Pambazuka News 496: Racism, Islamophobia and capitalist depression
Pambazuka News 496: Racism, Islamophobia and capitalist depression
Liberia's government says the decision by a group of creditor nations to write off its debt will allow the country to write a "new Liberian story". The 19-nation Paris Club pardoned $1.2bn (£764m) worth of debt owed by the West African country. Liberia's Finance Minister, Augustine Ngafuan, told the BBC's Network Africa that debt servicing took up large amounts of its national budget.
Scientists in the UK say they have devised a new ultra-sensitive test which can diagnose the presence of the tuberculosis bacterium in one hour. The test has been developed by the Health Protection Agency (HPA). Its developers claim the test can spot all strains of the disease and could reduce both the incidence and the consequences of the disease worldwide.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are failing the world's poorest people because governments are ignoring and abusing their human rights, Amnesty International said as heads of states prepare to meet to review progress on the MDGs at a United Nations (UN) summit in New York on 20-22 September. More than a billion people living in slums are not even included in MDG efforts because the MDG target on slums only commits to improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers.
The head of the United Nations agency entrusted with defending press freedom has urged Ugandan authorities to launch a full investigation into this week’s murder of a radio news presenter, the second journalist
Although there are signs of improvement in Niger, which is in the midst of a severe food crisis, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that child malnutrition rates are alarmingly high in neighbouring Chad.
“We’ve seen the positive impact of timely, well-coordinated food and nutrition assistance delivered in partnership with the Government in Niger,” where almost half of the 15-million strong population are hungry, said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran. But in Chad, which experienced a long and crippling lean season, “children are weak and need to continue receiving food and nutritional support,” she stressed.
The Beyond Juba Project proudly announces the sixteenth issue of PeaceTalk, a newsletter targeting Ugandan teenagers. Issue # 16 (Vol.3 Issue 4) will be published in the Monitor newspaper of Sunday, September 19, 2010, and will be uploaded onto our website on Monday, 20 September, 2010.
Home-based voluntary HIV counselling and testing (HCT) provided an opportunity to identify 60 new paediatric HIV cases among 1300 high-risk children between the ages of 18 months and 13 years of age in a single community in rural western Kenya between June 2008 and June 2009, researchers reported in a retrospective analysis published in the advance online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
Ahead of the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on 20-22 September 2010, UNAIDS today released data on progress towards MDG 6 and called for leveraging the AIDS response to support all MDGs. The data shows that countries with the largest epidemics in Africa—Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe—are leading the drop in new HIV infections. Between 2001 and 2009, 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have seen a decline of more than 25% in new HIV infections. The number of new HIV infections is steadily falling or stabilising in most parts of the world.
This year's rainy season in Mauritania damaged critical infrastructure and displaced hundreds of families, but it may have alleviated the threat of famine facing other countries in the Sahel. The considerable rainfall has led to widespread damage and cut the main routes linking the capital, Nouakchott, to the rest of the towns and cities in the country's interior.
Namibia has called on the European Union (EU) to “take a step backwards from the current excessive demands in the economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations to allow Africa the policy space which it requires to advance its development”. Speaking at the Parliamentary High-level Conference on EU-Africa in Brussels, Peter Katjavivi, Swapo Chief Whip in the National Assembly (NA), on Wednesday called for greater understanding by the EU towards Africa, “as the consequences [of the EPA] will greatly affect Africa, far more than Europe”.
The Commission for Africa has criticised the “glacial” progress of talks aimed at eliminating the regime in which rich countries stack the odds in favour of their traders and farmers at the expense of those in developing countries. An excerpt from the commission’s new report, dealing with talks being conducted through the World Trade Organisation, the current round of which began in Doha, Qatar, in 2001
In this week's emerging powers new roundup, Fahamu Emerging Powers in Africa Programme launches its newsletter, AfDB to consider more funding for South Africa's Eskom, is land-grabbing, a new form of sharecropping?, China makes inroads into Zim bank sector, and India ups training slots for Africans.
The Centre for Rights Education and Awareness CREAW, and the Africa Community Development Media ACDM together with other partners have set up Safariafricaradio which is an online human rights radio station broadcasting online. This is in recognition of the need for a radical paradigm shift of the societal mindset that is anchored on core human rights values , democratic governance and developmental principles that shall drive the kind of change that Kenya needs to get it out of current challenges.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the recording of “We are the World”, United Support of Artists for Africa (USA for Africa), in collaboration with Trust Africa, Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Humanitarian Action and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) will host a symposium entitled:
“Reflections on International Humanitarian Interventions in Africa” from 21-23 September 2010 at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Civil society is calling for an end to impunity for the harassment of human rights activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The renewed call comes as an activist kidnapped at the end of August have described their detention and torture by uniformed captors. Bwira Kyahi, president of civil society in Masisi, a town in the province of North Kivu, and another human rights advocate, Balisi Kapumba, who works as an organizer with the NGO Solidarity Action for Peace and Development, were kidnapped during the last week of August in Goma. Kyahi was found Aug. 30, 2010.
