News Archive

The DFID Yemen Justice and Policing Programme has been featured in the Public Service Review on International Development (ID13). Follow this link and click 'Digital Edition'. Email registration is required to view the publication. The GRM feature is on page 56-57. (NB. opens external website in new window).

The RAMSI Law and Justice Program - Corrections Component has been featured in an AusAID Focus magazine with respect to the Millennium Development Goal on Gender. Through the programme, more than 40 female correctional service officers are now working across the Solomon Islands.

To view the article, follow this link and select "MDG3-Gender." (NB. opens external website in new window).

GRM recently mobilised its DFID-funded Yemen Justice and Policing Programme. Based in Sana’a, the Team Leader Philip Eliason and two long term advisers are supporting the Yemeni Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Justice, primarily in police reform and increasing access to justice for communities in Yemen. The Programme was recently highlighted by the Yemeni News Agency. Yemeni news coverage of the mobilisation. (NB. opens external website in new window).

GRM assisted with the set-up and has been supporting the operating costs of KYEEMA Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, for approximately five years. In that time, KYEEMA has implemented a range of projects in southern Africa and Asia, all to do with village chickens. Also registered under the KYEEMA Foundation is the International Rural Poultry Centre, which was set up to promote cost-efficient, sustainable improvements to village poultry production.

GRM Brisbane staff donations from 'Casual Clothing Fridays' in 2008 have been used to fund buying three chickens and one rooster, plus one year of free vaccination against Newcastle Disease for poor households in Mozambique in the areas where this FAO project operates. For more information, see the KYEEMA website at www.kyeemafoundation.org.

Islamic religious leaders in regional China have been advocating the prevention of AIDS during Friday prayers as part of the Xinjiang HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project managed by GRM International. AIDS is the fourth highest cause of death in low income areas worldwide, according to the WHO. Full story in the China Daily.

With climate change high on the international development agenda, GRM has been expanding its portfolio of activities providing expertise in managing and advising on climate change policies, strategic plans and program development for AusAID, UNDP, UNESCO, USAID, DFID, SIDA, Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) and the Government of Indonesia (BAPPENAS). GRM have also recruited in-house climate change technical expertise to ensure climate change issues are mainstreamed across the implementation of our programs.

Key areas which GRM are currently working on include:

Policy Advice / Strategic Planning:

• Strengthening Policy Documents for BAPPENAS and UNDP on integrating climate change into the national development planning process in Indonesia.
• Facilitating and delivering sessions on conducting Climate Risk Assessments during the second international training course on Climate Risk Management, hosted by the ADPC

Program Advice:

• Technical Assistance (Forests and Livelihood Design Consultant) in support of the detailed design of the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (AusAID) in Indonesia.
• Developing project proposals for UNDP (Indonesia) on:
  • Assisting dairy farmers with access to biogas and strengthening their adaptive capacity to climate change
  • Climate Change Adaptation – increasing the resilience of agricultural livelihoods in Eastern Indonesia (NTT Province)
• Developing project documents for UNESCO Components under “Promoting Climate Resilient Agriculture and Natural Resources Management to Improve Nutrition and Income Generation from Available and New Resources” (Indonesia).

Mainstreaming Climate Change Issues into our current programs:

• Mainstreaming climate change issues into the Advisory and Assistance Services to USAID / Indonesia which is conducting a multi-sectoral analysis within Papua and West Papua to assist with the design of USAID new Country Strategy for Indonesia.
• Strategising climate change adaptation and mitigation in Macedonia through the Macedonian Agricultural Advisory Services Strengthening Project II (SIDA funded).

More information on these activities can be found by viewing them in our Current Projects listing.

GRM is also looking for a number of highly skilled consultants for opportunities on the AusAID International Forest Carbon Initiative – Indonesia Facility; please see Business Tenders for further information.

GRM has been shortlisted for an Australian Business Award--Middle East, in the Green Award category, to be announced at a gala dinner on 19 November, 2008.

The Green Award is for contribution to sustainability in the Middle East, through renewable energy, renovation, sustainable building, clean emissions or similar.

GRM has been collaborating with various industry, education and government partners since the 1970's to introduce sustainable development technologies to various sectors such as the landscaping, agriculture, horticulture and livestock industries in the region.

With the exponential growth of sectors such as landscaping in the UAE and the increasing concern on food security, these innovations are well placed to contribute significantly to the region's sustainable development.

For more information, see the Australian Business Awards site.

