United Nations refugee agency set up a new camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in western Côte d’Ivoire who fled their homes as a result of violence and uncertainty related to the current post-election political crisis in the West African country. 
“Humanitarian conditions have deteriorated with the shortage of shelter and our hope is that the new camp will ease pressure, in particular for the most vulnerable,” Melissa Fleming, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva. The agency has so far registered a total of 38,600 IDPs in western Côte d’Ivoire.


The new camp is located near the town of Duékoué, and will accommodate up to 6,000 people, easing crowding at a nearby Roman Catholic mission of Sante Thérèse, Filles de Marie Auxiliatrice / Communauté Salésiens de Don Bosco (SDB) Diocese de Man, where many of the IDPs are accommodated. Heavy rainfall last week destroyed a number of makeshift shelters in the mission compound prompting UNHCR to provide tents to some of the displaced families.

Refugées à la mission catholique de Duékoué, Diocese de Man, Moyen-Cavally - Côte d’Ivoire

Many of the IDPs have been surviving on the generosity of local families and charities. In Danané, Binhouye and Zouan-Hounien districts, more than 8,600 IDPs are staying with local families, some of whom are sheltering up to 25 people each and struggling to make ends meet.

Most of those displaced in western Côte d’Ivoire fled their homes in mid-December and early January as a result of ethnic tension and violence sparked by the presidential elections held in November.

The country has been in turmoil since early December when outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo refused to leave office despite opposition leader Alassane Ouattara’s UN-certified victory in the run-off poll. Mr. Ouattara has been recognized by the international community as the duly elected president.

The basic structure of Ivorian politics since 2000 or so is the very apparent north-south divide. The south, fertile and green, is largely Christian. It is the centre of the cocoa and coffee economy which made the country’s fortune until the 1990s. The north – the northwest in particular, is drier and largely Muslim. 

In Duékoué, the IDPs told UNHCR that they have no homes to go back to because their houses were torched and their property looted. Others alleged that they had been subjected to violence, including sexual assault, as well as arbitrary detention by armed groups acting with impunity.

Fear of retaliation, lack of law enforcement and dysfunctional judicial institutions have prevented many people from reporting abuses.


 

Legal empowerment through traditional justice systems

Development agencies, research institutes and international donors around the world are considering the modernization of  customary justice systems as a means to strengthen legal rights of poor and marginalized populations in developing countries. In the past, the simple and artefact introduction of western legal principles without  any linkage with indigenous systems to reform the justice systems in third world countries  has proved to be inadequate. A re-elaboration of indigenous traditions will have more chance to be accepted and uderstood by indigenous populations and favour the integration of society layers otherwise marginalized and discriminated. The International Development Law Organization has recently launched a number of reports for its research projects based in Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Liberia and Uganda.

Water scarcity as a means of peace

The Middle East Research Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Lebanon has launched"The Blue Peace Report: Rethinking Middle East Water".
The report, published in cooperation with the Strategic Foresight Group, focuses on the problems of water scarcity affecting  Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories and  recommends to these countries to negotiate the adoption of common policies and guidelines for the sustainable management of  local water resources.
River flows in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan have been depleted by 50 to 90 percent in the last 50 years alone, while the vital Jordan River, which acts as a water source for five of the concerned countries, has decreased its discharge by over 90 percent from 1960.

Middle East map

With consumer requirements predicted to increase to 50-60 percent over the next decade, further pressure will be put on ever-dwindling supplies, he said, the need for setting a diplomatic agenda is crucial.
Some moves toward cooperation have already been made with the bilateral agreement between Syria and Lebanon on the partition of resources for the Orontes and Nahr al-Kabir rivers. The most alarming situation is in Palestine. the calculations made at the time of the Oslo Accords -اتفاقات أوسلو between Palestine and Israel will need to be revised downward.

Water appropriation has created a “high stress” situation where the average Palestinian is left living on less than 30 liters of fresh water a day, with the average Lebanese and Jordanian estimated to be surviving on around 60 liters. This compares to 350 liter per person per day in Israel.

The report proposes installing a region-wide cap on daily consumption where all people would be allowed for consuming no more than 200 liters.