"Even if globally the poverty rate is reduced by half by 2015, as the latest United Nations progress report on the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] suggests, about one billion people will still be mired in extreme poverty by 2015. ... The report argues that current approaches to poverty often ignore its root causes, and consequently do not follow through the causal sequence. Rather, they focus on measuring things that people lack to the detriment of understanding why they lack them." - UNRISD Report on Combating Poverty and Inequality, September 2010
Following a joint statement with Human Rights Watch (HRW), calling for the decriminalisation of consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex, Alternatives Cameroon, a gay rights organisation, says it has now chosen to use revendication rather than a confrontational approach, since attitudes towards homosexuality issues seem to be slowly changing in the country.
Climate-smart, climate-resilient, climate-compatible development - call it what you will. These days, it's received wisdom in the aid sector that extreme weather and longer-term climate shifts are hitting the poor hard and things are likely to get worse as global warming heats up the planet. Many agencies now plan their work with at least an eye on the weather and climate hazards forecast for the coming months and years and how that could affect their programmes and the people they're helping. A growing number of projects aim to equip local communities with tools and knowledge to cope with increasingly adverse meteorological conditions.
The Eritrean authorities continue to gag all forms of free expression and recently arrested another journalist as he was trying to flee the country, Reporters Without Borders said, on the eve of the ninth anniversary of the start of a brutal political purge in Asmara on 18 September 2001. The organisation wrote to the British authorities yesterday urging them to prosecute one of the purge’s organisers, who now lives in Britain.
Reporters Without Borders condemns the jamming of some of the programmes of Short Wave Radio Africa (SWRA), a London-based radio station staffed by Zimbabwean exile journalists that broadcasts to Zimbabwe. Various sources said they thought Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) was responsible for the interference, which began on 1 September.
As part of their work in Uganda, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Women of Uganda Network made a call for proposals for projects that seek to address the intersection between violence against women and girls, and/or to stop violence against women and girls through the strategic use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) during the month of June 2010. Four (4) organisations have been selected as beneficiaries of the small grants and they include Uganda Women Media’s Association, Mahyoro Rural Information Centre and Hope Case Foundation and Isis WICCE. Implementation of the activities is expected to commence September 2010 to June 2011.
More than a decade ago, cocoa producers in Sao Tome and Principe were suffering because of falling global prices for cocoa. Many of them abandoned their cocoa plantations, while others cut down the trees to clear land for maize or other crops. Thanks to IFAD and its partners, nearly 2,200 farmers are now growing cocoa certified as organic or fair-trade for the international chocolate industry.
Nigeria's science and technology policy, widely seen as inadequate, will be rewritten to serve the wider goals of the country, its science and technology minister said at a stakeholders' meeting in Abuja. Mohammed Ka'oje Abubakar told representatives from government ministries, international agencies and professional bodies that a review of the policy is necessary to harmonise it with socio-economic policies in the country.
The potential of mobile telephony to transform Africa will only be achieved if the development of other infrastructure keeps pace, says a study. The number of mobile phone subscribers in Africa soared from 16 million in 2000 to 376 million in 2008, with 60 per cent of the population using them in 2008 compared with 10 per cent in 1999.
Just days before the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) summit, Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s International Development Secretary, announced a change in direction, putting women and children at the centre of its aid policy. This shift will double the number of female and newborn lives saved by 2015, Mitchell will tell the assembled heads of state in New York on 20-22 September.
Southern African countries have some of the world's worst income distribution, but can often afford social transfers, which have proved an efficient means of reducing the number of poor, regional experts said at a two-day meeting in Pretoria, South Africa. "Money can always be found – where there is political will there is always a way," said Nicholas Freeland, director of the Johannesburg-based Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP) funded by the UK and Australian governments, and one of the co-hosts of the meeting.
The Islamist insurgency in Somalia has had a spillover effect on security in the northeast of neighbouring Kenya, affecting livelihoods and the delivery of services, say residents and officials. The worst crimes reported in the region recently include killings, carjackings and abductions – including, in 2009, of aid workers and, in 2008, of two nuns. Insecurity in the borderlands has led thousands of livestock herders to abandon their traditional grazing land, say locals.
A recent government directive forbidding unqualified teachers - estimated to comprise as much as 60 percent of the staff complement at rural schools - is causing severe disruptions to education. "It is surprising that the government has chosen to stop temporary teachers from resuming duty this [third] term, when it is well known that they form the bulk of teaching staff in rural areas," said Janet Chikawa, a teacher at a secondary school in Seke district, about 50 km south of the capital, Harare.
The Government of Uganda is violating the Article 12 (5) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples rights, by resorting on mass expulsions of non-nationals (Rwandan Refugees) on the basis of nationality and ethnicity. In addition of refoulement; it is very substantial to note that the ultimatums, verbal abuse, deadlines, anti-Rwandan refugee rhetoric, destruction of crops and huts, restriction of access to humanitarian assistance, bars on granting of refugee status, and starvation are some of tactics that are currently used by the Government of Uganda (GoU) to induce and force us to return to Rwanda.
In absence of evidence, Government Minister of Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Refugees, Prof. Tarsis KABWEGYERE, continues to unfoundedly accuse Rwandan Refugees to be criminals (Reuters, Uganda Defends Deportation of Rwandan Refugees,July 20, 2010). Rwandan refugees are always treated as criminals who are running away from justice. This has resulted into perpetuated ethnic stereotypes and it is gradually becoming an excuse for Ugandan authorities to violate our rights. In the other hand, it has been a pretense always advanced by Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) to genocidal massacre Hutu refugees.
