Illegal logging is a major problem in many developing countries. However, current attempts to enforce forest laws do not always target the causes of illegal logging. Instead, they persecute poor rural people living in forest regions.

Aid is a major source of government revenue for many developing countries. Senegal, which has also built up a large country debt, receives a significant proportion of its government revenues from aid. But is aid the best way to support economic growth in countries with large debts, or could debt relief be a better policy?

The first Education for All (EFA) goal calls for ‘expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education (ECCE), especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children’. Enrolment in ECCE programmes has tripled since 1970, but access remains limited in most developing countries. Children most exposed to malnutrition and preventable diseases are least likely to have access.

President Hu Jintao became the first Chinese head of state to visit Cameroon on Wednesday (31 January), kicking off his latest tour of an African continent which increasingly supplies oil and raw materials to his country. Hu, who also toured Africa last year, met Cameroonian President Paul Biya to discuss social aid programmes to provide drinking water and cheap housing, as well as a greater role for China in the local oil industry and other resource sectors.

The G8 countries have committed to double aid flows to developing countries by 2010. Although these funds offer great opportunities to recipient countries, aid inflows of such magnitude pose significant macroeconomic challenges to low income countries (LIC). This paper considers how LICs should manage fiscal policy in a scaled-up aid environment.

The nonprofit sector has come a long way in its use of the Internet. In the last six years, funds raised online by nonprofits have grown 20-fold from $250 million in 2000 to more than $5 billion in 2006. The pace of growth today continues to be strong. In fact, estimates suggest industry average online fundraising growth continues to exceed 30 percent per year. Today, almost every non-profit has basic online marketing capabilities including a Web site and the ability to take donations and send email.

Interested in participatory governance - CIVICUS wants to hear from you! The CIVICUS Strengthening Participatory Governance (PG) Programme, is launching a new initiative which focuses on enhancing the capacity of southern civil society practitioners to promote participatory and accountable governance of public institutions at local and national levels. The Programme is conducting a brief online survey that civil society is encouraged to participate in.

A new report released by Friends of the Earth International shows that genetically modified (GM) crops have failed to address the main challenges facing farmers around the world, and more than 70% of large scale GM planting is still limited to two countries: the US and Argentina.

The Free Trade Agreement between the EFTA States and Egypt was signed in Davos, Switzerland on 27 January 2007. The Agreement covers trade in industrial products, including fish and other marine products, and processed agricultural products. In addition, individual EFTA States and Egypt concluded bilateral agreements on basic agricultural products, which form part of the instruments creating the free trade area.

China will lend African nations $3 billion in preferential credit over three years and double aid and interest-free loans over the same time, Beijing said on Monday ahead of President Hu Jintao's tour to woo the continent.

The World Social Forum (WSF) ended in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital on Thursday, with participants hailing the event as an opportunity for people from around the world to exchange ideas on global social problems often overlooked by capitalist interests they said dominated the world.

Hana News Agency reports that Microsoft Corporation's products have been locked out of the on-going World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi Kenya. With over 300 computers provided for participants and the press, organizers of the WSF have preferred to provide open source software products and blocked all Microsoft related products for the forum's usage and its related activities.

The Institute of International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund provides fellowships for scholars whose lives and work are threatened in their home countries. These fellowships permit scholars to find temporary refuge at universities and colleges anywhere in the world, enabling them to pursue their academic work and to continue to share their knowledge with students, colleagues, and the community at large.

From the Haiti Action Committee: “Rene Civil, one of Haiti's most well respected grass roots activists, is still in jail. Despite massive protests in Haiti calling for the release of all political prisoners, Rene and hundreds of others remain locked down in Haiti's jails. It is past time for their release. We call upon the government of President Rene Preval to stand up to the US/UN occupiers of Haiti and release these political prisoners.”

HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti - In the early morning hours of July 6, 2005 more than 350 UN troops stormed the seaside shantytown of Cite Soleil in a military operation with the stated purpose of halting violence in Haiti. When the shooting stopped seven hours later, more than 26 people, the majority of them unarmed civilians lie dead with scores more wounded.

The International Fellowships Programme (IFP) provides opportunities for advanced study to exceptional individuals who will use this education to become leaders in their respective fields, furthering development in their own countries and greater economic and social justice worldwide. To ensure that Fellows are drawn from more diverse backgrounds than ever before, IFP will actively recruit candidates from social groups and communities that lack systematic access to higher education.

This World Health Organization paper defines the Stop TB Strategy which underpins the second global plan to stop TB (2006-2015). The goal of the strategy is to reduce dramatically the global burden of TB by 2015. It aims to achieve universal access to high-quality diagnosis and treatment; reduce the suffering and socioeconomic burden associated with TB; protect poor and vulnerable populations from TB; and support development of new tools and enable their timely and effective use.

From Iraq to Nigeria, multinational corporations are ignoring human rights, entrenching a culture of abuse and impunity that is difficult to eradicate, a leading anti-apartheid activist warns. Kader Asmal, a former South African minister of education, says the abuses run from environmental degradation around the world to the more than 90,000 security contractors, engaged in murky multi-billion-dollar businesses, in war-torn Iraq.

The University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education is now accepting applications for its part-time Master's degree in International Human Rights Law for 2007/8 admission. For further information please visit the website at If you have any queries or would like to request a printed brochure, please email [email][email protected]

This workshop will provide a critical view of China's growing presence and influence in Africa. At the same time it will also provide a venue for dialogue for a reciprocal solidarity.