The Economist: How to Feed the World
The Economist reports that despite a global recession and food prices on the rise once again, developing countries still have a brief window of opportunity in which to set long-term food security policy goals without being distracted by panic measures. According to the article, world leaders must do two things: invest in the productive capacity of agriculture and improve the operation of food markets. Over the past year investment has risen faster than anyone expected, but distrust of markets and a reaction against farm trade are growing. Unless governments restrain those impulses, writes the Economist, they will undermine the gains from rising investment.

The Globe and Mail: The urban poor are going hungry
With a renewed focus on food security after the UN food summit this week, the Globe reports that a major flaw hindering progress on this front is the idea that food insecurity is exclusively a rural problem and that the solution is to get small farmers to grow more food. Rural populations in almost all developing countries are decreasing, while the opposite is true of urban populations, indicating that the urban poor’s vulnerability to food insecurity is often as great or even greater than the rural poor.

The Los Angeles Times: Homophobia and AIDS funding can’t coexist (Op-Ed)
The L.A. Times reports that in spite of all that the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has accomplished in the fight against AIDS, a persistent problem remains: the promotion of homophobia by African governments receiving American aid money. In no nation is this problem more acute than in Uganda, one of 15 PEPFAR “focus” countries that collectively account for half of the world’s HIV infections. Homosexuality is considered a taboo in most of Africa, and “the consequences are devastating not only for the people directly affected by these adverse policies but for the fight against AIDS in general.”

Associated Press: 20 years after UN pact, many children still suffer
The Associated Press reports that on the 20th anniversary of the United Nations adopting the Convention on the Rights of the Child, there are still hundreds of millions of children who suffer from violence, hunger and disease. Associated Press correspondents around the globe interviewed children who illustrate the remaining challenges, along with some victories.

Vanguard (Nigeria): HIV/AIDS : US increases funding in Africa
The United State’s President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has increased funding for HIV/AIDS in Africa from $2.3 billion in 2004 to $6.6 billion in 2009. Speaking yesterday in Abuja at a press conference ahead of World Aids Day on December 1, USAID representative Alonzo Wind also promised continuous support in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and across the continent.

AllAfrica.com: Africa: Consequences of Less Funding for Aids – Living With Aids # 413
AllAfrica.com reports that due to the international recession, donors are either decreasing or opting not to increase their funding of AIDS treatment, which will have devastating effects on poorer countries that are largely dependent on foreign aid. In light of recent reports that both the Global Fund Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and PEPFAR have reduced funding for approved grants, the article explores the potential effects of limited funding for AIDS treatment in South Africa specifically.

AllAfrica.com: Africa: Women’s Rights – Looking Back Or Moving Forward? (Op-Ed)
Oxfam’s Gender Justice and Governance lead, Mary Wandia, explores the emergence of African women’s issues in 2009, arguing that despite more attention being paid globally on this front, it is clear that “women’s lives have not yet seen the promise of the continental framework.” According to Wandia, violations of women’s human rights have reached epidemic proportions and questions whether African leaders are ready to rise up to address this critical challenge. She closes the article by arguing for the adoption of a multidimensional approach to the implementation and monitoring of regional and international commitments.

The Guardian—Bono and Geldof laud Queen’s speech commitment to global poverty relief
Bono and Bob Geldof welcomed Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s decision to include in his legislative agenda the enshrinement in law of international development spending, which would put the government’s commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on development from 2013 on to the statute books.”The proposal to make the 0.7% pledge legally binding is not just a great announcement, it is transformative of real lives, by a government that has led the world in keeping its promises to the world’s poorest people,” Bono said. “The next step is making sure this becomes law as soon as possible, in 2010.”

Voice of America—African Leaders Left Disappointed at End of UN Food Summit
A three-day United Nations food summit ended in Rome Wednesday without securing substantial new funds to combat world hunger, Voice of America News writes. Some African ministers left the summit saying world leaders are not doing enough to reduce soaring hunger levels on the continent.