As part of Sida's proposed Development Assistance to poor farmers in the Georgian Shida Kartli Buffer Zone after the South Ossetian War, GRM has been chosen to implement a rapid response to the humanitarian needs which have arisen in the region.

The SEK 5.2m project, known as 'Livestock Against Poverty and Dependency in Post-Conflict Georgia', aims to improve food security to meet winter milk and cheese demands, through an innovative dairy cattle winter feeding programme.

GRM International staff around the world participated in the 2008 Global Corporate Challenge. The challenge was designed to encourage participants to walk more than they usually do. In all, GRM entered twelve teams (84 participants) and walked a combined total of 100,142,074 steps. This equated to over 64,000 kilometers and approximately 40,000 miles or an average of 6.1km or 3.8miles per person per day during the event, which lasted from May to September. The carbon abatement was over 2400 kg of carbon dioxide. Well done to all who participated. If you would like to know more about the GCC or register your organisation for next year, you can check their website at www.gcc2008.com.

GRM International has been short-listed for two British Expetise Awards, the Consultancy Project Award and the Healthcare Award.

Our project, the Agricultural Development Component of the Smallholder Enterprise and Marketing Programme, Zambia (ADC-SHEMP) is shortlisted with three other entries for the Consultancy Project award.

Our Central Asian Regional HIV/Aids Programme (CARHAP), is one of two shortlisted for the Healthcare Award.

The presentation will be made during an Awards dinner on 11 November before which, at a private reception, those short-listed will be presented with a Certificate of Commendation by HRH the Duke of Gloucester.

The Swedish Government has chosen to present its Bangladesh Reality Check as a new study with cutting edge methodology developed and implemented by GRM, at the '3rd High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness' in Accra this week.

The Bangladesh Reality Check Report 2007 (click to open 3mb PDF or one page summary) contains results from the first round of field work. Four more will follow during the five-year study. This is the first of its kind and we hope that interest in the Reality Check will spread to other countries, sectors and donors.

In 2005, a summit was held in Paris on the topic of increasing aid effectiveness, resulting in the Paris Declaration which set a number of measurable goals to be met by 2010. Now, representatives of more than 150 governments and donor organisations have met for a mid-term evaluation of the Paris Declaration. A major evaluation of the results in 56 countries has been carried out and will form the basis of the “Accra Agenda for Action”.

The UK Government, backed by the World Bank, UNDP and EC, has taken steps toward preventing misuse of aid funding, in a new initiative revealed today. Read the full story (nb. links to external website).

In line with the growth of our International Development business, GRM is pleased to announce two new key appointments. Both appointments are senior development professionals who have many years experience working with DFID, in particular, as well as the World Bank and other major developmental institutions. They will both be based in our London office and will head up two new practice areas in Government Reform and in Growth and Livelihoods. While GRM already has considerable experience in both of these technical areas, the appointment of these respected and experienced professionals will provide a focal point for GRM knowledge management and resources within these respective practice areas.

Jason Olson has joined GRM as Director of our Government Reform Practice. Jason, formerly from Adam Smith International, is a lawyer and specialist in government relations and external affairs, policy and political strategy, with extensive experience in both private sector interactions with the public sector and public sector reform. He also brings additional regional experience throughout the Middle East, Central and South Asia and Africa. His broad experience in lobbying, public finance and budgeting, legislatures, civil society and institutional reform strengthens significantly our capabilities in these areas.

Oliver Mathieson is joining us as Director of our Growth and Livelihoods Practice. Oliver has come over to GRM from Maxwell Stamp PLC in London, where he established and ran their Livelihoods and Rural Development practice. Oliver was principal consultant and director of several of Maxwell Stamp’s flagship contracts, including the DFID Chars Livelihoods Programme in Bangladesh and the World Bank funded National Solidarity Programme in Afghanistan. Prior to that, Oliver set up and ran Rural Partnerships, a rural development consultancy established as a joint venture by Enterplan (now Coffey International) and the Plunkett Foundation. Oliver has also held a number of senior in-country management roles for leading international NGOs specialising in ‘developmental relief’ in protracted crisis. Oliver has an MBA as well as a Masters degree in development anthropology.

These key appointments will focus on serving and strengthening relationships with our major bilateral clients including AusAID, DFID, EC, Sida and USAID, while also developing our sectoral coverage throughout our geographic regions of focus. They will both focus on the EMACA (Europe, Middle East, Africa, Central Asia) region, with additional technical oversight in their relevant disciplines throughout the Asia Pacific region.

