What World Strategies Ltd.

The 9th CIVICUS World Assembly opens on Friday 20th August in Montreal for a four day meeting, discussion and debate amongst global civil society. The CIVICUS World Assemblies are always a good time to meet with colleagues and get the vibe of civil society planning and direction in global campaining and advocacy.

Oxfam have published a new report on how the financial crisis has impacted on Low-Income Countries and warns that the reprecussions of the crisis may have seriously jeopardised the success of the MDGs. The report is launched in the lead-up to the UN High-Level Event on the MDGs scheduled for the 20th to 23rd September.

The Korean government will hold a Civil G20 on the 15th October in Inchoen, South Korea is has been revealed. Korean civil society organisations have been in discussion with the government about hosting the first Civil G20 for sometime and now have an agreement with November G20 hosts.

The organisers of the Seoul G20 Summit are working hard to get themselves cool. They now have a Twitter account (G20seoulsummit) and a Facebook page. In addition, the government has appointed a number of well known young Korea celebrities and sport stars to be G20 Ambassadors.

The EuroIFI group is planning a meeting in September to discuss a number of issues including the IFIs and climate, the IFIs and finance, IFI performance standards review etc.

Did you know the biggest killer of young people worldwide was road traffic accidents? Neither did I. However, more people die each year from road deaths then from malaria. The Fia Foundation is working to campaign, alongside the Make Roads Safe group, to highlight this issue at the forthcoming MDG Summit. It is an issue not much discussed in international circles but cutting the number of road deaths would go along way to reducing unnecessary death and disability.

The ITUC have released their policy statement in the lead-up to the UN MDG Summit. The ITUC's recommendations to the UN member countries focus on decent jobs and work as well as large-scale environmentally-friendly and climate-resilient investments in infrastructure; HIV/AIDS; and call for in creation of a financial transaction tax.

A Expert group has released a report conluding that the financial transaction tax (FTT) is feasible. The group of nine experts was appointed by 12 member countries of Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development. The Report of the Committee of Experts to the Taskforce on International Financial Transactions for Development was released on the 16th July.

In an historic move, the UN voted on the 2nd July to create a new integrated agency for women. The UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, or UN Women as it is to be called, brings together a number of former UN entities and is a welcomed move in the lead-up to the MDG Summit in September.

The veteran campaigner and Elder, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is to retire on the 7th October on his 79th birthday. The celebrated activist has been a vocal supporter of a range of issues since the end of apartheid. He was one of the leading climate change campaigners last year in the lead-up to the Copenhagen conference, as well as supporting human rights and peace and security.

USAID released this week their long awaited MDG plan. "Celebrate, Innovate and Sustain: Towards 2015 and Beyond" sets the strategy for the government for the forthcoming UN MDG Summit in New York. The 28 page document promises to "raise the profile of development in [the United States’] diplomatic engagement with strategic allies as well as in multilateral forums". USAID Administrator, Rajiv Shah, said the UN meeting was an important opporunity to assess where the international community is at some 10 years into the MDGs.

UN release information on the organisation of the High-Level Plenary Meeting of the 65th Session of the General Assembly aka the UN MDG Summit. The information details the Roundtables and some of the schedule of the three day event.

A new report has been published which details how third world debt generated by Western government and institutions has created more than three decades of injustice instability, impoverishment and poor governance across the Muslim world. The report is published by the Jubilee Debt Campaign and Islamic Relief in the UK.

The UN has published the President's Summary of the Development Cooperation Forum that took place at the UN HQ on the 29th and 30th June.

End Water Poverty have published their comprehensive advocacy guide to the UN MDG High-Level event scheduled to take place in September. The advocacy guide include template lobbying letters, key policy demands, and information on actions in September