Reuters—World leaders’ low turnout hits UN food summit
On a similar note about the U.N. food summit, Reuters writes that an absence of many world leaders undermined the summit from the start, and its final declaration showed little progress was made in the fight against hunger. U.N. officials put on a brave face throughout the November 16-18 Rome meeting, saying it had won broad support for the need to focus on longer-term agricultural development — rather than emergency aid — to help poor countries feed themselves. But the no-show by heavyweights from most of the world’s biggest economies lowered the summit’s profile, and did not help efforts to push malnutrition and food shortages to the top of the political agenda.

Reuters—Obama’s Democrats call for trade policy overhaul
A group of Democratic lawmakers urged President Obama on Wednesday to abandon the Doha round of global trade talks and start over with an agenda to protect labor rights and environmental standards. “We believe the Doha round should be declared dead,” Rep, Michael Michaud (D-ME), the chairman of a working group of U.S. lawmakers on trade issues, said at a news conference. The group is deeply skeptical of the free trade agenda that has dominated U.S. policy in recent years. Members say they are still waiting for Obama to keep campaign promises to reform U.S. trade policy to be more protective of American workers.

AllAfrica.com—Climate Change and the Population ‘Bomb’: A Debate Not to Shy Away From
The United Nations Population Fund released its “State of the World Population 2009″ report on Wednesday. It chose to take up a politically delicate topic, the relationship between climate change, population stabilization and the importance of gender. The fundamental question it seeks to address is: how much of a threat is the growth in population to the world and how much of this increase will lead to a spike in greenhouse gas emissions? As the report demonstrates, answers are not straightforward.

AFP—Eat local rice? Senegalese say no thanks
Similar to other poor but agriculturally-focused countries, the Senegalese government had what seemed a reasonable idea after last year’s food crisis: have the country grow and eat its own rice instead of sticking with the practice of importing tons from Asia. It was part of a larger plan to achieve self-sufficiency in food production. But the Senegalese, who serve rice with so many meals, said no thanks. Why? That’s where it gets sticky, writes the AFP. Explanations range from taste to social standing to the legacy of colonialism. Whatever the reason, the government is now figuring out how to promote locally grown rice and hopes to import none of the staple by 2012.

BBC: Poor women ‘bear climate burden’
The United Nations Population Fund warns that women in developing countries will be the most vulnerable to climate change due to the fact that they do most of the agricultural work and are therefore are affected by weather-related natural disasters impacting on food, energy and water. The report also suggested family planning, reproductive healthcare and “gender relations” could influence how the world adapts to rising seas, worsening storms and severe droughts.

Reuters Africa: Africa agrees on secret climate damages demand
Reuters reports that African leaders have agreed on how much cash to demand from the rich world to compensate for the impact of climate change, but kept the figure secret ahead of next month’s Copenhagen talks. Exhaustive preparatory talks since 2007 have failed to solve splits between rich and poor countries or find extra funds to help developing nations to pay for expensive technology to ensure they do not over pollute as their economies grow. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Africa wanted a treaty to be agreed in Copenhagen but could accept a “binding political agreement” as a steppingstone to a treaty being agreed later.

Financial Times: The many roads to food security
The Financial Times argues that despite the UN food summit drawing to a halt “amid a plethora of platitudes about feeding the poor,” translating these discussions into action is what will prove difficult – not least because agriculture, with its concentrated groups of farmers and agribusinesses and diffuse groups of consumers, has proved “susceptible to producer group lobbying.” Argues the Times, “The food-security battle isn’t a question of one big heave: it is fought on hundreds of fronts. Most victories will be slow and technocratic rather than quick and spectacular, but will be all the more enduring for it.”

Reuters India: International health alliance says pushes vaccine costs down
A U.N.-backed health alliance reported Wednesday that the price of a vaccine that helps infants fend off a variety of deadly diseases has been forced down, thanks to a coordinated buying policy to meet the growing demand from developing countries. The five-in-one vaccine is given routinely to children in developed nations but price has kept them out of the reach of some poorer nations. However, higher demand has pushed purchasing costs down.”This price drop is no accident, but…the result of a strategy to leverage the purchasing power of hundreds of millions of people,” UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Saad Houry said in statement.

