Pambazuka News 499: New technologies and the threat to sovereignty in Africa
Pambazuka News 499: New technologies and the threat to sovereignty in Africa
Support the international movement opposed to geoengineering. The Hands Off Mother Earth campaign is a part of the climate justice movement, fighting quick techno-fixes that put more money and power in the hands of the business interests and the politicians who caused the climate crisis in the first place. If you oppose using the seas, skies and soils of our home planet as a laboratory for unjust and risky technology, add your picture to our photo petition. Take a photo of your hand and help us say 'Stop geoengineering! Hands off Mother Earth!'
With some 5,000 families in Angola’s Lubango, Matala and Quipungo municipalities affected by housing demolitions since August, struggles continue to get the government to respect both legislation and its own public statements, writes Sylvia Croese.
Pambazuka News 498: Millennium Development Goals: A critique from the South
Pambazuka News 498: Millennium Development Goals: A critique from the South
In recent decades, the rate at which humans worldwide are pumping dry the vast underground stores of water that billions depend on has more than doubled, say scientists who have conducted an unusual, global assessment of groundwater use. These fast-shrinking subterranean reservoirs are essential to daily life and agriculture in many regions, while also sustaining streams, wetlands, and ecosystems and resisting land subsidence and salt water intrusion into fresh water supplies. Today, people are drawing so much water from below that they are adding enough of it to the oceans (mainly by evaporation, then precipitation) to account for about 25 per cent of the annual sea level rise across the planet, the researchers find.
The Google Public Data Explorer makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. Students, journalists, policy makers and everyone else can play with the tool to create visualizations of public data, link to them, or embed them in their own webpages.
For many millions in the developing world, land is central to livelihoods, food security, even identity. It is not surprising, then, that a recent wave of large - scale land acquisitions in poorer countries has sparked a major debate. This brief from the International Institute for Environment and Development lays out key trends, drivers and main features of the deal, with a focus on Africa.
This briefing from the South African Institute of International Affairs describes some of the challenges facing the efforts of Zambian policymakers to secure sustainable benefits from the exploitation of the country’s mineral resources - which generate about two - thirds of the country’s foreign exchange, yet their contribution to national development remains contested for various reasons. It explores the investor - friendly financial terms set by the Zambian government when the mining sector was privatised, the entry into the sector of Chinese companies, and the strain their distinctive mode of operation has put on the regulatory regime.
The ANC's discussion document on a national health insurance (NHI), unveiled at the party's national general council last week, contains few details on how to fix the embattled public health system and little in the way of innovation, experts complained last week. To ensure that an NHI brought better access to healthcare, there would need to be a concurrent improvement in the reach and quality of healthcare services and an increase in the number of facilities and staff in the sector.
Zimbabwe must show greater respect for human rights and political freedoms before the US sanctions on the impoverished African nation can be removed, the U.S. State Department said on Sunday. The State Department said its top diplomat for Africa and other US officials met three Zimbabwean ministers and had praised the economic advances but raised concerns 'that political progress has not been as successful'.
One year after the massacre of 157 people in Conakry, no army official suspected of taking part in the killings has been brought before a court in Guinea, which is still riven by political divisions. On September 28 2009, a peaceful rally organised by the opposition in Conakry's biggest stadium, was bloodily suppressed by junta troops, leaving 157 dead, hundreds of women victims of sexual violence and over a thousand injured.
There have been unprecedented developments in HIV vaccine research recently, but the field is threatened by the global downturn in funding for HIV/AIDS. Ahead of the AIDS Vaccine 2010 conference starting in Atlanta on 28 September, IRIN/PlusNews spoke to Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, about the future of HIV vaccine research and development.
Historically the tool that has been used to counter Gender Based Violence (GBV) has been the law. Following various gender protocols the governments of the SADC countries have readily developed legislation criminalising GBV to varying degrees. Yet, legislative solutions to the problem of GBV and rape in the SADC region can be likened to covering one’s eyes in order to see no evil, says this blog post.
The Optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR) adopted by the General Assembly of the UN on 10 December of 2008 and opened to signatures and ratifications on 24 September 2009 enables new channels for the justiciability of the right to food at international level. The OP will enter in to force three months after its 10th ratification. On the first anniversary of the opening to signature and ratification, the NGO Coalition working for the ratification of the OP has launched a statement promoting the 10 first ratifications until 10 December.
The Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford is pleased to announce that registration has opened for the 2011 Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition. The moot court competition seeks to expand interest and expertise in media law and policy amongst students by giving them an opportunity to interact with leading academics, policy makers and industry players, both from the UK and abroad. This year's problem bridges issues of technology, content and regulation to expose students to cutting-edge areas of media law.
From the Contents:
* The land is not for sale!
* Mission to the World Trade Organisation
* The impacts of climate change on human rights
* The CFS - platform for global governance of food security
* Kenya: Landmark decision on indigenous people's rights
* India's National Food Security Act: prospects and challenges
* Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2010
* New publications
On the eve of an emergency FAO-meeting devoted to instability in agricultural markets, the UN Special Rapporteur has published a study analysing the impact of speculation on food price volatility. The study shows that a significant portion of the increases in price and volatility of essential food commodities can only be explained by the emergence of a speculative bubble. In particular, there is a reason to believe that a significant role is played by the entry into markets for derivatives based on food commodities of large, powerful institutional investors such as hedge funds, pension funds and investment banks, all of which are generally unconcerned with agricultural market fundamentals.
Big investment banks are making a killing out of reckless speculation, with disastrous consequences for the lives of poor people around the world. Come and find out how, and what we’re going to do to stop them.
BHP Billiton was guilty of double standards by complicating public access to documents about a planned filter shutdown at its Mozambican aluminium smelter, an activist said on Friday. “I don't understand how a corporate like BHP can do one thing in South Africa and across the border it does something completely different,” said environmental activist Sandy Camminga.
On 1 - 2 September, in popular neighbourhoods of Maputo, capital of Mozambique, and in the town of Matola, in the industrial belt of Maputo, there were extremely violent demonstrations and looting. UNAC, the National Union of Peasant Farmers, condemns both the use of blind repression and lethal force on the part of the forces of law and order, and the unjustifiable destruction by some elements of the population of buildings, vehicles , filling stations and other structures.
Over the past decade there has been rapid growth in mobile phone penetration worldwide, making the mobile phone the most ubiquitous communications device in the world. This commercial growth has also opened up a tremendous opportunity for organisations seeking to provide life-changing services and provide useful information to citizens even in low-income and remote communities. One particular area that has seen a number of innovations, specifically in leveraging mobile social media, is HIV/AIDS awareness, public education and counseling.
The Mutambara Peace Village is a unique effort to reconcile Hutus and Tutsis by giving them homes to live together in the same village. Today, some 1,600 Hutus and Tutsis live as neighbours in 300 identical two-room homes constructed of concrete with tin roofs.
Several mysterious killings in Burundi, where memories of civil war are still fresh, have spread fear and disrupted livelihoods, while authorities have sought to play down talk of renewed armed insurrection, blaming some of the deaths on bandits. Tension has been mounting in Burundi since several elections were held earlier this year. The presidential poll was boycotted by most of the opposition amid claims of fraud in the local polls.
Animal production - that is nutrition.” The statement by Victoria Tsekpo of Ghana’s Food and Agriculture Ministry summed up one of the themes that emerged at a nutrition forum of the Economic Community of West African States – helping nutrition find its place in the agriculture sector. Health, nutrition and agriculture experts from the 15 ECOWAS countries said nutrition usually gains attention only in the context of crisis and emergency response, but it should be integral to agricultural and development programmes if countries are to pre-empt child malnutrition.
Although 70 per cent of Madagascar’s 20 million people are peasants, the country depends on imports for 20 per cent of its staple food, rice. Also, 30 percent of Madagascar’s land can be used for agriculture, but only 4 percent of the land is actually farmed. The government has neither the budget nor any effective strategies to address these problems. “All we do is hope for investments and technology transfers from overseas,” says Rakotoson Philibert, secretary-general of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Forced expulsions, violent recriminations, mass exodus, peaceful co-existence - just some of the possible outcomes for hundreds of thousands of Southern Sudanese living in the North, and to a lesser extent, vice versa, after a January referendum when the South is likely to vote to transform its semi-autonomy into full independence. 'We are worried for the future, of what happens after the referendum,' said James Jok, a vegetable seller who has lived in the Northern capital Khartoum since fleeing violence in the Southern state of Jonglei over two decades ago. 'I am frightened that if there is independence, we will just be told, "go home",' he added.
The acid mine drainage problem was being closely monitored and was not an 'imminent horror show', the Department of Mineral Resources' chief director of mining and mineral policy, Ntokozo Ngcwabe, told MPs yesterday. Concern over the threatened decanting of acid mine drainage into the water table in the Witwatersrand basin has caused mounting concern. Options for dealing with the problem included the construction of canals, controlled points for decanting, and water treatment using various technologies. The department would soon decide on the preferred solutions, which would be implemented in phases over the next 10 years, with the initial focus on the high - risk areas.
The Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) is finalising investigations on ten corruption cases involving people who participated in Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CM) opinion polls recently. The PCCB boss, Dr Edward Hoseah, said the cases would be sent to court before the 31 October general election. Speaking during the 15th anniversary of the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) the PCCB executive director said the PCCB were waiting for more evidence so that legal action could be taken on other allegations.
Four months ago, Google unveiled a tool that allows users to monitor the requests received from governments to take down material or report data on the users of their search engine and other services. This month, it released another tool that will expose less overt attempts by governments to curtail its various services, including YouTube and Gmail.
Uganda joined the rest of the world to celebrate Access to Information Day with a call on the government to show commitment and implement the Access to Information Act, passed by Parliament five years ago. The activists were also asking the government to either repeal or amend existing laws that are a draw-back on the right of access to information. The say the negative laws include the Oath of Secrecy Act and the Official Secrets Act, whose provisions are at variance with the Access to Information Act and Article 41 of the Constitution.
The United Nations and the African Union have launched a joint task force on peace and security as the two organisations continue to step up their cooperation in conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding across the continent. The Joint Task Force, launched at UN Headquarters in New York by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and AU Commission Chairperson Jean Ping, will meet twice a year at the senior level to review immediate and long-term strategic issues.
Top officials from three African nations have called for the continent to have a permanent representative on the Security Council, saying it was a travesty that the region that comprises so much of the body’s work does not have a permanent place.
African governments have been called upon to show the political will and creativity to make up for the delay in early childhood education and care. According to statistics presented at the opening of the first world conference on childhood education and care, only 15 per cent of children have access to pre-school education in sub-Saharan Africa. However, 'hope to make up for this delay is quite possible,' said Hamidou Boukary, senior specialist at the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), who is taking part in the meeting in Moscow, Russia.
Determined to break the deadlock in the much-delayed presidential elections in Cote d'Ivoire, African diplomats, including members of the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC), have embarked on a visit to West Africa to meet key political players in the hitherto peaceful nation. According to a statement, issued Monday by the AU, the diplomats are expected in the Ivorian capital from 27 September on a visit that would take them to other parts of the West African region. They are expected to conclude their mission on 1 October.
The ongoing rainy season has delayed efforts to decontaminate the six villages widely affected by lead poisoning resulting from illegal gold mining activities in Nigeria's northern Zamfara state, the state government said. Over 200 children have died from the lead poisoning in the state, forcing the federal government to ban illegal mining activities there.
Rwanda President Paul Kagame and security…
With saturation coverage of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) following a UN meeting in New York last week, Samir Amin attacks the 'supposedly democratic packaging' of the goals. Stripping away the language of development, he suggests that the MDGs mask the pursuit of other goals which have nothing to do with social progress.
A report released by the East African literacy project Uwezo shows that educated parents – even just at the primary school level – make for better-educated children, Chambi Chachage writes. As well, the Tanzanian system has focused too long on education ‘inputs’ such as teachers and classrooms, rather than ‘outcomes’ such as high literacy, critical thinking and creativity.
Many Capetonians were shocked by recent images of violent clashes between police and residents of the Hangberg community in Hout Bay, Cape Town. Residents say they were resisting the demolition of informal houses on the mountainside, but the City of Cape Town has said these structures had to go because they were built on a firebreak and obstruct rainwater flow. Why is it, asks Mphuthumi Ntabeni, that it’s okay for rich mansions to climb any mountain they wish, but once poor people dare to do the same they are labelled ‘criminals’?
‘The tragedy in Zamfara State is not only a resource curse but a wakeup call,’ writes Uche Igwe. Illegal minerals mining in Nigeria's Zamfara State sheds light on the problems posed by extractive industries in developing countries. While the revenue potential is huge, federal oversight has been weak and international support is ambiguous. More transparency is urgently needed so that the mistakes made in the Niger Delta are not repeated in Zamfara.
Kenya must intervene immediately in Uganda's arrest of Muslim Human Rights Forum director Al Amin Kimathi, who was arrested and jailed on his way to observe the trials of eight Kenyans suspected of plotting the bomb attacks in Kampala during the World Cup final. Not only is Kimathi’s arrest unlawful, Muthoni Wanyeki writes, but the treatment of the Kenyan suspects also contravenes human rights.
