It may be no surprise, in light of the global economic recession, that the world's richest nations have failed to deliver much of the aid they promised Africa four years ago. But campaigners are not letting the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized countries off the hook. According to ONE, an advocacy group founded by U2 singer Bono, most of the blame for the shortfall in pledges made at the high-profile Gleneagles summit in 2005 rests on just two countries — Italy and France.

We are civil society organizations from throughout the world that have contributed to the Human Rights Council and its work since its establishment. We have observed with increasing concern developments in the Council, including at the current 11th Session, that are undermining the work of the Council’s Special Procedures. This session has seen extraordinary personal attacks by some States on the integrity of mandate holders and specific threats to their independence.

While China is yet to establish itself as a great power, it is certainly one in the making, writes Saliem Fakir. On the strength of global demand for its cheap goods, the Asian giant's rise has enabled it to accumulate considerable surpluses from Western capital flows. Just as this rise has somewhat dispelled the idea of no-development-without-democracy, China's willingness to regard its trading partners' policies as internal matters marks a clear contrast with the conditionalities stipulated by Western countries and institutions. Though unlikely to entirely displace the influence of the West in the immediate future, China's own prioritising of economic reform over political liberalisation is proving increasingly influential in a changing world order, Fakir observes.

In light of the rapid growth of China’s investment in Africa and bi-lateral trade worth US$100 billion in just two years, Sanusha Naidu, debates whether the country is promoting development across the continent, or is driven largely by mercantilist imperatives. The questions to ask, says Naidu, are which Africans are benefiting from Chinese money, and whether China will continue its large-scale investments in Africa as the financial crisis bites. Naidu cautions that Beijing may ‘become more strategic and perhaps more prudent around which of its investment projects it wants to initiate based on overall benefits and viability’, making it unwise to bank on China’s massive foreign reserves. If Chinese investment is to promote development, Naidu argues, it must take ‘a bottom-up approach that recognises the daily social justice struggles of ordinary Africans for socio-economic survival rather than intensifying them’.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, has proposed a minimum a set of principles and measures based on human rights in the elaboration of large-scale transnational land acquisitions and leases, more commonly referred to as "land grabbing". His call comes at a time when Governments are preparing to negotiate on responsible investment in agriculture at the forthcoming G8 Summit.

The financial crisis could force more girls into work as financially squeezed families withdraw their daughters from school to seek jobs, warns the International Labour Organization in a report released on 12 June, World Day Against Child Labour. “The root cause of child labour is poverty”, report author, Patrick Quinn told IRIN. "There is a strong likelihood that girls will be sent into work as families cannot afford school fees and need their children to help support them.”

In the course of his May 28 speech to the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development, to be chaired by France over the next year, Kouchner went so far as to pledge support for experimentation with a financial transactions tax, a proposal that was quickly dismissed by French Foreign Minister Christine Lagarde. But it is still true that the momentum for new forms of funding, for health, education, and climate change, continues to build, a recognition that financing for such global public goods should not depend on the political fortunes of official aid budgets.

Sudan has authorised four aid agencies expelled from the country in March to return to troubled Darfur, says the UN's humanitarian chief John Holmes. The four groups - named as Care International, Save the Children, Mercy Corps, and Padco - were among 13 organisations expelled in March.

East African states are seeking modest economic stimulus packages, aimed at steering their countries through the global economic turbulence, and outlining plans to increase agricultural production and increase regional trade. In the fiscal plans unveiled Thursday in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania, the respective finance ministers unveiled plans aimed at steering their economies through the financial crisis and avoiding adverse tax measures likely to create social backlashes.

Sanusha Naidu compiles a list of the top stories on Sino-African relations.

