The US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired by California Representative, Howard Berman , is currently examining the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act with an eye to developing a comprehensive approach to foreign aid., according to a recent conference call led by UNA-USA. This Act currently is 507 pages long, while the draft has 55 pages and is described as “extraordinary.”

For a summary of US aid go to this site.

This Act evolved from the days of the Marshall Plan and since evolved into a conglomeration of 26 government departments each with their own guidelines and rules that makes the work of implementing the act, or providing the necessary oversight nearly impossible.

A Congressional hearing was held in June where government, non-governmental and business leaders testified. The fact that business and trade – both within the government and from the corporate world – are being included is considered a new direction. In a global world, all elements are necessary to achieving an equitable and peaceful world.

The annual United Nations Day will be on 24 October  – you are “invited” to learn more about the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and where the world is at with only five years left to meet the targets.

Led by the United Nations Association-USA and local chapters (perhaps in your own locale), key-noters and workshops on this day will be devoted to updates and what strategies still need to be employed to meet the 2015 targets set by the world body.

There are other ways to learn about the MDGs…

Although there has been measurable improvement in childhood education, many more of the world’s people are are falling into poverty, while the goal of the MDGs is to “eradicate poverty.” Another achievable target of 86% success is that of providing those in the developing countries with drinkable water of the current trend continues.

One strategy was that each country would devote .7% of their foreign policy budgets to this aim; the United States currently designates .4%. However, for the first time, US trade policies are being incorporated into the strategies with a coalition group of representatives from the departments of State, Treasury and Trade participating.

The annual United Nations Summit will be held in New York on 20-22 September 2010.

Leading up to the Summit will be an NGO-sponsored Stand Up for MDGs” campaign on 17-19 September. Groups that are endorsing this are: US Mayors’ Conference, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Global Compact – an initiative by businesses aligning their strategies to those of the MDGs, and the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service, in which IFUW is a partner.

For Women Graduate-USA members, of the eight categories, our organizational focus is on Universal Education and Gender Equality.

By Jimmy Langman, special to Global Post

July 20, 2010 9:59 ET

SANTIAGO, Chile — Chile has often been called a model economy for Latin America because of its stability and high growth rates. Now, its also got a model for early childhood development programs…

…Under former President Michelle Bachelet, who made universal access to early childhood development her emblematic project, the country built on average an astounding 2.5 preschools per day across the country, increasing from 781 state-built preschools to 4,300…Chile is an exceptional case. Bachelet is a former pediatrician, a single mother of three and a socialist who focused on ramping up social protection programs. But a powerful array of economists, scientists, celebrities, businessmen and diverse others are also among a growing worldwide movement for early education.

For more on this story go to the Global Post.

Finally, it is time to celebrate!  The hard work of establishing a stronger women’s entity in the UN that works for women’s rights was unanimously approved by the UN General Assembly on 2 July 2010. It is to be called United Nations Entity forGender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, but to be known as UN Women/ONU Femmes!

UN Women will begin operating in January 2011.

UN Women consolidates four formerly separate entities within the UN that work for the advancement of women: the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI), and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

The hardest fight that has caused the most contention among member states

was the issue of the governance of the Operational side of the Entity.  While several donor countries wanted this to be the current UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board and to remain small for quick decision-making, developing countries preferred a larger board with numbers comparable to that of the Commission on the Status of Women for stronger geographical representation from the Global South.  A compromise was finally reached to create a new Executive Board that seeks to address the need for accountability from donor countries and satisfies the geographical ask of developing countries.

The new Executive Board will consist of 41 countries with seats distributed as follows:

Africa: 10, Asia: 10, Eastern Europe: 4, Latin America and the Caribbean: 6, Western Europe and Other States Group: 5. Also, Contributing countries: 6

Finally – and perhaps the most critical for WG-USA to realize — the resolution recognizes the vital role of civil society, in particular women’s organizations and requests the “USG to continue the existing practice of effective consultation with civil society organizations and encourages their meaningful contribution to the work of the Entity.”