This field guide is a practical, hands-on guide for use by social scientists, public health specialists, and research teams interested in using qualitative methods to study sexual and reproductive health.

President Thabo Mbeki has ordered the special investigating unit the Scorpions to investigate wide ranging allegations of corruption and maladministration in five councils in the Western Cape province of the country.

Tuberculosis is claiming more lives in Ghana than any other diseases including AIDS and kills about 20,000 people each year, Ghana News Agency reported Monday. Dr Mohammed Bin Ibrahim, director of Western Region of Health Services, made the remarks when launching the regional TB campaign on Monday. About 40,000 cases were reported in the year 2000 in the west African country, Ibrahim added.

An initiative aimed at financing activities that promote human rights was launched on Friday in Burkina Faso by UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative Christian Lemaire. "UNDP's support for such initiatives aims at enabling local action in favour of human rights for a sustainable improvement to the daily life of Burkina Faso's populations," Lemaire said at the launch of the programme in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou.

The Zimbabwean government has systematically ensured that those responsible for torture, abductions and political killings are never brought to justice, Amnesty International says in a new report called 'The Toll of Impunity'. "Impunity has become the central problem in Zimbabwe where state and non-state actors commit widespread human rights violations without being brought to justice. Unless the cycle of impunity can be broken, human rights abuses will continue unchecked and victims and their families will not see justice," the organization said.

"ISOC claims around 8,600 individual members. That's not a lot, considering that the worldwide number of Internet users is in the hundreds of millions...The free and open Internet, as opposed to the glorified shopping network so many corporate types apparently want the 'Net to become, needs a strong and organized voice to speak up on its behalf." ISOC and ICANN both claim to be this voice: ICANN is wrapped in scandal and ISOC needs members. Perhaps the much-touted 'anarchy' of the internet is prevailing - or is it the apathy of its users? Read the article.

The Wild West days of cyberspace are over--and, like it or not, it's time for government to change its laissez-faire attitude toward the Internet and create laws that clearly prevent unscrupulous businesses from preying on unsuspecting consumers and seizing control of computers.

The National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Mr. Smart Adeyemi, has said that he is under "severe pressure" to scrap the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ). According to him, this should be done before the association's elections billed to be held next month. Adeyemi, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja, said that the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) "are pressing continuously" on the issue.

Egypt has scrapped its old Internet subscription plan in favor of per-hour dial-up charges, resulting in an immediate and welcome spike in usage.

More than 28 million Africans are now living with HIV/AIDS and in some countries over 30 percent of the adult population is infected, a UNAIDS statement warned on Tuesday. "The devastating impact of HIV/AIDS is rolling back decades of development progress in Africa," said Peter Piot, UNAIDS executive director.

In a 19 June 2002 letter to Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, CPJ protested the arrest and prosecution of Zouhair Yahyaoui, an Internet café employee and editor of the online publication "Tunezine". On the evening of 4 June, plainclothes state agents detained Yahyaoui at an Internet café in the capital, Tunis. Authorities then searched Yahyaoui's home and confiscated disks and other computer materials. After spending several days in detention, Yahyaoui was charged in court on 13 June with intentionally publishing false information.

Heavy fighting has broken out again in South Kivu Province, southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), between the leader of a mutiny among troops of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) and loyal forces of the Rwandan-backed rebel movement, news agencies reported.

Church World Service (CWS), an umbrella group of Christian organisations in the US, has appealed for urgent support for relief efforts to assist thousands of families displaced in Rubkona County, southern Sudan, by government military action in the oil-rich area.

This scathing article from computer security expert, Richard Forno, analyses the new Palladium computer design announced by Microsoft. MS intend Palladium to answer security worries with a hardware/software bundled solution. Viability is in doubt.

Salon.com has an article on using open-source software to stop spam: "The only way to stem the flood of unwanted e-mail may be to harness a million eyeballs and an army of open-source hackers".

The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has warned the Malawi Institute of Journalism radio station (MIJ FM) that it risks losing its broadcasting license because of what MACRA describes as anomalies and bias in its reporting. MIJ FM is a community radio station run by the MIJ to train students. However, it has been established that the license principles issued to MIJ state that the radio station should protect the best interests of the community, encourage new and innovative programmes and promote community access to information. MACRA Director of Telecommunications Mike Kuntiya refused to clarify what the authority meant by "anomalies" in MIJ FM programmes. MACRA, hitherto dormant, is yet to prove to be a neutral referee. The Authority has failed to take action against the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), despite the public outcry over MBC's apparent partisan reporting in favour of the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF).

