On 13 September, one million paper cut-out figures will embark on the final stage of a global journey that has taken them from schools in 170 countries, via the G8 Summit in Scotland, to the 2005 World Summit in New York, being held at the United Nations Headquarters from 14-16 September. These figures represent the more than 100 million children who are not in school. They have been made and sent by children from all over the world in a plea to world leaders to speed up action to “send my friend to school.” The campaign has been organized by the Global Campaign for Education in partnership with the UNAIDS-led Global Coalition on Women and AIDS.

The Global Fund is a critical mechanism in international efforts to eradicate disease and poverty. Donor governments will hold a Replenishment Meeting in London on 5-6 September 2005 to raise the Global Fund’s stated needs: $2.9 billion in 2006 (plus a further $0.7 billion to meet the anticipated 2005 funding gap), and $4.2 billion in 2007, for a total of $7.8 billion. If the Global Fund does not have enough resources, implementing the G8’s recent promise to achieve universal access to HIV treatment by 2010 will be impossible.

Microfinance has gone far beyond a few small loans to struggling female entrepreneurs. These days it adds up to 10,000 lending institutions, at least 50 million customers and nagging questions about high interest rates. Microfinance may be all about small loans to women running tiny enterprises such as selling fruits and vegetables off a cart. But for the world of finance it's also become a big business. After growing by between 20 percent and 40 percent a year for the last decade, microfinance now involves about 10,000 lenders and at least 50 million borrowers. With loans averaging around $530, billions of dollars are reaching struggling entrepreneurs around the world whose incomes are too low to qualify them for traditional bank loans. With some 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day, the client base of people too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans has plenty of room to grow, say industry participants.

Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in Mozambique will go hungry unless the international community provides urgent funding for aid programmes, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. "We urgently need US $19 million to keep essential feeding programmes going for 430,000 people in Mozambique, but we need the assistance now," WFP's Regional Director for Southern Africa, Mike Sackett, said in a statement.

Imo State government has approved the establishment of a Forestry Trust Fund (FTF) in the state. Flagging off this year's tree planting campaign in Owerri, Governor Achike Udenwa, also directed local council administrations to encourage the people to plant economic trees. "In recognition of the role trees and forests can play in realising our tripod vision, my administration approved the establishment of a Forestry Trust Fund in Imo State," Udenwa disclosed.

The Third World Network-Africa has conducted research on the environmental and socio-economic impacts of mining on Obuasi and its satellite communities. As part of the process of validating the findings of the research, TWN-Africa organised a two-day workshop for communities who participated in the workshop. The statement that follows is part of an outcome of the workshop. “We, 18 communities affected by mining from Obuasi, Kenyasi, Bibiani, Himan-Prestea, Hia, Anyinam, Tarkwa, Oseikrom/Twinsaaso, New Bidiem, Ankaako, Ntonsu, Ayankyerem, Kwaberefoso, Jimiso, Ewiase, Dokyiwaa, and Fenaso-Fawoman participating in a two-day workshop in Kumasi, Ghana, from August 24th to 25th, 2005 to validate a research conducted on the environmental and socio-economic impact of mining (Anglo-gold-Ashanti Obuasi Mines) in Obuasi and surrounding communities, and also the potential effects of the mining bill, have come to a number of conclusions.” Please follow the link to read the report in its entirety.

2004-2005 saw an upsurge in seed industry takeovers and a shake-up in rankings. Today, the top 10 companies control half of the world’s commercial seed sales. With a total worldwide market of approximately US $21 000 (21 billion) per annum, the commercial seed industry is relatively small compared to the global pesticide market ($35 400 million), and it’s positively puny compared to pharmaceutical sales ($466 000 million). But corporate control and ownership of seeds – the first link in the food chain – has far reaching implications for global food security. This Communique examines seed industry consolidation and other recent trends in the commercial seed industry.

Governance - which remains a sensitive and misunderstood topic - is now being given a higher priority in development circles. A few donors and international financial institutions (IFIs) have begun to work with some emerging economies to help reduce corruption, and encourage citizen voice, gender equality, and accountability. Click on the link to the article to find out what the 10 “myths” of corruption are.

This paper takes as its starting point the assumption that variations in refugee status determination procedures and the use of evidence by national authorities and UNHCR lead to inconsistent and irregular results. It therefore aims to present a reasonable prescription of remedies, by which the application of the 1951 Refugee Convention definition can be made more consistent and predictable.

