Back Issues

Featured This Week

2007-02-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/39605

FEATURES; Patrick Bond examines the future of the WSF concept
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Modern-day slavery is alive and well, says Emira Woods
- Doreen Lwanga stirs the debate over the Hollywood blockbuster Blood Diamonds
- Shack dwellers in Durban, South African are coming together to fight crime, writes S'bu Zikode
- Henning Melber reflects on whether another world is possible
LETTERS: Regular columnist Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem faces a challenge on his NGO views
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul Raheem writes on the 8th Ordinary Session of the African Union
BLOGGING AFRICA: A round up of the African blogosphere
BOOKS AND ARTS: Betty Wamalwa Muragori gets creative about land
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: There’s been much news coming out of the African Union this week

CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: China defends African arms sales
HUMAN RIGHTS: Call for release of DRC human rights lawyer
WOMEN AND GENDER: Challenging gender discrimination in universities
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Counting immigrants in cities across the globe
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: A quick guide to the Nigerian elections
AFRICA AND CHINA: Chinese premier visits Africa
DEVELOPMENT: The politics of the water justice movement
CORRUPTION: Zambia misses the point on corruption
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: People before patents in South Africa
EDUCATION: Early childhood care and education
ENVIRONMENT: Enforcing the law in forests
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: Land, agriculture and conflict in West Africa
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: New report from Article 19 on freedom of expression in Senegal
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Open source, information sharing and Five Minutes to Midnight
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops

WSF 'NGO trade fair' to left politics?

Patrick Bond

2007-02-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/39594

Patrick Bond assesses the aftermath of the World Social Forum, held from January 20-25 in Nairobi. There were some triumphs for social justice, but also some worrying trends that emerged from the forum. Bond examines what it means for the future of the WSF concept.


A mixed message - combining celebration and autocritique - is in order, in the wake of the Nairobi World Social Forum. From January 20-25, the 60,000 registered participants heard the triumph of radical rhetoric and yet, too, witnessed persistent defeats for social justice causes - especially within the WSF's own processes.

* Kenya Social Forum coordinator Onyango Oloo listed grievances that local activists put high atop the agenda: 'colonial era land edicts and policies which dispossessed their communities; the impact of mining and extraction activities on the environment and human livelihoods; discriminatory policies by successive governments that have guaranteed the stubborn survival of pre-colonial conditions of poverty and underdevelopment among many pastoralist and minority communities; the arrogant disregard for the concerns raised by Samburu women raped over the years by British soldiers dispatched on military exercises in those Kenyan communities; … and tensions persisting with neo-colonial-era settler farmers and indigenous Kenyan comprador businessmen in hiving off thousands of hectares of land while the pastoralists and minority communities are targets of state terror, evictions and denunciations.'

* WSF organiser Wahu Kaara: 'We are watching [global elites] and this time around they will not get away with it because we are saying they should cancel debts or we repudiate them. We refuse unjust trade. We are not going to take aid with conditionality. We in Africa refuse to be the continent identified as poor. We have hope and determination and everything to offer to the prosperity of the human race.'

* Firoze Manji, the Kenyan director of the Pambazuka (www.pambazuka.org) Africa news/analysis portal: 'This event had all the features of a trade fair - those with greater wealth had more events in the calendar, larger (and more comfortable) spaces, more propaganda - and therefore a larger voice. Thus the usual gaggle of quasi-donor and international NGOs claimed a greater presence than national organisations - not because what they had to say was more important or more relevant to the theme of the WSF, but because, essentially, they had greater budgets at their command.'

* Nairobi-based commentator Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (also writing in Pambazuka): 'The WSFs show up Africa's weaknesses whether they are held outside or inside Africa. One of the critical areas is our level of participation and preparedness. A majority of the African participants - even many from Kenya itself - were brought by foreign paymasters or organisations funded by outsiders. Often they become prisoners of their sponsors. They must attend events organized or supported by their sponsors who need to put their "partners" on display, and the "partners" in turn need to show their loyalty to their masters.'

* New Internationalist editor Adam Ma'anit: 'The sight of Oxfam-branded 4x4s cruising around flauntingly, the many well-resourced charity and church groups decking out their stalls (and even their own office spaces) with glossies and branded goodies, all reinforce the suspicion that perhaps the WSF has become too institutionalized. Perhaps more worryingly has been the corporate sponsorship of the WSF. The Forum organizers proudly announced their partnership with Kenya Airways. The same company that has for years allegedly denied the right to assembly of its workers organized under the Aviation and Allied Workers Union.'

* Blogger Sokari Ekine ('Black Looks') on the final WSF event: 'Kasha, a Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender and Intersex activist from Sexual Minorities Uganda, went up to the stage and asked to make a statement. She was asked for a copy of what she would be speaking about and gave them her piece. The organisers threw her piece on the floor and refused to allow her to speak. Kasha stood her ground saying she, like everyone else, had a right to speak here at the WSF. Despite the harassment by the MC and organisers, Kasha took the mic and spoke. She spoke about being a lesbian, about being a homosexual. She refuted the myth that homosexuality was un-African. She spoke about the punishment and criminalisation of homosexuals in Kenya, in Uganda, and in Nigeria. She said homosexuals in Africa were here to stay. Homosexuals have the same rights as everyone else and should be accepted and finally that even in Africa Another World is Possible for Homosexuals. Kasha was booed and the crowd shouted obscenities at her waving their hands screaming: "No! No! No!" But she persisted and said what needed to be said.'

These sobering observations were reflected in a statement by the Social Movements Assembly at a January 24 rally of more than 2000: 'We denounce tendencies towards commercialisation, privatisation and militarisation of the WSF space. Hundreds of our sisters and brothers who welcomed us to Nairobi have been excluded because of high costs of participation. We are also deeply concerned about the presence of organisations working against the rights of women, marginalised people, and against sexual rights and diversity, in contradiction to the WSF Charter of Principles.' (http://kenya.indymedia.org/news/2007/01/531.php)

Conflicts included arrests of a dozen low-income people who wanted to get into the event; protests to forcibly open the gates; and the destruction of the notoriously repressive Kenyan interior minister's makeshift restaurant which had monopolized key space within the Kasarani stadium's grounds.

Soweto activist Trevor Ngwane was a protest leader, but after the first successful break-in by poor Kenyans, reported stiff resistance: 'The next day we again planned to storm the gates but found police and army reinforcements at the gates. Those officers carried very big guns. Comrades decided to block the main road until the people were allowed in for free. This action took about half an hour and then the gates were opened. The crowd than marched to the Organising Committee's offices to demand a change of policy on the question of entrance. Another demand was added: free water inside the WSF precinct and cheaper food.'

Although that demand was not met, Oloo gracefully confessed the 'shame' of progressive Kenyans during the Social Movements Assembly rally. WSF logistical shortcomings reflected the Kenyan Left's lost struggles within the host committee, he said. The interior minister ('the crusher') snuck in at the last second, and the Kenya Airports Authority systematically diverted incoming visitors to hotels, away from home stays (2000 of which were arranged - only 18 actually materialized thanks to diversions).

Setting these flaws aside, consider a deeper political tension. For Oloo, 'These social movements, including dozens in Kenya, want to see the WSF being transformed into a space for organizing and mobilizing against the nefarious forces of international finance capital, neoliberalism and all its local neo-colonial and comprador collaborators.'

Can and should the 'openspace' concept be upgraded into something more coherent, either for mobilizing around special events (for instance, the June 2-8 summit of the G8 in Rostock, Germany) or establishing a bigger, universalist left-internationalist political project?

In South Africa, the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) has hosted several debates on this question, with at least four varying points of view emerging. Last July, for example, the great political economist Samir Amin presented the 'Bamako Appeal', a January 2006 manifesto which originated at the prior WSF polycentric event, and which combined, as Amin put it, the traditions of socialism, anti-racism/colonialism, and (national) development (http://www.forumtiersmonde.net/fren/forums/fsm/fsm_bamako/appel_bamako_en.htm).

In support was the leader of the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity, Hassan Sunmonu (also a WSF International Council member). Complaining that 'billions of ideas have been generated since 2001 up till the last Forum', Sunmonu found 'a lot of merit in that Bamako Appeal that we can use to transform the lives of ourselves, our organizations and our peoples.'

But reacting strongly against the Bamako Appeal, CCS student (and Johannesburg anti-privatization activist) Prishani Naidoo and three comrades criticized its 'last century' tone and content, which mirrored 'the mutation of the WSF from an arena of encounter for local social movements into an organized network of experts, academics and NGO practitioners.'

For Naidoo, 'It reassures us that documents like the Bamako Appeal will eventually prove totally irrelevant and inessential to struggles of communities in South Africa as elsewhere. Indeed, the WSF elite's cold institutional and technicist soup, occasionally warmed up by some hints of tired poeticism, can provide little nourishment for local subjectivities whose daily responses to neoliberalism face more urgent needs to turn everyday survival into sustained confrontations with an increasingly repressive state.'

In contrast, Nauvoo and the others, praise the 'powerful undercurrent of informality in the West’s proceedings [which] reveals the persistence of horizontal communication between movements, which is not based on mystical views of the revolutionary subject, or in the official discourse of the leaders, but in the life strategies of their participants.'

A third position on WSF politics is the classical socialist, party-building approach favoured by Ngwee and other revolutionary organizers. Ngwee fretted, on the one hand, about reformist projects that 'make us blind to recognize the struggles of ordinary people.' On the other hand, though, 'I think militancy alone at the local level and community level will not in itself answer questions of class and questions of power.' For that a self-conscious socialist cadre is needed, and the WSF is a critical site to transcend local political upsurges.

A fourth position, which I personally support, seeks the 21st century's anti-capitalist 'manifesto' in the existing social, labour and environmental movements that are already engaged in excellent transnational social justice struggle. The WSF's greatest potential - so far unrealized - is the possibility of linking dozens of radical movements in various sectors.

Instead, at each WSF the activists seem to disappear into their own workshops: silos with few or no interconnections. Before a Bamako Appeal or any other manifesto is parachuted into the WSF, we owe it to those activists to compile their existing grievances, analyses, strategies and tactics. Sometimes these are simple demands, but often they are also articulated as sectoral manifestos, like the very strong African Water Network of anti-privatisation militants from 40 countries formed in Nairobi (http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/nairobi/en/viewstory.asp?idnews=838).

These four positions are reflected in a new book released at the Nairobi WSF by the New Delhi-based Institute for Critical Action: Centre in Movement (CACIM) and CCS. The book, free to download at http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/CACIM%20CCS%20WSF%20Politics.pdf, contains some older attempts at left internationalism, such as the Communist Manifesto (1848) and the Bandung Communiqué of the Asian-African Conference (1955), as well as the 'Call of Social Movements' at the second and third Porto Alegre WSF, the 2005 Porto Alegre Manifesto by the male-heavy Group of Nineteen, and the Bamako Appeal with sixteen critical replies.

There are also selections on global political party formations by Amin, analysis of the global labour movement by Peter Waterman, the Women's Global Charter for Humanity, and some old and newer Zapatista declarations. Jai Sen and Madhuresh Kumar of CACIM have worked hard to pull these ideas into 500 pages.

Lest too much energy is paid to these political scuffles at the expense of ongoing struggle, we might give the last word to Ngwane, who reported on his Nairobi debate with WSF founder Chico Whitaker at a CACIM/CCS workshop: 'Ordinary working class and poor people need and create and have a movement of resistance and struggle. They also need and create and have spaces for that movement to breathe and develop. The real question is what place will the WSF have in that reality. What space will there be for ordinary working class and poor people? Who will shape and drive and control the movement? Will it be a movement of NGO's and individual luminaries creating space for themselves to speak of their concern for the poor? Will it be undermined by collaboration with capitalist forces? I think what some of us saw happening in Nairobi posed some of these questions sharply and challenged some of the answers coming from many (but not all) of the prominent NGO's and luminaries in the WSF.'

