The Drum Beat 318: MDG #8 - Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Millennium Development Goal (MDG) #8 calls upon organisations of all kinds, around the world, to engage in partnerships to meet development needs, particularly as experienced by least developed and land-locked countries and small island developing states. These needs focus on development cooperation, market access and debt sustainability, and access to youth employment, affordable drugs, and information and communication technologies (ICTs). This Drum Beat looks at how communication approaches have contributed, and can contribute, to the achievement of this goal.

For further information, please see the MDG overview page for this goal. The United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service provides additional online resources.

 

CONTEXT

1. Foreign Aid Greatly Exaggerated, Says New Study
A 2005 report indicates that the world's richest nations greatly exaggerate their aid to economically poor countries. In total, 'real aid' in 2003 accounted for US$27 billion, or 0.1% of combined donor income. Nearly 90% of all contributions from the USA and France are considered phantom aid (diverted for other purposes).

2. Poverty Has a Child's Face in Costa Rica
In 2001 4.9% of the GDP was set aside for education; the Constitution requires a minimum of 6% of the GDP. 51% of the budget of the State of Costa Rica for the year 2004 is financed by debt.

3. Debt Relief Can Work
In Benin, 54% of the money saved through debt relief has been spent on health. In Tanzania, debt relief enabled the government to abolish primary school fees, leading to a 66% increase in attendance. After Mozambique was granted debt relief, it was able to offer all children free immunisation. In Uganda, debt relief led to 2.2 million people gaining access to clean water.

4. Women Big Winners if G8 Comes Through on its Commitments
Women form the vast majority of the 1.2 billion people living on less than US$1 a day; they work 70% of the hours in the global economy and produce 60-80% of the food in economically poorer countries. They will be the biggest winners if the G8 increases aid by US$48 billion by 2010 and cancels US$40 billion worth of debt, as recently promised.

5. Is "3 by 5" enough? Recalculating the Global ARV Need
Of the estimated 35-42 million people with HIV/AIDS, only 440,000 of those living in middle-income and low-income countries are on antiretroviral (ARV) therapy.

6. Review of Drug Quality in Asia with Focus on Anti-Infectives
by Joyce Primo-Carpenter, M.D., B.Sc. Pharm.
Based on the information presented in country studies/reports, this review concludes that poor-quality drugs, especially anti-infectives, are widely available in some Asian countries. "Use of these drugs endangers lives, wastes scarce resources, and contributes to drug resistance."

7. Africa: The World's Fastest Growing Mobile Market
According to this April 2004 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) press release, mobile telephone subscriber numbers in Africa increased by over 1,000% between 1998 and 2003 to reach 51.8 million. To put this figure in context, mobile user numbers have far surpassed those of fixed line, which stood at 25.1 million at the end of 2003.

8. E-Commerce and Development Report 2003: Chapter 1: Recent Internet Trends
The global number of internet users continued to grow in 2002, reaching 591 million people. The annual rate of growth, however, slowed from 27.3% to 20%. If current trends continue, UNCTAD concludes, internet users in developing countries could constitute 50% of the world total in the next 5 years. In Africa and the Middle East, women tend to represent less than the 35% of the total internet user population...

THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP

9. Learning in Partnerships
The paper describes a trend toward including "unheard voices" and diverse groups in international development. Learning "is increasingly recognised as an active and ongoing process....This contrasts with traditional notions of teaching that emphasise the 'transfer' of technology or knowledge." Furthermore, partnerships no longer revolve around discrete project funding; social and economic life is organised through "global flows of information, financial resources, and power in a 'network society'."

10. Civil Society, Governance and Globalisation
At a 2003 World Bank presentation, Kumi Naidoo noted that certain innovative international commissions have worked to "involve civil society groups as equal stakeholders in policy-making, rather than in an after-the-fact consultative role." Dr. Naidoo urged that "this challenge of finding meaningful forms of engagement cannot be overemphasised. Creating channels of access should not be confused with establishing truly participatory procedures."

11. Partnerships for Poverty Reduction: Rethinking Conditionality
This paper seeks to show how donors from the UK can support policy leadership in developing countries without imposing their own views. The contention is that, when donors and developing country governments agree on the purpose of the aid, both parties will have a shared understanding of how aid will help reduce poverty, and how they can be held publicly accountable for delivering on their commitments.

12. Power & Partnerships - November 2-4 2005 - London, UK
"Relationships between NGOs [non-governmental organisations] based in different parts of the world have become a key part of international development processes." Organised by The International NGO Training and Research Centre (INTRAC), this course will examine the nature and quality of relationships and how they impact on development.

