Canada, June 28th 2010 —Leaders of the Group of 8 (G8) most industrialised countries agreed to increase efforts to improve maternal and child health in poorer countries, urging the world to ensure that no woman died while giving birth. The Muskoka Initiative to promote the health of mothers, infants and children was adopted by G8 leaders during their summit in the Canadian resort of Muskoka in Toronto. "Even though the number of women who die from preventable causes during pregnancy and childbirth seems to be declining, far too many mothers still die every day, which has a devastating impact on families, communities and nations," Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA's Executive Director said in a ...

Sunday, June 27th - The Muskoka G8 wrapped up on Saturday and issued their declaration. The responses were mixed. While no NGO was ecstatic with the response, the child and maternal health NGOs were more supportive of the outcome document although almost all referred to the absence of reference to the Gleneagles Commitments. Environmental NGOs were also content with much of the communique, welcoming the fact that there was no climate back-tracking in 2010 although recognising that there were not many advances either. Southern groups, like GCAP, and development groups working on a wide range of issues were not happy with the G8 communique. Oxfam, Make Poverty History, and Actionai...

Sunday, June 27th - The NGOs attending the G20 in Toronto have issued their responses to the Summit. The NGOs seem to be unsure what to make of the G20 so as a result their reactions are more about future G20 agenda items or the gap left by the G8 from yesterday. Most welcomed the decision by the G20 to expand into the development sector. The Global Campaign for Education expressed disappointment that the G20 did not progress further on a financial transaction tax that could go someway to filling the gap in funding left by the G8. The campaign welcomed the creation of a Working Group on Development and their action plans for th Seoul Summit. GCE said education should be the foundat...

18th June 2010 - A cassava virus, a shortage of rain in West Africa, and food prices that never went down after the food crisis in 2008 all add up to hunger for some of the world’s poorest countries. Hunger has no tipping point. It’s too blunt for that. A child either has enough to eat and has the energy to grow and think and learn. Or she doesn’t.But our perceptions about hunger can reach a tipping point: it’s the moment we begin to connect the global headlines â€" and feel a wave of worry.It started for me last week with a story in the New York Times about a blight along the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda that’s ravaging the cassava, a tubby white tuber that is a stap...

United Nations, 17th June, 2010 - After an economic assessment of some 50 countries, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) has come up with a "concrete action agenda" to accelerate progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).A new 58-page study titled 'What will it take to achieve the Millennium Development Goals' identifies some of the success stories worldwide and highlights common constraints on progress - both at the national and international level.UNDP Administrator Helen Clark told reporters Thursday that three crises - food, fuel and finance - "have complicated the road to 2015", the target date to achieve the MDGs.Clark admitted that progress has been...

Johannesburg, 16th June 2010 - The World Cup is wreaking havoc with a key millennium development goal in South Africa: as the football tournament hit its stride, not a single child across the nation attended school.It's temporary, of course: the winter holiday has been extended so schools are closed during the month-long tournament. But there are 43 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who are truly unable to attend school, according to the United Nations Development Programme - just over a third of the 115 million of children around the world who are out of school. Many millions more struggle to get an education under testing conditions - inadequate buildings, overworked teache...