Social Watch Philippines
Since it was set-up in 1997, Social Watch Philippines (SWP) has annually put forward a strategy of advocacy, awareness-building, monitoring, organizational development and networking. Based in Quezon City, one of the major cities in Metro Manila, the network that started with twenty seven civil society organizations and individuals has now grown to embrace more than a hundred citizens’ group, networks and individuals.
SWP’s work includes monitoring progress and shortfalls in social development based on the government’s commitment to various international conferences and agreements as consolidated in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and which is embodied in the Citizens’ Report on the MDGs which is published periodically. It evaluates policies, recommends programs and engages government agencies, international financial institutions and the UN System to address key poverty issues and human development concerns. Furthermore, SWP’s work in budget advocacy across the years, popularly known as the Alternative Budget Initiative, has led to increased budgetary allocations in the areas of education, health, agriculture and the environment, and has been cited by government as a pioneering effort of citizen’s participation in public finance.
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The crisis isn't over - not without global partnerships on unemployment and environmental sustainability The current crises reflect a model blind to environmental and human rights issues and confusing economic growth with progress in society. A coherent analysis of the common causes of the multiple crises and their interdependencies is needed now. This presupposes overcoming the current fragmentation in the development discourse of politics, science and civil society. << more
Stop the G20 agenda: 20 countries must not be allowed to decide the fate of the whole world Social Watch, along with more than 100 social organizations throughout the world, is calling to mobilize against the false solutions to the global crisis that have been put forward by the Group of 20 developed countries (G20). Organizations in all five continents claim that the proposed financial reforms will only serve to maintain the financial architecture that brought about the crisis, and that the G20 are not proposing far-reaching measures to tackle the very serious situation the planet is facing.. << more
Hunger: a structural problem The FAO and World Food Programme (WFP) recently released the annual report "The State of Food Insecurity in the World". The new estimate of the number of people who will suffer chronic hunger this year is 925 million - 98 million down from 1.023 billion in 2009. However, the fact that a child dies every six seconds because of undernourishment related problems is still unacceptable by any standard. << more
The World Bank neglegts its environmental and human rights responsibilities Thursday 7 October (Washington D.C.) Who is responsible if a hydroelectric project financed by the World Bank displaces a whole population or pollutes rivers? These kinds of questions were raised in debates between representatives of civil society organizations and Bank officials in the forum about policies that affect civil society, which was part of the annual IMF and World Bank Group meetings in Washington DC from 6 to 10 October. << more
Re-tooling development: civil society policy forum kicks off at World Bank Annual meetings Tues 6 Oct (Washington D.C) The need to build a new development paradigm with alternative measures that can provide evidence based development policies was the subject of discussions at the kick-off of the Civil Society Policy Forum of the WB and IMF Annual Meetings taking place here in Washington D.C. 6-10 October 2010. Is there a shifting trend in the way governments design development policies for social progress? << more
Social Watch workshop for Latin America The Social Watch International Secretariat together with the Centre for Research on Labour and Agrarian Development (CEDLA) in Bolivia co-organized the Social Watch regional workshop for Latin America that took place from 20 to 22 October 2010 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. << more
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New MDG progress index How well are individual countries progressing towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? Despite an extraordinary public campaign to mobilize support for the MDGs, including the UN MDG Summit in New York in September 2010, until now, there has remarkably little effort to track progress at the country level in a way that non-specialists could readily understand.
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IDB to develop indicators of child development in Latin America A new initiative by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) called "Regional Project on Child Development Indicators" aims to produce, for the first time, statistical data on child development outcomes for children aged 24 to 59 months in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Guidelines for writing on women´s economic, social and cultural rights in shadow reports
Source: ESCR-net http://www.escr-net.org
NGO alternative or shadow reporting within the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) can be strategically utilized to increase awareness on the rights and obligations contained in the treaties and promote integration of all women’s human rights.
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