GEO/ICAE - REGISTER NOW FOR ICAE SEVENTH WORLD ASSEMBLY

VOICES RISING
YEAR IV - Nº198
October, 06, 2006


 ICAE SEVENTH WORLD ASSEMBLY COUNTDOWN:    103 DAYS LEFT
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content
 1.- ICAE 7TH WORLD ASSEMBLY - ORGANISATION OF A WORKSHOP ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
2.- G8 LOBBYING ACTIONS – GERMANY 2007
3.- ME AND HIV
4.- ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROVISION GIVES ‘SERIOUS CAUSE FOR CONCERN’
5.- COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGER / WOMANKIND WORLDWIDE

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1.- ICAE 7TH WORLD ASSEMBLY - ORGANISATION OF A WORKSHOP ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

ADULTS’ RIGHT TO LEARN: CONVERGENCE, SOLIDARITY AND ACTION

PROPOSAL: ORGANISATION OF A WORKSHOP ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

1. BACKGROUND

“Without man and woman…the green has no colour”.

(Paulo Freire at the Seminar on Environmental Education/Rio 92)

Human beings carry the main responsibility for the big changes that made the current world what it is. ICAE´s Assembly, to take place before the WSF, brings clearly the message that “another world is possible” if adults who are responsible for what takes place in the world today take on the commitment to learn and transfer to the coming generations renovated and sustainable ways to live and live together among human beings and with other natural beings. 

Historical moments for Humanity are historical moments for Education. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, known as Rio 92, and several of the summits that followed, clearly showed the need to reconsider the current unsustainable global model of development that has been imposed on the planet. This model has been causing global problems that threaten the survival of humanity and of all living beings from GAIA, Mother Earth.

In the context of a globalised world many issues have become of concern for everyone: from strategists, planners and executives from international organisations or multinational corporations to poor persons and countries that experience in their daily lives the consequences of the climatic changes, the fast desertification, the scarcity of water caused by deforestation at any rate, poisoned food resulting from chemical products and agro-toxics, the death of seeds caused by the option for GMOs, the loss of life in rivers, lakes and oceans due to polluting activities, the constant impoverishment of small farmers caused by the control of seeds in the world by 10 multinationals…any many others.

All these issues are topics for Environmental Education understood as a Transformative Learning through synergic action of Humanity with the Environment. It is an inclusive, permanent and continuous education that goes beyond classrooms and happens in the school of life and of institutions acting through various networks and connections.

ICAE, in the context of Rio 92, had a very important role in relation to Environmental Education when it organised the International Seminar on Environmental Education together with other international, regional and local institutions. This historical seminar had as its highlight the participatory preparation and later the approval by consensus of the Treaty of Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility. It was one of the 36 Treaties from the NGO and Social Movements Forum participating at the Global Forum parallel to the UN Conference.

Published originally by ICAE in five languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), the Treaty on Environmental Education was firstly distributed among the centres and councils linked to ICAE. At the same time it started to travel a long route. Besides being launched at international events (e.g. ECOED/Canada, 1993) it was the subject for international research (IDRC/OISE, 1995) and topic for doctoral thesis and masters dissertations. It also became a reference for municipal policies on environment and education and for initiatives and programmes from NGOs and environmental movements. In the last years, together with the Earth Charter, it has been considered as a pillar on which National Networks of Environmental Education are built (Brazil, 2000). Currently the Treaty is being used as a guiding document for the elaboration of public policies on environmental education (Brazil, 2002) and is being proposed as a key dialogue tool for the UN Decade on Sustainable Development (5th Iberoamerican Congress on Environmental Education, with participation from countries in the American continent, Europe and Portuguese speaking Africa, 2006).

