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Challenges of democratic transition in Africa

2008-05-15

Femi Falana

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/48136

The challenges confronting Africa's democratic experiments are many and complex and include entrenching constitutionalism and the reconstruction of the postcolonial state, writes Femi Falana. To move Africa forward, emerging democratic governments would have to confront a legacy of poverty, illiteracy, militarization, and underdevelopment produced by incompetent or corrupt governments.


After several decades of colonialism, Zimbabwe became independent in 1980. Having regard to the progressive antecedent of the leaders of the liberation movement expectations were high that the country would witness rapid socio-economic transformation and political stability. Instead of facing the challenge of the development, President Robert Mugabe turned the country into a one party state. Human rights were suppressed whilst some of the colonial laws were refurbished and applied with ferocity. Many opposition figures were either jailed or driven to exile.

Farmlands, which had been illegally acquired under colonial rule, were violently seized by war veterans at the instance of the government when the national parliament controlled by the ZANU-PF could have promoted land redistribution through legislation. The mismanagement of the economy has led to the unemployment, poverty, deprivations and general dislocation, which has virtually brought the country to her, kneels. The silence of African leaders and connivance of the South African regime led the opposition to turn to the West. Ironically, Mugabe’s anti-imperialist rhetoric, in the circumstances, won him sympathy in many African countries. This development has divided government and even civil society groups with respect to taking a united stand against the misrule of President Mugabe.

Recent experiences from Kenya and Zimbabwe illustrate the difficult and daunting task of consolidating democracy on the continent. Available evidence indicates that many of the new democratic regimes remain fragile and some of the euphoria of the early 1990s had evaporated. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the authoritarianism and statism of the early post-independence years was in retreat, and, where it persisted, was vigorously contested in a context in which democratic aspirations were firmly implanted in popular consciousness and the pluralization of associational life was an integral part of the political landscape. It was indeed a mark of the changed times that, whereas previously development had been regarded as a prerequisite of democracy, now democracy is seen as indispensable for development.

The challenges confronting Africa's democratic experiments are many and complex and include entrenching constitutionalism and the reconstruction of the postcolonial state; ensuring that the armed forces are permanently kept out of politics, instituting structures for the effective management of natural resources; promoting sustainable development and political stability; nurturing effective leadership, and safeguarding human rights and the rule of law.

In Africa, as elsewhere, democratic government and respect for human rights are closely linked. Democracy is the best means the world has produced to protect and advance human rights, based on individual freedom and dignity. In turn, respect for human rights is the only means by which a democracy can sustain the individual freedom and dignity that enables it to endure.

Despite some improvements in some parts of the continent, Africa remains the site of very serious human rights problems. For example, in the Sudan, the armed conflict in Darfur continues and the dismal human rights situation shows no signs of improvement. Both government and rebels commit horrendous abuses. In Somalia, the civil war continues unabated and the human rights situation goes on deteriorating; the civilian population has been the ultimate victim, as recently reported by Amnesty International. Only a handful of countries that hold the regular multi-party elections in Africa are rated as free, and in line with international and regional standards.

In addition, most of the countries in Africa operate ‘semi-authoritarian regimes’ because they have the facade of democracy; that is, they have political systems, they have all the institutions of democratic political systems, they have elected parliaments, and they hold regular elections. They have nominally independent judiciaries. They have constitutions that are by and large completely acceptable as democratic institutions--but there are, at the same time, very serious problems in the functioning of the democratic system.

Semi-authoritarian regimes are very good at holding multi-party elections while at the same time making sure that the core power of the government is never going to be affected. In other words, they are going to hold elections, but they are not--the regime is not going to lose those elections. Semi-authoritarian regimes intimidate voters, as it happened in the recent elections in Zimbabwe. Semi-authoritarian regimes manipulate state institutions for self-ends—governments don’t respect the laws, and don’t work through institutions. Semi-authoritarian regimes amend constitutions anytime they want.

Semi-authoritarian regimes will not introduce fully participatory, competitive elections that may result in their loss of power, and some are even unsure of how far they really want to go toward political pluralism in their countries. African politics is generally speaking, a matter of personality, not programs. For example, during the Obasanjo administration the prevailing idea was that the president was the father of the nation, the big man, or Kabiyesi, that is, no one dared question him.

A strong and effective democratic process should be able to establish a functioning administrative structure; and address the issue of how leaders are chosen; the issue of how different institutions relate to each other; the issues of how officials should act, for example, how the judiciary should act, the independence of the judiciary from other branches of government, and the problem of how the decisions that are taken by these democratic institutions can be implemented.

To move Africa forward, emerging democratic governments would have to confront a legacy of poverty, illiteracy, militarization, and underdevelopment produced by incompetent or corrupt governments. The syndrome of personal dictatorships and the winner-take-all practice as we have in Zimbabwe for example would need to be addressed, and there must be full respect for human rights; constitutional government and the rule of law; transparency in the wielding of power, and accountability of those who exercise power.

The basic rule of the democracy game is that the winners do not forever dislodge the losers. It is important for the consolidation of democracy that losers believe in the system and think that they can get back into the game. African governments must create an enabling environment in which traditions and values of the constitution will be able to take root and where rights and duties are set out. In this process, the separation of powers must be facilitated. Government must allow institutions to work and must allow citizens to exercise their rights, to live in accordance with their religious beliefs and cultural values, without interference. The legal order must be based on human rights, societal awareness of the instrumental and intrinsic values of democracy, a competent state, and a culture of tolerance.

Democracy requires that those who have authority use it for the public good; a democratic system of government begins by recognizing that all members of society are equal. People should have equal say and equal participation in the affairs of government and decision making in society, because, in the final analysis, government exists to serve the people; the people do not exist to serve government. In other words, governments must enhance individual rights and not stifle their existence. Repressive laws on many African countries’ statute books against personal liberty and habeas corpus must be removed from the statute books.

In most African countries, a tremendous amount of information does not circulate beyond a small portion of the urban population, owing to illiteracy, language barriers, and costs. Because the individual ignorance of personal rights and understanding of what democracy means has encouraged authoritarianism in Africa, political education at the grass roots is necessary. If a genuine democracy is to become a reality in Africa, the participation of the masses has to be sought by politicians, and not bought by manipulators.

Politicians should try to understand what the masses know, because they sometimes lack the ability to articulate their interests and grievances. However, politicians also should be educated about human rights and respect for the constitution. Education is crucial to the development of a culture of tolerance, which, it is hoped, would contribute immensely to the creation of an enabling environment for democracy.

We must encourage citizens to learn the habits of civil disobedience on a massive scale. We must encourage people to go out and demonstrate, to show their opinion regarding issues, because we must eliminate the culture of fear.

Role of civil society

It is unrealistic to expect that African countries will suddenly reverse course without internal pressure from civil society groups and institutionalize stable democratic government. The significance of a strong and energetic civil society in the transition to democracy cannot be over-emphasised. Perhaps one reason that Africa has not crumbled into total absolutism is because civil society has managed to survive, providing a mode of expression against authoritarianism, despite systematic efforts by the state to destroy it.

It is incumbent upon civil society to promote socialization by moving people away from thinking about the state and encouraging them to think what they want without fear. The public must fully participate in the affairs of state, with the state protecting their rights to be recognized. In this context, the value of the role of citizens and civil society is to organize and articulate the interests of local communities and the grass roots to the highest levels—even bringing about the change of laws—by serving as effective pressure groups.
Many governments are not willing to create an enabling environment. But by standing up, civil society organizations can insist and force governments to create a space. We must keep the culture of resistance alive and continue to question authoritarian rule especially on the important issues of human rights, constitutionalism and rule of law.

Political parties, human rights organizations and other civil society groups should mobilize the people to reject economic policies dictated to African governments by the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which have exacerbated poverty in Africa. The demand for participatory democracy should not be limited to conduct of free and fair elections only. It must also include the management of the economy in the interest of the people, otherwise, the fragile democratic process in bound to collapse.

With the pending elections in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Guinea, civil society organizations in West Africa gathered in this forum should unite in sending a clear message to the ECOWAS and AU that the subversion of democracy under whatever guise. Following this meeting, our engagement should be to immediately commence sensitization and mobilization of the population against the manipulation of constitutions and electoral laws, as well as the electoral process.

* Femi Falana is President West African Bar Association

* This article is based on a presentation at the West African Bar Association held in Abuja, Nigeria, 13 May 2008. The final communique from thetwo-day regional dialogue on the political situation in Zimbabwe can be found at the link shown below

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
COMMUNIQUÉ ISSUED AT THE END OF A TWO-DAY WEST AFRICAN DIALOGUE ON THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE
We, the representatives of civil society organizations from 13 member states of the ECOWAS region, in addition to Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, meeting under the auspices of the West African Bar Association (WABA), West African Human Rights Forum (WAHRF) and the West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) working with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) at a two-day dialogue on the political situation in Zimbabwe under the theme “institutionalizing peaceful political transitions in Africa”;

Having considered and deliberated on the dire political situation in Zimbabwe exacerbated by the late release of the results of the Presidential elections of March 29th, 2008;

Concerned about the lingering and deteriorating socio-economic conditions in Zimbabwe;

Worried about the spate of attacks on opposition party supporters, professionals, trade unionists, civil society activists, and particularly, women and children;

Conscious of Zimbabwe’s commitments to a number of international and regional instruments which affirm the rights of people to democratically elect their leaders, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Bills of Rights;

Recognizing and welcoming the important role played by certain countries and people in attempting to resolve the political imbroglio in Zimbabwe;

Encouraged by the efforts and support of particular African Heads of State who recognized that the will and aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe is paramount and far above that of any individual;

And observing that:

- West Africans are desirous to call attention to the deplorable political situation in Zimbabwe;
- the elections of Saturday, 29th March 2008 represented a watershed in the annals of elections in Zimbabwe;
- the political parties have agreed to participate in the run-off elections;
- the ruling government has variously, and continues to, interfere in the statutory functions of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and thereby compromising its independence and credibility;
- the silence of some African countries exacerbates the Zimbabwean crises.

Wish to call on the Zimbabwean government to take urgent steps to

- create a conducive political environment that allows for unhindered exercise of fundamental human rights, particularly the right to vote and association .
- allow external observers not only to observe the Presidential runoff but also monitor the processes leading to the elections;
- allow unimpeded media access to all polling units before, during and after the runoff.

We also call on the ECOWAS, SADC, African Union and the United Nations to prevail on the government of Zimbabwe to ensure:
- that the run-off election is conducted in accordance with international standards
- an immediate end to violence and human rights violations.

Finally, we call on the governments and peoples of Africa to stand in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe in defence of their democratic rights.


Abuja, Tuesday, 13th May 2008.

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Namibia and Zimbabwe - the second liberation

2008-05-13

Henning Melber

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/48050

Henning Melber looks at the possibilities for a people-centred opposition and ultimately a true liberation in Namibia and Zimbabwe, after years of misrule by the liberation movements-turned-ruling parties.


‘There is a need for a healing of the nation. The process of national healing and reconciliation is unlikely to proceed as long as society is still polarised. In addition, without also addressing past crimes, corruption, marginalisation and poverty, it is unlikely that reconciliation can be achieved.’

This insight was contained in the Kenya mission report of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). It was submitted by the APRM panel of eminent persons to the continent’s heads of state at the African Union summit in July 2006.[1] One and a half years later, Kenyan society was traumatised by the worst violence since independence and its people more divided than ever. The (allegedly orchestrated) civil war-like situation erupted over disputed election results. It showed that, beneath the surface of a seemingly peaceful society, deep-rooted antagonisms could be mobilised to unleash blind hatred and massive destruction of property and lives between people who had hitherto lived in relative peace with each other. In such circumstances an assumed socio-political stability proved to be treacherous, fragile, and prone to easy manipulation.

Many societies in Africa are confronted with similar challenges. Since the mid-1990s national reconciliation initiatives have emerged in a series of African countries. These were inspired by the widely praised Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa, which symbolised the country’s collective effort to come to terms with a past that still dominated its present and could have a lasting impact on its future. Despite all its limitations, the TRC has been widely perceived as an encouraging initiative, as a lesson in bringing skeletons out of the closet and dealing publicly with the lasting effects of violence and counter-violence. Far from solving structurally rooted historical legacies and their daily impact on the lives of ordinary citizens, or ending discrimination, or bringing to task many of the perpetrators, it brought to the fore the need to address history in the present.[2] Similar initiatives were taken in other war-torn societies marred by organised repression and mass violence, which had left festering wounds and scars among people now longing for healing and seeking a common future.

Two former settler societies neighbouring South Africa are among the countries whose governments did not follow this trend and refused to seek national reconciliation by means of public debate and transitional forms of justice and reconciliation. Zimbabwe and Namibia achieved their independence through long anti-colonial struggles led by liberation movements. In both cases the final defeat of colonialism was not achieved through the barrel of a gun (although the military dimension had an important role in forcing the colonial power to the negotiating table) but through agreements reached between the parties for change. These provided a transitional framework which limited the space for social transformation and the redistribution of wealth.

As a result of this negotiated decolonisation, the former liberation movements (Zanu PF in Zimbabwe and SWAPO in Namibia) were elected as legitimate governments in 1980 and 1990 respectively and have held absolute political power and control over the state bureaucracy since then (although, as we can currently see in Zimbabwe, not for eternity). In contrast to South Africa’s democratically elected government under the ANC, the Zimbabwean and Namibian political leadership never pursued anything similar to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Instead, they proclaimed national reconciliation as some kind of pragmatic agreement which became effective with independence. Their policy was to leave the past behind, with no public debate or dialogue over the injustices committed (although selective reference to colonial crimes was made when needed and commemorated as part of the liberation gospel).

In both societies the justification for casting this kind of official smokescreen over the colonial past was rooted to some extent in the argument that the repressive machinery of colonial occupation had been staffed and executed by many who at independence could no longer be held accountable. This was either because of an amnesty declared for those on all sides of the conflict, or because some of the worst abusers of human rights had retreated to their British or South African countries of origin. National reconciliation was defined in terms of closing the colonial chapter without seeking justice through institutionalised hearings or other forms of coming to terms with the past. The cleansing process, which to some extent was initiated and implemented in the South African TRC, was conspicuously absent. Not so, however, the collective blame placed on colonialism for all subsequent failures in post-independence nation-building and re-structuring of society, which (despite some relevant aspects) was often used as an excuse to evade responsibility for ‘good governance’.

This seemingly pragmatic (and rather self-righteous) approach denied the need and missed the opportunity to deal with failures in the ranks of the liberation movements themselves. This had never been the main issue in the TRC, but was unavoidably brought to the fore when the excesses of the apartheid regime were laid open. Even though the degree of self-critical examination of human rights violations within the ANC was rather limited (and hampered the final process of publicising the TRC report’s findings), it nevertheless became an issue for which President Nelson Mandela apologised to the victims and their families. Having been imprisoned for almost three decades since the early 1960s, Madiba was a charismatic leader and moral role model who could apologise for failures in the exiled ANC, for which he was obviously not personally responsible, nor perhaps even aware. This sign of remorse and indirect moral responsibility only added to his aura.

In contrast, both Robert Mugabe of Zanu PF and Sam Nujoma of SWAPO were active leaders in exile, deeply involved in internal power struggles. They were not only an integral part of the authoritarian hierarchy but its personification. In ultimate charge of the command structures dominating their liberation movements, they were to some degree personally accountable for the abuses and malpractice within their ranks. As heads of state they were not inclined to address such issues. Instead, past injustices on all sides would be put to rest. By doing so, however, the liberation movements sacrificed the moral high ground they had been able to occupy vis-à-vis the oppressive colonial regimes. Their own failures remained unfinished business and left festering wounds within the new post-colonial societies. The dominant mindsets emerging at independence represented more of an old order than a new one and showed the limits to liberation.[3]

In Zimbabwe, violence within and between the liberation movements escalated soon after independence in organised massacres in Matabeleland (the western part of Zimbabwe occupied mostly by Ndebele-speakers considered in large part to be supporters of the Joshua Nkomo-led ZAPU, which competed with Zanu PF for power). Between early 1983 and late 1986, an estimated 20,000 people were killed in horrific acts of barbarism carried out by the Fifth Brigade of the Zimbabwe National Army, trained by North Korean military advisors. Although known and reported at the time, the massacres went largely ignored, even by the former colonial power. Described by Robert Mugabe as Gukurahundi (‘the rain that washes away the chaff before the summer rains’), this organised mass violence was a defining moment for his regime. The Catholic church in Zimbabwe was a lonely voice in revealing the scale of the atrocities.[4] Since then, the openly violent character of Mugabe’s rule has drawn worldwide attention. However, it only became a concern for the international community (represented by Western countries) when the so-called fast-track land reform process dispossessed most of the commercial farmers and portrayed the conflict (misleadingly so) as one between a remaining white settler minority and the government. This suggests a moral selectivity in Western perceptions, which the populist rhetoric of the despotic regime managed to exploit.

As part of the Namibian independence process, several hundred members of SWAPO in exile, who were accused of being South African agents, were released and repatriated in mid-1989. Known as ‘ex-detainees’, they shared their plight with the Namibian public at home. Since the early 1980s several thousand were thought to have been imprisoned, tortured and raped in camps in southern Angola. Many did not survive the ordeal; others remain missing. Ever since their return, these ex-detainees have asked for rehabilitation and an apology from SWAPO for the human rights violations committed.[5] But the liberation movement in power has applied a policy of denial, on the grounds that this would open wounds and thereby put peace and stability at risk. Moreover, SWAPO argued, the atrocities by the South African regime and its local collaborators would also need to be scrutinised in return, which would undermine national reconciliation. Instead, and similar to the official narratives cultivated by Zanu PF in Zimbabwe, SWAPO started a ‘nation-building project’ guided by what has been termed ‘patriotic history’, which cultivates the gospel of an organisation and its leaders as the morally impeccable liberators of the people.[6]

In both Zimbabwe and Namibia the former liberation movements in political power were also granted the power of defining the national interest. But the political and ideological hegemony assumed at independence is now deteriorating, with governments failing to maintain control over the one-dimensional collective identity constructed and imposed earlier on. This has been evident since the turn of the century in Zimbabwe, with the emergence of the MDC as a meaningful political opposition, suggesting that the liberation gospel has an expiry date. The coerced legitimacy of the government has been eroded, provoking intimidation, an ever-growing culture of fear, and ultimately rule based on state terror. As we know from history, these kinds of dictatorial regimes sooner or later come to an end through the same popular movements that they intimidated and oppressed for so long.

In Namibia, an opposition emerged towards the end of 2007 from within the belly of the beast. Former high-ranking SWAPO officials formed the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) to challenge the undisputed dominance of the former liberation movement. The next presidential and parliamentary elections, scheduled for the end of 2009, could result in SWAPO’s loss of its two-thirds majority in parliament, and hence absolute control over the country’s political and legal decision-making process. Nervousness is mounting. Leading office-bearers in the Namibian government warn of a Kenyan situation and blame the new opposition for fuelling ethnic rivalries. This is an argument which resorts to the culture of fear rather than seeks reconciliation and common ground; it names and shames others rather than identifies common denominators as Namibians. Such a knee-jerk response to political challenge also suggests an inability to deal with one’s own shortcomings and failures.

Leaders of the Namibian Lutheran churches have responded to the growing polarisation by means of a pastoral letter read out during sermons on 23 March 2008 and later published. In light of the violence that erupted between the two main rival parties, triggered by a local election campaign, the bishops of the three churches expressed their fear that the country is moving backwards rather than forwards in terms of freedom and democracy. The bishops wrote in their letter of ‘intolerance, verbal and physical attacks and counter attacks’. They warned that ‘failure to redress this situation now can lead to mass loss of lives country wide’. ‘What we say as leaders… is the seed which bears the consequential behaviour for violence and peace… Political opponents are not enemies, but participants in a democratic set-up.’[7] This is the first time since independence that the church has commented on the country’s politics in this way. Alarm bells are ringing, but Namibians still have the opportunity to learn from the sad lessons in Kenya and elsewhere – not least in neighbouring Zimbabwe, which in many respects is so close to home.

*Henning Melber is Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Uppsala, Sweden. A son of German immigrants to Namibia, he joined SWAPO in 1974. This text is a contribution to 'New Routes – A Journal of Peace Research and Action' vol. 13, no. 2, 2008, to be published by the Life & Peace Institute.

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


For additional votes, please follow this link:
1. Manby, B. (2008) 'African Peer Review Mechanism: Lessons from Kenya', Pambazuka News, no. 362, 16 April 2008.

2. For a stock-taking exercise on the TRC see the essay by Villa-Vicencio, C. (2007) 'South Africa: dealing with the past, heading for the future'. New Routes, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 9-12.

