Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

08 August 2018

Post No. 51

 

 

The Week’s Contents

• Trending for Poverty Relief: Tourism as trade creator and income generator

• Children, Youth and Family Happiness Projects

• Summer Moments

   … and much more!

 

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

August trends at CENFACS

Our integration theme of Track, Trip and Trending is in the week two.  The main focus is to get the three components of this integrating theme working and running at the same time.  Our sharing and engaging two keynotes (that is Track and Trip to the need) of this main integrating theme are in progress. 

We are asking to all participants to not forget to keep records of their activities as well as to put in place some monitoring tools to measure and communicate the impacts of their work.

Tourism as a trade creator and income generator for the poor

The third keynote or project identifier of August month is Trending for Poverty Relief, that is the following and tracking of the direction in poverty reduction (Trending) through Tourism.  

After introducing our trending keynote and starting to follow the direction of poverty relief through tourism in creating employment opportunities for the poor and supporting pro-poor growth, we are now this week dealing with tourism as a trade creator and income generator for the poor. 

It is about looking at the value or decency of tourism in creating trade and generating income for the poor.  As said above, this is the second phase of August trending activities on tourism and tourists to the need. 

For more on tourism as trade creator and income generator, please read further under the Main Development section of this post.

Children, Young People and Family Happiness Projects

Our Happiness season is moving smoothly with Children, Young People and Family Happiness Projects.  Likewise, our fundraising campaign for the season (Appeal Projects) is still open to everybody who wants to donate and support the deserving causes of poor children, young people and families over this Summer time.  For further details on support, go to http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

DONATE NOW! Thanks! 

As said previously, our development calendar operates in such a way to take into account the living patterns of our users and stakeholders.  Most of them would normally be in holiday at this time of the year. 

We hope that for most of them, who are in holiday or have taken a summer break at this time of the year, are enjoying their breaks or holidays.  From CENFACS’ part, we would like to wish them Happy Summer wherever you/they are (at home or away).  For those who have to work at this time of the year, we also wish them well in their work or whatever they are doing to survive.

Our Six Summer Happiness projects are still running.  For those who are using them, please mind the integrity, spirit and principles of these projects.  They are designed to support you throughout this time of the year; time which could be easier for some but not for everybody. 

Summer Moments

Holidays or breaks can sometimes bring along with them times of significance or value to remember and perhaps share.  If you having those moments that you think they are valuable experiences that may bring inputs to our poverty relief work and are worth sharing with us, do not hesitate to capture them.  As you know, you can capture them through a mobile phone, video, short film, voice etc.

CENFACS would be delighted to hear from your holiday story or experience and valuable moments.   Again, have some wonderful moments with your summer holiday or break. 

Main Development of the Week’s Contents

Tourism as a trade creator and income generator for the poor

Last week, we started to look at how tourism and tourists to the local need can help poor people to participate and contribute to growth, particularly by accidentally offering opportunities to poor people to get involved in tourist employment opportunities.  We say accidentally because tourists do not chiefly come to travel to an area to reduce poverty.  But, they can make it happen.

This week, we are pursuing the direction of poverty relief through tourism as a trade creator and income generator for the poor. 

Tourism has the capacity to create trade opportunities for everybody including poor local people as poor people can grab the opportunity of tourists in their local areas to trade their products and services.  However, the question remains about the future of this trade creation.  As long as trade created by tourism helps to reduce poverty, this is a progressive direction in reducing and perhaps ending poverty.

Tourism offers as well income-generating opportunities for the poor as poor traders or businesses can trade to raise income, however small it may be, for their families to fight poverty and hardships.  However, the issue raises here is the sustainability or viability of this employment or occupancy to make ends meet.  As long as this helps to reduce poverty, it is step forward in the direction we are following to check if tourism helps reduce poverty.

In both cases, we need to get the data (in numbers and words) as well.  It is not enough to reduce poverty.  We should find out by how much as we follow tourism and tourists to the local need in helping to reduce poverty and hardships.

To follow or track the direction of poverty relief through Tourism with CENFACS this August, contact CENFACS.

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.

Thank you as well to those who made comments about our weekly posts.

We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support during 2018.

With many thanks

 

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

01 August 2018

Post No. 50

 

The Week’s Contents

• Track, Trip and Trending Month

• Seven Days of Development Feedback 

• FACS, Issue no. 60 is out now

… And much more!

 

Key Messages of the Week’s Contents

Stakeholders’ and Users’ Experiences Reporting

Our Analytics month of bringing light to what worked, what did not work and of measuring what we achieved in our last financial year has come to an end.  For those who have not yet responded to our request, they can still submit their feedback by the 15^th of August 2018 while we are studying the information and feedback we have received so far. 

Seven Days of Development in July Festival (7DDJF) 2018

Our Summer 2018 Festival of Thoughts and Actions is now closed.  We would like to thank all of you for your contribution.  Seven days were many days to think but if we want to do something about poverty and sustainability we need to time and days on our work.

Although the Festival is closed, we would like to ask you again to provide a feedback about the experience you have had with it.  You could also say, if you can, something about the previous Festivals so that we can improve the ways these days of poverty relief and sustainable development thoughts and actions  are prepared and run. 

Our feedback formula remains the same as for the Analytics month.  It consists of you using your own words to tell and share what you think of the Festivals.  We would you to keep your freedom to tell us what you think.  

The 60^th Issue of FACS

The 60^th Issue of CENFACS’ bilingual newsletter, FACS, is now out under the title of Odyssey of Climate Finance and Insurance for African Children.  The Issue deals with the question of financial and insurance responsibilities we need to take towards the children victims of the adverse effects and impacts of climate change.

We have provided, under the Main Developments Section of this post, the keys highlights of the main contents making this Summer Issue.  However, for those who get further information to can request a full version of this Issue by contacting CENFACS.

 

 

Main Developments for the Week’s Contents

•• Track, Trip and Trending

Before saying what is on during the month of August 2018, CENFACS would like to thank you again for your likes, comments and shares about our heated 7DDJF (7 Days of Development in July Festival) of Thoughts and Actions on EFFECTS OF TRADE TARIFFS ON POVERTY RELIEF AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Festival held from 22 to 28 July 2018.

We would like also to thank those who responded to our All-in-one Impact Feedback, which is now closed. We shall look at and analyse all the responses received and appropriately reflect on some of the points raised by all feedback respondents in our analytics. Again thank you so much for your support.

August is CENFACS’ Track, Trip and Trending month. We do Track at CENFACS as we believe that every one of us can undertake basic physical activity of running or racing to help reduce poverty. Our project known as Run to Reduce Poverty is designed to meet that end.

August is also the month we carry out some Trips to our projects. We visit our projects all over the year, but August is the time we highlight this. It is the month of the year we walk again to the need, to the people, communities, organisations and livelihoods in need.

We thirdly deal with Trending in August as we spend time looking at what we can call Trendy Development. Trending in Poverty Reduction helps us to follow the direction of poverty reduction work. This August we are going to follow this direction by looking at TOURISM in reducing poverty and enhancing sustainable development.

Track to reduce poverty
This is delivered through the project Run to Reduce Poverty and Vote your African Manager of Poverty Reduction. These are all-year round projects. However, because of the weather conditions (sunshine) and nature of August (holidays time for many of our supporters) we put a particular emphasis on the Run aspects of these all-year round projects, over this month. We expect those who sign up to the Run element to take actions and run it by themselves. After summer, they can report back to us or at any convenient time before the end of the year.

Trip to the local need
This is the second aspect or part of work over the month of August at CENFACS. We expect and advise our supporters to visit some of our projects and initiatives whether in the UK or in Africa during and around the month of August. Because we are in CENFACS’ Year of Locals or the Local Campaign Year, our Trip this year will be to the local needs.

Trip to the need and project includes some of the experiences undertaken by CENFACS All in Development Volunteers through field work involvements and project visits, to reach out to unreached, underserved and unserved people and communities particularly those living in remote areas of Africa.  It is the kind of experiences that we recommend to future volunteers to have and report back in September or after. These trips also help us to check if we are on the right track at helping to reduce poverty and at tracking our records for the work on the ground.

Because the theme of trending for this Summer is Tourism to the need, we are going to link Trip to the need with Tourism. Call it Trip or Tourism to the need. If you are one of our tourists to the need, please do forget to feedback your Summer 2018 tourist experience.

Trendy sustainable development
Sustainable development does not need to be trendy, but we can follow the trends in sustainable development and poverty reduction. During this August we are dealing with Trending in poverty reduction through tourism and its capacity of lifting people out poverty. We mean by that we are following the direction of poverty reduction by using tourism.