Multi-Donor Trust Funds to improve aid effectiveness in the UN system

 The UN Development Group unites the 32 UN funds, programmes, agencies, departments, and offices of the UN system playing a role in development. The common objective of the UNDG is to deliver more coherent, effective and efficient support to countries seeking to attain internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

New financing modalities have been implemented by the UN bodies to best serve the interests of the beneficiary countries, especially  those affected by conflict and disasters. Donors have been exploring a range of possibilities, including Multi-Donor Trust Funds (MDTFs). 

The increasing use of this funding mechanism responds to the need to provide flexible, coordinated and predictable funding to support the achievement of national and global priorities such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the application of the Aid Effectiveness Agenda and the UN Reform initiative "Delivering as One".

MDTFs can be classified into three major categories:

• Trust Funds that respond to disasters.
• Trust Funds targeted for particular global development goal or set of goals.
• Trust Funds focusing on the humanitarian needs of a specific country. 

Where the funds are goingWhere the funds are coming from

Further readings:
Articles:

The World’s Largest Multidonor Trust Funds: A Primer

EU to Form Multi-donor Trust Funds

Official Reports from the United Nations:
Discussion Note. Strengthening the system-wide funding architecture of operational activities of the. United Nations for development 

Publications available on Amazon
Joint Evaluation of the UNDG Contribution to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness
Better Aid Aid Effectiveness: A Progress Report on Implementing the Paris Declaration
Paris in Bogota: Applying the Aid Effectiveness Agenda in Colombia (IDS Working Paper)
Trust Funds under International Law: Trustee Obligations of the United Nations and International Development Banks

Middle East and MENA region particularly vulnerable to climate change

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at the forefront of assessing and monitoring global water resources, has developed in collaboration with GRID-Arendal, a Norvegian Research Institute, a map presenting information on water resources use and management for 30 years. This study is particularly useful for policy-makers to implement effective environmental decision-making.

The impacts of human-induced climate change are often considered a future prospect, yet in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), indications of a changing climate are already evident.

Most of the predicted outcomes associated with international climate models are already occurring in the region, compounding existing problems of water scarcity, water pollution,desertification, salinization, and sea-level rise. Since most of the MENA region is arid and hyperarid, small changes in water availability and arable land have significant consequences for human security. Human-induced climate change, through effects on the variability and quality of scarce and degraded water resources,  exacerbates already existing problems affecting urban and rural development, human health, and economic productivity in MENA.

The Belfer Center for Science and international Affairs, at Harvard University, published in September an interesting working paper written by Jeannie Sowers and Erika Weinthal entitled "Climate Change Adaptation in the Middle East and North Africa: Challenges and Opportunities". 

The document provides information on a number of proactive measures to adapt to climate change that could be encompassed within existing policies for the water and agriculture sectors. These include upgrading and extending water harvesting and storage infrastructures; improving demand management of water and agricultural efficiencies; extending sanitation systems, particularly to rural areas and informal urban areas, to safeguard water supplies and human health; and fostering local and provincial capacities to deal with existing water/agricultural problems.

    

Microfinance industry - the case of Pakistan

The article Pakistan: a protected microfinance borrower? written by Arsala Kidwai from the International Development Law Organization - IDLO provides an insight of the legislation enforced to regulate MFIs activities in the country. The paper monitors and evaluates laws and regulations in place in Pakistan against a number of indicators (listed below) to state rights and warranties of microfinance customers.

• Transparency and disclosure in lending practices and initiatives to improve financial literacy.
• Types of collaterals collected and procedures of enforcement.
• Initiatives to prevent overindebtedness and limit multiple lending (like credit information  databases)
• R ecovery loans mechanisms
• Availability and accessibility of redress mechanisms to the consumer.

International Development Law Organization

Microfinance institutions needs to focus on sustainability not on profitability

The key messages passed at the last conference on microfinance in Europe held in Brussels last November 2010 provide interesting points of reflection for the future development of the microfinnance industry.

 

In particular, the statement: "Create a more favourable environment for microfinance at national level. Microfinance providers need to balance the aim of sustainability (not profitability) with the objective of social performance" foresees the recommendations made by Muhammed Yunus in his recent article Sacrificing microcredit for megaprofits published on the New York Times.

