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Pambazuka News 233: WTO Special issue: Will Africa stand firm in Hong Kong?

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Highlights from this issue

Features

No fear of failure: Will Africa stand firm in Hong Kong?

Demba Moussa Dembélé

2005-12-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/30830

Deadlock. That’s the current state of trade negotiations in the lead up to a crucial World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong from 13-18 December. Expect “rude battles and fierce negotiations” during the meeting, writes Demba Moussa Dembele, as the United States and European Union try their utmost to wrangle a deal that will give them license to loot. In the face of intense pressure, African trade ministers must remember the welfare of their people, stand firm and resist the heavy-handed tactics they will be subjected to, Dembele writes.

In just a few days, Hong Kong will host one of the most important meetings of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). After the failure of the last ministerial meeting in Cancun (Mexico) two years ago, there are fears that history may repeat itself, because so far there is no consensus on some of the key issues to be discussed. The Draft Declaration issued by the Director General on November 26, 2005 and revised on December 2, 2005, has been criticized by several developing countries as being biased in favor of developed countries in many of the issues under negotiation, notably on services and industrial tariffs.

For African and other developing countries the stakes are clear: will this round be a real development round or will it be subverted by developed countries, notably the United States and the European Union (EU), to push for more liberalization and the opening up of developing countries’ economies to multinational corporations? Indeed, the current round of negotiations, called the Doha Development Round (DDR), was supposed to foster development and give more attention to issues of interest to developing countries. In particular, it was supposed to correct the egregious inequities and imbalances of the Uruguay Round Agreement on agriculture which allowed industrial countries to increase their support for their farmers, leading to a dumping of subsidized products on developing countries’ markets and to big distortions in the world prices of agricultural products.

But the Cancun fiasco and the current impasse illustrate the gap between developing and industrial countries regarding the interpretations of the Doha Round. The major sticking points of the negotiations include agricultural subsidies by developed countries, liberalization of the services sector and non-agricultural market access (NAMA).

Over the last two years, African countries have tried to harmonize their positions so as to strengthen their solidarity and defend more effectively their interests. This is especially the case for African least developed countries (LDCs) which joined other LDCs to raise their specific concerns. In their last meeting held in Arusha (Tanzania) on November 24, 2005, African trade ministers issued a statement called the Arusha Development Benchmarks for the 6th WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong, in which they exposed their views on some of the key issues to be discussed in Hong Kong.

Agricultural subsidies

They stressed the inadequacy of the proposals made so far on agricultural subsidies, which are one of the most contentious issues in the current negotiations. As is well known, cotton subsidies are the best illustration of the inequities and injustice inherent in the world trading system. The United States, which controls around 40 percent of the market, spends between $3 and $4 billion annually to support 25,000 farmers. This has had the effect of depressing cotton prices in world markets, hurting some 10 to 11 million African farmers. For African countries, the elimination of agricultural subsidies has become one of the key tests of the sincerity of developed countries to correct the imbalances that characterize the world trading system. In their statement, African trade ministers insist that agricultural subsidies be phased out by the year 2010 and call for the removal of all other structural distortions.

Given the formidable pressure from African and other developing countries on agricultural issues and the fear of another failure, the United States and Europe are maneuvering to shift the blame to developing countries. Both have made superficial concessions recently aimed at ‘meeting’ developing countries’ demands. For instance, on October 10, 2005, the United States issued a proposal indicating that it is ready to slash its agricultural subsidies by 60%. However the proposal is conditional on the EU and Japan agreeing to slash their subsidies by percentages, already rejected by both. In other words, the US proposal leads nowhere. On the other hand, the European Union, while criticizing the US proposal as ‘unrealistic’ and not feasible, has put on the table a proposal of its own, which puts the onus on the US.

Industrial tariffs

African trade ministers insist that obligations of African countries in this area should be commensurate with the continent’s development level and that they should be granted flexibilities and retain policy space. Moreover, any appropriate formula should allow Africa to pursue development objectives, such as industrial policy, employment creation and product diversification.

This position contrasts with developed countries’ push for drastic tariff reduction and rapid liberalization of industrial markets. The satisfaction of these demands would have a devastating impact on African economies. Already, crippled by structural adjustment programs, the remaining African industrial base would be eliminated and industrialization would be put on hold for an indefinite period. With little industrial prospects, Africa would attract ever fewer FDIs, except in the mining and extractive industries, which would reinforce the continent’s specialization in primary products. Industrial impasse will translate into the acceleration of the ‘brain drain’, further clouding Africa’s development prospects. Therefore, African countries should not heed the call for significant tariff concessions. They should retain these tariffs as a development tool.

Trade in services (GATS)

In this area, African trade ministers have rejected the call for rapid liberalization and the introduction of new approaches to the GATS framework. They have reiterated Africa’s right to regulate the services sector, to open up and liberalize fewer sectors in line with its development level and priorities. African resistance in this area is strongly echoed by other developing and emerging countries.

To understand the stakes in the services trade, one must keep in mind that they permeate all aspects of economic, social and cultural development. They range from education to health, from transportation to housing, from banking services to trash collection. Trade in services accounts for more than 25 percent of world trade and is growing rapidly. In several developed countries, services account for about two thirds of economic activity and over half of the world economy.

Therefore, liberalization in trade in services would represent a tremendous opportunity to boost these countries’ economies and pave the way for foreign control of key sectors in developing countries, as already is the case in many African countries. Indeed, a further liberalization in this sector would deal a major blow to African development prospects since this would lead to market delivery of many of these services, making them inaccessible to the overwhelming majority of the population. Moreover, liberalization in services would increase the role and power of foreign investors, thus hampering or severely limiting state-led development strategies. Furthermore, this would reinforce the current division of labor. In light of this, African countries are right in opposing further liberalization and the opening up of their services sector. They must have the right to use them as development tools under the control of national authorities to serve national development objectives.

The African agenda in Hong Kong

In light of the above, for African countries, a successful conclusion of the Hong Kong meeting should mean the satisfaction of the following:

- Removal of structural distortions in agricultural goods markets as a result of industrialized countries’ policies;

- The sovereign right to use industrial tariffs and other instruments to pursue their development objectives, especially to promote industrialization and full employment;

- Non-reciprocal market access and trade liberalization given the asymmetry between African and industrial countries in the world trading system;

- The right to protect their agricultural sector and use other policy tools to enhance the welfare of their citizens, in particular the right to food sovereignty;
- Set a firm deadline and a timetable for the elimination of agricultural subsidies, with transparent and verifiable monitoring mechanisms;

- Set up compensatory mechanisms for the trade losses due to those subsidies;

- Opposition to the imposition of services liberalization and the right to regulate services and liberalize them in line with their development priorities;

- Maximum flexibility in identifying special products (SP);

- Implementation of effective special and differential treatment (SDT) measures;

- Inclusiveness and transparency in the negotiation process.

Conclusion

Given the gap between African and other developing countries’ positions and those of developed countries, the Hong Kong Ministerial will give rise to rude battles and fierce negotiations. African countries will face an uphill battle. Agricultural issues will be the make or break issue in Hong Kong. As things stand now, only concessions by the US and the EU on subsidies and on other areas may break the deadlock and give a chance to the Doha Round.

The efforts of the United States and the European Union to convince world public opinion that they have made all the concessions needed have received the help of several leading multinational corporations. On November 8, 2005, CEOs and Chairmen from a number of these corporations published an editorial in the Financial Times, calling on WTO negotiators to conclude the negotiations “on time”! This elicited a swift response from several NGOs, which published a statement in the November 15, 2005 issue of the same Financial Times.

All this shows that governments of industrial countries and multinational corporations are united in pressuring developing countries into accepting to make concessions to further liberalize their economies to the detriment of their own populations. This campaign aims to intimidate developing countries’ negotiators and implicitly send the message that they would be to blame if the Hong Kong meeting were to fail. Intense pressure, heavy tactics and even physical threat may be applied by the US and the EU to get African and other developing countries’ negotiators to accept what they have refused since Cancun.

However, African trade ministers must stick with their demands and resist the pressures put on them. They must have in mind the fundamental interests of their countries and citizens. They must not fear another failure of the WTO, because Africa has nothing to lose. In reality, another failure of the WTO ministerial will further expose the hypocrisy, lies and injustices of the current trading system and illustrate its illegitimacy.

* Demba Moussa Dembele is Director, African Forum on Alternatives Dakar (Senegal)

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Comment & analysis

Strong-arming, sweet-talking and belly rolling – but no deal on agriculture in Hong Kong

2005-12-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/30831

Agriculture has always been the make or break issue of the sixth WTO ministerial in Hong Kong and as the meeting approaches it would take a miracle for agreement to be reached. But Raj Patel from the Centre for Civil Society at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal notes in an interview with Pambazuka News that even if a deal was reached it would have to ignore the demands and needs of agriculturalists in the Global South. That’s because “nothing, not one thing, in the detail of the EU and US proposals, promises any substantive change in their policies of subsidising rich farmers in the EU and US, while exploiting poorer ones elsewhere.”

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: The agricultural sector has been an area of focus for you. What are your views on this World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in Hong Kong? Is there any hope at all for an improvement in relation to the agricultural sector?

RAJ PATEL: Since the WTO began in 1995, the agreement on agriculture has been a battlefield, mainly between the European Union and the United States. There have been ministerial meetings in Singapore 1996, Geneva 1998, Seattle 1999, Doha 2001, Cancun 2003 and Hong Kong is the sixth ministerial conference.

At each of these conferences, save perhaps Singapore, the fight over agriculture has caused a great deal of collateral damage, particularly in terms of the demands made of developing countries. By the same token, though, when developing countries have had the opportunity and courage to raise their voices, the advance of WTO-style trade liberalisation has been halted - this happened in Seattle and Cancun in particular.

In Doha, however, the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) was written, and it's a roadmap for trade liberalisation to which many poor countries chose, under duress but with the possibility of aid, to subscribe. The US and EU have been effective in using the DDA as a sop to countries concerned about how trade liberalisation in agriculture will affect their rural populations - usually the poorest people. But the EU vs US agricultural trade spat continues to fester. And in recent weeks, despite a great deal of diplomacy, strong-arming, sweet-talking and belly rolling, the EU and US haven't managed to come to any agreement on agriculture.

As the Hong Kong ministerial approaches, it's unlikely that an agreement will be reached. The important point, though, is this - if an agreement *is* reached, it will have to be one that ignores the demands and needs of agriculturalists in the Global South - because nothing, not one thing, in the detail of the EU and US proposals, promises any substantive change in their policies of subsidising rich farmers in the EU and US, while exploiting poorer ones elsewhere.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: The major sticking area with regards negotiations over agriculture lies in the issue of farm subsidies. The European Union and United States pay billions of dollars of subsidies to their farmers, undermining the ability of farmers in other parts of the world to compete with products from the EU and USA. What progress do you think there will be on this issue? Isn't the focus on subsidies slightly misleading in that it obscures the problems associated with an export based agricultural system that undermines food sovereignty?

RAJ PATEL: Among the reasons that the WTO is unfair is that it allows the EU and US to maintain their agricultural systems and supports in place, while demanding that developing countries remove their protections for agriculture. In the press and in certain NGO circuits, this debate has collapsed into one about subsidies, with strong arguments being made that subsidies are hurting the poor in the Global South. The argument runs like this - the EU and US massively subsidise their farmers. The subsidies encourage farmers to over-produce. The surfeit of agricultural goods needs to be disposed of somewhere, and that somewhere is the Global South. This means that farmers in the Global South are competing against products that have a much lower cost of production precisely because of the subsidies.

This undoubtedly happens in some circumstances. Most recently publicised has been the case of cotton, where the subsidies given to US cotton producers directly affects the output in West Africa, to the tune of $250 million in direct costs, and $1 billion in indirect costs, according to the Cotton Producers Association of Africa.

In the main, however, the subsidies debate is a red herring. The best way to see this is to consider what would happen if the US were, for example, suddenly to make all its subsidies disappear. An increasing number of studies addressing this issue have found that supply wouldn't change in the short or medium term. Indeed, under some scenarios, production would increase, as US farmers struggled to increase output to cover the shortfall in their subsidies. This would have the effect of worsening the situation for farmers in the Global South in the short term, and in the long term, world prices would increase only modestly (3% by 2020, according to one model).

The US recently put on the table an offer to reduce some of its farm supports by 60% in the next five years, in exchange for market access. But the devil lies in the details of these proposals - the US is taking something of a gamble that its exports will win on market access what they lose in direct farm payments. The gamble, however, isn't a fair one - the US still retains the right to expand its 'non-trade-distorting' subsidies, which will nonetheless keep farmers at a competitive advantage, while promising to cut the narrowly defined 'trade-distorting subsidies'. Their effective reduction in subsidies would be around 2%, but the market access they want in return is a reduction of between 50-90%. The chalice is, to switch metaphors, poisoned.

The good news, for those opposed to the WTO’s vision of agriculture at least, is that the EU response to this salvo is constrained. The EU trade Minister, formerly a disgraced UK minister, Peter Mandelson, is a firm believer in the free market. But he is not, however, able to negotiate as he pleases. The EU’s own intra-national politics has put some firm constraints down as to what he is, and is not, allowed to concede. The US is pushing for more than he is able to give – indeed, some French politicians have already argued that he has overstepped his mandate. And this means the very real threat of deadlock at the WTO in Hong Kong – any broad agreement can’t happen without an agreement on agriculture, and it doesn’t look like any agreement on agriculture is forthcoming.

This is not to say that US and EU farm support systems should remain untouched - far from it. The lion's share of EU and US agricultural subsidies go to the rich, with some estimates suggesting that 60% of subsidies go to the richest 20%. There's clearly need for radical change. But this change in and of itself won't bring the manna that many hope it will. The problem is more complex, and lies in the systemic overproduction of crops in the North, and in the vested and wealthy interests that profit from this overproduction, and from a model that promotes export-based agriculture.

Finally, it’s important to remember that the outcomes of Hong Kong, deadlock or otherwise, will still leave the WTO largely intact. This is an unhappy state of affairs, and one that needs urgent redress not within the Ministerial, but beyond it.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: In a recent paper, ‘International Agrarian Restructuring and the Practical Ethics of Peasant Movement Solidarity’, (Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal) you set out to show "how the international agrarian counter-movement is not a reflex or knee-jerk response...but one that has to work with complex formations of identity, memory and militancy". Can you elaborate on the point that you are making here and how this relates to the WTO?

RAJ PATEL: The resistance to the WTO is complex and global. Many of the organisations that are fighting the increase of the WTO's ambit in agriculture are farming organisations with roots in a long history of liberation struggle. The Landless Peoples' Movement in Brazil, the MST, for instance, see themselves as the inheritors of the traditions of the Peasant Leagues in post-war Brazil. The Indian "Karnataka State Farmers Association", KRRS, with over 10 million members, sees itself as continuing the Gandhian vision of national liberation.

The way that these movements respond to the WTO isn't a call for increasing tariffs or subsidies or any of the other terms used by the international trade set. They want to take back the debate around agriculture from international capital, and that means taking back its meaning. Chukki Nanjundaswamy, one of the leaders of the KRRS, puts it like this: "We don't want the government to give us charity - we don't want subsidies in that sense. What we want is the fair price for what we grow - the 'scientific price'. This means a price that includes a fair price for the labour, and the inputs, and the land. Nothing more. Nothing less. But also, we want to take back control of how our food is distributed. We want to cut out the middlemen, the little thugs and the big corporations that steal from all of us. So we want to sell our food directly to the people who will eat it - we'll get more for our food, and they'll have to pay less. Our motto is 'One rupee more for the producer, one less for the consumer.'"

This is a solid example of the Gandhian idea of self-sufficiency at work, drawing on a history of anti-colonial struggle, and changing the way that agricultural commerce is structured. And this is a direct attack on the WTO, which seeks to structure domestic agriculture through structuring the international trade rules.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: In the same paper, you write that apart from dumping, deskilling, inequality and concentration of ownership, one of the features of people in the agriculture sector under neo-liberalism is a kind of collective amnesia. This is an interesting point - can you explain what you mean?

RAJ PATEL: One of the processes of international commerce since the second world war has involved the rise of new technologies in farming. An example of this is the 'Green Revolution', a series of technologies that involved irrigation, agrotoxins (pesticides and herbicides) and improved varieties that were compatible with these kinds of technologies. The yields from these new varieties were undoubtedly higher than before they were introduced.

But there are two problems - the first is that with the introduction of these technologies that encourage a monoculture of one kind or another, other kinds of farming systems, often more sophisticated, involving intercropping a range of crops in ways suited to local conditions, has been forgotten.

This is a problem today, because the Green Revolution technologies are failing, leaving behind soils that require extensive reconstruction after years of being soaked in toxins. Agro-ecological forms of farming, which preceded the Green Revolution in some cases, would have offered a way of managing this situation - but the skills have been lost.

There is, however, a second kind of amnesia - one that relates to the technologies used on farms today. The technologies are presented, by the chemical companies, and then by governments, as the only solution out of the trap of low productivity agriculture. Yet, as Prof. S.S. Gill of the Punjab Agricultural University points out, the Green Revolution was a substitute for land reform – it was a way of tamping down popular aspirations for radical change in the face of hunger. His work on the increases in productivity that have happened when landless and land-insecure rural people have been given land show that, in fact, productivity also shoots through the roof.

This isn’t to say that the main reason for land reform should be productivity increases - there are many better reasons than that. Yet we are encouraged to forget these political options in the face of modern farming technology. And this is symptomatic of a broader forgetting - a forgetting of people living in rural areas. Farming policy in almost every country world wide has placed a lower value on the fates of people living in rural areas, and their persistently higher rates of poverty, disease and education are tragic testament to this.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: How does/has the agricultural sector acted as a site of struggle against the neo-liberal system espoused by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and WTO? What examples are there from Africa?

In Africa, the history of colonialism has left its mark most centrally on the factor of production most necessary for agriculture – land. A number of governments, and the South African government is the most ardent exponent of these philosophies on the continent, have sought to redistribute land on a willing-buyer-willing-seller model. The model, approved and proselytised by the World Bank, is one where the owner of the land, who has invariably received the land through a process of colonialism, agrees to part with it at an invariably high market rate, and the buyer, invariably without the support s/he needs to successfully finance and grow on the land, pays for the land, only to default on the loan a few years later. At the recent Land Summit in South Africa, and due almost exclusively to three years of hard campaigning by the Landless Peoples’ Movement, the government admitted that the willing-buyer-willing-seller policy has been a failure.

More broadly, the loans doled out by the Bank and the Fund have imposed requirements to repay loans in dollars. These dollars can only be gained through exporting domestically produced goods. When African countries have been unable to repay the loans, the Bank and Fund have been willing to re-lend to governments, but with the loans have come conditionalities, or terms – governments are to reduce their ‘interference’ in the market by dismantling the supports for agriculture to which they have been committed. These supports include guaranteed prices, paid through marketing boards. With the end of guaranteed prices, and with farmers exposed to international competition, this has cemented African agriculture into a barely reconstructed version of their colonial form – providing cheap agricultural commodities to the Global North and, increasingly, large countries in the Global South, notably China.

Cotton, mentioned above, is just one example. African countries are driven by a range of key export crops, from coffee to cut flowers – all of which have a range of increasingly liberalised trade rules governing them, authored at the World Trade Organization. This process, of loan, conditions, and export agriculture, is why the Fund, Bank, and WTO are known as the ‘three sisters’ of neoliberalism.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Community struggles are often at the coal-face of resistance to decisions made at forums like the WTO. To what extent do you think these 'voices' are heard at meetings like the one in Hong Kong?

RAJ PATEL: The WTO is meant to be a forum of governments, and to the extent that governments represent the will of their people, peoples’ voices ought to be heard at the WTO. It just happens that very few governments represent any kind of popular will, and the few that are able to represent these are sidelined, bought off, or brow-beaten.

With this in mind, the international peasant movement, Via Campesina, arranged to meet directly with the head of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, the man who had Peter Mandelson’s job until he was elected to be the ‘impartial head’ of the World Trade Organization. Unfortunately, the delegation was limited by the WTO to fifteen people, and when arriving at the WTO building in Geneva, only one member of the delegation, the Via Campesina representative from Norway, was allowed in. This is indicative of the extent to which ‘voices’ are heard at the WTO. In Hong Kong, there are already rumours of activists being blacklisted, and prevented from entering the country during the ministerial, and with the Hong Kong authorities making it difficult for these representatives to find accommodation so that they’ve somewhere to sleep after they’ve made their voices heard.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What would be some of the key features of a food sovereignty model?

There are alternatives to the WTO. Via Campesina has proposed a model called “food sovereignty”. It’s not something of which many people have heard, so it’s worth jotting down a quick definition: “is the right of peoples to define
their own food and agriculture; to protect and regulate domestic agricultural production and trade in order to achieve sustainable development objectives; to determine the extent to which they want to be self-reliant; [and] to restrict the dumping of products in their markets . . . Food sovereignty does not negate trade, but rather, it promotes the formulation of trade policies and practices that serve the rights of peoples to safe, healthy and ecologically sustainable production.”

The main point here is not to replace one neo-liberal dogma with another, but to take seriously the right of ‘peoples’ to define their own food and agriculture. In other words, a food sovereignty model would look significantly more democratic than the prevailing one. But this is to understate the case – because we’ve not yet seen this kind of democracy at work on a sustained basis at a national level anywhere in the world. It’s a call for a direct democracy, not a representative one. This means a call for engagement, debate and contestation – the kinds of things that we see very little of outside the smoke-filled rooms at the WTO. It calls for every person to take more direct responsibility and claim over their lives – it’s a call for empowerment. It means, of course, disempowering those who profit from the current agricultural system – but it also means empowering those who profit least – rural and urban producers, and consumers around the world. And we’re a constituency that richly deserves more control over our lives.

* Interview conducted via email. Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

The WTO: Chugging along, spreading economic terrorism of the fundamentalist kind

Riaz Tayob

2005-12-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/30832

In the gloomy world of World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations, developing countries are being asked, in the words of one commentator, to “chase a black cat down a dark alley blindfolded”. Riaz Tayob takes us into the corridors of the WTO and introduces us to the complicated and confusing world of negotiations on issues that affect the lives of millions in the Global South. Agriculture, health, services – it’s all up for grabs and rich countries will stop at nothing to get their hands on as big piece of the pie as they can cram into their mouths. In this context, and with a dash of manipulation and strong-arm tactics thrown in for extra spice, the danger is of a deal that is an empty gift but sold as real, concludes Tayob.

