'This paper challenges the traditional view about chronically food insecure populations, in contrast to relief-assisted population, who are often seen as a 'structural' or 'long-term' problem, meriting neither an emergency nor recovery assistance. The author puts forward three interlinked assumptions related to chronic food insecurity in developing countries: a) investments in agricultural and rural development over the past decades have declined significantly; b) relief interventions have becom more...

'This publication, which consists of two parts, underscores the importance of population issues, including reproductive health, as a critical component of national efforts to reduce poverty and achieve the MDGs. The first part highlights key arguments on the benefits to be gained when governments make reproductive health and rights a development priority. The second part includes the 'Stockholm Call to Action', a list of practical ways to invest in reproductive health which was endorsed by a num more...

Authors: ; Kampuchean Action for Primary Education (KAPE). Publisher: Educational Quality Improvement Program, USAID, 2008. This toolkit outlines activities and training methods to address problems that affect school attendance and development in Cambodia. The toolkit is organised into a website developed to engage school committees to prioritize the problems they encounter and to choose the appropriate interventions to solve those problems. The process begins with each school committee conducti more...

'The PPAF Project aims to reduce the incidence of poverty in the country through provision of resources and services to the poor and low income, particularly women. This objective is to be achieved through an integrated approach including provision of micro-credit loans; grants for small scale infrastructure projects, training and skill development and social sector interventions.'

This report, prepared by Columbia University's School for International and Public Affairs (SIPA) for the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, is an excellent resource on vocational training (VT) and market analysis. Focusing on Northern Uganda, this report analyzes a variety of youth VT programs at each stage of a VT programming cycle, identifying best practices and lessons learned. The report also promises a Market Assessment Toolkit for Vocational Training Programs and Youth, more...

Seeking to address high unemployment rates among youth in Bolivia, where nearly half the population is under 18, Pro Mujer is providing young people with basic business training and credit so they can succeed as entrepreneurs. In early 2008 Pro Mujer began rolling out the loan in El Alto, a poverty-stricken city adjacent to La Paz, and next year will make the loan available in other parts of the country.

Young people use the loans to operate or expand their businesses. Most of the young borr more...

The contributors to this edited volume explore the effects of various development and associated macroeconomic policies on women's well-being and progress towards gender equality. Detailed analyses of major UN reports on gender reveal the different approaches to assessing absolute and relative progress for women and the need to take into account the specifics of policy regimes when making such assessments. The book argues that neoliberal policies, especially the liberalization of trade and inves more...

As efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 intensify, developed and developing countries have agreed to new partnerships and aid modalities, designed to align aid to nationally determined development priorities, channel diverse aid sources into direct support to national budgets, and ensure greater stability and predictability in aid flows.

The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness outlines five guiding principles for greater aid effectiveness: ownership, alignme more...

In May 2007, UNIFEM and the Government of Kazakhstan organized a high-level consultation in Almaty on Gender Equality and Development Planning and Budgeting in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Government, civil society, academic and private sector representatives from 10 countries came together with UN and donor partners to look at national planning processes and their potential for advancing gender equality throughout the region.

This discussion paper examines the challenges for natio more...

'Drawing on evidence of labour conditions in India, the author, Jens Lerche, Department of Development Studies, SOAS, contends that the ILO should broaden its working definition of forced labour to encompass many of large number of modern forms, such as migrant bonded labour, which rely more on economic compulsion than extra-economic coercion and are spread relentlessly by the forces globalization.' The Centre for Development Policy and Research, Viewpoint #8.