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South Africa and Darfur – fact sheet

Abdelbagi Jibril

2007-09-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/43487

Abdelbagi Jibril, director of the Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre, compares South Africa's economic and trade relations with China and the Arab Gulf states and its defence of the Khartoum regime with its indifference towards the tragedy of the people of Darfur, which, he concludes, is tantamount to the genocide of Africans.


The South African government is playing an increasingly important role in the political and economic affairs of the African continent. South Africa’s increasing political role is directly linked to its economic might. Its economy accounts for about 45 per cent of Africa’s GDP, equivalent of three times the size of the second biggest economy in Africa (Egypt). South Africa's economic interest and importance are the driving forces behind its political stands on some of the crucial situations facing Africa today, including Darfur. Within the African Union (AU), South Africa is a member of the influential Peace and Security Council, where vital measures affecting peace and security in Africa are discussed and acted on. At the international level, South Africa is currently a member of the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council.

South Africa and Sudan, south Sudan

South Africa has developed a special relationship with Sudan, especially after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005. The two countries collaborate in various economic and commercial fields. They have growing cooperation in the energy sector, as well as in security and military fields. Immediately following the signing of the CPA, South Africa decided to establish a diplomatic mission in Sudan, which opened soon after. President Thabo Mbeki was the only African head of state outside of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to attend all the concluding sessions of the important phases of the political negotiations between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) and Khartoum that ended in Nairobi with the signing of the CPA on 9 January 2005. He was also among the few African heads of state to attend the coronation of the late Dr John Garang as the first Vice-President of Sudan in July 2005.

After the defeat of apartheid and the establishment of a democratic nation in 1994, the ANC government made a strategic decision to support the people of south Sudan and their representative organisation the SPLM/A. A number of SPLM/A cadres received training and education in South Africa. Cooperation in this field continues through the Pretoria-based Centre for African Renaissance Studies at the University of South Africa. A considerable contingent of scholars and students from south Sudan are now attending South African universities. Following the increase in the production of commercially viable quantities of Sudanese crude oil and the establishment of the autonomous Government of South Sudan, the relationship between the two countries has been further strengthened and consolidated. The struggle of the people of south Sudan for justice and equality was the cornerstone of South Africa’s interest.

It has been observed that some SPLM/A supporters, especially those who participated in the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on Darfur, hold unusual enmity towards the insurgent movements and people of Darfur. These cadres have aggressively rejected the demands of the people of Darfur for a proportionate share in the economic and political life of the country, on the grounds that such demands will affect the CPA. Some of them even claim that the people of Darfur instigated the destruction of their region in order to sabotage the peace agreement. Since then, some SPLM/A elements have launched a sinister campaign against the demands of Darfurians for justice and equality. This campaign has reached many parts of east, west and southern Africa.

South Africa and China

South Africa has strong trade and economic ties with China. There are political and ideological affinities, inherited from the era of black South Africa’s revolution against the oppressive apartheid regime. This relationship has created a complicated dynamic, especially at international decision-making fora. Both China and South Africa are currently members of the UN Security Council and the Human Rights Council. At the international level we have observed that South Africa and China assume similar positions on some issues in the area of international peace, security and human rights, in particular on the situation in Darfur.

South Africa and the Arab Gulf states

South Africa has strong trade and economic relationships with countries in the Arabian Gulf region. In fact, the Gulf region is becoming an important trade zone and It holds great potential for South Africa, not only as an export market and a source of energy, but also as a strategic source of foreign direct investment. During the past few years, the oil-rich Arab Gulf states have invested billions of US dollars from surplus oil revenue in real estate, private equity investment, infrastructure development, tourism and other related business affairs in South Africa. Sudan represents a special area of geopolitical interest for the Gulf States. Protecting the Arab-centric government of General El Bashir is one of the main factors, which bring together all members of the League of Arab States in their support of Khartoum. On the other hand, it is clear that most states in sub-Saharan Africa have yet to understand the full ramifications of the crisis in Darfur: which is largely driven by the quest for encroachment on the land owned by indigenous African tribes.

South Africa and Darfur

The position of the government of South Africa vis-à-vis the situation in Darfur is characterised by indifference to the suffering of the victims of this human tragedy. Although South Africa participated in the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS), and has sent some military and police forces to Darfur, the effectiveness of its contribution remains disproportionate to the role of political leadership that it actively pursues in relation to the Dafurian situation.

Out of the total AMIS authorised troops of 6,171 military and 1,560 police personnel, South Africa has contributed some 600 individuals. Recently, we have observed that the government of South Africa increasingly supports the Khartoum government in its handling of Darfur. South Africa continues to use its membership of the AU Peace and Security Council to back the position assumed by Sudan and its north and east African allies within AU institutions. At the international level the country follows a similar policy. On no less than a dozen occasions, South Africa has used its membership of the UN Security Council and the Human Rights Council to oppose and water down projects and resolutions which could have helped provide the victims of the armed conflict in Darfur with protection and relief. Below are some examples of South Africa’s callous position on Darfur.

On 12 July 2007, three members of the UN Security Council, Britain, France and Ghana, submitted a draft resolution for consideration and action by other members of the council. Because of the gravity of the situation on the ground, the resolution was tabled under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The draft text approved the 'hybrid' African Union-United Nations force. Although the text was reasonably prepared, it ran into strong opposition from some council members, in particular China and South Africa took the lead.

South Africa's ambassador to the UN in New York, Dumisani Kumalo, labelled the draft resolution as 'totally unacceptable'. He further accused the sponsors, including Ghana, of 'throwing everything into the kitchen sink'. He strongly supported the position of the Sudanese government that the resolution should be 'more Sudan friendly'; and that it should drop 'irrelevant' and 'alien' issues, like the threat of 'other measures', usually meaning sanctions. Ambassador Kumalo has been consistent on this position. In March 2007, when he was President of the Security Council, he said that 'the UN can't send troops into Darfur without the permission of the Sudanese Government…[the] UN can't just order the marines into a country'. This assertion is irrelevant and misleading about UN peacekeepers being drawn from the US marines.

The irony is that the government of South Africa seems to be blindly supporting Khartoum. On 17 June 2007, at a press conference given by the UN Security Council delegation following a meeting in Khartoum with Sudan’s president, Ambassador Kumalo was quoted as saying 'I can tell you that the Foreign Minister told us in no uncertain terms that the Government of Sudan accepted the hybrid operation without any conditionality. The President himself just confirmed the same thing to us'. Indeed, Sudan’s president did not miss out on the opportunity to declare that '…no Western European soldier will touch Sudan’s soil', thus belying Kumalo’s statement.

At the High Level Meeting held in New York, Sudan, supported by South Africa and other AU members, formally objected to the deployment in Darfur of infantry contingents from Uruguay and Thailand. They also objected to the deployment of a military engineering unit from Norway. These objections are clear violations of the AU agreement with the UN on the UN/AU hybrid military presence in Darfur. They disregard completely the letter and the spirit of UN Security Council Resolution 1769 (2007), which authorised the UN/AU Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID).

At the fifth session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, 12–30 March 2007, many human rights activists were shocked when the South African delegation stood fast in support of the Sudanese government. Together with Algeria, they endorsed a weak resolution text that praised Sudan’s militaristic policy in Darfur. This occurred despite the almost unanimous opinion among delegates from sub-Saharan Africa, including SADC countries, that they could no longer extend unconditional backing to the government of Sudan for its crimes in Darfur. When their efforts failed, the delegation of South Africa used all kinds of tactics to water down the resolution, introduced by the EU, on the situation in Sudan.

The position of the ANC government in South Africa vis-à-vis the situation in Darfur is disappointing. Providing unconditional political and diplomatic support to the government of Sudan amounts to certain complicity. Moreover, efforts of the government of South Africa to abort robust regional and international plans to protect the defenceless civilian population in Darfur betray the ideals of justice, human dignity, equality, liberty and peaceful coexistence, for which the South African masses fought an heroic rebellion against the racist apartheid regime. Because of such a glorious history, the position of the ANC government in South Africa, in support of the the crimes the Sudanese government continues to commit in Darfur, disturbs the victims of this tragedy more than the positions of China, Egypt, Algeria, Russia and other friends of Sudan. External observers too could easily point out that if Africans themselves don’t give a hang about African victims of the Darfur tragedy, why should the rest of the world care?

In 2010, South Africa is expected to host the Football World Cup. This important global manifestation will focus the world’s attention on South Africa as a preferred destination for tourism, trade and investment. Hosting this prestigious global tournament should place a certain moral responsibility on the host nation regarding the values of solidarity, friendship, peace, justice and human dignity. What we see in South Africa’s policy towards Darfur is the antithesis of these high moral values. It should be rejected by all peace-loving people. The world should know that by protecting the government of Sudan over Darfur, South Africa has tainted its hands. It supports a killer regime that actively pursues a policy of imposing living conditions that will eventually lead to the destruction, in whole or in part, of a specific group of people because of their ethnic or tribal background. Dafur is tantamount to the genocide of Africans.

