Pambazuka News 459: Land grabs, food security and Africa's resource curse
Pambazuka News 459: Land grabs, food security and Africa's resource curse
This year the fourth internet governance forum was playing it safe – perhaps because next year could be its last – but we still saw real progress. Privacy no longer plays second fiddle to security, people’s rights online are recognised as central by all sides. Social networking was the new star centre stage.
A new Ugandan study adds to a growing body of evidence that providing home-based antiretroviral (ARV) care in low-income settings can be as effective as facility-based interventions.
Our movement is under serious attack in Durban. Our comrades in Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban have been attacked and had their homes destroyed by an armed ANC militia supported by the local police and politicians. We will be holding a protest against state repression at New Road, Maccassar Village, from 11:00 on Saturday 28 November 2009.
Pambazuka News 458: Women’s rights: Looking back or moving forward?
Pambazuka News 458: Women’s rights: Looking back or moving forward?
The African Union Panel of the Wise held its seventh meeting at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 9 and 10 November 2009 under the chairmanship of Ahmed Ben Bella.
Addressing gender inequality remains central to the drive to improve livelihoods and engender development for all, writes Marren Akatsa-Bukachi. While progress has been made, the key challenge will be to revitalise the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) and ensure genuine momentum is sustained around achieving gender equality in all areas of life, the author argues.
The Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) was unveiled some 15 years ago, leading Norah Matovu Winyi to ask what has really changed for Africa's women since the platform's inception. Over the last 15 years progress in women's position has on the whole been regrettably slow the author notes, with a wide gap between commitments and actual action still persistent. But with the unveiling of a new resolution to 'establish [a] new gender-equality entity in the United Nations', there is fresh hope that the international organisation will be able to work with governments and Africa's citizens to revitalise the drive for equality, peace and development.
With Graça Machel set to re-visit Kenya this weekend as a member of the Panel of Eminent Persons overseeing the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), L. Muthoni Wanyeki stresses the need for all Kenyans to ensure that those in charge are not permitted to paint a rosy picture of 'achievements' for Machel's team.
Despite the wide adoption of protocols for gender equality across Africa, ‘violations of women’s human rights have reached epidemic proportions,’ Mary Wandia writes in Pambazuka News, ‘and unless we adopt a multi-sectoral approach in the implementation and monitoring of regional and international commitments, we shall continue to marginalise half of the continent’s population.’ With the Beijing +15 Africa Review meeting underway in Banjul, Wandia asks whether Africa’s ministers for gender and women will ‘rise up to the challenge’.
Carole Ageng’o takes a closer look at the interplay between gender relations and conflict in the three phases of Kenya’s electoral process – pre-election, election and post-election. Highlighting the barriers women face to participating in each phase despite international standards and regional instruments for protection of the rights of women, Ageng’o argues that entrenched social roles have ‘made it difficult for men and women to share power, privilege and status on the basis of equality'. A change in prevailing gender relations, Ageng’o suggests, is key to ‘empowering communities torn apart by war to build peace from below’.
A statement issued by the Africa Initiative of Syracuse University and the organising committee of the special conference on Zimbabwe: Healing, reconciliation and reconstruction challenges the veracity of of some participants by members of Minister Sekai Holland’s security personnel during the three-day conference.
Zimbabwe has ratified the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, a regional instrument for advancing gender equality and women's rights. It is the second country after Namibia to ratify the protocol.
‘The idea behind “Beijing” was not to get together every five years and count the victims of gender discrimination and violence’, Morissanda Kouyaté writes in Pambazuka News. ‘It was intended to be – and remains – a campaign to end these problems. A lack of will remains a key obstacle to achieving this – not just political will, but at all levels, to consider women as equal members of society, enjoying all inalienable rights accorded to men.’
DiasporaKenyan reports on renewed attacks by police and security forces on communities in Kenya’s Samburu East. ‘Thousands of residents have been displaced as they now flee in terror, remembering the February 21 attack on Lerata and Kalama communities', in which innocent villagers were beaten, raped and terrorised, DiasporaKenyan writes.
A call for more female leadership across the continent, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS and the trial of Charles Taylor are among the stories in Sokari Ekine’s selection of the best of the African blogosphere for this week’s edition of Pambazuka News.
African Union (AU) experts on women and gender affairs will submit their recommendations to establish the African Union Women’s Trust Fund feasibility study, the African Union Commission Gender Action Plan, and the Roadmap for the African Women’s Decade: 2010-2020 to ministers in charge of gender and women’s affairs on 21 November. In order to disseminate and monitor the implementation of the Action Plan the meeting proposed using faith-based groups, imams, and the media to sensitise and transmit messages to women and society at large.
