This paper presents a suggested methodology for developing a scorecard on girls’ access to and retention in formal primary schooling in Commonwealth countries in Africa. While acknowledging the limitations of scorecards in capturing the complexity of factors involved, the authors suggest that a scorecard could facilitate assessment of progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and permit comparative analysis and identification of key elements to success, thus supporting scaling up of gender equity programmes.

A World Trade Organisation deal allowing poor nations to import generic copies of patented drugs is not being implemented, depriving countries of a cheap source of supply, UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot said on Tuesday. The pact, finalised last September, is supposed to allow developing countries with meagre or no drug industries to buy generic drugs from countries such as India or Brazil to combat HIV and other health crises.

Public universities in Kenya have accomplished their initial mission of fostering an intellectual community in the country. But public universities have also faced difficulties such as enrolment beyond their capacity to plan and finance; fiscal challenges; and a decline in quality. To help solve some of these problems, the Kenyan government has supported the establishment and growth of private universities and colleges. Today, almost one in six college and university students attends a private college or university, and this figure increases annually. What accounts for this growth and is it a good thing for Kenya?

Developing countries are being shackled by regulations formulated and enforced by international organisations. Policies to nurture domestic industry, which were used in Europe, north America and more recently the successful East Asian 'tiger' economies, are becoming illegal. The three major agreements which emerged from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Uruguay Round of international trade talks - on investment measures (TRIMS), trade in services (GATS) and intellectual property rights (TRIPS) - are narrowing the powers of states. Governments now find it difficult to combine profit-oriented actions of companies within their borders with complementing national development strategies.

This paper addresses the effectiveness of cash transfers in addressing childhood poverty in developing and transition economies. It argues that the provision of cash transfers and basic services to the poor are complementary activities, in order to ensure that supply responds to demand arising from the transfer programmes.

Along ancient Saharan trade routes, 1,300 years of shared history that have mingled the faiths, cultures and skin tones of Arabs and Africans has left another, more vicious legacy: Arab-African slavery that has endured as long as the two peoples have been together, leaving black Africans fighting perceptions of themselves as lesser beings, and of Arabs as the civilizing, conquering force. Today, the old roles are playing out at their most extreme in Sudan's Darfur region.

Who pays for early childhood education and how are funds allocated? According to the recent issue of the UNESCO Policy Briefs on Early Childhood, these are important questions to be answered when planning early childhood care and education. Today, countries differ remarkably in their levels of investment in early education. In general, the industrialized countries believe that early education should take place in regulated centres, with certified teachers and appropriate child/staff ratios. Maintaining such standards is costly, however, and may not be either relevant or cost-effective in other situations. Many poorer countries, for example, organise community services for young children in which local mothers with some months of special training are employed.

This is a call for proposals to undertake country studies in Sub-Saharan Africa in the areas of aid, investment, migration, or trade. Interested researchers are invited to submit proposals on specific issues or combinations of issues of particular importance to their countries. The proposals should include a detailed description of the methodology to be used, the availability of suitable data, and the composition of the research teams. Proposals with teams that include younger researchers or less established institutions are particularly encouraged. The deadline for submissions is on or before October 15, 2004. They should be sent to bvaughan@gdnet.org.

The Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) has recently published a report on measuring the impact of humanitarian aid. This report investigates the current state of the art in measuring and analysing the impact of humanitarian assistance. It is concerned with questions around how impact can be measured, why this is increasingly being demanded, and whether it is possible to do it better. It also explores the benefits, dangers and costs that paying greater attention to impact might entail.

An international experts meeting was held on Globalisation and Africa at the European Parliament, Brussels from April 15th -17th, 2004, sponsored by the European United Left-Nordic Green Left Group (GUE/NGL) in collaboration with a Netherlands-based Convening Committee, which included TNI. The papers presented are now online, together with the declaration which warns that the EU's proposed Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with African countries pose an even bigger challenge than the WTO insofar as carrot and stick tactics are used to promote the unilateral liberalisation of trade and investment regimes.

The eleventh session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XI) ended on 18 June with a closing session in a rather good spirit with some useful results for developing countries. The conference adopted a declaration called the Sao Paulo Consensus, which contains analyses of globalisation, trade and development issues, proposes policy responses and spells out the role of UNCTAD. Also adopted was a declaration, the Spirit of Sao Paulo. UNCTAD XI’s most important achievement was the inclusion in the declaration of a section on the need for developing countries to have “policy space”, which has been increasingly eroded by trade agreements and loan conditions. It was the first time a multilateral conference involving North and South had recognized this idea and it will be useful to developing countries’ negotiators when they argue their case in the World Trade Organisation, at the International Monetary Fund and in regional and bilateral trade agreements.