Pambazuka News 495: Oil-dependency and food: Livelihoods at risk
Pambazuka News 495: Oil-dependency and food: Livelihoods at risk
Congolese-Brazilian artist Mbiya 'Papy' Kabengele – whose work can be found at – displays a selection of his illustrations and cartoons.
Cries are not gender-biased; all beings experience sorrow and grief. Nevertheless, this piece speaks to the muted sounds of grief faced by women in all corners of the world; the thundered cries, however mighty, are stifled by the vilest of all. As a black woman there is an absence that is felt, it has always been there, an absence that speaks to black mothers, the divine woman that gets shattered – fragmented and scattered – by darkness and the in-conscience. If only we see the light beyond what veils us and catch a glimpse of love in its essence.
Following the visit of President Omar al-Bashir to Nairobi, L. Muthoni Wanyeki finds Kenya’s welcoming of Sudan’s president ‘unbelievable’.
As part of a broader effort to consider who’s who in Tanzanian society, Chambi Chachage discusses the reproduction of the country’s elite class and stresses that if you want to understand the underprivileged, you must also study the privileged.
A majority of African countries continue to be run by governments of greatly limited democratic clout, writes Ronald Elly Wanda, with multiparty politics and local people’s access to influence severely restricted.
Fahamu’s Refugee Programme is pleased to announce the September issue of the [pdf], a monthly publication that aims to provide a forum for providers of refugee legal aid. With a focus on the global South, it aims to serve the needs of legal aid providers as well as raise awareness of refugee concerns among the wider readership of Pambazuka News.
The newsletter follows recent developments in the interpretation of refugee law; case law precedents from other constituencies; reports and helpful resources for refugee legal aid NGOs; and stories of struggle and success in refugee legal aid work. It welcomes contributions from legal aid providers, refugees and others interested or involved in refugee legal aid.
I have never seen my mother cry before. Her grief is unstoppable, cannot be hidden. It seeps through all the walls. My mother, crying for Phiphidi Falls.
Although supportive of the right of South Africa’s public workers to strike, Shailja Patel says there's no excuse not to protect and defend the country’s most vulnerable.
Surveying a range of development-related literature, Phil ya Nangoloh considers the power and politics behind donors’ relationships to southern non-governmental organisations (SNGOs) and the potentially more progressive role of the ‘reverse agenda’.
Fresh from a trip to the Gulf of Mexico, Nnimmo Bassey discusses the intertwining of oil and fishing within local livelihoods and suspicions that BP’s post-spill response has been more cover-up than clean-up.
Following a debate with chief World Bank economist Shanta Devarajan, Patrick Bond decries the bank’s ability to ignore its own research and continue to insist that Africa is growing richer per person. The bank’s emphasis on GDP (gross domestic product) entirely ignores the loss to African societies and environments from raw material extraction, while the ‘talk left, walk right’ stance of so many of its officials smacks of schizophrenia, Bond writes.
With South African Sunday Times reporter Mzilikazi wa Afrika arrested on Wednesday 4 August following complaints from Mpumalanga province premier David Mabuza, Jane Duncan writes about the alarming questions developing around freedom of expression in the country. But wa Afrika’s experience, Duncan stresses, will be far from alien to many local activists, who will be all too familiar with small-town repression, even if such stories prove to be routinely ignored by the mainstream media.
Following a trip to Vietnam, Horace Campbell charts the country’s history of anti-colonial struggle and its war with the US. At a time of ever greater cooperation in the form of the Vietnam–Africa International Forum, Campbell underlines what the African and Vietnamese people can learn from each other about their respective histories of resistance.
In the wake of South Africa’s public sector strike, Leonard Gentle cuts through the negativity towards the strikers presented by much of the media and argues that the situation overall may well prove ‘a watershed in South African politics’. While officialdom has sought to demonise the strikers, their concerns around high interest rates, debt, high costs and inadequate pay may well come to chime with further disillusionment across key components of the ANC’s (African National Congress) base, Gentle writes.
With International Literacy Day having taken place on 8 September, Steve Sharra considers the significance of ‘literacy’ in the Malawian context. Literacy – understood in a broad sense to include more than merely the capacity to read and write – should be at the heart of efforts to improve livelihoods and rights, while the country’s domestic book industry and greater digital resources should be embraced, Sharra contends.
Thank you very much for publishing , opposing its stance on GMOs. It is hard to find articulate material to help oppose GMOs.
As you might know, Brazil is another big experimental plot for transgenics, as soybeans for cattle feed and sugar cane for fuel continue to occupy lands that should be used to grow food. I will be sending your letter to the Observatório Social and others who might be interested.
On Tuesday 14 September from 6:00pm to 7:30pm, the Royal African Society hosts the launch of at the Brunei Gallery (SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG).