3. See the various contributions to Melber, H. (ed.) (2003) 'Limits to Liberation in Southern Africa. The Unfinished Business of Democratic Consolidation'. Cape Town, HSRC Press.

4. Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and Legal Resources Foundation (1997) 'Breaking the Silence. Building True Peace. A Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands 1980 to 1988'. Harare, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and Legal Resources Foundation.

5. Saul, J. and Leys, C. (2003) 'Truth, Reconciliation, Amnesia. The “ex-Detainees” Fight for Justice', in Melber, H. (ed.) 'Re-examining Liberation in Namibia. Political Culture since Independence'. Uppsala, The Nordic Africa Institute, pp. 69-86.

6. Saunders, C. (2007) 'History and the Armed Struggle. From Anti-colonial Propaganda to "Patriotic History"’? In, Melber, H. (ed.) 'Transitions in Namibia. Which Changes for Whom?' Uppsala, The Nordic Africa Institute, pp. 13-28.

7. Weidlich, B. (2008) 'Namibia: Churches Disturbed by Intolerance'. The Namibian, 2 April.

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The structural forces behind Mbeki's AIDS policy

2008-05-13

Patrick Bond

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/48049

In response to the recent extract from William Gumede's book "Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC" published by Zed Books (http://zedbooks.co.uk), Patrick Bond suggests that there is a need to go beyond the individual reasons and look at the structural forces that have informed Mbeki's AIDS policy such as international and domestic financial markets, pharmaceutical manufacturers and a large reserve army of labour.


With millions of South Africans dying early because of AIDS, the battle against the disease would become one of the most crucial tests of the post-apartheid government. Its systematic failure to address AIDS, and especially its ongoing sabotage of medicinal treatment for HIV+ patients, led to periodic charges of ‘genocide’ by authoritative figures such as the heads of the Medical Research Council (Malegapuru William Makgoba), SA Medical Association (Kgosi Letlape), and Pan Africanist Congress health desk (Costa Gazi), as well as leading public intellectual Sipho Seepe.

Aside from Mbeki, Pretoria’s main saboteurs were health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and trade minister Erwin; the latter two were accused by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) of culpable homicide during a March 2003 civil disobedience campaign. Even in the weeks before the 2004 election, Mbeki and Tshabalala-Msimang continued to practice denialism, obfuscation, delays, bureaucratic manoeuvres, and withdrawal of resources for treatment. Educational campaigns like LoveLife’s were based upon fatuous marketing to hip-hop youth, and there was virtually nothing done to combat domestic violence, rape, multiple partners and patriarchy. Across Africa more generally, the ‘ABCs’ of abstinence, being loyal and condoms were particularly ineffectual within the confines of male-dominated marriage, leading to the tragedy that young women’s infection rate was twice as high as that of men.[1]

A great deal has been written about Pretoria’s malfeasance.[2] The point of revisiting it here while documenting South Africa’s elite transition is to provide a structural explanation for the crisis. Beyond the oft-cited peculiarities of the president himself, there are three deeper reasons why local and global power relationships mean that the battle against AIDS has to date mainly been lost.[3]

One reason is the pressure exerted by international and domestic financial markets to keep Pretoria’s state budget deficit to three per cent of GDP. Recall the telling remark of the late Parks Mankahlana, Mbeki’s main spokesperson, who in March 2000 justified to Science magazine why the government refused to provide relatively inexpensive antiretrovirals (ARVs) like Nevirapine to pregnant, HIV-positive women: ‘That mother is going to die and that HIV-negative child will be an orphan. That child must be brought up. Who is going to bring the child up? It’s the state, the state. That’s resources, you see.’[4] Instead of saving lives, Mbeki’s finance ministry adopted higher priorities: slashing corporate taxes, redeploying state resources to purchase high-tech arms, and repaying roughly $25 billion of apartheid-era foreign debt and a bit more in apartheid domestic debt, which could have been declared ‘odious’ in legal terms. Local and international bankers generally approved such examples of fiscal laxity, in contrast to expanding state health spending and other social budgets, which they have explicitly not supported.

The second structural reason is the residual power of pharmaceutical manufacturers to defend their rights to ‘intellectual property’, i.e. monopoly patents on life-saving medicines. This pressure did not end in April 2001 when the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association withdrew their notorious lawsuit against the South African Medicines Act of 1997. That Act allows for parallel import or local production, via ‘compulsory licences’, of generic substitutes for brand-name antiretroviral medicines. Big Pharma’s power was felt in the debate over essential drugs for public health emergencies at the November 2001 Doha World Trade Organisation summit, and ever since.

The third structural reason for the ongoing HIV/AIDS holocaust in South Africa is the vast size of the reserve army of labour, for this feature of capitalism allows companies to replace sick workers with desperate, unemployed people instead of providing them with treatment. The latter point deserves elaboration, simply because so many lives are at immediate risk, and so much evidence has mounted that corporate South Africa’s preferred approach has been, in essence, mass murder by denial of medical benefits.

This was the initial conclusion reached after a year of study at Africa’s largest company, Anglo American Corporation. Anglo has 160,000 employees, of whom 21 per cent are estimated to be HIV-positive. Once Big Pharma appeared to retreat from its lawsuit, the company announced that it would provide antiretroviral medicines to its workforce, which meant literally tens of thousands of lives might be saved in the short term. But in June 2001, the Financial Times reported on Anglo’s ‘plans to make special payments to miners suffering from HIV/AIDS, on condition they take voluntary retirement.’ However, in addition to bribing workers to go home and die, Anglo told the Financial Times, ‘treatment of employees with antiretrovirals can be cheaper than the costs incurred by leaving them untreated.’ In August, Anglo’s vice president for medicine, Brian Brink, bragged in Business Day about a ‘strategy [which] involved offering wellness programmes, including access to antiretroviral treatment.’ According to that report, ‘The company believed that the cost of its programmes would eventually be outweighed by the benefits its received in gradual gains in productivity, [Brink] concluded. Although it was indeed a risky strategy, it was the only one Anglo could pursue in the face of such human suffering.’

Then in October 2001, Anglo simply retracted its promise, once cost-benefit analysis showed that 146,000 workers just weren’t worth saving. According to the Financial Times, Brink ‘said the company’s 14,000 senior staff would receive antiretroviral treatment as part of their medical insurance, but that the provision of drug treatment for lower income employees was too expensive.’ Brink explained the criteria for the fatal analysis: ‘[Antiretrovirals] could save on absenteeism and improved productivity. The saving you achieve can be substantial, but we really don’t know how it will stack up. We feel that the cost will be greater than the saving.’ As the Wall Street Journal recorded:
‘In a controversial move that could have wide ramifications for how companies in poor countries handle AIDS, mining giant Anglo American PLC has put on hold a feasibility study to provide AIDS drugs to its African work force, according to people familiar with the situation. When it disclosed its plans for the study a year ago, Anglo garnered wide praise because it was one of the first major corporations to reveal measures aimed at treating AIDS cases among its rank and file African employees.’[5]

A few months later Anglo changed its mind once again, as AIDS ravaged the middle layer of the workforce, and the multi-class TAC raised consciousness sufficiently high as to get trades union support for members’ treatment. Indeed, in the cases of both Anglo and Coca Cola, the other factor that appeared in 2002 was the spectre of consumer protest over the firms’ refusal to treat employees. I was reliably informed by insiders that for Anglo, the prospect of demonstrators at the August 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development dragging up many other bits of dirty laundry intimidated the company’s executives into taking pre-emptive action on the AIDS front. Coke’s main bottler in South Africa had also failed to insure two-thirds of its 4,000-strong workforce at a sufficient level to allow the HIV-positive workers access to ARVs, and was subject to international protest over African AIDS policies.

However, even though the costs of HIV/AIDS - absenteeism, declining productivity, payouts for early death - soared to as high as 25 per cent of payroll by 2003, according to the Financial Times, most employers are still hesitant to provide ARVs:

‘Untreated, HIV typically takes four to five years to manifest itself as full-blown AIDS, and companies are reluctant to pay for a risk that they cannot see… Persuading managers to part with fees [AIDS treatment programmes] today for costs that will hit company earnings years down the line has been a hard sell.’[6]

In sum, no matter the effectiveness of activism against government, Big Pharma and the corporate employers, all three structural factors are still deterrents to the provision of treatment. By late 2003, each was slightly mitigated, however, and that led to an ostensible change of policy by Pretoria. The budget deficit was projected to climb from just over one per cent of GDP during the early 2000s to nearly three per cent in 2004-05, allowing extra leeway for AIDS spending. Pharmacorps were cooperating more closely with the World Health Organisation, the Global Fund, the Clinton Foundation and governments to lower prices for Africa. Canada’s former prime minister Jean Chretien - spurred by the dynamic, outspoken UN advisor Stephen Lewis - even introduced path-breaking legislation to promote generics (although a sabotage clause was later included in the draft law to support patent rights, in turn attracting a new round of solidarity protests). And employers began waking up, in part because of the dramatic rise of AIDS-related disability claims as a percentage of all disability claims, from 18 per cent in 2001 to 31 per cent in 2002.

These factors converged in a November 2003 cabinet statement, finally endorsing a roll-out of antiretrovirals. Pretoria cited factors which included:

‘a fall in the prices of drugs over the past two years…new medicines and international and local experience in managing the utilisation of ARVs… [sufficient] health workers and scientists with skills and understanding… and the availability of fiscal resources to expand social expenditure in general, as a consequence of the prudent macro economic policies pursued by government.’

However, these factors were minor compared to intensive activist pressure, which Pretoria did not dare mention lest it encourage further protests. TAC’s victory statement was explicit: ‘The combination of the Constitutional Court decision on mother to child transmission prevention, the Stand Up for Our Lives march [of 15,000 people on parliament] in February, the civil disobedience campaign and the international protests around the world have convinced Cabinet to develop and implement an ARV roll-out plan.’

Another factor, of course, was the 2004 presidential election, which Mbeki would win easily but which would be characterised by high levels of apathy and no-vote campaigning by the Landless Peoples Movement. An AC Nielsen survey in November 2003 confirmed that Mbeki’s AIDS policy was hurting the chances of the ruling African National Congress of turning out the vote. The cabinet statement promised that ‘within a year, there will be at least one service point in every health district across the country and, within five years, one service point in every local municipality.’ In addition to medicines, the state would provide an education and community mobilisation programme, promotion of good nutrition and traditional health treatments such as herbal remedies, support for families affected by HIV and AIDS, and funds for upgrading health infrastructure. The health system was already massively overextended, with far too few essential medicines, much less ARVs, available in South Africa’s under-funded rural clinics.

As TAC was the first to concede, ARV availability could generate negative unintended consequences. One would be non-compliance with treatment regimes by poor people, and the concomitant emergence of drug-resistant strains. Another would be the black market smuggling of cheap drugs to Europe and North America which would reduce access in Africa. Another would be that, although stigmatisation would decline given the availability of hope-giving drugs, so too might the practice of safe sex. These would remain major challenges to TAC and other health-sector groups, although the Khayelitsha operation of Médecins Sans Frontières was already proving high levels of treatment compliance.

Moreover, the conflict between neo-liberalism and life, so explicit in the case of access to AIDS medicines, was severely compounded by patriarchy, traditional and modern sexual practices such as multiple partners for men, and domestic violence against women. Rape continued at scandalous levels.

But the primary contradiction involved the regime in Pretoria. In February 2004, TAC attacked President Thabo Mbeki in the wake of more government prevarication on AIDS treatment.[7] Claiming that Mbeki ‘misrepresented facts and once again caused confusion on HIV/AIDS’ on national television, TAC’s Zackie Achmat accused him of ‘denialism.’ Moreover, Pretoria had originally promised to distribute AIDS medicines to at least 50,000 people within a year, and to reach everyone in need of treatment within five years. Tshabalala-Msimang blamed slow drug procurement – Pretoria’s own fault – and the lack of qualified health personnel. TAC strategist Mark Heywood commented, ‘Many hospitals have the capacity, they just don’t have the medicines.’ The finance ministry also cut the budget dramatically for medicine purchases in February 2004.

At the same time, Tshabalala-Msimang suggested that while HIV-positive people waited for medicines, a diet of lemons, beetroot, (extremely expensive), olive oil and garlic would improve the body’s immune system. A week earlier, the minister had come under fire by the SA Medical Association, whose chairperson Dr Kgosi Letlape accused her of ‘dividing the profession when we have gone to great lengths to unite it.’ The minister unsuccessfully attempted to halt a protest march of 2,000 medics against poor conditions in public health facilities by implying that the demonstrating doctors were white, whereas black medics supported the government.

Mbeki continued supporting his minister, no matter how outrageous this became. He told the SA Broadcasting Corporation on 8 February 2004 that the major problem was inaccurate mortality statistics, which made it impossible to know whether AIDS was as fatal as claimed. According to Mbeki, his doctors informed him that diabetes is also an epidemic, and he questioned why no-one talks about diabetes. Achmat replied:

‘Drugs for treating diabetes are heavily overpriced; there should be a campaign for their reduction. But unlike HIV until November 2003, diabetes is treated in the public health sector. However, the President should be aware that according to an initial investigation into the burden of disease estimates in South Africa released in 2003 by the Medical Research Council, AIDS was responsible for 39 per cent of lost life-years in 2000 - more than the next 10 worst diseases. Diabetes is the 12th worst disease and is responsible for slightly more than one per cent of lost life-years. The two diseases are incomparable in scale.’

Achmat also ridiculed Mbeki’s claim that ‘few countries can hold a candle to South Africa’s HIV/AIDS programme.’ Achmat replied:

‘A number of developing countries do much better than South Africa when it comes to HIV prevention and treatment, often with far fewer resources. Currently, South Africa treats approximately 1,500 people in its public sector, who are not on drug trials, paying for their own medicines or being sponsored. By contrast, Brazil’s government treats over 100,000 people and has less than a quarter of South Africa’s HIV infections. Botswana is treating approximately 15,000 and Cameroon approximately 7,000 people.’

In March 2004 the need to harass Pretoria to ensure roll-out was confirmed again, when TAC was forced to threaten an urgent court interdict in order to permit the urgent acquisition of antiretroviral medicines consistent with the November 2003 cabinet decision. Tshabalala-Msimang was sufficiently threatened by yet more embarrassing court proceedings that she finally agreed, just before a deadline provided by TAC lawyers. TAC declared victory, though remarked that ‘by implementing the interim procurement mechanism and thereby avoiding a three-month delay of the treatment programme, approximately 6,000 excess deaths could be avoided.’ [8]

What is the way forward, given persistent presidential denial, state bureaucratic sabotage, and structural factors that mitigate against access to treatment? One major stumbling block would probably emerge in subsequent months and years: the nature of political alliances within South African politics. TAC had been effective in attracting support from the most forward-looking trades unions, the SA Communist Party, churches, NGO activists and technical supporters (lawyers, health workers, academics, journalists). Yet these alliances did not stray far from the ANC. Would TAC forge sufficient linkages to non-ANC communities, especially those devoted to building the new independent left? In coming years, would the myriad of problems that cause opportunistic infections, especially dirty water and air (thanks to coal/wood/paraffin), also be addressed? At a time that the South African government was disconnecting water and electricity at a lethal rate, alongside evictions for those who could not afford expensive rental and mortgage bond payments, the need to address the links between AIDS and the diseases of poverty/homelessness was obvious.

Moreover, would TAC and its allies make the case that access to ARVs is a human right and that people should not pay user-fees or partial cost-recovery for the medicines? By 2004 they were taking this position, but only in the event that people were too poor to pay for medicines. Yet means-testing of black South Africans with irregular informal incomes is notoriously difficult. In contrast, a more explicit ‘free lifeline’ strategy would parallel the demands of the water and electricity campaigners.

Nevertheless, whether or not TAC continues to tackle the three structural impediments to ARV access – neo-liberal fiscal policy, pharmacorps and corporate control of health perks - the immediate victory of November 2003 will potentially make a huge difference. For the half million South Africans who are symptomatic with AIDS or who have a CD4 blood count less than 200, there was suddenly hope. Across the world, for three million people who die each year of AIDS, and for 40 million others infected, the treatment activists and their international allies deserve a standing ovation.


* Patrick Bond directs the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. This article is an extract from his book 'Elite Transition: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism in South Africa'.

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


For additional notes, please follow this link:
1. See the excellent anti-patriarchal arguments in Lewis, S. (2004) ‘Keynote Lecture at the 11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections,’ San Francisco, 8 February.

2. One of the best surveys is in Lodge, T. (2002) 'Politics in South Africa', Cape Town, David Philip.

3. I have earlier made this case in three articles for ZNet commentaries (http://www.zmag.org), in The International Journal of Health Services (vol. 29, no. 4, 1999), and in two prior books ('Against Global Apartheid', Chapters 8 and 9; 'Unsustainable South Africa', Chapter 7).

4. Mail & Guardian, 21 July 2000.

5. Wall Street Journal, 16 April 2002.

6. Financial Times, 18 September 2003.

7. The following quotes are from Treatment Action Campaign (2004), ‘President Mbeki misrepresents facts and once again causes confusion on HIV/AIDS,’ Cape Town, 11 February.

8. Treatment Action Campaign (2004) ‘TAC electronic newsletter,’ Cape Town, 25 March.

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The food crisis and the failure of capitalism

2008-05-15

Ian Angus

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/48118

Ian Angus looks at the various forces behind the food crisis in Haiti. During previous waves of food price inflation the poor often had at least some access to food they grew themselves, or to food that was grown locally and available at locally set prices. Today, in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, that is just not possible. Global markets now determine local prices, and often the only food available must be imported from far away. Food is not just another commodity, he argues. It is absolutely essential for human survival. The very least that humanity should expect from any government or social system is that it tries to prevent starvation, and above all that it does not promote policies that deny food to hungry people.


‘If the government cannot lower the cost of living it simply has to leave. If the police and UN troops want to shoot at us, that's OK, because in the end, if we are not killed by bullets, we'll die of hunger.’ (A demonstrator in Port-au-Prince, Haiti)

In Haiti, where most people get 22 per cent fewer calories than the minimum needed for good health, some are staving off their hunger pangs by eating ‘mud biscuits’ made by mixing clay and water with a bit of vegetable oil and salt.[1]

Meanwhile, in Canada, the federal government is currently paying $225 for each pig killed in a mass cull of breeding swine, as part of a plan to reduce hog production. Hog farmers, squeezed by low hog prices and high feed costs, have responded so enthusiastically that the kill will likely use up all the allocated funds before the programme ends in September. Some of the slaughtered hogs may be given to local food banks, but most will be destroyed or made into pet food. None will go to Haiti.

This is the brutal world of capitalist agriculture, a world where some people destroy food because prices are too low, and others literally eat dirt because food prices are too high.

Record prices for staple foods

We are in the midst of an unprecedented worldwide food price inflation that has driven prices to their highest levels in decades. The increases affect most kinds of food, but in particular the most important staples: wheat, corn, and rice.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation says that between March 2007 and March 2008 prices of cereals increased 88 per cent, oils and fats 106 per cent, and dairy 48 per cent. The FAO food price index as a whole rose 57 per cent in one year; most of the increase occurred in the past few months.

Another source, the World Bank, says that that in the 36 months ending February 2008, global wheat prices rose 181 per cent and overall global food prices increased by 83 per cent. The Bank expects most food prices to remain well above 2004 levels until at least 2015. The most popular grade of Thailand rice sold for $198 per tonne five years ago and $323 per tonne a year ago. On 24 April the price hit $1,000.

Increases are even greater on local markets. In Haiti, the market price of a 50kg bag of rice doubled in one week at the end of March. These increases are catastrophic for the 2.6 billion people around the world who live on less than US$2 a day and spend 60 to 80 per cent of their incomes on food. Hundreds of millions cannot afford to eat. This month, the hungry fought back.

Taking to the streets

On 3 April demonstrators in Haiti’s southern city of Les Cayes built barricades, stopped trucks carrying rice and distributed the food, and tried to burn a UN compound. The protests quickly spread to the capital, Port-au-Prince, where thousands marched on the presidential palace chanting ‘We are hungry!’ Many called for the withdrawal of UN troops and the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the exiled president whose government was overthrown by foreign powers in 2004.

President René Préval, who initially said that nothing could be done, has announced a 16 per cent cut in the wholesale price of rice. This is at best a stop-gap measure, since the reduction is for one month only and retailers are not obligated to cut their prices.

