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Ian de Villiers is leader of the Viva Equipped people initiative and Asia Director for Viva
Viva builds collaborative responses of faith-based communities addressing key issues for children in especially difficult circumstances. Learning from the experience of Viva working with partners in Cambodia and the Philippines the workshop will explore practical multi-dimensional responses to child trafficking. It will give us a chance to explore questions such as: Is development done by development professionals? How can local leadership be actively empowered and enlisted? Are there links between worldview and response? And most important, can local communities with endemic poverty really affect trafficking?
Dan Tyler is a Policy and Advocacy Officer for the International Rescue Committee
More than 4 million Iraqis of different religions, ethnicities and backgrounds are estimated to have been uprooted by violence and conflict in their home country. Yet because they are not huddled together in camps, these refugees remain largely forgotten and ignored by the international community. Come and learn about the uncertainty that surrounds their futures and find out about the challenges they face as they seek safety and security, both those displaced in Iraq itself and those who have fled across the borders to countries such as Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
Paul Kadetz, Reseracher at the Oxford University Department of International Development
Paul Kadetz will be speaking about the main points of how health is imperative to development and thereby develop further on the research on food security and health in Guatemala, a country with some of the poorest statistics on the Western Hemisphere indicators.
Guppi Bola is co-founder of the Healthy Planet campaign
In December 2009, global leaders will meet in Copenhagen looking to secure a post-kyoto deal on climate change. The reality however, is that this UN process is failing us. Western governments and oil-rich countries govern the talks for their own benefit, grossly ignoring the cries of indigenous and small island state communities who are already suffering from the adverse effects of a changing climate. One of the biggest problems we have in influencing these talks is the vastly complicated and acronym riddled UN framework. This language isolates climate campaigners and the larger global community, removing them from creating progress towards an equitable and just agreement. In 2008, the UN talks in Poznan were attended by over 500 young people from all over the world, joining the wider network of NGO and civil society groups in the Climate Action Network. Their aim – to fight for a deal that would safeguard the lives of all countries and all people. 2009 is being seen as a make or break opportunity to safeguard our future. Gain the skills you need make your voice heard in the international agreements, and join the international youth movement to safeguard the stability of our climate.
Brooks Newmark MP is a Conservative front bencher and is a member of the Treasury Select Committee and the Science and Technology Select Committee.
Brooks will be speaking about the his experiences on the social action projects in which conservative party members volunteer in Rwanda. The volunteering ranged from assisting ministers modelling good practice, working with mayors on budget management and financial systems, developing the sports infrastructure, developing and implementing medical programmes, teaching football and cricket to young people and refurbishing a school and accommodation centre for survivors of the 1994 genocide.
Pritam Singh is a Research Associate at the Depart of International Development at Oxford
Exploring how certain patterns of development breed economic and political inequalities which are the root causes of extremist violent reactions, how the defence of human rights (including economic rights) is the best way to avoid terrorist form of violence, and how military solutions to terrorism are flawed.
Jonathan Leighton and Lucie Kinchin
Jonathan Leighton and Lucie Kinchin are undergraduates at Oxford University and are activists with the climate change protest group Plane Stupid and have been arrested several times during peaceful direct action, including breaking in to Stansted airport runway. In this workshop they discuss the pros and cons of peaceful direct action and analyse it as a possible campaign strategy in international development
Kamal Kapadia and Andrew Newsham are Research Fellows at the Environmental Change Institute
Governments and development agencies around the world are talking about helping the poor adapt to climate change. What does this actually involve, and how is adaptation to climate change shaping development policy? What are the opportunities and pitfalls of pursuing an adaptation strategy? What are the barriers and limits to posited adaptation strategies? What are the implications of climate change adaptation for current development trajectories? In this workshop we will grapple with these questions through interactive exercises involving real-life case studies. Participants will learn to think critically about the concept of adaptation, and to understand its relationship to development
Kofi Hope is Former Chair and Founder of Black Youth Coalition against violence in Toronto
This workshop will break down of the issue of youth violence in Toronto looking at why it is happening and why it is concentrated in certain communities. It will then consider the possible solutions to solving youth violence.
Andy Wilson is the Economic Justice Campaigner for Christian Aid
At the beginning of 2009 Christian Aid officially launched its tax campaign. The campaign focuses on the billions of dollars that poor countries and communities lose out on because of multinational companies that fail to hand over the tax revenues owed to these countries. The workshop will discuss these issues and look at possible solutions. Christian Aid are currently calling for country-by-country reporting that will mean multinational companies having to publish the profits they make in every country that they operate.
Ian Ross is an International Team Analyst for Policy Research at WaterAid
Ian works in policy research at WaterAid , a development INGO dedicated to safe domestic water, sanitation and hygiene education. He has a particular interest in climate change and water resources. Ian studied classics at Oxford University and graduated in 2007. As a student, Ian co-chaired Oxford People and Planet and was heavily involved in campaigning for global justice.
Claire Cochrane is the Public Understanding of Poverty Officer at Oxfam GB and Co-chair of the Women's Budget Group
What models of change would be the best way to ensure that climate change and poverty are avoided/ prevented through joint solutions (policy/practice/awareness raising etc.). It will be run through a mixture of providing information inputs and facilitating plenary and smaller group discussion, in order to encourage and enable individuals to understand the importance of the topics and come up with solutions and strategies for addressing the issues in a joined up way.
Kofi Hope is Former Chair and Founder of Black Youth Coalition against violence in Toronto
Kofi will be speaking about his experiences from his local work in Toronto and from the year he spent working on social justice across the country. From this he will then talk about the issue of Canadians, who are very aware and connected to developing world issues but are totally disconnected from social issues in their own cities.
Nick Dearden is Director of the Jubilee Debt Campaign
Four years ago Make Poverty History mobilised millions of people, calling for more aid and debt relief and radically different trade rules, to fight poverty in Africa and elsewhere. Today the global financial crisis means that many of these gains could be wiped out. Yet the financial crisis is also an opportunity for campaigning against a system of financial globalisation which many believe has been fundamentally anti-development. Find out what the financial crisis means for development campaigning, and be part of the mobilisation planned for March/ April this year.
Kate Vyborny worked at the Center for Global Development and helped to create the Cash on Delivery scheme
Cash on delivery is a new scheme in which donors would commit ex ante to pay a specific amount for a specific measure of progress. In education, for example, donors could promise to pay $100 for each additional child who completes primary school and takes a standardized competency test. This innovative approach places full decision-making about the use of funds in the hands of developing country governments, letting them determine the best way to achieve the outcome recipient and donor both want: a quality education for all. Kate will be talking about this scheme in more detail and looking at the results it has produced.
Dr. Jimin Zhao is a Research fellow at the James Martin 21st Century School at the University of Oxford
China will soon become the largest greenhouse gas producer in the world and her continued rapid economic growth will create pressure for much higher carbon emissions in the future. Successfully managing global climate change thus requires effective engagement of China. This talk aims to help the audience to better understand how China is dealing with and adapting to climate change and what challenges China currently faces. It examines the evolution of China’s positions and interests in addressing climate change. The talk will invite audience to think critically about how a developing economy like China can address climate change while also promoting economic development objectives.
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