The Mumbai terror attacks have dominated the news headlines last week. China’s top brass still remain cautious about the country’s economic future. The Summit in Beijing has definitely sparked an interest among other emerging powers. Meanwhile, the African Union has also expressed concern that the slowdown in China may affect the continent’s strategic relationship with Beijing. At the same time, China appears to be increasing its competitive advantage for mining deals, and South Africa seems unlikely to extend Chinese import quotas. And China has pledged vaccines to assist in the Zimbabwe cholera outbreaks. This and much more in this week's round-up by Sanusha Naidu.

With an HIV infection rate of 5.2 per cent, the lucrative mining sector in Guinea is particularly at risk from the epidemic. Some mining companies have begun setting up their own programmes to make up for the lack of HIV/AIDS services on offer. But they say a public-private partnership is essential if local residents are not to be excluded.

This framing paper for an INEE Policy Roundtable provides analysis, lessons learnt and recommendations on the financing of education in states affected by fragility. The paper focuses mainly on aid to education, but also considers it in the context of domestic financing for education. The authors discuss the current state of financing in terms of both official development assistance and humanitarian funding, focusing on the trends and recent commitments to education.

This report argues that while there has been some remarkable progress towards some of the EFA goals since 2000, progress is being undermined by a failure of governments to tackle persistent inequalities based on income, gender, location, ethnicity, language, disability and other markers for disadvantage. Unless governments act to reduce disparities through effective policy reforms, the EFA promise will be broken.

The European Union is financing ecologically and socially destructive projects in Africa, a Brussels conference has been told. Officially, the Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank (EIB) is committed to using the 53 billion euros (67 billion dollars) it releases each year, to pursue policies that protect the environment and alleviate hardship.

For years Microsoft denied that open source software was a competitor to its business. And then suddenly a year or so ago it began to talk “standards”, “interoperability” and other good things. It even went so far as to give money to open source projects. But, just as we were starting to think that the company was ready for a new course it comes out with a piece of PR that sounds as if Steve Ballmer could have written it himself.

The International Coalition on the Detention of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants has launched the first international newsletter with a focus on global trends in migration-related detention and resources for groups working with detainees. To sign up for the newsletter email: [email][email protected], or visit: http://www.idcoalition.org

The North-South Institute is pleased to invite applications for its annual Visiting Researcher position. The Fellowship is named after Professor Emeritus G.K. Helleiner, one of Canada 's leading academics on international development issues, who has dedicated many years to working in Africa and other developing countries and is a founding member and former Chair of the North-South Institute.

FreeDimensional has been asked to help find a candidate for a 6-month all expenses paid residency for a visual artist who has been in distress or censored in some way. This opportunity is in relation to the Bilbao (Anti-) Censorship Festival.

Most researchers and writers on African affairs, both bourgeois and historical materialist, have recognized the African origins of human society. The contributions of successive African civilizations and cultures have been well documented in various publications. These efforts to re-correct the distortions in the way African history has been narrated and interpreted are important in understanding the significance and character of political events that are occurring on the continent today.

In recent years developing countries have expanded their government education systems in an attempt to meet the Millennium Development Goals on education by 2015. One consequence has been a dramatic growth in low-cost private education institutions, which are increasingly being seen as a popular alternative to the public education system. Using independent first-hand research, this study investigates the low-cost private education sector in India, Nigeria and Uganda.

Amidst the spreading global financial crisis, a special debt audit commission released a report charging that much of Ecuador's foreign debt was illegitimate or illegal. The commission recommended that Ecuador default on $3.9 billion in foreign commercial debts--Global Bonds 2012, 2015 and 2030--the result of debts restructured in 2000 after the country's 1999 default.

As one of the lead elements proposed for recommendation to the Financing for Development Review Conference, the Civil Society Forum supports an international summit on financial and economic architecture and global economic governance structures, in 2009. The Forum position challenges the proposal of some governments that the Bretton Woods Institutions (the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) organize an event, as well as moves to concentrate decision-making in the G-20 group of governments.

We have put our popular series of QuickGuides fundraising and management guides on CD and made them available as pdf email downloads in order to slash costs and make them financially available to even the smallest organisations. At the same time we are doing our bit to reduce the use of paper and cut down on air miles from sending paper Guides around the world. Email downloads are even less expensive than the same product on CD.

For the third year in a row, Radio 1812 will bring together migrant groups and radios from around the world to celebrate International Migrants Day on 18th December. Last year, over 150 radio stations produced, broadcasted and shared programmes on migration, turning the event into a successful opportunity to make migrants’ voices heard across the world.

AIDS Outlook is a new report from UNAIDS that provides perspectives on some of the most pressing issues that will confront policymakers and leaders as they respond to the challenges presented by AIDS in 2009. In many ways the year ahead will be a year of transition—and acceleration. Many countries are reviewing their national strategies on AIDS. Even though political commitment for AIDS is at an all-time high, recent developments in the financial world will test the resilience of many.

This year marks the 20th Anniversary of World AIDS Day. Looking back over the last 20 years, we see there has been progress — there is not only greater awareness of the gender dimensions of HIV and AIDS but also greater commitment to addressing these. But today, let us instead look forward, to what the world could look like 20 years from now, if we are able to deliver on these commitments. We would then have cause not just for commemoration but also for celebration.

By 1980 AIDS had spread to five continents around the world. Twenty eight years on there is still no cure although many people claim to have one. Thousands of people spend their life savings on ‘Quack doctors’ each year, with the belief that they can be cured. December 1st 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS day. Runtime: 30 minutes.

As we commemorate the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, we pay tribute to the leaders in communities and nations who have promoted greater awareness and action to address the AIDS pandemic. If there is one lesson learned over the years, it is that success in responding to the HIV epidemic requires sustained leadership, community engagement and the involvement of people living with HIV.

1 December 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Since 1988, efforts made to respond to the epidemic have produced positive results, however, the latest UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic indicates that the epidemic is not yet over in any part of the world. Together with its partners, the World AIDS Campaign set this year’s theme for World AIDS Day as “Lead – Empower – Deliver”, building on last year’s theme of “Take the Lead”.