With trade between China and the Portuguese-speaking Macau Forum countries falling in the wake of the global economic downturn, Lucy Corkin discusses Macau's efforts to 'leverage its position more aggressively to promote trade and investment between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries'.

In this week's emerging powers news roundup, Stephen Marks looks at preparations for the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation [FOCAC] ministerial meeting, the growing controversy over Chinese investments in Guinea and DRC, and criticism of China from the US for keeping its currency too low.

The IICD-supported Global Teenager Project (GTP) has launched a new virtual learning environment to support online classroom discussion on social issues with peers from all over the world. Founded in 1998, GTP offers collaborative global learning to over 10,000 students in 34 countries based on themes, or Learning Circles.

Concerns abound about a nine billion dollar Chinese investment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, especially around environmental consequences and transparency. And, on the Chinese side, investors complain not only about the lack of security in the DRC but about their own government not providing enough support.

India has offered Democratic Republic of Congo $263 million in loans to build hydroelectric plants and repair battered infrastructure in the war-ravaged central African nation, Congo's foreign minister said on Friday.

What are the key strategies for closing the gender gap in agricultural production? This paper from the International Food Policy Research Institute reviews attempts to increase poor female farmers’ access to, and control of, productive resources in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

A French appeals court has halted a lawsuit against three African leaders accused of embezzlement. Anti-corruption group Transparency International had accused the leaders of using African public funds to buy luxury homes and cars in France.

It is projected that if the economy does not improve within the next two years, more than half a million mineworkers in the region will lose their jobs. It is estimated that more than 25% of mineworkers are HIV positive. Only two countries reviewed in the study have sufficient reserves to deal with a long-term recession.

The PhD in Human Rights and Peace Studies is the only PhD program of its kind in Asia, while the MA is the longest running graduate degree program in human rights in Asia. These programs offer a unique opportunity to engage in depth with the highly important issues of human rights and peace in the world today. The objectives of the programs are to produce graduates with excellent research skills and thorough theoretical and conceptual knowledge of these fields, and who are able to apply this knowledge to the field.

This paper looks at IMF agreements with 41 countries. These include Stand-By Arrangements (SBA), Poverty Reduction and Growth Facilities (PRGF), and Exogenous Shocks Facilities (ESF). The paper finds that 31 of the 41 agreements contain pro-cyclical macroeconomic policies. These are either pro-cyclical fiscal or monetary policies – or in 15 cases, both – that, in the face of a significant slowdown in growth or in a recession, would be expected to exacerbate the downturn.

The International Council on Human Rights Policy has released a new report, When Legal Worlds Overlap: Human Rights, State and Non-State Law. This report highlights human rights impacts and dilemmas associated with plural state and non-state laws, such as family laws based on religion, customary justice practices and Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms. Drawing on examples of such plural legal orders from around the world, it proposes principles and a framework to guide human rights practitioners and policy-makers.

The prominence of the Obama family has brought black people's humanity onto the world stage, writes Patricia Daley. The Obama family's success challenges patriarchal systems headed by white alpha-males and reveals possibilities of overcoming exclusion for non-white people across North and South America and Europe, Daley contends, albeit in the face of a backlash aimed at reinforcing white supremacy. But if struggles in the West over racial exclusivity can ultimately promote greater confidence from Africans and black people around the world, will there be a fresh impetus to challenge explicit and implicit claims of superiority?

Yellow fever is a “ticking time bomb”, while measles has been eliminated three years ahead of schedule in parts of Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. These are among the highlights of the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) report, State of the World’s Vaccines and Immunization:

Transparency International, the leading civil society organisation fighting corruption worldwide, will release its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) on 17 November 2009. The index ranks 180 countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. Released annually since 1995, the CPI helps to highlight the propensity of domestic corruption and its damaging influence.

The economic crisis is a fresh reason to meet Millennium Development Goal targets, not an excuse to miss them, said European Commission president Jose-Manuel Barroso, opening the dialogue at the fourth edition of the European Development Days (EDD).

A recent UN report documents the humanitarian impact of the blockade imposed by Israel since June 2007 on the 1.5 million people living in the Gaza Strip. It focuses on the effects of the import and export restrictions and the travel ban to and from Gaza on livelihoods, food security, education, health, shelter, energy and water and sanitation

Key players in the global trade arena have not shown the kind of flexibility to indicate that a Doha deal could be reached in the next year or so, International Trade and Economic Development Deputy Director General Xavier Carim has said.

The priority for AIDS virologists in coming months is to find out exactly how the Thailand vaccine, which gave 30 percent protection against HIV, worked. This was the urging of one of the world’s greatest AIDS researchers, Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), at the close of the Paris AIDS Vaccine Conference.

Kenya’s government is in talks with Beijing over development of a multi-billion dollar port and transport corridor that could provide a new export route for Chinese oil in southern Sudan. The cash-strapped Kenyan government opened negotiations with Qatar over a potential $3.5bn investment in the port project late last year in return for a lease on 40,000 hectares of land to grow crops.

Reports that China is financing investments to the tune of $7bn in military-ruled Guinea in exchange for access to its resources have re-ignited western fears about Chinese activities in Africa. Portrayed as a callous grab for resources that ignores the recent killing of Guinean opposition protesters by government troops, closer analysis of the situation reveals as much about foreign perceptions of China in Africa as its does about one of the continent's most significant economic relationships.