Wales for Africa: A Framework for Welsh Assembly Government Action on International Sustainable Development

Foreword

In all areas of Wales there are thousands of people in hundreds of groups active in support of international development - from schools twinned with a school in Africa to the big agencies raising millions to support major projects, from children asking their local shop to stock fair trade chocolate to participation in international campaigns to change world trade rules. International development is an issue that the people of Wales care passionately about.

Whilst the main responsibility for international development within the United Kingdom lies with the UK Department for International Development (DfID), there is a demand within  Wales for there to be an identifiable Welsh response to contributing to international development and addressing emergencies. This reflects Wales’ source of duty as an international citizen and our legal duty as a government in Wales to promote sustainable development in the exercise of all our functions.

Actions that we take in support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) must, under the terms of the devolution settlement, have a benefit to Wales as well as to the developing world. This imposes limits to the range of activities we can support but at the same time ensures that our actions will be more sustainable and based on a partnership of equals.

It is a great privilege for me to launch this first ever Wales-wide Framework which lays out the context and areas in which we want to work. As the Framework is rolled out in detail over the coming months, we will announce a series of actions in support of international sustainable development that are distinctive, relevant and impactful. We will continue to consider how we impact on developing countries as we go about the business of government and to ask the question “What can the Welsh Assembly Government do to help the delivery of the Millennium Development Goals?”

International development is complex and difficult and best practise is evolving. As we start such a programme it is important that we retain the flexibility to enable us to respond to events and opportunities and do not narrow our options unnecessarily. With this in mind we have decided that we will, as far as possible, limit our activities to those countries in Sub Saharan Africa where Wales has existing links rather than focus our efforts exclusively on one country or region. This approach will benefit the strong link built over the last 20 years with Lesotho and also the many other smaller links with communities and institutions in Uganda, Ethiopia and elsewhere as well as the links we have with Somaliland through the Welsh Somali community.

The case studies in this Framework give a flavour of the diverse range of activities being undertaken in and from Wales. In launching this Framework I want to encourage everyone in Wales to join with us in considering what they can do to help make the Millennium Development Goals to halve global poverty by 2015 a reality.

Rt Hon Rhodri Morgan AM

Introduction

In July 2005 the Welsh Assembly Government committed itself to the development of this International Sustainable Development Framework. A draft document was consulted upon between December 2005 and March 2006 and the responses informed this document.

The Welsh Assembly Government’s Sustainable Development Action Plan will involve us in working with partners to identify a positive Welsh contribution to the MDGs, and also to work with partners to make Wales a Fair Trade Country.

International sustainable development has featured strongly in our contribution to the network of regional governments for sustainable development (nrg4SD) which we helped to found at the Johannesburg Earth Summit in 2002.

Key Principles

1. This Framework outlines the ways in which the Welsh Assembly Government will make a distinctive contribution to delivery of the UN Millennium Development Goals and to responding to disasters and emergencies overseas. This work will be based on the following principles:

• building effective links between Wales and developing countries in Sub Saharan Africa by facilitating the transfer and exchange of knowledge, skills and expertise to and from where they are needed most in the world;
• ensuring that any actions undertaken are mutually beneficial;
• ensuring that sustainable development is at the core of all work undertaken;
• complementing UK government international sustainable development policy and the work of the major agencies - we will continue to work closely with the Department for International Development;
• reflecting the concerns and connections of the people and communities of Wales in international sustainable development and disaster relief;
• using public procurement and support to business as a proactive tool for supporting poverty alleviation;
• learning and applying the lessons from the Tsunami and Kashmiri earthquake responses from Wales;
• delivering the Millennium Development Goals. Wales has particular expertise in education, health, gender and language issues and has a strong civil society. Any actions supported will have an explicit MDG link.

Reporting and Review

2. Progress on the Framework will be reported to the Assembly as part of the Annual Sustainable Development Report.

3. The Framework will be reviewed annually.

The Plan

The Welsh Assembly Government will continue to ask the question “What can we do to help the delivery of the MDGs within the terms of the devolution settlement?” We have already identified and consulted upon the following areas.

Welsh Assembly Government response to International Disasters

The Assembly Government will seek to:

• encourage international disaster preparedness in Wales and enable and support appropriate volunteering at times of disaster;
• support diaspora communities in Wales in their efforts to respond to international disasters in their homeland;
• support efforts to both encourage public donations to emergency appeals and channel individual and community effort most effectively.

Welsh Assembly Government contribution to International Sustainable Development

The Assembly Government will seek to:

• encourage public sector placements and twinning which contribute to MDG delivery;
• build the capacity of small Welsh International Development Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) and aid the co-ordination of the sector as a whole in order to strengthen Wales’ impact on MDG delivery;
• promote and encourage international sustainable development volunteering to the Welsh public and public sector staff;
• work with partners to facilitate the work of diaspora communities in Wales in maximising their impact on MDG delivery in their home country;
• continue to support the campaign to make Wales the world’s first Fair Trade Country;
• promote best practice in Fair trade and ethical procurement across the public sector in Wales - making Wales a beacon of fair trade and ethical procurement in Europe.