SPEAKERS
- Ellen Aaku (winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Short Story Competition and
contributor to the anthology)
- Susan Akono (also known as Sylvie Aboa-Bradwell – director of African Peoples
Advocacy and contributor to the anthology)
- Yaba Badoe (novelist and documentary filmmaker)
- Anne Serafin (co-editor of the anthology)
CHAIRED BY
- Margaret Busby OBE
Please RSVP at [email][email protected]
South Africa’s post-World Cup return to reality, Rwanda’s displeasure at a UN report accusing its forces of the massacre of Hutu refugees in DRC, and the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS in Swaziland are among the stories covered in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, collated by Dibussi Tande.
There’s been a billion-dollar drop in international aid for developing country HIV/AIDS programmes over the past two years, but levels of HIV infection and mortality from AIDS remain unacceptably high. As rich countries pursue stronger protections for private intellectual property rights, further limiting poor countries’ ability to produce cheaper generic medicines including anti-retrovirals, Riaz K. Tayob considers the impact on social rights to health.
Gijsbert Oonk’s history of the Karimjee Jeevanjis, a prominent South Asian family in the East Coast of Africa, speaks ‘volumes on the era of migration and issues of identity’, writes Fatma Alloo. Part of a wave of new writing ‘from Asian-African perspectives’, ‘it could be that now is the beginning of coming of age of a community which so far has engaged in life in East Africa, but has not put down in a concerted way from its own perspective what that life is and how they feel about it’, says Alloo.
Across the globe, from the floodplains of the Amazon to the foothills of the Himalayas, from Burmese forests to Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, peasant and indigenous communities are fighting against destructive dams. Dams have deprived hundreds of millions of people of their homes, farmlands, fisheries and forests. Millions more are threatened by projects that are planned or under construction, writes Peter Bosshard.
Farmers and civil society organisations around the world are outraged by the recent discovery of further connections between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and agribusiness titan Monsanto, writes AGRA Watch. Given Monsanto’s history of disregard for the interests and well-being of small farmers around the world, the foundation’s connections to the company 'cast serious doubt' on its funding of agricultural development in Africa, as well as representing 'an enormous conflict of interests'.
Tanya Kerssen explores how the ‘global pursuit of fossil fuels’ is impacting on communities across oil-rich regions in Africa, and the prospects for food and fuel sovereignty in a world without cheap oil. ‘Ironically, those with the smallest ecological footprint on earth have born the highest cost,’ writes Kerssen, but these ‘beleaguered people – the small farmers, herders, fishers and artisans of the world – could hold the key to a more energy-efficient future.’
The Conference of the Democratic Left (CoDL) condemns government and ANC (African National Congress) attempts to curb media freedom in South Africa, made manifest in the Protection of Information Bill and the proposal to establish a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal. We also note that these measures come in the wake of attempts to increase government control of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), through the Icasa Amendment Bill and the Public Services Broadcasting Bill. Taken together, if this battery of legal reform is passed, the sum effect will ensure greater ANC influence and control of the media in general. Freedom of expression as a basic human right will be narrowed to ANC propaganda.
The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) fully supports the South African public sector employees’ demands for a decent living wage and good working conditions. We recognise that the strike action being undertaken by public sector workers comes after months of negotiations. Public sector unions have moderated their demands to a 8.6 per cent wage increase and R1,000 housing allowance. We also recognise that striking, historically and currently, is one of the only means of mobilising by workers once reasonable demands are not met.
Following a visit to the Shanghai Expo 2010, Kenneth King shares his insights into how 'the continent with the largest number of developing countries' represented itself to 'the largest developing country'.
No state in the world has recognised the Moroccan annexation of Western Sahara. Still, the EU is paying millions of euros annually to the government of Morocco to allow EU vessels to fish in the waters of Western Sahara. The EU fisheries activities in Western Sahara must immediately come to an end. Morocco continues to refuse to cooperate with the decolonisation process in Western Sahara, thereby defying more than 100 UN resolutions that insist on the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination. Simultaneously, Moroccan authorities commit human rights violations against Saharawis who voice their political views. No EU states, nor the UN, recognise the Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) condemns the brutal murder of journalist Abdullahi Omar Gedi of Radio Daljir, who was stabbed to death in Galkayo District of Mudug region around 8pm of Tuesday 31 August 2010.
regional office for West Africa is seeking a regional pan-African campaign coordinator to work with rural women’s associations in a campaign to promote family farming and food sovereignty. Deadline for applications extended to 15 September 2010.
To apply please submit a CV, a letter indicating your interest in the position, and how your skills and experience fit the criteria required to carry out this role, together with three references to [email][email protected].
MISSION
Fahamu (www.fahamu.org), Regional Office for West Africa, is seeking a regional pan-African campaign Coordinator, to work with Rural Women’s Associations in a campaign to promote family farming and food sovereignty.
The campaign is led by rural women's associations engaged in the practice and promotion of ecological agriculture. It is part of a global pan-African campaign conducted by a coalition of farmers’ organizations, farmers networks and African producers.
The rural women's associations, in a parallel and convergent way with the pan-African campaign, will conduct their own activities according to their needs and priorities. Having an independent yet related campaign, will give them voice and ensure they play a leading role in the pan-African campaign.
The campaign will initially cover West African countries, but shall gradually involve the other regions of the continent.
LOCATION
The Coordinator is based in Dakar, at Fahamu West Africa Office.
