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Featured this week

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/29267

EDITORIAL: Capitalism has presided over some horrific genocides, notes Jacques Depelchin
COMMENT&ANALYSIS:
- Shola Oshodi discusses gender and development
- People in rich countries are being lied to about the causes of African famine, says Judith Amanthis
- Indigenous communities must be recognized in Africa, argues Angela N. Khaminwa
LETTERS: On Zimbabwe’s debt, making poverty history, in support of Chidi Anselm Odinkalu and the other side of John Garang
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem asks why Nigeria can’t get its act together
BLOGGING AFRICA: A roundup of commentary from African blogs
BOOKS AND ARTS: Chenjerai Hove says freedom of expression should also mean freedom after expression
GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST POVERTY: The GCAP coalition is mobilizing for the United Nations Millennium +5 review
CONFLICTS AND EMERGENCIES: Links to news about DRC, Niger, Sudan and Zimbabwe
HUMAN RIGHTS: Remembering the slave trade and the international day of the disappeared
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: UN endorses new guidelines on property rights of displaced persons
WOMEN AND GENDER: SADC summit presents many challenges for gender equality
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: UN reform unlikely, plus links to news on Egypt, Kenya, Liberia and Nigeria
DEVELOPMENT: African civil society speaks on the road to Hong Kong
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Nestle hammered over breast milk substitutes; responding to the health workforce crisis in Chad
MEDIA: "Idiots like you will be killed one by one" Ivory Coast newspaper editor told
AND…Sections on Advocacy, Internet, Fundraising, Courses and Jobs.

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Born out of genocide; born to live off genocide

Jacques Depelchin

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/29263

During August, two historical events are commemorated, both of which had a major impact on the destiny of millions of people and changed the face of the world forever. The first, remembered on August 6 and 9, is the horrific nuclear bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 that killed hundreds of thousands of people. The second, marked on August 23, reminds us of the abolition of the slave trade, a system that devastated African societies for hundreds of years. What is the nature of the system that allows for atrocities such as these and countless others? Jacques Depelchin goes to the heart of capitalism and finds a system gone mad.


Capitalism has been so genocidal that it is worthwhile to posit that it cannot do otherwise, despite attempts to humanize it. How it came about, how it has been portrayed (by friends and foes) over the centuries but especially now, reinforces the idea that it cannot be done away with. How and where it has slaughtered in massive and horrific ways should be understood as only the smallest manifestation of its genocidal nature - not just against one group of people, but against all human beings. Could it have been otherwise?

Those who are convinced that capitalism can be humanized shall argue yes. Unfortunately, the data are so skewed in their favor that to argue the opposite is as huge an obstacle as the challenge faced by the slaves who rose up against slavery in Haiti in 1791. If the above question is going to be discussed adequately, capitalism and its history must no longer be treated as if, by definition, it is immune from evil. The hypothesis is that the principles which have sustained it, propagate death. Capitalism kills everything it touches, especially when it claims to do otherwise. It has devised as many ways of killing as there are declared and undeclared worshippers.

Capitalism and how victims of genocides become killers

Self-appointed certifiers of evil can easily be blind to their own actions. For former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the death of half a million children in Iraq as a result of US imposed sanctions was considered "worth" the effort. Yet, why does it seem easier to accept the description of a Hutu machete-wielding genocider as beyond barbarism? It is as if certain epithets and words can only be linked to certain peoples. Yet, victims of genocides can easily become killers; more easily than can be imagined. In its history of always imposing its principles, rules and laws, capitalism shall eventually face the very practices it has attributed to its enemies.

As capitalism inaugurated itself, about 500 years ago, so it has continued to reproduce itself, modernizing its ways and refining how it sells itself. The current occupation of Iraq is a modernized, updated visual illustration of how Amerindians were stripped of their land and how Africans and Asians were yanked from their homes and land by what came to be known initially as The System - meaning slavery and all that grew out of it.

There is a tendency, even among the most critical voices (e.g. Howard Zinn's History of the United States), not to see the connections between what could be described as the inaugural homelessness of the Amerindians and the Africans, Hitler's lebensraum, today's homelessness in the richest countries of the Planet and the same phenomenon in the streets of Fallujah, Palestine and South Africa. At this rate, for how long will humanity be able to call Planet Earth home?

I do not claim to say anything new. Many have said it before, more eloquently, forcefully and inspiringly (e.g. Fredy Perlman, Against His-tory, Against Leviathan; Bertram Gross, Friendly Fascism). The tradition of resisting the system did not just start from 19th century Europe, as it included those who left no writings, but screamed and fought like hell against their kin predators. It has included the survivors of certified and uncertified holocausts. It must include the voices which continue to be silenced because their suffering did not register on the Richter Scale of genocidal certification, and remain stubbornly unacknowledged. Repetition, in different multiple ways, can be helpful in strengthening resistance to capitalism, in its terrorizing and/or user-friendly forms. For example, the well-known genocidal sequences of the twentieth century have been identified (and certified) in ways which, in one stroke, exempt and anonymize the real culprit from closer scrutiny.

Why ‘Never Again’ has always been applied selectively

And, if the famous ‘Never Again’ should really be stood by, it is necessary to look at capitalism with less benevolent, opportunistic eyes simply because the pillars of power today (military, economic, political, juridical, cultural and religious) have been molded by the manner in which capitalism emerged and sees itself as angelic, in triumphal colors. One of the measures (and by no means the only one) of how total the triumph has been, can be seen, most recently, in how the current US administration is forcing the nation-state signatories of environmental and international criminal laws to retreat from signed agreements, whether in Geneva, Kyoto or Rome. But then, this ignoring of international conventions and covenants is not new, as, for example, can be seen today by how the Convention Against Genocide (1948) has been ignored by the signatories.

Globalization as being portrayed today by the G8 has been sold in the same fashion over the last 500 years: through a combination of military conquests, territorial occupation, minimal social and humanitarian programs, corruption, severe and protracted punishment for those who, collectively or individually, do not submit (e.g. Haiti, Cuba, Grenada, Nicaragua, Lumumba, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu Jamal, to only mention a few).

By definition, capitalism carries within it an unrelenting need for total control not just of the market, but of everything, of life and death. There is no other morality or ethics but the triumph of the power principle "might is right". ‘Never Again’ cannot just apply to the WWII Holocaust, but must be linked to the genocidal sequences unleashed by capitalism, otherwise, ‘Never Again’ will never apply (or ever so selectively as has been the practice).

From slavery until today, the system has been regularly updated and modernized. In times of crisis, when its real nature is difficult to hide, capitalism takes on a reformist mantle as it did through the abolition of slavery, or in other transitional phases, such as from colonial rule, or from Apartheid in South Africa.

To those who argue that what we are seeing is no different from how previous empires have come and gone, one can only say that it is the first time in history that humans have mastered the capacity to instantly destroy all life on the Planet. From the end of World War II, or more precisely, since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, efforts have been made to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Those efforts have failed, are failing and shall continue to fail unless the deep, rarely acknowledged causes which led to WW I, WW II, WW III (The so-called Cold War) and WW IV (Worldwide Structural Adjustment Programs which have come full circle to the US via the attempt to do away with social security) and WW V (the current war, without end, against terror) are looked at without complacency. As of now it is possible to argue that nuclear power is to the physics world or to nature as capitalism is to economics: both are untamable.

The submission/integration to capital has now reached an unprecedented level: geographical, political, ideological, legal, cultural and religious. In an analysis of the crisis of political leadership in the DRC, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba (2005) pointed out that the state (as fashioned in Africa by capital, from colonial to post-colonial times) appears as genetically coded to be at the service of capital, regardless of geographical borders. Capital has no allegiance and can be truly described as "sans foi ni loi" (faithless and lawless), rewriting rules and laws as it spreads, facilitating its never ending expansion. All and everything is fodder to its insatiable appetite. Could it ever have been emancipatory as envisaged at one point? What can be answered with certainty is that, from how it has unfolded, humanity must extract some sort of emancipatory breathing space, while avoiding falling into the very same practices of seeking power by any means necessary.

What if evil had always been at the core of capitalism?

The process of definitively extricating ourselves from its shackles will require applying the following principles: resist its further spread through constant and systematic non-violence against all of its manifestations wherever and whenever they are seen and understood. Affirm the mortality of capital by upholding the immortality of the human.

‘Unrealistic’ will say some. When millions of human beings on earth are faced with living off less than 5 dollars a day, the only realistic position ought to strive to change it as urgently as possible; maybe under the form of ‘A Declaration Against Capital as Genocidal’ which could signal the beginning of a truth procedure toward rendering capitalism and its sustaining structures obsolete.

The genocidal nature of capital is hidden from view, in great part, because the rules for identifying a genocide are written in such a way that capital is safely disconnected from responsibility. In that process basic notions like justice lose their universal integrity because the system has become extremely adept at justifying and rationalizing the most unacceptable, the most unjustifiable crimes. The very history of the WW II Holocaust has preferred to focus on the personalization of the culprits while, at the same time, trying very hard to erase or downplay corporate responsibility. But even at the level of corporate responsibility, personalizing evil by actually naming corporations which benefited from the Holocaust is not very helpful from the perspective of determining with as much precision as possible what is responsible for the inability, reluctance and refusal to identify the most intractable source of evil.

It is obvious why capital, its history and all of the structures which have grown out of it should not be considered as the ultimate source of evil in today's world. Most people, even among those who suffer the most from capital's impact world wide, are willing to give capital the benefit of the doubt, if only on account of a list of "positive things" which are associated with capital. Yet, if given a real viable choice, most people would certainly prefer to be able to feed themselves without having to rely on charity.

The convergence and concentration, through and thanks to corporations, of military, economic, financial, political, scientific and religious power in the hands of very few individuals worldwide, is unprecedented. Sometimes it looks as if WW II never really ended, and that the fight for world supremacy was reconfigured for the benefit of the one capable of frightening the rest of the world into submission because its military arsenal had the demonstrated capacity to destroy life on Earth. This capacity is easy to understand when referring to the nuclear armament industry and militarism, but most advocates of peace on earth are not willing to confront the system which, according to them, sustains both the positive and the negative; because the unstated assumption is that capitalism, by definition, cannot be evil, cannot lead to evil behavior. Thus, such evil institutions as The Gulag cannot be associated with the US in any way, as Amnesty International found out upon publishing its latest annual report in which it compares the prison networks maintained by the US to the Soviet Gulag. Entertaining such comparisons, thoughts and hypotheses would undermine the basis upon which the triumphal histories of the so-called most advanced nations have been written.

Global capital vs. US capital to capital vs. all the peoples of the world?

Sometimes the proof that something no longer works takes several failures to be accepted, but what if capital has no way of recognizing failure? Capital can no longer impose itself through wars of conquests, even if some continue to think that owning the biggest military machine in history gives them the right to keep re-conquering the Planet, over and over.

Just recently (June 20-24), Beijing was flexing its muscles in a bid to buy one of the US oil companies, (UNOCAL). As if this was not enough of a sign of the changing times, Mr. Greenspan, Head of the US Federal Reserve Bank, has warned the Bush administration against trying punitive measures against Chinese imports because such a move would not help increase jobs in the US market. However, neither Greenspan's proposed remedy (among other things, specializing in "smart jobs" as once advocated by Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under the first Clinton Administration) will not work because, across the board, from India to China, via Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea, blue and white collar workers have become smarter and more productive than their US counterparts. Mr. Greenspan's thinking is typical of a believer in the global capitalist system, joining hands with the CEOs of IBM, Intel, financiers, bankers, etc. who look at the Chinese market as the ultimate promised land.

Is it bio-technology (life) or thanato-technology (death)?

The US ruling establishment has convinced itself and a great part of the world that its monopoly of weapons of mass destruction is the safest protection against evil, even though the 500 year build-up to this supremacy demonstrates the opposite. And the situation is getting worse. One of the most important indicators of how much more lethal capital has become, is the privatization of the US Army and the flow of profits to the corporations. This domination of the military industrial and prison complex is complimented by domination in the entertainment/sport/leisure industry (which includes the food industry, the film and advertising industries) whose combined function is to prevent the citizens from thinking, or better to have the illusion of thinking, under the sedation of the entertainment industry. Thinking outside the box is only meant for profit, for increasing consumption, not for solving social issues. Outside of the box is actually within an already prepared larger box. Empowerment within the pyramidal configuration of the existing power structure can not help but reproduce that structure when what is called for is its dissolution in favor of the sphere (as beautifully shown by Ayi Kwei Armah in his last novel KMT: In the House of Life, Per Ankh, 2002) where the emphasis is away from competition and confrontation and toward cooperation and harmony among people and with nature.

The emphasis on competition has been so severe that it has transformed, for example, the meaning of words like healing. As practiced today in the US, the health industry is not about healing, it is much more about how, as the popular phrase goes, to "make a killing" by looking for (and selling) the miracle cure or the miracle medical technical procedure. The market reigns supreme in the collective and individual minds. Its relentlessness so completely blinds those who should be served that it has acquired a life of its own as though nothing can be done to dampen or control its most destructive features. Simple, common sense understanding of the relationship between one's health and what is eaten and drunk as the best and most effective way of maintaining health is losing credibility, thanks to skilful advertising.

Primitive accumulation is no longer about separating the producers from their means of production, but about stripping human beings of their capacity to think. This divisive mechanism has been so refined, so internalized, that individuals are instinctively more concerned about the survival of the system which is killing them rather than about the survival of their bodies.

Which way forward?

A criminal running away from the crime ends up committing more and more horrendous crimes in order to cover up the previous ones, and so it has been and continues with capitalism. Since the crimes have never been acknowledged as such, runaway genocidal sequences continue and are getting worse despite ethics courses being taught in law, business and medical schools, and despite the proliferation of human rights organizations. When the G8 and their formal and informal acolytes vow to fight for Africa and make poverty history it sounded like previous pious vows about abolition. The source of poverty is greed. Capitalism thrives on greed, poverty, violence, warfare and injustice. Why not make capitalism history?

A system which has been genocidal cannot help but seek to reproduce itself through what it perceives as "having worked" even though the price is becoming less and less acceptable. Given the economic, financial and legal system, conviction will never happen and could only happen if people battle for another world on the basis of principles framed by a higher law, a law which is not framed by the dictates of capital, but by the principles of solidarity, cooperation, justice and peace with all peoples of the Planet.

Every year on August 6th and 9th, the Hibakusha (survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), along with nuclear abolitionists and supporters try to remind the world, anxiously, that no one should ever suffer what they went through. Should it not be obvious that the triumphant managers of capitalism and their millions upon millions (generation after generation) of nameless victims are generic Hibakusha, before their time, of a system gone mad.

The anxiety in the voices of the Hibakusha from Hiroshima and Nagasaki comes from wondering what will happen when they die. But one is also encouraged by the inexhaustible fidelity to what is best in humanity, exemplified by Haitians from 1791 to 1804 and through to today (2005), by survivors of the WW II Holocaust battling for Palestinians, by anti-apartheid militants who have refused to cash in on their dues because, as they saw the seamless slide from South African to global apartheid, their conscience called on them to continue in the spirit of those who, in 1791, in Haiti, faced unimaginably worst odds.

* Jacques Depelchin is Executive Director of the Ota Benga Alliance for Peace in the DRC.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Beyond Gender in the Development World

Shola Oshodi

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/29264

The management structure of many non-profit organisations is dominated by men and often functions as a reflection of wider inequalities in society, states Shola Oshodi. Managers – mainly men – have often paid lip service to redressing imbalances and even when programmes have been developed they have been implemented as an adjunct to other factors or programs. In this context, Oshodi calls for a more gender fair culture within the non-profit sector.


In recent times the words gender and empowerment have become more and more a part of the development discourse. Different meanings, contexts and perceptions have been ascribed to it by different people depending on which side of the divide one is on. It has become a major issue that international or transnational NGO donors have now made part of their criteria in funding other organisations and their programs. But can one really say that gender and empowerment are reflected in these organisations themselves? Can the non-profit sector successfully become engendered without empowerment?

The importance of gender and empowerment in NGO’s cannot be overemphasized. Over the years these two terminologies have, to some extent, brought about a new awareness and raised the interest and determination of people in development to deal with age-old traditions, mindsets and assumptions that have stereotyped and affected more than half of the world’s population. Although these issues are currently being dealt with, more needs to be done if the desired objective of equality and justice for all is to be achieved, especially as it relates to the nonprofit sector as an institution.

Organisational culture, according to Kelleher et al (1996), “is the pattern of shared beliefs, and values that has worked to solve important organizational problems in the past” [Grabbing the tiger by the Tail, (CCIC, 1996), P.42]. These values and beliefs include and are not limited to patriarchy, bureaucracy, work behavior, workplace politics, symbols, power and masculine principles. These values and beliefs were typical of the first set of NGO’s, which came to shape and govern the way nonprofit business is conducted today. These stem from the society in which the founders and leaders grew up. The prevailing organisational culture today is predominantly what is obtainable in the larger society, and this is patriarchal and hegemonic and seeks to promote male interest over all others. Given the above definition one can by the same token say that organisational culture has also worked against solving important organisational problems of gender and empowerment within the non-profit sector. Men occupy most of the top positions in the non-profit sector in a similar way to what can be found in the private and public sector. It is a reflection of the bureaucratic and patriarchal culture of the larger society.

The structure of organisations have also not helped matters as most of the “substructure of organisations remains essentially patriarchal: designed by men, led by men in ways comparable with men’s interest” [Grabbing the Tiger by the Tail (CCIC, 1996), p. 13]. Such structures range from the composition of the management team to board membership. Therefore, the management of non-profits - mainly by men - leaves one with a big question of how can men with mindsets and stereotypes that see women as subordinates and lesser equals actively plan and execute development programs for women. These policies or activities cannot effectively tackle issues that relate and dwell on the subordination and disempowerment of women.

Prevailing organisational culture and structure have coloured and brought about several inimical attitudes on the part of players in the non profit sectors in handling the issue of bringing a gender perspective into their organisation and work. “It is an inconvenience to some, … others nod in agreement, but postpone taking the responsibility, … yet others give in to denial that NGO’s might even perpetuate social inequalities” [Clayton Andrew, NGO’s Civil Society and the State: Building Democracy in Transitional Societies, (1996),P72]. In general, they pay lip service to gender issues in their organisation while others pay little or insignificant attention. On the whole, it has been shown that even those who have made it part of their organisation’s objective, most of the time treat it as an adjunct to other factors or programs they believe are more important.

In fact women’s movements have had to spearhead and place the issue of gender and empowerment at the forefront of the development discourse, leaving these movements with the responsibility of negotiating and bargaining with men and powerful masculine institutions. Right from the 18th century till today, the women’s movement “have organised against inequalities based on sex and demanded legal reforms aimed at removing patriarchy within the family and society” [New C, cited in Jackson and Pearson, Feminist Visions of Development, (1998, London and New York) P75]. This has been done by seeking legislative reform and through lobbying of international bodies like the UN to advocate for women’s rights.

In addition, these movements have succeeded in moving women’s interest into the public arena of politics, economics and power institutions through the reframing of issues into rights for women while at the same time advocating for women’s right to occupy positions of power in terms of political and economic decision making within the society.

If one examines NGOs, would NGO’s themselves be truthfully labeled as organisations that further the pressing issues of gender and empowerment through the setup of their own organisations? NGO’s have often allocated resources and implemented various programs to help women, but often these were actually designed and implemented by men. Furthermore, as a way of upholding the prevalent status quo between the sexes, they have sought to remove and substitute the word “women” with gender.

It is highly important that the terminology gender should be used together with the word women to make NGO's in the development circle grab the bull by the horn instead of providing them with a term under which they hide and embellish their unwillingness - intentionally or otherwise - to bring about equality and justice within the development world.

Gender issues should not only be tackled from the feminine perspective, but also from the masculine, in terms of re-educating men to change their perception of women’s role /position which should in turn bring about a change in the nature of men’s participation which would better foster the empowerment of women. Rowlands, (1998) notes that eliminating male bias and moving women out of the condition of near-universal subordination that they still currently occupy, will require cultural, economic and political changes [Afshar Haleh, Women and Empowerment (1998), P17].

Although there have been various attempts to treat gender and empowerment as separate and distinct terms in development, both are interrelated. One cannot function or successfully be achieved without the other. For some time now the focus has been on the number of women employed as against men without a correlation of the type of job/positions women are employed in or occupy in the non-profit sector. I sincerely believe that the issue of gender cannot be fully treated without empowerment. An organisation, in complying with the request on the need to ensure some sort of gender fairness, may still perpetuate bias, inequality and injustice by employing women at the lower cadre of the organization.

There is a need for development managers especially in sub-Saharan Africa to work towards transforming the formulation and execution of development policies from the way it stands now into more “feminist values of openness, fair treatment, clear lines of accountability, unity and shared responsibility and above all a commitment to people trust” [Kelleher et al, Grabbing the tiger by the Tail, (CCIC, 1996), P41]. Empowerment for women may well stem from the involvement and leadership of women at all levels rather than the inclusion of women for the sake of “number equality” as many people think or advocate. As rightly pointed out by Fowler, (1997) this would be further aided by a gender fair culture within NGO practices [Fowler Alan, Striking a Balance: A guide to Enhancing the Effectiveness of Non-Governmental Organizations in International Development (1997, London :Earthscan), P79].

* Shola Oshodi-John is the Programme Coordinator for the Civil Liberties Organization, Nigeria’s foremost human rights and membership based organization. She has worked with international organizations and women’s groups within and outside Nigeria for the past six years with a focus on international development, gender and public policy and non-profit management.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Niger: The IMF and World Bank's invisible war on Africans

Judith Amanthis

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/29265

Drought and famine are not normal conditions for any group of human beings, but what is normal is people in the west being lied to about the causes, writes Judith Amanthis, who lists various IMF policies as being responsible for the food crisis in Niger.


The IMF and the World Bank, and the EU as well, are killing Africans in their thousands in Niger, Mali and throughout the Sahel region of Africa. By August this year in Niger alone, three million are threatened with death from starvation. Up to 800,000, especially children, have already died. Niger is the second most impoverished country on this earth. Starvation, according to one aid agency, is normal there.

Drought and locusts destroyed crops, it's true, but the rains were down only 11% from normal. There is some food in Niger. The problem is that large numbers of people, especially in the rural areas, are just too poor to buy it when their crops fail. Why? First, subsistence farming in Africa doesn't bring in much money, or any money. It has no western financial backers. Second, in March 2005 the Niger government, having secured Highly Indebted Poor Country status for Niger, implemented an IMF condition on further loans: it put a 19% VAT on basic grains whose price had risen by up to 89% over the past five years. Traders naturally sell to the highest bidder. In this case they sold grains to other West African countries. The free market knows no borders, colonial or otherwise.

Many of the rural people in the Sahel region are nomadic livestock farmers. In Niger the market in livestock has slumped. Farmers who would have sold cattle and other stock to bring in money to buy food are now unable to sell starving animals on a glutted market where prices have fallen by 25% over the past five years. Many villages are now almost entirely women, children and the old, because the men have gone to the urban areas or other African countries in search of food, work and money. African women and children are as usual forced onto the front line.

But the western picture of starving peasant women and their children is one-sided. In March hungry women and men in Niamey, Maradi and Tahoua came out in protest against food prices. Placards read, 'We're hungry. Help us'. So there are angry urban dwellers and workers as well, who are well-organised and prepared to risk imprisonment - the government's response to the protest, according to one source - to get what they need. The pattern is similar throughout Africa. The people's struggle to survive and pressurise their governments into acting for them rather than for the western powers gets left out of the news altogether.

One of the IMF's most shocking acts of war against Africans in Niger has been to demand another condition on aid: the sale of emergency grain reserves. Over the past five years, this policy has contributed to famines in other parts of Africa, notably Malawi in 2002 and again this year. In fact famine stalks large swathes of central Africa. The rationale? Cheap grain is not to flood the market before harvest time. For this reason, the Niger government’s ‘cheap’ grain came on the market too late and too expensive.

Long term drought and famine can never be normal for any group of human beings. What is normal is people in the west being lied to about the causes of Africans' suffering and what Africans are doing about it.

Western oil and forestry companies who have created climate change are as implicated as well. Western Europe and the US are responsible for 50% of the world's carbon emissions, and forestry multinationals are destroying the earth's 'lungs', including the great Congo River Basin forest, at 26 hectares a minute (37 football pitches). Greater heat and erratic rain in the Sahel region means the Sahara Desert is creeping south. Areas like northern Nigeria and Senegal are drying up as well. In erratic weather, locusts breed more heavily, but since the mid 1980s, the West African regional organisation, OCALAV, which was set up at independence in the early 1960s to control locust swarms and other plagues has been restructured. Its funding has been cut. African governments which have restructured entire economies to make life easier for multinationals can no longer pay for services vital to the people's survival.

These same governments - eight throughout the Sahel and West Africa - have welcomed US military personnel into their armies so that young African men can be trained to protect western imperialism in the 'war on terror'.

As for cross border and selective use of pesticides, first, it's unaffordable by African governments, and second, it's unmanageable. Inter-governmental co-operation has broken down in the age of G8 grotesqueries. Live 8 put money in western multinational and individual bank accounts, period. Killing locusts at the hopper stage, before they take flight - often across colonial borders – and devour people's crops, is essential. Whatever the pros and cons of using pesticides to control locust swarms, ordinary Africans have, over a period of hundreds of years, had control of their environment stolen from them, and with genocidal consequences.

In June this year, President Tanja of Niger met with George Bush. As well as the Sahel region’s strategic importance in the ‘war on terror’, Niger is the world’s third largest uranium exporter. A new generation nuclear arsenal is in the US pipeline and Tanja is handing Africa’s uranium to US arms manufacturers on a plate.

In early August, Tanja was vilified in the western media for denying that millions of people were starving and for complaining that only a fraction of the promised aid from the west had arrived. At the same time the UN congratulated the government of Mali for dealing better with the imminent death by starvation of millions more Africans. The argument is clear: if some African governments are efficient enough to keep the lid on wholesale famine, the problem must be down to an individual, to who holds presidential office. What wasn't mentioned was that the free food handed out by the UN and the government to people in Mali was, according to a BBC World Service report, only obtainable in one particular area if you worked for an Oxfam water development project. The reporter asked a woman who was digging a hole to conserve rain water if she was happy to be getting food. She and everyone else working with her laughed uproariously.

* This article is from Kilombo, the African Liberation Support Campaign Network's journal.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

On the margins: Indigenous as relevant

Angela N. Khaminwa

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/29266

In reflecting on the rights of indigenous people in Africa, Angela N. Khaminwa remembers the story of a young man taken from the Belgian Congo in 1904 and placed on display at a US zoo. Unless traditional communities are recognized as an inherent part of national identity, she warns, modern day society risks a continuation of the gawking of a century ago.


Recently, I was half-surprised to learn about Ota Benga, one of the many twisted stories that characterize attitudes that Europeans held of Africans in the early 1900s. In 1904, Ota Benga, a young Twa, was taken from then Belgian Congo to the United States by an enthusiastic explorer. Treated as sub-human and a biological curiosity, he was ‘displayed’ at the St. Louis World Fair and later placed in the Bronx Zoo in a cage together with a parrot and an orangutan.

The image of a man caged and gawked at by children and adults is painful to visualize. However, despite the cultural changes embedded in the last 100 years, it seems that this gawking still occurs, albeit in less stark forms. People behave in strange ways when they think, or are convinced, that they are more culturally (and this is almost always equated with morally) advanced than others. The view of the traditional from the modern generates narratives wrapped up in generalizations, paternalism, and prejudice. The rush to modernization inspires a collective vision of a modern culture that pushes those who can’t - or won’t - assimilate to the margins of the national milieu.

