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Shailja Patel awarded the FannyAnn Eddy Poetry Award

Pambazuka News Editors

2008-03-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/46642

Pambazuka News is pleased to announce that one of its writers, Shailja Patel has been awarded the FannyAnn Eddy Poetry Award, from the International Research Network (IRN -Africa), for her poem, "Screaming."

FannyAnn Eddy, fearless leader of the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association, was brutally raped and murdered in 2004.

The awardees said that "Screaming" is striking because it illustrates how damage to the body is one of the many weapons patriarchy uses against those who dare assert dissident sexualities. One way of theorizing eroticism is exceptionally demonstrated through this poem.

Screaming" will appear in IRN-Africa's forthcoming collection of writing on alternatives to heteronormativity in Africa, "Outliers".

African Agriculture and the World Bank: Development or impoverishment?

Kjell Havnevik, Deborah Bryceson, Lars-Erik Birgegård, Prosper Matondi & Atakilte Beyene

2008-03-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/46564

Kjell Havnevik, Deborah Fahy Bryceson, Atakilte Beyene and Prosper Matondi look at the destructive role the world bank has played in African agriculture and food production

Agriculture’s dominant role in Sub-Saharan Africa’s local, national and regional economies and cultures throughout pre-colonial history has been foundational to 20th century colonial and post-colonial development. No other continent has been so closely identified with smallholder peasant farming. Nonetheless, smallholder farming has been eroding over the last three decades, perpetuating rural poverty and marginalizing remote rural areas. Donors’ search for rural ‘success stories’ merely reinforces this fact. Certainly many farmers have voted with their feet by increasingly engaging in non-agricultural livelihoods or migrating to urban areas. In so doing, the significance of agriculture for the majority of Africa’s population has altered.

The World Bank has played a prominent role in shaping agricultural policy in Africa. Under structural adjustment conditionality of the 1980s, the World Bank’s prescriptions became largely mandatory for the debt-ridden national economies of the continent. Its influence over a country’s policies is now generally in direct inverse proportion to that country’s economic strength. Thus, most African countries have to greater or lesser degrees espoused and implemented World Bank development policy for the last 25 years, and African agricultural sectors, in effect, demonstrate through continuous low growth rates and deepening rural poverty, the impact of World Bank policies.

A recent evaluation of the World Bank’s research output, chaired by Angus Deaton, challenged the institution’s reputation as the world’s ‘knowledge bank’ referring to its habit of taking ‘new and untested results as hard evidence that its preferred policies work’, singling out the flagship World Development Reports published annually as a medium through which advocacy of the World Bank’s favoured policy recommendations sometimes takes precedence over balanced analysis.

On the face of it, the WDR 2008 espouses a continuation of World Bank rural policies of the last quarter century. First, it argues that agriculture is key to poverty alleviation, especially for African smallholder farmers. The majority of Africa’s poor live in rural areas and farm to varying extents. Second, it stresses that liberalized national markets will remain the primary force for achieving productivity increases and poverty alleviation.

Accelerated growth will be achieved through agricultural productivity improvement but the ‘green revolution’ model of state investments and subsidized support for agricultural inputs are discounted. African states are seen to be seriously flawed and therefore best restricted in scope and decentralised to preclude government intervention in the national economy. Smallholder households will participate in commodity, capital, land and labour markets, to seek multiple pathways out of poverty; either through encompassing agricultural production, rural non-agricultural enterprises or out-migration.

Beneath these entirely business-as-usual policies, there are starkly contradictory objectives: the humanitarian concerns of poverty alleviation clash with a Darwinian market fundamentalism. ‘Market fundamentalism’ is defined here as the unshakeable belief in the innate nature of the market as a prime mover of exchange and optimizer of production without regard for the political imbalances and social biases of markets as historical institutions. States are seen as potential concentrations of vested interests and power in stark contrast to markets as neutral forums of exchange.

Will African peasant farmers’ lot improve or decline further? The report has a casual way of not distinguishing the radically different policy needs of small as opposed to large-scale agriculture. In global agricultural commodity markets, African smallholder producers have been losing market share continually over the last three decades. Africa’s traditional export crops, the beverage crops: coffee, cocoa, tea, as well as cotton, tobacco, cashew, etc. have steadily declined to now quite negligible export levels. The comparative advantage that African smallholders held in these crops has been undermined by far more efficient producers elsewhere. There is no evidence provided to suggest that the broad masses of African small-scale peasant farmers will experience anything other than continuing difficulties in meeting the rigours of global commodity market chains with their highly regulated standards and time schedules.

Paradoxically, the World Bank has a long tradition of championing smallholder farmers. Structural adjustment policies were implemented in the name of ‘getting the prices right’ to promote market efficient resource allocation for the benefit of smallholders. Consistently World Bank agricultural policies have displayed contradictory tendencies and a glaring discrepancy between stated objectives and actual outcomes. Nonetheless, the World Bank has rarely been held to account. Peasant farmers have been too dispersed and without a voice whereas heavily indebted African governments are too dependent on the World Bank’s conditional aid to criticize the policies it enforces.

WORLD BANK POLICY AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY

African agriculture was in the World Bank’s spotlight 25 years ago with the publication of the Berg report entitled Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Agenda for Action (1981) and the World Development Report 1982 on the theme of agriculture. These reports identified African state policy intervention, particularly in the form of producer subsidies and parastatal marketing, as key problems to resolve in order to achieve higher agricultural productivity. The encouraging improvements in maize yields from the improved input and fertilizer packages that several African governments were distributing on a subsidized basis went unacknowledged, while the dramatic change in terms of trade following the oil crises of 1973/74 and 1979 and the subsequent world market economic shocks that the continent experienced were largely sidestepped – internal rather than external causes of the African economic crisis were stressed.

In the aftermath, as African countries one by one fell into heavy debt and SAP conditionality was imposed, the blooming of a potential green revolution fostered by policies of several African states during the 1970s was nipped in the bud. Unlike the green revolution of India, Indonesia and the Philippines, which had afforded its farmers several years of state-supported input subsidy, Africa’s green revolution was stillborn.

In stark contrast to Asia, Africa remains seriously food insecure. The investment in improved agricultural input packages and extension support tapered and eventually disappeared in most rural areas of Africa under SAP. Concern for boosting smallholders’ productivity was abandoned. Not only were governments rolled back, foreign aid to agriculture dwindled. World Bank funding for agriculture itself declined markedly from 32 per cent of total lending in 1976-8 to 11.7 per cent in 1997-9.

But some form of an agricultural revolution is vital to the future of today’s African smallholders. This is not because of their need to remain in the agricultural sector, although this may be the desire of many. Rather it is because the food security afforded by a green revolution provides the necessary foundation and insurance for individuals, rural households and nation-states to develop non-agrarian occupational specializations as well as constituting an important impetus for the growth of other sectors.

Reviving African attempts to rekindle African green revolution efforts, are ruled out. The World Bank’s refusal to endorse a concentrated state-coordinated and international donor supported effort to raise African productivity is likely to preclude the African rural poor’s agriculture from expanding beyond basic subsistence. There is, however, one notable concession in the WDR 2008. African smallholders may be allowed ’smart’ producer subsidies, which must be restrictively targeted and delimited primarily to fertilizer. Considering that farmers in OECD countries have kept their agricultural subsidies relatively intact throughout the last 20 years as African farmers saw their far more modest subsidies whittled away, this is a small consolation. The average support to OECD agricultural producers fell from 37 per cent of gross value of farm receipts in 1986-88 to 30 per cent in 2003-2005. While this represented a 7 per cent decline, the total amount of support increased over the same period from $242 billion a year to $273 billion a year (WDR 2008).

LARGE VERSUS SMALL-SCALE AGRICULTURE: CONTRACT FARMING AND RURAL WAGE LABOUR

Under current market fundamentalist thinking, large-scale agriculture is deemed to be competitive, not small-scale family production. The WDR 2008 infers that the lack of competitiveness of African smallholder commodity production will necessarily catapult many farmers into contract farming or agricultural wage employment. The wider relevance of contracting in an African context lies in its potential for increasing economies of scale and assuring quality.
Contract farming and agricultural wage labour are recommended when accompanied with fair remuneration and working conditions. The question remains how such just conditions are to be secured. Large-scale farms and agri-business are not charities. A deluge of farmers, exiting the smallholder sector as ‘refugees’, and flooding rural labour markets, will meet with extremely low returns and harsh working conditions.

Contract farming is usually selective in its outreach, often restricted to locations near big cities or major roads. Socially, over time it tends to exclude smaller, poorer producers, and the crops grown are primarily export cash crops rather than food staples. It constitutes a top-down take-it-or-leave-it approach with limited technical transfer. Undoubtedly it can benefit some farmers, but it is not an omnibus solution to low productivity and food insecurity for the majority of African peasant farmers.

Similar arguments are made for the efficiency of large-scale farm and plantation production. In relinquishing their autonomy, do smallholders gain in terms of income and security of employment? Smallholders’ bargaining power in contract farming can be very limited particularly in relation to the increasing influence of supermarket value chains. Agricultural wage labourers tend to have even less room for manoeuvre with casualization of the agricultural wage labour a common tendency. The WDR 2008 admits that agricultural wage labourers have been known to face highly exploitative working conditions.

Meanwhile, African states have initiated a host of incentives (tax rebates, physical and moral security) for foreign investors to attract foreign currency into the country. Historically, the majority of investors and European settler farmers were concentrated in Southern Africa producing commercial export crops as well as food products such maize, wheat and beef. More recently, they have ventured into horticulture, safari ranching and tourism.

The WDR 2008 suffers from a logical inconsistency between its acclaimed goal of poverty alleviation for African smallholder farmers and its conviction that large-scale commercial farming is the inevitable future of farming. African small-scale family farmers must meet the productivity levels, rigorous product standards and delivery schedules of international value chains to compete effectively, yet without necessary support.

At present hundreds of millions of African peasant smallholders are not competing successfully in global commodity markets. The World Bank adopts a matter-of-fact position that they will relinquish their autonomy as agricultural producers and work as contract farmers or wage labours in large-scale agribusiness or alternatively leave agriculture to seek their livelihood elsewhere. Their sanguine attitude towards peasant labour redundancy does not tally with their professed concern for the African rural poor. Beneath the WDR 2008’s public relations spin about poverty alleviation, they are conferring carte blanche support to a ‘survival of the fittest’ economic trajectory in which the grossly imbalanced commercial interests of large-scale OECD subsidized farmers, supermarket chains and agribusiness have full scope to compete against unsubsidized peasant farmers engaged in rural ways of life that that have managed hitherto to endure for millennia.

LAND FOR THOSE LEFT BEHIND

African smallholders have a ‘loser’ status in the WDR2008, but the World Bank appreciates that allowing the global market to fully decimate African peasant agriculture would spell political and human disaster in the weak African national economies where farmers’ only option is to join over-crowded rural and urban informal sectors where average levels of capitalization, skills and productivity are exceptionally low. Thus the African countryside of the future is in effect likely to be relegated to a large ‘holding ground’ to ensure basic welfare of the rural population and provide labour for other sectors of the economy as and when needed.

In a significant departure from the World Bank’s otherwise consistent efforts to promote the extension of market relations throughout African commodity, labour and capital exchange the World Bank now stresses that a rural pro-poor agenda requires attention to customary tenure rights and land management systems. The World Bank position is now supportive of evolutionary land tenure, seeing customary tenure as central for ensuring the poor’s security as local tenure regimes evolve towards market-based practices. To stave criticism that it is supporting traditionalism, the World Bank has tried to press for reforms of the traditional authorities safeguarding customary land tenure, and in so doing asserts that customary land tenure can strengthen women’s land rights, promote decentralized land institutions, and raise productivity – features rarely if ever formerly identified with customary tenure in the past.

The reality is that customary land rights are no longer the central issue in many African countries. Smallholder farmers are often in competition with large-scale farmers who receive preferential state support. Small farmers have already been or are currently being pushed into vulnerable ecological areas outside their traditional home areas.

SMALL HOLDER MARGINALIZATION

The World Bank has not been held accountable for the agricultural policy misjudgements and blunders they have enforced in Africa over the last 25 years through structural adjustment policy and debt conditionality. Now, with impunity, they are throwing their weight behind the rapid redundancy of a potentially massive number of peasant smallholders in the name of African development.

The World Bank is recommending global capital’s destruction of an independent smallholder agricultural sector in the absence of clear employment prospects. This is radically different from the rapid depeasantization process currently underway in China. There, members of rural households are leaving the farm to work in booming industrial and service sectors of the national economy. Given the constricted parameters of African national economies, smallholder alternative options outlined by the World Bank are not convincing.

Rural non-agricultural activities are performed primarily on the basis of self-employment. The risks are high and financial capital and over-supply are the over-riding constraints. The rural informal sector is already heavily over-subscribed and known for its low, unreliable fluctuating levels of remuneration. Finally, there is the option to migrate to an urban area to seek employment. In most cases the outcome is very similar to that of participating in rural non-farm activities without the safety net of having farming members of the family nearby.

The WDR 2008 advocates the above listed options as escape routes to avoid directly experiencing the disintegration of peasant smallholder farming, but there is a realization that not all African rural dwellers will manage to join the exodus. For those who are left behind, the policy will have to be ‘social protection’ rather than ‘economic development’. In this sense the WDR 2008 marks a major departure in World Bank rural policy – African rural development policy will no longer centre on smallholder agency. Rather those who constitute the ‘relic population’, could be availed, a continued subsistence farming base, facilitated by the World Bank’s recent switch to acceptance of the historical evolution of customary tribal-based land tenure.

In other words, those left in the countryside live on tribal communal ‘holding grounds’, akin to the Bantustans of the apartheid period of South African history, eking out an existence on the basis of exceptionally low-yielding, uncapitalized agriculture. Like the Bantustans, these holding grounds could function as labour reserves for the mainstream national economy and would most likely be based on conservative tribal customary legal frameworks not only with respect to land but in wide array of other spheres as well. It is indeed an irony that such a possibility resurfaces little more than a decade after South Africa managed to rid itself of this ‘separate and unequal’ model of rural exploitation in the name of development.

*Kjell Havnevik is a Senior Researcher with the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala

*Deborah Fahy Bryceson is a Research Associate at the African Studies Centre, Oxford University

*Atakilte Beyene has a PhD in Development Studies, and is affiliated with The Stockholm Environment
Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

*Prosper Matondi works in the Centre for Rural Development, University of Zimbabwe


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

The Bush family's slaveholding past: Was their dynasty built on slavery?

Edward Ball

2008-02-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/46226

Edward Ball argues that in addition to a troubled Bush Africa legacy, Bush's family owned slaves

The image most people have of slavery involves a cotton plantation with a big white house, a black village where 300 people live in cabins and a cruel overseer in the wings. This was not the model followed by the ancestors of President George W. Bush when, 175 years ago, they enslaved about 30 people on the shores of the upper Chesapeake.

A new book by Jacob Weisberg, The Bush Tragedy, mentions in passing that at one time some of the president's family owned slaves. Weisberg doesn't dwell on the links between the White House and the antebellum past except to say the Bush clan's story is a long-held "family secret." The Bush Tragedy, a revealing book about family dynamics in the Bush political dynasty, treats the slavery matter only briefly, focusing instead on the "spectacular, avoidable flame-out" of the receding administration. But the story that joins the 43rd president to predecessors who held title to dozens of people bears retelling in detail.

The skeletal facts surfaced in April 2007, when an amateur historian named Robert Hughes published his research in the IllinoisTimes, a small paper out of Springfield. Hughes found census records showing that during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, in Cecil County, Maryland, five households of the Walker family, the president's ancestors via his father's mother, Dorothy Walker Bush, had been slaveholding farmers. The evidence is simple but persuasive: genealogies of the Bush family match up with census data that counted farmers who used enslaved workers. With this, the president joins perhaps fifteen million living white Americans who trace their roots to the long-gone master class.

It's not as though the president is the only politician whose family owned slaves. Of the first eighteen presidents, from George Washington to Ulysses Grant, twelve owned people, eight of them while in office. At one time, Andrew Jackson was even a slave trader. Since Emancipation in 1865, a number of presidents have come from families that once contained slave masters. Even the current presidential hopefuls are likely to have slave owners among their ancestors. The descendants of slaveholders do not wear special tattoos or announce themselves in secret handshakes, but most know who they are.

The tragic story of America's slave days inspires disabling levels of fear among whites and anger among blacks. Probably neither the 43rd president nor his father, the 41st, possesses the introspection needed to grasp the relationship between the Bush family's slaveholding past and its present circumstances without escaping into defensiveness. Still, President Bush has talked about slavery from several microphones, most memorably in a 2003 speech on Gorée Island, one of the "slave castles" in West Africa from which captive youth and children were dispatched to the Americas. Speechwriters likely supplied the words on that occasion when the president said, "slavery was one of the greatest crimes of history." But the words fell short of an accounting by the White House for America's role in the Middle Passage, and they came before the revelation of the Bush family's own link to the slave past.

As for the African Americans in this tale, the Walker family slaves, neither names nor biographical details about them have survived. According to the genealogist who uncovered the records, Robert Hughes, the census accounts show that they lived at four different farms in Cecil County, Maryland, on a string of land called Sassafras Neck, which separates two slender rivers that empty into upper Chesapeake Bay. There, in 1790, William and Sarah Davis, direct ancestors of the president, owned seven people, while another branch of the family owned five. Twenty years later, in 1810, a third couple in the president's ancestral clan were counted as masters to eighteen people. The last appearance of the family as slaveholders of record comes in 1830, when George E. and Harriet Walker, great-great-great grandparents of President George W. Bush, owned 321 acres and two slaves, a female between 10 and 24 and a male between 24 and 36. The namelessness of the slaves is the fault of the so-called slave schedules used in the census, which called for nothing more than approximate ages.

With their small farms, the Walkers and their cousins did not belong to the class of oligarchs, whose vast plantations held scores or hundreds of workers. I've looked, and there were dynasties in Cecil County, places like Cherry Grove, former residence of a Maryland governor, and Mt. Harmon, a vast tobacco estate with a Georgian mansion. The president's forebears probably saw themselves as little people in competition with these fat-cat neighbors.

Still, all slaveholders were also slave traders. The president's family had to avail themselves of a slave auction on at least two occasions: initially, to buy people, and later, when a Walker farm failed, to sell some of the same people, much the way a stockholder liquidates an investment. No story has surfaced about how it happened, but in the mid-1830s, it appears that George E. Walker, the president's third great-grandfather, lost his land. After that, in 1838, he packed his family into a wagon and went west, settling in southern Illinois on a homestead near the town of Bloomington. It is from this branch of migrants that the current Bush clan descends.

Since the Walkers, in effect, declared bankruptcy, and there is no evidence they kept slaves after 1838, it is difficult to follow a money trail from the family's commercial stake in slavery to the White House. However, before he took his family west, it's likely that George Walker sold the people he owned, handing them off to a speculating slave dealer; thereby financing the family's fresh start in Illinois. Things get worse when you contemplate the probable circumstances. In the 1830s, the old tobacco economy of Maryland and Virginia was waning, while the new king, cotton, had caused Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to boom. The tobacco states were selling tens of thousands of slaves to the cotton states, and sending these people south. It is quite possible the Walker slaves were marched 500 miles from Maryland to Alabama to end up on a giant cotton plantation, where the work regime - large crews on vast, unshaded fields - was crueler than the one they'd left behind.

The Walkers eventually quit farming and made a fortune as dry goods wholesalers in Missouri; later, they made another as investment bankers in New York. Nearly all the Bush/Walker family money dates from this more recent period, after the Civil War.

The family, nevertheless, seems to have looked back with nostalgia on their old slave hold. There are two pieces of evidence for this. In The Bush Tragedy, Jacob Weisberg refers to one of the later patriarchs, David Walker, as "a believer in eugenics and the 'unwritten law' of lynching," and cites as proof a letter Walker published in the St. Louis Republic in 1914. Black people, he wrote at the time, were more insidious than prostitution and "all the other evils combined."

The second piece of evidence is within living memory. In 1930, when they could afford it, the family again embraced the antebellum lifestyle. That year President Bush's great-grandfather, George Herbert Walker, bought Duncannon plantation, an old cotton estate in South Carolina, to use as a hunting retreat and vacation home. His namesake, George Herbert Walker Bush, the current president's father, spent many youthful vacations on Duncannon, where teams of black cooks, valets, and drivers served him and opened doors when he approached. The Bush heirs no longer own Duncannon plantation; but for a time, the estate provided a version of the baronial life, to which the antebellum Walkers aspired, but never achieved.

The heirs of slaveholders are not responsible for the past; but in a better world, they would be accountable for that past. They would make an effort to deal with the slave story, talk about it, and try to come to terms with it.

At present the Bush political dynasty seems to be dying in misrule, finished off by a president who, as Weisberg writes, is "driven by family demons, overflowing with confidence, and lacking any capacity for self-knowledge." The Bush clan may not be capable of reckoning personally with the tragic inheritance of the slave days. But this week, on a state visit, the president sets foot in three countries that sent hundreds of thousands of captives to America. Today, some of the tens of millions of descendants of those captives want a White House that is accountable. In West Africa President Bush had a superb opportunity, like one presented to a physician attending a wound. A sound physician would have chosen instinctively to apply medicine, not simply turned away in denial and neglect.

*Edward Ball is the author of Slaves in the Family and, most recently, The Genetic Strand.

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

Tanzania activists and religious communities launch critical mining research

Salma Maoulidi

2008-03-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/46555

Salma Maoulidi looks at the mining research report, "A Golden Opportunity? How Tanzania is failing to benefit from Gold Mining” and argues that it builds a powerful case for continued activism in trade and economic justice in line with various Human rights instruments that call for a country’s wealth and natural resources to benefit primarily local communities.

Following intense scrutiny over suspect investment contracts by the government and investment companies, a consortium of activist organization and religious communities launched in Dar es Salaam a research titled “A Golden Opportunity? How Tanzania is failing to benefit from Gold Mining”. The report is authored by Tundu Lissu, a lawyer and long time environmental activist from Tanzania and Mark Curtis and independent author and journalist affiliated to a number of academic institutions in Europe.

The research in a critical policy area is a product of a year long initiative by activists and religious leaders to add moral weight to the mining tragedy that looms in Tanzania. Various human rights violations have been recorded including killings and displacements mainly resulting from conflicts between small miners and large scale multinational miners over mining rights. “It is not just about the mining companies but also highlighting the role of rich governments who remain silent over this injustice and in some instances have invested heavily in these companies reaping the benefits from an immoral tax structure”, says Fredrik Glad Jernes, Norwegian Church Aid Tanzania Country Representative.

The report makes grim reading about the governance and practice of mining companies in Tanzania. Mining is the fastest growing sector in the Tanzanian economy but the growth of the sector is not comparable to its contribution to the GDP at just about 3%. Part of the problem lays in the structure of the tax laws that is overly favourably to mining companies and not to Tanzanians.

The situation is attributed to the World Bank financed sectoral reform project begun in the mid nineties which became the basis of laws that inform the tax and mining regimes in the country. The royalty paid to the Government for gold is only at 3%. Tanzania posses around 45m ounces of gold which at the current gold prices means the country is worth USD39 billiion yet it is categorized as one of the poorest countries in the world. In the last 5 years Tanzania exported gold worth more than USD2.5 billion but whereas the government has only received an average of USD21.7million in royalties and taxes on the exports Mining Companies record handsome profits out side of Tanzanian on their websites and company audits presented to shareholders.

