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New York: The United Nations stepped up its battle against sexual violence in conflicts around the world today with the Security Council calling for perpetrators to be publicly listed and punished with sanctions.

New York: The United Nations is establishing a high-level commission charged with developing an accountability framework that will link resources committed to women and children’s health with the results they are intended to achieve.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is launching a multi-donor trust fund to finance Technical Assistance on effectively managing natural resource wealth. The so-called Topical Trust Fund on Managing Natural Resource Wealth starts in May 2011 and will provide about US$25 million over five years to scale up technical assistance to low-income and lower-middle-income countries endowed with oil, gas, and minerals to help them deal with the associated economic policy challenges.

The Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a package of far-reaching reforms of the Fund’s quotas and governance. When voting ended on December 15, 2010, Governors representing 95.32 percent of the total voting power had cast votes in favor of a Resolution on Quota and Reform of the Executive Board, exceeding the 85 percent required. Following the Board of Governors’ approval, the next step is for member countries to accept the proposed quota increases and the amendment to the Articles of Agreement. Members will make best efforts to complete this by the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in October 2012. In many cases this involves parliamentary approval.

New York: The peace process that ended two decades of war between northern and southern Sudan, culminating in next month’s referendum on independence for the country’s south, risks unravelling unless both sides reach agreement on the disputed oil-rich Abyei region, the United Nations peacekeeping chief warned today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) have decided to support US$1.2 billion in debt relief for Guinea-Bissau. In addition to debt relief agreed at the decision point under the Enhanced Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), the Boards of Directors of both institutions agreed to topping-up assistance, including from IDA and the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, to further reduce the debt of Guinea-Bissau to 150 percent of exports at completion point. In reaching the HIPC completion point, Guinea-Bissau also became eligible for further debt relief under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).

A joint team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission (EC) visited Riga during December 7–14 to continue discussions with the Latvian authorities on their preparation of the 2011 draft budget.

Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have noted that the Danish economy had been hit hard by dual shocks—a domestic housing market correction and the global recession. A strong policy response—led by a large discretionary fiscal stimulus building on Denmark’s strong macroeconomic framework—has stabilized output and the banking system, and has prevented an increase in structural unemployment. The economy has begun to recover.

Reflecting the acute liquidity situation in the banking system, the Reserve Bank of India has lowered the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) from 25 to 24 per cent of the net demand and liabilities of scheduled banks from December 18 and inject another Rs.48,000 crores over the next four weeks to sustain credit delivery for productive needs of the economy.

India and Italy have agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for enhancing bilateral technical cooperation in road infrastructure sector and greater involvement of Italian Infrastructure companies in the highways sector in India.