FINANCE: Meltdown Could Derail U.N. Development Agenda

When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was asked by reporters whether the U.N.'s cash-strapped development agenda would survive the global financial crisis, he pointed out that only last month world leaders meeting at the United Nations had pledged about 16 billion dollars towards fighting poverty and hunger, as spelled out in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

ARGENTINA: Women Create Food and Jobs in Wetlands

Wearing a cap and a white apron, Melina Lucero cuts the heads and tails off fish caught in the Paraná River, before skilfully filleting them. Her co-workers will process and package the fish to sell as traditional, small-scale fish preserves at food fairs along the banks of the river in Argentina.

DEVELOPMENT: No "Bailout" for the World's Poorest

As a spreading financial crisis threatens to deepen the economic recession in the United States, the news of an unprecedented 700-billion-dollar bailout package reverberated through the corridors of the United Nations last week as over 100 world leaders gathered in New York for the annual talk-fest: the 63rd session of the General Assembly.

INDIA: Bank Accused of Environmental, Human Damage

A 13- member distinguished jury of Indian and international economists, scientists, retired bureaucrats, legal experts and social leaders have charged the World Bank with harming the environment and lowering the standard of living of most Indians.

DEVELOPMENT: Food Security Hostage to Climate Trends

More than 50 African leaders meeting at the United Nations this week focused on strategies to overcome a myriad of interrelated problems - food shortages, droughts, HIV/AIDS, an energy crisis, climate change and military conflicts - on the troubled continent.

DEVELOPMENT: Poverty Hearings Show People Behind the Numbers

Benjamine Agbodjan Ablavi of Togo says she scraped together the money to pay her own school fees by selling fruit.

DEVELOPMENT: Home Stretch for MDGs Looks Bumpier Than Ever

At a time when the world's cash-strapped developing nations, particularly in Africa, have admitted their inability to meet most of the U.N.'s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), one Latin American country stands apart - confident it could even beat the deadline set by the United Nations.

ENVIRONMENT: No Hope for MDGs Without Climate Plan

With 2.6 billion of the world's poor affected daily by climate change, the linkages between environment, health and poverty cannot be questioned any longer, U.N. experts say.

DEVELOPMENT: Poverty Reduction Claims Under Scrutiny

The World Bank's recent estimates on global poverty, particularly in relation to China, are being challenged by an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) which monitors poverty eradication and gender equality.

CUBA: Nearly Two Dozen Countries Have Sent Aid

Accustomed for years to giving, rather than receiving, aid after natural disasters, the Cuban population is gratefully observing the near daily arrival of donations in the wake of the devastation wrought by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which caused losses officially estimated at five billion dollars.

DEVELOPMENT: Huge Gender Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality

When over 150 world leaders attend a summit meeting next week to discuss the status of the U.N.'s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), one of the primary issues on the agenda will be goal number 3: promoting gender equality and gender empowerment.

DEVELOPMENT: Global Fund Puts Spotlight on Sanitation

The Global Sanitation Fund (GSF), created last March with a 100-million-dollar target per year, is being billed as a key financing mechanism aimed at meeting one of the eight U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

VENEZUELA: Multi-Tentacled PDVSA, a State Within a State

"I would have liked to be taken on by PDVSA, but I didn't win that lottery," Antonio Jiménez, a 52-year-old father of four and grandfather of three who is a pump attendant at a petrol station on the outskirts of the Venezuelan capital, told IPS.

DEVELOPMENT: Millions More Children Attending School

Despite the world not being on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there has been real progress - even in some of the world's poorest countries.

CUBA: "Few Deaths Do not Mean Storm Damages Were not Massive"

More than 2.5 million Cubans were evacuated by the civil defence system when hurricane Ike lashed the island this month. And although only seven people were killed, more than one million no longer have an intact home to return to.

HEALTH: Goal to Halt AIDS by 2015 Recedes Further

What if HIV/AIDS was just another chronic disease instead of a widespread epidemic? This could be the case if the world community takes serious action, according to Human Rights Watch and other activists. But today, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on HIV/AIDS is nowhere near being realised.

INDIA: Empowering Women is About Basic Funding

Kudumbasree (Family Prosperity) is India’s one success story in getting down to the job of helping poor women take care of their own basic needs - from health care and housing to self-employment.

POLITICS: U.N. Warns of Impending Development Emergency

The much-ballyhooed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs ) - which include the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger by 50 percent by 2015 - are being seriously undermined by food, financial and climate change crises.

PHILIPPINES: Organic Farming – The Way Forward

Sustainable agriculture was far from farmer Peter Desisto’s mind when he went to an organic farming seminar organised by the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) ten years ago. He and other farmers attended because they heard that PRRM was giving out loans.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Why The Richest Continent Is Also The Poorest

The ecological impact of natural resource exploitation on the lives of the poor in Africa and other regions is not being addressed sufficiently in aid effectiveness and development discussions, aid experts say.

Q&A: 'Our Voices Have Been Heard'

As the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness draws to a close in the Ghanaian capital, gender activists are reflecting on the way ahead.