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2007-09-21

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For the third year running, Pambazuka News has been selected as one of 25 finalist nominations in the 'Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics'.

Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 300 citizens and organisations – academics, policy makers, social activists, women’s organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers and commentators.

Winning this award would be a tribute to all of the many contributors who have made Pambazuka News essential reading for all concerned with the cause of justice and freedom in Africa.

With your help, we could win this award. Please vote for us at: http://tinyurl.com/2yo3vy

Pambazuka News – Changing the World of Internet and Politics

Standing or falling together

Andrew Milner

2007-09-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/43382

Every company, every community, every organisation, every household and every citizen, says Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, should take part in programmes designed to rein in emissions causing global warming. The sentiment may be commendable, but the developed world has not yet taken it to heart sufficiently. Is the same true of the developing world? Four people involved in environmental issues in developing countries around the world discuss the state of things in their country and what they they think needs to change.


What’s happening now?

'Virtually nothing!' is currently being done about climate change in the Arab region, according to Najib Saab, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia (Environment & Development). (As an index of this, his magazine is the only one in the region dealing with environmental issues.) ‘The oil exporters [the rich Arab countries of the Gulf] have a “conspiracy theory” about the issue of climate change', he says. ‘They were made to believe that it has been created to hamper their socio-economic development, by imposing trade restrictions on their main source of income, oil.’

The poor Arab countries of the Levant and North Africa, on the other hand, ‘still view climate change as a luxury they cannot afford'. Throughout the region, energy efficiency measures are almost non-existent.

According to Vasant Saberwal of the Ford Foundation in India, very little is happening at government level in India either. ‘There are plenty of stories in the press about retreating glaciers, increased incidence and intensity of rainfall events and drought, and so on, but there is basically no sign of government interest in the subject or the implications of climate change.’

In Nigeria, according to Nnimmo Bassey of Environmental Rights Action, the main problem is resistance from big corporations, in particular oil companies working in the Niger Delta. Communities are trying to make these companies extinguish their gas flares, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. ‘Currently', he says, ‘it is estimated that about 2.5 billion cubic feet of associated gas is flared daily in the Niger Delta region releasing a cocktail of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane sulphur oxides and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere'. The government has set 2008 as a ‘flares out’ target, but Shell has said that this is not feasible.

‘Local communities and civil society groups such as Environmental Rights Action are working to set up Community Climate Crisis Committees to strategically prepare for introduction of survival and mitigation measures.’ In addition, the Nigerian government and local communities have tree-planting exercises to check desert encroachment and at the same time serve as carbon sinks.

We have already heard the Chinese premier’s public pronouncement on the importance of the issue. Wen Bo, Global Greengrants Fund China Coordinator, reports that the country announced a National Climate Change Program in June, which outlined steps to meet a previously announced goal of improving overall energy efficiency in 2010 by 20 per cent over the 2005 level. Wen Jiabao has also urged local governments to curb excessive growth in energy-intensive and polluting industries by measures such as keeping the credit supply in check, while inefficient facilities in thermal power, steel, alumina, iron alloy and cement sectors have been ordered to be shut.

How effective implementation of these recommendations and directives has been is another matter. There is often what Vasant Saberwal calls ‘the classic disjunction between policy and practice’. He cites an instance of it in India which, he says, has the largest number of CDM (clean development mechanism) projects in operation, and in at least some of these sites there are commitments to planting large numbers of trees, with little to show for it. This disjunction, he believes, ‘represents a core part of the problem of such solutions to global warming: how do you enforce compliance following payment for environmental services?’

Developing countries on the receiving end…

Our respondents were largely in agreement that developing countries will suffer most from the consequences of global warming – and, points out Wen Bo, ‘they are also ill prepared for the coming ecological crisis’.

In Nigeria, the coastal belt is low-lying and parts have a tendency to subsidence. ‘Experts estimate that a cumulative sea-level rise of one metre would result in lands lying within 100km of the coastline going under water’, says Nnimmo Bassey. The Arab region, too, ‘will face immense problems in the form of submersion of more than 18,000km of inhabited coastal areas in addition to all the reclaimed land and artificial islands being built in the Arabian Gulf’.

In Nigeria, there are two other serious problems: ‘northern Nigeria is being threatened by the downward march of the Sahara Desert’, says Bassey, while ‘the threat of erosion of livelihoods through crop failures and land pressures in a fragile economy portends a grave disaster’.

…and contributing to a global solution?

So much for the problems they face. On the positive side, what can developing nations do to help find global solutions?

Najib Saab feels that ‘if governments in the Arab Region offer incentives to their population to build solar systems for water heating and electricity generation and support wind energy, that will be a huge opportunity to build the culture of using sustainable/renewable energy’. He mentions the German model whereby the government supports soft loans for individuals to invest in solar panels and wind energy towers with guaranteed purchase of the power generated and cost recovery in less than ten years.

Nnimmo Bassey has a slightly grander vision: ‘Developing nations have the unique opportunity of showing the world that another path to development is possible. This can be done by pioneering a radical shift from the fossil fuel driven path which has brought us all to the precipice.’

Among other things, he advocates a creative interpretation of the measures currently in use to combat climate change and gives as an example ‘the initiative from Ecuador where the government has said they would want to receive carbon credits for keeping the crude oil in the ground in the pristine Yanusi Park’. To him this seems like ‘a practical solution that would both preserve biodiversity and other resources and reduce the supply of fossil fuel, the biggest culprit in this equation’.

Putting aside self-interest

In view of what we have heard about the current state of affairs, what is the likelihood of developing country governments introducing, and peoples embracing, measures to check climate change? Won’t developing countries argue, for instance, that it’s all very well for the developed world to talk about curbing practices that have been crucial to their own economic and industrial development, now that they have entered a post-industrial phase of development, but why shouldn’t developing countries be at liberty to pursue similar means to prosperity?

For Nnimmo Bassey, this is a legitimate question: ‘The emergence of strong growth in developing nations directly raises the issues of equity and justice. I do not see this as just a matter of global warming but one of basic survival in both divides of the world. The arguments over mitigation costs are real, but they belie the real quest to pursue chosen paths of doing things.’

Beyond the question of what is fair, there is a more urgent consideration: ‘Nations must overcome parochial self-interest,’ he says, ‘and realize that we have just one world’.

Wen Bo feels that ‘developing countries would potentially be willing to adjust their development models provided that they are offered technical and financial assistance’. The real barrier, he argues, is political will. ‘“Having a right to develop” is an excuse to ignite nationalistic feeling and avoid being creative in finding an alternative development path.’

Will the poorest lose out?

At a deeper level, Vasant Saberwal is worried that the solutions being suggested might produce a situation where the interests of India’s elite predominate at the expense of those of the very poor. ‘In the past, conserving the environment has often meant converting grasslands into forest lands within which no grazing is permitted. The problem is that the landless in India tend to survive by grazing small herds of animals on common lands...common lands are being identified across the country as wastelands and handed over to private agencies for the production of biofuels. It’s seen as a win-win situation, given that these lands are “unproductive”. Planting jatropha will not only increase vegetation cover, the argument is that it will also lead to improved revenues for residents through carbon credits and fuel production. The only problem is that these are lands that are currently used by the very poor, and so are not “unproductive wastelands” to start with.’

For Nnimmo Bassey, growth in parts of the developing world and the continued and increasing demand in developed countries for energy to fuel their lifestyles throws up the danger of a resources race. ‘The world’, he argues, ‘is already in a serious crisis. And this will only get deeper unless there is a paradigm shift in our modes of production and relations’.

Overcoming the obstacles

Ultimately, feels Najib Saab, ‘developing countries will seriously join the endeavours to fight global warming only when there is a global consensus on the issue within developed countries. This should be accompanied by a practical implementation mechanism’.

He cites the example of ozone depletion, where the implementation of the Montreal Protocol on eliminating ozone-depleting substances ‘would not have been possible without four factors: scientific consensus, which is now also there for climate change; political consensus on clear targets; developing alternative substances which could perform the function of those phased out, and making them available in the market; and a multilateral fund, which helped developing countries cover the cost of phasing out ozone-depleting substances and shifting to safe alternatives. A similar mechanism should be devised for global warming’.

On an optimistic note, he feels that this consensus is coming, with a change of attitude among the US government and people: ‘The next US administration cannot afford to ignore the impact that [Al Gore’s] advocacy campaign on global warming has made, leading to deep change in American perception of the issue, among the public, industries and decision makers alike. In spite of all their reservations, China and India will also join a global consensus, after negotiating suitable trading terms.’

Wen Bo’s approach to the matter is straightforward: ‘We need to empower people and promote people's power around the world. People will know what is best for themselves and for their own environments; and in most cases, they know better than their own governments.’

Showing foundations the opportunities to engage

What can foundations do here? Wen Bo’s view is that foundations and individual donors should support civil society development in countries like China: ‘building a rich and mature global civil society would help educate and pressure governments to act more rationally and responsibly’. They should also support ‘various kinds of individual projects and efforts in tackling climate change’.

Given the levels of interest that the World Bank and other bilateral donors have in developing the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and other solutions to global warming, Vasant Saberwal’s opinion is that ‘smaller private foundations could probably play a key role in monitoring the impacts of these interventions through commissioned studies’. In regard to his own foundation, Ford, he admits that ‘the Delhi office is not doing much on climate change’ but he sees opportunities. ‘There are very large potential community-level earnings from trade in carbon credits or from other forms of payment for environmental services’, he says, and while this could prove a double-edged sword, in that it will attract the potentially predatory attention of the elite, ‘it could also generate opportunities for building coalitions/consensus across social divisions. I think the Foundation should support some pilots to begin to get a sense of either process’.

In Nigeria, says Nnimmo Bassey, foundations are currently active in working with civil society organisations to increase the level of awareness and discourse on climate change. In addition to this, he feels, ‘foundations should support actions that build knowledge on the challenges, that promote alternative production systems and of course that encourage popular grassroots actions to build adaptation and mitigation mechanisms'. He adds: ‘Alliance’s primary audience is grantmaking foundations - many of which, I'm sure, feel the problems of climate change are too big and overwhelming for them to tackle. Our aim is to show them the opportunities to engage.’


This article was first published in Alliance [http://www.alliancemagazine.org/]

Alliance would like to thank the following for contributing to this article:

Nnimmo Bassey Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action, Nigeria
Wen Bo Global Greengrants Fund China Coordinator
Najib Saab Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia, Lebanon
Vasant Saberwal Program Officer, Ford Foundation, India

* Andrew Milner is the Associate Editor of Alliance.

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

End of famine in Africa

Vincent Kitio

2007-09-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/43383

Vincent Kitio argues that the recurring famine across Africa cannot simply be blamed on a lack of water. On the contrary, he suggests that a number of traditional low cost, water lifting technologies for irrigation, that have been used in various arid and semi-desert regions of the world, would go a long way to alleviate famine across the continent.


Recent images shown on Kenyan television could not fail to move even the most stone-hearted among us to tears. It was heart wrenching to see women hopelessly cuddling the lifeless bodies of their children, victims of merciless famine that swept across the country. Many appeals were made by government, churches, and even the corporate world, to help mitigate against the disaster.

Across the continent and to my home country of Cameroon, a similar event recurs almost every two years. Appeals are usually made by those in authority seeking food to help the victims. These are some the issues that leave me pondering how my fellow learned Africans and I and I can contribute to alleviate the suffering our people have been undergoing.

The problem of recurring famine goes deeper than the often touted reason of lack of water to help grow food or for animal use. The water levels available in Kenya are enough to sustain a hunger-free nation. In some parts of Cameroon, people suffer famine despite that country having the distinction of being home to the wettest climate on earth.

Examples abound of how others have managed to overcome famine. Despite the scarcity of water in semi-desert and arid lands of North Africa, the Arab World, the Mediterranean countries and part of the South East Asia, farmers there enjoy better food security, compare to sub-Saharan Africa. This is not because their economies are better off to enable them to easily pump water for irrigation. Long before the discovery of fossil fuel, most of these countries already enjoyed food security. In fact, in order to cope with the harsh climatic conditions with little rains, inhabitants of these dry lands developed traditional knowledge of water lifting techniques to exploit streams, rivers and underground water for irrigation to increase food production. As a result, farmers are able to harness available water to grow crops and harvest up to three times a year. In this process, all available forms of energy are put into use, such as human power, animal power, water power and wind power, to lift water for irrigation.