On 27 August 2010, President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya promulgated the country’s new Constitution. This was the culmination of a journey that begun over two decades ago when the first attempt was made to reform the constitutional order that Kenya had inherited from Britain, its former colonial power, in 1963. The draft Constitution was approved in a poll that took place on 4 August 2010, by 68 per cent of those who voted. Tim Murithi outlines what is at stake in the implementation phase.
In Frantz Fanon’s analysis of colonial relations in Algeria, Okello Oculi looks at Nigeria’s political trajectory from independence until today. Fanon argued that violence was a means to regain self-respect. Oculi critically examines this claim in the context of Nigerian events such as the war in Biafra and violence in the Niger Delta.
A political scrap between a young challenger and a veteran politician points towards a possible candidate for future Tanzanian president, writes Chambi Chachage.
New food security policies in Mozambique wrongly focus on increasing food production through large-scale farming, instead of supporting small-scale agriculture, writes Rebecca Burns. Food insecurity in Mozambique will actually increase as processed foods become more expensive and ordinary people can no longer afford to eat.
Writing as Nigeria marks 50 years of independence, Sokari Ekine stresses that as vivid as the photos within Ed Kashi’s work ‘Curse of the Black Gold’ are, the reality for Niger Deltans is even worse.
Tanzania's general elections are slated for October. One presidential candidate has changed the political landscape in more ways than one, writes Chambi Chachage.
The decisions of the last Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting confirmed that China can take on board the need to respond to critical reactions to its African engagement. But, asks Stephen Marks, how far are Western researchers and policy advisers taking on board the lessons that may be learned from China’s rise and its impact on low-income countries?
While they may appeal at a rhetorical level, South African ideas around pan-Africanism and greater regional integration tend to be ambivalent and even antagonistic, writes Ella Philda Scheepers.
The excessive and arbitrary use of pretrial detention critically undermines socioeconomic development and is especially harmful to the poor, argues Kersty McCourt. Pretrial detention disproportionately affects individuals and families living in poverty: they are more likely to come into conflict with the criminal justice system, more likely to be detained awaiting trial and less able to make bail or pay bribes for their release, McCourt stresses. For individuals, the excessive use of pretrial detention means lost income and reduced employment opportunities; for their families, it means economic hardship and reduced educational outcomes; and for the state, it means increased costs, reduced revenue and fewer resources for social service programmes.
The banning of SMS messaging in Mozambique is but one of several signs that both SMS (short message service) and the internet are changing the way media creates a national conversation in African countries, writes Russell Southwood.
Between 20,000 and 40,000 Nigerian women and girls have been trafficked to Mali, with many of them populating brothels in the West African nation, according to the executive secretary of Nigeria’s Agency for the Prohibition and Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), Simon Chuzi Egede. The number does not include the thousands that have also been trafficked to other African nations, including Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Libya and Morocco, Egele told a press conference in Abuja Wednesday.
Political parties on Wednesday forwarded names of MPs to sit on a key committee that oversees the implementation of the new constitution. Party of National Unity (PNU) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) submitted 13 and 14 names respectively to the house business committee, which met for two hours Wednesday evening.
A cabinet committee on Tuesday dropped its opposition to allowing the International Criminal Court access to sensitive government documents in its investigations, according to Daily Nation sources. The decision was reached during a three-hour meeting of the committee, which was formed to deal with the ICC. The world court is investigating the killings and other crimes committed during the lawlessness following the last election.
As public involvement in creating a new constitution for Zimbabwe draws to a close, a rights group reports the process has sparked increased human - rights violations. The Zimbabwe Peace Project says ZANU-PF supporters were the main perpetrators of intimidation at the outreach program. The Zimbabwe Peace Project said it has monitors around the country and they have witnessed many acts of physical intimidation at public meetings.
As the 2010 peace talks involving leaders from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and the United States–began, Egyptian bloggers were already expressing skepticism about their outcome. The Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram saw things differently using Photoshop to place Mubarak front and center in the lineup of heads of state. As a result of Al Ahram's creative reporting, bloggers, both in Egypt and abroad, have taken the opportunity to demonstrate their artistic skills, using Photoshop to further doctor the image.
On 9 September 2010, the International Press Institute (IPI) granted the 'Free Media Pioneer' to Okapi Radio, the UN radio in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The radio has been broadcasting since 2002 in an effort to contribute to the peace building process in the country.
