As a major international deadline on foreign assistance transparency draws closer, a new index shows that while donors are becoming more open with their data, still less than half of foreign aid information is openly available. 'Progress is being met, things are getting better, but that progress is modest,' David Hall-Matthews, the managing director of Publish What You Fund, a global initiative advocating for aid transparency, said in unveiling the organisation’s Aid Transparency Index 2012. Nearly two-thirds of the organisations that Publish What You Fund surveyed both last year and this year showed improvement, with the average score across all donors going up from 34 per cent to 41 per cent transparency.

Recent allegations of the misuse of a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria could jeopardize Uganda’s malaria funding and hurt efforts to fight the disease, which is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. Evidence of the mismanagement of a US$51 million malaria grant to Uganda from the Global Fund resulted in the July arrest of three Ministry of Health employees and prompted a police investigation into the matter. In September, the organization called for the refund of any ineligible expenses under the grant and the strengthening of safeguards to prevent future misappropriation of funds.

Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) in partnership with the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) and Chiadzwa Community Development Trust (CCDT) immaculately hosted a three day 'People's Indaba' at the Harare Crowne Plaza Hotel, from the 11th - 13th September this year. The event, known officially as the 'Zimbabwe Alternative Mining Indaba' (ZAMI), saw over 120 individuals including; Chiefs, Legislators, church leaders, mining communities, community based organizations, regional participants, youth and women activists and media taking part in the indaba.

International peasant's movement La Via Campesina and its member organization in Switzerland the peasant union Uniterre have announced that the United Nations have decided to better protect the rights of farmers and peasants around the world. On Thursday, 27 September, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution 'Promoting the human rights of peasants and others people living in rural areas.' Through this resolution, the Council recognizes the absolute need for a new international legal instrument that takes the form of a United Nations declaration. It aims to bring together in a single text the specific rights of peasant farmers, women and men, and to integrate new rights such as rights to land, seeds, means of production or information in rural areas.

The Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) has joined with other civil society organizations to urge all UN Member States to accede to the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. 'Imagine living your life as a stateless person. You are not recognized as a citizen of any country. You have none of the basic government protections the rest of us take for granted. No passport, no drivers license, no way to marry legally, work legally or even register the births of your children and enroll them in school. As estimated 12 million people live in this very precarious situation,' says the WRC.

The European Women's Lobby with the European Network of Migrant Women have launched a documentary aimed at breaking stereotypes of migrant women. The film follows the stories of three women of migrant background living in the Europe. While struggling for their equal rights, these women, like so many others, enrich their host communities in myriad ways.

Ocean acidification is the process of decreasing pH in the Earth's oceans. This is mainly due to the absorption of carbon dioxide emitted by humans. As CO2 dissolves in seawater, hydrogen ion concentrations increase, thus lowering the ocean pH. Oceans are currently absorbing about a quarter of all CO2 that is released into the air and with the increasing acidity of these marine environments come many concerns about the future of these ecosystems. Recently, at the Third International Symposium on the Ocean in a High-CO2 World in Monterey, California, Dr. Daniela Schmidt of the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences warns us that the current rates of ocean acidification are unlike any other in the Earth's history.

Brutal attacks against bloggers, politically motivated surveillance, proactive manipulation of web content, and restrictive laws regulating speech online are among the diverse threats to internet freedom emerging over the past two years, according to a new study released by Freedom House. Despite these threats, 'Freedom on the Net 2012: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media' found that increased pushback by civil society, technology companies, and independent courts resulted in several notable victories.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has released initial details on its new funding model, which will change the way countries apply for money. But as the Fund works to finalize the model before next year, civil society is criticizing the process for being untransparent and rushed. The Global Fund board adopted guiding principles of the model at a mid-September board meeting in Geneva. Although the model’s finer aspects are still being developed, key elements include the allocation of funding to country groupings based on disease burden and ability to pay as well as largely foreseen changes to grant application procedures.

This manual from the Association for Progressive Communications is based on success stories and challenges in communicating research for influence. APC translated their knowledge and expertise into tips that other organisations or campaigners may find useful.

