Snaptu: The dangers of the pay squeeze | Stewart Lansley

The UK needs a sustained, balanced economy. It won't achieve that while real wages fall for many and the wealth gap grows

In his speech in Newcastle, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, warned that Britain had been facing a sustained…

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Snaptu: Hopes rise for US economic recovery

The world's largest economy grew at an annualised rate of 3.2% between October and December

The US economy regained momentum in the fourth quarter of last year, boosted by buoyant exports and the strongest consumer spending in more than four…

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How to apply for Commonwealth Foundation’s Civil Society Responsive Grants…

-By Development Network-
If your organization is planning a regional or international workshop or an
exchange visit to another NGO or project, but you are in need of grant support,
then one of the best possible options is applying for the Commonwealth
Foundation's Civil Society Responsive Grants.
The Commonwealth Foundation is an inter-governmental organization supported by
Commonwealth governments to provide support towards strengthening of civil
society for sustainable development, democracy and intercultural learning within
the commonwealth countries. It has grantmaking programmes for NGOs specifically
for supporting activities that involve intercultural exchange: such as short
training courses, workshops, seminars, conferences, cultural festivals,
exchanges and study visits in other Commonwealth countries. The Civil Society
Responsive Grant programme of the Foundation is specifically for NGOs in
Commonwealth developing countries. To get the list of Commonwealth countries,
which are members of the Foundation, click here.
If your organization is planning to organize a regional or international
workshop or conference, you can request support from the Commonwealth Foundation
to sponsor participants. But remember that the support will be only for
participants from Commonwealth developing countries.
Similarly, with the grant support, you can network with another NGO in another
country by arranging a cross-country visit. Your organizational staff or
community members can go on a visit to another NGO in another country to see its
projects and also invite its staff/community to your own country. The Foundation
will provide the grant to support the full visit, including air travel and
accommodation for the staff. However, such kind of support for this
cross-country visit is preferable only between Commonwealth developing countries
only. For an organization seeking an exchange visit with a developed country, a
strong case has to be made giving details of the benefits to be achieved for
members in the developing country.
The Foundation prefers to fund exchange visits within a region rather than the
international ones.

The Civil Society Responsive Grants supports activities in four main areas:
* Culture
* Governance and Democracy
* Human Development
* Communities and Livelihoods.
Applicant organizations should justify that their activities fall in any one of
these areas in addition to its significance to an international or
intercultural exchange. Gender and youth are cross-cutting themes of the
programme and this should also be highlighted in the proposal. Besides
supporting exchanges, there is opportunity for funding voter education projects.
However, such projects are required to complete another application form in
addition to the standard application form under this programme.
Who can apply?
NGOs registered in a Commonwealth country can apply for the funding support.
Their work should be relevant to the values, objectives and priorities of the
Foundation, demonstrate accountability and transparency and should be in a
position to obtain resources from other sources as well.
It is also important for the Foundation that the actual beneficiaries of the
grant programme are both women and men, should be 35 years or less than that
and should be skilled enough to transfer the learning.
Travel grant to attend international conferences or events can be made to the
Foundation but the beneficiaries should be from developing countries and half of
them should be women.

Proposals can be submitted to the Foundation during any part of the year.
However, there are four grant application deadlines for making decisions.
These are quarterly-based deadlines:
Grants for activities in Application must be received by Applicants hear from
the Foundation in

October, November, December 30 June Beginning of September
January, February, March 30 September Beginning of December
April, May, June 31st December Beginning of March
July, August, September 31st March Beginning of April



How much funding amount can be requested?
Generally, the Foundation awards grants around £5,000, but NGOs can request
funding up to £12,500. In rare cases, grants of up to £25,000 can also be made.
However, decisions for approving funding amount of more than £12,500 are made
only twice a year when the Grants Committee meets (in March and September). For
grants less than £12,500, requests can be made anytime or according to the
quarterly deadlines given above.
The Foundation is very flexible in its grantmaking approach. As soon as the
proposal is approved, it transfers the amount to the grantee organization
without many strings attached. However, after the end of the activities, the
grantee organization should submit a report explaining the impact of the grant,
the follow-up and the learning achieved and transferred. All grantees should
acknowledge the support of the Foundation in their outputs such as reports,
publications, events etc.
Application form can be downloaded from the Foundation's website and after
completing it, it can be submitted by email. More information is available at
this link:
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/Howwedeliver/Grants/Civilsocietyresponsivegrants

For all articles and information: http://www.developmentnetwork.co.nr/

USAID, PNB Paribas lend LE 27m to Egyptian microfinance institution

USAID Egypt under its Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) Development program,
has entered into an agreement with multinational bank, PNB Paribas Bank to
lend LE 27 million loan to Egyptian microfinance institution, The Lead
Foundation.
Over the course of the loan agreement, Lead Foundation is expected to provide
microfinance loans to more than 400,000 borrowers. As of December 2010, Lead
had 194,392 active clients, 87% of which were poverty loans (less than $425)
and 82% of which were loans to women. It provides over 28,000 loans to micro
entrepreneurs monthly.
The USAID/Egypt Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) Development program, to date,
has assisted eleven MFIs and two banks which have extended more than 8.3
million micro-credit loans valued at $2.5 billion to 3.4 million small and
micro entrepreneurs. These loans have had less than a two percent default
rate.
PNB Paribas Egypt had earlier financed €5 million to an MFI in the Delta Region
that serves more than 100,000 low-income clients.
Egypt has approximately 300 specialized microfinance branches operating
nationwide managing an outstanding loan portfolio of more than $256 million.
These MFIs serve about 1.1 million clients, of which almost 65% are poor women
in economically disadvantaged areas.