The Treaty is seen as carrying political views that guide the educational practices of numerous environmental educators around the world. The institutions that are using it recognise its historicity and contemporariness.  The Title and the Prologue of the Treaty remain current as they reaffirm the search for consensus, respecting and promoting bio-social-cultural diversity in this historical moment marked by a type of globalisation that can be characterised as “globocolonisation”. In the same way, the Principles and Values contained in the Treaty are still valid and are essential for the current moment. There is a need to deepen them, to specify them clearly or broaden them on the basis of the civilizatory processes of humanity. This must be done in permanent dialogue with other planetary initiatives as the Earth Charter, the Charter of Human Responsibilities and the Manifesto for Life, among others. Furthermore, the Treaty is a pioneer text in as far as it strengthens the need for the education of social actors emphasising the need for environmental education of adults, in particular of social, political and entrepreneurial leaders and of key opinion leaders. “Independently of our academic background, our age and the position we occupy in the social fabric, we all need to learn new knowledge, new attitudes and new forms of local and planetary citizenship participation”, reminds us the Video of the Treaty.

In this context, ICAE can contribute significantly in the promotion, revision and deepening of the Treaty through a participatory dialogue with forums and networks such as the World Social Forum, the World Forum on Education, the Earth Charter, the Charter on Human Responsibilities, among others. As an internationally recognised NGO, ICAE can also act together with international organisations, governments, entrepreneurs, NGOs and social movements suggesting that they assign significant resources to Environmental Education actions as part of a global action for “another possible world”.

The previous considerations justify a workshop on Environment, Ecology and Sustainable Development at the ICAE 7th World Assembly, based mainly on the Treaty of Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility.

PROPOSAL:

“The ethic of care, as trademark of a New Culture, is the great legacy that the current generation must pass on to the new generations as condition for the future to be possible”
(Moema L. Viezzer, “por una Pedagogía de la Inteface”)

1. Central theme:

The Treaty of Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility, with an emphasis on an inclusive, permanent and continuous education.

2. Objectives

  • Recover the historical role of ICAE in the participatory process of elaboration of the Treaty of Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility/Rio 92 and the contemporariness of the Treaty in relation to an inclusive, permanent and continuous Environmental Education.
  • Give visibility to the interconnection between Environmental Education and the several themes chosen by ICAE as key for its 2007 Assembly.
  • Prepare recommendations for the inclusion of the environmental dimension in the initiatives of inclusive, permanent and continuous education in dialogue with other planetary initiatives and with emphasis in the need of Learning Communities of Adults and Social Actors that intervene in the quality of the environment and of life.

3. Lines of reflection, dialogue

  • Historical recovery and contemporariness of the principles, values and guidelines of the Treaty in the framework of ICAE 7th World Assembly.
  • Interconnection of Environmental Education with the themes chosen by ICAE for the 7th World Assembly, specially: environmental education for equitable gender relations; environmental education for peace with respect for human rights; environmental education for living together in socio-cultural diversity; environmental education for sustainable consumption as a way to combat poverty and improve wealth distribution on the basis of an economy of solidarity; environmental education as part of health education.
  • Contribution of Environmental Education on the basis of the guidelines of the EE Treaty in concepts and methodologies of an inclusive, permanent and continuous education in the areas of formal, non-formal, diffuse and edu-communication, and with a multi/inter/transdisciplinary approach.
  • Indispensable Interface among Environmental Educators and other Social Actors for the constitution of Learning Communities together with public administration organisms, enterprises, media, universities, schools, networks of civil society organisations such as cooperatives, movements for an economy of solidarity. Necessary articulation with strategic groups such as youth and vulnerable social groups: communities located in risk areas and living in extreme rural and urban poverty, collectors of recyclable materials, indigenous and traditional communities, among others.

4. Expected Results

  • Historical recovery of ICAE´s contribution in the elaboration of the Treaty of Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility.
  • Dialogue of the Treaty with the themes and proposals of ICAE 7th World Assembly.
  • Suggestions for strategies of environmental education for ICAE: members, partners, friends and related networks and in its contributions in planetary summits (e.g. CONFINTEA)

5. Methodology

  • Audiovisual presentation of the historical recovery of the Treaty of Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility in the context of an inclusive, permanent and continuous education.
  • Round table dealing with themes related to ICAE 7th World Assembly from the perspective of environmental education.
  • Group work for dialogues and proposals in relation to the themes of the round table.
  • Plenary with recommendations and proposals.
  • Closure and presentation of a final document to the Organising Commission.