The history of aid effectiveness from the Millennium Summit to Busan - 1st part

In September 2000, after a decade of conferences and summits, the UN Member States adopted in the Headquarters in New York the United Nations Millennium Declaration which involved all the Nations to a global partnership to halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of world’s people suffering for extreme poverty.
Decades of development demonstrated the need for a more systemic approach.  Only bringing in local perspectives and participation it is possible to provide tangible benefits to poor communities and produce sustained impact. The new global challenge to promote widespread and sustainable development demands a new agreed strategy, not merely based on the amounts of aid given, but mainly concerned with effective criteria and methods of aid delivery. For this purpose, the political engagement is essential to move the agenda forward.

The 8 Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Summit of 2000 represented a historical turning point for setting the aspirations, defining the results and strengthening accountability in the development cooperation sector.

Hidden charges, financial literacy, quasi-monopoly market demand more regulations in microfinance

Main issues requiring government regulations in the microcredit sector:

1 - Quasi monopolistic market: microcredit organizations do not operate in free and competitive markets but operate business in often quasi-monopolies. Furthermore, according to specialists: competition is only on non-price terms (Nimal Fernando, Asian Bank for Development).

2 - Low Financial Literacy: Wrong assumption that microcredit clients are rational economic actors. On the contrary, as demonstrated by the recent global financial crisis, also developed countries need to increase consumer protection legislation. In the United States, for instance, the Obama administration, enforced The Credit Card Accountability Responsability and Disclosure Act of 2009 and in 2010 established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect consumers of financial services from abusive, deceptive and unfair practices.

3 - Lack of Transparency: Transparency is another key point. Consumers should be put in the conditions to choose the right product after comparing effective interest rates and loan terms. Malpractices such the ones below transform loans from opportunities  to obligations:
up-front fees, compulsory savings, insurance premium subscription; distorted calculation of  the interest rates (usually based on the original loan and not on the residual amount of debt). Professor Subrata Mitra from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, describes in his article Exploitative Microfinance Interest Rates how these tricks litteraly blow up the effective rates.

for more information on these issues you can read the article by Prof. Aneel Karnani published on the Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled Microfinance needs regulation

A book on the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights

The Council of Europe has just released a new book on the European Court of Human Rights. For over 50 years the Court's rulings have resulted in numerous changes to domestic legislation and helped to strengthen the rule of law throughout the wider Europe.

The book European Court of Human Rights: facts and figures retraces the Court's activities and case-law since its foundation in 1959. The presentation of several hundred of the cases the Court has examined, together with statistics for each State, paints an overall picture of the Court's work and the impact its judgments have had in the member States.

The book reviews the law cases of the Court by theme and by article of the European Convention on Human Rights. This work shows the full extent of the rights and freedoms the States Parties to the Convention have undertaken to secure to everyone within their jurisdiction. In addition,  It also takes a country-by-country look at the cases the Court has been called on to examine, and at the impact its judgments have had in the States it has condemned for violating the Convention. A resume of the ruling of the Court is also available in the following summary.

India towards more stringent and clear regulations in the microfinance sector ?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has published few days ago on its website the Report of the study on the microfinance sector made by the
Sub-Committee of the Central Board of Directors. The RBI panel chaired by Mr. Yedzi H. Malegam was established in response to the Andhra Pradesh rules, which severely curtailed microfinance activities in the state, curbed collections and hurt new businesses.
The stock of SKS Microfinance, the main microfinance institution in India, which is based in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, has fallen about 30 percent since October when the state's new microfinance rules came into effect.
The Panel has made a number of recommendations to mitigate the problems of multiple-lending, over borrowing, ghost borrowers and coercive methods of recovery. It seems financial authorities in India are in line with Yunus's article on the future development of the sector. Some of the main recommendations are listed hereafter:

- 1. Creation of a separete category of microfinance institutiones classified as Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC-MFI). These institutes will hold not less than 90% of its total assets (other than cash and bank balances and money market instruments) in the form of qualifying assets.


- 2. There are limits of an annual family income of Rs.50,000 and an individual ceiling on loans to a  single borrower of Rs.25,000.

- 3. Not less than 75% of the loans given by the MFI should be for income-generating purposes.

