Gender and Development e -Brief / Issue 43
25May, 2006
IN THIS ISSUE

EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES
Euro-Med Journalist Prize for Cultural Diversity International Conference on Women and Desertification (29 May - 1 June 2006

NEWS
ECONOMY & TRADE
Beirut 'missed out on $2.5 billion' by failing to tax quarries  IDAL predicts foreign direct investment in Lebanon will exceed $2 billion  U.S.-U.A.E. free-trade talks to resume in May  Doha puts freeze on free-trade talks with Washington White House renews ban on exports to Syria 

ENVIRONMENT
Environmental clubs in Lebanon swap green ideas 

DEVELOPMENT AID
PM Siniora seeks funding to improve conditions for Palestinian refugees Social Fund for Development in Yemen

GENDER
Bulgarian 'saw nurses tortured in Libyan jail' Dubai shelter sees dramatic rise in number of abused women Pink-colored glitter-flecked box-shrine baby Qatari woman's plight to be brought before UN committee  Vatican may loosen condom ban Women's rights activists in Iraq demand stronger political role 

HURRIYAT
Catholic leaders condemn 'unethical' abuse of foreign workers in Lebanon  Dubai workers stage demonstration New Iraqi Human Rights NGO Network Palestinian civil servants protest to demand wages Pope calls for respect of Christian rights in Muslim countries  PKK guerrillas sacrifice love, marriage and a family for their cause  Riffat Hassan: A New Dialogue on Islam

HEALTH
Medical group paints grim picture of West Bank, Gaza 

ICT
First Ever Community Radio Station in Jordan (UNESCO and UNIFEM)

POLITICS
Egyptian Parliament renews emergency law

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Siniora lauds steps to make life easier for people with disability  

YOUTH & CHILDREN
Child abuse often goes unnoticed in Jordan Cocaine and heroin make comebacks among unsuspecting Lebanese youth

REPROTS, BOOKS & ARTICLES
DEVELOPMENT
Impacts of policies on poverty: absolute poverty lines

GENDER
Best practice guidelines for creating a culture of gender equality in the private sector Beyond tools: Technology as a feminist agenda Gender equality and trade-related capacity building: a resource tool for practitioners Looking for equality: a gender review of national MDG reports Maternal Mortality among Palestinian Women in the West Bank Researching violence against women: a practical guide for researchers and activists Reforming Family Laws to Promote Progress in the Middle East and North Africa Supporting women's ICT-based enterprises: a handbook for agencies in development Women's ICT-based enterprise guidebook Women and Migration

MICRO-FINANCE 
Building a National Strategy for Microfinance in Egypt Making microfinance work in the Middle
East and North Africa
Microfinance In the Arab States Building inclusive financial sectors Sustainable Microfinance Industry in Jordan

YOUTH & CHILDREN
New documentary depicts hard life of Lebanon's working children
2006 State of the World's Children: Excluded and Invisible

RESOURCES
Astraea Foundation Alliance of Civilizations launches its website Hivos Fund The Little Green Data Book 2006 The Middle East Program Overview of Save the Children

Development e-Brief receives and comprises of material from various sources for its publication. Should you wish to refer to these sources/ sites directly, the list includes publications from: AVIVA, www.aviva.org, AWID: www.awid.org, Democracy Digest: www.freedomhouse.org, Development Gateway: www.developmentgatway.org, Dignity: www.dignity.org, e-Civicus: www.civicus.org, Eldis: www.eldis.org, ESCWA: www.escwa.org.lb, GDB: www.developmentex.com, Global Knowledge Partnership: www.globalknowledge.org, IGTN: www.IGTN.org, ILO: www.ilo.org One World: www.oneworld.net, Siyanda: www.siyanda.org, The Daily Star: www.dailystar.com.lb, The Drum Beat: www.comminit.com, The Soul Beat: www.comminit.com, The World Bank: www.worldbank.org, UNDP: www.undp.org, Wicejilist: w

