KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 19

Lettre d'information 16/2001

I ask leaders of nonprofit organizations if they have an email strategy and their usual response is something on the order of "huh?" They are spending enormous amounts of money and staff time on their web sites and it's the rare exception that the organization even has enough of an email strategy to have a newsletter. They are wasting their money. I'm serious.

CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, the largest nonprofit consulting and training firm in the US, and SmarterOrg, the first e-learning provider focused exclusively on the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, announced a partnership today to develop and deliver online learning courses for nonprofit organizations.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) today warned that Tuberculosis (TB) cases in Africa will likely double over the next decade as a consequence of the increased spread of HIV and the under-funding of strategies effective in curing TB.

The Health Ministry of the Somali Transitional Government has currently undertaken a health program aimed at orientating the public towards the dangers of AIDS for the human being.

Six workers for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been killed in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the organisation says.

Zambia's vice president and 10 government ministers are to boycott a special ruling party congress meeting called to extend President Frederick Chiluba's rule.

A Rwandan bishop who was arrested in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Thursday has been charged with genocide and conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity by a UN tribunal in Tanzania.

Zimbabwe Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has dismissed reports that President Robert Mugabe's governing party has suffered a setback in the High Court. The court nullified the result of last year's election in two constituencies on Thursday, including one contested and lost by the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Thousands of Liberian troops have been sent to the country's troubled northern border with Guinea where the rebels control a number of towns. Officials said the troops had launched simultaneous counter-attacks on the rebel held towns of Foya, Kolahun, Vahun, Voinjama and Zorzor.

Leading members of South Africa's ruling African National Congress party have criticised the investigation into three of its members in connection with a plot to oust President Thabo Mbeki.

Twenty members of the Tutsi Parena party in Burundi have been arrested after they visited their colleagues in prison. The group were detained when they went to give food and other supplies to two senior Parena party officials who had been arrested in connection with an attempted coup in Burundi earlier this month.

High level talks on the Kyoto climate protocol at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York over the weekend have confirmed global opposition to America's decision to abandon the deal in its current form.

Please advise us of the existing options for NGO funding within Kabissa. Our very much needed programme campaign for reading culture suffers greatly from under capitalisation of programme activities. Please reply soonest.

OUR REPLY: Kabissa is not a funding organisation. We're glad to provide you with space on the Kabissa site to promote your programmes. This is what Kabissa membership is for. You may want send a submission to the Kabissa-fahamu Newsletter, which is widely distributed among funders. See for details or send your submission to [email protected]. We can include up to 500 words in the newsletter and as much text as you need on the newsletter website.

One of the first decisions that George W Bush took when he reached the White House was to announce that the US aid programme would not fund family planning programmes with any element of abortion. Now one of the best known fundraising operations in the UK - which has raised 115 million of pounds for development programmes carried out by British NGOs in Africa - has capitulated to pressures from the right-wing lobby and the Catholic Church.

Apparently desperate to get money at any cost, Comic Relief has set up a separate bank account for funds that will not be used for projects working on sexual and reproductive health.

In its defence, Comic Relief said less than 3% of all funds spent has been allocated to projects with a family planning component.In a continent ravaged by HIV and AIDS, this statistic is shocking enough, casting doubt on the extent to which Comic Relief's funds are being used to meet Africa's priorities. Any serious analysis of poverty and its solutions will conclude that the involvement of women in the development process is fundamental. Their involvement, their health and that of their children, is intimately linked to their ability to make choices, including their ability to make informed decisions about family size.

For Comic Relief to bow to the pressures of the right effectively reduces the already small amount it devotes to work on sexual and reproductive health in Africa. It sets a precedent for other rightwing pressure groups to ask for their donations to be ring-fenced. What will Comic Relief say when that lobby says it wants none of its money to be used to help blacks?

Many NGOs in the UK have circulated protest letters to Comic Relief. Such protests come in the wake of growing criticism of the way in which Africans are portrayed in television programmes produced by Comic Relief for its fund-raising work. Many believe that these programmes portray African people merely as passive recipients of white benefactors instead of as people who fight against poverty, exploitation and injustice.

