Crisis Pushing Key Poverty Goals Out of Reach

By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Apr 24 (IPS) – The global economic crisis has created a “development emergency” that will put at least some of the U.N.’s key poverty-reducing 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) out of reach for many countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, according to a new report released Friday by the World [...]

NICARAGUA: Universal Primary Education Still Far Off

By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA, Apr 1 (IPS) – Damaris Aguilar had to pull her daughter out of school this year. “My oldest child is already in fifth grade; now we’re waiting for the situation to improve so that she can go on learning,” says the 34-year-old Nicaraguan mother of two.

No Quick Fix for Malnutrition and Hunger

Common Dreams
by Kristin Palitza
ROME – Almost five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition every year in the developing world. Food aid – which mainly contains nutrient-poor carbohydrates – does little to address the absence of a diverse diet that would prevent the condition.
Humanitarian relief organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is therefore [...]

No Quick Fix for Malnutrition and Hunger

Common Dreams
by Kristin Palitza
ROME – Almost five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition every year in the developing world. Food aid – which mainly contains nutrient-poor carbohydrates – does little to address the absence of a diverse diet that would prevent the condition.
Humanitarian relief organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is therefore [...]

Good tidings come early this year

Daily Nation
By Millicant Mwololo
Life for the ordinary Kenyan family today is hard hit by the economic crunch, skyrocketing food prices, unemployment and other looming challenges.

Nicaraguan archbishop decries US decision to suspend aid program

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (CNS) — Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes Solorzano of Managua criticized the decision by the Millennium Challenge Corp. to suspend a U.S. aid program over concerns about the results of nationwide municipal elections.

Irresponsible arms transfers wrecking attempts to reduce poverty

From: Oxfam International
The unregulated sale of arms drives corruption, saps vital funds from coffers, and causes damage far beyond the immediate effects of stoking conflict and violence, says a report released Wednesday by an international humanitarian organization.
Global commitments to reduce poverty and improve lives cannot be reached unless the international community makes urgent progress towards [...]

Nice, Fuzzy, Positive Language on Aid

By IPS correspondents
ACCRA, Sep 3 (IPS) – Ministers and senior government officials from around the world have reportedly agreed an action plan to make the system of aid more effective after days of hard negotiations that pitted some of the world’s poorest nations against donor giants.
But a negotiator for developing countries who did not want [...]