Pacific predictions for 2020, UN's decision on climate refugees, funding the SDGs by 2030 and more.
Posted on 21 January 2020
+ Launch of CID Online Training & Resources
At the end of last year, CID researched, collected and curatedonline training and resourcesthat can help strengthen organisational knowledge, policies and practices relating to international development.
The CID Code of Conduct was used as a framework to scope training and resources across three key areas of accountability (including the principles and obligations covered within them):
Programme Principles- including effectiveness in aid and development activities, human rights and working with partner agencies,
Public Engagement- including obligations to be ethical and transparent in marketing, fundraising and reporting, and
Organisation- including governance, management, financial controls, treatment of staff and volunteers, complaints-handling processes and compliance with legal requirements.
+ Seasonal Workers' earnings exceed Australian Aid + Trade in Tonga
A World Bank study of Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) workers in 2015 estimated that Tongan seasonal workers made on average net earnings of A$9,759. By 2012-13, there were 1,200 Tongans in the programme, and this increased to 3,740 by 2018-19. In 2018-19, SWP net earnings exceeded Australian aid to Tonga and imports from Tonga both separately and combined.
Tonga is the first Pacific nation to achieve this milestone and is the one that has embraced the potential of seasonal workmost enthusiastically. In 2018,DevPolicy estimated that 13% of the Tongan population aged 20 to 45 left the country each year to work on either Australian or New Zealand farms.
Despite the growing importance of labour mobility, Australian groups who advocate for development in Australia have been very quiet to date on the subject, say Stephen Howes & Beth Orton onDevPolicy
+ MFAT Partnering for Impact:NGO Wānangā & Toroa
NGO Wānanga
This week MFAT are holding Partnering for Impact wānanga in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. If you wish to attend, please rsvp toMFAT urgently. The timings and venues for each of the wānangā are as follow:
Wellington- Thu, 23rd January 9:30 - 12:30 @ MFAT, 195 Lambton Quay, Te Aro
Christchurch- Fri, 24th January 1:00 - 4:00 @ The Meeting Rooms, 10 de Havilland Way. Christchurch International Airport
The objectives for the wānangā are to provide an update, including an outline of MFAT's recently finalised monitoring, evaluation, research and learning framework; deliver a brief workshop on Manaaki; and to create space for partners to share any messaging. There will also be a brief session in Wellington on MFAT’s new Policy Statement onNZ International Cooperation for Effective Sustainable Development.
Te Rōpū o Ngā Toroa (Toroa) – New NGO Reference Group
Following on from the success of the inaugural Partnering for Impact NGO Reference Group, MFAT are also moving to set up a new reference group to support the ongoing design, implementation and adaption of the programme. The new reference group is called Te Rōpū o Ngā Toroa (Toroa). Please find attached the terms of reference for Toroahere.
If you are interested in nominating yourself, or someone else, please complete the expression of interest form attachedhere. Applications willclose at midday on Fri, 7th February.
MFAT will contact all those who submit an EOIs by mid-February with the outcomes of the application process. They expect to hold the first Toroa in Wellington either in late February or early March.
+ 2020 in the Pacific
DevPolicy has published apiece with Pacific predictionsfor this new year, including upcoming elections, independence issues, regional power dynamics and international relations rearrangements. The article states that the impacts of Solomon Islands and Kiribati switching their diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China will continue to be felt during 2020. .
Work will also begin on the negotiations between the Bougainville and Papua New Guinea governments further to the result of last year’s referendum which saw 97.7% of those who voted opting for independence. In New Caledonia, the second of a possible three referendums on independence from France will also be held on 6 September.
Divergences of approach when it comes to climate policy will also continue to be a significant fault line. Vanuatu, the hosts of the 2020 Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting, has already made it clear that the primary focus for that meeting will be climate change. The question of self-determination for West Papua, and addressing issues of alleged human rights abuses by the Indonesian state, also will loom large during 2020 and the Pacific Islands Forum.
+ Civil society representation at Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Conference, New York
*** Please note the deadline for applications is Friday, 7th February 5:00pm ***
From 27th April until 22nd May, States party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will meet at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to take stock of progress made towards the Treaty’s goals, including on nuclear disarmament. This conferences is held every five years, and this year marks 50 years since the Treaty entered into force.
New Zealand has an important tradition of including a representative from civil society on its official delegation to NPT Review Conferences. As such, calls for applications from civil society (to participate in the 2020 Review Conference as an adviser to the New Zealand delegation) are currently taking place.
Applications are open to New Zealanders who have a demonstrated interest in and knowledge of nuclear disarmament.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not financially support a successful nominee’s participation in the Review Conference, but it is possible that PACDAC may fund aspects of a successful delegate’s participation.
How to apply
VisitMFAT's websitefor more information, and access the application formhere. You will need to submit a completed application form, curriculum vitae and accompanying covering letter noting the basis for your interest by Friday, 7th February.
+ NGOs failing to protect LGBTQI+ staff in the field
Humanitarian programmes are taking LGBTQI+ people’s rights and needs more into account, but what about the humanitarians themselves? As NGOs and aid organisations move towards inclusion language in their programming, they are not always considering those who work within their organisations and deliver those programmes.
The New Humanitarianstates that NGOs "are not getting it right for diverse employees in the field, nor are we are meeting our duty of care obligations for those working at HQ." The article notes that the most pressing humanitarian crises take place in countries that criminalise LGBTQI+: Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, etc. It asks if those that identify with these groups should thus stop working in those areas?
+ UN landmark case for people displaced by climate change
In a ground-breaking asylum case, a UN human rights body has ruled that governments must take into account the human rights violations caused by the climate crisis when considering deportation of asylum seekers, said Amnesty International today.
Ioane Teitiota, from Kiribati, brought a case against the government of New Zealand at the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) in February 2016 after authorities denied his claim of asylum as a ‘climate refugee.’ He was deported from New Zealand to Kiribati in September 2015. The HRC delivered its decision on the case earlier this month.
“The decision sets a global precedent,” said Kate Schuetze, Pacific Researcher at Amnesty International. “It says a state will be in breach of its human rights obligations if it returns someone to a country where – due to the climate crisis – their life is at risk, or in danger of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” The full decision is available here.
Amnesty International Pacific researcher Kate Schuetze's radio interview with RNZ, can be foundhere and the original BBC story on Ioane Teitiota can be foundhere.
+ Mobilising funding for Sustainable Development Goals
In December, an Asia-Pacific regional conference in Bangladesh discussed howpublic and private financing for sustainable developmentcan be raised through tax systems, capital markets, climate finance, and development aid, noting that current investments fall short of what will be needed to fully achieve the SDGs by 2030.
The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has highlighted the need for an additional USD1.5 trillion a year or 5% of regional GDP (and in some cases 10% of regional GDP!) to fully achieve the SDGs by 2030.
Strengthening regional dialogues and cooperation on tax matters to address excessive tax competition across countries and tax evasion by multilateral corporations,
Improving planning, implementation and financing of national and cross-border infrastructure projects through regional cooperation, and
Enhancing financial technology solutions to extend financing opportunities to micro-enterprises and SMEs, with a focus on women entrepreneurs.
+ The CID Weekly is Proudly Sponsored By
Direct Impact Group supports organisations to maximise their social impact, because changing the world isn't easy, and in dynamic times this work is more important than ever.
