Financial Transparency Coalition

The High Level Plenary meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will gather in the UN headquarters in New York from 20 to 22 September with a view to assess and accelerate progress towards the achievement of the MDGs. Prospects for such progress look gloomy since all MDGs are currently off-track. Heads of State and Government will need to move a step forwards and adopt ambitious commitments in order to meet the 2015 deadline. However, according to sources involved in the negotiation of the summit’s final outcome, this agreement is more likely to be a new compilation of abstract...

The Latin American country is wealthy, but the extreme gap between rich and poor causes a multitude of problems Isabel is four years old. Her belly and ankles are swollen and she walks as if it hurts a little bit. Her family, who live in eastern Guatemala, have not had the means to feed her properly, so she is being treated for kwashiorkor – acute malnutrition. Even though it is classified by the World Bank as a middle income country, the level of inequality in Guatemala is such that almost half its children under five ...

If you’ve been following the melodrama surrounding the Bank of Kabul unfold, you’ll already know that the situation has (somewhat) stabilized. If you haven’t, here’s what you missed. Last week panic struck when President Karzai approved the dismissal of the Bank’s CEO, Sherkhan Farnood, amid numerous allegations of large scale corruption. According to high-level reports, top executives of the bank had been lending millions of dollars to the political elite for purchases of high-end real estate in Dubai. In the face of United Arab Emirates’ alarming real estate bubble, these investments are looking frighteningly sour. If...

30 False Fronts Won Contracts for Blackwater New York Times, September 4, 2010

Kabul steps in to stop run on biggest bank Financial Times, September 6, 2010

Report: US Military More Tolerant of Afghan Corruption VOA News, September 4, 2010

War, corruption swell number of Afghan street kids Reuters, September 6, 2010

Swiss judge orders searches in l'Oreal saga Reuters, September 7, 2010

Israeli probe finds Austrian billionaire behind illicit money transfer to Sharon family Haaretz, September 7, 2010

Fairer spending could save 4m children by 2020, says report The Guardian,...