Corruption is deeply embedded in the political culture and poverty of many less developed countries (LDCs). Regulatory bodies are particularly vulnerable to corruption as they have the power to make key decisions on profit-making activities. Corrupt regulatory bodies can thus dangerously impede economic development. And the problem with prescribed remedies is that they are too ambitious. Corruption is likely to remain a factor in many LDCs until substantial changes in their political cultures and economic structures have been achieved.

The Group of 20 will be working on a critical programme the following week, in a bid to spur the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha trade negotiations that collapsed in Cancun, Mexico, in September. The talks ended in a deadlock after developed nations and an alliance of developing nations failed to agree on key issues such as market access, domestic support and export competition in agriculture.

The main WTO negotiations carried out these days in Geneva, convened by the Chairman of the General Council, are held amongst only a very small group of about 30 delegations. This includes the all-important issue of agriculture. As one developing world negotiator informally commented: ‘We have been excluded from all the consultations post-Cancun. The process also has to be inclusive. How else are we going to ensure that our concerns are taken on board?’

UNICEF will launch its annual flagship report, The State of the World's Children, on 11 December 2003. The 2004 report presents girls' education as one of the most crucial issues facing the international development community.

This book grew out of a shared interest in and commitment to the approaches of contemporary social movements to alternative visions of globalisation.

A U.N. conference on climate change opened Monday, with organisers stressing there was "unquestionable" scientific proof that human beings caused global warming. The meeting was clouded by new doubts that the U.S.-rejected Kyoto pact on curbing greenhouse gas emissions would ever go into effect.

The number of people fleeing war, persecution, environmental destruction, poverty - or just seeking a better life - is nearing a staggering 250 million. As efforts to help the involuntarily uprooted evolve, significant questions arise: Which responsibilities should governments shoulder, which the international community? How can refugees best be protected? And if, as many believe, the number of uprooted continues to grow, how will the protection regime need to evolve? Although the price of aid may be great, failing to help the displaced may in the end carry an even higher price.

The challenge of the coming decade demands new approaches in dealing with the underlying causes of poverty in Africa. Importantly there is a need for the African Development Bank (AfDB) to transform into a development finance institution that is relevant to Africa’s long term development. There is a need to establish alliances with grassroots organisations and civil society in developing breakthrough solutions to the myriad of problems that besiege the African continent, says this paper from AFRODAD, a research, lobby and advocacy organisation.

The town of Kuruman in the Northern Cape turned into a battle field following an assault on a black customer by a white business owner. A mob from the black community then ran amok in what was believed to be revenge and caused serious damage to the nearby businesses, vehicles and injuries to locals.

Zimbabweans view the country's banking industry as being very corrupt according to a recent survey of the sector. Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ), a subsidiary of the international anti-corruption movement, commissioned the survey in collaboration with the Mass Public Opinion Institute.

Africa's development partners have been urged to help repatriate all ill-gotten wealth stashed in their countries' banks. This call was made in Lagos by the United Nation's Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, Professor Ibrahim Gambari.

The number of school-aged children had outpaced the growth in the number of teachers worldwide in the 1990s, packing classrooms in some developing countries with as many as 100 students per teacher, says a recent study. The Statistical Profile of the Teaching Profession is based on the most extensive set of data ever gathered on teachers. It looks at how many teachers there are, who they are and what training they have received, their working conditions and how much their governments invest in them.

People in the developing world receive too many injections, and one in three of the injections is administered with an unsterile needle, increasing the risk of HIV transmission, according to a study published in the November 8 issue of the British Medical Journal.

It is possible to control TB. In contrast to some other modern plagues, with TB we know what must be done, we know how to do it, and we know how much it will cost, states a paper by the Stop TB Partnership. "If we effectively apply proven, cost-effective strategies for TB control, adapting and improving them to meet the challenges described in this document over the next five years, we will have taken a giant step towards eliminating tuberculosis as a threat to future generations."

To date, public awareness of the role of the WTO has largely focussed on the protests surrounding its biannual ministerial meetings, most notably in Seattle in November 1999. However both in Seattle, and subsequently, a less visible process of dialogue between civil society and trade policy makers has been developing at national level. These stakeholders include non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with poor and marginalised communities. A number of governments from both developing and developed countries included NGO representatives on their official delegations to the Seattle and Doha (2001) Ministerials. The aim of the exercise is twofold: involving a wide group of stakeholders in policy design should lead to trade policies that better reflect the needs and interests of the public, and should also encourage more widespread ‘ownership’ of national trade policies, helping to avoid damaging splits between governments and the organisations of the poor. This paper looks at two examples of stakeholder involvement from East Africa - Uganda and Kenya.

This paper assesses the impact that the Global Gag Rule has had on Zambia's reproductive health situation. The Global Gag Rule prohibits US assistance to foreign NGOs that use funding from any other source to fund abortions in cases other than exceptional.

Globalization is one of the most charged political battlegrounds of our age. Its advocates say it is an engine for universal prosperity, while its critics see it as a race to the bottom for poor people and poor countries. Both sides either don’t or won’t understand what the other is saying. Worlds Apart bridges this divide by interpreting both sets of arguments and getting behind the polemics. It is not, however, a search for a middle ground. It unashamedly looks at the issues through a poverty lens and highlights the injustices of widening inequalities and stacked odds in world trade and finance.

Last week African National Congress provincial structures wrapped up their selection of candidates for next year's general elections. The names of the candidates they chose will be sent to a meeting of the organisation's national list committee - scheduled for November 21 and 22 - where they will be vetted to make sure that they meet the ANC's criteria for holding public office. The committee will also have to make sure that every third candidate is a woman.

There has been an increase in human rights violations associated with the return of DRC government (FAC) troops to the territory of Malemba Nkulu on 5 September 2003, reports Action Against Hunger. Malemba Nkulu Territory has been the centre of a power struggle between FAC and the MayiMayi local militia since early 2002 attributing to a precarious humanitarian situation for much of the 230,000 civilians living in this area.

Recently corruption has entered the stage of international policy discussion in a major way. On average the poorer countries are also the more corrupt. In this context, an important issue of international corruption is whether multinational enterprises and national and international aid organisations with origins in richer countries are important suppliers of bribes to public administrations and politicians in poor countries. A paper from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs looks at corruption in the context of the debate on ‘globalisation’.