An electronic publication on arts, culture, social change and development that covers social, economic and human development issues; explores ways artists tackle them; and highlights artistic methods that are being used by development agencies/advocates.

The Bush administration is paltering to the American public with exaggerated misconceptions of worldwide terrorism to frighten us into supporting a global police state. With seven hundred military bases and a budget bigger than the rest of the world combined, the US military has become the new supreme-power force repressing "terrorism" everywhere, reports Global Research.

The new edition of IWGIA's Yearbook The Indigenous World has now been published in English and Spanish featuring country reports and a section on international processes relating to indigenous peoples.

A study by the Simon Wiesenthal Center entitled "Digital Terrorism & Hate 2005" reported a 25% annual increase in websites promoting racial hatred and violence, which indicates that the problem of racism and xenophobia is growing over the Internet. These disturbing developments have naturally informed the global fight against racism. A significant number of international instruments acknowledge and attempt to address the problem without limiting freedom of expression.

As work on economic, social and cultural rights (ESC) grows by leaps and bounds around the world, a large number of organizations and individuals have expressed interest in learning more about how budget analysis can contribute to their work. The guide "Dignity Counts" aims to provide guidance to civil society organizations on how to use budget analysis as a tool to help assess a government's compliance with its ESC rights obligations.

China has pledged to give a Sh3.1 billion cash boost to Kenya to fund rural electrification. Sh1.4 billion will facilitate the construction of two pilot power transmission lines in Western Kenya. Another Sh1.7 billion will be spent by the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) to precure electricity equipment. This is the first local electricity project to be financed by the Chinese government.

Paul Wolfowitz, the former US deputy defence secretary and main architect of the Iraq war, has run the World Bank for a year. His regime is highly secretive, but insiders have talked exclusively to Robert Calderisi, who files this report available from the New Statesman website.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was set up in January 2002 as a financial instrument, complementary to existing programs addressing these three diseases. The purpose of the Global Fund is to raise and invest large amounts of additional finance to support the rapid scale up of measures to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Transparency International (TI) has opened the call for nominations for its annual Integrity Awards. The deadline for nominations is 2 June 2006. "This is the most prestigious global anti-corruption prize," said Sion Assidon, the Chair of the TI Integrity Awards Committee, a member of the TI Board of Directors and a founder of TI-Morocco. He added, "Each year we honour organisations and individuals who have demonstrated exceptional courage, and have shown outstanding leadership."

It sounds funny indeed. After half a year of crippling power cuts in Tanzania, nobody had thought about potential electricity generation options other than natural gas, coal, solar, thermal, and probably wind farms. Now, investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have come with a seemingly curious idea: They want to risk USD168million of seed capital for investing in a power generation facility using Tanzania's Indian Ocean's territorial waters.

This report comments on global progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), focusing on aid, trade and financial dimensions of the process. It notes that, despite commitments to raising aid effectiveness from the G8 and the Paris Declaration, the world is still far from achieving the MDGs - particularly Africa and South Asia. In light of these findings it urges much greater effort to implement the vision of global action and mutual accountability for results.

This paper starts from the premise that trade may be necessary for sustained industrial development, but it is not sufficient. In the right circumstances, trade liberalisation creates opportunities for development, but other factors determine the extent to which those opportunities are realised. It argues that, to benefit from liberalisation developing countries will need to make public investments in infrastructure and institutions as well as private investment in productive capacity - a point realised by the aid for trade agenda.

The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR), supported by the World Council of Churches, has initiated a resolution for Royal Dutch Shell shareholders to consider at their Annual General Meeting in The Hague and London on 16 May 2006. The resolution calls for ‘a major improvement in Shell’s performance in terms of community and stakeholder consultation, risk analysis, and social and environmental impact analysis’.

This award rewards best practices related to the use of new technologies in education and training of young people. The competition is open to schools and universities, public and private institutions, non-profit and youth associations, large and small companies, research centres, and individuals of any age.

This award honours an individual or a civil society organisation in a conflict country or region that has developed groundbreaking and effective initiatives to promote the rights of women and to increase their participation at decision-making levels in peace processes. Winners will receive a sum of EUR 15,000 and a work of art made for the occasion, as well as a tour through the Netherlands to present their work to a variety of diverse audiences.

This award recognises ordinary people worldwide whose lives are dedicated to doing extraordinary work on behalf of children in three categories: World of Children Health Award; World of Children Humanitarian Award; and the Founder's Award. The first two award winners will receive US$50,000 Awards; the winner of the Founder's Award will receive US$15,000.

In the Mao era, China dealt with Africa as part of a show of solidarity with countries that shared some of China's experience of Western oppression. However, these links were fostered in an ideologically charged time, when China sought to display affinity with other socialist countries and to demonstrate an almost nihilistic aversion to the institutions and norms of international relations. Although it joined the UN in 1971, any real alteration of China's foreign policy did not come until the Deng-initiated reforms post-1979.

Small and medium enterprises account for a huge proportion of the businesses and jobs in the world’s forests. These enterprises can be easy for poor people to set up, but without support, the challenges of being small threaten their survival. The best way forward is usually finding a common cause and working together as an association.

WhiteAfrican refers to a Wired Magazine article 'The Cost of Staying Connected'. He writes: What I find the most interesting is that they split up the price per hour and the percentage of GDP per capita per day. In other words, it might be more expensive to get online in New York, New York ($12.80/hr), but it took a higher percentage of the average persons wages in D.R. of the Congo (68.4%)."

All over the world, young people experience a disproportionate share of unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, and other sexual and reproductive health problems. Developed with the support of the UK Department for International Development (DfID), Safe Passages to Adulthood is a programme of research into young people’s sexual and reproductive health in poorer country settings. Programme activities aim to increase the capacity of developing country partners to generate new knowledge and develop systematic guidelines for action at programme and policy levels.