Manila-- "A lever for promoting the interests of donor countries." This was how participants of the Asian-wide conference on Official Development Assistance (ODA) here described Japanese aid.

Twenty-three participants from 11 countries in Asia convened in Chennai, India in July for an advocacy training on WTO. The training, which focused on different advocacy skills was facilitated by APRN and was co-organized by Pesticide Action Network - Asia Pacific (PANAP) and Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED).

More than a hundred activists gathered in Sydney, Australia for the 4th annual APRN conference held on September 26-29, 2001 at the University of Technology. With the theme "Corporate Power or People's Power: Transnational Corporations and Globalisation," participants from 33 organisations and 17 countries from Asia and other regions tackled the power of transnational corporations in the era of globalisation. Twenty-three APRN member organisations attended the event.

Despite the Arroyo government's postponement of the ASEAN Summit in Cebu Philippines last December in fear of the political storm, APRN's parallel activities to the Summit pushed through.

The Water for the People Network organized a capacity building workshop on the Right to Water (RTW) last July 10-11 at the IBON Center. The workshop was participated by around 20 water advocates from different sectors and regions in the Philippines.

Dear APRN Members,

Greetings from the Secretariat!

If you may recall in the General Council meeting of 2006, a decision had been made that APRN would embark on work along different streams, i.e. natural resources, labor, public services, women, and trade/bilaterals. Members have signed up for the different streams and have met during the year to plan on researches and other collaborative activities.