* Patrick Bond directs the Centre for Civil Society: http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs This article first appeared in ZNet Daily Commentaries: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-02/01bond.cfm and is reproduced here with the permission of the author.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

"Sankofa" - A Symbol of Africa's future

Emira Woods

2007-01-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/39469

The mythological bird, the “Sankofa” is used as a metaphor for Africa. While it is important for the continent to remember the past it is even more important to look to the future and build on the positive aspects of the past, writes Emira Woods.


This year marks the 200th anniversary of the end of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which ripped an estimated 12 million Africans from their homelands and transported them to lives of unspeakable suffering and humiliation in Europe and the Americas. It is important to reflect on this tragic history, but also, like the Sankofa bird, to look towards ways of abolishing the forms of slavery that still ravage lives throughout much of the African world.

Modern-day slavery takes many shapes. In Liberia, the Bridgestone/Firestone Corporation continues to profit from slave-like conditions in their rubber plantation. Firestone's operations force children as young as 11 years old to work in the fields from before the sun rises to the late day. Used as beasts of burden, these kids typically carry two 75 pound buckets of rubber for up to two miles to storage or collection tanks. Should the children refuse to work, their parents risk losing the measly $3.19 daily wage, all while Bridgestone/Firestone announces record level profits for 2005 and the first half of 2006.

In the spirit of Sankofa, an alliance of human rights groups and labor unions is fighting to end this disgraceful abuse, and the International Labor Rights Fund has filed a case against the company.

Trafficking

Another, and perhaps most overt, form of modern day slavery is human trafficking. Throughout the African world women and children face a murderous and exploitative system of servitude. There are the parents in Egypt who reportedly sell kidneys and other body parts to feed their children. And there are the teenagers forced into prostitution working in the “AIDS corridor” running through oil-producing areas of Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. The millions of impoverished women and children in Africa make easy targets for a growing number of traffickers who push them into unpaid or poorly compensated labor or sexual services. This takes place often through trickery and, at times, kidnapping. In response, the anti-trafficking movement has gained strength and visibility in recent years. This movement which includes survivors is making steady strides to break the chains for women and children around the world.

In the Americas, where wealth is being accumulated into fewer and fewer hands, modern-day forms of slavery are easily visible, from the flower pickers in Latin America to the garment factory workers in Haiti; from migrant workers in fields picking tomatoes in the southern United States to African-Americans locked into poor work conditions with inadequate compensation for their labor. Within the U.S., African girls and women are being enslaved in homes as maids and nannies for diplomats, foreign nationals, and Americans alike. Reports of individuals being held against their will, made to work around the clock for little or no money are becoming increasingly common. Advocates using new strategies and unusual bedfellows from law enforcement are working in the U.S. and around the world to tackle these and other issues of modern-day slavery.

Jubilee Movement

Religious and other groups around the world have united in a Jubilee movement to liberate the African world from another set of shackles – the extreme burden of foreign debt. According to the United Nations, $100 million a day is squeezed out of Africa in debt service payments to the rich world, siphoning off scarce resources needed to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other key concerns of the continent. In exchange, African governments are further enslaved by stringent loan conditions that control everything from inflation rates to wages for teachers and doctors.

Last year, the Bush Administration agreed to a plan to cancel the debts of 18 countries, most of them in Africa. The Jubilee movement is working to build on that precedent by pushing for the cancellation of the debts of 50 or so additional countries that are in desperate need.

The egg of hope in our Sankofa year lies in another commemoration. This year also represents the 50th anniversary of independence for many African states. The movement for change that brought an end to the slave trade culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation’s abolition of legal slavery. The abolitionist movement later inspired a pan-African drive for political independence. It was visionary leaders like Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere, Guinea’s Sekou Toure, Cape Verde’s Amilcar Cabral, and Zaire’s Patrice Lumumba who in turn led a movement to throw off the yoke of colonial slavery. Today we have new inspiring leaders like the many women civil society leaders, cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, and yes even Presidents, reshaping Africa’s political landscape.

This Sankofa year is a vehicle to build movements for peace and justice. There couldn’t be a better time to focus the world’s attention on ending the economic scourge that has drained the African world since the days of legal slavery. Justice for the African world can only come by restoring the dignity of her people, wherever they may live. Seize the Sankofa year. End all forms of modern day slavery and secure reparations for all debts incurred.

* Emira Woods is the co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. She was born in Liberia. See http://www.stopfirestone.org; http://www.fpif.org; http://www.fps-dc.org

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Blood Diamonds: RUF and Child Soldiers?

Doreen Lwanga

2007-01-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/39472

Doreen Lwanga responds to a review of Blood Diamonds by Del Hornbuckle and contextualises the role of the RUF in the Sierra Leone civil war.


Del Hornbuckle’s recent review of Blood Diamond, “Blood Diamond…TIA (This is Africa)” in Pambazuka News 287 (2007-01-17)(www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/39192) offered me an inside look at the film without having to give my money to Hollywood. My reason for boycotting Hollywood movies on Africa was due to their deliberate refusal to get the story right and preferring sensational exaggerations and faces of miserable and chaotic Africa in need of a “white humanitarian”. The last Hollywood movie on Africa I watched was “Black Hawk Dawn”, expecting to see the gallant Somalis taking down the US military invaders. Instead, I was bombarded by pictures of Somalis handing roses to US marine saviours on the streets of Mogadishu. What part of Mogadishu was that? Ironically, many on the African continent anxiously await such movies (including the acclaimed Last King of Scotland) even when they depict Africans as brutal and bloodthirsty cannibals.

Back to Blood Diamonds. Although I learned a lot from Ms Hornbuckle’s film review, I was not convinced by the equation drawn (seemingly from the film), that is, the RUF war was about child soldiers and blood diamonds. It is easy for Hollywood to accuse the RUF of accelerating the war through illegal diamond mining and using child soldiers without putting all the facts together. For one, why was a movie based on events that occurred in Sierra Leone shot in Mozambique, a country in Southern Africa with no regional context? Remember that the Sierra Leone civil war involved regional players in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria. This reductionism of the Sierra Leone conflict to a “RUF problem” of greed, violence and conflict reminds me of Robert Kaplan’s thesis entitled “The Coming Anarchy” published in The Atlantic Monthly of February 1994. Kaplan claimed that scarcity of resources, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease in Africa where rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet. His essay was so influential that the US State Department faxed copies to all of its Embassies around Africa, undoubtedly shaping its Africa policy.

Fortunately for us, whose attention to context and historical understanding of events does not wither away, along came Paul Richards’ 1996 book ‘Fighting for the Rainforest: War, Youth & Resources in Sierra Leone’. Richards dedicated this book to critiquing the New Barbarism thesis espoused by the likes of Kaplan. He analysed the Sierra Leone civil war as deeply rooted in the troubled history of resource exploitation, involving slave trade, timber, ivory, and valuable mineral resource exploitation. Through dedicated scholarship and long-term residence in Sierra Leone, Richards conducted interviews with child soldiers, ex-combatants, youth, diamond traders, RUF members, government forces, village leaders and residents in mining areas and other regions with RUF incursions in Sierra Leone. Thus, he successfully contextualises the RUF struggle as a revolt against the patrimonial rule of Sierra Leone and marginalization of ordinary people rather than one driven by greedy and trigger happy illiterate people.

It is also true that RUF cut off people’s limbs but not necessarily as alleged by Ms Hornbuckle that, “the less desirables, one-by-one, have limbs chopped off when they’re not useful as child soldiers or mine workers.” RUF cut off limbs to stop people from going into fields for the harvest and to stop hands from voting in the elections of February 1996 (Richards, op cit. xx). However, RUF also had a disciplined and non-materialistic way of life, which involved sharing looted food and medical supplies to all recruits and punishing anyone who looted for personal wealth. According to Richards, RUF was a group of “excluded educated elites”, a product of intellectual anger making rhetorical point deeply rooted in the troubled history of resource extraction (pp. 25-27).

The RUF war in Sierra Leone included several professionals and school dropouts who joined as a protest against the socio-economic marginalization and corruption of the ruling government in the distribution of national resources. Schoolteachers who joined the RUF sought to avenge against the ruling government’s failure to pay their salaries while school-going youngsters in the diamond districts of eastern and southern Sierra Leone saw no future with schools broken down long before the RUF arrived (Richards, Chapter Four). Even conscripts terrorized in the process of capture, later discovered that RUF political analysis addressed their sense of exclusion and the rebels often treated them generously (Richards, p. xix; 53). Richards tells of girls who had never owned decent shoes, being offered a choice of shoes and dresses by the rebels. Others had a chance to resume their education, and received a good basic training in the arts of bush warfare (pp. 28-29).

Since I didn’t see the film myself, I am relying on Ms Hornbuckle’s account that leaves out the political economy context in which RUF incursion took place in Sierra Leone. That is, the patrimonial state benefited from blood diamonds and distributed national resources to political constituencies, thus accelerating social marginalisation, fuelling social grievances and the emergence of the RUF guerrilla movement. For instance, in exchange for security, the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) granted huge mining concessions in Kono district to the South African private security company, Executive Outcomes (p.17). The RUF joined the control of some mineral deposits and diamond resources as a means of obtaining basic subsistence and military equipment. Whereas the patrimonial government collected revenue for personal consumption from trade in diamonds with licensed dealers (mainly Lebanese), the RUF as an outlawed non-state entity could not legally trade in its diamonds. The act of criminalizing the activities of ordinary diamond traders in resource-rich communities denies them an income for school fees and family survival. Previously, communities in resource-rich areas of Eastern Congo, DRC have spoken out against international sanctions and boycott campaigns that criminalize their non-licensed batter trade in their minerals. This is perhaps what President Nelson Mandela meant to re-echo.

No doubt that the atrocities committed by the RUF undermined their campaign. They failed to take their protest to the central government in Freetown and mostly hurt those people sharing similar grievances against the ruling government – the rural population. However, the usual story Hollywood enjoys telling about Africa is a decontextualised one involving the evil (RUF represented by Captain Poison), the disposable (Solomon Vandy) and the saviour (a white journalist Maddy Bowen). Paul Richards book is a must read for everyone because it excels in giving a human face to rebels and guerrilla fighters, as members of a frustrated society, something continuously diminishing with our fascination with the growing global terrorism outlook.

* Doreen Lwanga is an Africa Scholar, Researcher and Activist working in the areas of African security, Pan-Africanism and Higher education in Africa. In 1993, Robert Kaplan, a US journalist wrote a book on the Balkan conflict and later expended his argument to African events in Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia and Sierra Leone in an influential essay in the Atlantic Monthly, February 1994. This essay was a reading for my graduate class in the US on Humanitarian Assistance. Paul Richards also sought to challenge the “Resource Curse” thesis advanced by World Bank economist Paul Colliers and others. Paul Richards (1996): Fighting for the Rain Forest: War, Youth & Resources in Sierra Leone. Oxford: James Currey

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Is Another World Possible?

Some (self-)critical reflections on the World Social Forum in Nairobi

Henning Melber

2007-02-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/39607

Activists from social movements all over the world flocked to the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre six years ago for the first World Social Forum (WSF). It was organized under the slogan “another world is possible” to demonstrate impressively the counter position to the neo-liberal globalization project as represented and pursued by those in political and economic power. These meet every January for the World Economic Forum at the posh Swiss skiing resort of Davos.

Often erroneously referred to as anti-global movement, the activists mobilizing for the WSF represent simply another global movement, challenging the current forms of capitalist hegemony (and, as many would claim, capitalism as such). The “another world” they believe is possible represents the desire for “a better world” – a world without exploitation, discrimination, marginalization. They treasure global social conditions, which would allow for human security and a dignified life for all (well, at least most, given that there are those class interests represented by human beings, who would object to the implementation of such alternatives). Six years down the line, the latest WSF in Nairobi showed that while it’s rather easy to have such visions, it’s more difficult to implement them.

Some wear and tear resulted in a gradually increasing WSF fatigue among some of those who originally with enthusiasm mobilized and participated. The initial euphoria over the global bonds between “the wretched of the earth” (Frantz Fanon) remained not without mixed feelings over growing internal differences on the future course. Already at the first WSF a manifest of anti-capitalist youth was signed, criticizing the event for what they perceived as a reactionary policy of “humanizing capitalism” instead of trying to defeat it. An alternative “celebrity culture” with its inherent hierarchical structure was also emerging and suspiciously observed. It cultivated an aura of authority - if not personality cult - around some of the perceived, styled (or even self-proclaimed) alternative development gurus.

