Pambazuka News 448: Emerging from the crisis of capitalism
Pambazuka News 448: Emerging from the crisis of capitalism
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres visited Sahrawi refugees in the Algerian governorate of Tindouf last week as part of an effort to reunite families separated by the Western Sahara conflict. Guterres, whose five-day tour of Algeria and Morocco ended Saturday (September 12th), said the UNHCR's proposal for a direct, straight-line land corridor between Tindouf and Laâyoune had been accepted as the best solution by all parties.
In the Niassa province of northwest Mozambique, one doctor has been working with local communities to overcome the delays responsible for three-quarters of maternal deaths each year. Dr Peg Cumberland, a slim, energetic English woman, has worked in Mozambique for over 13 years. She came to the Niassa region in 2004 when she heard that the community was asking for assistance.
Women need to get involved more actively and more equally in the reform of the security sector in post-conflict states, says Ecoma Alaga, a Gender and Security Sector Reform (SSR) expert of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa. Alaga presented a policy paper in a seminar on SSR and the Protection of Women in Africa on Tuesday, which was attended by leading experts in the field of gender, peacekeeping and SSR.
Researchers have been keen to assess the impact of emerging donors on the development paradigm. The particular aid policies of China, India, South Africa et al have been carefully considered to garner how emerging donor approaches differ from the ‘traditional’ OECD-DAC (Development Assistance Committee) funders. Yet little consideration has been given to the implications of the new aid actors’ activities for future OECD-DAC donor policy as a whole. This paper seeks to detail implications for donor policy.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from several articles with commentary both on U.S. policy and on other aspects of the situation in Somalia. Elizabeth Dickson in Foreign Policy comments on disagreements within the U.S. government about the shipment of arms supplies to the government in Mogadishu. Minnesota Public Radio comments on repeated airport searches of two prominent Somali-American professors at the University of Minnesota.
On the day of the sentencing of the seven of eight men who gang-raped Buyisiwe, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) activists and members of the Joint Working Group (JWG), a network of LGBTI organisation South Africa came in numbers in support of the 1 in 9 Campaign. “Though the matter is not directly LGBTI - related, many members of the 070707 campaign have been very involved in the case as members of 1 in 9 Campaign”, said JWG co-ordinator Emily Craven.
Zimbabwe's prime minister has accused the country's president, Robert Mugabe, of violating terms of their power-sharing agreement. Morgan Tsvangirai told thousands of supporters marking his Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC) 10th anniversary on Sunday that despite guarantees of political freedoms in the unity deal, Mugabe's Zanu-PF party continued to persecute MDC supporters.
Nigeria's armed group fighting for a greater share of oil wealth has decided to extend a two-month-old ceasefire in the Niger Delta by 30 days but warned a government amnesty programme had not yet addressed key issues. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), with an estimated 10,000-strong force, has been behind deadly attacks on oil installations in Nigeria that have disrupted production.
The term arbitrage traditionally refers to taking advantage of the price differential (the gap) between two or more markets. One example is how search engine marketers use arbitrage to make money off of Google Adwords with keyword buying and landing pages. Another is when traders take advantage of differences in exchange rates on currencies in two separate markets.
In Tanzania albinos are still living in fear of being attacked or killed after nearly 50 were murdered in the past two years. It is thought that they are being killed because of the belief that certain body parts of albinistic people transmit magical powers. Witch doctors are willing to pay a lot of money for the body parts to create potions and tinctures for their clients. So far this year at least 12 albinos have been murdered in neighbouring Burundi. Al-Jazeera has reported that one of the murderers received $240 for the body, in a region where the annual wage can be as little as $10.
The health systems of Sub-Saharan Africa are being undermined by an exodus of medical staff. A new study from Zambia, led by an international team of doctors and researchers, reveals that staff burnout is fuelling the crisis. It shows that even though access to HIV treatment has rapidly expanded, the number of trained staff has not kept pace, meaning that delivering effective HIV care is proving difficult.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has signed a five-year poverty reduction compact granting $540 million to the Republic of Senegal for road rehabilitation and food security initiatives in some of the poorest regions of Senegal. The grant was signed by the Acting Chief Executive Officer Darius Mans and Senegalese Minister of Finance and Economy Abdoulaye Diop, with the US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal presiding at the signing held at the US State Department in Washington, D.C.
