KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 21 * 3135 SUBSCRIBERS
KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 21 * 3135 SUBSCRIBERS
A prominent human rights organisation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has expressed concern at the detention or disappearance of at least 200 political prisoners and others in government-controlled territory. In a report on the human rights situation in government-controlled DRC in the first 100 days of the new president Joseph Kabila's rule, the African Association for the Defence of Human Rights (ASADHO) said there had been little improvement so far. Noting the president's promises of change, ASADHO nevertheless condemned the "inquisitorial and secret character of the inquiry [into the late president's Laurent-Desire Kabila's assassination] conducted entirely by the army and security services without any intervention by the judiciary".
Encouraging signs are beginning to emerge that the Angolan government and UNITA rebels are inching towards dialogue to end nearly three decades of civil war, analysts and politicians told IRIN. "One or two years back the reaction from the government to the idea of peace through dialogue was very aggressive," said John Rocha of the reconciliation lobby group Angola-2000. "Today it has changed dramatically. The government has realised that a military victory is impossible, especially as UNITA has reverted to guerrilla warfare."
President Paul Kagame has reiterated that Rwandan troops are in the DRC for security reasons. Addressing a joint press conference with visiting Malawian President Bakili Muluzi, Kagame again denied his country had been plundering Congo's natural resources, as stated in a report by a UN panel of experts. "There have been accusations about human rights violations in eastern Congo. There have been accusations about plundering Congo's wealth," he said, according to Rwandan radio.
OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim has commented that peacekeeping missions often fail because they are ill-equipped and under-funded, AFP reported. Speaking in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam on Thursday, he said the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC was inadequate.
More than 1,000 trucks are stuck on the main route leading from the seaport of Matadi to Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after heavy rains washed away large sections of the road, the BBC reported on Friday. Some of the trucks have been there for as long as 20 days, and the produce they are carrying - mostly much-needed fresh food for the capital - is rotting under the heat and rain of Congo's wet season.
Police on Tuesday broke up a meeting of parties supporting the presidential candidacy of Colonel Epitace Bayaganakandi, the Tutsi rival of President Pierre Buyoya, the private Netpress news agency reported. Participants were told to leave the meeting hall in Bujumbura's Kinindo district, but party leaders were ordered to remain behind.
The Tanzanian authorities, backed by UN agencies and Britain's Department for International Development (DFID), are planning to use information technology to improve planning and decision-making in their efforts to reduce poverty. The Tanzania Socio-Economic Database (TSED) is intended to make it easier for government agencies to discern trends and spot disparities among regions, according to the UNDP, which is backing the endeavour.
The UNHCR has registered 680 refugees who say they want to return home to the Zanzibari islands of Unguja and Pemba in Tanzania after fleeing to Kenya from political violence on the islands in late January, according to a press release from the refugee agency. Those registered to return represented all but a few dozen of the refugees remaining at a makeshift camp at the port of Shimoni, south of Mombasa on the Kenyan coast, and included community and political leaders, an agency official told IRIN on Tuesday.
The Tanzanian government on Wednesday denied and termed as "unfounded" allegations by the Burundian government that it had been offering military training to Burundian rebels. Tanzanian radio quoted the permanent secretary in the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Hasan Kibelloh, as saying that Tanzania was not supporting any rebel group fighting the Burundian government.
Severe drought across many parts of Sudan continued to affect several million people, many of whom are at acute risk of severe food insecurity over the coming months, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) reported on Thursday. The WFP has warned that as many as three million people face disaster (600,000 as a result of drought and 2.4 million because of the civil war) unless food assistance reaches them.
More than five children are dying each day from malnutrition in the city of Camapuca in Angola's central Bie province. "We are really shocked by the level of malnutrition that we are discovering in Camacupa. We are doing as much as we can to reduce mortality through our feeding centres, but this is not enough. People need urgently a general food distribution," Erwin Van der Borght, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) head of mission in Angola, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Representatives of several powerful international media associations were told by top government officials on Thursday that Zimbabwe's independent media must expect violence for "provoking" supporters of President Robert Mugabe's regime, SAPA-DPA reported. The five-member delegation of the Co-ordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organisations were quoted as saying that senior officials in Mugabe's information ministry warned it was "understandable" that journalists who were seen as supporting an anti-ruling party agenda would be threatened with violence.