For all article and information: http://www.developmentnetwork.co.nr/

Lessons of the recent floods

By Sarath Fernando

What lessons can we learn from the recent floods in Sri Lanka? Severe damage
has been caused to agriculture and land in over 11 districts. Over a million
people have been affected. Many houses have come down; many earth slips have
killed many people. The heavy rains came at the time when paddy was flowering
and the crop losses would be very heavy. Reduced yields would lead to very high
increase in food prices and would create food shortages. The international
situation is not helpful either and dependence on imports is risky. Price
increases in the essential foods have been serious already and further
increases would be unbearable. It is reported that loss of cattle due to floods
and extra ordinary cold has been very severe too. Already there are demands
from companies to further increase imported milk powder prices.

It may be possible to blame nature for all these but it does not solve the
problems. Natural disasters have to be expected and with increased intensity
due to global warming and climate change. Many more climate change calamities
are to be expected. It is necessary to provide relief to those who cannot face
this situation on their own. But relief alone is not enough, but we have to
learn the lessons that need to be learnt. The disaster is not over, it is just
beginning. Crop losses and food shortages are to come. Diseases caused by
floods are likely to increase, many reservoirs have been damaged and broken,
they need to be repaired. More water shortages are likely to take place. Much
of the top soil would have got eroded and many rivers, streams and reservoirs
would have got silted. Can we remedy these sufficiently rapidly to reduce the
damage.
Will the Government have enough money to do this? Can we borrow more without
further burdening people with unbearable debt. Are we going to learn the lesson
that we should not be intensifying the risks of disasters by causing further
damage in trying to accelerate economic growth?

Manmade additions to disaster

Clearing more forests for further expansion of monoculture plantations, whether
it is sugar cane plantations, banana plantations, pineapple, tobacco or cut
flower would further increase disaster risks or growing more maize for animal
feed, building express highways for facilitating faster transport for
investors, growing more tobacco plantations to meet the needs of companies is
another damage that further increase erosion, loss of soil fertility and other
environmental losses. If we borrow more money we will have to do more exports
to repay the loans, we have to obey advice and dictate of lenders and do what
they want to exploit nature's resources and people more intensely.

A Vicious Circle

So, this is a vicious circle. We decide to provide more facilities to investors
to exploit our people and our nature more extensively. It makes people poorer
and nature more susceptible to disasters. Then we borrow more and make the cost
of living worse. So, we have to give more concessions to investors. To do this
we have to drive away more people from their land, from beaches, from cities
and from villages. Can we push the poorer people from their village lands and
also poorer people from cities at the same time? Where are they going to live
and how are they going to survive?

Created Disaster

We were advised to give people opportunities to sell their land in villages,
give up their food production replacing it with growing more crops for export
or for alcohol and agro fuel. We were told to encourage more people to sell
away their little plots of land to allow land accumulation in the hands of rich
businesses for production of export crops instead of domestic food at
affordable cost. We were advised to allow more space and facilities and tax
concessions to private businesses, asked to privatize water and allow water
marketing, Told to push fisher people away from their beaches and fishing
livelihoods to allow tourism to expand and big fishing industry to take over.
There were attempts made to utilize moneys received for relief to Tsunami
Victims for development of tourism facilities, such as those in Arugambe,
Paanama, Kalpitiya etc. Health was privatized compelling people to pay
unaffordable prices for their medicines, doctors and private hospitals.
Flexible or free labour markets were proposed to allow already employed labour
to be discharged with less compensation.

Similarly, education has been privatized compelling people to spend much more
on private tuition, Private universities were proposed. Finally around 4
million children compete in education aiming for higher education
opportunities, but many of them are dropped off half way. Out of over 250,000
students sitting for advanced level exams about 120,000 get sufficient marks to
enter universities, but universities can admit only about 17,000 every year.
So, over a hundred thousand students who are very intelligent and hard working
are dropped off, no future plans. Worsening food situation will only increase
the already too high a number of malnourished children and anemic mothers, thus
preventing proper brain growth and physical growth of children destroying their
future potential, the future of the whole nation.

Thus, we see that more manmade disasters add on to the natural disasters. The
way agriculture is done today is another serious manmade disaster. We cut of
trees and forests and reduce the effective use of sunlight that is absorbed by
leaves of trees converting them into food for trees and for all living beings,
this also worsens erosion that destroys the top soil that takes thousands of
years to regenerate. We also add poisonous inputs such as chemical weedicides,
pesticides and fertilizer, thereby weakening the ability of the soils to
regenerate soil fertility through microbial activity; we kill insects and
create much stronger and more resistant pests. All this destroys the natural
process of sustainable and regenerative agriculture which is the only sure way
of ensuring survival of life. Destroying natural agriculture is practiced as
the main stream agriculture. Thus we prevent nature's free contribution to
agriculture. This goes on all the time even at times when weather is good. This
may be more destructive than the natural disasters that happen only from time
to time. In doing this we also make the impact of natural disaster much worse.
Fewer trees make the rain fall much more aggressive and erosion much more
intense. Loss of top soil reduces the ability of soil to absorb and retain
water making the droughts more frequent and losses more aggressive. Killing
away microbes weakens the natural cycle and killing away insects weakens the
natural pest control.

All this is known, but no serious attention is given by the policy makers and
implementers to any of these. So, manmade disasters of all this type may be
much more serious than the natural disasters.

If policy makers are unwilling to attend to these the people who are victims of
these have to take it upon themselves to solve these. All these disasters are
preventable.

How ?

People must begin to find their food from nature if they do not have enough
money to buy them. Learn how nature gives free food. Protect and improve soil
fertility by preventing erosion, begin with your small plot of land by building
ridges, mulching and growing trees for soil fertility. Recycle all your organic
matter, the leaves, branches and also animal dung and urine.

Maximize the absorption of sunlight by growing more trees to fill your land,
growing trees to different canopies is the best way to maximize sunlight. This
can also enhance your energy supply, fodder, timber and medicinal plants in
addition to food.

