Pambazuka News 495: Oil-dependency and food: Livelihoods at risk
Pambazuka News 495: Oil-dependency and food: Livelihoods at risk
Companies access to farm land in Sudan, the first deal of its kind between the two countries, an agriculture ministry official has said. The agreement would allow Egyptian firms to grow crops on 1 million feddans (1.04 million acres) [400,000 hectares] of land, said Saad Nassar, advisor to Egypt’s agriculture minister.
East African governments have been criticised for failing to protect their agricultural workers from exploitation, and chided for leasing to foreigners land without the explicit consent of existing users. A regional meeting heard that land deals are often done in secret without informing the current land users, in a manner that causes abrupt dispossession and food insecurity.
The number of investment projects in the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa is at “unprecedented” levels, Paul Runge, the MD of Africa Project Access, said at an agriculture investment conference in Durban. “I have never seen a project flow as we have it now,” he said. His company provides assistance to greenfield and brownfield projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
If dodgy emails offering millions in return for your down payment to repatriate a stranded Nigerian astronaut do not tempt you, then maybe this will appeal to your speculative side — a hectare of fertile African land on a 99-year lease — for $1 a year. Think about it: crop prices are soaring, land is appreciating and importdependent rich nations almost guarantee you a never-ending export market. It’s starting to sound like that Nigerian astronaut deal. But this is not a scam.
Gambela, one of the nine regional states of Ethiopia is fast growing into what the local media has described as “a land grabbing” hub among Indian companies. Gambela’s new tag as a land grabbing hub comes as BHO Agro Plc becomes the third Indian firm to begin operations in the region after two other Indian companies, Karuturi and Ruchi Group, moved into Gambela in 2008 and early 2010, respectively.
As large-scale investors’ interest in acquiring vast swathes of land for commercial agriculture in Africa intensifies, farmers believe the time is ripe for the government to press investors to allocate shares to villagers as a corporate social responsibility. Should the proposal be put in place villagers will become shareholders of large-scale commercial farms.
The United Nations refugee agency is backing a pilot project to use a mobile telephone application to help locate and reconnect refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Uganda with their families. The project will enable refugees to use mobile telephones to register themselves, search for loved ones, and subsequently be able to reconnect through an anonymous database, using SMS or mobile Internet.
Guinea-Bissau does not make international headlines very often, and when it does, the news is usually pessimistic: turbulence within the small West African country’s army, repeated coups and killings, and growing problems of drug trafficking. Reflecting the frustrations of international donor institutions, the European Union (EU) has just announced that by 30 September it will pull out a small mission that it originally sent to Guinea-Bissau in June 2008 to support reforms of the security sector.
The political climate is growing increasingly antagonistic in Burundi, where many of today’s political parties were yesterday’s rebel groups. A spate of elections designed to entrench stability through pluralism has only made matters worse, say analysts, raising fears that a 10-year-old power-sharing deal is falling apart.
Kibrom Sebhatu, 45, is among hundreds of Eritreans expected to benefit from a recent Ethiopian government ruling allowing Eritrean refugees to live outside the camps. “I am happy that UNHCR [the UN Refugee Agency] and the government of Ethiopia agreed to let us live outside the camps. I hope this will open a new era in Ethiopia-Eritrea relations,” Sebhatu said. He joined the Shimelba Refugee camp, along the border with Eritrea, in 2006, after serving in the Eritrean army.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that he will continue discussions with Rwanda’s President on a soon-to-be released United Nations report on serious human rights violations committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Mr. Ban wrapped up a two-day visit to Kigali, during which he met with President Paul Kagame, Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo and other senior officials to discuss Rwanda’s concerns over the report.
The United Nations-sponsored radio station based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has the largest Francophone audience in sub-Saharan Africa, is the winner of this year’s Free Media Pioneer award bestowed by the International Press Institute (IPI). Radio Okapi is a partnership between the UN mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym MONUSCO, and the Hirondelle Foundation, a Swiss non-governmental organization (NGO).
Cameroon is currently experiencing one of its most severe outbreaks of cholera in decades. The epidemic began in May 2010, following the country’s rainy season, and is most prevalent in the country’s Extreme North province. To date, there are some 5,560 reported cases of cholera and 385 deaths, according to the Government of Cameroon.
