DEVELOPMENT: A Partnership Among Equals

Developed and developing countries should work together as equal partners in strengthening local resources and values, rather than trying to reproduce the "distorted" model of northern countries, Italy's Deputy Foreign Minister Patrizia Sentinelli told IPS.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: LDC Status Hard to Shake

There were 18 in Africa 35 years ago. There are 34 now - which begs the question: are policies to thin the ranks of the almost three dozen least developed countries (LDCs) on the continent even somewhat effective?

SUDAN: Rights Groups, Annan Push Hard for Peacekeepers

Amid reports of a growing government offensive against rebel-held areas in Darfur, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a host of international human rights and humanitarian groups are calling on Sudan to permit U.N. peacekeepers to deploy urgently to the violence-torn region.

ECONOMY: IMF, World Bank Face Growing Pressure for Reforms

The state of the global economy and efforts to fine-tune the decision-making process at the World Bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to include a greater voice for developing nations will dominate the lenders' high-profile annual meetings in Singapore next week.

POLITICS: ‘Europe, Asia Can Show US the Multilateral Way’

At this week's Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Helsinki, experts were unanimous that if Europe and Asia keep investing in political and economic cooperation, it could pay huge dividends for a multilateral world.

POLITICS: Havana May Breathe Vigour Into Non-Alignment

Will next week's summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Havana, Cuba, be a wasteful jamboree marked by ponderous speeches and lofty but empty rhetoric? Or will it rejuvenate the movement and transform it into an exciting enterprise that reflects the aspirations of the vast majority of the world's people who live in 116 member-states and 17 observer countries?

FINANCE: IMF-WB Exposed by Ban on NGOs at S’pore Meet

Attempts to stop an International People's Forum (IPF) on the Indonesian island of Batam, planned to coincide with next week's annual meeting of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Singapore, reflect badly on the finance institutions and expose their ‘anti-people' policies, say forum organizers.

ARGENTINA: A Cautious Return to the Non-Aligned Movement

Keeping a low profile, as if hoping its presence at the huge forum of the developing world will go unnoticed, Argentina is slipping back into the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which it left amid an uproar 15 years ago to embrace a policy of unreserved alignment with the United States.

POLITICS: Non-Alignment Survives Despite End of Cold War

When the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was launched in the early 1960s during the height of the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, it was the largest single political grouping of developing nations taking a unified stand at the United Nations.

SCIENCE: Developing Nations Urged to Join Forces in R&D

Developing countries, which lack the industrialised world's capacity for technological investment, are going to have to look to innovative solutions and collective initiatives if they expect to overcome their problems and address the basic needs of their people.

ENVIRONMENT: Triage for an Ailing Planet

The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the world's largest environmental funding body, received a shot in the arm Tuesday after 32 countries agreed to contribute a whopping 3.13 billion dollars for environmental projects over the next four years amid rising concerns about the impact human activities are having on the Earth.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Darfur Crisis Set to Worsen?

Human rights and Africa activists are urging the U.N. Security Council to urgently authorise the deployment of as many as 20,000 peace-keeping troops to halt the rising tide of violence and chaos in Darfur, Sudan's western-most region.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Obama to the Rescue?

"Obama must come now; we need help," 75-year-old William Onyango told IPS about four months ago*, at his store in a remote, western village of Kenya. While the senator from the U.S. state of Illinois may not have arrived as quickly as Onyango was hoping, he is in Kenya now as part of an official tour that also encompasses South Africa, Djibouti and Chad.

POLITICS: “Water Wars” a Myth, Say Experts

The world's future wars will be fought not over oil but water: an ominous prediction made by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the British ministry of defence and even by some officials of the World Bank.

ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Satellites Chronicle a Depleted Continent

The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) believes that the growing environmental degradation of Africa is perhaps most starkly reflected in satellite images beamed from the skies.

DEVELOPMENT: Fraction of Oil Profits Sought for Poorest Nations

The world's 50 poorest nations - ranging from Cape Verde and Haiti to Nepal and Sierra Leone - are turning to the major oil-producing nations for urgently needed assistance for development.

DEVELOPMENT: Water Crisis Reflects Poor Management

An international conference on water management opened in the Swedish capital Monday with the grim prediction that both rich and poor nations are heading towards a crisis unless positive steps are taken to efficiently conserve one of the world's life-sustaining resources.

HEALTH: Gov’ts Harshly Berated at Close of AIDS Meet

Action - not promises or pledges or more meetings - is what will bring the HIV/AIDS pandemic under control and save tens of millions of lives, concluded delegates at the wrap-up of the 16th annual International AIDS Conference in Toronto Friday.

MIDEAST: U.N. Seeks Muslim-European Peacekeepers for Lebanon

When the United Nations appealed to its 192 member states for troops for its revamped peacekeeping force in Lebanon, it was expecting mostly "well-trained, well-equipped" forces from the Western world.

MIDEAST: U.N. Seeks Mostly Western Troops for Revamped Force

The United Nations is on a global hunt for troops, military equipment and logistical support to revamp its existing peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which has been mandated to monitor last week's ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

CUBA: All Set for Non-Aligned Summit – With or Without Fidel

The fourteenth summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) could be the first major international meeting to be held in Havana without the active participation of President Fidel Castro, a staunch defender of this bloc of developing countries, which he presided over a quarter of a century ago.