Recycle all organic waste and organic matter after use. Save your natural seeds
and set up plant nurseries to reduce the need to buy seeds and plants, Avoid
using F-1 variety seeds because they cannot regenerate seeds. Use animal dung
and urine to produce natural fertilizers and improve natural fertility.

Increase diversification of crops and use mix cropping to reduce pest attacks
and improve natural control of pests. Improve food diversity and nutrition by
growing a multiplicity of food crops, use the indigenous knowledge of use of
medicinal plants to prevent ill health and cure diseases where possible.

Apply principles of agro forestry to improve forest cover and catchment areas.
Avoid using destructive, poisonous chemical inputs to prevent pollution of food,
soil , water and environment.
organize marketing of products directly between communities of producers and
communities of consumers, thereby reducing the losses made in trade through
middlemen.
Teach children in schools, and at higher levels the principles of natural
farming and the necessity of shifting to natural farming and to recover the
ability of regeneration of nature and its resources.

Struggling to prevent destruction.

It is high time that we take up measures to protect scientific agriculture of
the right type. Companies are given a free hand to propagate and market very
destructive poisonous chemical pesticides, weedicides and fertilizers. They
also freely market seeds that do not produce fertile seeds and are in the
process of promoting genetically modified seeds and foods. All kinds of
artificial foods that cause diseases such as diabetes, cancers and a host of
other diseases are easily propagated, advertized and marketed. As explained
already these are causing major disasters in the country. It has now become
fairly clear that chemical fertilizers increase kidney diseases, chemically
contaminated food reduces immunity in the body thus making more people
susceptible to all kinds of diseases. All these are done with the blessings of
people at the highest levels. They have also introduced certain types of ethics
in the media that prevents direct reference to companies that cause these
problems. Many such companies make use of Government departments to propagate
their markets.

It is necessary for people to take up direct battles to prevent these
disasters. Disaster risk reduction should include these too. There is a need
for people's plans to introduce these remedies. Forth coming paradeshiya shaba
elections is a good opportunity for people to work out their plans at local
level and present their advantages and campaign for these. Funds allocated for
village level programmes such as the "Api Wawamu Rata Nagamu", "Gama Neguma",
"Gemi Diriya", "Maga Neguma" are more than enough to meet the requirements of
the above disaster prevention plans at village level.

Such a strategy could harness the full creative potential of the people and the
regenerative potential of nature. The slogan should be;

" Restore the ability of nature to regenerate itself and its resources".

This is a principle that should guide the future of the whole world. Nature has
created all life , protected it and provided sustenance all this time. Now we
have begun to destroy its ability to do so by destroying regenerative ability
of nature. Now it's necessary that the whole of humanity must restore this
ability for their own survival in the future

Sri Lanka has all the advantages of such a plan. We have good sunlight, good
rain fall, good diversity of plants and bio diversity, very suitable
geographical setting to develop natural irrigation systems, still remaining
indigenous knowledge of natural agriculture and natural health ( ayurvedic
medicine ), very high diversity of medicinal plants and food plants, Indigenous
knowledge of cooking and preparation of herbal medicines. We also have a rich
knowledge of working out agricultural technology utilizing nature's ways.

Indiginous philosophical resources

The Buddhist understanding of non attachment and non greed and the futility of
accumulation of profits gives us very valuable guidelines to plan our ways of
dealing with nature and dealing with other living beings. Combining these
valuable resources of Buddhist Philosophy, indigenous natural farming and
indigenous medicine is a valuable combination of resources that can guide us
away from disasters.

Consulting Services Recruitment Notices from ADB

-By Development Network-

The Consulting Services Recruitment Notice (CSRN) provides detailed information
on the consulting services required for ADB financed or administered projects.
The CSRN includes the consultant's terms of reference and is posted on ADB's
web site for at least one month (for consulting entity) or seven days (for
individual consultants) before shortlisting. It enables consultants to prepare
expressions of interest that are more specific and focused on the project.

Link:http://csrn.adb.org:8080/csrn/home.htm?page=mainPage

For all articles and information: http:www.developmentnetwork.co.nr/

Snaptu: Shock as UK economy shrunk by 0.5% at end of 2010

• ONS blames wintry weather for most of the contraction

• Economists now fear 'stagflation'

• Pound and FTSE 100 fall

• What the economists say

The UK economy shrunk by a shock 0.5% in the last quarter of 2010 as Britain's recovery from recession…

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Jaffna opens for business – conducts International Trade Fair – 2011

-Development Network-
Widening huge business potential in post war Jaffna, the Jaffna International
Trade Fair opened with the participation of Indian High Commissioner to Sri
Lanka Ashok K. Kantha on Friday, (21 Jan).
Lanka Exhibition and Conference Services (Pvt) Ltd. in association with the
Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Jaffna supported by the Sri Lanka
Convention Bureau have organized the second annual Jaffna International Trade
Fair at Durayappah Stadium in Jaffna.
The JITF themed "Open for Business" will be held until Sunday January 23.
The High Commissioner inaugurated the event with the participation of
Governor of Northern Province Major General G.A Chandrasiri, President,
Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) Tissa
Jayaweera, and officials from Northern Province.
More than 45 Indian companies representing National Small Industrial
Corporation (NSIC) and State of Kerala participated in the second annual
Jaffna International Trade Fair showcasing various machinery, equipment, and
useful products for agro-based industries and food processing industries.
The first Jaffna International Trade Fair 2010 (JITF) titled 'Your Gateway to
Yarlpanam' was held in April 2010.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and
National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) have also sent business
delegations, the.
Business delegations from The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (FICCI) and National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) have
arrived in Jaffna to participate in the Trade Fair, the Indian High
Commission said.
Speaking at the event, the High Commissioner has said that India and Sri
Lanka share special and close partnership.
"There is a special place in this relationship for age-old and time-tested
bonds between the Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka and India," the envoy has
noted. "people of Jaffna seek to resurrect their lives after years of armed
conflict, the Government and the people of India remain committed to
facilitate development in the region," the envoy added.
"As an indication of the high priority attached to the region, India is the
partner country for the second consecutive year." The High Commissioner went
on to say that the growing interest in doing businesses in Jaffna among the
Indian business community is clearly evident in the major participation of
Indian business community at the second JITF.

