The UNDP's complete report on human development and how technology can play a role in accelerating it is available. The report can be downloaded chapter by chapter, or in one big file. The report contains chapters such as 'Managing the risks of technological change' and 'Global Initiatives to create technologies for human development'. It also features interesting examples and case studies of the development and application of new technologies in developing countries.

Although southern African countries have agreed on a comprehensive protocol on controlling the flow of small arms in the region, its implementation could be far more problematic, security analysts told IRIN.

President Pierre Buyoya, who returned to Burundi on Thursday, said the decision to appoint him as first leader of the transition was an "important step towards implementation of the peace agreement". Speaking on arrival from the OAU summit in Lusaka, he said the decision had been made by the peace mediator Nelson Mandela after extensive consultations with regional heads of state and the signatories of the Arusha peace accord.

Civilian deaths resulting from fighting between Ugandan government forces and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the north of the country have increased in recent months, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

Rwanda has hailed the arrest of more genocide suspects in three European countries. On Thursday, three suspects - including a former minister - were arrested in Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Rwandan Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo called on the entire world to cooperate with the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported.

The presence of land mines and absence of basic services continue to prevent the successful return of internally displaced people (IDPs) to their homes in war-affected areas of Eritrea. The Information Coordination Centre (ICC - a joint UN/Eritrean Refugee and Rehabilitation Commission - ERREC - body) said in its July update that ERREC had repatriated 106,446 IDPs from 10 IDP camps in the Debub Region to their home villages, but that some 13,000 IDPs who had been unable to return had been moved to six newly established temporary IDP camps around Tsorona and Senafe, southern Eritrea.

The United Nations Security Council has called on Somali factions to lay down their weapons and engage in peaceful dialogue with the Transitional National Government (TNG), the current Council President, Ambassador Wang Yingfan of China, said on 11 July.

Mali became the first country to sign a legally binding international pact to control the proliferation of small arms, the UN reported in New York on Wednesday.

"This historic effort will require leadership, courage and willingness to depart from the ways of the past, if it is to do for Africa what the European Union has done for Europe". Those are the words of Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations, himself an African from Ghana. He was speaking about the newly-created African Union (AU) which is to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

In embracing the potential of technology in developing countries, The UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report 2001, published this week, has controversially backed the role of genetically modified food crops as a way to alleviate the hunger and poverty of millions in the developing world. GM crops, the report says, can increase yields, significantly reduce the malnutrition that affects 800 million people worldwide, and will be especially valuable to poor farmers working marginal land in sub-Saharan Africa.

The report points to newly developed strains of rice as evidence for such optimism. GM strains of rice have 50% higher yields, mature earlier, are richer in protein and are far more drought and disease resistant than traditional crops. It says there is an urgent need to develop this kind of technology, and to produce genetically modified varieties of millet, sorghum and cassava – the staple diets of millions. Instead of such technology concentrating on the needs of the developed world, the report urges there should be “greater public investment in GM research and development to ensure it meets the needs of the poor”.

The optimism the report displays over the potential of GM crops is not widely shared in the NGO community. The report has been slated by nearly 300 organisations around the world, including Oxfam, Greenpeace International, Actionaid and the Intermediate Technology Development Group, who have called its conclusions simplistic, and have accused the UN of uncritical acceptance of the agenda of the biotechnology industry. These organisations point out that there is a very real concern that in developing GM technology, large companies like Monsanto will effectively control the entire food production chain ‘from farm to fork’, and that poor farmers will become locked into a technology that they can neither afford nor control. This ‘industrialisation’ of agriculture in the developing world will effectively force huge numbers of people off the land into cities, where they are unlikely to have the skills to survive. This exact scenario is currently being touted by the state of Andhra Pradesh in India: the so-called Vision 2020 scheme. GM may offer a huge boost for both biotech companies and for the food export industry of Andhra Pradesh, but it will be of no benefit whatsoever for those forced to the cities in the search for work. Such a scenario will presumably become commonplace in other parts of the developing world if unfettered use of GM technology is allowed to go ahead.

Many commentators also make clear that many hungry people in the world live in countries with food surpluses. The widely touted benefits of GM rice for boosting vitamin A levels, for example, fail to make clear that vitamin A levels are only down among many populations because of the effects of the ‘Green Revolution’ which forced such communities to shift from growing a wide range of diverse crops, towards monoculture production geared towards a commercial market, resulting in a less nutritious diet for themselves and their families. Thus, land and food supply reforms, they argue, and 'traditional' technologies such as seed saving, manuring, intercropping and breeding techniques could in fact raise sustainable productivity to levels far higher than those achievable through the use of GM crops.

