Newsletter

Highlights from CID Conference, new paper on Localisation, famine in Yemen and more

Posted on 06 November 2018

+ Highlights from the CID Conference 

Best definition of the Pacific Reset:
  • "Switch the power off - wait 5 minutes and start again" (MC Josh Thomson)
Highlights from Rt Hon Winston Peters on the Pacific Reset:
  • $70m for building the capacity of local NGOs announced
  • 'The days of treating you as pests are over!'
  • It's vital we take the New Zealand tax payer with us
  • The Pacific is in our DNA
  • What's at stake is our values; a democratic tradition, human rights, good governance and the Rule of Law
  • The 'Reset' is about rejecting an isolationist, narrow-minded nationalism in favour of reaching out to our region and the world
  • Don't define the Pacific through a negative lens
  • The Reset agenda is optimistic. It's about moving beyond aid and away from a beneficiary/donor relationship to see the Pacific 'stand on its own feet' and have a confident voice on the world stage
  • New Zealand's NGOs reach people in some of the most vulnerable communities. 
  • Sometimes they are the only face of New Zealand
  • But not all NGOs will get funding. 
  • Be clear about your value-add and demonstrate that you are having impact
  • We call on you to innovate - don't fiddle around the edges
  • Collaborate more, with each other, with business and local organisations.
Highlights from Deputy Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Mark Brown:
  • The Pacific did a 'reset' along time ago! Thanks for catching up
  • Its about us taking ownership of our own development agenda, and moving beyond aid
  • The Cook Islands are about to graduate from 'developing country' status to 'developed cvountry'
  • But a cyclone could set us back decades 
  • We encourage partnerships between government, NGOs and business
  • The 'reset' can't be 'business as usual' if we want better results
  • Embrace innovation and risk
  • Engage with the Pacific diaspora community here in NZ
  • Don't over-complicate it and don't take the relationship you have us for granted
  • Every development issue in the Pacific has a climate change component 
  • Use the Realm countries as a template for the reset
  • Do more to tell the New Zealand public about the reset.
Highlights from the panel discussion on the rest:
  • If you're still doing the same thing you were twenty years ago and there's been no shift to local ownership, you probably need to stop and re-think!
  • There's a new maturity in the relationship with the Pacific. We can use that
  • It's not just an MFAT job to make the reset happen - other government departments, including DHBs can and do contribute
  • The 'corridors' between New Zealand and the Pacific are where the template for a reset exists. The diaspora walk these corridors all the time
  • Why not a 'whanau ora' type model for the reset, with several ministers overseeing the reset?
  • Start with the Realm countries - they're family
  • China is not a new donor. We should be more open to working with them 
  • As NGOs, think 'How are you going to approach the Reset?'
  • It's not all about money. It's about mobilising the whole New Zealand system 
  • Collaborate more across sectors
  • Make sure the Reset agenda is not dependent on one politician. Vital that it has across party buy-in.
Other media:
Press release and here.
RNZ and here and here
NZ Herald

Thank you to everyone who attended and helped to make it such a great event.
+ CID Board 2018/2019



Left to right:
Josie Pagani, CID Director;
Murray Sheard, cbm New Zealand;
Steve Hamlin, CWS;
Andrew Johnston, Save the Children;
Shona Jennings, Childfund;
Jackie Edmond, Family Planning New Zealand, Deputy Chair;
Dennison Grellman, ADRA, Treasurer;
Rachael Le Mesurier, Oxfam New Zealand
Ian McInnes, Tearfund, Chairman
+ Localisation  - CID Brief

"The implications of localisation are profound touching on every aspect of an INGO’s work including the nature of partnerships, business, financial and operating models. Localisation is more than a new programme of work. It aims to fundamentally rebalance the entire humanitarian and development ecosystem."

Chris Clarke, former CEO of World Vision has produced a thought-provoking paper on the implications of localisation on NGOs, governments and local partners.

