The UK has failed to act on promises to plug loopholes that allow the sale of arms to countries with poor human rights records, aid agency Oxfam says. It says that military vehicles were sold to Uganda by a South African subsidiary of the UK firm BAE Systems. These were used to quell demonstrations and disperse opposition supporters as recently as 10 days ago, it says.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres Tuesday welcomed 401 Congolese refugees home as they disembarked in Baraka from a former German imperial warship that is said to the oldest working vessel in the world. "Karibu sana, karibu sana, karibu sana," Guterres called out to the returnees in Kiswahili – "you are very welcome" – as they arrived in this port in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after an eight-hour journey across Lake Tanganyika from refugee camps in Tanzania where they have lived for up to nine years.

Over the past year South Africa has seen pockets of municipal protests around the country as residents have vented their anger about poor service delivery. The government for its part appears to be well aware of the simmering dissatisfaction amongst citizens. The government’s ‘Project Consolidate’ implicitly acknowledges long-standing problems in the sphere of local government. ‘Project Consolidate’ is in effect a rescue plan for municipalities. 136 of the 284 municipalities country-wide fall within its remit, indicating the extent of the problem. In his state of the nation address, President Mbeki acknowledged that local government was, in part, failing to fulfil its mandate to citizens, according to IDASA.
* Related Link
ANC takes Khutsong with 232 votes
http://iafrica.com/news/sa/801759.htm

President Olusegun Obasanjo has agreed to consider the request by Ethiopia for 671 university teachers in addition to the 31 already sent from Nigeria to enable that country to cope with the new universities being opened. The President who stated this when he received the out going Ethiopian Ambassador, Mr. Yohannes Guinda Ginbi on 28 February at the State House, Abuja said the request would be considered under the Technical Aid Corps (TAC) scheme in addition to sending some experts on cassava.

The House of Assembly has adopted amendments made by the Upper House to the Education Amendment Bill after a heated debate as parliamentarians were divided over the contentious issue of school fees. The Lower House was divided with 45 Zanu-PF lawmakers voting in favour of the adoption of the amendments and 25 MDC legislators opposing. The Bill was read for the third time and it now awaits Presidential assent for it to become law. It seeks to provide for the charging of fees and levies in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as published by the Central Statistical Office (CSO).

One hundred and fifteen million primary school-age children are out of school according to a joint UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)/ UNICEF global estimate. This number equals 18% - or almost one in five - of the children worldwide in this age group. And many of the children who are in school may never complete their primary education or finish it without attaining even basic literacy skills.

This is a unique event for media professionals to exchange knowledge about media productions with children and youth in developing countries. Forum topics include: quality production; technical aspects; training; project planning; monitoring and evaluating Impact, networking and fundraising.

The Libyan government is arbitrarily detaining women and girls indefinitely in “social rehabilitation” facilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today (February 28). Officially portrayed as protective homes for women and girls “vulnerable to engaging in moral misconduct,” these facilities are de facto prisons. The 40-page report, “A Threat to Society? Arbitrary Detention of Women and Girls for ‘Social Rehabilitation'" documents numerous and serious human rights abuses that women and girls suffer in these facilities. These include violations of their rights to liberty, freedom of movement, personal dignity, privacy and due process.

Afrobarometer (a series of comparative national surveys) has recently produced a paper outlining the relationship of poor people to democratic citizenship. A democratic political regime has long been regarded as an attribute of high-income, industrialized economies. If it turns out that democratic stability in the medium to long-term depends on the economic wellbeing of citizens, then democracies can be expected to be especially fragile in world regions where many people live in poverty. This research has some intriguing results based on the following questions: 1) Are poor people any more or less attached to democracy than rich people? And 2) Are they any more or less likely to act as democratic citizens?

The following is an extract of the petition to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal to demand the unbanning of internationally acclaimed academic and activist, Ashwin Desai.
"We the undersigned write to express our concern over your decision to bar Ashwin Desai from seeking a position at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). This decision constitutes a violation of a basic form of academic freedom: the right for anyone to be fairly considered for a position in the academic community for which they are qualified. We urge you to reconsider this decision and allow Ashwin Desai to apply and be fairly considered for paid (as well as honorary) positions at UKZN."