* Abdelbagi Jibril is Executive Director of the Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre.

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

We desire a future that is not like the present!

On Zimbabwe, SADC and Dag Hammarskjöld

Henning Melber

2007-09-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/43473

This paper was presented to the Africa University Annual Conference on the 'Commemoration of the Legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld', held in Mutare, Zimbabwe, 24-26 September 2007. The author, Henning Melber, was prevented from participating in the event, since the Zimbabwean embassy had informed him a day before his departure from Sweden that the immigration authorities in Harare had turned down his visa application.


During a visit to India in early February 1956, Dag Hammarskjöld presented one of the very rare impromptu speeches of his career as second Secretary General to the United Nations (1953-61) when addressing the Indian Council of World Affairs. Prompted by a moving encounter with local culture performed in his honour earlier on, his mainly extemporaneous speech explored the dimensions of human universalism. A commonality beyond Western – or, indeed, any other culturally, religiously or geographically limited – ideology or conviction.

'It is no news to anybody, but we sense it in different degrees, that our world of today is more than ever before one world. The weakness of one is the weakness of all, and the strength of one – not the military strength, but the real strength, the economic and social strength, the happiness of people – is indirectly the strength of all. Through various developments which are familiar to all, world solidarity has, so to say, been forced upon us. This is no longer a choice of enlightened spirits; it is something which those whose temperament leads them in the direction of isolationism have also to accept.'

Isolationism is a phenomenon guided by a lack of reality, or by selective perceptions, found often by leaders and their followers. It is a universal feature, and not confined to any particular society or group. By no coincidence it was the British Lord Acton, who stated, within the society considered to be one of the cradles of the modern day political system called democracy, that power corrupts, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Former liberation movements, who, after long and painful sacrifices by the oppressed people fighting against colonial occupation ultimately secured the fundamental right of self-determination and seized the legitimate political power based on popular vote, are not protected from these temptations. As a result of such 'limits to liberation', Zimbabwe is in the midst of an ongoing crisis. The 'political economy of decline' can hardly be ignored by anyone living in or having insights into the social and political realities. Even though Zimbabwe has frequently denied the freedom of movement and the freedom of expression to those seeking to form or to articulate a view on the ground; just as the apartheid settler colonial regimes of Rhodesia, South West Africa and South Africa had done during earlier (and definitely not so good old) days.

Notwithstanding such disturbing features of limiting the freedom of individuals, to which numerous (and much more serious) incidences against its own people over the years since the Gukurahundi of the mid-1980s in Matabeleland have alerted us, some maintain the impression that ‘business as usual’ exists (- and maybe it does?). There remain ‘professional denialists’, who continue to dismiss any such notion – even if the authorities of a state without any serious crisis of legitimacy could afford to allow visitors to enter their country freely. Zimbabwe’s ambassador to neighbouring Namibia (where an increasing number of Zimbabweans are seeking refuge and thereby testify to the ongoing crisis at home) stated in an interview to the state-owned daily newspaper as late as mid-September 2007 that, 'Zimbabwe […] is a peaceful paradise and politically stable since 1980'. Asked how the political situation in his country can be resolved, he answered: 'The question is misleading because it assumes that there is a political problem in Zimbabwe. This is not the case. There is no political situation in Zimbabwe.' According to most others, and in direct contradiction to the diplomat’s view, there clearly is.

These more critical views do not have to be a part of or closely affiliated to any of the organised political rival groupings contributing to a chronic state of protest, unrest and repression spiralling the country’s people further into misery and suffering. The sub-regional body, SADC, has officially acknowledged the need to mediate, with the goal to bring the decline to a halt and the country back on track towards a peaceful future in stability. The Communiqué of the Extraordinary Summit of the SADC Heads of State held, because of the Zimbabwe crisis, on 28-29 March 2007 in Dar-es-Salaam, however, provided a classic example of a dilemma, when it 'reaffirmed its solidarity with the Government and people of Zimbabwe'. In this case, obviously, one can hardly have it both ways.

It is fair to assume that Zimbabwe 'has posed fundamental questions about the extent to which SADC members can and should intervene in the internal affairs of other member countries for the sake of regional interests. […] SADC has been slow to respond to the crisis. It has failed to replicate the positive solidarity that SADCC members once levelled against apartheid South Africa.'

Notwithstanding the reservations provoked by the ongoing double-bind message by SADC as the sub-regional organisation as well as individual SADC member countries, the latest assessment of the International Crisis Group (ICG) concludes that the regionally negotiated solution would be the most feasible option for Zimbabwe:

'The next few months present a moment of truth. […] SADC and its member states have the capacity to reverse a downward spiral which increasingly threatens the region’s stability but they must be prepared to support the initiative they have begun and Mbeki’s mandate. This means using economic leverage, conditioning a recovery package on performance and making clear that if there is no cooperation they will not hesitate to call the initiative a failure and reject elections that are not a product of their mediation and do not comply with SADC’s own democratic standards.'

Such pro-active policy is a kind of interference, which corresponds with the new political realities and a common understanding as codified in the currently applicable documents guiding African continental politics. The Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU) deviated in a substantial paradigm from the fundamental principles of the earlier Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

The non-intervention into matters of member states had been a hitherto holy principle, on which the OAU based its continental policies. The AU constitution has replaced this by a clear notion of collective responsibilities, which under grave circumstances even justify joint intervention into the internal affairs of the member states. This new approach has already provided results by means of a visible implementation on several occasions.

Along similar lines and despite all critical analyses - justified with regard to the reluctant pursuance of the noble goals defined - The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and its African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) have created a corresponding new paradigmatic framework for good governance and the commitment by African states to comply with such defined standards. It could do no harm to measure those governments not volunteering to this screening exercise according to similar criteria and seek their application. Similarly, as suggested by SADC at its last ordinary summit in August 2007 in Lusaka, a few among the growing number of voluntarily retiring elder statesmen and former presidents might be a suitable task force to seek negotiations with an aging autocrat reluctant to give up power.

But seeking a lasting solution for Zimbabweans means more than entering into a negotiated compromise in terms of power sharing among segmented political elites representing different interests, while offering guaranteed protection for perpetrators if they comply with such controlled change. In an analytically remarkable Pastoral Letter released by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference on Holy Thursday of 2007, the internal, class-related roots of the current Zimbabwean crisis were highlighted:

'Black Zimbabweans today fight for the same basic rights they fought for during the liberation struggle. It is the same conflict between those who possess power and wealth in abundance, and those who do not; between those who are determined to maintain their privileges of power and wealth at any cost, even at the cost of bloodshed, and those who demand their democratic rights and a share in the fruits of independence; between those who continue to benefit from the present system of inequality and injustice, because it favours them and enables them to maintain an exceptionally high standard of living, and those who go to bed hungry at night and wake up in the morning to another day without work and without income; between those who only know the language of violence and intimidation, and those who feel they have nothing more to loose because their Constitutional rights have been abrogated and their votes rigged.'

This insight is of relevance not only for Zimbabwe. It is relevant for all societies marred by antagonistic forces culminating in extreme social disparities, where a privileged few feast at the expense of the marginalised majority. This includes (though is anything but confined to) the societies in (southern) Africa, who for both external as well as internal limiting factors have not managed to overcome the colonial legacy and its fundamentally unjust and discriminating social structures and corresponding mental dispositions.

This paper opened with a quote from a rather spontaneously motivated speech by Dag Hammarskjöld in 1956, documenting his firm belief in the unity of humankind and its shared values and norms. Much remains in this world, even half a century later, as a continuing challenge to enhance such understanding. A challenge, which clearly embraces the need to reduce the gross imbalances, which, in a very concrete and lasting material sense, prevent the full implementation of such universal ethical and moral norms to the benefit of most, if not all, in this world of the early 21st century.

But the lack of progress does not mean that Hammarskjöld’s words and visions were neither practical nor realistic. For him, the work of the United Nations should build on the commonality of humankind, its conduct and experience:

'With respect to the United Nations as a symbol of faith, it may […] be said that to every man it stands as a kind of "yes’ to the ability of man to form his own destiny, and form his own destiny so as to create a world where the dignity of man can come fully into its own.'

These words should continue to serve as an invitation to jointly turn all corners of this world into a better one to the benefit of the ordinary people. 'In such a world', the late Secretary General further clarified in no uncertain terms, 'it is impossible to maintain the status of "haves" and "have-nots", just as impossible as it has grown to be inside the nation state'. The challenge to turn his words into social and political realities remains on our agenda. It includes the southern African region in general, and, in particular, Zimbabwe.

