Newsletter

Pacific Focus, NZ Aid budget, doubts on gender equity achievements and more

Posted on 04 June 2019

+ Focus on Pacific set to remain after Australian election

ACFID have welcomed the return of development to a ministerial position.
 
"Following the re-election of the Coalition Government, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced his new ministry. Senator the Hon Marise Payne has been reappointed as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and also becomes the Minister for Women. On her reappointment, Marise Payne said Australia’s international agenda would “continue to be one which supports a safe and prosperous region, building economic opportunity and resilience” and “the promotion of a robust international rules-based order to support global peace and prosperity”. She added it would also include “the delivery of sustainable and targeted overseas development assistance”. She said the combination of the Foreign Affairs and Women portfolios would provide “extraordinary opportunities to make gains for women and girls both at home and abroad”.  
 
Member of Parliament for Mitchell, Alex Hawke MP, has been appointed as the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, as well as holding the position of Assistant Minister for Defence. ACFID has welcomed the appointment and the return of the International Development and Pacific portfolio to a Ministerial position. While it is unclear how the two portfolios will work together under Alex Hawke, ACFID assumes there will be greater coordination between the Department of Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs, given the joint role,” said Marc Purcell yesterday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is in the Solomon Islands this week where he is announcing infrastructure-related funding, and Marise Payne will be in Fiji – marking a strong start for this Government’s engagement in the Pacific. 
+ ^TOMORROW^ CID Talk: Social enterprises in not-for-profits

CID Talk: 5th June 12.30pm, CID Office (Level 4, 26 Brandon St, Wellington)
Come hear Tricia Fitzgerald talking about the emergence of social enterprise within not-for-profits.

With restrictive or uncertain income available from the government and the public, many not-for-profits seek to develop social enterprises with commercial revenue streams, as a means to increase their financial autonomy and sustainability. Much remains to be learned about how social enterprises might be successfully generated within this context, however, as the disruptive challenges of bringing innovative commercial processes into not-for-profits are often underestimated. This research explored how not-for-profit organisations develop social enterprises. More specifically, it asked how do not-for-profits introduce and accommodate a business model with commercial logics within a social organisation, what are the most significant changes they make to accommodate a commercial business model and how might the not-for-profits configure themselves when introducing a commercial business model?
 
The presentation will include a discussion on why it is important for not-for-profits to consider the development of social enterprises, why it’s hard to establish them and, in particular, what are the different ‘logics’ or ways of working between social and commercial organisations. Structural options for a social enterprise within a not-for-profit are also provided to help manage these differences.  A model is also provided to inform key decisions for not-for-profits when developing a social enterprise.

Tricia Fitzgerald has many years of experience working in and with not-for-profits, in management, governance and as a consultant. She is currently the Executive Director of Social Enterprise Auckland and the founder of Fitzgerald & Associates, a consultancy that helps not-for-profits create social and environmental benefits sustainably.
+ Slightly more Aid in the NZ budget
New Zealand Aid and Development Dialogues sums up the increase for aid in New Zealand's budget. It observes that, 'Aid has been scheduled to increase since the last budget when large increases were promised for the coming years. But the 2019/20 budget shows promises not only being kept but actually increased upon.' It also comments on the ability to spend budget, and reflects upon the fact that aid quantity is one thing, but aid quality is another. 
+ Cyclone response falls short in Mozambique
At a donor conference held over the weekend to mobilize funds for the cyclone response in Mozambique, only a third of the requested funds were pledged.

"It is estimated that more than 600 people died and 1,600 were injured in Mozambique during the unprecedented disasters of Cyclones Idai and Kenneth — the first time in recorded history that two strong tropical cyclones have hit the country during the same season. An estimated 750,000 people still require immediate help, according to the government-led post-disaster needs assessment published in May.” writes Sara Jerving in Devex this week.

Donors pledged $1.2 billion — a little over a third of the $3.2 billion goal — with concerns that not all of these commitments will materialize.