Food analyst Raj Patel, on his blog, featured the Mozambican Farmers Union's (UNAC) statement on the Maputo protests, in which the social movement stated 'there's something rotten in the kingdom of globalization'. UNAC focuses on the need to concentrate on internal food production and marketing, in what it refers to as “food sovereignty” approach. For a comprehensive round-up of what bloggers and other commentators said in the aftermath of the Mozambique food riots, read the Global Voices article available through the link provided.
Margot Wallstrom, the United Nation's special representative on sexual violence and conflict, and Zainab Salbi, the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, an organisation that aids women in conflict zones, were recently interviewed on violence against women in conflict zones. 'It's very extensive, unfortunately. It has happened historically. It is taking one of the worst shapes in Congo. About a thousand women is getting raped every month in the last 12 years, according to the state department.' This post includes video and audio.
From May 31 to June 11, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) attended the first-ever review conference of the Rome Statue, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court. At the conference, IWPR journalists had the opportunity to hear the concerns of the victims who suffered at the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA, Uganda’s notorious rebel group. These concerns prompted IWPR-Netherlands to produce a series of special reports to coincide with the conference. The articles in 'ICC Review Conference: Taking Stock on the Ground' give a voice to the victims of the LRA and look at the different aspects of international justice that were discussed during the review conference through the eyes of the people that the court was set up to serve.
Sudan has delayed the registration of voters for January's referendum on secession for the south until November, raising tensions over the timetable. The chairman of the referendum commission said this was to allow for staff training and delivery of forms. Tanzania's former President Benjamin Mkapa, appointed by the UN to encourage a smooth vote, has told the BBC many challenges lie ahead.
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the third Guy Mhone International Conference, under the auspices of its Economic Research Programme. The theme of this year’s conference is The Renaissance of African Economies.
The University of East London's School of Law is seeking to appoint an international scholar with an outstanding research record to lead our research in the area of international and comparative human rights and to become Director of the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict
The Peace Council, a club at the Kenya Methodist University, helped launch the organisation known as "Sisi ni Amani" (We are Peace) at the Baba Ndogo slum estate in Nairobi, Kenya. Sisi ni Amani organisation is focused on interviewing and peace mapping, a concept where any individual sends a message about any peaceful, violent or volatile activity in their area to a number and analysts are able to gather this information, map it and send it to the relevant authorities for support. The launch involved many youths and children. It also aimed at promoting local talent such as music, dance, poetry and acting in the slum area. Contact: Njoroge Caleb, [email][email protected]
South Africa plans to invest in a solar power energy park in order to help meet increasing electricity demands, the department of energy has announced. The solar park will be built in the Northern Cape Province and generate 5,000 megawatts of energy, about 11 per cent of the country's current power capacity.
On 7 - 17 October 2010, ZIMCODD will join social movements across the globe in commemorating the Global week of Action against Debt and International Financial Institutions, commonly known as the Debt Week. ZIMCODD is calling on individuals, groupings and organisations to support the commemoration of the Global Week on Debt and IFIs in Zimbabwe by signing your organisation on to our petition to Parliament, the Ministry of Finance and Zimbabwe’s creditors. ZIMCODD will be commemorating the inaugural Debt Week in Zimbabwe through activities lined up in Harare, Mutare and Bulawayo with the theme, 'Responsible Lending and Borrowing to Guarantee Social and Economic Rights.' You may visit to sign on or send an email with the subject ‘support for ZIMCODD Debt week Petition’ to [email][email protected], We hope to conclude the process of collecting signatures by 4 October 2010. Your solidarity on this matter is vital.
Ugandan authorities should either release a Kenyan human rights activist who is being held on terrorism charges or provide details of the charges, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint letter to the Ugandan government. Al-Amin Kimathi was arrested, along with Kenyan lawyer Mbugua Mureithi, on September 15 after the two travelled from Kenya to Uganda to observe a hearing of six Kenyans charged with terrorism in connection with the July bomb attacks in Kampala, which killed over 76 people who were watching the World Cup final.
Much of an MDG discussion hosted by Al Jazeera's Inside Story focuses on increasing global food security and eradicating hunger. Vandana Shiva, Indian environmental activist and author, argues in this article and video that Brazil's programme is amazing because it has been an initiative of government to allow communities to become 'food self reliant' and 'food self secure'.
Findings published by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) expose how in their drive to maximise catch and minimise cost, illegal ‘pirate’ fishing operators ruthlessly exploit the crews working aboard their boats. EJF’s new report ‘All at Sea – the abuse of human rights aboard illegal fishing vessels’ documents how individuals working on pirate fishing vessels can be subject to excessive working hours, incarceration, and physical abuse up to and including murder.