Two main companies were scrutinized on the basis of activist work done by the Lawyers Environmental Action Team headed by Tundu Lissu- Barrick Gold a Canadian Company operating mines in Bulyanhulu, North Mara and Tulakawa and AngloGold Ashanti a South African company with British links which operates mines in Geita, the largest gold deposit in the country. The researchers estimate that mining companies have earned about USD2.5 billions from exports but Tanzania only records about USD100 million from gold earnings. The researchers estimate that Tanzanian is loosing more than USD400 billion from tax concessions as well as tax evasion e.g. non payment of corporation tax and waivers on income tax on expatriate workers.

The impunity reigns in part because there is no parliamentary scrutiny over mining contracts. Also the government does not have the capacity to adequately monitor the sector. For example, there are wide discrepancies between statistics published by the companies and those issued by the government pertaining to the sector suggesting discrepancies in record keeping. In some instances the researchers have found under reporting of earning to local governments but the tendencies to inflate the amounts of investments made. Rarely is there an indication of the environmental hazards committed and likely to be committed from mining operations. In addition the investments to local communities are negligible with companies being obliged to contribute not more than USD200, 000 to local governments.

The research is published by the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) the National Council of Muslims in Tanzania (BAKWATA) and the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC). It was funded by the Norwegian Church Aid and Christian Aid, the latter having done similar research in Zambia looking at the Copper Sector leading to the Zambian government declaring its intention to review the terms of investment contracts governing its mining sector. This is the first time the religious community in Tanzania have been involved in high profile advocacy against the government and multinationals.

The Bomani Commission, a presidential commission created to investigate the mining sector is expected to publish its findings by the end of March. “The report will provide us with sound reference on some of the recommendations” declared Hon. Zitto Kabwe who attended the launch. The Commission was constituted following the call in parliament by opposition member Zitto Kabwe for a probe committee into the suspect dealing of the Ministry with regards to Buzwagi Mine where Barrick Gold plans to open another mine in the midst of a review process of the mining sector. This triggering uproar from civil society organizations and opposition parties creating the impetus that ultimately saw the former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa resigning and his cabinet being dissolved a few weeks ago.

While the report can be criticized for lacking a gender analysis, and narratives (not just descriptions) of how mining operations are devastating lives in local communities where mining operations take place, it provides a powerful reading. It also builds a powerful case for continued activism in trade and economic justice in line with various Human rights instruments that call for a country’s wealth and natural resources to benefit primarily local communities.

* Salma Maoulidi is an Activist/Executive Director of the Sahiba Sisters Foundation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

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

No to oil for land!

February 2008

Merti Range Users Association

2008-03-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/46524

The following memorandum was prepared by members of the Merti Range Users Association in northern Isiolo, Kenya. It expresses their concern about concessions recently granted to a Chinese company to prospect for oil in the rangelands. It illustrates the potential threats of this kind of external investment on the ecosystem and local livelihoods, and the lack of transparency in the negotiations.

Memorandum submitted by the Merti Range Users Association of Isiolo, Kenya, in relation to a Chinese company undertaking oil prospecting activities in the area

To: Hon. Kiraitu Murungi, Minister for Energy
Hon. Mohamed Abdi Kuti, MP Isiolo North
The Director, NEMA
The District Commissioner, Isiolo District
All Councillors, Isiolo County Council

Whereas Rangeland Users Association is an institutional framework developed for the purpose of the welfare of the pastoralist people living in Merti division of Isiolo district;

Recognizing that pastoralism is the mainstay of the economy of the area and thus the majority of the population are therefore members of the association;

Further noting that a Chinese company is now said to engage in undertaking oil prospecting activities in the heartland of the rangeland on which the pastoralists raise their livestock and manage the environment, its fauna and flora;

Apprehensive that the said prospecting activities will lead to massive environmental destruction, thereby destabilizing an already fragile ecosystem that is constantly pressurized by the vagaries of ever-changing climatic conditions;

Further noting that the said Chinese company is undertaking these activities in total exclusion of the local people and its leadership;

Realizing that this oil prospecting activity will ultimately lead to not only destroying the existing ecosystem, its economy and the people depending on it but have serious long-term negative effects on the environment on which we derive our livelihood;

And having further realized that the said Chinese company is not willing to engage the local population, its leadership and institutions on any of the issues,

We therefore submit the following:

1. That an urgent immediate action be taken by the elected leadership to engage the relevant government organ/department to ensure the above-raised concerns are addressed in the following manner.
2. That the Chinese company is practising unethical labour procedure in total contravention of international labour conventions, Kenyan labour laws and rules of natural justice. This they do by engaging persons without any signed papers, not informing them of their renumerations, working long extensive hours without commensurate overtime payments, tight social restrictions bordering on enslavement and human rights abuse. This is all supposedly happening in your own country and village. This must be urgently redressed and corrected.
3. That any further employment opportunities must be given to the local people unless such expertise cannot be sourced locally.
4. All sourcing of goods and services must also be given to the local people as propriety.
5. That the oil company should pay for the havoc they will cause to the local economy in view of the destruction their activities are going to occasion to the environment, economy and infrastructure in the area such as roads.
6. That the process of granting concessions and rights by the government must involve the local pastoralist communities whose livelihood depends wholly on this land and the natural resources found thereon.
7. That these are grave matters touching on lives and livelihoods and should be addressed with the urgency they deserve.

*Signed for and on behalf of 68 elders representing all the localities of Merti division, Diba Golicha Galma, Chairman, Range Users Association, Merti.

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

Call to action: G8 should deliver promised monies

Physicians for Human Rights

2008-03-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/46652

Here below is an organizational sign-on letter to G8 leaders calling for the $60 billion committed last year to AIDS, TB, malaria, and health system strengthening to be apportioned about the G8 countries to help make that commitment real, as well as for technical and financial support, through an agreed framework again apportioning responsibility among G8 countries, to support national health workforce plans designed to meet health goals. The Health Workforce Advocacy Initiative (http://www.healthworkforce.info/HWAI/Welcome.html), a civil society-led network affiliated with the Global Health Workforce Alliance, circulated this letter for signature last week at the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health in Kampala, Uganda, where it received considerable support. We now seek supplementary organizational signatures to support this call. If your organization is able sign, please email Amanda Cary (acary@phrusa.org) with your organization’s name and country by Tuesday, March 18.

Dear Prime Minister Fukuda,

We are health workers, non-governmental organization representatives, people living with HIV/AIDS, global health leaders, government ministers, health professional association presidents, academics, and other citizens from around the globe who are committed to a healthier world. We recognize that the health workforce is central to achieving the human right to health, and [many of us] have gathered in Kampala, Uganda, for the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, March 2-7, 2008. Our presence in Kampala symbolizes the global consensus on the need for unprecedented action to respond to the global health workforce crisis. Only then can the unconscionable level of death and disease in much of the developing world – such as the 1 in 16 chance lifetime risk that a woman in sub-Saharan Africa has of dying in childbirth – be overcome.

We write to you as the host of this year’s G8 summit. Japan has a recent history of supporting global health, including by launching the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria following the G8 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, Japan’s Okinawa Infectious Diseases Initiative, and more recently the Health and Development Initiative. At the half-way point towards MDG health commitment, many countries are falling far behind. Thus it is critical for the 2008 summit to become be a landmark in fulfilling commitments to global health.

In your World Economic Forum speech in January, you recognized the massive shortage of health workers. Sub-Saharan Africa needs an estimated 1.5 million new health workers. Inadequate human resources for health is a fundamental obstacle to scaling up of services to address HIV/AIDS, other infectious disease, and maternal and child death.

Therefore, we urge you to lead the G8 members this year to commit to fully meet their responsibilities under the Global Action Plan for Human Resources for Health adopted at this First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, including to provide predictable financing sufficient (combined with other sources) to enable national health workforce plans to be fully implemented; to ensure that international financial institutions relax macroeconomic constraints; to adhere to ethical recruitment practices and strive for self-sufficiency in their own health workforces; and to provide technical support. We too commit ourselves to meeting our collective responsibilities in the action agenda, since, as you have correctly noted, changing the current crisis cannot be shouldered by the G8 alone, but requires actions from all stakeholders.

To help implement the Global Action Plan for Human Resources for Health, you can lead the G8 to the historic step of turning joint past commitments an agreed framework of individual country action by G8 countries. In particular, at the 2007 G8 Summit, G8 countries committed to spend $60 billion in the coming years for AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and health system strengthening. We urge you to turn this pledge into concrete action. The first essential step is a G8 plan where the $60 billion is apportioned among each G8 country, pursuant to a timeline that is consistent with the pace and scale of investments required to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS services by 2010 and the MDG health goals. The 2008 G8 Summit should also fully fund the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at $6-8 billion annually. We urge you lead a G8 strategy to apportion funding for the G8 commitment by launching negotiations among the G8 countries and seeking to conclude such negotiations by the end of Japan’s G8 Presidency.

The 2008 G8 Summit should also ensure that countries can secure technical support to develop health sector strategies and national health workforce plans aimed at achieving the health-related MDGs, and that no sound strategy or plan should lack funding needed for full implementation. The G8 should develop a framework – such as that used for the $60 billion – to ensure that the G8 invests its fair share in these health workforce plans. We urge the G8 to begin to fund implementation at country level on an urgent basis, particularly in the countries that are furthest behind towards achieving the MDGs.

We look forward to a Hokkaido Summit that will help turn the ideal of human security that Japan has championed into reality for untold millions of people around the world, including through the commitments and concrete actions required to secure for every person, in every part of every country, access to skilled health workers who are equipped, motivated, and supported.

*To sign, please email the name of your organization and country to Amanda Cary at acary@phrusa.org no later than March 18.

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

Africa can meet and go beyond MDGs

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2008-03-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/46656

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem looks at where Africa is, in regards to meeting the Millennium Development Goals and argues that Africa should try to meet and exceed them.

Can Africa fulfil the MDGs by 2015? That's a question that is often asked anytime there is a discussion about MDGs. It was on many lips during the celebration of the International Women's day last Saturday. Behind the question of course is a lot of cynicism by the questioner(s). There is a generalised doubt that the MDGs may not be met on schedule in a majority of African states. Official reports and anecdotal evidence suggest that at the current pace even by 2050 the goals may still remain unmet by these states.

The situation is not helped by the fact that most of the reports available are usually aggregated. Hence the negative conclusion is that Africa's progress is at best very slow and patchy. Like all generalisations and aggregated statistics they hide the specific, more positive picture of steady progress on a number of the goals in quite a few countries across Africa. It also panders to the fashionable Afro pessimism that caricatures events in Africa promoting embedded attitudes of 'Hopeless Africa'. A 'helpless people and continent' that needs the help and handout of everybody else except its own peoples and leaders.

The truth is mostly to the contrary but 'good stories' are boring, they do not make headlines. Without bad stories from Africa how can the hordes of humanitarian agencies and organisations, local and foreign, who operate as latter day missionaries or mercy mercenaries make their fund raising successful? How can the compassion industry survive without the back drop of Kwashiokored children, diseased mothers and other suffering Africans?

It is rather late in the day to be asking if Africa can meet the MDGs or not. Still more pointless are the criticisms of the goals as being too minimal. All of them are more than 7 years out of date. We are half way through and those questions are unhelpful especially among campaigners who are committed to holding their governments to account for these commitments. The problem with asking the wrong questions is that you get the wrong answers that may divert you from the tasks in hand. A more proactive way of looking at this is to ask what can be done to fill the obvious gaps that still exist that may prevent countries from meeting the goals. The desirability of the goals is no longer debatable. Meeting them will not hurt anyone. If you can half poverty nobody will stop you from eradicating it.

Answering the more proactive type of questions also requires one to look at the progress that has been achieved instead of just looking for the challenges. An appreciation of progress so far will then open one's eyes to the challenges of what remains to be done. Then we will ask what more needs to be done to make sure that there are no excuses for not meeting these goals and even surpassing them in many cases.

Almost in all African countries there has been remarkable progress in education in terms of enrolment in schools. There is universal access to education across many countries that have allowed millions of girls and boys who would not have seen the inside of classrooms to do so. Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and others are good examples of the rapid enrolment in schools. On child mortality Malawi is only second to Costa Rica in the dramatic drop in child deaths (over 30%) in the past three years. The same Malawi that used to rank as the 'poorest country in the world', a country that was recipient of Food Aid a few years ago, has now become a food donor to some of its poorer neighbours including Zimbabwe. On controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS Uganda used to be a lone star but a few other countries have become even more aggressive in fighting the disease.

Huge numbers of African children today have better chances of survival than 10 years ago. More and more are likely to live beyond their 5th birthdays and have hope going to primary school and even better chances of going on to higher education as countries upscale their investments in education and move beyond universal primary education to secondary education.

It is not all smooth sailing. There are issues around quality, retention in schools, drop out rates between boys and girls etc, however quantitative changes are important steps as countries deal with the issues of quality. We cannot say that more children should not go to school until all schools are of the same quality. Both go hand in hand.

The external environment is also changing as international partners are held to more scrutiny and challenged to walk the walk as fast as they talk the talk. Debt relief has not been universal and a majority of African states have not become beneficiaries, but the minority (Uganda, Mozambique, Ghana, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, etc) that have got it are generally transforming the gains into meaningful dividends on a number of MDGs. Those not qualified like Nigeria, but who have renegotiated discounts on their National Debt, have not only increased the country's financial credibility but also Nigeria now also has a virtual fund of more than 1 billion Dollars that is devoted to MDGs. In many countries the MDGs are being localised with targets that are more ambitious than those of the Millennium Declaration.

So the question is not whether we can meet the goals or not, but why country X is doing well on a number of goals and country Y is not performing. By concentrating on 'can't meet' we are letting political leaders off the hook of accountability for commitments they made voluntarily to their own citizens. 7 years may not be long but it is certainly long enough for all the countries to change their policy direction and resource allocation that prioritise the needs of the poor and marginalised and accelerate the fulfilment of the MDGs. African citizens have a duty to remind their leaders about these commitments and be vigilant in demanding that they are met and even go beyond them where possible. If the goals are not met it will not just be because of government insensitivity but also citizen complacency or indifference.

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

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

Africa is ours

Dora Brown

2008-03-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/46578

(The US ‘War on Terror’ Exported to Rwanda) http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/46217)

Rwanda and Burundi, the fight between the Hutu and Tsutsi, have always been their own unique legacy of the preferences exercised by their former colonial masters and the consequences of that preference for the lighter and more European looking Tsutsi over the Bantu Hutu. I remember once first hearing of this was in the fifties when we, in Southern Africa heard of the 7'Tsutsi been shortened at the knees by the Hutu, I do not know if it was a myth, but that is my first recollection of hearing about the Hutu and Tsutsi, unless my memory serves me wrong, the two were once one country. One watched the unfolding saga of what is now termed by those who were directly responsible for the disaster the "genocide in Rwanda". One was wondering why the calls for action by France and the then commander in the region for intervention by the United Nations was blocked by the US and its allies calling this a cynical move by France.

The US Ambassador, who, just female, as the the Ambassador in Iraq before the first Gulf War, (both women who had sinced passed away) also asked for assistance. None was forthcoming, as one watched this nightmare unfold, one began to see the purpose to the madness. This was a carefully orchestrated move to include DRC in the Master plan that now, includes Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda, a recolonization of the North Eastern and Central African region. Mombasa and the the cost of Tanzania and let us not forget Djibouti would then allow control of the waterways and ocean at the Horn of Africa, the recolonization of Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia would provide a foothold in the Gulf of Guinea.

When one hears the Security Council is now acting as the League of Nations did before WWII, supporting so called members of the international community, "civilized world" euphemisms for former and current Aryan Power flirts and 21st Century fascists. They are now, with a weak and ineffective African Union, to lay claim to our natural resources and rights. Tsutsis never were or are part of DRC, they now have a country that was created and supported by the so called "civilized world" the "market" that was just opened by Kagame, is being set up to be the the clearing house of wall that is now, supposedly, since we Africans seem incapable of preventing what our fathers, mothers and elders have gifted to us, the recolonization of Africa. The destruction of the rail links and the disruption of the trade network between those countries has caused the panic, since all that we hear about assisting Africa has nothing to do with Africa and Africans but the pillaging and rape of our continent.

We need to confront the Kagame, Museveni, Nkunda, the gentleman in Ethiopia and what now is appearing to be the inclusion of Kenya and Tanzania, we need to demand that those who claim to represent and lead our countries be held accountable by those who have had the luxury of an education, especially legal education. We need Africans to speak up for Africa. Why are we having alleged hollywood movie stars, and irish singers and many ngos and the rest speaking for us? What happened to all of us who were educated after decolonization? Why are we stuck in the West, driving taxis, doing jobs that just keep us alive when we could have those of us on the continent agitate for the return of the skilled workers, Africans abroad? Why are we saddled with so many foreign "aid workers" who really are members of foreign intelligent agencies taking care of our most vulnerable populations?

Something is seriously wrong with US, AFRICANS. We need to take a good look at ourselves, sons and daughters of the soil and ask ourselves are we worthy of the name African? After all, we can see how, with the Fortress Europe and the closing of all the avenues of immigration in the West, and the fish food that our fellow brothers and sisters are becoming attempting to flee the nightmare that life has become in most of our countries, that we have nowhere to run, Africa is OURS, there seems to be a problem with both us and those who would rule us of this truth, this reality, Africa belongs to us, sons and daughters of the soil. There is nowhere else to run, so it would behoove us to start looking at the reality we have allowed, and start implementing African solutions for African problems. Not bush, sarkozy, brown or any other white person, but African solutions to African problems. Time is running out, they have already devoured and exhausted all they stole from the indigenous peoples of the lands they claim as theirs, are we going to allow them back into Africa?

Cameroon lagging on the Protocol

Njoya Hilary Tikum

2008-03-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/46557

I just ratified the petition and was completely surprised when I saw Cameroon as one of the red flagged countries that have refused to sign this incredible petition.

I am a Cameroonian and from the North West Province and really ashamed of my country. We have a female population of almost 3/4 the total population and relies heavily on the works of these ladies to keep the Socio-economic landscape of the country vibrant. Yet the dictatorial regime in power has decided to place Cameroon at the forefront of every bad thing happening in world. Cameroon is now well known for its Pro corruption and Anti-Human Rights stands in the world. US State Department Country Reports and Amnesty International depict a Cameroon where Women are still consider as second class citizen and highly discriminated against.

We (Cameroon) now pride ourselves to be among the very few countries resisting the protection of Women's rights. We the citizens of Cameroon deserves better. I have four sisters and do not see why they should have less protection than I do in many aspects in life. I am calling on the good youths of Cameroon to challenge Mr. Biya and his puppet Parliament to do the right thing at this defining period in history by signing the PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES' RIGHTS ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA.

I personally applaud your initiative and will do my utmost best to make my parliament see reason to sign the petition.

Please do well to let me know if there is any thing we the youths of Cameroon in and out of the country can do, to bring this issue on the media table.

A Tribute to Nyar Okuyu - Daughter of the Kikuyu

Fidelis Wainaina

Sukuma Kenya

2008-03-12

http://sukumakenya.blogspot.com/2008/03/tribute-to-nyar-okuyu-daughter-of.html

Fidelis Wainaina passed away from cancer as our country's own cancer dug itself deeper into our entrails. Personally, I think she lost her faith - not in her God - but in humanity. She had worked relentlessly for over 15 years in rural Luo land to bring back the rewards of agriculture.

Black intellectual genocide

An essay review of "IQ and the Wealth of Nations"

2008-03-11

http://www.ethiopianreview.com/articles/787

Girma Berhanu reviews the book IQ and the Wealth of Nations, written by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen. He critiques the authors’ major assertion that a significant part of the gap between rich and poor countries is due to differences in national intelligence. The authors claim that they have evidence that differences in national IQ account for substantial variation in per capita income and growth of a nation. This essay review debunks their assumptions that intellectual and income differences between nations stem from genetic differences.

New Literary Magazine:Call For Submissions

2008-03-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/46566

Cebound Projects and Ditiro Productions are calling for submissions of poems, essays, reviews, stories and artworks for a new literary journal called Mo(v)ements.

Mo(ve)ments is an annual journal of prose, poetry and visual arts focused on writers and artists from Free State and Kwazulu-Natal writing in English, Sesotho, Isizulu, Isixhosa, Afrikaans, Setswana, Sepedi and isiswati.

MISSION
To create a platform for the exposure of budding and established artists in Free State and KZN and to promote greater interaction between writers, artists and readers from these two provinces, and to expose their works to the rest of the country.

AIMS
[1] Provide a platform for writers and artists to reach a wider audience and readership.

[2] Promote the culture of reading and writing

[3] Encourage writers to write in all South African languages

[4] Increase the body of literature written in these languages

[5] Appreciation of the beauty of the languages and literature.

EDITORIAL AND SUBMISSION POLICY

Copyright in the works submitted shall belong to the writers and artists themselves. All contributors shall receive two free copies of the issue of Mo(v)ements in which their works appear. Contributors should include a self-addressed and stamped envelope (SASE). It is recommended that submitted works be typed but hand-written works shall be accepted provided they are readable. Works by writers and artists from Free State and Kwazulu-Natal shall be given first priority, as there are no other literary magazines in these provinces.

Editors reserve the right to decide which submitted works to publish in the magazine. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to iceboundspsyche@yahoo.com or ditiroproductions@yahoo.com or by post to Ditiro Productions PO BOX 48002 Qualbert 4078.

Reclaiming the Resources for Health - Equinet

Review by Gregg Gonsalves (Arasa)

2008-03-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/46604

Reclaiming the Resources for Health, a new book by the Regional Network for Equity in Health in Eastern and Southern Africa is a godsend and could not come at a better time. It offers analyses of many key issues in an easily-accessible format, digesting complex concepts into pictures, graphs and bullet points, but without leaving out the "meat" of its research from the text. Thus, the book will be a valuable resource for the average activist, but also those who want to go deeper and more fully understand what is happening in the region.
Back in the late 1970s, at a conference on primary health care in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, health experts made a bold call for "health for all" by the year 2000. Now thirty years later, health for all seems an elusive goal as inequities across the globe deepen the divide between the sick and the well. Nowhere are these great divides more apparent than in Southern and Eastern Africa, which has been hit with tremendous force by HIV/AIDS, and which has exacerbated already existing gaps in health.

AIDS activists have been successful around the globe and in Southern and Eastern Africa in resurrecting the fight for health services-the enormity of the epidemic has led thousands and thousands of people to rise up to claim their right to health.
However, AIDS is only one of the many ailments that face Africans on a day-to-day basis and the future of the AIDS response depends on strengthening access to primary care around the region. We need "health for all" and we need it now.

Reclaiming the Resources for Health, a new book by the Regional Network for Equity in Health in Eastern and Southern Africa is a godsend and could not come at a better time.

As activists struggling with how to respond to the health crises in Africa, we often have little access to the information and analyses we need to make evidence-based decisions about our work. Simply put, we often can't answer the question: what are the policies we should be pushing for to ensure that poor people receive the care they need?

Reclaiming the Resources for Health will become a bible for many of us-it offers analyses of many key issues in an easily-accessible format, digesting complex concepts into pictures, graphs and bullet points, but without leaving out the "meat" of its research from the text. Thus, the book will be a valuable resource for the average activist, but also those who want to go deeper and more fully understand what is happening in the region.

AIDS activists and health advocates have often been at odds-the former arguing for the exceptionality of the epidemic and the latter arguing for the need to jettison "special treatment" of HIV/AIDS in favor of support for primary health care in general. One of the innovations of Reclaiming the Resources for Health is that it doesn't fall into these counter-productive dichotomies and makes a case for the synergies between disease-control programmes and health systems development.

