Saferworld Project

Saferworld is an independent non-governmental organisation that aims to prevent armed violence and to create safer communities. Saferworld works in a number of areas that have suffered from violent conflict and currently has programmes in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Through A4ID, a team from Clifford Chance advised Saferworld on aspects of its submission to the UK government's review of the Export Control Act, specifically in relation to the terms of arms export licences and the enforceability of non-re-export clauses.

Photograph courtesy of Kait Curran Palmer.

	International Women’s Day International Women's day was celebrated with gusto in London this year with noted speakers Professor Gita Sen and Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai reiterating the importance of Women's rights in the world. I attended the panel discussion at the Lewis Media centre hosted by the UK Gender and Development Network and contributed to by various organisations including Oxfam, Womankind and Action Aid. Political weight was also added to the mix with a video message from Gordon Brown and Douglas Alexander appearing as a panel member, both of whom reinforced their commitment to Women's rights. Key topics of the day were a look at the UN’s Millennium Development Goals and a renewed pledge to further the cause of women’s rights. Violence against women, the impact of climate change on impoverished societies and women in particular as well as healthcare were all issues that were explored. The message we took away with us was that in a world faced with a multitude of development issues, the nexus between female empowerment and the uplifting of society is one we cannot afford to ignore. Jyoti Rathi, A4ID Development Rights Group

100 Words on…The Southern African Development Community

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) was born out of a loose alliance of nine majority-ruled states of Southern Africa, who joined forces in 1980 to establish the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC). The aim at the time was to coordinate national development policies in an effort to minimise dependence on apartheid South Africa. Twelve years later, SADCC emerged as the enlarged SADC, a fifteen member community given legal structure with the signing of the Namibia Declaration and Treaty in 1992.

Headquartered in Gaborone, Zambia, SADC espouses a vision of a common future amongst the people of its member states, seeking to enhance cooperation on matters of socio-economic development as well as facilitate coordination in the arena of member states’ political and security policies. SADC continues to operate primarily as an intergovernmental organisation, headed by the SADC Summit. Below the Summit, there are four directorates: Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources; Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment; Infrastructure and Services and Social and Human Development. The SADC Tribunal has jurisdiction under the Namibia Treaty to hear disputes between member states and SADC, as well as between member states and natural and legal persons. Although imbued with legal force and a determined vision, SADC’s operations have been and continue to be stunted by insufficient funding from member states and the latters’ unwillingness to cede such influence as envisaged by the Namibia Declaration and Treaty. Further information on SADC is available on its website: www.sadc.int .

Kate Levine, Lovells LLP

A4ID Law & International Development Training Programme Commentary

"The "Law and International Development" training programme for A4ID is one which I feel privileged to be attending. The quality of the speakers and the way in which the course has been put together is a great tribute to A4ID and, in particular, I think, to Katie Hutt who has spent time working with the speakers in finding the right balance between, on the one hand, the detailed and (to some extent) esoteric analysis upon which the lecturers are clearly expert and, on the other, the "beginners welcome" approach for many of us in private practice who find the whole concept of law relating to international development an entirely different and new one.

A4ID asked me to mention briefly the training in February. This, like many other training sessions, was an interactive one. The subject was "Debt-relief and poverty-reduction strategies". We were split into groups and asked to comment on the case studies which were previously circulated by email and then to feed back to the class as a whole. The aim was to test our views on the success (or otherwise) of poverty reduction strategies in different nations. The whole exercise was extremely useful in gaining an insight into how developing nations try to strike a balance between engagement with the local communities to which the aid is destined and fulfilling the requirements of donor nations in order to obtain the aid in the first place. Of the three we reviewed, Uganda was probably the best and Bolivia probably the worst. There are lessons here for all of us and I would commend these two lectures and the course to all A4ID members."

Richard Dyton, Partner, Simmons & Simmons