The purpose of this MOU is to upgrade the skills and training of ATSIC/ATSIS officers for working with Indigenous communities within a ‘capacity development’ framework. This aim is to be achieved through joint development activities with Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, a community-based aid and development organisation.
The MOU will be trialed in three regional offices: Cairns, Queensland; Kalgoorlie, WA; and, Bourke, NSW. The training will consist of two stages. The first stage is for ‘staff in regional offices to understand and implement a developmental approach.’ The second stage is for ‘regional managers and more senior staff to manage staff and programs in undertaking a developmental approach’ (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 2003).
Oxfam’s capacity building approach is described as a ‘process which engages those involved in the very substance of the development approach’ (Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, September 2002). This is firmly centred within a rights based framework, whereby the five core rights are:
‘The right to a Sustainable Livelihood
The right to Basic Social Services
The right to Life and Security
The right to be Heard: Social and Political Citizenship
The right to Equity: Gender and Diversity’
(Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, August 2003)
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