These ancient water lifting technologies that have been used in Europe, the Arab World and part of Asia for centuries are still ignored in sub-Saharan Africa. Farming in Africa depends heavily on rainfall and human labour; and therefore, agriculture is vulnerable to the weather. As part of a lasting solution to the recurrent drought and famine, there is a pressing need to document, adapt and transfer these technologies to areas suitable for their application.

Famine in Africa has reached unprecedented and disproportion levels. Images of malnourished children, weak adults and carcasses of livestock are portrayed in the mass media every day. All the sub-Saharan Africa countries are affected by this drought, which many people argue could have been prevented or minimised.

Many attribute the origin of this preventable situation to poor governance, corruption, over population, climate change and dependency syndrome on food aid from foreign assistance. The root causes of famine remain the dependency of African agriculture on the weather, particularly the rain. This heavy dependence not only reduces the number of harvest per year, but also gives little freedom to the farmer for proper planning. Several years ago, rain-fed agriculture was not an issue in Africa, since entire communities could migrate from drought areas to greener pastures. This is no longer the case as no free land is available any more.

Globalisation is also contributing to the burden of famine: cheap crop imports dominate some local markets to the detriment of local crops. This situation is worsened by the fact that agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa depends heavily on human labour as opposed to mechanisation. As a result, farmers need to provide more and more effort for little output. The application of irrigation methods in African agriculture remains very limited due to the water drudgery associated to it. The percentage of land irrigated in Africa is the lowest of the world.

It is therefore time to seriously explore other alternatives and affordable ways of improving traditional farming systems. Africa is endowed with permanent rivers that flow undisturbed to the sea, passing through hectares of idle lands suitable for agriculture. Using some of these rivers and streams to irrigate lands will be very beneficial to present and future food security in Africa.

The high operational cost of motor pumps to increase productivity through irrigation is simply not affordable to the majority of African farmers, and the high cost of the pump itself is prohibitive. Drilling boreholes is another solution, but again it is very expensive and costly. It is common knowledge that people living in arid land have developed irrigation techniques that have ensured them food security for centuries. This is the case of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and many other Arab States, India, China and Israel, just to mention a few. Fortunately, despite the advance of modern technology, some of this traditional or indigenous knowledge are still in use today after thousands years of operation.

In the city of Medinet El Faiyum, also known as the Garden of Eden, situated 100km south of Cairo, over 40 waterwheels, known as Noria, are used to lift water from the river Nile for irrigation. In this ancient city known as a garden in the middle of the desert, farmers are able to harvest three times a year despite the fact that the region receives only three days of rain a year. In addition, El Faiyum Governorate is considered as the main granary of Cairo. Ef Faiyum waterwheels were introduced several centuries ago by Ptolemic engineers. They are still working today side by side with electric water pumps to grow olives, vegetables, fruits, nuts, sugar cane, rice and wheat.

The Noria, is a simple wooden waterwheel with buckets which use the flow of the river to lift water to an irrigation aqueduct above the river: water by gravity is directed to several farms. The noria works round the clock, seven days a week, all year round, provided that there is a flow of water. This time-tested technology, invented more than two thousand years ago, most probably by the Romans, has survived up until to today because of their efficiency and effectiveness on food security. Thousands of them are still in operation in Spain, Portugal, Syria, Iraq, Mexico, China (in China, they are made out of bamboo tree). The city of Hama in Syria is very famous for its different norias, built along the Orontes River, some of which are still used to irrigate urban agriculture while others, national heritages, attract thousands of tourists every year.

The Romans relied on irrigation systems to ensure food security in the empire. Roman architects and engineers developed different techniques as described by Vitruvius in 01BC in his Ten Books on Architecture to support their agriculture. Some of these irrigation systems have survived up until today. In 1913, Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary gave this definition: 'Noria - a large water wheel, turned by the action of a stream against its floats, and carrying at its circumference buckets, by which water is raised and discharged into a trough; used in Arabia, China, and elsewhere for irrigating land.'

The Norias found in Spain were introduced during the Islamic domination and have double sets of buckets on each side of their rims, other have two wheels on the same shaft. This allowed the system to increase the amount of water lifted. Spanish priests introduced Norias in Mexico during the colonial period. Some of them are still in operation in farms located in the northern part of the county. Their buckets are made of plastic material as oppose to clay pots or wooden buckets.

Another living testimony of this magnificent time tested technology is the largest noria (over 20 metres) known as Al-Mohammediyyah in Hama, Syria. It was the subject in one of the famous American television programme called Ripley's Believe it or Not! It had the title: 'A water wheel on the Ornotes River in Syria is still working, although it was built in the year 1000.'

Some farmers in Hama use Noria in urban agriculture, and occasionally when the water flow is not enough to turn the waterwheel, up to five motor pumps are needed to lift water to the aqueduct. This age-old technology is very much appropriate to the African rural lifestyle, especially with the fuel price increase that is already impacting negatively on the economic growth.

Persian wheel

The Persian wheel, also known as Saqiya, is a water-lifting device made of two gear wheels and an endless chain of pots or buckets, capable of lifting water from both shallow and deep well. The system is powered by one or two animals (donkey, horse, camel, bullock, buffalo). Person wheels have been used since time immoral to supply water for irrigation in Egypt, the Mediterranean countries, India and China.

Animals revolve around the first wheel and generates horizontal rotations, which are transferred into vertical rotations through gears and, bring up the chain of pots (buckets)that carry water from the well and empty into a conduct. Since animals do not like the boring revolution walk, they are blindfold. This technology has been in use for over 2,000 years. An American geographer, who visited Egypt in 1727, estimated that there were over 200,000 Persian wheels in operation driven by oxen for agriculture purposes.

In the region between India and Pakistan, Persian wheels, known as Rahat in Urdu, are traditional tools used for irrigation. Before their introduction in the region, irrigation was a very tedious and inefficient activity, as it is today in rural African countries, where people have to walk long distances to fetch water. The introduction of this technology improved agricultural productivity substantially in medieval India. As a result of a successful rural electrification programme across India, electric pumps are gradually replacing this time tested device. Despite the availability of modern energy, Persian wheels remain popular in the Indian region of Rajasthan. It is estimated that one Persian wheel can irrigate up to one hectare of land.

Sakia

Another water raising device that is worth to mention here is the Sakia. Sakia is an ancient water-lifting technology that has been in used intensively in Egypt, where it originated from time immemorial. The device is efficient and effective widely used in the Nile Valley and Delta. Sakia is made of a large hollow wheel with scoops around its periphery, and water discharges at its centre. The diameters of the Sakia range from 2-5m; and they lift water from 0.8-1.8m respectively.

Sakias originally made of wood, are now made from galvanized sheet steel with gears system that convert the horizontal rotation into vertical rotation. There are mainly powered by animal, but recently some are using electric or gasoline motors. According to the Egyptian Hydraulic Research and Experimental Station, more than 300,000 Sakias are in use in the Nile Valley and Delta mostly driven by animals. A Sakia of 5m diameter will lift around 36m3/h of water, while a 2m diameter model will lift 114 m3/h.

Wind pump

Simple wind pumps as opposed to the sophisticated and costly ones that are occasionally seen in some African rural areas are another appropriate solution for irrigation. In the mountain plateau of Lassithi in Crete, Greece, simple wind pumps have being used for over 400 years to irrigate land that produces crops mainly vegetables, fruits and wheat. These wind pumps, manufactured locally by village craftsmen, were originally made of wood and cloth. Wood was later on replaced by metal steel in order to extend the lifespan. A decade ago, over 10,000 windmills could be found in the plateau, each farmer owning at least one of them to supply water for irrigation. Today, less than 2,000 are in operation, as a result of European Union’s agricultural subsidy policies to purchase farmer’s implements. Traditional windmills are gradually being replaced with electric pumps. Model windmills are sold to tourists as souvenirs. When there is wind, each windmill pumps water from a well to a tank, and the water is later used by the farmer to irrigate their gardens by gravity. African coastal areas and hilly regions with permanent winds are ideal place for the application of this technology.

Conclusion

This clean and affordable technology for water lifting remains unknown to sub-Sahara African farmers. If thousands of them are introduced in the continent along its many rivers and streams to irrigate idle lands, food will be soon in abundance on the local markets, in just three months: the average time to grow and harvest vegetables badly needed to stop the spread of malnutrition.

Food aid should not be seen as a long-term solution, people should be empowered with affordable technologies that can help them to overcome present and future period of food shortages.

All this traditional knowledge of water lifting techniques can be domestically manufactured with local material: no imported part is required, no fossil fuel is needed and human power is saved.

This technology may seem very old, but its efficiency surpasses those of the imported motor pumps. It is regrettable to note that despite the 21st century high-tech society, one in six people have no access to clean water. Therefore any affordable solution that can bring water closer to people should be considered as an innovation rather than an attempt to bring development back.

To make famine history in Africa we need to introduce these affordable, tangible, proven, and traditional knowledge from the arid world to African farmers. The creativity of Africa's informal sector will innovate and adapt the technology to different local social and economic conditions, aiming at ensuring lasting food security.

While exploring modern technology to address the famine situation in Africa, it will be wise to consider the know-how that is in the public domain and does not require any copyright to be negotiated. Since the technologies described here are in operation, as we speak, in Egypt and Syria, it would be highly appreciated if stakeholders in the fight against hunger in Africa visit Medina El Faiyum in Egypt and Hama in Syria to witness how these simple traditional technologies can turn arid land into forest. This will be the beginning of the end of famine in Africa.

* A Cameroonian national, Vincent Kitio is an architect and expert in renewable energy and appropriate technologies for sustainable development, working at the Nairobi headquarters of UN-HABITAT, as an energy advisor.

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

Human rights and capability

Keith Goddard

2007-09-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/43384

Keith Goddard of the organisation Gay and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) suggests that attitudes towards LGBTI rights are a 'litmus test for any democracy'. Human rights must be all inclusive in protecting 'minorities from the excesses of the majority as they protect populations from excesses of the state'.


It is reassuring when one can assume the protection of a large body of international instruments espousing values about rights and freedoms for all members of humanity. But how do these noble documents translate into the lives of ordinary people, in particular the lives of the poor and powerless who need the greatest protection?

They seem particularly abstract and remote at the moment for the lives of most ordinary Zimbabweans, many of whom are struggling to merely survive, or are scrambling to escape from the prevailing political chaos. And in Zimbabwe, it is not only the poor and powerless who are disadvantaged - it is everybody.

The severe deterioration in the human rights record of Zimbabwe has led to a situation where no one’s rights are any longer guaranteed. With the breakdown of law and order, any rights afforded are done so at the whim of the state. Government appears invincible, and no one, inside or outside Zimbabwe, seems able to hold it to account. At present, it appears there is little else that we can do other than sit tight, hope for the best, and when the worst happens, make a plan.

But human rights organisations such as GALZ cannot become dormant; they exist and are responsible for bringing about change for the better.

It is easy to argue that GALZ is unique in that it is the only organisation specifically catering to the needs of LGBTI people in Zimbabwe. Ergo GALZ is too small to make any significant impact within the broader environment. But if GALZ disappeared over night, would it make any noticeable difference?

Luckily, the answer is yes, at least for the few hundred members of GALZ, most of whom, according to an evaluation conducted by the Dutch agency Hivos of the Southern African LGBTI programme, feel that their confidence has been boosted since joining the association. They have ‘learnt something’ and have benefited from the association’s services. But as members of the general population, the quality of life for GALZ members is surely still deteriorating.

Within broader society, GALZ has certainly made significant inroads into being at least ‘tolerated’ within the NGO world, although there is often still a reluctance to mainstream LGBTI issues within these organisations' programmes, not necessarily because of any overt homophobia but because of fears of reprisal from the state.

Marginalising of GALZ is unfortunate, although it does make the organisation even more relevant to those it serves. As far as government is concerned, GALZ is at an impasse and has basically given up.