The Municipal Service Project (MSP) systematically explores alternatives to the privatization and commercialization of service provision in the health, water, sanitation and electricity sectors. We evaluate service delivery models deemed to be successful alternatives to commercialization in an effort to understand the conditions required for their sustainability and reproducibility.Our focus is on the water, electricity and primary health care sectors in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
When Amank decided to attempt to cross the Egyptian border into Israel, he wasn't thinking about the likelihood that Egyptian guards would shoot at him. He knew the danger existed, but his main focus was escaping dire economic prospects and rampant discrimination as an off-the-books housecleaner in Cairo.
Women in North Africa have made tremendous progress in promoting and upholding their rights. Women in this region—commonly known as the Maghreb—are at the forefront of the Arab world in terms of individual rights and gender equality, and constitute models for other Arab women to follow.
Media has always, and will always, have a major impact on the lives of human beings, simply because it has the power to influence! In fact, one of the main objectives of media is to influence change. With 16 Days of Activism just around the corner, it is an appropriate time to reflect on media and gender, and media’s role in helping to put a stop to gender violence.
This month, one of the Anti-Eviction Campaign's coordinators, Ashraf Cassiem, is going around the U.S., speaking at college campuses and meeting with activist to share information about post-apartheid community struggles, particularly with the forced removals and the resulting protests taking place in the run up to the 2010 World Cup.
Somali nationals claiming asylum in India form a small but significant community of refugees who are seeking asylum in a region far from their roots. But the Government of India does not recognize Somali refugees, who are part of the approximately 11,257 refugees (also including Burmese, Iranians, Iraqis, Palestinians and Sudanese, among others) who can only rely on the ‘protection’ of the Indian office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The African Socialist International, in unity with other organizations of the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, proudly announces the launch of an international workers party that will begin contesting for state power in Sierra Leone.
The human rights organization FIAN International is expecting a self-critical analysis and a change of course in global food politics from the World Summit on Food Security starting in Rome today. In 1996, governments had promised to halve hunger by 2015.
Stowed away on cargo ships and unsure where their dangerous journeys will take them, increasing numbers of African immigrants are arriving in Latin America as European countries tighten border controls.
It's 12 midnight, as I lay awake beside him. My head is filled with confusion as I weigh the options for the next course of action to take. I am struggling to sleep and worse still, I cannot stand seeing his face. Part of me is telling me to stab him and end all the misery that he is causing me, but the other side is warning me not to.
Marriage brings happiness to some, but for me it was a nightmare for twenty-five years. I stayed in an abusive marriage, enduring it, always hoping that what did not work out today, would tomorrow. It was my son’s sickness that ended it: a son who had been a breadwinner for my husband and me. Because it ended, I found happiness. Let me explain.
Will society accept me with a disfigured face like I have now? Will I ever walk up the streets out there to go to school after what this cruel man has done to me? I feel I have nothing left to be proud of and I have lost the biggest purpose of my life - completing school. I had hoped one day to have a house of my own and to be like many other women, educated and working.
The biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet is a major target for CHRI’s advocacy. CHRI will be distributing hard copies of its report during the proceedings of the human rights assembly organised by the Commonwealth Foundation and Commonwealth Human rights Initiative. The report titled ‘Silencing the Defenders: Human Rights Defenders in the Commonwealth’ looks into an issue of human rights concern in the Commonwealth, which includes recommendations to further protect and promote human rights.
As the region’s technological capacity grows, a new kind of gender violence is emerging in Southern Africa. In this new media age, the information super highway has become a tool for social networking and the world has become a global village where people of different walks of life are meeting. However, women in countries like Malawi are quickly recognising technology, such as the internet, as both a potential asset and a threat.
Cases of sexual harassment, at for instance a workplace, usually boil down to “he says, she says.” Yet the biggest challenge with sexual harassment is not just proving that it happens, but that more often than not it is quite subtle. During 16 Days of Activism, we need to recognise that gender violence and abuse come in many forms.
It has become all too common that every newspaper edition carries at least one carry a story on domestic violence or rape. Efforts to engage men as partners in the prevention and response to gender-based violence (GBV) are critical to achieving positive results. This 16 Days of Activism, men across the region will lend their support for ending violence.
The International Detention Coalition has released a media statement for Universal Children’s Day 2009, which calls upon States to stop the detention of refugee, asylum seeker and migrant children and to use community alternatives to the detention of children and their caregivers.
India's ONGC Videsh (OVL), ONGC’s foreign investment arm, is in talks with Ghana’s national oil company to bid for Kosmos Energy’s stake in the giant offshore Jubilee field of the region. Dallas-based Kosmos Energy focused on Africa, holds a 30.8 per cent stake in the Jubilee oil block, one of the biggest oil blocks in Africa.
The Hutu militia FDLR is responsible for much of the violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where murder, massacres, rape and kidnapping are widespread. The FDLR's leaders have lived untouched in Germany for years. Now the authorities have reacted -- far too late.