Between 1995 and 2015, approximately half of the gold produced worldwide has or will come from the traditional territories of indigenous peoples, whose land rights are often not clearly recognized. Even when indigenous groups hold legal title to surface lands, some governments sell off the subsurface rights to mining corporations. Where did the gold in your ring come from? This is the central question of a webpage produced by the World Watch Institute, which notes that once mine ore is extracted, the mine ore is crushed, piled into heaps, and sprayed with cyanide to separate out the gold. Years later, the abandoned waste piles can still release acid and toxic heavy metals into streams, rivers, and groundwater. The gold produced for a single .33 ounce, 18 karat gold ring leaves in its wake at least 18 tons of mine waste.

This report provides comparative data on education in developing and developed countries. It presents detailed country-level statistics on inputs such as enrolment rates, teacher to student ratios, and private and public expenditures as a percentage of GDP, as well as outputs such as literacy levels. It outlines some of the general findings and trends evidenced by the data. It discusses the concept of ‘school life expectancy’ (SLE) as a useful comparative measure of years spent in school, changes in participation in various regions over the past decades, comparisons of school year repetition and achievement levels in literacy.

Rising racist abuse among players in club cricket has forced Western Province (WP) cricket chiefs to set out an organised "conciliation" strategy - including a flying squad of mediators for match days. The WP Cricket Association (WPCA) revealed that half the incidents dealt with by its disciplinary committee related to racial or religious harassment and abuse. It blamed much of this on clubs which were still mostly racially divided because of the legacy of apartheid's Group Areas Act.

It has been over 50 years since the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed by most governments in the world and yet the abuses continue to grow. Freedom of Speech and Human Rights are taken for granted in the west, but recent years have seen conditions deteriorate around the world. As early as 1997 for example, Human Rights conditions were reported to remain unchanged compared to previous years, or in some countries, actually worsen around the world. In 1998 for example, the UN reported that even though over a hundred governments had agreed to help outlaw some of the worse violations of rights, torture was still on the increase.

In 2003, the Brazilian government initiated a resolution on sexual orientation and human rights to be presented to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR). Since, organisations involved in the international lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual (LGTB) movement have come face to face with the UN system. On March 29, 2004 Brazil was informed that it could not present its resolution on sexual orientation due to intense pressure from the Organisation of Islamic Conferences (OIC), the Vatican and the Protestant right. Despite this set-back, the LGTB movement has had a substantive opportunity to learn about and influence UN processes and strategies.

Transparency International (TI) has invited contributions for the ‘corruption research’ section of the Global Corruption Report 2005, TI’s annual survey of the state of corruption around the world. The Global Corruption Report reaches policymakers, journalists and researchers worldwide. It is a key forum for new and innovative research on corruption and governance. The Global Corruption Report 2005 will include short summaries of recent research.

In at least 25 countries of the world there is no specified age for compulsory education; at least 33 States have no minimum age of employment and in 44 girls can be married earlier than boys. In at least 125 countries children may be taken to court and risk imprisonment for criminal acts at an age between 7 and 15, often the age range for compulsory education. Moreover, in the same country, it is not rare to find that children are legally obliged to go to school until they are 14 or 15 years old but a different law allows them to work at an earlier age or to be married at the age of 12 or to be criminally responsible from the age of 7. The publication 'At what age?' brings to light problems that are not - but should be - effectively addressed: at what age do children become adults and loose their protection under the Convention on the Rights of the Child?

Unless governments in poor countries implement domestic policies that benefit the entire population and not only the rich elite, fair world trade will not be enough to help nations achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, Eveline Herfkens, executive coordinator for the MDGs campaign, told U.N. Wire in an interview at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development's 11th ministerial meeting. According to Herfkens, who has been participating in plenary discussions and briefings here since Monday, poor countries are partly to blame for economic inequalities, since rich people in poor nations are frequently the ones making decisions on trade and other policies.

A coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), farmers associations and social movements from around the world are using the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XI) as a platform for a Global Call to Action against "free trade" agreements that destroy peasant based agriculture and lead to corporate-controlled de-industrialisation in the South. This Global Call to Action will take place during the week of 19-24 July, 2004; the week immediately prior to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) General Council meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.