We welcome both Jason and Oliver to GRM.

GRM is mobilising a new project in Nigeria known as SAVI (State Accountability and Voice Initiative). The programme objective is to increase the ability of citizens to claim rights and hold state governments accountable.

SAVI is part of the UK Government (DFID)’s new suite of State-level programmes which also includes:

• SPARC (State Partnership for Accountability Responsiveness and Capability) focusing on support to public service reform;
• ESSPIN (Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria) focusing on education and;
• PATHS 2 (Partnership for Transforming Health Systems 2) focusing on health.

The SAVI Programme will focus on the following core areas:

• The design and implementation of advocacy projects;
• Support to independent monitoring, research and policy analysis; and
• Strengthening the functions of State Houses of Assembly

Linked to these core components will be two streams of supporting activity around:

• engaging the media; and
• civil society capacity-building.

The common goal of this suite of programmes is to support the more efficient and effective use of Nigeria’s own resources to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. These programmes were designed to work in support and harmony with each other.

SAVI will provide support across all the other three new programmes (SPARC, ESSPIN, PATHS 2) in supporting civil society organisations and media programmes intended to raise accountability over rights and service delivery, and provide support to State Houses of Assembly. Delivery will take place over six years with a budget of almost £30 million.

More information is available on the DFID website. (Please note in the DFID report, SAVI is known by its original name of 'Partnerships for Accountability and Voice in States' (PAVS)).

A GRM stalwart has been recognised for his outstanding achievements, receiving one of Australia’s premier veterinary accolades. Stewart Routledge was instrumental in introducing a new vaccine against a highly-contagious bird disease in Ghana, and was jointly responsible for developing a reliable methodology to reduce cyanide levels in one of Mozambique’s staple foods. More Information...

At first glance the Abu Dhabi desert appears barren and monotonous, but for the second time in a few months, one of our Soil Survey team, this time Kim Bourke, made a find of historic significance. Kim found a very interesting green coloured cylindrical stone with some intricately carved patterns.

The stone is a very old seal and is in perfect condition. Professor Dan Potts from Sydney has confirmed the stone to be c.3100-2900 BC and unquestionably, a Mesopotamian import. The seal is a “Jamdat Nasr-style… classic type with pig-tailed women, ladder-like motif (couch) and spider, where the design is built up almost exclusively from drill holes”.

The Soil Survey is into its 26th month and the field team has finished about 50% of the Phase 2 observations.

GRM'S Communities 1st programme is a funding initiative designed to identify and target small to medium sized community projects in the countries in which GRM works and help people create a better future for themselves and their communities.

To date, the fund has donated in excess of AUD 200,000 to a range of activities and initiatives, including an orphanage in Cambodia, HIV/AIDS hospice in South Africa, Artists Support Program in the Solomon Islands, hobby craft workshops for disabled children in Serbia, and classroom construction costs to a school in East Timor, among a range of other projects. For more information visit Communities 1st.

The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) has released a publication entitled “Achieving Universal Access – the UK’s Strategy for halting and reversing the spread of HIV in the developing world.” This updated strategy places people at the heart of the response – with a particular focus on women, children and vulnerable groups. It contains a forward by the Secretary of State and an Executive Summary.Achieving University Access [PDF 4.43 MB]

GRM International is currently working with DFID to avert a generalized HIV/AIDS epidemic in Central Asia, through the CARHAP programme More Information...

• Voice and Accountability
• Political Stability and Absence of Violence
• Government Effectiveness
• Regulatory Quality
• Rule of Law
• Control of Corruption

The aggregate indicators combine the views of a large number of enterprise, citizen and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries. The individual data sources underlying the aggregate indicators are drawn from a diverse variety of survey institutes, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations.

More information: World Bank Governance Matters 2007

GRM International - Netherlands is part of a consortium led by TRANSTEC BV of Belgium supplying services to the EC in the field of Rural Development and Food Security.

Commencing July 2007, GRM International BV will provide an expert in the monitoring and control of infectious animal diseases in pastoral zones for the assignment "Introduction des approaches participatives de surveillance épidémiologique à Madagascar".

The expert will be employed to introduce participatory approaches to epidemiological surveillance and deliver a train-the-trainer's programme in participatory epidemiology amongst other objectives.

The assignment will involve two phases totalling 60 days.

