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The NZAID-funded Nam Ha Ecoguide Service in Lao has been selected as one of the top 25 finalists for the prestigious Equator Prize of 2006, which is awarded to recognise and celebrate outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation of biodiversity.
The project is a locally staffed provincial guide service which operates a number of community-based tours such as forest trekking, boat trips and village home-stays in and around the Nam Ha National Protected Area.
Managed by the Luang Namtha Provincial Tourism Office, the project aims to strengthen conservation and ecotourism links, provide investment opportunities for the private sector; and increase the capacity of tourism and local protected area managers in the province.
This is the third award the project has received since its inception in 1999 as part of the Nam Ha Ecotourism Project. In 2001 it was awarded the UNDP award for contribution to poverty alleviation in Lao and in 2002 it was highly commended by the British Airways Tourism Awards for National Parks and Protected Areas.
The Equator Prize winners will be announced on World Environment Day, 5th June 2007.
On 13th April, the new Department of Correctional Services was officially opened in Vanuatu.
Funded by NZAID, the project behind the department has had several successes already including the completion of a new temporary Luganville prison, identification of suitable land for a permanent site, training of newly recruited probation officers, the development of operational manuals, training for frontline staff and the passing through Parliament of relevant legislation.
The opening signals the graduation from a New Zealand/Vanuatu development project to a fully operational department, which is now one of the key institutions within the Vanuatu Government responsible for maintaining good public order and security.
The department provides rehabilitation, education and training to young offenders, while reassuring the public that offenders will be dealt with appropriately. It also ensures that traditional 'kastom' law and order practices work with the state justice and law and order practices.
NZAID is supporting families who are still struggling to regain a semblance of normal life after the recent floods on Vanua Levu, the second largest of Fiji’s islands.
Working through local primary schools, NZAID funding supports Save the Children Fiji's feeding programme for children, which provides nutritious lunch packs for children whose families have lost their homes and livelihoods in the floods.
The contribution of NZ$209,000 ($F240,000) is additional to the initial $35,000 provided by NZAID to Fiji Red Cross to assist with relief efforts immediately after the floods.
While New Zealand has taken a strong stand against Commodore Bainimarama and others involved in the overthrow of the Fijian government, which includes aid programme sanctions, it remains committed to helping ordinary Fijians in times of need.
In response to increasing unrest in Sri Lanka, NZAID will provide much needed assistance to those worst affected in the north-east and south of the country.
This includes a contribution of NZ$500,000 to New Zealand NGOs with partners in the north-east of Sri Lanka working on a range of humanitarian relief projects and NZ$400,000 to the American Ceylon Mission for emergency relief work with internally displaced people also in the north-east.
An additional NZ$600,000 has been given to a Buddhist NGO called Sarvodaya to run a mobile primary health care unit in the south of the country.
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NewZAID updates you in brief on key issues and events on the NZAID agenda. Please click on the useful links included in this newsletter to explore issues in greater depth.
 - Whenuapai loadmaster, Corporal Pele Tanuvasa, prepares to load emergency aid supplies onto a RNZAF C-130 Hercules at Whenuapai Air Force Base.
Following the devastating earthquake and resulting tsunami waves that hit the Western Province of the Solomon Islands in early April, New Zealand's assistance is now focusing on reconstruction efforts.
The initial $500,000 in emergency aid was used for supplies such as tents, tarpaulins, water storage containers and a generator, which have been sent to the worst hit areas, and NZAID is now considering how the remaining funds might best be allocated for reconstruction and recovery.
52 people are confirmed dead and over 9000 people were affected by the disaster and reports indicate that as many as 50 schools have been damaged as well as other essential buildings such as hospitals and health clinics.
A pilot 'Waste to energy' project that turns animal waste into energy and fertilizer has been launched in Landhi, near Karachi, Pakistan. Funded by NZAID and designed by New Zealand firm Empower Consultants Ltd, the project is designed to bring substantial economic and environmental benefits to the people of Landhi.
