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Fafo news archive
News from the Fafo frontpage
September-October 2008
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 Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
31 October 2008
This week the non-profit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre launched a free online portal - the first to bring together and demystify lawsuits from across the world alleging human rights abuses by companies. The portal summarises in non-legal language over 35 cases and the positions of each side, with more cases to be added soon. Fafo director Mark Taylor (pictured) is one of the experts who present special commentaries at the website.  The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre website Read Taylor's commentary The Corporate Accountability Evolution See also Red Flags |
 Child Labour in West Africa:
Different Work – Different Vulnerabilities
21 October 2008
The Fafo researchers Morten Bøås and Anne Hatløy (pictured) have published an article on child labour in West Africa in the journal International Migration, Vol. 46, 3. The article is based on data from four different surveys – street children in Accra, Ghana; street children in Bamako, Mali; children and youth in alluvial-diamond production in Kono district, Sierra Leone; and war-affected children in Voinjama district, Liberia. Bøås and Hatløy analyse how children and youth seek to use different economic strategies to shape their lives. Abstract of the article |
 Mariano Aguirre appointed Managing Director, Noref
14 October 2008
The Board of the Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre (Noref) has appointed Mariano Aguirre as the Centre's first Managing Director. Formerly established as an independent foundation in June 2008, Noref is mandated to support peacebuilding through the provision of strategic analysis to a range of peacebuilding actors, including the United Nations and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as relevant government agencies and civil society organizations around the world. The centre is a cooperation between Fafo and The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). Find press release here |
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Defining trafficking through empirical work
8 October 2008
The Fafo-researchers May-Len Skilbrei and Marianne Tveit (pictured) have published the article «Defining Trafficking Through Empirical Work: Blurred Boundaries and their Consequences» in the journal Gender, Technology and Development, 12(1). The article is based upon two Fafo studies on Nigerian women in prostitution in Norway. The authors argue that in order to understand and handle the exploitation of migrants in prostitution one should start with their own experiences instead of international established categories and problem definitions. |
 Afro-Regions
7 October 2008
The Fafo-researchers Morten Bøås and Kathleen M. Jennings have written an article in a new book published by The Nordic Africa Institute, edited by Fredrik Söderbaum and Ian Taylor, Afro-Regions: The Dynamics of Cross-Border Micro-Regionalism in Africa. The collection focuses on the making and unmaking of cross-border micro-regions in Africa. Its main emphasis is that micro-regions are not givens, but are constructed and reconstructed through social practice, political economy and, in discourse, by a variety of states, corporations and non-state actors. Bøås and Jennings' case is Uganda and their article is titled «War in the Great Lakes Region and Ugandan Conflict Zones: Micro-regionalisms and Meta-narratives». Read more about and order the book from here |
 Workshop on Child Labour and Education for All
October 2008
Fafo will host a workshop in Oslo 20–21 October in connection with the Education for All initiative: The challenge of including the «hard-to-reach» children. The Oslo conference on child labour in 1997 marked the beginning of a decade of research and other initiatives aimed to better understand how to deal with the evils of child labour, and help children to access quality education instead. The progress is remarkable, but nonetheless, more than 218 million children are still involved in child labour. The workshop is a collaboration with Understanding Children's Work (Unicef) and Global March against Child Labour. More information about the workshop Contact: Anne Kielland |
 The Congolese elections: Just another day in the North Kivu quagmire?
16 September 2008
Fafo-researcher Morten Bøås (pictured) has published an article in the international journal African Security 1, 2008. The article deals with the 2006 Congolese elections; how they cemented several of the cleavages that led to the war in Congo in the first place. The current Congo crisis is located in questions about citizenship and land rights, and the situation in North Kivu is described as still tense and uncertain. Read abstract of the article: ”Just another day” – The North Kivu Security Predicament After the 2006 Congolese Elections |
Reintegration in postwar societies
11 September 2008
Fafo-researcher Kathleen Jennings (pictured) has published the article «Unclear ends, unclear means: reintegration in postwar societies – the case of Liberia» in the journal Global Governance, vol. 14, no. 3. Jennings argues that the meaning and use of reintegration, both as a concept and a postconflict peacebuilding practice, is overloaded and unclear, thus contributing to problematic policy responses and impeding accountability. Read abstract here |
 Decent work in a global economy
1 September 2008
The Fafo-researchers Espen Løken, Åsmund Arup Seip and
Jon Erik Dølvik contribute in a new policy paper to the discussion on decent work and fair globalization. First, they briefly review some main findings of research and state of the art regarding the impact of globalization on jobs and labour standards. Secondly, they describe the main efforts by the international community to promote decent work for all, ending with some reflections on possible options and ways of advancing these efforts. The report is recommended as paper for the conference “Decent Work - A Key to Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation” in Oslo the 5th of September. This conference is the result of a partnership between the Financial Times and the Norwegian Government, in cooperation with The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprises. Read more and download the report |
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