Development Gateway Foundation
dgCommunities: Poverty
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/poverty?intcmp=923
October 2, 2006
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1. NEW HIGHLIGHT: Aid for Agricultural Production vs. Humanitarian Aid:
Oxfam's latest Overview on the Food Crisis in Africa
2. RESOURCES
3. dgCommunities Member Survey, Fall 2006
4. BECOME A dgTRADE GUIDE!
5. MEMBER DIRECTORY: Update Your Profile for Networking & Collaboration
6. DISTRIBUTE YOUR CONTENT
7. VIRTUAL CONSULTATION FOR INTER-AMERICAN MINISTERIAL MEETING ON
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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Dear dgPoverty Member,
Welcome to your newsletter from the Poverty Community of the
Development Gateway.
Carmen V. Caballero
dgPoverty Content Coordinator
ccaballero@dgfoundation.org
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1. NEW HIGHLIGHT: Aid for Agricultural Production vs. Humanitarian Aid:
Oxfam's latest Overview on the Food Crisis in Africa
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In 1960 Oxfam helped set up the Freedom from Hunger Campaign with the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). It was the first
attempt to address the problem of food insecurity with something more
than sacks of food aid for the hungry. The campaign set out to enable
people from developing countries to grow or earn enough to feed
themselves.
Forty-six years later, Oxfam's report finds out that worthy intention
has plainly not been fulfilled in all parts of the world. The report
underlines that across Sub Saharan Africa as a whole 33% of Africans are
under-nourished, compared with 17 % of people in developing countries as
a whole. The proportion rises to 55 % in Central Africa. The average
number of food emergencies in Africa per year almost tripled since the
mid 1980s. It also announces another failure on the horizon. The
commitment made by governments to halve hunger by 2015, as part of the
Millennium Development Goals, will not be met in Africa at current rates of
progress.
The authors address that these failures stem in part from the fact
that, ?despite the promises of 1960 and many others made since, emergency
aid, and food aid in particular, has remained the chief instrument to
address food crises. Food aid does save lives, but it does not offer
long-term solutions, and at worst it may exacerbate food insecurity. This
is well known; yet spending on humanitarian aid has risen substantially,
while aid for agricultural production in Sub Saharan Africa dropped by
43 per cent between 1990-92 to 2000-02. And neither African nor
rich-country governments have done enough to tackle the root causes of hunger.
We must now face the fact that we are dealing with food crises in
Africa that may, in part, be blamed on the developmental inadequacies of our
responses to earlier ones.?
In mitigation, the report mentions some other causes of the current
devastating food emergencies facing Africa and that could not have been
foreseen 46 years ago, like HIV/AIDS, climate change and the deadly
impact of Africa's conflicts.
Read this highlight visiting:
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/poverty/highlights/
viewHighlight.do~activeHighlightId=110981?intcmp=923
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2. RESOURCES
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- Causing Hunger: An overview of the food crisis in Africa
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/poverty/rc/ItemDetail.do~1074735?intcmp=923
- East Africa food crisis
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/poverty/rc/ItemDetail.do~1074743?intcmp=923
- West Africa food crisis
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/poverty/rc/ItemDetail.do~1074739?intcmp=923
- Make Trade Fair
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/poverty/rc/ItemDetail.do~1074746?intcmp=923
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3. dgCommunities Member Survey, Fall 2006
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You're invited to participate in our first survey of the entire
dgCommunities membership! Our aim is to obtain invaluable feedback from the
community as a whole. You are part of a worldwide practitioner community
that is well over 36,000 strong - won't you add your voice by taking
just a few minutes to complete our multiple choice survey questions at
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=458122624514)? We know there is
much more we can do to provide a platform that facilitates your work and
assists you in achieving a greater impact. With this survey, you can
play an integral role in the decision making process regarding
enhancements to the dgCommunities platform going forward. This is your platform
and your community. We look forward to your advice, guidance, and
suggestions! Please access the survey at
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=458122624514).
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4. BECOME A POVERTY GUIDE!
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Dear Members,
Are you looking for a way to increase your organization s or your own
web presence and leverage the Internet for greater development impact?
Would you like to play a leading role in facilitating online knowledge
exchange & collaboration among development practitioners?
If so, we invite you to consider becoming a volunteer topic Guide on
the Development Gateway!
In an effort to widely distribute rich content and diverse perspectives
through our portal, the Development Gateway has established many
exciting partnerships. Guides play a key role in this regard, and collaborate
with us to bring high value content to dgCommunities, and to stimulate
discussion and collaboration among our members.
What are the benefits of being a Guide?
-Online visibility and international exposure: The Development
Gateway's total membership exceeds 180,000 registered users worldwide; more
than half reside in developing countries; Guide organization logos are
prominently featured on dgCommunities homepages with links to Guide
profiles and homepage; Guide authorship of feature articles and newsletters
will be acknowledged and include links to Guide homepage
-Free training in online knowledge/content management, marketing,
community building, and development communications: we'll provide expert
training in our content management system and in operational best
practices we've learned during 6 years of experience
-Networking through service to our community of over 35,000 registered
dgCommunities members and 200 partner organizations from 150 countries:
Proactive Guides have the opportunity to form many useful connections
and relationships in the dgCommunities they serve and with the
Development Gateway community as a whole
What are the "tools of the trade" for serving as a topic Guide?
