Sweden, a top bilateral donors to Eastern European countries, has launched a programme with new EU members like Poland and Hungary. It aims to assist countries like Serbia and the Ukraine to prepare for membership in the EU.

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Head of UNEP calls for new approach to agriculture

The head of UNEP Achim Steiner urges donors to diversify their agricultural aid, and take seriously growing evidence that organic agriculture has a role to play in improving food security for Africa’s poor. Nordic aid to agriculture is low, and has only barely kept up with expanding aid budgets. Organic farming receives just a tiny fraction.

A report by the OECD/DAC warns that Norway, the country with the highest aid level in the world, is spreading its aid to too many countries and initiatives.

Norway’s aid could plunge in the coming years because highly profitable hydropower investments have been reported as aid the OECD. When such stakes are sold, both the original investment and subsequent profits have to be deducted from the aid for that year.

This year’s Nobel Laureate, the Finnish diplomat and former President Martti Ahtisaari, used the Nobel platform to urge governments to maintain their aid levels in spite of the financial crisis.

Norwegian forest funds

After the climate summit in Poznan, Norway continues to be the sole donor to two key global forest climate initiatives - Brazil’s Amazon Fund and the UN REDD Programme, which aims to help poor countries prepare mechanism for receiving payment in exchange for protecting standing forest.

In Norway, the pressure to increase the level of agriculture aid is coming from several fronts.

Poor countries are over-reporting the extent of their immunisation programmes, new research published in the medical journal The Lancet shows. The GAVI Alliance, which rewards countries with high vaccine coverage, has responded by freezing its payments. Meanwhile, an evaluation raises issue with GAVI's overwhelming focus on new vaccines.

Poor countries are over-reporting the extent of their immunisation pro-grammes, new research published in the medical journal The Lancet shows. Overall, vaccine coverage in the past two decades is half of what has been claimed, the study concludes.