The United Nations has voiced its strong condemnation after Friday's terrorist attack at the main airport in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, which has killed two African peacekeepers and several civilians. In a joint statement, the heads of the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) described the attack as a “heinous act of terrorism.”
The United Nations is dispatching a senior staff member to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as senior officials express outrage at the recent rape and assault of more than 150 civilians by rebels based in the remote and troubled east of the country. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström, condemned the attacks, saying they demonstrated the widespread level and systematic nature of sexual violence in the DRC.
A major distribution of school supplies got under way today across Zimbabwe in an effort by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Government and international donors to ensure that every primary school student receives a textbook for all core subjects. All 5,575 primary schools in Zimbabwe will receive the supplies thanks to support from the Educational Transition Fund (ETF), a multi-donor funding mechanism launched a year ago to mobilize resources for the education sector with a view to improving the quality of schooling for the country’s children, UNICEF said in a press release.
For two years, Rozina Chimbalani has struggled to feed, clothe and school the four grandchildren left in her care after her daughter died. Across Malawi, this has been a painfully common story, as for more than two decades HIV has shattered families and left more than a million children orphaned.
UNHCR is alarmed by the further deterioration in the situation in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. Partners report that fighting over the past two weeks between the transitional government and al-Shabaab has cost more than 230 civilian lives with at least 400 people wounded and 23,000 displaced. So far this year over 200,000 civilians are estimated to have fled their homes.
Kenya is set to become the first East African nation to develop regulations on the management of electronic waste (e-waste), following a national conference held at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi. The aim is to minimize the impacts of the unsafe disposal of electronic products on public health and the environment.
The UN operation in Côte d'Ivoire (ONUCI) has charged the Ivorian Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) to look into the 'imperative job' to release the country's electoral schedule, the spokesperson for the UN operation, Hamadoun Touré said.
The opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described as 'unrealistic and a recipe for failure' the 2011 general elections timetable, which was released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showing the staggered elections will be held in January. According to the timetable, the elections will start 15 January with the National Assembly (parliamentary) polls, followed by the presidential poll 22 Jan and the Governorship/State Assembly polls 29 Jan.
The prices of foodstuffs have risen in Guinea-Bissau since mid-August, the chairman of the Association of Consumers of Goods and Services (ACOBES), Bambo Sanha, has said. The price of a bag of 50 kg of rice, the basic food in the country, increased from 12,000 to 14,000 FCFA, while that of the 50 kg of sugar increased from 15,000 to 27,000 FCFA, he said in Bissau.
Ethiopia's Director General of the Environmental Protection Authority, Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, is among the 15 world-class experts named to serve in the Food and Agric Organisation (FAO) food security committee. Egziabher and the other experts will serve in the FAO High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) Steering Committee.
A three-day, capacity-building training on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) for 30 media practitioners across the Gambia got underway in Banjul. Organized by The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices affecting The Health of Women and Children ((Gamcotrap), with the support of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) joint programme to accelerate the stoppage of FGM, the training is meant to build the capacity of the participants for effective and progressive reporting on the harmful traditional practices and domestic violence.
Hidden Voices: Urban Refugees is a video produced by the International Rescue Committee and MediaServe International. The short film highlights the daily struggles facing thousands of urban refugees living in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi. In their own words, the refugees tell of how they face poverty, harassment and violence as they make their way in the urban environment.
Zimbabwe wants normal ties with Western powers critical of its policies but will press ahead with a plan to hand control of foreign companies to local blacks, President Robert Mugabe said in a rare interview. Mugabe told Reuters that his government was waiting for positive movement from the United States and European Union to mend ties soured over the last decade by rows over the seizures of white-owned farms for landless blacks and charges of rights abuses and election fraud.
The head of Guinea's election commission and a senior aide have been sentenced to a year in jail for fraud during June's presidential vote. The verdicts are likely to increase tensions ahead of the 19 September run-off, correspondents say.
Swaziland unions have condemned the prime minister's suggestion that dissidents should be beaten on their feet with spikes. Barnabas Dlamini also said foreigners who meddled in the affairs of sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch should be subject to the traditional punishment, known as "sipakatane".