While the local grass roots crowds gathering during the earlier WSFs contributed to far above a hundred thousand participants in each case, the Nairobi WSF as the first of its kind on African soil provided a markedly lower turn out with less than 50,000 estimated participants. Many locals were simply denied access originally, because they were too poor to pay the registration fee. Others from further away were unable to fork out the travel costs and local expenses. Instead, the dominance of world wide operating NGOs (including foundations of political parties, the trade unions and the churches) as well as representatives of other institutions more or less directly linked to state agencies played a visibly dominant role and illustrated the obvious dividing lines between grass root activists, scholars and other professionally concerned “do gooders” from different spheres and social backgrounds.

As divided was the scenery at the Moi Stadium at the outskirts of Nairobi, where the sessions took place from January 21 to 24. Among those mingling with parts of the crowd were at least three Namibians: Alfred Angula represented the organized workers, Rosa Namises the women’s movement, and Ian Swartz from the Rainbow coalition strengthened the coming out of gays and lesbians, who used the opportunity to courageously fight the notorious local and continental xenophobia.

The opening and closing ceremonies were at the centrally located Uhuru (Freedom) Park. Among the speakers to open was Kenneth Kaunda, and I was certainly not the only one wondering about the basis of his merits. The mere fact that he finally behaved somehow decent as an “elder statesman”, after messing up the country and people with his earlier politics, was certainly not good enough a recommendation to address those committed to “another world”. The junior minister from Italy speaking at the closing ceremony and a number of other political office bearers and aid bureaucrats documenting their commitments to the common (?) cause left as dubious a taste and showed that the dividing lines are a contested issue. – Certainly not everyone among the WSF organizers and activists is immune against the flirting with power.

There were numerous other visible contradictions during the days in and around the Moi sports stadium adding to the mixed feelings. Ironically, this was built in the 1980s by the Chinese, had its peak moment when hosting the All Africa Games and is these days mainly reserved for paid leisure activities by the urban middle class. Those hundreds of thousands of shack dwellers in the slums nearby look at it at best as an alien object, which does not relate to their daily struggle for survival.

The professional North-South and global concern entrepreneurs occupied the best spaces in the venue. A local telecommunication company under foreign ownership provided a so-called special offer to participants, which maximized the company profits by means of a monopoly over services secured. The ordinary people running their humble food vendor businesses at affordable costs for the bulk of participants were forced to operate at the margins. The best-placed catering outlets were overpriced. The minister of inner security owed one of them. During an earlier stage of his career he was among those who tortured the same victims of the Mau-Mau movement, who testified at the WSF to their ordeal in the anti-colonial struggle some fifty years ago.

“Another world is possible”, yes, maybe. But the road to get there is long. And not all among those attending the WSF in Nairobi are (or should be) on board. That might, by the way, include myself too.


* Henning Melber had joined Swapo in 1994. He was the director of NEPRU in Windhoek (1992-2000) and the research director at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala (2000-2006), where he is now director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation.

This article was first written for the Namibian Big Issue and is reproduced with the permission of the author.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Make Crime History

S'bu Zikode

2007-01-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/39470

The Shack dwellers in South Africa are one of the most marginalized communities, criminalised for being poor. Yet it is they who more often than not suffer from crime along with continued police harassment. These two factors have brought the shack dwellers of Durban together to fight the crime in their communities, says S'bu Zikode.


The poor were not born to be poor. We didn't become poor because we are lazy or stupid. In fact we have to work very hard and be very clever just to find a place for ourselves in this world that the rich have made for themselves. History made us poor and the history of our country is a history of crimes against the innocent. Because of these crimes millions of people are living in shacks and selling in the streets. The poor have the most to gain from an end to crime. More than anybody else we want a country where the human dignity of every person is respected. More than anybody else we understand that working for an end to crime is the responsibility of every one of us. It is our duty to God, to our country and to our children. We are prepared to do our part of this work.

But I feel oppressed when high profile people, including politicians, speak about crime especially since it is very unusual for anyone at their level to be a victim of crime. So few powerful people want to speak directly to communities. They prefer to make statements on the papers, radios and televisions. But when you make a statement there is no person in front of you to tell you about their lives. When you just make statements it is like you think that you already know everything. But when you humble yourself and talk to people you show that you know that you don't know everything. A proper understanding can only come from talking to everybody and for discussions to be open ended. That is why all the good leaders were humble. They were servants of the people, not masters.

Some kinds of crimes are planned in shacks. Others are planned in big conferences at the ICC. Both kinds of crimes make people suffer and must be stopped. However the truth is that with both kinds of crime, most of the time, the victims are not the powerful people but rather those with no power, the poor, the women and the children. Putting more poor people in prisons will only make them better criminals. The way to deal with crime is to invest our energy, resources and time in our communities. When human dignity is at the centre of our communities then our communities are places where crime is not accepted inside or outside.

There is a big problem with many local police stations. We will begin to deal with local crimes only when men like acting Superintendent Glen Nayager of the Sydenham Police Station can acknowledge that he and he alone can't deal with crime. If he keeps treating all the poor as if we are all criminals he will just be wasting his energy. He will just make us feel that the police are our enemies. He must acknowledge that he is too distant to understand the daily life at the grassroots level. He must understand that just because we can't address him like he can address us that doesn't mean that we are just rogues.

Prior to starting the struggle against the big crimes with Abahlali baseMjondolo I struggled against the local crimes. I joined the Police Reserve Force in February 2000 and I had been part of the Sydenham Community Service Centre. Before I entered I found an old African Mama with a baby on her back standing outside the door just helplessly waiting. When I asked her why she was just waiting there she told me that she had been chased out because she didn't speak English. None of the policemen on duty could speak isiZulu or even isiFanakalo and this hurt me. How can a police station serve the people when no one there can speak to people in their own language? I went inside with that woman to translate so that she could lay her charge and from there I decided to be a reservist. I underwent interviews, tests from the District Surgeon and trainings and worked as a Reservist at the Sydenham Police station.

Now that shack dwellers are fighting against evictions and for land and housing in the city we are all called criminals. The police think that they can arrest and beat us any time. They come when we are marching. Superintendent Glen Nayager comes when we are meeting and even when we are just living our daily lives. The Superintendent needs to understand that we are an anti-crime movement. We have a trackable record in working against all kinds of crime. He needs to think about the fact that although the police have arrested hundreds of us, the courts have dropped the charges every time. But we, the shack dwellers, have won a number of victories against the City in the courts. We work to make this a country in which there is respect for the human dignity of each person. We would be happy to work with the local police to make our communities and all the people around us safe if they recognised us as citizens. If our communities could work against crime in a partnership with police officers who treated us with respect, we could make our communities and neighbourhoods safe for everyone.

If the police continue to behave arrogantly towards the people like Nayager does, then I fear that incidents of people taking the law into their own hands, as it happened in KwaMashu recently, could happen more often. When police officers like Nayager take the law into their own hands thinking that they are above the law then communities start to do the same. We can only really condemn what happened in KwaMashu when our police force becomes a police service as Madiba instructed.

We need senior officers and politicians to make less statements and do more talking where people live and work. We need these discussions to be real discussions. We need the results of these discussions to be acted on. We need to build a country where the police serve all the people. If the police serve all the people then they will be trusted and it will be easy to marginalise the criminals in our communities and to organise not just against local criminals but also those high up who are using the country's money for themselves and making the poor poorer. Then we can make our country safe for everyone.

* S'bu Zikode is the elected president of the shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo. On 12 September 2005 he and the organisation's deputy president, Philani Zungu, were arrested on a charge of 'assaulting a police officer' by officers from the Sydenham Police Station while on their way to an interview with iGagasi FM. They had just been warned to cease speaking to the media by a senior official in the provincial Housing Department. They were released the next morning and all charges against them were dropped. Zikode and Zungu have laid criminal and civil charges against Nayagar who they have accused of beating and abusing them severely while they were in his custody.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Pan African Perspectives and the African Union

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2007-02-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/39604

The 8th Ordinary Session of the African Union ended in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Tuesday. Although the theme of the summit was “Science and Technology in Africa’ it was the political and Peace and Security issues that dominated media attention. This is not unexpected because the summit is the most important political and diplomatic forum for Africa. And since the AU was launched, there have been concerted efforts on the part of Africa’s leaders to make it relevant despite many criticisms and doubts by both Africans and outsiders. One indication of this is the large number of leaders who attend these summits and the increasing openness even on the most controversial issues.

There has also been more formal and informal spaces opened up for engagement by different stake holders in Africa whether African or onternational NGOs and CSOs, business sector, think tanks, etc. Gone are the days when the summit used to be dominated by largely ‘special invitation, ‘special guest’ chosen at the whims and caprices of the bureaucrats of the Union who were generally more disposed to welcoming all kinds of foreigners, but fearful of ‘trouble makers’ from Africa!

Almost anybody who wants to engage with the AU has some access and opportunity to do so. That only a few of our NGOs and CSOs engage, is both a reflection of residual cynicism and also of the donor-driven agendas to which they are captive. On the other hand, the lack of engagement by broader social movements and popular forces is due to continuing perception that the AU is essentially a leaders’ forum and since many of them have gripes against their national leaders they are suspicious of the Pan Africanist credentials of these leaders.

That cynicism, whether amongst CSOs/ NGOs or our Social movements, is tantamount to behaving like the proverbial ostrich. There are many windows for engagement that can only become gates of opportunities if used by Africans to expand the frontiers of democratic governance and accountability of our institutions. They will not change of their own accord but as a result of constructive dialogue, or sometimes confrontational approaches, but remaining engaged all the same.

Often outsiders are quick to grasp the opportunities and significance of our institutions than we are, since we are too consumed by our own alienation from our governments. For instance could it be by accident that all major international NGOs (INGOs) have representation in Addis Ababa, monitoring, engaging and lobbying the AU on all kinds of issues? Increasingly these INGOs are appointing Africans to represent them. But these Africans will mostly be carrying out the self-given mandate of these organizations and their interests. Sometimes they may coincide with ours, but often they do not in a most fundamental sense. Our misery is their career.

The political landscape in Africa is changing and generally for the better even if the challenges of democratization and development continue in many countries. It is a work in progress that should make us focus on the larger pictures and trends instead of the ‘problems’ no matter how overwhelming they may seem.

Would it have been possible in the old OAU for Sudan to have been rejected twice in succession in its claim to assume the chair of the organization? In the old days, the argument would have been that what is happening in Darfur is an ‘internal affair’ on which Sudan’s ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity’ could not be questioned.

But these days those arguments do not hold sway anymore. We may not have collective sovereignty in place but it is no longer a case of “leave my victims to me and I leave yours to you’. We have moved from non-interference to non-indifference. What happens in all African countries is legitimate concern of other African states. A new sense of shame has arrived where bad conduct by leaders and states are frowned at, and public opportunities for rebuke are used instead of the old ‘diplomatic hush- hush’.

In the past Sudan would have threatened to leave the Union. But today, Sudan remains despite the snub. Clearly, Sudan’s rulers judge their interest better served by remaining than by leaving.

The isolation of Sudan on the Darfur issue also demonstrates how Civil Society activism in dialogue with progressive African governments, Union bureaucrats and other concerned Africans can yield positive result. It is not the noise of the US or Britain or their NGOs (who are the ones the BBC, CNN regularly quote) that has made it impossible for Sudan to become Chair of the AU. Instead there is consensus among Africans that a country like Sudan that is so flagrantly and massively abusing the rights of its own people -- orchestrating their mass death -- is just not able to speak in our name. Pressures were not only being exerted by the West: there have also been serious pressures, cajolery, all kinds of carrots and inducements on Sudan, its allies in the Arab League (which announced its contribution for Peace Keeping in Darfur only a few days before the Summit), and filial support from some North African countries in support of Sudan’s claim to the Chair. But the AU still said: NO to Al Bashir. In saying that we are saying: No to Genocide in Darfur!