GALZ may seem small and insignificant but human rights are not about numbers. In fact, human rights exist as much to protect minorities from the excesses of the majority as they do to protect populations from excesses of the state. The struggle for the promotion of a human rights culture is not a linear process. Small and often unforeseen victories often turn out to be as important as any major breakthrough. Just hanging on in there and waiting for a chance to seize is a valid enough reason to exist.

It could be argued that attitudes towards LGBTI rights are a litmus test for any democracy: the burst of government attacks on gay and lesbian people, starting in early 1995, marked the start of a new phase in the serious national decline we now find ourselves in. They ought to have been a warning signal that things were about to get worse.

Human rights organisations should never remain inert, even in the face of apparent demoralising failure to achieve anything positive. They need to be strong, refuse to capitulate and instead espouse a culture of hope, even if this is only among a limited few.

With the worsening humanitarian crisis in the country, GALZ has tried to be imaginative and seek the best ways in which to remain relevant, both to the lives of its members, and within broader society. It has been equally cautious to avoid encouraging feelings of dependency amongst its membership, which in the long term benefit no one.

In recent years, the organisation has also fought against its detractors using the LGBTI issue to deflect attention away from the real problems of Zimbabwe, preferring not to be reactive towards homophobia, but instead proactive in putting out positive publicity about LGBTI issues, albeit it in a limited way.

A welcome break came in 2006 when GALZ was introduced by the Kosmopolis Institute of the University for Humanistics in Utrecht to the 'Capability Approach' developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. This is a conceptual framework which attempts to measure the ability of a human being to enjoy his or her life, both in terms of drawing on what is available within the broader social environment, and in terms of an individual’s personal capacity to benefit from his or her surroundings.

The Capability Approach is not an alternative to the human rights discourse: it could be described as the flip side to the same coin. As its name suggests, the difference lies more in the approach, focusing as it does on the way in which human rights translate into meaningful experience. The ten basic capabilities are particularly relevant to situations where human rights are denied. They help measure an individual’s ability to cope and perhaps even flourish under difficult circumstances. They are summarised as follows:

- Life. Being able to live to the end of a human life of normal length; not dying prematurely, or before one's life is so reduced as to be not worth living.

- Bodily Health. Being able to have good health, including reproductive health; to be adequately nourished; to have adequate shelter.

- Bodily Integrity. Being able to move freely from place to place; to be secure against violent assault, including sexual assault and domestic violence; having opportunities for sexual satisfaction and for choice in matters of reproduction.

- Senses, Imagination, and Thought. Being able to use the senses, to imagine, think, and reason - and to do these things in a 'truly human' way, a way informed and cultivated by an adequate education, including, but by no means limited to, literacy and basic mathematical and scientific training. Being able to use imagination and thought in connection with experiencing and producing works and events of one's own choice, religious, literary, musical, and so forth. Being able to use one's mind in ways protected by guarantees of freedom of expression with respect to both political and artistic speech, and freedom of religious exercise. Being able to have pleasurable experiences and to avoid non-beneficial pain.

- Emotions. Being able to have attachments to things and people outside ourselves; to love those who love and care for us, to grieve at their absence; in general, to love, to grieve, to experience longing, gratitude, and justified anger. Not having one's emotional development blighted by fear and anxiety. (Supporting this capability means supporting forms of human association that can be shown to be crucial in their development.)

- Practical Reason. Being able to form a conception of the good and to engage in critical reflection about the planning of one's life. (This entails protection for the liberty of conscience and religious observance.)

- Affiliation. Being able to live with and toward others, to recognize and show concern for other human beings, to engage in various forms of social interaction; to be able to imagine the situation of another. (Protecting this capability means protecting institutions that constitute and nourish such forms of affiliation, and also protecting the freedom of assembly and political speech.)

Having the social bases of self-respect and non-humiliation; being able to be treated as a dignified being whose worth is equal to that of others. This entails provisions of non-discrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, caste, religion, national origin.

- Other Species. Being able to live with concern for and in relation to animals, plants, and the world of nature.

- Play. Being able to laugh, to play, to enjoy recreational activities.

- Control over one's Environment:
Political. Being able to participate effectively in political choices that govern one's life; having the right of political participation, protections of free speech and association.

Material. Being able to hold property (both land and movable goods), and having property rights on an equal basis with others; having the right to seek employment on an equal basis with others; having the freedom from unwarranted search and seizure. In work, being able to work as a human being, exercising practical reason and entering into meaningful relationships of mutual recognition with other workers.

Although it is problematic in Zimbabwe to maintain ‘control over one’s environment’, this in no way diminishes the relevance of the other nine capabilities to the work of an organisation such as GALZ. It is precisely because of the lack of political freedoms that Zimbabwe is now in crisis and plunging into deeper decline and poverty and why other measures of progress need to be taken into consideration.

The GALZ social empowerment programmes, Skills for Life and the Women’s Scholarship Programme, are obvious examples of the application of the Capability Approach, although the organisation adopted them prior to its being aware of this philosophy.

Although it could be argued that the 'Positive Image' access to treatment scheme has encouraged dependency, it has nevertheless saved and given extended quality to the lives of those who would otherwise have died of Aids.

It may seem trivial for a philosophy to incorporate the ability to laugh, play and enjoy recreational activities. But in an oppressive political and homophobic climate, merely offering safe space to relax in is not something to be denigrated. The very existence of the GALZ Centre and the safe space it offers is an encouraging symbol of hope, although there are questions about whether it is enough to provide just a place to drink and dance. To balance this, GALZ has now instituted a programme of entertainment, including sporting activities designed to provide greater variety in members’ lives.

In 2006, GALZ started to move away from serious workshops which, in the past, it has felt obligated to provide as part of fulfilling a mandate that was seen as serious. Although workshops still have their place, the more informal, relaxed group discussions have proved highly popular, since most participants see these opportunities to talk and share ideas as liberating and a chance to express opinions freely, and be treated with respect. And just listening to the experiences of others trying to cope with family pressures can be more helpful than a formal workshop on relationships when it comes to dispelling feelings of confusion and doubt.

The emotional development of a human being is as important as his or her physical protection. The increasing professionalism of GALZ’s counselling services means that members are receiving meaningful help in dealing with emotional problems. By the same token, the annual women’s retreat has proved an invaluable space in which women can open up, often about painful emotional experiences, and gain support from others. But it is often the casual conversations in the health department or the recreational activities of a retreat that help the most.

In all, the Capability Approach is proving useful for determining the ability of GALZ members to reach their full capacity as humans, whether or not they are denied fundamental freedoms such as freedom from hunger and freedom of expression. Many members have used GALZ as a stepping stone to make significant improvements in their lives. Those who have escaped and sought asylum elsewhere can be included in this. This is at it should be. In the wider context, if GALZ were to disappear overnight, LGBTI people in the rest of Africa and the world would be devastated: they would have lost a close member of the family and a strong source of inspiration to continue fighting for justice for all LGBTI people throughout the world.

* Keith Goddard is a human rights defender and a member of GALZ Zimbabwe.

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

N2 Gateway and the Joe Slovo informal settlement: the new Crossroads?

Martin Legassick

2007-09-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/43380

Martin Legassick argues that the high-handedness of the South African housing minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, towards residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement is 'reminiscent of old apartheid ministers. Her behaviour is a symptom of the arrogant, aloof, and self-satisfied unwillingness to listen to ordinary people that increasingly characterises the Mbeki government'.


Since the launch in 2004 of N2 Gateway, housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s pet ‘flagship’ project has run into problem after problem: delayed delivery, cost over-runs, above all lack of consultation. In their 2004-5 report the Development Action Group, an NGO, wrote 'The top-down approach in the N2 project undermines its overall sustainability…the casual, continued and increasing practice of excluding people from decision making about development processes that directly affect their lives is an obstacle that communities are unlikely to tolerate for much longer'.

Their prognosis was vindicated this week when the discontent of Joe Slovo residents boiled over. They closed down the N2 freeway at peak time on Monday morning. After the fire in January 2005, which destroyed 3,000 shacks and made 12,000 people homeless, Joe Slovo residents were promised priority in the allocation of N2 Gateway housing. But they were not accommodated at all in the allocation of the phase 1 flats. Now in 2007, they face being forcibly removed to Delft on the outskirts of the city to create space for the building of phase 2. Not for them, but for those better off. They have lived in Langa for years and do not want to be removed to the margins of the city far from job opportunities. What the Joe Slovo residents are asking for is RDP [low cost] housing to be built in the area for them. They have a plan as to how this can be done without any forced removal at all.

Incredibly, as a result of their occupation of the N2, they have instead been threatened by Lindiwe Sisulu with being struck off all housing waiting lists because they refuse to 'cooperate with government' in their eviction. Additionally, she said she had consulted with lawyers about 'legal avenues to compel' their removal.

Sisulu’s first threat, of course, violates the constitutional right to housing enjoyed by every South African. 'She has declared we are not South African', says the Joe Slovo elected task team member, Sifiso Mapasa, echoing the famous words of Sol Plaatje about the segregationist 1913 Natives Land Act, that it turned Africans into 'foreigners in the land of their birth'.

Moreover housing allocation is a provincial not a national competence, and Sisulu’s action is therefore additionally illegal. As well, at the whim of the minister, her declaration punishes each resident for refusing to cooperate with government, without even giving them a hearing - a third constitutional violation! Sisulu is losing her senses.

The Western Cape and the City of Cape Town waiting lists are anyway, in the words of regional COSATU general secretary Tony Ehrenreich, 'a joke'. There is a backlog of some 400,000 houses in Cape Town. Yet Dan Plato says there are only 3,060 names on the city’s waiting list!

There are not more than 20,000 houses being built each year in the whole Western Cape, barely enough to meet population increase, let alone the backlog. How many people have been waiting 20 years and more on the lists? The government could put the 4-8 million unemployed to work on a crash programme to build homes, were it not wedded to the capitalist profit system.

Sisulu claims that Joe Slovo residents 'would have to make way for people higher up the housing waiting list'. But Phase 1 N2 Gateway housing was not allocated on the basis of waiting lists because very few people could be found who were economically eligible. Instead, advertisements were placed in police stations to attract new applicants. What reason is there to expect any difference with Phase 2, which is so-called ‘gap’ housing for those earning between R3,500 and R7,500 a month? Rather than allocation by waiting list, she is moving out the poor to make way for the better off.

Some people ask why Joe Slovo residents are objecting, since they are only being ‘temporarily removed’ to Delft. But the national housing director-general has admitted that the plans are only to build houses for 1,000 people on the Joe Slovo land; whereas there are presently 6,000 residents. Thus, even if each one of those 1,000 were a Joe Slovo resident, 5,000 would still be stranded in Delft. But, since the projected phase 2 is ‘gap’ housing, most Joe Slovo residents (and most of those on housing waiting lists) will be economically excluded anyway.

Transport MEC Marius Fransman maintained that it was 'unacceptable' in our democracy to blockade the N2 when 'we have the opportunity to access the government'. But Joe Slovo residents have tried many times to 'access the government'. On 3 August 2007, they marched to parliament to present a memorandum to Sisulu and asked to meet with her. It was received by her personal assistant, who promised a reply within a week. In fact the only reply from Sisulu was a disdainful one reported in an article in the back pages of the Weekend Argus of 25 August 2007. Sisulu did not even have the courtesy to deliver her reply to those concerned. Thus she undermined our democracy.

In her reply, she accused Joe Slovo residents of being 'unwilling to accept that communities of the future would cut across race and class'. If that is what she wants, then why does she not 'cut across race and class' and, as Ehrenreich suggested, move them to Constantia? She claimed she wanted to 'eradicate slums'. But what she is doing is merely moving the Joe Slovo ‘slum’ to Delft and installing better-off people in their place.

Sisulu does not like the term 'forced removal'. But what substantive difference is there in her present search for means of 'compulsion', from the apartheid government of the 1970s wanting to forcibly evict Crossroads residents out of Cape Town altogether?