Follow the link for the full letter and to sign the petition.

South Africa will host a high-profile conference next week that aims to unlock the “hydropower potential of Africa as a major energy option to promote sustainable development, regional integration and poverty eradication in Africa in support of NEPAD.” But as Frank Muramuzi of the African Rivers Network points out, civil society participation - and the voice it gives to communities who have been devastated by the big dams needed for hydro power – has not been a given. Meanwhile, the World Commission on Dams (WCD), which provides a tool for dam projects to better meet needs, for greater transparency and for equitable sharing of benefits, is still largely standing by.

Next Monday, 6 March, African governments and the hydropower industry will gather for an event that will weigh heavily on the future of dams in Africa. ‘The African Ministerial Conference on Hydropower and Sustainable Development’, hosted by the South African government and planned in close collaboration with the International Hydropower Association, has a single objective: "to unlock the hydropower potential of Africa as a major, renewable energy option to promote the sustainable development, regional integration and poverty eradication in Africa in support of NEPAD." Conference organisers have a clear plan to present an African declaration on hydropower mid-March at the World Water Forum in Mexico.

The conference planning process has been fraught with resistance to civil society participation. But things are looking brighter as a shift in the planning has opened up, albeit late in the process, to civil society inclusion. What space will be given for the voice of civil society at the conference remains to be seen.

However, the conference may serve as a gateway for the significant funding earmarked for African development which received high priority by financial institutions and northern governments in 2005. But without critical analyses of projects, this support may deliver ill-chosen infrastructure selected without fair consideration for more equitable and sustainable options. Large dams rank among the most notoriously flawed development projects. In Africa, as elsewhere around the world, large dams have too often failed to deliver promised benefits while impoverishing rural communities in their wake.

The story may sound like a broken record to many Africans, but it does not have to be played into the future. A tool for planning energy and water development including large dams, the World Commission on Dams (WCD), has been standing by for five years; it could result in projects that better meet local needs, while also leading to more transparent planning processes, less corruption, and more equitable sharing of benefits.

On November 16, 2000, Nelson Mandela and other notables including the president of the World Bank launched the report of the WCD report at a glitzy ceremony in London. The report, “Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making”, was the result of two years of intense research and analysis. Initiated by the World Bank and the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and run by a team of commissioners from all sides of the big-dams debate, the report was the first independent evaluation of the performance of the world’s large dams.

The WCD found that large dams provide important water and power supply services, but that their social, environmental and economic costs are often unacceptable. The Commission estimated that large dams have displaced a total of 40 to 80 million people, and that many of these people were impoverished in the process. The WCD managed to find consensus through a process that brought conflicting interests -- the dam industry, governments, affected communities, and civil society organizations - to the table. It was hailed as a new model for resolving international conflicts. Its lessons could readily apply to much of Africa’s resource conflicts.

Dam projects such as the Kariba (Zambezi River) and Manantali (Senegal River) have shown that the environmental, social and economic costs of large dams are often higher than predicted, while benefits to everyday Africans have been overstated. The World Bank-financed Kariba Dam, the largest man-made reservoir in the world at the time of its construction, neglected the 57,000 Tonga people forced to move for the project. Their lives and livelihoods, and those of their children, have been diminished by the project, and today they are poorer than they were before the dam. Two more large African dams, High Aswan (Egypt) and Akosombo (Ghana), were similarly constructed at the expense of displacing tens of thousands of Africans.

Akosombo was built for an energy-intensive aluminum smelter, yet a great majority of Ghanaians still lack access to electricity. Today, Cameroon wants to build the Lom Pangar and Nachtigal dams for the Canadian aluminum company Alcan, but Cameroonians who are not yet on the grid will continue to wait in the dark for modern energy services. The livelihoods of those downstream of such dams as Cahora Bassa (Mozambique), Tiga and Challawa (Nigeria), Lesotho Highlands Water Project (Lesotho) and Manatali have seen their economic livelihoods squeezed as the river ecosystem on which they depend is degraded, their health impacted as water quality is reduced, and their communities broken apart by the flooding from large reservoirs. Across most of Africa, the lessons of these projects - which informed the WCD report and its recommendations - have not yet been translated into African water and energy planning processes.