Such a demand is by no means a Eurocentric fantasy of neocolonial or imperialist interventions, as so often claimed by those local elites under siege, simply because they are measured and judged against universal standards and values relating to fundamental and undivided human rights based principles and norms: the same principles and norms, they claimed to be fighting for, when fighting against settler-colonial minority regimes denying them those rights. The same rights they are now denying to so many among their 'liberated' people. The current necessity to take sides is by no means drawing a dividing line along race or the North-South axis, as relevant as such criteria for historically rooted privileges, identities and interests might generally be. Instead, such dismissals of human rights-related notions are nothing more than a smokescreen, a constructed escape route for those, who try to get away with cheating again the 'wretched of the earth'. As a pan-African human rights campaigner clarified:

'I have heard some people argue that the "enemies" of Africa now crying about human rights did not burden their conscience with such luxuries when benefiting from 400 years of industrial scale slavery, colonialism and brutal exploitation of Africa and its peoples. In other words, that ‘white farmers’ deserve some of their own medicine. Not only does such thinking reduce Africans to the moral bankruptcy of colonialists, it also fails to understand that it risks granting unlimited and indefinite power to Africa’s actual and imaginary liberators such that we may all end up being shackled by them. Africa’s liberation movements drew their moral strength from the fact that on the balance, they fought for social justice, human rights, equality and democracy – for all […].'

The 25-year old unemployed Harare woman Ndakaitei captured the sentiments after three chimurengas on behalf of a frustrated post-independent urban youth when she cried out: 'We desire a future that is not like the present!'

Notes and references

I owe this information (and the quotes) to the fascinating manuscript submitted by Manuel Fröhlich on ‘The Unknown Assignation’. Dag Hammarskjöld in the Papers of George Ivan Smith for forthcoming publication with the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in its new Critical Currents occasional paper series. This will then – like many other publications - also be available on the Foundation’s web site: www.dhf.uu.se

Dag Hammarskjöld, ‘The United Nations – Its Ideology and Activities. Address before the Indian Council of World Affairs 3 February 1956’. In: Andrew W. Cordier/Wilder Foote (eds), Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations. Volume II: Dag Hammarskjöld 1953-1956. New York and London 1972.

Henning Melber (ed.), Limits to Liberation in Southern Africa. The unfinished business of democratic consolidation. Cape Town: HSRC Press 2003.

Suzanne Dansereau/Mario Zamponi, Zimbabwe – The Political Economy of Decline. Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute 2005 (Discussion Paper; 27).

A recent volume included a variety of case studies from SADC countries ranging from better to worse practices with regard to state presidents (not) leaving office, including Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe; see Roger Southall/Henning Melber (eds), Legacies of Power. Leadership Change and Former Presidents in African Politics. Cape Town: HSRC Press and Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute 2006.

Rotimi Sankore, ‘Pan Africanism and the Zimbabwe Crisis’, Pambazuka News, no. 319, 12 September 2007.

* Henning Melber came to Namibia as a son of German immigrants in 1967, where he joined the liberation movement SWAPO in 1974. He was director of The Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU) in Windhoek (1992 to 2000) and research director at The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala/Sweden (2000 to 2006). He is presently the executive director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation.

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

Spain and Equatorial Guinea: development cooperation as fraud

Agustín Velloso

2007-09-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/43485

Equatorial Guinea produces a barrel of oil per person per day. In 2005, it had a budget of US$2 billion" more than sufficient to raise the standard of living of it’s 400,000 citizens. The country also has aid links: with school students in the United States, and church schools and small municipalities in Spain. Agustin Vellos argues that the so-called 'development cooperation' between Spain and Equatorial Guinea is nothing more than political rhetoric that supports the corrupt practices of President Obiang’s government and acts as a smokescreen for failed Western development models.



Development cooperation between Spain and Equatorial Guinea is an exercise in political rhetoric. Fine for soothing the consciences of sensitive citizens. Useful to dissemble the policies of both countries' governments. The citizenry think they are 'helping' the poor. While politicians cover up the way cooperation is useless for the African country's development; but good for increasing the scandalous wealth of the Obiang ruling clan, and for contributing to Spanish political and business expansion.

Some people think international cooperation and official development aid are matters of foreign policy. In the pre-democratic years, the governing class argued that Spain had been generous during its colonial era; and that the proof of this was the spread of Catholicism and civilization, as well as miscegenation. However, that generosity was not enough to produce doctors and engineers, or to leave a political and social infrastructure in Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea. So. when independence came, frustrated in the Saharawi case, development cooperation was obligatory for Equatorial Guinea.

The same happened with the other colonial centres, England, France, and Portugal. They left nations independent politically, but not culturally or economically. Colonialism became neocolonialism. The powerful could no longer directly exploit the weak as before. But they worked out new systems: conditional loans, unfavourable trade deals, e.g., the Lomé Convention of 1975, exorbitant charges for services, the fiscal policies of the IMF, World Bank projects, and so on.

From independence in 1968 until approximately 1995, when the oil exploration years began, Spain worked on development with Equatorial Guinea in the fields of politics, economics, the armed forces and education. Ironically, one of the first agreements signed in 1979 was the Protocol on Cooperation on Hydrocarbon Matters.

It is surely surprising that cooperation between the tenth world power and its former colony of just 28,000 square kilometres, 400,000 inhabitants and abundant natural resources has not managed to pull the colony up from among the lowest rungs of the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index in its first 30 years of independence. It is more surprising still when one considers the development cooperation from the United States, France, China and other countries, without counting the international bodies and agencies: the United Nations, The World Health Organisation, UNESCO, UNICEF and the European Economic Community.

Beginning in the last years of the previous century and the first years of the 21st century, Equatorial Guinea experienced unparalleled rapid growth. The reason was gas and oil: 81,000 barrels a day in 1998, 300,000 a day in 2004 and 420,000 barrels a day in 2005.

This led the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to grow 18 percent in 2000, 66 per cent in 2001, 20per cent in 2002, 10 per cent in 2003 and 25 per cent in 2004. Per capita income has gone from some US$600 in 1998, US$2000 in 2000, to US$5300 in 2005.

The oil sector makes up 97 pr cent of the country's exports and 92 per cent of its GDP. But in addition there are timber, cacao, minerals, fisheries, agricultural produce and tourist potential. Once again, it is surprising that a country able to produce a barrel of oil per person per day, that can count on other resources and is a trade partner of the richest countries in the world, also depends on aid links with school students in the United States, and with church schools and small municipalities in Spain. All these links indicate what is commonly understood as development cooperation by rich-country citizens concerned for people in poor countries.

Karen Miller, former secretary of the Hatcher primary school (Kentucky, USA) moved to the capital of Equatorial Guinea, Malabo, and emailed her friend Jenny Johnson about the school needs in the country. The world's fifth largest oil company, Marathon Oil (www.marathon.com), which operates in Equatorial Guinea, published Jenny's response:

'I felt the need to help. I knew this was something God wanted me to do. I put up posters in the school. The only problem was making sure the books donated by teachers and pupils arrived. I want to thank all those who have helped with this project. First of all to God, our Father, for making this happen, to the school community and especially to Marathon for starting this aid project for the students of the island of Bioko.' The estimated cost to the company was some 35,000 Euros.

Last April, the municipality of Alcorcón, close to Madrid, signed a permanent cooperation agreement with the Organization of Ibero-American States. The fact that Equatorial Guinea is not exactly located in the ibero-american area does not stop the municipality saying: 'we are very proud as a city to join this project of a meeting between cultures. Material cooperation with Equatorial Guinea, initially of 60,000 Euros, will enable the start up of a reading project on the one hand, with school libraries and on the other hand, teacher training in Spanish and local languages and in mathematics'.

In the first week of June, the church schools of Monforte organised a solidarity fair to raise funds for their colleagues in Equatorial Guinea. According to a local daily paper, 'the jumble sale, dinner and dance and donations raised 7,794 Euros'. Unlike the reports above, no mention is made of the uses made of the money.

Perhaps the teacher, the mayor and the religious teaching staff are unaware that the government of Equatorial Guinea, with a budget of US$2 billion in 2005, could well afford to pay for some text books and school libraries.

Preoccupied with prayers, meetings and brunches, maybe they have not had the chance to get to know the reality of the country; but instead have collected over 100,000 Euros. Even if that sum reaches Equatorial Guinea, which may be unlikely, that money does not even come close to the 380,000 Euros paid for a Lamborghini sports car acquired in 2005 by Teodoro Nguema. a son of President Obiang and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, according to a report in the South African Cape Times of July 20, 2007.

It can be argued that a similar effort by 16 other solidarity groups could match the money that Nguema might have used to benefit his people. This last alternative seems more likely to benefit the development of Equatorial Guinea, except one might prefer that people not live dependent on the charity of others. 27 solidarity groups with similar fundraising ability would be needed to match Nguema's penchant for luxury cars, since the same article reports he also spent 800,000 Euros that year buying a Bentley Arnage and a Bentley Mulliner.

Even so, it is hard for the good will of development workers, donors, sponsors and volunteers to keep up with the pace of spending: the US Forbes magazine, specialising in listing the world's wealthiest people, reported that on June 5, 2006 Nguema also rented the yacht of Microsft co-founder Paul Allen, the fifth wealthiest man in the world, for 600,000 Euros.

Teodorín, as he is known, has a mansion and a recording studio in the United States and various properties and interests in other countries. Global Witness, an organisation dedicated to uncovering corruption in countries rich in raw materials, reports that the mansion is worth US$35,000,000.