We are going to use the definition of tourism as provided by the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), quoted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on page 11. UNCTAD (1) say that the UNWTO defines tourism as

“the activities of persons identified as visitors. A visitor is someone who is making a visit to a main destination outside his/her usual environment for less than a year for any main purpose [including] holidays, leisure and recreation, business, health, education or other purposes […] This scope is much wider than the traditional perception of tourists, which included only those travelling for leisure” (United Nations and UNWTO, 2010). Visitors can be either same-day visitors or overnight visitors.

So, tourism and its respective impacts on poverty reduction are what will be trending at CENFACS as follows:

• From 01/08/2018: Tourism as a job creator and pro-poor growth supporter

• From 08/08/2018: Tourism as a creator of trade and income-generating opportunities for poor people

• From 15/08/2018: Tourism as outreach to the poor

• From 22/08/2018: Tourism as connector and generator of demand for agricultural products

If you are interested in this trend, please share with us your experience or comments about it.

Further explanation about this August month’s activities can be obtained from CENFACS.

(1) UNCTAD, Economic Development in Africa Report 2017: Tourism for Transformative and Inclusive Growth, 2017

 

•• FACS, Issue no. 60, Summer 2018 

Key Highlights –

The Key Highlights making the contents of the 60^th issue of FACS are given below.

The rights-based approach in the climate finance claims (Page 1 & 2 of FACS)

To protect the economic and environmental rights of poor people, children in particular, a rights-based approach can be used.  This could mean that resources, assets and wealth are allocated in such a way to meet the climate needs of the poor, poor children. 

The Financial Odyssey can make it to happen as it helps to convince not only the experts of climate change and child rights but also the general public the relevancy of supporting with finance and insurance the children victims of climate change.   

Prioritising Climate Finance for African Children (Page 3 of FACS)

In one of its publications, UNICEF (2) suggested ways of ensuring that children are prioritised in the climate and build a climate resilient future for the world’s children.  Amongst these priorities were: child rights as guiding principles, ensuring children’s rights and vulnerabilities, ensuring children’s voices are considered, ensuring equity for children.

If we have to monitor and evaluate these priorities since UNICEF spoke about one can wonder where we are now.  Prioritising the needs of the world’s children and amongst them, African children, is still a long and tortuous journey in order to meet the insurance expectations and needs of the world’s and African children.

(2) UNICEF, Climate proof children: Putting the child first in climate finance, Sept. 2011      

Affordability of climate insurance policy for children (Page 4 of FACS)

To improve the affordability of insurance for poor and vulnerable children, there should be human rights-oriented considerations that need to be taken into account.  The reduction of insurance premiums needs to be considered as well.

Children victims of climate change from poor countries cannot afford to cover themselves, neither their parents and or carers are able to meet the cost of the effects and impacts of climate change.  Likewise, neither of them can buy insurance policies related to new technologies to protect against the often huge effect and impact of climate change.

Peut-on financer et assurer les enfants contre les aléas climatiques en Afrique? (Page 5 et 6 de FACS)

Les victimes climatiques ont besoin plus que de l’aide financière

Quand il y a une catastrophe naturelle (telle que les pluies torrentielles, une sécheresse aiguë etc.), il peut évidemment y avoir des victimes.  Parmi ces victimes, il peut y avoir des enfants tel que l’on a vu dans certains pays africains tels que la République Centrafricaine, la République Démocratique du Congo, le Tchad etc. 

Ces victimes peuvent être déplacées, perdre leurs logements et leurs possessions sans oublier des fatalités et des problèmes de santé qu’elles peuvent subir.  Ces victimes ont plus besoin de compréhension que de l’aide financière.  Elles ont besoin d’une compréhension des problèmes fondamentaux liés climats et leurs conséquences sur elles.  Car, très souvent l’aide au climat est considérée ou assimilée au don non pas à une obligation locale ou nationale ou encore internationale.

Un avis partagé

Il y a toujours un débat parfois controversé s’agissant de droits de financement des victimes des aléas climatiques.  De même que l’opinion est divisée sur la question de droit d’assurance contre les effets néfastes des hasards climatiques surtout quand il s’agit des enfants. 

Il y a des thèses qui totalement rejettent l’idée d’un droit de financement et d’assurance contre les aléas climatiques, simplement parce qu’elles estiment ça coûte trop cher.

Il y a par contre des courants de pensée qui font ménagent avec l’idée d’un paiement financier et d’une couverture climatique par l’achat d’une politique d’assurance.

En ce qui concerne le CENFACS, nous pensons que les enfants victimes des effets et impactes néfastes des aléas ou hasards climatiques méritent bel et bien un paiement financier et une couverture d’assurance.  On peut financer et assurer les enfants contre les aléas climatiques en Afrique comme ailleurs.

Notre position ressort d’une simple réflexion qui est celle de la responsabilité non seulement morale, mais aussi financière et d’assurance par les êtres humains envers la nature et la planète terre.  Nous agissons à travers ce que nous appelons l’odyssée de finances et d’assurance climatiques pour les enfants africains, ou tout court l’odyssée financière.

Point n’est besoin de rappeler que les changements climatiques sont en majeure partie l’oeuvre des êtres humains que nous sommes.  Cela étant, en qu’êtres humains nous avons tous la responsabilité non seulement morale mais aussi financière et actuarielle de faire quelque chose pour ceux qui souffrent  à cause de nos actes. On peut faire quelque chose en essayant de convaincre le public sur le bien fondé de cette responsabilité financière et actuarielle.

L’odyssée financière est un long, tortueux et périlleux chemin que les enfants victimes des effets et impactes des changements climatiques doivent prendre pour convaincre non seulement les experts et preneurs de décision en matière climatique mais aussi le commun du mortel à adhérer à l’idée d’un paiement financier et d’une couverture climatiques à leurs égards.  En agissant de cette manière, on peut réduire la pauvreté ou précarité liée aux changements et aléas climatiques.  C’est ça l’odyssée financière.   

L’odyssée de finance et d’assurance climatiques pour les enfants africains ou l’odyssée financière

L’odyssée financière est une exploration et un état d’esprit des questions en suspens et exigeant des réponses et actions appropriées demandées par les enfants victimes des effets et impactes négatifs résultant des changes climatiques, de sorte qu’une justice financière et d’assurance est faite pour eux.

L’odyssée financière se place dans la perspective de l’odyssée d’autonomisation des usagères de CENFACS (et leurs familles) du projet “Ce que les femmes veulent” ou 3W (What Women Want). 

L’odyssée d’autonomisation est un compte rendu de familiarisation aux processus et expériences de plusieurs années que les usagères 3W (et leurs familles) ont eu en étant confinées chez soi et en sortant de ce confinement pour saisir les opportunités d’utiliser leurs potentialités pleinement, en passant par l’isolement vers l’intégration, pour survivre et réussir à vaincre sinon à réduire la pauvreté.

Cela étant, l’odyssée financière est une extension et partie de l’architecture de l’odyssée d’autonomisation qui permet d’habiliter les enfants victimes des effets et impactes des changements climatiques à travers une compensation financière et une couverture assurance.

L’odyssée financière est donc une journée, qui vaut la peine, pour convaincre les esprits de plusieurs personnes pour accepter ou du moins accommoder l’idée que financer et assurer les victimes climatiques n’est pas seulement un don ou une oeuvre de bienfaisance, mais c’est plutôt un prix à payer par chaque être humain qui affecte négativement et excessivement le climat et la planète terre.  Cet effet négatif va à son tour avoir un impacte néfaste sur la vie des enfants et le futur.

Dans cette journée ou ce combat pour une justice financière et d’assurance, les enfants africains sont un échantillon de travail représentatif des autres enfants du monde qui sont aussi négativement et excessivement affectés par les changements et aléas climatiques.

Tout comme l’odyssée d’autonomisation, l’odyssée financière est faite des relations ou rapports de force et de structure dans cette dynamique de réduction de la pauvreté parmi les bénéficiaires de l’odyssée financière.  Ceux-ci sont des résistants autour des idéaux de paix, protection et durabilité à travers des projets de communion ou de camaraderie.  Elle contient le pouvoir de résistance pour la mobilité sociale et le changement de même que le développement durable.

Pour plus d’informations ou pour soutenir les odyssées financière et d’autonomisation, contactez le CENFACS.

Mapping of climate finance flows for children (Page 7 of FACS)

To speak about the climate finance flows channelled to children programmes, one needs to consider risks and the building of resilience. However, are children victims of climate change received a fair and sustainable share?

To know that it is better to define climate finance.  According to the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), it is climate finance as capital flows directed towards emission reductions, climate resilience, and development and implementation of enabling policies (p.18).

