Extreme weather conditions predicted because of climate change in Namibia are likely to have a tremendous effect on the 70 per cent of the country's people who live in rural areas and depend heavily on agriculture. According to experts in climate change, Namibia has no option but to adapt to the changing climate as radical changes in weather, such as extreme dry spells and exceptionally heavy rainfall, are forecast for the Southern African country.

Gender-based corruption in workplaces exists in Rwanda, reveals a new report published by Transparency Rwanda (TR), the civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption. The report is the first of its kind in Rwanda and reveals a number of challenges for the country. The study acknowledges that Rwanda has made impressive progress both in the fight against corruption and in the promotion of gender equality. However, 5 per cent of respondents personally experienced gender-based corruption in workplaces, 10 per cent perceive that the problem exists and nearly 20 per cent know someone who has been a victim.

Over the past three years, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) carried out exploratory research in five countries from different continents on the internet’s role in accessing information about sex education, health, fighting sex discrimination and defining one’s own sexuality.Carried out in Brazil, India, Lebanon, South Africa & USA the research looks at how the internet plays host to critical information about sex education, health, fighting sex discrimination and defining one’s own sexuality. It debunks the commonly-held view that sexuality online is just about pornography.

'Politics, Religion and Power in the Great Lakes Region' covers the political, religious and power relations in the contemporary Great Lakes states: Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Kenya and the Sudan. The work is important because of the nexus between these countries’ shared present and past - their political, socio-economic, cultural and historical aspirations.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said all the parties in Somalia's conflict have violated the rules of war and are guilty of causing civilian casualties in the fight for territorial control that is contributing to the humanitarian catastrophe there. The New York-based group said al-Shabab, the rebel Isamist group that controls large parts of the country, was guilty of unrelenting brutality, while government troops carry out arbitrary arrests and detentions.

When talking about ICTs and the relationship between informal online activists and civil society organisations, the key question, says this article, is: how can traditional civil society organisations capitalise from and build on an almost organic process, happening quite independently from them, without attempting to capture or institutionalise such processes, which would endanger their creativity and flexibility? Or put inversely: how can an undefined, motivated but oftentimes transient group of individuals best use the technical know-how of CSOs?

In the next few months, Tunisian women may have a real opportunity as candidates and voters to participate in the country's new, post-revolution, electoral system. With hope, this will lead to more women in decision-making roles in government and a chance to demonstrate that democracies flourish when women, and the special experience and viewpoints they bring to the process, are included.

Jermain Ostiana argues that bringing Curaçaoan abolitionist leader Tula to the silver screen should be done by local producers, not the world’s mainstream film industry.

Once again, millions of African citizens face famine and the destruction of their livelihoods. At this moment, 12 million men, women and children are in dire need of food, clean water and basic sanitation. The crisis is set to worsen and expand over the coming months. This suffering flies in the face of commitments made in continental, regional and national policy frameworks and human rights conventions.

In the wake of London’s riots, Patricia Daley reflects on her teenage years growing up in Hackney, the long-term challenges presented by the riots and the hypocrisy behind elite pontificating in response: ‘How can we teach our children to respect human lives, property and their communities, if those with power do not set an example?’

A new white paper on international relations reaffirms that SA’s foreign policy should be based on human rights and development in Africa but also warns that SA’s regional leadership position could soon be challenged. In the past SA has been criticised for having lost its focus on human rights, particularly when it supported positions that failed to take strong action on the crisis in Zimbabwe. A decision to deny a visitor’s visa to the Dalai Lama for fear of alienating China was also strongly criticised.

South Sudanese civil society organisations met in Juba, from 26 to 29 of July 2011 to discuss social, political and economic issues in the new country. Resolutions to citizens included embracing unity in diversity and overtly rejecting ethnicity, nepotism and corruption. The new government should enhance and promote social justice and declare zero tolerance for sexual and gender based violence - and develop a national strategy to address gender concerns, says a communique from the meeting.

Thomas Kwoyelo, former middle-ranking Lord's Resistance Army commander and allegedly captured in March 2009, was charged with war crimes and became the first person to be committed to the International Crimes Division. As part of their International Crimes Division monitoring initiative, the Refugee Law Project will update you with detailed newsletters and video documentaries based on the proceedings related to Kwoyelo's trial.

Guest editor David Anderson Hooker, Director of Research and Training for 'Coming to the Table: Taking America (USA) Beyond the Legacy of Enslavement', and the editorial staff of 'Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts', invite submissions for the first issue of its fifth volume, entitled '500 Years Later: Reverberations of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.'

