Eight Things You Never Knew About Feeding The Hungry

Nice article from the UN world food program: Eight Things You Never Knew About Feeding The Hungry: Nearer than you think, Yaks on track, Perfect altitude, Build what you need, Almost perfect, Maximum impact, Twenty-four hours, Fast food.

Hope and heartbreak in Haiti

An article from Ynet April 23, about how the Israeli delegation helps kids in orphanages rebuild their lives.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3878294,00.html

Israeli technology and practices for developing countries' farmers

Israeli experts in the field of agriculture gave a seminar on sustainable development of cattle breading within the framework of the joint project UNDP - Mashav - Ministry of Agriculture and Water Management of Uzbekistan. In the end of May leading experts from Israel Ran Solomon, Daniel Werner and Efraim Zuckerman trained a group of Uzbek farmers from Kui-Chirchik district of Tashkent region. The subject of the seminar was cattle rationing, nutrition and forage reserve and its influence on milk productivity. The participants were introduced to modern technologies and innovations in the field of agro chemistry and agronomy. Israeli experts together with representatives of UNDP and the Israeli Embassy in Uzbekistan, visited farms in the Tashkent region and studied fodder growing and implementation of the knowledge attained in training courses in Israel and Uzbekistan in the work of the farmers. During the seminars the experts stressed the importance of a diverse nutritive diet, including barley, triticale, pea and oats to increase productivity of cows. They advised on the proper pressing of silo and bin in order to preserve the correct micro flora. According to the plan of the Joint project on sustainable development of livestock, Israeli experts on design of modern dairy farming and herd books will come to Uzbekistan in order to conduct seminars in June 2009.

The following article was published on 25th of May on the “New Europe” website.
http://www.neurope.eu/articles/94744.php

Julia Bucknall's blog- World Bank- desalination plant in Israel

Further to our previous post (March 15) on the visit of the Word Bank delegation in Israel, essentially focused on water issues and climate change, look at these two very interesting blog posts and videos by Julia Bucknall, World Bank expert, reporting the visit.
http://blogs.worldbank.org/climatechange/blogs/julia-bucknall

FOR THE VIDEO:

http://vimeo.com/10613787

MASHAV at AIPAC- great speeches and clip

great speeches and clip (immediately after the speeches) on Israeli humanitarian activities abroad. http://www.aipac.org/PC2010/webPlayer/mon_israel10.asp. There is also an interview with Haim Divon, Head of MASHAV, and Mazal renford, Director of the Carmel Training Center.

Israeli Delegation Participates in the Fifth World Urban Forum

The World Urban Forum (WUF) is considered the world's premier conference on cities. The Forum was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing problems facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.

In March 2010, UN-HABITAT and the Government of Brazil hosted the WUF fifth session in Rio de Janeiro. During the conference, the Israeli delegation organized two special activities: A Side Event on "Municipal Platforms for Local Strategic Development” focussing upon the structuring of local organizational platforms for strategic development; and a Training Event on "How to leverage local assets for strategic local development – Establishing a Municipal Strategic Planning Unit (MSPU)”, which focussed on how to create local mechanisms for implementation of plans and strategies through an MSPU.

Both activities were presented by Israeli and Kenyan facilitators, representing MASHAV – Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation; Kisumu’s Municipal Council, Kenya; the Weitz Center for Development Studies, Israel; and strategic planning and development consultants.

http://mashav.mfa.gov.il/mfm/web/main/missionhome.asp?MissionID=16210&

Israel-Nepal sign agro agreement

Nepal and Israel signed on March 19 in Jerusalem an Agreement on cooperation in the field of agriculture. It was an opportunity for Nepalese Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Mrigendra Kumar Singh Yadav, to visit Israel. The visit also coincided with the celebration of 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

the picture attached is a press article from a local newspaper, Rajdhani.

World Cup-bound Norwegian cyclist teaches Eritrean refugees about the internet

Pupils at the Eritrean Refugee School in Sudan are learning internet and social media platforms with a former professional football player! another way to reach the outside world.
http://www.unhcr.org/4b9fb8cb9.html

International Water Day

MASHAV, in cooperation with the Israel's Water Authority, held yesterday a conference in Shefayim for the celebration of the International Water Day with a panel of Israeli experts and representatives of the Governmental sector. Shefayim MAHSAV's Training Center hosted a delegation from the World Bank, in Israel for the presentation of the WB new report on climate change and its implications in developement. In the afternoon, WB delegation visited the desalination plant in Hadera.

MASHAV's updates

This last days, MASHAV published updated flyers on the Israeli activities in the domains of agriculture, medicine and public health, education and community & socio-economic develpoment:

http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/1FE1E5AA-10D7-49BD-BCD5-3678E9874CFC/0/Medicine.pdf

http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/1533F394-4272-4864-B434-A29208517251/0/Agriculture.pdf

http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/6D74BC3A-1111-4927-BD53-2A528716A245/0/CommunityDevelopment.pdf

http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/E4716D29-6737-494E-B415-7FE378A53738/0/Educationforall.pdf

More women choosing to work, but gender equality remains a long way off

From ILO website, two days ago.

Despite signs of progress in gender equality over the past 15 years, there is still a significant gap between women and men in terms of job opportunities and quality of employment, according to a new report by the International Labour Office (ILO).

http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/Media_and_public_information/Press_releases/lang--en/WCMS_123827/index.htm

Promoting Security through Diplomacy and Development

A post (video) from the US Department of State on the importance of the 3 Ds. Secretary Clinton testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Promoting Security through Diplomacy and Development: The Fiscal Year 2011 International Affairs Budget (Feb. 25). You also can read the full statement.
http://www.state.gov/video/?videoid=68869987001

Another speech, a day before, on the priorities of the US government: D, D , D!
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/02/137256.htm

GREEN PROPHET BLOG

We met yesterday with a representative of the blog "green prophet". I would like to share with you the following link:

http://www.greenprophet.com/

"Green Prophet" is dealing with issues such as development and environment, in Israel and the Middle East, and brings to a wide public discussions and articles on environement and related issues.

They are doing a great job!

UN agency launches Web tool to help aid workers get food to Haitians in need

From the UN news Center.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today launched an interactive Web-based tool containing information on usable roads, crop calendars and damaged areas in Haiti to help aid workers in the Caribbean country better distribute food and combat shortages in the wake of last month's earthquake.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33769&Cr=Haiti&Cr1=

Could stopping aid to Africa help the continent?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlW-ucSzdGI

A recent interview of Dambisa Moyo (feb.5, 2010) on the issue of foreign aid and its effectiveness. Not everybody likes her but this is pretty interesting.