JOB DESCRIPTION
Fahamu seeks
- A Coordinator Project who will be responsible for :
• identification, mobilization, orientation, coordination of activities
• monitoring and evaluation of the campaign
• management and reporting of grants for the campaign
• fundraising for ongoing campaign activities
The Project Coordinator will:
• Work with rural women’s association networks, farmers platforms, producer organizations and potential partners, to develop campaign strategies and ensure their implementation.
• Coordinate, at the regional level, the activities undertaken in the different countries by local associations
• Conduct research to gather relevant information (studies, literature) to establish coherent and strong arguments on the issues and stakes of the campaign
• Develop relevant communication tools for the campaign and advocacy initiatives
• Document, guide, develop training and communication approaches for organizations and networks of women's organizations in order to sensitize and mobilize them
• Recruit and supervise consultants who will develop training modules to be delivered as part of the campaign
• Contribute to the elaboration of a joint advocacy programme for a regional campaign
• Conduct research partners
• Coordinate with other campaigns in order to promote family farming in Africa
• Organize / Participate in coordination meetings, workshops, advocacy and mobilization activities or the campaign
• Write reports of meetings, workshops and other activities
• Produce and coordinate the production of materials to publish in the Fahamu electronic newsletter Pambazuka News and on the site that will be created for the campaign.
QUALIFICATIONS
Fahamu seeks an expert in social sciences (Sociology of development, communication, etc.), fulfilling the following criteria:
• Good knowledge of issues related to agricultural development in Africa
• At least 5 years experience in strategic analysis, development and implementation and project management
• Bilingual in French and English
• Good skills in writing and oral communication
• Excellent organisational and time management skills
• Experience in fundraising
• Demonstrated commitment to social justice movements, including civil society networks
• Experience of working with African civil society, particularly women's organizations at grassroots level
• Computer skills (Microsoft Word, e-mail).
• Autonomy in work and ability to work independently
• Flexibility to travel
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
In recent years, African farmers' organizations have expressed their fears and have developed resistance to agricultural policies oriented towards the world market rather than for local or national needs. In a context marked by multifaceted crises, African governments are more and more involved in these policies inspired and financed by multinational corporations and international institutions. Among other examples is the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa - AGRA).
But according to organizations and African farmers' organizations platforms, agricultural crises Africa is confronting require other solutions. The alternatives they advocate are more focused on the preservation and promotion of family farming that feed, produce surpluses and give them capacities to be competitive in our markets. This approach relies on the development of a peasant endogenous proven expertise, whose relevance depends on understanding the environment and agricultural practices more respectful of the preservation of the ecosystem.
This approach, whose aim is to ensure food sovereignty, is not yet supported by an organized, coherent, popular and well informed mobilization.
Peasant organizations and platforms of farmer organizations in Africa are therefore engaged in a coalition to lead a pan-African campaign to promote family farming through endogenous farmers' experiences based on agro-ecological approaches, as a response to cyclical agriculture and food crises and as alternatives to industrial agriculture oriented towards international markets.
These organizations include, among others, the Network of Farmers Organizations and Producers of West Africa (Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et des Producteurs d’Afrique de l’Ouest - ROPPA), African Biodiversity Network, Daughters of Mumbi / Jubilee South Africa (Kenya), the Coalition for the Protection of African Genetic Heritage (Coalition pour la Protection du Patrimoine Génétique africain - COPAGEN), the Guinean Association for the Relief of Women's Burden (l’Association Guinéenne pour l’Allègement des Charges des Femmes) the Network to Support West African and Tchad Rural Women Citizenship (Réseau d'appui à la citoyenneté des Femmes Rurales d'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Tchad - RESACIFROAT).
As part of a pan-African campaign, associations of rural women will undertake, in parallel, a joint campaign. This will give space and capacities to raise their voices, to highlight issues specific to them, to develop the endogenous practices which they are holders and assert their leadership. Women play key roles in agricultural production, providing 70% of food production, managing nearly 100% of processing activities, being involved in the maintenance of family herd and investing also on markets sales activities. Thus agricultural and food crises have a greater impact on them and install them in situations of extreme insecurity.
Campaign Objectives:
- Document and promote best practices and associated knowledge, known and perpetuated for generations in Africa (agroecology, endogenous production of seeds, etc.), ensuring the continent's food sovereignty
- Change attitudes and perceptions in relation to imposed social development model ;
- To alert decision makers for awareness and better governance;
- Develop practices related to family farming
DURATION OF PROJECT:
3 years
SALARY: GBP 18,000.00 per year
Deadline for applications: September 15, 2010
To apply please submit the following to the address at the top of this document.
- A CV
- A letter indicating your interest in the position, and how your skills and experience fit the criteria required to carry out this role.
- Three references
Availability: Immediate
Send your application to [email][email protected].
Professor Mahmood Mamdani is back in Uganda after more than a decade abroad with his last assignment at Colombia University where he was the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the Department of Anthropology and Political Science. He recently took a position at Makerere University as the director of Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR). Moses Mulondo talked to him about the new challenge, a federal Uganda and South Sudan.
The Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) is pleased to announce an opening for the position of Executive Director.
The Open Society Institute works to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. To achieve its mission, OSI seeks to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights. On a local level, OSI implements a range of initiatives to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSI builds alliances across borders and continents on issues such as corruption and freedom of information. OSI places a high priority on protecting and improving the lives of marginalized people and communities.
