Pambazuka News 472: Staggering from pillar to post: Zimbabwe's 'unity' government
Pambazuka News 472: Staggering from pillar to post: Zimbabwe's 'unity' government
Mary Ndlovu paints a desolate picture of the Zimbabwe of now and its political future: ‘The “Unity Government” has stumbled from pillar to post, ending for the time being, paralysed in the intensive or perhaps terminal care unit of the political hospital.’ Ndlovu takes us through the events of the last year and argues that ZANU PF’s tactics have shifted from the defensive to the offensive. Analysing the various options, such as calls for elections now, Ndlovu finds strong reasons to eliminate each. But she ends on a note of hope: ‘Debate on the constitution has… sparked considerable interest and determination to participate. Hopefully… a more active citizenry will eventually evolve, bringing promise of an empowered society which will develop new strategies to put in place a democratic government.’
As Burundi approaches elections designed to cap the country’s democratic transition after years of civil conflict, there is growing concern about worsening security and limits to political freedom. “The situation is explosive,” Pierre Clavier Mbonimpa, chairman of the Association for the Promotion of Human and Prisoner Rights (APRODH).
This is a plea to MPs to sign EDM number 960 Chagos Islands, as below as soon as possible, since Jeremy Corbyn has secured a debate on Chagos in Parliament on Wednesday 10 March:
That this House believes that the interests of the Chagossian people and of Mauritius must be fully protected in the proposed Marine Protected Area; urges the Government to withdraw its case from the European Court of Human Rights and to settle out of court, as already suggested by the Court; and requests the Prime Minister to engage with Mauritius and the Chagossians, before the general election, in order to initiate discussion on an overall settlement of the issues, including timetable for eventual transfer of sovereignty of the Outer Islands to Mauritius and provision for a limited settlement on the Outer Islands.
Pan African Devevlopment Education and Advocacy Porgramme (PADEAP) Nigeria is situated in Funtua, Katsina State Nigeria. Northwest Nigeria is currently the focus of our work. With an estimated 36 million people, it is one of the most populated zones, yet one of the most neglected in terms of infrastructure. Consequently, the zone has high rates of maternal and child mortality and poverty, low literacy rates and an abysmally large literacy gap between men and women.
African countries, known for their penchant to ratify international conventions and other instruments, are not doing well when it comes to providing periodical reports on progress made in implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), writes Arthur Okwemba.
More than 450,000 people have signed an online petition urging Uganda's parliament to drop a bill that would impose the death sentence for the crime of "aggravated homosexuality" - when an HIV-positive person has sex with anyone who is disabled or under the age of 18.
Every day, around the world, people are working hard to make a difference in cardiovascular health. The most effective work is often not by big organizations or government agencies, but by local individuals working in community programs. The Louise Lown Heart Hero Award was created to recognize individuals and programs for their innovative, preventive approaches to promoting cardiovascular health in low-resource settings.
Conservationists are at war over a British plan to create a marine protection zone around a large chunk of surviving empire in the Indian Ocean. The zone, twice the size of Britain, would cover much of the Chagos archipelago, one of the most unspoiled coral reef systems in the world.
Getting the most out of PTAs and economic agreements – There is a question of both the quantity and the quality of human resources needed in economic ministries to meet the challenges of the PTA agenda. Multilateralism is in India’s interest. While there is a case for the PTAs, they should not undermine competency in using the WTO
During 2009 there was an upsurge in Chinese academic and journalistic writings concerning the question of a "Chinese model". Since last year Chinese intellectuals have been heatedly debating whether there is such a distinct Chinese model for development - and, if so, what are its contents and is it transferable for other countries?
Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has barred ministers from making public comments as the country's leadership crisis continues. The order was sequel to stinging comments by Minister of Information and Communication, Dora Akunyili, on the secrecy surrounding the lingering ill-health of President Umaru Yar'Adua and the clandestine manner in which he was ferried to Nigeria last week, after spending 93 days in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment.
Africa has over 120 carbon market projects up and running or in the pipeline,in areas ranging from wind power to forestry schemes, a new assessment, published by the UN Environment Programme, has shown. However, in comparison to the rest of the world, the continent is still lagging behind, with the potential for clean and green energy largely under- exploited.
Niger's ruling Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD) has stopped all demonstrations in support of the military junta which seized power in the West African nation 18 Feb., according to statement from the junta.
