It sounds funny indeed. After half a year of crippling power cuts in Tanzania, nobody had thought about potential electricity generation options other than natural gas, coal, solar, thermal, and probably wind farms. Now, investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have come with a seemingly curious idea: They want to risk USD168million of seed capital for investing in a power generation facility using Tanzania's Indian Ocean's territorial waters.

This report comments on global progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), focusing on aid, trade and financial dimensions of the process. It notes that, despite commitments to raising aid effectiveness from the G8 and the Paris Declaration, the world is still far from achieving the MDGs - particularly Africa and South Asia. In light of these findings it urges much greater effort to implement the vision of global action and mutual accountability for results.

This paper starts from the premise that trade may be necessary for sustained industrial development, but it is not sufficient. In the right circumstances, trade liberalisation creates opportunities for development, but other factors determine the extent to which those opportunities are realised. It argues that, to benefit from liberalisation developing countries will need to make public investments in infrastructure and institutions as well as private investment in productive capacity - a point realised by the aid for trade agenda.

The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR), supported by the World Council of Churches, has initiated a resolution for Royal Dutch Shell shareholders to consider at their Annual General Meeting in The Hague and London on 16 May 2006. The resolution calls for ‘a major improvement in Shell’s performance in terms of community and stakeholder consultation, risk analysis, and social and environmental impact analysis’.

This award rewards best practices related to the use of new technologies in education and training of young people. The competition is open to schools and universities, public and private institutions, non-profit and youth associations, large and small companies, research centres, and individuals of any age.

This award honours an individual or a civil society organisation in a conflict country or region that has developed groundbreaking and effective initiatives to promote the rights of women and to increase their participation at decision-making levels in peace processes. Winners will receive a sum of EUR 15,000 and a work of art made for the occasion, as well as a tour through the Netherlands to present their work to a variety of diverse audiences.

This award recognises ordinary people worldwide whose lives are dedicated to doing extraordinary work on behalf of children in three categories: World of Children Health Award; World of Children Humanitarian Award; and the Founder's Award. The first two award winners will receive US$50,000 Awards; the winner of the Founder's Award will receive US$15,000.

In the Mao era, China dealt with Africa as part of a show of solidarity with countries that shared some of China's experience of Western oppression. However, these links were fostered in an ideologically charged time, when China sought to display affinity with other socialist countries and to demonstrate an almost nihilistic aversion to the institutions and norms of international relations. Although it joined the UN in 1971, any real alteration of China's foreign policy did not come until the Deng-initiated reforms post-1979.

Small and medium enterprises account for a huge proportion of the businesses and jobs in the world’s forests. These enterprises can be easy for poor people to set up, but without support, the challenges of being small threaten their survival. The best way forward is usually finding a common cause and working together as an association.

WhiteAfrican refers to a Wired Magazine article 'The Cost of Staying Connected'. He writes: What I find the most interesting is that they split up the price per hour and the percentage of GDP per capita per day. In other words, it might be more expensive to get online in New York, New York ($12.80/hr), but it took a higher percentage of the average persons wages in D.R. of the Congo (68.4%)."

All over the world, young people experience a disproportionate share of unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, and other sexual and reproductive health problems. Developed with the support of the UK Department for International Development (DfID), Safe Passages to Adulthood is a programme of research into young people’s sexual and reproductive health in poorer country settings. Programme activities aim to increase the capacity of developing country partners to generate new knowledge and develop systematic guidelines for action at programme and policy levels.

An initiative by the child welfare NGO, Save The Children, is managing to overcome the timidity of urban dwellers in Swaziland about "getting involved" in neighbours' domestic disputes. "Looking the other way, and turning a deaf ear to screams and cries for help next door have led to tragedies. We are giving people a way to get involved while allowing them to remain anonymous," said Elizabeth Kgalolo, programme director at Save the Children.

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is looking for a Deputy Director to be based at the Headquarters in New Delhi, India. CHRI is an independent, non-partisan, international non-governmental organisation working for the practical realization of human rights in the countries of the Commonwealth. CHRI is an advocacy organisation, focusing on systemic human rights issues related to Access to Information and Access to Justice.

“We call upon civil society organizations and social movements from around the world to join with us in showing their strong, united and unequivocal opposition to the completion of the World Trade Organization’s trade ‘round’, and other bilateral and regional Free Trade Agreements being forced on people by governments. We are committed to campaigning together to stop these negotiations, which ignore the needs of developing countries, the peoples of the world and the environment, and promote corporate globalization. We agree to mobilize, nationally and internationally, in late April, mid May and late July, to ensure our voices are heard as governments meet for the WTO’s scheduled General Council meetings.”

The World Conservation Union’s (ICUN) recently released 2006 Red List of Threatened Species reveals ongoing decline of the status of plants and animals. The number of known threatened species increased to 16,119, while the ranks of those facing extinction are joined by familiar species like the polar bear, hippopotamus and desert gazelles as well as ocean sharks, freshwater fish and Mediterranean flowers. However, the report also notes that positive action has helped the white-tailed eagle and offered a glimmer of hope to Indian vultures.

As Russia assumed the Presidency of the G8, New Era's Max Hamata approached the Russian Ambassador, Nikolay Gribkov on the essence of Russia's G-8 Presidency to Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). He spoke on the need for African permanent representation on the United Nations Security Council and Russia's role in the stabilization of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and how Russia's G-8 Presidency will affect relations with SADC.

The informal sector (IS) plays a significant role in developing countries, through the provision of employment, income and supplying neglected markets. However, working conditions and income levels in the IS remain low and thus create a poverty trap. Various approaches have been adopted by stakeholders in order to overcome the obstacles to formalisation and this paper aims to assess these approaches.

Racial hatred and violence is growing in Russia, analysts say. “Ethnic hatred, xenophobia and violence are on the rise in Russia - so is the activity of skinheads towards non-Russians, those who do not look Slavic. Most sociological surveys confirm that,” Galina Kozhevnikova, deputy head of the Moscow-based Sova think tank, said from the Russian capital on Monday. According to Kozhevnikova, skinheads beat up 124 people who came from 23 different countries in 2005.

YouthNet, a program of Family Health International (FHI), has announced Youth InfoNet No. 24. This issue of the electronic newsletter features 15 recent program resources focusing on youth reproductive health and HIV prevention.

Deep links exist between NGOs and trade unions. Many NGOs were established by unions and the two groups still work together in powerful coalitions and joint campaigns. But while the NGO sector has expanded rapidly in recent decades, the union movement has declined. The diversity between NGOs makes the movement impossible to pigeon hole, except that "it represents civil society's most visible response to globalization." The author states that unions must draw from NGOs' example and become the new civil society alternative.