On 14th September, Katie Nguyen asked “What have the Millennium Development Goals ever done for us?” Writing on the Reuters Humanitarian site, Alertnet, she acknowledges that although nobody can fault the aim of the MDGs, issues such as poor data have ‘provoked as much doubt as support’.
‘Still Our Common Interest: Commission for Africa Report 2010’ was published on Monday 13th September to examine what has happened since the 2005 report, ‘Our Common Interest’ which set out measures for the creation of a strong and prosperous Africa.
Alan Beattie writes in the Financial Times yesterday, 15th September, on the state of play in the aid business in the run up to the MDGs. He reports a shift in the international aid agenda has shifted from a focus on the quantity of aid to a language of results – a consequence of donors repeatedly missing their targets, coupled with fiscal tightening.
Jorg Faust’s paper released on September 2nd tests the ideas that “higher levels of political transparency – ease with which the public can monitor the government – are conducive for limiting the impact of special interests on policy-making."
The U.S. government has significantly reduced the backlog of Freedom of Information requests in the last year, but has been slow to act in other areas related to government secrecy, according to a new secrecy report card by International Right to Know Day will be marked in Brussels by a seminar organised by the European Ombudsman and Transparency International on 28th September.
International Right to Know Day to be marked in Brussels