Even the reluctance by many states to contribute troops to Somalia is not a weakness, but a statement that Africa will no longer act as proxies for the US or any other foreign interests. Ethiopia might wish to be the Americans’ trojan horse, but the rest of the states are not so eager.

* Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the Deputy Director for the UN Millennium Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this article in his personal capacity as a concerned Pan-Africanist.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Global: CIVICUS Participatory Governance Programme - Survey

2007-01-31

http://www.civicus.org/new/media/Interested-in-participatory-governance.doc

Interested in participatory governance - CIVICUS wants to hear from you! The CIVICUS Strengthening Participatory Governance (PG) Programme, is launching a new initiative which focuses on enhancing the capacity of southern civil society practitioners to promote participatory and accountable governance of public institutions at local and national levels. The Programme is conducting a brief online survey that civil society is encouraged to participate in.

Global: Civil society launch a global Decent Work campaign

2007-01-31

http://www.civicus.org/new/media/Global-Decent-Work-Campaign.doc

A worldwide campaign for Decent Work was launched in Nairobi, Kenya at the World Social Forum by the Decent Work Alliance and with the help of Wangari Maathai, Kenya's 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner. It aims to place Decent Work, a concept covering equal access to employment, living wages, social protection, freedom from exploitation and union rights at the core of development, economic, trade, financial and social policies at the national, European and International level through public campaigning and lobbying.

Challenging Tajudeen's view on WSF

Johannesburg

Eric Gutierrez

2007-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/39502

I would like to thank Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem for his candid and courageous piece on NGOs as paymasters of CSOs. I share his basic sentiments, and think it is important to have this kind of reflection. However, he makes certain underlying assumptions that need to be challenged, and I hope he won’t mind this deconstruction.

I disagree most with the sweeping statement that African participants “often become prisoners of their sponsors.” This is a gross and simplistic caricature of the complex relationship between the “foreign paymasters” and CSOs. It tends to portray the latter as an uncritical ‘rent-a-crowd’ unable to see what they are getting into, and blissfully oblivious to the manipulation of those who have money. It seems to assume that paymasters and CSOs have never known each other before, have not built relationships of trust over the years (and trust is earned, not bought), and have done the transaction of attending the WSF only in front of the airline ticket booth just before flying to Nairobi.

I certainly think the participants Dr Abdul-Raheem was referring to are not blissfully naïve. I would say they know their needs, they know exactly who they are dealing with, and they know the choices they are making -- most of it involves complex calculations of benefit and cost, of what one may get in return for, say, turning up at a paymaster-sponsored event. Some of them may even turn their heads around and ask, “Who is manipulating whom?” CSOs are struggling and are in a constant battle to raise resources, and dealing with paymasters is not necessarily selling out.

I agree there is a need to challenge, even constantly, the legitimacy of NGOs. But again, Dr Abdul Raheem resorts to simplistic caricatures when asking who NGOs are accountable to and whom they are loyal to. I thought he would have known better that many NGOs have complex (sorry for using this term again) governance structures. They have functional boards (some of which have a majority southern membership), transparent recruitment, periodic evaluations and open books of account. Fund-raising, especially with northern government sources, is governed by policy and legal documents, and clear terms of reference. While such funding relationships may not be ideal, remain far from perfect, and one can poke holes into it, a simplistic conspiracy theory just won’t hold.

I agree too that there are scams, and that these should rightly be exposed and opposed. Which is why some of these paymasters talk to each other, to sort out multiple accounting, bogus ticket refunds, etc. What I object to is the insinuation that nothing is being done about these serious issues, especially when the scams are brought out into the open. The problem with blanket accusations too is that it also smears those who are forthright and doing well. If there is a scam, the best way of dealing with it is to name and shame responsibly.

Another fundamental objection I would raise – do NGOs not have the right to make noise? Dr Abdul-Raheem seems to imply that simply because they are paymasters, NGOs do not have the right to speak in events like the WSF. NGOs do “crowd out” CSOs who have a greater legitimacy to speak. Mainly because they professionals, NGOs tend to be slicker, quicker to the draw, and often become too zealous in marketing themselves and in getting others to carry their agenda. But please don’t rush to the conclusion that they are not legitimate actors. I am sure that some NGOs can also be considerate when these issues are raised before their faces.

Finally, the most irritating question Dr Abdul-Raheem asks, “how come the nationalists freed this continent from the yoke of colonialism without writing proposals to any funder?” They may have not written proposals, but many anti-colonial movements, I believe, recognised the contributions of people-to-people solidarity to their success. Proposals, if we take a less cynical view of it, can simply be seen as mechanisms to manage solidarity. My bottom line is, please, let us not go to the extent of denying the value of solidarity. When proposals become too cumbersome and have turned instead into mechanisms for manipulation, then by all means, let us challenge it.

I have no answer to Dr Adbul-Raheem’s most insightful question – why are our peoples not willing or able to support our activism? It is spot on and a good point. Until someone else comes up with answers, I would argue that solidarity relationships shouldn’t be ruled out, even if there are, clearly, problems that need to be sorted out. I maintain my belief that southern organisations can stand their ground in dealing with paymasters. I respect and value Dr Abdul-Raheem’s sentiments, but his framing of the problem is flawed.

Suppression of freedom of expression by Rhodes Scholars at Oxford University

Fahamu

2007-02-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/39608

The Africa Society and the Rhodes Scholars Southern Africa Forum at Oxford university has refused to allow Fahamu to sell copies of its new book ‘African Perspectives on China in Africa’ at a forthcoming seminar on China in Africa, despite a long established tradition of allowing booksellers to sell books at such events.

The organisers at St. Antony's College at Oxford University wrote to Fahamu to say that in their view the new book presents a monolithic, one sided view, and therefore would not be allowed to have the book displayed at the seminar. But how do they know it is monolithic? The book was only printed in Nairobi last week, and no copies are yet available in the UK.

Despite protests being lodged, Fahamu has still been refused the right to display the book.

We believe that this is an affront to academic freedom and an attempt at suppression of freedom of expression.

Land of the Guiltless Natives

Betty Wamalwa Muragori

2007-01-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/39471

Everyone knows it is always the colonialists fault
Our mania for land is no different.
For the past forty years, we have blamed our bad habits on the colonialists.
We lived in a land of guiltless natives before they arrived!
Our fascination with land has joined the rank of one of our vices.
Kenyan vices.
Women, wine and land.
Not necessarily in that order.
We obsess about it, we want it, large tracts of it, small pieces, plots 4m by 4m.
Our fixation has become an irrational passion that we kill for.
Land is a soothing mistress.
A sense of calm soaks those who possess it.
Owning land gives me comfort. I know I won’t fall if I lean back.
My mother the land is there to catch me.
I don’t know how to be any other way.
When people from other states express astonishment at such an attachment, I am equally perplexed that it does not exist in their lives.
How can a person live without this ardor?
Without the satisfaction that comes with possessing your very own piece of land?
At such times I sense myself at an impasse trying to cross an unbridgeable chasm.
Me on this side with my land, and they standing there, puffs of smoke, with no substance at all.

II
I longed for land of my own even when I was a child.
When I was unhappy, I would dream of running away to my very own secret island.
To live off berries, rabbits and delicious little edible birds, the fruit of the land.
No prizes for guessing where I got those images.
The British are guilty - again.
This time as imperialists.
Enid Blyton, Robinson Crusoe, Paradise Lost, Lassie, Dr Bwana.
A mish mash of sources filling my head with the make believe adventures of white people in the bush.
Continuing the grip on my imagination.

III
But let’s not blame all the British.
The set that came to Kenya is guilty of this particular mania.
Lords and Ladies of the realm, from a tiny island only 244,820 sq. km. with 60million souls.
And those few still managed to own large chunks of it.
Can you imagine what they saw when they came to this country back then?
Miles and miles of empty land, owned by no one?
Would you endure the land lust that gripped them?
They had to have it. And they took it any way they could.
Purchasing it from owners who did not possess it.
Procuring with currency to captivate guiltless natives
Gunning down unyielding resistance
Conjuring up flocks of compliant faithful.
They carved out chunks of that long ago empty land, 100,000 hectares for this Lord, 200,000 hectares for that Lord.
Four of them ended up owning land the size of the original island.
They came and stayed for 120 years.
Enough time to infect us all with the contagion.
Like a genetic fever they passed on their obsession.

IV
After we got most of our land back, at independence, we discovered sadly there wasn’t much of it that was any good.
At least that’s what we were told in school, what was written in our books, what our government officers repeated in board rooms across the country.
What we came to believe.
Some facts and figures about Kenya. It covers 582,650 sq. km.
82% cannot support modern farming. It is incapable of growing cucumbers, carrots, cabbages and lettuce. The terrain is too harsh.
Only 18% of the land is any good.
So we are back to the small island after all.
Soon the new country was gripped by the same land-scarcity-fever of that original small isle.
Too-little-good-land chased by 30 million people growing ever more greedy by the day.
That’s why we kill for it.

V
It was predictable that we would soon start stealing land with the calm soig froid that other people pick pockets.
We even invented a special term for it.
“Land grabbing.”
That’s what we call it.
As if you could snatch a piece of land and carry it, unseen, wrapped up in your pocket.
Vehement denial follows the apprehended land thief when the pilfered land is pulled from its hiding place.
Loud protests of, “It’s mine! Here’s the title deed to prove it!” follow.
And indeed he has a genuine title deed just like yours.
Title deeds have became accidental pieces of paper drawn up by government officials gone seemingly berserk
One as real as another.
There is just one small problem. I am the one who has to pay the loan I borrowed to buy the land in the first place.
I have only reached half way; I still owe another five million shillings!
I can’t very well go to my bank and say, “Sorry I’m not going to be paying that loan now because the land has been stolen.”
I am afraid of looking sloppy.
All those years my mother would have been right.
I am careless after all.
The signs were there early on when I kept loosing my school sweater.
Now I have gone and lost my land!

The Black Insider - A Novel by Dambudzo Marechera

Book Review

Annie Quarcoopome

2007-02-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/39620

To call The Black Insider a novel may be somewhat misleading. It is a loosely autobiographical account of the author’s stay in the “Faculty of Arts,” in time of “war.” Barricaded inside his room in the building he shares with an eclectic group of tenants, Marechera comments on the war without, mirroring excellently the one that rages within. The Black Insider captures the profoundness and insanity that characterise much of this author’s work. Despite his erratic style that has the potential to lose the reader in a morass of philosophical musings, we start to see the relationships between colour and space. We see the complexity of understanding and accepting one’s identity as black or white, and the impatience of the rest of the world with the individual who struggles with this process. And so Marechera creates an inside, and an outside, and blacks and whites and we end up with a black insider on our hands, in our lives, in us even, perhaps. And then in typical fashion, that which makes Marechera arguably the problem child of African literature, there is the element of damning everything to hell.

In the end, we are confronted with the explosive violence that characterise the author’s subject matter, the kind of violence that people generally want to sweep under the rug. The cast of characters is superb and profound, alluding to a well-compiled list of authors, philosophers and scientists. There is something in the Black Insider for all.

• Annie Quarcoopome is a Ghanaian and student of Comparative Literature at Williams College. She also is a contributor the the blog Black Looks.

• Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Review of African Blogs

Sokari Ekine

2007-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/39490

My Haven is a beautifully written blog by a South African Gay-identified man who writes about life, his partner, social justice and "We're different and that makes us a good match."

This week he is upset with President Mbeki who he officially declares is a "denialist".

"You have done a lot to get the economy where it is - but you are doing nothing to sustain it. Keeping the crime levels down is one way to keep the economy booming. Crime divides the country. I'm upset with you Mr. President. Without comparing you to any other head of State - but think of the legacy you are leaving as you are about to retire! Like Redi Direko said to you ‘Come on Mr President’ get your act together!"

Gradiose Parlor comments on Nigeria's latest census results for "sparsely populated Bayelsa State" in the Niger Delta and comes up with some interesting figures:

"The total population of Bayelsa state is 1,703,358; it’s the least populated in the nation. Bayelsa received 5,325,414,955.84 (Naira) in May 2004 from the federal account (PDF document); the second highest in the nation. This works out to 3,126.42 Naira per citizen. The highest allocation-per-citizen ratio* in the country. And this is just from federal account, the figure doesn’t include locally generated revenue."

