Time to move beyond 0.7% aid debate

Countries that have successfully tackled poverty and inequality have done so not through foreign assistance but through the liberation of their own social, human and economic forces

World Bank Data

Devlopment dats released for evey country.

http://data.worldbank.org/

G20 summit agrees to reform IMF

Finance ministers from the G20 leading economies have agreed reforms of the International Monetary Fund, giving major developing nations more of a say.

At a meeting in South Korea, they agreed a shift of about 6% of the votes in the IMF towards some of the fast-growing developing countries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11612701

Life-saving stoves in Congo

How special stoves save lives and emissions in Congo

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8580967.stm

Zambian copper industry crisis

The economic slowdown has made a big impact on the copper industry in Zambia, with more than 1,000 people losing their jobs at one mine alone

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7931558.stm

Wired world – the global growth of mobile phone use

The speed and scale of the world’s love affair with mobile phones was revealed yesterday in a UN report that showed more than half the global population now pay to use one.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/03/mobile-phones1

Britain joins rush to rebuild Africa’s transport network

Britain is joining the latest scramble in Africa – to reverse decades of decay and even the disappearance of large parts of road and rail systems – with a $1bn (£690m) project to rebuild the transport network across the south of the continent

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/19/africa-transport-network-britain

Sun sets on Brazil’s sugar-cane cutters

Half a million jobs and five centuries of tradition are to be phased out in Brazil’s booming sugar-cane industry to satisfy western demands for more socially acceptable work practices in the biofuel sector.

Sugar-cane cutters, who have been working Brazil’s land since the 1520s, when Portuguese colonialists first experimented with growing the crop, are to make way for mechanisation.

Greener and leaner – how the west could stave off disaster

The world food crisis is a tragedy frequently and passionately foretold. For years, food experts warned that chronic under-investment in agriculture in developing countries, by governments and donors alike, would one day spell disaster.

That day has dawned, and in the run-up to next week’s food summit in Rome, the international community is talking hopefully of a “second green revolution” and rushing to reverse two decades of neglect.

Planet Earth: The Executive Summary

A few years ago a group of educators from BC, Canada set out to try to get an objective look at the state of the world. We wanted The Big Picture, not just this or that issue, but the most essential points of every important issue. The Executive Summary of the state of the planet.

This web site is the result of that search. The site (and the accompanying wall chart) are here to show you – in as clear, objective, and accessible a format as possible – the condition of the world — both its natural and human elements.