CONFERENCES & OPPORTUNITIES

Euro-Med Journalist Prize for Cultural Diversity
Deadline: June 20 2006 Open to journalists between the ages of 25 and 35 who work for print or online media, the Prize aims to promote better understanding of the diversity of cultures in the Euro-Mediterranean region. Award winners, two selected from Europe and two from the Mediterranean,
will be invited on a guided tour of four countries to explore and report on issues of cultural dialogue and diversity. http://www.comminit.com/awards2006/awards2006/awards-1412.html  

International Conference on Women and Desertification (29 May - 1 June 2006)
Event highlights the important role of women in implementing the UNCCD. The UNCCD Secretariat, together with the governments of Algeria, China and Italy, are organizing this international meeting, one of several major conferences taking place to mark the 2006 International
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender/rc/ItemDetail.do~1062519?intcmp=700  
NEWS
ECONOMY & TRADE
Beirut 'missed out on $2.5 billion' by failing to tax quarries
The Lebanese state could have generated around $2.5 billion, had it collected fees and taxes from the quarries sector over the past 15 years, according to the Lebanese Environment Party on Wednesday. The party announced this figure, which was calculated based on earlier official studies and legal documents, at their first national conference on the need for organizing quarries. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=24078   

IDAL predicts foreign direct investment in Lebanon will exceed $2 billion
The head of the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL) predicted that foreign direct investment will reach more than $2 billion by the end of the year. "The excessive liquidity in some of the Arab countries as a result of the oil boom has definitely allowed Lebanon to attract more investment this year.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=24419  

U.S.-U.A.E. free-trade talks to resume in May
Free-trade talks between the U.A.E. and the U.S., postponed amid a row over the operation of American ports by a Dubai company, will resume in May, an official said. "Talks between the U.A.E. and the U.S. will take place in Abu Dhabi on May 9-11 to continue free-trade negotiations.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=24040  

Doha puts freeze on free-trade talks with Washington
Qatar has frozen bilateral free trade talks with the United States, saying that Washington was imposing preconditions that were not Doha's interest, the daily Al-Sharq reported Saturday. "In time we would be happy to go back to the negotiating table, but there are issues that need to be resolved first.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=24065  

White House renews ban on exports to Syria
In what is being viewed as "another squeeze" on Syria, U.S. President George W. Bush renewed a ban late Monday on U.S. exports to Syria, as a Syrian press declared on Tuesday a $127 million dollar contract between an American Oil company and state-run Syrian oil company. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=24312  

ENVIRONMENT 

Environmental clubs in Lebanon swap green ideas
Environmental clubs at a first-ever group conference Saturday decided to establish a network to keep clubs in Lebanese schools in contact. More than 100 environmental clubs, represented by students and teachers and supported by Al-Bia wal-Tanmia (Environment & Development) magazine, attended the meeting at the Sacre-Coeur school in Gemmayzeh. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=24271  

DEVELOPMENT AID
PM Siniora seeks funding to improve conditions for Palestinian refugees
Premier Fouad Siniora said Friday the Lebanese government was seeking help from donor countries in order to enhance living conditions for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The premier was speaking to reporters following a meeting with the ambassadors of about 25 countries, including the U.S., France, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=24220  

Social Fund for Development in Yemen
The Social Fund for Development was established in 1997 by Law No.10 as one of the measures to cushion the effects of the government’s reform programs on vulnerable groups, especially the poor. The SFD was formed as an autonomous agency with financial and administrative ...
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/microfinance/rc/ItemDetail.do~1062589?intcmp=700  

GENDER
Bulgarian 'saw nurses tortured in Libyan jail'
A Bulgarian engineer on retrial in Libya for "knowingly" injecting Libyan children with AIDS-contaminated blood, said Wednesday he saw five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor tortured in detention. "The nurses were beaten with many-stranded wire, for a long time and painfully. For more info:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=24528 

Dubai shelter sees dramatic rise in number of abused women |
Sharla Musabih's mobile phone hardly stops alerting her with messages from female victims of domestic violence seeking help or refuge in the Dubai-based shelter she runs. Some sound very desperate.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=24530 

