The Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group, publishers of The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror on Friday (July 7) nearly failed to produce an edition of its daily. This comes in the wake of reports that the Mirror group "is in deep financial trouble and is saddled with a staggering debt profile that threatens its survival". Sources at the troubled newspaper group told The Standard that of late, the company has been struggling to meet its financial obligations

Egypt's independent and opposition newspapers were not published on Sunday (July 9) to protest against a draft press law which the government bills as a reform but journalists say puts new limits on press freedom. The government-drafted bill, which won preliminary approval in parliament on Saturday 8 July, eliminates imprisonment as a penalty for some media offences, but continues to allow judges to impose jail terms for journalists in many others.

The Project Coordinator will be responsible for managing and implementing ECWR's activities for the FGM Regional Media Task Force Partnership and our Stop Sexual Harassment Campaign.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and its partners are pleased to announce the 2006 AISI Media Awards. The AISI Media Awards were introduced in 2003 to encourage more informed coverage of the information society and ICT for development issues in Africa as part of ECA's Information Society Outreach and Communication Programme.

The Appeals chamber of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Friday (July 7) sentenced a former Rwandan mayor to life imprisonment for his role in the 1994 genocide. Judge Mohamed Shahabuddeen, presiding, handed down the sentence to Sylvestre Gacumbitsi, in revision of an earlier 30-year jail term imposed by a trial chamber of the tribunal.

This ActionAid report highlights ways to make global aid more effective so that it will have a lasting, positive impact on the poor throughout the world. The report critiques excessive spending on foreign consultants, a lack of coordination with locals, and aid that never reaches poor countries as major problems. ActionAid calls for increasing the shared responsibilities between donor countries and aid recipients to solve the current shortcomings.

Encouraged by a panel of legal experts, the African Union (AU) has asked Senegal to put exiled Chadian ruler Hissene Habre on trial for alleged crimes against humanity during his eight-year rule. Human Rights Watch reports that while welcoming Senegal's acceptance to try Habre, victims of the alleged atrocities promise to seek a binding ruling from the International Court of Justice if Dakar does not fulfill this commitment.

Human rights defenders in East Africa and the Horn of Africa - who have been harassed, defamed, attacked, and tortured - have formed a network to support and protect one another. Their first report, launched Thursday (July 6), reveals the current human rights situations in their respective countries.

ActionAid is looking to recruit two committed and competent Country Directors in the Africa Region. These are two senior positions reporting to the International Director for Africa, have functional relationships with counterparts in ActionAid and upward accountability to donors sponsors and National Advisory Boards where they exist as well as downward accountability to both their teams, partners and communities in the country programmes.

For all the efforts of civil society and governments alike, in ensuring fair conditions for developing country agricultural sectors, the reality on the ground is somewhat more compex. This report critically analyses the influence of trade and distribution on production and production conditions in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable sector. The report identifies the key challenges and opportunities of the sector from the perspective of poverty eradication and sustainable development.

OIC International, Inc., an International PVO based in Philadelphia, PA, is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Project Director, Education Specialist, and Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, pending the results of our application to the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) for an upcoming multi-year initiative, Combating Exploitive Child Labor Through Education, Tanzania

Somalia's fluid political situation underwent yet another shift during the weeks of June 26 and July 3, as the conflict spilled over into neighboring states and became regionalized, and Osama bin Laden weighed in with his take on the struggle between the Islamic Courts Council (I.C.C.), which controls most of the country's south, and the internationally-backed but weak Transitional Federal Government (T.F.G.) based in the town of Baidoa.

Ivory Coast's president and rebel leader have agreed a new disarmament deadline aimed at breaking the deadlocked peace process. Pro-government militias, who have recently missed two deadlines, must hand in their arms by the end of July. The leaders' announcement came after talks with UN head Kofi Annan and other African heads of state.

BBC wants to allow audiences to create personal radio stations from its content, its director general has said. The planned service, provisionally called MyBBCRadio, was revealed by Mark Thompson at the Radio Festival in Cambridge. It aims to give audiences more control by combining existing services such as podcasts and the BBC Radio Player.

Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, has welcomed the adoption by the United Nations Human Rights Council of the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva on 29 June 2006. 'This is a very significant day for Indigenous peoples worldwide in the struggle for recognising their rights' said Commissioner Calma. 'Adoption by the Council brings to a close nearly twenty years of negotiations on this text in the United Nations human rights system'.

The Campaign to End Fistula currently covers some 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and some Arab States. The Campaign works in three key areas: prevention, treatment and support to help women who have been repaired return to their communities. Fistula is most common in poor communities in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where access to or use of obstetric care is limited.

The past 10 to 15 years have seen a dramatic growth in pluralism in broadcasting in Africa. From a broadcasting scene overwhelmingly dominated by government-controlled or state media, the landscape has evolved considerably with the licensing of many private commercial and community broadcasters. The task of implementing the principles of pluralism and diversity lies to a large extent with African broadcasting regulators. This manual is aimed at members and staff of African broadcasting regulatory bodies, along with others, such as journalists, broadcasters and civil society groups who are seeking to realize the ideals in these declarations.

A picture is worth a thousand words—but what happens when you’re faced with a thousand pictures? At different points in 2005, violent natural disasters and war created devastation around the world, captured in a slew of heart-wrenching images. In the midst of so many visual calls on our compassion, how do we continue to communicate the stories of people suffering and surviving human rights abuse in ways that not only move us but also inspire a belief that change is possible?

This course is intended for practitioners to learn essential facilitation concepts and skills for working developmentally with groups of people in small group, workshop or training course settings. Practitioners will learn the basics of facilitation and improve the ways they already facilitate.

This publication aims to support the use of monitoring and evaluation of development results. It is intended to support United Nations Development Program (UNDP) country offices in aligning their monitoring and evaluation systems with a results-based management methodology, specifically in tracking and measuring the performance of UNDP interventions and strategies.

