This newsletter from the International NGO Training and Research Centre (INTRAC) looks at how the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness affects NGOs as providers of international aid. The declaration urges governments to transfer aid directly into the budgets of poor countries, rather than funding their own development projects. While this could prevent rich countries from using aid as a tool to achieve their own political and economic interests, INTRAC warns that Northern NGOs could lose much of their funding and political influence.

Simavi is a relatively small Dutch funding agency that exists already for 80 years and gets it funding mainly from small private donors (families) and businesses. Simavi supports local non-governmental organisations that implement community based primary health care and water and sanitation projects in rural areas. Simavi supports local NGO's in 11 countries.

The survey focuses on the benefits that NGOs bring to inter-governmental decision-making process. The survey takes 5 - 10 minutes to complete. It also asks participants to assess proposed reforms designed to make inter-governmental institutions and processes more democratic through the increased participation of civil society. The survey is for research purposes and participants will not be cited or quoted without permission.

Martus is a software tool that allows users to document incidents of abuse by creating bulletins, uploading them at the earliest opportunity, and storing them on redundant servers located around the world. Martus Client 2.9 has just been released and includes speed enhancements, improved searching, and Thai and Persian date localization enhancements.

Child abuse, especially sexual abuse, is a universal and alarming problem and increased attention and efficient protection skills and prevention measures are necessary at family-, local-, national- and international level. After a long tradition of silence, sexual child abuse is being more and more denounced and becoming a public and political topic. WWSF invites you to participate in the 2006 global campaign and to take part in the next year Prize for prevention of child abuse (formerly Betty Makoni Prize) by organizing activities and events on 19 November or by supporting the Day in general.

With Google Trends, you can compare the world's interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they've been searched for on Google over time. Google Trends also displays how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often.

In this article posted on the SciDev.Net website, author Nalaka Gunawardene discusses communication rights, and expresses questions and concerns about when media and communication may result in violations of privacy and other "communication wrongs." According to the article, it is not only the media that can violate others' communication rights. When development agencies and 'pro-poor' activists presume that the impoverished just need information about survival or sustenance, the latter's communication rights are not respected.

The victimisation of a black lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University over her use of pioneering teaching methods has united black academics across the country in her defence and reignited their determination to fight racism in higher education (HE). When the Black Colloquium heard that one of their fellow members was told to ‘take leave’ so that an investigation could be conducted into her teaching methods following ‘external complaints’, they were both outraged and angered.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says a booming India and China can be of benefit to economies in Africa. In a policy insight document, the Paris-based think-tank said there are a number of ways the continent can gain. The OECD says Indian and Chinese growth has dampened world inflation pressures, lowered global interest rates, and raised raw material prices. This in turn, it says, has helped to improve Africa's terms of trade.

The Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure has again expressed, on Sunday, his resentment against international mining companies exploiting gold in his country, implying that to ensure bliss to Kayes (600Km west Bamako) residents, he relies “more on roads than the glittering metal”. “We made a mistake by thinking that Kayes' happiness will come from gold not roads,” Amadou Toumani Toure noted, on Sunday, while inaugurating a 98km asphalted road linking Kayes to the Senegalese town of Kidira.

Roving judges in the Maldives and a community justice system in post-genocide Rwanda are just two of the pioneering democratic governance initiatives captured in the first UN report on governance in the fifty most vulnerable countries in the world, launched in New York.

The African week started Monday in Paris with the varnishing of the art and handicraft exhibition chaired by Deputy-Director General of Unesco Africa Department, Noureini Tidjani-Serpos, in the presence of leading ambassadors members of the Unesco Africa Group. Many exhibitors from different regions of the continent are taking part in this cultural event held at the Unesco headquarters in Paris, the French capital city.

This guide is not intended to provide a comprehensive discussion of return in all its facets. Rather, it aims to set out some of the core principles and issues surrounding the return of refugees and IDPs, and highlight the challenges associated with making return a safe, dignified and sustainable process. It also addresses some of the issues raised by the return of failed asylum seekers. The guide seeks to help the reader navigate the extensive literature on return, and identify areas where additional research is required.

The UK government has been accused of draconian treatment of asylum seekers, using "destitution as a tool of coercion", in a bleak report from the Church of England on a Britain where an economic boom has left the gulf between the very poor and the super-rich wider than ever.

According to this analysis by the Bretton Woods project, the imminent departure of Anne Krueger from the post of first deputy managing director of the IMF, gave Rodrigo de Rato the unique chance to move the Fund in a different direction as it looks to implement its medium-term strategic review. Instead, the managing director nominated US banker John Lipsky, maintaining the convention of keeping the top two posts at the Fund split between the transatlantic power centres.

Scientific papers published in online journals that are open-access have a bigger impact and are cited more frequently than papers readers must pay for, according to a new study. The findings will strengthen calls for more online scientific journals to switch to the open-access model and make research freely available.

Science communicators should encourage public debates about science and technology, rather than simply tell people about the subject, a conference has heard. The call was made yesterday (17 May) at the ninth conference of the International Network on Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) in Seoul, South Korea.

This prize, worth CHF 5,000 (US$3,900), recognises individuals and organisations who have made a notable contribution to the defense and promotion of the freedom to publish anywhere in the world. The prize will be presented at the 2006 Göteborg Book Fair in September 2006 in Göteborg, Sweden. The main theme of the book fair will be freedom of expression.

This publication analyses available statistics on female genital mutilation or cutting, with the aim of improving understanding of related issues in the wider context of gender equality and social change. The study centres on women aged 15-49 and their daughters, presenting estimates and examining differentials in prevalence, and highlighting patterns within the data that can strategically inform programmatic efforts.

Though most poor countries are not bound by the Kyoto Treaty to curb their greenhouse gas emissions, some are pushing rich countries to provide aid, technology and other incentives to help them reduce harmful emissions blamed for climate change.