But the picture has changed from 50 years ago, and civil society is speaking out against bad development projects with an ever-louder voice. Today, communities in Sudan are struggling to obtain proper compensation and rehabilitation for the 50,000 people now being resettled for the Merowe Dam. In Mozambique, Uganda, and Cameroon, communities and NGOs are fighting for access to project information and to have public concerns addressed. In South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Ghana, communities are working to get reparations for the past injustices they have suffered because of dam projects.

The WCD offers a people-centred approach that will avoid yesterday’s impacts and fulfill the water and energy needs of Africans without sacrificing communities and the environment. The report’s recommendations are a blueprint for international best practice against which all new projects are being measured. Key to better projects is to first assess the needs -be it energy, water supply, or irrigation needs - and assess all available options in a balanced, transparent and participatory manner. Policy, regulatory, and new project options should all be considered to find the most effective solutions. New projects, such as dams, should only go ahead if they find demonstrable public acceptance, and if the rights of affected people are guaranteed. By creating a level playing field and involving all legitimate interest groups, the recommendations of the WCD offer the best way to select water and energy development solutions.

The WCD report did not fade away after its launch. Today, it influences the decision-making of many institutions. Governments (including those from South Africa, Germany, Sweden and Nepal) initiated national processes to translate the report’s recommendations into policies. Multi-stakeholder dialogues are now being launched in more countries, including Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Uganda. Many financial institutions are committed to considering the report’s recommendations in their future water sector lending. Communities affected by large dams have started to insist on respect of their rights as recognized by the WCD. A conference to commemorate the 5th anniversary was held in Berlin on November 16, 2005. Its focus: implementing the recommendations of the WCD.

The broad coalition that supports the WCD approach sees that its use will improve the planning processes for water and power projects. Yet critical actors are missing. After the WCD dissolved, the World Bank, a key financier of dams, walked away from the report that it had initiated, and announced that it would not follow its recommendations. Instead, the Bank embarked on a strategy to build more dams, which completely disregarded the WCD’s findings. The World Bank’s new dam strategy ignores 70 years of experience with corrupt decision-making, ruined rivers, impoverished communities, and unpayable debts. Dam builders are hoping that the Bank’s dam strategy will inject new lifeblood into their ailing industry.

The World Bank is now considering financing Bujagali Dam in Uganda, and keeping its eye on Lom Pangar Dam in Cameroon, as well as a few dams proposed under the Nile Basin Initiative. With the World Bank doling out the G8 funds for Africa, large-scale infrastructure such as dams will surely be big winners. Without applying the lessons learned from past flawed projects and the recommendations for improved planning by the WCD, the majority of Africans will once again surely be losers.

Organisations from across Africa, linked through the African Rivers Network, are anxious to work with governments and dam builders who are ready to follow the model of the WCD. African governments, NEPAD, the World Bank and the dam industry should fully embrace the approach of the WCD, which offers the best chance to avoid the costly and painful mistakes of the past. These entities should work to align their decision-making processes with the WCD recommendations, help rectify the outstanding injustices done by dams in Africa, and ensure that future dam projects in Africa comply with the WCD.

* Frank Muramuzi is coordinator of the African Rivers Network, a network of African dam-affected communities and NGOs working for justice in Africa’s energy and water development. For more information on ARN, please contact: [email protected] For the official conference website: www.hydropowerconference2006.co.za

* Please send comments to [email protected]

When it comes to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), most people agree that change is needed. Disagreement arises when discussing the type of change. Some say the IMF has done so much damage and is so discredited that it should be scrapped altogether. Others argue for varying degrees of reform that will move the IMF towards being an organisation that is accountable and democratic. Here, Hetty Kovach from the European Network on Debt and Development discusses what needs to be reformed.