Finally, over the past few decades health and development has become the terrain of experts and technicians, divorced from the struggle for social and economic justice, from the politics of our countries.
Reclaiming the Resources for Health, reclaims the field as one about the rights of poor people, about a struggle to see that all Africans receive the care and services they need to lead healthy, productive, happy lives. The book is also a call for participatory democracy in the governance of health, in the way our countries work. Instead handing our future over to bureaucrats from donor countries and our own government elites, Reclaiming the Resources for Health makes the case for a truly, people-driven, ground-up process in the design and delivery of services. We can only hope that this book is read by our presidents, our ministers, our parliamentarians in Africa and in the countries that seek to promote better health on the continent.

-- Gregg Gonsalves
AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa
c/o AIDS Law Project Westminster House, 4th Floor
122 Longmarket Street Cape Town, 8001 South Africa
Mobile: +27-78-456-3848
Landline: +27-21-422-1490 x1
Email: gregg.gonsalves@gmail.com

Africa Blogging Roundup

International Women’s Day, African billionaires, guerrilla entrepreneurs and racism in South Africa

Sokari Ekine

2008-03-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/46609

Kenyan Pundit reports on Kenyan Women’s March for piece as part of the International Women’s Day celebrations last Saturday.
“Kenyan women have endured tragedy in the past two months. Too many of us have lost family members and homes. Others of us have done what we can to help them. Regardless of how we have fared, none of us feel we have done enough to ease the anguish of our nation. It is time to stand up and be counted. No matter who we are or which part of Kenya we come from. Put your best foot forward to unite in solidarity and march for peace.”


London, Kenyan blogger, Mshairi is back blogging after a long sabbatical. She celebrates International Women of Colour Day, March 1st with a post on Magdalene Odundo, Professor of Ceramics at the University College for the Creative Arts. Ms Odundo’s ceramics are simple, female and exquisite. Mshairi remembers fondly one of Magdalene Odundo’s workshops she attended and writes
“Magdalene’s work has been exhibited in many places including the Crafts Council at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg and the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire. Her work is also found in museums worldwide including the Smithsonian, the Gardiner Museum and in private collections. Due to their uniqueness and excellence, the works are sold for quite large sums of money – in 2006, for example, a piece of art was sold for £28,405.”


Black Looks marks International Women’s Day by celebrating the lives of African lesbians through the works of South African photo activist, Zanele Mutholi exhibition titled, “Faces and Phases”.
“The essence of each of the women is captured through their faces which together with stance and clothing are expressions of their sexuality. The photos [both this exhibition and others by Zanele] give an insight into how we create meaning of ourselves and the world around us, the feelings from inside which drive us to being who we are. I can’t express where these feelings come from, I just know they are deep inside and the only relief is to let them out by expressing them physically and emotionally. When those meanings - attitudes, beliefs, expectations, dreams, everything that is YOU - challenge patriarchy and social mores they become stigmatised and hold painful consequences for those who dare to release their inner selves. In such hostile environments, coming out is an act of resistance and creating meaning through community is a further act of resistance and also one of survival.”


Clement Nyirenda celebrates South Africa’s first Black billionaire, Patrice Motsepe. His only lament is that the publishers of the billionaire list, Forbes Magazine have not published any information on Motsepe rise from well being a normal working man to being worth a billion! I have to say I don’t share Nyrienda’s excitement over this and would like to have some figures around jobs created and investment in local communities, charitable foundations and so on.
“am excited because we now have the first black South African Billionaire, Patrice Motsepe, on the list. He is on position 503 with a net wealth of $2.4 billion. As a person who used to stay in South Africa and really loves the Rainbow Nation, in spite of the crime wave, I would like to congratulate Mr Motsepe for a job well done.”


Nigerian talk show host and blogger, Funmi Iyanda publishes her interview with former US Secretary of State, Madeline Albright. The interview is also on YouTube on the New Dawn site. Although the interview is never really challenging it does touché on a host of issues from the US elections, to 9/11, Muslims, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and “trade dealing in Africa” and you guessed right “poor people are not stupid” and even more interesting the markets in African cities are full of traders selling everything from spark plugs to tins of milk – what revelations! But then it’s possible that many Americans including Secretary’s of State, think we live in barren lands, surrounded by flies, living off food hand outs.
“As long as I live I will not forget this, we were in Nairobi and went to the slum there and to a place called the 'toy market', and it has nothing to do with toys, but it's just called that. It was filled with people selling in stalls, selling...with mud up to my hips, basically, but stores where people where selling spark plugs to each other, t-shirts to each other and they came and we had a semi formal meeting and I was so impressed - poor people are not stupid, poor people are entrepreneurial and that is the part that was so good. You know what happened? And I will describe it to you…it was so incredible. First of all they did a performance about HIV/AIDS, but mostly what they were explaining to me was that they had set up their own credit system. And they had trust enough to put one Kenyan dollar a night into a pot, which is about 10 cents American money. And they then had system whereby they lent money to each other. They created a credit bank and were able to lift themselves up as a result of that.”


YBlog ZA comments on the disgusting racist video produced by students of the University of the Free State in which Black workers were subjected to eating pissed on food and other horrible acts. Yblog responds to a statement by “among others, Nadine Gordimer, Andre Brink, John Perlman, Max du Preez, Arthur Chaskalson, Zapiro and Phillip Tobias.”that states this most never happen again. As Yblog writes, these kind of racist violations and worse happen every day all over the country. Nonetheless I don’t agree that with his submission that they and the media are dehumanizing the whole episode by blowing it out of all proportion. The fact that this kind of racism well any kind exists daily is no reason not to publish and be outraged at this particular incident.

“Quite frankly, people, I think you’re dehumanising the whole episode by blowing it out of all proportion. First, I'd like to hear from the workers involved. They've been conveniently airbrushed from the story. Have they no opinion (untutored)? Are they not able to speak for themselves?

I guess not. They are, after all, mindless peasants who just happen to be black. Not that we have anything against mindless peasants. Or black people, for that matter. Some of my best friends...

Secondly, I wish to God you'd put your names to documents worthy of such pious indignation. What of the rape and pillage of our country by all and sundry? Violence, corruption, gangsterism, racketeering, substance abuse, and income disparity all combine to form a lethal cocktail, the kick of which we have yet to feel. What of our kids — violated, butchered or disappeared at an increasingly alarming rate? What of our refugees — hounded as amakwerekwere countrywide and denied local citizenship unto succeeding generations?”


African Loft reports on Henry Okah - the “Guerrilla Entrepreneur” of Niger-Delta, not yet a billionaire but possibly making his way up the steps. My only hope is that if he does get there he will share his wealth with the people and put electricity in my home town and other towns and villages in the ND....... please, ah beg ohoooo!

“The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (“MEND”) is a militant indigenous people’s movement dedicated to armed struggle against the exploitation and oppression of the people of Niger Delta and the degradation of the natural environment by foreign multinational corporations involved in the extraction of oil in the Niger Delta and the Federal Government of Nigeria. MEND has been linked to attacks on foreign owned petroleum companies in Nigeria (source: Wikipedia).

Henry Okah is rumored to be the founder of MEND and the master strategist behind the militant operations that have cut Nigeria’s oil production by 25 percent. In February this year, Okah was arrested in Angola while on a business trip, he’s presently in government detention on treason charge”

* Sokari Ekine blogs at www.blacklooks.org

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

Political Turmoil in Cameroon: What the African Blogosphere is saying

Dibussi Tande

2008-03-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/46605

For close to two decades, Cameroon was considered a bastion of stability in Africa, that is, until last week when that veneer was shattered by four days of widespread rioting. The riots were triggered by a hike in fuel prices amidst ongoing attempts by the Biya regime to scrap presidential term limits. Here is a review of some of the blogs that wrote about these events.



African Notes goes beyond the immediate cause of the riots to look at the broader issues at stake:

“Cameroon on media? Nothing special! It's not about soccer or les indomitables. This time around it is about riots and Biya…

Seen in the wider perspective, the riots are rather reflections of the public's resentment towards the administration of President Paul Biya. Though he downplayed the demonstrations as a mere game of apprentice sorcerers. That is a typical African big man allegation.

Whenever there is a public anger the leaders rarely try to see the real issue. It is rather a custom to seek a lame excuse for that and scorn the usual suspects like the opposition and human right activists or even neighboring countries. The same thing is happening here. Cameroon is said to be a notoriously corrupt country. The administration should take responsibility for condoning the practice.”



Pascal Zachary also blames the Biya regime for the uncharacteristic violence that rocked the country last week:
“The unrest in Cameroon… makes me weep. Among the best endowed nations in the world — both in terms of landscape, fertility of its soil, and talents of its people — Cameroon has been condemned to suffer awful political rule. Even by African standards, Biya’s 25-year reign over this picturesque West African country has been a disaster. While he has rarely organized killing sprees, he quietly has demolished country that ought to be among the most successful, not only in Africa, but in the developing world. Instead of planning a permanent retirement somewhere in Europe (where he seems to spend a great deal of time anyway), Biya wants to inflict more wounds on his long-suffering countrymen. What a shame. Biya is a president who rarely holds meetings with his ministers and he refuses to allow his government to even publish a phony budget. He is indeed a ghost (his nickname in the country). I am sad at the thought he may haunt Cameroon for years more.”

Prince Hamilton wonders what exactly President Biya hopes to achieve with another term of office when he has little to show for after a quarter of a century in power:
“I am just appalled that President Paul Biya still thinks he will do something despite not having achieved much in his 26 years. I think that with the president’s recent speech and policies, it shows that he has run out of inspiration that never existed in the first place. It is high time he hands over the presidency to another person.

Cameroon is blessed that no Cameroonian has been able to infiltrate the country with weapons, if not the story would have been different. Notwithstanding, you can only suppress a people for a time but at a given time they will look for means to break their shackles than live as eternal slaves.

The government has been using sports as the opium of the people but this time it failed woefully. The raising of gas prices after the Lions won their semi final match against Ghana during the recent African Cup of Nations was a miscalculated opportunism.”



Cameroon Goon appeals to the Cameroonian community in the US to show up in great numbers for planned demonstrations at the Cameroon embassy in Washington DC:

“Please come out and let's remind Paul Biya and his accomplices that after 25yrs of tyranny, subjection, poverty and intimidation, we are tired and want him to leave peacefully in 2011. He should park out of Etoudi, heading straight to his palace in Mvomeka (his village). Let us come out and remember the 17 people already killed. Let us come out and pray for Cameroonians the world over. Let us pray for our children and remind the Cameroonian government that Democracy means: government of the people, by the people and for the people. We don't want any other forms of democracy, be it 'avancée' or 'moderne'. We just want democracy; the simple type. The type of democracy that would mean there is some form of sustainable economic development ahead for Cameroon and it's people!”


Prince Report publishes the reaction of the “British Southern Cameroonians Restoration Government” (one of the movements advocating for the independence of Anglophone Cameroon) to last week’s events:

“The brutality that was carried out against our citizens this past week adds a sweltering sense of urgency to the restoration of our stolen sovereignty. The most important thing you should do at this time is refraining from involving yourselves in the political affairs of the foreign country next door to us and east of the Mungo River. For these matters in the Cameroun Republic are veritable distractions from our total focus on restoring our independence. Paul Biya's brutality on our citizens this past week should make it even clearer and even more urgent that we should not waver for a single moment from our determination to take our national sovereignty.
[...]
To our neighbors suffering the brutal weight of this Biya regime, we offer our sympathy--since we fully share your grief--and we rise to stand with you as you fight to reclaim your God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Biya's heavy handedness with you continues the state terrorism that Ahidjo directed against your parents in the 1960s. Time has not erased from human memory Ahidjo's genocide which killed more than half a million of your patriotic parents in the first decade of your independence “almost all of them Bassas and Bamileke. Time is not going to erase memory of the massacre that Paul Biya is now carrying out against your children today in 2008. Have no doubt that the world is witnessing that only the name has changed, for Biya's regime is a mere continuation of Ahidjo's 1960s regime.”


Ken Opalo is simply incensed at Biya’s determination to hang on to power no matter the cost:

“The 75 year old has had over 25 years to make the lives of Cameroonians better but failed miserably. Over 40% of his country people still live below the poverty line. Official unemployment figures show that about 30% of the labor force is unemployed. Real figures are much higher than this (knowing how incompetent African statistics bureaus are). One wonders what more this old man has to offer to his country after he gives himself another seven years in office in 2011.

Whatever happened to basic decency? Why is it that our leaders feel that they can do whatever they want and get away with it? Do these people have any shame?

If anyone close to Biya reads this please tell him that third term amendments are kind of last-century. Obasanjo ought to have been the last shameful attempt at this. Africa will not claim the 21st century and indeed not even the fourth millennium if we keep up with this third term amendment nonsense. So get real President Biya. Competition breeds excellence, so let competition thrive.”



In the same vein, Scribbles from the Den publishes an appeal by a group of Cameroonian writers to MPs of the ruling CPDM, asking them not to go along with attempts to amend the constitution:

“It is not only dangerous but also criminal for the Head of State to play games with the Constitution. Attempting to amend Article 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon which limits presidential tenure to two terms is, undoubtedly, one of those crimes for which our country shall pay an onerous price in the future.
[…]
For once show some courage; steer clear of infamy! Our future is priceless; do not gamble with it! Most importantly do not play with fire! Amending Article 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon would weaken the institutions that protect Cameroonian citizens against act of barbaric abuse. For too long, we have lived as if we do not see the mishaps that have befallen our neighbors. Suffice it to say that recent incidents in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia, not forgetting Chad, testify to the fact that a single foul play with the Constitution could plunge the entire nation into insurmountable chaos. The civil strife that these countries have experienced lends ample credibility to our conviction that Cameroon’s social stability is fragile, very fragile indeed. Cameroonians are peace-lovers; do not compromise it! Otherwise, you shall be judged in front of the tribunal of History.”

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

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

China in Africa: Lending, policy space and governance

2008-03-14

http://www.eldis.org/go/country-profiles&id=35901&type=Document

China has had bad press regarding its involvement in sub-Saharan Africa. Its lack of aid conditionality – particularly in the field of human rights and environmental issues; its apparent disregard for transparency in the loan contraction processes and its general lack of adherence to international standards in responsible funding has caused alarm in the donor community. However although this paper largely agrees with and expands on these criticisms it also seeks to highlight the benefits of Chinese involvement.

Police chief warns 'puppets'

2008-03-14

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=334661

Zimbabwe's police chief says his force will not allow British and American "puppets" to take power in Zimbabwe, sending an ominous signal to opposition leaders ahead of March 29 polls, reports said on Friday. Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri told officers at Police General Headquarters in Harare he was sending "a warning" to "puppets", echoing President Robert Mugabe's label for his opponents.

Mugabe approves indigenous ownership law

2008-03-14

http://tinyurl.com/27la5a

President Robert Mugabe has signed a law requiring all foreign companies operating in Zimbabwe to give majority equity to black Zimbabweans, a move analysts see as the final nail in the coffin of the country's economy. More than 200 British and South African firms that have invested heavily in Zimbabwe will be affected, including Lever Brothers, Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Standard Bank, Stanbic Bank, Impala Platinum, Angloplat, Mettalon Gold, Rio Tinto, Edcon, Merchant Bank of Central Africa and several enterprises owned by Anglo American.

5 MDC members hospitalised after Mbare attack by ZANU-PF youth

2008-03-14

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news130308/mdchospitalised130308.htm

Violence against officials and members of the opposition has intensified, despite the arrival of a regional observer team in Harare on Wednesday. At least 5 supporters of the Tsvangirai MDC were hospitalised on Wednesday after they were attacked by a gang of youths known to be ZANU-PF members in Mbare high-density suburb of Harare. One of the victims, Simba Maringwa, is reported to be in intensive care battling for his life.

Ghana: Queen Mothers hold court on abortion

2008-03-14

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3519/context/cover/

Traditional female leaders in Ghana are beginning to open their communal gatherings to discussions of women's legal rights to abortion. The country has one of the most liberal abortion laws in the continent, but women are dying in ignorance of it.

Global: Fund to end gender violence puts donors to the test

2008-03-12

http://www.ipsterraviva.net/europe/article.aspx?id=5825

The UN "Trust Fund to End Violence against Women" has risen significantly over the last year: from 3.5 million dollars in 2006 to over 15 million dollars in 2007. The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which manages the Trust Fund on behalf of the UN system, has now set an ambitious goal: to raise about 100 million dollars a year by 2015. Since it was set up in 1997, the Trust Fund has received over 33 million dollars, nearly half of it last year.

Global: Women call for greater role in conflict resolution

2008-03-12

http://tinyurl.com/ysbs3g

Leading female power-brokers from around the world have appealed for a larger political role for women in solving conflicts and poverty. Over 50 participants, including leaders, foreign ministers, lawmakers, first ladies and top European Union and U.N. officials participated at the talks to promote women's empowerment ahead of International Women's Day.

Global: COHRE statement on International Women's Day

2008-03-13

http://www.cohre.org/view_page.php?page_id=291

Governments must take active steps to protect the rights of women to housing and land, and integrate these protections into their strategies to ameliorate the negative effects of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, according to the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)

DRC: Support the women of Congo

2008-03-14

http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/reports/women.php

The suffering of the women in the Congo, particularly in the east of the country has long reached biblical proportions, yet and still the silence continues throughout the global community. Hundreds of thousands of women have been violently raped, mutilated and terrorized by a host of culprits (Rebel Groups, Rwandan Soldiers, Congolese Soldiers, civilian population and even the United Nations).

Zambia: Make defilement non-bailable offence, urges Women’s Lobby

2008-03-14

http://www.times.co.zm/news/viewnews.cgi?category=4&id=1204617186

The Zambia National Women’s Lobby Group (ZNWLG), men’s wing has called on the Government to stiffen the law against defilement and make the offence non-bailable. ZNWLG men network coordinator, Isaiah Munali, said this in an interview in Lusaka recently after a briefing over awareness campaign ahead of the women’s International day.

Global: Global Employment Trends for Women 2008

2008-03-14

http://tinyurl.com/2fp8s9

More women are working than ever before, but they are also more likely than men to get low-productivity, low-paid and vulnerable jobs, with no social protection, basic rights nor voice at work according to a new report by the International Labour Office (ILO) issued for International Women’s Day.

Liberia: Shock testimony at Taylor trial

2008-03-14

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0A28CA1E-3421-410F-9825-ED37CF2405B9.htm

Charles Taylor celebrated his rise to power in Liberia with a ceremony involving a human sacrifice, burying a pregnant woman alive in sand, one of his former military commanders has testified. The admission came during a trial at The Hague where the former president is accused of war crimes.

Global: Principles of Partnership - A statement of commitment endorsed by the Global Humanitarian Platform

2008-03-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/46602

The Global Humanitarian Platform, created in July 2006, brings together UN and non-UN humanitarian organizations on an equal footing.
- Striving to enhance the effectiveness of humanitarian action, based on an ethical obligation and accountability to the populations we serve,
- Acknowledging diversity as an asset of the humanitarian community and recognizing the interdependence among humanitarian organizations,
- Committed to building and nurturing an effective partnership, … the organizations participating in the Global Humanitarian Platform agree to base their partnership on the following principles:
Principles of Partnership
A Statement of Commitment Endorsed by the Global Humanitarian Platform,
12 July 2007

The Global Humanitarian Platform, created in July 2006, brings together UN and non-UN humanitarian organizations on an equal footing.
- Striving to enhance the effectiveness of humanitarian action, based on an ethical obligation and accountability to the populations we serve,
- Acknowledging diversity as an asset of the humanitarian community and recognizing the interdependence among humanitarian organizations,
- Committed to building and nurturing an effective partnership, … the organizations participating in the Global Humanitarian Platform agree to base their partnership on the following principles:

• Equality Equality requires mutual respect between members of the partnership irrespective of size and power. The participants must respect each other's mandates, obligations and independence and recognize each other's constraints and commitments. Mutual respect must not preclude organizations from engaging in constructive dissent.

• Transparency Transparency is achieved through dialogue (on equal footing), with an emphasis on early consultations and early sharing of information. Communications and transparency, including financial transparency, increase the level of trust among organizations.

• Result-oriented approach Effective humanitarian action must be reality-based and action-oriented. This requires result-oriented coordination based on effective capabilities and concrete operational capacities.

• Responsibility Humanitarian organizations have an ethical obligation to each other to accomplish their tasks responsibly, with integrity and in a relevant and appropriate way. They must make sure they commit to activities only when they have the means, competencies, skills, and capacity to deliver on their commitments. Decisive and robust prevention of abuses committed by humanitarians must also be a constant effort.

• Complementarity The diversity of the humanitarian community is an asset if we build on our comparative advantages and complement each other’s contributions. Local capacity is one of the main assets to enhance and on which to build. Whenever possible, humanitarian organizations should strive to make it an integral part in emergency response. Language and cultural barriers must be overcome.

www.globalhumanitarianplatform.org

Global: UBUNTU Statement on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2008-03-12

http://www.ubuntu.upc.edu/index.php?lg=eng&pg=2&ncom=24#form

On this 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and at the initiative of the World Forum of Civil Society Networks — UBUNTU, we wish to emphasize that all Human Rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent, in full accordance with the Declaration of the World Conference on Human Rights made in Vienna (United Nations, 1993).

Burundi: The Batwa quest for equality

2008-03-13

http://www.irinnews.org/InDepthMain.aspx?InDepthId=9&ReportId=58632&Country=Yes

In Burundi, land is a source of power. Many members of the Batwa pygmy community blame their subordinate status on the fact that they do not own property. Having once enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the rainforest environment, most Batwa today have been squeezed out of their hunter-gatherer existence and work as casual labourers on other people’s land.

South Africa: Housing report by special UN rapporteur

2008-03-13

http://tinyurl.com/2ynzud

In this report, the Special Rapporteur acknowledges the legislative achievements of South Africa, such as the Constitution that is often cited as an example for the protection of economic, social and cultural rights, including for the right to adequate housing. He notes that South Africa has put in place a number of progressive legislative measures and policies aimed at fulfilling the right to adequate housing. Yet, a significant number of South Africans do not have access to this basic human right.

South Africa: Death penalty referendum call

2008-03-14

http://www.ipsterraviva.net/europe/article.aspx?id=5845

Jacob Zuma, the president of the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, has of late been called a chamaeleon who adapts his speeches to what his audience wants to hear. It's a tactic that has proved controversial, not least when Zuma took up the issue of the death penalty. Since his recent election as head of the party in December, Zuma has indicated that he is in favour of opening a debate on the issue of capital punishment.

South Africa: National carrier branded a human right violator

2008-03-14

http://tinyurl.com/295u54

SAA has been branded a human rights violator for failing to provide adequate boarding equipment for disabled passengers at airports. The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) revealed that disabled passengers were transported to and from SAA aircraft in adapted catering vehicles and manually loaded on to and off planes. On Sunday, a group of disabled people were forced to crawl out of the plane or be carried out at OR Tambo International Airport.

Uganda: Peace hopes stir debate over justice

2008-03-14

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13818569.htm

Lillian Akwero and her friends lived through some of Uganda's worst violence, fleeing rebel attacks in which their relatives were kidnapped or killed and villages torched. Now that their lives are about making ends meet rather than basic survival, their hope is that a deal to ensure lasting peace will not be wrecked by the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants against rebel leaders for savage atrocities

Botswana: ‘Bushman women dying for diamonds’

2008-03-14

http://www.survival-international.org/news/3141

Botswana’s Attorney General, the Governor of the Bank of Botswana and the CEO of De Beers Botswana were greeted outside Chatham House in London this week by protesters holding blown-up photographs of Bushman women who have died due to the eviction of the Bushmen from their land.

