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2003: The way it could have been...

Patrick Burnett

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/19191

United States President George W. Bush, other leaders of the G8 group of industrialised countries and political leaders in Africa deserve congratulations for their courage in leading a genuine attempt to deal honestly and respectfully with the problems facing Africa in 2003.

The pace was set when George W. Bush touched down in Dakar, Senegal earlier this year. Following a visit to Goree Island, which acted as a transit camp for Africans during the slave trade, Bush experienced a road to Damascus moment. With tears in his eyes, he said the experience had for the first time helped him to grasp the enormous damage caused by slavery. Clearly his country had benefited in a grossly immoral way and therefore it was logical that reparations should be made for this blotch in the history of his country. He immediately offered reparations – 'apologies are not enough', he said.

What was even more shocking, said the president, was that his country continued to support policies that were difficult to justify  - in fact, they added insult to injury and continued to build on the injustices of the past. He admitted that the US and Western powers systematically undermined the African liberation movements by slaughtering leaders such as Patrice Lumumba, supporting terrorist movements in DRC, Angola, Mozambique and elsewhere. This newfound commitment to Africa would require serious financial bankrolling, announced Bush, and as a result the war on Iraq would end forthwith to prevent resources being diverted from Africa. Even this would not be enough, however, and he had personally ordered the scrapping of his $400-billion defence budget, which would be diverted towards peaceful activities, rather than killing fields. Following a nightmare about the havoc $400-billion dollars worth of guns would cause, he was no longer convinced that the military-industrial complex held the solution to the world's problems. The US militarisation of the African continent through the establishment of forward bases in the war against terror would be scrapped. Africa needed less, not more, militarisation, he said. The USA would immediately ratify the Rome Treaty for the International Criminal Court: 'There can be no excuse for impunity for those guilty of crimes against humanity.'  

The cynical have argued that Bush's announcement was forced upon him by massive and unprecedented popular pressure from across Africa. Whatever the case, Bush's announcement was the culmination of a groundswell of change that nobody could have predicted at the beginning of 2003. South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki announced that he had given up golf. Golf, he said, was an elitist game and an environmentally damaging one at that, which did not befit the image of a president who stood for the people and with the people. Moreover, Mbeki, along with other New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) architects, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, could now see that Nepad was indeed an imperialistic tool (as some ultra-leftists had previously stated). Nepad, if implemented in its current form, would work to serve the interests of the West and further impoverish the African people. The project would have to be reworked in favour of a genuine consultative programme that placed people before profits.

With global and continental leadership in line, seemingly intractable problems moved towards quick resolution. A host of undemocratic and dictatorial African leaders were either summarily removed by bloodless peoples' coups, or fled office after seeing the writing on the wall. Where there are gaps, the African Union has transformed itself from a toothless organisation and firmly laid down the law when required. As we end 2003, genuine people's democracies are sweeping across Africa.

This revolution could not take place in and of itself and needed to be accompanied by radical structural changes. One of these changes involved the onerous debt burden facing many African countries, long acknowledged as a serious obstruction to the development of Africa and responsible for diverting funds away from health, education and the social services. With a new moral fervour evident globally, The Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative was scrapped as a complete failure in 2003. In its place illegal debt was immediately eliminated without any unfair terms or conditions. Africa's development of rich industrialised countries through the repayment of debt has therefore ended.

A significant victory of 2003 was the establishment of the Commission on International Financial Institutions (CIFI), which announced that the World Trade Organisation, International Monetary Fund and World Bank were undemocratic institutions who had failed to function in the interests of the majority of the world population. The commission recommended – and these recommendations were subsequently adopted – that the IFI's be scrapped and replaced by truly representative, democratic institutions designed to operate in the interests of all the people of the world. Investigations into possible prosecutions regarding the harmful policies of the IFI's over the last 50 years and the damaging effects of their Structural Adjustment Policies and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers on Africa are ongoing. There was widespread agreement for the need to distinguish between investment and recurrent expenditure: money spent on education, social welfare and health were vital investments, the returns on which could only be measured over decades. A massive programme of investment has been put in place for 2004. Given the failure of privatisation of services over the last decade, governments were encouraged to nationalise social services, including power, water, health services, etc. This has sparked a vibrant public debate across the region about whether the same approach should be taken with production of other socially necessary products.

The ending of double-speak and spin over the issue of HIV/AIDS is another welcome development that took place in 2003. 'Treat all the People Now!', long seen as a distant dream, has become reality. The year began gloomily as countries failed to meet their commitments to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria, then promised more money and failed again to deliver. But the new political climate and unprecedented action by civil society organisations mean that the fund is now topped up and dispensing money in a way that has seen major victories in the war against the epidemic. Treatment is now approaching 100 percent. Furthermore, the control of the medical industry by a handful of enormously powerful and unaccountable multi-national pharmaceutical companies was beaten back in a serious of battles in which the people stood up and demanded their right to be treated.

Another important area with regards Africa that deserves mentioning here is that of unequal terms of trade, long regarded as a sticking point in the development of the continent. In September, Africa stood up to the industrialised countries at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun, Mexico, over unfair trade and refused to allow further onerous conditions to be imposed on them. The result was a humbled United States and European Union. Both finally agreed that outrageous subsidies which would hypothetically speaking allow their dairy herds to take round the world vacation trips while people in certain parts of the world starved, served nobody's interests and were an utter embarrassment to their moral standing, or lack thereof.  U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellig declared that industrialised countries had long been 'spoilers' and pledged to work towards terms of trade that benefited Africa.

It has been a truly memorable year. There have been major victories leading to decreased militarisation, the spreading of democracy, treatment for those with HIV/AIDS and equitable terms of trade. The benefits in terms of Africa's social and economic indicators are already being felt. Significantly, international legal mechanisms have also been set in place to ensure that never again will Africa, or any other part of the world, be allowed to occupy a position at the bottom of the global development index. No longer will certain power brokers be allowed to glibly take the moral high ground with one hand, while continuing a self-enrichment exercise of plunder and looting with another. Africa can now enter 2004 knowing that, in contrast to a year ago, it will not have to confront the battery of unjust and exploitative policies that kept it in subjection for so long.

* Please send comments on this editorial - and other events in Africa - to editor@pambazuka.org

Pambazuka News Festive Break

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/19154

Pambazuka Newsfeed

Get Pambazuka News headlines displayed on your site

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/19202

Anonymous

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/19112

Augusto Paulo da Silva

2003-12-18

http://www.guineaspora.org/

Olugbemiga Ekundayo

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/19193

Pauline Morris

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/19111

Agricultural Research and Poverty Reduction

Edited by Shantanu Mathur and Douglas Pachico

2003-12-18

http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/index.html#poverty

This book presents a set of case studies that cover various dimensions of the research/poverty relationship, such as the role of gender and of dialogue with policy makers. And it presents empirical evidence from a wide range of contexts, involving different regions, agroecosystems, crops, and types of technologies.

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volume 29 Number 4/December 2003

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/19115

This issue includes:
* NGOs and the Constitutional Debate in Zimbabwe: from Inclusion to Exclusion by Sara Rich Dorman;
* The Politics of Decentralisation and Donor Funding in South Africa's Rural Water Sector by Mary Galvin and Adam Habib;
* Globalisation and Africa's Economic Recovery: a Case Study of the European Union-South Africa Post-Apartheid Trading Regime by Richard Gibb; and
* André Brink and the Implications of Tragedy for Apartheid South Africa by Isidore Diala.
Volume 29 Number 4/December 2003 of Journal of Southern African Studies is now available on the Taylor & Francis web site at http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com

To unsubscribe from this alert please visit: http://www.tandf.co.uk/sara .

This issue contains:

Land from the Ancestors: Popular Religious Pilgrimage along the South Africa-Lesotho Border p. 0
David B. Coplan

Editorial p. 821


State of the Discipline: Science, Culture and Identity in South African Archaeology, 1870-2003 p. 823
Nick Shepherd

NGOs and the Constitutional Debate in Zimbabwe: from Inclusion to Exclusion p. 845
Sara Rich Dorman

The Politics of Decentralisation and Donor Funding in South Africa's Rural Water Sector p. 865
Mary Galvin, Adam Habib

Globalisation and Africa's Economic Recovery: a Case Study of the European Union-South Africa Post-Apartheid Trading Regime p. 885
Richard Gibb

André Brink and the Implications of Tragedy for Apartheid South Africa p. 903
Isidore Diala

Malevolent Traditions: Hostel Violence and the Procreational Geography of Apartheid p. 921
Glen S. Elder

Gendering Commonality: African Men and the 1883 Commission on Native Law and Custom p. 937
Natasha Erlank

Friedrich Jeppe: Mapping the Transvaal c. 1850-1899 p. 955
Jane Carruthers

Book Reviews p. 995


Erratum p. 1019




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Media Under Siege - A report on the coverage of the 2002 Presidential and Mayoral Elections in Zimbabwe

Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/19101

The book focuses on how the media covered the 2002 Presidential and Mayoral elections. It depicts the struggle to suffocate the truth and the efforts by the private media to get it heard. This translated to a media war- and ultimately Zimbabweans witnessed a monumental battle by Government to coerce the electorate to vote for the ruling party. An informed electorate will not vote for corrupt and incompetent government- and certainly not for one that undermines their constitutional rights. At the time of the 2002 elections the crisis afflicting the national economy was a source of increasing hardship for most of the population, politically motivated state sanctioned violence became a plague across the nation, and laws guaranteeing democratic practice were trampled underfoot by a government determined to retain control of power. Please send orders and enquiries to the Project Coordinator, MMPZ, 15 Duthie Avenue, Alexandra Park, Harare, Tel/fax: +263 4 703702, E-mail: monitors@mweb.co.zw

Pleasure through reading in Zambia

2003-12-18

http://www.bellagiopublishingnetwork.org/news/readZam.htm

The "Pleasure through Reading" project uses television programmes to stimulate and promote reading in Zambia. The project is being promoted by Window Images-Media in Development in the light of growing concern that reading habits in Zambia were rapidly falling and that most Zambians ranging from school going children to adults do not read for pleasure. The organisers hoped that through “Pleasure Through Reading” a broad cross-section of people would find the programme not only interesting and educative but also challenging and motivating to the extent of taking up reading.

Re-examining Liberation in Namibia

Henning Melber (ed.)

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/19114

The emerging trends in Namibia’s political culture offer reason for concern. The different chapters in this stock- taking volume suggest in different ways that the long struggle for national liberation and human rights has not been followed by a process towards genuine democracy and tolerance.
Henning Melber (ed.)
Re-examining Liberation in Namibia
Political Culture since Independence
ISBN: 91-7106-516-4, 187 pp, 200 SEK (20 Euro)
Published by the Nordic Africa Institute Oct 2003
Keywords: Namibia, Independence, Liberation, Political Culture, Reconciliation, Post-colonialism, Human Rights

The emerging trends in Namibias's political culture offer reason for concern. The different chapters in this stock taking volume suggest in different ways that the long struggle for national liberation and human rights has not been followed by a process towards genuine democracy and tolerance.

An introductory chapter examines the consolidation of political power and control by the former liberation movement SWAPO. Other chapters offer case studies on SWAPO’s ideology prior to Independence, a comparison of constitutional developments in Namibia and Zimbabwe, an overview on minority rights and policies concerning indigenous people and a case study on cultural policy with regard to music. Analyses also cover the issue
of the SWAPO "ex-detainees", a critical reading of the Namibian President's biography and an exploration of the institutionalised public memory. The book ends with an essay challenging the limited tolerance currently existing in post-colonial Namibia.

The contributors are mainly from Namibia or Southern Africa and have a long-term commitment to the struggle for national liberation and democracy. The editor, Henning Melber, had joined SWAPO in 1974. He was Director of the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU) in Windhoek between 1992 and 2000 and has been Research Director at The Nordic Africa Institute since then.

Contents:

Henning Melber
Limits to Liberation. An Introduction to Namibia’s Postcolonial Political Culture

William Heuva
Voices in the Liberation Struggle: Discourse and Ideology in the SWAPO Exile Media

Sufian Hemed Bukurura
Between Liberation Struggle and Constitutionalism: Namibia and Zimbabwe

Clement Daniels
The Struggle for Indigenous People's Rights

John S. Saul/Colin Leys
Truth, Reconciliation, Amnesia: The "ex-Detainees'" Fight for Justice

Christopher Saunders
Liberation and Democracy: A Critical Reading of Sam Nujoma's 'Autobiography'

Reinhart Kössler
Public Memory, Reconciliation and the Aftermath of War: A Preliminary Framework with Special Reference to Namibia

Minette Mans
State, Politics and Culture: The Case of Music

Andre du Pisani
Liberation and Tolerance

Orders: orders@nai.uu.se or order online : http://www.nai.uu.se/webbshop/ShopGB

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Structural Stability in an African Context

Robert Kappel , Andreas Mehler and Henning Melber with a comment by Anders Danielson

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/19113

Structural Stability is a particular focus for reconceptualising developmental strategy and development aid and has provoked unforeseen responses in the course of a recent, mainly German debate. This debate began late in 2000 when a number of prominent German scholars in African Studies initiated a policy dialogue through a widely circulated and publicly discussed "Afrika Memorandum" centred on the notion of structural stability. Its arguments are relevant not only to a German audience but offer stimulating and thought-provoking inputs into the debate in the wider European context on bilateral and multilateral relations with Africa. This Discussion Paper presents the revised contributions to a Consultative Workshop on Structural Stability in an African Context that took place at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala on 31 March and 1 April 2003.
New publication:


Robert Kappel , Andreas Mehler and Henning Melber with a comment by Anders Danielson:

Structural Stability in an African Context
Discussion Paper No 24, 55 pp Published: Dec 2003 by the Nordic Africa Institute
ISBN: 91-7106-521-0 Price: 100 SEK/ 10 EURO

Keywords: Crisis, Development aid, Economic and social development, Economic aspects, NePAD, Partnership

The publications is available both as "hard copy" and electronically (the electronic version is free of charge)
at the Nordic Africa Institute's website http://www.nai.uu.se/webbshop/ShopGB/index.html

Direct link to the pdf-file is:
http://130.238.24.99/webbshop/epubl/dp/dp24.pdf


Description

Structural Stability is a particular focus for reconceptualising developmental strategy and development aid and has provoked unfore-seen responses in the course of a recent, mainly German debate. This debate began late in 2000 when a number of prominent German scholars in African Studies initiated a policy dialogue through a widely circulated and publicly discussed "Afrika Memorandum" centred on the notion of structural stability. Its arguments are relevant not only to a German audience but offer stimulating and thought-provoking inputs into the debate in the wider European context on bilateral and multilateral relations with Africa.
This Discussion Paper presents the revised contributions to a Consultative Workshop on Structural Stability in an African Context that took place at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala on 31 March and 1 April 2003.

Dr. Anders Danielson teaches in the Department of Economics, Lund University.
Dr. Robert Kappel is Professor of Economics at the Institute for African Studies, University of Leipzig.
Dr. Andreas Mehler is Director of the Institute for African Studies in Hamburg.
Dr. Henning Melber is Research Director at the Nordic Africa Institute.

Contents:

Preface

Robert Kappel
Economic Aspects of the African Crisis
Low-Level Equilibria, Traps and Structural Instability

Anders Danielson
Comments on Robert Kappel

Andreas Mehler
"Structural Stability"-A Leitmotiv for African Policies?
Background and Ambition

Henning Melber
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NePAD)
A Step Towards Structural Stability?

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The Battle for Zimbabwe: Launch

Geoff Hill

2003-12-18

http://www.iss.co.za/SEMINARS/031203book.htm

In 2001, Steve Connolly, MD of New Holland Publishers, asked Geoff Hill to interview ordinary Zimbabweans and find out what was really happening in the country. Over the past two years, Geoff sought the views of more than a thousand people -- mostly black -- in Zimbabwe and among the three million exiles now living in South Africa, Botswana and the UK. Geoff spoke to people inside the ruling ZANU-PF party; victims of the Matebeleland massacres of the mid-80s; opposition figures; Mugabe's childhood friends; people who had been tortured and some who had committed acts of torture and murder for both ZANU-PF and the opposition MDC. What emerged was a picture of a country that had gone astray. The resultant book, “The battle for Zimbabwe” looks at what went wrong in Zimbabwe, how to avoid the same thing happening in South Africa and what the world could do to bring Zimbabwe back into the fold.

ANGOLA: Ex-girl soldiers hidden behind a veil of fear and denial

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/19064

How many young girls were used by Angola's warring parties during its 27-year war is anyone's guess. Denial - by both sides - and fear of discrimination and stigma among former girl soldiers continue to stand in the way of any effort to come up with precise figures. Both the government and the former rebel group, UNITA, have in the past denied recruiting child soldiers. However, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has claimed that minors were widely used by both sides during the conflict. The refusal to acknowledge the role played by child soldiers, especially girls, during Angola's hostilities has complicated efforts by aid groups to address the problem.
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)

ANGOLA: Ex-girl soldiers hidden behind a veil of fear and denial

[This article is part of an IRIN web special on the issue of child soldiers published today. In addition to this story, the web special includes a special report on the issue of child soldiers, other country-specific features, background documents and links to resources available for further reading on the Internet. To access the web special please go to: ]www.IRINnews.org/webspecials/childsoldiers/]

JOHANNESBURG, 12 December (IRIN) - How many young girls were used by Angola's warring parties during its 27-year war is anyone's guess. Denial - by both sides - and fear of discrimination and stigma among former girl soldiers continue to stand in the way of any effort to come up with precise figures.

Both the government and the former rebel group, UNITA, have in the past denied recruiting child soldiers. However, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has claimed that minors were widely used by both sides during the conflict. The exact number remains a contentious issue, but conservative estimates put the number of children who bore arms for UNITA at 6,000. HRW has noted that the actual figure was probably much higher.

The refusal to acknowledge the role played by child soldiers, especially girls, during Angola's hostilities has complicated efforts by aid groups to address the problem.

Christian Children's Fund (CCF) in Angola is one of the few NGOs that have attempted to tackle the needs of children who participated in the war, but it says it has had to broaden the scope of its project to include all children, not only child soldiers.

The CCF director in Angola, Vivi Stavrou, told IRIN: "Our programmes targeting children in Angola have a broad focus. We are interested in the impact war has had on all children, especially since the majority of children have in some way or the other been victims of civil war. We would hope that within these programmes the needs of so-called 'child soldiers' will be identified and addressed."

HRW uses the definition of a child soldier adopted at a UN Children's Fund-backed international symposium in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1997. According to that definition, a child soldier is "any person under 18 years of age, who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to, cooks, porters, messengers, and those accompanying such groups, other than purely as family members".

While research into boy soldiers has received attention, very little has been reported on the plight of girls, who were often used by UNITA as cooks, domestics, and porters.

There have also been reports that women and girls were given to UNITA commanders and visitors and forced into sexual relations. Other girls were forced into marriages with UNITA combatants. HRW contends that refusals were met with punishment, and attempts to escape often meant death.

A report released soon after Angola's April 2002 ceasefire by the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS), noted that girls aged as young as 13 were used as porters, camp followers and concubines by UNITA. "Indeed, girls were often required to render sexual services and the majority are abducted for the primary purpose of serving as 'wives' to the male soldiers."

HRW said girls were often the victims of sexual abuse by government soldiers in the field, and occasionally were obliged to provide services. However, the rights group was unable to document the use of girls as soldiers by government forces.

Stavrou explained that the stigma associated with the abuse women and girls suffered during war has made it difficult to formulate programmes targeting this vulnerable group.

"It is a lot more difficult to determine just how many girls had been forced into marriage with soldiers," she said. "Often young women are afraid to reveal their involvement in the war, for fear that they will be discriminated against by community members.

"Often research is gathered from word of mouth, and when these former girl soldiers are approached they shy away from questions which probe their past lives. It would seem they would rather let it go."

She noted that girls who may have participated as active combatants with UNITA also confronted severe challenges when reintegrating into family and society.

According to Stavrou, many a young girl who had seen combat may have had to conceal the role she played, and adopt the subservient roles that custom demands. "For fear of total rejection by her husband's family, [she] must pretend to be the gentle, soft-spoken and submissive woman that her civilian counterpart is."

In an attempt to shed light on the role of women and girls during the war, CCF has commissioned research into the issue to provide a basis for interventions.

"We expect the research to take some time, given the constraints, but the results are likely to produce a clearer picture of what is needed, and how the aid community can assist," Stavrou said.

Many of the young women in demobilisation camps at the end of the war highlighted the need for education, HRW noted following a series of interviews in 2002. "Currently attending classes run by adults in the camps, they hoped to resettle in their home communities and return to primary school," HRW said.


[ENDS]

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Cameroon: Cameroon celebrates end of sex ban

2003-12-18

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3325281.stm

Couples in Cameroon are in a frisky mood following the end of a two-month strike during which women refused to have sex with their husbands. The 6,000 women in the north-west of the country were protesting against the destruction of crops by cattle.

DRC: UNICEF launches "All Girls to School" campaign

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38451

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Monday launched a national campaign to promote education of all girls. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, speaking at the "All Girls to School" campaign launch in the capital, Kinshasa, underlined the importance of educating children, especially girls, to national development.

Kenya: Creating a safe space for girls and young women

2003-12-18

http://www.comminit.com/pdskdv92003/sld-8643.html

Established in June 2002, the Binti Pamoja Centre is designed to create a safe space for girls and young women to discuss reproductive health issues and to address problems such as gender discrimination, domestic abuse, and rape. Located in the low-income area of Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya, the Centre uses group discussion, art, and photography to enable young participants to speak out about - and, ultimately, effect social change related to - difficult issues.

Kenya: Debate rages over new marriage bill

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312160765.html

A New Domestic Relations Bill under debate in parliament is generating intense debate, with a section of the public accusing the government of trying to interfere with their freedom in order to garner support from women in the 2006 elections. The Bill proposes that, for a man to marry a second wife, he must get the consent of the first wife and approval from district councils.

Kenya: Girls' education in Nairobi's informal settlements

2003-12-18

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/gender/links/1003nairobi.htm

Sixty per cent of Nairobi’s two million inhabitants live in informal settlements. Kibera, home to around 700,000 people, is the largest of these. It is very overcrowded, and littered with rubbish. As it is an illegal settlement, the government provides no basic services. In the poorest areas of Nairobi, Kenya, the demands of parents have encouraged the new government to abolish fees in public schools. An Oxfam programme has also recognised that gender equitable education means more than access, and is attempting to address the specific problems which girls face.

Uganda: LRA War Breaking Women's Backs

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312160551.html

It is the third day of a peace building and conflict management workshop at Gulu teacher's centre. Most of the participants are women who belong to the Grassroots Women for Development (GWARD), an NGO in Gulu. Others are members of the Uganda Media Women's Association (UMWA). The meeting is mainly focusing on health in the internally displaced people's camps, women and children's rights in the camps and nationalising the war in the north.

ZAMBIA: Getting girls back into school

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/19067

Zambian girls are defying traditional barriers, teenage pregnancy and the risk of HIV infection to go back to school to finish their education. They are doing this despite the findings of a new report that girls in sub-Saharan Africa face the highest school drop-out rate in the world, with up to 83 percent of all girls who no longer attend school living in the region. But "The State of the World's Children", released last Thursday by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) also lists the Programme for the Advancement of Girls' Education (PAGE), a collaboration between the Zambian government and UNICEF, as an example of the type of action required by governments and the international community to reverse the trend.
ZAMBIA: Getting girls back into school

JOHANNESBURG, 11 December (PLUSNEWS) - Zambian girls are defying traditional barriers, teenage pregnancy and the risk of HIV infection to go back to school to finish their education.

They are doing this despite the findings of a new report that girls in sub-Saharan Africa face the highest school drop-out rate in the world, with up to 83 percent of all girls who no longer attend school living in the region.

"The State of the World's Children", released on Thursday by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), found that the number of girls in sub-Saharan Africa who had left school before completing their education rose from 20 million in 1990 to 24 million in 2002.

But the report also lists the Programme for the Advancement of Girls' Education (PAGE), a collaboration between the Zambian government and UNICEF, as an example of the type of action required by governments and the international community to reverse the trend.

The project's interventions "have been so successful that what was a pilot project in the mid-1990's has now been extended all over the country."

According to UNICEF education project officer Margaret Akinware, there are about 1,300 PAGE schools operating in Zambia's 72 districts. "Next year, the government will incorporate the PAGE best practices into all primary schools."

Bringing girls back into the classroom has been an uphill battle. A situation analysis conducted before the project started in 1996 revealed that many girls were being kept at home to help with domestic chores, or care for their terminally parents.

"When you combine this with the high teenage pregnancies and HIV-infection rates, as well as the girls' fear of being sexually abused on their way to school or in school, you realise how great the odds are," Audrey Mwansa, manager of the ministry of health's equity and gender unit, told PlusNews.

One of the PAGE interventions has been to introduce single-sex classes. "This is the one that girls themselves have said helped them stay in school longer, because they are not bullied or made to feel inferior by gender-insensitive teachers," Akinware noted.

The success of the project could also be partly attributed to the involvement of families and community leaders. PAGE coordinators enlisted local headmen to become advocates of the campaign to increase girls' access to education. "This really helped a lot - in fact, in some areas, these headsmen are now spearheading the initiative," Mwansa said.

Using the PAGE "Family Pack", parents were also encouraged to support the campaign by permitting their daughters to do their homework after school. Regular school visits, with parents sitting in on lessons, were another feature of the programme.