The importance of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) belies its relatively obscure birth in 1995. Since then it has been quietly chugging along, spreading economic terrorism of the fundamentalist kind. Market fundamentalism is dressed up in the clothes of growth, trade and development and yet this emperor is still naked. And the emperor will stay naked irrespective of what happens in Hong Kong, China. Whatever deal is brokered during this round of negotiations in Hong Kong or thereafter, developing countries cannot benefit much.

Past experience shows that developing countries can put their foot down and stop the process. However, until now they have been unable to extract anything meaningful from a show of unity and are still prone to the “divide and exploit” tactics of the rich countries. The systemic imbalances of the process work against developing countries and it is interesting to see how the audacious negotiating tactics of the rich countries has forced developing countries to move from being antagonists to protagonists on the same issues in a short space of time. The one redeeming feature of the current system is that the empty gift development deception so painstakingly cultivated by the rich countries and their coterie of media is being unravelled from within and without.

Essentially three outcomes are possible. Firstly, no deal is brokered at all. The talks then promptly resume after Hong Kong. Secondly, some sort of minimum deal is worked out to narrow the differences and then to pursue further discussions after Hong Kong. Thirdly, a big deal is brokered. The rich countries must consent to this as they effectively have a veto. A development deal that really meets some or all of the developing country interests may happen, after all this is a development round. But this is unlikely if developing countries continue to be clear about their demands for development space, corrections to inherited imbalances and the inclusion of new opportunities. This is because the essence of the round is about rich countries seeking market access in the developing countries and not about development. So while expectations of a deal in Hong Kong may be low, developing countries have high expectations of the negotiating round. However, the ever present danger to citizens of the world is that the liberalisation machinery may get its way after all, as happened with the rejected Cancun text being accepted almost verbatim six months later by the General Council in Geneva. The lesson to be drawn from this is nothing less than constant vigilance. Deep technical and political analysis is required to ensure that development is not a casualty of the Doha Negotiations.

The high level of ambition in these current Doha Development Agenda negotiations is being recalibrated. High ambitions, it seems, are likely to harm the prospects of a deal and all parties who have an interest in the multilateral system need to be constructive to make progress. This sounds reasonable enough, but only if one discounts the entire experience of developing countries in the WTO. Why should countries who are facing increasing poverty and inequality compromise on high development expectations? The rich countries have continuously made excessive demands on the agenda, to deflect attention away from the demands of the poorer countries, to undermine legitimate demands for changes in agriculture and to limit policy instruments that can be used for development. Besides defending their current policy space, developing countries have sought greater balance in the system by redress of built in inequities, access to promised opportunities that are meaningful and a change to agricultural subsidies regulation.

This overly modest set of demands has been greeted with aristocratic extravagance of the rich countries who have demanded over the years inter alia:

- a 0% tariff on manufactured goods by 2020 (so called Non-Agricultural Market Access – NAMA);

- rules on competition, investment, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation (the “Singapore Issues” or the “New Issues”);

- reversals on the rights on intellectual property to prevent adequate access to medicines;

- limits on miniscule developing countries agricultural subsidies (de minimus supports);

- more liberalisation on services including essential and public services.

Recalibration of expectations for Hong Kong is a direct consequence of the rich country strategies. The strategy and tactics are so excessive that developing countries have over the years found themselves being protagonists and antagonists for the same issue. This is a reflection not only of their adaptability and “constructive engagement” at the WTO, but the sheer might and power of the rich countries in the negotiations.

For instance, in the services negotiations, developing countries were very hesitant to undertake further commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The general opposition to liberalisation was well recognised and when the rich countries saw that they were not getting market access into poor countries they sought to change the negotiating process from a bilateral request-offer to one that ensured that all countries liberalised a specific number of sectors. Developing countries faced with this audacious demand now spend a lot of their time defending the original GATS negotiating process. The initial proposals on competition policy started by some developing countries were perverted into something that the developing countries later had to oppose. Contrast this with the European Union (EU) first dropping their demands on the four Singapore Issues in Cancun then, according to Martin Khor of Third World Network, “undropping” it so that it is squarely on the agenda now. Developing countries cannot even get issues of major national interest on the agenda whereas the EU has the liberty to drop and undrop an issue. And they perceive themselves to be more development friendly.

The services negotiations are important for the rich countries because most of their new employment is in this sector. It has been packaged by the first world media marketing it as an opportunity for the developing countries when in fact the rich countries are desperate for this access. The services negotiations have not reached a point where outstanding issues have been sorted out. At this stage a country has very little idea about the scale and size of a liberalisation offer because the rules have not been worked out. In addition, there has been no progress on measures to protect domestic service suppliers if there is an import supply surge. Developing countries are being asked in these negotiations, as Chakravati Raghavan in his candid way has put it, to ‘chase a black cat down a dark alley blindfolded.’ The recent US/Mexico case has shown that if a country liberalises services at the WTO, pursuing national development goals may be made illegal.

It is not as if the stakes are not high for developing countries. The damage that can be inflicted on developing countries as a result of this round is enormous. In agriculture, the legal fiction of subsidies needs to be addressed. The developed countries deception was stylised into different legal boxes that allowed them to continue to pay subsidies. By definition, some subsidies were prohibited (blue box), others were targeted for reduction (amber box) and a door was opened to sanitise trade distorting support by calling it non-trade distorting support (green box) that has no limits and is legal.

The fiction that the green box is non-trade distorting is now well exposed. Pertinent for rich country citizens is that these supports go mainly to large agricultural corporations and not to their small farmers, so the issue is not about rural livelihoods and the well being of their citizens. Private corporations receive direct payments from the tax payers and still charge exorbitant prices to consumers for agricultural products. It shows a high degree of regulatory capture of the rich country political system which has been shown to cause untold misery, suffering and environmental degradation throughout the developing world – for which no amount of aid can compensate.

Peter Mandelsohn, the EU trade commissioner, has recently alluded to the importance of food production as an issue of national security. He said: "I don't believe in a free market in agriculture... If we had a free market ... we'd be in the hands of a relatively small number of producers who could hold us hostage." Internally, he does not want a system that would compromise the ability of Europe to cater for her needs. Externally, holding the entire developing world hostage to a system that compromises their food security is not an issue for discussion.

Implicitly, Mandelsohn recognises that the political control that the current trade deal gives the rich countries over the citizens of the developing countries is far too important to be given up. After all, if you can control the food supply of the poor countries, as the rich world does, then it is easier to exert other forms of control. The more brazenly imperialist US does not give as much credence to the European perspective and recognises that ownership of productive resources in the developing countries provides far more political leverage, and is seemingly willing to compromise more on agriculture but also not by much. The EU and US expect the poor countries to salivate over their offers, because of their generosity. They offer to cut the ceiling of what they are allowed to pay. It has no impact on the actual subsidies they are paying, because they are paying less than what they are legally entitled to pay. In any event, they do not want to place any limits on the Green Box subsidies which are legal and have no ceiling. This keeps the possibility open that they can shift their subsidy cuts from one box to the other, meaning that their offer is actually worthless. Less than 10% of their gross domestic product is in agriculture while in many African countries it is over 50%. The logic of the rich countries is: “why teach a person to fish when you can give them a meal”. This is what the rich countries sell to their citizens as “development.”

The rich countries are also pursuing major cuts on tariffs in industrial goods, fisheries, forestry and mining products (NAMA – Non Agricultural Market Access). They propose to cut tariffs by a formula on each and every line of tariffs. Rich countries already have low tariffs and have a proposed a formula that cuts the tariffs of developing countries much more than it would cut their own, in real terms. Yet, in terms of the agreements, the tariff cuts are supposed to non-reciprocal, with developing countries cutting their tariffs less. Argentina, Brazil and India have proposed a formula with a medium cut. The Caribbean nations have proposed a formula that proposes a very small cut for developing countries. Despite the attractiveness of the Caribbean proposal support for their proposal has not been forthcoming. The draft report produced by the Chairman of NAMA predictably sidelines the Caribbean proposal for the Ministerial.

There is an even better alternative method to tariff cuts under NAMA, if tariff cuts are required of developing countries at all. Yilmaz Akyuz says that an average cut in tariffs, as opposed to a line by line cut, will allow developing countries the flexibility to better meet their future needs because they could protect some sectors while opening up others for competition, as long as the changes do not exceed the average tariff limit. What is very worrying about Akyuz's analysis is that the average tariffs of developing countries are already much less than the average tariffs used by the rich countries during their developmental stage. What is even worse is that least developed countries and some others are being asked to place a ceiling (bind) on all their tariffs in exchange for not making any tariff cuts. This is a very serious limitation on their policy flexibility, especially if they are supposed to be getting this round for free. But with usual rich country aplomb, the packaging of the “gift” matters much more than the real contents inside.

In public health, the rich world and the WTO Secretariat in Geneva are all party to a fraud that can directly be linked to the suffering and deaths of millions of our people. In 1995, developing countries secured legal rights to violate patent laws which were protected under the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement. Developed countries then promptly proceeded to prevent countries from using these flexibilities and in 2001 in Doha, developing countries secured an agreement that merely restated the rights they already had. The flexibilities in the TRIPs agreement to promote access to medicines had a limit, however. If a country was violating a patent right using a compulsory license to legally make generics, it could only produce primarily for its domestic market.

African countries with limited local production capacity faced the risk of not being able to secure adequate supplies of generics and sought a waiver. The waiver would allow them to secure enough generic drugs, allowing the producers to produce more than the limits in TRIPs. This may have been a tactical error that history may judge harshly because Africa pursued a waiver instead of relying on the flexibilities provided in article 30 of TRIPs, that gives wider flexibility. By pursing the waiver we undermined the possibility of developing article 30, which is more flexible and provides greater access to drugs. In any event the waiver has proven so onerous to be positively useless as no developed or developing country has made use of it in spite of a huge need for drugs.

The waiver had two components, a signed agreement and the text of a speech read out by the Chairperson of the TRIPs council. The agreement placed conditions on using the waiver and the Chairperson's text had many more onerous conditions. The signed agreement did not refer to the Chairman's statement when it was signed. The WTO Secretariat then fraudulently added an asterisk and a footnote referring to the Chairman's text, in an effort to make the use of the waiver nigh impossible. The developing countries protested about this and to date the Secretariat of the WTO refuses to remove the asterisk and the footnote. The developing countries refuse to recognise the Chairman's text as part of the agreement because it was not agreed to and also undermines the purpose of the waiver. So the dispute on the TRIPs agreement is a false dispute created and orchestrated by the rich countries to protect profits at the expense of millions of lives.

The danger inherent in the TRIPs agreement was made very clear at the Second African Union Extraordinary Session of Trade Ministers in Arusha. South African and Kenyan officials attempted to withdraw the Africa Group proposal. The Africa Group proposal is the basis for opposition to the fraud on the waiver and an attempt to secure a solution that is practical. Using tactics that can only be called highly synchronised, South Africa and Kenya tried to get the Africa Group proposal withdrawn. They did this without making it explicit that this is what they intended. Thankfully with concerted effort by other Africans this was averted. It is interesting to note that South Africa indicated unequivocal support for the Africa Group proposal during its consultation with civil society. The change in position therefore undermines the value of the consultations. With Kenya of course, the change in position occurred at a time when the entire cabinet was fired and yet there was a continuity in the position of TRIPs. The powers behind these changes seem to have an influence on African politics that is as opaque as it is powerful.

There is a real problem with transparency, accountability, good governance and democracy at the WTO. The WTO processes are simultaneously crude and sophisticated in their dictatorial tendencies. The draft texts for discussion in Hong Kong have been prepared by Chairpersons who have been accused of ignoring developing countries proposals and putting in elements where there is no consensus. Overall the bias of these chairpersons is toward the rich countries. The rich countries make a point of complaining that they have been sidelined by the chair in an effort to create an impression that the chairpersons texts/reports are not biased. Developing countries have not been as easily hoodwinked as the rich country media on this. The representative of Venezuela, upset at the text presented by a Chair, asked him “where does your responsibility [for the text] end and where does ours [the members] begin.”

From the very beginning developing countries have to start negotiations from a point of weakness that has been built into the process. The fact that Pascal Lamy is now the Director General of the WTO should also not be forgotten. He was unanimously selected for the job and has moved from being the bully boy in the school yard to the teacher with the whip. What is clear is that he has not seemed to have changed his tendency to tell developing countries what is good for them. He did this in his previous position as EU Trade Commissioner and continues to this day. In what must have been one of his lowest moments in his career, he addressed the AU Trade Ministers meeting in Arusha. He said that expectations must be recalibrated and that African countries should develop a bottom line. This was not a problem. However like Father Christmas he came carrying the “gift” of “aid for trade” and the promise of an increase in assistance for African countries. Now it can be seen as genuine, but in the context of North-South relations it can also be seen as an attempt to buy up the ministers. After all, many African states are aid dependant and are easily influenced in this way.

The danger of a deal that is an empty gift, well packaged by Lamy and his de facto political bosses in Washington and Brussels, is real. The Lamy factor should not be underestimated. The WTO may be a medieval institution, as Lamy once called it. He now has the power of the medieval lords behind him to drive a deal whatever the cost to developing countries. Developing countries should remain vigilant and ensure that they get what they want from the round. They do need to do a lot more to expose the injustices that they face in the process because without such exposure, the rich countries maintain and extend their power. If they do this more and more, then any failure of this round can be clearly blamed on the rich countries instead of them.

* Riaz Tayob works for the Southern and Eastern African Trade Negotiation Institute (SEATINI) www.seatini.org

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

The WTO: The dead-end street of trade liberalisation and the need for an alternative – now!

2005-12-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/30833

With the sixth World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting taking place in Hong Kong, the core of on-the-streets protest will be drawn from organisations in Asia. Pambazuka News asked Nicola Bullard from Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok-based group that researches international finance and globalization issues, about strategy, messages, WTO reform and the links between African and Asia in resisting an unfair deal.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: In April, Focus on the Global South articulated a "strategy of derailment" for the WTO in an article 'The End of an Illusion: WTO Reform, Global Civil Society and the Road to Hong Kong'. The article said: "Essentially, derailment involves zeroing in on the key point of vulnerability of the WTO: its consensus system of decision-making. Concretely, it means working to prevent consensus from emerging in any of the key negotiating areas prior to and during the Sixth Ministerial in Hong Kong." Has anything changed and does this strategy remain the focus of activity?

NICOLA BULLARD: Well, the first thing to say about preventing a consensus is that it’s a short term strategy, aimed to slow down the process in the WTO, and the reason we want to slow it down is because we firmly believe that under the present conditions of unfair agreements, unequal power and undemocratic processes, most developing countries have little to gain in the WTO.

Our larger critique is that the overarching model, based on the assumption that export oriented trade liberalisation will lead to growth and hence development, is based on a faulty model. This critical view is supported by economic data on employment, incomes and growth which show that over the past 10 years, although there has been a boom in the volume of trade, this has not resulted in increased living standards, employment or broader benefits to the society.

In terms of the concrete strategy leading to Hong Kong, we are still working in every way that we can to strengthen the solidarity of developing country groups and to maximise the contradictions and disagreements between the negotiating countries in an effort to stall a consensus: we are working with trade delegations in Geneva, working at the national level to increase the pressure on the domestic front, and working with the media to heighten their awareness of what’s at stake and who is calling the shots in the WTO. So, blocking consensus remains an important objective.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What is the role of mass public pressure in pursuing the goal of derailment and how successful has it been in the run up to the WTO meeting? What role do you expect it to play in the immediate period before the meeting, as well as during the meeting?

Public pressure, mobilisations and demonstrations are key: the work that we do “inside” the WTO, like policy analysis and lobbying, is pointless unless it is part of a larger process of mobilising public opinion, democratising the debates over trade, and bringing real in-the-streets pressure to bear on politicians at the national level. In addition, demonstrations can draw the media spotlight to what is going on inside the WTO. However one of the perennial struggles is to get the press to focus on the content of our arguments against the WTO rather than whether or not there will be violent protests in Hong Kong. However, I think this battle is being slowly won as the press becomes better informed about trade and development.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What are the key messages that you are pushing ahead of the summit?

NICOLA BULLARD: One of the slogans that many groups agree to is “no deal is better than a bad deal”. By this we mean it’s better for developing countries to walk away from the table than to accept a shoddy deal that is not in their interests.

We are also focussing on the ten year record of the WTO. What we see is a litany of broken promises as the rich countries time and time again refuse to deal with the issues of central concern to developing countries such as ending dumping, protecting their agricultural sectors, access to life saving drugs, an assessment of the impacts of the Uruguay Round liberalisation (that is, the last ten years of trade liberalisation) and consideration of the costs of adjusting to the WTO trading rules. All of these issues, and many more, have been systematically ignored by the powerful countries who stand to gain from the system.

So our overarching message is that the WTO is a faulty system, there is a fundamental design flaw in the trade model it is promoting, and we need a different approach before the damage gets even worse.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: From Africa, it often seems as if some of the most dynamic and powerful resistance to the policies of the WTO and the World Bank and IMF take place in Asia. How much of a mass public awareness is there and if you think there is, what do you think are the factors that have contributed towards its creation?

NICOLA BULLARD: Funnily enough, from Asia we think that some of the most powerful resistance to the WTO comes from Africa! After all, it was the African ministers who walked out in Seattle, it was the G90 that walked out in Cancun, it was four small cotton producing countries – Benin, Mali, Bukino Faso and Chad – that brought the scandal of US cotton subsidies into the public eye, and it was the African countries who fought so hard to get a reconsideration of the TRIPS and health provisions.

Of course they may not be winning these battles but they are certainly courageous, especially when you consider how vulnerable they are to pressures from the EU and the US, threats about not having their debts rescheduled and so on.

Many Asian countries are much more competitive in the global trading game and often their positions are more aggressive. This is partly because of the industrialisation that took place in the 1970s and 1980s, which saw many of the East Asian “tigers” made tremendous economic leaps by adopting state-driven development strategies, such as directing investment to certain sectors and protecting fledgling industrial sectors. Many of these measures are now illegal under the WTO regime or the bilateral trade agreements which are proliferating in the region. In addition, many sectors of the society, especially workers and farmers and even small local enterprises, realise that the WTO does not protect their interests. For these reasons, there are now large, vocal national campaigns against the WTO and FTAs across the region, including in Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, Pakistan and India.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: There still seems to be a school of thought that maintains that the WTO can be reformed. From your perspective, is there any credibility left to this view? Why?

NICOLA BULLARD: The WTO refuses to reform itself, even in the most fundamental aspects of its operations. For example, there are no clear rules about decision making, keeping records, making information available to the members and so on. A long list of proposals made by a large group of developing countries post-Doha on how to improve internal procedures was shelved, never to reappear. As one commentator remarked, a local Scout Club is more transparent than the WTO.

On substantial issues the rich countries have been intransigent – and why wouldn’t they be: the name of the game in the WTO is to maximise access to other people’s markets, while protecting your own. It’s a game that can only be played by rich countries, and these are the very same countries who make the rules. There is no incentive for them to reform the WTO.

Let me give you an example: in Doha the membership agreed to the TRIPS and health declaration which aimed to improve access to low-priced generic drugs to combat life threatening diseases. So, there was a small victory. However, after 12 months of wrangling that “victory” was tuned into a failure because the EU and the US hatched a deal between them which imposed a so-called “solution” which did nothing to resolve the problem and everything to protect the interests of the pharmaceutical companies and the intellectual property regime.

No, there is no hope for reforming the WTO.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: A great deal of euphoria was felt after Cancun. Our own publication, Pambazuka News, carried an article that stated: "Africa emerged from the talks a major negotiating player, no longer the dinner of other trading partners, but defining the direction and outcome of the talks in Cancun." (http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=17486) Somehow it seems like that euphoria hasn't been carried forward, not only in Africa, but globally. What happened to the promise of victory?

NICOLA BULLARD: Well, we let our guard down! Cancun was a great victory, but the EU and the US were able to turn the tables when they pushed through the framework agreement at the July General Council meeting the following year. And they did this in a very clever way by bringing India and Brazil into the “inner circle” of negotiations by creating the FIPS – the five interested parties which is the EU, the US, Brazil, India and Australia. By getting the agreement of this group they were able to enforce it on the rest of the members, despite rumblings in the corridors.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Lastly, how can stronger links be built between the people of Africa and Asia in pursuing a common agenda with regards the WTO?

NICOLA BULLARD: Of course one can’t talk about Africa as a whole or Asia as a whole: there is so much diversity and different realities in each region. However, many countries have similar problems; rural livelihoods are disappearing, the agricultural sector is being destroyed by dumping, unemployment and underemployment is the norm, incomes are falling due to declining terms of trade, industries are being driven to the ground by cheap imports, and foreign direct investment is proving to be an unreliable development partner. In addition, many countries shoulder a heavy debt burden. However, it’s terribly difficult to build solidarity amongst these countries when they are operating in a trading system which is based on competition, and this competition is particularly destructive when all countries have to trade is cheap labour and cheap natural resources and raw materials.

However, I am optimistic that things can change: there is a new discourse emerging in many different quarters which talks about “policy space” – the idea that countries should be able to set their own economic and development strategy rather than having one imposed by the rich and powerful countries through the WTO and the IMF.

The evidence is clear that trade liberalisation is a dead-end street for many countries and they need an alternative – and they need it now. Civil society stands ready to support any governments that are brave enough to put the interests of their people ahead of the interests of the local and global elite. For our part, all we can do is to strengthen the ties between the people of Asia and Africa, to share information and strategies, and to support each other’s campaigns not only on trade but also on issues such as debt, democracy, and against the ongoing domination of the big powers and the big institutions.

Ironically, one issue that might bring many countries together is the impact that the impressive entry of China into the global markets is having, and will continue to have, on smaller and less competitive countries. But it’s too early to tell how this will evolve.