Floods in northern Nigeria’s Adamawa state have left over 2,000 people displaced, many of them with no access to clean drinking water, leaving officials worried about a potential cholera outbreak. Five districts – Fufore, Demsa, Yola North, Yola South and Numan – were flooded in August and early September, when the River Lagdo burst its banks, according to the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
AIDS activists around the world have welcomed a new UN General Assembly resolution to create a single agency to promote the rights and wellbeing of women, which they say is good news for women, who are bearing the brunt of the global AIDS pandemic. "This is a historic opportunity to advance the rights of women and girls," said UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibé in a statement.
Carrying placards that read, "Huwezi Die Uki Abstain", Swahili slang for "You won't die if you abstain [from sex]", more than 3,000 young people recently marched through Nairobi in an effort to re-energize the campaign to keep teens from having sex too early. But beyond the placard-waving and slogan-chanting, march organizers were also trying to give young people the skills to avoid being pushed into sex before they are ready.
Average life expectancy in Swaziland has plummeted from around 60 years in the 1990s to just over 30 years today. Few would deny that HIV/AIDS is largely to blame, but the reasons why the epidemic has devastated this tiny, southern African country more than any other are less clear. "Foreign observers look at Swaziland and can't figure out why the numbers [of HIV infections] remain so high," said Harriet Kunene, of The AIDS Support Centre in the central commercial town, Manzini.
It was in many ways a shotgun marriage, except that both the parties in Zimbabwe's unity government were equally unwilling. On 15 September 2008 President Robert Mugabe, leader of ZANU-PF, and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and Arthur Mutambara, leader of a breakaway MDC faction, signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA), paving the way for the unity government to be established in February 2009.
Dozens of farmers in northern Ghana claim they have been forced off their land with no alternative source of income after a multinational firm bought their farms to cultivate jatropha, a non-food crop whose seeds contain oil used to produce biofuel. Biofuel Africa Ltd has acquired over 23,700 hectares of Ghanaian land forcing out the inhabitants of seven villages – all of them farming communities -- in Tamale district.
Ugandan police have used excessive force during clashes with rioting supporters of a local monarch in which at least 10 people died, according to a human rights watchdog. The clashes erupted on 10 September in the capital, Kampala, sparked off by a planned visit by King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi of Buganda kingdom to the central district of Kayunga on 12 September.
The first issue of the Berghof Policy Brief builds upon a report the two authors had written on request by the UN Mediation Support Unit (MSU). The MSU commissioned the Berghof Center with this task as a part of its preparatory work for a report by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, to the UN Security Council earlier this year.
It is with profound shock and sadness that we announce the passing on of Kenyan actor, dance and choreographer Becky Gatu.
Family members, fellow artists, friends and well wishers met at wasanii restaurant to comfort each other and to pave way for the funeral arrangements,a lot was discussed but the burial date has not been concretised. A fundraising is set for Wednesday 23rd tentatively...welcome to subsequent meetings at Wasanii at 6pm daily and 2pm on Sunday. For details contact NYOKABI on + 254 722740412
Pambazuka News 447: Morocco uses torture to silence Sahrawi activists
Pambazuka News 447: Morocco uses torture to silence Sahrawi activists
The Osun State Labour Party has condemned the unrepentant and highly irresponsible attitude of the federal and state governments to the demands of the university staff unions – Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Union of Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) which are sine qua non to the revival of public education in Nigeria.
The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) in Osun State has comndemned the obnoxious policy of education privatization by the Ogun State. Our attention has been drawn to the handover of about 45 secondary schools to churches in the state. This action to us is anti-poor, fraudulent and reactionary. In a country where over 90 percent are living on less than $2 a day; a country where human capital development is at its abysmal level, the current privatization of secondary schools in the state is totally absurd.
