Pambazuka News 472: Staggering from pillar to post: Zimbabwe's 'unity' government
Pambazuka News 472: Staggering from pillar to post: Zimbabwe's 'unity' government
The South African authorities must investigate the delayed police response to last month's attacks against refugees and migrants and their property in Siyathemba Township, 80km south east of Johannesburg. The authorities must also ensure that those responsible for the attacks are held accountable.
Client: ActionAid
Subject: International Communications Advisors
Closing date: 18th March 2010
International Communications Advisor
£30K - £45K (depending on location and experience)
Various: 1 x Africa (Johannesburg/Nairobi); 1x Europe (London); 1 x Asia (Bangalore/Delhi/Bangkok); 1 negotiable (all must be located in an ActionAid existing office)
ActionAid’s programmes are changing the lives of millions of people and challenging the decisions which keep poor people locked in poverty. Join ActionAid’s International Communications team as an International Communications Advisor and help ensure our external communications and campaigns around the world continue to get the attention and support to make a difference.
Providing communications consultancy and capability development services to our international and national teams, you will deliver strategies and advice, and support the development, implementation and monitoring of plans that increases the quantity and quality of our communications outputs and thereby raise profile and funds.
You are a strategic thinker with high level technical capability in more than one core communications discipline (online/media/brand/publications). You have experience of producing, coordinating and implementing multi-media communication strategies and of working in an international environment.
In addition to your communications expertise you have a track record of capacity building through training, facilitating and coaching, knowledge and experience of organisational development and the gravitas to quickly develop effective working relationships at all levels in a multicultural environment.
To apply for the role of International Communications Advisor go to:
Closing date: 18th March 2010.
We are an equal opportunities employer. We warmly welcome applications from all sections of the community and aim to promote diversity. Reg. Charity No: 274467
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns firmly the physical assault and violence by security operatives and supporters of the opposition Sierra Leone people’s party (SLPP) in Bo, Southern Sierra Leone against ten journalists.
Following a request for additional information from the International Criminal Court (ICC) earlier this month, its Prosecutor has named the 20 people he says are most responsible for the deadly post-election ethnic violence which swept Kenya in December 2007 and January 2008.
The United Nations mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) is closely monitoring efforts to establish a government – including an independent electoral commission – and to resume plans for long-awaited elections in the West African country, where a political crisis following the dissolution of the government last month sparked deadly street protests.
Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in developing renewable energy projects with initiatives aimed at producing clean and ‘green’ energy remaining largely under-exploited, warned a new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
At least 30 people were killed in Sudan after clashes between two rival tribes in the volatile southern region, witnesses said. Deputy state governor David Noc Marial has said clashes began after armed men from the Dinka tribe's Atuot and Ciek clans clashed in south Sudan's remote area over the weekend.
A dispute could break out between Ghana and neighbouring Ivory Coast, if immediate steps are not taken to enter into appropriate negotiations to redefine the international boundary between the two nations. Ghana's Western neighbor Ivory Coast is reportedly laying claims to portions of the huge oil wealth in the deep waters of the Western Region of Ghana.
In this week's emerging powers news roundup, Asian tree provides low-cost water purification method for developing world, China strengthening Africa’s infrastructure base, Diamond regains its glitter thanks to Chinese demand, and Indian tourists to South Africa expected to double by 2012.
Africans are getting wealthier more quickly than previously believed, according to a new study that also suggests the poorest continent's riches are spreading beyond the narrow confines of its elite. "Africa is reducing poverty, and doing it much faster than we thought," the study by U.S.-based economists Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Maxim Pinkovskiy said.
About a year ago, Muqtar Ali's brother was shot dead by gunmen in the busy Bakara market of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, and his $200 in cash was stolen. Ali says that if a new mobile money transfer service unveiled by Somalia's biggest mobile telecoms firm last month had been in place then, his brother would still be alive.