Organised by Oxfam Canada in partnership with the Victoria International Education Development Association, this youth symposium focusing on global justice issues promises to be empowering and action-oriented. Through a series of interactive workshops on such issues as food security, sweatshops, and the global AIDS epidemic, participants will share their experiences and help develop global alternatives.

The ongoing violence in Sudan's Darfur region has spawned many forms of activism. The goal is to increase public awareness of the conflict, in which hundreds of thousands have died and more than two million people have been displaced. Now, that activism is going online, in the form of a video game entitled Darfur is Dying.

Heavy fighting has broken out in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, with Islamic militia using rockets and artillery. The Islamists, who control most of the south of the country, are trying to take an area in the city's south that is controlled by warlord Abdi Qeybdid. Eyewitnesses spoke of heavy casualties with up to 60 people reported killed and 100 injured in two days of clashes.

Burundi's army says it has killed 13 fighters from the last active rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), outside the capital, Bujumbura. The killings took place after the army learnt of the presence of a 20-strong group, including new recruits. An army spokesman denied allegations the rebels had been shot in cold blood. Peace talks in Tanzania between the government and rebels aimed at ending the 12-year civil war have been postponed.

A heavily-pregnant teenager was found abandoned in Sheffield in what police described as a "shocking and tragic" case of people trafficking. The 16-year-old Kenyan girl was dumped on the city's streets after being held captive and forced into prostitution elsewhere, possibly in London. Detectives have spent a fortnight building up a disturbing picture of what happened to the girl.

The South African government has spent over US$5.2 billion on housing subsidies since 1994 but is still no closer to overcoming the desperate shortage of adequate homes. Government figures show that the housing backlog has continued to grow, even though 1.8 million subsidised houses have been built since 1994 - in 1996 the deficit stood at two million, compared to the current 2.4 million gap between demand and supply.

Up to 20,000 war-displaced people in northwestern Central African Republic (CAR) are set to benefit from the distribution of relief aid begun on Wednesday by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the CAR Red Cross, an official said. "At least 100 villages around the towns of Markounda, Paoua and Batangafo will benefit from the relief operations," Alphonse Zarambaud, the programme coordinator of the CAR Red Cross, said in Bangui, the capital.

The African Union enters today the 9th of July its sixth year since its start in the city of Sert in 9/9/99 to become a promising African giant and a Space that proved its position at the international level. On this same day of the month of July 2002 and at a huge African wedding in the presence of the Leader of the Revolution and a number of African presidents and the Prominent African Freedom Fighter, Nelson Mandela , it was declared, in the city of Durban, in the Republic of South Africa the birth of the strategic accomplishment, the Great African Union which was realized by an initiative and intensive efforts made by the Leader Muammar Al-Gathafi and with the support of his brothers, the African leaders.

A local journalist in DRC was shot dead on Saturday (July 7) at his home in Kinshasa, press rights group Journalists in Danger (JED) said. Bapuwa Mwamba was killed by three armed men around midnight at his house in the Matete district JED said. Bapuwa Mwamba worked for a number of newspapers in the capital, including the opposition daily Le Phare. JED said the murder "did not seem to be an act of chance", coming about three weeks before crucial presidential and legislative elections in the vast Central African country, reports the Mail and Gaurdian.

Ivory Coast, a failing state in West Africa, is a formerly wealthy country is in urgent need of increased attention by the international community. The state is collapsing under the weight of a protracted rebellion that controls half its territory, sharpening ethnic differences, and leading to a dramatic decay in the quality of life of the population. The insufficient international peacekeeping presence prevents a full-scale civil war erupting, without however allowing a return to peace. This no-war no-peace situation also threatens the stability of the whole West African region. But there are lessons to be learned from the experience of East Timor.

East Timor, where the UN created the fragile state of Timor Leste barely four years ago, has once again made tragic media headlines. Despite its smallness, it is once more illustrating an important shortcoming in international politics, and as such captures top world media attention. The current chaos and the collapse of government authority clearly prove that the past nation-building efforts of the international community were insufficient to create a viable independent state in East Timor. The granting of independence after a brief 30 months of UN temporary administration, meant to create a modern state, was premature. The country had suffered too much under the 25 year brutal Indonesian occupation that followed its colonial experience under Portugal, a master that had done little to prepare it for independence. The fragility of the UN state building job has been clearly revealed by the tragic events of recent days, as the country fractures along several lines. The dramatic appeal of its governing authorities for international assistance to restore basic law and order shows that the Timor Leste state has failed and that its ‘sovereignty’ is illusory. The costs of this failure in terms of human suffering for the Timorese population and of instability for its geographic region in South East Asia and the South Pacific are considerable. The expenses that countries contributing to the restoration of order in Timor Leste have, and will have, to bear are also significant.

Despite the past intense publicity aimed at portraying the UN state building efforts in East Timor as successful, we now see that this was not so. It may be tempting to blame “the UN” for this failure, as it has become fashionable to do when the organisation is unable to do magic in the field of peace keeping. Or it may be tempting to blame the Timor Leste authorities for their poor governance capabilities. In my view, none of these would be just. Instead, I feel that we should use the East Timor example to examine some underlying principles that govern our contemporary world affairs, and draw lessons that would be helpful to deal properly with other failing state situations. There are, after all, several such cases at present. They represent still unresolved and burdensome legacies of 20th century colonialism which continue having a serious negative impact on world peace.

As follows from the argument of my book on the subject, the failure of Timor Leste is no surprise. Together with many others, I anticipated it. The East Timorese people suffered from the unwillingness of key UN member states to commit the necessary resources to the lengthy process of state building to prepare the country - over which the UN held sovereignty- for viable independent statehood. Instead, to cut expenses, they pressed for a speedy withdrawal and the granting of a premature independence. Those locals in East Timor keen to become the new power elite eagerly encouraged this irresponsibility.

