Pambazuka News 503: Seize the time: Daring to invent the future
Pambazuka News 503: Seize the time: Daring to invent the future
For a place to be deemed a health facility, there are things that are considered to be necessities such as human resources and medicinal drugs, among many others. However, we find so many health facilities in this country failing to meet these standards thereby being reduced to nothing but white elephants. Recently, it was reported that Dar es Salaam municipal hospitals are facing serious shortages of medicines and medical staff such as nurses and doctors, something that cripples the operations of these health facilities, aggravating the suffering of the general public as they fail to provide quality services to patients.
A deadly animal virus which broke out earlier this year in Tanzania could spread to Southern Africa, threatening the lives of more than 50 million sheep and goats in 15 countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned. Known as Peste des Petits Ruminants, or small ruminants’ plague (PPR), it is considered the most destructive viral disease affecting small flocks, on par with rinderpest, a deadly cattle plague that has wreaked havoc on agriculture for millennia, resulting in famine and economic destruction.
Fears that antiretroviral therapy might lead healthier-feeling HIV-positive people to have more sex and potentially infect others may be unfounded, according to a new South African study, which recorded patients having significantly less sex as well as safer sex after starting treatment. The study followed 2,332 HIV-positive patients enrolled in care who eventually started treatment at a large urban clinic in Soweto, Johannesburg's largest township, and a rural clinic in Mpumalanga province between 2003 and 2009.
A three-year project to increase forest cover and help local communities in eastern Uganda adapt to climate change has been launched. 'The planting of one million trees has started to sustain an area of tropical forest in Africa the size of Wales,' said John Griffiths, counsel-general of the Welsh Assembly, which is supporting the project. 'These trees will not only absorb carbon but provide shade for crops.'
A second Tanzanian opposition party criticised the country's presidential and parliamentary electoral process on Thursday as authorities continued releasing results at a snail's pace. Tanzania's National Electoral Commission (NEC) admitted on Wednesday that there could have been irregularities in the vote tallying but said any errors would not influence the final result and rejected calls for a fresh poll.
Nigeria still aims to pass a bill this year that will overhaul its energy industry, but the timing of its next oil licensing round is uncertain, a senior government official said on Thursday. The Petroleum Industry Bill will re-write Nigeria's decades-old relationship with its foreign oil partners, altering everything from the fiscal framework for offshore oil projects to the involvement of indigenous firms in the sector.
The Liberian president has dismissed her cabinet in a move officials say will provide a 'fresh slate' for the government. No other reason was given for Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's announcement on Wednesday but it comes amid a crackdown on corruption in the West African state that has led to investigations of some public officials a year ahead of presidential elections.
An explosion rocked a government guest house in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta on Wednesday, a month after twin car bombings in the capital Abuja, a local government official said. The explosion damaged two upstairs rooms of the guest house in Asaba, the capital of Delta state, but there were no injuries, Sunny Ogefere, spokesman for the state governor said.
A diplomatic row is brewing between Nigeria and Iran over the shipment of 13 containers of arms and ammunition into the country. Although the arms-laden ship came from the Indian port in Mumbai, it was alleged that the ship originated from Iran. It was also alleged that Nigeria might have been a routing point for the arms, which are believed to be on the way to Gaza Strip in the Middle East, with the consignment belonging to the Hamas Militant Group.
Reporters Without Borders has written to Angolan interior minister Sebastiao José Antonio Martins voicing concern about the recent wave of threats and violence against journalists. One has been murdered, two have been physically attacked and injured, and a fourth has been the target of intimidation.
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The Asian University for Women is seeking to appoint candidates to the following positions:
- Full-time faculty position in Asian Religion and Philosophy
- Chinese Language Instructor
- Full-time faculty position in World History
- Full-time faculty member in Media/Journalism.
The government's contentious draft Protection of Information Bill will threaten whistleblowers trying to root out corruption, says Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. 'Cosatu is committed to free expression... I believe that the Protection of Information Bill as currently drafted clearly breaches these laws,' he told a gathering hosted by The Daily Maverick in Sandton, Johannesburg.
As the US rounds up its mid-term elections, Horace Campbell stresses that there must be renewed efforts to organise in response to the country’s right-wing oligarchy and educate people that ‘fighting wars overseas cannot be the basis for economic reconstruction’.
