Development news roundup: Debt relief for Myanmar, Red Cross worker abducted in Yemen, and more

Today, we reported:

• Erase and rewind: Debt relief, roll over for Myanmar

• Red Cross: No contact with French aid worker’s abductors

• Global Health Council to close shop

• USAID’s 7 approaches to global health

• High food prices ‘stall progress’ across MDGs

• Mass vaccination campaigns roll out in Haiti

• New policies needed to steer Central Asia, Eastern Europe to green future

• Climate finance’s missing dimension

Other must reads:

• Managing financial risks of disasters in Pacific: A brief

• Carbon forum explores Africa’s ‘golden opportunity’ for green future

• AfDB opens new funding round for migration, development projects in Central Africa, Indian Ocean

• On Earth Day: WFP, UN Women chiefs spotlight gender inequality in energy access

• UNHCR press donors to fill funding gap for Syrian refugee programs

• Water and sanitation meeting generate new commitments, investments

• DfID to help SMEs in developing countries create 1M jobs

• CIDA to provide $1M over 3 years to Open Aid Partnership

• ADB, OFID agree to co-finance development projects in Asia and the Pacific

• DfID-funded research uncovers ‘huge stores of groundwater in Africa’

• European, Central Asian countries renew commitment to tackle malnutrition, end hunger

• The Netherlands contributes $132M to global food security program

• UNDP, AFD pledge to speed up progress toward meeting anti-poverty goals

• Experts agree: ‘Innovations key to halting mother-to-child transmission of HIV’

• World Bank commits $858M for Nigerian agriculture development projects

• New $5M USAID grant to boost Save the Children food security programs in Sindh

• BRICS demands more IMF clout before shelling out more funds

• Now available: Bilingual digital media service for easier AIDS research sharing

• In Zimbabwe, NGO uses education to tackle rising child labor cases

• Who would foot the bill for post-troop withdrawal programs in Afghan?

• Why is it important to identify and support the most cost-effective development programs?

• 4 ‘tensions’ Jim Yong Kim needs to ‘creatively manage’

• On funding R&D for diseases in developing countries: Time to move from debate to action

• How can you solve pressing global programs without women’s participation?

• UN seeks $180M aid plan for 1M people in Syria

• Karzai strains ties with US anew after blocking US lawmaker’s entry to Afghanistan

• US agrees to sending military, financial support to Afghanistan post-2014

• Aid workers face challenge in delivering humanitarian aid to northern Mali

• Zambia scheduled to sign 5-year, $354M MCC compact May 10

• Red Cross campaigns for security of healthcare workers in armed conflicts, emergencies

• Leading UK aid charities in talks over second Make Poverty History campaign

• World Bank to boost Nigeria’s agricultural sector with $858M

• Iran sends 85 tons of flour, powdered milk and rice to North Korea

• Abhijit Banerjee on ‘Poor Economics’

• Thomas Mirow ‘a favorite’ in EBRD presidential race

• US counterterrorism laws played ‘central role’ in Somalia famine

• Australian development scholarships await 120 Filipinos

• USAID donates $22.6M in cash, food for Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza

• Oxfam supports reforms to food aid program in draft Senate Farm Bill

• AfDB president ‘willing’ to provide Malawi $45M

• IMF, Malawi to discuss economic program in May

• Caritas Australia to government on foreign aid: ‘Lead the push not follow’

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