The UN Millennium Campaign, Femnet and Oxfam GB have announced the commencement of a series of global conversations to discuss the status of the promises world leaders have made to women in the Millennium Development Goals.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that Gambian authorities had carried out satisfactory economic policies that have contributed to robust economic growth and low inflation. But it warned that Gambia still remained at high risk of debt distress even after extensive debt relief.
An Ethiopian opposition politician and parliamentary aspirant was stabbed to death Tuesday and a second one seriously wounded when attackers raided their respective homes in Makalle and Axum in Tigray, 783 km north of Addis Ababa, party officials said.
Deputy UN Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro has lauded women groups for their achievements in advancing gender equality globally. Speaking at the opening of the 54th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) in New York, Migiro urged the women to move their achievements on gender equality "from commitment to action in several key areas".
Progress in sustaining high-level and job-creating growth in Africa will remain unsatisfactory unless bold country specific growth and employment strategies are adopted and implemented with the support of committed political leaders, according to a paper jointly prepared by the Africa Union Commission (AUC) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
The United Nations says it will evaluate and refer to a competent authority, which includes the International Criminal Court, any claims of enforced disappearances if there are legitimate grounds for concern. This is contained in the new report released by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
8. ( a ) Men and women shall so far as possible be detained in separate institutions; in an institution which receives both men and women the whole of the premises allocated to women shall be entirely separate;
23. (1) In women's institutions there shall be special accommodation for all necessary pre-natal and post-natal care and treatment. Arrangements shall be made wherever practicable for children to be born in a hospital outside the institution. If a child is born in prison, this fact shall not be mentioned in the birth certificate.
(2) Where nursing infants are allowed to remain in the institution with their mothers, provision shall be made for a nursery staffed by qualified persons, where the infants shall be placed when they are not in the care of their mothers.
On 1 March 2010, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) expressed extreme shock at the decision of the military prosecutor to try blogger and student Ahmed Mostafa, 20, in a military court for allegedly publishing false information about the military establishment, after an unusually quick investigation, according to ANHRI lawyers of the Legal Aid Unit who attended the interrogation sessions.
The Center for Media Studies & Peace Building (CEMESP) has launched the 3rd edition of its account of threats to freedom of expression with calls for the government and authorities to recognize and support the inalienable rights of others to dissent.
ARTICLE 19 has released its analysis of the Kenya Communications (Broadcasting) Regulations, which came into force in January 2010, and recommends several changes to bring the Law in line with international standards.
The Government of Botswana has forcibly returned at 4 of the 10 families of the 41 Congolese refugees who fled Namibia last July, a reliable government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
Firoze Manji praises Adam Parsons’ style and his powerful descriptions of the lives, experiences and aspirations of the shackdwellers of Kibera, but argues that ‘Mega-slumming’ is very much written from a vantage point that serves to reinforce Western prejudices of Africa. Parsons portrays Africans ‘as objects of pity, for whom charity is needed’ and Manji argues that he does so because he has chosen only one lens to view the lives of these people through. Manji asserts that ‘A little bit of research would… have revealed to him that residents of Kibera have organised politically, have given voice to their demands, fought battles to have the right to organise, organised meetings, demonstrations, produced plays, music, poetry and writings of protest.’ He concludes that the writings of these people reveal a very different world to the one that Parsons portrays: A world of change.
Pambazuka News 473: Land reform is common sense
Pambazuka News 473: Land reform is common sense
Comparative African Perspectives on China and other emerging powers in Africa is a research project initiated by FAHAMU, the network for social justice issues. China’s deepening engagement with Africa is receiving increased attention from the global media, public- and private sectors as well as academic research. This should however not overshadow the activities of other emerging powers in Africa, including India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa. This call therefore seeks to develop an African perspective by strengthening the civil society voice in the discourse surrounding the engagement between Africa and these emerging powers.
Pambazuka News 471: History through a hundred looted objects
Pambazuka News 471: History through a hundred looted objects
A new land deal allowing South African farmers to produce livestock, milk and fruit in Libya has been put on hold pending the finalisation of an investment protection agreement between the two countries. Theo de Jager, Deputy President of South Africa’s largest farmers’ union Agri SA said a protection agreement between the two countries had been drafted.
