DATE: Monday 10 December 2012

TIME: 6.00-9.00pm

VENUE: Committee Room 8, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

(Please allow for at least 15 minutes to clear security when you arrive)

***Please note the new venue of Committee Room 6 (changed from Committee Room 8 due to parliamentary business)***

Chinua Achebe's recently published memoirs, There was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, have controversially reopened discussions on Nigeria's past – especially the events leading up to the first coup and the aftermath of the Biafran War. These events have had a profound impact on Nigeria and continue to critically impact developments across the country today.

This event aims to bring Nigerians together to debate the key legacies from the coup and civil war in the context of Nigeria's present realities and future trajectory, and hopes to explore how the coup and war have:

• adversely affected peacebuilding and state-building across Nigeria (with reference to reconciliation, integration and equality)?
• shaped the relationship between the Nigerian State and ordinary Nigerians?
• influenced broader understanding of how to tackle the deep and growing levels of economic and social inequality polarising Nigeria?
• affected access to justice, transparency and accountability as well as tackling state impunity in Nigeria?

Chair: Chi Onwurah MP, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Science & Digital Infrastructure

Speakers:

• Donu Kogbara, Print and broadcast journalist and Board Member, Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority
• Dipo Salimonu, Eirenicon Africa and founding partner of Ateriba Limited
• Onyekachi Wambu, Director Policy and Engagement, African Foundation for Development (AFFORD)
• Dr Muhammad Jameel Yusha'u, Senior Lecturer in Media and Politics, Northumbria University

There are a limited number of places so if you would like to attend, please RSVP by email to: events@fpc.org.uk

Download the report (170 kilobyte PDF)

Tuesday 9 October - Birmingham

The Foreign Policy Centre is hosting a fringe event at this year's Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. Please click below to download the flyer. The event is free and open to all however Conference accreditation WILL be required to gain access to the venue.

Download The Foreign Policy Centre at the 2012 Party Conferences (110 kilobyte PDF)

Monday 1 October - Manchester

The Foreign Policy Centre is hosting a fringe event at this year's Labour Party Conference in Manchester. Please click below to download the flyer. The event is free and open to all however Conference accreditation WILL be required to gain access to the venue.

Download The Foreign Policy Centre at the 2012 Party Conferences (110 kilobyte PDF)

By Stephen Royle.

This briefing by Stephen Royle addresses growing concerns surrounding access to finance in the occupied Palestinian territories. Under occupation a rigid framework has been applied that has restricted development capabilities and therefore detached Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank from the formal financial sector.

Download Access to Finance in the occupied Palestinian Territories (350 kilobyte PDF)

By Josephine Osikena.

The Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) in partnership with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office(FCO) and in association with the City of London Corporation and 'This is Africa', (the FT's bimonthly magazine), hosted a one day London conference (2012) focused on how best to regulate and expand the provision of mobile payment services across Africa and beyond.

This report distils the main ideas and experiences shared through a series of main plenary sessions and a range of working group discussions at the London conference. The report comprises of two central elements. The first provides guidelines and principles that could support the development of a framework outlining how effective regulation might be shaped. The second suggests potential implementation features which could explore how effective regulation might be implemented, scaled up and replicated.

Download Summary Report: The financial revolution in Africa (160 kilobyte PDF)

By Martha Molfetas.

In this FPC Briefing Martha Molfetas gives a detailed analysis of the current and historical tensions between Sudan and South Sudan, exploring the role of resources and the needs for long-term development and peace-building.

Download Resource Curse and Peace Building- A Tale of Two Sudans (590 kilobyte PDF)

Adam Hug (Ed.)

Hard copy: £4.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download Europe in the World: Can EU foreign policy make an impact? (2.02 megabyte PDF)

The Foreign Policy Centre's new publication, Europe in the World: Can EU foreign policy make an impact?, examines both how Europe is seen on the world stage and the effectiveness of the new External Action Service in delivering on its key objectives: building an effective new diplomatic service, strengthening EU influence in the neighbourhood and developing relations with strategic partners. It explores the institutional and organisational challenges surrounding the creation of the EEAS and considers what tensions remain with other EU institutions and national governments, with particular reference to the UK's difficult relationship with Europe.

Europe in the World is edited by Adam Hug (Foreign Policy Centre). It contains contributions on a range of topics and different perspectives from: Dr. Jozef Batora (Comenius University), Thiago de Aragão (Foreign Policy Centre), William Gumede (Foreign Policy Centre), Jacqueline Hale (Open Society Foundations), Richard Howitt MEP, Stefan Lehne (Carnegie Europe), Dr. Simon Lightfoot and Dr Balazs Szent-Ivanyi (University of Leeds), Prof. Anand Menon (Kings College London), Rt. Hon. Sir Malcolm Rifkind KCMG, QC, MP, Edward Macmillan-Scott MEP, Prof. John Peterson (University of Edinburgh), Dr. Neil Winn (University of Leeds). Rt. Hon. Douglas Alexander MP (Shadow Foreign Secretary) provides the foreword.

