This year's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is a call to everyone, from policy makers to the public, to recognise the rights and dignity of people living in poverty. Amnesty International, other NGOs, civil society organizations, people living in poverty and supporters around the world will mobilize to raise their voices and demand action from governments.

Angolan oil exports, the country's main source of revenue, will continue to increase in the near future thanks to growth in demand from China which will compensate for possible setbacks in other markets, according to analysts from Portugal’s Banco BPI. “Despite certain conditions that could limit the demand from developed economies, China's strong growth provides guarantees that, in the near future, demand for Angolan oil should be maintained,” say the BPI analysts in the latest report on Angola, published in September.

The global financial crisis will hit trade between China and Africa, but Beijing will keep expanding its investment in the continent to maintain strong ties, senior officials have said. Sino-African trade reached $74-billion in the first eight months, up 62% from a year earlier. "We cannot be very optimistic about sustaining such growth," said Zhou Yabin, head of the Africa department at the Ministry of Commerce.

On the heels of UNFPA’s recent efforts to promote maternal health at the High-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals has come increased media exposure to the plight of mothers in developing countries. Prominent print and photo coverage in the 10 October 2008 edition of the Washington Post highlights the perils of poor access to emergency obstetric care and limited health-care resources to the lives of women and children.

Spain’s accelerating effort to send back unaccompanied children who enter the country illegally might subject them to danger, ill-treatment and detention, Human Rights Watch said in a new report. The government needs to halt repatriations until it has a process to ensure their well-being, and, as an immediate step, give them the same right to an independent lawyer that adult migrants have under Spanish law.

According to March 2008 statistics only 3.6% of internet users in the world were from Africa. Asia contributed to 37.6% of internet users globally, but this percentage is inflated by large numbers of users from China. The number of fixed lines has not increased significantly, and in some cases has even shrunk. And, in addition to this, a new divide is emerging: the broadband (or “high speed internet”) divide.

The general policy lessons from the high-growth economies of Asia for others are clear: the need for an educated and healthy workforce, timely investment in infrastructure, and the assiduous extension of governance; and the importance of making every effort to access the global economy. But the challenge for African and other policy-makers is less about knowing 'what'they should do than about 'how' they can do it.

The African continent is quickly becoming a proxy battleground for Washington and Beijing, as the latter's appetite for emerging markets and raw materials grows. In July 2008, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that "China's full court press to establish influence and connections in Africa and Latin America may be seismic in its future implications for the United States." China's burgeoning influence in Africa is now squarely on the Pentagon's radar screen.

In a wide-ranging discussion of the circumstances behind President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil’s 2007 official visit to Burkina Faso some twenty years after the assassination of Thomas Sankara by the west African nation’s incumbent, Carlos Moore in conversation with the publication Ìrohìn reviews the state of the African continent and the role of nations’ leaders in countries’ development. As Moore cogently argues, in their dealings with Western powers most of today’s African elites function in a self-interested manner entirely consistent with dominant relations of exchange seen as far back as the 15th and 16th centuries, representing the same obstacle to improved livelihoods, wider development and equitable distribution of power they have always done.

In the run-up to the third India-Brazil-South-Africa (IBSA) Summit to be held this month in Delhi, Sanusha Naidu considers the prospects for Chinese integration into a growing pillar of South-South cooperation. Emphasising the extent to which IBSA’s parts far from represent a unified force, the author argues that the bloc’s immediate future lies more in consolidating collaboration between its current members than in being concerned about capturing China’s global leverage.

The Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) at Columbia University is designed to prepare proven human rights leaders from the Global South and marginalized communities in the U.S. to participate in national and international policy debates on globalization by building their skills, knowledge, and contacts. The Program features a four-month residency at Columbia University in New York City with a structured curriculum of advocacy, networking, skills-building, and academic coursework.

The European Union is preparing to impose swingeing taxes on goods imported from Guyana as punishment for the Caribbean island's refusal to accept a free trade accord. Unlike 13 other governments in the Caribbean, Guyana has opted out of signing an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU.

The Registration Form for the Doha Global Civil Society Forum (27 November 28 November 2008, Doha, Qatar) and the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus (29 November 2 December 2008, Doha, Qatar) is now online.

This report gathers together learning from primary research undertaken in thirteen developing countries and from other available national level research and international synthesis reports concerning the human resource aspects of quality education and in particular the role of teachers. The headline message of the report is that the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.

A meta-analysis of studies of circumcision in gay men and men who have sex with men (MSM) has not found sufficient evidence to show that being circumcised reduced their risk of acquiring HIV. Although it finds a small reduction in the risk of HIV infection in circumcised men, this is not statistically significant - in other words it could just be a chance finding.

The influence of the World Bank was felt in Accra when developing countries and donors met at a resplendent conference centre for the recent High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. The Bank, together with the OECD and the Ghanaian government, were the joint organisers of this event that hosted some 1,200 participants including 80 civil society representatives

Under a new law signed by US President George W. Bush, leaders of military forces and armed groups who have recruited child soldiers may be arrested and prosecuted in the United States, Human Rights Watch has said. The law could apply to leaders of dozens of forces that have recruited and used child soldiers in over 20 armed conflicts.

The international farmers movement La Via Campesina is holding its Vth International Conference in Maputo, Mozambique, from October 16 to 23, 2008. This congress will gather more than 500 men and women farmers (OMIT 's' in farmers) leaders from more than 70 countries, at a time when the food crisis is at the top of the global agenda. This event is starting with the Rural Youth Assembly on October 16, while the world is celebrating World Food Day.

As we become more technologically advanced, we produce materials that can withstand extreme temperatures, are durable and easy to use. Plastic bags, synthetics, plastic bottles, tin cans, and computer hardware- these are some of the things that make life easy for us. But what we forget is that these advanced products do not break down naturally. When we dispose them in a garbage pile, the air, moisture, climate, or soil cannot break them down naturally to be dissolved with the surrounding land.

Liberia and Senegal have become the latest African countries to ban Chinese milk products following the tainted milk scandal that left tens of thousands of children ill in the Asian country. "In September we received reports that these products made lot of victims in China, and that a good quantity has been shipped towards Africa. On October 2 the same report was reiterated," Liberian Minister of Commerce Frederick Nuckeh told state radio on Tuesday.