Africa: Cash grants help Burundian returnees rebuild their lives

2008-03-14

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/47d9651c2.html

The UN refugee agency's introduction last August of cash grants for Burundian returnees appears to have both encouraged more people to go back home and eased their reintegration. In the months since the 50,000 Burundian Francs (about US$45) grant per person was introduced for Burundians in Tanzania, some 35,000 refugees have returned to their country.

Kenya: IDPs return home in North Rift

2008-03-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/46663

A reconciliation meeting held on February 29, 2008 in Kachibora, Trans-zoia district between the Marakwet and the Kisii communities saw the first batch of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the area return home on Monday March 3, 2008.
Election Violence Response Initiative (EVRI) Issue 10

A reconciliation meeting held on February 29, 2008 in Kachibora, Trans-zoia district between the Marakwet and the Kisii communities saw the first batch of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the area return home on Monday March 3, 2008.
The last batch is scheduled to be resettled on Monday, March 10, 2008.
The reconciliation meeting was convened by the special District Commissioner deployed to oversee peace situation in the area following the post-election violence that led to eviction of hundreds of people, mainly from Kisii ethnic group, deemed to be outsiders in the area dominated by the Marakwet.
During the meeting, a peace committee was established comprising six members from each community (three elders and three youth) to oversee the reconciliation efforts are achieved.
It is reported that the IDPs were happy to return to their homes and carry on their normal activities. It is reported that the attack meted against them was carried out by people from far flung areas and not their immediate neigbours.

Africa: Eastern Chad under severe humanitarian strain, UN official says

2008-03-14

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=25971

The swelling numbers of Darfur refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in eastern Chad is seriously straining the capacity of both the arid local environment and the region’s basic infrastructure, a United Nations aid official said today, warning that the humanitarian situation remained extremely precarious.

Senegal: Voluntary repatriation of Mauritanian refugees

2008-03-14

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/UNHCR/cf4c8381b9ebeace8570f9165db19aa2.htm

UNHCR is picking up its repatriation operation from Senegal with a second convoy on Thursday bringing home more than 250 Mauritanians. We plan to step up the pace of voluntary returns and organize bi-weekly convoys to reach a target of 3,000 returns per month.

Central Africa: Aid workers struggle to deal with influx from CAR

2008-03-14

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/47d94bba4.html

Their makeshift shelter of branches and leaves is only 800 metres from Chad's border with the Central African Republic, but for Josephine and Veronique it could be 800 kilometres. The two women finally feel safe on this side of the border, where they have joined almost 14,000 other refugees, including some 3,000 of whom arrived over the past two weeks. Most have left Central African Republic (CAR) since mid-December to escape attacks by rebel fighters and bandits on their villages.

Kenya: Poll chaos: Killers to face law

2008-03-14

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=118632

The days of people who killed others and destroyed property during the post-election violence are numbered, Attorney General Amos Wako has warned. "Kenyans feel that the culture of impunity is going on. But let me assure you that we must now ensure that this culture is dealt with once and for all," he told the annual Law Society of Kenya dinner at the weekend.

Kenya: OCHA situation report

2008-03-14

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/ASAZ-7CPKFA?OpenDocument

While there is optimism for permanent peace in Kenya due to the power-sharing pact signed between the Party of National Unity (PNU) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), a new row is brewing over the powers of the president, vice president, prime minister and deputy prime ministers.

Zimbabwe: MDC wants observers deployed to rural areas

2008-03-14

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news120308/mdcobservers120308.htm

The MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai wants most regional and foreign observers coming for the elections to be deployed to all rural areas, usually the flash points of political violence in the country. In the past observers have visited rural areas associated with the opposition parties, but have rarely set foot in the Zanu-PF strongholds of the three Mashonaland provinces.

Zimbabwe: More vote buying as Mugabe hikes civil servants’ salaries

2008-03-14

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news120308/votebuying120308.htm

Just days after handing over millions of US dollars worth of agricultural equipment, buses and generators at his weekend rallies, Robert Mugabe has announced large salary increases for civil servants, including teachers. According to the state-controlled Herald newspaper, Mugabe announced the increases while addressing a rally at a school in Inyathi, Matabeleland North on Tuesday.

Kenya: President appoints panel to probe election

2008-03-14

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN425379.html

Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki, whose disputed re-election triggered violence that damaged his country's reputation for stability, has appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate the December 27 vote. A statement sent from Kibaki's office on Thursday said the panel would "inquire into all aspects of the General Election ... with particular emphasis on the Presidential Election".

Comoros: Military action irreversible

2008-03-14

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77290

The African Union (AU) backed military action against the island of Anjouan's renegade leader Mohamed Bacar in the Comoros archipelago had reached "the point of no return", despite an offer for more talks to resolve the nine month stand-off. "We have exhausted all available opportunities to end the political dispute in the Comoros without any success," Membe told a news briefing in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam on 14 March.

South Africa: Zuma tries to block court evidence

2008-03-14

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A16B8B76-80D3-4D56-8640-F7E658CC8B0E.htm

Jacob Zuma, the leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, has launched his final attempt to prevent evidence being used against him in a corruption trial. Zuma and his legal team appeared in the Constitutional Court on Tuesday, requesting leave to appeal against the confiscation of documents against him, in 2005.

Global: Biofuels: An assault on the world's poor

2008-03-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/46558

Food riots in Indonesia, Mexico, Egypt, the Philippines and Vietnam. Price controls and food rationing in Pakistan and China. Are we back to the Malthusian trap as prices of agricultural and food commodities from wheat and corn to dairy products and meat have risen in the last few years to historically unprecedented levels?

Global: Biofuels: The high price of diverting food into energy

2008-03-12

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/03/opinion/edfood.php

The world's food situation is bleak, and shortsighted policies in the United States and other wealthy countries - which are diverting crops to environmentally dubious biofuels - bear much of the blame. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the price of wheat is more than 80 percent higher than a year ago, and corn prices are up by a quarter. Global cereal stocks have fallen to their lowest level since 1982.

Africa: Caught between peacekeeping and development

2008-03-12

http://www.ipsterraviva.net/europe/article.aspx?id=5840

The beleaguered UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan, handicapped by lack of troops and helicopters, has come under fire for its unusually high costs. Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the African Union Commission, says it is "scandalous" to spend 2.0 billion dollars annually on the upkeep of a proposed 26,000-strong joint African Union-UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), when Africa's urgent needs are elsewhere.

East Africa: Decentralisation and development: Emerging issues from Uganda's experience

2008-03-13

http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=2912

Is decentralization consistent with development goals? What can we learn from Uganda? This paper from the Economic Policy Research Centre, Kampala, reviews Uganda’s experience of decentralization to highlight its effects on the empowerment of local leaders and residents, local elite capture, service delivery and the promotion of sector responses.

Africa: Food riots hit West and Central Africa

2008-03-14

http://www.bicusa.org/en/Article.3702.aspx

Rising global food prices have led to outbreaks of civil unrest in West and Central Africa. While the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank plan their responses to the growing crisis, Cameroon, site of worst strife, relaxes IMF policies on wages and prices.

Global: Trade unions in developing countries voice concerns in Doha round

2008-03-14

http://www.tralac.org/scripts/content.php?id=7458

Leading trade unions from three emerging economies, South Africa, the Philippines and Brazil, voiced concerns in Geneva on Wednesday regarding the risk their industries face in the current Doha round of trade liberalisation talks. Rudi Dicks of COSATU, the South African trade union congress, said that negotiators have failed to take account of the positions of developing countries in the Doha round, which aims to reduce global barriers to trade.

Global: Little progress in reducing global hunger says UN

2008-03-14

http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/6398.html

Despite real advances in China, India, South Africa, and several Latin American and Caribbean countries, overall there has been little progress in reducing the number of victims of hunger and malnutrition around the world, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Jean Ziegler said Tuesday.

Chad: Refugees waiting for HIV services

2008-03-14

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77207

Most of the roughly 50,000 people in the Amboko and Dosseye refugee camps near Goré, in the tropical forest of southern Chad, have fled across the border from neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR), but efforts to prevent and treat HIV among the camp residents are still in their infancy.

South Africa: Question marks over ARV tender

2008-03-14

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/3D4A5B50-014E-4188-AB83-C71FA18A7B31.asp

The South African health department has called on drug manufacturers to submit bids to supply the government's antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programme, just days before the current ARV tender is due to expire. AIDS experts and activists said decisions on which drugs to include were made with little consultation.

Malawi: Faith can give comfort, but cannot cure AIDS

2008-03-14

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77251

A billboard showing traditional and religious leaders holding hands in the fight against AIDS is a common feature in Blantyre, Malawi's commercial capital, but overzealous church leaders claiming to cure HIV with prayer are now causing more harm than good. A pastor in southern Malawi recently hit the headlines when he told five HIV-positive people in his church to stop taking antiretroviral (ARV) medication because they had been treated by prayer.

South Africa: HIV major factor in rising child deaths

2008-03-14

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77274

Mothers and children in South Africa are dying in alarming numbers. Far from being on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing child mortality by two-thirds, the country is among only a dozen worldwide where child deaths are rising. In 2000, South Africa committed to eight MDGs set by the UN, which included reducing child and maternal mortality and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.

Uganda: Women shoulder AIDS burden

2008-03-14

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77177

In many parts of Uganda, especially rural areas, women's roles have not changed since the first Women's Day a hundred years ago. Women are still the primary caregivers, and they still don't get credit for it, according to Sylvia Tamale, the Dean of Makerere University's Law School, in the capital, Kampala.

Chad: A semblance of education for a displaced child

2008-03-14

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77273

Sitting on a plastic mat in an outdoor classroom at a site for people displaced by violence outside the town of Goz Beida in southeastern Chad, Ibrahim Abdoulaye Moussa has reason to pay attention in class. "I'm in school to save my country," said the boy who is one of 180,000 displaced Chadians scattered around the vast semi-desert east of the country. "I dream of being president."

North Africa: Egypt condemns homosexuals as aids carriers

2008-03-14

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=egypt&id=1826

HIV positive status is still being associated with homosexuality in Egypt, hence punishable. This came in the wake of arrest of twelve men after one of them disclosed to police that he was living with Aids, and was instantly condemned for homosexuality.

Rwanda: Activists released from prison

2008-03-14

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=rwanda&id=1833

Two Rwandan human rights activists were released on bail early this week and are subjected to report to a Kigali prosecutor every Thursday following their arrest two weeks ago.Nyirahabimana Salma and Umutoni Fatoumata were arrested at Kanombe International Airport in Kigali on their way to Maputo in Mozambique to attend a 3rd Leadership Institute conference organised by Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) two weeks ago.

South Africa: Study shows high HIV prevalence among lesbians

2008-03-14

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=southafrica&id=1829

Women who have sex with other women (WSW) were yesterday revealed to carry high prevalence of HIV in South Africa despite that it was known of them to have less HIV infection rate than gay men. Preliminary research findings about HIV testing and HIV status between South African men who have sex with other men (MSM) and WSW was presented by a New York based research scientist, Theo Sandfort, in Tshwane.

Morocco: Liberals, Islamists clash over 'gay wedding'

2008-03-14

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=334592

When rumours of a "gay wedding" spread through the northern Moroccan town of Ksar el Kebir, the only evidence produced was a video on YouTube of a man dancing suggestively in women's clothes. Three months later, four people are in prison accused of homosexual acts, Islamists are decrying a decline in public morals and liberals are warning that the North African kingdom risks sleep-walking into extremism.

Kenya: Hundreds ill after 'toxic leak'

2008-03-14

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=334603

Hundreds of Kenyans have fallen ill after a chemical consignment was dumped on the roadside near the port city of Mombasa, officials said on Thursday. According to a local official, up to 1 500 people have sought treatment at local hospitals, complaining mainly of chest pains and respiratory problems they believe were caused by the leaking container.

Uganda: Debate rages over the benefits of tree-planting schemes

2008-03-12

http://www.plentymag.com/features/2008/02/roots_of_the_cost.php

Early one morning in 1993, Wilson Turinawe woke up to the crack of gunfire in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Paramilitary park rangers were attacking his village. His thatched hut was set on fire. His wife grabbed their infant child and ran. Turinawe was slashed with a machete. He still has the scars. “They came with guns,” he recalls, with a disbelief in his voice that suggests the episode might have taken place just yesterday instead of fifteen years ago.

South Africa: Building a peoples' response to Eskom's plans - New Roport by GroundWork

2008-03-13

http://www.groundwork.org.za/Peak%20Poison.pdf

GroundWork has released its 6th GroundWork Report, Peak Poison: The Elite Energy Crisis and Environmental Justice. The groundWork Report explores the social and environmental justice impacts of energy crises. It also asks questions about the politics of energy. When government talks about a solution and Eskom about their response, it is a response aimed at the global and national energy elites in service of capital.

Global: Minority and indigenous groups silent victims of climate change - report

2008-03-14

http://www.minorityrights.org/?lid=6140

Minority and indigenous groups across the world are among the hardest hit by climate change and often disproportionately affected by climate-related disasters but their plight has yet to be recognised by the international community, a new report says.

Southern Africa: Deadly cyclone batters Mozambique

2008-03-14

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/753E0E2D-5F97-4DAB-9B4B-9DF773C9887F.htm

A powerful cyclone has hit parts of Mozambique, killing at least seven people and forcing thousands families from their homes. The state-controlled national broadcaster said on Monday that four districts in the northern Nampula province were being battered by heavy downpours and strong winds of up to 200km per hour.

South Africa: Cape High Court issues forced removal order against settlement residents

2008-03-11

http://westerncapeantieviction.wordpress.com/

on March 10, 2008,Judge Hlophe of the Cape High Court (who has been embroiled in a previous corruption scandal related to property developers) issued an order for the forced removal of the residents of Joe Slovo settlement in Langa, as requested by Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, Western Cape Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi, and John Duarte and Prince Xanthi Sigcawu of Thubelisha Homes.

Uganda: Landless and exposed to the elements

2008-03-12

http://www.panos.org.uk/newsfeatures/featuredetails.asp?id=1371

Uganda’s Batwa communities have been marginalised for decades. Now they are struggling to cope with extreme weather conditions, and want better homes to protect them from storms and landslides. Among the posh office premises of the Red Cross Society and the court of adjudicature on Muchingo hill, in Uganda's western district of Kisoro, are ramshackle houses in which a community of Batwa people live.

Niger: Editor sentenced to prison

2008-03-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/46636

Gourouza Aboubacar, Managing Editor of L’Eveil Plus, a bi-weekly independent newspaper based in Niamey was on March 6, 2008, sentenced to one month in prison without remission and fined 50,000 CFA Francs (approximately US$125) for allegedly bringing the Nigerien justice system into disrepute. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the verdict followed a complaint filed by the State Prosecutor of the Niamey Court.
Niger UPDATE: Editor sentenced to prison.

Gourouza Aboubacar, Managing Editor of L’Eveil Plus, a bi-weekly independent newspaper based in Niamey was on March 6, 2008, sentenced to one month in prison without remission and fined 50,000 CFA Francs (approximately US$125) for allegedly bringing the Nigerien justice system into disrepute.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the verdict followed a complaint filed by the State Prosecutor of the Niamey Court. A complaint for libel was also filed by Moussa Keita, politician and former activist in the National Movement for a Developing Society – Nassara (MNSD-Nassara). However, Keita withdrew his complaint after a request from the Niger Union of Independent Journalists (UJPN).

Aboubacar was arrested on February 25, and has since been detained in the Niamey Civil Prison.

On January 29, 2008, L’Eveil Plus published two articles entitled “The Plot and Plotters Unmasked” and “The Issue of Niamey Urban Community (CUN): Another Plot against the MNSD” which led to the complaints.

The first article accused Keita of "orchestrating" a major "conspiracy" to secure charges against former Prime Minister, Hama Amadou. The second criticized the detention of the president of the CUN, Aboubacar Seydou Ganda, who according to the article was held "without any evidence of the truth of the charges against him". The journalist said “this case is not judicial but political”.

MFWA is concerned about this clear manifestation of intolerance of alternative views in Niger and calls on the authorities to demonstrate respect for press freedom.

Prof. Kwame Karikari
Executive Director MFWA
Tel: 233 21 242470
Fax: 233 21 221084
Email: mfwa@africaonline.gh.com
Website: www.mediafound.org

Gambia: Security agents to appear before the ECOWAS Community Court

2008-03-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/46616

Five State Agents of The Gambia were expected to appear on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 before the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja, Nigeria in the ongoing case of a detained Gambian journalist, Chief Ebrima Manneh. This followed an order from the Community Court for the agents to appear before it to answer their alleged roles in the arrest and subsequent detention of Manneh, a former reporter of the pro-government Banjul-based Daily Observer newspaper, who has been “disappeared” since July 2006.
Press Statement

Five Gambian Security agents to appear before the ECOWAS Community Court in the “disappeared” journalist’s case

Five State Agents of The Gambia are expected to appear on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 before the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja, Nigeria in the ongoing case of a detained Gambian journalist, Chief Ebrima Manneh.

This followed an order from the Community Court for the agents to appear before it to answer their alleged roles in the arrest and subsequent detention of Manneh, a former reporter of the pro-government Banjul-based Daily Observer newspaper, who has been “disappeared” since July 2006.

The order was contained in an interlocutory ruling on January 31, 2008 and signed jointly by Justice Anthony A. Benin, the Presiding Judge and Tony Anene-Maidoh, the Court Chief Registrar.

It said “the Court had realised the need to give opportunity to those persons, who were identified by the witnesses as having played a role in the arrest and/or detention of the applicant”.

The court said since the agents who are military and police personnel have been mentioned in the court by witnesses, it would invite them through the Gambian government, which is the defendant in the matter.

Three of the security agents are military personnel: Captain Tumbal Kemaba, Personal Protection Officer to President Yahaya Jammeh, Lt Omar Colley, Liaison Officer between the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Mile Two Prison and a member of The Gambian Armed Forces and Corporal Sey, a member of the NIA stationed at a police station in Bakau, a town in the western part of the country. The rests are two senior police officers: Ousmane Sarko, Inspector General of Police and Aziz Bojang, Police Public Relations Officer.

At the last hearing, the court also said it needed time to translate new evidence it had received from Manneh’s counsel into the French language for the benefit of French speaking judges on the panel.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in June 2007 filed a complaint at the sub-regional court to compel the government of President Jammeh to produce Manneh and to answer for his arrest and subsequent disappearance.

Even though Manneh was arrested at the Daily Observer premises in the presence of his colleagues, the government has denied ever arresting Manneh. He has been sighted several times in the custody of state security personnel. The government has consistently refused to appear before the court.

Issued by the MFWA, Accra, March 9, 2008 The MFWA is a regional independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Accra. It was founded in 1997 to defend and promote the rights and freedom of the media and all forms of expression.

Kwame Karikari, Prof.
Executive Director MFWA Accra
Tel: 233-21-24 24 70
Fax: 233-21-22 10 84
Email: mfwa@africaonline.com.gh

Sierra Leone: Journalists' group challenges libel laws used to silence critics

2008-03-13

http://www.justiceinitiative.org/db/resource2?res_id=104048

Journalists in Sierra Leone are challenging laws that criminalize free speech and authorize prison terms of up to seven years for those who criticize the government. The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) filed the lawsuit with the country's Supreme Court last week, seeking to overturn Sierra Leone's criminal libel and false news laws. The laws allow prison sentences for expression that "excite(s) disaffection" against the government or "injure(s) the reputation" of the government or individual officials.

Senegal: Exiled Gambian journalist escapes kidnapping attempt

2008-03-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/46639

Yahya Dampha, a Gambian journalist, who is in exile in Senegal, on March 10, 2008 escaped a kidnapping attempt by suspected agents of the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) of The Gambia. Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) sources reported that at about 12 noon, three plain-clothed agents of the NIA went to Dampha's home in Dakar to abduct him, but through the intervention of his neighbours, the men fled.
Senegal ALERT: Exiled Gambian journalist escapes kidnapping attempt

Yahya Dampha, a Gambian journalist, who is in exile in Senegal, on March 10, 2008 escaped a kidnapping attempt by suspected agents of the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) of The Gambia.

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) sources reported that at about 12 noon, three plain-clothed agents of the NIA went to Dampha's home in Dakar to abduct him, but through the intervention of his neighbours, the men fled.

The sources said Dampha sought the intervention of his neighbours on recognizing one of the men, Habib Drammeh, an NIA operative attached to President Yahya Jammeh's office in Banjul.

Dampha was one of the witnesses who testified at the ECOWAS Community Court in Abuja, Nigeria in the case of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a "disappeared" Gambian journalist.

In June 2007, the MFWA filed a suit at the community court to demand the release of Manneh who has been in detention since his arrest two years ago.

Dampha, and several other witnesses who testified for the plaintiff, had mentioned five state agents of The Gambia as having played various roles in the arrest and detention of Manneh.

The alleged attempt to kidnap Dampha occurred the day before the agents were expected to appear before the ECOWAS court.

Dampha told MFWA that prior to the attempt, he had been receiving threatening phone calls and his neighbours were also being questioned by agents.

Until he fled The Gambia, Dampha was working with the Banjul-based pro-opposition newspaper, Foroyaa. He was arrested together with two officials of Amnesty International. They were detained for six days before being charged with espionage.

Prof. Kwame Karikari
Executive Director MFWA
Tel: 233 21 242470
Fax: 233 21 221084
Email: mfwa@africaonline.gh.com
Website: www.mediafound.org

Gambia: Security agents defy ECOWAS court over "disappeared" journalist's case

2008-03-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/46644

Five state agents of The Gambia, who were summoned by the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja, Nigeria in the ongoing case of a "disappeared" Gambian journalist on March 11, 2008, defied the court's order and failed to make an appearance. The security agents had been invited by the court to clear themselves of their alleged involvement in the arrest and subsequent detention of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a former reporter of the pro-government Banjul-based Daily Observer newspaper.
Gambian security agents defy ECOWAS court over "disappeared" journalist's case

Five state agents of The Gambia, who were summoned by the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja, Nigeria in the ongoing case of a "disappeared" Gambian journalist on March 11, 2008, defied the court's order and failed to make an appearance. The security agents had been invited by the court to clear themselves of their alleged involvement in the arrest and subsequent detention of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a former reporter of the pro-government Banjul-based Daily Observer newspaper. The court therefore had no option than to fix June 5, 2008 as the day it will deliver its judgment. The security agents, three military personnel and two police officers had been mentioned earlier by witnesses for contributing to the arrest and detention of Manneh. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) last year brought legal action for the sub-regional court to compel The Gambian government to unconditionally release the journalist. The Gambian government has consistently refused to cooperate with the court.

On July 7, 2006, colleagues of Manneh witnessed his arrest at the Daily Observer premises. He has since been sighted in the custody of state security personnel, but the government has denied ever arresting him.


Kwame Karikari, Prof.
Executive Director MFWA
Accra
Tel: 233-21-24 24 70
Fax: 233-21-22 10 84

Global: Nominate a Knight International journalism awardee

2008-03-14

http://knight.icfj.org/Awards/Nominate/tabid/83/Default.aspx

The International Center for Journalists seeks nominations for the 2008 Knight International Journalism Awards. The Awards recognize outstanding international journalists who demonstrate an extraordinary devotion to the craft by upholding and promoting the highest journalistic standards, despite overwhelming challenges.