The actions in Haiti paralleled similar protests by hungry people in more than twenty other countries. In Burkino Faso, a two-day general strike by unions and shopkeepers demanded ‘significant and effective’ reductions in the price of rice and other staple foods. In Bangladesh, over 20,000 workers from textile factories in Fatullah went on strike to demand lower prices and higher wages. They hurled bricks and stones at police, who fired tear gas into the crowd. The Egyptian government sent thousands of troops into the Mahalla textile complex in the Nile Delta to prevent a general strike demanding higher wages, an independent union, and lower prices. Two people were killed and over 600 have been jailed. In Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, police used tear gas against women who had set up barricades, burned tires and closed major roads. Thousands marched to the President's home, chanting ‘We are hungry’, and ‘Life is too expensive, you are killing us.’ In Pakistan and Thailand, armed soldiers have been deployed to prevent the poor from seizing food from fields and warehouses.

Similar protests have taken place in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Niger, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Zambia. On 2 April the president of the World Bank told a meeting in Washington that there are 33 countries where price hikes could cause social unrest.

A Senior Editor of Time magazine warned:
‘The idea of the starving masses driven by their desperation to take to the streets and overthrow the ancien regime has seemed impossibly quaint since capitalism triumphed so decisively in the Cold War.... And yet, the headlines of the past month suggest that skyrocketing food prices are threatening the stability of a growing number of governments around the world. .... when circumstances render it impossible to feed their hungry children, normally passive citizens can very quickly become militants with nothing to lose.’[2]

What’s driving the food inflation?

Since the 1970s, food production has become increasingly globalised and concentrated. A handful of countries dominate the global trade in staple foods. 80 per cent of wheat exports come from six exporters, as does 85 per cent of rice. Three countries produce 70 per cent of exported corn. This leaves the world's poorest countries, the ones that must import food to survive, at the mercy of economic trends and policies in those few exporting countries. When the global food trade system stops delivering, it's the poor who pay the price.

For several years, the global trade in staple foods has been heading towards a crisis. Four related trends have slowed production growth and pushed prices up.

a) The end of the Green Revolution. In the 1960s and 1970s, in an effort to counter peasant discontent in south and south-east Asia, the US poured money and technical support into agricultural development in India and other countries. The ‘green revolution’ — new seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, agricultural techniques and infrastructure — led to spectacular increases in food production, particularly rice. Yield per hectare continued expanding until the 1990s.

Today, it is not fashionable for governments to help poor people grow food for other poor people, because ‘the market’ is supposed to take care of all problems. The Economist reports that ‘spending on farming as a share of total public spending in developing countries fell by half between 1980 and 2004.’[3] Subsidies and R&D money have dried up, and production growth has stalled.

As a result, in seven of the past eight years the world consumed more grain than it produced, which means that rice was being removed from the inventories that governments and dealers normally hold as insurance against bad harvests. World grain stocks are now at their lowest point ever, leaving very little cushion for bad times.

b) Climate change. Scientists say that climate change could cut food production in parts of the world by 50 per cent in the next 12 years. But that isn't just a matter for the future. Australia is normally the world's second-largest exporter of grain, but a savage multi-year drought has reduced the wheat crop by 60 per cent and rice production has been completely wiped out. In Bangladesh in November, one of the strongest cyclones in decades wiped out a million tonnes of rice and severely damaged the wheat crop, making this huge country even more dependent on imported food. Other examples abound. It is clear that the global climate crisis is already here, and that it is affecting food.

c) Agrofuels. It is now official policy in the US, Canada and Europe to convert food into fuel. US vehicles burn enough corn to cover the entire import needs of the poorest 82 countries.[4]

Ethanol and bio-diesel are very heavily subsidised, which means, inevitably, that crops like corn (maize) are being diverted out of the food chain and into gas tanks, and that new agricultural investment worldwide is being directed towards palm, soy, canola and other oil-producing plants. The demand for agrofuels increases the prices of those crops directly, and indirectly boosts the price of other grains by encouraging growers to switch to agrofuel. As Canadian hog producers have found, it also drives up the cost of producing meat, since corn is the main ingredient in North American animal feed.

d) Oil prices. The price of food is linked to the price of oil because food can be made into a substitute for oil. But rising oil prices also affect the cost of producing food. Fertiliser and pesticides are made from petroleum and natural gas. Gas and diesel fuel are used in planting, harvesting and shipping.[5] It has been estimated that 80 per cent of the costs of growing corn are fossil fuel costs, so it is no accident that food prices rise when oil prices rise.

By the end of 2007, reduced investment in third world agriculture, rising oil prices, and climate change meant that production growth was slowing and prices were rising. Good harvests and strong export growth might have staved off a crisis — but that isn't what happened. The trigger was rice, the staple food of three billion people.

Early this year, India announced that it was suspending most rice exports in order to rebuild its reserves. A few weeks later, Vietnam, whose rice crop was hit by a major insect infestation during the harvest, announced a four-month suspension of exports to ensure that enough would be available for its domestic market.

India and Vietnam together normally account for 30 per cent of all rice exports, so their announcements were enough to push the already tight global rice market over the edge. Rice buyers immediately started buying up available stocks, hoarding whatever rice they could get in the expectation of future price increases, and bidding up the price for future crops. Prices soared. By mid-April, news reports described ‘panic buying’ of rice futures on the Chicago Board of Trade, and there were rice shortages even on supermarket shelves in Canada and the US.

Why the rebellion?

There have been food price spikes before. Indeed, if we take inflation into account, global prices for staple foods were higher in the 1970s than they are today. So why has this inflationary explosion provoked mass protests around the world?

The answer is that since the 1970s the richest countries in the world, aided by the international agencies they control, have systematically undermined the poorest countries' ability to feed their populations and protect themselves in a crisis like this. Haiti is a powerful and appalling example.

Rice has been grown in Haiti for centuries, and until 20 years ago Haitian farmers produced about 170,000 tonnes of rice a year, enough to cover 95 per cent of domestic consumption. Rice farmers received no government subsidies, but, as in every other rice-producing country at the time, their access to local markets was protected by import tariffs. In 1995, as a condition of providing a desperately needed loan, the International Monetary Fund required Haiti to cut its tariff on imported rice from 35 per cent to 3 per cent, the lowest in the Caribbean. The result was a massive influx of US rice that sold for half the price of Haitian-grown rice. Thousands of rice farmers lost their lands and livelihoods, and today three-quarters of the rice eaten in Haiti comes from the US.[6]

US rice didn't take over the Haitian market because it tastes better, or because US rice growers are more efficient. It won out because rice exports are heavily subsidised by the US government. In 2003, US rice growers received $1.7 billion in government subsidies, an average of $232 per hectare of rice grown.[7] That money, most of which went to a handful of very large landowners and agribusiness corporations, allowed US exporters to sell rice at 30 to 50 per cent below their real production costs. In short, Haiti was forced to abandon government protection of domestic agriculture, and the US then used its government protection schemes to take over the market.

There have been many variations on this theme, with rich countries of the north imposing ‘liberalisation’ policies on poor and debt-ridden southern countries and then taking advantage of that liberalisation to capture the market. Government subsidies account for 30 per cent of farm revenue in the world's 30 richest countries, a total of US$280 billion a year,[8] an unbeatable advantage in a ‘free’ market where the rich write the rules. The global food trade game is rigged, and the poor have been left with reduced crops and no protections.

In addition, for several decades the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have refused to advance loans to poor countries unless they agree to ‘Structural Adjustment Programmes’ (SAP) that require the loan recipients to devalue their currencies, cut taxes, privatise utilities, and reduce or eliminate support programmes for farmers. All this was done with the promise that the market would produce economic growth and prosperity. Instead, poverty increased and support for agriculture was eliminated.

‘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.’[9]

During previous waves of food price inflation the poor often had at least some access to food they grew themselves, or to food that was grown locally and available at locally set prices. Today, in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, that is just not possible. Global markets now determine local prices, and often the only food available must be imported from far away.

Food is not just another commodity. It is absolutely essential for human survival. The very least that humanity should expect from any government or social system is that it tries to prevent starvation, and above all that it does not promote policies that deny food to hungry people.

That is why Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was absolutely correct on 24 April in describing the food crisis as ‘the greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model.’

*Ian Angus is the editor of 'Climate and Capitalism'. This article first appeared at www.zmag.org

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


For additional notes, please follow this link:
[1] Pina, K. 'Mud Cookie Economics in Haiti.' Haiti Action Network, 10 February http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/2_10_8/2_10_8.html

[2] Karon, T. 'How Hunger Could Topple Regimes.' Time, 11 April http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1730107,00.html

[3] The Economist (2008) 'The New Face of Hunger', 19 April

[4] Lynas, M. (2008) 'How the Rich Starved the World.' New Statesman, 17 April http://www.newstatesman.com/200804170025

[5] Pfeiffer, D.A. (2006) 'Eating Fossil Fuels'. Gabriola Island BC, New Society Publishers

[6] Oxfam International (2005) 'Kicking Down the Door' http://www.oxfam.org/en/files/bp72_rice.pdf

[7] Ibid.

[8] OECD Background Note: Agricultural Policy and Trade Reform. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/23/36896656.pdf

[9] Havnevik, K., Bryceson, D., Birgegård, L.E., Matondi, P. and Beyene, A. 'African Agriculture and the World Bank: Development or Impoverishment?' Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, http://www.links.org.au/node/328

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Government undersiege as they forcefully resettle IDPs

2008-05-15

Joachim Omolo Ouko

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/48137

When the Government of Kenya began resettling more than 10,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on Monday, thousands of them who have been camping at the Nakuru Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK) show ground, some displaced persons said the Government should have reconciled them with the neighbouring communities first instead of rushing to resettle them.

Mzee Ibrahim Githatwa, 76, was among the IDPs who vowed never to go back to Keringet in Kuresoi where he had lived since the 1942 but was forcefully told to leave the premises. This is where he left when their houses were burnt in January with all the properties destroyed.

Mzee Githatwa is not only a widower, but also a father of 13 children some of whom are still depending on him. This is the man who has suffered a great deal under Moi regime and now Kibaki. During Moi he lost seven houses in the 1992 ethnic violence. Even after he could manage, together with some of his children to built five houses, they again got burnt down in January during the pos-election violence.

Even 13 farms where some of them are going to be resettled which include Sirikwa, Kiambogo, Githirika, Muthenji, Nyota, Kangawa and Lagwenda, Sasumua, Willa, Muchorwe, Karirikania, Kadonye and Nyaruai have history of violence every five years when they have general elections.

These are some of the areas that have been the scene of periodic violence since 1992. Since then fighting has not only intensified during general election years – held in 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007 - and in 2005, when the national referendum on the country's constitution was held, but also leading to loss of properties worth million of shillings, deaths and turmoils.

The lad dispute around these areas, especially in Molo and Kuresoi is between the Kalenjin, Kikuyu and Kisii - against one another. Not forgetting that last year’s violence, in the run up to the 27 December elections intensified in affecting the Kuresoi divisions Keringet, Kuresoi, Kamara and Olenguruone as opposed to other years.

The government is forcing them back when high-ranking politicians who have been consistently implicated in organizing political violence since the 1990s have never been brought to book and continue to operate with impunity.

According to the annexes to the Ndung'u land dispute report released in 2004 the families of former presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi feature prominently in the list of prominent high ranking politicians and people who matter in Kenya government as those who have grabbed public land that was recommended for repossession.

Mr Moi and five of his children, Mzee Kenyatta's widow Mama Ngina and scores of MPs, top civil servants, military officers, High Court judges and former Cabinet ministers featured in the report now and then.

Then Lands and Housing minister Amos Kimunya who releasing the report on grabbed land compiled by the Paul Ndung'u Committee without the names, can tell a lot why the issue of lad in Kenya will always remain a big problem even after forcing the displaced to go back to their disputed lands.

The report contained in the two massive volumes is measuring 10 centimetres, of which at 2,017 pages are thicker than two telephone directories. The reports were released by the Government Printer and since then no action has been taken by the government to repossess the lands.

If the government were to take action it would mean that names of all those who have been irregularly allocated public land in urban areas, settlement schemes, forests and reserves, with Moi alone owning 937 hectare farm in Narok hived off Trans Mara Forest be repossessed, then this would at least solve some of the land problems in the country.

According to the report, among President Moi's children who were illegally allocated land includes former Baringo Central MP Mr Gideon Moi and his wife Zahra, Raymond Kiprotich, Doris Choge and Jonathan Toroitich.

The problem would even be more resolved if the government were to go by the Ndungu recommendation that allocation of various parcels to Mama Ngina Kenyatta be revoked. It includes 38 hectares hived off the Kikuyu Escarpment Forest in Kiambu District in 1965, including another 36 hectares in Thika District from the same Kikuyu Escarpment forest allocated to her in 1980 for farming, which Ndungu also recommended to be reclaimed, as well as another 24 hectare parcel allocated in 1993.

Among the cabinet ministers, judges and top soldiers listed to be among beneficiaries of settlement schemes carved out of Agricultural Development Corporation farms include then minister of State William ole Ntimama (now ODM minister of Heritage), assistant minister Kipkalya Kones (now ODM minister for Roads), Court of Appeal Judge Emmanuel O'Kubasu and deputy chief of general staff, Lt Gen Nick Leshan.

Mr Ntimama who claims to be the spokesman of the Maasai communities, also human right activists, was allocated 34 acres of Moi Ndabi Farm where Mr Leshan got 233 acres. Mr Kones got 145 acres in the Agricultural Development Corporation Sirikwa scheme where the average allocations were five acres, according to the report. While Mr Justice O'Kubasu got 40 acres of ADC Jabali also in Nakuru, his land in the ADC Sirikwa scheme in Nakuru District, a public figure that got more than the average that is, Mr Justice William Tuiyot who has since died got 85 acres in the ADC Sirikwa scheme.

Other according to the report include retired Judge Mbito who was also allocated 50 acres of the ADC Zea, while a former commissioner of prisons, Mr Edward Lokopoyit got 90 acres of the land.

According to Daily Nation, December 17, 2004, story by David Okwemba ad Mburu Mwangi, former MPs Joseph Kimkung (Mt Elgon) and Jesse Maizs got 30 and 15 acres respectively in the ADC ZEA area. Former Principal Immigration Officer Henry ole Ndiema got 50 acres and a house in the same area.

A former permanent secretary, Mr William Kimalat got 80 acres of ADC Jabali, while a former top policeman Stanley Manyinya got 130 acres in the same area. Former PC Ishmael Chelang'a (since dead) got 90 acres.

Former MPs G. G. Mokku, Japheth Ekidor, Immanuel Imana, Mr David Sudi, Boaz Kaino and Francis Mutwol also benefited. Mr Kaino got 50 acres, Mr Imana 25, Mr Ekidor 20, Mr Mutwol 10 and Mr Sudi 20 from the ADC Milimani land.

The report also implicates many top soldiers and also clerics as among those listed as having been allocated the land. Most of the Moi Ndabi land was allocated by the director of lands.

Another prominent figure in the list is Kerio Central MP Nicholas Biwott who if could lose the 161 hectares in Kaptagat forest allocated to him in 1994 for the Maria Soti Education Trust was going to benefit thousands of landless people.

Other prominent politicians whom Ngungu recommended that their illegally acquired lad could be repossessed included former minister, a former head of the civil service and a former permanent secretary who stood to lose about 1,170 hectares of land hived off South Nandi Forest in 1999.

The three, Mr Henry Kosgey (the ODM chairman and minister), Dr Sally Kosgei (also ODM minister of Higher Education) and Mr Zakayo Cheruiyot were to exchange the land with farmers on a hilly terrain, even though according to the report there was conflict in the exchange as the Ngerek community, which was supposed to benefit, was left out.

The family of former Lands and Settlement minister Jackson Angaine, was expected to lose more than 900 hectares of land hived off from Mount Kenya forest in 1975 and 1977 if the recommendations were to be taken seriously by the government.

Former Limuru MP Mr Kuria Kanyingi was also named as the beneficiary of a 24 hectare farm carved out of Kiambu Forest in 1984. The report also noted that a title deed was issued for only 15 hectares to Kama Agencies in 1995. It recommends that the allocation to the MP should be revoked.

Those allocated parts of the Ngong forest and Karura Forest in the 1990s that Ndung'u Committee recommended that should all be revoked included former Mathioya MP Joseph Kamotho, former Cooperative Bank of Kenya chairman, Hosea Kiplagat, former Commissioner of Police Shedrack Kiruki and Maj-Gen Humphrey Njoroge.

Also named in the report was former Comptroller of State House John Lokorio who appeared as a beneficiary in settlement schemes in Nakuru District including the Nakuru/Olenguruone/Kiptagich extension.

Also in the same scheme is Mr Kiplagat, Mr Samson Cheramboss who once headed President Moi's security detail, former nominated MP Mr Mark Too, former Moi aide Joshua Kulei and former head of Presidential Press Service Lee Njiru.

Others named include former CID boss Mr Francis Sang, former managing director of Telkom KenyaMr Augustine Cheserem, former minister William Morogo and Eldama Ravine MP Mr Musa Sirma and his wife.

Former MD of the National Cereals and Produce Board Major (Rtd) Wilson Koitaba, former land commissioner Mr Sammy Mwaita received 10 plots and the deputy governor of the Central bank Dr Edward Sambili was allocated 7 hectares. Mr Gideon Moi and his wife got the biggest chunk of 44 hectares.

Other beneficiaries are former PS Dr Nehemiah Ng'eno, Dr Julius Rotich who had been named as one of the anti-corruption authority assistant directors, another former PS Mr Mark Bor, Cooperatives PS Mr Solomon Boit, Deputy police commissioner Mr David Kimaiyo and the chaplain of Kabarak high school Rev Jones Kaleli.

Baringo North MP William Boit, director of Motor Licensing Simon Kirgotty, director of survey Mr H. H. Nyapola, security intelligence deputy director Mr Shukri Baramade and Administration Police commandant Kinuthia Mbugua also got land illegally.

Even after former Kitale Catholic Justice and Peace Commission Director, Father Gabriel Dolan, a year later told the Government to implement the recommendations of the Ndung’u Land Report, nothing has ever happened since.

Dolan was quoted by the Standard Newspaper (March 5, 2005) as saying the Government had promised to effect the proposals by the end of February, but this did not happen.

His suggestion that the Government should restore the faith of its citizens by immediately acting on the findings of the land report landed on the deaf ears. He wanted all grabbed and illegally allocated land should be repossessed and re-distributed to the landless instead of a few people managing all the land resources in the country when the larger population is landless.

* Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ, People for Peace in Africa (PPA), http://www.peopleforpeaceinafrica.org

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

Count down to AU Summit begins

2008-05-15

Africa Public Health 15% Campaign

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/48128

The Africa Public Health 15% Now Campaign has launched a 30 day countdown to the mid year African Union summit which holds in Egypt from the 24th of June.

The 30 day countdown which starts from the 15th of May to the 15th of June is aimed at mobilising national level and continental support for a civil society message to urge African Heads of States to restate their commitment to and urgently implement the Abuja 2001 pledge by African Heads of State to allocate 15% of national budgets to health.

In a statement to launch the Countdown, 15% Now Campaign Coordinator Rotimi Sankore stated:

" The countdown to the coming African Union summit is an opportunity for Africans and friends of Africa of all persuasions to remind African Heads of State and government to meet their commitments to health development and financing. Unlike any other matter, disease and non disease issues affect every single person regardless of age, religion, race, gender or any other consideration."

He underlined that "African citizens unlike many leaders, do not have the options of going abroad to treat illnesses. Indeed it is a vote of no confidence in their own health systems, and lack of faith in their own governments ability to provide health care that leads many of our leaders to flee abroad at the slightest sign of ill health".

He called on African civil society and citizens to sign on to the message to the summit and the rolling 15% Now petition to the AU and member states stating that "the new Chair of the African Union Commission His Excellency Jean Ping of Gabon has an excellent opportunity to utilise the implementation of the Abuja 15% Pledge to actualise the implementation of the African Union Health Strategy and other health frameworks finalised last year by the AU Social Affairs Commission under the leadership of his predecessor Professor Alpha Konare.

The first phase of presentation of the message to African Heads of State will be done at the national levels on the 15th of June including public and media presentations. The presentation to the AU and the continental level media and public Presentation will be done in Egypt on the eve of the Summit. A series of solidarity and campaign events will be also organised at national levels during the countdown.

Organisations and citizens are urged to support the message by sending their names, organisation and country as applicable to - au-summitcountdown@africa15percentcampaign.org, and advocacy@africapublichealth.org

For details of the civil society message to the summit and heads of state, see below.


The Civil Society Message to Egypt AU Summit and Heads State and Government


To Heads of States and Governments of African Union Member States
Thru
His Excellency Jakaya Kikwete, Chairman of the African Union and President of the Republic of Tanzania
His Excellency Jean Ping, Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union


15 May 2008


Civil Society Message of Concern on Non-Implementation of the 2001 Pledge by African Governments to Allocate 15% of National Budgets to Health


Your Excellencies, we write to express our grave concern that 7 years after the Abuja April 2001 Pledge by African Heads of Sates and Governments to allocate 15% of national budgets to health, this pledge has not been met by most member states with only a hand full even moving towards or meeting the commitment.