 


 2.- G8 LOBBYING ACTIONS – GERMANY 2007

globalactionforum@whiteband.org

GCAP is following up on the announcement by Angela Merkel at the Russian G8 that poverty will be on the agenda during the German presidency of the G8 in 2007, and is sending a lobbying letter.  28 coalitions and organizations have already sent the G8 lobby letter, notably: GCAP Bangladesh, Hottokenai in Japan, GCAP Mozambique, GCAP Uganda, GCAP Belgium, GCAP Sweden, GCAP Russia, Deine Stimme Gegen Armut/ VENRO, GCAP Germany, GCAP Azerbaijan, Make Poverty History Canada, GCAP Portugal, World Vision France, World Vision Mauritania, World Vision Lesotho, CARE Germany, CARE International, AIDS Budget Unit, Cape Town, Jubilee Scotland, HIV Group, India, Oxfam International affiliates, Ghana Apostolic Network - Head of the Network has sent letter to Merkel, and 4 member organisations in Ghana have also taken the action independently.

GERMANY

“Deine Stimme gegen Armut” (Your voice against Poverty)

POLICY DEMANDS

VENRO calls on the Federal Government to at last introduce the urgently required steps to realise the MDGs.

The policy paper “Stand by your commitments”, drawn up in the framework of the campaign “Deine Stimme gegen Armut”, puts the demands made by civil society in more precise terms. The German NGOs call on the Federal Government to:

1. consider combating poverty as a human rights commitment;

2. boost the strategies of the developing countries to combat poverty;

3. reorient German development co-operation and raise its funds in accordance with the EU commitment to attain the 0.7 percent goal;

4. enhance the effectiveness of German development cooperation and co-ordinate it more effectively at international level;

5. campaign for the introduction of innovative financing instruments;

6. take effective steps against tax havens and international tax competition;

7. agree to urgently required, comprehensive debt relief and the setting up of an international insolvency procedure;

8. realise more justice in world trade;

9. actively promote the democratisation of the system of “Global Governance”;

10. boost crisis prevention as a means of combating poverty;

11. assume an internationally leading position in combating Aids;

12. step up its international efforts to prevent global climate change with a major negative impact.

MoM ACTIVITES

Yes. We will mobilise people to write to their Member of Parliament via an online tool on our website and ask him/her to vote for an increase of development budget in the Federal Budget 2007.

On WBD (17th October) German NGOs will launch their activities for G8 summit 2007 on a press conference in Berlin. The same day a serie of one-day-event starts dealing with G8-issues.

Further activities to be planned.


GCAP MONTH OF MOBILIZATION

BANGLADESH

People’s Forum on MDGs (PFM)

POLICY DEMANDS

i) To take all necessary initiatives in order to achieve MDGs in Bangladesh by 2015

ii) Develop annual plan and project considering targets of MDGs

iii) Proper implementation of PRSP and other development projects like, PEDP II, PLCE, BNFE, ROSC etc.** (** PRSP – Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper; PEDP II –Primary Education; Development Project II; PLCE – Post Literacy and Continuing Education; BNFE- Bureau of Non-Formal Education; ROSC- Reaching Out of School Children)

PFM as a member of International GCAP campaign demands from the international leaders and multinational groups (World Bank, IMF, UN etc.) for Trade justice, Fair trade , debt cancellation, quality aid and execute/ensure global partnership( provide 7% aid to the developing countries) .

MoM ACTIVITES

on 17 October 2006 on World Poverty Eradication Day, The Big Hearing will be organized with slum dwellers, the local govt (Ward Commissioners/ public functionaries) and elected leaders for highlighting urban poverty scenario which is increasing alarmingly and becoming a major issue in Bangladesh. However, this will be followed by series of activities and campaigns targeting local and national level public functionaries, media, youth groups, women’s movement and other concerned groups.

PFM will produce posters, leaflets and white band to disseminate the MDGs /GCAP messages across the Country.

STAND UP ACTIVITIES

Yes.  PFM will organize a Human Chain on 15 October 2006 (Stand up against Poverty) with the coordination and participations of Youth groups, PFM members, Student of Schools/ College and University and others Coalitions/Networks at local and national level.

