Pambazuka News 264: Peace, Security and Elections in DRC
Pambazuka News 264: Peace, Security and Elections in DRC
President Abdoulaye Wade has ordered his government to allow free treatment for women suffering from obstetric fistula - often a result of early childbirth that leaves young women incontinent and sometimes shunned by their communities. In a meeting with women in the northern region of Saint-Louis earlier this month, Wade likened early marriage to rape.
FEATURED: With days to go to the DRC elections, Yav Katshung Joseph assesses the threat to elections
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Onyango Oloo on showing solidarity with women in the run up to the World Social Forum 2007
- The rush to bio-fuel obscures a more sinister agenda, argues Mariam Mayet
- An update on the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights campaign
LETTERS: On preserving disorder, pressuring Mugabe and rejoicing Somalia
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul Raheem asks: Who is the West to lecture Africa on China?
BLOGGING AFRICA: Sokari Ekine rounds up the African blogosphere
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: Final statement from Banjul civil society meet
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Despite global outrage, Israel proceeds to flatten Lebanon
HUMAN RIGHTS: ICC inquiries jeopardized
WOMEN AND GENDER: Women in Ghana launch campaign against domestic violence
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: The politics of displacement to urban areas in Sudan
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Links to material from DRC, Nigeria, Somalia
DEVELOPMENT: Alternative G8 forum takes place in Mali
CORRUPTION: UK government launches anti-corruption fund
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: DRC faces forgotten illnesses
EDUCATION: Child support grants increase enrolment in South Africa
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Amnesty launches campaign against internet repression
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Why internet governance matters
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops; Jobs.
The second Conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora (CIAD II) was held in Salvador-Bahia, Brazil, from 12 to 14 July 2006.
The conference, under the theme “The Diaspora and African Renaissance”, was officially opened by the President of the Republic of Brazil, Mr. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Alpha Omar Konare, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, and several African and Caribbean Heads of State and Government attended the opening.
Four round tables and twenty-four thematic parallel sessions allowed some 1000 academics, artists, civil society activists and political leaders to discuss thoroughly key issues related to African political, economic and cultural Renaissance and the effective participation of African from within and outside Africa in this mission.
West African Correspondent for Pambazuka News, Hawa Ba, attended the conference last week. Her reports are available at the AU Monitor website.
All too often we hear or read horrific stories of children being abducted by pedophiles and shudder at the thought of what these innocent victims must have experienced. Rarely, if ever, do we hear how the terrifying experiences affect these victims as they journey through their lives. Ricky Hunter tells her story of being abducted at age five and how this terrifying ordeal shaped her life from childhood through to early womanhood and beyond.
It is not clear to me why IMF policy is called "free trade." (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/34800) The IMF is an agency of governments. It is not an organization of private enterprise. If IMF policies are bad, why did the government of Kenya agree to the conditions? The government of Kenya should be blamed for causing poverty and borrowing from the IMF and agreeing to IMF policy. There is no free market or free trade in Kenya. If Kenya had true free trade, there would be no need for the government to borrow money. Private investment would employ people at good wages, and extirpate poverty. Hong Kong is a good example.
QuickGuides are 24 page books, readable in an hour, covering the fundraising and management needs of both large and small organisations. QuickGuides are the perfect way to learn about a subject quickly and easily, and because they are written and reviewed by knowledgeable professionals from all around the world they will be useful wherever you operate as they are not country specific. And with 6 new titles to add to our current 22 and more planned for 2007 - from sources of funding to events planning, motivating staff to marketing – it’s all there. At £8 or US$14 per book, QuickGuides are accessible to all, and you can build your own library of expertise. And as a reader of Pambazuka News, you can take advantage of a special promotion of 3 books for the price of 2 until the end of October 2006. Or for £125 you can buy an entire library of all 28 titles. QuickGuides are a resource you can’t afford not to have. Quote ref: pambazuka and order online now at our online bookshop.
Using the events of recent decades in the Sudan, this paper argues that localised as well as regional mass population displacement has caused enormous cultural and political transformation that is often overlooked in scholarship about the Sudan. This reality of bringing intact rural communities to the heart of urban Sudan with increased numbers of community-based organisations, has contributed to displacing the state’s (modernist) development discourse and giving muscles and blood to the “religious” - or the “religiously-cloaked ethnic discourse” - on which the state, since 1983, started to lean as means of acquiring legitimacy.
"The Arab NGO Network for Development calls upon the international community to immediately intervene in order to protect civilians and to end Israeli aggression against Lebanon. ANND joins the call of the Lebanese prime minister to an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire under the support of a strong UN Peacekeeping Mission supervision."
At a recent Democracy and Governance review conference in Pretoria, attended by researchers and policy analysts from Southern Africa, one issue that dominated the discussions of all presenters was the new role of China in Africa. Examples were generally drawn from the very visible role of China in Africa’s economy. This discussion is relevant because only in January 2006, China announced its desire to increase co-operation with African countries by issuing China’s African Policy, a paper intended to guide relations with the continent by continuing what it calls a “non interventionist and non ideological strategy.”
