The Development Gateway Foundation’s “Open Educational Resources” portal aims to equalize access to education and help people in developing countries improve their chances for a better life. The portal features free course materials and other educational content offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Chinese Open Resources for Education and other institutions around the world. The initiative is launched in partnership by the Development Gateway Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

This online interactive educational project features the stories of 15 teen refugees from 7 war zones (Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo, and Liberia) who are now living in the United States. Designed for young people and their teachers, this web documentary features an individualised virtual passport and travel diary, war zone timelines, and country quizzes. The primary strategy for engaging viewers in the teens' experiences is personalisation in the form of an online documentary "journey". The goal is to create a virtual peer-to-peer dialogue - bolstered by an educator-facilitated classroom experience - focused on conflict and its effect on youth around the world.

Ghanaian Frances Williams, CEO of London-based company Interims for Development (www.InterimsFD.com), was named 'Rising Star of the Year 2005' at the fiercely-contested UK Trade & Investment Black Enterprise Awards in London. Officially launched in Ghana in 2003 by the Ghana Government's Minister for Private Sector Development, Interims for Development works with African businesses and international companies operating in Africa to support their Human Resources, business development and capacity building needs.

A court in Nigeria has delivered two more guilty verdicts in the country's biggest ever international fraud trial. Two defendants, Frank Nwude and Nzeribe Okoli, were found guilty of swindling a Brazilian bank out of $242m. The pair deceived an employee at the Banco Noroeste of Sao Paulo into transferring large sums of the bank's money to accounts around the world. In return the man had been promised kickbacks from a fictional Nigerian state contract.

The Ginetta Sagan Fund of AIUSA is now accepting nominations for its 2006 Annual Award for the Human Rights of Women and Children. Here is your opportunity to honor women who have made a difference in the lives of women and/or children. Previous winners include women originally from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Pakistan, Peru, Rwanda, Turkey, Somalia, and Uganda. The 2006 Award will be given to a woman who works on behalf of the human rights of women who meets the following criteria: * Demonstrates courage, integrity and commitment to human rights principles, and * Resides in, or is indigenous to, the crisis region.

The passive acceptance of others’ peculiarities is not enough, stresses Kofi Annan. Diversity has forever characterized the human condition. Yet, mankind’s acceptance of it has been painfully lacking. This intolerance of the “other” remains a source of great and everyday
human suffering. If we hope to achieve peace in our young century, we must start respecting each other today -- as individuals who each have the right to define our own identity, and belong to the faith or culture of our choice; as individuals who know that we can cherish what we are, without hating what we are not.

Leading up to the December 2005 World Trade Organization's (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, Pambazuka News will examine some of the issues regarding the WTO as it affects Africa. This week we look at the concept of alternatives to free trade in Africa. Last week’s article examined fair trade and free trade, and argued that under the existing conditions, free trade was doing little to help the people of Africa. Fair trade is usually held up as the alternative to this global economic system, but in reality, fair trade means a number of different things. Economists around the globe have yet to all agree on one perfect solution to current economic challenges, should one even exist. They work within a number of frameworks, advocating a series of options.

Government and donor countries are curtailing progress towards Education for ALL (EFA) - and broader poverty reduction - by according only marginal attention to the 771 million adults living without basis literacy skills,' says the fourth edition of the EFA Global Monitoring report, Literacy for Life'.

Developing countries are to receive greater funding and transfers of technology to boost their use of renewable energy supplies. The pledge was made yesterday (8 November) in a declaration signed by 78 countries at the Beijing International Renewable Energy Conference. Representatives of Brazil, China, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the European Union were among those who signed the declaration. The United States, however, was not involved. Because progress in renewable energy technology has been led by developed countries, most developing nations have been left behind, said Mohamed El-Ashry, a senior fellow with the United Nations Foundation.

"Governments, aid donors and the development community at large are increasingly asking for hard evidence on the impacts of public programs claiming to reduce poverty. Do we know if such interventions really work? How much impact do they have?" Mobilised by these questions, Martin Ravallion uses this paper to critically examine what he calls "the archetypal evaluation problem": impact evaluation (or "counterfactual analysis") often does not strongly attribute observed outcomes to the specific programme being evaluated.