Although India is an economic powerhouse in its own right, so much of its growth in recent years has been eclipsed by rival China’s shadow. Talk about India’s investments in Africa often steers towards 'how it seems to be playing catch up with China', writes Nelly Nyagah.
This is a call for papers that address many issues involving all aspects of Africans in China: issues of history, society, culture, language, and Africa - China relations, among others. How are these Africans being influenced by their Chinese hosts and how do they in turn influence their hosts? How does their presence in China impact on trade between Africa and China and how do these Africans contribute to the economies of the countries they originate from? Is this new and emerging African diaspora different from other African diasporas? What theoretical and methodological insights does the study of these African migrants in China have on general theories of migration and diasporan studies?
If those in charge are not to continue blocking greater pan-African unity, there need to be more conferences on a United States of Africa, argues Okello Oculi in this week's Pambazuka News. Thoroughly dissatisfied with his own recent experience of a conference between African scholars in Dakar, Senegal, Oculi stresses that while politicians' direct involvement in academic events can be beneficial, it should not come at the expense of intellectual freedom to debate and critique.
Chased Chased by bullets In fumigated environment
Instinctually they run
Without a shelter.
Not knowing
What is ahead In that dark world.
My boys
Where are you running
Without knowing
What is ahead?
My boys
Do not be deceived
You can not
Outrun the bullets.
One of them uttered,
I run
To grow up somewhere,
With the hope
To return and pay back
With a barrel of a gun.
My boys If I take you out
From the fumigated environment
Which is full of hate and deceit,
Would you have a heart
To forgive and
A mind to forget?
One of them uttered,
I am that boy
Chased by a bullet
No doubt.
It is a promise not to forget,
But to pay them back. Here is my plea to the almighty,
To intervene and have mercy,
To stop such madness
Without divine interference.
The cycle continues In the name of nationalities
And boundaries.
Ethiopian Recycler criticises Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's record and the praise he receives from the West.
Appealing to the UN secretary general, Isaac Newton Kinity makes the case for former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi to be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the use of thousands of imported poison arrows in the 1991 killings of 800 pro-democracy activists.
Freedom of expression is one of the main pillars of democracy, argues the Africa Free Media Trust (AFMT) in this week's Pambazuka News. Although freedom of the press and expression are theoretically guaranteed in Kenya, AFMT stresses that the reality is different and indeed wonders whether the country is reverting back to the old days under President Daniel arap Moi. The existence of multiparty elections and the right to speak out should not be taken for granted, AFMT concludes, and Kenya must not allow freedom of expression to be jeopardised any further.
The recent death of Senator Edward Kennedy marked the end of the long dynasty of the Kennedys, who were not only prominent in domestic US politics but also on the world stage. In this week's Pambazuka News, John Otim reflects upon the relationship that Africa had with the Kennedys. Arguing that much has changed since the decolonisation process and the subsequent Cold War, and most importantly with Africa’s relationship to the US, Otim writes that Africans will mourn the death of a figure who recalled a 'glimmer of hope in a still colonial world'.
With much of Africa facing an effective re-colonisation in the wake of the global financial crisis, William Gumede underlines the importance of ever increasing cooperation and trade between African countries. As forces to the east and west alike plunder the continent's mineral wealth, it remains the task of African countries themselves to develop a continental common market and political union based on sound democratic foundations, Gumede concludes.
Sokari Ekine recently Abahlali baseMjondolo, Mnikelo Ndabankulu, a founding member and spokesperson, and Zodwa Nsibande, the general secretary of the Abahlali Youth League. In their interview they were joined by David Ntseng of the Church Land Programme, an NGO based in KwaZulu-Natal province which works on land rights issues. They discuss a range of issues from movement building and successes and the 2008 'Slums Act', to the decision not to vote in national elections and combating xenophobia in South Africa.
Dani Wadada Nabudere's 'The Crash of International Finance-Capital and its Implications for the Third World' is now available from when placing your order.