Having been so strongly geared to the dismantling of colonial empires in the past, the UN members never made the organisation pay much attention to developing a capacity to prepare colonial territories or failing post-colonial weak states for successful independent statehood. It is encouraging to note that now, may be partly as a result of the recent East Timor experience, the UN is setting up a Peace Building Commission (PBC), aimed at strengthening weak states so as to become viable in post-conflict phases. Hopefully key UN member states will muster the necessary political will to endow the PBC with adequate resources to handle this difficult and lengthy task properly instead of just cosmetically. Strengthening of fragile states is crucial for peace, to advance democracy and prosperity. But it is a long process which requires a significant investment. The returns of this outlay are well-worth it. As Timor Leste has just shown us, skimping on state building is not.

Timor Leste would benefit from a strong state building support through the PBC or by some other competent international agency. This will be the only way to ensure that a viable state is eventually put in place in East Timor. The benefits for its population and for the stability of its entire geographic region would be significant. Even if they have to pay for such state building, the longer term savings for its neighbours are considerable. Being called in to keep the peace, as Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia are doing at present is, after all, very expensive.

But Timor Leste is not an isolated case. There are many failing post-colonial state examples crying out for strong international support to restore peace and strengthen state institutions. The PBC will not be short of work if its principals among the UN membership allow it to take on these needy clients.

Ivory Coast, a failing state in West Africa, is one particular example which I mention since I am currently involved with it. This formerly wealthy country is in urgent need of increased attention by the international community. The state is collapsing under the weight of a protracted rebellion that controls half its territory, sharpening ethnic differences, and leading to a dramatic decay in the quality of life of the population. The insufficient international peacekeeping presence prevents a full-scale civil war erupting, without however allowing a return to peace. This no-war no-peace situation also threatens the stability of the whole West African region.

In the view of many of its people, including that of the Ivorian civil society organisations I am currently advising, what Ivory Coast urgently needs is a stronger commitment by the international community to empower the UN to undertake a peace-enforcement action to end the rebellion and restore government authority. Once this is achieved, a strong peace building and state strengthening program, possibly through the UN Peace Building Commission, would be appropriate. During this time, an UN-supported transitional government should conduct intensive reconciliation and civic education activities to restore national unity. The severely damaged state institutions would need to be repaired and their administrative and professional capacity strengthened. Only after the accomplishment of all this would the holding of elections for a new government be meaningful and lead to sustainable peace.

Our big question at present, which is in urgent need of an answer, is whether lessons such as those that have been provided to us by the tragic East Timor experiences have been learned by the international community? Is the political will to empower the UN to do a proper state building job in failing post colonial states going to emerge at last? This negative legacy of 20th century colonialism will not be resolved by continuing to pretend that the UN can perform magic in this field without being provided the means to strengthen fragile states. It is high time for the international community to face this reality and to master the political will to act. The birth of the UN Peace Building Commission is the perfect time to do so. The Ivory Coast is an excellent field in which to apply the lessons that East Timor has taught us. Will it be done this time around?

* Dr. Juan Federer had a long involvement in the liberation process of East Timor. He now is Projects Director of the Center for War/Peace Studies of New York (www.cwps.org). His book The UN in East Timor: building Timor Leste a fragile state (Charles Darwin University Press, 2005) decries the lack of sufficient commitment by the international community for proper state building in East Timor, anticipating the recent crisis.

The French version of this article first appeared in Pambazuka News French Edition No 9 (http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/comment/35730)

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Eve Odete, part of the SOAWR coalition delegation, reports back on the events in Banjul where Niger's rejection of the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa is roundly condemned. Despite that set back, support for the protocol grows, boosted in particular by the launch of the joint publication from SOAWR and the AU Commission of 'Breathing life into the African Union Protocol Women's Rights in Africa'.

The Seventh Summit of the African Union and its preliminary sessions, the Executive Council and Permanent Representative Council, has just ended in the Smiling Coast, the Gambia. As I look back at the press coverage during the summit, I scan a rainbow of grandiose arrivals including the outgoing Secretary General of the UN, Koffi Anan, the President of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Thai diplomat, and the Chinese investor. Beyond the official Summit theme, Rationalization of Regional Economic Communities and Regional Integration, and the evidently charged geo-political agenda, did anything else happen?

Niger in Focus

‘The action by the national Parliament of Niger to reject, in its entirety the AU protocol on the Rights of African Women sets a dangerous precedence for the rest of Africa’ lamented Madame Djatou Traore, president, CONGAFEN Niger. Such was the clarion call by Solidarity for the Rights of Women in Africa, SOAWR, throughout the Summit, and it resonated among key policy makers. Caroline Osero-Agengo of SOAWR in congratulating the Gambian National Assembly for lifting the reservations on the Protocol called on the Vice-President Vice President and Secretary of State for Women’s Affairs the Gambia to use the opportunity of the AU Summit to urge her counterpart in Niger to take steps to reverse the recent decision by the National Assembly of Niger. She said “for the millions of women and girls that continue to be stalked by the female genital mutilation and other harmful practices across Africa, the Protocol offers an opportunity to rectify the absence of laws against the harmful cultural practices’’ Is it the spirit of the Summit that generates an immediate commitment by Her Excellency Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy to urge the Speaker of the National Assembly of Niger to revisit the issue?

