Pambazuka News 535: From aid and humanitarianism to solidarity
Pambazuka News 535: From aid and humanitarianism to solidarity
Thanks Jean-Paul Pougala for . Your article shines a very bright light on what is happening on the African continent in global terms. I hope that unity can be found quickly amongst the African leaders. Thanks again!
A and explanation of the history leading to the Libyan conflict. But you failed mention that it is Canada's warplanes (at the direction of Prime Minister Stephen Harper) who have taken the lead role in the air assaults on the Libyans--to the cheers of many Canadians and to the heartfelt shame of many others like myself.
‘Hopefully, in this new era of electronic information where we are no longer dependent upon corporate owned and sponsored media , people can now find access to honest, independent news agencies with truthful information, writes William LeGere.
Following the death by self-immolation of 41-year-old Mauritanian Yacoub Ould Dahoud in January, Sokari Ekine revisits his demands for change in the country. In the wake of the revelations around Gay Girl in Damascus’s true identity, she also explores the outrage and severe criticism directed at the site from those in the LGBTI and Middle Eastern blogosphere.
Every electoral district is set to have a primary health care nurse-driven team established in future with specialist doctor teams assigned to districts where maternal and child mortality is high, the health department has revealed. The recruitment of retired nurses to promote health schools will kick off in the next week. Health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi returned from a study tour to Brazil last year and announced that he was determined to revitalise the country’s primary health care system, copying some of the successes from the Latin American country.
Worldwide 215 million children are engaged in child labour, and of these 115 million are involved in what is considered to be hazardous work, says this report from the Food and Agricultural Organisation. Agriculture is the sector where the largest share of child labourers is found - a staggering 60 per cent of boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 17.
A Thomson Reuters Foundation poll may have found that Afghanistan is the most dangerous place to be a woman, but Somalia's women's minister is astonished any country could be worse than her own. 'I'm completely surprised because I thought Somalia would be first on the list, not fifth,' said Maryan Qasim. 'The most dangerous thing a woman in Somalia can do is to become pregnant,' Qasim said. 'When a woman becomes pregnant her life is 50-50 because there is no antenatal care at all...There are no hospitals, no healthcare, no nothing.'
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/535/india_in_africa_tmb.jpgPamb... Press is proud to announce the launch of ‘’ a new title edited by Emma Mawdsley and Gerard McCann. 'With India and other emerging powers increasingly eyeing the rich resources of the African continent, this book by leading experts makes both timely and essential reading,' writes Yash Tandon, former executive director of the South Centre, Geneva. Featuring contributions from Padraig Carmody, Fantu Cheru, Alex Gadzala, Dave Harris, Paul Kamau, Dorothy McCormick, Renu Modi, Sanusha Naidu, Cyril Obi, Zarina Patel, Luke Patey, Zahid Rajan, Alex Vines and Simona Vittorini, the book enables readers to compare India to China and other 'rising powers' in Africa.
Africa needs more support to develop the major regional trading blocs on the continent. African leaders, at a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, said this would improve business competitiveness and build on successes of the free trade initiatives. The one-day summit, at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, ended with the signing of a tripartite document formalising the negotiations process of the 26 leaders present. The Heads of State and government leaders from the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) signed a declaration launching the negotiations for the establishment of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area.
With homophobia on the rise, large numbers of South African lesbians are being subjected to discrimination and violent assaults. There has also been an increase in 'corrective rape' by men trying to 'cure' them of their sexual orientation. More than 30 lesbians have been killed since 2006. But most of these crimes go unrecognised by the state and unpunished by the legal system.
Madagascar, its unique biodiversity and its people, are under threat. French oil company Total is deciding whether to mine highly polluting tar sands in one of the poorest areas of Madagascar. Please act now to help stop this. Email Total’s chief executive today and call on him to abandon his company’s destructive plans.
Soon after independence in 1960, the government set the legal age of consent to marriage at 20 for men, 18 for women and 21 for couples without parental consent. But the law is widely ignored in a society where many say that marrying young is the cultural norm. When female teens become eligible for early marriage, their school enrollment drops off sharply. While 66 per cent of girls enroll in primary school, just 19 per cent go on to secondary school, according to UNICEF.
Swedish defence group Saab admitted that millions were paid to clinch a South African contract for fighter jets but said its erstwhile British partner BAE Systems had paid the bribes. Saab said R24-million had been paid by BAE in the form of bonuses and salaries between 2003 and 2005 for the deal involving 26 JAS Gripen fighters. The comments came after Sweden's TV4 television channel said it had evidence Saab had promised to pay Fana Hlongwane, then advisor to the South African defence minister and also serving as a consultant to the Swedish firm, millions of euros in bonuses if Pretoria did not back out of the Gripen deal.
