Home » Newsletter » Latest e-LINK newsletter

*What's new at Comhlámh*

Become a member of Comhlámh!
Comhlámh is heading for its 35th anniversary in 2010. Our membership has continued to grow over the past couple of years on the back of a lot of campaigning work, public events, a heightened media profile and a wider recognition of the organisation generally. Membership of our organization at only 45 euro per year represents excellent value for money. Members benefit from valuable networking opportunities and social events, priority booking and reduced prices for the Comhlámh education programme and the opportunity to represent you views as part of our lobbying campaign groups.
Click here to learn about membership benefits and how to join Comhlámh

Comhlámh joins Concern’s event at Cultivate for World Humanitarian Day, 19 August 
Thursday 19th August is World Humanitarian Day and Concern Worldwide will be hosting an open day from midday at Cultivate on St Andrew St (off Dame St), Dublin 2 on the UN’s theme for the day: ‘I am an aid worker’ and Comhlámh will be there with an information stand so come and talk to us!
Comhlámh will be providing first-hand information and advice on a range of issues relating to aid workers, including Reverse Culture Shock, social welfare entitlements and Coming Home Weekends.
Read more here  

“We can’t afford aid in times of crises”, Bewley's Extra First Wednesday Debate, 1 September at 6.15 in the European Commission Building
First Wednesday Debate February 2006 The Irish Government really needs to make choices, by having a public debate about whether or not we can afford ODA. Comhlámh, in association with Dóchas, is pleased to host a public discussion on the motion “We can’t afford aid in times of crises”.
The debate will take place on 1st of September from 6.15 to 7.45pm in Eurpean Commission Building, Dawson Street, Dublin 2.
Guest speakers, as yet to be announced, will be speaking for and against the motion at hand and this will be followed by an open Q&A session in which the audience is encouraged to get involved.
Entrance is free but space is limited so admission for the public will be on a first-come first-served basis on the night.
For latest information please contact: Arthur Gaffney at: admin@comhlamh.org or visit www.comhlamh.org

Become involved in Trade Justice! 7 September
The Trade Justice Group is up and running for 2010! The group has been campaigning for the past seven years against the EU's unfair trade deals known as Economic Partnership Agreements. The group is made up of volunteer members who have been working for Trade Justice since 1998. The group focuses on raising awareness of how unfair trade rules prevent the poorest countries from finding their way out of poverty.
We meet on the first and third Tuesday of every month at Comhlámh's Dublin office and this year promises to be packed full of activities, learning and fun! New members are always welcomed! Our next meeting is on Tuesday 7th September.
For more information contact deirdrekelly@comhlamh.org

Become involved in the Focus Magazine Group
Focus Spring 08 Focus Magazine is Ireland’s leading magazine on global development issues. Since 1978, Focus has been making links between the situation in Ireland and in the South, with a view to challenging assumptions, and promoting understanding, interest in and action on development issues among a broad public. Focus is produced and distributed by a volunteer group quarterly. Contact Caroline, our Focus Volunteer Co-ordinator, to discuss how to get involved: connollycs@eircom.net
Read more here

Comhlámh One-to-One Advisory Sessions, September - December
Irish Aid Volunteering Centre Thinking of volunteering?
Finding it hard to make a decision?
20 minute appointments are available with Comhlámh staff to talk through options for volunteering for global development
Next Sessions:
September 9th, 4-7pm
November 11th, 4-7pm
December 2nd, 4-7pm
Where: Irish Aid Volunteering Centre, O’Connell Street.
Booking: To book an appointment please contact Kate on 01-4783490 or kate@comhlamh.org

Comhlámh stand at Irish Aid Volunteer Fair, 18 September
We will have a stand at the Irish Aid Volunteer Fair, alongside many Irish based sending organistions. Please visit our stand and get information on what to look for in a volunteer sending organisation, as well as information on social insuarance, pensions, and other important issues to consider before volunteering. Comhlámh will be doing a presentation, 'Volunteering Overseas: Options & Issues to Consider', at 2.30pm.
Irish Aid Volunteer Fair will take place on 18th of September from 11am to 4pm in Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre, O’Connell Street
Read more here