Tagged under: 19, Contributor, Features, Governance

Six of the world leading pharmaceutical companies have agreed to make retroviral drugs for HIV/Aids affordable in developing nations, Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General said yesterday. "We agreed that they will reduce the prices quite considerably and some have cut it back by 80, 90%," Annan told a news conference in Nigeria on the sideline of a two-day African Summit on HIV/Aids, malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

Those of us seated here represent some of the poorest countries in Africa which have had long relationships with the Bretton Woods institutions, especially in regard to the fight against poverty. We are committed to growth in our countries, through which we can effectively combat poverty, and to that extent, we are carrying out in various degrees of progress programs with the Bretton Woods institutions aiming at essentially combating poverty through action programs better known as PRSPs.

I thought about going to the Quebec Summit of the Americas, but I lost my gas mask so I decided to go to Africa instead. It's interesting listening to Africans talk about globalization. While the protesters in Quebec were busy denouncing globalization in the name of Africans and the world's poor, Africans themselves will tell you that their problem with globalization is not that they are getting too much of it, but too little.

International Center and Liberia Institute of Journalism. Reporting on Human Rights, Democracy & Development. Vol.1 No.17, 27 April, 2001.

The Council’s mission to the Great Lakes region of Africa will monitor the progress made by the parties in adopting the provisions of Security Council resolution 1341, on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which urges respect for the ceasefire, cooperation with the UN Mission on the ground and the disengagement of forces to agreed positions. The mission will also encourage the parties to commit themselves to the next steps in the peace process.

A Policy Research Report by the World Bank focusing on gender issues and their broad economic and social implications in developing and transitional countries. The report examines the conceptual and empirical links between gender, public policy, and development outcomes and demonstrates the value of applying a gender perspective to the design of development policies.

In every region, populations are getting older. Moreover, ageing is a gendered phenomenon: women live longer, they have fewer resources, and they are expected to care for elderly relatives as well as young children. The causes are familiar: lower - or nonexistent - pay for 'women's work' and breaks in earnings history add up to lower pension income, while social and cultural norms assign women to take care of both young and old, regardless of the costs to themselves. In many places, women are the community caregivers, yet their own need for care goes unmet.

A top Rwandan minister said on Wednesday that he would take legal action against the United Nations for mentioning his wife in a report on the looting of the Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral wealth.

The National Survey of Human Rights Education in the United States has been completed and preliminary results are available for input and feedback. The initial results are based on the 20 states who responded that human rights education is mandated and/or part of their state educational standards.

Nigerian Nobel Prize winning author Wole Soyinka has an Earth Week message for the world about his homeland - at least a third of the entire country is polluted in some way.

The email and web network from THE COMMUNICATION INITIATIVE partnership. Covering communication for development activities.

A former Eritrean Government minister has openly criticised the president. It is the first time in Eritrea that a leading politician has dared speak out against President Isaias Afewerki.

Monetary penalties should be used as the primary tool for enforcing trade agreement provisions, including workers' rights protections, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.

Western diplomats and members of non-governmental organisations met on Thursday to discuss tightening their security after reports that Zimbabwean war veterans were planning to raid foreign missions suspected of funding or supporting the opposition, AFP reported.

The Sudan government has said that it is essential to act quickly on a serious problem of drought in a number of affected regions. In a high-level meeting between government officials, diplomats and humanitarian agencies this week in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, the government called for "swift action domestically and at the international level".

Tanzanian refugees who fled to Kenya from the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar have told UNHCR that they would be ready to return home "if talks between the government and the opposition [Civic United Front (CUF)] lead to a declaration that would ease tensions on the islands".

A wave of fighting between the Burundian army and rebel forces has caused "massive temporary displacement" although most of the victims tend to move back to their homes "when calm returns", humanitarian sources told IRIN on Thursday. The recent wave of fighting started on 24 February in Bujumbura-Mairie and resulted in the temporary displacement of 54,000 people, the sources said.