'The Crash' was first published in 1989 in the wake of the 1987 'Black Monday' financial crash. In this new edition featuring both the original and new chapters, Nabudere provides an updated analysis of the 2007–08 international financial crisis and draws out the likely implications for the Third World, a perspective that has received little attention elsewhere.
The following is an extract from the first chapter of the 1989 original in which Nabudere discusses the history of commodity production and the self-serving efforts of bourgeois capitalists to obscure the true function of money.
The death of Nigerian human rights lawyer and social justice activist Gani Fawehinmi, continued political violence in Zimbabwe, the deportation of African workers from Israel, and a rallying call for South Africa’s men to start speaking out against rape are among the stories covered in Sokari Ekine’s fortnightly round-up of the African blogosphere.
Responding to an article by that calls for former president Daniel arap Moi to be ‘arrested and prosecuted’, Arap Rotich says the roots of the Kenya’s ‘diverse and divisive’ problems lie deeper in the country’s history.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/448/58607_Trial_of_Mugabe_tmb.j... Pucherova reviews Chielo Zona Eze’s novel, The Trial of Robert Mugabe, published by Okri Books on 15 September, in which Steve Biko and writers Yvonne Vera and Dambudzo Marechera are among the members of a divine jury helping God decide Zimbabwean President Mugabe’s fate on the day of judgement. Although the book falls ‘rather too easily to sentimentality’, its service to Zimbabwe’s ‘collective healing should not be undervalued’, says Pucherova. It may, after all, ‘be the only trial Mugabe is ever called on to stand.’
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/447/58608_barefoot_students_tmb... is the engine of freedom, Roland Bankole Marke tells Pambazuka News, but with Sierra Leone’s public schools in a state of decay, the country’s poorest children are unlikely to break their way out of a life of deprivation. Given the lifestyles of politicians and their cronies, writes Bankole, the argument that the ‘government has no money to fund education in this donor driven economy, is bogus’. ‘If education is cumbersome or expensive,’ says Bankole, ‘who wants to try ignorance?’
Moroccan security agents abducted and tortured a 19 year-old Sahrawi woman on 27 August for being a human rights activist, Konstantina Isidoros tells Pambazuka News. Nguia El Haouassi’s ordeal is just ‘one of many episodes of Moroccan police brutality’ that occur every year’, says Isidoros, but thanks to ‘an increasing number of Sahrawi student-led internet blogs’, records of human rights abuses against Sahrawi in the Occupied Territories are breaking through Morocco’s ‘propaganda wall’ to reach a global audience.
People with albinism have been ‘shunned, ridiculed, tormented, tortured and killed in cold blood’ all over Africa, simply 'on account of the skin colour', Phitalis Were Masakhwe tells Pambazuka News. The biggest threat to persons with albinism, says Masakhwe, is ‘misleading and negative belief systems about the condition’. And when ‘these negative beliefs combine with illiteracy and limited knowledge and facts about the situation, the net result can be calamitous.’
The Niger Delta amnesty won’t bring real or lasting peace to the region, Sabella Abidde tells Pambazuka News, because despite the government's haste to hurry through a deal, it hasn’t set out its plans for what the amnesty will mean in practice for local communities. The amnesty is a ‘band aid’ solution for a ‘festering wound’, says Abidde, which if left untreated has the potential to ‘undo’ Nigeria.
People leave sub-Saharan Africa in search of opportunities for personal growth and happiness, Sabella Abidde tells Pambazuka News, but whether self-imposed or forced upon you, life in exile can be ‘one of the most painful of all human experiences’. Ultimately most exiles, says Abidde, ‘would rather be home: Helping their own people and helping to advance their own countries.’ But, he cautions, ‘several years of exile have a way of making one a stranger in one’s village or community.’
Would you like to write a review for Pambazuka News? We are looking for people to write reviews for a number of books and academic papers. You can view the . Interested? E-mail us to let us know which title you are interested in and we’ll get in touch with you.
