HEALTH-EL SALVADOR: Free AIDS Testing, But Then What?

While health authorities in El Salvador have launched a campaign under the slogan "Take the test: positive or negative, we are all human beings in the face of AIDS", people living with HIV complain of a lack of medicines and of discrimination, even at the hands of public health doctors.

RIGHTS: Global Compact Expands, Impact Still Hazy

The upcoming Global Compact Leaders Summit this Thursday and Friday in Geneva seems to be getting more attention from various stakeholders in the global community than ever before.

EL SALVADOR: Progress in Fight on Poverty Called into Question

Although the government of El Salvador triumphantly holds out statistics reflecting a reduction of chronic poverty in this Central American country, local and international experts have joined their voices with those of common citizens to cast into doubt the validity of the official figures.

DEVELOPMENT: Latin America Ahead on MDGs – Except for Poverty

Latin America is leading the developing world in terms of statistical progress towards most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, it is failing on the main goal: halving the proportion of people living in poverty.

DEVELOPMENT: Uneven Results Forecast for Millennium Goals

The world's 22 rich nations, comprising the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), grudgingly doled out about 104 billion dollars in official development assistance (ODA) to the world's poorer nations in 2006.

CUBA: Women Combating Shortage of Decent Housing

Juana Hilda Naranjo no longer worries when it rains. For the last three years she has been living in a modern apartment out of reach of the water and wind, thanks to the efforts of the Taller de Transformación (Transformation Workshop) in the poor, predominantly black Havana neighbourhood of Pogolotti.

DEVELOPMENT: NGOs Demand Human Rights Approach to Poverty

A major civil society meet here was clear on what has been missing so far in the development dialogue - a ‘human rights approach’ to poverty and hunger.

POLITICS: "Take The Bull By the Horns And Move Towards a New Country – Africa"

Positions are being staked out concerning the establishment of a pan-African government, this at the annual summit of the African Union (AU), underway in Accra. Heads of state and government from around the continent began meeting in the Ghanaian capital Sunday; they will wrap up talks Tuesday.

DEVELOPMENT-MOZAMBIQUE: Jose Negrao, An Economist Who Cared

The late activist and economist Jose Negrao, who posthumously won the Southern Africa Trust’s Drivers of Change Award last year, is featuring again at this year’s awards. His brainchild, Mozambique’s Group of 20 anti-poverty civil society organisations, has been nominated for the 2007 award.

SOUTH AFRICA: "You Cannot Keep People Away From Settling in Cities"

Population issues are in the spotlight at present with the recent release of the United Nations Population Fund's annual report - and World Population Day, to be commemorated Jul. 11.

Q&A: &#39&#39ICT Can Flatten Hierarchies&#39&#39

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) offers the best hope of rapidly empowering the poor and involving civil society in the development process.

DEVELOPMENT-MOZAMBIQUE: An MDG Temperature Check Gives Mixed Results

Only about 30 percent of Mozambicans think that their quality of life has improved since 2000, the year when the international community agreed on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), while about 42 percent believe life has not changed.

ECONOMY-TANZANIA: Tourists vs Traders – Who Will Make a Killing?

On display among the bold African patterns and chunky jewellery, a carved giraffe flashes a price tag of 20,000 Tanzanian shillings (15 US dollars).

DEVELOPMENT: Can Growth Ever Be Pro-Poor?

‘Pro-poor Growth’ sounded impressive as the title for a plenary at a major civil society meet here, but after the idea was explored, toyed with, taken apart and viewed from every possible angle it seemed as distant as ever from addressing poverty in the world.

DEVELOPMENT: When It Comes to Aid, All Power to the People

Aid to the developing world is effective when it empowers the community and the government of the recipient country, and they have learned to design a strong development strategy. Otherwise the effort is in vain, and hunger and exclusion only become more deeply rooted, say activists at a development forum under way here.

Q&A: Water Is a Right, Not Business

Water is not the stuff of business, it is a basic human right. Hama Arba Diallo, outgoing executive secretary of the Convention of the United Nations to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), is convinced that the United Nations is about to formally recognise this principle, possibly by 2008.

AFRICA: Food for 12 Billion. So Why Did 854 Million Go Without?

"As you are suffering from over-consumption, I am suffering from under-consumption. We need to strike a balance," said Mary Wahu Kaara from the Kenya Debt Relief Network with reference to the North and the South.

NICARAGUA: Plant Trees, Harvest Water

More than six years ago, the residents of the rural community of Lomas del Viento, on Nicaragua's Pacific coast, took up the task of recuperating the 10 flowing springs that were drying up as a result of logging in the surrounding forests. And they succeeded.

DEVELOPMENT: Civil Society – Window Dressing For the UN?

Is global governance the sole domain of governments or are they willing to share what has traditionally been their preserve? Has civil society finally inched its way into the United Nations system and made its presence felt?

TRADE-AFRICA: Kenya and South Africa Growing Their Links

Strolling through the aisles of one of the shops of the biggest supermarket chain in Kenya, it is easy for a South African to spot familiar brands. There are boxes and bottles full of cereal, instant coffee, fruit, soup, toiletries and other products imported from South Africa. And then there are the well-known clothing retailers.

POLITICS-INDIA: Left’s Bengal Bastion Shaky After 30 Years in Power

India's Left parties have just set an international record by completing 30 uninterrupted years of elected power in the major state of West Bengal.