STWR - Share The World's Resources

International Development should be about well being of individuals and communities argues Prof. McGregor, based on his research and empirical studies in four countries (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Thailand).

The United States appears to be cooling off to some key concerns at the G8 heads of state summit next month.

In a few weeks, eight of the world’s most important leaders will meet in Heiligendamm. Joining them will be media and activists from around the world, closely following the proceedings, ready to analyse the implications of every word. So as the G8 meets again, what can we expect? Well, for those working towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, I would say not much.

The Millennium Development Goals are the world's agreed goals to cut poverty, hunger and disease. Established in 2000, their targets were to be met by 2015. We are now at the halfway point. So far, despite endless words about increasing aid to poor countries, the rich G-8 countries are reneging on their part of the bargain.

The west's foot-dragging over aid pledges to Africa was described last night as "grotesque" and a threat to the lives of the world's poor by the body set up by Tony Blair to monitor the results of Britain's Gleneagles summit.

The impact of the pioneering north-south reports of the 1980s – Brandt, Palme, Brundtland – were intimately tied to the political context in which they appeared. Stephen Browne maps this relationship and asks whether development thinking can become an instrument of global change.

The latest overseas aid figures are no suprise to the developing world, writes Adam Parsons. Broken promises will continue to make newspaper headlines until the deeper contradictions and biases of the current economic approach are addressed.