* Interview conducted by email. Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

WTO quick facts, glossary and background reading

2005-12-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/30834

Did you know that, according to an Oxfam report, America has 25,000 cotton farmers and every acre of cotton farmland in the US attracts a subsidy of $230 ($3.9 billion in 2001/2)? In fact America’s cotton farmers receive so much money in subsidies that it adds up to more than the entire GDP of Burkina Faso – the comparison being particularly relevant seeing as though more than two million people in Burkina Faso depend on cotton production. It’s facts like these that hammer home the imbalances of the global trading system and act as a reminder of what’s at stake for millions of people in discussions over agriculture at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Read on for more quick facts, a glossary of WTO terms and links to background reading on the WTO.

Quick Facts on Trade

* Forced trade liberalisation has cost Sub-Saharan Africa US$ 272 billion over the past 20 years.

* The amount of money lost as a result of trade liberalisation could have paid all of these countries’ debts plus pay the vaccinations and school fees of every child.
SOURCE: http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/indepth/506liberalisation/index.htm

* The privatization of water in Ghana has meant that fees have increased by 95% and will probably rise by another 300% to meet the “market rate.”
SOURCE: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/sep2002/wate-s07.shtml

* Farmers in G8 countries are subsidised approximately $1 billion a day, which is roughly equivalent to the entire GDP of sub-Saharan Africa. SOURCE: http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040725-031636-7601r.htm

* 24 sub-Saharan African countries face food emergencies. Some 30.5 million people will need food assistance.
SOURCE: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/107852/index.html

* Uganda’s textile sector used to employ 500,000 people and earn $100 million in annual exports, but has virtually been brought to its knees by imports. 80% of clothing available in Uganda is imported and second hand. SOURCE: http://www.newint.org/issue373/currents.htm

* America has 25,000 cotton farmers and every acre of cotton farmland in the US attracts a subsidy of $230 ($3.9 billion in 2001/2.) America’s cotton farmers receive more in subsidies than the entire GDP of Burkina Faso – a country in which more than two million people depend on cotton production. This figure constitutes three times more in subsidies than the entire USAID budget for Africa’s 500 million people.
SOURCE: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/trade/bp30_cotton.htm

* An estimated 25 million adults and children were living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2003. During that year, an estimated 2.2 million people died from AIDS. The epidemic has left behind some twelve million orphaned African children.
SOURCE: http://www.avert.org/subaadults.htm

* In 2002 ten of the highest grossing pharmaceutical companies each had sales over $11.5 billion. The world’s top 5 drug companies have a combined worth twice the Gross Domestic Product of sub-Saharan Africa. Mergers are leading to behemoths with ever increasing power. In 1995, 25 drug companies controlled over half the global drugs market; by 2000, just 15 managed to do the same thing.
SOURCE: New Internationalist (362) November, 2003

* It is reported that since the discovery of oil in 1956, Nigeria has made about $400 billion in profits. 70% of the 130 million Nigerians live on less than a dollar a day. SOURCE: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-10/11majavu.cfm

WTO Glossary

ACP: Stands for Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific.

Agreement in Agriculture: Occurred under the Uruguay round and set out to protect the G8 countries’ interests in terms of agriculture.

Doha Round: This round of World Trade Organization negotiations aims to lower barriers to trade around the world, with a focus on making trade fairer for developing countries. Talks have been hung over a divide between the rich, developed countries, and the major developing countries (represented by the G20).

Cotonou Agreement: A treaty which sets out the relationship between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific governments. The agreement was established in June 2000 in Benin, succeeding the Lomé Convention, and provides for replacing the unilateral trade preferences that the EU accords to the ACP countries under the Lomé Convention with Economic Partnership Agreements involving reciprocal obligations.

Development Box: Rules and exemptions that would allow poor nations to protect their agricultural industries (these are an extension of “special and differential treatment” WTO principles, which intend to help developing countries integrate into the global economy of trade and implement their commitments).

Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs): The European Union has been bargaining with African countries in order to enable market access to European goods and services in Africa, which go beyond what is required of African countries according to the WTO.

Five Interested Parties: Comprised by US, European Union (EU), Brazil, India and Australia, the Five Interested Parties constitute the core negotiating group for the Doha round. (http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/portal/2005/11/205)

Free Trade: The untaxed flow of goods and services between countries, and is a name given to economic policies and parties supporting increases in such trade.

Free Trade Area (FTA): An area in which member states eliminate tariffs among themselves but maintain individual tariff schedules on imports from non-member countries. (http://www.eu-ldc.org)

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT): Functions as the foundation of the WTO trading system, and remains in force today. The GATT, is an international agreement and is based on the "unconditional most favored nation principle." This means that the conditions applied to the most favored trading nation (i.e. the one with the least restrictions) apply to all trading nations.

Group of 90 (G90): An umbrella body of the African Group, the least developed countries and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group. It is the largest grouping of members in the World Trade Organisation. (http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/gtrends16.htm)

Group of 77 (G77): A loose coalition of developing nations, designed to promote its members' collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the United Nations.

Group of 21 (G21): A bloc of developing nations established in 2003. The group emerged at the 5th Ministerial WTO conference, held in Cancún in 2003. In trade negotiations, the group has pressed for rich countries to end subsidies to their farmers and opposed liberalisation of their own agricultural sectors.

Lome Convention: First signed in 1975, it arose out of Europe's wish to guarantee itself regular supplies of raw materials, and to maintain its privileged position in its overseas markets.
Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA): These talks centre around industrial goods, but also include natural resources, and the goal of these talks is to open up the economy and make access to these products easier.

Special and Differential Treatment: The argument of developing countries that special circumstances require specific consideration and trade restrictions can be legitimate and appropriate instruments for development purposes. (www.soutchcentre.org)

Trade liberalization: Another term to refer to free trade.

Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS): An international treaty which sets down minimum standards for most forms of intellectual property regulation within all member countries of the WTO.

Uruguay Round: A trade negotiation lasting from September 1986 to April 1994 which transformed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

World Trade Organisation (WTO): An international rules-based and member driven organization which oversees a large number of agreements defining the "rules of trade" between its member states.

* All definitions, unless otherwise noted, come from Wikipedia.

Links

EPA Watch - http://www.epawatch.net
Eco News Africa - http://www.econewsafrica.org/
ACP EU Trade - http://www.acp-eu-trade.org/
International Gender and Trade Network - http://www.igtn.org/
Third World Network Africa - http://www.twnafrica.org/
SEATINI - http://www.seatini.org/

Further Reading

Does Foreign Equal Cheaper, Better, More? http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31286
Egypt Cottons On To Its Interests http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31269
Will WTO Shrink or Sink? http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/wto/news/2005/1203doha_hongkong.htm
Nothing to Gain, Everything to Lose: Developing Country Prospects at the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial and Beyond
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/3637.html
Disneyland, Doha and the WTO in Hong Kong: The Spectacle of Corporate Fear, Absurdity and the New Universalism
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=9164
Action Aid Report – Down the Plughole: Why Bringing Water Into the WTO Services Negotiations Would Unleash a Development Disaster
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/wps/content/documents/GATS_report.pdf
Oxfam Report – Africa and the Doha Round: Fighting to Keep Development Alive
http://www.oxfam.org/eng/pdfs/bp80_Africa_and_the_Doha_Round.pdf
EU must negotiate itself out of a corner
http://tinyurl.com/b6p47

Advocacy & campaigns

Tanzania: Dirty aid, dirty water - Hands off Tanzania - Stop UK company, Biwater's attempt to sue

2005-12-07

http://www.wdm.org.uk/campaigns/aid/tanzania/action.htm

Tanzania is the one of the poorest countries in the world. 60 per cent of the population live on less than £1.40 a day and Tanzania has a total debt of £4.4 billion. Furthermore, 9.8 million Tanzanians do not have access to safe water (28 per cent). Biwater is a company with an annual turnover of £160 million that provides water services around the world. Early this year the Tanzanian Government spectacularly terminated a water privatisation contract with Biwater just two years into a ten year contract for failing to improve water supplies. Now Biwater wants compensation for the money it would have got if the contract had lasted ten years - this will amount to millions, and will take years to resolve. Click on the web link provided to protest against the Biwater action.

Letters & Opinions

Reconcile with the Living, Not Just the Dead

An Open Letter to President Museveni, December 4, 2005

Mahmood Mamdani

2005-12-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/30760

When does the pursuit of justice turn into revenge-seeking? This question, more than any other, lies at the heart of two issues that bedevil this country: a troubled political succession and the ongoing war in the north. Our response to these issues will shape both your legacy and the political future we bequeath the next generation. If it should seem audacious for an ordinary citizen to set aside normal courtesy and write an open letter to his President, I urge you to think of this letter not as the pursuit of political advantage but as an out-of-the-ordinary response in an extraordinary situation.

Political Succession

The reluctance to hand over power to anyone but close family is a widespread phenomenon in Africa and the Middle East. That those in power should want to hang on to it is not surprising, but their ability to do so is. A reflection of weak political institutions, the refusal to hand over power further weakens these institutions. The result is that even constitutional republics are coming to resemble monarchies.

This is the context in which I suggest we understand both the ‘third term’ controversy and recent charges brought against the principal opposition leader, Kiiza Besigye. The language of the ‘third term’ debate is misleading because you, Mr. President, are seeking a sixth – and not a third – consecutive term in office. Similarly, the current focus on whether or not Mr. Besigye committed rape and treason is also misleading. Whereas it is the business of the courts, civil and military, to decide the truth of these allegations, only the political authority has the power to decide whether and when to bring charges to court. Simply put, why has a 1993 charge of rape been brought to the courts 12 years later? And why is intent and preparation to mount a guerrilla struggle being construed as evidence of treason given that the promise to ‘return to the bush’ has become part of the political vocabulary of those members of Uganda’s political elite who, whether presently in government or in opposition, came to power in 1986 through a guerrilla struggle?

After all, was not the more striking fact about the period that followed the disputed election of 2002, an election whose conduct even the courts were reluctant to vindicate, that the opposition – even if it talked of and prepared to go to the bush – did not in fact take to the bush? My point, Mr. President, is that we need to focus on the political rather than the legal issues involved in the matter.

While the courts can settle the truth of these allegations, the public must concern itself with considering the political cost, and thus the political wisdom, of introducing these charges now, against the unquestioned leader of the opposition, a few months before an election that follows a highly controversial constitutional amendment. The point will be clearer if I compare the situation today with that of 20 years ago, when you had just come to power.

I believe history will acknowledge the building of a ‘broad base’ government after 1986 as a key political contribution of the NRM government. The broad base was a response to a context in which the NRM recognized that it did not have sufficient political support in the country as a whole to demand that those who had resorted to violence for political ends be brought to justice. Instead of taking them to court, the NRM offered them a political deal: give up the recourse to violence without giving up your objectives, and we will give you a share of power or simply the perks of office. How many of those who held positions in the broad-based cabinet could have been charged with accusations the courts would have upheld? What shall we call this: a legally unjustifiable impunity or a politically justifiable reconciliation? The answer is clear: it was the latter.

The lessons of 1986 are hugely relevant for 2006. As in 1986, now too both the political class and the citizenry are deeply divided. The whole point of the electoral system in a divided country, especially one with a recent history of civil war, is to shift the contest from the military to the political field, and thereby to demilitarize political competition. It is this achievement you are risking by insisting on taking Mr. Besigye to the courts – whatever the truth of the allegations levelled against him.

The War in the North

For a long time, the war in the North seemed to simmer as a local affair with local consequences. Even if most people were content to leave its conduct to the government, a growing number wondered why there was no end to it, why every round of peace talks was broken up by war talk, calling for a military victory amidst a military stalemate. The government pointed the finger north, to meddling by the government of Sudan. But now that war has ended even in the south of Sudan, that explanation can no longer suffice. Ugandans are compelled to look internally for an explanation as to why the northern war has continued for a second decade.

The facts are as evident as they are puzzling. First, the LRA guerrillas are estimated in the hundreds, rather than the thousands, with elementary training and rudimentary technology. Second, whereas the LRA preys on civilians, the government has interned most of the population (over a million) in barbed-wire camps, without providing them adequate security, food or medicine. I visited a camp of roughly 15,000 internees two years ago; it was ‘protected’ by 15 armed soldiers, and periodically raided by the LRA. Recent figures, both official and unofficial, show that the level of excess deaths in the internment camps far exceeds those killed by the LRA. Finally, and not surprisingly, most of the local population seems to have kept a distance from both the LRA and the government. So why does the northern war continue?

Does the answer lie in revenge, a vendetta rationalized as the pursuit of justice? Or does it lie in advantage? The case for both grows with time. First, has not the on going war channelled a growing proportion of the official budget to military uses, and created a vigorous constituency inside the army for a continued war and against a negotiated solution to it? Second, has this constituency not been further reinforced by those civilian leaders who realize that the security budget is relatively immune from scrutiny by outside agencies, such as the IMF? Third, is it not significant that every major regional intervention by Uganda – whether in Rwanda, Congo or Sudan – has been launched from the north, in light of the fact that the northern war provides a theatre for constant military mobilization? Fourth, is not the most evident consequence of the war a brutalization of the society in the north – particularly the million plus interned – and a militarized distortion of its politics? Fifth, is there not a corresponding political advantage gained by holding up ‘Kony’ as an alternative in the wings, a threat to the population should it demand that the government resolve Uganda’s own local ‘war on terror’ politically? And, finally, has not the continuation of this ‘war on terror’ in the north secured for your government a place as a front-line state in the global ‘war on terror,’ thereby assuring it the uncritical protection of an American political umbrella?

No one can answer these questions for sure, but no one can afford to ignore them. For one thing is certain: whether intended or not, each of the above outcomes spells out the rising cost of the war in the north for all of us.

The Issue is not Impunity, but Reconciliation

The conduct of the northern war has become more complicated by the entry of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC was created to hold governments accountable, especially concerning large-scale atrocities against civilians, defined in law as ‘crimes against humanity.’ This is why the internment of a million plus civilians in armed camps in the north, without adequate provision of security or food or medicine, should have been a matter of prime concern for the ICC.

But the ICC has chosen to focus its apparatus of justice on just one side of the conflict, the LRA. By providing impunity for the government while seeking to bring rebels to justice, the ICC is contributing to the continuation of the northern war, rather than to its resolution. No wonder the ICC is politically isolated in the country. Inexperienced and under great pressure to perform, the ICC needs to recognize that its involvement in northern Uganda is fast turning into a political and legal travesty, one from which it needs to step back if it is to avoid the first spectacular failure in its short career.

Mr. President, I was among many who were heartened when you talked of the need for reconciliation in the days that followed the death of former President Obote. I urge you, Mr. President, to fulfill the promise of 1986 – not just to reserve reconciliation for the dead, but to extend it to the living. Specifically, I suggest two measures: one a national reconciliation whose provisions are broad enough to apply to both Dr. Besigye and to the leadership of the LRA and, two, a disbanding of internment camps in the north as a first step to restoring normal civilian life there.

This is the prime requisite for building both a sustainable political community and a viable rule of law in today’s Uganda.

Yours truly,

Mahmood Mamdani

Taking Pan-Africanism to the people

Aisha Ibrahim

2005-12-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/30829

First, I will like to thank you all for creating such a forum and congratulate you on a such hard and fine work.

I totally agree with Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem that "Pan-Africanism needs to leave the conferences and executive mansions and become part of the lives of ordinary people." (See Taking Pan-Africanism to the people, http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30541)

However, what I think that he fails to address is the question of our responsibilities as Africans to other Africans and the continent as a whole. For example, as guests or residents of other African nations, we have seen how so many people (like those from my home country Nigeria) have abused such privileges and end up tarnishing the image of a whole nation.

If such despicable acts occur at present whereby people do need visas to cross borders, what will happen when/if such restrictions are removed? I think Pan-Africanism should start with a clear understanding of the interconnectedness of our lives as humans and as Africans.

Views on the Commonwealth stance on Zimbabwe

Andrew M Manyevere

2005-12-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/30705

As a Zimbabwean in the Diaspora, the Commonwealth stance on Zimbabwe is good but not good enough.

The toothlessness of Commonwealth gatherings is occasioned by the presence in the forum of African leadership that never come up with substantive ways to change tyrannical regimes.

Maybe due to the nature of the composition or constitution of this body, we witness the failure of a radical approach to grievances of human rights abuses. In recent years Zimbabwe has remained a matter of both regional and world concern, with strong recommendations coming mainly from the west but however moderated by the sympathizers of Robert Mugabe in personalities like Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania.

One gets a strong feeling that African leaders fear being criticized and that they would defend each other irrespective of the wrong. Politically the notion of being criticized brings with it the negative connotations of failure. Because many of the leadership in Africa has done something that could cause protracted legal battles, there is a phobia for former African leaders going through trial, hence many have either died in exile or run away.

This could well explain the silence from Africa.

The above should therefore help us to understand the stand taken at the Malta Commonwealth meeting which made Zimbabwe a reference in passing rather than an issue on the agenda.

It is in this context that I find the Commonwealth stand on Zimbabwe misplaced in terms of human sympathy for ordinary Zimbabweans, given the atrocities gone and going on in Zimbabwe under the Zanu PF regime. If Uganda and the Maldives shall be the subject of investigations on human rights abuses, one would have hoped that Zimbabwe should have been given the same treatment.

As the UN investigations have shown, beyond a doubt, that human rights are being breached in Zimbabwe, the Commonwealth must call on higher organizations to intensify the inquiry into the need for a free and fair elections to establish justice, freedom and a democracy.

Books & arts

Going Home

Simao Kikamba

2005-12-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/30820

A review of Going Home by Simao Kikamba. Visit http://www.kalahari.net/e-trader/referral.asp? toolbar=mweb&linkid=5&partneridB14&sku(361201 for more details.

Going Home is a story told by a political refugee living in South Africa. It investigates the life of one particular immigrant, Mpanda from Angola, and his experiences of trying to make the best of being an unemployed foreign national in South Africa. There are four parts to the narrative. Part one: Mpanda is arrested and sent to the Lindela Repatriation Centre. Part two: We learn of Mpanda's story: his return home to Angola from Zaire, his relationship with a woman called Isabel, his political involvement and embarrassment and his final decision to flee to South Africa. In Part three, we follow his life as a refugee in South Africa. Finally in Part four he is freed from detention and allowed to go back home – to Yeoville. Going home is a very moving debut novel, revealing the anguish of a man trying to survive in a country where nobody allows him to belong. Sim?o Kikamba is a leading new voice in Southern African writing.

Going Home is an assured debut and deserves to be widely read. Simao Kikamba effectively voices the all too prevalent but overlooked plight of African refugees and exiles trying to make a living in host countries where the attitude towards them is increasingly hostile and xenophobic. While the plight of exile and the notion of 'home' is a well established trope in literature, what is new here is the particularly contemporary grounding of the story and characters in South Africa, Angola and the DRC. While it may be true that the South Africa reading public has become jaded with novels depicting apartheid and its immediate aftermath, perhaps the equally bleak stories of contemporary racial discrimination will find a place soon enough, and deserve to.

That said, I do have some problems with the narration in Going Home, which I find rather wooden. This tends to underscore the bleakness of the narrative itself and makes for a harrowing read. As a reader I get a sense of how the world and experiences of the narrator look and seem, but not how they feel. Likewise, the dialogue is a little stilted. All the characters speak in the same manner and I don't get a sense of their individuality; cultural, linguistic or otherwise. Perhaps this shortcoming is as a result of the work not being sure of what it is trying to be. Is it a novel or a memoir? Perhaps the author is not sure either. In its present form, I believe it would be more effectively billed as a memoir, which would cause one to be more forgiving and less rigorous when it comes to the language.

However, these are pedantic quibbles which pale in consideration of the larger importance of this book. I found myself less inclined to criticise the writing in the second half of the book, and rather to appreciate the story. This is the strength of the book; the reader can appreciate not only the narrator's struggle to make a life as a refugee in Angola and South Africa, but also the bravery and dedication of the author in realising this book.

* Reviewed by Byron Loker. Byron Loker's debut collection of short stories will be published in 2006 by Double Storey Books in South Africa. Visit byronloker.com

Recent Pambazuka News reviews

- Resisting Racism and Xenophobia: Global Perspectives on Race, Gender and Human Rights
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30615

- Chairman of Fools by Shimmer Chinodya
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30529

- The Trial and Other Stories by Ifeoma Okoye
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30324

- A Tragedy of Lives: Women in Prison in Zimbabwe
Edited By: Chiedza Musengezi And Irene Staunton
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=29967

Prize-Winning Fiction led by African females

2005-12-06

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=2539

Who will tell the stories of contemporary Africa? A new generation has emerged since Nigeria's Chinua Achebe in 1958 wrote the first "African" novel, "Things Fall Apart," detailing the destruction of the Igbo culture by British colonialism. Three new African narrators--Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie of Nigeria, Leila Aboulela of Sudan and Tsitsi Dangarembga of Zimbabwe--have taken the lead in telling eloquent and stirring stories of women's lives as part of the region's narrative.

Blogging Africa

Africa Blog Roundup: Goodbye Baby Faith

Sokari Ekine

2005-12-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/30753

Some of you may remember that as part of the World AIDS Day roundup I posted a piece from Kid’s Doc in Jos - Kids Doc in Jos http://www.ecwaevangel.org/blog/faith-died_72 - on 15th month old HIV+ twins Faith and Favour. At the time Faith was very ill with pneumonia. The heartbreaking news is that baby Faith died on Thursday 1st December – World AIDS Day, 2005 aged 15th months. He is survived by his twin, Favour and their mother.

“Faith died yesterday, in the ICU. Now his mom would like someone to care for his sister. She doesn’t see any way she can do it all herself, and find a job to support the two of them. I am so worn out this week, I’m sad about Faith, at the same time I feel bad that I no longer feel the full impact of a child’s death. And I wonder how I can even be sorry for myself being tired and failing to save Faith, when the mother’s loss is so great. Most of her ‘support team’, counselors from Spring of Life, left for the all-Africa AIDS conference in Abuja the morning after Faith died, so she’s lacking even that support right now.”