Although ordinary citizens are unaware of these facts, the government knows them very well, but still maintains cooperation links. With regard to state development aid, there is abundant information in various official and quasi-official sources, such as political parties, institutes and foundations

The Spanish State Secretariat for International Cooperation declares 'the government...bears collective responsibility for respecting and defending peace and human dignity and equality at the world level. Poverty reduction is an ethical duty for the world's most prosperous citizens and a political obligation for all the governments on the planet'.

Lofty aims that perhaps don't marry up too well with military spending of 17 billion Euros in 2007, 15th highest in the world, while expenditure on development aid is 3 billion. Loans that create more debt, debt forgiveness and so on must be subtracted from the latter amount. While that first figure for defence can be left out of the equation altogether until someone proves the link between arms spending and development.

Spanish development aid to Equatorial Guinea devoted nearly 4.5 million Euros to healthcare in 2004-5, spread over various projects: control of endemic diseases, water purification, community health and health workers. With that sum, President Obiang would have struggled to purchase his two mansions in Maryland in the US.

But we may say: It is not a matter of tracking down every last cent. These African countries are known for their idiosyncrasies. No one is perfect. Well, in that case, take the example of quality healthcare. Spain, for example, is placed 21st in the Human Development Index. Shile Equatorial Guinea is placed 121st. Per capita spending on healthcare is US$1,640 and US$139 respectively.

Development cooperation, galactic style, to use a fashionable term, would ensure that people in Equatorial Guinea enjoyed the same level of health care as people in Spain. Multiplying 450,000 people by US$1,640 works out at a little more than US$700 million. Coincidentally the same amount Obiang transferred to personal accounts in the unexpectedly extinct Riggs Bank, based, by the way, in the United States and, as luck would have it, the main investor in Equatorial Guinea.

We can look at it another way. Obiang spends about US$70,000,000 a year on 'security', a figure to be treated with caution, since the actual sum is unknown, even to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (www.sipri.se). But it can be inferred from purchases of war equipment. Spain, the United States and Israel have all sold Obiang military materiel and trained his troops and police. In ten years of oil exploration, it is not unreasonable to think that Obiang could have increased his people's life expectancy with such a sum. But life expectancy remains about half that of Spain's: 43.5 and 79.5 years respectively.

Or again, we could argue, development cooperation is very much more than money. According to Spain's International Cooperation for Development Law, drawn up in 1998, 'development processes will be promoted with respect to the defence and protection of human rights, basic liberties and economic and social welfare needs...'

Those processes do not exist as Spain knows very well. Although the Minister for Foreign Affairs omits to mention it and prefers to talk about other things. Parliamentarians who visited the country in 2007 'found improvements and returned optimistic'.

Political declarations, projects, reports and aid workers abound. But this is not development cooperation. To talk as if there were development cooperation is an insult to the people of Equatorial Guinea. In fact, we should talk about a development cooperation fraud.

* Agustin Velloso. UNED, Facultad de Educacion, Paseo Senda del Rey, nº 728040-Madrid, Spain.

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

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa – a blunt philanthropic arrow

Nnimmo Bassey

2007-09-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/43486

Rather than proposing techno-fixes to problems of agricultural development in Africa, donors could better assist in the development of rural infrastructure such as roads and water supplies, and education to empower the younger generation in the study of useful science. African farmers, along with peasants around the world, are seeking respect for their right to decide on what to plant and how to plant it, as well what to eat and how.


It is a common saying that when a man has a hammer in his hand every problem appears to be a nail. It takes a wise man to know that a hammer is just one of the tools in the craftsman’s box. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made money from technology. It is understandable that they should think that problems can always be solved with a technological fix. Nor is it surprising that the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations should plan to jointly plough $150,000,000 into their so-called Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Tragically, the biotech solutions proposed by AGRA are likely to deepen rather than solve problems of hunger, poverty and malnutrition in Africa.

The Gates Foundation has recently taken on scientists from the biotech industry. It is expected to fund projects in areas such as biotechnology to improve seeds and crop yields; fertilizer, irrigation and other farm management systems; access to markets; and advocacy for improved agricultural policies. They may claim otherwise, but the idea of AGRA is anchored around agricultural modern biotechnology or genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Yet, genetically modified crops, on the admission of the US Department of Agriculture, do not give better yields than conventional crops. In addition, the plan’s entire framework would turn African farm practices on their heads, wiping out local knowledge and creating more poverty, hunger and strange new diseases.

What is not being said is that people are not going hungry today because of insufficient food production. Indeed, it is generally agreed that there is enough food in the world to meet everyone’s basic needs. An action plan adopted in March by ministers of the Economic Community of West African States admits that food production in West Africa has doubled over the last 20 years and that only 19 per cent of food needs are met from imports.

So what is the real reason behind the emphasis on biotechnology? The biotech industry has invested hugely in attempts to penetrate Africa – through food aid channels and other channels of assistance, as well as through commercial routes. However, the food aid channel blew up in the face of the industry and that of the World Food Programme in 2002 when Zambia rejected genetically modified corn as food aid.

AGRA’s biotech thrust is wrong-headed: rather than solving problems of hunger and poverty in Africa, it will deepen them. Genetically modified crops create dependence on chemicals such as herbicides as some varieties are engineered to be herbicide tolerant, which often leads to the emergence of super-weeds. Efforts at popularising GMOs have been carried out by both USAID and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in circles that have excluded critical opinion. Wherever contrasting views have been elicited, local people and farmers generally reject this technology. AGRA’s suggestion that Africa needs a 'green revolution' does not appear to have considered the many pitfalls of that revolution.

Efforts at introducing GMOs in Africa have so far yielded poor returns. To take just one example, that of cassava engineered to overcome the cassava leaf mosaic disease. This has so far failed. There are already non-GM varieties that do withstand the disease. Why waste resources that could be better used to strengthen agricultural production in Africa, drawing on the rich pool of local knowledge and ensuring food sovereignty, as demanded by farmers and civil society groups at the recent forum in Selingue, Mali? Africa is not seeking handouts in order to improve its agricultural production systems. And certainly not a push towards a so-called green revolution baptised in chemical fertilizers and other imported inputs. African farmers, along with peasants around the world, are seeking respect for their right to decide on what to plant and how to plant it, as well what to eat and how.

Agriculture means far more than the mechanical multiplication of seeds. It is the basis of the African’s life. It provides the platform for cultural, religious, economic and even political relations. If the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations wish to extend the hand of fellowship to the African continent, they should move away from strategies that favour monoculture, lead to land-grabs, and tie local farmers to the shop-doors of biotech seed monopolies. Instead, they can assist in the development of rural infrastructure such as roads and water supplies, and education to empower the younger generation in the study of useful science.

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

* Nnimmo Bassey is Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action, Nigeria. http://www.eraction.org/

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

Brown is wrong on Zimbabwe - but that does not make Mugabe right

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2007-09-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/43515

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem argues that Western posturing against Zimbabwe, particularly in the case of the British, stokes the cause of the Mugabe apologists. Instead, he argues, solidarity should be with the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, who should not be distracted from demanding their government be held accountable to them.


There are very few African political activists who have been publicly consistent in their criticisms of
President Mugabe and ZANU-PF of Zimbabwe. I am one of them. But we are not very many. That is not because Africans do not care about what is happening in Zimbabwe; but because the external dimension: regime-change agenda induced from UK and US, and internal racial dynamics of the struggle have both combined to work in Mugabe's favour.

My position is made more difficult by the fact that I was until early last year Secretary-General of the Pan African Movement. Mugabe is indeed one of the most respected and admired leaders in the Pan African Movement, so how can I be criticising one of our icons?

Readers who routinely sent me text or email messages: 'well said'; 'aluta continua comrade'; 'give it to them man', etc, have been outraged by my stand on Zimbabwe and Mugabe. One close comrade, a well respected academic lawyer, wrote to me stating categorically that I should add a disclaimer at the end of my columns. He suggested: 'the views expressed are my personal views not necessarily the view of the Global Pan African Movement'. Both legally and politically, he is correct. But I was puzzled that he never felt it necessary to give me this legal advice until Mugabe became an issue!

One of my critics, a veteran of black struggles in the diaspora, even went as far as to suggest that my columns are syndicatedly written by the MI5 and CIA! My response to such lurid accusations is that if the CIA and MI5 could recruit me without my knowledge, then we must give them credit for good judgement!

More seriously, I have not been surprised by the hostile reactions. President Mugabe evokes extremes of passions, with no one being neutral. He is regarded by many Africans and pan-Africanists as the Liberator, the icon of anti–imperialism, the bold and courageous African leader who is able to look at imperialists in the face and say: 'to hell with you'.

In a historical period when Western arrogance and US hegemonic unilateralism are making many people angry, eliciting powerlessness and hopelessness, many are willing to embrace anyone who dares stand up against the West, especially the US. The same sentiments that drew many to admire Saddam Hussein, as an agent of the US for many years, regardless of his atrocities against his own people; or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran today in his vitriolic attacks on the US, or Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Many who are unsympathetic to socialism nonetheless admire Castro and Cubans for standing against the US and for having defied it for almost five decades, less than 100km from the coast of Florida! These are seen as leaders who refuse to bend to the wishes of Washington. Even other leaders, especially from the poorer countries of the world, are silently applauding them.

