Pambazuka News 576: The dangers of Kony2012
Pambazuka News 576: The dangers of Kony2012
Civil Society Organisations in Malawi have called on the government to withdraw threats targeted at the media and civil rights groups. Led by Council for Non Governmental Organisations Chairperson Voice Mhone, the NGOs have again denied they are party to any plans to topple Bingu wa Mutharika regime. President Mutharika has accused CSOs of organising a meeting to demand a referendum and/or nationwide protests to unseat the government.
The Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) will be officially launched 10 - 13 March 2012. The new group is expected to discuss how to step up its campaign for democracy in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Major protests are expected in April and May this year. TUCOSWA, which will have about 50,000 members, is an amalgamation of the existing Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) and Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL). It is hoped that the new group will enable trade unionists in Swaziland to speak with a single voice.
The World Bank should never expect a wholesale acceptance of their programmes aimed at bailing the country out of the current economic mess as President Bingu wa Mutharika says he is not an 'idiot' to do that. 'The level [of the mission] is not even that of a minister but a principal secretary. So you want me to meet every Jim and Jack who comes from wherever at the expense of my job? I am not that cheap and I'm not for sale; I am the president.' On the bailout, Mutharika said the World Bank and other donors should align their programmes with the country's, otherwise he would not accept them at all.
Acting deputy chief justice Zak Yacoob has responded indirectly to president Jacob Zuma's concerns about the power and intellectual vibrancy of the Constitutional Court. Zuma has questioned the split decisions emanating from the Constitutional Court: 'It is after experience that some of the decisions are not decisions that every other judge in the Constitutional Court agrees with...How could you say that [the] judgment is absolutely correct when the judges themselves have different views about it?' Yacoob said he would be 'perturbed if the 11 judges of the Constitutional Court agreed with each other, judgment after judgment, year after year' as it would suggest a court lacking in rigour and debate. Yacoob's statements come at a time when there is increasing public debate around the role and powers of the constitutional court. Both the government and members of the ruling ANC have made critical noises about the incursions of the judiciary into the political sphere.
Damaging new claims have emerged about the funding of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign and his links with former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The French investigative website Mediapart claims to have seen a confidential note suggesting Gaddafi contributed as much as €50-million to Sarkozy's election fund five years ago. But Sarkozy has angrily denied receiving funds from the slain Libyan dictator.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has asked the public protector to look into claims of corruption levelled against his partner, Gugu Mtshali - but he would do well to remember that this isn't the first time she has been linked to dodgy business dealings. This weekend, the Sunday Times reported that Mtshali had solicited a R104-million bribe to get government support for a South African company that tried to secure a R2-billion sanctions-busting deal with Iran.
More than 25,000 striking health workers on Friday (09 March) started receiving dismissal letters as retired nurses and interns applied for their jobs. This happened as some nurses in Western Kenya resumed work but their counterparts in other parts of the country vowed to continue with the strike or were split on the way forward.
Students in Swaziland will have their scholarships revoked if they engage in political activity, if the Swazi Government has its way. New rules for students presently being drafted state that ‘at its discretion’, the Scholarship Selection Board can terminate a scholarship ‘when a student is a member, supports or furthers the activities of a banned entity’. In Swaziland all political parties are banned, as are a number of pro-democracy organisations, including the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) and the Swaziland Solidarity Network.
The lower house of the Egyptian parliament has unanimously approved a text declaring that Israel is the number one enemy of Egypt and calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and a halt to gas exports to Israel. Egyptian MPs voted by a show of hands on the text of a report, which was compiled by the Arab Affairs Committee of the People's Assembly (lower house of parliament).
As police and illegal vendors in Zimbabwe’s capital clash over licenses, others urge the government to address the underlying problems of unemployment and poverty. A federal government plan aims to address both, as the city government and residents association discuss a solution on the ground.
In a small courtyard outside the National Council for the Care of Martyrs and Injured, people swarm around two barred windows with outstretched arms, thrusting paper work toward the front of the crowd. Over a year after the 25 January uprising, Egyptians injured in the course of the street action that toppled president Hosni Mubarak say they are still seeking funding for medical treatment and rehabilitation. Many of them come to the national council hoping for one of the 3,200 promised job opportunities. Others come to complain about invalid compensation checks or untreated injuries.