13. Improving Impacts of Research Partnerships
by Daniel Maselli, Jon-Andri Lys & Jacqueline Schmid
Based on analyses of case studies, this book explores research partnerships between institutions in high-income countries and those in middle- or low-income countries. The claim is that the impacts of these relationships extend beyond scientific advancement to include "attitudinal changes", capacity strengthening, and impacts on society or on decision-makers. Participation is considered key in successful partnerships, which "should be based on mutual interest, trust, understanding, sharing of experiences, and a two-way learning process."

14. International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) - Global
UNESCO is promoting free and pluralistic media - and mobilising the international community to discuss and promote media development - in developing countries and countries in transition. Guided by a council composed of 39 member states, this multilateral forum is particularly interested in media projects with potential to serve as models to seek support; proposals from least-developed, landlocked, and small island countries are especially welcome. Since 1980, the IPDC has channelled more than US$90 million to more than 1,000 projects in 135 countries.
Contact Wijayananda Jayaweera w.jayaweera@unesco.org OR Vladimir Gai v.gai@unesco.org OR Valéri Nikolski v.nikolski@unesco.org

 

ADVOCACY: DEBT, AID & FAIR TRADE

* For additional materials focusing on overseas/official development assistance (ODA), please visit our custom search page and select the keyword for this issue. See also a related, previously published Drum Beat titled "Reality Check: Trade, Resource Allocation, Development & Communication"

15. GlobalAware e-Cards - Global
This series of free "anti-corporate" e-cards features stark, impactive photographic images such as a severely malnourished baby with the words "How many carats does this baby weigh?" (referring to what organisers view as one example of the impact of a civil war in Sierra Leone to control diamonds).
Contact cooperative@globalaware.org

16. Film: The Take - Global
This documentary explores the grassroots cooperative movement in Argentina, raising basic questions about globalisation - economics, government, and human rights. By inviting viewers "inside the lives of ordinary visionaries, as they reclaim their work, their dignity and their democracy", it examines the trials and hopes of Argentine workers who fight to reopen their factories as worker-run businesses. Benefit screenings of the film were scheduled at venues such as "fair trade" coffee shops throughout Canada, with the filmmakers present to stimulate dialogue and action.
Contact Thetake@hellocoolworld.com

17. Aid Harmonization: What Will It Take to Meet the MDGs?
Leaders from international development organisations, developing country governments, and donor institutions have contributed to this report, which includes research, analysis, and commentary on how the donor community can coordinate MDG efforts.

18. Afrodad
A research and advocacy organisation located in Zimbabwe working to secure positive policy changes to address Africa's debt and development crisis in order to achieve equitable and sustainable development.

19. LIVE 8 Campaign - Global
An advocacy initiative using music concerts to mobilise the public to call on G8 leaders gathering in Scotland (July 2005) to take action to end poverty. With the help of a webcast and media cooperation, an estimated 3 billion more people were expected to be exposed to the international broadcasts. Entertainment was a tool for stimulating the public to participate actively by, for instance, sending a short message service (SMS)/text message to friends and family with a note such as "No to debt". One of the organisers prepared a letter, which was published in newspapers prior to the concerts, calling on the G8 leaders to give an extra £13.8 billion in aid for Africa, and the same amount for the world's other economically poor countries, as well as to confirm the cancellation of all debt for countries who need it.
Contact live8media@live8live.com

20. Make Poverty History - United Kingdom
Drawing on the internet, the mass media, and community-based events, an alliance of over 400 non-government organisations, charities, trade unions, campaigning groups, faith communities, and celebrities is engaging the public in individual and group activism to voice their demands for trade justice, debt cancellation, and more and better aid. The last time the G8 Summit was held in Britain (in 1998), 70,000 people formed a human chain encircling Birmingham. By calling on the G8 to drop the debt of the world's poorest countries, "these campaigners put debt relief on government agendas and led to pledges of debt cancellation."
Contact webmaster@makepovertyhistory.org

 

ACCESS: AFFORDABLE, ESSENTIAL DRUGS

21. Aids Care Watch (ACW) - India/Global
In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s '3 by 5' initiative reaches its own benchmark and, according to ACW, it is vital to know whether WHO has ensured access to antiretroviral (ARV) medications for 3 million people in the developing world. ACW is an advocacy and awareness raising effort aimed at improving knowledge of methods and techniques to extend and improve the quality of life for people with HIV/AIDS (PWHA), ACW invites campaign partners - over 250 organisations - to actively disseminate information about, discuss, and engage in networking through its website. For instance, ACW is asking non-governmental organisations and PWHA networks to complete an online interview; the goal is to compile qualitative evidence and opinion on progress made toward meeting the commitments made in the 2001 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, thereby involving civil society groups in the UNGASS national review and reporting processes.
Contact info@aidscarewatch.org