Irish Times: Over one billion go hungry every day, summit told
Speaking in Rome last night, the United Nations’ secretary general Ban Ki-Moon expressed his concern that even though the world has “more than enough” food, just over a billion people still go hungry. Mr Ban defended the work done by the summit, arguing that it represented a positive step on the road to next month’s Copenhagen summit on climate change. He also argued that the two summits, in Rome and Copenhagen, were linked and could still “lay the ground for food security for all”. In reference to the UN summit in Copenhagen, Mr Ban refused to be pessimistic, saying that “we still have everything to play for”.

The Globe and Mail: Canada pushes wealthy nations to keep food aid pledges
The Globe and Mail reports that Canada is using the UN food summit to put flesh on its new agricultural-spending commitments in “an effort to embarrass other wealthy countries to do the same as a record one billion people go hungry.” Declaring the world is on the verge of another food “crisis,” the Canadian Minister for International Co-operation and the ranking Canadian delegate at the summit, said the spending details are designed “to encourage people that when you pledge, when you make those commitments, it’s important to fulfill those commitments.”

Reuters: Gaddafi asks food summit to stop Africa “landgrab”
Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi called for an end to the purchase of African farmland by food-importing nations at a U.N. hunger summit on Monday, describing it as “new feudalism.” The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) plans to draw up guidelines to try to safeguard the sometimes conflicting interests of local farmers and investors for the governance of land and other natural resources, and is consulting companies, farmers and independent experts. Argued Gaddafi, “Rich countries are now buying the land in Africa. They are cheating African people out of their rights.

Financial Times: UN links climate with hunger
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon warned that the world cannot achieve food security without first tackling global warming, emphasizing that failure at next month’s international climate change negotiations in Copenhagan would result in a rise in hunger. According to the Financial Times, Mr Ban’s comments at the UN Food Summit in Rome this week signal how leaders are grappling with the need to respond coherently – and simultaneously – to energy, food and climate challenges. Said Mr. Ban, “There cannot be food security without climate security. Today’s event (the food summit) is critical and so is Copenhagen.”

New York Times: Disagreement Over Goals at U.N. Meeting on Hunger
The New York Times reports that the United Nations summit meeting on combating hunger in Rome this week underscored the split between rich and poor countries on the issue. Sixty leaders attended the meeting, but apart from the Prime Minister of Italy, there were no leaders from the wealthiest nations. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization had hoped the meeting would set an agriculture aid target toward helping farmers in poorer countries, however, the Times reports that “richer nations succeeded in removing a goal to end world hunger by 2025 and declined to commit to increasing agricultural aid to nearly 20 percent of all international development aid.

The Times: We can feed the world despite global warming, says Pope Benedict
In a speech to the opening day of the three day World Summit on Food Security, Pope Benedict XVI argued that “the Earth can sufficiently feed all of its inhabitants” despite the “devastation” caused by global warming, and blamed the “greed” of speculators in cereals markets for aggravating world hunger. The Pope also criticized “those forms of aid that do grave damage to the agricultural sector” and approaches to food production that are geared solely towards consumption and lack a wider perspective. And while he insisted that his remarks in no way indicate the church taking a political stance, he also warned against resignation or indifference towards the problem of world hunger.

The Citizen (Tanzania): Hindrances to Africa’s development cited
Founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Dr Mo Ibrahim, said on Saturday at a cultural celebration organized by the Foundation that time has came for Africa to stop blaming the colonial past and take full responsibility for their future. Ibrahim also cited the lack of political governance as the major stumbling block on Africa’s progress and fair sharing of resources. “Africa is a very wonderful and rich continent, but yet we are poor and hungry. The problem with us is political governance. We have abundant natural resources but our resources are not exploited for the benefit of our people,” he said.

