On the eve of the third G20 Summit since the global economic crisis began, Jubilee USA and the United Nations Millennium Campaign, hosted a blogger roundtable, Tuesday, June 22, to launch a new report entitled “Making the Grade? The Group of G20’s Commitments to the World’s Poorest”.

June 18, 2010- Last week, the United Nations Millennium Campaign in North America launched the a manual for Parliamentarians on the Millennium Development Goals at the Canadian Parliamentary Summit in Ottawa.

The UN Millennium Campaign hosted an interactive panel discussion with over 80 high-level Washington DC civil society participants on Thursday, April 15. The discussion centered upon: (a) the progress-to-date of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); (b) the US government commitment to achieving the MDGs; (c) the role that civil society can play in both achieving the MDGs and influencing the Obama Administration; and, (d) the UN MDG Review Summit being held September 20-22.

The United Nations Millennium Campaign and its partners today launched an online petition “OK to 0.7,” through which Canadian citizens will demand that their government keep its promises to allocate 0.7 percent of Gross National Income to foreign aid. The petition was developed by Montreal-based communications firm Cossette. It demands that Canada deliver on commitments which are critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goals – the set of promises made by rich and poor countries to work together to eradicate extreme poverty by the year 2015.

A group of experts discussed three major crises facing the world over the past year: Afghanistan, the Global Economy, and Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations Association Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference and 2010 Members’ Day.

In honor of International Women’s Day, Anita Sharma, North American Coordinator for the UN Millennium Campaign, spoke during the BBC program World News Today. Sharma indicated that achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women (including, but not limited to, Goal 3: Gender Equality and Goal 5: Maternal Health) are the linchpin to achieving all of the MDGs. Although progress has been made, poverty still has a female face with women and children making up 70% of the world's poor.

In an address at the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women on March 3, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer, spoke on the progress made and obstacles that remain in the effort to realize UN Millennium Development Goals related to women’s empowerment and international development. Verveer emphasized the value that safeguarding women’s rights, improving maternal health, and supporting women’s economic advancement can have on whole communities.

On February 1, President Obama requested $58.5 billion for the foreign affairs account, as part of his $3.8 trillion FY 2011 Budget request submitted to Congress. This is up from $50.9 billion in the final FY 2010 appropriation, an increase of about 9 percent. One of his campaign pledges was to double foreign assistance by 2012, which seems difficult given today’s economic climate.

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On Friday, January 8, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s gave a major speech on the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+15). She said, “ if we believe that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, then we cannot accept the ongoing marginalization of half the world’s population.