I was an eye-witness to the events of Monday morning from 4am, having been invited to observe by the task team. What I saw, even in the dark, was a peaceful protest interrupted by a police riot. Contrary to some news reports, no guns were fired at the police. Nor were stones thrown, until the police had wounded some 12 people with rubber bullets. Riotous police behaviour was witnessed by reporters again later in the morning when police opened fire on a crowd including old people, children and women with a mere 20 second warning, and wounded many more. As of today, the police are still occupying Joe Slovo and arresting people at will.

On Tuesday, two leaders in Joe Slovo were arrested on charges of 'public violence' for daring to ask the police for permission to hold a general meeting! This too was a constitutional violation. There is a police-state atmosphere of intimidation in Joe Slovo, which is in no way compatible with the democracy talked about by MEC Fransman.

Sisulu’s refusal to meet Joe Slovo residents makes her responsible for these injuries and actions. She now has the blood of women and children on her hands.

She claims that Thubelisha, project manager of N2 Gateway, is responsible for interacting with residents and that she has 'the fullest confidence' in them. Thubelisha was established to build houses, and lacks people-management skills. Residents of Joe Slovo have met with Thubelisha management several times; to no avail.

At the same time as these complaints from Joe Slovo, the N2 Gateway phase 1 residents also have their grievances. Selected as beneficiaries, at preparatory workshops they were suddenly told that rent would be increased from the R350-R600 advertised, to R650-R1,000. Desperate for housing, and given no time even to read the long contracts, they signed. They moved into the flats - only to find cramped accommodation, serious structural problems, cracks in the walls and hopelessly defective plumbing.

Later they discovered that some people were paying the old rents, which, even Thubelisha admits, is an ‘anomaly’. Thubelisha has not addressed their problems to their satisfaction. They have launched a rent boycott in protest, and also marched to parliament on 17 July to present a memorandum to Sisulu – to which she again responded only in the media. They also are threatened with eviction.

The N2 Gateway ‘flagship’ project has become a fiasco.

The high-handedness of Sisulu in all this is reminiscent of old apartheid ministers. Her behaviour is a symptom of the arrogant, aloof, and self-satisfied unwillingness to listen to ordinary people that increasingly characterises the Mbeki government. Sisulu talks of frequent 'consultation' with communities over N2 Gateway. But this 'consultation' has not involved listening, but rather telling communities what they should do.

Minister Sisulu must come to her senses. By delegating the handling of her pet project to others, she has acted like a coward. Instead of issuing ultimatums from afar, she needs, above all, to meet with and listen personally to Joe Slovo residents (as well as those of N2 Gateway phase 1). Then it will become clear to her that both communities are united in their demands, and that they can suggest answers to their problems. Both communities are insistent that any attempt to forcibly evict them will be challenged in court, and, if necessary, physically. But there is a way out of this conflict, if Sisulu lives up to her responsibilities.

This article was originally published on Abahlali baseMjondolo - www.abahlali.org

Martin Legassick is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of the Western Cape. For pictures of the blockade and the police attack, as well as a small archive of Joe Slovo task team press statements click here.

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

Welcome to democratic Kenya where you can buy your own party

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2007-09-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/43405

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem tries to decide whether politics, the business of political parties and money are in a greater state of disarray in Nigeria or Kenya. Or, who is more politically enterprising between the Nigerians and the Kenyans? Contrary to popular assumptions, it seems East Africa is winning!


I used to taunt political science colleagues in Nigeria that they were political voodoo magicians.

Given the unpredictability of Nigerian politics, and the ease with which the political class changes colours and allegiances from regime to regime, it is difficult to see that there can be any scientific basis for teaching politics in that country.

For instance, there are some people best described as orphans of the Nigerian state. They have been part of government in one way or the other almost all their lives.

Looking at some of the emerging power brokers in Aso Rock today, it would not be correct to say treachery and betrayal do not pay. Because neither have diminished their proximity to power! Some of them are and indeed deserve to be decorated as traitor-generals of Nigeria!

Many of them may not even win elections in their clans. But somehow whether military or civilian, they remain there. It is not science, but the creative art of power that is needed to understand the cabal that Aminu Kano would have described as being ‘consistently inconsistent’!

That’s why I even went as far as to suggest to my tormented fellow political scientists that their political science departments across the country should be closed down on the grounds of 'unfair trade description'. Because they claim to be teaching what is not really there.

But it was not my intention that they should all become jobless. Instead they needed mass retraining in order to be absorbed into Business Studies; since it is not politics that guides politicians, but money.

Therefore the science of Monetics may be more appropriate than political science theories in understanding how the country is governed and mis-governed.

Why bother to teach students democratic theories about parties, groups, elections etc, when political parties do not exist as alternative sets of policies to be canvassed in free intercourse of public debate and policy options, and from which the electorate can choose.

To the extent that there is any political party at all, all the politicians belong to AGIP (Any Government in Power)!

Now living in Kenya, one of the most politicised and ethnicity-obsessed countries in Africa, I am beginning to think that I have probably been most unfair to Nigerian political scientists.

You do not need science to understand Kenyan politics either. But the Nigerians need to come and learn from the masters here. It is pure business and memory-loss that you need to make sense of it at all.

President Museveni of neighbouring Uganda may have thought that he invented 'individual merit' and 'No Party Democracy' - which he imposed for ten years before donor pressures forced him to change tune.

But it is in Kenya where the ultimate privatisation of politics through a veneer of multi-party democracy is really being popularly practised.

For instance, last weekend, President Kibaki finally announced to a bored public that he was going to be standing on the platform of yet another new party (Kenya has more than 100 political parties), called the Party of National Unity (PNU), itself a coalition of 14 of the so-called Kibaki-friendly parties.

The same president had been brought to power on the platform of a coalition of similar parties in 2002. No sooner had they got rid of KANU and President Moi, cracks develop between the main parties in the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC).

It precipitated a parting of ways with prominent leaders like Raila Odinga and Kilonzo Musyoka, who defeated the president and his allies in the constitutional referendum under yet another coalition, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

NARC was a coalition against KANU/Moi and his chosen successor, Uhuru Kenyatta. But ODM was a coalition against KIBAKI that included Uhuru Kenyatta/KANU. It even had the support of the much hated former president, Moi. They defeated the government. The euphoria was such that if elections were held, then they could have chased Kibaki out of the State House.

Elections were not held but the ODM lasted as a united group for much longer than many had predicted.

Eventually the improbable cohabitation of highly ambitious politicians finally gave way to a break-up, that meant Musyoka going away, but the other leaders remaining together.

And this is where the parallel with boardroom dynamics of Kenya political dealers reveal themselves most clearly.

It is in Kenya that I have come to realise that political parties are registered the same way as companies. You declare officials as you declare directors. You choose a name. As long as no one else has not registered it, it is yours.

Even if someone has registered the initials, you can still get it by adding 'K' (Kenya) or some other initial to yours. That’s why you have FORD, Ford K, Ford Asili, FORD people or NARC and NARC-K, ODM and
ODM-K.

Whoever has the certificates 'owns' the party! You do not even have to have members.

The owner needs not be a member of the party. He or she just happens to be the person to have registered it. You then wait until some politician needs the name, and you exchange it for cash!

In their initial triumphalism, the Orange people did not immediately register the ODM. So some smart lawyer beat them to it. They could not get him to relinquish the party, so they registered as ODM-K.

Then Musyoka found that he could not stop the Raila bandwagon for the ODM-k nomination. But he had the four aces. The chap who had registered the ODM-K was the close ally and kinsman who ‘gave him’ the certificate.

Raila and the majority leadership realised that this piece of paper will confer ownership on Musyoka. So they went back to the other dealer, and 'persuaded ' him to ‘give’ the certificate to Raila. He did the 'handover' in public!

So Raila and his allies became 'owners' of the original ODM, while Musyoka pocketed ODM-K.

Kibaki had similar problems and resolved them similarly!

After the exit of Raila and co. from NARC, the remaining NARC rump in government had problems about ownership. Mrs Charity Ngilu (whose National Party of Kenya had been used to register NARC) remains the original registered chairperson of NARC. She has refused to take out the certificate from her handbag.

Pro-Kibaki members of the government, frustrated at Ngilu’s non-cooperation, went ahead to register a new party, NARC-K!

So, you have a situation where most of the politicians, including the President and his leading challengers, are no longer members of the party or coalition that brought them to power.

Kibaki's people felt that NARC is no longer easy to sell to the public, with or without 'K', so they just bought themselves another party from the shelves!

In the new pro-Kibaki PNU coalition of parties - wait for it - is one Mr Uhuru Kenyatta. His faction of KANU and his benefactor, still looking after him, former President Moi, now a leading campaigner for Kibaki - who had defeated KANU and Uhuru!

Now you tell me who is more politically enterprising between the Nigerians and the Kenyans?

Next time you are checking for stocks and shares on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, you may want your financial adviser to check out what possible combination of names of parties are not yet registered, instruct him or her to snap them up, and wait for the next round in the game of musical chairs among the politicians that is bound to happen. Sooner or later, you will cash in your big bucks.

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

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

Pan-Africanism and Zimbabwe

MDC Mat North

2007-09-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/43329

This is just to say that I liked your argument. I wish it could be much more publicised and made compulsory reading for all those 'delegates' to the AU or SADC conventions.

It is about time that African heads of government took a serious look at the plight of Africans in African countries being abused by African leaders.

I would appreciate more material on similar matters as I am in the opposition in Zimbabwe.

David Martin - 40 years of service to African liberation

2007-09-21

http://www.sardc.net/Editorial/Newsfeature/07410907.htm

David Martin was a writer and photographer, and later in life, a publisher. He was a rigorous researcher and investigative writer who exposed the calamity and cost of South African economic and military destabilization in southern Africa in the 1980s. He marched with Frelimo into the liberated zones of Mozambique in 1973, where he met the Zimbabwean military commander, General Josiah Magama Tongogara, during the last phase of the liberation war.

New news out of Africa: Uncovering Africa’s Renaissance - book review

Tanja E. Bosch

2007-09-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/43465

Veteran award winning reporter Hunter-Gault blends personal memoir with reportage and analysis, to challenge stereotypical reporting of Africa by, primarily, the Western media. It is no secret that media representations of the continent are most often stereotypical or sensationalised, focusing on conflict and disease; and the author sets out to systematically paint a different portrait: one of Africa which shows good, or so-called ‘new’ news.
Hunter-Gault, Charlayne. (2006). New news out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance. (New York: Oxford University Press), ISBN-13: 978-0-19-517747-3
Reviewed By Tanja E. Bosch, PhD

Veteran award winning reporter Hunter-Gault blends personal memoir with reportage and analysis, to challenge stereotypical reporting of Africa by, primarily, the Western media. It is no secret that media representations of the continent are most often stereotypical or sensationalised, focusing on conflict and disease; and the author sets out to systematically paint a different portrait: one of Africa which shows good, or so-called 'new' news. Hunter-Gault intends to give “examples from [her] experiences and observations to create a status report of a continent in a hopeful transition, albeit one that is slow and sometimes maddeningly regressive” (p.x). And here, she argues, the role of the African journalist is that of guardians of their new world.

In the first chapter the author focuses on South Africa, where she identifies several items of 'new' news. While acknowledging the shortcomings and critiques of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for example, she points out that South Africa's peaceful transition has been used as a model around the continent. Hunter-Gault doesn't idealise the South African situation: she acknowledges the continuing race-based social inequalities, challenges to effective black economic empowerment policies creating a broad-based black middle class without destabilizing the economy, high HIV/AIDS prevalence and the controversy surrounding the President's views on the disease, among others. Further, her discussion of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and its politics is nuanced and balanced, and though she admits that it has cast a “long, dark shadow over South Africa's 'miracle'” (p.41), Hunter-Gault argues that there is new news in “the gains that have been made and in the optimism of those who are facing up to the challenge and achieving small victories” (p.42). But at the same time, she warns that increasing poverty and unemployment, especially among youth, places South Africa “where America was in 1968, when the country's inner cities erupted in flames sparked by rage” (p.57). Hunter-Gault offers a realistic and candid picture of South Africa, although her frequent comparison of South Africa's development to that of the United States as a young democracy is somewhat flawed. In the second chapter, “Baby Steps to Democracy”, Hunter-Gault turns her attention to countries “attempting to break free of the lingering legacy of colonialism, as well as many of the demons of their own design” (p.72). She discusses the formation of the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) as one of the most dramatic pieces of new news from the continent. She also highlights the African Peer Review Mechanism of the African Union and South Africa's role in brokering a peace deal for the Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Cote d'Ivoire. However, Hunter-Gault points out that “the willingness of people to stand up and speak out and demand that their government respect the principles now being espoused all over the continent under NEPAD, at great cost to themselves, is inspired by the second wind blowing across the continent. And that is part of the new news” (p.95). However, she also says that amid all the new news “it is clear that there are severe constraints on the capacity of Africans to provide comprehensive solutions to African problems, especially when it comes to the all-important role of peacekeeping” (p.99). But while she does concede that Africans are “taking their lives into their own hands” (p.103), it is not really reassuring that it is only the “optimism” (p.106) of Africans, which is constantly being raised as 'new' news.

