According to a new report from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, the Fund's efforts have contributed to saving an estimated 4.9 million lives by December 2009. The coming years will see even more results, as half of the total disbursements by the Global Fund were delivered in 2008 and 2009. Much of the US$ 5.4 billion of financing approved in Rounds 8 and 9 will reach countries in 2010 and 2011, and will continue to significantly boost health outcomes.

When the United Nations hosts a summit meeting of world leaders next September to assess the current state of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is expected to single out one of the major "success stories" of the day: a reduction in global poverty. But have there been any real, significant successes in the absolute number of people worldwide who have escaped poverty?

They inhabit a polluted part of Ivory Coast's main city with few jobs and a swelling population, but residents of Abidjan's slums have a rare respite: a stretch of pristine rainforest. From their wooden shacks and unpainted concrete houses by motorways on the edge of Banco National Park, the millions who live in north Abidjan need no lesson on its worth. "This forest is a great thing," said textile worker Sebastien Coulibaly, 35, in front of the sky-scraping green mass of vines and broccoli-shaped trees.

Sudanese government has expelled two foreign employees of the International Organization for Migration working in the country's Darfur region, the agency said Thursday. The organization's Geneva-based spokesman, Jean-Philippe Chauzy, said the Sudanese government gave no explanation for the move. The expulsion order comes days after the International Criminal Court charged Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, with genocide in Darfur.

For a while after the global financial crisis broke, we were told that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would change. The Group of Twenty (G-20) meeting in April 2009 provided a massive increase in resources for the IMF to provide lending to countries affected by the crisis. In return, the Fund announced that it was going to be more supportive of enlarged fiscal deficits and other expansionary measures in the face of the crisis, and provide large amounts of funds to developing countries to cope with the situation.

The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, has allocated some $41 million to underfunded humanitarian operations in nine countries across the globe where people are suffering the effects of hunger, malnutrition, disease, and conflict. The funds made available today will be granted to United Nations humanitarian agencies and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and through them to partner organizations, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to cover funding gaps in key humanitarian projects in the affected countries

IDMC has compiled a table showing the estimated numbers of IDPs over the past decade in all the countries which it monitors. The figures include people internally displaced by conflict, generalised violence or human rights violations. They are compiled from the figures published from 2001 to 2009 in IDMC’s annual summaries Internal displacement: Global overview of trends and developments.

In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, Zimbabwe, China strengthen economic cooperation, China Cement Maker Signs S. Africa Deal, Chinese-built hospital risks collapse in Angola, India commits USD 6.7 mn to African bank, and Lula da Silva to visit Cape Verde in July.

In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, will Japan follow in India and China’s footsteps?, World Bank votes $180m for research in Africa, China and Africa envision new security cooperation, China's Sinopec reports oil discovery in Nigeria, and SA and Brazil pledge to boost trade.

Argentina has approved a gay marriage law, making the country the first in Latin America where same-sex couples can wed. Same sex couples will now be granted the same rights, responsibilities and protections that married couples have. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s government supported the bill and defied the Catholic Church’s opposition to the law.

If you had 24 hours to capture your world on film, how would it look? The One Day on Earth project plans to have this question answered by tens of thousands of filmmakers worldwide. They are inviting global citizens everywhere to tell the story of their world during the 24-hour period of Oct. 10, 2010. Filmmakers will be able to share their videos and perspectives from 10/10/10 on

Friends of the Earth Europe has strongly criticised an agreement expected to be announced today by EU and Brazilian leaders to expand biofuels in Mozambique. The agreement to promote biofuels in Africa to power European cars is described as "immoral and perverse."

Zambia has sold more than 262 state-owned enterprises in the past 18 years, with the latest being the beleaguered telecommunications company Zamtel. As the debate continues about whether privatisation is the best policy option for the country, the government has learned from experience and addressed labour concerns more adequately in the most recent deal.

The Pixel Market incorporating The Pixel Pitch and The Pixel Meetings has now opened for applications. We are looking for international projects with stories that can span a combination of film, TV, online, mobile, interactive, publishing, live events and gaming. Applications must be made by the producer of the project and submitted through a production company. Enter now for your chance of winning the £6,000 ARTE Pixel Pitch Prize! Deadline for applications is Friday, 6 August 2010.

Rajiv Bhatia provides a historical overview of India's foreign policy towards the African continent. Reflecting on the successes and failures of this policy thus far, he lays out the political and economic motivations for a policy change and provides suggestions as to how government, business and civil society can work together to raise the relationship to a new level.

South African President Jacob Zuma hopes to take South Africa into the new international powerhouse of the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) by building on its flourishing relationship with Brazil, writes Janet Szabo. In this article, she explores the different characteristics and assets the country possesses that make it a bona fide member of this group of emerging powerhouses.

Following the Pope's address to victims of sexual abuse in Ireland, it's time for a specific apology to Rwandans for the Catholic Church's role in the country's 1994 genocide, says Jean Baptiste Kayigamba. The church has actively protected clerics allegedly involved in the genocide, Kayigamba argues, but now is the time for it to break its silence and acknowledge the role of some of its followers in perpetrating one of the worst genocides of the previous century.

Ten leading aid agencies have called for a 'surge' in the humanitarian effort to help 10 million people at risk of acute hunger across the Sahel region of West and Central Africa. The centre of the crisis is Niger, where seven million people, almost half the population do not have enough food. A further two million people in Chad, and hundreds of thousands more in Mali, Mauritania, parts of Burkina Faso and the extreme north of Nigeria are also suffering as a result of the crisis.

New research identifying Haiti and Mozambique as the countries most vulnerable to economic losses from natural disasters also classifies a number of industrialised economies, including Italy, Japan, China, USA, Spain and France, as "high risk" environments for investors, insurers and business.

The global food crisis of 2008 may have been superseded by the global financial crisis of 2009, but the jump in basic commodity prices that it brought about bodes ill for the developing world. In a bid to stave off a worst-case scenario of empty shelves and ration queues, many nations which rely on food imports have switched to a new strategy for food security — buying or leasing farmland overseas.