Development news roundup: Australia to divert some aid funds, countries eligible for a 2013 MCC compact, and more

Today, we reported:

• Australia to divert some aid funds to support asylum seekers

• Which countries will be eligible for a 2013 MCC compact?

• EU Food Facility: Effective but could be better

• Jordan gets joint operations hub for Syrian refugee programs

• Soon: 1st-ever US plan to help children in adversity

• The benefits of impact reporting for NGOs

Other must reads:

• A look at AfDB investments in Kenya’s young innovators

• UNHCR urges more improvement in asylum processing post used by Australia 

• $24.7M EBRD loan to help boost Croatia’s tourism sector

• EBRD provides $131.7M for construction of power plant in Jordan 

• ADB, ILO reaffirm support for core labor standards

• IDB approves $30M loan for key Jamaican social protection programs 

• IMF disburses $1.7B to Ireland after eight review of extended fund facility 

• UN official: Situation in Congo’s Kivu provinces remains ‘tense and fragile’ 

• New report on global disease burden adds urgency to clean cookstove initiative 

• How MCC compact is helping Paraguay fight corruption 

• ADB & Australia help Vanuatu improve urban development

• UK supports Syrian refugees in Jordan

• Minister Joe Costello, Irish NGOs discuss Ireland’s upcoming presidency of the Council of the EU 

• Celebrating 50 years of OECD DAC peer reviews 

• New Zealand sends more aid to cyclone-hit Samoa

• UN secretary-general returns to renovated, eco-friendly headquarter offices after five years 

• UNDP assistant administrator: ‘Global governance advancing or receding?’ 

• US Senate appropriations committee head Daniel Inouye dies at 88 

• Ford Foundation commits $3M to World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability 

• UN seeks $144M in additional humanitarian aid for Haiti 

• Bombing in southern Philippines may have targeted aid workers 

• Aid cuts expected to dominate Rwanda’s annual public dialogue 

• Mali: Northern communities struggle to sustain livelihoods amid conflict, extreme weather conditions 

• World Vision aids nodding families in Uganda’s Gulu district 

• World Bank, AfDB to spend $747.1M on Nigeria’s agriculture - minister 

• ICRC’s Sameer Putros: We have to expand water, sanitary facilities in Syria 

• India’s take on the climate talks in Doha: ‘Many of our issues have not been addressed’ 

• In forum, health care practitioners discuss measures to enhance security in armed conflicts 

• $4M SIDA grant for Yemen’s political transition

• AfDB to give $23.2M grant to boost East African communities’ payment systems 

• Howard Buffett Foundation pledges $500,000 for DRC-M23 rebels’ talks 

• The future of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative

• Martin Kirk: Lessons from ‘Give Us the Money’ 

• From Austria to Australia - young volunteers set the agenda for the new year 

• Solar sisters’ spread light in Africa / ‘Solar sisters’ spreading light in Africa 

• In Uganda, aid cuts threaten vital public services

• AusAID backs new women empowerment program in Papua New Guinea  

• More threats to Malawi food security: Rising maize prices and poor harvests 

• The Analyst: Why we are ‘cautiously’ anticipating news of new Japanese food aid for Liberia 

• David Weiss: Don’t let foreign aid fall off the fiscal cliff

• What the world can learn from Brazil’s fight against poverty 

• Pixie Lott shares tales of women working their way out of poverty in Zambia’s slums 

• What’s your meme? Changing the climate change conversation 

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