KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 29 * 6184 SUBSCRIBERS
KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 29 * 6184 SUBSCRIBERS
The Partnership for Global Health Equity ("the Partnership") is a small grants facility created to catalyse exploration of mechanisms for Canada-South-global partnerships that involve the production or utilisation of equity-oriented research for health. The Partnership is housed at IDRC and has a number of contributors, including IDRC, RITC, CSIH, CPHA, and other Canadian and developing country health research organisations1. Proposals selected for funding under the theme of Globalisation and Health will be eligible for consideration of co-funding by the Globalisation and Health, Cross-Sectoral Policies and Human Rights Team, Department of Health and Development, World Health Organization. In its pilot year (2001-2), the Partnership proposes to disburse approximately CAD100,000. The Partnership will provide seed funding (average $5-10,000) for a range of health research related activities including (but not limited to): exploratory or pilot research involving partners from Canada and the South; collaborative workshops to assess research for development needs and utilization; proposal development; travel between project sites (including travel to projects for technical assistance, capacity building, etc); dissemination of research findings (in particular activities aimed at bridging the gap between research and policy); activities involving liaison or consultation around agenda setting between North-South and South-South partners.
The Southern Africa Institute of Fundraising SAIF) presents the following Workshops:
23,24,25 July
Training the Trainer in Resource Mobilisation
6 August
Donor Marketing - Cause Related Marketing
Negotiation
6,7,8 August
Resource Mobilisation Workshop in Cape Town
7 August
Dealing with the Media Workshop
15,16,17 August
Resource Mobilisation Workshop
Publications Series on African Union
After decades of debate, posturing and grappling, the African Union is here. But what is the background to this historic juncture in the continent's history? Who has played a role, and what are the different positions in the debate?Significantly, what are the implications and challenges for the future? This series on African Union produced by the Africa Institute of South Africa answers these questions and many more. If you're concerned about Africa's future, can you afford to be without them? Volumes in the Series:
A United States of Africa?
Edited by Eddy Maloka
June 2001. 476 pp. Paperback. ISBN 0 7983 0146 5. R120.00 or US $30.00
Towards an African Economic Community
By SKB Asante, FOC Nwonwu and VN Muzvidziwa
June 2001. 64 pp. Paperback. ISBN 0 7983 0147 3. R25.00 or US $10.00
Africa in the new Millennium: Challenges and Prospects
Edited by Eddy Maloka and Elizabeth le Roux
June 2001. 144 pp. Paperback. ISBN 0 7983 0145 7. R60.00 or US $15.00
African Foreign Policies in the 21st Century: Working Papers
By Luis Serapião, Sehlare Makgetlaneng, VS Sheth, Francis Makoa, Moses
Ralinala, Christopher Saudners and Wilfred Ndongko
March 2001. 78 pp. Paperback. ISBN 0 7983 0142 2. R40.00 or US $10.00
African Union and a Pan-African Parliament: Working Papers
Manelisi Genge, Francis Kornegay and Stephen Rule
October 2000. 40 pp. Paperback. ISBN 0 7983 0140 6. R25.00 or US $10.00.
Order these publications directly from the Africa Institute: PO Box 630, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Tel: +27 12 328 6970 Fax: +27 12 323 8153 Email: [email][email protected] or [email][email protected]
In July the World Bank will launch a multi- million dollar internet-based development knowledge initiative at . Trumpeted as a place to find diverse perspectives on development, the Bank argues that its Development Gateway will be a convenient tool for civil society groups, officials, journalists and independent researchers. We disagree. On closer scrutiny, the Development Gateway initiative looks less like an attempt to encourage debate than a means to stifle, moderate and control dissenting opinion. We wish to warn colleagues of the perils of associating with or supporting this project.
There are three fundamental objections to the Gateway project. First the gateway privileges certain voices over others. The Gateway does not prioritise poorer people as site contributors, editors or viewers. The Bank's heavy English-language bias exacerbates the dominance of official 'development knowledge'. You will not find topics on "political economy" or "inequality" or "discrimination", just concepts like "governance" and "human development". Moreover the Gateway's 130-issue taxonomy ghettoises cross-cutting issues such as gender and climate change.