While it should never be the case that a high percentage of the Haitian population remains living in refugee camps ten months after the earthquake, camp residents have managed to create in a few of those camps a small-scale model of the type of future society that many would like to see. Their camps have achieved democratic participation by community members, autonomy from foreign authority, a focus on meeting the needs of all, dignified living conditions, respect for rights, creativity, and a commitment to gender equity.
Chief Sumani Amidu of Kpachaa village in northern Ghana, has sat by as over half of his 100 villagers abandon him to seek new jobs and sources of food for their families. Three years ago the chief sold the village land for GH¢100 for a promise that never came. Now forced to farm himself to keep the children of the village alive, each morning on his 40-minute walk to the village’s last farm ing plot, he passes his old farmland now owned by a Norwegian biofuel company.
Land administration policies in Zambia are heavily centralized. The 1995 Lands Act that regulates Zambia’s land policy stipulates that all land is to be held in trust by the president, and most of the poor people live on customary land as they cannot afford to obtain a leasehold tenure. There are organisations trying to rectify this, however. The Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA), a network of NGOs working for pro-poor land policies, has previously criticised both post-independence and present land legislation as being inadequate, of not listening to the poor that to a large degree tend the land, and of focusing too heavily on liberalising land markets.
By a coincidence of delayed timetables, neighbouring West African countries Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire are likely to go to the polls on consecutive Sundays, starting in Cote d’Ivoire on the 31st. In both these countries, delays have raised the spectre of civil conflict, but so has the prospect of finally holding the polls, states this International Crisis Group article. 'Why is this so? The feverish atmosphere flows partly from people’s hopes, the belief that democracy can really work this time and the desire to be vigilant against spoilers. But the answer also lies at elite level – in countries where economic opportunity is overwhelmingly dependent on official office, the stakes are simply too high.'
Freelance journalists Andrison Manyere and Nkosana Dhlamini were arrested and detained overnight at Waterfalls police station in Harare on 30 October 2010 while covering a constitutional information gathering meeting, reports the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). Manyere and Dhlamini were arrested together with Diana Nyikadzino, Phineas Natarika and Eric Murayi during the meeting held at St John Retreat in Harare South. The five were arrested in the melee of scuffle that ensued after Dhlamini tried to interview some of the participants at the meeting.
Indian buyers who visited the country last week to seal diamond deals have pledged to lobby their government to endorse Zimbabwe's gems ahead of the Kimberley Process meeting scheduled for Israel early next month. Surat Rough Diamond Sourcing India Limited said it would put its weight behind Zimbabwe as the KP meets in Jerusalem, Israel next Monday to determine whether Zimbabwe should be allowed sell its diamonds from Marange.
The Sudanese government should charge or release Darfuri activists arrested between 30 October and 1 November 2010 by national security agents in Khartoum, Human Rights Watch has said. The arrests underscore the government's continued use of repressive laws to target human rights defenders from Darfur and to restrict information about the ongoing abuses there, Human Rights Watch said.
Getting a passport can be vital for making a living but mounting hidden costs are making it tougher to access one, despite the government recently slashing passport fees. Fees have been reduced from US$140 to $50, but the document can cost up to $120 or even $300, as Theresa Makone, the joint minister of home affairs, discovered on an impromptu visit to the Harare office which issues passports.
Delays in resettling hundreds of people evicted from the Mau Forest Complex in Kenya’s Rift Valley region have forced the displaced to endure harsh camp conditions without proper health and sanitation facilities, sources said. 'I used to comfortably live in a three-bedroom house before I was evicted; now I share a small tent with my large family. I worked hard on my 2ha piece of land and made sure my family was well-fed and clothed,' Joseph Tuwei told IRIN at Keringet camp in Molo District.
KwaZulu-Natal Province remains the epicentre of South Africa’s HIV epidemic but new research reveals that nearly a third of hospitals surveyed had not started a single HIV-positive infant on antiretroviral treatment in several years. The research, presented at this week’s Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Africa Conference in Johannesburg, was conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand’s Maternal, Adolescent and Child Health (MatCH) Unit, with the government.
The Southern African Young Women’s Festival ran between 25 and 28 October. Young women were brought together to share experiences, energise each other and celebrate their youth and the potential they have to advocate for social justice in their respective communities. The Festival was a platform to equip young women with the practical skills they need for effective advocacy for women’s rights and included many exciting activities including the launching of the 16 Days national campaigns of activism.