Angola's Interior Minister Fernando da Piedade has said the country's army intervened in the DRC and also in the Republic of Congo (ROC) because of these countries rights to "legitimate defence against aggressor forces, national judicial fundamentals and respect for international law".

Former South African President Nelson Mandela was scheduled to meet representatives of the Burundian army, leaders of religious groups and socio-professional groups in Pretoria on 4 May, PANA reported on Thursday.

The provincial government of Namibe in southern Angola has appealed to the international community and non-governmental organisations operating in Angola to help victims of new flooding which has left more than 7,000 families homeless and in desperate need of food, shelter and medicines, World Vision reported on Thursday.

The International Secretariat of OMCT is very concerned about the death penalty to which 4 children were condemned by the Military Court (COM, Cour d’Ordre Militaire) of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Military Court is an
exceptional court from which no appeal is possible. In each of these cases the trials have allegedly been carried out summarily.

"Towards an International Criminal Procedure". Christoph Safferling, Assistant Professor in the Law Faculty, University of Hannover. "International Criminal Law A Commentary on the Rome Statute for an International Criminal Court" Edited by Judge Antonio Cassese, Professor of International Law.

The WorldSpace Corporation today launched the world's largest digital audio broadcast system, inaugurating a first-of-its-kind satellite radio service that will transmit a wide array of multilingual radio programming across the entire African continent.

Three Kenyan workers for the United Nations were arraigned Monday on charges of threatening to kill Ambassador Johnnie Carson of the United States, three international UN staff members and an employee of the U.S. Immigration and Nationalization Service in an attempt to cover up an extortion racket.

The Sustainable Development Communications Network
is launching a new initiative to develop training materials for civil society Web managers.

The first Preparatory Committee (Prepcom) Meeting for Financing for Development (FFD), held in the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York from February 12 – 23, seemed unable to move beyond an over simplified equation between development and economic globalisation. It seems clear that unless fundamental changes are brought about in the international financial system, architecture, institutions and governance in favour of poor and developing countries, these countries are likely to pay a far higher price for development than before.

Welcome to a post-mortem of and a critical look at Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) in Africa together with a proposed new recipe to make them better, avoiding their (sometimes now judged clumsy) pitfalls.

Voices in Exile shows how the rights of refugees in Africa to freedom of expression and information are not adequately safeguarded by the UN and OAU Conventions and are often overridden by political or practical considerations. It cites examples of national authorities and UNHCR limiting refugees' expression or punishing them for speaking out, but also emphasizes the increasingly active role being played by African NGOs in supporting refugee rights.

To celebrate this year's May Day, on Wednesday 2 May SANGOCO and Interfund are hosting a debate on the merits of and progress in building an alliance
between labour and community activitists, key elements of civil society. DATE: Wednesday 2 May
TIME: 13h00. VENUE: SANGOCO boardroom, 10th floor Auckland House, 185 Smit Street, Braamfontein.

National Institute for Public Interest Law and Research. In 1997, NIPILAR started a project, which specifically looked at civil society’s awareness of their human rights and constitutional instruments and Institutions that promote democratic practice. This report looks at the local SA system and establishes how people know of these and their functions.

Amnesty International today took note of the presidential decree pardoning 47 people arrested over last Easter and called for an impartial and independent investigation into the shootings, beatings and arrests by the Sudanese riot police on April 11, 2001.

An historic meeting of Ministers of Water Affairs from the Nile Basin countries has ended with agreement to cooperate on seven basin-wide projects. The meeting marks an important milestone of the Nile Basin Initiative
(NBI), an unprecedented partnership which has united nine African countries in pursuit of sustainable development and management of the River Nile water resources.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the largest association of fundraisers in the world, has announced the development of principles for the E-Donor Bill of Rights, a document which lists the rights that donors should expect and demand when making an online charitable gift.

