July 2004

Contents: 1. This month's highlight: Top picks from programmes 2. Focus on GDRC: Lessons learnt on learning 3. What's New a GDRC's Website 4. Monthly Statistics for GDRC's Website 5. About GDRC Mosaic 6. Contact address This Months Highlight: Starting an NGO from the GDRC Programme on NGOs and the Civil Society "NGOs are becoming more critical for local development, but also at the international level. - How can an NGO be set up?" Starting a non-governmental organization or a non-profit organization (NGO/NPO) can be a lengthy, time consuming process. However, the difficulties of the process can be minimized by following a consistent series of steps and seeking advice when needed. NGOs provide much needed services to their respective communities, and thorough planning during the start-up process is crucial to developing an effective and professional organization that is able to meet the myriad challenges faced by the world today. This article provides an outline of the general steps needed for starting and incorporating a NGO. More information on this theme is available at: http://www.gdrc.org/ngo/key.html As with all sections of GDRC, contributions, comments and suggestions are always welcome from users and subscribers! Please contact GDRC's Coordinator at - mosaic@gdrc.org FOCUS ON GDRC: Observe ... This section focuses on information management lessons learnt in coordinating GDRC's activities. Much has been said about the need to make programmes and projects relevant to the needs of the target community. In developing the contents of GDRC's programme pages, a constant mantra used is "Observe!" This may seem too simplistic, but when expanded, we realize that good observation skills help us in a number of ways - to be able to listen, to formulate a good discussion, to think systematically, and to take concrete action. Understanding how a person or an organization at the local level takes decisions and acts on those decisions is a critical starting point for GDRC's work. We then need to work backwards and see what information is needed for that decision to be taken, and how and when it should be delivered. An underlying prerequisite for this is the ability to observe .... WHAT'S NEW AT GDRC'S WEBSITE? - a selection Urban Environmental Management: Ecological Footprints updated water footprints page, and linked to 'The Water Foorprint' Urban Environmental Management: Guide to City Networks - linked to the new organization - "United Cities and Local Governments" and other links added. Internet and ICTs: ICTs for Development - Case Studies from India Internet and ICTs: African Women and the Information Age: A Rare Opportunity Sustainable Development: Poverty - Three Aspects of Poverty Urban Environmental Management: Sustainable Tourism resources updated and added NGO Cafe: Bungee jumps - the section on 'NGO Scene in Japan' was updated and many websites on Japanese NGOs/NPOs were added. MONTHLY STATISTICS FOR GDRC'S WEBSITE Total hits encountered - 608,251 Total files downloaded - 475,556 Total pages viewed - 212,780 Total web visitors - 62,082 Total KBytes - 4,289,668 Pages per day - Avg. 6863; Max.11,945 Visits per day - Avg. 2,002; Max. 2,479 ABOUT GDRC MOSAIC The "GDRC Mosaic" is a monthly email newsletter that provides information bites, and summarizes programme activities of GDRC, including new items added to the website. To subscribe: http://www.gdrc.org/about/newsletter.html To unsubscribe: unsubscribe-mosaic@gdrc.org Comments, suggestions and contributions: info-mosaic@gdrc.org CONTACT ADDRESS: Global Development Research Center 5-13-3-1601, Nakano-cho, Miyakojima-ku, Osaka 534-0027, Japan Tel / Fax: +(81-6) 6925-8005 Emial: info-mosaic@gdrc.org URL: http://www.gdrc.org/ © 2003-2005, GDRC. All rights reserved.