Scarcity of jobs is worsening gender inequalities in sub-Saharan Africa, locking more women out of formal government and private sector appointments, a new World Bank survey shows. The report shows that women in employment is at under 40 per cent in Kenya, behind countries like Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea and Sierra Leone where women engagement is over 80 per cent. Experts said the widening gender gap at the workplace in Kenya put policy makers in a dilemma as it threatens to shutter economic gains made over the past few years as women are locked out of income generating activities.
Instituting a reading and book writing culture is key to encouraging intellectual renewal, writes Steve Sharra.
The European Union has set up a fund to promote partnerships between public water supply systems in Europe and corresponding utilities in subsaharan Africa. Seasoned observers disagree over whether or not this represents a definitive break with the old strategy of privatisation. Up to 10 years ago, our governments and economic elites were pushing the idea that drinking water supplies could not be expanded without private sector participation. Water privatisation was stubbornly opposed.
The African Union (AU) Tuesday called Sunday's presidential election in Cote d'Ivoire a historical breakthrough, and urged the country's leading politicians to stay calm and accept the poll results without resorting to violence. 'This is certainly a historic vote, which marks a crucial step in the process for a way out of the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire,' said Commission Chairperson, Jean Ping. Nearly six million Ivorians went to the polls for the first time in several years to elect a president to run their country.
Tanzanians voted on on 31 October 2010 to elect the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, President of Zanzibar, Members of Parliament and Members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives. Using hashtags #UchaguziTZ, #uchaguzi, and #TZelect, Tanzanian netizens have been keeping their followers updated with results and on-the-ground observations.
There are many myths around the abuse of social grants. In his article 'Social grants: Going beyond basic needs' David Neves from the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies shows how social grants not only provide a safety net, but also act as a spring board for all sorts of other unseen opportunities, including small-scale entrepeneurship. Grants are often invested in the future, in ways that meet the needs and constraints of the poor - often either in building or upgrading housing or in their children and grandchildren's education and nutrition.
Knowledge of a government’s allocation of tax expenditure is central to citizens’ awareness of where their money goes. In a report on budget transparency, Uwazi-Twaweza asks how East African countries fare in this area.
The Moroccan government has suspended all operations by the pan-Arab television network Al-Jazeera in the country for allegedly failing to follow the 'rules of serious and responsible journalism'. The Qatar-based network condemned the decision and said its editorial guidelines would not be affected by the closure of its bureau in Rabat and the withdrawal of accreditation for its local staff.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has sentenced a Rwandan businessman to 30 years in jail for his part in the bulldozing of a church which killed around 2,000 ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide. The tribunal, backed by the United Nations, found Gaspard Kanyarukiga guilty of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity.
The presidential election in Ivory Coast is likely to go into a second round after partial results point to a tight race between the top candidates. With about half the ballots counted, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo has 37 per cent, with Alassane Ouattara on 34 per cent, the election commission said. Turnout was about 80 per cent - reportedly one of the highest rates ever in Africa.
Results from a referendum in Niger show more than 90 per cent of voters backed a new constitution designed to return the country to civilian rule. The constitution was put forward by the junta leaders who came to power in a coup which ousted ex-President Mamadou Tandja in February.
A new round of talks on the Western Sahara will aim to break an impasse over the future of the disputed North African territory, the UN says. The meeting of Western Sahara's independent movement Polisario Front and Moroccan officials has been scheduled for next week in New York.
US$5,000 has been awarded from the Take Back the Tech! Fund to four outstanding South African Women’s organisations that are set to make an impact on the high levels of violence against women in the country. The four different projects will work with young black women in townships, black lesbians, rural para-legals and survivors of violence to increase awareness, reporting of incidents, and help survivors of violence on their healing journey.
Like the massive death toll inflicted by the earthquake last January, the cholera outbreak in Haiti is not some natural disaster, but rather the product of desperate poverty created by centuries of imperialist oppression, says this World Socialist Web Site article. Haitian and international officials reported Sunday that the death toll from the outbreak of cholera had reached 337, with over 4,000 confirmed cases of the disease, mostly in the central and northern part of the Caribbean nation.
In its quest to improve its image, Egypt's government recently hired the major UK public relations firm Bell Pottinger to better deliver its message to an international audience. The decision to seek PR help is due to the government's discontent over the way Egypt's regime is portrayed in Western media. According to Heba Morayef, a Human Rights Watch researcher on Egypt and Libya, there has been an increase in the number of arrests of dissidents, crackdown on peaceful demonstrations, and an increase in the number of arrests due to religious beliefs.
