We are pleased to announce the launch of the XVII Edition of the International Summer School on regulation of local public services (Turin, 8-19 September 2014) held by the Turin School of Local Regulation. More information at www.turinschool.eu/iss
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Hydroaid stepped into the second phase of the UN TeamWorkse-discussion for the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review 2014 on the theme “Addressing ongoing and emerging challenges for meeting the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and for sustaining development gains in the future” scheduled from 03 February to 16 March.

Part II of the consultation addressed the issue ofinclusive development and how to foster it through policy frameworks and cooperation practices, avoiding processes of marginalization and poverty gaps. Our experience led us again to propose training as an example of activity promoting inclusion among other benefits. We believe that equitable progress is possible only if extending the opportunities of development to all the components of a society and one of the strategies that we have identified for doing so is training and the modernization of the approach to training according to the needs of the cooperation scenarios. Training in itself is a triggering key element for empowerment and progress while flexibility allows us to address core problems successfully. Training is also a tool that operates not only for the goals of specific actions, but also for the broader reality of the national system where it is applied and encourages a gradual enrichment of the relations between donors, partners and beneficiary subjects, as well as the promotion of the participation and the enhancement of bottom-up mechanisms for decision making.

Hydroaid participated in the first part of the online Consultation for the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review 2014 launched by UN TeamWorks last month. This first phase deals with the "Facilitators of development progress, including in the achievement of MDG" and focuses on strategies and policy ideas for:

- fostering, strengthening and supporting strong and stable policy frameworks for development;
- promoting changes for accelerating progress in the achievement of the MDGs;
- identifying obstacles to effective aid and transfer as well as factors that can develop more effective global partnerships for development.

With regard to Hydroaid experience in the field of cooperation we believe that, although it requires time and resources, training is a key element for accelerating development because it ensures that the subjects beneficiary of cooperation projects and external aid are able to maintain the achieved benefits, develop and eventually improve them by taking control of their own development process. Hydroaid contribution also stressed the importance of sound planning principles that could facilitate decision making and are often lacking at local and intermediate levels. Awareness raising and development efforts should be therefore directed at demanding integrated planning guidelines for different levels of administration: national, regional and local.
 

Hydroaid is participating in the UN TeamWorks online Consultation for the 2014 Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) of ECOSOC on the theme "Addressing challenges for meeting the MDGs and sustaining development gains". This is a preliminary discussion coordinated by the UN World We Want network for gathering key points and policy ideas to be further developed in the 2014 AMR Conference.
The e-discussion will take place from February 3rd to March 16th 2014 and it is divided into three parts:

• Part I (3 - 16 February):  Facilitators of development progress, including in the achievement of MDG.
• Part II (17 February – 2 March): Sustaining development gains through inclusive development

• Part III (3 – 16 March): Measuring progress in MDG achievement and beyond