Douglas Alexander, UK Secretary of State for International Development, will take part in a live webchat on the Downing Street website on 7 May from 13:00 GMT.

Log in at the Number 10 website here and post your question to Douglas on a number of issues including the progress being made in reaching the Millennium Development Goals. As Secretary of State he leads the UK's Department for International Development, one of the world's major donor organisations.

The webchat will take place in the same week as the launch of the Business Call to Action, an initiative aimed at bringing the private sector on board to boost economic development.

 

Thank you to everyone who contributed their views and ideas on the White Paper. We got quite a good response rate. The U8 attended the Youth Consultation Summit on Friday, 20^th March at the DfID headquarters in London. Together with 35 other youth NGOs we worked on a presentation of our ideas for the White Paper and the London G-20 summit that was presented to the DfID ministers, writers of the White Paper and current permanent secretary of state Minouche Shafik. Your ideas were all integrated. Now, the group is currently working on a written document to advise DfID for the White Paper.

 You can see the DfID press release and some video impressions of the summit here.

A while back we wrote about UYDO (United Youth Development Organization), a youth-led microfinance initiative that spurred from the U8 last year. The website is now being launched and UYDO will launch its first large scale project early next year.