This paper from the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics discusses the proposal that poverty ought to be regarded as a violation of human rights and therefore as a condition that ought to be abolished. This proposal has been presented as a new paradigm in the fight against poverty that has the potential to galvanise an effective strategy for ending poverty through an international human rights framework. The essay explores this proposal from a philosophical standpoint, and argues that the proposal would be strengthened by including compassion or humanitarianism as part of its moral basis and achieved without diluting either the moral force or the radical implications of regarding poverty as a violation of human rights.

Encouraging local producers to form co-operative groups has been an important part of development policy in Africa. Such co-operative projects can help to reduce poverty in remote areas and give members greater control over their livelihoods. However, the benefits may be short-term. A paper from the University of Middlesex draws on a survey of isolated regions of Ghana to assess the usefulness of producer’s co-operatives. The author found many examples of farmers working together without external support to negotiate prices with traders and to maintain roads required to get to markets. Trust and respect for rules are most apparent in areas where the authority of traditional chiefs and elders remains un-contested. Building trust and co-operation, the report argues, is a long-term process dependent on members being given the time and space to develop and enforce simple and flexible rules.

A new book criticising government land reform threatens to strain relations between the government, farmers and agricultural unions, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said last Thursday. "In fact if this book gets out into the general populace I can see racial outbreaks developing between blacks and whites," said chief land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya. At the launch of the book, The Great South African Land Scandal, in Pretoria last Thursday, publisher Philip du Toit said he hoped it would "inform the broader public about the slow cancer infecting commercial agriculture in South Africa". The book claims that recent amendments to the 1994 Restitution of Land Rights Act paved the way for the land affairs minister to "expropriate land at will".

As governments turn to the private sector – rather than multi-lateral or bilateral development agencies for assistance – the victims of infrastructure projects are at risk. Without strong regulatory and monitoring capacity the needs and rights of the displaced will continue to be marginalised by private developers’ drive to meet construction deadlines and maximise profits. This is according to research from the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre that compares approaches to resettlement and compensation taken by the World Bank and private companies.

Are you tired of reading newspapers that portray women as stereotypes? Tired of editors thinking that the average reader believes women are only newsworthy if they are half-naked or the victim of a crime? The South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) has committed itself to get South African newsrooms to evaluate their performance on gender sensitive reporting. In line with SANEF's plans to engender the media, South African gender and media activists propose that all newspapers commit to leaving out their back page or page three "babe" section from the 5th to the 8th March 2004. Instead, content for these pages will be generated by members of the South African Gender and Media Network (SAGEM) around the theme of International Women's Day.