Peace Laureate Obama Urged to Back Arms Trade Treaty

Eighteen Nobel Peace Prize recipients called Thursday for President Barack Obama to take a leadership role in supporting a “historic” internationally binding agreement that would regulate the global arms trade, including instituting a strict ban on arms sales to states involved in egregious human rights abuses.

Civil Society Wants Bigger Role in Green Climate Fund Planning

As the new board of the United Nations Green Climate Fund meets in Berlin this week, activist and watchdog groups here and around the world are expressing frustration over proposed rules they say are already significantly limiting civil society participation in the new initiative.

Pressure Grows on Washington to Pass IMF Governance Reforms

More than 130 scholars, former government officials and policymakers are calling on the U.S. Congress to enact pending legislation enabling broad governance reforms within the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that would strengthen the voice of developing countries within the institution.

Nobel Laureates Back “Strong, Autonomous” Inter-American Rights System

Six women recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday lauded the work of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), offering additional high-level support for the institution just weeks ahead of a critical vote on a reforms process that many worry could irreparably weaken the Inter-American system.

U.S. Abstains on Controversial World Bank Mongolia Mine Project

The United States has refused to vote for involvement by the World Bank Group in a massive but controversial mining project in Mongolia.

World Bank Urges African Agriculture Rethink

The World Bank is urging African governments to retool their agriculture policies, particularly to include a far greater focus on agribusiness as a critical driver of future development.

U.S. “Stalling” Could Force Acceptance of Onerous TPP

Civil society opposition here has strengthened against a U.S.-proposed free trade zone that would include some dozen countries around the Pacific Rim.

Draft Assessment of Tar Sands Pipeline “Devastatingly Cynical”

The U.S. State Department late Friday released a draft environmental impact assessment of a contentious pipeline project that simultaneously acknowledged the dangers posed by climate change while also noting the project would “not likely result in significant adverse environmental effects”.

U.S. Finally Passes Stronger Protections for Women against Abuse

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday ended more than a year of stonewalling a piece of legislation that for two decades has offered legal protections for women against sexual violence, harassment and abuse.

Groups Applaud Potential Reforms to U.S. Food Aid

Advocacy groups working on global hunger and poverty are hailing rumoured proposals that would change the way the United States distributes its international food aid.

U.S. Cuts to Global Health Budget “Mass-scale Malpractice”

Public health workers, activists and policymakers are stepping up a last-minute campaign to highlight the global health impact of historic, sweeping cuts to the U.S. federal budget due to go into effect Friday if Congress doesn’t act.

Europeans Urge U.S. Action on Financial Transaction Tax

Two European policymakers on Monday called on their U.S. counterparts to rethink opposition to proposals for a small tax on stock purchases and other financial transactions, which proponents say could raise hundreds of billions of dollars for poverty alleviation, action on climate change and financing international development.

Abrupt U.S. Cuts Could “Devastate” Overseas Development Programmes

With just a week to go before massive, indiscriminate spending cuts kick in across the U.S. government, policymakers and humanitarian groups are becoming increasingly anxious about the enduring impact the cuts would have on the communities across the globe assisted by U.S.-funded development and aid programmes.

Major Audit Urges Devolution of U.S. AIDS Programme

A major audit of the United States’ flagship global anti-HIV/AIDS programme, prepared for the U.S. Congress, notes “remarkable progress” over the past decade. However, it is also warning of insufficient monitoring and urging a stepped-up process of handing over greater control to partner countries.

U.S. Urged to Delink Foreign Military, State-building Actions

Development workers and aid strategists are urging the U.S. government to adopt a comprehensive strategy for addressing root problems in “fragile states”, warning that an outdated focus on military intervention is draining resources and exacerbating security problems.

Climate Change Added to U.S. Government “High Risk” List

For the first time, a U.S. government auditor has added climate change to a list of issues that pose the greatest financial risk to the government and country. It is also warning that Washington is markedly unprepared to deal with the scope of the problem.

Obama Pushes Universal Preschool Coverage for U.S.

Following on a surprise announcement supporting a universal preschool guarantee during his annual State of the Union address earlier this week, President Barack Obama spent much of Thursday pushing a suite of new policy initiatives aimed at vastly increasing access to high-quality education and development programmes for a child’s first few years of life.

Energy, Economy Key in Major Obama Address

In a major annual address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama offered further details on a broad and ambitious range of policy priorities, taking advantage of perhaps his single most significant opportunity to guide the public conversation on his second-term agenda.

Advocates Lay Groundwork for New Arms Trade Talks

With a new round of negotiations for an international treaty regulating the international trade of small-scale weapons slated for next month, advocates here have stepped up a campaign to clarify what exactly the treaty is trying to accomplish – and to eliminate some opposition to the treaty from within the U.S. Congress that, they say, is based on misinformation.

U.S. Environment Agency Releases First Climate Adaptation Plan

For the first time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has publicly released a draft plan on how the department’s programmes will adapt to global warming, in a move that could lay additional groundwork for important new emissions rulemaking the agency may announce in coming months.

IFC Under Fire on Environment, Social Safeguards

Campaigners are seizing on a new internal audit of financial-market lending by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank arm that engages in private sector investment, pointing to unusually stark criticism of the institution’s commitment to due diligence.