Up to 1.7 million people in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Asia are at risk of antiretroviral treatment interruption due to the global financial downturn, according to a survey published by the World Bank.The World Bank report Averting a human crisis during the global downturn was published in advance of the World Bank’s spring meeting in Washington DC.

Poor countries, including Kenya, are to receive financial support to develop and diversify exports when the ongoing trade negotiations under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are concluded. WTO members have pledged to assist Least Developed Country (LDC) members in addressing their supply side capacity constraints, as well as the challenges that will occur due to increased competition as tariff rates used to protect their economies drop, once the Doha Round is concluded.

The United Nations anti-racism conference in Geneva concluded its general debate after hearing statements on new forms of racist discrimination and expelling three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for disruptive behaviour. A number of the UN agencies spoke at the five-day Durban Review Conference, which comes to a close tomorrow, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), which warned that saying no to racism in the work is key to promoting respect, tolerance and inclusiveness.

This AfricaFocus Bulletins contains excerpts from two World Malaria Day articles on recent initiatives against malaria, one by Sue Mbaya, Africa Advocacy Coordinator for World Vision, based in Nairobi and one by UNICEF on Children & Malaria. And, from an article about the UN Foundation's "Nothing but Nets" initiative to mobilize individual contributors for supplying bednets.

cc Reflecting on Haiti’s current instability and tumultuous existence, Kimani Waweru provides an historical analysis of the Caribbean island, speculating that the root causes of problems affecting Haiti also transpire in Kenya and much of the developing world. By establishing a correlation between Haitian and Kenyan experiences, the author proposes a need for Kenya to learn from Haiti’s struggle. Despite its remarkable success in being the first Latin American country to gain independence, the first post-colonial nation with a black leadership, and the only country to have gained independence through a successful slave rebellion, Haitians have been subjected to unfathomable duress. Colonialism, slavery, exploitation, invasion, occupation, and corruption in politics have permeated Haiti’s historical landscape. Through the adoption of revolutionary ideology and the elimination of Western rhetoric, which fails to prioritise citizens’ interests, Waweru believes Kenyans can counter imperialism's strength and foster an arena for social justice.

Mobiles in-a-box from the Tactical Technology Collective is a collection of tools, tactics, how-to guides and case studies designed to help advocacy and activist organisations use mobile technology in their work. Mobiles in-a-box is designed to inspire you, to present possibilities for the use of mobile telephony in your work and to introduce you to some tools which may help you. After reading the material in this toolkit you can expect to be able to design and implement a mobile advocacy strategy for your organisation. >>

This guide presents advocates with a collection of popular online services that can be used for advocacy quickly with little to no technical support. There are services for publishing photographs and video, for setting up a campaign blog or for using mobiles to communicate in a group. An amazing amount of functionality and tools are available simply by connecting to the Internet and opening up a web-browser. You don't need to have a lot of technical expertise to try some of these. You also don't need much money, these services are offered at low- to no-cost.

Researchers in Africa fear they may not be able to identify swine flu cases swiftly enough to prevent the spread of infection because there are so many diseases around with similar symptoms. Although swine flu has spread from Mexico to several other continents it has not yet been reported in Africa and in some respects the continent is well prepared, say researchers. Rapid response teams are accustomed to reacting to diseases such as meningitis and Rift Valley fever, as well as completely unknown new infections.

Four Southern African states will be covered in the new financing decision by the European Commission, under the food facility package for developing countries. Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique and Zambia will be among the 23 developing countries that will benefit from a support valued at € 194 million to projects and programmes aimed at boosting agriculture and improving the food security situation in the selected countries.

A Mozambican green community project and a Kenyan forest project have today been named as winners in the climate grants awards. Together with a third winner from Peru, the Nhambita Community Carbon Project, Mozambique and the Kakamega Forest Again Project, Kenya would each get a US$ 35,000 grant that will help them spur the forest-based carbon offset projects.

The three principals in the unity government, Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, have met five times recently to discuss the controversies surrounding the implementation of the Global Political Agreement, but they have still failed to come up with a solution. Observers say this ‘dilly-dallying’ has been part of Zanu PF's strategy to wear the MDC down while not addressing the fundamental issues.