Real fears also remain about the effects of GM crops on the environment. While their modified status may mean a reduced need for pesticides and herbicides, their very resistance to pests means there is a greater chance of GM crops dominating the surrounding landscape, forcing out other plants and species, and thus exacerbating the critical threat to biodiversity the planet already faces.

Above all, it seems unclear whether the UNDP has actually listened to what kind of technology farmers in the developing world themselves say they want. As Andrew Scott from ITDG puts it, "This means starting with poor people and what they want technology to do for them - not starting with technologies and 'applying' them to poverty. We have to enable poor women and men to make their own choices about whether they want to surf the information superhighway…or would they prefer to build better homes, have access to electricity, transport or a sustainable food supply? We need to know which works best for them…a better hoe, a plough or rice grinder…or GMOs? What we need is new thinking about all technologies which are of use to poor people".

A "citizen’s jury" of small farmers across Andhra Pradesh has unanimously rejected the introduction of the Vision 2020 scheme, saying they want control over their own land and forests. Traditional agricultural practices in Africa also give people control over their own resources and are directly linked to the level of ‘social capital’ or empowerment they have in their communities. The real issue over GM technology is who gets to control the production of the world’s food: if GM is introduced, food production, and all that goes with it, is unlikely to remain in the hands of local farmers. In naively embracing GM, the UNDP, unfortunately, seems to have completely failed to have understood or to have addressed this fundamental issue.

Further reading:

Human Development Report 2001, UN Development Programme:

Guardian GM debate including coverage of Vision 2020:
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/gmdebate
Greenpeace hits UNDP report for blind biotech bias:
http://www.greenpeace.org/
ITDG: Which technologies most benefit poor women and men?
http://www.itdg.org/home.html
Women are central to the agri-biotech debate in Africa:
http://www.womenspress.com/newspaper/2001/17-5afri.html
FoE: ‘Golden Rice’ and Vitamin A Deficiency
http://www.foe.org/safefood/rice.html
ActionAid: campaigns on food, patents and development:
http://www.actionaid.org/campaigns/index.html

The UNDP has declared South Africa 39th in their list of hubs of technological development over the globe. The importance of being able to skip over certain developmental stages was emphasised by Rob Adam of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. However, he also emphasised that the government needs to be aware of the potential of technology as a tool for devvelopment. In addition, the importance of encouraging tertiary studies in technical and technological fields is urgent.

Does a scientist - or anybody else, for that matter - have the right to patent the ability to make, sell and use a gene or genetic discoveries? This article in Scientific American discusses this issue in an interview with John J Doll, Director of Biotechnology at the US Patent and Trademark Office. The article is brief and outlines the basics of what genetic patenting is all about.

The 7th Reproductive Health Priorities Conference will be held at the Champagne Sports Resort, Drakensberg, South Africa. The Reproductive Health Priorities Conferences have been a great success in presenting research in this field from the Southern African region, in promoting new research in reproductive health and in enabling a close interaction between researchers and service providers from around South Africa and the neighbouring countries.

The Women's World Congress is seeking papers, projects, posters and exhibitions about the status of women and gender equity over the past few decades of its 8th International Interdisciplinary Congress Conference "Gender Worlds: Gains Challenges", at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, from July 16-21, 2002.

The Nigerian government has drafted a plan for a national health insurance program that would eventually provide coverage for "all Nigerians," but certain individuals with "[h]igh-cost illnesses" such as HIV/AIDS would not be eligible to join, the Lancet reports.

L'IPAO oeuvre, dans le domaine de la communication et de l'information, à la construction d'une culture de la démocratie, de la citoyenneté et de la paix.

Middle Belt indigenes, under the aegis of "Joint Action Commit-tee on the Middle-Belt" (JACOMB) has petitioned the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Commission probing human rights violations in the country over alleged human rights infractions of their people claiming N 20 trillion as compensation.

SNV is a Netherlands International Development Organization that mobilizes expertise in the marginal areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe and makes this expertise available in flexible ways. The expertise through their advisory services develop and share knowledge and expertise with local organizations with the goal of making them better equipped for their work in structural alleviation of poverty among women and men.

Scholarships fund one editor from a developing country to come to the UK to attend the annual course for editors of peer reviewed medical journals. The course is run by Tim Albert Training. This year it will be held in Tunbridge Wells, England, on September 27-29.

The latest jobs from OneWorld Jobs - the place on the internet for jobs in sustainable development, environment and human rights.

The Non Profit Partnership (NPP) is an NPO committed to supporting democratic transformation by strengthening the financial sustainability of the non-profit sector in South Africa. The NPP provides a range of creative services to NPO’s. These include providing information and advice, establishing income-generating services and lobbying for relevant legislative and financial policy changes.

