Development Blogs.com

from the AFP via Google MADRID — Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero urged wealthy nations Thursday to respect their pledges to help fight poverty in Africa after at least 15 migrants, including nine children, died at sea while trying to reach Spain."We are in an alarming situation. Either we help Africa to fight against extreme poverty, or our state of solidarity, our social state, will be in danger," he said in Athens where he is on an official visit.He described the deaths as "an intolerable tragedy" and called on developing countries to "assume their responsibilities" by contributing to development aid and guaranteeing that the global food crisis does not worsen world hunger.Rescue teams intercepted overnight a small crowded boat with 33 migrants and the body of a...

Camp Management Toolkit (NRC, June 2008) [access] Climate Change and Migration: Improving Methodologies to Estimate Flows, Migration Research Series, no. 33 (IOM, June 2008) [access] "Mental Health of Returnees: Refugees in Germany Prior to Their State-sponsored Repatriation," BMC International Health and Human Rights 2008, 8:8 [access via ReliefWeb] Neighbors in Need: Zimbabweans Seeking...

from All Africa Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)By Tito DragoMadridSpain's development aid to Africa has increased significantly since socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero took office in March 2004.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and the African World Heritage Fund has signed a memorandum of understanding that includes one million euros (1.5 million dollars) in aid, making Spain the second largest donor to the Fund after South Africa.The head of the Spanish Development Cooperation Agency (AECID), Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, told IPS that his country "has adopted an integrated aid policy," developed from scratch since 2004. Before then, international aid was lower in quantity and quality, "and was even at the service of interests that were not confined to...

Ombudsman Confirms Human Rights Watch Abuse Findings (Brussels, June 9, 2008) - An investigation by the Spanish Ombudsman has revealed serious shortcomings in two Canary Islands emergency care centers housing up to 200 unaccompanied migrant children, Human Rights Watch said today. The Spanish Ombudsman’s office launched an independent investigation in September 2007, triggered by the Human Rights Watch report “Unwelcome Responsibilities: Spain’s Failure to Protect the Rights of Unaccompanied Migrant Children in the Canary Islands.” This report documents serious human rights violations against several hundred unaccompanied migrant children housed in emergency care centers on the islands. The conclusions of the Ombudsman’s investigation have now been made public....

In a seminar I imparted in January — Fostering the Information Society for Development in the Web 2.0 framework: from push to pull strategies — the case of Spain — I suggested that the most developed countries had reached sort of a threshold of installed infrastructures. Of course, this threshold could be pushed up and more infrastructures (or better and cheaper ones) could be installed, but the development of the Information Society would barely rely on that. According to the data available, I wondered whether the solution might be shifting from push to pull strategies, parallel to the shift that we’ve been living in the web landscape towards the so-called Web 2.0. This is the chart I then presented: [click to enlarge] Now, with data from the World Bank we can draw another...

from AFP via GoogleMADRID (AFP) — Spain's King Juan Carlos Wednesday opened the FITUR tourist trade fair, one of the world's largest, with a plea to thousands of industry professionals to use tourism to help eradicate poverty."Tourism is a driver of understanding between peoples. It is an effective instrument with which to eradicate poverty and to improve the legitimate aspirations and well-being of citizens," he said in an inaugural speech.The 28th annual FITUR in Madrid is hosting 13,300 companies from 170 countries who will be seeking the business of around 250,000 visitors, some 150,000 of them professionals, before the event closes on Sunday.The UN World Tourism Organisation prefaced the event on Tuesday by announcing that developing nations drove up global tourism arrivals by 6.2...

Framework When framing all the impact of ICTs in society — and not only at the economic level — it is unavoidable to speak of Manuel Castells’s work, maybe the most acknowledged scholar in this field. Summing up and focusing on what is of interest here, Castells presents a society structured in three layers — relationships of production, experience and power — that by acting over matter (i.e. nature) — the former — and establishing relationships amongst them three layers, end up shaping a culture in a specific configuration of time and space. As technology plays and important role in both the relationships amongst layers and in the creation of culture, Castells theorizes on how ICTs are actually shaping nowadays culture in a very broad sense. His thesis is that the...

from the HinduNew York (PTI): International Fund for Agricultural Development (IAFD) and Spain have signed a six-year agreement to work jointly to combat rural poverty in the developing countries.The two share the understanding that the best way to eliminate poverty is to empower the poor by expanding their rights, opportunities and abilities so that they can find their own way of development, both the sides said after signing the agreement.The agreement was signed by Lennart Bage, President of IFAD, and Spain's Ambassador to Rome Luis Calvo Merino.,span class="fullpost">"IFAD shares many development priorities with Spain," said Bage."By strengthening our relationship, we will be able to work even more effectively together to empower poor rural people to overcome poverty," Bage said.IFAD...

from All AfricaInter Press Service (Johannesburg)NEWSBy Tito DragoMadridSeveral popular Spanish rock groups helped collect 600,000 signatures and delivered them to the government Tuesday in support of an international campaign calling for the Spanish government to modify its trade policy towards Africa and eliminate restrictions on imports from that region.Singers Miguel Bosé and Shuarma, members of the Dover rock band, and Ariana Arpa, the head of Intermón Oxfam - Oxfam International's Spanish affiliate - were received in the seat of government where they presented a statement titled: "100 Days: Trade Negotiations Threaten Europe's Commitment to Africa".Because Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, they were met by...

Close Canary Islands Emergency Centers and Provide Adequate Care Hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children from Africa held in government facilities in the Canary Islands are at risk of violence and ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today....

from PlayfulsFor Nancy, a 60-year-old Cuban immigrant in Spain, eating at a restaurant is a rare treat, because she only goes when invited by friends who pay for her."I buy clothes only when absolutely necessary at cheap Chinese-run shops, postpone visits to the doctor, and haven't had the money to visit Cuba for years," she explains.Earning slightly over 500 euros (647 dollars) a month for taking care of an old lady in the southern city of Jerez de la Frontera, Nancy can only pay her rent with the help of her daughter, who shares her small flat and earns little more than she does.To someone living in a developing country, Nancy would not look poor, yet she forms part of the one-fifth of Spain's 45-million population whose economically precarious lives qualify them as poor.Despite 14...

Spain must include vital human rights safeguards in its upcoming readmission agreement with Morocco for unaccompanied children, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, made public today. The preliminary document that is the basis for the agreement includes provisions that do not comply with Spain’s human rights obligations under national and international law....