DEVELOPMENT: Women Leaders Ask Where Is Our Money

Even though seven out of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) impact on women, both donors and governments receiving aid overlook the need to make resources available for gender empowerment.

DEVELOPMENT: EU Renews Its Intentions

European Union governments have resolved to ensure that international objectives on reducing extreme poverty are realised, but have backed away from devising concrete plans for increasing the amount of aid that they give to poor countries.

POLITICS-CUBA: Past, Present and Future Changes

Cuba is paradoxically the same, yet not the same, under President Raúl Castro, who said he would change "everything that should be changed" to perfect the socialist path taken by the revolution nearly half a century ago.

RIGHTS: Security Council Revisits Rape as Tool of War

Eight years after the U.N. Security Council passed a landmark resolution dealing with gender, peace and security, women and girls are still routinely victimised in conflict zones around the world, often in the most brutal and horrific ways.

DEVELOPMENT: Civil Society Warns Food Crisis Can Eat Into MDG Gains

Progress that has already been achieved towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) may be reversed due to the current global food crisis, it is emerging at the eighth CIVICUS World Assembly.

MEXICO: Latest Measures Against Food Crisis Called Ineffective

Observers in Mexico say the price freezes announced by the government for more than 150 food products are deceptive and could even foment unhealthy eating habits.

DEVELOPMENT: Food Crisis Mortgages Children's Future

The devastating impact of rising food prices is expected to hit most of the world's 2.2 billion children the hardest - particularly in developing nations.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: "Getting People Participating Is a Process, Not an Event"

Amidst the turmoil surrounding the Jun. 27 presidential run-off in Zimbabwe, it is doubtless something of a challenge to muster enthusiasm for plans relating to the country's next general elections. Gender activists intent on having more women voted into office in 2013 are undaunted, however.

LABOUR-BOLIVIA: Infusing Business with Youth, Innovation

Cotillones El Sol organises parties in Tarija, in southern Bolivia. Nancy Martínez, the 23-year-old manager and owner of the six-month-old company, already employs several other young women.

TRADE-GHANA: Non-Traditional Exports Are Booming

Impressive growth in exports from Ghana to the rest of the world has been witnessed over the past few years as more and more Ghanaians explore production in non-traditional sectors.

HEALTH: AIDS Activists Urge Major Funding Push for G8

AIDS and global health activists are calling on the U.S. Senate leadership to urgently approve a record five-year, 50-billion-dollar bill to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis primarily in Africa so that President George W. Bush can take it with him when he meets with other western leaders at next month's Group of Eight (G8) summit in Japan.

DEVELOPMENT: African Agriculture Uprooted by Economic Policies

People across Africa have taken to the streets in recent months to demand that their most basic need be met: access to food. The various states in which these protests have taken place, however, have reacted swiftly and brutally.

SOUTH PACIFIC: Poverty Breeds Child Labour and Sex Tourism

Beyond the fabulous palm-fringed beaches and cascading waterfalls of the islands of the Pacific is a sordid reality - child labour and commercial sexual exploitation of children.

TRADE-AFRICA: Some Interim EPAs May Not Be Concluded

Some of the 35 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states that have initialled interim economic partnership agreements (EPAs) may still withdraw from the process – apart from the 44 states that have so far refused to sign EPAs with the European Union, according to researchers studying the fraught trade negotiating process.

SOMALIA: Dire Situation for Internally Displaced

The United Nations estimates that well over 700,000 people have fled their homes in the Somali capital Mogadishu since clashes between insurgents and Ethiopian forces backing Somali government troops began in Mogadishu in February 2007.

DEVELOPMENT-ANGOLA: Stressing the Importance of Clean Water

A survey of Angolan households has revealed less than half of caregivers always treat water with a reliable method before giving it to children. And one third of those interviewed by Population Services International (PSI) believes water is blessed by God and does not need to be sterilised before use.

EAST TIMOR: Outsourcing Sugar Cane

The East Timor government’s recent decision to grant vast lands to an Indonesian company to plant sugar cane has been heavily criticised by Timorese society, who are demanding that the government immediately revoke the contract with the foreign company.

RIGHTS: Scant Compassion for Migrants with HIV

Even as people who migrate from their homelands run a higher risk of contracting the HIV virus, they also are far less likely to receive adequate healthcare, and often face deportation or other harsh treatment in destination countries, activists say.

PAKISTAN: Call to Demilitarise Aid

U.S. aid to Pakistan needs to put far greater emphasis on education and far less on the military than it has to date, a Brussels conference has been told.

AFRICA: Concerns over Chinese Investment and Working Conditions

Chinese investment in African countries comes with few strings attached – which is exactly what concerns civil society organisations.

ASIA: Civil Society Uniting Against Corruption

Cambodian lawmakers are still to offer unanimous support for a petition aimed at combating corruption that was presented to the National Assembly in mid- May. The call was a cry from ordinary people - over a million of them.