For all articles and information: http://www.developmentnetwork.co.nr/

Snaptu: U.S. Offer of Long-Term Aid Pushes Climate Talks Forward

With time running out on the stalled talks, the secretary of state gave new hope for a deal when she announced that the U.S. would help raise money to help poor nations combat climate change.

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Snaptu: Inflation, the old enemy, is back. But this is no time to be frightened

Tuesday will bring more gloomy economic news in the wake of rising petrol, energy and food prices. The Bank of England will be under pressure to act to curb inflation; but some believe inaction will be the most courageous choice of all

The City is…

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Snaptu: Poor countries with IMF loans 'divert aid from public health'

Oxford University-led research finds signs that tough loan conditions imposed by IMF has led to health aid being diverted for other uses

Poor countries that borrow from the International Monetary Fund are spending just one cent in every dollar…

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Call for proposal Sustainable Crop Production Research for International Development (SCPRID)

Sustainable Crop Production Research for International Development (SCPRID)
Outline application deadline: 31 March 2011, 4pm BST (3pm GMT)
Summary
This is a joint call for collaborative projects under the Sustainable Crop
Production Research for International Development (SCPRID) initiative. Up
to £20M is available through the initiative, funded by:
* BBSRC
* Department for International Development
* Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - USA
* Department of Biotechnology of India's Ministry of Science and Technology
* Indian Council of Agricultural Research
Scope
The focus of the programme is on research to understand and counter the effects
of abiotic (drought, temperature, salinity, nutrient deficiency etc) and biotic
stresses (pathogens, pests, weeds) - including combinations of stresses - that
constrain food crop production in developing countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and
South Asia.
Emphasis will be placed on the following staple crops:
* Cassava
* Maize
* Rice
* Sorghum
* Wheat
A proportion (~15%) of the available funding will be allocated for work on other
important crops but support is unlikely to be provided for research on 'niche'
crops with the potential to enhance the livelihoods of only small groups of
people.
Research supported through this programme must be of excellent scientific
quality and demonstrate clear development relevance. Projects are also required
to provide the basis for forging mutually-beneficial scientific partnerships
between the UK and developing countries.
The call consists of two components:
* Standard Research Grants (SRGs) led by a Principal Investigator (PI) from any
eligible institution.
* Projects for Emerging Agricultural Research Leaders (PEARLs): a small number
of grants (circa 5-10) will be awarded for four-year projects where the lead PI
is an early-to-mid career scientist from a developing country of Sub-Saharan
Africa or South Asia. Unlike SRGs, PEARLs will include funding to cover the
full-time salary costs of the lead PI for the duration of the project.
Eligibility
Please refer to the Eligibility and Funding sections (paragraphs 11-20) of the
call text document in the downloads section above.
How to apply
For full details of the call and further information on how to apply see
the SCPRID call text document in the downloads section above.
Timetable
Launch of call for outline proposals10 January 2011
Application deadline for outline proposals31 March 2011
Assessment of outline proposalsMid-May 2011
Invitation of full applicationsEnd-May 2011
Application deadline for full applicationsEnd-July 2011
Assessment of full applicationsEnd-Nov 2011

Contact

Amanda Read
dfid.bbsrc@bbsrc.ac.uk
tel: 01793 414665
fax: 01793 413234

CoP-MfDR-Africa

Dear members,

The importance of citizens in development efforts is recognized by most
stakeholders. But there is now a need to document the ways citizens are
actually involved. Is it through participatory methodologies, via the use of
scorecard, or through other means? Most importantly, how this involvement is
monitored and evaluated on the ground? Please share your insights and country
experiences to the benefit of AfCoP members on the:
* tools and techniques in used in your country to engage citizens in
decision-making;
* involvement of citizens in strategy planning and policy making;
* training program involving civil society organizations;
* use of results-based management tools for citizens;
* challenges in monitoring and evaluating citizens' engagement for results.

To share your thoughts on the above-mentioned points, click here.

http://www.cop-mfdr-africa.org/forum/topics/we-the-people-engaging?commentId=1182585%3AComment%3A17974

How Healthcare Services can make NGOs financially sustainable

-By Development Network(www.developmentnetwork.co.nr/)-

One of the core objectives of fundsforngos.org is to assist organizations with
information about various sustainable strategies for long-term organizational
development. As local NGOs in developing countries persistently face fundraising
problems, it becomes necessary to empower them with new information tools that
will help them meet the challenges of their own financial sustainability.
Continuous submission of proposals and seeking of donors can create a
stereotypical image of your organization, but it can also lead to frustration
and pessimism, leading to loss of confidence in your own good work when you are
unable to raise funds for your organization. However, it is also a fact that
fundraising most of the times is not within our control. Let us not forget that
decisions are mostly made by donor agencies, if they want they will offer the
grant, not the other way round where you think it is necessary to have a grant
for a community development project and you get it.
Nevertheless, as we are attached to our roots, we continue with our work to
serve the poor and the needy. To overcome the challenges of financial
sustainability for an NGO, one of the proven ideas is to offer micro-level
healthcare services in a limited manner to the community.
Healthcare is a need everywhere and it is known to all of us that knowledge can
prevent a lot of health problems and if this knowledge is offered to communities
for a small cost, it can lead to a win-win situation. Of course, the revenue
may not be as big as the grants we are all used to, but it will definitely
contribute towards long-term sustainability of the organization and it will
also add extra power to our joy of doing what we always love to do: serve the
poor and the needy.
Here are some ideas that can be implemented with some investment of money and
skills. If your organization has previously implemented a health project, then
you have an added advantage. If you are in the process of implementing such a
project, you can take these ideas as long-term sustainable strategy that will
not only continue providing services to the community, but also help your
organization grow financially even when the donor agency has withdrawn support.
Besides, if implementation of these ideas meets with some success, there is
strong likelihood of attracting donor agencies in the future.
Click on the links below one by one to read on:
Get some Community Health Training First: Community health is nothing more than
the health of the communities with whom we work. Although it is a part of
public health, it has more emphasis on…(click here to read more)