The question is where has all the money gone because it has yet to reach the communities of the State?

Kenyan Pundit comments on the blog started by John Githongo in which he was supposed to reveal more on the Anglo Leasing scandal in Kenya. Her post titled "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" comments on the fact that the blog lasted 24 hours before it shut down; calling the blog "The Facts" with no explanation:

"An aside: Maybe he should just send stuff to Mzalendo and KBW and we can spruce it up for him. It pains me to see people who should know better sitting with so much good info. (e.g. hello where is Gladwell Otieno?)."

Laila Lalami posts a review of Nigerian writer Chris Abani's latest book "The Virgin of Flames" about "a biracial mural artist looking for himself in Los Angeles".

Carpe Diem Ethiopia writes about Ethiopian novelist, Bealu Girma who he finds "extremely challenging":

"For starters, out of his six novels: Kadmas Bashager (Beyond the Horizon), Yehilina Dewel (The Bell of Consciousness), Yeqey Kokeb Teri (The Call of the Red Star), Haddis, Derasiw (The Author), and Oromay ("Now, at this Moment"), I have only read three—Kadmas, Haddis, and Oromay. Second, the novelist's personal life and work deserve separate volumes of their own. Bealu's life and death are of Shakespearean proportions: Julius Caesar comes to mind - much like the Roman emperor's unprecedented expansion of his empire by his sheer ability to bend the will of men, the Ethiopian author reached the apogee of creativity by his ability to gain almost a cult following that allowed him to survive unscathed through much of his career despite his persistently harsh criticism of the societies in which he lived."

Singing SouthAfricanness discusses being a white South African and compares living in the US to SA.

"Quite simply, I feel safer here (New York), and that concerns me when I consider a future at home. I also feel hemmed in by my race at home. The fact that I am white has a very strong impact on how I am viewed, and what is expected of me, and what opportunities are available to me within my own country. Here, that matters less. What does matter is that I do work that people want to know about, and that is important."

Colour in SA has an impact on everyone's lives, opportunities, imprisonment in one's community, economic advantage. All of these also impact on people in the US. Apart from other advantages, part of the reason being white in the US is easier is because as part of the majority population you are less conspicuous?

Nata Village Blog profiles HIV lay counsellor, Kehumile Baganne.

"When I first started working at the clinic, few people came into test. I would only test four people per month. People were afraid in those days and the only ARV's were in Francistown and Gaborone. We weren't even able to offer IPT (prophylaxis for TB) in those days so some of the people here could not access those services. So when IPT came to Nata and the ARV's came to Gweta, people were more willing to test. I do my counseling in a caravan and when we first started everyone was afraid to come to the caravan. Because when someone goes there, they know they have AIDS. They even called me the caravan girl. I didn't like that name at all."

Annie writing on Black Looks writes about her two week experience in Cape Town, a place I have also become familiar with - looking for Africa in downtown Cape Town is not easy:

"I want to be in Africa! CT is very ‘modern.’ Unfortunately, modern also means Western. The two words are synonymous all over the world, but never have I seen it as glaringly as here. Is it not possible to be modern and still retain that special quality of ‘African-ess?’ And this is not me pandering to a stereotyped view of “African-ess” with regards to drums and naked people. This is me re-living my own, PERSONAL, African experience, me chanelling Ghana and my high school with its 60% representation of students from over 20 African countries. This is me remembering the differences and yet that special quality that brought us together, that led us to sing in one another’s languages, that justified our motto: ‘Knowledge in the service of Africa.’ So be on my case all you like, but I do believe there is such a thing as being African, such a thing as being in Africa, indescribable as they may be…but CT leaves me homesick. I wound up in an Irish bar (don’t ask) with a Lithuanian friend who told me how at home he felt in this European-like setting. I hope my smile looked real enough."

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org and is Online News Editor of Pambazuka News.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Africa: Hu Jintao visits Africa

Joshua Ogada

2007-02-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/39611

President Hu Jintao has embarked on his second trip to the continent in less than a year and on his itinerary are seven countries earmarked as strategic trade and investment allies. Jintao will be visiting Cameroon, Liberia, Mozambique, South Africa, Sudan, the Seychelles and Zambia. What these countries have in common is their ability to provide China with vital resources, strategic positioning and trade opportunities for its ever-expanding economy.

China’s engagement with Africa is increasingly becoming the biggest topic of debate in as far as global economics is concerned. Accelerated growth in the Asian nation’s economy has increased pressure to obtain resources. Africa is turning out to be the perfect partner for China in a relationship that is viewed by some as mutually beneficial while others see it as another opportunity for massive exploitation, with few long-term benefits accruing to the vast majority of the continent’s population.

The arguments for the Sino-African rapprochement are from the perspective of South-South cooperation and a welcome change from the kind of relationship with the west (read Europe and the US). Most of Africa continues to reel under the burden of debt, further exacerbated by the inability to find equal footing on the global economic platform.

There has however, been a growing sense of suspicion about just how much the continent will benefit from unfolding events. China’s record on issues of social justice, political freedom, human rights, environment does not pass muster. Africa’s bilateral relations with the EU, the US and the International funding agencies over the last two decades have focused on broad political and economic reforms. China seeks to access the continent’s resources, mainly oil and minerals in exchange for infrastructural development and monetary aid, both of which its new partners desperately need.

The key question is whether this new relationship will derail efforts towards political change. China is also seeking new markets for its huge cheap goods manufacturing sector. Chinese imports have had a detrimental effect on the local manufacturing sectors in Africa, and this continues to be a sore point, as evidenced by the huge trade imbalances that China enjoys with most countries on the continent.

At a global level, the West has always enjoyed a dominant position vis-à-vis Africa, dating back from colonial times. The rise of the East, namely China and to a slightly lesser degree, India, as investment and trade partners threatens their position of influence on many fronts. The finite nature of Africa’s resources means there is a likelihood of a zero-sum game where China’s gain is the West’s loss. Needless to say, the effects of China’s new move into global geo-politics will be felt for a long time to come, both on the continent and elsewhere.

Further reading:
New Yorker in DC http://nykrindc.blogspot.com/2007/01/china-goes-to-africa-good-bad-and.html
Beijing Action Plan http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/zflt/eng/zyzl/hywj/t280369.htm
International Herald Tribune http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/01/opinion/edecon.php
ISN Security Watch http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details_print.cfm?id=15837

China: $3 Billion Loan For Africa

2007-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/39476

China will lend African nations $3 billion in preferential credit over three years and double aid and interest-free loans over the same time, Beijing said on Monday ahead of President Hu Jintao's tour to woo the continent.

Cameroon: China's Hu holds aid, investment talks

2007-01-31

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31737154.htm

President Hu Jintao became the first Chinese head of state to visit Cameroon on Wednesday (31 January), kicking off his latest tour of an African continent which increasingly supplies oil and raw materials to his country. Hu, who also toured Africa last year, met Cameroonian President Paul Biya to discuss social aid programmes to provide drinking water and cheap housing, as well as a greater role for China in the local oil industry and other resource sectors.

Africa: Ghana takes AU chair

2007-01-30

http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/index.php/AUMONITOR/comments/sudan_eats_humble_pie_as_ghana_takes_the_prize/

Ghana has been elected, by consensus, as the new chair of the African Union. Ghana is set to host the next AU Heads of State summit scheduled for July. Ghana’s election averted a potentially embarrassing moment for the AU after Sudan failed to relinquish its bid in spite of widespread disquiet and opposition over its complicity in the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur.

Africa: African Union raising bar on rights

2007-01-30

http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/index.php

Africa’s Foreign Ministers meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, were expected to agree on a draft charter setting out new benchmarks on democracy, good governance and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms.

Africa: AU trails its eyes on continental unity amidst loud murmurs

2007-02-01

http://tinyurl.com/33yd2q

The African Union signalled its strongest intention yet to pursue the dream of a United States of Africa by making the proposal the key focus of its upcoming summit scheduled for Accra, Ghana—the cradle of Pan Africanism—in the second half of 2007.

Africa: Information facility on science and technology in Africa mooted

2007-02-01

http://tinyurl.com/2wx8v7

The International Institute on Sustainable development (IISD) has announced the launch of an information sharing facility that spotlights the African Union’s focus on science and technology (S&T), climate change and sustainable development in Africa. These issues will occupy a central theme at this week’s AU Heads of State summit in Addis Ababa.

Africa: Towards a people driven AU

2007-01-31

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC23488&Resource=f1

The African Union has already developed a reputation for charting an ambitious pan-African state-building project, yet very little is understood by policy-makers or citizens of how African countries prepare for the summits and their related ministerial meetings, and how they implement decisions and resolutions made in these fora. This report presents research on the preparations for and conduct of African Union summits.

Somalia: AU seeks troops for peace mission

2007-01-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57258

The African Union's (AU) new chairman, President John Kufuor of Ghana, appealed on Tuesday (30 January) to African governments to contribute troops to a planned peace and stabilisation force for strife-town Somalia. "We need 8,000 troops; we only have 4,000 so far," Kufuor said at the end of the AU summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where the pan-African body is headquartered.

Africa: Nobel laureates seek renewed commitment to public health

2007-02-01

http://tinyurl.com/3d8pcj

Nobel peace laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Professor Wangari Maathai have appealed to Africa’s Heads of State meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to renew their commitment to improving public health by among other things, allocating 15 per cent of their national budgets to health in line with the commitment made at the special Heads of State summit in Abuja in 2002.

Algeria: women making progress in the unions

2007-01-31

http://www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?article646

Thanks to an ambitious organising campaign by women throughout the country, women’s participation is on the increase in unions. This is the first report on a very promising campaign.

Global: How can universities challenge gender discrimination?

2007-01-31

http://www.id21.org/education/e3lm1g1.html

In developing country universities women staff are under-represented in senior teaching and management positions. Enrolment of female undergraduates is increasing but far too few are studying science and technology subjects. Research and action are needed to identify the factors that slow or promote gender equity and identify examples of replicable good practice.

South Africa: Access to finance for women entrepeneurs - challenges and opportunities

2007-01-31

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/docdisplay.cfm?doc=DOC22737&resource=f1gender

Though women are the largest group of entrepreneurs in South Africa, black women still face unequal access to finance. This fact sheet describes some of the barriers they face and identifies actions required by government and financial institutions to ensure that women can access credit and business development services.

South Africa: Gender audit of media NGOs

2007-01-31

http://www.genderlinks.org.za/page.php?p_id=320

This review concerns the extent to which gender is integrated into the work of twenty freedom of expression and media development organisations supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). One of the major findings of the review reveals that virtually all organisations reviewed cited gender as an important consideration in media for development and freedom of expression work.

Zimbabwe: Desist From Pulling Each Other Down, Women Urged

2007-01-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701310400.html

Women should desist from pulling each other down and strive for unity to enable them to work together and attain development in various economic spheres, the Minister of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Oppah Muchinguri, has said.

Cameroon: Two gay men released, at least one still in custody

2007-01-31

http://www.iglhrc.org/site/iglhrc/section.php?id=5&detail=711

IGLHRC and Alternatives-Cameroun are pleased to announce the release of Nicholas Njocky and Patrick Yousseu, two gay men who have been detained in the West African nation of Cameroon for one year under Article 347 of the Cameroonian penal code, which makes sex between people of the same sex illegal. IGLHRC remains concerned about the continued detention of Alexandre Demanou, held without charge or trial since 2002.

DRC: Call for release of Human Rights Lawyer

2007-01-31

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/human.rights.lawyer.dying.in.prison.amid.congolese.persecution/9075.htm

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila is being urged to release human rights lawyer and former presidential candidate, Marie Therese Nlandu and her associates from prison. The calls come following Nlandu’s trial before a military tribunal in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, on Jan. 24, according to a report by Ambrose Musiyiwa.

DRC: Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is committed for trial

2007-01-31

http://www.fidh.org/article.php3?id_article=3986

FIDH and its member organisations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have welcomed the decision adopted today (30 January) by the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to confirm the charges against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and refer the case to a Trial Chamber.

