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.

As work to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and achieve other Millennium Development Goals enters its final five years, attention is turning to the one in 10 people around the world with disabilities.

Timothy E. Wirth, President of the United Nations Foundation, today issued the following statement on the nomination of Rajiv Shah:

News Image“I congratulate President Obama for the nomination of Rajiv Shah as the administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Reform of U.S. foreign aid is urgently needed and we hope the long-awaited appointment of a new administrator will help in this endeavor.

Friday’s G20 summit was heralded as a great success by President Obama and other world leaders in attendance. During his radio address over the weekend, President Obama said:

Hi there. Mark is up on stage moderating. I'm Chris Scott, from ONE, in the audience at the Netroots Nation panel.   I'll be live blogging the session, which is set to begin momentarily.
Ray Offenheiser kicks off the panel with the premise that "poverty is not news."  All of us who work on these issues day in and day out have to confront the fact that poverty is rarely news until terrorism strikes.  Unfortunately, inequality is the status quo.

With six years to go until the 2015 deadline to achieve most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), not enough progress has been made toward reaching them, says the UN’s 2009 Millennium Development Goals Report. The global economic and food crises, as well as the growing effects of climate change have not only exacerbated the slow progress, but also threaten to reverse previously-gained successes.