The first meeting of G20 agriculture ministers, called to address global food price volatility, has been major news on the Global development site recently.

At the meeting in Paris, ministers agreed an action plan to tackle the problem, which included the launch of an early warning system to provide information on food supplies and stocks to curb sudden future price rises. Price rises in 2007-08 sparked riots across the globe and pushed millions of people back into poverty.

The French agriculture minister called the action plan a "tour de force", but campaigners were less impressed with its main points. And the Guardian's Felicity Lawrence said ministers had dodged the big questions, most notably the failure to mention the impact of climate change on food prices.

We also looked at food price projections for the next 10 years, offered by the OECD and the FAO. The organisations looked at demand, how much we consume, transport costs and population growth to work out estimates. Simon Rogers, who pulled together a datablog on the data, said the figures made grim reading.

Elsewhere on the site



Mark Tran outlines the future plans of the FAO's director general elect, Brazil's José Graziano da Silva, who on Sunday won the vote to head the UN agency, beginning next year.

We report on the Arab NGO network's criticism of the conditions attached to western aid to north African countries.

Christian Aid's Prospery Raymond sends his latest dispatch for our Rebuilding Haiti series. This week he discusses the difficulties of housebuilding on the island.

Mattia Cabitza discusses Bolivia's new law that seeks to bring food security to the Latin American country.

And Madeleine Bunting questions whether BAE is sidestepping the Tanzanian government over how to spend the £29m it owes the country in compensation.

Activate 2011

The Guardian's Activate London conference was held last week. As well as tweeting from it, Ken Banks offers us an overview of the event, highlighting the importance of people-powered technology, while Madeleine Bunting talks about the continued rise of the mobile phone in Africa.

Meanwhile, Ory Okolloh, Google's policy manager for Africa and a Kenyan lawyer and activist, speaks about the role of technology in Africa - it's not all about development.

Coming up on the site



Later this week we'll be uploading our latest Global development Focus podcast, looking at the challenges and opportunities facing southern Sudan, which will become the world's newest country on 9 July. We will be recording the podcast on Wednesday, and there is still time to post any questions you would like to put to our panel.

We report from inside a refugee camp in Liberia, now home to thousands of people fleeing violence in Ivory Coast.

And we will look at the findings of UN Women's first report, due to be published in the first week of July.

Multimedia

In pictures: The Indian college producing village solar engineers

The Barefoot College in Rajasthan, India, is breaking down ethnic, social and caste barriers and is helping reduce the country's reliance on fossil fuels by providing training courses in solar engineering.

In pictures: Illegal gold mining in Peru

Madre de Dios state in Peru has become a major hub of illegal gold mining, which has led to the exploitation of poor workers and is damaging the region's ecosystem.

Video: World Bank Institute: We're also the data bank

Aleem Walji, practice manager for innovation at the World Bank Institute, which assists and advises policymakers and NGOs, tells the Guardian's Activate summit in London about the organisation's commitment to open data

Interactive: Refugee statistics mapped

The latest refugee statistics from the UNHCR show where refugees come from, where they go to and how many return.

Achievement awards

The Guardian has launched its annual international development achievement awards, which celebrate outstanding contributions to global poverty alleviation. Find out more about the competition and nominate someone whose achievements deserve attention.

What you said: Some of the best comments from our readers

On Kenneth M Quinn's blogpost on how innovation and infrastructure can feed the world, Wayne92 says:

The important message here is that infrastructure development is one of the core facets of overall human development. Provided we recognise this and continue to fund the development of infrastructure, we're going to be making life so much easier for those who can access that infrastructure.

Responding to Julian Boys's post on whether Cambodia's oil discovery will benefit Cambodians, AlanDavis writes:

It is not rocket science to understand that transparency and accountability will never be given away by such governments – they can only ever be built. And the best way to do so is by starting to build public understanding and literacy about government income, expenditure and decision-making.



On Mattia Cabitza's post on Bolivia's new law to improve food security, AndrewJB argues:

Surely a priority for any government is ensuring a country can feed itself? Beyond this obvious point, what Morales's government is doing is hardly radical. Food production in the west is so heavily subsidised nobody could hold it up as a poster for the free market. If market intervention is good for us, what's wrong with a country with greater problems turning to it?



Highlights from the blogosphere

Global Voices reports on the protests in the Puno region of Peru against the contamination caused by mineral mining.

Oxfam's Duncan Green gives the thumbs down to the outcomes of the G20 food summit, which he called "the classic vacuous summit fudge of empty rhetoric [and] calls for more transparency".

Bill Gates celebrates on the UK's Department for International Development blog the news that donors pledged to increase funding to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation.

And the World Bank's Shanta Devarajan has sparked debate in a post discussing whether concern for human rights was necessary to achieve health and education outcomes.