* Related Link
China, Africa and the G8: the missing link
Zimbabwean state doctors entered the fifth day of a strike on Tuesday (18 July) that has crippled public health services and they have vowed to stay away from work until demands for better salaries and working conditions are met. Zimbabwe's health workers have staged a series of strikes in recent years to press for increases in salaries they said have failed to keep up with rising living costs amid an economic crisis widely blamed on President Robert Mugabe's 26-year rule.
An African under-14s football team has been banned from taking part in an international tournament in Scotland on the orders of the Foreign Office, which claimed the young players might abscond. The 24-strong squad of players from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe had been due to take part in the Aberdeen International Football Festival, which opened in the city yesterday (17 July). But the squad has been refused access to the UK amid fears that they posed a flight risk.
Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) has been fined Z$130 million (£700) after using an offshore account to pay for the purchase of cricket balls from Pakistan. A magistrates court in Harare was told that the board paid £12,000 to Ishan Sports in breach of the country's Exchange Control Regulations. The board pleaded guilty to the charge.
Women in Ghana have launched a campaign against domestic violence in support of a bill addressing domestic violence introduced in parliament. The Foundation of Female Photojournalists (FFP) developed a documentary addressing domestic and gender-based violence in order to “motivate viewers to support initiatives that would assist victims of gender violence and the quest to build a society of equal rights to all,” Ghana News Agency reports. The documentary provides information regarding gender and domestic violence, as well as strategies to address these issues.
Ongoing rights abuses are undermining efforts to fight the HIV pandemic and threatening the few, hard-won successes, Human Rights Watch said, a month before the XVI International AIDS Conference opens in Toronto. "Twenty-five years into the epidemic, people living with HIV or AIDS are still feared and stigmatized," said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS program at Human Rights Watch.
Civil society organisations from 19 African countries met in Banjul, the Gambia, 26-28 June 2006, in advance of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government, to discuss ways of improving compliance with commitments made under African Union treaties, with particular reference to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).
Agenda requests poetry contributions that explore the outcomes of the Nairobi+21 conference, their impact on women’s rights today, 21 years later, and where to from now. As the first international women’s conference on African soil, the Nairobi Conference in 1985 discussed ways to fend for women’s rights and gender equality that would, for the first time, be informed by the agendas of women from the South.
This is an open call for proposals to collaborate on an issue of id21 insights - published by id21 (www.id21.org/insights) at the UK Institute of Development Studies. We are inviting potential 'guest editors' from the international development research community to propose a topic for an issue of id21 insights due out in early 2007.
Res Publica (www.therespublica.org) is hiring a short-term, country-specific, case-study researcher for a project exploring e-advocacy and technology use by civil society in Nigeria. This is a 4-6 week project.
Penknife Press is announcing its first annual Short Story Writing Contest. From the entries received, we will be creating an anthology of contemporary short stories that say something insightful about contemporary society. Compelling characters wanted, but compelling situations are required.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe will discuss three hydropower projects with a Russian company known as TurboEngineering, ZimOnline said, citing government officials and a letter from the Russians.
The UNISA Institute for Social and Health Sciences (ISHS) takes great pleasure in inviting you to participate in a workshop entitled Preventing Violence against Woman and Children: A Data to Action Workshop to be held from the 27th to the 29th June 2006. Violence against women and children infringes on the human rights of these vulnerable groups and is therefore a real threat to the development and sustainability of a human rights culture that guarantees safety in South Africa.
The Parliamentary Centre, an International NGO working in Parliamentary Development, seeks a Budget and Governance Advisor to join its Poverty Reduction team.
There is no chance of peace in Darfur unless the region's dire water shortages are tackled as part of a settlement between rebels and the Sudanese government, a top international economist said.
About 15 years after a process was initiated to create a Protected Area for the conservation of one of the world's best studied bonobo populations, the Ministry of Environment and Conservation of Nature, Waters and Forests has announced today (17 July) the gazettement of the Faunal Reserve of Lomako-Yokokala.
Internews Network is currently seeking a Resident Advisor to lead our Local Voices health reporting project in Kenya; Local Voices is designed to support professional television and radio broadcasters in creating high-quality, locally relevant coverage of HIV/AIDS issues for their audiences.
Citing a poor human rights record against Nigeria, the country has been denied a seat on a United Nations’ committee/Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Nigerian Mrs. Saudatu Mahdi was stopped as one of the 12 experts elected to serve on the CEDAW Committee, which holds the mandate to monitor countries’ compliance with the Convention.
A Medical Officer at the Eastern Regional Health Directorate, Dr. Joe Taylor has described the pelvis of women as a 'goldmine' where quack healthcare providers are busily making huge sums of money through galamsey (illegal mining) or unsafe abortion. Dr. Taylor, a Gynaecologist by profession, said some qualified doctors and male nurses are increasingly getting involved in the abortion business.
Education often has inspired governments and donor agencies to promise dates by which all children worldwide will be in primary school, but such promises have yet to be realized, The Economist writes in this analysis. Twelve billion dollars already has been donated by the World Bank, and more has been promised, but a recent Independent Evaluation Group study found that despite increased enrollment rates and student incentives, school construction tends to be more successful than the quality of education.