Eugène Tavares
Following the election of Ali Ben Bongo to the Gabonese presidency, Tidiane Kassé considers the reaction of commentators in the African press to the victory. With the death of his father and long-time dictator Omar Bongo in June, many regard Ali Ben Bongo's election as the mere continuation of the Bongo dynasty, Kassé notes, a continuation decidedly in the interests of the French former colonial power.
Campaigners say they have found serious discrepancies in reports of Sudan's oil revenues which could mean Khartoum's government was underpaying its strife-torn south by hundreds of millions of dollars. The findings by UK-based Global Witness could spark a political storm in Sudan, where relations between its Muslim north and mostly Christian south have remained tense since the end of their two-decade civil war in 2005.
“Artists in all countries shall be encouraged and helped to form associations. Their organisations shall receive the support they need to create their own structures and make their action effective”...This is a quote from the Final Declaration of the World Congress on the Implementation of the Recommendation Concerning the Status of the Artist held in Paris in 1997.
FORUM-ASIA is a founding member and host organisation of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN). The APRRN is a growing network of more than 100 civil society organisations and individuals committed to advancing the rights of refugees in the Asia Pacific Region through information sharing, mutual capacity building and joint advocacy. The APRRN Steering Committee, under the leadership of the Steering Committee Coordinator, provides strategic and policy direction to the APRRN.Closing date is 18 September 2009.
I’ve recently been on two dates where the men asked me what I want in a man. Confidently I replied “a self-sufficient and self-assured man who doesn’t feel the need to maintain me, a pro-feminist who supports, and feels the feminist movement is a worthy cause that should be upheld in our relationship and society at large, an open minded man whom reading books is a lifestyle and a man who is able to move between masculine and feminine traits with great fluidity.”
Since the source of the Nile is in Uganda, and Ali Mazrui’s professorial career began at Makerere University in Uganda, Mazrui has often described his entire academic career as “a child of the Nile.” His Inaugural Lecture when Makerere appointed him Professor was entitled Ancient Greece in African Political Thought but was in fact a salute to Uganda and the Nile in the history of civilization.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heard from a broad cross-section of Congolese society about how the United States can play a constructive role in bringing an end to the conflict and supporting local Congolese institutions. This is a letter from elected officials in the South Kivu province (one of the two most affected provinces by the wars of aggression against the Congolese people) that captures the essence of what many Congolese have argued since the first invasion in 1996. The world community cannot say that there are no answers or that the problem is too complex to comprehensively address.
Rethinking AIDS 2009 will consist of talks that question the widely held dogma that HIV causes AIDS, including whether HIV exists, whether it is sexually transmitted, whether HIV tests are accurate and whether AIDS drugs are safe and effective. The social, psychologic and legal impacts of an HIV diagnosis will also be considered, as well as alternative health approaches for people whose health has been damaged by an HIV diagnosis, by the prescription of AIDS drugs or who have been diagnosed with an AIDS-defining illness.
Owino Odhiambo left his tiny Kenyan village less than a decade ago to immerse himself completely in American culture. Equipped with American citizenship, two degrees, and five years experience working as a dedicated graphic designer in New York City, Owino is currently unemployed. "My entire village sponsored me to come to America. In turn, I am expected to support them but now, without work, I can hardly support myself," says Owino, the oldest of ten siblings and first in his family to travel outside his village.
One of the most prevalent stereotypes in the debate about human rights and conflict transformation has been that of two fields clashing, expressed in the idea that the normative nature of human rights standards may complicate the practical demands of peacemaking. This article moves beyond “justice vs. peace” and proposes that applying a perspective of human rights in conflict transformation brings it closer to its aims – by forcing greater emphasis on structural conditions, especially the role of the state, systems of governance and issues of power.
The Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) is seeking a competent, experienced and self motivated individual for the position of Programme Assistant – Gender HIV & Aids (GHIVA) Programme. WRCN is offering a competitive package for the candidate with the right qualifications and experience. Applications with certified copies of certificates, CV and other relevant documents must clearly state the position applied for and should be submitted no later than 6th September 2009.
