POLITICS: World Bank, IMF Heads Under Fire for Skipping Summit

The chief executive officers of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), two financial institutions based in Washington, have come under heavy fire for their decision to skip a major U.N. conference on Financing for Development (FfD), scheduled to take place in the Qatari capital Doha over the weekend.

RIGHTS: Gender Violence "Pandemic" Highlighted at U.N.

Activists and U.N. officials called on governments to take stronger action to end violence against women Tuesday, with at least one out of every three women around the world having been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime - with the abuser usually someone known to her.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Marching Against Machismo

Raising their voices in agreement with the declaration over the loudspeaker that "machismo kills", hundreds of Dominican women, carrying banners and roses, ended a march through the streets of Santo Domingo Tuesday in front of the Supreme Court Building, protesting the rising level of murders of women.

DEVELOPMENT: Will Any Crumbs Remain After Bankers’ Feast?

The vast resources the U.S. and Europeans are pouring into ailing financial firms could lead to disastrous consequences for global efforts to reduce poverty and mitigate the impacts of climate change, warns a new study by an independent think tank.

MEDIA: Sustainable Development in a Doomed City

The sea encroaching on the streets of this Caribbean resort city in northern Colombia dramatically underlines the challenges that 60 journalists, winners of awards from the Latin American Avina foundation, discussed over the weekend.

WORLD: Taxation A Sticky Issue At Upcoming Financing Talk Fest

Amid frantic efforts to save the banking system from ruin, some top-level European Union (EU) officials have nonetheless found time to profess their concern for Africa recently.

INDONESIA: Quota Ensures More Women Candidates in 2009 Polls

After 20 years as an activist, in which she campaigned to shape social and economic policy in Indonesia, Binny Buchori is setting her sights on a new career - as a politician.

GENDER-AFRICA: "Where Is The Money?"

"Investing in women pays off. It is an effective means to reduce poverty and accelerate the achievement of the rest of the MDGs," says Danish minister for development cooperation Ulla Tørnæs.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Groundwater: How Much Is There?

A shortage of trained specialists who can assess and manage groundwater resources is a factor inhibiting its use in the Southern Africa region.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Talks Could Learn From Indigenous Groups

As the United Nations readies for a key climate change meeting in Poland next month, a London-based human rights group warns that any new deal on global warming would be seriously compromised if the most vulnerable groups, specifically indigenous peoples, are shut out of the negotiations.

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Sanitation Concerns Shift Into Space

India may be grappling with problems of basic sanitation but, at another level, its top scientists are turning their attention to human pollution in space.

U.S.: Obama Urged to Strengthen Ties with U.N.

A bipartisan group of some three dozen senior foreign policy figures has released a statement calling for President-elect Barack Obama to make strengthening long-troubled U.S. relations with the United Nations a major priority in his new administration.

LATIN AMERICA: IPS and UNDP Launch Second Journalism Prize on MDGs

Next year will be a tough time for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, which means it will be more than ever necessary to avoid backsliding in the efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and journalists have an important role to play in that task, UNDP regional director Rebeca Grynspan said Wednesday.

DEVELOPMENT: U.N. Looks to Doha Summit for Answers

As the spreading global financial crisis threatens to cripple banks, stock markets and manufacturing industries in the developing world, the United Nations is now focusing on the outcome of a major international conference on Financing for Development (FfD) scheduled to take place in Doha next week.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Research and Policies Lack Civil Society Input

Health experts and activists have heavily criticised African governments for failing to collaborate with civil society organisations (CSOs) on health research and health policy development.

PERU: My Mining Deposits Are Under Your House

"Just imagine you’re told you have to leave your house, your livestock, the graves of your loved ones, and then they take you to an unfamiliar place without even asking you what you think about it. How would you feel?" asks Eduardo Sueldo, the local environment delegate in a highlands village in southern Peru.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Groundwater: Protecting a Hidden Resource

Groundwater - water located beneath the ground in soil or rock formations - is a secure source of water that if properly managed can last for centuries. The challenge is how to locate it and monitor the effects of its use.

EDUCATION: Zimbabwe’s School System Crumbles

Glen View 5 Primary School in one of Harare's high-density suburbs is deserted. Classrooms are empty, desks and chairs are piled up in corners and instruction charts are peeling off the walls. Yet, the school's third term is in full swing.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Who Is To Blame for the Crisis?

Health systems on the continent are riddled with inadequate policies, strategies, lack of institutional capacity, poor scientific review mechanisms and weak funding for research in the public and private sector, said Luis Sambo, regional director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Africa.

POLITICS-ANGOLA: A Tradition of Strong Women

She was orphaned by Angola's liberation struggle against Portugal, but through it she found a new family and a life-long inspiration.

EDUCATION-NEPAL: Increasing Budget Not Enough to Meet Goals

While the new Maoist government has dramatically increased the outlay for education in the annual budget to meet the goal of Education for All (EFA) by 2015, a visit to remote, mountainous Limi village in mid-western Nepal shows that the goal will be hard to reach.