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What's new at the ICDA Secretariat?
(Not quite a press release)
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| What's happening at ICDA in December?
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Yesterday, we sent out to our WTO Impact Listers a survey, asking them to provide their impressions of the very newly-improved Impact List,
which went into complete turnaround in 2001. If you're an Impact Lister, and would like to complete the Survey still, please visit this link here.
It's official. On Monday, we sent out messages to our CENNT Members indicating that the meeting of 2002 will take place on...[please click here...]
[Posted:Wednesday December 12, 1:35pm CET]
The CENNT meeting, scheduled for today -- Monday 3 December -- has been postponed till next year. ICDA hopes to prepare the almost moribund organisation into its transformation to ETN from mid-February onwards. Though
NGO efforts are being made 'elsewhere' to kickstart this process of CENNT to ETN, this February meeting could well be the last top operate under the familiar moniker of 'CENNT".
Due to a considerable number of meetings this week, ICDA Secretariat's replies to emails will come sporadically. Please bear with us. Thanks in advance...
[Posted:Monday December 3, 11:45am CET]
| What's happening at ICDA in November?
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The Civil Society Issue Groups will take place the week of 26 November. For more information on this, please visit ICDA's EU-NGO Dialogue with Civil Society page here.
Our G&t administrator-cum-WTO Ministerial analyst for the WTO Impact List, Julio Montes de Oca, has ended his internship at ICDA. During the time here, he was responsible for providing especially the RIO+10 WTOILs with his Master's background on Environmental affairs, plus provide the focus on Qatar with a uniqueness coming -- again -- from his training in the Environment/Sustainable Development studies. Many thanks, Julio!
Consequently, our new intern Francesca wil ltake over the administration. For more on her tasks, please click here.
[Posted:Tuesday November 20, 12:29pm CET]
Though the WTO Ministerial in Qatar has been over for 2 days now, it is still never too late to find out what the dynamics, arguments, and opinions regarding trade diplomacy -- best exemplified (or not) by the workings of the WTO -- are. For our visitors', including NGOs, and Activists alike, we have posted up ICDA WTOMC4 Page, which we shall frequently update so that people obtain a better insight into the crux of the trade debate. Though we have our own articles, through the SOD reports that we prepare for each topic of the WTOIL, most o fthe articles
on this page are what we consider to be the best articles commenting on the Background of the WTO, Agriculture, Least Developed Country (LDC) issues, etc... We shall soon post up Regional Trade articles, plus Environment and Trade, and try to provide you with the best links we know. To visit this page, please click here.
Julio has finally sent out to ICDA members a report of the RIO+10 Coalition meeting, of which ICDA is a member. Especially crucial will the subsequent meetings be as World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) draws nearer (only 10 months away).
[Posted:Friday November 16, 13:38 CET]
ICDA has a new Intern -- her name is Ms.Francesca Galeazzi, who has had a 5 month experience of working on development issues at the European Council. She will be assisting both Mr.Bensah and Mr.Montes de Oca in daily administrative tasks, as well as in th every near future -- the quintessential WTOIL, which at the time of writing is now 300-subscribers strong!
We'd first like to stress that the month of October went over our head -- literally -- as there was so much going on, but, in any event, here's a breakdown of what came to pass last month :
- In our WTOIL [ICDA WTO Impact List: Monday 29 October:[UNLDC3]:Utilities and
Futilities of Launching the WTOMC4 -- the Race for Agriculture; World Food Day Highlights at European Parliament], we published some highlights of the Food Security Conference held at the European Parliament on World Food Day (October 16, 2001). The importance of this has to with the fact that the World
Food Summit+5 was supposed to take place from 5-9 October, but has been postponed till next year because of post 911 (September 11) ramifications. Considering the failure of developing countries to agree on agriculture, not to mention the EU's contentious Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), it behooves us all to provide you with the latest updates when and if we get them, especially now the WTO Ministerial Conference IV remains a few days away. Undoubtedly, the WTOIL is the best route to
better clarification on the very important issue of Food Security, which dominated ICDA's SOD Reports both in September and October's WTOIL.
- Julio set up a list-serve in mid-October, with a view to inviting European NGOs working on Gender and Trade-related issues to communicate and coordinate better on twin bases:
1) Active subscribers: for subscribers who wish to attend coordination meetings and be ready to engage in joint actions (collective reflection, joint editing, reporting, etc.)