Over the last couple years, many emerging economies have turned their back on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), due to a serious lack of faith in the Fund’s policy advice and frustration at their severe under-representation and lack of voice within its structures . In December 2005 for example, both Brazil and Argentina made surprise announcements that they would settle the entirety of their debts to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ahead of schedule. According to the Argentine Government, this decision was taken explicitly to free Argentina from IMF conditionalities and interference. In South Africa, the Government refused to even start borrowing from the IMF, probably after having looked at the rest of the continent’s experiences with the Fund.

One might think that with the announcement last year by the IMF to cancel its portion of debt owed by some HIPCs, many developing countries would also at last have the choice to be IMF-free; unburdened by the load of IMF debt payment. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Firstly, last year’s debt cancellation deal only covers a handful of developing countries. For example, in Africa only14 countries will benefit this year, with a further 18 still pending. Secondly, as long as nearly all official donors/creditors continue to tie their much-needed aid and bilateral debt relief to the presence of an IMF program (or signal in the case of the new Policy Support Instrument in Nigeria), developing countries will remain in the IMF’s grip, pushed to take out new programs and implement new Fund conditions, no matter how politically intrusive or development unfriendly these policies may be.

Civil society organizations both in the South and the North have campaigned for many years for bilateral donors to de-link their funding from the IMF, but progress has been slow. Donors argue that they are dependent on IMF macroeconomic analysis in the absence of another institution with the Fund’s economic capacity and reach. A couple of years ago the European Commission made it an official policy to not automatically withhold money from a developing country that goes off-track with the IMF, reserving the right to continue lending if it feels this is appropriate. The UK Government last year also announced a new conditionality policy, which again in theory de-linked funding from the IMF signal. However, in reality, neither of these policies have been put into practice and tested and remain firmly on paper only.

If exit from the IMF is not an option for most developing countries in the foreseeable future, then how can the IMF better meet developing countries needs or at the very minimum do least harm?

There are three key areas which are in urgent need of reform if the Fund is to play a more constructive role in developing countries. Firstly, the IMF must radically reform the conditions it attaches to its lending programs. The Fund needs to provide developing countries with more space to determine their own economic policies. The 2005 G8 Declaration argues that ‘developing countries have the right to decide their own economic policies’). However, current Fund conditions severely restrict the economic policy choices available to developing countries. Specifically, the Fund needs to provide far greater fiscal flexibility, allowing countries to scale-up their spending in order to meet the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals. The Fund also needs to stop imposing trade liberalization and privatization as a condition of their lending. These are clearly beyond the Fund’s mandate, are highly political and have unproven poverty impacts.

Secondly, the Fund needs to realize process matters and radically transform the way it goes about devising and negotiating its lending programs. The Fund should move from imposing a one-size-fits-all approach to macro-economic stability and growth and instead provide developing countries with a set of different policy scenarios, giving countries the final choice. Negotiations should also be far more transparent, participative and subject to democratic oversight.

Thirdly, and finally, the Fund needs to rapidly change its own institutional set up. Not only is it unrepresentative of developing countries, despite these countries comprising of 40% of its members, but it is also inadequately structured and ill-equipped to deal with developing countries needs. The Fund needs to decentralize further and employ more staff with social science backgrounds.

The case for radical reform of IMF conditionality

What is wrong with the type of policy conditions the Fund is imposing on developing countries? International policy makers, civil society organizations (CSOs) and academics from both the North and the South are extremely concerned that the Fund’s insistence on setting very low inflation rates and stringent fiscal deficit targets as a means to achieving macroeconomic stability are undermining the ability of countries to grow, hindering their ability to reach the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and, in some cases, causing countries to refuse increases of much-needed aid.

