On Tuesday, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi stated that it’s “like a joke” that Iran and Saudi Arabia could end up with seats on the board of the UN Women, the new UN entity responsible for accelerating the needs of women and girls worldwide. Regardless of this, Saudi Arabia, a country where women [...]

UNDP Administrator Helen Clark stated that “the Report shows that people today are healthier, wealthier and better educated than before. While not all trends are positive, there is much that countries can do to improve people’s lives, even in adverse conditions. This requires courageous local leadership as well as the continuing commitment of the international community.”

At the recent Latin American Studies Association congress taking place in Toronto this past Oct. 6-9, 2010, I attended a presidential session on Canadian mining interests in the Americas. It was notable for being the only panel I can recall seeing in which a politician was included amongst several other academics, as opposed to one or the other. And it was especially intriguing for the fact that this politician, MP John McKay, was a liberal, who found himself amongst a throng of critical academics and spectators.

Over this past weekend, however, many Simpson’s fans would have noticed a darker-than-usual opening sequence that seemed to offer a poignant critique of consumer culture and perhaps an even more poignant critique of Fox.

According to the ZA News website, “A few weeks later, with the help of friends from the Nelson Mandela Foundation, wearing dark glasses and our most intimidating faces (we were actually quite scared as we didn’t know who were going to meet there), we raided the place and finally recovered the head of Nelson Mandela”.

Having worked alongside many not-for-profit leaders in my own community and abroad, I can say with some certainty that there are few things more frightening, or at the very least stress-inducing, than “a change of corporate objectives”.

Ten years ago at the Millennium Summit, leaders from around the world adopted eight Millennium Development goals, ranging from halting the spread of HIV/AIDS to cutting in half the cases of extreme poverty, that were broadly viewed as the new blueprint for national and international development policy. With a 15 year timeline, now only five years from expiration, the United Nations has proceeded to approve a groundbreaking new plan that will see tremendous investment shifted to where it decidedly matters most: Women.