Mwansa admitted that cultural practices remained a major obstacle. "As much as you talk about it and get people involved, at the end of the day people will revert to their traditional patterns."

Initiation ceremonies were a case in point. Once girls reached puberty, they were withdrawn from schools and isolated in order to be taught about "womanhood".

"There is nothing wrong with this, but the problem arises when they get back and don't want to return to school - all they want to do is get married so they can become a woman," Akinware explained.

PAGE staff have been working with community members involved in the initiation ceremony to create awareness around safer sexual practices and the need for girls to continue with their education.

"What we ask is, why can't you shift the ceremony to the school holiday period, and when telling them about womanhood, make sure you are arming them with accurate knowledge?" Akinware said.

The country's "re-entry policy" had made the implementation of PAGE "much easier" when dealing with young mothers, Mwansa pointed out. When girls fell pregnant, schools were now compelled to allow them back into class.

"We literally pursue them and bring them to school, and even make special arrangements for special classes if they feel shy and ashamed."

"We try and make them and their families realise that the benefits of education are not just for them, but for their children and the rest of the country," Mwansa said.

"We stand no chance of substantially reducing poverty, child mortality, HIV/AIDS and other diseases if we do not ensure that all girls and boys can exercise their right to a basic education," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said in a statement. "In daily life, knowledge makes the crucial difference."

To access the report:
http://www.unicef.org/media/files/embargoed_sowc04.pdf


[ENDS]

IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

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Africa/Global: Globalisation a mixed blessing for human rights

2003-12-18

http://www.unu.edu/news/NR-HumanRights03.html

Globalization has been a mixed blessing for human rights around the world, undermining the economic power of national governments but strengthening a sense of world community, according to a new analysis from the United Nations University. The Globalization of Human Rights report says progress on social and economic human rights is being undermined by the growing power of the global marketplace and the erosion of the ability of national governments to protect citizens from economic fluctuations. At the same time, however, globalization is fostering a greater sense of world community and international solidarity, leading to, for example, unprecedented collective interventions in internal national conflicts on compassionate humanitarian grounds.

Africa/global: The ICC - An end to impunity?

2003-12-18

http://www.crimesofwar.org/icc_magazine/index.html

"The International Criminal Court came into being on July 1, 2002. To its supporters, the new court represents nothing less than a milestone in the evolution of global justice. The court’s opponents also portray it in highly dramatic terms. The Bush administration says it is so concerned that the court may launch politically motivated prosecutions of U.S. citizens that it has started a worldwide drive to secure immunity agreements from other countries, withholding military aid from many of those who refuse. Yet in the immediate future, the court’s impact may be much less than its supporters and critics believe. The setting up of the International Criminal Court presents the odd spectacle of an event of enormous symbolic resonance, whose practical effects are likely to remain fairly modest, at least for some time to come." The Crimes of War Project December magazine features the International Criminal Court. You can read the full magazine by clicking on the URL provided.

ANGOLA: Dos Santos at the helm

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38470

Long-standing president Jose Eduardo dos Santos is once again firmly established at the helm of Angola's ruling MPLA after he was elected without opposition to the party's presidency. The congress, which ended last week, voted in Dos Santos by acclamation, paving the way for him to run again in national elections he has said will not be held before 2005. "Dos Santos is very firmly in the saddle," said Herman van der Linde, consultant at South Africa-based Executive Research Associates.

Central African Republic: New premier forms government

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38416

Newly appointed Central African Republic (CAR) Prime Minister Celestin Le Roi Gaoumbale has formed a new transitional government to replace the one of Abel Goumba who was dismissed last Thursday and has since been appointed Vice-President, the minister for communication and government spokesman, Parfait Mbay, announced on Friday on state-owned Radio Centrafrique. The new government comprises 28 ministers, including two women and six military officers.

Congo: Impunity major obstacle to human rights, says NGO

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38376

Impunity is a major obstacle to human rights in the Republic of Congo (ROC), the NGO l'Association panafricaine Thomas Sankara (APTS) said on Wednesday in a report published in the capital, Brazzaville. According to the report, the Congolese people, having decided in favour of multipartyism, wished to live in a political system founded on the primacy of the law and respect for human rights. However, the establishment of such a state was being prevented by the ever-growing culture of impunity.

Gambia: Opposition leader returned to jail after bail revoked

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38408

Gambia's firebrand opposition leader Lamine Waa Juwara, who is awaiting trial on sedition charges, has been re-arrested after his bail order was revoked by a judge.

Kenya: Draft Constitution Splits the Nation

2003-12-18

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=21551

Under Kenya’s current constitution, drafted during the colonial era, the president enjoys extensive powers. To reduce these powers - which have sometimes been abused - some Kenyans have called for the current process of constitutional review to allow for the post of Prime Minister. But, others disagree. "There are those around the president who are enjoying power because of their close ties with him. They are opposed to the completion of the constitution review process," says Njeru Gathangu, chairperson of Citizens for Justice, a Nairobi-based pressure group which has been lobbying for a new constitution.

MADAGASCAR: Former president sentenced to five years in prison

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38475

The authorities in Madagascar remained tight-lipped on Wednesday over whether the government would seek to extradite Didier Ratsiraka from France after a court had sentenced the former president to five years in prison for his role in last year's political crisis. Ratsiraka, who fled the country at the height of the political upheaval, did not appear in court at Monday's hearing.

South Africa: As inequalities grow, the poor question the power of the ballot

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/19174

The vote is still new to most of South Africa’s blacks, but after just a decade of democracy many of the poorest among them are already unconvinced of its power to deliver better standards of living. Veronica Rasi, a domestic worker in Cape Town says she has refused to register for next year’s elections because the government has not delivered on its promises. “What’s the use of voting – it hasn’t brought me any benefits. The ANC and the other political parties only know us when they need our votes – otherwise we don’t see them.”
REPOSTED FROM:http://www.globalpolicy.org/

As Inequalities Grow,
South Africa’s Poor Question The Power Of The Ballot
By Mohammed Allie*
Panos
November 2003

The vote is still new to most of South Africa’s blacks, but after just a decade of democracy many of the poorest among them are already unconvinced of its power to deliver better standards of living. Veronica Rasi, a domestic worker in Cape Town says she has refused to register for next year’s elections because the government has not delivered on its promises. “What’s the use of voting – it hasn’t brought me any benefits. The ANC and the other political parties only know us when they need our votes – otherwise we don’t see them.”

While the African National Congress-led government has improved people’s access to health, education and land, one hard fact remains: South Africa is still one of the most unequal societies in the world, despite the introduction of democracy in 1994. If anything, poverty has worsened. A government audit of how far it has lived up to its responsibility to its citizens and redressed apartheid’s injustices, concludes that “two economies persist in one country”.

President Thabo Mbeki, in his November Letter from the President on the ANC Today website, writes: “We have made the point in the past that a defining feature of our country is that we have two economies, one belonging to the developed world and the other to the underdeveloped world.” Those in the “underdeveloped world”, he adds, “do not have the skills required by the modern economy and society”.

In an effort to accelerate the redistribution of wealth, the government is promoting a black business class through its new Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act. The Act, passed in September, encompasses a raft of legislation, including those advancing the transfer of skills and capital from whites to blacks in major industries.

But Terry Crawford-Browne, spokesperson for Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, which is fighting to overturn the government’s purchase of over $5 billion of arms from European countries, is not impressed with those who have benefited from previous black empowerment legislation, especially those who were leading figures in the liberation struggle. “The politically well-connected have used their contacts for personal enrichment and have little regard for the majority. It is tragic… how quickly the new elite forgot where we’ve come from.”

When the ANC-led government first came to power, it introduced an ambitious Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) which promised to deliver social services and infrastructure to communities that were previously marginalised by apartheid. Social grants were no longer allocated on a racial basis, free health care was made available to women and children, and new health clinics were built. The government also provided piped water supplies to seven million people and redistributed 1.8 million hectares to landless blacks since 1994. But according to government figures, unemployment has risen from less than 20% in 1996 to 30% in 2003, and the number of households living below the poverty line ($60 per month) increased from 28% in 1995 to 33% in 1999.

Margaret Legum, an economist with the South Africa New Economics Network, a Cape Town-based think tank, says: “The ANC, with its roots deep in egalitarian political values, was joyfully elected to promote redistributive development. It promised economics that would match the political miracle to benefit everyone.” - “But the government’s review of the past ten years shows that even more people now live in destitution than in 1994, that redistribution of access to utilities is undermined by poverty, that utilities are privatised to foreign companies and that at the top, galactic incomes are earned.”

Legum believes the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) policy which replaced the RDP in 1996 militates against redistribution. The thrust of GEAR is to create work for all job-seekers by liberalising the economy; to redistribute income and opportunities for the poor; and to make health, education and other services available to all. But it aims to improve economic growth by lowering restrictions on capital movement to and from South Africa, and by lifting protections on local companies so that global corporations can compete with local companies as equals.

Critics of GEAR say the government assumes that economic growth in the private sector will produce an economic elite who in turn will share the government’s vision of developing what Mbeki calls the “underdeveloped” economy. But this has not yet happened. Legum says one problem the poor face is lack of political choice. “While the Communist Party and the unions stick with the ANC, and the ANC with GEAR, it is hard to see any other political channel. The other political parties are worse in this respect,” says Legum.

ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama protests at this criticism: “We are the party that represents the poor – proof of that is the fact that two thirds of the electorate voted for us at the last election.”

Patrick Craven, spokesperson for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), says although COSATU remains committed to its alliance with the ANC, it will always campaign for policies which defend and advance the interests of workers and the poor. “That is why COSATU has consistently opposed policies such as GEAR, which damaged those interests.”

Steven Friedman of the Centre for Policy Studies at the University of Witwatersrand, writing in a paper titled Equity in the Age of Informality, believes GEAR’s policies are the solution to South Africa’s inequality. But he says the poor must find a way to articulate their concerns and demands. “The demands of black professional and business classes for greater racial equity compete with those of the coalition of trade unions and other civil society organisations who champion the poor. “While poverty is not ignored, the preoccupation of the more affluent black groups tend to take precedence.”

This was shown recently when the government decided last year to privatise the parastatal Iron and Steel Corporation, with an anticipated 3,000 job losses – despite strong union protests. Particularly vulnerable are the over 1.7 million South Africans who work in the informal sector. With few resources and no union membership, they have been unable to articulate their interests effectively in the new democracy.

But there is a growing movement of non-governmental organisations which is representing and organising poor people, including the Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Landless People’s Forum and the Rural Development and Services Network. Fonky Goboza, spokesperson for the Anti-eviction Campaign, says they plan to highlight their plight at next year’s elections by not voting or by rolling out a programme of mass action. Says Veronica Rasi: “I think if we demonstrate and show the government that we are unhappy, maybe they will listen.”

*About the Author: Mohammed Allie is a South African freelance journalist and Cape Town correspondent for the BBC's African Service.

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SWAZILAND: Opposition rethinks boycott strategy

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38478

Swaziland's banned political parties and pro-democracy groups are conceding they may have harmed their cause by boycotting recent parliamentary elections. "If you are in the wilderness, you need all opportunities to be heard. All platforms, even government bodies, must be utilised," Ntombi Nkosi, president of the women's league of the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC), told IRIN.

Zimbabwe: Mbeki to wage quiet diplomacy in Harare

2003-12-18

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=311243

President Thabo Mbeki was due in Harare this week on his Mission Impossible - to try to find a solution to Zimbabwe's growing crisis. The precise nature of his mission is unclear. A senior South African official said he would try to place "back on track" talks between the ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Africa/Global: Respect for rights of migrants essential

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312170851.html

On International Migrants' Day, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says that respect for the rights of all migrants is an essential component of good migration management. With globalization, trade liberalization, economic integration and the widening gap between rich and poor nations creating ever greater migration pressures, IOM believes that successful migration management only exists when it fully respects the human rights of migrants.

Africa: UN Bids to Lift Aids Blame From Refugees

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312150640.html

Host communities blame refugees for the spread of HIV/AIDS, according to a survey by the UNHCR. "Such sentiments are held not only by local people, but by politicians, some media and even humanitarian workers," said the UNHCR commissioner, also noting the direct correlation between the increase in the number of HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa, and hostility towards refugees. However, evidence suggests that HIV infection rates among refugees are lower than those in host communities.

ANGOLA-SOUTH AFRICA: Refugee agreement to be signed with Pretoria

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/19060

A voluntary repatriation agreement for Angolan refugees in South Africa was due to be signed in Pretoria on Sunday, allowing the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, to prepare for the 13,000-strong community to return home. South Africa becomes the sixth and last country in the region to sign a tripartite agreement with the Angolan government and UNHCR. It joins Africa's largest repatriation programme, which will return 450,000 Angolans who had fled the country's civil war over the next two years.
ANGOLA-SOUTH AFRICA: Refugee agreement to be signed with Pretoria

JOHANNESBURG, 12 December (IRIN) - A voluntary repatriation agreement for Angolan refugees in South Africa will be signed in Pretoria on Sunday, allowing the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, to prepare for the 13,000-strong community to return home.

South Africa becomes the sixth and last country in the region to sign a tripartite agreement with the Angolan government and UNHCR. It joins Africa's largest repatriation programme, which will return 450,000 Angolans who had fled the country's civil war over the next two years.

But the refugee population in South Africa presents a challenge, UNHCR Special Envoy for Angolan Repatriation, Kallu Kalumiya, told IRIN. The majority are young, male and relatively well educated, and may not rush to take advantage of organised repatriation.

Kalumiya said the signing of the tripartite agreement would not mean the refugees automatically lost their right to asylum. UNHCR would first have to conclude that conditions in Angola had improved significantly, which would probably not be until after free and fair elections were held in 2005.

With UNHCR's assistance, 45,000 Angolans have been repatriated since June 2003. A further 25,000 have made it home under their own steam, receiving assistance inside Angola from UNHCR and the World Food Programme. Before UNHCR began its repatriation programme, 80,000 to 100,000 refugees had trekked home since the war ended in 2002.

"Next year will be the make or break year in terms of numbers. Now that procedures and systems are in place, we want to repatriate 140,000 Angolans voluntarily. Most of the camps will begin to empty, and we will round off the process in 2005," Kalumiya said.

Although acknowledging that significant problems remained for returning refugees - from the presence of an estimated 10 million land mines, to the lack of social services and weak government structures - "the fundamentals for a successful repatriation are present," he said.

These include a durable peace process - with the exception of fighting in the oil-rich Cabinda enclave - a "dramatic improvement in the humanitarian situation", and an "equally impressive improvement in human rights conditions".

"Life is gradually returning to the countryside - Angola is literally a country on the move," Kalumiya noted.

The vast majority of Angolan refugees, some 400,000, are in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

[ENDS]

IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
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Botswana/Namibia: Controversy over deportation of Caprivians

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38447

The Botswana government has denied claims by a Namibian human rights NGO that a group of Caprivian "refugees" were "abducted" from Botswana to face high treason charges in Namibia. Presidential press secretary Jeff Ramsay told IRIN on Tuesday that the group of eight Caprivians were "de facto illegal aliens" and had been lawfully deported to Namibia on 13 December.

Central African Republic: UN allowed to use Oubangui for refugee repatriation

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38450&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will repatriate refugees from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) using the Oubangui river which, besides serving as the border between the two countries, has been closed to human traffic since September, a senior UNHCR official said on Monday.

DRC/Rwanda: 300 refugees return from South Kivu

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/19082

Some 300 Rwandan refugees, among them nine former combatants, have returned from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), state-owned Radio Rwanda reported on Sunday. After nearly eight years in exile, the returnees cited poor living conditions in the DRC jungles as one of the major reasons for their return home.
DRC-RWANDA: 300 refugees return from South Kivu

KIGALI, 15 December (IRIN) - Some 300 Rwandan refugees, among them nine former combatants, have returned from the from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), state-owned Radio Rwanda reported on Sunday.

After nearly eight years in exile, the returnees cited poor living conditions in the DRC jungles as one of the major reasons for their return home.

The radio reported that the returnees included 88 women, 40 men and 163 children who had been living Shabunda, Bunyakili and Mwenga areas in the eastern province of South Kivu.

"The returnees will stay in Nyagatare camp in Cyagungu province, pending their return to their ancestral homes," the radio quoted an official of the Rwanda Refugee Repatriation Commission as saying.

The nine former combatants would be taken to a camp in the northwestern province of Ruhengeri for either demobilisation or reintegration into the current government forces.

The recent return of a Hutu militia commander, Maj-Gen Paul Rwarakabije, seems to have accelerated the return of more refugees from the Congo, according to an official of the repatriation commission.

The commission estimates that at least 700 refugees, including 156 former combatants, have returned home in the last two months.

On arrival at a transit camp, the returnees are issued with a standard repatriation package by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, consisting of a three-month food ration and basic non-food items such as jerry cans, kitchen utensils, blankets, soap and plastic sheeting.
[ENDS]

[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: Irin@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
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Ethiopia: UN refugee agency evacuates staff from Gambella

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38460

The UN refugee agency has evacuated its non-essential staff from western Ethiopia after violence that left an estimated 30 people dead and dozens injured. UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said the local hospital had been “overwhelmed” after a weekend of fighting in Gambella, 800 km west of Addis Ababa.

MOZAMBIQUE-RWANDA: Governments and UNHCR sign agreement on refugee repatriation

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38391&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes&SelectCountry=MOZAMBIQUE-RWANDA

The governments of Rwanda and Mozambique and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) signed a tripartite agreement on the voluntary repatriation of an estimated 900 Rwandan refugees in Mozambique. Most of the Rwandan refugees in Mozambique are women and children. Under the agreement, Rwanda will ensure the security of the refugees, while UNHCR would provide support for travel as well as help with initial resettlement for the returnees.

South Africa: Skills, Experience of Refugees Go to Waste

2003-12-18

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=21501

South Africa appears to receive the cream of African refugees seeking safe new homes, but their skills and experience go to waste, says a survey released last Thursday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. One-third of the 90,000 refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa have some form of tertiary education. Two-thirds have a secondary certificate or equivalent and the same proportion had skilled jobs before coming to South Africa.

Sudan: Darfur MPs urge international intervention

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38417

Members of Sudan's National Assembly from Darfur have appealed for international intervention to stop killings and displacement in the region. "There has to be a quick international intervention to protect civilians because they are dying - nearly 50 to 100 a week," one MP told IRIN. Fighting in Darfur between Arab militias and rebel groups, which escalated in March this year, has driven an estimated 670,000 people from their homes.

Sudan: Feature on displacement in Darfur

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38412

Intisar is 12 years old. She has never been to school. She used to leave peacefully on a farm with her mother and 14 siblings in rural Kass, southern Darfur, but then nomad militias arrived and started grazing their camels on her family’s land. Fighting in Darfur between Arab militias and rebel groups, which escalated in March this year, has driven an estimated 670,000 people from their homes, 70,000 of whom have fled across the border into neighbouring Chad.

Africa/Global: 95 countries sign U.N. anti-corruption convention

2003-12-18

http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=95197

Ninety-five countries signed the U.N. Convention against Corruption over a three-day conference in Mexico, a top Mexican Foreign Ministry official said last Thursday at the close of the gathering. The convention will enter into force once 30 governments have ratified it. Kenya, with a new government, was the first to sign and ratify. When the convention was opened for signatures last Wednesday, Kenya, the United States, Mexico, Italy, Paraguay, Japan, Mauritius, Kuwait and Sierra Leone were the first signers.

Africa: Corruption costs in the trillions

2003-12-18

http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=95184

The cost of corruption represents five percent of the world economy - or more than 1.5 trillion dollars a year, according to World Bank figures published at a UN conference on corruption. Daniel Kaufman, director of global governance at the World Bank Institute told reporters on Wednesday that the figures were an approximate calculation - since corruption was largely clandestine - yet "realistic".

Kenya: Kenyans discover that corruption is a hard habit to kick

2003-12-18

http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=95213

The illegal gains allegedly generated by Goldenberg International could have paid for universal primary education in Kenya for a decade. So one expert witness claimed at a public inquiry that has driven home to Kenyans the price they have paid for mismanagement. Goldenberg was set up at the turn of the 1990s, allegedly as a vehicle to access pre-shipment financing and state compensation for gold and jewellery exports.

Kenya: Kenya’s Filthy Rich Civil Servants

2003-12-18

http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/1701.cfm

Corruption does not only mean the illegal looting of public funds. It can also include exorbitant salaries paid to the political leadership and the civil service, argues Dagi Kimani from The East African in an article for World Press Review. "As Kenyans this year launch a concerted war against corruption, which in governance is taken basically to mean the privatisation of public funds through illegal means, they will also have to fight extremely hard to stop the looting of public coffers in legal ways. This must be so because, in what looks like a conspiracy by the top echelons of the political leadership and the civil service, the salaries of top public servants are being pushed to obscene levels, even as lower cadres are perennially told that the exchequer does not have enough tax shillings to throw them a lifeline of single-digit percentage wage increase," the article says.

Kenya: Tracking Moi's corruption

2003-12-18

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3518046,00.html

Investigators tracking the plunder of Kenya's resources during the regime of former President Daniel arap Moi have discovered that between $1 billion and $4 billion were shipped abroad illegally. The man leading the investigation said Wednesday that the goal of the probe was to retrieve as much as possible. "We have reached a stage where the Kenyan people have a right to know that this is an issue that we are taking extremely seriously, and to which we are applying the very best resources available,'' John Githongo, permanent presidential secretary for ethics and governance, told The Associated Press.

Uganda: World Bank Inflated Costs of Karuma Hydropower

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312160080.html

A proposed hydropower project at Karuma falls was inflated by $200 million. Norpak, a Norwegian company, is developing the Karuma project. Karuma is competing with Bujagali for World Bank's approval. Subsequently, the World Bank lined up Bujagali - which is now dogged by bribery allegations.

ZIMBABWE: Greener pastures create passport to corruption

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38443

Zimbabweans trying to leave the country in search of economic opportunities are having to deal with government officials whom they allege are turning their plight into profit, IRIN has learnt. Rising incidents of graft by public officials has coincided with Zimbabwe's worsening economic conditions, according to the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI). It ranked Zimbabwe as among the world's most corrupt countries in a report released in October.

Zimbabwe: Mugabe's Swiss jaunt costs millions

2003-12-18

http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/2003/12/14/news/news01.asp

Robert Mugabe squandered millions last week in a desperate bid to address the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) after being denied the opportunity at the Commonwealth summit in Nigeria. Mugabe and his cronies lived it up at one of the city's plushest hotels - La Réserve, a spa on the shores of Lake Geneva. According to The Times of London, rooms at La Réserve start at £380 a night, with the presidential suite costing £4 500.

Africa/Global: Responding to the mainstream - The IMF and the World Bank

2003-12-18

http://www.50years.org/action/s28/responses.html

Earlier this year a critic of the movement for global economic justice wrote a letter with several challenging questions that were sent to the email listserv of Mobilisation for Global Justice. The series of questions and answers available through the URL provided are based on the response composed by Soren Ambrose, Senior Policy Analyst with the 50 Years Is Enough Network. Questions relate to the austerity packages of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and cash crops.

Africa: China Cancels Africa's Debts

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312170547.html

Beijing has fulfilled its commitment to Africa by cancelling 31 African countries' debts totalling US $1.27 billion. During the second China-Africa trade summit held this week in Ethiopia, China said it would provide enhanced support for Africa, without any political discrimination. Both African and Chinese delegates agreed that there was vast potential for growth in trade between China and Africa, and that this was vital for Africa's development.

Africa: Developed Countries hold the keys to revival of trade talks

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/development/19159

The EU Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy concurred to the broad assumptions that the failure of Cancun was like an accident, which involved 148 cars on their way to a wedding. In explaining the accident, he forgot to mention (although casualty levels still not clear) that some of the victims escaped unhurt and they stood aside instead of helping those who were hurt. Among those who escaped unhurt, some were wearing helmets and others were putting on life jackets. Those who were hurt, most of them wore ordinary clothing and had no any other form of protection. But all of them still need to go to the wedding. And those who escaped unhurt should not just stand aside and assume that those hurt will uplift themselves. The unhurt must do something to ensure that everyone goes to the wedding where there is plenty of food and drink. Unfortunately, we are seeing a situation where the law of the jungle is being applied: survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit, yet all of them want to celebrate together at the wedding. This is the stark reality that we find developed and developing countries in after the collapse of trade talks in Cancun, says this editorial from the Seatini Bulletin.
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Editorial: Developed Countries hold the keys to revival of trade talks
Rangarirai Machemedze

The EU Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy concurred to the broad assumptions that the failure of Cancun was like an accident, which involved 148 cars on their way to a wedding. In explaining the accident, he forgot to mention (although casualty levels still not clear) that some of the victims escaped unhurt and they stood aside instead of helping those who were hurt. Among those who escaped unhurt, some were wearing helmets and others were putting on life jackets. Those who were hurt, most of them wore ordinary clothing and had no any other form of protection.

But all of them still need to go to the wedding. And those who escaped unhurt should not just stand aside and assume that those hurt will uplift themselves. The unhurt must do something to ensure that everyone goes to the wedding where there is plenty of food and drink. Unfortunately, we are seeing a situation where the law of the jungle is being applied: survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit, yet all of them want to celebrate together at the wedding.