Harare Central Hospital had run out of essential drugs, resulting in patient deaths, especially among infants, the hospital's superintendent, Dr Chris Tapfumaneyi, was quoted as saying in the 'Daily News' on Friday. The hospital serves the majority of patients from poor and working class families. Children under five are treated free of charge at the hospital.
Yesterday's public announcement by an ANC MP that her daughter is HIV positive has been welcomed by many as the first step towards breaking the silence and denial surrounding the disease in South Africa. Ruth Bhengu told a hushed National Assembly that her daughter is HIV positive and appealed to parliamentarians to stop politicising the problem.
Africa Action today denounced the Bush Administration's proposal to contribute a meager $200 million to a global fund for HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases now being established through the United Nations. Responding to the White House's announcement that it would contribute only $200 million dollars for the proposed $10 billion U.N. fund, Salih Booker, Executive Director of Africa Action, said "In the face of what will soon be the worst plague in human history, it's tragic that the richest country in human history is unwilling to contribute its fair share to finance the solution!"
On the second day of his "working" visit to the United States, Nigerian President Olusegun Obansanjo met with President George Bush, African-American leaders, World Bank and IMF executives and congressional leaders. But HIV/AIDS and regional conflict in Africa framed the key discussions.
Prof. Mesfin Wolde-Mariam and Dr. Berhanu Nega who have been detained by police since Tuesday (May 8, 2001) appeared before court on Wednesday (May 9, 2001) as the 5th Criminal Bench of the Federal High Court ordered the two academics to remain under police custody until May 18, 2001.
In the past 10 years, some Sh10.7 billion has been approved by the European Commission (EC) for Kenya under the European Union's Stabex facility. But, for a variety of reasons, only about Sh2.3 billion has actually been disbursed and spent on various projects. The rest, some Sh8.5 billion, remains in joint EC/Kenya accounts in Europe and Kenya. It can be accessed only with the agreement of both parties.
Corruption tends to flourish when institutions are weak and economic policies distort the marketplace, a World Bank Institute working paper on the media's role in curbing corruption has observed.
It's shameful and abominable for President Frederick Chiluba to appoint self-confessed mandrax trafficker Vernon Mwaanga as cabinet minister, said Zambia Republican Party chairman for economic affairs Dean Mung'omba yesterday.
About 5 000 government employees from all over the province marched in Bisho yesterday afternoon to express their frustration over corruption, maladministration and nepotism in government circles. In a memorandum accepted by Premier Stofile, the civil servants led by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) called for change in the manner the provincial government managed the service delivery process.
Togo has hit the news for systematic human rights violations in terms of torture and extrajudicial killings. Now, the UN Committee on Human Rights (UNHCHR) also criticises the country for not taking women's rights and social and economic rights seriously. Togo has not been willing to provide information.
In the fight against AIDS, Kenyan widows living with HIV/AIDS are starting to reject forced remarriage. A recent news report by AFP highlighted the case of Mariam Salim who on the death of her husband would have been obliged to marry another member of his family.
A growing number of civil society groups Saturday urged detained students of the University of Niamey to end their two-week hunger strike. In a press briefing, the groups called on political parties, trade unions and associations to mobilise and join a protest march planned for Sunday in Niamey. The march is meant to urge the government to settle the crisis at the university, which began after a confrontation between the security forces and the students on 21 February.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday it has helped more than 40,000 refugees, mostly Sierra Leoneans, move from an unstable part of southeast Guinea to a safer region further north inside the country. The UNHCR hopes to complete the relocation operation, which began in early February, by the end of this month, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Delphine Marie said.
Refugees, asylum seekers and others under concern of the U.N. refugee agency stood at approximately 21.1 million in the year 2000, according to U.N. statistics. Globally, Afghans constitute UNHCR's largest caseload, with an estimated 3.6 million people, or 30 percent of the world's refugee population. The second largest group, according to the statistics, is comprised of civilians from Burundi, 567,000 of whom are living in Tanzania. Iraqis make up the third largest refugee population, with 497,400 living in Iran.