The recent Mozambican food and fuel riots raise the spectre, in general, about food insecurity and social unrest in the future. We certainly have the capability to feed all of the world’s population, but the political economy of agriculture, food production and distribution somewhat has a greater influence as to whether people can feed themselves or not.
Women's month in South Africa has come and gone without much fanfare, and perhaps rightfully so, since African women continue to be confronted by institutions, policies and systems within an economy that entrenches patriarchy and a fundamentalist brand of neoliberalism.
The Ugandan government has done little to investigate or hold security forces responsible in the year since at least 40 people were killed during two days of civil unrest in Kampala, Human Rights Watch has said. Despite multiple promises from government officials after the September 2009 riots, police investigations have not resulted in prosecutions, and a parliamentary committee tasked with examining the incident has yet to call a single witness.
The arrest and conviction of seven Quranic teachers who forced boys trusted to their care to beg is a significant move forward for children's rights in Senegal, Human Rights Watch has said. The men were sentenced on September 8, 2010, marking the first application of a 2005 law outlawing the practice; two more men are scheduled to face the same charges on September 9.
Congolese authorities should open a prompt, impartial, and thorough investigation of the abduction and ill-treatment of a human rights defender in North Kivu province in late August 2010, a coalition of 36 international and Congolese human rights organizations has saidy. The authorities should publicly condemn this act and identify and bring to justice those responsible, the coalition said.
Kenyan children in acute and chronic pain suffer needlessly because of government policies that restrict access to inexpensive pain medicines, a lack of investment in palliative care services, and inadequately trained health workers, Human Rights Watch said in a report. The 78-page report, "Needless Pain: Government Failure to Provide Palliative Care for Children in Kenya," found that most Kenyan children with diseases such as cancer or HIV/AIDS are unable to get palliative care or pain medicines. Kenya's few palliative care services provide counseling and support to families of chronically ill patients, as well as pain treatment, but lack programs for children.
The World Development Movement (WDM) has said proposals to establish three new European banking regulators could help prevent food crises, as wheat price rises fuelled by financial speculation trigger bread riots in Mozambique. WDM has been pushing for urgent action to prevent banks and hedge funds engaging in excessive speculation in food derivatives markets, which drove the 2006-2008 food price crisis [1] and is fuelling the recent wheat price spike. Wheat prices have rocketed nearly 70% since January, causing riots in Mozambique this week in which seven people have died.
At least 17 people have drowned in northern Ghana in recent weeks after nearby Burkina Faso opened spillway gates to dams following heavy rains, the country's relief agency said on Friday. "As at yesterday, the death toll in the three northern regions stood at 17 and a number of farmlands have been destroyed," National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) spokesman Nicholas Mensah told AFP.
The XXV ILGA World Conference will be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, between the 4 and 9 December 2010. The theme of the conference will be “Building the way forward in times of crisis”. In the last few years and since the last World Conference in Vienna in 2008, it has become even more evident that our movement can be very vulnerable to crises, them being political, social, or economic ones. However, unstable conditions can also represent turning points and opportunities for the movement to further the human rights agenda of LGBTI people.
Human rights advocates have commended the stance taken by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), granting the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) a consultative status at its council stating it is as a milestone for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community. The decision made on 19 July 2010 saw IGLHRC become the tenth organisation working primarily for LGBTI human rights, gain such status at the United Nations following solidarity actions of over 200 NGOs from 59 countries who endorsed a letter to all United Nations member states, demanding fair and non-discriminatory treatment.
Chekib El-Khiari, a human rights defender and journalist, is serving a three-year prison sentence in Morocco after he denounced corruption of some Moroccan officials. Amnesty International believes that Chekib El-Khiari’s conviction is politically motivated and that he is being punished for daring to mention the involvement of high-ranking officials in a drug-trafficking ring. Amnesty International considers Chekib El-Khiari to be a prisoner of conscience, solely detained for his anti-corruption statements and his human rights activities.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the unwarranted assault of New Vision Photographer, Arthur Kintu, by a businessman and prominent religious leader, Hassan Basajjabalaba which occurred on September, 6th at Namboole while he was covering the elections in Kampala, Uganda.
