$21 million of tax avoided according to Oxfam report, Typhoon Mangkhut hits, MFAT policy review and much more

It's being called the "King of Storms"- and at least so far this year, it is. It started as a Super Typhoon and is now a tropical storm - the strongest storm in the world this year.

The human cost is at 69 deaths so far but that is expected to rise- and the other costs keep piling up. Towns are flooded, buildings destroyed and crops are ruined throughout the country.

Lot Felisco from Oxfam said, "Because this is a mass fatality involving probably more than 70 casualties, our task is to establish the identity of the victims because some of the victims are already decomposed," he said.

Oxfam will be looking to help those who have been worst affected by the disaster.

More than three million people have been moved to safety in southern China as Typhoon Mangkhut moved northward and continued to wreak havoc across the region.

+ NZ celebrates 125 years of Suffrage 

Tomorrow is 'Suffrage 125' marking the 125th anniversary of the Electoral Act 1893, giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote. Hard to believe women in New Zealand were still denied the right to stand for parliament until 1920. 

UN Women has an excellent map here showing the global ranking of women in the executive and parliamentary branches of government in 2017.

When thinking about the SDGs from a gender perspective we should ask ourselves; can this goal be achieved without gender equality in political participation and representation?As such we need to consider what are the most appropriate indicators to effectively monitor how goals towards a sustainable world are being implemented in support of women and girls. UN Women has written a helpful report on opportunities and challenges in monitoring gender equality and empowerment, this is available here.

Helen Clark visited the Solomon Islands, where she spoke at events focused on youth engagement along with increasing female political participation. In the 40 years since Solomon Islands' independence, only 4 women have served as Members of Parliament. "Women can't wait for someone to roll out a red carpet for them and open the door. You have to roll out the red carpet for yourself and push the door open," she said.

+ Make a submission on MFAT's aid policy review

The deadline is the end of October, and submissions

and feedback on its review of its aid and development policy.MFAT continues to seek submissionsorenquiries can be sent to SDG.Policy@mfat.govt.nz.

Also, Newsroom did a piece on the review this week.

Terence Wood, a research fellow at the Australian National University’s Development Policy Centre who previously worked on New Zealand’s aid programme, says it’s worth distinguishing how New Zealand has historically given aid in the Pacific from its work in the rest of the world.

He believes the last government began to use aid as a way to benefit New Zealand’s own interests (such as its successful bid for a seat on the UN Security Council).

CID Director Josie Pagani said “If you look at the language around the reset, it’s about moving away from the traditional aid relationship where you’ve got beneficiaries and donors to something where you’re looking at what’s the mutual benefit, and what’s our shared destiny - we’re all in the Pacific.”

Unicef NZ’s executive director Vivien Maidaborn says her concern is not that economic development projects aren’t valuable, but that they do not represent a complete strategy.

“For example, if 30 percent of the children in your country have stunted development, physical and mental development as a result of not good water sources, poor nutrition, poor sanitation, then it doesn’t matter how much you invest in economic development, it’s never going to be integrated into the whole population.”

+ Still time to prepare for CID's Safeguarding workshops 

CID's Safeguarding, Sexual Misconduct and Leadership workshops are September 24 in Auckland and September 25 in Wellington (see below for details).

Here are some of the sorts of guidance and resources we as a New Zealand Sector will look at developing:

In the UK, BOND (CID's equivalent) had created the following for it members:

• Whistleblowing for employees (UK government guidance)
• Guidance on bullying and harassment (UK government)
• Whistleblowing guidance for charity employees (Charity Commission)

Also, here are some templates for Safeguarding policies, some of which can we used and adapted for the New Zealand context.

ACFID (Australia) has just released an interim report, identifying key emerging themes to address: “Adopting victim/survivor-centered policies and processes; creating a strong reporting culture within organisations; and strong leadership to create that culture, are common international factors affecting the prevention of misconduct."

Also here is the CHS Alliance Handbook on Safeguarding, which BOND have adapted into a quick reference on measures to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse [PDF].

+ Global Giving report

The 2018 Global Trends in Giving Report is based on the survey results of 6,057 donors worldwide and available for download in four languages – English, español, français, and português. 

Sponsored by the Public Interest Registry and produced by Nonprofit Tech for Good, the report summarizes donor data across six continents about how online technology effects giving. The report also examines the impact of gender, generation, ideology, religion, and donor size upon giving.

This year the report also features data from 1,049 non-donors who share why they don't give and whether they plan to in the future.

+ California has its own climate change summit

California tried something different this year. Avoiding Prime Ministers, presidents, and even multinational organisations like the United Nations, they instead focused on local leaders and hearing from an array of governors, mayors and business executives - "A key premise of the conference was that if a handful of leading-edge states, cities and businesses can demonstrate that it’s feasible — and even lucrative — to go green in their own backyards, they might inspire others to follow suit. That, in turn, could make it easier for national leaders to act more forcefully."

These local and business leaders from around the globe wanted to promote their successes in cutting greenhouse gas emissions locally and to encourage one another to do more.

The Brookings Institute agrees with the approach:

"In our effort to contain climate change, we are in a race against time to shift from high to low- and then no-carbon economies fast enough to prevent out-of-control damage. We have seen stunning progress in last five to 10 years on clean technology, way beyond what any modelers predicted. But the dangerous impacts of climate change are also happening even faster than scientists expected. Moving in the right direction on the low-carbon transformation isn’t good enough; we need to move at speed and scale. The good news is that we can do this from the perspective of innovation, policy, and finance: We have the creativity and know-how; we understand the tools we need; we have the money. But we don’t, yet, have the political will—for real—at the level of leaders or publics."

+ Member of the Moment: International Needs Humanitarian Aid Trust

"Making it happen in Nepal"

Recently the 43rd batch of ladies from rural Nepal started their five-month course at the Lydia Vocational Training Centre (LVTC) in Kathmandu.

During the five months at LVTC, they are exposed to and trained in areas that include women’s health, education, tailoring, household, and small business economics, community leadership and development.

When they leave the centre they return to their families and villages and are in a position to provide employment for themselves. Through the generosity of NZ donors, each graduate is supplied with their own treadle sewing machine and a large quantity of fabric and other supplies which enables them to start their own self-supporting business.

This breaks in the cycle of generational poverty and allows them to be in a position to teach, develop and mentor other young women within their extended family and village.

Text: John Elen and Photographs: Luke Edwards

Check out their website for more.