Bezalel

'Women are often excluded from decision-making, from the household up to the highest levels of policymaking. Women.s equal participation in governance is, therefore, an important end in itself - a recognition of their right to speak and be heard. More broadly, it is a means to social transformation. Decisions made and policies implemented by governance institutions at global, national and local levels help to shape perceptions of the roles that women and men play in society, as well as determining their access to rights and resources. Involving women in defining these policies and processes, and in influencing the institutions that produce them, makes it more likely they will respond to the different needs and situations of both women and men, and contribute to gender equality.'(source:BRIDGE, April 2009,pdf:82 pages )

'In a message to the governments gathered for the Fifth Summit of the Americas, Amnesty International joined Indigenous women's organizations throughout the region in calling for an end to violence and discrimination against Indigenous women and girls.

'This paper highlights the fact that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not directly address the issue of adult basic education and literacy, in spite of these being essential for achieving the Millennium targets. It explores the potential of adult basic education with gender equality to be transformatory for individuals, and for groups working to address key issues, such as gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS. The role of governments and other key agencies in relation to gender equality and adult basic education is also explored. The paper concludes with a discussion of how to develop longer-term approaches to gender equality, adult basic education, and literacy.'

'Failure to achieve gender equality in education is often blamed on 'weak capacity'. This paper illustrates the ways in which individual, organisational, and institutional capacity all play important roles in producing positive results for girls. It is essential to recognise that these different forms of capacity are related, in order to prevent the disappearance of policies and strategies produced with the aim of achieving gender equality in education.'

'Because of deep-rooted gender inequalities, and because of the large population of South Asia, the region has the highest number of out-of-school girls in the world. This paper outlines some of the issues confronting practitioners, policy makers, and researchers in girls' education in South Asia, and explores what they can do to move towards high-quality and gender-equitable education for all.'

'As globalization accelerates, the range of information and communication technology expands, becoming more accessible to more people, ultimately impacting the way that humans interact. The same is as true for human trafficking as it is for legal business enterprises; technology offers traffickers more creative and complex ways to commit their crimes while at the same time, presenting the global anti-trafficking community with more opportunities to respond to it.'

This booklet provides a snapshot of UNFPA's programming efforts to advance gender equality and empower women. It reports on activities undertaken in various priority areas like empowerment, reproductive health, youth and adolescent, conflict and emergency situations, etc. The report is based on contributions from the global, regional and country levels over the course of two years (2007-2008).'

'The effects of the recent financial crisis are only beginning to be felt in many developing countries, but economic activity is declining rapidly with far reaching impacts. It is estimated that the high food and fuel prices alone have increased the number of extremely poor in the world by at least 100 million. While impacts of the crises affect both urban and rural populations, the urban poor have been hit hardest in this recent food and fuel crisis, and in previous financial crises, given their heavy reliance on the cash economy, no agricultural production to fall back on, and wage reductions and employment losses at urban based industries. This has resulted in social unrest in a number of cities earlier in 2008 all over the developing world.

'This paper describes the dramatic changes in the size of the world's urban population and of its largest cities over the last 100 years. This includes the almost tenfold increase in the average size of the world's 100 largest cities between 1900 and 2000. It also describes the changing distribution of cities between regions.'

The InnoWat team has created the kit InnoWat: Water, innovations, learning and rural livelihoods with the expectation that it will be useful to IFAD's country programme managers (CPMs) and will enhance IFAD's comparative advantage in rural poverty alleviation and water issues. The present text synthesizes two approach papers that together provide the rationale for a new, pro-poor approach to water issues. A series of topic, fact and tool sheets and case studies supports the papers.

'During every dry season from (March to June) Dhaka City dwellers suffer from an acute water crisis. In many parts of the city people get sticky and straw coloured water from the Wasa supply line. Such contaminated water, which causes many water-born diseases, is a public health disaster.' Source: The Daily Star Magazine, 2009

The purpose of this working paper, a think piece on governance in water services, is twofold. First, it aims to provide a basis for discussion and debate as to how the Department for International Development (DFID) should improve its approach to governance in water services.1 Second, it aims to develop a more comprehensive and structured approach to the analysis and the development of governance in water services by applying DFID's current governance thinking at the sector level. The paper therefore draws on internal DFID governance thinking, terminology and approaches and is, in this first version, targeted primarily at a DFID audience interested in governance, basic services and water.

'This issue of Capacity.Org looks at the capacities that need to be developed in order for the water and sanitation MDGs targets for 2015 to be achievable. The main focus is on capacity needs at the intermediate and local levels, but links between macro-level policy making and local-level implementation are also addressed.'

'Water quality trading is gaining traction in a number of watersheds around the world. It is a market-based approach that works alongside water quality regulation to improve water quality, providing flexibility in how regulations are met and potentially lowering regulatory compliance and abatement costs. Our research identified 57 water quality trading programs worldwide. Of these, 26 are active, 21 are under consideration or development, and 10 are inactive or are completed pilots with no plans for future trades.'

'The note proposes a methodology for assessing the accountability framework of an urban water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector that it defines as the set of actors, mandates, contractual arrangements between actors, and instruments used by actors to implement their mandates.'

Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development Conference The sixth Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development Conference & Exhibition - DIHAD - 2009 is taking place from the 7 - 9 April at the Dubai International Convention Centre, under the theme of 'Empowering Communities: From Disaster to Development'.

Beyond training: Organizational and Institutional Capacity 'Capacity development' means different things to different people. However, it is generally considered essential to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) relating to water and sanitation. The slow spread of safe water and sanitation is commonly attributed to a shortage of skilled people. Hence capacity development is predominantly associated with training staff in constructing physical assets such as toilets and water systems, particularly but not only in rural areas.

Rethinking capacity building Capacity building projects are often seen as a means of providing NGOs with the tools they need to effectively deliver programmes or services, and of ensuring the ability of recipients to demonstrate accountability for the financial aid received. However, insights from over fifty years of experience suggest that conventional types of capacity building have often failed to bring about improvements in organisational effectiveness, performance, and accountability.

'This study analyzes the determinants of stress in public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure investment. While project failures seldom occur, there are many stresses that hinder success. One of these is broad political risk: the prerogative of government executives to make sweeping changes in investment rules or regulations-through measures such as protracted tariff freezing-that undermine a project's market value. Broad political risk can constitute the biggest threat to project outcomes. However, this is usually only realized after other risks, such as currency risk, have materialized first. Thus, broad political risk can be controlled. The empirical analysis in this study yields a number of surprising results: (i) strong growth and rigid currency regimes heighten risk by leading to adverse selection of proponents and moral hazard in project design; (ii) many of the World Bank's indices of governance quality lead to perverse outcomes, suggesting that new governance standards must be used to judge PPPs; and (iii) except for political risk guarantees, loans and equity from multilateral institutions have no effect on outcomes; however, political risk guarantees are rarely utilized, suggesting that they may need to be redesigned or marketed better to be more useful. The paper concludes with suggestions for policy improvements.'

'Despite demonstrable benefits, the rapid ascendancy of Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches (SLA) in the mid to late 1990s was followed by their quick demise among some donors, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and development agencies, as a result of internal politics and other factors.'