Pink-colored glitter-flecked box-shrine baby
One couldn't accuse Zena al-Khalil of idleness. The twentysomething artist is the cofounder of two arts organizations - Xanadu, a bicontinental artists' space promoting young and emerging talent, and Al-Jissir, a foundation that calls international attention to more established Arab artists. She is an advisor to the International Museum of Women's ambitious. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=24455 

Qatari woman's plight to be brought before UN committee
Inside a luxurious compound, a Qatari woman has been made a prisoner in her bedroom and sometimes starved and beaten for shaming her family by fleeing Doha in 2002 to marry an Egyptian man.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=24048 

Vatican may loosen condom ban |
The Vatican is debating relaxing its ban on condoms as a way to help stem the spread of HIV/AIDS, said a senior Roman Catholic official. However, the church still is only considering condoning condoms in those narrow circumstances when one partner in a Catholic marriage is HIV positive or sick with AIDS. The Vatican says abstinence is the best way to tackle HIV/Aids, but last week, a retired archbishop, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, backed the use of condoms for married couples to prevent Aids transmission, saying it was ‘a lesser evil’.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4938076.stm 

Women's rights activists in Iraq demand stronger political role
Human right activists attending a recent conference in Najaf unanimously agreed that Iraqi women have yet to win full rights and are still struggling three years after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Fighting to achieve the constitutionally required quota of women in Parliament, raising awareness about the importance of representation in the legislature and reducing... http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=24395

HURRIYAT
Catholic leaders condemn 'unethical' abuse of foreign workers in Lebanon 
The Catholic Patriarchs and Archbishops Council Tuesday denounced the "unethical" and abusive treatment of foreign service workers in Lebanon, saying such acts "harm human dignity. "The condemnation came from Archbishop Nabil Andar in a news conference held to mark the National Day for Foreign Workers in Lebanon.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=24498 

Dubai workers stage demonstration
Some 400 migrant Asian workers protested at a construction site in Dubai on Tuesday about not being paid on time, a police official and a witness said. "I would not call it a protest. Thank God, we do not allow protests here. It was just workers gathering calmly to ask for their pay," a Dubai police official said. "It is normal, it happens every day." For more info: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=24515 

New Iraqi Human Rights NGO Network
Forwarded on behalf of Iraqi Human Rights Organization Network (IHRON)
Human Rights work in Iraq faces several obstacles resulting from the current circumstances and insufficient experience in the dealing with different issues in the human rights, for more information: 
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/ngo/rc/ItemDetail.do~1062615?intcmp=700 

Palestinian civil servants protest to demand wages
Around 1,000 civil servants demonstrated in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday over the Palestinian Authority's failure to pay their salaries for the past two months. "We need milk for our children and to live in peace," read placards held aloft amid a sea of flags, banners, and pictures of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and his successor, Mahmoud Abbas. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=24516 

Pope calls for respect of Christian rights in Muslim countries
Pope Benedict XVI said Monday that the rights and dignity of minority Christians in predominantly Muslim countries had to be respected if inter-religious dialogue was to be a real two-way street. Addressing participants at a Vatican conference on immigration to and from Islamic countries, the Pope also said that while Christians had to respect Muslims.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=24481 

PKK guerrillas sacrifice love, marriage and a family for their cause
For one Kurdish teenager, joining a quasi-socialist rebel movement deep in the mountains on the Iraq-Iran frontier was a way to escape becoming a Muslim housewife in highly conservative Iran. Three months ago, Shilan ran away from her family in the islamic Republic to walk across dangerous mountain passes in order.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=24298 

Riffat Hassan: A New Dialogue on Islam
Pakistani professor of religious studies Riffat Hassan speaks on religious stereotypes, ethics, and violence. The events of 11 September 2001 have extensively polarized the West and the Islamic world, with attention being devoted to the most extreme views, in particular ... http://topics.developmentgateway.org/culture/rc/ItemDetail.do~1062682?intcmp=700 