The Millennium Development Goals

4. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are international targets on reducing global poverty by 2015. They were agreed by every UN Member State in 1999.

The eight goals are to:

• eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
• achieve universal primary education;
• promote gender equality and empower women;
• reduce child mortality by two thirds for children under five;
• improve maternal health;
• combat Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), malaria and other diseases;
• ensure environmental sustainability;
• develop a global partnership for development.

5. Achieving these goals would lift at least 500 million people out of poverty.

6. Six years have passed since the Millennium and the world is not on target to meet these goals. Whilst progress is being made in many areas, the targets for Sub Saharan Africa, in particular, are unlikely to be met. The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to undermine any progress that is made. Africa remains the only continent not on track to meet any of the
MDGs by 2015.

Emergencies

7. The public response to the Tsunami on 26 December 2004 and the Kashmiri earthquake on 8 October 2005 showed how strong the desire is in Wales to assist at times of international humanitarian crises.

8. Very many Welsh people are either heavily involved in humanitarian relief with major NGOs or volunteer their skills as and when they are able to do so.

9. There are a large number of individuals, organisations and businesses in Wales who, from time to time, engage in fundraising to support disaster and emergency response work. Several of the diaspora communities in Wales have been particularly affected by recent emergencies and responded accordingly.

Case studies

British International Rescue Dogs (BIRD)

www.bird.uk.net (external link)

BIRD was established in the early nineties to provide specialist collapsed structure dogs for use at international disasters. As this was a new concept within the UK (due to the quarantine regulations), BIRD was starting from scratch, however its members developed a set of standards by consulting with their contacts from the USA and Europe.

Whilst developing the dog team BIRD expanded by actively recruiting professional firefighters. This gave the team the capability to not only locate but to extract the casualty. BIRD are now full members of the National Urban Search and Rescue Dog Group and the United Kingdom International Search and Rescue Group.

They have been sent to the following locations:

• Turkey (twice) for earthquakes;
• Mozambique to undertake rescues and transport doctors and medical aid by small inflatable boats after severe flooding;
• Gujarat province in India, Bourmerdes region of Algeria and Bam in Iran - each time to assist immediately following earthquakes.

Most recently, in October 2005, a BIRD team was operational in Kashmir within 30hrs of the quake occurring. As a result of the speed of the deployment, BIRD, as part of the UK contingent, was the first international team to arrive in the area. BIRD rescued a local tailor named Tariq from the remains of his workshop in a 5hr rescue operation. He had been trapped for approximately 55hrs.

Southern Ethiopia Gwent Health Link

www.thet.org/ethiopia.cfm#dilla (external link)

In Ethiopia, a country of 71 million people, there are only 126 hospitals and 2000 doctors. The majority of the people depend for their health care on health centres and non-doctor frontline health workers such as health officers and nurses. Southern Ethiopia Gwent Health link has, since 2000, been supporting training of emergency and essential medical skills to these frontline health workers. Awassa College of Health Sciences has been supported through donation of over 3000 medical textbooks, teaching materials, mannequins, teaching microscopes and practical training programmes. The Gwent link has started a ‘Training the Trainers’ programme for the specialists in this college as well as for the other specialists working in all the hospitals in southern Ethiopia and runs a programme of Continuing Medical Education for all the health officers serving a population of over 15 million people. A similar training programme for the midwives has also been started recently.

They helped turn around a resource poor hospital in Dilla, closed for most emergencies, to a successful active district hospital, through provision of oxygen supply, blood transfusion services, essential equipment, instruments and training. The link is currently supporting six other hospitals in the region.

Their activity in Ethiopia is highly acclaimed by the World Health Organisation’s recently introduced Global Initiative on Emergency and Essential Care (GIEESC) programme and now the focal point for further development in this area in Ethiopia.

Bees for Development

www.beesfordevelopment.org (external link)

Beekeeping: strengthening livelihoods and fighting poverty

Give someone a fish; you have fed them for today. Provide useful information about beekeeping, and you have helped strengthen livelihoods, and fight poverty - for life!

Bees for Development, located in Monmouth, is an organisation dedicated to assisting beekeepers in developing countries through information dissemination, research and development.

For people in remote and poor areas, beekeeping is a feasible way to create food and income while at the same time the bees pollinate crops and wild plants, helping biodiversity. These people have little access to beekeeping information, even though the sector is changing fast and beekeepers must face the challenge of new market criteria and the spread of honeybee diseases.

