Cisco Systems Foundation supports programs designed to improve access to basic human needs, education, and economic opportunity

The government of the province of Ontario, Canada, has nearly 70,000 direct, full-time employees working for its ministries and agencies, including the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). These workers are distributed across the geographically large province, in some 2,000 buildings, serving the population of approximately 11 million citizens.

The overall picture of TA pooling in Mozambique gained from this study is clearly varied. Many sectors are experimenting with different approaches to rationalising external assistance in order to make it more efficient and effective. The results have been mixed. Some schemes appear to have been more successful than others, but none stands out as an example of good practice on all counts. To understand better what works and what does not, the situation should be revisited in the future, perhaps in two or three years, to check on developments that are now only incipient. In particular, the impacts of the various schemes on the evident capacity deficit, caused by the flood of reforms and the subsequent demand for different, higher-level skills, should be fully assessed. A sustained investment in strengthening and expanding the national human resource base is certainly the long-term answer to many of the problems identified in this study. ------------------------------------------------ The pooling arrangements reviewed here have been set up in a variety of sectors – agriculture, education, finance, health and the police – and show strong variations in terms of their purpose, comprehensiveness, whether the aid is tied or untied, ownership, integration and success. The Mozambican authorities and IDAs are experimenting with different approaches, some imported, some genuinely indigenous. More often than not, pooling schemes have been introduced at the initiative of the IDAs.

09/07/2006 Funders of international development programs are increasingly relying on quantitative indicators to determine which recipient countries are most likely to use aid well. In response to a request from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, CGD convened the Global Health Indicators Working Group to examine potential measures of a government's commitment to health. The working group report recommends eight indicators for consideration by the MCC and other donors as they assess recipient country readiness to make use of foreign assistance. The indicators are: 1) DTP3 immunization rate; 2) Government public health spending; 3) Under-five mortality rate; 4) Stunting; 5) Skilled birth attendants; 6) Contraceptive prevalence rate; 7) Unmet need for family planning; and 8) Access to water.

The British Government faces a backlash over its gambling laws as potential bidders for the 16 new casino licences start to get cold feet, just as all the legal paperwork is being finalised.

by Incidental Blogger @ WORDS & BITES

The analysis presented on April 8, 2008, showed that the revenues from the worldwide government as well as private expenditures on space projects registered an 11 percent increase and reached $251 billion, though many countries have shown a slowdown in the growth of their economy.

Acts of government surveillance — from increasing use of closed-circuit televisions and global positioning systems to an array of sophisticated technologies that can access records about our activities — represent an insidious assault on the freedom of Americans that the law has failed to respond to, according to a new book from a University of Florida law professor.