Second, the claim that the site is independent is untenable. This is a clear attempt by the Bank to consolidate itself and its allies as the main authorities on "development knowledge". This is reflected in both the content and process of the Gateway. For instance, in order to provide local content, the Gateway has its own country portals. These will be run by government officials, private business and civil society groups appointed without any clear criteria of representativeness. The content of these gateways will be policed. Within these country gateways, site contributors are told to avoid "country/locale specific events", and not to use metaphors, puns or irony in order "to aid machine translation".
The Bank is appointing individual or institutional "topic guides" to filter and organise material in each of the site's subject areas. The Gateway is supposed to represent all perspectives and all types of analysis. The only reason to exclude items is if they fail to meet the site's "quality" criteria, yet it remains extremely unclear as to how this quality threshold is determined. And given the volume and diversity of information posted on the internet daily, it is unlikely that the guides' coverage will be comprehensive. With the best will in the world, then, topic guides' selections will be biased in favour of the intellectual tastes of themselves and their contacts.
The third, and most pernicious, effect of the development gateway is to undermine alternatives. Instead of encouraging existing initiatives, the Bank has chosen to centralise internet coverage of development issues in a bid to sift and control the flow of ideas. This is likely to distract from and damage the development of diverse, independent internet sites on these issues.
This is why, in our individual capacities, we pledge to avoid all contact, whether official or otherwise, with the World Bank's Development Gateway. We encourage our colleagues to undertake a similar pledge, and to support alternative sources of knowledge.
Signed (as individuals, organisation names provided for reference only)
Initial signatories:
Yash Tandon, International South Group Network, Zimbabwe
Patrick Bond, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Phil McMichael, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Chris Brooke, Magdalen College, Oxford University
Rutendo Kambarami, Communications Officer, Mwelekeo waNGO, Zimbabwe
To sign, send a message to [email protected] with your name and organization in the subject line.
Applications are invited for the BMJ Publishing Group Scholarship, which will fund one editor from a developing country to come to the UK to attend the annual course for editors of peer reviewed medical journals. The course is run by Tim Albert Training. This year it will be held in Tunbridge Wells, England, on September 27-29. Full details about the course can be found on www.timalbert.co.uk
Further details on application available from Alex Williamson ([email protected]). Telephone: + 44 (0)20 7383 6069. Tim Albert Training, Paper Mews Court, 284 High Street, Dorking, Surrey RH4 1QT UK Tel: 01306 877993; Fax: 01306 877929 [email protected] Dates of 2001 open courses now available.
I would be very interested to learn what any of you think of the recent book by Hernando de Soto: The Mystery of Capital. Does it shed some light on why, in spite of transfers of "the $56 billion that OECD countries counted as Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 1999", and much larger sums over the last 50 years, "it is equally obvious that ... poverty and inequality continuing to increase".
If the 20th century model of development is not working, clearly we need to find a 21st century approach that delivers more positive results.
de Soto writes about capitalism flourishing in a bell jar. What is the bell jar made of? If it is made of transparent laws, financial institutions, regulatory regimes & culture in some dynamic mix, then "expanding the jar" is what de Soto is talking about. The point is that all peoples have to have a seat at the table and a voice in the conversation as full partners. This is clearly not the case today. It was obvious to me in rural Jamaica that the control of the flows of information and money were widely seen as the keys to political power. It is reasonably obvious that this view of power is also currently dominant in Washington, D.C. as well. Attempts to free these flows from centralized controls of the elites is generally seen as subversive and most unwelcome.
US political theory at its best assumes that we, the people, are all full partners in our self government. In too many cases, however, citizens and consumers are NOT seen as partners. Too often we the people are viewed merely as passive targets to be manipulated and controlled by monologues and advertising from the elites in the center, be they left wing communists or right wing capitalists.