It is June 25 and the plenary room at the Kairaba Hotel is filled with over 100 women and men under the banner of the Solidarity for the Rights of African Women Coalition for a public symposium. I see faces from the previous day’s public forum also hosted by the African Center for Democracy and Human Rights. One after the other, participants dissects the Protocol. We hear painful stories of an aunt having to dissuade her niece from disfiguring herself through FGM and the joyful stories of a female excisor change profession to become a tailor. ‘’Nowhere is the dividing line between the past and the future more clear than the struggle to eradicate harmful cultural practices and to expand the power of women over their own bodies, assets and relationships.’’ Says Irungu Houghton. I note the sustained participation of the Special Rapporteur on Women’s Human Rights, Angela Melo, and hear her commit her good offices to urge member states to accelerate the ratification of the Protocol. Commissioner Melo singles out the National Assembly of Niger, deploring their recent action to reject, by a close vote in parliament, the Protocol in its entirety. She pledges to send a mission to Niger to persuade the government to rescind the decision. Commissioner Melo further deplores the lack of political will in Africa in advancing Protocol.

The long awaited, high profile public launch of the joint AU Commmission / SOAWR publication, and ‘Breathing Life into the AU protocol on Women’s Rights’ is here [1]. The ceremony attracts over 100 citizens and dignitaries from The Gambia and elsewhere in Africa attending the 7th Ordinary Summit of the African Union. In Launching the book, Her Excellency Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy, calls for urgent public information campaigns for the women to understand and demand protection under the provisions of the Protocol. She commends the book to everyone present, all Government departments, NGOs, institutions of learning and individual women and men. ‘I encourage the organisers to translate into local languages and distribute the book far and wide’ She says.

In her speech during the launch, Winnie Byanyima, director, AU Gender, Women and Development Directorate, and moderator of the session, emphasizes the significance of the Protocol to the life of women in Darfur and reiterates the commitment of her Directorate to take into consideration their plight.

Ambassador Said Djinnit, Commissioner for Peace and Security Council applauds the ardent campaign by the women’s movement towards the development and the ultimate ratification of the Protocol. He reiterates his call to both men and women to sustain the efforts, and his firm belief in the rights of women and gender equality. He traces his personal experience as OAU Assistant Secretary General of working with women civil society leaders and Ambassadors to negotiate the adoption of a progressive and visionary Protocol. He closes by arguing, “You cannot transform a continent while keeping women away from decision-making. We need to develop alliances with each other.”

The book makes a clarion call for the universal ratification, domestication and implementation of the Protocol and is available from SOAWR members and the African Union Commission.

Common advocacy front is negotiated

The culmination of the AU pre-Summit Women’s Forum is a resolution adopted by the forum stating key policy messages for consideration by the AU [2]. The resolution is further strengthened when a joint AUC, SOAWR and FAS meeting agrees to consolidate their positions into one Resolution for submission to the Summit (see below). Adopted on 27 June 2006, the resolution addresses among others, the enforcement of the principle of gender parity in all key AU organs, the acceleration of the ratification of the AU protocol on the Rights of women, and the enhancement of human security in situations of conflict.

Further discussions with the Gender Directorate agree the consolidation of a common advocacy platform for the women’s movement in subsequent summits to ensure effective influencing of the AU agenda. Winnie further urges the women’s movement to strive to influence the summit agenda more proactively by negotiating common positions in line with the summit themes. A way of working to this end was agreed. I can’t agree more.

The visibility of the campaign during the summit is enhanced by several national and regional media hits following three well-attended press conferences and coverage of the high profile events. To cap this, and widely televised, is a green card issued to the vice president of the Gambia in honor of the exemplary role of the National Assembly in lifting all reservations to the Protocol.

In spite of my frustrations with flight connections to Banjul and the helicopter ride in Sierra Leone, I return home satisfied that the list of champions on the Protocol has grown.

* Eve Odete is Pan Africa Policy Officer for Oxfam GB.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

[1] Breathing life into the African Union Protocol on Women's Rights in Africa is published jointly by SOAWR and the AU Commission, and can be ordered at http://www.africanbookscollective.com/

[2] Resolution Adopted at the pre-Summit Women's Forum in Banjul:

Senegal was one of the first African countries to engage in privatisation of key sectors of its economy. Although Ghana now provides a “model” for international financial institutions, in particular the World Bank, Senegal soon found a place among those “pupils” instanced as examples of privatisation, writes Hawa Ba. The economic process set in motion at the end of the 70s had as its natural corollary the retreat of the State from the guardianship of key economic sectors and the selling off of national corporations.

From the programme of economic and financial recovery launched at the departure of former President Senghor to the structural adjustment plans initiated in the mid 80s under the Abdou Diouf regime, to poverty-reduction strategies, a variety of phenomena accompanied the deconstruction of the social and economic sector. The supposed solutions across different policies put in place by international financial institutions have never generated the growth expected as a driver of development. Worse, the “less State” from which “better State” was expected to follow, simply created a vacuum tending to nullify all public services and social policy.

It was the cult of the private sector above everything. Not even the most strategic state enterprises were able to resist this logic. This is the case of Senegal’s national water company (SONEES). Thus, the symbolic image of water as a universal resource belonging to everyone but not to any one private individual, carried no weight against the hunger for privatisation. Privatisation, it was said, would be the solution to the well-known dysfunctionality of the sector which was unable to meet populations’ growing needs. But instead of addressing the many well-reported barriers to access to water and electricity, these privatisations only served to render more precarious the position of the most disadvantaged in society. Access to water and to electricity has become more chancy, exacerbated by exorbitant rising costs.

Seen as the repository of all evils, public services and the notion of public good were supplanted by the cult of profit, assets and productivity. The most elementary rights of citizens, including the right to natural resources and to have a say in their form of management were flouted. Negotiations and decisions were made over their heads, so much so that that one can speak of the diktatof the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund imposed on States and political leaders who have no control over their destiny.