Fertiliser subsidies have received a lot of attention, and praise for success in combating food shortages in Africa. The most notable case is that of Malawi, which introduced a fertiliser subsidy in 2005. In late 2007, the New York Times, for example, published an article hailing Malawi’s success in fighting famine. But in a new research paper, Professor Frank Ellis of the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP), argues that while fertiliser subsidies have a number of benefits, they also have limitations, and should not be seen as an alternative for other social protection measures for the poor — most notably, social cash transfers (pensions and child support grants, for example).
Following the evictions and burning of the houses of Maasai communities in Loliondo, these You-Tube films, and part II, provide documentary evidence of the abuses allegedly perpetrated by the Government of Tanzania and Ortello Business Company.
August saw the continuation of the chaos in Zimbabwe, with ever more breaches of the GPA being recorded, the majority of which fell into the following categories:
* wanton politically motivated violence, or violence driven by politicians or petty officials, * harassment, and deprivation of freedom, of individuals through contrived arrests on spurious charges, * widespread corruption involving senior public and uniformed figures, * the deprivation of the right to Freedom of Expression, and the abuse thereof, * violent, unconstitutional, invasions and seizures of property and farms, and * deliberate attempts to derail the Constitution-making process.
At 6 am on Saturday, 06 Sept. 2009,t is reported that 300 heavily armed Borana and Somali gunmen attacked the Samburu tribe at Losesia, in Samburu District, near Archer's Post, approx 38 km from Lerata. In addition to killing 3 herdsmen and injuring 2 others, the militia stole 3765 head of cattle, 2635 goats and sheep, 141 camels, and 19 donkeys, according to Samburu East MP Raphael Letimelo. All livestock were removed in lorries.
Although widely derided as an expensive toothless bulldog – and even as a fig leaf for the corrupt – the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) is Kenya’s premiere statutory anti-corruption agency recognized as such by the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the African Union. It has been in operation since 2004 and has investigated among many other pending mega corruption Scandals.
UNITAR is pleased to announce its course calendar for 2009 intended for a global audience of finance sector and trade officials. Each course will be conducted by UNITAR over the internet and will last up to six-weeks. High quality training content will be provided by UNITAR for each course, which will form the basis for study, discussions, group work and individual assessments.
IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) provides fellowship grants for scholars whose lives or careers are threatened in their home countries. The fellowships support temporary academic positions at universities, colleges and other higher learning institutions in safe locations anywhere in the world. Applications are due by October 12th 2009.
Salary: Competitive terms and conditions will be offered
Based: Lilongwe, Malawi
Closing date: 17.09.2009
Starting date: January 2010
ICCO is the Interchurch Organisation for Development Co-operation and Kerk in Actie is part of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. Together they provide financial support and advice to local organisations and networks throughout the world that are dedicated to improving access to basic services, stimulating sustainable economic development and advancing peace and democracy. In the region Southern Africa, ICCO works in South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Madagascar. For this region, a Regional Office is currently being set up in Lilongwe, Malawi.
Duties & Responsibilities:
The finance officer is responsible for the financial aspects of relations/contracts between ICCO and partners. The job objective is accountability regarding the funding to local partners and programme coalitions, by assessing proposals and reports, and contributing to the quality and transparency of the financial management of the partner organisations.
