Full Coverage: Aid

31.03.2004 WASHINGTON, D.C., Mar 31 (OneWorld) - This week's outburst of apparently Islamist-related violence, which has killed more than 40 people in two major cities in Uzbekistan in the past three days, is spurring renewed attention to the strategically located Central Asian country's deplorable human rights record.

31.03.2004 Investing $100 per person over the next seven years in the rebuilding of Afghanistan could bring the country close to where it might have been without 20 years of conflict--which probably cost 10 times more than the $27.5 billion donors meeting today in Berlin are being asked to pledge for reconstruction, according to World Bank calculations.

30.03.2004 A surprise decision by Angola to reject genetically modified (GM) food aid threatens to disrupt distributions to 1,9-million vulnerable people -- many of them newly returned after the country's two-decade civil war -- the United Nations food agency has said.

29.03.2004 WASHINGTON, D.C., Mar 29 (OneWorld) - On the eve of a meeting this week of Afghanistan's major international donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) active in the war-battered country are calling on wealthy countries to devote more attention to human rights, security, and the growing threat posed by opium production.

26.03.2004

Afghan schoolroom

Two years of (often misdirected) aid is not enough to transform a failed state into a viable government, argues this measured analysis of progress and weaknesses in the nation-building exercise in Afghanistan, in the run-up to next weekÂ’s donor meeting in Bonn, Germany. Amnesty International makes similar arguments in a letter sent today to all donors.

26.03.2004 The EU proposals to fight terrorism risk "compromising the neutrality, impartiality and independence of humanitarian assistance", leading civil rights groups have said in a joint statement. The new proposals cited by British Overseas NGOs for Development, a group of about 250 NGOs, openly link aid programmes to the fight against terrorism.

25.03.2004 International donors meeting in Berlin next week to discuss aid for Afghanistan should be generous with reconstruction and security aid. Lacking these essentials, confidence in the government will lag, and the growing criminal economy around the poppy cultivation will bloom--as will terrorist activities--argues a policy brief released today in Berlin.

25.03.2004 The UK government has ended its 10% bonus on payroll giving donations, to the disappointment of the Charity Aid Foundation, and instead is offering companies with less than 500 employees Payroll Giving Grants to assist the establishment of new company schemes.

24.03.2004 INTERSOS is deeply troubled by the violence which has broken out throughout Kosovo over the past days.
INTERSOS is an independent non-profit humanitarian organization committed to assisting the victims of natural disasters and armed conflicts.
It was established in 1992 by a group of citizens committed to international solidarity, with the active support of Italian Trade Unions.

24.03.2004

Partnerships make aid work © InterAction: American Council on Voluntary International Action

"The duplication, waste, and inefficiencies of the worldwide aid business are largely a consequence of unilateralism--that is, of the unwillingness of many donor countries, including the United States, to coordinate development projects within the countries they aid." Washington should learn to "adapt to the new world of foreign aid, in which going it alone is not the best way to help the poor" write D.C.-based development experts Nancy Birdsall and Brian Deese.

24.03.2004 In January the ActionAid family all over the world joined hands to form ActionAid International. Ramesh Singh of ActionAid UK took on the role of CEO of the new organization, based in South Africa. Allavida's Alliance magazine asked Singh about the process of "internationalisation" that has been going on at ActionAid for some five years.

24.03.2004 In collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UMCOR Kosovo has provided emergency assistance to 253 Albanian speaking Ashkalis (a people of Indian descent) and 71 Kosovo Serbs, who have become displaced from Novo Selo Madjunsko in Vucitrn Municipality and are currently accommodated in a KFOR base. This assistance consisted of 60 hygiene kits donated by UNHCR and humanitarian aid items provided by UMCOR.

24.03.2004 The Republic of Serbia Bureau of Textbooks and Teaching Materials (ZUNS) announced the start of its “Books Against Violence” campaign and calls upon the citizen to give their support. On Thursday, March 25, everybody that visits a ZUNS bookshop and buys a book or some school appliance, will be helping the children of Kosovo. All revenue of that day will be deposited to a special bank account set up to collect contributions for the children of Kosovo and Metohija.

For more information, please visit the ZUNS website at www.zavod.co.yu.

23.03.2004 The United Nations Population Fund has warned that lack of donor support for reproductive health services will jeopardize the progress towards meeting anti-poverty goals.

22.03.2004 Half a million women die during pregnancy or childbirth every year partly because rich countries are failing to deliver on promises of aid, according to an Oxfam report.

19.03.2004 Mike Aaronson of Save the Children UK reflects on the difference that a major increase in donorsÂ’ overseas aid budgets would make to the dignified, capable people of Ethiopia.

19.03.2004 Mike Aaronson of Save the Children UK reflects on the difference that a major increase in donorsÂ’ overseas aid budgets would make to the dignified, capable people of Ethiopia.

18.03.2004 Despite a marginal improvement in Eritrea's humanitarian situation, the country still faces very serious problems, the UN has said.

11.03.2004 Following the arrival of a UN task-force in Haiti, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday that it will probably take at least 10 years to build institutions and infrastructure in what has long been ranked one of the world's poorest countries. The "half-hearted efforts" of the past must be replaced by a sustained international commitment, Annan said.

10.03.2004

Hunger in Malawi

Inzala means "starving" in Malawi's local language. Because they now in their third year of inzala, Malawi's rural residents have run out of traditional coping strategies and rely heavily on externally funded projects such as "Food for Work" programs.