Debt campaigners welcomed Gordon Brown's announcement today of a "modern Marshall Plan" for Africa, but expressed concerns that the initiative was deficient and fraught with problems for poor countries.
The fabled wealth of the oil-rich Gulf states is to be targeted in an attempt to salvage a major debt relief deal for Africa ahead of the G8 summit in Gleneagles.
The UN called for urgent action today to avert "disaster" in Africa as it outlined the human cost of a business-as-usual approach to development in the world's poorest continent.
We can deal with climate change only with the help of governments. So far, however, when confronted with a choice between the two sacred commodities - market freedom and human life - the one they have chosen to preserve is market freedom, writes George Monbiot.
The world's richest countries are failing to provide the funds needed for education in the developing world, the Global Campaign for Education has said.