In the case of Mugabe, legitimacy is also derived from a genuine liberation struggle that many regarded as being ambushed by a 'Lancaster House compromise'. Therefore, they see Mugabe as returning to the unfinished agenda, differing from the negotiated settlement that led to independence in 1980. Many are stuck in 1980 and Chimurenga, and fail to judge Mugabe and ZANU PF for almost three decades of monopoly power in the country.

When this is pointed out, a lot of apologetics say that Lancaster House prevented any radical solution. But Lancaster was for only 10 years. Why then did Mugabe not restart the Chimurenga in 1990, instead of being forced to do so in the late 1990s by the veterans? But seeking answers to these questions are like arguing with Jehovah' witnesses!

What also strengthens the pro-Mugabe lobby is the evident hypocrisy of the West in dealing with the
Zimbabwe. Why is Mugabe singled out? Where were they in the mid-1980s when Matabeleland was wasting in ZANU's drive for a one-party state? Would they be making so much noise had Mugabe not attacked and repossessed land from white settlers, whose ancestors - with British imperial force - had grabbed the lands from black people? Is Mugabe being punished as a warning to the ANC in neighbouring South Africa: not to even dare to address the grotesque land inequality in that country?

It is the historic wrong against blacks in Zimbabwe that makes many Africans generally sympathetic to Mugabe, even if they will disagree with some of the methods. The pressures from the West, which is silent about similar or worse excesses of human rights, government authoritarianism and dictatorial leadership by other African leaders, but chose to make Mugabe a scapegoat, work for Mugabe apologists.

That is why the current debate sparked by Britain's Gordon Brown on the forthcoming Africa-EU dialogue scheduled for Portugal later this year can only make Mugabe's position more formidable. Britain is the least qualified country to grandstand anyone on Zimbabwe. Brown can not be threatening the rest of Europe with boycott because of one man and one country. If the dialogue is indeed between Africa and Europe, why should one side be laying down the terms?

Why do European leaders think they are the only ones with a public to respond to? African leaders must not accept this. If they do, they will prove to their people that they are spineless poodles of imperialism, whose only question, when asked to jump by the West, is not why, but how high?

However, rejecting the arrogance and hypocrisies of European leaders should not mean that we should endorse the excesses of President Mugabe's prolonged one-man-rule. Political and ideological suspicions of the opposition do not justify the attacks on them. In any case, our solidarity should be with the people of Zimbabwe, who may be ZANU loyalists, MDC supporters or neither. As citizens, they deserve to demand that their government be held accountable to them.

A disproportionate focus on the West's agenda is making us compromise in our duty to express this
solidarity much more boldly.

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.

Review of African blogs

Dibussi Tande

2007-09-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/43472

Dispatches from the Trench comments on the suspension of South African Chief Prosecutor, Vusi Pikoli, by President Thabo Mbeki:

'Am I alone in feeling increasingly perturbed by these actions by our president? The timing of this announcement was clearly also designed to limit any public discussion or interrogation of the president’s decision, coming as it did on a public holiday and as the president jets out of the country away from the domestic limelight.

Now there is talk of a new commission to review the functioning and accountability of the office of the national director. Why? I know I sound increasingly bitter but I cannot deny feeling despondent when it seems that any voice which articulates an independent view appears to have no place in the administration of our country.'

Gershom Ndhlovu writes about threats made by Zambian Information Minister Mike Mulongoti to journalists of the state-owned media whom he claimed 'were not created to be critics of the government..'

'It is very sad that Mulongoti, should, in this day and age, threaten state-owned media journalists with dismissal if they criticise the government even if its officials err in running the affairs of the nation and there are many errors in the governance of our beautiful country.

Is this the reason why government has been dragging its feet to legislate the Freedom of Information Bill which has dragged on for nearly a decade now?…Well, maybe it pays to toe the MMD line especially now when a number of journalists have just been rewarded with appointments into the Diplomatic service. But, ultimately, it is the ordinary Zambian who places so much trust and faith in journalists whether from state or private media who is being short-changed by this kind of myopia in the approach to media issues.'

Still on the issue of press freedom, The Other Side condemns what it considers the shameful contributions of Ethiopia's foreign correspondents’ to the deterioration of the free press in that country.

'…stories are routinely ignored or intentionally killed by the international wire services, whose journalists are even, on occasion, encouraged by bureau chiefs to re-interpret, or “contextualize” the more inflammatory responses of government spokesman (with a suggestive, “surely that is not what he actually meant!”)!
...
Perhaps I am merely naïve, but something seems intrinsically wrong when major news outlets are encouraging their journalists to perpetually wine and dine government officials on the company expense account, while strictly advising them to avoid socializing with known opposition members and supporters, whose activities are to be regarded as automatically subversive.
….
The most popular justification amongst African press circles is clearly the claim that their organization would otherwise be expelled from the country…. Regardless--since when did tailoring the news to suit the temperament of a brutal dictator become an acceptable compromise?'

George Ngwane argues that the creation of the United States of Africa is a matter of urgency:

'Africa remains the most vulnerable continent because it lacks a concerted diplomacy through a strong united political voice. This has been grossly exploited by the International community. Our continent still believes in a hand-out instead of a hands-on approach and so lacks both the ownership and control of its huge human and natural resources. The result is that we keep adjusting our political and economic models according to the dictates of Eurocentric desiderata. Indeed even though the world talks of a global village; Africa in its present dispersed ranks is a victim of global pillage.
Because of a lack of endogenous or Africacentric developmental paradigm, we have become strangulated by the draconian and inhuman economic policies imposed on a divided Africa by the unholy trinity of IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organisation. A united Africa will therefore provide a common market based on intra-African trade, it will provide a common identity that will erase the prospects of conflicts, it will provide a common citizenship hinged on the free movement of people and it will provide a strong political bargaining power necessary to reclaim our authority as a free and independent people.'

Egyptian Chronicles writes about the strike of workers of the Misr Helwan Spinning and Weaving textile factory at El-Mahalla El-Kubra:

'This is biggest strike Egypt has seen from a very long time. I believe it is also the first time that the workers occupy a factory in their strike with their families and children, and there are fears and concerns that the Anti-riots won't be merciful with them… It is not about socialism, it is about stolen rights. These workers deserve better treatment…

Yesterday it was the universities, today it is the factories, tomorrow.. I am happy and afraid the security won't this pass easily. I believe more restrictions will be imposed. Already, it is enough to see the trials of the journalists to feel where this country is going.'

Black Looks writes about a memorial being erected in Germany in honor of the forgotten victims of the Holocaust:

'Hitler referred to them as “Rhineland bastards” - the hundreds of children born of German mothers and African fathers. The men were African soldiers deployed by the French army in Germany’s Rhineland after WW1. Finally a memorial is to be erected outside the home of one Black victim of the Nazi holocaust giving a name to the nameless. Mahjub bin Adam Mohamed originally from Tanzania who married a German woman and was charged with ‘miscegenation’. He died in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, in November 1944. The idea behind the memorial - part of the Stolperstein Project, is to remember the millions of nameless and forgotten minorities Blacks, Gypsies, Disabled, Homosexuals, Communists, and coincides with the publication of “Truthful Till Death” by Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst.'

Still on the subject of Africans who lived in Nazi Germany, Bakwerirama narrates the fascinating and incredible story of prominent Cameroonian politician, Dr. Martin Ngeka Luma, who spent his childhood years in Germany during the Nazi years:

'The Late Hon. Dr. M.N.LUMA was born on 10th September 1927 at Tongo. His father Nako LUMA died three months before he was born while his mother Sarah Ngombe died six months after his birth. Hon. Dr. Martin Ngeka LUMA was adopted later in his life by a childless German Family, the Reinholds. In 1929 he was taken to Germany by his adopted parents. Unfortunately for him the Funk Rheinholds were Jews and were Holocaust victims, but he was rescued and brought back to Cameroon by Theodore Bleich of the Bleich Banana Plantations…Luma's subsequent education and stellar political career in pre- and post-independent Cameroon is amply documented elsewhere. However, very little is known about his life in Nazi Germany. Before his death, Mola Luma told this story to Prof. N.N Susungi in a series of videotaped interviews… A compelling and fascinating story indeed!'

* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den, dibussi.com

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

Africa: China's interest and activity in Africa's construction and infrastructure sectors

2007-09-26

http://www.ccs.org.za/downloads/DFID%203rd%20Edition.pdf

This new research report conducted by the Centre for Chinese Studies evaluated the market entry models of Chinese construction firms in Angola, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia. Particular attention was paid to the methods of engagement and the impact on the local construction industries.

Africa: Zimbabwe posts huge trade deficit against China

2007-09-27

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2092

Zimbabwe posted a trade deficit of US$189,000,000 in the first six months of 2007 against China, the price of a costly marriage of convenience founded on Harare’s quest for friendship and Beijing’s search for cheap raw materials. Bi-lateral trade between the two countries clocked US$205,000,00 between January and June, almost 80 per cent of the US$270,000,000 registered during the whole of 2006.