Link: http://www.fundsforngos.org/community-healthcare/community-health-training

After training, do some Community Health Research: An effective community
healthcare project will work only when one's own knowledge meets with the
existing health problems of the community. It is important to identify
community health problems…(click here to read more)
Link:
http://www.fundsforngos.org/community-healthcare/training-community-health-research

A Village Health Center at your NGO office: Now it is time to arrange some
space that will work as the village health center where people can come and
seek basic healthcare services. The health center needs to have clean place
with basic…(click here to read more)
Link:
http://www.fundsforngos.org/community-healthcare/village-health-center-ngo-office

Health Microinsurance Schemes for the Poor: One of the most practical problems
one can face while implementing a user fee-based healthcare service to the
community is that many poor people would seek healthcare in credit
because…(click here to read more)
Link:http://www.fundsforngos.org/community-healthcare/health-microinsurance-schemes-poor

Global Leadership Development: Why It's Important to Your Business

by Bettina Chang | Talent Management

A recent study by the American Management Association (AMA) showed that global
leadership development programs are correlated with success at companies around
the world. Competition was the main driver behind these programs, and almost
half of the companies surveyed said that they had already implemented such
programs or were currently developing them.

The survey included more than 900 organizations, 40 percent of which are
headquartered outside the U.S.

"Whether or not you are only located in one country, you're competing all over
the world with your products and services," said Sandi Edwards, senior vice
president of AMA Corporate Learning Solutions. "[It's important] to have people
all over the globe who understand what the [business] is about and how to
compete successfully."

These leadership competencies, though not completely different from typical
domestic leadership programs, emphasize certain global nuances. Important
aspects include branding in other parts of the world, being agile and
understanding cultures, and effectively working across cultures and remotely.

To implement an effective global leadership development program, an
organization must first set business goals and determine the metrics through
which they will be measured. "The most effective global leadership initiatives
are tightly linked to the achievement of critical business goals," Edwards
said.

Once the business goals are developed, it's imperative for senior-level
executives to communicate why being a strong global leader has important
business impact on the organization. "That can be stressed most effectively by
senior leaders," Edwards said. "[The initiatives] are not successful if there
isn't some component of executive sponsorship and senior leadership
involvement."

Other ways for senior leaders to be involved are to be a part of the program
and to contribute by co-teaching. They must also monitor the metrics to
determine the return on investment of the program.

The study showed that organizations with successful programs can expect to see
increased revenue, shareholder value and customer satisfaction. These programs
also improve the bench strength of an organization. Of the targeted employees
who participate in these programs, about 20 to 25 percent are upwardly mobile
and able to take on higher positions. After the training, up to 40 percent will
have the capability to take on higher positions and more responsibility.

"That's vital to the strength of the organization, to have a healthy leadership
pipeline," Edwards said.

As with most leadership programs, global leadership development can increase
engagement and retention, especially among high performers at a company.

"Top talent are high-value assets in every organization, there's no doubt about
that - and the best performers always have options," Edwards said. "In the
companies we studied, correlation was high between those organizations that
were high performers and those that had developed and implemented global
leadership curriculums."

Another finding was that almost 10 percent of companies said that they open
their global leadership programs to everyone in their organization. Edwards
said that this was unexpected, since scarce budgets for development programs
typically limit the number of employees who are able to participate in them.

For the companies that do limit the employees who enter these programs, they
often offer other development opportunities for all employees. Coaching
programs, on-the-job learning, job shadowing and rotations can give an
individual more exposure to the different parts and people in an organization.
An employee's performance during these opportunities may qualify him or her for
further development training.

Edwards stressed that while companies can do many things to ensure employees
are engaged, there must be a consistent thread of logic that links every
development program to competency expectations within the organization.

Snaptu: Response: Blame the banks and the government, not us baby boomers

Far from being selfish, we paid our taxes and passed our money to younger generations

As a baby boomer I am fed up with being blamed for our economic evils. Last month Phillip Inman said that "baby boomers have accumulated much of the nation's…

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Different target market deters foreign banks to NE

By Development Network

The different market segment served by foreign banks unlike most local banks
may be one reason that foreign banks are a little reluctant to venture into the
island's North-East, opines a senior industry official. Recently, the Governor
of the Central Bank had urged foreign banks operating in Sri Lanka to seek more
approvals to open branches in the North-East having received only a handful of
applications from them.

"Most foreign banks have a different market segment to cater to, and more
specifically it is the niche corporate customers that they generally target," a
senior

manager of Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank (HSBC) who did not wish to be quoted told
The Bottom Line.
Among the foreign banks that have opened branches in these provinces are HSBC
with a branch in Jaffna, Habib Bank in the East and the Indian Bank which is
planning to put up a branch in Jaffna.
"We do have a branch in Jaffna opened in February 2010, but we will never be a
local commercial bank with so many branches like the local banks," the manager
from HSBC said.
The HSBC manager elaborated that HSBC catered to a niche market in the
corporate sector. But they had put whatever weight in the Northern sector by
opening a branch in Jaffna not long after the war.
"Our branch has succeeded in so much as giving confidence to Jaffna investors
where HSBC was active in respect of personal banking," he said adding that in
fact "the East is on our agenda in the near future."
Meanwhile, another official from Standard Chartered Bank said that lack of
faith in borrowers in the region and other logistical challenges may also be
other reasons for the reluctance shown by foreign banks.