A cheap new meningitis vaccine designed to treat a type of the disease common in Africa could significantly reduce or even halt future epidemics in Africa's so-called 'meningitis belt', scientists said. International researchers said the vaccine, called MenAfriVac and made by the Indian generic drugmaker Serum Institute, was far more effective than older so-called meningococcal polysaccaride vaccines, including Mencevax from GlaxoSmithKline, in trials in three African countries. In two studies in the New England Journal of Medicine, in which MenAfriVac's potency and effectiveness was compared with a standard vaccine often used during meningitis outbreaks in the region, scientists said the new shot was 'dramatically better'.
Civil rights groups are up in arms about Faustin Kayumbe Nyamwasa's refugee status in South Africa, arguing that the decision violates South African and international law and increases the likelihood of South Africa being used as a safe haven by perpetrators of mass crimes. This comes after Consortium for Refugees and Migrant Rights (CoRMSA) and Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) submitted a detailed legal briefing to the South African authorities highlighting his ineligibility and outlining the legal implications of the decision. (CoRMSA) together with (SALC) have launched legal action seeking the cancellation of former Rwandan general and suspected war criminal Faustin Kayumbe Nyamwasa's refugee status in South Africa.
The Democratic Republic of Congo's parliament has passed an electoral law, a crucial step toward organising 28 November presidential and legislative elections, but opposition leaders have expressed concern over the poll's credibility. The timetable for registering millions of voters is tight, and opposition parties want greater international involvement in monitoring preparations for the election.
Public health officials may be able to forecast cholera outbreaks months in advance by looking at temperature and rainfall data, according to a study. Researchers looked at cholera outbreaks in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and found that they correlated with increases in temperature and rainfall. They calculated thata one degree Celsius increase - from 23 to 24 degrees Celsius - was followed by a doubling of cholera cases four months later.
Nigeria's national biosafety bill has been passed by the country's upper house. But those opposing it say that this month's enactment of the bill - two days before the end of Nigeria's sixth national assembly - results from a hidden foreign agenda to legalise GM organisms. Mariann Bassey, food and agrofuels programme manager for the Nigerian advocacy group Environmental Rights Action, called for a transparent process that includes the views of all stakeholders, 'not one that is shoved down our throats by biotech agents'.
Dale T. McKinley takes a clause by clause look at South Africa’s Protection of Information Bill (POIB) – known publicly as the Secrecy Bill. It is ‘all very real and even more dangerous’, he writes, and South Africans should speak up now before it is too late.
South Africa’s Protection of Information Bill (POIB) – known publicly as the Secrecy Bill – represents the biggest threat to academic freedom since 1994. Yet the voice of universities has been missing from the uproar over the bill, writes Jane Duncan.
The importance of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa lies in its potential to change negative power relations and address the impoverishment of women in Africa, writes Itodo Samuel Anthony, a finalist in the SOAWR essay competition.
While stressing the need for greater engagement with the theme of gender, Lucy Shule commends the ‘historical depth and topical breadth’ of ‘The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Resolution’.
Certainly, the Africa media is inept and poor equipped and/or perhaps scared to do its job. But you have to highlight and perhaps give credit to some of the blogs that do a good job of taking over from where the local media fails. For example, one the newest blogs about Tanzania, , is such one that most people are not aware of, but it is literally a fantastic blog to read. Mtafakari should be given credit, and encouragement to continue.
I'm sometimes ashamed to be a Westerner. Throughout history, Westerners have conquered by violence as though they had a right to conquer and kill. Anyone who stands in our way is cannon fodder and anyone who competes with us, as Gaddafi has by trying to make Africa independent of western 'aid', evokes jealousy and retribution.
We have not set a good example to the world; we have made power and money our gods while professing to be children of God and champions of democracy. What we are champions of is hypocrisy.
Messages of solidarity with the detained president of the Swaziland National Union of Students Maxwell Dlamini keep flowing in.
South Africans are still recovering from the heavy rains that caused a lot of damage and flooding especially to poor communities. In Siyanda people have to deal with fire as well as flood. The Shange family, the Buthelezi family and one other family have all been left homeless after a fire that destroyed three shacks in Siyanda B Settlement on Saturday, 11 June 2011 during the broad day light.
The political scene in Tunisia has witnessed the birth of a new political force: The Modernist Democratic Pole. This pole is a coalition of a number of political parties and civic associations. Mr. Riadh Ben Fadl and Mr. Mustapha Ben Ahmed, the founders of the pole, believe that it is crucial for all entities that have the same political ideas to unite.
With the legacy of South Africa's 1976 student uprising marked on 16 June, Veli Mbele writes that education is an area in which the ANC has failed South Africa's young black people. 'The situation is so dire that it gives credence to the theory that it serves the political interests of the ruling party to keep a huge section of the population uneducated and trapped in poverty and ignorance.'
While the social and political movements gaining momentum in the Middle East and North Africa appear to be opening the door for democracy, initially progressive revolutions do not often result in sustained improvements for women’s rights, notes this article. 'While Arab women have been crucial in the revolutions that have shattered the status quo, their role in the future development of their own countries remains unclear. In Tunisia, for example, the fear is that women will be sucked into an ideological and religious tug-of-war over their rights, reducing the complexities of democratisation into a binary secular/non-secular battle.'