One thing I am guessing is that neither de Soto nor the KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER discuss, or fully value, the power of the Internet to give many more citizens a seat at the table and a voice in the conversation as full partners. What's more, the Internet grants these new partners powers which are greatly amplified by the possibilities of self organizing collective actions at the local level of the edge. The Internet is, after all, fundamentally about exchange and conversation at the edge, independent of the center.
It just may be that the online gaming experience will catalyze self organizing political action groups. That is, gaming may have the unexpected and unintended consequences of allowing very large numbers of people to experience the power of collaborative actions and communications which they control as partners.
Thoughts?
– jock gill
Would you like to help with the production of this Newsletter? The Kabissa-fahamu Newsletter has grown beyond our wildest dreams. Subscribers' expectations have grown equally. Can you spare a few hours a week? Would you like to get some experience in producing Africa's leading Newsletter? If you are reasonably familiar with using a browser and have internet access, then this may be something for you. Please contact [email protected]
KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 28 * 5899 SUBSCRIBERS
KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 28 * 5899 SUBSCRIBERS
Facilitating access to, and exploitation of, information and communication technologies (ICTs) for marginalized communities, especially women and youth: this is the main objective of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)'s Acacia Initiative, which has launched a project to ensure massive representation of women in all aspects of the program, and to incorporate gender sensitivity into the design, implementation and evaluation of projects that are part of the Initiative.
How can community organizations successfully exploit the new information and communication technologies (ICTs)? That is the issue confronting Rabia Abdelkrim Chikh, an anthropologist and researcher with Enda Ecopole in Senegal. As leader of a project that aims to demystify computers for young people in some of the most crowded neighbourhoods of Dakar and its outskirts, and make them a commonplace work tool, she has had some success.
The purpose of Kellogg Foundation programming in southern Africa is to assist in the social and economic transformation of the region, and to nurture the area's emerging democracies. Within these countries, W.K. Kellogg Foundation programming will strive to strengthen the capacity of Africans, their families, organisations, and institutions as they work to develop and sustain healthy communities.
Grantmakers Without Borders, a collaborative project of the International Donors' Dialogue and the International Working Group of the National Network of Grantmakers promotes and enhances international grantmaking within the philanthropic community. We provide free advice, alternative sources of information, and links to community-based projects and organizations around the world.
Development, State and Society is a nuanced overview of economic thought, political formations and social issues applied to Africa.
The African Cultural Exchange creates partnerships with African NGO's to help identify and address the needs of the underserved in Africa; our focus is on organizations that serve women, children, and the internally displaced.
The focus of this premier course is human rights as seen from the African perspective. This Master's Degreee is a regional cooperation initiative under the auspices of the Association of African Universities (AAU) presented in partnership by:
- The Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria
- The Faculty of Law, University of Ghana
- The Faculty of Law, Makerere University (Uganda)
- The Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape (South Africa).
UNIFEM Executive Director, Noeleen Heyzer, today announced a 5-point Call for Action to make women central to every strategy in the fight against HIV/AIDS. "There is a direct correlation between women's low status, the violation of their human rights and HIV transmission," said Heyzer. "This is not simply a matter of social justice. Gender inequality is fatal."
En visite en France du 20 au 23 juin, le président sénégalais Abdoulaye Wade, 75 ans, a plaidé la cause de son plan «Oméga». Le vieil avocat dessine pour L'Express les contours du programme d'investissements massifs qu'il soumettra en juillet à ses pairs, lors du sommet de l'Organisation de l'unité africaine de Lusaka (Zambie). De la Casamance au sort d'Hissène Habré, le tombeur d'Abdou Diouf esquisse aussi sa vision du continent.
It is a racism that is not just directed at those with darker skins, from the former colonial territories, but at the newer categories of the displaced, the dispossessed and the uprooted, who are beating at western Europe’s doors, the Europe that helped to displace them in the first place. it is a xenophobia that bears all the marks of the old racism. It is racism in substance, but "xeno" in form. It is a racism that is meted out to impoverished strangers even if they are white. It is xeno-racism.