• Financial analysis and assessment of partners, programme and project proposals
• Financial monitoring and evaluation of partners, programmes and projects
• Advise on preparation and review of plans, budgets, reports, and return on investment analysis
• Assess and advise on the financial capacity of partner organisations
• Facilitate capacity building and expert knowledge in financial administration and control
Qualifications
• Relevant degree in Finance and / or other relevant professional qualification
• Substantial experience in financial management of monitoring of projects
• Budgetary responsibility in an international environment
• Competence in use of financial software applications
• Experiences with institutional donors
• Strong interpersonal skills, attention to detail, discretion and high integrity
• Excellent language skills in English and French and/or Portuguese
Please send your CV with FO-ICCO in the subject line to Mission Talent Recruitment. [email][email protected]
Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
For more information on ICCO’s programmes, please visit our website
Salary: Competitive terms and conditions will be offered
Based: Lilongwe, Malawi
Closing date: 17.09.2009
Starting date: January 2010
ICCO is the Interchurch Organisation for Development Co-operation and Kerk in Actie is part of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. Together they provide financial support and advice to local organisations and networks throughout the world that are dedicated to improving access to basic services, stimulating sustainable economic development and advancing peace and democracy. In the region Southern Africa, ICCO works in South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Madagascar. For this region, a Regional Office is currently being set up in Lilongwe, Malawi.
Duties & Responsibilities:
The main responsibility of the Programme Officer is the interaction with the partners and programme coalitions in one country of the region. The programme officer reports to the Regional Manager and works in a multidisciplinary team in direct cooperation with the Finance Officer. S/he will identify and facilitate multi-stakeholder programmes by applying 4 ICCO strategic roles in the programmatic approach: strategic financing, advocacy and lobby, capacity building and brokerage.
• Support programme coalitions to jointly develop and implement programmes
• Assess programme- and project proposals
• Review audit reports of projects and follow-up of recommendations
• Provide input to the financial planning, monitoring, capacity development of programmes and projects
• Control, evaluate and monitor ongoing contracts with local partners
• co-ordinate with other relevant actors in the region
• Contribute to learning, linking and coordinating research and knowledge
• Contribute to strategic policy development and to the development of the regional plan
• Contribute to fundraising opportunities.
Qualifications
• Educational background social sciences plus knowledge in one of the 3 main themes:
o Fair economic development (value chains; access to local and international markets);
o Access to basic services (food security; education; hiv/aids, water and sanitation);
o Democratization and peace building.
• Advanced knowledge of programme and project formulation, accountability requirements.
• Experience with funding of programmes and projects
• Experience with multi-stakeholder processes and institutional donors
• Good knowledge of economic, social and political situation in the region
• Excellent language skills in English (French and / or Portuguese an is added advantage)
• Relevant experience of assessment and analysis of project/programme plans.
• Negotiation, networking, facilitation and communication skills.
Please send your CV with PO-ICCO in the subject line to Mission Talent Recruitment. [email][email protected]
Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted. For more information on ICCO’s programmes please visit our website
AwaaZ Issue 2/09 - The Bombay Africans!
Contents:
- Cover Story: The Bombay Africans
- Linguistic Evidence of Bantu Origins of the Sidis of India by Abdulaziz Lodhi
- Alternative Angle: Paradise Revisited by John Sibi-Okumu
- Memories of a Diplomat – Bhupinder Liddar
- Contemporary India-East AfricaRelations
o Introduction by Gerard McCann
o Asian Diaspora in Nyanza Province ofKenya by Gordon Onyango Omenya and Mildred A J Ndeda
o Race Relations between Kenya’s Africans and South Asians by Zarina Patel
- Four Generations of the Naidoos in the South African Struggle
- Native African, Wananchi by Ramnik Shah
- The Asian Debate in East African Literature by Mwalimu Makokha
- Bats and Balls: Dr Saleem Rana: Farewell to a distinguished Sportsman and Doctor
- Dialogue through Dance by Neera Kapur
- Origins of a Passage to East Africa by Jarat Chopra
- Art Installation by Prina Shah
- Shailja Patel’s Bwagamoyo – The Father: Part II of Migritude
Book Reviews:
o Child of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji reviewed by Sunita Kapila
o Settlers Cookbook: A Memoir of Love, Migration and Food by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown reviewed by Warris Virani
o Success with Asian Names by fiona Swee-Lin Price reviewed by John Sibi-Okumu
o Scram from Kenya by James Franks reviewed by Ramnik Shah
o Reading of M G Vassanji by J K S Makokha
o African Identity in Asia by Shihan de Silva by Shehina Fazal
- Footsteps: Bantu Mwaura (1969-2009) and Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (1961-2009)
AwaaZ Magazine
P O Box 32843 - 00600
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 020 2063405, 0722 344900, 0733 741085
Email: [email][email protected]
Website: AwaaZ
AwaaZ is environmentally responsible. It recycles, reduces and reuses all its material
As riots by supporters of Uganda's dominant Buganda kingdom over its (kingdom) disagreement with the government continued in various parts of the country, amid fears that dozens of lives may have been lost, President Yoweri Museveni has opted for dialogue to end the violence.