In the context of its ongoing work on new trade and development partners in Africa, the Development Centre hosted a presentation and debate of Asia/Africa expert Deborah Brautigam’s new book The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa. Professor Brautigam began by explaining away the greatest myths surrounding China’s engagement in Africa and ended with a summary of the different approaches to development held by China and traditional donors to the region.
Over time, women’s rights advocates have named a host of contributing factors to violence against women. Perhaps none of these has been less explored than the proliferation and unregulated use of small arms and light weapons – until now. A new book, Sexed Pistols: The Gendered Impact of Small Arms and Light Weapons, explores how these weapons impact women and men differently.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted that Zimbabwe’s unity government needs to make more progress before targeted sanctions against the Mugabe regime are lifted, resisting pressure from South African President Jacob Zuma.
The national executive council of the MDC has resolved that SADC should be called in to mediate in the long running stalemate between parties in the Global Political Agreement. Party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said his party had evaluated the political landscape currently prevailing in the country and found out ‘things were going backwards instead of forward.’
Civil society organisations have warned of worsening human rights abuse at the hands of state security agents, explaining that in the last three months there has been an escalation in the number of threats, intimidation and harassment against its members.
More than a dozen people were killed and many more were hurt when two clans clashed in central Somalia, residents and community elders said on Friday. The Qubeys clan and the Suleyman sub-clan of the Habargidir clan started fighting the previous day in Amara village, 90 km north of the pirate base town of Haradheeere. The fight was over a dispute over land ownership.
Africa's economic growth could be held back for another generation unless global investors help the world's poorest continent to improve its unreliable energy networks, a British minister has said.
HIV stakeholders are calling on the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to speed up the registration of critical anti-HIV medication or face legal action. The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society has sent an appeal to the health minister to intervene and address the MCC registration process which they describe as the single biggest obstacle to getting affordable access to medicines.
The Government has unveiled the National Information Communication strategic plan that will run from 2010 to 2014, and is expected to usher the country into the global information "super highway".
Federal Government has said henceforth, patients attending Federal Government Hospitals can now report on the quality of services through SMS. With the support of MTN and Glo GSM Networks, who are providing the platform with which the service are being provided, the Federal Ministry of Health said it is poised to check the activities of quacks through the Patients' Feedback Platform with the generic shortcode 30500.
This year's 8th Annual Digital Africa Summit is set to be Africa’s premier ICT business summit, creating more opportunities for learning, partnerships and business, with ICT’s, telephony and broadband being globally recognized as a prerequisite for social and economic development the opportunity to engage positive change has never been greater.
A study presented at the recent Seventeenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections founds that Ugandans presenting at a TB clinic grossly overestimated the likelihood that they had HIV. It also found that those who thought they had HIV were significantly less likely to refer members of their household for HIV testing than those who did not think so.
Slower progress towards achieving Millenium Development Goals on health is strongly correlated with a country’s burden of HIV disease and non-communicable diseases, according to an analysis by researchers from the London School of Hygiene, Oxford University and the University of California San Francisco published today in PLoS Medicine.
Kenyan women are becoming infected with HIV during pregnancy at very high rates, and repeat testing prior to delivery, or at the earliest possible opportunity after birth, should be encouraged in order to reduce mother-to-child transmission, Kenyan researchers reported last week at the 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in San Francisco.
Three major public-sector unions launched a general strike Wednesday (March 3rd) after two months of negotiations with the government reached an impasse. "We're not fans of strike action," Democratic Labour Federation general secretary Abderrahman Azzouzi said, "but after a two-month halt in the negotiation process, we had to do something."
Maghreb countries should abandon protectionism in order to boost lagging regional trade, according to participants in a recent conference on economic integration organised by Tunisia's Foreign Ministry. The conference on Maghreb Economic Integration, which was held on February 17th to mark the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the Maghreb Union, was attended by high-ranking Tunisian officials, businessmen and professors.