This is the stark reality that we find developed and developing countries in after the collapse of trade talks in Cancun. At the informal heads-of-delegation meeting on 14 October, it was agreed that the Chairman of the WTO general Council, Perez del Castillo and Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, would conduct consultations with members, starting with agriculture, the cotton initiative, non-agriculture market access, and the Singapore Issues.

The aim of these consultations is to find common ground on the four areas with the WTO members, which could allow the restart of negotiations in 2004. However, reports coming from Geneva suggest that positions on the four issues are still the same as to those prior Cancun.

To make matters worse the consultations are being held with the same pre-Cancun method for which they have been so severely criticised: informal, undocumented small group or country-by-country consultations where nobody knows who is meeting with whom and when and what has been talked about. From time to time, Perez del Castillo will then convene informal, undocumented Heads of Delegation meetings on the result of these consultations.

Right after the collapse in Cancun, most of the blame was put on the US and the EU that they were responsible for the breakdown, while the two big trading blocks blamed others, especially the G20 Group of middle-income countries, and the ACP countries. As the EU Trade Commissioner (Lamy) has already indicated, they are now adopting a strategy that aims at shifting the responsibility of reviving the talks towards developing countries, avoiding their own responsibility. The EU must adjust their negotiating scope and mandate and must show a willingness to engage in fair and just trade practices. As long as they continue to subsidise their farmers to that frightening level of US$1 billion per day then they should forget about engaging developing countries.

Actually, the developing countries were the first to show their willingness to continue negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda. Now, all parties, even the US, have signaled their willingness to restart negotiations as soon as possible and this is the positive step that they should carry through until they come to a common understanding with the rest of the developing world.

The EU has stated publicly in various occasions that it is not going to undertake any initiative to revive the talks. It is well known that the EU is still in its process of reflection as regards its commercial policy in general and its positions within the WTO in specific. However, the Geneva-based delegates from developing countries interpret this posture as one suggesting that the EU wants them to make an initial offer that would bring the EU back to the negotiating table. Thus, by acting in this way, the EU aims to make developing countries feel responsible for the failure in Cancun and force a concession that would present a solution to the stalemate.

And we think otherwise. The developed countries hold the keys to the revival of talks.

Prior to and during Cancun, developing countries were pressuring the developed countries, particularly the US and the EU to eliminate all forms of subsidies that they were giving to their farmers. They (developed countries) did not listen and of course there was no progress. And now positions are still the same between the developed and developing countries. The developing countries have got practical and heart rending reasons as to why subsidies should be eliminated. And unless this is done then of course there should not be any reason for negotiations to continue. This is the reason why we say the developed countries have the keys to kick start the process again.

Two weeks prior to Cancun developed countries closed ranks and conceded that for sure there was a need to agree to the worthy cause of developing countries on TRIPs and Public Health as mandated by the Doha Declaration. Whether this was a misjudgment (on their part) thinking that this could sway the position of developing countries on Agriculture and Singapore issues into theirs is debatable. But what they did is commendable although the solution is temporary.

Now after Cancun, why the same can't be done on these four issues? It is clear how agriculture subsidies are hurting the livelihoods of the poor in the developing world. It is also clear how cotton subsidies by the US have impoverished poor farmers in central and western Africa. It is also very much clear how the New Issues will surrender the sovereign power of nation states to the dictates of Transnational Corporations.

When the US and the EU developed their industries, they did so under a protective kind of system which was never open to abuse by other countries. Today they have pressurized developing countries to open their economies to the rest of the world while they are still protecting theirs.

The first article in this Bulletin shows to a large extent the different positions that countries were taking on non-agricultural market access. The US and EC, stated strongly that they wanted a non-linear formula with a single coefficient to be applied by both developing and developed country members undertaking tariff cuts. In this regard, newly acceded WTO members should also undertake more liberalisation in this area.

On the other hand, many developing countries conveyed their opposition to, and unhappiness with the approach of the developed countries for a non-linear formula with a single coefficient to be applied by all. Several made clear that they could not accept the application of a non-linear formula in making tariff reductions.

The same concept that the developed countries used in the Harbinson Text on Agriculture is more or what they are attempting to apply. Deep tariff cuts will only mean accelerated market access for developed country members' products to the developing world. As alluded to earlier, protection of the different sectors should be the priority of developing countries like what their counterparts did when they were developing their industries.

On the Singapore issues the Chairman suggested that the members could perhaps agree to launch negotiations for transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation at the SOM on 15 December and then subsequently discuss their respective modalities. On the issue of investment and competition rules, he proposed that members could perhaps agree to re-start the clarification process on the modalities. This could then lead to several options, including adoption of a plurilateral agreement, which gives the opportunity of opting in or out of such an agreement.

His suggestion really is meaningless to the developing countries. In Cancun Developing countries took the position that negotiations on the New issues should not start unless there is explicit consensus as the language of the Doha Declaration says. There is no explicit consensus. As the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Amorim in the third article in this Bulletin rightly puts it “you cannot ignore - you cannot just, nowadays, write a paper, put your preferred option, ignore the opinion of 80 countries and then think that it will go. That does not happen any more. That is no longer how the world is made up, fortunately.”

If real negotiations are to take place, the WTO must first listen to the concerns of their members particularly on the process of negotiations itself. The developed countries, moreover, must wake up and listen to the concerns of their unequal counterparts. There is now doubt whether sufficient progress will be made before the 15 December General Council Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) for an agreed outcome.

Still the developed countries must open the doors of the crushed cars, because they have the keys, such that everyone will go to the wedding and eat the same food and have the same drinks.

Rangarirai Machemedze is a Senior Analyst with SEATINI

More...

Africa: Issues and options in the post-Cancun world

2003-12-18

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/twninfo99.htm

At Cancun, developing countries were better able to organise themselves and articulate their interests, but the question on how to proceed on various issues in open. The proposals from all sides should reflect what is in the best interests of development of developing countries. This paper from the Third World Network examines key issues after Cancun. "We should not be distracted by the blame game as to who caused Cancun to fail, and not be affected by any hints or accusations that developing countries were responsible and will now suffer for it. What is important is to examine what are the best options on substantive and process issues that will be in the interest of developing countries and to put these positions forward."

Benin: Benin needs more funding for human development, says report

2003-12-18

http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html

Benin should allocate at least 5 per cent of its GDP for social priorities to promote human development and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), according to a new UNDP report by a team of national experts. The Benin National Human Development Report 2003, launched recently in Cotonou, the capital, focuses on financing for human development and finds that public spending on social priorities -- including basic education and health care, nutrition and water supply and sanitation – is inadequate.

Kenya: Fair trade crafts preserve culture and livelihoods

2003-12-18

http://www.lwr.org/handcraft/mdcu.html

In the shade of an acacia tree, a cluster of Kenyan women work busily, weaving baskets from sisal plant fibres. Their children are learning in a nearby schoolhouse. The school fees are paid by the money the mothers make from selling their baskets. Mary Masika, a widowed mother of seven, learned to weave sisal baskets from her mother. Now her weaving group is a part of the Machakos District Cooperative Union (MDCU), a union of artisan groups that market their products through the LWR Handcraft Project.

Namibia: Ramatex On Rack Again

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312170352.html

Malaysian-run textile factory Ramatex is once again being accused of unfair labour practices - this time by several hundred of its Asian workers. Filipino workers feel so strongly about their working conditions that they have sent an appeal to their government through its South African embassy. A petition signed by nearly 700 employees cites poor wages, cramped living conditions and health concerns as their most pressing grievances.

Southern Africa: A review of regional strategies addressing poverty

2003-12-18

http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000637/index.php

Strategies that governments in Sub-Saharan Africa have pursued over the last three to four decades have all sought to raise not only the Human Development Index but bring about comprehensive development as well. These strategies started with national development plans and inward looking import substitutions and protectionist policies. This review from the Malawi Economic Justice Network provides an overview of the process, outcomes and content, within the region's socio-political context, examining the pathways that were available to different stakeholders for engagement in the process, and how this participation and strategies are reflected in the policy outcomes. The paper further endeavours to catalyse thinking in analysing how the relationship between the conception and practice of the 'popular' Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers to previous initiatives such as the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), the advent of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), let alone the new opportunities offered for poverty reduction in Africa.

Africa/Global: How medical giants hoodwink journals

2003-12-18

http://news.hst.org.za/view.php3?id=20031211

Pharmaceutical giants hire ghostwriters to produce articles - then put doctors' names on them. Hundreds of articles in medical journals claiming to be written by academics or doctors have been penned by ghostwriters in the pay of drug companies, an Observer inquiry reveals. The journals, bibles of the profession, have huge influence on which drugs doctors prescribe and the treatment hospitals provide. But The Observer has uncovered evidence that many articles written by so-called independent academics may have been penned by writers working for agencies which receive huge sums from drug companies to plug their products.

Africa: Africa isn't dying of AIDS?

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/19183

An article by South African author and journalist Riaan Malan arguing that horrific HIV/AIDS figures are computer-generated estimates that appear grotesquely exaggerated when set against population statistics has kicked up debate about the severity of Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis. Malan argues that it is time to question some of the claims made by the Aids lobby, arguing that their authority comes from computer-generated estimates that are far from accurate. "Give them their head, and they will commandeer all resources to fight just one disease. Who knows, they may defeat Aids, but what if we wake up five years hence to discover that the problem has been blown up out of all proportion by unsound estimates, causing upwards of $20 billion to be wasted?" In response, Malan was accused by one subscriber to a popular South Africa discussion list of playing a game that is an "intellectually, politically and morally dishonest" one. For the original article, visit http://www.lewrockwell.com/spectator/spec192.html To track the debate, join Debate: SA discussion list at http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate

Africa: Hiv/Aids - The growing epidemic

2003-12-18

http://www.eldis.org/fulltext/BennellHIVAfrica.pdf

This paper argues that there is surprisingly very little good quality information available that would enable the levels and thus trends in national HIV prevalence rates to be accurately monitored. Population based surveys are the only reliable indicator of the levels of HIV infection among men and women according to age, location and socio-economic background. And yet, there is virtually no population-based survey data in most of the high-prevalence countries, including Botswana, Ethiopia, Malawi, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland.

Africa: Hope for better malaria vaccine

2003-12-18

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3322085.stm

Human trials of a new type of malaria vaccine are planned for next year after encouraging results in mice. Oxford University scientists are using a combination of techniques to boost the effectiveness of their vaccine, which will be tested on volunteers. Research published on Tuesday revealed that their formula, carried into the body on a virus, produced a strong immune response in mice. No fully effective malaria vaccine has yet been produced by scientists.

CAR: UN agency identifies sites for HIV/AIDS centres

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2853&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has begun identification of 16 sites for construction of HIV/AIDS detection-prevention-treatment centres across the Central African Republic, an official told IRIN on Friday. Funding for the programme would come from the HIV/AIDS Global Fund, the UNDP resident representative, Stan Nkwain, said. "This is a legitimate ambition given the extent to which HIV/AIDS is ravaging the population," he said.

CONGO: With 29 dead, Brazzaville says Ebola outbreak is 'stabilizing'

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/19063

The health ministry of the Republic of Congo reported last Thursday that the current Ebola acute haemorrhagic fever syndrome outbreak in the country's northwestern Cuvette Ouest Department was stabilising, with 29 deaths among 42 registered cases to date. According to Damaze Bozongo, director-general of the health ministry, since 2 December, no further deaths had been registered in either Mbomo or Mbanza, two villages that were among the worst-affected in Cuvette Ouest, 800 km north of the capital, Brazzaville.
CONGO: With 29 dead, Brazzaville says Ebola outbreak is ''stabilizing''

NAIROBI, 12 December (IRIN) - The health ministry of the Republic of Congo reported on Thursday that the current Ebola acute haemorrhagic fever syndrome outbreak in the country's northwestern Cuvette Ouest Department was stabilising, with 29 deaths among 42 registered cases to date.

According to Damaze Bozongo, director-general of the health ministry, since 2 December, no further deaths had been registered in either Mbomo or Mbanza, two villages that were among the worst-affected in Cuvette Ouest, 800 km north of the capital, Brazzaville.

The World Health Organization (WHO) meanwhile reported that other suspect cases were still under investigation, while 47 people who came into contact with infected individuals were being monitored. It added that surveillance and social mobilisation activities were also continuing.

WHO said the current outbreak originated in Mbanza, some 15 km from Mbomo, when a family consumed a dead wild boar they had found in the forest, with the first death occurring on 16 October.

On 14 November, the Congolese Ministry of Health, together with WHO, confirmed that the outbreak of acute haemorrhagic fever syndrome in Mbomo District was, in fact, the Ebola virus.

On 5 June 2003, the last outbreak of acute haemorrhagic fever syndrome, which was determined to have been the Ebola virus, was declared over by the health ministry. According to WHO, 128 people of 143 confirmed cases died during that epidemic, which ensued following the handling and consumption of dead gorillas.

[For more information on the Ebola virus, go to ]www.cdc.gov]
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More...

Côte d’Ivoire/Senegal: Warning about complacency over HIV/AIDS

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38458

West Africa’s HIV-AIDS pandemic has often been overshadowed by the higher infection rates in southern Africa. But the WHO’s latest global HIV-AIDS update warns strongly against complacency. WHO points out that while infection rates have remained broadly stable in Sahelian countries like Mali, The Gambia and Niger, which all have prevalence rates of less than two per cent, the figures are markedly less optimistic in Cote d’Ivoire, where adult prevalence rates have been estimated at between 10 and 12 percent.

Nigeria: Health sector ranked amongst world's worst

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312160363.html

The 46th National Council on Health meeting taking place in Yenagoa has heard that Nigeria's health system ranked among the worst in the world. The Minister of Health, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, said in his address that the health situation had recorded appreciable improvement in the early 1990s but had then nose-dived to an all-time low. "Nigeria's overall health system performance was ranked 187 among the 191 member states by the World Health Organisation while most of the country's disease burden is due to preventable diseases."

Nigeria: Parliament to discuss polio vaccine controversy

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312170705.html

Nigeria's House of Representatives will hold a public hearing next week on allegations that polio vaccines used in a recent nationwide vaccination campaign contained elements that could cause infertility and HIV/AIDS. Aminu Safana, chairman of the Committee on Health and Human Services of the lower house of the federal parliament, said in a statement on Wednesday that the hearing had been set for next Monday. Polio vaccination has faced widespread resistance in the staunchly Muslim north, where groups of Islamic fundamentalists have alleged that the vaccination programme was part of a plot by western countries to reduce the population of Muslims by spreading infertility and the HIV/AIDS virus.

Sudan: Bicycle teams are key in controlling malaria outbreak

2003-12-18

http://www.msf.org/countries/page.cfm?articleid=CCE08E72-AFC8-457B-937921E37C9E6FFC

Over the past five months, 49,262 people in the Bahr-el-Ghazal province of south Sudan have been treated for malaria by Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) medical teams that are using bicycles to get to areas that have been isolated by recent severe floods. A total of 71,006 people have been treated in the area - including 800 severe cases - when figures from the fixed facilities are included.

Zambia: Rains Bring "Preventable" Outbreak of Cholera

2003-12-18

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=21585

Six people have died from cholera and another 165 are reported to be in a serious condition as the disease sweeps through Zambia's capital, Lusaka. It appears that local authorities have been caught flat-footed by the outbreak. They are now engaged in a frantic bid to contain the disease, which is transmitted through contaminated water and food. Cholera typically occurs in Zambia during the country's rainy season.

Zimbabwe: Hospitals Turn Patients Away As Strike Begins to Bite

2003-12-18

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=21521

The strike by medical doctors and nurses in Zimbabwe is crippling the public health sector, at a time when the poor cannot afford high fees that private hospitals charge. Monica Ngwere, an asthmatic patient from Shurugwi in central Zimbabwe, was last week turned away from Parirenyatwa Referral Hospital in the capital, Harare.

ETHIOPIA: New partnership aims to combat child mortality

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38463

Almost half a million children in Ethiopia are dying each year from easily preventable diseases, international health officials revealed on Tuesday. Ethiopia has the sixth largest number of children dying annually – with only India, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo faring worse.

Gambia: Measles Vaccination Drive Reaches 90 Percent of Children

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312170420.html

A nationwide campaign to vaccinate 750,000 children against measles in The Gambia has been a resounding success, health officials said on Wednesday. "We are very glad with the response we got. We are still compiling the figures, but at least 90 percent of our target was attained," Robert Nimson, deputy manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), told IRIN.

Kenya: Staff union branches to negotiate pay

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312120225.html

The Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) has allowed its branches to negotiate with their university councils over a pay stand-off but insisted only national officials would call off the strike. The union said the strike - now in its second month - could only be called off after members were satisfied over "new salaries the Government will offer".

Kenya: Too Much, Too Soon?

2003-12-18

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=21619

As Kenya enters 2004, it appears likely that the country's education system will come under increased scrutiny. Many teachers want the current syllabus to be overhauled, saying it places undue pressure on staff and children alike. At present, students undergo eight years of primary education, four years in secondary school and an additional four years at university. This constitutes the so-called ”8-4-4” system, which has been in place for nearly 15 years.

Madagascar: Madagascar launches campaign to end child sex exploitation

2003-12-18

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_18223.html

At the official launch of a national campaign to end child sexual exploitation in Madagascar, UNICEF and International Labour Organisation (ILO) presented the resumes of three studies that highlighted the sexual exploitation of children in Madagascar. According to the UNICEF-sponsored study, between 30 per cent to 50 per cent of all sex workers in two of country's main cities, Nosy Be and Tamatave, were children under the age of 18.

Namibia: Only One in 14 Grade 6 Pupils Literate, Says Unicef

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312160264.html

Only about seven per cent of Grade 6 pupils in Namibia's schools are literate, according to a newly released United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) report on girls' education and development in Namibia. The goal of providing education for all in Namibia has not yet been achieved, the report states. Despite sizeable investment by Government and its partners, Unicef found the quality of Namibian education to be low.

SWAZILAND: Community provides "shoulders to cry on"

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38365

A legion of volunteer community activists in Swaziland are identifying orphans and vulnerable children - many of them affected by AIDS - and seeing to their nutritional, medical, educational and psychological needs. "The community worker is called 'lihlombe lekukhalela', which means 'shoulder to cry on'. They are the person who children know they can go to for assistance.

Zimbabwe: Children hit by rising school fees

2003-12-18

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=8219

Children in Zimbabwe are to become the latest victims of President Robert Mugabe's destruction of the economy, with fees at state schools about to go up at least 10 times. When the new school year begins next month many families will be faced with paying nearly half their income to send just one child to school.

ZIMBABWE: Education gains being eroded

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38401

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned that Zimbabwe's humanitarian and economic crises could dramatically reverse its impressive post-independence education gains. To mark the launch this week of the global report, "State of the World's Children", UNICEF Zimbabwe on Friday called for urgent attention to be paid to keeping children, especially girl children, in school.

Namibia: Hereros Want $4b for Von Trotha 1905 'Extermination'

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312160813.html

The Washington DC-registered Herero People's Reparations Corporation has moved to US courts asking for $4 billion from the German government and several commercial corporations, among them the Deutsche Bank, SAF Marine (Woermann Lin) and Terex Corporation. They are accused of cold-bloodedly employing explicitly-sanctioned extermination, destruction of tribal culture, social organisation, medical experimentation and slavery in order to advance their common financial interests. The commercial corporations and the German colonial government formed a brutal alliance that exterminated 65,000 Hereros between 1904 and 1907.

SOUTH AFRICA: South African rugby racism probe cancelled

2003-12-18

http://www.africaonline.com/site/Articles/1,3,54729.jsp

South Africa's new rugby bosses have cancelled an independent probe into alleged racism within the Springbok team, but said a Government commission would undertake a broader inquiry into "transformation issues". An inquiry was to have been held into alleged racism, including reports that white player Geo Cronje refused to share a room with black player Quinton Davids.

Africa/global: Kyoto "the only show in town"

2003-12-18

http://www.iisd.ca/vol12/enb12231e.html

While the ninth Conference of the Parties (COP-9) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held between 1-12 December in Milan, Italy had a rocky start, it ended on a positive note, according to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin. Calling the Protocol "an unrealistic and ever-increasing regulatory straitjacket," US Under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky had written in a major financial newspaper that the "only acceptable, cost-effective option" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was the American way. This viewpoint was argued vigorously (albeit unconvincingly, according to most observers), by the 60-strong US delegation in Milan. Days later, an advisor in the Russian presidency, "thought out loud" that Russian ratification was unlikely. Nevertheless, these statements did not detract Parties from keeping the process on track. In fact, the overwhelming message from the high-level segment was that the Protocol is the "only show in town." COP-9 not only highlighted the division between developed and developing countries, but also the leadership and initiative gaps between negotiators and constituency groups. While resolving differences on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis remains complex, the significant number of side events signals a change towards a more positive outlook for future COP sessions.

Africa/Global: WHO launches book on climate change impacts

2003-12-18

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/releases/2003/pr91/en/

Climate change is responsible for 2.4 per cent of all cases of diarrhoea worldwide and for 2 per cent of all cases of malaria, according to the most recent figures available. Moreover, an estimated 150,000 deaths and 5.5 million Disability-Adjusted Life Years were caused in the year 2000 due to climate change. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners are launching a major new study of the health impacts of climate change. The study examines, for example, how weather, air pollution, and water and food contamination affect the way diseases emerge. It further suggests effective means for all countries to monitor and control the health effects of climate change.

Africa: Tackling environmental health risks in developing countries

2003-12-18

http://www.id21.org/health/h10sc2g3.html

Poor people's livelihoods depend on good health, but their home and work environments often threaten their well-being. Environmental risk factors account for 21 per cent of the overall burden of disease worldwide. Research for the UK Department for International Development examines the major risk factors and the strategies available to tackle them.

Cameroon: Cameroon demands bushmeat action

2003-12-18

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3314529.stm

The rate at which Africa is devouring its wildlife is entirely unsustainable, Cameroon's Environment Minister says. He is demanding international action to control the trade, which produces as much as five million tonnes of bushmeat from the Congo basin alone every year.

Kenya: fishers at odds with flower farms

2003-12-18

http://www.enn.com/news/2003-12-11/s_11213.asp

Two Kenyan fishers land their canoe on the edge of Lake Naivasha, tipping their silver catch on the grass under the eager eyes of their employer. The meagre haul of 20 bass - worth 800 shillings ($10) - is a far cry from what fishers working for Stanley Mungai would have netted a few years back. Mungai, like many living near the shore, blames the environmental impact of 30 or so flower farms that have been set up around the lake in the past decade.

Kenya: Mau forest complex in the spotlight

2003-12-18

http://www.ogiek.org/indepth/news-spotlight.htm

“Yes, Kenyans are celebrating forty years of self-rule, while the Ogiek are remembering the forty years of dispossession and institutional marginalisation of being rendered homeless and a lack of identity in their natural habitat. Safe to say while the majority of Kenyans are yearning for the economic and political recovery, the Ogiek are begging for recognised domicile. The Environment Minister is planning mass eviction, the beneficiaries will go back to their homes of nativity, the Ogiek might be forced to join the street families.” says this statement in support of the Ogiek.

Nigeria: Tapping into the problem - water shortages in Nigeria

2003-12-18

http://www.id21.org/health/h10ms4g1.html

Do people living in Nigerian villages have clean drinking water? Do they have enough water to meet their daily hygiene requirements? The University of Edinburgh, UK, together with the Federal Polytechnic in Bauchi, Nigeria, looked at the supply of water to people living in rural communities in Taraba State, in eastern Nigeria. Since independence, Nigeria has spent a lot of money on developing water supplies. However there are still many health problems in rural areas due to polluted drinking water and a shortage of water for daily hygiene.

South Africa: Wild Coast toll road gets green light

2003-12-18

http://www.greenclippings.co.za/gc_main/article.php?story=20031211145027461

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has given the N2 Wild Coast toll road the go-ahead. Director General Chippy Olver said his authorisation was subject to stringent conditions to ensure the possible negative impact of the road on the environment was minimised. Cathy Kay of the Wildlife and Environment Society of SA, said her organisation would challenge the decision on the basis that 'the whole process was fatally flawed'. She said by giving the road the green light Olver had indirectly sanctioned the mining of heavy minerals on the Wild Coast. Olver has denied the road had anything to do with facilitating mining and his department would remain 'vehemently opposed' to it. Appeals could be lodged with Environmental Affairs And Tourism Minister Valli Moosa within 30 days.

West Africa: Ivory trade thrives

2003-12-18

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3314069.stm

A lively illegal trade in ivory is now flourishing in three populous states in West Africa, conservation groups say. They found more ivory in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal than the countries' own elephant populations could produce. They believe much of the ivory their teams found will have come from animals slaughtered by gangs in central Africa.

Africa/Global: Reporters without borders launches legal website

2003-12-18

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8795

The Damocles Network, the legal arm of Reporters Without Borders, is launching a new site in French and English entitled Toolbox. Designed for professionals but also for the use of anyone interested in freedom of expression www.damocles.org carries basic texts that guarantee press freedom along with extracts from codes of ethics. The site also offers publications that can be downloaded like the Practical Guide for Journalists and the Charter for the Safety of Journalists working in War Zones or Dangerous Areas. An International Justice section offers a Guide to the International Criminal Court for the use of victims and advises on legal procedures to put together a case for anyone who is a victim of an international crime. Freelance journalists covering foreign stories will find practical information on low cost insurance policies and the loan of flak jackets from Reporters Without Borders.