Illegal Mozambican migrant workers have accused South African police of killing 14 people by throwing them from a moving train while they were being returned home, Radio Mozambique reported Friday. The 14 had been among a group of 1,600 Mozambicans who arrived Friday at the border town of Ressano Garcia, after South African authorities sent them home by train, the report on state radio said.
Zambia's political picture this week was dominated by the fall-out from President Frederick Chiluba's announcement on Friday that he would not seek re-election. The decision ended two weeks of political turmoil which deeply divided his ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).
Drought and war have contributed to the many needs of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Eritrea, with people losing their homes, livestock and belongings as they fled in panic during the conflict with Ethiopia. Up to one million people in Eritrea suffered "massive displacement" last year, the international Action by Churches Together (ACT) network said.
Report prepared by the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, Strasbourg, August 2000.
These Webpages have been created for NGOs who wish to participate in the lead up to the World Conference Against Racism by contributing documents, papers and other material they wish to share. If you send us your material in either English, French or Spanish (in electronic form) we will do our best to post it on these pages.
The United Nations Human Rights System is an annual summary and classification of United Nations' human rights documentation by theme and by country. All major human rights material generated by the UN from 1 January to 31 December - whether on paper, in electronic format or via the optical disk system - is assembled, catalogued and summarised.
Online advertising in Africa is in its infancy and the collapse of internet advertising markets elsewhere do not bode well for its future. Robin Parker argues that this is a short-term view and that despite wider problems of connectivity savvy advertisers will increasingly use web advertising to reach high-spenders across the continent.
Charity Lobbying in the Public Interest is working to dispel the myths that lobbying by charities is unimportant, inappropriate, or illegal by providing information on the important role of lobbying in achieving an organization's mission. Please visit the areas below for detailed information on why lobbying is important, lobbying laws for organizations, how to lobby, and motivating others to lobby.
In recent years, social change activists of all stripes have increasingly incorporated visual art as a component of their strategies for building grassroots political movements. From the radical cheerleaders and the marching turtles of the anti-WTO protests held in Seattle in November of 1999, to the "puppetistas" imprisoned during last year's Republican national convention, this movement of "art from below" is changing the face of political protest and direct action.
The Maquila Solidarity Network presents a brand new education/action kit for teachers, students, union members and church group interested in getting involved in campaigns to Stop Sweatshops.
One of the most controversial clashes of the 1990s between local communities, government and multinationals occurred in the oil rich Ogoni area on the Niger delta. The oil operator, Royal Dutch Shell, withdrew from the area in 1993 but for several years faced unrelenting criticism of its standards and relationship with the Nigerian government of General Sani Abacha. By 1998 Shell was claiming to have embarked upon a fundamental rethink of its corporate priorities and followed this claim up with a massive public relations blitzkrieg which has achieved a great deal in how the company is perceived.
Shell now faces its Annual General Meeting, followed by an international environment award, claiming that it is a reformed company which has become the champion of human rights and the environment. Such extravagant claims were always likely to face challenges and this week MOSOP and Friends of the Earth seem set to present separate challenges to Shell's 'born again' environmental status.
One of the most serious problems Shell faces is the question of whether it has actually achieved any meaningful reform of its practices in Nigeria. MOSOP (Movement of the Ogoni People) activists would argue that little has changed, challenging Shell on a number of occasions over the company's response over the last two weeks to a major oil blowout at an abandoned well in eastern Ogoni.
The latest incident comes just as Shell is taking on a new chairman and facing up to shareholders on Thursday. John Watts, the incoming chair, has already committed the company to a policy of not returning to operations in Ogoni till all parties are agreed. To make its claims about reform credible Shell needs to do more. It needs to show that it is capable of moving past the tense standoff which has existed between its subsidiary SPDC and the Ogoni people over the last two years of civilian rule.
MOSOP is now arguing that Shell can start to show that it has changed by making good on its promises to clean up the environment in Ogoni, starting with this latest major oil spill. Shell this week, as it has for several years, claimed that it is ready to 'clean up oil spills which occurred since it left in 1993', conveniently making no mention of spills occurring before 1993. Ogoni and other communities have compared past 'cleanups' by Shell to 'cover up' operations so one immediate question is whether Shell is able to show that this time it is willing to be unambiguous about its intentions and show that its international standards apply in Nigeria.
