It became known on 1 November that the two alliances of which SOMO forms a part will receive subsidy from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the context of the joint financing system (MFS2) 2011-2015. SOMO is pleased about the recognition of the quality of its work and that of its partners, and about the resources made available. The cooperation in the two alliances will provide many new opportunities and challenges in the next five years, and will make it possible for SOMO to continue to work to realise global sustainable and fair economic development.
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The guide, with the title 'Making private standards work for you: a guide to private standards in the garments, footwear and furniture sectors', is being referred to by users as an excellent tool. The new UNIDO guide describes key trends in codes of conduct and business standards, and is intended to help businesses in developing countries see the wood for the trees. The guide is available in various languages. SOMO is helping UNIDO in the development of a training method, on the basis of this guide. The training course will probably become available in the first half of 2011.
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During a hearing in the Lower House on 18 November 2010, SOMO argued in favour of a structural solution (regulations) for the lack of chain responsibility and transparency among the energy companies operating in the Netherlands. As one of the experts to be heard, SOMO gave its vision on the origin of the coal used by the energy companies in question, based on new study on Sustainability in the Power Sector (Europe, Belgium and the Netherlands). The report on this will be published shortly.
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A recently published SOMO paper analyses the financial sector reforms enacted upon by the European Union from the perspective of developing countries and (potential) negative impacts on them. The paper proposes remedies to prevent potential problems and is still open for comments during the next few weeks. The coming two years, the project 'Towards a Global Finance System at the Service of Sustainable Development' will pay particular issues identified in the paper (i.a. the bi-monthly newsletter). The paper refers to the recent SOMO-supported report by Kavaljit Singh 'Fixing global finance', which discusses important reforms for developing countries and was downloaded 4000 times in one month.
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SOMO was commissioned by the Stop Kinderarbeid (Stop Child Labour) to carry out a background study into the production chain of hazelnuts. Most hazelnuts on the European market come from Turkey. Most of the people involved in the annual harvest are children, who miss 3 to 6 months of education as a result. Current affairs TV programme Eén Vandaag focused on the theme on 19 October, after which questions were asked in Parliament by the Christenunie and SP political parties. On 19 November, the documentary 'Children of the season' premiered in Amsterdam. In the subsequent debate, PvdA (Labour) MEP Emine Bozkurt explained that the EU will be focusing a great deal of attention on child labour: pressure will be put on Turkey and questions will be put to the EU Commission.
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