Our serious concern is based on the fact that unlike some other pledges which may go unmet without instant and grievous consequences for citizens of our countries, the non implementation of the 15% pledge is rapidly devastating our populations and countries through the deaths of fellow African's on such a scale that annual deaths from both disease and non disease related health issues now exceed the populations of many African countries combined and also surpass the deaths from any combination of modern day wars and conflicts.

For Tuberculosis: African’s living with TB are currently estimated to be 4.2 million with 2.8 million new cases annually making TB one of Africa’s greatest Public Health threats. African TB deaths are now running at 639,089 per annum – the highest in the world (38.6% of global deaths). TB is also the biggest killer of HIV positive people an increasing number of which are women; Africa’s pivotal countries, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, DRC, South Africa have the continents highest overall TB prevalence levels; and a person with active TB can infect 10 to 15 persons a year. Latest Stop TB partnership / World Bank analysis indicates that the cost of not treating TB to Africa between 2006 and 2015 would be $519bn while TB can be controlled with $20bn in the same period.


For HIV: Latest statistics for 2007 indicate that HIV prevalence in Africa is 22.5 million of the global total of 33.2 million, with 1.7 million new infections annually; Annual AIDS related death figures for Africa are 1.6 million and Aids Orphans are estimated at 12 million; the 10 countries globally with highest HIV-TB co infection are African 9 being from SADC and the 10th Kenya.


For Malaria: Annual African deaths are estimated at 1,136,000 (89.3%) of the world total with an increasing impact on maternal, infant and child health. Malaria costs Africa more than $12bn in lost GDP annually although it can be controlled for a fraction of this sum.


For Maternal Mortality: Latest comparable global maternal death statistics indicate that of the 536,000 women that died in 2005 of childbirth related complications, about half or 261,000 were African women. The 2005 figures also indicate that Africa is the only region where maternal deaths have increased since 1990 up from 205,000. Maternal deaths which is almost 100% preventable dropped in every other continent over the same period.


For Child Mortality: Most worryingly for the future of Africa, an estimated 4.8 million children under the age of 5 years die annually. Just five diseases - pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles and AIDS - account for half of these deaths.


Often ignored environmental health issues, or neglected diseases such as river blindness or Onchocerciasis and Human African Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness together affect around 60m people in 36 African countries - and in turn facilitate vulnerability to HIV, TB, malaria, maternal and child mortality.

This loss of over 8 million lives a year to preventable, treatable and manageable diseases and health conditions – is unacceptable and unsustainable.[1]

The above also constitutes an infringement on the right to health of African citizens as guaranteed in Article 16 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, Article 12 of the International Convention on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, The World Health Organisation constitution, and other instruments.

We Fully Acknowledge the efforts of African governments to address Africa’s enormous Public Health crisis through: the AU Abuja April 2001 declaration incorporating the pledge by member states to allocate at least 15% of the national budgets to health; the 2007 African Union Health Strategy and other African health frameworks such as the Maputo Plan on Reproductive and Sexual Health, the AU plan on HIV, TB and Malaria, the African Pharmaceutical Plan and the health based MDGs.

However current evidence indicates gravely that it is not just enough to make declarations. The landmark AU African Health Strategy and other Health Frameworks recently finalised by the African Union Commission must also be sustainably financed by our own governments if they are not to become yet another collection of reference papers on Africa's failed attempts to resolve its most serious development challenges.


Africa’s human capital is its greatest asset and that there can be no competing priorities more important than the lives of citizens – as other issues are meaningless if the people they are meant for are dead. Indeed no efforts at sustainable social and economic development can be successful when the average healthy life expectancy of African countries has now fallen to less than 40 years.


We therefore urge Excellencies to:

Restate their commitment to the Abuja 15% pledge and increasing overall per capita expenditure on health at the next AU Summit and to accelerate its implementation.
Take urgent steps to ensure that African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development begin immediately to work with Health Ministers through a joint meeting to develop the details for the implementation of the Africa Union Health Strategy and other Health Frame works.
Facilitate the African Union and UN-Economic Commission for Africa to implement the recommendations for the joint meeting of Finance and Health Ministers as adopted by the conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development organised by both AU and ECA in April 2008.
Recognise that just as the global community urges the more industrialised countries to meet their own commitments to global health, that African governments are also expected to honour national commitments.
Ensure that regions, states, provinces and local governments within countries recognise that they have a responsibility to provide needs based primary health care services and as such must along with national governments allocate commensurate amounts of financing for health.
Work urgently with national, sub regional and continental parliaments to ensure implementation of the AU Abuja 15% commitment, combined with commensurate overall increase of per capita expenditure on health and implementation of the Africa Union Health Strategy and other African Health Frameworks.
Recognise the crucial role of health workers and professionals in delivering health care, and ensure strengthening of health systems to guarantee retention of health professionals and sustainable quality health care.
Through the African Union and UN-ECA work with civil society to ensure that a progress report on implementation of the 15% pledge is on the agenda of the January 2009 African Union Summit


Signatories [ to be added below]

Organisations and citizens are urged to support the message by sending their names, organisation and country as applicable to - au-summitcountdown@africa15percentcampaign.org , and advocacy@africapublichealth.org On line sign-ups will also soon be possible.




Africa Public Health – “15% Now!” Campaign: Background Note for Editors.

The Africa Public Health “15% Now!” campaign launched on December 10 2006 - International Human Rights Day - is the first to articulate Public Health for Africa as a Rights and Development issue across Africa and beyond. It brings together actors from various key sectors of civil society.

The Campaign is based on the premise that “we all have to be alive and well to exercise any other rights in any meaningful way” and therefore that Right to Health and to Healthcare is arguably the most crucial right of all as articulated by Article 16 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the constitution of the World Health Organisation and Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Current social development and health indicators from international and African institutions show that over 8 million African lives are lost annually to preventable, treatable and manageable health conditions and diseases mainly - Child Mortality, Maternal Mortality, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and TB.

Any loss of life to disease is bad enough. The annual loss of populations equivalent to entire African countries - and over a few years greater than the losses from all modern day global wars and conflicts combined is both unacceptable and unsustainable, and brings Africa closer to the slippery slope to collapse of society and extinction. Public Health is not realisable without adequate and sustainable health financing. Meeting the Abuja 2001 by African leaders to allocate 15% or more of annual budgets to health is crucial to Public Health in Africa. Yet this pledge remains largely unmet with just two countries, Botswana and Seychelles demonstrating their commitment to the 15% pledge.

The key objective of the Africa Public Health 15% Now Campaign is to engage the African Union, sub-Regional Economic Communities such as the East African Community (EAC), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) etc, their institutions / member countries, and the African public towards: 1) Promoting greater awareness and understanding of African Health Issues 2) Actualisation of the AU African Health Strategy, other African Health Frameworks, Health based MDG's; and Universal Access Targets for Prevention, Treatment and Care; 3) Adopting Comprehensive Health Policies based on a Public Health Rights and Development philosophy - and mobilising the commitment of financial and other resources for sustainable implementation of health policies - including through meeting the 15% pledge.

The Public Health 15% Now Campaign will also engage global stake-holders and actors including donors, the UN, EU and their institutions, World Bank, IMF, and international Non-governmental Institutions and organisations especially those concerned with health, social and economic development.

=============================

Support the Africa Public Health Rights Alliance 15% Now Campaign for the Right to Health, Sustainable Health Development and Financing in Africa - www.africa15percentcampaign.org

Africa Office:
Africa Public Health “15% Now!” Campaign
11 Dideolu St, Ogba, Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: +23416611899 ;+234 703 6886 199; Tel/Fax: +2341492556

Int Office:
Africa Public Health “15% Now!” Campaign
AFA, 22 Highbury Grove, London N5 2DQ
Tel: +44 (0)20 7226 2933, Fax +44 (0)20 7226 2934

More...

Don't criminalise African Languages

2008-05-15

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/48133

Tajudeen rages against the attempts in Kenya to criminalise African language media. The state should be making laws to protest society and be willing to sanction those who use the media to exacerbate ethnic tensions rather than seeking to ban them.


African Languages should not be criminalised. In this column last week I wrote about the demonisation of the media in Kenya as Kenyans tried to exorcise themselves of their recent ghostly past.

The media is not without its faults but to blame it for the hatred, violence, wanton destruction of property, neighbours killing one another and communities turning against themselves is simply finding a scapegoat. Such a convenient foil will make it possible to let off all the other culprits and in this case the grand architects of the mayhem, the politicians, the political class, and Kenyan ruling class in general who whip up these sentiments and manipulate the genuine grievances of the masses in pursuit of their own personal and class interests.

As the grand coalition government that is increasingly exposing itself as lacking many grand people, struggles to take off the politicians who were only a few weeks ago sprouting all kinds of extremist statements are uniting against everybody else , becoming holier than thou in preaching national reconciliation, peace and trying to outshine one another as ‘the patriotic Kenyan’! Everyone else is guilty except the political leaders.

The Nairobi Star (Saturday May 10) reported on ‘radical proposals’ emerging from the recent bonding retreat of the new government : ‘vernacular radio stations should be closed down, cabinet ministers agreed …’ . The decision according to the report ‘… followed discussions on what role the media played in the post election period…’.

Really? I do not speak nor understand any of the languages of the 42 officially recognised ethnic groups in Kenya. My understanding of the more widely spoken National language, Kiswahili, is still very much ‘kidogo kidogo’ (i.e. little), yet I am acutely aware of the crass hostilities between different communities, charges of ethnic discrimination and allegations of ethnic monopoly of this or that by one group or the other. So which media is poisoning my mind?

The Kenya ruling elite have been quite successful, until recently, in living in grand denial about the injustices, social, economic and political that have made them one of the most prosperous middle classes in Africa but also one of the most unequal societies in the world. The tragic violence on the back of the disputed elections finally punctured deep holes in this class/crass delusion.

Even a casual familiarity with Kenya’s colonial and post colonial history will reveal the extreme violence perpetrated by the British, well thought to the independence elite who perfected their rule through the same divide and conquer of the British and turned Uhuru (independence) into a permanent burden to the masses. Yet somehow the elite swallowed their own propaganda that Kenya is an oasis of peace and stability. They took comfort in the disintegration of their neighbours and somehow believe that civil wars, genocide, military coups, economic meltdown, etc were things that happen to their neighbours, not in Kenya, the country known internationally as the destination of all exotic safari complacent to the tune of ‘Kenya Yetu, Hakuna Matata’!

The decades of violence from independence including ethnic clashes, ethnic cleansing and high level unsolved political murders were minor details conveniently airbrushed from the official self image of the country, until December 2007.

Now that the ideologically manufactured innocence has finally been exposed the rulers are looking for scapegoats for the troubled paradise, a paradise that has always excluded the majority of its peoples whatever their ethnicity, religion or race.

By making the media broadcasting in indigenous languages the enemy the political elite is only showing itself up as the local settler colonial masters that they have always been. In that colonial mindset the majority of the people, their culture, traditions and their languages become objects of attack and persecution.

The colonialists justified their predatory adventures, oppression and exploitation of the colonised as ‘white man’s burden’ to bring civilisation and God to the natives. The post colonial elite continues the same attack on their own peoples in the name of modernisation which culturally translates as westernisation and uncritically aping the language and cultures of wazungu (Europeans) . That’s why our indigenous languages are referred to as ‘vernacular’ and our children are made to feel ashamed of speaking their mother tongues at school and even punished for speaking them!

The current attack on indigenous language media in Kenya is not unique to Kenya. It is not limited to the media but wholesale attack on Africaness. It takes different forms in many other countries but relentless, all the same.

It is not just about freedom of expression but part of a long attack on the mind of the masses that must be resisted. The English language media are no less guilty of xenophobia, ethnic hatred or distortions, misrepresentation or disinformation. So why pick on the indigenous language stations? Is it because English phobias and ideological biases are preferable to indigenous ones?

In the UK, the Welsh are proud to use their local language and insist on having signposts in Wales in Welsh and have mandatory broadcast in their language. In Britain in general ethnic minorities are not ashamed to reclaim and retain their culture including their languages while being part of a vibrant multi cultural society.

And yet in Kenya the politicians want to legislate against ethnic media! Just imagine the ridiculousness of it all. A kikuyu, Luo, Luhya or any of the numerous diaspora of Kenyan communities in the UK can establish a radio station or any other media in their mother tongue, sometimes even with government support but back home in Kenya, if the politicians have their way, such endeavour would be criminalised!

I am very much aware of the role which the media especially radio (which is still the most influential media across Africa because it is virtually accessible to everyone) can play both negatively and positively in our societies. Radio Mille Coline in Rwanda was both orchestrator and perpetrator for genocidaire elements and genocide. But the solution in post genocide Rwanda was not to ban Radio in Kiyarwanda but to change the laws, criminalise hatred broadcast and publications and reorient the content of programmes in a wider public education programme of continuous fight against the ideology from which genocide springs.

The state should make laws that protect the whole of society and be willing to sanction those who violate them whether in the media or politicians or academics instead of blaming indigenous languages. In blaming the language rather than those who instigate these sentiments Kenyan politicians are behaving like the proverbial ostrich man in the Yoruba saying : O fi ete sile on pa lapa lapa (i.e. someone who is suffering from leprosy is busy seeking medicines for eczema!).

*Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem writes this column as a Pan Africanist.

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

Mauritania - more to the picture

2008-05-15

David Seddon

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/48120

I cannot agree with Armele Choplin that "Mauritania is awash with Maghrebin extremists whose influence continues to grow" (Mauritania: Between Islamism and terrorrism; http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/48058 ). The attack on French tourists in December 2007 was claimed as the work of organised terrorists operating from Algeria, but this was never proven.

There is much alarmist talk of Al Qaeda in the Sahel, which has been used to justify a significant US presence and involvement in the region. It was, incidentally, a supposed fear of links with Al Qaeda that led the US to promote and support the invasion of Somalia, to crush the Islamic Courts Union there.

Certainly, the continued poverty of the ordinary Mauritanian people, in the face of growing oil revenues and a government which so far, despite its promises, has failed to ensure any significant re-distribution of wealth or mprovement in basic welfare, has led to a degree of radicalisation. So-called 'food riots' reveal how far ordinary people are angered by the failure of the new elected government to assure its people's well being, as well as being hard hit by rising food prices and continued poverty.

The implied 'social contract' in a democracy - that the people elect the government to ensure their wellbeing - has been broken yet again. Islam offers hope to young people, especially, as Armell Choplin rightly points out, to young harratin, and it also focuses the anger and disappointment. But this has nothing to do with terrorism and more to do with popular protest at government failure.

Why South Africa will never be like Zimbabwe

Dora Brow

2008-05-15

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/48116

As long as the legacy of Apartheid has not been fully erased, and the playing field levelled so that ALL South Africans benefit from the alleged Independence and the end of apartheid, I would say, Jeremy Cronin - Why South Africa will never be like Zimbabwe; http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/47873 better believe that the Jewish saying, "from your mouth to God's ear," is in place.

I am always fascinated by those who regard the current state of South Africa as being the best that can be, for the masses of black and brown South Africans. I even went to a lecture at an American graduate school, where a white American had gone and used a pool of 1000 different people. He came back to give a talk on how South Africans of color are wishing apartheid would return, since things were better for them. I also find alot of skilled black South Africans still in exile, or in the diaspora, because they are being told that dual citizenship is the problem or some other excuse. I see nothing in the quality of life of the majority of South Africans of color to make me believe that their patience with the "Tommorrow" that even one of my siblings used to describe the slow changes will continue indefinitely.

There is also something else, the world is getting very hostile to those of a different hue, setting up Fortress Europe, and the Fence along the US border, etc. etc. It becomes harder and harder to accept that we, Africans, who have been exploited and abused for so long, and even after the alleged dismantling of apartheid, will continue to tolerate the stories that come out, throwing the kaffir to the lions, abuse on farms, forcing workers to eat...

We read about South Africans being used as laboratory animals for experimental drugs, and then read about the disasters created by this. We read and hear about South Africa being turned into a place where Brazilians are brought for the their organs to be harvested for a market that is not in South Africa, and knowing the legacy of apartheid; this is just a small part of what is really happening.

We see the disasters that are happening in the mines, and the fact that many miners where let go to a bleak future whilst DeBeers moved its trading to the UK and now has a huge flagship store in New York...

The only constant is change, and South Africa still has the chance to avoid a Zimbabwe, but from what one hears and sees, Apartheid is still alive and well, and doing a brisk business. So, I do not see anyone forcing the redressing of wrongs, whites never give up what they deem theirs by some right of skin, or belief in a god that has made the earth theirs. I do not see or hear anything from South Africa that shows that the "droit de seigneur" that whites feel has changed. Instead, one sees the slow attempts to continue the 'cape to cairo' fantasy of Rhodes and the other imperialists. The recolonization of Africa that is now being implemented.

My parents gave up alot in leaving their homeland, and took us with them. I was born a month before Apartheid became the law, and saw what it did to ALL of us of color. I was also in Zimbabwe when the Federation of Rhodesias and Nyasaland was dismantled, and the Ian Smith era.

I still have not been fortunate to go home, though my siblings have returned. I do not read or see anything that makes me in a hurry to go home, though life in the diaspora is no paradise. My father advised me on his return to South Africa, not to come home yet, and I will follow his advice, it would be difficult to go home to the same "For Whites only" system. So, Jeremy Cronin, I do hope you are right, and believe the redressing of a lot of the wrongs of the Apartheid era would go far in preventing a Zimbabwe, but from what I hear, "it is too soon, ten more years!!" I find myself not as optimistic, the Wheel turns, and lost opportunities can come back to haunt those who believe that "South Africa will never be like Zimbabwe," it could in fact be a lot worse.

Zimbabwe and South Africa

Dora Brow

2008-05-15

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/48115

I have been avoiding the feeling that there is an agenda at work here, in which Southern African countries, i.e., Zimbabwe and South Africa, are in the crosshairs. I do not see any article on Bongo, in Central African Republic, or the Cameroonian President who is going to be declared the lifetime "head of state", the fact that in Liberia, local elections were called off the reason being given, " a lack of resources" yet these "resources" could be found to entertain and welcome President Bush.

I have wanted to avoid the feeling that pambazuka was being financed and used as a tool, but find myself wishing to have a question answered by the Editor, "Why is the focus solely on Zimbabwe and South Africa, and all the issues being discussed are those on the agenda of the alleged, "civilized world"? Why does one not see articles on the plight of the Somalis who have been invaded by a foreign state, and are being bombed from US warships along the coast? Why are we not hearing of the plight of those Somalis starving, and let us not forget those in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia? When the focus of your organization is solely on countries in the crosshairs of neo colonialists and imperialists, who now covert the wealth of Africa, and are concentrating all their resources into destabilizing and undermining legitimate African governments, one wonders who are you serving? AFRICA or foreign interests that are hostile to African aspirations?

I do not wish to discontinue receiving your newsletter and other information, since it does provide a window into just how entrenched and scary the control of information and real news on Africa and real African interests is. I mean for what one is now constantly reading on your website, one could as easily read the BBC, New York Times, Daily News, New York Post and all the other corporate controlled media in the West.

Just throwing this out there. Keep on sending the stuff, it is, for lack of a better word, "fascinating!!!!"

Editors: We look forward to your articles on the topics you feel we are not covering adequately.

Zimbabwe: Black America must not be silent

John

2008-05-15

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/48117

Mr. Fletcher did you protest against the illegal sanctions placed Zimbabwe? [Zimbabwe: Black America must not be silent; [http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/47437]

Did you write that African-Americans should not be quiet about these illegal sanctions? Furthermore, I feel that you should speak to the leaders in that region, if you have not already done so, because they have not put great pressure on Mugabe. In fact, President Mbeki of South Africa said there is no crisis. Many African-American leaders really scare me because of their love for Rome (I mean America). They are usually used against the interests of African people.

Becoming Somaliland

Book review

2008-05-13

Izzy Birch

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/48048

‘Why write a book about Somaliland, a lightly populated region on the edge of Africa which, if the international community had its wish, would be reincorporated into a federal Somali state?’ The author, Mark Bradbury, answers his own question by filling an important gap in the literature on Somali studies. The book, written by someone who has been deeply engaged with the region for many years, provides a comprehensive and inspiring account of how people in Somaliland and its diaspora ‘debated, defined and created a new polity’ in the aftermath of war, and in so doing challenged normative assumptions about what states look like and how they are built.

The book tells the story of the process of state-building in Somaliland from the start of European colonisation in the early 19th century to the holding of multi-party elections in September 2005. Two notable characteristics of the political system that has taken shape in Somaliland since it declared its independence from Somalia on 18 May 1991 are its fusion of modern and traditional forms of political organisation and its strong roots in society.