Investor and philanthropist George Soros in 1993 created OSI as a private operating and grantmaking foundation to support his foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Those foundations were established, starting in 1984, to help countries make the transition from communism. OSI has expanded the activities of the Soros foundations network to encompass the United States and more than 60 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Each Soros foundation relies on the expertise of boards composed of eminent citizens who determine individual agendas based on local priorities.
OSIWA is a private Foundation which supports, makes grants and advocates for initiatives that promote Open Society values in eight focus countries of West Africa (Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone). OSIWA’s principal niche is to build capacity of West African government institutions and civil society organizations through support to catalytic and innovative initiatives.
OSIWA operates programs around four major strategic pillars, which are Governance; Law, Justice and Human Rights; Health and Development; and Information Technology, Communication & Media. OSIWA has identified the following 5 strategic objectives, which will drive its interventions in 2010-2011: strengthened democratic institutions, processes and structures; reduced levels of impunity; enhanced citizenship and public participation in decision-making; enhanced protection of groups exposed to discrimination; and improved equity and transparency in the management of resources.
The core of OSIWA’s interventions has been built around promoting, strengthening and working towards ensuring credibility in the governance process by promoting transparency and accountability. The Foundation, therefore, pursues efforts to identify avenues for building the capacity of both public institutions and civil society to ensure good governance. OSIWA’s intervention strategies are at three levels: sub-regional based initiatives built around the ECOWAS to cover the countries under its mandate, working mainly at the policy level; using multi-country interventions that cover initiatives across a number of countries, with emphasis on the need to share experiences and address issues of various levels of similarities; initiatives that are supported within a single country or local council, and generally meant to serve as pilot cases for duplication in other countries and local communities, within and outside the area. The sub-regional and multi-country foci have given OSIWA the leverage to widen its program reach to all the countries in the sub-region.
A. Key Duties and Performance Areas
OSIWA leadership and development
• Provide strategic direction and initiative in the development of the foundation, constantly identifying opportunities and threats to the foundation and articulating leadership objectives in relation to these opportunities and threats.
• Conceptualize open society issues and strategies in the Western African context, effectively relating these to African and global trends and dynamics, and interpreting the same in leadership to stakeholders.
• Continually position OSIWA as a leader in promoting open societies in Western Africa, exploiting and developing the foundation’s ability to combine programming approaches ranging from advocacy, convening, grantmaking, capacity building, and work through partnerships.
OSIWA management
• Manage all aspects of OSIWA, including its human and financial resources.
• Assume and responsibly exercise overall legal and executive authority for the offices, programs, positioning, relationships, risks, assets and liabilities of OSIWA in Dakar, Abuja, Monrovia, Freetown and any other site out of which the Board may in future direct the location of OSIWA’s operations or those of its affiliates.
• Manage and develop responsive relationships with the foundation’s stakeholders.
• Report to and closely work with the foundation’s Board of Directors, effectively carrying out the mandate and directions of the Board as developed from time to time.
OSIWA partnerships, networking and communications
• Define and maintain strategic relationships with West African regional and national civil society partners, governments, private sector entities, and other actors relevant for the construction and sustenance of open societies in the region.
• Provide intellectual and strategic leadership and support to the heads of OSIWA spin offs including West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR) and West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI).
OSIWA fundraising and resource development
• Effectively raise resources for the foundation from traditional as well as new donors.
• Maintain strong and mutually enriching relationships with donor organizations working on human rights-related issues in the region.
B. Key Outcomes
An effective and highly dynamic foundation, maintaining its ability to proactively model African leadership on the complex challenges of West African societies today, with respect to the existence and depth of the ideals, institutions, policies, laws, and practice of open society.
C. Person Specifications
• At least a Master’s degree in a relevant discipline, preferably from the social sciences/ humanities or management sciences.
• Senior management experience within a multilateral, and/or donor organization.
• Evidence of creative leadership over at least five years in the not-for-profit sector, including demonstrable exposure to complex questions of leadership in the West African regional context, and a track record of delivery.
• Close knowledge of, and evidence of contribution to, the major discourses in human rights development and public policy in West Africa, including the nexus between these and broader African and international issues.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
• Fluency in English and French;
• Role competence as a Representative, including the possession of superior communication skills; ability to effectively operate in relevant regional languages beyond English and French will be a distinct advantage.
• Independent functionality with office computer packages such as MS Word, Excel, Internet and E-mail required.
• Commitment to social justice, human rights, and development.
• Strong ability to inspire others and to work in a team.
• Demonstrated experience in managing inter and intra-organizational relationships in complex organizational environments;
• Capacity to work long hours towards multiple objectives in a pressured environment, and to organize own work as well as information.
Start Date: Immediately
Compensation: Commensurate with experience. Excellent benefits package.
To Apply
Please email resume and cover letter with salary requirements before October 15, 2010 to: [email][email protected] Include job code in subject line: ED-OSIWA
OR
Open Society Institute
Human Resources – Code ED-OSIWA
400 West 59th Street
New York, New York 10019
FAX: 212.548.4675
No phone calls, please. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview.