No one, least of all civil society, is arguing that macroeconomic stability does not matter, but there is a significant degree of latitude in academic and policy circles as to what levels of inflation, budget deficit and reserves are needed to achieve ‘stability’, particularly in relation to achieving growth. Take inflation, for example, the Fund almost consistently imposes inflation targets of 5% or below in developing countries, arguing that any higher than this is harmful to growth. However, a recent United Nations Development Program (UNDP) study argues that inflation rates anywhere between 5 – 10%, if not higher, correlate well with growth, with lower than 5% inflation rates often having a harmful impact (UNDP 2005, Mckinley, T. MDG-Based PRSPs Need More Ambitious Economic Policies. Policy Discussion Paper, United Nations). This is extremely worryingly, as according to a recent study by Oxfam International 16 out of 20 countries they looked at with an IMF program had inflation targets of less than 5% (Oxfam International, “The IMF and the Millennium Goals: Failing to deliver for low income countries” September 2003. Briefing Paper No.54).

On budget deficits, the picture is even worse. The Fund imposes a high degree of fiscal austerity, with their policy conditions targeting deficits of 3% and below. This is something even developed countries find hard to achieve, the United States being a case in point. What is the danger here? Imposing limits on the budget of developing countries is often at odds with the spending these countries desperately need to meet the MDGs.

The most recent example of the negative impact of IMF fiscal austerity can be seen in Mozambique, where an IMF cap on budget spending has resulted in Mozambique effectively turning away donor money in order to stay within the confines of IMF spending limits. In November last year, Mozambique issued its draft PARPA (Plano de Accao para a Reducao da Pobreza Absoluta 2006-9; Mozambique's PRSP) which said aid would increase from $889 million in 2006 to $1,044 million in 2008, but remain constant after that. Donors, however, were upset and said they had stressed to the government that more money was available. But the Ministry of Planning and Development appears to have based its figures on the IMF cap, rather than money actually available. The IMF has put a limit on the government's current spending, committing it to cutting its deficit from 4.5 bn new meticais ($225 million) in 2005 to 3.8 bn new meticais ($190 mn) in 2006. This is, in effect, the amount of budget support the government is allowed to spend, yet budget support is predicted to increase from $274 million to $308 million.

Another clear example of the impact of harmful IMF budget deficit caps is on healthcare in Africa. A World Health Organization study in 2004 showed that overall healthcare to Africa is falling (World Health Organisation (2004) Public Health Spending Per Capita Per Region table cited in ActionAid 2005, Rowden.R ‘Changing Course: Alternative Approaches to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals and Fight HIV/AIDs’ p28).

However, according to a recent study by the Joint Learning Initiative on Human Resources for Health and Development, in order to fight HIV/AIDs effectively, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa need to radically expand their healthcare spending, tripling the size of their current workforces ((2005) The Joint-Learning Initiative Strategy Report: Human Resources for Health Overcoming the Crisis, Harvard University Press cited in ActionAid 2005, Rowden.R ‘Changing Course: Alternative Approaches to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals and Fight HIV/AIDs’ p28). This type of increase to the wage bill is totally out of the question in many African countries due to expenditure ceilings imposed by the IMF. Zambia is a case in point. In June 2003 Zambia was disqualified from receiving the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) due to the Government breaking the Fund’s strict budget deficit ceiling, which did not allow the government to go beyond a 3% budget deficit. The budget overrun was largely a result of the Government raising the pay of public sector workers, after union negotiations and a parliamentary decision to give low paid public sector workers a pay increase. The IMF withheld US$175 million in funds, with other donors following suit; the European Commission, for example, froze US$38 million in aid.

The Zambian Government was forced to renege on its wage agreement, undermining its own democratic procedures and in November 2003 it began new negotiations with the IMF, with the condition that it must keep its budget spending in line with their conditions. After a long civil society campaign to raise awareness of the need to employ more teachers by the Global Campaign for Education, the IMF did in the end revise its deficit targets, but this is the exception to the rule.

A recent Oxfam paper looked at the trade-offs countries make in reaching severe deficit reductions of 3% or below in relation to health and education spending. They examined 20 countries and calculated how much money these countries could have channeled into health and education had it not been for the need to meet the IMFs fiscal deficit targets. The result was that current expenditure on health and education could have been doubled and in some cases even tripled.

