In recent years, the US, Europe and other industrialised powers have been stepping up their efforts to sign bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs). This increased attention to bilateral deals goes hand in hand with the deadlock in global trade talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

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On May 25, one of us spent several minutes laughing on the phone with a friend of ours, an environmental journalist. We were looking at the homepage of the Independent website - a newspaper that has made huge efforts to present itself as a radical campaigning force for action on climate change.

Forest-dependent poor people often struggle to uphold their claims to resources in the face of discriminatory legal frameworks and powerful private forestry companies. Are efforts to enhance governance in the forest sector helping to support poor people in claiming their legal rights, or working to further marginalise their interests?

While new drugs and vaccines are needed to treat diseases of poverty, not enough is being invested in developing these products because of the lack of a demand or market for them. Advance price or purchase commitments potentially offer a solution, yet a number of structure and design issues first need to be resolved.

Markets for pharmaceutical products are adjusting to major changes in international trade, intellectual property protection and drug registration requirements. Can the strengthening of intellectual property protection and registration standards improve access to medicines in developing countries?

From the newsletter: Iranian colleagues was explaining why he had just shaved away his beard. Another colleague, from India, agreed that he was considering doing the same thing or at least having a “clean” shave. This was not a fashion driven conversation. It was fear: fear of being singled out, of being picked on; fear of being pulled aside in a queue; fear of being forced to leave a plane.

The Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA) is pleased to announce the launch of it’s new website: Your comments and feedback will be welcome.

One particular risk internally displaced persons and refugees face is the loss of property left behind and the inabilility to recover it. In fact, destruction of property has become an instrument of warfare or even ethnic cleansing in many civil wars, and resistance to return often takes the form of refusal to evict persons who have taken over their houses or apartments, or to refuse compensation for destroyed property.

Presenting their latest work in Africa through still images and video film, Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher travel from the swamplands of the Nile in Sudan, to the Omo River in Ethiopia, and to the semi-desert of northern Kenya. Exploring the secret rituals of coming of age and the arts of courtship and seduction, Fisher and Beckwith seek out some of the most fascinating and visually powerful peoples who still retain their traditions on the African continent.

Today we spend the hour with the legendary folk singer, banjo player, storyteller and activist Pete Seeger. For over 60 years Pete Seeger has been an American icon. In the 1940s, he performed in the Almanac Singers with Woody Guthrie as well as the Weavers. In the 1950s, he opposed Senator Joseph McCarthy's witch hunt and was almost jailed for refusing to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

We regularly work with individuals around the world who are interested in connecting with the nonprofit organizations through volunteer opportunities, internships, and job openings.

Following the 2006 Skoll World Forum, which focused on social capital markets, this Alliance special feature takes forward debates from the Forum and looks at the full spectrum of funds available for social change, from grant funding to fully commercial financial instruments.

Our client, the World AIDS Campaign (WAC) is a partnership-led global effort holding policymakers to account on their promises on AIDS.It supports the advocacy and campaign activities of a range of agencies, many outside the mainstream development sector. The WAC works at national and international levels bringing diverse campaigning voices together within a long-term and focused effort.

The glacier has begun to creak. In the world's most powerful dictatorship we detect the merest hint of a thaw. I am not talking about China or Uzbekistan, Burma or North Korea. This state runs no torture chambers or labour camps. No one is executed, though plenty starve to death as a result of its policies.

The Chinese government attaches considerable importance to international cooperation in the fight against corruption, and is willing to do more in this regard, said a senior legislator on Monday (September 4) in Beijing.

Move over Bill, Chris, Michelle, Rush, Sean, & Company. Make way for a worthy challenger to the title of leader of the racist rant pack holding court weekday evenings on his hourly show on CNN.

Adolescents in the developing world are being denied the right to protect themselves from AIDS, says a new publication by the children's agency Plan. It says young people are taking risks, even when they are well informed about HIV and AIDS.

NGOs from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries expressed concerns about the ongoing free trade talks between their governments and the EU. At an April 2006 conference in Brussels, groups urged the EU to regularly provide information and consult with NGOs on development and poverty eradication.

The author of this Ethical Corporation piece argues that NGOs should not blame multinational firms for human rights violations but instead seek accountability from states. However, such an argument overlooks how big companies sometimes push governments for "favorable deals" that further corporate interests.