Rubies, natural gas, pagodas and teak- just a few words of what pops into peoples’ heads when they hear the word “Myanmar.”  Be prepared to add another word to that list; and it’s not one that you would expect. Myanmar coffee has recently traveled to showcase in the London Coffee Festival and the SCA Expo, thanks to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) who funded a five-year project implemented by Winrock International in the form of the Value Chains for Rural Development.

World Bank today approved a US$50 million emergency project - Somalia Emergency Drought Response and Recovery Project (SEDRP, the Project) - to scale up the drought response and recovery effort in Somalia. Somalia is facing its worst drought in decades, with over half the population – an estimated 6.7 million people – in need of humanitarian assistance and recovery support. The Project will address the immediate needs of communities affected by the drought as well as supporting early recovery and improved resilience to future shocks.

Malawi hopes global lenders will release funds frozen over a government graft scandal three years ago now that the World Bank has resumed its budget support programme. This support traditionally accounts for about 40 percent of the budget of the poor southern African country. [...] "The recent resumption of the World Bank budgetary support, the expected confirmation by the IMF that Malawi is on track in its pursuance of fiscal management reforms are all signs of international confidence coming back in our economic management," Gondwe said.

The U.S. government is auditing a foreign aid program that loaned almost $1 billion to renewable energy projects in Chile – including solar farms in such deep financial trouble that the loans may never be fully repaid, according to people familiar with the matter. [...] OPIC, which aims to advance U.S. interests by lending to overseas business ventures, loaned about $2.5 billion to 32 projects throughout Latin America, in 2013-2014 with over a third of those funds going to Chilean energy projects.

This Sunday, Vancouver will, once again, hold the annual World Partnership Walk in beautiful Stanley Park to benefit the excellent work of the Aga Khan Foundation Canada, which works at the grassroots level in Africa and Asia to “tackle poverty on many fronts: improving access to quality education and health, increasing food security, creating economic opportunities for women and men, and building strong, resilient communities and local institutions”. The foundation engages Canadians from all walks of life, supported by the tireless devotion of volunteers. 

The Ministry of Economy has announced that preparations for the ‘World Trade Development Week 2017’ to be held in Dubai from 30 October to 1 November, 2017, are underway. [...] HE Al-Kait revealed the main agendas of the three-day event happening under the theme ‘Navigating Global Trade & Reviving Global Growth’. More than 1,500 representatives from government entities and local and international private institutions are expected to attend the World Trade Development Week in Dubai, ahead the WTO Ministerial Conference. 

A new report shows only a small fraction of official development assistance goes toward ending violence against children. For the first time, a review of official development assistance (ODA) to end violence against children has been done. The report Counting Pennies found that in 2015, total ODA spending was $174 billion and of that, less than 0.6 per cent was allocated to ending violence against children. Civil society partners that collaborated on this report were World Vision International, SOS Children’s Villages, Save the Children and ChildFund Alliance.

In order to reduce poverty and introduce community development, oftentimes it’s best to start with women. That’s the approach taken by Oklahoma City-based non-governmental organization World Neighbors in its work in Nepal and India. World Neighbors currently works in about 20 villages in Bihar, India and in nearly 32 communities over five districts in Nepal. The three main areas of work are sustainable agriculture and rural livelihood, community-based natural resource management, and reproductive health and gender equity.