It is also time for Royal Dutch Shell to face up to questions over its failure to resolve the company's dispute with the Ogoni people. Is, as Shell claims, the sole barrier to progress the difficulties in dialogue with the local population or has Shell failed to win the confidence of the local people?
The most often cited comment from Nigeria correspondents is a lack of trust between the local people and Shell. Ogoni is not the only community that is deeply suspicious of Shell. The gap between its claims of progress in relations with communities and independent reporting is becoming increasingly worrying. Perhaps it is time for Shell to commit unambiguously to allowing qualified third parties to come in to examine and report upon disputes which are clearly harming the local people, Shell's reputation, and the people of the Niger delta.
Ledum Mitee (MOSOP)
The Human Rights Watch Refugee Policy Program is urgently seeking a law or graduate student to intern in New York City for 2-3 months this summer (starting as soon as possible, but no later than June 1.) The internship is unpaid. Unfortunately, HRW cannot offer assistance arranging housing or visas.
Call for Letters of Intent. Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research Second Round 2001-2002 Deadline: 29 June 2001. Two types of grants will be awarded. Applicants must be enrolled in a Masters or Doctorate programme.
The primary responsibility of this post-holder will be to manage the current livestock project and drive its development through a process of community participation and enhancement of local skills. As a key contributor to the overall strategy and direction of the project, you will provide advice and guidance on social based livestock support and assist in the development of future objectives for the project. Location: South Sudan, Sudan Closing Date : 25 May 2001
The American Bar Association seeks a Director to develop, manage, and implement ABA legal reform technical assistance projects in Africa. A JD degree or advanced degree in international relations or relevant field and at least five years of experience in international technical assistance work, preferably with focus on Africa, are required. Salary is commensurate with experience and excellent benefits.
Last day to apply: May 21, 2001. The PHR Fellow will work with a dynamic and growing Asylum Network, mobilizing health professionals to assist asylum seekers, especially torture survivors. Location: Boston, USA
The postgraduate Masters Programme is a flexible modular degree programme for full-time or part-time study, consisting of an introductory core course, specialised optional modules in different tracks and a research project submitted as a thesis. The programme is organised within the TropEd European Network for Education in Interna-
tional Health, an association of 26 universities in 13 European countries and collaborating institutions in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The core course and two optional modules are presently offered at Humboldt University. Further optional modules can be selected from a list of more than 100 courses offered by the TropEd partner institutions. Winter Semester: 10th September 2001 (Introductory week: 2nd September 2001)
We are writing to address some of the issues raised by the Bretton Woods Project in its April 2001 brief on the Development Gateway entitled "A Tower of Babel on the Internet? The World Bank's Development Gateway" which was circulated widely in several electronic discussions and lists.
First of all, it is important to state that we welcome these latest comments on the Gateway from Bretton Woods Project and other organizations, as this promotes useful and constructive debate on the Development Gateway and on the use of information and communications technology more broadly. The internet is still largely uncharted space requiring a good deal of exchange and analysis by a wide variety of people in order to understand its pitfalls and more fully grasp its potential.
Below are comments on the most important points raised by Bretton Woods Project in their brief. For a more comprehensive discussion of the policies and features of the Development Gateway Portal and the Development Gateway Foundation, please refer to the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) document located in the "About Us" section of the Gateway.
KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 22 * 3181 SUBSCRIBERS
KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 22 * 3181 SUBSCRIBERS
E-mail access to Internet resources and databases is a topic dear to Kabissa, since it enables African organisations who have difficulty accessing the Web to do so with ease - via email. Our colleagues in Trieste have come a long way to solving the problem. We urge you to take advantage of the service that they have made possible.
SPECIAL DELIVERY
The information revolution has not only brought scientists closer together on a global scale; in the minds of some critics, it has created a 'digital divide'--a gnawing gap between scientists in the North, who enjoy full e-connectivity, and their colleagues in the South, who do not.
ICTP's "www4mail" project, which Centre staffer Clement Onime and I launched in 1998, has sought to close this troublesome divide by providing researchers in developing countries with access to databases, online journals, and scientific preprint repositories via e-mail.
Simply put, www4mail gives browsers in the South the means to navigate the internet off-line and free-of-charge through low-cost technologies that are available in their home countries. As a result, www4mail offers an instructive example of a technological solution to disparities in 'information access' between the North and South. It also aims to help fulfil ICTP's mandate for transferring knowledge to developing countries.