Fahamu is pleased to announce the appointment of Hakima Abbas as its new executive director (ED). Hakima began with Fahamu as the coordinator of the AU Monitor initiative and subsequently served as deputy director over the last two years. The founding director, Firoze Manji, stepped down as ED in January 2010 to enable him to lead on Pambazuka News and Pambazuka Press, a position he will continue with. Hakima takes up the post as executive director of Fahamu in November 2010. Here she maps out her perspectives for the future direction of the organisation.
In her recent book on the history of Columbia’s death squads, Jasmin Hristov has argued that neoliberalism needs the squads, and the resulting inequality would have been impossible to maintain without them. Hristov notes that death squad violence 'is purposefully directed towards sectors of society that stand in the way of the ruling class’s efforts to maintain economic dominance and acquire more resources to make even more profit. The upper classes so fear political organising among the poor, who could mount a formidable opposition to the status quo if allowed to organise unrestrained by state repression.' In the wake of political assassinations in South African provinces, Jane Duncan, the Highway Africa Chair of Media and Information Society at Rhodes University, looks at how serious the problem is.
The Ethiopian government has gone back on their decision to ban distance learning programmes. Alemayehu G. Mariam says the lessons that should be learnt include a respect for the rule of law and the need for rational policy-making.
EG Justice and its partners welcomed UNESCO’s decision on 21 October to suspend, indefinitely, the prize funded by and named after President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea. The groups reaffirmed their call for UNESCO to ultimately abolish the award.
Reporting to the Head of International Grants and managing a small team, you’ll lead on the delivery of our trade and climate change programme strategies, and the development of our social investment strategy as well as playing a critical role in strengthening corporate and other relationships that will enable us to fulfill our mission.
Many thanks for keeping us up-to-date with developments - on the one hand, exposing political and economic contaminations, and on the other, featuring dreams and aspirations based on true memories and daring kindred spirits striving to restore freedom, equality and justice worldwide.
We struggle in the same way over here.
Peace and love.
Lack of protection from cheap subsidised imports under EPAs poses a threat to East Africa’s agricultural industry, writes T. Mohammed Yusuf.
Africa needs to approach trade deals from a continental level if it is to resist a new wave of colonisation, says Carol Kayira-Kulemeka.
Rejecting EPAs and consolidating regional economic communities may well be the first step in Africa’s move towards regaining independence, writes Owen Sichone.
. I only wish we in the Caribbean were as wise as our African brothers and sisters in holding off on signing an EPA with the EU. Our EPA, much as described in this article will almost certainly recreate the colonial structures that will lock our economies into a system that will serve Europe's interests high above anything else.
President Yoweri Museveni kicked off his election campaign in Luwero district, where he asked residents not to vote for the opposition because it cannot solve Uganda’s problems. Addressing rallies in Bamunanika, Luwero town and Wobulenzi, Museveni said it was only the Movement government that had a track record of solving the country’s problems.
The poor countries must have an exit policy away from aid dependency especially since the North will be cutting their aid as a result of the global crisis. Moreover, the South and its political leaders must think more for themselves, listen to their own experts and redefine development. This message was conveyed by South Centre chairman Benjamin Mkapa at the closing ceremony of the conference on the Global Economy in Beijing on 4 August.
Issue 51, 29 October 2010 of the South Bulletin, produced by the South Centre focuses on key issues missing from the G20 Agenda. Articles deal with recent emerging issues in the global economy – the currency chaos, volatile capital flows, and a new protectionism in the U.S. The Bulletin also reports on:
- The slow progress in the UNFCCC climate talks in Tianjin, China;
- The South Centre’s conference and Board meeting in China;
- Impact of the global economic crisis on LDCs; and
- Yasuni initiative to leave oil in the ground to fight climate change
How do you prepare a tent to stand up to a hurricane? That is the question faced by hundreds of thousands of Haitian earthquake survivors living in fragile outdoor camps who are bracing for a hurricane forecast to hit the poor, stricken Caribbean country over the weekend. 'This camp won't stand up to a big wind,' said Jean Sincio, a coordinator for a camp of flimsy tents built in the grounds of a school. It is one of hundreds of tent and tarpaulin settlements in the wrecked capital Port-au-Prince housing more than 1.3 million people left homeless by the 12 January quake.
