STWR - Share The World's Resources

Many wealthy countries will fail to keep promises they made five years ago at the Gleneagles Summit to increase aid to the developing world. Of the $21bn shortfall for 2010, $17bn was due to donors giving less than they had pledged, reveals a review by the OECD.

Contrary to commonly held beliefs, migrants typically contribute more to economic activity than they take out. Lowering barriers to mobility and improving the treatment of migrant workers could improve the lives of millions around the world, says the UNDP Human Development Report 2009.

The world is far from achieving the the globally agreed Millennium Development Goals - to halve poverty, hunger and other social and economic ills by 2015. Serious obstacles to progress are the combined food, financial and climate crises, says a report by the UN MDG project.

Calls for debt relief, emergency aid and a transfer of technical and financial resources to the Global South have become increasingly commonplace in recent decades. But what are the criticisms of these forms of aid, and what role do the UN and NGOs have in this 'development cooperation'? By UN NGLS.

An era of 'reckless finance' encouraged by the IMF and the World Bank has resulted in a debt crisis engulfing the world's poorest countries. We urgently need a new wave of debt cancellation to protect the poor from a deepening global financial crisis, says a report by the Jubilee Debt Campaign.

Although the financial crisis originated in the Global North, it will impact the world's poorest economies most deeply. The G20 should reform the Bretton Woods Institutions, strengthen the UN, and encourage development led by the Global South, says a report by the Overseas Development Institute.

Analysts appear to have overlooked the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries, even though the repercussions could be disastrous for the world’s poor. Two reports reveal how lax financial regulation and accounting secrecy facilitated the crisis and could have serious implications for poor countries.