To help them our unique Bees for Development Journal is sent to 4,000 recipients in 130 countries and provides practical advice on management techniques, marketing, producer empowerment as well as news of the latest developments in the field.

We also provide resources for training events, answer thousands of individual requests for advice, and undertake research projects to tackle issues that face the sector.

Bees for Development recognises that beekeeping offers the ultimate sustainable livelihood opportunity for poor people. Our goal is to enable the benefits of beekeeping to increase and reach more people.

Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Cymru

www.dec.org.uk (external link)

DEC member agencies in Wales recently came together to establish DEC Cymru as part of the DEC.

DEC Cymru includes: British Red Cross; Cafod; Christian Aid; Help the Aged; Oxfam Cymru; Save the Children; Tearfund.

When the DEC launches the next appeal, an English language Welsh version of the appeal broadcast presented by a Welsh celebrity, funded and produced by BBC Wales will be inserted into television schedules and broadcast throughout Wales. Producing a separate BBC Wales appeal broadcast for the first time in the 40-year history of the DEC will, we believe, be a major breakthrough. A distinctively Welsh focus for the appeal is expected to significantly increase the public’s engagement with the key message - and therefore their likelihood to give generously to the emergency appeal.

Other DEC member agencies: Actionaid; Care International UK; Concern; Islamic Relief; Merlin; World Vision UK.

Dolen Cymru

www.dolencymru.com (external link)

Dolen Cymru has been working for over twenty years to promote friendship and understanding between the peoples of Wales and her twinned nation of Lesotho, in Southern Africa. The link was launched in the Welsh Office in 1985 and became the first example of a country-to-country twinning in the world.

Dolen Cymru works directly with a partner organisation in Lesotho, the Lesotho Wales Link to facilitate projects and links between organisations, schools, higher education institutions, trade unions, villages, churches, districts, and health and education professionals from across Wales and Lesotho. The link emphasises the equitable nature of the relationship and encourages the sharing of skills and ideas, promoting tolerance and intercultural understanding as well as good global citizenship. To date, many hundreds of citizens from both countries have been able to take advantage of the opportunities presented.

Practical support has evolved on the basis of the understanding, ranging from a fire engine from Clwyd to medical texts and primary readers for many thousands of Basotho children.

More recently links have been established between the two National Assemblies of Lesotho and Wales and an attachment programme for building the capacity of staff from the National Assembly of Lesotho was successfully piloted in July 2006. The main programme currently run by Dolen Cymru is the Lesotho Teacher Placement Programme, which will place 24 teachers from Wales on 6-month placements in schools in Lesotho between 2005-08. This programme is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government’s Department for Education, Lifelong Learning & Skills. By running bilateral projects and the building of meaningful relationships, Dolen Cymru and Lesotho Wales Link enrich and improve the lives of people in Wales and Lesotho.

PONT - Partnerships Overseas Networking Trust

www.pont-mbale.org.uk (external link)

PONT was started in 2000 and has linked professionals and organisations in Pontypridd with their counterparts in Mbale, Uganda. The aim is to increase capacity and governance within Mbale to effectively distribute aid to the poorest families. There is much to learn about family and community values from the Ugandans making it a real partnership. So far over 60 visits have been made to Uganda, with over 100 planned for next year, meanwhile over 30 Ugandans have visited Pontypridd.

PONT started off with the help of international NGO’s, by visiting Mbale and evaluating the effectiveness of several indigenous NGO’s. They then asked them to network with each other and local government, identifying agreed priorities. The initial projects were training of primary care workers, distribution of mosquito nets, providing goats for orphans, twinning schools, churches and councillors. They are now taking hospital consultants and water engineers.

Fundraising consists of developing a regular committed donor base who receive regular updates, avoiding repeated “charity appeals” based on pity. All members of PONT are voluntary and all visits are totally self funded so all donations received can be passed on in full to Uganda.

Wales Fair Trade Forum

www.walesfairtradeforum.org.uk (external link)

Fair Trade is a partnership between consumers in the West and producers in developing countries.

Many of the products that we buy in supermarkets are grown by people who are not paid properly for their work, and so have to live in poverty. Furthermore many items are produced in terrible working conditions, with children sometimes working over 80 hours a week with dangerous chemicals.

Fair Trade guarantees:

•  a fair price to producers in developing countries - enough to pay a living wage;
• no child labour;
• safe working conditions;
• protection for the environment;
• a social premium.

The social premium is an extra amount of money that goes, not to the farmers, but to the whole community to pay for projects such as building schools, health care, clean water supplies etc.

The Wales Fair Trade Forum helps to co-ordinate Fair Trade activity in Wales and is working to make Wales the world’s first ever Fair Trade country. This involves working with the Welsh Assembly Government, councils, public bodies, schools, churches, and local Fair Trade action groups.