Estimated Participants: NOT STATED
 

MOZAMBIQUE

Campanha Vozes Contra a Pobreza

“Voices against Poverty Campaign”

POLICY DEMANDS

• Greater effort by the state in combating the causes of poverty and its increase;

• Transparency in the administration of public resources and, in particular, of funds cancelled under the scope of MDRI;

• To operationalize the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the local level.

• Further demands regarding children’s rights, youth and women-empowerment, against domestic violence, HIV/AIDS.

Demands regarding the IFIs:

• No to conditionality and excessive interference by the IFIs in the decision-making process at the national level.

• No to the EPAs

• Total cancelling of the multilateral and bilateral external debt of poor countries, Mozambique in particular.

• More and better resources for accelerating the materialization of the MDGs

MoM ACTIVITES

See Stand Up Activities

STAND UP ACTIVITIES

Our action plan was conceived so that several activities are undertaken during the Global Month of Mobilization.  We intend to execute three actions, namely:

• Ecumenical gatherings with the faith-groups (10/15/06),

• Youth Festival (10/15/06)

• Events at children’s schools (10/16/06)

Estimated Participants: 5,000 +

 

VIETNAM

GCAP Vietnam

POLICY DEMANDS

• Influence pro-poor policies and their effective implementation

• Raise awareness and mobilize public participation in poverty reduction

•Trade justice

• Promoting the implementation of the Decree on Grassroots Democracy

• Strengthening the budget transparency process

• Promoting the effective implementation of policies on children rights

• Speeding up promulgation and ensuring quality and enforcement of the Domestic Violence Law and Gender Equality Law

• Encouraging Society’s engagement in anti-corruption dialogue and action

MoM ACTIVITES

The period from 16 September to 17 October 2006 will be the culminating month of action.  Other activities can be organized continuously both before and after this period. The symbol of GCAP is the White Band.  Some suggestions for a product to promote the GCAP campaign in Vietnam include wristbands or armbands with a GCAP message on them.

Other possible activities include:

Production of newspaper articles, radio broadcasts, leaflets and posters, on-line/off-line forums, white band dissemination, television debate programmes, a rally or concert with GCAP issues, workshops/seminars, etc.

STAND UP ACTIVITIES

We are still discussing and waiting for approval from the government on one of the options: A rally or A concert with GCAP issues on 15th October (Sunday)

Estimated Participants: NOT STATED

 

3.- ME AND HIV

http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/sep3.html

Candid Comment

Christine Chiweshe

SINCE January we had been waiting for the phone call. If the phone rang at night we jumped in fright, hearts beating. If it rang too early in the morning my knees would tremble. I dreaded hearing that click sound an international call makes. I got angry if it was somebody local phoning so early. Did they not know? Why are they not sensitive to the fact that I was waiting for that phone call which I knew would come? Announcing my brother's death.

He finally died on March 21. Bad day to die. I had no money to fly out of Johannesburg just like that. It was a holiday, so getting my office's travel agent was out of the question. Had to get my friend to send the tickets from home. Cost an arm and a leg those.

This was my third sibling to die in seven years. It was Aids, the same disease that had taken the other two in 1993 and 1995. I was born in a family of five. Whenever people ask me how any one of them died I say very loudly, "Aids". I get these puzzled looks; should they touch me in sympathy? Should they run away?

Many just manage to say, "oh", and a glazed look comes on their faces. Others manage to exclaim, "really?" I am never sure whether they don't believe me or what the exclamations mean.

I am a 35-year-old woman. I am a feminist, I am black and middle class. Some would even say I come from a privileged background. Compared to the majority of women who have to deal with the impact of this virus, I consider myself and my family lucky. At least all my siblings died and were buried with dignity. We could afford to put them in hospitals.

We could pay for home-based care, and their children have a roof over their heads. We now have a total of six orphans. None of my siblings was married, so all the children are with my parents. At my brother's funeral people asked: "How many children did he have?" Only one, we would say. "Thank God. Ah, this is better. Thank your God my dears." And they would smile and reach out to touch.

Others would ask: "How long was he ill for?" Only three months really we would say. He had been working till December. It was only in January that the disease debilitated him. "Three months only? Ah, that is good. Praise God." My mother was upset. Why were we praising God at a time like this? Why were people so insensitive?