The Steering Committee of the Global Campaign for Ratification of the Convention on Rights of Migrants last week agreed to begin focused campaign activities on six countries being Bangladesh, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau and Zambia . The aim is to achieve the entry into force of the Convention by the time of the World Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia. For information, please contact Jonathan Hepburn.

This compilation of 'information sheets' and 'funding sheets' has been prepared to raise awareness and gives an overview of European strategies and actions on the growing problem of trafficking in women. It covers elements common to various types of trafficking in human beings and concentrates on the issue of trafficking in women.

The European Campaign on Women Asylum Seekers is launched to draw attention to the type of persecution women experience and by doing so to exert pressure on Member State governments and the European institutions to develop a gender-sensitive European Policy on Asylum, in which women can claim asylum in their own right, based on their own experience of persecution as legitimate reasons for seeking and obtaining asylum in any of the EU Member States.

Published by the Co-operative for Research and Education (CORE) US $40. 13 advocacy case studies from the region, dealing with issues including human rights, women's rights & political participation, rights of disabled people, land reform, civic education & election monitoring, HIV/AIDS, and landmines. Contact Phiroshaw Camay.

A "critical" humanitarian situation is unfolding in the Angolan central highlands as a result of "persistent insecurity" that has driven people off their land, an OCHA statement has warned.

When the World Bank and International Monetary Fund spring meetings open in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 2001, officials will point proudly to the roughly $20 billion in debt that they have promised to cancel since their heavily-protested meetings last year. These promises take a step in the right direction, concludes a new report from the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based research organization. But even full cancellation would only be a Band-Aid for a broken system.

An embarrassing report from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund released over the weekend casts a dark shadow over their Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, showing little confidence that the controversial debt package will provide an end to the debt crisis for the countries involved.

Tagged under: 19, Contributor, Development, Resources

African anger over tough and "dogmatic" conditions imposed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund is absent from the Bretton Woods institutions' spring meetings for the first time in many years.

The Tanzania government has formed a four-man task force to investigate a massive corruption scandal involving government officials suspected to have pocketed millions of Tanzania shillings in compensation to some 900 people relocated from a gold mining area in Geita, Mwanza, on the shores of Lake Victoria.

Transparency International Kenya convened an open forum last week to discuss whether Kenyans should think of an amnesty for economic crimes.

Tagged under: 19, Contributor, Corruption, Governance

The German Ambassador has described Kenya as the fastest collapsing economy in Africa after Zimbabwe. Whereas the Ugandan and Tanzanian economies were growing at 5 per cent, Kenya's has been declining for the last few years, says Mr Jurgen Weerth.

Tagged under: 19, Contributor, Corruption, Governance

Women in politics in Botswana are unhappy with the way the media in this country covers them. They say they have experienced that their issues do not always receive supportive and positive coverage.

The Advocacy Project's newsletter 'On the Record' describes the drama of campaigns, and is distributed free of charge to thousands of subscribers.

Hundreds of Nigerian women and girls have been lured into prostitution in Europe and the Middle East, where they are vulnerable to abuse and violence. The following pages profile those who are campaigning to put an end to this insidious trade.

Somalia: Africa's newest market is tiny and awaits a full peace. For the optimist, Somalia is nearer to being busy reborn than busy dying. In
these circumstances it's hardly surprising it has been one of Africa's last countries to get connected. Abdi Mohammud describes the currently tiny size of the market, the fierce competition for it and the prospects for future growth.

COSATU has organized the 2001 May Day celebrations that will take place in its various regions countrywide. The theme of this year’s May Day is “Stop the job loss bloodbath! Create quality jobs; Fight poverty!” We are calling on all workers to attend these events to celebrate the victories that workers have achieved throughout the world.