Ibrahim Foday, a reporter of The Exclusive, a Freetown-based independent newspaper, was on 12 June 2011, stabbed to death by unknown assailants in Grafton, a town in the outskirts of Freetown, where Foday lives. The Sierra Leonean authorities have not identified any suspects or disclosed possible motives for the murder, according to a release by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalist (SLAJ), on 13 June 2011. The SLAJ statement linked Foday’s death to an ongoing land dispute between Grafton and another town, Kossoh. Prior to his death the reporter had published a series of articles, on the dispute that the Kossoh people were not pleased with.
Amnesty International has said it backs the International Criminal Court's proposal to conduct the confirmation of charges hearings for the suspected post-poll violence sponsors (Ocampo Six) in Kenya. The rights organisation said the move, if successful, would bring justice closer to the victims who bore the brunt of the post election violence that left 1,133 people and 650,000 others uprooted from their homes.
Aerial bombardments, killings of civilians and house-to-house searches are escalating in the Northern Sudanese state of Southern Kordofan, aid workers and residents report. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that some 53,000 people have been displaced by fighting that broke out on 5 June near Kadugli, the state capital, between the Northern army, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), and former members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
Local understanding of children’s immune systems may be delaying access to paediatric HIV treatment, according to a study at a rural clinic in northern Malawi, where just 15 per cent of children in need of antiretrovirals (ARVs) are receiving the drugs. Research presented at the 1st International HIV Social Science and Humanities Conference in Durban, South Africa, showed that caregivers were reluctant to start sick, HIV-positive children on ARVs because they believed the children’s bodies were too weak for pills and their blood was 'still raw', but that as it 'ripened' with time, HIV-related opportunistic infections would leave them.
The roll-out of a revolutionary meningitis vaccination in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has dramatically cut transmission rates, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and if each country can find sufficient funds to co-finance the campaign, it will be extended to all 25 countries in the Africa meningitis belt by 2016, says the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI). In the 2010-2011 meningitis season, Burkina Faso has confirmed just four cases of meningitis A; Niger has reported four cases; and Mali none, according to WHO.
In NATO’s hands, UN Security Council resolution 1973 has morphed into a clear attempt at regime change in Libya, writes Alexander Cockburn. He stresses: ‘A hundred years down the road the UN–NATO Libyan intervention will be seen as an old-fashioned colonial smash-and-grab affair.’
Kenya goes to elections again in about a year’s time, but already concerns are being raised that there could be a repeat of 2007/2008 when a disputed presidential election left more than 1,000 dead and over 600,000 homeless. Some leaders have warned that political tension persists in Rift Valley, the region which bore the brunt of Kenya’s post election in 2008. Bishop Cornelius Korir cited the fact that some people have chosen not to spend the nights in their homes because of the tension. President Kibaki’s advisor on ethnic relations, Raphael Tuju, has blamed joblessness amongst the youth and the failure of the Kazi kwa Vijana programme as providing tribal lords with idle youth to recruit into their armies.
Over 30 people have so far been arrested in an operation to crack down on illegal encroachment and settlement in the national forest reserves in Kibaale district that started on Monday, 13 June. The operation which started last week in Kangombe Central Forest Reserve was mounted by National Forestry Authority (NFA) with the help of police. However, Deo Ndabiyareza, one of the encroachers, claimed that some encroachers bought land in the reserves. 'They very well know it that some of us came into the forest and the old settlers sold land to us. We cannot accept to leave this land because we have already planted crops,' he said.
The Governor of the Central Bank says President Museveni’s erratic policies and the government’s fiscal indiscipline have led to higher inflation and declining foreign reserves, a UK-based newspaper reported. Mr Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile told the Financial Times newspaper that he had disagreed with Mr Museveni over the decision to spend $740 million on jet fighters, which has pushed reserves down from six to four months of import cover. The Ministry of Defence, under President Museveni’s directive, withdrew a reported $400 million (Shs960 billion) from the Central Bank to pay for the fighter jets without parliamentary approval.
The Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF) has published a report on the sugarcane-to-ethanol project of the Geneva based firm Addax Bioenergy. The researchers found that 'many farmers in project affected communities have already lost their access to fertile lands, though Addax has provided community members with alternative farm lands and confined them to smaller lands, promises by Addax to plough and harrow the lands materialized too late in 2010.' Furthermore, the researchers observed that 'water has become an ever increasing problem for the communities as lands leased by Addax are currently being prepared and even at this initial stage some water bodies such as the "Kirbent" and "Domkoni" streams near the Maronko village in the Makari Gbanti Chiefdom have ceased to exist.'