When considering this definition, it is worth saying that there is a need for adequate access to affordable financing suited to low-emission, climate-resilient infrastructure.  This is to such an extent that in what is spent, for example to promote efforts to reduce or limit greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) or enhance GHG sequestration), one can question how much of it benefit children.

How to make climate risk insurance work for African children (Page 8 of FACS)

To make climate risk insurance work for African children, it is important to fund climate-resilient development pathways that benefit them.  It requires the development of anticipatory, absorptive and adaptive capacities.  It also requires the development of some principles around and on which people can agree.

As said in the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (3) in its recommendation “climate risk insurance can support poor and vulnerable people in a concrete way in finding climate –resilient development pathways” (p.49).

The Munich Climate Insurance Initiative gives seven principles to make it happen. This is the way one can make climate risk insurance for children and particularly but not exclusively African children.

(3) Munich Climate Insurance Initiative, Making Climate Risk Insurance Work for The Most Vulnerable: Seven Guiding Principles, United Nations University-Institute for Environment and Human Society Publication Series Policy Report 2016 No.1

Mobilisation of Climate Finance for Children: Climate Finance Statistics (Page 9 of FACS)

The 2017 UK Climate Finance results show that international climate fund programmes have supported people to cope with the effects of climate change.  £2.2 billion public and £500 million private finance were mobilised for climate change purpose in developing countries between 2011/12 and 2016/17.  34 million people were supported to cope with the effects of climate change (4). 

However, these data do not show the allocation in terms of how much of this fund was allocated to the needs of children victims of climate change and how many of children were supported.

(4) DFID UK, 2017 UK Climate Finance Results, July 2017

Voluntary Offering (Page 10 of FACS)

You can generally support the work of CENFACS through donation.  Besides donation, there are other ways of supporting which include: communication and media, public relations, volunteering and internship, training, research and development, legacies, gifts, sponsorship, premises, digital aid, events, direct marketing, recycling, web advertising, mobile technologies etc.

You can specifically support our advocacy related the Financial Odyssey.

For further details about supporting us and current initiatives that need support go to  http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

To further read and receive a copy of Summer 2018 issue (60^th) of FACS and or previous issues of FACS – or to subscribe to our mailing list, please provide your name, e-mail address and interest/focus by completing our contact form on the home page of this site. 

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.

Thank you as well to those who made comments about our weekly posts.

We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support during 2018.

With many thanks

 

 

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

25 July 2018

Post No. 49

The Week’s Contents

• Unveiling Happiness Projects

• Seven Days of Development in July 2018 Festival 

• All-year Round Projects at Summertime

… and much more!

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

Happiness Projects Unveiled

After introducing last week the general theme for our Happiness Projects for this Summer, we are now unveiling them by providing you with their  summaries.  The general theme of this year’s Happiness Projects is Happiness of Locals. 

Their summaries have been given below.  However, full details of these project proposals are available on request from CENFACS. 

To access and or support them, just contact CENFACS.

Seven Days of Development in July 2018 Festival –

The Effects of Trade Tariffs on Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development

Our Festival of Summer Thoughts and Actions on Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development has started. For those who are having problems with the logistics and material organisation of this Trade event, they need to report the issue so that we can deal with it. 

Just a reminder, it is not enough to ask questions when intervening.  It is better to answer questions from points raised by others.    The Festival is not only about questioning.  It is also about attempting to answer unsolved or unanswered questions as well as taking actions.  It is in this way we can effectively contribute to the event and make an impact on poverty relief and sustainable development.

All-year Round Projects at Summertime

Besides our Summer Programme for multi-dimensional children, young people and families; we have All-year Round Projects.  Indeed, Summer is the appealing time to perform life sustaining activities such as running, playing games and brainstorming to decide on the right people as best persons to help relieve poverty.  And the metrics at CENFACS around this time of the year should indicate that this time is the busiest one to run these activities.

For those who are playing the CENFACS Poverty Relief League, they have normally reached the 16ths of this development game.

Another reminder, it is not enough to undertake these activities unless one keeps records on what they are doing.  To keep records, you can take pictures, record a video and run a short film on what you are doing.  Do not forget keep data about your activities (both in numbers and words).  Likewise, write some short notes on any evidence (pictures, video clips, recorded messages etc.) with names and dates about places where they happen and people involved.

Main Developments of the Week’s Contents

Unveiling Happiness Projects

The 2018 Edition of Summer of Happiness, Peace, Protection and Sustainability is out now. 

Here are the summaries of the Happiness Projects making it.  As said previously, these projects can help in achieving some joyful, helpful and hopeful Summer plans, goals and outcomes.  

 

Wishing all multi-dimensionally Poor Children, Young People and Families Happy, Vulnerability-free, Peaceful, Safe and Sustainable Summer Days. 

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.

Thank you as well to those who made comments about our weekly posts.

We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support during 2018.

With many thanks

 

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

18 July 2018

Post No. 48

The Week’s Contents

• Monitoring and Evaluation: Only Two Weeks to Go!

• Happiness Projects: Budgeting and Delivering Happiness

• Seven Days of Development in July 2018 Festival

… And much more!

 

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

Monitoring and Evaluation: Only Two Weeks to Go!

We only have two weeks left for our Analytics month.  We are again appealing to you to tell us in your own words your perceptions, feelings and experiences about the programmes and projects we ran in the last 345 days preceding the beginning of July 2018. 

Although we have selected 16 projects (2 projects times 8 programmes) for monitoring and evaluation, we are not expecting people to provide feedback on all of them.  People can only feedback on the project(s) and programme(s) they benefited from, they supported, they recommended users to us or interacted within.  Please feel free to say what you experienced.  Thank you for your support!

Happiness Projects: Budgeting and Delivering Happiness

The week is also of the continuation of our Summer programme for multi-dimensional poor children, young people and families.  This continuation is through the second part of this programme which is Happiness Projects.  In total, there are six projects to meet the needs of three types of beneficiaries: children, young people and families.

In our planning process of Summer of Happiness Projects, we started last week by budgeting Summer Holidays with what we call Happiness Budget.  This week we are continuing the budgeting process while starting to deliver on other parts of the Happiness Projects as Summer Holiday is just around the corner.  For those who are struggling with their Happiness Budgets, CENFACS is prepared to look into their Summer Budgets.

As we are in CENFACS’ year of Local People (the Local Campaign Year), the focus for these Summer Happiness Projects is Local Happiness or Happiness of Locals; that is what makes local people happy.  In other words, what makes local children, young people and families happy (or unhappy) over Summer and beyond.

Seven Days of Development in July 2018 Festival

Our Summer Festival of Thoughts and Actions against poverty and for sustainable development will kick off on the 22^nd of July as planned.  The Festival’s main theme is Effects of Trade Tariffs on Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development.

For more on this year’s Summer Festival including how to participate, please read the notes under the following Main Development section of this web post.

 

Main Development of the Week’s Contents

• Happiness Projects: Happiness of Locals

•• Understanding CENFACS’ Happiness Projects

This year, we are going to focus on Happiness of Locals.  In other words, our centre of interest is what makes local children, young people and families happy (or unhappy) over Summer and beyond.  To do that one needs to budget and deliver Happiness or Happiness Projects.

CENFACS’ Happiness Projects are poverty-relieving responses to bring joyful lives while reducing misery for poor children, young people and families over the summer period and beyond.  The underlying principles or philosophy of these life evaluation projects are in line with the main factors or indicators that define happiness as both a social and personal concept as explained in World Happiness Reports edited by Helliwell, Layard and Sachs (1). 

These editors distinguish the social foundations of happiness from personal happiness, although the two are complementary.  They argue that the science of measuring and understanding subjective well-being and happiness indicates that to be happy, one needs to meet the following six key variables that explain happiness differences among countries which include: income, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on in times of trouble, generosity, freedom and trust.  When talking about key determinants of happiness and misery, they again argue that happiness is caused by factors such as income, employment, health and family life.  

CENFACS Happines Projects address the issues encapsulated inside the above variables and factors while keeping in mind first the needs of the CENFACS Community.  This is because we think the way to keep people happier is to reduce as much as possible poverty and misery among them.   Happiness is about ending poverty and misery.   As our focus is on locals this year, happiness is finally about ending poverty and misery amongst locals.

(1) Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (2017 & 2018), World Happiness Reports 2017 & 2018, New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network

•• Delivering Happiness with 6 Projects for 3 Beneficiaries

6 Projects to bring Happiness to Local 1/ Children 2/ Young People 3/ Families 

Summer is a holiday season of the year during which most of the schools are closed and families with children and young people in much needed help are forced to stay with them and or use this time of the year to take holiday.  The usual routine of educational/academic establishments with their recreational activities is scaled down.  Yet, these families are in need of seasonal activities and programmes for improving their well-being and happiness. 