The death of baby Faith will leave all of us with a heavy heart but even more than that - anger. Anger at the complete failure of the Western and African leaders to deal with this terrible illness that is killing children and their parents. People with HIV and AIDS NEED DRUGS – without drugs there is nothing but death and more death. Faith never had a chance and neither will his sister or their mother. If he had been in Europe or had access to HIV drugs he would be alive today.

Aqumada - aqumada http://yekolotemari.blog.com/435192 writes about his recent experience of traveling in the West – a Black man with a US passport being detained and interrogated.

“A lone black traveler, however, does not have the same rights as other white travelers. The questions in the interrogation room mainly focused on my cultural and racial identity. Many ridiculous questions such as what my religion was and whether I go to the mosque were posed. Although irritating and embarrassing, I had to answer the questions in a way that would distance me from the stereotypical image of a terrorist (Arab and Muslim). At one point, one of the cops suggested that he remembered arresting me the previous week (a week I was not even in Britain). Not being able to control my anger, I lashed out at the police officers. Although he retreated from this question, I was probed via intentionally constructed misleading questions intended to find out whether I was an Eritrean/Muslim/Somali etc. I believe the fact that two Somali men (still at large) killed a British police officer during the previous week and the recent bombing incident that an Ethiopian man was involved in did not help.”

Nigerian Blog, Grandiose Parlour -
Grandiose Parlour http://grandioseparlor.blogspot.com/2005/12/nigerians-need-to-act-or-shut-up.html writes that Nigerians need to “Act or shut up”. He is referring to the forthcoming 2007 elections which are already being heatedly debated in the Nigerian blogosphere and national media.

“Nigerians including my humble self are darn good critics, but unfortunately our rants hardly get transformed into actions. A good example is the current political nonsense unfolding in Nigeria, despite the outcry from all corners of Nigeria and the world it appears those with the powers to act are not listening or ready to take action.”

Ethiopian blog Weichegud! ET Politics - Weichegud http://weichegud.blogspot.com/2005/12/dedessa-new-waterloo.html has a commentary on the Channel 4 documentary “Ethiopia’s Agony” and the report in last Sunday’s London Observer “Democratic Dawn in Ethiopia Fades as Abuses Come to Light” both of which report on the thousands detained in the Dedesa concentration camp set up my Prime Minister Meles who seems to be competing with Mugabe to see who can commit the worst atrocities on their own people and political opposition.

“Only the minds of the people who run the EPRDF could have thought no one would notice the arresting of tens of thousands of people and dumping them in a detention camp.”

Nonetheless as Wonkette writes

“It will take a few more thousand deaths before the main stream media latches on to this story. That is inevitable. The world will be outraged. One of the imprisoned leaders of the opposition will die in prison. A couple of high-ranking government officials will resign/defect and spill the beans. In order to hide what has happened in Dedessa, the government will commit even more atrocities. And the rest will be history. It's a textbook case of an autocrat who has worn down the welcome mat.”

And that’s about it!

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Women & gender

Africa: Africa's push for Reproductive Rights Fund rubs US the wrong way

2005-12-07

http://www.awcfs.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=113

A number of African gender advocates in both government and civil society have put up spirited fight to have the United Nations create a Fund to address millennium development goal issues of reproductive health and gender empowerment. To be known as the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Fund, resources channelled to this Fund are to be used to lower the high maternal and child mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa, ensure gender empowerment and environmental goals are implemented with speed. “It looks like we are not getting our priorities right. Although other Funds are important, the one to save lives is more important,” says Dr Richard Muga, the Director of National Council for Population and Development. But the United States, especially the Bush Administration and other pro-life advocates, are said not to be warming up to the idea.

Africa: African women confront Bush's AIDS policy

2005-12-06

http://www.madre.org/articles/afr/aidsafrica12105.html

Rebecca Lolosoli radiates a quiet authority beneath layers of elaborate beadwork that cover her forehead, neck, chest, and wrists. She smiles readily while addressing an audience of US college students, though to them, her topic is a metaphor for hopelessness. Rebecca is talking about AIDS in Africa, specifically among women in her Indigenous, Samburu village of Umoja, Kenya. "For years, people were dying and we did not know why," she recalls. "Now we know that AIDS can be avoided, but only by making great changes in our lives."

Central African Republic: Anti-women songs banned

2005-12-06

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4499160.stm

There has been some criticism in the Central African Republic of a ban on misogynistic songs which came into force over the weekend. Communication Minister Fidel Ngouandjika threatened action against the broadcasting of songs that portrayed women as inferior to men. He said they undermined the role of women and contravened their rights. Women only got the vote in the former French colony 20 years ago and men are allowed to marry up to four wives. The BBC's Joseph Benamse in Bangui says the minister has been condemned by many for acting beyond his authority.

Kenya: What next for Kenyan women?

2005-12-06

http://www.awid.org/go.php?list=analysis&prefix=analysis&item=00289

On November 21, 2005, after a five-year constitutional review process, Kenya held a referendum to approve or reject a draft constitution. Sixty-seven percent of the voters rejected the draft. Association of Women In Development interviewed Winnie Guchu, a Nairobi based women's rights activist and consultant, about the country's constitutional review process and what it has meant for women's rights. Follow the link for the full interview.

Senegal: Villages to stop cutting girls

2005-12-06

http://tinyurl.com/a9b9e

It takes at least two people to circumcise a girl, one to hold her legs and the other her arms," said Ourey Sall, who for years performed the procedure. "Afterwards, we apply a mixture of goat droppings and plants to stop the bleeding." It has been five years since she put down the knife, breaking a tradition handed down from her mother, and her mother before that. It was a difficult decision but one being made more and more in Senegal today. On this day, Sall was among a crowd of men, women and children attending a ceremony in which members of 70 villages from the country's northeastern Matam region publicly renounced female genital mutilation (FGM) as well as forced and early marriages, according to IRIN.

South Africa: Organised lesbian and gay sector welcomes the Constitutional Court’s judgment on same sex marriages

Joint Working Group press release

2005-12-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/30703

"As the Joint Working Group (JWG) we are proud to be in a Constitutional democracy that honours the equality and dignity of all citizens, as reflected in the judgment. In terms of the current form of both the common and statutory laws of marriage, the Court’s ruling acknowledges the denial of equal protection of the law, as well as the unfair discrimination of the State, against lesbian and gay people. As such, the Court was unanimous in declaring the common law definition of marriage and the Marriage Act unconstitutional, as they infringe our right to equality and dignity. Furthermore, in line with previous decisions, the Court asserts the rights of lesbian and gay people to access equal benefit and protection of the law and for our relationships to hold equal status in the eyes of the law."

For the transcript of the Constitutional Court ruling, visit
http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/ga ylesb.htm

Further information can be found at:
http://www.mask.org.za
Press release: Organised lesbian and gay sector welcomes the Constitutional Court’s judgment on same sex marriages

Released by the Joint Working Group (JWG): 1 December 2005

The organised gay and lesbian sector welcomes this morning's Constitutional Court judgement and urges parliament to rectify the relevant statutory defects, with regard to same sex marriage, in line with the framework of the Court’s ruling.

As the JWG we are proud to be in a Constitutional democracy that honours the equality and dignity of all citizens, as reflected in the judgement. In terms of the current form of both the common and statutory laws of marriage, the Court’s ruling acknowledges the denial of equal protection of the law, as well as the unfair discrimination of the State, against lesbian and gay people. As such, the Court was unanimous in declaring the common law definition of marriage and the Marriage Act unconstitutional, as they infringe our right to equality and dignity. Furthermore, in line with previous decisions, the Court asserts the rights of lesbian and gay people to access equal benefit and protection of the law and for our relationships to hold equal status in the eyes of the law.

The remedy ordered by the Court is such that Parliament is now required to amendment marriage legislation in line with the framework set out in the judgment. In reality this means that lesbian and gay people cannot marry with immediate effect, as the Court has suspended the invalidity of the statute and common law, to allow for the legislature to correct their inherent defects. Should parliament not correct the defects within a 12 months period, the Court orders the reading in of the word ‘spouse’ to the Marriage Act. In the case of the Court’s remedy, we do believe that the minority judgement would have been a preferable outcome in that it proposed relief for lesbian and gay couples through an immediate change to the common law definition of marriage. However, the Court “recognises the multitude of family formation in South Africa, and the inappropriateness of entrenching any particular form as the only socially and legally acceptable one.” We believe that this principle should guide the statutory process of correcting the current defects in marriage laws, such that lesbian and gay people will be able to claim their right to equal social and legal status in marriage.

The challenge is now for Parliament to enact changes to marriage legislation, as speedily as possible, to ensure full equality in status, benefit and protection for same sex relationships. Anything less than this will remain unequal.

This press statement is issued of behalf of the Joint Working Group (JWG), which includes the following organisations:
? OUT LGBT Well-being
? Behind the Mask
? Forum for the Empowerment of Women
? The Triangle Project
? The Gay and Lesbian Archives
? Durban Gay and Lesbian Community Centre

The JWG is an informal network of registered non profit organisations providing services to LGBTI people across South Africa. It aims to strengthen the organised LGBTI sector, and to maximise combined responses to LGBT needs through partnerships, the collective use of resources, and by drawing on the strengths of participating organisations.

For more information contact:
Melanie Judge
Programme Manager
OUT LGBT Well-being
Tel: 083 2712543

Thuli Madi
Director
Behind the Mask
Tel: 073 2279635

Fikile Vilakazi
Advocacy Officer
Forum for the Empowerment of Women
Tel: 083 3743277

South Africa: South Africa searches its soul

2005-12-07

http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article.php?a_id=421

The bruising political row over the rape charge being investigated by police against former deputy president Jacob Zuma has become a barometer of where South Africa stands on gender violence as the Sixteen Days of Activism campaign gets under way. Never before has the campaign, that runs from 25 November- International Day of No Violence Against Women- to 10 December- Human Rights Day - been held in such a charged atmosphere. Leaving aside for a moment what did or did not happen in Zuma's Johannesburg home on 3 November – something we may indeed never know – the unfolding story rings many familiar bells, says this Gender Links commentary.

Sudan: Gender-based violence still rampant in Darfur, say aid agencies

2005-12-06

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50488

Humanitarian agencies have called for increased efforts to prevent sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) in war-torn western Sudan, saying such acts against women violate their human rights. The call was made during a meeting in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State at the start of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign, on 25 November. "Violence is not inevitable," said Hassan Mohtashami, a UN Population Fund (UNFPA) representative in Sudan. "Rather, it is often predictable and preventable. A number of interventions can be promising and effective in preventing violence and reducing the harm caused when it does occur."

Human rights

Africa/Global: High Commissioner for Human Rights says total ban on torture under attack in 'war on terror'

2005-12-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/30838

The absolute ban on torture, a cornerstone of the international human rights edifice, is becoming a casualty of the so-called "war on terror", the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said. "Pursuing security objectives at all costs may create a world in which we are neither safe nor free", said Louise Arbour, speaking at United Nations headquarters in New York in the run-up to Human Rights Day, commemorated on 10 December. "This will certainly be the case if the only choice is between the terrorists and the torturers". "Governments are watering down the definition of torture, claiming that terrorism means established rules do not apply anymore", Mrs. Arbour continued.

High Commissioner for Human Rights says total ban on torture under attack in 'war on terror'

New York, 7 December 2005 -- The absolute ban on torture, a cornerstone of the international human rights edifice, is becoming a casualty of the so-called "war on terror", the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today.

"Pursuing security objectives at all costs may create a world in which we are neither safe nor free", said Louise Arbour, speaking at United Nations headquarters in New York in the run-up to Human Rights Day, commemorated on 10 December. "This will certainly be the case if the only choice is
between the terrorists and the torturers". "Governments are watering down the definition of torture, claiming that terrorism means established rules do not apply anymore", Mrs. Arbour continued.

Mrs. Arbour said the right and duty of Governments to protect their citizens from attacks was not in dispute. Governments may even impose limitations on certain rights at times of imminent or clear dangers. But, she added, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment may not be subject to any limitation, anywhere, under any condition.

The High Commissioner singled out two practices as having a particularly corrosive effect on the global ban on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment: the recourse to so-called "diplomatic assurances", and the holding of prisoners in secret detention. "The former may make countries complicit with torture carried out by others, while the latter creates the conditions for torture by one's own", she said.

The international legal ban on torture prohibits transferring persons -- no matter what their crime or suspected activity -- to a place where they would be at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. "If there is no risk of torture in a particular case, such assurances are unnecessary and redundant", Mrs. Arbour said. If there is a risk, the High Commissioner questioned how effective such assurances were likely to be. Mrs. Arbour suggested that instead of seeking to obtain meaningless assurances for the
wellbeing of a handful of detainees, efforts should be directed at eliminating the risk of torture faced by many, including by creating a genuine system for monitoring all detainees in all places of detention.

Regarding secret detention the High Commissioner said the phenomenon appeared to have gained renewed currency in the "war on terror". Holding people in secret detention amounts to "disappearance", which itself amounts to torture or ill-treatment. Prolonged incommunicado detention or detention in secret places facilitates the perpetration of torture. "Whatever the value of the information obtained in secret facilities -- and there is reason to doubt the reliability of intelligence gained through prolonged incommunicado or secret detention -- some standards on the treatment of prisoners cannot be set aside", she said.

The High Commissioner said she believed firmly in the role of law to guide society through difficult challenges. "The law provides the proper balancing between the legitimate security interests of the State with the individual's own legitimate interests in liberty and personal security. It must do so rationally and dispassionately, even in the face of terror".

The High Commissioner called on all Governments to reaffirm their commitment to the absolute prohibition of torture by condemning torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and prohibiting it in national law; abiding by the principle of non-refoulement; refraining from returning persons to countries where they may face torture; ensuring access to prisoners, and abolishing secret detention.

UNITED NATIONS Press Release

Africa/Global: Human Rights Day - end torture now

2005-12-08

http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/human-rights-day.php

On 10 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has become a universal standard for defending and promoting human rights. Every year on 10 December, Human Rights Day marks the adoption of the Universal Declaration. The theme of Human Rights Day 2005 is "End Torture Now!". Torture is a crime under international law. According to all relevant instruments, it is absolutely prohibited and cannot be justified under any circumstances.

Africa: The many challenges to human rights in Africa

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2005-12-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/30839

This weekend is World Human Rights Day, a day set aside to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). When the Declaration was made in 1948 most of Africa (with the exception of Liberia and Ethiopia), were subject nations lorded over by European colonialists. These imperialists did not see any contradiction in making the declaration while having their jackboots on our backs and pillaging our human and material resources. Many will still ask what has changed in almost 60 years?
The many challenges to human rights in Africa

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem

This weekend is World Human Rights Day, a day set aside to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). When the Declaration was made in 1948 most of Africa (with the exception of Liberia and Ethiopia), were subject nations lorded over by European colonialists. These imperialists did not see any contradiction in making the declaration while having their jackboots on our backs and pillaging our human and material resources.

Many will still ask what has changed in almost 60 years?

This duplicity has not prevented Africans and other formerly colonised peoples across the world in Asia and Latin America and the Americas from accepting the declaration and aspiring to fulfil it. No state has dared to openly renounce the declaration.

However the fact that every country claims to identify with the UDHR does not mean that they are equally committed to or obey it in totality at all times.

Human rights discourse today is laced with all kinds of hypocrisy, conditionality, selective enforcement and notions of 'Do as I say not as I do.' European governments and their big brother, USA, see themselves as the defenders and enforcers of human rights standards and often talk to the rest of the world in very condescending terms.

This has provoked some backlash in Africa and other poor countries. Many see the West's promotion of human rights as yet another excuse for it to continue to interfere and control other people and impose their values. The ease with which various Western governments are ready to support human rights organisations in the third world while not doing the same in their own countries have also undermined many human rights NGOs domestically. The way in which many of them react and respond to foreign and donor driven agendas make them easy targets for governments who have no respect for the rights of their people. Many of our governments have also become very clever about dealing with Western governments on these issues. They take Western pressure off their backs by acceding to international instruments but delay or never domesticate such laws or conventions in their judicial system.

However, the hypocrisies, both international and national, that are glaring about human rights standards should not lead one into concluding that human rights advocacy and discourse is useless. One of the biggest changes that has happened in Africa in the past decade is the growth, resilience and increasing confidence of human rights groups within a wider opening up of spaces for civil society in general.

Many people were victimised, tortured, imprisoned and died in order to make human rights and democratisation a reality on this continent. The fact that there are many hustlers, mercenaries, opportunists and NGO entrepreneurs who parade themselves as human rights activists should not negate the positive contribution of human rights and wider pro democracy activists to affirming our dignity as human beings. The fact that there are many bad Muslims or Christians does not mean that the religions are bad themselves.

There are many challenges facing the human rights communities globally and in Africa. One, the human rights discourse needs to be rescued from Eurocentrism and manipulation by Western governments. The illegal occupation of Iraq by the Anglo-American imperialists, the torture of prisoners, the inhuman affront that Guantanamo signifies for all decent human beings have shown that the West is not the best teacher on human rights. We need to teach them.

Two, our NGOs need to stop parroting everything their Western donors want them to shout about and build sustainable legitimacy through local presence and work. Donors come and go but the people remain. It is not true that our people cannot support human rights campaigns and groups. During the anti-colonial struggles, miners, women, workers and peasants supported the nationalists en masse against colonial governments. There were no funding bodies to write proposals to yet through the efforts of our own people we got rid of colonialism.

Three, human rights groups also need to engage and educate themselves about local, national and sub-regional instruments. Too often our activists are too knowledgeable about 'international' documents without adequate knowledge of local instruments. For instance the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights implemented through the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights and soon the African Court are very important for the formal protection, defence and enforcement of rights in Africa. Yet some of our NGOs will readily jet off to Geneva, New York or Brussels without knowing what is happening in Banjul.

Four, while a lot of progress in terms of general awareness, if not full protection, has been achieved in areas that are called first generation rights (i.e. civil and political rights) there is much more to be done in the areas of economic, social and cultural rights. There is no point in guaranteeing to me 'the right to life' without guaranteeing me the complementary right to the means of sustaining the life you are guaranteeing (i.e. economic means, a job, a decent income, etc). The absolute poverty under which the majority of the people of this continent live is the greatest violation of their rights as human beings. It compromises their capacity to be effective citizens and makes them vulnerable to bad governance, sit-tight dictators, disease, want and all kinds of deprivations.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

East Africa: Critical high court hearing may decide fate of Chagos Islander

2005-12-07

http://www.minorityrights.org/news_detail.asp?ID=390

A High Court hearing beginning tomorrow, 6 December, could decide the fate of the Chagos islanders, the community removed from their homeland by British authorities so the United States could build a military base. The islanders, some of whom have travelled from Mauritius, will be organising a demonstration outside the Royal Courts of Justice to highlight their case. The islanders are challenging the British government's declaration last year that they had no right to live in their island homeland. The initial removal from their homes was declared unlawful in a landmark High Court victory in 2000, leading the government to promise they could return to at least some of the islands. However the government stalled on even allowing visits, and in 2004, using a power described as a little-used colonial relic, it declared the islanders had no right to live in their homeland.

Eritrea: Government must end religious persecution

2005-12-07

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR640172005

"You will receive no visitors and you will rot here until you sign this paper." The reported words of an Eritrean military commander to Helen Berhane, a well known gospel singer of the Rema Church who has been detained incommunicado in Mai Serwa military camp since 13 May 2004. She is currently held in a metal shipping container. Helen Berhane is just one of many people in Eritrea who are locked up because they do not belong to an officially recognised faith. In the last 3 years, at least 26 pastors and priests, some 1750 evangelical church members, and dozens of Muslims have been detained by the government.

Global: UN limited in human rights struggle

2005-12-07

http://www.ipsnews.org/news.asp?idnews=31299

Despite the United Nations' adoption 37 years ago of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, tens of millions have died over the years as human rights violations have been overlooked, IPS reports. While some lament the UN has not been able to do more to avert such atrocities, professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina and former Kennedy administration official Dr. Jack N. Behrman says not all the blame should be placed at the feet of the world body. "The UN cannot possibly do enough, for it is composed of countries that do not 'buy into' the Declaration even if they have signed it," Behrman explains.

Global: UN officials urge commitment to integrate disabled people into society

2005-12-05

http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/id-disabled-persons.php

Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other United Nations officials today (December 3) marked the International Day of Disabled Persons - who constitute the world's largest minority group - with a call for a continuing commitment to secure their equal rights and full participation in society. He and other senior UN officials urged a successful conclusion to talks on the Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.

Liberia: No impunity for rapists, vows president-elect

2005-12-07

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50500

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who will be Africa’s first female president when she takes office in Liberia next month, on Monday (December 5) promised no rapist would go unpunished during her tenure. New legislation making rape illegal for the first time in Liberia was passed by parliament amid a flurry of rape cases and accusations that have flooded the local media. “Nobody will abuse our girls and women and get away with it; any law on rape especially the rape bill just passed into law will be totally implemented under our government,” Sirleaf said in a live radio interview.

Nigeria: Compensation for families of six youths killed by police

2005-12-07

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50507

The Nigerian government in a landmark move has paid compensation to families of six people wrongly shot and killed by police. Police Affairs Minister Broderick Bozimo on Friday (December 2) paid out cheques of three million naira (US $21,000) each to representatives of the families of five men and one woman killed by police in June 2005. The police had claimed the six were armed robbers, killed while trading gunfire with police in the Apo district of the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Bozimo said a judicial inquiry launched by the government found “incontrovertible evidence” the victims were not armed robbers. “Government therefore exonerates the six victims and apologises to their families and in fact all Nigerians,” he said.

Uganda: Activists Oppose Uganda Hosting Commonwealth

2005-12-07

http://allafrica.com/stories/200511220722.html

Uganda has increasingly come in the spotlight at the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta as activist groups lobby for "stringent" action against the country following the arrest of opposition leader Kizza Besigye. Human rights and other civil society organisations have also threatened to demonstrate when President Yoweri Museveni arrives in Malta. The development puts in jeorpardy Uganda's bid to host the 2007 CHOGM.

WTO-HR Caucus: Final joint statement on WTO and human rights

Appeal for endorsements – joint statement on trade and human rights

2005-12-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/30817

"The following statement has been drafted by a group of human rights organizations and advocates from around the world. The group functions as a civil society "human rights caucus" around the WTO. The statement will be released on December 10 - International Human Rights Day - in Hong Kong on the eve of the WTO Ministerial Meeting. We invite all human rights supporters to co-sign the statement with us. This call for endorsements comes in English only, but the text will be translated to French and Spanish in the coming days."