Reuters—Some African countries not viable – Mo Ibrahim
African states must integrate immediately or some will not survive, business leader Mo Ibrahim said this weekend at his two-day conference in Tanzania promoting good governance in Africa. He said, “Intra-African trade is 4-5 percent of our international trade. Why? This is unacceptable, unviable, and people need to stand up and say this. Who are we to think that we can have 53 tiny little countries and be ready to compete with China, India, Europe, the Americans? It is a fallacy.”
 
Reuters—UN urges climate deal to fight “devastating” hunger
The United Nations said this morning that a climate change deal in Copenhagen next month is crucial to fighting global hunger, which Brazil’s president described as “the most devastating weapon of mass destruction”. Government leaders and officials met in Rome for a three-day U.N. summit on how to help developing countries feed themselves.

Financial Times—Obama rules out Copenhagen treaty
President Obama conceded on Sunday that next month’s Copenhagen summit would not produce a legally binding agreement to tackle global warming, but left the door open to a substantive deal at the climate change conference. Speaking at a conference of Asian countries, the President confirmed what the United Nations, the European Union and other countries had already admitted – that there would not be time for a fully articulated treaty to be drawn up at the summit. “We should not make the perfect the enemy of the good,” he said.

Voice of America News—Global Fund Approves $2.4 Billion to Fight AIDS, TB, Malaria
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis has approved grants worth $2.4 billion to fight the diseases during the next two years. The amount represents a slight decrease in funding levels. The $2.4 billion figure is $350 million less than last year’s amount, which was set before the full effects of the world economic slump were known.

Associated Press—Kenya harvest example on reversing food shortage>
A government program in Kenya that invests in irrigation and that has revived a rural economy that was in the dumps for years is being trumpeted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization as an example of new, effective hunger-fighting strategy for the developing world. The agency says governments need to invest more in agriculture to reduce the number of people who need food aid — currently one in six people on the globe. Kenya’s program, the agency says, could serve as a model for scaled up agricultural investments across the continent, helping Africans feed themselves.

Reuters: Rich nations’ climate cash offers still not clear
Canada’s finance minister warned today that just weeks from a major U.N. climate summit, rich nations have yet to unveil specific amounts to help poor countries fight global warming. Funding to help poorer nations adapt to rising seas and more chaotic weather is a make-or-break issue for talks to try to seal a broader climate pact in Copenhagen next month. According to Reuters, the G20 finance ministers made very little progress during their talks on climate funding in Scotland last week, with heated arguments over who should foot the bill.

Associated Press: UN food summit to back new strategy against hunger
A draft declaration for next week’s U.N. food summit would commit world leaders to a new hunger-fighting strategy by pledging to increase agricultural development aid to help the world’s 1 billion hungry people feed themselves. Under the draft, developed countries would “commit to a crucial, decisive shift” that aims to “substantially increase the share” of aid invested in agriculture to help the world’s poor become less dependent on direct food assistance. Humanitarian groups said, however, that the document was weak, and that the summit could fail if world leaders don’t come up with mechanisms to hold governments to their commitments.

Reuters: Food majors triple investment in ending hunger
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) contended Thursday that while world majors in agriculture and food sectors have tripled their investments in boosting global food security, they need to spend more to help eradicate hunger. With the number of hungry people rising to a record 1.02 billion this year, up 100 million from 2008, the FAO urged private and public investors to pour more funds in developing countries’ farming. Remarked the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. food agencies in Rome, “Private sector, governments, non-government organizations should work together to solve long-term problems in developing countries and eradicate hunger in the world.”

UPI.com: Drug companies to fight neglected diseases
Officials at U.S. drug companies and non-profit organizations say they plan to develop new drugs for “neglected” diseases. UPI reports that the search for drugs to fight hard-to-treat diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and dengue fever had been largely abandoned a decade ago but concern about rapidly rising rates for the diseases has caused an about-face. A new article published this week describes how public-private partnerships among drug companies, non-profits and philanthropists are attempting to address the problems involved not only in producing drugs to treat the diseases but their distribution.

