UN Member States Receive Report on Finance for Sustainable Development

The General Assembly formally received an expert report on August 19, 2014 setting out options that can be weighed by Member States on ways to finance the United Nations-driven sustainable development agenda, which will aim to improve people’s lives and

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Otaviano Canuto, World Bank Group: Commodity Super Cycle to Stick Around a Bit Longer

Some analysts have predicted that the commodity price boom has played itself out. However, natural resource-based commodity prices (with the exception of shale gas and its downward pressure on US natural gas prices) have remained relatively high over the last

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From Greece to Canada – George Delaportas: Big Dreams Need Big Country

George Delaportas is writing a new language and needs four years of research, and about EUR 80,000, to compile its dictionary and syntax. This young Greek entrepreneur, now at home in Vancouver, hopes that crowd-funding – and some chutzpa –

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World Bank Group Commits US$ 5 Billion to Boost Electricity Generation in Six African Countries

The World Bank Group has committed $5 billion in new technical and financial support for energy projects in six African countries – Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, and Tanzania—which have partnered with President Obama’s Power Africa initiative. Making the announcement on

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The Euro – A Paradox Checks Into Hotel California

It could have been conceived a bit more thoughtfully, but as a project the European common currency is not altogether farfetched or indeed destined for failure. The euro was specifically created to offer an alternative to the erstwhile all-mighty US

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Back to Africa – Chibwe Masabo Henry: The Diaspora as a Driver of Development

Having medical doctors, specialists, nurses and other healthcare workers readily available to take charge in case of illness may be the norm in many developed countries; it still is much the exception elsewhere on the globe. Countless lives are lost

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The European Conundrum

The European Union is an interesting project that – once logic is duly applied – must end up with the foundation of a United States of Europe (USE). Strangely enough, very few of the union’s citizens actually want to live

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Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014): A Farewell to the Patriarch of Literature

It is a rare genius who can encapsulate in writing the soul of a country. One who does so with an entire continent is rarer still. Those attributed with such virtuosity tend to be long dead, and most had the

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Why Business Leaders Support a Price on Carbon

Climate change can put the resources, supply chains, and infrastructure that companies rely on at risk, while also threatening to roll back decades of global development progress. Business leaders recognize the risks. Several have started to use an internal “shadow

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Mikkelson Brothers: Doing Good through a Chance Meeting

Danes David and Christopher Mikkelson are solid heroes for the humble and conscientious work they have done in establishing Refugees United (REFUNITE) in 2008. This organisation helps family members search online for refugees in order to connect and communicate with

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