Many richer nations continue to use aid as an instrument of power rather
than a tool for development. We need a new model of aid that prioritises
self-sufficiency, promotes food security and encourages genuine empowerment of
the poor, argues Tesfaye Habisso.
The financial crisis is expected to have a severe impact on
humanitarian funding, with some analysts projecting cuts in official
development assistance (ODA) of up to a third or more.
The internal public debt of the
world's developing countries has increased significantly since the 1990s as a result of neo-liberal policy, yet it would take only $80 billion a year over a period of 10 years for the entire population of these countries
to have access to essential social services. By Éric Toussaint.
The global financial, food, and fuel crises and the negative impacts
of climate change pose a severe threat to the world's 37 million
uprooted people, and will likely increase their numbers, warned the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees. Reported by Ida Wahlstrom.
As a spreading financial crisis threatens to
deepen the economic recession in the United States, the news of an unprecedented
$700 billion bailout package reverberated through the UN last week as over 100 world leaders gathered in New York for the
annual talk-fest: the 63rd session of the General Assembly. Reported by Thalif Deen.
The debt crisis that hit the
advanced industrial countries in 2007 could radically change the
conditions of indebtedness in developing countries in the near future - all the more so since some
of them have already been severely affected by the world food crisis of
2008, writes Éric Toussaint.
In what is turning out to be hard-fought
negotiations between rich and poor nations, more than 1,000 government
and civil society delegates gathered in the Ghanaian capital yesterday
to agree the best ways to deliver and administer aid. By Miriam Mannak.