'The 7th session of UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee is commencing from 8 to 12 August 2011. Among the participants are delegations from La Via Campesina, who are fighting for an initiative towards an international convention of the rights of peasants.'

'Johannesburg’s international airport was put on red alert after its National Key Point status was activated this morning due to the expected arrival of a delegation from Israel. Plans of the delegation’s local host, the South African Union of Jewish Students, to welcome their Israeli 'Hasbara' delegation were thwarted, with the Israeli delegation arriving at OR Tambo International Airport amidst much controversy.'

An estimated 18 million children worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes because of conflict; a third of those are refugees whose families have fled across international borders, research shows. To explain the consequences on their mental health, the authors of a study published in the UK journal, The Lancet, undertook a review of all the work on this subject, to see what lessons can be learned for the best way to support refugee and displaced children and their families.

A new government study has found that more than half of workers in Swaziland’s garment industry are living with HIV, and officials are realising that the once-hailed promise of manufacturing employment has become a financial and medical nightmare for tens of thousands of Swazi women. 'HIV prevalence among factory workers is 50.3 per cent,' said Nhlanhla Nhlabatsi, an epidemiologist with the Ministry of Health. Nhlabatsi presented the data last week as preliminary findings for Swaziland’s first Behaviour Sentinel Surveillance Report to be released in its entirety later in the year.

Morocco's government has proposed that a parliamentary election take place early in November instead of the scheduled date of September next year. During long overnight negotiations with the interior ministry, officials from some 20 political parties agreed in principle for the election to be held in mid-November.

Although there is a female presidential candidate contesting Zambia's 20 September general elections, her prospects are not strong. And in fact, fewer women overall are likely to be elected into public office this year, analysts say. Zambia is a signatory of the Southern Africa Development Community Protocol on Gender and Development, which commits member countries to have 50/50 representation of women in all decision-making positions, including the political arena, by 2015. But Zambia's political parties have not reflected this in their adoption of female candidates.

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has urged rights groups to call off nationwide vigils planned for Wednesday 17 August in order to 'save lives and destruction of property'. Civil society groups announced the vigils, to be held across the country, after Mutharika’s government failed to immediately address their concerns over the economy. Last month 19 people were killed in the poor southern African country when police opened fire on those taking part in anti-government protests that lasted for two days.

The former Gambian minister of Information who went missing in June has been found in one of the country’s jails after the police had denied knowledge of his whereabouts. A French news agency quoted Gambia’s police spokesperson Yerro Mballow of not being aware of the minister’s arrest and 'no idea where former he could be'. However, Justice Ministry officials confirmed that Mr Amadou Scattred Jannenh was being held in jail awaiting trial for treason and sedition.

The National Archives and Records Service were ill-equipped to deal with the deluge of declassified information likely to ensue once the Protection of Information Bill becomes law, the Nelson Mandela Foundation warned. With over-classification believed to have been the norm since the Minimum Information Security Standards became policy in 1996, MPs have been grappling with the question of what to do with secret files from the recent past, as well as those from the apartheid era.

A summit of Southern African leaders this week was unlikely to affect the political crisis in Zimbabwe given the lack of regional consensus on the issue, analysts said. The fragile power-sharing government between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai was expected to feature prominently when leaders from the Southern African Development Community meet on Wednesday and Thursday in Luanda, Angola.

A chase for votes has kicked off for the much-anticipated 20 September Zambia elections. At least 10 presidential hopefuls are in the race after seven of their colleagues pulled out. Over 500 candidates are vying for the 150 seats in the National Assembly. Aspirants and their campaigners are crisscrossing the breadth and length of the country, hoping to get their lion’s share of votes.

Nineteen people died in Malawi's recent protests. Public service union UNISON are asking for your support for a petition to President Bingu wa Mutharika.

The Institute for Race Relations in the United Kingdom reports on prisoner transfer agreements between the UK and other countries. 'For the past few years, under pressure from right-wing Tories, the government has made strenuous attempts to reach agreements with countries such as Nigeria to enable prisoners serving sentences here to be compulsorily repatriated to complete their sentences in their home countries, so as to save costs, reduce the foreign national prisoner (FNP) population and make space for British prisoners.'

About 80 demonstrators wearing gas masks and lab coats to emulate scientists from oil company Shell have protested in Cape Town against hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for shale gas in the Karoo. Shell SA is punting shale gas as an affordable alternative to coal, nuclear and renewable energy industries, and wants to explore 90,000km² of the Karoo. The march was initiated by photographer Kian Erikson in partnership with the Climate Justice Campaign and Earthlife Africa CT.

