SAP CANADA Newsletter

Building Partnerships, Creating Dialogue, Making A Difference

February-March 2003

www.sapcanada.org

Table of Contents

• The First Word
• Coming Events
• Member Spotlight
• SAP Canada in the Media
• Peace & Security
• Democracy & Governance
• India Linkage
• Human Rights
• South Asia Links
• Forging Partnerships
• Suggestions

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The First Word from the Executive Director:

South Asia Partnership Canada welcomes you to our first electronic newsletter. This newsletter will be published six times per year and will include information on the SAP family in Canada and Asia, news, and events. Let us know what you think – and what you need.

SAP Canada looks forward to the coming year of building partnerships, creating dialogue and making a difference in Canada and South Asia. As tensions rise again in the region and in the world, we must look for encouragement to the path of peace being tentatively taken by the combatants in Nepal and Sri Lanka. Peace remains a key ingredient of development in South Asia.

Still, South Asians have experienced a tumultuous year. The Pakistan elections, the communal riots in Gujarat, Bangladesh’s deadly anti-crime “Operation Clean Heart”, Afghanistan’s reconstruction efforts and challenges, and the continued integration of women into political posts in India have captured our attention.

For SAP Canada, we are witnessing the fruit of a 15-year partnership with the Sri Lanka Canada Development Fund as it transforms into the independent Sri Lanka Centre for Development Facilitation (SLCDF). We hope many of you will continue to support their efforts. In the spirit of moving forward, SAP Canada is also looking for new partners in Canada who would like to make a difference in South Asia with policy dialogues and shared knowledge. We look forward to working with you in the year to come.

Richard Harmston
Executive Director
South Asia Partnership Canada

 

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Coming Events

Check our web site www.sapcanada.org regularly for updates, resources and announcements.

• May 1 and 2, 2003: Communication for Social Change Forum in Ottawa, Canada. SAP Canada will bring Resource People from South Asia together with Canadian NGO, academic and government representatives to discuss the success of using communications as an awareness building and advocacy tool to change attitudes and behaviour in the community; identify the elements of effective communication strategies through lessons previously learned; explore new technologies as agents for change and discuss their possibilities and challenges.
  • Read the CSCConceptPaper (PDF, 70.3 K)

 

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Member Spotlight

SAP Canada member, Operation Eyesight Canada, recently visited Ottawa with Mike Whitlam, head of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and best known for his work on the Global Ban on Landmines campaign. Operation Eyesight Canada is an active participant with Whitlam’s Agency on Vision 2020: The Right to Sight campaign www.v2020.org, an international campaign that is seeking to eliminate avoidable blindness. Eighty per cent of the world’s blindness can be prevented or cured. Blindness is more than a health issue; it is a development and human rights issue. We congratulate Operation Eyesight on its participation. Working together, we can make a difference.

 

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Forging Partnerships

SAP Canada is putting information from the grassroots experience of our South Asian partners into the hands of activists, non-government organizations and policymakers in South Asia and in Canada. Support SAP Canada’s programs in Canada, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. To get more involved, we recommend Canadian organizations join SAP Canada’s membership, which now includes Associate and Individual Memberships. For more information on how to take part, visit our Donor web page or contact Melissa Coleman by telephone 613-241-1333 or email.

 

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SAP Canada in the Media

We will send you an email advisory through SAP E-Link to advise you of broadcasts and re-broadcasts of our South Asian partners in the media. SAP Canada sends a special thank-you to the reporters who consistently show an interest in South Asian ideas and people.

• Omni TV’s South Asia News interviewed SAP Pakistan’s Executive Director Tahseen on the post-election situation in Pakistan
• TV Ontario (TVO) filmed the talk of journalist Sidharth Bhatia on Hindu Extremism in India.
• CPAC, Canada’s parliamentary channel, interviewed and has broadcast interviews with Dr. Bidyut Mohanti of the Institute for Social Sciences (India), Goan city councillor Patricia Pinto (India), and The Nation journalist, Ayesha Haroon (Pakistan).

