Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now!

A Guinness World Record was shattered last weekend when 173,045,325 citizens gathered at over 3,000 events in more than 120 countries, demanding that their governments eradicate extreme poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). "Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now!", now in its fourth year, has been certified by Guinness World Records as the largest mobilization of human beings in recorded history, an increase of about 57 million people over last year.

The photo is of our Stand Up event held last Friday.

Human Development Report 2009

UNDP's annual Human Development Report was recently launched. The 2009 edition is titled “Overcoming barriers: human mobility and development”, focusing on the underlying inequalities in migration issues both within and beyond borders. The report takes into account the impacts of migration on country or place of origin and destination as well as the question how migration can foster human development. In addition the HDR offers the comprehensive overview of Human Development Indicators for 2009. To read either the summary or the full report please visit: http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2009/

Sudan – Micro Enterprize Development Project

The Micro Enterprize Development (MED) project goal is to improve individual and family well being in the 3 counties of Greater Yei (Yei River, Lainya and Morobo), through the learning and benefits derived from participation in group savings and loan associations (VSLAs).

This will involve improving financial management and credit access for 3000 VSLA members and their households in Greater Yei. This is being achieved through the formation of around 48 more groups and the selection of 16 from the current facilitators to receive further training and to take on more responsibilities.

ORAF has been funding this project for over 12 months and already the benefits of the project are clear as our partner agency, ACROSS, shows us in this feedback

“The Morebongo women group management committee members being helped by MED trainer Mr. Joseph Mawa to calculate and audit their funds for share out. Mrs. Abawu Hellen (in red blouse on right) purchased a sewing machine with her first dividends realised from the group and established her self and now says she is able to pay school fees of her two daughters. The first daughter has joined Senior one and second daughter is in primary seven.

Hellen says this programme has given her hope of educating her three children who were abandoned by their father ten years ago. She was not even sure if their father was alive (though she hears that he is) but since never showed up to check on his children this was enough to tell her that he was dead.

According to Hellen she never got married again for fear of being neglected again. Throughout her single life she was puzzled on how to educate her children, but the MED programme has come to her aid. With the trainings she continues to get from MED she now has a future for her children and will pass this knowledge to her children through investing on them in education and telling them how beneficial it is to be self-reliant.”

Refuge Egypt update

In their August newsletter Refuge Egypt shares their achievements for 2009:

- 396 new refugees have been registered with the Emergency Team, 80% of them Sudanese.
- Urgently needed clothing has been distributed to 1,049 people.
- 5,515 people have received much-needed food packages.
- 164 trainees have completed the Domestic Cleaning Training Program.
- The Employment Center has been able to find positions for 364 people, 80% of them women.
- 1,726 infants have been monitored at the Well Baby Clinic, which has also received 275 new clients.
- The Well Child Clinic, which was started just months ago in July of this year, now has 228 clients.
- Workers at Refuge-Egypt’s clinic in Arbaa W Nus have completed over 3,000 consultations.
- The Youth Department has hosted a conference for teens and youth.
- Registration at the Happy Child Preschool has increased to 60 children
- The Zamalek Clinic has provided consultations for 7,140 people.

ORAF is contributing funds to the Health & Nutrition program.

Kenya - Centre for Urban Mission Informal Settlement Economic Development Initiative

This project seeks to reduce the economic vulnerability of the marginalized youths and women in the informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya. Mobilization and identification shall be conducted through and by local churches. Training will be conducted by the Centre for Urban Mission in order to offer skills in businesses and in initiating and managing savings groups. The youth will be placed in enterprises so as to acquire skills necessary for self and wage employment.

Business scale up capital shall be facilitated as matching funds to the savings groups through churches and this will be pegged on local contributions/savings.

ORAF is providing funds for this three year project.

Visit by Rev Stephens of IGL

Yesterday we had the pleasure of meeting up with Rev. Samuel D. Stephens and his daughter Becky from the Indian Gospel League (IGL). They were visiting Sydney for a family wedding and took the time to come out to Parramatta to meet us. We had an enjoyable lunch hearing more about the work that the Indian Gospel League is doing in southern India. It is encouraging to hear of the progress being made to improve the lives of the disadvantage. It was also heartening to be told that most of the villages devastated by the 2004 tsunami have rebuilt their communities and in doing so had improved housing and related infrastructure.

ORAF has been contributing to IGL’s projects since 1999 and we are currently contributing funds to the Education and Economic Development Project which has just started this year.

Annual Review of Development Effectiveness 2008

The Annual Review of Development Effectiveness 2008 - scaling up in a deteriorating global environment was prepared by AusAID’s Office of Development Effectiveness and tabled in Parliament on 10 August, 2009.

Annually reviewing development effectiveness is a core element of the Government’s commitment to increase aid effectiveness and improve the transparency and accountability of the Australian aid program.

This Review considers how well the program is placed to maintain effectiveness in the face of the twin challenges of scaling up and the global recession, finding that the aid program is well managed and achieving a wide range of results.

The review notes that Australia is changing the way it manages and delivers aid, though the pace of reform needs to be maintained. Areas for attention include strengthening approaches to policy dialogue, moving more consistently toward program based approaches, and developing approaches to risk management that are better suited to these newer ways of working.

The program also needs to provide more predictable and focused support, and ensure that scaling up is based on larger activities, rather than a larger number of activities.
To meet the challenges of scaling up effectively in a challenging global environment, three areas for action are identified:

• ensuring the aid program protects gains in poverty reduction – Australia is well placed to play a leadership role in helping our developing country neighbours deal with the impacts of the global recession.
• updating the aid program’s operational framework to embed effectiveness principles and provide a more systematic approach to the way aid is delivered, and
• redefining engagement with civil society, recognizing the role that civil society can play in delivering important basic services, increasing government accountability and making systems work better for the poor.

To download the full document please visit http://www.ode.ausaid.gov.au/publications/pdf/arde_report-2008.pdf