When the Fund is challenged on the matter of budget deficits, its standard reply is that countries must live within their means. This disregards a well-tested economic policy model which allows for expansionary fiscal and monetary policies to enable growth in productive areas. Historically, periods of rapid economic growth in Continental Europe, the USA and Japan were associated with large programmes of public expenditure and even larger budget deficits. Right now the Fund denies governments the ability to borrow domestically on productive areas.

The bottom line is that the Fund needs to ensure that it is not stopping countries from scaling up their spending on development.

Another area of concern is the structural or more institutional conditions the Fund sets. In particular, imposing privatization and trade liberalization, both of which can have harmful poverty impacts and have little to do with achieving macroeconomic stability.

The UK Government in its new conditionality policy set out last year has acknowledged that privatization and trade liberalization policies have had dubious poverty impacts and should not be set as conditions, unless serious analysis of their poverty impacts has been undertaken beforehand. The Fund argues that it has dramatically reduced the number of structural conditions it sets, but progress has varied across countries according to a Eurodad study, with reductions of 50% in some and virtually none in others (Eurodad (2003) Is the IMF pro-poor? ). Numerous countries are still subject to this type of condition. Cameroon, for example, has a water privatization condition as part of its IMF PRGF. Cameroonese trade unions and NGO partners are preparing a mobilization against this, as happened in Ghana a couple of years ago around World Bank driven water privatization.

Process Matters - Ensuring Better Negotiations

The second major area in need of reform is the way the Fund negotiates its lending programs in LICs. The Fund must stop prescribing a one-size-fits-all approach in this area and move towards a scenario building approach. This would entail taking account of specific country conditions and being explicit about the trade offs of different policy approaches. This is clearly not happening right now. A recent study by AFRODAD of IMF low-income programs in seven African countries, revealed that in all but one country, the IMF had failed to provide different scenarios regarding inflation, deficit and public spending targets (Afrodad (2004) Understanding the PRGF and its implications for Development). A recent IMF review also found “little evidence that the staff advises the authorities on a range of available policy options and implementation plans during the process of program development” (2005b:40). Instead, the review noted that “process of program design… tends to be driven more by an interplay between the staff and the authorities’ initial views, with the staff exploring the room to accommodate the authorities’ preferences rather than proactively developing policy options”(IMF 2005b:40). The review calls on the staff to be more proactive in this area in the future.

Secondly, the Fund needs to carry out, in a much more systematic way then present, poverty social impact analysis (PSIA) on differing macroeconomic policy choices. The Fund did promise to start undertaking more PSIAs in 1999, but progress to date has been dismal. The unit in the Fund charged with undertaking this analysis, for example, has only four people. This is clearly not good enough. Eurodad analysis has also shown that IMF has undertaken very few PSIAs to date, particularly on fiscal policy issues (Eurodad Hayes L. (2005) Open on Impact).

Finally, the Fund has to do more to ensure that negotiations happen in an open and participative manner, with civil society groups and other government line ministries than the finance ministry present. Importantly, the Fund should do more to ensure that its program documents are subject to parliamentary oversight before being signed. All too often citizens are forced to head to the streets to be heard. Between late 1999 and the end of 2002, the World Development Movement documented 238 separate incidents of civil unrest involving millions of people across 34 countries against IMF and World Bank imposed economic policy conditions (World Development Movement (2005) Denying Democracy).

Governance – Need for an Overhaul

Thirdly, and finally, there are major problems with the IMF’s governance. Most commentators point to the lack of representation and voice of low-income countries and middle income countries at the top of the organization. This is undoubtedly true, but little is said about other aspects of organization, like the need to allocate greater administrative funding to work in LICs. Currently 75% of lending programs are in LIC, but these programs only receives 11.5 % of administrative funds. There is also a real need to decentralize the IMF further to give greater decision making power to resident representatives who operate within country. Last, but not least, there needs to be more staff recruited from social and political science backgrounds to ensure a cultural change in the way programs are designed and implemented.

Undertaking these reforms would go someway to making the Fund more development friendly. Given that developing countries cannot vote with their feet and exit the IMF, it is imperative the IMF cleans up its act and does the least harm in the developing world.

