The present document serves a dual purpose. It is both a comprehensive global work plan for WHO's emergency and humanitarian work over the next two years and an appeal for flexible funding.

Until 2004, almost all of the extra-budgetary funds WHO received for its emergency work were tightly earmarked, usually for acute-onset crises. While such funds were vital to allow WHO to deal with immediate health needs during emergencies, by their very nature they prevented the Organization from building a sustainable structure - the

This report outlines the findings and recommendations of a workshop with representatives from Burundian and Sierra Leonean civil society organisations (CSOs) working in the field of gender equality and women's empowerment organised by International Alert on 25th to 29th February 2008. The aim of the five-day workshop was to exchange experiences, discuss common challenges and strengthen future collaboration in order to support the integration of genderrelated priorities into peacebuilding processes. The workshop resulted in a number of findings and recommendations that

This article highlights some issues concerning the current situation of women as mediators in dialogues with nonstate armed groups, and as members of and negotiators for such groups. It shows that the lack of female involvement as peace negotiators provides scarce evidence as to the costs and benefits of their inclusion; however, some evidence and plausible arguments for their involvement in negotiations with nonstate armed groups do exist and should be built on.

In the humanitarian field, accountability has conventionally reffered to the NGO being ?upwardly accountable? to their donors on the use of their resources. These guidelines wish to give information on how to be accountable for the beneficiaries as well.

- Do you allow beneficiaries to raise concerns about how you work affects them?

- Do you really listen to your beneficiaries?

Never again - this is what the world said after the Holocaust of the Second World War. Then there was Bosnia and, in between, Rwanda. The genocide in Rwanda in 1994, resulted in the merciless slaughter of more than 800,000 Rwandan citizens in the space of just 100 days - while the world watched and did nothing. This genocide was a stark and horrific reminder that the crime of genocide can - and did - happen again. It reminded us that the realities of genocide are not archived to history, such as in the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe, the Killing

Calling on donors to help address 39 specific crises around the world, UNICEF launches its annual Humanitarian Action Report outlining the organization's funding requirements for emergency work in 2008. The report details financial needs beyond regular country programme budgets. The appeal for almost $850 million worldwide targets the largest allocations for Pakistan, Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

International humanitarian law (IHL) is a body of law that provides essential protection for those directly
affected by an armed conflict, if it is respected by the parties to that conflict. Where IHL is not respected,
human suffering increases and the consequences of the conflict become more difficult to repair.

This publication is based on ICRC practice in noninternational armed conflicts. It summarizes some of
the considerable challenges the ICRC has faced and the lessons it has learnt in its efforts to increase respect

Financing for gender equality is a critical part of the discussion on financing for development. All national and international economic policies affect women, in ways that serve to advance or hinder their livelihoods. At the same time, economic growth and human development, to be sustainable, require women's full participation in the economy, making it necessary to tailor development finance to the needs of both women and men. Sustainable development depends on tapping the talents of everyone in society, even as equality and social justice mark stable, flourishing societies.

BLANTYRE, 1 February 2008 (IRIN) - Torrential rain pelting Malawi since October last year has affected over 72,000 people, according to the government.

Lillian Ng'oma, Secretary and Commissioner for Relief and Disaster Preparedness in the Office of the President (OPC), said this week that floodwater had surged through all three regions of the country, leaving four people dead, crops drowned, and road and telecommunication infrastructure damaged.

The lower reaches of the Shire River in southern Malawi, where flooding is a perennial problem, accounted for