News

WIDE, a European feminist network of women's organisations, development NGOs, gender specialists and women's rights activists, is organising a one-day consultation on microcredit as a tool for for women's empowerment, thus providing a great opportunity to share experiences with speakers coming from different parts of the world and to raise awareness about positive and negative impacts of microcredit on women.

During the 17th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) in Prague from 4 to 9 April 2009, FoRS and CONCORD were present and engaged in dialogue with the parliamentarians, both of EU and ACP parliaments.

Members of the European Parliament and Members of Parliament of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States came together during the 17th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) in Prague from 4 to 9 April 2009.

This week the European Commission published its communication on supporting developing countries in coping with the current crisis, also known under the name "April Package".

As part of the One World Film Festival, the Goethe Institute in Prague held a panel discussion on the topic of media and poverty reduction. The initial question concerned the role of the media in the fight against poverty, a question which also Šimon Pánek, Director of People in Need and President of the Czech Forum for Development Cooperation (FoRS) tried to answer.

On 24 February 2009 a seminar was held at the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic with the aim of discussing the issue of remittances sent from the Czech Republic. The seminar was co-organised by the Multicultural Centre Prague and the Czech Ministry of Finance. The issue of remittances - money earned by migrants and sent back to their country of origin - involves a large number of disciplines and stakeholders.

What are the causes of the current financial and economic crisis? How do they relate with climate change, food crisis, global poverty or unstable energy prices? Is EU policy a solution or a problem in solving the global crisis? And how does the very crisis look from the point of view of Central Europe? Which reforms and alternatives does civil society suggest? These and similar questions will be discussed from 30 March to 1 April 2009 in Prague.

The latest OECD statistics show how much aid donor country governments are giving, and to whom. How much goes to the poorest countries? How much goes to multilateral organisations like the United Nations? Which sectors get the most aid: economic infrastructure or social programmes? These statistics show that in 2007, OECD DAC members - the world's largest donor - disbursed USD 103.5 billion. This represents a drop from 0.31% of their combined gross national income in 2006 to 0.28% in 2007, or a fall of 8.5% in real terms.

UNICEF Slovenia and UNICEF Slovakia in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian NGO platform for development cooperation and humanitarian aid SLOGA are organizing a high-profile international conference on development cooperation that will be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 26 and 27 March 2009.

Democracy is “Europe’s core value“ not only internally, but also in its external relations. Europe has set in its foreign and security policy the objective to develop and consolidate democracy and the rule of law, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. How can the European Consensus on Democracy, a long term EU strategy for democracy assistance, be reached among Member States?...