Financing for development (FfD) is about how domestic and international resources contribute - or not - to ensuring all countries will be able to meet the Millennium Development Goals and eradicate poverty. It encompasses aid, trade, debt relief, international and national finance, domestic budgeting and global governance.

At the Monterrey Conference in 2002 wealthy and poor countries pledged concrete actions towards funding development. Progress will be reviewed in late 2008 in Doha. A parallel process of multi-stakeholders, the UN Development Cooperation Forum in July, will contribute to the Doha review. As time runs out to meet the MDGs, can Doha make the difference?

With 2008 a year of stock-taking, activists are seizing their chance. Gender is high on the agenda. While gender equality is recognised as central to poverty eradication, women’s empowerment and effective development, the FfD process has not yet led to any substantial change in the feminisation of poverty.