The Third Meeting, Third Session of the Second East African Legislative Assembly sitting at the Chambers of the Parliament of Uganda in Kampala has today adopted a common strategy for food security in the region. In a lively plenary session chaired by the Speaker of EALA, Hon. Abdirahin Haithar Abdi, Members adopted the Report on common strategy for food security in the EAC as presented by the Chair of the Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources, Hon. Dr. George Francis Nangale (Tanzania).
A three-day seminar to discuss ways to strength en cross-border co-operation for the protection of children at risk and to better regulate inter-country adoption has opened in Pretoria, South Africa. South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation and the Hag ue Conference on Private International Law based in the Netherlands are co-hosting the seminar, which opened Tuesday.
Nigeria's ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua has returned home after spending 92 days in Saudi Arabia, where he has been undergoing medical treatment, but no one has yet confirmed seeing him. A text message sent to the telephone handsets of several State House correspondents in Abuja in the early hours of Wednesday alerted them to the President's arrival.
Angolan women, particularly in government, want to achieve equal representation in the number of decision makers in the coming years, the Minister of Familiy and Women Promotion, Genoveva Lino has said.
Nigeria's much-bashed electoral umpire Maurice Iwu is under fire again, after the country's main opposition party Sunday demanded his sack over a series of allegations. Iwu heads Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and has been widely vilified for organising what local and foreign observers consider to be the worst elections in the country's history in 2007.
South Africa's land reform minister said on Friday it would be impossible for the government to meet its own target of acquiring farm land to restore to blacks after it was taken from them during apartheid.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy acknowledged that France made mistakes during the 1994 genocide, paid homage to the victims but stopped short of apologising during his landmark visit to Kigali on Thursday. “What happened here is unacceptable, but what happened here compels the international community, including France, to reflect on the mistakes that stopped it from preventing and halting this abominable crime,” he said.
Some donors would be willing to cancel Zimbabwe's 5.4 billion dollar foreign debt, if the strained unity government presents a united proposal to settle it, the finance minister said Thursday.
SADC tribunal rulings against the seizure of farmers land in Zimbabwe should be registered, recognised and enforceable by the South African government, the High Court in Pretoria has ordered. Judge Garth Rabie ruled in favour of white farmers - represented by AfriForum - who have argued that the seizure of their land without compensation was a human rights abuse.
The process of drafting a new Zimbabwean constitution has been further delayed, meaning the country’s new charter is now running seven months behind schedule. A co-leader of parliament’s constitutional committee Munyaradzi- Paul Mangwana told journalists in Harare this week that Zimbabwe would not have a new constitution before February 2011 at the earliest.
Malcolm X was assassinated 45 years ago this weekend. Earlier this year, WNYC Radio unearthed a 1960s interview between the civil rights leader and a reporter named Eleanor Fischer. On this somber anniversary, we consider Malcolm X’s legacy through the rediscovered tape, which has not been heard since the 1960s. We also speak to two people whose lives were profoundly affected by his leadership.
Some Zanu PF PF youths on Wednesday detained freelance photo-journalist Andrison Manyere for filming a demonstration held in the capital, Harare. Manyere was seized at the corner of Fourth Street and Jason Moyo Avenue whilst covering the demonstration organized by the Zanu PF youths to protest against the imposition and maintenance of targeted travel sanctions on the party’s leaders.
Ivory Coast authorities have announced a new election commission, key to ending disputes that have threatened the country's peace process. The crisis began two weeks ago, when President Laurent Gbagbo dissolved the previous body, accusing it of fraud and being controlled by the opposition.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has sentenced the former head of legal affairs at the Ministry of Defence to 25 years in prison. Lieut-Col Eprem Setako was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.
He was convicted of ordering the killing of at least 30 people at a military camp in 1994.
Sudan has freed 57 prisoners from a key Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), officials say. President Omar al-Bashir announced the releases during a speech in Darfur's capital El Fasher, and declared: "The war is over."
Four white students accused of making a racist video in South Africa will face trial, after attempts failed to resolve the matter out of court. The video, which caused a racial storm in 2008 allegedly shows the four forcing five black cleaners to eat meat soaked in urine
South African trade unions are threatening strikes after the country's government allowed state-owned power firm Eskom to raise prices by 24.8%. Both consumers and businesses will struggle with significantly higher electricity bills, unions argue. The Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry said firms were already struggling to cope with the fallout of recession and slow economic recovery.
Members of Niger's military junta and the interim administration it is setting up will not be allowed to run future democratic elections. Junta spokesman Abdoul Karim Goukoye reiterated that the coup leaders' priorities were to hold transparent polls and restore democracy.