Endorsements should be sent to Tamara Herman at globalisation@dd-rd.ca
The deadline for endorsements is NOON (EST), December 9, 2005.

Please include the name of your organization (with french and spanish
translations if available), and the country in which it is headquartered.
On the occasion of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization

December 10, 2005

In a matter of days, government delegates will be gathering in Hong Kong
for the latest landmark event in the ongoing process of economic
globalization--the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade
Organization (WTO). We, members of civil society from developed and
developing countries, concerned about the impact of this process on the
realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms of people all over the
world, take the opportunity of International Human Rights Day to remind our
governments that their human rights obligations cannot be abandoned at the
WTO door.

The moral and legal primacy of human rights

The human rights struggle is the struggle for human dignity, which is a
fundamental and defining ethical value in any culture. Trade liberalization
on the other hand is a means, not an end in itself. The end that must be
served by trade, as well as other aspects of economic policy, is increased
human wellbeing through development. This is the only basis on which a
given economic policy can claim moral and political legitimacy.

The canon of international human rights law (comprising civil,
political,economic, social and cultural rights) offers a comprehensive
legal definition of the fundamental elements of human wellbeing and human
dignity. Therefore, any trade or other economic policy that offends against
the principles of human rights, either in design or practice, lacks moral
and political legitimacy.

Human rights are enshrined in numerous international treaties and in many
national constitutions. Substantial portions of human rights law are
regarded as having achieved the status of customary international law. Some
of its foundational principles are recognized as peremptory norms of
international law.

The promotion and protection of human rights are included in the UN Charter
as being among the fundamental purposes of the United Nations. Through
Articles 55(c) and 56 of the UN Charter, Members of the United Nations
pledge to take joint and separate action to "promote universal respect for,
and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without
distinction as to race, sex language or religion.” Charter Article 103
expressly and unambiguously provides that “[i]n the event of a conflict
between the obligations of the Members of the United Nations under the
present Charter and their obligations under any other international
agreement, their obligations under the present Charter shall prevail.”

Increased trade can undoubtedly serve as one means for the realization of
human rights--especially the right to development--but it does not
automatically or necessarily do so. Even when trade does bring increased
wealth, poor distribution of the benefits both within and between nations,
perpetuates poverty and impedes the progressive realization of human
rights.

The Doha Development Agenda & coherence in law, policy and practice

Human rights and economic policy are interconnected to a degree that
demands coherence in international and national law, policy and practice.
In the wider context of the security-development-human rights nexus, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has declared in his March 2005 report, In
Larger Freedom, that:

We will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy
security without development, and we will not enjoy either without
respect for human rights. Unless all these causes are advanced, none
will succeed.

Nevertheless, the international trade regime has repeatedly denied and
rejected any intersection between its mandate and human rights. This is
both logically and legally indefensible especially since most WTO members
have ratified at least one of the major UN human rights treaties.

This isolationism of the international trade community is based in part on
a lack of knowledge of human rights--in particular of economic, social and
cultural rights as an inseparable element of the canon of international
human rights law--and also of the important contribution that human rights
can make to desired development outcomes of trade policy and practice.

Isolationism has resulted as well from the disconnection of international
trade policies and practices from the goal of increased human wellbeing.
Increased trade and trade liberalization have become ends in themselves,
and trade negotiations pit governments against each other in a competitive
process driven by corporate interests rather than human development.

We denounce this isolationist tendency, which runs counter to the Preamble
of the Marrakech Agreement, and demand that our governments take specific
steps to ensure coherence between trade means and human rights ends.

-WTO member States must take their human rights obligations into
account in all aspects of trade policy development, negotiation and
practice.
-WTO member States must undertake human rights impact assessments
before concluding new trade agreements or revisions of existing trade
agreements, as well as in the course of implementing existing agreements.
- Information about human rights impacts should be included in trade
policy reviews, both in the members' own reports and in the reports
prepared by the WTO secretariat, including information provided by civil
society sources.
-The WTO should be receptive to human rights arguments in the context
of dispute settlement, including through the possibility for human rights
organizations to submit amicus curiae briefs to the panels and the
Appellate Body set up under the Dispute Settlement Understanding.
- States should establish effective mechanisms within government to
enhance policy coherence between human rights and trade. Trade ministries
and trade representatives should receive human rights information and
assessments from both governmental and non-governmental sources, in order
to formulate and advocate for coherent policy decisions in international
economic forums.

Extraterritorial Obligations

No country has, as yet, made a sufficient attempt to ensure that its policy
positions in international economic forums are consistent with its domestic
human rights obligations and with the human rights obligations of its
trading partners.

International human rights law places obligations upon States with regard
to international assistance and cooperation. These obligations require that
States refrain from actions (including in the context of negotiating and
implementing international trade agreements) that could interfere, directly
or indirectly, with the enjoyment of human rights in other countries, as
well as their own. Such extraterritorial obligations mean that steps should
be taken to ensure that activities undertaken by States individually or
within multilateral processes including trade negotiations do not undermine
the ability of other States to meet their human rights obligations.

- Developed States must take into account their responsibility for
international assistance and cooperation for the realization of human
rights.
- UN human rights treaty bodies should strengthen their capacity to
examine the human rights impacts of international trade agreements and
policies and to make observations concerning policy coherence.

Agricultural trade, and the human right to food

In a world that has more than enough food to feed everyone, the number of
people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition is increasing. According to
the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 850 million people lack
adequate food. Every five seconds a child under the age of five dies of
hunger or hunger-related disease. The international trade in agricultural
food products must be part of the solution, not part of the problem, in
relation to this tragedy.

There are close linkages between agricultural trade liberalization and the
failure to respect, protect or fulfill the human right to food. Developing
countries have been pushed to open their agricultural markets to foreign
imports that are often exported at less than the cost of production.
Unfair trade rules, coupled with international financial institution loan
conditions, have limited the policy space for developing country
governments to meet their human rights obligations.

The Doha Development Agenda requires that WTO members address livelihood
and food security concerns by establishing adequate flexibilities within
new rules for trade in agriculture. However, on the eve of the 6th WTO
Ministerial Meeting, very little hope of progress towards this goal can be
offered to millions of poor farmers and people suffering from hunger around
the world, and to the societies of which they are a part.

- WTO members must honour their commitment to make special and
differential treatment for developing countries an integral part of the
negotiations, including in agriculture negotiations.
- Market access rules must allow for differentiation, and allow
developing countries to adopt rules and practices for the purpose of
protecting the livelihoods of their agriculture-reliant poor.
- Developing countries must have sufficient policy space to enable
them to support small farmers and to protect their agricultural markets
from cheap imports, especially for food staples.
- Developed countries must end the dumping of subsidized agricultural
production.

Trade in services and equitable provision of essential services

Current negotiations on the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services
(GATS) threaten to erode the ability of national governments to implement
measures for the equitable provision of essential services (such as health,
water, sanitation and education) to all their citizens. The implementation
of such measures is a central requirement of States under their human
rights treaty commitments. While the GATS does not technically require
withdrawal of the State from the provision of essential services, the logic
of liberalization of trade in services does not favour equitable provision
of those services. The legal requirements of the GATS continue to threaten
effective State involvement and oversight in this area. Further mandated
negotiations may also threaten governments’ capacity to regulate services
in the public interest.

Moreover, consideration of the potential impact of the GATS should address
the power imbalances between countries in the negotiation process, and the
existing pressure towards privatization of the public sector under the
policy prescriptions of the IFIs.

Insofar as the human rights obligations of private corporations are not, as
yet, legally enforceable in all circumstances, as the home States of those
corporations are hesitant to adopt extra-territorial legislation to that
effect, and as the host States may find it legally or practically
impossible to impose strict obligations on foreign corporations, the rights
of poor and vulnerable populations to the highest attainable standard of
health, nutrition, education etc., may be put in jeopardy.

- Essential services with direct implications for specific human
rights--such as the human right to health, water and educationshould be
excluded from negotiations under the GATS.
- There should be no new approaches within the GATS negotiations (such
as ‘benchmarking’or sectoral approaches) that could undermine the existing
flexibility of the positive list approach.
- The ability of Governments to regulate in the public interest must
not be subjected to new constraints.

Trade-related intellectual property rights, and the human right to health

The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has
posed formidable obstacles to the progressive realization of the human
right to health and the right to life, particularly in terms of access to
medicines. By protecting, or indeed mandating, monopoly rights for at least
20 years, and stifling competition from lower-cost producers, the TRIPS
Agreement enables drug prices to be set high and to stay high.

The 2001 Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health
recognized the practical problems for public health posed by TRIPS
compliance and encouraged WTO members to take advantage of TRIPS
flexibilities. However, many commercial and political disincentives
continue to limit the practical availability and utility of these
flexibilities, such as compulsory licensing and parallel importation, and
hamper the ability of poorer countries to ensure that TRIPS outcomes are
consistent with their human rights obligations. Further, the crisis
regarding neglected diseases (mainly those affecting populations in the
developing world) demonstrates the limitations of the market-based
justification for stringent intellectual property laws - i.e. incentive for
innovation.

In addition, the TRIPS provision allowing patent monopolies over living
organisms is offensive to many religions and spiritual traditions and is
therefore a violation of cultural rights.

- States must ensure that intellectual property rules in TRIPS and in
other trade agreements do not obstruct or undermine any State’s ability to
comply with its human rights obligations, including equitable access to
medicines.
- Assurances must be made that the additional seven year delay granted
to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) for the implementation of TRIPS is not
used to obtain concessions in agriculture, services or non-agriculture
market access (NAMA).
- G8 countries must honour their commitment at Gleneagles to ensure
"universal access to (HIV) treatment for all those who need it by 2010",
and pursuant to that commitment to take all necessary steps to mitigate the
restraining effects of the TRIPS Agreement on access to ARVs in the
developing world.
- The review under provision 27(3)(b) should proceed and lifeform
patents should be removed from the agreement.

Zimbabwe: UN envoy visits camps housing evicted Zimbabweans

2005-12-06

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L05741328.htm

U.N. humanitarian envoy Jan Egeland tramped through deep mud in squalid camps housing victims of Zimbabwe's shantytown demolitions on Monday (December 5), and said those living there were in tremendous need. President Robert Mugabe's government has bulldozed urban slums and what it called illegal structures in an operation the U.N. says left 700,000 people homeless or without a livelihood and affected 2.4 million others. Egeland, the top U.N. official to visit since the crackdown ended in May, visited people living in makeshift plastic-sheeting shelters in Hatcliffe 20 km (12 miles) outside Harare, a camp often waterlogged by rain.

Refugees & forced migration

Global/Africa: IOM establishes humanitarian programme to help stranded migrants in distress return home

2005-12-07

http://www.iom.int/en/news/pr889_en.shtml

A humanitarian assistance programme to help stranded and distressed migrants abandoned to their fate return home on a voluntarily basis has been launched by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva. The programme will help address the growing need to provide assistance to irregular migrants stranded in either transit or destination countries, often far from home without any means to move onwards or return home.

Great Lakes: Returning refugees risk being displaced

2005-12-07

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50504&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes&SelectCountry=Great%20Lakes

Tens of thousands of refugees in the Great Lakes region have started returning home, but without adequate support they could reignite conflicts and end up joining the millions of people displaced within their own countries, said Dennis McNamara, director of the UN Inter-Agency Internal Displacement Division. He said there were currently only three million refugees in all of Africa - but over 11 million IDPs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Sudan.

South Sudan: DRC refugees set to return, Dinkas reach Juba

2005-12-07

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/DPAS-6JTECM?OpenDocument

As South Sudanese refugees start to go back to their homeland after more than two decades of exile, a group of refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, is getting ready to leave South Sudan to return to their home country after 40 years in exile.

Sudan: How a man from Darfur cannot get his asylum claim heard in Europe

2005-12-07

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/UNHCR/deee193fe7de9ac6072140b04ab38755.htm

Mohammad is from war-torn Darfur, often described as the scene of some of the worst violence in the world over the past two years. Enough for an asylum claim by someone from Darfur to be taken seriously, one would think. At the end of May 2005 this year, after considerable lobbying and court appeals by the Greek Council for Refugees and Amnesty International, Mohammad was released from his third spell of detention in Greece. Yet he is still no closer to having his claim to be a refugee properly examined, let alone be recognized as one.

Elections & governance

Congo: Peace or Stalemate

2005-12-05

http://www.africafocus.org

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is preparing for a referendum on an new constitution on December 18, part of a long peace process scheduled to lead to an elected government by June of next year. Nevertheless, the transition to peace and stability in the country is precarious. According to the International Crisis Group, "Reunification has been plagued by government corruption and mismanagement, failure to reform the security sector, the ongoing threat of the Rwandan Hutu insurgency FDLR based in the eastern Congo, and a weak UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC) that is not
adequately protecting civilians."

Defiant Kibaki swears in cabinet

2005-12-08

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4512786.stm

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's cabinet is being sworn in despite many nominees refusing to take up their posts. Four prospective ministers and 17 deputies, including two key allies, refused to accept posts. Mr Kibaki dismissed his entire team two weeks ago after he lost a referendum on a new constitution - a vote seen as a protest against him. Those snubbing Mr Kibaki say he is failing to consult coalition partners and ignoring the people's wishes. The swearing-in at State House is being broadcast live on Kenyan television. The new cabinet Mr Kibaki announced on Wednesday (December 7) evening was said to be made up mostly of old friends and colleagues. He rejected all the leading politicians who stood against him and backed the successful "no" campaign in the referendum.

Egypt: Elections end with violence

2005-12-07

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4505472.stm

Security forces in Egypt have clashed with crowds of supporters of the banned opposition Muslim Brotherhood in the last stage of parliamentary elections. In some areas, police used tear gas and rubber bullets against people trying to enter cordoned-off polling stations. The Brotherhood, whose candidates stand as independents, has already made large gains, winning nearly 20% of seats. Islamists claim police tactics are designed to limit their gains and help the ruling National Democratic Party.

Great Lakes: EU calls for revival of regional economic bloc

2005-12-06

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50514

After fairly successful political transitions in Burundi and Rwanda as well as high voter registration in DRC, the EU commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, Louis Michel, has called for the revival of the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries of Africa (the Communauté Economique des Pays des Grands Lacs, or CEPGL). Michel met with Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, who was on a four-day visit to Belgium. According to EU Spokesperson Amadeu Altafaj, Nkurunziza has sent all the positive signals that the donors were expecting of him, including the holding of free and fair elections; his woman-friendly government; and his policy priorities of education and reconciliation.

Ivory Coast: New Ivory Coast PM faces squabble over powers

2005-12-06

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/NKUA-6JSNN2?OpenDocument

The naming of a new prime minister has breathed fresh life into divided Ivory Coast's faltering peace process but squabbling could soon arise over how much authority he should have, analysts said on Monday. As part of an African Union peace formula to reunite Ivory Coast, Charles Konan Banny, 63, governor of West Africa's central bank, was named prime minister late on Sunday. The U.N.-backed deal gives Banny powers to carry out disarmament and electoral reforms, meant to lead to presidential elections by the end of October next year.

Nigeria: Cold war in Nigeria's Presidential Villa

2005-12-06

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4493324.stm

Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party has ended a key meeting without ruling on the issue which is threatening to split the party - and the nation apart. The row between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is over the question of whether to change the constitution to let Mr Obasanjo stand for a third term. Analysts say Mr Obasanjo is positively disposed to serving a third term in order to consolidate the economic reforms which he is pursuing and to continue his fight against corruption. He is said not to trust Mr Atiku or any potential successors to continue these policies.

Sudan: Southern constitution signed as SPLA forces enter Juba

2005-12-06

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50505

The signing on Monday of a new constitution for south Sudan marks an important milestone in the implementation of the Sudanese Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), an analyst said. "This is the first time since independence that the south has got its own constitution," said a political analyst. "It is not just the document; it is the contents," he added. "It will be the foundation of the new Sudan. It spells out people's rights and protections. The government and the president will be held to account using the constitution, and it contains important provisions with regard to equal rights for women and media freedom."

Uganda: Jailed Besigye set to run in poll

2005-12-07

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4504080.stm

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been granted permission to sign his presidential nomination papers from prison by the attorney general. He is accused of treason and terrorism in civil and military courts. The government says it has the evidence to convict Dr Besigye but his lawyers say the trials are designed to prevent him from competing in polls next year. Meanwhile, Uganda's foreign minister has called for a speedy trial for President Yoweri Museveni's opponent. Dr Besigye has been granted bail by the High Court, but remains in prison because of charges he faces in a military tribunal.

Corruption

Angola: Corporate social responsibility in the oil sector

2005-12-07

http://www.cmi.no/publications/2005/wp/wp-8.pdf

Despite being a resource rich country with 3% annual growth per year (11% in 2004), the development impacts of the activities in the oil sector in Angola have had a limited effect on the rest of the economy and poverty is widespread. Inflation is very high (31% in 2004, down from 76% in 2003), and the country has been able to develop hardly any local industry. Oil companies have therefore been criticised, particularly by NGOs, for not taking due account of the developmental impact of their extraction of resources. A report from the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway examines this issue and asks what the responsibility of oil companies in Angola is and which of these responsibilities the companies take.

Chad: Oiling the wheels of corruption - World Bank style

2005-12-05

http://www.cadtm.org/article.php3?id_article=1696

The World Bank's bombast about good governance, corruption and reducing poverty is a farce. In reality, the World Bank is supporting an oil pipeline project that allows a notorious dictator to fill his pockets and thumb his nose at the world. Meanwhile, the people of Chad are bleeding themselves dry to repay a monumental debt without enjoying the fruits of a natural resource that is rightly theirs, says this article from the website of the Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt.

Kenya: EU to unblock aid to Kenya ahead of new cabinet announcement

2005-12-08

http://admin.corisweb.org/index.php?fuseaction=news.view&id=119419&src=dcn

The European Union is expected to release the first 50-million-euro tranche of a 3-year aid package to Kenya after the enactment of corruption laws, news reports said Wednesday. The much delayed Public Procurement bill was signed into law by president Mwai Kibaki only at the end of November, after the E.U. had warned it would withhold the 120-million-euro package if the law was not enacted by the end of the year.

Nigeria: Britain criticised for accepting Nigerian debt repayments

2005-12-05

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,16781,1657637,00.html

The British government has drawn sharp criticism from development charities for taking a debt repayment from Nigeria which dwarfs the UK's entire annual aid budget for the African continent. The Group of Seven leading industrial countries, which met in London over the weekend, are soon to receive $12.4bn (£7.2bn) from Africa's most populous nation as part of a debt rescheduling package agreed this year by the Paris Club of creditor countries. As Britain is Nigeria's largest creditor, it is set for a windfall of £1.7bn in the coming months - considerably larger than the £1bn-a-year portion of the European Union rebate that Tony Blair has offered to give up.

Nigeria: Governor escape 'shames' Nigeria

2005-12-05

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4491382.stm

President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the governor who jumped bail on money-laundering charges in the UK and escaped home is "shameful" to Nigeria. Mr Obasanjo was commenting for the first time in public on the case of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, although he has asked the UK for an explanation. Mr Alamieyeseigha was expelled from the ruling PDP party last Thursday. He also faces corruption charges in a special court, which can strip elected officials of their immunity.

Development

Africa/Global: Stingy samaritans: Why development aid fails to help the poor

2005-12-06

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/develop/oda/2005/08stingysamaritans.pdf

As a critique of development assistance from 2000-2005, this Global Policy Forum paper presents an overview of development assistance and its targeting and geographical allocation from 2000-2005. It analyses various features in rich countries' development assistance policies that make aid both insufficient and inefficient despite the recent increases in nominal aid amounts that make rich nations seem generous. The following issues are examined: new aid targets and the millennium development goals, aid and how it services strategic interests and the inflation of statistics to make non-aid look like aid.

Africa: EU, US paying $13 billion in illegal agricultural subsidies

2005-12-06

http://www.sarpn.org.za/newsflash.php#4100

The European Union and the United States are illegally subsidizing their production of corn, rice, sorghum, fruit juice, canned fruit, tomatoes, dairy products, tobacco and wine, according to new research published today by international agency Oxfam. The EU and the US must do more to deliver a development deal ahead of a crucial WTO Ministerial meeting on December 13-18 otherwise they could end up facing a mountain of litigation, Oxfam says, because developing countries will be left with no other options. Of the 11 commodities studied, the US and the EU pay out total annual farm subsidies worth $9.3 billion and $4.2 billion respectively which help to distort world trade. Oxfam found that 38 developing countries are suffering from unfair competition as a result, including larger countries such as Mexico and Brazil as well as poor countries like Malawi and Mozambique.

Africa: Ignore Africa at Your Peril, Think Tank Warns Bush

2005-12-07

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31306

Africa's strategic importance to the United States - both with respect to Washington's "war on terrorism" and the growing competition with China for access to energy supplies and other raw materials - should be given more attention by policy-makers and the public, according to a major new report by the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The 139-page report, which charges the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush with lacking a comprehensive, long-term strategy for dealing with the region, calls on Washington to upgrade its diplomatic and intelligence capabilities in the region by appointing an ambassador to the African Union (AU) and opening more missions in key African cities, particularly in energy-producing countries.

Global: One week before the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong: Poor countries have right to bar trade invaders, warns ActionAid's new report

2005-12-07

http://www.actionaid.org.uk/wps/content/documents/Trade-Invaders.rtf

In a report published today(December 6), a week before the World Trade Organisation ministerial opens in Hong Kong, the international development agency ActionAid warns that developing countries will be trapped in poverty if they are denied the right to protect their economies against international competition. The report 'TRADE INVADERS: the WTO and Developing Countries' Right to Protect' looks at the downside of free trade policies and economic liberalisation. ActionAid's case studies - from Brazil, the Gambia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa - describe how, time after time, farmers have been ruined and factories closed down as cheap goods from abroad flooded in after trade barriers were lifted.