The Democratic Republic of Congo will put part of its $9-billion investment agreement with China on hold to take into account concerns voiced by the International Monetary Fund, said Moise Ekanga, who oversees the accord for Congo. The central African country has put a $3-billion chunk of infrastructure investments by their Chinese partners ”on the back-burner” to satisfy objections by the IMF that the agreement will add to Congo’s $11-billion external debt, said Ekanga, the executive-secretary of the Coordination and Monitoring Office for the Sino-Congolese Program.

Numerous initiatives, most prominently the One Laptop Per Child program, seek to introduce computers to students around the globe. Yet, are computers the right technology for ICT in education? Perhaps mobile phones, of which the ITU estimates there are 4.1 billion subscriptions, would provide a better technology for students? For teachers and policy-makers seeking to increase educational outcomes with inexpensive digital devices, do computers or mobile phones offer a better ICT investment? Come join the conversation! Its already started and will unfold all June with new posts each week by Michael Trucano and Robert Kozma.

On Saturday, April 18, two days before the United Nations Durban Review Conference (DRC) officially convened, anti-racist demonstrators from every continent and nearly every struggle in the world filled the streets of downtown Geneva. A sea of flags, banners and posters spoke for indigenous people from Bolivia, Mexico and Guatemala, the landless former slaves of Brazil, Tamils struggling for survival in Sri Lanka, a huge contingent of Dalits demanding an end to the caste system, Black delegates from the U.S. and other points in the Diaspora calling for reparations and freedom for political prisoners, Africans from the continent, many European migrants from the third world and their supporters and a variety of groups in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Some had handmade signs: “Zionism equals racism” and “Israel is an Apartheid State.”

We participants of the Civil Society Forum for the Durban Review Conference 2009 held in Geneva 17 to 19 April strongly welcome the holding of the Durban Review Conference and reaffirm our full and dedicated support for the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action (DDPA) adopted by the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

The four renowned academic journals of the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies are now available online and free-of-charge. Every Internet user can now access the full content of the GIGA Journal Family at no cost, which means that the reach of the journals is now significantly greater. Through the Open Access publications, the GIGA is ensuring increased exchange with academics from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

The World Youth Movement for Democracy (www.wymd.org), a youth network of the World Movement for Democracy (www.wmd.org), is pleased to announce the launch of its Global Essay Contest. Fifteen winners (3 in each region: Asia, Central/Eastern Europe & Eurasia, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa) will be invited to participate in the upcoming 6th Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in Jakarta, Indonesia, in April 2010.

This year’s eighth Annual Lecture welcomes an exciting panel to discuss the topic "Foreign Aid: Dead Right or Dead Wrong?":
* Dambisa Moyo is the author of Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa.
* Yash Tandon published Ending Aid Dependence at the same time last year.
* George Biddle is the IRC's executive vice president.*

Global financial pressures have added new urgency to the well-established debate around issues of aid effectiveness, issues which are particularly critical in the contexts where the IRC works – contexts of extreme vulnerability, war and displacement. What is the appropriate international economic response to these populations in dire need?

As a response to the global crisis and an increased capital basis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already more than doubled its lending to Africa this year compared to the record year of 2008. The Fund accepts less security, larger budget deficits but also demands shorter repayment terms. At a 'Lending for Africa' seminar at IMF headquarters in Washington this week, the Fund's Senior Advisor Roger Nord revealed that record lending programmes had already been initiated. IMF funding for Africa was on a steep rise since the global crisis had started.

The period from 1998 to 2003 is known in the Democratic Republic of Congo as The Great War of Africa, Africa's World War and the Second Congo War. Militias and armies from eight neighboring nations plundered the country's eastern provinces in a quest to control copper, gold, diamonds, tin and other high-value minerals to supply India and China's booming markets.

A US-based international Christian relief organisation says it believes more than 90% of its aid to Liberia went missing in a massive fraud scam. World Vision's Vice-President Geoff Ward told the BBC the losses came to more than $1m and pledged to make "every effort" to avoid a repeat. A former senior World Vision official in Liberia and two other workers have been charged over the alleged fraud.