Dr. Robert Zeigler, an eminent American botanist, flew to Saudi Arabia in March for a series of high-level discussions about the future of the kingdom’s food supply. Saudi leaders were frightened: heavily dependent on imports, they had seen the price of rice and wheat, their dietary staples, fluctuate violently on the world market over the previous three years, at one point doubling in just a few months.
An Abu Dhabi-based private sector investment firm has signed a contract to lease up to 700,000 hectares of farmland in Morocco, a company executive has said. Food prices have risen sharply over the past year, prompting governments and private sector firms in the Middle East to look into ways of securing supplies, as most of the food in the region is imported.
Experts, civil society organizations and other key stakeholders in women's empowerment and gender equality issues have agreed to improve the lives of African women, a UNECA press lease has said.
UNICEF has said that more than 43,000 children work in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The UN agency made this known in a statement it issued ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Children's Rights.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has called on Kenyans to rise above individual and partisan interests and approach the constitution - making exercise with a sense of sobriety in order to deliver the much-awaited new constitution to Kenyans.
At the age of 42 years, Isabirye Kakaire Mutwalibi of Bulugodha village, Iganga district, one of the poverty-stricken districts in Eastern Uganda, boasts of seven grand children. He will be recording his eighth in the next five months, giving him a small edge of three grandchildren ahead of his age mates, all under 45 years.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is to launch a mass yellow fever vaccination campaign in the Republic of Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone. WHO has said that the week-long event would target 11.9 million people across the three countries, all of which are at high risk of yellow fever outbreaks.
Sudanese women have called on the African human rights system to assist them reform the repressive laws back home in Sudan. In a paper they presented at the 46th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and people's Rights in Banjul, the Gambia, a group of Sudanese human rights activists called for an urgent reform of the public order regime in Sudan.
Africa has agreed on key issues that will be negotiated at the forthcoming Climate Change Summit (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's Prime Mi nister and coordinator of the African negotiating team to the summit.
International aid organisation Oxfam has criticised the Belgian Customs for the routine seizure of generic medicines sent to Africa from India or China, under the cover that they are fake. Contending that some of the medicines are generic versions, with undeniable therapeutic properties, the organisation therefore demanded an analysis of the seized drugs to confirm whether or not they are fake.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has threatened to call off its indefinite ceasefire, after alleging a military attack against the Kula community in Rivers state in the early hours of the day.
World leaders who convened in Rome, Italy, for the World Summit on Food Security have unanimously adopted a declaration pledging renewed commitment to eradicate hunger at the earliest date, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Countries also agreed to work to reverse the decline in domestic and international funding for agriculture and promote new investment in the sector.
Inter-ethnic fighting in the northwestern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo has resulted in the deaths of 100 people and the displacement of 25,000 others, the United Nations has said.
Sierra Leone’s anti-corruption commissioner has a simple message for foreign investors coming to his country for its mines and oil — offer bribes and you could find yourself in prison.
Zimbabwe has started withdrawing soldiers from diamond fields in the east of the country after recommendations by the Kimberly Process and criticism over rights abuses, state media has reported.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has launched a public broadcasting report on issues surrounding the sector in the country. The report is based on a survey entitled “Public Broadcasting In Africa Series” commissioned by Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project(AFRIMAP), Open Society Initiative Southern Africa(OSISA), Open Society Institute Media Programme(OSIMP) and MISA-Zimbabwe.
Transparency International’s popular annual Corruption Perception Index commonly known as the CPI was launched on 17 November 2009. Zimbabwe’s score moved up as Zimbabwe became number 146 along with Cameroon, Ecuador, Kenya, Russia, Sierra Leone and Timor Leste with a score of 2.2 of a possible 10.
At least 3,000 foreigners, mainly Zimbabweans, have fled their homes in the De Doorns farming area on the Western Cape after they were attacked by South African mobs, the Red Cross said Wednesday.
East African leaders are due to sign a common market treaty. The presidents of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi are expected to agree to the free movement of people and goods across the region.
The number of people in Africa has passed the one billion mark, the UN Population Fund says in a report. UNPF's Executive Director Thoraya Obeid said that the annual figures showed the continent's population had doubled in the last 27 years.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has denounced the disproportionate sanctions imposed by the National Council of Communication (CNC) in Gabon on November 10, 2009 against eight private newspapers which have been struck with temporary prohibition of publication as well as the suspension of a very popular television program.
The UN Security Council has welcomed the power-sharing agreement reached by Madagascar’s current and former leaders, and urged the political forces to end months of internal strife with the establishment of a new Government.
The Security Council has called on United Nations missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic (CAR) and Sudan to coordinate strategies to protect civilians from the rebel Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has killed, kidnapped and displaced thousands of people.
Nigeria has signed a 677 million euro pact with the European Union aimed at combating corruption and promoting peace in its troubled, oil-producing Niger Delta region.
