BUILD e-newsletter

December 2007

Conference on Links to West Africa

As part of BUILD’s international links mapping exercise we held a conference on links to West Africa at the Guildhall in collaboration with the Hull Freetown Society and the Hull City Council. This coincided with the 2007 Wilberforce celebrations of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. The conference was attended by the Mayor and Bishop of Freetown and Lord Mayor of Hull. Total number of attendees was 60 with 45% of attendees from WA and including people from or with connections to 10 West African countries i.e. Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry, Mali, Western Sahara, Ivory Coast.

Outcomes

  • Sharing and networking
  • Discussions re support for schools partnerships with SL through the Freetown local Authority.
  • The role of Faith organisations in school partnerships
  • The role of Fairtrade in school and community partnerships
  • The role of diaspora organisations in linking programme

Meeting with the Wales/ SomalilandTwinning Link

We met with Chair Nuradin M Abdi and Harris Nyatsanza the Director to discuss the potential for the development of school and health care partnerships between Wales and Somaliland through the Somaliland diaspora community in South Wales.

We have held meetings with Craig Owen the project leader of the Gold Star Communitiespilot in Walesand attended the launch of the initiative by First Minister, Welsh Assembly, Rhodri Morgan in the presence of representatives of the five communities who are undertaking the project. We are making plans to meet with Christophe Nuttall, Director of the UNDP programme ‘Hub for Innovative Partnerships’, in the New Year to encourage further commitment by the UN.

Political Meetings

July 3rd BUILD members (THET, Nigel Griffiths MP and Nick Maurice) met with Lord (Nigel) Crisp and Professor Keith McAdam Director of the Infectious Diseases Institute in Kampala to discuss the implementation of the Crisp Report into which we had had input when in 2006 we invited 16 Health based NGOs to the Dutch Barn to report to Nigel Crisp.

September 12th meeting with Andrew Mitchell MP, (UKOWLA, PLAN) Opposition spokesperson on International Development. This was an opportunity to brief him on linking in international development. We discussed the BUILD programme and focussed on the DFID Global School Partnerships programme and the new DFID linking scheme.

Thanks to Nigel Griffiths MP26 members of BUILD held a meeting on 11th October with the all-party parliamentary group “Connecting Communities” and Shahid Malik, Under-Secretary of State for International Development. The following commitments were made:-

Shahid Malik will:-

  • keep the APPG informed of progress on the DFID LInking Scheme
  • use the Crisp Report to engage in dialogue and discussion with DoH
  • meet with Liam Burn to discuss issues around visas for incoming linking partners
  • meet with Alan Johnson re implementation of Crisp Report
  • will speak to colleagues in Wales and Scotland re DFID linking Programme
  • will discuss with Peter Hain the barriers to volunteering e.g. pension rights and job security
  • Bring the issue of hard to reach communities to intergovernmental meetings
  • BUILD will keep Shahid Malik informed of work around impact of school and community partnerships
  • Andrew Purkis from THET willprovide Shahid Malik with a briefing paper prior to his meeting with Alan Johnson
  • Kathy Peach from VSO willprovide Shahid Malik with paper outlining issues around volunteering.

November 8thmeeting with Minister at FCO Lord (Mark) Malloch Brown to brief him on progress on linking.

December 5th Meeting with Bill Rammell MP, Minister for InnovationUniversities and Skills and educational members of BUILD (VSO, Plan, LCD, UKOWLA). He is very committed to school and further and higher education partnerships. He was influential in promoting school partnerships with Education Ministers at their meeting in Cape Town, December 2006. We discussed the Impact Assessment in which he was extremely interested and immediately appreciated the value of having ‘scientific’ as opposed to anecdotal evidence of impact. It was an opportunity to talk about some of the constraints on volunteers in education in terms of employment and pension rights which VSO will follow up and the implementation of the recommendations of the Crisp Report particularly in relation to medical training in the context of international partnerships. Bill Rammell promised to follow up action on the Crisp Report.

November 8thMeeting with David Peck, International Adviser to the Archbishop of CanterburyRowan Williams

Stephen Lyon, John Whitaker and Nick Maurice met with David Peck to discuss the role of C of E school partnerships in the context of the Diocesan Links and the forthcoming Lambeth Conference. It was agreed that Stephen and David would follow up discussions with the Education Division and Stephen would arrange a fringe meeting for BUILD at the Lambeth Conference in July 2008 at which school partnerships would be discussed within the broader context of education. BUILD will provide administrative support.

November 20thWe planned and executed a workshop at the Commonwealth People’s Forum, Kampala.

The BUILDWorkshop “Realising Potential through Common Health and Wellbeing” was attended by nine BUILD members and 43 influential people from education, health and faith-based disciplines. The workshop was chaired by Dr Faith Mwangi-Powell, Kenyan Director of the African Palliative Care Association. We heard presentations from the researchers into the impact of school partnerships, representatives of healthe.g. East London Mental Health and Butabika Psychiatric Hospital link and Daventry / Iganga public health partnership and faith-based linking organisations e.g. Muslim Aid and United Methodist Committee on Relief partnership, Faith Regen and Anglican diocesan links. The workshop report is available on .

The outcome was a commitment by all to the development of high quality, community-based partnerships based on respect and mutual learning. We had good input into the communiqué that went to the Foreign Ministers, which resulted in a statement in the communiqué from HOGs ….“Heads urged civil society to support partnerships and linking for progress in health systems, education for all and sustaining the environmental resource base. They also recognised the role of civil society in achieving Commonwealth objectives including development and respect for cultural diversity”. We felt that we had achieved as much as could have been expected and have plans to follow up the outcomes with Mark Collins, Director of the Commonwealth Foundation looking ahead to the next Commonwealth People’s Forum in Trinidad and Tobago..

There were follow-up questions on the CHOGM raised in the House of Lords during which Frank Judd on our behalf raised a question of Lord Malloch Brown about “the contribution that can be made to understanding and reconciliation between different communities by communities getting together in partnership throughout the Commonwealth”. To which came the response that the “theme of community reconciliation ran strongly through the discussions both at Foreign Ministers and subsequently at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting….”

Governance Issues

Thanks to Margaret Burr and other BUILD members we have held extremely useful meetings on BUILD’s Governance. The recommendations

from these meetings will be approved at the BUILD EGM on 29 February 2008.

BUILD

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