• Europe in the world: London launch event
• Europe in the world: Leeds event
• Europe in the world: Edinburgh event

Josephine Osikena (Ed.)

Download The financial revolution in Africa: Mobile payment services (590 kilobyte PDF)

This pamphlet builds on an FPC and UK Foreign Office event series, the first of which took place in March 2011, with a follow-up conference taking place in March 2012 - in association with the City of London Corporation and 'This is Africa' - the FT's bi-monthly magazine. The events and publication brought together national and international experts and specialists from across the mobile payment service sector. The project aimed to develop and promote an evidence-based understanding of the risks and challenges associated with supervising mobile payment services and promoting their global expansion. This essay collection focuses on three core themes. The first explores how effective regulatory oversight might be developed. The second examines how expanding the provision of mobile payment schemes might improve the distribution of financial services and finally the third section critically assesses the future of branchless banking beyond issues of financial access. Essentially, it considers the challenges of increasing service use and integrating mobile money services into existing electronic payment systems.

The pamphlet contains contributions by: Mark Simmonds MP, UK Foreign Office Minister for Africa, Susie Lonie, Co-Creator of M-Pesa, Mireya Almazán and Claire Alexandre (formerly), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hemant Baijal and Sal Karakaplan, MasterCard, Simone di Castri, GSMA, Christine Hougaard, Cenfri, Quan Le, GMX Consulting, Prateek Shrivastava, Accendo Associate (and formerly at Monitise), Cicero Torteli, Freeddom and Josephine Osikena (ed.), Foreign Policy Centre.

• The financial revolution in Africa Conference
• The African growth revolution?Mobile banking in a global age

Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP

September 2010

Download Responsibility to the poor: A new agenda for changed times (790 kilobyte PDF)

In a publication launched by the Foreign Policy Centre entitled 'Responsibility to the poor: A new agenda for changed times', the former UK Secretary of State for International Development, Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, outlines why justice not charity needs to underpin the fight against global inequality and poverty. FPC Co-President Baroness Jay provides the foreword.

• The Guardian Poverty Matters blog article about this report

DATE: Monday 10 December 2012

TIME: 6.00-9.00pm

VENUE: Committee Room 8, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

(Please allow for at least 15 minutes to clear security when you arrive)

***Please note the new venue of Committee Room 6 (changed from Committee Room 8 due to parliamentary business)***

Chinua Achebe's recently published memoirs, There was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, have controversially reopened discussions on Nigeria's past – especially the events leading up to the first coup and the aftermath of the Biafran War. These events have had a profound impact on Nigeria and continue to critically impact developments across the country today.

This event aims to bring Nigerians together to debate the key legacies from the coup and civil war in the context of Nigeria's present realities and future trajectory, and hopes to explore how the coup and war have:

• adversely affected peacebuilding and state-building across Nigeria (with reference to reconciliation, integration and equality)?
• shaped the relationship between the Nigerian State and ordinary Nigerians?
• influenced broader understanding of how to tackle the deep and growing levels of economic and social inequality polarising Nigeria?
• affected access to justice, transparency and accountability as well as tackling state impunity in Nigeria?

Chair: Chi Onwurah MP, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Science & Digital Infrastructure

Speakers:

• Donu Kogbara, Print and broadcast journalist and Board Member, Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority
• Dipo Salimonu, Eirenicon Africa and founding partner of Ateriba Limited
• Onyekachi Wambu, Director Policy and Engagement, African Foundation for Development (AFFORD)
• Dr Muhammad Jameel Yusha'u, Senior Lecturer in Media and Politics, Northumbria University

There are a limited number of places so if you would like to attend, please RSVP by email to: events@fpc.org.uk

Download the report (170 kilobyte PDF)

Tuesday 9 October - Birmingham

The Foreign Policy Centre is hosting a fringe event at this year's Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. Please click below to download the flyer. The event is free and open to all however Conference accreditation WILL be required to gain access to the venue.

Download The Foreign Policy Centre at the 2012 Party Conferences (110 kilobyte PDF)

Monday 1 October - Manchester

The Foreign Policy Centre is hosting a fringe event at this year's Labour Party Conference in Manchester. Please click below to download the flyer. The event is free and open to all however Conference accreditation WILL be required to gain access to the venue.

Download The Foreign Policy Centre at the 2012 Party Conferences (110 kilobyte PDF)