Newsletter

Mapping aid in the Pacific, resources for Safeguarding and update on the SDGs

Posted on 14 August 2018

+ How much do our members love us?
+ Mapping aid means better aid - Lowy Institute's new Pacific Aid Map

The Lowy Institute (with the help of Australian aid) has launched a new analytical tool to map aid in the Pacific.

Transparency means greater aid effectiveness in the Pacific by improving coordination, alignment, and accountability. The Pacific Aid Map has collected data on close to 13,000 projects in 14 countries supplied by 62 donors from 2011 onwards.

And it'll be updated annually.

China isn’t the only donor in the region! It’s also not always the most significant donor.

In any given year, more than US$2 billion in aid is invested in the Pacific by more than 60 donors. Almost half comes from Australia. 

A lack of transparency can hamper the effectiveness of aid, say Lowy's Alexandre Dayant and Jonathan Pryke.

"It poses difficulties in the coordination of aid efforts by multiple stakeholders. It increases the challenge for countries in the Pacific to align aid with their own investment priorities. It stymies efforts of donors to learn from one other, and from the past. And it reduces accountability."

This data will drive debate about aid in the region for years to come. CID looks forward to working with the Lowy Institute to bring that debate to New Zealand.
+ Having said that, China aid in Pacific still growing 

But since the Lowy Pacific Map launched (above), China is now set to overtake Australia as the largest donor to the Pacific region, after pledging US$4bn in aid to the region last year.

Australia has traditionally been the most significant donor to the Pacific, but in 2017 China committed to spending more than four times as much as Australia, data from the Lowy Institute thinktank published today shows.

The news comes amid unease in Australia about China’s growing influence in the region, which escalated to a diplomatic row earlier in the year after reports that a port funded by Chinese loans in Vanuatu was part of an attempt to establish a military presence in the region.
+ MFAT moves Pacific focus to Auckland 

New Zealand's foreign ministry says it is moving more of its engagement with the Pacific to Auckland.

This is great news. If the Pacific Reset is to work, it needs to include our large Pacific diaspora communities who are largely based in Auckland. 

This is certainly a step in the right direction. But we're assuming decisions still get made in Wellington? The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Wellington has faced criticism in the past for being too removed from Pacific culture. It's good to see some some changes.

Congratulations to Georgina Roberts, the new director of Pacific Connections at MFAT based in Auckland. She's a great advocate for MFAT's Pacific work, and well respected by many in our sector and the diaspora community. 
+ Sexual misconduct - 'It can happen in your  organisation'

ACFID's CEO, Marc Purcell said this week in Devex, it would be “foolish” to pretend that sexual harassment and abuse can’t happen or doesn’t happen - even if an organisation appears to have no recent examples within their own programs.

Australian Council for International Development  (ACFID) has just launched an interim report to improve how its members respond to and prevent sexual misconduct. The report was done by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.

“It is a common phenomenon in Australian society. And we know in many of the countries where our members work, sexual violence or violence against women can be seen in extremely high rates,” says Marc.

The report found that in some roles or countries, offenders go unreported with no criminal conviction. Elsewhere, there are insufficient processes to identify perpetrators and prevent re-employment. And the challenge of balancing a system that identifies perpetrators who may not have a criminal record will be a something the review will need to provide recommendations on.

A lack of reporting on harassment and abuse may require organisations to investigate whether their organizational culture is preventing victims from coming forward.

The second phase of research will develop recommendations specific to Australia’s development sector.

The report provides an overview of the barriers to identification, reporting, and prevention of sexual harassment and violence in the development sector.

CID will hold a workshop on Safeguarding on September 20th in Auckland and September 27th in Wellington.
+ A resource to help you manage sexual exploitation investigations
 
Managers play a critical role in preventing and responding to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) by creating a culture of safety among humanitarian staff and communities.

This course will help you establish a code of conduct, community complaint mechanisms, and investigation protocols.

It only takes 15 minutes to view, and its free - you just need to set up a login. You get access to downloadable tools and resource materials and learn to identify key responsibilities of managing investigations.
+ Another resource to help you write your CV
 
If you're an independent consultant or just looking for another job, here's a webinar (via Devex) to help you get it right.

"It's likely you have a lot of experience to fit into one CV. Still, it’s important to keep your CV precise and succinct, while still showcasing your accomplishments and level of expertise. It’s equally important to tailor your CV to specific postings and clients, and ensure that it’s up to date with your latest experience," writes Devex.
+ SDG hub and New Zealand's commitment to report

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is an independent think tank "championing sustainable solutions to 21st-century problems".  Despite having the worse acronym in the aid sector, IISD's SDG Knowledge hub allows users to examine data on particular SDG goals, thematic priorities, and to also look at this regionally.