Established as a slogan during the 1980s, “a smaller state equals a better state” had practically become an incantation in the mouths of rulers. A formula on everyone’s lips, it appeared all the more scandalous in being a deliberate denial of the pauperisation and misery in which these policies plunged the most disadvantaged social strata. It was like an inevitable process, an ineluctable logic. Between “liberalisation” and “privatisation” fetishised language littered the discourse of decision-makers while at the same time creating a living death for whole populations.

In Senegal, as in almost all the other poor countries forced to undergo this “treatment”, the international financial institutions in the form of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund had a ready-made mechanism: the quasi systematic conditionality attached to the awarding of loans. These required first the restructuring of the public sector and national corporations and then the privatisation of state holdings. As a result of this restructuring , thousands of workers found themselves on the streets. To reduce the overall salary total, unemployment was encouraged. To make enterprises more saleable it was necessary to reduce the size of their workforce. To absorb the fiscal deficits arising from these enterprises there was no hesitation in passing on their profit and loss accounts. At the same time, the State abrogated its role as provider and turned its back on its social responsibilities. Crucial sectors such as education and health were starved of subsidy, following the received economic-political wisdom which encouraged the State to invest as little as possible.

In what follows, we will consider further the issue of water privatisation and its socio-economic implications for Senegal.

In 1995, in accordance with the instructions of the World Bank, Senegal undertook privatisation of its water sector. As a result, the national water company (la Société Nationale d’Exploitation des Eaux du Sénégal (SONEES)) was divided into two organisations: the Senegalese national water company (Société Nationale des Eaux du Senegal (SONES)), the holding company, and the Sénégalaise des Eaux (SDE), the operating company, a private enterprise. The purchaser was SAUR, a subsidiary of the French Bouygues Group. SAUR retains a 51% share, the remaining 49% being divided between the Senegalese state (5%), private Senegalese individuals (39%) and the employees of the defunct SONEES (5%). SONES is responsible for the management of national water resources and all State holdings pertaining to this sector, while SDE retains the exclusive monopoly for commercial exploitation. Under this arrangement, the latter makes the profits and must pay dues to SONES.

The most ludicrous aspect of this affair is that the contract between SDE and SONES and, by extension, the Senegalese State, only relates to commercial exploitation of urban water resources. This demonstrates how far considerations of financial profitability were a priority. The billing and collecting of water rates were considered more likely to be effective in an urban environment where users would be more financially solvent, but also where the means of coercion would be more effective in case of non-payment of bills. It was thus “logical” for urban centres to benefit from the majority of SONES investments to improve infrastructure and guarantee a good system for recovery of rates. So, although consumers living in urban centres benefited to a certain extent from better services (modernisation of infrastructure, improvement in water quality), those living in rural areas were left out in the cold. At the level of the overall operation of the State this gave rise to serious implications: it created a dichotomy in the allocation of services across the national population which was based on financial advantages to multinational companies.

It is important to recall that SAUR is fundamentally a capitalist enterprise – a multinational which has spread its tentacles throughout the world and which is motivated only by profit. Whether in Senegal or in any other country in which it has bought out the water sector, its relationship to this resource is the same as it would have had with any other commercial product. The worst of it all is that our States are irresponsible and that they have no consideration for the cultural and social relationships that their populations have to the utilities that they are manipulating.

How else can one understand their decision from one day to the next to transfer the operation of a utility which, since time immemorial, has been considered a public good in the popular imagination, and around which many societal processes cohere, handing it over to operatives unfamiliar with the social context, without even considering it necessary to draw up a code of conduct taking account of local conditions?

Both in the villages and in the poorest areas of the towns, a widespread quasi-institutional practice had been established of erecting fountains where local populations without domestic water supply could receive free water. To rationalise usage and avoid wastage, local community leaders or others in whom local populations had confidence were given the responsibility of managing these water supplies. Timetables were agreed with neighbourhoods to enable local people to build up their reserves, usually early in the morning and late in the afternoon. In addition, special treatment could be given to such institutions as schools and Koranic teaching institutes, mosques and other such bodies so that they would receive water either free or at special rates.

Privatisation did away with all such allowances. It became necessary to spend money to drink! Similarly for water for food preparation, making one’s toilet and doing housework. Tariffs were established and water had to be bought by the basin or the bucket in the case of local fountains. Prices varied according to location. Moreover, neighbourhood fountains were condemned to disuse, the aim being to oblige each home to have a connection to SDE with a corresponding billing system. Those bodies which had benefited previously from preferential treatment were required to subscribe through a billing system under which they paid bi-monthly bills in the same way as other users.

For many people, this new regime resulted in a penny-pinching use of a utility which had suddenly become scarce; or in recourse to alternative sources of water such as rivers. This water, which was not intended for drinking, gave rise to public health problems in poor homes where it was used in food preparation. It is not too much to suggest a causal link between limited access to water and the proliferation in recent years of diseases such as cholera in Senegal. Known also as the “dirty hands disease” precisely because it is due to a lack of cleanliness, cholera epidemics continue to break out in a variety of locations. Experience has shown that this happens almost exclusively within populations which only have very limited or no access to drinking water.

Furthermore, it is quite usual to encounter educational establishments whose water has been cut off due to their inability to pay their bills. In such cases, students fall back on local houses during their breaks to request a glass of water or to use the toilet. In this way, an unexpected vulnerability has opened up in this sector. The collateral risks of such measures are real ones. Children are exposed to a variety of dangers, including being given non-drinking water or, for little girls, the risk of sexual abuse.

Moreover, many other social benefits linked to the use of neighbourhood fountains are denied to women for whom this represents an essential aspect of their social lives. Being able to gather every morning and afternoon at the fountain enables them to meet friends, to discuss recent happenings in their lives, and, in short, to escape briefly from the daily grind. The “commodification” of water favours an entirely different relationship with water and with the act of fetching it.