22. Public Health Approach for Scaling Up Antiretroviral Treatment (Toolkit)
This online resource presents a public health approach to "scaling up access to ARV treatment in resource-limited settings." The publishers believe that successful programmes can not only produce good clinical outcomes, but can reduce stigma and discrimination.

23. Siyazama Project - South Africa
Based at the Department of Graphic Design at the Durban Institute of Technology, this project educates expert traditional craftswomen of KwaZulu-Natal about HIV/AIDS through workshops in which they create Zulu beaded dolls. Project head Kate Wells explains that "In the beginning it wasn't easy to get the women to listen....and when the women started to spread the information in their homes some were beaten up by their husbands." But after a few months, Wells claims, they began to gain the respect of their communities. Since 2003, when the women began discussing antiretroviral (ARV) drug therapy, they have been creating beaded ARV "reminders" and bracelets to stimulate people to adhere to their treatment.
Contact crystil@icon.co.za

24. Public-Private Partnerships for Public Health
This book focuses on international, public-private partnerships that have worked to expand the use of specific products to improve health conditions in economically poor countries, and to reduce global health disparities. Case studies focus on diseases such as trachoma and river blindness, international organisations such as the World Health Organization and multinational pharmaceutical companies, and technologies such as pharmaceutical products and immunisation.

ENGAGEMENT: YOUTH EMPLOYMENT, NEW TECHNOLOGIES

25. Youth Visioning for Island Living - Caribbean, Indian Ocean & Pacific Regions
Proposed by the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research in Mauritius and facilitated initially by UNESCO, this initiative seeks to involve people aged 13-23 in the review and forward planning of the Programme of Action for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). During the interregional preparatory meeting for the review of the SIDS programme of action, 35 Bahamian youth participated in panel discussions, worked in small and large groups to develop their ideas, and joined together to prepare a Manifesto. The youth then returned to their respective islands to begin working with their peers to implement the ideas and vision they had worked to develop, such as the theme: "Money in my pocket - economic and employment opportunities".
Contact Khalissa Ikhlef k.ikhlef@unesco.org

26. IndiaShop Project - India
The Foundation of Occupational Development (FOOD) launched a project to find out if e-commerce could be a sustainable source of income for women cooperatives, local artisans, and non-profit organisations in rural India. An online store for indigenous handicrafts was created; educated, unemployed youth were trained as e-marketers to promote products online. During the first year the site achieved up to 1,000 visitors a month, and generated a profit of 75,000 rupees ($1500) for the artisans.
Contact Loyola Joseph loyola@XLweb.com

27. IT4Youth - Palestine
The International Youth Foundation and the Welfare Association are offering enhanced education and job training to youth in isolated rural areas in Palestine. The programme aims to equip approximately 6,000 students and youth per year, as well as teachers, parents, and community members, with information technology (IT)-related skills. A particular emphasis is placed on expanding access to IT education and training for girls. While the use of IT for education, learning, and access to jobs is a key focus, boys and girls from economically poor neighbourhoods and refugee camps come to the centre daily to create music and art with digital technologies.
Contact Patricia Langan plangan@iyfnet.org OR Sana Abu Bakr abubakrs@jwelfare.org

28. What Works in Youth Employment: The Impact of New Information Technologies
by Laurie Regelbrugge
"The report examines how information technologies are transforming the world and employment and livelihood opportunities, and what the implications of these changes are for young people growing up in a variety of national and social contexts. It also explores how government, business, and civil society can and must work together to create more effective policies and programs to meet the challenge of preparing young people to fulfill the social, economic, and civic roles they need them to play."

29. Promoting Youth Income Generation Opportunities Through Information & Communication Technologies (ICT): Best Practices in Asia & the Pacific
by Richard Curtain
Curtain provides a series of best practice examples demonstrating how young people have used ICT to generate employment opportunities. On the low-technology end, these include selling telephone-based services, working as "information intermediaries" and engaging in e-commerce based activities in rural areas. In the middle-technology range, telecentres and cable television providers are being run by young people with equipment such as printers, photo-copiers or satellite dishes. Curtain emphasises not only many cases of success, but also the barriers that many developing countries face in realising the potential that ICT offers.

