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

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

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

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

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