Africa/Global: “Knowledge Societies” Impossible Without Press Freedom

2003-12-18

http://www.wan-press.org/article3299.html

Efforts to close the “digital divide” between rich and poor societies and create “knowledge societies” will fail unless developing nations embrace freedom of expression, the Director General of the World Association of Newspapers said Wednesday. “In more and more countries, the struggle for freedom of information, freedom of expression, freedom of the media, is today being fought out on the internet rather than in print, where it has traditionally taken place,” said the WAN Director General, Timothy Balding, in a speech to the World Electronic Media Forum in Geneva, Switzerland.

DRC: Religious broadcaster RTMV returns to the airwaves

2003-12-18

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/55660/

Message de vie Radiotelevision (RTMV), a Kinshasa-based religious broadcaster owned by Pastor Fernando Kutino's Army of Victory Church (Église Armée de Victoire), resumed its broadcasts on 14 December 2003 after six months of forced silence. RTMV spokesperson Dede Kubiala told said that "those in charge of RTMV chose to resume broadcasting of their own volition since no official act prohibited them from doing so. The station had been forced to close after it was ransacked and its television equipment was confiscated by the Congolese National Police (PNC)" on 10 June.

Guinea: Issue of newspaper banned

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/19094

State authorities in Guinea have banned an issue of the weekly newspaper "Jeune Afrique l'Intelligent". According to the Media Foundation for West Africa-Guinea, court officials who carried out the seizure order on 10 December 2003 refused to give reasons for their action. The issue in question carried an article with the headline, "Witch-Hunt in Army", which is said to have displeased the Guinean authorities.
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_________________________________________________________________

ALERT - GUINEA

16 December 2003

Issue of newspaper banned

SOURCE: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Windhoek

**MISA and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), as a joint activity,
will henceforth issue alerts, statements and appeals to highlight media
freedom and wider human rights violations in West Africa. See www.misa.org
and www.mediafoundationwa.org for more information**

(MISA/IFEX) - The following is a joint MISA-MFWA alert:

State authorities in Guinea have banned an issue of the weekly newspaper
"Jeune Afrique l'Intelligent".

According to MFWA-Guinea, court officials who carried out the seizure order
on 10 December 2003 refused to give reasons for their action. The issue in
question (no. 2239, dated 7 to 13 December) carried an article with the
headline, "Witch-Hunt in Army", which is said to have displeased the Guinean
authorities. The story documented examples of the current wave of arrests
and reprisals against key opposition figures and some army officials who are
perceived to oppose the third term ambitions of the president, General
Lansana Conté.

In spite of the ban, vendors are reportedly secretly selling photocopies of
the newspaper, in response to public demand.

BACKGROUND:
Following rumours of a coup attempt in mid-November, scores of army
officials have been arrested and detained by loyalist forces. Prominent
among the detainees are former army commandant Kadr Doubuya, Commander Aly
Camara, the presidential guard's second-in-command, Sikdiki Camara, a senior
official at the gendarmerie training school, and Lieutenant Alpha Ousmana
Diallo, son of Bubacar Biro Diallo, the former speaker of Parliament, who
later became a fierce critic of the president.

The 69-year-old Conté has been in office since 1984, when the army took
power in a coup barely one week after the death of Sékou Touré, the
country's first post-independence president. General Conté won the country's
first multi-party presidential elections in 1993, amid accusations of ballot
rigging and voter intimidation. He was re-elected in 1998, again under
highly disputed and generally discredited circumstances.

In November 2001, a nationwide referendum, believed to be largely flawed,
amended the constitution to allow the president to run for an unlimited
number of five-year terms. The major opposition parties in the country have
boycotted the next elections, scheduled for 21 December 2003, a situation
which effectively guarantees a lifetime presidency for the ailing former
military dictator.

Since March, the MFWA has reported at least four incidents of abuse of the
freedom of expression rights of journalists and newspapers for publicising
information related to the third term ambitions of President Conté.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Send appeals to the president:
- protesting the ban on the 7 to13 December issue of "Jeune Afrique
l'Intelligent" newspaper

APPEALS TO:

His Excellency Lasana Conté
President, Republic of Guinea
Guinea Conakry

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.

For further information, contact Zoe Titus, Program Coordinator, Media
Freedom Monitoring, MISA, Street Address: 21 Johann Albrecht Street, Mailing
Address; Private Bag 13386 Windhoek, Namibia, tel: +264 61 232 975, fax:
+264 61 248 016, e-mail: research@misa.org, Internet: http://www.misa.org,
or Kwame Karikari, Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa, P.
O. Box LG 730, Legon, Ghana, tel: +233 21 24 24 70, fax: +233 21 22 10 84,
e-mail: mfwa@africaonline.com.gh, Internet: http://www.mediafoundationwa.org

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of MISA.
In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit MISA.
_________________________________________________________________
DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE
489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA
tel: +1 416 515 9622 fax: +1 416 515 7879
alerts e-mail: alerts@ifex.org general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org
Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/
_________________________________________________________________

More...

Morroco: Fears for hunger strike journalist's health

2003-12-18

http://www.indexonline.org/news/20031216_morocco.shtml

Ali Lmrabet, the jailed editor of two banned satirical news magazines in Morocco, has started another hunger strike just five months after he agreed to end a fifty-day fast which left him in a seriously weakened physical condition. According to reports he was joined in his protest by fellow-inmate Mohammed el-Hourd, managing editor of the weekly Asharq. Lmrabet began the hunger strike on 30 November in protest against their mistreatment and to demand recognition of their status as prisoners of conscience.

Nigeria: Journalist receives death threats, goes into hiding

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/19096

On 11 December 2003, Oluwole Adeboye, a reporter with "P.M. News", an afternoon daily newspaper in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, fled his Agege home and has since been in hiding. This follows the publication of a story with the reporter's by-line about the alleged unprofessional conduct of Bamidele Adeola, a police constable.
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_________________________________________________________________

ALERT - NIGERIA

16 December 2003

Journalist receives death threats, goes into hiding

SOURCE: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Windhoek

**MISA and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), as a joint activity,
will henceforth issue alerts, statements and appeals to highlight media
freedom and wider human rights violations in West Africa. See www.misa.org
and www.mediafoundationwa.org for more information**

(MISA/IFEX) - The following is a joint MISA-MFWA alert:

On 11 December 2003, Oluwole Adeboye, a reporter with "P.M. News", an
afternoon daily newspaper in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, fled his
Agege home and has since been in hiding. This follows the publication of a
story with the reporter's by-line about the alleged unprofessional conduct
of Bamidele Adeola, a police constable.

According to MFWA-Nigeria, Adeboye had reported that the police officer
robbed a commercial motorcycle operator of his mobile phone and money.
Following the article's publication, Constable Adeola was arrested and
detained. He was later released, but is said to be facing investigation and
possible dismissal.

"P.M. News" editor Babajide Otitoju told MFWA-Nigeria that several
unidentified persons have since been stalking Adeboye. He has also received
numerous telephone calls threatening him with death for daring to expose the
police officer. The newspaper's management therefore advised the reporter to
go into hiding until his safety can be guaranteed.

MFWA has appealed to the Lagos police administration to investigate the
alleged threats against Adeboye and ensure that he can exercise his
legitimate rights to life, movement and freedom of opinion and expression.

For further information, contact Zoe Titus, Program Coordinator, Media
Freedom Monitoring, MISA, Street Address: 21 Johann Albrecht Street, Mailing
Address; Private Bag 13386 Windhoek, Namibia, tel: +264 61 232 975, fax:
+264 61 248 016, e-mail: research@misa.org, Internet: http://www.misa.org,
or Kwame Karikari, Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa, P.
O. Box LG 730, Legon, Ghana, tel: +233 21 24 24 70, fax: +233 21 22 10 84,
e-mail: mfwa@africaonline.com.gh, Internet: http://www.mediafoundationwa.org

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of MISA.
In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit MISA.
_________________________________________________________________
DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE
489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA
tel: +1 416 515 9622 fax: +1 416 515 7879
alerts e-mail: alerts@ifex.org general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org
Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/
_________________________________________________________________

More...

Nigeria: Journalists' union protests intimidation and harassment by police

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/19089

The Taraba state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has accused police commissioner Egbechukwu Nwachukwu of masterminding a campaign to intimidate and harass journalists in the state. According to the Media Foundation for West Africa-Nigeria, a statement signed by the local union secretary, Pojo Nafinji, complained that, following a series of uncomplimentary media reports about the police commissioner, Nwachukwu publicly threatened to "get even" with journalists who "might be involved in any matter brought before the police."
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_________________________________________________________________

ALERT - NIGERIA

16 December 2003

Journalists' union protests intimidation and harassment by police

SOURCE: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Windhoek

**MISA and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), as a joint activity,
will henceforth issue alerts, statements and appeals to highlight media freedom
and wider human rights violations in West Africa. See www.misa.org and
www.mediafoundationwa.org for more information**

(MISA/IFEX) - The following is a joint MISA-MFWA alert:

On 11 December 2003, the Taraba state chapter of the Nigerian Union of
Journalists (NUJ) accused Police Commissioner Egbechukwu Nwachukwu of
masterminding a campaign to intimidate and harass journalists in the state.

According to MFWA-Nigeria, a statement signed by the local union secretary, Pojo
Nafinji, complained that, following a series of uncomplimentary media reports
about the police commissioner, Nwachukwu publicly threatened to "get even" with
journalists who "might be involved in any matter brought before the police."
Subsequently, when a journalist with "The News" magazine reported a traffic
incident to the police, the commissioner ordered that the complainant be charged
and brought before the court. The magazine's Tabara state reporter, Ben Adeji,
has also recently been detained twice by police.

The NUJ has directed its members to boycott all activities by the state police.
The union has also appealed to the police inspector general to remove
Commissioner Nwachukwu from the state.

For further information, contact Zoé Titus, Program Coordinator, Media Freedom
Monitoring, MISA, Street Address: 21 Johann Albrecht Street, Mailing Address;
Private Bag 13386 Windhoek, Namibia, tel: +264 61 232 975, fax: +264 61 248 016,
e-mail: research@misa.org, Internet: http://www.misa.org, or Kwame Karikari,
Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa, P. O. Box LG 730, Legon,
Ghana, tel: +233 21 24 24 70, fax: +233 21 22 10 84, e-mail:
mfwa@africaonline.com.gh, Internet: http://www.mediafoundationwa.org

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of MISA. In
citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit MISA.
_________________________________________________________________
DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE
489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA
tel: +1 416 515 9622 fax: +1 416 515 7879
alerts e-mail: alerts@ifex.org general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org
Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/
_________________________________________________________________

More...

Zimbabwe: Banned paper defies Mugabe, appears at Abuja summit

2003-12-18

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L05565716.htm

Zimbabwe's only private newspaper, shut down at home by President Robert Mugabe's government, issued a defiant one-off edition in the Nigerian capital Abuja for the opening of the Commonwealth summit. You can read the full edition by visiting the page: http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=8164

Zimbabwe: Journalist detained, equipment confiscated

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/19093

Martin Chimenya, a journalist for the Voice of the People Communications Trust (VOP), was arrested on 8 December 2003 in the city of Masvingo, 293 kilometres south of the capital, Harare. He was charged under Section 79 (1) of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) for allegedly practicing as a journalist without accreditation. Under this section, journalists are not allowed to work without a licence from the Media and Information Commission.
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_________________________________________________________________

ALERT - ZIMBABWE

16 December 2003

Journalist detained, equipment confiscated

SOURCE: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Windhoek

(MISA/IFEX) - Martin Chimenya, a journalist for the Voice of the People
Communications Trust (VOP), was arrested on 8 December 2003 in the city of
Masvingo, 293 kilometres south of the capital, Harare.

He was charged under Section 79 (1) of the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) for allegedly practicing as a journalist
without accreditation. Under this section, journalists are not allowed to
work without a licence from the Media and Information Commission.

The Magistrate's Court released Chimenya on Z$15,000 bail (approx. US$19) on
10 December. He was ordered to appear in court on 23 December. His tape
recorder and tapes have yet to be returned.

Members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) arrested Chimenya at
his Masvingo home on 8 December. The agents ordered him to take all his
equipment with him, which included tapes and a tape recorder. Chimenya's
whereabouts were unknown until the afternoon of 9 December, as the police
initially denied that he had been arrested.

Tongai Matutu, a lawyer hired by MISA-Zimbabwe to locate and represent
Chimenya, was only able to see the journalist on the afternoon of 9 December
at the Masvingo central police station. Other journalists in the city
informed MISA-Zimbabwe that Chimenya was handed over to the police on 9
December. CIO agents do not have the authority to make arrests under
Zimbabwean law.

The police also accused Chimenya of recording interviews in which President
Robert Mugabe was denigrated. "Denigrating the president" is an offence
under Section 16 of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

Following his release, Chimenya told MISA-Zimbabwe that he was not harassed
or beaten while in custody. He added that his interrogators wanted to find
out which organisation he worked for and how they transmit news.

BACKGROUND:
VOP is a Zimbabwe-based shortwave radio station. Its offices were bombed in
2002 (see IFEX alerts of 30 and 29 August 2002).

For further information, contact Zoe Titus or Kaitira Kandjii, Regional
Information Coordinator, MISA, Street Address: 21 Johann Albrecht Street,
Mailing Address; Private Bag 13386 Windhoek, Namibia, tel: +264 61 232975,
fax: +264 61 248016, e-mail: research@misa.org or kkandjii@misa.org,
Internet: http://www.misa.org/

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of MISA.
In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit MISA.
_________________________________________________________________
DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE
489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA
tel: +1 416 515 9622 fax: +1 416 515 7879
alerts e-mail: alerts@ifex.org general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org
Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/
_________________________________________________________________

More...

Zimbabwe: State of the Media Report 2003

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/19155

Since 2000, when Zimbabwe took a plunge both economically and politically, freedom of expression has become a victim as the government intensifies efforts to control and influence the flow of information, says the The State of the Media Report, an assessment of the media environment carried out by the Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe Chapter (MISA-Zimbabwe). The report looks at the operational environment of media practitioners and media organisations. Particular attention is paid to media and freedom of expression violations as these demonstrate the extent to which the media is free or otherwise in a given state. "The repressive media environment currently prevailing in Zimbabwe reflects on government's attitude and policy towards the media, a negative attitude that has been buttressed by the promulgation of repressive laws such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA)," says the report.
State of the Media Report 2003





In the Report

Introduction

Media environment

Print Media

Broadcasting

Attacks on MISA

Telecommunications

Media Violations statistics





Introduction

The State of the Media Report is an assessment of the media environment carried by the Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe Chapter (MISA-Zimbabwe). The report looks at the operational environment of media practitioners and media organisations. Particular attention is paid to media and freedom of expression violations as these demonstrate the extent to which the media is free or otherwise in a given state.

The violations have a bearing on the quality of news and information that reaches the readership and/or listernership. In the case of Zimbabwe government officials have instigated most of the arrests made on journalists. On the other hand no conclusive investigations have been carried out on bombings of media houses that took place since 2000. The repressive media environment currently prevailing in Zimbabwe reflects on government’s attitude and policy towards the media, a negative attitude that has been buttressed by the promulgation of repressive laws such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA). As the distinction between telecommunications and the traditional media become increasingly blurred the report also assesses the state of development in the telecommunications sector. This sector has a bearing on media and freedom of expression in as far as it relates to the use of the Internet, e-mail, and text messages through mobile phone networks.

Since 2000, when Zimbabwe took a plunge both economically and politically, freedom of expression has become a victim as the government intensifies efforts to control and influence the flow of information. The failure of opposition parties to contests elections as a result of violence, beatings and threats meant that free expression and the right to elect political representatives of one’s choice has been taken away. The Rural/Urban and parliamentary by elections held in mid 2003 demonstrated this point. Under the circumstances the media finds itself in a difficult situation were journalists cannot visit certain areas and have also become victims of the political violence, threats and intimidation from political players, security agents and government officials.


Media environment

The closure of The Daily News on 12 September 2003 marks a serious setback for the struggle for media and freedom of expression rights in Zimbabwe. The move by the authorities is unprecedented in Zimbabwe’s 23 years of independence.

Although there seemed to have been a decline in the harassment of media workers in the first half of 2003 all this was reversed by the events of 12 September. Sixteen journalist and five executives of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe were arrested and charged under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) for allegedly practising and operating a media house without accreditation and a license respectively. There has also been an upsurge in the arrests of demonstrators and media workers covering protests marches and/or political gatherings. The police have put a blanket ban on demonstrations or any public gatherings, which they perceive to be “political”.

Positively, the scrapping of Section 80 of AIPPA played a significant role in removing the shackles journalists and media houses have been placed in since March 2002 when the law became operational. Section 80 placed criminal liability on what AIPPA called the “publishing of falsehoods” . Notwithstanding this development, authorities have turned to such laws as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) to arrests journalists and other media workers. Like in the past many of the cases have not been concluded and many charges remain hanging till today. Concerns still remain over the delays in the passing of judgments on landmark cases such as the challenge of an array of Sections of AIPPA by journalists.

The media environment in Zimbabwe remains tense as before and remains polarized. With just under 18 months left before Zimbabwe faces another general election, fears are that events of 2000 and 2002 when media houses were bombed and journalists arrested in droves are likely to resurface. This is so because the government has not taken any steps to improve the working environment of journalists and media houses and has infact intensified its vitriol against the private media. A senior official in the department of Information and Publicity called the destruction of private papers by ruling party ZANU PF supporters, in June 2003 “rejection by readers”. MISA-Zimbabwe however notes that such incidences are outright criminal acts. In a few incidences, law enforcement agencies and other state security arms have demonstrated that given the necessary environment, support and room they have the capacity to put to an end the wanton destruction of private newspapers and general lawlessness that prevails. This was demonstrated, in June 2003 when the police and soldiers stationed in a Harare’s dormitory town of Norton during an opposition stay away arrested suspected ZANU PF youths who had confiscated copies of The Daily News and about to burn them.

v Print Media

The media environment remains tense with verbal attacks and legal suits being piled on private owned papers like The Daily News, The Standard and The Zimbabwe Independent . As mentioned earlier the closure of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday is the most serious attack on media and freedom of expression rights in Zimbabwe experienced so far.

Attacks of individuals/readers caught with copies of privately owned papers also increased especially at times when political tensions were high . Amendments to the media law, AIPPA, do not democratize the law and on the contrary made new insertions that strengthen the powers of an appointed Media and Information Commission while extending the definition a “media house” and “journalist” . The imploding Zimbabwe economy has added another dimension to the problems being faced by the media in Zimbabwe. The print media has particularly been affected by the rising prices of newsprint resulting in reduced print run. Only one company in Zimbabwe supplies newsprint. Many small towns and outlining areas are no longer receiving adequate supplies of newspapers.

The polarization that has characterized the print media since 2000 still exists with the private and public media reporting issues differently and from predetermined positions.
The newspaper stable in which the state has a major equity, the Zimbabwe Newspapers Company (ZIMPAPERS) remains under the tight grip of the Department of Information and Publicity in the Presidents Office. A lot of unethical and biased reporting still constitutes the bulk of public media news. The state media especially dailies, The Herald and The Chronicle are dominating in the absence of the Daily News and its sister Sunday paper. Reports by the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe show that the state media is seriously misrepresenting news in Zimbabwe and in cases out rightly lying .

The Southern Africa Printing and Publishing House (SAPPHO) launched its Daily paper The Daily Mirror in December after shutting it down mid 2003. The paper is the only privately owned daily in the streets.

Legal wrangles over the closure of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday continue with the Supreme Court expected to hear the matter in 2004. The state argues that the paper is in breach of the law and deliberately published even after being ordered to shut down. Despite court rulings by the Administrative court compelling the Media and Information Commission to license the papers, the commission and the Department of Information have appealed against all such rulings. Chances of the paper coming back soon appear remote as a result of the litigation web now surrounding this matter.

As shown by the media violations statistics in this report, journalists in the private media continue to face arrests, threats and intimidation in the course of duty. Despite the official accreditation that many have, the police and other state security agents refuse to recognize these cards or offer assistance to journalists. Infact journalists have been arrested, beaten and had their equipment confiscated despite producing the cards. Those without the cards have been arrested for practising as journalists without official accreditation.


v Broadcasting

The broadcasting arena is still dominated by the state through its ownership and control of the ZBC. Only the voice of government officials, the ruling party and its supporters is heard on the ZBC. The Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) has adequately documented the biased and unethical reporting of the ZBC, which has become endemic .

Although no serious moves have been made on licensing other private players the Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo has on three occasions in 2003 announced that private players would be licensed by the end of 2003. However 2003 has been concluded without any new player licensed.

The Minister announced in September that the state owned New Ziana has been licensed to operate radio and television stations. It seems however that the licensing that the government is looking at is one in which it has direct control of the process and the licensing of New Ziana cannot be defined as that of a private player since the state is the sole owner of the news agency.

The Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) provides that the licensing process shall be in hands of the Minister of Information and many other restrictions are put in place that make it impossible for an broadcasting initiative to function sustainably . The Minister and government officials have stressed that there is no way they are going to leave the process to be handled by any other authority none other than themselves.

The government has embarked on measures to strengthen the capacity of the ZBC by sourcing new technology to enhance its outreach. This is being done through loans from the Iranian government. This development might be positive in the long term and future role of the ZBC if and when it becomes a public broadcaster as opposed to the manner it is operating now. The government has also intensified its information dissemination capacity by setting up information kiosks in various rural and peri urban centers. These kiosks are, according to government officials, meant to “counter western propaganda being disseminated through the British Broadcasting Corporation, Voice of America and various short-wave radio stations such as SW radio Africa (London) and Voice of the people (Harare).

On a positive note the Supreme Court ruled that section 6 of the BSA seriously undermines the independence of the regulatory authority. Section 6 makes the minister the licensing authority, while the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) processes the applications for a broadcaster’s licence. It therefore, unanimously ruled that the section in question was unconstitutional because it subordinates the authority to grant licences to the minister. The ruling was made after aspiring radio station, Capitol radio had challenged the constitutionality of several sections of the BSA .


v Attacks on MISA

MISA-Zimbabwe notes that there has also been an intensification of physical and verbal attacks on its members. In Kwekwe a MISA-Zimbabwe member Flata Kavinga was severely assaulted, and had to be hospitalized for two days, for wearing a MISA T shirt. Cyril Zenda a journalist with The Financial Gazette and a member of MISA-Zimbabwe had his MISA-T-shirt torn in Harare’s high-density suburb of Mbare in October 2003. The assailants accused Zenda of wearing a T-shirt of an organisation that promotes oppositional politics. Zenda lost his cellphone and wallet to a vigilante group known in the surburd as Chipangano and linked to the ruling party, ZANU PF. Many ordinary persons wearing MISA T-shirts have also been beaten and the t-shirts torn and some confiscated. The Minister of Information and Publicity Jonathan Moyo and the Chairperson of the Media and Information Commission have also intensified their attacks on MISA-Zimbabwe labeling it a foreign organisation promoting foreign interests. Such attacks, abhorrent and undesirable as they are, show us that the work we are doing is not in vain and the message is getting home. Accusations labeled against the organisation do not hold water as seen by the fact that a sizable number of members who benefit and support the work of MISA are infact journalists and media workers with the state media such ZBC and ZIMPAPERS.

MISA-Zimbabwe has responded to demands that it registers as a media house by taking the Minister of State for Information and Publicity and the Media and Information Commission to court. MISA-Zimbabwe argues that it is not a media house but a media watchdog and advocacy organisation.

v Telecommunications

Zimbabwe’s telecommunications sector was deregulated in the mid to late 1990’s a process that resulted in private companies investing in this sector. Zimbabwe has three wireless phone service providers. A new player, TeleAccess, was licensed in the fixed telephone service sector in December 2002. This brings the number of fixed telephone service providers to two. TeleAcess is still to launch its operations owing to the rising costs and distortions caused by the continued fall of the local Zimbabwe currency. The roll out of the TeleAcess service is expected to offer relief to thousands of Zimbabwe’s some who have been on waiting list for a lifetime. The launch is expected also to influence positively, the pricing of such services as the Internet.

v Media Violations: 2003 Statistics

Violations against journalists, media houses and other media workers continue unabated in Zimbabwe. One such serious violation was the 16 May, deportation of Andrew Meldrum by the immigration department against court judgments and orders that he be left alone. The act sends a chilling effect that the authorities are above the law and can act with impunity. As a result of such an action neither media workers nor ordinary persons are guaranteed protection under the law. The closure of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday however remains outstanding as the most serious violation to take place in Zimbabwe since 1980. MISA-Zimbabwe’s reports on media violations can be read on www.misa.org Those interested in receiving the reports by e-mail can make such requests to misa@mweb.co.zw or rashweat@misazim.co.zw

For any comments, queries and or questions on this reports please contact

Rashweat Mukundu
Research and Information Officer
MISA-Zimbabwe
84 McChlery Ave
Eastlea
Box HR 8113
Harare
Zimbabwe
Phone 00 263 4 776 165, 746 838
Mobile 00 263 11 602 685
E-mail misa@mweb.co.zw or rashweat@misazim.co.zw

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A resolution for education

2003-12-18

http://www.netaid.org/campaigns/mdg/takeaction/takeaction.pt

For many, the start of a New Year is a time to make personal resolutions for the future. Your Resolution for the World can start now. Send five friends an e-card, and BidClix, a NetAid partner, will donate US$1 on your behalf to a NetAid World Schoolhouse project in Zimbabwe. This project is ensuring that girls, many of them AIDS-affected, can fulfill their right to an education - the key to ending poverty.

