23rd February 2006

Power belongs to the people, but not in Uganda

JOSEPHINE OSIKENA, Director of Democracy and Development at the Foreign Policy Centre, today said:

"The wave of Ugandan elections will be anything but free and fair. Why should they be? Regrettably, President Yoweri Museveni appears to have lost all respect for the ballot box and, for the most part, the election results have been predetermined. Voters have either been scared off by violence and intimidation or they have become completely apathetic."

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16th January 2006

STEPHEN TWIGG, Director of the Foreign Policy Centre today said:

"Libya, not Iraq is the model for dealing with Iran, and bringing about a solution to the country's nuclear ambitions.

"The current coverage in the media of the crisis over Iran's moves to resume research and development of nuclear fuel is in danger of being portrayed in the same light as the build-up to the war with Iraq. While Iran's move to resume nuclear fuel research is a worrying development, there is still the opportunity for a diplomatic solution to the current crisis."

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21 October 2005

"Post-secondary education in Africa must be the focus for EU" – former Schools Minister

STEPHEN TWIGG, Director of the Foreign Policy Centre, and a former Minister for School Standards today said:

"Thanks to G8 leaders, over the next 5 years the EU has $100 billion to spend on African Development. On Monday and Tuesday, Hilary Benn will meet with his EU counterparts to discuss how that money is spent. I urge those Ministers to read the Foreign Policy Centre's action plan, "Leeds Manifesto; How to Spend $100 billion for Africa" and give a new focus to investing in post-secondary education in Africa.

"We must see education in the round – it is not just about books for school-children, but it is a means for people of all ages to escape poverty. Post-secondary education in Africa must be the focus for the EU.

Download the press release (10 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

By Thiago de Aragao.

Nobody should be surprised at the result of the referendum on autonomy held on Sunday, May 04, in the province of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. The highly anticipated "Yes" victory, to be confirmed by the end of the week when the vote's official results are due to be released, has led to reactions by Bolivia's central government and by the Santa Cruz government too, which did not expect a different result.

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By Alex Bigham. Source: The Guardian's Comment is Free

After meeting on the rugby pitch for their annual match, Fiji's police and army found themselves on opposite sides of a coup d'etat.

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By Richard Gowan. Source: The Globalist

As the United Nations prepares to replace its leader of the past ten years, Ghana's Kofi Annan, with Ban Ki Moon of South Korea, the organisation may be experiencing an eastward shift in more than just the Secretary General's office. As Richard Gowan notes, the UN's peacekeeping focus is already shifting from Africa to the Middle East.

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Feng Zhang, FPC China Programme Manager

In association with Coca-Cola Great Britain

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This is an initial background paper to accompany the FPC project on Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Markets in association with Coca-Cola Great Britain.

Josephine Osikena

Barrow Cadbury Trust, WAITS

Download Understanding Women's Social Capital (1.24 megabyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

2005 Global Exchange Forum Report

Greg Austin and Claude Misson

October 2005

Download Leeds Manifesto (200 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

The EU has promised to double aid to Africa in the next five years to complement a new effort by the eight richest countries to promote the welfare, prosperity and security of ordinary Africans. In the last year, EU aid ministers have been offered thousands of pages of advice on how to spend this money. There is a fear that they may double the size of existing aid bureaucracies in Brussels and at home to deliver the increases. African countries will certainly face problems absorbing a doubling of aid if it is delivered through traditional aid mechanisms. This short manifesto is a plea to EU Aid Ministers to take a strategic approach to spending the new money in ways that actually enable more individual Africans to take the lead in transforming their own economic and social systems.

The Foreign Policy Centre, with the support of Abbott UK, has hosted a series of roundtable discussions to identify concrete and practical ways in which the lives of African women and girls affected by HIV/AIDS can be transformed. The areas of discussion and analysis included: building sustainable healthcare systems, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission and child survival, and stigma and discrimination.

If you would like more information about this project, or would like to receive a copy of the final report when it is published in spring 2009, please email: events@fpc.org.uk

Download Concept note - 'Women & children first' (60 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

The FPC and the Open University's International Development and Innovation, Knowledge and Development Centres, in partnership with Lovells, hosted a one-day conference on Friday 21 November which explored the impact of commodities on development in Africa and China. The event sought to illuminate the complex and intricate relationships that constitute the ever-evolving engagement between the People's Republic of China and the continent of Africa. Energy, minerals and agricultural commodities provided a unique and topical framework through which to explore emerging Africa-China relations.

