The UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees) is organising Global Consultations on International Protection. They reflect the heightened recognition over recent years of the fact that refugee protection is an international concern and that crafting responses to address many of today's issues is best approached on the basis of multilateral cooperation, fully informed by the protection concerns at stake, as well as the dilemmas and challenges in addressing them in all regions. To move the process forward, UNHCR is committed to ensuring the fullest possible involvement of the major stakeholders in the process, including NGOs.

On the second day of his "working" visit to the United States, Nigerian President Olusegun Obansanjo met with President George Bush, African-American leaders, World Bank and IMF executives and congressional leaders. But HIV/AIDS and regional conflict in Africa framed the key discussions.

The National Women's Law Center and Catholics for a Free Choice (CFC) are urging the U.S. House of Representatives to support an amendment to this year's State Department funding bill that would overturn President George W.Bush's ban on federal money for organizations that support or perform abortions abroad.

Mining in rebel-held eastern Congo is driving eastern lowland gorillas closer to extinction and destroying outstanding national parks, the World Wide Fund for Nature said yesterday. Thousands of miners seeking the highly prized mineral colombo tantalite, known as coltan, have invaded and severely damaged the forests in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in eastern Congo, WWF said.

Denmark will not increase aid before the government makes significant improvement on governance and the fight against graft, it announced last week.

Combating the spread of infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS and the spread of poverty, are of primary concern, financial officials said at the close of the spring meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Briefing reporters after the final session of the Development Committee, World Bank President James Wolfensohn said there was "warm recognition both of the Bank's role and of the partnership which exists between the Bank and the Fund with poverty at its center."

Brian Wilson, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Minister of State, on 4 May met representatives of the Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana governments as well as from the cocoa and chocolate industry on the issue of slave labour in the cocoa industry.
The meeting has resulted in agreement to establish a task force comprising government, industry and trade, and non-governmental organisations to address the issue of forced labour in West African cocoa production.

In applying the concept of public-private partnerships, we look for public and private sector collaboration that can provide education more efficiently, effectively and with equal access. To maximize the respective strengths of public and private partnerships in the education sector and minimize their weaknesses, policymakers need to understand better the possibilities and conditions for partnerships, including the optimal legal and regulatory frameworks, and some of the benefits and costs that a partnership arrangement may involve.

A case arguing the constitutionality of an aspect of the Western Cape education department's rationalisation programme will be tackled in the Constitutional Court today. The governing bodies of schools for children with disabilities, Education for Learners with Special Educational Needs (Elsen), are challenging the department's rationalisation programme in an appeal case.

This not-for-profit independent research body has received a foundation grant to implement a research project on the implications of globalisation for the countries of East Africa. Dates: Apply before June 30 2001, to commence by end 2001. 2 year contract. Positions: 1 post-doctoral fellow, 2 assistant research fellows, 1 research assistant.

Civil society organizations have an opportunity to speak with one voice when the Second Global Forum on Fighting Corruption takes place in The Hague, The Netherlands from May 28-31, 2001. The Humanist Institute for Co-operation with Developing Countries (Hivos) and Transparency International, in co-operation with a number of Southern anti-corruption organizations, have drawn up an open letter which will be presented to the second Global Forum’s plenary session of Government Ministers on May 31. We hope your organization will be in general agreement with the text of this letter, which can be found below.

Are you interested in teaching about the global economy in your classroom? This five-day institute will focus on an inter-disciplinary approach to teaching about economic and social globalization in grades 6-14. Join community and business leaders, master teachers, and other experts to examine multiple perspectives on globalization issues and learn how to bring these critical debates into the classroom.

African anger over tough and "dogmatic" conditions imposed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund is absent from the Bretton Woods institutions' spring meetings for the first time in many years.

President Yoweri Museveni has said the Government is to extend financial grants to all private universities because of their role in economic growth of the country.

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press for IFPRI. 275 pages,paperback $21.95 ISBN 1-8018-6604-9,hardcover $51.95 ISBN 1-8018-6603-0 Agricultural research and development will be key to increasing the quantity and quality of the world's food in the 21st century. This book examines the changes affecting agricultural science policy, including issues such as the environment, genetic diversity, food safety, poverty,human health, public versus private responsibilities, and intellectual property rights.

Call for the establishment of the Global Dot Org Alliance. Current working title: Health Internet Society (HISOC).

The top United Nations peacekeeping official today confirmed the establishment of a Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) in Ethiopia and Eritrea along the countries' common border. Briefing the UN Security Council on developments in the region, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno called the TSZ's establishment, which was announced yesterday, an "important milestone in the peace process."

Following the events in Benin, where a ship allegedly carrying 250 child slaves docked safely in Cotonou, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has urged its affiliates in West Africa to step up the pressure on their governments to end child slavery. The call comes just as the ICFTU has launched a new global campaign to end child labour.

Local libraries should adopt new technologies to process and store information, a workshop in Kenya was told recently. The director of Unesco, in Nairobi Dr Paul Vitta, challenged libraries to embrace new storage systems where library card catalogues are replaced by online ones for indexing, retrieval and interchange techniques.

The Senate agreed last night that the United States should double current spending on the global battle against HIV/AIDS to more than $1 billion within the next two years.