But they were not being insensitive. Everybody around us has seen worse. Mr T next door has been bed-ridden for four years. Alice from our village has been ill for three years. Mbuya (grand-mother) Moyo has 12 orphans to care for, and she has only a two-roomed house. All her children are gone.

Cousin Melody has six children and her parents died leaving four younger siblings. That is the reality of Aids where I come from. If a week passes by without a funeral it is a good week. These days I don't ask how so and so who I have not seen for three years is. She might have died. I wait to see her. If I don't, I just think she is gone. So the mourners were not being unkind, they were empathising. They were looking on the "bright side". They know what it can be like for women in our position.

As a black woman I was born to believe that you grow up, you get married and you have children. Sounded as natural as counting from one to ten. By the time I was 18 half of my high school friends were hooked up with one man or another. Heterosexuality was meant to be "in your blood". By the time I got to 25 most of them were married and had kids. By the time I got to 30, I had lost count of the ones that had died.

And now there are babies and children everywhere. Feminism or not, I made a decision after my six-year-old son that I would not have another one. Practically I already have seven children. My son is not short of play-mates. But it is not easy. Everybody asks: "Your son is old enough now. He needs his own brother or sister. When will you have one?" What is his own brother or sister I want to ask? But I just smile and walk away. Sometimes I try to argue. But we don't go far. The bottom line seems to be, you are female and heterosexual. Surely you must want more babies? But I know my reality and I am trying to manage it.

As a black woman feminist, I do not want to be a safe passage for babies.

All my working life I have been struggling to ensure that the medical establishment stops treating me like a mere passage for babies. I have struggled together with other feminists, at the last big United Nations World Conferences in Vienna, in Cairo and in Beijing, to make sure that the world does not just regard me as a mother.

We have told the world that where they have been busy talking about so- called Mother and Child health (MCH) the M has been missing. Other women have also told the world that they don't even want to be mothers! We have reminded our African leaders that not every black woman is a natural born mother, or a female just waiting to become a mother.

So in all this talk about retrovirals, where are my rights as a woman?

When are we going to see focus on me as a person first
and foremost before you think about what comes out of me... if it ever comes out? I want the Aids community, (for lack of a better phrase) to talk about me, me me.

Consider me selfish, but I think a bit of selfishness is required.
I also want some focus to be on how I as a woman get infected in the first place. For me, the man I am most afraid of is not the one out on the street whose name I don't know. The man who is most likely to infect me is the one I married, the one I live with, or the father of my child. Yes I am vulnerable to rape by some stranger. Touch wood, so far that man has not endangered my life.

So when the Aids activists talk about making these drugs available at clinics and hospitals for women who have been raped, I hope that includes women like me. Women who are raped in the name of marriage. I want that to mean women like me who because lobola was paid for us, we are expected to open our legs whenever he wants. Even when we can see the sores on his penis, or we know that he has slept with the domestic worker, or that he had an STD last month.

Culture tells us that we are supposed to do what he says because he paid.

This is the culture that I am forever reminded of by the media, by my family, by my religious leader, by other women around me that I must wear proudly on my shoulders like an epaulette. I am reminded that if I question it, go against it and dare speak about it, I am a bad woman, I am too westernised, and I am a bad influence on other women.

I would like a discussion on how heterosexuality puts me and other black women at risk. I would like my black brothers and sisters to talk about and debunk all the myths we have about heterosexuality: that it is so natural and anything else is not. I would like as a young woman to hear us moving forward in our discussions around sexuality and not move backwards.

Telling me that in 1800 women behaved thus and thus, that virginity was to be monitored and protected, and that in the so-called good old days nobody had sex before marriage will not help me in the year 2000. We cannot go back to 1800, nobody else wants to go back and even if we were to go back there are no more social and political systems that would support that going back.

Telling us in Aids awareness workshops that the best way to prevent infection is to wait for matrimony is dishonesty. I have seen how women wait for marriage, before having sex, only to get infected by that very first man they married! Marriage as generally constructed makes me as a black woman, a sitting duck for infection.

