IRIN Films: Forced to Flee  

These two documentaries filmed by the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)tell the story of two very different displaced communities, one in DRC and the other in the Philippines, and the daunting challenges they both face. 

An academic-practitioner cooperation to strengthen Civil Society Building efforts

International cooperation is in need of more knowledge to make a difference. To tackle complex problems such as the rise of fundamentalist movements and to innovate the sector needs to invest in the development, deepening, dissemination and application of knowledge. The Knowledge Programme is a practitioner-academic collaboration aimed at developing knowledge on issues imperative to the work of civil society organisations (CSOs) and the development sector at large. To achieve its goals Hivos works closely with CSOs and academic centres worldwide.

The Hivos-ISS Knowledge Programme on Civil Society Building (CSB) is an academic-practitioner cooperation to strengthen Civil Society Building efforts. It involves knowledge development, dissemination and application on CSB and aims to contribute to the wider debate on how to best strengthen civil society to empower the most margianalized groups in society, such as people with HIV/Aids, women and indigenous people. The programme focuses on Southern Africa and Central America but also includes projects the Andes region and Eastern Africa. 

Evidence from Village Panel Data

This research paper, written by Wei Ha,Junjian Yi and Junsen Zhang, analyzes the impact of rural-to-urban migration on income inequality and gender wage gap in source regions using a newly constructed panel dataset for around 100 villages over a ten-year period from 1997 to 2006 in China.  The researchers found a pattern between migration and income inequality in the sending communities. Specifically, contemporary emigration increases income inequality, while lagged emigration has strong income inequality reducing effect in the sending villages. More interestingly,the estimated relationship between emigration and the gender wage gap also has an inverse Ushaped pattern. 

La Cimade a organisé l'inauguration d'un commissariat modèle dans l'acceuil et la protection des femmes étrangères victimes de violences. Depuis février en effet, l'association mène campagne pour sensibiliser le public mais aussi les acteurs sociaux et politiques à la situation parfois inextricable dans laquelle se retrouvent les femmes étrangères victimes de violences. Ainsi, une enquête menée dans le cadre de cette campagne auprès de 75 commissariats dévoile que dans plus d'un commissariat sur trois, une femme sans-papiers qui voudrait porter plainte contre des violences, risquerait l'expulsion. 

A la question de savoir si une femme sans-papiers battue par son conjoint pouvait venir déposer plainte, 38% des commissariats ont indiqué qu’elle serait interpellée, dont 5% qu’elle ne pourrait même pas porter plainte. 12% des commissariats contactés ne pouvaient donner de réponse.