The Non-Governmental Organization, Femmes Africa Solidarité (F.A.S), and the regional branch of the University of Peace (Upeace) in Costa Rica, are organizing an intensive short-course on Gender, Peace and Development, from 16 to 22 July 2006, at Laguna Beach in Mbodiène, in the department of Mbour in Senegal. The opening ceremony will be presided over by the Minister of Education, Sunday 16 July at 4pm, and will be attended by a number of important academics and researchers in the field of gender and peace.
The Gender Based Violence (GBV) Prevention Network has launched the 1st supra-regional website focusing on the prevention of GBV in Africa. The website is filled with the experiences, innovations and knowledge of over 100 member organizations throughout the Horn, East and Southern Africa.
The low representation of women in science and engineering is a major hindrance to global capacity building in science and technology. This report presents recommendations and action items grouped around three themes: * Academies advocating and promoting the education and careers of women; * Academies acting, both individually and jointly, to engage women in global capacity building; * Academies building inclusive institutional climates and advising governments and other principal players on specific actions toward similar ends.
A plan to create rapid reaction teams of border guards to deal with a European Union immigration crises has been unveiled by the European Commission. The teams would be assembled by the EU border security agency, Frontex, from lists of experts in member states.
Several people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo after gunmen fired on an election rally. At the same time, the UN-backed committee overseeing the elections has called for the army to be confined to barracks during the poll on 30 July.
Ugandan government negotiators at peace talks in Sudan have refused to sign a ceasefire agreement with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. The government delegation left the talks early on Tuesday (17 July), saying the rest of the agenda must be dealt with first.
The Gambia's opposition has criticised the government's decision to sack the independent electoral commission head. No reason has been given for the dismissal, weeks before elections. Opposition leader Halifa Sallah told the BBC that the move confirmed what he called the commission's lack of independence and impartiality.
Major donors have pledged to increase aid for peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region, responding to warnings that the delicate peace process is in danger. The 7,000-strong African Union force in Darfur is running short of funds. At a donor conference in Brussels, the US pledged an extra $116m (£64m), while the EU offered $30m (£16m).
The fall of the infamous dictator Idi Amin heralded a new era for Uganda. Unfortunately for the northeastern region of Karamoja it also heralded the era of the gun. Fleeing soldiers abandoned their arsenal of automatic weapons and local pastoralist Karamojong quickly found that the Kalashnikov was more effective than the spear. Cattle raiding would never be the same again.
The Forces nationales de libération (FNL), Burundi's remaining active rebel group, has continued to attack civilians even as it continues ceasefire negotiations with the government in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania.
Four soldiers and seven civilians were killed in the southern Sudanese town of Rubkona after soldiers of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) opened fire in the middle of town, according to residents.
I was in Brazil last week for the second meeting of African Intellectuals when I heard the news of Comrade Brother Chachage from one of our brothers on Tuesday morning. His passing was noted by many of the brothers and sisters at this meeting. It was in settings such as these where one could view the measure of the contribution of Chachage to the African liberation struggle, indeed the struggles against capitalism and imperialism.
I last saw the brother at the Walter Rodney commemoration event in January in Dar es Salaam. His presentation at this fora exposed his continued interest in the intersections of the struggles of the peoples of Africa at home and abroad.
I first met Chachage in 1981 when he was still a young editor at the Tanzania Publishing House in Dar es Salaam. I followed his career closely and remember working with him as a colleague on the sixth floor of the Arts and Sciences building. He was one of the pillars of UDASA (the trade union for academics) and he never compromised with the social science of imperialism. He was impatient with the chauvinism of the South African academic environment and returned to Dar after a short sojourn at the University of Cape Town.
Comrade brother Chachage has left a legacy that should be emulated by many young scholars. I am hoping that the present leadership of CODESRIA will seek to put together many of his unpublished papers so that they will be available to scholars internationally.
To his family I send our deepest condolences.
Yes, history is full of the powerful change that grassroots activists can bring about. Enough people, enough ideas and anything is possible. For a full thrashing out of non-violent possibilities for change, with no particular political agenda, come to the UK Forum for Non-Violence in London 21-23rd July. Hear Kofi Klu (Chair of Pan African task force for Internationalist Dialogue) speak on the history of Non-Violence and what this means in today’s world. Details at Be part of an exciting debate!
First of all, thank you for the great information you offer in Pambazuka News. I am a faithful reader of your publication. Now I am writing because I am the webmaster of Exodus-Kutoka Network, a network of parishes working in the Nairobi slums and informal settlements. We are launching the website where you can find all kinds of information on the Nairobi slums. Not only the work done by the different parishes, but also a compilation of many studies, information and papers on the situation of the slums and the slum dwellers, as well as the campaigns done against the forced evictions, for the upgrading of slums, etc. I would be grateful if you could publish it in Pambazuka News. Thanking you for your collaboration.
I have great respect for Tajudeen and always admire his immense analytical capacities. I thank him for this reflection and pertinent questions on Somalia. (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/35322) I also rejoice the kicking out of harmful bandits of bad taste known as warlords.