HEALTH
Medical group paints grim picture of West Bank, Gaza
The head of the Palestinian Medical Association warned on Wednesday that the health system in the Gaza Strip and West Bank would probably collapse as a result of international sanctions. "Is the Palestinian health system going to collapse? Probably, yes," Dr Yihye Shawar told a Jerusalem news conference.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=24529 

ICT
First Ever Community Radio Station in Jordan (UNESCO and UNIFEM)
UNESCO and UNIFEM have launched a joint programme to establish an e-village in Lib and Mleih. UNIFEM is leading the e-village project while UNESCO is providing the first ever community radio station in Jordan to the e-village. For more information: http://topics.developmentgateway.org/culture/rc/ItemDetail.do~1061947?intcmp=700 

POLITICS
Egyptian Parliament renews emergency law
Egypt's Parliament approved the renewal of the state of emergency for two years Sunday, a controversial measure the country's premier justified with a recent wave of bombings and communal clashes.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=24087 

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Siniora lauds steps to make life easier for people with disability
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the government "made important steps to create a better atmosphere for the disabled," speaking Friday during the opening ceremony of a seminar about the implementation of law 220/2000, which stipulates the rights of disabled people in Lebanon.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=24415 

YOUTH & CHILDREN
Child abuse often goes unnoticed in Jordan
The clinic is full of women with their babies, elders wearing traditional attire and children bearing school bags, all patiently waiting to see Nabil al-Herish. There are other doctors available, but "Dr. Nabil" is their first choice, and he knows each one of them by name. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=24524 

Cocaine and heroin make comebacks among unsuspecting Lebanese youth
"Young people are bored here," said Hoda (not her real name), 22, a university student and casual heroin user. "People have a hard time finding ambitions because ambitions are not evident." Such statements are part of an explanation why many educated and often economically and socially well-off young people in Lebanon use heroin - a drug normally shunned by recreational drug users in Europe and North America.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=24213

REPORTS & BOOKS & ARTICLES

DEVELOPMENT
Impacts of policies on poverty: absolute poverty lines
Examining concepts like food energy intake (FEI), cost of basic needs (CBN), consumption insufficiency method (CI), and budget standard method (BS), this paper argues that poverty lines may be defined using some absolute concepts. Presented as a training module, the paper illustrates how these methods can be made operational by providing step-by-step procedures and examples. Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21427

GENDER
Best practice guidelines for creating a culture of gender equality in the private sector
Produced by: Commission on Gender Equality (CGE), South Africa (1998) 
This guide is designed to highlight and promote the involvement of private business in achieving gender equality.
Drawing on a number of laws and international commitments to women's rights, including the South African Constitution and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), it seeks to enhance gender equality in the workplace. Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21675

Beyond tools: Technology as a feminist agenda
In this piece - published in the March edition of the Development Jo urnal - Chat Garcia Ramilo argues strongly for a feminist agenda on technology. Drawing on the discussions at the AWID Forum, she shows how, within the framework of women's rights, technology is a determining factor in women's sexuality, representation and exploitation, and has to be seen as one more facet of violence against women. She calls on the feminist movement to engage technologies as a site of feminist political struggle. For more information, see
www.palgrave-journals.com/development/journal/v49/n1/abs/1100230a.html 

Gender equality and trade-related capacity building: a resource tool for practitioners
This CIDA publication provides an introduction to the main gender equality issues arising from trade liberalization and trade-related capacity building. These include the fact that barriers in accessing trade-related technical information and training are often more significant for women than men, women-owned export businesses are more often informal and/or smaller in scale than those owned by men and thus face greater difficulty in achieving compliance with standards and international competitiveness and policy-makers do not have adequate information of gender inequalities related to safety and quality. Available online at:
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21686 

Looking for equality: a gender review of national MDG reports
Produced by: United Nations (UN) Development Programme (UNDP) (2005) 
This document presents the results of an examination of gender mainstreaming through 78 national Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Reports. Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21735

Maternal Mortality among Palestinian Women in the West Bank
This article presents the findings of a study that aimed to assess maternal mortality and to determine the most common causes of maternal death among Palestinian women. Available data on the 431 women who died between the ages of 15 and 49 years in the West Bank http://topics.developmentgateway.org/population/rc/ItemDetail.do~1062476?intcmp=700

