April 2004

1. Aid Workers Network: Practical advice for aid workers by aid workers
2. Expat Stories on Tales from a Small Planet
3. TerraViva - The European Edition of the IPS daily news
4. Internet Reference Sources
5. Approaches to Participatory Development (IAPAD)
6. LOGOLINK launches a website on participation
7. SID/ EADI conference "Europe and the South: A New Era
8. PRSP Monitoring and Evaluation
9. Online Book: Internet and Society in Latin America and The Caribbean
10. Basic Guidelines for the Elaboration of Strategic Development Programs at the Local Level

How many times have you reinvented the wheel? When working in relief and devel-opment projects, we often face situations others have encountered before us. Sometimes we ask around and consult a few colleagues for their opinions and advice. Other times we "jump in at the deep end" and do as best we can under the circum-stances. Aid Workers Network links relief and development field staff to share support, ideas and best practice. This web site is being developed by a team of experi-enced aid workers to provide a comprehensive resource for busy field workers needing practical advice and proven resources to help with their current work.
http://www.aidworkers.net

Tales from a Small Planet's mission is to enrich and share the experience of living abroad through literature, humour and the arts, as well as by providing information and education on what it is really like to live in a foreign country and how to cope with the challenges that may come along. The Website has links to more information, including maps, news, country profiles, travel tips, and dictionaries.
http://www.talesmag.com

The daily online newsletter, TerraViva Europe (TVE) aims to promote a better understanding of European cooperation development by offering news, features and in-depth analysis of development issues and their European and global impact. TerraViva Europe is published by the international news agency Inter Press Service, the world's leading provider of information on global issues. It is a free publication. TerraViva Europe receives financial support from the European Commission. Concord, Euforic and EUROSTEP are members of an NGO Ad Hoc Advisory Group on the publication.
http://www.ipsterraviva.net

You'd think someone who writes about Web sites like I do would know exactly where to go when I need to search for a phone number, or a map, or a dictionary definition. I blush to admit it, but I don't always bookmark the sites I find, so I flounder around when I'm looking for information, just like a beginner. Well, I'm going to bookmark this next site, because Internet Reference Sources is a one-stop source for any reference question you may have. It has links to phone and address finders, almanacs, maps, dictionaries, medical information, stock quotes, recipe collections, weather reports, and hundreds of other indispensable sites.
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/reference/

Integrated Approaches to Participatory Development (IAPAD) maintains a website called Participatory Avenues which acts as a focal point for sharing information and technical progress on community-based mapping and Public Participation GIS (PPGIS). The website provides ample documentation on Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM), a tool for merging indigenous technical knowledge and traditional spatial information. P3DM applications include community-based natural resources management, collaborative research and planning, resource use, control and tenure, and related conflict management. For more information on the project, visit http://www.iapad.org

A trial version of participation.net, a collaborative information initiative on participatory approaches to citizenship, rights and local governance, has been launched. participation.net is a global, online space for sharing ideas about the participation of people in development, citizenship, governance and rights. We welcome researchers, practitioners, activists, educators, policy makers and others from around the world to exchange diverse views and resources.
http://www.pnet.ids.ac.uk/

The aim of this conference is to explore opportunities for policy renewal and lay the foundations for a new commitment from politicians and from civil society. The focus of the conference will be on the nature of the European response towards closely interlinked trends:

• globalisation and the growing role of Europe in the world, especially in the economic field;
• international trade relations; migration and development; security and development.

The conference will provide the opportunity for parliamentarians and civil society actors to stimulate debate that may move beyond existing development theory and practice in order to enhance the global role and inherent responsibility of the EU. The site will be updated frequently and will keep you informed on the follow-up of the European Programme of the Society for International Development, including the co-operation with EADI and Euforic, the Civil Society Conference in September 2004 and the partnerships with NGO's in the new member states. http://www.euforic.org/sid-europe/

The PRSP Sourcebook now ha a Chapter on Monitoring and Evaluation. The objective of this chapter is to assist countries in developing a system to monitor and evaluate whether a poverty reduction strategy is effective in reducing poverty. Section 1 of the chapter discusses how to set up a poverty monitoring system: how to define key indicators, track them over time, and see what changes have taken place. The chapter can be downloaded in any of several languages, or may be sent by email. Appen-dices are also
available.http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/strategies/chapters/monitoring/moneval.htm

The book is designed to foster discussion about the policies and actions that must be promoted for building an Internet culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, based on the principles of social and cultural equity. It presents pioneering research designed to show from a qualitative and ethnographic perspective, how new information and communication technologies, as applied to the school system and to local governance initiatives, merely reproduce traditional pedagogical approaches and the dominant forms by which power is exercised at the local level.
http://web.idrc.ca/en/ev-45776-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

(URBANET) Since October 2000, the Croatian Ministry for Public Works, Reconstruction and Construction (MPWRC) and the GTZ in co-operation with the Ekonomski Institut Zagreb (EIZ) implement a project of consultancies in regional development planning. Targeted are governmental and civil society institutions at the different administrative levels as well as civil-society organisations (CSOs). A key element of the consultancies is the promotion and spreading of strategic development planning procedures and competence, which stands for a comprehensive approach for the elaboration of a strategic development program for any territorial unit, sector or even an organisation, and the implementation of the necessary measures and projects to achieve the identified objectives and goals of the further development. The document presents basic guidelines to start the process of strategic development planning.
http://www.gtz.de/urbanet/pub/Basic%20Guidelines_EN.pdf

The monthly Newsletter is a free service provided by Services for International Cooperation [sic!] and is circulated via Yahoo! Groups. Edited by Karsten Weitzenegger. Subscribers are encouraged to share the newsletter with others who do not subscribe. Please send comments and suggestions by e- mailto:karsten @ weitzenegger.de. For more information, or to subscribe or unsubscribe this newsletter, visit the website http://www.weitzenegger.de