Shaping the Future We Want: Country Sustainability, Migrating Women and MDGs

Welcome to this week’s roundup of progress initiatives, articles and reports.

• Measuring Country Intangibles: RobecoSAM’s Country Sustainability Ranking by the RobecoSAM Group assesses the sustainability (their ability to "safeguard the needs of its future generations») of 59 countries- 21 developed and 38 emerging- by focusing on three dimensions: the environment, the society and the governance. This report’s results found Sweden (8.25/10) to be the most sustainable country, with it scoring well on all three dimensions while at the other end, was Nigeria (2.51/10). At the 36th place, South Africa is the most sustainable country in the African continent with a score of 5.22.

• Statistics and indicators for the post-2015 development agenda by the UN Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Agenda provides an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the MDG indicators and outlines data innovations in new critical areas such as inequalities, governance, sustainability and population.  It states that subjective indicators of well-being can cover the limits of the objective data on development in the domains of political processes, corruption, equitable social services and health and work satisfaction.

• Innovation Africa Twitterati. In concordance with the upcoming launch of the Africa 2063 strategy and the role of social media in shaping what will be relevant in this panafrican strategy, the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs will regularly recognize 63 leaders to follow on Twitter.

• Shaping Our Collective Futures by The African Women’s Development and Communication Network calls for contributions related to the state of women in the context of the upcoming review of the  the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+20) that was implemented 20 years before. Will we see more progress in gender equality or do we risk going backwards? And what needs to be done to safeguard this progress? The seventh and special edition of the African Women's Journal will seek to address such issues and aspires to make the voices of those most hidden by inequalities (those living with disabilities, pastoralist communities, slum dwellers, rural, indigenous, religious or ethnic minorities) heard.

• Wikigender, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC), Wikiprogress and Wikichild would like to hear your views on the linkages between the social norms that discriminate against women  and migration processes in from September 2^nd to September 15^th in their online discussion themed: The impact of social norms on female migration. We are looking forwad to reading your views. Follow the discussion on Twitter with the hashtag #migration join it anytime through this link: http://bit.ly/16TdlNJ.We recommend viewing this video series of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women for an insightful view of this phenomenon:

We hope you enjoyed this review. Stay tuned the same time next week for another roundup of the week that was.

Yours in progress,

The Wikiprogress Team

Realizing Africa's Potential, Integrity Indicators, Climate Conference and the Latin America Network

Hello everyone and welcome to this roundup of Africa-themed progress initiatives, articles and reports. Among this week’s highlights, we found:

• This Call for Contributions: African Integrity Indicators by Global Integrity  which is embarking on a partnership with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to prepare the African Integrity Indicators (AII) 2013-2014. The project assesses key social, economic, political and anti-corruption mechanisms at the national level in all African countries. 

• Special Report on Africa: Realizing Africa’s Potential by This is Africa, The Skoll World Forum and the Rockefeller Foundation. This series aims to find what are going to be the game-changing innovations in the African agricultural sector and how the financing of this sector can be unlocked. Experts from governments, NGOs and the international organizations gives us some answers to these questions. Among the featured articles, there is Uniting Africa to Face Climate Change by Richard Wilcox of the African Union and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s Finance Minister.

• The Africa Climate Conference 2013 organized under the auspices of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the African Climate Policy Center (ACPC), will bring together decision-makers and climate researchers, scientists and practitioners from Africa and around the world will happen at Arusha, Tanzania from the 15^th to the 18^th of October of this year. The expected outcome from the Conference is a set of concrete research proposals to address the critical gaps in our knowledge of the African climate system.

• Join Wikiprogress America Latina  which was spotlighted this week on Wikiprogress. In preparation for the 5^th OECD World forum, Wikiprogress America Latina will start a series of discussions around Well-being, Quality of Life, Progress and its relationship with the design and implementation of public policy. Watch this space for updates and further information about the dates and themes so that you can share your experiences and perspectives with us. Do not miss the latest developments on well-being and happiness in Latin America, which are due to be highlighted in this blog and here.

We hope you enjoyed this review. Stay tuned the same time next week for another roundup of the week that was.

Yours in progress,

The Wikiprogress Team

World Health Report, an African View of the Post 2015 and Ground Level Panels

Hello everyone and welcome to this week in review. Among this week’s highlights:

• Reflecting the Realities, Needs and Priorities in Monitoring Human and Social Development in Africa Beyond 2015 by UNECA’s African Centre of Statistics contributes to the debate around the post-2015 development framework by addressing the limits of the current Millennium Development Goals Framework and by its formulation of an African perspective of what should be the focus after their due date.