Comhlámh Coming Home Weekend, All Hallows College, Drumcondra, Dublin, 15 – 17 October
Coming Home Weekend, February 2009 Coming Home Weekends are residential weekends running from Friday evening to Sunday lunchtime. The weekend is a fantastic opportunity for you to meet with other returned development workers and volunteers, to hear each other's experiences, reflect on the meaning of your experiences for you personally, share tips for settling back, plan how to put to good use in Ireland the experiences you gained overseas and have some fun! The weekend is facilitated by fellow returned development workers and professionals.
The cost of the weekend is €75 to people who have been overseas in a development capacity for longer than three months with accommodation and meals provided.
Please contact stuart@comhlamh.org for booking forms and further information.

Options and Issues in Volunteering for Development Course, 16 October
VSO volunteer James works with his colleague Max in Malawi Options and Issues in Global Development Course: A one-day workshop for people interested in volunteering overseas in a developing country.
This workshop provides a chance for those thinking of working for global development to meet with others and consider the options available.
The workshop will take place at Comhlámh, 2nd Floor, Ballast House, Aston Quay, Dublin 2.

Read more here and to book contact Janet at 014 783 3490 or email janet@comhlamh.org

Information evening: Volunteering in Developing Countries, 18 November
Thinking about volunteering overseas?
As part of its Volunteering Options Programme, Comhlámh is holding an information evening for people who are thinking about volunteering overseas in developing countries. This short, informal event offers the opportunity to hear more about the issues you need to consider before making a decision about volunteering.
This event will take place on 18th of November from 6 to 7:30pm in Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre, O’Connel Street
Read more here and register your interest by emailing Kate (kate@comhlamh.org) or calling 01 4783490

Talk About Development...
Talk About Development is an online forum where development workers, volunteers, and anyone who is interested in challenging poverty and inequality can share ideas and debate issues that have an impact on global justice and development.
We believe that people acting in solidarity can work to change the structures of global injustice and poverty. Talk About Development provides a space to debate issues of development and global poverty, to discuss ways to take action for justice, to work together and to share information about working or volunteering overseas.
Check it out at www.talkaboutdevelopment.org and share your ideas, opinions, experiences and reflections on all matters relating to development.

Follow Comhlámh on Twitter!
Comhlámh has joined Twitter two months ago and we are happy about every new follower! If you want to receive our regular updates on Comhlámhs news, events, courses, meetings and campaigns join Twitter and become a follower. It is a good way to stay engaged and informed about the work we do. If you e-mail me with your news item to kamila@comhlamh.org, I’d be delighted to include it in our daily list of tweets!
You can view our Twitter site here

Become a Fan of Comhlámh on Facebook!
Comhlámh is busy updating Comhlámh's Fans with news on our events, courses, meeting, action and compaigns. If you would like to receive our regular updates please become our Fan on our new Facebook page. You can also post your development and global justice related news, links and updates on Comhlámh's Facebook wall. Within the last month the number of Fans of our page increased to over 500!
Click here and become a Fan of Comhlámh on Facebook

*News*

*Pakistan Floods*

Pakistan Floods - Lessons learned from other flooding disasters
As is the case with most disasters, the impact of these floods is not determined by the extent of the floodwater alone: the most vulnerable people, those who are poor and marginalised, suffer the most. International relief should therefore target these people most clearly. Over the years, Irish aid agencies have learned valuable lessons in responding to emergencies arising from floods.
Read about some of these lessons here

Pakistan Floods
As people in Pakistan struggle to recover from the catastrophic flooding in many parts of that country, and Irish aid agencies are assisting the most vulnerable people, Dóchas encourages members of the public to learn more about the principles of effective humanitarian aid: by logging onto http://www.howyoucanhelp.ie/.
Emergencies: NGOs Helping People back from the Brink - read here
How You Can Help – Guide - read here
Resources about Humanitarian Aid - read here