The final chapter, “Reporting Renaissance”, deals with media coverage and the author's experiences reporting Africa, and she argues that it is possible for international journalists to play a constructive role, if they engage in honest, fair reporting. According to the author, “… when the continent and its people are portrayed accurately and consistently, not only will the rest of the world's people be better informed about a part of the world about which they have little knowledge, but they may also better appreciate how their leaders are responding and what they can do to help the innocent victims themselves” (p.119). Journalists need to strike a balance between nation-building journalism and bad news stories, particularly with regard to HIV/AIDS, argues Hunter-Gault. Overall, New news out of Africa is an entertaining read, on an important subject. It fills an important gap in the literature on a topic that is often discussed, but less frequently written about in a comprehensive and analytical fashion. Of course, one challenge remains: as an African reader, it is easy to critique the way 'outsiders', however sympathetic, write about the continent. Whilst she frames her views within a broader Pan-African identity, Hunter-Gault writes clearly as an American. But though it may fall short of satisfying a demanding African readership, it does provides a useful descriptive overview of some of the major political developments in Africa, and clear direction for Western journalists.

Tanja Bosch is a lecturer at the Centre for Film and Media Studies, University of Cape Town.

This review was originally written for Politikon, the journal of the International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS).

No turning back: Dibussi Tande’s vision for a better world

Joyce Ashutantang

2007-09-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/43388

Dibussi Tande is an Anglophone Cameroonian. At least this is the threshold on which he stands in this collection of poetry titled No Turning Back. Yet Dibussi forces us to turn back and look at the pivotal volcanic moments in Cameroon’s history, 1990-1993. During this time, the wind of change which brought down the Berlin Wall and fuelled the Perestroika train reached Cameroon.

The result was not only the launching of the Social Democratic front by Ni John Fru Ndi in 1990, an event which ushered in multi-party politics in Cameroon, but a renaissance of Anglophone Cameroon nationalism, or what became known as 'the Anglophone Cameroon question'.

After over thirty years of a hopeless marriage with La Republic du Cameroun, Anglophone Cameroonians embarked on self-determination amidst arbitrary arrests, civil unrest, death threats, including cultural and political annihilation. The crowning moment of this self-determination was the organisation of the first All Anglophone Conference in 1993.

As a student activist and budding journalist during this historic period, Dibussi captures cadences of this struggle eloquently in this collection of poetry.

As the foremost Anglophone Cameroon playwright, Bate Besong, holds 'A writer with no sense of history is like a sparrow without wings, for the writer must be the visionary of living truth'. The poems in this collection thus frame the individual in a historical sweep of events.

The collection is divided into three sections. The first section is titled Visions. It is George Ngwane, the Anglophone Cameroon Africanist scholar who opined that where the older generation in Cameroon dreamt dreams, the young men of today should see visions. Yes, Dibussi Tande has a vision of a more humane and peaceful Cameroon and Africa. But that peace will definitely come at a price. For example although in the poem, 'Gathering Clouds', the clouds are followed by 'lightening' that 'violently barks' and the speaker sees 'fury in the horizon', one is also aware of the cleansing nature of a violent down pour.

Like James Ene Henshaw’s Fortune Teller puts it in his memorable play, This is our chance, 'A mighty wind shall blow, a great rain shall fall, much harm shall be done. But out of destruction there shall be calm’. This same duality is captured in the title poem of the collection, 'No turning back'. In this poem, the poet holds that 'Stars shine brightest/when the day is darkest'. In fact, Dibussi like Henshaw’s Fortune Teller, concludes this poem with these words:

Tyranny shall glow
And blood will flow
But the dream shall live on
Until freedom is won.

Moreover, a poem like 'Detention Blues', which captures the loss of freedom and torture from soldiers with 'sadistic glee', still ends on an energetic note, 'But our cause had been noble and right'. In addition, another poem 'Liberty city' captures this hopeful vision as the poet declares, 'hold on freedom lover/Darkness would soon be over'.

But Dibussi’s vision for a better world stretches beyond Cameroon. 'El Norte', 'Black Power' and 'Fading Dream' frame the United States as a place with paradoxes that may see Martin Luther King’s dream fade away if the vision of 'Medgar, Martin and Malcolm….(continue to be) devoured'.

The second section of this collection of poems 'Tribulations' is the vantage position from which the poet can be a visionary. The titles are very revealing. The titles range from 'Plunderers', 'Disillusion', 'Betrayed', to 'Democrazy'. With these titles one can easily piece together the story of Cameroon: The ruling president for 25 years and counting, Paul Biya has plundered the nation, the people feel betrayed, disillusion is rampant and 'demoCRAZY' now reigns.

However the third section titled 'Songs of hope' brings the reader back to a vision of hope. These poems return to Dibussi’s main area of focus, Anglophone Cameroon. In the opening poem of the section, 'Broken Dreams', he considers Anglophone Cameroonians in a francophone dominated Republic of Cameroon as:

A minority deprived of its dignity
And callously cheated of its property
The helpless victims of majority rule

It is a situation which Emmanuel Doh has also called 'horizontal colonialism' and according to the revolutionary playwright and poet, Bate Besong, 'the agony of the Anglophone Cameroon question is compounded by the endless uncertainty as to whether there would ever be an end to it'. But it is precisely the end that Dibussi sees in the final poem of the collection, 'We Shall Rise Again'. This is Dibussi’s apocalyptic vision for Anglophone Cameroon:

The mighty Fako mountain
And the crumbling Bismarck fountain
Shall spit out freedom’s fiery venom
That will end this shameful serfdom;
Our Nation shall be born again
And our freedom forever regained.

This poem carries the image and vision of hope that dominates the collection. While the 'crumbling Bismarck fountain' acknowledges our crumbling colonial past, the image of 'mighty Fako Mountain' underscores the potential of postcolonial realities. But what stands out here is that Dibussi sees the hibridity embedded in these two powerful images as the foundation of a new nation, a new nation where Anglophone Cameroonians would not be treated as 'serfs' on their own land and our past will play a role in our present for a wholesome human existence.

However, besides the content, what makes this collection of poems truly memorable is the lucidity with which the poems are rendered. These poems exude the poet’s youthful exuberance at the time that they were written. The poems are very accessible and despite Dibussi’s admiration for the prolific playwright and poet, Bate Besong’s 'Soyinka style' of poetry, Dibussi instead fits into the poetic school of another prolific poet, Niyi Osundare. In an interview, Osundare explained that poems by poets of the generation before him like:

Soyinka, Okigbo, J.P Clark and Kofi Awoonor where extremely difficult, particularly those by Soyinka and Okigbo...When I started writing…I felt it was the duty of the new generation of Nigerian (African) poets to bring poetry back to the people.

With poetry collections like Dibussi’s, poetry readily returns to the people and this is worthy of our attention.

Dibussi Tande: No Turning Back: Poems of Freedom, 1990 – 1993. Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa Publishers. 2007. Available from the African Books Collective and Michigan State University Press, www.msupress.msu.edu

Works cited

Besong, Bate. “Foreword” “Anglophone Cameroon Literature: is there such a thing”. Anglophone Cameroon Writing, Ed. Lyonga, Nalova, Bole Butake and Eckhard Breitinger. Bayreuth: University of Bayreuth, 1993. 16-18

Doh, Emmanuel, “Anglophone Cameroon Literature: is there such a thing”. Anglophone Cameroon Writing, Ed. Lyonga, Nalova, Bole Butake and Eckhard Breitinger. Bayreuth: University of Bayreuth, 1993. 76-83

Henshaw, E. James. This is our chance: Plays from West Africa. Ibadan: University of London Press, 1956. 14

Ngwane George, Interview with Joyce Ashuntantang, The Herald Newspaper, 1993.

Osundare, Niyi. Interview with Osundare” Presence Africaine 147 (1988). 97

Review by Joyce Ashutantang, Ph.D. (Department of English, University of Connecticut, Greater Hartford, USA).

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

Africa: two books on Aids in Africa

Hilary Mantel

2007-09-20

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n18/mant01_.html

When Bodies Remember: Experiences and Politics of Aids in South Africa by Didier Fassin, translated by Amy Jacobs and Gabrielle Varro

The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight against Aids by Helen Epstein
Where to begin? When we tell stories about Africa we can’t speak without an imported frame of reference, carving up the years into the pre-colonial, the post-colonial era: once upon a time in the golden age, once upon a time in the dark ages that followed. But in South Africa over the last two decades, story itself has been shortened, shrinking to the time-span of a truncated life – thirty years perhaps, enough time to have children of your own and leave them a memory box when you die. Puleng, from Alexandra township, aged 29, weight about 35 kilos, tells her story ‘in one breath’ and pro forma, as if she were part of the government’s initiative to tackle the disease biographically; storytelling has become an organised activity, intended to stem denial and ease stigma, with an exhibition of storyboard biographies travelling among the stricken. Puleng’s is a township story from the apartheid years: family breakdown, alcoholic mother, vanished father; her good looks and talent squandered; ambitions thwarted; a house burned down, a brother killed by the police; then the arrival of the virus, contracted from a man who tells lies. And now, the need to plan one’s funeral.

Africa: China's Emerging Multinationals in Africa

2007-09-21

http://tinyurl.com/32mmev

Chinese relations with Africa have grown exponentially over the past decade, writes Lucy Corkin. During the 1990s, Sino-African trade grew by 700 per cent, and many high-level visits have occurred since 1995. Increased political activity has paved the way for the entry of Chinese companies of all sectors into Africa's economies.

Sudan: Showcase for new assertiveness

2007-09-21

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=39345

When soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army join a United Nations peacekeeping unit in Sudan, early October, they will mark Beijing’s new diplomatic assertiveness. They will also signify a departure from a posture of refusing to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

Weekly round-up

Issue 104, 2007

2007-09-19

http://www.aumonitor.org

In this week’s AU Monitor, Lloyd Himaambo brings news of the Zambian government’s selection of Dr Inonge Mbikusita Lewanika, a veteran woman politician and diplomat, as the candidate for the position of the African Union Commission Chairperson. The elections will be held at the AU summit in Addis Ababa in January 2008.

In the regional news, Arezki Daoud argues that while the economies of the Maghreb are improving, regional politics aimed at understanding and improving relations have reversed. Defence spending in Algeria and Morocco along with regional and African positions and policies from Libya and Algeria are cause for suspicion and rivalry. The author asserts that North African states are 'channeling their resources in areas that create a false sense of splendor and greatness when in fact, critical economic and social indicators need major attention'.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will receive an extra US$24,650,000 to support activities in trade, health and conflict mitigation from USAID. Additionally, ECOWAS and Unesco are organising a seminar from 24-26 September in Cape Verde on the theme 'Nation states and the challenges of regional integration in West Africa'.

In trade news, civil society organisations have condemned the EU for abusing the December deadline to put unjustifiable pressure on African governments to concede to its terms in the ongoing negotiation in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). They stated that Africa has everything to lose and nothing to gain by signing the EPAs. At a workshop convened in Libya to build union leader capacity, African unionists recommended the mainstreaming of the concept of decent work and the implementation of a practical work programme, with a view to eradicating poverty and establishing peace and social security on the continent.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is convening a meeting of the Millennium Development Goal Africa Steering Group, which was set up after a report in June showed that Africa, at its present rate, would fail to achieve any of the MDGs. The meeting will focus on three objectives: the international system’s support for African governments in implementing practical programmes to achieve the MDGs in health, education, infrastructure, agriculture and food security; the need to ensure aid predictability, so that African governments can plan ahead; and enhancing collaboration among the group’s members at the country level.