Authors: Hallak, J.; Poisson, M.
Produced by: Journal of Education for International Development (JEID) (2005)

This journal article argues that the problems posed by corruption in education have been neglected for too long. It details the three assumptions that underlie the IIEP's project on "Ethics and corruption in education". It then describes the approach followed to tackle this sensitive issue within the framework of the project. The article summarises a few conclusions drawn from the research thus far in three areas: teacher behaviour, teacher management, and private tutoring.

“We invite you to join the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence electronic discussion taking place in the form of a listserve. The discussion allows activists to collaboratively develop themes and strategies for the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign.”
If you are interested in joining the discussion or if you have any questions, please contact the Center for Women's Global Leadership at [email protected].

The realisation of the MDGs has been impacted upon by some of the rules, recent proposals and developments in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This paper shows some of the effects the multilateral organisation has had on the MDG goals and targets that government leaders have collectively wanted to achieve. It begins with a brief assessment of the problems arising from the implementation of WTO rules. This is followed by an outline of the main features and effects of some of the WTO agreements and a discussion on the decision-making system and the structural or systemic aspects of the WTO. Some suggestions for improving the situation are made for each of the topics.

Published by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), this article focuses on the female condom, considering its usage and effectiveness to date and its prospects for the future. Evidence is provided which indicates that the female condom is highly effective at preventing pregnancy, and at least as effective as the male condom in preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV and AIDS. However, the paper cites studies of actual use in the United States where users rated the female condom as being much less acceptable than the male condom for a range of reasons.

SAN JOSE, SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Wednesday September 21 - The Tech Museum of Innovation today announced the 25 Laureates for the 2005 Tech Museum Awards, presented by Applied Materials, Inc. At a black tie awards gala on November 9, Silicon Valley leaders and representatives from partners the United Nations Development Programme, The World Bank Institute, and Santa Clara University, honored all 25 for their pioneering work in developing technology for the benefit of humanity. Five of these Laureates share a $250,000 cash prize. Annually, The Tech Awards honor individuals, for-profit, public and not-for-profit organizations from around the world who are applying technology to profoundly improve the human condition in the areas of environment, economic development, education, equality and health. An panel of judges considered 560 nominations, representing 80 countries. The 25 Laureates come from Brazil, Canada, Cuba, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. Their work impacts people in 43 countries around the globe.

Author Paul Rogat Loeb, the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, remembers how he appeared on the same CNN show as Rosa Parks. The host recited how Parks had refused to give her bus seat to a white person, sparking the year-long bus boycott in Montgomery, United States. Loeb writes that he had been excited to be a part of the same show as Parks, but that it had occurred to him that "the host's description - the story's standard rendition and one repeated even in many of her obituaries - stripped the Montgomery boycott of all of its context."

These policy briefs are timely, short, and informative papers, highlighting a variety of critical topics and themes related to civil society and governance. They were composed by in-country researchers and IDS Fellows involved in the Civil Society and Governance Programme. They were created to better disseminate the key findings of this three-year research project, covering 22 countries in six international regions.

CIDSE (Coopération Internationale pour le Développement et la Solidarité) and Caritas International have released a position paper that outlines policy proposals for poverty reduction at the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Hong Kong in December. The paper pushes for global support for a pro-poor approach to trade based on the legitimate political perspective that makes human dignity the priority for guiding international trade rules.

This paper suggests ways to avoid the 'resource curse', where countries with abundant natural resources grow more slowly than those without. The author urges that more attention be devoted to "resource curse" and discusses how national institutions may have been damaged due to the availability of increased aid. The paper highlights two possible solutions: to direct aid away from governments and consider the private sector as an alternative option and closer control over the aid flows with corruption being vigorously fought.

This study provides an assessment of the changing environment for aid planning and management in Ethiopia during 2002-2004. Specifically considering the Development Cooperation Programme in Ethiopia the report reviews the aid modalities chosen by the project and their relevance and effectiveness.