Kenya: Gays and lesbians step out to demand rights

2007-01-31

http://www.mask.org.za

A new phenomenon is gaining currency in the country: Lesbians, gays and transsexuals are coming out openly to demand their rights. The group stole the show at the World Social Forum which ended at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, with their stand being a crowd puller.

Mozambique: Legislation reviewed to curb child trafficking

2007-01-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57264

International child traffickers may be using Mozambique's weak adoption laws to target orphaned children, to the growing concern of the government, said a senior official from the Ministry of the Interior.

Rwanda: New Law Criminalizing Same-Sex Conduct Proposed

2007-01-31

http://www.iglhrc.org/site/iglhrc/section.php?id=5&detail=709

On 15 January 2007, IGLHRC and ILGA sent a letter to the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, asking him to reconsider plans to include of a provision that would penalize homosexuality as part of an overall revision to the Rwandan penal code currently being debated. The provision appears as Article 160 in the French version and article 158 in the English version of the draft penal code currently on the website of the Ministry of Justice.

Zimbabwe: Campaigners urge French government to exclude Zimbabwe from summit

2007-01-31

http://www.amicustheunion.org/Default.aspx?page=5694

Campaigners are to protest outside of the French embassy in London this week (Friday 2nd February) to urge the French government to stop representatives of the Zimbabwean government attending an international summit. Union members, Zimbabwean exiles and human rights campaigners are joining protests outside French embassies across Europe. They are calling on the French government to apply a European Union ban on Zimbabwean government members and prevent them from attending an African summit the French government is hosting in Cannes next month.

Central African Republic: Refugees stranded in Sudanese town

2007-01-31

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/0944ab45d16373df2b020a590dbb5201.htm

Since fleeing his home in northern Central African Republic (CAR) on 3 December 2006, Abdoulay Douga Mandja Noel, 40, has lived rough in a border town called Am-Dafock shared by the CAR and Sudan. Abdoulay fled months of fighting between the army and a rebel coalition, the Union des forces démocratiques pour le rassemblement (UFDR), which is seeking inclusion in the government of President François Bozize, whom they accuse of sidelining them.

Global: Counting Immigrants in Cities across the Globe

2007-01-31

http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=567

In cities around the world, but especially in Western Europe, Australia, the Persian Gulf, and North America, immigrants play a fundamental role in the labor force and the social life of cities. For North American and Australian cities, the numbers of immigrants are reminiscent of the early-20th century, although the diversity is far greater. In Western Europe and the Persian Gulf, unprecedented numbers of newcomers have arrived in the past two decades.

Global: UNHCR launches policy to provide refugees with access to ARVs

2007-01-31

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=42623

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has launched a new strategy aimed at ensuring HIV-positive refugees and other displaced people worldwide have access to antiretroviral treatment, care and support, IRIN News reports. The policy addresses both long-term and shorter-term antiretroviral provisions, such as post-exposure prophylaxis for sexual assault survivors and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission.

Southern Africa: SA, Botswana deported 140 000 Zimbabweans in 2006

2007-01-31

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=297051&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

Authorities in South Africa and Botswana deported more than 140 000 Zimbabweans in 2006, a Herald newspaper report in Zimbabwe quoted police records as saying. A total of 109 532 Zimbabweans were deported from South Africa in 2006, according to the records. That represents 300 people a day, most of whom hazard the crossing of the Limpopo River border with South Africa, which is infested with crocodiles or swollen with dangerous flood waters in the rainy season.

Tanzania: Number of refugees drops below 300 000

2007-01-31

http://english.people.com.cn/200701/31/eng20070131_346498.html

The number of refugees in United Nations camps in northwestern Tanzania has dropped from 350, 590 in 2005 to 287,061 in 2006, below the 300,000 mark. The number of refugee camps in the country is also expected to soon decrease from 11 to eight. Yacoub el-Hillo, United Nations High Commission for Refugees country representative to Tanzania, has attributed the decrease of refugees to voluntary repatriation thanks to improvement of political situations in the origin countries of refugees.

Nigeria: Pambazuka News Election Briefing

Joshua Ogada

2007-02-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/39610

As Nigeria prepares to go the polls in April of 2007, the continent and the world will be closely watching developments in the continent’s most populous nation. This will be the first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power in the country’s history. In the run-up to the elections, focus has been on the recently-released population census figures, the perceived incompetence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as well as the sheer number of candidates and parties competing.

The 2006 census puts the population at around 140 million. Although most analysts consider this a conservative, if not inaccurate figure, the main area of contention is the breakdown by region. According to the census, the North is more populous than the South. Southerners dispute this finding based on population densities and geographical realities. Rather, they perceive these findings as a means to bolster resource allocation disparities, gerrymandering, and even a precursor to vote-rigging in favour of the North.

The INEC recently extended the voter registration deadline by 14 days to allow for more Nigerians to register for the polls. The electoral body has come in for heavy criticism over its incompetence. There is concern about potential vote rigging, so the manner in which the INEC discharges its duties will determine how well the election results are received by the country and the world at large.

In such a populous and political volatile country, the sheer number of parties and candidates vying for election is by no means surprising. Of the thirteen-odd main parties vying for elections, four are fielding candidates in real contention for the presidency.

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is the ruling party. Its candidate is the present governor of Katsina state, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who is Obasanjo’s anointed successor. He has leftist leanings and is the only state governor untainted by corruption allegations.

The All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) is the main opposition party. Its candidate, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari is contesting elections again, having lost to Obasanjo in 2003.

The Action Congress (AC) candidate is Vice-president Atiku Abubakar. He was a founding member of the PDP but was suspended in allegations of corruption. He switched parties while in office, which has raised a potential constitutional crisis. Because the AC and the ANPP have an election pact, he will have to challenge Buhari to be able to vie for the presidency. His campaign is based on his call for a ‘power shift’ from the South to the North, whence he hails.

Former military ruler and power-broker Ibrahim Babangida has yet to find a political party to support his bid. He left the PDP after Obasanjo allegedly refused to back his bid for nomination in favor of Yar’Adua. He also enjoys wide public support in the North.

The All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate is Chukwuemeka Ojukwu. He is the former leader of the Biafra secession uprising and a cult-figure of his Igbo people. His influence is more or less confined to South-Eastern Nigeria.

The spectre of violence and upheaval still hangs heavily over the country. There has been some unrest following the removal of high ranking officials and state governors by legislative process. The prominence of former generals in politics and in the elections is also a cause for concern given the country’s past experience of military rule.

Further reading and discussions:

INEC http://www.inecnigeria.org/
The Vanguard http://www.vanguardngr.com
Nigerian Village Square http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/

Somalia: Parliament elects new speaker

2007-01-31

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31702847.htm

Somalia's parliament elected a new speaker on Wednesday 31 January) to replace one ousted over his overtures to Islamist rivals defeated by government and Ethiopian troops during a two-week war in December. Members of parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of Justice Minister Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nuur "Madobe" who takes over from Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, voted out of office Jan 17.

Guinea Bissau: UN rep speaks on negotiating end to crisis with former PM

2007-01-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57251

The United Nations secretary-general’s representative in Guinea-Bissau, Shola Omoregie, has negotiated an end to a 17-day crisis involving the government and prominent politician Carlos Gomes Junior who had sought refuge in the UN building in Bissau. Gomes Junior, chairman of the former ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, previously served as prime minister.

Nigeria: Voters given extra time

2007-01-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6316331.stm

The deadline for Nigerians to register for elections has been extended to Friday (February 2) because of a last-minute rush. People queued for hours to beat Tuesday's (January 30) deadline, but officials could not cope with the turnout and a new computerised registration system. On Monday (January 29), workers were given a holiday to register as the voters roll was still some 10m below its 60m target.

Mauritania: Candidate gets boost

2007-01-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6313217.stm

Allies of Mauritania's ousted leader have united to back a presidential candidate in March's elections. Correspondents say this makes Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, an independent, favourite as the 18-party coalition holds a majority in parliament. Leaders of the military junta which seized power in 2005 are not standing.

South Africa: Zuma supporters hit back at Cronin

2007-01-31

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=297587&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/

Supporters of African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma have hit back at the South African Communist Party's (SACP) Jeremy Cronin for saying they are unprincipled and inconsistent. "Cronin is one of the people who have consciously continued to lie about Zuma and his supporters since the [Zuma's] rape trial," the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust said.

Côte d’Ivoire: Cocoa buyers face robbery risks in bush

2007-01-31

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31521625.htm

Ivory Coast's cocoa merchants risk their money and their lives on the road as highway robbers increasingly target their cars to seize cash destined to buy beans, a senior police officer said on Wednesday (31 January). Millions of CFA francs have been stolen from cocoa buyers so far in this 2006/07 season by thieves who stop buyers' cars either by holding up the drivers with guns or by mounting fake police checkpoints and dressing in military uniforms.

Nigeria: Corruption and misuse robs people of rights

2007-01-31

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/e5a775cb6651f2f7d32f5fc6623f29c2.htm

Local government officials in Nigeria's wealthiest oil-producing state have squandered rising revenues that could provide basic health and education services for some of Nigeria's poorest people, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today (31 January). Human Rights Watch found that the government's failure to tackle local-level corruption violates Nigeria's obligation to provide basic health and education services to its citizens.

Nigeria: Curse of oil sees corruption soar

2007-01-31

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=101730&topicId=101180003&docId=l:564876139

A leading candidate in Nigeria's upcoming presidential elections has attacked the country's foreign-dominated oil industry for fuelling corruption in the country. "Corruption has been worse with oil because oil has brought more money," said the former Nigerian military strongman General Muhammadu Buhari, who is running a presidential campaign based on an anti-corruption platform.

Rwanda: Monuc Cited in 'Ex-Combatants' Scam

2007-01-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701310013.html

Eight Burundians have accused the UN Mission to Congo (MONUC) of involvement in the fraudulent registration of non-Rwandans as ex-combatants seeking 'repatriation'. According to the Chairman of the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission (RDRC) John Sayinzoga, the eight told RDRC officials that some MONUC officials connive with one 'Mama Claude' to 'repatriate' people allegedly from the DRC for US5 per person and a further reward of Frw.10,000, after receiving their 'resettlement package'.

Zambia: Anti-corruption drive misses the point

2007-01-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57245

Zambia's anti-corruption drive is failing because the government has been concentrating its resources on investigating the corrupt practices of the previous regime, allowing present graft in the public service to flourish, a corruption watchdog said in its latest report.

Africa: Privatising Basic Utilities in Sub-Saharan Africa

2007-02-02

http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCPolicyResearchBrief003.pdf

This policy research brief draws on the findings of a UNDP-supported book, Privatization and Alternative Public Sector Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa (Bayliss and Fine, forthcoming), to analyze the effects of privatization on the delivery of water and electricity. It concludes that privatization has been a widespread failure. This has hampered progress on the MDGs for both water and sanitation, and on many other MDGs dependent on energy.

Egypt: Free Trade Agreement Between EFTA and Egypt

2007-01-31

http://secretariat.efta.int/Web/ExternalRelations/PartnerCountries/EG

The Free Trade Agreement between the EFTA States and Egypt was signed in Davos, Switzerland on 27 January 2007. The Agreement covers trade in industrial products, including fish and other marine products, and processed agricultural products. In addition, individual EFTA States and Egypt concluded bilateral agreements on basic agricultural products, which form part of the instruments creating the free trade area.

Global: Labelling countries as poor performers can be damaging

2007-01-31

http://www.id21.org/society/s5cea1g1.html

International aid allocations are increasingly linked with assessments of performance in developing countries. Donors have become concerned with how to work with a group of countries that have been labelled as ‘poor performers’. But does a group of poorly performing countries really exist?

Global: Making fiscal space happen

2007-01-31

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC23493&Resource=f1aid

The G8 countries have committed to double aid flows to developing countries by 2010. Although these funds offer great opportunities to recipient countries, aid inflows of such magnitude pose significant macroeconomic challenges to low income countries (LIC). This paper considers how LICs should manage fiscal policy in a scaled-up aid environment.