TIME: In a Malaria Hot Spot, an Ambitious New Plan to Find a Cure
TIME explores the emergence of a rogue strain of malaria on the Thai-Cambodian border that has started to resist the only remaining effective drug against malaria’s most deadly strain. To combat this growing problem, TIME reports that Cambodia has opted to participate in a “controversial two-year program” that will make medication affordable for the first time in the country. However, despite these efforts, researchers fear that time in running out, warning that “it won’t be long until the resistant strain spreads from Cambodia’s precious gem mines to Africa, putting half the world’s population at risk of catching what would be an untreatable, deadly disease.”

The Economist: When patience finally runs out and Hints of a new chapter
The latest edition of The Economist features two relevant stories about Africa this week: First, the latest on the government in Zimbabwe and the power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and former opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. The second article takes an interesting look at the fight against corruption—and extremism—in Nigeria.

AFP: Obama in 11th-hour climate bid with China, India
The AFP reports that as the Copenhagen climate summit nears, US President Barack Obama will try to salvage hopes for a deal as he meets this month with the leaders of China and India. The world’s three most populous nations have all vowed action on climate change but are deeply at odds over the shape of a Copenhagen deal, which was “meant to be a new global treaty but now looks set to offer a framework at best.” Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is optimistic about the president’s upcoming meetings, emphasizing that “If we all exert maximum effort and embrace the right blend of pragmatism and principle, I believe we can secure a strong outcome at Copenhagen.”

The Los Angeles Times: Fixing foreign aid (Editorial)
In light of President Obama’s announcement of his nominee to the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the L.A. Times editorializes about the need to reform the aid industry in the United States and their desire for the President to follow through on his promises to do so. According to the Times, our second most important means of self-defense after the military is foreign aid. “The president has a staggering to-do list, but the USAID nomination should have been made months ago, and the defects of the current system are widely known and well documented. Let’s get on with fixing it.”

Reuters India: Food summit waters down hunger, aid targets-draft
A declaration to be made at next week’s world food summit in Rome will not mention a target to eradicate hunger by 2025 nor a commitment to spend $44 billion a year in agricultural aid, according to a final draft seen by Reuters. The two targets were among the most divisive issues at the centre of pre-summit negotiations, according to diplomats. Reuters reports that world leaders and top government officials at the Nov.16-18 summit will simply reaffirm their commitment to the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015 — a target that is unlikely to be reached.

Vanguard (Nigeria): Africa: Govts Partner Alliance for Green Revolution on Food Security
Vanguard reports that a groundbreaking partnership that will link African governments’ commitment to agricultural development with concrete programs in seeds, soil health, policy, and markets was launched in Abuja, Nigeria this week between The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The two organizations will work directly with national governments and partners across the agricultural value chain in a comprehensive effort to increase the productivity of small holder farmers growing Africa’s staple food crops, with a particular focus on developing high potential breadbasket areas of African countries.

Reuters: Is Africa Selling Out Its Farmers?
Reuters explores recent efforts by the Ethiopian government to entice foreigners to invest in the nation’s underperforming agriculture sector. Many small Ethiopian farmers do not share their leaders’ enthusiasm for the policy, eyeing the outsiders “with a suspicion that has crept across Africa as millions of hectares have been placed, with varying degrees of transparency, in foreign hands.” The vice president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa contends that African countries should invest in their own farmers, remarking that what is needed “is a small-holder, farmer-based revolution. African land should not be up for garage sale.”

Reuters: Poor nutrition stunts growth of 200 mln children-UN
The U.N. children’s foundation UNICEF reported Wednesday that nearly 200 million children in developing countries suffer from stunted growth and health problems due to poor nutrition in their early years. Despite an overall decline in the rate of the problem, 195 million children in developing countries under 5 years old have stunted growth due to poor nutrition during the critical period between their conception and second birthdays, UNICEF said. According to the new report, when the problem is widespread, it undermines those countries’ ability to improve their economies and eradicate poverty.

New York Times: Administration Names Agriculture Official to Run U.S. Aid Agency, Ending Delays
The Obama administration on Tuesday named Rajiv J. Shah, a medical doctor and health economist at the Agriculture Department, to run its main foreign aid arm, the United States Agency for International Development. Development experts said they were pleased by Dr. Shah’s appointment, but even more pleased that the administration had finally found someone to fill the job. Because Dr. Shah, a former executive with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has already been confirmed by the Senate once before, the administration is hopeful that he will be approved quickly.