However, I would like to caution our enthusiasm. We must wait and see the behaviour of these new dynamics in the Somalia crisis. Tajudeen manifested the same euphoria when Kagame, Museveni and Kabila came to power.
I will insist we watch these new dynamics as they are still unfolding in Somalia, before any significant support for one or the other group is formulated and joyfully advocated for.
If Africa needs a rebirth, it should be on principled foundations and not on momentous military victories.
African in America - African in America (http://youngandreal.blogspot.com/2006/07/my-take-on-race.html) writes about being made to feel guilty by Africans and African Americans because he “does not hate white people”.
“I mean seriously! I resent being made to feel guilty for embracing those White people that are not in denial, or are trying to get out of their denial. I am tired of having to defend some of my White friends, from a blanket rejection by my family members, and black friends, because of the color of their skin. There are enough bigoted and racist White people, governments, and institutions in this World, for us to oppose, and try to bring down. There are lots of pretty ignorant White people that need educating. There are lots of White people out there that deserve our resentment. But we do not live in a vacuum. We cannot take the attitude that EVERY SINGLE WHITE PERSON is out to get us. Not only is it untrue, but it is very counter-productive. It diverts our efforts and our focus, and simply leaves us weaker in our fight, IMHO.”
I think the word “hate” is the problem. No thinking rational person engages in collective hatred. It is more a question of mistrust based on past experiences that make most Black people wary of whites, particularly white liberals that claim not to be racist.
Cry Beloved Zimbabwe - Cry Beloved Zimbabwe (http://crybelovedzimbabwe.blogspot.com/2006/07/one-in-three-zimbabweans-...) comments on the “infiltration of Zimbabwean society by ZANU-PF secret police (the CIO). He claims that one in three Zimbabweans are actually spies.
“The infiltration has gone unnoticed especially for activists in the diaspora though many were aware that CIO operates here in UK. The attitude has always been that as we have sought refugee in a democratic country where the rule of law is upheld therefore we are immune from physical threat. The title of this article is not a wild guess, just after the March congress of Tsvangirai's MDC (Our MDC), Rev Pius Ncube was asked his opinion on the plans for peaceful demonstrations which the MDC had announced. He gave a chilling warning that the logistics of the demonstrations will be leaked to the CIO therefore pre-emptying the demonstrations…”
Aba Boy - Aba Boy (http://ababoy.blogspot.com/2006/07/remembering-jean-charles-de-menezes.html) remembers Jean Charles de Menezes who was suspected by the British police of being a terrorist in the London bombings of 7/7 2005 and subsequently murdered at Stockwell police station. Aba Boy had met Jean Charles who had fixed an electrical problem in the loft of his house. His wrongful death had a personal meaning to Aba Boy and his wife. Here he writes about how they both felt on hearing that he had been wrongfully shot by the police.
“A day later, when the identity of the suspect became clearer, and when it appeared that the wrong guy had been shot, wifey called from work sobbing. The guy that had been shot was the one that came to have a look at our loft a few months ago. I ran straight to a TV near me to see if she was just jiving. The photo they had in the news bulletins didn’t really look like him. But there was some resemblance. I went back to my desk, not sure whether to share this news with the folks at work. I decided not to. I had stored his number on my phone, and I was tempted to call. As the day passed it was obvious that it was Charles.”
On Monday 17th July, it was decided that no police would be prosecuted over his killing, leaving his family bitter and angry about the death of their son. “Justice will not be served.”
Nigerian Music blog, Soul on Ice - Soul on Ice (http://obifromsouthlondon.blogspot.com/2006/07/nation-of-cynics.html) comments on the on going Israeli attack on Lebanon and the wanton destruction of the country and it’s people. He questions the disproportional response and collective punishment typical of Israel in Palestine but now extended to Lebanon.
“The Israeli government is being extremely cynical. So how does this go? Someone takes two of your people, note keyword ‘take’ not ‘kill’. And what do you do? You blow up their airport, destroy their roads, kill their civilians, blow up their government buildings, destabilize their whole nation and still categorically state you are targeting ‘terrorists’? Hmmm, remind me to detonate a nuclear bomb in your backyard next time we have a fight. Indiscriminate warfare. And at the same moment in time lay the same kind of siege in the Gaza strip area. This is the one reason I can understand the Palestinian suicide bombing. You can show your American-backed might all you want but they will strike back with anything they have even their very lives. There can never be peace in a stolen land.”
Egyptian Chronicles - Egyptian Chronicles (http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2006/07/lebanese-spear-head.html) also comments on the Israel invasion.
“Today it will be the sixth day in the on going open war Israel declared on the Lebanese people and land, already yesterday the death toll in Lebanon reached to over the hundred, the south is completely destroyed as well as the southern suburb in Beirut the capital, the financial loss of Lebanon in those few days reached to 4 billion dollars and the number is escalating. It is the 6th day and Israel seems to have more then teaching HazbAllah a lesson in its agenda, it seems to me that the Hebrew state wants to send Lebanon back to the stone age.”
The question on everyone’s mind is whether there is a wider agenda here and if so what is it? Egyptian Chronicle believes it to be Iran with Syria as a bridge between HazbAllah and Iran. I believe she is probably right in her assessment.