How Irish aid agencies are already helping in Pakistan
Here is a quick update on what some of the Dóchas member agencies and their partners are doing in response to the catastrophic floods in Pakistan.
Read more here

Survivors protest against slow aid and fight over food
Protests have broken out in flood-stricken regions of Pakistan, prompting fears of further unrest as aid agencies struggle to cope with a disaster that has affected at least 20 million people.
Read more here

5 Reasons People Are Ignoring the Worst Natural Disaster in Recent History
What if I told you there's a natural disaster underway that's affecting around 15 million people — more than the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and this year's earthquake in Haiti combined? Thanks to massive flooding in Pakistan, that's exactly what's happening, though the crisis — which the United Nations is calling the worst natural disaster in recent history — has managed to fly under the global radar screen.
Read more here
Discuss the article on www.talkaboutdevelopment.org

*Campaigns & Actions*

Act Now on 2015 to deliver Ireland's Aid Promise. Send an email to your TD!
Make sure our politicians know that you care about our aid promise!
Tell them that this year we have a unique opportunity to reaffirm Ireland's reputation as a country that keeps its promises to the world.
Please take some time to write to your local TDs, and ask them to call on the government to set out a clear plan deliver our aid promise.
Read more and take action here
Join the Act Now Facebook group to keep up to date on the campaign, and invite your friends to become fans here

Walk in Solidarity with the ACT NOW ON 2015 campaign
Come join VMM in a solidarity walk to the Hellfire Club, Montpelier Hill, Dublin on the 28th of August 2010. VMM is playing its part in highlighting the importance of tackling global poverty and the need for Ireland to deliver on its overseas aid promise.
With only five years until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on governments to engage constructively in preparations for a high-level meeting from 20-22 September 2010 to review progress towards the achieving these and other international development targets.
Read more here

Cuts in Development Education
As you may already know, the new Conservative-led administration has announced an immediate freeze on new funding for development awareness projects and has arbitrarily canceled five development education projects with immediate effect. It has also announced a further stop on projects totaling more than £6.5 million. This is likely to mean the withdrawal of the new Global Development Engagement Fund which was to replace the DFID Mini Grant Scheme later this year. The cancelation of this fund will mean that there will be no access to development education grants from DFID for new projects while existing grants clearly remain vulnerable to further cuts.
Click here to read more and take action
Click here to Download the letter to MPs and here to Secretary of State

Equality & Rights Alliance 'It's About You' Campaign
Equality & Rights Alliance is developing something really unique and powerful – Ireland’s first Charter for the Promotion of Equality and Human Rights. Your views will feed into this Charter. This practical roadmap will set out what is needed to build equality, human rights and social justice system that works for everyone. It will be launched in autumn 2010. The Charter will be used to secure political commitment to a more effective and independent equality and human rights support system.
Click here to sing up to the It’s About You campaign

Right to Change Employer Campaign
Since the mass demonstration outside Minister Batt O’Keeffe’s office in June, the Right to Change Employer Campaign continues to make progress:
• 15 Parliamentary Questions have been raised in the Dáil on the issue.
• 52 Government TDs around the country have received one-to-one visits on the campaign (some multiple times!)
• Hundreds and hundreds of letters, calls and emails have been sent directly to Minister Batt O’Keeffe
Read more here

Proposal to make wealthy tax exiles pay their fair share is a step in the right direction
In a statement issued today, the Community Platform welcomed the Labour Party's commitment to abolish the 'tax exile' status and oblige all Irish passport holders to make their tax returns to the Irish Exchequer.
According to the Platform spokesperson, Anne Costello, there are many advantages of moving to a citizenship basis for taxation. She said 'it puts a clear value on Irish citizenship, recognising individual's responsibilities as well as their rights.
Read more here

