31 May: Engage-ing links

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Engage

By Engage

Each week on Engage, we aim to share with you a selection of links to articles and stories about the Australian aid program and international development that we find interesting or noteworthy. Here’s a snapshot of online stories this week:

There was plenty of analysis in the aid and development sector late this week, after the release of the UN’s much anticipated Report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. We checked out The Guardian’s post The good, the bad and the ugly, and the Center for Global Developments’ First Reactions.
This week there was also a whirlwind of blogs, tweets and opinions following the visit of the world’s richest man, global philanthropist and, arguably, one of the most influential people of our time – Bill Gates. Check out The Conversation’s piece on his visit and polio eradication.
Another high profile report was released this week by UNICEF. The State of the World’s Children 2013, this year focusing on disability. The report urges us to see the child before the disability. The hosting website is more than a holding page for the report itself, but offers us great resources like raw data and statistics, infographics and photos and videos.
Also this week, Kuala Lumpur played host to several thousand at the Women Deliver 2013 Conference. The Development Policy Centre’s Julia Newton-Howes and Helene Gayle discussed Why health services alone will not protect women’s reproductive rights.
We know all too well the exponential benefits of investing in women and girls in helping to alleviate poverty, but this week we were particularly impressed with the simplicity and startling facts in this Why invest in women? infographic from USAID.

From exclusion to inclusion—UNICEF’s 2013 State of the World’s Children Report: Children with Disabilities

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Engage

By Rosangela Berman-Bieler, Chief of the UNICEF Disability Section

As a disability rights advocate for almost four decades and in my current capacity as senior adviser on children with disabilities for UNICEF, it is such a big honour to share with bloggers the news about UNICEF’s flagship report—The State of the World’s Children 2013: Children with Disabilities.

The global launch of the report took place today in Da Nang, Viet Nam co-launched by UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and AusAID Director General Peter Baxter and included representatives from the government of Viet Nam. The report is also being launched in more than forty countries and these launches will include children and adolescents with disabilities, partners working on disability policy and NGOs that advocate for the rights of children with disabilities globally.

: UNICEF’s 2013 State of the World’s Children Report: Children with Disabilities

The State of the World’s Children 2013: Children with Disabilities argues that the full potential of children with disabilities is being limited by social attitudes that focus on what children with disabilities cannot do, rather than what they can achieve.

As a woman with a disability and also a mother, I know that like all children, those with disabilities have many abilities, but are often excluded from society by discrimination and lack of support, depriving both the child and society.

The report urges governments to ratify and implement the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), advocates recognition of children with disabilities as rights-holders and agents of change and charts methods for communities to include children with disabilities. We have seen that—especially after the adoption of the CRPD—commitments to more inclusive societies have improved the situation of many children with disabilities, but progress is still uneven. We need to take key steps to make sure progress is accelerated and disparities are reduced.

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Opening doors: Communicating research for development

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Engage

By Hazel Lang, Research Specialist, AusAID

In this latest funding round of our flagship competitive research program, the AusAID Development Research Awards Scheme (ADRAS), we placed an even greater emphasis on research communication and engagement than in the past. Not only were we looking for high quality research projects of direct policy-relevance to AusAID and our partners, we required the researchers to demonstrate that they would communicate and engage with development stakeholders from the outset.

AusAID convened its recent communications and engagement workshop in Canberra to get researchers – over 50 of them, from 31 international and Australian institutions – together with AusAID policymakers and program staff. Our aim is to catalyse early access to, and use of, the ADRAS research.

ADRAS researchers (from left to right) Dr Cathy Vaughan, Professor Gwynnyth Llywellyn and Dr Stian Thoresen, working on disability in development projects. Photo: Jessica Abigail/AusAID

Bridging the divide between researchers and policymakers is a long-standing challenge for development research. How is research-based knowledge – often produced according to academic career incentives (such as publication in peer-reviewed journals, involving long timeframes) – communicated to policymakers and practitioners in ways that are timely, relevant and easily digestable? How do researchers navigate the realities that shape the policy and programming environment given the timeframes and management pressures to demonstrate ‘results’ and ‘value-for-money’ for a donor like AusAID? The workshop opened doors for refreshingly frank engagement between researchers and practitioners. There was a panel of senior AusAIDers sharing their experiences of the policy world (with lots of Q&A), a panel of researchers talking about the things that work and don’t work so well (with lots of Q&A), and an afternoon of round-table discussions organised along the eight themes of development research in this ADRAS round.

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24 May: Engage-ing links

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Engage

By Engage

This week , Sydney played host to the Mining for Development and the 6^th Global EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) Conferences. Michael Wulfsohn and Stephen Howes brought us commentary on the subject in Transparency in extractive industries: time for Australia to show leadership
Still on the Development Policy Blog this week our own Frederic Jeanjean is interviewed on his career in development, the AusAID grad program, the Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) program and working for the UN.
Ten years ago the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was born with the stroke of a pen by President George W. Bush. Over the last decade, the program has experienced tremendous growth and made inroads against HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in some of the world’s hardest hit areas. And through it all, PEPFAR has bridged two US Administrations, six US congressional sessions, and one global economic crisis. Check out the blog over at the Center for Global Development.
An Oxfam and IDS report looks at hidden social costs of high food prices, including domestic violence, and substance abuse. Read analysis of the report in Soaring food prices make money top concern over love and status.
We came across this powerful animated infographic (produced by onebillionrising.org) that highlights some of the startling global statistics and facts on women’s rights, with a focus on women and girls in developing countries.

Our ‘game-changing’ role in the global effort to end polio

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Engage

By David Goldstone, philanthropist, polio survivor and co-founder of Rotary of Crawley

Polio is more than 99 per cent eliminated. Thanks to an immense global partnership, the disease is on the verge of being completely wiped out.

Waiting to be vaccinated, outside a village health centre in Afghanistan. Photo: UNICEF/Jeremy Hartley.

Australians should be proud of the role we have played in the epic battle against this disease. This country has had a long history of involvement in the global effort to end polio – reaching all the way back before anyone had any inkling that a vaccine would be found to protect against it.

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