Global: Tackling drugs to reduce poverty

2007-01-31

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights-h10/index.html

The United Nations Office of Drug Control claimed in 2006 that 'Drug control is working and the world drug problem is being contained'. Yet the scale and diversity of the illicit global drug trade has increased in the last decade, as have rates of drug use in most countries.

Global: The Geo-politics of the Water Justice Movement

2007-02-02

http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/Naidoo%20Davidson%20water%20geopolitics.pdf

Pressures on the use of global fresh water have reached levels unprecedented in human history. Water has become a major factor in contemporary strategic conflicts and struggles, and as a species we are beginning to glimpse the crucial importance of this simple resource. Not only is water essential to human sustenance in the form of drinking water and the use of water in agriculture, but also industrial development could not occur without it.

Senegal: Debt relief a better option than aid (loans)

2007-01-31

http://www.id21.org/society/s9bbo1g1.html

Aid is a major source of government revenue for many developing countries. Senegal, which has also built up a large country debt, receives a significant proportion of its government revenues from aid. But is aid the best way to support economic growth in countries with large debts, or could debt relief be a better policy?

Africa: Health Promises, Time to Deliver

2007-01-31

http://www.africafocus.org/docs07/heal0701.php

In his latest State of the Union message, U.S. President George Bush declared "To whom much is given, much is required." He went on to pledge to "continue to fight HIV/AIDS, especially on the continent of Africa." But while activists acknowledge the additional attention given to health in recent years, they say both African and international leaders are still falling far short of fulfilling their promises.

Africa: Home test kits recommended to lower malaria deaths

2007-01-31

http://www.scidev.net/content/news/eng/home-test-kits-recommended-to-lower-malaria-deaths.cfm

Africa must work towards providing home-based rapid diagnostic test kits and give more consideration to gender issues in the fight against malaria, a new report recommends. The report, commissioned by Femmes Africa Solidarite and released at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last week (25 January), explores the issue of gender in malaria policies.

Angola: Oil not flowing for safer water

2007-01-31

http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=35950

The cholera epidemic which has been plaguing Angola for nearly a year has placed the spotlight on the continuing lack of safe drinking water in that country. Over the past 11 months, the illness has spread to 16 of the 18 provinces and claimed the lives of more than 2,440 people, according to official estimates. But health workers in the country say the figure is probably much higher as many cases are not reported.

Global: Guide on religions aims to expand collaboration in HIV/AIDS response

2007-01-31

http://www.e-alliance.ch

Scaling up effective partnerships: A guide to working with faith-based organisations in the response to HIV and AIDS provides background information and case studies, dispels myths, and gives practical guidance for United Nations staff, government officials, positive people's networks, non-governmental organizations, foundations, and the private sector who want to collaborate with faith-based organizations on joint projects related to HIV and AIDS.

Nigeria: Bird flu claims first human life in West Africa

2007-01-31

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31721076.htm

Nigeria confirmed the first human death from the H5N1 virus in sub-Saharan Africa on Wednesday (January 31) after tests on a dead woman showed she had contracted bird flu. The 22-year-old died after feathering and disembowelling an infected chicken. She was from Lagos, the commercial capital of Africa's most populous country, Information Minister Frank Nweke said. Test on three other victims, one of them the woman's mother, were inconclusive.

South Africa: HIV now spreading fastest among rich and educated

2007-01-31

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20031583

Startling new evidence from a three-year survey shows that HIV is now growing fastest among those who are wealthier and educated. “Our belief that HIV is a disease of the impoverished, the unemployed, the uneducated is actually wrong,” says Professor Carel van Aardt, Director of Research at UNISA’s Bureau of Market Research. “It seems that the most rapid growth at the moment is among the educated, among the employed, among the people with higher incomes, and also the people in high class in society.

South Africa: People before patents

2007-01-31

http://www.msf.org

Pharmaceutical company Novartis is taking the Indian government to court. If the company wins, millions of people across the globe could have their sources of affordable medicines dry up. Novartis was one of the 39 companies that took the South African government to court five years ago, in an effort to overturn the country's medicines act that was designed to bring drug prices down. Now Novartis is up to it again and is targeting India.

Zimbabwe: Ongoing medical strike could cost lives

2007-01-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47896

As Zimbabwe's disgruntled doctors and nurses continue their strike over low salaries and poor working conditions, concern is growing about how the prolonged stay-away is affecting HIV-positive patients. The strike by health professionals, now more than a month old, has left dozens of desperate patients without medical care in rural and urban areas.

Global: Assessing early childhood care and education

2007-01-31

http://www.id21.org/education/e1efa4g3.html

The first Education for All (EFA) goal calls for ‘expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education (ECCE), especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children’. Enrolment in ECCE programmes has tripled since 1970, but access remains limited in most developing countries. Children most exposed to malnutrition and preventable diseases are least likely to have access.

Global: Ignoring the world’s youngest children makes no sense

2007-01-31

http://www.id21.org/education/e1efa4g2.html

Learning begins before a child walks through the classroom door. Early childhood care and education (ECCE) supports children’s survival and cognitive, social, physical and emotional development. ECCE guarantees children’s rights, opens the way for the Education for All (EFA) goals and contributes to reducing poverty. Why, then, is it so low on the education agenda?

Global: Unesco study on Educational Equity and Public Policy

2007-02-02

http://www.uis.unesco.org/template/publications/UIS/WP6_Sherman_FINALwc.pdf

A new report by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) analyzes some of the diverse approaches to equity in education and presents a framework for measuring educational equity. Today most experts agree that education systems that are “equitable” provide high-quality education to all children.

Liberia: Squeezing in an education

2007-01-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57168

Primary school instructor Richard Morgan can no longer stroll between the rows of desks to teach in his classroom at the SIMS Community School. The boys and girls are crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in their blue and white uniforms as Morgan lectures from the front of the room.

Africa: African LGBTI's issues Statement of Warning!

2007-02-01

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/increse310107.html

African LGBTI Human Rights Defenders Warn Public against Participation in Campaigns Concerning LGBTI Issues in Africa Led by Peter Tatchell and Outrage! In order to prevent Peter Tatchell and Outrage! from causing further damage through their unfounded campaigns and press releases, we issue this public statement of warning.

Africa: The impact of climate change on pastoral livelihood systems

2007-01-31

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC23101&Resource=f1pastoralism

The sustainability of pastoral systems largely depends on a balancing act between pastures, livestock and people. The mobility of pastoralists and their livestock is also a key factor. With climate change, the authors of this article speculate that this balance will be undermined. Greater herd mobility and diversification of pastoralists livelihoods will be required although diversification out of livestock production may be constrained by the environmental characteristics of most pastoral areas in Africa.

Cameroon: Climate Change, Source of Worry

2007-01-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701310593.html

Due to the drastic change in climate, most people suffer from certain air borne diseases such as catarrh and cough. For close to two months, inhabitants of the capital city have been observing drastic climatic changes. After passing through cold weather conditions, the weather in Yaounde now is extremely hot. Due to the drastic change in climate, most people suffer from certain air borne diseases such as catarrh, cough, etc.

Global: Enforcing the law in forests

2007-01-31

http://www.id21.org/nr/n4mc1g1.html

Illegal logging is a major problem in many developing countries. However, current attempts to enforce forest laws do not always target the causes of illegal logging. Instead, they persecute poor rural people living in forest regions.

Nambia: Environment plan slow to take off

2007-01-31

http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=36322

The Namibian government has adopted all the right policies to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal Seven on sustainable environmental practices, but its good intentions have floundered at the implementation stage. According to the director of environment at the ministry of environment and tourism (MET), Theofilus Nghitila, the country ‘‘has been doing a lot to set up the appropriate policies and regulations conducive to sustainable environmental development. It has the right policies and continues to reform policies to stay abreast in a changing world’’.

Somalia: Puntland Leader's Plea for Environment

2007-01-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701300411.html

The president of Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, Gen Mahmud Muse Hirsi, has appealed for help in tackling an environmental emergency caused by increased charcoal burning, which has been compounded by greater numbers of displaced people since 1992. Hirsi said due to the influx of displaced people and drought-induced displacement of pastoral communities - which pushed them to urban areas - more acacia trees are being burned for charcoal.

Zimbabwe: Water Quality Supplies Fast Deteriorating

2007-01-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701300538.html

The pollution of rivers, lakes and acquifers from domestic and industrial wastewater discharges, mining runoff, agro-chemicals and other sources is now a growing threat to water resources in most countries in southern Africa. According to a new report titled "Water Quality Management and Pollution Control" in Southern Africa compiled by Prof Ngonidzashe Moyo, a freshwater biologist at the University of Limpopo in South Africa, and Sibekhile Mtetwa and other water resources development experts, the quality of water supplies in the Sadc region, once taken for granted, is becoming the focus of increasing concern.

Africa: Land rights and land conflicts

2007-01-31

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC23396&Resource=f1conflict

People in Africa are now increasingly competing to get access to arable land and pastures. Open land conflicts are becoming more and more common across the continent.

Global: GM crops still not performing

2007-01-31

http://www.foei.org/media/2007/0109.html

A new report released by Friends of the Earth International shows that genetically modified (GM) crops have failed to address the main challenges facing farmers around the world, and more than 70% of large scale GM planting is still limited to two countries: the US and Argentina.

Global: Small scale farmers' views on the future of food production

2007-01-31

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/docdisplay.cfm?doc=DOC22645&resource=f1agric

The knowledge, priorities and aspirations of small scale producers are rarely included in policy debates on the future of food, farming and development. In response, a recent electronic conference, "The Future of Food and Small-scale Producers" sought the views of indigenous, small, and family farmers from over 30 developed and developing countries. The forum also included the opinions of landless people and fishing communities, as well as their representative organisations.

West Africa: Analysis of Land, Agricultural and Conflict in West Africa

2007-02-02

http://www.landcoalition.org/pdf/06_doc_clubsahel.pdf

This Report published by the Sahel and West Africa Club reviews the land reform process in West Africa and presents the recent initiatives carried out by regional organisations in support of land reform in the context of regional policies on agriculture, natural resource management, conflict prevention and security.

Zimbabwe: Land reform - a cure for poverty?

2007-01-31

http://www.id21.org/urban/u2ac1g1.html

Unjust land distribution is a legacy of colonial policies that took resources away from indigenous groups. At independence, many states had a minority of white settlers owning large commercial farms while the indigenous majority were left with small plots of land. Land redistribution has been a policy of many governments.

Côte d’Ivoire: Newspaper journalist held for five days by Abidjan gendarmes

2007-01-31

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/80763/

Reporters Without Borders has called on the Ivorian authorities to withdraw all charges against journalist Claude Dassé of the privately-owned daily "Soir Info", after he was held for five days at Abidjan investigative police headquarters on a contempt of court charge brought by the state prosecutor.

Liberia: Legislators threaten to bar radio stations from covering parliamentary sessions

2007-01-31

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/80766/

Some members of Liberia's lower house of Parliament, opposing the leadership of Speaker Edwin Snowe on 23 January 2007, threatened to bar two independent FM stations and a pro-government radio station from covering their sessions. Star Radio and Radio Veritas, two independent, Monrovia-based stations and Truth FM, a pro-government radio station, were accused of bias in the coverage of the ongoing leadership conflict in the country's legislature.

Senegal: ARTICLE 19 publishes report on free expression ahead of presidential elections

2007-01-31

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/80751/

Ahead of the Senegalese presidential elections on February 25, ARTICLE 19 publishes a report on the state of freedom of expression in Senegal. The legal, political and institutional framework for freedom of expression in Senegal must be reformed, urges a new report published by ARTICLE 19 just ahead of February 2007 elections. The report outlines key challenges and obstacles to freedom of expression in the lead up to presidential elections.

Somalia: VOA starts Somali service

2007-01-31

http://www.journalism.co.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=4891&CAMSSID=41926c97bb295547f5c6310ce981b06a

The US government broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) is launching a new daily radio broadcast in the Somali language to the Horn of Africa, writes Eric Nyakagwa. The daily half-hour broadcast will start on February 12, and will rely on a group of Somali broadcasters at VOA's headquarters in Washington, DC and freelance reporters in Africa and elsewhere.