An example of this marginalized existence can be gleaned from the Twa, the community from which Benga came. Today, many Twa are forced to self-exploit by relying on the gaze of others to survive financially. “An estimated 80% of Batwa earned capital from begging. Batwa are most able to support themselves when they mold themselves into the stereotypes expected of them. To remain docile, submissive and animal-like reaffirms the social hierarchies to which other groups have assigned them” (Refugees International, 2004).

Surviving socially is also problematic. Twa negotiate prejudice daily. “Many Ugandans … will not sit or eat with Batwas or allow inter-marriage. Batwas are often banned from collecting water from wells used by other groups. … Batwas are forced to remain in the margins of public places, and when selling goods must sit on the outskirts of markets, away from other vendors” (The Defender, 2002).

These types of experiences are not unique to the Twa. To various degrees, indigenous communities are subject to bias and discrimination which affects access to social services, inhibits chances at employment, and restricts participation in politics.

This exclusion replays the story of Ota Benga. In this redux, many are the gawking (and sometimes disinterested) observers barely recognizing, valuing, or protecting cultural worth. Core claims to land and natural resources have been muffled by reframing or misrepresentation. This leads to escalating social tension that pits modern and seemingly suave communities against traditional communities viewed as ill-equipped to handle modernity.

There are numerous basic questions that come to mind when considering the conditions of indigenous people. Firstly, are current definitions of indigenity appropriate to the African context? The ILO Convention (No. 169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
in Independent Countries defines indigenous communities as: tribal communities in independent countries whose socio-cultural conditions distinguish them and who are regulated by “customs or traditions or by special laws or regulations” and/or communities who occupied a country or region at the time of colonization or present boundaries and who retain their socio-political institutions.

The latter definition allows us to differentiate between black and non-black Africans but is an inappropriate fit in the context of minority and indigenous peoples’ rights. The former definition emerges as the most fitting for the continent (including groups such as the Pokot in Kenya and Uganda, the Barabaig pastoralists in Tanzania, the San in Southern Africa, and the Hadzabe in Ethiopia). But there are still significant levels of ambiguity surrounding the term.

Secondly, is there pressure on indigenous groups to assimilate? There appears to be tension around the idea of the wholly traditional (read historic) and the partially traditional (read contemporary) world. Despite the fact that many cultures in Africa have evolved into distinctly modern cultures, their nature is to assimilate. Social pressures focus on conformity to a generalized idea of modernity. This leads to a strong in-group dynamic which views the outsiders (the indigenous communities) and their agendas suspiciously.

Thirdly, does the action of recognizing an indigenous group jeopardize national cohesion? The hesitancy of governments to address the issue of internal difference full-force may be due to a need to promote national cohesion because it may result in giving a community additional protection and thus be perceived as politically favouring a community.

Fourthly, does recognizing a group as indigenous narrow development? Indigenous groups are entitled to certain rights under international law including access to ancestral land and attendant natural resources. (For example, the rights of the peoples concerned to the natural resources pertaining to their lands shall be specially safeguarded. These rights include the right of these peoples to participate in the use, management and conservation of these resources.) These claims may be in direct collision with government (or special interest) plans.

These questions are key points to consider, and return to, when considering indigenity on the continent.

We may not all agree in the definition of indigenous or the categorization of communities as indigenous. Regardless of what label we place on ethnic communities that maintain traditional lifestyles and livelihoods, there is no doubt that many of these communities are vulnerable to labour and sexual exploitation. Dispossession, poor access to health services and appropriate education systems, exclusion from participation in development, denial of cultural and language rights, and extinction as areas in which indigenous groups are vulnerable are some of the results (African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights, Working Group Report, 2002).

In addition, as a 2004 report by the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples’ states, “Indigenous peoples bear a disproportionate share of the social and human costs of resource-intensive and resource-extractive industries, large dams and other infrastructure projects, logging and plantations, bio-prospecting, industrial fishing and farming, and also eco-tourism…”

It is clear that they require some form of government recognition of their disenfranchised position and subsequent protection and remediation. Indigenous communities must also play a role by proactively engaging with the government, realizing that changes on their part will be necessary to avoid chronic economic marginalization and underdevelopment.

The reverberations of engagement between the old and the new will never diminish. Modernity will continue to clash with the traditional as long as life progresses. We must recognize traditional communities as a valuable cultural resource that forms an inherent part of the national identity and should be promoted and preserved. If not, we will continue to gawk, uncaring, and in the process lose our humanity.

* Angela N. Khaminwa is a consultant based in Nairobi. Her area of interest is social inclusion, coexistence, and conflict.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Nigeria! Nigeria!

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/29258

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem, missing in Nigeria for the last five weeks, discusses the aspirations of the continental powerhouse to African and international leadership. Despite its stated intentions, the country just doesn’t seem able to get its act together, he writes, using as examples Nigeria’s loss of the African Development Bank presidency to Rwanda and its quest for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.


I must begin this piece with a thousand apologies to my readers for the spasmodic and epileptic appearance of this column in the past five weeks. It would have been easier for me to advise my editors and readers that I was going to be on holiday for X number of weeks. But as a 'good African' the idea that I should be on holiday was anathematic to the cultural instinct.

Whether peasants or presidents we are programmed to work till we die even if the evidence of the work may remain scanty. If you suggest to an African that he/she should go on holiday he/she starts suspecting that you want to get rid of him or her! Annual leave and a period set aside when you throw caution to the winds and just relax are anathematic to many Africans, rich or poor, urban or rural. Our lives are a kind of permanent emergency needing constant urgent attention. Therefore we keep trying to fit in permanent work without break – as well as the numerous immediate and extended family demands on our time and endless socio-cultural, multi tasked economic coping mechanisms in addition to endless community, and village must do activities!

The other and perhaps more pressing reason has to do with the objective fact of where I have been in the past five weeks: Nigeria. Somehow the country is not synonymous with holidays! The hassle and tussle of survival in Africa's allegedly No 1 country and self-declared super power is one that will task the best spirits of the most eccentric adventurer. As regular readers of this column will know, over the past five years when I became a legal visitor to Nigeria again - after more than a decade of being 'wanted' by the various caricatures of leaders - whenever I am in Nigeria this column is never regular. All kinds of objective and subjective circumstances conspire to make this column less than regular whenever I am in the country. Hence the various editors (whose papers carry this column) have developed a kind of 'Nigerian discount' for my lapses in beating deadlines. The amazing thing is that I have written this column without failing from all kinds of places before, including blighted war torn Eastern Congo, remote places in Burkina Faso, on French keyboards in a Café where people spoke only French or local languages I did not understand; and also from newly liberated post Genocide Kigali. Nigeria is on the face of it not at war but not a peace therefore everything is a daunting obstacle race!

Yet this is a country that has proclaimed since independence from the British in 1960, its 'manifest destiny' not only to lead Africa but Black people wherever they may be in the world. The irony is that many Africans or even African countries are not disputing this putative leadership. They only wished that Nigeria were able to lead effectively. If anything stands in the way of Nigeria it is its own self-doubt and its inconsistencies that is undermining its claims to leadership.

Take the example of two out of many issues currently occupying the chatters of foreign policy minded academics, policy wonks, sections of the media and some civil society activists: Nigeria's recent loss of the Africa Development Bank (ADB) presidency to Rwanda and Nigeria's quest for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

The national pride was greatly hurt that 'little Rwanda', despite not having majority African support in most of the tortuous stages of the ADB presidency contest, defeated Nigeria in Tunis after a deadlock in Abuja.

A number of things counted against Nigeria, which my Nigerian friends are unwilling to come terms with. One, the country's influence does not go far beyond Abuja itself. If you bring people to Abuja you can have your way but outside of it they may change their minds. Two, Nigeria is too complacent in its diplomacy, believing that its case is 'too clear.' Three, this complacency makes its officials to believe that the country is the only selling point whoever the candidate is. Four, Obasanjo's obsession with external validation was once again proven to be pointless. He bends over backwards (often against national instinct for anti western independence) to please America in particular and the West in general yet when it matters their own geopolitical interests dictate clipping Nigeria's wings in Africa and building sub regional counter checks. Five, it is not only the West that is interested in cutting Nigeria to size. There are many seemingly friendly African countries who desire the same though they may not openly articulate this. South Africa is an obvious candidate in this category. So is Egypt, Libya, and many other pretenders to leadership of Africa. There are smaller and less resourced states who cannot make such claim but play the bigger or better resourced African states against each other, buttering their bread in all ways and most of the time going for the highest bidder. It’s a kind of cash and carry diplomacy.

Post apartheid South Africa has many reasons to be grateful and friendly towards Nigeria but it also has many reasons to check mate Nigeria's regional influence as it seeks its own economic and strategic interests on the continent. It wants business with Africa's largest market but also contests the leadership claims of Africa's sleeping giant. No amount of personal rapport between leaders and diplomatic niceties can hide these contradictions. Nigeria's folly is in believing that 'there is no problem.'

Six, and perhaps more importantly under Obasanjo, Nigeria has developed a more personalised diplomacy around 'Baba' and whatever whims catch his erratic moods. Professional, well-trained and experienced diplomats of which there are many in Nigeria's foreign ministry have been relegated to mostly onlookers or undertakers for a very interventionist and domineering presidency. It is very clear that Obasanjo believes he is his own best foreign minister in addition to being the best in everything Nigerian! The ‘Babacracy’ (or is it ‘BabaCRAZY’?) that undermines Nigeria's nascent democratic order has been extended to foreign affairs, making it impossible for anybody to have any positive influence unless Baba allows them.

There are many more reasons that Nigerians need to wake up to if they are going to realise many of their assumed and oft repeated diplomatic and strategic goals in Africa and the world. Otherwise they will forever be beaten by so called small countries backed by larger interests.

And this is where Nigeria's immediate foreign policy goal of securing one of the two anticipated African seats on the UN Security Council in the ongoing UN reform proposals also runs into serious troubles. If Nigeria has its house in order no African country would be bold enough to challenge its claim - rather they would be clamouring for the second seat. However, even in West Africa where Nigeria claims to be the sub regional power, Senegal is also in the race. If Nigeria cannot have the unanimous support of its own backyard why should it expect the unanimous endorsement of the rest of Africa?

The atmosphere is so charged that many of my Nigerian friends and comrades have lost all kinds of objectivity in assessing their situation and think I must be a traitor to be raising doubts about the country's ineffectual claims to continental leadership when it cannot even lead itself. Some even suggest that I have lost touch and I have no right to comment on Nigerian affairs because I have been away for so long from the country.

Yet what we are debating is not domestic affairs but international affairs. They need to persuade others not themselves but somehow this detail is lost in the petty nationalist jingoism that clouds these discussions. And they wonder why 'foreigners' cannot accede to their claims! If they claim that because a Nigerian lives outside of the country he or she has no right to talk about domestic politics they should at least have consistency in their own logic by being a little bit humble when discussing matters outside the borders of Nigeria. The 'foreign' Nigerians may have more to share with them by way of how others see Nigeria, which is far different from how many Nigerians see their country, its potential, place and role in both African and global affairs.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa. (tajudeen28@yahoo.com or thursdaypostcard@justiceafrica.org)

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Block the bank!

2005-08-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/29149

September 23rd to 25th 2005, the weekend of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's annual meetings, holds great importance for millions around the world. This year, the Mobilization for Global Justice, a Washington DC-based activist group, will join our allies in the global South, Europe, and the U.S. as well as with those in the anti-war community to demand an end to the international system that uses economic and military might to extract resources and serve corporate interests.
Block the Bank! Fight the Fund! Reclaim Our Communities!
Confront Economic Violence and Corporate Capitalism during the World Bank
and IMF Annual Meetings
September 23-25, 2005 :: Washington DC :: Call for DIRECT ACTION

September 23rd to 25th 2005, the weekend of the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund's annual meetings, holds great importance for
millions around the world. This year, the Mobilization for Global Justice,
a Washington DC-based activist group, will join our allies in the global
South, Europe, and the U.S. as well as with those in the anti-war community
to demand an end to the international system that uses economic and
military might to extract resources and serve corporate interests. We
envision a world with true development, democracy, and security, and where
economic policy serves the interests of the people. We call for creative
direct actions on the weekend of September 23rd to 25th - all the action
you can muster to shake the pillars of empire to their rotten and festering
core - and work towards another possible world.

As the U.S. spends millions of public dollars a day on the deadly
occupation of Iraq, the World Bank and IMF are promoting a violence less
sensational and far more insidious. Using the mechanism of international
debt, the World Bank and the IMF are waging a global war on the poor.
Through the privatization of basic services, the prying open of developing
countries' economies, and the capping of spending on healthcare, education,
and employment even as military spending balloons, the institutions ensure
that any resources in the global South - from water to oil, minerals to
labor, bananas to money - are transferred to the benefit of transnational
corporations and elites rather than to local communities.

The extraction of Southern resources facilitated by the World Bank and IMF
leads to an escalation of economic violence and the destruction of real
democracy and development. Forced relocation, hunger, increased poverty,
environmental destruction, and disease are all direct products of World
Bank and IMF policies. Rampant privatization means that communities the
world over are seeing control over local resources wrested from them and
delivered to unaccountable multinational corporations. For women forced to
work long hours for sweatshop wages, for children orphaned by the AIDS
pandemic, for families forced to skip meals, for girls who cannot afford to
attend school, for communities uprooted by dams, mines, and pipelines, this
is not real development, it is violence. For the people of the global South
whose lives are disrupted, worsened, jeopardized, and often ended, this is
not true security; it is not true democracy.

These policies extend even into the U.S.: as residents of Washington DC, we
are the reluctant hosts of the World Bank, the IMF, and other institutions
of empire. With our only public hospital closed, a deteriorating public
school system, and a private baseball stadium being built with public
funds, we see that the same policies of private gain at public expense
imposed on borrowing countries by the World Bank and IMF are also at work
in Washington. The World Bank and IMF make billions a year in profits, use
services provided by the city, and sit on valuable property downtown, yet
they pay no property taxes or corporate revenue taxes. This is an injustice
in a city with a majority low-income population and is a cruel hypocrisy on
the part of the institutions, which state "poverty reduction" and "economic
development" as part of their goals.

September 23rd to 25th the movements for global justice will defy the
corrupt global system which concentrates economic and military power in a
few countries and whose agents run riot across the globe, extracting
essential resources, exacerbating climate change, and impoverishing the
majority of humanity. The model of development promoted by the World Bank
and IMF is emulated at all levels - from national governments to city
councils - supporting corporate power and placing profit before people,
waging economic and military war and promoting social and environmental
destruction, in its hunger for the world's resources.

Join us and the millions around the world dedicated to a world where
development, security, and democracy are no longer tools of rhetoric
employed by the World Bank, the IMF, and the U.S. government but are
realities in the lives of all. Come to Washington DC September 23-25th for
a weekend of spirited action to shake the pillars of empire!

The Mobilization for Global Justice is a Washington DC-based activist
group. We are committed to organizing effective, strategic, and creative
direct actions during the World Bank and IMF fall meetings.

Please visit our website www.globalizethis.org, email us at mgj@riseup.net,
or call us at 202-898-5953 for updates on the weekend and information on
how to get involved.

The SADC and Gender 2005 Campaign

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/29262

The SADC and Gender 2005 campaign is a partnership that aims to raise the current target of women in decision-making from thirty to fifty percent, and to elevate the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development to a Protocol. The main focus of the campaign was the SADC Heads of State summit in Gaborone from 17-18 August 2005.
The SADC AND GENDER 2005 CAMPAIGN


What
The SADC and Gender 2005 campaign is a partnership that aims to raise the current target of women in decision-making from thirty to fifty percent, and to elevate the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development to a Protocol.

When
The main focus of the campaign is the SADC Heads of State summit in Gaborone from 17-18 August 2005. This will be preceded by a civil society forum from 13-15 August at which gender will feature prominently.

Why
The SADC Declaration on Gender and Development set a minimum target of 30 percent women in all areas of decision-making by 2005. The African Union (AU) has set a target of equal representation of women in all areas of decision-making. All SADC members also belong to the AU. These positions must be harmonised! While the SADC Declaration has helped to raise awareness, it only carries moral weight. An audit conducted by partners ahead of the SADC summit, which also coincides with the ten year anniversary of the Beijing conference reveals many gaps:
• Few countries have achieved the minimum 30 percent target for women in decision-making, nor have they put in place strategies for doing so.
• Laws, systems and services for addressing gender violence are inadequate. New forms of gender violence, such as trafficking, are on the rise.
• There are contradictions between customary law and modern codified law when it comes to women’s rights and these contradictions are not addressed in most Constitutions.
• HIV/AIDS, the pandemic which more than any other has preyed on the gender disparities in the region, is negating positive gains made.
• In most countries, poverty is on the rise and increasingly has a feminine face.
• While there has been some progress in raising awareness and challenging gender stereotypes in the media and popular culture, as well as engaging men as partners, the battle to change mindsets is still far from won.

Who
Partners in the initiative include: Gender Links, the Gender and Media Southern Africa Network (GEMSA) CREDO, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Women in Law in Development in Africa (WILDAF), Women in Politics Support Unit (WIPSU), SAFAIDS, International IDEAS, SARDC/ WIDSA and the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), and UNIFEM.

For more information contact: Susan or Janet, 011-622-2877; susan@genderlinks.org.za; gemsa@genderlinks.org.za

EPAs - Territorial conquest by other means?

Ayodele Ale, Nigeria

2005-08-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/29151

Quite a good edition. Keep it up.

For Africa we live

Kerry Jane Gutridge

2005-08-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/29229

I am outraged at the prospect of South Africa undertaking to assist Zimbabwe in repaying her debt.

What debt, pray?! The tyrannical platform from which the G8 contemplates Africa is tiresome and dangerous. Our Renaissance is in its infancy and as such vulnerable and requiring nurturing. Perhaps when our Northern, rich Western brethren have taken responsibility for the planetary bother they have caused we will be more interested in their self appointed role as moral prefects insulting Zimbabweans and thereby, Africans, by treating us as if we are a nation of dissident schoolchildren.

This is not Xenophobia nor misguided romanticism. It is a profound impatience with the white elephants with which we Africans perrenially contend.

The white elephants of development Anglo-Euro style, from which the last to benefit are the indigeneous people of Africa. The white elephants of projects that have fizzled out because funding has expired. The white elephants of vast economic empires spawned in Africa by adventurous captains of commerce who cannot get away with their monkey business in their countries of origin. The white elephants that emerge from generations damaged by displacements and disruptions. The white elephants of interrupted education. The white elephants of Western richness and honkie mischief. The white elephants of a consciousness that deifies sefishness. The white elephants of greed.

The dignity of President Mbeki's offer to assist our Zimbabwean family with their housekeeping is laudatory. Africa is taking responsibility for her own. Undersigning for anarchy wrenched by yet another old African dictator who has allegedly lost the plot. One can hear the moral umpires raising a toast. "Not only have the Negroes learned how to wear ties and speak English, but they are picking up the odd ethic, what? Notch up another centimetre for progress, old chap."

Fellow Africans, we cannot afford this distraction of cowtailing to the mainstream. 80% of homo sapiens live two steps from the cave whilst 20% have more surplus than they know how to use. This is a stupid fraction. The prevalence of poverty is one of humanity's singlemost unintelligent practices. It is so last century and has resulted in undiluted tragedy in our neck of the woods for too long. Poverty takes no prisoners and nowhere is this so grimly demonstrated in beloved Amai Africa.

The timing of the London bombs drew attention to the G8 conference in Scotland and Mr Blair was eloquent in his distress. To those of us who live in Africa the fuss over so few casualties was bemusing. We have no memory of CNN and BBC getting so excited over our many bleedings and dyings. In Africa we do a great line in ongoing 9/11 s and 07/07 s. The living deaths of so many of our people are seemingly far less important than the weakening of the pound.

All atrocities suck. Our condolences to the bereaved and traumatised Londoners are profound and sincere.

However, it is sometimes necessary to join the dots so frequently ignored by western propaganda machines and the irritating mindset of the powermongers whom they serve. Our priorites in Africa pertain to recovery and progress. These are challenges enough without having to pay lipservice to debates about the globe's filthy lucre or being rapped over the knuckles cos we have partied with the petty cash. Obviously accountability is imperative, but it is to ourselves and each other to whom we first must be accountable, not our cousins and friends from elsewhere and their many confusions. When these communities are Africa literate we will be more receptive to their prescriptions. Until then, we will thank them to be respectful of our realities and mindful of their suspect agenda regarding our peoples and resources. If, in our Northern fathers' houses there are many mansions, in our Mother's lands there are many fields. We have strong waters to harness, good crops to plant, various extinctions to halt and new songs to sing. We are waking up to lives we can love, moving beyond mere survival. We need our light to shine far into our future for the lives of our grandchildren's grandchildren are at stake.

So George Bush, IMF and Company ... Muchaneta! For the African Renaissance we are prepared to live!

For Africa we live. Nkosi, Sikelele Africa. Ishe Komberera.

In support of Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Doreen lwanga

2005-08-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/29228

I read with great discomfort my friend Chidi's letter that the Nigeria State Secret Service (SSS) arrested two of his professional colleagues and is currently looking for him in connection with his work challenging Charles Taylor's asylum in Nigeria ( Pambazuka News 218, We are not fugitives, Charles Taylor is). That is indeed very frightening news knowing how much Chidi means to so many of us Africans, Pan-Africanists, human rights activists and Afro-optimists. Although I have known Chidi since 1999, I had the opportunity of meeting him in January 2004 when he was Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. I took Chidi's class, which was one of my best classes in my entire graduate studies program.

Chidi is indeed an "African Child" and one of the heavy brains that Africa is so gifted to have. He is an inspiration to so many of us committed to advancing our scholarly activism for the human security of Africa. Those who know Chidi would agree that he is as well a very cordial person, whose multitude of achievements have never stopped him from being humble and accommodative of even those junior or in opposition to him. I guess that is why he now gets into trouble with a government he seeks to engage with daily but which is opposed to his work. So, I wanted to write this letter to Pambazuka News, if Chidi is reading, to let him know how much we are thinking about him through this difficult moment, as well as his family and colleagues. I would also like to call upon everyone to please send a message of support or take a moment to offer your internal support to Chidi.

On making poverty history

Tonderayi Mutyasera

2005-08-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/29226

I was glad to come accross your website - it's getting increasingly difficult to get the truth behind the tales with all the corporate-advert-sponsored news. I would like to believe that we are of the same mind set when it comes to issues affecting our continent and there is no need to beat around. In the end we as Africans are going to have to do it ourselves and overthrow the system because we will never find justice and self determination in it. Take a look at www.asiuhuru.org, it might be of intersest. Uhuru!

Pambazuka in parts

Janice McLaughlin

2005-08-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/29148

Thanks for the attempt to shorten the newsletter for those of us who can't download so much information.

Pambazuka in parts (2)

Abdullahi Hassan, AIDSOM

2005-08-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/29230

First of all, thank you for your humanitarian development newsletter. Secondly, as AIDSOM we are realy grateful with your last new plan for the Pambazuka newsletter. The two parts and their schedules are highly appreciated.

The other side of John Garang

Anonymous (by request)

2005-08-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/29156

In answer to your editorial on John Garang, I beg to differ: This account is pretty one sided, and romanticised. Garang was also a warhorse, and a warlord, who would probably not have made the transition, over time, to a post-war Sudan. It wasnt really in his interests, or within his capabilities, to do so. What experience did he have of being a peacetime political leader? Did he know any other kind of reality, other than a wartime one? Why did he not allow any other southerner to take power within the SPLA/M? Everyone knows he ruthlessly dealt with those who challenged his leadership, hence the vacuum faced now within the movement. That is not the democratic way. How many deaths - including those of southern Sudanese - can be placed at his door?

Freedom after expression

Chenjerai Hove

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/29245

Many years ago in my country, Zimbabwe, a writer was arrested for making some drunken remarks about the President.

'Can I have two presidents, please?' the writer had asked. The writer was simply wanting to buy two bananas from a vendor at the market, of course, with a little accompanying humour. But it so happened that the name of our president at that time was Mr Banana, and the ears of those employed to get angry on behalf of the president were within earshot. As the police officer was locking him away in a police cell, the writer asked the officer: 'Excuse me, why are you locking yourself out?'

The officer was stunned and went to report to his boss, who immediately declared the prisoner 'a bit mad' and released him without charge after a few slaps on the face.

'Words cause itches in the private parts of the republic', I once wrote in one of my long poems. After a public reading, a secret service agent came to find out what I might be meaning by that? I professed total ignorance and wondered what he understood by the two lines. He thought they meant 'the private parts of the president.' I argued that it was his own interpretation, not mine.

Writers and prison. A writer's language describes and names visible and invisible prisons. Sometimes those who think they are free, are in the most painful prisons. The idea of a president being locked up in an eternal motorcade for twenty-five years can only remind me of someone who has been in prison for life. Wordsmiths, that is, writers and journalists, are, in oppressive systems, an extremely endangered species. African governments have the illusion that writers and journalists are the government's unpaid public relations officers. And the politicians are not about to give up that illusion. We are supposed to paint the glorious and happily-ever-after banner for our country, never the sad tears and pain our governments sometimes cause us.

All we know and cling to is the knowledge that we are the public relations officers of true human hearts and consciences. As creators, we are not about to give up that principle, that eternal dream. But we know that part of our task is to paint in words the sad tears trickling down our patriotic cheeks, to write and record that we were present when such injustice and violence descended on our village, our land, our street. Politicians are in charge of making laws which put writers in prison. I have always wondered why they fear writers.

'Who elected you to speak on behalf of the public?' I have always been challenged by the politicians in my country. And they add: 'I was elected by a constituency of voters, 40 000 of them. Who elected you?' I always answered: 'My conscience elected me. You are elected for five years, I am elected for life.' Thus the relationship between a writer and a politician is established: a battle for constituencies. The politician dances to the constituency of numbers. He/she wants a full stadium to address. In the process, the politician hopes to capture the hearts and minds of the people. But the writer is not interested in numbers. He/she is of the constituency of mind. When the politician searches for the constituency of mind, he is shocked to discover that the writer/artist has already occupied that space. Hence, the anger begins.

The politician is in control of handcuffs, guns, prisons, the police, the army, parliament, institutions of violence. The writer is only in control of feeble words, words which float in the wind like butterflies, language. Words which can appear to be crushed with the hammer of political oppression, with prison. Unfortunately, words, like the free wind, and the smell of flowers, refuse to die, even after the politician's five-year development plan has run out. Political and artistic language is different. The writer fights to name things freely. The politician seeks to name things for political gain through concealing truths or distorting them.

When once I wrote the draft speech of the Minister of Information for the opening of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, she was respectful enough not to change a word. Then she phoned me later and asked me to apply for the civil servant job of director of information in her ministry. 'What would I be doing every day?' I wanted to know. 'You will write my speeches and the speeches of other ministers,' she said.

Imagine, a writer being a speech writer, writing long speeches about the current 'operation demolish poor people's dreams,' 'operation filth and dirt', 'operation follow the leader', 'operation imprisonment,' 'operation eternal life for the leader,' etc. Many senseless 'operations' aimed at destroying language and people. But the hidden purpose was more complex than that: control of my words, my vision, my dreams and aspirations. Politicians are not about to respect the freedom of language, of expression.

The current deputy minister of information in Zimbabwe says he is the 'de facto' editor of the government daily, The Herald. He cannot countenance leaving words in someone else's hands. Literature, art, by nature is subversive, not in the sense of a desire to capture state house, but in the sense of searching for that which is hidden, the echoes of the hidden, human heart and mind. It is in the language of art that identity is discovered. Our identity is the compendium of our sorrows and joys, our smiles and our wounds, the very scars on which our history is recorded. Our historical and geographical beauty and ugliness, our wisdom and its accompanying foolishness. Our conquests and defeats. The way we search for meaning in life, the illusions we cling to, our cruelty, everything. That is what art searches for, because no human being is ever a one-word answer. We are complex, and art celebrates that complexity.