Tunisia's ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia in January, is to go on trial in absentia on 20 June. Announcing the date, interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi said Saudi Arabia had not replied to requests to hand him over. Charges range from conspiring against the state to drug trafficking.
After a newspaper that Prudence* (16) used as sanitary wear fell from her while she played with friends at school, she left and never returned. The impoverished A-student could not handle the teasing or embarrassment. The prevalence of this problem has the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) considering approaching government. According to SNAT gender officer Bongiwe Khumalo, many teachers have identified this problem at their schools. Very few have been able to assist the young girls because of lack of resources. However, the organisation has no statistics available on how many girls are leaving school.
Across the continent, there is new attention to the practical requirements of effective immunisation campaigns. Dr Seraphine Adibaku, head of Uganda's malaria control programme, says his country has already started raising popular awareness of the coming availability of a malaria vaccine, with the most recent meeting of officials from the ministry of health and developers of the vaccine and other stake holders held in May. 'We are conscious not to cause excitement because it can lead to undesirable consequences but we have to tell the people that a vaccine could be here sooner than later,' says Adibaku.
ARTICLE 19 has urged the Rwandan Parliament to pass the Access to Information Bill that was adopted by the Rwandan Cabinet on 1 June 2011 as a matter of priority. 'The Rwandan Government’s adoption of the Access to Information Bill is a clear acknowledgement of the key role free flow of information can play in good governance and transparency and in the sustainable development of the country. The Rwandan Parliament must now expedite the enactment process so that the people of Rwanda can start enjoying the benefits of this law,' said Henry Maina, Director, ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa.
The World Bank and IMF have been restructuring the economies of the Middle East for decades, with largely negative results. Yet they are poised to play a major role in the post-revolutionary efforts to stabilise Egypt, Tunisia and other post-authoritarian states. Despite the less than encouraging history of involvement in the region, the World Bank, IMF and other mainstream institutions have all sought to insert themselves into the economic reform process that most observers believe must accompany political reform in order for the latter to succeed.
A gay woman was stabbed four times by men who accused her of stealing their girlfriends in Crossroads in the Western Cape, the Times reported. Noxolo Nkosana (23) was getting out of a car, returning home after work when two men, both Crossroads residents, approached her.
South Africa's best-known cartoonist, Zapiro, could again be facing legal action by the African National Congress (ANC) following the publication of a new cartoon of President Jacob Zuma. In Zapiro's latest cartoon in the Mail & Guardian newspaper, published on June 10, Zuma is portrayed with his belt unbuckled, while ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe holds a woman depicting press freedom. 'Lady Justice' is also drawn, and shouts: 'Fight, sister, fight!!' The cartoon is a comment on the ruling party's Protection of Information Bill and the proposed media appeals tribunal.
The planned creation of a 26-nation African Tripartite Free Trade Area (FTA) will draw industrial investment to South Africa by making it a springboard for low-duty access to other parts of the continent, trade and industry director general Lionel October said. The proposed free trade zone will merge the three regional blocs covering southern, central and eastern Africa. These are the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), and the East African Community (EAC), which have a combined population of 580-million people.
In an open field 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of Angola's chaotic capital, a $3.5-billion city seems to rise from nothing, a showpiece in government's drive to build one million new homes. Dubbed the 'new city of Kilamba Kiaxi', it's the antithesis of overcrowded Luanda's traffic-choked streets and is being built - like so much else in Angola - by Chinese contractors.
Botswana’s government deployed heavy security in the capital Gaborone for the second day on Friday 10 June as despairing union leaders announced a suspension of a seven-week civil service strike that has driven the peaceful nation to the brink of full-scale violence. Armed police backed by the paramilitary Special Support Group (SSG) and a helicopter were out in force on Thursday 9 June to prevent the striking workers from engaging in acts of violence and destruction that have accompanied the strike.
Police in Bulawayo are still camped at a house used for meetings by Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), following a raid on the premises, the organisation has said. It’s understood the police are after WOZA leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, as well as the owner of the house, who is not a WOZA member and is understood to be out of the country. 'Since the beginning of the year, 38 WOZA members have been arbitrarily arrested and 24 detained and charged under the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act. Threats were made that upon the eventual arrest of Williams and Mahlangu, they would be denied bail and imprisoned in the male prison,' a WOZA statement said.
South African President Jacob Zuma reportedly got into a verbal confrontation with Robert Mugabe, after the ZANU PF leader challenged him over the ‘inaccuracy’ of the Livingstone Troika resolutions. The Johannesburg Summit went on and ‘noted’ the decision of the Organ Troika in Livingstone, dealing a major blow to ZANU PF who had wanted the resolutions thrown out altogether. But the regional leaders also appeared to soften their language towards Mugabe.
More than 43,000 Angolan refugees living in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be voluntarily repatriated starting next month, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR announced last Wednesday. Of about 80,000 Angolan refugees in the DRC, '43,085 have expressed their desire to immediately return to their country of origin,' said Mohamed Boukry, UNHCR representative in Kinshasa. The repatriation should start on 4 July and wrap up early next year.