Organizations or individuals interested in the Guide opportunity should
have access to a computer with high-speed internet connection. Guides
should be able to commit a minimum of 2 hours a week for 6 months-1
year, post 10 resources per week, approve / reject other contents and
provide a brief highlight. They can also recruit new cooperating
organizations and advisors.
The Guide or the point of contact within the Guide organization who
will operate the dgCommunities platform should have the following
skillset:
-Strong commitment to development issues and minimum 3 years of
relevant experience
-Excellent research and writing skills
-Proficiency in English
-Ability to work independently
-Good computer and Internet skills
Interested in becoming a dgPoverty Guide? Simply send an email and
request a dgPoverty Guide Candidate form to ccaballero@dgfoundation.org.
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5. NEW MEMBER DIRECTORY - UPDATE YOUR MEMBER PROFILE!
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With over 30,000 registered dgCommunities members, the Member Directory
provides a one-stop shop for key contacts and collaboration worldwide.
We invite you to take advantage of this unprecedented collaborative
tool and add your profile today!
Our new Member Directory enables you to more easily contact fellow
professionals in the international development community for expert advice,
information, and collaboration. You will be able to find development
practitioners from over 200 countries, with interests and expertise in
dozens of areas, including your own! We invite you to update your member
profile to let your colleagues in development know more about your
interests and expertise. You'll find the profiles very useful when using
the Member Directory to communicate and collaborate with fellow members
on your next program or project. From
http://www.developmentgateway.org?intcmp=923 simply click on "My
Gateway" in the upper right corner, log in, scroll down to "My Member
Profile" and click "edit this information."
Quick Start - 4 Easy Steps:
-ESTABLISH YOUR PROFILE
Let your colleagues in development know more about your interests and
expertise through your dgCommunities profile. Simply log in, go to My
Gateway, scroll down to "My Member Profile", and click "Edit this
information".
http://www.developmentgateway.org/topics/um/user/showUserAccount.do?intcmp=923
-SEARCH FOR MEMBERS
Log in to the Development Gateway, and click the Member Directory link
located in the right column on any dgCommunity home page. You can
search by: name, country, interest, expertise, organization, organization
type, or by keywords in member bios. Search Results will show you a list
of members with a link to their profiles. You can also reach the Member
Directory when you log in, go to My Gateway and click on "Add Members
to My Contacts".
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/um~user/showMemberDirectory.do?intcmp=923
-COMMUNICATE WITH MEMBERS
When viewing a member's profile, click "Contact this user". This will
open a message box in which you can type and send a message through our
message forwarding system.
-CREATE OWN CONTACT LIST OF MEMBERS
You can build a list of key contacts and form your own network of
members. Searching for members will produce a results list; you can then
select members to be added to your "My Contacts" list by clicking on the
plus sign under "Status" for each desired contact. Or, when viewing a
particular member's profile, click "Add this member to My Contacts". Your
full "My Contacts" list can be viewed when you log in, go to My
Gateway, scroll down to "My Contacts" and click "View My Contacts."
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6. DISTRIBUTE YOUR CONTENT
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Have knowledge resources you want to share with the community, such as
websites, reports or presentations? Want to raise awareness AND drive
traffic to your website? You can accomplish both of them by adding
content to the Development Gateway in dgCommunities. It's easy: simply go to
http://topics.developmentgateway.org?intcmp=923 , click on the topic
most related to your content, and click "Add Content Here" located in
the middle of the page. Links to approved content are sent by e-mail
alerts to registered members--an effective way to share knowledge and
direct traffic to your website!
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7. VIRTUAL CONSULTATION FOR INTER-AMERICAN MINISTERIAL MEETING ON
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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dgCommunities members are invited to share their views in a virtual
consultation forum with civil society and indigenous peoples sponsored by
the Government of Bolivia and the Organization of American States, and
in cooperation with the Development Gateway Foundation. The forum will
address sustainable development issues. A summary of comments will be
presented by the OAS to the First Inter-American Meeting of Ministers
and High-Level Authorities on Sustainable Development, to be held in
Bolivia on October 5-6.
To participate in the consultation in English:
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/environment/discussion/
showDiscussion.do~id=1441?intcmp=923
To participate in the consultation in Spanish:
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/environment/discussion/
showDiscussion.do~id=1461?intcmp=923
To explore similar collaborative opportunities with the Development
Gateway, please contact us at partners@dgfoundation.org
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DID YOU KNOW??
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As a member of the dgCommunity on Poverty you can share your knowledge
resources (e.g., websites, papers, reports, presentations, images,
news, events, etc) in just about any format including streaming audio and
video. Each resource will be described on a unique interactive page that
will acknowledge you as the contributor and link to your profile. To
view full text of knowledge resources, users will follow links to host
websites, which will benefit from increased traffic from the Development
Gateway community!
Simply click on the "Add content here" hyperlink at:
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/poverty/rc/
Contribute.do~flag=url~from=SampleLayout?intcmp=923
Thank you!
Camen Caballero, Managing Editor
Email: poverty@dgfoundation.org
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/poverty?intcmp=923
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