If you would like to receive a copy of the Conference report when it is published in early 2009, please send your details by email to: events@fpc.org.uk.

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Download Conference programme & Concept note - 'Going for Growth' (120 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Date: Thursday 6 November, 6.00-7.30pm

Venue: Thatcher Room, Portcullis House, Houses of Parliament, Victoria Embankment, London SW1A 2LW

Speakers:

Conor Foley, author, journalist & humanitarian aid worker

Rt Hon Dr Denis MacShane MP, former Minister for Europe

Oliver Kamm, Leader Writer, The Times

Chair: James Darcy, Director of Programmes, Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute

At this Foreign Policy Centre and Verso event, humanitarian aid worker Conor Foley outlined the thesis of his new book, 'The Thin Blue Line: How Humanitarianism Went to War', and Rt Hon Dr Denis MacShane MP and Oliver Kamm of The Times presented their responses to it.

The idea that we should 'do something' to help those suffering in far-off places is the main impulse driving those who care about human rights. Yet from Kosovo to Iraq, military interventions have gone disastrously wrong.

In his ground-breaking new book, Conor Foley explores how the doctrine of humanitarian intervention has been used to allow states to invade other nations in the name of human rights. Drawing on his own experience of working in over a dozen conflict and post-conflict zones, Foley shows how the growing influence of international law has been used to over-ride the sovereignty of the poorest countries in the world.

Download 'The Thin Blue Line' - Conor Foley book launch & discussion (110 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

FPC & Clifford Chance

The FPC and Clifford Chance recently hosted the following guest speakers:

HE Dr AGUINALDO JAIME, Deputy Prime Minister of Angola & HE Rt Hon DONALD MCKINNON, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat

The rule of law and access to justice are vital to Africa's economic and social development. However, the challenge of reform is enormous due to the complex reality of each sovereign state. This seminar explored important thematic developments in rule of law reform across the continent, taking a local, national and regional focus.

The FPC research project, Courting Justice: Rule of Law Reform in Africa, was launched at a high level roundtable to be hosted by Clifford Chance. The programme will culminate in an autumn lecture by the Secretary of State for International Development, Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP as well as the publication of a pamphlet which will include a collection of short essays by distinguished writers.

Other speakers included:

Dr Kofi Oteng Kufuor, University of East London

Dr Fareda Banda, School of Oriental and African Studies

Dr Chaloka Beyani, London School of Economics and Political Science

Laure-Hélène Piron, Department for International Development (DFID)

16th March 2006

FPC launches Latin America work with seminar on sustainable development

Stephen Twigg, Director of the Foreign Policy Centre, chaired 'Enterprise in Emerging Economies - Who Can Deliver Sustainable Development?', a round-table discussion launching what the FPC hopes to be the first in a series of events and publications on Latin America.

The seminar was attended by a number of figures from the private, public and NGO sectors. Among the speakers were HE Mr Luis Solari Tudela, Peruvian Ambassador to the UK; Paul Bulcke, Nestlé's Executive Vice President for the Americas; and Thiago de Aragão, a Brazilian political analyst and the FPC's new Latin America Research Associate.

31 October 2005

The FPC hosted a seminar on Democracy and Human Rights in Nigeria at the House of Commons, on Monday 31 October 2005. The main speakers at the event were Olisa Agbakoba, a senior Human Rights lawyer, Boma Ozobia a senior maritime lawyer specialising in the oil and gas sector, Rotimi Sankore, a distinguished journalist and Human Rights Campaigner and Sir Stephen Wall, former adviser to the Prime Minister on foreign affairs. The meeting was chaired by Malcolm Bruce MP, Chair of the International Development Select Committee.

"Nigeria is like a limited liability company owned by 120 million shareholders. The company's shareholders elect the company's employees at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Tasks are shared among the elected employees and tenure of office is established with a provision for re-election, based on performance, at the next AGM. The dilemma in Nigeria is that the elected employees have stolen the electoral process. They do not want to go. How will the shareholders reclaim their company?"

Olisa Agbakoba

In collaboration with the Migration Policy Group

Diasporas are an important agent in the pursuit of foreign policy objectives. However, most of the research carried out at present focuses on the economic impacts of transnationalism, from the so-called 'brain drain' to the impact on development of remittances sent back by migrants to poorer countries.

Further information