An important lesson learned from www4mail is that high-bandwidth access to the internet is not essential for bridging the digital divide. Indeed the service--and the software that drives it--offers web information to internet users in countries where full connectivity is not widespread. As an added bonus, www4mail's support for non-Western character sets enables internet users from these countries to interact with web-based information in their own languages. Since its launch more than two years ago, the software has evolved rapidly thanks largely to extensive user feedback that has led to enhancements and new features. www4mail was designed to overcome many of the obstacles--such as JavaScript, cookies and frames--that have sometimes impeded the use of other free software. At the same time, it has tried to replicate, as closely as possible, the experience of browsing the web via full internet connection, including searches of online databases.
Most importantly, the software is easy to use and extremely reliable. So much so that the www4mail project was named a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge Award 2000, a 'cyberspace competition' that included more than 600 projects from 84 countries (see News from ICTP, Summer 2000, p. 14).
An evolving goal of the project is to disseminate the service more widely and to use it as a catalyst to build capacity in developing countries for setting up and hosting local www4mail services. Until now, five main public www4mail servers--one each in Germany, Italy and the United States and and two in Canada--have been established to deliver web pages via e-mail to users around the world. Each server can supply more than 5,000 pages of information daily. We hope to have additional servers in place in the near future. www4mail's value is reflected largely in its rising number of users. But like the dynamic environment in which it operates, the project's prospects for success in the future (and the not-so-distant future at that) lie in its ability to meet the demands of an ever-more sophisticated and complex operating environment. That, in turn, means finding ways to provide easy access to more dynamic content, multimedia elements, and specialised software. To keep pace, the www4mail project must continually draw on state-of-the-art knowledge and technologies. For this reason, observations and insights from www4mail users are always welcome. It's the only way we can ensure that we stay abreast of advances in the field in ways that allow us to serve the needs of scientists working in remote areas. By taking one small step at a time, projects like www4mail will help determine whether, over time, the digital divide narrows into a sliver of separation ultimately bridged by creative applications of today's technology.
[This article first appeared in . Many thanks to Enrique Canessa for permission to reproduce it.]
Questions concerning www4mail may be addressed to http://www4mail.org
To learn more about using the Kabissa www4mail server, contact Tobias Eigen. Alternatively, simply e-mail [email][email protected] with the word "help" in the message body. Full instructions will automatically be returned to you via e-mail.
An online discussion about the Kabissa www4mail server for the African non-profit sector is ongoing! To join, write to [email][email protected] with only the command "subscribe".
A new baseline study to determine reproductive
knowledge among young refugees in South Africa's most populous province shows that although there is a general awareness about HIV/AIDS, specific
knowledge about how the disease is transmitted and prevention strategies is "alarmingly low".
In the second installment of a four-part series on AIDS in Africa, "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" reporter Elizabeth Farnsworth examines the AIDS crisis in Botswana, where nearly 36% of sexually active adults are HIV-positive and some estimate that the country's overall life expectancy has been reduced by 20 to 40 years.
The House voted by a narrow margin yesterday to restore President Bush's ban on aid to international organizations that perform abortions, refer patients to abortion clinics or advocate abortion rights overseas.
Scientists at the Liege University in Belgium have reported that DDT, a pesticide that has been banned in Europe but is still in use in the
developing world to fight mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, is causing children in the developing world to develop earlier than their peers in the developed world.
THE proposed plan by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to build a facility to recycle waste generated in one of its areas of operation ran into a hitch yesterday as the communities in which it was to be sited rejected it.
The French government should launch an official investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by French forces in Algeria, Human Rights Watch said today.
MediaChannel.org - news, reports, resources and opinion. Featuring content from over 660 media-issues groups worldwide.
As the sun slips behind the jagged hills of the Transkei, Chief David Lingazwe surveys the land his family has farmed for hundreds of years. He smiles as he tucks a cell-phone into the folds of the traditional blanket he wears to keep out the evening chill. The chief's daughter Bonizwe has just given birth at a government hospital in Bizana, 60 km away. A year ago, Vodacom, one of Africa' biggest mobile technology players, installed a mast and base station in Amambisi village, ending isolation, but also bringing hope to this impoverished community of 30,000.
