 | More World Vision Links
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World Vision advocacy has had a busy start to 2008. We are gearing up, along with and other NGOs, for the 2008 G8 Summit in Japan, urging G8 governments to greatly increase and improve their ODA, especially to tackle the massive health and AIDS crises. In January, we supported the Global Campaign for Education's new policy on education and disabilities, with the GCE World Assembly voting unanimously to more intentionally promote inclusive education. At the 52nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, we, representing other NGOs, argued that: the primary responsibility in financing girls' education lies with governments, and that girls should be viewed as "bearers of rights" rather than "units of productivity". Elsewhere, we delivered a statement to the UN Human Rights Council on human rights violations in the Gaza Strip during a special session on the Occupied Palestinian Territories; and gave input to the UN Special Rapporteur on Education who is drafting his forthcoming report on Education in Emergencies. In the Asia-Pacific region, World Vision has worked with the Inter-Agency Working Group on Child Participation to produce guidelines on child participation and on involving children in research; this follows the UN Study on Violence Against Children. Meanwhile in Lebanon, we are supporting the First International Human Rights Festival 2008, dedicated to promoting human rights through young people's powerful and personal insights. Film is a powerful tool for raising awareness and educating people - World Vision Lebanon will use various film formats to focus on the rights of children, women and refugees, among other vulnerable groups. The festival, organised by the Lebanese American University's Institute for Diplomacy and Conflict Transformation, is co-funded by World Vision, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Dutch Embassy in Lebanon. Other plans for 2008 include researching the impact of violence on girls' education in emergency settings, a contribution to the inter-agency campaign on Safe Learning Environments, and collaborative World Vision Africa / World Vision UK research into the effectiveness of child participation approaches and mechanisms in Africa.
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| Current Campaign
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| Changing faces: Trends in HIV and AIDS in Asia and the Pacific
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Nearly 30 years after the first cases of HIV were diagnosed in Asia and the Pacific, the number of people living with HIV and AIDS in the region continues to climb, in some areas at an alarming rate. The 2006 UNAIDS Epidemic Update reported that over 5 million people were now HIV-positive in Asia, nearly 1 million of them having contracted the virus in the previous year. In Asia, 29% of people living with HIV and AIDS are women; in Oceania 47%.
This new World Vision Asia-Pacific report focusing on Cambodia, India, Papua-New Guinea and Thailand highlights that groups traditionally considered at risk, such as sex workers and their clients, men who have sex with men and intravenous drug users, continue to contract the virus, but that around a quarter of new infections are not in these groups. One of the most tragic trends is the increase in mother-to-child transmission, especially in areas where testing facilities are limited or the virus is heavily stigmatised. In Cambodia, one third of all new infections are in babies. There are real fears that the dire impacts of AIDS in Africa will be repeated in Asia and the Pacific. Yet these trends are reversible, the threats avoidable. Urgent action is needed across all sectors of society, not just those considered high-risk. [Read more...
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 | NEW report from World Vision Asia-Pacific Office |
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| Featured Item | |
| Latest edition of GLOBAL FUTURE | |
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Can we close the education gap?
This edition of Global Future focuses on the effectiveness of efforts to achieve education for all. Access to education is a fundamental human right, yet at the half-way point towards 2015, the gaps are daunting: 80 million children (44 million of them girls) are out of school, with marginalised groups (26 million disabled and 30 million conflict-affected children) continuing to be excluded. Not only access to school, but improved learning outcomes, are essential for poverty reduction. Contributors to this edition include Mr Vernor Muñoz (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education), Mr Desmond Bermingham (Head of the Education for All Fast Track Initiative Secretariat), Ms Cheryl Gregory Faye (Head of the UNGEI Secretariat and Senior Education Officer for UNICEF), and Mr Shaik Baksh (Guyana's Minister of Education). Read more...
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 | GLOBAL FUTURE - No 2 2007 |
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| The 2008 World Vision Award for Innovation in Advocacy
seeking champions in innovation and excellence in advocacy | |
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This award recognises diligent champions for social justice within the World Vision Partnership – those undertaking initiatives at the community and local level, whose excellent work achieves practical change through advocacy.
Nominees will be reviewed by a panel of internal and external advocacy specialists. The Advocacy Champion will receive a monetary reward to scale up or replicate their winning advocacy project.
The 2007 WV Advocacy Award was won by MaiaTsereteli who heads up the Prevention of Infant Abandonment and Deinstitutionalisation (PIAD) project in Georgia. The programme has three major facets: prevention of abandonment; reintegration of children from institutions back to communities; and the development of community-based services that support family-based care for children, including small business development. Read more...
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 | The 2008 World Vision Award for Innovation in Advocacy |
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| Call to protect & support orphans, vulnerable children | |
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Commonwealth Heads of Government met together in Uganda at the end of November under the banner of 'Transforming Commonwealth Societies to achieve Political, Economic and Human Development'. The 53 Commonwealth countries represent 30% of the world's population but carry a disproportionate 60% of the global burden of HIV and AIDS. Despite governments and the international community giving higher priority to tackling the epidemic, the rights and needs of children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS are still at the bottom of the global AIDS agenda. World Vision released a new briefing calling on Commonwealth member countries to prioritise children in the global response to AIDS by:
- earmarking 10% of total HIV and AIDS funding for children who have been orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS;
- implementing National Plans of Action for orphans and vulnerable children;
- strengthening health systems;
- calling on G8 leaders to honour their commitments on AIDS, especially those related to children affected by AIDS;
- urging the Japanese Government to prioritise children and AIDS at the 2008 G8 Summit.
Click here to read the briefing.
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 | World Vision CHOGM briefing |
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