Kenya is forcing Somalis fleeing conflict back across the border in violation of international law, the United Nations' refugee agency said on Wednesday. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said some of the 8,300 Somalis stranded at a border post in north eastern Kenya had already begun crossing the frontier into no-man's land. It said most were women, children and elderly people.
Barack Obama has renewed sanctions against Sudan's government, keeping pressure on Khartoum to stick to the timetable for holding a referendum on southern independence. However, the US president also held out for the prospect for reconsidering Monday's decision if Sudanese leaders made progress in resolving the country's north-south dispute and improved the situation in the troubled Darfur region.
Zambia's efforts to strengthen its education system will come to little if no way is found to retain skilled teachers like Caroline Chisenga. She is a maths teacher with ten years of experience under her belt. She has recently upgraded her teaching qualifications with a full degree. But she has one eye on leaving the country in search of higher pay.
You would expect to find children in the Vaal River outside Parys on a hot afternoon. But 28 of them, on the Gauteng side of the river, are not swimming; they are doing research for ORASECOM. For three months beginning in November, ORASECOM, the Orange-Senqu River Commission, will test the water quality, the environmental impact of industry and the general health of the ecosystem at some 60 sites along the river basin. The data is to be shared amongst all four of the participating states and the goal is to get some idea on the impact of water use along the system.
As the East African Community seeks further integration, Issa G. Shivji explores the historical beginnings and vision behind such regional changes from a pan-Africanist perspective. Rather than debate specific forms of ‘economic integration’ or ‘political association’, Shivji seeks to discuss ‘whether we are asking the right questions’.
A parliamentary select committee has begun compiling comments on a new constitution, gathered at 4,000 meetings held across Zimbabwe over the past three months. Gender activists are confident that women's views have been expressed; it will be up to the eventual drafters of the new constitution to ensure they are reflected. Over 700,000 people attended public meetings on Zimbabwe's draft constitution.
As global attention switches to the next climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, ETC Group releases that lifts the lid on the emerging global grab on plants, lands, ecosystems, and traditional cultures.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) urged newly appointed Cabinet ministers on Monday to bring down 'unacceptable' levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality. 'We urge the new team to remain fully united so that we can move forward together to deliver on our promises and bring down the unacceptable levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality,' a Cosatu statement said.
With only weeks to go before regional and local elections, Namibia's ruling Swapo Party is coming under tremendous pressure from the civil servants who plan to march on the government unless the entire management of the state pension fund is dismissed and millions of Namibian dollars in unpaid empowerment loans are recovered.
Members of the Kimberley Process diamond watchdog began talks in Jerusalem on Monday over whether to allow Zimbabwe to resume exports of the gemstone from its controversial Marange fields. The organisation, which is meant to ensure diamonds are 'conflict free', suspended its certification of the Marange fields last year, over claims of forced labour and torture at the gem mines.
Angola's 'very violent' expulsion of about 200 Democratic Republic of Congo nationals from its territory this month is a sign of the increasing 'bad blood' between the neighbours that analysts believe revolves around border demarcations and conflicting claims to resources, particularly oil. In 2009, 18,000 DRC nationals were expelled from Angola and 39,000 Angolan nationals from the DRC.
The focus of a new paper from the African Centre for Biosafety is the emerging field of synthetic biology, in particular its implications for the African continent. Synthetic biology combines a number of scientific disciplines and is generally understood to involve the deliberate design of biological systems, using standardised components that have been created in a laboratory. The conclusion of the paper leaves more questions than answers because of the emerging and secretive nature of the field, but highlights the very significant implications of this new technology and the need for a precautionary and vigilant approach towards it.
Will MTN finally set up as a mobile service operator in Kenya after several years of failed attempts? That’s the million-dollar question after the data unit of South Africa’s biggest mobile operator took control of a local internet service provider, UUNET, by buying a majority stake. The firm has since rebranded to MTN Business Kenya, to reflect its principal shareholders.
Following a meeting in Japan between members of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Mariam Mayet says there ‘is a huge disconnect between the rather timid, insipid and potentially dated work of the Protocol and the huge biosafety challenges presented on the domestic level in many countries’.
The ETC Group, an international civil society organisation dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity, hails a decision by the 193-member UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to agree to a moratorium on geoengineering.
Activists have started mobilising communities to demand the implementation of environmental laws following the government’s alleged reluctance to halt the degradation of the eco-system. Environmentalists said since 1992, the government had formulated many environmental laws and agencies to protect natural resources but it has failed to enforce the laws. 'Since the government has failed to honour its commitments, we have chosen to empower communities to have the right and ability to influence decisions about the environment and national resources that sustain their livelihood,' said Godber Tumushabe, the executive director for Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment.