•  The 2013 Global Food Security Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the 2013 Global Food Security Index shows that Sub-Saharan African nations made progress this past year, with the top three most improved Sub-Saharan countries - Ethiopia, Botswana and Niger - rising an average of eight places in the index. Improvements were attributed to greater food availability and income growth. Of the 10 countries whose scores improved the most, five were in Sub-Saharan Africa, including two of the top three.

• The Service Delivery Indicators Initiative: Monitoring Health and Education performances in Africa. This blog addresses the main contribution of the recently launched Service Delivery Indicators in the monitoring of health and education policies in Africa and its potential impact of governance and transparency through the collection, management and availability of data in these two sectors. The video below shows how healthcare provision is improved in three Nigerian states 

•   Ground Level Panels offer reality check to UN High Level Panel’s (HLP) proposals for development by Catherine Setchell of the Institute of Development Studies gives voices to the different minorities of the world such as disabled people, urban slum dwellers, people living in conflict or disaster-hit areas through four Ground Level Panels  that took place in Egypt, Brazil, Uganda and India. Different goals, such as rule of law, equity, or a “global life plan” were promoted in these participatory panels, which gives an interesting view of the world’s people’s expectations for the post 2015 development framework.

• The 2013 World Health Report was published this August 15th by the World Health Organization. The World Health Report: Research for Universal Health Coverage focuses on the importance of research in advancing progress towards universal health coverage. In addition, it identifies the benefits of increased investment in health research by low- and middle-income countries using case studies from around the world, and proposes ways to further strengthen this type of research.

We hope you enjoyed this review. Stay tuned the same time next week for another riveting read on the week that was.

Yours in progress,

Ousmane Aly Diallo

Fight Poverty with Data, Population and Beyond GDP indicators!

Welcome to this week’s review of progress initiatives, publications and articles. Here are the highlights from this week:

• Mesurer la pauvreté multidimensionnelle: cadres conceptuels, identification des facteurs et robustesse aux schémas de pondération, a study by Morocco’s High Commission of Planning on the measurement of multidimensional poverty, different approaches to measure it and their inherent limits.

• How can we provide enough jobs for young people in Africa? In this Guardian article Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s Finance Minister, proposes 5 recommendations that include: empowerment through education for girls and women and the development of skills.

• Characterizing Demand for ‘Beyond GDP’  report by BRAINPOoL.
• Where is the demand for Beyond GDP indicators? 
• Which actors are interested in using such indicators and how do they want to use them? 
•  How might a societal demand for these indicators be understood? And, when there is a lack of demand, what factors explain it? 

These are the questions that are posed and answered in this recent report by BRAINPOoL, the EU funded project on bringing alternative indicators into policy

Where is the demand for ‘Beyond GDP’ indicators? from Wikiprogress_slides

• Service Delivery Indicators Initiative, an Africa-wide initiative launched by the World Bank, the African Economic Research Consortium and the African Development Bank. It determines the links between public expenditure and human development outcomes. This initiative will assess the quality and performance of education and health services for decision-makers to track progress, and to hold governments accountable for citizens.

• Global Corruption Barometer 2013, yearly publication of the NGO, Transparency International. Based on a survey of 114,000 people in 107 countries, it shows that corruption is still widespread and remains a serious issue. Among the surveyed, 27% of respondents admitted to have paid a bribe when accessing public services and institutions in the last 12 months, revealing no improvement from previous surveys. This blog by Craig Fagan of Transparency International, Are Bribery Rates in Poor Countries Blocking Development, examines the links between governance, corruption and the Millennium Development Goals.

• Fight Poverty with Data by Varad Pande and Molly Elgin-Cossart addresses the need for a data revolution to eradicate poverty. For the authors, improved data will lead to better programs, foster accountability from citizens to their governments as well as tackling inequality by ensuring that no one is left behind in the policies.

• Aid for Trade at a Glance 2013: Connecting to Value Chains, a joint OECD-WTO report that assesses what is happening, what is not, and what needs to be improved in the Aid-for-Trade program. The report shows that the initiative is delivering tangible results in improving trade performance and bettering people’s lives, notably those of women in developing countries. Mr. Angel Gurria, OECD’s Secretary-General reviews the report and the program in this blog post.

• World Population Day was celebrated on 11 July and the theme for this year was Adolescent Pregnancy. UNFPA released a report, Marrying Too Young: Ending Child Marriage, with recommendation for policymakers on how to end child marriage.

