STWR - Share The World's Resources

If the developing world fails to meet the targets set in the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the primary blame for the failure would be on Western donors who have reneged on their aid commitments, according to a United Nations report on the MDG financing gap. By Thalif Deen.

As the world population approaches seven billion, still many developing countries are struggling to keep pace with the investments that are required to meet the needs of their growing populace. So what are the prospects for the two billion more people that are expected by 2045? Analysis by IPS News.

A new measure of global poverty suggests that 1.7 billion people live in 'multidimensional poverty', far more than the World Bank's conservative estimates, while others suggest that the number of those in relative poverty could possibly be 4 billion and rising. Does this mean that global poverty reduction is a political myth?

The G20 has become increasingly active in multilateral decision making, sparking fears that the body will sideline the more democratic United Nations. In response, an informal coalition of 23 countries is demanding that global governance remains inclusive and transparent, reports Thalif Deen.

The World Bank's recent estimates on global poverty, particularly in relation to China, are being challenged by an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) which monitors poverty eradication and gender equality: the 2008 Basic Capabilities Index. By Thalif Deen.

The much-ballyhooed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs ) -- which include the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger by 50 percent by 2015 -- are being seriously undermined by food, financial and climate change crises, reports Thalif Deen.

Water and sanitation are not far behind the food, energy and climate crises - and the causes of water scarcity are essentially identical to those of the food crisis, say development analysts. Reported by Thalif Deen.

A significant proportion of the world's 2.2 billion children, many of whom are victims of violence, sexual abuse, labour exploitation and preventable diseases, are from the crisis-plagued African continent.

The sharp decline in deaths among infants and children worldwide during the past century is "one of the great success stories in international public health", the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said Tuesday.

A long-held basic human right, the right to adequate food for the world's 854 million hungry people, is being threatened once again -- this time by the conversion of wheat, sugar, palm oil and maize into agricultural fuel.

The U.S.-led war on terror has triggered a strong backlash against some of the world's minorities, including ethnic and religious groups, according to a study released here on Tuesday.

South Korea's former foreign minister Ban Ki-moon assumes duties as the new U.N. secretary-general on Jan. 1. Ban takes over a cash-strapped organisation described- rightly or wrongly- as mostly mismanaged, inefficient, over-staffed and politically-manipulated primarily by the United States, and to a lesser extent by the remaining four veto-wielding big powers: Britain, France, China and Russia.

If the world's growing water crisis remains unresolved -- depriving clean water to more than one billion of the world's six billion people -- it will jeopardise the U.N.'s longstanding battle to reduce global poverty, hunger and disease by its targeted date of 2015, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) warned Thursday.

Since hunger and famine are still widespread in parts of Africa and Asia, the international community is in violation of the right to food as a basic universal human right, according to a new study released by the United Nations.

Expressing concern over the "pervasiveness of corruption" in the management of water, a coalition of six international non-governmental organisations has created a new global anti-corruption watchdog body: the Water Integrity Network (WIN).

The United States, which pays 22 percent of the U.N.'s regular annual budget of 1.8 billion dollars, has arrogantly demanded a dominant voice in management and administration -- primarily because it is the biggest single financial contributor to the world body.

If Western donors deliver on their promises, official development assistance (ODA) to the world's poorer nations is expected to increase by about 50 billion dollars in the next five years, according to a new U.N. report released this week.