There are ways of ensuring that summer stays an interesting and enjoyable period for Multi-dimensionally Poor Children, Young People and Families.  There are things that can be done to make summertime a season of Happiness, Peace, Vulnerability-free, Protection and Sustainability. 

The following CENFACS summer 2018 initiatives can help in achieving some joyful and helpful summer plans, goals and outcomes. 

CENFACS Happiness Projects include: 1) Happy Summer Break 2) Holiday with Relief 3) Removing Vulnerability Peacefully 4) Sustainable Summer 5) VISIBLENESS and ONUS (Concept projects) 6) Networking for Protection & Safeguarding. 

This is a combination of skills, knowledge, resources, tools, boosters and tasters for poverty relief.

To the above Happiness Projects, we have injected our Local Campaign Year  all over our Summer 2018 Programme.  The injection of Locals all across is what makes Summer 2018 of its kind.   It is about helping to improve life evaluation while taking action to enhance the same life so that Summer stays a season of Happiness NOT of Misery for unserved and under-served children, young people and families. 

For details about CENFACS Happiness Projects 2018 and to access them, contact CENFACS.

 

 

• Welcome to the Seven Days of Development in July 2018 Festival,

CENFACS’ Summer Festival of Thoughts and Actions on Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development

This year’s event feature:

Effects of Trade Tariffs on Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development

THINK   ♦   ACT  ♦   SHARE    ♦   ADD VALUE    ♦   SPREAD

Perhaps the practical way to introduce this Festival is to provide you with the following quote from the World Trade Organisation (2):

“For tariffs, it is estimated that a 1 per cent decrease lowers unemployment by about 0.35 per cent, while for trade openness a 10 percentage point increase reduces aggregate unemployment by about three quarters of a percentage point (p. 111)”.

The above is the say from Dutt and others (3) and Felbermayr and others (4) who were quoted by the World Trade Organisation.

This quote tells us tariffs can have positive or negative effects on employment and in-working poverty.  It also indicates that tariffs can have something to do with sustainable employment or development.

It is not surprising if the World Bank Group and World Trade Organisation (5) argue that

“… trade is equally – if not more – important for the almost one billion poor people living on less than $1.25 a day, who struggle to connect themselves to trade opportunities”.

This struggle can even be made difficult if this billion faces tariffs.  And the increase in tariffs from some of the developed nations can only make matter worse for the poor including those living in Africa and elsewhere where there is a great need to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development.

As the same World Trade Organisation put it  in the same report:

“… a reduction in tariffs will reduce the price paid at the border for the good by the importer” (p. 124).

For example for poor cross-border traders, tariffs can have a significant effect on their earnings.

Having said that the Seven Days of Development in July 2018 are the days of thoughts on what customs duties on merchandise imports can do for or against poverty relief and sustainable development.

Without anticipating the outcomes of our upcoming thoughts, one can simply argue that it is possible to capture the share of gain or loss from tariff to reduce poverty and improve the state of sustainable development.   

In the Seven Days of Development in July 2018 – the 10^th of our Summer Festival of Thoughts event since its inception in 2009 – we are going to think, act and share ideas about how to help lift people out poverty and make strides on sustainable development despite unkind climate of trade tariffs and barriers.

We have provided further details below (under the Event Guide and Programme) about the way of engaging this Festival.  You can engage with this Trade event where you are via emails, online, phone and social media. 

(2) World Trade Organisation, World Trade Report 2017: Trade, technology and jobs (www.wto.org)

(3) Dutt, P., Mitra, D. and Ranjan, P. (2009), International Trade and Unemployment: Theory and Cross-National Evidence, Journal of International Economics 78(1): 32-44

(4) Felbermayr, G., Prat, J. and Schmerer, H.-J. (2015), Trade and Unemployment: What Do the Data Say?, European Economic Review 55(6): 741-758

(5) The World Bank Group and the World Trade Organisation, The Role of Trade in Ending Poverty, 2015

•• Event Guide & Programme

~ 7DDJ  Registration

Entry to the 7DDJ2018 is FREE.  There is no need to register.

~ Daily Themes

Daily Themes (DTs) provide a daily opening thought or starting point of the broad topic/issue of Effects of Trade Tariffs.  Each DT will last all day and the only day it is planned.

~ Responses to 7DDJ Contributors

Each respondent will receive a reply to their contribution in the form of either an acknowledgement of their participation or a reaction expressed as an argument to their responses or even both.  Also, they will be entitled to receive the summary report on this annual event.

~ Lead Thoughts

Lead thoughts are a general idea on the thought of the day.  There are designed to lead to or generate more thoughts, potential research paths or investigative grounds that can be further explored to shade some lights to our Summer Thoughts.

MAKE YOUR IDEAS AND COMMENTS COUNT!

•• Daily Contents

Day 1: Role of Trade Tariffs

The role of tariffs (or import levy) on poverty relief and sustainable development

Lead thought: Day 1 will be about the function that an import levy can play on the process of reducing poverty and enhancing better life for both the current and future generations.

 Day 2: Economic Protection

How to economically protect the poor from trade war and tariffs

Lead thought: After looking at the role of tariffs, we will then share ideas regarding the proposition that reducing tariffs and opening up markets for free trade can have beneficial effects on the process of poverty reduction.

Day 3: Trade Rules

Enforceable trade rules are good for poverty relief and sustainable development

Lead thought: There are perspectives that advocate that negotiated, monitored and well implemented trade rules are good for poverty relief and for sustainable development.

Day 4: Trade Tariffs and Gender Development

Unfair trade tariffs structure can contribute to gender poverty and unsustainable development

Lead thought: Do men and women face the same tariffs in export markets for the products they produce and sell?

Day 5: Levying imports or taxing the poor

How a levy on imports could become a tax on the poor and what is the relationship between the two.

Lead thought: Reducing the cost of trade can lead to the reduction of poverty.  Increasing this cost through a levy can make it difficult for the poor.

Day 6: Effects of new-protectionist tariffs on export-earning capacities of poor African traders

How much damaging trade tariffs can be for poverty relief

Lead thought: Poor traders who rely on the revenue from the sale of their products can suffer from the newly emerging protectionist tariffs and trade war 

Day 7:  Net impact of trade barriers on foreign-exchange earnings of poor farmers

The real impact of trade tariffs on foreign-exchange earnings

Lead thought:  Poor farmers who expect to earn foreign-exchange from the sale of their products and services may suffer as well.

•• Supporting the 7DDJ2018 event

7 Ways of Supporting 7DDJ2018

You could

√ Directly forward your thoughts, comments and views on any themes and topics of the event

√ Pass the message onto interested persons

√ Feedback on previous 7DDJF events

√ Promote the event around you and/or by using other means available to you and at your convenience

√ Help us re-cover the expenses of the event specifically and/or the running cost of CENFACS’ work generally

√ Regularly support CENFACS to enable us to continue our work

√ Support our new initiative about Improving Trade Capacity for Poor People

7 Ways of Proceeding with your Wish

Please choose below the kind of support you want to provide and let us know

√ Promote the event  

√ Feedback CENFACS on previous events

√ Spread the news about the event

√ Help in the recovery of 7DDJ 2018 expenses

√ Fund CENFACS for its deserving work              

√ Provide helpful and supportive comments/views

√ Support CENFACS in your own way

Please mail your intent to support and or support to CENFACS

Closing date for reply: 05/08/2018

Please read the above event supporting information and mail us your comments and views (on the themes of your interest) to facs@cenfacs.org.uk

Thank you for your continued support.

With best wishes and full of inspiration and creativity throughout our dedicated days of Festival of Thoughts and Actions on Effects of Trade Tariffs on Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development

The 7DDJ2018  Events Team

Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.

Thank you as well to those who made comments about our weekly posts.

We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support during 2018.

With many thanks

 

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

11 July 2018

Post No. 47

 

The Week’s Contents

• Analytics month continues…

• Seven Days of Development in July Festival

• Africa-based Organisations and Wealth Accounts…

… and much more!

 

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

Project Supporters’ and Users’ Experiences

Our Analytics month continues with this week’s Say by Project Supporters and Users telling us the experiences they have had with the programmes and projects we selected to conduct monitoring, evaluation and review.  We are asking Project Supporters, Users and other stakeholders to provide their views using their own words.  This Say is about how they perceived and interacted with the products and services we presented to them over the last 345 days.

The selected programmes and projects for the purpose of monitoring, evaluation and review are listed in the main development section of this communication. 

Wealth Accounts as Tools for Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development

This week is also the start of a new engagement with Africa-based Organisations; engagement aiming at tracking wealth (i.e. infrastructure, forests, minerals and human capital) with the possibility of using them to reduce poverty.  We will be trying to work with them to explore the extent to which they can use Wealth Accounts as Tools for Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development.  