On 27 April 2009, Nigeria's broadcast regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), fined private radio station Adaba FM 500,000 Naira (approx. US$3,350) for allegedly transmitting on 25 April "materials that were capable of inciting members of the public to violence and consequently leading to breakdown of law and order", while covering the re-run of the governorship elections in Ekiti State in the southwest.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) expressed its strong condemnation and dismay at the continued detention since 3 October 2008 of the Christian blogger, Hani Nazeer, by state security. His arrest was carried out in coordination with the Church in Naga Hammadi, his hometown in Qena Governorate. Nazeer is the author of the .

cc Africans and Africa suffer from planned underdevelopment, with colonialism and slavery providing economic benefits to one group at the expense of another, the International Association Against Torture’s Roger Wareham tells Riaz K. Tayob in Durban Review Conference. But the West won’t pay Africans reparations instead of aid, because then it couldn’t benefit from its ‘charity’, he adds. Wareham, ‘a black man who grew up in a racist country’, speaks about his lifelong commitment to the liberation of African people. International public opinion is important for influencing what happens on the ground as it isn’t possible to change a system from within, when its beneficiaries are also its gatekeepers.

The strike by teachers of the four main senior high schools in Bissau entered day four on Thursday, sources close to the Education Ministry told PANA. A similar strike on 19-20 March, observed by 95 per cent of teachers all over the nation, had earlier disrupted the school calendar. "Classes only began in January and have been interrupted by several strike actions of teachers. We have not learnt anything this year. It is better government cancels this school year,” Mr. Pansao Blaté, a final year student of the Agostinho Neto Senior High School, said.

The World Health Organizat ion (WHO) has announced that Zambia had achieved a major reduction in malaria mortality through accelerated malaria control activities, joining several other African countries in the crusade to eradicate the disease. Malaria deaths reported from health facilities have declined by 66% in Zambia and this result, along with other data, indicates that Zambia has reached the 2010 Roll Back Malaria target of more than 50% reduction in malaria mortality compared to 2000, said WHO.

In a rare move, Nigeria's main opposition Action Congress (AC) has commended President Umaru Yar’Adua over his decision not to deploy soldiers to South-west Ekiti state for Saturday’s governorship election re-run. In a statement issued in Lagos, the party described the President’s decision as perhaps ''the single most overt act he has taken in furtherance of his administration’s rule of law mantra and commitment to free and fair elections."

A three-day regional workshop aimed at strengthening the competences of executives in the fields of environmental communication, advocacy and leadership opens in Dakar on Monday. The workshop to be held under the auspices, Enda-LEAD Afrique, an NGO, is to train "ambassadors" to improve their exchanges with staff of various ministries about the importance of sustainable management of the environment and natural resources for economic and social development, and the importance of the integration of links between poverty and the environment.

Six aid agencies have urged the Obama administration to consider humanitarian needs in its policy review on Somalia. As the latest piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia capture the world's attention, humanitarian organizations warned that the country remains in the midst of a severe humanitarian crisis. More than three million people are in need of emergency assistance inside the country and half a million Somali refugees have fled to neighboring countries.

Judge Susan Illston has denied Chevron Corp’s request to recoup over $485,000 in costs associated with a human rights case filed by Nigerian villagers. The corporation said the plaintiffs owed them the costs - including the cost of photocopies and deposition fees - after they were found not liable last fall. However, the judge disagreed.

Two army officers in Guinea have been arrested on suspicion of plotting a coup, security sources told the BBC. The arrests were made as new military leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara was preparing to make his first trip out of Guinea since seizing power in December. He led a bloodless coup after the death of Lansana Conte, who had ruled the West African country since 1984.

Sudan's parliament should make major changes to a draft press law to ensure that it protects freedom of speech as guaranteed under the Sudanese constitution and international law, Human Rights Watch has said. The proposed law, to be debated this week in parliament, is among 21 laws the two parties in the Government of National Unity have agreed to revise.

The Swazi government's slow response to a fast-growing tuberculosis epidemic has eroded the possibility of controlling it. Themba Dlamini, the National TB Control Programme manager, says there has been a nearly ten-fold increase in the last 20 years from about 1 000 TB cases per year in 1987 to over 9,600 cases in 2007. Swaziland also has the world's highest HIV prevalence rate; people living with HIV/AIDS are significantly more vulnerable to catching tuberculosis.