The proponents of privatisation pride themselves on bringing out its positive aspects, such as infrastructure modernisation, distribution of better drinking water or further reduction of wastage at the fountains. For example, in relation to access to water, Ndaw believes that ‘ the balance sheet for the programme after 8 years [ie from 1995 to 2003] shows that it fits perfectly with the implementation strategy for the Millenium Development Objectives for urban areas. In fact, figures for coverage of the Dakar region show that the proportion of the population served increased from 80.3% in 1995 to 96% in 2004 (76% by means of domestic connection and 20% by means of local fountains), ie 620,000 additional service users. For other urban centres (amounting to 1,9 million individuals) the level of reasonable access to water in 2004 is 84% (57% through domestic connection, 18% through local fountains and 9% through modern wells), ie 400,000 additional service users’.

These arguments have been seriously called in question by numerous studies showing that the privatisation of the water sector has not given rise to a significant number of additional domestic connections. Aide Transparence’s inquiry disagrees, as it reveals that ‘the number of connections in the perimeter has increased from 203,902 in 1996 to 26,4161 in 2002, ie an increase of 60,259 over 6 years. For a population of 10,000,000 inhabitants, this does not seem to represent a significant achievement. (…) The level of service in the perimeter rose from 72.5 in 1996 to 83.1 in 2001, although it was supposed to reach 95% according to the contract between the State, SDE and SONES’.

Nor has privatisation solved the problem of water quality. The Aide Transparance report shows that consumers often complain about a reduction in water quality and, from time-to-time consumers’ organisations campaign for improved services. It is undeniable that consumers do not have confidence in the quality of the water that comes from the taps. Indeed, the use of mineral water has never before been so widespread in Senegal. Anyone who can afford this luxury now prefers to use bottled water – to such an extent that the sale of mineral water has become a very profitable sector. In the space of two to three years, at least three new companies producing mineral water have been set up and are showing an impressively healthy balance sheet. Originally seen as a privilege reserved for the comfortably off who used it to signal their material wealth, mineral water consumption is now seen as a means of avoiding a health risk.

Long periods during which water supplies are cut off in certain areas or at certain points in the year are legion. It can happen that in these areas, there is no tap water for a whole day or even for several days. A frequent scene is of large groups of women, basins in hand, wandering from one area to another in search of water for drinking and for preparing family meals. Observation has shown that the hottest period in the year is the worst in terms of water supply. It has also been demonstrated that the water supply infrastructure is not capable of meeting consumers’ needs because, as soon as there is a significant concentration of population in a given location, the SDE cannot satisfy the increase in demand. Such is the case during religious festivals which bring together large groups of the population for a specific period. This has resulted in real anguish among local communities and “pilgrims” in the run-up to religious celebrations.

All this goes to show that even the promised technical improvements have not lived up to their promise.

A further crucial is that of the cost of water. There is not a shadow of doubt that the privatisation of water has brought with it an increase in prices. The Aide Transparence inquiry tells us that this increase was around 40% in 2003. This is exorbitant! The following passage shows how, in a subtle fashion, SDE considerably increased the costs for each of the tariff packages. ‘Analysis of the different tariff packages offered between 1995 and 2003 shows that the SDE’s tariffs for social consumption (i.e consumption of between 0 and 20 m3) grew from156.7FCFA in 1995 to 191.32FCFA on 1 January 2003. At the same time the full tariff grew from 534.48 in 1995 to 629.88 for consumption of between 20 and 41 m3, and from 534.48 to 629.88 for consumption of between 41 and 100m3, on 1 January. Combining all these increases shows an average hike of nearly 40% on the price of water between 1995 and 2003’.

From whatever angle one considers water privatisation in Senegal, one constant remains: the priority given to the profit and loss aspects of the business. The process of privatisation has resulted in the right of access to water for each individual and concern for social justice in giving each member of society the same chance to make use of State-provided services, being relegated to a lower level of priority. The poor are the rejects of the different policies instigated by international financial institutions and applied by those who govern us, who have no remedy for the suffering of increasing numbers on the margins of society.

Hawa Ba works for Fahamu and is Pambazuka News West Africa Regional Correspondent.

This article was first published in the French edition of Pambazuka News, no 7:

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The World Bank, under its president of the last year Paul Wolfowitz, has been talking tough in the fight against corruption. But how sincere is Wolfowitz when it comes to dealing with the World Bank’s role in financing corrupt regimes of the past and the cancellation of these illegitimate debts? The answer is simple. He’s not, says Gail Hurley.

One could be forgiven for thinking that Paul Wolfowitz has spoken about corruption and nothing else during the year that he has held the post as World Bank President. Although his predecessor, James Wolfensohn, also highlighted corruption as a serious obstacle to development, Wolfowitz has significantly elevated the issue as a World Bank priority. Wolfowitz’s anti-corruption rhetoric has captured media headlines. But how comprehensive, consistent and effective are the plans and actions behind the talk? How far can the Bank really go with this agenda, in particular where the Bank itself has been the cause of corruption, and odious and illegitimate debts, in the past?

It appears as though the Bank’s focus on anti-corruption looks set to continue. In February, the World Bank, in cooperation with other multilateral development banks and the IMF, agreed to create “a framework for preventing and combating fraud and corruption”. It is to be ready for the Bank/Fund Annual Meetings in September in Singapore. On a recent trip to Indonesia, Wolfowitz presented a “long-term strategy” for using the Bank’s money and expertise to help developing countries rid their governments of bribe-taking and other dishonest practices. A key component will be the deployment of anti-corruption teams in many World Bank country offices. At the World Bank’s 2006 Spring Meetings, Wolfowitz correctly acknowledged that “for every bribe-taker, there is a bribe-giver, and often, that comes from a developed country” and any thorough approach to corruption must examine corruption by companies and individuals in the North, not just the South. In a recent leaked paper obtained by Eurodad, the Bank claims to be “raising the bar on governance and anti-corruption” even further. The paper, entitled “Raising the Bar on Anti-Corruption: Improving Governance and Accountability, Fostering Development” outlines possible ways forward for the Bank, including promoting good governance and accountability and supporting international efforts for the repatriation of stolen wealth.