“I believe the Syrian role in this on going war is to be just a bridge between Iran and HazbAllah, already Lebanon is blockaded from the air , the sea and two land borders from the original three land borders, the only remaining way is Syria and regardless of the destruction of the high ways between Damascus and Beirut there are still for sure more hidden places.”
White African - White African (http://whiteafrican.com/?p=263">White African) discusses Africa’s potential “on the web and mobile space”.
“We have all seen how the phone has changed communications in Africa drastically. The Web is set to do the same, especially when married up with the mobile phone. Those who labor now to create products that start winning mindshare on the African continent will reap the rewards in the coming years.”
White African has himself acted as an innovator and catalyst of web development in Africa with the Africa Network project, the African Gadget blog and Zangu Africa’s web.
New Cameroonian blogger - Ekosso.com by Rosemary Ekosso is an excellent addition to the African Women’s blogosphere. In her most recent posts she addresses the issue of over population in Africa. She points out the reality that in fact Africa is not over populated and has an abundance in natural resources so the problem is not over population.
“I refuse to go around feeling guilty about coming from the ‘overpopulated’ developing world. I refuse to believe the guff we are fed to the effect that there are too many of us. Too many for whom? For what?”
The reality is the Western nations consume the majority of the world’s resources and it is this imbalance that needs to be addressed, not the mythical over population of Africa.
Black Looks - Black Looks (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/07/4_rare_slave_trade_photos_from_1868.ht...) publishes some rare photographs of slaves on a ship captured by the Dutch Navy in 1868 some 100 years after the Transatlantic slave trade officially ended. The photographs are thought to be of Arab slaver traders operating in the Indian Ocean. Neither the original source of the photographs nor the background to the photographs is known.
“These photographs dated 1868 reveals a very little of the terrible suffering caused to millions of people by the slave trade. This group of severely emaciated boys and young men on the lower deck of a Royal Naval ship apparently have been taken from what was a slave vessel trading illegally off the African coast headed to the Americas. The captain of the Royal Naval ship had instructions not to return the rescued slaves to the place on the coast where they had been put on the slave ship (presumably because they were in danger of being recaptured by traders) but it is not clear from the available documentation what happened to them afterwards.”
* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks,
* Please send comments to [email protected]
Thank you for sending me the Pambazuka newsletter. This has been a revelation, I have spent more than two hours online reading the articles and linking to related sites. This is life-changing material - my life will never be the same again.
This week the BAWo (Blogs for African Women) project came to an end. The project begun as an idea in January this year with the aim of introducing young African women to blogging. 15 girls aged between 11 and 13 were selected together with 23 mentors. Each week two mentors would introduce a topic and the girls would blog on that topic. The actual blogging began in early May with some initial unanticipated difficulties.
1. The school’s Internet access is dial-up and the phone used to connect to the Internet is stored in the principal’s office for safe-keeping. Logging-on therefore means having to first go and get the phone from his office, then plug it in and dial-up. Having to do all this usually deterred the girls from blogging outside of the Computer Club time. In addition, it turned out that only one computer (in a lab of about eleven computers) could connect to the Internet.
2. One Computer Club period a week was usually not enough for all the girls to blog. Since this period also fell at the end of the week, blogging only at this time would not give much time for interaction between the mentors and the mentees.
3. The girls needed close supervision and direction by the computer teacher or from me. Since the computer teacher was often busy with his own work, this would usually fall on me and I was limited by the amount of time that I could go to the school.
4. Junior Secondary School exams started soon after the project began. Four of the mentees were taking this exam and so could not participate in the project.
Nonetheless solutions were found by increasing the Computer Club time to twice a week and the connections sorted out prior to the beginning of the Club time. Because of the lack of computers the girls began to write up their posts and then take turns to transfer them to the blog. The mentors were an essential aspect of the project coming up with appropriate topics and blogging even when the girls were unable to respond or participate due to technical problems.
In her interim report, one of the organisers, Ore Somolu wrote:
“So far, the BAWo project for me has been an interesting study of how lack of Internet access can be surmounted with sufficient motivation. However, these problems still mean that the mentees are not as engaged with the process as they could be otherwise. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how the project progresses and how many of the objectives are achieved in the short or long run.”
As the project has now come to an end it is clear that the issue of lack of infrastructure in many African cities (power cuts, poor telecommunications and dial up internet) is a major obstacle to maintaining an online presence. In addition, although there are a large number of cyber cafes in Lagos, Nigeria, they are not easily accessible to younger girls and boys plus the cost are also prohibitive.
Overall, the first BAWo project has been a tremendous success. We have learned that young girls are enthusiastic about blogging, which has given them a space to write their thoughts and opinions on a range of topics. We have also learned that in future, local infrastructures will have to be considered more carefully and ways around related problems found. On behalf of the project organisers, Ore Somolu and myself, I would like to thank the teachers and pupils of Laureates College, Lagos; the mentors for their contribution and enthusiasm; and the team at Fahamu for their support of the project not only in providing a hosting site and domain but for believing in the value of such a project as BAWo.
