Q&A: "Wanted: A New Global Deal"

A United Nations conference on Financing for Development (FfD) is scheduled to take place in Doha, Qatar, next week against the backdrop of a devastating global economic crisis that has threatened to undermine the basic foundations of Anglo-Saxon capitalism.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Gender Budgeting Still Finding Its Feet

With the world slightly past the halfway mark to the Millennium Development Goal deadline of 2015, pressure is mounting to promote gender equality. Goal Three is to promote gender equality and empower women - but in fact, every goal relates directly to women's rights.

ZAMBIA: New Spending On Rural Health

In an attempt to drastically reduce child mortality rates and boost maternal health, the Zambian government last year allocated a substantial budget to the public health sector. This move has resulted in a notable drop in child deaths, researchers say.

DEVELOPMENT: Watch That Gender Space

It is rather obvious that women are about half the population; it's just as obvious that in underdeveloped places they carry more than half their share of the burden. So how much of development aid gets to women? The unfortunate answer to that question is another question: who knows.

AGRICULTURE: Swazi Input Trade Fairs Falling Short

Mary Ntshangase sits under a big umbrella - a packet of beans in one hand and a packet of peanuts in the other - wooing customers to her stall.

BOOKS: Finding Humour and Tragedy in That Daily Ritual

We each spend, on average, three years of our lives going to the toilet - assuming we have one, that is.

CHILE: 512 HIV-Positive People Not Notified

Chilean Health Minister Álvaro Erazo reported Thursday that 512 people who tested positive for HIV were not notified by the public health system.

DEVELOPMENT: U.N. Seeks Bailout Package for World’s Poorest

The buzzword in the international community these days is "bailout" - the multi-billion-dollar economic rescue packages aimed at helping a rash of faltering investment banks and insurance companies, mostly in the United States and Western Europe.

FILM: Swazi Grandmothers Shore Up a Crumbling Society

In a country barely the size of the U.S. state of New Jersey, a disease has taken hold. Nearly 40 percent of Swaziland's population is HIV-positive, and the other 60 percent lives at constant risk for the disease.

DEVELOPMENT: A Global Health Model, Village by Village

Working for sustainable development in Kenya, which ranks 148th out of 177 countries on the United Nations development index, is a daunting task. The country not only has a 6.1 percent rate of HIV/AIDS infection among its 37 million people, but nearly 60 percent of Kenyans live on less than two dollars a day.

HEALTH: Europe Ignoring TB Research

Funding from the European Union's Brussels headquarters for research into tuberculosis stands at about a fifth of what it should be given the EU's enormous wealth, a new study has found.

Q&A: Major Challenges Will Be Met

When Barbara Hogan replaced South African health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in September, her appointment was praised from all quarters. Hogan, who previously chaired Parliament’s finance portfolio committee, is known as an intellectual who stands up for what she believes in and finding hands-on approaches to solving difficult political issues.

RIGHTS: Women Leaders Reject "State of Living Death"

United in their fight against discrimination and inequality, three women from crisis-struck countries received the 2008 Gruber International Women's Rights Prize - Yanar Mohammed from Iraq, Sapana Pradhan Malla from Nepal, and Nadera Shalhoub-Kervorkian, a Palestinian woman living in the state of Israel.

DEVELOPMENT: UNFPA Battles “Norm” of Gender Inequality

Despite a slew of U.N. conventions and international agreements against discrimination of women, gender inequality is widespread and remains deeply rooted in many cultures, according to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).

EDUCATION-BRAZIL: Pockets of Illiteracy, Despite Strides

Staying illiterate even after going to school is the plight of thousands of boys and girls in Brazil and is proof of the shortfalls of the country’s educational system, in particular in poverty-ridden areas. But the tide is beginning to turn, as can be observed among the country’s youngest children.

URUGUAY: Congress Votes to Legalise Abortion, But Veto Likely

Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez and his cabinet have 10 days to promulgate or veto a bill that would decriminalise abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, which was passed Tuesday by the Senate.

DEVELOPMENT-CAMBODIA: Women Take to Fishing As Catches Decline

Cambodia’s fishing industry may still be viewed as a male bastion, but as household fish catches decline, putting pressure on food security, women are rising to the challenge and becoming involved in growing numbers.

DEVELOPMENT: Two Summits to Focus on Financial Crisis

As the financial meltdown continues to spread to the far corners of the globe, over 30 world leaders are scheduled to participate in two key international conferences aimed at seeking short- and long-term solutions to the economic crisis worldwide.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Prejudice Against Haitians Boils Over – Again

"A group of Dominicans armed with pistols, machetes and knives came to take revenge on us. I broke my leg trying to escape from my house, which was on fire. It's not fair that all Haitians should have to pay for the crime of one," Elena Piti, a Haitian mother of seven who lives in the Dominican Republic, told IPS.

POLITICS-BENIN: Women Left Out of New Govt

"Every change is a step backwards in this new era. It's disheartening," is Claire Houngan Ayémona's response to Benin's newly-appointed cabinet.

Q&A: Trade Liberalisation No Silver Bullet Against Poverty

Countries around the world aim to eradicate poverty and hunger by 2015 as one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).