This manager said that Standard Chartered Bank primarily transacted overseas
dealings with customers or top clients. But where there was a strong corporate
base the bank did so cater like having opened in Hambantota which was a
potential area for banking.

The CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Anirvan Ghosh Dastidar said: "Standard
Chartered Bank, Sri Lanka's consumer banking business is driven by a defined
participation model catering to key segments, given our product proposition and
global footprint. Our current distribution plans do include opening of branches
outside of the Western Province; we are also at this time, optimising our
operations in Colombo through relocation, upgrading and expansion of existing
branch premises."
A spokesperson of the Indian Bank when contacted by The Bottom Line said, "We
are not hesitant. In fact, we have earmarked to open a branch in the North.
Presently, we are in the process of putting the final touches to the building".
Commenting on the issue, the secretary general of the Sri Lanka Banks
Association, Upali De Silva reasoned out that foreign banks may be satisfied
with their share of healthy Colombo customers and are, therefore, not thinking
beyond to get involved in business in those regions where the government wants
them to contribute.
Meanwhile, several other foreign banks that The Bottom Line inquired regarding
opening branches in the North-East were tight lipped and not keen on commenting
on the subject.
According to a senior Central Bank official, so far only two foreign bank
branches each had been set up in the North and East respectively.
The official also said that several applications had been received specially by
Indian and Pakistani banks to set up branches in the two provinces while there
were only a handful of applications for approval from banks headquartered in
other countries.
"However, we are optimistic that more branches would be opened this year with
the buoyancy that prevails in the economy," he concluded positively.

Author:Srian Obeyesekere

Snaptu: Next: what the analysts say

City experts are encouraged that Next is still on track to hit its financial targets, despite the impact of December's icy weather, but expect to see significant price rises in the months ahead

City experts are encouraged that Next is still on track…

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Just Read the Wiki

by Elaine Lees and Elissa Gavette

As the labor market recovers, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports
younger workers will jump to the next one of the 10 to 14 jobs they will hold
between the ages of 18 to 38. Older workers will retire or go on to careers of
their own making, jobs will expand and contract, and workers will be disbursed
geographically and over time zones. Change will happen.

Today's talent will be global, mobile and will take their intangible assets
with them when they walk away. The risk of knowledge and critical skill loss
could lead to organizational incompetence if talent managers don't take steps
to ensure knowledge transfer.

The Problems With Knowledge Management

Current methods to capture or share workplace knowledge are usually focused on
on-boarding programs, mentoring and policy documentation. But the results are
often static, siloed, unorganized, hard to access or reluctantly updated. Enter
social network applications. They have permanently and profoundly changed the
way we communicate and now are on the brink of changing the way we work.

"With 350 million active users on Facebook, time spent on social sites
increasing three times in 2009 alone and one blog posted every six seconds, it
is entirely possible your employees know less about their co-workers than they
do about friends they haven't seen in 10 years," said Bryan LeBlanc, chief
financial officer at Jive Software.

The intimacy of connectivity in a social networked workplace can enable
knowledge sharing by helping employees find experts, put ideas up for debate
and encourage peers and direct reports to participate in innovation and
decision-making processes, all of which promote business speed and agility.

When it comes to learning - especially informal learning - employees are going
to seek out information from the source that offers it the fastest, and that
source may be a mobile device or a Web connection to someone across the globe.

To connect employees, organizations are rolling out new collaboration tools
anchored by document capture. Wikis, blogs, instant messaging and social
networking sites such as Facebook as well as software like SharePoint are
joining more traditional technologies, like e-mail, which Gartner predicts will
go by the wayside for at least 20 percent of workplaces as early as 2014.

On the face of it, knowledge management is relatively simple. Knowledge can be
exchanged through dialogue - connecting - or in written or recorded form -
collecting. Technology must not only capture documents; it should allow for the
social interaction that enhances adult learning. Interaction with experts,
blended learning and discussion forums, as well as references to knowledge
resources, seems to be the ideal mix of learning options.

We have more technology options at our fingertips today than we have ever
before. The newest offerings provided more flexibility in enterprise-sponsore d
social media, options that can augment data storage methods, and they are
evolving fast. But there are problems companies haven't addressed that precede
even the oldest knowledge-sharing technologies.

Connecting Issues: Rise of the Knowledge Market

Perhaps the most difficult issue is employees' natural resistance to working
collaboratively and building the trust associated with sharing. Who hasn't come
across the co-worker who guards, hides, miserly leaks or outright refuses to
share ideas with others? Or the co-workers who are convinced the company's
top-down collaboration strategy is a method to invade their privacy?

Instead of looking at it as just giving away knowledge or monitoring knowledge,
organizations need to create a knowledge market where the people who are best
at their jobs go to solve more complex problems, build up points and increase
their reputations. Yum Brands capitalized on this notion with its social
business software platform iCHING.

In response to users who said, "I just don't have time for iCHING," new tactics
were developed, such as the biweekly e-publication "Top 5 in Five," which
highlights the top five hits on some of the hottest knowledge sharing and
collaboration happening in iCHING. These can be accessed and reviewed in
minutes. Other companies have created participation in their knowledge markets
by incorporating voting mechanisms - thumbs up or thumbs down - or content
download counters, which provide pride of ownership and gratification for
content authors.

Content Issues: Who Needs That Info?

Another problem is that people learn and share knowledge differently. Companies
have multi-generation populations from which they must extract and share
knowledge.

Most social networking takes place immediately. Even experts do not always know
what they know until they are asked, so question-and- answer capabilities are
essential. While this exchange can be captured and filed somewhere, it doesn't
explain when or how to use it for the next user. Real knowledge transfer
happens with a combination of content and context. Content needs to be tied to
an expert, a job function or a department. The latest collaboration software
tools are still grappling with this issue.

The unmanaged use of collaboration tools also can work against knowledge
sharing. When it's good, these tools are collaborative, easy to share and real
time, all of which encourage engagement. When it is bad, it's fragmented.