* Hetty Kovach is Policy and Advocacy Officer for the European Network on Debt and Development (www.eurodad.org)

* Please send comments to [email protected]

The past year has shown increasing recognition by funding bodies that higher education has an important role to play in fulfilling the international development agenda. Examples of these new initiatives and funding schemes will be covered at this one-day conference put on by the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK, which aims to provide a concise, yet comprehensive, briefing of current opportunities. Bringing together funding bodies, UK universities, potential overseas partners and academics, there will be an emphasis on creating collaboration with developing country institutions. 24 March 2006, London, UK Application Deadline: 15 March 2006. For further information on registering for this event, contact [email protected].

"It is now over 15 months since the presentation on 5 October 2004 of the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to the President of Sierra Leone at a well-attended ceremony in Freetown. The presentation should have ushered in the ‘follow-up phase’ to the work of the TRC. Yet at the time of writing, the work of implementing its recommendations is not even close to beginning. First, there was a long delay in making the report of the TRC available to Sierra Leoneans. Copies of the report only arrived in August 2005. In the previous month, the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) published a White Paper in response to the report that was widely regarded as weak and inadequate. All this prompted many Sierra Leoneans to fear that the TRC process had fatally lost momentum."

It was with sadness that I learnt of the death of Dr Bekololari Ransome-Kuti. Beko died at the time in our life as a nation that we needed him more that ever before. His contributions to the enthronement of democracy, respect for the rule of law and human rights were monumental. He was both a leader and a follower. His passion for fairness, justice and due process were legendary. His love for the ordinary Nigeria was unimaginable. No wonder his doors at his Imariam close residence in Lagos were open to all and sundry. His loss is a national loss and a personal one for me and for most of us.

Beko will be remembered for his struggles against military dictatorship in Nigeria. These struggles earned him stints in various prisons and dungeons across Nigeria. To date, he remained one of the most arrested, assaulted and imprisoned human rights activists in the annals of the nation. Beko had been in and out of prison not on account of criminality but on account of his dogged determination to speak truth to power at all times.

He, together with his older sibling the late legendary Afro beat superstar Fela Anikulapo Kuti, faced constant harassment by the rouge bands of military and of security operatives at different times in our national history. In 1977 under the military dictatorship of General Obasanjo, the military assaulted and burnt down the family’s home in the Moshalashi area of Lagos. The patriarch of the family later died as a result of the injuries that she sustained during the attack and arson on the family’s home. These events, rather than weakening Beko, made him stronger as he continued his crusade for a better Nigeria till the very end. In furtherance of the military agenda of cowing critics and opponents of their misrule, Beko was in 1995 charged with the most ludicrous charges - faxing defendants' statements to persons unknown and "trying to manage an unmanageable society". The Abacha junta gave him a double life sentence in the infamous “phantom coup mistrial”. The term was later commuted to 15 years imprisonment following popular outcry over the trail and sentence.

In his lifetime, Beko was accomplished in his endeavours. He qualified as a medical doctor at the age of 22, having graduated from the University of Manchester, England in 1963. Whilst at Manchester he was President, Nigerian Students, in Manchester. Beko was a fellow of the Medical College of Nigeria and General Medical Practice and West African College of Physicians, while also doubling as a member of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and Nigerian Medical Council. He held several other national posts in the Nigerian Medical Association and was member and later chairman of Lagos University Teaching Hospital Board.
As a human rights and pro-democracy activist, Beko belonged to several Non-Governmental Organisations some of which he either founded or helped to found. He was chairman of Campaign for Democracy; President, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, and Executive Director, Centre for Constitutional Governance, which he founded a few years after his release from prison in 1998. He was prominent in the struggle against the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections.