Renewed fighting is reported to have broken out in Darfur despite Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir declaring the war in the western region was over. French aid group Medecins du Monde said it has had to suspend its operations in central Darfur's Jebel Marra.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to restore Zimbabwe's voting rights after a seven-year suspension for unpaid debts. But the fund said the country was still ineligible for loans until it had paid off more of the $1.3bn (£841m) it owes to creditors. In the meantime, Zimbabwe can take part in IMF decision-making.
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the West moved quickly to crack down on the money laundering and secret banking systems that fund much of the terrorism in the world. But as evidence in both the U.S. and Europe suggests, illicit finances continue to circulate around the globe — and quite often the money has nothing to do with violence, but plain greed.
The Angolan government should promptly release three human rights defenders who were arrested on apparently political grounds following the January 8, 2010 attack on Togolese footballers in Cabinda, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch also expressed concern about the continued detention without charge of five other people.
South Africa’s children, the country’s most vulnerable population group, will benefit through the increase in social grants recently outlined in the national budget. South Africa’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan’s national budget speech on Feb. 17 has largely been met with approval by development experts for the social grant increases.
Fighting between militia groups and Congolese armed forces supported by the UN, as well as attacks and violence against civilians, caused the displacement of around a million people in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2009. As a result of these and earlier episodes, over 2.1 million people were displaced in North and South Kivu and Orientale Province as of the end of 2009.
The World Bank’s private investment arm, the International Finance Corp., won’t make new commitments in Democratic Republic of Congo until a dispute over a canceled mining contract is resolved, an IFC spokesman said. The IFC owns 7.5% of a $553 million copper and cobalt project led by Canada’s First Quantum Minerals Ltd. that Congo canceled in August after a review of mining contracts. The case is now before an international arbitration court in Paris.
The Secretary General of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) is back in hiding this week after police raided the union’s offices on Wednesday. Gertrude Hambira fled to safety after five men and one woman, who identified themselves as officers from the Criminal Investigation Department, raided the union’s office in Harare apparently looking for her. Hambira, who wasn’t in the office at the time, is now in hiding fearing for her safety.
Madagascar's President Andy Rajoelina has called a meeting next week with leading opposition groups to try to resolve a year-long political crisis before the African Union imposes sanctions. While one opposition party cautiously welcomed the move, it was unclear whether Rajoelina would be able to rally enough cross-party support to strike a deal and head off the punitive measures.
Nearly a fifth of the population in Chad will suffer food shortages this year, part of a broader hunger problem looming in the Sahel region, the United Nations said on Thursday. "Two million Chadians, or 18 percent of the population, are in a situation of food insecurity," said Michele Flavigna, the U.N.'s representative in Chad told a news conference.
Unions representing Algeria's teachers on Sunday (February 21st) rejected a proposed pay increase and called for a general strike, prompting student and parent fears that the school year will be lost entirely. CNAPEST and UNPEF will begin a prolonged strike on February 24th to protest what they are calling an unsatisfactory offer.
"While much of Africa has avoided the worst effects of the recession, we face significant risks and uncertainty”, writes Dr Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB). “The impact of the global turbulence, though varying from region to region, has been a major setback and a threat to our common achievement to date.” However, “at the same time, much of Africa has demonstrated remarkable resilience,” he says.
2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the Beijing World Conference on Women. In recognition of this anniversary, the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, NY is organizing an NGO Global Women’s Forum to consider implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA).
Many tribal people in the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia are starving as the region is in the grip of a drought and the river’s annual flood has failed. The Kwegu, a small hunter-gatherer tribe, have been badly hit. Survival has received reports that two Kwegu children and four adults died from hunger in November.
Margot Wallström starts March 1 her two-year stint as special U.N. representative on ending conflict-zone sexual violence. She says she'll be going right away to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a global epicenter of mass rape.
Poor governance and management are jeopardising efforts to provide quality basic education in seven African countries according to a new report published today by Transparency International (TI). The report, Africa Education Watch: Good governance lessons for primary education, shows that despite ten years of efforts to increase school enrolment through the Education for All initiative and the Millennium Development Goals, deficient or non-existent governance systems and practices are limiting progress.
Health officials in the west African country of Burkina Faso are worried about an increase in deaths from meningitis which has killed 246 people so far this year, up from 203 in the same period last year.