Chinese analysts have dismissed a statement by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that warned Africa to be wary of 'new colonialism' as China expands its ties in the continent, saying that trade and economic cooperation between China and African countries are conducted on the basis of mutual benefit. Clinton said that 'we don’t want to see a new colonialism in Africa', when asked about China’s growing influence in the continent during a television interview in Lusaka, Zambia.
Mobile phone users should not expect any further call price cuts for now. This is after Safaricom and Telkom Kenya got backing from the country’s top offices - that of the President and of the Prime Minister to suspend implementation of new termination rates. Safaricom and Telkom Kenya had warned that a further cut would have a negative effect on the sector’s profitability, risk of job losses, curtail new capital investments, reduce government revenue and competitiveness.
Discriminatory laws and a largely homophobic society mean that men who have sex with men (MSM) in Kenya generally find it difficult to access HIV-related information and health services, but rural MSM have an especially hard time. When Kibet Kipsowen*, 30, a cattle keeper in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province, and his partner have sex, they use the oil-based jelly he applies when milking his cows; he’s never heard of a water-based lubricant, let alone used one. Health practitioners discourage the use of oil-based lubricants for anal sex, as the oil degrades condoms, increasing the likelihood that they will break. Studies have found that most African MSM use oil-based lubricants, heightening their risk of contracting HIV.
Human rights campaigners have demanded the immediate release of a Cameroonian man jailed for three years for homosexuality. Jean-Claude Roger Mbede appears to have been a victim of entrapment by the security forces, which regularly target and prosecute gay men. Mbede sent an acquaintance a text message and arranged to meet him on 2 March, according to human rights watchdogs. Before the meeting, the acquaintance showed police text messages from Mbede.
The UN food agency has warned of worsening food shortages due to drought in the Horn of Africa region, saying eight million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia need aid now. 'The current crisis is not an unusual or chance event, but rather a chronic feature of the region,' Rod Charters, regional emergency coordinator for the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said in a statement. 'The region has now experienced two consecutive seasons of significantly below-average rainfall, resulting in failed crop production, depletion of grazing resources and significant livestock mortality,' FAO said.
Pambazuka News 534: Interpreting the 'Arab Spring'
Pambazuka News 534: Interpreting the 'Arab Spring'
The aim of Meet You At The Crossroads is to circulate, document, provoke, inspire and support. It is a library of public images of resistance, rebellion, revolt and rebuilding occurring in cities right across the globe, often on the streets; in the public realm.
In his inaugural speech on 21 May, Côte d'Ivoire President Alassane Outtara called for Ivorians to come together and unite. The text and tone of his speech was conciliatory, observers agreed, and earlier in May he called for the International Criminal Court to investigate human rights abuses on all sides, including those by his own troops. But if his words are to have credibility, observers also agree, his administration must take effective action to halt ethnically-based reprisals that are ongoing, reports the latest edition of the AfricaFocus Bulletin, which contains a summary article and excerpts from the latest Human Rights Watch report, published on 3 June.
This special issue will focus explicitly on instances of 'water grabbing', where powerful actors are able to reallocate to their own benefits water resources already used by local communities or feeding aquatic ecosystems on which their livelihoods are based, as well as processes of contestation and resistance. It will in particular focus on how material, discursive, administrative and political power is mobilised to enable such water reallocation and on the impacts of the latter on local livelihoods, rights, gender, class and other social relations.
The theme for this year’s World Day Against Child Labour is ‘Caution! Children in Hazardous Work’.
The 12 June global event will attempt to shine a spotlight on the most exploitative and harmful forms of child labour, many which occur in South Africa. Evidence of the active movement to protect children and end child labour can be seen in the large number of International Labour Organisation (ILO) policies and other legislation enacted over the past decade.
Impact studies warn that TRIPS-Plus provisions can lead to higher prices and reduced access to medicines, say Nusaraporn Kessomboon and colleagues in this article. The non-technical term TRIPS?Plus refers to provisions for the protection of intellectual property rights that go beyond the World Trade Organisation's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). They include extending the life of a patent beyond the minimum requirement imposed by TRIPS; limiting government permission to reproduce a patented product or to reprocess without the patent owner's consent ('compulsory licensing') in ways not required by TRIPS; and limiting exceptions that facilitate the prompt introduction of generic drugs into the market.
As donors gathered for a major meeting on funding vaccines for the developing world, campaigners called for vaccine production to be transferred to Africa to save money and contribute to the continent's broader economic development. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), a public-private initiative, is asking for US$3.7 billion in funding over the next four years to immunise 243 million children against a variety of diseases. But vaccines supported by GAVI are produced almost entirely in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia, said the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED), based in Switzerland.
