There was no immediate comment from the Bank but latest figures show that the Bank… is in fact reducing its funding for basic education.

For instance, in 2011, funding for basic education in low income countries fell by US$700 million. The Bank has only programmed US$327 million.

Global Campaign for Education said the Bank’s recent performance on education and the lack of follow through on its commitments is affecting millions of children’s accessibility to education.

“Most developing countries have made education an important priority in recent years and a large portion of the progress that has been made on the Education MDGs has been down to increased investment in education,” the petition reads in part.

The body also notes that such low income countries are now spending 11.4 percent of their GDP on primary and lower secondary education.

“Yet the Bank commits a far lower proportion of its lending for low income countries than this. It is vital that a clear commitment is made to place a greater weight on basic education and the important benefits it provides in reducing corruption, strengthening democracy and increasing economic growth,” it said.

The grant is expected to fund technical assistance to evaluate the extension of branchless banking services, including electronic payment systems and other financial services to underserved segments of Ghana’s population. Continue reading on www.globalnewsreel.com

There were a lot of tall blondes in the room, but spotting Astrid Kohl was not a problem.  She told me about GIZ’s booth at the forum (it also took some time for me to adjust to ‘GIZ’ as I had known it as InWEnt the whole time I attended the courses). Britta Scholtys, she told me, was also there—but unfortunately, I didn’t see her. Joining me in the Orange Magazine team was Christina Felschen, whom I first met at the Summer Academy 2007 program: I had made a point to visit her in Berlin every time after.

I was just picking up a coffee when I bumped into Privilege Musvanhiri, whom I had met at the Advanced Multimedia and Online Journalism course in October 2010. “Bianca!” he exclaimed, eyes widening. A quick hug and some pleasantries later, we went off to do our work at the forum. The nostalgia trip continued the next day, when I bumped into Werner Eggert, who was still with InWEnt (and now with Intajour) when I first visited Germany in 2007.

I’m waxing sentimental over this now because in a month, I will be leaving for graduate school in New York soon, specializing in digital media at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism—something that I wouldn’t have seriously considered had it not been for the IIJ, its instructors, and what I learned during those cold months in Berlin. The instructors sat me down at the end of the nine-week session and asked me what I planned to do next. I wasn’t sure yet, I said. “We’re sure your education back in the Philippines is excellent, but we think you could do something more with graduate school abroad,” one of them told me.

I replied that yes, I had always wanted to try for grad school. But it was expensive and competitive; what chance did I have? “Things have a way of working out,” Peter Berger told me. Two years later, they finally did.

I particularly remembered those moments last week, because it made me realize just how far the IIJ had encouraged its delegates to go—and there we were again, meeting up at Bonn without realizing we would bump into each other. Last year, another IIJ alumnus from Pakistan got in touch with me because he was also set to go to Columbia. I have no doubt I will bump into more alumni someday, and I look forward to meeting old colleagues and friends once more. Clearly, the world’s becoming a smaller place.

The NSA Programme’s Programme Management Unit (PMU) and the National Authorising Office System Unit have organised a one week training work shop for the grant recipients to help them to manage their projects in compliance with all necessary rules and regulations and to achieve their set project goals in the interest of their target groups at community level. The 5-day training workshop has taken place at Paradise Suites Hotel Conference Centre from February 21 – 25 facilitated by Ms Zeynep Selen Yilmaz, an international consultant from Turkey.

The training programme’s specific objective was to make sure that the participating NSAs have the financial management and implementation capacity to ensure the success of their projects. The thirteen NSAs involved should now have a clear understanding of what is expected in the management of EDF-funded projects and the capacity to meet those expectations. The topics covered included budgeting, procurement, monitoring and reporting, as well as setting out requirements in terms of visibility. In the course of the workshop mechanisms were also agreed for ongoing support and capacity building of the grants recipients by PMU. As a result of the training it is strongly believed that the grants provided by the European Union will be judiciously utilized and that the intended beneficiaries of these projects will feel a tangible impact in the immediate future.

At the conclusion of the workshop, certificates of attendance were presented to participants by Mr. Sylvain Lequere of the EU Delegation to the Gambia. The PMU has promised, even as participants expressed joy at the programme, that further such training workshops will be held to further expose the NSAs to EDF practices and principles and strengthen their overall management capacity. The NSA Strengthening programme will, in the year ahead, seek ways to work with the support NSA throughout the country and their representative umbrella organisations to play a constructive and dynamic role in national development in collaboration with the Government and in line with national development strategies.

INCREASED PRESSURE on daily water supply in the Northern Region has been ascribed to the ever growing population, urbanization and human activities such as bush burning, deforestation as well as bad farming practices in the area.

Governments, according to the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, San Nasamu Asabigi, had tried in several ways over the years to provide the people with constant supply of potable water but as a result of the above mentioned challenges and others, the projects, hit the rocks. Read more on www.nayank80.blogspot.com