Africa Network Meeting
Lusaka, Zambia,July 7-8, 2001
The Africa Democracy Forum (AFD)will hold a p0arallel meeting at the 37th Summit of the Organization of African Unity.
This is the first African Studies Association of the United Kingdom (ASA-UK) conference on Human Rights.
Migrants contre le sida, c'est l'émission de radio qui s'adresse directement aux séropositifs d'origine arabe et africaine. Chaque mardi de 17 à 18 heures sur la radio Fréquence Paris Plurielle (FPP) 106,3 MHz FM (région parisienne). L'émission de la semaine est re-diffusée sur FPP le mercredi matin de 11 heures à midi. Enfin, vous pouvez aussi écouter l'émission sur Internet (à la demande) avec votre lecteur MP3. Pour recevoir le sommaire complet de chaque émission avant sa diffusion, abonnez-vous (C'est gratuit).
Copies on CD of the WHO Reproductive Health Library #4 (2001) are now available. The Library contains 61 Cochrane reviews of evidence-based solutions to reproductive health problems and corresponding commentaries with practical recommendations. The CD is free to individuals in developing countries.
Southern Africa AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) is looking for an Information Officer to join its team, based in Harare, Zimbabwe. Qualifications: a relevant degree with five years experience in journalism or communications. Contact: SAfAIDS, PO Box A509, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe. Deadline: 13 July, 2001.
Corruption is costing thousands of lives in poor countries and moves by the rich world to help alleviate the Aids pandemic must be accompanied by vigilance towards governments which steal from their own people, Transparency International (TI) said yesterday. The Berlin-based group's sixth "corruption perceptions index'' finds the highest standards of business and administrative practice in Finland and Denmark, and the lowest in Uganda, Nigeria and Bangladesh.
It's Friday night and it's the start of a long weekend for most Mozambicans... Rosalina, a receptionist for a South African company in the capital Maputo, was diagnosed HIV-positive early last year. "At first I could not believe it. I also did not want to believe it and for a little while I just forgot about it. But it's not something that you can forget. There is always something in your mind," Rosalina says above the music, but not without checking first that no one is listening.
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by SOS-Esclaves and Rencontre Africaine pour la défense des Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO), both members of the OMCT network, that Mauritanian Popular Front (MPF) opposition party president Mr. Mohamed Lemine Ch'Bih Ould Cheikh Malainine, and party members Mokhtar Ould Haibetna and Bouba Ould Hassann, have been convicted and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment, on June 14th. Mr. Ch'Bih was arbitrarily arrested on April 8th, 2001 and was initially detained incommunicado for 10 days.
UNHCR is planning to hold a refugee forum on 14-16 September 2001 in Rouen, France. 'The Refugee Perspective' will feed into the Global Consultations process that UNHCR launched this year in the hope of re-invigorating the 1951 refugee convention. The registration deadline is July 1. For information, please contact the Conference Secretariat.
In a half-forgotten, time-warp-trapped building in the world's most energetic city, three days of discussions have been taking place that ought to help the world get a grip on a disease that is decimating populations and wrecking economies. The United Nations in New York has just wrapped up a special session on HIV/Aids - the first ever devoted specifically to a health problem. It should have been a high-level, superlative-invoking three days. But instead, reports Sarah Boseley, it was a shambles.
Islamic governments, with the connivance of the conservative Bush administration, succeeded in watering down the final declaration of commitment to strategies and targets to beat the global Aids pandemic at the UN yesterday by excluding any reference to gay men.
Propaganda stories in the state owned media about the solar eclipse overshadowed warnings in the private Press of looming food shortages and news of the first victims of government’s renewed clampdown on foreign journalists. And in its efforts to portray Zimbabwe as a peaceful and stable country, the state-owned media ignored yet another spate of political violence widely reported in the private Press.
The Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants aims at promoting respect for fundamental human and social rights in all issues related to undocumented migrants within Europe. Their new website will provide extensive information on the specific theme of undocumented migrants within Europe.
