Q&A: Harnessing Diaspora Funds for Development Financing

When the final aid figures for 2010 were tallied early this year, industrial nations claimed a record-high 129 billion dollars in official development assistance (ODA) to the world's poorer nations.

U.S.: Backlash Swells Against New “Gilded Age”

The encampment of disenchanted young protesters in New York City's financial district has exposed growing anger around the United States over rising inequality and a stubborn jobs crisis.

INDIA: Microcredit Fights to Regain Credibility

As microcredit institutions - once touted as the vital ‘last mile' in extending credit to poor rural women -fight a government backlash that has encouraged honest borrowers to turn defaulters, hopes for revival hinge on a new bill awaiting passage in India's parliament.

Around the Globe, Workers Demand Decent Jobs

The modern English word "economy" is derived from the Greek "oikonomia", meaning "household management".

For International Migrants, It May Be the Worst of Times

When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently addressed the U.N. General Assembly on the impact of migration on development, he counted himself as one of 214 million international migrants who live outside their home countries.

Venezuela’s Heavy Industry Faces Multiple Woes

Like the biblical plagues of Egypt, 10 calamities have fallen in recent years on the previously flourishing basic industries of northeastern Venezuela, such as iron and steel, aluminium and hydroelectricity.

EUROPE: Striking at the Heart of Healthcare

Almost half of all doctors working in Slovakia’s hospitals have handed in their notice in a mass protest over working conditions and wages which they warn could cause the Eastern European country’s healthcare system to collapse.

U.S.: Long-Stalled Trade Accords Move Forward

In a major victory for U.S.-based multinational corporations, President Barack Obama has submitted controversial and long- pending "free-trade" agreements (FTAs) between the U.S. and South Korea, Colombia, and Panama for rapid approval by Congress.

GREECE: Lost Generation Begins to Leave

Every working day a long queue of people forms outside the State Translation Service in Thission in downtown Athens from early in the morning. Most are youngsters processing documents they need to leave Greece for study or work. Many move on to queue later outside embassies for visas.

Occupy Wall Street: “It Is a Revolution”

Since Sep. 17, hundreds of demonstrators in the Occupy Wall Street movement have transformed the quiet Zucotti Park in lower Manhattan from a place where Wall Street traders once relaxed during lunch breaks into a demonstration camp.

Caribbean Joins with EU, ACP to Better Manage Migration

With the exception of those pictures of Haitians in overcrowded, unseaworthy vessels trying to reach places like The Bahamas and the United States, the image of the Caribbean is usually not one that portrays people from poor developing countries desperately trying to scratch out a living among the scattered islands.

BOOKS: “The End of Loser Liberalism” and the Free Market Myth

The top one percent of earners in the United States now controls over 40 percent of the nation's wealth, their income steadily rising while much of the country earns less than what it did a decade ago and an all-time high of 46 million Americans now live below the official poverty line.

UZBEKISTAN: Don’t Let Logistics Trump Rights, Groups Tell Clinton

A broad coalition of 20 human rights, labour and consumer groups is appealing to the administration of President Barack Obama not to renew military aid and sales to Uzbekistan, widely considered one of the world's most repressive dictatorships.

Barroso: Greece Will Remain in the Eurozone

Greece will remain in the eurozone but must meet its reform commitments in full, Jose Manuel Barroso, the head of the European Commission, has said.

BOLIVIA: General Strike Protests Crackdown on Native March

Bolivia's main trade union declared a 24-hour general strike Wednesday to protest Sunday's police crackdown on indigenous demonstrators who were protesting the construction of a road through a pristine rainforest preserve.

INDIA: Facing Climate Change With Flower Power

Gazalla Amin’s office on the outskirts of this city, capital of Jammu & Kashmir state, is redolent with the fragrance of lavender wafting up from heaps of the dried flowers in a corner bowl.

BRAZIL: Logistics Drives Tardy Industrialisation in Northeast

The steel and oil industries are still finding new frontiers for expansion. In Brazil's impoverished semiarid Northeast the key is not, like in China, cheap labour power or abundant raw materials, but logistical advantages.

How to Nurse the Unemployment Epidemic

At a meeting in the suburb of Carthage, just outside of Tunis on Nov. 18, 2008, the former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn applauded the economic efforts of the now deposed Tunisian dictator Abidine Ben Ali, calling his policies "sound, the best model for emerging countries".

CUBA: Self-Employment Expanding, But Not Enough

This month, the Cuban government eased up on taxes and other legal aspects involved in self-employment. But experts warn that there are serious limitations standing in the way of growth of private enterprise, which is supposed to absorb hundreds of thousands of employees slashed from the public workforce.

AFRICA: Informal Cross-Border Traders Foster Entrepreneurship

Informal cross-border traders embody the spirit of African entrepreneurship. Driven by a lack of formal employment opportunities offering regular wages and hours, and succeeding in challenging conditions through sheer determination and a savvy business sense, this army of informal traders make up a crucial, though often overlooked part of the continent's economy.

SPAIN: Protest Movement Chalks Up Victories

"I want to thank the 15-M. I will not forget them," Algerian immigrant Sid Hamed Bouziane, whose deportation order was revoked after a group of activists from this burgeoning Spanish protest movement held an 11-day demonstration on his behalf, told IPS.