Weekly Roundup

Issue 105, 2007

2007-09-26

http://www.aumonitor.org

As the Save Darfur Day was commemorated around the world on September 17, 2007, General Agwai, commander of the AU-EU peacekeeping force for Darfur, states that political will is needed to end the crisis, noting that he has only 6,000 of the 20,000 troops he requires. Further, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project and the Independent Advocacy Project have called on the African Union and all African governments to immediately demand that the Sudanese government, armed groups and Janjawid militia halt attacks against civilians and humanitarian agencies. These urgent demands are contained in a 5-Point Programme for Ending Violence in Darfur, which the groups released to mark Save Darfur Day.

As the 'Stop EPA campaign' prepares for the global day of action against the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) on September, 27, the African Union has issued a report cautioning member states to conclude only the agreements that do not undermine the development of the continent. The report notes that European negotiators have failed to appreciate the socio-economic and political philosophy that drives regional integration in Africa.

In another article, Pilirani Semu-Banda argues that the EPAs may undermine the benefits for the sugar industry of the ‘Everything-But-Arms’ European Union (EU) trade initiative. While David Cronin reports from a conference organised by members of the European parliament, where trade unionists and policy analysts stated that African nations have been reduced to begging in negotiations with the EU in what has turned into an exercise 'assaulting democracy'.

As the EPA negotiations continue, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the European Commission held consultations aimed at 'starting a process of reinforced cooperation with a view to identifying ways to achieve greater development impact in Africa through effective collaborative efforts'.

'Mobilizing Aid for Trade: Focus on Africa' is the theme of a conference scheduled in October in Tanzania, under the auspices of the AfDB, the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in cooperation with the World Bank. Pascal Lamy of the WTO and Donald Kaberuka of the AfDB explain the rationale behind the Aid for Trade meeting asserting that there is increasing recognition that even with free trade, many countries do not have the basic infrastructure needed to take advantage of it. However, Emmanuel Opati argues that the 'trade, not aid' slogan ignores a major factor - the role of Africa’s image. Speaking to this image, a group of media practitioners deliberated in China to assess how Africa and China can exchange information and experience as well as change negative African and Chinese perceptions of one another in the era of globalisation.

Namibia: Kavango girl wins global prize

2007-09-27

http://www.newera.com.na/archives.php?id=17648

At the beginning of October, the European Commission will hold a prize-giving ceremony at Europe House for the International Drawing Competition on Gender Equality, which was launched in March by European Commissioner Benita-Ferrero Waldner on the occasion of International Women’s Day. This was announced in a press statement by the European Commission’s Aude Guignard. According to Guignard, ten drawings from children aged between 8 and 10 were pre-selected and sent to Brussels.

Europe: Nigerian women make a living on the street

2007-09-27

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=39396

Every night besides the town hall of Athens, next to Omonia square, where the narrow streets of the popular entertainment hub district Psirris begin, black girls from Nigeria gather to work. The beautiful young Nigerians, between 20 and 25 years old, are victims of trafficking, forced to prostitute themselves for little money.

Malawi: Lack of running water puts girls' education at risk

2007-09-27

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=39385

Rita Kalikokha of Dowa, a rural district in central Malawi, thinks about abandoning school every time she menstruates. The hard-working, resolute 13-year-old attends a primary school that has no running water. All 350 pupils at Rita’s school have only two pit-latrines to share, and there is no tap where they can wash their hands after using the toilet. Rita says she and other adolescent girls find these poor sanitation conditions even more awkward when it is time for their monthly periods: 'It’s so difficult to concentrate in class when you know there is no water to clean up with at break time. I usually prefer staying home every time my menses come.'

Swaziland: Foetuses in a stream highlight plight of women

2007-09-27

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74505

The discovery of about eighty foetuses in a stream used by a peri-urban community in Swaziland has raised disturbing questions about the desperation of women in a country where unwanted pregnancies are common, abortion is illegal and two-thirds of the population live in poverty.

Nigeria: What has Yar'Adua done for basic services?

2007-09-27

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74503

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua recently declared the energy crisis a national emergency, but aid groups say he should also declare a state of emergency in the health service. 'So far there is no evidence the government will act quickly to bring succour to the poor', said Osita Ezechukwu, a volunteer at the anti-poverty group Social Rights Initiative.

Somalia: Government halts IDP evictions

2007-09-27

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74498

The Somali government has stopped evicting internally displaced persons (IDPs) from government buildings, in a bid to stem displacement in the capital, Mogadishu, an official told IRIN on 26 September. Dahir Mohamed Burale, the commissioner of the National Refugee Commission of Somalia (NRCS), said it had convinced the government it should provide alternative accommodation for the IDPs before evicting them.

Africa: UNHCR welcomes resolution on Chad and Central African Republic

2007-09-27

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/46fa8b704.html

High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has welcomed the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution establishing a multi-dimensional United Nations mission in Chad and Central African Republic (CAR) that will help strengthen security in the region. Guterres said he looked forward to an early decision of the European Union (EU) to send military troops so that the UN force – to be known by its acronym MINURCAT – can deploy in the coming weeks and months.

Global: World Bank and IMF – Major changes needed

2007-09-26

http://www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?article1423

As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) prepare to hold their annual meetings in Washington next month, 20-22 October, in the wake of recent leadership changes at both institutions, the international trade union movement is calling on them to use the meetings as an opportunity to undertake major organisational and policy changes.

South Africa: open letter to Superintendent Nayager

Jacques Depelchin

2007-09-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/43470

Dear Mr Nayager,

Forgive me for taking your time, but I felt that, given what I have heard about you and what is going on there, I had to do everything possible to reach you in a way that, maybe, just maybe, no one has been able to do.
Dear Mr. Nayager, Forgive me for taking your time, but I felt that, given what I have heard about you and what is going on there, I had to do everything possible to reach you in a way that, maybe, just maybe, no one has been able to do. Moreover even if others have tried, and been rebuked and/or not listened to, given the gravity of what I hear, I should nevertheless give a try to reach out to you.

I am doing this because despite all of the suffering you are alleged to have inflicted to the poor, to the Shackdwellers in Durban, I am certain that deep inside you there is a side which does tell you that the beating, the harassment, the insults, the threats of inflicting worse punishment, there is a voice deep from within you which keeps telling you to do otherwise.

Please do take the time to either read this or at least listen to someone reading it to you because you are not the only one in South Africa who is treating the poor, the dispossessed, the weak, with a level of hatred and anger which was unheard of even during the Apartheid days. We, from outside, were all convinced that South Africa was going to be different from the rest of the Continent.

Well, from what I have been reading over the past year or so, in relation to how the poor, the jobless, those looking for decent housing, have been treated, it is as if much has not changed from the days of Apartheid or from the days of Leopold II in the Congo Free State. Sorry, I forgot to mention that I am from the DRC, from the country of Ota Benga, the so-called pygmy in the Zoo (please check it out from our website: www.otabenga.org)

Hearing and reading about what you and some of your law enforcement colleagues are doing makes me wonder whether the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission changed anything. I must say, I was among the skeptics for reasons which are too long to go into here. What you and your colleagues are doing, with impunity, against the poorest of the poor would suggest that the TRC was only the first step in a process of healing.

Healing is both extremely difficult and extremely easy. It is extremely difficult if people think that it has to be done by others, by the state structures, etc. It is extremely easy once ordinary people, people from all walks of life take it upon themselves to heal. For example, imagine yourself getting rid of the habit of thinking that the Shackdwellers are your enemies, that they are the ones you have to beat up in order to make sense of your job. Imagine yourself just sitting down and conversing with the poor and the homeless as people who deserve your respect and, more importantly, whose security you are supposed to ensure. Imagine that your life would change completely if you were willing to sit down with them and look at them as people searching for the same things you are searching for in life: justice, peace, equality, fraternity, respect, love and dignity.

If all of us were to live according to the truths of the above principles, it would be impossible for virtual Robben Islands and islanders to be reproduced anywhere in South Africa. It would be very hard for the mentality of might is right to survive. Indeed, it would become harder to find people like you to carry on with the mentality inherited from Apartheid days and on which, the work of the TRC does not seem to have made a dent.

But then, Mr. Nayager, you could go beyond just imagining and bring about the very thing which was dreamed by all those who did go to the real Robben Island, some of whom seem to have decided that it was a bad dream and that it better be forgotten. You could do something which is very rare these days, something which would help those who would rather forget come back to reality and carry on with what had been dreamed about. You could help them rid themselves of the weight of newly acquired wealth.

You could decide to live according to the principles of the Freedom Charter, you could decide that the Shackdwellers are your brothers and sisters, that your job is to help them realize their dreams for a decent life. You could decide that you are not just a cop paid to enforce laws which are interpreted to make life unlivable for the poorest of the poor as if the objective is to liquidate them physically.

