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The efforts of the past ten years in eradicating worldwide poverty have been inadequate, and the United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty is a failure.  This is according to development experts, in a recent meeting for the review of the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) Human Development Report for 2005.  The eight-day meeting led by the UN Commission on Social Development aimed to review the global situation on poverty.

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With no agreement reached after a recent WTO mini-ministerial in London, trade ministers and development experts doubt that the April 30 deadline set by the World Trade Organisation to complete the Doha Development Round would be met.

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Over 50,000 protesters demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a rally held in Bangkok on March 5, 2006.

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Singapore will not allow the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) this year to be marked by protests, which has been staple to such meetings.  It also threatened a crackdown on activities of advocacy groups and civil society organisations that monitor the IMF-WB.

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After over a decade of hype on biotechnology, the expected benefits are yet to be seen.  A Friends of the Earth (FOI) International document pointed out that the success of genetically modified crops is overstated, and is mostly due to misrepresentation of benefits.

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The World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have agreed to cancel the debts of 18 developing countries that have gone through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt scheme. This came after the proposal of eight of the worlds most industrialised countries was approved last year.