Kenyan companies are missing billions of shillings in new revenue because of lack of expertise to develop projects that help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and therefore earn from the global carbon trading market. The global carbon trading market, which rewards projects that help reduce emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, is now worth estimated Sh12.5 trillion ($170 billion), according to industry data provider, Carbin Point, but only a very small fraction of this money, estimated at two per cent, is coming to Africa.
A severe shortage of highly-trained medical personnel is one of the many challenges to providing health care at a local level across Africa. Task shifting - permitting less-specialized people to carry out certain functions - is one proposal to over come this, but it is meeting resistance.
The 4th International CBA conference (21-27th February) gathered representatives from the developing world to share knowledge and developments in community-based adaptation. The Community Based Adaptation Exchange (CBAX), an IIED and IDS project, collaborated with the AfricaAdapt Network to report from the conference via blogs, photos and videos. The coverage of the event has been hosted on the CBA-X platform.
Education - particularly the education of girls - is fundamental to development, and is increasingly recognized as not only a national but also a global responsibility. The recent international effort called the Fast Track Initiative has significantly expanded basic education, notes Oxfam International in a new report.
The opening of an exhibition by young, black women artists at Constitution Hill turned sour when Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana stormed out of the exhibition, calling the work "immoral". Xingwana, whose department gave R300,000 to the Innovative Women exhibition, which was launched in Johannesburg to coincide with Women's Day last August, left before she was due to speak at the opening.
An online petition containing more than 450,000 signatures has been presented to the Uganda Parliament, urging members to withdraw a proposed bill that, if passed, would broaden the criminalization of homosexuality in the East African country and introduce the death penalty in certain cases.
About 27 students, suspended from UMthwalume high school, on suspicion that they are homosexuals, have been allowed back in school. This was a result of a meeting between parents of suspended learners, the school governing body and the Department of Education of Ugu Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal
Al-Shabab, the Somali Islamist opposition group, has announced it will stop World Food Programme (WFP) operations in Somalia. The armed group said on Sunday that food distributed by the UN agency had disadvantaged local farmers and accused the WFP of being politically motivated.
Women & Mobile: A Global Opportunity is a study on the mobile phone gender gap in low and middle-income countries. The study report was launched at the Mobile World Congress by Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association (GSMA), Cherie Blair, Founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and Brooke Partridge, CEO of Vital Wave Consulting. The Mobile World Congress was held in Barcelona, Spain, from 15 - 18 February 2010.
A new initiative to bring environmental and financial benefits to local communities in the impoverished highlands of Ethiopia has been announced in Ethiopia. The Humbo Assisted Natural Regeneration Project is Africa's first large-scale forestry project to be registered under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. It will bring both economic and social benefits to poor communities in Ethiopia as well as environmental benefits as the project will cut an estimated 880,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next 30 years.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has signed a grant agreement of US$8 million with the Republic of The Gambia to improve the production and marketability of livestock and horticulture products, specifically targeting rural women and youth nationwide.
Medical male circumcision is now widely recognized as an important HIV prevention tool, and several African countries have included it in their national HIV strategies. IRIN/PlusNews lists the progress of 13 nations in eastern and southern Africa identified as priority countries for male circumcision scale-up by the UN World Health Organization.
A husband and wife can keep separate homes, but only with the husband’s approval. A divorcée can keep her ex-husband’s name – if he agrees. A girl should be able to marry at 15. These and a dozen other changes to the family code are being proposed by Mali’s top Islamic council, even though they were blocked last August after strong opposition from some Muslim leaders.
The government of Sierra Leone has announced that from Independence Day (27 April) it will abolish user fees for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five, but will this, on its own, improve their lot?