A case in which the Ogiek community have challenged the government over their tribal Mau Forest land will now be heard on July 23. Although the community went to court over a year ago contesting a government decision to excise parts of the expansive Mau forests of Kenya to settle other communities, the case has yet to be heard because the government has yet to file its defense.

Men, women and children ran for cover as violence erupted in Lenasia on Tuesday morning after police opened fire with rubber bullets. The R554 highway to Lenasia, which had been closed off in protest by about 4 000 residents over the removal of Tembelihle informal settlement residents to Vlakfontein, was strewn with odd shoes, clothes and knobkerries after police started firing rubber bullets.

This is an excellent resource and I will pass it on to our members.

Tony Blair underlined his determination yesterday to make Africa a priority at the G8 summit when he announced British aid to the continent would rise to £1bn a year by 2006. The initiative requires African nations to institute good governance and crack down on corruption as part of a drive to make development cash more effective.

Another batch of 92 policemen allegedly involved in corrupt practices were last week arrested by the Police Anti-corruption Squad. This brings to 243 the number of such arrests since the squad was initiated recently by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun.

The EU on Tuesday expressed grave concern about the humanitarian situation in many parts of Sudan, particularly in western Upper Nile (Unity/Wahdah State), Eastern Equatoria and Bahr al-Ghazal - all in the south and affected by serious fighting. Humanitarian actors working in Sudan estimate that between 150,000 and 300,000 people were displaced in western Upper Nile alone between January and April.

Dozens of lions died in Tanzania in 2001 after flies carrying distemper spread to eastern Africa. This is an example of how the changing, warming climate around the globe is triggering unprecedented numbers of disease outbreaks in both land and ocean based wildlife populations in habitats ranging from coral reefs to rainforests. Ecologists and epidemiologists have expressed concern over this rising trend in a new report in the June 21 issue of the journal "Science."

Leaders of the G8 have adopted a new approach to their annual summits. Over the past five years, they have met in tumultuous carnival of protests and empty promises. This year, they have retreated to a fireside chat in a remote mountain resort, far away from demonstrations.

But some things will stay the same. There will be more empty promises. The G8 will re-announce token amounts of aid and debt cancellation, and promise more in the future. But the real responsibility for the economic crisis in Africa will be blamed on the African countries themselves.

NEPAD and G8 Action Plan for Africa

At their meeting on 26 - 28 June in Kananaskis, Canada, the G8 leaders will unveil an 'Action Plan on Africa'. The fact that the leaders of the rich countries are committing themselves to engage with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), being hailed an 'African plan for African development', is a welcome change from the recent past, when plans were imposed from G8 capitals.

However, as pointed out in 'Africa: What the G8 must deliver', the new briefing by Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) and the World Development Movement (WDM), the crucial test for the G8 is whether they will deliver on their own responsibilities, rather than blaming Africa for its poverty.

It is undeniable that there has been poor governance, corruption and mismanagement in Africa. However, the briefing reveals the context - the legacy of colonialism, the support of the G8 for repressive regimes in the Cold War, the creation of the debt trap, the massive failure of Structural Adjustment Programmes imposed by the IMF and World Bank and the deeply unfair rules on international trade. The role of the G8 in creating the conditions for Africa's crisis cannot be denied. Its overriding responsibility must be to put its own house in order, and to end the unjust policies that are inhibiting Africa's development.

Yet the G8 will do little and lecture Africa extensively. Its communique will undoubtedly recycle some of the most pervasive myths:
* Africa has received increasing amounts of aid over the years - in fact, aid to Sub-Saharan Africa fell by 48% over the 1990s;
* Africa needs to integrate more into the global economy - in fact, trade accounts for a larger proportion of Africa's income than of the G8;
* Economic reform will generate new foreign investment - in fact, investment to Africa has fallen since they opened up their economies;
* Bad governance has caused Africa's poverty - in fact, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), economic conditions imposed by the IMF and the World Bank were the dominant influence on economic policy in the two decades to 2000, a period in which Africa's income per head fell by 10% and income of the poorest 20% of people fell by 2% per year .

As a result of these myths, the victims are being blamed for their poverty. Africa is already labouring under conditions imposed by the IMF and World Bank, aid donors, the US Growth and Opportunity Act, the EU Cotonou agreement, Bilateral Investment Treaties and the 28 agreements of the World Trade Organisation.

Promises, promises...