Swaziland: Two-thirds of women beaten and abused

2007-09-21

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74387

One in every three female Swazis has experienced some form of sexual violence before turning 18, and two out of three aged 18 to 24, according to the first national survey to chart the scope of sexual and other types of violence perpetrated against women and girls, according to the National Survey on Violence Experienced by Female Children and Youths in Swaziland, conducted by the government, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Global: A Guidebook on Women Human Rights Defenders

2007-09-20

http://www.defendingwomen-defendingrights.org/pdf2007/book3Neo.pdf

This guidebook, Claiming Rights, Claiming Justice: A Guidebook on Women Human Rights Defenders, is an important initiative to acknowledge the valuable contribution of women human rights defenders in the promotion and protection of human rights, and to empower them further in their role. It builds on their achievements, including those attained in the framework of the three-year international campaign on women human rights defenders.

South Africa: Women, the state and Africa

2007-09-21

http://www.zeleza.com/blogging/african-affairs/women-state-and-africa

Amina Mama writes, 'As South Africa debates the political challenges associated with the ANC’s year-end conference at Polokwane, this is perhaps a good moment to think beyond immediate struggles and to consider what women have achieved beyond the borders of this country'.

Africa: rural women's radio project

2007-09-21

http://www.cmfd.org/cmfdprojects/ruralwomen.html

As part of a three-part project with FAHAMU and local partners, CMFD is working with rural women in Southern, East and West Africa to produce radio/podcast prgrammes about women's rights, especially related to rural women. In collaboration with the Rural Women's Movement and Indiba-Africa, an 8-day training took place from 19-26 August 2007. Over the course of the workshop, women from rural communities in Kwa-Zulu Natal and a representative from the Centre for Public Participation planned, researched, conducted interviews, wrote scripts and created a series of features covering a range of issues affecting rural women.

Morocco: Women’s representation in parliament takes a step backwards

2007-09-21

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/09/17/feature-02

The issue of women in parliament has returned to centre stage in Morocco following the country's recent legislative elections. In 2002, women were elected to 35 of the lower house of the Moroccan legislature's 325 seats; on September 7, 2007, only 34 were selected. Only four women managed to transcend the local lists: Yasmina Baddou of the Istiqlal party, Latifa Jbabdi of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, independent candidate Fatiha Layadi and Fatna Lkhail of the Popular Movement.

Global: Curbing the proliferation of small arms

2007-09-21

http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/resource-guides/manuals-and-toolkits&id=33361&type=Document

This paper published by the Inter Parliamentary Union finds that the proliferation of small arms is a major contributer to human insecurity and social unrest. Responsible for the deaths of up to 270,000 people a year in countries officially 'at peace', they also result in five times this number of deaths in situations of war. The role of parliamentarians is critical in turning the tide of global gun proliferation and violence.

Mali: Gold Mining and Human Rights in Mali

2007-09-21

http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article4715

Since 2003, Mali is the third-largest producer of gold in Africa. Industrial gold mining has led to much hope for Mali’s economic development : the increase in state revenue should have had a positive impact on social expenditures in the areas of education, health, etc. Moreover, the establishment of a mining industry was expected to bring improvements in the situation of local communities.

Rwanda: Genocide suspect arrested in Germany

2007-09-21

http://www.redress.org/news/Press%20Release%20Germany%2020Sept07.pdf

African Rights and REDRESS, two human rights organisations committed to ending impunity for serious international crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, commend German authorities for their decision to arrest Augustin Ngirabatware in Frankfurt, Germany. Ngirabatware was arrested at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which issued a warrant for his arrest in 2001 on charges related to the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda.

Rwanda: Tribunal for genocide urges continued support

2007-09-21

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23884

The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the 1994 Rwandan genocide says it will not succeed in meeting the Security Council-imposed timetable for completing its work unless UN Member States help to arrest suspects still at large, accept the transfer of cases and provide enough funds for it to conduct the remaining trials. In its annual report, covering July 2006 to June this year, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) says it is committed to doing all it can to meet the 'completion strategy', the Council plan under which all trials, excluding appeals, are supposed to be finished by the end of next year.

Sudan: Court urges Sudan war crimes arrest

2007-09-21

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/811C4C66-6F2A-43DF-B60A-76FEE5DC5619.htm

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has urged world leaders to 'break their silence' and press the Sudanese government to arrest one of its ministers for alleged war crimes. The comments by Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, came ahead of a high-level UN meeting on Darfur on Friday.

Sudan: UN Secretary General urged to demand stronger response of Sudanese government

2007-09-21

http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=555

Freedom House, together with six of the most prominent human rights organisations in the US, issued a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urging him to demand Sudan’s compliance with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) ongoing investigation and issuance of arrest warrants. In particular, the group pointed out that the current Sudanese State Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Ahmed Haroun, is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the ICC.

Zambia: Government discards the elderly

2007-09-21

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74406

Zambia's elderly population are faced with a double jeopardy: they are either shunned by communities as witchcraft practitioners; or, with little or no understanding of the disease, are burdened with caring for HIV/Aids orphans, according to a non-governmental organisation concerned with their well-being.

Southern Africa: South Africa draws child migrants

2007-09-21

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74400

Unaccompanied children, an average of 14 years old but sometimes as young as seven, are being drawn to South Africa from neighbouring states in the hope of work and receiving an education, according to report published by Save the Children (UK). The report, compiled from a survey of 130 undocumented children in South Africa, said 'there are sufficiently large numbers of children crossing borders unaccompanied to warrant major concern'. An estimated 1,500 underage Zimbabweans enter South Africa each year.

DRC: Displaced civilians from North Kivu

2007-09-20

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74385

Thousands of Congolese civilians who were displaced in August by fighting in Sake town, North Kivu Province, are still living in camps out of fear that fighting could resume, a UN official said.
Thousands of Congolese civilians who were displaced in August by fighting in Sake town, North Kivu Province, are still living in camps out of fear that fighting could resume, a UN official said.

"Sake is almost a ghost town; some of the displaced come to the town during the day but return to IDP [internally displaced persons] camps around Goma [the provincial capital]; they are still afraid," Eusebe Hounsokou, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), said on 19 September.

Chad: Heavy rains and flooding hamper humanitarian aid efforts

2007-09-21

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/46f128d34.html

Heavy rainy season downpours have left areas of eastern Chad flooded and have seriously hampered efforts by UNHCR and other aid agencies to help tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians. The rains have eased over the past week, but flooding continues to cut land access to the Koukou Angarana region in the south-east, and has forced locals and displaced people in the area to head for higher ground.

South Africa: Civil society protests ‘no threat to ANC’

2007-09-21

http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=2984371

While civil society movements have grown, become more vocal and are leading municipal protests, they pose no immediate threat to the ruling African National Congress (ANC), analysts say. These non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have made their presence felt recently by staging service delivery protests across the country, especially in Gauteng. The government has responded by accusing the organisers of misleading communities, saying development plans were already in place.

Zimbabwe: British trade unions demonstrate in solidarity with ZCTU

2007-09-21

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news200907/TRADE200907.htm

At least 200 people gathered outside the Zimbabwe embassy in London, in protest against the repression of labour in Zimbabwe. Several groups including the Trade Union Congress, Action for Southern Africa, the National Union of Journalists and the Zimbabwe Vigil participated to show solidarity with workers. The demonstration took place as ZCTU leaders remained in hiding following their pursuit by state security agents.

Nigeria: State governor sacks 34,000 state workers

2007-09-21

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=319834

A Nigerian governor has sacked the entire 34,000-strong workforce in his state for refusing to heed a call to suspend their one-month old strike over pay, a government spokesperson said on Thursday. Public-sector workers in the south-western state of Oyo launched the industrial action last month to force Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala to pay increases approved by his predecessor.

Sierra Leone: New leader sworn in

2007-09-21

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/47DE9DA1-F8B2-4407-8CCD-C7EDF8E53DA5.htm

Violence erupted in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital just hours after Ernest Bai Koroma, the former opposition leader, was sworn in as the country's new president. At least one person was killed as police fired tear gas at hundreds of looters who overran the outgoing ruling party's headquarters.

Zimbabwe: A Regional Solution?

2007-09-21

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5083&l=1

The latest report from the International Crisis Group examines the role of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) in facilitating a negotiated political solution for the increasingly desperate country, which faces elections in six months. Inflation in Zimbabwe is now impossibly high, and a quarter of the population has now fled.

Morocco: Civil groups report on elections

2007-09-21

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/09/18/feature-01

Moroccan non-governmental organisations have begun to issue reports outlining their observations of the country's legislative elections on September 7, 2007. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) wrote in its report that the election laws currently in force contribute to a 'dispersion of votes and the Balkanization of the political landscape; something that could undermine the parliament and the government emanating therefrom'.

Global: World Bank, UN target kleptocrats

2007-09-21

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39291

The United Nations and World Bank launched a bid on Monday to strip crooked leaders of the money they steal from poor countries, and to plough the sums into health and development efforts. 'From now on it should be harder for kleptocrats to steal the public's money, and easier for the public to get its money back', said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the world body's agency in charge of the initiative.

Gambia: Minister fired for challenging telecoms sale

2007-09-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/corruption/43440

The abrupt 50 per cent sale of Gambia's telecommunications company, Gamtel, and its subsidiary company Gamcel shares last month has been creating row within the government circles, with the government accused of pursuing the challengers of the deal. Already, some heads have started rolling, the minister of forestry and environment being the first casualty. Rtd Captain Edward Singhateh was fired as the general secretary of the ruling APRC of president Yahya Jammeh. Singhateh's dismissal was contained in a mere terse press release issued by the office of the president.
Highway Africa News Agency

The abrupt 50% sale of Gambia's telecommunications company (Gamtel) and its subsidiary company Gamcel shares last month has been creating row within the government circles, with the government accused of pursuing the challengers of the deal.

Already, some heads have started rolling, the minister of forestry and environment being the first casualty. Rtd Captain Edward Singhateh was fired as the general secretary of the ruling APRC of president Yahya Jammeh. Singhateh's dismissal was contained in a mere terse press release issued by the office of the president. The government failed to disclose the reasons for the dismissal, but according to official sources, the leadership was enraged by Singhateh's criticism during a cabinet meeting when the sale of Gamtel and Gamcel was disclosed. He could not swallow his fury over the way and manner the deal was concluded.

Sources allege that the cabinet was informed only after the deal had been sealed, much to the consternation of Singhateh. Singhateh, an ex-military official with Gambian and United Kingdom citizenships, was among the key architects of a military coup that brought president Yahya Jammeh to power on 22 July 1994. He has since then held several ministerial port-folios, including the vice presidency.

He was out of the country when news of his dismissal was announced. The 50% shares of Gamtel and Gamcel were sold to a Lebanese company, Spectrum Group.

Key oppositon political kingpins also blamed the government for secretly concluding the deal without inviting tenders or informing the citizens. Though it would not comment on why the deal was done in camera, the government had however issued a statement, saying that the sale was genuine. The government said the "strategic partnership' with Spectrum was meant to "inject the necessary capital to increase coverage and improve quality of services."

"Gamtel over the years has deteriorated greatly in terms of service provision, service quality and accessibility," Nenneh Macduall-Gaye, the minister for communication told parliament.

"It experienced stagnation in network expansion at a time when population increase, boom in business and transforming the economy into a technology-driven one require robustness, dynamism and strong competitiveness for any operator in the business of telecommunication," she said, adding that Gamtel lacks the technical, managerial and organisational competence to achieve the government's objectives of universal telecommunications access for all. Deputies expressed fears that the sale might create redundancy, but the government maintained that there would be no loser in the partnership.