Also to assist, the NGO Insecurity Insights has created a Safety and Security Threat Analysis, which provides information for aid agencies responding in Mozambique to help them understand the operational threat context and to assist them to improve their security risk management and access strategies.
+ What next after 'Pink Tide' in South America?
As one of our CID team heads off to South American for a well-deserved break, we take a look at the looming humanitarian crisis in the region. A new wave of conversation governments has replaced the old left, in part because of the end of the commodities boom, but also because of the failure of the leftist leaders to translate that boom into benefits for low-income citizens. The election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, and the rise of the drugs trade and illicit crime which threatens the fragile peace in Columbia are all worrying signs.

According to MercyCorps, the crisis in Venezuela has created a regional humanitarian crisis that is now the worst in the Western Hemisphere,  with more than 3 million refugees and migrantsMore people may flee in the coming months as conditions in the country worsen. The UN estimates there will be 5.3 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants by the end of 2019, rivalling the scale of the Syrian refugee crisis.

Meanwhile, a recent UN report said the amount of agricultural land used for coca crops in Colombia had hit record levels.
+ SDGs' good practice case studies

What are the inspiring breakthroughs and success stories for implementing the SDGs? What are the good practices that can be replicated and scaled up? What are the gaps and constraints and how should we address them? Looking ahead, what steps should we take to accelerate progress? To help answer these and other questions, UN DESA circulated a call for submissions of SDG-related good practices or success stories from Member States, the UN system and stakeholders – and received more than 600 suggestions!

These included:

Brazil: The Sustainable Cities Program in Brazil is an open data portal that aims to create awareness, and mobilize and commit public and local governments to make fair and sustainable cities.

South Sudan: Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (VSF) promotes the Community-based Animal Health Workers model as a cost-efficient and locally available option to offer access to quality animal health services to pastoralists in South Sudan, where more than half of the population is dependent on livestock for survival. VSF trains members of hard-to-reach and at-risk communities in good husbandry practices and basic animal health care.

Vietnam: HelpAge International and local partners have developed and tested a development model of Inter-generational Self Help Clubs to establish and strengthen civil society organisations throughout Vietnam, and  engage with local community groups and authorities to promote greater inclusion of vulnerable groups—older persons, women, persons with disabilities—in service delivery and social development.

To search all the submission go here.
+ Will new free trade agreement lift all Africa out of poverty? 
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which came into effect this week, creates the world’s largest free trade area since the establishment of the World Trade Organization in 1994. Landry Signé of the Brookings Institute explains its potential to unlock economic opportunities across the continent. Listen to the podcast here. 

Is inequality really on the rise?

Yes, within countries, but in fact, inequality for individual across all countries has declined because inequality between countries has declined. 

Ana Revenga and Meagan Dooley of the Brookings Institute recommend seven policies to tackle rising inequality by making market-driven growth more pro-poor and inclusive.
+ No country on track to achieve gender equality 
"It’s time to end sexual and gender-based violence once and for all", said the participants of the first-ever thematic humanitarian conference to combat sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in humanitarian crises that took place in Norway on 23-24 May 2019.

However, the first index to measure progress against a set of internationally agreed targets indicates that no country in the world is on track to achieve gender equality by 2030, writes Liz Ford in the Guardian this week.
+ Video of last week's CID Talk: Conducting sensitive investigations

Sean and Jaydene Buckley, after many years in the NZ police, created OSACO – an organisation conducting investigations for organisations such as INGOs and UN agencies, and developing safeguarding strategies to resolve issues and mitigate threats and liabilities arising from human risk factors.

In an engaging and interesting presentation, OSACO was able to intrigue CID members with their experience and knowledge, while sharing their stories of investigations into fraud, corruption and misconduct around the world.

If you have missed the CID Talk, you can watch the video here.

+ The CID Weekly is proudly sponsored by

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Pacific Islands New Zealand Aid Emergency Management