African journalists have adopted a declaration calling on governments, the African Union journalists’ trade unions and the international community to join forces in promoting the safety and protection of journalists in Africa. The Addis Ababa Declaration was adopted at the conclusion of a two-day regional workshop on the “Safety and Protection of African Journalists” hosted by the African Union Commission and organized by the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) at the African Union Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The fight against HIV/AIDS in Kenya got a massive boost this week after the Global Fund released $60 million to help the East African country to combat the virus and malaria. The funds were part of the round seven HIV/AIDS funds of which the government had already received $18,343,450, officials said.
The chairman of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) this week told the Bulawayo High Court that only Robert Mugabe as President can call for an election. The ZEC chief was responding to a court application by three MP’s expelled from the Mutambara MDC. Abednico Bhebhe (Nkayi South), Njabuliso Mguni (Lupane East) and Norman Mpofu (Bulilima East) lost their parliamentary seats when the Mutambara MDC sacked them. They responded by filing an application with the High Court to compel ZEC to call for by-elections to fill up the vacant seats.
The campaign for Angola's 2012 elections is off to a ill-tempered start with the ruling MPLA party and the opposition UNITA party accusing each other of dirty tactics that threaten a return to violence in the oil producing nation. The polls will only be the second since the end of Angola's civil war that pitted the Russian and Cuban-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) against UNITA, backed by the U.S. and apartheid South Africa.
A set of U.N. goals aimed at drastically reducing poverty and hunger worldwide by 2015 are achievable, despite setbacks caused by the global financial and economic crises, a draft document said. The 27-page draft declaration on the U.N. Millennium Development Goals is expected to be formally adopted at a September 20-22 summit meeting at the United Nations which U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders are expected to attend.
A Darfur rebel group has said it was attacked by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army guerrillas in Sudan's west. "A group of LRA attacked our forces in Dafak in South Darfur yesterday," Haydar Galucuma Ateem, vice president of the Darfur rebel Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), told Reuters from Qatar-based peace talks.
A South African study has found that antiretroviral therapy which includes a cheaper nevirapine-based regimen was as beneficial to the long-term health outcomes of HIV-positive infants’ as the more expensive Protease Inhibitor (PI)-based regimens currently prescribed. The study confirmed that once tests confirmed that the infants’ immune system had successfully suppressed the HI Virus on the more expensive PI regimen, the child could be safely switched to the more affordable nevirapine based regimen. In fact the study showed slightly better outcomes in the children who were switched compared to those who remained on the PI regimen.
Almost a million South Africans are already on lifelong antiretroviral treatment and this number is supposed to triple in the next decade if government keeps to its implementation plan. But the prospect of the South African government being able to meet its target of treating 80 percent of those who need it by 2011 is being threatened by a lack of funds.
Google held a very well attended G-Kenya event for developers. But this has been just one of several things that have been happening on the continent that show a renewed focus on services and apps development. There is fertile ground for African tech innovators but they need to decide what prize they will be seeking, writes Russell Southwood.
Many cases of tuberculosis (TB) in patients starting HIV therapy will be missed if screening for the disease relies on 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, investigators from South Africa report in the October 1st edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Following last year’s positive result from an HIV vaccine trial in Thailand the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise has issued a new scientific plan, calling for a speeded-up effort to test new vaccine candidates in large trials.
Community-based care delivered to adults living with HIV by people living with HIV using mobile technologies provided care as safe and effective as clinic-based care, researchers report in the advance online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. This prospective community randomised clinical pilot study was conducted in villages surrounding a rural clinic in western Kenya from March 2006 to April 2008.
Social movements from around the world are mobilizing for the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP 16) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that will take place in Cancun from 29 November to 10 December 2010. The COP 15 in Copenhagen demonstrated governments' incapacity to tackle the root causes of the current climate chaos. At the very last moment, the US undemocratically pushed through the so called "Copenhagen accord", in an attempt to move the debate out of the UN and the Kyoto promises and to favor even more voluntarily free market solutions.
