AFRICA: Poor Excluded From Benefits of High Economic Growth

The high economic growth enjoyed by many African states during the 2000s have not led to poverty elimination. This is because the growth did not happen in the sectors where poor people work, as in agriculture, or in the rural areas where poor people live, or simply did not involve labour provided by poor people.

Greek PM Talks Tough Amid Worsening Crisis

George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, has vowed to pursue reforms aimed at tiding over the country's crippling debt crisis, despite popular resentment.

OP-ED: G20 Ministers of Agriculture Must Focus on Smallholder Farmers

The first-ever official meeting of Ministers of Agriculture from G20 countries, to be held in Paris Jun. 22-23, presents an extraordinary opportunity. Tasked with developing an action plan to address price volatility in food and agricultural markets and its impact on the poor, the ministers are uniquely positioned to not only tackle the immediate price volatility problems, but also to take on a more fundamental and long-term challenge - extreme poverty and hunger.

Women’s Groups Unite Ahead of Busan Aid Forum

Twenty women from four continents consider the words discussion leader Anne Schoenstein, of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), has written on a flip chart. She strikes out in blue ink a previous sentence. She begins writing a new one - a demand aimed at aid donors - dictated by Nurgul Djanaeva.

Q&A: Universal Energy Access is Possible With the Right Support

Providing electricity and modern cooking technology to billions of ‘energy poor’ people worldwide is one of the priorities of the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - one that experts say is achievable over the next few decades.

India Looking to South Africa to Anchor its Involvement in Africa

Some Indians and Africans believe Africa is on the verge of becoming a world economic power, but changes are needed to ensure that the continent takes up its rightful place in the global economy. From India’s perspective, South Africa is vital to its engagement with the continent.

SPAIN: Protest Movement Spreads to Neighbourhoods, Small Towns

The May 15 Movement (15-M) which sprang up as huge rallies in public squares in Spain's largest cities to protest against the political, economic and social system, is multiplying as assemblies in local neighbourhoods in provincial capitals and other municipalities.

BELARUS: Despite Crackdown, Opposition is Defiant

President Alexander Lukashenko has locked most of his rivals in jail, but the Belarus opposition continues to work diligently to isolate the dictator.

Egypt Sounds Alarm on Economy

Egyptian officials are warning that the country, just emerging from a popular uprising that ousted the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak, could be facing a major economic crisis with lagging international aid and foreign investment.

ELECTIONS-PORTUGAL: Rubberstamping IMF Prescriptions

Voters in crisis-stricken Portugal will go to the ballot boxes next Sunday to choose not a government, but something more like delegates who will administer decisions already taken by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

Arab Spring Wary of Economic Lifelines

Governments and international institutions that once bankrolled the authoritarian regimes of Tunisia’s Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak have begun floating aid packages to speed up the economic recovery and transition to democracy in these countries. Arab revolutionaries have reason to be wary.

Politics Could Dominate G8 Summit of World Leaders

When leaders of the Group of 8 (G8) industrialised nations meet in Deauville, France later this week, there is a strong possibility that politics will take precedence over traditional socioeconomic issues like food security and development aid, which are being overshadowed by the Arab revolution and Palestinian statehood.

NGOs Call for IMF Head to Be Chosen by Double Majority

More than 100 civil society groups called Monday for the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be approved by a majority of its 187 member countries, as well as a majority of the voting shares that are heavily weighted in favour of the world's wealthiest countries.

DEVELOPMENT: Women Leading Bangladesh Away from the LDC Tag

Women entrepreneurs and workers will soon help Bangladesh shake off the Least Developed Country (LDC) label, business leaders say.

DEVELOPMENT: Chinese Step In, Efficiently

For Jany Chen from Shanghai, concern often-raised in Europe and North America about the Chinese invasion of Africa is a lot of wasteful talk that deserves to be flushed down the toilet. Efficiently.

GREECE: Athens Plunges Deeper Into Crisis

The murder of Manolis Kantaris, 44, last week has initiated a vicious circle of violence in the Greek capital that deepens the existing wounds of the country and makes many wonder what the future holds for Athenians.

DEVELOPMENT: New Action Programme, and New Name for the Poorest

A new 10-year blueprint for assisting the poorest countries on the planet to join the league of the more fortunate ones was approved Friday at the closing of the Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) held May 9- 13 here.

DEVELOPMENT: South-South Axis Strengthens

The glass isn’t exactly half-full, but it certainly is not entirely empty either. Within the broad failure of the weeklong Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) in Istanbul that concluded Friday, many delegates are taking heart in a strengthening South-South front that has emerged.

DEVELOPMENT: Market Forces Rise Above Declarations

Upstairs in halls where the conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is being held, all the right things were being said about the misery of poverty and the virtue of opportunity and development. Several floors below, what are called ‘market forces’ were at work.

LDCs Seek Mini Trade Deal

Leaders from the Least Developed Countries are making a strong push in Istanbul for a mini trade deal for their 48 impoverished nations - ahead of any worldwide agreement under the Doha Round.

POPULATION: Promise Rises With a Problem

On the face of it, a rapidly rising population among the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) spells the usual doom about adequate resource distribution. But the least developed are also among the youngest in the world - and well channelled, they can be a valuable asset, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) head Babatunde Osotimehin told IPS.