In literature, words are like bullets which shoot the heart and the mind, creating all sorts of images and metaphors which explode the human imagination and the will to live a tense life full of human doubt and joy, human freedom as it flowers amongst the social and political worms that seek to kill it from inside and outside.

As writers, we have the duty to restore the proper names of things in a complex, multifaceted dialogue. Oppressive political systems believe in a social and political monologue. The head of state should not be criticised. He should be allowed to run the country through a political and social monologue until he dies. For the politician, the world is made up of numbers...how many schools he built, bridges, clinics, stadiums, computers distributed, rallies addressed, years spent in meaningless monologues in state house. No, the writer, the artist, searches for something deeper: the solitude of power, the solitude of huge crowds where everyone is, politically, just 'the masses', 'my voters', 'my constituents.'

The writer searches for the hidden meaning of things, of human experience, of possibilities and choices. As writers, we do not ask for too much: we just demand the right to name the colours of our flowers, the intimate and intricate music of our birds as they sing our sadness and joy, the turbulent and rebellious hearts of our fellows, the funereal voices of social and political oppression, the cries of the lovers in each others' deadly and joyous embraces, the celebrations of the free human soul searching for the gods and the ancestors. The imprisonment of writers is a vain attempt to put ideas in a cage so that the artist can be humiliated in the zoo of ideas without possibilities and choices. Physical imprisonment is supposed to exile us from the public. It is a form of physical and artistic torture. For, we poison the minds of the public, the youths, the women and men reduced to manipulated machines by systems which specialise in torturing ideas and the imagination. 'Your books are beautifully written,' one education officer said to me. 'But we cannot put them in schools. They are too political. If you remove the political bits, we will prescribe them for children in schools,' he said. I cannot imagine an adulterated version of any of my novels. It would be an insult to the imagination and to creativity.

Oppressive political systems thrive on feeding the people on a diet of illusions, of power, freedom, smiles, happiness, wealth to the dispossessed, victory even at the height of oppression. A writer's task is to reject all that, to continue to name things in their proper shapes and sizes, to search for real meaning and complexity of the human condition. Exile, imprisonment, silence, harassment, oppressive laws, the secret service, all those are instruments created by our governments in order to torture human bodies and free ideas.

'You can disappear anytime we want,' is the slogan that I have had to confront for many years, from the men in dark glasses and suits. But even as writers are in prison, they still search, with the intimacy of their souls and the freedom of their words and imagination, for the freedom for words, images. We have, indeed, freedom of expression. But we demand more: freedom after expression. ' In saying ''this is who I am'', in revealing oneself, the writer can help others to become aware of who they are. As a means of revealing collective identity, art should be considered an article of prime necessity, not a luxury,' shouted Uruguayan writer, Eduardo Galeano, while in exile from his cruel, beloved homeland.

*Chenjerai Hove is a leading Zimbabwean author and has several published books and poems including the aclaimed novel BONES. This article appeared on the www.newzimbabwe.com website and reproduced here with permission of the author.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

African Blog Roundup

Sokari Ekine

2005-08-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/29244

African Bullets and Honey (http://bulletsandhoney.blogspot.com/) reports on a Times of London article on “The Love Affair Between the Maasai and the English!”.
The language of the article is blatantly racist and mimics something out of a 19thCentury travel journal through “darkest Africa” to serve the tables of Victorian Britain in the construction of race and racism!

“The Masai embodied everything the English yearned to believe about primeval Africa; they were tall and slender and handsome, noble savages who looked the part, brave to the point of foolishness, peerless hunters and trackers...The only mammalian bipeds allowed to walk through the vigorously wardened spot are the Masai, who follow their bony cattle to waterholes and salt licks, lean ruminatively on their lion-killing lotus-bladed spears, and generally pretty up the place in their red togas, muddy punk hairdos and elaborate jewellery.”

Ghanaian blogger Life of David (http://davidmends.blogspot.com/) exposes corruption and misdeeds by the British government’s Department of International Development (DFID) in which some £18million in aid to Ghana was “blown” away.

Sticking with the theme of “corruption”, Nigerian blogger Grandiose Parlour (http://grandioseparlor.blogspot.com/) reminds us that corruption in Nigeria is still alive and kicking this time in the form of Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

"…Nigeria Vice President Atiku Abubakar broke the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on December 1, 2000. This is one and a half years after becoming the Vice President of Nigeria. On that day, he and his wife, Jennifer, bought a mansion in Maryland for $ 1,750,000. The house, a two storey building was constructed in 1988. The land area is about 2.3 acres. Today, that house is valued at over two million dollars.”

The VP has since had his home in the US searched by FBI agents but of course he is already denying any wrong doing saying:

"You see, I went to the US when I was in exile, when Abacha hunted us out, when we asked him to handover to a civilian government, then I have been having a home in that place and of course my wife has been having a home in that place since 1994. So what are you talking about?”

Nothing much has changed then has it?

A refreshing story from Inside Somaliland (http://insidesomaliland.blogtales.com/) on Somali music and instruments in which she focuses on “Dararamle, a very well known Somali singer/composer in the country”. Some great pictures here as well.

Exactly one year ago 10 people died in an explosion at a Sasol petrochemical plant in Secunda, South Africa. Mzansi Afrika (http://mzansiafrika.typepad.com/mzansi_afrika/2005/08/sasol_watch.html) reminds us the multinational Sasol, has done everything in its power to hamper the enquiry into the murderous blast.

“For one thing, the petro giant has refused to make their own internal inquiry into the accident public, for another they have paid minimal compensation to the families of those killed or injured. Many of those affected by the incident were contract workers, and because they were not directly employed by Sasol, the corporation was able to avoid paying any compensation other than covering hospital bills and funeral costs.”

Africa/Global: Access to water: a woman’s right?

2005-08-30

http://www.id21.org/society/r1fa1g1.htmlhttp://www.id21.org/society/r1fa1g1.html

Having enough water for food production is a key issue in many countries. As water becomes scarce and food requirements increase, there will be a need to produce more food using less water, to protect the quality of water and the environment, particularly in Africa. To achieve this, it will be necessary to improve women's access rights to water. Research from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations looks at the issues facing poor communities, and especially women, trying to ensure access to water.

Africa/Global: Focus on women's informal employment to combat poverty and gender inequality

2005-09-01

http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/118124/1/

A new report, released by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in anticipation of the 2005 World Summit, argues for closer attention to the role of women, particularly working poor women, in the informal economy, and the impact of this on efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals. UNIFEM's report, Progress of the World's Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty, is the third publication in a biennial series first introduced in 2000 to track and measure the world's commitments to gender equality.

Africa/Global: Gender, remittances and development

2005-08-30

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC19345

This paper presents key elements for the development of a conceptual framework that will allow a better understanding of the interrelationships between migration, gender, remittances and development. It identifies the main elements that are in play and that cannot be overlooked in a gender analysis of the sending, use and impact of remittances. The framework aims to establish the basis for formulating a more adequate response to questions such as: how does the growing feminisation of migration affect remittance flows? How can remittances contribute to the achievement of gender equality? And how can remittances be mobilised to achieve sustainable development that includes women?

Africa/Global: Negative consequences of industrial tariff liberalisation on women

2005-08-30

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC19509&Resource=f1gender

This paper assesses the implications of the current non-agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations for developing countries with a particular focus on the impact on women. It highlights that if the major countries get their way, tariffs on industrial products will have tremendously negative impacts on industrial development in developing countries. Effects are likely to spread across three broad areas: budgetary and financial, employment / livelihood and entrepreneurship survival and growth prospects.

Niger: Women bear the brunt of hardships and food shortages

2005-08-23

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48713

Every day, Minta, a 40 year-old mother of six, fetches water for the household, does the laundry in the river, labours on her millet farm and, if there is food, prepares the family meals before collapsing into bed, exhausted. But during this particularly difficult lean season, there is no food, and the daily grind has become even more unbearable. With her youngest child wasting away from hunger, Minta has had to walk three hours in the scorching sun on an empty stomach in the hope of getting some food aid.

Southern Africa: SADC summit presents many challenges for gender equality

2005-08-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/29179

The Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance on August 19 welcomed the decision by leaders at the just-ended SADC summit to endorse the African Union position on gender parity in all areas of decision-making. But the alliance expressed disappointment at the failure by Heads of State to seize the first opportunity open to them following this decision to “walk the talk” by appointing a woman to one of the two top positions in the SADC secretariat despite competent women having applied. The final communiqué is also silent on the recommendation made by the Council of Ministers that the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development be elevated to a Protocol for Accelerating Gender Equality. The Alliance issued a press release following the summit, which you can read by clicking on the URL provided.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SADC Summit: Many challenges ahead for gender equality

19 August: The Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance today welcomed the decision by leaders at the just-ended SADC summit to endorse the African Union position on gender parity in all areas of decision-making.

But the alliance expressed disappointment at the failure by Heads of State to seize the first opportunity open to them following this decision to “walk the talk” by appointing a woman to one of the two top positions in the SADC secretariat despite competent women having applied.

The final communiqué is also silent on the recommendation made by the Council of Ministers that the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development be elevated to a Protocol for Accelerating Gender Equality.

Vowing to continue the campaign for a binding sub-regional instrument on gender equality, the Alliance, that comprises ten NGOs from around the region, said the outcome of the summit underscores the fact that while “many milestones have been achieved, the struggle for gender equality is still far from over.”

In a statement, the Alliance noted that the endorsement of the AU position that failed to receive the support of leaders at their summit last year means that the target of thirty percent women in decision-making contained in the SADC Declaration has now been raised to fifty percent, but no timeframe has been set for achieving this.

The Alliance, whose slogan is “50/50 by 2020”, said it would continue to lobby for incremental targets and action plans to be developed by each country, with an ultimate target of the fifty percent being achieved by 2020.

While the Alliance congratulated the new executive secretary Tomas Salmao of Mozambique and his deputy Joao Caholo of Angola on their appointment, it expressed disappointment that the regional body had failed to lead by example in ensuring gender balance within its own top decision-making structures. Only one out of the seven senior management positions in SADC is held by a woman.

The Alliance also stressed that achieving gender equality extends beyond getting women into positions of power. Many more targets are required for ensuring that gender equality is achieved in the economic, social, constitutional and legal spheres as well. This underscores the recommendation made by the Council of Ministers that leaders adopt the principle of a comprehensive Protocol for Accelerating Gender Equality that would bring together all existing international and regional targets and commitments, and enhance these where gaps have been identified.

“We are encouraged by the statement by the spokesperson of the new Chair of SADC, President Festus Mogae, that this is something on which more time and consultation is required, but that can still be considered,” said Alliance spokesperson Colleen Lowe Morna, also executive director of Gender Links. “We are also heartened by the statement made by President Mogae as he took over the Chair that during his tenure Declarations will not be allowed to gather dust and that SADC will become a more results-oriented institution.”

Pledging to continue to engage with SADC leaders as well as raise public awareness and support for a SADC Protocol on Advancing Gender Equality, with the aim of this being adopted at the 2006 summit, the Alliance commended the media, especially in Botswana, for the coverage and prominence given to issues of gender equality during the Summit.

For more information contact Colleen Lowe Morna on clmorna@mweb.co.za; or 27- (0) 82-651-6995).

(The Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance comprises: Gender Links, the Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA) Network, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), SAFAIDS, Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF), Women in Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), CREDO, the Women in Politics Support Unit (WiPSU), Women in Politics Caucus, Botswana and the Women Land and Water Rights, Southern Africa.)

Swaziland: Lack of legal status hinders the progress of women

2005-08-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48649

Swazi businesswomen say the floundering national economy will benefit from their entrepreneurial talents when they are no longer constrained by discriminatory laws. Gender rights activists in Swaziland often use the story of businesswoman Thandi Khumalo to illustrate the personal and economic devastation that can result from Swazi women's lack of legal status as adults in traditional law. "She was robbed of everything she owned because, by Swazi custom, she was a minor. Her male relatives cheated her of everything she had earned as a brilliant businesswoman. That is why we are placing our hopes on the new national constitution, which is supposed to guarantee equality for women," said Cynthia Khumalo, Thandi's niece and a businesswoman in the central commercial city of Manzini.

Africa: International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

2005-08-31

http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/abolition-slavetrade-day.php

The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is celebrated on 23 August of every year. The night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is intended to inscribe the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade in the memory of all peoples.
Related Link:
The empire pays back
http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/O/origination/reparations.html

Africa: UN panel expresses concerns over enforced disappearances

2005-08-31

http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/0/D1A81B28CBF40839C1257069004A0A6D?opendocument

On the occasion of International Day of the Disappeared (30 August), the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances issued the following message: "The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) is deeply concerned that the phenomenon of enforced disappearances persists around the world. Since its inception in 1980, the WGEID has transmitted some 50,000 individual cases of enforced disappearances to Governments of more than 90 countries."
* Related Link
Vlakplaas Commemoration of International Day of the Disappeared: August 30, 2005
http://www.khulumani.net/

Chad: All Hissène Habré’s Henchmen to be Removed

2005-08-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/29224

The Chadian government has declared that it will remove all the accomplices of Chad’s former dictator, Hissène Habré (1982-1990), from government jobs in the central African country, Human Rights Watch said in an August press release. The Chadian government’s announcement was made in a letter from Prime Minister Pascal Yoadimnadji to Human Rights Watch and follows a July report by Human Rights Watch naming 41 leading Habré-era figures, many accused of torture and killings, who still held key posts in Chad.
All Hissène Habré’s Henchmen to be Removed

(New York, August 24, 2005) — The Chadian government has declared that it will remove all the accomplices of Chad’s former dictator, Hissène Habré (1982-1990), from government jobs in the central African country, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Chadian government’s announcement was made in a letter from Prime Minister Pascal Yoadimnadji to Human Rights Watch and follows a July report by Human Rights Watch naming 41 leading Habré-era figures, many accused of torture and killings, who still held key posts in Chad.

The prime minister also said that the government would quickly consider a draft law to compensate Habré’s victims and would construct a monument to honor the memory of the victims as soon as it had the funds to do so.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the government’s announcement.

“The government has taken a long step towards breaking with the Habré era by finally getting rid of these men, accused of the worst crimes,” said Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch. “We hope the government also allows their prosecution to go forward and makes good on its promise to provide recognition and compensation to Habré’s victims.”

Habré, who fled Chad on December 1, 1990, was indicted in Senegal in 2000 on charges of torture and crimes against humanity. However, Senegalese courts ruled that he could not be tried in that country, where he remains in exile. Habré now faces similar charges in Belgium, where a judge is pursuing an investigation that may lead to an extradition request.

The prime minister’s letter, dated August 18, said that the “former members of the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS) will be removed from their positions awaiting their trial. The procedure is underway. Human Rights Watch will be informed when they have all been removed. Some already have.”

Those already dismissed include the powerful director of the Judicial Police who was deputy director of national security under Habré; a surveillance chief who was the director of Habré’s dreaded political police, the DDS; and a man described by a Chadian truth commission as one of Chad’s “most feared torturers.”

The letter added that the “draft law on the reparation of victims and their heirs will be put on the agenda on the National Assembly as soon as possible.” In May, the Chadian victims’ association, the AVCRP, presented a proposal which would provide monetary compensation to victims and their families.
The government's actions in favor of Habré’s victims come as the human rights situation in Chad has taken a worrisome turn. Four journalists have recently been sentenced to prison terms in Chad for publishing information critical of the government.

Background on the Hissène Habré Case

Hissène Habré ruled the former French colony of Chad from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990 by current President Idriss Déby and fled to Senegal. His one-party regime, marked by widespread atrocities, was backed by the United States and France, which saw him as a bulwark against Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi. Under President Ronald Reagan, the U.S. gave covert CIA paramilitary support to help Habré take power and remained Habré’s strongest ally throughout his rule, providing his government with massive amounts of military aid. A 1992 official truth commission report accused Habré’s regime of some 40,000 political murders and systematic torture.

Habré was indicted in Senegal in February 2000 on charges of torture and crimes against humanity, but the Senegalese courts ruled that he could not be tried there. Habré’s victims then filed complaints in Belgium under that country’s now-repealed long-arm “universal jurisdiction” law, and Senegal acceded to a U.N. request to hold Habré in Senegal pending an extradition demand. A Belgian judge and police team visited Chad in 2002, where they questioned victims and Habré-era officials, visited former prisons and took custody of the files of Habré’s dreaded political police, unearthed by Human Rights Watch in 2001.

The case was not affected by the repeal of Belgium’s “universal jurisdiction” law because an investigation had already begun and several plaintiffs are Belgian citizens. The Belgian judge is continuing his investigation and it is hoped that he will indict Hissène Habré and seek his extradition.

Human Rights Watch Press release

South Africa: Farm workers tenure rights still under threat

2005-09-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48844

The number of mainly black workers evicted from farms has increased since South Africa's democratic era began in 1994, primarily due to perceptions of political and economic risk, says a new study. According to the National Evictions Survey, conducted by the Nkuzi Development Association and Social Surveys, just under 1.7 million people were evicted from farms in the period between 1994 and the end of 2004, compared to 942,000 in the previous decade.

Zimbabwe: As of beginning of August, clean-up operation continues

2005-08-30

http://www.zlhr.org.zw/media/releases/operation_aug_05.htm

"Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) notes with grave concern that over 1500 families previously at Caledonia Transit camp, Hatcliffe Extension and Porta Farm were forcibly relocated to Hopley Farm along the Masvingo Road on the understanding that they will be allocated stands and become beneficiaries of the government’s purported “Operation Garikai”. For the past one week or more the families have gone without a decent meal, clean water and sanitary facilities, or temporary shelter; they have had to resort to using nearby bushes for purposes of relieving themselves. They have been subjected to the most dehumanising conditions in total disregard of the instructive and critical findings of the United Nations Special Envoy on Human Settlements Issues in Zimbabwe." - August 05 press release from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

Egypt: Interrelationships between internal and international migration

2005-08-30

http://www.migrationdrc.org/projects/theme2/AymanReport.pdf

Migration in Egypt is strongly influenced by poverty, economic difficulties and improper socio-economic policies. Until the mid-1950s, foreigners came to Egypt but Egyptians rarely migrated abroad. Egyptian internal and international migration - especially to Libya and Jordan - should be regarded as a sort of survival migration rather than migration for development, says one of the findings of the report.

Global/Africa: International cooperation between North and South to enhance refugee protection

2005-08-30

http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/PDFs/RSCworkingpaper25.pdf

The responsibility to share the financial or physical burden for global refugee protection outside of a state's immediate territorial or jurisdictional obligation to not return refugees to persecution is recognised in the Preamble to the 1951 Refugees Convention. However, given that "burden sharing" has not been formally recognised as an international legal obligation, the states in the global south, as a result of the "accident of geography" of being closer to areas of conflict or human rights-abusing regimes, have assumed responsibility for hosting the overwhelming majority of the world's refugees.

Global: Transitional settlement: Displaced populations

2005-08-30

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900SID/EVIU-6FEDQB/$FILE/Transitional_Settlement_Displaced_Populations_2005.pdf?OpenElement

For the estimated 20 million refugees and 25 million internally displaced people worldwide, well-planned settlements can help to maximise their protection and security, and support them to minimise the spread of disease, manage natural resources sustainably, and maintain good relations with their hosts until durable solutions are achieved. The result of extensive consultations with a wide range of specialist organisations, this book takes a holistic view of shelter for displaced populations, extending beyond refugee camps to consider support for all of the settlement and shelter options open to displaced people.

Global: UN endorses new guidelines on property rights of displaced persons, welcomed as restitution tool for IDPs

2005-08-30

http://www.idpproject.org/thematic/Property/reports/UN_princ_housing_prop_restitution.pdf

In a significant step forward for IDPs’ rights to restitution, the Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons were endorsed by the UN Subcommission on Human Rights at its annual session held in Geneva in August. The Principles reflect standards of international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law. They also take stock of best practices developed in previous post-conflict restitution policies and programmes. The Principles emphasise the right to restitution and envisage compensation in certain circumstances, in particular where restitution is factually impossible or when peace settlements provide for a combination of the two.

Libya: Sahara, last journey of the damned

2005-08-30

http://www.irr.org.uk/2005/august/ak000011.html

The EU is advocating the creation of refugee regional processing centres in North African countries. Foremost amongst countries being recruited to enforce European border controls is Libya. A report that first appeared in the Italian newspaper L'Espresso on 24 March 2005 looks at how Libya treats refugees and documents the grim fate awaiting those returned to Libya from Italy under a recent migration accord.

Sudan: UN refugee chief calls on world leaders to help rebuild shattered lives

2005-08-30

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=15595&Cr=Sudan&Cr1=UNHCR

Standing underneath a huge shade tree in Yari, south Sudan, António Guterres told villagers that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is doing its best to help with schools and health centres so that people who fled 21 years of civil war between southern rebels and the Khartoum Government can come home and stay home. But more international funds are needed to develop the desperately poor region, he said. He drew a clear link between development aid, economic growth and peace for a long-tortured region where even today landmines still deface the landscape and claim lives.

Africa: No UN reform likely, say directors of Africa policy think tanks

2005-09-01

http://www.sarpn.org.za/newsflash.php#3472

The South African portfolio committee on foreign affairs has heard the perspectives on reform of the United Nations from three leading South African think-tanks: the Centre for Policy Studies, the Africa Institute of South Africa and the Centre for Conflict Resolution. The heads of all three civil society organisations appeared to agree that there will not be widespread reform of the United Nations, particularly its powerful Security Council, when the UN General Assembly meets next month to discuss the issue. This is largely because of the no-compromise position taken recently by the African Union forum of foreign affairs leaders dealing with the issue of a veto for new members with permanent seats on the Security Council.

Egypt: Election rules slammed by civil society groups

2005-08-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48835

The issuing of rules and directives for the upcoming Egyptian presidential elections by the Presidential Election Committee (PEC) on 28 August has enraged both the judges and civil organisations hoping to supervise the poll on 7 September. According to Nasser Amin of the Arab Center for Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession (ACIJLP), the committee has left the names of the 500 most outspoken judges off the list of those supervising the election.

Ivory Coast: Opposition rejects poll

2005-08-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4195958.stm

The four largest opposition parties in Ivory Coast say elections scheduled for 30 October cannot happen and have called for a transition government. They argue that it would be impossible to hold free and fair presidential elections at that time, and point out that the country is still split in two. Ivory Coast, once West Africa's richest country, has been divided between north and south for three years.

Kenya: Constitutional rift deepens

2005-08-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4194240.stm

Kenya's former president, Daniel arap Moi, has rejected a draft new constitution, saying it would cause animosity and mistrust among Kenyans. The proposals, to be voted on in a referendum in November, are dividing the political establishment. Five cabinet ministers have broken rank with President Mwai Kibaki, calling for a 'No' vote in the referendum.

Kenya: New Kenyan NGO Focuses on Elections

2005-08-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/29205

Elections International is a voluntary nongovernmental organization in Kenya that strives to build peace and enhance democratic practices by empowering citizens to conduct transparent electoral processes and services. Elections International was formed this year by citizens from diverse professional backgrounds with experience as electoral officers, election observers, civic education providers, and human rights advocates. The organization’s objectives are to empower citizens to conduct and participate in free and fair elections; monitor and observe electoral processes; analyze and advocate for reforms in electoral policies and statutes; build the capacities of electoral management bodies, electoral reform organizations, political parties, legislatures, and judiciaries in matters pertaining to elections; and to build partnerships with organizations with similar objectives. For more information, contact: electint@yahoo.com (Sourced from World Movement for Democracy)

Liberia: Presidential candidates divided over what to do about Charles Taylor

2005-08-30

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48807

Candidates vying to be Liberia's next head of state are divided about whether to ask for former president Charles Taylor to be transferred from exile in Nigeria to stand trial for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone. Taylor has been served 17 indictments for crimes against humanity for his involvement and support to the Revolutionary United Front rebel faction in Sierra Leone, known for hacking off hands, feet, lips and ears of civilians during the 1991-2002 civil war.

Nigeria: Charles Taylor, Impunity and Liberia Elections

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/29268

As campaigns for Liberia’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections kick off, African and International Organisations have called on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and African Union Chairperson President Obasanjo of Nigeria to ensure Charles Taylor does not interfere in Liberia’s democratic process from Nigeria where he is currently exiled. In a statement issued on September 01, Mr Shina Loremikan of the Coalition Against Impunity campaigning for the trial of the former Liberian leader before the UN- supported Special Court for Sierra Leone stated: “ECOWAS and President Obasanjo must ensure that Charles Taylor does not, cannot and is unable to distort Liberia’s electoral process and results.”
Press Statement Issued 1st September 2005

Liberian Elections and Charles Taylor:
As Campaigns for Liberia’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections kick off, African and International Organisations Call on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and African Union Chairperson President Obasanjo of Nigeria to Ensure Charles Taylor Does Not Interfere in Liberia’s Democratic Process from Nigeria where he is currently exiled.


In a statement issued today, Mr Shina Loremikan of the Coalition Against Impunity campaigning for the trial of the former Liberian leader before the UN- supported Special Court for Sierra Leone stated “ECOWAS and President Obasanjo must ensure that Charles Taylor does not, cannot and is unable to distort Liberia’s electoral process and results.”

He continued, “It is bad enough that Taylor who is wanted by Interpol for crimes against Sierra Leonean, Liberian and other West African citizens is being sheltered from justice by the government of President Obasanjo. All indications are that he has the freedom to influence affairs in Liberia from Nigeria. President Obasanjo must guarantee that Taylor does not have any opportunity to affect the outcome of the Liberian elections”.

“Liberia is the epicentre of instability in West Africa and Taylor is the Chief Architect of this instability,” added Chima Ubani of the Civil Liberties Organisation. “The elections in Liberia are a crucial opportunity for Liberians to stabilise their country and by extension neighbouring West African countries”.

“ECOWAS cannot afford further conflict. Charles Taylor is responsible for launching 15 years of conflict which has affected four countries: Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cote D' Ivoire and Liberia, claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions” emphasised Zainab Bangura founder of Campaign for Good Governance and currently Director of National Accountability Group in Sierra Leone. She noted further that “the Presidents of Guinea and Sierra Leone and the interim President of Liberia have also publicly expressed concern over the capacity of Charles Taylor to destabilise the sub-region from Nigeria and issued a communiqué in July asking President Obasanjo to review the terms of Taylor’s asylum.”

“Justice is a necessary condition for peace,” stressed Tajudeen Abdulraheem, Director of Justice Africa. “President Obasanjo cannot shelter Taylor indefinitely. A newly elected government in Liberia needs to be free of the influence of Charles Taylor. The best foundation for reconstruction of Liberia is for Taylor to be transferred to the Special Court for trial. This will ensure that whatever government emerges in Liberia will not live under his violent shadow”

“The people of Nigeria, having lived under military dictatorship, are committed to justice and democracy in Liberia.” Added Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre in Nigeria. “This is why we are shocked that President Obasanjo's government is now persecuting members of the Coalition Against Impunity campaigning for the transfer of Charles Taylor to the Special Court. In early August Nigeria’s State Security Service arrested several persons in connection with distribution of Interpol red notices issued for Charles Taylor. Members of the Coalition have been declared wanted by Nigerian security services, campaign posters of the Coalition have been confiscated and offices of the Coalitions printers have been shut down.”