Reporters without Borders has said that Egypt remains on the list of countries 'under surveillance' in the area of freedom of internet activity and online content filtering. The North African country steered clear of the newly updated 'internet enemies' list, which along with the report was impacted by the so called Arab Spring. The report cited attacks against cyber dissidents, activists, and journalists seeking to expose alleged violations by military officers against peaceful protest movement trying to organize its second wave against the military rule.
The struggle for justice, freedom, equality and dignity for all people especially working-class women and men requires leadership based on knowledge of history, politics, economics, science and culture. Historical knowledge is indispensable to constructing the traditions of progressive struggle for freedom and creating new generations of leaders to transform our world, write Thuto Thipe and Zackie Achmat on the blog Ndifuna Ukwazi, in a post that pays tribute to Black women who created a mass movement that came to build the best traditions of the ANC.
On 9 March, the Committee on Word Food Security (CFS) completed the intergovernmental negotiations of the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Tenure of Land Fisheries and Forests in the context of national food security. The guidelines contain valuable points that will provide backing to organizations in their long struggle to ensure the care and use of resources and natural goods in order to produce more nourishing food, so helping to eliminate hunger from the world by addressing its root causes, says this press release from a coalition of civil society organisations.
Israel is to begin construction soon on a vast detention facility in the Negev desert to house the thousands of immigrants that cross illegally into Israel from Egypt every year. Human rights groups fear that the detention centre, the largest of its kind in the world, with a capacity to hold 8,000 migrants, will turn into a festering refugee camp, and deprive those escaping persecution at home of their rights to seek asylum in Israel.
Western companies should guard against high risks involved in doing business as usual with African countries that have recently discovered offshore oil. A new report asks them to be prepared to manage the perils stemming from 'resource nationalism' in institutionally fragile and politically volatile nations. The warning by UK-based Maplecroft risk analysts refers particularly to countries 'where we see a disenchanted poorly educated youth, many of whom following war torn years out of school, are finding reintegration back into society particularly challenging.' New oil frontiers which the risk analysts have in mind include Equatorial Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon, and the Congo, all of which are classified in the index as 'high risk' countries.
Key staff from Al Jazeera’s Beirut Bureau have resigned citing “bias” in the channel’s stance on the conflict in Syria. Bureau Managing Director Hassan Shaaban reportedly quit last week, after his correspondent and producer had walked out in protest. A source told the Lebanese paper Al Akhbar that Al Jazeera’s Beirut correspondent Ali Hashem had quit over the channel’s stance on covering events in Syria.
The need for the adoption of a West African regional legal framework on Freedom of Expression (FOE) and Right to Information (RTI) received a significant endorsement on 5 March 2012, when Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, urged his colleagues from ECOWAS member countries to work towards bequeathing such a legal framework for the regional group, ECOWAS.
A woman journalist has gone into hiding in Liberia after receiving threats over an expose she published on female genital mutilation (FGM). Mae Azango, who reports for the local daily FrontPage Africa and the international news website New Narratives, went into hiding after her article was published last week in which she reported two out of three girls were victims of FGM in certain parts of the country.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has found the Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga, guilty of recruiting and using child soldiers. It is the court's first verdict since it was set up 10 years ago. He will be sentenced at a later hearing. The charges relate to a conflict in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo between 2002 and 2003.
A Zimbabwean government-run newspaper has accused an expert attached to a parliamentary committee heading the country’s controversial constitution making of spying for South African President Jacob Zuma. The allegations followed a week of heated exchanges between Pretoria and Harare over the timing of Zimbabwe’s next elections. President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party last week accused South Africa of gross interference after its Foreign Affairs minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane insisted her government needed to see full reforms before elections are held.
An armed group ambushed a public bus and killed 19 people in western Ethiopia region of Gambela, officials have confirmed. The Monday 12 March incident occurred some 20 kilometres from the regional capital, Gambela town. According to an eye witness, people armed with machine-guns, abducted five female passengers out of the 34, who were in the bus. Seven other people were severely wounded.