A wide range of online resources on refugees in preparation for the UN World conference, from December18.
Isis-Women's International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE) is hosting the Kampala Know How Conference 2002 from 23 - 27 July 2002 in Kampala, Uganda. Isis-WICCE is now hiring a Conference Manager for the period June 2001 - October 2002 to lead the process of organising the conference. Skills and qualifications: experience working in Africa, managing groups and budgets, interest in women and human rights. Contact details: Isis-WICCE Attn. The Director Tel: +256-41-543-953.
NIGERIA on Monday became the first developing country to contribute to a new global fund to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic worldwide. At a press conference here on the first day of a three-day special session convened by the United Nations General Assembly to discuss ways of tackling the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, President Olusegun Obasanjo announced a US$10 million donation to the fund on behalf of the Nigerian people and government.
A group of prominent Zimbabweans calling itself Citizens' AIDS Survival Trust (CAST) is lobbying government to evoke section 13 (2) G of the Constitution of Zimbabwe to contain the AIDS pandemic. Section 13 (2) G calls for the suspension of civil liberties in the event of an outbreak of infectious and contagious diseases. CAST has called on the government to declare a state of emergency as the best option to contain the AIDS epidemic.
Environmentalists in Kenya have threatened court action to stop the filming of the American television show "Survivor Series III" that formally begins on July 1 and runs to September 30. They accuse the filmmakers of damaging the fragile ecosystem of Shaba National Reserve in the semi-arid eastern province of Kenya.
The intersection between asylum and migration is to be discussed for the first time in a forum in Geneva during UNHCR's Global Consultations on the refugee protection regime. From the outset, given the present political discourse in predominantly Western countries, it is clear that this intersection evokes different concepts for different stakeholders. It is therefore to be regretted that two major stakeholders, UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), frame the discussion within a "control" perspective and use language such as "concerns about uncontrolled irregular migration."
ABANTU for Development is a human resource network promoting an African and Gender perspective. We are a registered charity working for people centred development in UK and Africa through training, information and advice on mobilising resources. You will ideally have proven skills in all areas of financial management, experience in charity finance, a minimum of 4 years supervisory management and administration and a good grounding in development issues. Further information and application form is available by sending a large SAE to: Christine Nalwanga, ABANTU for Development, 1 Winchester House, 11 Cranmer Road, London SW9 6EJ.
A new international cybercrime treaty may soon be adopted despite heavy criticism from privacy groups and industry leaders. In response, several GILC member organizations, including Privacy International, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, have submitted a letter "to voice ... continuing concerns regarding the development and form" of the treaty.
Human Rights Watch, the international human rights monitoring and advocacy organization, invites applications for its fellowship program. QUALIFICATIONS: Applicants must have exceptional analytic skills, an ability to write and speak clearly, and a commitment to work in the human rights field in the future on a paid or volunteer basis. Proficiency in one language in addition to English is strongly recommended. Familiarity with countries or regions where serious human rights violations occur is also valued. Fellows must be recent law, journalism, international relations or area studies graduates by no later than June 2002, or must provide evidence of significant, comparable, relevant work experience. Fellowships begin in the early fall of 2002. Application deadline: November 1, 2001.
As Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade prepares to meet with President Bush Thursday, Human Rights Watch urged him to comply with a United Nations request to hold the exiled Chadian dictator Hissène Habré so that Habré could be extradited to face torture charges.
British, American and international journalists' groups have criticized Zimbabwe after it ordered the last British newspaper correspondent, the Daily Telegraph's David Blair, to leave. President Robert Mugabe was accused of trying to gag independent reporters before presidential elections next year.
In a landmark judgement for the online age, the highest court in America has ruled 7-2 that freelance writers did not give consent for media companies to publish their work on Web sites when they signed contracts for print publication.
In a letter to Minister of Justice Siene Oulai, RSF expressed its concern following the deadly attack that took place at the home of Laurent Tape Koulou, publication director of the private daily "Le National". RSF asked the minister to do everything possible so that those responsible for the attack are identified and punished.