Over 30 laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, known as the ‘alternative Nobel Prize’, have signed an open letter to President Khama of Botswana urging him to allow the Bushmen access to water. The appeal comes as world experts arrive in Stockholm for World Water Week, and ahead of the Right Livelihood Award conference in Bonn, 14-19th September. It follows the UN’s adoption of water as a human right in July.
The recent mass rapes in a mineral-rich area of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo underscore the urgency of a new U.S. law to certify consumer goods free of "conflict minerals" tied to the violence. The law may be hard to enforce but supporters have high hopes
This report suggests that the racist attacks that occurred in South Africa in 2008 were rooted in the micro-politics of townships and informal settlements. The author argues that violence was used as a means to drive foreigners out of South Africa and thereby decrease competition for jobs and other scarce resources.
Kenya’s Gay community celebrated the promulgation of the New Constitution and applauded President Mwai Kibaki for signing it into law to take effect henceforth. After the promulgation of the new law, the gay community converged in a leafy suburb of Nairobi to launch independent condom and water based lubrication distribution system for the Men having Sex with other Men (MSM) Program, dubbed Safe Sex Express Theme.
The impact of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the economic, social, cultural, political and individual spheres of life is widely accepted and recognised world over. ICTs give the young generation a whole range of opportunities; socializing and exposure, employment, getting information, doing research etc. It is widely accepted that the use of ICT can have a major influence on how learners approach learning, now and in the future.
South Africa has failed to increase its research and development spending to one per cent of GDP by 2008–09, according to data published by the Department of Science and Technology this morning (9 September). The news, which appears in the country's annual research and development (R&D) survey that tracks public and private R&D expenditure, has disappointed the country's scientists and could set a bad precedent for other African countries.
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.
Conditions in Mugunga camp for displaced people on the outskirts of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Goma are tough, but tougher still are those endured by hundreds of people from the Bambuti Pygmy community living just outside the camp. “We can’t plant seeds here,” said Bambuti chief Mupepa Muhindo, scratching the ground, which is littered with lava from a 2002 volcanic eruption. “It's not possible to cultivate the land.” The Bambuti are believed to be among Central Africa’s oldest inhabitants. For generations they were nomadic forest-dwellers, living off the land, hunting and gathering.
In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, a new centre offers sounding board for Chinese firms pursuing African investments, China holds workshop on investment in Africa, SA and India to team up for business into Africa, Biofuels companies buy African land, cause deforestation, and food-output loss, and the $400m Africa-Brazil cable is on its way.
The United Nations declared 2010 the Year of Biodiversity. But 17 years after the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the issue of biopiracy is still pitching North against South. Researchers and activists have coined the term biopiracy, "the theft of genetic resources", to describe corporations’ practice of securing "profitable private monopolies by staking out patent claims on Africa’s genes, plants, and related traditional knowledge", according to the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB), based in South Africa.
iCON Women and Young People’s Academy (IWYPLA) is pleased to announce its Call for Applications for the “2010 ICON WOMEN IN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP FELLOWSHIP” programme.
Pambazuka News 493: Kenyan constitution: History in the making
Pambazuka News 493: Kenyan constitution: History in the making
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The Obama administration must hold Meles Zenawi to account for gross human rights abuses against his people in Ethiopia, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam. Mariam argues that although the US has instilled a hope for a better future in the vision of the oppressed, without a realignment of US foreign policy and subsequent pressure against the regime in Ethiopia, belief will deteriorate into despair and anti-Americanism in the country. ‘It is time for the US to fish or cut bait in Ethiopia’, writes Mariam.
you might say, i'm still waiting to get back to my right state of mind
meaning yours,
price-tagged, civilised and ready for export, give or take
a little force, whether I like it or not…
As Ghana gears up to develop its petroleum industry, Cameron Duodu strongly laments the absence of greater public sharing of information around the sector. Duodu stresses that Nigeria’s tumultuous history with petroleum ‘is a rehearsal of what could be waiting for us’ and that Ghana should pay particular attention to its neighbour’s experience if it is to avoid ‘so much cheating and thievery’.