There is battle raging across the world over who can better feed its people: small-scale farmers practicing sustainable agriculture, or giant agribusinesses using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. It was small-scale organic farmers growing rice for themselves and local markets in the Philippines who first convinced us that they could feed both their communities and their country. Part of what convinced us was simple economics: These farmers demonstrated substantial immediate savings from eliminating chemical inputs while, within a few harvests - if not immediately - their yields were close to or above their previous harvests. From these farmers, we also learned of the health and environmental benefits from this shift.
Strategies that worked well to drive up men's willingness to participate included the use of peer educators, community events and incentives tied to project phases. Less popular were the use of mobile-phone messaging due to frequent phone number changes, and treatment buddies, which sparked privacy concerns among actual trial participants. This was one of the things researchers found out in the world's largest study of preventative tuberculosis therapy.
Thousands of Rwandan refugees living in Uganda remain unwilling to return home, citing a fear of persecution, despite the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) invocation of a clause ending their refugee status. '[Since May 2009], no Rwandan refugee of any profile, either urban or rural, has expressed [a] willingness to return back home,' Manzi Mutuyimana, one of the refugees, told IRIN. 'Conditions which could make [a] safe return with dignity [do not exist] in Rwanda.' The refugees and asylum-seekers fled to Uganda between 1959 and 1998.
‘Beyond the all-too-familiar message of violence against women, Amadi's epigram-clad poem is like the very best straight out of a Holy Book.’
‘Beyond the all-too-familiar message of violence against women, Amadi's epigram-clad poem is like the very best straight out of a Holy Book’- Akwasi Aidoo
Media Release
March 13, 2012
Geneva, 11 March 2012
Translations are not neutral; they are products of history and are highly charged politically. Yet despite this, Fanon’s thought in his translated works has remained clear, inspiring people from Steve Biko to Abahlali baseMjondolo.
Arab regimes achieved success within a short period but then ran out of steam as a result of their internal limits and contradictions. The ruling circles have given in to neo-liberal globalization, leading to rapid decline in social conditions. That is what caused the revolts.
Africa’s greedy rulers have looted the immense resources of their own countries, leaving the people poor and desperate. The continent’s people must rise up and hold the rulers to account through proper governance mechanisms that will ensure transparent management of national resources.
Seven opposition MPs are spearheading a move to remove President Museveni from office. The legislators who launched the impeachment process this morning, after signing a petition, are soliciting for signatures from their colleagues. They accuse the President of abuse of office and committing economic crimes in contravention of the Constitution.
Gunshots rocked Amuru District as the police tried to disperse about 100 people who had crossed from Adjumani District to the disputed border area of Elegu, to reportedly distribute plots of land among themselves. Although Atiak residents in Amuru District claim legitimacy over the land, the Ofodro clan members in Arinyapi Sub-county district claim the land, that has since become lucrative, belongs to their grandparents and that they only abandoned it during insecurity.
The national parks of the Lower Omo Valley in Southwest Ethiopia are among 'the last unspoiled biodiversity hotspots in Africa' and constitute 'resources of all people in the world'. These are not the words of tree-hugging foreign environmentalists, but of Ethiopian government officials who recently prepared a report about the region. The Gibe III Dam and the sugar plantations associated with it are now putting these unique biodiversity hotspots at risk.
Khayelitsha NGO Equal Education has announced it will take basic education minister Angie Motshekga, finance minister Pravin Gordhan and the nine provincial MECs to court for their collective failures on school infrastructure. EE claims it’ll be the most far-reaching case about basic education in post-apartheid South Africa. In its 582-page founding affidavit, Equal Education, a movement made up of pupils, teachers and parents, says Motshekga has failed to exercise the powers section 5A of the SA Schools Act gives her to prescribe minima for school infrastructure.
Gambia's six main opposition parties have opted out of the parliamentary elections, alleging unfair treatment by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), which has refused to heed their request for a postponement of the polls from 29 March, PANA confirmed. PANA reports that the IEC insisted that the election date will remain as scheduled. In addition, the IEC received nomination forms for candidates for the exercise between 8-10 March and even went ahead to declare 24 candidates from the ruling party 'returned unopposed'. As it is now, only 24 parliamentary seats remain to be contested for.
