Bloomberg.com: Women Key to Solving Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa, Study Says
According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, expanding aid and education for women is essential to reducing hunger in the world’s most impoverished regions. Countries that scored worst on the group’s Global Hunger Index tend to have the greatest gender inequality, the institute said today as it released this year’s rankings. “With women responsible for up to 80 percent of African food production, gender equality equals food security,” the institute said.

The Independent: Are investors missing out on sub-Sahara Africa? (Op-Ed)
Alonzo Fulgham, an administrator for USAID, discusses the growing opportunity for business development in Africa and the need for “US firms (to) enter this last great investment frontier.” According to Fulgham, market-friendly reforms in Africa are happening at a faster pace in this decade than ever before, and while western media typically casts sub-Saharan Africa in terms of “conflict, corruption, AIDS, and poverty,” some countries, such as China are jumping at the chance to increase trade throughout the continent.

Reuters: U.S. needs more on services from Doha round: Kirk
A top U.S. trade official said Tuesday that the United States cannot agree to a deal in the Doha round of world trade talks until other countries make better offers to open their markets to services trade. According to U.S. trade representative Ron Kirk, the Doha round has focused “almost obsessively” on agricultural and manufacturing issues since it was launched in 2001. Kirk also emphasized that a successful agreement must include negotiations on services and the rules governing the use of anti-dumping and other domestic trade remedy laws.

Financial Times: World Bank has the poor firmly in its sights (LTE, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala)
The Managing Director of the World Bank argues that the World Bank is dedicated to helping the world’s poorest countries “weather the worst economic crisis in 50 years.” The official emphasized the Bank’s new lending programs, which target both poor and more developed countries. “Our long-term development lending, distinct from short-term actions by the International Monetary Fund, enables developing economies to expand global demand, assisting developed countries too.”

The Standard: US boosts fight against malaria with Sh2 billion
The USAID gave billion dollar grants (in Kenyan Shillings) to two NGOS in Kenya to extend malaria prevention and control activities in areas most affected by the disease. The programs target more than 400,000 children under the age of five and pregnant women.

New York Times: Exiled From School, H.I.V.-Infected Orphans Learn a Bitter Lesson
The New York Times explores the HIV epidemic in Vietnam and the estimated 5,100 children affected by the disease. According to the deputy minister of education, although the law currently requires equal treatment, almost none of the population of children affected by HIV has been accepted in schools because of the fears of other children’s parents. Mydans focuses specifically on a group of orphans affected by HIV who were refused entry to a local public school due to parents’ concerns.