So I would like a lot more effort to be put in educating me on how I can protect myself. How do I say no? How do I educate other young women? I would like more focus to be on those around me to support me in the choices that I make, the choice to live and not get infected, the choice not to get married or have babies if I so chose.

When I call my mother to ask how the children are, she has one standard answer, "they are alive". She does not mean to be unkind. She just has no energy for anything else. I often catch her looking far into the horizon.

At 67 she is tired and stressed with six orphans. I don't want her to suffer anymore. The mere thought of her drooping shoulders, her tired face, is enough to scare me away from an unprotected penis.

What will happen to these kids if I die? Who will take care of them? The state? Charitable organisations? I know the state can throw some money at you, and well-wishers can send blankets, and the religious can offer a prayer. But they will not be there to go to my son's sports day. They will not be there to take him to the clinic should his leg break.. if of course there is a clinic and there is medicine. But that is another story.

We really should stop calling it "home-based care". In reality it is women- based care. They are the ones who have to deal with the sick and the orphaned. Half the time dad escapes to the farm. "I need some peace and quiet. These children are everywhere!" he complains.

But my mother has no escape. She has to be there. Of course it falls on the woman to take care of everyone. That is the reality.

Old women are already struggling to care for others on their welfare money. At the poverty hearings held in South Africa in 1997, elderly women told stories of how they get beaten up by grand-sons and other relatives to give over their money. They are often left with nothing. These are the women who are expected to take care of the orphans.

It is the poor (read black) women who have to bear the brunt of mopping up. And if truth be told, long after the kerfuffle over affordable drugs has died, very few will be there to help take care of these babies. We shall soon be hearing complaints about how, "these people breed like pigs.

What do they think we are, soup kitchens? Do they think we are just here to give and give?" I have been around racism to know it when it rears its head. I am also middle class and I know what we say in our circles about poor people.

I have made my reproductive choices, because I know my reality and I am trying not to be selfish. I do not want to deny anybody their reproductive rights. But I have become unpopular among my relatives and friends for reminding them: Please go ahead and reproduce if you want. Be a safe passage for babies if you want. But just make sure you leave an endowment for your mother, or whichever female will be taking over.

I am also angry because every time I want to buy my son something I can't. I have to think of the other kids. When I just want to take my son out, I feel guilty, because I should also take the others. I deny him what is rightfully his. Sometimes I have just chucked guilt to the wind and given him a treat, but he feels guilty too, and reminds me: "Ma, why is Colin not with us? You must also buy this ball for Lorraine." My heart breaks and I am ashamed.

In the final analysis for me Aids comes down to the very personal level.

Yes there is a bigger picture to all of this, there is a role for the state, the pharmaceuticals and the international community. But at the end of the day, it is about ME and the choices I make. I am relatively well-informed and so these choices are rational.

Yes there is an element of fear and paralysis. But it has helped me to see things in a clear perspective. I have made the choice to live. I have made the choice to protect the interests of my son, and to ensure that he will be materially comfortable when the day finally comes. I do not wish to foist my selfishness on another child. I do not wish to produce another because I won't be able to afford her/him.

So I look in great horror as all around me people behave like they have never heard of this disease. At all the three funerals we have had I can count the numbers of one or two-night stands that I witnessed. Indeed life must go on even in the face of tragedy. But what life is that?

I look in fear as around me casual sex continues as if it is the most natural thing in the world. I listen in horror as I hear some people say: "You people are so hung up on this Aids thing. Can't we have some fun anymore?" Even at the various funerals I have attended, I have seen a few people (mostly men) on the prowl for quickies. One of the church elders who buried my brother had a wink while talking to me about the arrangements.

"We will do the morning prayer at six tomorrow" (wink). "Let's go outside and talk dear. Come sit with me in my car" (wink, wink). I have been to Aids conferences where I had to latch my door at night and remove the phone from the hook. This after getting too many winks in the day and I knew these would surely have a night-time follow up. "Ah Chris, you are so fat. You can't have HIV! A nice woman like you?" More winks. This would make a good cheap movie, if only the movie was not going to turn into a mega-tragedy a few years from now. And right now I have a big part in this unfolding tragi-comedy.