The New York Times profiles the use of private US military contractors in the war in Somalia, introducing the story with Richard Rouget, whom they describe as 'a gun for hire over two decades of bloody African conflict'. The story goes on: 'Rouget, 51, commanded a group of foreign fighters during Ivory Coast’s civil war in 2003, was convicted by a South African court of selling his military services and did a stint in the presidential guard of the Comoros Islands, an archipelago plagued by political tumult and coup attempts. Now Mr. Rouget works for Bancroft Global Development, an American private security company that the State Department has indirectly financed to train African troops who have fought a pitched urban battle in the ruins of this city against the Shabab, the Somali militant group allied with Al Qaeda.'

The thrust of this brief report by the International Commission on Eritrean Refugees is to bring to the attention of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Council (UNOHCHR) the problem of Eritrean refugees all over the world, in particular those found in North Africa. 'Professor Tricia R. Redeker reports that, in 2008 refugees seeking asylum from Eritrea surpassed that of Iraq and the number is increasing. It is reported that an estimated 2,000 Eritreans per month leave clandestinely to Ethiopia and Sudan. There are also those who crossed the Red Sea to request asylum in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.'

Only it's not bombs they are dropping!

NATO is agreed that Gaddafi must go, but...

The 'downgrade of the US credit rating is part of the forward planning by the top capitalists to guarantee the political and military hegemony of the richest one per cent of the US population,’ writes Horace Campbell.

Reuters reports that South Africa's proposed National Health Insurance programme, aimed at giving greater access to healthcare for the country's poor, will require 125 billion rand in 2012 and 214 billion rand by 2020, according to a government source. The NHI, currently being discussed by the government and other parties in South Africa's healthcare system, will require 255 billion rand by 2025, the source said citing the document.

With nearly two months to go before constituent assembly elections, Tunisia confronts a long list of challenges to the creation of a democratic system, begins this policy brief from Freedom House. 'Expectations for swift and wide-ranging reforms are very high among a population hungry for change after decades of harsh authoritarian rule. Ordinary citizens are eager to enjoy the benefits of meaningful political freedom and economic prosperity, having endured unrelenting repression, mismanagement, and the plundering of resources by a small circle around the family of former president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.'

The United Nations Human Rights Council should accept responsibility, on behalf of the world forum, for the famine spreading through eastern Africa, and should call for member countries' cooperation to overcome the desperate food crisis there, experts said. One of the 18 independent experts on the advisory committee to the Council, Chilean academic José Antonio Bengoa, set forth the idea of asking for an urgent special session, in an attempt to draw the attention of the international community to the gravity of the crisis in the Horn of Africa.

The situation for women and children in Somalia remains precarious, humanitarian workers warn. According to Janusz Czerniejewski, head of Intersos at the Kenya and Somalia Mission, conflict over scarce resources increases during drought, putting women and children at higher risk of experiencing sexual violence. 'As they flee Somalia to safety, women and children are passing through areas where armed groups and bandits roam, only to arrive in crowded and potentially dangerous camps. The protection aspects of this crisis are acute and life-threatening. Gender-based violence (GBV) like rape, domestic violence and female genital mutilation is a significant issue in all parts of Somalia,' he told IPS.

HIV-positive civil servants in Malawi are unhappy with the government's announcement that it would stop providing a cash grant to help improve their diet. In June, the government said the scheme would be stopped and replaced with food packages. According to Mary Shawa, principal secretary in the office of the President and Cabinet responsible for HIV/AIDS and nutrition programmes, the cash grant programme 'was grossly abused, with hundreds of workers claiming to have HIV in order to cash in on the payment'.

Africa’s ‘tale of treasures at one end and tragedies at the other cannot be understood’ without ‘locating it in the trajectory of worldwide capitalist accumulation,’ argues Issa Shivji.

WHO WOULD DARE BELIEVE IN THE WITHDRAWAL OF FRENCH COLONIAL TROOPS FROM CHAD?
Ley-Ngardigal Djimadoum

When Idriss Déby was being installed for a fourth term of five as president, France's vague attempts to put an end to its military presence in Chad sounded like a mere bluff. The context of regional geopolitical issues do not favour such an eventuality, not for Paris or the Chadian president. In this regard, Ley-Ngardigal Djimadoum underlines that the requirements of francophone Africa as well as the ‘culture of colonial serfdom’ are still perennial occurrences on both sides.