Reuters: Over 20 million people need food aid in east Africa: U.N
The United Nations reported Tuesday that drought and war in eastern Africa have left more than 20 million people in desperate need of emergency food aid. In its latest report on food and crop prospects, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said delayed rains and dry spells often followed by floods had hurt crops and pastures in Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Uganda. The U.N. agency is hosting a world food summit in Rome next week, hoping to win broad support for an increase in agricultural investments in poor countries to help them feed themselves.

AllAfrica.com: U.S. Peace Corps to Bring New Focus to Food Security
AllAfrica.com interviews Aaron S. Williams, the new director of the Peace Corps, whom the Obama administration named to the position earlier this year. The Peace Corps, which will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary, is planning to increase its focus on food security, with a particular effort to establish a broader presence and deeper involvement at the community level. Remarked Williams, “I want to see us having a broad, expanded role in food security, especially because in Africa women play an instrumental role in the agricultural sector. I want to see us reach out to women who are involved in agriculture. I want to see us reach out to young people and introduce them to the importance of agriculture and food security.”

Reuters: Food: Is Monsanto the answer or the problem?
Amid reports of a burgeoning food security crisis, Reuters highlights the efforts of Monsanto, a company which claims to want to lead a second “Green Revolution.” Using biotechnology and genetic transfers, Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, hopes to create a corn variety that could grow well in dry conditions, even in drought-prone Africa, helping to alleviate hunger and poverty. However, the company is generating controversy, as critics continue to question the safety of biotech crops, the possible complications to humanitarian efforts and the difficulties that may come from increasing control of the global food supply by giant corporations.

AIDS Map: Global cost of HIV treatment and prevention could reach $35 billion by 2031
According to the AIDS 2031 project published in the November/December edition of Health Affairs, without a serious change in approach, AIDS will still be a major pandemic and funding required in resource-poor countries could reach an estimated $35 billion annually, three times the current level, by 2031—the fiftieth year of the pandemic. Results support policy choices focusing on investments in high-impact prevention for most-at-risk groups, efficient treatments, new prevention tools together with significant behavior-change efforts, all of which could help cut costs by half as well as help control the pandemic.

Financial Times: Global hunger forces itself to the top of political agenda
The Financial Times reports that the food crisis of the past few years has elevated the issue to the highest level of government. The move to involve the “whole of the government” signals how food security has become a global political preoccupation as the number of chronically hungry people tops one billion and agricultural commodity prices soar. According to Secretary of State Clinton, “Food security is not just about food. But it is all about security – economic security, environmental security, even national security.”

Reuters: Conditions in place for new food crisis, FAO warns
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that poor nations battered by record food prices last year need international help to raise agricultural output given conditions are still ripe for another food crisis. In an interview ahead of a global summit on food security in Rome next week, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said more aid was needed to curb the rising number of hungry people in the world, which topped 1 billion for the first time this year. Diouf told Reuters on Monday that “There is a lack of priority in fighting hunger and poverty at the highest political level, not only in developed countries but in developing countries.”

Politico – Veterans join front lines of climate fight
Politico reports that veterans groups have unexpectedly become a key weapon for environmentalists in their bid to win over swing votes on California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer’s climate change bill. With groups such as VoteVets.org making the argument that climate change has huge ramifications for the military, “scores of retired admirals and generals are lending their stars to the boards of energy security organizations in ways that could expand the political base for new climate change policies.”

Reuters: WTO’s Lamy says U.S. slowing Doha talks: report
The World Trade Organization’s Director General, Pascal Lamy, said that after a year spent putting in place the new U.S. administration, next year’s U.S. mid-term elections could prove a further problem in finalizing the Doha talks. He further emphasized that the time does not seem adequate for completing the WTO round given time required for international talks on disarmament and climate change. Remarked Lamy, “International trade, that up to now has avoided a wave of protectionism that could have come with the economic cycle, has not succeeded in detaching itself from the American political cycle.”