It is hoped that another project will run from January 2006 if a venue can be found either in Nigeria or any other African country.
Details of the project can be found at the Wiki site - Wiki Site (http://africablogmentor.wikispaces.com/CONTENTS). BAWo Blog - BAWo (http://www.pambazuka.org/blogs/bawo)
The BAWo Project was supported by Fahamu.
Education International will be holding its 5th triennial World Congress in Berlin, Germany from 22nd to 26th July, 2007. The World Congress meets every three years to adopt policies and approve programmes and financial and other reports. It provides an opportunity for representatives of member organisations from all over the world to meet and consider the major issues affecting their organisations. The EI Executive Board has decided that the theme of the 5th Congress should be "Educators - Joining Together for Quality Education and Social Justice".
Prominent Zanu PF financier in Mashonaland West province, Tom Beattie, is on the verge of losing his citrus-exporting Chigwell Estate near Chegutu as government has resolved to subdivide his land to resettle farmers. Documents in the possession of the Zimbabwe Independent show that Zanu PF has turned its back on Beattie for his "intransigence" and subdivided Chigwell into 16 plots as punishment.
More than a third of the world’s population doesn’t have access to essential medications. Greedy drug companies, government bureaucracies, and apathy all get in the way. Some brave scientists have had enough of the high costs and red tape. They’re frustrated, they’re mad, and now they’re finding ways to buck the system.
The Tanzania Gender Networking Programme has called upon the World Bank President, Paul Wolfowitz to spearhead immediate debt cancellation for Tanzania and all African countries. The call, which also urged the World Bank president to abolish all forms of conditional ties attached to its lending to Africa in general and Tanzania in particular, was made by the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP). The appeal by TGNP comes at a time of the visit to the country by the World Bank chief.
Former US president Bill Clinton launched a program to help children suffering from AIDS in Ethiopia, where close to 3 million people are estimated to be infected with the deadly virus. Under the program, the Clinton Foundation will fund the program at a cost of 250,000 dollars (200,000 euros) and provide 23 medical experts from Yale University to work in 13 hospitals across the country for one year.
With the job of implementing promises made at the G8 summit in Gleneagles last year, Peter Eigen, a member of the Africa Progress Panel, discusses his role in ensuring aid promises are fulfilled and corruption in Africa is reduced. "I don't think it will be possible to ignore Africa or North-South relations in general at any future G8 summit," he concluded.
President Laurent Gbagbo has strongly criticised the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast. He says it is biased in favour of rebels who have been in control of the north since 2002. Some 10,000 French and United Nations peacekeepers monitor a buffer zone between the rebels in the north and the government-held south.
Leandro Despouy, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights' Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, on Friday expressed "serious concern" over a recently passed Egyptian judicial reforms bill. Despouy urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak not to sign the law, but instead to send the bill back to parliament for "re-discussion ... with the full participation of the Judges' Club and experts in constitutional law, in order to allow the Parliament to adopt a considerably improved version of the law which guarantees the proper functioning of an independent judiciary."
In her opening address to this year’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) fair in Blantyre in February, Information and Tourism Minister Patricia Kaliati challenged companies involved in the ICT sector to take technology to people on the ground. "As government, we would like ICT products to be enjoyed by many. We would like to see people in Limbuli, Makanjira and Mkando having access to ICT products. We would like to see the local tomato grower in the village using the internet to access markets for his or her products,” said Kaliati.
Six years ago, leaders from every country agreed on a vision for the future – a world with less poverty, hunger and disease, greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants, better educated children, equal opportunities for women, and a healthier environment; a world in which developed and developing countries worked in partnership for the betterment of all. This report shows where the Millennium Development Goals stand in 2006 in achieving these goals.
Going the last mile: what’s stopping a wireless revolution? For many people in the world, communication facilities are unreliable, slow and costly. The use of wireless technology is one way in which this situation could be transformed. So why are some governments restricting its wider use?
Many are raving about the impressive upswing in African cell phone usage, and the positive effects this might have on the continent's development. But what next? For Africa to fully reap the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICT), investment in broadband Internet and other technology is also necessary.
In Africa, the channels of communication are underdeveloped or inappropriate due to numerous factors. This paper outlines the prospects for fiber optic technology in Africa and looks at some fiber optic networks in Africa, examining how fiber optics applications are being used to enhance technological and economic development.
Many e-Governance projects are not succeeding or are facing bottlenecks. There is resistance to change or duplication of efforts in many initiatives. There are local language issues in some cases and lack of planning in others. Lack of infrastructure is a bottleneck in some countries while in others Universal Access is an issue.
This is a media training initiative operating inside the youth section of Cape Town's Pollsmoor Prison, South Africa. The project works with 12 incarcerated males from the ages of 16 to 18, who meet weekly to co-produce radio stories about various aspects of prison life. Using radio production and training as both a means of building communication skills and as a forum for group dialogue, the Young in Prison Radio Project aims to provide a space for the young inmates to collectively dialogue about issues that are important to their personal development and rehabilitation, and to share their experiences with the outside world.