Thirty-five people drowned after one of two smugglers' boats carrying more than 220 passengers across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia capsized off the coast of Yemen's Abyan region. "This is one of the worst incidents to occur in the Gulf of Aden in recent months," said Leila Nassif, head of the UNHCR office in Aden. "Unfortunately, more and more people are so desperate in their countries of origin that they are ready to put their lives in jeopardy to change their situation."

Moving to combat the spiraling economic downturn in developing countries, the World Bank will unveil a major initiative today to almost double financing for road, bridge and other infrastructure projects from Latin America to Eastern Europe, allowing poorer nations to create jobs in a manner similar to the stimulus programs underway in the United States and other wealthy countries.

A recent deadly attack by Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has left five children dead and hundreds of homes burned to the ground, village leaders have told the head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUC).

The cholera epidemic in southern Africa continues to abate, but international and local health authorities stress the need to remain vigilant, the United Nations has reported. “Overall, the duration and magnitude of the epidemic underscores the need for strengthening surveillance, preparedness and underscores plans in all countries,” according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The first ever telemedicine centre in Cameroon has gone operational. Known as Genesis Telecare, it was inaugurated in Yaounde by the Secretary General in the Ministry of Public Health, Professor Fru Angwafor III. Prof. Fru Angwafor III said the initiative is a major step towards reducing longstanding problems in the health sector. Telemedicine provides a timely remedy to the numerous difficulties encountered by medical practitioners and patients, he noted.

The Media Alliance of Zimbabwe, comprising the Zimbabwe National Editors Forum, Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe, MISA Zimbabwe and the Africa Community Publishing Development Trust, has heavily criticised a proposed government media stakeholders’ conference which is littered with anti press freedom participants.

Public sector doctors are preparing for a national strike should government fail to table satisfactory salary proposals at today’s (Friday 24th) crucial bargaining council meeting. On Thursday, doctors at Chris Hani Baragwanath, the biggest hospital in the country, joined at least 24 other hospitals in industrial action by declaring an immediate go-slow.

The court of appeal in Senegal has freed nine gay men imprisoned in January 2009 for “acts against nature and the creation of a criminal organisation.” An international outcry followed the convictions of the men, who were members of an HIV prevention organisation. They were arrested at the home of an HIV outreach worker near the Senegalese capital Dakar in December 2008. Condoms and lubricant were confiscated by the police as evidence of “improper and unnatural acts.”

The cost of vegetables, fish, and white meat continues to rise in Morocco. With inflation starting to bite, citizens see the price spike as incomprehensible and exorbitant. The price of some items has almost doubled within one month. These include chicken and sardines, which are very popular with Moroccans. The market price of chicken and sardines has risen from 14 and 10 dirhams respectively at the beginning of March, to 20 and 19 dirhams respectively.

Climate change is widely considered to be one of the gravest threats to the sustainability of the planet's environment, the well-being of its people and the strength of its economies. Mainstream scientists agree that the Earth's climate is changing from the build-up of greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as carbon dioxide, that result from such essential human activities as electricity generation, transportation and agriculture.

Dehydration caused by severe diarrhoea is a key cause of infant deaths in Zambia, a country with one of the highest child morality rates in the world, according to a new report by Zambia’s health department. This will not change until government makes a major effort to improve access to clean water and sanitation throughout the country, health experts say.

The gay community in Kenya is demanding justice, protection and that government takes into serious account, increasing threats and attacks of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) people in that country. This comes come after a brutal attack of a lesbian in one of Nairobi’s prominent nightclubs, Madhouse, by a woman unknown to the victim, violence which the country’s gay community says was clearly motivated by homophobia.

Eleven members of a Darfur rebel movement have been sentenced to death by a Sudanese court in relation to a 2008 attack on Khartoum. The court passed the ruling on the members of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on Wednesday.

Michela Wrong’s latest book “It’s Our Turn to Eat: the Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower” has stirred controversy in Kenya. Through the struggles of anti-corruption whistleblower John Githongo, Wrong examines how corruption has plagued the country. Transparency Watch spoke with Wrong about the themes behind her book: identity, history, cynicism and integrity.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has pleaded with the President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to meditate with the Gambian authorities in a case of a missing journalist, Ebrima Manneh since 2006. According to a letter from RSF addressed to Dr Mohamed Chambas, the president of ECOWAS, the president’s involvement will convince the Gambian leadership to shed light on the whereabouts of the missing journalist.