30. Adolescent Development Programme - Trinidad & Tobago
SERVOL implemented this programme to address the needs of 15- to 19-year-olds in Trinidad and Tobago who have either not been admitted to a secondary school, who have dropped out, or who have finished their schooling but are unemployed. Activities emphasise the development of emotional needs related to self-esteem as well as basic cognitive and vocational training. Organisers state that the drop-out rate is only 5%; graduates retain and put into practice what they were exposed to 10-15 years prior.
Contact servol@wow.net

31. A 21st Century Chinese Puzzle: How To Hear A Billion People
by Lin Wei & Chen Min
The authors cite statistics from China's Information Industry Ministry which indicate that telephone subscribership jumped from 100 million in 1998 to approximately 600 million in August 2004, for both fixed-line and mobile phones. The authors note that "the goal of fostering social equity has wide support", which has led the debate on universal service to focus "more on how to make it work rather than challenging the very concept of it."

32. Indian Villagers Pedal Wireless
by Anuradha Kumar
In 2002, "5,000 young men on bicycles carrying mobile phones equipped with CDMA Wireless Local Loop rode into 5,000 West Bengal villages. Not only will the endeavour provide these men with a steady source of income - they keep 25 percent of profits from all calls made - but they will also bring telephone services to village doorsteps for the first time. In a country where just over one phone exists per hundred people in rural areas, this is a big leap. The group behind the initiative is the nonprofit Grameen Sanchar Seva Organization, known as GRASSO....'The idea is to build three networks - phones, Internet and transport - each sustaining the other,' said [Soumitra Shankar] Das [GRASSO's chairman]....The third network, one Internet kiosk for every 10 villages, will keep farmers on top of which markets offer the best prices. GRASSO plans to cover most of rural India within two years. The initiative has the potential to increase rural gross domestic product by 8 to 12 percent, said Das..."

33. Impact of Cybercafes on Information Services in Uganda
by Samuel Gift & J.R. Ikoja-Odongo
"This study assessed the impact of cybercafés on the provision of information services in Uganda. It focused on café users only. Findings revealed that 69.8 percent were in the age group of 20-39 years. Eighty-seven percent were not registered with particular cafés. Fifty-seven percent indicated they were satisfied with the service. A little over thirty percent used the Internet daily. All female respondents indicated e-mail as one of their Internet applications."

34. Open eNRICH - Global
The National Informatics Centre of the Government of India, the Open Knowledge Network (OKN), and UNESCO are collaborating on an open source community software tool for the exchange of locally relevant knowledge with other information sources, networks, and communication media. The vision: a global "network of networks" for the world's economically poor. These partners are also pooling resources and approaches to develop training, support, and project evaluation. OKN's partners in Kenya, India, Senegal, and Zimbabwe are using earlier versions of the software to create local content in 7 languages - and then to exchange it through the WorldSpace satellite, dial-up landlines, and mobile phones. "eNRICH also facilitates research and analysis of its usage pattern to understand the impact of social and technological strategies in order to further innovate and align ICT solutions as a tool for poverty reduction."
Contact enrich@hub.nic.in OR D. C. Misra dcmisra@nic.in OR Rama Hariharan rama.h@nic.in OR Dr. Ken Kitson ken.kitson@oneworld.net OR Ian Pringle i.pringle@sympatico.ca or i.pringle@unesco.org

35. Refuting Objections to a Global Rural Network (GRNet) for Developing Nations
by Larry Press
Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, has said that "affordable technologies, in the hands of local communities, can be effective engines of change, both social and material"; critics object that a GRNet project would not be worth the effort and investment. Larry Press addresses 9 common objections, concluding that "It may sound as though GRNet would be a charity project for the rural poor...but immense benefits would accrue in both the developed and developing nations."

36. Enterprise Development and Information and Communication Technologies [ICTs] in Developing Countries
by Richard Duncombe & Richard Heeks
The report illustrates how adoption of ICTs within small enterprise development (SED) can further international development targets...

37. National Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Basic Human Needs - India
This Alliance seeks to take the ICTs-enabled knowledge revolution to all of India's 638,000 villages by August 15 2007. The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and OneWorld South Asia are leading the effort, which includes the private sector, academia, and civil society organisations.
Contact Subbiah Arunachalam arun@mssrf.res.in OR Prof. M.S. Swaminathan msswami@mssrf.res.in

 

This issue was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

 

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