“The fact that President Obasanjo is turning on his own citizens rather than turning over a war crime indictee to have his day in court raises questions about his commitment to upholding standards of the African Union of which he is the current Chairperson” underlined David Mafabi, Director of Political Affairs of the Global Pan Africa Movement. .“African leaders and institutions must ensure justice is done for countless victims of rape, child soldiers, journalist’s, amputees, refugees and others whose lives have been wasted in the Liberian, Sierra Leonean and other conflicts.”

“We the undersigned Liberian, Nigerian, Sierra Leonean, other African, and international organisations are therefore calling on President Obasanjo to immediately end his governments persecution of human rights campaigners, reassure Liberians and all Africans that Charles Taylor will not, shall not and cannot be allowed to subvert the collective will of the ECOWAS, African Union and the World Community, and hand him over to the Special Court for trial.”

Signed:

African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET),
L. Muthoni Wanyeki

Association of Environmental Lawyers of Liberia (Green Advocates), Atty. Alfred Brownell

Catholic Justice & Peace Commission (JPC), Atty. Augustine Toe

Center for Democratic Empowerment (CEDE), Ezekiel Pajibo

Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Chima Ubani

Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani

*Coalition Against Impunity, Shina Loremikan

CREDO for Freedom of Expression & Associated Rights, Rotimi Sankore

Foundation for Human Rights and Democracy (FOHRD), J. Aloysius Toe

Foundation for International Dignity (FIND), Sam Hare

Global Pan African Movement, David Mafabi,

International Press Centre, (IPC), Lanre Arogundade

International Refugee Rights Initiative, Olivia Bueno

Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER), Wale Adeoye

Justice Africa, Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

Liberia Democracy Watch (LDW), Cllr. Jerome Verdier

Media Rights Agenda, Edetaen Ojo

MWENGO, Ezra Limiri Mbogori

National Accountability Group, Zainab Bangura

Pan African Development Education and Advocacy Programme, PADEAP-
Nigeria. AbdulRahman Abdul Yekeen,

ENDS

Notes For Editors: Questions & Answers

v Who is Charles Taylor? Charles Taylor is former rebel leader of the National Patriotic Forces of Liberia (NPFL). In December 1989, he led rebel forces of the NPFL to invade Liberia triggering nearly 15 years of war in Libe ia and its neighbouring countries. In 1991 Mr. Taylor’s NPFL forces linked up with rebels of the Revoutionary United Forces (RUF) led by former Corporal Foday Sankoh to levy war against Sierra Leone with a view to controlling Sierra Leone’s rich diamond resources. In 1997, a war-weary Liberian population elected Mr. Taylor President. In august 2003, leaders of the African Union escorted Mr. Taylor into exile in Nigeria where he currently lives in the south-eastern Nigerian city of Calabar, near Nigeria’s border with Cameroon.

v Special Court: The Special Court for Sierra Leone was established in 2002 under an agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone to try persons “bearing the greatest responsibility” for the grave violations of the laws of war and crimes against hum anity committed in the conflict in Sierra Leone.

v Indictment of Charles Taylor: In March 2003, the Special Court indicted Mr. Charles Taylor, then President of Liberia, as a person bearing the greatest responsibility for the crimes in the war in Sierra Leone for on charges of crimes against humanity, violations of the Geneva Convention and other serious violations of inter national law. The Court unsealed the indictment on 6 June 2003 and served it on the government of Ghana where Mr. Taylor had just arrived to undertake negotiations in connection with ending the war in Liberia. Unable to arrest Mr. Taylor, the government of Ghana gave him safe passage back to Liberia from where two mont s later he went into exile in Nigeria.

v *Coalition Against Impunity: The Coalition against Impunity is a Coalition of over 340 African and international NGOs campaigning together for Nigeria to transfer Charles Taylor to have his day in court before the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The Coalition includes Amnes ty International, Human Rights Watch, the Open Society Justice Initiative, the Amputees Rehabilitation Foundation, and the Nigerian Coalition for the International Criminal Court, Liberia’s Transitional Justice Working Group, and organisations in 17 African countries.

v Interpol Red Notice: Interpol is the International Police Organization devoted to providing: a global police communication system; criminal databases and analytical services; and proactive support for police operations throughout the world. A Red Notice is not an arrest warrant as such. Red notices allow the warrant to be circulated worldwide with the request that the wanted person be arrested with a view to extradition. The persons concerned are wanted by national jurisdictions (or the International Criminal Tribunals, where appropriate) and Interpol's role is to assist the national police forces in identifying or locating those persons with a view to their arrest and extradition.

Interpol distinguishes between two types of Red notice: the first type is based on an arrest warrant and is issued for a person wanted for prosecution; he second type is based on a court decision for a person wanted to serve a sentence. Charles Taylor’s Red Notice is the first type. Interpol member countries comply with their national laws in deciding whether a Red Notice represents a valid request for provisional arrest. Some countries permit the wanted person to be provisionally arrested pending extradition formalities, while others treat such a notice as a request for information and location of the individual, with no particular legal significance. The existence or not, of a bilateral extradition treaty, convention or other legal instrument containing provisions on extradition is an important factor in the decision.

v The SSS: The SSS is established by the National Security Agencies Act, first promulgated by Nigeria's then military regime as a decree in 1986. The Decree was later transformed unchanged and specially entrenched in Section 315(5) of Nigeria's 1999 Constitution. It can only be changed by the same procedure for amending the Constitution. The SSS is set up under this Act to prevent and ensure prosecution of crimes against Nigeria's internal security.

v Those arrested/wanted: on Monday, 1 August 2005, operatives of the Nigeria's State Security Service (SSS) arrested Steve Omali and Michael Damisa at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja. Steve and Michael are professional printers. They had printed a set of posters on the "Charles Taylor Wanted" campaign for the Coalition Against Impunity. About 15:00 hours on Monday afternoon, Matthew Damisa, Steve's brother, went to visit his brother at the SSS Headquarters in Abuja. The SSS also arrested him. Steve Omali, Michael and Matthew Damisa were detained incommunicado and released on 4 August. The SSS confiscated 10,000 copies of the posters and subsequently sealed up the printers premises. Since the beginning of August, the SSS have declared leaders of the Coalition against Impunity in Nigeria wanted, including Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a Nigerian lawyer working with the Africa programme of the Open Society Justice Initiative, and one of the leading members of the Coalition.

Appendices: (see attached PDF files)* The list of organisations in the appendices are provided for the medias convenience and are not necessarily here as supporters of this statement.

v List and contacts of parties contesting in Liberian elections.

v List and contacts of some national and international organisations in Liberia.

v < SPAN>List and contacts of some national and international organisations in Sierra Leone.
Contacts

For Media in Nigeria
Auwal Musa Rafsanjani , Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre
+234-8033844646, rafsanjani@kabissa.
For Media in Liberia
J. Aloysius Toe , Foundation for Human Rights and Democracy (FOHRD),
fohrd@hotmail.com; or fohrd2003@yahoo.com * Tel:+231-6-51-51-58
For Media in Sierra Leone
Zainab Bangura, National Accountability Group.
Tel: +232-22-240995, Fax: +232-22-241054
Email: nag@sierratel.sl
For Media in Eastern Africa
African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET)
L. Muthoni Wanyeki, Tel: (254) 20-3741301/20, Fax: (254) 20-3742927
Email: admin@femnet.or.ke
For Media in Southern Africa
Centre for the Study of Violence & Reconciliation, Ahmed Motala
Tel: +27 (11) 403-5650, Fax: +27 (11) 339-6785, e-mail: amotola@csvr.org.za
For International Media
*CREDO for Free Expression & Associated Rights. Rotimi Sankore,
Tel: +44 207 787 5501, Fax: +44 207 787 5502, email:media@credonet.org
*International Refugee Rights Initiative, Olivia Bueno Tel: 1-212-377-2700 ext 416. Fax: 1-212-377-2727, E-mail: info@refugee-rights.org

Nigeria: Unions to fight fuel hike

2005-08-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4196634.stm

Nigeria's two biggest labour unions have agreed to fight the 30% increase in fuel in defiance of a new law banning unilateral strike action. Last year the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) called three crippling general strikes against fuel prices rises. The NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) said they are meeting to decide when to strike and will not back down until the prices are reversed.

South Africa: The roaring of the mice

2005-08-31

http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,805

Many in South Africa have long held that it would not be a bad thing for democracy if there was a split in the ruling ANC alliance. But the recent showdown in the ANC-SACP-Cosatu alliance over former deputy president Jacob Zuma has given a glimpse of what this political landscape might look like and as Sam Sole writes in a commentary for the Mail and Guardian, "it's not pretty". Sole recounts the words of political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi's categorisation of the support for Zuma as the "coalition of the irrational" and warns: "The profound absence of discernable Zuma policy positions on anything, let alone a recognisable record of support for traditional left positions, should give us all pause."

Tanzania: In Zanzibar, Mkapa tells donors to stay clear of elections

2005-08-30

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48802

International donors should not interfere in Tanzania’s general elections on 30 October, outgoing President Benjamin Mkapa said on Saturday while visiting his country’s politically volatile semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar. "I must stress that our development partners should respect our sovereignty," he told supporters at a public rally in Zanzibar. "They should not take advantage of the assistance they give us to decide which political party and leaders suit us."

Zimbabwe: Rights activists condemn constitutional changes

2005-08-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48833

Zimbabwean human rights activists condemned sweeping constitutional amendments approved by parliament on Tuesday, arguing the government has undermined basic freedoms. Describing the proposed changes to the constitution as the "worst piece of legislation yet", Joseph James, president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, said lawyers "across political and ideological lines" had, for the first time, taken a stance against the new legislation.
Related Link:
Serious concerns over ammendment bill
http://www.zlhr.org.zw/media/releases/aug_04_05.htm

Africa/Global: The Role of NGO Self-Regulation in Increasing Stakeholder Accountability

2005-08-30

http://www.oneworldtrust.org/documents/SelfReg%20(final)July05.pdf

Over the past decade there has been a significant growth in the use of voluntary codes of conduct and certification schemes as a way of strengthening NGO accountability. Current estimates suggest that self-regulatory initiatives such as these are in operation in over 40 countries worldwide. This paper from the One World Trust examines their rise and investigates the debate that surrounds them. The paper is particularly concerned with developing an understanding of under what conditions self-regulation initiatives can increase NGO's accountability to their beneficiaries.

Africa: Debt, despots and domination

2005-08-30

http://www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=13535

At this time we have to go beyond celebrating the carrot of debt relief being offered to Africa by the west and look critically at the conspiracy of forces that has positioned this continent at the bottom of the global economic pyramid, writes Chris Ngwodo of Nigeria World. "It goes without saying that even with total and unconditional debt cancellation, African countries would still be in no position to launch themselves into the orbit of first world development. At best, their chances of such a transmutation might improve. To truly release Africa from the curse of servitude, we need to recognize the workings of the unholy trinity of transnational corporations, local despots and western governments and their satellite monetary institutions."

Cameroon: Government admits corruption flaws

2005-08-30

http://admin.corisweb.org/index.php?fuseaction=news.view&id=118499&src=dcn

Contrary to its earlier stance, the government of Cameroon has admitted that the German Anti-Corruption NGO, Transparency International, TI, was right when it classified Cameroon as the most corrupt country in the world for two consecutive years. Five years after that classification, government seems to have come out of its shell to admit that TI was right. "When Cameroon topped the chart as the world champion of corruption, the entire nation was disturbed and traumatised. Some citizens considered it a betrayal or even a show of hatred for our country by certain donors or super powers. A closer look would, however, reveal that many indicators seem to confirm the classification in almost all sectors of national activity."

Kenya: I Am Ready to Give Corruption Dossier, Githongo Says

2005-08-30

http://admin.corisweb.org/index.php?fuseaction=news.view&id=118500&src=dcn

Former Ethics Permanent Secretary John Githongo says he is ready to give whatever information he has on corruption in Kenya to the Government. In a brief statement, Githongo - who resigned in February while on assignment in the UK - said he remained firmly committed to the eradication of corruption in Kenya. The former PS, who was President Kibaki's advisor on corruption, was responding to a call on him by Planning minister Anyang' Nyong'o to return to the country and tell the Government what he knew about corruption.

Nigeria: FBI raids Nigerian VP Atiku's US home

2005-08-30

http://admin.corisweb.org/index.php?fuseaction=news.view&id=118513&src=dcn

Operatives of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) have searched the US home of Vice President Atiku Abubakar as part of an international anti-corruption probe, according to reports. US State Department spokeswoman, Joanne Moore, said the search of the house located in an upscale Maryland suburb of the US capital took place on August 3, but declined to provide details. "All inquiries about the search of the United States residence of Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar should be directed to the Department of Justice," Moore said.

Africa/Global: Are the WTO talks in trouble?

2005-08-30

http://www.focusweb.org/main/html/Article658.html

Walden Bellow from Focus on the Global South writes that civil society groups that regard the coming WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong as condemned to producing a deal that can only be detrimental to the interests of developing countries were cheered by the failure of the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council meeting in late July to arrive at substantive agreements in any of the critical areas of negotiations: agriculture, non-agricultural products, and services. Indeed, most observers, including the media, have largely characterized the inability to produce the "July Approximations" as a significant setback to securing a successful ministerial in Hong Kong in December, he writes.

Africa/Global: Hopes 'Fade' for Millennium Meet

2005-08-31

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30044

The United Nations summit next month on promoting the millennium development goals could end up delaying progress, a leading British charity says. The UN summit has been called at its headquarters in New York September 14 to 16 to review action on the millennium development goals (MDGs). A draft declaration for a UN text on the MDGs was produced Aug. 5 following proposals made earlier in June by China and other developing nations. "Very few of those amendments were incorporated in the draft text," Peter Hardstaff from the World Development Movement (WDM) told IPS. The review summit next month will now consider several amendments from the United States ''which sound like a complete reversal of even what is in the draft declaration,'' Hardstaff said.

Africa: China, India and poverty in Africa

2005-08-30

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/docdisplay.cfm?doc=DOC19251&resource=f1trade

Despite the fact that trade between China, India (Asian Drivers) and Africa has grown significantly since 1990, it is only recently that attention has been paid to their impact on the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, China and India have also emerged as sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). This paper published by the Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN) focuses on the impacts that these links have on poverty in sub saharan Africa. Through analysing 21 African countries (accounting for four-fifths of the total population of Sub-Saharan Africa) it aims to set the context for the poverty implications. The authors argue that the likely impact of trade changes on the poor will partially depend on the types of goods involved and the conditions under which they are produced.

Africa: Declaration of African civil society on the road to 6th Ministerial Conference of the WTO

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/29250

"From the 16-19 of August, 2005, organisations of civil society from across Africa, comprising trade unions, farmers organisations, women's organisations, faith-based organisations and non-governmental organisations, met in Accra under the umbrella of the Africa Trade Network to deliberate upon the challenges posed to African countries in the on-going negotiations at the WTO, particularly in the preparations for the December Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. We adopted the following conclusions and demands." Read the full statement by clicking on the link provided.
Declaration of African civil society on the road to 6th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation in Hong Kong

August 2005

From the 16-19 of August, 2005, organisations of civil society from across Africa, comprising trade unions, farmers organisations, women's organisations, faith-based organisations and non-governmental organisations, met in Accra under the umbrella of the Africa Trade Network to deliberate upon the challenges posed to African countries in the on-going negotiations at the WTO, particularly in the preparations for the December Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. We adopted the following conclusions and demands.

We affirm as primary our right to pursue autonomously determined policies for the development of our economies, and to fulfil the social and human rights and livelihood needs of our people. Over the past two decades, this right has been severely undermined by external agencies like the World Bank and IMF. The policies of economic liberalisation and deregulation imposed by these agencies has led to serious economic collapse and social and environmental stress. An attempt is being made to continue this process in even more severe forms in the WTO.

It is four years since the launch of the WTO much-touted Doha "development" agenda. In that period there has been no progress in tackling the developmental concerns of African and other developing countries which were proclaimed as pivotal to the success of the Doha agenda. The powerful members of the WTO have frustrated all attempts at redressing the fundamental imbalances of the WTO regime which have contributed to wreak havoc upon African and other developing country economies and their people. Instead they have persisted with their attempts to impose the needs of their own economies and corporate interests on the rest of the world.

Two years after the resistance of developing country governments to this situation, culminated in the dramatic collapse of the 5th Ministerial Conference in Cancun, the arrongance and double-standards of the powerful still remains the characteristic pattern of the WTO negotiations. As is evident from their proposals, the rich and powerful industrialised countries of the WTO continue to pressurise African and other developing countries to undertake further and deeper liberalisation commitments in their industrial, agricultural and services sectors, and lock them permanently into the system. At the same time, the developed countries remain intent on maintaining their advantages and protection.

As the Hong-Kong Ministerial approaches, these countries are set to come under even more intense pressures, and will be subject even more intensely to the manipulative, untransparent and undemocratic methods always employed by the developed countries to get their way.

We reject these attempts to undermine the policy autonomy of our countries, and cause further calamity to our economic development, and the fulfilment of our social rights. In furtherance of this, we state the following.

Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA)

Africa's industries have been devastated by two decades of World Bank/IMF imposed policies of trade liberalisation. Negotiations in NAMA will make this worse if the developed countries succeed in imposing drastic reductions in tariffs, as well as the restrictions of the levels to which African and other developing countries can in future raise tariffs. This will remove tariff policy as an important tool of industrial development, at a time when many other policy tools have already been removed under the agreements in the WTO.

We therefore demand that African countries should not accept and they must not be pressured into accepting the proposals on tariff being promoted by the advanced industrial countries. Instead they must be allowed to determine the definition and employment of tariff instruments and related policies.

Agriculture Agriculture is central to the food security, rural development and livelihood needs in African countries. In the on-going negotiations African and other developing countries face the danger of being forced to open their markets to agricultural exports from the developed countries while the latter continue to protect theirs. Worse, the African and other developing countries will be exposed to the unfair subsidies of the developed countries, with artificially cheapened products being dumped in their markets, their own farmers displaced, and their livelihoods disrupted.

We demand that African countries must not undertake any further reduction in their tariffs for agricultural products; and they must also not bind their tariffs at current levels. In addition, they must have the right to use measures to further strengthen their ability to protect their domestic producers as they judge necessary, including the special safeguard mechanism and the right to desginate special products.. At the same time, the developed countries must eliminate all their subsidies which enable them to dump artificially cheap products in our markets and in global markets, and devastate our economies.

Services

Services are crucial for our economic development. In addition, services, especially essential services like health, education, water, are fundamental rights, the access to which must be guaranteed to all. IMF and World Banks imposed policies of liberalisation and deregulation have already transformed some of these essential services into operations for profit, and taken them out of the reach of the vast majority of the citizens in African countries. At the same time, deregulation and liberalisation have placed services in the hands of private mainly foreign, providers, and have made them subject to externally driven economic considerations, thereby undermining their role in the development of an integrated domestic economy.

The developed countries seek to further entrench this process by pressurising African and other developing countries to open up more services sectors, and commit these under the General Agreement on Trade in Services.

We call on our governments not to accede to the request of the developed countries for further liberalisation; and furthermore, not be coerced into committing their existing liberalisation undertaken under IMF/World Bank pressure, as this will entrench them in the WTO and make them irreversible.

S&D, and Implementation Issues

The proposals by African and other developing countries to strengthen their right to special and differential treatment within WTO rules, as well as to resolve the problems of implementation with the existing agreements have been effectively marginalised. These issues are on the verge of disappearing from the Doha work programme. We demand the re-instatement of these essential development issues to the fore-front of the WTO negotiations.

EPA negotiations, and WTO compatibility

The developed countries, particularly the US and EU, have resorted to bilateral and regional trade agreements with other developing countries to attain the objectives that they have not been able to attain in the WTO. In the context of the EPA negotiations, the European Union is attempting to impose the so-called Singapore issues on African countries, and to get these countries to grant market access to European goods and services far beyond the WTO requirements, and undermine Africa's economies and their efforts at regional integration.

We endorse the position of the Africa Ministers of Trade in Cairo in relations to the EPA negotiations. In the context of the WTO negotiations, we support the demand for the amendment of Article XXIV of the GATT to remove the reciprocity requirements in trade agremements between developed and developing countries members, including between African countries and the EU.

Process

African countries are further disadvantaged in the on-going negotiations by the untransparent and undemocratic methods and processes being used, such as mini-ministerial meetings and meetings of small-groups of countries, from which African countries are excluded. These methods and processes have intensified and will continue to intensify as the developed countries attempt to resolve controversial issues in their favour ahead of Hong Kong. We call on African governments to reject the outcomes of any meetings in which they have not participated. We demand that the processes of the WTO must be made democratic, transparent, inclusive and accountable.

Furthermore, in view of the persistent attempts by the major powers to divide African and other developing countries and undermine their unity, we urge our governments to strengthen their unity in the spirt of Cancun, and build upon their existing alliances.

Above all, we call on our governments to ensure that their national positions and mandates for the Hong Kong ministerial are elaborated through national debates and discussions with the participation of people's organisations, as well as national parliaments.

We call on all civil society and people's organisation to be firm in their demands on our governments to protect and promote the interests of all people at all times and at all costs.

Africa: How the G8 lied to the world on aid

2005-09-01

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1554311,00.html

World leaders are now preparing for the millennium summit to be held in New York next month, described by the UN as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to take bold decisions". Yet the current draft outcome simply repeats what was agreed on aid and debt last month in Gleneagles. The reality of that G8 deal has recently emerged - and is likely to condemn the New York summit to be an expensive failure.

Africa: No Partnership Quick Fixes

2005-08-30

http://www.saiia.org.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=687

Public-private partnerships have been hailed as a new way to conduct state business and harness the funding and expertise of the private sector. But a new study by the South African Institute of International Affairs shows they fail unless government plans well and fixes its chronic problems of non-transparent politically-manipulated procurement. African governments face a cash and capacity crunch. They need to dramatically improve public services but lack money and the technical and management capacity to deliver new roads, improved ports, efficient electricity plants, effective schools and desperately needed health services.

Nigeria: Debt cancellation deal comes at a price

2005-08-30

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/nigeria

Creditor countries have in principle agreed to cancel around $17 billion of Nigeria's debt. This debt cancellation is long overdue - but is being implemented in a way that could mean Nigeria paying more money to the rich world in the short term. The deal was agreed by the Paris Club, a creditor cartel of 19 rich countries. The UK (which is Nigeria's biggest creditor) was the strongest advocate for debt cancellation for Nigeria, having come under strong pressure from campaigners. The offered cancellation of $17 billion is a huge amount - but it is dependent on Nigeria paying off arrears of about $6 billion, and 'buying back' around $8 billion of the debt.

Sierra Leone: A new PRSP development agenda?

2005-08-30

http://www.eurodad.org/articles/default.aspx?id=642

Sierra Leone is taking tentative steps to move from a conflict-dominated agenda to a development-orientated one. But donors are not providing the funding, says a Eurodad paper. Sierra Leone has produced its first full PRSP for the period 2005 – 2007. It signals an important move from a conflict-dominated agenda towards a much-needed development-orientated one and should be welcomed and supported by the international community. The problem is that funding for the PRSP is failing to materialise. Despite the PRSP having been produced in a relatively participative manner and being viewed by the international financial institutions (IFIs) and civil society as providing adequate policy solutions, funding both in the short-term and long- term appears limited.  

Sub-Saharan Africa: The human costs of the 2015 'business-as-usual' scenario

2005-09-01

http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0001509/index.php

With 10 years to go to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target date of 2015, current trends will leave most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa far short of most targets. The gap between trend and target can be expressed in statistics. But behind the statistics are human costs. This note provides a preliminary assessment of the potential scale of these costs. It draws on a global trend projection analysis developed by UNDP’s Human Development Report Office (HDRO). The analysis uses country-by-country data for the period 1990-2003 to build global and regional aggregates that capture changes in the distribution of poverty, child mortality, children out of school and other indicators.

Africa/Global: Expediting the Transfer of Funds for HIV/AIDS Programs

2005-08-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/29214

The AIDS pandemic is so devastating in some countries that interruptions in the funding of HIV/AIDS services can be seen immediately in the populations they serve. What can we do to prevent these bottlenecks? And while donors are increasing allocations for HIV/AIDS services, they are increasing their expectations of the organizations, large and small, receiving these funds. Small organizations typically lack the capacity to meet those requirements. What innovative or expedited financing approaches can help? Management Sciences for Health (MSH) first Occasional Paper, "Expediting the Transfer of Funds for HIV/AIDS Services," (http://www.msh.org/resources/publications/pdf/funds_transfer_HIV_AIDS.pdf) is a provocative discussion of some of the challenges to the rapid funding of AIDS programs. This paper identifies the major constraints to the rapid transfer of funds and provides options for avoiding or mitigating these constraints. The authors welcome feedback on this paper. Please direct your comments to Sharon Stash (bookstore@msh.org).

Africa/Global: Nestle under fire over breast milk substitutes

2005-08-30

http://www.babymilkaction.org/pdfs/nprme05web.pdf

Nestle has a serious image problem because of its on-going aggressive marketing of baby foods, according to a report by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). "Instead of making changes required to bring its practices fully into line with international marketing standards, Nestlé invests heavily in Public Relations (PR) initiatives intended to divert criticism. But Nestlé makes demonstrably untrue claims which have resulted in further damaging publicity." National groups have launched boycotts against Nestlé in 20 countries because of its unethical and irresponsible marketing of breastmilk substitutes, says the report. Nestlé is singled out for boycott action because independent monitoring conducted by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) finds it to be the largest single source of violations of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent, relevant World Health Assembly Resolutions worldwide.

Africa: Health, dignity and development – meeting global water and sanitation goals

2005-08-30

http://www.id21.org/urban/u3kl1g1.html

Globally, the lack of access to clean water and sanitation facilities results in the deaths of 3,900 children daily. The importance of water and sanitation is recognised in the Millennium Development Goals. What will it take to expand water supply and sanitation coverage to the extent necessary to achieve them? How can water use be optimised to achieve the rest of the Goals?

Chad: Responding to the health workforce crisis

2005-08-30

http://www.id21.org/health/InsightsHealth7art7.html

With a population of more than 8 million, Chad has around 3,600 health workers: 50 percent of these are unskilled, and 35 percent are nurses and midwives. Chad also faces geographical imbalances in the distribution of health professionals, with approximately half working in the capital N'Djamena. Massive shortages of qualified health workers are recognised by the Chad authorities to be a primary bottleneck for the development of the health sector. Policies have been implemented which prioritise human resource development. However, more coherent policies are needed, particularly to improve motivation and retention.

Guinea-Bissau: Low-Cost Treatment in Cholera Epidemic Could Save Many Lives

2005-08-31

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=29946

Guinea Bissau is about to run out of intravenous fluids and equipment essential to the low-cost life-saving treatment for cholera, which has claimed 112 lives in this tiny West African nation since June. An additional 6,420 patients are still at risk. Portugal and France were the first countries to send medical aid in response to the current epidemic. One litre of IV fluid costs just over a dollar, and 3.5 litres are enough to save a cholera patient from death by dehydration.

South Africa: Patients fear anti-retroviral drugs

2005-08-30

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20031287

Fear of antiretroviral drugs meant that most patients at one of the country’s oldest HIV/AIDS treatment clinics waited until they were desperate before seeking treatment. According to hospital staff, many patients had heard bad stories about ARV treatment and were either incredibly sick or needed much encouragement from their family or employers, before they would take the drugs.

Swaziland: King ends abstinence campaign

2005-08-30

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=32165

Swazi King Mswati III has announced he will abandon a campaign meant to combat the spread of HIV by urging virgin girls to remain abstinent, coinciding with the release of a Ministry of Health and Social Welfare study showing that 29% of Swazi teens are HIV-positive, the SAPA/Independent reports. No official reason was given as to why the campaign is ending a year ahead of schedule, but it was considered unpopular among young people, according to BBC News.

