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While the majority of countries around the world are expected to cut public expenditures in 2015 and beyond, others will be moving in the opposite direction to expand social protection measures, says a new policy paper released by the International Labour Organization (ILO) today.

Africa must keep pressing ahead with promoting good governance, respect for human rights and empowering its own people as it seeks to enhance continental integration, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said today.

A United Nations report launched today recommends a new Marshall Plan of more than $500 billion per year, or one per cent of global output, to help developing countries ease the impact of global warming and adjust to its effects while continuing on a path of economic growth.

Corporate giving can play an important role in advancing the global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Deputy Secretary-General told more than 200 top executives and business leaders at a special event of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) today.

The sorry state of much of Africa’s transport and communication networks is holding the continent back and preventing its countries from competing on the global market, the United Nations advocate for the world’s poorest States has told the World Bank.

The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has begun a three-country mission to West Africa, where he is promoting efforts to boost economic performance in the impoverished region.

With official development assistance (ODA) still insufficient to achieve global anti-poverty targets by 2015, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed France’s former foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to develop and promote new sources of funding, citing the urgent need to fill this critical gap.

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro has wrapped up a two-day stop at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok, where she underscored the necessity of bolstered collaboration between the world body and its partners in government and civil society.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed the United Nations High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, Cheikh Sidi Diarra of Mali, to also serve as his Special Adviser on Africa.

The recent economic growth among Africa’s poorest countries has been confined mainly to those nations with rich mineral resources and has not yet translated to a substantial reduction in poverty, the United Nations envoy for those nations said today as he pledged to spearhead efforts to better distribute the emerging wealth.