The past record of the G8 does not give confidence of real commitment. The strategy has been: Make promise. Grab headlines. Tick it off. Job done. Then when the shouting dies down... quietly break promise.

* Last year, they ticked off HIV/AIDS with a Trust Fund - only $2.1 billion, a fraction of the $10 billion called for by Kofi Annan, has been delivered.
* In 1999, they apparently ended the debt crisis with a promise of $100 billion - only $13 billion of debt stock has been cancelled to date ($7.5 billion in Net Present Value).

Year after year, they have promised to support education for all, to make trade rules fairer and to end tied aid to the poorest countries. Yet, year after year, the G8 has failed to deliver.

This year, it is likely to be even worse. The promises from previous summits will not only be recycled, they will come with a heavy price tag.

* $1 billion more for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Trust Fund will come with a continuation of the IMF and World Bank influence over economic policies of African countries.
* Improved access to rich markets will come with increased pressure on Africa through World Trade Organisation negotiations to give new rights to multinational companies producing a wide range of services, including those that are essential to the poor.
* Announcements of aid for Africa will not be "new money", but will come with new conditions on African leaders, including those related to migration.

As the G8 discusses new forms of conditionality, Africa is being divided into the deserving and undeserving poor. ACTSA and WDM are calling on the G8 to stop tinkering at the margins and actually deliver on its long-standing promises to Africa. This G8 must stop blaming the victims and commit to a real development plan that reflects Africa's urgent needs.

Links on Nepad and the G8:

* How does the G8 affect Africa?
http://g8.activist.ca/print/g8-africaflyer-sp.pdf

* Critiques of NEPAD from African NGO's
http://www.web.net/~iccaf/debtsap/nepad.htm

* NEPAD: A critical review
http://www.sask.fi/Documents/NepadLRS.doc

* Little hope for Africa from G8
http://www.debtchannel.org/

This distance learning course, taking place between 23 September and 15 December, provides participants practical guidance on how to monitor human rights and is specifically a generic pre-deployment course for human rights monitors.

SciDev.Net is holding a four-day workshop in Entebbe, Uganda between 29 September and 3 October on Science Communication for Sustainable Development. It will bring together a group of scientists, public relations officers, print and radio/TV journalists along with professionals from academies of science, government departments, science and technology policy institutions and non-governmental organisations.

Last year one in five pregnant women in the Karibib district were teenagers who should have been in school, says Dr Matthew Akpo. The Usakos-based doctor told a Women's Action for Development (WAD) Field Day at Karibib last Saturday, that the teenage pregnancy rate remained high even though health workers were teaching family planning techniques.

A year ago in Genoa, Italy, the leaders of eight nations known as the G-8 set up a task force to develop a concrete plan of action to support "Nepad" - the Africa-generated new partnership for African development. But hopes for much specificity have been ratcheted down as the Summit gets underway. In New York Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned against "unrealistic expectations" and "magic success" at the summit. Still, Annan said he hopes "that this partnership would lead to a changed economic environment on the continent."

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has transferred up to 1,043 Somali refugees, who have been stranded for weeks in the northeastern Kenyan border town of Mandera, to the Dadaab refugee camp 500 km to the south. The refugees are part of a group of 10,000 who fled inter-clan fighting in the Somali town of Bulo Hawa near the border with Kenya starting in April, and have been camped in and around Mandera under difficult conditions.

Burundi and Tanzania announced on Tuesday that they would send a delegation to Geneva to ask the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to facilitate the repatriation of all Burundian refugees now in Tanzania. Close to 500,000 Burundian refugees are camped in Tanzania, thousands of who have been returning home on their own or under UNHCR-sponsored operations. However, the UNHCR position is to facilitate repatriations only to safe areas, while extending "limited assistance" to refugees insisting on going elsewhere in Burundi.

There have been success stories in Africa: an increasing number of countries are recording high growth rates, while successful elections have swept the continent. But for every success story there have been setbacks. Child mortality rates are up in several countries, as is HIV/AIDS, while reliable data in many countries is hard to come by. This is according to a new 26-page report on progress towards the Millenium Development Goals, compiled by the UNDP and Unicef for G8 Africa representatives.

A lot more than political will is needed to eradicate poverty in Africa, according to a recent report by an international development think-tank. The British-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI) asked some tough questions of how public money is managed and spent in trying to alleviate poverty in five African countries - Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. The aim of the research titled, 'How, When and Why does Poverty get Budget Priority' was to identify the factors influencing the importance attached to poverty reduction within the budget process, and the effectiveness with which policies are translated into funding and, ultimately, into results.