Global: Open on Impact? Slow Progress in World Bank/IMF poverty analysis

2005-12-07

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC19035

Following the disastrous impact of the structural adjustment years, the World Bank and IMF have acknowledged that policy should be based on evidence rather than ideology, and have stated that they are developing tools and methods to analyse which policies are needed to reduce poverty. Poverty and social impact analysis (PSIA), introduced in the last four years, is one such method. This paper assesses the effectiveness of this approach in terms of the extent to which policy is informed by analysis of the potential impact of reforms. It also examines the institutions' commitment to stakeholder participation and country ownership.

Kenya: Text for WTO meet favours rich countries

EcoNews Africa press release

2005-12-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/30767

The draft Ministerial text for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference to be held in Hong Kong on 13-18th December was issued on Saturday 26th November. The text was presented by the WTO Director General Pascal Lamy and the General Council chair. "This draft text for Hong Kong is heavily imbalanced and biased towards the rich countries", warns Peter Aoga from EcoNews Africa. "Particularly the part on services is a major flaw, and, if agreed, would prove disastrous for African and other developing countries".
PRESS RELEASE

Nairobi, 30th November 2005

TEXT FOR HONG KONG FAVOURS RICH COUNTRIES

The draft Ministerial text for the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) Ministerial Conference to be held in Hong Kong on
13-18th December was issued on Saturday 26th November. The
text was presented by the WTO Director General Pascal Lamy
and the General Council chair.

"This draft text for Hong Kong is heavily imbalanced and
biased towards the rich countries", warns Peter Aoga from
EcoNews Africa. "Particularly the part on services is a
major flaw, and, if agreed, would prove disastrous for
African and other developing countries".

The text on services includes proposals from the developed
countries that have been strongly opposed by African and a
wide range of other developing countries in the
negotiations in Geneva. The rich countries are pushing for
rapid liberalization of service sectors in developing
countries.

"The most contentious elements are proposals on a
plurilateral approach and sectoral negotiations on
services. This would mean immense pressure on developing
countries to open up their services sector by sector – even
if they are not yet ready to do so. These proposals go
against the very nature and architecture of the services
agreement itself, says Peter Aoga from EcoNews Africa.

The text on industrial goods is also favouring the
interests of the developed countries while ignoring
proposals that have been made by developing countries. The
rich countries are pushing for drastic tariff reductions
and rapid liberalization of industrial markets in poor
countries. An approach for tariff reductions, which takes
into account development factors, such as revenue
dependency and necessary policy space, which has been
proposed by Caribbean countries, has not even been
mentioned.

"This draft text makes the negotiations at Hong Kong an
uphill battle for developing countries", concludes Peter
Aoga from EcoNews Africa.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Karin Gregow, EcoNews Africa, Tel: 0722-565116

South Africa: SA has WTO case, says Oxfam

2005-12-06

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A122240

A report released by global development, advocacy and relief organisation Oxfam International a few days ago concludes that several countries, including SA, could bring multiple cases against the European Union (EU) and the US - and win. The report showed SA had legal grounds to drag the EU before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over illegal subsidies for six products, including citrus juice, wine and butter, Hilton Zunckel of trade consultancy Floor Incorporated said. SA could also take the US to the world trade body for its illegal subsidisation of maize and sorghum, Zunckel said.

Southern Africa: Disillusion in Southern Africa Ahead of WTO Summit

2005-12-06

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31270

Campaigners from Southern Africa are bracing for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks to be held in Hong Kong later this month. Some plan to send representatives to the meeting, to protest against unfair trade legislation - particularly as this relates to agriculture. These representatives will include two cotton farmers from Zimbabwe, says Ntando Ndlovu of the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in the capital, Harare. "The two farmers will be in Hong Kong and make noise using anything, including the beating of drums," she told a gathering of Southern African activists at a conference held in the South African commercial hub of Johannesburg. Ndlovu also urged Mozambique and South Africa to send cotton farmers in support of their Zimbabwean counterparts.

Health & HIV/AIDS

Africa/Global: The 'We All Have Aids Campaign'

2005-12-07

http://www.weallhaveaids.com/mission/default.asp

The WE ALL HAVE AIDS Campaign is a show of solidarity among, and an acknowledgment of, many of the world’s most accomplished, devoted and inspiring AIDS activists and scientists of the last 20 years. Barefoot and determined, each participant has left a meaningful mark in cement, but more importantly in the fight against HIV/AIDS and the destructive STIGMA associated with this devastating disease. Visit the website to find out more.

Africa/Global: The Vicious Cycle of AIDS, Poverty, and Neoliberalism

2005-12-07

http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2965

A recent special report by the International Relations Centre contends: "World maps illustrating areas of high poverty largely overlap those of high HIV/AIDS prevalence. It's no coincidence that both poverty and the HIV-AIDS pandemic have run rampant in these last two decades of neoliberalism, since the root causes of both can be found in the economic model." Read more by clicking on the link provided.

Africa/Global: To Stop AIDS, End Violence Against Women

2005-12-07

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1202-34.htm

Chances are you know a woman who has survived physical or sexual assault. Perhaps that woman is you. Chances are also high that you or someone you know is living with HIV/AIDS. Last week the world commemorated World AIDS Day. The 2005 theme, “Keep the Promise,” exhorts us to fulfill promises made by the 2001 UN General Assembly Special Session and its Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. The Declaration recognized many factors that perpetuate HIV/AIDS, including violence against women. The promises made in the Declaration included that by 2005 governments would develop and implement “national strategies for women’s empowerment” and support the elimination of “all forms of violence against women and girls.” But, have these promises been kept?

Africa: IMF, World Bank policies stiffling health reforms in Africa

Kenneth Kwama

2005-12-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/30797

Regional ministers converging on Kampala for a health finance conference were last week told that stringent aid requirements by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have made healthcare expensive and inaccessible to poor people in Africa. The Fair and Sustainable Health Financing (FSHF) summit, aimed at making funds available to ensure people have access to high quality public healthcare, was also told that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), are desperately off-track, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. "Unless there is an accelerated push towards achieving the MDGs, generation upon generation will be consigned to a life of poverty, disease and early death," says British charity Save the Children-UK in a policy document titled Time for Change, which was presented at the summit.
IMF, World Bank policies stiffling health reforms in
Africa
By Kenneth Kwama
Regional ministers converging on Kampala for a health
finance conference were last week told that stringent
aid requirements by the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and the World Bank have made healthcare
expensive and inaccessible to poor people in Africa.
The Fair and Sustainable Health Financing (FSHF)
summit, aimed at making funds available to ensure
people have access to high quality public healthcare,
was also told that the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), are desperately off-track, especially in
sub-Saharan Africa.
“Unless there is an accelerated push towards achieving
the MDGs, generation upon generation will be consigned
to a life of poverty, disease and early death,” says
British charity Save the Children-UK in a policy
document titled Time for Change, which was presented
at the summit.
It estimates that an additional $18 billion per year
is needed to achieve the health MDGs.
The charity, in concert with the World Health
Organisation (WHO), has been lobbying for the
abolition of user fees in health financing, arguing
the system has made healthcare expensive and
inaccessible to the poor.
“Charging of user fees has excluded the poor from
health services and because of this, children have had
to bear most of the brunt. That is why we are lobbying
governments to stop using cost-recovery mechanisms for
health services,” says Neil Turner, a programme
director with Save the Children-UK.
The IMF has been playing an indirect role in keeping
the fees in place through advice to governments and
attaching economic conditionalities to its borrowing.
In their past policy papers, the Bretton Woods
institutions have argued that the fees are meant to
promote cost recovery measures “because resources in
the recurrent sector budgets are too small to deliver
services.”
For this reason, conference backers also sought ways
to support African countries to undertake health-
financing reforms, which they argued should be put in
place if the continent is to realize any of the
health-MDGs.
For example, despite having the biggest percentage of
HIV/Aids sufferers and bearing the biggest percentage
of the world’s sick, Africa accounts for only one
percent of world drug sales.
“It only goes to show the huge number of poor people
who cannot afford to pay for healthcare,” said a
participant from Sudan.
Consequently, international investment in health
projects-like an Aids vaccine is quite low. Only about
$10 million to $25million is spent annually in
developing a vaccine.
“We hope support to build health financing capacity in
countries will be institutionalised to enable them
implement, monitor and evaluate reforms to protect
poor people from catastrophic health expenditures,”
says Regina Keith, senior policy advisor and health
researcher at Save the Children-UK.
Dr Dick Johnson, an economist with the WHO, says that
the alternative ways used by countries to collect
revenue to fund healthcare include tax revenue,
earmarked taxes, social health insurance, private
health insurance, user fees and donor funds.
But the health systems of most African countries
depend largely on household’s direct out-of-pocket
payments, which he says are not sustainable since most
people cannot afford to pay.
For this reason, the WHO has been advocating health
insurance schemes, but evidence from elsewhere shows
that social health insurance or commercial health
insurance schemes alone cannot significantly
contribute to increased access to healthcare,
especially in rural and remote areas due to low
household’s income.
The World Bank is the decisive voice financing health
in Africa. As such, the continent’s health delivery
systems are caught up in conditionalities, while
organisations like the WHO are increasingly being
reduced to drumbeaters.
To illustrate the pivotal role of the World Bank in
health financing, participants were shown one of its
documents, titled Financing Health Services in
Developing countries published in 1987 at the height
of the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) in most
of sub-Saharan Africa, which recommended that
developing countries should increase amounts paid by
patients.
Uganda’s minister for health, Jim Muhwezi says the
recommendation led to the disruption of rural primary
healthcare systems in most countries and stagnation of
state budgetary allocations on health.
“We were providing free healthcare to our people
before the SAPs, but this was disrupted with the
introduction of user fees in our health units under
World Bank advice through the ‘Agenda for Reform’ in
1987,” he says.
Uganda abandoned the recommendation after nine years
of experimenting, following an outcry from the
population.
“The abolition of user fees in 2001 led to a rapid
increase in utilization of our health service,
especially by the poor. Our challenge as a government
has been how to raise the required resources to meet
the demand for the scope, volume and quality of
services,” says Muhwezi.
About two decades later, the SAPs euphoria has waned.
As researchers and activists arrived in Kampala last
week, they were not whispering SAPs. They were back to
confronting the evils it has meted on the continennt.
On average, African countries, including Kenya and
Uganda spend six percent of their Gross Domestic
Product on health. But the total health expenditure
per capita in Africa is the lowest in the world-almost
15 times lower than the global average and a far cry
from the amount spent in the US and Europe.
Research by the British charity shows low health
spending could negatively impact on the continent’s
growth because a country’s health system has big
influence on economic growth.
“The economic value of lost life years in 1999 due to
Aids was estimated to be 12 percent of the gross
national product of sub-Saharan Africa while average
economic growth in malaria-free zones is at least one
percent higher than in malaria endemic areas,” says
Regina.
The research also reveals that there is a
corresponding annual economic growth of at least 0.3
to 0.4 percent for every 10 percent increase in life
expectancy at birth.
The IMF and World Bank SAPS have been blamed for the
decimation of healthcare facilities and slow economic
growth. Over the past two decades, the consequences of
SAPS on the health sector in Africa have been severe.
This is why the WHO is seeking to initiate affordable
healthcare financing.
But it remains to be seen whether the World Bank and
the IMF, which have in the past superseded the WHO as
the key players in the formulation of health policies,
will relent and let it carry out with the reforms.

Kenya: Experts wary of bird flu

Kenneth Kwama

2005-12-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/30802

So far, Kenya has been lucky. It has been nearly two years since the bird flu outbreak emerged and more than eight months since the illness spread from its birthplace in Asia. Yet with more than 300 cases in at least eight countries to date, a disease that has rocked Asian markets, ruined the tourist trade of an entire region and spread panic through some of the world's largest countries has largely passed by.
Experts wary of bird flu
By Kenneth Kwama
SO far, Kenya has been lucky. It has been nearly two
years since the bird flu outbreak emerged and more
than eight months since the illness spread from its
birthplace in Asia.
Yet with more than 300 cases in at least eight
countries to date, a disease that has rocked Asian
markets, ruined the tourist trade of an entire region
and spread panic through some of the world’s largest
countries has largely passed by.
But last week, health experts meeting in Kampala to
discuss ways for sustainable healthcare financing in
Africa, warned that time could be nigh.
“This region is susceptible because it sits on the
path for migratory birds from the affected areas. The
fact that Africa lacks manpower and the infrastructure
needed to deal with the spread of the virus is also
worrying,” says Dr Bart Criel of the Institute of
Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium.
One month ago, a team of ornithologists from the
National Museums in Nairobi said they were collecting
specimens from the birds’ anus and throats and sending
them to the Kenya Medical Research Institute for tests
for avian influenza-the virus that cause the disease.
Although none of these tests has come out positive,
Kenya went into red alert following Ethiopia’s
announcement last week that it was commencing a series
of tests to confirm whether a couple of pigeons found
dead on the outskirts of its capital city, Addis
Ababa, were infected with the avian influenza.
A positive confirmation from the Ethiopian experiment
could put the region on a do-not-visit list, heralding
economic and health catastrophes.
“We hope to lobby governments to stop using
cost-recovery mechanisms for health services because
it excludes the poor from health services and this is
bad for children,” says Neil Turner, programme
director of Save the Children UK’s South Sudan
Programme.
The Kampala meeting was organised by the British
charity in collaboration with the World Health
Organisation (WHO), and other development partners.
Last month, the Government ruled out importing two
antiviral drugs used in treating the flu.
But the Director of Medical Services, Dr James Nyikal
later reassured Kenyans that the WHO would ensure the
drugs-Tamiflu and Zanavir-were available in case of an
outbreak.
The WHO on its part, is raising serious concerns it
says needs to be addressed for the region to weather
the storm.
Dr Dick Johnson of the WHO, says that poverty and
illiteracy could hamper any hopes of successful
treatment.
“The existing infrastructure cannot support an
intensive medical operation,” he says. “About 40
percent of the population lack access to safe drinking
water, a similar percentage is illiterate and 47
percent don’t have access to adequate sanitation
facilities,” he says.
According to the WHO, 35 countries spend less than
Sh2500 per capita, regarded as the minimum for
providing an essential healthcare package.
But this is still beyond the scope of the majority
poor and health experts are warning that apathy to
seeking treatment and not the virus itself, would be
the catastrophic killer should the bird flu strike.
“Most people in the region don’t seek treatment
because they can’t afford the cost. It could be hard
getting people to go to the hospitals until all the
fees are scrapped and this could take some time,” says
Regina Keith, a senior health policy advisor with the
British charity, Save the Children-UK.
The charges, she says, are in place in most
sub-Saharan African countries.
“The fees and other out of pocket costs are a
significant deterrent for families seeking healthcare,
leading to dangerous delays in seeking help outside
the household.”
Despite intensive research in labs allover the world,
scientists still have more questions than answers
about Avian influenza.
With fewer than 300 known avian influenza deaths so
far, the worldwide toll is tiny compared with, say,
the millions of people who died from Aids last year.
But if the virus continues to spread, its numbers
could skyrocket.
Treatment is a grueling complicated affair that
involves putting patients in isolation while they are
being treated and strict adherence is essential.
If there is any good news for Africa from the WHO, it
is the endorsement of a previous health ministers’
resolution to vouch for the local production of
generic medicines and the removal of procedural
requirements, relating to exports and imports of
generic drugs.
Under compulsory licensing, countries can be allowed
to produce patent-protected drugs to address health
emergencies.
And the Kampala meeting endorsed a resolution by the
ministers to mandate the African Union Commission to
alert heads of state of the imminent threat of the
avian influenza pandemic and seek technical assistance
for member states on strengthening integrated disease
surveillance and response.

Nigeria: Global AIDS Fund Explains Nigeria’s Suspension

2005-12-08

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=35079

More facts have emerged on why the over N30 billion grant made available to Nigeria for the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by an international financial institution, Global Fund, was suspended. A letter addressed to the Federal Ministry of Health by the Fund, said "serious concerns have been raised about grant implementation and the ability of the principal recipient to achieve the goals of the grants".

South Africa: Good leadership needed

2005-12-07

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20031347

South Africans living with HIV/AIDS have once again had a horribly confusing year, thanks to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s promotion of those who denounce antiretroviral drugs. The most memorable alliance the Minister made this year was with the internationally discredited German vitamin salesman, Dr Matthais Rath, who claims that his vitamins can “reverse AIDS”. The Minister’s persistent refusal to denounce the Rath Foundation’s activities has resulted in the Treatment Action Campaign and SA Medical Association resorting to the courts this week to try to force her and her Director-General, Thami Mseleku, to “take measures against [Dr Matthais Rath’s] illegal activities”.

Zimbabwe: Human Rights Defenders Arrested, World AIDS Day Activities Disrupted

2005-12-07

http://www.afronets.org/archive/200512/msg00031.php

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has noted with grave concern that the Zimbabwe Republic Police interrupted the commemoration of World AIDS Day on the 1st of December in Harare. "The commemoration of this day by People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) after an initiative by the Women and AIDS Support Net- work (WASN), supported by other AIDS activists from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Zimbabwe Activists on HIV/AIDS (ZAHA) and the Zimbabwe National Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS (ZNNP+) had initially been authorised by the police after WASN took them to the High Court to compel them to grant such permission."

Zimbabwe: Transit premieres in Harare

2005-12-07

http://www.swedenabroad.com/pages/news____43776.asp&root=29252

About 150 members of civil society organisations, mainly Sida partners in various fields of human rights and HIV/Aids, converged at the Royal Harare Golf Club to witness the premiere of the Sida-funded feature, Transit on 1st December 2005. The occasion was held to mark World Aids Day. The event also featured entertainment and music provided by another Sida partner in the culture sector, the Zimbabwe College of Music, whose music featured the poem “Let my voice speak” recited by Masimba Biriwasha of the Zimbabwe Aids Network (ZAN).

Education

Africa: New African language edition of Leadership Training Manual available - Women’s Learning Partnership

2005-12-07

http://www.store.yahoo.com/learningpartnership/trainman.html

A new Shona edition of Leading to Choices: A Leadership Training Handbook for Women is now available. The manual is translated into 13 languages including three African languages, Hausa, Swahili and Shona, as well as in English and French. Developed in collaboration with WLP’s partner organisations in the Global South, this resource is based on a conceptualisation of leadership as horizontal, inclusive, and participatory.

Egypt: The effect of child work on schooling - evidence from Egypt

2005-12-07

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC20380

This paper from the Economic Research Forum (ERF), Egypt includes causal evidence that lower crude rates of school attendance for Egyptian children are not due to limited access to schools but rather to a substantial burden of work. Although some activists argue that all child labour should be abolished, the authors prefer a more nuanced approach which does not assume that all work - whether it is paid or unpaid, labour force or domestic - is good or bad for children and youth. While some work activities of children are unquestionably detrimental to their physical and/or mental well-being, most tasks undertaken by Egyptian 6-14 year olds do not fall clearly in these categories.

Global: 90M girls worldwide missing primary school education because of pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, other factors, UNICEF reports

2005-12-07

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=33945

About 90 million girls worldwide are not receiving primary school education, compared with 25 million boys, because of factors including HIV/AIDS, early marriage and teen pregnancy, according to a UNICEF report, the AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. Poverty, war, natural catastrophes and traditional gender roles are other factors that keep girls out of school, according to the report, titled "Gender Achievements and Prospects in Education". As a result, almost 50 countries will fall short of reaching a U.N. Millennium Development Goal target of achieving gender parity in primary education by the end of this year. Lack of education puts girls at greater risk of contracting HIV and other diseases, as well as becoming victims of violence, abuse, poverty and exploitation, the report says.

Global: Guide to Teaching Reading at the Primary School Level

2005-12-07

http://tinyurl.com/dy9ty

This guide is intended to enable teachers to enhance and develop quality reading programmes at the primary school level that lead to improved reading outcomes. This manual is based on the results of work with teacher trainers as well as studies carried out by UNESCO in China, Ethiopia and Jamaica. Literacy is one of UNESCO’s three special target areas to accelerate progress towards Education for All by 2015; the others are Teacher Training and HIV/AIDS prevention education.

Global: New guidelines for quality provision in cross-border higher education

2005-12-07

http://tinyurl.com/agdjr

New guidelines prepared by UNESCO and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) offer tools and sets of useful orientations to assess the quality of higher education provided across borders. They aim to protect students and other stakeholders from the risks of misinformation, low quality provision and qualifications of limited validity.

Environment

Africa/Global: World Bank "new investment framework", a great leap backwards for sustainable energy

2005-12-06

http://www.foe.org/camps/intl/cleanenergy/wbreport/index.html

The World Bank is failing to live up to its clean energy mandate, agreed at the 2005 G8 Summit, figures in a new report from the bank reveal. The revelation comes as the World Bank is taking an increasingly high profile and controversial role at the UN climate talks currently underway in Montreal. The Bank hopes to control several global funds and initiatives supposed to help solve the climate crisis. But the World Bank's own energy report exposes the institution's failure to act on its mandate from G8's Gleneagles summit to "take a leadership role in creating a new framework for clean energy and development." The bank's report shows that 60 per cent of its supposed support for renewable energy and energy efficiency (RE & EE) is in fact for big hydro projects.

Africa: African elephants threatened by China's demand for ivory

2005-12-06

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article331144.ece

African elephants are facing a renewed threat from poachers who are after the tusks in order to sell the ivory to China's emerging and luxury-hungry middle class, conservationists warn. Although the global ivory trade was banned in 1990, it has persisted in places like Sudan's capital Khartoum and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a lot of ivory is reportedly transferred to shops in China.

Africa: Alternative power for your home

2005-12-07

http://cooltech.iafrica.com/features/659371.htm

More and more households are looking to alternative power or renewable energy as a constant source of electricity in a bid to cut down on costly monthly bills or decrease greenhouse emissions in the environment. Coal-driven energy has not only had a noticeable effect on the environment, but has also seen the decline of the world's natural resources, prompting "green" nations and businesses to promote renewable sources of power. One such group is Sustainable Energy Africa, a non-governmental organisation which endorses and researches sustainable energy resources in developing African communities. What they have done is build an energy efficient (or eco) house that runs completely on alternative energy sources, like solar and hydro power.

