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.

New Zealand has committed NZ$1.4 million to assist people worst affected by the ongoing conflict in Somalia and Iraq.

The situation in Iraq is a serious humanitarian crisis as continual violence has left large numbers of people displaced and dependent on external aid for survival. NZAID will contribute $700,000 to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for the distribution of relief supplies and to assist with the protection of those displaced by the conflict.

In Somalia, sixteen years of war, and the worst drought in over a decade, has resulted in widespread destruction and caused the disintegration of basic health and social services throughout the country. New Zealand is providing $700,000 to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for their work in assisting over 2.1 million Somalis in critical need of help.

"In these situations women and children are the most vulnerable and usually the hardest hit.  Our contribution will go towards emergency health services for pregnant women and women with new-born infants," said Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

A further NZ$1 million contribution has been made to the recently established United Nations Central Emergency Response fund to support immediate responses and reduce the impact of conflict and disaster.

For more information please contact suzanne.loughin@nzaid.govt.nz or jane.coster@nzaid.govt.nz

Participants at the NZAID-hosted Pro-poor Tourism Workshop

On 18 June, NZAID hosted an International Pro-poor Tourism Workshop in Wellington.

The workshop invited representatives from NZAID’s partner countries and other pro-poor tourism providers to discuss with NZAID ways to more effectively target tourism development for those communities and groups most in need of livelihoods support.

Presentations identified lessons from a wide range of experiences under significantly different circumstances.  Speakers included Jonathan Mitchell, Head of the Tourism Programme of the Overseas Development Institute, representatives from Samoa, Laos, Indonesia, Fiji, Indonesia, Nepal and Cambodia as well as from NZAID, Tourism Resource Consultants, and the International Finance Corporation. 

Strategies and activities were identified that seek to benefit even the poorest communities and groups. The information presented will be used in the production of strategic guidance to tourism sector work and best practice notes for NZAID programme groups.

Rural livelihoods is a key theme for NZAID in both its Asia and Pacific Strategies, with tourism a specific focus for Asia programmes.

For more information please contact roger.cornforth@nzaid.govt.nz

Organised by UNESCO and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s (SPC) Human Development programme, the Workshop for Advancing the Pacific Women in Media Action Plan took place in Honiara, Solomon Islands at the end of May.

The Pacific Women in Media Action Plan  was agreed by regional media in September 2006 and is a plan based on Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action, which is an important international agreement that arose from one of the largest global meetings on women’s rights ever held  (UN 4th World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995). 

Already the spin-off effects from such engagement with regional media have been positive. Pacific national newspapers are increasing their efforts to cover gender issues and media representatives are participating more in the Pacwin e-discussion network.

The workshop itself stressed the need for media standards and practices to be consistent with gender equality. It looked at the need for media organisations to create strategies which will ensure greater recognition of Pacific women’s achievements and value their contributions to society, and also recognised the media’s responsibility to promote human rights education and to raise awareness of any human rights violations.

It was decided that the most effective way for women's and children's rights to be promoted would be to establish national media associations and gender advocacy groups in all Pacific Island countries. Their job would be to monitor governments on their progress towards implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Revised Pacific Platform for Action (RPPA), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Pacific Plan. The workshop urged the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) to assist its members in developing gender equality policies and to establish an annual media award for the best coverage of gender issues.

NZAID has a strategic partnership with the SPC and provides funding to the Human Development Programme through annual contributions.

For more information please contact samantha.hung@nzaid.govt.nz

Efforts to achieve greater coherence within the United Nations received a boost recently with the presentation of an action plan between the Government of Viet Nam and six UN agencies.

The One Plan aims to enhance coordination and programmes of the UN agencies involved and is part of efforts to create One United Nations in Viet Nam.

The plan  was accepted by government and donors at a meeting on 12 June along with other initiatives such as the creation of One  Leader  (the UN Resident Coordinator), One Budget, One Set of Management Practices and One UN House. New Zealand Ambassador, James Kember, expressed strong support for the One UN in Viet Nam Initiative and noted its significance for global reform of the UN. He also affirmed the importance of the UN Resident Coordinator as leader of the UN in Viet Nam.

NZAID Manager, John Egan, reports that there is considerable interest in the One Plan amongst donors active in Viet Nam. "Everyone agrees that a strengthened and better coordinated United Nations can only be good for Viet Nam."

"The UN Secretary General's High Level Panel highlighted the essential role that the UN plays in the global development discourse. The challenge for the UN in Viet Nam, is to make this a reality through more efficient and better coordinated programming by UN agencies, that delivers high quality advice to the government and achieves tangible progress for the poor," he says.

For more information please contact john.egan@nzaid.govt.nz