He examines various definitions of 'localisation', and their implications:
  • Do local organisations affiliated to international NGOs qualify as 'local' partners?
  • What's left for New Zealand based INGOs who transfer decision-making and resources to local partners?
If you think your organisation is already 'localising', chances are you're not: 

"The Global Humanitarian Assistance report notes that the proportion of humanitarian assistance going directly to local and national NGOs actually decreased between 2015 and 2016, from 0.5% to 0.3%. The report notes that the addition of government and private sector funding lifts the total to 2%. This falls a long way short of the 25% figure anticipated in the Grand Bargain."

He ends with a list of thoughts and actions for INGOs to consider:
  • Devolve decision making as close to the field as possible
  • Support the building of capacity and capabilities in local actors
  • Review your human resources policies and practices to encourage more peer to peer support between countries and organisations (even consider secondees from the Pacific).
  • Build strong relationships with the local MFAT post
  • Open up conversations with the Pacific diaspora in New Zealand
  • Work with local and national NGOs to develop contextually appropriate, transparent and affordable monitoring and evaluation frameworks
  • Invite local voices to your own decision making table
  • Consider your own local practices – eg how you are engaging with and partnering with Maori and Pacifica
  • Be transparent in all financial practices.
Have a read here.
+ Yemen - biggest crisis in any humanitarian's working life

Based on new surveys and analysis the chief of U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Lowcock, has stated that as many as 14 million people, or half of Yemen’s whole population – could soon be entirely reliant on external aid for survival. He goes on to say, there is now a clear and present danger of an imminent and enormous famine about to engulf Yemen.

Lowcock recently warned the United Nations that the fight against famine in Yemen was being lost. His remarks to the Security Council outline five actions needed to address the issue, including a protection of the supply of food and essential goods across the country, and increased funding and support for humanitarian operations. The importance of humanitarian engagement in protracted crisis must be reinforced, and Lowcock states that the Yemen crisis is "much bigger than anything any professional in this field has seen during their working lives."
+ An NZ Conflict Prevention Unit?

New Zealand Alternative was set up in May by a group of kiwis with a commitment to a values-driven and independent foreign policy. In their first publication, they provide a rationale for New Zealand to consolidate and institutionalise its contributions to peace mediation and conflict prevention work. The group takes up the challenge issued by Winston Peters in June 2018 to “challenge the orthodoxy of small-state foreign policy analysis” and refuse to be “intellectually timidity”.

Their report recommends that MFAT undertake a feasibility study for the establishment of a Conflict Prevention Unit.
+ Bougainville Peace Agreement …17 Years On.

It's 17 years since the Bougainville Peace Agreement was signed in 2001, bringing to an end a decade-long crisis. The Agreement provided a roadmap to lasting peace and a political settlement for the people of Bougainville based on autonomy, a non-binding referendum on Bougainville’s political status, and an amnesty and disposal on weapons. MFAT has recently published a brilliant piece of digital media on their involvement in the conflict, titled ‘A Risky Assignment’.

Perhaps in many ways New Zealand’s involvement in this resolution speaks well of the tradition spirit of partnership that should imbue any development or humanitarian engagement.  As Sir Don McKinnon states when thinking about the New Zealand contribution as we come up to 20 years of sustained peace “We took a long time to get there…. it was a case of walking alongside the Bougainvillians. We weren’t striding out in front saying 'follow me'; we weren’t pushing them from behind.”
+ APEC in Papua New Guinea: Is it Leaders Before Locals?

Papua New Guinea is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on 17th – 18th November. Established in 1989, the purpose of APEC is to create greater prosperity across the 21 members by promoting a balanced, inclusive, secure and sustainable regional growth.