This will be achieved by collecting the cattle dung and converting it into high-grade organic fertilizer. The methane from the waste will produce electricity both for local use and for sale, and will support a power plant of 25-30 Megawatts. In addition, up to 1400 tonnes of fertilizer will be produced a day, which will improve soil fertility.
Established nearly 50 years ago, the Landhi Cattle Colony which has around 2,000 farming units and 400,000 cattle supplies milk to Karachi. Up until now there has been a problem with waste either being dumped on the roads, or washed into the monsoon drains and becoming a health and environmental hazard.
This project is intended not only to solve the pollution problem caused by animal waste, but also to lift the living standards and improve the environment of the local people.
New Zealand company GNS Science and two Vietnamese institutions are joining forces to minimise the impact of tsunamis on coastal and offshore island communities.
With funding from NZAID's ADAF (Asia Development Assistance Facility) Partnerships for Sustainable Development, GNS Science will strengthen the capability of scientists from the Institute of Geophysics (IGP) to undertake tsunami hazard and risk assessments and to develop a model earthquake information and early warning system for Viet Nam. GNS Science is also working with the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) and AC Consulting Group.
The two year project began with a workshop on 13th April at which New Zealand's Ambassador to Viet Nam, Dr James Kember, highlighted the importance of scientific links between New Zealand and Viet Nam and the world-class expertise that GNS Science brings to this endeavour.
The workshop was followed by a series of introductory sessions on issues such as how to study local, regional and distant faults, how to assess coastal and offshore landslides and volcanoes, how to get population data from census records, how to assess the vulnerability of residential and industrial buildings, and how to use all of this data to construct a risk assessment.
Three IGP scientists will then have three months of training in New Zealand with GNS Science and experts from VAST, followed by a two week study tour of the GeoNet facility in New Zealand.
At the end of the project, IGP will have prepared a tsunami hazard and risk assessment report that has been subjected to international peer review. They will also have proposed to the Vietnamese government a fit-for-purpose earthquake and tsunami monitoring network for Viet Nam with links to other operational agencies within the Asia-Pacific region.
Interested in finding out more? Contact Julie Haack, ADAF Programme Coordinator julie.haack@nzaid.govt.nz or John Egan, NZAID Manager in Ha Noi john.egan@nzaid.govt.nz
In recognition of the World Fair Trade Day on 12 May, fair trade organisations around the globe are celebrating Fair Trade Fortnight. Running from 28 April until 13 May 2007, the fortnight highlights to consumers and businesses how their everyday buying decisions can help to make a difference.
This year’s focus on "Kids need Fair Trade" promotes the fact that fair trade products are free from exploitative child labour.
The Fair Trade Fortnight is supported by NZAID, Oxfam and Trade Aid and the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand.
For more information on what’s happening in your town visit:
www.fairtrade.org.nz
www.oxfam.org.nz
www.tradeaid.org.nz
 - Attendees at the recent scholarship workshop at NZAID in Wellington
At the end of March 2007, NZAID held its annual scholarships workshop for scholarships officers from Pacific posts and the NZAID Scholarships Unit. Designed to examine the role of scholarships as a tool in poverty elimination, the workshop focused on NZAID's engagement and future direction in the Pacific.
It allowed participants to share the scholarship priorities of their particular countries and provided an opportunity for all attendees to come to grips with the changes in the New Zealand Development Scholarships scheme.
The NZAID workshop was followed by a joint AusAID and NZAID Regional Development Scholarships (RDS) workshop, attended by 22 AusAID and NZAID Pacific staff members, Wellington NZAID representatives, representatives from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji School of Medicine, and the Governments of Samoa and Tokelau.
This workshop allowed participants to share their knowledge and experience in order to agree a strategy and implementation plan for both the Australia and New Zealand Regional Development Scholarships (RDS), which will make these scholarships more efficient and more effective.
The successfully agreed strategy sets out plans for further alignment of the two scholarship schemes, ultimately leading to a single regional scheme. It also recommended the drafting of a monitoring and evaluation framework for the scholarship schemes and an improvement in the services offered to RDS students by using institution contracts and other AusAID/NZAID/Partner Government processes more effectively.
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