The Frontera Asset Building Network: Building Strong Partnerships for Community Change Along the Southwest Border

Describes a learning community of local coalitions that create and promote asset-building vehicles, including individual development accounts, microenterprise opportunities, and homeownership programs. Discusses approaches, partnerships, and impact

Strengthening Democracy, Increasing Opportunities: Impacts of Advocacy, Organizing, and Civic Engagement in Los Angeles

Analyzes the policy impacts and monetary benefits fifteen Los Angeles County community organizations achieved for marginalized groups with foundation support in 2004-08. Presents effective strategies used and recommends greater roles for local funders

Civil society in trade policy-making in Latin America: the case of the environmental movement

In recent years, and particularly perhaps since the ‘battle of Seattle’ in 1999, the issue of civil society participation in trade policy has attracted increasing policy and academic attention. Much of this attention has been drawn to the question of institutional access and channels of participation and representation within the WTO. The challenge is one that has faced other global institutions such as the World Bank and IMF for a number of years (O’Brien et al 2000). Improving the transparency of and access to decision-making in the context of up-scaling civil society participation is not exclusively a global challenge, however. There has been a great deal of activity at the regional level around trade negotiations and increasingly in Latin America with the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) following in the wake of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and Mercosur (Mercado Común del Sur). Few institutional reforms have been brought about without significant pressure from civil society, however. Some challenges are common to all movements attempting to participate and make their voice heard in the sensitive and traditionally closed arena of trade negotiations. But others are unique, and reflect distinct regional political histories, previous experiences of mobilisation and prevailing social and material realities. Given this, it becomes important to understand what can be learned from the experience of a globally significant region like Latin America about the possibilities and limitations of civil society participation in trade policy. By comparing the documented experiences of NAFTA with analysis of Mercosur and the evolving FTAA negotiations, in terms of the participation of the environmental movements, important insights may be gained about: who is participating in trade policy, how and with what effect and, equally importantly, who is not participating and what are the implications of this? The analysis will therefore attempt to identify key factors which shape these dynamics. These include; * key strategic issues within the movements and among groups themselves (diversity of strategies, politics of coalition-building, patterns of influence and engagement/non-engagement) * the organisation of institutional access (rights, representation, process, decision-making) * key economic and political regional dynamics which affect each of the above (differences between and within individual countries regarding key issues and attitudes towards participation) By comparing across different sets of trade negotiations and institutional arrangements it will be possible to identify what the key drivers and shapers of change appear to be. In other words, the extent to which these appear to derive from the nature of the institution or process itself, the strategies of the movement engaging with it, or more likely still, some combination of both these elements. The challenge is to account for diverse forms of engagement and non-engagement and, more importantly, to derive lessons from them about the possibility of constructing more effective, sustainable and transparent mechanisms of participation and representation in trade policy based on experiences to date in Latin America

Building Healthy Places with People and for People: Community Engagement for Healthy and Sustainable Communities

Over a 25 year period, residents of the El Sereno  community in Los Angeles have opposed efforts of  investors seeking to build luxury homes on the area  known as Elephant Hill.  After years of community  organizing—canvassing door to door, developing a  broad-based coalition and mobilizing supporters to  attend public hearings—residents declared victory after  the City Council agreed to settle a lawsuit with the  developers by buying the 20-acre site for $6 million to  create a future park.  Residents are glad that a chunk of one of Los Angeles' last undeveloped hillsides  will remain open space in this park poor, working-class Latino community.  Opposition efforts reignited  in 2004 not only to preserve open space, but also to encourage public safety and counter threats to  gentrification.  Elva Yañez, the El Sereno resident who led the most recent efforts to preserve Elephant  Hill, hailed the settlement as a victory for environmental justice: "After a long and hard fought struggle,  the residents of this community have been afforded the environmental protections that are rightfully theirs.   We are pleased that this poorly planned project is not moving forward and environmental justice has  prevailed." [Contreras & Sanchez, 2009; Yañez, personal communication, 2010