The Open Society Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR THE POSITION OF PROGRAMME OFFICER FOR FAHAMU
Fahamu has a vision of the world where people organise to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognise their social responsibilities, respect each other’s differences, and realise their full potential. Fahamu is looking for a qualified and passionate Programme Officer.
JOB DESCRIPTION
The Programme Officer will be responsible for the coordination of the Reclaim Project which seeks to support the African LGBTI and sex worker movements, enabling LGBTI and sex worker activists to strategize, gain new knowledge and skills, enhance consciousness, renew inspiration and vision while enhancing their leadership and well-being.
Duties and responsibilities:
• Lead Fahamu’s research and knowledge generation on LGBTI and sex worker issues.
• Develop strategic relations with the media continentally, support communication and outreach strategies for LGBTI and sex worker issues.
• Coordinate the design, development, reviewing and editing of movement building curricula and implement innovative learning methodologies.
• Research and conceptualize ways to further the innovative use of technologies to strengthen LGBTI and sex worker advocacy and human rights protection.
• Strengthen networks of LGBTI and sex worker organizations and activists across Africa with multiple stakeholders including the media and policy-makers through the provision of advocacy platforms at national and continental levels.
• Coordinate training of trainers, workshops and related events.
• Develop online platforms to provide on going support for the movement.
• Ensure timely and accurate planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of project activities
• Assist in fundraising efforts to sustain the LGBTI and sex worker movements’ actions.
• Represent Fahamu at appropriate forums.
Person specifications:
• Undergraduate degree in a related field
• At least 6 years of experience in human rights and social justice
• Experience working with LGBTI and sex worker communities in Africa
• Experience in research and advocacy
• Experience in course and curriculum development
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines
• Willingness to travel extensively throughout Africa
The successful candidate must be:
- An excellent communicator
- Committed to the cause and values of human rights and social justice
- Demonstrate leadership and initiative
- A second AU language
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
A competitive salary and benefit package will be provided. The salary will be dependent on experience, educational background and salary history of the successful candidate.
If interested submit your application letter and curriculum vitae by email to [email][email protected] Please include “Reclaim Programme Officer Application” in the subject line.
Deadline for application is 24th September 2010. Applications received after this date will not be considered. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
Fahamu is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Fahamu seeks suitable candidates to fill the position of programme officer to coordinate the Reclaim Project. This project seeks to support the African LGBTI and sex worker movements, enabling LGBTI and sex worker activists to strategise, gain new knowledge and skills, enhance consciousness and renew inspiration and vision while enhancing their leadership and well-being.
A new directive from Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education effectively outlaws distance learning and creates a monopoly for state-controlled universities to administer the disciplines of law and teaching, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam. While the official reason given for the sudden change in policy is concern for educational quality, Mariam hypothesises that it will enable the regime ‘to control two of the most important professions that have the greatest impact on the lives of the people’.
Fahamu has a vision of the world where people organise to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognise their social responsibilities, respect each other’s differences, and realise their full potential. Fahamu is looking for a qualified and passionate ICT Officer.
Job Description
The ICT officer will report to the Programme manager and be responsible for:
1. Providing ICT technical support for Fahamu offices.
2. Provide design support for Fahamu’s programs.
3. Create, update and manage the Fahamu website and associated program sites, including but not limited to the AU Monitor and the Emerging Powers in Africa sites, including, where appropriate, the migration of these sites to appropriate content management systems.
4. Create, update and manage partner and associated websites where support is required.
5. Provide advice and support to Fahamu’s program staff and partners to implement new media strategies in human rights and social justice protection and advocacy including where appropriate, through trainings and workshops and development of curricula.
6. Assist in the setting up and maintenance of the Pambazuka platform
7. Assist in the implementation of ICTs for learning including support for Fahamu’s distance learning courses and other online training platforms.
8. Assist in the development and update of Fahamu and partners’ online presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking platforms
9. Provide advice on Fahamu’s database management system.
10. Maintain Fahamu and partners’ listserves and online newsletters.
PERSON SPECIFICATIONS
Essential
• Competence with the following software: Macromedia technologies: Authorware, Flash, ActionScript, LINGO, Adobe Photoshop/PaintShop Pro, and Illustrator, HTML/Scripting languages
• Familiarity with video/sound editing: Adobe Premier, QuickTime Pro, Sound Edit 16/Cool Edit Pro
• Experience of Web development and issues of bandwidth and compatibility
• At least two years experience of developing CDROM and/or web base learning materials
• Experience with Win 98/2000/NT and Mac OS, and general computer hardware
• Competence in developing in Drupal, PHP5, XML and web 2.0 technologies.
• Comfortable with both PC and Mac platforms
• A degree in ICT from a recognized University or equivalent work experience
• Good understanding of design and layout
• Self-motivated/self-starter
• Experience in database management
• A keen interest and experience in innovating new and exciting ways of using ICT for social justice
Desirable
• Qualification in multimedia technologies
• Ability to nurture young activists in using ICTs for social justice
• Ability to provide ICT support to staff and partners with limited ICT knowledge and experience
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines
• Commitment to the mission and values of the Fahamu
• Background in publishing
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
A competitive salary and benefit package will be provided. The salary will be dependent on experience, educational background and salary history of the successful candidate.