Mining and gas companies operating in Mozambique will face fines and may lose their operating licenses if they do not relocate communities in a way that protects their social and economic interests, a government official said on Tuesday. Mozambique passed a law in August to prevent global mineral companies from unjust resettlements. Violent protests earlier this year against previous resettlements threatened to derail investment in the booming economy.

The European Union is suspending new aid to Rwanda following allegations that the country is backing rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, an EU spokesman said. The decision follows a report by experts of the UN Security Council's sanctions committee alleging Rwandan support for M23 rebels, who launched an uprising in April. The DR Congo government also accuses its neighbour of involvement.

With the Bangkok round of UN sponsored climate negotiations just through, the BASIC quartet - Brazil, South Africa, India and China - came together in Brasilia to discuss their common negotiating position for the year end talks in Doha, Qatar. While there are differences within the quartet over the legal nature of the new climate regime talks on which will be held in Doha, and the controversial European Union Emission Trading Scheme, there is enough common ground between these countries. The one issue of clear agreement was the quartet's commitment to the extension of the Kyoto Protocol, the iconic 1997 treaty, which legally required developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said the seeking of asylum is not a criminal act and those who seek it should not be detained. In a statement obtained by PANA in New York Sunday, the UN refugee agency also called on all states to seek out alternatives to detention when dealing with migrants and refugees. The statement, issued following the agency’s new guidelines on the detention of asylum-seekers, urged the world’s governments to make better use of alternatives to detention for those irregular migrants seeking refuge within their borders.

Free healthcare is, in theory, available to everyone in Uganda but in practice, the state system, where thousands of doctors’ and nurses’ positions are unfilled, is so run-down that patients are increasingly turning to private facilities. The crisis in the public health sector has led to threats by members of parliament to block next year’s budget unless the government finds an additional 260 billion Uganda shillings (US$103 million) to recruit staff and upgrade dilapidated health centres.

This International Organisation of Migration (IOM) research newsletter provides a comprehensive update on IOM’s migration research activities, institutional partnerships and research events for IOM colleagues and interested external readers. This edition focuses on 'The Arab Spring: Reflections on the international response one year later'.

The controversy over 'The Innocence Of Muslims' rumbles on, with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah calling on supporters to demonstrate throughout Lebanon this week. Has this particular incident been different from previous blasphemy rows? In some ways, yes. Perhaps the most interesting was Google's removal of the video from YouTube Egypt and Libya, independent of any court order. This should be of real concern to anyone concerned with freedom on the web. While Google-owned YouTube is not the only video sharing site, its dominance is such that it can severely restrict free speech should it wish.

Land used to power European cars with biofuels for one year could produce enough wheat and maize to feed 127 million people, Oxfam reveals ahead of today’s important EU Energy Ministers’ meeting. With the world’s poorest at greater risk of hunger as a result of spiraling food prices, the international agency is calling on the EU to rethink its dangerous love affair with biofuels. In a new GROW campaign report, 'The Hunger Grains', Oxfam warns that Europe’s growing appetite for biofuels is pushing up global food prices and driving people off their land, resulting in deeper hunger and malnutrition in poor countries.

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on how developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa are now facing an economic slowdown with a deterioration in GDP growth, exports and lending conditions. The effects of the Eurozone recession and the US slowdown are now increasingly felt in the South. Another analytical article 'Rethinking growth strategies is imperative for the South' by South Centre’s Chief Economist Yilmaz Akyuz shows how the favourable international conditions that led to the South’s high growth in the past decade have now turned unfavourable, resulting in the current economic difficulties. Thus the developing countries have to prepare for new growth and development strategies.

Zimbabwe’s Information minister has threatened to revoke operating licenses of private newspapers that attack President Robert Mugabe. Media, Information and Publicity minister Webster Shamu from President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party told mourners at the burial of a veteran fighter in Zimbabwe’s liberation war that the private media was 'denigrating President Mugabe and the country’s leadership without jurisdiction'.