Currently, Web 2.0 tools tend to be highly distributed in their deployment. Of
the organizations trying to establish collaboration strategies, many are using
wiki-based tools. However, over time, they find wikis are too unstructured for
groups that want to manage files, tasks and team discussions. Some systems try
to blend wikis with other extranet tools, such as file libraries, project
spaces and discussions, but this makes the tools less user friendly, and
there's still the disbursement issue.

IT departments are often caught in the crossfire between the push and pull of
the 2.0 world. If they cater to users who demand collaboration but lack the
internal budgets or knowledge of an overarching social media strategy, they
will recommend using tools outside the enterprise. In doing so, they can run
afoul of corporate marketing, governance and knowledge management intentions.

Talent leaders may find allowing a blend of formal and informal collaborative
workspaces to be an effective strategy. In this scenario, project teams can
work informally while participating in work tasks using less formal social
networks. However, once projects are completed, records and workflows are
uploaded, as are best practices and learning, into a formal, permanent
environment. This requires dedicated manpower, discipline and a culture that
reinforces such practices.

Risk vs. Benefit: A Leap of Faith

Enterprise content management and collaboration can clash as companies try to
strike a balance between control, innovation and the appropriate level of
investments; however, the potential for benefits is helping early adopters find
ways to make it happen.

Webtrends was one of the founders of the Web analytics industry in 1993. Yet,
even this industry pioneer struggled to use this technology internally. Bruce
Kenny, vice president of engineering and hosted operations for Webtrends, said
that leaping into social media on the workforce side of the company wasn't an
easy decision for his executive peers. There was deep unease as they discussed
product confidentiality, brand image and productivity issues. When Kenny
pitched internal collaboration software with features such as blogs, tags,
videos, polls and status updates as a pilot for his group, he knew it was a
risk he would shoulder alone, and if it went badly, it would be "another
engineering initiative gone awry."

Kenny said now he can't imagine working without it. "We still don't have a
formal ROI, but I can tell you we are doing our releases early; there are no
longer walls in knowledge between engineering and sales," he said. "In the two
years we've been using this approach, our agility and speed to make decisions
or adjustments is the fastest I've seen in my career in a tech company. This is
truly a competitive advantage for us."

He said just as it's unnecessary to do an ROI analysis to confirm why an
organization needs a firewall or anti-virus software, in the future,
collaboration software will occupy a similar place in companies.

Strategic Preparation or Organic Development

Companies that launch systems integrating social and formal content management
are not just launching new pieces of technology. Technology is the enabler, not
the solution, and success is dependent on high- and low-tech elements.

As with all pioneering efforts, there are divergent opinions on how to get
there. Some argue that there must be a facilitated process where someone in the
organization defines and prioritizes harvest-worthy topics using the company's
key business objectives to guide those decisions. Facilitated discussions must
be hosted so that knowledge and wisdom is articulated, documented and
synthesized. Ultimately, communication tools are developed to transfer and
initiate reuse of captured information. Others, like Intel's social media
strategist Kelly Ripley Feller, says a grass-roots effort is best, and top-down
approaches are not nearly as effective.

Whether knowledge transfer processes develop organically or via a leadership
directive, it is a bit late to start thinking about capturing knowledge when
employees announce they are leaving. Why not shift with the times and develop a
proactive approach? Talent leaders will need to take responsibility and
accountability if their organizations are serious about adding knowledge
transfer to succession planning efforts. The tools are imperfect, but they are
getting better, and certainly prevention and preparation are better than the
alternative.

Snaptu: Tech Weekly: Wikimedia

This week as the hike in VAT bites into your tech purchases, we look at the economics of technology.

Aleks Krotoski speaks to the head of Wikimedia, Sue Gardener, about how the world's free encyclopedia makes cash, and what effect their goal of…

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Snaptu: The best of the savings bonds

New products give top rates to those willing to tie up their cash

A "best-buy" fixed-rate savings bond paying an impressive 4.75% was launched yesterday by Coventry Building Society. However, you need to be happy to tie up your money for a few…

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Snaptu: Bank bonuses set to be linked to customer satisfaction

Banking industry seeks new ways to pay senior executives

Banks are embarking on a radical overhaul of the way they pay their senior executives by considering how they can link their bonuses to the way they treat customers and build up capital.

The…

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Turning Around HR

by Michael A. Warech

Turnaround situations offer a great opportunity for HR leaders to significantly
impact the organization. They also offer HR executives a great opportunity to
restructure their own function to create thoughtful and aligned human-capital
strategy, and efficient and effective programming and service delivery.

Many well-intentioned CEOs subscribe to the notion that human-capital-
management activities in turnaround situations are adequately handled by finance
staff or business leaders, or believe that these issues, focused primarily on
compliance, should be managed by in-house employment attorneys.

Quickly finding cash and restructuring business operations are undoubtedly
complicated. However, managing the intricacies associated with layoffs,
reorganizations, communications, while motivating employees to do more with
less, preserving productivity and, simultaneously taking to a new strategy is
equally challenging.

One of the most classic of missteps on the part of those in charge is that, when
staring into the abyss of cost reduction, solid human-capital strategy and
related investments are reduced to discretionary items.

Ironically, such short-sighted thinking actually slows down a company's
transition toward organizational solvency. While some business leaders may sneer
about the importance of HR, years of sound management and organizational
research convincingly demonstrates that much of a company's success hinges on
how well it manages change and leverages its human capital.

Turnaround represent a unique opportunity for HR to jump in and flex its
considerable muscle. First, HR can support senior leadership's immediate efforts
to quickly find cash, stabilize the enterprise and begin moving toward solvency.

While senior leadership is focused largely on detailed financial reviews and
negotiations with banks, equity holders and other key stakeholders, HR should be
focused on pressing people-related actions and consequences.