Illiteracy rates in West Africa are the highest in the world, cramping development and weakening citizens’ power to effect socio-economic and political change, say education agencies, who are calling on governments and donors to step up literacy and education efforts. Sixty-five million West African adults – 40 percent of the adult population – cannot read or write according to a new study, 'From closed books to open doors – West Africa's literacy challenge'.

An environmental NGO in northern Senegal is about to go to market with “green charcoal” – a household fuel produced from agricultural waste materials to replace wood and charcoal in cooking stoves. Given that Senegal’s trees are disappearing, finding viable alternatives is a must, a Ministry of Energy official says. At least half of Senegal’s 13 million people rely on wood and charcoal for household fuel, while 40 percent relying on petrol products like butane gas, the ministry says.

Many Algerian journalists and human rights lawyers recently told CPJ that the siege on independent journalism has gradually intensified over these past three years and that your government seemed increasingly inclined to use harsh measures to silence and punish critical journalists.

On 16 April 2009, Moses Ndene and Kebba Yorro Manneh, two sports journalists of privately-owned FM station City Limit Radio, were arrested and briefly detained by the Gambian police for allegedly criticising the administration of sports in the country.

A Rwandan man living in the United States state of Kansas was arrested on Thursday in connection with the 1994 genocide in his home country, the US Department of Justice said. Lazare Kabaya Kobagaya (82) was arrested on charges of lying on his naturalisation fraud and misusing his alien registration card, officials with the Department of Justice said.

African nations must stop signing away their natural resources in skewed deals with foreign firms, the African winner of the 2009 “Green Nobel” prize said in an interview. Ona, a wheelchair-bound Gabonese activist, has won the African 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize for a decade of activism to protect the Congo Basin Rainforest, the second largest rainforest in the world.

This project deals with the Pan- African e- Network Project launched by the government of India on 26 February 2009 as a part of its ‘aid to Africa’ programme. This project connects the nodal centres in India with 53 nations of Africa through the use of electronic information and technology (ICT) and provides tele-medicine and tele-education to its African counterparts. The pilot project in Ethiopia launched in mid 2007 whereby connectivity between educational and medical centers of excellence in India and Ethiopia was launched has proved to be a success.

Did you know that hyenas have intelligent hunting skills? 'They surround a toothless old hyena at the edge of the thorny hedged cattle kraal and bite it so hard that the only escape is to push through the sharp thorns. Once an opening is created; an army of fierce hyenas will go into a meat grabbing spree', narrates Songol, a lady residing in Baringo district of Kenya's Rift Valley. Mostly associated with cowardice, hyenas will bite off cows' udders and goats' bowels before they even seek to kill their prey. Hyenas also scavenge for food from graves and feed on the leftovers by lions and cheetahs.

cc Despite Mwai Kibake’s stated commitment to operate a meritocracy with regard to the diversity of Kenya, his appointments to the most sensitive and crucial offices have been biased towards members of a Kikuyu oligarchy, write Maina Kiai and Paul Muite. Calling for their fellow Kikuyus to abandon ‘blind ethnic loyalty to decisions made by some wealthy old men’ who have ‘nothing but disdain for the majority of Kikuyu, who are poor and struggling’, Kiai and Muite reject the elevation of ethnicity ‘beyond all other identities and interests’ in favour of a national outlook and perspective. ‘For us, it does not matter what ethnic group the leadership comes from: We expect and demand a government which has the interests of the nation at heart, which is fair, honest, effective, accountable and transparent. And we expect the government to follow the law, especially with regard to human life, and fundamental rights’.

cc As Zimbabwe celebrates 29 years of independence, Nyaradzai Mugaragumbo-Gumbonzvanda honours the ordinary women who fought for freedom and life with dignity, and reflects on the meaning of the liberation struggle both for her late mother Mbuya Rozaria Dizha and for Zimbabwean women of different generations. Mbuya Dizha ‘gave her daughters and sons to the liberation’, provided food and financial contributions for freedom fighters and was among the many thousands of rural women who voted for the first time in 1980, her contribution to creating ‘a new nation’. While the early eighties ‘were sweet moments for us, as girls old enough to understand the…dynamics brought by this wave of change and its possibilities,’ writes Mugaragumbo-Gumbonzvanda, ‘today’s young Zimbabwean girls are desperately looking for education, employment and hope.’