BURKINA FASO: Rights Abuses Perhaps the Cost of Rising Prices

Fears have been expressed this week that rights abuses are being committed against people detained in connection with protests against the rising cost of living in Burkina Faso.

Q&A: Strategic Plan Emphasises South-South Cooperation

"UNDP’s South-South work is focused on marshalling the expertise and resources at our disposal to support developing countries pursue their development goals," says Kemal Dervis, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

POPULATION-US: More People Call the Streets Home

At last November's Republican presidential debate in St. Petersburg, Florida, activists trying to draw attention to the city's homeless problem were discreetly corralled away from the candidates by a perimetre fence.

RIGHTS: U.N.’s Main Women’s Body Remains Leaderless

When women activists lash out against gender discrimination, one of their longstanding complaints is also directed at the U.N. Secretariat, where senior level posts are still largely a virtual monopoly of men.

HAITI: Once-Vibrant Farming Sector in Dire Straits

Student activists in Haiti are calling for an overhaul of the nation's agriculture policies, which they say have resulted in Haiti importing more than half of its food while local farmers are mired in poverty.

RIGHTS: Women Out in the Cold at Peace Talks

As the United Nations continues its two-week long discussions on the status of women worldwide, there is one nagging fact hovering around the conference rooms in the Secretariat: peacemaking is still largely in the hands of "men in suits, puffing on cigars".

IRAQ: Occupation Strangles Farmers

New plant diseases, attacks by occupation forces and escalating fuel prices are strangling farmers in Diyala province.

TRADE-AFRICA: Make or Break for WTO Doha Round

The World Trade Organisation’s beleaguered Doha Round could either be wrapped up in the next two to three months or be stalled for an indefinite period of time.

TRADE: Proposed Tariff Cuts Will ‘Destroy’ Industrial Development

The Doha Round negotiations on industrial products have once again come under fire at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with developing countries such as South Africa saying that the proposed tariffs cuts will spell the end of their industrial development.

HEALTH: &#39Chronic Diseases Bigger Threat Than Terrorism&#39

International health experts and activists are calling for immediate global action to avert the looming epidemic of preventable chronic diseases which will kill 388 million people in the next decade, threatening economies in the developed and developing worlds.

RIGHTS-LATIN AMERICA: Men Have Gender Issues, Too

Although it may seem obvious, the need to involve men in the effort to attain gender equality is not clear to everyone in Latin America and the Caribbean, where quite a few people think it is an issue that mainly concerns the women’s rights movement.

HEALTH-US: Rare Consensus Behind 50-Billion-Dollar AIDS Plan

In an increasingly unusual display of bipartisanship, both the White House and the Republican and Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives have agreed on a bill that, if passed, would provide 50 billion dollars to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis over the next five years.

DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: Full Dams Do Not Translate Into Water Supplies

Heavy rains in Zimbabwe and in the catchment areas of its major rivers in December and January have filled most of the country’s dams to capacity. Yet, many urban households do not have water.

ECONOMY-KENYA: Amid Political Crisis, Food Shortages Loom

Elizabeth Mutai, who farms passion fruit in the Keiyo district in Kenya's Rift Valley, is worried. Sales of the crop has dropped significantly since the eruption of violence after the election held in December 2007.

LEBANON: Children Look At The Brighter Picture

On the outskirts of Beirut, narrow alleyways cut through the Chatila Palestinian refugee camp. A maze of electricity cables connect one concrete block and another. Sewage pours continuously through a small grey construction, filling the street with nauseating stench.

TRADE-MALAWI: Tea Growers Devising Plans to Overcome Low Prices

Low prices continue to haunt Malawian tea on the auction floors, a bitter irony for some producers as the country is regarded as the pioneer of tea-growing in Africa.

Q&A: As Civil Wars End, Child Soldiers Decline

The number of child soldiers, who are forcibly pressed into military service in conflicts worldwide, has declined: from about 300,000 in 1997 to an estimated 250,000 now, says U.N. Under-Secretary-General Radhika Coomaraswamy.

TRADE-EU: Deals with Africa a ‘PR Disaster’

Trade talks between the European Union and African countries have been a public relations "disaster" for the Brussels bureaucracy, a high-ranking official confessed Feb. 26.

RIGHTS: U.N. Takes Lead on Ending Gender Violence

The United Nations has launched a multi-year global campaign to intensify its efforts to help eliminate violence against women, which has long remained hidden in a "culture of silence".

TRADE: EU Aims to Rope in African States Resisting EPAs

The European Union is determined to get those African countries on board which have so far kicked against the economic partnership agreements (EPAs). At the end of 2007, only 35 out of 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries had initialled EPAs.

TRADE-AFRICA: EU Still Pushing Offensive Interests in EPA Talks

The European Union (EU) has an ambitious agenda for the economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations. It is pushing for the conclusion of full agreements in the next one to three years, covering everything from services to ‘‘trade-related’’ issues such as investment, competition and government procurement.