MFAT Day, annihilating Dorian, Mugabe's death, and more

+ Syria: Please sign and promote the #NZiswatching Petition 

The petition for the #nziswatching campaign is still receiving signatures. Please continue to circulate the petition in order to accumulate as many signatures as possible. 

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet says her office has tallied more than 1,000 civilian deaths in northern Syria over the last four months, the majority of them due to air strikes and ground attacks by President Al-Assad's forces and their allies. At the same time there is an increasing number of disturbing reports of extrajudicial executions of civilians by militants.

Over the course of the Syrian conflict there have been at least 578 attacks on health-care facilities and 890 fatalities of medical personnel, according to a new report by US-based human rights group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).

Please continue to support and circulate the petition in order to urge the New Zealand Government to lead the international community in practical measures to protect civilians and ensure adherence to international law in Syria. The petition is open until 21st September.

+ CID Annual Conference - Registrations open!

‘Beyond Aid: Partnerships for the Future’ is the theme of this year's CID Conference. It will be held on 21 October 2019 at Massey University Wellington.

International keynote speaker, Dr. Jean-Pierre Verbiest, will deliver a powerful speech on this theme. Jean-Pierre has held senior positions in the Asian Development Bank and has for many years served as a council member and policy advisor to the Mekong Institute, an intergovernmental not-for-profit Institution owned by the six countries of the Mekong Region and founded through collaboration between the New Zealand and Thailand governments. For more details about Jean-Pierre's experience, click here.

In addition to the keynote speech, the agenda of the day will include an AGM, an innovative ‘World Café’ forum on Partnerships, four workshops facilitated by CID Members, the annual Photo Competition, the CID Collaboration Award, and an evening dinner event.

The event will be MC'd by Dr Gill Greer.

For more information about the agenda and for registering to the event, click here.

Also, CID is looking for conference sponsors. If you are interested, please email membership@cid.org.nz
 

+ MFAT - NGOs Annual Hui
 

Manatū Aorere/MFAT is pleased to invite you to register for the Annual Hui with New Zealand NGOs on 22 October, 8.30am-4pm.
 
The hui will be held at the Tiakiwai Conference Centre, which is located in the National Library of Aotearoa/New Zealand in Wellington.   
 
Please register your interest in attending by emailing partneringforimpact@mfat.govt.nz  by 5pm on Friday 27 September 2019.  A single RSVP for each organisation would be appreciated, if possible, including:

• Names and roles of staff members attending
• Dietary requirements/preferences
• Mobility and/or access or other requirements 

You are of course welcome to make changes if staff become available/unavailable, up until 12 October - as the venue will require finalised attendee lists by that time.    
 
To help co-design a day that’s useful and interesting for everyone, a brief 5 min survey has been prepared and can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/N8MQKYJ.  If you haven’t already done so (and many thanks if you have) your response by 5pm Wednesay 11 September 2019, would be appreciated, enabling sufficient time to plan in response to your suggestions.
 
Registered participants will be sent further details on the programme and venue closer to the time.  
 
Manatū Aorere/MFAT looks forward to your participation.

+ Dorian's devastating impact

The storm hit the Caribbean nation this week, stalling over the northern island of Grand Bahama and the nearby Abaco Islands for 40 “excruciating” hours, NASA says.

Initial estimates show damage in the northern Bahamas is widespread, and humanitarian needs will be significant. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency and the World Food Programme say 76,000 people, or nearly all of the residents on both islands, will likely need food or other forms of aid. The Red Cross reported that Dorian likely damaged or destroyed about 45 percent of all homes on the islands.

So far, it has left at least 44 dead in the Bahamas, five in Southeastern US and one in Puerto Rico, and more than 70,000 people have been left homeless.

Dorian - now downgraded from a hurricane but still sustaining hurricane-force winds around 75 mph - has veered along a path tracing North America’s Atlantic coast and has left hundreds of thousands of people in Canada without power.

While Dorian’s impacts are still unfolding, Mark Green, Head of USAID has compared the damage from Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas to that of a nuclear bomb, and disaster watchers say the storm underscores the links between climate change and humanitarian crises. 

On the topic of natural disasters, here is the link to an upcoming ODI free webinar on 'Managing climate risks: adaptation without borders'.

+ Charities Services: Know Your Tax Obligations

Marking the launch of a series of webinars being implemented by Charities Services, the first webinar took place on 27th August. In this webinar tax changes were presented which are relevant to charities and not-for-profits who perform some of their activities overseas. A recording of this webinar is available here, and includes:

+ CID Humanitarian Network nominations

The current CID Humanitarian Network Chairperson (Mark Mitchell - World Vision NZ) and Deputy-Chairperson (Linabel Hadlee – cbm New Zealand) will be stepping down in October 2019 after completing their respective two-year terms. Foremost we would like to thank both Mark and Linabel for their immense contribution and support in these roles.

