The fight against poverty in Pakistan is to be stepped up with a doubling of UK assistance to £480 million by 2011, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander announced today.

 Millions of people facing severe food shortages in Zimbabwe will be helped by £9 million in humanitarian support announced today by International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander.

Surging food and oil prices, along with global financial turmoil, have made cooperation essential to reach development goals, Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) President Leo Mérorès said today.

A new United Nations report is advocating a shift in policies to ensure greater economic stability and security given the increased threats and vulnerabilities, from rising food prices and fuel prices to mortgage defaults and bank runs, facing the world today.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has encouraged companies to expand beyond traditional business practices and offered them strategies and tools to bring in the world’s poor as partners for economic growth, in a new report released today.  

The United Nations has reached “a critical juncture” in the implementation of its development agenda, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, with soaring oil and food prices, turmoil in the financial markets, inequality and climate change all threatening to strike hardest at the world’s poorest people.

The United Nations Development Programme has named Canadian Elia Armstrong as the new head of its Ethics Office, it was announced today.

The inhabitants of developing nations will find out whether they have been infected with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in two days, not the standard two to three months, thanks to two new United Nations-backed initiatives.

First Minister Rhodri Morgan was today [27 June] updated on the progress that Wales is making in developing health links with countries in Africa.

 Over 1.2 million children in two of Africa's poorest countries will get a better education as a result of an innovative agreement, signed today between the Department for International Development (DFID), the Governments of Rwanda and Malawi and Band Aid/The Hunter Foundation, and managed by the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative (CHDI).