Access to the information highway is by small roads connected to homes and communities. Download a book on how it works in Africa.
The multi-agency probe of allegations of corruption in the R43bn arms deal was expected to come up with recommendations on how the behaviour of international companies bidding for contracts should be defined and prescribed, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said yesterday.
Human Rights Watch warmly welcomed today's decision by the Security Council to recommend to the General Assembly the reappointment of Kofi A. Annan for a second term as the United Nations Secretary-General. Earlier today, the Council unanimously chose the Ghanaian to serve for another five years as the world organization's seventh head.
The Criminal Justice Caucus notes with deep concern that the issue of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance within criminal justice and prison systems and law enforcement agencies are not addressed in the Draft Declaration and Programme of Action.
Tobacco is the only product which kills when used as intended. Despite scientific certainty on the health effects of tobacco it continues to be promoted and controls remain weak in most countries. This is due primarily to the economic and political influence of the transnationals tobacco industry. The negotiation of the world's first public health treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, is creating an important precedent and bringing tobacco control into the centre stage.
This special issue of Philanthropy News Digest is devoted to online resources in the field of health philanthropy. By no means comprehensive, the list is intended to provide a convenient starting point for your further explorations of this large and important field.
The UN General Assembly's historic Special
Session on HIV/AIDS ended on Wednesday with what Secretary-General Kofi Annan described as a "clear strategy" for tackling the epidemic.
Opening up a country's economy to direct investment and increased financial flows could be hurting the poor even in good times, concludes a new report from the Bretton Woods Project. Linking capital account liberalisation to the impacts on the poor, the report looks at the mechanisms of government spending and the delivery of social services, access to credit as well as the vulnerability to people's livelihoods in the face of increased volatility in the macro economy.
Killer AIDS has orphaned over one million children in Kenya. Millions more, affected by the epidemic in other ways, are being forced, due to lack of adequate state support to drop out of school and seek often-dangerous work on the streets in order to care for ill parents.
Violence in schools is fast turning into a menace in many countries. The Lesotho Youth Federation (LYFE) in Africa has initiated a Student Conflict Management project aimed at equipping students in secondary schools and high schools with transformational skills useful when conflicts arise in their schools.
Till the other day, Lacinan Seogo was one of Save the Children's sponsored children in Burkina Faso at the age of 8. He has come a long way since then and today teaches children in Babdo, the village where he grew up.
Are Egyptian women getting the services they need from existing family planning programmes? What factors influence women's decisions about contraception? How can family planning services be improved to help meet women's needs? Research from the London School of Economics and the Egyptian National Population Council investigated the unmet need for contraception in rural Egypt.
Unmet need for contraception in developing countries is often attributed to a lack of family planning services. Yet the problem of unmet need persists in urban areas with reasonable access to services. Is poor communication between couples responsible for continuing unmet contraceptive need?
What makes a healthy city? How can urban health promotion projects involve women and the poor? Researchers from the UK’s South Bank University report on an evaluation of ‘Healthy City Projects’ (HCPs) in five countries.
Are people in low-income areas aware of the risks of drinking dirty water? What can be done to improve the quality of drinking water for poorer people? Researchers from Population Services International and the Zambian Society for Family Health report on the results of a survey in low-income neighbourhoods in Lusaka, Zambia.
Why do some villages, families or individuals have a higher risk of malaria than others? What environmental factors increase susceptibility? How can structural improvements to housing protect families from infection? Researchers from the Tigray Health Bureau, Ethiopia and the UK University of Nottingham investigated malaria risk factors in the Ethiopian highlands.
It is fortuitous that a seemingly innocent request for data by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Professor Jerry Gana, may yet unravel the deep-rooted scam in the yearly federal budget.
Multinational companies are about to go on trial in Lesotho, accused of paying huge bribes to a local official, a case virtually unprecedented in Africa. European and Canadian engineering companies, four of them British, are alleged to have paid an official about oe3m for contracts for one of the continent's biggest engineering projects, the oe1bn construction of huge dams to supply water and electricity to South Africa, which entirely surrounds the mountainous kingdom.