Uganda: Fund for aids suspends grants

2005-08-30

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=32229

The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has announced it has temporarily suspended its five grants to Uganda citing evidence of mismanagement, Reuters reports. The organization made the decision after an investigation of one of the grants by PricewaterhouseCoopers found evidence of "serious mismanagement" by the Project Management Unit in the Ugandan Ministry of Health, a unit that was established to implement the grants.

Zimbabwe: Traditional healers make a killing as healthcare costs rocket

2005-08-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48781

An increasing number of Zimbabweans are turning to traditional healers for inexpensive medical care as health costs continue their upward trajectory. Under-resourced state hospitals and clinics charge around Zim $20,000 (US 8 cents) per consultation, but the cost at better-equipped private hospitals is around Zim $500,000 (US $20) and patients can quite easily run up a bill of Zim $15 million (US $615) in a week.

Africa/Global: Education for all in conflict affected countries: an impossible goal?

2005-08-29

http://www.id21.org/education/e1ms1g1.html

The devastation and chaos left behind by conflict has dramatically slowed the ability of war-torn countries to reach the Education for All (EFA) goals. This is especially true for girls. This research examines which programmes and policies can begin to help countries engulfed by war arrive at EFA objectives, and addresses the roles international actors need to play to support this process.

Africa/Global: On the road to universal primary education

2005-08-29

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC19081

This brief from the Center for Global Development is based on the Report of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality. The paper discusses how both developing countries and donors can foster and support bold action to achieve the education MDG. Developing countries that are falling short can transform their education systems through: a strong national commitment to education; greater local control; more and better quality information about school performance and learning outcomes; and use of special interventions to reach poor children, including girls in rural areas and other marginalised children.

Africa: Bandwidth will speed African universities' progress

2005-08-29

http://www.scidev.net/Opinions/index.cfm?fuseaction=readOpinions&itemid=421&language=1

African universities need access to communication and information technologies to compete internationally. But they are constrained by the speed at which data can travel to their computers — a measure known as bandwidth. In this article, Steve Song of the Canadian International Development Research Centre argues that wider, cheaper bandwidth could transform the way these universities function.

Africa: Educating young people in emergencies

2005-08-29

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights-ed04/insights-issed04-art00.html

Armed conflict and natural disasters tear communities apart. Lives are lost, families are displaced and separated, and support systems break down. Opportunities for education often diminish or disappear in environments where they may have already been scarce - over half of the more than 200 million children and young people who have not completed primary school, live in regions devastated by armed conflict. The impact on adolescents and youth is uniquely devastating.

Senegal: Poverty and education in rural Senegal

2005-08-29

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC18972

Gender gaps in schooling in Senegal are pervasive, says a paper from the Population Council, USA. In both urban and rural areas girls suffer from marked disadvantages relative to boys in all three measures of schooling. In wealthier urban households, girls' disadvantages are smaller, but not completely eliminated. Furthermore, no systematic reduction in female disadvantage is apparent in rural Senegal, even in the uppermost stratum of households. Judging from these findings, income growth alone is unlikely to close the schooling gap between urban and rural areas or between boys and girls in Senegal.

Uganda: Education as a means of protection

2005-08-29

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights-ed04/insights-issed04-art07.html

Over 18 years of civil war in northern Uganda, fought mainly between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan military, has prevented young people from getting a good education. Over 90 percent of people live in camps for internally displaced persons and most schools in Kitgum and Pader districts are closed despite efforts to achieve Universal Primary Education.

Africa/Global: Nature and the battle against poverty

2005-08-30

http://www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/poverty.pdf

"There is a direct and critical link between environmental degradation and rural poverty. Our groups on the ground and the communities they work with can also bear witness to the fact that neoliberal economic globalization has increased environmental devastation and poverty among natural resource dependent people." This is according to a new Friends of the Earth report that looks at the role the environment can play in dealing with poverty.

Ghana: "High Levels of Offshore Retention, low Levels of Royalty Rates Hinder Africa"

2005-09-01

http://www.twnafrica.org/news_detail.asp?twnID=800

Mr.Abdulai Darimani, programme officer in the Environment Unit at TWN-Africa, has said that one of the reasons why money from mining has, contrary to popular belief, no benefit for domestic revenue is because companies are allowed by policy to retain as much as 40-90 per cent of their earnings in offshore accounts. Speaking as a panellist on an Accra-based private radio station CITI 97.3FM’s "Business Digest" programme, he argued that there are "high levels of offshore retention and low levels of royalty rates permitted by many national mining policies in Africa", adding that "Ghana’s shift to a HIPC status from a position of praise on its liberal mining policy best illustrates that the country does not benefit in any significant way from mining."

Ghana: Ghana drafts GM safety legislation

2005-08-29

http://www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=2293&language=1

Ghana's Ministry of the Environment and Science issued draft biosafety legislation in August, intended to protect the country's citizens and environment from the potentially damaging effects of genetically modified (GM) organisms. The implication is that the government is open to allowing GM products in the country. Yet this is in direct contrast to comments made less than a month ago by the country's food and agriculture minister.

Kenya: Elephants pack their trunks

2005-08-29

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4184702.stm

Kenya has begun moving 400 elephants from one national park to a larger one in what it calls the biggest transport of animals "since Noah's Ark", reports the BBC. The animals, which weigh two to four tons each, are being shot with tranquiliser darts, loaded onto special trucks and driven eight hours north. There was a serious overcrowding problem at the Shimba Hills Reserve, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said.

Madagascar: Forest area faces mining threat

2005-08-29

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1544101,00.html

One of the world's biggest mining companies has been given permission to open up an enormous mine on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar which will involve digging up some of the world's most unique forest, reports the UK Observer. The decision has outraged campaigners at Friends of the Earth, who had opposed the plans from the outset. It is all the more poignant because one of their leading directors, Andrew Lees, died 10 years ago in the same forest while investigating the controversial plans for a mine.

Senegal: Fishing crisis looms

2005-08-29

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4182972.stm

In the Senegalese village of Yoff, just a few kilometres up the coast from the capital Dakar, the hundreds of canoes lined up along the seaside tell the whole story. Despite growing urbanisation, fishing by traditional methods remains a vital occupation, a key part of the country's economy - and just as important, a way of life. But this sector is now threatened, reports the BBC, not only by the competition of the huge boats of the industrial sector, both local and international, but also by its own unregulated development and practices.

Angola: Angola Must Comply with UN Freedom of Expression Ruling

2005-08-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/29238

The Justice Initiative and INTERIGHTS has called on Angola to comply with its international human rights obligations, following the expiry of a UN-imposed deadline on the southern African country to act to protect freedom of expression. The open letter to Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos followed a March 2005 decision of the UN Human Rights Committee that Angola had violated journalist Rafael Marques de Morais' freedom of expression, by jailing him in 1999 for writing articles critical of dos Santos. The Committee gave the Angolan authorities 90 days to compensate Marques and take steps to prevent similar violations in future. No such steps have been taken to date.
info@justiceinitiative.org
www.justiceinitiative.org

Contact: James A. Goldston +1 917 862 2937

ANGOLA MUST COMPLY WITH UN FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION RULING

New York, August 29, 2005—The Justice Initiative and INTERIGHTS today
called on Angola to comply with its international human rights
obligations, following the expiry of a UN-imposed deadline on the
southern African country to act to protect freedom of expression.

The open letter to Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos followed
a March 2005 decision of the UN Human Rights Committee that Angola had
violated journalist Rafael Marques de Morais' freedom of expression,
by jailing him in 1999 for writing articles critical of dos Santos.
The Committee gave the Angolan authorities 90 days to compensate
Marques and take steps to prevent similar violations in future. No
such steps have been taken to date.

Marques was arrested and imprisoned in Luanda, Angola's capital, on
October 16, 1999, after he published an editorial in the Agora
accusing dos Santos of corruption and incompetence. Marques was
detained for 40 days without charges, and then tried and convicted for
causing "injury" to the President.

In their letter, INTERIGHTS and the Justice Initiative, who jointly
represented Marques before the UN Committee, requested that Angola
comply with the Committee's decision, quash Marques' criminal
conviction, and undertake systemic reforms to guarantee the freedom of
expression and personal liberties of all Angolans.
Article 46 of the Press Law, which grants absolute defamation
protection to the President of the Republic, subject to no defense of
truth, must be repealed. Other overbroad and draconian provisions of
the Press Law should also be repealed or thoroughly revised.
Criminal defamation laws, providing for prison terms of up to two
years, should be replaced with civil and other non-criminal remedies
for the legitimate protection of reputation. Truth and good faith
publication should be complete defenses in a defamation case.
Criminal laws should grant detainees basic due process rights,
including the right to be informed of their rights, be brought
promptly before a judge, and file habeas corpus petitions.
The authorities should stop use of incommunicado detention and train
law enforcement personnel on the rights of detainees. Defense counsel
and human rights groups should be allowed to visit detention
facilities and monitor conditions of detention.

Marques was sentenced to a six-month prison term, which was affirmed
but suspended on appeal, and ordered to pay damages to the President.
For nearly a year after his conviction, Marques' passport was
withheld, and he was prevented from leaving the country. The Human
Rights Committee ruled that Angola had violated Marques' rights to
personal liberty, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement.

Commenting on the ruling, Marques said, "Press freedom in Angola is
still vulnerable today to arbitrary attack from the executive and the
chilling climate of repression that results. The steps Angola must
take to prevent future transgressions are clear: decriminalize
defamation, establish truth as a complete defense in defamation cases,
repeal special protections for the president and chief executive, and
ensure due process for defendants throughout the judicial system."

The full text of the letter to President dos Santos is available on
the Justice Initiative website:
http://www.justiceinitiative.org/db/resource2?res_id=102736

___________________

The Open Society Justice Initiative, an operational program of the
Open Society Institute (OSI), pursues law reform activities grounded
in the protection of human rights, and contributes to the development
of legal capacity for open societies worldwide. The Justice Initiative
combines litigation, legal advocacy, technical assistance, and the
dissemination of knowledge to secure advances in five priority areas:
national criminal justice, international justice, freedom of
information and expression, equality and citizenship, and
anticorruption. Its offices are in Abuja, Budapest, and New York.

www.justiceinitiative.org

Ethiopia: Newspaper distributor detained, released on bail

2005-08-29

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/68855/

A prominent newspaper distributor was released on bail Tuesday after four days in police detention in the capital, Addis Ababa. Fikre Gudu was arrested in connection with an interview he gave to the private Amharic-language weekly Asqual about his one-month imprisonment in June, according to local sources who spoke to him after his release. In the interview, which ran after his release on July 7, Gudu talked about his arrest and subsequent imprisonment in a detention center outside the capital. According to local sources, he described poor prison conditions and criticized the government for jailing him, saying his arrest was part of a crackdown on Ethiopian independent media.

Ivory Coast: Pro-opposition newspaper editor told: "Idiots like you will be killed one by one"

2005-08-29

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14752

Reporters Without Borders has said it is appalled by the impunity with which anonymous phone callers have been making death threats for more than a week against Eddy Péhé, the editor of the opposition daily Le Nouveau Réveil, forcing him to flee his home. "This latest episode in the grim saga endured by Côte d'Ivoire's journalists must be taken seriously," the organisation said. "Whether under pressure or in bad faith, the Ivorian police have failed in their duty to protect citizens, because any police force should be capable of tracking down the source of such phone calls."

Nigeria: State Security Service raid weekly and attack newspaper vendors

2005-08-29

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14776

Reporters Without Borders has voiced outrage at the "perverse methods of intimidation" used against the Lagos-based weekly The Exclusive by Nigeria's intelligence agency, the State Security Service (SSS), which carried out a heavy-handed raid on its offices on 19 August and then used threats to deter street vendors from selling its latest issue. "President Olusegun Obasanjo can pose as an African peace-maker as much as he likes, but Nigeria continues to be one of the continent's most violent countries for journalists," the press freedom organisation said. "His intelligence service has no scruples about punishing dissident voices and using perverse methods of intimidation if necessary."

South Africa: SABC apologises to the public

2005-08-29

http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/newsst/newsst1124428156.aspx

The SABC has apologised for not showing Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka being booed at a rally in Utrecht in KwaZulu-Natal on Women's Day, reports South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper. "The SABC apologises unreservedly to the public for not airing the footage," the public broadcaster said. The SABC "further wishes to assure viewers that its editorial autonomy and integrity does not prevent it from airing negative footage even when it involves senior government officials," it said in a statement.

Burundi: Political landscape "radically transformed" by elections

2005-08-31

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3629

Elections have radically transformed Burundi's political landscape, says the International Crisis Group. "The success of the former CNDD-FDD rebels, including the selection of Pierre Nkurunziza as president on 19 August, gives the party control of all branches of government. Concurrently, the security sector has been profoundly restructured with CNDD-FDD fighters now making up 40 per cent of the army. They provide a safeguard against attempted coups to interrupt the peace process and thus a guarantee that further reforms required under the Arusha agreement for peace and reconciliation will be realised." The ICG says that nonetheless the elections are just one step towards lasting peace.

DRC: 12,500 Girls members of armed groups , NGO report says

2005-08-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48752

Some 12,500 girls currently belong to government and non-government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and a programme to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate all militias into society is failing them, Save the Children, an NGO, said in an August 2005 report. The report, titled "Forgotten Casualties of War", said many girls did not want to be in the disarmament and reintegration process. It said they did not see themselves as "child soldiers", but as "wives" or camp followers and, therefore, were not entitled to demobilisation and reintegration benefits.

DRC: Soldiers go AWOL as dissident leader issues call to arms

2005-08-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48837

The day after a dissident army leader in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) called for an insurrection, the 53rd Army Battalion and four companies of the 2nd Mixed Battalion in the east of the country went missing. Last Thursday, a 17-page communiqué attributed to a dissident army general, Laurent Nkunda, was secretly distributed in Goma. The communiqué called for the renewal of hostilities against the government in Kinshasa. However, evidence that the troops deserted to join Nkunda’s insurgency remains circumstantial.

DRC: The explosive trade in tin ore

2005-08-31

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC19092

A massive increase in demand for tin caused tin prices to rise dramatically in early 2004, and tin ore is now being used by military groups to fund themselves in Eastern parts of the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), according to a new Global Witness report. "There are no international mechanisms in place to regulate this trade, therefore allowing various armed factions, many with appalling human rights records, unfettered access to world markets, in order to generate funds," says the report.

Niger: Assessing the humanitarian response

2005-08-31

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC19382

This Humanitarian Policy Group briefing note highlights some of the questions that will need to be answered in order to explain the slowness of the international response to the 2005 famine in Niger. It argues that this is not just a case of donors failing to provide resources quickly enough. Questions also need to be asked about the quality of early- warning and assessment analysis; the capacity of humanitarian actors to respond; the appropriateness of the proposed responses; and the preparedness of development actors for what should have been a predictable crisis. In addition to all of these questions, the authors highlight that the scale and extent of food insecurity and possible crises in Mali and Mauritania must continue to be closely monitored.

Niger: UN, aid groups work to keep donors on board for the long haul

2005-09-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48848

Aid agencies handing out emergency food in Niger are urging donors to keep the contributions flowing, so help won’t fizzle out just as Nigeriens begin to rebuild their livelihoods and their means to avert deadly food shortages in the future. The World Food Programme (WFP) is appealing to the international community not to turn away from Niger, after donations suffered a sharp drop from almost daily pledges during July to just three in the past fortnight.

Sudan: Peace in post-Garang Sudan

2005-08-31

http://www.iss.org.za/AF/current/2005/050823Sudan.pdf

Outside the immediate political implications of the death of John Garang, the challenges of reconstruction may offer some insight into the sustainability of the peace process in Sudan, says this situation report from the Institute for Security Studies. "These include a complete lack of infrastructure in large parts of the south; a high degree of militarization of communities; the world's lowest indicators for health and education; and, last but not least, deeply entrenched suspicion between communities of the North and South. Not surprisingly, southerners often point out that what is needed in South Sudan is construction rather than reconstruction."

Zimbabwe: Operation Murambatsvina: The Tipping Point?

2005-08-31

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3618&l=1

Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order) cost some 700,000 Zimbabweans their homes or livelihoods or both and otherwise affected nearly a fifth of the troubled country's population, says the International Crisis Group in a recent report. "Its impact, as documented in a scathing UN report, has produced a political shock that has returned Zimbabwe to the international spotlight and made the quality of its governance almost impossible for its regional neighbours to ignore, however difficult they find it to be overtly critical." Effort on three parallel tracks is required to resolve the crisis - the maintenance of overt international pressure, support for building internal political capacity and active regional diplomacy to facilitate political transition.

Africa's schools connect to the 21st century

2005-08-29

http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=4&item=News&itemid=2274&language=1&CFID=1345821&CFTOKEN=74626883

Uganda has launched Africa's first 'e-school' as part of a continent-wide initiative to bring information and communication technologies (ICTs) to rural African schools. The initiative is led by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). It is designed to teach African schoolchildren modern technological skills so they can participate in today's communication-based society.

Equipping East African Women for Leadership and Career Growth in Science

2005-08-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/29162

The Gender & Diversity Program (G&D) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has announced the first 11 awardees of a new fellowship programme for women crop scientists working in national research institutes and universities in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The programme is supported by The Rockefeller Foundation and implemented by G&D. "The fellowship supports professional growth in both scientific expertise and people management, facilitating development of female science leaders and strengthening their institutions," said Ms Vicki Wilde, G&D Program Leader.
MEDIA RELEASE

17th August 2005, NAIROBI

Equipping East African Women for Leadership and Career Growth in Science

The Gender & Diversity Program (G&D) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) today announced the first 11 awardees of a new fellowship programme for women crop scientists working in national research institutes and universities in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The programme is supported by The Rockefeller Foundation and implemented by G&D.

“The fellowship supports professional growth in both scientific expertise and people management, facilitating development of female science leaders and strengthening their institutions,” said Ms Vicki Wilde, G&D Program Leader.

For each awardee, this two-year fellowship offers:
• a two-year mentoring relationship with a senior scientist in her field;
• funds to present her research at a major scientific conference each year;
• development of team management and leadership skills through participation in the CGIAR’s women’s leadership and negotiations courses;
• improved access to knowledge and support via linkages to regional and global networks of women scientists and researchers; and
• mentoring opportunities to junior women scientists in her institute during the second year of her fellowship

But why the programme?

The fellowships directly contribute to the Millennium Development Goal to promote gender equality and empower women. Representative African female researchers involved in developing the fellowship programme tabled three major constraints to the advancement of women in science: (1) women tend to be less assertive than men due to cultural norms, and so women’s voices are often missed; (2) women tend to be less flexible than men due to family demands and obligations, so women are often overlooked for promotions; and, (3) men tend to prefer male managers, thereby limiting opportunities for women moving into management positions.

G&D offers an innovative series of world-class career development programmes looking at the implications of these factors in leadership development and responding to each in affirmative and effective ways.

According to a report entitled ‘Strangers in a Strange Land’: A Literature Review of Women in Science , the number of women in science worldwide has increased dramatically in the past two decades. However, research consistently documents disproportionately low numbers of women in senior scientific and leadership positions. The report continues: “While great strides have been made to counter overt discrimination against women in science, clearly there are still informal barriers to success for women scientists. Taken together, these barriers have major effects on women scientists’ careers.”

And there is a high wastage of women in science. A paper entitled Male and Female CGIAR Scientists in Comparative Perspective refers to what has been termed as ‘the leaky pipeline’: so many women drop out of science as one moves up the ladder, and those who remain are less likely to find good employment in comparison to men, even if they advance to a PhD.

Two Swedish researchers, Christine Wenneras and Agnes Wold, had to invoke Sweden’s Freedom of Press Act to obtain data which demonstrated an anti-female bias in post-doctoral fellowships awarded by the Swedish Medical Council. The researchers established that to receive a competence score at par with their male colleagues, female applicants had to be two-and-a-half times better.

Mary Frank Fox also reported a study where summaries of PhD holders were sent to psychology chairpersons in USA. Female names were randomly assigned to some of the summaries, with the rest retaining male names. Asked to make hypothetical hiring decisions and assign academic rank on the basis of the summaries, most chairs recommended the rank of associate professor for the summaries with male names, and assistant professor for the same summaries identified with a female name.

Clearly, even in the most progressive countries, the playing field is uneven. Yet, despite the odds, more and more undeterred women are studying science, especially biological sciences.

“Without more women scientists and leaders, we are in danger of missing a significant opportunity to leverage the diverse perspectives necessary to address the challenges of poverty and hunger,” cautioned Ms Wilde.

She added, “For success in agriculture, it is essential that we encourage and support the scientific careers of those closest to the issues of poverty, hunger and environmental degradation—women from developing countries.”

The 11 winners of the G&D-Rockefeller fellowships were selected on the basis of their scientific achievement and leadership potential.

From a pool of over a hundred applications, selection was done by a Steering Committee composed of representatives from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, the Ford Foundation and G&D.

This pilot fellowship programme will contribute to institutional understanding about the contributions of, and constraints faced by, women scientists in the fight against hunger, poverty and environmental degradation in Africa. Ultimately, this will enhance and increase research on improving livelihoods and the environment through agricultural innovations.

“The two-year fellowship is designed to support professional growth, and to help ensure continued development and advancement of female leaders in agricultural science for East Africa,” said Peter Matlon, Director of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa Regional Program. “Congratulations to this year’s winners, and to G&D for launching such an innovative and much needed programme.”

And what did some of the winners have to say about their work?

“I would like to see more research in African indigenous foods,” affirmed Mary Onyango, a university lecturer from Kenya. “My purpose in life is to serve and help communities. We must translate our research findings into development.”

“Smallholder farmers are my main concern” said Rose Mongi, a Breeder from Tanzania. “One of my interests is to work on the so-called ‘small’ crops which are generally neglected in the international scenario.”

Jenipher Bisikwa, a university lecturer from Uganda, observes, “When you look at hunger and poverty, it overwhelms and overshadows you. But how do you eat an elephant? A bite at a time. I believe in having an impact. I see hunger and poverty and I’m aware that I cannot solve the problem alone, but I can contribute to solving the problem.”

The next selection will be in 2006. For a list of the 2005 fellowship winners, their research and their goals, see: http://www.genderdiversity.cgiar.org/resource/women_fellowships.asp

Contacts for more information:
CGIAR Gender & Diversity Program: Vicki Wilde, Program Leader, CGIAR Gender & Diversity Program; Email: v.wilde@cgiar.org
Kenya: Julia Gitobu, Associate Professor, Kenyatta University, School of Environmental and Human Sciences (also Senior Adviser, Winrock International); Email: jgitobu@necta.co.ke
Tanzania: Anna Andrew Temu, Senior Lecturer, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Sokoine University of Agriculture; Email: aatemu2002@yahoo.co.uk
Uganda: Fina Opio, Director of Research, Namulonge Agricultural and Animal Production Research Institute; Email: fopio@naro-ug.org
Media contact: Antonia N N Okono, Communications Officer, CGIAR Gender and Diversity Program; Email: a.okono@cgiar.org

Ethiopia goes digital

2005-08-29

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/outlook/story/0,,1550691,00.html

Ethiopia, one of Africa's poorest countries, is spending one-tenth of its GDP every year on IT. Over the next five years the government plans to invest more than $100m in public-sector computers. It aims to equip hundreds of government offices and schools with broadband internet connections. And by 2007, according to the plan, none of Ethiopia's 74 million people will live more than a few kilometres from a broadband access point.

The Role of ICTs in the Development of African Women

2005-08-29

http://africa.rights.apc.org/index.shtml?apc=21867ie_1&x=685166

This paper sets out to look at the question of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in relation to women’s development in Africa. The emphasis is on current issues and the paper highlights key issues and challenges faced by women in Africa and to a smaller extent, globally. The paper provides examples of good practice and includes recommendations to Civil Society Organisations on how to create an enabling environment for women to access and use ICTs for development.

Web publishing tools for NPOs released

2005-08-29

http://sourceforge.net/projects/apc-aa/

ActionApps is a set of collaborative web publishing tools for not-for-profit organisation. It offer a low cost solution for content sharing that both increases the functionality of not-for-profit and NGO websites and facilitates the creation of portals sites, improving the visibility of civil society information. They are driven by free/open source software (FOSS).

Interim Developments' Newsletter

2005-08-29

http://www.interimsfd.com/Interim_Developments_6v2.pdf

This issue of Interim Developments reports on the UNDP-UNESCO Joint Programme internships for young Africans in the Diaspora, profiles a London recruitment event for professionals for Africa, reports on the Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards, highlights Professor Wangari Maathai's address to an Africa Diaspora conference and conducts an exclusive interview with South Africa's Institute of People Management on the country's unique human resources challenges.

UN summit discussion website

2005-08-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/enewsl/29222

With some 170 heads of State and government expected in New York in less than a month for the United Nations 2005 World Summit on September 14-16, civil society groups working with the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) have launched a website to voice their views on how to strengthen the world body as it confronts the challenges of extreme poverty and global security. The Website, at http://www.undpingoconference.org, features an interactive discussion area to debate issues that will be addressed at the 58th Annual DPI/NGO (non-governmental organisation) Conference, "Our Challenge: Voices for Peace, Partnerships and Renewal," scheduled to take place at UN Headquarters in New York from September 7-9.

Africa Insight Journal Special Issue: Youth in Africa

Call for Papers

2005-08-29

http://www.ai.org.za/call_for_papers.asp

Africa Insight reflects thinking on theoretical and practical developments in African studies, and about contemporary affairs on the continent. The Journal aims to provide insight into the processes of change in Africa. With this goal in mind, the Africa Institute of South Africa is planning a special issue of Africa Insight to focus on Youth in Africa over the past 10-15 years. The aim of the special issue is to undertake a wide-ranging assessment of youth development.

African Information Society Initiative (AISI) Media Awards

2005-08-29

http://www.comminit.com/awards2005/awards2005/awards-1116.html

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is inviting individual journalists and media institutions based in Africa to participate in the 2005 African Information Society Initiative (AISI) Media Awards. The awards aim to encourage informed coverage of the information society and Information Communications Technology (ICT) for development issues in Africa as part of ECA's Information Society Outreach and Communication Programme.

African Women's Development Fund grants programme

2005-08-29

http://www.comminit.com/awards2005/scholarships2004/awards-1026.html

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) funds local, national, sub-regional and regional organisations in Africa working towards women’s empowerment. The AWDF is an institutional capacity-building and programme development fund, which aims to help build a culture of learning and partnerships within the African women’s movement.

International Human Rights Internship Program (IHRIP)

2005-08-29

http://www.iie.org/Website/WPreview.cfm?WID=171

HRIP's mission and work are based on the belief that human rights activists have knowledge and skills, as a result of their day-to-day work, that are important to the success not only of their own work, but the work of other activists and organizations, whether in their own or in other countries and regions. IHRIP seeks to facilitate this exchange through sponsoring professional development and exchange projects for staff of human rights organizations; and the development of written resources focused on specific areas of human rights work.

Third Cadbury Fellows’ Programme and Workshop

2005-09-01

http://www.cwas.bham.ac.uk/staff/visiting.htm

The Centre of West African Studies announces its third annual resident fellows’ programme and workshop built around a current theme in African Studies. Two to three fellows will be appointed to participate in a two-month schedule of seminars and discussion groups, culminating in an Interdisciplinary Conference in May 2006. One aim of the Fellowship scheme is to assist new scholars to develop a research paper and bring it to publication, and it is expected that the conference papers will form the basis of an edited book or a special issue of a journal. Fellowships will cover return air-fare, accommodation and living costs for a period of up to ten weeks. The deadline for applications for fellowships is 1 December 2005.