You could decide that your greatest calling as a human being is to be in solidarity on the same side of the struggles of the poor, of the homeless. You could decide that your greatest calling is to call on other law officers to think of the poor as the ones most in need of your collective help . The list of the things you could do is endless, but you would need to free yourself from the paralysis which comes from the mind set inherited from Apartheid days. I know it is very hard because that mentality has gone one to shackle the entire Planet under the name of Globalization.

I do really hope that, sooner or later we shall be able to further communicate in order to heal completely and totally from the mindset which says that might is always right. In solidarity and peace, a descendant of Ota Benga.

Global: New ITUC worldwide report reveals catalogue of murder, violence and intimidation

2007-09-26

http://www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?article1404

An appalling total of 144 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers’ rights in 2006, while more than 800 suffered beatings or torture, according to the Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations, published by the International Trade Union Confederation, which boasts 168,000,000 members. The 379-page report details nearly 5,000 arrests and more than 8,000 dismissals of workers due to their trade union activities.

South Africa: 'We drink condoms and panties'

2007-09-27

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=39384

Police arrested ten people who were part of a large group of protesters blocking the N4 highway linking South Africa and Botswana earlier this month. Residents of the tiny village of Ntsweletsoku were so angry about the persistent water shortages in their area that they resorted to violent demonstrations to attract the attention of the authorities. Ntsweletsoku is part of the arid Lehurutse area in South Africa’s North West Province close to the border with Botswana.

Africa: Mauritius 'best-run African state'

2007-09-27

http://tinyurl.com/353pga

Mauritius is the best run country in sub-Saharan Africa while Rwanda has made the greatest improvements in good governance in recent years, a new study says. The inaugural report of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance said Somalia is the worst run country, lacking in rule of law and suffering from the worst human rights record.

Malawi: Civil society attacks decision to close parliament

2007-09-27

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74502

President Bingu wa Mutharika has earned the ire of civil society for not keeping his end of the bargain to discuss floor-crossing, a tactic that has strengthened his political arm, now that parliament has approved the national budget. Mutharika's decision to prorogue parliament soon after the budget was passed was seen as an attempt to stem any move by the opposition, who hold the majority of seats in the193-seat house, to force the speaker to table the issue of floor-crossing.

Kenya: Election chief says tribalism and graft are rampant

2007-09-26

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN653036.html

Kenyan politics is marred by tribalism, violence and graft and this year's election will be the true test of how far the country has come since single-party rule, its election commission said on Wednesday. Polls in 2002 that removed long-time ruler Daniel arap Moi were seen as broadly free and fair. But Samuel Kivuitu, the chair of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), said there were major challenges before the nation votes again in elections expected in December.

Madagascar: Ruling party wins all seats

2007-09-27

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3045&art_id=nw20070924125829369C223528

Madagascar's ruling party has won all seats in the capital Antananarivo in legislative polls held at the weekend, the interior ministry said on Monday. President Marc Ravalomanana's TIM ('I love Madagascar') party won in all six constituencies, setting it on a path to retain a majority in the Indian Ocean island's 127-member parliament. Turnout was however low in the capital during Sunday's election, with the highest participation at around 32 per cent, according to provisional results.

Global: Persistent corruption in low-income countries requires global action

2007-09-27

http://tinyurl.com/yrcxyo

The divide in perceived levels of corruption in rich and poor countries remains as sharp as ever, according to the 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released today by Transparency International, the global coalition against corruption. Developed and developing countries must share responsibility for reducing corruption, in tackling both the supply and demand sides.

Nigeria: Speaker condemned over US$5,000,000 contracts

2007-09-26

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN657022.html

The leadership of Nigeria's House of Representatives acted against the rules in approving contracts worth US$5,000,000 to renovate two official residences and buy 10 cars, a panel of legislators said on Wednesday. The scandal over the contracts has paralysed the House, where emotions run so high that members came to blows last Thursday during a hearing by the investigative panel after some of them shouted 'thief!' at Speaker Patricia Etteh.

Uganda: Farmers will get better access to markets

2007-09-27

http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2007/40.htm

A new IFAD-funded programme in Uganda will help increase incomes, boost economic growth and reduce poverty by improving farmers’ access to markets with better infrastructure. The programme will be funded partially by a US$15,000,00 IFAD loan to the Government of Uganda. The Community Agricultural Infrastructure Improvement Programme, co-financed by the African Development Bank, will cover 26 districts in central and eastern Uganda, representing about 27 per cent of the country’s land area.

Global: Towards pro-poor innovation

2007-09-27

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights68/art00.html

The arrival of new technologies often results in a wider gap between the rich and the poor. Yet some innovations fail to be applied in developing countries where there is a real need. As E.F. Schumacher observed, 'new technologies are developed only when people of power and wealth back the development'. The International Council for Science argues, as do many others, that developing countries lack an infrastructure base for exploiting technology, and suggests increased investment in universities.

Global: Rock stars collect 600,000 signatures for fair trade with Africa

2007-09-27

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=39407

Several popular Spanish rock groups have helped collect 600,000 signatures and delivered them to the government in support of an international campaign calling for the Spanish government to modify its trade policy towards Africa and eliminate restrictions on imports from that region.

Ghana: Picking up the pieces After the floods

2007-09-27

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=39418

A very dry spell preceding the floods affected the whole country, almost leading to the closure of the hydroelectric dam at Akosombo in the south-east; this facility is fed from the north by the Volta River. Then, in late August, came the rains, deluging the Northern region and the Upper East and Upper West regions, also in the north. The downpours forced families. who had been battling with the drought, to deal with a different type of natural disaster, with many fleeing their homes.

Africa: Improved regional integration still key for success

2007-09-27

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=39395

While its economic landscape is brightening, Africa is still bedeviled by some of the same obstacles that have historically undermined economic development in the resource and labour-rich region. And many of those woes could be solved through development of further intraregional trade. 'The relatively small weight of intraregional trade in Africa, despite the existence of several (and frequently overlapping) regional trade agreements, is due largely to their structure of production and the composition of their exports', according to a report released earlier this month by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Southern Africa: Informal trade crucial for jobs

2007-09-28

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=320167

Every day a bus, usually packed to capacity, leaves Malawi for South Africa. Most of the passengers are traders, off to sell wooden curios in the main South African cities of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. A few stop in Harare, Zimbabwe, with pieces of cloth and food products such as flour and sugar. From South Africa, the traders bring back items of clothing, shoes, electronics and personal accessories. Those who go to Zimbabwe buy butter, jam and tomato sauce to sell in Malawi.

Angola: HIV positive people demand rights

2007-09-28

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74507

HIV-positive Angolans suffer a whole spectrum of human rights violations, including discrimination at work, lack of medical treatment and prejudice. The country has a national HIV prevalence of about 2.5 per cent in a population of approximately 16,000,000, although infection rates vary widely by region, with some as low as 1.8 per cent and others as high as 10 per cent.

Global: 42 billion neded to achieve universal access by 2010, says UNAIDS

2007-09-27

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/31817866-FDD8-4E99-BADE-1FA917A7781A.asp

Up to $42 billion will need to be found by 2010 if universal access to HIV treatment, prevention and care is to be achieved in line with the 2005 commitment by G8 governments, UNAIDS has said. UNAIDS’ estimate has been developed ahead of an international meeting, which starts today in Berlin, to win increased donor commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Fund currently accounts for one-quarter of all international donor expenditure on Aids.

Africa: Pre-exposure prophylaxis could prevent up to 3,000,000 HIV infections in ten years

2007-09-27

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/8BED4878-759E-4E98-A44E-258ECD291B97.asp

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) – the use of antiretroviral drugs to prevent infection with HIV – could prevent up to 3,000,000 new HIV infections over ten years in southern Africa if used consistently, according to mathematical modelling published this month in the online journal PLoS One. Animal studies are testing the use of combinations of antiretroviral drugs, taken for indefinite periods, in order to prevent HIV infection.

Mozambique: Archbishop: HIV-infected condoms sent to kill Africans

2007-09-27

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=320377

Mozambique's Roman Catholic archbishop has accused European condom manufacturers of deliberately infecting their products with HIV 'in order to finish quickly the African people'. The archbishop of Maputo, Francisco Chimoio, told the BBC that he had specific information about a plot to kill off Africans. 'I know that there are two countries in Europe...making condoms with the virus, on purpose', he alleged. But he refused to name the countries.

South Africa: The trials and tribulations of community involvement in research

2007-09-28

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74528

A trial of the microbicide gel, Carraguard, is being run by the Population Council, an international non-profit organisation, at three sites in South Africa: the Setshaba Research Centre in Soshanguve, in Cape Town and in KwaZulu-Natal Province. Microbicides include a range of products - such as gels, films and sponges - that could help prevent the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. No microbicide has yet been shown to be effective.

Uganda: Science body advises government to change curriculum

2007-09-27

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/19/586371

The Uganda National Council for Science has asked the Government to change the school curriculum to develop science and technology at early stages. The executive secretary, Dr Peter Ndemere, on Monday said they were working on a US$30,000,000 (about 48 bilion Kenya shillings) project to address research, curriculum development and the transfer of knowledge to the market. The five-year project started in February this year.