Togo: Suspended radio station resumes broadcast

2007-01-31

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/80755/

Radio Victoire, a privately-owned FM station in Lomé, that was suspended for 15 days by the media regulator, Haute Autorité de l'Audiovisuel de la Communication (HAAC), on 24 January 2007, resumed operations after serving the full term of the suspension. On 9 January, HAAC suspended the radio station for an alleged professional misconduct.

Zimbabwe: Warning against formation of independent media council

2007-01-31

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/80731/

On January 26 2007, a leading Zimbabwean politician warned journalists from forming an independent media council without the approval of the government, which has closed newspapers and arrested reporters. Leo Mugabe, a nephew of President Robert Mugabe and a member of his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), told about 200 journalists at a meeting to launch the council that they should avoid confrontation with the authorities.

Haiti: Justice Reform and the Security Crisis

2007-01-31

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4639&l=1

Violent and organised crime threatens to overwhelm Haiti. The justice system is weak and dysfunctional, no match for the rising wave of kidnappings, drug and human trafficking, assaults and rapes, says the International Crisis Group.

Chad: Are we citizens of this country?

2007-01-31

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR200012007

Homes ablaze. Villagers slaughtered. Women and girls raped. Survivors scattered in terror. Civilians in eastern Chad are sharing the cruel fate of their neighbours in Darfur, hostages to Sudan’s ruthless solution to rebel attacks in the region. The Janjawid militias who in recent years have laid to waste vast areas of western Sudan, form the backbone of the armed groups who are killing, tormenting and displacing civilians from targeted ethnic groups such as the Dajo and the Masalit in eastern Chad. The aim of the attacks appears to be to clear vast areas of communities primarily identified by the Janjawid as "African" rather than "Arab", and to drive them further from the border with Sudan.

China: African arms sales defended

2007-01-31

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=297399&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

China on Tuesday (30 January) defended its arms exports to African nations, saying they are small in scale and do not violate United Nations rules that ban weapons sales to countries at war. "On the arms exports to Africa, China takes a cautious and responsible attitude," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said shortly after President Hu Jintao left for an eight-nation tour of the continent.

DRC: Stability threatened as country fails to reform army

2007-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/39570

Amnesty International today (25 January) warned that the demobilization and army reform programme currently underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) risks compromising the country's entire political process and future stability. In a comprehensive study, Amnesty International revealed that the national demobilization and reform process has so far been characterized by serious human rights violations, a lack of political will, and ineffective control of troops.

Egypt: Country must tackle Sinai tensions

2007-01-31

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31724818.htm

Egypt will not end militancy in its Sinai peninsula, where bombs have killed more than 100 people since 2004, until it tackles political and socio-economic grievances there, a report said on Wednesday (31 January). The International Crisis Group said that Egypt's response to bomb attacks that targeted Red Sea tourist resorts had focused almost exclusively on security, rather than on trying to resolve simmering tensions among the Sinai population.

Global: Can migrant remittances help rebuild conflict-affected states?

2007-01-31

http://www.id21.org/society/s10bpw1g1.html

An important component of peace-building is maintenance of livelihoods during conflict and to ensure sustainable post-conflict recovery. The role of private individual support to war-torn communities is little researched and poorly understood by those who plan peace-building programmes and post-conflict assistance strategies.

Guinea: Hospitals short of blood as strike toll rises

2007-01-31

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31754704.htm

More than 90 people were killed and at least 300 injured when security forces in Guinea opened fire to put down protests during a two-week general strike this month, a human rights group said on Wednesday (31 January).

Kenya: Fifty dead in clashes

2007-01-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6317255.stm

Some 50 people have been killed in the past month in clan violence over land in Kenya's western province, local government officials say. Spokesman Abdul Mwasera told the BBC more than 30 people had been arrested in connection with the clashes. Hundreds of families fled to camps after conflict began during a government land allocation programme.

Somalia: The Tough Part Is Ahead

2007-01-31

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4630&l=1

There is now a political vacuum across much of southern Somalia, which the ineffectual TFG is unable to fill. Elements of the Courts, including Shabaab militants and their al-Qaeda associates, are largely intact and threaten guerrilla war. Peace requires the TFG to be reconstituted as a genuine government of national unity but the signs of its willingness are discouraging. Sustained international pressure is needed.

Ghana: Virtual Market for Farmers

2007-01-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701310657.html

Farmers in Ghana will soon be introduced to an innovative agricultural market information service which will help them sell their produce across Africa. The new service known as TradeNet will enable farmers and traders across the continent to share and fix prices of various agricultural products through the use of mobile phone text messages. Farmers who sign up for the service will receive SMS alerts on whatever commodity they are interested in and also where the product is available.

Global: Technology transfer for the poor

2007-01-31

http://www.scidev.net/content/editorials/eng/technology-transfer-for-the-poor.cfm

Developing countries must adopt effective policies on technology transfer that meet the needs of all social classes, including the poorest. There is a common misconception that the single most important factor in science and development is the need for adequate funding for relevant research. This type of thinking — sometimes described as the 'science push' model of development — tends to focus on the proportion of a country's gross national product spent on research and development.

Global: Youth on Human Rights, Youth for Open Source

2007-02-02

http://icommons.org/2007/01/15/youth-on-human-rights-youth-for-open-source/

At the heart of the Commons movement is a simple yet powerful concept of sharing information and art for the enjoyment and the betterment of everyone’s lives. Much of this sharing is the result of widespread internet access and broadband availability, resources which many people do not have. At the grassroots is a unique youth-led organization called Five Minutes to Midnight (FMM).

Kenya: Country Ready to Go Three Ways On Cable

2007-01-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701230830.html

The cost of international broadband is set to drastically reduce within 18 months after the Kenyan government confirmed that it is ready to adopt three different under sea cables provided through various routes. Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communication said that Kenya was taking a three-pronged approach calculated to reduce the cost of international connectivity.

South Africa: Consumer group fires salvo at Telkom

2007-01-31

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/weekender.aspx?ID=BD4A362993

Stinging criticism from the world-renowned Reuters news agency, evidence from numerous analysts and a verbal lashing by President Thabo Mbeki himself have failed to penetrate Telkom’s impervious skin and force it to cut its prices. So what impact will come from 200 despondent consumers moaning about the high cost of a phone call?

South Africa: Science And Technology Vital for a Competitive Economy

2007-01-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701310218.html

South Africa has identified science, technology and innovation as important pillars of backing a competitive economy, Deputy Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom said on Tuesday (January 30). Speaking at the South Africa-Chile Intergovernmental seminar in Pretoria, Mr Hanekom said the importance of these aspects was necessitated by the distorted economy inherited in 1994.

Global: Global Shining Light Awards

2007-01-31

http://www.comminit.com/awards2007/awards2007/awards-1543.html

The Global Investigative Journalism Conference will present the "Global Shining Light Award" for investigative journalism in a developing country or country in transition. The US$1000 award will be granted to a journalist, journalism team or media outlet whose independent, investigative reporting was broadcast or published between January 1 and December 31 2006, and which originated in and affected a developing or emerging country.

Global: Tech Museum Awards

2007-01-31

http://www.comminit.com/awards2007/awards2007/awards-1551.html

The Tech Museum Awards is a programme that aims to honour and award innovators from around the world who use technology to benefit humanity in the categories of: Education, Equality, Economic Development, Environment, Health. Five Laureates in each category are honoured and one Laureate per category receives US$50,000.

Global: The State of E-Philanthropy in 2007

2007-01-31

http://www.civicus.org/new/media/State-E-Philanthropy-in-2007.doc

The nonprofit sector has come a long way in its use of the Internet. In the last six years, funds raised online by nonprofits have grown 20-fold from $250 million in 2000 to more than $5 billion in 2006. The pace of growth today continues to be strong. In fact, estimates suggest industry average online fundraising growth continues to exceed 30 percent per year. Today, almost every non-profit has basic online marketing capabilities including a Web site and the ability to take donations and send email.

2008 Women's Leadership Scholarship

2007-01-31

http://www.nativeleaders.org/index.html

The Women's Leadership Scholarship Programme (formerly the Native Leadership Scholarship) is accepting applications from women grassroots leaders, organisers and activists from the global south and/or from indigenous groups, who wish to pursue non-doctoral graduate studies in human rights, sustainable development, and public health at accredited institutions worldwide.

Africa: 2007 Sexuality Leadership Development Fellowship

2007-01-31

http://www.arsrc.org

The Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre (ARSRC) calls for applications to its annual Sexuality Leadership Development Fellowship (SLDF) Programme. The Fellowship is scheduled to take place in Lagos, Nigeria from 9 to 27 July 2007. The course provides an academically stimulating environment that promotes cross-cultural sharing of experiences as well as individual study incorporating rigorous intellectual work and strategic field trips and events that brings participants in contact with leaders and organizations in the field of sexuality.

South Africa: Course on Gender Equality to be Held in South Africa

2007-02-02

http://www.comminit.com/africa/training2007/2007-events/events-4624.html

Journalists interested in human rights can apply to attend a course on gender equality in September in South Africa. Organized by the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, the course will cover the latest gender developments and their implications for African women. Application deadline is August 3.

Summer school for media and politics

2007-01-30

http://www.zmag.org/aboutzmi.htm

ZMI is a summer school for media and politics started in 1994 by the cofounders of Z Magazine (1988) and South End Press (1977) to teach radical politics, media and organizing skills, the principles and practice of creating non-hierarchical institutions and projects, activism, and particularly vision and strategy for social change. Classes are held in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Angola: Gender Mainstreaming Consultant

UNDP

2007-01-31

http://www.awid.org/go.php?list=jobs&prefix=jobs&item=00348

In line with the UNDP Corporate Gender Action Plan and to promote the achievement of MDGs, UNDP/Angola is making efforts to ensure gender is integrated at all levels of its operations and programme. The Country Office has just adopted a new strategy for programme and operations, which emphasizes the need to incorporate gender and capacity development in all its programmes, as drivers for development.

Niger: Food Security and Livelihood Programme Co-ordinator

Save the Children UK

2007-01-31

http://www.oneworld.net/job/view/14454

Save the Children UK has started working in Niger in July 2005, due to the ongoing food crisis which is affecting millions of people. Community-based therapeutic nutritional care (CTC) and primary health care (PHC) to children under-five year’s old in Maradi and Zinder Regions are so far the main intervention domains. SC UK is now about to launch a new food security and livelihood programme in the same areas. This new programme will be a pilot one for the Sahel region and will be therefore highly supported by the Regional and London Offices.

Nigeria: Project Director

African Research Association

2007-01-31

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC23397&Resource=f1pastoralism

The African Research Association (ARA) seeks Project Director for their Community action project, Development in Nigeria. The NGO operates in Northern and Central Cross Rivers State with farmer and pastoralist communities for more sustainable natural resource management, conflict resolution and poverty reduction as well as HIVand AIDS awareness.

South Africa: HIV/AIDS, Gender and Media Manager

Gender Links

2007-01-31

http://www.awid.org/go.php?list=jobs&prefix=jobs&item=00348

Gender Links, the lead agency for the policy arm of the Media Action Plan on HIV/AIDS and Gender coordinated by the Southern African Editor's Forum (SAEF), seeks a dynamic individual to fill the post of HIV/AIDS, Gender and the Media Manager as soon as possible.

Sudan: Rewrite the Future Co-ordinator

Save the Children UK

2007-01-31

http://www.oneworld.net/job/view/14448

Save the Children UK's south Sudan programme concentrates its efforts in two regions: Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile. In the context of south Sudan, making a reality of children's rights is achieved through an integrated programme of work in the thematic areas of food security and livelihoods, basic education, child protection and preventative health.

West Africa: National Coordinator

Creating Local Connections

2007-01-31

http://www.comminit.com/vacancy3001.html

Creating Local Connections West Africa (CLC WA) aims to realize the potential of youth for improving their communities, countries, and region. CLC WA will achieve this through peer-led trainings, media creation, and strategic use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) during its implementation in: Sierra Leone Nigeria, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, and Liberia. The project will run over a 15 months period (February 2007-april 2008).

Fahamu