Gender international convention

Thursday 23rd March – Saturday 25th March 2006, London

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/29260

This is a three-day series of activities with the main events being an International Women's conference, an exhibition and Edutainment Show. This seeks to bring women activists from all over the world to share their skills, experiences and knowledge in solidarity with other women. The conference aims to help mobilise and raise awareness about how poverty is created, its local and global impacts and how best it can be eradicated to enhance gender equality.
SHEROES HERITAGE LEARNING INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION (SHLIC)

This is a three-day series of activities with the main events being an International Women’s conference, an exhibition and Edutainment Show. This seeks to bring women activists from all over the world to share their skills, experiences and knowledge in solidarity with other women.
The conference aims to help mobilise and raise awareness about how poverty is created, its local and global impacts and how best it can be eradicated to enhance gender equality.
It will conscientise people to see, explore and understand the global dimensions of their issues. Furthermore it will highlight the efforts of outstanding women activists who are engaged in local, national and international endeavours to eradicate poverty through gender empowerment, with a view to bringing their own examples of best practise into global limelight towards better understanding, solidarity and friendship in the struggle for a new world order.

DATE: Thursday 23rd March – Saturday 25th March 2006

VENUE: London Borough of Greenwich

THEME: WOMEN IN THE GLOBAL JUSTICE STRUGGLE TO MAKE
POVERTY HISTORY
INVITED SPEAKERS: Mrs Asma Al Assad (First Lady of Syria), Angela Davis (Author), Maya Angelou, Baroness Tessa Blackstone (Vice Chancellor, Baroness Sally Hamwee, GLA, University of Greenwich), Mrs Sonia Ghandi, Samia Nkrumah (daughter of Kwame Nkrumah, first President of Ghana), Jean Lambert (Member of European Parliament), Harriet Harman (Minister of Constitutional Affairs, London) Cordell Pillay (Deputy General Secretary NAPO), Berverly Manley (Member of Parliament, Jamaica) Mary Honeyball (Member of European Parliament), Teresa Hayter (Author),

Organised upon the initiative of the SIMBA Gender Empowerment Focus Group (SGEFOG) supported by:
Jean Lambert MEP, Jenny Jones GLA, Caroline Lucas MEP, Harriet Harman MP, Baroness Sally Hamwee, The Jamaican High Commission, The High Commission of the Republic of Namibia, Greenwich Diversity Library, Musicians Union, Fire Brigade Union, Methodist Church, Greenwich Directorate of Culture and Community Services, National Union of Students Women’s Campaign Network, Student Union University of Greenwich, YCGN.UK, SURE Communications, African Health for Empowerment and Development (AHEAD) Combating Harassment and Racial Tension (CHART),DBG Art Gallery, Jayne Brown Designs, GFM Radio,


For more information or to make a donation please contact
ADWOA/FADUSA on 0208 317 0451/07985259503
EMAIL: simbagender@yahoo.com

ADDRESS: 48-50 Artillery Place
Woolwich
London
SE18 4AB

Invitation to apply for a Peace Research Capacity-Building Workshop

2005-08-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/29155

The University for Peace (UPEACE) affiliated with the UN, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, the American University Center for Global Peace in Washington, D.C., the South-North Centre for Peacebuilding and Development are pleased to invite interested institutions or organizations to nominate a representative to submit an application to attend a forthcoming Research Capacity-Building Workshop. The workshop, sponsored by the four partners noted, will be held under the auspices of CODESRIA, in Dakar, Senegal from 23 - 26 October 2005. Only proposals submitted by people who have been nominated by their institutions or organizations will be considered.




Invitation to apply for a Peace Research Capacity-Building Workshop
Dakar, Senegal, 23- 26 October 2005
Deadline for nominees’ letters of application: 4 September 2005


The University for Peace (UPEACE) affiliated with the UN, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, the American University Center for Global Peace in Washington, D.C., the South-North Centre for Peacebuilding and Development are pleased to invite interested institutions or organizations to nominate a representative to submit an application to attend a forthcoming Research Capacity-Building Workshop. The workshop, sponsored by the four partners noted, will be held under the auspices of CODESRIA, in Dakar, Senegal from 23 - 26 October 2005. Only proposals submitted by people who have been nominated by their institutions or organizations will be considered.

PURPOSE OF THE WORKSHOP
Policy-related research is critically needed both in Africa and internationally that arises from and speaks to the particularities, needs, aspirations, and insights of persons working towards on peace in Africa. A research workshop has been planned to bring together African academicians for an intensive three-day workshop, to share and improve research methodologies for this broad purpose. Since a problem-solving dimension is central, the participating instructors, researchers, and scholars are invited to bring examples of particular research quandaries or predicaments, and practical examples and stories of how they have sought to resolve them. The research workshop is designed collectively by the four partners to identify research-methodology challenges and to share lessons and recommendations for overcoming them. Highly interactive and participative, emphasis will be placed on building human and institutional collaborative research facilities among an incipient knowledge network in Africa. Topical research questions will be confronted, for example, new developments in conducting research on root causes of acute conflict, gender and building peace, environmental degradation as a cause of strife, and non-violent transformation of conflict. Such themes are viewed as indicative under the broad umbrella of policy-relevant and action-oriented peace research in Africa.

ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES
Participants will:
1. Be exposed to methodologies for developing research skills and conceptual capacity for building peace and sustainable development.
2. Gain insight into new, cutting-edge developments in policy-relevant and action-oriented peace research.
3. Learn how to tackle methodological challenges, such as developing interdisciplinary approaches and conducting rigorous interviews.
4. Be exposed to different epistemological orientations. They will be challenged to understand the role of values and judgements from different perspectives and how this applies to different methodologies.
5. Gain insight into the importance of linking research with policy and practice. They will be encouraged to consider how they can structure and sustain collaborative research facilities.
6. Learn the art of preparing articles for publication in academic journals and how to handle the news media to communicate their findings with policy implications.
7. Return to their institutions able to strengthen their capacity in peace-oriented research as it is linked to sustainable development.
8. Become more aware of ethical issues that arise in peace research, for example, confidentiality and the need for professional research that strives for objectivity and promotes open debate of different perspectives.

PARTICIPANT PRESENTATIONS

Participants will give a 3-5 minute presentation on a lessons they have learned and predicaments they face in undertaking and applying research in peace building and development. The initial presentations by participants will take the group deep into the everyday problems faced by African researchers. Presentations may highlight issues including: documenting peace-building innovations in a particular locality and applying lessons to other cases; research methodologies for examining the relationships between development and peace; improving integrated applications; research approaches to encouraging critical thinking among students; research breakthroughs in understanding the links between gender and peace, improving the historiography of non-violent struggles in Africa; endogenous methods and traditional knowledge on peace building and sustainable development; and borrowing from feminist research methodologies to incorporate excluded voices and sectors.

NOMINEES’ LETTER OF APPLICATION: DEADLINE 4 SEPTEMBER 2005

In nominating a representative from your institution to apply, the individual is requested to send us a recent biographical description of himself or herself (not a CV) containing information on academic and professional qualifications, and to write a formal Letter of Application to:

CODESRIA
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop x
Canal IV, BP 3304
Dakar 18524, Senegal
Telephone: +221 825 98 22/23
Fax: +221 824 12 89
E-mail: peacebuilding@codesria.sn

Letters of application will be entertained from any nominated African academician, instructor, researcher, or scholar who is currently teaching subjects with a research component, or individuals who will in the next term begin teaching peace-related subject matter with a research dimension. Instructors in quantitative and qualitative analysis with a particular interest in incorporating peace research into their ongoing work are particularly encouraged to apply. We especially seek academicians who are already conducting policy discussions related to peace with parliamentarians and policy makers to apply. Practitioners (as opposed to academicians) who are working in areas closely related to the research questions noted here are sought. Thus, in addition to lecturers, instructors, professors, and scholars, members of NGOs and peace research institutes that are generating knowledge and conducting research will be most welcome to apply. Every effort will be made to achieve gender balance among the participants. In your Letter of Application, please also submit any technical or IT requirements you may have for your 5-minute introductory presentation. Furthermore, please indicate any dietary requirements, allergies, special needs, etc.

Criteria for participant acceptance

A maximum of thirty participants can be invited to the workshop, in order to maximize participatory and interactive exchanges. Letters of application should include biographical descriptions of your nominated candidate. Criteria for participant acceptance are as follows:

1) Variety of geographical, academic, research, NGO. policy, and institutional mix
2) Gender, age, and background diversity
3) Experience and seriousness of interest in addressing peace research issues in teaching and scholarship.
4) Relevance of the workshop topic to teaching/research responsibilities

Additional information on the background, objectives, and logistical information concerning the workshop is attached to this invitation.

Your responses should reach us no later than Sunday, 4 September 2005, either by fax
(+221 824 12 8990) or by e-mail addressed to peacebuilding@codesria.sn You will be notified by Friday 23 September 2005 if your nominee has been accepted. We take this opportunity to thank you for your continued contributions to developing the culture of peace in the world through training, research and publication.





Concept Paper
23 to 26 October 2005
Research Capacity-Building Workshop:
Developing Research Skills and Conceptual Capacity for
Peace Building and Development

PLACE: Dakar, Senegal

DATES: 23 to 26 October 2005

DEADLINE FOR LETTER OF APPLICATION: 4 September 2005

TOPIC: Developing Research Skills and Conceptual Capacity for Peace Building and Development


ORGANISERS AND SPONSORS

• CODESRIA, or the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa
The continent’s leading research institution is based in Dakar, Senegal, hence the location for the workshop. CODESRIA has been at the cutting edge of the major development of the social sciences in Africa. Its specialists are renowned in diverse fields. In addition to making its experts available for substantive discussions and assistance in small-group sessions, CODESRIA will act as the co-ordinating host institution and will hold primary responsibility for selection of participants and expediting of arrangements and logistics.

• Africa Programme, University for Peace (UPEACE), affiliated with the UN
The mandate of UPEACE from the UN General Assembly is unique and constructive: to promote peace and security worldwide through education, training, and research on peace-related issues, including on human rights, gender equity, economic development and peace, environmental security, peace education, international law and settlement of disputes, disarmament and non-proliferation, and the media and conflict. In its Africa Programme, two points out of the ten-point action plan for Education for Peace in Africa pertain to research. One chapter on research specifically identifies the building of research capacity for the purposes of stimulating research for teaching purposes throughout Africa as a key purpose for the Africa Programme. Another chapter identifies the linkage of policy and research as a priority. The Africa programme operates on several levels: targeted activities focus on the needs of universities, organizations, and countries; regional and sub-regional activities build collaboration in order to achieve a critical mass of expertise and resources; Africa-wide networks for research and teaching are being formed; and cooperative programmes between Africa and the rest of the world are beginning. Strengthening African research, its dissemination and use is thus a central purpose of the Africa Programme. Without sound and up-to-date analysis, research, and data, policies will be inadequate and teaching becomes stale. Underpinning all aspects of the Africa Programme is the development of carefully calibrated research to shape academic excellence and refresh teaching, so that African institutions of higher learning reach their full stature and a new generation of leaders is fully aware of present and future approaches and issues. Such collaborative research will be able to influence policy and improve international understanding of Africa.

• Journal of Peacebuilding and Development (a project of the South-North Centre for Peace Building and Development (Zimbabwe), and the American University Center for Global Peace (CGP) Washington D.C.
The Journal of Peacebuilding and Development is a bi-annual journal providing a forum for the sharing of critical thinking and constructive action on issues at the intersections of conflict, development and peace. JPD, a primary project of SNCPD, is an ongoing endeavour that strives to promote and contribute to the development of a new inter-disciplinary field of peace building and development. Specifically, it provides a space for the gathering and documenting of institutional memory—a critical building block of any new field. Through the journal, key debates can be nurtured, strategies shared, and lessons remembered.

The South North Centre for Peacebuilding and Development (SNCPD), based in Harare, seeks to contribute to the evolution of a new interdisciplinary field of study, practice, and policy debate and formulation in the area of peace building and development. From the premise that both fields are deeply intertwined in their practical and theoretical inceptions, dynamics, outputs and impacts, SNCPD seeks to undertake activities in the areas of research, publishing, training and curriculum development, thus laying foundations for integrated thinking and practice.

In keeping with the American University’s mandate for global education, the university-wide Center for Global Peace was established in 1996 to provide a framework for programmes and initiatives to advance the study and understanding of world peace, within a sustainable world order. By seeking to improve the understanding of local, national, and global linkages among social, political, cultural, economic, and civic structures whose deterioration can lead to violence and social upheaval, the Center provides a forum for analysis of a wide range of multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to peace and conflict resolution and sustainable development.


BACKGROUND
In parts of the African continent, universities are set in war-torn regions recovering from armed hostilities, where emphasis has justly been placed on re-establishing the core subjects and not necessarily to peace studies. In the last two decades, African universities have been weakened by structural adjustment programmes, which siphoned off badly needed resources from the education, health, and other basic service sectors. University lecturers often cannot afford to live on their wages and must seek additional employment?a fact that inhibits their ability to research, publish, and generally to give full attention to their profession. Nonetheless, valuable teaching and research activities are in progress across the continent, although often in isolation, suffering from inadequate support, with unqualified teachers, and a lack of information and adequate teaching materials. Almost everywhere, a sense of urgency accompanies the perceived need to strengthen and support teaching and research. Yet few universities have the financial means to train faculties and provide opportunities for enhancing skills in research and publishing. African institutions of higher learning have been hampered in giving attention to linkages between educational methods and curricular choices for practical developmental needs. In short, painful historical gaps sometime exist in the pursuit of educational institutions that can invigorate and embolden peace and policy-oriented research. While this is a serious problem in many parts of the world, it is nowhere more important to strengthen the capacity for peace and policy-oriented research than in Africa. This is in part due to the fact that a great deal of highly innovative work is going undocumented, and also because of the number of acute conflicts, development crises, and abuses of human rights found on the continent. As consensus builds across Africa on the need to nourish cultures of peace, the universities are critical to grounding this evolution with their studies and research. Since peace and conflict studies is a relatively new field in Africa, strong support is important for strengthening such a significant development.

PURPOSE OF THE WORKSHOP
Critically needed in Africa and internationally is policy-related research that arises from and speaks to the particularities, needs, aspirations, and insights of persons working in Africa. This research workshop will bring together African academicians for an intensive three-day workshop to share and improve research methodologies for this broad purpose. As a problem-solving dimension is central, the participating instructors, researchers, and scholars are asked to bring with them examples of particular research quandaries or predicaments, and practical examples and stories of how they sought to resolve them. The research workshop is designed collectively to identify research-methodology challenges, and share lessons and recommendations for overcoming them. Highly interactive and participative, an emphasis will be placed on building human and institutional collaborative research facilities among an incipient knowledge network. Topical research questions will be considered, for example, new developments in conducting research on root causes of acute conflict, gender and building peace, environmental degradation as a cause of strife, and non-violent transformation of conflict. Such themes will be viewed as indicative under the umbrella of policy-relevant and action-oriented peace research in Africa


ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES
Participants will:
1. Be exposed to methodologies for developing research skills and conceptual capacity for building peace and sustainable development.
2. Gain insight into new, cutting-edge developments in policy-relevant and action-oriented peace research.
3. Learn how to tackle methodological challenges, such as developing interdisciplinary approaches and conducting rigorous interviews.
4. Be exposed to different epistemological orientations. They will be challenged to understand the role of values and judgements from different perspectives and how this applies to different methodologies.
5. Gain insight into the importance of linking research with policy and practice. They will be encouraged to consider how they can structure and sustain collaborative research facilities.
6. Learn the art of preparing articles for publication in academic journals and how to handle the news media to communicate their findings with policy implications.
7. Return to their institutions able to strengthen their capacity in peace-oriented research as it is linked to sustainable development.
8. Become more aware of ethical issues that arise in peace research, for example, confidentiality and the need for professional research that strives for objectivity and promotes open debate of different perspectives.

QUALIFYING PARTICIPANTS
In order to maximize participatory and interactive exchanges, a maximum of only thirty participants will finally be invited to attend from among those nominated by their institutions. The sponsors and organisers of the workshop invite interested institutions of higher learning, research institutes, and civil society organizations (CSOs) to nominate a representative to submit an application. The final invitations will be extended by CODESRIA as the result of the institutionally nominated applicant writing a letter of purpose. Nominees’ letters of application will be entertained from any African academician, instructor, researcher, or scholar who is currently teaching subjects with a research component, or individuals who will in the next term begin teaching peace-related subject matter with a research dimension (and who are nominated by their institutions). Instructors in quantitative and qualitative analysis with a particular interest in incorporating peace research into their ongoing work are particularly encouraged to apply. We especially seek academicians who are already conducting policy discussions related to peace with parliamentarians and policy makers to apply. Practitioners (as opposed to academicians) who are working in areas closely related to the research questions noted here are eagerly sought. Thus, to clarify, in addition to lecturers, instructors, professors, and scholars, members of NGOs and CSOs or peace research institutes that are generating knowledge and conducting research will be most welcome to apply, if nominated by their institutions. Every effort will be made to achieve gender balance among the participants.


PROCESS OF APPLICATION
An announcement will be electronically posted through the databases of the four sponsoring organizations, to invite institutions of higher learning, research institutes, and CSOs to nominate qualified participants (as noted above) to submit letters of application by 4 September 2005. The Research Capacity-Building workshop will take place on 23 to 26 October 2005.

Nominee’s letter of application deadline: 4 September 2005
Each nominee’s letter of application should include the following:
• Current title and position
• Up-to-date biographical sketch indicating professional and educational background
• Contact details, including fax and e-mail.
• Current research and teaching responsibilities of the applicant
• The applicant’s research and/or teaching plans for the immediate future (spring term)
• Indication of support from the applicant’s institution. (Expenses, but no honorarium will be covered. In addition to transportation, a daily subsistence allowance will be paid to cover meals not provided by the workshop. Please note that no honorarium or per diem is offered by the sponsors and organisers.) Once formally accepted, in the event of an invitee’s cancellation, the applicant’s institution would need to reimburse CODESRIA.
• One-paragraph description of the specific research question, or purpose, of the nominated applicant. In other words, why exactly do you wish to participate?
• Proposed topic for the participant’s brief presentation on challenges and problem-solving approaches and lessons, directly from his or her experiences.
• Indication of technical back-up needed for the applicant’s presentation, e.g., power point, slide projector, film projector, or other A-V equipment.

Letters should reach CODESRIA no later than Sunday, 4 September 2005, either by fax
(+221 824 12 8990) or by e-mail to peacebuilding@codesria.sn Notification will be made by Friday 23 September 2005 if the nominated candidate has been accepted. Letters should be received at the following address by no later than Sunday, 4 September 2005:

CODESRIA
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop x
Canal IV, BP 3304
Dakar 18524, Senegal
Telephone: +221 825 98 22/23
Fax: +221 824 12 89
E-mail: peacebuilding@codesria.sn

Primary responsibility for acceptance of thirty nominated applications will be borne by CODESRIA, in consultation with the other sponsoring and organising partners. CODESRIA will take principal responsibility for receiving, sorting, evaluating, and grouping applications. Pending final consultations with the other sponsors and organisers, notification will be made electronically, or by fax if no e-mail is available. Included will be a form to specify transportation details, so that tickets can be purchased as far in advance as possible. Upon notification of final, formal acceptance, visa instructions will be provided.

CRITERIA FOR PARTICIPANT ACCEPTANCE
1. Geographical, academic, research, NGO. policy, institutional mix and variety
2. Gender, age, and background diversity
3. Experience and seriousness of interest in addressing peace issues in teaching and scholarship.

INITIAL FACULTY
Professor Abdul Karim Bangura, School of International Service, International Peace and Conflict Resolution Division, The American University, Washington, D.C.
Professor Mary E. King, Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, University for Peace, and an academic adviser to the Africa Programme
Erin McCandless, Executive Editor, Journal of Peacebuilding and Development and Civil Affairs Officer, United Nations Mission in Liberia, (UNMIL), Liberia
Professor Ebrima Sall, Head, Research and Documentation Department, CODESRIA, and an academic adviser to the Africa Programme, University for Peace
Dr. Moussa Samb, International Development Research Council (IDRC)
Additional faculty drawn from CODESRIA, UPEACE, IDRC, and elsewhere.


CHALLENGES, PROBLEM-SOLVING APPROACHES, AND LESSONS
To kick off the programme and introduce ourselves, each participant will give a 3 – 5 minute presentation on a lesson, success, or predicament faced in developing research skills and conceptual capacity for peace building and development. Examples include:
• Documenting peace-building innovations in one locality and applying lessons elsewhere;
• Research methodologies examining the relationships between development and peace, to improve their integrated application;
• Research approaches to encouraging critical thinking among students;
• Research breakthroughs in understanding gender and peace building links,
• Improving the historiography of non-violent struggles in Africa;
• Recent findings on endogenous methods and traditional knowledge on peace building and sustainable development;
• Borrowing from feminist research methodologies to incorporate excluded voices and sectors.

QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED BY THE WORKSHOP INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING
What are the key concepts and skills needed for building peace and development?
Why are the linkages and intersections important?
Why do African universities, so often struggling against hardships, need peace research?
What makes peace research different and useful?
What is action research?
How can I improve my interviewing technique, so that my approach is free of personal judgements?
Why is the field of gender now considered integral to peace and conflict studies?
What innovations would help NGOs and CSOs to cooperate on research with academicians?
What difference would such collaboration make?
Why is it important to discuss research findings with parliamentarians and policy makers? What techniques for presenting research conclusions work best?
How do I get articles published in an academic journal?
The news media search out the warlords and armed militia leaders, but they never ask me for a quotation. How do I organize and conduct a news conference, write a news release, and enhance my ability to get the results of my research across to the public through the news media?

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME OUTLINE

Day 1: 24 October 2005
Laying the groundwork for peacebuilding and development
research and practice

Morning session

Opening Plenary
The African context
• Keynote: Adebayo Olukoshi, CODESRIA (to be confirmed) linking education and research with action and policy, to offer a picture of practical problems in Africa, on critical historical, policy, and institutional challenges concerning education, now facing Africa, and how to make education serve the needs for peace and development.
• Ebrima Sall, CODESRIA, on the context of social-sciences training and research in Africa, based on his working paper entitled ‘Social Sciences in Africa: Trends, Issues, Capacities, and Constraints’.

Participant introductory presentations
Personal experiences: methodological challenges and best practices
Participant introductions (3-5 minutes) will focus on lessons learned and practical problems related to overall theme of Developing Research Skills and Conceptual Capacity for Peace Building and Development.

LUNCH

Afternoon Session

Conceptual and epistemological issues in peacebuilding and development
research and practice

Conceptions and paradigms – confusion or consensus?
Led by Erin McCandless (Journal of Peacebuilding and Development)
• Key concepts in the service of peace building and development; –conceptual consensus or confusion? Debates and practical and paradigmatic implications
• Epistemology (ways of knowing and the relationship between the researcher and the researched) and the role of values in peace research
• Building interdisciplinary theory, policy and practice



6:30 p.m., 24 October 2005
Evening Welcome Dinner
Programme to be confirmed



Day 2: 25 October 2005
Research-methodology challenges and best practices

Morning session

Opening Plenary
Peace research methodologies
• Led by Professor Abdul Karim Bangura, School of International Service, International Peace and Conflict Resolution Division, The American University, Washington, D.C., discussion of what makes peace research different and useful, why action research can be helpful, and why the field of gender is now considered integral to peace and conflict studies?

Focus group sessions
Participants will enter focus groups to discuss challenges and best practices in critical areas of research methodology. Facilitators will kick off discussion with short presentations:
1) interviewing techniques; TBC
2) conducting action research; facilitator: Abdul Karim Bangura, AU
3) evaluation and impact assessment; facilitator: Erin McCandless, JPD
4) research strategy design; TBC

Afternoon session

Focus group sessions continued
Participants will undertake second focus group session and then discuss in plenary.


Conflict / peace research case studies
Resource persons to highlight case studies on issues of concern to researchers/ NGOs / and policy-makers highlighting methodological / research strategies.

Evening Learning Programme

Panel discussion and/or small working groups on enhancing academia – CSO – policy collaboration
(Findings presented in morning)
• Experiences, lessons and best practices of from linking research, policy and practice
• Innovations in each and how to share with others



Day 3: 26 October 2005
Moving a collaborative agenda forward

Morning Session

Building networks for action
• Report back from previous evening’s working groups
• Plenary discussion: How to link academia, policy think-tanks, peace research institutes, and NGOs and CSOs. How to develop collaborative research facilities. Development of research-methodology and teacher-training materials. Strengthening networks. South:South exchanges.


Personal and organizational outreach strategies

Presentations followed by small-group exercises
Led by Professor Mary King:

• Publishing articles: Specific ways to bring an article to publication in an academic journal (Erin McCandless and Abdul-Karim Bangura)
• Media relations: Organising and conducting a news conference, writing a news release, and enhancing one’s ability to communicate research findings with policy implications to the public, through the news media, and to policymakers (Sandy Campbell, IDRC)
• Policy analysis: Dr. Samb, IDRC

Afternoon Session

Generating recommendations
Participants will identify key institutional obstacles and chart recommendations to the academy, civil society, and policymakers to advance a collaborative agenda for peace research and action.

News Conference
The workshop will end with a news conference, utilising the strategies discussed in the closing sessions.

Monitoring and Evaluation (M+E) Programme

Olive (OD and Training)

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/29261

Shifting M+E from being a chore or externally-driven necessity to an insightful learning experience for your organisation. What is the true value (or not) of your work? Are you making a difference?
Olive (OD and Training)
Monitoring and Evaluation (M+E) Programme
12 – 15 September 2005


Shifting M+E from being a chore or externally-driven necessity
to an insightful learning experience for your organisation.
What is the true value (or not) of your work? Are you making a difference?

Why this Programme?

• People working in the development arena are experiencing the tensions between objectives oriented, results based planning processes and the complex realities in the field and the demands of their work, resulting in a disjunction between planning and implementation.
• There is little time for meaningful reflection on the impact and effectiveness of their work. Accounting for and reporting to donors becomes a checklist of what has been delivered. Success indicators lack meaningful qualitative information that enables both partner organisations and all stakeholders to see real development taking place.
• There is a need for organisations working in the development arena to refocus their efforts and to deepen their development practice. This requires meaningful reflection that is based on evidence of what they are actually achieving in the field.
• There is a need to improve donor and partner organisation relationships through strengthening meaningful dialogue that focuses on real development.

Learning Programme Objectives

• Introduce a framework for monitoring and evaluation that will help participants to develop an M+E system for their organisation.
• Understand the importance of developing indicators (quantitative and qualitative) for measuring success and explore how to do this in a way that has meaning for you and what you are trying to achieve through your work.
• Using M+E to strengthen meaningful dialogue between partner organisations and donors as well as to improve the quality of reporting.
• Practise monitoring and evaluation during the programme so that your skills at this are further enhanced.

Who will participate?

This programme is for leaders, managers and fieldworkers who wish to develop systems of learning within their organisation and to track the effectiveness of their work and the development processes they are facilitating.

A minimum of two people from your organisation must attend. This will enable you to reflect meaningfully on your own work situation. This supports the process of introducing new ideas into the organisation.

A maximum of 24 participants will be able to attend the programme.
How to apply?
Please contact us for an application form. Closing date for applications: 19 August 2005

This Programme is non residential – please contact us for details of accommodation options in Durban. Please note that you are responsible for your own travel costs to and from the venue.
There will be no refunds issued should you decide to cancel after the 5th September.