Seven guidelines for civil disobedience

2003-12-18

http://www.zvakwana.org/html/atips/seven_guidelines.shtml

Civil disobedience is the deliberate, discriminate, violation of law for a vital social purpose. It becomes not only justifiable but necessary when a fundamental human right is at stake, and when legal channels are inadequate for securing that right. It may take the form of violating an obnoxious law, protesting an unjust condition, or symbolically enacting a desirable law or condition. It may or may not eventually be held legal, because of constitutional law or international law, but its aim is always to close the gap between law and justice, as an infinite process in the development of democracy.

BURUNDI: Interahamwe militiamen threaten security in the northwest

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38471

A local official in Burundi's northwestern province of Cibitoke has expressed concern over a security threat posed by Rwandan Hutu militiamen, known as Interahamwe, who have staged raids in the province in the last month, looting property in two communes. "Interahamwe militias have been hiding in the Kibira forest neighbouring the communes of Mabayi and Bukinanyana for about a month now," Benoit Ntigurirwa, the Cibitoke governor, told IRIN on Wednesday. The Interahamwe fled Rwanda after the 1994 genocide into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Cibitoke Province is on the border with the DRC and Rwanda.

CHAD: Deby signs new peace deal with northern rebels

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/19056

The government of Chad signed a fresh peace agreement on Sunday with the rebel Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT), which has been fighting a low-level guerrilla war against President Idriss Deby in the desert north of the country since 1998. The deal was signed in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, by Chad's Minister for Security and Immigration, Aduramane Moussa, and General Adoum Togoi Abbo, the chairman of the MDJT.
CHAD: Deby signs new peace deal with northern rebels

OUAGADOUGOU, 14 December (IRIN) - The government of Chad signed a fresh peace agreement on Sunday with the rebel Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT), which has been been fighting a low-level guerrilla war against President Idriss Deby in the desert north of the country since 1998.

The deal was signed in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, by Chad's Minister for Security and Immigration, Aduramane Moussa, and General Adoum Togoi Abbo, the chairman of the MDJT.

It provides for an immediate ceasefire, an amnesty for MDJT fighters and supporters, and the appointment of an undisclosed number of MDJT ministers in the Chadian government. The two sides also undertook to silence hostile propaganda against each other in the media.

Little news has filtered out over the years about the MDJT rebellion in the mountainous north of Chad. However, the rebel movement claimed to have surrounded the northern town of Bardai and captured its airport in September. There was no independent verification of this claim, which was denied by the government.

Deby signed an earlier peace agreement with the MDJT in January 2002, but it broke down after hardliners in the rebel movement refused to support it.

The opportunity to negotiate a fresh peace deal arose after the founder of the MDJT, General Youssouf Togoimi, a former defence minister in Deby's government, was killed in September 2002 by a land mine explosion.

Togoi Addo took over the leadership of the rebel movement, which draws most of its support from the Toubou people, who live in the Tibesti mountains of northern Chad. He discreetly reopened talks with the Chadian government, using the government of Burkina Faso as a mediator.

A few minutes after the signing of the Ouagadougou peace agreement on Sunday, Togoi Addo, accompanied by 10 MDJT advisers, left for the Chadian capital N'Djamena in the same plane as Moussa, the security minister.

"The MDJT decides on this solemn day to stop speaking with the language of weapons and to promote a peaceful way of expression, that is to say by political means," Togoi Addo said in a speech at the signing ceremony.

"There is a time to make war and another to make peace. We are obliged to accept the hand of friendship extended by the other side now that objective and subjective conditions have been met," the rebel leader added, without spelling out what these conditions were.

Moussa said: "It is with great emotion and happiness that I am going back home with my brother Adoum. We had been together in the past and it is always painful to see him outside the country."

Togoi Abbo, a former Chadian ambassador to Libya, has been resident in Ouagadougou for the past three years. His rebel movement has close links with Libya, which once claimed the Aouzou Strip in northern Chad where the MDJT is active.

Burkina Faso's President Blaise Campaore also enjoys close ties with Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi and his government helped to broker the latest peace agreement. Burkinabe Foreign Minister Youssouf was present at the signing ceremony.

Ghaddafi annexed the Aouzou Strip in 1973, but Libyan forces were pushed out of the disputed territory and other parts of northern Chad by a French-backed Chadian counter-attack between 1986 and 1988.

The International Court of Justice finally awarded the Aouzou Strip to Chad in 1994 and all Libyan forces withdrew from the territory a few months later.

The peace deal with the MDJT should clear the way for Deby to deal with a number of other serious problems facing Chad, include the influx of an estimated 65,000 refugees from fighting in the Darfur province of neighbouring Sudan.

Landlocked Chad, which is one of the world's poorest countries, also hosts about 40,000 refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) near its southern border. Diplomats said Deby's government helped the CAR's present head of state, General Francois Bozize, come to power in a coup in March this year.

Hopes for the future of Chad are pinned on the discovery of oil in the south of the country near Doba. The reserves have been developed by a consortium led by ExxonMobil which began pumping crude oil down a pipeline to the coast of Cameroon in July. Chad is expected to earn an about US$2.0 billion in revenues from the Doba oilfield over the next 25 years and oil companies are confident of finding a lot more oil in the country.

[ENDS]

IRIN-WA
Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
Email: IRIN-WA@irin.ci
[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003

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Congo: Gunbattle erupts in Brazzaville

2003-12-18

http://tinyurl.com/3fkdd

Automatic weapons-fire and rocket explosions echoed across Republic of Congo's capital in an outbreak of fighting late Wednesday, officials said. It was not immediately clear who was involved in the clash, which appeared to be centred in the southern Bacongo neighbourhood of Brazzaville, government spokesman Alain Akoulat told The Associated Press. There were no reports of casualties. Two rebel factions in Brazzaville - a rebel group supporting former Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas and another rebel group supporting renegade pastor Frederic Bitsangou - battled briefly in the same neighbourhood on Saturday.

Ethiopia: Fighting In Western Ethiopia Leaves At Least 21 Dead

2003-12-18

http://www.unwire.org/News/328_426_11352.asp

Fighting in the town of Gambella in western Ethiopia has left at least 21 people dead, after Ethiopian troops moved into the city over the weekend in response to the killing of seven men, including three government officials, on Saturday, allAfrica.com reports. The seven men were allegedly ambushed by members of the Anuak ethnic group. According to Ethiopian officials, the event provoked clashes between Anuak and Nuer, the largest ethnic groups in the area.

LIBERIA: UNMIL seeks cross border cooperation to stem arms flow

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38476

The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) said on Wednesday it was talking with the authorities in neighbouring countries to prevent Liberian combatants from crossing the border with their weapons to escape disarmament. UNMIL Deputy Force commander Major General Joseph Owonibi told reporters that a delegation from the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) would arrive in Monrovia on Saturday to discuss ways of preventing weapons from crossing the border.

Nigeria: Delta Violence a Fight Over Oil Money

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/19084

The violence that has engulfed parts of Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta this year is driven by disputes over both government resources and control of the theft of crude oil, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. The 29-page report, “The Warri Crisis: Fuelling Violence,” documents how violence in Nigeria’s southern Delta State this year, especially during the state and federal elections in April and May, resulted in hundreds of deaths, the displacement of thousands of people, and the destruction of hundreds of homes.
Nigeria: Delta Violence a Fight Over Oil Money
(New York, December 17, 2003) — The violence that has engulfed parts of
Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta this year is driven by disputes over
both government resources and control of the theft of crude oil, Human
Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 29-page report, “The Warri Crisis: Fueling Violence,” documents how
violence in Nigeria’s southern Delta State this year, especially during
the state and federal elections in April and May, resulted in hundreds
of deaths, the displacement of thousands of people, and the destruction
of hundreds of homes. Among the dead were probably dozens killed by the
government security forces. At the height of the violence, 40 percent of
Nigeria’s oil production was closed down.
“The people of the Niger Delta have suffered horribly from living amid
the source of Nigeria’s wealth,” said Bronwen Manby, deputy director of
the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch and the author of the report.
“And the perpetrators get away with these crimes without even the
faintest chance of being brought to justice.”
The perpetrators of violence in Delta State are armed ethnic militias
belonging to the three major ethnic groups in the state—the Ijaw,
Itsekiri, and Urhobo—and also the state security forces. During the
first half of 2003, Ijaw militia members were particularly well
organized in attacking Itsekiri communities living in the creeks of the
mangrove forest, where much of the oil is found.
Since the report was finalized, renewed violence has broken out once
again in Delta State, with a score of civilians reportedly killed in
fighting during the first week of December.
In Nigeria, individuals in government office often have virtually
unchecked control over resources. Elections are therefore a focus for
violence and fraud. Delta State produces 40 percent of Nigeria’s two
million barrels a day of crude oil and is supposed to receive 13 percent
of the revenue from production in the state—so control of government
positions is a particularly large prize. In addition, the warring
factions are fighting for control of the theft of crude oil, known as
“illegal oil bunkering.” Illegally bunkered oil accounts for perhaps 10
percent of Nigeria’s oil production, bringing profits that are probably
more than US$1 billion a year.
Both politicians and those who head the illegal bunkering
rackets—sometimes the same people—employ armed militia to ensure their
reelection or defend their operations. On November 24, three journalists
at Lagos-based Insider magazine were arrested by the police, detained
for two days and charged with sedition and defamation of character, in
connection with an article alleging that the vice president of Nigeria
and the national security adviser to the president were involved in
large-scale theft of crude oil.
“Although the violence has both ethnic and political dimensions, it is
essentially a fight over the oil money—both government revenue and the
profits of stolen crude,” Manby said. “Efforts to halt the violence and
end the civilian suffering that has accompanied it must therefore
include steps both to improve government accountability and to end the
theft of oil.”
Human Rights Watch suggested that one measure toward ending the violence
might be an effort to create a system for “certifying” crude oil as
coming from legitimate sources. The report urged that fresh elections be
held in Delta State, as in other Nigerian states where national and
international monitors found the level of fraud and violence surrounding
this year’s elections to be so high that the minimum international
standards for democratic elections were not met. A precondition for
peace, Human Rights Watch said, is that those responsible for crime be
brought to justice.
The Warri Crisis: Fueling Violence is available at:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/nigeria1103/

For further information, please contact:
In London, Bronwen Manby: +44-20-7713-2789
In Brussels, Jean-Paul Marthoz: +32-2-732-2009
In New York, Peter Takirambudde: +1-212-216-1834
In Washington D.C., Arvind Ganesan: +1-202-612-4329

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Somalia: Fighting in Central Somalia Kills 31

2003-12-18

http://tinyurl.com/zmax

Rival militias battled over barren desert lands in central Somalia on Tuesday in fighting that killed at least 31 people and wounded 50 others, a spokesman for one of the militias said. The violence came as the U.N. Security Council called Tuesday for the creation of a monitoring group to investigate violations of the U.N. arms embargo against Somalia and make recommendations to strengthen it.

Somalia: Leaders reject expanded retreat

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38413

Members of the Somali leaders' committee attending peace talks in Kenya say they will reject the expansion of a proposed retreat for Somali leaders, one of the leaders told IRIN on Monday. The 10-day retreat is due to begin in Mombasa on 18 December and is expected to bring together most of the Somali leaders "to give them a chance to iron out outstanding issues and chart the way forward", said James Kiboi of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) technical committee, which is steering the talks.

SUDAN: Opposition leaders warn against bilateral peace deal

2003-12-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38464

Opposition leaders in Sudan have warned against a bilateral peace agreement between the government and rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) that does not directly address the grievances of Sudan’s marginalised northern populations. “If the peace process is a bilateral process, it will be a very temporary peace that will unravel very soon,” said Sadiq al Mahdi, leader of the Umma party which enjoys wide popular support in the violence-wracked western Darfur region.

Sudan: Towards an Incomplete Peace

2003-12-18

http://www.crisisweb.org/home/index.cfm?id=2416&l=1

With the signing on 25 September 2003 of a framework agreement on security arrangements, the Sudanese government and the insurgent Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA) are closer to peace than at any time in the past twenty years. However, considerable hurdles remain before any final deal is signed, and a separate, intensifying war in the west already threatens to undermine it. As the parties press forward with the last phases of negotiation, the international community’s engagement should intensify in support of the final deal, in preparation for helping with implementation if successful, and in ensuring coordination between the main peace process and the conflict in the west. This is according to a briefing from the International Crisis Group.

'Africa must log on to bridge digital divide'

2003-12-18

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?%20%20click_id=115&art_id=qw107087058065B253&set_id=1

Africa needs to log on immediately if it wants to connect to the rest of the world - a formidable task in a region where vast areas do not have electricity, telephones or computers. Although all the capitals of the 54 countries in the world's poorest continent now have Internet access compared to a mere 11 in 1997, its reach is still fractional and the way forward is marred by a slew of problems and setbacks.

A village in Ghana - and a new UN report - suggest the Internet may be Africa's best hope

2003-12-18

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/11/23/wiring_africa?mode=PF

Down a steep hill, on the edge of the deep green forest that encircles this village in Central Ghana, a man with a strange growth on his upper arm lies on a wooden bench in great pain. Mary Agykpomaa, a local healer, has just cut a hole in his shoulder and another one in his chest. Now she's squirting a strange potion into one hole and watching it ooze out of the other. Meanwhile, Osei Darkwa, a genial 43-year old man with a slight paunch and vast ambitions, is strolling around, taking pictures of the patients with his digital camera. Soon he'll upload them to his webpage, complete with Java scripts, Flash animation, and a soundtrack of African drummers. "I want the world to know her," he says.

African Leaders Declare International Day of Digital Solidarity

2003-12-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200312120590.html

African leaders have declared 12 December to be the International Day of Digital Solidarity as a tribute to the consensus reached by world leaders to adopt the Digital Solidarity Agenda and the Digital Solidarity Fund in the two documents of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).

Frustrated by UN summit, civil society presents its own declaration

2003-12-18

http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=15946

Civil society representatives presented an 'alternative' declaration to the official Declaration that was expected to be approved by the world's governments at the final day of the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva. The civil society declaration -called “Shaping information societies for human needs”- was needed because the process has constantly been disillusioning and frustrating, said representatives at the heavily-attended conference.

Postcard from WSIS in Geneva - Everybody knows this is nowhere

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/19195

The WSIS process was born in 1998 at an ITU plenipotentiary meeting where it was nodded through as the last item on the agenda. Few can have imagined that it would result in a meeting of the kind that has just taken place, writes Russell Southwood from http://www.balancingact-africa.com/ And, says Southwood, ever since the whole process started he has been asking what on earth it was meant to achieve. " It doesn’t matter whether they came from Government, the private sector or civil society, all would privately admit that it was probably going to be something that would achieve very little. The last time I saw someone pitch it publicly the best the speaker could do was to say that the 'trade show' would be an excellent event."
POSTCARD FROM WSIS IN GENEVA - EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE

Last week saw the World Summit on the Information Society take place in
Geneva. Russell Southwood sends a postcard from the event.

The WSIS process was born in 1998 at an ITU plenipotentiary meeting
where it was nodded through as the last item on the agenda. Few can
have imagined that it would result in a meeting of the kind that has
just taken place. It was rumoured to have cost the Swiss 18m euros. But
don’t weep for the Swiss as one African participant told me:"I’ve
already gone through USD200. I could live for a month on that. Every
time you buy a drink or a meal it seems like another USD20 has
disappeared."

WSIS in Geneva consisted of two things: a Summit of world leaders and a
"trade show" of exhibition stands with a mixture of Governments,
private sector ICT companies and digital divide NGOs. There was very
little direct relationship between these two things.

Besides all the usual platitudes that Summits of world leaders
generate, two major issues were discussed: a Digital Solidarity Fund
designed to address the global digital divide and an ITU-inspired
proposal for it to take over the GAC committee functions of ICANN.
Neither was successfully adopted.

In several noisy and bad tempered pre-WSIS planning sessions, the
African delegates held out for a commitment to the Digital Solidarity
Fund. The developed nations took the view that funds were already being
made available to address these issues and that additional money would
need to be diverted from other programmes. The mirage of new money is
one of Africa’s cruelest delusions. Senegal, Mali and Rwanda stubbornly
held out for its inclusion but eventually had to agree a statement that
reflected the reflected the sharp differences of opinion.

Although the African delegates voted together there were a number of
governments who were privately admitting that the proposals made no
sense. You cannot propose something and hope to be successful if you
havn’t the money to pay for it and others won’t. Rattling the
international begging bowl is no substitute for having enlightened and
effective ICT leadership on the continent itself.

On the GAC and ICANN the issue was sidestepped as it was agreed to set
up a committee that would look at the issue before the next WSIS
meeting in 2005. Press reports always seem to conclude that the
developing world is in favour of the ITU taking over these functions
but those we speak to in Africa seem much more divided on the issue
than this coverage would seem to suggest.

The Summit speeches were in the main awfully predictable. One
participant joked that it would be possible to write a composite summit
speech entirely composed of the most popular digital divide
cliches:"empowering our people using ICT", "connecting to global
markets" and "closing the digital divide". The speakers themselves gave
some indication of the mismatch in the importance accorded the event by
the developed and developing world. African presidents swept by with
their entourages looking for their ten minutes of fame on the Summit
stage but there were few leaders of developed nations present.

Light relief (if we might dare to call it that) was provided by
Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe who said that the internet was a plot by
British and American imperialism. This was a back-handed endorsement of
its power from a man who clearly feels threatened by e-mail, the
internet (outside of his media laws) and SMS text messages.
Unsurprisingly few developing countries were keen to focus on freedom
of expression which by any standard must surely be one of the pillars
of whatever might be imagined to be the information society.

The "trade show" alongside the main Summit hall was a large area of
exhibition stands including from Africa the governments of: Egypt,
Ghana, Mozambique, Mali, South Africa and Tunisia. Mali’s stand was one
of the larger ones. You might ask what Mali (or indeed the other
countries) hoped to get in concrete terms from its attendance. No-one
we spoke to seemed to have any very clear answers.

If there’;s such a thing as a global village, this was the newly-built
suburb of the digital divide tribe. It made it an "uber-networking"
event where it was possible to go from meeting someone senior from
Microsoft to a Minister and then on to the person you met at s
conference last year all in the space of half an hour. I was almost
"run down" by Kofi Annan and his security entourage who swept by at
what can only really be described as a steady jog. Alongside this
incessant networking, there was a steady stream of events, launches and
awards ceremonies. As with the Summit itself, no-one seemed entirely
clear what it all might contribute to changing anything.

Ever since the WSIS process was started, I have been asking people what
it was meant to achieve. It doesn’t matter whether they came from
Government, the private sector or civil society, all would privately
admit that it was probably going to be something that would achieve
very little. The last time I saw someone pitch it publicly the best the
speaker could do was to say that the "trade show" would be an excellent
event.

So onwards we go to Tunisia in 2005. Well, maybe. Thus far there is no
money on the table for holding the event and the Tunisians will
probably need to have a special UN appeal to find the cash to
underwrite it. Whatever happens, it will probably be a smaller and less
notable event. It is as the old Arab saying goes: "The dogs bark and
the caravan moves on."

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Shaping Information Societies for Human Needs

Civil Society declaration on the WSIS

2003-12-18

http://www.worldsummit2003.de/download_en/WSIS-CS-Decl-08Dec2003-en.pdf

"We, women and men from different continents, cultural backgrounds, perspectives, experience and expertise, acting as members of different constituencies of an emerging global civil society, considering civil society participation as fundamental to the first ever held UN Summit on Information and Communication issues, the World Summit on the Information Society, have been working for two years inside the process, devoting our efforts to shaping people-centred, inclusive and equitable concept of information and communication societies. Working together both on-line and off-line as civil society entities, practising an inclusive and participatory use of information and communication technologies, has allowed us to share views and shape common positions, and to collectively develop a vision of information and communication societies."

Statement of the WSIS gender caucus

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/19127

"It is evident that despite best intentions, the project of creating an Information Society is not working. The world requires a more high velocity approach to making ICTs relevant to major development challenges. Women's perspectives can contribute to making the difference between an Information Economy where gambling and pornography account for the most profitable applications and a true Information Society that serves human development."
Statement of the WSIS GENDER CAUCUS
Dr Gillian M Marcelle, Founding Convenor

Good afternoon and greetings to all. Excellencies, Secretary General of the ITU,
President of the World Summit, ladies and gentlemen.

The WSIS Gender Caucus is a multi-stakeholder group of women and men from
national governments, civil society and non-governmental organisations, the
private sector and the United Nations system. It takes as a starting point the
importance of aligning the WSIS process and outcomes with the achievement of
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and urges governments to acknowledge
gender equality and women's rights as fundamental principles in the creation of
an Information Society. The WSIS Gender Caucus has committed to work towards
an equitable Information Society that promotes empowerment and contributes to
poverty reduction; an Information Society of greater inclusion and diversity,
which eliminates cultural, social, technological and economic gaps. We regard
respect for fundamental human rights; gender equality, peace and environmental
sustainability are the foundations for all the specific principles and actions
that have been committed to as part of the Declaration and Action Plan.

Current realities

It is evident that despite best intentions, the project of creating an
Information Society is not working. The world requires a more high velocity
approach to making ICTs relevant to major development challenges. Women?s
perspectives can contribute to making the difference between an Information
Economy where gambling and pornography account for the most profitable
applications and a true Information Society that serves human development. In
our view to making that leap will require radical transformation of the ICT
sector so that all people, including girls and women of all ages, participate
fully, not only as consumers but as citizens. This vision requires dramatic
changes in the policies, practices and values of the ICT sector and the
governance of the sector.

The WSIS Gender Caucus has made its intervention from these premises. We
recognise that the WSIS is an intergovernmental process and have worked with
national delegations to influence their understanding of their critical role in
shaping an Information Society. We are aware that texts agreed during global
processes are often not living documents and urge governments to respect the
commitments made during the Summit. To this end we will continue to monitor the
implementation of the Plan of Action. We regard partnerships among all
stakeholders on the basis of mutual respect as a potentially fruitful
organising principle and are committed to using this approach to creating an
equitable Information Society

Our vision of an equitable Information Society is not utopian. However it does
require political will and commitment. In this vision, human beings are at the
centre and assertively shape technologies for their benefit. It is clear that
there are significant transformations of the economic, political and cultural
landscape underway. We however cannot leave this trajectory to the unfettered
market forces which result in technologies serving the interest of global
elites. Specifically, we must take a series of actions to align ICTs with the
major development challenges of poverty, access to education, political
participation, fair work, and environmental protection.



Recommendations for Action

The following are key recommendations for inclusion in the WSIS Declaration of
Principles, Plan of Action and Outcomes Processes.

Gender must be a fundamental principle for action
The WSIS Declaration and Plan of Action should acknowledge existing gender
divides and recommend action to eliminate them. Action must be taken to help
individuals and communities overcome the persisting social and cultural
obstacles that limit their contributions, and promote full inclusion for all
women.

Equitable participation in decisions shaping the Information Society
Women are agents of development and must be active in defining and leading
development in the Information Society. More democratic and equitable
participation will help to create a truly empowering Information Society to
which all contribute and from which all can benefit. Under-represented/excluded
groups must become equal partners in conceptualizing, designing and
implementing technology and must actively contribute to policy and practice.

New and old ICTs in a multimodal approach
A multimodal approach is needed to increase access to new and traditional ICTs.
This will ensure that traditional modes of communication and information
sharing, and new technologies are provided equitably. This is crucial for poor
women in developing countries who are making effective use of simple and
affordable communication tools for development: their efforts must be
acknowledged and strengthened. Local content and applications development, in a
variety of languages, must be facilitated, and support given to community radio
and women's information and communication centres.

Designing ICTs to serve people
ICTs are not gender-neutral. Products and services shape people and nations.
Decisive action must ensure that ICTs evolve in response to the needs/interests
of the majority of the world's population. Women and currently
under-represented groups should be equitably represented in technology
research, design and development and encouraged through appropriate, targeted
education in this area.

Empowerment for full participation
Targeted and ongoing action is needed at all levels to strengthen women's and
girls' capacities to be effective users of ICTs, and developers and shapers of
technology, the problems it addresses, and the manner in which it is integrated
in society.

Research analysis and evaluation to guide action
Governments and other stakeholders must apply creative research and evaluation
techniques to measure and monitor impacts - intended and unintended - on women
generally and subgroups of women. At minimum, governments and others should
collect information disaggregated by sex, income, age, location and other
relevant factors. On the basis of these data, and applying a gender
perspective, we should intervene and be proactive in ensuring that the impacts
of ICTs are beneficial to all people.


What has been achieved by the WSIS Gender Caucus?

In the 18 months since formation, the WSIS Gender Caucus has worked tirelessly.
Our work to transform the ICT sector has only just begun and will continue.
During the first Phase of the Summit gender advocates achieved many strategic
objectives and made a significant contribution to shaping the vision of an
Information Society which is reflected in the Declaration and Action Plan.

Among the notable contributions are the following:-

- Active participation in influencing the negotiations by contributing language
for the Declaration and Action Plan, many of the constructive proposals has been
accepted.

- Organisation of a Series of events and activities enabling decision makers to
interact with gender advocates and scholars on alternative visions of the
information Society and concrete case-studies of how ICTs can contribute to
development and the difficulties faced by the world?s poor and marginalized in
benefiting from the information economy as it is presently structured.

- Showcasing projects on women?s applications of ICTs for mobilization, peace
and conflict resolution, enterprise creation, trade, education, and health.