As the US goes through its mid-term elections, Barack Obama's positive presidential campaign is now being qualified with 'terms and condition apply', says Gado.
With Tanzania witnessing elections, Gado depicts the swearing-in of incumbent Jakaya Kikwete.
Cynical observers among the international media will be disappointed by the relative calm accompanying Tanzania's elections, suggests Gado.
Luíz Araújo
Luca Bussoti
people of the motherland!
from now on
for the sake
of balancing
our patriotism
with our loyalty
to our art
we will ask
you to be patient…
After four days of conferences, workshops and cultural activities, the World Education Forum in Palestine ended this afternoon with an assembly bringing together Palestinian and international educators and social justice activists from diverse sectors. Participants at the assembly reflected on the past few days and discussed how to take the various proposals coming out of the forum forward. Three main topics were discussed: how to build an education movement in Palestine, the future of international solidarity with Palestine, and learning from the experiences of other social forums.
The fourth in an ongoing series of updates from the Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice is available. It is intended to track developments in the field and facilitate information sharing among practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. The includes:
- The Rule of Law and the MDGs
- Access to Justice and the New Kenyan Constitution
- Locked Up and Forgotten - Prison Overcrowding in South Asia
Write to [email][email protected] to find out about subscription.
'I fell asleep at night on wet bedding. During the day my family and the community made me a laughing stock as I was leaking urine and spreading a bad smell. I stopped leaving the house. I felt alone and abandoned and humiliated, not least when my husband left to stay with his second wife.’ This is the sad testimony of Elisabeth Makhalichi, who developed a hole, called a fistula, after a difficult birth.
The South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI) has applied to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for permission to conduct field trials for four varieties of GM sugarcane. Having viewed SASRI's applications in terms of the Public Access to Information Act (PAIA), the African Centre for Biodiversity issued a statement saying: 'It is our opinion that the information provided is so inadequate that it is virtually impossible to conduct any meaningful independent assessment of the applications. Further, throughout the application runs the assumption that the genetically modified lines under discussion are 'equivalent' to their conventional counterparts. This is a view not supported by the published literature.' Read the rest of the statement through the weblink provided.
AWID is currently seeking an activist/researcher with a strong background in economics and development to work with our Influencing Development Actors and Practices for Women’s Rights (IDeA) strategic initiative. IDeA is engaged in an exciting action-research agenda that is attempting to connect theoretical debates on development and the need for alternative models with concrete experiences, lessons learned and analysis from a women’s rights perspective.
The overall purpose of this consultancy is:
- To assist INTERIGHTS’ lawyers through in depth legal research on complex or emerging legal issues arising principally, but not exclusively, in our litigation;
- To provide research and analysis of the highest quality, with links to relevant laws, cases and articles;
- To provide high quality written documents in agreed specialist area.
Panellists do not need to be resident in the United Kingdom, as the work would be conducted primarily remotely via email and telephone.
Israel is trying to find ways of repatriating or relocating African migrant workers whose illegal influx via Egypt is alarming authorities, a senior government official has said. Thousands of Africans, many of them from conflict zones such as Sudan and Eritrea, have slipped in across Egypt's Sinai desert in recent years to seek work or claim asylum as refugees.
At the wealth spectrum’s uppermost reaches, just over 1,000 billionaires and another 80,000 'ultra high net worth individuals' worth over $50 million each. At other end of the global spectrum sit three billion people - 'more than two thirds of the global adult population' – with an average wealth per adult less than $10,000, reveals a new report.
'If Kyoto entered history as the city where the climate accord was born, Nagoya will be remembered as the city where the biodiversity accord was born,' said Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). He was commenting the tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-10) that concluded 29 October in Nagoya, Japan. Upbeat assessments highlight that COP-10 achieved three inter-linked goals: adoption of a new ten-year Strategic Plan to guide international and national efforts to save biodiversity through enhanced action to meet the objectives of the CBD; a resource mobilisation strategy that provides the way forward to a substantial increase to current levels of official development assistance (ODA) in support of biodiversity; and a new international protocol on access to and sharing of the benefits from the use of the genetic resources of the planet.
