Development news roundup: Some Red Cross staff members leave Damascus, Spain flies 15 aid workers home from Algeria camps, and more

Today, we reported:

• Some Red Cross staff members leave Damascus

• Spain flies 15 aid workers home from Algeria camps

• Illicit financial flows threaten Africa’s development – report

• Sports, film personalities lend star power to David Cameron’s hunger summit

• Rajiv Shah on Global Health Initiative’s closure

• Stephen Lewis: Overcome ‘terrible double standard’ on HIV treatment

Other must reads:

• ODI: Developing countries stand to lose from EU’s protectionist trade reforms

• 15 ways to boost the private sector’s role in humanitarian action

• Growing trend: Crowdsourcing health research

• $400M Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund riddled with problems, project delays

• Inspectors general agree on oversight plan to appropriate $90B in US funds for Afghan reconstruction

• Euro debt crises imperils Afghan aid projects

• WFP, partners gear up for Zimbabwe’s ‘hunger season’

• Ireland to provide $3.7M aid package to Somalia

• 3,000 IDPs now registered at Nahibly camp in Ivory Coast

• Haiti, France sign $45.5M agreement to finance agriculture, health, reconstruction projects

• Malian refugees crossing into Burkina Faso breach 100,000 mark, straining resources of aid agencies

• Red Cross supplying drinking water to curb cholera outbreak in northern Mali

• FEWSNET report: Food insecurity affects more than 16 million people in East Africa

• ONE asks: ‘Should Feed the Future be the new PEPFAR?’

• Integrating sustainable development into the economy: Can it be done in Pakistan?

• 3 reasons the development community should be open to private schools

• Broken public education system needs to be fixed, not franchised to the private sector

• State Department’s Nerissa Cook talks benefits of multilateral engagement for Americans

• How is FAO helping spur Africa’s economic development through women empowerment?

• EU commends new Serbian government, urges regional cooperation

• US highlights importance of UN specialized, technical agencies

• US to continue ‘economic squeeze’ on Assad’s regime

• Navi Pillay: ‘Those [committing crimes against humanity in Syria] should not believe that they will escape justice’

• UNHCR raises concerns over ‘widespread’ human rights violations in eastern Congo

• UN human rights chief calls for independent investigation on violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

• Before her term ends, UN special representative for children calls for transfer of last child soldier to Canada

• With $2.1M Dutch aid, IOM resumes helping send Ethiopians stranded in Yemen back home

• Health experts from WHO, CDC and Ugandan government respond to 1st Ebola outbreak since 2009

• UN allocates $20M for Sudanese refugees

• $1.8M South African aid to improve veterinary laboratory capacities in sub-Saharan Africa

• AfDB-funded agropastoral project in Niger fights poverty, boosts local economy

• ADB OKs 2nd loan agreement for urban transport project in Georgia

• EBRD to lend Ukraine $185M for metro system

• Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser to Rio+20 participants: Implement ‘the future we want’

• EBRD continues support to SMEs in Turkey’s agribusiness sector

• Eurozone crisis affects economic growth across EBRD region – report

• EBRD, IFC to raise stake in Credit Bank of Moscow

• ‘Time is ripe for a robust international legal framework to limit and regulate the arms trade’ – UN Expert

• IMF OKs $6M for Burundi

• US, Algerian cultural entrepreneurs explore creative sector’s role in economic development

• Sha Zukang identifies ECOSOC’s 3 ‘broad’ accomplishments

• New IMF mission chief to discuss possible bailout package for Pakistan

• IMF sets aside $7.4 million for Haiti reconstruction

• EIB to help build Hungarian pipeline

• Fiji social welfare minister reiterates government’s commitment to MDG on women empowerment, gender equality

• Rwanda finds US military aid cut ‘regrettable’

• Malaysia eyes ‘multifaceted’ cooperation with Turkey

• NGO coalition ‘happy’ over Kato Kajubi’s life imprisonment due to child sacrifice acts in Uganda

• Singapore, Turkey commit to stronger bilateral economic cooperation

• IsDB invites Malaysia to spearhead agricultural project – deputy PM

• Trans-Asian highway gains ADB, EBRD support

• Safe drinking water needed in India’s Assam state – Christian Aid

• Poland to scale back support for biomass, onshore wind for renewable energy in draft bill

• Oxfam, The Nature Conservancy partner for Gulf Coast restoration

• ICPC arrests officials of MDG office in Benue, Nigeria, over alleged ‘financial impropriety’

• Haitian Environmental Surveillance Corps receives IDB-financed ATVs, lamps and uniforms

• Kerry Brown of Europe China Research and Analysis Network: EU should be move involved with ASEAN

• Pakistan, France agree to boost cooperation on trade, investment

• At finance summit, Nigerians highlight importance of PPPs in country’s development

• Ireland commits $12M to development efforts in northern Uganda

• As India’s farmers wait for rain, pressure on global food prices mounts

• Bangladesh requests ADB, JICA for loan effectiveness deadline extension on Padma bridge project

• JICA to finance $2B power plant in southern Iraq

• Bangladeshi NGO reacts to Global Fund’s allegations of corruption

• CEO Jeff Raikes discusses Gates Foundation’s milestones, challenges in India

• $120M Gates Foundation grant helped advance international agriculture research

• Flooding to worsen food shortage in North Korea

• World Vision Ghana shares plans to boost well-being of 800,000 vulnerable children

• AU chair: Africa’s biggest challenge? Lack of infrastructure

• Poor health care, sanitation awareness contributing to child deaths in Indonesia

• RedeSist senior researcher Maria Clara Couto Soares: Align innovations with social concerns

• EU diplomacy at 27 author: ‘The EEAS has established itself as an efficient policy coordination instrument’ among EU member states

• Rajiv Shah on Hillary Clinton’s ‘AIDS-free generation’ blueprint

• Zimbabwe ‘very close to reaching MDG 4’ – UNICEF’s Peter Salama

• ‘The time to think about graduation for Asia’s remaining aid recipients is not now’

• 6 urgent actions to prevent a global food price crisis

• Africa’s next challenge: Transform growth into jobs and development

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