The international community has agreed to seek a moratorium on debt service payments for the world's most highly- indebted countries in "exceptional" situations - such as those plagued by civil wars, floods and natural disasters - and to facilitate access to debt relief for post-conflict countries. "A historic decision, is what we call it," said Swedish trade minister Leif Pagrotsky, who served as president of the Third UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC-III). "And that is on top of the present process going on to reduce debt for the least developed countries. This is a new step forward in that area".

A container filled with 380 computers and monitors for schools in Cameroon has just sailed from Boston. It is expected to arrive in the port of Douala, Cameroon on June 12th. The computers were donated by 15 businesses and other organizations to the World Computer Exchange of Hull, Massachusetts. The computers will be arranged in networks of computers in 34 schools with over 17,000 students in the region around Yaounde, Cameroon.

The United Nations (UN) Security Council mission to Africa's Great Lakes region is not likely to provide much of a boost to the struggling peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi, say Southern African security analysts.

Salary : £24,850
Location : Kigali, Rwanda
Closing Date : 25 May 2001
Job posted on : 2 May 2001

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WORKER, for community participation in HIV/AIDS prevention programmes
Salary : Local salary, home savings allowance, benefits package
Location : Near Chinoyi, Zimbabwe
Closing Date : 15 Jun 2001
Job posted on : 15 May 2001

Please send me a copy of proposal that make a difference: how to write effective grant proposals. I'm a journalist in one of the national dailies in my country. I feel the material will be useful for our monday job project.

OUR RESPONSE: This publication usually costs £22.00 and can be purchased through the . However, a special offer is available to subscribers of this newsletter: introduce 20 new subscribers from Africa to this newsletter and we will send you a free copy of PROPOSALS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE, an interactive computer-based learning tool produced by fahamu. Requires Acrobat PDF.

Start Date: July 21, 2001
End Date: August 18, 2001
Location: The Netherlands
The Institute for International Mediation and Conflict Resolution (IIMCR) invites students and young professionals to apply to the four-week International Student Symposium on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution.
The objectives of the symposium are to offer participants the following opportunities:
1) to understand the phenomenon of deadly conflict and to examine the resources that exist to undertake action against it in all levels of society.
2) to develop understandings of ways and skills to prevent or confront conflict.
3) to bridge the gap between theory and practice. 4) to learn about other views and cultures from peers and guests.
5) a forum for career guidance as well as an opportunity to network with others who share common ground.
6) encouragement and assistance in putting the skills learned into practice.
7) to promote the spread of these activities in the participants’ home environments.
8) to develop an international network of young conflict management professionals and volunteers.
E-mail: [email][email protected]

A budget shortfall and donor fatigue has forced the United Nations' refugee program to launch a review of its worldwide activities in order to cut non-essential programs.

"Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), like all the new technologies, are instruments that can be used for good and for bad in the same way that they can be either managed to the benefit of the most needy or skewed to the advantage of specific groups," the UN Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf said today.

Civil society organizations have an opportunity to speak with one voice when the Second Global Forum on Fighting Corruption takes place in The Hague, The Netherlands from May 28-31, 2001. The Humanist Institute for Co-operation with Developing Countries (Hivos) and Transparency International, in co-operation with a number of Southern anti-corruption organizations, have drawn up an open letter which will be presented to the second Global Forum’s plenary session of Government Ministers on May 31. We hope your organization will be in general agreement with the text of this letter, which can be found below.

Comstock outlines some of the starker scenarios that might result from strict adherence to the principle. Saunders and Ho appear to dismiss his scenario and paint a much rosier picture, but they do acknowledge the importance of continuing research, although with substantial constraints on the basic side. Along the way they get into the question of feeding a growing world population, and I will take that as my starting point. It is important to do so, because the initial assumptions concerning this issue can influence the discussion in critical ways.

Biotechnology background papers and events.

"Killing journalists is the ultimate and most grisly form of censorship," Judith Blanks, spokeswoman for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said on World Press Freedom Day (May 3).

Tunisia: Telecoms updates; South Africa: World Wide Wireless; South Africa: Telecommunications Regulations Draw Fire. South Africa: Country Launches First Internet Sports Betting Site. South Africa: Virgin's Move Could Be Good News for Consumers.

Several countries with poor human rights records should not have been voted onto the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch said today.

