ELDIS DEVELOPMENT REPORTER
October 07, 2004.
October 5 2004
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Here is our selection from the latest additions to
Eldis: your gateway to development information.
All documents are available free on the Internet via
the links provided. If you only have email access to
the Internet, we can send you a copy of a document
as an email attachment: please contact our editor at
the email address given below.
OUR EDITOR'S SELECTION FROM DOCUMENTS AND SERVICES
ADDED RECENTLY
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1. 13th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES
2. NGOs v the World Bank: who is the real champion of the
poor?
3. Gender and ICTs
4. Eldis Food Security Resource Guide
5. Privatisation and aid conditionality
6. Devolution in Pakistan
7. ISO social responsibility standardization: an outline of
the issues
8. What causes governments to give priority to the issue of
safe motherhood?
9. Justice for children: detention as a last resort
10. South Africa's experience of trade negotiations with the
EU
11. Blood and soil: land, politics and conflict prevention
in Zimbabwe and South Africa
Full Internet access details below. Each item includes links
to further Internet materials on the same subject.
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1. 13th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES
This collection of reports and news stories looks at the
October meeting of the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Papers look at
the main problems of enforcing CITES, and suggests possible
ways forward at the national, regional and international
levels to remedy the current situation.
www.eldis.org/biodiversity/cites_feature.htm
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2. NGOs v the World Bank: who is the real champion of the
poor?
A recent paper from 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. "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".
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3. Gender and ICTs
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? This Bridge report argues that
far-reaching changes towards gender equality and womenãs
empowerment in the ICT arena are needed at every level (
international, national and programme). Engendering ICTs is
not merely about greater use of ICTs by women. It is about
transforming the ICT systems.
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4. Eldis Food Security Resource Guide
This revised version of our resource guide highlights a new
range of topics, plus a series of region and country guides
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5. Privatisation and aid conditionality
This paper analyses the role of privatisation consultants in
developing countries. It argues that since privatisation of
public services has led to increased poverty in many
developing countries, the spending of UK overseas
development aid on privatisation consultants is highly
inappropriate, and represents a form of aid conditionality.
The paper calls on the UK's Department for International
Development (DFID) to end the imposition of public services
privatisation as a condition of development assistance to
developing countries
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6. Devolution in Pakistan
This report reviews the first 3 years of operation and finds
uneven but encouraging progress on most fronts. There is
evidence of genuine change, particularly in the
opportunities that citizens have gained to make their
concerns heard. At the same time, the assessment shows many
entrenched practices and attitudes still impede efforts to
meet those concerns with sustained, effective action.
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7. ISO social responsibility standardization: an outline of
the issues
Should ISO develop standards or other documents on the
subject of CSR? What should the scope of such work should
be? What kind of deliverables should ISO develop? This paper
argues that it would be appropriate for ISO to consider
extending the scope of its standardization activities
further into the area of sustainable development, including
into the area of CSR.
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8. What causes governments to give priority to the issue of
safe motherhood?
This paper on Indonesian experience (and part of the new
Eldis guide to maternal and newborn health) asks If the
medical technology is available to prevent maternal deaths
in childbirth, why have global maternal mortality levels not
declined to any significant degree in the last decade?
www.eldis.org/health/maternalhealth.htm
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9. Justice for children: detention as a last resort:
innovative initiatives in the East Asia and Pacific region
This study highlights a number of initiatives in the East
Asia and Pacific Region that promote international standards
on juvenile justice for children in conflict with the law,
focusing in particular on initiatives which attempt to
reduce the number of children sent to prison or detention
centres for petty crimes (diversion), and those that set up
community-based alternatives to incarceration of children
(restorative justice)
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10. How did David prepare to talk to Goliath? South Africa's
experience of trade negotiations with the EU
This paper analyses the experience of South Africa in
pursuing a development-focused trade strategy, and
successfully mobilising its limited capacity to conduct
negotiations on a free trade agreement with the EU. The
paper argues that lessons from this experience are useful to
many developing countries who struggle to negotiate
development-friendly trade regimes.
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11. Blood and soil: land, politics and conflict prevention
in Zimbabwe and South Africa
This report offers a detailed analysis of the different
challenges of land reform in both Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The report looks at the history of land ownership and policy
in both countries, and makes recommendations for future land
policy.
www.eldis.org/africa/index.htm
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