For the first time, the role of the internet on the right to freedom of opinion and expression is being reported at the 17th session of the UN Human Rights Council. This signals a clear recognition that the increasing prevalence of the internet in all aspect of our lives is becoming impossible to ignore, and that it is becoming pivotal in the realisation of our fundamental rights and freedoms. At the same session, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women is also presenting her report on violence against women, its causes and consequences. The synchronicity of both reports, especially given the fact that human rights are universal, interdependent and indivisible, calls for a close reading to identify the points of connection that can be built in the effort to recognise, analyse and address violations that affect the recognition, protection and fulfilment of women's human rights.
A coalition of more than 40 civil society groups from 20 countries around the world on 8 June launched a campaign Make Aid Transparent, which calls on governments and other aid donors to publish more and better information about the money they give. At the centre of the campaign, whose members include Transparency International, the anti-corruption organisation, and 18 groups from developing countries, is a petition aimed at donor governments to make their aid more transparent. 'Providing more and better information about aid isn’t hard, and it will help save lives, reduce corruption and waste and deliver lasting positive change in the world’s poorest countries,' the petition reads.
The Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) has announced the launch of a Fellowship programme that will send journalists to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban (COP17) in late 2011. The Fellowships are open predominantly to journalists from developing countries, but journalists from the US and Russia are also welcome to apply.
The Ivoirian government has extended a special period of free health care to help a population reeling from months of turmoil. But in a country where cost recovery for health services has long been the policy, an abrupt change to free care is posing challenges. Shortly after Alassane Ouattara took power in April 2011, he announced that public health services would be free until the end of May as a way to help people in the aftermath of widespread unrest and economic stagnation. Doctors reported 20-30 times the number of patients after free care was announced. Advocates of free care say the explosion of patients indicates that cost is one of the biggest barriers to access.
The International Freedom of Exchange has announced that they are joining forces with other organisations to launch the first ever International Day to End Impunity on 23 November, the anniversary of the single deadliest attack on journalists in recent history: the 2009 Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines. On the heels of this announcement the members learned that Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad had been found murdered in Islamabad, most likely for his reporting on ties between Al Qaeda and Pakistan's navy.
A major pan-African science, technology and innovation (ST&I) survey, aimed at mapping the state of research to help with policymaking, was released on 24 May. The 'Africa Innovation Outlook 2010', prepared by the African Science and Technology Indicators Initiative (ASTII) and launched at its workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, covers 19 countries from across the continent and aims to plug an information gap on the state of science in Africa.
After several years of fragile gains, Malawi’s healthcare sector is running into trouble, with the latest challenge an aid freeze by its largest international donor, the UK's Department for International Development (DFID). The UK provided about US$122 million annually to Malawi, of which $49 million went to funding Malawi’s public health sector, but DFID made its final aid disbursement in March and has decided not to renew a six-year funding commitment which ends in June.
Following the so called 'Arab spring', and in the midst of the ‘acampadas’, organised mass mobilisations through social networks in many Spanish cities, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in collaboration with IPS Inter Press Service News Agency launched the book 'Politics, Networks and Technologies in Communications for Development', a tour through the different visions of new technologies and their contribution to information in general and more concretely, to communication for development. The book has contributions from experts who analyse challenges faced by journalism and communication for development, in front of the revolution of new technologies.
Few cases of sexual assault against journalists have ever been documented, a product of powerful cultural and professional stigmas. But now dozens of journalists are coming forward to say they have been sexually abused in the course of their work. The Committee to Protect Journalists has interviewed more than four dozen journalists who have undergone varying degrees of sexual violence - from rape by multiple attackers to aggressive groping - either in retaliation for their work or during the course of their reporting. They include 27 local journalists, from top editors to beat reporters, working in regions from the Middle East to South Asia, Africa to the Americas.
'Eco-label fatigue' is setting in as green logging certification schemes are undermining proper government management of forest resources while 'greenwashing' private ownership of these public resources, critics say. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), created in 1993, is an internationally recognised scheme for the certification of the responsible management of forests. FSC-certified territory in sub-Saharan African countries has more than doubled, from three million ha in April 2008 to 7,6 million ha in Aprril 2011. Yet, African and international civil society organisations are increasingly wary of what some nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) call 'eco-label fatigue', and particularly of the FSC labelling scheme.
Reporters Without Borders has learned that six opposition activists, who are also reporters or informants for La Voix de Djibouti, an opposition radio station that broadcasts on the short-wave from Europe, have been held in Djibouti’s Gabode prison for the past four months without being tried. The six detainees - reporters Farah Abadid Hildid and Houssein Ahmed Farah and informants Houssein Robleh Dabar, Abdillahi Aden Ali, Moustapha Abdourahman Houssein and Mohamed Ibrahim Waïss - who are members of various opposition parties, were placed in pre-trial detention on 9 February on a charge of 'participating in an insurrectional movement'.
