President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal 2012 includes sizable increases in funding for development, health, military and anti-narcotics initiatives in East Africa, reports The East African. The contrast between overall austerity and proposed funding increases for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda highlights the priority the White House assigns to a sub-region deemed of strategic importance to the United States. All the East African countries are in line for significant increases in health programmes that include anti-Aids efforts.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

Despite opposition from Ethiopia's president and environmental authorities, a rainforest area providing livelihood to an indigenous people has been leased out to make tea plantations. In a rare move, the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE) has been able to acquire government documents describing the struggle of the Mazenger and other indigenous people to protect their ancient forest-covered lands along tributaries to the White Nile.

The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) has found major IMF lapses in judgement before the financial crisis, including the promotion of 'light-touch regulation', casting doubt on the Fund's ability to contribute to taming global finance. As the banking crisis has been transformed into crises of public finance, and while the financial sector returns to business as usual, the IMF has grown increasingly vocal about the insufficient attention being paid to regulation and reform.

There is growing interest in the role that restorative justice can play in addressing mass atrocities. This UNICEF paper describes the associated principles and practices within juvenile justice systems and in societies emerging from mass violence. It also examines the meaning, opportunities and limitations of restorative justice in transitional societies, particularly in relation to the needs of young victims and offenders.

With US President Barack Obama’s release of his Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 foreign affairs budget and a proposal currently in the US House of Representatives for massive cuts in 2011 international spending, the fight to sustain US aid abroad is intensifying. Development and foreign policy analysts largely praised the administration’s funding appeal for reflecting conscientious adjustments in this constrained economic environment and for maximising returns by focusing spending on strategic areas such as global health, food security and climate change.

Bt cotton has increased crop yields for small farmers in southern India, a study has confirmed. But the increase is less than claimed by some studies, is unlikely to be sustainable and has come at a substantial cost to the farmers.

Fifty years ago the international community agreed upon a set of rights to which everyone is entitled. As the internet has become more important in our everyday lives and as we’ve seen in Egypt and Tunisia in the last few days, a critical means for people to defend their rights and to fight for them, the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should apply everywhere and at all times – including when people are communicating online, says the Association for Progressive Communications.

The global face of corruption is now coming under increasing scrutiny, writes Rasna Warah.

Talks to have private universities absorb some government sponsored students have stalled, reports the Daily Nation. The drive started last September when suspended Higher Education minister William Ruto invited heads of private universities to a meeting on increasing access to higher education. Ruto said expanding university education 'would give the economy the much needed human capital to drive its long-term growth strategy in line with Vision 2030'.

Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai Biti is likely to boycott a forthcoming trip to China to tie up a controversial $3-billion platinum deal which has provoked a political storm. Government insiders and diplomatic officials say relations between Harare and Beijing could become strained if Biti snubs the talks. China is anxious to secure huge platinum deposits in Zimbabwe worth about $40-billion for a market price of $3-billion. This has angered Harare officials, who think the Chinese want to swindle the country.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers....

This training will have three main components: a high level brainstorming session that will bring together leaders from Eastern Africa, China, India and Europe; a scholars’ discussion and critique session; and a delegates’ workshop on the theme: Is Eastern Africa Ready for China, India and Europe?

In the following presentation,

In the following presentation,

In an interview with Zahra Moloo,

The Power of Persistence report highlights the importance of recognising the evolving dynamics of national politics and institutions in achieving sustainable, long-term improvements in education systems. A section of the report reviews the introduction of education reforms in five countries over a 20-year period. The five countries - Egypt, El Salvador, Namibia, Nicaragua, and Zambia - are not intended to be broadly representative of all developing countries, but do capture a range of national contexts, including post-conflict recovery, democratic transitions and elections, scale of national bureaucracy, and role of civil society.

Political leaders have committed to ramping up restoration of the world's forests and tackling poverty in forest communities as part of pledges made at the ninth session Forum on Forests. Rwanda, in central eastern Africa, led the way with promises to launch a 25-year plan to tackle ecosystem degradation and improve rural livelihoods, a move hailed by environmental groups including the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The true scale of the theft of overseas aid money by corrupt foreign regimes is disclosed in leaked documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph. Tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been pocketed by their ministers and officials, much of it used to buy luxury goods. In one of the worst cases, £1.2million given to Sierra Leone by the Department for International Development (DfID) to 'support peacekeeping' was stolen by the country’s 'top brass' and spent on plasma television sets, hunting rifles and other consumer items.

The US has followed Germany's footsteps to withhold about $350 million that was supposed to be disbursed to Malawi this month through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Last month, US Government announced that Malawi had qualified for the $350 million grant to improve the energy sector. The signing of the same was supposed to take place mid February in Washington. However, Washington has put a plug to the whole process citing Malawi’s failure to observe governance and human rights issues.