Pambazuka News 470: Shell in Nigeria: The struggle for accountability
Pambazuka News 470: Shell in Nigeria: The struggle for accountability
The inheritance of the colonial university was the postcolonial state’s most ‘prized possession’, writes John Otim. Fifty years on the colonial mission and principles have disappeared from Africa’s universities: ‘Good’, states Otim, ‘But nothing has been put in its place. In the vacuum, the regime of marks, grades and the final certificate at the end takes centre stage… The university has become big business.’ Otim ends, though, with a quiet assertion: ‘Not all is lost yet on the postcolonial campus. There are pockets of excellence, gifted professors and students of real promise dedicated to the new Africa. There is a battle raging between the good, the bad and the ugly.’
While Jeffrey Sachs has done well to highlight the roles of colonialism, the Cold War and the ‘ongoing political and economic plunder’ in creating Africa’s poverty, Jason Hickel argues that Sachs’ ‘Big Five’ solutions are rooted in the same system that he seeks to criticise: ‘The problem here is that Sachs calls on us to think within a paradigm of aid when we should be thinking within a paradigm of justice.’ Instead, then, Hickel proposes an alternative big five based on this ‘paradigm of justice’: Forgiving debt, protecting resource commons, installing an international minimum wage, democratisation of international institutions and reducing the greenhouse emissions of the West and China. Hickel notes, however, that ‘Implementing these changes would require enormous political will and moral courage… [these solutions] would run up against Western economic interests, and would most likely cut into the profits of those who presently pride themselves on their philanthropy.’
In this week's review of the African blogosphere, there's debate over the constitutionality of Goodluck Jonathan’s appointment as the interim president of Nigeria, amid fears that the country could become the next Pakistan. Meanwhile legendary Cameroonian swindler Donatien Koagne dies in a Yemeni prison, and there are calls for South Africa's ruling elite to go beyond the euphoria of the 'Mandela Moment'.
Stephen Marks unravels the ‘predictable tensions’ between the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum’s initiatives for a transitional justice programme and the Unity Government’s Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration. While the two bodies agree that Zimbabwe is not yet in a post-conflict situation – rather it is in a state of ‘weak transition’ – views on the ability of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) to provide for the victims of human rights violations are very different. On the one side, Sekai Holland, who heads the organ, has faith in the GPA. She argues that it may be flawed, but has ‘a history’ and she believes that this history must be seen and spoken about by Zimbabweans ‘in all its beauty and ugliness’. On the other side, the NGO Forum believe that the aspirations on the GPA have not been consummated: It is, they argue, ‘an agreement that favours Mugabe, and he is failing to implement it’.
While Ghana appears to be taking steps to make its natural resources sector transparent, accountable and open to public scrutiny, Alemayehu G. Mariam sees Ethiopia slipping further the other way. Mariam understands Ghana’s background in the sector is by no means clean, but he believes the very different attitudes of its new presidency should be an example to Ethiopia and the rest of Africa. He finds Ethiopia instead shrouded in secrecy over its farmland and borderland deals with Sudan.
Speaking to Turkish journalists ahead of a four-day official visit to Turkey, Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete has highlighted hopes that his trip will result in increased commercial and cultural ties.
A new documentary portraying a white Zimbabwean farmer’s struggle to resist the unlawful seizure of his land by a senior Zanu PF politician is undermined by its lack of ‘historical and political context’, writes Blessing-Miles Tendi.
Ben Amunwa looks at how the settlement of the Wiwa v Shell case affects the ongoing Niger Delta crisis, and the settlement's implications for human rights, environmental justice and the control of resources in the region.
No human being is going to be perfect when it comes to always aligning their personal principles with their public words and actions, writes Dale T. McKinley, but we should ‘expect those who are in positions of political and societal leadership to be what they claim to be – leaders’.
Azad Essa crawls the bars of Durban trying to find punters interested in watching President Jacob Zuma’s ‘State of the Nation Address’ live on television. He finds that most people are more interested in the football.
Much has been said in the media and private conversations on the latest revelations of the South African president’s paternity of a child ‘out of wedlock’. Pumla Gqola counters some of the anti-feminist arguments put forward by defenders of Jacob Zuma’s choices.