PNG’s Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel states that Papua New Guinea needs investment, partnership and capital to develop their country, and adds that APEC is part of and a marketing opportunity for selling Papua New Guinea. The question remains as to how the hosting of such international and regional fora like APEC benefit the poorest and most vulnerable within the developing communities that are hosting? As PNG's moment in the APEC spotlight approaches, and some of the world's most powerful leaders about to arrive in Port Moresby, the RNZ article ‘…but is it leaders before locals?’ asks how one of APEC’s poorest members is looking after its citizens at a time of social turmoil.
+ Kumara in Kenya

As fortunes in livestock farming continue to dwindle due to perennial drought, some pastoralists in Turkana, Kenya have now ventured into crop farming – and developed the country’s first orange-fleshed sweet potato farm. 

The farm is a spin-off from a ChildFund livelihoods project initially run in another district of Kenya, aimed at addressing malnutrition in children. Following recommendations from a 2016 Otago University research project, orange flesh sweet potato, or kumara as we know it, is proving to be a successful addition to the diet. Rich in Vitamin A and other vitamins, the root vegetable is now growing well in local home and community gardens in the project area, and now also in drought-ravaged Turkana, featured in this recent story on Kenyan news:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWRPmetscnk

Roots and tuber crops are survival crops in times of food crises and are easy to manage, requiring fewer inputs than crops such as maize. They tolerate marginal growing conditions such as dry spells and poor soil – and are certainly proving popular in Turkana.
+ The CID Weekly is proudly sponsored by
+ I Welcome Refugees: Handover at Parliament

Join Amnesty International at Parliament to show the Minister for Immigration, Iain Lees-Galloway, your support for a pilot programme bringing refugees to safety. 

Community sponsorship is a new unique model of welcoming that runs in addition to the refugee quota, so far just over 20 people have found safety in New Zealand because of it. It enables community organisations and ordinary New Zealanders to support refugees. 

Join them as they hand over a report and the signatures of thousands of New Zealanders who are asking for the programme to be made permanent. (It's still not too late to add your name at IWelcome.org.nz).

"We're urging the Minister, and cabinet, to see the potential of this programme to transform not just the lives of the refugees who are resettled but also the communities who come together to welcome them. 

You'll be part of a celebration of the welcoming spirit of so many people & we'll be taking a photo with the people gathered at the handover beside a huge 'refugees welcome' mat. We're asking people to respect the welcoming & upbeat tone of the gathering."

Interested? Simply rsvp via Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/561006217682086/.

Not available?  Be there in spirit  by signing the IWelcome.org.nz pledge 
+ Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Otago
 
In February 2019, Otago University we will be offering two new qualifications - a Masters in Faith-Based Leadership and Management and a Postgraduate Diploma of Faith-Based Leadership and Management. 

The new qualifications provide professional development for those who are currently leaders in faith-based organisations, or for those who hope to enter into this sphere of work. We wanted to let you know about this new development.

The Postgraduate Diploma consists of four MBA courses and three Theology courses. The MBA courses are on topics such as Organisational Leadership; Human Resource Management; Accounting; Leading Sustainable Enterprises; Operational Excellence; and Strategy Implementation. The Theology courses are on topics such as Theological Perspectives on Leadership; Theology and Human Well-Being; Public Theology and Social Justice; Citizenship, Democracy and Discipleship; and Reconciliation, Christian Ethics and Public Theology. The Masters involves doing these taught papers, and a 20,000-word research dissertation, focusing on some feature of leadership in a faith-based organisation.

Attached is a flyer with further information. Or go here: 
https://www.otago.ac.nz/courses/subjects/fblm.html.

Or do feel free to contact - paul.trebilco@otago.ac.nz
+ Good Practices, Success Stories and Lessons Learned in SDG Implementation

OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) is launching a call for submissions of good practices, success stories and lessons learned in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.

Governments, UN entities, international and regional organizations, Major Groups and other Stakeholders are invited to submit contributions from 1 November 2018 to 28 February 2019, using a dedicated web-based portal.

More information: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs/goodpractices 

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Government Humanitarian