The double pressures of climate change and poverty threaten to make Africa one of the regions hardest hit by coming climate-related problems. Nowhere is that more evident than in Zimbabwe, where the urban poor already struggle to survive in a harsh economic climate.
When standing on the shore line at Rufisque L’est, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Dakar, Senegal, it’s hard not to buy into apocalyptic climate change scenarios. The beach is gone. Wharves built by the French colonists, once linked to the shore, have been completely swept away, with just a few wooden pillars rising from the water as evidence of their existence. In one stretch, three city blocks, which included homes, warehouses, and a mosque, were pulled into the ocean.
Hanevy Ould Dehah, the editor of the website Taqadoumy, was finally freed along with around 100 ordinary offenders under a presidential pardon issued in honour of Mawlid (the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday). “We welcome Dehah’s release after eight months of unjustified detention,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The president seems to have heard the appeals from Mauritanian journalists and the international community. We thank them for interceding.”
We, the undersigned Equatoguinean and international scholars and professionals write to you with the hope that UNESCO will reconsider its decision to establish the UNESCO-Obiang Nguema International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences, and abolish this award named for and funded by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.
Reporters Without Borders joins its partner organisation in Somalia, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), in expressing deep concern about the fate of Ali Yusuf Adan, a journalist who was arrested on 21 February in an area controlled by the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab.
Google Maps was launched in 30 Sub-Saharan African countries. This is an amazing asset for everyone to use, and it’s also an incredible testament to the number of users using their “My Maps” feature, as this is where this data comes from.
The Democratic Republic of Congo could see half of its debt to the Paris Club of creditors written off, according to an agreement announced today by the members. The agreement follows on the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) approval in December of a loan arrangement for the DRC, making the country eligible for an IMF debt relief programme.
With often preventable, non-communicable diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory illness accounting for 60 percent of all global deaths, experts from around the world gathered at a United Nations forum to draw up plans to reverse the trend.
A year ago, Goma town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was temporarily home to tens of thousands displaced by fighting between government forces and various armed groups. Now, many have returned to their villages.
Zimbabwe's still-limping economy can provide few essential services, so children living along the border cross into South Africa to attend school during the day or even to see a doctor, often at great risk to their personal safety.
Tensions between street traders and the city authorities in Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo, are mounting as hundreds of recently unemployed textile industry workers compete with established informal traders; textile factories have been closing since the country was suspended from a preferential trade agreement with the US.
utrition experts in Guinea are studying options for treating moderately malnourished children, as funding shortages disrupt normal programmes using fortified flour. In recent months local health centres ran out of supplies and had to refer families to remote facilities for corn-soya blend (CSB), used for the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition and provided by donors through the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
The High Court of Swaziland ruled on 23 February 2010 that some married women will be allowed to register property in their own name. It has been five years since the new Constitution granted women equal status, after centuries of being classified and treated as minors.
South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal ordered the Department of Home Affairs on 24 February 2010 to immediately release an Ethiopian asylum seeker from "unlawful" detention after he had languished in repatriation centres for over nine months.
Four years after an innovative slum-upgrading project was launched in Huruma, to the northeast of the Kenyan capital, at least 200 households are now living in improved homes, complete with infrastructure such as running water, sewage connection, electricity, drainage, paving and renovated toilet blocks.
Amina* and Rajab*, in their mid-twenties, spend most of their days getting high on heroin; when broke, Amina injects herself with Rajab's blood as soon as he has mainlined his heroin, for a second-hand hit. "Rajab is the one who first introduced me to the idea of transfusing myself with his blood whenever we'd run out of the drug and the cash to buy [more]," she told IRIN/PlusNews from her home in Majengo, a low-income estate in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa.
Rwandan nurses will soon be authorized to start HIV-positive patients on life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment (ART), a move Ministry of Health officials say will speed up the rollout of ART in the East African nation.
New research could bolster arguments for a controversial approach that could eradicate HIV transmission in South Africa within five years, said Dr Brian Williams of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA).
New national treatment guidelines are set to make the world's largest antiretroviral (ARV) programme even bigger as South Africa extends treatment to more HIV-positive infants, pregnant women and people battling HIV-tuberculosis (TB) co-infection.
During a United Nations Human Rights Council review of Egypt's rights record on 17 February, Egyptian NGOs, including the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), called on the government to seriously address human rights violations.