Reflecting on discussions at a Malawian ‘unconference’ on information technology, Steve Sharra considers IT’s future role in the lives of Malawians. With ‘billions of kwacha’ leaving the country in the form of software licences to northern companies, considerable Malawian taxpayer money ends up being spent on proprietary software, despite governmental indifference. As Sharra emphasises, Malawian ingenuity around application development and the use of open source software should be much better supported in the struggle to improve the country’s education system.
Recent tragedies of domestic violence from within the African community in the United States leave Roland Bankole Marke posing the question: ‘Are Africans losing out on their community-based cultural and spiritual values in pursuit of the American dream that is fast becoming a myth and nightmare rather than a reality for many?’ Marke raises fears that a separation from Africa has weakened the resonation of African culture in the lives of those who have chosen to live outside the continent. Marke warns that the deterioration of African culture is resulting in such societal devastation and must be stopped in its tracks.
The 2010 State of the Union Continental Report ranks 10 African countries in order of most to least progressive based on a number of areas of focus, including the promotion of human rights amongst the citizenry and the level of democratic governance. The African Union comes under scrutiny in this report in a bid to effectively promote development. Lucy Bamforth takes a look at the report’s findings and implications for the countries investigated, and the continent at large.
Responding to Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos's call for a zero-tolerance policy on corruption on 21 November 2009, Rafael Marques de Morais reports on the business dealings of three figures representing a 'triumvirate that today dominates Angola’s political economy': General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa”, General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento “Dino” and Manuel Vicente. Though government figures, these individuals make no distinction between public and private affairs and represent the apex of a state-business empire based on 'illegal self-enrichment for the top state officials', Marques de Morais writes.
Background
Fahamu focuses on working with grassroots social movements and organizations that address the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized in society. We do so because we believe that the potential impact of these organizations to create change will enhance participatory democracy and human rights in Africa.
Based on our long term needs to support social movements and grassroots organizations, we intend to deliver cutting edge human rights education using a diversity of tools and platforms to strengthen these movements and assist them in creating the change that they seek.
This has been necessitated by the fact that grassroots social movements and organizations in Africa face a dearth of access to knowledge, information and learning tailored to their needs.
Within this framework Fahamu has planned to develop courses and training packs that promote competencies in the following themes,informed by a needs assessment with our constituents, trainings alumni and beneficiaries;
• Movement building and grassroots organizing in Africa
• Africa-centred advocacy
• New tactics in human and peoples' rights
• Sexuality and reproductive health rights
Objective of the assignment
Fahamu is looking for consultants to coordinate the curriculum development process for these courses using participatory approaches.
Scope of work
Each course curriculum development consultant will be expected to meet the following specific tasks:
• Plan and conduct a learning needs assessment with Fahamu’s alumni, constituents and partners
• Analyse and share results of the LNA
• Analyse and evaluate existing tools and training materials on the course themes by organisations or institutions
• Draft and share with Fahamu a curriculum development process
• Manage discussion/planning sessions of the curriculum development committees /partners
• Coordinate review of the first and second curriculum drafts and incorporate feedback.
• Facilitate curriculum pre-testing and validation process
Expected outcomes
• Curriculum development guide /summary
• Course curriculum
• Curriculum development process report
Consultancy duration
The assignment is to expected to take 90 days .
Skills required
• Advanced university degree in education,social studies, international law and/or human rights;
• Proven experience in curriculum development; use of adult education methodologies; developing training manuals and engagement in activities of social justice
• Experience working with and in community based organizations and social movement in Africa.
• Experience in conducting qualitative research using various methods
• Excellent oral and written skills in English
• Strong analytical skills
• Excellent facilitation skills
• Be creative and take own initiative
• Able to work to tight deadline
Application Procedures
Interested candidates are expected to send an abstract not exceeding 600 words on how they will manage the curriculum development process and the topics they intend to cover in the specific course.
The abstract should be sent together with a copy of the C.V to [email][email protected]
The deadline of application is 4th August 2010. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.
ackground
Fahamu focuses on working with grassroots social movements and organizations that address the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized in society. We do so because we believe that the potential impact of these organizations to create change will enhance participatory democracy and human rights in the Africa.
Based on our long term needs to support social movements and grassroots organizations, we intend to deliver cutting edge human rights education using a diversity of tools and platforms to strengthen these movements and assist them in creating the change that they seek.