Formulating strategies, plans and processes around the items highlighted below
is a great way for HR to establish credibility early on as a key contributor to
organizational success. Moreover, some of the necessary human-capital- strategy
work directed at the turnaround's most immediate needs can be leveraged for
potential broader HR transformation work to be discussed below.

Contributions to the Turnaround

Here are 12 ways HR leaders can substantively contribute in the early stages of
a turnaround:

1. Provide insight on assembling the 'turnaround team'; ensure representation
from HR and high-performing employees.

2. Help senior leadership determine the business' existing core assets,
including talent and processes that define the brand and provide competitive
advantage; determine future core assets, including processes, capability and
talent essential for mid- and long-term success.

3. Develop and equip management with a robust communication and
change-management plan, including strategic objectives, identified mediums,
change-agent roles, messaging and collateral, schedules, measures of uptake,
etc.

4. Explore areas for saving cash, including eliminating nonessential meetings,
programs and events.

5. Review talent information to ensure meaningful headcount reductions; push for
targeted cuts to eliminate weaker performers and those in non-core areas.

6. Develop a plan and a validated process to identify, select and retain
high-performing and critical talent.

7. Design, develop and present key-employee retention plans/packages to lock in
critical talent.

8. Ensure that survivors' workloads are monitored and their efforts don't go
unappreciated; identify useful short-term reward-and-recognit ion strategies.

9. Engage employees to ensure workforce capacity (sales, service, productivity)
; articulate and reinforce the company's new 'employee experience brand.'

10. Assist in the redesign of organizational structures impacting roles,
responsibilities, spans of control and reporting relationships.

11. Coach senior leadership and management on tactics for effective 'turnaround
leadership' (e.g., developing/maintain ing trust; clarifying and reinforcing the
change vision; establishing a sense of urgency; celebrating short-term wins;
setting a challenging pace; maintaining focus and minimizing competing
distractions; rewarding change agents).

12. Ensure that the broader HR community is well-versed in the talking points of
the turnaround.

In addition to adding value on the most immediate needs, a turnaround presents
HR with a second opportunity - to begin substantively transforming itself in
terms of strategy, programming and service delivery to ensure alignment with the
long-term direction of the renewed company.

The soundest approach to accelerating and completing a successful turnaround is
one that engages employees and leverages its human-capital strategy, programming
and service-delivery systems. For company leadership in the midst of a
turnaround, it should be noted that the chance of success increases to the
extent that some level of corresponding HR transformation is taking place.

Specifically, the human-capital function should be transformed with an eye
toward successfully ushering in the emerging reorganized entity and contributing
to its sustained growth. For corporate leadership, this represents a unique time
for deliberate thought and revitalization, not random cutbacks and wholesale
eliminations of human-capital programs.

Senior leadership will need a strong HR partner to promote the most effective
deployment of the organization' s human-capital resources moving forward. Some
of these people-related activities will include engaging employees to achieve
reworked organizational business objectives; actively promoting effective
communication and change-management programs; redesigning jobs
and organizations; developing strategic-workforce -planning solutions; and
redesigning talent management and total-rewards systems that enable employees to
reach their full potential in the renewed company.

To increase the likelihood that HR transformation positively contributes to a
company's turnaround, senior leadership must communicate a clear and compelling
vision of where the company is heading, its new business strategy and what
people need to do to achieve the new objectives.

Once the business strategy and objectives have been articulated, HR can map out
a supporting human-capital strategy. This human capital strategy will likely
include objectives related to areas such as workforce planning, recruitment,
talent development, employee engagement, cultural transformation and adoption of
new competencies.

Next, HR must align its programs, policies, and platforms with the newly minted
set of human-capital strategic imperatives. This may require revamping or
complete jettisoning of existing programs and/or the creation of new ones. The
key is to deliver human-capital programming that has a positive impact on the
company's bottom-line. Importantly, human-capital analytics should encompass a
set of meaningful measures, derived from the human-capital programming, to
ensure that these efforts are having the desired impact.

Finally, no HR transformation is complete without some reworking of the service
delivery model. HR needs to consider such issues as HR organization design
models (e.g.,centers of excellence, shared services, business partners), process
redesign, HR competency levels, leveraging of technology, vendor
management/outsourc ing and manager-employee self-service, all in pursuit of
optimizing the delivery of the revamped human-capital programming.

Planning for a Transformation of HR

Here are a number of questions HR can ask as it contemplates its transformation
as part of the turnaround.

Strategic questions:

1. Are we focused on what the new company needs to succeed?

2. Do we have the appropriate talent now and are we ready to compete in the
future?

3. Do we have the optimal 'employee-experienc e brand' to retain and attract the
necessary talent?

4. Is HR delivering the appropriate programs to help the new company achieve its
strategic business objectives?

Programmatic questions:

1. Are we able to recognize and reward the right talent in the appropriate way?

2. Do we have appropriate balance between program cost and effectiveness?

3. Do our human-capital programs provide a coherent 'employee-experienc e
brand?'

Operational questions:

1. Is our service-delivery model designed to support the new company?

2. Do our processes achieve best-practice standards in terms of efficiency and
effectiveness?

3. Are we effectively leveraging technology?

Even with thoughtful strategizing and action on the part of senior leadership,
recovery will take place incrementally and without blaring trumpets or a host of
singing angels signalling its arrival. A transformed HR function will most
certainly play a critical role in the successful emergence of the renewed
enterprise.However, this will take time as well as unwavering senior-leadership
supports and deft change-management skills.

In the end, any turnaround situation presents HR with a unique opportunity to
jump in and become the strategic business partner that senior leadership
urgently needs. While these situations are messy, those in HR who get out in
front of and successfully navigate these waters will have a chance to create a
function that can facilitate the recovery of a distressed company and put it on
a solid path of sustained growth. HR can accomplish this through thoughtful and
aligned human-capital strategy, and efficient and effective programming and
service delivery.