A History of the Yoruba People is an audacious comprehensive exploration of the founding and growth of one of the most influential groups in Africa. With a population of nearly 40 million spread across Western Africa and diaspora communities in Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America and North America, the Yoruba are one of the most researched groups emanating from Africa. Yet, to date, very few attempts have tried to grapple fully with the historical foundations and development of a group that has contributed to shaping the way African communities are analysed from prehistoric to modern times.
Critics are concerned that private military contractors are positioning themselves at the centre of an emerging "shock doctrine" for earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Next month, a prominent umbrella organisation for private military and logistic corporations, the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), is co-organising a "Haiti summit" which aims to bring together "leading officials" for "private consultations with attending contractors and investors" in Miami, Florida.
It's now more than a month since the earthquake that laid waste to Port-au-Prince, killing more than 200,000 people and thrusting millions of people into the most desperate conditions. But according to the U.S. government, Haitians have a lot to be thankful for.
The rich have got a lot richer in China during the financial crisis. This has fueled strong resentment among ordinary Chinese, who feel official nepotism and corruption is making some people extremely rich. These are the outcome of recent studies by five different organizations, two of which are connected to the government. The resentment factor has been mapped by studies done by the People's Daily, the organ of the Communist Party of China and the State-run Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences.
In this week's emerging powers news roundup, Africa-based Mi-Fone mobile devices makes entry into Indian market, China looks set to abandon Zimbabwe, India offers fellowships to African researchers, and Indian farmers to explore Africa for agriculture prospects
This study examines the impact of two decades of neoliberal policy reform on food production and household livelihood security in three West African countries. The rice sectors in The Gambia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mali are scrutinized as well as cotton and its relationship to sorghum production in Mali. Although market reforms were intended to improve food production, the net result was an increasing reliance on imported rice.
Let the rains fail, even for several successive seasons, and Malawi should still be able to produce enough to feed itself.? This is the motivation for the country's green belt concept. It is strengthened by painful memories of the severe drought beginning early 2002 which triggered three years of hunger.
The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA), with the support of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), is operating a fund for individuals/groups litigating cases before the Africa Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights. The fund covers travel, accommodation and other related expenses.
International People’s Health University (IPHU) of the People’s Health Movement (PHM) and Great Lakes University of Kisumu (GLUK) announce "THE STRUGGLE FOR HEALTH" a short training course from 19 to 28 April 2010 in Kisumu, Kenya. In association with the 7th TICH annual scientific conference: Innovations towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (29 April – 2 May, 2010).
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has released a trial observation report, The Gambia: Freedom of Expression on Trial, which raises concerns with respect to the Gambia’s compliance with fair trial standards and the application of criminal law to seven journalists who legitimately and peacefully exercised their right to freedom of expression.
This dossier is an answer to the pressing and serious need to inform the funding Authorities on the new and unknown patterns which the trafficking for sexual exploitation machinery is assuming. In particular, Be Free wishes to report the modalities through which many African women, mainly Nigerians, are illegally taken into the Country, after a long journey that foresees a forced stay (up to one year) in Libya, before their final destination voyage to Lampedusa (Sicily) by wreck boats.
Bill Law investigates the causes and consequences of the great global land grab, as richer nations and multi-national corporations acquire vast tracts of land in developing countries. Big corporations and countries are eying up Africa for mega agricultural development. Critics call it the new land grab, but Africa can benefit from the expertise, infrastructure and equity that such developments bring - if the terms are right. Bill visits Kenya to weigh up the pros and cons of agricultural super projects in a country wrestling with food insecurity.
Roland Bankole Marke reviews 'Weh Dehn Say? Dehn Say Kapu Sehns Nor Kapu Word', a collection of Sierra Leonean literature which he regards as 'a priceless addition to any library'.
As questions abound over a crisis at the heart of Kenya's grand coalition government, L. Muthoni Wanyeki argues that the coalition will hold, if only because of the absence of political alternatives.
Tragedy struck the opening of the Africa Cup of Nations and Vancouver Winter Olympics alike writes Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, but the contrast in the responses of the respective organisers towards the victims could not have been more pronounced.
Ethiopia is the site of a scandalous trade in child trafficking, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam, in which agencies and the Ethiopian authorities conspire to permit the 'harvesting' of local children for adoption abroad. The Ethiopian government must honour its commitments under international law, Mariam stresses, and put the protection of its children first.