Tagged under: 19, Contributor, Education, Resources

Prof. Rogers' ROOTS Trips-Africa Brazil Cuba
- Multidisciplinary; each Program has it own Theme. 29 Programs in 2001 & 2002: 1 to 4 Weeks
Apply Now. Depart from NYC June-July-Aug-Sep-Dec-Jan-Feb

A Conference organised by the SAEG (South Africa Education Group) c/o Canon Collins Educational Trust for Southern Africa. Venue: Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way London. WC1. Date: Saturday 19th May 2001. 9.30-5.15pm. SPEAKERS/ WORKSHOP LEADERS to include:
Mr Thami Mseleku, Director General, South African Department of Education. Professor Colin Bundy, Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Witwatersrand. Professor Shula Marks, SOAS, University of London. This conference will examine changes in education in South Africa since 1994, paying particular attention to the strategies formulated to address social justice and the eradication of the apartheid past. It will look to future developments and specifically at forms of partnerships that are emerging in the country to
address quality education and social transformation, and the different partnerships being developed between South Africa and the United Kingdom.

MFI Travel Scholarship for Gordon Conference. The International Board of the Malaria Foundation International (MFI) is pleased to announce the Vanessa Botterill Memorial Travel Scholar-ship. This award has been established in memory of a young English woman who died from malaria in Kenya in 1997. The 2001 award is for two junior scientists, who are citizens residing and working in a sub-saharan African country, to participate in The Gordon Research Conference on Malaria at Queen's College, Oxford, UK, 5-10 August 2001. The application deadline is 15 May 2001.

26 August - 8 September, 2001 Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The International Network for Rational Use of Drugs (INRUD), Management Sciences for Health (MSH), USA; Essential Drugs and Medicines
Policy Department (EDM) of the World health Organization (WHO) and INRUD Zimbabwe announce a training course on Promoting Rational Drug Use, to be held on August 26 - 8 September, 2001 at Victoria falls in Zimbabwe, one of the natural wonders of the world.

takes place on May 23-4, bringing together scholars and activists from Africa, Europe and North America

The International Network for Rational Use of Drugs (INRUD), Management Sciences for Health (MSH), USA; Essential Drugs and Medicines
Policy Department (EDM) of the World health Organization (WHO) and INRUD Zimbabwe announce a training course on Promoting Rational Drug Use, to be held on August 26 - 8 September, 2001 at Victoria falls in Zimbabwe, one of the natural wonders of the world. The course fee of US$3,000 covers tuition, course materials and shared accommodation in a four-star hotel. Applications and fees are due not later than 20 July, 2001.

The Spring Conference offers a critical chance to analyse the problems and set out our priorities prior to the expected June General Election. We can begin to build the foundations of our future together despite New Labour's attempt to sow divisions amongst us, especially through its legislation towards refugees - a practice responsible for countless deaths, splitting of families through forced dispersal programmes, unlawful detentions and imprisonment of innocent people and destitution via the shameful and discriminatory voucher schemes.

Both positions have an ending date of October 2002. The positions will be located at HIV InSite's new facilities at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 4150 Clement Street. These positions will be classified as
public administration analysts, with a salary range of $3,275 to $5,408. UCSF offers a generous benefits package and is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.

Tagged under: 19, Contributor, Food & Health, Jobs

£35,000 per annum + benefits. London based. We're looking for a professionally qualified Accountant as our new Director of Finance. Someone with at least five years' post qualification experience
who is IT literate and who has preferably worked within a Charity/NGO.

Tagged under: 19, Contributor, Jobs, Resources

Are you interested in teaching about the global economy in your classroom? This five-day institute will focus on an inter-disciplinary approach to teaching about economic and social globalization in grades 6-14. Join community and business leaders, master teachers, and other experts to examine multiple perspectives on globalization issues and learn how to bring these critical debates into the classroom.

University of Western Cape, South Africa, starting as soon as possible, applications are invited from suitably qualified and experienced persons. Appointments will be for one year in the first instance but with a strong possibility of renewal.The project will involve a mixture of research and advocacy.

