of services in a functioning BDS system are determined by the demand articulated on the part of the businesses.

New for download!

  • How to develop sustainable BDS without Radicalism?
  • Library

    Consulting Firms active in development cooperation

    To find Consulting Firms active in development cooperation, go to the coresponding directory on weitzenegger.de:

    List of Companies in Industrialized Countries not Members of the EU;

    List of Companies with Headquarters in the European Union;

    African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states signatories of the Cotonou Agreement;

    etc., see the rest on this weitzenegger index.

    One exemple of a consulting firm: The Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development (CSEND) is an independent, project-financed, non-profit foundation, registered with the Geneva Chamber of Commerce (Switzerland). Specialising in organisational reform and institutional development worldwide, CSEND works to strengthen public administrations and public-sector enterprises through the use of an inter-disciplinary and socio-economic approach. Mandated primarily by governments and international organisations, CSEND designs and implements comprehensive institution development and capacity-building projects leading to the adoption of best managerial practices in the public sector. (See all on CSEND ff).