PHILIPPINES: Jatropha Key to Self Sufficiency?

The jatropha plant may be the key to addressing the problems of energy and food self-sufficiency in the Mekong region. Cultivating this hardy plant will not only provide biofuel but will also ensure that agricultural lands devoted to food production will not be diverted to fuel crops.

Q&A: Tough Talk On Reaching Goals

The director of the Millennium Campaign, Salil Shetty, is an angry man. Last year he was confronted with the climate change issue and now it is the global food crisis.

DEVELOPMENT: Women Leaders Ask Where Is Our Money

Even though seven out of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) impact on women, both donors and governments receiving aid overlook the need to make resources available for gender empowerment.

DEVELOPMENT: Civil Society For Aid That Works For Poor

With a high level meeting on aid effectiveness set to take place later this year in Accra, Ghana, participants at the eighth CIVICUS Assembly here in the Scottish capital want donors to stop dictating how aid should be used, and instead let it be driven by the needs of the people it is intended for.

DEVELOPMENT: EU Renews Its Intentions

European Union governments have resolved to ensure that international objectives on reducing extreme poverty are realised, but have backed away from devising concrete plans for increasing the amount of aid that they give to poor countries.

Q&A: Ethiopia's Urban Poor Cannot Afford To Eat

Ethiopia, a nation of 80 million people, has been the site of famine and drought throughout its tumultuous history. Arising from a myriad of causes and often shepherded along by political instability, the country's 1984-85 famine, for example, left over a million dead and served as the impetus for the fund-raising concerts of Live Aid in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Q&A: "Neglecting Democracy Is More Dangerous Than Nuclear Weapons"

While the United States and Britain are talking about tougher sanctions on Iran, including sanctions on its gas and oil industry - Tehran's major source of revenue - Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Noble Peace Prize laureate and international human rights defender, argues that this tactic has not weakened the government, but the Iranian people.

POLITICS-ETHIOPIA: A Tangled Political Landscape Raises Questions About U.S. Ally

When it was announced last month that the ruling party of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had swept local polls in this vast Horn of Africa nation, few expressed surprise.

ECONOMY: IMF Sees Slow, Risky U.S. Recovery

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its expectations of the world's largest economy, saying the U.S. will end this year with no economic growth before starting a gradual recovery in 2009.

CARIBBEAN: “We Must Produce More and Consume Less”

For the first time in living memory, Caribbean governments invested time and large sums of money to organise an emergency food summit at their trade bloc's headquarters in Guyana aimed specifically at dealing with the global food crisis and the region's spiraling import bill.

US/MIDEAST: Respite on the Road to Nowhere?

An informal truce between Israel and Hamas went into effect early Thursday morning, temporarily suspending a year of fighting that has left more than 600 Palestinians - many of them civilians - and 18 Israelis dead.

RIGHTS: Security Council Revisits Rape as Tool of War

Eight years after the U.N. Security Council passed a landmark resolution dealing with gender, peace and security, women and girls are still routinely victimised in conflict zones around the world, often in the most brutal and horrific ways.

DEVELOPMENT: Civil Society Warns Food Crisis Can Eat Into MDG Gains

Progress that has already been achieved towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) may be reversed due to the current global food crisis, it is emerging at the eighth CIVICUS World Assembly.

RIGHTS: Let May 11 Be A Turning Point For A More Tolerant, Safe, and Prosperous South Africa

June 20 is World Refugee Day. Early this week, the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) launched a report documenting just how far South Africa has to go in protecting the rights of foreigners in our midst.

Q&A: "There Has Been Xenophobia for a Long Time in This Country"

Young adults in South Africa increasingly feel government has let them down. They lament lack of access to employment opportunities, poverty and many have pretty much lost hope that their situation will improve within the next decade.

JAPAN: Huge Rice Stockpiles Could Ease Food Crisis

In a policy shift, Japan has announced that it will release an emergency food aid package of about 100 million dollars in July to help ease the global food shortage. In the near future it will ship out more than 300 thousand tonnes of imported rice stored by the Japanese government.

MEXICO: Latest Measures Against Food Crisis Called Ineffective

Observers in Mexico say the price freezes announced by the government for more than 150 food products are deceptive and could even foment unhealthy eating habits.

CHAD: European Force Sticks to Mandate Under Early Pressure

The European Union’s first major overseas military deployment - to the impoverished central African nation of Chad - is caught in a war of words between the country’s president and tenacious rebel groups operating on Chad’s arid border with Sudan.

AFGHANISTAN: Karzai’s Threat Of War Triggers Outrage in Pakistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s threat to send troops across the border to crush pro-Taliban forces, which sparked angry protests in Pakistan’s border areas this week, has led to calls for restraint from moderate politicians in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: "Getting People Participating Is a Process, Not an Event"

Amidst the turmoil surrounding the Jun. 27 presidential run-off in Zimbabwe, it is doubtless something of a challenge to muster enthusiasm for plans relating to the country's next general elections. Gender activists intent on having more women voted into office in 2013 are undaunted, however.

POLITICS: US Concessions Rescue Floundering Iraq Security Deal

Despite apparent serious disagreements reflected in a series of incongruent statements by senior officials of the U.S. and Iraqi governments, they appear to have made a breakthrough in negotiations for a new security pact.