Cities for Children: Children’s Rights, Poverty and Urban Management Published by IIED, 1999 Cities for Children is intended to help urban authorities and organisations to understand and respond to the rights and requirements of children and adolescents.      It looks at the responsibilities that authorities face and discusses practical measures for meeting obligations in the context of limited resources and multiple demands. Written by experts in the field, this volume is essential reading for anyone involved in planning for, and protection of, children within the urban environment. The book includes a resource section that lists publications and organisations that can provide further information and support. Contact: Email: humansiied@gn.apc.org Website: www.oneworld.org/iied/human.html Human Development Report 2000: Human Rights and Human Development Published by UNDP Human Development Report Office, June 2000 The only comprehensive guide to human development, The Human Development Report 2000: Human Rights and Human Development provides a thought-provoking analysis of these two interrelated issues. Human rights and human development share a common purpose – to secure freedom, well-being and dignity for every human being.      Human Development Report 2000 looks at human rights as an essential part of development as well as a means to realising human rights. It shows how human rights bring principles of accountability and social justice to the process of human development. Tracing the struggle for human rights as common to all people, the Report concludes that the advances in the 21st century will be made possible by confronting economic and political interests.      The report includes chapters on: Struggles for human freedoms Inclusive democracy secures rights Rights empowering people in the fight against poverty Using indicators for human rights accountability Promoting rights in human development       It also updates the widely respected Human Development Indicators (HDI) that compare the relative levels of human development in most countries of the world. Contact: Website: www.un.org/Pubs/whatsnew/e00hdr.htm Global Humanitarian Assistance 2000 Published by UNOCHA, June 2000 Global Humanitarian Assistance 2000 reports on funding from the international community in response to natural disasters and humanitarian crises.      Bringing together data from governments, the UN, the OECD and NGOs, it traces the major changes in humanitarian aid flows over a decade that has seen unprecedented challenges to the role of humanitarianism.      It looks at the way humanitarian assistance is allocated between countries and shows the major differences in the resources available for ‘high profile’ and ‘neglected’ emergencies. It analyses the changing responsibilities of donors, looks at political and public engagement with humanitarian assistance in donor countries and comments on its role in underpinning support for development cooperation. The increased expectations placed on the humanitarian community and the ways that it is managing resources in order to meet new challenges is also examined. A data section illustrates key trends using tables and charts. Contact: UN Inter Agency Standing Committee/UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Email: ninaber@un.org or di@devinit.org The World’s Women 2000: Trends and Statistics Published by the United Nations Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, May 2000 In the last seven years, governments, institutions and non-governmental organisations have worked at every level to implement and incorporate the agendas of a series of United Nations conferences into national programmes for action. The success – or lack of success – of these efforts is the subject of The World’s Women 2000.      The topics within each field of concern were shaped both by the availability of data and by the calls for action emerging from the global conferences. While this report shows gains, it also highlights persistent disparities between women and men worldwide.      The book documents progress for women worldwide in six areas: health, human rights and political decision-making, work, education and communication, population, and families. It was produced just prior to the Special Session of the General Assembly to review progress governments have made in improving women’s lives since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, and to agree on future priority actions for women. Contact: Elisabeth Ruzicka-Dempsey, Development and Human Rights Section, Department of Public Information, Tel: 212 963-1742, or Joann Vanek, Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Tel: 212 963-4939. Website: www.un.org/events/women2000/index.html 2000 A Better World For All: Progress Towards the International Development Goals Published by UN, World Bank, OECD and IMF, June 2000 This report, a combined analysis by the UN, World Bank, OECD and IMF, documents progress made and efforts needed to achieve the International Development Goals to which governments and donors signed up in 1996. The most important of these is the commitment to reduce by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015.      There are sections on poverty, education, gender equality, infant and child mortality, maternal mortality, reproductive health, environment and an outline of what it will take to achieve the goals. Contact: www.oecd.org/dac/indicators; A broader set of goals and indicators used by the UN is available on www.cca.undaf.org; World Bank data is on www.worldbank.org/data; the IMF provides links to national data sources through the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board on dsbb.imf.org Participation in Poverty Reduction Strategies: a synthesis of experience with participatory approaches to policy design, implementation and monitoring By Rosemary McGee with Andy Norton Published by IDS (Working Paper 109), May 2000 Civil society participation in the adoption and monitoring of Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) of countries applying for HIPC relief is viewed as essential for their sustainability and effectiveness.     This synthesis is to review the experience to date in applying participatory approaches to processes of policy formulation at the macro level. This is then intended to inform country level facilitation of inclusive and high-quality participation in the process of drafting PRS papers.      It is aimed at Southern governments responsible for leading PRS processes, and civil society organisations wishing to engage with governments in formulating, implementing and monitoring these. It is also intended to be of use to bilateral and multilateral donors, civil society organisations and NGOs both in the North and in country offices, who aim to support Southern partners engaging in national PRS processes.      The synthesis maps out the process of a national Poverty Reduction Strategy and identifies the entry-points for participation. It identifies some of the tensions that arise in attempts to foster country ownership, presents experience in information-sharing and transparency, looks at influencing policy through the participatory process itself, as opposed to the outputs of the process, and discusses a range of approaches to increasing the accountability of government and service providers to poor people. Contact: IDS on www.ids.susx.ac.uk