This has been necessitated by the fact that grassroots social movements and organizations in Africa face a dearth of access to knowledge, information and learning tailored to their needs.
Within this framework Fahamu has planned to develop courses and training packs that promote competencies in the following themes,informed by a needs assessment with our constituents, trainings alumni and beneficiaries;
• Movement building and grassroots organizing in Africa
• Africa-centred advocacy
• New tactics in human and peoples' rights
• Sexuality and reproductive health rights
Objective of the assignment
Fahamu is looking for consultants to coordinate the curriculum development process for these courses using participatory approaches.
Scope of work
Each course curriculum development consultant will be expected to meet the following specific tasks:
• Plan and conduct a learning needs assessment with Fahamu’s alumni, constituents and partners
• Analyse and share results of the LNA
• Analyse and evaluate existing tools and training materials on the course themes by organisations or institutions
• Draft and share with Fahamu a curriculum development process
• Manage discussion/planning sessions of the curriculum development committees /partners
• Coordinate review of the first and second curriculum drafts and incorporate feedback.
• Facilitate curriculum pre-testing and validation process
Expected outcomes
• Curriculum development guide /summary
• Course curriculum
• Curriculum development process report
Consultancy duration
The assignment is to expected to take 90 days .
Skills required
• Advanced university degree in education,social studies, international law and/or human rights;
• Proven experience in curriculum development; use of adult education methodologies; developing training manuals and engagement in activities of social justice
• Experience working with and in community based organizations and social movement in Africa.
• Experience in conducting qualitative research using various methods
• Excellent oral and written skills in English
• Strong analytical skills
• Excellent facilitation skills
• Be creative and take own initiative
• Able to work to tight deadline
Application Procedures
Interested candidates are expected to send an abstract not exceeding 600 words on how they will manage the curriculum development process and the topics they intend to cover in the specific course.
The abstract should be sent together with a copy of the C.V to [email][email protected]
The deadline of application is 4th August 2010. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.
Recently leaked draft report from the World Bank, The Global Land Rush: Can it Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits, challenges the publicly held position of the World Bank on investments in agricultural lands in poor nations - a trend that has come to be popularly known as land grabbing. Although such investments have been hailed by the World Bank as a way to generate jobs and infrastructure, the report states, "investors are targeting countries with weak laws, buying arable land on the cheap, and failing to deliver on promises of jobs and investments," and in some cases inflict serious damage on the local resource base.
In a landmark decision delivered on August 1 2010, the Court of Appeal of Kenya declared the mandatory death penalty for murder to be unconstitutional. This decision will benefit all prisoners presently under sentence of death. The ruling follows the recent decisions from Uganda and Malawi restricting the use of the death penalty in accordance with contemporary human rights standards.
Kenya is once again at a crucial stage in its pursuit of a democratic constitution capable of bringing stability and unity to the country. Energy and resources are being focused towards ensuring the constitution referendum process is not plagued with violence in a repeat of the tragic events following the 2007 election. One innovative initiative is to allow the citizens themselves to provide up-to-date reports of potential trouble through the use of mobile phones and the internet.
When you think of Zimbabwe, think not just of Mugabe. Think also of Thomas Mapfumo, the Mbira Man. Beautiful mbira. Metal, wood and calabash. Ancient instrument of Zimbabwe - channel to the ancestors.
Although a moratorium on ‘Terminator’ technology was reaffirmed by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity four years ago, proposals to develop and commercialise ‘genetic-use restriction technologies’ are ‘back on the agenda for policymakers and the biotechnology industry’, writes Via Campesina. Ending the moratorium on ‘Terminator’ crops, modified to produce sterile seeds, poses threats to both food sovereignty and agrobiodiversity, Via Campesina warns.
Following an extensive parliamentary inquiry in 2002, the Belgian government assumed a portion of responsibility for the murder of Patrice Lumumba, writes Stephen R. Weissman. But ‘controversy has continued to swirl over allegations of US government responsibility’, despite a 1975 investigation concluding that it was not ‘in anyway involved in the killing’. ‘It is now clear,’ writes Weissman, ‘that conclusion was wrong.’