BRAZIL: Proper Nutrition – the Next Food Challenge

Fighting malnutrition is not just about putting food on everyone's table every day, according to Brazil's Fourth National Conference on Food and Nutrition Security, meeting in the capital of the northeastern state of Bahia.

Brazil Takes the Fight Against Hunger Abroad

The Brazilian government is extending its fight against hunger to the world stage, by inaugurating a Centre of Excellence Against Hunger to transmit its positive experiences to other developing countries with the help of United Nations agencies.

Brazil’s Health System Inspires Abroad, Frustrates at Home

News that the government of South Africa was inspired by Brazil's health system in setting up its own universal coverage scheme might meet with scepticism in this South American country.

IBSA: In Conflict with the EU

When the G20 leaders meet for their fifth summit in Cannes, France, on Thursday, they will be confronted with several worsening global economic and trade issues. Among them is how to strengthen the international trading system and how to overcome the developmental deficit that continues to create an uneven playing field for poor countries.

OP-ED: Better Aid Means Better Development

Oxfam and major aid donors of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (the DAC) are often on opposite sides of the fence. Today though, we are on the same side —making sure that effective aid lifts people out of poverty.

Brazil Active in Effort to Widen Global Access to Medicines

Brazil is keen to take part in the international effort to expand access to medicines and to produce its own drugs, and will start by becoming the world supplier of medicines to treat Chagas disease.

IBSA: Coverage of Economic Body Vital for Development

As the India Brazil and South Africa Summit of heads of state and government starts Tuesday, editors from the respective countries have resolved to provide better coverage of the economic body.

BRAZIL-AFRICA: Teaching Diplomacy

African countries are increasingly taking up Brazil's offer of training in the art of diplomacy, seeing it as a partner that could help them set up or improve their own foreign service institutes.

/CORRECTION/*Q&A: “Brazil Could Mediate Between Juba and Khartoum”

The world's newest nation, South Sudan, is seeking support from Brazil – the first country in the world to recognise the new nation – in learning the art of diplomacy and defusing tensions and persistent conflicts.

BRAZIL: African Refugees in the Amazon

Wilson Nicolas, from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was the first African refugee to find his way to Brazil's Amazon jungle region, and seems to have started a trend.

Brazil Plans to Wind Down Peacekeeping Force in Haiti

At a time when the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti has once again been drawing attention for alleged abuses, Brazilians have begun to ask themselves whether their first experience in leading such a force has brought them more headaches than prestige.

BRAZIL: Rousseff Winning Allies in Undeclared War on Corruption

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is starting to gain support for a war on corruption that she is quietly waging.

IBSA: ‘Cash Grants Must Back Food Access’

Studies by the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Academic Forum on food security issues in the three countries suggest that providing food access works best when backed by cash transfers.

Neglected Diseases Group Seeking Child-Friendly AIDS Drugs

A scientific alliance in which developing countries are playing a key role has taken on the challenge of producing paediatric AIDS drugs, an area that is no longer a priority for pharmaceutical companies because mother-to-child transmission of HIV has virtually been eliminated in the industrialised world.

SOUTH AMERICA: Leap in Mercosur Bloc Exports “Not Just Commodities”

The boom in exports from South America's Mercosur trade bloc is due not only to commodities sold to China and other large emerging economies, but also to industrial goods bound for other Latin American and Caribbean markets.

POLITICS: IBSA Opposes Measures Against Syria

Members of the emerging economy grouping known as IBSA - India, Brazil and South Africa - have joined China and Russia in opposing measures against Syria.

Brazil Revs Up South-South Cooperation

As one of the world's emerging economic powerhouses, Brazil is vigourously pursuing one of the key economic objectives on the U.N.'s development agenda: South-South Cooperation.

IBSA Coalition an Emerging Player in Global Diplomacy

The beleaguered government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has so far defied the Security Council, ignored appeals by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, rejected pleas from neighbouring Turkey and the Arab world, and summarily dismissed the threats and sanctions by Western powers.

South America Unites Against “Irresponsible Debtors” in the North

Default, insolvency, fiscal irresponsibility, debt crisis and similar terms form part of the vocabulary used to describe countries in the developing South in the 1980s and 1990s. A decade later, the world seems to have turned upside down.

BRAZIL: World Cup, Olympic Social Legacy Thrown in Doubt

Community organisations say the major infrastructure works for the 2014 football World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil do not reflect the spirit of the social legacy promised by the government and business community, which project 68 billion dollars in economic benefits from the first event alone.

Washington Urged to Recognise Brazil as Global Power

The United States should recognise Brazil as a global power and treat it accordingly, concluded a major new report issued by the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) here this week.