NEWSLETTERS

TAABCO News 3rd quarter newsletter. No.1. 2011

BOY CHILD AND MAN'S DIMINISHING ROLE

Men are Gods Channel for releasing blessings to families, generations, communities and nations. This is the lesson of God's dealings with Abraham and the patriarchs. In the Good book, The Lord said to Abram,Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,and from thy father's house,unto a land that I will show you. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;and thou shall be a blessing.The Lord further told Abram that He will bless those who bless him and curse those that curse him. It is through him that all families of the earth be blessed. God chose the man,Abraham to bring forth His blessing to all nations.
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WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND PEACE

Despite constituting over half of the population, the presence of women in key state organs in Kenya is minimal. A peep at the government minis-tries, the courts, parliament and other state organs reveals this sad reality. Kenya has about 42 ministers and of these only six are women. At the Judiciary, things are shaping up after domination by men for a long time. It was a score for women after Lady Justice Nancy Baraza was appointed the Deputy Chief Justice while former nominated MP Njoki Ndung'u got a slot the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. Before this, there were 11 judges at the Court of Appeal with no women after the only female judge- Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch took up an elective post at The Hague. At the High Court, there are 29 male judges and 18 female judges. There are 181 male magistrates compared to 118 female counterparts, and 18 kadhis with no females.
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EDUCATION- ARE WE ON THE RIGHT TRACK?

The early learners were motivated to join school because choices did exist for their favorite subjects that promoted their childhood talents fully. The significance of any educational arrangement can best be defined in terms of its purposes. For example what are the potentials for providing children, youth and adults with better education? These potentials are the fundamental reasons of schooling and particularly learning in schools. Perceptions Learning can be defined as any increase in people"s capability to live well through organized knowledge acquisition either formally or informally". Perceptions of ways to improve living stimulate people to enlarge their capabilities. To the educators, this is called motivation.
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THE ANSWER LIES WITH SOLVING THE ROOT CAUSES

Every human being has the right to live in dignity. The elimination of poverty is the greatest moral, political and economic challenge faced by humanity and if we fail to succeed in this task, there can be no peace, no stability and sustainable development. Poverty is multidimensional expressing itself in many different forms. It could be lack of opportunities, lack of power and either or lack of security. It is the country's own policies that play the crucial role in determining how successful poverty can be reduced. Suffering Good living conditions include a democratic society in which human rights are respected and there is equality between men and women.
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REMAINING TRUE TO THE FAITH DESPITE HARDSHIPS

"Each year the hurricane and typhoon seasons increase in ferocity and destruction, torrential floods on one hand and terrible droughts on the other- these are no longer seasonal we cope with, they have become massive matters of life and death, especially for the world's poor whether they live in the affluent North or poverty-stricken South". These are the words of the Rev. Samuel Kobia as captured in his book- Called to the One Hope. Calamities The words ably capture what humanity is undergoing at the moment. From one calamity to another, insecurity and danger lurk everywhere. The number of people who lose their lives every day is shocking with the figures difficult to comprehend. The number of widows has been on the rise just like orphans.
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GAINING MOMENTUM ON MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs)

When the UN General Assembly adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in September 2000, the UN put the fight against poverty high on its agenda. This was a historic moment. The UN had, in the past, pronounced
various goals and development decades, but such pledges were soon forgotten. The MDGs are different. Lively international debate on them continues, and has probably even gained momentum in the past 10
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TAABCO News Vol.4. No.4. 2010

TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP

We thank God for the peaceful referendum and promulgation of the same. I take this opportunity to thank all of you, for promoting peace in your own unique ways with the communities you work with especially during the constitutional referendum of Kenya. As we earlier communicated to you that our theme as TAABCO in 2010 is “Building and rebuilding relationships for positive change.” we remain committed to this course. It is important to note that change is inevitable therefore networking and partnership needs to be strengthened to help in change management. This is the third quarter of 2010, we thank God this far he has brought us and we trust in him for the future.

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TAABCO News Vol.1. No.1. 2010

RATIONAL FOR MAINSTREAMING PEACE IN DEVELOPMENT

The search for peace and peaceful co-existence of communities has become a pre-occupation of so many organizations and the question that begs for answers is why? To begin with, we live in a diverse and multi-polar world that calls for new methods of participation and inclusion of all communities in the management of the state and its resources.

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ATRIBUTES OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP.

lSome sit and pontificate about whether leaders are made or born. The true leader ignores such arguments and instead concentrates on developing the leadership qualities necessary for success. In this article, we are going to discuss five leadership traits or leadership qualities that people look for in a leader. If one is able to increase his/her skills in displaying these qualityl-scale regulatory reform.