Los Angeles Times: Until women are healthy, societies will suffer
The L.A. Times blogs about a new report from the World Health Organization, which lays out the hurdles women face in getting the healthcare they need at various stages of life. In a statement about the report, the WHO director-general emphasized that “The obstacles that stand in the way of better health for women are not primarily technical or medical in nature. They are social and political, and the two go together. We will not see significant progress as long as women are regarded as second-class citizens in so many parts of the world.”

The Wall Street Journal: The Berlin Wall of Aid: When Will It Fall? (Op-Ed)
In light of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall today, co-author of “The Aid Trap: Hard Truths About Ending Poverty,” Glenn Hubbard, questions why top-down economic development in Africa – or the “Berlin Wall of Aid” as he calls it – has not fallen despite what the author believes is its “record of failure.” Hubbard highlights the success of the historic Marshall Plan and calls for a shift in the aid system, maintaining that increased aid from NGOs and microfinance has helped millions of poor people start and run micro-businesses across the world. Writes Hubbard, “the time has come for the Berlin Wall of aid to fall. Sub-Saharan Africa is as poor today as it was 50 years ago despite increases in foreign aid.”

New York Times: China Pledges $10 Billion to Africa
The Prime Minister of China, Wen Jiabao, pledged to grant African countries $10 billion in low-interest development loans over the next three years, to establish a $1 billion loan program for small and medium-size businesses, and to forgive the remaining debt on certain interest-free loans that China previously granted less-developed African nations. Mr. Wen also promised to form a partnership to address climate change in Africa, including the building of 100 clean-energy projects across the continent as well as sponsor an array of other programs in health, education, culture and agriculture.

Los Angeles Times: High hopes for a malaria vaccine
A massive malaria vaccine trial is underway in Africa, with 5,000 children already enrolled. If results are favorable, marketing approval could be sought as soon as 2012, making it the first commercial vaccine available for the disease. According to the L.A. Times, the first-generation vaccine is unlikely to reduce infections by more than 50%, but researchers believe that even that level of efficacy could make inroads against the disease and lay the foundation for the development of more-effective vaccines. The goal is to have a vaccine by 2025 that is 80% effective and that lasts for at least four years.

The Guardian: Gordon Brown is right: rich western banks should pay for the developing world to go green (Op-Ed)
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown argued this weekend that the proceeds from a global tax on banking transactions could be the key to breaking the deadlock on Copenhagen climate talks in December. The Guardian provides support for Brown’s arguments, stating that without a willingness by the west to bankroll greener economic strategies in the developing world there will be no climate change deal. The paper further emphasized that the negotiations expected in Copenhagen next month “are starting to echo the global trade liberalization talks, which began in Doha eight years ago this week and are still going nowhere.”

New Vision (Uganda): Donor Aid in Africa Should Increasingly Go to Women (Op-Ed)
New Vision editorializes that with government bureaucracies fast losing credibility in aid management, donor organizations should engage channels to make their funding more effective, arguing that working directly with women is the most effective way to ensure success. The paper cites evidence from the World Bank, which shows that women borrowers generate additional income through their enterprise and are more likely than men to direct it to household expenses especially those that benefit children. The paper further maintains that “by empowering grassroots women through training, they are investing in tangible, enduring and beneficiary empowerment, self-actualization and future self-reliance – from the bottom of the pyramid.”

Financial Times: G20 yet to deliver on early promise
In light of the recent G20 finance ministers meeting held over the weekend in Scotland, the Financial Times weighs in on whether “the premier forum for our international economic co-operation” is delivering on past promises, particularly those laid out in the latest meeting in Pittsburgh. The paper highlights the little progress that G20 leaders have made in determining the flows of money from rich to poor countries that will be needed in a global climate deal to help the developing world reduce carbon emission. However, despite this, the paper reports that the G20 still believes that it has a chance of success in securing a more balanced global recovery where other initiatives have failed.