Tunisia: Press freedom organisations claim activist was assaulted

2008-03-14

http://tinyurl.com/2tjpjp

Tunisian journalist and press freedom advocate Sihem Bensedrine and husband Omar Mestiri were allegedly assaulted by police early this month when entering Tunisia from Europe. The government denies the claims, but human rights groups are persisting in their accusations.

Tanzania: Government detains two website editors

2008-03-14

http://africa.oneworld.net/article/view/158834/1/

The Tanzanian Government has arrested two online editors without charge. The two were detained and interrogated for 24 hours in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on February 18, in what observers of the case say was a politically motivated attempt to shut down the site. The two young editors, Maxence Mello and Mike Mushi, aged 21 and 18 respectively, host the extremely popular Jambo Forums, a public discussion site with more than 2,000 members and 6 million hits in February alone.

Haiti: Letter from Jean-Bertrand Aristide

2008-03-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/diaspora/46667

Dear Friends, May the spirit of International Day in Solidarity with the Haitian People continue to spread!
If the more than 10,000 people killed in the 18 months that followed the February 29, 2004 coup d’état could speak, what would they say? Would they join voices with the young women raped and sexually assaulted since the coup?
Dear Friends, May the spirit of International Day in Solidarity with the Haitian People continue to spread!

If the more than 10,000 people killed in the 18 months that followed the February 29, 2004 coup d’état could speak, what would they say? Would they join voices with the young women raped and sexually assaulted since the coup? Would they remind us that these women are estimated to constitute half the population of Haiti’s shanty towns? Would they unite with the voices of the 3,200 people imprisoned in a National Penitentiary built to hold 1,200 prisoners? And what of the countless others who were inhumanely abused and now clearly betrayed? What would their message be?

They would rise in chorus with Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine to say Mési, thank you, for the solidarity demonstrated four years later. Because they cannot, I will: Thank you. Thank you to each and every participant in the 56 actions organized in 47 cities across four continents as part of the 3rd International Day of Solidarity. Your solidarity strengthens the people’s determination to continue to affirm human dignity and struggle for true democracy, justice and peace.

United to all our Haitian sisters and brothers who, on that same day, condemned the kidnapping of February 29, 2004 and called for our return to Haiti, let us continue to drink from this historical stream of solidarity with grateful thanks to our mother Haiti.

“Gratitude is the least of the virtues but ingratitude is the worst of the vices.”


Ab imo pectore, from the bottom of my heart,

Dr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Pretoria, March 11, 2008

Venezuela: The Afrovenezuelan Network and the paramilitary menace

2008-03-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/diaspora/46622

From its foundation in 2000, the Afrovenezuelan Network had systematically denounced first the threat from Plan Colombia, and second the so called Plan Patriotic as a threat to the stability of the Andean region, this plan is based on military aims with the goal of ending drug trafficking in the Region.
THE AFROVENEZUELAN NETWORK AND THE PARAMILITARY MENACE

From its foundation in 2000, the Afrovenezuelan Network had systematically denounced first the threat from Plan Colombia, and second the so called Plan Patriotic as a threat to the stability of the Andean region, this plan is based on military aims with the goal of ending drug trafficking in the Region. Under the administration of President Uribe Vélez, the Plan Patriotic is implemented and started to deepen the military and terrorist character implemented against groups like the FARC and the ELN, whom for many years have been holding anti-imperialist and anti-oligarchical positions and had been recognized like belligerent political actors before governments like Venezuela and Mexico.

The results of the Plan Colombia and Patriotic Plan, is expressed in an increase of the Colombian troops in an almost half a million men, sophisticated weapons, creation of new military bases, with the support of the government of the United States, in different spaces from the Colombian territory and towards the border of Ecuador and Venezuela, with the effective cooperation of more than two thousand of American military that make stronger the Colombian Self-defense units, better known like paramilitary.

All this finalized in almost three million displaced Colombians, from which sixty percent were afrocolombians, 31,000 people disappeared, 1771 unionists assassinated, ten thousand victims in common graves. When a process just began to give back its belligerent character to the FARC, that could contribute to bring the peace in Colombia, in the significance of the humanitarian exchange, which leader was the afrocolombian woman Senator Piedad Cordova and President Chávez, the government of Uribe Velez, began to sabotage this process and the most recent thing was to violate the Democratic Chart of the Organization of American States specifically the article 21 about the non violation of the national territory of other country when Colombian armed forces trespassed the Ecuatorian border, killing 20 guerrilla FARC members and among them the commander Raul Reyes, who was the leader of the project of humanitarian Exchange.

The Afrovenezuelan Network strongly condemns the intrusion of Colombian soldiers into the territory of our Ecuatorian brothers. We demand the immediate closing of Military Base of Manta (in Ecuador), we condemned the policy of Uribe of took away the afrocolombians territory, after the constitutional approval of his right over this space more than fifteen years ago established in the “Law Seventy” of afrocolombians communities, we express our support to Senator Piedad Cordova in its brave managements to continue in the humanitarian exchange.

Haiti: Petition for safe return of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

2008-03-13

http://www.petitiononline.com/august/

Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine has been missing since the night of the 12th August 2007. It is believed that his kidnapping was politically motivated and someone in the Haitian government and or the UN forces in Haiti led by Brazil must know what happened to him and where he is. This petition calls for information on his whereabouts and for his release.

Africa: Chad, Sudan agree to end cross-border attacks

2008-03-14

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN424550.html

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Chadian President Idriss Deby signed a peace agreement on Thursday designed to end cross-border rebel attacks in a region which includes Sudan's conflict-ravaged Darfur area. The signing, witnessed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) head Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, also aims to revive a string of past pacts that have failed to end fighting on both sides of the Chad-Sudan border.

Africa: Sudan's comprehensive peace agreement: Beyond the crisis

2008-03-13

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5329&l=1

The latest policy briefing from the International Crisis Group, describes how a crisis over the CPA at the end of 2007 was settled but that the underlying problems still threaten the deal which ended the generation-long civil war in which at least two million people died.

DRC: Rwandan armed groups 'must surrender' – Security Council

2008-03-14

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=25969

The Security Council has called on all Rwandan armed groups operating in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to surrender immediately to Congolese authorities and the United Nations peacekeeping mission known as MONUC.

Nigeria: Delta under threat of new violence

2008-03-14

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=334496

The risk of renewed violence in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta is increasing because militants are frustrated by a lack of concrete results from peace talks, a key negotiator said on Wednesday. Kingsley Kuku, a senior member of a government peace committee who also has close links with militants, said the government still had an opportunity to avert violence but it had to start delivering on promises of development for the delta.

South Africa : APC statement of support to national regulator against monopoly

2008-03-13

http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5530954

APC thanks the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (“the Authority”) for the opportunity to make comment on the oral presentations on the draft regulations prescribing a list of essential facilities and matters related thereto, pursuant to Section 42(8) of the Electronic Communications Act No. 36 of 2005 (“the Act”). We fully support the introduction of these Essential Facilities Regulations because they will create conditions of open access on a non-discriminatory basis to undersea-based submarine cables.

Uganda: National Data Backbone ready

2008-03-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/46679

Is the Uganda government set to become an efficient deliverer of services to the 28 million Ugandans out there? At least this is what the nationals are supposed to believe if the benefits that accrue from the completion of the first phase of the National Data Backbone is anything to go by.
Highway Africa News Agency

Is the Uganda government set to become an efficient deliverer of services to the 28 million Ugandans out there? At least this is what the nationals are supposed to believe if the benefits that accrue from the completion of the first phase of the National Data Backbone is anything to go by. The government has said that it will now be possible for the different ministries, government departments and agencies to hold meetings on videoconference calls; that the president will now be in a position to address parliament or cabinet on a video call.

But will the fact that this new technology is going to help simplify work for both the politicians and the technocrats make things better is the big question. Next month, Uganda?s ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) together with Chinese technology company, Huawei, will launch the first phase of the national data backbone, which has cost some $30 million.

The national data transmission backbone is a fibre optic cable interconnecting different government institutions and departments in order to exploit their full potential, and reduce government domestic expenditure on public administration. It will also increase the speed of implementing government programmes, provide basic communication to rural communities and improve service delivery in the fields of health, education and agriculture.

At the moment, the first phase, which covers the capital Kampala (majority of central government functions are centered here), Entebbe, Bombo and Jinja is complete and is being tested. IP enabled phones with videoconference facilities have been installed in all government ministries and departments/agencies. This makes Uganda the first country in the region to launch such a service. None of the other East African Community (EAC) member states has deployed the infrastructure, which should make e-government a reality in Uganda.

In order to minimize the cost of communication, software for email services has also been installed. A unit has been established within the ministry to oversee implementation of the national data transmission backbone. Uganda?s ICT minister, Dr. Ham Mulira said the key issue in the second phase, which should commence immediately after the first phase, is to link Uganda?s borders with those of neighbouring countries ? work that has partly been done by both MTN and Uganda Telecom. Mulira was speaking at the African e-Governance forum that was convened by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) in Kampala last week. Ghana is has also built what it has called a ?national fibre backbone? with phase one, which has a few government applications working, already complete. The second phase of the e-Ghana project will see fibre laid from the southern coast to its northern border with Burkina Faso. This project will link to the other submarine cable initiatives that are planned for the eastern Africa coast among them EASSy, UHURUNET, the East African Submarine System and SEACOM.

Before the national data transmission backbone government unveiled plans, private players had moved to lay their own fibre networks. The national backbone comprises two technologies and will be laid mainly around Kampala and along the transmission routes in the East, West and the North. Microwaves for smaller backbone links into the more rural areas feeding off the main fibre optic routes have also been set up. The private network will see MTN complete a fibre link to the Kenyan border to link up with the Telkom Kenya fibre that eventually runs from Malaba to Nairobi to Mombasa and this will form part of the East African Backhaul System (EABS) project. EABS is a joint venture among operators from Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya and will link the five countries to the EASSy cable along the eastern Africa coast.

To the West MTN has fibre up to Mbarara while Uganda Telecom will complete the fibre route to Rwanda from Mbarara to Katuna linking up with a fibre to be installed by MTN Rwanda to the Rwandan border.

Global: The 2008 Global Development Marketplace Competition

2008-03-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/46638

Less than two weeks are left on the call of proposals for the 2008 Global Development Marketplace (DM2008) competition that seeks early-stage, innovative ideas with potential for high impact in promoting Sustainable Agriculture for Development. The submission deadline of March 21, 2008 (23:00 GMT time) is fast approaching - APPLY NOW!
The 2008 Global Development Marketplace Competition is almost closed! Submit your proposal before the March 21 deadline! March 10, 2008 –

Less than two weeks are left on the call of proposals for the 2008 Global Development Marketplace (DM2008) competition that seeks early-stage, innovative ideas with potential for high impact in promoting Sustainable Agriculture for Development.

The submission deadline of March 21, 2008 (23:00 GMT time) is fast approaching -- APPLY NOW!

Proposals are welcome from all innovators: civil society groups, foundations and development agencies in the country of implementation can submit their ideas. Other applicants – individuals, government entities and businesses – can also apply, but only if they work with a local partner. DM2008 is specifically focused on the agricultural challenges related to:

·Linking small-scale farmers to markets;
·Improving land access and tenure for poor farmers; and
·Promoting the environmental services of agriculture in addressing climate change and biodiversity conservation.

A total of US$4 million in awards is available, with a maximum award size of US$200,000 per project. The call for proposals closes on March 21, 2008 (23:00 GMT time). Applications will undergo a rigorous review drawing on hundreds of development experts, who will narrow down the pool of finalists to about 100 finalists. The DM will then bring the finalists to Washington DC for the Marketplace event on September 24-25, 2008.

Finalists will participate in knowledge exchange workshops and will present their ideas to the public, World Bank staff and an international jury comprised of senior development specialists. Some 25-30 winners will be announced at the close of the Marketplace. Proposals must be written in English and submitted through the DM website, www.developmentmarketplace.org Competition guidelines and step-by-step instructions are available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Please forward this reminder and the attached brochure with basic information about DM2008 to your professional peers and networks. WE LOOK FORWARD TO REVIEWING YOUR INNOVATIVE IDEAS!

Global: Mobileactive Desktop sms campaign tools

2008-03-13

http://mobileactive.org/wiki/Desktop_SMS_Campaign_Tools

MobileActive releases the first-ever comparison of do-it-yourself SMS campaign tools, designed especially for NGOs. The Guide helps NGOs get started in setting up a SMS campaign and includes a comparison of different SMS campaign software. Over the last several years, it’s become clear that mobile phones are becoming one of the most influential devices in our social, political, and civic lives. Savvy nonprofit organizations and NGOs are experimenting with using mobile phones as persuasive devices to recruit new supporters, organize groups, and advocate for causes.

Global: A Citizens' Guide to Monitoring Government Expenditures

2008-03-13

http://www.internationalbudget.org/resources/expenditure/index.htm

International Budget Project (IBP) is pleased to announce the release of its latest publication, "Our Money, Our Responsibility: A Citizens' Guide to Monitoring Government Expenditures." This Guide documents pioneering methodologies used by civil society organizations around the developing world to hold their governments to account for the use of public resources.

Africa: African Tobacco Situational Analyses (ATSA)

2008-03-13

http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-119375-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Research for International Tobacco Control (RITC) of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is pleased to announce a Call for Letters of Intent for the African Tobacco Situational Analyses (ATSA). This competition is a joint initiative of RITC/IDRC and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The competition is administered by RITC/IDRC.

Africa: CODESRIA Prize for Doctoral Thesis

Call for Applications for the 2008 Competition

2008-03-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/46664

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the 2008 Competition for its prize for the best three doctoral theses produced annually in Africa in the Social Sciences and Humanities. This programme was introduced with a view to promoting the research work of African doctoral students and to celebrate the performance of those among them who produce outstanding studies that are worthy of being given greater visibility than would otherwise be possible in the absence of a special initiative designed to bring them to the attention of a critical international scholarly audience.
CODESRIA Prize for Doctoral Thesis
Call for Applications for the 2008 Competition

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the 2008 Competition for its prize for the best three doctoral theses produced annually in Africa in the Social Sciences and Humanities. This programme was introduced with a view to promoting the research work of African doctoral students and to celebrate the performance of those among them who produce outstanding studies that are worthy of being given greater visibility than would otherwise be possible in the absence of a special initiative designed to bring them to the attention of a critical international scholarly audience. The CODESRIA Prize for Doctoral Theses is, therefore, designed to encourage excellence in advanced post-graduate research in Africa. In determining the best theses produced, emphasis will be placed on originality, rigour, innovation and relevance. It is proposed to award three doctoral theses prizes annually. Each prize will comprise a sum of USD1000 and the publication of a suitably revised version of the selected thesis in the CODESRIA Book Series.

Eligibility Any African student registered in a doctoral programme in an African university and who has produced a thesis in the social sciences and Humanities that has been accepted after due examination is eligible to enter the competition for the award of a CODESRIA prize. To be considered, the thesis should have been submitted and successfully defended in the period between 01 June, 2007 and 31 May, 2008.

Procedure for Application For the current round of competition, candidates interested in having their theses evaluated for the possible award of a prize are requested to send the following documents to the CODESRIA Secretariat by 31 July, 2008:
i) A curriculum vitae indicating educational background, publications, and on-going research interests/activities; ii) Two copies of the final version of the thesis; iii) A summary of not more than ten pages written by the author of the thesis on the content of his/her work; iv) A letter of reference written by a scholar other than the thesis supervisor and which comments on the merit of the thesis, the student’s contribution to knowledge and a better understanding of African realities, the points of innovation and originality in the thesis and the candidate’s potentials for further advanced research; v) A letter of support written by the supervisor of the candidate’s thesis; and vi) Any other additional scientific information that would be worth bringing to the attention of the jury Selection Procedure There will be two stages in the selection of the best three theses produced by African doctoral students in the Social Sciences and Humanities. The first stage will involve a sub-regional selection process whereby independent juries will be requested by CODESRIA to evaluate and rank the theses submitted for consideration from the different sub-regions. The short-listed theses will then be transferred to a continental jury made up of eminent scholars who will identify the best three theses to be awarded prizes. The continental jury will reserve the right to request additional information from all short-listed candidates. Candidates will be kept informed of the outcome of each stage of the selection process by the CODESRIA Secretariat.

Submission of Entries All applications for consideration for the award of a prize should be submitted by the deadline of31 July, 2008 to:

CODESRIA Prize for Doctoral Thesis,
BP 3304, CP 18524 Dakar-Senegal.
Tel: +221- 33 825 98 22/23;
Fax: +221- 33 824 12 89.
E-Mail: doctoral.prize@codesria.sn
Website: http://www.codesria.org

Africa: ADF Regional Workshop on Nonviolent Conflict 2008

Call for applications

2008-03-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/46600

Africa Democracy Forum is pleased to announce its Regional Training Program on Nonviolent conflict from 21st -26th April 2008 in Nairobi Kenya. This training will be organized in partnership with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (Washington DC,USA) and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS). Participants in this proposed workshop will gain both practical skills, theoretical and historical knowledge about the use of strategic nonviolent action to advance human rights, justice and accountable governance.
Africa Democracy Forum Building Democracy for Peace, Development, and Human Rights in Africa
Gitanga Road,Valley Arcade
P.O Box 41079-0010 0
Kenya Human Rights Commission
Tel.+254 020 38 74998/9
www.africandemocracyforum.org Nairobi,
Kenya

Workshop on Nonviolent Conflict Nairobi, Kenya 21st – 25th April 2008
Deadline for Applications 20 March 2008

Call for Application

Africa Democracy Forum is pleased to announce its Regional Training Program on Nonviolent conflict from 21st -26th April 2008 in Nairobi Kenya.
This training will be organized in partnership with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (Washington DC,USA) and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS).

ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND

The African Democracy Forum (ADF) is an African regional network of democracy, human rights, and governance organizations, affiliated to the World Movement for Democracy at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC. The ADF seeks to consolidate democracy in Africa by providing opportunities for democrats to openly express their views while also acting as a platform for mutual support and the sharing of resources.
Over 340 organizations and individuals working on democracy issues in Africa currently participate in the ADF activities. The Secretariat is hosted by Kenya Human Rights Commission in Nairobi Kenya.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Training Program.
The ADF will cover economy-class round-trip airfares and accommodation for the all the training period for successful applicants. For those who might be able to cover their own expenses, ADF will provide essential documents to facilitate their participation if selected.

Participants in this proposed workshop will gain both practical skills, theoretical and historical knowledge about the use of strategic nonviolent action to advance human rights, justice and accountable governance.
The proposed program aims to empower young democracy activists in African post conflict and transitional countries with practical skills and knowledge in order to make them more effective in promoting rights through engaging in nonviolent civic action in the region and to prepare them for future leadership roles. The objectives of the program are as follows:
- To provide young African democracy activists with historical case studies of successful nonviolent action;
- To learn and watch the diverse experiences collected and assumed by the International Center on Non Violent Conflict and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies,
- To educate participants about nonviolent theory and its applications; and
- To provide knowledge about strategy, principles and organizational considerations of nonviolent struggle.

The workshop will provide opportunities to connect with other young activists, share their field experiences, learn about the openly discuss and analyze cases studies of nonviolent action around the world, including other parts of Africa.

Eligibility:
The training program intends to bring up 30 participants (between 20-35 years of age) from all the Regions of Africa, particularly from war-torn, post conflict and transitional countries, such as Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, D R Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Thad, as well as countries that have been experiencing relatively successful democratization, such as South Africa and Ghana.
Applicants must have an affiliation with a civil society organization working on Nonviolent Conflict, Conflict resolution, peace building, democracy, Human Rights and Conflict resolution -related issues in Africa. Applicants are expected to have at least 2 years of work experience their respective countries.

Sponsorship
ADF will cover economy-class round-trip airfares and accommodation for the training period for successful applicants. For those who might be able to cover their own expenses, ADF will provide essential documents to facilitate their participation if selected.

Rationale for the Program.
Many countries in Africa, such as Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, D R Congo, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire have been suffering from violent conflicts, mostly intra-state conflicts (i.e., inter-ethnic conflicts), for several decades. Many conflicts have been prolonged by the absence of democratic political leadership and structures that would accommodate political voices, protect civil rights, and respect the rule of law. Young people have suffered the most from violent conflict and have been the most disempowered. Many have been forcibly conscripted as child-soldiers and have not experienced a normal childhood or education. Growing up in a period of conflict, many young people have never experienced democracy or had any democratic leaders to look up to. Despite their discouraging environments, however, many young Africans have engaged in various activities to effect positive change in their countries. Empowering young activists with knowledge and skills, and developing their capacity for future leadership, would help resolve and prevent violent conflict and promote citizen participation through nonviolent action in Africa.

While many organizations and activist groups throughout Africa have engaged in conflict-resolution projects, and while youth organizations have certainly not been exceptions, many of those projects have not fully taken into account the link between nonviolent struggle and sustainable democracy.
Previous projects have focused mainly on developing personal peer-mediation and negotiation skills, such as nonviolent means for young people in schools and universities to solve their own disputes. They mostly aim to train participants to become experts in those skills.

Participants will be young activists working on such issues as human rights, the rule of law, and civic education. They will study the causes of conflict but, just as importantly, will also examine how their own community activities—defending human rights, fighting for social justice, and calling for the rule of law — puts pressure on governments to respond to citizens’ demands for basic justice, rights and freedom.

Participants will also have important opportunities to exchange their ideas and experiences in the course of the workshop, as well as in such informal settings as lunches, dinners, and film screenings. Participants will develop contacts to continue their discussions and hopefully to develop collaborative efforts for advancing their issues in the region.
Becoming active members in both the Youth Movement for Democracy and the Africa Democracy Forum will be an additional benefit of participation.
Participants will be included in the networks’ e-mail discussion lists and will be invited to participate in future activities.

Venue. Nairobi, Kenya,

Agenda.
The training program will run for five days, and sessions will be conducted and facilitated by veteran activists of past civilian nonviolent struggles.
Workshop coordinators will be the staff of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS).
- 1ST day : History of Nonviolent Action
- 2nd day: Setting Your Vision of Tomorrow
- 3rd day: Models and Sources of Power; Methods of Action
- 4th day: Planning, Communications and Creating Audience Impact
- 5th day: Managing a Nonviolent Movement The workshop will conclude with a session in which participants will discuss possible follow-up activities using the skills they have learned in the course of the program. Such follow-up activities could include collaborative projects among participants, but also the subsequent training programs at the local level that they themselves will be encouraged to conduct upon their return home.

Expected Outcomes.
• Participants constitute an African Regional group of Trainers of Trainers on Nonviolent Conflict and a substantial database for all ADF follow up activities surrounding this issue,
• Participants will develop draft follow-up activities, such as small workshops/training programs, in their respective communities. The follow-up activities will strengthen civil society networks by introducing them to the field of nonviolent conflict.
• Strengthening a network of African young leaders committed to Non Violent struggle. The network will serve as a peer-review and teaching mechanism by evaluating each other’s activities and sharing information and experiences.
• An African regional Network for Nonviolent Action will be created to highlight African participant’s work as well as act as a resource and knowledge base for practitioners and trainers in Africa and elsewhere. This knowledge base will include access to training materials, grant information, scholarship information, scholarly publication material, and project ideas on reconstruction, dialogue, democracy good governance, and reconciliation models.