Thirty nations have now ratified the treaty creating the International Criminal Court, half the 60 needed to make the court functional. The court would be the first permanent tribunal to handle cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The United States signed the treaty in the waning days of the Clinton administration but chances of ratification are slim since Bush administration officials say they will not send it to the Senate for action.

Statement by the Women's Caucus of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). In order to ensure that a gender perspective will be included in the forthcoming UN World Conference on Illicit Trade of Small Arms and Light Weapons In All Its Aspects July 9-20, 2001, The Women's Caucus of the International Action Network on Small Arms [IANSA] has prepared a statement showing how the world's women and girls are affected by the proliferation and diffusion of small arms. They would like to have both individual and group support for their statement.

McSpotlight gives critical information and analysis on a wide range of topics and campaigns relating to Mcdonalds and other multinationals.

The Nigerian human and environmental right group MOSOP has today called on oil multinational Royal Dutch Shell to immediately cease making misleading
statements regarding the major oil and gas blowout which has occurred in the Yorla oilfield in eastern Ogoni in the oil rich Niger delta. "In the past two days Shell has alternated between blaming the local people for this disaster by accusing them of vandalisation and in a contradictory position declaring that all the abandoned oil wells in Ogoni are a 'time bomb' due to lack of maintenance," said Ledum Mitee President of MOSOP speaking from London today.

In a major report released today, Freedom House
finds that Internet freedom exceeds levels of press freedom in most countries, including some closed societies governed by censorious regimes.

On April 24, 2001, the UN Commission on Human Rights that met in Geneva, approved by overwhelming majority the creation of an Intersessional Working Group and the appointment of an expert to study the Draft International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Dr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), today said that "political will to fight hunger on a sustainable basis and a firm commitment to invest in agriculture and rural development are critical elements of any effort aspiring to achieve sustainable alleviation of hunger and poverty in Africa."

A Federal High Court in Lagos has ruled that although every Nigerian has a constitutional right to inspect the assets declaration made by public officers, the right is not enforceable until National Assembly prescribes the conditions for it exercise.

UNHCR must learn when to concede that it alone cannot be successful in the battles that must be fought with governments to ensure that refugee protection is ensured. The refugee camps along Guinea's border with Sierra Leone have been located too close to the border for far too long. The cross-border attacks have led to a security situation where access to the refugees is limited, resulting in the inadequate protection and assistance for the refugees. Yet such a situation might have been avoided if UNHCR had effectively engaged its partners at an earlier stage to lobby and pressure the Guinean government.

HAR's mission is to facilitate the recovery of abused children, women and their families through training, research, advocacy and provision of psychosocial suport services.

What is Monitoring is now available on the HURIDOCS Web site. This practical manual is intended for documentalists and information workers of human rights organisations. It deals with the following issues: what is monitoring, purposes of monitoring, types of monitoring, methods of monitoring, and data analysis. This volume has been written by Manuel Guzman and Bert Verstappen. It is at the moment available only in English, and can be printed in HTML and PDF formats.

Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), today announced the appointment of two independent experts, Elisabeth Rehn (Finland) and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia), to spearhead the organization's efforts to assess progress of the world's women, particularly those affected by conflict. Heyzer also announced that Victoria Brittain (UK), internationally acclaimed correspondent and Associate Foreign Editor of the Guardian has agreed to document the findings of Rehn and Johnson Sirleaf for Progress 2002.

In this report, Peter Wobst considers how Tanzania's structural adjustment reforms of the late 1980s and early 1990s affected agriculture, as well as growth, equity, and poverty alleviation--in others words, the economic well-being of the people in this extremely poor country. The report also presents a computable general equilibrium model of the Tanzanian economy and an updated social accounting matrix.

The Zambian president, Frederick Chiluba, has defied his own high court and expelled his vice-president and eight other cabinet ministers from the ruling party for opposing plans for a constitutional amendment allowing him to cling to power for another five years.

The UN move to not reelect America to its human rights body indicates just how much the world has been outraged by George Bush's early decisions.

In a flurry of activity at the High Court last Thursday and Friday, Justice James Devittie handed down four decisions that seem to set a new precedent for the election petitions. He ruled for the petitioner in the constituencies of Buhera North, contested by MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai, Mutoko South, contested by Derek Muzira, and Hurungwe East, contested by Richard Chadya. He also denied the petition in the Shurugwi constituency brought by MDC candidate Gladys Matibenga against MP Francis Nhema.

Advocacy materials and actions from the Bretton Woods Project.