Global: World Renewable Energy Assembly (WREA) 2005 calls for Human Right to Renewable Energy

2005-12-06

http://www.wrea2005.org

The World Renewable Energy Assembly (WREA) 2005 in Bonn/Germany has ended with the adoption of the final communiqué entitled "The Human Right to Renewable Energy". More than 450 representatives from politics and parliaments, from science and industry as well as NGOs and social movements met in Bonn from November 26th to 30th, 2005, following an invitation of the World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE). For the full communique, please follow the link.

Global: World Resources 2005 - The Wealth of the Poor: Managing Ecosystems to Fight Poverty

2005-12-07

http://population.wri.org/newsrelease_text.cfm?NewsReleaseID=336

This report stresses the urgent need to look beyond aid projects, debt relief and trade reform, and focus on local natural resources to address the crisis of poverty in all parts of the globe. ‘Traditional assumptions about addressing poverty treat the environment almost as an afterthought,’ said Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute (WRI). ‘This report addresses the stark reality of the poor: three-fourths of them live in rural areas; their environment is all they can depend on.’

Tanzania: UK water company condemned for suing

2005-12-05

http://www.oneworld.net/link/gotoarticle/addhit/123268/8/50124

Campaigners have condemned UK water company Biwater for suing Tanzania, one of the poorest countries in the world. The company was kicked out earlier this year for allegedly failing to make required investments under a $102 million privatisation contract or to improve water services in Dar es Salaam.

Land & land rights

South Africa: Land reform in the Northern Cape

2005-12-15

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC19842&Resource=f1agric

Since 1994, the South African government has embarked on an ambitious land reform programme to redistribute and return land to previously disenfranchised communities. However, many black people lack the knowledge, skills and experience needed to manage their land. Furthermore, this paper finds that the way in which the government is implementing its land reform programme is constraining many of its beneficiaries from making agriculture a more important part of their livelihoods.

South Africa: Villagers demand compensation for betterment removals

2005-12-07

http://southafrica.indymedia.org/

More than 7000 people gathered in rural Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape on Saturday, to celebrate the “Vulamasango Singene” campaign, which aims to secure compensation for victims of betterment dispossession in the province. The stadium in Cofimvaba was filled with people from 85 villages in the western part of the former Transkei, wearing yellow t-shirts with the campaign slogan: Vulamasango Singene (open the doors, we go in). Music and dance groups were performing in front of the excited crowd, who also listened to speak-outs from people whose land was taken away when the betterment policy of the former apartheid government was implemented from the 1930´s and onwards. Nomkhita Davidson spoke about the day when her family was forcibly removed in the 1960s. “They burned our houses and chased us with guns. We ran away without our possessions. A woman had to give birth to her child in the mountains. Gun shots were fired all around us. It was a terrible day”, she said.

Media & freedom of expression

Egypt: Three TV crews prevented from filming at polling stations

2005-12-06

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15736

Three television crews were prevented from covering the third round of voting in Egypt’s parliamentary elections that took place in nine provinces on 1 December. Police stopped an Al-Hurra crew from shooting the surroundings of a polling station in El-Mansoura (120 km north of Cairo) which received a lot of coverage in the first two rounds. An Al Jazeera crew was prevented from filming in Bandar-Kafr-El-Sheikh, north of the capital. Plain-clothes agents confiscated their camera, destroyed their video-cassette and threatened to break the camera if they tried to film again or take photos. Security agents briefly detained a three-member CNBC Arabiya crew that tried to cover the elections in El-Zaqaziq (83 km east of Cairo).

Eritrea: Freed journalist sent back to jail

2005-12-06

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/70914/?PHPSESSID=c3a9c6770b2f407e6d340a04a0f3de8a

The Committee to Protect Journalists says it is outraged by news that Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaac was returned to jail just two days after being released in mid-November. Isaac is one of 15 Eritrean journalists who have been jailed incommunicado and without charge or forced into extended military service following a September 2001 clampdown that shut down the country's private press. CPJ sources confirmed that Isaac, who has dual Swedish and Eritrean nationality, has been returned to jail. During his brief release, he was able to phone his wife in Sweden as well as Leif Öbrink, a close friend who heads a campaign in Sweden for his release.

Kenya: Stories of Hope Told on Air: Women Widowed by AIDS Get Back Their Land

2005-12-05

http://www.internews.org/news/2005/20051202_kenya.html

On December 1, World AIDS Day in Kenya was marked with seven radio stations telling the stories of disinherited AIDS widows who have managed to get back their deceased husbands’ land. The broadcasts followed a two-day training in Nairobi for senior journalists on the issue, organized by Internews and the POLICY Project.

Morocco: Access to Sahrawi sites blocked

2005-12-06

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15809

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the censorship of many websites supporting the Polisario Front’s struggle for Sahrawi independence, such as Arso.org, which have been made inaccessible within Morocco. Calling on the Moroccan authorities to stop blocking access to sites dealing with Western Sahara, the organisation said : “It should not be possible to take a decision to filter a website without a fair trial taking place first. Banning an online publication simply on the basis of an administrative decision is a serious violation of free expression.”

Mozambique: Cardosa retrial begins

2005-12-06

http://www.journalism.co.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3427&CAMSSID=bd279775438af37527f172208b927f6a

At the start of his retrial for the crime, Anibal dos Santos Junior, or Anibalzinho, has denied any involvement in the 2000 murder of Mozambican investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso, writes Charles Mangwiro in a story reposted on www.journalism.co.za ”I neither killed nor contracted anybody to kill Cardoso,” Anibalzinho told the Maputo city court. He was previously sentenced to Mozambique’s longest jail term of 28 and half years after being tried in absentia two years ago.

Niger: "Le Visionnaire" director sentenced to two months in prison

2005-12-06

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/70913/?PHPSESSID=c3a9c6770b2f407e6d340a04a0f3de8a

The Committee to Protect Journalists says it is deeply troubled by the continued imprisonment of Salifou Soumaila Abdoulkarim, director of the private weekly Le Visionnaire. Abdoulkarim was sentenced on Friday to two months in jail and a symbolic one-franc CFA fine for allegedly defaming State Treasurer Siddo Elhadj. "Jailing journalists for critical reporting is totally unacceptable," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "We call on the government of Niger to release Abdoulkarim, and work toward the elimination of criminal libel."

South Africa: Mangcu quits HSRC, cites undue interference

2005-12-08

http://allafrica.com/stories/200512070177.html

In a move that could cast doubt on the continued independence of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Xolela Mangcu has quit as a director of the research institute due to what he calls "undue and inappropriate political interference". Mangcu is the first senior member to break ranks at the HSRC. His sudden resignation could ratchet up fears that government is seeking to impose a greater hold on supposedly autonomous organisations.

Tanzania: Tanzania slaps bans on two newspapers

2005-12-06

http://www.sarpn.org.za/newsflash.php#4103

Tanzania’s government has temporarily closed two newspapers for allegedly violating the law. The prime minister’s office ordered Tanzania Daima not to publish over the weekend while Amani, a tabloid, was to suspend production and distribution for 28 days. The government accused Daima of maligning President Benjamin Mkapa, an offence under the Newspapers Act.

Tunisia: A night in Tunisia

2005-12-08

http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2005/tunisia_wsis_05/tunisia_wsis_05.html

Ordinary Tunisians are still living in the darkness of a regime that watches them, intimidates them, and denies them the right to free speech, says this report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). "Ironically, WSIS might well have made conditions worse for local journalists, at least temporarily, because it provoked more crackdowns by the government."

News from the diaspora

UK: Zimbabwean Yarls Wood hunger strikers taken to hospital

2005-12-07

http://www.ncadc.org.uk/archives/filed%20newszines/newszine%2064/Zim2.htm

Two of the six Zimbabwean hunger strikers at Yarls Wood have been taken to Bedford Hospital (in the UK) after refusing meals for a month. Thando Mpofu, 28, and Amanda Sibiya, 21, were admitted on Monday. They are protesting against threatened deportation from the detention centre near Clapham. A doctor's report said that the women were at high risk of suffering from a mild form of brain damage – or Wernicke's encephalopathy – unless re-feeding was carried out at hospital. Four other women refugees are still reported to be refusing meals at Yarls Wood. Miss Mpofu claimed at the beginning of their strike that they faced torture or death at the hands of the Zimbabwean government if they were forced home.

Conflict & emergencies

Africa: Nations should support an Arms Trade Treaty

2005-12-08

http://www.amnesty.org

African nations were today (December 7) challenged to publicly declare their support for an international Arms Trade Treaty as the France-Africa Summit began in Mali. Only last weekend, leaders from 52 Commonwealth countries, 18 of them African, called for better control of small arms and for negotiations to begin on an Arms Trade Treaty. African countries including Mali, Ghana, Senegal and Kenya have already given their backing to the Treaty, which would ban all arms transfers which are likely to lead to human rights abuses. Other African nations should follow their lead, said campaigners.

Angola/Cuba: Angolan War Memories Live On

2005-12-07

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31247

The arrival of December in Cuba, as well as signalling the end of the hurricane season and the scorching temperatures of summer, is also a time for remembering one of the most dramatic periods in recent Cuban history: the country's 13-year-long participation in the war in Angola. Between 1975 and 1988, some 350,000 Cubans took part in the civil war in the southern African nation, which was also the last time Cuba's military forces were involved in an armed conflict. According to Cuban government figures, during all of the "internationalist" missions carried out in Africa from the early 1960s to the withdrawal of the last soldier from Angola on May 25, 1991, a total of 2,077 Cubans were killed.

DRC: Relief efforts blocked in northern Katanga as fighting continues

2005-12-07

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50510

The international humanitarian aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says that the army in northern Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has blocked relief workers from entering the area since beginning a military campaign against local militias there in mid-November. "We think there are many people who need assistance," the coordinator of MSF's Emergency Team in the DRC, Laurence Sailly, told IRIN on Monday from Kinshasa. However, MSF said as it could not get close to the front line it could not give a reliable estimate of the scale of the problem.

East Africa: Panic in Nairobi as tremors hit six EA states

2005-12-06

http://www.sarpn.org.za/newsflash.php#4102

Panic gripped Nairobi on Monday afternoon as the waves of a massive earthquake on Lake Tanganyika shook buildings in Kenya, some 975 kilometres away, sending workers scampering to safety. The earthquake, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, was reported to have toppled dozens of homes and killed several people on the Congo-Tanzania border. By Monday evening, the number of casualties was yet to be established.

Liberia: UN freezes gunrunners' assets

2005-12-06

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01331844.htm

The United Nations Security Council has urged all governments to freeze the assets and travel of two persons linked to past arms sales to Liberia. The two individuals -- a Syrian-born accountant from Texas and a Ukrainian-born businessman with an address in the United Arab Emirates -- are said to have ties with an international gunrunner linked to former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, who is wanted on war crimes charges in Sierra Leone.

Nigeria: Slowdown as Biafra separatists call strike

2005-12-06

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50501

Shops, schools and banks were shut in many parts of southeast Nigeria on Monday (December 5), the first day of a two-day strike called by a separatist group refusing to abandon its long fight for an independent state. The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) called the stay-at-home protest to back a demand for independence for the region's ethnic Igbos. The group is also protesting the continued detention of its leader, Ralph Uwazurike, currently facing trial for treason. One MASSOB activist said the strike was but a "warning" of things to come if their leader is not released.

Somalia: World Food Programme delivers food by land to avoid pirates

2005-12-06

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4498872.stm

The World Food Programme has transported food aid to Somalia by road from Kenya, opting to take the land route after pirates earlier this year hijacked a WFP-chartered ship with food aid off the Somali coast. "It is 25-30% cheaper to bring our food aid in by sea and boats can carry much more, but we have had to resort to this land route because ship-owners feel it is too risky to sail to the south," WFP Somalia Country Director Zlatan Milisic said.

Sudan: Darfur talks need progress on land rights, security

2005-12-07

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06690450.htm

Finding a consensus on land rights and disarmament is essential to advance peace talks between Sudan's government and Darfur rebels, African mediators said, although both sides were far apart on the issues. The latest talks to end the violence in Darfur opened last week in Abuja with the rebels, presenting a unified front, forcing the government to tackle the key theme of power sharing for the first time after six previous negotiating rounds.

Internet & technology

Africa/Global: Livening up the debate on the WSIS

2005-12-07

http://www.panos.org.uk/iwitness/summit/shanmugavelan.asp

"The big relief is that the debate around the information society no longer needs to be tied to the WSIS process," said communications expert David Souter at Panos London's final briefing in Tunis. Very true, writes Murali Shanmugavelan in this article on the Panos iWitness web page. The information society is broader than the agenda of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) could ever have hoped to cover. And the resulting non-binding Tunis Declaration has produced little in concrete terms for developing countries.

Free Online "Open Content" Initiatives Announced

2005-12-05

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0511/S00315.htm

A new Web initiative launched at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), will connect anyone with Internet access and the desire to learn to a world of free, high-quality open educational materials. The Development Gateway Foundation's "Open Educational Resources" portal aims to equalize access to education and help people in developing countries improve their chances for a better life.

Learning to stream

2005-12-05

http://www.streamingsuitcase.com/frame.html

The Streaming Suitcase is a resource for those wanting to learn to stream. The material is all licensed under Creative Commons and is free to download and distribute. The manuals are all available online, and can be downloaded in PDF, or output in a print friendly format. The manuals will also be updated periodically so check them for updates.

Sending out an SMS

Case study of SMS use by Amnesty International

2005-12-05

http://www.newtactics.org/main.php/SendingOutanSMS

Amnesty International has found a new “weapon” to use in its battle against torture: cell-phone text messages. These messages of up to 160 characters and transmitted by cell phone are known in many countries by the acronym SMS, which stands for “short-messaging service.” With these messages, protests can be gathered faster than ever, enabling Amnesty International to take action against torture and other abuses more quickly. About 39 percent of the cell-phone campaigns conducted by Amnesty in 2002 were successful. Prisoners of conscience were released, people who had “disappeared” were found and death sentences were not carried out.

eNewsletters & mailing lists

Global: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre - new name and website

2005-12-06

http://tinyurl.com/anunv

The Global IDP Project of the Norwegian Refugee Council has changed its name to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). The name change is accompanied by a relaunch of the IDMC's website and its online IDP database. Visit the website to register for email alerts.

Global: New Text Only Version of Crisis Group's website

2005-12-06

http://www.crisisgroup.org/text/

The International Crisis Group has announced the launch of a new Text Only version of their website. Crisis Group has developed the Text Only version to allow users with slow internet connections easier access to reports and resources available on the Crisis Group website.

Global: The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

2005-12-08

http://www.child-soldiers.org/resources/newletters

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers works to prevent the recruitment and use of children as soldiers, to secure their demobilisation and to ensure their rehabilitation and reintegration into society. The Child Soldiers Newsletter is published three times a year, with the support of the Human Security Program at Foreign Affairs Canada.

Global: Two new id21 email newsletters

2005-12-06

http://www.id21.org/id21-email/email.html

id21 communicates international development research to policymakers and practitioners worldwide. id21 now has two new categories - rural development and natural resources and are offering two new email newsletters.

South Africa: E-Talk on Domestic Violence

2005-12-07

http://www.chatzy.com/409226486991

Lisa Vetten, manager of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation's Gender-Based Violence Programme, will be part of an Agenda e-talk. The e-talk will be held on Thursday the 8th of December from 13:00 - 14:00 SA time. You can join the chat by going to the online community section on the Agenda website (http://www.agenda.org.za) and clicking on Agenda e-talk link or by following the link below.

Fundraising & useful resources

Inclusive Security, Sustainable Peace

A Toolkit for Advocacy and Action

2005-12-07

http://www.comminit.com/materials/ma2005/materials-2568.html

This resource is designed to help women peace builders and practitioners to effectively promote peace and security. Initiative for Inclusive Security and International Alert collaborated to produce this toolkit, which outlines the components of peace building from conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction and highlights the role that women play in each phase.

The Open Society Institute

2005-12-07

http://www.soros.org/about

The Open Society Institute (OSI), a private operating and grantmaking foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. On a local level, OSI implements a range of initiatives to support the rule of law, education, public health, and independent media.

Courses, seminars, & workshops

Holocaust and Human Behaviour course

2005-12-05

http://www.facinghistorycampus.org/campus/events.nsf/oc_brochure_intl?openform

The online course, Holocaust and Human Behavior, is a powerful learning experience that provides an overview of the rise of the Nazis and the Holocaust. Throughout the course, connections are made to other histories, such as those of Rwanda and South Africa. Participants relate the choices people made at other times with those faced in the world today.

Invitation to an AU-CSO parallel forum in Khartoum

Sudan: 21-22 January 2006

2005-12-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/30704

You are cordially invited to participate in a 2-day parallel civil society forum on the 21 and 22 of January 2006. The forum will be in advance of the Heads of States Summit in Khartoum - Sudan, and will be an opportunity for civil society to address Peace and Security issues on the continent. The Peace and Development Platform (PAD), a programme of ACTION for Conflict Transformation network is organising this forum with the aim of bridging gaps and forging partnerships between grassroots and policy makers.
ACTION for Conflict Transformation

ACTION Support Centre:
Postnet Suite #145, Private Bag X9, Melville, 2109, South Africa
Fax/tel +27 (0)11 331 0671 / 331 2944
Email: enquiries@actionsupport.co.za

Invitation to an AU-CSO parallel forum in Khartoum - Sudan: 21-22 January 2006

You are cordially invited to participate in a 2-day parallel civil society forum on the 21 and 22 of January 2006. The forum will be in advance of the Heads of States Summit in Khartoum - Sudan, and will be an opportunity for civil society to address Peace and Security issues on the continent. The Peace and Development Platform (PAD), a programme of ACTION for Conflict Transformation network is organising this forum with the aim of bridging gaps and forging partnerships between grassroots and policy makers.

The primary objective of this forum, is to further the development of a knowledgeable and empowered civil society, both the confidence and the experience of articulating grassroots needs and interests to continental governance structures. This forum will hold thematic workshops on civil society engagement with governance structures and other peace and security issues that will:
Present a learning opportunity for participants
Provide networking opportunities for participants
Result in agenda/position papers to be presented at the Summit

There will also be a press conference during this event with the objectives of:
Allowing grassroots voices to articulate their needs in relation to human security, peace and development
Present PAD’s position in relation to peace and security issues
Consolidate an ongoing dialogue with the media regarding the need for policies at continental structures to be informed by grassroots experiences

We regret to tell you that, due to unlimited funds for this process, participants are advised to source funding for their transport, accommodation and catering for the duration of the forum. Given the limited time frame we would be most grateful if you are able to confirm your participation by completing and returning the enclosed ‘Participant Response Form’ by 14th December 2005. This invitation is transferable to an appropriate colleague of yours who can represent your organisation and he/she should complete the attached form accordingly.

Jobs

*Intitulé du poste : Correspondant régional pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest Pambazuka News

2005-12-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/30835

* Intitulé du poste : Correspondant régional pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest
Pambazuka News (www.pambazuka.org)

Temps partiel

Information sur Pambazuka News et Fahamu

Pambazuka News est la newsletter électronique hebdomadaire de référence. À la pointe du combat pour la justice sociale en Afrique, elle fournit des commentaires incisifs et des analyses en profondeur sur différents sujets comme la politique et les questions d’actualité, le développement, les droits de l’homme, les réfugiés, les questions de genre et la culture en Afrique.

Pambazuka News offre un tour d’horizon hebdomadaire exhaustif des informations sur les droits de l’homme, les conflits, la santé, l’environnement, les affaires sociales, le développement, l’Internet, la littérature et les arts en Afrique. Pambazuka News est produit par Fahamu (www.fahamu.org), une organisation qui utilise les technologies de la communications et de l’information pour couvrir les besoins des organismes et des mouvements sociaux qui aspirent a un changement social progressif.

Nous sommes à la recherche d’une personne motivée, indépendante et sensible aux problèmes de société afin de se joindre à notre équipe en tant que : CORRESPONDANT RÉGIONAL.
* Intitulé du poste : Correspondant régional pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest
Pambazuka News (www.pambazuka.org)

Temps partiel

Information sur Pambazuka News et Fahamu

Pambazuka News est la newsletter électronique hebdomadaire de référence. À la pointe du combat pour la justice sociale en Afrique, elle fournit des commentaires incisifs et des analyses en profondeur sur différents sujets comme la politique et les questions d’actualité, le développement, les droits de l’homme, les réfugiés, les questions de genre et la culture en Afrique.

Pambazuka News offre un tour d’horizon hebdomadaire exhaustif des informations sur les droits de l’homme, les conflits, la santé, l’environnement, les affaires sociales, le développement, l’Internet, la littérature et les arts en Afrique. Pambazuka News est produit par Fahamu (www.fahamu.org), une organisation qui utilise les technologies de la communications et de l’information pour couvrir les besoins des organismes et des mouvements sociaux qui aspirent a un changement social progressif.

Nous sommes à la recherche d’une personne motivée, indépendante et sensible aux problèmes de société afin de se joindre à notre équipe en tant que : CORRESPONDANT RÉGIONAL.

Responsabilités : En tant que membre de l’équipe de Pambazuka news, et en étroite collaboration avec notre bureau de Cape Town, Afrique du Sud, vos responsabilités seront les suivantes :

- Recherche et rédaction de matériel pour la newsletter hebdomadaire ainsi que pour le site Internet ;
- Recherche, recrutement et/ou interview de sources d’informations pertinentes pour des articles destinés à la publication dans la newsletter ou sur le site Internet ;
- Compte-rendu d’événements capitaux survenant dans la région ;
- Suivi des sources d’information pertinentes;
- Développement de relations suivies avec les sources d’information au sein de sa région désignée et extension de la portée de Pambazuka News ;
- Développement de contacts avec les médias appropriés dans sa région et liaison avec ceux-ci lorsque nécessaire.