- 4. There is a restriction on the other services to be provided by the MFI which has to be in accordance with the type of service and the maximum percentage of total income as may be prescribed.

- 5. With regard to the interest chargeable to the borrower, the Sub-Committee has recommended an average “margin cap” of 10 per cent for MFIs having a loan portfolio of Rs. 100 crore and of 12 per cent for smaller MFIs and a cap of 24% for interest on individual loans. It has also proposed that, in the interest of transparency, an MFI can levy only three charges, namely, (a) processing fee (b) interest and (c) insurance charge.

- 6. A borrower can be a member of only one Self-Help Group (SHG) or a  Joint Liability Group (JLG).

- 7. Not more than two MFIs can lend to a single borrower.

- 8. There should be a minimum period of moratorium between the disbursement of loan and the commencement of recovery.

- 9.The tenure of the loan must vary with its amount.

- 10. A Credit Information Bureau has to be established.

-11. The primary responsibility for avoidance of coercive methods of recovery must lie with the MFI and its management.

-12. The Reserve Bank must prepare a draft Customer Protection Code to be adopted by all MFIs.

- 13. There must be grievance redressal procedures and establishment of ombudsmen.

- 14. All MFIs must observe a specified Code of Corporate Governance.

SKS Microfinance Chief Financial Officer S. Dilliraj  said "The panel's recommendations "clears the regulatory ambiguity that existed in the microfinance sector since the promulgation of the Andhra Pradesh Microfinance Ordinance". The fast-growing Indian microfinance sector suffered a setback late last year when the state of Andhra Pradesh, which had the largest microfinance market in India, approved legislation to regulate the industry following complaints about high interest rates, aggressive recovery practices and overextended borrowers.

Some links with further information:

• Y. H. Malegam. Limit on annual income can be changed
• Malegam Committee Microfinance Report – Summary of Reactions from MFI Sector
• Malegam Committee Report – Summary of Key Recommendations
• Interview with Y H Malegam on his report on Indian Microfinance Institutions
• Notional loss due to Andhra ordinance: SKS Microfinance

Books available on Amazon:

Challenges for second generation microfinance: Regulation, supervision, and resource mobilization

Getting the framework right. Policy and regulation for microfinance in Asia

Too good to be true: the remarkable resilience of microfinance.(PERSPECTIVES)(microfinance institutions): An article from: Harvard International Review

Let's bring microcredit back on track - Muhammad Yunus

"Commercialization has been a terrible wrong turn for microfinance, and it indicates a worrying “mission drift” in the motivation of those lending to the poor. Poverty should be eradicated, not seen as a money-making opportunity."
This little excerpt from the article written by Muhammad Yunus 

 "Sacrificing microcredit for megaprofit", on the New York Times, summarizes the problems suffered by the sector in the last years. 
Many borrowers found themselves struggling with high interest rates, dealing with aggressive marketing and loan collection practices.
To go back to its origin and mission, microcredit needs to be more strictly regulated. The creation of an ad hoc regulatory authority would better ensure transparency in the sector, prevents the application of excessive interest rates and distorted loan collection practices.

Our changing world...

published the Fedex Experience website collecting several maps, elaborated using the map morphing technology, showing the statistical data of popular indexes and indicators measuring economic conditions, social and cultural aspects characterizing both developed and developing countries.

Map of Richest Countries

Microfinance resources on the Internet - Information on institutions and regulatory measures for some countries

Clicking on the picture below you could access a mindmap providing information and links on the legal and institutional framework established in some developing countries to regulate the activities of microfinance institutions. The map has been developed using Mindmeister, one of the most popular web 2.0 site for publishing these diagrams on the Web.
Do the examined countries have a specific law to regulate the sector or request a particular legal status for these institutions to operate in the market? at the institutional level, there are ad hoc agencies or simply  ministerial departments administering the industry?

Hope you could find at least some of the answers there...