Rebels and forces of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have fought over Zawiyah, a major oil port just 50km west of Tripoli, and in locations across the North African country. Libya's government said it has stopped opposition fighters from entering Zawiyah but rebels said they were continuing to fight for the town on Sunday, after hours of battles. Mussa Ibrahim, the government spokesman, said that Gaddafi's forces had 'total control' of the area from Ajdabiya in the east to the Tunisian border in the west.
South Africans mourned the loss of a woman celebrated for her role in the fight against apartheid, and for her nurturing of a new generation of leaders. Crowds singing hymns and songs from the anti-apartheid era gathered hours before Albertina Sisulu's funeral on Saturday, eventually filling about a quarter of a 40,000-seat soccer stadium in Soweto. The service followed a week of national mourning during which flags were flown at half-mast across South Africa and at its foreign missions. Albertina collapsed and died at her Johannesburg home 2 June at the age of 92.
The global shortage of health workers is estimated at 4.2 million by the World Health Organisation (WHO), but the migration of doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists from poor to rich countries means the shortfall is not evenly distributed - of the 57 nations identified as having reached a crisis point, 36 are in sub-Saharan Africa. In some countries with fragile health systems and heavy disease burdens, over half of all highly trained health workers have left for job opportunities abroad. In some of the worst cases rural hospitals have been left with just one doctor and a handful of nurses to attend to thousands of patients. What has worked so far in addressing the problem? IRIN took a look at some of the push and pull factors behind health worker migration, and what countries are doing to address them.
Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré has sacked all of the 14 governors of the country’s regions and promised to name replacements in due course. A statement on the State radio said the move followed a Cabinet meeting which was chaired by the President in the capital, Ouagadougou. Even though no reasons were given for the sackings, it is believed the action was in connection with the riots and military mutinies that have rocked the country for three months now.
A new sex workers initiative in Botswana has included an LGBTI component in its programme. African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) is a Pan African movement and alliance for the rights of sex workers which was established in 2009 in Johannesburg South Africa, with a number of 105 sex workers from different countries in Africa. Sisonke Botswana, a sex work group currently housed by Botswana Network on Ethics Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA), joined ASWA and dedicated a week to the mapping of sex workers rights in Botswana with the aim to forming a coalition which will advance the human health rights of most key population (sex workers, transgender, MSM and drug users).
Dr Willy Mutunga, the man set to become Kenya’s next chief justice had to publicly declare he was not gay this week in front of a committee that was vetting him for office. Opponents of Dr Mutunga's nomination for the post who included leading members of the clergy had implied that because he wears a stud and has in the past been supportive of LGBTI causes, Dr Mutunga was gay or might support an LGBTI agenda and as such was unfit for office.
'The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) joins the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition in calling on this weekend’s Extra-Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community focusing on Zimbabwe can lead to a peaceful, free, fair and legitimate democratic transition in that country. We fully endorse and support the Coalition’s call on the summit to put on public record minimum pre-conditions that Zimbabwe must meet in order to create an environment conducive to holding free and fair elections where violence and intimidation play no part and to inspire confidence in the people of Zimbabwe, in SADC and the wider international community.'
Representatives from various organisations in the region and nationally agreed to submit a series of observations and demands to the finance ministers and central bank presidents of the Union of Nations of South America, UNASUR, during the first meeting of the South American Council of Economy and Finance. The meeting, due to be held in Buenos Aires, was suspended as the proliferation of volcanic ash forced the closure of airports.
A Ugandan woman who was branded with a hot iron in her home country as a punishment for her sexuality, is facing forced removal from the UK. Betty Tibikawa, 22, who is detained in Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedford, is awaiting removal directions after her asylum claim was refused. Human rights organisations have consistently documented abuses against gay men and lesbians in Uganda and say that it's one of the most dangerous countries in the world for gay people.
Although members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are reluctant to label the Doha development round of multilateral trade negotiations ‘dead’, Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies says that there is no hope of concluding the round in 2011, and it is time to pursue ‘plan B’. He explains that ‘plan B’ is to decide what part of the work programme of Doha could be delivered this year. 'The fundamental focus should be to deliver something for the least-developed countries (LDCs),' says Davies. This will likely include a duty-free quota-free access agreement - an aid-for-trade package opening markets to LDCs - which could facilitate the elimination of non-tariff barriers in LDCs, and a resolution of the ‘cotton dossier’, which would put a stop to subsidies for cotton farmers in the US.
In an enigmatic U-turn, Algeria's political parties now support presidential term limits, just three years after they fought tooth and nail to defend the idea of an indefinite term for the chief executive. 'Algeria cannot stand aloof from globalisation and the systems applied in most countries, namely limitation of terms of office,' the National Liberation Front (FLN) said during a meeting of its Central Committee on Sunday (5 June) in Algiers. The majority of Algeria's political organisations, whether among the opposition or close to the government – Islamist, republican and secular – now advocate a return to the principle of limited terms of office as enshrined in previous Algerian constitutions.