Communities in Swaziland are coming together as never before to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has so deeply affected them. 'We will defeat AIDS, we the women of this village!' chant a group of older Swazi women wearing voluminous black skirts and bright red wraps in Ka-Vikizuula, near the Mozambique border in the east of the country.
The protection of civilians in conflict situations is a key challenge for blue berets across the world, but what would it take for peacekeepers deployed in Africa to do better? This question has gained added urgency from the mass rape by armed rebels over four days in late July and early August 2010 of more than 300 civilians in villages in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that lie close to a UN peacekeepers’ base. According to Paul Williams, associate professor at George Washington University, 'For many, civilian protection is the very essence of peacekeeping. But protecting civilians in Africa’s war zones raises huge challenges.'
Five months after Islamist militia took over a hospital and camp hosting thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia's Afgoye corridor, living conditions have deteriorated, with malnutrition, food shortages and shelter emerging as the key concerns. 'I live in the Hawa Abdi area; in my camp alone, there are 550 families [3,300 people] with little or no food, no medical help and almost non-existent shelter,' Hussein Abi, an elder, told IRIN.
Commenting on largely disappointing statistics about Tanzanian children’s reading and arithmetic levels, Uwezo Tanzania stresses that the country must focus more on learning outcomes rather than mere educational facilities.
A new issue of the South Bulletin focuses on the growing shortage of water which has emerged as one of the major crises of our times. A third of the world's people face water scarcity and by 2025 two-thirds of people may suffer water stress. This crisis should be at the top of the global agenda, says the South Centre.
The discussion on World Trade Organisation (WTO) compatibility in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and ACP countries has so far been very narrowly defined, and largely from the perspective of the European Union. This analytical note from the South Centre presents a matrix providing a comparison of the EPA commitments the EU is asking ACP countries for, and treatment of these issues in the WTO, including where appropriate, the type of flexibilities available for the different developing country groupings at the WTO.
The death toll from a cholera epidemic in Cameroon's North and Far North provinces stands at 420, according to public health minister André Mama Fouda. The outbreak of the waterborne disease throws an unwelcome spotlight on inadequate access to clean water and sanitation, particularly in the country’s rural north.
In the semi-arid Laikipia district of Kenya’s Rift Valley province, research scientist Sarah Ogalleh Ayeri travels from one village to another, documenting methods used by peasant farmers as they attempt to adapt to changing climatic conditions. She is a research scientist at the Centre for Training and Integrated Research for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Development and her study is titled 'Lessons from Farmers: localised adaptations in agriculture as building blocks to climate change adaptation in Laikipia district'.
Over the next three years, TrustAfrica will provide US$2.7 million for pioneering research on ways to stimulate the development of small and medium - sized enterprises and ensure that prosperity is broadly shared. 'Africa has achieved remarkable economic growth over the last two decades, outpacing most other regions in the world,' said Dr. Akwasi Aidoo, TrustAfrica’s executive director. 'But the benefits of greater investment and higher returns have not been reaching large segments of the population.'
ARTICLE 19 and four other international freedom of expression organisations are calling on the government of Uganda to respect its international and constitutional obligations to safeguard freedom of expression. The International Freedom of Expression Partnership four - day mission was undertaken in September 2010 to assess the deteriorating freedom of expression situation in the country, in the wake of the killing of two journalists and in the light of forthcoming elections in 2011.
Proposals to place climate funds at an institution like the World Bank, over which developing countries have limited ownership, have undermined the process of negotiations through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). However, G77 countries have stood against the World Bank and have firmly supported placing climate finance under the UN, despite a diversity of positions. This briefing note from the Bretton Woods Project examines concerns that a significant role for the World Bank in disbursal or management of funds could limit developing country calls for direct access, recreate damaging donor-recipient aid dynamics, and hinder effectiveness.
Much as developing countries have often taken the approach that 'no deal is better than a bad deal' at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a strong joint negotiating position would leverage larger gains in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) governance reform process due to be concluded by the end of 2010. Possible gains from a tough negotiating position include a rewriting of the IMF quota formula, double majority voting, more developing country seats on the board, and an end to the US veto.
The World Bank and IMF will hold their 2010 Annual General Meetings (AGM) and the accompanying Civil Society Policy Forum in Washington, DC, between 6 -10 October. Civil society will be sponsoring and participating in several events on issues ranging from access to information at the World Bank and the importance of contract transparency in extractive projects, to the dual imperative of tackling energy poverty and climate change concerns.