If interested submit your application letter and curriculum vitae by email to [email][email protected] Please include “ICT Officer application” in the subject line.
Deadline for application is 24th September 2010. Applications received after this date will not be considered. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
Fahamu is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Fahamu seeks a suitable, passionate individual to fill the position of ICT officer, based in Nairobi, Kenya. A competitive salary and benefit package will be provided. The salary will be dependent on the experience, educational background and salary history of the successful candidate. Deadline for application is 24 September 2010. Applications received after this date will not be considered. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
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 and Revival of African Economies. The conference is being convened in the context of the global economic crisis which should prompt a critical analysis of all aspects of socioeconomic development in Africa. The Guy Mhone Conference on Development is organised annually in honour of one of the most distinguished African development thinkers and former member of CODESRIA’s Executive Committee, the late Professor Guy Mhone. This year’s edition of the conference will be held from 20 to 21 December, 2010 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
African scholars interested in the growing relations between their continent and China will have a chance to debate this important topic at a meeting scheduled for 28-30 March 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The conference will focus on the theme: 'Towards a new Africa–China partnership'. It will include the formal launching of a Pan-African Forum for Research and Dialogue on Africa-China Relations, in collaboration with Chinese academic institutions. It will seek to build a strong knowledge base on Africa-China relations within Africa, in order to support African policymakers in their engagement with China and the FOCAC.
For further information about this event, please contact:
Ebrima Sall
Executive Secretary
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop,
B.P. 3304 Dakar, Senegal
Tel : +221-33 824 03 74
Fax : +221-33 824 12 89
Email : [email][email protected]
In line with its mandate to promote high-level scientific and academic debates on various aspects of socioeconomic development in Africa, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) hereby announces the 2010 edition of its Gender Symposium which will be held from 24 to 26 November, 2010 in Cairo, Egypt. The Gender Symposium is a forum organised annually by CODESRIA to discuss gender issues and their impacts on the development of the continent. The theme of this year’s edition is Gender, Migration and Socioeconomic Development in Africa.
It was social movements that mobilised many poor Kenyans to vote in the referendum, and it is social movements that must mobilise to ensure the country’s new constitution fulfils the people’s hopes for a better future, writes Gacheke Gachihi.
On 12 September to 6 October, the V International Awareness Campaign for the Freedom of Antonio Guerrero, René González, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino, the well-known Cuban Five unjustly imprisoned in the United States. Twelve years have passed since they were incarcerated, psychologically tortured and separated from their families and beloved ones. That it is why we shall join together, once again, to demand their liberation.
Mandela Park Backyarders have continued to stop the construction of houses in our community. Because of our efforts, construction has been unable to proceed for over two weeks - since the 17th of August. We have demanded that the MEC for Housing, Bonginkosi Madikizela, come and listen to our grievances. He had promised to come to our mass meeting last Sunday, the 29th of August. He didn't pitch. He again promised to come to our mass meeting on the 5th of September. We now hear that he won't be able to make it. We are still waiting for him.
The Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, announces a bi-annual Kwame Nkrumah Pan-Afican Intellectual Cultural Festival to be organized under the auspices of the newly established Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies, in honour of Nkrumah's dedication to a tradition of vigorous and liberating Africa-centred intellectual and cultural activity, such as was outlined in the major address he gave on the occasion of the formal opening in 1963 of the Institute of African Studies. Inspiration for such a festival comes from the example of the Annual Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, under the auspices of the Julius Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies.
‘Responding to neo-colonialism and problematic developmental paradigms does not need to be done through a retreat to a glorious African past that creates a false opposition between US and THEM,’ writes Awino Okech.
‘Thank you for , writes Godfrey Kahangi. ‘It is time to be African. Colonisation de-cultured Africans and Africa, but the solutions to our problems should not be sourced from the western world, but necessitate a 'looking back' to the pre-colonial era.’
HIV/AIDS activists in Zimbabwe are hailing the inclusive government for ramping up its male circumcision drive targeting about 1,2 million children and adults with the aim of lowering their chances of contracting the virus that causes the pandemic. The campaign got a major boost Wednesday when the United States Agency for International Development and the John Snow International jointly donated US$1,5 million worth of medical equipment to facilitate 28 000 procedures.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition says it is drafting a list of grievances on the ongoing constitution revision and will present a dossier to the select committee leading the process in the next few days. The organization said Thursday it was concerned the results of the outreach may not reflect popular views of members in various communities, as many speakers at the outreach meetings appear to have been coached on what to say.
There is a division between men and women, not only in terms of pure economics, but also in the realm of technology. Women’s lack of technological access is caused by many factors, and it will ultimately hurt them. Though there is currently a wide range of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) available, there is still a division of who is allowed access to it. Women are deprived not only economically, but also in terms of information.
A young woman in Uganda contracts HIV/AIDS and faces relentless prejudice that alters every aspect of her life. She is only one of the millions of young people whose physical challenges are multiplied by the cruelties of social discrimination.
Large-scale foreign land deals in developing countries pose “significant risks” to the livelihoods of the rural poor, according to a new report from the World Bank. In the 139-page report, released in Washington, the bank analyses the effects of a worldwide increase in foreign agricultural land purchases in countries with weak land-tenure rights.