Researching violence against women: a practical guide for researchers and activists
This WHO manual has been developed in response to the growing need to improve the quality, quantity, and comparability of international data on physical and sexual abuse against women. The manual focuses primarily on the issue of violence against women by their intimate partners. Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21680 

Reforming Family Laws to Promote Progress in the Middle East and North Africa
This policy brief examines recent trends in women's activism and family law reform in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It highlights how Morocco recently adopted an entirely new family law that is consistent with the spirit of Islam, yet based on http://topics.developmentgateway.org/population/rc/ItemDetail.do~1062629?intcmp=700 

Supporting women's ICT-based enterprises: a handbook for agencies in development
This handbook produced by Women's ICT-Based Enterprise for Development (2005) aims to provide support and ideas for women's ICT-based enterprises. The authors describe 'enterprise' as the entities with a business focus that have an interest sales and income. The handbook gives an overview of the advantages of supporting women's ICT-based enterprises, especially the benefits to poor women in developing countries. The authors also include analytical tools as well as good practice guidance on the business, and an overview of gender specific aspects of these types of enterprises. Available online at:  http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21607 

Women's ICT-based enterprise guidebook
This guidebook, entitled ‘Supporting Women's ICT-Based Enterprises’, provides practical guidance on how to advocate, initiate and improve IT sector micro-enterprises for women in developing countries. It includes case and story evidence, best practice advice sheets, and frameworks for analysis and evaluation. For more information, visit: www.womenictenterprise.org 

Women and Migration
This survey addresses the opportunities of empowerment and challenges and vulnerabilities that women face in context of migration. It highlights possible policy recommendations to improve women's condition. http://topics.developmentgateway.org/gender/rc/ItemDetail.do~1062672?intcmp=700 

MICRO-FINANCE 
Building a National Strategy for Microfinance in Egypt
This is a short description of an example of microfinance_s project in Egypt. The objectives were to support the development of an effective microfinance industry enabled to contribute to income generation and job creation on sustainable basis. For more information:
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/microfinance/rc/ItemDetail.do~1062587?intcmp=700 

Making microfinance work in the Middle East and North Africa
This document is an overview on microfinance in the Middle East and North Africa provided by the World Bank. It presents the importance of microfinance, its development in this region, building institutional capacity in the region_s microfinance institutions and… http://topics.developmentgateway.org/microfinance/rc/ItemDetail.do~1062520?intcmp=700 

Microfinance In the Arab States Building inclusive financial sectors http://topics.developmentgateway.org/microfinance/rc/ItemDetail.do~1062591?intcmp=700  This paper was produced with the support of the Microfinance Network of Arab Countries: Sanabel. After a brief introductory chapter on the nature of the study, the chapter 2 of this document calls reminds certain number of majorities on the microfinance, its principles ...

Sustainable Microfinance Industry in Jordan
This article focuses on the development of the microfinance sector in Jordan and microcredit is a very important vehicle available for low-income citizens, particularly women, to improve their financial status. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID ... http://topics.developmentgateway.org/microfinance/rc/ItemDetail.do~1062521?intcmp=700 

YOUTH & CHILDREN
New documentary depicts hard life of Lebanon's working children
"I work in 'rubbish'," said Abeer. She is a girl of 11-12 years of age, and one of the subjects of film director Carol Mansour's latest documentary "Invisible Children," focusing on child labor in Lebanon. By "rubbish" Abeer means that every day, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., she goes through piles of rubbish, collects old parts of aluminum, copper and iron, and sells them for between $1 and $3 per kilo.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=24509 

2006 State of the World's Children: Excluded and Invisible
December 2005 - This UNICEF report provides an assessment of the situation of the world's most vulnerable children. These children are growing up beyond the reach of development campaigns and are often invisible in everything from public debate and legislation, http://topics.developmentgateway.org/foodsecurity/rc/ItemDetail.do~1061878?intcmp=700