The Somali National Movement (SNM), which fought against Siad Barre’s regime in the north-west during the 1980s, published its political manifesto in 1981. It proposed ‘a new political system built upon Somali cultural values of cooperation rather than coercion’. This challenged the political orthodoxy of the time, as the author explains, because the clan was then regarded as incompatible with a unified, modern state. From 1988 a council of clan elders, or guurti, acted as an advisory body to the SNM’s central committee. After the war this evolved into the upper house of a bicameral parliament thus, uniquely in Africa, incorporating a traditional institution within the formal structure of the state.

Somaliland’s lack of international recognition, and the west’s preoccupation with events in the south of Somalia after the fall of Siad Barre, forced Somalilanders back on their own resources. The succession of clan conferences in the first half of the 1990s which cemented the peace and fashioned the new state were led by elders and financed from domestic or diaspora sources. This strengthened their legitimacy, as did the use of customary processes of dialogue and consensus-building and the highly visible nature of the discussions. With the country’s limited access to external aid and finance, funds from the diaspora have been essential to the survival of many families. They have also underpinned the rebuilding of public institutions, from universities to hospitals, and the regeneration of key sectors such as telecommunications and housing.

Support for the path Somaliland has taken is by no means universal, even within Somaliland. Despite his evident respect for what has been achieved, the author also makes an honest assessment of the shortcomings and challenges. The government’s detention of its critics, restrictions on the media, and use of emergency laws to prohibit public debate on sensitive issues (such as the prospects of reunification with Somalia) have been widely criticised both within and outside the country. Its writ barely extends over the eastern regions of Sool and Sanaag. Its finances remain highly dependent on tariffs on a single export (livestock). Neither the clan-based system of political representation nor the multi-party system which replaced it has so far shown much concern for the rights of women and minority groups. And what were once some of the system’s strengths are now showing signs of weakness: the moral authority of the guurti, for example, has been undermined by being institutionalised within government, leaving elders vulnerable to accusations of having a vested interest in the regime’s survival.

Nevertheless, throughout the 17 years since Somaliland revoked the 1960 Act of Union, its people have shown a remarkable level of political maturity. Three elections have been held since 2002: district, presidential and parliamentary. All were found by external observers to be reasonably free and fair, while power passed peacefully on the death of one president to another, even of a different clan. The ruling party won the presidential elections in April 2003 by a whisker – just 80 votes – and yet the party which was narrowly beaten into second place chose to contest the results (and eventually accept them) using constitutional means. The multi-party parliamentary elections in 2005 created a situation in which – uniquely in Africa, according to the author – the ruling party does not control the legislature. Although Somaliland slipped back into civil war between 1994 and 1996, on the whole the preference has been to resolve problems through dialogue rather than violence. Time and time again, religious leaders, civil society activists, elders, poets and businessmen have joined together to mediate between conflicting parties when the political system has reached an impasse. These achievements are rightly given their due recognition in this book.

The literature on the state often draws a distinction between juridical and empirical statehood. In the case of Somalia, it is the Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu – the product of an externally driven process of negotiation, and now surviving only with the military support of Ethiopia and the West – that enjoys juridical statehood in the eyes of the international community. But it is Somaliland, unrecognised under international law, which has achieved the greater degree of empirical statehood, and it has done it with only a fraction of the resources that have been directed in search of peace and stability in the south. The comparison may not be entirely fair, given the differences in context, but as Mark Bradbury points out, the West’s line on Somalia – that the solution to its problems must lie with Somalis themselves (including the resolution of Somaliland’s current ‘diplomatic limbo’) – is rather undermined by its heavy-handed intervention against the Union of Islamic Courts. Bradbury does not use the word, but a fair degree of humbug has for a long time characterised the West’s dealings with Somalia/Somaliland.

In a recent article in the International Herald Tribune, two staff from the International Crisis Group commented on the distorted priorities of those crafting resolutions at the UN, seemingly more concerned with piracy off the Somali coast than with the suffering taking place on land. ‘Strange how an African country can be moving from prolonged chaos to violent collapse and no one in the world notices until a couple of European boats get seized by armed gunmen,’ they wrote. All too often the good news out of Africa receives similarly short shrift. The world is starting to wake up to what has been happening in Somaliland and to what its people have achieved on their own terms. This book will make a major contribution to that process of enlightenment.

Bradbury, M. (2008) 'Becoming Somaliland'. Progressio, in association with James Currey, Indiana University Press, Jacana Media, Fountain Publishers and East African Educational Publishers. Softback, 271 pages.

*Izzy Birch works for Fahamu

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

African Blog Review – 05/15/2008

2008-05-14

Dibussi Tande

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/48097

Breaking News Kenya
http://breakingnewskenya.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/bdafrica_job/

Breaking News Kenya provides a link to an article in Business Daily about the increasing use of the Internet by Kenyan employers to screen job applicants:

“Local figures are hard to trace, but in a recent survey of executive recruiters by execunet.com, 77 per cent of respondents said they used the Internet to uncover additional information about candidates…

Job seekers who have more “presence” online are generally expected to be more believable as the employer can often verify content on an applicant’s CV, such as where they went to school or if they really worked for companies they lay claim to…

A third of the managers polled by execunet.com said they would eliminate applicants based on what they found out about them online, saying scandalous photos, political commentary or inappropriate videos found on websites such as Flikr, in blogs or on YouTube would have a negative impact on the candidacy of an applicant.”


Mother City Living
http://www.mothercityliving.co.za/20080514/food-gardens-on-the-cards-for-the-western-cape-its-about-time/

Mother City Living comments on proposed solutions to the burgeoning world food crisis:

“For the past week I’ve heard people debating the food crisis until they’re blue in the face. Increase the number of VAT-exempt food items, they said, issue food stamps, put a cap on food prices.

Not once did I hear anyone saying what I thought would be the most obvious option: get people growing their own food.

But, happily, today I read an article on Iafrica that gives me hope. In short, according to the report, Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool has proposed the launch of a “food security campaign” with “concrete initiatives” that would include:

‘…making state land at hospitals and schools available for community food garden schemes, setting up food co-operatives , distributing seed packs to vulnerable households, and increasing the school nutrition budget by R5-million.’

Hallelujah! Now, here’s hoping this gets off the drawing board, and out into the community. It’s about time.”


Magharebia
]http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2008/05/13/feature-01]

Magharebia reports on a campaign by nearly 1000 civil society groups in Morocco to get more women to run for office during the 2009 local elections:

“Moroccan women hold only a half-percent of the country's local political positions, run just 127 of 1,497 communes and serve as mayor of only one town. In the run-up to Morocco's 2009 communal elections, civil society is now rallying to change this situation.

The effort to increase women's political representation at the municipal level is finding support from an alliance of nearly 1,000 associations across Morocco. Under the banner, "The One-Third Movement", the new federation has launched a large-scale campaign aimed at convincing politicians to amend the electoral code. Activists want the law to require that women comprise at least a third of listed candidates in the upcoming municipal elections.
...
The new federation's plan to raise awareness within parliament, political parties and the government is already beginning to see results. Some political parties now promise to give women greater participation during next year's elections.
...
Voters disagree as to women’s ability to run public affairs. While many young people say they will make their choice based on clearly-defined criteria, irrespective of the candidate’s gender, older people make no secret of their preference for male candidates.


Think Ghana
http://blogs.thinkghana.com/2008/05/12/welcome-ghana-correctional-service/

Think Ghana comments on the state of correctional facilities in Ghana and plans to change the name of the Ghana Prisons Service:
“The Prisons Service, like many other public institutions, has over the years suffered under the proverbial ‘No funds’ syndrome and those who know the system very well, will admit that there is very little correction in our prison system.
Overcrowding, poor sanitation and lack of learning and training facilities have made the prisons more of concentration camps than centres of reformation...
In Ghana, very few can claim that they came out of our prisons better equipped than when they went in. Some claim spiritual development, which only confirms the physical deprivations they went through while in prison custody…
These deprivations and the stigma associated with prison life have seriously contributed to the situation where most convicts come out from the prisons ready to exert revenge on society…

We know the problems of the Ghana Prisons Service… So why do we think by giving an old institution a new name, everything will change for the better overnight?”


Omar Basawad
http://omar-basawad.blogspot.com/2008/04/kidepo-ugandas-hidden-wonder.html

Omar Basawad writes about one of Uganda’s ”hidden jewels”, the Kidepo National Park:

“Very few people visit the Kidepo National Park in Uganda. Even fewer tourists ever visit the rugged, breathtaking Ugandan hidden wonder, tucked away in the triangular North Eastern part of the country…

Of all Ugandan national parks and game reserves, Kidepo is the most remote and has the most unique wilderness and terrain. Karamoja too, is the most dry and the hottest part of Uganda; it has a most unique people too: the Karamojong, whose warriors, tall and black, still walk and graze their cattle while almost totally naked; they seem too, to have a liking for AK47 rifles. The Kalashnikov seems to be the only modern technology that Karamojong men have accepted; unlike in most parts of Uganda where the mobile phone is.

Sadly, semi arid Karamoja, though large and has great potential for development, is the poorest and the most undeveloped district of Uganda. I very much hope that the authorities concerned will do more for Karamoja and its people; and make the remote, isolated magical Kidepo more secure… Any one visiting Uganda and has the time and means, should visit enchanting, breathtaking Kidepo and experience not only some of the most spectacular sceneries Uganda and Africa has; but also feast on the abundant unique mix of wildlife that Kidepo boasts.”


Scribbles from the Den
http://www.dibussi.com/2008/05/2007-a-year-of.html#more

Scribbles from the Den publishes excerpts of the 2007 Freedom House survey on the state of Press freedom in Africa:

“The average regionwide level of press freedom declined during the year, as did the average score in the legal and political categories.

Trends in individual countries presented a mixed picture, with some improvements but a greater number of declines, including three negative status changes. Press freedom conditions continue to be dire in Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, and Zimbabwe, where authoritarian governments use legal pressure, imprisonment, and other forms of harassment to sharply curtail the ability of independent media outlets to report freely. All three countries continue to rank among the bottom 10 performers worldwide.

Reasons for the negative movement during 2007 varied from country to country, but it appeared to be driven by either legal or political factors, and in many cases a combination of the two.

…Although they were far outweighed by declines, Africa did see a number of improvements during 2007. In many cases, these positive movements reflected a decline in the physical harassment of journalists or the increased ability of reporters to cover sensitive political stories.”

* 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 www.pambazuka.org/

Assaults and re-education by army not getting support for ZPF

2008-05-16

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news150508/assaults150508.htm

Reports from around the country indicate that the army is at the forefront of the violence against innocent civilians and opposition officials. Not only have army officers been instructed to vote for Robert Mugabe in the runoff election, they are also being used to intimidate the electorate at huge gatherings that they call “re-education” rallies. Each army violence unit has been assigned a group of over 30 youth militia, who are now reported to be uniformed and are being paid for their brutal deeds. But voters around the country say no amount of violence or intimidation will ever make them vote for ZANU-PF.

Political killings and abductions of MDC activists escalate

2008-05-16

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news150508/killings150508.htm

The brutal murder of MDC activist Beta Chokururama in Murehwa on Sunday and the abduction of Tonderai Ndira from Mabvuku on Wednesday highlight the country’s spiralling crisis of political killings and kidnappings. Chokururama was abducted with three other activists’ 10km after Juru growth point on his way to Ngwerume village in Murehwa, to say goodbye to his mother. The group had planned to flee the country the following day and seek refuge in South Africa.

Statement concerning escalating cases of organised violence and torture, and of intimidation of medical personnel

2008-05-12

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/zimbabwe/48024

Since the last report on the 25th of April, our members have reported a dramatic escalation in incidents of organised violence and torture with the number of victims documented in the post election period now standing at over 900. This figure grossly underestimates the number of victims presenting countrywide as the violence is now on such a scale that it is impossible to properly document all cases. There have been 22 confirmed deaths but at least double that number have been reported but are yet to be confirmed. It is alleged that some of those killed have been buried on the orders of state agents before documentation can take place.
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights

Statement concerning escalating cases of organised violence and torture, and of intimidation of medical personnel

9 May 2008

Since the last report on the 25th of April, our members have reported a dramatic escalation in incidents of organised violence and torture with the number of victims documented in the post election period now standing at over 900. This figure grossly underestimates the number of victims presenting countrywide as the violence is now on such a scale that it is impossible to properly document all cases. There have been 22 confirmed deaths but at least double that number have been reported but are yet to be confirmed. It is alleged that some of those killed have been buried on the orders of state agents before documentation can take place.

There has been a dramatic increase in violence since the beginning of May. In the last 24 hours alone, 30 victims of violence have been treated for limb fractures in Harare hospitals and clinics and supplies of Plaster of Paris bandages are reported to be exhausted in most health centres.

One hospital in Harare has treated an average of 23 victims a day over the last week. On the 8th of May, there were a total 53 more seriously injured patients (13 females and 40 males) admitted to wards in 3 Harare hospitals. These included one 30 year old man on life support in the intensive care unit with severe, irreversible head injuries and a 30 year old man with severe soft tissue injuries to the buttocks and secondary renal failure, also on life support. Both of these patients died later that day. Also admitted was a 3yr old boy with trauma to his R eye from being struck with a rock and a 78 year old man with a fractured lower leg from blunt trauma. One young breast-feeding mother had bilateral fractures of her hands and was unable to hold her baby to feed her. Among the other patients, 20 had defensive, forearm or hand fractures, 5 had leg fractures and 1 fractured ribs. Fourteen patients had severe injuries to the buttocks from blunt trauma which required surgery for the removal of necrotic (dead) tissue. The perpetrators in all cases were alleged by the victims to be war veterans and Zanu PF supporters. Similar patterns of injuries are being reported from other hospitals.

As emphasised in the previous ZADHR reports, the cases documented by our members represent only a fraction of the total number countrywide. ZADHR is concerned that many victims of current violence are not receiving treatment. Numerous incidents of violence are being reported from remote rural areas where there is no access to transport and there are also widespread reports of the injured being denied treatment at health centres where staff have been intimidated and/or are acting under specific instructions from state agents not to treat victims of violence. It was reported from one district (Headlands) that medical care was being provided only if the victim had a letter from the police authorising this. Accounts have also been received of ambulances, sent to collect seriously injured victims, being turned away by war veterans.

Under these circumstances, it is likely that many of those with less severe injuries are not seeking medical attention. This seems to be confirmed by increasing reports of victims presenting with complications such as wound infections or infected haematomas which are directly attributable to delayed treatment.

Doctors and nursing staff at rural hospitals are working under conditions of severe stress and many health workers have reported intimidation with some having been specifically instructed by state agents not to treat opposition supporters. These health workers, who, according to some reports are treating up to 60 victims of torture and violence a day, are emotionally traumatised and depressed. One nursing sister treating victims in a rural clinic was observed to be shaking so violently with fear that she was unable to write.

Government spokespersons have repeatedly claimed that they have not received reports of violence or of deaths from the police. However, there is evidence that the police themselves are being intimidated. ZADHR has eyewitness statements that on the 24th of April, at Mayo Police Station in Headlands District, a high-ranking police officer from Harare physically assaulted the Member in Charge, accusing him of being sympathetic to the opposition. The police post had been taking statements from victims and referring them for medical treatment. The Member in Charge was summarily transferred out of the district.

The current pattern of organized torture and violence being perpetrated by state agents in the rural areas of Zimbabwe is similar to that documented prior to the 2002 elections. However, the current violence is dramatically more intensive and unrestrained. The level of brutality and callousness exhibited by the perpetrators is unprecedented and the vicious and cowardly attacks by so called war veterans on women, children and the elderly shames the memory of all true heroes of the liberation struggle.

It has been clearly documented that much of the violence has been specifically directed against members of the opposition party, particularly those who acted as election agents or monitors in the recent elections. Villagers and school teachers from districts where the opposition predominated in the elections have also been targeted even though they have no political affiliations. Without exception, victims treated by our members have identified the perpetrators either as war veterans, armed security force members or Zanu PF youth militia or varying combinations of the three. The few acts of violence attributable to opposition members appear to have been retaliatory or defensive.

It is clear from the widespread and coordinated nature of the violence and the consistent pattern of injuries inflicted, that state agents including elements of the security forces are organizing and directing this campaign of terror. It is now obvious that the intent of the campaign is to secure victory for President Robert Mugabe in a run off election. As in the 2002 election, it may be anticipated that the violence will be halted just prior to the arrival of international election monitors, to create the illusion of a peaceful and fair election, although state agents will maintain an intimadatory presence throughout the rural areas.

ZADHR again appeals for the immediate cessation of acts of violence and for the restoration of the rule of law in Zimbabwe. To this end it calls for:

* 1) the immediate, large- scale deployment of teams of SADC and other credible international observers to all districts where violence is being reported.
* 2) attested members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police to assume sole responsibility for the enforcement of law and order, and for the protection of the law be extended to all Zimbabweans irrespective of political affiliation.
* 3) the immediate withdrawal of all military personnel, both regular and irregular to barracks and the arrest of those war veterans and those posing as war veterans who are instigating violence.
* 4) the withdrawal of uniforms and arms from all irregular police and army militia not formally attested into the service and not entitled under law to bear arms.
* 5) the postponement of all run off election activities until the above conditions have been achieved.

Finally, ZADHR again appeals to the international community of health workers, including the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and the Zimbabwe Medical Association to bring whatever effective pressure is within their capability to bear on the Government of Zimbabwe to stop these grotesque, cruel and shameful acts of violence, and to be prepared to actively defend their colleagues facing intimidation and physical threat.

More...

TransAfrica Forum calls for relaease of ZCTU leaders

2008-05-12

http://www.transafricaforum.org/TAFCallsforRelZCTULeaders.html

TransAfrica Forum calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to immediately release jailed leaders of the Zimbabwe Coalition of Trade Unions, Lovemore Matombo and Secretary General Wellington Chibebe. The two were arrested on May 8 and charged with allegations of "inciting people to rise against the government," following speeches made during a May Day rally.

AU Monitor - Weekly Roundup

Issue 136, 2008

2008-05-15

http://www.aumonitor.org

The 11th African Union (AU) Summit will be held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, between June 24 and July 1, 2008, under the theme of “Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation”. The Permanent Representatives’ Committee will be held between June 24 - 25, the Executive Council between June 27 -28 and the Assembly of heads of states and government between June 30 and July 1. The draft agendas for each of these sessions are available to download at www.aumonitor.org/comments/1229 In addition, the Citizens and Diaspora Directorate of the AU Commission will hold an AU-civil society meeting on June 17-19, in Sharm el Sheikh.

The Center for Citizens’ Participation in the African Union (CCP-AU) has written an essential policy brief for civil society detailing the key issues that will be discussed during the summit as well as providing logistical information for civil society participants. Among the issues highlighted are the adoption of a social policy framework for Africa, peace and security in Africa, the union government proposal and the audit of the African Union. Indeed, the Executive Council of the AU has just concluded an extraordinary session to discuss the audit report of the union. During this meeting, the chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), H.E. Mr. Jean Ping, noted that: “The Commission of the African Union agrees with the bulk of the Panel’s recommendations and would wish to see them implemented as soon as possible. In other areas, we have reservations based on experience and our own contact with the facts on the ground”. Also in preparation for the summit, the Committee of heads of states and government will meet later this month in Arusha, Tanzania, to discuss the union government proposal.

As civil society continues to advocate for African Union (AU) intervention in Zimbabwe, urging the AU leadership to call for the immediate cessation of violence and the protection of the Zimbabwean people as well as to deploy an exploratory mission of experts into Zimbabwe to assess the electoral environment, the African Union issued a statement on the situation in Zimbabwe following an official visit to the country by the chairperson of the AUC. Within the statement, the AU “urges the ZEC to ensure that the said run off [election] is undertaken as provided for in the Electoral Act”; “re-emphasizes the need for Zimbabwe to implement the conditions set out in the Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa; urges that agreements reached and the conditions prevailing prior to the 29 March polls be upheld; appeals to all the Zimbabwe political actors to conduct their activities in a free, transparent, tolerant, and non-violent manner to enable eligible Zimbabweans exercise their democratic rights”. Further, “the AU will continue to play an active role in assessing all further developments in preparing for the effective observation of this election with a view to providing an independent judgment on its outcome.

Following the presentation on peace and security in Africa by the chairperson of the Committee on Cooperation, International Relations and Conflict Resolution at the session of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) this week, Hon. Euggene Kparkar of Liberia charged PAP to be firm and decisive on issues related to Heads of State, adding that “even though PAP must be commended for sending election observer missions to both Kenya and Zimbabwe, African leaders must be told in the face that too much of staying in power brews conflict. Therefore, they must always prepare their minds to vacate the presidential seats whenever their time is due”. However, recognizing the weaknesses of PAP’s mandate, the chairperson of the committee noted that PAP cannot hold African presidents entirely to account because it is currently an advisory, and not yet legislative, organ.

