A secretive plan by the Ethiopian government to resettle hundreds of thousands of indigenous people into formalised villages has caused alarm among donors and rights activists.

13 Swedish NGOs compete for SEK 300m

Multi-year grants for four Swedish NGOs run out next year, freeing up more than SEK 300 million of Sida’s total SEK 1.5 billion pot for civil society organisations. The competition has never been tougher.

Donors boost IFAD funding

Donors have rallied in support of the UN agriculture agency IFAD, increasing money available in the next three-year period by more than a third.

A human rights-based aid policy

Finland’s Development Minister has presented a new development policy that puts human rights at the centre of aid. She wants to scrap aid-funded mixed credits, but hints at more money for the investment fund Finnfund and for NGOs.

Reviving the ‘Nordic voice’

Finland’s Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala wants to revive Nordic aid cooperation. At the Nordic development ministers’ summit, she urged the countries to work more closely together in multilateral forums and the UN.

Nordic change of watch at UNFPA

Mari Simonen steps down after six years as deputy of UN Population Fund, and the Dane Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen has won the battle to be her successor.

SIPRI, WIDER receive top marks

Several Nordic institutes receive high rankings in the 2011 Global Go-To Think Tanks report published by the University of Pennsylvania.

Danes to open aid office in Somaliland

The danish government has decided to open a bilateral programme office in Somaliland.

UN agencies have USD 12b in unspent funds

A new study of the financial flows of five key UN agencies concludes that more than 10 per cent of resources mobilised over the last decade remain unspent.