NGO Resource Centre Newsletter August 15 - 31, 2008

Welcome to the NGO Resource Centre Newsletter for August 15 - 31, 2008.

First off this week, the informal donor group on climate change is planning a meeting on Thursday morning (9-11am) to follow up on the recent NTP consultation and discuss ongoing coordination amongst stakeholders on climate change activities. The latter part of the discussion will focus on ideas about how to maintain an inventory of donor- and NGO-funded climate change activities and how to make this relevant to the Vietnamese Government and useful to each NGO's planning exercises. The agenda for the meeting includes: a presentation by the World Bank on the new "Oxfam table"; comments of MONRE or NTP; discussion on how donors and NGOs can best share information with the NTP team on current climate change activities; and discussion on next steps.

Participation is open to representatives of donors or NGOs with major climate change programs planned or underway and committed to coordinating with other initiatives and with the Government's NTP. For further details or to register your attendance, contact Yen at [email protected] by close of business Wednesday.

In other news, we would like to inform you that the upcoming PPWG workshop on NGO and CBO participation in policy lobbying and advocacy has been moved from September 4 to September 16. The workshop will include an introduction to the main principles and methods in policy lobbying and advocacy, an introduction and discussion of recent changes in Vietnam's legal framework (the Law on Promulgation of Laws), and sharing and discussing NGO and CBO experiences in policy lobbying and advocacy in Vietnam. For more information or to register your interest, visit http://www.ngocentre.org.vn/node/119 or contact Ms Vu Thi Nga, email: [email protected] phone: 04.7711173 or 0983 889 853.  

There are three working groups coming up in August: the WatSan Working Group will be held on August 22 from 15:00 – 17:00 at the NGO Resource Centre; Disability Working Group will be held on September 11 from 14:00 – 16:00 at the NGO Resource Centre; the HIV/AIDS Technical Working Group will be held on September 17 from 14:00 – 16:00 (venue to be confirmed)

See the Calendar section for more details.

All the best from the NGO RC Team.