Aid freeze in post-coup Honduras hurting poor, By Robin Emmott, November 12, 2009, Washington Post: “Poor Hondurans are going hungry and their sick children cannot obtain medicines as donors cut aid to the country following a June coup that deposed President Manuel Zelaya, doctors and aid workers say. Soup kitchens have closed, medicines have become scarce, foreign doctors have canceled trips to Honduras and funding for the poor to run small businesses have dried up, increasing unemployment. With Honduras already suffering from the global economic crisis, international development banks, the European Union and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close Zelaya ally, froze donor programs after the army-backed coup on June 28…”

• Ethiopia appeals for international aid 25 years on, By Tom Pettifor, October 23, 2009, The Mirror: “It’s been a quarter of a century since the Ethiopian famine which shocked the world - and history could be about to repeat itself. The government of Ethiopia, a country in the grip of a five-year drought, yesterday asked the international community for emergency aid to feed 6.2 million. The request came at a meeting of donors to discuss the impact of the drought, affecting parts of East Africa. The UN’s World Food Programme said £173million will be needed in the next six months and some aid officials say the numbers of hungry could rise. But an Oxfam report to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1984 famine - Band Aids and Beyond - warns that drought will be the norm there for the next 25 years. And it called for a new approach to tackling the risk of disaster in the country…”
• Is U.S. food aid contributing to Africa’s hunger?, By Dana Hughes, October 29, 2009, ABC News: “Drought-stricken Ethiopia is pleading for food aid again to stave off starvation, but some critics are complaining that the policies of the country’s most generous donor, the United States, is exacerbating the cycle of starvation. A hungry Ethiopia gets 70 percent of its aid from the U.S., but according to a new report by the aid organization Oxfam International, that help comes at a cost. U.S. law requires that food aid money be spent on food grown in the U.S., at least half of it must be packed in the U.S. and most of it must be transported in U.S. ships. The Oxfam report, ‘Band Aids and Beyond,’ claims that is far more expensive and time consuming than buying food in the region…”
• Oxfam says Band-Aids insufficient, By Peter Goodspeed, October 23, 2009, National Post: “Twenty-five years after Ethiopia suffered a staggering famine that killed more than one million people, the world has done little to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy. A new report by the international aid group Oxfam claims ‘the humanitarian response to drought and other disasters is still dominated by ‘Band-Aids,’ ‘ instead of finding ways to reduce the risks of recurring crisis…”

• Sweden does most to help world’s poor: study, By David Landes, October 22, 2009, The Local: “Sweden has the best foreign aid policies among the world’s wealthy countries, according to a new ranking. Sweden edged out Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway to claim the top spot in the 2009 Commitment to Development Index (CDI), an annual ranking compiled by the Center for Global Development (CGD), a Washington, DC-based think tank…”
• Ireland ranked sixth in helping poor countries, By Kitty Holland, October 23, 2009, Irish Times: “Ireland has been ranked sixth out of 22 rich countries for its record on helping poor and developing countries by a Washington-based think-tank. The Irish State was, however, criticised by the Centre for Global Development (CGD) for the barriers it puts up to trade in agricultural products from poor countries and its record on investment in technological creation…”
• Canada 11th of 22 in battling poverty, By Olivia Ward, October 23, 2009, Toronto Star: “When it comes to battling world poverty, some of the wealthiest countries, including Canada, are punching below their weight, says a new report from an international think-tank. In the Commitment to Development Index released this week by the Center for Global Development, Canada rates 11th of the 22 richest countries. But the Washington-based organization found that ‘among the G7 countries - those that matter most by dint of their economic power - only Canada squeezes into the top half.’ The index is an important reality check, the group says, because it tallies a wide range of policies that affect the daily lives of poor people in developing countries, going beyond handouts of money or goods…”