Eessential references on
representative bodies in Vietnam

Progress of the World’s Women 2005: Women, Work & Poverty

This report marks the fifth anniversary of the UN Millennium Declaration and the tenth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action. It argues that unless governments and policymakers pay more attention to employment, and its links to poverty, the campaign to make poverty history will not succeed, and the hope for gender equality will founder on the reality of women’s growing economic insecurity.

UNDP and Indigenous Peoples: A Policy of Engagement (2001) Download full report

Human Development Report 2005: International cooperation at a crossroads: Aid, trade and security in an unequal world

This year’s Human Development Report takes stock of human development, including progress towards the MDGs. Looking beyond statistics, it highlights the human costs of missed targets and broken promises. Extreme inequality between countries and within countries is identified as one of the main barriers to human development—and as a powerful brake on accelerated progress towards the MDGs. Order the book at http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/

Route to Equality: a Gender Review of National MDG reports - 2005

"En Route to Equality" is a review of national MDG reports through a gender lens commissioned by the UNDP Bureau for Development Policy. It highlights positive trends and examples of effective gender mainstreaming, while flagging continuing areas of concern. It demonstrates the added value of including a gender equality perspective in future MDG reporting, and provides key insights and practical suggestions for the integration of gender concerns under each Goal and for continued tracking of progress under all Goals. Download at http://www.undp.org/gender/docs/en-route-to-equality.pdf

Gender Based Violence and HIV Among Women: Assessing the Evidence – AMFAR

This Issue Brief states that, despite growing awareness of the links between Gender Based Violence and HIV, there have been few rigorously designed and evaluated interventions to address it. It concludes that “there is a great deal of evidence to establish the significant link between gender-based violence and rising rates of HIV infection among women and girls throughout the world.“
Download at http://www.amfar.org/binary-data/AMFAR_PUBLICATION/download_file/38.pdf

WHO Draft Booklet on Health, Human Rights and Poverty Reduction Strategies

World Resources 2005 -- The Wealth of the Poor: Managing ecosystems to fight poverty

Income from ecosystems—what we call environmental income -- can act as a fundamental stepping stone in the economic empowerment of the rural poor.

Health in the Millennium Development Goals

The report, Health and the Millennium Development Goals, presents data on progress on the health goals and targets and looks beyond the numbers to analyse why improvements in health have been slow and to suggest what must be done to change this. The report points to weak and inequitable health systems as a key obstacle, including particularly a crisis in health personnel and the urgent need for sustainable health financing. Read full review and download full report

The Blue Book: A Hands-on Approach to Advocating for the Millennium Development Goals   Download the book

UNDP Guide to Civil Society Organisations working on Democratic Governance

The Guide takes as its starting point UNDP’s understanding of civil society as defined in the organisational policy note on engagement with the sector and offers a snapshot of more than 300 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working on democratic governance at the global and regional levels. A copy of the Guide may be directly downloaded online. If you would like further information please contact UNDP Civil Society Adviser, Elizabeth McCall at elizabeth.mccall@undp.org

Tools for Public Private Partnerships to response to problems of service delivery, especially to the poor and local levels. UNDP PPP Urban Programme.

Tools for Pro-Poor PPP at the Local Level. This toolkit was designed for local governments, business and community organisations interested in an innovative approach to the problems of service delivery, especially to the poor. The tools were developed through a participatory process involving the UNDP Public-Private Partnerships for Urban Environment (PPPUE) Programme in 14 countries and more than 50 municipalities around the world ensuring that they are useful both globally and locally. The Toolkit is available at http://www.margraf-publishers.com/UNDP/PPPUE/

New WHO Draft Booklet on Health, Human Rights and Poverty Reduction Strategies

This booklet is intended as a tool for health policy-makers to design, implement and monitor a poverty reduction strategy through human rights-based approach. It contains practical guidance and suggestions, as well as good practice examples from around the world. During this critical year – 2005 – only 10 years away from the target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), WHO plans to support countries in their efforts to operationalize a human rights-based approach in relation to poverty reduction strategies. Full text. Thanks to HURITALK – The UNDP Human-Rights Policy Network for the information