- Critical analyses of the necessary institutional reforms needed to reshape the
ICT sector so that it is more inclusive and diverse and more aligned with human
development values.

- Recognition that an Information Society the serves humanity will require
different resource allocation mechanisms. To this end, UNIFEM through its
Digital Diaspora Initiative has announced the setting up of an E-Quality Fund
for African Women and Innovation which will provide flexible funding to ensure
that African women have opportunities for capacity development and economic
security in the Information Society that is emerging.

- Development of a portal containing useful resources on gender equality
advocacy in the ICTs arena. http://www.genderwsis.org

- Energizing and focusing of a committed group of gender advocates who are
committed to working with all partners, including governments, international
agencies, the private sector and civil society to work collectively to build
and Information Society that benefits all of humanity.

- An organised network of gender equality advocates who have support from core
Nordic partners (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) and UNIFEM to intervene in
both phases of the Summit.

- A global platform for reporting back to development community and women's
organisations so that governments are made accountable for the commitments made
during WSIS.


Thank you.

Friday, 12 December 2003

Gillian M. Marcelle
gmarcelle@genderwsis.org

More...

Tackling the digital divide

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/19128

Delegates from 176 countries and as many as 10,000 representatives of civil society and the private sector attended the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva last week. They dispersed having filled dozens of web sites with documentation of the vast digital divide between rich and poor, declarations of good intentions, examples of promising initiatives, and decisions to postpone controversial decisions on internet governance and a proposed Digital Solidarity Fund, reports the AfricaFocus Bulletin. Two postings this week from the AfricaFocus Bulletin contain a selection of news stories on the Summit from the Highway Africa News Agency. Among the many sites with additional coverage are: http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/about/wsis.htm; http://www.worldsummit2003.org and the official conference website:
http://www.itu.int/wsis/
Africa: Digital Solidarity Gap, 1

AfricaFocus Bulletin
December 15, 2003 (031215)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor's Note

Delegates from 176 countries and as many as 10,000 representatives
of civil society and the private sector attended the World Summit
on the Information Society in Geneva last week. They dispersed
having filled dozens of web sites with documentation of the vast
digital divide between rich and poor, declarations of good
intentions, examples of promising initiatives, and decisions to
postpone controversial decisions on internet governance and a
proposed Digital Solidarity Fund.

This issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a selection of news
stories on the Summit from the Highway Africa News Agency. Among
the many sites with additional coverage are:
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/about/wsis.htm
http://www.worldsummit2003.org
and the official conference website:
http://www.itu.int/wsis/

Another issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin today contains the new
Digital Access Index ratings from the International
Telecommunications Union, and reports on an initiative by Lyon,
Geneva, and Senegal to move ahead with launching the Digital
Solidarity Fund themselves.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Visit http://www.africafocus.org for news, analysis, advocacy
Find recent book recommendations at Powell's, a unionized
on-line bookstore: http://www.solidarityresearch.org/powells

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++++++++

All the way to Timbuktu, online

By Haru Mutasa (Highway Africa News Agency)

[This and articles below from http://www.highwayafrica.org.za/hana,
a joint initiative of the South African Broadcasting Corporation
(SABC) and Rhodes University]

December 12, 2003

Timbuktu, Mali, has launched its first official website at the
Geneva World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), thanks to
two African United Nations volunteers.

"I was concerned about the development of my country and that is
why I got involved with the United Nations project in Mali," said
30-year-old IT technician Haidara Fatoumata.

Setting up the site was difficult because of the open source
software she was using. "There were many technical problems," she
said, "we were not used to working on the open software programmes
we were using. We came across problems registering and hosting the
website in Mali, because no one had this software. The Internet is
not used a lot in a country like Mali, and we still have to figure
out ways to fix the many problems we are facing."

Fatoumata said she stumbled into the IT world by accident. "Ever
since I was a little girl I always liked to open stuff and play
with connections and points," she said, "At home I was the only one
in the family who could fix the radio when it was broken." She was
meant to study architecture at university, but quickly changed to
IT.

She worked with colleague Merault Ahoijangansi from Benin on
designing and setting up the website. "I am very happy and excited
that this project has been accomplished," said Ahoijangansi. "I
joined the volunteer programme to be able to help other people. I
did volunteer work in my country for some time before coming to
Mali."

Timbuktu mayor Mohammed Cisse officially launched the site
http://www.tombouctou.net on Thursday, saying it will connect the
people of Timbuktu to the outside world. The mayor also hopes the
site will provide the town with basic information on how to find
information on jobs and health issues.

The town is 1000 km from the capital Bamako and takes about two
days by road. Most of the residents live in poverty and have little
or no contact with the outside world.

"Already we are in communication with a hospital in Geneva," said
Cisse, "and our hospital in Timbuktu exchanges ideas and
information with Geneva regularly. It is a new project, which seems
to be working."

All this was made possible through the United Nations Volunteers
Programmme, which is administered by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP). The organisation hopes that volunteer initiatives
like this one can connect communities quickly and efficiently to
the rest of the world to exchange knowledge, which will in turn
contribute to development.

"The site will keep evolving for some time," said Fatoumata.
"Merault and I will be working on it up until 2005 at least. I keep
looking at the site and thinking that there is still so much more
we can still do with it and I hope to get more training soon to
make a real splash of the site."

**********************************************************

Taskforce to build Digital Solidarity Fund

By Emrakeb Assefa (Highway Africa News Agency)

December 12, 2003

World leaders have agreed to set up a workforce early next year to
come up with a framework to build the Digital Solidarity Fund
(DSF), to be created to finance projects to bridge the digital
divide between South and North.

The group, working under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General,
is to submit its final study document in December 2004.

President of the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society)
Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) Adama Samassekou said today that
the working group, comprising African nations and other developing
countries supporting Senegal's proposal, has the mandate now to
make a report that is "convincing", so that an increasing number of
countries will start contributing to it. The Swiss and Indian
governments have already contributed money to the Fund.

"We have been given one year to come up with the review, and it is
up to us to convince those who don't see the necessity of building
the fund, mainly the developed countries, so that we can reach
consensus in Tunis in 2005," Samassekou said.

This task force review will be submitted for consideration to the
second phase of WSIS in Tunis. Based on the conclusion of the
review, improvements in the financing mechanisms will be
considered, including the effectiveness, feasibility and creation
of a voluntary DSF, as mentioned in the WSIS Declaration of
Principles.

The creation of the taskforce has been a direct result of the
efforts of African nations who saw existing financial mechanisms as
not being sufficient to bridge the digital divide. Hence, even
though governments in WSIS noted that the mechanisms should be
fully exploited, they have agreed to review their adequacy in
meeting the challenges of ICT for development.

Asked if the Summit has been a disappointment in the sense that no
specific measures are taken to immediately set up the Fund,
Samassekou said, "When we started the WSIS process, it was even
difficult to speak about the Fund. Now it is there and it is not
going anywhere."

"We had very frank and heated discussions that put the emphasis on
the need of the countries in the South which do not have the ICTs
opportunity yet."

He said the current debate was not about whether the Fund should
exist or not, but how it should be built and what mechanisms should
be used to make it an effective body. He added that because the
Fund is not for Africa alone but for the whole world, countries
should reach consensus more easily.

The PrepCom president, who is also the minister of education in
Mali, saw the main success of the Summit as being the creation of
"new spirit of co-operation based on solidarity", adding that
"Africa and its interest has been honoured for first time" in the
form of an election of an African to lead the WSIS process.

As it currently stands, the plan of action looks at the Fund from
the perspective of the Digital Solidarity Agenda, which calls on
developed countries to make concrete efforts to fulfil their
international commitments to financing development, including the
Monterrey Consensus.

The Consensus urges rich countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per
cent of gross national product (GNP) as Official Development
Assistance (ODA) to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent
of GNP of developed countries to least developed countries.

*********************************************************

African project gets one million Euros at Summit

By Haru Mutasa (Highway Africa News Agency)

December 12, 2003

The African-driven Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF) received a boost
today after the city of Lyon in France injected 300 000 Euros for
the development of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in
developing countries.

This brings the total sum raised to one million Euros. The
contribution will be added to the 500 000 dollars donated by the
Senegalese government and the 500 000 Swiss francs from the city of
Geneva. It is hoped the United Nations will put money into the
fund.

Speaking at a meeting at the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) in Geneva, Senegalese Minister of Communications
Mamadou Diop Decroix said: "We wanted to put our money where our
mouth is. The fund is new and original. We felt the Summit should
not be allowed to finish with the usual declarations and felt it
important to come up with concrete plans of action."

The minister said the money will enable billions of men and women
who are excluded from ICT activities to be included. This will
create cultural diversity and help them engage actively in a
globalised world as well as give them access to information.

The fund, proposed by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, relies
on voluntary contributions of members in the government, business
and private sector and Diop Decroix called it a fund like no other.
"No country will be forced to contribute and there will be no
restrictions placed on countries that benefit from the fund," he
said.

"It is wonderful that this initiative came from the South and not
the North," said Diop Decroix. "We cannot wait for state leaders to
agree on things before action starts happening. This project
encourages cities and local governments to do more than just talk,
but to work together and come up with workable solutions."

"This will facilitate a democratic process with all stakeholders
from all corners of the world playing an active role in decision
making processes," he said, adding that the management of this
initiative will be different from anything seen before.

*************************************************************

Summit agrees on critical issues

Wairagala Wakabi (Highway Africa News Agency)

December 12, 2003

World leaders have endorsed a plan under which modern communication
technologies will be extended to the poor, and other efforts
undertaken to bridge the digital divide between poor and rich
countries.

A Plan of Action (POA) and Declaration from the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) tasks governments and donors with
injecting more funds in making Information and Communication
Technologies more accessible and affordable to the poor people
particularly in developing countries.

The summit, which was hosted by the International
Telecommunications Union and opened by UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, was called to review the challenges posed by the information
society and draw up mechanisms to make ICTs aid the development of
world economies.

Organisers said the summit was the first UN event ever at which
civil society organisations played an active role in drafting and
debating the documents which were presented to heads of state for
endorsement.

Business Interests

Business was also represented at the summit and the preparatory
events leading up to the WSIS. The International Chamber of
Commerce (ICC) led the formation of the Coordinating Committee of
Business Interlocutors (CCBI), which was voice of the business at
WSIS.

Richard McCormick, the Honorary Chair of ICC, said at the end of
the summit that business was ready to make investments in
creativity and innovation to enhance the information society. But
to do so governments had to create the necessary conditions for
investment.

"Among those conditions are intellectual property rights
protection, stable and predictable legal systems, trade
liberalisation, technology neutrality, and a regulatory framework
which promotes competition and fosters entrepreneurship," he said.

Business also agreed that cables had to be laid, satellites used
and computers distributed in order to raise access to ICTs. "As
technologies spread and become more widely available, we are seeing
the emergence of a younger generation who have ICTs and the
Internet in their DNA," said McCormick. "It is our responsibility
to ensure that this genetic streak becomes common to young people
no matter where they are born in the world."

Internet Governance

McCormick said they were happy with the way the Internet is loosely
governed through a loose collaboration of various technical bodies.
They therefore opposed proposals by civil society organisations
(CSOs) that its governance be made more democratic by involving
government bodies, service providers and users around the world.

Opinion remained strongly divided on the issue. In the end the UN
Secretary General was asked by the summit declaration committee to
set up a working group on Internet governance, "in an open and
inclusive process" that ensures a mechanism for the full and active
participation of governments, the private sector and civil society
from both developing and developed countries.

The group should include relevant intergovernmental and
international organisations and forums, to investigate and make
proposals for action on the governance of Internet by 2005.

The group should develop a working definition of Internet
governance, identify the public policy issues that are relevant to
Internet governance, and develop a common understanding of the
respective roles and responsibilities of governments.

Consensus

The ITU said in a statement that through long and fraught
negotiations involving governments, civil society and the private
sector, consensus had been reached on several issues including
Internet governance, intellectual property rights, the media,
security, traditional knowledge, labour standards, and political
issues.

It added that resolution of some issues remained sticky until the
very end though. Such issues involved Internet governance and
financing the final Draft Plan of Action. Work on those issues will
continue next year and it is expected that they will be resolved at
the second of WSIS in Tunisia in 2005.

Digital Solidarity Fund

Bates Namuyamba, Zambia's Communications Minister, said Africa was
particularly affected by the digital divide, and called for a
Digital Solidarity Fund to fund ICT development on the continent.
Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade was also an ardent supporter of
the fund, but developed nations did not endorse it.

Open software

No consensus was reached on the issue of open software as an
alternative to proprietary software. Civil society had wanted the
summit to encourage adoption of soft software but business
representatives strongly rooted for proprietary software. Civil
society argued that open software is cheap and can boost ICT use in
developing countries.

Ultimately, the summit said access to information and knowledge can
be promoted by increasing awareness among all stakeholders of the
possibilities offered by different software models, including
proprietary, open-source and free software, in order to increase
competition, access by users, diversity of choice, and to enable
all users to develop solutions which best meet their requirements.
It added that affordable access to software should be considered as
an important component of a truly inclusive Information Society.

Media

The declaration affirms the leaders' commitment to "the principles
of freedom of the press and freedom of information, as well as
those of the independence, pluralism and diversity of media, which
are essential to the Information Society".

It adds: "Freedom to seek, receive, impart and use information for
the creation, accumulation and dissemination of knowledge are
important to the Information Society. We call for the responsible
use and treatment of information by the media in accordance with
the highest ethical and professional standards".

The declaration also says, "Nothing in this declaration shall be
construed as impairing, contradicting, restricting or derogating
from the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, any other international
instrument or national laws adopted in furtherance of these
instruments".

The Plan encourages the media to continue to play an important role
in the Information Society; and the development of domestic
legislation that guarantees the independence and plurality of the
media. It says, however, that appropriate steps consistent with
freedom of expression should be taken to combat illegal and harmful
content in the media.

*******************************************************

Ghana calls for collective subscription to digital fund

By Angella Nabwowe (Highway Africa News Agency)

Ghanaian President John A. Kufuor has called on all nations to
subscribe collectively to the Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF).

December 11, 2003

The DSF, proposed to finance Information Communication Technologies
(ICTs) in Africa, was put on ice after government, industry and
civil society leaders participating in the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) process failed to reach a consensus.

Addressing the second plenary meeting of the WSIS on Thursday
morning, Kufuor said that the principle underlying such a fund
should be that countries should contribute each according to its
ability. He added that an administrative set up to regulate the
proper functioning of the fund should be established. "I am of the
view that this will be the indispensable social service for the
efficient and sustainable evolution of the global village. I
therefore support the call for a committee to work on the
feasibility of the fund and its regulation," said Kufuor.

He noted that Ghana endorses the call for the establishment of the
DSF to assist Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to harness the
powerful potential of the latest technologies. The principle is
that when the global village is a reality, this technology will be
"the indispensable infrastructure for social, economic, security
and other aspects of proper development", said Kufuor.

Addressing the same plenary session, Senegalese president Abdoulaye
Wade, who has been championing the DSF idea through the WSIS
process, said that several European proposals to finance ICT
projects have already been received.

He said they have made considerable headway with regards to
financing ICTs in the least developed countries. "Let's make no
mistake about the operations we are proposing that would make
Africa a partner to more than 800 million consumers. This can make
it possible to reinforce the productive capacity of Africa and see
to it that Africa will play a true role in international trade."

He added that with the advent of the information society, the fight
against poverty and unemployment will be enormous.

He hailed African ministers responsible for ICTs in their
respective countries who recently met in Dakar, Senegal, for rising
up to the challenge of drafting a paper reflecting the African
position, and for tabling it at the WSIS.

Africa: Digital Solidarity Gap, 2

AfricaFocus Bulletin
December 15, 2003 (031215)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor's Note

Meeting in Lyon, France just before the World Summit on the
Information Society, representatives of cities and local
authorities decided to take their own initiatives to address the
global digital divide. When the World Summit failed to make a firm
commitment to a new Digital Solidarity Fund, the mayors of Lyon and
Geneva joined with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade to commit 1
million euros to launch the fund themselves.

This issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a news report and press
release on initiatives from the first World Summit of Cities and
Local Authorities on the Information Society. It also contains the
Digital Access Index released by the International
Telecommunications Union in November with its World
Telecommunication Development Report, with rankings for 178
economies. Unsurprisingly, African countries dominate among
those in the "low access" section of the table. Significantly,
however, the authors of the report stress that their report may
underestimate internet access in many developing countries, due to
factors such as the spread of internet cafes and the absence of
reliable surveys on usage.

Another issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin today includes several news
reports on the World Summit from the Highway Africa News Agency.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Visit http://www.africafocus.org for news, analysis, advocacy
Find recent book recommendations at Powell's, a unionized
on-line bookstore: http://www.solidarityresearch.org/powells

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++++++++

Senegal, Mayors Bypass Nations, Set Up Digital Fund

By Traci Hukill, U.N. Wire

http://www.unwire.org

December 12, 2003

GENEVA Days after representatives from nearly 200 countries put
the idea on hold, two European cities and the government of Senegal
today launched a global digital solidarity fund to help poor
countries bridge the digital divide.

Dissatisfaction with what they described as the typical U.N. summit
process of talk followed by inaction led the mayors of Geneva and
the French city of Lyon to join in an unusual alliance with the
African nation.

"We wanted to make sure at this summit there would not only be
declarations of intent but also acts, and this is our way to ensure
that enhancement of human rights in this world can be helped in
this way," said Geneva Mayor Christian Ferrazino.

The two cities donated $395,000 and $368,000 respectively to the
fund on the final day of the World Summit on the Information
Society. The fund, initially proposed by Senegal's President
Abdoulaye Wade in the run-up to the summit, also received $500,000
from Senegal, bringing the total to the significant figure of 1
million euros. The three founders hope to solicit donations from
other cities, nations and perhaps even the United Nations itself.

Senegalese Minister of Communication Mamadou Diop, standing in at
a press conference for an unavoidably delayed Wade, seconded
Ferrazino's sentiments. "We thought we should not finish with the
usual resolutions, the usual commitments which are theoretical but
do not give rise to concrete action," he said.

For months, controversy has swirled around the notion of a
voluntary U.N.-administered fund to help technologically
disadvantaged countries build telephone lines and other
infrastructure in an attempt to keep the digital gap and its
inseparable twin, the wealth gap, from widening further. The need
to bridge the divide was obvious - half the people in the world do
not have access to a telephone but how to meet it was less so.
In a series of preparatory meetings before the summit, country
negotiators locked horns: developing countries wanted the fund,
while developed countries said it would be plagued by waste and
proposed instead using existing institutions to manage the effort.

On Tuesday, in what appeared to be a defeat for Senegal and its
allies, negotiators working on a draft declaration to be approved
at the summit decided not to decide yet. They would instead
commission a study on the subject to be completed by the second
phase of the WSIS, scheduled for November 2005 in Tunisia. The
agreed-upon text neither encouraged nor prohibited independently
established funds or bilateral agreements.

Wade was reportedly upbeat after Tuesday's decision, and today's
launch explains why. The three officials on the dais at the
conference were short on details about how they would manage their
digital solidarity fund details such as what criteria they would
use to dole out funding and how they would assure other potential
contributors that the fund was managed in a transparent manner
but they clearly believe they and their unorthodox alliance are
onto something big.

The two mayors especially seem to think their time has come.

Asked how countries would react to the establishment of a fund they
had just refused to create, Ferrazino shrugged.

"They cannot do anything about it," he said. "This is the way
things are going these days. Many people live in cities and
municipalities, and within 20 years 80 percent of the world's
population will be living in cities and municipalities."

"[U.N. Secretary General] Kofi Annan instructed the former
Brazilian president to reflect on the future of relations between
cities and municipalities with international and intergovernmental
organizations," added Lyon's Mayor Gerard Collomb. "Mr. Annan
knows full well that a number of large cities and municipalities
throughout the world would have economic, cultural and social power
that would ensure they can play a significant role as players at
the world level."

"At Rio, the cities were not involved," Ferrazino said, referring
to the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, also
called the Earth Summit. "But who was responsible for implementing
all this? The cities and local authorities."

"The role of the state is changing," Ferrazino continued. "We have
the European Union, the African Union, organizations that are
regrouping states. The fund we're talking about is of course a new
initiative taking advantage of this new reality."

Copyright 2003 by National Journal Group Inc. Distributed under
terms of use of the United Nation Foundation's U.N. Wire.

************************************************************

World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities on the Information
Society

Press release

10 December 2003

http://www.cities-lyon.org

Geneva, WSIS: the cities and local authorities from around the
world present their Declaration and Action Plans for a fair and
sustainable information society

[For the declaration, see ]http://www.cities-lyon.org/en/declaration]

The success of the first World Summit of Cities and Local
Authorities on the Information Society organised at Lyon on 4 and
5 December (500 local authorities, 2,000 participants from all over
the world) marks a major turning point in international political
life. It responds to the desire of Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary General
of the United Nations, to associate cities, local authorities and
civil society in the UN?s projects and activities. Cities are major
actors that participate concretely in the daily lives of citizens
everywhere, whether in education, knowledge, culture, the combat
against social exclusion, participation or involvement in
democracy.

The Declaration of Cities and Local Authorities on the Information
Society was unanimously adopted at the end of the Lyon World
Summit. It asserts the basic rights of citizens that cities and
local authorities want to have taken into consideration at the
Summit in Geneva. The information society must strengthen:

* Democracy, freedom of expression and respect for human rights;

* Freedom to communicate and equal access to knowledge;

* Education, particularly in setting up universal primary
education;

* Access to knowledge, to facilitate research and for cultural
diversity;

* Digital solidarity to combat exclusion and the digital divide in
cities in developed and developing countries, with four possible
orientations:

* Develop the use of free software;

* Develop decentralised cooperation programmes between cities and
regions; o Support actions in favour of digital solidarity between
developed and developing countries;

* Relay the proposals of Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal and
Vice-President of NEPAD on digital solidarity.

The Declaration will be presented to Mr Kofi Annan on 10 December,
and to the Heads of State and Government on 12 December (WISI,
10-12 December, Geneva) by Gerard Collomb, Mayor of Lyon and
Christian Ferrazino, Mayor of Geneva.

Forever concerned with making proposals a reality, cities and local
authorities are now formulating an action plan, stemming from the
synthesis of the debates held during the Lyon Summit. This action
plan will be presented at the congress held to found the first
World Association of Cities and Local Authorities, "United Cities
and Local Authorities", at Paris in May 2004.

For Gérard Collomb, Mayor of Lyon, "The great success of the World
Summit of Cities relies on wide-ranging consultation, strong
mobilisation of local actors and authorities, and above all
concrete commitments to build a fairer and more united world,
particularly between developed and developing countries."

Christian Ferrazino, Mayor of Geneva declares, "The Lyon Summit
marks a major turning point in the history of international
relations. Our municipalities show that they can play an
international role, since they are the best placed to make known
the needs and hopes of their citizens."

Cities and local authorities from around the entire world have
developed international networks that permit collective expression
and actions. At the end of the Lyon Summit, Mercedes Bresso,
President of CAMVAL (Coordination of World Associations of Cities
and Local Authorities) announced the "creation of the first World
Association of Cities at Paris in May 2004 that we hope will be the
first representative organisation of cities and local authorities
to sit at the UN."

The exemplarity of cities and local authorities in the information
society: Several hundred projects, actions and initiatives were
presented at the Lyon World Summit and can be consulted on
www.cities-lyon.org They are also exhibited at the WISI at the
City of Geneva/City of Lyon stand, Forum ICT4D, Palexpo Hall 4.

Press contact: France: Agence Isabelle Dejeux - Isabelle Dejeux,
Cyril Chenu - T : 33 4 72 07 44 90 F : 33 4 72 07 44 99 - M : 33 6
08 16 91 28 - cyril@agence-idejeux.fr / isabelle@agence-idejeux.fr
Switzerland: City of Geneva, Philippe d'Espine - T : 00 41 22 418
29 11 philippe.despine@ville-ge.ch

************************************************************

Digital Access Index 2002
Source: International Telecommunication Union
http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2003/30.html

The full World Telecommunications Development Report 2003 is also
available on the ITU website.