For more on wealth accounts as tools for relief and sustainable development, contact CENFACS.

Seven-Days-of-Development-in-July Festival

Our preparation for this Summer Festival (Seven Days of Development in July Festival) is still in progress.  They will be seven themes for thoughts for seven days as usual, one theme per day, starting from the 22^nd to the 28^th of July 2018.  These are the days of thoughts and actions against poverty.  We shall soon publish the daily themes and supporting information regarding this Festival of Thoughts and Actions on the Effects of Trade Tariffs on Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development.  

 

Main Developments of the Week’s Contents 

All-in-One Impact Feedback: July Monitoring and Evaluation

Tell it in your own words!

This exercise is meant to enable Supporters and Users (you might be one of them) to share with us and others the outcomes and learning experiences resulting from the use/application of the projects we have chosen from our Programmes for feedback purpose. 

Please seize this opportunity to provide your own lines of thought for improvement, adjustment and development by sharing with us and others the outcomes and/or experiences resulting from the communications we have had with you and or your use/application or participation/support concerning the programmes and projects below. 

We would like to know how effective and efficient did you find in these programmes and projects, and what lessons, experiences did you learn and development for the future of our poverty relief work in coming years.

We would very much appreciate if you could provide us a feedback (via e-mail, text, phone, web comments or reviews etc.) in your own words regarding the way in which the named programmes and projects below have affected you and/or the people you recommended to use them. 

Remember, we can only help reduce poverty and do the changes we all want if you tell us what you think.

Please consider our request for feedback and for your report. 

8 X 2 (EIGHT SELECTED PROGRAMMES AND TWO SELECTED PROJECTS FOR EACH PROGRAMME: In total 16 Projects to feedback)

We have selected the following programmes and projects for feedback, 8 Programmes and 2 projects in each programme for your SAY:

1/ Selected projects under African Integrated Sustainable Development programme

♦ Autumn 2017 Appeal to Support Projects for Needy People and Organisations

♦ Summer Humanitarian Relief Appeal to Support Needy Children, Young People and Families in Africa

2/ Selected projects under Peace, Protection and Sustainability programme

♦ Climate Protection and Stake for African Children

♦ African Children and Sustainable Development Goals: Generation Global Goals (3G) project

3/ Selected projects under African Rebuilding and Sustaining Infrastructures and Lives programme

♦ Light Projects: Lighting a Blaze of Hope for the Victims of Conflicts in the African Central Republic and Region (CARRA Appeal), for the Conflict and Flood Victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC Appeal)

♦ Rebuilding Africa: Restoring Lives in the African Islands of South-East

4/ Selected projects under Poverty-Environment programme

♦ Save Animals project with the Big Cats Campaign

♦ A la Une (Autumn Leaves of Action to Upkeep the Nature in Existence) Campaign  

5/ Selected projects under Individual Capacity Building and Development programme

♦ Basic Community Support (Advice-giving Service)

♦ June Month of Environmental Sustainable Creative Initiatives: Creating and Innovating for the Transitional Economy

6/ Selected projects under the Twenty-tens Poverty Reduction Programme – Revised Version (2017 – 2019)

♦ World Anti-poverty System

♦ All-year-round projects

7/ Selected projects under the New Media and Digital programmes

♦ Digital and Social Media Campaign: The Role of Mobile Phone for Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development

♦ CENFACS’ Online Store

8/ Selected projects under P-REI Transitional Capacity Building and Development Programme: Support Infrastructures, Develop Capacities and Create Impacts

♦ Project MISATU (Project M): Making Impactful Support to Africa Together with Users

♦ TRIANCONTADI Project (or Project 32 or The Simple Road to a Post-Regional Economic Integration Thriving Development World project): Together for Renewal of Infrastructures in Africa to Create Opportunities and Needed Transformations for Alternative Development Intergenerational

Thank you for considering our request of feedback and for your support.

Details and summaries of the above selected programmes and projects are available from CENFACS for request. 

This feedback is due by the end of July 2018.

Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.

Thank you as well to those who made comments about our weekly posts.

We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support during 2018.

With many thanks

 

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

04 July 2018

Post No. 46

 

The Week’s Contents

• Analytics month with All-in-one Impact Feedback

• Summer Financial  Information Updates: Family Wealth Accounts

• Summer Programme: Happiness Budget

… and much more!

 

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

Analytics month

July is our Analytics month as it is the time during which we conduct the monitoring, evaluation and review of our programmes and projects.  Through this exercise we analyse what we did over the last 345 days, seize the outputs and, if possible, capture the early impacts made.  It is the time we review what worked well, what worked bad and what did not work at all.  We do it by bringing all together the programmes and projects as well as activities that made the preceding financial year.  This is what we usually call All-in-one Impact Feedback.  It is a feedback because we ask all our stakeholders to give their opinions about our work.  In doing so, this gives us the opportunity to rebuild and reconnect with them. 

For more on All-in-one Impact Feedback and CENFACS’ Analytics month, go the main developments section.

Financial Update: Family Wealth Accounts

This Financial Update is a financial aspect and part of our Individual Capacity Development programme (ICDP) resources and is meant to help with updated financial information and awareness conducive to reducing the lack of financial information, lack that could be a source of income vulnerability or simply poverty.  This resource provides a basic financial guidance, but not a financial support or funds for multi-dimensionally poor children, young people and families (MDPCYPFs).  The 2018 Financial Information Updates resource is on Family Wealth Accounts. 

For more on these Updates, read below.

Summer Programme with Happiness Budget

This week we are kicking off our Summer Happiness Projects with Summer Holiday Budget for poor Children, Young People and Families (CYPFs). 

It is always hard to ask the people who experience poverty, who literally have no income or income below the poverty line, to write a budget about their holidays.  Whether a poor person takes holidays or not, they need a holiday budget or simply a budget to plan their sources of income and ways of meeting their expenses over the Summer holidays. 

The holiday accounts help to assess where and how much help is needed.  Therefore, they need to do their income sums and build them into their holiday expenses or simply Summer expenses.

To discuss your Summer holiday budget, contact CENFACS.

Seven-Days-of-Development-in-July Festival

July is finally the month we hold our Festival of Thoughts.  The theme of this year’s Festival is

Effects of Trade Tariffs on Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development

In today’s world, this issue of trade and trade tariffs particularly have surfaced again with the increase in trade tariffs amongst the major industrial economies with the risk of contagion and trade wars as well as possible adverse impacts on the lives of poor people and sustainable development. 

We shall publish details about this Summer Development Festival in due course.

To find out more about this Festival, contact CENFACS.

 

Main Development of the Week’s Contents

• Monitoring, Evaluation, Review and Analytics

The name of the July game at CENFACS is Monitoring, Evaluation, Review and Analytics.  July is the month during which we conduct our monitoring, evaluation, review and analytics of the projects and programmes we delivered during almost last 11 months and 2 weeks.  It is the time we do our Summer tracking by reconsidering the value and relevancy of our work, let one the overall state of our charitable work.

It is period that we carry out what we call All-in-One Impact Feedback.  In other words, we try to track or capture the impacts of our work.   Like last year, this year’s All-in-One Impact Feedback will be extended to include our XX236.3F programme as we are in the month of Monitoring and Evaluation.  XX236.3F is our 2020 to 2030 to 2063 Follow up Programme.  We are following the implementation of the International Climate Change Agreement (or the Paris Treaty), the Istanbul Declaration, the United Nations 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals, and Africa’s Agenda 2063. 

In brief, we shall conduct a follow-up and examination, look back and analyse data on the overall projects and programmes delivered during the above stated period, while keeping implementing our XX236.3F programme. 

We shall publish soon the progammes and projects making this year’s Analytics.

• Summer Financial  Information Updates: Family Wealth Accounts

The Summer 2018 Financial Update focuses on what wealth that poor families have rather than income in order to reduce poverty.  Poor families like any family have wealth even if this wealth is poor or meaningless.  They may have basic assets, human capital and other non-financial resources that can be transformed into something tangible to be used a starting remedy for poverty relief.  This may involve a need assessment of wealth of poor families, valorisation, enhancement, monetisation, re-creation and growth of this wealth.  In this process of need assessment, it is good to evaluate that part of this basic wealth that can contribute to a certain percentage of poverty relief.

You can order this Summer 2018 Financial Issue from CENFACS.

 

Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.

Thank you as well to those who made comments about our weekly posts.

We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support during 2018.

With many thanks

 

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

27 June 2018

Post No. 45

 

The Week’s Contents

• Thanksgiving Days

• Summer Programme with Humanitarian Relief Appeal

• World Anti-Poverty System Campaign

  … and much more!