Partners and Sponsors
This program is hosted by the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), in coordination with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC).
ADF would like to present its deep gratitude to these two partners for their support in making possible this program in Africa.
For questions, please contact:
Franck KAMUNGA
Coordinator Africa Democracy Forum
Gitanga Raod,Valley Arcade
P.O Box 41079-00100 Nairobi Kenya
Cell. + 254 07 22 66 53 76
Tel: + 254 020 38 74 998/9
Fax: + 254 020 38 74 99 7
www.africandemocracyforum.org


APLICATION FORM:



Africa Democracy Forum
Building Democracy for Peace, Development,
and Human Rights in Africa
Gitanga Road,Valley ArcadeP.O Box 41079-0010 0Kenya Human Rights Commission Tel.+254 020 38 74998/9 www.africandemocracyforum.org Nairobi,Kenya


Regional Workshop on Nonviolent Conflict

Nairobi, Kenya 21st – 26th April 2008

APPLICATION FORM
(Please type or print neatly in English.)

Please return this form as soon as possible, but no later than 20th March 2008
By
Email to fkamunga@khrc.or.ke or FAX: +254 20 38 74 997


Last/Family Name: ___________________________________


First/Given Name: ____________________________________


Citizenship: _________________________________________


Date of Birth (Day/Month/Year): _________________________ Sex: __Male __Female


Affiliation/Organization:____________________________________


Address:_____________________________________________________________


Country: ______________________________________________


Tel:________________________ Fax: ________________________


E-mail address:____________________________________________


Personal Statement: Please submit a personal statement of interest along with this form. The statement of approximately 500 words should indicate how this program would benefit your activities in your community or country and include any previous personal and professional experiences, particularly in Nonviolent Conflict activities.

The statement should also suggest post-training/follow-up activities that you would initiate and engage in your own community and/or country.

Letters of Recommendation: Two letters of recommendation are required, and they should be sent directly to fkamunga@khrc.or.ke or +254 20 38 74 997 (fax) by your referees. Please indicate below the name and institutional affiliation of your referee writing a recommendation letter.



Name: ____________________Affiliation:______________________


Name: _______________________Affiliation:___________________

Africa Democracy Forum Building Democracy for Peace, Development, and Human Rights in Africa
Gitanga Road,Valley Arcade
P.O Box 41079-0010 0
Kenya Human Rights Commission
Tel.+254 020 38 74998/9
www.africandemocracyforum.org Nairobi,
Kenya

Workshop on Nonviolent Conflict Nairobi, Kenya 21st – 25th April 2008
Deadline for Applications 20 March 2008

Call for Application

Africa Democracy Forum is pleased to announce its Regional Training Program on Nonviolent conflict from 21st -26th April 2008 in Nairobi Kenya.
This training will be organized in partnership with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (Washington DC,USA) and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS).

ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND

The African Democracy Forum (ADF) is an African regional network of democracy, human rights, and governance organizations, affiliated to the World Movement for Democracy at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC. The ADF seeks to consolidate democracy in Africa by providing opportunities for democrats to openly express their views while also acting as a platform for mutual support and the sharing of resources.
Over 340 organizations and individuals working on democracy issues in Africa currently participate in the ADF activities. The Secretariat is hosted by Kenya Human Rights Commission in Nairobi Kenya.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Training Program.
The ADF will cover economy-class round-trip airfares and accommodation for the all the training period for successful applicants. For those who might be able to cover their own expenses, ADF will provide essential documents to facilitate their participation if selected.

Participants in this proposed workshop will gain both practical skills, theoretical and historical knowledge about the use of strategic nonviolent action to advance human rights, justice and accountable governance.
The proposed program aims to empower young democracy activists in African post conflict and transitional countries with practical skills and knowledge in order to make them more effective in promoting rights through engaging in nonviolent civic action in the region and to prepare them for future leadership roles. The objectives of the program are as follows:
- To provide young African democracy activists with historical case studies of successful nonviolent action;
- To learn and watch the diverse experiences collected and assumed by the International Center on Non Violent Conflict and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies,
- To educate participants about nonviolent theory and its applications; and
- To provide knowledge about strategy, principles and organizational considerations of nonviolent struggle.

The workshop will provide opportunities to connect with other young activists, share their field experiences, learn about the openly discuss and analyze cases studies of nonviolent action around the world, including other parts of Africa.

Eligibility:
The training program intends to bring up 30 participants (between 20-35 years of age) from all the Regions of Africa, particularly from war-torn, post conflict and transitional countries, such as Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, D R Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Thad, as well as countries that have been experiencing relatively successful democratization, such as South Africa and Ghana.
Applicants must have an affiliation with a civil society organization working on Nonviolent Conflict, Conflict resolution, peace building, democracy, Human Rights and Conflict resolution -related issues in Africa. Applicants are expected to have at least 2 years of work experience their respective countries.

Sponsorship
ADF will cover economy-class round-trip airfares and accommodation for the training period for successful applicants. For those who might be able to cover their own expenses, ADF will provide essential documents to facilitate their participation if selected.

Rationale for the Program.
Many countries in Africa, such as Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, D R Congo, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire have been suffering from violent conflicts, mostly intra-state conflicts (i.e., inter-ethnic conflicts), for several decades. Many conflicts have been prolonged by the absence of democratic political leadership and structures that would accommodate political voices, protect civil rights, and respect the rule of law. Young people have suffered the most from violent conflict and have been the most disempowered. Many have been forcibly conscripted as child-soldiers and have not experienced a normal childhood or education. Growing up in a period of conflict, many young people have never experienced democracy or had any democratic leaders to look up to. Despite their discouraging environments, however, many young Africans have engaged in various activities to effect positive change in their countries. Empowering young activists with knowledge and skills, and developing their capacity for future leadership, would help resolve and prevent violent conflict and promote citizen participation through nonviolent action in Africa.

While many organizations and activist groups throughout Africa have engaged in conflict-resolution projects, and while youth organizations have certainly not been exceptions, many of those projects have not fully taken into account the link between nonviolent struggle and sustainable democracy.
Previous projects have focused mainly on developing personal peer-mediation and negotiation skills, such as nonviolent means for young people in schools and universities to solve their own disputes. They mostly aim to train participants to become experts in those skills.

Participants will be young activists working on such issues as human rights, the rule of law, and civic education. They will study the causes of conflict but, just as importantly, will also examine how their own community activities—defending human rights, fighting for social justice, and calling for the rule of law — puts pressure on governments to respond to citizens’ demands for basic justice, rights and freedom.

Participants will also have important opportunities to exchange their ideas and experiences in the course of the workshop, as well as in such informal settings as lunches, dinners, and film screenings. Participants will develop contacts to continue their discussions and hopefully to develop collaborative efforts for advancing their issues in the region.
Becoming active members in both the Youth Movement for Democracy and the Africa Democracy Forum will be an additional benefit of participation.
Participants will be included in the networks’ e-mail discussion lists and will be invited to participate in future activities.

Venue. Nairobi, Kenya,

Agenda.
The training program will run for five days, and sessions will be conducted and facilitated by veteran activists of past civilian nonviolent struggles.
Workshop coordinators will be the staff of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS).
- 1ST day : History of Nonviolent Action
- 2nd day: Setting Your Vision of Tomorrow
- 3rd day: Models and Sources of Power; Methods of Action
- 4th day: Planning, Communications and Creating Audience Impact
- 5th day: Managing a Nonviolent Movement The workshop will conclude with a session in which participants will discuss possible follow-up activities using the skills they have learned in the course of the program. Such follow-up activities could include collaborative projects among participants, but also the subsequent training programs at the local level that they themselves will be encouraged to conduct upon their return home.

Expected Outcomes.
• Participants constitute an African Regional group of Trainers of Trainers on Nonviolent Conflict and a substantial database for all ADF follow up activities surrounding this issue,
• Participants will develop draft follow-up activities, such as small workshops/training programs, in their respective communities. The follow-up activities will strengthen civil society networks by introducing them to the field of nonviolent conflict.
• Strengthening a network of African young leaders committed to Non Violent struggle. The network will serve as a peer-review and teaching mechanism by evaluating each other’s activities and sharing information and experiences.
• An African regional Network for Nonviolent Action will be created to highlight African participant’s work as well as act as a resource and knowledge base for practitioners and trainers in Africa and elsewhere. This knowledge base will include access to training materials, grant information, scholarship information, scholarly publication material, and project ideas on reconstruction, dialogue, democracy good governance, and reconciliation models.

Partners and Sponsors
This program is hosted by the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), in coordination with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC).
ADF would like to present its deep gratitude to these two partners for their support in making possible this program in Africa.
For questions, please contact:
Franck KAMUNGA
Coordinator Africa Democracy Forum
Gitanga Raod,Valley Arcade
P.O Box 41079-00100 Nairobi Kenya
Cell. + 254 07 22 66 53 76
Tel: + 254 020 38 74 998/9
Fax: + 254 020 38 74 99 7
www.africandemocracyforum.org


APLICATION FORM:



Africa Democracy Forum
Building Democracy for Peace, Development,
and Human Rights in Africa
Gitanga Road,Valley ArcadeP.O Box 41079-0010 0Kenya Human Rights Commission Tel.+254 020 38 74998/9 www.africandemocracyforum.org Nairobi,Kenya


Regional Workshop on Nonviolent Conflict

Nairobi, Kenya 21st – 26th April 2008

APPLICATION FORM
(Please type or print neatly in English.)

Please return this form as soon as possible, but no later than 20th March 2008
By
Email to fkamunga@khrc.or.ke or FAX: +254 20 38 74 997


Last/Family Name: ___________________________________


First/Given Name: ____________________________________


Citizenship: _________________________________________


Date of Birth (Day/Month/Year): _________________________ Sex: __Male __Female


Affiliation/Organization:____________________________________


Address:_____________________________________________________________


Country: ______________________________________________


Tel:________________________ Fax: ________________________


E-mail address:____________________________________________


Personal Statement: Please submit a personal statement of interest along with this form. The statement of approximately 500 words should indicate how this program would benefit your activities in your community or country and include any previous personal and professional experiences, particularly in Nonviolent Conflict activities.

The statement should also suggest post-training/follow-up activities that you would initiate and engage in your own community and/or country.

Letters of Recommendation: Two letters of recommendation are required, and they should be sent directly to fkamunga@khrc.or.ke or +254 20 38 74 997 (fax) by your referees. Please indicate below the name and institutional affiliation of your referee writing a recommendation letter.



Name: ____________________Affiliation:______________________


Name: _______________________Affiliation:___________________

Africa Democracy Forum Building Democracy for Peace, Development, and Human Rights in Africa
Gitanga Road,Valley Arcade
P.O Box 41079-0010 0
Kenya Human Rights Commission
Tel.+254 020 38 74998/9
www.africandemocracyforum.org Nairobi,
Kenya

Workshop on Nonviolent Conflict Nairobi, Kenya 21st – 25th April 2008
Deadline for Applications 20 March 2008

Call for Application

Africa Democracy Forum is pleased to announce its Regional Training Program on Nonviolent conflict from 21st -26th April 2008 in Nairobi Kenya.
This training will be organized in partnership with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (Washington DC,USA) and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS).

ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND

The African Democracy Forum (ADF) is an African regional network of democracy, human rights, and governance organizations, affiliated to the World Movement for Democracy at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC. The ADF seeks to consolidate democracy in Africa by providing opportunities for democrats to openly express their views while also acting as a platform for mutual support and the sharing of resources.
Over 340 organizations and individuals working on democracy issues in Africa currently participate in the ADF activities. The Secretariat is hosted by Kenya Human Rights Commission in Nairobi Kenya.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Training Program.
The ADF will cover economy-class round-trip airfares and accommodation for the all the training period for successful applicants. For those who might be able to cover their own expenses, ADF will provide essential documents to facilitate their participation if selected.

Participants in this proposed workshop will gain both practical skills, theoretical and historical knowledge about the use of strategic nonviolent action to advance human rights, justice and accountable governance.
The proposed program aims to empower young democracy activists in African post conflict and transitional countries with practical skills and knowledge in order to make them more effective in promoting rights through engaging in nonviolent civic action in the region and to prepare them for future leadership roles. The objectives of the program are as follows:
- To provide young African democracy activists with historical case studies of successful nonviolent action;
- To learn and watch the diverse experiences collected and assumed by the International Center on Non Violent Conflict and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies,
- To educate participants about nonviolent theory and its applications; and
- To provide knowledge about strategy, principles and organizational considerations of nonviolent struggle.

The workshop will provide opportunities to connect with other young activists, share their field experiences, learn about the openly discuss and analyze cases studies of nonviolent action around the world, including other parts of Africa.

Eligibility:
The training program intends to bring up 30 participants (between 20-35 years of age) from all the Regions of Africa, particularly from war-torn, post conflict and transitional countries, such as Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, D R Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Thad, as well as countries that have been experiencing relatively successful democratization, such as South Africa and Ghana.
Applicants must have an affiliation with a civil society organization working on Nonviolent Conflict, Conflict resolution, peace building, democracy, Human Rights and Conflict resolution -related issues in Africa. Applicants are expected to have at least 2 years of work experience their respective countries.

Sponsorship
ADF will cover economy-class round-trip airfares and accommodation for the training period for successful applicants. For those who might be able to cover their own expenses, ADF will provide essential documents to facilitate their participation if selected.

Rationale for the Program.
Many countries in Africa, such as Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, D R Congo, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire have been suffering from violent conflicts, mostly intra-state conflicts (i.e., inter-ethnic conflicts), for several decades. Many conflicts have been prolonged by the absence of democratic political leadership and structures that would accommodate political voices, protect civil rights, and respect the rule of law. Young people have suffered the most from violent conflict and have been the most disempowered. Many have been forcibly conscripted as child-soldiers and have not experienced a normal childhood or education. Growing up in a period of conflict, many young people have never experienced democracy or had any democratic leaders to look up to. Despite their discouraging environments, however, many young Africans have engaged in various activities to effect positive change in their countries. Empowering young activists with knowledge and skills, and developing their capacity for future leadership, would help resolve and prevent violent conflict and promote citizen participation through nonviolent action in Africa.

While many organizations and activist groups throughout Africa have engaged in conflict-resolution projects, and while youth organizations have certainly not been exceptions, many of those projects have not fully taken into account the link between nonviolent struggle and sustainable democracy.
Previous projects have focused mainly on developing personal peer-mediation and negotiation skills, such as nonviolent means for young people in schools and universities to solve their own disputes. They mostly aim to train participants to become experts in those skills.

Participants will be young activists working on such issues as human rights, the rule of law, and civic education. They will study the causes of conflict but, just as importantly, will also examine how their own community activities—defending human rights, fighting for social justice, and calling for the rule of law — puts pressure on governments to respond to citizens’ demands for basic justice, rights and freedom.

Participants will also have important opportunities to exchange their ideas and experiences in the course of the workshop, as well as in such informal settings as lunches, dinners, and film screenings. Participants will develop contacts to continue their discussions and hopefully to develop collaborative efforts for advancing their issues in the region.
Becoming active members in both the Youth Movement for Democracy and the Africa Democracy Forum will be an additional benefit of participation.
Participants will be included in the networks’ e-mail discussion lists and will be invited to participate in future activities.

Venue. Nairobi, Kenya,

Agenda.
The training program will run for five days, and sessions will be conducted and facilitated by veteran activists of past civilian nonviolent struggles.
Workshop coordinators will be the staff of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS).
- 1ST day : History of Nonviolent Action
- 2nd day: Setting Your Vision of Tomorrow
- 3rd day: Models and Sources of Power; Methods of Action
- 4th day: Planning, Communications and Creating Audience Impact
- 5th day: Managing a Nonviolent Movement The workshop will conclude with a session in which participants will discuss possible follow-up activities using the skills they have learned in the course of the program. Such follow-up activities could include collaborative projects among participants, but also the subsequent training programs at the local level that they themselves will be encouraged to conduct upon their return home.

Expected Outcomes.
• Participants constitute an African Regional group of Trainers of Trainers on Nonviolent Conflict and a substantial database for all ADF follow up activities surrounding this issue,
• Participants will develop draft follow-up activities, such as small workshops/training programs, in their respective communities. The follow-up activities will strengthen civil society networks by introducing them to the field of nonviolent conflict.
• Strengthening a network of African young leaders committed to Non Violent struggle. The network will serve as a peer-review and teaching mechanism by evaluating each other’s activities and sharing information and experiences.
• An African regional Network for Nonviolent Action will be created to highlight African participant’s work as well as act as a resource and knowledge base for practitioners and trainers in Africa and elsewhere. This knowledge base will include access to training materials, grant information, scholarship information, scholarly publication material, and project ideas on reconstruction, dialogue, democracy good governance, and reconciliation models.

Partners and Sponsors
This program is hosted by the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), in coordination with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC).
ADF would like to present its deep gratitude to these two partners for their support in making possible this program in Africa.
For questions, please contact:
Franck KAMUNGA
Coordinator Africa Democracy Forum
Gitanga Raod,Valley Arcade
P.O Box 41079-00100 Nairobi Kenya
Cell. + 254 07 22 66 53 76
Tel: + 254 020 38 74 998/9
Fax: + 254 020 38 74 99 7
www.africandemocracyforum.org


APLICATION FORM:



Africa Democracy Forum
Building Democracy for Peace, Development,
and Human Rights in Africa
Gitanga Road,Valley ArcadeP.O Box 41079-0010 0Kenya Human Rights Commission Tel.+254 020 38 74998/9 www.africandemocracyforum.org Nairobi,Kenya


Regional Workshop on Nonviolent Conflict

Nairobi, Kenya 21st – 26th April 2008

APPLICATION FORM
(Please type or print neatly in English.)

Please return this form as soon as possible, but no later than 20th March 2008
By
Email to fkamunga@khrc.or.ke or FAX: +254 20 38 74 997


Last/Family Name: ___________________________________


First/Given Name: ____________________________________


Citizenship: _________________________________________


Date of Birth (Day/Month/Year): _________________________ Sex: __Male __Female


Affiliation/Organization:____________________________________


Address:_____________________________________________________________


Country: ______________________________________________


Tel:________________________ Fax: ________________________


E-mail address:____________________________________________


Personal Statement: Please submit a personal statement of interest along with this form. The statement of approximately 500 words should indicate how this program would benefit your activities in your community or country and include any previous personal and professional experiences, particularly in Nonviolent Conflict activities.

The statement should also suggest post-training/follow-up activities that you would initiate and engage in your own community and/or country.

Letters of Recommendation: Two letters of recommendation are required, and they should be sent directly to fkamunga@khrc.or.ke or +254 20 38 74 997 (fax) by your referees. Please indicate below the name and institutional affiliation of your referee writing a recommendation letter.



Name: ____________________Affiliation:______________________


Name: _______________________Affiliation:___________________

Africa Democracy Forum Building Democracy for Peace, Development, and Human Rights in Africa
Gitanga Road,Valley Arcade
P.O Box 41079-0010 0
Kenya Human Rights Commission
Tel.+254 020 38 74998/9
www.africandemocracyforum.org Nairobi,
Kenya

Workshop on Nonviolent Conflict Nairobi, Kenya 21st – 25th April 2008
Deadline for Applications 20 March 2008

Call for Application

Africa Democracy Forum is pleased to announce its Regional Training Program on Nonviolent conflict from 21st -26th April 2008 in Nairobi Kenya.
This training will be organized in partnership with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (Washington DC,USA) and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS).

ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND

The African Democracy Forum (ADF) is an African regional network of democracy, human rights, and governance organizations, affiliated to the World Movement for Democracy at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC. The ADF seeks to consolidate democracy in Africa by providing opportunities for democrats to openly express their views while also acting as a platform for mutual support and the sharing of resources.
Over 340 organizations and individuals working on democracy issues in Africa currently participate in the ADF activities. The Secretariat is hosted by Kenya Human Rights Commission in Nairobi Kenya.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Training Program.
The ADF will cover economy-class round-trip airfares and accommodation for the all the training period for successful applicants. For those who might be able to cover their own expenses, ADF will provide essential documents to facilitate their participation if selected.

Participants in this proposed workshop will gain both practical skills, theoretical and historical knowledge about the use of strategic nonviolent action to advance human rights, justice and accountable governance.
The proposed program aims to empower young democracy activists in African post conflict and transitional countries with practical skills and knowledge in order to make them more effective in promoting rights through engaging in nonviolent civic action in the region and to prepare them for future leadership roles. The objectives of the program are as follows:
- To provide young African democracy activists with historical case studies of successful nonviolent action;
- To learn and watch the diverse experiences collected and assumed by the International Center on Non Violent Conflict and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies,
- To educate participants about nonviolent theory and its applications; and
- To provide knowledge about strategy, principles and organizational considerations of nonviolent struggle.

The workshop will provide opportunities to connect with other young activists, share their field experiences, learn about the openly discuss and analyze cases studies of nonviolent action around the world, including other parts of Africa.

Eligibility:
The training program intends to bring up 30 participants (between 20-35 years of age) from all the Regions of Africa, particularly from war-torn, post conflict and transitional countries, such as Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, D R Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Thad, as well as countries that have been experiencing relatively successful democratization, such as South Africa and Ghana.
Applicants must have an affiliation with a civil society organization working on Nonviolent Conflict, Conflict resolution, peace building, democracy, Human Rights and Conflict resolution -related issues in Africa. Applicants are expected to have at least 2 years of work experience their respective countries.

Sponsorship
ADF will cover economy-class round-trip airfares and accommodation for the training period for successful applicants. For those who might be able to cover their own expenses, ADF will provide essential documents to facilitate their participation if selected.

Rationale for the Program.
Many countries in Africa, such as Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, D R Congo, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire have been suffering from violent conflicts, mostly intra-state conflicts (i.e., inter-ethnic conflicts), for several decades. Many conflicts have been prolonged by the absence of democratic political leadership and structures that would accommodate political voices, protect civil rights, and respect the rule of law. Young people have suffered the most from violent conflict and have been the most disempowered. Many have been forcibly conscripted as child-soldiers and have not experienced a normal childhood or education. Growing up in a period of conflict, many young people have never experienced democracy or had any democratic leaders to look up to. Despite their discouraging environments, however, many young Africans have engaged in various activities to effect positive change in their countries. Empowering young activists with knowledge and skills, and developing their capacity for future leadership, would help resolve and prevent violent conflict and promote citizen participation through nonviolent action in Africa.

While many organizations and activist groups throughout Africa have engaged in conflict-resolution projects, and while youth organizations have certainly not been exceptions, many of those projects have not fully taken into account the link between nonviolent struggle and sustainable democracy.
Previous projects have focused mainly on developing personal peer-mediation and negotiation skills, such as nonviolent means for young people in schools and universities to solve their own disputes. They mostly aim to train participants to become experts in those skills.

Participants will be young activists working on such issues as human rights, the rule of law, and civic education. They will study the causes of conflict but, just as importantly, will also examine how their own community activities—defending human rights, fighting for social justice, and calling for the rule of law — puts pressure on governments to respond to citizens’ demands for basic justice, rights and freedom.

Participants will also have important opportunities to exchange their ideas and experiences in the course of the workshop, as well as in such informal settings as lunches, dinners, and film screenings. Participants will develop contacts to continue their discussions and hopefully to develop collaborative efforts for advancing their issues in the region.
Becoming active members in both the Youth Movement for Democracy and the Africa Democracy Forum will be an additional benefit of participation.
Participants will be included in the networks’ e-mail discussion lists and will be invited to participate in future activities.

