South and Central America

BRICS, Energy and the New World Order

While the BRICS share some characteristics, they differ in several respects. How far can cooperation between them go? Is their cooperation mainly symbolic, or can extensive coordination be achieved? The BRICS are large countries, but will they act individually or jointly? In this present report, the authors examine selected issues in order to find out whether the BRICS have the capacity to develop common policies and cooperation.

Contextualizing peacebuilding activities to local circumstances: Local-level peacebuilding in South Sudan, Liberia and Haiti

UN local peacebuilding and transition in Haiti: Contextualizing early peacebuilding activities to local circumstances. Haiti case-study field report

Bolivars uekte sønner: det nye Sør-Amerika mellom Chávez og Lula

Det første tiåret av det 21. århundre har vært en nesten ekstatisk opplevelse for den latin-amerikanske venstresida. I ruinene av tradisjonelle politiske institusjoner og partier har 14 av 19 land i Latin-Amerika, med 2/3 av folketallet, vært styrt av ulike former for venstreregjeringer. Latin-Amerika-kjenner Vegard Bye (forfatteren av Dette er Cuba - Alt annet er løgn!) forteller her om den politiske utviklingen i fem land og de spektakulære Askeladd-historiene som har ført radikale personer til makten: Chavez i Venezuela, Lula i Brasil, Morales i Bolivia, Correa i Ecuador og Lugo i Paraguay.

Evaluation of SAIH’s Support for FADCANIC’s Wawashang Environmental and Agroforestry Educational Centre

Evaluation Report. Save the Children Guatemala

Review of the Norwegian Program for Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala

The present review was commissioned in order to assess how the current project portfolio of the Norwegian Indigenous Peoples Program in Guatemala corresponds to the approved strategy, and to develop more concrete recommendations for the implementation of this strategy. The review concludes that while this strategy continues to be valid, it has not been followed in the selection of partner organizations and projects supported. A number of the projects fall completely outside of the thematic areas of the strategy, and as a whole the portfolio appears fragmented and unfocused. Recommendations include tighter adherence to the thematic concentration of the strategy, closer attention to the potential for having strategic impacts when selecting partner organizations, and the introduction of multiyear funding for the stronger of these organizations.

A Study of Civil Society in Nicaragua

NORAD has commissioned this study as an input to analyzing governance issues in Nicaragua. The report analyzes current civil society in Nicaragua as the product of the developments over the last decades. The sphere is dominated by a set of highly visible, professional and active NGOs – partly because of the strength of these organizations, partly because of weaknesses of other types of organizations. Unions are fragmented, private sector organizations tend to focus on sector demands, social movements are relatively non-existent, and community-based organizations are oriented towards local concerns. While Nicaraguan civil society remains politically polarized – although less so than 10-15 years ago – there are relatively advanced examples of coordination among the organizations. State – civil society relations are gradually changing as new spaces for consultations are being institutionalized and the organizations are becoming more oriented towards lobbying. Still, there is considerable way to go before these new spaces function according to intentions. The fact that civil society is dominated by NGOs – which are not membership-based – means that issues of representation and accountability pose a key challenge for Nicaraguan civil society.

Evaluation of Fadcanic's teacher training program in Nicaragua's Southern autonomous region of the Atlantic Coast

Since 1997, FADCANIC has been implementing a training program for unqualified teachers working in primary schools of Nicaragua’s Southern autonomous region of the Atlantic Coast. SAIH, the Norwegian NGO that has been funding this program, has commissioned the present evaluation. It concludes that the program has had a significant impact in terms of improving education in the region through addressing one of the most urgent needs of the educational sector, namely teacher qualifications. However, the evaluation also points out a number of other limitations for the sector, including lack of resources for materials, physical infrastructure and reasonable teacher salaries, as well as general social problems of the region. It recommends that the program is continued, and that even greater emphasis is put upon creating a teacher education appropriate to the multilingual and -cultural reality.