Impunity in Kenya is ‘so deeply entrenched that it has become a sort of public office entitlement or perk’, writes L. Muthoni Wanyeki. But as yet another corruption scandal rears its head, Wanyeki calls for a more ethical response from the government, which demonstrates concern for how the public’s money is used.
Africa’s bargaining power has been increased, as Chinese interests open up alternatives to US and European investment in the continent, writes Khadija Sharife. But while China is free from colonial stigma and approaches resource-rich countries through the ethos of brothers-in-arms, a closer look at Beijing’s approach suggests that the benefits it brings to Africa do not include ‘justice and real development’.
The University of Stellenbosch will be hosting the bi-annual conference of the South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS) in Stellenbosch from 1-4 September 2010. The Theme for the Conference is Democracy in the First Decade of the 21st Century
Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, freed by the popular struggle of a network of activists that delegitimised South Africa’s apartheid system, writes Horace Campbell. Campbell celebrates Mandela’s major contribution to African politics, South Africa and the ANC, ubuntu, and honours those who live out this principle – ‘grassroots liberation forces who have continued the struggle for social justice and system change.’
The World Bank president Robert B. Zoellick just ended an African tour that took him to Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ethiopia. He told the African Union meeting in Addis Ababa that an estimated 64 million people worldwide will fall into extreme poverty because of the global financial meltdown crisis and some 30,000-50,000 babies may die in Sub- Sahara Africa in 2010. He later addressed African journalists via video conference, which was attended by The Independent's Patrick Kagenda.
As the great and good of the mobile industry browsed the exhibits at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona this week, they may have overlooked a couple of watershed moments in emerging-market telecoms, writes Matthew Reed.
The members of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya are appalled at the behaviour of the people of Mtwapa, Kilifi, but more especially by that of the provincial administration and the police. The five arrested people committed no crime, and we demand their immediate release.
Vrije University (VU) Amsterdam has established the Desmond Tutu Programme in honour of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond M. Tutu. This Programme focuses on the theme Youth, Sports and Reconciliation and aims to strengthen the co-operation between VU Amsterdam and South African Higher Education Institutions.
In a paper to be published in the March issue of the academic journal Conflict, Security & Development, Joseph Hanlon argues that Mozambique poses some stark questions for development cooperation. In particular, "Current economic management strategies mean that a growing group of young people are leaving school with a basic education but no economic prospects. Will ‘marginal’ youth in towns and cities pose a threat of political and criminal violence? Can peace be built on poverty and rising inequality? Are elections and expanded schooling enough when there are no jobs?"
CSDG, King's College London/ALC, is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Peace, Security and Development Fellowships for African Scholars starting September 2010. The Fellowships are over 18-month period and comprise a rigorous training programme on peace, security and development, which includes a 12-Month Master's (M.A) programme at King's College London and an attachment to an African University.
Zimbabwe's power-sharing government has made no real progress in implementing political reforms and ending human rights abuses after a year in office, Human Rights Watch has said. The government has demonstrated little political will or capacity to enact meaningful changes to improve the lives of Zimbabweans.
Environmental Film Festival of Accra is currently accepting films and videos made about the environment or about issues around the environment throughout the world. We also accept films and videos that explore the relationship between the environment and other socio - economic, political and cultural themes. Whilst we give preference to films about Ghana and Africa, we screen highly acclaimed international films. Films should preferably depict positive and realistic images and can be of any genre - drama, comedy, horror, adventure, animation, romance, science fiction, experimental, etc.
The coming 12 months are very critical for the political history of Sudan. Two landmark events in the country’s history will take place. In April 2010 Sudan is expected to organise the first multi-party general executive and legislative elections after more than 20 years of authoritarian military rule. In January 2011 the people in Southern Sudan will exercise, in a popular referendum, their right to self-determination and decide on the future of the country. This DRDC report is documenting for some aspects of Sudan’s 5th Population and Housing Census and drawing attention to key areas of weaknesses of the census operation.