2) Resource subscribers: those who want to receive and send information but cannot engage actively in the coordination process
- Julio is working on sending out a report on the RIO+10 coalition meetings, considering ICDA remains on the Steering Committee, which will review the Coalition's progress and process next year in preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesbourg. In the meantime, if you're interested in reading an interesting critique of this coalition, then please feel free to register for the WTOIL, which featured this very article in the following WTOIL in June:
[1) WORLD TRADE "IN JEOPARDY"
2) RIO+10 AND THE CORPORATE GREENWASH OF GLOBALISATION
3) ERWIN CALLS FOR WTO TALKS TO BE WIDE RANGING
4) US THREATENS TO BAN STEEL IMPORTS
5) COCK-UPS & HANDOUTS]
[Posted:Tuesday 6 November, 1:40pm CET]
| What's happening at ICDA in September?
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Our WTO Ministerial Conference and Financing for Development Analyst for the WTO Impact List -- Hannes Huhtaniemi -- has left us to return to his studies. Throughout his three months here, he provided ICDA with a special and unique insight into WTO affairs as well as the usual cross-cutting affairs that help make ICDA and the Impact List such a venerated ICDA institution. Now, there are just the two of us at the Secretariat. Thanks for all your work, Hannes!
[Posted:Friday September 28 2001, 13:38 EST]
Many thanks to all those who registered for the CENNT meeting, which took place today on Monday 25 September -- the same time as the
Civil Society Issue groups at which Mr.Carl explained the "state of play in the WTO". For more info on this, please visit the Civil Society page here
ICDA has been quite busy these past few weeks in not only preparing for the CENNT meetings, but also gleaning as much information as possible from our CENNT networkers so as to update the list. Unfortunately, the summer
has complicated issues, because many people have left their auto-response on, leaving us somewhat at odds as to how to respond.
[Posted:Monday September 24 2001, 18:12 EST]
| What's happening at ICDA in August?
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The Secretariat will be closed for the Belgian national holiday of 15 August,
which happens to be the middle of the week! Nonetheless, the team will be back with a vengeance for more
WTOILs on Thursday. Please brace yourself for Thursday's WTOIL -- it promises to be a controversial one!
[Posted:Tuesday August 14 2001, 18:24 EST]
It's a pretty quiet period at the Secretariat at the moment. If you think we're on the quiet, try the whole
of Brussels. Right round DG Trade, a few officials come and go, but most -- if not 80% -- are on holiday. In
the meantime, we at the Secretariat are beavering and soldiering on, with our principal concern being ICDA
members. Members have been sent a letter asking them to clarify who their contact
person is. In the meantime, we are three now at the Secretariat. Take advantage of it for
questions, because come October, we shall be one -- again.
To see what the Interns are working on, please check us out.
[Posted:Thursday August 2 2001, 11:05 EST]
| What's happening at ICDA in July? |
Mr.Julio Montes de Oca has joined the ICDA Secretariat for a period of three months to assist both Mr.Huhtaniemi
and Mr.Bensah in daily activities, and impart his insight of Civil Society issues into the work of the Secretariat.
[Posted:Monday July 16 2001, 18:15 EST]
The Last/Latest ICDA Update is finally online -- without the links. If you are interested in finding out
more about one of ICDA's veteran publications, then please contact us at the Secretariat. It is for sale --
at 300BF or circa 7.5 Euro. Otherwise you can
view the publication's outline here.
[Posted:Thursday July 12 2001, 15:25 EST]
WTO Impact List users will have found that as from the beginning of July, ICDA is formally launching
the Impact Lists, with specific daily focus on trade-related issues. Henceforth, the schedule runs like this:
| Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| United Nations LDC3 |
RIO+10 |
Qatar/WTOMC |
Regional Trade |
Financing for Development |
[Posted:Wednesday July 11 2001, 13:25 EST]
Mr.Hannes Huhtaniemi has joined the ICDA Secretariat for three months. He will be assisting Mr.Bensah with daily activities, along with many other
administrative tasks, not excluding the ICDA WTO Impact List. Should you have any questions for him, please address him
jhh25@icda.be here.
