Over 35 Non-Governmental Organisations working on trade issues in Africa have called for a speedy conclusion of the on-going global trade negotiations. The NGOs, gathered in Nairobi ahead of a African Union (AU) trade ministers meeting, say little success has been achieved since the last World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong in November. The meeting is expected to provide an opportunity for Africa to advance a common position on outstanding issues so as to reap maximum benefits in global trade.

A syndication service that delivers commentary from 600 bloggers for use by newspaper publishers is set to launch on Tuesday, further blurring the lines that divide blogs and mainstream media. BlogBurst, as the service from blog technology company Pluck Corp. is known, includes headlines and articles for use by newspaper publishers in the news or feature sections of their online services, as well as print editions.

Res Publica (www.therespublica.org) is hiring a short-term, full-time project manager for a research project exploring e-advocacy and technology use by civil society in developing countries.

The editors of Children & Society are planning a Special Issue in Spring 2007 on the theme of displacement and asylum. The guest editors for this Special Issue will include Jason Hart and Jo Boyden. The aim is to produce a collection of essays that between them cover a wide age range; embrace experience in the global South as well as the UK and Europe; address both policy and practice; and offer critical reflection of a more theoretical nature.

On 6 March the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, made public its new policy and performance standards on social and environmental sustainability, and disclosure policy. Despite a number of changes made in the last round of revisions in response to comments from a variety of stakeholders, the new system is based on discretion and flexibility, rather than increased transparency, accountability and oversight. Comprehensive analysis on each performance standard submitted to the IFC by civil society was often ignored or only partially incorporated.

Britain and other European countries have been accused of misleading the public about their supposed generosity in aid by including debt relief - especially for Iraq and Nigeria - as part of their calculation of the increases in aid. DfID admitted to including debt relief of GBP 1.15bn for Nigeria and GBP 673 million to Iraq to hide the fact that otherwise development funding would have fallen in real terms.
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The past few years has seen the burgeoning of a number of initiatives aimed at opening the fields of creativity, science and knowledge in communities around the world. Practitioners from these movements currently identify themselves as falling within a particular community – 'free and open source software', 'open access', 'open content' and 'open science', amongst others – but they share key processes and values whose common elements are yet to be fully realized. This year's iCommons Summit aims to bring together, in a creative, stimulating and cooperative environment, the pioneers from these communities – to inspire and learn from one another and establish closer working relationships around a set of incubator projects.

With time fast running out, scepticism is mounting at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that a deal on farm and industrial goods, crucial to an overall global trade pact, can be struck by the end of the month. Diplomats in Geneva say that the deadline - set by trade ministers last December in Hong Kong - looks unattainable and the big question facing the 149-state body is how to prevent a fresh failure from killing off the negotiations completely.

Uganda's Ministry of Finance controlled expenditure tightly in the first half of the 2005/6 financial year after donors cut or withheld $73 million in aid, a ministry report says. According to the semi-annual budget performance report, cuts in expenditure mitigated against the shortfall in domestic resources and grants, resulting in a budgetary deficit of Ush127.8 billion ($69 million) against a projected deficit of Ush140.9 billion ($76.1 million).

Immigration detainees facing deportation at Heathrow airport are being treated as though they are parcels, not people, the chief inspector of prisons in the UK, Anne Owers, has complained. She also found too many cases of force being used on reluctant deportees to take them to aircraft, with the counterproductive result that airlines refused to carry them.

Ethiopia has issued its first broadcasting licenses allowing private radio stations to operate in the Horn of Africa nation, officials said on Monday. The licenses were issued to two radio stations that will broadcast on FM, following a decision reached in February, according to Sissay Melese, spokesman for the Ethiopian Broadcast Authority (EBA).

wikidPad is a Wiki-like notebook for storing your thoughts, ideas, todo lists, contacts, or anything else you can think of to write down. What makes wikidPad different from other notepad applications is the ease with which you can cross-link your information.

Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge wants a new sheriff to police the global economy, a revamped and strengthened International Monetary Fund that would engage in "ruthless truth telling." In a speech at the Harvard Club, he expressed clear frustration with the failure of the world's leading industrialized countries to pursue reforms that he said are needed to head off a looming financial crisis. He proposed retooling the IMF to make it the global institution responsible for co-ordinating market-friendly reforms around the world, and for issuing warnings when countries fail to heed danger signs in their own economies.

An ongoing probe into the misuse of money from the Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Uganda has unearthed a "pile of filth" in the running of affairs in the East African country, according to the head of the commission of inquiry. Following the suspension in August 2005 of five grants worth US $367 million, questions had arisen regarding the fund managers' integrity. The Global Fund lifted its suspension in November 2005, after agreeing with the government on ways to overhaul the management of the fund. President Yoweri Museveni ordered a judicial inquiry into the use of the money.

The Government Accountability Project (GAP) has hailed a 10-page investigative report focusing on corruption at the World Bank. The article in the April 3 edition of US News & World Report focuses on extensive internal problems at the bank including how “kickbacks, payoffs, bribery, embezzlement, and collusive bidding plague bank-funded projects around the world.” The report estimates that more than 20 percent of the loans distributed by the World Bank, or $4 billion annually, are associated with corrupt practices.

Sur – International Journal on Human Rights welcomes contributions to be published in its coming issues. The Journal is published twice a year, distributed free of charge to approximately 3,000 readers in over 100 countries. It is edited in three languages: English, Portuguese and Spanish and can also be accessed through the internet at

This report presents the situation of 1,172 human rights defenders oppressed, as well as obstacles to freedom of association in nearly 90 countries This publication is an opportunity to alert the international public opinion on the situation of these men and women who, in spite of the tremendous risks they face, persist in denouncing the human rights violations they have witnessed.

Saving pandas, gorillas or tigers, often portrayed by critics of conservation as a trivial pursuit compared to the many other problems facing humanity, not only stops endangered species from going extinct but also helps reduce poverty and improves the lives of local communities in many parts of the world, says a new report by the World Wildlife Fund.

As the trade negotiations following the WTO conference in Hong Kong intensify, rich countries discuss many of the remaining issues in small and exclusive conferences. Focus on the Global South warns that these arrangements further undermine poor countries' ability to benefit from the Doha trade round. The publication also looks at the progress made to liberalize agricultural, non-agricultural and service markets.
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* NGO coalition calls for Paris Club debt negotiations to be moved to Africa

103 million children of primary school age are not in school; 58 million are girls. Two-thirds of illiterate adults are women. In a typical developing country, giving girls 1 additional year of schooling would save as many as 60,000 children's lives.