CID is currently in the process of receiving nominations from member organisations of the CID Humanitarian Network. All nominations need to be received by COP Monday 30^th September 2019. Voting for both these positions will take place at the next network meeting in Wellington on Tuesday 8th October.

If you are from a CID Humanitarian Network member organisation and wish to nominate one or more persons for the position of either CID Humanitarian Network Chair or Deputy-Chair, or have any other questions, please contact Aaron Davy at code@cid.org.nz.

+ Zimbabwe's controversial founding President, Robert Mugabe, dies at 95 

From liberator to tyrant, Mugabe led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980, fighting the white supremacist regime, before then going on to lead a dictatorial and repressive regime that boosted his personal wealth and impoverished his own people. 

Mugabe's was the oldest head of state on earth and his recent death followed long-standing health issues. His passing has highlighted the controversial nature of his legacy, receiving both praises and criticisms from global leaders, revealing his mixed legacy. His death can be the start of Zimbabwe’s healing process, says Petina Gappah on The Guardian.
 

Geng Shuang, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said: "Mugabe was an outstanding national liberation movement leader and politician of Zimbabwe. Throughout his life, he has firmly defended the sovereignty of his country, opposed foreign interference, and actively promoted China-Zimbabwe and China-Africa friendship and cooperation."

Peter Hain, a former UK Labour MP who met Mugabe, said "This is a tragic case study of someone who began as a widely admired freedom fighter, bringing his country from repressive racist white minority rule … into the newly independent Zimbabwe in January 1980, winning a landslide that I welcomed and many anti-apartheid leaders around the world did, too. But then he went from that into an evil, repressive, corrupt dictator, which was tragic for his country and tragic for his own reputation."

+ New ChildFund Alliance report reveals children feel poorly protected 

40% of children across the globe feel they are not adequately protected from violence. 

Small Voices Big Dreams 2019, a global survey including responses from almost 5,500 children from 15 different countries, was released 4th September 2019 by the ChildFund Alliance. Data was gathered from children between 10 and 12 years and through 21 group interviews.

The survey provides startling insights into the perceptions of children and adolescents throughout the world about violence and the efforts of adults to protect them from it. Girls expressed a higher perception of insecurity, and one in two believe that their voices are not heard. In the report, children highlighted three main causes of violence: their own defenselessness, the cycle of violence, and adults’ loss of self-control due to substance use. 

Some of the key findings of the survey are:

• One in two children say adults in their country do not listen to their opinions on issues that matter to them;
• Nine in 10 believe the most important thing adults can do to end violence against children is to love children more and listen to what they have to say;
• More than 40% believe that children are not sufficiently protected against violence in the country they live in;
• More than two-thirds of children (69%) reject violence as an educational tool;  
• Only 18.1% of children think that politicians and the people who govern protect children from violence.

To read the full Small Voices Big Dreams 2019 report, click here.

+ Book Review  

Tobias Denskus, the author of the development blog Aidnography, reviews Mary Harper’s book Everything you have told me is true -The Many Faces of Al Shabaab.

In this blog post, he reports 'I immensely enjoyed 'Everything you have told me is true', even though her book covers difficult topics around Somalia’s troubled governance and Al Shabaab, an entity many would easily label a ‘terrorist organization’.

Mary Harper is the BBC Africa editor and has reported on Africa and its conflict zones for 25 years. Her biggest achievement with this book is her nuanced, careful, critical and ultimately empathetic engagement with Somalia and her citizens. Her book is not about a ‘failed state’ that has been captured by a terrorist group, but about the fact that

Many people have multiple identities, one of which is some kind of association with Al Shabaab, sometimes voluntary, sometimes pragmatic, sometimes forced (p.5).

+ What our members are up to

GOOD Travel
GOOD Travel is excited that their co-founder Eliza Raymond has been announced as a finalist for the Women of Influence 2019 awards under the global category! The awards recognise and celebrate exceptional women who have committed time and energy to create real change in their industry and communities and are using their influence to achieve great things. The winners of the ten categories will be announced at the Awards Dinner at SKYCITY in Auckland on Thursday, 24 October.
 

+ Vanuatu Mapping Pilot - which NZ organisations are active in Vanuatu?

CID and the High Commission of Vanuatu have commenced an exciting piece of research about New Zealand’s work in Vanuatu. The purpose of the study is to develop an understanding of:

1. The NZ entities (NGO, private sector, public sector, academia etc) working in Vanuatu, and their work
2. The development or social impact the entities may be contributing to, in Vanuatu
3. The opportunities for collaboration and synergies between entities.

A first step in this research is to identify all the New Zealand organisations working in Vanuatu.
 
If your organisation is working in Vanuatu, please send a quick email this week to Campbell Garrett on campbell@cid.org.nz so we can include your organisation in the study.
 
Also, if you know of any New Zealand organisations (either NGOs, businesses, public sector, or from academia) who are currently working in Vanuatu, please send the names to Campbell Garrett (again this week on campbell@cid.org.nz) so we can include them in the study. Thank you!