Welcome to a post-mortem of and a critical look at Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) in Africa together with a proposed new recipe to make them better, avoiding their (sometimes now judged clumsy) pitfalls. Overall, I see the Report as an apology for market-based reforms, because the authors truly believe them to be the best option. In doing the latter, the Report tacitly calls on Western donors and on the private foreign investors to rethink their strategies and to support countries that adopt WB-sponsored macroeconomic policies. Without having any qualms about the brilliance of this Report, the first monumental problem I have with it is that it represents a typical cold economists’ account and analysis of an indeed complex matter. The warm analysis of the social consequences and costs of these reforms is nowhere to be seen!!

The African Women's Media Center (AWMC) will hold a five-day cyber training on reporting on HIV/AIDS for French-speaking African women journalists from June 11 to June 15, 2001. The Internet-based seminar is designed to equip French-speaking journalists with substantive knowledge about HIV/AIDS and provide practical tips on reporting on HIV/AIDS in Africa. Sessions will be live for four hours each day for five days.

In fall 2001, Nutrition Rights will be offered as a graduate course in political science by Professor George Kent of the University of Hawai'i. The course examines the meaning and the application of the human right to adequate food and nutrition. Participants should gain an understanding of recent developments in nutrition rights, and also develop skill in applying the nutrition rights approach in specific contexts. This is to be an on-line course, available to anyone who has reliable access to the Internet.

The course will be led by Sharryn Aiken, Legal Specialist, Refugee Studies Centre, York University, Toronto. Dates: 16-19 July 2001, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and 21 July, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Venue: AUC Main Campus, Hill House, 6th floor lounge. Entrance at Mohammed Mahmoud Gate. Deadline for applications: 31 May 2001.

The U.N., World Bank and International Monetary Fund, created at the end of World War II, today operate on badly outdated political and economic foundations and need to be overhauled before a crisis induced by globalization forces the changes required, a major new study warns.

Prepared by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of U.N. University, with support from the U.N.'s Division for Social Policy and Development and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland, the study calls for repeal of the Security Council veto accorded the five major post-war powers in the 1940s and the addition of other countries as permanent members of that body.

"Historical experience suggests that crises are the catalysts of change. The last time around, it was the aftermath of a world war and a worldwide economic depression that led to the foundation of the United Nation systems and the creation of the Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank and IMF)," according to the study, New Roles and Functions for the U.N. and the Bretton Woods Institutions, edited and co-authored by Deepak Nayyar, Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University, India.

"The world need not wait for another crisis of such proportions to contemplate and introduce the much needed changes in global governance," the study says.

The U.N. suffers from a "democratic deficit" that was "an integral part of the original design" but needs to be remedied now, the study says, adding that the U.N.'s moral authority is "seriously undermined because its laws or principles are enforced selectively when it suits the interests of the rich and the powerful."

Circumventing the veto granted more than 50 years ago to the five permanent Security Council members and enlarging the membership of that body are "imperative" for the U.N.'s continued credibility.

"The process of globalization has given rise to new problems and governance needs," but the U.N. system has yet to adjust, the study says. "The responsiveness of the United Nations to issues of our times has been limited to global meets such as the Earth Summit or the Social Summit," useful fora for public concern but insufficient as solutions to the problems at stake.

It says the U.N. needs to become more representative, fostering the participation of global civil society to a greater degree, and more democratic in its decision-making, involving greater participation, transparency and accountability.

According to the study, the subject of a presentation at the UN May 2, East-West distinctions have dissipated with communism's collapse, while the North and South divide is more diffused, perceptions about development having been brought closer together.

"This represents a sea-change," but reform of the U.N. has stalled as its legitimacy, effectiveness and the credibility erodes. "The unipolar world has eliminated the erstwhile competition between systems," the study says. "As competition has vanished, the urge for cooperation has diminished. This has reduced both the relevance and the role of the United Nations."

Courtesy of Eberhard Wenzel, Griffith University, Australia

An international development organisation for African women is hereby seeking 3 African women who are motivated self starters, to fill the following posts: Volunteer Coordinator (part time 17.5 hours per week £22922.00 pro rata.Initially for 3 years. Finance and Administrative Officer Circa $16,000 – £18,000 (inclusive of London Weighting) Initially for 2 years. Personal Assistant to Director/ International Programmes Officer. Circa £18,000 - £20,000 (Inclusive of London Weighting)Initially for 2 years. The closing date for applications for all 3 posts is: Friday 25 May 2001.