Produced by Article Z, an electronic media agency, Mad Mundo uses journalism and storytelling techniques to explore the impact of globalisation on individual lives. Investigations by journalists into personal stories help to introduce wider issues of globalisation, and are combined with interactive online discussions.
In this article, the author argues that combining proselytising with humanitarian aid has led to several negative consequences. As a result of these impacts, she believes that the public needs to consider the question "Should faith-based organizations be allowed to proselytise while providing development and humanitarian aid?" These negative impacts are felt not only in the sphere of international opinion, according to the author, but also in the local communities in which these groups work.
This article advocates for online role playing as an educational tool that engages and promotes sustained learning. The author suggests that role playing connects students to the course material - and to each other - more intimately and successfully than a traditional lecture can. She provides technical tips for establishing an online "theatre", describes three role-playing assignment models, and evaluates those models.
This support pack was developed to address low levels of knowledge, skills and resources available to undertake small arms and light weapons (SALW) awareness. The package includes an operational handbook with a set of logically structured guidelines for those conducting SALW awareness programmes, illustrated with examples from the field.
Sudan's refusal to disarm the Janjaweed militias leaves many of the 2.5 million displaced Darfurians strongly opposed to their own peace process. While they greatly desire an end to the violence and the chance to return home, the refugees remain fearful of provisions in the Abuja agreement that would leave them vulnerable to Janjaweed attacks.
With a nation that has been struggling under "poverty, a huge debt and general deprivation," Ugandans might be expected to rejoice at the discovery of oil fields in their country. However, a post independence history of corruption, mismanagement and violence over the control of natural resources has left Ugandan's people skeptical whether they will see any benefit of the country's new wealth. This East African opinion piece highlights the potential for conflict within Uganda over the oil found in the Bunyoro region where a separatist movement still exists.
With no police force of its own, the International Criminal Court (ICC) relies on local law enforcement agencies to protect individuals involved in the court's investigations in Uganda, Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ICC has set up the Victims and Witnesses Unit, a team of trauma experts, to foster an environment of security and some degree of anonymity for those who voluntarily participate in investigations.
Efforts to assist more than 700,000 Angolans – mostly young children and returning refugees – will come to a halt unless new donations are received by the end of July, the World Food Programme warns.
Warren Buffett donates three-quarters of his fortune to the Gates foundation. But aren't states, rather than individuals, a better bet for delivering a fair and just world and reconciling differing interests?
Hundreds of community radio practitioners and experts from around the world will be meeting in Amman, Jordan, on 11-17 November 2006 to discuss ways of enabling community radio to play a more effective role in reducing poverty, supporting marginalised groups and increasing access to information for isolated communities. The occasion is the 9th conference of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).
Transparency International Chair Huguette Labelle and other civil society leaders including the Secretary General of CIVICUS met on 4 July with Russian President Vladimir Putin to make recommendations on what he and the other G8 nations can do to promote accountability and fight corruption.
As delegates from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society and the private sector gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York on international migration and development, Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown hailed their input as crucial to the intergovernmental approach to the issue. “The role of civil society is to warn us, and to make sure that we don’t overlook, the real risks of international migration, particularly in the area of human rights,” he told participants.
Malick Mboob, a former "Daily Observer" journalist, is still in National Intelligence Agency (NIA) custody, 42 days after his arrest by the Gambian police force. He has been in arbitrary detention without trial far in excess of the 72 hours that the Gambian 1997 constitution stipulates, since his arrest on 26 May 2006.
African countries misuse development aid from donors because of "unclear" policies, Burundi 's first vice-president, Martin Nduwimana, said at an ongoing regional conference on gender and development in Bujumbura. “If we [African governments] set up clear policies, which would put an end to mismanagement, corruption and embezzlement, we will for sure give a chance to the integration of women in all sectors," Nduwimana said in his opening address at the four-day conference organised by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and Burundi's ministry of national solidarity, human rights and gender equality.
A working group of members of the Association for Progressive Communication (APC) aims to bring environment higher on the ICT policy priorities of global civil society. Information and communication technologies are a powerful tool for civil society protecting environment. But more is needed to streamline ICT work of different groups and communities, and offer them access to the ICTs they need to secure environmental sustainability, a BlueLink/APC survey shows.
The theme of this event is "Corporate Social Investment (CSI) and the IT Sector - Strategies for Engagement with the NGO Sector". The objective of the event is to create an opportunity for dialogue and interaction between IT companies and NGOs, highlighting different CSI strategies and approaches that are being implemented by IT companies, and how these interventions relate to the needs and expectations of NGOs and the communities they serve.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) is inviting nominations for its annual Press Freedom Award. The award, with a cash prize of US$1,000, is given to honor excellence in journalism. Excellence in journalism may be described as the upholding of ethics of the profession at all costs and the relentless pursuit of truth behind the bare facts.
The Research Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of Anthropology at University of Sydney, along with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission invite your participation in New Racisms: New Anti-Racisms on 3 - 5 November 2006 at the University of Sydney.