In further peace and security news, the AU has condemned the attacks on the Sudanese capital of Khartoum by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) from the Darfur region, saying that their actions could jeopardize efforts to find a political solution to the crisis and escalate regional peace and security tensions. The chairperson of the AU Commission and the Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra are expected to visit the country.

As continued economic growth is predicted in 2008 and 2009 by the African Development Bank, the Monetary Affairs Committee of the East African Community has said high interest rate spreads, budget deficits, high domestic debt and relatively high levels of non-performing loans continue to be major challenges that need to be addressed before a monetary union can be realised. Seeing information and communication technology as central to African development, the AUC is engaging development partners to fund nine flagship projects under the Africa Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy programme. While, Jose Graziano da Silva argues that “agro-energy emerges from the current financial crisis as a safe haven of real consistency and strategic continuity”, further stating that “agro-energy can help sustain the expansion of poor countries and usher in a new dynamic of trade independence by industrialising biofuel crop farming and creating bridges between family agriculture and a peak sector of the global economy that is here to stay.” Lastly, as African leaders will attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development this month, Felix Osike explores the courting of Africa by so-called emerging powers such as Japan, China and India.

Africa: Is the political terrain too rough for women?

2008-05-16

http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=3140

For a long time woman’s place in the political landscape has been too rough especially in Africa. For a woman to feature in politics, she must be having a skin as thick as that of an elephant as Wangari Maathai Nobel laureate equips it in her memoir Unbowed.

CAR: “Our daughters have no future”

2008-05-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78233

Women in Ndele, a remote town in northern Central African Republic, are making a stand for their rights. The local chapter of the national women’s organisation, OFCA, has launched a campaign to alert women to their rights on issues such as female genital mutilation/cutting, early marriages and polygamy.

Global: Global discrimmination against women - New report

2008-05-16

http://www.soas.ac.uk/news/newsitem43687

A new report by Dr. Fareda Banda, “Laws that Discriminate Against Women,” reveals the harsh realities of these discriminatory laws around the world, and explores possibilities for new processes to eliminate such discrimination. Dr. Banda used existing UN mechanisms and national data on the subject to inform the report, which finds that the female half of the population continues to experience state-sanctioned and state-condoned discrimination.

Kenya: Women die from unsafe abortions

2008-05-16

http://www.awcfs.org/content/view/400/1/

When Jacinta Marete discovered that she was pregnant, she was in her first year in one of the public universities in the country. Having been among the chosen few who secure themselves a place in these institutions of higher learning, her dream of becoming a pharmacist was slowly shaping up.

Senegal: Happily strung along: Women count beads as contraception

2008-05-16

http://www.unfpa.org/news/news.cfm?ID=1111

A growing number of women around Senegal, choose to take charge of their reproductive health with the help of something that looks like a necklace. That decision may keep them from ever being counted among the millions of women globally who are seriously injured or die during childbirth.

Southern Africa: Women's representation in the Lower House of Parliament

2008-05-16

http://www.eisa.org.za/WEP/gen2006parliament.htm

The EISA has availed information on the proportion of women in the lower house of parliaments of Southern African countries. As far as is possible, every effort has been made to exclude nominated and ex officio members from the tallies.

DRC: UN troops accused of sexual abuse

2008-05-16

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=339225

The United Nations is investigating allegations that its peacekeepers sexually abused children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), its mission in the war-scarred country said on Wednesday. The mission (Monuc) "is deeply concerned by allegations that surfaced recently of sexual exploitation and abuse against some of its Blue Helmets, in the province of North Kivu", spokesperson Kemal Saiki told reporters.

Egypt: Assault against Ms. Magda Adly

2008-05-12

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/48020

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention regarding the following situation in Egypt.
URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY
EGY 001 / 0508 / OBS 074
Assault / Intimidation Egypt
May 7, 2008

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention regarding the following situation in Egypt.


Brief description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) about the assault against Ms. Magda Adly, a medical doctor and a member of the El Nadim Centre for Psychological Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence.

According to the information received, on April 30, 2008, Drs. Magda Adly and Mona Hamed were assaulted inside the courthouse of the town of Kafr El Dawwar in Northern Egypt. Indeed, upon entering the courthouse, Dr. Adly was attacked by a man who appeared to attempt to steal her handbag and pushed her on the floor, causing her a cut wound to her left eyebrow as well as a possible dislocation of her shoulder. Moreover, she experienced a period of unconsciousness and confusion. After the assault, the man would have confessed that he had acted upon orders of Chief intelligence officer Ahmed Maklad of the Kafr El Dawwar police. While hospitalised, Ms. Adly was interrogated for two hours, starting at 1 pm on the morning of May 1, 2008.

In addition, the car of Dr. Mona Hamed, another member of the El Nadim Centre, was destroyed in the course of the events under circumstances that are yet unclear.

These events happened immediately before the two doctors were to appear in Court and testify in a case concerning several members of a local family who had been subjected to torture by local police. Indeed, on the morning of April 30, 2008, El Nadim Centre had released a statement calling for an investigation into the allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of members of the Sobhi Mohamed Sobhi Hussein family by the local police in Kafr El Dawwar[1].

The Observatory expresses its deep concern about these acts of intimidation against Ms. Magda Adly and Ms. Mona Hamed, and fears that they might be aimed at sanctioning her activities in favour of human rights.

Action requested:

Please write to the Egyptian authorities to urge them to :
i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Drs. Magda Adly and Mona Hamed;
ii. Order a thorough and impartial investigation into these events in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply to them the penal sanctions provided by the law;
iii. Put an end to all forms of harassment against all human rights defenders in Egypt;
iv. Conform with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular its Articles 1 (“everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”) and 12.2 (“The State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the [...] Declaration”);
v. Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards and international instruments ratified by Egypt.

Addresses:
· President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, His Excellency Mohammad Hosni Mubarak, Abedine Palace, Cairo, Egypt, E-mail: webmaster@presidency.gov.eg, Fax: +202 390 1998
· Prime Minister Mr. Ahmed Mahmoud Mohamed Nazif, Magles El Shaab Street, Kasr El Aini Street, Cairo, Egypt. Fax: + 202 735 6449 / 7958016. Email: primemin@idsc.gov.eg
· Minister of the Interior, General Habib Ibrahim Habib El Adly, Ministry of the Interior, El-Sheikh Rihan Street, Bab al-Louk, Cairo, Egypt, E-mail: moi1@idsc.gov.eg, Fax: +202 579 2031 / 794 5529
· Minister of Justice, Mr. Mamdoh Mohie E-din Marie, Ministry of Justice, Magles El Saeb Street, Wezaret Al Adl, Cairo, Egypt, E-mail: mojeb@idsc.gov.eg, Fax: +202 795 8103
· Public Prosecutor, Counsellor Maher ‘Abd al-Wahid, Dar al-Qadha al-’Ali, Ramses Street, Cairo, Egypt, Fax: +202 577 4716
· National Council For Human Rights, Fax: + 202 5747497 / 5747670
· Ambassador Sameh Shoukry, 49 avenue Blanc, 1202 Genève, Switzerland, Email: mission.egypt@ties.itu.int, Fax: +41 22 738 44 15
· Embassy of Egypt in Brussels, 19 avenue de l’Uruguay, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, Fax: + 32 2 675.58.88; Email: embassy.egypt@skynet.be

Please also write to the diplomatic representatives of Egypt in your respective countries

Geneva-Paris, May 7, 2008

Kindly inform the Observatory of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply. The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.

Kindly inform the Observatory of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:
Tel and fax FIDH: +33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 / 43 55 18 80
Tel and fax OMCT: (+ 41 22) 809 49 39 / 809 49 29
Email: Appeals@fidh-omct.org

[1] Upon an appeal from the family, a team comprising medical experts from El Nadim Center went to Kafr el Dawwar to take testimony from Mr. Hussein and several family members who had been subjected to torture by officers of the local police.

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Kenya: Militia on the spot over claims of torture

2008-05-16

http://www.humanrightshouse.org/dllvis5.asp?id=6552

Mount Elgon residents have begun disclosing the atrocities meted on them by a criminal gang that has been terrorising them before the joint military and police ´Operation Okoa Maisha´ was launched early this year. The Saboti land Defence Force militia employed methods of torture reminiscent of West Africa in the 90s, including chopping off their victims´ ears on flimsy accusations like drunkenness, cutting down maize stalks, refusing to join the SLDF or paying membership fee.

Senegal: UN decision on Hissène Habré flouted

2008-05-16

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/14/senega18826.htm

Two years after a United Nations committee requested that Senegal prosecute or extradite the former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré, no action has been taken, six human rights organizations has said. Habré fled to Senegal after he was deposed in 1990. Senegal has an unambiguous legal obligation to prosecute or extradite the former dictator to face charges of torture, said a joint statement by several human rights groups.

Sudan: Mass arrests after rebel attack raise concern

2008-05-13

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/13/sudan18812.htm

Mass arrests in Khartoum of perceived supporters of a Darfur rebel group and other political opponents raise fears of mistreatment, Human Rights Watch has said. The arrests by Sudanese security forces of more than 100 people followed an attack on Sudan’s capital by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on May 10, 2008 that left dozens of civilians dead or severely injured.

Uganda: Widespread torture, in so-called 'safe houses' and elsewhere

2008-05-16

http://www.humanrightshouse.org/dllvis5.asp?id=6553

One by one, they come. They talk about the incessant beatings, the water that was poured over their nose and throat until they couldn’t breathe and the bricks that were tied to their testicles. One says a soldier cocked a gun in his mouth and said “Now you’re dead.” Another recounts how a bagful of chopped, fresh red pepper was pulled over his head, how his eyes and skin felt like they were on fire and he couldn’t breathe. A young man says dead bodies were dropped off in his room, and he was ordered to clean off the blood. Right, demonstration of torture in Karamoja.

Algeria: Sahrawi refugee children in dire need of food

2008-05-16

http://www.afrol.com/articles/28936

The declining humanitarian assistance in the Sahrawi refugee's camp in Algeria leaves children with severe malnutrition. According to a Norwegian Church Aid report to be published next week, one out of five children who have grown up in refuges camp in Algeria are suffering from acute malnutrition

DRC: UN refugee agency begins overland return operation from Zambia

2008-05-16

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26675

The United Nations refugee agency has expanded its repatriation operation to the town of Moba in south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by launching road returns this week from Zambia.

Kenya: Concern over forced closure of camps

2008-05-12

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/48011

The National Internally Displaced Persons Network of Kenya is deeply concerned with recent moves by the Government of Kenya to forcibly close IDP camps across the country in violation of the international Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and basic human decency. Operation "Rudi Nyumbani" seems to be based on no policy or legal framework but instead uses the force of the provincial administration to prematurely close the IDP camps.
The National Internally Displaced Persons Network of Kenya

URGENT ACTION: May 9, 2008:
FORCED CLOSURE OF IDP CAMPS IN KENYA

The National Internally Displaced Persons Network of Kenya is deeply concerned with recent moves by the Government of Kenya to forcibly close IDP camps across the country in violation of the international Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and basic human decency. Operation "Rudi Nyumbani" seems to be based on no policy or legal framework but instead uses the force of the provincial administration to prematurely close the IDP camps. It aims at solving the problems of displacement by simply forcing people back to their homes 1) without honoring legal obligations to compensation 2) without providing adequate security and 3) without allowing time for some reconciliation to take place.

The National IDP Network asks that the Government of Kenya recognize its responsibility to protect these victims of violence including many children. According to the guiding principles, which it has agreed to in the Great Lakes Pact, the government is also required, to give the displaced choices and alternatives to returning to the site of very recent trauma. By closing the camps the government is in effect forcing people to return or face starvation, disease and perhaps home in a slum. Such scenarios are likely to breed more poverty and recruits for gangs and future violence. Few seem to remember that Mungiki was a product of the 1991-92 violence and that we are in danger of magnifying and multiplying such groups if we do not deal with both the sites of violence and the trauma and plight of the displaced in a comprehensive manner.

It should also be noted that a number of those IDPs who have agreed to be taken back to such places as Kuresoi have experienced threats, violence and no services. At least one man has committed suicide on return, and many have literally returned by foot to the camps. In Nakuru, the site of one of the largest camps the government discontinued water five days ago to the camp causing much distress and the potential outbreak of disease. Residents have been forced to send children out to collect water and tomorrow they will bury a child killed by a car on one desperate mission to collect water. This is no way to treat victims of violence who are already traumatized.

We are asking concerned citizens and friends of Kenya to take urgent action:
• Ask the Kenya Red Cross and international partners to end any complicity in forced returns. Water must be restored to the Nakuru camp immediately. The Kenya Red Cross can be e-mailed at info@kenyaredcross.org or texted at 722-206958 or 733-333040
• Ask the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights to investigate and monitor the ongoing Resettlement and camp closures and to demand that the government recognize the Guiding Principles as the legal framework for dealing with IDPs. Commissioner Maina Kiai can be reached at mkiai@knchr.org
• Ask the government to create an IDP policy that includes some alternatives, which could be in the form of reinstatement of salaries for displaced government employees, monetary compensation, trauma counseling and help in individual relocation choices. Some IDPs have also suggested that they enter into temporary farming arrangements on underutilized land until reconciliation and security can be restored.
• Ask the Government to recognize that some IDPs will prefer to relocate in other parts of the country including Nairobi to do business rather than return. This must be respected and the Ministry of Special Programmes must work with the Ministry of Lands to find alternatives as well as temporary farming arrangements for those who do not wish to return. Finally, urge them to restore water to the Nakuru camp immediately. Dr. Naomi Shaban can be texted at 722814412.


For Further Information Contact: Keffa Magenyi Karuoya (National Coordinator IDP Network) 720-939432

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Kenya: More than 300 refugees return home from Uganda

2008-05-16

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/48195

More than 300 Kenyan refugees have returned home from Uganda weeks after fleeing their homeland in the wake of the inter-ethnic violence that followed last year's presidential election in Kenya.

Global: cedaw4change 3rd Univeral Periodic Review (1-12 December 2008)

NGO submission deadline is 14 July 2008

2008-05-16

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/48144

The 3rd Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council (HRC) will be taking place from 1 - 12 December 2008. The countries that will be reviewed at this session are: Botswana, Bahamas, Burundi, Luxembourg, Barbados, Montenegro, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Liechtenstein, Serbia, Turkmenistan, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Tuvalu.
The 3rd Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council (HRC) will be taking place from 1 - 12 December 2008. The countries that will be reviewed at this session are: Botswana, Bahamas, Burundi, Luxembourg, Barbados, Montenegro, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Liechtenstein, Serbia, Turkmenistan, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Tuvalu.

What is the UPR?

The UPR mechanism is a new innovation in the UN human rights system, under which each UN member state will be reviewed periodically - at this stage every 4 years - on its human rights record by the other member States of the Human Rights Council. 48 countries will be reviewed each year.

How can NGOs engage in the UPR?

NGOs can provide written submissions for the UPR, by sending it to the Secretariat (OHCHR). The OHCHR will then compile your information into a 10 page summary.

This summary prepared by OHCHR will comprise of "credible and reliable information" received from "relevant stakeholders" (besides NGOs and civil society organizations, this includes National Human Rights Institutions).

What is the DEADLINE for submitting information?

The deadline for submission of reports for the 3rd UPR session is 14 July 2008.

What other information will the UPR be based on?

There are three types of documents on which basis the UPR will be conducted. Besides the summary of information from “other relevant stakeholders” (above), the UPR be based on 2 other sources information:

State’s parties information in the form of a national report - in a document of not more than 20 pages.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) compilation of information contained in the reports of treaty bodies, special procedures, and other relevant UN documents, not exceeding 10 pages.


What are the guidelines for written submissions?

- Ensure your submission is within 5 pages. A more detailed and factual report may be attached for reference. In particular, if you have recently submitted a shadow report for CEDAW or any other treaty bodies, we recommend that you make an executive summary your report (in 5 pages) and attach your report.


- Be sure to highlight the most critical issues of concern and express a sense of priority. Facts and details to support the priority issues, as well as possible recommendations to be made to the country under review, may be annexed for reference to the submission. You have to ensure that the presentation of information is easy to read and accessible!

- Language of submission – It is recommended that you submit the information in English, French or Spanish. The Secretariat may not have the capacity to read and summarize contributions in other languages;

- The information covered should be a maximum of four year-time period.

- Other relevant information to note:

Pledges by member states of the Human Rights Council – lobbying tool

In making your submission, we encourage you to refer to the pledge made by your government as a past or current member of the Human Rights Council. The pledge made by your government can used as leverage and is a very useful lobbying tool at both the international and national level. You can find the pledges made by states at www.ohchr.org/english/

Working with the National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs)

You should note that the Human Rights Council is encouraging NHRIs to take a more active role in the UPR mechanism, in collating information and holding consultations with NGOs. That information is available here: http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/nhri_info.htm We encourage you to approach the NHRI in your country to find out at what stage they are at collating information.

Coordination with other NGOs

At the same time, we also urge that you to coordinate amongst NGOs nationally in collating and putting together information for the UPR. The OHCHR has limited time, resources and space in their summary to include your information. Coordinated submissions are therefore more effective.

Who do we send the information to?

Submissions should be sent by 14th July 2008 to UPRsubmissions@ohchr.org

In the title of your email – indicate that this is an NGO submission and indicate the related country (ies) (i.e. Submission by ‘name of NGO’ related to ‘name of country’ for session scheduled ‘indicate month and year’).

For further information on the UPR process please visit the OHCHR website at

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/NoteNGO.aspx You can also visit the following useful NGO website http://www.upr-info.org/ where you will find official documents for the review; summaries of every country’s review; outcome and follow-up of reviews; and webcasts of the HRC plenary sessions. The website also provides country information in relation to the Human Rights Council (pledges and commitments, position on resolutions) and general human rights information (ratified international treaties and ILO conventions, existing National Human Rights Mechanisms).

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Global: We fought apartheid; we see no reason to celebrate it in Israel now! - JustPeaceUK

2008-05-16

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JustPeaceUK/message/23230

We, South Africans who faced the might of unjust and brutal apartheid machinery in South Africa and fought against it with all our strength, with the objective to live in a just, democratic society, refuse todaynto celebrate the existence of an Apartheid state in the Middle East. While Israel and its apologists around the world will, with pomp and ceremony, loudly proclaim the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel this month, we who have lived with and struggled against oppression and colonialism will, instead, remember 6 decades of
catastrophe for the Palestinian people.

Zimbabwe: Judge defers ZCTU leaders’ bail case saying it’s too difficult

2008-05-16

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news150508/judgezctu150508.htm

Justice Ben Hlatshwayo of the High Court judge has deferred until Monday the bail ruling on the case involving the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions leaders. Their lawyer Alex Muchadehama said Secretary General Wellington Chibebe and President Lovemore Matombo are being accused of communicating falsehoods, when they allegedly told workers during May Day celebrations this year that two teachers had been murdered at Kondo School in Guruve. Both deny that they ever said this.

Africa: Ethnically dominated party systems and the quality of democracy

2008-05-16

http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=2997

Do ethnically dominated party systems affect the quality of democracy? This Afrobarometer paper measures levels of ethnic voting and tests its relationship to the quality of democracy. The evidence suggests that the extent to which party systems in sub-Saharan Africa are ethnically dominated negatively affects certain measures of the quality of democracy

Kenya: Proposed truth commission bill seriously flawed

2008-05-16

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/14/kenya18834.htm

Kenya’s draft bill to establish a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission is flawed and should be amended, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch urged parliament to revise the bill before it becomes law. “The national dialogue and reconciliation process was supposed to create institutions that can address Kenya’s historical injustices and bring criminals to book for their crimes,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

Sierra Leone: Political parties ‘committed’ to peaceful council elections

2008-05-16

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26664

Political parties in Sierra Leone have underscored their commitment to holding peaceful local council elections in July at an inter-party dialogue meeting hosted by the United Nations. The main political parties in Sierra Leone have agreed to refrain from engaging in “any activity which is detrimental to the holding of a peaceful election.”

Tanzania: Leader urges talks on Zanzibar coalition

2008-05-16

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN648543.html

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has urged the country's main opposition party to return to talks to break deadlock of more than a year in forming a power-sharing government in semi-autonomous Zanzibar. Talks between the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM, or Party of the Revolution) and the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) faltered earlier this year, leaving the Zanzibar islands, where politics have often turned violent, in limbo.