President Daniel arap Moi and his ruling party have been buying votes by pumping money into traditional fund-raisers that have long been used to raise financing for public development, an advocacy group said Monday.
The situation confronting Egypt's sexual minority communities - historically marginalized legally and socially - has over the past few weeks deteriorated to the point where with every sign of an anti-homosexual "witch-hunt" in the offing indicates an incipient human rights tragedy. Readers of the following report -compiled from a variety of internet sources -are strongly urged to contact their country's foreign minister and ambassador to Egypt for the purpose of relaying the growing world concern over events there.
COSATU is extremely worried by the statements by Minister of Health casting doubt on whether the South African government will provide anti retrovirals even if they become more affordable. The prevarication by the Minister of Health amounts to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, particularly after the victory scored against the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association. COSATU believes that there is sufficient reason for the government to begin a programme of providing anti retrovirals as part of a comprehensive treatment strategy.
This manual was developed in Romania and addresses the connection between internal structures and relations of a school system to those existing in society at large. The authors argue that in order for democratic relations to exist in a a society there needs to be a certain amount of democratisation at the school level as well. The guide offers practical tips to improve relations between and among teaching staff, pupils and parents. It offers many examples on how to create community trust in the classroom and in the school and offers models for school councils, school policies, vision statements, constitutions, job descriptions and questionnaires.
Justice Vernanda Ziyambi opened the Seke election petition on 18th June, the only case in which the petitioner is a ZANU-PF candidate and the respondent is an MDC Member of Parliament. In his opening statement, Adam Kara, the advocate for the ZANU (PF) candidate Chiota, told the High Court that due to the absence of names of registered voters on the voters’ roll, persons in the Seke constituency were denied their fundamental right to vote.
Women's Learning Partnership (WLP) is pleased to announce the launch of our new website . WLP is a non-profit organization working to empower women and girls in the Global South through leadership training, capacity-building, and helping women generate as well as receive information and knowledge.
Lettre d'information 26/2001
semaine du 29.06.01 au 08.07.01
Philanthropy News Digest (PND), a weekly news service of the Foundation Center, is a compendium, in digest form, of philanthropy-related articles and features culled from print and electronic media outlets nationwide. The Digest is posted to the Foundation Center's Web site every Tuesday afternoon.
This programme focuses on human rights and gender issues; international standards of equality; and policies aiming at enhancing gender equality. During this three-week course, human rights protection of women are covered in all pertinent areas, thus encompassing civil and political as well as social and economic rights.
Deadline of application: 13 July 2001
This book offers analysis on critical issues on the International Sustainable Development Agenda as well as inviting key major group representatives to look at the reasons for slow progress so far in addressing those issues. A New Deals purpose is to focus attention on the Summit and to engage a wider global community around the summit in 2002 in an effort to advance the sustainable development agenda.
How much of the $56 billion that OECD countries counted as Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 1999 was 'real aid'? The question of whether aid is really reaching poor people is fundamental.
Since 1993, NGOs from North and South have worked together on the Reality of Aid project to answer this question. But as the project has progressed, the limitations of aid have become very clear.
Alongside the efforts of developing countries themselves, aid has sometimes made a difference for individual communities. It has contributed to improved social indicators over the past three decades. If aid had not existed, the human impact of many wars and disasters would have been worse - even more people would be in poverty.
But it is equally obvious that with poverty and inequality continuing to increase, there is a need for more fundamental change in economic and political priorities.
In this [new] Report, our aim is not to belittle the progress that has been achieved. Rather we want to do a modest reality check - to begin addressing some key questions in a way that will highlight the limitations on aid - whilst pointing to ways in which a reformed aid regime could become a catalyst for wider change.
* What are the true motivations for aid?
* How much aid is 'real aid'?
* What are the underlying reasons for the co-existence of aid and debt?
* Why is it OK to cancel debt for the rich but not for the poor?
* Why are donors so addicted to conditions?