A Casablanca court on 9 June sentenced opposition journalist Rachid Nini to one year in prison and fined him 1,000 dirhams (100 euros). The Al Massae editor was indicted in late April on charges of disinformation, attacking state institutions, public figures and the 'security and integrity of the nation and citizens'. Nini published a series of articles criticising Moroccan security authorities and other influential figures. In his writing, he cast doubt over the terrorist attacks experienced by Morocco and demanded the abrogation of the Terrorist Act.
Southern African leaders on Sunday pressured Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to make democratic reforms ahead of new elections, hoping to set a new timetable for polls. Leaders of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community had discussed Zimbabwe late on Saturday on the eve of a free trade summit. After failing to reach a decision, they resumed talks after Sunday's trade meeting.
The full summit is expected to sign off on a roadmap that will lay out a new timetable for the constitution and later elections.
In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...
According to Eco-Watch Africa, sexual harassment and violence against women and girls in the aftermath of natural disasters, like recent floods in Mozambique, is an enormous challenge. This means women will suffer both the effects of natural disasters and also the gender-based violence common in refugee camps or post-disaster situations. Yet despite women being the most vulnerable, they are grossly underrepresented in debates, discussions and other decision-making structures around issues of climate change.
ProBono.Org has a one-year contract position for a qualified lawyer to build on its community advice office ('CAO') project, which aims to support CAOs and community based organisations ('CBOs') by linking them to local lawyers.
Journey to the State House: The Life of Seif Shariff Hamad depicts the long and winding story of one of Zanzibar’s most dedicated politicians. Brimming with accounts from politicians and observers alike, the film paints an insightful backdrop to the sheer political magnitude of Maalim Seif Shariff Hamad being elected into power by the Zanzibari people in 2010..
The following can be found in the new issue:
- An in-depth look at the food price volatility and food markets
- The launch of the People’s Food Policy in Canada
- Voices and testimonies from Brazil and Mozambique
- An update from the International Seeds meeting in Bali.
Visit the website for more information.
COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi warns in a report prepared for the federation's central committee meeting this month that South Africa could become a 'banana republic', and threatens to repudiate President Jacob Zuma's leadership. Cosatu's central committee meeting is a mid-term review since the federation's last congress in 2009. In its analysis, the report compares the ANC's attitude towards the federation to the bad treatment it received during the era of former president Thabo Mbeki. The report confirms that Cosatu believes the ANC Youth League is on a campaign to remove Mantashe and Zuma.
The SADC made a fundamental mistake in adopting a strategy of embracing the headlong rush to implement a regional ‘free trade’ regime, argues this article written for the Economic Justice Network. '... all SADC member nations (with the partial exceptions of South Africa and Botswana) remain in various stages of severe societal under-development, largely due to their continued and mostly similar mono-economic (natural resource) foundations, huge socio-economic inequalities, incredibly high levels of poverty and general lack of popular democratic control and participation.'
The Refugee Law Project (RLP), Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, in collaboration with the African Transitional Justice Research Network (ATJRN) is accepting applications to its 2nd Institute for African Transitional Justice (IATJ), an annual week-long residential programme with a focus on Transitional Justice issues in the context of Africa. The Institute, which is scheduled to take place from 20-27 November 2011, in Kitgum, Northern Uganda has as its theme: 'Whose Memories Count and at What Cost?'
This conference aims at promoting scientific exchanges involving researchers and stakeholders dealing
with land issues. Participants will be invited to share their work and experiences in order to assess land
strategies and policies within a comparative framework. This conference was initiated by Ugandan and
French researchers from the Institute of Research for Development (IRD, France) and the University of
Makerere (Kampala, Uganda). Many local and international researchers in East Africa have documented
land-related issues and wider scientific exchanges are expected to stem from this meeting.
President of the Swaziland National Union of Students, Maxwell Dlamini, has been detained, tortured, and forced by Swaziland’s regime to sign a confession that says he was in possession of explosives during the April 12 Swazi Uprising - a movement inspired by similar uprisings in North Africa and The Middle East. The Free Maxwell Dlamini Campaign, together with the people and organisations that support the campaign - are demanding that Maxwell Dlamini, and his fellow accused Musa Ngubeni, is released unconditionally and that any and all wrongdoings committed by Swaziland’s police forces and security forces towards Maxwell Dlamini and other members of Swaziland’s democratic movement are investigated, and that any perpetrators are brought before a court of law.
South African President Jacob Zuma on Sunday launched Africa's biggest free trade bloc aimed at enhancing cooperation between 26 nations to boost economies in the world's poorest and underdeveloped continent. The Southern African Development Community (SADC), East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) will now work as a joint bloc.
Four persons are reported to have died as Gabonese gendarmes forced more than three thousand African migrants out of a gold mining site. According to Mr Ndongo, a crisis committee set up by the Cameroonian authorities has counted a total of 2,000 Cameroonians and over 1,000 Africans of various nationalities among those who crossed the border from Gabon. They include nationals of Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.