Africa: Time for a grand re-think of grand aid plans

2007-09-21

http://tinyurl.com/2azha5

Aid donors should re-think their self-appointed role as saviours of the poor, and try more modest and realistic approaches, argues William Easterly. Over the past five decades, the West has donated US$2.3 trillion in foreign aid to poor countries. Most of this money has been funnelled into a series of grand plans to eradicate poverty — plans that have become increasingly high-profile in a bid to attract money from both public and private purses.

Africa: Working group meets to put teeth into plan to boost African development

2007-09-21

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23888

Senior international development leaders have met at United Nations Headquarters in New York to forge an operational work agenda to boost Africa’s as yet failing efforts to meet the ambitious goals the world has set itself to slash poverty, hunger, maternal and infant mortality, and other social ills, all by 2015.

Africa: Incompatible standards may keep African organics out

2007-09-21

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=39351

The newly launched East Africa Organic Standard, designed to boost exports to Europe, could fall at the first hurdle if the largest licensing body in the UK decides in November that air-freighted produce no longer qualifies as organic. African farmers have been highly critical of the UK Soil Association's controversial consultation on air miles, which may result in it refusing to endorse products imported by plane.

Global: 'EU stands between poor and poor'

2007-09-21

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=39265

Caribbean governments have alleged that the European Union is trying to prevent them from signing trade deals with other poor countries on their own terms. The EU's executive, the European Commission, is hoping to secure a series of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with 76 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries by the end of this year.

East Africa: What are the development benefits of the East African Community?

2007-09-21

http://www.eldis.org/go/country-profiles&id=33379&type=Document

Since the formal launching of the new East African Community (EAC) in 2001, the pace of integration has been quickening. The process for a free trade area and customs union between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania began in January 2005, and negotiations to establish a common market between these three countries, with the addition of Rwanda and Burundi, have also been initiated. Political federation is also on the cards.

Angola: Oil found in war-torn Cabinda

2007-09-21

http://www.afrol.com/articles/26738

Angolan authorities hold that a recent oil discovery in the enclave of Cabinda is up to five times greater than announced by the Australian oil company Roc Oil in August. The gigantic oil reserve could lead to onshore production on the disputed territory. In late August, Roc Oil issued an optimistic press release, saying the Australian company had made an oil discovery enabling it to extract 33,000,000 barrels of oil from the onshore Massambala oil field in Cabinda. Roc Oil's shares immediately rose by 16 per cent.

Global: The humanitarian iImpact of urbanisation - Overview

2007-09-21

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73996

Somewhere, some time this year, a baby will be born on the 25th floor of a city hospital or the dirt floor of a dark slum shack; a first-year college graduate will rent a cramped apartment in lower Manhattan, and a family of five will finally concede their plot of farm land to an encroaching desert or sea, and turn towards Jakarta or La Paz or Lagos in search of a new livelihood and a new home. The arrival of this family or graduate or baby will tip the world’s demographic scale and, for the first time in history, more than half the human population will live in cities.

Nigeria: Treatment scale-up urgently needed

2007-09-21

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74395

Nigeria is lagging behind in the provision of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for people living with HIV/Aids, and only one out of five people who need the drugs have access to them, according to a new study. Nigeria has a five-year plan to scale up ARV therapy, aimed at providing one million people with the life-prolonging treatment by 2009, but there are indications that it may not meet that target unless the government provides substantially more resources.

Zimbabwe: Sharp decline in HIV prevalence reported in pregnant rural women

2007-09-21

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/23146FB9-0AD5-411A-9DE9-64BA597C52C5.asp

A dramatic 41 per cent decline in HIV prevalence has been reported in pregnant women in Zimbabwe, according to the latest survey done in this population. The results were reported in a poster presentation at the 47th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Chicago this week.

Southern Africa: A winning recipe for mother-child transmission of HIV

2007-09-21

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74405

A success story, at last: Botswana has lowered the rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to less than four per cent, coming close to developed countries that have almost eliminated paediatric Aids. In Europe and the USA, fewer than two per cent of babies with HIV-positive mothers are born with the virus; without intervention, the risk of an HIV-positive pregnant woman passing on the virus to her baby is between 30 and 35 per cent, according to health specialists.

Malawi: HIV creates TB crisis

2007-09-21

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74358

When the first cases of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) were reported in South Africa in 2006, the World Health Organisation (WHO) urged other countries in the region to improve their laboratory capacity and implement infection control measures. But Malawi still cannot test for the virtually untreatable TB strain. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) strains cannot be treated by at least two of the main first-line TB drugs, while XDR-TB is resistant to most first and second-line drugs, severely limiting treatment options.

Global: Education for All in conflict-affected states

2007-09-21

http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/resource-guides/education&id=31772&type=Document

Conflict-affected fragile states (CAFS) are home to half of the world’s out-of-school population – 39,000,000 children – yet receive only one fifth of total education aid. This paper published by the International Save the Children Alliance argues that, although international donors have declared the right of these children to an education, and recognise the social benefits and protective effects of education, provision for these children remains a low priority for donors.

Africa: Supporting secondary schools in Sub-Saharan Africa

2007-09-21

http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/resource-guides/education&id=33416&type=Document

Providing secondary education for the rapidly increasing number of primary school graduates is becoming a key policy issue throughout sub-Saharan Africa. This paper by the Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity offers new insights into necessary reforms to expand secondary enrolment. It outlines the current status and structure of provision, and the demographic issues that will influence access.

Liberia: Go to school or go to jail

2007-09-21

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74422

Under a new education policy, parents or guardians of children will soon face fines or even be arrested for allowing their children to sell in the streets during school hours. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced the measure in early September, which is said to be aimed at increasing school enrolment and curbing child labour.

Sierra Leone: Schools without teachers

2007-09-21

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74360

With only 19 per cent of children in school following Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war, the former government began an ambitious project to renovate and build more schools. But while brightly painted blue and white classrooms have already popped up in towns and villages around the country they come at a time when fewer teachers than before are willing to work in them.

Uganda: Schools stay closed as floods hit eastern districts

2007-09-21

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74333

Thousands of school children have been forced to stay at home as schools remain closed due to flooding in eastern Uganda. More than 150 educational institutions failed to open at the beginning of the new term on 17 September after the floods washed away roads, homes, buildings and crops in the region. Education minister, Namirembe Bitamazire, told reporters the Ugandan government was trying to find alternative strategies to allow the schools to reopen, especially in the districts of Amuria, Katakwi, Manafwa and Bukedea.

Nigeria: Nigerians out on bail for 'indecent dressing'

2007-09-18

http://www.genderdynamix.org.za/content/view/291/143/

On 13 September it was announced that 18 cross-dressers in the Bauchi state in Nigeria were granted bail, after been charged with indecent dressing and vagrancy. The news spread internationally after their arrest more than two weeks ago amid renewed concerns of prejudice and homophobia.
On 13 September it was announced that 18 cross dressers in the Bauchi state in Nigeria were granted bail, after been charged with indecent dressing and vagrancy. The news spread internationally after their arrest more than two weeks ago and renewed concerns of prejudice, trans- and homophobia.

Aged between the ages of 18 and 21, the men were initially accused of sodomy but were later changed to “indecent dressing” or cross-dressing and “vagrancy”. According to the Islamic Sharia legal system they were contravening Article 372 section 2(E) of the Bauchi State Islamic code which prohibits cross-dressing and the practice of sodomy.

"Any (male) person who dresses in the fashion of a woman in a public place will be liable to a term of one year or 30 lashes" a spokesman for the local Sharia police, Muhamad Bununu, told AFP news agency.

In the proposed bill everyone who undergoes, performs or witness same-sex unions will be sentenced to five years imprisonment. Although the bill is yet to be approved, police and people in Nigeria act in ways as if it is already in place. The arrest of these 18 people was made in support of the pending same-sex marriage bill.

Uganda: Let us live in peace

2007-09-18

http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/08/ugandan_homosexuals_let_us_live_in_peace.html

'In a landmark case, we, Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people assembled at the High Court of Uganda two months ago to reinforce our right to privacy, dignity, and property. There were no charges against us. We had done nothing wrong.'
It is the government who had to answer for illegal behaviour of its agents by discriminating against homosexual and transgender people. Government officials raided the home of Victor Juliet Mukasa, an LGBT Human Rights Defender, in 2005, and illegally arresting a guest they found in her home. They forced their way into Victor’s home, stole many work documents, dragged her guest to Kireka police post, and forced the guest to strip naked in order to prove that she was a woman. The guest and Victor Juliet Mukasa were treated in a degrading and inhumane way. Many of us, as the Ugandan LGBTI community, have suffered similar injustice. We are here today to proclaim that these human rights violations are completely unacceptable. We have had enough of the abuse, neglect, and violence.

No person should be deprived of their constitutional rights; and homosexuals and transgender people are no exception. All people are equal under the law.

Therefore, we step into the public today to give a face to the many who are discriminated against every day in our country. Some of us have brought our faces before you for you to know us. But many of us come before you today with masks to represent the fact that you see homosexuals and transgender people every day without realising that it is what we are. We do not harm anyone. We are your doctor, your teacher, your best friend, your sister, maybe even your father or son.

As Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), the umbrella organisation for Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex organisations, there are two urgent issues we would like you to consider.

Global: Episcopals reveal little of gay rift talks

2007-09-21

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN124107.html

Episcopal bishops were tight-lipped on Thursday about meetings with the Archbishop of Canterbury aimed at healing a rift in their Church over the ordaining of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions. Gay issues are threatening to tear their Worldwide Anglican Communion apart. But there were no reports of progress at the start of a conference in New Orleans of US bishops and delegates from overseas Anglican churches.

Africa: 'Biopiracy' requires reasoned treatment

2007-09-21

http://tinyurl.com/2s68nr

The fight against biopiracy must embrace both legitimate science and social justice if biodiversity itself is not to suffer. Scientists have long been implicated, whether actively or tacitly, in developed countries' campaigns to seek out and secure natural resources to fuel industrialisation and maintain their own living standards.

Global: International Day against Monoculture Tree Plantations

2007-09-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/43429

In many southern countries, monoculture tree plantations are advancing rapidly, causing serious negative impacts on local communities as well as on the environment. In the year 2004, following an initiative of the Brazilian Network against the Green Desert, an organisation with a long track record of resistance to tree plantations, 21 September - national tree day - was chosen as a significant date to commemorate internationally the struggle against monoculture tree plantations.

Somalia: Police besiege radio station

2007-09-21

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/72D24A96-7702-4A3B-8CB7-DD2CE8D1DA24.htm

Somali police have surrounded the offices of an independent radio station in the capital Mogadishu and opened fire on the building, according to station officials. Tuesday's operation came three days after security forces raided Shabelle's offices, detaining 14 members of staff and accusing one journalist of throwing a grenade at police.

Ghana: Journalist barred from covering official function

2007-09-20

http://www.mfwaonline.org

On 13 September 2007, Asana Gordon, central regional correspondent of the Accra-based privately owned daily newspaper Daily Dispatch, was barred from covering the Central Regional Health Service awards ceremony to honour stakeholders in the health sector by Clarence Lartey, the public relations officer of the Central Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).
On 13 September 2007, Asana Gordon, central regional correspondent of the Accra-based privately owned daily newspaper Daily Dispatch, was barred from covering the Central Regional Health Service awards ceremony to honour stakeholders in the health sector by Clarence Lartey, the public relations officer of the Central Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) sources reported that Gordon was singled out and sacked from the Cape Coast Centre for National Culture (CNC) auditorium despite the intervention of some of the programme organisers and to the astonishment of many participants.

A press release issued from the Central Regional Private Media Reporters Association (PRIMRAC) signed by its Chairman and Secretary David Allan Paintsil and Emmanuel Halm accused Clarence Lartey of constantly attacking members of the private media in the Region at functions without any provocation.

The release indicated that Lartey often mistreated private media personnel at functions organized by different institutions other than the RCC with the excuse that he had not been informed by the organizers that those media houses had been invited.

Asana Gordon was reported to have been personally invited by Justice Hafoba, the central regional training coordinator, one of the organizers of the awards ceremony.