 

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

~ Creative Economic Development month

We would like to start this week’s communication with the following reminders.  There are only three days remaining for the Creative Economic Development month.  Within these three days, you can still to design and post your cards; take pictures (photos), make a video or short film and post them to support poverty relief and sustainable development works. 

Our activities related to innovation and ideas conversion into projects are still on progress.  It is pointless to argue that to fight poverty and enhance sustainable development, we need to keep creating and innovating.  We even need more these activities at this time than at any other ones as market-based are in transition.

~ Sedecim donation, gift aid and legacy

Our Sedecim fundraising campaign ends today.  For those who have not been able to donate, give a gift or leave a legacy; we would like to remind everybody we will accept their support whenever they decide to do it.  Thank you!

~ CENFACS’ Thanksgiving days

As of today until the end of this week, we are thanking all our supporters (current and past ones).  We would like to take this opportunity to thank them/you for helping CENFACS IN ENHANCING AND SUSTAINING FREEDOMS AND CAPABILITIES BY WORKING IN ALLIANCE WITH LOCAL PEOPLE TO DEVELOP SUSTAINABLE INITIATIVES. 

For more information about these thanksgiving days, read below.

~ Summer Programme: Humanitarian Relief Re-Appeal

Also, this week is the kick-off of our Summer Programme, particularly the humanitarian relief appeal of this programme.  We are re-appealing to you/our supporters to support poor children, young people and families (CYPFs) in Africa over this Summer. 

Most of poor CYPFs there do not have any means to have a Summer of Relief because of poverty.  They get bound in their remote land and community without any hope.  They have never known any other ways of life except distress, hardship, desperation, vulnerability, helplessness and hopelessness.  CENFACS would be grateful to you if you could bring some relief  to them over this Summer.

For details of this appeal and way of supporting, please go to the Support page of this website at http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

~ e-Mobilisation Days (27 June to 02 July 2018) as part  World Anti-Poverty System (WAS) Campaign

This week is finally the continuation of World Anti-poverty System (WAS) campaign as we informed you at the beginning of Spring.  CENFACS has called for e-Mobilisation Days between 27 June and 2 July 2018 under the WAS campaign to engage users, supporters and the entire development community to develop momentum regarding the proposals for an International System for Poverty Reduction. 

The mantra for this year’s e-mobilisation call and days is Coalesce to Shape the Pattern of Global and African Poverty Relief.  

Further details about these call and days are given below.

 

Main Developments of the Week’s Contents

~ Thanking Days or Supporters’ Days

These are Special Days we would like to dedicate in thanking all those who contributed to our work for any types of support they have given us over this financial year.  This dedication is normally held in the last week of and by the end of June.For this year, they are held from 27 June to the end of June 2018. 

As we are in CENFACS’ Month of Creation and Local People’s Year, we shall find all sorts of creative, innovative and communicative ways of thanking our invaluable supporters and local people.  These thanking ways may include:

• Conversing with our supporters over phones
• Signing and sending thank you cards to them
• Telling them the stories about the people and communities they helped through their support
• E-mailing and tweeting them with messages of gratitude
• Thank-you stories
• Giving back to you by volunteering our time to the cause you deeply care about
• Free translation service
• Telling African poems and poetry
• Digital and technologically animated thank-you messages
• Designed and hand crafted made objects and crafts of acknowledgement etc

If you are one of the CENFACS’ supporters, please we would like to let you know the Thanking Days at CENFACS are your Days.  Do not hesitate to get in touch, if you do not mistakenly hear from us, we will welcome your human touch, reconnect with you and thank you on the occasion for the helpful difference you made to our work and project beneficiaries.

Your invaluable support has meant a lot for our programme and project beneficiaries over this financial year.

We would like to express all our sincere gratitude to you for helping us to help reduce poverty.

For further details, contact CENFACS’ Thanksgiving End of June 2018 Team.

 

~ E-mobilisation Days as part of World Anti-poverty System (WAS) Campaign

World Anti-Poverty System (WAS) campaign has returned this June 2018 with our call to action to Coalesce to Shape the Pattern of Global and African Poverty Relief.  The Coalescence call starts on 27 June 2017 and will continue throughout July 2017.   It will remain alive in whatever we will undertake as global advocacy activities during the month of July 2017 and beyond.

Before dealing with the Coalescence call, let us recap on the last call, which was: Step up and Drive Relief forward (SDR).

Recap on SDR

The aim of SDR was/is to support, defend and make the international development community understand the need of an internationally agreed system for poverty reduction that is fair for all, especially but not exclusively for people and communities with severe and or critical level of poverty.  After making the development case for WAS, SDR is an engaging content and process to winning the minds and hearts of all development supporters for the formation of an internationally agreed system to reduce and end poverty. 

It is the continuation of the CENFACS’ Argument following the Post-2015 Global Development Agenda and discussions that led to the setting up of the United Nations 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals.  The CENFACS’ Argument was then the international development community should be a bit more ambitious by going beyond and establish an internationally agreed system to reduce and end poverty. 

So, the Summer 2017 slogan for the WAS campaign was:  STEP UP AND DRIVE RELIEF FORWARD.

The case for WAS is still demanding in today’s reality of the world.   In the light of what is happening now with the increase in trade tariffs together with the  eminent risk of trade war, one can wonder whether or not the current international system, if it exists, is suitable for the poor.  This is let alone the on-going global migration flows crisis.

Coalescence call

This Summer 2018, our mantra is COALESCE TO SHAPE THE PATTERN OF GLOBAL AND AFRICAN POVERTY RELIEF.

After stepping up and driving forward relief from June 2017 to now, we are now going to take a further challenge in coalescing to shape the pattern of global and African poverty relief.  This is where we stand with our WAS campaign.

From making the case for WAS to winning the minds and hearts of prospective supporters, SDR has been a step up and forward in building an understanding on the need for an internationally agreed system for poverty reduction. 

Now that some supporters have understood or sympathised with the idea of such a system, there is another need which is to come together as one body to mould in a particular pattern or form the kind of poverty relief we all want in order to develop a collective system against it.

What we generally expect from prospective WAS supporters

If one shares the idea of WAS, then what they can do to coalesce to shape the pattern of global and African poverty relief is to come together with us as one community and mould in a particular pattern or form the kind of poverty relief we all want.  We can come together as one local, national and global community of WAS.  We can come together as one WAS digital and non-digital community.

The above are the defining and engaging lines of our call to action for WAS.

To advocate or campaign or even join WAS, please contact CENFACS NOW!   

What you can do specifically to help the WAS Campaign

There are many ways to help promote the WAS Campaign including the following

√ Voice the WAS wherever you are

√ Brand you events in the e-Mobilisation Days of solidarity with the poor for better system to help them

√ Brand your websites, publicity materials and events with WAS Campaign

√ Promote the e-Mobilisation Days to your supporters, contacts and networks

√ Undertake any activity deems necessary to raise awareness and galvanise support for the WAS

For further details about WAS and or to support, contact CENFACS.

 

Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.

Thank you as well to those who made comments about our weekly posts.

We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support during 2018.

With many thanks

 

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

20 June 2018

Post No. 44

The Week’s Contents

• Creative Economic Development month

• Sedecim Gift

• Summer of Happiness

…   and much more!

 

Key Messages of the Week’s Contents

Innovate for poverty relief and sustainable development

Our Creative Economic Development month is taking place as scheduled.  In the last 3 weeks, our focus has been on creation; that is on making things and thinking up new ideals of helping to reduce poverty and hardships.  This has been carried out through arts and design activities.

The remaining days of the creative month will be concentrated on innovation;  that is on converting these new ideas into project proposals, on deploying these fresh thoughts, products and services to effectively reduce poverty and hardships.  It is about making our dream of the relief of poverty and hardships to come true or become a reality.  Again, this will be conducted under arts and design activities to innovate for poverty relief and sustainable development.

To support the creative month and innovation week, contact CENFACS.  

Sedecim Gift

Our 4 days of celebration of the 16 years of CENFACS under the project 16.4 (CENFACS Sedecim) went well last week.  We would like to thank you all for your support.

As a follow-up to this celebration, we are running a one week fundraising campaign for those who would like to donate, give a gift or leave a legacy for the project 16.4 (CENFACS Sedecim).  This one week fundraising campaign will take over the fundraising campaign about Halving Poverty which is ending today.  Details of this short campaign have been provided on the Support us page of this website at http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/ 

To donate, gift aid and leave a legacy for the project 16.4, please contact CENFACS.

Tomorrow is the official start of Summer.  It is also the start of the new season for CENFACS.  It is the beginning of Summer of Happiness.  More details about this has been given below.