Uganda: District creation and decentralisation

2008-05-16

http://www.eldis.org/go/country-profiles&id=37118&type=Document

Within the vast literature on decentralisation, there is little attention on one important aspect of decentralisation – namely the creation of new sub-national administrative units. This despite the fact that governments of developing countries such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Vietnam, among many others, have created a slew of new units since the 1990s. In an attempt to fill this gap, this paper tries to understand what underlying motives lie behind the creation of new districts in the African country of Uganda and how widely applicable these motives may be in other contexts.

Zimbabwe: Runoff announced for end of June

2008-05-16

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/05/16/zimbabwe.runoff/index.html

The runoff for Zimbabwe's presidential election will be held June 27, Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission said Friday. The runoff is the second round of voting after the March 29 election, which saw opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai receiving more votes than President Robert Mugabe.

EU seeks to subdue competitive China

2008-05-16

http://www.ipsterraviva.net/europe/article.aspx?id=6082

With the ascendance of China as a robust force on Africa’s economic and political scene, plans are afoot in the European Union (EU) to pre-empt the Asian nation’s dominance on the continent by forming a trilateral partnership that places Europe squarely in the centre. The idea of a multilateral triumvirate was conceived by Louis Michel, the EU’s commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, and seeks to lay out common ground in what has occasionally been a contentious relationship between these three actors.

Malawi opens doors wide to Chinese

2008-05-16

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/18283

The governments of Malawi and China have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which would now engage the private sector from the South Asian country to invest in the southern African country's various investment sectors including cotton and tobacco.

Africa: Call for FAO to be scrapped

2008-05-12

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7383628.stm

An African leader has dismissed the UN's food agency as a "waste of money" and called for it to be scrapped. President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal spoke out days after the UN announced an emergency plan to bring soaring world food prices under control.

Africa: Intellectual poverty worse than physical poverty

2008-05-16

http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=3131

Imagine that it is May 25, 2063, the 100th anniversary of Africa Day, a day for reflecting on Africa’s successes and failures. The newspaper headline announces, “Last Remaining Oil field in West Africa’s American Territory Dries Up.” The article continues: “The last patch of rainforest will soon be empty land scarred by oil pipelines, pumping stations, and natural gas refineries. Wholesale pollution will be the environmental legacy for future generations.

Africa: Trade blocs to harmonise policies

2008-05-16

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/18286

Three African trade blocs plan to harmonise trade policies so Africa can compete more effectively on world markets.Analysts say analogous regimes would help increase intercontinental trade, make the blocs more attractive for foreign investment and make trade negotiations less complicated.

Global: An answer to the global food crisis: peasants and small farmers can feed the world!

2008-05-16

http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1799.html

According to Vía Campesina, an international movement that coordinates farmer organizations from Asia, Africa, America and Europe, food sovereignty is the right of all peoples, their nations or unions of States to define their agricultural and food policies, without dumping involving third-party countries. Food sovereignty goes beyond the more common concept of food security, which merely seeks to ensure that a sufficient amount of safe food is produced without taking into account the kind of food produced and how, where and on what scale it is produced.

Global: Biotech companies exposed as climate change profiteers

2008-05-16

http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/693.html

When in August 2002, the government of Zambia rejected a shipment of humanitarian aid because it contained genetically modified corn, it unleashed a new debate: Is the use of genetically modified foods justified in the alleviation of hunger in the world’s poorest countries?

Global: Bush food aid package promotes genetically-modified crops

2008-05-14

http://tinyurl.com/4dja7j

The Bush administration has slipped a controversial ingredient into the $770 million aid package it recently proposed to ease the world food crisis, adding language that would promote the use of genetically modified crops in food-deprived countries. The value or detriment of genetically modified, or bio-engineered, food is an intensely disputed issue in the U.S. and in Europe, where many countries have banned foods made from genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

Global: How to Manufacture a Global Food Crisis: Lessons from the World Bank, IMF, and WTO

2008-05-16

http://tinyurl.com/5os86y

When tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last year to protest a 60 percent increase in the price of tortillas, many analysts pointed to biofuel as the culprit. Because of US government subsidies, American farmers were devoting more and more acreage to corn for ethanol than for food, which sparked a steep rise in corn prices, says Walden Bello.

Kenya: US $50 million farm programme launched

2008-05-12

http://www.agra-alliance.org/news/pr050608.html

A major new partnership has been launched to provide smallholder farmers and small agricultural enterprises with the financing they need to break out of poverty and build viable businesses. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), in partnership with Equity Bank Limited, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture signed an agreement for a loan facility of US$50 million (3 billion Kenyan shillings) to accelerate access to affordable financing for 2.5 million farmers and 15,000 agricultural value chain members such as rural input shops, fertilizers and seed wholesalers and importers, grain traders and food processors.

Africa: World Bank shifting gears on AIDS

2008-05-16

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=42386

The World Bank says it is recalibrating its financing for anti-AIDS efforts in Africa, which shoulders more than two-thirds of the world's HIV/AIDS burden. Some 22.5 million Africans are HIV-positive, and AIDS is the leading cause of premature death on the continent, according to the bank. Hardest hit are productive young people and women. So much so, that many private firms recruit two workers for every job in anticipation of losing staff to the disease.

Malawi: Death rate drops by 35% due to free ARVs

2008-05-16

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/30FD449B-55C0-43DB-BB66-BC20D1F65D22.asp

The death rate among adults in rural Malawi has declined by 10% since the introduction of antiretroviral therapy, and in areas with the highest death rate, it may have declined by up to 35%, according to findings from a London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine study published in the May 10th edition of The Lancet. The study also showed a much higher death rate and lower treatment access among those who lived in more remote areas, suggesting that the chief gap in equity of treatment access is between those who live in rural areas and those who live in larger villages or close to highways, rather than along the lines of gender.

Global: AUC Senate resolution in support of Palestinian academics

2008-05-16

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/education/48150

Whereas: Given the role of the Senate as a collective conscience of AUC, expressed in the many resolutions adopted over the years denouncing Israeli brutality and systematic racist policies against Palestinians and their basic rights, we propose the following resolution in support of Palestinian academics and institutions of learning:
AUC (American University in Cairo) Senate Resolution in Support of Palestinian Academics Presented via the Senate Administration Affairs Committee

Preamble:
Whereas: Given the role of the Senate as a collective conscience of AUC, expressed in the many resolutions adopted over the years denouncing Israeli brutality and systematic racist policies against Palestinians and their basic rights, we propose the following resolution in support of Palestinian academics and institutions of learning:

Resolution:
The AUC Senate condemns Israel’s systematic measures that strangle Palestinian academic development – from curfews, checkpoints, severe control over research laboratories, to not allowing Palestinian academics with dual citizenship and international academics from resuming their work at Palestinian universities;

Supports the growing voices of global civil society organizations, and prominent individuals, calling for various forms of boycott of Israel.

Calls for AUC faculty, staff, and students to refrain from dealings with Israeli Academia within the AUC environment, and consider divestment of the AUC endowment from all companies investing in Israel.

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Global: ILGA publishes state-sponsored homophobia report

2008-05-16

http://tinyurl.com/65axjw

May 17th is the International Day against Homophobia. ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association, has chosen this date to launch a yearly report on State-sponsored homophobia around the world. The impressive collection of laws presented in this report is an attempt to show the extent of State-sponsored homophobia in the world.

Zimbabwe: MDC promises free Zimbabwe that includes gays

2008-05-16

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=zimbabwe&id=1857

A positive twist towards human rights for Zimbabwean citizens, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community, seems imminent if elections favour the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). While President Robert Mugabe has over the years condemned homosexuality in Zimbabwe, MDC spokeperson Nelson Chamisa revealed that the his organisation will build a new Zimbabwe for all its citizens irrespective of their social associations or even sexual orientation.

Global: African humanity under siege: A long history

2008-05-16

http://www.zeleza.com/blogging/u-s-affairs/african-humanity-under-siege-long-history

In the wake of every new racist assault Black people worldwide, along with those who have joined our struggle in solidarity, spend countless hours responding to other people's hate and ignorance. Yet, this continual drain on our time and intellectual energy is one of the least recognized casualties of the racism propagated against us, writes Karina Ray.

South Africa: Task team to probe causes of attacks on foreign nationals

2008-05-16

http://www.buanews.gov.za/view.php?ID=08051610151002

An inter-departmental task team is being urgently set up to investigate the causes underlying the recent attacks on foreign nationals in Alexandra township and elsewhere, Government Spokesman Themba Maseko said Thursday. He was briefing reporters on the outcome of the latest cabinet meeting, held on Wednesday.

South Africa: Townships tense after xenophobic attacks

2008-05-16

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=339257

Johannesburg townships Alexandra and Diepsloot were tense on Thursday morning in the wake of xenophobic violence that has killed a number of people since the weekend, police said. Captain Louise Reed said one man was injured in a suspected mob attack in Diepsloot on Wednesday evening.

Africa: China's Environmental Footprint

2008-05-16

http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/2796

Along with its economic presence, China has rapidly expanded its environmental footprint in Africa. An important objective of China's Africa strategy is to extract natural resources which have so far not been accessible. Such resources are often located in fragile ecosystems and countries plagued by corruption and conflict. As a long-term partner in Africa's development, China has an interest in addressing the environmental impacts of its projects. The Chinese government has issued guidelines on the impacts of overseas investments, but will need to strengthen them further.

Africa: New Book: Climate Change and Agriculture in Africa

2008-05-12

http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=1497

This landmark book encompasses a comprehensive quantitative analysis and assessment of the extent of potential economic impacts of future climate change, and value of adaptation measures in Africa for different zones, regions, countries and farm types.

Nigeria: Shell demands N375bn to end gas flaring

2008-05-16

http://www.eraction.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=112&Itemid=1

Shell says it requires an additional $3 billion (N375 billion) and the resolution of the Niger Delta crisis to be able to end gas flaring in the country, insisting that it will be unable to meet the December 2008 deadline due to insecurity in the oil-rich region and funding shortfalls.

Nigeria: Shell faces legal action over pollution

2008-05-16

http://www.eraction.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113&Itemid=12

Shell-headquarters in the Netherlands is held liable by Friends of the Earth Netherlands/Nigeria and four Nigerians, for the massive damage that oil spills are causing to villages in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Last Friday, Dutch lawyers representing the plaintiffs summoned Shell to clarify its role concerning oil spills. In early June, based on Shell-headquarters' response, the plaintiffs will decide whether to proceed with the lawsuit.

Botswana: Reserve opens to tourists while bushmen told to walk 400km for water

2008-05-16

http://www.survival-international.org/news/3299

Botswana’s government is this week promoting the Central Kalahari Game Reserve as a top tourist destination, but it has banned the reserve’s Bushmen from accessing their own water. At this week’s INDABA tourism fair in Durban, the Botswana Tourism Board is promoting Botswana as a top travel destination, and the government has just awarded a safari concession in the reserve to a South African tourist company, the Safari & Adventure Company, close to the Bushman community of Molapo.

Nigeria: 800 000 have been evicted in Abuja - Rights group

2008-05-16

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=339297

A human rights group said on Thursday that 800 000 residents of the Nigerian capital, Abuja, were forcibly evicted over a four-year period as town planners sought to clear space for the fast-growing city. The Swiss-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions said in a new report that many of those removed from their homes by authorities between 2003 and 2007 were not given due notice or afforded other usual rights. The group said some evictees were tear-gassed or beaten.

South Africa: Gangster landlord continues campaign of intimidation

2008-05-14

http://www.abahlali.org/

The community of Motala Heights, set on the edge of Pinetown between the factories and the hill that runs up to Kloof, dates back to the early years of the last century and has a rich history. For the last three years it has been under sustained and violent attack from a local gangster businessman who seems to be able to direct the local state, including the police and the Municipality's Housing Department, at will.

East Africa: Nominations for David Astor Journalism Awards

2008-05-12

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/48015

The David Astor Journalism Awards Trust (DAJAT) is inviting nominations for its second round of professional development awards. The deadline is 30th May 2008. DAJAT searches for exceptionally promising and talented early-career East African print journalists working in English who have great potential and determination to excel in the profession, invests in their long-term career development, and aims to build an enduring peer-support network to promote strong independent journalism in the region.
The David Astor Journalism Awards Trust (DAJAT) is inviting nominations for its second round of professional development awards. The deadline is 30th May 2008.

DAJAT searches for exceptionally promising and talented early-career East African print journalists working in English who have great potential and determination to excel in the profession, invests in their long-term career development, and aims to build an enduring peer-support network to promote strong independent journalism in the region.

One award each in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will be made this year. All nominated candidates will be rigorously assessed, the most promising will be short-listed for interviews in September, and an independent selection panel will choose the eventual winners from among three finalists in each country.


Assessment Criteria

The selection process for these awards is highly competitive. To avoid unnecessary disappointment, nominators are urged to consider very carefully the following five essential assessment criteria before nominating a prospective candidate. All of these criteria are equally important and must be fully met by any candidate, if they are to progress through the selection process.

Professional Commitment.
Are they passionate about practicing journalism as a professional ‘calling’, not just as an income-producing job? Do they have clear long-term aspirations within the profession and the determination to achieve their aims?

Local Commitment.
Do they have strong ties to their local community and place a high value on the contribution they can make by working locally as a journalist? Do their career goals include continuing to practice journalism in their own country or elsewhere in Africa?

Talent.
Do they exhibit some special talent, aptitude and flair for journalism (possibly still somewhat raw or not yet fully formed) distinct from any abilities and skills they might have acquired through formal education and training?

Ethical Standards.
Do they have unquestionable integrity and adhere to the highest ethical principles in both their personal and professional lives?

Personal Qualities.
Do they have a strong, well-balanced character and are they resilient enough to withstand the rigours of the profession and thrive? Are they highly motivated, ambitious and driven? Are they confident, independent-minded, courageous and resourceful?

While there are no specific age restrictions, or educational, training and work experience requirements, successful candidates will have worked as full-time journalists for at least a few years so they have a track record that can be judged and some evidence of a long-term commitment to the profession. Journalists who have worked for some considerable number of years or already hold fairly senior positions in the profession are unlikely to be considered a good match for this programme.

Candidates should be employed full time (or retained) by a news media house or else currently working independently as a correspondent/freelancer for one or more news outlets.
The Nominating Process

Nominators are effectively the initial judges in the multi-stage selection process for these awards and their role – identifying potentially suitable candidates in the first instance – is crucial. Since their opinions will be taken into account in assessing the relative strengths of the candidates, it is important that they supply as much firsthand information as possible. Prospective nominees should be carefully evaluated and consulted before being nominated, to ensure that they wish to be considered for this programme and are suitable for it.

Only one candidate will be accepted from each nominator per year. Each media house is considered a single nominator and limited to one nomination a year, regardless of the number of publications it produces. However, media houses that produce publications in more than one country may nominate one candidate from each country.

Other organisations – including journalists associations, training institutions and civic groups – and unaffiliated individuals may also nominate one candidate each per year. If an organisation operates in more than one of the three countries, it may nominate one candidate from each country.

To nominate a candidate, a Nomination Form must be completed fully and returned no later than 30th May 2008. The form should be e-mailed to: jim.meyer@dajat.org


The Selection Process

Nominated candidates will be asked to complete an application form, supply three examples of their recently published work, and write two personal statements: one telling their life story; the other explaining their professional interests and ambitions. After a thorough review of these submissions, a shortlist of preferred candidates will be interviewed and background checks will be conducted. Three finalists will then be chosen from each country and interviewed by an independent panel of outside experts that will decide the winners. The winners will be announced in December 2008.


The Awards

All of the awards will be practical learning experiences individually tailored to each recipient’s particular interests, needs and circumstances. The award programmes will involve working with experienced outside journalists under various ‘on-the-job’ arrangements in or outside the winner’s own country for periods of up to three months.

Each award winner will also receive $500 in cash and become a career-long member of the David Astor Journalism Awards Network, an expanding peer-support group with other African and international professionals, facilitated by DAJAT.

There are three generic types of award programmes:

* Intensive professional mentoring in country by outside working or retired journalists.

* Outside work placements with other African or non-African news outlets.

* Joint projects with other news publications using shared resources and expertise to produce major, in-depth pieces of work.

After the winners are chosen, appropriate award programmes will be specifically designed with each of them and their employers




The David Astor Journalism Awards

NOMINATION FORM (2008)

Please review the accompanying guidelines before completing this form. In answering the assessment questions below, provide as much detail and supporting evidence as you can. The boxes will expand to accommodate however much you wish to write.

YOUR DETAILS
Title (Mr or Ms)

First Name(s)

Last Name

Your Affiliation (Organisation)

Your Title/Position

Country

E-mail Address

Mobile Telephone Number

Landline Telephone Number

Are you the nominee’s employer?


NOMINEE INFORMATION
Title (Mr or Ms)

First Name(s)

Last Name

Country

E-mail Address

Mobile Telephone Number

Landline Telephone Number

Is the nominee employed full-time?

Is the nominee retained/freelance?

Nominee’s employer (if applicable)

How long has the nominee been a working journalist?

YOUR ASSESSMENT OF THE NOMINEE
How long have you known this nominee?

If you are not the nominee’s employer, how do you know them?

What do you think are his/her greatest strengths as a journalist?

What do you think are his/her greatest weaknesses as a journalist?

Explain in as much detail as possible why you believe this nominee would be suitable for a David Astor Journalism Award based on these criteria:

• Professional Commitment
• Local Commitment
• Talent
• Ethical Standards
• Personal Qualities

If this nominee were selected for an award, which of the following three types of award do you think would best suit their professional needs and benefit them the most?

• Professional Mentoring
• Outside Work Placement
• Joint In-Depth Project

What else can you tell us about this nominee?


Please e-mail this completed form by 30th May 2008 to: jim.meyer@dajat.org

More...

Egypt: Investigate beating of ‘Facebook’ activist

2008-05-13

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/10/egypt18800.htm

Egyptian authorities should immediately investigate and prosecute those security officials responsible for beating Ahmed Maher Ibrahim, Human Rights Watch have said. Maher, a 27-year-old civil engineer, used the social-networking site Facebook to support calls for a general strike on May 4, 2008, President Hosni Mubarak’s 80th birthday.

Ethiopia: Government urged to drop charges against magazine editor and three others

2008-05-16

http://tinyurl.com/4tjhx3

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Ethiopian authorities to drop charges against Alemayehu Mahtemework, the editor of monthly entertainment magazine Enku, and three others who were arrested with him after the publication of a cover story about a jailed popular singer.

Gambia: Book on Deyda Hydara launched

2008-05-12

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/48023

The struggle which culminated in the murder of Deyda Hydara, an ardent critic of the regime of President Yahya Jammeh, three years ago, has been given meaning with the launch of his biography in The Gambia. The book entitled: “A Living Mirror: The Life of Deyda Hydara” focuses more on the life of the journalist, rather than his death. It was jointly published by Demba Ali Jawo, former Gambia Press Union (GPU) president and Aloa Ahmed Alota, a Nigerian journalist based in The Gambia and Editor at The Point Newspaper.
The struggle which culminated in the murder of Deyda Hydara, an ardent critic of the regime of President Yahya Jammeh, three years ago, has been given meaning with the launch of his biography in The Gambia. The book entitled: “A Living Mirror: The Life of Deyda Hydara” focuses more on the life of the journalist, rather than his death. It was jointly published by Demba Ali Jawo, former Gambia Press Union (GPU) president and Aloa Ahmed Alota, a Nigerian journalist based in The Gambia and Editor at The Point Newspaper.

The book which was launched on May 3, 2008, World Press Freedom Day, was according to the authors to keep the values of Hydara alive.

According to Ahmed Alota, proceeds from the book would be used to set up an Educational Trust Fund to provide support for deserving students from secondary schools across the country.

Hydara was murdered in December, 2004 by unknown assailants, and the government has still failed to investigate his death.

Meanwhile, at a recent meeting with newly elected executives of the Gambia Press Union (GPU) Gambia’s Vice President Isatou Njie-Saidy assured the public that investigations were still ongoing in the case of Deyda Hydara. This, however, has remained the official position of the regime ever since the murder, and yet no progress has made.

Kwame Karikari, Prof.

Executive Director

MFWA

Accra

Tel : 233 21 24 24 70

Fax : 233 21 221084

Website : www.mediafound.org

Email : mfwa@africaonline.com.gh

More...

Guinea: Government censures radio station

2008-05-16

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/48149

The Director–General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Guinea, Alfred Saury Guilarogui and two of his officers on May 8, 2008 stormed Nostalgie FM, a privately-owned radio station in Conakry and forcibly interrupted the station’s broadcasting.
The Director–General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Guinea, Alfred Saury Guilarogui and two of his officers on May 8, 2008 stormed Nostalgie FM, a privately-owned radio station in Conakry and forcibly interrupted the station’s broadcasting.