GRM International - Netherlands is part of a consortium led by TRANSTEC BV of Belgium supplying services to the EC in the field of Rural Development and Food Security.

The overall objective of the “Micro-projects through Development of Local Communities” project is to provide priority small-scale socio-economic development to the residents of poor upland villages in four rural districts of Luang Prabang and Luang Namtha through an interactive participation of villagers, local authorities and private sector organisations. This is intended to strengthen their ability to foster rural based development in an efficient and effective manner.

GRM International BV will provide a team of four multi-disciplinary experts to perform an end of project evaluation of this project. The team includes a Rural Development Specialist/Team Leader and specialists in agriculture, the social sector and rural infrastructure.

GRM has agreed to support the 9th Annual Global Development Network Conference to be held in Brisbane 29-31 January 2008, by providing administrative support, equipment and funding.

Entitled ‘Security for Development: Confronting Threats to Survival and Safety', the conference will bring together nearly 600 researchers, policymakers and development practitioners from across the world to discuss the role of physical security as a precondition of human development.

The conference will focus on pervasive threats, whose potential to cause physical or material damage shortens the planning horizons of individuals, communities and enterprises and challenges their survival. Threats to be addressed include violence (domestic abuse, violent crime and civil conflict), and major calamities including pandemics and natural disasters (such as earthquakes, drought and floods).

For more information on GDN, see their website: http://www.gdnet.org

GRM International - Netherlands is part of a consortium led by TRANSTEC BV of Belgium supplying services to the EC in the field of Rural Development and Food Security.

In April - May 2007, GRM International BV will provide the team leader for a six-week external evaluation mission of the Food Security Support Programme (Programa de Apoyo a la Seguridad Alimentaria - PASA ) in Bolivia, implemented by the Bolivian Ministry of Rural Development, Agribusiness and Environment. The three main components of the programme are institutional assistance, public investments and micro-finance.

The team leader will be responsible for the overall coordination of the evaluation mission and the team of four experts which includes a public finance expert, agronomist/sociologist and an economist.

GRM has been contracted by DFID to support the Kano State Government in its efforts to better identify and coordinate donor and aid agency interventions in all sectors. This is important to secure the most efficient and effective use of donor funds for the benefit of the people of Kano State, many of whom experience some of the worst conditions of poverty in the world. The project aims to put the determination of development programming firmly in to the hands of the elected representatives of the people, enabling the state government to set priorities and implement a more cohesive Kano State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy to reduce poverty. Working with the Ministry of Planning and Budget, GRM has undertaken a situation analysis of current donor activities and coordination mechanisms and recommended practical steps to be taken to maximise the impact of donor assistance working within a new institutional framework based on the establishment of a donor coordination unit. Efforts are continuing to promote the new initiative with Government and NGO stakeholders, to bring about the recommended organisational changes and to collect the necessary management information on donor activities.

Following on from GRM’s successful bid to provide DFID with a Community Development Consultant for the Technical Secretariat to the World Bank Multi Donor Trust Fund in Sudan, Josephine Onyango took up her post in Khartoum in early January 07. The project supports community-led development in northern Sudan through partnerships among local stakeholders, including localities, communities, NGOs and community-based organizations, on the basis of subprojects submitted by local communities and developed through a consultative, participatory planning process.

Josephine will be providing technical community development advice to the Community Development Fund Project Implementation Unit with regard to the provision of health, education, water supply and other basic social and economic services and infrastructure and working to build the institutional capacity of local non-government and civil society organisations. This is in the context of seriously neglected and underdeveloped areas of North Sudan where Social service delivery is a means to facilitate conflict resolution and ensure peace dividends to the war-affected populations.

GRM has won a project management assignment for the Adelaide Indigenous Coordinating Centre (ICC), to manage the restoration of the historic Raukkan Community Church. The assignment is based in the Coorong region on the shores of Lake Alexandrina, where the Murray River flows into the shallows of Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert.

The Coorong's first inhabitants were the Ngarrindjeri at Raukkan Mission, and is also the burial site of one of Australia's most extraordinary men. David Unaipon (1872 - 1967) has been described as Australia's "Leonardo Da Vinci". He was an inventor, writer, poet and activist. Both an image of David Unaipon and the Raukkan Community Church appear on the Australian $50 note.

It is intended that following restoration, the building will be used for various community activities. The work is being funded by the Australian Government's Department of Environment and Heritage.