Social safety net programmes have expanded, yet 870 million of the world’s poorest people remain uncovered, says a new World Bank report released Tuesday. Although over one billion people in 146 countries now participate in at least one of roughly 475 social safety net programmes, most of the extreme poor – those who live under […]

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Misinvoiced trade in five African countries cost their governments billions of dollars in tax revenue and facilitated at least 60.8 billion dollars in illicit financial flows from 2002 to 2011, says a new report by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a research advocacy organisation here. Using data on bilateral trade flows from 2002-2011 from the U.N.’s […]

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The Azerbaijan government crackdown on civil society has worsened in recent months, human rights campaigners are warning, and activists are increasingly falling victim to official efforts to limit dissent. Human Rights Watch, the global watchdog, is calling for an end to what it refers to as harassment and oppressive tactics against the prominent human rights activist […]

The post Azerbaijan’s Rights Situation Deteriorating, Group Warns appeared first on Inter Press Service.

It is time to craft new politics and economic policies to address the sustainability crisis, according to the latest edition of a flagship report by the Worldwatch Institute, a think tank here. The global community has delayed addressing the issues associated with rapid climate change and environmental degradation for too long, according to the 294-page […]

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U.S. foreign aid is becoming increasingly outdated, analysts here are suggesting. Rather, reforms to U.S. assistance need to focus on issues of accountability and country ownership, according to a policy paper released this week by Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), a prominent coalition of international development advocates and foreign policy experts. “Aid is a strong expression of […]

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Since his re-election in 2012, President Barack Obama has stepped up his rhetoric around gender equality issues in the United States, but he has yet to get a partisan U.S. Congress to go along with a series of legislative proposals he put forward. On Tuesday, Obama bypassed Republican opposition by signing two executive orders aimed […]

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[Global Witness]A government committee in Guinea today recommended stripping diamond billionaire Beny Steinmetz of one of the world’s biggest iron ore concessions on evidence his company bribed the president’s wife.

[Radio Dabanga]Washington -“International crisis response strategies in Africa have hardly evolved in the years since the Rwandan genocide erupted”, a human rights activist stated during the commemorations honouring the 20th anniversary of the onset of…

[UN News]United Nations officials today called on the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to step up the fight against impunity for rape and sexual violence, which remain widespread and largely unpunished despite some progress in h…

[Deutsche Welle]US media are increasingly reporting on and debating their country’s presence in Africa. How strong should it be? Is its purpose to bring stability to crisis regions or rather to counter Chinese activity?