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TAABCO News Vol.4. No.3. 2006

GOOD GOVERNANCE: KEY TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY REDUCTION

The term “governance” is nothing new. It is as old as human civilization. Needless to mention that, “governance” implies the manner in which decisions are effected (or not effected). Good governance in the broad sense is steadily gaining recognition as the key to socio-economic development. In fact, development has more chance of success in those countries where governments actually invest in raising people’s living standard. The importance of good governance is now well documented. Governance is "good" when there are certain principles that are guaranteed and respected by a country’s leaders, and when these benefit all inhabitants of that country. And, at the same time, when the political leaders show the courage, leadership and the political will it takes to continue to develop good governance.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY’S (ICTS) CONTRIBUTION TO DEVELOPMENT PROCESS.

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) play a central role in development efforts. Today, the global economy has entered a "digital age" and information has become one of the primary resources for economic development. Hence, the East African Submarine System (EASSy) that includes 23 African countries is determined to build a regional fibre-optic undersea cable with immense benefit to local business. A 9,900 kilometer undersea cable link from Durban in South Africa, to Port Sudan would cut the cost of internet and telephone drastically across the Eastern and Southern Africa region. In deed, currently, efforts deployed by Africa to extend ICT access are bearing fruit, with more and more African states gradually embracing full-scale regulatory reform. The essence of market liberalization and regulatory reforms, among others, are to attract a surge of investment in the ICT sector and exploit the potential of low cost technologies to provide affordable access to ICT.

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PARTNERSHIP, AID DEPENDENCY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Welcome to the second edition of TAABCO News 2005. The current issues addresses the theme pertaining to 'Partnership, Aid Dependency and Sustainable Development". In the quest for solutions to development problems besetting African continent, the international development partners are increasingly embracing local NGOs as essential for the promotion of democracy and empowering people, thereby leading to more effective local development of services than those currently being delivered by governments. Whilst before African governments were the major recipients of official development aid and other technical support from their development partners and multilateral institutions, today more development aid is being channeled via local NGOs. Indeed, NGOs are perceived by the development partners to work more efficiently and effectively in participatory development and to operate in those areas that are not accessible to governments. Moreover, they are seen have a better insight into the kind of programmes that are needed and desired by the poor. In this regard, NGOs can foster and support grassroots organizations to become resourceful and self-reliant.

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ENHANCING PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN LOCAL NGOs AND GOVERNMENTS

During the last decade or so, most African development partners have changed their method of channeling financial aid to the African states. Most donors now channel substantial amount of their aid through non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In 1997, donors channeled 2% of their worldwide -- nearly US$ 1 billion -- through NGOs. (These data do not include private funds raised and spent by NGOs). It would be surprising if this percentage were not higher in Africa given the growing reliance by the United States and other major aid donors on NGOs to implement their programmes, especially for relief (World Bank 2000). Today, NGOs in Africa manage more than four times in external aid compared to what it commanded in some two and a half decades ago. This increased shift in aid to NGOs comes at a time when total official development assistance (ODA) to Africa has been shrinking (ECA 2005, World Bank 2005a).

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PUBLICATIONS

Whose right? examining the discourse, context and practice of rights-base approches to development.WHOSE RIGHTS?

Enthusiasm for “rights-based approaches” to development has grown during the past decade, taking on diverse meanings within the policies and actions of development agencies, governments and civil society organizations. The “rise of rights” (Eyben, 2003) has sparked much useful critical reflection about the origins of rights discourses and what they mean in policy and practice. One of the concerns, as with all development fashions, is ‘what is really different?’ Can this emerging focus on rights within the development arena help to bring about real changes in favour of poor and marginalized? How do we know that “rights based development” is not just putting new labels on old wine? Given the experience with other development trends, such as the widespread and often contradictory uses of “participation”, this is a valid concern (Brock and Cornwell, 2004).

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Official aid agencies, whether ‘multilateral’ – like the World Bank – or ‘bilateral’ such as(United States International Development-USAID and Britain’s Overseas DevelopmentAdministration), are financed involuntarily by tax-payers who may have a say though their MPs who question how development assistance is spent etc. It is receiving citizens who have no say to ask, question or direct usage! Official aid also involves the transfer of large sums of money – so large, in fact, that the resources of the voluntary sector look puny and insignificant by comparison. It would thus seem sensible, at the very least, for
the official agencies to be directly accountable to the public - to be ‘transparent’, open
and honest in their dealings.

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Africa is in the closing years of the 20th Century will be remembered for two historic events. One was the rise of the popular movements that led to the end of the colonial empire and the downfall of apartheid; the other, a human catastrophe of immense proportions involving the massacre of nearly a million people in Rwanda. If the one was achieved through the mobilization of the majority for goal of emancipation, the other was fuelled by pressures to comply with an externally defined agenda for social development.

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