[display table in courier font for greater readability]

High Access

Sweden 0.85
Denmark 0.83
Iceland 0.82
Korea (Rep.) 0.82
Norway 0.79
Netherlands 0.79
Hong Kong, China 0.79
Finland 0.79
Taiwan, China 0.79
Canada 0.78
United States 0.78
United Kingdom 0.77
Switzerland 0.76
Singapore 0.75
Japan 0.75
Luxembourg 0.75
Austria 0.75
Germany 0.74
Australia 0.74
Belgium 0.74
New Zealand 0.72
Italy 0.72
France 0.72
Slovenia 0.72
Israel 0.70

Upper Access

Ireland 0.69
Cyprus 0.68
Estonia 0.67
Spain 0.67
Malta 0.67
Czech Republic 0.66
Greece 0.66
Portugal 0.65
UAE 0.64
Macao, China 0.64
Hungary 0.63
Bahamas 0.62
Bahrain 0.60
St. Kitts and Nevis 0.60
Poland 0.59
Slovak Republic 0.59
Croatia 0.59
Chile 0.58
Antigua & Barbuda 0.57
Barbados 0.57
Malaysia 0.57
Lithuania 0.56
Qatar 0.55
Brunei Darussalam 0.55
Latvia 0.54
Uruguay 0.54
* Seychelles 0.54
Dominica 0.54
Argentina 0.53
Trinidad & Tobago 0.53
Bulgaria 0.53
Jamaica 0.53
Costa Rica 0.52
St. Lucia 0.52
Kuwait 0.51
Grenada 0.51
* Mauritius 0.50
Russia 0.50
Mexico 0.50
Brazil 0.50

Medium Access

Belarus 0.49
Lebanon 0.48
Thailand 0.48
Romania 0.48
Turkey 0.48
TFYR Macedonia 0.48
Panama 0.47
Venezuela 0.47
Belize 0.47
St. Vincent 0.46
Bosnia 0.46
Suriname 0.46
* South Africa 0.45
Colombia 0.45
Jordan 0.45
Serbia & Montenegro 0.45
Saudi Arabia 0.44
Peru 0.44
China 0.43
Fiji 0.43
* Botswana 0.43
Iran (I.R.) 0.43
Ukraine 0.43
Guyana 0.43
Philippines 0.43
Oman 0.43
Maldives 0.43
* Libya 0.42
Dominican Rep. 0.42
* Tunisia 0.41
Ecuador 0.41
Kazakhstan 0.41
* Egypt 0.40
* Cape Verde 0.39
Albania 0.39
Paraguay 0.39
Namibia 0.39
Guatemala 0.38
El Salvador 0.38
Palestine 0.38
Sri Lanka 0.38
Bolivia 0.38
Cuba 0.38
Samoa 0.37
* Algeria 0.37
Turkmenistan 0.37
Georgia 0.37
* Swaziland 0.37
Moldova 0.37
Mongolia 0.35
Indonesia 0.34
* Gabon 0.34
* Morocco 0.33
India 0.32
Kyrgyzstan 0.32
Uzbekistan 0.31
Viet Nam 0.31
Armenia 0.30

Low Access

* Zimbabwe 0.29
Honduras 0.29
Syria 0.28
Papua New Guinea 0.26
Vanuatu 0.24
Pakistan 0.24
Azerbaijan 0.24
* S. Tomé & Principe 0.23
Tajikistan 0.21
* Equatorial Guinea 0.20
* Kenya 0.19
Nicaragua 0.19
* Lesotho 0.19
Nepal 0.19
Bangladesh 0.18
Yemen 0.18
* Togo 0.18
Solomon Islands 0.17
Cambodia 0.17
* Uganda 0.17
* Zambia 0.17
Myanmar 0.17
* Congo 0.17
* Cameroon 0.16
* Ghana 0.16
Lao P.D.R. 0.15
* Malawi 0.15
* Tanzania 0.15
Haiti 0.15
* Nigeria 0.15
* Djibouti 0.15
* Rwanda 0.15
* Madagascar 0.15
* Mauritania 0.14
* Senegal 0.14
* Gambia 0.13
Bhutan 0.13
* Sudan 0.13
* Comoros 0.13
* Cote d'Ivoire 0.13
* Eritrea 0.13
* D.R. Congo 0.12
* Benin 0.12
* Mozambique 0.12
* Angola 0.11
* Burundi 0.10
* Guinea 0.10
* Sierra Leone 0.10
* Central Af. Rep. 0.10
* Ethiopia 0.10
* Guinea-Bissau 0.10
* Chad 0.10
* Mali 0.09
* Burkina Faso 0.08
* Niger 0.04

Note: The composite indicator is based on infrastructure (fixed
telephone lines and mobile telephone lines per 100 inhabitants),
affordability (internet access price as percent of national income
per capita), knowledge (adult literacy, and formal school
enrollment), quality (international internet bandwidth per capita,
and broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants), and usage (internet
users per 100 inhabitants).

*************************************************************
AfricaFocus Bulletin is a free independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org Please
write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin,
or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about
reposted material, please contact directly the original source
mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see
http://www.africafocus.org

************************************************************

More...

e-CIVICUS 215: Connecting civil society worldwide

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/enewsl/19071

e-CIVICUS 215: In this issue – ethical consumerism; child labour in West African cocoa; fair trade in tourism; and a brief overview of global trade. e-CIVICUS is distributed twice monthly in MS Word, plain text, or PDF format, and is also available in Spanish. To subscribe or unsubscribe please email Edwin@civicus.org

International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) newsletter

2003-12-18

http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/index.html#

CIAT-News is an e-mail list server for people who share our commitment to building sustainable rural livelihoods. It helps them work toward that goal by drawing attention to new tools, information resources, alliances, and initiatives that contribute to competitive agriculture, healthy agroecosystems, and rural innovation.
If you would like to subscribe to CIAT-NEWS, please send an e-mail to:
LISTSERV@CGNET.COM containing the following line of text in the body of your message: SUBSCRIBE ciat-news

Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/19122

Ford Foundation International Fellows may choose to study in any academic discipline or field of study related to the Ford Foundation's three grant-making areas, which are: Asset Building and Community Development; Knowledge, Creativity, and Freedom; Peace and Social Justice.
Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program applicants
must be resident nationals or residents of an eligible IFP coun-
try or territory. Currently, these are: Brazil, Chile, China,
Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Mozam-
bique, Nigeria, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Senegal,
South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, and Vietnam. IFP se-
lects Fellows on the strength of their clearly-stated intention
to serve their communities and countries of origin, and expects
that they will honour this obligation.

Successful candidates will:

Demonstrate superior achievement in their undergraduate studies
and hold a baccalaureate degree or its equivalent. Have substan-
tial experience in community service or development-related ac-
tivities. Possess leadership potential evidenced by their em-
ployment and academic experience. Propose to pursue a post-
baccalaureate degree that will directly enhance their leadership
capacity in a practical, policy, academic, or artistic disci-
pline or field corresponding to one or more of the Foundation's
areas of endeavour. Present a plan specifying how they will ap-
ply their studies to social problems or issues in their own
countries. Commit themselves to working on these issues follow-
ing the fellowship period.

IFP Fields of Study

Ford Foundation International Fellows may choose to study in any
academic discipline or field of study related to the Ford Foun-
dation's three grant-making areas, which are:

* Asset Building and Community Development

Community Development
Development Finance and Economic Security
Work-force Development
Environment and Development

* Knowledge, Creativity, and Freedom

Arts and Culture
Education and Scholarship
Media
Religion, Society and Culture
Sexuality and Reproductive Health

* Peace and Social Justice

Civil Society
Governance
Human Rights

The Application Process

All applications must be submitted to the appropriate IFP Inter-
national Partner in the country or region where the applicant
resides. IFP International Partners determine application dead-
lines and selection schedules in their region or country. Appli-
cations are reviewed and final selections decided by panels com-
posed of practitioners and scholars from various fields of work
and study.

The level and duration of awards are determined as part of the
selection process. Ford Foundation staff and their family mem-
bers may not serve on selection panels and are not eligible to
apply for IFP awards. Members of selection committees, staff of
the organizations managing the program in the various regions,
and their family members are also ineligible for IFP awards.

For more information see:
http://www.fordifp.net/

More...

Grants for empowerment, environment and cultural diversity

2003-12-18

http://www.cottonwoodfdn.org/

The Cottonwood Foundation is dedicated to promoting empowerment of people, protection of the environment, and respect for cultural diversity. The foundation focuses its funding on committed, grass roots organisations internationally that rely strongly on volunteer efforts and where foundation support will make a significant difference.

Practical guides for the best fundraising strategy

2003-12-18

http://www.afpnet.org/tier3_cd.cfm?folder_id=1485&content_item_id=14589

Develop an effective fundraising strategy that fits perfectly with your organisation’s mission, with the help of two fundraising books available from AFP. The Five Strategies for Fundraising Success: A Mission-based Guide to Achieving Your Goals shows nonprofits how to set fundraising goals based on the organisation’s mission and how to select, implement and stay with the right strategies to meet those goals. A companion workbook called Ten Steps to Fundraising Success: Choosing the Right Strategy for Your Organisation, is also available.

What are the 10 'Immutable Laws of Fundraising'?

2003-12-18

http://www.nonprofits.org/npofaq/19/59.html

The Foundation Centre has posted on it's website "The Ten Immutable Laws of the (Fundraising) Universe" by Carl Richardson. For the complete text, see http://fdncenter.org/pnd/tsn/tsn.jhtml?id=47800041 He writes: "In my years of working with a wide range of nonprofit organisations, I've learned that the universe of fundraising can be described by certain "laws," much like the physical universe is described by certain provable statements. Tested by experience, observation, and results, these laws of fundraising determine to a large extent the success of our efforts. If your capital campaign has stalled, your funding proposals routinely go unfunded, or your board has stopped working effectively, the laws described below may point you toward a solution."

Codesria Institute on health, politics and society in Africa

Call for Applications for the 2004 Inaugural Session

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/19068

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) was established in 1973 as an initiative of African scholars for the promotion of multidisciplinary research that extends the frontiers of knowledge production in and about Africa, and also responds to the challenges of African development. As part of on-going programme innovation and expansion, the Council has decided to launch an experimental institute on Health, Politics and Society in Africa in a bid to promote an enhanced interest in multidisciplinary health research among African scholars. The initiative flows from the current CODESRIA strategic plan which has placed a considerable emphasis on the promotion of a social science approach to health studies in Africa and a structured dialogue between the Social Sciences and the Health/Biomedical Sciences.
CODESRIA INSTITUTE ON HEALTH, POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN AFRICA
Theme: Governing the African Health System
Call for Applications for the 2004 Inaugural Session
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) was established
in 1973 as an initiative of African scholars for the promotion of multidisciplinary research that extends
the frontiers of knowledge production in and about Africa, and also responds to the challenges of
African development. Within the broad framework of the mandate defined for the Council in its
Charter, various research and training programmes have been developed over the years for the
purpose both of mobilising the African research community and responding to its needs. The Council
also has a robust publications programme which has earned it a reputation as one of the leading
scholarly publishers in Africa. Its training programmes are particularly targeted at younger, mid-career
scholars whose need for support in advancing their reflections on conceptual and methodological
questions was at the origin of the initiation by the Council of a number of annual thematic institutes.
At present, CODESRIA runs annual Governance, Gender, Humanities, and Child and Youth Studies
institutes.
As part of on-going programme innovation and expansion, the Council has decided to launch an
experimental institute on Health, Politics and Society in Africa in a bid to promote an enhanced
interest in multidisciplinary health research among African scholars. The initiative flows from the
current CODESRIA strategic plan which has placed a considerable emphasis on the promotion of a
social science approach to health studies in Africa and a structured dialogue between the Social
Sciences and the Health/Biomedical Sciences. The initiative has also become imperative at a time
when the African continent is faced with one of the most severe health crises in its history. Most
symbolic of this crisis is the HIV/AIDS pandemic which has been ravaging the continent for sometime
now even as such diseases as malaria continue to take a heavy toll while tuberculosis and polio,
once under control, are enjoying a resurgence. The HIV/AIDS pandemic itself came to the fore in the
context of a generalised weakening of the health structures and processes of African countries, as
well as the decline in the average health and nutritional status of Africans, the latter speaking directly
to the increased levels of personal and household impoverishment on the continent. At the root of the
decline in the health status of Africans are such factors as the prolonged economic crises which
African countries have faced in the period since the early 1980s, the inappropriate adjustment
measures prescribed by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) for containing the crises but
which exacerbated the problems that were already being experienced in the health sector, and the
massive brain drain from the sector.
Objectives:
The main objectives of the Institute on Health, Politics and Society are to:
- Encourage the emergence and sustenance of a networked community of younger African
scholars in the field of health research;
- Promote methodological and conceptual innovations in research on African health questions
through the application of an enhanced social science approach;
- Encourage a structured dialogue between the Social Sciences and the Health/Biomedical
Sciences as part of the quest for a holistic approach to understanding health, politics and
society in Africa; and
- Promote the sharing of experiences among researchers, activists and policy makers drawn from
different disciplines, methodological/conceptual orientations, and geographical experiences on
a common theme over an extended period of time.
2
Organisation:
The activities of all CODESRIA institutes centre on presentations made by resident researchers,
visiting resource persons, and the participants whose applications for admission as laureates are
successful. The sessions are led by a scientific director who, with the help of invited resource
persons, ensures that the laureates are exposed to the range of research and policy issues
generated by or arising from the theme of the Institute for which they are responsible. Open
discussions drawing on books and articles relevant to the theme of a particular institute or a
specific topic within the theme are also encouraged. Each of the participants selected to participate
in any of the Council’s institutes as a laureate is required to prepare a research paper to be
presented during the course of the particular institute they attend. Laureates are expected to draw
on the insights which they gain from the Institute in which they participate to produce a revised
version of their research papers for consideration for publication by CODESRIA. For each institute,
the CODESRIA Documentation and Information Centre (CODICE) prepares a comprehensive
bibliography on the theme of the year. Access is also facilitated to a number of documentation
centres in and around Dakar.
The 2004 Inaugural Session: Governing the African Health System:
In the face of the severe health problems which have confronted the African continent in recent
years, a considerable amount of work has been generated designed to promote a general
understanding on the origins, nature, dimensions and impact/consequences of the contemporary
African health crises. However, these studies, while offering some useful insights, have also been
marked by certain critical weaknesses, among them a lack of historical depth and context, a dearth
of comparative insights, a general absence of multidisciplinarity of approach, and an excessive, illinformed
cultural determinism underpinned by narrow socio-anthropological perspectives. These
are weaknesses which require to be remedied if African health studies are to advance in a
problem-solving direction that also contributes to the deepening of knowledge and promotes
analytic innovation. It is proposed to take a first step in that direction through the organisation of a
focused reflection on the governance of the African health system as a whole.
It is now generally established in the literature that health is, at all levels, a public good. If, indeed,
that is so, then it is equally important that serious attention should be paid to the governance of the
health system. As an arena and a vector of power relations in society, the health system both
embodies and conveys questions of access, equity, justice and sustainability that require to be
followed through for a proper understanding of the functioning and functionality of the system. In
the specific African context, the questions of access, equity, justice and sustainability in the health
system are made more pressing today by the various cases of systemic failure which have added
up to produce a situation in which the health status of Africans is in greater peril today than at any
other time since independence in the 1960s. Indeed, as has been widely observed, including by
agencies such as UNICEF, even some of the historic gains in health status recorded after
independence in such areas as infant mortality have been rolled back. Amidst the crises that has
gripped the health sector, the decline in the overall health status of many Africans, the cut-back in
the public health expenditure of the state, the various health emergencies facing the continent, and
the challenges of reform that are posed, questions of access, equity and sustainability clearly arise
both as important issues in their own right and as elements integral to the exercise of citizenship,
democratic rights and the social contract.
Furthermore, the changes in health-seeking behaviour occurring across the continent, side by side
with the emergence and/or revival of new private and popular forms of health provisioning come
3
with new governance challenges that deserve to be more closely studied beyond the anecdotal.
For instance, the growth of private health insurance markets and private clinics are pointers to a
growing stratification of the health market in line with the intensified income and social
differentiation that has occurred over the last two decades; it is, however, also a development
which poses new policy-making, managerial and regulatory challenges to which governments and
professional associations have to respond. Similarly, the growth of the popular market for
alternative medicines and the rediscovery and popularisation of the institution of the
“traditional”/faith healer offer pointers to the crises in the formal health sector and popular coping
strategies that are being adopted; they also open new terrains of power, rights and standards
which elicit regulatory responses of their own. The increase in the illegal production and distribution
of fake and sub-standard drugs points to an opportunistic entrepreneurial logic seeking to profit
from the African health crises and the problems of the health system; the opportunism may only be
the flip side of the operations of international pharmaceutical cartels whose pricing strategies eat
disproportionately into developing country health budgets, take the prospects of treatment beyond
the reach of the working poor and expose many to the ruthless dealers in fake and illicit
substitutes.
Additionally, changes in the structure of care brought about by the explosion of the HIV/AIDS
pandemic, the persistence of malaria as a major killer and the resurgence of diseases like
tuberculosis which were previously under control have implications for the governance of health
systems in so far as they are correlated with the diminished/diminishing capacity of the public
health facilities to cope with a complex range of expanded needs. This diminished capacity
proliferates all spheres of the health system, ranging from the drain of talents to the collapse of
training and personnel management structures designed to produce and reproduce critical human
resources. Government health budgets, already diminished by years of economic crises and
structural adjustment, are under continuing strain and public health managers are confronted with
the difficult, even grim task of prioritising expenditure among a range of equally important diseases
and policy measures. Governments are also called upon to strive to meet various targets set out in
a range of global/social development health agreements, manage the activities of donors and nongovernmental
organisations active in the health sector, and overcome the difficulties associated
with the quest for the production/importation of generic drugs for which the major multinational
pharmaceutical companies hold patents.
Inescapably, therefore, the role of the state as provider, facilitator and regulator in the health sector
is one with which we are constantly required to grapple. This fact makes it equally important to
address questions about the nature and composition of the state - capacity, legitimacy, etc. – and
the ways in which these are refracted into the functioning of the health system. The growth, over
the last few decades, of an international health coalition, both inter-governmental and nongovernmental
as well as the interface between this coalition and local civil society actors, present
additional dimensions of the governance of the health system to which attention needs to be paid
at a time of weakened state capacity across the African continent. The range and variety of issues
associated with health sector reforms and the governance of the health system is endless and
various multidisciplinary entry points are required for the achievement of a balanced and holistic
understanding. Prospective participants in the Institute on Health, Politics and Society in Africa are
invited to address themselves to these different entry points and other aspects of research on
health system governance in Africa.
4
The Director
For every session of its various institutes, CODESRIA appoints an external scholar with a proven
track-record of quality work to provide intellectual leadership. Directors are senior scholars known
for their expertise in the topic of the year and for the originality of their thinking on it. They are
recruited on the basis of a proposal which they submit and which contains a detailed course outline
covering methodological issues and approaches; the key concepts integral to an understanding of
the object of a particular Institute and the specific theme that will be focused upon; a thorough
review of the state of the literature designed to expose laureates to different theoretical and
empirical currents; a presentation on various sub-themes, case-studies and comparative examples
relevant to the theme of the particular Institute they are applying to lead; and possible policy
questions that are worth keeping in mind during the entire research process. Candidates for the
position of Director should also note that if their application is successful, they will be asked to:
- participate in the selection of laureates;
- identify resource-persons to help lead discussions and debates;
- design the course for the session, including the specification of sub-themes;
- deliver a set of lectures and provide a critique of the papers presented by the resource
persons and the laureates;
- Submit a written scientific report on the session.
In addition, the Director is expected to (co-)edit the revised versions of the papers presented by
the resource persons with a view to submitting them for publication in one of CODESRIA’s
collections. The Director also assists CODESRIA in assessing the papers presented by
laureates for publication as a special issue of Africa Development or as monographs.
Resource Persons
Lectures to be delivered at the Institute are intended to offer laureates an opportunity to
advance their reflections on the theme of the programme and on their own research topics.
Resource Persons are, therefore, senior scholars or scholars in their mid-career who have
published extensively on the topic, and who have a significant contribution to make to the
debates on it. They will be expected to produce lecture materials which serve as think pieces
that stimulate laureates to engage in discussion and debate around the lectures and the
general body of literature available on the theme.
One selected, resource persons must:
- submit a copy of their lectures for reproduction and distribution to participants not later than
one week before the lecture begins ;
- deliver their lectures, participate in debates and comment on the research proposals of the
laureates ;
- Review and submit the revised version of their research papers for consideration for
publication by CODESRIA not later than two months following their presentation.
Laureates
Applicants should be African researchers who have completed their university and /or
professional training, with a proven capacity to carry out research on the theme of the Institute.
Intellectuals active in the policy process and/or in social movements/civic organisations are also
encouraged to apply. The number of places offered by CODESRIA at each session of its
institutes is limited to fifteen (15) fellowships. Non-African scholars who are able to raise funds
for their participation may also apply for a limited number of places.
5
Applications
Applicants for the position of Director should submit:
�� an application letter;
�� a proposal, not more than 15 pages in length, indicating the course outline and showing in what
ways the course would be original and responsive to the needs of prospective laureates,
specifically focussing on the issues to be covered from the point of view of concepts and
methodology, a critical review of the literature, and the range of issues arising from the theme of
the Institute;
�� a detailed and up-to-date curriculum vitae; and
�� Three writing samples.
Applications for the position of resource persons should include:
�� an application letter ;
�� two writing samples ;
�� a curriculum vitae ; and
�� a proposal, not more than five (5) pages in length, outlining the issues to be covered in their
proposed lecture.
Applications for Laureates should include:
�� an application letter;
�� a letter indicating institutional or organisational affiliation;
�� a curriculum vitae ;
�� a research proposal (two copies and not more than 10 pages), including a descriptive analysis of
the work the applicant intends to undertake, an outline of the theoretical interest of the topic
chosen by the applicant, and the relationship of the topic to the problematic and concerns of the
theme of the 2004 Institute; and
�� two reference letters from scholars and/or researchers known for their competence and expertise
in the candidate's research area (geographic and disciplinary), including their names, addresses
and telephone, e-mail, fax numbers.
An independent committee composed of outstanding African social scientists will select the
candidates to be admitted to the institute.
The deadline for the submission of applications is set for 16 February, 2004. The Institute will be
held in Dakar, Senegal from 03 to 28 March, 2004.
All applications or requests for further information should be addressed to:
CODESRIA Institute on Health, Politics and Society in Africa
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop x Canal IV
BP 3304 Dakar, Senegal
Tel.: (221) 825 98 21/22/23
Fax: (221) 824 12 89
E-Mail: virginie.niang@codesria.sn
Website: www.codesria.sn

More...

Futures of Southern Africa symposium papers

2003-12-18

http://www.ciir.org/ciir.asp?section=news&page=story&ID=936

The sustainable future of southern African nations was a key issue at the symposium held from 15 to 17 September in Windhoek, Namibia. The symposium's papers are now available for download from the URL provided. Civil society activists, church groups, academics, and policy-makers gathered at the 'Futures for Southern Africa' conference to assess the status of the region and analyse developments after almost 10 years of post-apartheid rule. "We hoped to promote greater inter-regional understanding, strengthen southern African and North-South civil society and non-governmental organisation links and activities, and ensure that policy is directed at understanding and responding to the major challenges in this region," said the organisers.

Rights-based programming distance learning course

22 March-30 May 2004

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/19121

This distance learning course introduces staff members of (international) development agencies and NGOs to rights-based programming. A rights-based approach is a conceptual framework for the process of human development that is normatively based on international human rights standards and operationally directed to promoting and protecting human rights. Essentially, a rights-based approach integrates the norms, standards and principles of the international human rights system into the plans, policies and processes of programme development.
HREA Distance Learning Course 5E04:
RIGHTS-BASED PROGRAMMING
22 March-30 May 2004

Instructor: Predrag Zivkovic

This distance learning course introduces staff members of (international)
development agencies and NGOs to rights-based programming. A rights-based
approach is a conceptual framework for the process of human development
that is normatively based on international human rights standards and
operationally directed to promoting and protecting human rights.
Essentially, a rights-based approach integrates the norms, standards and
principles of the international human rights system into the plans,
policies and processes of programme development.

Participants will deepen their knowledge about project and programme
development from a human rights framework and learn how to apply the
principles of equity, empowerment, participation and accountability to
various phases of project planning and implementation. Participants will
also gain sensitivity to how programs can integrate non-discriminatory
practice and give attention to vulnerable groups. The course will focus on
practical tools for human rights situation assessment, programme planning,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation within the rights-based
conceptual framework.

The course involves approximately 50 hours of reading, on-line working
groups, interaction with students and instructors/facilitators and
assignments, and is offered over a 10-week period, beginning on 22 March
2004. E-mail will be the main medium for the course, although participants
will need to have periodic access to the Web (part of the
readings/assignment will be distributed via CD-ROM). The course is based
on a participatory, active learning approach, with an emphasis on
peer-to-peer learning. Course facilitator will provide individualized
feedback where appropriate. Participants will do the required readings,
prepare interim and final assignments and participate in group
discussions. The maximum number of course participants is 25. Students who
successfully complete the course will receive a Certificate of
Participation. It is also possible to be an auditor of the course.


COURSE OUTLINE

Weeks 1-3: Introduction
Week 1. The Human Rights Framework
Week 2. Overview of Programming Phases
Week 3. Key Elements of Rights-Based Programming

Weeks 4-7: Elements of Rights-based Programming
Week 4. Situation Assessment and Rights-Based Programming
Week 5. Program Design and Rights-Based Programming
Week 6. Program Implementation and Rights-Based Programming
Week 7. Accountability and Rights-Based Programming (Monitoring and
Evaluation)

Weeks 8-10: Examples of Rights-based Programming
Week 8. Analysis of Rights-Based Programming: Example 1
Week 9. Analysis of Rights-Based Programming: Example 2
Week 10. Rights-Based Programming and the Future of Human Development Work


ABOUT THE COURSE INSTRUCTOR

Predrag Zivkovic works as Human Rights Officer at the Office of the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights in the area of capacity development for
human rights protection and promotion. Prior to joining the United Nations
he worked with human rights and development NGOs. He studied philosophy,
social anthropology and international human rights law at the universities
of Zagreb, London and Essex.


WHO SHOULD APPLY

The course is intended for staff members of development and human
rights/social justice organisations. Candidates should have a good written
command of English and have high competence and comfort with computer and
Internet use. HREA aims to ensure equal gender and geographical
distribution across the selected participants.