News that foreign consultants in Malawi are lavishly spending British aid money on hotels and meals has ignited controversy. The British Broadcasting Corporation reported that over a period of four years, some £586,423 (US $1 million) of a £3 million ($5.3 million) donation by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) to a project aimed at strengthening Malawi's parliament and civil society was spent on hotels, while another £126,062 ($226,395) went on meals. The UK's National Audit Office was reportedly contemplating an inquiry into DFID's use of foreign consultants.

Aid agencies handing out emergency food in Niger are urging donors to keep the contributions flowing, so help won’t fizzle out just as Nigeriens begin to rebuild their livelihoods and their means to avert deadly food shortages in the future. The World Food Programme (WFP) is appealing to the international community not to turn away from Niger, after donations suffered a sharp drop from almost daily pledges during July to just three in the past fortnight.

"From the 16-19 of August, 2005, organisations of civil society from across Africa, comprising trade unions, farmers organisations, women's organisations, faith-based organisations and non-governmental organisations, met in Accra under the umbrella of the Africa Trade Network to deliberate upon the challenges posed to African countries in the on-going negotiations at the WTO, particularly in the preparations for the December Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. We adopted the following conclusions and demands." Read the full statement by clicking on the link provided.

Ahead of the United Nations Millennium +5 review Summit, 25 African and International civil society organizations from different regions of Africa met in Nairobi, Kenya to study the draft outcome text and formulate messages for Governments and regional institutions. Read the statement from the meeting by clicking on the URL provided.

The United Nations summit next month on promoting the millennium development goals could end up delaying progress, a leading British charity says. The UN summit has been called at its headquarters in New York September 14 to 16 to review action on the millennium development goals (MDGs). A draft declaration for a UN text on the MDGs was produced Aug. 5 following proposals made earlier in June by China and other developing nations. "Very few of those amendments were incorporated in the draft text," Peter Hardstaff from the World Development Movement (WDM) told IPS. The review summit next month will now consider several amendments from the United States ''which sound like a complete reversal of even what is in the draft declaration,'' Hardstaff said.

"There is a direct and critical link between environmental degradation and rural poverty. Our groups on the ground and the communities they work with can also bear witness to the fact that neoliberal economic globalization has increased environmental devastation and poverty among natural resource dependent people." This is according to a new Friends of the Earth report that looks at the role the environment can play in dealing with poverty.

Walden Bellow from Focus on the Global South writes that civil society groups that regard the coming WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong as condemned to producing a deal that can only be detrimental to the interests of developing countries were cheered by the failure of the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council meeting in late July to arrive at substantive agreements in any of the critical areas of negotiations: agriculture, non-agricultural products, and services. Indeed, most observers, including the media, have largely characterized the inability to produce the "July Approximations" as a significant setback to securing a successful ministerial in Hong Kong in December, he writes.

Despite the fact that trade between China, India (Asian Drivers) and Africa has grown significantly since 1990, it is only recently that attention has been paid to their impact on the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, China and India have also emerged as sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). This paper published by the Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN) focuses on the impacts that these links have on poverty in sub saharan Africa. Through analysing 21 African countries (accounting for four-fifths of the total population of Sub-Saharan Africa) it aims to set the context for the poverty implications. The authors argue that the likely impact of trade changes on the poor will partially depend on the types of goods involved and the conditions under which they are produced.

Over the past decade there has been a significant growth in the use of voluntary codes of conduct and certification schemes as a way of strengthening NGO accountability. Current estimates suggest that self-regulatory initiatives such as these are in operation in over 40 countries worldwide. This paper from the One World Trust examines their rise and investigates the debate that surrounds them. The paper is particularly concerned with developing an understanding of under what conditions self-regulation initiatives can increase NGO's accountability to their beneficiaries.

Nestle has a serious image problem because of its on-going aggressive marketing of baby foods, according to a report by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). "Instead of making changes required to bring its practices fully into line with international marketing standards, Nestlé invests heavily in Public Relations (PR) initiatives intended to divert criticism. But Nestlé makes demonstrably untrue claims which have resulted in further damaging publicity." National groups have launched boycotts against Nestlé in 20 countries because of its unethical and irresponsible marketing of breastmilk substitutes, says the report. Nestlé is singled out for boycott action because independent monitoring conducted by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) finds it to be the largest single source of violations of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent, relevant World Health Assembly Resolutions worldwide.

One of the world's biggest mining companies has been given permission to open up an enormous mine on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar which will involve digging up some of the world's most unique forest, reports the UK Observer. The decision has outraged campaigners at Friends of the Earth, who had opposed the plans from the outset. It is all the more poignant because one of their leading directors, Andrew Lees, died 10 years ago in the same forest while investigating the controversial plans for a mine.