Investing in Healthy, Sustainable Places Through Urban Agriculture

The purpose of this paper is to provide funders with an overview of urban agriculture and its benefits; its connections to the community-based food system; and how foundations are supporting and encouraging urban agriculture as a public health, social enterprise, environmental stewardship, and/or economic development strategy. With bibliographical references

Policy Coherence for Development in the EU Council: Strategies for the Way Forward. CEPS Paperbacks. July 2006

In recognition of the fact that EU policies in non-development areas, such as trade, energy and migration, can also profoundly affect the poor in developing countries, the EU has affirmed ‘Policy Coherence for Development’ as an important principle for achieving more effective development cooperation. This new CEPS study analyses whether policy-making processes in the EU Council provide sufficient scope for development inputs to be made in 12 key policy areas: trade, environment, climate change, security, agriculture, fisheries, social dimension of globalisation, employment and decent work, migration, research and innovation, information society, transport and energy. The study also includes coverage of the policy-making processes in the European Commission as it initiates and defends most of the policies being discussed in the EU Council. Its findings point to the highly segregated character of EU policy-making and provide interesting insights into the internal challenges the EU will need to address in order to fulfil its goal of achieving greater coherency in its (external) policy-making. To strengthen the potential for PCD the study suggests six proposals for structural reform as well as a set of specific recommendations

The Role of the City in Fostering Intergroup Communication in a Multicultural Environment: Saint-Petersburg’s Case

In this paper two aspects of the issue will be discussed. First, there is the role of authorities, NGOs in forming the multicultural environment in the city with cultural diversity. Second, the city as social context, the images and myths of the city determine discourse on multiculturalism and influence the cross-cultural communication in the city. After describing historically shaped images of the city, employment of city’s myths and symbols in discourse and policy of multiculturalism, and role of city’s institutions in fostering inter-group communication, this paper will discuss the inclusive culture of the city, shaped by the networking interaction, which blurs the distinction between «insiders» and «outsiders». Here the trends of (post)modern inter/trans-national relations will be extrapolated on the trans-cultural interaction in the multicultural city, taking into consideration that network interactions build up not between the territories, but in the space, where logic of borders overcomes.Multicultural, Identity, Image, Myth, Discourse, We-groups, Inclusive networks, Inclusive culture, Transnational interaction, Transnational civil society

Campaign for a Moral, Balanced Immigration Overhaul (CAMBIO), Strategic Review

In March 2014, Campaign for an Accountable, Moral, and Balanced Immigration Reform (CAMBIO) commissioned us to conduct an external review of the CAMBIO campaign. This report summarizes findings based on data gathered during an in-person focus group conducted with members of the CAMBIO Steering Committee in May 2014; a review of approximately 20 CAMBIO corporate documents and 36 internal meeting minutes; and 41 semi-structured telephone interviews conducted principally in June and July 2014

Gift Baskets for South Asia: Nuclear Risk Reduction and Crisis Management

Gift Basket diplomacy is an interest-based approach to negotiation that encourages voluntary commitments as incentives for cooperation. International diplomats used this approach during the Nuclear Security Summits (NSS), and it is the new standard for international cooperation. This model was successfully replicated in climate talks and led to a global effort to combat climate change. The use of house presents, and gift baskets encourages leadership and team building, to excel beyond intractable consensus-based stalemates. The Gift Basket Diplomacy model may reduce South Asia’s nuclear risk and enhance crisis management by increasing diplomatic efforts during regional party talks and cooperative engagements, by keeping negotiators on a focused path to substantive counterterrorism and border security cooperation

Regional Coalitions for Healthcare Improvement: Definition, Lessons, and Prospects

Outlines how regional quality coalitions can collaborate to help deliver evidence-based healthcare; improve care processes; and measure, report, and reward results. Includes guidelines for starting and running a coalition and summaries of NRHI coalitions