For further information/confirmation please contact Shireen at Olive:
Tel: 031 – 206 1534 or Email shireen@oliveodt.co.za


Olive (OD and Training) reserves the right to cancel this Programme should there be an insufficient number of participants.

Olive (OD and Training) 21 Sycamore Road Glenwood DURBAN 4001 South Africa
Tel: 031 206 1534 Fax: 031 205 2114 olive@oliveodt.co.za

Nairobi peace rally

2005-08-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/29161

A Nairobi Peace Rally has been organized to coincide with and celebrate the UN’s International Day of Peace. It will culminate in a number of build up activities which have been organized to take place in various parts of Nairobi. This day will also feature the presentation of awards to the winners of the Sing a Song of Peace talent search that has been conducted countrywide by Radio Waumini. Read the press release by clicking on the URL provided.
PRESS RELEASE

THE NAIROBI INTERNATIONAL PEACE RALLY

Africa Peace Point and the organizing committee of the Nairobi Peace Rally, an initiative of a group of peace NGOs in Nairobi in collaboration with Koinonia Community, Radio Waumini and AMANI-Italy wish to invite the press during the Nairobi International Peace Rally to be held on 17th September 2005 from 7.00 A.M to 1.00 P.M at Uhuru Park Grounds.

The rally, which has been organized to coincide with and celebrate the UN’s International Day of Peace will be the culmination of a number of build up activities which have been organized to take place in various parts of Nairobi. This day will also feature the presentation of awards to the winners of the Sing a Song of Peace talent search that has been conducted countrywide by Radio Waumini.

The theme for this year’s celebrations is towards justice and equity which evokes the idea of different players in the civil society and the public working together with the state to entrench the values of justice and equity at local, regional and international levels.

The build up activities include a Football Peace Tournament that is already taking place in Kibera and Mathare beginning the 19th of August and in collaboration with the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), a seminar series organized in Mathare on 12th September and Kibera on 13th September focusing on Community Policing and Slum Upgrading respectively with the grand finale of the series being held in Shalom House on 15th September. This seminar is titled “Citizenship: the Rights and Responsibilities of Kenyans”. A clean up campaign has also been organized in Kibera in conjunction with the Interfaith Dialogue Forum to take place on 14th September.

We, the organizing committee recognize the role of the media in highlighting activities geared towards peace building in our society. Consequently, your participation and coverage of this event will go along way in enhancing peace in Kenya and in the region.

For more information, please contact us on
Tel: 575288/577553
Fax: 577979
Email app@shalomhouse.co.ke /Michael@maf.or.ke
Website: http://africapeacepointkenya.org

Yours faithfully,


Leah Kimathi
Coordinator
For the Organizing Committee

Kenya: Policy Research Manager

ActionAid International

2005-08-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/29146

ActionAid International is active in over 42 countries in Africa, Asia, America and Europe regions in partnership with other organisations. ActionAid Kenya has been working in Kenya since 1972 to facilitate processes that eradicate poverty and ensure social justice through anti-poverty projects, local institutional capability building and public policy influencing. ActionAid Kenya works in 20 districts of Kenya and links key international, national and local institutions in favour of poor people. ActionAid seeks to recruit a dynamic and innovative person to lead, develop and coordinate a well- resourced public policy and research strategy across the country programme.




ActionAid International is active in over 42 countries in Africa, Asia, America and Europe regions in partnership with other organisations. ActionAid Kenya has been working in Kenya since 1972 to facilitate processes that eradicate poverty and ensure social justice through anti-poverty projects, local institutional capability building and public policy influencing. ActionAid Kenya works in 20 districts of Kenya and links key international, national and local institutions in favour of poor people.

ActionAid seeks to recruit a dynamic and innovative person to lead, develop and coordinate a well- resourced public policy and research strategy across the country programme.

READVERTISEMENT

POLICY RESEARCH MANAGER

This is a challenging senior position based in Nairobi and reporting to the Country Director, while working with a team of other Policy Coordinators in Nairobi and in the regions. The policy team actively supports community, national and international actions to; protect basic human rights, promote public accountability, and participation in public policies. This position provides critical leadership to these processes.

With an overall responsibility to co-ordinate and directly engage in policy advocacy and research work with the aim of influencing pro-poor change in policies, laws and institutions locally, nationally and internationally you will:

• Directly participate and support poor people to participate in national policy formulation processes
and ensuring that the interests of the poor, marginalised and the excluded people are taken into account locally, nationally and internationally
• Support and build the capacities of local institutions, poor people and development partners to maximise impact on pro-poor policy change
• Promote gender analysis, advocacy and empowerment of women.
• Support and build internal capacities to identify and pursue a research advocacy agenda
• Represent and raise the policy advocacy profile of ActionAid International Kenya amongst peers within and outside of the Africa Region Policy team.
• Develop and support the implementation of advocacy strategies that are driven by strong grassroots agenda
• Strengthen and support the research component of the Unit for more effective engagement in advocacy work
• Undertake regular assessment and review of the impact of policy advocacy work to ensure constant leaning and improvement
• Ensure that relevant information, learning and documentation takes place between and among the policy staff team and partners
• Ensure constant innovation and strategic thinking with the policy team
• Contribute to fund-raising initiatives for ActionAid International Kenya’s policy advocacy work

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
• Appropriate education, preferably a Masters in social sciences
• At least 5 years experience in development work, policy research and advocacy
• Excellent understanding of public policies and laws
• Strong and proven experience of working with and linking grassroots work with national and international advocacy agenda.
• Strong analytical and lobbying skills; with competency in power analysis
• Effective planning, coordination, writing and communication skills
• Competency in facilitating national and international advocacy strategies
• High integrity, concern for social justice and eradication of poverty
• Proven team development, communication and leadership skills
• Willingness to travel within and outside Kenya

We offer a competitive remuneration and benefits package and the successful candidate will enjoy flexibility and organisational space while joining an experienced and dynamic staff working alongside poor people. If you possess the necessary qualifications and experience, send your application, a detailed CV, names of three referees and a daytime telephone contact by 31 August to:

The Manager, Human Resources & Organisation Development,
P. O. Box 42814, 00100, Nairobi
Email- hr@actionaid.org
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. ActionAid is an equal opportunities employer.

Legal Officer for Africa

International Commission of Jurists

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/29270

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is a worldwide network of judges and lawyers united in affirming international law and rule of law principles that advance human rights. The ICJ's international secretariat in Geneva is seeking to recruit a Legal Officer to develop and lead its rule of law and human rights advocacy work in Africa. The independence and accountability of judges and lawyers and access to justice are dominant themes in the ICJ’s Africa Programme, with a focus also on counter-terrorism in East Africa and responding to rule of law crises in the continent.
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Legal Officer for Africa


The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is a worldwide network of judges and lawyers united in affirming international law and rule of law principles that advance human rights.

The ICJ's international secretariat in Geneva is seeking to recruit a Legal Officer to develop and lead its rule of law and human rights advocacy work in Africa. The independence and accountability of judges and lawyers and access to justice are dominant themes in the ICJ’s Africa Programme, with a focus also on counter-terrorism in East Africa and responding to rule of law crises in the continent. The ICJ advocates strongly against impunity and for victims to obtain remedies for violations of economic, social and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights. This recruitment will also enable the ICJ to develop a much stronger network of ICJ Commissioners, Sections and Affiliates in Africa.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the supervision of the Deputy Secretary-General (Legal Affairs), the Legal Officer will provide legal and advocacy expertise on Africa. Specifically, she/he will:

• Monitor and analyse the human rights and rule of law situation in countries in the region, with particular focus on the justice systems and other ICJ programme priorities;
• Develop and implement innovative advocacy strategies and legal interventions on relevant countries in the region, including through public reports, amicus curiae briefs, trial observations, media work and field missions;
• Lead the ICJ’s advocacy work on issues related to Africa at the United Nations and at other international and regional expert and intergovernmental fora, including the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Union;
• Strengthen, inform and mobilise the regional ICJ network composed of Commissioners, National Sections and Affiliated Organisations, in support of the organisation's advocacy strategies in Africa;
• Maintain effective working relationships with counterparts in relevant international, regional and national human rights organisations with the aim of developing networks, alliances or coalitions where useful;
• Assist in the identification and maintenance of appropriate contacts with donors in the region;
• Supervise the work of relevant consultants and interns;
• Manage the progress of the programme of work, including: regular monitoring and reporting on progress, financial management, and the review and development of strategy papers for future ICJ work in the region.

QUALIFICATIONS

The successful applicant will have:

• A degree in law. Post-graduate studies in international human rights and/or international humanitarian law highly desirable;
• At least seven-eight years experience in the practical application of human rights law in Africa. Experience in common law and civil law legal systems highly desirable;
• Excellent political judgment and the ability to develop and implement innovative advocacy strategies;
• A demonstrated commitment to human rights and the rule of law;
• Excellent written and spoken English or French, with at least working knowledge of the other;
• Understanding of and experience in programme management highly desirable;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and ability to work as part of a multi-cultural team.

Applicants from Africa and from the ICJ network are particularly encouraged to apply, as are female applicants.

Although this is a long-term position, applicants who are available for a one-year appointment may also apply.

APPLICATIONS close on 12 September 2005 and should be addressed with your CV and the names and contact details of at least two referees to:

International Commission of Jurists, Legal Officer for Africa recruitment, P.O. Box 216, 1219 Châtelaine - Geneva, Switzerland / or by e-mail to: info@icj.org

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. No calls please.

Legal Officer for Economic, Social & Cultural Rights

International Commission of Jurists

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/29272

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is a worldwide network of judges and lawyers united in affirming international law and rule of law principles that advance human rights. The ICJ’s international secretariat in Geneva is seeking to recruit a Legal Officer to lead its long-standing and expanding work on economic, social and cultural rights.
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
Legal Officer for Economic, Social & Cultural Rights

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is a worldwide network of judges and lawyers united in affirming international law and rule of law principles that advance human rights.

The ICJ’s international secretariat in Geneva is seeking to recruit a Legal Officer to lead its long-standing and expanding work on economic, social and cultural rights.

The ICJ works for victims to obtain remedies for violations of their economic, social and cultural rights. The ICJ is therefore advocating the creation of an individual complaints procedure at the United Nations and plays a leading role in a global coalition of NGOs campaigning to achieve this goal. To increase access to remedies, the ICJ carries out strategic litigation in selected international, regional and national fora. It carries out research and advocacy to demonstrate to judges, lawyers and governmental policy-makers that economic, social and cultural rights are justiciable. The ICJ also works for corporations to be legally accountable for the impact of their actions on human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the supervision of the Director, International Law and Protection Programme, the Legal Officer will provide legal and advocacy expertise and lead the ICJ’s work on economic, social and cultural rights, especially to strengthen remedies for violations of economic, social and cultural rights and the justiciability of these rights. Specifically, the Legal Officer will:

Develop and implement innovative ICJ advocacy strategies on economic, social and cultural rights. Lead ICJ’s advocacy for the creation of a United Nations individual complaints procedure (as an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights). Actively participate in and support the work of the global NGO Coalition working for this new procedure.

Analyse and advise the ICJ and its network on relevant legal (and political) developments at the national, regional and international levels and research and write ICJ network and public documents.

Through the preparation of amicus curiae briefs and other legal interventions, support selected strategic litigation at the international, regional and national levels.

Inform and mobilise the ICJ network in support of the organization’s advocacy strategies on economic, social and cultural rights.

Advise and assist in building the capacity of the ICJ to integrate economic, social and cultural rights into other ICJ programmes.

Supervise the work of relevant consultants and interns.

Manage the progress of the programme of work, including: regular monitoring and reporting on progress, financial management, and the review and development of strategy papers for future ICJ work on economic, social and cultural rights.

QUALIFICATIONS

The successful applicant will have:

A degree in law. Further academic studies in law and human rights, especially economic, social and cultural rights, highly desirable.

At least six years experience as a human rights lawyer including at least three years in the practical, legal application of economic, social and cultural rights.

Excellent knowledge of international human rights law and of relevant international, regional and national jurisprudence on economic, social and cultural rights. Excellent knowledge of the United Nations human rights system. Knowledge of one or more regional human rights systems highly desirable.

Excellent political judgment and the ability to develop and implement innovative advocacy strategies.

A commitment to human rights and the rule of law.

Excellent written and spoken English or French, with at least working knowledge of the other. Working knowledge of Arabic, and/or Spanish highly desirable.

Understanding of and experience in programme management highly desirable.

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and ability to work as part of a multi-cultural team.

Applicants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia are particularly encouraged to apply.

APPLICATIONS close on 12 September 2005 and should be addressed with your resume and the names and contact details of at least two referees to:
International Commission of Jurists
P.O. Box 216
1219 Châtelaine – Geneva
Switzerland
E-mail address: info@icj.org

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. No calls please.

Legal Officer for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

International Commission of Jurists

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/29271

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is a worldwide network of judges and lawyers united in affirming international law and rule of law principles that advance human rights. The ICJ’s international secretariat in Geneva is seeking to recruit a Legal Officer to lead its recently established work on sexual orientation and gender identity.
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
Legal Officer for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is a worldwide network of judges and lawyers united in affirming international law and rule of law principles that advance human rights.

The ICJ’s international secretariat in Geneva is seeking to recruit a Legal Officer to lead its recently established work on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The ICJ works to increase the protection provided by the law for victims of human rights violations on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. The ICJ works with and helps to strengthen the global network of grass roots, local and international Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender organizations, by providing its expertise in international human rights law and the international human rights system as an advocacy tool and source of remedies for victims. The ICJ works to clarify the existing international legal framework to address abuses on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity and to build increasing recognition by governments that such abuses are violations of human rights.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the supervision of the Director, International Law and Protection Programme, the Legal Officer will provide legal and advocacy expertise and lead the ICJ’s work on sexual orientation and gender identity. Specifically, the Legal Officer will:

Develop and implement innovative ICJ advocacy strategies on human rights violations on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, including strengthening the use of international law and obtaining recognition by UN political bodies that such abuses are violations of human rights and seeking action by these bodies. Lead ICJ’s advocacy for human rights law and machinery to provide both the conceptual and practical framework to address discrimination and other human rights violations that take place on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. This includes developing the legal and political strategies to step up advocacy in 2006-2007 aimed at obtaining recognition by UN political bodies (especially the UN Commission on Human Rights) of such violations.

Support the global network of organizations working on sexual orientation and gender identity issues in framing their claims in human rights terms and advancing issues through the use of international law.

Inform and mobilise the ICJ network in support of the organization’s advocacy strategies on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Through the preparation of amicus curiae briefs and other legal interventions, support selected strategic litigation at the international, regional and national levels as well as advocacy aimed at necessary reform of legislation.

Advise and assist in building the capacity of the ICJ to integrate addressing all forms of human rights violations on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity into other ICJ programmes.

Supervise the work of relevant consultants and interns.

Manage the progress of the programme of work, including: regular monitoring and reporting on progress, financial management, and the review and development of strategy papers for future ICJ work on human rights violations on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.

QUALIFICATIONS

The successful applicant will have:

At least six years experience as a human rights lawyer including at least three years on equality and non-discrimination issues. A degree in law. Further academic studies in international and human rights law highly desirable.

Excellent knowledge of international human rights law and of relevant international, regional and national jurisprudence concerning sexual orientation and gender identity. Excellent knowledge of the United Nations human rights system. Knowledge of one or more regional human rights systems highly desirable.

Excellent political judgment and the ability to develop and implement innovative advocacy strategies.

Excellent written and spoken English or French, with at least working knowledge of the other. Working knowledge of Arabic, and/or Spanish highly desirable.

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and ability to work as part of a multi-cultural team.

Applicants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia are particularly encouraged to apply.

APPLICATIONS close on 3 October 2005 and should be addressed with your resume and the names and contact details of at least two referees to:

Ref: Legal Officer for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
International Commission of Jurists
P.O. Box 216
1219 Châtelaine – Geneva
Switzerland
E-mail address: recruitment@icj.org

This recruitment is subject to funding.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. No calls please.

Nigeria: Director, Program Performance and Monitoring

Global Rights

2005-08-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/29147

Global Rights is a non-profit, human rights advocacy organization that partners with in-country activists to challenge injustice and amplify new voices within the global human rights discourse. With offices in 10 countries around the world, we help local activists create just societies through proven strategies for effecting change. A member of the in-country management staff, the Director of Program Performance and Monitoring will take lead responsibility in the areas of financial, grant, human resources, and administrative management of Global Rights’ Nigeria operations.
Opportunities at Global Rights

Director, Program Performance and Monitoring
Abuja, Nigeria
To apply, please submit cover letter, resume and salary requirements by mail, fax or email to:
Director, Program Performance and Monitoring/NIGERIA Search
Global Rights: Partners for Justice
1200 18th Street NW, Suite 602
Washington, DC 20036
Fax: (202) 822-4606
Email: jobs@globalrights.org
The deadline for applications is August 19, 2005
No calls please.
Global Rights is a non-profit, human rights advocacy organization that partners with in-country activists to challenge injustice and amplify new voices within the global human rights discourse. With offices in 10 countries around the world, we help local activists create just societies through proven strategies for effecting change.SPAN>
Our program in Nigeria: Since opening a Nigeria office in 2000, Global Rights has worked with a range of civil society and NGO partners to advocate for rights-based legislative and policy reforms in Nigeria’s democratic transition. This has included: developing effective methodologies for policy and legislative advocacy; focusing on transparency and accountability as human rights concerns; and improving the constitutional and electoral framework for deepening democracy. Global Rights’ program has supported Nigerian CSO advocates to secure passage of a Freedom of Information Act, ensure increased women’s representation and access to political office, strengthen Nigeria’s anti-corruption framework, and adopt the outcomes of a participatory constitutional review process. Funded by several development cooperation and foundation donors, the program is implemented by a diverse team of professionals based in our Abuja office. We work with a broad spectrum of stakeholders (including national NGO partners, civil society coalitions, and strategic alliances with key public institutions), providing technical support, limited sub-granting assistance, and capacity development for Nigerian organizations.
Job Description: A member of the in-country management staff, the Director of Program Performance and Monitoring will take lead responsibility in the areas of financial, grant, human resources, and administrative management of Global Rights’ Nigeria operations. This new position responds to organizational growth (in terms of human and material resources, & program volume) and is intended to provide the Nigeria office with a senior-level grants, program, and financial manager capable of ensuring compliance with best practices and institutional policies in these areas. Specific duties will include: (i) grant management: keeping abreast of, and managing Global Rights/Nigeria’s grant-based obligations to donor agencies, (ii) human resources management: ensuring that systems for staff recruitment, retention, compensation, and evaluation/appraisal comply with best practices, institutional policies, and relevant Nigerian laws/regulations; (iii) financial planning and management: leading participatory development of annual and periodic budgets, development of grant-proposal budgets, regular (monthly) planning of field office expenditure, and supervision of financial integrity and institutional policy compliance in all sub-granting operations by Global Rights/Nigeria to in-country NGOs; (iv) institutional policy compliance: ensuring compliance with all relevant institutional policies (such as human resources, procurement/assets, security); (v) compliance with donor policies/commitments: ensuring that Nigeria program is on track with commitments to donor agencies, and (vi) program monitoring and evaluation: ensuring with substantial support from the Nigeria technical staff that the program is performing optimally to achieve established results/targets, and monitor progress on performance indicators.
They shall work in close collaboration with and report primarily to the Nigeria Country Director (based in Abuja). They shall in the above-mentioned areas of responsibility also have a direct and concurrent line of reporting to Global Rights’ Program/Operations and Finance departments in our Washington D.C. head offices.
Qualifications: The ideal candidate will bring: (i) 5+ years experience as a projects or grants manager within a development, social justice, or other non-profit organization in a developing country, preferably in Africa; (ii) demonstrable capacity in effectively providing administrative, human resource, and programmatic management, (iii) thorough familiarity with grant rules, regulations and requirements common to programs funded by development cooperation agencies & foundations (such CIDA, USAID, DFID), and (iv) proven abilities in program DME (design, monitoring, and evaluation), including familiarity with best practices in use in the NGO sector to plan, monitor, and measure impact of programs. This position requires the ability to grasp the nature of Global Rights’ substantive work in Nigeria (which is implemented by the Nigeria program team, headed by the Country Director), and ensure that a management environment is in place that ensures compliance with donor commitments, financial management standards, and institutional policies. The ability to work with a diverse team, to manage pressure effectively, and strong organizational skills are all essential. Applicants should be willing to relocate immediately to Abuja, Nigeria, and would be offered a 12-month contract, with the possibility of a renewal. Global Rights actively encourages African candidates to apply for this position.
Salary: Commensurate with experience.

* Letter to All African Heads of States by African organisations ahead of the UN Millennium Summit (Plus 5) review
New York, September 14-16th 2005

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/gcap/29269

Your Excellencies,

Ahead of the UN World Summit in September, we the following fifty national, African and international organizations and networks working in all four corners of Africa write to set out our expectations for the summit on poverty, peace and security. We write under the umbrella of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), an alliance of millions of people and organisations united in the belief that 2005 offers an unprecedented opportunity for change.

Five years after your office signed the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, we are in serious danger of failing to achieve even these, the most minimalist of targets.

To achieve the MDGs, we believe that your Government must actively demand better terms for Africa on aid, trade justice and debt cancellation.

* Access the full letter and media release by clicking on the link below.
Letter to All African Heads of States
by African organisations ahead of the
UN Millennium Summit (Plus 5) review
New York, September 14-16th 2005

Return Fax: +254-20-3742927
August 31st 2005

Your Excellencies,

Ahead of the UN World Summit in September, we the following fifty national, African and international organizations and networks working in all four corners of Africa write to set out our expectations for the summit on poverty, peace and security. We write under the umbrella of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), an alliance of millions of people and organisations united in the belief that 2005 offers an unprecedented opportunity for change.

Five years after your office signed the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, we are in serious danger of failing to achieve even these, the most minimalist of targets.

To achieve the MDGs, we believe that your Government must actively demand better terms for Africa on aid, trade justice and debt cancellation. Small steps were taken at the G8 in July on financing development; but larger steps are needed at September’s UN summit to make a real difference. It is critical that the UN Declaration contains commitments on;
• African countries have the right to determine their own trade policies. This will stop rich countries from pushing African countries to open their economies when it is negative for growth and equity.
• Cancellation of the debts of all countries that need it to be able to achieve the MDGs and detach them from harmful World Bank and IMF conditions
• Rich countries to reach 0.7% of their national income in aid immediately and ensure that this aid reaches the poorest men and women in the poorest countries.
• All Governments to restore and uphold the rights of citizens to control and access quality education, health, water and other public services.
• All Governments to embrace a shared responsibility to protect people from genocide, crimes against humanity and armed conflict and promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Many of these commitments are crucial for Africa. Without them, the remaining Millennium Development Goals shall go the way of the first target missed; namely gender parity in primary and secondary education.

Further, we note that since the G8 there have been attempts to roll back the commitment to underwrite the debt cancellation deals of the 14 countries with new monies. More dangerously still, there are current attempts by some Governments to force these important commitments from the text. Should this succeed, the UN Millennium Summit will fall disastrously short of the Common African Position on the Proposed Reform of the United Nations and the decisions of the African Union Summits in Abuja and Sirte earlier this year.

We call on you to stand firm on insisting these commitments are contained in the final Declaration and not allow trade offs between the responsibility to protect, development or human rights. Rest assured of our support in these efforts.

In the next two weeks, national campaigners will be meeting their Heads of State and Ministries of Foreign Affairs to press home the importance of leaders delivering on their promises. On September 10th, White Band Day 2, millions of campaigners across the North and South will shout a loud “wake up call” by participating in rallies, concerts, vigils and press conferences to put pressure on governments to deliver. Page 1 of 4

We will continue to call on all leaders to make bold, decisive and binding commitments to end poverty and achieve social justice and larger freedom for all citizens. These will be the measures of success or failure of this historic summit and Africa’s future may depend on it.

Should you wish further elaboration of these issues contact the offices of the organizations below or to seek further information on the campaign, please visit www.whiteband.org

Be assured of our highest consideration in these matters. Yours truly,

Signed by the following ten African and regional associations/networks

All Africa Conference Of Churches, Nairobi, Kenya,
West African Network for Peace-building (WANEP), Accra Ghana, DAWN Anglophone region, Accra, Ghana, AFRODAD, Harare, Zimbabwe, MWENGO, Harare, Zimbabwe,
FEMNET, Nairobi, Kenya, The Global Pan African Movement,
Equality Now-Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, Gender & Trade Network in Africa,
Southern African Network of Women Economists,
African Women’s Millennium Initiative on Poverty and Human Rights (AWOMI)

and thirty-four national organizations and networks of organisations

GCAP coalition, Banjul, The Gambia, Alternative Trade Network, Ho, Ghana, Tradeaid, Bolgatanga, Ghana, Women In Law And Development In Africa-Ghana, Accra, Ghana, Market Access Promotion Network, Tamale, Ghana, Kenya MDGs Coalition, Nairobi, Kenya, Econews Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, Sustainability Watch Network-Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya, KeNAAM, Kenya Youth and Community Development Programme, Nairobi, Kenya, Kenya Land Alliance, Nakuru, Kenya, Groots – Kenya, Nairobi, YWCA of Kenya, Espace Associatif, Rabat, Morocco, Mozambique Debt Group, Maputo, Mozambique, Independent Social Science Practice, Windhoek, Namibia, Namibian Voices For Development, Windhoek, Namibia, Media Institute Of Southern Africa, Windhoek, Namibia, MDGs/GCAP Coalition, Abuja, Nigeria, Baobab For Women's Human Rights, Lagos, Nigeria, Adolescent Health And Information Project, Kano, Nigeria, Fédération, Nationale Des Producteurs De Coton, Tambacounda, Sénégal, ENDA/REPAO, Dakar, Senegal, Union Nationale Des Acteurs De La Filière Avicole, Sénégal, Sierra Leone National GCAP Coalition, Free Town, Sierra Leone, Emang Basadi Phakamani Bafazi, Rural & Land Women's Movement, Institute For Justice And Reconciliation, Cape Town, South Africa, SANGOCO, Johannesburg, South Africa, Irrigation Training & Economic Empowerment Organization, Moshi, Tanzania, Tanzanian Civil Society Gcap / MDGs Campaign Coalition, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Women In Law And Development In Africa, Lome, Togo, Albertine Rift Conservation Society, Kampala, Uganda, Uganda Coalition For Sustainable Development, Kampala, Uganda, Sustainability Watch Network, Kampala, Uganda, Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda, Kampala – Uganda, Kaabong Women’s Group Organisation, Kampala, Uganda,
Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), Kampala, Uganda,
Zambia Trade Network, Lusaka, Zambia

endorsed by ten international organisations
working in or for development, human rights and justice in Africa

ActionAid International, World Vision Africa Office, Fahamu-UK, Pan African Development Education And Advocacy Programme-UK, Justice Africa-UK, Oxfam International, Africa Development Institute-US, CIVICUS –World Alliance for Citizens Participation, TransAfrica Forum-US, Foreign Policy In Focus-US

Media Advisory

50 African and international Organisations
condemn rolling back of UN development commitments and write to all African Presidents
on upcoming UN Summit

For Immediate Release August 31st 2005
Nairobi, Johannesburg, Lagos/Abuja

What: Press Briefing on upcoming UN Millennium Summit (plus 5) review, September 14-16th, New York. African campaigners condemn rolling back of development commitments and release to the public letter communicated to 53 African Presidents ahead of the Summit.

