karsten@weitzenegger.de
Trade Related Assistance: What Do Recent Evaluations Tell Us?

This report draws on key findings and recommendations emerging from available donor evaluation reports, assesses factors that have contributed to the success (or failure) of past programmes, and provides guidance for enhancing the effectiveness and impact of future trade-related assistance. It argues that despite some positive results, further improvements are necessary, in particular, with regards to donor programming, donor harmonisation and donor-recipient partnerships. Donors can enhance the effectiveness of trade-related assistance by better taking account of the basic principles of the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. http://www.oecd.org/dac/trade/evaluation

21:39 3Feb, 2007
karsten@weitzenegger.de
Differential impacts of trade policy for men and women

Trade and trade liberalisation have very different impacts on women and men – which can result in fundamental shifts in gender roles, relationships and inequalities. Moreover increasing claims that countries should be enabled to “trade their way out of poverty“ means that there is an urgent need to address how trade can promote gender equality and development. This Development Gateway highlight with its related links aims to support trade specialists in bringing a gender perspective into their work, and to help gender specialists to understand the broad implications of trade policy and practice. Women all over the world are increasingly joining the bottom rungs of the global supply chain. It can be argued that increased opportunities to join the cash economy are a positive development for women, whose additional income has the potential to increase both their status and the well-being of the family. But what are the costs of new trade regimes, and do they outweigh the benefits? How can development practitioners promote gender equality and better support women’s access to the benefits of trade? What policies are likely to have an effect on gender equality and how can such policies be influenced? http://topics.developmentgateway.org/trade/highlights/viewHighlight.do~activeHighlightId=111772?intcmp=925

21:38 3Feb, 2007
karsten@weitzenegger.de
ILO Decent Work Research Prize 2007

The ILO’s International Institute for Labour Studies has created a research prize to annually reward outstanding contributions to the advancement of knowledge on the ILO’s central goal of decent work for all, and calls for the nomination of candidates. The prize will be awarded during the next International Labour Conference (to be held in June 2007 in Geneva, Switzerland) where the winner will be invited to give a lecture to a global audience of government, employer and worker representatives. There will be a financial award of USD 10,000. The winner will be made Honorary Fellow for 2007-08. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inst/download/nom.pdf

21:38 3Feb, 2007
karsten@weitzenegger.de
ADB blacklists 37 companies for corruption

Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced having blacklisted 37 companies from dealings with it for up to 10 years for violating the bank’s anti-corruption code. The bank does not disclose the identities of those it debars. It banned 34 firms for one to seven years and three firms for 10 years from competing for ADB contracts. Fourteen individuals were banned indefinitely and 17 for periods ranging from one to seven years, while one person was reprimanded, the ADB said in a statement. http://www.adb.org/Integrity/

21:38 3Feb, 2007
karsten@weitzenegger.de
Integrating Environment, Development, and Conflict Prevention – European and National Approaches and Challenges

Berlin, 29-30 March 2007, European Conference hosted by the German EU Council Presidency 2007.
The conference is intended to facilitate a dialogue among key officials from EU member states and the European Commission, civil society, the private sector, and the scientific community to identify and discuss key issues, policies, and best practices. It will provide recommendations for the European Commission / European Union and individual Member States to address interdependencies between environment, development, and conflict prevention in policies and programmes. Interdependencies between environment, development, and conflict prevention have gained significant importance on the international agenda over the past years. Energy and climate policy and responsible resource management are priorities of the German EU Council and G8 presidencies in 2007. Putting climate, energy, and natural resource management into the broader context of foreign and security policy opens up new perspectives for environmental and development policy making. A comprehensive strategy on environment, development, and conflict prevention should address not only root causes and triggers of conflicts, but also their governance context.
http://www.adelphi-consult.com/ECC2007/

21:37 3Feb, 2007
karsten@weitzenegger.de
Conference: CSR Delivery, Engagement & Leadership

London, UK. 19-20 April 2007
At CSR Delivery, Engagement & Leadership you will hear useable and valuable advice, genuine experiences and practical case studies from a number of companies including Procter & Gamble, The Body Shop, Microsoft Belgium, Vodafone UK and many others. Next to a number of presentations and panel discussions, the event also offers practical sessions aimed at finding strategies for engaging employees on CSR and sustainable development issues. There is also plenty of room for round table discussions and delegate feedback. Info: mariame_lindell@osneymedia.co.uk http://www.csrleadership.com/tracker.asp?magazineid=556

21:37 3Feb, 2007
karsten@weitzenegger.de
Self-evaluation: illusions, confusions, solutions and fusions

University of Fribourg, Switzerland, 26-27 April 2007, Continuing Education Centre
Continuing Education of University of Fribourg in collaboration with the Swiss Evalutation Society, SEVAL
Self evaluation is gaining acceptance as an approach to evaluation in some circumstances. This growing acceptance is due to a variety of contextual factors including the under-utilisation of external evaluations and dwindling resources available to commission external evaluations. But what are the circumstances in which this shift in the culture of evaluation can deliver on the promise of self-evaluation? Info: formcont@unifr.ch http://www.unifr.ch/formcont

21:37 3Feb, 2007
karsten@weitzenegger.de
Eschborn Dialogue 2007, Capacity Development – empowering partners, promoting potentials

Eschborn, Germany, 28-29 June 2007, GTZ
Expertise and technology are key factors in the quest to find sustainable solutions to global challenges like climate change, environmental pollution and poverty. More than 400 representatives of politics, industry, research and the civil society will discuss with development experts the many facets of capacity development in the light of the international debate on this approach.
http://www.gtz.de/en/

21:36 3Feb, 2007
karsten@weitzenegger.de
Free Online Course in Action Research

As with earlier programs, the theme of areol 25 is the integration of effective change with rigorous research. In some respects, it is a combination of the principles of community and organisational change with those for change-oriented qualitative research, sometimes with use of quantitative research too. The on-line sessions are supplemented by archived files on various aspects of action research and evaluation. http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/areol/areolind.html

21:36 3Feb, 2007
karsten@weitzenegger.de
UNITAR 2007 e-Learning Course Calendar 2007

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research will be conducting at least seven online courses intended for a global audience of finance-sector officials. May we request you to kindly share this information with your colleagues whom you think may benefit from the suite of online courses for 2007. As you may already know, UNITAR courses are based on a decade-long experience in public debt management training. Over the past four years, thousands of finance-sector officials have already benefited from our e-Learning courses. http://www.unitar.org/dfm/DFMelearning/Index.htm

21:35 3Feb, 2007