Critères personnels

Vous devrez être sensible aux problèmes de société et posséder d’excellentes qualités rédactionnelles. Nous sommes à la recherche d’un candidat doté des compétences et qualités suivantes :

Qualités essentielles

- Expérience dans la recherche ou le journalisme au sein d’un environnement académique, médiatique ou de recherche ;
- Compétences en rédaction, correction et recrutement de sources ;
- Français courant, écrit et parlé, et une bonne maîtrise de l’Anglais ;
- Preuve tangible d’un intérêt réel ainsi que d’un véritable engagement pour promotion de la justice sociale et la défense dune cause ;
- Familiarité avec l’Internet en tant qu’outil de recherche, de compte-rendu et de communication ;
- Capacité à travailler en dehors de toute supervision directe ;
- Avoir accès à l’Internet ;
- Connaître les nouveaux types de médias et le potentiel qu’offre la technologie à l’activisme social ;
- Excellente connaissance et bonne compréhension des affaires africaines ainsi que des débats actuels autour du développement de l’Afrique ;
- Une expérience du travail en Afrique, surtout dans les médias serait un avantage ;
- Capacité à respecter des délais ;
- Résider et/ou travailler dans la région ;
- Mobilité géographique occasionnelle ;

Qualités désirables :

- Un diplôme de journalisme ou dans quelque autre domaine adéquat ;
- Connaissance du secteur de la société civile en Afrique ;
- Engagement direct en tant que militant dans la région ;
- Connaissance des opérations de l’Union Africaine, et des autres corps régionaux.

Il s’agit d’un contrat initial à durée déterminée de six mois, renouvelable pour une durée pouvant se monter à deux ans suivant performance et disponibilité de fonds. Nous considérons que le poste demande un engagement de deux à trois jours par semaine. La rémunération sera proportionnelle à l’expérience.

Si vous pensez avoir le profil requis, veuillez envoyer une lettre de motivation d’une page accompagnée d’un CV de deux pages à : editor@pambazuka.org La date butoir/délai pour les dépôts de candidatures est le 10 Decembre 2005. Veuillez prendre note que seuls les candidats sélectionnés seront contactés. Il sera demandé aux candidats sélectionnés de passer un test court.

Pambazuka News (www.pambazuka.org)

Job Title: Regional Correspondent: West Africa

Reporting to: The Editor, Pambazuka News

Part-time

About Pambazuka News and Fahamu

Pambazuka News is the authoritative electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa providing cutting edge commentary and in-depth analysis on politics and current affairs, development, human rights, refugees, gender issues and culture in Africa.

Pambazuka News offers a comprehensive weekly round-up of news on human rights, conflict, health, environment, social welfare, development, the internet, literature and arts in Africa. Pambazuka News is produced by Fahamu (www.fahamu.org), an organisation that uses information and communication technologies to serve the needs of organisations and social movements that aspire to progressive social change.

We are looking for a motivated, independent and socially conscious individual to join our team as REGIONAL CORRESPONDENT.

Responsibilities: As part of the Pambazuka News team, and in close contact with our office in Cape Town, South Africa, your responsibilities will involve:

- Researching and writing material for the weekly newsletter and website;
- Researching, commissioning and/or interviewing relevant sources for articles to be published in the newsletter and on the website;
- Reporting on key events in the region;
- Monitoring of relevant information sources;
- Developing relationships with sources of information in your assigned region and extending the reach of Pambazuka News;
- Developing contacts with relevant media in your area and liaising with them where necessary.

Person specifications

You must be a socially committed individual with excellent writing skills. We are seeking someone with the following skills and qualities:

Essential:

- Experience as a researcher or journalist in an academic, media or development field;
- Writing, editing and commissioning skills;
- Fluency in French written and spoken, and good command of English;
- Proven track record, interest and commitment to social justice and advocacy;
- Familiarity with the internet as a research, reporting and communicating tool;
- Ability to work without direct supervision;
- Access to the internet;
- Knowledge of new media and the potential of technology for social activism;
- Excellent general knowledge and a good understanding of African affairs and the current debates around Africa’s development;
- Experience of working in Africa, especially in the media, would be an advantage;
- Ability to meet tight deadlines;
- Be living and/or working in the region.
- Willing to travel occasionally

Desirable:

- A degree in journalism or other relevant field;
- Knowledge of the civil society sector in Africa;
- Direct engagement as an activist in the region;
- Knowledge of operations of African Union, and other regional bodies.

This is for a fixed period of six months in the first instance, renewable for up to 2 years depending on performance and the availability of funds. We envisage that the position will require a commitment of two to three days per week. Remuneration will be commensurate with experience.

If you believe you fit the above details please send a one-page covering letter and two-page CV to editor@pambazuka.org The deadline date for applications is 10 December 2005. Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Short listed candidates will be required to complete a short test.

Ghana: Counsellor - International Federation of Women Lawyers/CUSO

2005-12-07

http://tinyurl.com/7d9h7

FIDA Ghana plans to increase its awareness and educational campaigns programs as well as women and children empowerment programs in Ghana. This placement is intended to strengthen the capacity of FIDA to continue to promote its human rights programs in Ghana.

Kenya: Program Coordinator - Horn Relief

2005-12-08

http://www.hornrelief.org

Horn Relief is seeking a qualified and committed individual to join the Horn Relief team as the Program Coordinator. The Program Coordinator will be a full-time member of the Horn Relief staff, working with the Management and Field Teams in Nairobi, Kenya and the Horn Relief offices in Somalia. The Program Coordinator reports to and works most closely with the Executive Director, Deputy Director, and Field Director. The Program Coordinator will develop and implement fundraising strategies, and will be responsible for program design and linking field operations to program administration and planning.

Liberia: Country Director - ZOA

2005-12-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/30770

ZOA is an international NGO operating in more than 10 countries worldwide. ZOA supports refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees and others affected by conflict or natural disasters. ZOA is funded largely by the Dutch protestant church community, so having an active involvement within the Protestant community is an //important requirement for all ZOA senior staff, although ZOA gives aid irrespective of faith, race or nationality. Follow the link for the posting of Country Director in Liberia.
ZOA has had a presence in Liberia for the past 2 years. Initially ZOA’s response was to assist the thousands of homeless people displaced by the civil war with emergency aid. ZOA is now running a longer term programme with a focus on rehabilitation and an emphasis on food security, peace initiatives and education. The programme has approximately 50 staff and an annual budget of 2 000 000. This posting is in Monrovia, and can include an accompanying spouse but no children.

Candidates for this challenging senior position must be graduates preferably with a postgraduate qualification in management or a related development field. They must also have substantial management experience in an international setting within a development context. Experience in emergency assistance and/or rural development and some exposure to security management is also desirable. This senior management position will attract leaders who are flexible and adaptable with interpersonal and cross cultural sensitivity and the ability to work under pressure in a sometimes fluid environment.
Interested candidates should send an application/motivation letter and a CV to lisa@actionappointments.co.za by 4th January 2006.

http://www.actionappointments.co.za

Nigeria: Program Officer - Media, Arts and Culture – Ford Foundation

2005-12-08

http://www.fordfound.org/employment/jobdetail.cfm?id=98

The Program Officer will be responsible for developing, monitoring and evaluating the Foundation's West Africa programming in media, arts and culture. The program's overall goal is to promote the use of media, arts and culture as key resources for strengthening social, cultural and economic development.

South Africa: Affiliate/Associate Development Officer - ActionAid International

2005-12-07

http://www.civicus.org/new/jobs_info.asp?id=346

ActionAid International (AAI) is looking for a dynamic and committed individual to join its Affiliate/ Associate Development Team. This role will be responsible for providing support to the Head of Affiliate/ Associate Development in coordinating the internationalisation process of AAI.

South Africa: Information Systems Assistant – United Nations Information Centre

2005-12-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/30711

UNIC is looking for someone with knowledge of at least two programming languages, basic systems analysis and design techniques, testing, debugging, and documentation standards, and database design. Good analytical and problem solving skills and ability to handle a range of systems-related issues to work as an Information Systems Assistant in their Pretoria office.

UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION CENTRE - PRETORIA

Information Systems Assistant

Level: G6
Salary: R 11 958,00 – R 16 136,00
Type of Appointment: 3-months, renewable for 12 months based on contract
Organisational Unit: United Nations Information Centre
Duty Station: Pretoria South Africa
Starting Date: February / March 2006

Responsibilities:

·Participate in the development, programming, testing, debugging, implementation and support of Content Management System (CMS) and other information systems releases, modules and functionalities.

·Independently liaise with users in African UN Information Centre’s (UNIC) to define and specify requirements.

·Prepare technical and user documentation for CMS, as well as training materials and conduct technical presentations.

·Maintain functional specification for CMS, other programs and procedures developed and/or modified.

·Migrate UNICs’ websites into CMS.

·Troubleshoot and provide support for CMS including version management, data recovery and deployment to user offices; perform ongoing reviews with users and developers and respond to users requests.

·Serve as a focal point for coordination, monitoring and expedition of computer application system development projects, involving extensive liaison with diverse offices to initiate requests; prepare standard terms of reference; process and follow-up on administrative actions and resolve issues related to project implementation, e.g. organization of and participation in training, procurement of equipment and services, etc.

·Prepare, organize and execute training and introductory courses for the African UNICs’ staff on CMS and other computer applications.

·Keep abreast of developments in the field.

·Perform other duties as assigned.

Competencies:

·Professionalism – Knowledge of at least two programming languages, basic systems analysis and design techniques, testing, debugging, and documentation standards, and database design. Good analytical and problem solving skills and ability to handle a range of systems-related issues.
·Client Orientation – Ability to identify and analyse clients’ needs.
·Communication – Good communication (spoken and written) skills, including the ability to explain and present technical information, effectively train/advise users on systems related issues, applications etc., and prepare written documentation in a clear, concise style.
·Teamwork - Good interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.
·Planning & Organizing - Ability to plan own work, to work effectively under stress and to prioritize and juggle multiple tasks within tight deadlines.

Qualifications:

Education: Completion of high school or equivalent diploma; technical certificate in application software, systems development or other related field and experience in relevant area required. University degree in computer science or a related field is highly desirable.

Experience: A minimum of five years of relevant and progressively responsible technical experience in systems analysis and programming. Experience in PHP, CSS/HTML, Open Source Content Management Systems such as Mambo preferred. Experience in systems administration and maintenance, software development, technical writing across a broad range of hardware and software platforms is an asset.

Language: Fluency in written and spoken French and English is required.

Applications, including a cover letter and a comprehensive CV, should be forwarded to:

Mr Dimitri Lermytte
Assistant Information Officer
United Nations Information Centre
E-mail : dlermytte@un.org.za

Fax : 012 354 8501

Closing Date : Tuesday, 3 January 2006

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Global call to action against poverty

Global: GCAP consultation

2005-12-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/gcap/30716

In January 2005 at the World Social Forum a Global Call to Action against Poverty was launched to encourage campaigners to mobilize at key moments of 2005. Many active campaigners of GCAP have decided to continue to unite in solidarity beyond 2005. Some initial discussions of the International Facilitation Group have produced some broad ideas on how this could be done. Before these are discussed at the next IFG meeting in Beirut in early March 2006, it was unanimously agreed to gather as many reactions and alternative ideas as possible.
In January 2005 at the World Social Forum a Global Call to Action against Poverty was launched to encourage campaigners to mobilize at key moments of 2005. Many active campaigners of GCAP have decided to continue to unite in solidarity beyond 2005. Some initial discussions of the International Facilitation Group have produced some broad ideas on how this could be done. Before these are discussed at the next IFG meeting in Beirut in early March 2006, it was unanimously agreed to gather as many reactions and alternative ideas as possible.

The questionnaire is part of an open consultation to gather suggestions on the way forward for GCAP. All individuals, organisations and networks who are part of GCAP and those who have not yet got involved are encouraged to take part in this consultation. There are 20 wide ranging questions but if you have any other issues or comments that you wish to mention, please do so. This questionnaire will feed into the final decisions on GCAP beyond 2005 which will be discussed in various forums including various regional GCAP meetings and the World Social Forum meetings. The final decision will be made at the next International Facilitation Group meeting, which will take place in early March 2006 in Beirut (if you are interested in going please e-mail info@whiteband.org for more information).

This consultation questionnaire has been sent out to many different groups around the world – however please do share it with those who might be interested as the aim is to get as many suggestions and opinions as possible and we would rather people got it twice than not at all!
Some of you may want to answer the questionnaire more than once as you are involved in several organisations. This is fine though please indicate each time under what capacity you are answering i.e.: on behalf of an organization / as a member of a GCAP national coalition / an individual. National coalitions are requested to consult widely within their constituency and encourage all of their partners to fill out a questionnaire.

If you have any questions or concerns please e-mail info@whiteband.org for more details.

Follow the link for the questionnaire and more details.

http://www.whiteband.org/News/gcapnews.2005-12-02.8348728750/en

Global: GCAP scoops IPS award

2005-12-08

http://www.ipsterraviva.net/Europe/article.aspx?id=2698

The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), described as the world's largest anti-poverty coalition, is the recipient of the 2005 International Achievement Award for Excellence in Communication given by Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency. Consisting of over a thousand non-governmental organisations (NGOs), grass roots movements and civil society groups representing more than 150 million people worldwide, GCAP is leading an intensive campaign for a substantial shift in national and international policies that will eliminate poverty and achieve and exceed the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the targeted date 2015.

Global: Message for the World Trade Organisation from Nelson Mandela

2005-12-08

http://www.whiteband.org

In Hong Kong there is a chance to make decisions that will lift billions of people out of poverty. Trade can be part of the solution to poverty but at the moment it’s part of the problem. More than 31 million people around the world have joined the Global Call to Action Against Poverty this year and they will not give up until poverty is ended. Hong Kong is a chance that must not be missed. The whole world will be watching. I thank you.

N R Mandela (One of the 31 million people who have taken action in support of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty this year).

Global: White Band Day 3

2005-12-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/gcap/30727

On December 10th, White Band Day 3, millions of people will unite in solidarity against trade injustice. Join the largest anti-poverty campaign in history and help us put the Spotlight on Trade Injustice. We need the World Trade Organization to deliver a fair deal on trade and agriculture. For events being held in Africa, please follow the link.
Kenya

White Band Day 3 - Make Trade Fair for Promotion of Coffee Farming, Mutituni to Machakos town walk, Eastern Province. Kenya The campaign will focus on promotion of Coffee farming in 1/4 of the Eastern Province.
The campaign will demand provision of Adjustment Assistance to industries to cope with increased import competition resulting from trade distortion. Demand poor countries access to rich countries market assistance and fair trade development.

The event will be marked by a walk from Mutituni to Machakos Technical College, music band slogans posters, youth voice and a public rally. Speakers will include Coffee cooperatives and farmeers.T-shirts will be used. For further Information contact Grace Mulei saphanage@yahoo.com or 720 821 472.

On December 7 and 8 ActionAid International (Kenya) will host a Pre-Hong Kong Meeting for Cotton Farmers in Africa to be held at the Pan Africa hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The Sixth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference is scheduled to take place from 13th - 18th December 2005 in Hong Kong. It is expected that fundamental issues with far reaching implications on the development of African agriculture are going to be part of the agenda for discussion. All sub-sectors in agriculture are going to be affected in one way or the other by decisions to be made during this crucial and important conference. One such sub-sector at the heart of most African farmers is cotton which is an important element of the on-going negotiations in agriculture. In view of the above, ActionAid International Kenya will be organizing a meeting in Nairobi whose overriding goal is to mobilize cotton producers from around Africa to voice out their concerns ahead of the forthcoming WTO meeting. The outcome of the meeting will be presented to the delegates attending the WTO meeting for advocacy and lobbying purposes during the Ministerial conference. Cotton farmers who want to participate should contact: Southern Africa: Wole Olaleye - wole.olaleye@actionaid.org, West Africa: Moussa Faye - moussa.faye@actionaid.org, East Africa: Njeri Kinyoho - njeri.kinyoho@actionaid.org

The Kenyan coalition will also organise an action in Uchumi Supermarkets in Nairobi, Meru, Nakuru and Eldoret, who have agreed to exhibit campaign demands and sell white beads and share the profit among poor workers groups. There will also be seven public education tents in Nairobi with banners and brochures on Trade Justice and campaigners will collect signatures for a petition. White Band Day 3 will also be featured in adverts and spots on the radio to publicize the campaign. For more details contact Achim Chaiji Tel. 254-20-4440440/4 cell phone. 254-722-331612,

Liberia

White Band Day, Tubmanburg, Bomi, Liberia
March with 300 primary school students, aged 5yrs-12yrs through the principle streeths of Tubmanburg, UNMIL sector 2HQ ,hang a banner at the entrance of the town Eric Zinnah Community Elementary School, Tubmanburg, Bomi Country, Liberia.

For more details, contact Mambu Manyeh mambum2@yahoo.com or 00231-4-780323.

Mali

In Mali campaigners will launch a report on the privitization of the CMDT and the GMOs, with radio testimonies on poverty. Also the campaign will hand their petition over to then Malian Prime Minister before he goes to the WTO. For more details, contact Mme Barry Aminata Touré, Présidente CAD-Mali

Tel 00 223 224 01 34 / 00 223 672 05 25 barryaminatou@yahoo.fr

Sierra Leone

A GCAP Sierra Leone group will meet with the the Ministry of Trade and Industry Officials, the Parliamentary Committee on Trade and members of the Sierra Leone Delegates to the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial to talk about trade justice and share how trade issues negatively impact working men and women. The Symposium on Trade Issues will bring together all stakeholders including the media, government functionaries, the private sector, farmers, CSOs, and the general public to critically
examine and discuss trade and other related issues and on how these issues are impacting on the people of Sierra Leone. Mohamed Sillah - Tel: +232-22-231392/232246/234197 Cell phone: +232-76-830071 Mohamed.Sillah@actionaid.org

The Gambia

The campaign will hold a youth forum on trade justice and the impact of WTO rules on the ordinary Gambian and the Gambian economy. Young people will also send e-mails to The Gambian Official delegation before they leave for Hong Kong and to their parliamentarians. For more details, contact Buba Khan Buba.Khan@actionaid.org

Zambia

Three events have been lined up towards the 10th of December. We will have a television interview on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) to launch our events on Tuesday, the 6th of December, 2005. The launch will be followed by a Special Interview with Zambia's Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry - Honourable Dipak Patel. We would like to extend an invitation to you all to present or write questions that you would like us to address to Dipak. The climax of our events will be on the 9th of December when we shall hold a walk and an Inter-Faith Rally.

1. Media: we will have three media events from Tuesday, the 6th of December to the 9th. The media events include one radio programme on Radio Ichengelo, one television programme on ZNBC and a Press Receiption on the eve of the main event - 8th December. A number of media actors have been mobilized from both the print and the electronic media. We will also provide a MIN DV and VHS package for Hong KONG and as part of our records.

2. Interview with Dipak Patel: The interview will take place on Thursday, the 8th of December at 10:00am - Zambian time. The interview will be divided into two parts, the first segment will focus on Zambia specific issues while the second part will look at the LDCs and other global issues. The interview will last for 45 minutes. We encourage you to participate in this interview by sending your questions to me using the below email; Email: Henry Malumo hsmalumo@yahoo.com or Call me on 260 97 656832. We are willing to avail the video to any of you before the close of day on Thursday. In Zambia, we intend to run this video three or four times as a build up advocacy event. Our humble position to our leader is, 'We are behind you and we will be watching you as you support Trade Justice.'

3. Mass demonstrations: The event will be held in Kitwe, the hub of the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. Due to privatization and closure of Industries, a number of people on the Copperbelt have seen a lot of untold misery and sufferings. We would like to draw the attention of our leaders to misery of the Zambian people due to export driven economies that drive women crazy! Our walk and Inter-Faith Rally will bring together four main themes namely, Lesson for Life, HIV/AIDS, Gender, Human Rights and Trade. NOTE: The events were initially planned for Saturday, the 10th of December, 2005 but the date has been set for national wide protest in demand for a new constitution before 2006 elections. As a result we had to move our events to the 9th of December.

http://www.millenniumcampaign.org

Zambia: Campaign interview with Honourable Dipak Patel, Zambia’s Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry

2005-12-08

http://tinyurl.com/d5twu

The Zambian National Civil Society MDG/GCAP Campaign is holding a special interview with Zambia's Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry - Honourable Dipak Patel who is also chairperson for the least developed countries delegation at the WTO. The interview will take place on Thursday, December 8th--two days before international White Band Day 3, which will see a host of events around the world designed to put a spotlight on trade injustice.

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Back Issues

Pambazuka News 233: WTO Special issue: Will Africa stand firm in Hong Kong?

The authoritative electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa

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2005-12-08

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2005-12-08

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Reconcile with the Living, Not Just the Dead

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Mahmood Mamdani

2005-12-07

Taking Pan-Africanism to the people

Aisha Ibrahim

2005-12-08

Views on the Commonwealth stance on Zimbabwe

Andrew M Manyevere

2005-12-05

Going Home

Simao Kikamba

2005-12-08

Prize-Winning Fiction led by African females

2005-12-06

Africa Blog Roundup: Goodbye Baby Faith

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2005-12-06

Africa: Africa's push for Reproductive Rights Fund rubs US the wrong way

2005-12-07

Africa: African women confront Bush's AIDS policy

2005-12-06

Central African Republic: Anti-women songs banned

2005-12-06

Kenya: What next for Kenyan women?

2005-12-06

Senegal: Villages to stop cutting girls

2005-12-06

South Africa: Organised lesbian and gay sector welcomes the Constitutional Court’s judgment on same sex marriages

Joint Working Group press release

2005-12-05

South Africa: South Africa searches its soul

2005-12-07

Sudan: Gender-based violence still rampant in Darfur, say aid agencies

2005-12-06

Africa/Global: High Commissioner for Human Rights says total ban on torture under attack in 'war on terror'

2005-12-09

Africa/Global: Human Rights Day - end torture now

2005-12-08

Africa: The many challenges to human rights in Africa

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2005-12-09

East Africa: Critical high court hearing may decide fate of Chagos Islander

2005-12-07

Eritrea: Government must end religious persecution

2005-12-07

Global: UN limited in human rights struggle

2005-12-07

Global: UN officials urge commitment to integrate disabled people into society

2005-12-05

Liberia: No impunity for rapists, vows president-elect

2005-12-07

Nigeria: Compensation for families of six youths killed by police

2005-12-07

Uganda: Activists Oppose Uganda Hosting Commonwealth

2005-12-07

WTO-HR Caucus: Final joint statement on WTO and human rights