Posted 5 October 1998
The Rural Institutions and Participation Service of FAO's Rural Development Division (SDA) is hosting a one-month global e-mail conference on the topic of Small Farmer Group Associations, between 18 September and 18 October 1998. The main purpose of the conference is both to share the results of FAO's own research and experience in the field of developing small farmer group associations and to compare those results with the experiences of others.
The conference is open to all interested parties, including NGOs, the private sector, academics, government, international agencies and UN and other intergovernmental agencies. Those interested in participating should contact the Conference Secretariat at SFGA-Secretariat@fao.org.
The UNDP HIV and Development Programme focuses on increasing awareness of the development implications of the HIV epidemic; strengthening national capacity to plan and conduct activities that respond to the development problems caused by the HIV epidemic; identifying and assisting sectors and programmes adversely affected by the epidemic; strengthening and expanding HIV-related community responses to the epidemic; assistance to individuals, families and communities affected by the epidemic; promotion and development of programmes for prevention, care and support for women; providing assistance to NGOs working to respond to the problems caused by the HIV epidemic; and developing comprehensive, integrated and coordinated national and regional responses to the epidemic.
In order to assist in the development of national capacities in this area, UNDP has developed a training workshop focusing on the human, social and economic development implications of the epidemic. The aim of the workshop is to increase awareness of the nature of the impact of the epidemic, to analyse approaches to strengthening community coping responses and national responses, and to identify the policies and programmes required at all levels to respond to the epidemic.
The workshop is designed for senior United Nations officials and senior government officials, particularly from Ministries of Planning, Finance, the productive\sectors (agriculture, mining, industries, transport, etc.) and the social sectors. In addition to the workshop itself, shorter programmes on HIV and Development can be organized in each country, for politicians, for community organizations and NGOs, UNVs and others. These have been held in many countries including Australia, Austria, Chile, India, Jamaica, Morocco, Philippines, Nicaragua and Senegal.
For more on HIV/AIDS, see Themes and Resources
This UNICEF exhibit shows the impact of HIV/AIDS on children and serves as an educational forum for AIDS prevention and awareness. The virtual exhibit was launched at the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva (28 June - 3 July 1998) and is an important component of the World AIDS Campaign with Young People as Forces for Change. It is a unique interactive forum enabling young people to speak out on HIV/AIDS and to comment on their activities to promote awareness and prevention. The exhibit examines the social and economic toll of this global epidemic on families, youth and children, including the millions of AIDS-orphans and other vulnerable groups.
In 23-24 April 1998 a Regional Conference on the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS was held in Kiev. The four countries participating were Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Belarus and Kazakhstan which are all confronted with a concentrated epidemic driven by very high rates of infection among intravenous drug users. This combined with dramatically rising rates of sexually transmitted infections means that the region is in danger of moving from a concentrated epidemic to one which is more generalized.
The workshop brought together senior politicians from the four countries and experts from UNAIDS, the World Bank and the British Council together in Ukraine to develop clear recommendations for submission to the governments of the countries. It provided an opportunity for politicians and technical experts to spend two days together with the following goals: developing a common base of knowledge and experience in understanding the problem as involving a range of social, economic and cultural issues; examining the options for national policies in relation to prevention, mitigation and legal provision; exploring issues of regional concern between the four countries and developing modalities for inter-ministerial national responses and regional co-operation.
For an executive summary of the meeting, including agenda and recommendations go to UNAIDS Pages
Every two years, a series of "thematic workshops" are held for the benefit of staff of the UNFPA Technical Support Services (TSS) system - principally the regional Advisers working in the eight inter-agency Country Support Teams (CST), but also TSS staff in the main agencies' headquarters or at the UN. The main organizers are the ILO Specialist in Population and Poverty and the FAO Specialist in Population and Environment, in co-operation with TSS and other staff of their respective Agencies.
The overall purpose of this Workshop - to be held in Rome on 26-30 October 1998 - is to help CST Advisers identify and deal with the programme implications of the linkages between population trends, incidence of poverty and environmental degradation, in the context of the recommendations of international fora such as UNCED and ICPD. Accordingly, the work will focus on exploring various linkages of concern to countries and discussing related programmatic and methodological issues. The importance of understanding local specificities for the sake of policy formulation - in the population, poverty and environment domains - is expected to be a running thread in workshop discussions.
The ACC Network will follow-up on this workshop and publicize the results and recommendations on its website.
The Network's Thematic Group in the Philippines is making progress. For information on the Thematic Group, its membership, mandate and planned activities, follow this link.
Thematic Groups in other countries are encouraged to contribute relevant information on their achievements and activities which could be posted on-line in future updates of this Web site.