 

 

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Recent Events & Publications

Peace & Security

 

• Forum: Gender & Security in South Asia. This event featured Ms. Rita Manchanda, Executive Director, South Asia Forum for Human Rights (India); Dr. Paula Banerjee, Calcutta Research Group (India); Ms. Ayesha Haroon, The Nation Newspaper (Pakistan); Rita Thapa, TEWA (Nepal); Kabita Chakma, Hill Women’s Federation (Bangladesh); Shobha Gautam, IHRICON (Nepal); Selvadharshini Thevanesan Croos, Cordaid (Sri Lanka); Ms. Nelofer Pazira (Afghanistan). Among the ideas emerging from the forum, is the need for a South Asian Gender & Security Network. Read the Recommendations PDF (100K).
• Afghanistan Mainstreaming Gender Report available. This pre-Loya Jirga report highlights the challenges still facing women today in Afghanistan, for example, their security and livelihood in rural Afghanistan. Read the Report PDF (385K).

 

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Democracy & Governance

To cover the

Pakistan Elections

SAP Canada hosted two events, which provided a pre-election and post-election analysis of its state of democracy, and released an election monitoring report by South Asia Partnership Pakistan.

• Pakistan Election 2002: Generally Fair, Exclusively Unfair (page) Pakistan Election Monitor 2002 (PDF, 139K)
• Post-Election Pakistan with Mohammed Tahseen and Irfan Mufti, SAP Pakistan, who discussed General Pervez Musharraf’s manipulation of the elections, the rise of the Islamic parties and the impact of the new regime on non-government organizations such as SAP Pakistan. Read the report Pakistan Post-Election Report 2002 (133K).

 

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India

• Civil Society and Municipal Government: Making a Difference in Today’s India. Patricia Pinto from the southeastern Indian state of Goa speaks about her involvement in the People’s Movement for Civic Action and the Goa Environment Federation. Activities discussed range from the campaign for a plastic-free Goa to being a female city councillor to municipal-civil society relations. Read the report RTF (56.9K) | PDF (205K).
• Daughters of the 73rd Amendment with Dr. Bidyut Mohanty, Institute for Social Sciences, New Delhi. As part of SAP Canada’s India Linkage program, Dr. Mohanty lectured across Canada about the impact of a constitutional amendment that reserves seats for women candidates on the local government level. Read the report RTF (39.5K) | PDF (158K).
• Hindu Extremism on the Rise. Toronto-based journalist for Indian and international newspapers and television, Sidharth Bhatia spoke about the Gujarat anti-Muslim riots of February 2002 and situated that event in the roots of militant Hindu politics. Read the report RTF (27.6K) | PDF (164K).

 

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Human Rights

• Bangladesh’s anti-crime campaign, Operation Clean Heart, which involves the military has turned deadly, killing more than 46 people in captivity and imprisoning journalists, opposition and government politicians. Who is in control? Read the report RTF (34.4K) | PDF (166K).
• India’s Ekta Parishad movement scores victory for evicted Baiga tribal peoples. Read More.
• Mira Shiva of India’s Voluntary Health Association, speaks about how sexism, new reproductive technologies and tradition are resulting in a crisis for pregnant women in India. Read More RTF (19.5K) | PDF (50.1K).
• The “low caste” Dalits of India: Human Rights of Marginal Communities. Read the report RTF (70.7K) | PDF (206K).

 

 

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South Asia Links

• SAP Canada congratulates the founding of the Sri Lanka Centre for Development Facilitation (SLCDF). Read the media release RTF (30.9K) | PDF (101K).
• SAP International Announces The Joint Declaration of the Third South Asia Peoples Summit 2003 in Islamabad. Read the Joint Declaration.  RTF (18.5K) | PDF (94.5K)
• The Killing Terraces of Nepal presented at an Ottawa Film Festival. SAP Canada continues its partnership with World InterAction Mondiale. This year we screened to a sell-out crowd, The Killing Terraces, a film by Dhruba Basnet shot in Maoist strongholds, which tries to understand the underlying causes of the insurgency in Nepal. Read more in South Asian Himal.
• Download Khoj India: A Directory of Canadian Organizations Working on Indian Development Issues. This new directory features 48 Canadian non-government organizations and civil society organizations, eight private sector organizations and 22 academics that work on development issues in India. Khoj India Directory.

 

 

Suggestions? Comments? SAP Canada wants to hear from you! Send your comments on SAP Canada’s activities, the newsletter or your own organization’s involvement in South Asia to SAP Canada or call the Communications Officer at 613-241-1333 ext. 228. We look forward to hearing from you.

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