 

Main Development of the Week’s Contents

~ Summer of Happiness

CENFACS’ Spring Relief season together with selected Spring projects and programme has coming to an end, although there are still projects that are on-going.   For every of these projects delivered so far, we hope you have found a user-friendly and -centred relief. 

Jmesci (June Month of Environmental and Sustainable Creative Initiatives) and project 16.4 (CENFACS Sedecim) are the projects that have made the last part of Spring 2018 programme.  The first project, which makes our Creative Economic Development month, is still on.  The second has just ended last week. 

In practice, Jmesci is the project that ended our Spring Relief season to start Summer of Happiness.  After creating and innovating for poverty relief and sustainable development, we shall enjoy the sunshine of Summer with Happiness and Peace.  We would forward to Summer, although the warm weather has already started.

Summer is a period of the warm sunny weather that we would like to associate with it at CENFACS.  It is the time of happiness that we all expect, after a long period of full time work and education.  We look forward to a break after such a long time of routine working life, especially as most of CENFACS’ projects and programmes are framed around the school timetable to suit and reflect the needs and living patterns of our users and beneficiaries.

We have now entered Summer of Happiness at CENFACS, the 3^rd season of CENFACS’ development calendar and planner, which consists of Summer Programme.  Summer Programme is mainly made of two sets or broad areas  of projects for and with Multi-dimensionally Poor Children, Young People and Families.  This programme consists of two parts as follows:

Happiness Projects (Part I) and Appeal Projects or Humanitarian Relief to Africa (Part 2). 

Besides this main Summer seasonal regular feature, we have also planned other initiatives.  We shall gradually release the contents of these Summer projects as we progress during Summer 2018. 

Our development calendar/planner already indicates what is planned for July and August 2018.  However, should anybody want to find out more, they are welcome to contact CENFACS. 

~ Summer 2018 Programmes, Projects and Events

7 Projects, 1 Programme: 8 Ways of Helping to Reduce and End Poverty as well as Making this Summer 2018 of Happiness

June

Thanksgiving days or Supporters’ days

July

All-in-one Impact Feedback, Project Supporters’ Experience: Projects and Programmes Monitoring, Evaluation & Review

Seven Days of Development in July 2018 (Summer Festival):  Effects of Trade Tariffs on Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development

July & August

CYPFs (Children, Young People and Families) Summer Programme (Part I): Humanitarian Relief – Appeal Projects

CYPFs (Children, Young People and Families) Summer Programme (Part II): resources, Tools, Boosters & Tasters – Happiness Projects with Positive Relief and Healthiness

Summer 2018 Run, Play & Vote to Reduce Poverty: Action-Results

CENFACS’ Poverty Relief League and Le Dernier Carré (the last Square of Poverty Relief)  – Half Year Results and Outcomes

August

Summer Track, Trip and Trending

We hope you find a joyful, helpful and hopeful relief from the above  programmes and projects on offer at CENFACS  over this Summer!

For details or clarification about the above programmes and projects (including ways of accessing them), contact CENFACS.

Note: Although the above is scheduled for Summer 2018, we may slightly alter our initial plan and or introduce occasional initiatives to cope with the reality of the unpredictability and complexity of development situations (e.g. humanitarian and emergency situations), in which case we shall let you know as early as we can.

Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.

Thank you as well to those who made comments about our weekly posts.

We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support during 2018.

With many thanks

 

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

13 June 2018

Post No. 43

The Week’s Contents

• Creative Economic Development month

• Human Responsibility on the Environment

• Project 16.4: CENFACS’ Sedecim 

   … and much more!

 

Key Messages of the Week’s Contents

Our Creative Economic Development month continues as planned.  We are as well keeping on working on Arts and Design for Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development.  Because this week is of celebration of the 16 years of CENFACS, we are as well working on arts-based development initiative to remember CENFACS as a creation.  This remembrance of CENFACS as a creation is at four levels:

√ CENFACS as a not-for-profit creation (that is a creation driven by selfless and altruistic motivations, unlike for-profit creations)

√ CENFACS as a creation for the relief of poverty and hardships (that is a creation dedicated to helping poor and vulnerable people and communities)

√ CENFACS as a sustainable development creation (that is a creation striving to meet the needs of the present without compromising the generations to come to meet theirs)

√ CENFACS as a creation or model of working together with local people (that is a creation operating with local people as one and leaving the ownership of the solution to the poverty issues to them)  

The remembrance of CENFACS as a creation adds value to the main 16.4 project that deals with the 16 years of CENFACS.

For those who are making cards that apply to the Arts and Design project, we have provided under the Main Developments of this Week’s Contents some basic clues to use.

The Human Responsibility on the Environment continues this week by focusing on human efforts made in tackling desertification and drought.  This work is a preparation towards the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.   As part of this preparation, we are revisiting the case of desertification and drought in the region of Sahel in Africa.  This is a continuation of previous advocacy works carried out within the context of our Rebuilding Africa Campaign and Programme.

To raise awareness of human responsibility on the environment in order to help reduce  poverty and combat desertification and drought with CENFACS, please contact CENFACS.

 

Project 16.4: CENFACS Sedecim   

This 13^th of June 2018 is the start of four days of celebration under the project 16.4.  Because this year has been dedicated as the Local People’s Year at CENFACS, we have found more appropriate to focus on local people of CENFACS than celebrating CENFACS otherwise.  Additionally, this choice echoes our motto which is:

Working in partnership with local people to develop sustainable initiatives.

For more details about each of the four days of CENFACS Sedecim, please refer to the Main Developments of the Week’s Contents below.

 

Main Developments of the Week’s Contents

Making and sending a card in the context of Arts and Design project

For those who are trying to design and send a card as a way of participating in the Creative Economic Development month, please make sure that the poverty relief message you are conveying is without confusion. 

When designing a card, it is better that your art or design work 

• contributes to inclusive and sustainable development goals

• is a driver and enabler of sustainable development processes

• is evidence-based as an expression of local realities

• is capable of leading to new pathways for local creative economy

• reflects on local creative economy

• connects with the different sectors of creative economy

• is conducive to new opportunities for sustainable development

• is supportive of local learning and innovation for poverty relief and sustainable development

• opens up a possibility to working together

• develops culture of poverty relief and sustainable development

To create and send your card or support CENFACS’ creative economic development month, contact CENFACS.

 

Project 16.4: CENFACS Sedecim

The contents of this week’s observance under the project 16.4 are as follows.   

Four themes for four days of observance for the 16 years of CENFACS

1st Theme (on 13/06/2018): Local people as project initiators and suppliers 

CENFACS’ approach to poverty relief and sustainable development is based on helping people to help themselves.  Following our approach, local people initiate or generate project by telling us what the needs within their community are.  In doing so, they supply us with information and data about their needs. 

Together we plan and develop sustainable initiatives to respond to their local needs.  This model of working together with them has been going on for the last 16 years.   This is what we are celebrating.

2nd Theme (on 14/06/2018): Local people as change makers 

Over the last 16 years of CENFACS’ registration, local people have been able to bring small change that produce BIG differences or impacts.  They harnessed both social change in their community and change to themselves and other poor people’s life.  Our local change makers helped us to achieve  changes that help not only them but reach out to many unserved and underserved people. 

We are remembering them as social change makers and poverty alleviators.  Any change, however small it may be, could have only been done through them, the forces of relieving and ending poverty.

3rd Theme (on 15/06/2018): Local people as project implementers and delivers 

Getting local people to get involved in our programmes and projects as volunteers and administrators, has enable us to better implement and deliver them.  Because they have the local knowledge, are aware of local values and culture where the projects and programmes were located; they were able to facilitate our work on the grounds. 

In some cases, they were designated the role of project implementers as they were in a better position to carry out the implementation phase by contributing to produce the desirables.  In doing so, they made the project visions and plans become reality.  We are venerating them as our project executors in this respect.

4th Theme (on 16/06/2018): Local community and sustainable development initiatives 

During the 16 years of CENFACS, we planned and executed many local community and sustainable development initiatives here in the UK (Croydon) and in Africa.  We did it with the support of local people.  To name five of the projects, we can mention

∗ Two projects in Africa (Income-generating Activities against Child Trafficking in Zakpota, and a Health Centre in Kewarla);

∗ Three projects in the UK (Free Employability Training project, Basic Skills Development project, and Project for Sustainable Skills for Employment)  

It is these projects and other not mentioned here as well as the outcomes achieved in delivering them that we are looking back as the history of the last 16 years of CENFACS.  And of course, this is an opportunity for CENFACS to draw lessons for learning and development in the future.