The story presented so far however focuses very much on the “corruption of today” and pays scant attention to the “corruption of yesterday”. Remarkably absent from the anti-corruption strategy presented by officials so far is any critical examination of the Bank’s lending practices to poor countries in the past. The World Bank has over the years been involved with and lent to some of the world’s most notorious and despised regimes such as Mobutu Seke Seso of Democratic Republic of Congo and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.

Bank documentation at the time of these transactions, or published shortly afterwards, confirms that many Bank officials - at both country-level and in Washington DC - were perfectly aware of the nature of the regimes in place and that many loans were simply transferred into the bank accounts of the dictators and their generals. It was plain therefore that they did not reach the poor or foster economic development. Despite their odious and illegitimate nature most of these debts continue to be serviced today, at the expense of essential investments in poverty reduction and economic development.

How can any approach to weed-out corruption be successful or comprehensive if it does not look critically at the lending practices undertaken by the institution in the past? The Bank should learn the lessons of the past, accept co-responsibility for its mistakes and agree to cancel Bank debts resulting from loans where Bank officials knew much of the money would be diverted by corrupt elites. Wolfowitz says the real issue at stake is “how to promote good governance and accountability”. Accountability must begin at home, by addressing the mistakes - and in some cases downright negligence - of the past.

A serious inquiry into past Bank lending practices and the problem of odious and illegitimate debt will likely be resisted by Wolfowitz (who said as much at the Spring Meetings when I challenged him on this point). He argued that the governments represented in the Bank would not be happy if he raised this issue. But Wolfowitz has already challenged the Bank’s members on a number of issues. And we have seen the Bush administration acknowledge the odiousness of Iraq’s debt burden.

Iraq is a country with a very significant burden of odious and illegitimate debt, a clear case study of lending for geopolitical strategic and ideological purposes rather than any concern for the welfare of the overall population. The US government indeed acknowledged this in 2003 when United States Treasury Secretary John Snow remarked to Fox News that “certainly the people of Iraq shouldn’t be saddled with those debts incurred through the regime of the dictator who is now gone”.

Another country which Wolfowitz knows well is Indonesia, where he served as US Ambassador from 1986-1989 during the General Suharto years. His recent visit to Jakarta provided the World Bank President with an excellent opportunity to pledge to examine Indonesia’s case. Respected Indonesian NGO, the International Forum for Indonesian Development (INFID) argues that “it is widely known that approximately 30% of the World Bank loans during the reign of Suharto were corrupted”. Moreover, the debts were accumulated by an authoritarian regime and no public consultation took place. For years, the World Bank continued making transactions with Indonesia. The Bank supported and strengthened the authoritarian regime, says INFID.

A leaked 1997 World Bank report supports these allegations. The report found that as much as 20 to 30% of the budgets linked to development funds were embezzled and World Bank loans were clearly involved. Other internal reports attest to staff knowledge of the regime in place and the fraud taking place. Despite this clear awareness, loans increased. There was also an increase in World Bank loans to the Indonesian Government during the occupation of East Timor.

Indonesia’s total external debt stands at US$134 billion. Of this sum, public and publicly guaranteed debt amounts to US$ 80 billion. To pay this debt, the government put aside 26% of the 2006 state budget. In contrast, education was allocated only 5% and health 2%. Poverty levels are high and increasing in Indonesia: 50% of the population lives in poverty and earns less than US$ 2 per day. The World Bank is one of the country's largest creditors with approximately US$12 billion in claims.

Instead Wolfowitz chose not to use this opportunity to critically reexamine the loans that Indonesians argue involved corruption and fraud and yet which they are required to service under the current system.

One World Bank shareholder which is taking action on this is Norway. It is one of the first Northern countries to open dialogue on odious and illegitimate debt and to call for an international focus on this critical issue. Firstly, Norway has asked the World Bank to undertake a study of odious and illegitimate debt and has put money aside to support this research. Secondly, Norway’s Development Minister Erik Solheim has committed to more closely examine the illegitimate debts claimed by Norway, notably those incurred through the Shipping Export Credit Campaign of the 1970’s.

The débacle involves the export of Norwegian ships to developing countries (such as Ecuador, Peru and Jamaica) between 1977 and 1980. It exported these ships mainly to secure employment for a ship-building industry in crisis. In the case of Ecuador, the Norwegian authorities demanded state guarantees for the ships and when, after the first four years, the company stopped paying the remaining debt was transferred to the state. Ecuador has been servicing the debt for 16 years and its value today is five times the original amount. Minister Solheim has made the very welcome statement that he wishes to draw a line across this mistaken and damaging low point in Norway’s development cooperation policy and in the context of next year’s budget will look to take unilateral action to cancel these claims, citing the lending as irresponsible. All eyes will be on Norway over the coming months to see if the country will indeed cancel these claims and NGOs will push for a clear and public acknowledgement of the injustice and illegitimacy of these debts. Kjetil Abildsnes of the Norwegian Debt Campaign said in a recent statement to the press: “It remains to be seen if Solheim is tough enough to declare these debts illegitimate. We hope to get an answer [soon]. Norway can then become the first creditor in the world to recognise parts of developing country debt as illegitimate.” 

The World Bank - and other bilateral and private creditors - should take a leaf out of Norway’s book and take a critical look at the past. The Bank in particular has no excuse: Norway has put aside money to support research into this issue and it would seem to fit logically and perfectly within the anti-corruption theme that Wolfowitz is so keen to take forward. Indeed Wolfowitz must recognise that any comprehensive approach to corruption must necessarily involve a frank and open critique of past Bank lending practices leading to the cancellation of debts found to be odious and illegitimate.