Save Children Dying Of Lead Poisoning
Right now, 200 Roma/Ashkali Children under ten years of age are losing their lives to lead poisoning. They are living in two toxic camps, set up by the United Nations in Kosovo, located on the largest lead mine in Europe. Despite demands by the World Health Organisation, international NGOs, human rights commissioners, and many others calling for immediate evacuation and medical treatment, these children and their families have remained for eleven years on these deadly waste sites.
Read more here and sign the petition here

A massive online campaign by the Avaaz community in Brazil has just won a stunning victory against corruption
Avaaz has just run the largest online campaign in Brazil's history and won landmark anti-corruption legislation.
This new law bans any politician convicted of serious crimes from running for office. It was a stunning victory as nearly 25% of the Congress is under investigation for criminal activities.
Read more here

Russia: Stand against rape
A powerful new treaty is our best weapon against the global rape trade in women and girls. If Russia signs it, it will put a major dent in this horror.
Read more and sign the petition here

OECD: Rich Countries Raised Farm Subsidies in 2009
The world's rich countries boosted government support for agriculture in 2009, according to a report that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released last week. The report, "Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries: At a Glance 2010," is part of the OECD's annual effort to quantify and assess the support that its 31 developed country members provide to their agricultural producers.
Read more here

Are Trade In Financial Services Instruments An Impediment To Restoring Financial Stability?
This paper takes a different, more systemic approach to the relationship between financial services agreements and financial crises. It views these agreements as instruments of liberalisation and deregulation that belong to a particular ‘orthodoxy’ that is now in question.
Read more here

HIV generics under threat from tighter patenting rules
Most of the estimated 5.2 million people worldwide on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment are taking generic versions manufactured primarily in India, but tighter global intellectual property rights and trade rules could shut down "the pharmacy of the developing world".
Read more here

Africa: Civil Society Groups Call For Removal of Trade Barriers
Participants at the on-going Fifth African Agriculture Science week, which entered its third day on Wednesday, want all the stakeholders including political leaders to develop func tional policies that will encourage more intra-Africa trade. The participants, who include civil society groups from within and outside Africa involved in agriculture, farmers group and non-governmental organizations, said existing protocol on free movement of goods and persons, particularly in ECOWAS countries and other Regional Economic Communities (REC), needed to be fully implemented.
Read more here

No trade without help on undeniable climate change
Climate change is now undeniable according to a new study headed by the US National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration. It is already having a disastrous effect on small island states. The very existence of some of them, particularly in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, is threatened. Caribbean islands too are endangered as are countries such as Belize and Guyana with low lying coastlands.
Read more here

Delegates want raw material export ban
Participants at a meeting of the African Union’s Trade and Industry Commission yesterday proposed that the continent adopts policies to discourage the export of raw materials to the developed world.
During a media briefing at Munyonyo, Kampala, Ms Elizabeth Tankeu, the Trade and Industry Commissioner, said: “We have been exporting our raw materials to Europe since the colonial times when the Europeans came to Africa. They still come here for our resources but we have remained the poorest continent”.
Read more here

Unctad: South-South trade risks reinforcing commodity dependence
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has warned that trade flows between Africa and industrialising players in the “Global South” are currently reinforcing the longstanding trend that sees Africa export unprocessed commodities and import manufactured goods.
Read more here

Legal Analysis Of Services And Investment In The Cariforum-EC EPA: Lessons For Other Developing Countries
‘Legal Analysis of Services and Investment in the CARIFORUM-EC EPA: Lessons for other developing countries’ demonstrates the deeply problematic nature of the EU’s template and the many legal risks that are evident from the CARIFORUM text.
Read more here

SACU advocates win-win solution on EPA negotiations
The Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) has reached a common agreement on how to proceed with the European Union on Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations.
This is the position that the presidents of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland agreed to earlier, and would ensure that there is no difference in tariffs or rules of origin among SACU member countries when negotiating with the EU.
Read more here