* Can ownership be reconciled with conditionality?
* Democracy and hypocrisy: who sets standards on governance ?
These questions pose real challenges to donors in the North (including NGOs). They point to the gap between the claims of what aid can do, the policies of donors, which are outlined in the national reports from OECD NGOs, and the experience and observations of civil society in the South, which are described in reports from developing countries.
In the next full Reality of Aid Report, to be published in late 2001, we will be exploring these issues further, focusing particularly on the issues of ownership and conditionality. In the past, aid has too often been a part of the problem, an integral part of a wider economic and political order in which poverty and inequality are inherent. The aid regime has the right words... empowerment, participation. The question is, can it help people, North and South, challenge the orthodoxies and structures that perpetuate poverty?
The report, which is available on-line, has the following content:
* Introduction by Elin Enge, Chair Reality of Aid
* Poverty, inequality and aid: rhetoric and reality.
* Overview from the Reality of Aid Management Committee
* Data on aid and poverty
* OECD Reports
* Perspectives from the South on Development Cooperation - includes the following articles:
* International cooperation, poverty and democracy by Mariano Valderrama, CEPES -ALOP
* International Cooperation and Poverty in Latin America by Dorian Garay, CEPES -ALOP
* Exclusion, Inequality and Poverty in Latin America and the Carribean by Eduardo
* Ballón, CEPES - ALOP
* Economists and Power at the World Bank by Humberto Campodónico, DESCO
* Loan to restructure grains sector threatens small farmers and food security by Tony Tujan, IBON
* A gender perspective on conditionality by Thoko Matshe, ZWRCN
* Aid and Poverty Reduction Strategies by Warren Nyamugasira, Uganda Debt Network
* An aid/debt trade-off is one of our best options by Opa Kapijimpanga, AFRODAD
Seven people have been reported dead and about 25 were seriously injured following severe flooding in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, Accra Regional Police Commander Kwame Marfo said on Thursday. Damage to property and infrastructure has been estimated at about seven billion cedi (US $ 1million). Over 5,000 people are reportedly homeless.
The Congolese authorities have reportedly prevented opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi from leaving the country to attend a meeting of the Socialist International organisation in Portugal. According to a statement from Tshisekedi's party, the Union pour la democratie et le progres social (UDPS), he has been forbidden to leave his house in Kinshasa and is currently at home "under surveillance".
President Robert Mugabe said his government was ready for talks with Britain over land reform, but would not succumb to threats of economic sanctions, Reuters reported on Friday.
At least seven people have been shot dead in election violence across Uganda, news agencies reported on Wednesday. Violence erupted in a village near the eastern town of Mbale after a bodyguard of candidate Simon Mulongo allegedly shot and killed five opposition supporters, the semi-official 'New Vision' daily said. The newspaper reported that an angry mob then disarmed Mulongo's bodyguard before killing him. "At least six people are dead, and eight are injured and are in Mbale hospital," Reuters quoted police spokesman Eric Naigambi as saying.
A joint communique, issued after a recent meeting between the defence ministers of Burundi and Tanzania, noted that security along the common border had not improved "in spite of the strong political will which exists between the two countries".
While in New York to attend the UN summit on HIV/AIDS, Rwandan President Paul Kagame held a number of high-level meetings to discuss the current situation in the Great Lakes region and development support to his country, according to reports from Rwandan presidential spokesman Nicholas Shalita.
The newly-created International Consortium for Cooperation on the Nile (ICCON) held its first meeting on 26 through 28 June in Geneva, bringing together the international donor community and NGOs in support of the Nile Basin Initiative, a cooperative programme to address poverty, environmental degradation and instability.
The NGO, Medecins sans frontieres-Belgique (MSF-Belgium), on Thursday sent 22 mt of medical kits and logistical equipment for use in eastern and northern parts of the DRC. In a press statement, the organisation said the assistance was intended for people affected by measles, cholera and bloody diarrhoea. However, it warned, that despite the pressing need for humanitarian assistance, this alone was not enough.