When: Thursday 1st September 2005

For further information contact;

Nigeria press conference - Thursday 1st September, Lagos/Abuja with Justice Egware as spokesperson
GCAP press officer Etim Imisim - Tel +234 8035741212 or + 234 - 8036299488

Kenya press conference - Friday 2nd September, 10.30 am Chester House, Nairobi with Njeri Kinyoho ActionAid International and Esther Mwaura GROOTS as spokespersons GCAP press officer Anastasia Mutisya-Musyoki Tel +254-73392674

South Africa press conference - Friday 2nd 13:00-14:00, ActionAid, 2nd Floor Rosebank Arena, Cradock Avenue Rosebank, Johannesburg with Kumi Naidoo of CIVICUS and Zanele Twana of SANGOCO as spokespersons GCAP press officer Zukiswa Wanner Tel +27 11 833 5959, ext. 113

Visit: www.whiteband.org • www.gcapsms.org

In Brief:
Less than two weeks away from the UN World Summit, the world’s largest ever anti-poverty campaign is gravely concerned that countries including the United States are undermining the Summit outcome, and ensuring its failure.
The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) warns that by cutting agreed wording designed to end poverty, governments are trying to edit away the future of the world’s poorest people.

The current draft of the Summit outcome declaration contains strong statements on fighting poverty. However, the United States has proposed deleting key wording on tackling global poverty and disease. The proposed US changes include cutting all references to the Millennium Development Goals - the internationally agreed targets for halving world poverty. The US also wants to cut all references to small arms controls and weaken wording on all governments’ responsibility to protect civilians in cases of mass killing such as the Rwandan genocide.

Ahead of the Summit, African organisations endorsed by some of the largest international NGOs under the collective banner of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty have written to 53 African Heads of States calling on them to resist attempts to edit out wording designed to end poverty.

On Thursday 1st September in three corners of Africa – Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi, campaigners will simultaneously release the open letter to the press and brief the press on the preparations leading up to the Summit and prospects for Africa.

Media Statement

POWERFUL COUNTRIES SET TO BETRAY HOPES OF MILLIONS AT UN WORLD SUMMIT

September 1st, 2005 - Less than two weeks away from the UN World Summit, the world’s largest ever anti-poverty campaign is gravely concerned that countries including the United States are undermining the Summit outcome, and ensuring its failure.
The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) warns that by cutting agreed wording designed to end poverty, governments are trying to edit away the future of the world’s poorest people.

The current draft of the Summit outcome declaration contains strong statements on fighting poverty. However, the United States has proposed deleting key wording on tackling global poverty and disease. The proposed US changes include cutting all references to the Millennium Development Goals - the internationally agreed targets for halving world poverty. The US also wants to cut all references to small arms controls and weaken wording on all governments’ responsibility to protect civilians in cases of mass killing such as the Rwandan genocide.
The United States is the main culprit in trying to water down the proposals, with the tacit approval of many other governments. Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder are even threatening not to attend the crucial Summit. If the declaration is so substantially weakened, the largest gathering of world leaders in history will result in failure. “It is ironic that citizens in these countries, not their leaders who signed the Millennium Declaration in the first place, are showing greater commitment to fighting global poverty. We in Africa must keep up the call for these leaders to wake up and not betray our common global humanity” said Justice Egware of the MDGs/GCAP coalition of Nigeria
The 50 African countries that make up the Africa bloc have emerged as major brokers on issues of the reform and expansion of the UN Security Council in recent weeks. In a style reminiscent of the 2003 Cancun WTO Inter-ministerial, Africa seems to be approaching the Summit with growing confidence and power.
Ahead of the Summit, 50 African organisations endorsed by some of the largest international NGOs have written to 53 African Heads of States calling on them to resist attempts to edit out wording designed to end poverty. “Should our leaders allow it, the World Summit could go down in history as the meeting where the most powerful people in the world turned their backs on the poorest,” said Esther Mwaura, campaigner from the Global Call to Action against Poverty.
Millions of people across the world as part of the Global Call to Action against Poverty are calling on their leaders to honor their word and keep their commitments. United by the campaign’s global symbol, the white band, world leaders will be ‘woken up’ to poverty on 10 September, just before leaving for New York, by alarm bells, marches and buildings wrapped with the white band.
Ends.

For further information contact;
Nigeria press conference - Thursday 1st September, Lagos/Abuja with Justice Egware as spokesperson
GCAP press officer Etim Imisim - Tel +234 8035741212 or + 234 - 8036299488
Kenya press conference - Friday 2nd September, 10.30 am Chester House, Nairobi with Njeri Kinyoho ActionAid International and Esther Mwaura GROOTS as spokespersons GCAP press officer Anastasia Mutisya-Musyoki Tel +254-73392674
South Africa press conference - Friday 2nd 13:00-14:00, ActionAid, 2nd Floor Rosebank Arena, Cradock Avenue Rosebank, Johannesburg with Kumi Naidoo of CIVICUS and Zanele Twana of SANGOCO as spokespersons GCAP press officer Zukiswa Wanner Tel +27 11 833 5959, ext. 113

NOTES FOR EDITORS


NOTES FOR EDITORS 1

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty coalition is calling on the public to do three things:

1. Show your support for the campaign by wearing a white band or white African beads on September 10th. Tell another person to do so.

2. Join the Global Call to Action against Poverty by sending a text message “no 2 poverty” to world leaders. Text: +27 82 904 3425.

3. Come to the Accra live concert dubbed “Standing Tall Against Poverty”, featuring the best of African and international performers in Accra. Contact for more information +233 21 775 072.Email: creativestorm@4u.com.gh

NOTES FOR EDITORS 2

Global Call to Action Against Poverty is a coalition of over 100 organisations, faith groups and celebrities working Africa.It is the African arm of the Global Call to Action against Poverty, an alliance of over a hundred national coalitions representing over 150 million people from 60 different countries.

Visit our website at www.whiteband.org

African statement: MDGs not possible without a bold overhaul of global governance

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/gcap/29249

Ahead of the United Nations Millennium +5 review Summit, 25 African and International civil society organizations from different regions of Africa met in Nairobi, Kenya to study the draft outcome text and formulate messages for Governments and regional institutions. Read the statement from the meeting by clicking on the URL provided.
Joint Statement by African and International Civil Society Organizations ahead of the UN Millennium +5 review summit

Nairobi, Kenya 19th August 2005

Next month, 189 world leaders re-convene in New York to attend the UN Millennium (+5) Summit and discuss reforms to the UN’s Security Council, Economic and Social Council, the General Assembly, strategies for achieving human rights, conflict reduction, food security, climate change and combating global terrorism. The Summit will also review progress in implementation of the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Ahead of this Summit, 25 African and International civil society organizations from the East, Great Lakes, The Horn and Southern regions of Africa, met in Nairobi, Kenya to study the draft outcome text and formulate messages for Governments and regional institutions.

Studying the Draft Outcome Document (August 5th) within the context of the political, cultural economic context of Africa in 2005, it is clear that the document does not as yet present a credible agenda for the bold overhaul of the multi-lateral system and the realisation of human rights and the MDGs in Africa.

Over the next four weeks, there is still time to change this.

We, members of the civil society in discussions with representatives of Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), East African Community (EAC), East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) and African Embassies based in Nairobi, identify the following key issues to be of relevance to Africa.

We call on national delegations, regional inter-governmental organisations and civil society organisations to strengthen the draft text in the following manner;

Security and Global Governance:

We note that the issue of human insecurity is related to the abuse of power and human rights violations. Half a century after its inception, the performance of the UN in keeping peace and intervening in situations of emergencies and food insecurity has been wanting. Without regulating the production and trade in arms, placing people’s security over the security of national states and increasing cash support for regional peace initiatives, Africa will not be able to capitalise on the important gains of the last five years.

Consequently, we call for:

Ø Explicit recognition in the text that the primary focus of state security and human security is to ensure protection of citizens and peoples;
Ø The proposed ten year programme of support to strengthening the African peace-keeping should go beyond technical assistance and training to provide actual finances to African Governments to underwrite stand-by operations;
Ø OECD countries to prioritise financing for development over military spending and desist from including military spending in the same category as development assistance;
Ø A standing Panel of Experts should complement the proposed Peace Building Commission with mandate over issues of conflict and emergencies. These two entities should be put in place to strengthen existing Early Warning Mechanisms. Their mandate should include independent investigation and verification of incidents. Further, there is need for clarify the criteria of membership, roles and responsibilities of the Peace Building Commission;
Ø The UN Observer and Peace Keeping mandates should be broadened to allow UN forces to disarm combatants and to protect civilians.

The current discourse on UN Reforms needs to be seen in the broader questions of global governance. We share our Governments concerns that African states are under-represented in key decision-making structures such as the Security Council. We share the view also that the Security Council should be expanded to ensure equal geographical representation, transparency and accountability.

Nevertheless, national delegations need to address with the same degree of urgency as the Security Council, important issues of global financial and economic governance. Negative policy conditionality from the international finance institutions continue to impact on the productive capacity of our economies to grow and diversify in an equitable manner, guarantee domestic savings, employment and basic social services. In the last year, we have seen important recognition placed on the removal of fees for education and education, trade tariff and fiscal and budgetary ceilings as ways of halting the deepening of poverty in Africa and decimated capacity of African states to deliver quality public services.

Reforms to the multi-lateral system must establish mechanisms that ensure state accountability to the citizenry and multi-laterally agreed international norms and standards. Reforms to the multi-lateral system will have very little relevance to Africa, unless stronger mechanisms for regulating multinational non-state actors such as corporations, international financial institutions and trade institutions are instituted.

For the proposed UN reforms to be meaningful;

Ø African representatives in the expanded Security Council must reflect Africa’s interests rather than narrow national interests. Mechanisms should be established to increase the accountability of African Security Council members to regional, sub regional and national legislatures;
Ø The multilateral system must go beyond mere token consultation to facilitate the full participation of CSOs in the UN reform process.

Human Rights, Justice and Reconciliation:

While recognizing the critical role of UN System for establishing impressive rights norms in the areas of global security, ecology, democracy, human rights and development, there has been inadequate credible enforcement of these norms. As an example, UN expenditure on human rights remains unbelievably low.

The draft text should:

Ø Retain the clear link between the implementation of the MDGs and the international human rights framework developed by the UN and existing regional human rights instruments, especially the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights;
Ø Urge the UN to strengthen the International Criminal Court, the office of the High Commission for Human Rights(OHCHR) and the Human Rights Council with a view to making them more effective in acting in cases where states violate human rights;
Ø Reaffirm the supremacy of the UN in the multilateral financing, investment and trading system by ensuring that there is put in place enforcement mechanisms to protect and promote human rights.

Transitional justice mechanisms that seek to balance justice and reconciliation should be strengthened. In both post and pre-conflict societies there must be a deliberate effort to address questions of justice, reparations and rehabilitation as the foundations for sustainable peace. In particular transitional justice process should aim to address ethnicity, racism and the concept of inclusivity across all forms of social stratification. Africa is a leader in this respect, having excellent examples from Rwanda, South Africa and Sierra Leone that the entire international community could learn from.

It is important to:

Ø Specifically re-affirm the linkage between sexual violations during times of conflict and the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Comprehensive mechanisms must be put in place to prevent and eradicate these tendencies and vigilance in the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators on one hand and compensation and rehabilitation of survivors on the other.

Socio-Economic Development:

African Heads of State and national delegations must not lose the opportunity to press for greater policy space and freedom from external conditionality in areas such as privatisation of basic services that have had adverse effects on African citizens. Specifically, the draft text should:

Ø Explicitly acknowledge the failure to meet the first target for the MDGs namely gender parity in primary and secondary education this year;
Ø Should not allow for African governments which have already set higher development goals to adjust them downward to meet the minimalist framework contained in the MDGs;
Ø Accelerate the UN’s work with African countries to address the problems of food insecurity, conflict and emergencies in a comprehensive way;
Ø Recognise that MDGs remain unachievable unless industrialised nations remove subsidies that they give to their farmers. These agricultural subsidies have and continue to impact negatively on Africa’s agricultural development and food security;
Ø Explicitly recognise the odious nature of debts owed by some Governments to bi-lateral institutions. These should not be repaid while others should be totally written-off to release funds for development;
Ø Mandate the UN to establish a multi-lateral framework that allows for the return of funds and other assets siphoned by corrupt African leaders held in European and other foreign countries without conditionalities.

Environmental Governance:

We stress the importance of ensuring sound ecological governance policies. There is need to recognise the interrelationship between natural resource management external interests that often lead to protracted conflict within Africa. The UN must ensure therefore that these conflicts do not occur and where they do, that the capacity of African states is built so that they can respond in a timely and effective manner. Further environmental governance within the UN system must specifically address the question of toxic waste dumping particular northern governments must sign relevant international instruments regulating environmental protection.

Women’s Rights:

The full participation of women in all aspects of development is important in the promotion of women’s rights. The draft text should assert:

Ø The primacy of women’s participation in politics and decision-making, particularly in peacemaking and peace building processes;
Ø Women’s ownership of and control over, property and other productive resources should be included as indicators of poverty eradication in the MDGs;
Ø That sexual offences against women and girls in situations of conflict, peace-keeping and military operations (training) are crimes against humanity at all stages and should be treated as such in terms of investigation, prosecution and reparations;
Ø Women’s universal access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, expanded use of effective drugs for HIV and AIDS and national campaigns to stop violence against women are critical strategies for comprehensively addressing the impact of HIV and AIDS on African women.

Signed, August 19, 2005 by:

ActionAid International, African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), African Women’s Economic Policy Network (AWEPON), Centre for Minority Rights and Development (CEMIRIDE), CIVICUS, Inter-Ecclesiast Committee for Peace in Angola (COIEPA), Co-ordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO)-Swaziland, The CRADLE Children’s Foundation-Kenya, Centre for Empowerment and Rehabilitation of Women-Kenya (CREAW), Elimu Yetu Coalition-Kenya, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation-South Africa, Institute for Security Studies (ISS)-South Africa, Kenya Association for the Advancement of Children’s Rights (KAACR), Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, Kenya Youth Empowerment and Community Development Programme (KYCEP), League of Kenyan Women Voters, Legal Resources Foundation-Kenya, Maasai Education-Kenya, MDG Coalition-Kenya, NEPAD-Kenya, Oxfam, SEATINI-Kenya, Solidarity Africa, UNDP, Urgent Action Fund-Africa, World Vision-Rwanda, Young Women Christian Association (YWCA)-Kenya, Zambia MDGs-GCAP Network

Civil society gears up for the UN World Summit

2005-09-01

http://www.civicus.org/new/content/deskofthesecretarygeneral18.htm

Following the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, the International Facilitation Group of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), met in Bangkok, Thailand recently to evaluate the progress that has been made and to plan for the next phase of mobilisation. Given that GCAP was only launched on 27 January 2005 at the World Social Forum, participants felt that while more progress was sought from the G8 leadership than was achieved, civil society had made significant progress in bringing together a broad based coalition to push for progress to eradicate global poverty. The focus now is on the UN World Summit, a gathering of heads of government at the UN General Assembly in New York from 14 - 16 September. This is supposed to be an occasion where governments account for what they have achieved in terms of earlier commitments made at UN Summits and the Millennium Declaration adopted in September 2000. Even though most of us in civil society feel the Millennium Development Goals do not go far enough, it still looks like the assessment governments will make in September, if they are honest in their self evaluations, is that progress in achieving the goals has been dismal. (Sourced from e-Civicus)

Mobilisation guide for White Band Day 2

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/gcap/29248

Five years on from the Millennium Summit world leaders are meeting, from 14 –16 September, to discuss progress on the Millennium Development Goals at the UN MDG +5 Summit. Thus far, efforts to reach the MDGs have fallen woefully short of what is needed to achieve them. Which is why, just ahead of this Summit on 10 September, the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is organizing White Band Day 2 – the second in a series of massive international mobilizations from GCAP.

White Band Day 2: September 10 2005
Mobilisation Guide


www.whiteband.org



White Band Day 2: What We’re Doing and Why
Five years on from the Millennium Summit world leaders are meeting, from 14 –16 September, to discuss progress on the Millennium Development Goals at the UN MDG +5 Summit. Thus far, efforts to reach the MDGs have fallen woefully short of what is needed to achieve them. Which is why, just ahead of this Summit on 10 September, the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is organizing White Band Day 2 – the second in a series of massive international mobilizations from GCAP. GCAP will send a clear message to governments across the world that politicians must keep their promises to achieve the MDGs. Together, we will show the breadth and depth of support for action now to end poverty.

The GCAP International Facilitation Group met last month in Bangkok and put together a range of messages and actions focusing on the UN Summit. This mobilization guide gives an overview of the agreed actions and messages from this meeting. Of course, national coalitions will undertake their own events and actions, with their own messaging, but if we unite and speak with one voice, we can make a powerful impact and force our leaders to take action before it is too late.

GCAP messages for the UN MDG Summit +5

At an international level we will demand that rich countries and international institutions change trade rules, give more and better aid and debt relief. At a national level, GCAP national coalitions will press for the specific changes that are most urgently needed to progress the MDGs and policies to eradicate poverty in their country.

Below are five messages agreed to at the recent meeting in Bangkok, as well as some of the suggestions on how these policy demands may translate into slogans. These are meant to act as a broad framework to unite GCAP coalitions: it is up to each national coalition to work on the slogans and combinations of messages to suit their own national context, but it is hoped that by speaking together our voice becomes more powerful.

1. Missing MDGs: (Slogan Examples: Gender parity now! An end to patriarchy)
2. Human Centered Security: (Slogan Examples: Peace and Freedom from fear and want, freedom to live in dignity / Sustainable Existence, environmental, social, food, livelihood and economic security)
3. Right to Quality Public Services and Resources: (Slogan Examples: no to privatisation / Free education, health, and water for everyone, end user fees now)
4. Just Democratic Governance:(Slogan Examples: Stop wasting our money – Govern for the people – fight poverty / Right to information / No corruption – North and South / Stop Human Rights Abuses/ Accountable IFIs / accountability to the people)
5. Debt Cancellation, Trade Justice, a major increase in the Quality and Quantity of Aid. (Slogan Examples: Stop breaking your promises / this debt is unjust)

GCAP White Band Day 2: Globally coordinated national actions

The suggested globally coordinated actions for national coalitions from the Bangkok meeting are also only intended to act as a broad guide for groups to incorporate into pre-existing plans for White Band Day 2 and to adapt to suit their local and national context – but please remember that when we unite in joint initiatives we are much more powerful.

Wake-Up to Poverty! Actions

The key actions include a wake-up call for national delegates going to the Summit. We want world leaders to hear the people’s call to take action on poverty. As each country is allowed four delegates to the UN Summit, the intention is to ‘wake them up’ before they depart for New York. So that on September 10, for White Band Day 2, millions of people will be literally waking up their country’s politicians with the rallying cry that they should Wake-Up to Poverty! These actions would be repeated in New York, on the opening day of the Summit, with a stunt including alarm clocks to ‘Wake-up’ the delegates.

There are four broad areas of action that fall into the Wake-Up to Poverty! actions:

1. Wake-Up to Poverty! lobby meetings
• Breakfast lobby meeting: try to organise a breakfast Wake-up to Poverty! meeting on 10 September with one of your government’s delegation going to the UN Summit (to find out more about your country’s delegation, please email: info@whiteband.org). Get someone who is directly affected by poverty to tell their story, as well as including representatives from within the coalition.
• Hand-over of Wake-Up to Poverty! petitions / testimonies: Collect thousands of testimonies from poor or marginalized people to be handed over to your governments delegation (see below under the Local Action section for examples of wake-up to poverty testimonies that could be collected), or alternatively, get as many people as possible to sign a petition with your national policy demands to hand-over to politicians.
• Wake-up press call: if you can’t secure a meeting, then try to organise a press call early in the morning to highlight the refusal of your government to meet with you: use this space to tell the media about the demands of your coalition. One idea could be to have a symbolic empty chair in the press conference that ‘should’ have been filled by your government representative, or a cardboard model of this person could be placed on the chair.




2. Wake-Up to Poverty! rallies, demos and marches
These events could take a number of forms, for example: a march or rally to Parliament Buildings or one of the delegates’ homes early in the morning; or an all-night vigil outside, that ends with a large celebratory wake-up call to your government.
• Wake-Up to Poverty! Rallies and marches: if you are holding a rally or march target government buildings, or the houses of one of your government’s Summit delegation.
• Wake-up morning call: If you can get access and permission to visit the house of one of the delegates going to the Summit, why not go and do an early morning ‘door knock’ action. Take a delegation of people affected by poverty, invite the media to follow you and knock on their doors.
• A Wake-Up to Poverty! jamboree or festival: You may feel that a more celebratory tone suits the mood in your country better. If so, have a massive carnival, jamboree or festival against poverty. Start it early in the morning and get well-known VIPs to give rallying speeches on ending poverty.
• All night Wake-Up to Poverty! vigils: An all night candlelit vigil outside government buildings that ends in the morning with a big symbolic Wake-Up to Poverty! action – perhaps with a march or festival, or with all the people attending ringing alarm clocks.
• Wave off the delegates: Many groups are already planning to have events where they wave off their country’s delegation at the airport when they leave, so that before they leave for the Summit, civil society has one last chance to make their demands heard.
• Rallies outside your UN Buildings: If there is a UN building in your country, why not also have a rally outside the building?
•





3. Wake-Up to Poverty! media work
• Early morning Wake-Up to Poverty! slot on a TV or radio breakfast show: Get an early morning slot on radio/TV, or a morning newspaper to run a Wake-Up to Poverty! article in national or local newspapers.
• Make a “I Wake-Up to Poverty” short film or interview: Get a short film or interview made with people in your country who have direct experience of waking-up to poverty everyday and what that means to them each morning. GCAP will be making some short films. International versions of the “I Wake up to Poverty” film will be available from mid-August.
4. Wake-Up to Poverty local actions
Some more ideas for localised actions are:
• Collect as many letters and petitions from within your local community, written onto a white band. Collect as many testimonies from people living in poverty of their experiences of Waking-up to Poverty each morning. These “I Wake-Up to Poverty” testimonies can be presented to your government or displayed in an exhibition
• Have a Wake-Up to Poverty message incorporated into religious services and calls to prayer
• Get as many schools as possible in your area to do a Wake-Up to Poverty assembly.
• Invite your local councillor to a Wake-Up to Poverty morning meeting.










Uniting our voice and actions globally at the UN Summit


Coordinated global email and text actions
For White Band day 2, GCAP have a specially dedicated White Band Day 2 Wake-Up to Poverty section on the website. We will be posting information on country plans, materials, testimonies from people, as well as a Wake-Up email action and a global counter of people taking part in White Band Day 2. We will be counting the number of people who take action, email, or send an SMS from around the world – around the White Band Day 2 we will start the global counter online. Together these will form a global Wake-Up to Poverty petition to be handed over at the UN Summit – add your voice to the call by emailing the numbers taking action in your country for White Band Day 2 and taking email action.

GCAP MDG Summit International Events

As well as national level mobilisations taking place on White Band Day 2, a number of GCAP global events – most of which are planned to take place in New York around the Summit. These are all yet to be confirmed, but so far discussions have taken place on holding: People’s Festivals, on the 3 September, there are plans for regional festivals in countries like India and Ghana. On the 10th September, the annual trade union labour march on 5th Ave in New York will have a white band presence. 1GCAp is also looking into the possibility of having a “People’s Summit”, bringing together speakers, people and images from around the world is being planned in New York to mirror the UN World Summit. Kofi Annan has offered to speak at a GCAP event in New York and it was thought he could be included in the people’s summit along with other southern leaders (TBC). GCAP is also looking at having a GCAP ‘space’, in New York, during the UN World Summit.


















Telling us about your White Band Day 2 plans

It is really useful for us to know as much as possible about plans around the world. Please use Table 1 below to tell us more about your country’s plans for White Band Day 2.

It is also vital for the GCAP Secretariat to identify gaps and restraints in the realisation of plans for White Band Day 2. Please use Table 2 to inform us about these gaps and in what ways the GCAP secretariat may be able to support your work to make it even more successful, for instance through enhanced communication, increased media support, material production, or you may lack enough materials or have serious financial gaps.
Table 1: Planned White Band Day 2 actions
Telling us about your national White Band Day 2 events
What will be your main national action for white band day 2 (please explain the event, tell us the location of the event)?


How many people to you expect to take part in this event?


What will be the key national messages and policy demands around the event?


Can you tell us the date and time for these events?

Do you have a person who could act as a contact point for media and communication for this event? (if so, please give name, email and contact details)


Wake-up to Poverty actions
Will you be incorporating some of the suggested Wake-Up to Poverty actions into your White Band day 2 plans? If so, in what ways?



Will you be incorporating some of the GCAP messaging that came from the international facilitation group meeting into your White Band Day mobilisation? (If so, how? And which messages will you focus on?)



Other planned actions and local / regional actions
Please us this space to give us more information on other planned actions?


In how many regions or district to you expect this to happen? How many people will the messages reach?
Lobby work
Will you be able to organise a meeting with a member of your governments MDG Summit delegation?




Table 2: Support needed and gaps
What are the main constraints in your planning for White Band Day 2?




Support required
What media support would you require at a national level?


What communication materials would help your coalition – (please remember we are sending a small quantity of posters for White Band Day 2 to all coalitions)? IF YOU WANT MATERIALS PLEASE EMAIL YOUR ADDRESS DETAILS WITH THIS FORM


What other support could GCAP give to help improve your mobilisation?



Would incorporating Wake-Up to Poverty actions into your pre-existing plans involve additional resources or work for your country coalition?


Would a lobby toolkit on ways to lobby your government on the MDGs be useful?



Please email this back to info@whiteband.org - try to send it back by 12 August, if possible.

Powerful countries set to betray hopes of millions at UN World Summit

2005-08-31

http://www.whiteband.org/PressCenter/PressRelease/gcappressrelease.2005-08-29.1822568864

The world’s largest ever anti-poverty campaign is gravely concerned that countries including the United States are undermining the Summit outcome, and ensuring its failure. The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) warns that by cutting agreed wording designed to end poverty, governments are trying to edit away the future of the world’s poorest people. The current draft of the Summit outcome declaration contains strong statements on fighting poverty. However, the United States has proposed deleting key wording on tackling global poverty and disease. The proposed US changes include cutting all references to the Millennium Development Goals - the internationally agreed targets for halving world poverty. The US also wants to cut all references to small arms controls and weaken wording on all governments’ responsibility to protect civilians in cases of mass killing such as the Rwandan genocide.

The Ethiopian National Coalition is called Poverty Action Network of Civil Society in Ethiopia (PANE)

2005-09-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/gcap/29246

Beginning as a task force in 2001 and in 2004 after the launch of the poverty reduction strategy program, PANE decided to focus its energies from a task force into a network which now consists of more than 70 civil society organizations (CSOs), non governmental organizations (NGOs), professional associations and research institutions working on poverty and related issues in the country. PANE has thus far conducted familiarization and awareness raising workshops in five regions based on sustainable development and poverty reduction (SDPRPs), the role of civil society in poverty reduction in general and MDGs in particular and also formed chapters in all these regions. Additionally, they have conducted monitoring and evaluation of MDG performance mechanisms in Ethiopia covering 75 percent of Ethiopia's population. PANE plans to continue similar activities in the rest of Ethiopia. PANE has conducted the Service Delivery Survey using a Citizens Report Card approach. This is a work in progress and only now is the fieldwork and report-writing being finalized. It was conducted by the support from the UNDP and Action Aid Ethiopia. In spite of the obviously great successes of PANE, GCAP has not been officially launched in Ethiopia despite several attempts. This has apparently been due to cancellations of all mass rallies planned by PANE by the Ethiopian government. PANE has thus tentatively set the official launch date for mid-August and this time they hope they will not be hindered. Contact Eshetu Bekele: eb.fss@telecom.net.et (Sourced from the GCAP newsletter No 10, 29 July 2005).

Fahamu