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JUSTICE FOR SANKARA: HOMAGE AND TRIBUTE

On 10 June 2011, some 21 French parliamentarians lodged an inquiry into the assassination of Thomas Sankara. Twenty-four years after the assassination of the former president of Burkina Faso, this move in search of truth fosters a long-lived symbol in the minds of resistance fighters in Africa and in the world. On 1 July, a dinner with the theme ‘Justice for Sankara, Justice for Africa’ was organised in Paris. Pambazuka brings to you a few short speeches that were made on the occasion of this ceremony which brought together more than a hundred personalities, celebrities, trade unionists, intellectuals and politicians.

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SENEGAL: THE ORIGINS OF IRRENDENTISM IN CASAMANCE
Amady Aly Dieng

Here is a book which immerses the reader into the heart of the Casamance drama. In this publication, which is a result of several years of investigations and research, Oumar Diatta, a specialist educationalist and journalist, tackles the Casamance question on the triple plan – political, institutional and administrative – since the colonial era and in the light of the conflict borne of the freedom fighter demands of the Movement of Democratic Forces in Casamance (Mfdc).

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SEEING SOCIAL MEDIA PROCESSES AS A MEDIUM FOR COMMUNICATION
Pierre Georges

This contribution relates to the connection between the alternatives, media citizens and the process of social forums which have developed during the last ten last years all over the planet. Pierre Georges presents the worldwide social forum as a ‘potentially powerful medium’ and presents the articulations which can help make it a ‘collective media’.

This week the international news has been dominated by two distinct yet not unrelated events – the international financial crisis and the eruption of young people onto the streets of Britain. Two features of these events are worth pointing out, observes Firoze Manji.

With all the current talk in the media about the riots on the streets of the UK, Alex Free argues that the focus should be on the real looters in the country and global economy at large.

Malawi’s leading economic analysts say government’s domestic borrowing and interest rates are set to rise following the suspension and withholding of aid to Malawi by some of the country’s donors. The analysts, particularly those from Nico Asset Managers Limited and National Bank of Malawi (NBM), have also warned that the country’s economy - once a model of success less than two years ago - is on its way to a major slowdown as businesses pant under the weight of a hostile macroeconomic environment that denies them even the most basic of survival kits such as forex, fuel, water and electricity.

The latest edition of Africa Renewal focuses on women's empowerment in Africa. It includes an interview with the head of UN Women in Southern Africa and a feature on North African women on the barricades.

Chad seems a nightmare location for business - unless, that is, you are Papa Madiaw Ndiaye, 45, or Patrice Backer, 44, of Advanced Finance & Investment Group, a private-equity fund-management company in Dakar, Senegal, that has so far invested about $72 million in African financial institutions, agriculture and mining. 'It's like low-hanging fruit,' says Ndiaye, describing the investment climate in Africa. 'There is no competition. If you know what you're doing, it is a bonanza.' Such bonanzas - opportunities in troubled places with huge needs - are increasingly being sought out by a fast-growing group: Africans who have returned home after years of living, working and studying in the West, reports Time business magazine.

As the Qaddafi clan conducts a bloody struggle to hold onto power in Libya, cables obtained by WikiLeaks offer a vivid account of the lavish spending, rampant nepotism and bitter rivalries that have defined what a 2006 cable called 'Qadhafi Incorporated', using the State Department’s preference from the multiple spellings for Libya’s troubled first family. Though the Qaddafi children are described as jockeying for position as their father ages - three sons fought to profit from a new Coca-Cola franchise - they have been well taken care of, cables say. 'All of the Qaddafi children and favorites are supposed to have income streams from the National Oil Company and oil service subsidiaries,' one cable from 2006 says.

The Front to Defend Egyptian Protesters, which includes 34 human rights organisations and a number of volunteer lawyers, has welcomed the initiative taken by many activists and political powers to help in representing the civil plaintiffs in the case of the ousted president Hosny Mubarak, his sons, his interior minister, and some figures of the former police apparatus. The initiative comes to ease the burden carried by the Front since establishment in April 2008, especially with the growing pattern of cases it is competent with since the aftermath of January 25th revolution.

has an interesting article about rap music in Tunisia. 'Two months ago the private radio station Mosaïque FM asked Rachid Ghannouchi whether he preferred rap music or mizwid (Tunisia’s most popular sha‘bi or folk music, whose name derives from the main instrument that accompanies the singing, i.e., the goatskin bagpipe). Ghannouchi, leader of Ennahda (Renaissance), the previously banned Islamic party and now one of the major players in Tunisia’s postrevolutionary political scene, did not hesitate to say "rap.” How come Ghannouchi opted for the seemingly more “liberal” and “progressive” choice, rap music, over the more “traditional” and “authentic” one, mizwid?'