23rd February 2006

Power belongs to the people, but not in Uganda

JOSEPHINE OSIKENA, Director of Democracy and Development at the Foreign Policy Centre, today said:

"The wave of Ugandan elections will be anything but free and fair. Why should they be? Regrettably, President Yoweri Museveni appears to have lost all respect for the ballot box and, for the most part, the election results have been predetermined. Voters have either been scared off by violence and intimidation or they have become completely apathetic."

Download the full press release (30 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

16th January 2006

STEPHEN TWIGG, Director of the Foreign Policy Centre today said:

"Libya, not Iraq is the model for dealing with Iran, and bringing about a solution to the country's nuclear ambitions.

"The current coverage in the media of the crisis over Iran's moves to resume research and development of nuclear fuel is in danger of being portrayed in the same light as the build-up to the war with Iraq. While Iran's move to resume nuclear fuel research is a worrying development, there is still the opportunity for a diplomatic solution to the current crisis."

Download the full press release (20 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

21 October 2005

"Post-secondary education in Africa must be the focus for EU" – former Schools Minister

STEPHEN TWIGG, Director of the Foreign Policy Centre, and a former Minister for School Standards today said:

"Thanks to G8 leaders, over the next 5 years the EU has $100 billion to spend on African Development. On Monday and Tuesday, Hilary Benn will meet with his EU counterparts to discuss how that money is spent. I urge those Ministers to read the Foreign Policy Centre's action plan, "Leeds Manifesto; How to Spend $100 billion for Africa" and give a new focus to investing in post-secondary education in Africa.

"We must see education in the round – it is not just about books for school-children, but it is a means for people of all ages to escape poverty. Post-secondary education in Africa must be the focus for the EU.

Download the press release (10 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

By Niall Ahern.

After 26 years and with over 70,000 deaths, the war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has ended. Footage of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tiger's dead leader across news channels and the internet has initiated street parties across the capital Colombo as some citizens, who have previously only known war, ponder the prospect of peace at last. In President Rajapaksa's victory speech to Parliament, he declared: 'Today we have been able to liberate the entire country from the clutches of terrorism. We have been able to defeat one of the most heinous terrorist groups in the world.' What President Rajapaksa says is true. The Tigers have been carrying out attacks over land and sea since the war began in 1983. In more recent years, suicide bombings have become a notorious feature of the Tigers' strategy. Over the course of the war, they successfully set up and ran a separate administration in the north and east of the island which we only got some glimpse of when the army liberated Kilinochchi earlier this year.

Full text 

By Thiago de Aragao.

Nobody should be surprised at the result of the referendum on autonomy held on Sunday, May 04, in the province of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. The highly anticipated "Yes" victory, to be confirmed by the end of the week when the vote's official results are due to be released, has led to reactions by Bolivia's central government and by the Santa Cruz government too, which did not expect a different result.

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By Alex Bigham. Source: The Guardian's Comment is Free

After meeting on the rugby pitch for their annual match, Fiji's police and army found themselves on opposite sides of a coup d'etat.

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Josephine Osikena

Download Women & Children First: Leadership and the HIV & AIDS Crisis (470 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Throughout 2008, the Foreign Policy Centre, with the support of Abbott, hosted a series of three expert roundtable discussions. The series brought together small groups of experts and specialists from government, the media, academia, the medical profession, local and international civil society, public bodies and institutions, the private sector and representatives from the diplomatic community in London. Together they explored the challenges faced by women and children, who often experience the effects of the HIV & AIDS epidemic more severely than men, particularly in Africa south of the Sahara. The areas of discussion included: building sustainable healthcare systems, child survival and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission and overcoming the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV & AIDS.

This new FPC report brings together some of the key findings and conclusions drawn from the roundtables, as well as from the relevant literature, and makes some concrete recommendations for action.

Feng Zhang, FPC China Programme Manager

In association with Coca-Cola Great Britain

Download the background paper (140 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

This is an initial background paper to accompany the FPC project on Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Markets in association with Coca-Cola Great Britain.

Josephine Osikena

Barrow Cadbury Trust, WAITS

Download Understanding Women's Social Capital (1.24 megabyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

2005 Global Exchange Forum Report

Date: Saturday 13 June at 11.15am

Venue: Institute of Education, London

Speakers:

• Richard Howitt MEP, Labour MEP for the East of England
• John Evans, General Secretary, Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
• Claire Melamed, Head of Policy Coordination, ActionAid
• Mark Ashurst, Director, Africa Research Institute

This year's Compass National and Robin Cook Memorial Conference took place on Saturday 13 June at the Institute of Education and was themed around building a new political and economic settlement for the 21st century with democracy, equality and sustainability at its heart. The key purpose of the event was to make the case that there can be 'No Turning Back' to the failed ideas of the free market consensus.