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the station at the time was broadcasting an interview of a businessman, Mamadou Sylla which was highly critical of Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate and the government.

The men confiscated the recording of the interview and subsequently gave it to Mamadou Beau Keita, the Minister of Interior and National Security, who was alleged to have ordered the break in transmission.

Meanwhile, the President of the National Communications Counsil (CNC), Tibou Camara has condemned the action of the authorities and is calling on them to return the confiscated tape.

As a result of the episode the scheduled broadcast for the night of May 8 was cancelled.



Prof. Kwame Karikari
Executive Director
MFWA
Accra
Tel: 233 21 24 24 70
Fax : 233 21 221084
Website : www.mediafound.org
Email : mfwa@africaonline.com.gh

More...

Guinea: Government censures radio station

2008-05-16

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/48151

The Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Guinea, Alfred Saury Guilarogui and two of his officers on May 8, 2008 stormed Nostalgie FM, a privately-owned radio station in Conakry and forcibly interrupted the station's broadcasting.
The Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Guinea, Alfred Saury Guilarogui and two of his officers on May 8, 2008 stormed Nostalgie FM, a privately-owned radio station in Conakry and forcibly interrupted the station's broadcasting.

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)'s correspondent reported that the station at the time was broadcasting an interview of a businessman, Mamadou Sylla which was highly critical of Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate and the government.

The men confiscated the recording of the interview and subsequently gave it to Mamadou Beau Keita, the Minister of Interior and National Security, who was alleged to have ordered the break in transmission.

Meanwhile, the President of the National Communications Counsil (CNC), Tibou Camara has condemned the action of the authorities and is calling on them to return the confiscated tape.

As a result of the episode the scheduled broadcast for the night of May 8 was cancelled.

Prof. Kwame Karikari
Executive Director
MFWA
Accra
Tel: 233 21 24 24 70
Fax: 233 21 221084
Website: www.mediafound.org
Email: mfwa@africaonline.com.gh

More...

Liberia: Government urged to expedite passage of FOI bill

2008-05-16

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/48145

The Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) welcomes the steps taken by Liberia to adopt a Freedom of Information law for the country and calls on the National Legislature to expedite action in passing the Freedom of Information Bill submitted to it last month by a coalition of ordinary citizens, media and civil society organizations.
The Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) welcomes the steps taken by Liberia to adopt a Freedom of Information law for the country and calls on the National Legislature to expedite action in passing the Freedom of Information Bill submitted to it last month by a coalition of ordinary citizens, media and civil society organizations.

Rising from its meeting in Kampala, Uganda, the Steering Committee of the Centre commended the Liberian civil society movement for the unprecedented manner in which it mobilized and demonstrated public support for the concept of open and transparent governance as the country strives to reposition itself for post-conflict reconstruction.

Thousands of Liberian citizens representing diverse interest groups marched through the streets of Monrovia to the National Legislature on April 17 with a petition calling on the parliamentarians to review and pass a draft Freedom of Information law "within the shortest period possible." The draft Freedom of Information Act was formally presented to the National Legislature, along with two other draft laws – the Independent Broadcasting Regulator Act and Liberia Public Broadcasting Service Act.

The Africa Freedom of Information Centre pledged to puts its resources at the disposal of the Liberian civil society, the National Legislature and the Government of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to ensure a speedy consideration of the Bill and the adoption of a Freedom of Information Act which meets international standards.

Mr. Edetaen Ojo, Chair of AFIC's Steering Committee said: "We are pleased to see that less than two weeks after the Freedom of Information Bill was presented to the National Legislature of Liberia, it went through the first reading on May 1, 2008 at the plenary session of the House of Representatives, which has now referred the draft Law to its Committee on Information and Broadcasting with a two week timeframe to submit its report. We commend that Legislature for these initial steps and call on it to complete the entire process speedily.

The Centre also recalls that at an International Conference on the Right to Public Information held in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., from February 27 to 29, 2008, at which several members of AFIC's Steering Committee were in attendance, Liberia's Information Minister, Dr. Laurence Bropleh, made a commitment before the international community that the Government of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, fully supports the draft Freedom of Information Act and would ensure its passage into law. Accordingly, the Centre calls on the Liberian Government to live up to this pledge by working with the Legislature to ensure that Liberian citizens have a right of access to information guaranteed by Law in the shortest time possible.

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Morocco: Government suspends Aljazeera broadcast operations

2008-05-16

http://tinyurl.com/53ov8y

Qatari satellite TV news channel Aljazeera was ordered by Moroccan officials on Tuesday (May 6th) to cease broadcast operations from its Rabat studios. The pan-Arab news station aired daily news bulletins on the Maghreb.

Nigeria: Police raid newspaper seeking arrest of 15 editors

2008-05-12

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/93377/

On 6 May 2008, about a dozen armed, plain-clothed policemen from the Niger State Command (in north-central Nigeria) raided the head office of "Leadership" newspaper in Abuja, Nigeria's Federal Capital, and arrested the newspaper's deputy editor, Danladi Ndayebo, over a feature article published by the paper.

Sierra Leone: Opposition radio station shut down

2008-05-16

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/48147

Unity Radio, a station run by the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), was on May 8, 2008 shut down on the orders of the Minister of Information and Communication, Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo. Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the closure according to Kargbo, was due to the installation of an illegal antenna which disturbed the transmission of other radio stations, and the fact that SLPP did not go through the right procedures to register Unity Radio.
Unity Radio, a station run by the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), was on May 8, 2008 shut down on the orders of the Minister of Information and Communication, Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo.

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the closure according to Kargbo, was due to the installation of an illegal antenna which disturbed the transmission of other radio stations, and the fact that SLPP did not go through the right procedures to register Unity Radio.

The statement by Kargbo followed a release by the Secretary General of the SLPP, Jacob Jusu Saffa, which alleged that the party had done nothing wrong, and that the Ministry of Information and Communication did not have the authority to shut down Unity.

Saffa claimed that any interference with frequencies should be reported to the Independent Media Commission (IMC), which has the authority to notify the station. The Ministry, however, had no business interfering, Saffa asserted.

According to Saffa, the shut-down was a deliberate attempt by the government to silence the opposition of Sierra Leone. This was denied by Kargbo, who claimed that the closure was instigated by other radio stations which had lodged official complaints on frequency interference by Unity to the ministry.

According to the correspondent, the Chairperson of the IMC, Bernadette Cole, said that the Ministry’s decision to shut down Unity Radio was flawed and that the complaints from the affected radio stations should have been processed by either the IMC or the National Telecommunication Commission (NATCOM) which is responsible for issuing out frequencies.

In the statement by Kargbo, the Minister made it clear that if the SLPP radio goes through the proper channels and remedies the frequency interference, the government would have no reason to uphold the shut-down.

Prof. Kwame Karikari
Executive Director
MFWA
Accra
Tel: 233 21 24 24 70
Fax : 233 21 221084
Website : www.mediafound.org
Email : mfwa@africaonline.com.gh

More...

Global: Death and Taxes - New report by Christian Aid

2008-05-13

http://www.christianaid.org.uk/getinvolved/christianaidweek/cawreport/index.aspx

Christian Aid's new report seeks to expose the scandal of a global tax system that allows the world's richest to duck their responsibilities while condemning the poorest to stunted development, even premature death. The situation is stark and urgent. Our report predicts that illegal, trade-related tax evasion alone will be responsible for some 5.6 million deaths of young children in the developing world between 2000 and 2015. That's almost 1,000 a day. Half are already dead.

South Africa: High food prices cripple orphan feeding programmes

2008-05-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78235

Elizabeth Kineelwe, the cook at a drop-in centre that provides meals and support to orphans and impoverished families in Soweto, Johannesburg's largest township, is on the frontlines of a nationwide struggle to cope with rising food prices. The cost of basic foods like bread, rice and maizemeal is climbing, but the amount of money the organisation, called Nanga Vhutshilo (Choose Life in the Venda language) Positive Living, receives from the Department of Social Development is not.

Haiti: Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine petition

2008-05-14

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

As women and men in the Caribbean Region, in the wider diaspora, and in many parts of the world, we are writing to urge you to make resources available without delay for the search for Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, and to do everything in your power to secure his safe return to his family and community. As you may know, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, the internationally respected Haitian human rights activist who is well loved by his family and community, has been missing in Haiti since the evening of August 12.

Africa: Early warning: Burundi!

2008-05-12

http://tinyurl.com/622tq7

There is a country in Africa which, in a few years, has achieved more peace than most formerly war-ravaged countries around the world - much more than Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, or Afghanistan. There was a comprehensive ceasefire and a power-sharing among former fighters, tens of thousands of whom have been disarmed and re-socialized. Thanks to peaceful, free and fair elections and a new constitution, it has a democratic government for the first time in its history, and it has leadership and one with many women. Its human rights record has improved markedly.

DRC: After two key deals, what progress towards peace in North Kivu?

2008-05-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78205

Two agreements signed since the end of 2007 offer some hope for an end to more than a decade of violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), even if fighting has continued and a lasting solution has yet to be found to the presence in the region of Rwandan Hutu rebels, according to analysts. Since the DRC government and various armed groups in the chronically unstable North Kivu province signed a ceasefire in January, the truce has been repeatedly violated and the number of displaced civilians in the province has increased.

DRC: Four priorities for sustainable peace in Ituri

2008-05-13

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5425&l=1

The latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the local conflict’s root causes, including unequal access to land and unfair sharing of revenues from exploitation of natural resource. It analyses in detail a district that has too often been ignored by Kinshasa and which now needs a strategy involving national and provincial institutions, with the active support of the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC) and donors.

Sudan: Government suspends rebel talks

2008-05-16

http://www.afrol.com/articles/28933

The government of Sudan has announced suspension of dialogue with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfur rebel group accused of unleashing fatal attacks on Omdurman at the weekend. Sudanese officials said the international community is already informed about the decision, and is at the brink of consulting it regarding negotiations with other Darfur armed groups.

Sudan: UN evacuate staff amidst deadly fighting

2008-05-16

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26688

The United Nations has evacuated most of its staff from the Sudanese town of Abyei, located in a disputed oil-rich area, amid continued shooting between Government forces and the former southern rebels with whom they reached a peace deal in January 2005.

Global: Call to support free and open standards

2008-05-16

http://www.tectonic.co.za/2417/call-to-support-free-and-open-standards/

The Digital Standards Organization (Digistan) and its supporters are calling on governments around the globe to use only free and open standards. The organisation, which was set up to defend and promote open digital standards, plans to adopt the Hague Declaration on May 21. Organisations and individuals supporting the effort are also being asked to sign the declaration.

Global: Microsoft Windows finds a place on OLPC machines

2008-05-16

http://tinyurl.com/4rhj9s

he One Laptop Per Child project is about to find out whether Microsoft, a rival the nonprofit group once derided, is the solution to its problems in spreading inexpensive portable computers to schoolchildren. Microsoft and the laptop organization announced today that the nonprofit's green-and-white "XO" computers now can run Windows in addition to their homegrown interface, which is built on the open Linux operating system.

West Africa: Nigeria slow on the broadband uptake

2008-05-16

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/48187

The absence of last mile equipment and high cost of bandwidth have been identified as the major reasons why broadband Internet access penetration is low in Nigeria. Latest figures released by Internet Statistics, a global Internet usage measurement firm, put the number of broadband users in Nigeria at just 500, compared to over 800,000 in South Africa.
Highway Africa News Agency

The absence of last mile equipment and high cost of bandwidth have been identified as the major reasons why broadband Internet access penetration is low in Nigeria. Latest figures released by Internet Statistics, a global Internet usage measurement firm, put the number of broadband users in Nigeria at just 500, compared to over 800,000 in South Africa.

Generally, broadband Internet allows a user to get faster download of Internet materials and even watch streaming videos and get very quick access to sites. The President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association, Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, noted that the absence of optic fibre and copper to deliver Internet service in many parts of the country remained a stumbling block to the growth of broadband access, noting that mobile services could not effectively deliver such services.

The same view was shared by the Managing Director, Kemson Concepts Limited, Mr. Ben Aduli. He said the cost of broadband access was high because Nigeria did not have adequate local content on the web, while the country lacked adequate fibre infrastructure and people were mainly accessing content offshore. He said the situation meant that every time a person was using the Internet, he had to use international traffic. Experts noted that except Nigeria addressed the two issues, broadband Internet, which is defined by the International Telecommunications Union as access at speeds of 256kilobits per seconds, would continue to elude the country.

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission used 200 kbit/s in its definition until March 19, 2008, after which it was scaled up to require a minimum of 768 kbit/s to be defined as broadband. Kalu noted that there was hardly any Nigerian firm that met this standard, even though some of them were advertising that they offered broadband services. Latest figures released by Internet Statistics, a global Internet usage measurement firm, put the number of broadband users in Nigeria at just 500, compared to over 800,000 in South Africa.

However, the Managing Director, PMM Ventures, Mr. Ejiofor Agada, differed on the notion of non-availability of equipment as a reason for low penetration. According to him, while there is still inadequate infrastructure, many people are oblivious of what broadband Internet can do and as such, do not make demand for the service. He noted that a lot of users today feel adequate with the stable Internet speeds, where they simply just access their mails and get on with their lives.

He said that when benchmarked against a country like South Africa, where there were now well over one million broadband users at a minimum speed of 512, then Nigeria could not even be classified as offering broadband services.

Broadband is now an economic indicator used to measure development among countries.

More...

Open Society Fellowships

2008-05-16

http://www.soros.org/initiatives/fellowship/focus_areas/guidelines

The Open Society Fellowship supports outstanding individuals from around the world. The fellowship enables innovative professionals—including journalists, activists, academics, and practitioners—to work on projects that inspire meaningful public debate, shape public policy, and generate intellectual ferment within the Open Society Institute.

Africa: 1st Annual Conference - Working Class and Trade Union Studies Association of Nigeria

2008-05-12

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/48019

The theme of the conference is The Nigerian Trade Union Movement: Retrospect and Prospects. The keynote speaker isDr. Festus Iyayi, Department of Business Administration, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. Date: 30-31 May 2008.
Working Class and Trade Union Studies Association of Nigeria

Formal Inauguration and 1st Annual Conference

Final Announcement and Call for Papers

Theme: The Nigerian Trade Union Movement: Retrospect and Prospects

Sub-themes include:
Origin and historical foundations
Labour, Economy and Society
The Legal Framework of Trade Union Activities
Trade Union Structure and Classification
Trade Union Governance and Internal Democracy
Trade Unions and the Challenge of Organisation and Mobilisation
Trade Union Finance and Resource Mobilisation
Trade Unions and Workplace Governance
Trade Unions and the Informal Economy
Trade Unions and the Political Process
Trade Unions and Social Movements
Trade Unions and the New Economic World Order
Women Workers and the Trade Unions


Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Festus Iyayi, Department of Business Administration, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria

Date:

30-31 May 2008

Venue:

Lady Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Hall, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

Conference Registration Fee:

N5, 000 (for paper presenters) & N2, 500 for others

Submission of Abstracts & Papers:

Abstracts of paper to be presented should be sent to any of the following; folawumi@yahoo.co.uk, aborisadefemi@yahoo.com not later than 21st May 2008 while three hard copies of the full papers should be brought along to the Conference
It should be noted that papers accepted for presentation would further be assessed for publication.

Announcer: Steering Committee, WCTUSAN.
Tel: 08023148759, 08050674779 and 08023026222

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Global: Naomi Klein to speak in London

2008-05-16

http://www.waronwant.org/Buy20tickets20to20see20Naomi20Klein+15638.twl

Acclaimed writer and activist Naomi Klein is speaking in London, hosted by War on Want as part of the Hands Off Iraqi Oil coalition, and tickets are going fast! The event is the London launch of the paperback edition of her latest book, Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Klein, award winning journalist and author of the renowned anti-globalisation manual No Logo, will be at Friends Meeting House on 19 May. War on Want has criticised Gordon Brown for involving corporations that have been widely attacked for deepening poverty and undermining human rights in his latest scheme to combat global poverty.

Global: Third Global Congress of Women in Politics and Governance

19-22 October 2008 - Makati, Philippines

2008-05-12

http://www.capwip.org/3rdglobalcongress.htm

Differential impact on men and women: The Gender and Climate Change website states: "Climate change is not a neutral process; first of all, women are in general more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, not least because they represent the majority of the world's poor and because they are more than proportionally dependent on natural resources that are threatened. The technological change and instruments that are being proposed to mitigate carbon emissions, which are implicity presented as gender-neutral, are in fact quite gender based and may negatively affect women or bypass them.

Global: VIII International HR Colloquium: applications open!

Sao Paulo/Brazil, 8-15 November, 2008

2008-05-16

http://www.conectas.org/coloquio/home_en.html

The VIII Colloquium seeks to bring together a diverse range of young activists and scholars, interested in acquiring new skills, exchanging experiences and constructing of collaborative human rights networks among nongovernmental organizations, universities and the United Nations.

Global: Women PeaceMakers Program

2008-05-12

http://peace.sandiego.edu/programs/women.html#WPMApps

The Women PeaceMakers Program is an annual selective program that allows four women on the frontlines of efforts to end violence and secure human rights to have their stories documented. Deadline for 2008 Women PeaceMakers' Application is May 23,2008

Global: Women's Human Rights: Building a peaceful world in the era of globaliztion

2008-05-12

http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/cwse/humanrights_08.htm

Offered by the Center for Women's Studies in Education of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, from May 30, 2008 to July 8, 2008, this five-week human rights institute brings feminist perspectives and an activist orientation to the issues of peace, human rights and development.

Nigeria: Women’s Leadership in HIV/AIDS Workshop

Date: Aug. 25 – Sept. 12, 2008

2008-05-12

http://www.cedpa.org/section/training/aids_leadership#costs

Aimed at building leadership, advocacy and technical expertise of women - particularly HIV positive women - who are working on the frontlines in the fight against AIDS throughout Nigeria, this intensive, three-week workshop represents a collaboration between the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) Washington D.C., and Africa regional master trainers who have graduated from CEDPA's past training programs.

South Africa: Beyond the Book: Integrating Alternative Media into Your Publishing Strategy

2008-05-16

http://www.informationforchange.org/

Beyond the Book: Integrating alternative media into publishing plans A participatory workshop at the Cape Town Book Fair (16 June 2008) for all people involved in generating, producing, distributing, promoting and using information for development.

Kenya: Electoral researcher - Independent Reveiw Commission

2008-05-14

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/48083

The Independent Review Commission (IREC) was established to assess a number of aspects of the 2007 General Elections in Kenya. As part of its mandate, it is required to examine the conduct of the Electoral Commission of Kenya and make recommendations aiming at improving the fure electoral process in the country. To assist the Commission in its endeavour, IREC wants to apply a well qualified electoral researcher.
Independent Review Commission

Terms of Reference

Electoral Researcher

The Independent Review Commission (IREC) was established to assess a number of aspects of the 2007 General Elections in Kenya. As part of its mandate, it is required to examine the conduct of the Electoral Commission of Kenya and make recommendations aiming at improving the future electoral process in the country. To assist the Commission in its endeavor, IREC wants to apply a well qualified electoral researcher.

Tasks:

To conduct research – independently as well as under instruction – on all aspects of the electoral process referred to in the Commission’s mandate, particularly those related to the evaluation of the organizational structure/management of the ECK. They specifically include:

Assisting Commissioners and staff in the examination of the organizational structure, composition and management systems of the Electoral Commission of Kenya.
Assisting Commissioners and staff in the examination of the organizational and management aspects of the conduct of the 2007 electoral operations including the various aspects of the electoral process such as: civic and voter education, training, voter registration, logistics and security, polling and counting, vote tabulation and result processing, and dispute resolution.
Contributing to the identification of organizational and managerial experiences from the 1997 and 2002 elections and the 2005 referendum in Kenya, which are relevant for the above.
Identification and perusal of relevant literature on the organization and management of electoral organizations, as well as on the practices of other electoral commissions that might be relevant to the Kenya situation.
To present (in report form or otherwise) the results of his or her research on the above issues as draft input to the Commission’s final report.
To undertake any other task as the Commission may require

Requirements

Graduate degree in Business Management, Public Administration, or any other relevant field of study. Documented experience in organizational analysis, with particular reference to service organizations. Importance would be given to specific experience in electoral processes.

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Zimbabwe Country Representative - Progressio

2008-05-16

http://www.progressio.org.uk/progressio/internal/96166/zcr/

Progressio has a policy of recruiting nationals for Country Representative posts. For this post, we can only consider applications from Zimbabwean nationals. Educated to a degree level in a relevant field, the postholder will have a minimum of fiveyears of direct experience in NGO management, strategic planning and project appraisal, as well as financial management. In addition, s/he should have relevant work experience in Zimbabwe and/or in the Southern Africa region; and experience of fundraising and of recruitment.

Fahamu