Thousands of members of the Democratic Opposition Coordinatioon (COD) in Mauritania, grouping 12 opposition political parties, mounted a massive demonstration here Monday 12 March, to press for an end to military rule. They also denounced 'the increasingly difficult and harsh living conditions, the exclusion of some tribes in the country and the inability of the government to manage a crisis-ridden Mauritania.'
Sudan and South Sudan have agreed a framework agreement to give their citizens basic freedoms in both nations, African Union mediators say. They have agreed to allow citizens of the other state to live, work and own property on either side of the border, and travel between the two nations. Analysts say deals have been broken in the past, and the two sides have left space to wriggle out of this accord.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith insists Australian soldiers and spies overseas always act within legal restraints, but he has refused to comment on the secret operations of Australian commandos in Africa. Fairfax Media revealed the previously classified operations of Special Air Service 4 Squadron, raised in secret in 2005 and deployed to at least three African nations for covert intelligence collection. The troops have operated out of uniform in Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
The World Socialist Website reports on German study published by the government on young muslims in the country. The study’s publication has become the occasion for a renewed campaign against immigrant communities in Germany. A 'deliberate political campaign seeks to limit the study’s findings to that which can be exploited for the dissemination of xenophobic sentiments. In fact, the 750-page report provides a much more nuanced picture. The fact that the researchers are critical of the government’s integration policy is being swept under the carpet.'
Ten months after the West African country started to emerge from a presidential election crisis during which almost all hospitals and clinics had to shut down for a good six months because they had been vandalised, looted and occupied, the new government under President Alassane Ouattara is trying to make public health care a priority. But in a country recovering from 12 years of political instability since a military coup in December 1999 that was followed by 10 years of Gbagbo’s autocratic rule, rebuilding a crumbling public health care system takes time.
A 2008 agreement preventing new Somali-owned shops from opening in Khayelitsha was undermined by bribery and the demands of local residents, it emerged at a meeting called on Wednesday to find a solution to recent tensions between local business owners and Somali traders.Recent, belated enforcement of the 2008 agreement reached between the Zanokhanyo Retailers Association and the Somali Retailers Association in the aftermath of the xenophobic attacks that year resulted in two Somali-owned shops being looted and at least 25 others being forcibly closed over the last two weeks.
For over five years, thousands of displaced people have been living in camps in North Kivu. This report analyses the camps of Bihito, Kalinga, Kilimani, and Lushebere, located in Masisi, a territory especially affected by displacement. In order to gain a better understanding of durable solutions that are suitable for the IDPs living in the camps, this report investigates the causes behind their displacement, as well as their living conditions and their prospects for the future. Finally, it offers concrete suggestions to the actors involved, such as authorities in DRC, as well as international and Congolese organisations that provide assistance and protection to IDPs in the camps and support durable solutions to their displacement.
The gist of the paper is how the World Development Report shows that the Bank now acknowledges that '...social and cultural factors make it difficult for women to participate with equal rights in the social and political life of their societies.' This statement isn't groundbreaking in itself, but it shows a sea change in how the World Bank thinks about women's equality. In the past, they viewed gender equality as a natural side effect of bringing greater prosperity to a region.
Former law lecturer and socialist party leader Munyaradzi Gwisai, and five other activists arrested for watching videos of the Egyptian uprisings last year, have filed a $300,000 law suit against the police and both Home Affairs co-Ministers. A total of 46 activists were arrested when police raided Gwisai’s home, where the activists were watching videos of the uprisings in Egypt and North Africa. They were charged with plotting to destabilize the government. The majority were released, but six who remained in custody say they were tortured.