Uganda: Thousands out of class after floods wash away schools

2007-09-27

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74523

Flash floods sweeping across northern and eastern Uganda have damaged hundreds of schools, leaving at least 100,000 children out of class, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said. The floods have also destroyed sanitation facilities, preventing the 289 affected schools from reopening, two weeks after other Ugandan schools resumed classes.

South Africa: Movie on gay muslims to hit screens

2007-09-27

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=fm&id=1696

When Mohsin Hendricks, an Imam in South Africa, revealed that he was gay he expected protests and calls for his death. But he never imagined he would talk about his sexuality and religion publically. Hendricks appears in Jihad for Love, a documentary about gay Muslim men and women in Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt and South Africa. Indian filmmaker Parvez Sharma, who is gay himself, wants his movie to reach Muslim communities, even those where being homosexual remains a crime punishable by death.

Global: Gay bishop move rejected by kenya

2007-09-27

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=kenya&id=1697

The head of Kenya's Anglican Church has rejected a compromise over gay bishops by US Episcopal Church leaders. They have said they will halt the ordination of gay bishops and public blessings of same-sex relationships to prevent a split in the Anglican Church. 'That word "halt" is not enough', said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi.

Africa: Flood crisis hits Nigeria, Burkina Faso

2007-09-27

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=320418

Floods that have left hundreds of thousands of Africans homeless across vast swathes of the continent have claimed 64 lives in Nigeria and 33 in Burkina Faso, government and aid officials said on Thursday. Nigeria's Red Cross said the death toll covered a period since mid-July, while 22,000 people have been displaced in ten sometimes arid northern states of the most populous nation in Africa, as well as in the Lagos area, the huge economic capital in the south-west.

Global: Global warming: the great equaliser

Adam W. Parsons

2007-09-26

http://www.stwr.net/content/view/2228/37/

As the latest summit to discuss a post-Kyoto treaty continues in New York this week, the single most revealing statement has already been spoken: 'We need to climate-proof economic growth.' These few words, told to reporters by the UN’s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, during the recent Vienna round of talks, define the blinded establishment approach to tackling climate change.

Egypt: Court sentences journalists for 'false news'

2007-09-26

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN657753.html

A Cairo court has sentenced four journalists and a newspaper executive to two months in jail with labour for publishing 'false news' about a businessman, judicial sources said on Wednesday. The verdicts, which come amidst concern from rights groups about what they call a pattern of harassment of the press by authorities, were passed last Saturday after an in absentia trial, the sources said. The defendants can ask for a retrial.

Gambia: IFJ fears detained journalist killed

2007-09-27

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/86573/

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today expressed its fear that Chief Ebrima Manneh, who has been missing for more than a year and was reportedly being held incommunicado, has been killed in jail in The Gambia. 'This information is extremely devastating for the media community in The Gambia and journalists around the world', said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa Office. 'We call on the Gambian Police, the NIA and government to provide evidence that Chief Ebrima Manneh is alive as we firmly believe that they know his whereabouts.'

Somalia: Radio Shabelle manager narrowly escapes murder attempt

2007-09-27

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/86571/

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the attempted murder on 24 September 2007 of privately-owned Radio Shabelle's acting manager, Jafar Mohammed 'Kukay', the latest target of a wave of political killings that seems to be aimed at demonstrating that the transitional federal government is unable to guarantee security in the Somali capital.

Zimbabwe: Concern after media hit list leaks from government

2007-09-26

http://www.ifjafrique.org/anglais/index.php?page=lire&id=371

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the government of Zimbabwe to guarantee the safety of 15 journalists named on a hit list that appeared to have been leaked from official sources. 'The government of President Robert Mugabe must make it clear to the international community that it is not targeting journalists', said IFJ General Secretary Aidan White. 'It can do that by guaranteeing the safety of all the journalists named and all other journalists in Zimbabwe.'

Niger: Veteran journalist imprisoned for allegedly "conniving" with rebels

2007-09-27

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/86556/

A veteran radio journalist for French broadcaster Radio France Internationale, distinguished for his exclusive coverage of a seventh-month-old armed rebellion in northern Niger, was sent to prison today after four days in police custody on accusations of aiding the rebels, according to local journalists.

Morocco: Al-Watan al-An convictions undermine press code

2007-09-27

http://tinyurl.com/27v9gw

In a conversation with Magharebia, al-Watan al-An Editor-in-Chief Abderrahim Ariri expressed his dissatisfaction with the decision of a Casablanca appeals court's on September, 18 to uphold convictions – although with reduced sentences – against him and journalist Moustapha Hormatallah. Rather than use the press code, the authorities brought criminal charges against the two journalists. A Casablanca appeals court handed Ariri a five-month suspended prison sentence and Moustapha Hormatallah a seven-month prison sentence on September, 18 for publishing classified government documents.

Zambia: Newspaper comes under fire for stance on constitutional reform

2007-09-27

http://africa.oneworld.net/article/frontpage/151/509

Zambia’s Justice Minister George Kunda has accused The Post newspaper of working against the government on the Constitution-making process. In the edition of September, 17, Kunda referred to former president Frederick Chiluba as one of the main architects of the current constitutional problems, and asked, '…is it not a contradiction that [editor] Fred M’membe and the Press Freedom Committee of The Post wittingly or unwittingly should be working with Dr. Chiluba?'

Global: the dual melting pot

2007-09-26

http://www.zeleza.com/blogging/u-s-affairs/dual-melting-pot

There is a 'melting pot' of all the races of Europe in America, but it does not include African Americans. It may someday include light-skinned Hispanics, and everybody else except Blacks, Stephen Steinberg writes. The American paradigm of race requires that there be an 'other' - and the other is Black people. That's what makes white people, white.

Chad: Peacekeeping force approved

2007-09-27

http://tinyurl.com/3yhb2s

The UN Security Council has authorised the deployment of EU peacekeeping forces and UN police to protect civilians in Chad and the Central African Republic from violence spilling over from neighbouring Darfur. The resolution, drafted by France, was approved by 15 votes to zero on Tuesday.

DRC: More displaced in North Kivu as fighting resumes

2007-09-27

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74466

Military dissidents loyal to renegade army general Laurent Nkunda have resumed fighting in the eastern province of North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, two weeks after a ceasefire was negotiated by the UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC). 'The insurgents launched attacks against three of our positions in the morning, in Ngungu where the clashes had ceased, in Karuba and in Kichanga' [in Masisi territory, northeast of Goma, the provincial capital], Colonel Delphin Kahindi, the deputy commander of the Congolese army in the province, said on 24 September 2007.

Nigeria: Oil rebels end ceasefire

2007-09-27

http://tinyurl.com/2p3umc

Nigerian armed group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) has threatened to resume its campaign of kidnapping foreigners and attacking oil facilities, ending a four-month ceasefire. They made the announcement in an email to the media on Sunday, denying government reports that the group's leaders had been arrested in Angola

Sudan: Darfur rebels warned of sanctions

2007-09-27

http://tinyurl.com/2s4rxy

Darfur's rebel groups could face sanctions if they do not attend peace talks with Khartoum in Libya next month, delegates to a UN-sponsored meeting in New York have warned. US and Sudanese officials both called for sanctions against rebels who stayed away from negotiations, in a rare moment of unity following Friday's meeting.

Africa: UNECA awards governments promoting ICT

2007-09-27

http://africa.oneworld.net/article/view/153562/1/

Nine African countries have won the first ever awards given for promoting the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by governments in fulfilling their public service delivery functions, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has announced. The Technology in Government in Africa (TIGA) awards came about through collaboration between UNECA and the Canadian Policy Resource Centre in training African policy-makers.

Global: Enhancing rural livelihoods - The role of ICTs

2007-09-27

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights68/art05.html

The Overseas Development Institute in the UK recently carried out a study on ICT for rural livelihoods, commissioned by InfoDev. The study included a literature and donor review in collaboration with the Institute of Development Studies, and country studies carried out with partners in Argentina, Uruguay, Tanzania, South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. ICT was defined broadly to include broadcast media as well as internet and wireless technologies.

East Africa: Rural Access and Connectivity in Tanzania

2007-09-27

http://www.iicd.org/files/Connectivity-Tanzania-2007.pdf/

ICT has a major role to play in knowledge development in many areas, but also offers the possibility to improve governance. Basic infrastructure is therefore indispensable. In Tanzania access to the internet has increased considerably in recent years. However, much has to be done to reduce costs and improve the quality of the services, since affordable access is key to development. In this paper, Liang Tan of IICD captured the lessons learned from setting up and managing IICD supported ruralcommunication access centres.

Global: Women's World 2008

2007-09-26

http://www.mmww08.org/archivos/File/CALLFORPAPERSENGLISH_1.pdf

WOMEN'S WORLDS 2008. 10th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women. Women's Worlds/Mundos de Mujeres. Madrid, Spain, 3-9 July, 2008.

Fahamu