July 27, 2010—The cheep-cheep of newborn chicks is the sound of a growing livelihood to Adriana and Nalcy Banderas, smallholder farmers hard at work in a verdant Colombian village.

On backyard plots down a red clay road, the mother-daughter team has found unexpected success raising poultry. Without the chickens, the pair says they would have to travel more than two hours each way to the nearest city of Cali to earn money working in other peoples’ homes.

To grow their business, the Banderases joined a rural producers alliance, a new model supported by the World Bank that links struggling smallholders to larger markets. Climbing from below the poverty line, Nalcy and Adriana now earn about $450 a month each, well above the national average income.

Press Release No:2011/050/ECA

BISHKEK, July 27, 2010 — The High Level Donors Meeting for the Kyrgyz Republic was held in Bishkek, bringing together representatives of the Kyrgyz Government, civil society, private sector, international development agencies, and bilateral donors to pledge US$ 1.1 billion in emergency response for the country, and to determine the role each partner can play in support of the country’s reconciliation and recovery.

27 July 2010 – The United Nations is committed to helping African nations combat hunger and malnutrition as well as enabling the continent to feed itself, the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) has pledged.

Addressing leaders gathered in Kampala, Uganda, for the African Union summit, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran stressed the many benefits offered by food-based social protection programmes.

“When designed right, social protection programmes such as school meals, food-for-education and food-for-work are foundations for not just beating hunger and malnutrition, but also drivers for agricultural development and faster economic growth,” she stated.

Press Release No:2011/041/LAC

WASHINGTON DC, July 27, 2010 — The World Bank’s Executive Board of Directors approved a loan for $20 million today that will help Peru develop an irrigation project in the Sierra, in an effort to improve agricultural yield in the region.

The project’s goal is to increase and improve agricultural performance in the Sierra areas. By improving irrigation technology, farmers will have enough water to secure traditional harvests and, in time, shift to higher export value crops.

Through the Subsector Irrigation Program (PSI), the Ministry of Agriculture will be coordinate and implement project activities, with the technical assistance of the World Bank.

27 July 2010 – The United Nations refugee agency today called on Kyrgyz authorities to improve conditions to allow 75,000 people who remain uprooted after last month’s deadly ethnic clashes, as the world body and its partners appealed for more funds to help those affected by the violence.

The clashes between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in early June displaced at least 300,000 people within Kyrgyzstan, sending many fleeing to neighbouring Uzbekistan.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) said today that its teams in the hard-hit cities of Osh and Jalalabad have heard of frequent instances of detention and harassment.

Additional US$5 million GEF grant to strengthen conservation, marine and coastal biodiversity

Press Release No:2011/040/AFR

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2010—The World Bank has approved a credit of US$35 million to help Kenya promote environmentally sustainable management of its coastal and marine resources.

The Kenya Coastal Development Project approved by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors today will also benefit from a US$5 million Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant to strengthen conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal biodiversity.

26 July 2010 – Investing in maternal and child health results in outsized benefits, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said, urging African leaders to make the issue a top priority and meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) deadline of drastically improving reproductive care across the continent.

Speaking yesterday in Kampala, Uganda, at the African Union (AU) summit, Ms. Migiro told the assembled heads of State, prime ministers and other leaders that the evidence was clear that women and children are the “engines” driving future economic growth in their communities.

26 July 2010 – Strengthening measures to prevent and control outbreaks of animal diseases could result in the saving of large amounts of money for governments, the United Nations agriculture agency said today, announcing a new strategy to more effectively detect and combat the diseases.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said it had drawn on its experience in past animal health emergencies to develop the “One Health” initiative, which aims to improve global response to disease outbreaks, implement effective prevention and containment strategies and manage risks.

26 July 2010 – A top United Nations official has promised to double the amount of food purchased from women farmers living in a Millennium Village in Uganda, part of a United Nations-backed initiative to help African communities lift themselves out of poverty.

A strategic, integrated approach to rural development is already changing lives in Ruhiira, home to 50,000 people spread out across several hundred square kilometres in southwestern Uganda.

Before joining the Millennium Village programme in 2005, more than 90 per cent of Ruhiira’s population survived on subsistence agriculture and more than half of its children under the age of five were chronically malnourished or stunted.

KAMPALA, July 23, 2010—As African policymakers gather in Kampala this week to focus on maternal and child health as a high priority challenge, it’s important to look beyond Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole being largely off-track on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include targets for major reductions in mother and child deaths by 2015. To step up the pace of progress, the region at large could learn valuable lessons from countries that have made extraordinary progress despite the odds.