Geocoding, further step towards effective development finance

Institutions participating in the AidData project developed in collaboration with the World Bank a new service to gather more precise information on aid projects implemented worldwide. Through this new search option, users can not only find the details of a particular project or check the amount of resources allocated in a certain country in a specific field, but also locate the areas of intervention and measure with more accuracy effectiveness, results and ratio of projects.
The project involved for a period of 6 weeks, a team of 13 people who geo-referenced the documentation of  the 1,216 active World Bank projects, made publicly available through the Open Data Initiative archive.
 The complete list of maps is accessible on the Mapping for results page. Further details on this geo-coding project  are on the AidData blog The First Trance. The dataset used in this project was built using the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF and the ArcGIS Server technology from Esri (information found on the apps for development blog)

Map displaying the number of aid projects and
poverty conditions in Kenya's provinces

Another interesting project is the Haiti Aid Map initiative developed by InterAction, in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Business Civic Leadership Center with funding from FedEx. The map provides detailed project-level information on the work being done by NGOs in Haiti.

Haiti Aid Map homepage

Geo-referencing for its capacities to ensure better information accessibility, coordination and accountability of donors and participation of recipient institutions is becoming a valuable knowledge organization tool to support the implementation of coherent policies for development.

The 60 kilometers paved roads country

Today is the last day of the Southern Sudan week long independence referendum which involved 3.9 milion Sudanese citizens. The predictable results will lead to the creation of a new country in July 2011, the Republic of Southern Sudan. Expectations of the locals are very high and this event represents for the overall region an important proof of maturity. 

Flag of Southern Sudan

The days of the civil war in Nigeria when the eastern regions of the country proclaimed the independence of Biafra seem very far. The cold war is more a fact of history books and the International community seems unite, supportive and respectful towards the final results of the votation. For sure there will be a lot to do for aid agencies, NGOs and the United Nations already working in the area

Pakistan floods...It never rains but it pours

Pakistan, last summer have been striken by severe floods and almost 20m of Pakistani had to evacuate their houses. An article recently published on the Financial Times website talks about the return of the farmers in Thatta a city in Sindh province at just 130 km from Karachi. Only 3 months after the flooding the victims are receiving with regularity food and assistance. A lot of problems affect the population and also slow down donors'interventions...first of all the risk of corruption and bribery. One of the main problems resides in the recognition of tenants and farmers rights. The establishment of a computerized cadastrial system registering not only properties but also the land contracts and tenancy agreements among land owners and farmers would be a crucial element to suppport the rights of farmers and ensure for these the access to sudsidies and compensative measures helping them recovering from this natural disaster.
To have an idea of the dimensions of this natural disaster it worths consult the gallery from the Disaster Charter the network of national space agencies collecting togheter data and satellite images gathered by the member agencies

Successful trade between European Union and developing countries

COLEAP network promotes sustainable horticultural trade solutions, gathering together producers and exporters from the ACP countries and EU importers of fruit, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants and other partners and companies operating in the horticultural industry. The cooperation programme PIP managed by COLEAP, financed by the European Development Fund is active in a number of  ACP countries. Information on the local directory of  exporters is available on the PIP site hyperlinked in the following map:

Grace Mueni Nyaa, from Kenya,founder of the Kyome Fresh Company Limited participated to the programme and talked about her experience at the European Development Days 2010. The Kenyan company grew from the initial capital base of €2600 to €140.000 in seven years down the line with an average annual sales turnover of €1.6 million! This sample highlights the importance of the private sector as one of the  main drivers for economic growth in developing countries and in particular small and medium enterprises. More information on the role of SME in developing countries are available in the following presentation:

Happy New Year!!!!

Mobile phones and broadband subscriptions in developing countries

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the UN agency established to promote  the development of networks and services for information and communication technology released interesting statistical data on mobile phones sales and Internet access via broadband  connection. With regards to cell phones sales, the 3G technology is increasing its market share both in developed and developing countries. Main difference between 2G and 3G network resides in the faster data speeds offered by 3G. The 3G standard allows data, pictures and videos to be uploaded and downloaded quickly, while for voice use and text messaging, the differences between the two standards is minimal.
The developing world is increasing its share of mobile subscriptions from 53% of total mobile subscriptions at the end of 2005 to 73% at the end of 2010. In particular, countries like China and India and others in the Asia Pacific region are leading this growth.
The situation is still critical in Africa. While 71% of the population in developed countries are online, Internet user penetration in Africa will reach in 2010 only 9.6%, far behind both the world average (30%) and the developing country average (21%).

Further details on the access to the Internet are available on the Internet World Stats site.