Venue. Nairobi, Kenya,

Agenda.
The training program will run for five days, and sessions will be conducted and facilitated by veteran activists of past civilian nonviolent struggles.
Workshop coordinators will be the staff of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS).
- 1ST day : History of Nonviolent Action
- 2nd day: Setting Your Vision of Tomorrow
- 3rd day: Models and Sources of Power; Methods of Action
- 4th day: Planning, Communications and Creating Audience Impact
- 5th day: Managing a Nonviolent Movement The workshop will conclude with a session in which participants will discuss possible follow-up activities using the skills they have learned in the course of the program. Such follow-up activities could include collaborative projects among participants, but also the subsequent training programs at the local level that they themselves will be encouraged to conduct upon their return home.

Expected Outcomes.
• Participants constitute an African Regional group of Trainers of Trainers on Nonviolent Conflict and a substantial database for all ADF follow up activities surrounding this issue,
• Participants will develop draft follow-up activities, such as small workshops/training programs, in their respective communities. The follow-up activities will strengthen civil society networks by introducing them to the field of nonviolent conflict.
• Strengthening a network of African young leaders committed to Non Violent struggle. The network will serve as a peer-review and teaching mechanism by evaluating each other’s activities and sharing information and experiences.
• An African regional Network for Nonviolent Action will be created to highlight African participant’s work as well as act as a resource and knowledge base for practitioners and trainers in Africa and elsewhere. This knowledge base will include access to training materials, grant information, scholarship information, scholarly publication material, and project ideas on reconstruction, dialogue, democracy good governance, and reconciliation models.

Partners and Sponsors
This program is hosted by the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), in coordination with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC).
ADF would like to present its deep gratitude to these two partners for their support in making possible this program in Africa.
For questions, please contact:
Franck KAMUNGA
Coordinator Africa Democracy Forum
Gitanga Raod,Valley Arcade
P.O Box 41079-00100 Nairobi Kenya
Cell. + 254 07 22 66 53 76
Tel: + 254 020 38 74 998/9
Fax: + 254 020 38 74 99 7
www.africandemocracyforum.org


APLICATION FORM:



Africa Democracy Forum
Building Democracy for Peace, Development,
and Human Rights in Africa
Gitanga Road,Valley ArcadeP.O Box 41079-0010 0Kenya Human Rights Commission Tel.+254 020 38 74998/9 www.africandemocracyforum.org Nairobi,Kenya


Regional Workshop on Nonviolent Conflict

Nairobi, Kenya 21st – 26th April 2008

APPLICATION FORM
(Please type or print neatly in English.)

Please return this form as soon as possible, but no later than 20th March 2008
By
Email to fkamunga@khrc.or.ke or FAX: +254 20 38 74 997


Last/Family Name: ___________________________________


First/Given Name: ____________________________________


Citizenship: _________________________________________


Date of Birth (Day/Month/Year): _________________________ Sex: __Male __Female


Affiliation/Organization:____________________________________


Address:_____________________________________________________________


Country: ______________________________________________


Tel:________________________ Fax: ________________________


E-mail address:____________________________________________


Personal Statement: Please submit a personal statement of interest along with this form. The statement of approximately 500 words should indicate how this program would benefit your activities in your community or country and include any previous personal and professional experiences, particularly in Nonviolent Conflict activities.

The statement should also suggest post-training/follow-up activities that you would initiate and engage in your own community and/or country.

Letters of Recommendation: Two letters of recommendation are required, and they should be sent directly to fkamunga@khrc.or.ke or +254 20 38 74 997 (fax) by your referees. Please indicate below the name and institutional affiliation of your referee writing a recommendation letter.



Name: __________________Affiliation: _________________


Name: __________________Affiliation: _________________



Signature:___________________ Date:______________

Africa: CODESRIA : Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Social Science Research

Training of Trainers

2008-03-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/46601

Are you a lecturer in an African university? Do you have responsibility for the teaching of courses on research methods? If so, this announcement is targeted at you. The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa is pleased to announce its initiative targeted at those members of the African social research community who have responsibility in their universities for teaching undergraduate and graduate-level course in social science research methods.
CODESRIA
Call for Applications
Methodology Workshop Series: Training the Trainers
Theme: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Social Science Research
Date: 27 – 31 October, 2008
Venue: Dakar, Senegal

Are you a lecturer in an African university? Do you have responsibility for the teaching of courses on research methods? If so, this announcement is targeted at you.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa is pleased to announce its initiative targeted at those members of the African social research community who have responsibility in their universities for teaching undergraduate and graduate-level course in social science research methods. Over the last decade and half, in cognisance of the multi-faceted crises confronting the African higher education system in general and the universities in particular, CODESRIA has invested itself in offering platforms for postgraduate students and mid-career professionals to be offered opportunities for training in quantitative and qualitative research methods. The first tranche of such training opportunities centred on quantitative research methods; over the last few years, the accent was shifted to qualitative research methods. Organised as advanced research seminars at which participants were exposed to various methodological techniques and their roots in the history and philosophy of science. As of the end of 2006, CODESRIA was organising seven methodology workshops on the basis of one per sub-region, one specially dedicated to Nigeria, and one for countries coming out of conflict situations. In the context of the decentralisation of the management of the workshops to various university and advanced research centres, the Council is now proposing to organise an annual training of trainers methodology workshop bringing together those who have responsibility for imbuing others with the basic skills they require in order to be successful researchers.

The rationale for all CODESRIA methodology workshops remains the same: As a field of knowledge, quantitative and qualitative methods have a specialist status which is not given to all social scientists fully to master both in its technical details and philosophical underpinnings. Also, the field of social science research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, has undergone a considerable amount of evolution marked by an incremental improvement in the tools and techniques available to the researcher. And yet, historically, it is an area of pedagogy that was relatively weak in African social research; the weakness was exacerbated by the massive brain that affected the university system in the aftermath of the crises in the university system. This development constituted a major disadvantage for a younger generation of social researchers and was refracted into the overall quality of research carried out. Remedying the gap became a matter for urgent concern; the training of trainers programme represents the latest in the series of interventions developed by the CODESRIA and it is being launched in the context of the organic inter-connection between the research purpose of the university and the mandate and programmatic strategy of the Council.

For the 2008 session of the training of trainers workshop, it is proposed to invite up to 25 participants. The workshop will be conducted in English and French. In addition to the presentations that would be made by invited resource persons, the workshop will be structured as a forum for close interaction and networking among the participants so that, beyond the formal sessions, they would be able to continue to share experiences on a continuing basis. Practical lecture-room exercises will also be included as part of the training. Each session will be facilitated by a convenor who will be assisted by three resource persons. The session will be organised over five working days. Each participant will be given access to the latest materials – electronic and non-electronic – available on research methods; presentations will also be made on the philosophy of science.

Those interested in applying to participate in the inaugural session are invited to submit a written application, a copy of their course outline, a short write-up on the major problems they encounter in teaching their methodology classes, a letter of attestation from their departmental head or faculty dean indicating that they do teach courses in methodology, and a copy of their latest Curriculum Vitae. For those interested in being considered to serve as convenor or resource persons, they are invited to send a short letter of application, a copy of their curriculum vitae, a copy of the outline of issues they wish to cover in their presentations, and a sample of one or more of their most recent publication (s). All applications must be received at the CODESRIA Executive Secretariat by 15 August, 2008. Applications should be addressed to:

The CODESRIA Training of Trainers Methodology Programme,
The CODESRIA Secretariat,
BP 3304, Dakar, CP 18524, Senegal.
Tel.: +221-33 825 9822/23
Fax: +221-33 824 1289
E-mail: Training.Trainers@codesria.sn
Web site: http://www.codesria.org

Africa: CODESRIA Interventions Series

The Social Sciences and the New Hegemonism in Global Affairs

2008-03-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/46653

As part of its Interventions series, CODESRIA invites younger researchers enrolled in post-graduate programmes in African universities or who have completed their doctoral research not more than five years ago to submit essays of between 10,000 and 12,000 words on the theme of The Social Sciences and the New Hegemonism in Global Affairs.
CODESRIA Programme Announcement

CODESRIA Interventions Series Invitation to the Third Round of Essay Competitions
Theme: The Social Sciences and the New Hegemonism in Global Affairs

Contemporary social science research in Africa is inextricably linked to the continent’s historical past both in terms of its origins and in the way in which it is practiced. Shaped by Africa’s colonial experience, social science research in Africa still bears the methodological and epistemological hallmarks of the hegemonic dynamics of that historical period; these dynamics continue to be reproduced in discourses about Africa within and outside the continent. However, in spite of the undeniable impact which it had on the African world, including its knowledge system, the colonial project did meet with considerable resistance which, in the social sciences, translated into efforts both at re-asserting the indigenous and developing a vision that fed into a widely-shared quest to valorise Africa’s own social science research methods and theories in the knowledge production process. Much investment has been made by African social researchers into the systematic unpacking of the foundations of the colonial knowledge production system but the reproduction of the rules and assumptions that underpinned that system within the asymmetric relations of power in global knowledge production means that the individual and collective struggle for indigenous, alternative methodological and epistemological constructs remains an-on going one, renewed and carried over from generation to generation as shifting contexts and conditions demand. It is this fact that also explains the need for the third and fourth generations of African social researchers to understand and critique inherited social science research legacies deriving from the colonial experience and, in so doing, carry forward the task of dismantling those legacies towards the objective of a decolonised and liberating social science project.

As a long-term project, the process of the decolonisation of African social science research necessarily began with an effort aimed at overcoming the blinkered colonialist reading of the African world which rested on a narrow, unilinear cause-effect explanation of social phenomena on the continent. That exercise in refutation and retrieval was followed with a close interrogation of the methodological and epistemological premises of the colonial - and residual colonialist - historiography on Africa with a view to developing broader orientations. Simultaneously, it was understood that innovation and flexibility would have to be the practical hallmarks of any endeavour aimed at creating an alternative and well-grounded understanding of the causal dynamics underlying social processes in Africa. In the end, therefore, the mission of decolonisation of knowledge production has entailed nothing less than a wholesale readjustment of social science research in Africa so that the methodologies of research and the breadth of epistemological debates can become central to paradigm shifts and affirmations. The challenge of this decolonising mission may have begun with the first generation of African social researchers; its completion rests on the shoulders of young African scholars who constitute the future of the body of disciplines that make up the social sciences.

As part of its Interventions series, CODESRIA invites younger researchers enrolled in post-graduate programmes in African universities or who have completed their doctoral research not more than five years ago to submit essays of between 10,000 and 12,000 words on the theme ofThe Social Sciences and the New Hegemonism in Global Affairs. The essays could address any issue of concern with regard to the political, economic, social and cultural dimensions of the new global hegemonism and the challenges which they pose for the social sciences. These challenges could be assessed in terms of the research questions that arise for which new directions in theory and concept-building are required. They could also be tackled in terms of the ways in which the new hegenomism is refracted into the social sciences. Furthermore, attention could be drawn to the ways in which the social sciences may be consciously or unconsciously contributing to the reproduction of the new global hegemonism. The challenges posed for the social sciences by the new hegemonism could also be tackled in terms of the exploration of new sources of research information and the overall handling of sources of data. Additionally, the challenges arising could be discussed in terms of a re-interpretation of existing data in the light of new configurations of power in the international system. The challenges could be also addressed with regard to the responsibilities that are placed on social scientists, particularly with regard to the democratisation of the global order. Five winning prizes of USD1000 each will be offered to the authors of the best essays along with a one-year subscription to the CODESRIA flagship journal, Africa Development. As many authors of other essays as are adjudged to be worthy of publication will each be rewarded with a one-year CODESRIA journal subscription prize.

All essays received will be reviewed by an independent selection committee which will be composed of outstanding young researchers and established social science researchers. The deadline for the submission of essays is 15 August, 2008. The results of the competition will be announced by 03 October, 2008. All essays should be submitted to:

CODESRIA Interventions Series,
CODESRIA, P.O. Box 3304,
CP 18524, Dakar, Senegal.
Tel.: +221- 33 825 98 22/23
Fax: +221- 33 824 12 89
E-mail to: interventions.series@codesria.sn
http://www.codesria.org

Africa: CODESRIA: Re-Reading the History and Historiography of Domination and Resistance in Africa

2008-03-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/46669

The inaugural conference within the CODESRIA initiative on African History is planned to hold in Nairobi, Kenya, from 13 – 15 August, 2008. The theme around which it is proposed to organise the conference is: Re-Reading the History and Historiography of Domination and Resistance in Africa. The choice of this theme for the inaugural conference has been informed by a number of considerations, five of which are outlined in this conference announcement.
CODESRIA Conference Announcement
Theme: Re-Reading the History and Historiography of Domination and Resistance in Africa
Venue: Nairobi, Kenya
Date: 13 – 15 August, 2008

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce its initiative aimed at achieving the triple objective of promoting the study of the history of Africa, mobilising support for the discipline of History in African higher education, and networking African historians both for these purposes and as a worthy cause in its own right. Packaged under the label of SOS African History, the initiative is underpinned by the strongly held view of the CODESRIA membership that the current conjuncture in the development of Africa marks a moment when the continent is more than ever before in need of History and historians. Given the fact that across Africa, engagement with the history of the continent, the financing of historical research, and the teaching of History are severely endangered, theCODESRIA SOS African History initiative is designed to galvanise local and continental responses that could add up to stem and reverse the tide of decline that has been underway for at least two decades. As part of the initiative, the Council has, within its Strategic Plan 2007 – 2011, committed itself to, among other things, convening an annual thematic conference on critical themes in the history of Africa. (For more information about CODESRIA, its Strategic Plan 2007 – 2011, and its activities, see the Council’s website www.codesria.org)

The inaugural conference within the CODESRIA initiative on African History is planned to hold in Nairobi, Kenya, from 13 – 15 August, 2008. The theme around which it is proposed to organise the conference is: Re-Reading the History and Historiography of Domination and Resistance in Africa. The choice of this theme for the inaugural conference has been informed by a number of considerations, five of which are outlined in this conference announcement. The first of them is the centrality of the theme itself to the historical experiences of the peoples ofAfrica. Secondly, precisely because of the important place occupied by domination and resistance in the history of Africa, successive generations of African historians have engaged the issues in their work, producing a rich corpus of empirical and theoretical work that merits being re-read. Thirdly, there has for sometime now, emerged a revisionist historiography that has devoted itself to a re-interpretation of various aspects of the history of Africa’s relations with Europe with a view to casting old relations of domination and subordination in new, better light. That revisionist historiography begs for well-considered African responses which African historians are best placed to offer. Fourthly, the revisionist historiography has, in a direct affront to the colonised, also fed into political discourses and decisions in parts of Europe aimed at recognising and celebrating an imperial past. Finally, in terms of the balance of power in the contemporary global order that is itself suffused with expressions of new hegemonies, the peoples of Africa are exposed to various sources of pressure that both threaten to unleash a new scramble for their continent and abridge their independence.

In the face of the various challenges faced by Africa to its history, its present and its future as captured by the twin themes of domination and resistance, African historians are invited to engage in a critical re-reading of these important elements of the experiences of the peoples of the continent. In doing so, participants in the conference will be encouraged to explore historical and contemporary dimensions and experiences of domination for the questions they raise and the lessons they teach. Attention will be focused at the conference as much on the political, economic and military dimensions of domination and resistance as on the social, cultural and aesthetic aspects. Furthermore, revisionist historiographies on experiences of domination will be evaluated through a re-visiting of various histories of domination as experienced across Africa. Similarly, the organisation of resistance to domination will be assessed both in its historical expressions and with regard to the historiography developed around it. Perspectives aimed at historicizing contemporary experiences and threats of domination and resistance will be encouraged at the conference. Researchers working on the gendered dimensions of experiences of domination and resistance, a highly neglected aspect of the history and historiography of the topic, are strongly encouraged to submit presentations to the conference. The mobilisation and use of memories of domination and resistance both in history and in the contemporary period will also be examined. Researchers with an active interest in African history who wish to be part of the conference are invited to send abstracts of the papers they wish to present to CODESRIA by a deadline of 16 May, 2008. In choosing areas of focus and developing abstracts, potential conference participants are encouraged to focus on any aspects of the past and recent history of Africa that may be of interest to them. Authors of abstracts that are deemed suitable by CODESRIA for development into full papers will be notified of the outcome of the selection exercise by 31May, 2008. Full papers from those whose abstracts have been selected must reach the CODESRIA Secretariat by18 July, 2008. The participation costs of those whose papers are accepted for presentation at the conference will be covered fully or partially by CODESRIA. All abstracts and papers should be addressed to:

CODESRIA,
(SOS African History),
BP 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, Senegal.
Tel.: +221-33 825 98 22/23
Fax: +221-33 824 12 89
E-mail: african.history@codesria.sn
Website: http://www.codesria.org

Africa: Cortona Summer School

2008-03-12

http://www.aegis-eu.org/pdf/Cortona2008%20_2nd%20call.pdf

The 2008 summer school will focus on Borders and Border-Crossings in Africa. It will be sponsored by AEGIS-Naples in collaboration with the AEGIS Centres of Bayreuth, Edinburgh and Leiden. The aim of the summer school is: a) to bring together advanced Ph.D. students and teaching staff from AEGIS Centres (and possibly beyond) in order to exchange field and research experience; b) to improve the students’ ability to prepare and present their research in an international context; c) to promote graduate training within AEGIS and stimulate African-European inter-university cooperation. Application deadline 15 March 2008.

Egypt: Second annual Pan African Youth Leadership Forum

2008-03-13

http://www.fafrica.org/youthleadership2008.htm

The Pan African Youth Leadership Forum II will be a one-week program to be held in Egypt in June 2008.The Pan African Youth Leadership Forum II is a follow up to the first Pan African Youth Leadership Forum (PAYLF), "Democracy in Africa: Renewing the Vision," which was held in Accra, Ghana, June 18 – 25, 2007. The PAYLF will be held annually to take stock of achievements, analyze the current political and economic situation in Africa, make recommendations and develop an agenda which will be presented to leaders present at the African Union Heads of State summit.

Global: The War Question for Feminism

2008-03-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/46668

An international conference on Gender aspects on militaries, armed conflict and peacekeeping will be held on 22-23 September, 2008, Örebro University, Sweden. The Convenors are Erika Svedberg from the Institute of Thematic Gender Studies and Örebro University and Annica Kronsell from the Department of political science at Lund University. The convenors were part of a group organizing the international conference at Lund University: A World in Transition. Feminist Perspectives on International Relations, in May 1996. This conference is a follow-up of that successful event.
International Conference

The War Question for Feminism.

Gender aspects on militaries, armed conflict and peacekeeping
22-23 September, 2008, Örebro University, Sweden

Call for papers

Submission of abstracts: April 15, 2008
Paper submission: September 1, 2008

Convenors are Erika Svedberg from the Institute of Thematic Gender Studies and Örebro University and Annica Kronsell from the Department of political science at Lund University. The convenors were part of a group organizing the international conference at Lund University: A World in Transition. Feminist Perspectives on International Relations, in May 1996. This conference is a follow-up of that successful event. The War Question for Feminism-conference is organized within the Institute of Thematic Gender Studies a new two-campus milieu for gender research at Linköping University and Örebro University in Sweden, led by Professors Nina Lykke and Anna Jónasdóttir.


Theme 1: War as a Feminist Issue

The central argument for this theme is that war is a feminist issue/question.
There is a long-standing and historical split within the women’s movement on whether to be pro-nation or pro-peace which seem to have made feminists somewhat uncomfortable with the war question. War is a feminist concern because conflict relations between states or organized groups affect women as well as men, violence used in violent conflict is often sexualized and because militaries and arms is a substantial part of public resource spending. If there would ever be a truly feminist state, would this state have a military organization? Would it have an army, weapon production and military spending? War is an economic issue and feminist researchers should not ignore the military/defense budget as part of the (welfare) state budget? Arms production and trade is also connected to military budgets and what would a feminist analysis of the arms trade come up with? The means used in the waging of contemporary wars – like rape, forced prostitution and other forms of sexual violence seem to be an integral part of the organized forms of violence. It shows that the means used in war-making are gendered. The trend for some militaries of western democratic states is to engage in the war on terror while another trend is to move much more into international peace-enforcement and peacekeeping.
Is the trend to train militaries for peacekeeping tasks a way to de-militarize the military? Are the efforts of gender mainstreaming peacekeeping a way to feminize the military?


Theme 2: Militarism and Masculinities

This theme takes the starting point in that the military organization historically has been exclusively male and part of nation building. Nation building is highly interconnected with militaries with conscription as an illustrative example.
Norms relevant for military practice like hierarchy, group cohesion and organized violence as problem solving, have been tied to norms of heterosexual masculinity. How is masculinity related to the task of the military organization?
What is the relationship between masculinity and the role of the warrior, in the ‘war on terror’ militaries, insurgency, and guerrillas or in peacekeeping? Are UN peacekeepers real men or ‘sissies in arms’? Sexuality has been an integral aspect of the military organization with the wide use of pornographic material, sexualized language, sexual harassment within bases and prostitution as well as rape near military bases. As we are seeing sexualized violence in war being used against both civilians and soldiers as part of strategic warfare we might ask; what is the relationship between patriarchy, militarism and misogyny in different contexts in contemporary warfare?
What does this tell us about the relationship between military violence and sexuality? Can the military be democratized? Is it possible to think of a military where men and women serve side by side as comrades, without sexism? Is it possible to move beyond the heterosexual masculinity norm as an organizing principle of the military?


Theme 3: Feminist concepts travelling into the area of security, the military, violent conflicts and peacekeeping operations

The focus of this theme is on travelling concepts. The idea of travelling concepts was developed in the Women’s Studies/Gender Studies project Athena with the aim of considering how concepts introduced and developed by feminist scholars are used for particularly educational but also research purposes in different European contexts. A central question is how feminist concepts may be translated across linguistic and cultural barriers while still conveying the same meaning. What happens when concepts travel? When feminist concepts are put into practice, do they acquire new meanings? When new meanings develop, how can they be understood? What does it tell us about the context in which they are being used? In this theme we are particularly concerned with the translation and implementation of feminist concepts into political, policy and administrative settings. Central questions are how have, for example, the concepts of gender/gender mainstreaming/gender perspectives been used or put into practice in security, defense and military understandings and settings. One example here is the UN Security Council Resolution 1325. We want to look at how concepts from feminist research and activism travel from one setting to, for example different national settings of security policy and military strategy.

We welcome abstracts of no more than 300 words addressing one of the three themes of the conference. Please send it to the conference organizers:
Erika.Svedberg@sam.oru.se and Annica.Kronsell@svet.lu.se no later than April 15, 2008.
Deadlines:

Submission of abstracts: April 15, 2008
Paper submission: September 1, 2008

Notes
1 This title was inspired by the work of Christine Sylvester.
2 A selection of papers and summaries of workshop discussions were published as a special edition of Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift, 1997.
3 It is connected with GEXcel - Gendering Excellence (www.genderexcel.org), a fiveyears Visiting Fellows Programme which started in 2007 supported by a grant from the Swedish Research Council. GEXcel gathers prominent senior as well as younger scholars from all over the world.

Global: W3C Workshop on the "Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social Development"

2008-03-13

http://www.w3.org/Mobile/

The W3C Workshop on the "Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social Development" aims to understand specific challenges of using mobile phones and Web technologies to deliver services to underprivileged populations of Developing Countries. People and organizations who have an interest in the role of mobile phones and the Web in social development and who wish to participate in the workshop are invited to submit position papers to the Workshop Committee (by email to team-m4d-ws-submit@w3.org)

International Workshop on Resource Mobilization - Bursaries available

2008-03-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/46680

The African Women’s Development Fund is offering bursaries to interested grantees to attend The International Workshop on Resource Mobilisation (IWRM), a three day international conference being organised by Resource Alliance in Malaysia. The workshop will equip participants with the relevant skills needed for effective and sustainable fundraising and resource mobilisation. Please note that the deadline for receiving all applications is March 30, 2008.
ANNOUNCEMENT

INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON RESOURCE MOBILISTION – MALAYSIA
Dates: 22-25 May 2008

Introduction

The African Women’s Development Fund is offering bursaries to interested grantees to attend The International Workshop on Resource Mobilisation (IWRM), a three day international conference being organised by Resource Alliance in Malaysia. The workshop will equip participants with the relevant skills needed for effective and sustainable fundraising and resource mobilisation.

