Development news roundup: Aid workers taken hostage in Somalia, EU legislators want less aid for middle-income countries, and more

Today, we reported:

• Armed men take aid workers hostage in Somalia

• EU legislators want less aid for middle-income countries

• How one African nation has become a threat to an entire region

• Drought in the US: Should aid agencies be concerned?

• Eurozone crisis to hurt Asia’s economic expansion

• Akihiko Tanaka’s vision for JICA

Other must reads:

• Women’s rights, agriculture among European Parliament’s priorities under Cyprus presidency

• 5 areas of action toward improved public sector outcomes – ADB’s Jianggan Li

• Australia to host Malaria 2012 conference in Sydney, Oct. 31-Nov. 2

• Polio eradication project in Nigeria to receive World Bank-approved $95M IDA credit

• DfID gets ‘Green-Amber’ on engagement with ADB

• Nestlé supports small-scale coffee farmers in Haiti

• Mozambican farmers, small businesses to benefit from IFC’s SMS system

• USAID chief Rajiv Shah on improving India’s food security

• A look at PEPFAR’s gender-based violence initiative in Tanzania

• World Bank: Africa needs $93B a year to meet infrastructure needs

• The next set of development goals, according to Jeffrey Sachs

• E-trikes project in the Philippines ‘riddled with problems, loopholes’

• Nick Kristoff: Obama’s ‘boring aid’ helps end famine, sends kids to school

• The demographic dividend: An important concept for investment

• US, EU priorities in Asia-Pacific: Sustainable development, better governance

• ADB OKs $800M India road investment program

• World Bank cofinances electricity project in East Africa

• South Korea boosts UNRWA’s interactive learning program for Gaza students

• Malawi gets $40M AfDB budget aid

• Thailand hosts IMF office catering to Myanmar, Laos

• IDB wins UK support for citizen security scheme in Jamaica

• With Spain’s funding, IDB helps Panama improve water and sanitation services

• Daniel Yohannes to visit MCC-backed energy projects in Malawi

• Is the right to food getting people in Cameroon fed?

• US, China pledge to improve collaborative efforts on science, development issues in Asia-Pacific

• US, Japan and South Korea affirm commitment to advance global development issues

• Sweden to protect British administrative, consular and humanitarian interests in Iran

• Ban Ki-moon to Security Council: Keep focus on long-term peace building

• Children with disabilities more likely to be victims of physical, sexual violence

• Susan Rice: ‘Peacebuilding cannot succeed without national ownership’

• Burundi’s economic reform program gains $18M support from AfDB

• Bob Carr announces $1.4M Australian support for Khmer Rouge trials

• EU allocates $42.7M for 2012 disaster-preparedness programs

• Sudanese refugees in South Sudan to receive $2.4M emergency grant aid from Japan

• UN expert to hold 1st water and sanitation mission in South Pacific

• UN to Russia: Draft NGO law ‘detrimental to civil society’

• Who are the 9 LAUNCH innovator organizations?

• Foreign ministers deepen diplomatic, economic ties in ASEAN forum side events

• New African solidarity drive seeks regional support for post-conflict states

• In East Africa, youth learns how football can stop HIV

• Despite violence, MSF stays in Timbuktu

• IMF board’s director in 2014: Turkey

• IDBZ stimulates Zimbabwe’s infrastructure sector with $100M for 43 projects

• Moscow mobilized aid for Russia’s flooded region

• USAID funds construction of education office in Ghana

• Congo, Cuba receive bulk of 2011-2012 South African fund allocations

• US was biggest 2011 donor to Pakistan despite tense relations

• Zimbabwe out of money for WASH

• Youth unemployment in Taiwan relatively low

• Ethiopia launches energy sector database

• Out of whack global food system leaves 2 billion hungry, or obese

• Nigerian religious leaders unite to decry faith-based violence

• USAID mission director reaffirms US commitment to Pakistan

• ASEAN fails to produce diplomatic communique at regional forum

• AfDB invests $15M in African Trade Insurance Agency

• Rights group to Ban Ki-moon, Navi Pillay: Don’t give Human Rights Council seat to Sudan

• In interview with China’s official press agency, Ban Ki-moon says China supports UN agenda

• What are the legal barriers affecting civil society in Belarus, Nepal, El Salvador, Malaysia and Panama?

• Academics and business figures defend Rio+20 outcome, claim natural resources battle ‘has only just begun’

• FAO, African Union Commission team up against tsetse fly, animal trypnosomiasis

• India to put in place a monitoring mechanism for PPP projects

• Judith Rodin, Rockefeller Foundation president, getting more people to innovate

• UAE food aid lands in Yemen

• Slow progress in TB fight a ‘major frustration’ for WHO TB chief

• World Bank hails IATI

• Afghan patients want Red Cross back in Mirwais Hospital

• MSF’s Joan Arnan on the challenges in responding to Haiti’s cholera epidemic

• CdO, Batangas and Iloilo among selected cities in USAID/Philippines Cities Development Initiative

• Battle for oil worsening hunger, political instability in Sudan and South Sudan

• Who will advocate for the Rohingyas when even Aung San Suu Kyi has been mum on violence against them?

• AIDS conference ‘tremendous opportunity’ for US to recommit to HIV prevention, diagnosis and treatment

• Is the US really helping women in Ghana feed the future?

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