We hope you enjoyed the week in review. Stay tuned the same time next week for another riveting read on the week that was.

Yours in progress,

Ousmane AlyDiallo

Week in Review

Hello everyone and welcome on board for this week in review. Among other highlights, we have:

• Impact of the Internet in Africa: Establishing conditions for success and catalyzing inclusive growth in Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Nigeria, by the Dalberg Group in coordination with Google. It intends to help policymakers capture the potential of the Internet for social and economic development—to help them understand how their societies already use the Internet, where the opportunities lie, what future potential for social impact the Internet offers, and what their countries need to get there.

• Africa Monitoring System Initiative, a joint initiative of Conservation International (CI), the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa, the Earth Institute (EI), Columbia University. It aims to track, monitor and diagnose agricultural productivity, ecosystem health, and human well-being in African landscapes with near real-time data to better understand the opportunities and trade-offs of increased agricultural production.

• Gouvernance, croissance économique et lutte contre la pauvreté: liens et éléments de politiques by Abdeslam Nada of the Haut-Commissariat au Plan (Morocco), analyzes the links between good governance and poverty rates. Using a quantitative methodology, the author demonstrates that good governance is positively correlated with a high economic growth and a reduced poverty rate. The author also recommends several social investment policies (on education, health and jobs) and a better monitoring-evaluation framework to increase the effectiveness of these policies in reducing the number of people below the poverty line.

• Infographic: Africa from Top to Bottom, by Master of Finance Degrees and Think Africa Press, goes beyond the GDP in measuring the performance of African countries. This is achieved in part by using dozens of different indicators for each of the ranking's four main pillars – law and safety, economic opportunity, human development, and human rights. Mauritius, Cape Verde, Botswana, Seychelles and South Africa form the top 5 of this ranking.

• Wikichild’s online discussion on “How child well-being should be measured in view of future development frameworks?” ended this week. Diverse themes such as health, safety, education, resilience have been put forward by the participants. We thank you forward for the 51 interesting comments and look forward for more discussion on pressing issues. This blog post by Melinda George, the new Wikichild coordinator, gives an interesting overview of the discussion.

We hope to see you next week for more progress-themed articles. Wikiprogress focus for July and August will be “Networks”.

Stay tuned by following us on Twitter (@wp_africa) and on Facebook (here).

Ousmane Aly DIALLO
Wikiprogress Africa Coordinator

Environment Week in Review

Hello everyone and welcome to this Environment-themed Week in Review. Highlights include World Environment Day and UNEP’s report, Reducing Food Loss and Waste, that was released during the Event, the 2013 State of Food and Agricuture by the FAO, UN’s report on Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk and Wikichild’s upcoming online discussion on how to measure child well-being (from June 19th to July 2^nd).

• World Environment Day was celebrated on June 5th throughout the world. The theme for this year’s WED celebrations is Think.Eat.Save, an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce your footprint. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.

• UNEP’s working paper, Reducing Food Loss and Waste, was released during the event and echoes the same dire reports that the FAO. It states that more than half of the food lost and wasted in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia occurs close to the fork-at the consumption stage. By contrast, in developing countries, about two-thirds of the food lost and wasted occurs close to the farm-after harvest and storage.

• FAO released its flagship report, The State of Food and Agriculture 2013: Food Systems for Better Nutrition, which addresses the need to improve food systems in order to address malnutrition in the world. The report calls for policymakers to address malnutrition through changes in food systems, public health and education, as well as improvements in supply chains and agricultural productivity. It also provides an overview of the linkages between agriculture, quality food, health and the economy, emphasizing that agriculture and the entire food system can contribute much more to the eradication of malnutrition.

• The Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR) is a biennial global assessment of disaster risk reduction and comprehensive review and analysis of the natural hazards that are affecting humanity. The economic and social costs of these disasters were highlighted in the final report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons for the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

• This month (from June 19th to July 2nd), Wikichild will be hosting an online discussion on how child well-being should be measured in view of future development frameworks, in partnership with HBSC and the World Health Organization. We look forward to reading your comment on this interesting and primordial theme. Join the conversation on Twitter by following #childwellbeing for updates.

We hope to see you next week for more environment-related articles. Stay tuned this month for the Global Wind Day and World Ocean’s Day.

Follow us on Twitter (@wp_africa) and on Facebook (here).

Ousmane Aly DIALLO

Wikiprogress Africa Coordinator