NGO Resource Centre Newsletter April 15-30

First off this week, the Climate Change Working Group thematic groups continue to meet regularly to formulate action plans and strategies for collaborative activities in 2008. Following this trend, an open CCWG event facilitated by SNV will be held on April 24 to coincide with the Asia Pacific Forestry Week (APFW), which occurs over April 21-26. The event will feature a special guest speaker - David Huberman - who is visiting Hanoi for the APFW, and will focus on Reductions of Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD), the forestry mechanism proposed for the post-2012 UNFCCC protocol. A 30-40 minute presentation introducing REDD and David's work on the social implications of the mechanism will be followed by an open Q+A session. The event will take place at 2pm on Thursday April 24 at the NGO RC and all are welcome to attend.<!--break-->

In other news, the Ethnic Minority Working Group (EMWG)’s special meeting with UK academic Dr Bob Baulch relating to research he has carried out on ethnic minorities and development in Vietnam has been postponed until the afternoon of May 6. The EMWG’s other upcoming event involving the head of the Ethnic Minority Policy Department (CEMA) Dr Tran Van Thuat remains unchanged and will be held during the afternoon of April 29 at Meeting Room 2, La Thanh Hotel. Please contact Nguyet on [email protected] for more information on either event.

The Vietnam Global Action Week for Education coalition is gearing up for its 2008 event, which this year falls during the week of April 21-27. Millions of students, teachers, parents and politicians in 64 provinces throughout Viet Nam will join together with 120 countries from around the world to observe the week, which culminates in a ‘Big Lesson’ held throughout the country on April 23 in cooperation with the Ministry of Education (MOE). A special event will be held at Thang Long School in Hanoi by the GAW INGO coalition in Vietnam and the MOE. For more information, please visit http://www.ngocentre.org.vn/node/152.

There are three working group meetings coming up in the next few weeks: the Administrative Working Group meeting will be held on April 22 from 15:00–17:00 at the NGO RC; the Ethnic Minority Working Group meeting will be held on 29 April from 14:00-16:30 at La Thanh hotel; the HIV/AIDS Technical Working Group meeting will be held on May 21 from 14:00-16:00; and the Disability Working Group meeting will be held on May 15 from 14:00-17:00 at the NGO RC.

See the Calendar section for more details.