The Foreign Policy Centre hosted a break-out session entitled 'Tax justice: The missing link in the fight against poverty?'

Date: Tuesday 5 May 2009, 6.00-8.00pm

Venue: Committee Room 11, Palace of Westminster, London SW1A 0AA

Speaker: Ivan Lewis MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development

Chair: Stephen Twigg, Director, Foreign Policy Centre

The Foreign Policy Centre, with the support of Abbott, hosted a series of three expert roundtable discussions during 2008, to discuss and identify concrete and practical ways in which the lives of African women and girls affected by HIV & AIDS could be transformed. The areas of discussion and analysis included: building sustainable healthcare systems, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission and child survival, and overcoming stigma and discrimination.

This event acted as the launch for a new FPC report which brings together the discussions and conclusions from all three roundtables, and provided an opportunity to discuss the findings. Ivan Lewis MP, the DFID Minister provided a keynote speech and contributions were also supplied by some of the roundtable participants.

The report can be found at: http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/1042.pdf

Download Ivan Lewis MP - Keynote speech (30 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

The Foreign Policy Centre, with the support of Abbott UK, has hosted a series of roundtable discussions to identify concrete and practical ways in which the lives of African women and girls affected by HIV/AIDS can be transformed. The areas of discussion and analysis included: building sustainable healthcare systems, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission and child survival, and stigma and discrimination.

If you would like more information about this project, or would like to receive a copy of the final report when it is published in spring 2009, please email: events@fpc.org.uk

Download Concept note - 'Women & children first' (60 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

FPC & Clifford Chance

The FPC and Clifford Chance recently hosted the following guest speakers:

HE Dr AGUINALDO JAIME, Deputy Prime Minister of Angola & HE Rt Hon DONALD MCKINNON, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat

The rule of law and access to justice are vital to Africa's economic and social development. However, the challenge of reform is enormous due to the complex reality of each sovereign state. This seminar explored important thematic developments in rule of law reform across the continent, taking a local, national and regional focus.

The FPC research project, Courting Justice: Rule of Law Reform in Africa, was launched at a high level roundtable to be hosted by Clifford Chance. The programme will culminate in an autumn lecture by the Secretary of State for International Development, Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP as well as the publication of a pamphlet which will include a collection of short essays by distinguished writers.

Other speakers included:

Dr Kofi Oteng Kufuor, University of East London

Dr Fareda Banda, School of Oriental and African Studies

Dr Chaloka Beyani, London School of Economics and Political Science

Laure-Hélène Piron, Department for International Development (DFID)

16th March 2006

FPC launches Latin America work with seminar on sustainable development

Stephen Twigg, Director of the Foreign Policy Centre, chaired 'Enterprise in Emerging Economies - Who Can Deliver Sustainable Development?', a round-table discussion launching what the FPC hopes to be the first in a series of events and publications on Latin America.

The seminar was attended by a number of figures from the private, public and NGO sectors. Among the speakers were HE Mr Luis Solari Tudela, Peruvian Ambassador to the UK; Paul Bulcke, Nestlé's Executive Vice President for the Americas; and Thiago de Aragão, a Brazilian political analyst and the FPC's new Latin America Research Associate.

31 October 2005

The FPC hosted a seminar on Democracy and Human Rights in Nigeria at the House of Commons, on Monday 31 October 2005. The main speakers at the event were Olisa Agbakoba, a senior Human Rights lawyer, Boma Ozobia a senior maritime lawyer specialising in the oil and gas sector, Rotimi Sankore, a distinguished journalist and Human Rights Campaigner and Sir Stephen Wall, former adviser to the Prime Minister on foreign affairs. The meeting was chaired by Malcolm Bruce MP, Chair of the International Development Select Committee.

"Nigeria is like a limited liability company owned by 120 million shareholders. The company's shareholders elect the company's employees at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Tasks are shared among the elected employees and tenure of office is established with a provision for re-election, based on performance, at the next AGM. The dilemma in Nigeria is that the elected employees have stolen the electoral process. They do not want to go. How will the shareholders reclaim their company?"

Olisa Agbakoba

In collaboration with the Migration Policy Group

Diasporas are an important agent in the pursuit of foreign policy objectives. However, most of the research carried out at present focuses on the economic impacts of transnationalism, from the so-called 'brain drain' to the impact on development of remittances sent back by migrants to poorer countries.

Further information