World Neighbors seeks an East Africa Area Representative. Responsibilities include program development, strategic planning, budgeting, evaluation, reporting, administration and fund-raising. Travel 30-40% of the time. Position supports WN activities in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.

Support management of the in-country HIV/AIDS workplace prevention and education programme, under an umbrella initiative called SMARTWork [Strategically Managing AIDS Responses Together]. Experience in programme design, and needs assessment research, for technical assistance and training.

Mango has grown rapidly over the last two and a half years. Maintaining a tight focus on strengthening the financial management of NGOs, we deliver a range of complementary services, including: training, placing financial staff, publishing capacity building materials and consultancy. Through our practical approach and high professional standards we are recognised as having made financial management accessible to NGOs around the world. We are recruiting a Deputy Director: Operations to play a major role in the development of the organisation. We are looking for someone with considerable energy, initiative and ability to join our small and enthusiastic team. The successful candidate will have practical field experience of working with NGOs and a heart-felt commitment to improving standards of financial management in the sector.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees sent a mission to The Gambia on Tuesday to take stock of possible population displacement following an announcement last week by the Senegalese army that it had launched security operations in Casamance, a UNHCR source told IRIN on Wednesday. The Senegalese army announced last weekend that it had begun an operation to curb increased insecurity and banditry in Casamance, an area in southern Senegal that borders on The Gambia.

When the three-year tenure of Nigeria's 774 local government councils lapsed at the end of May, new elected officials should have taken their place. However, no new councillors have been voted into office. In fact, it seems increasingly doubtful that local government polls will be held on 10 August as had been announced, and this has raised fears of a prolonged crisis in the country's third tier of government.

A Grootvlei Prison warder on Monday denied claims by inmates that he had made racist and sexist remarks about members of the Jali Commission into prison corruption.

Angola's finance minister on Wednesday denied a humanitarian group's charges that $1 billion had gone missing from the African nation's budget last year. London-based Global Witness, an international humanitarian pressure group, has estimated more than $1 billion or between a third and a half of all state income was unaccounted for in last year's budget.

The renewed Sudan peace effort that began in Nairobi on 17 June may be the last chance for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) process to set meaningful negotiations in train, says a new International Crisis Group (ICG) report. The decisive issue in negotiations will be self-determination for the South, combined with reform of the central government. ICG urges diplomatic support for self-determination as the only way to get an agreement that has a chance to maintain Sudanese unity.

In a surprise move, the United States became the first major world power to formally recognize the government of Marc Ravalomanana in Madagascar. A letter to that effect from President George Bush was presented by American ambassador Wanda Nesbitt in Madagascar on Wednesday.

The announcement by G8 summit leaders in Kananaskis in Canada on Wednesday to grant up to one billion dollars in additional debt relief to some of the world's poorest countries represented neither progress nor a breakthrough on debt relief, according to Jubilee South Africa. "The announcement is proof that the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) debt relief initiative has failed," Jubilee South Africa representative Neville Gabriel said on Thursday. Gabriel said in a statement that the G8 were only trying to catch up on empty promises made three years ago at the Cologne summit for $100-billion in debt relief in terms of the HIPC debt relief initiative.

Like most children in her village, Gechawa Gandesha laughs when she is asked why she will not go on to senior school. "It would take me almost a week to walk there," said the 14-year-old, who already walks more than four kilometres to her current school. Gechawa is at the top of her primary class, and longs to become a doctor. Her headmaster says she is more than capable of achieving that. But she lives in one of the remotest corners of Ethiopia, and schools are few and far between.

Canada will contribute CAD $34.2 million (US $22 million) in humanitarian aid to Southern Africa, a statement said last Friday.

Aid agencies have welcomed an announcement that the United Kingdom will increase aid to Africa, but said it is likely that there will be little progress on debt relief, trade and funding for education at the G8 summit.

The government has been told to provide security for journalists covering the coming General Election. Journalists from both public and private media organisations complained that they were being harassed and intimidated by State officials and political party operatives even before the elections are called.

The sustained conflict in the Mano River countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone has created one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world, and strained political and economic relations between the three states, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) says in a new report.

The sustained offensive by the Ugandan army against the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in southern Sudan, code-named Operation Iron Fist, is forcing its leader, Joseph Kony, to release and allow his noncombatant captives to return to northern Uganda, according to a senior army official.