Tagged under: 19, Contributor, Food & Health, Jobs

Provide leadership and technical expertise to develop and guide technical assistance, communications, and policy advocacy projects and programs on global HIV/AIDS.
Contact: Michael J. Lavelline

In July 2001, the Global Development Network will become an independent organization outside of the World Bank. Presently, the GDN is hiring for a couple of positions to staff the new Secretariat, to be located here in Washington, DC, beginning on July 1, 2001. For more details, visit the website.

As its Spring Meetings end in Washington, the World Bank is in the final stages of planning a major new web initiative. The Bank claims that the site (the Development Gateway) will contain all points of view on over 130 development topics. The site aims to attract a wide audience of officials, NGOs, journalists and researchers in many countries, to become the "premier web entry point on poverty and sustainable development".

A number of civil society groups have been discussing the Development Gateway over the last year and have concluded that its approach is flawed and will do little or nothing to help people who currently lack the ability to get their voices heard on the internet. In recent weeks major NGO networks in South Africa and Latin America have taken formal positions not to join the Gateway.

A new briefing from the Bretton Woods Project, a London-based NGO which has been following the Gateway for over a year, presents extracts from current Gateway planning documents and the reasons why the Gateway is being contested. These include:
1) the site's chosen topic sections are too rigid and do not represent the way that many people in developing countries view development issues;
2) it is impossible to choose editors who will be trusted by the wide range of people the Gateway aims to serve;
3) the claim that the Gateway will contain only "high quality" material is controversial, while quality remains undefined;
4) the multi-million dollar site will compete unfairly with existing internet sites;
5) the site's interactive features will help promote the opinions of people in richer countries and office-based workers in developing countries;
6) the Gateway's independent governance arrangements are too little, too late

Many of these points have been raised with the Bank's Gateway team, which has proved unwilling to engage with questions about the fundamentals of their initiative. Unless they change their approach, civil society groups will have little option but to use the internet and e-mail to challenge the Gateway, while continuing to build up independent sites. The briefing ends with some suggestions and an appeal for people to help with this.

Tagged under: 19, Contributor, Features, Governance

I'd like to thank Kabissa for the opportunity to post this note about the consultation meeting on the Development Gateway, which was held in South Africa on February 15, 2001 and hosted by SANGONeT. Please see the link below to the report we prepared on the meeting. In addition, I'd like to clarify a few related issues --

We reiterate our appreciation to SANGONet for having agreed to host the consultation meeting and having invited the 15 organizations that attended.

The two Bank representatives who attended the meeting felt that it had been a substantive and useful exchange of information and views on the Gateway. They heard the many thoughtful concerns and critiques raised about the Gateway governance, editorial policy, and content management approach, and did their best to clarify the issues and respond to the questions.

In terms of the reference to the meeting, which appeared in the second edition of the Gateway's monthly newsletter, it is important to clarify that the Gateway publication did not actually state or intend to imply that the meeting participants endorsed or backed the Gateway, only that a constructive exchange had been held. We acknowledge in the meeting notes (see link below) that several of the groups present at the consultation meeting, including SANGONet, stated at the outset that their participation in the meeting did not imply endorsement of the Gateway. On the other hand, we have been criticized in the past for not consulting civil society enough on the Gateway, thus whenever we do hold these meetings we try to report on them as fully as possible.

In this light, we prepared notes on the meeting and posted them on the Gateway site. While the meeting notes are succinct, they attempt to portray the meeting as objectively as possible.

Please go to the following link to access the meeting report:
http://www.developmentgateway.org/aboutus/feb2001

We welcome comments on the meeting notes. These can be sent to [email protected]

Thanks

KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 18

I've been very impressed with what Kabissa is offering to the non-profit sector in Africa. Congratulations on such an important contribution. I've referred your site to many of my African counterparts and was wondering if you do work or know of another organization that provides these kinds of services in other regions of the world, specifically Central/South America.

Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.

Keep up the good work!! :-)

OUR RESPONSE: I am not aware of other similar initiatives in Central/South America. In particular, it is rare to see a service that provides free standard Internet accounts to non-profits, and I think our database-driven newsletter is also an unusual service.

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