COSTS

The course tuition fee is Euro 485 (tuition for auditors is Euro 200). A
limited number of scholarships is available for applicants from Africa,
Middle East, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe/Newly Independent States,
Latin America/Caribbean.


APPLICATION

The deadline for applications is 23 February 2004. However, applications
will be accepted on a first-come-first-serve basis. Applications received
after that day unfortunately cannot be accepted. Successful applicants
will be notified by 29 February 2004. Full tuition payment is due on 10
March 2004.


ABOUT HREA

Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is an international
non-governmental organisation that supports human rights learning; the
training of activists and professionals; the development of educational
materials and programming; and community-building through on-line
technologies. HREA works in partnership with education agencies, NGOs,
governments and inter-governmental organisations to implement training
programmes for teachers, NGO staff, jurists and other professionals
involved in human rights work. Current and past partners include, inter
alia, Amnesty International, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies,
Council of Europe, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, HURIDOCS, the
Inter-American Institute for Human Rights (IIDH), the Office of the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Open Society Institute, UNESCO and
the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center. HREA is registered as a
non-profit organisation in the Netherlands and the USA. More information
on HREA can be found at: http://www.hrea.org


APPLICATION FORMS

Application form (in Word and PDF format) can be obtained at:
http://www.hrea.org/courses/5E.html

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Third Southern African Conference on Equity in Health

8 and 9 June, 2004, Durban, South Africa

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/19120

With a theme of "Reclaiming the State: Advancing People's Health, Challenging Injustice", the conference will: Present, discuss and review work done and progress towards equity in health in southern Africa post 2000; Present, debate and strengthen the analysis that informs research, policy and practice towards health equity; Resolve on the challenges, policies and actions towards progress in equity in health in southern Africa; and Review and give mandate to EQUINET, its goals, work and organisation.
Third Southern African Conference on Equity in Health
-----------------------------------------------------

8 and 9 June, 2004
Durban, South Africa

Theme: "Reclaiming the State: Advancing People's Health, Chal-
lenging Injustice"

The conference will have plenary sessions and workshop/ parallel
sessions on:
* Challenges to Equity in Health in Southern Africa
* Equity in health sector responses to HIV and AIDS and treat-
ment access
* The basis for health: food security and nutrition and essen-
tial health inputs: water, energy, sanitation
* Human Rights as a tool to advance peoples health and health
equity
* Fair Financing in health systems
* Confronting challenges in Health personnel
* Strengthening community voice and agency in health systems
* Globalisation, trade and health challenges
* Alternative economic paths to social justice
* State, parliamentary and civil society struggles for health
* Research evidence, monitoring and research to policy links in
advancing health equity

The conference will:
1. Present, discuss and review work done and progress towards
equity in health in southern Africa post 2000
2. Present, debate and strengthen the analysis that informs
research, policy and practice towards health equity
3. Resolve on the challenges, policies and actions towards pro-
gress in equity in health in southern Africa
4. Review and give mandate to EQUINET, its goals, work and
organization

EQUINET invites delegates to the conference from civil society,
state and non state organisations, parliaments, regional and in-
ternational organisations and other institutions promoting and
working on equity in health in southern Africa. The conference
will report on the research, policy and advocacy work done by
EQUINET and by others in the region on different dimensions and
drivers of equity in health in southern Africa. It will offer an
opportunity to assess progress towards equity in health and to-
wards implementation of commitments made at the previous confer-
ences on equity in health. It will identify key areas to be fol-
lowed through in future research, policy intervention and pro-
gramme design at national and regional level.

EQUINET invites delegates who wish to present papers/posters
within the above areas to send in a form/e-mail with the follow-
ing information to <admin@equinetafrica.org>
with JUNE CONFERENCE in the subject line BY FEBRUARY 1 2004:

First and last name
Is the primary author a student?
E-mail address
Organization:
Co-author(s) First and last name(s)
Desired session:
Abstract (maximum 400 words)
Funding: Self Funded/ Partial Sponsorship Requested (*)/ Full
Sponsorship Requested. (* specify what is being requested)

The abstracts will be sent to the relevant workshop/ session
convenors and feedback will be given by end March 2004.

This is the third such conference in the region since 1997, fol-
lowing the Kasane meeting in 1997 (organized by University of
Botswana and Dag Hammerskold), and the South African meeting in
2001 (organised by EQUINET). The reports of these previous con-
ferences can be found on the EQUINET website
(http://www.equinetafrica.org).

The EQUINET conference on Equity in Health in Southern Africa
will be held back to back with the International Society for Eq-
uity in Health (ISeQH) conference June 10-12 2003, which Equinet
is co-hosting with the Global Equity Gauge Alliance (GEGA) and
Health Systems Trust (HST). We hope that delegates attending the
EQUINET conference will stay for the ISeQH conference (and vice
versa) and remind you that abstract submission and requests for
financial support for attending the ISeQH meeting closes in 20
December.

For further information, follow up queries, indications of in-
terest in attending the conference or suggestions, please con-
tact the EQUINET secretariat e-mail admin@equinetafrica.org
Information on the conference will also be posted to our website
at http://www.equinetafrica.org

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University for Peace: Curriculum Development Workshop on Justice, Human Rights, and Peace

Conclusions, recommendations, and areas for immediate follow-up

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/19198

The second UPEACE Curriculum Development Workshop for the Great Lakes and Eastern African region was held in Kampala, Uganda from the 1st to 5th of December 2003, co-hosted with and coordinated by Makerere University, Uganda's premier institution of higher learning. The workshop's goal was to focus on teaching the linkages between justice, human rights and peace. It is the second in a set of three sub-regional workshops being organized in 2003 and early 2004 by the UPEACE Africa Programme, bringing together academicians, researchers, and educators to consolidate knowledge and build the basis for mastering the skills needed for the management, resolution, and transformation of conflict.
University for Peace

Curriculum Development Workshop on Justice, Human Rights, and Peace – conclusions, recommendations, and areas for immediate follow-up

The second UPEACE Curriculum Development Workshop for the Great Lakes and Eastern African region was held in Kampala, Uganda from the 1st to 5th of December 2003, co-hosted with and coordinated by Makerere University, Uganda's premier institution of higher learning.

The workshop's goal was to focus on teaching the linkages between justice, human rights and peace. It is the second in a set of three sub-regional workshops being organized in 2003 and early 2004 by the UPEACE Africa Programme, bringing together academicians, researchers, and educators to consolidate knowledge and build the basis for mastering the skills needed for the management, resolution, and transformation of conflict. The strategy of curriculum development workshops allows individual professors, lecturers, and NGO leaders, to come together and rapidly develop from their cumulative experience what amount to immediately applicable teaching strategies. Participation at the workshop included representatives from academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and government, covering 11 countries of the region, namely Burundi, Cameroon, DRC, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Special guests and resource persons joined the workshop from Costa Rica, France, Netherlands, Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Field trips were organized to Mpigi and Jinja where workshop participants had the opportunity to interact with Uganda civil society organizations involved in peace and human rights work.

Participants contribute to a teaching package addressing the interlinkages between justice, peace, and human rights in Africa

A key output from the workshop includes the development of a teaching package which addresses the interlinked issues of justice, peace and human rights in Africa in a holistic and integral fashion to identify and understand both the factors that underpin peace and those that might cause war. Just as injustice is a cause, symptom and consequence of war, justice is the fundament of peaceful societies. Political justice and accountability is required to underpin a human rights regime, legal justice and the rule of law is the essential basis of governance and human security, and social justice is imperative for equitable development and inclusive participatory societies that eschew violence.

‘By digging into the truth, we will reveal the different perspectives that need to be reconciled or harmonized. By so doing, I believe we will have a better understanding of how best to pursue the overriding goal of human dignity, defined as the broadest shaping and sharing of all values, material, moral and spiritual’ (Francis Deng)

‘Peace without justice is a symbolic peace’ (Rigoberta Menchu)

The objective of the teaching package is to contribute to the formation of a new generation of rigorous, multi-disciplinary thinkers, analysts and activists who could contribute to fostering greater peace and justice in their countries, regions and continent. The package undertakes a multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional approach to the subject of peace and justice, integrating global contextual and theoretical material with African contextual, continental and philosophical material, in order to produce an African-specific approach to justice, human rights and peace.

‘People who do not preserve their memory are a people who have forfeited history’ (Wole Soyinka)

Public Dialogue

At a Public Dialogue hosted by the Uganda Human Rights Commission during the Curriculum Development Workshop, a resolution was presented and supported to launch a global movement towards the adoption of a United Nations Convention on the Human Right to Peace. Participants at the dialogue resolved:-
“……that for the purpose of defending and promoting peace and building a permanent culture of peace in Uganda, in all the African countries here represented and in the entire world, we do hereby endorse the official opening of wide discussions and debate in our respective countries on the necessity to generate support for a petition by our respective countries to the Secretary General of the United Nations on the urgent need and necessity to have a fully fledged United Nations Convention on the Human Right to Peace”
During the same public dialogue, the Solicitor General of Uganda, Hon. Lucian Tibaruha, also officially launched the Uganda Human Rights Commission research on “Examining the status of health rights of patients and their attendants in private and public health facilities in Uganda”. In fulfillment of Article 52 (1) (c) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995, to “establish a continuing programme of research, education, and information, to enhance respect of human rights”, the Commission carried out this research which is being presented to the entire nation. In the words of Ms. Margaret Sekaggya, Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, who presented the report during the UPEACE/Makerere University Curriculum Development Workshop on Justice, Human Rights, and Peace, “the human right to health and all health rights are intimately linked to the requirements of justice, human rights, and peace in any nation. When proper health care is provided for all citizens of a nation, then justice, human rights, and peace, are being realized”.
In a closing ceremony of the workshop, Dr. S.P. Kagoda, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, spoke of the timeliness of the workshop and the pertinence of the theme in a region which is “crying out for peace”. Whilst recognizing the important role that academics can play in encouraging greater understanding of the issues that are likely to breed conflict, Dr. Kagoda expressed his hopes that the curricula would be shared with the wider community, including inserting such material into the primary school level. The Ministry of Internal Affairs fully supported the workshop, and looks forward to helping to move forward the recommendations emanating from the meeting, extending their hope that the network will be able to contribute to the development of policies and laws related to issues of reconciliation in the region.
The strength of communication through art conveys powerful messages that can be understood by every age group. Makerere University Department of Music, Dance, and Drama performed creative dances, opened the workshop with a Song for Peace dedicated to the Africa Programme of UPEACE, and motivated participants in the midst of the workshop with a play entitled “Echoes of Peace”.
Key Recommendations for the workshop
Participants deliberated on recommendations for follow on activities from the workshop, highlighting their concerns that the workshop be seen not as a one-off event, but rather a spark for a longer term process of capacity building within the region to teach, train, and research on issues pertaining to justice, human rights, and peace. Recommendations included:-
a) Training of Trainer Workshops at the national level to strengthen the knowledge of a wide array of stakeholders on issues of justice, reconciliation, human rights, and peace
b) Pilot testing of the teaching package of material, and inclusion of practitioners as a target group of learners and teachers
c) Ensuring the centrality of gender in the teaching process and teaching material
d) Extensive requests for literature and teaching material to complement the teaching package and bibliography
e) Encouragement of inter-university exchanges of faculty and teaching staff within the region and across the regions in Africa
f) Facilitation, by the UPEACE/Africa Programme, of a network of peace educators in the region, including the development of a web-site and bulletin board to exchange information across the region
g) Translation of all workshop material into French for francophone participants from the region

Follow-up activities in Uganda
In a subsequent meeting with the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Kampala, Mr. Daouda Touré congratulated UPEACE and Makerere University for addressing the linkage between justice, human rights, and peace, stating that “most of the problems in Africa and elsewhere are because of exclusion”. He underscored the importance of addressing not only real, visible signs of exclusion, but also the need to take account of “perceived” feelings of injustice. Mr. Touré encouraged UPEACE and Makerere University to train a broad range of stakeholders on issues related to justice, human rights, and peace, in order to create a critical mass of people who are capable of understanding and preventing violent conflict. Mr. Touré confirmed the support of UNDP in a number of follow-up activities, most notably:-
a) a national training-of-the-trainers workshop to build on the teaching material on justice, human rights, and peace which was elaborated upon during the curriculum development workshop. Such a workshop should involve a cross-section of stakeholders from Universities, NGOs, policy makers, military representatives, and UN representatives.

b) a workshop in Northern Uganda for a broad range of stakeholders, including the military, particularly those operating in refugee camps, on concepts of human security and the responsibility to protect. Such a workshop could also build on the key dimensions of justice, human rights, and peace, as raised during the curriculum workshop.

c) a workshop, in collaboration with the Uganda Human Rights Commission, on developing peace education and human rights curricula for the military services in Uganda (building on a workshop hosted by UPEACE in Sierra Leone in November 2003 for the military services and armed forces of Sierra Leone, and attended by Brigadier Kaihura Kale of the Ugandan army)
* * * * * *

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Curator

Rainbo

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/19118

A curator is sought to develop an interactive performance inspired by women's rights as part of an international NGO activity. The curator's role would be to develop and to creatively weave chosen pieces of art work into an original tableau of African multicultural/multilingual activist participatory edutainment.
EXCITING OPPORTUNITY FOR A CREATIVE INDIVIDUAL!

Sought: Curator for interactive activist performance


A curator is sought to develop an interactive performance inspired by women’s rights as part of an international NGO activity. The curator’s role would be to develop and to creatively weave chosen pieces of art work into an original tableau of African multicultural/multilingual activist participatory edutainment.

The objectives of the performance include:

o Translating the issues pertaining to African women’s and girls sexual and reproductive health and rights and the ICPD Programme of Action into a high-impact and interactive creative performance
o Actively engaging the audience in a participatory manner, so as to enable them to focus directly on, and make a contribution to, the discussion of issues raised in the performance
o Creating a sustainable and re-usable performance tool, that can be performed in different places, and to difference audiences
o Representing a diversity of performers from the African continent; a diversity of issues affecting the realisation of sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls on the African continent; and a diversity of achievements and triumphs in the face of seeming insurmountable barriers
o Strengthening existing links between the African continent, and entities (such as the AMANITARE Partnership) that are uniquely positioned, and working from myriad perspectives towards Africa’s development




JOB SUMMARY

Duties of the Curator include:

o Identifying appropriate existing work that fulfils at least one of the objectives listed above, and deals specifically with issues pertaining to African women’s and girls sexual and reproductive health and rights (such as female circumcision/female genital mutilation, gender-based violence and related issues).
o Creatively link these works together and create an holistic and interactive performance, framed by the overarching theme of African women’s and girls’ struggles, negotiations and triumphs in protesting, demanding and celebrating sexual and reproductive health and rights in the context of the ICPD.





QUALIFICATIONS

The ideal candidate will have a demonstrated commitment to the issues of African women and girls’ rights.

S/he will have experience of curating/artistically directing/ producing, gender-focused performances pertaining, for example, to female circumcision/female genital mutilation and related issues.

The candidate will have a collaborative approach to their work: both in relation to working closely with the commissioning organisation (AMANITARE) and in relation to the performance itself being one that actively engages the audience.

S/he will have demonstrable experience of doing African multilingual/multicultural activist participatory edutainment.

S/he will have demonstrable experience of working with African performers.

The candidate will have a demonstrated ability to meet strict deadlines and to work within a budget.

The preferred candidate will be London-based or be able to reach London easily with minimal cost implications; and will have permission to work in the UK.



DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Applicants must send their curriculum vitae, a portfolio of their work, including at least one visual sample and a covering letter by 23rd JANUARY 2004 to:


Rainbo
RE: Roundtable Performance Applications
Studio 5a, Queens Studios
121 Salusbury Road
London NW6 6RG


Interviews will take place February 9th-12th 2004.

Applicants can visit the AMANITARE website at: www.amanitare.org
Please address all queries to: info@amanitare.org













PROJECT BACKGROUND

In 2004 it will be 10 years since the adoption of the Programme of Action developed at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in 1994, and reaffirmed globally in 1999, was adopted. The Programme of Action established international commitment to women’s rights and women’s empowerment as central components for the attainment of sexual and reproductive health and rights and for development. The ‘ICPD Roundtable’ is an international NGO-led event to be held in London between August 30th and September 2nd 2004.The Roundtable is an event that will bring together 500 stakeholders representing interests, diversities and experiences from all global regions, to dialogue about the potential challenges facing the ICPD and ICPD +5 visions in the current global socio-economic and political climate.

The ICPD Roundtable is being coordinated by the International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF), Population Action International (PAI), Family Care International (FCI), and their regional partners: AMANITARE - the African Partnership for the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women and Girls; the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network (LACWHN) and the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW).

PROPOSED EVENT

As one of the partner Networks representing the Africa region, AMANITARE is proposing to contribute an interactive performance inspired by women’s rights as part of the Roundtable events. The proposed event will consist of an artistic performance dealing explicitly with ICPD-related issues affecting the realisation of African Women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights. Provisionally entitled: We women are not like maize caterpillars who do not listen advice to get out before the maize is roasted, we want to survive - African Women & Girls’ Experiences of ICPD 10 Years On , the event will demonstrate some of the struggles and difficulties faced by African women and girls’ in negotiating, asserting and protecting their sexual and reproductive health and rights; and celebrate their triumphs and achievements in translating the ICPD Programme of Action into the reality of their own lives. The event will also actively engage the audience in considering the issues raised, in a forum where international stakeholders are not commonly called upon to unequivocally consider critically and creatively presented evidence of the difficult terrains that shape particular aspects of the lives of African women and girls.

Through the performance of poetry, music and drama, the performance is envisioned to be a piece of ‘edutainment’ in the long tradition of African ‘activist performing art’ which uses the performance medium to entertain as well as educate those with whom it engages.

The performance will consist of an amalgamation of excerpts of existing dramatisations/choreographies, newly developed songs/poetry, dealing specifically with issues pertaining to the sexual and reproductive rights of African women and girls (such as female circumcision/female genital mutilation, gender-based violence etc). The central theme of the performance, and cross-cutting each component of it, will be African women and girls’ struggles, negotiations and triumphs in celebrating, protesting and demanding sexual and reproductive health and rights in the context of the ICPD.

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Global: Senior Liaison Officer

United Nations Environment Programme

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/19117

UNEP, the principal United Nations organisation in the field of environment is seeking suitably qualified candidates for the post of Senior Liaison Officer, Regional Officer for Asia and the Pacific, based in Beijing, China.
Senior Liaison Officer, L-5
UNEP/GEF Regional Coordinator Asia and the Pacific (ROAP)



UNEP, the principal United Nations organization in the field of environment is seeking suitably qualified candidates for the post of Senior Liaison Officer, Regional Officer for Asia and the Pacific, based in Beijing, China.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Regional Director of ROAP the incumbent will be responsible for North East Asia Cooperation as well as coordination of national activities of UNEP in China. Under the supervision of the Director of the GEF Division, the incumbent will act as the regional coordinator on GEF related issues in China and assist in the preparation of GEF eligible activities of relevance to UNEP’s mandate.


Qualifications and Experience Required
Advanced university degree in political science, international affairs, or environmental science. At least 15 years of relevant working experience of which at least 6 years at the international level. Thorough knowledge of the political situation in areas of North East Asia required. Thorough knowledge of project formulation and management and of UN Rules and Regulations is desirable. Fluency in English required and Chinese highly desirable. Working knowledge of other United Nations languages would be an asset.

An internationally competitive salary and benefits at standard UN rates will be offered.
For a more detailed job description visit UNEP’s web page at www.unep.org/vacancies Interested applicants are requested to send detailed CV or UN Personal History Form (P-11) before ------ to the Chief, Recruitment Section, Human Resources Management Services, United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), P.O. Box 67578, Nairobi, Kenya. Fax (254 20) 624212/624134.

DEADLINE 11 January 04

IN ALL CORRESPONDENCE/ENQUIRIES PLEASE QUOTE VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER NA-03-08 (for ROAP).

Senior Programme Officer, L-5
UNEP/GEF Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean (ROLAC)




UNEP/GEF, is seeking suitably qualified candidates for the post of Senior Programme Officer, UNEP/GEF Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean to be based in Mexico city.


Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Regional Director for ROLAC and the Director of the Division on GEF Coordination, the incumbent will be responsible for promoting GEF activities for the LAC region. More specifically, the incumbent will provide technical support to the preparation of GEF activities for the countries in the region and act as UNEP/GEF Focal point. taking into account the specific needs and situations of the Small Islands States and Least Developed Countries.


Qualifications and Experience Required
Advanced university degree in social or environmental science. At least 14 years of relevant working experience of which at least 6 years at the international level.

An internationally competitive salary and benefits at standard UN rates will be offered.
For a more detailed job description visit UNEP’s web page at www.unep.org/vacancies Interested applicants are requested to send detailed CV or UN Personal History Form (P-11) before ------ to the Chief, Recruitment Section, Human Resources Management Services, United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), P.O. Box 67578, Nairobi, Kenya. Fax (254 20) 624212/624134.


DEADLINE 11 January 04

IN ALL CORRESPONDENCE/ENQUIRIES PLEASE QUOTE VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER NA-03-09 (for ROLAC).

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International Criminal Court Vacancy Announcements

2003-12-18

http://www.icc-cpi.int/php/jobs/vacaturesp.php

The following Vacancy Announcements are currently open and crucial for the Court:
* Associate English Translator;
* Associate French Translator;
* Conference Interpreter - English;
* Conference Interpreter - French;
* English Linguist;
* English Reviser/Editor;
* French Linguist;
* French Reviser/Editor.
The ICC website provides more general information on the above-mentioned Vacancies.

Nigeria: Programme Communication/Social Mobilisation Officer

Unicef

2003-12-18

http://www.comminit.com/vacancy1638.html

Under the general guidance of the Chief, Planning and Communication, the successful candidate will be responsible for the design, management, execution, monitoring and evaluation of a behaviour change and social mobilization strategy in support of the country Programme Communication/Social Mobilisation activities for supporting Polio eradication, fast tracking of Girl’s Education and other programmes.

Southern Africa: Programme Officer

Equinet

2003-12-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/19091

The Regional Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa (EQUINET) is seeking a dynamic and committed public health professional as a programme officer to support the work in EQUINET. EQUINET works on issues of equity in health in southern Africa and supports research, policy development and analysis, information dissemination, networking and advocacy through institutions across southern Africa.
The programme officer works closely with the programme manager, the co-ordinators of EQUINET’s theme work and the steering committee. The work involves:
- Reviewing and providing technical and administrative support to the research, publication and policy intervention work, within specific themes and across the network;
- Preparing calls for grants, meeting and conference announcements, briefings and reports;
- Implementation and reporting on network wide activities (skills workshops, training, student grants, cross cutting research and analysis, conferences, publications and policy intervention);
- Ensuring the production and dissemination of EQUINET publications;
- Organising and ensuring reporting on core EQUINET processes, including evaluation work, the steering committee meetings and the EQUINET conference;
- Presenting EQUINET work and analysis in policy platforms, networks and joint alliance work in the Southern African Development Community (SADC);
- Providing input to the EQUINET website, newsletter and data bases.
CALL FOR APPLICANTS: PROGRAMME OFFICER FOR EQUINET



The Regional Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa (EQUINET) is
seeking a dynamic and committed public health professional as a programme officer to support the work in EQUINET EQUINET works on issues of equity in health in southern Africa and supports research, policy development and analysis, information dissemination, networking and advocacy through institutions across southern Africa. (See www.equinetafrica.org)

The programme officer works closely with the programme manager, the co-ordinators of EQUINET’s theme work and the steering committee. The work involves:
- Reviewing and providing technical and administrative support to the research, publication and policy intervention work, within specific themes and across the network;
- Preparing calls for grants, meeting and conference announcements, briefings and reports;
- Implementation and reporting on network wide activities (skills workshops, training, student grants, cross cutting research and analysis, conferences, publications and policy intervention);
- Ensuring the production and dissemination of EQUINET publications;
- Organising and ensuring reporting on core EQUINET processes, including evaluation work, the steering committee meetings and the EQUINET conference;
- Presenting EQUINET work and analysis in policy platforms, networks and joint alliance work in the Southern African Development Community (SADC);
- Providing input to the EQUINET website, newsletter and data bases.

QUALIFICATIONS/ SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE POST:
- Preferably Masters level qualification in a field relevant to public health
- Knowledge of and experience in public health, equity issues and research and/or policy experience
- Proven ability to manage a programme of work, based on short briefing and set objectives, to take initiative and work independently
- Proven experience of working within networks or multidisciplinary teams and ability to relate well with senior officials, researchers, and civil society organisations
- Proven ability to write well and to synthesise and summarise information succinctly for different audiences
- Ability to use electronic and internet communication
- Willingness to travel extensively.
- Citizen (preferably) or resident of a southern African country

REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS
This is a full time position for, in the first instance 2 years. The remuneration Package is negotiable.

APPLICANTS:
Should submit to Dr. Rene Loewenson at the Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC) their CVs and names of three referees, as well as a letter outlining the skills and experience offered to EQUINET. Provide also two recent documents you have written that provide evidence of research, policy, review work done. Applicants should send their responses (electronic or hard copy) to reach TARSC by January 19 latest. Shortlisted respondents will be interviewed in late January. The post will be available as of 1 February 2004 and starting date is negotiable.

TARSC 47 Van Praagh Ave, Milton Park, Harare, Zimbabwe
Ph: 263-4-708835 Fax: 263-4-737 220 Email: rene@tarsc.org

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Fahamu