Director has overall leadership responsibility for interpreting the vision and mission of a cutting edge NPO engaged in the provision of a range of services to Street Children at risk in Greater Cape Town.

Villagers have hacked to death about 200 suspected witches in rebel-held northeastern Congo since June 15, blaming them for diseases that have gone untreated since Congo's war broke out three years ago, a senior Ugandan army official said Thursday.

With rare exceptions -- including Botswana President Festus Mogae and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni -- few African leaders have done much to fight the pandemic that infects more than 25 million people on the continent. Kaunda, 77, hopes he can fill the leadership vacuum.

Zimbabwe has admitted for the first time that it is running out of food and needs foreign aid to help it to buy grain from abroad. Finance Minister Simba Makoni said there was no provision in the budget for such purchases. He said he hoped that, where human life was concerned, the government and the donor community could find common cause.

The Algerian authorities have prevented thousands of Berber-speaking protesters from holding a planned protest march through the capital Algiers. Soldiers wielding machine guns and aided by police dogs set up road-blocks around the capital Algiers and turned back buses coming from the mainly-Berber eastern region of Kabylia to prevent a planned march by on Thursday.

Highlights of coverage and analysis from the Social Justice Advocacy Digest, South Africa for the last few months.

Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has "demanded" that people who "knowingly" transmit HIV to others receive the death penalty, Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Moi's proposal that those who knowingly infect others with the virus be hanged drew "mixed reactions" from women's groups and church leaders.

The government played down the effects of a national strike that paralyzed the economy for a second day Wednesday as union leaders proclaimed success, insisting 90 percent of workers stayed away from their jobs. The strike was organized by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions to protest President Robert Mugabe's economic policies and a 70 percent gasoline price increase that was imposed by the government on June 12.

In mid-April, worldwide protests forced an international cartel of pharmaceutical giants to withdraw a lawsuit against the South African government. Like the proponents of apartheid before them, these companies acted to maintain the rules of a system that denies the value of black lives in favor of minority privilege. The result in Africa has been murder by patent.

The demand for 100% cancellation of Third World debt is being advanced by progressive civil society groups like Jubilee South and the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (Zimcodd). Zimbabwe is officially considered only “moderately” indebted by the World Bank. Yet the burden of repayment is so brutal that government finally said no to foreign debt repayment around a year ago, and drove the interest rate down to at least 45% below inflation earlier this year so as to lower domestic debt repayment.

The following is a critique of "The Pitfalls of Universal Jurisdiction" by John M. Forbes, Executive Director of World Federalist Association of New England. "The Pitfalls of Universal Jurisdiction" is written by Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, in Foreign Affairs, July/August 2001 issue.

This Paper focuses on three of the major issues facing our society today, ones which are likely to be key battlegrounds in the struggle to shape the coming era: multiculturalism and diversity, citizenship and participation, and the Knowledge / Information Society. It reveals fundamental connections between the demands we are grappling with in those fields. It then goes on to suggest an approach to learning, named here for the first time as Open Source Learning, which aims to equip people to engage positively with all three of these major challenges on a fundamental level.

Three months after giving birth Mpho Mayoba, a young anti-Aids campaigner from Welkom, was buried this weekend, after dying from an Aids related illness. Mayoba was part of the Young People Living With Aids project which encouraged safe sex, although she herself failed to practice this advice. Mayoba's death has now sparked concerns and uncertainty over the mission of the project, which was launched by the Youth Commission in partnership with the office of the President in 1999.

The meeting of COP-6 of the UNFCCC, scheduled to be held in Bonn, Germany during the last two weeks of July of this year, will address a conflict that has pitted the United States against most if not all the countries of the world and threatens to upset the international effort to curb global warming.

The United Nations Security Council has extended the mandate of the Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) by five months to 30 November. The decision was based on the UN Secretary-General's report on the situation in the disputed territory. The report includes a draft framework agreement prepared by James Baker III, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General to Western Sahara.

The Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade, while acknowledging that his country has achieved some success fighting HIV/AIDS, insists it is far from enough. At the forefront of that battle, Wade considers, are the women of Senegal. "Take any given woman in any given neighbourhood," he said. "If she gathers together a group of ten or twenty women and she talks to them - without fanfare, without drums or trumpets - and explains the problems of AIDS so that it sinks in, then we will make progress. And that is possible in Senegal."

The flawed text of a new global treaty which could ensure future food security by conserving and protecting the genetic resources of the world's most important food crops has finally been agreed. The treaty is the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, or IU. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) immediately criticised the weakened text for enshrining OECD countries' priority to support private profit rather than food security, and for subordinating this environmental treay to the trade rules of the WTO - including its contentious agreement on intellectual property rights (TRIPs).