The October issue of 'Walking the Talk', a quarterly publication of the African Union and the United Nations Development Fund for Women, is out. Headlines include:
- Grassroots approach to gender equality and women’s empowerment
- Kenya’s Vision for African Women’s Decade
- Women’s rights advocates seek to influence the human rights strategy for Africa
- Gender related decisions taken during the July 2010 summit in Kampala.
'Water management in South Africa is in serious crisis. Consumers were recently told to wash their fruit and vegetables as they could be infected by disease causing E. coli microbes because the crops were irrigated with water contaminated by sewage,' writes Glenn Ashton on the website of the South African Civil Society Information Service. 'Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is killing not just crocodiles but entire riverine eco-systems. Our dams, rivers and streams are becoming ever more stressed due to the low flows of water that remain in them because of illegal over-abstraction for irrigation and contamination by poorly maintained sewage works.'
The Mozambican Labour Ministry has withdrawn the work permits of three Chinese citizens. A Labour Ministry press release, issued last Thursday, said that the three men all belonged to the Chinese building company Nantong Constructions, and had been working in Sanga district, in the northern province of Niassa. All three were accused of brutal assaults against Mozambican workers.
Zimbabwe’s economic recovery programme is unlikely to get full marks from a visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF) team amid allegations that the Bretton Woods institution is unhappy about policy slippages by Harare’s fragile coalition regime. A six-member IMF team, which arrived in Zimbabwe last weekend, has been meeting government officials, bankers and business leaders and is expected to issue a statement on its findings at the end of this week.
Zimbabwean immigrants in South Africa and the United Kingdom have called for devolution of powers and the slashing of provinces by more than half in submissions to the Constitutional Select Committee that is leading the drafting of a new charter for Zimbabwe. The proposals by the exiles - some which echo the views of the opposition ZAPU party and the two MDC formations - appear tilted towards whittling down the powers of central government.
The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), a Geneva-based international housing rights watchdog, has released a 'report card' examining Uganda’s national land policy and land reform processes and their impact on women. The report, 'The Impact of National Land Policy and Land Reform on Women in Uganda', was released together with the Women's Land Link Africa (WLLA), a joint initiative of organisations dedicated to improving women's land and housing rights in Africa. One of the main findings of the study was that while there have been many advances in land reform in Uganda that grant women legal rights, custom and practice are still lagging behind the law, leading to a regular violation of women’s land rights.
Tanzania grants high levels of tax exemptions relative to what it collects in revenue. This raises concerns about whether the practice is justified for a country that can barely raise enough to finance its budget. Analysis by civil society organisation Uwazi at Twaweza shows that tax exemptions have increased sharply during the second part of this decade (2006-2010) compared to what was granted in the earlier half of this decade (2001-2005). The analysis, presented in a policy brief titled, 'Tanzania’s Tax Exemptions: are they too high and making us too dependent on foreign aid?' suggests that Tanzania could make significant savings in revenues if it granted tax exemptions less liberally.
Pambazuka News 502: Twilight of regimes or dawn of new eras?
Pambazuka News 502: Twilight of regimes or dawn of new eras?
Reporting to the Head of International Grants and managing a small team, you’ll lead on the delivery of our trade and climate change programme strategies, and the development of our social investment strategy as well as playing a critical role in strengthening corporate and other relationships that will enable us to fulfill our mission.
Kofi Akosah-Sarpong tackles excessive spending on funerals in Ghana. More attention should be spend on the living, he argues.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) condemns the 15-year prison sentence issued in absentia by the Cairo Criminal Court against Allam Abdel Ghaffar, a journalist at 'Youm7' newspaper. Allam reported on the frequent power outages at the Holding Company for Biological Products & Vaccines (VACSERA), which led to the spoiling of imported biological products.
The world education forum will be held in Palestine from 28 - 30 October 2010 as a part of the World Social Forum. Due to the regional situation activists and organisations from the Arab region are restrained from participation in the forum in Palestine, therefore there will be a parallel forum in Lebanon. The forum aims to highlight the necessity of education in the development process and to provide an arena for the exchange of ideas on education and the curriculum.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has written to Cape Town Opera to ask them to postpone their planned trip to Israel. Tutu says: 'Just as we said during apartheid that it was inappropriate for international artists to perform in South Africa in a society founded on discriminatory laws and racial exclusivity, so it would be wrong for Cape Town Opera to perform in Israel.'
The Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK) is a non governmental organisation set up in 1998 in response to the increasing complex and deteriorating refugee situation in Kenya. RCK has a regular newsletter which can be read by visiting their website.