A group of experts discussed three major crises facing the world over the past year: Afghanistan, the Global Economy, and Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations Association Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference and 2010 Members’ Day.

In honor of International Women’s Day, Anita Sharma, North American Coordinator for the UN Millennium Campaign, spoke during the BBC program World News Today. Sharma indicated that achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women (including, but not limited to, Goal 3: Gender Equality and Goal 5: Maternal Health) are the linchpin to achieving all of the MDGs. Although progress has been made, poverty still has a female face with women and children making up 70% of the world's poor.

In an address at the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women on March 3, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer, spoke on the progress made and obstacles that remain in the effort to realize UN Millennium Development Goals related to women’s empowerment and international development. Verveer emphasized the value that safeguarding women’s rights, improving maternal health, and supporting women’s economic advancement can have on whole communities.

On February 1, President Obama requested $58.5 billion for the foreign affairs account, as part of his $3.8 trillion FY 2011 Budget request submitted to Congress. This is up from $50.9 billion in the final FY 2010 appropriation, an increase of about 9 percent. One of his campaign pledges was to double foreign assistance by 2012, which seems difficult given today’s economic climate.

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On Friday, January 8, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s gave a major speech on the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+15). She said, “ if we believe that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, then we cannot accept the ongoing marginalization of half the world’s population.