Q&A: Aid Effectiveness Undermined by EU and U.S. Trade Policy

Criticism against international development aid has been growing for several months, moving from down-right disapproval, shared by leftist and rightist commentators, experts and politicians in industrialised and poor countries, to partial reproaches for the fragmentation and lack of coherence in aid.

Q&A: Water Crisis Could Affect Billions

The United Nations has warned that about half the world's population - over three billion people by today's count - may suffer water shortages by the year 2025.

ZAMBIA: Food Vouchers Not Enough to Fight Hunger

In an attempt to mitigate rising food insecurity and malnutrition, the Zambian government and the World Food Programme (WFP) have started to hand out food vouchers to the country’s urban poor.

DEVELOPMENT: Aid Fragmentation Worse Despite Paris Declaration

Civil society representatives agree with the recent finding of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that fragmentation of international cooperation has increased instead of diminished, in direct contradiction to the so-called Paris Declaration where over 100 countries called for effective dispensing of aid.

RIGHTS-VIETNAM: Gender Equality Far Off Despite Political Will

"We’ve been busier than usual today,'' said Huong, giving only one name, as she scrubbed a customer’s scalp in her tiny salon, the front room of her home. "We’re doing the same treatments, only a lot more. Everyone wants to look beautiful today."

MIDEAST: Israeli Settlers Terrorise Palestinian Villagers

"I couldn't run. My pregnancy was too far advanced and there was nowhere to hide," said Amna Salman Rabaye, 31, as she recalled the terrifying incident several months ago.

ECONOMY: Poor Countries to Need Up to 700 Billion Dollars

In the latest in a series of increasingly dire predictions, the World Bank Sunday warned that developing countries may need up to 700 billion dollars in external financing this year due to the squeeze in global credit markets which has seen a dramatic plunge in private investment.

MIDEAST: Where Every Day Is a Woman's Day

We've been warned she's a "harsh case". Hesitantly she enters, a withdrawn smile hidden behind glasses and a canopy of thick black hair. Impassively, she tells her life story - as if it's about someone else entirely: She's 19. Since seven, she's been sexually assaulted by "an influential family relative."

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Women Defy Militancy, Patriarchy

The challenges and contradictions facing Pakistani women were never so apparent as now. While striding ahead in a country that gave the world its first female, Muslim prime minister, they also face the threat of terrorism which claimed her as a victim.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Child Marriages Mock Laws, UN Conventions

All of seven, Perween sat on a string cot in her bridal finery, awaiting the big moment. She looked a little confused and peered from under her big, red shawl to see what the fuss was all about.

LATIN AMERICA: Everyone Pays for Domestic Violence

After 26 years raising three children in an economically comfortable marriage, Dora finally understood that staying with her husband meant "choosing death." "I had to lock myself into my daughter’s room at night for fear that he would hit me with a baseball bat while I slept," she told IPS.

AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Food Security Requires Increased Fertiliser Use

A mix of organic and inorganic fertilisers, together with good seed could help Africa to replenish depleted soils and to grow more food in the fight against hunger and food insufficiency.

AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: ‘Bring Back a Culture of Sharing’

"Africa has the singular and tragic distinction of being the only place in the world where overall food security and livelihoods are deteriorating," reads the website of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), an initiative to boost food security and agricultural productivity on the continent.

CLIMATE CHANGE: A Little Equality Could Save a Lot of Lives

When ministers and government officials meet at the end of this year for a critical U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen, they should bear in mind that the mortality rate for women during climate-related natural disasters is an average of 14 times higher than for men.

RIGHTS-VENEZUELA: No Shelter for Women

Fed up with her partner's beatings late one night, Josefina decided to leave. But where could she go at that time of night, when she lived in such a dangerous area? Her neighbourhood, a shanty town in the Venezuelan capital, is effectively controlled by gangs that resort to shootouts to settle their differences.

CHILE: Progress for Women, But Still a Yawning Gap

With one year to go in office, women's groups and civil society organisations report positively on Chilean President Michelle Bachelet's government policies to promote gender equity. But there is still much to be done, they say.

MIDEAST: Suddenly, Home Was Gone

Dates in the calendar to mark the rights of women mean little to Manwa Tarrabin (56) and her two daughters. They have lost home, and any rights to it.

GHANA: Report Warns of ‘Resource Curse’ Ahead of Oil Boom

The recent discovery of oil in Ghana could undermine its democratic development, warns the international aid agency Oxfam America and the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) in Ghana.

HAITI: Stability May Rest in Donors’ Pockets

A series of crises in 2008 have pushed more Haitians into poverty and increased the potential for serious instability in the Caribbean nation of nearly 9 million, said the latest update briefing from the International Crisis Group (ICG).

ECONOMY: Trickle Down Misery

The world's poorest people had nothing to do with the financial gimmickry that has brought the global economy to its knees but they are paying a heavy price for it and relief seems a long way off.

Q&A: ‘ We Were Told To Go To The Mortuary’

Two understaffed and ill-equipped public clinics serving 600,000 people: it is in neighbourhoods like Dandora that the battle to reduce maternal mortality is won or lost.