The Bloemfontein Court of Appeal, on 18 and 19 May, will hear an appeal against the Cape Town High Court’s ruling in favour of Old Mutual, who were accused of mismanaging an employees’ pension fund. COSATU is extremely concerned that the appeal should be upheld and that Old Mutual be found guilty, in the interests of thousands of workers directly affected and millions more who
may be affected by the precedent set by this case.
Most of us who enter politics do so because we hope to change things for the better. Tackling world poverty is an obvious ambition. Yet in the world today millions of people continue to live in conditions that most Westerners can barely imagine. – Romano Prodi
The preparations of more than 30 South African athletes for this year's world championships have been plunged into crisis following allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement against senior Athletics South Africa (ASA) officials, which prompted the postponement of the team announcement.
In Arab countries it is called baksheesh, hongbao in China, matabiche in central Africa, propina in Latin America, pots de vin in France, in other parts of the world it is called bribery; whatever the term, there is a significant cost to the world economy because it exists, and flourishes. Githongo claims that corruption is a major international scourge that undermines economic, political and social development. Sanchez explains that "corruption will always flourish in the obscurity of totalitarianism, authoritarianism and dictatorship- regimes that limit power to an unaccountable few." Sanchez does not limit corruption to certain governments or economic systems; he finds that democracy is not immune to corruption.
Anti-graft legislation must be scrutinised by the International Monetary Fund before enactment, Attorney-General Amos Wako said yesterday. The redrafted Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority Bills, will consequently be looked at by the Bretton Woods institution before being taken to Parliament, he said.
A Lagos-based national newspaper last week did nearly a full-page feature on how recruitment into the police force is riddled with fraud such that a candidate is required to pay as much as N250, 000 for the recruitment form, plus so many other sums for greasing the palms of some officials and self- appointed recruitment officers. All that came shortly after the former Lagos State Police Commissioner, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, went full blast on the police and its corrupt agents at the Oputa Panel which has just ended its sitting in Enugu.
President Yoweri Museveni yesterday told Uganda's donors and creditors that he was committed to fighting corruption in Uganda's "backward and pre-industrial society," writes John Odyek. "There is political will to fight corruption," Museveni said at the International Conference Centre. Earlier a senior economist with the World Bank, Satu Kahkonen, said many public officials ask for bribes to "grease the wheels of bureaucracy," thereby increasing the costs of doing business.
Which provides the best health service, the 'American' model or the 'European' model? According to a report by the UK Institute of Development Studies, neither example is useful for countries undergoing rapid social change. For countries like China and South Africa, these dominant models are too static and fail to take into account constantly changing social and
political realities.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday welcomed the results of a just-published study on malaria, which, it said, could offer new hope in reducing the toll of the illness among infants. The study of 701 children in Ifakara, southern Tanzania, published in 'The Lancet' medical journal "opens up an exciting new possibility of reducing the impact of malaria in young children", WHO stated.
Technology has always attracted big dreamers. Think back to the rhetoric of two years ago, when e-commerce was supposed to change the world. Yet, as the economy sputters, there are people who still believe that a computer and a high-speed Internet connection can make a real difference. Some of them can be found at Technology Works for Good (www.technologyworks.org), a Washington group devoted to helping nonprofits connect with the community.
The organization that brought the world the green revolution is now struggling to survive the gene revolution. Few organizations have affected the lives of as many people as the little-known Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, which plays a major role in developing better crops for poor countries.
Search our entire database of funders with the Foundation Directory Online Platinum, a new addition to our popular Web-based subscription services. Platinum offers convenient Web access to over 58,000 profiles of foundations, corporate givers, and grantmaking public charities, as well as a separate searchable file of over 170,000 recently awarded grants. If you are already a subscriber to the Foundation Directory Online, it's easy to upgrade!
Under the Direction of Professor J. Gregory Dees, Pathways to Social Impact is a multi-year research project focusing on how social entrepreneurs can most effectively spread their innovations from one community to another. While there has been much talk about "replication" and "scalability" in the social sector in recent years, there has been little systematic, in-depth research to help social entrepreneurs make these decisions. Utilizing in depth case studies and data gathered from interviews and surveys, the study will explore the various strategies nonprofits employ to spread their programs and ideas effectively, ranging from information sharing to the establishment of wholly owned branches in other locations and the many possibilities in between.
