The inside track from Progressio's International development experts
We've been busy...
The Empower Network has been super busy since October devising plans and carrying out activity around two major International Days. Here at Progressio we're so proud of the networks achievements and we can't wait to see what's still to come over the next year!
Every year Empower members get together at the annual conference to learn more about Progressio's work, to gain skills and knowledge in order to work with us and to (develop relationships and) get to know one another for the year ahead. This year was no different and attendees quickly bonded and began to share their enthusiasm as we mapped out a year of activities.
The energy and exctitement amongst the whole group channelled into the mix of trainings, workshops, skill-sharing and speaker sessions at the conference and culminated in some amazing plans.
2015 marks a pivotal year for international development. Today (25th September) the United Nations (UN) launched a three-day Sustainable Development Summit at the UN headquarters in New York, where the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be announced. The 17 SDGs are integrated, indivisible and will build on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They place a focus on the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, and will aim to realise human rights for all and achieve gender equality through the empowerment of women and girls.
Back in August we launched a petition that allowed people to show their solidarity with Pope Francis.
On Saturday 12 September hundreds of young people arrived at the Department for International Development (DFID) ready to be inspired. They were there for the Youth Summit, a unique event organised by DFID and ICS to celebrate everything the ICS programme has achieved so far, and to dive in to what the soon to be announced Sustainable Development Goals mean for young people, and what they can do to be a part of implementing them.
Progressio has been supporting national women's organisations in Somaliland to increase women's participation in governance since 1997. Increasing women's involvement in politics in Somaliland is challenging as the nature of the country’s social institutions creates a complex web of gender-based discrimination in political, customary and religious domains.
As the global power and reach of multinational corporations grows, so too does their impact on the human rights of workers and community members affected by their operations. This has led to an increased global momentum to hold multinational corporations to account and to ensure they respect human rights.
The Financing for Development conference that took place in Addis Ababa last month has been met with mixed reactions. Some welcome the adoption of the outcome document, hailing it as a milestone for development finance, whilst others are more critical and even disappointed that, at the conference, aid commitments from ‘donor’ countries were seen to be drying up. Instead, the promotion of the private sector as the world’s answer to the development question prevailed.
From the 6-10th July, governments, experts and representatives from civil society met under the auspices of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, to discuss the first steps towards developing an international binding treaty regulating business’s impact on human rights.
Reaching this milestone is, in itself, a significant achievement. Civil society groups and others have spent years lobbying for legislation that would ensure that business respects human rights and is held accountable, if it doesn’t.
Something amazing is happening in Rosa’s community in the Dominican Republic and it’s transforming lives of the women right now.
