The world is still on track to achieve the Millenium Development Goal (MDG) target of cutting the rate of extreme poverty in half by 2015 says a new report by the United Nations a few months before a major General Assembly meeting is to review progress so far. Many countries are moving forward, but unmet commitments, inadequate resources, lack of focus and accountability, and insufficient dedication to sustainable development have created shortfalls in many areas. Some of these shortfalls were aggravated by the global food and economic and financial crises.
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The current default measure for economic and social progress is gross domestic product (GDP): the market value of all goods and services produced in a country during a given year. However, many question whether GDP is an adequate indicator of the well-being of countries and their citizens. A new paper by the Urban Institute synthesizes alternative indices that assess more adequately the development of all segments of society including women, children, the elderly, and racial and other minorities.
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When international human rights observers rounded a curve on a remote road in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, they found the way blocked by boulders. They decided going forward would be dangerous. But they didn’t know that going back would be deadly. Layers of impunity and injustice have covered crimes in Oaxaca for years writes journalist Laura Carlsen.
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La Via Campesina, FIAN, Land Research Action Network and GRAIN, together with over 100 allied civil society organizations, are issuing a loud appeal to stop the current wave of land grabbing that is taking millions of hectares of farmland away from rural communities across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Their appeal coincides with the release of a new World Bank report that confirms the massive extent of the current land grab assault and puts forward seven "principles" to make these land deals socially acceptable.
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Women and gender issues were glaring in their absence from the March 31st Haiti International Donors' Conference held in New York when billions of dollars were pledged to finance Haiti's reconstruction. Haiti's National Plan of Action, the blueprint guiding reconstruction efforts and resource allocation, was based on a Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) that failed to address gender dimensions of Haiti’s proposed strategies for reconstructing macroeconomic, social, environmental policies, as well as infrastructure and governance.
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For more than 40 years, Burma's children have been scarred by death, destruction, loss and neglect at the hands of Burma's military. They have been forced from their homes and villages, subjected to extreme human rights violations such as rape and forced labour, and left to fend for themselves in displacement settings without access to even the most basic care. It is estimated that there are more than one million displaced children inside Burma today.
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