Culture is and always has been central to development. As a natural and fundamental dimension of people’s lives, culture must be integrated into development policy and programming. This report shows how this process works in practice.
The starting point of the report is the universal validity of the international human rights framework. The focus is therefore on discussing and showcasing how culturally sensitive approaches are critical for the realization of human rights in general and women’s rights in particular.
The report gives an overview of the conceptual frameworks as well as the practice of development, looking at the everyday events that make up people’s experience of development. Culturally sensitive approaches call for cultural fluency – familiarity with how cultures work, and how to work with them. The report presents some of the challenges and dilemmas of culturally sensitive strategies and suggests how partnerships can address them.
Culture – inherited patterns of shared meanings and common understandings – influences how people manage their lives, and provides the lens through which they interpret their society. Cultures affect how people think and act; but they do not produce uniformity of thought or behaviour.
Cultures must be seen in their wider context: They influence and are influenced by external circumstances and change in response. They are not static; people are continuously involved in reshaping them, although some aspects of culture continue to influence choices and lifestyles for very long periods.
Read more on UNFPA site
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Trend Towards Urbanization of the World's Population
Yuwei Zhang
For the first time in history, more than half of the world's population will be living in towns and cities in 2008, states the State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth, published by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Released on 27 June 2007, the report points out that more than half of the world's human population, or 3.3 billion people, will be living in urban areas and the number is expected to swell to almost 5 billion by 2030, with towns and cities of developing countries making up 81 per cent of urban humanity. Over the twentieth century, the urban population grew very rapidly, from 220 million to 2.84 billion, and the next few decades will see an unprecedented scale of urban growth, particularly in developing countries. Between 2000 and 2030, the urban population of Asia would grow from 1.36 billion to 2.64 billion, Africa from nearly 295 million to 742 million, and Latin American and the Caribbean from 394 million to almost 610 million, according to the report.
Read more on UN Chronicle Online
For the first time in history, more than half of the world's population will be living in towns and cities in 2008, states the State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth, published by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Released on 27 June 2007, the report points out that more than half of the world's human population, or 3.3 billion people, will be living in urban areas and the number is expected to swell to almost 5 billion by 2030, with towns and cities of developing countries making up 81 per cent of urban humanity. Over the twentieth century, the urban population grew very rapidly, from 220 million to 2.84 billion, and the next few decades will see an unprecedented scale of urban growth, particularly in developing countries. Between 2000 and 2030, the urban population of Asia would grow from 1.36 billion to 2.64 billion, Africa from nearly 295 million to 742 million, and Latin American and the Caribbean from 394 million to almost 610 million, according to the report.
Read more on UN Chronicle Online
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Indonesia: High Graduate Unemployment
David Jardine
Leading universities in the world’s fourth most populous nation are making serious efforts to deal with high unemployment among their graduates. The situation facing Indonesia is typical of other developing countries.
The data and analysis centre of Tempo, the country’s leading current affairs weekly magazine, broke fresh ground last year with its Guide to Universities and Job-matching Programs of Study. Reflecting the widespread unease at the high annual rate of graduates either failing to find work or having to settle for apparently unsuitable positions, the Tempo centre set out to assess the ‘marketability’ of graduates from the nation’s top 10 universities.
The study covered state and private institutions and found that in Indonesia, “the higher one’s education the smaller the chance one will get a job”. Research by Jobs DB, an Indonesian employment information service, reported that 50% of graduates were trained in disciplines that did not match job openings.
This leads directly to the perception that universities are not paying attention to the needs of the market and changes in it. Some institutions, however, were found by the centre to be conducting market research and carrying out internal reforms.
These included the number one-placed University of Indonesia (UI), which has a mandatory English-language element to its placement test, and the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, which networks with agricultural bodies.
Some institutions now have links with companies through apprenticeship schemes for undergraduates. The Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) has developed these through its engineering faculty.
A number of leading institutions, among them UI and ITB, Gajah Madah University in Jogjakarta and the November 10 University in the East Java capital Surabaya, have joined an Asia-wide university consortium to improve practice. This has resulted in a number of them being placed in the Times Higher Education Supplement-QS World Top 500 rankings, with UI at 250, ITB at 258, Gajah Madah at 270 and Diponegoro University at 495.
One relevant item of assessment in the Times Higher table was the market absorption of graduates.Leading education reform campaigner, Professor Mochtar Buchorim, is one of those who believe the nation’s heavily bureaucratised education system is in need of a comprehensive overhaul. This would necessarily require replacement of the standardised multiple-choice national university entrance examination.
Source: http://www.universityworldnews.com
Leading universities in the world’s fourth most populous nation are making serious efforts to deal with high unemployment among their graduates. The situation facing Indonesia is typical of other developing countries.
The data and analysis centre of Tempo, the country’s leading current affairs weekly magazine, broke fresh ground last year with its Guide to Universities and Job-matching Programs of Study. Reflecting the widespread unease at the high annual rate of graduates either failing to find work or having to settle for apparently unsuitable positions, the Tempo centre set out to assess the ‘marketability’ of graduates from the nation’s top 10 universities.
The study covered state and private institutions and found that in Indonesia, “the higher one’s education the smaller the chance one will get a job”. Research by Jobs DB, an Indonesian employment information service, reported that 50% of graduates were trained in disciplines that did not match job openings.
This leads directly to the perception that universities are not paying attention to the needs of the market and changes in it. Some institutions, however, were found by the centre to be conducting market research and carrying out internal reforms.
These included the number one-placed University of Indonesia (UI), which has a mandatory English-language element to its placement test, and the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, which networks with agricultural bodies.
Some institutions now have links with companies through apprenticeship schemes for undergraduates. The Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) has developed these through its engineering faculty.
A number of leading institutions, among them UI and ITB, Gajah Madah University in Jogjakarta and the November 10 University in the East Java capital Surabaya, have joined an Asia-wide university consortium to improve practice. This has resulted in a number of them being placed in the Times Higher Education Supplement-QS World Top 500 rankings, with UI at 250, ITB at 258, Gajah Madah at 270 and Diponegoro University at 495.
One relevant item of assessment in the Times Higher table was the market absorption of graduates.Leading education reform campaigner, Professor Mochtar Buchorim, is one of those who believe the nation’s heavily bureaucratised education system is in need of a comprehensive overhaul. This would necessarily require replacement of the standardised multiple-choice national university entrance examination.
Source: http://www.universityworldnews.com
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