The deputy executive secretary of the United Nations Commission for Africa, Lalla Ben Barka, has urged governments and the rest of the international community to prioritize achievements of gender equality and women' rights as these are essential in the crusade of poverty reduction and the promotion of growth.
A top official from the mainstream MDC on Thursday said there were doubts Robert Mugabe would implement the Global Political Agreement, even if party negotiators manage to strike a deal. Negotiators from the three parties are due to meet at a secret venue from Friday and throughout the weekend for talks aimed at dealing with the matters brought on the table through the SADC Troika summit that met in Maputo two weeks ago.
After their 6th inconclusive bail hearing, it is now abundantly clear that the legal process for the Kennedy 13 is a complete travesty of justice. They are scheduled to appear again on the 27th November. By that time, some of accused will have been in prison for 2 months without trial - two months in prison without any evidence being presented to a court and without a decision on bail. This is a moral and legal outrage that amounts to detention without trial by means of delay.
Interarts, a non-governmental organization based in Spain (www.interarts.net) , will be undertaking research to map the creative sector in seven countries in Western Africa: Benin, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Togo. The aim of the research is to determine current trends and development opportunities within the cultural field, as well as to identify potential partners for collaboration.
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) condemns in the strongest possible terms the targeted shooting of two Somali journalists working for international news media organizations in Galkayo and Mogadishu.
As the Doha Round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) stumbles into its ninth year, a group of 22 developing countries are poised to clinch their own deal to cut tariffs and boost trade among themselves.
GRAIN estimates that to date, more than 40 million hectares have changed hands or are under negotiation -- 20 million of which in Africa alone, and calculate that over $100 billion have been put on the table to make it happen. Despite the governmental grease here or there, these deals are mainly signed and carried out by private corporations, in collusion with host country officials.
The UN refugee agency, with technical support from the World Food Programme (WFP), has embarked on a school feeding programme to increase classroom attendance and reduce malnutrition at two settlements for Angolan refugees in Zambia.
The growth of cellphone use, particularly in the developing world, is providing health experts with a new channel of communication to provide family planning information.
The guns have gone silent – except for sporadic conflict in parts of the vast South Sudan region, such as the Eastern Equatoria State. It may not be the absolute end of the conflict in the region, but it is a reason for renewed hope.
Eritrea ranks at the very bottom of Reporters without Borders index of press freedom for 2009, released in October. This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains two recent short reports from Reporters without Borders on the situation of journalists in Eritrea, and an account on by exiled journalist Tedros Abraham on his experiences as a journalist in Asmara and and his journey through Sudan to eventual refugee status in Norway.
President Museveni has joined the anti-gay crusade, saying he had received reports suggesting that “European homosexuals” had launched a recruitment drive in Africa. He urged the youth to reject the advances. Expressing his homophobia, Mr. Museveni said the youth must stand firm and abhor the divergent sexual orientation.
In an act of solidarity with Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) activists and human rights defenders, a gathering was held yesterday, 17 November, in Pretoria, at the Ugandan Embassy, to protest against the Anti Homosexuality bill. Fikile Vilakazi from the Coalition of African Lesbians gave a synopsis of the bill in front of a large number of activists who were chanting outside the embassy in opposition to the bill.
A Somali woman has been stoned to death for committing what a judge has said was adultery. The 20-year-old divorcee was executed after confessing to having had sex with a 29-year-old unmarried man.
A new report that reveals how vulnerable the internet as we know it is, has just been published by two global civil society organisations. The annual report, called Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch), was released by the Association for Progressive Communications and Dutch-funder Hivos. GISWatch 2009 is entitled Access to online information and knowledge – advancing human rights and democracy.
The World Bank has granted Malawi US$10 million for the Community-Based Rural Land Development Project (CBRLDP). The additional grant will also extend the project for another two years, the bank said.
HIV-positive women in western Uganda want fewer children than women not living with the virus, but often do not have access to family planning services, a new study reveals. The study of 421 women in the district of Kabarole found that the probability of HIV-positive women wanting to stop childbearing was 6.25 times greater than it was for HIV-negative individuals.
When Dorothy*, a single mother of five, told her neighbours in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, she had tuberculosis (TB), she expected sympathy and maybe even offers of help. Instead, she found herself so severely ostracized, she felt she had to move out.
The Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) is revamping its national HIV information campaign after HIV prevention messages were less successful than hoped. "We shall use basic facts in the messages to communicate effectively because we have realized that the level of knowledge about basic facts on HIV information is quite limited," said Saul Onyango, senior health educationist with the UAC.
The recent upheaval in Guinea has delayed the disposal of toxic chemicals discovered earlier this year at several sites throughout the capital Conakry, according to UN experts.
Many Kenyan children are in school, but enrolment in the north has been adversely affected by insecurity, food scarcity and traditional attitudes, residents and teachers said.