An international mining analysis group has warned that platinum mining giant Implats will be unlikely to receive full compensation for its shares, which the group has agreed to hand over as part of Zimbabwe’s indigenisation laws. Implats, which owns the Zimplats mining firm in Zimbabwe and is the country’s largest single foreign investor, has conceded to the ZANU PF led indigenisation campaign, agreeing to a 51 per cent share handover.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of women around the world die during childbirth because they lack access to the medical assistance they need. On International Women’s Day, 8 March, MSF released a report, 'Maternal Death: The Avoidable Crisis', that details the profound, life-saving impact quality emergency obstetric care can have for pregnant women who are trying to endure acute and chronic humanitarian crises. Download the report from the website.
Mauritania dispatched its top diplomat to neighbouring Mali to counter media reports that it was backing Malian rebels fighting for independence in the desert north. The Mauritanian foreign minister expressed his country's support for Mali's authorities. His visit came as rebel fighters arrived within 135 km (80 miles) of Timbuktu, the capital of one of three northern regions they want to annex to create a new state on the edge of the Sahara.
Moroccan police on Wednesday beat up protesters who were seeking to stage a demonstration in the capital Rabat in solidarity to anti-government protests in the north. A Reuters reporter and photographer saw at least three people injured after dozens of truncheon-wielding policemen chased a few hundred protesters around the streets of downtown Rabat. The demonstrators had been seeking to gather in front of a local government office.
This report looks at the appropiatness of the International Monetary Fund in dealing with global economic recovery. In April 2009, G-20 leaders designated the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the central vehicle for global economic recovery and tripled the Fund’s lending capacity from US$250 billion to US$750 billion. Civil society and humanitarian organizations expressed deep concern due to the Fund’s checkered record in predicting and responding to crises.
This report identifies Norway’s loans to Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain, and discusses the legitimacy of this debt. Norway has lent money to these countries through bilateral debt and through investments in government bonds. Should a new regime, when it has been established, inherit the debt from the previous regime?
This handbook is a timely, illustrated and easy-to-read guide and resource material for journalists. It evolved primarily out of a desire to equip all journalists with more information and understanding of gender issues in their work. It is addressed to media organisations, professional associations and journalists’ unions seeking to contribute to the goal of gender equality.
Comparisons between Israel’s control over the Palestinians and apartheid South Africa can yield crucial clues on how to move towards the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Forget that the Kony 2012 video has flaws. Rather, bring on the help and catch Joseph Kony.
Submission of the Unemployed People’s Movement to the SAHRC public hearings on the right to sanitation and basic services.
Land Grabs in Africa: Economic Growth or Re-colonization?
Africa is being recolonised. American interventionist activities in the continent’s Great Lakes region provide a perfect example. African peoples must rise up to protect their own interests by demanding a new relationship with the West.
A new constitution for Zimbabwe is only one step in a series of fundamental reforms that are needed before Zimbabwe can hold elections.
It has been reported frequently that clandestine homosexual groups exist in Addis Abeba, many of whom lead double lives, since being openly gay or lesbian could cost them their lives.
The notion that modern day development is achievable purely through mega projects is perhaps misplaced as it ignores the place of technology and, for Africa, the contribution of ‘small’ industries at this stage in achieving sustainable industrialisation.
A year has passed since the military assumed power after President Hosni Mubarak was ousted. But is Egypt any closer to the freedom and justice it sought when its people rose up against the Mubarak regime?
On the 26 September 2009 a political attack took place in Kennedy Road. Nothing has since been offered by eThekwini municipality to Kennedy victims who lost their homes.
New book uncovers private failures leading cities to take back control of water worldwide.
The authors of the paper ‘Treading Troubled Waters’ speak of the critical situations faced by the water sector on the strength of a process that involved partnerships, network of academic institutions, peoples and non-government organizations, and local communities. This process undertaken through the Development Roundtable Series (DRTS) program initiated and anchored by Focus on the Global South-Philippines, involved consultations, roundtable discussion, research and case studies across the country. These activities have produced both anecdotal information and hard data from the field and existing documents.
A mother is not easily convinced that her daughter is okay in the head when she admits to being gay. She thinks that there must be some underlying psychological and emotional problems.
Biafra secessionist leader Odumegwu Ochuku has left a legacy for a new generation of Nigerians who must now see personal sacrifice as a prerequisite for public service.
‘We’ve agreed to so many things before – but it’s always in the implementation that we get bogged down.’