What you will gain:

- A set of practical skills that will help you build the fundraising capacity of your organisation
- Insights into best practice in local resource mobilisation from our superb line-up of leading fundraising experts and practitioners from around the world
- A clear strategy for dialogue with institutional donors, the government, and business communities in your country to strengthen support for civil society and your own organisation
- Access to a global network of fellow fundraising professionals from over 250 non-profit organisations around the world


Application Requirement

· The applicant should have some practical experience of fundraising.
· The applicant should be someone who would benefit professionally from exposure to resource mobilization training, i.e. they have to be able to make use of the IWRM experience.
· The applicant should be fluent in English.
· All bursary recipients are required to send us a report within two months of attending the conference, providing feedback on their experience and stating how they plan to use the knowledge gained.
· Applicant’s organisation must be capable and willing to cost share if necessary

How to Apply

Individuals applying should submit the following documents
· Name of organisation
· Address
· Telephone and Fax number
· Contact person's name and title
· Application letter
· Brief resume of previous fundraising experience
· Statement of how attending the IWRM will benefit their work.
· A signed recommendation letter from applicant’s organisation

Important information

The process for selecting qualified applicant will be highly competitive and will adhere strictly to the eligibility criteria.

Please send your application documents to the following address.

Soft copies should be email to awdf@awdf.org

The Grants Administrator
The African Women’s Development Fund
25, Yiyiwa Street,
Abelenkpe-Accra PMB CT89 Cantonments
Accra, Ghana
Tel/Fax: 00233 21 782502
Tel: 00233 21 780476/7
Email: awdf@awdf.org

Please note that the deadline for receiving all applications is March 30, 2008

South Africa: Call for Papers: Conference on the Developmental State in South Africa

2008-03-12

http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Event-337.phtml

A conference on “The Potentialities and Challenges of Constructing a Democratic Developmental State in South Africa” to be held at a venue within the Cradle of Mankind, Gauteng, South Africa, and will take place on Wednesday 4 to Friday 6 June 2008. The Human Sciences Research Council calls on scholars with knowledge of the South African political economy to submit abstracts on the themes listed within the attachment to the convener of the conference, Dr Omano Edigheji (oedigheji@hsrc.ac.za) by 28 March 2008.

The CODESRIA Annual Social Science Campus - 2008 Session

The Contemporary Pan-African Ideal: Historical Roots, Future Prospects

2008-03-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/46649

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the seventh session of its Annual Social Science Campus, and invites applications from African scholars for participation in the programme which, this year, is scheduled to hold in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, from 29 September, 2008 to 03 October, 2008. The Campus is conceived as an advanced research dialogue that is both multidisciplinary and intergenerational in nature.
The CODESRIA Annual Social Science Campus

2008 Session
Theme: The Contemporary Pan-African Ideal: Historical Roots, Future Prospects
Date: 29 September – 03 October, 2008
Venue: Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania

Call for Applications

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the seventh session of its Annual Social Science Campus, and invites applications from African scholars for participation in the programme which, this year, is scheduled to hold in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, from 29 September, 2008 to 03 October, 2008. The Campus is conceived as an advanced research dialogue that is both multidisciplinary and intergenerational in nature. It is organised around a specific theme and up to 15 scholars, drawn from different disciplines and reflecting the different generations of African social researchers, are elected to participate in the Campus. This mix of participants is designed to have the added value of promoting an intensive and critical dialogue among the disciplines, as well as among different generations of African scholars for the advancement of theory, method and practice. Each Campus is planned as an intensive interactive exercise to last a period of one week.

Participation in the Campus is based primarily on the submission of a draft research paper which contains ideas for fresh, innovative work or the substantive extension of work that is already in progress and linked to the theme of the Campus. The proceedings of the Campus are managed by a designated coordinator who also takes on the responsibility for elaborating the programme of presentations and debates among the participants. Furthermore, the coordinator, working with the CODESRIA Centre for Documentation (CODICE), will be responsible for identifying core literature for use by the participants in the Campus. Scholars whose proposals are selected would be required to participate in the Campus by presenting their own papers, responding to the papers of other participants, and undertaking a critical reading/re-reading of core texts as part of an intensive multidisciplinary and inter-generational dialogue. At the close of the Campus, participants will be encouraged to revise their presentations and submit these for consideration for publication in a new series known as Annals of the CODESRIA Annual Social Science Campus. Each publication in the series will be edited by the designated coordinator of the campus at which the papers were presented.

For the 2008 session of the Campus, the theme that has been selected is: The Contemporary Pan-African Ideal: Historical Roots, Future Prospects. This is a theme which speaks to the on-going debates across Africa and the African Diaspora on the contemporary challenges of unifying, integrating and developing the countries of the continent in an age of accelerated globalisation. In deciding to focus the 2008 Campus on pan-Africanism, CODESRIA seeks to bring a historical context, critical dimension and futures perspective to bear on the debates that are taking place. These debates are mostly being conducted as though the issues under discussion have no historical antecedents worth reflecting upon; they are also being carried out as though only very limited choices are open to Africans with regard to their unity and integration. Researchers selected to participate in the 2008 Campus will be invited to challenge these spoken and unspoken assumptions on the basis of which the future of Africa is being debated. They will also be encouraged to rise above the ahistoricism that characterises much of the contemporary debate on the pan-African ideal and provide a better-grounded exploration of the opportunities, prospects and challenges of advancing the frontiers of pan-Africanism for the 21st century. The theme of pan-Africanism has been a recurrent one in the history of the peoples of Africa and of African descent. Over the period since the pioneering efforts of Henry Sylvester Williams, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois, succeeding generations of African leaders and thinkers have grappled with the question of African unity, identity and renaissance, doing so in the framework of changing contexts and circumstances within and outside the continent that have, themselves, provoked regular re-engagements by Africans with their own history as a people. In contemporary times, the challenges of African unity and economic integration have, once again, come to occupy the front burner in continental political debates. The immediate trigger for this renewed interest was the post-Apartheid context of the 1990s in Africa and the collective reflection that ensued on how the project of pan-African unity might be advanced further in the wake of the complete liberation of the continent from colonial rule, settler and non-settler. If the post-Apartheid environment of pan-African politics concentrated minds about the future of the continent, the context of accelerated globalisation and the threat of fragmentation which it posed added a sense of urgency to the quest for a collective investment of effort into the construction of a shared political community for the peoples of the continent. The reflection that took place was to express itself in many different ways, including the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) in 2001.

Both in its structure and mission, the AU was designed to represent a new, even qualitatively different stage in the quest for a contemporary pan-African unity around which all the peoples of the continent and the African Diaspora could be mobilised. However, soon after the formal inauguration of the Union, it was clear that not every actor had a commonly shared understanding of its place in the project and processes of unification and integration. It was also evident that the degree of sovereignty which individual member-states of the AU needed to cede in order to advance the frontiers of continental integration and unity had probably not been adequately thought through by all the parties concerned. Furthermore, the ambition of ensuring that contemporary pan-Africanism is driven more by the peoples of the continent and managed less as an exclusive affair of heads of states and governments required a wholesale re-thinking of strategy than may have been anticipated. The differences in understanding and approach that have affected the functioning of the AU as both instrument and site of unification and integration, and the accompanying sense of frustration that soon emerged, culminated in the so-called Grand Debate that took place at the mid-2007 Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Accra, Ghana, at which the 50th anniversary of the independence of the country was also formally celebrated by the continent. But neither the symbolism of Ghana at 50 nor the choice of Accra as the venue for the Grand Debate sufficiently motivated the summiteers to develop and agree upon a “roadmap” for the unification and integration of the continent. The Accra Grand Debate on African unity pitched two opposing perspectives against each other. The first perspective argued the case for the speedy, even immediate establishment of a union government for Africa as a further step towards the realisation of the dream of a United States of Africa. The second perspective, whilst not disagreeing with the desirability of the ultimate goal of building African unity, argued the case for a much more gradualist approach that might begin with more concerted regional economic cooperation and integration efforts. Both positions echoed similar competing visions that have been integral to the history of pan-Africanism from the very beginning. In this connection, it is worth recalling the differences in approach between Garvey and Du Bois, Nkrumah and Nyerere and the Casablanca and Monrovia blocs. At issue at different points in the history of pan-Africanism are not just concerns about content but also questions about timing, phasing and sequencing. Yet, the Accra Debate was conducted as though it was occurring in a historical vacuum and without due attention to the possible lessons which the history of the quest for unity and integration could teach. Participants in the 2008 Campus will be encouraged to redress this deficit of historical anchorage in the contemporary debates on the pan-African ideal. In doing so, they will be called upon to explore the various elements of continuity and change in the articulation of the contemporary pan-African ideal. Of particular importance in this connection is the question of what it means, philosophically, to be pan-African today. For, without a full exploration of pan-Africanism as a state of being and the forging of a common understanding around that state of being, the quest for a “roadmap” towards unity and integration will simply continue to be conducted in the blind or on the basis of symbolic gestures. Pan-Africanism conceptualised as a state of being also carries meaning for the politics of contemporary pan-Africanism that will examined alongside the historical and contemporary imperatives for unity and identity. Furthermore, the perennial contradiction of constructing pan-Africanism on a foundation of a system of nation-statism that is permanently being reproduced and reinforced will be assessed. So too will the tensions between the ideal of a people-driven union and unification processes and structures dominated by states.

Scholars who are already reflecting on the problematic of pan-Africanism and who have innovative perspectives to share with other researchers and the wider academy are invited to submit their applications to reach the CODESRIA Secretariat not later than 25 July, 2008. In addition to a substantive proposal of not more than 10 pages reflecting on-going work on this theme or proposed new concerns that are to pursued, interested participants should also send their current curriculum vitae.

Applications should be sent to:

The CODESRIA Annual Social Science Campus,
Department of Training, Grants and Fellowships,
CODESRIA, BP 3304,
CP 18524, Dakar, Senegal.
Tel: +221-33 825 98 22/23
Fax: +221-33 824 12 89
E-mail: annual.campus@codesria.sn
Website: http://www.codesria.org

Global: Programme Officer for Sub-Saharan Africa - Sigrid Rausing Trust

2008-03-13

http://www.sigrid-rausing-trust.org/notice.htm

The Sigrid Rausing Trust is a UK-based human rights funding organisation, with an annual grant-making budget of approximately £18 million. It is seeking to employ an Africa Programme Officer, who will assist the Trust to increase its human rights grant-making in Sub-Saharan Africa, within its priority areas of civil and political rights, women's rights, minority rights and social and economic rights. The programme officer will be responsible for developing a strategy for grant-making in parts of the region. S/he will be the first point of contact for organisations applying for funding from the region and will be responsible for all aspects of grant-making for the portfolio. S/he will be located at our offices in London but will travel regularly to the region.
Please send a cover letter and your CV, either by email to jobs@srtrust.org; or by mail to Diana Clarke, Sigrid Rausing Trust, Eardley House, 4 Uxbridge Street, London W8 7SY. Please clearly mark the application "Africa programme officer position." Deadline for receipt of applications is 2nd April 2008.

Tanzania: Executive Director - Women's Dignity

2008-02-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/46241

Women's Dignity promotes citizen engagement to enable all Tanzanians- particularly marginalized girls and women - to realize their basic right to health. We hold a particular commitment to enhancing the rights of girls and women living with obstetric fistula. We seek innovation, bold vision, strong management and keen leadership. Strong preference will be given to a Tanzanian national. This is a senior level position requiring an experienced person. WDP offers competitive remuneration in a setting that promotes learning, social justice, team-work and high ethical standards. Closing date: February 29, 2008.
Executive Director / Women's Dignity / Dar es Salaam, Tanzania / Closing date: February 29, 2008.

THE ORGANIZATION:

Women's Dignity promotes citizen engagement to enable all Tanzanians-

particularly marginalized girls and women - to realize their basic right to health. We hold a particular commitment to enhancing the rights of girls and women living with obstetric fistula. We support citizens to access and use information to promote their health rights, and seek to ensure policies, programs and services promote the dignity and rights of the poor.

POSITION DESCRIPTION:

Our founding executive director will be leaving on 30 June 2008.

Women's Dignity is looking for a committed, competent, and creative person to lead the organization. We seek innovation, bold vision, strong management and keen leadership. Strong preference will be given to a Tanzanian national. This is a senior level position requiring an experienced person. WDP offers competitive remuneration in a setting that promotes learning, social justice, team-work and high ethical standards.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

-- Promote the vision and mission of Women's Dignity.

-- Provide strategic and conceptual leadership.

-- Manage and lead program development and implementation to the highest quality standards.

-- Conduct policy analysis and writing.

-- Oversee administrative and financial aspects of the organization with rigorous accountability.

-- Support and guide staff to produce high quality results in their work. Build partnerships.

-- Women's Dignity is in a strong financial position, but donor relations and fundraising remain an important aspect of the job.

QUALIFICATIONS:
A. Masters degree in public policy, public health, international development or similar field.

B. At least five years relevant experience.

C. Strategic and analytic ability.

D. Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and preferably Swahili also.

E. Strong management and organizational skills.

F. High level of creativity, initiative, ability to multi-task, and commitment to team work.

TO APPLY:

Please send the following information:

A. Your C.V.

B. At least two letters of reference.

C. A statement of not more than three pages on your experience related to the job you are seeking, and why you want to work in this position.

D. Your salary history. E. Your complete contact details. F. Two writing samples of up to 5 pages each.

Please send applications NO LATER THAN 29 FEBRUARY, 2008 to SEARCH, PO Box 3545, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

South Africa: Internship opportunity in governance/aid effectiveness in RSA - UNDPRSC

2008-03-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/46635

UNDP Regional Service Centre now have a possibility for an internship in Democratic Governance/Aid Effectiveness at the centre in Johannesburg, for Southern and Eastern Africa. The internship will be unpaid, preferably for a minimum of 6 months, and starting in March or April. Women and candidates from Southern or Eastern Africa are especially encouraged to apply.

To apply, interested individuals are asked to send a cover letter to gert.danielsen@undp.org with their stated preference for work or focus within Governance, Aid Effectiveness, Corruption or a related area, identifying how this would relate to any academic work they have pursued or will be pursuing in this period, if applicable. Kindly attach a CV. Preference will be given to candidates who reply by 10 March.

Egypt: Deputy RSD Team Leader - AMERA

2008-03-13

http://amera-uk.org/egypt/jobs.html

Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA) is seeking a qualified and dynamic legal officer for the deputy RSD team leader position. The job of the Deputy RSD team leader is full-time for 35 hours per week. S/he works under the day-to-day supervision of the RSD team leader. Application deadline: March 27 2008.

Advertising for Consultancy Services - SOAWR

2008-03-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/46658

FEMNET is looking for a consultant to design and write a booklet on advocacy approaches and experiences that SOAWR has used over the past years to campaign for the ratification, popularisation and implementation of the protocol. The consultant will be contracted for 45 days to carry out this duty and will report regularly to FEMNET’s advocacy officer.Deadline for applications is March 30, 2008.
Advertising for Consultancy Services:

Advocating for the Implementation of Critical Policy Instruments for African Women: The SOAWR Approach

Terms of Reference for the Consultant


1. Background

The Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) is a continental coalition made up of 29 Civil Society Organisations and Development partners working towards the promotion and protection of Women’s Human Rights in Africa. Since its inauguration in 2004 SOAWR’s main area of focus has been to get those countries that have not yet ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (herein after referred to as the African women rights Protocol) to do so with a sense of urgency; while at the same time encouraging states that have ratified to domesticate and implement it in their respective countries.

As SOAWR continues to promote the progress of work around the ratification and domestication of the African women rights Protocol, it feels that the time has come to document in the form of a booklet the approaches it has used over the years so as to energise, inspire and encourage other advocates in the course of delivering their mandates. Hence the booklet will demonstrate and document the work of the coalition in selected countries and the regional approaches engaged to successfully ensure the entry into of the African women rights Protocol at the short time in the history of the African Union.

This project will be coordinated by the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) under its advocacy programme on behalf of SOAWR. Established in 1988, FEMNET aims to share information, experiences, ideas and strategies among African women’s non-governmental organisations (NGOs) through advocacy, training, communications so as to advance African women’s development, equality and other human rights in Africa. It is pan African membership-based organisation with its office in Nairobi, Kenya and sits on the steering committee of SOAWR.

FEMNET is therefore looking for a consultant to design and write a booklet on advocacy approaches and experiences that SOAWR has used over the past years to campaign for the ratification, popularisation and implementation of the protocol.

The consultant will be contracted for 45 days to carry out this duty and will report regularly to FEMNET’s advocacy officer

2. Objectives

The booklet will:

·Give a brief historical background of the campaign;
·Outline and narrate national and continental-level strategies used for the first and second phases of the campaign for the ratification and domestication of the African women rights Protocol;
·Reflect on and analyse the national and continental campaigning experiences to date thereby serving as a resource guide for advocates;
·Provide sufficient information and analysis to interest advocates to pursue the strategies documented (highlighted) in the booklet in carrying out their advocacy or trigger creative ideas for advocacy
·To identify favourable factors or lack of for the outcome of the campaign analyse the achievements, the constraints and lessons learned to track what worked and what didn’t and the reasons for it;
·Assess the impact of the SOAWR campaign on public policy and constituency-building;

3. Methodology

In order to meet these objectives, the consultant will, as a preliminary step, prepare a work plan for the production of the SOAWR Advocacy Booklet indicating the methodology and developing an activity schedule with clear time frames; and will submit it in 2 days’ time.

After s/he is contracted for the project, the consultant will prepare a work program and an outline for the booklet which will guide the form and shape it will take. This should also be completed in two days. FEMNET, and SOAWR steering committee through FEMNET, will provide the consultant feedback on the two documents.

4. Qualification and Selection Criteria

The consultants will have post-graduate qualifications in gender, policy analysis, law, or other social sciences with experience of working in the field of gender and shall be assessed against the following criteria:
·Demonstration of understanding of the issues and task requested to achieve the objectives above;
·Experience in advocacy in areas relevant to women’s rights
·Knowledge of the AU processes and its commitments to Gender Equality particularly developments in ratification of the African women rights Protocol;
·S/he should have a passion for defending women’s human rights and possess strong organisational and communication skills.
·Excellent communication and writing skills, and sound computer literacy.
·Capability to deliver within required deadlines.

5. Terms and Conditions

·Duration: The duration of the consultancy is six weeks and the Consultant will be expected work independently and to submit a work plan covering this period.
·Fee: The consultants will be paid a lump sum salary of USD 5,000 (five thousand United Sates Dollars) inclusive of all related allowances. The amount shall be subjected to a withholding tax as per the requirements of the Kenya Revenue Authority.
·Reporting: The consultant will be responsible to FEMNET’s Advocacy officer to produce the outputs of this consultancy and should be ready to start work on April 15, 2008.

The Consultant will be expected to submit a draft booklet and after approval, a final document at the end of 2 weeks after the work deadline. The booklet should be clearly written and should contain an executive summary; a main section that will include methodology, findings on strategies and experiences used by SOAWR as defined in the object’s booklet. The Consultant should submit the final booklet in English in both hard copy and electronic format.

6. Deliverables and Expected Output

·A comprehensive, concise and user friendly booklet on approaches and experiences that SOAWR has used over the past years to campaign for the ratification, popularisation and implementation of the African women rights Protocol.

7. How to apply

Applications for this consultancy, including a cover letter, a detailed Curriculum Vitae including summaries of recent consultancy contracts, copies of certificates, a brief (no longer than 2 pages) statement of interest indicating how the consultant proposes conducting the research/ documentation and other supporting documents must be received no later than March 30, 2008, and should be addressed to:
The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)
KUSCCO Centre, Kilimanjaro Road,
off Mara Road in Upper Hill
Email: admin@femnet.or.ke

Africa: Coordinator - CCP-AU

2008-03-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/46665

the Center for Citizens’ Participation in the AU (CCP-AU)is seeking to recruit a coordinator to be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The deadline for applications is 18 March 2008.
Vacancy Announcement
Closing date: 18 March 2008
Job Title: Coordinator
Job Location: Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
Contract Length: Six months
Start Date: 15 April 2008

Background:

The idea of establishing an entity that would coordinate the engagement of CSOs with the African Union (AU) was initiated at a training workshop organized in November 2007 entitled Understanding the African Union and Seizing Opportunities for Change. The workshop was organized by two international and two Ethiopian organizations: Afroflag Youth Vision, Oxfam GB, the African Centre for Humanitarian Action (ACHA) and African Rally for Peace and Development. The objective of the workshop was to lay the groundwork for Ethiopian CSO understanding of the AU and its functions as a means of encouraging greater engagement between the two. As a result of the workshop, a task force was established with the mandate of coordinating and facilitating the activities of participating CSOs and to encourage that of others around the continent in their engagement with the AU. The task force has since become the Center for Citizens’ Participation in the AU (CCP-AU).

The organizations that comprise the CCP-AU are as follows:

- Action Aid-Ethiopia
- The African Centre for Humanitarian Action (ACHA)
- African Rally for Peace and Development (ARPD)
- Afroflag Youth Vision (AYV)
- Christian Relief and Development Association (CRDA
- Organization for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE)
- Oxfam GB

The objectives of the centre are to:

- Enhance Ethiopian CSO engagement in the activities of the AU;
- Scale up meaningful involvement of Ethiopian CSOs within a continental framework;
- Promote succeeding bi-annual CSO continental conferences in the lead-up to the AU summit; and
- Communicate CSO viewpoints on various protocols, treaties and charters of the African Union.


Description of the position: The CCP-AU Coordinator will undertake the following activities:

1. Institutional

a. Legal registration of the Centre
b. Develop a communications strategy
i. A website
ii.A media strategy
iii.Branding
iv.etc

c. Establish national chapters/nodes for the centre as a means of making it a continental body
d. Identify institutional funding for CCP-AU


2. Programme Initiation

a. Outreach
i. AU
ii.CSOs
iii.Other relevant partners
b. Standardization of a CCP-AU CSO-AU engagement training manual
c. Plan a CSO training in Cairo, Egypt in April 2008
d. Plan the third biannual CSO continental conference: Cairo, Egypt in June 2008
i.Scope of conference
ii.Speakers and attendees
iii.Financing
iv.Logistics

e. Engage in the AU-EU joint strategy CSO consultations
f. Establish and operationalise the AU-CSO InfoCenter

Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in the social sciences.
- Four years professional experience.
- At least two years pan-African work experience.
- Experience with advocacy and coordination.
- Knowledgeable about the AU and African CSO movements.
- Connected to continental CSO experts.
- Able to plan and facilitate trainings.
- Adept at written and oral communication.
- Self-starter.
- Fluent in French and English.

Desirable:
- Masters degree in the social sciences or 4-6 years equivalent experience.
- National of one of the AU’s member states.
- Proficiency in Amharic.

Vacancies Contact:
Please send a letter of motivation and resume to: admin@achanet.org . Only complete applications will be accepted. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. No other acknowledgements will be sent. Qualified women are strongly encouraged to apply.

Fahamu