Malawi Stands Firm on Conditions for Signing EPA
The Malawian government has again stood firm in the face of calls by the European Union (EU) to sign an economic partnership agreement (EPA) -- even after top-level EU officials visited the southern Africa to convince it to put pen to paper.
Read more here

ACP wants regional EPA’s, not interim agreements with individual members
The African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, which represents 14 Forum Island Countries wants the European Union (EU) to ‘slow down’ on signing interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with member countries.
Instead, the EU should now focus on a comprehensive EPA with all of the ACP’s six regions – in line with the agreement’s objective to reinforce regional integration.
Read more here

Southern Africa: EU backs off on EPA
European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht has appeased leading European civil society organisations about the negotiations for a Southern African economic partnership agreement (EPA), promising "not to put undue pressure" on countries. According to Marc Maes, trade policy officer at 11.11.11, the move signals an "EPA-fatigue" in Europe. 11.11.11, the Flemish North-South Movement working against poverty, protested about the European Commission’s treatment of Namibia.
Read more here

Gap, Next and M&S in new sweatshop scandal
Indian workers are paid just 25p an hour and forced to work overtime in factories used by some of Britain's best-known high street stores.
Some of the biggest names on the British high street are at the centre of a major sweatshop scandal. An Observer investigation has found staff at their Indian suppliers working up to 16 hours a day.
Read more here

Hunting for a "cure" for HIV
A successful microbicide trial and the promise of HIV treatment as prevention have dominated the scientific breakthroughs making headlines at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, but scientists working on a cure for HIV say they are making slow but significant headway in finding a permanent solution to the epidemic.
Read more here

Insights into the ever more complex aid system
As the humanitarian "system" becomes more complex, with new actors and overlapping mandates, different definitions of humanitarian aid, and ever-more ambitious goals, humanitarian aid watchdog Development Initiatives outlines some of the needs, responses and funding trends over the past decade in its 2010 Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) report.
Read more here

Seven countries which had used cluster munitions yet to endorse ban
The Convention on Cluster Munitions came into force on 1 August 2010, marking a major step towards ridding the world of the cluster bomb submunitions which can kill and maim decades after being unleashed.
Read more here

U.N. Declares Water and Sanitation a Basic Human Right
When the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) back in December 1948, 58 member states voted for a historic document covering political, economic, social and cultural rights. On Wednesday, nearly 62 years later, a widely-expanded 192- member General Assembly adopted another memorable resolution: this time recognising water and sanitation as a basic human right.
Read more here

Foreign Investors Safeguarded from Obligations to Locals
Parts of the Tana Delta on Kenya’s northern coastline are being leased to foreigners to grow food and bio-fuels for export. Civil society organisations are worried about such deals as they are done without public consultation while safeguarding investors from requirements that could benefit local communities, such as technology transfer.
Read more here

Morocco: Release or Try Sahrawi Activists Held 10 Months
Moroccan authorities should release three well-known Sahrawi activists held since October 8, 2009, on charges of "harming state security," or provide them with a prompt and transparent trial, Human Rights Watch said.
Unlike previous low-profile family visits by Sahrawis from the disputed, Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara to the refugee camps, this delegation openly met there with officials of the Polisario, the Sahrawi independence movement that runs a government-in-exile and administers the camps.
Read more here

Diamonds: Burden Or Boon?
‘Given the context of blood diamonds, the real conflict rests not with militias mining diamonds’, but with ‘the battle to control markets and pricing’, argues Khadija Sharife, in an assessment of the structure of the international diamond industry. For developing country governments ‘at the helm of diamond-producing economies, corporate control over diamond markets means limited choices and fewer opportunities to collect equitable revenue from diamond resources’, says Sharife.
Read more here

