More than 10 years on, global poverty reduction strategies introduced by multilateral organisations including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), have failed to remove many of the poorest communities, especially minority and indigenous communities, out of poverty, Minority Rights Group International says. Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) were initiated in 1999 by the IMF and World Bank to help low income and highly indebted countries to reduce their poverty levels. At the time, the move was widely supported by the UN and big donor countries. Currently, about 140 countries around the world are at some stage of a PRSP process, including implementing development projects based on the papers.

An uneasy calm has returned to a displaced persons’ camp in the restive region of Darfur in western Sudan where clashes broke out last week over tensions related to the current state of the peace process, the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) there reported. Mohammed Yonis, UNAMID’s Deputy Joint Special Representative and acting chief of mission, visited South Darfur, where the troubled Kalma camp is situated, and discussed the security situation with the state governor and camp leaders.

The French government through the French Development Agency is sponsoring the execution of development projects totalling 200 million Euros throughout the West African Nation of Ghana. The projects, which are mainly on the provision of potable water, electricity and sanitation, are currently being executed in the Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Northern and Volta Regions.

A court in Gambia has rejected the appeal of an opposition politician who was jailed for using a megaphone at a rally without permission, a case that has drawn harsh criticism from foreign donors. The jailing of Femi Peters, campaign manager of the main opposition UDP party, led to the United States and former colonial power Britain speaking out over concerns about human rights in Gambia, moves which drew an angry rebuke from President Yahya Jammeh who accused them of backing the opposition.

South Africa's draft climate change policy, known as the green paper, would be submitted to Cabinet by the end of August, after which it would be gazetted for public comment, the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA). DEA communications chief director Albi Modise further explained that following engagement on the comments received, a widely-consulted white paper would be submitted into the Parliamentary process by the end of the year, for promulgation which was expected in the first quarter of 201

"Virtually every author concludes that violence against African migrants will continue and increase unless some profound socio-economic and attitudinal changes occur. This text thus sounds a loud warning bell to South Africa about our future. And it does so not merely based on the opinions of the authors, but because of the views of ordinary South African citizens that informed the research. ... survey after survey, focus group after focus group, have shown deeply xenophobic attitudes rising steadily over time." - David Everatt in introduction to report on South African Civil Society and Xenophobia, July 2010

Uganda hopes to become the region's leader in rice research with the opening later this year of a US$6 million centre at its crop research institute. The National Crop Resources Research Institute (NACRRI) received the money from Japan in September last year for the construction of a training and research centre for rice farmers and scientists, which is now nearing completion.

After months of non-payment, lay counsellors vital to government's ambitious target of testing 15 million South Africans for HIV by April 2011, are threatening to walk out of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) clinics. Lay counsellors in at least two of South Africa's nine provinces - Eastern Cape and Gauteng - said they had gone for as long as five months without receiving their government stipends for providing pre- and post-test counselling as part of the national testing drive.

Human rights activists in Egypt have expressed concern following allegations that a woman was raped by two police officers. She took the unusual step of appearing on television to give an interview about her ordeal. The woman claims that the rape took place on a deserted rural road in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo.

Violence against women is a worldwide crisis, and a bill scheduled to come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, the International Violence against Women Act, would improve the way US foreign assistance is provided to address such violence. The US Violence against Women Act and several reauthorizations created critical funding, strategies, and structures to prevent violence against women and girls and to support survivors.

The new South has a cover story on why developing countries should also be eligible for compensation by transnational companies responsible for environmental disasters. The recent $20 bil fund set up by BP for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico should be a model for companies to compensate for disasters such as in Bhopal, the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Niger Delta.

The World Bank continues to influence developing country economic policies through placing conditions on loan agreements, despite concrete commitments by the Bank to significantly reduce the economic policy reforms required for the receipt of Bank funds in order to ensure an increase in recipient country policy space. What is new, however, are the more discreet channels of influence. This briefing finds that the conditions for the receipt of loans are increasingly being pushed in through the side door, for example by being stipulated outside of the loan agreement itself in side documents and letters, contravening responsible financing principles.

Local authorities in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are reporting that almost 90,000 people have been uprooted from their homes following recent military operations in the region, the United Nations humanitarian arm said. At least six civilians have died and dozens of others have been injured in the fighting between the national army, or FARDC, and fighters associated with the Ugandan rebel group known as the Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU) in the Beni territory in North Kivu province

South Africa's stop-start war on corruption claimed its biggest success yesterday as the country's former leading policeman was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jackie Selebi was told by a judge that he was "an embarrassment to all right-thinking citizens" as he was sent down on corruption charges.

Advocacy organisations in the US and Uganda have welcomed the announcement that the U.S. global AIDS program, PEPFAR, has reversed severe restrictions that capped enrollment of new HIV patients on life saving treatment in Uganda. Following Pressure, White House Announces it is Lifting AIDS Treatment Caps in Uganda. Similar Treatment Access Crises Loom Unless the Obama Administration Keeps its AIDS Funding Promises.

Africa is a continent on the rise and its story needs to be told: "Africa is open for business and ready to grow," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the ninth annual U.S.-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Forum -- also known as the AGOA Forum.

"An astounding 100 deportees a month come to ARACEM [in Mali] for shelter, food and clothing. They are expelled from Libya, Morocco and Algeria as they make the way from Central and West Africa in an attempt to find work. These three North African countries have signed agreements with European countries to act as external border control agents to prevent migrants from reaching Europe."

IRIN is pleased to announce the launch of three more chapters in our ongoing series of short films, Kids in the City. The Dump Site tells the story of children who scavenge from the Dandora rubbish tip in Nairobi to survive. Home Alone features a family of four children in the Ugandan capital Kampala who were orphaned by AIDS, while The Weigh Scale introduces 14-year-old Cambodian Chan Sori, who never knew his fathe

The Resource Kit provides ideas and arguments that can be used to advocate for equality and justice in Muslim family laws and practices. The local context and people’s needs will determine which argument works best in that environment. The Kit examines various aspects of family laws and practices. For each aspect, the Kit provides support for the idea of equality and justice from the four different approaches. The Kit also shares examples of different countries that have addressed these areas of family life in more equitable and just ways.

For two hours Osman Rasul perched on railings surrounding the seventh floor balcony of a Nottingham tower block. He blanked out police officers attempting to talk him down and at 7pm last Sunday, placing his hand on his heart, he looked up to the sky and leapt. The 27-year-old Iraqi Kurd, classified by the local refugee centre as a "destitute asylum-seeker" and in a fraying relationship with the mother of his two children, had lost the legal aid he needed to pursue his application to remain in the UK. A trip south to confront Home Office immigration officers in Croydon saw him being turned away and told to find a solicitor.