Zimbabwe: Individual convicted for email message about President Mugabe

2007-09-20

http://www.ifex.org/20fr/layout/set/print/layout/set/print/content/view/full/86388/

On 23 August 2007, Tendai Murove was charged and convicted, on his own plea of guilt, to contravening section 26(1)(a) as read with section 33 of the colonial Censorship and Entertainment Control Act, after he was found in possession of a six-page letter, allegedly sent to him by a friend. Section 26 prohibits the possession of prohibited articles; while section 33 states the determination of what is indecent, obscene, offensive or harmful to public morals.
On 23 August 2007, Tendai Murove was charged and convicted on his own plea of guilt to contravening section 26(1)(a) as read with section 33 of the colonial Censorship and Entertainment Control Act after he was found in possession of a six-page letter allegedly sent to him by a friend. Section 26 prohibits the possession of prohibited articles while section 33 states the determination of what is indecent or obscene or offensive or harmful to public morals.

The message, which was written in Shona, repeatedly makes reference to Mugabe and Mujuru, mocking Mugabe for his economic policies and Zimbabwe's record inflation, which now stands above 6,000 percent.

"There is not a drop of fuel in Zimbabwe. Neither is there any sign of beer. I pray that Bush (George) and (Tony) Blair can come and rid us of this bespectacled man," the email laments in apparent reference to Mugabe.

"My sister-in-law hails from a wealthy family. She only gets reminded of matters to do with Zimbabwe's economic problems and inflation when Gono (Gideon, the central bank governor) presents his monetary policy statements. She has a sizeable round bottom. From that you can tell she grew up sitting on a sofa, unlike those (bottoms) of (Vice President) Mai Mujuru which were repeatedly scratched by thorny bushes and bullets during the liberation war."

Murove was convicted and sentenced to a fine of Z$1 million (approx. US$33) or seven days' imprisonment.

Murove was initially arrested for public drinking in Harare's Avenues area. The police then discovered the document on him

Nigeria: Journalist beaten while covering prison riot

2007-09-21

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=23659

Reporters Without Borders condemns a violent assault on Tope Abiola, the deputy editor of the privately-owned Nigeria Tribune daily newspaper, who was beaten unconscious by prison guards and police at Agadi prison in Ibadan (in the southwestern state of Oyo) on 11 September while trying to cover the aftermath of a riot by inmates. “Nigerian journalists are often subjected to violence on the least pretext, without anyone ever being punished,” the press freedom organisation said.

Zimbabwe: Man convicted for e-mail content

2007-09-21

http://www.misa.org/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?category=2&id=1190210885

In the first case of its kind, a Harare magistrate has tried and convicted a man who was found in possession of a printed email message containing information that was said to denigrate President Robert Mugabe and Vice President Joice Mujuru.

Sudan: Darfur rebels call assembly ahead of peace talks

2007-09-21

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16361890.htm

A Darfur rebel group has said it was planning an assembly of fighters, supporters and displaced families to work out demands ahead of peace talks with Khartoum set for October. Khalil Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said he expected more than 2,000 people to attend the meeting in an undisclosed rebel-held area of Darfur on October, 25, two days before the peace talks start in Libya.

Zimbabwe: Water shortages in Bulawayo

2007-09-20

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74386

Acute water shortages are aggravating the health problems of its 1,500,000 residents.
Stringent water rationing has been introduced in a bid to make the contents of fast-dwindling dams last until the onset of the expected rains in November, but the municipal council acknowledges that the poor inflows of water into the southern city's reservoirs has led to an increase in waterborne diseases.

CAR: Masked bandits run riot

2007-09-21

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/caf-190907-feature-eng

Gangs of armed bandits are terrorising the population of the Central African Republic (CAR) as the region is torn apart by violence and lawlessness. The masked outlaws, known locally as 'Zaraguinas', have become stronger and better organised than government forces, leaving local people increasingly vulnerable to grave human rights abuses.

Sudan: UN calls for more offers of troops

2007-09-21

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23889&Cr=sudan&Cr1=

The United Nations has said that it has still not received any offers for some essential units of the hybrid peacekeeping force it plans to deploy with the African Union in the war-wracked Sudanese region of Darfur. Following a meeting with potential contributors yesterday, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) said that there have been no offers so far for the medium utility helicopter units or the medium heavy transportation companies in the force, which will be known as UNAMID.

Burundi: Peacebuilding commission calls on rebels to re-engage with government

2007-09-21

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23877

The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission has called on the last major rebel hold-out group in Burundi to 'resume promptly without condition' its participation in efforts to finally close the chapter on years of ethnic violence in the small Central African country. In July the Palipehutu-FNL, which has not signed peace accords reached with other rebel groups, withdrew from the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JVMM) set up to monitor a ceasefire it signed with the Government last year, and UN officials have since called on both sides to refrain from any actions that might lead to a resumption of hostilities.

Horn of Africa: UN reports worsening humanitarian conditions in Ethiopia’s Somali region

2007-09-21

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23871&Cr=ethiopia&Cr1=

The humanitarian situation in Ethiopia’s Somali regional state, one of the country’s poorest areas and home to some 4,500,000 people, has deteriorated substantially over the past several months due to on-going security operations, according to a United Nations assessment team that recently visited the region.

Africa: Mobile communications for rural homes

2007-09-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/43439

Ericsson, the world's leading telecommunications supplier, has announced that it is partnering with The Earth Institute at Columbia University to provide connectivity to the Millennium Villages project. The partnership is designed to bring mobile communication and Internet services to approximately 400,000 people in ten African countries where the project is being implemented.
Highway Africa News Agency

Ericsson, the world's leading telecommunications supplier, has announced that it is partnering with The Earth Institute at Columbia University to provide connectivity to the Millennium Villages project.

The partnership is designed to bring mobile communication and Internet services to approximately 400,000 people in 10 African countries where the project is being implemented. The Millennium Villages project is a community-led initiative whose aim is to lift rural African communities out of extreme poverty trapping hundreds of millions of people throughout the continent. Currently working with 79 villages of approximately 5,000 people per village, the project is tackling challenges related to agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, gender equality, business development and other vital issues.

The Millennium Villages project is a partnership between The Earth Institute, Millennium Promise and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson, says: "Our commitment to the Millennium Villages is in line with our vision to be the prime driver in an all-communicating world. It will allow us to apply our core technology for social, economic and environmental benefits while at the same time stimulating new business development in emerging markets." The Earth Institute, led by Jeffrey Sachs, has made a dramatic impact on these communities by driving initiatives that have inspired change. Providing these developing villages with mobile communications will not only improve basic infrastructure such as healthcare, education and safety, but equally important, will be a foundation for fostering economic growth and development. The integration of information and communication technologies plays a critical role in ending the cycle of poverty. Around the world, mobile technologies are proving to be important tools in expediting information sharing and creating pockets of entrepreneurial enterprises among poor, rural communities.

At the same time, they also enhance and boost existing systems in education, health care and business. As basic interventions are achieving success in the Millennium Villages, communications technologies can help take the fight against poverty a step further. Jeffrey Sachs, who is also the Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General, says: "We are pleased to be working with a leader like Ericsson as we continue to make strides in fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to reduce extreme poverty and hunger by half while improving education, health, gender equality and sustainability by 2015." "With more than 3 billion mobile subscribers around the world, the mobile phone plays a key role as one of the most powerful tools to fight poverty, particularly for poor communities in remote areas of the world. Mobile technology will not only facilitate communication beyond borders, but will also be an engine for empowerment and a driving force for economic growth." As the dominant telecom supplier in Africa, Ericsson will tap relationships with African operators, including MTN and Zain (formerly known as MTC) and its subsidiary Celtel, in order to develop a comprehensive end-to-end telecommunication strategy in the villages and to drive mobile phone connectivity and coverage build-out to selected areas. Ericsson will also work closely with the operators to identify and develop telecom services and applications customized to meet the needs of the villages. For example, Ericsson will apply its products and solutions to focus on stimulating business opportunities, improving basic needs in the fight against AIDS and malaria, bringing Internet access to schools, boosting agricultural development and providing emergency communications. Ericsson will also help to bring connectivity to power remote and resource-poor areas through the use of renewable energy technologies, as the company has done in other developing markets like India. In the first phase of the partnership, Ericsson and Sony Ericsson will supply a number of mobile and fixed wireless phones to the communities in an effort to bring the benefits of connectivity to areas such as agriculture, health, education and infrastructure.

Ericsson and Sony Ericsson have also co-developed a solar village charger for mobile phones that will be provided to each village. This new product concept is capable of recharging at least 30 mobile phone batteries per day and eight phones simultaneously for each village.

Africa: nGOmobile Compeition

2007-09-18

http://www.ngomobile.org/?id=2

Mobile technology organisation kiwanja.net has launched its latest non-profit mobile initiative - nGOmobile, a competition to help grassroots NGOs take advantage of text messaging.

Rwanda: High-speed internet for Africa

2007-09-20

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=319782

A United Nations-backed Africa communications summit in Rwanda next month will seek to boost high-speed internet access to match the continent's explosive growth in cellphones, officials said on Wednesday. The 'Connect Africa' gathering of African political leaders and international investors to be held on 29 and 30 October 2007 in the Rwandan capital Kigali will be a networking opportunity, not a forum for negotiating new regulations, they said.

Zambia: India funds ICT training in Zambia

2007-09-21

http://tinyurl.com/22lozr

Zambia and India have signed an agreement that will see India fund Zambian centres to train researchers and the public in information and communication technology (ICT) skills. Peter Daka, the Zambian minister of science and technology, and River Wallang, the Indian high commissioner to Zambia, signed the agreement in Lusaka on 12 September 2007.

Switzerland: Business, social policy and corporate political influence in developing countries

2007-09-20

http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BD6AB/search/503DEAB3B72F213DC125735200491868?OpenDocument&cntxt=95E89&cookielang=en#top

The capacity of large corporations and business associations to shape patterns of social development and government policy in developing countries has increased significantly in recent decades. This is largely the result of pressures exerted through capital flows; global supply chains; lobbying; the participation of non-state actors in consultation and decision-making processes associated with standard-setting and public policy; the internationalisation of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda; and public-private partnerships (PPP). The open conference, held in Geneva from November 12-13, 2007, will be composed of 26 presentations by scholars and researchers from both the North and the South.

Burkina Faso: Regional Director, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation

2007-09-20

http://www.snvworld.org/irj/portal/anonymous?NavigationTarget=navurl://abbabf0e6fdfe4d7732e73ebf083cff9&id=00005106&cn=-3012

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is an international advisory organisation that is dedicated to a society in which all people enjoy the freedom to pursue their own sustainable development. As a Regional Director you will lead and strengthen our regional advisory practices, effectively addressing cross-border opportunities and creating operational synergy. Closing date: September 29, 2007.

Global: senior mediation experts, Norwegian Refugee Council

2007-09-20

http://www.nrc.no/?did=9199820

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), in cooperation with the UN Department of Political Affairs Mediation Support Unit (DPA/MSU) is seeking Senior Mediation Experts to assist and support the UN’s and its international partners’ mediation efforts. The Standby Team will consist of five full-time senior mediation experts and one full-time team leader. The purpose of the standby team is to assist and support the UN and its international partners with their mediation efforts in the field.The closing date is 30 September 2007.

Netherlands: Full professor in governance, policy analysis and political science

2007-09-20

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobs/XC733/Full_professor_in_Governance_Policy_Analysis_and_Political_Science_f_m/

The Maastricht Graduate School of Governance wants to strengthen its senior research and teaching capacity in the broad field of governance, policy analysis and political science. We expect the professor to have extensive experience with inter-disciplinary education and research and with inter-faculty cooperation; expertise and international networks in the fields of political science and policy analysis.

UK: Rights in Crisis Campaign Manager – Oxfam International

2007-09-20

http://www.oxfam.org/en/getinvolved/jobs/oi_rightsincrisis_camp_mgr_071003

Oxfam International is looking for a Campaign Manager to provide overall leadership, vision, management, coordination and strategic direction to the various elements of the Oxfam International Rights in Crisis conflict and humanitarian response campaign. This position will provide overall strategic leadership and coordination to the various elements of the Oxfam International Rights in Crisis campaign.

Fahamu