Transgender People, Myths and Gender Politics
The struggle against gender oppression in Kenya endures. Following the recent unlawful arrest and assault of a transgender woman in the country, Audrey Mbugua voices the subordination of those who do not comply with the restrictive gender-based identities adopted by society at large. Mbugua unlaces these societal constructs that tie their subjects to an existence of marginalisation and abuse. Mbugua suggests ignorance and bureaucratised discrimination amongst Kenyan society is to blame.
Read more here

Africa: Should Africa Continue To Invest In ICT?
Africa is witnessing a gradual shift towards massive investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), thanks to the role of policymakers who are pushing for full regulatory reform for ICTs. Many African leaders have realised that, for any meaningful economic development to occur, technology has to play its part.
Read more here

West Africa: Niger on the Brink of Collapse
In Niger 90% of the population depend on Agriculture. But with last year’s rain failure, the country is facing a catastrophic food crisis.
Concern Worldwide, an international aid agency, is tackling the crisis by providing drought resistant seeds, distributing cash through mobile phone technology and using local food markets to provide aid. All this makes for a unique approach towards humanitarian aid.
Read more here

Sudan: Oil Companies Alleged To Be Complicit In War Crimes
A coalition of 50 non-governmental organizations claims a consortium of international oil companies may have been complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan during the country’s two-decade long civil war. The oil companies accused include the Malaysian energy company Petronas, the Austrian energy group OMV and Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum, which had the majority of the shares and control of the oil areas.
Read more here

Beyond petroleum: Why the CSR community collaborated in creating the recent oil disaster
The BP Gulf of Mexico disaster shows we have to move from reputation to reality, suggests Natalya Sverjensky.
The BP disaster has been the focus of much commentary in the CSR world for the past four months.
But two critical questions have yet to be answered: how did BP achieve its previous reputation as one of the world’s most responsible companies? And what does this reveal about the future of corporate social responsibility?
Read more here

Chad: Nutrient-Rich Algae Can Boost Women’s Incomes and Tackle Malnutrition
A local variety of the nutrient-rich, blue-green algae known as spirulina could boost incomes for women in Chad who harvest the product as well as help fight nutrition, the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported. The agency is running a $1.4 million project in which women are gathering and processing the product, known locally as dihé, from the shallow pools of water on the edges of Lake Chad where it forms at certain times of the year.
Read more here

Sudan: Darfur JEM Rebels Sign Deal to Stop Child Soldiers
A Sudanese rebel group has signed an agreement to allow the UN access to its bases to check children are not being recruited as soldiers. The Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) told the BBC it had been trying to protect children since the beginning of the seven-year conflict in Darfur.
Read more here

East Africa: Burundi Most Corrupt Bribe Index Shows
Burundi is east Africa's most corrupt nation according to an anti-graft watchdog, while Kenya, which usually tops Transparency International's (TI) annual list of graft-prone countries in the region, was third. Burundi and neighbouring Rwanda were included in the East African Bribery Index survey 2010, commissioned by TI-Kenya for the first time this year.
Read more here

Kidnap response: immediate priorities for aid agencies
‘One minute we were heading to the airport, happy to be on our way home … next minute we were being bundled into a pick-up truck crowded with gun-toting bandits, AK47s pointed at our heads, racing off into the unknown.’
Read more here

Water access denied
Whilst the water flows freely into the illegal Israeli settlements, Palestinian towns and villages are running dry.Villagers are unable to grow crops or feed their herds so it's a struggle for them to survive. In many areas, access to water is so severely restricted that they can't even grow small amounts of food to feed their families. It's a life-threatening situation.
Act now and end Israel’s discriminatory water policies - click here

LASC & IPSC Statement on Uribe's appointment to UN Flotilla investigation
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) and the Latin American Solidarity Centre (LASC) have written a statement on the appointment of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to a UN panel tasked with investigating the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on May 31st of this year.
Read more here
Read LASC & IPSC Statement here

***

Next e-LINK

Please send your submissions for the next e-LINK to elink@comhlamh.org

If you would like to receive e-LINK by email please subscribe here

ENDS

Join Comhlámh

Resources

Home