A group of European Union (EU) diplomats was due in Zimbabwe Friday for a series of high-level talks with the country's leaders on easing longstanding frosty relations between the two. The diplomats, led by Swedish International Development Co-operation Minister Gunilla Carlsson, were billed to meet President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Aurther Mutambara at the weekend.
The UN is helping Kenya prepare to mitigate the impact of potentially-lethal torrential rains anticipated in the last three months of the year due to the El Nino weather pattern. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) made this known in a statement issued on Thursday in New York, US.
Kenya has launched a multi-million dollar appeal to help restore a vital forest resource which is threatened with extinction due to human encroachment. The appeal to save the Mau Forests Complex was launched late Wednesday by the Government of Kenya at a Partners Forum hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The ECOWAS Parliament has called on ECOWAS and the African Union to "intervene immediately" for the restoration of constitutionalism in Niger, where President Mamadou Tandja has changed the country's constitution to allow him to run again when his second term runs out in December. The call was contained in a resolution of the ECOWAS Parliament, adopted Wednesday at the current 2009 Second Ordinary Session held in Abuja, the seat of the parliament.
The Gambian parliament has ratified a Supplementary Loan Agreement amounting to about US$ 5 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for the financing of Artisanal Fisheries Development Project, according to official sources. The repayment period of the loan has been spread over 20 years after a seven-year grace period starting from the date the agreement was signed.
President Robert Mugabe has lashed out at Western sanctions against him, condemning "bloody whites" for meddling in Zimbabwe's affairs, on the eve of a landmark European Union visit. "Who said the British and the Americans should rule over others? That's why we say down with you. We have not invited these bloody whites. They want to poke their nose into our own affairs. Refuse that," he said.
Thousands of MDC supporters will on Sunday converge at the White City Stadium in Bulawayo to celebrate the party’s 10th Anniversary. Morgan Tsvangirai, who will be accompanied by the entire MDC’s national leadership will give a key note address at the rally.
The UN children's agency says child mortality is decreasing, but the rate of decline is not enough. A new report says more than eight million children under five died last year with pneumonia and diarrhoea the two leading causes of death. Unicef says 40% of under-five deaths take place in just three countries - Nigeria, India and DR Congo.
Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika has defended his decision to deport four senior foreign tobacco buyers for flouting minimum-price rules. "For a long time I've been warning these exploitative colonialists to pay fair prices to farmers," he said.
Gabon has barred opposition leaders from leaving the country following recent riots over claims of fraud in last month's presidential election. One defeated candidate said he had been prevented from flying to Ivory Coast. A minister said the ban would last while the violence was investigated.
The European Union and South Africa should take steps to enhance cooperation on international human rights issues when they meet this week, Human Rights Watch said in letters to South Africa's minister of international cooperation and the prime minister of Sweden, which currently holds the EU presidency.
On Friday morning, Philo Ikonya and Jacob Odipo appeared before Resident Magistrate Ireri in Kibera Law courts to answer to charges brought against them for allegedly participating in an unlawful assembly. They had been arrested Thursday while demonstrating outside Integrity House in protest of the re-appointment of Aaron Ringera.
What is the role, relevance and effectiveness of PRSPs in supporting post-conflict recovery in Africa? This paper from the Economic Policy Research Centre in Uganda discusses challenges in developing PRSPs using case studies from Zambia, Malawi, Ghana, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Mozambique, Angola and Uganda. It concludes that not all post-conflict African countries have successfully developed PRSPs.