Thank you to Sedecim supporters and makers (16/06/2018)

The last day of our celebration will also be about thanking all those who helped us to complete the 16 years of CENFACS.  We cannot do anything alone.  We needed more hands in our poverty relief journey as we could only achieve what we managed to achieve with the support of other people and organisations.

We would like to indistinctively thank all those individuals, organisations, volunteers (current and past) and our members for developing CENFACS and making it an organisation as it is today.  Thank you very much!

 

 Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.

Thank you as well to those who made comments about our weekly posts.

We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support during 2018.

With many thanks

 

 

 

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

06 June 2018

Post No. 42

June Month of Environmental and Sustainable Creative Initiatives (jmesci)

Individual and collective creations, in the ways of improving lives through the thinking and the development of innovative and practical ideas to escape from poverty and hardships and foster a better environment and sustainability, are CENFACS’ area of interest.   We create all over the year and life; however June is the month for us to acknowledge our environmental and sustainable makings. 

June is the month of Creative Economic Development at CENFACS with creation and innovation on the main menu: creation for researching and developing fresh ideas to reduce poverty, particularly extreme poverty; innovation for making these ideas come true, transformable into practical environmental and sustainable initiatives and actions. 

Our month of creation (of thinking up new things) and innovation (of converting our thoughts into tangible outcomes) revolves around global, national, local and sustainable issues and events of the month.  Examples of June world and local environmental events and days of the month are: 

~ The United Nations World Environment Day held on 05/06/2018 under the theme of “Beating the Plastic Pollution”

~ The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2018 to be held on 17/06/2018 in Ecuador.  The Day will convene under the slogan, “Land has true value”.

~ Croydon Environmental Fair to be held on 09/06/2018 at Wandle Park in Croydon (UK).

~ Any other significant inclusive sustainable awareness raising and participation events scheduled for June 2018.

As part of this creative economic development process, we also run Art and Design for Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development as a project.  One of the activities related to this project for this year would be to construct and post cards or objects as expressions of beating plastic pollution to echo the World Environmental Day’s celebratory theme, as well as ways of sustainably managing land to resonate the World Day to combat Desertification and Drought.   

Put it simply, Jmesci is just about finding out ways of engineering creations relating to the environment and sustainability in order to further reduce poverty and improve the quality of life.

This year’s Jmesci is about Creating and Innovating for the Transitional Economy.  Further details about this are given in the Main Development of this Week’s Contents.

June 2018 is also the month we have chosen to continue with our campaign on anti-poverty system – World Anti-poverty System (WAS).  The WAS campaign is a CENFACS’ call for a system to deal with global poverty and poverty in Africa.  This year’s act of the campaign is to Coalesce to Shape the Pattern of Poverty in Africa and Globally.  

The running humanitarian crisis in many parts of Africa as well as the threats of global trade war to the poor are just and yet two of the many examples that demonstrate that the developing world and Africa need a global system that works for the poor should poverty needs to be seriously in the modern era. 

What’s on at CENFACS in June 2018 

The following selected initiatives (selected for public announcement) are amongst those which will make the end of Spring Relief and the start of Summer of Happiness at CENFACS in June 2018.

~ World Anti-poverty System (WAS): Coalesce to Shape the Pattern of Poverty in Africa and Globally (Global advocacy project)

~ Sedecim Project or Project 16.4: Sixteen Years of CENFACS in Four Days (Celebration project)

~ Creating and Innovating for the Transitional Economy with Jmesci project (Creation and innovation project)

~ Thanksgiving Days

Note:  The above initiatives are only a selection of what we have planned for June 2018.  We may introduce new initiatives and or upgrade the existing ones depending on the circumstances as we have from time to time to respond to emergencies and urgent humanitarian issues.  In which case, we shall let you know. 

Also, in every work we do to try to help reduce poverty, there is always a cost to bear.  If you could help alleviate some of our costs, we would more acknowledge your support than just appreciate your gesture.

The above is our plan for June 2018.  Within this plan, what is on at CENFACS for this week?

 

The Week’s Contents

• Jmesci: Creating and Innovating for the Transitional Economy

• Poverty Environment programme: Environmental Responsibility

• Sedecim project: Project 16.4

   … and much more!

 

Key Messages of the Week’s Contents

Jmesci: Creating and Innovating for the Transitional Economy

To manage the process of transitional economy (from an integrated to an exiting economy), it requires to keep what works and has proven records or experiences of reducing poverty and enhancing sustainable development.  It also demands creating and innovating to make transitional economy easier and adaptable for all, especially but not solely for those in need.  Creation will be about making things that reduce poverty while innovation is the process of converting thoughts or creativity into tangible poverty relief outcomes.

Transitional economy may require transitional economic products and services to meet people’s needs.  This month of creative economic development, we are working with local people to develop ideas of products and services convertible into tangible products and services to help poor people smoothly manage the transitional economy.   This implies an inventory of products and services benefiting from regional economic integration.  Some of these products and services may not be able or still available at different costs.  It is at this level that creation and innovation become necessary if not compulsory to successfully manage economic transition.

To support CENFACS’ creative economic development month, contact CENFACS

Poverty Environment Programme (PEP): Human Responsibility on the Environment

This week we are raising awareness and remind ourselves about human responsibility on the environment (HRE) to echo the message of the United Nations World Environment Day on 05 June 2018.  The HRE, which is part of CENFACS’ Poverty Environment programme, is an initiative to support the WED’s theme of Beating the Plastic Pollution this week.  As one cannot beat plastic pollution in one day only, we will continue to raise awareness of this pollution through HRE.  Our work on this matter aims at going beyond awareness by working with local people to find creative and innovative ways of reducing plastic pollution.  In doing so, HRE is an exploratory path to develop sustainable solutions that reduce both poverty and plastic pollution.  

For details about the PEP, go to http://cenfacs.org.uk/development-programmes/

To raise awareness of human responsibility on the environment in order to help reduce both poverty and plastic pollution with CENFACS, please contact CENFACS.

 

Sedecim project: project 16.4

On 13 June 2018, CENFACS will turn 16 years old as a registered charity.  16 years of charitable service are a big milestone for CENFACS.  These 16 years will be remembered through a project called 16.4; that is Sixteen Years of CENFACS in Four Days (16 years of working with local people in 4 days of celebration).  CENFACS will be sharing the days with you.  For more about 16.4 project, continue below.

 

 

Main Development of the Week’s Contents

16.4 Project – CENFACS Sedecim: Sixteen Years of CENFACS in Four Days

(16 years of working with local people in 4 days of celebration)

The project 16.4 will highlight CENFACS as a mature organisation working with the locals for 16 years as the 4 days of acknowledgement will take us back to the history as it was made and being still in the making.

Sixteen years in the life of a person (physical or moral) is the age of maturity.  To acknowledge that CENFACS is now a mature organisation and has been working with local people in a mature way, we are running two sub-projects which are two parts of the same coin. 

They are:

1/ 2018 as a Local Year (the Local Year Campaign); this initiative which already started since the beginning of the year will carry us throughout the rest of the year 2018

2/ A project 16.4 highlighting CENFACS as a mature organisation (working 16 years with the locals which will be acknowledged in 4 days), project which is kicking off on 13 June 2018

What Sixteen Years of CENFACS in Four Days are about

It is a project celebrating from the 13^th of June 2018 CENFACS’ 16 years of service and commitment to poverty relief and poor people’s well-being since it was granted a charitable status in 2002.  

It is a project of remembrance of CENFACS as a mature organisation; remembrance to be conducted in four days highlighting the transformative development of CENFACS, the building of bonds and bridges with other communities, the help in transformation of deprived lives, the enhancement and sustaining of freedoms and capabilities.  All this has been carried out by working with local people to develop sustainable initiatives through the last 16 years.

As this year has been dedicated the Local People’s Year at CENFACS, the four days of observance will be featured around CENFACS’ local people.  The first time we informed you about this project, we explained who were and are our local people.  However, if you have not been informed, please refer to our previous communications or contact us for clarification. 

We shall hold 4 days of observance as follows:

⇒ 13/06/2018: Local people as project initiators and suppliers

⇒ 14/06/2018: Local people as change makers

⇒ 15/06/2018: Local people as project implementers and delivers

⇒ 16/06/2018: Local community projects with locals plus thank you to Sedecim supporters and makers.

In brief, Sedecim will be a 4-day of celebration of local people as creators and innovators for poverty relief and sustainable development, helpers in the development of sustainable initiatives, project and programme initiators, change makers and life savers, improvers of local life, chain suppliers and providers of local needs and solutions, developers of sustainable initiatives etc.       

To support and or engage to Sedecim, contact CENFACS.

 

Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.

Thank you as well to those who made comments about our weekly posts.

We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support during 2018.

With many thanks