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Sister Sites
Who
Owns Scotland?
Caledonia
Land Programme
Social Land Ownership
Commonweal
Papers
Land Reform Act Part 2
Guidance
Training
of Trainers
Networks of
Agents
Land reform
briefings
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The Centre provides an international
network for information, research, technical services and training in social
development
It is a small, lean and virtual non
profit distributing Section 30 Company registered in Scotland
contacts
![](_themes/nature/narule.gif)
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The Centre exists to help eliminate poverty. It views social development
as the process of building a more equitable system of political economy
grounded in the principles of social justice and asset democracy. It
uses the Internet to promote popular education and to build social
solidarity.
The primary objectives of the Centre are:
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | the relief of poverty through the provision of education and skills training for the
rural and urban poor in Scotland and abroad. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | the relief of poverty through fund-raising and the provision of
social solidarity loans.
Loans are channelled through a limited
number of social investment institutions and joint
ventures. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | the relief of poverty and the advancement of the education of the public by conducting,
or promoting research into the causes of poverty, the means whereby they can be eliminated
and developing public knowledge and understanding of the plight that the poor find
themselves in and to disseminate the results of such research. |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | social development information |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | a forum for discussion |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | means of disseminating grey literature |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | means of linking with other practitioners |
Contractual services
The Centre's areas of expertise are in:
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) |
policy analysis and
strategic programming |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) |
knowledge sifting and communication |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) |
partnership coordination and facilitation |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) |
institutional design (including strategic reviews
and guidance on legal structures) |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) |
organisational capacity building and participatory
development, and |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) |
project cycle management (formulation,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation). |
The Centre's current and ongoing
interests include:
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | the social and cooperative economy |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | popularisation of national policy documents in
particular country poverty reduction plans |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | building organisations of the poor through developing
community-to-community extension services in which groups of socially
active poor people act as the agents of their own development processes; |
![bullet](_themes/nature/nabull1.gif) | research and advocacy work on land reform, social land ownership,
common property rights, and public land
information systems |
To achieve the Centre's objective of supporting
the growth and development of the Cooperative and Social Economy Sector,
we dedicate about a third of annual
surplus income as interest-free, reusable loans.
These are channelled through
Charity Bank and
Shared Interest |
![](images/CB%20logo.jpg)
http://www.charitybank.org |
Charity Bank
is the first of its kind:
a charity that can accept deposits that earn social as
well as financial returns, and a not-for-profit bank
whose sole business is providing affordable finance for charitable work.
It gives all of us the opportunity to invest in charity, rather than
just for the benefit of business or self-interest. |
Shared Interest is
a shareholder cooperative providing finance for fair trade using
investments of UK members to provide much needed trade credit to fair
trade organisations all over the world. Shared Interest started in
1990 and currently has around 8,500 members with investments totalling
over £20 million. Trade credit enables producers to receive pre-finance
on fair trade and commercial orders, facilitating production and sales.
In turn, we provide credit facilities for buyers enabling them to
develop trading relationships with producer organisations. |
![](images/shared-interest-logo.gif)
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