Cancellation of odious and illegitimate debts has the power to transform the lives of the world’s poor as well as foster reform of an international financial architecture skewed in favour of creditors. Developing countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Philippines, Indonesia and others continue to service debts of highly questionable origin when the benefits of debt cancellation have been clearly recognised.

Wolfowitz and World Bank Executive Directors need to place this issue firmly on the Bank Board agenda. NGOs will continue to press the Bank to do so and we hope that Norway will also do the same in particular because Minister Solheim has stated that “there can be no doubt that Norway wishes to be in front on this issue”. In the meantime, Wolfowitz should stop labelling his approach to the corruption problem as comprehensive. It is not.

It is not a question of being “stuck in the past”: the debt service on illegitimate loans has an impact on poor people today. Urgent action is needed at the international level. The funds the Norwegian Government has pledged to the World Bank and UN to support further research should not sit idly in the coffers of either the Norwegian Treasury or the World Bank but be put to good use to develop an international consensus – in equal partnership with relevant stakeholders – on how to tackle the issue of odious and illegitimate debt.

* Gail Hurley is with the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Within the past two weeks the New York Times ran two front page stories on the Congo and the Washington Post ran a feature story. Both papers ought to be commended for addressing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and the deadliest conflict since World War Two. However, once again major media outlets fall short in articulating the source of the conflict and the role that foreign governments and multinational corporations play in fueling the conflict.

Just a line to say that if you're interested in China, the environment and/or tech stuff, you might like to take a look at this new site, (sorry to spam you if you're not interested!). It's a project of opendemocracy.org edited by Isabel Hilton. It's interesting for a number of reasons, not least that it's worked out a comfortable way to use chinese and english on the same page, but also because it's the only site i've seen that actively seeks to host a conversation between non-official China and the outside world. One reason that's rare is because of the translation costs implied. Anyway - take a look.

Edited by Kevin Yelvington, this book breaks new theoretical and methodological ground in the study of the African diaspora in the Atlantic world. Eleven leading scholars of archaeology, linguistics, and socio-cultural anthropol-ogy draw upon extensive field experiences and archival investigations of black communities in North America, the Caribbean, South America, and Africa to challenge received paradigms in Afro-American anthropology. The contributors address colonialism, the slave trade, racism, ethnogenesis, New World nationalism, urban identity politics, the development of artworlds, music and its publics, the emergence of new religious and ritual forms, speech genres, and contested historical representations.

President Kufuor will attend the plenary session of the Second conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora to be held in Salvador. The conference themed "The Diaspora and Africa Renaissance" is a follow up to the first conference held in Dakar in October 2004. The conference aims at reviving and harnessing the contribution of intellectuals in Africa and the Diaspora. It also aims at broadening mutual understanding and fostering greater cooperation for development between Africa and Diaspora countries.

Hope that post-apartheid economic growth will translate into a better life for the poor is dying in the expanding squatter camps that ring Johannesburg, South Africa's bustling business centre. The poignancy of poverty in South Africa is that often the have-nots are within sight of the haves. In the case of Protea South, the settlement of 3,000 shacks adjoins the leafy suburb of Lenasia, with its large and heavily secured houses, clean streets and modern shopping complex.

The Cape Town Book Fair drew the best from around the world, and showed that South Africa is decidedly on the map as far as being on the cutting edge of cultural and intellectual life is concerned. Being there was to see a new and enlightening phase of our era of liberation. The pariah thing has gone. Smiles and hugs all round.

TrustAfrica is looking for an exceptional individual to serve as Project Assistant for an initiative to support research on the investment climate and business environment in Africa.

TrustAfrica is looking for an exceptional individual to serve as its Finance Manager. The successful candidate will have extensive experience in ensuring sound financial management and regulatory compliance in a charitable organization as well as experience working in Africa.

The World Social Forum is coming to Kenya! Activists are busy laying plans and organising the 2007 event, and this article spells out the principles of the Forum and lists the Council that has been chosen to organise the event.

Jacob Zuma's defamation claim against the media has risen to R63-million after a Johannesburg radio station "further insulted" him, the Witness newspaper reported on Tuesday.

There is a crying need for an international agency for women. Every stitch of evidence we have, right across the entire spectrum of gender inequality suggests the urgent need for a multilateral agency. The great dreams of the international conferences in Vienna, Cairo and Beijing have never come to pass. It matters not the issue: whether it’s levels of sexual violence, or HIV/AIDS, or maternal mortality, or armed conflict, or economic empowerment, or parliamentary representation, women are in terrible trouble. And things are getting no better.

The International Secretariat of OMCT has received with concern information from reliable sources concerning violent eviction from land of Egyptian farmers, false charges against farmers, the holding of farmers wives as hostages, the arrest of children and the immanent trial of several persons, including women, on fabricated charges. Twenty three farmers are reportedly being detained waiting trail before Damanhour court on the 19th of June 2006 as a result of the violent invasion of their land described below. Further, it is reported that wives of farmers are still being held hostage by police to force their husbands to surrender.

The Federation of Arab Journalists has re-iterated its determination to continue to campaign against prison sentences imposed throughout the Arab world against media workers. The federation said in a statement it was opposed to Egyptian draft legislation, related to publication laws.

There is a significant risk that the Darfur Peace Agreement will collapse. The agreement does not resonate with the people of Darfur. On the contrary, on the ground, especially amongst the displaced persons, it meets more and more resistance.

In Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, an analyst said the security situation in nearby Kalma camp had worsened since the signing of the Darfur peace deal on 5 May, adding that the worst attacks were taking place at night. A nighttime presence of African Union (AU) soldiers inside the camp was urgently needed, a regional observer said, but so far the cash-strapped peacekeepers were only undertaking daytime patrols.