A Ugandan friend (rest her soul) used to say that spending time with people intellectualising about Aids was a waste of time and energy. She used to say that they are like people who wake up and find a snake, with its head up, spitting, ready to strike, in their kitchen. They start debating: Does this snake exist? What colour is it? Where did it come from? And other such silly questions.

At this point the snake is sure as hell going to strike if they don't do something, but they want to "conceptualise it, develop a frame- work, flag it for the next discussion, analyse it", to use but some well-worn terms.
I keep wondering what it will take to make an impact on our behaviour. All I know is it's certainly not knowing the HIV status of a cabinet minister. Neither will the low price of some drug, nor a policy declaration from somewhere. As some religious ones would say, it is between you and your God. Or is it your body? Or your choices?

l Chiweshe is a Zimbabwean feminist activist. This article was first published in the Johannes- burg Star.

 

4.- ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROVISION GIVES ‘SERIOUS CAUSE FOR CONCERN’

National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
www.niace.org.uk
 Press Release
PR50/06

A shortage of teachers coupled with inadequate provision that is not well planned and is of patchy quality are all contributing to the enormous problems facing the provision of English for Speakers of other Languages (ESOL) for adults. These are the key findings of an independent inquiry - led by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) - which publishes its final report today (Tuesday 3rd October 2006) at a conference in Westminster.

The final report, More than a language…, demonstrates that, at a time when demand for ESOL is rising and, despite very significant investment, there is serious cause for concern.  Funding is not always well targeted to those in greatest need and the quality of provision is worryingly patchy with too much sub-standard provision.

To address this situation the committee of inquiry makes 39 recommendations to the Government and its funding partners.  Uppermost amongst these recommendations are the need for –

    • a fundamental cross-government review of ESOL as part of the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review;
    • the delivery of ESOL to be co-ordinated across the full range of government policies and the full range of providers;
    • more ESOL provision to be targeted on the world of work;
    • a coherent package of activities to address the most significant quality issues;
    • building on the progress made on ESOL teacher qualifications and to improve teacher supply and quality; and
    • increasing the range of funding sources available.

Derek Grover CB, Chair of the Committee of Inquiry, said, “Having a successful system of ESOL is of fundamental importance to this country.  But there are significant issues to be addressed if we are to meet that challenge.  This report sets out a package of recommendations which we believe would have a major positive impact, and we hope that government, funders, infrastructure bodies and providers will respond positively to it.  This is a challenge that, as a nation, we can not afford to shirk.”

Peter Lavender, Director of Research and Development at NIACE, said, “Effective ESOL is critical to enabling half a million adults to gain independence and control over their lives.  It makes economic sense to help people communicate effectively and it’s a precondition for social inclusion. NIACE is proud to publish the work of the Inquiry since we believe it points the way to a robust and lasting settlement that can guarantee adults access to ESOL.”

Bill Rammell MP, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, is due to respond with a Ministerial Address at the Conference and will take questions from delegates.

Ends

For further information please contact:

Ed Melia, NIACE Press Officer, on 0116 204 4248 or 07795 358 870.



5.- COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGER / WOMANKIND WORLDWIDE 
London, UK / Closing date: October 09, 2006.


From: resource@awid.org
AWID Resource Net
Jobs - Issue 333
Monday, October 02, 2006
 
JOB SUMMARY:
 
You will be responsible for implementing our communications strategy
which supports our fundraising as well as highlighting the impact of
our work. Working across the organisation you will lead on brand
development, and internal and external communications using a range
of multi - media tools.
 
PROFILE:
 
-   You will have experience of communications in a charity
environment.
-   Flexibility, a high level of initiative, motivation,
strong
negotiation skills and excellent written and verbal communications
skills are essential.
-   Knowledge of gender and development is highly desirable.
 
DOWNLOAD APPLICATION PACK AND APPLICATION FORM AT:
http://www.womankind.org.uk/jobs-internships.html
 
TO APPLY:
 
Application forms can be submitted via email to:
(sarahh@womankind.org.uk ).
 
CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: 09 OCTOBER 2006.
Date for interview: 16th October 2006.
 
Website:
http://www.womankind.org.uk/jobs-internships.html

 

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