The WHO on Wednesday “released new guidelines [.pdf] providing technical recommendations on effective interventions for the prevention and treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among sex workers and their clients,” New Europe Online reports. “The guidelines were developed in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and are directed, in particular, to national public health officials and managers of HIV/AIDS and STI programs, non-governmental organizations and health workers,” the news service notes (Gaydazhieva, 12/13).

“With the World Bank expected to announce a new funding package for the world’s poorest countries Wednesday, NGOs are making a last-minute appeal to donor countries to use their leverage to compel reforms at the institution,” Inter Press Service reports in an article examining the changes being requested and considered.

Lancet World Report Examines Protections In Place For Clinical Trial Participants Abroad Lancet World Report, in a follow-up on the revelations over the U.S.’s role in medical experiments conducted on Guatemalan prisoners in the 1940s writes: “A thorough review of the safeguards in place to protect modern human trial participants…

In its annual appeal, the U.N. on Tuesday asked “governments and private donors for a record $7.4 billion next year to provide 50 million people worldwide with food, clothing and other urgent humanitarian aid,” the Associated Press/Washington Post reports (11/30).

A USAID official said Tuesday that potential violence following the release of Haiti’s final presidential election results could interfere with efforts to contain the country’s cholera epidemic, CBC News reports.

U.N. Special Rapporteur on the right to food Olivier De Schutter said Thursday that recent food price spikes in China, “in the world’s most populous nation,” underscore the country’s food security challenges resulting from decreasing amounts of arable land, Agence France-Presse reports. Significant land degradation is also hindering China’s agricultural output, De Schutter said as he wrapped up a visit to China. “The recent food price hikes in China are a harbinger of what may be lying ahead,” he said in a statement. “This situation should encourage China to move towards more sustainable types of farming,” De Schutter added (12/23).

The World Bank on Wednesday announced that its International Development Association (IDA) fund will receive $49.3 billion over the next three years, Bloomberg reports (Christie/Martens, 12/15).

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday “called on the U.N. Security Council to make combating sexual violence a ‘top priority'” during the opening of a two-day meeting of the 15-member Council on women, peace and security, Xinhua/People’s Daily Online reports (12/17).

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday “warned Haiti its foreign aid is being imperiled by political stalemate following disputed elections, spelling more trouble for a nation struggling to recover from a huge earthquake and cholera epidemic,” Agence France-Presse reports.

Africa is capable of producing enough food to feed itself within a single generation, according a “study released to coincide with a meeting of several African leaders in Tanzania on Thursday, as well as U.N. talks on slowing climate change in Cancun, Mexico,” Reuters reports (Doyle, 12/2).