[Posted:Monday July 2 2001, 16:15 EST]
| What's happening at ICDA in June? |
Information on the CENNT meeting of June 22 was posted up on June 8. Please register here.
Alternatively, you can send a fax to the Secretariat, as suggested in the Draft Agenda. ICDA very much apologizes to its
members of the WTOIL who, for the past few days, have not received the List. Please be patient with us; we should soon have it
up and running. A number of internal matters have prevented us from focussing our attention on the list, but we promise that within
the next few days, it ought to be up.
[Posted:Monday June 18 2001, 14:45 EST]
| What's happening at ICDA in May? |
You can now post messages on ICDA's first ever Talk Page! Some of the links on this page
require passwords. You will therefore need to ask the Secretariat
for one to access them. Topics up for discussion include the EBA initiative and comments on ICDA's WTO Impact List.
To access the page, please check here.
[Posted:Sunday May 6 2001, 17:45 EST]
| What's happening at ICDA in April? |
The ICDA Secretariat is improving its website for the better! You can find posted, today, the section on EU-NGO Dialogue
with Civil Society. There, you can find highlights of the report on WTO Transparency that was prepared by the Commission in February. We will also
soon be posting information on ICDA's other programmes. In the meantime, please check out the EU-NGO Page
here.
[Posted:Monday April 23 2001, 13:40 CET]
The Secretariat will be closed from Friday 13 April to Monday 16 April. Consequently, the WTO Impact
List will return after Easter Monday. In the meantime, please feel free to visit the WTO Impact Section should you
wish to either subscribe to the list, or evaluate the list. Please note that the latter page is INTERNET EXPLORER friendly.
Have a nice break!
[Posted:Thursday April 12 2001, 17:51 CET]
| What's happening at ICDA in March? |
Computer problems continue to persist. The WTOIL will most probably be ready by Tuesday. Please check here for more information. Enjoy your weekend!
[Posted:Friday March 30 2001, 16:39 CET]
ICDA has once again been the victim of a computer breakdown. This is one of the reasons why the WTOIL did not appear yesterday. Hopefully, it should be ready by late Friday afternoon, Brussels time
(Central European Time -- GMT+2). Many apologies for the inconvenience
[Posted:March 30 2001, 11:30am CET]
ICDA WTO Impact Listers can now directly request information, or articles, they may have missed at the
WTO Impact list section here
[Posted:March 26 2001]
The ICDA Website has a search engine! You can easily find anything of interest to you on ICDA's Website
here.
Also, ICDA is looking for a Part Time Book keeper/Part Time Administrative
Assistant.
This person should be able to work in an international non-profit environment. He/She must also be able to understand both written and spoken French,
but most importantly, have secretarial and office management experience as well as be able to work with computers and, most importantly, Microsoft Excel.
If you are interested, please contact the Secretariat, with your CV to icda@icda.be
[Posted:March 16 2001]
Many thanks go to Ms.Wandel of FOE for providing the calendar of events. For more information on latest events, please click the link
here
[Posted:March 13 2001]
The ICDA News for CENNT List is alive!! It made its Lazarus-like return after the very crucial meeting of Friday March 9th.
A new and improved page on more CENNT issues will soon be posted on the CENNT section of this site here
[Posted: March 12 2001]
The WTO Impact List cannot appear on Thursday 8 March. We apologize for this inconvenience. In the meantime,
please feel free to tell us what you think of the WTO List
here.
[Posted: March 8, 2001]
The CENNT Meeting so far has circa 10 registered. If you cannot make it, please email us. Otherwise, if you
still need to/want to register, please do so here.
[Posted:March 6, 2001]
ICDA has a new Intern. Her name is Ms.Marina Ullastres Ortiz. She will be assisting
Mr.Bensah with daily activities.
[Posted:March 5, 2001]
By dint of circumstances beyond ICDA's control, we were forced, in the past couple of
weeks, to temporarily change our email address to icda2@yucom.be. Glad to say that the
problem is no longer as serious as it was then. Nonetheless, it is important to stress that
should any of you receive email from us with the "yucom" address, please do not be alarmed.
Please continue to send any mail through icda@icda.be. ICDA however reserves the right to
send you both due to reasons that would be too complicated to explain to visitors unaccustomed
to the Belgian way of things. Thanks for your patience.
Last Updated: Wednesday 7 March 2001 @ 16:55 CET
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