Ethiopian authorities have inadvertently revealed the existence of highly ambitious plans to resettle Lower Omo Valley tribes who stand in the way of a massive plantations scheme. The map was included in an internal report by the country’s Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA), into the environmental impact of planned sugarcane plantations in the Omo. Leaked to Survival International, the map shows where Ethiopia intends to resettle tribes whose land and communities stand in the way of their ‘development’ plans.
The Democratic Left Front (DLF) is supporting the call by the Ad-Hoc Defence Committee of the Zimbabwean six for a protest against the unfair trial and possible heavy conviction of six political activists who are facing trumped-up charges ('conspiring against the state') in Zimbabwe. The protest will take place on Tuesday, 20 March 2012 in front of the Zimbabwean Consulate and Visa Office in Johannesburg.
We, members of the Feminist Activist Coalition, comprising of over 40 civil society organisations promoting gender equity, social justice, human rights and the transformative feminist movement are outraged over the arrest of 16 activists on 9 February 2012 in Dar es Salaam and their subsequent indictment, purportedly for holding an unlawful assembly.
The trend of privatisation and commercialisation of water services, which set in in the 1980s and continued throughout the 1990s, has come to a halt due to the process’ own failures, and has given rise to a return of those services into efficient public management, according to a new book. Released on 11 March, 'Remunicipalisation: Putting water back in public hands' was authored by several activists at the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI) and the watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) in cooperation with several non- governmental organisations.
With the World Water Forum (WWF) convening representatives of the water industry, other major corporations and government officials in Marseilles to shape international water policy such that it to prioritizes for-profit models of water delivery, and profit-oriented allocation of the world’s most essential resource, a statement from Corporate Accountability International has noted that while water for domestic purposes is a recognized human right, today nearly 900 million people lack consistent, safe access. Corporate control and management has proven a failure in addressing this tragic shortfall, instead diverting the investment dollars and political will required to reverse this global crisis.
Global greenhouse gas emissions could rise 50 per cent by 2050 without more ambitious climate policies, as fossil fuels continue to dominate the energy mix, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said. The global economy in 2050 will be four times larger than today and the world will use around 80 per cent more energy.
During part I of this two-part special from SOAS radio, presenter Robtel Pailey deconstructs and dissects the conventional story told about Somalia with studio guests: Quman Jibril, a Somali independent research consultant who has a special interest in international refugee protection and advocacy; Mary Harper, BBC Africa Editor and author of the new book, Getting Somalia Wrong? published by Zed Books; and Mohamed Haji Ingiriis, a Somali researcher currently pursuing a Masters degree at the London Metropolitan University.
'We – the Black and white initiatives, organisations and institutions of the civil society signed below - welcome the conciliatory approach adopted by the German Federal Government as demonstrated by the visit to Namibia by the Director General of African Affairs from the Federal Foreign Office in early February 2012. We also welcome the resulting commencement of direct talks with the committees representing the descendants of the victims of the German genocide of 1904-08. We consider this overdue willingness to engage in dialogue with bodies of representatives of the affected peoples as a first indispensable step towards reconciliation between the peoples in Namibia and Germany.'
'The German Bundestag is requested to adopt the following motion:
1. The German Bundestag remembers the crimes perpetrated by the colonial troops of the German Empire in the former colony of German South-West Africa, and bows down in memory of the victims of expulsions, expropriation, forced labour, massacres, rape, medical experiments, deportations to other German colonies, and inhuman confinement in internment camps. Academic studies estimate that the war of extermination between 1904 and 1908 resulted in the deaths of up to 80 per cent of the Herero, over 50 per cent of the Nama and a large part of the Damara and San.'
In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Environmental Politics Institute is an interdisciplinary forum which brings together African scholars undertaking innovative research on topics related to the broad theme of environmental politics. The aim of the Institute is to promote and sustain the development of coherent social sciences engagement with environmental issues in Africa. The Institute will promote research and debates on issues related to environmental politics especially as they relate to democratic decision making in climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and programs on the continent. The Institute will be launched in 2012 and subsequently held annually in Dakar, Senegal.