One-year-old Cosmas Wambua lies unconscious on the bare hospital mattress with IV tubes draining into his weak body. He is in a critical condition following a severe attack of malaria. He is also malnourished. His mother watches over him, barely moving from her seat, afraid of the worst, but hoping and praying for her son's recovery, reports Alertnet
Health officials in northern Nigeria, supported by UN health agencies, have declared a five-day polio immunisation campaign a success and expressed confidence they can meet a December 2006 deadline to eradicate the disease among 10 million children. "I wish to reiterate the commitment of the federal government of Nigeria to the interruption of the wide polio virus transmission by the end of 2006," Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo told a meeting of international health and donor agencies as well as health officials from the region.
This collection of articles looks at the role of natural resources in Western Sahara and outlines the framework for Western Sahara's independence from Morocco. There is no doubt that the question of the natural resources of Western Sahara such as fish, oil and phosphates has been the main reason for the interest in the area in question. As in so many places all over the globe the exploitation of natural resources including the job opportunities it creates for the occupiers makes states and people react selfishly and in conflict with international law.
This report describes human rights abuses against civilians by state security forces, militia forces and by the New Forces during the period of November 2005 to March 2006, and serves to illustrate the human cost of the failure to address impunity and lawlessness in Cote d'Ivoire.
This manual describes the ideas, the techniques, the achievements, the standards of governmental behaviour and the means of implementing those standards that have emerged from the efforts of anti-torture activists around the world over the past 25 years and more.
This review explores the intersection between youth and violent conflict, with a view to enhancing policy and offering programming guidance. The review identifies key issues related to youth and violent conflict, explores how the issue of youth and violent conflict is currently address in key policy frameworks, and offers an overview of current programmes put in place by UNDP and other key international actors.
The Camp Community Development Coordinator's main responsibility will be to develop and oversee all IRC social services in Oure Cassoni refugee camp, with a heavy focus on the areas of protection, child and youth protection and development, and education. This position will be responsible for overseeing protection activities in the camp and for providing technical and capacity building assistance to IRC staff undertaking an initiative to mainstream protection throughout all sectors.
The Center for Victims of Torture is seeking a Country Director to oversee a psychosocial mental health project in Sierra Leone for individuals who have suffered torture and war trauma. The position has a one-year, renewable agreement.
The Open Society Justice Initiative today (13 July) denounced a police crackdown on a meeting of human rights activists in Abuja and the threatened arrest of meeting organizers. The meeting, termed a "People's Tribunal," was organized by Nigerian human rights NGOs to protest the recent removal of Bukhari Bello as head of Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)—a move interpreted by the NGOs as a direct assault on the independence of that body.
Tanzania is lagging behind in preparing to sign a deal that will determine how it trades with Europe for a long time to come. Only a few months remain before the end of negotiations for a new Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and the European Union. As a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Tanzania’s interests are being negotiated within the South Africa-based economic grouping.
Climate change could have a devastating impact on Africa, wiping out all the benefits from the measures to help the continent agreed by the world's richest nations last year. The warning will be issued by the British Government today (July 13) when it announces plans to bring poor countries into the next round of international discussions to combat global warming.
NGOs APC and Catia have joined forces with the Ethiopian Free and Open Source Network to host a series of workshops over the next 10 days (July 13-23) to promote the use of free and open source software in that country. The series of three workshops will range from FOSS policy discussions to advanced systems administrator training.
One of Morocco's first government departments to start the move to free software has chosen to switch its servers to Mandriva Linux and is looking at switching desktops to Linux in the near future in a move that could save them as much as 80% of their acquisition and support costs.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for greater ties between Africa and Brazil, as well as greater reform efforts at the United Nations, at the Second Conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora. The conference, held in northeastern Brazil, seeks to promote greater cooperation between African countries and the African Diaspora in bringing about social development.
Six new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines are in phase one trials in Gambia, Mali, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Africa under the supervision of World Health Organisation’s Initiative for Vaccine Research and Stop TB Programme. According to MedScape, many of the vaccines are using replicas of the bacteria. Others are recombinant vaccines where the bacteria are reproduced by genetic engineering.
Amina Atiku, the wife of Nigeria's vice president, led a continental conference in Abuja, Nigeria to discuss trafficking of women and children. The child trafficking problem in West and Central Africa is believed to be caused by the vulnerability of parents and children, as well as the lack of consequences, and UNICEF officials say the problem is growing.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Zimbabwean government to stop the alleged jamming of news broadcasts by radio stations based in the United States and Britain.
Zambia's approaching general elections have increased pressure on the government to enact the Freedom of Information bill, more than three years after it was withheld for "wider consultation".
Beatings, electric shocks and the forced ingestion of dirty water, urine and or chemicals are just some of the methods that continue to be used by Algeria's security forces with systematic impunity, Amnesty International revealed in a report published today, (July 13).
The UN world conference on small arms has collapsed without agreement, despite the majority of governments, including the European Union, and many African and Latin American governments, backing tougher controls on the international trade in small arms and light weapons. The conference, which ended on Friday 7 July, collapsed after a small number of states, most prominently the United States, blocked key issues so consistently that no agreement was possible.
International resolutions and agreements call for women to be at all policy-making tables. This is an international working conference on the shaping of peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding policies when women are more engaged. Experts will present signs of influence on policy direction as women and men work jointly on peace and human security issues.