Excellent pages focus specifically on the South West Pacific (it's always refreshing to have this information disaggregated from a wide 'Asia-Pacific' focus) is also available here. 

Also, the NZ Government has committed to report, mid next year, for the first time on its progress towards the 17 Goals.  Indicators Aotearoa New Zealand or Ngā Tūtohu Aotearoa will form a set of environmental, social and economic indicators, which will provide a 'well-being lens' to the government to track to the country's success. They will also support government and non-government agencies to deliver on international Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) reporting standards. 

What does this mean for the international NGO Sector? Will this reporting be extended to our sector's reporting too?
+ But the news on SDGs is not all good
 
According to the Brookings Institute, "Almost three years have passed since the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030 were adopted by 193 countries at the United Nations General Assembly.

"Since then, focus has switched to implementation. Here the news is not good.

"Indicators of 14 out of 16 targets directly related to individuals (like poverty, education, or child mortality) are unlikely to get more than half way to their agreed 2030 endpoint. Child obesity is headed in the wrong direction. Violence against women may only reach 10 percent of the target level. It has become commonplace to say that “business-as-usual” will not suffice, but it is less easy to be clear about what needs to change, whose actions need to change, and how can change be organized."

Time is running out. 

"Consider the following: more infrastructure will be put in place in the next 15 years than the entire stock of the world’s current infrastructure. Make it low carbon and sustainable, and the worst effects of climate change can be averted."

Brookings Institute calls on the US to get its house in order according to the SDGs before its too late.
+ UK government's Civil Society Strategy - what can NZ learn?

As our government continues to review the Charities Act, it's worth having a look what theUK government has just done in their review.

It covers everything from campaigning to commissioning, according to our sister orgasnisation in the UK, Bond, even if its light on detail.

This is an interesting point, and something we are struggling to get agreement on:

"The government’s determination to ensure that charities have the confidence to speak out and have a strong advocacy and campaigning role is laudable, as are its commitments to work with regulators to explore what non-legislative steps can be taken to improve the situation, and to convene a cross-government group to establish principles for effective engagement in policy making. However, this does not go far enough; the government must revise the Lobbying Act and end the use of anti-advocacy clauses. Real confidence will come from actions not words," says Bond's Rowan Popplewell.
+ The 1980s called and they'd like their Russian Humanitarian Envoy back...

These are interesting times that we live in, and this item should be filed under 'Almost Too Bizarre To Be True'...

Steven Seagal, whom some of you may remember from such action films titled 'Hard To Kill', 'Marked For Death', 'Today You Die' and 'Fire Down Below', has been named a special envoy for Russian humanitarian ties with the United States.

Seagal's role is to facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges. More information is available here. We keenly await to see if Chuck Norris, or Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, might be offered similar positions within the field of international 'humanitarian' diplomacy.
+ Stats for people in need in Syria could be 20 million, says Tearfund

Tearfund have done some numbers on people in need in Syria and have arrived at around 20 million (methodology below). However, most organisations seem to be saying around 13 million.

It's a good idea to circulate this so we can all be consistent.

Tearfund are open to being corrected if the figures are wrong.

Here's  the methodology:

13.1 million inside Syria (IDPs, host communities, people in besieged locations etc). See page 24. 

5.6 million registered Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt).

So, these “official” UN numbers = 18.7 million Syrians in need of humanitarian need.

What stats is your organisation using? 

Then you have:

The number of unregistered refugees in the region. About 1,347,000 people 
  • Official U.N figures estimate that there are a total of 6,947,406 Syrians in the neighbouring countries listed above. 5,600,000 of these are registered, refugees. So, some (not all) of the remaining 1,347,000  will be unregistered refugees)
  • Lebanon Media reports that there are an estimated 500,000 unregistered refugees in Lebanon.
  • While Jordanian media states that, of the 1.3 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, only half of these are registered.
While we cannot provide firm numbers from UN documents on the number of unregistered refugees  we do know that:
  1. The UN does acknowledge that they exist
  2. We can have a good guess – based on the information above – that there are one million plus unregistered refugees in the region, taking out the number to 19. 7+ million in need of humanitarian support. Significantly, we’re working with both registered and unregistered refugees.
+ How not to do a workshop on the Treaty!

Take a moment to laugh at ourselves. It's worth it.

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Pacific Islands SDGs New Zealand