Cultural Survival is appealing to Kenyan government authorities to halt police operations in Northern Kenya, where Indigenous Samburu villages have suffered brutal police attacks over the last year.
Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa is pleased to announce its call for applications for the 2010 Moremi Leadership Empowerment and Development (MILEAD) Fellows Program for young African women leaders. The MILEAD Fellows Program is a one-year leadership development program designed to identify, develop and promote emerging young African Women leaders to attain and succeed in leadership in their community and Africa as a whole.
Ahmed Maher and Amr Ali, both leaders in the April 6th Youth Movement, were arrested in the early morning on 16 February as they were driving home from a meeting regarding the welcoming reception planned for Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mohamed Elbaradei, who many activists are calling on to run for presidency in Egypt's upcoming election. Maher and Ali were stopped at a security checkpoint, forced out of their car, and taken to jail.
International pressure on Uganda as the country attempts to pass an anti-homosexuality bill is important, but other nations remain havens of anti-LGBT oppression. Cary Alan Johnson and Ryan Thoreson call for an end to the criminalisation of same-sex relationships that is fuelling homophobia in Senegal and elsewhere.
One of the findings on a study done by MISA-Mozambique on behalf of UNESCO on the landscape of media development in Mozambique is that Mozambique has a political and legal framework that is generally favorable to freedom of expression, and to pluralism and diversity in the media, although constraints still persist in the practical application of media-friendly laws and policies. The findings were launched at a conference on 10 February 2010 in Maputo.
Evidence of grand corruption is mounting in Beijing’s showcase $6 billion barter deal with the Kinshasa government.
This five-day training, offered by Minority Rights Group International (MRG), aims to equip minority and indigenous peoples activists (individuals and NGOs) with media skills to generate their own information and to interact with local, regional and international media especially in the European Union.
You are invited to join us a screening of ‘’, a documentary that features the voices of women speaking in the aftermath of Kenya's 2007 post-election crisis.
The film (30 minutes) will be followed by a Q&A session with Firoze Manji, editor of Pambazuka News. Titles from Pambazuka Press will also be on sale.
DATE: Tuesday 2 March
TIME: 7pm
PLACE: Oxford Brookes University Human Rights Film Festival.
Savo Heleta analyses Sudan’s current political situation and asks how suitable and feasible the planned April 2010 elections are. He argues that the Sudan’s current state, with so many unresolved issues, would complicate an election and ‘would not lead to pluralism and democracy, but rather to instability, further polarisation and post-election chaos’. Furthermore, Heleta holds that the current election plan is so complex that its success is questionable, particularly given the extent of illiteracy in the voting population: ‘As currently planned, the elections would be a logistical nightmare for any country, let alone Sudan, leaving too much room for post-election manipulation of votes.’ Heleta colncludes that elections in Sudan need to be either postponed until after the 2011 people’s referendum or simplified and focused on executive positions only.
Dambisa Moyo's 'Dead Aid' fails in its attempt to provide a radical critique of ‘aid’, because of Moyo's unwilingess to conduct it within the framework of political economy, says Samir Amin. ‘The politics of aid, the choice of its beneficiaries, the forms of intervention and its immediate objectives are inextricably linked to geopolitical considerations’, says Samir Amin, yet Moyo does not speak to or critique ‘the central role of aid in the strategy of domination, pillage and exploitation by imperialist capital. Neither does she address the need for a “different aid” based on the solidarity of peoples.’
'I couldn't agree more with the assertions made' in Jason Hickel's , writes Michael.
'If Africa is the antelope in the global jungle it must learn that just because the leopard is beautiful does not make it less dangerous than the hyena', writes Julius Gatune.
None of the arguments in Funmi Feyide's support the title, writes Beauty.
Pambazuka's failure to mention ten years of sanctions against Zimbabwe with a is a crime against the country's people and humanity, writes Mike.