A new fund will support women's health organizations around that world that have been cut off from US aid because their stance on abortion is not in line with the Bush Administration's. The UK has already pledged $5 million. While the rest of the world is working to mediate the harm of the Global Gag Rule, the United States continues to march down a destructive path by cutting funding to foreign assistance programs that benefit the health and empowerment of women and children.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan commissioned a study by a US consulting firm into outsourcing a UN department. This Business article asserts that the UN has drawn up plans for privatizing the bulk of its staff at its New York headquarters and to outsource their work overseas. With Washington pressuring the UN to cut costs, the study explores possibilities for privatization from the conservative to the radical.

Most demographers agree that by 2050, the world's population will rise to at least 9.2 billion. It will take an increase to the world's agricultural land the size of Brazil to feed this population - far more than is available. Horizontal farming is destructive of ecosystems, habitat, and water and is a significant cause of climate change. Advocates of vertical indoor farming believe that - if practiced on a large scale in urban centres - it has potential to: sustainably feed the world. A single building 30 stories high with a city block footprint could feed 10,000 people.

Provided economic growth remains on track, it is anticipated that global poverty will fall to 10% of the population by 2015, achieving the target. However, worldwide figures mask the true picture. Asia is making good progress, driven by growth in China and India; but there is little movement elsewhere and many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have gone backwards, seeing an increase in the proportion of people in extreme poverty. During the 1990s, millions more people fell into extreme poverty in Sub Saharan Africa, according to the report by DFID.

The Bamako Appeal, issued from a meeting just before the World Social Forum, Bamako, January, 2006, has now been launched for signature, in French, English and Spanish, by the Dakar-based Forum Tiers Monde/Third World Forum. “The Bamako Appeal and the proposals for a plan of action included in the document were adopted by the Assembly of Social Movements of the World Social Forum which met in Caracas on January 29, 2006, in the frame of the polycentric WSF 2006.”

UNAIDS has launched a new version of its website complete with a new navigation, branding and logo. The website, which will also be available in French, Spanish and Russian, provides content specifically chosen for each audience group; business and labour; civil society; donors; media; people living with HIV/AIDS; policy-makers; researchers; the UN family; and women as well as an easier more intuitive navigation structure.

The Executive Secretariat of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) has announced the freezing of the web-pages of both the Geneva and Tunis phases of the summit. This is coming as it has taken a firm step in updating media professionals on the post-WSIS related information by maintaining its 'WSIS E-Flash' medium.

Any not-for-profit, civil society or non-governmental organisation based anywhere in the world can enter to win this annual US$1 million prize for their contributions to addressing and progressing economic, environmental and/or social sustainability.

Since 1976, Tides Foundation has worked with donors committed to positive social change, putting resources and people together to strengthen community-based nonprofit organizations and the progressive movement through innovative grantmaking.

The Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Worlds of Education, Education International’s bi-monthly magazine, is now available. Issue 17 includes articles an on fighting HIV/AIDS and related discrimination in the classroom, a report on the pursuit of the Education For All agenda at the G8 Summit and a report from the International Convention on cultural diversity.

The world's nearly 6,000 languages will be celebrated on International Mother Language Day, an event aimed at promoting linguistic diversity and multilingual education. Ensuring that these languages can continue in use alongside the major international languages of communication is a genuine challenge to countries worldwide. Today, about half of the 6,000 or so languages spoken in the world are under threat. This year's theme will be devoted to the topic of languages and cyberspace, reports UNESCO.

Relatives of 10 alleged Somali pirates have said that the suspects were innocent fishermen. The men in question were captured by US naval soldiers who came to rescue MV Safinat Al-Basarat, an Indian boat, which together with its 16 crew members, was allegedly being highjacked by the Somalis. "Our sons and brothers were not hooded men committing sinful acts. They were on a fishing trip in Somalia's territorial waters," claimed a man interviewed by a local FM Radio station.

Kenyans in the diaspora are contributing an equivalent of 3.8 per cent of national income through remittances. In the year 2004, for instance, Kenyans living and working abroad remitted about Ksh35 billion ($464 million), which overshadows the net foreign direct investment (FDI) of Ksh3.6 billion ($50.4 million), which accounted for 0.41 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. "Migration is an important issue in Kenya, with the country both a significant destination and a source of migrants," said Francis Mwega of the Department of Economics at the University of Nairobi during the launch of the World Bank's 2006 Global Economic Prospects report in Nairobi.

This paper examines how excluded children are planned for in education. It provides guidelines and concepts for rendering National Education Plans / Education for All (EFA) more inclusive, with the objective of ensuring access and quality education for all learners. The guidelines are intended to provide information and awareness and to be a policy tool for revising and formulating EFA plans.

While the White House has long denied funding to overseas groups that help women obtain abortions, U.S. President George W. Bush's new budget proposal looks to reduce funding to international family planning groups the administration previously had lauded as effective in preventing abortions. The proposed 18% cut is drawing the ire of nonprofit groups and Democrats on Capitol Hill. "It's ironic that an administration outwardly committed to reducing the incidence of abortion would take away valuable tools for preventing unwanted pregnancies," one Democratic congresswoman said, reports the New York
Times.

A weekly newsletter which draws on more than 100 sources in 37 countries to present articles which the publishers believe have been underreported or overlooked.

The Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Pascal Lamy, came to Wits University at the invitation of the South African Institute for International Affairs. He was greeted by protestors inside the venue who were forcibly removed to join the picket of the event outside. The protestors continued to dog Lamy at his next engagement at the Nedlac chamber in Rosebank.

How do people turn laws into better lives? How can and how do people live their rights? Join us for a unique, one time only online Live Chat, hosted by TakingITGlobal and Chat the Planet. Experts from Rwanda and South Africa will join the Live Chat to talk about what they know from their work on bridging the gap between words on a page and a safer, healthier and more equal society.

On January 23rd the UN Committee on Non-governmental Organizations decided not to recommend consultative status with ECOSOC for International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) and Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians. The decision was criticized by the representative of Germany, who named it an act of discrimination and stressed that it was a signal sent to the world that discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation was acceptable. The Danish representative talking in support of Danish NGO emphasized that it worked in a professional manner and produced valuable work. Voices against recommending both NGOs for consultative status came from: Cameroon, China, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Senegal, Sudan, US, and Zimbabwe. Voices in favor came from: Chile, France, Germany, Peru and Romania. Colombia, India and Turkey abstained. Cote d'Ivoire was absent.

The volume of foreign aid has increased during the last four decades, albeit with interruptions in certain years. Over time, the major recipients have changed: while the share of aid to Asia has diminished since the 1980s, that destined for sub-Saharan Africa has grown. There is some evidence that, since the late 1990s, debt relief has assumed a larger share of the increased aid flows to sub-Saharan Africa. The share of technical cooperation—a component of aid that is viewed as being driven by donors—has risen.