The latest "Poverty Trends and Voices of the poor" shows that social indicators in the developing world have generally been improving over the last three decades. However, living conditions have deteriorated substantially for many Africans. Sub-Saharan Africa is in fact experiencing a serious health crisis because of AIDS: on average, life expectancy decreased from 50 years in 1987 to 47 years in 1999, and in the countries hardest hit by the epidemic decreases were of more than ten years of life. Child mortality increased from 155 per 1,000 in 1990 to 161 per 1,000 in 1999. Sub-Saharan Africa also experienced declines in enrollment rates between 1980 and 1994.
The ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Stories web site, just announced the winners of the 2001 competition - read about cases of ICT projects that are contributing to development in countries as diverse as India, Mongolia, Gambia and Niger.
The new Development Goals web site presents the latest data on country and regional progress towards the International Development Goals on poverty, education, gender equality, child, infant and maternal mortality, reproductive health, and the environment. Country tables present time series data for four of the last ten years.
A new study by the World Resources Institute reveals that water policies in most of the world are failing to protect the world's freshwater systems, resulting in growing water scarcity and alarming declines in the numbers of aquatic plants and animals. The study recommends that water prices should reflect the cost of supplying water and protecting watersheds.
Côte d'Ivoire's authorities hope to integrate some 20,000 Liberian children into the education system in the next school year, which starts in October, but first a number of hurdles need to be surmounted, participants in a workshop held to discuss the idea noted. Examining the technical and socio-psychological obstacles facing the proposed project and coming up with ways to ensure its success was the focus of the meeting, held on 7-9 May in the Ivorian capital, Yamoussoukro, 241 km north of Abidjan.
What is the best way to teach science? What kind of teacher training makes better science teachers? Donors now tend to fund in-service training (INSET) for teachers already in the classroom rather than pre-service teacher training. But what makes an effective INSET programme? And how can effectiveness be measured? Collaborative research by the Universities of York and Swaziland uses teacher perceptions and student learning outcomes to measure the effectiveness of an INSET programme for junior secondary science in Swaziland and asks whether the INSET methodology could be used in other subject areas.
The decade of the 1990s returned a mixed score card for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Overall, the LDCs recorded only modest progress, but there were some encouraging experiences in social development and economic integration. The Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries presents an opportunity to review these experiences and agree on strategies to build on lessons learnt to accelerate the fight against poverty. These strategies must be centred on the realization of the rights of children.
COSATU expresses its appreciation to the University of the Witwatersrand for committing its support to the Treatment Action Campaign against the closure of the Johannesburg Hospital HIV/Aid clinic. The federation views the closure of the clinic as a ‘punch below the belt’ to the Johannesburg HIV/Aids sufferers, especially in an area where an alarming number of infected people live.
An international fund to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria will be a major tool for economic growth in the developing world, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today in Geneva.
In a speech to the World Health Assembly, Mr Annan said that in order to encourage development in many countries, the runaway contagion of HIV/AIDS, and other diseases must be contained.
Paper from Hakikazi - Local Catalysts in Tanzania.
The context in which refugee policy is framed within the European Union has changed dramatically since the 1980s. From being an issue of human rights and cold-war politics it had, by the early 1990s as the number of asylum claims rose, become an issue of immigration control. By the end of the decade the paradigm had shifted again to criminology, moving from border control to the fight against transnational organised crime.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today proposed setting up a US$98 million fund to help the world's least developed countries (LDCs) improve the safety and quality of their food products. The proposal was made at the third UN Conference on the LDCs (Brussels, 14-20 May) .
Biotechnology and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can help to increase the supply, diversity and quality of food products and reduce costs of production and environmental degradation, as the world still grapples with the scourge of hunger and malnutrition, Dr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a speech in Stockholm today. The environmental risks of biotechnology should, however, be openly addressed and the new technology should not be allowed to widen the gap between rich and poor nations, he said.
Zimbabwe's beleaguered opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has been forced to take much of its political activity "underground" to avoid the violence of a government widening its net of repression and terror to attack diplomats and aid workers.