On a personal note, I remember how Beko assisted us with his facilities when I returned to Nigeria in 1999 to help set up the Nigeria office of the Centre for Democracy & Development (CDD). At that time when communication in Nigeria was most problematic, Beko generously offered us the use of his office facilities ranging from telephone, facsimile, Internet etc. He played a great role in helping CDD establish its presence in Nigeria. Even programme wise, he was always there for us when we needed him, offering all kinds of support that we needed at that teething period. It would have been difficult for us to achieve the remarkable success that we did if not for people like Beko, who believed in the vision of CDD of being a prime catalyst for change as well as the need to bridge between activism and academy.

After he founded CCG a few years later he never failed to consult with colleagues on any issue that he had doubts about. This is a clear demonstration of his humility and openness.

His fame and sharp intellect did not deter him from being a calm and patient listener. Though he had the opportunity of living a privileged life; he chose the path of struggle and lived a Spartan life.

Let me in concluding this tribute to Beko borrow the words of my brother, Chidi Odinklalu: “Beko was witty, cheeky, irreverent, talented, courageous, determined, logical, artistic, honest. And in all this and more, the best.”

Rest in perfect peace Dokky. You paid your dues to your country and all your sacrifices will be etched in our memory until the fullness of time.

* See http://www.tribune.com.ng/120206/news03.htm for more information about Dr Bekololari Ransome-Kuti.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

FEATURES: China – The new kid on the block or an old wolf in new clothing? Stephen Marks investigates
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Hydro-power, big dams and broken communities. Frank Muramuzi reports on a hydro-power conference in South Africa
- Ochieng Rapuro on the night the Kenyan government cracked down on the media
- Questions and answers on biopiracy, the new resource robbery
- Hetty Kovach on reforming the International Monetary Fund
LETTERS: Cartoon anger and Uganda’s no-party to multi-party elections
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Remember Kwama Nkrumah? Tajudeen Abdul Raheem takes us back to the coup of February 24, 1966
BLOGGING AFRICA: Sokari Ekine summarises the voices of African bloggers
BOOKS AND ARTS: Kenyan Indian poet and spoken word artist Shailja Patel catches up with Faustin Linyekula, Congolese Dancer and Choreographer
CONFLICTS AND EMERGENCIES: Diamonds still driving DRC conflict, says new report
HUMAN RIGHTS: US to launch predator strikes in the Horn?
WOMEN AND GENDER: Bridging the gender digital divide in FOSS
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: New-look Ugandan parliament as big names fall in poll
DEVELOPMENT: African 'Cotton Four' preparing new proposal on domestic support
CORRUPTION: Kenyan private lawyers earning millions from government
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: The science of HIV/AIDS in South Africa
EDUCATION: 115 million primary school-age children out of school, says report
ENVIRONMENT: The interaction between the environment and trade
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: State sends police after land grabbers in Kenya
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Radio station unblocked in Uganda
FUNDRAISING AND USEFUL RESOURCES: Online fundraising workshops
PLUS… information on Courses and Jobs.

* Pambazuka News would like to apologise to its readers for the lack of updates to the website This has been necessitated by the changeover to a multi-language website. will be fully functional shortly.

* Can trade in the era of globalisation be 'just'? Read our issue on the subject and send your feedback to [email protected] www.tsotsimovie.com

In addition to its Oscar, Bafta and Golden Globe nominations, Tsotsi has already won numerous awards including: Audience Award, LA Art Film Festival; People’s Choice Award, Toronto International Film Festival; Audience Award, Edinburgh International Film Festival; Audience Award, Denver International Film Festival; Greek Parliament Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival.

Screening takes place on Friday 10th March at 8pm
At Magdalen College Auditorium (Longwall St entrance), Oxford
Entry £5 (£3 concessions)
Proceeds to Fahamu’s programme in South Africa

WIN FREE TICKETS!
Email [email][email protected] with the names of the countries that by 12 February 2006 had ratified the African Union's Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. Closing date 6 March at 0900 hrs GMT. The first 10 correct entries picked out of a hat will each receive a free ticket.

In a dimly lit ward at Nairobi's Kenyatta Hospital, Florence explains why she has lost heart in what was once a revered profession. Shutting the door on fretting relatives who wander the corridor with steaming pots of porridge for the sick, she says it was all so different when she qualified 20 years ago.

It is not without justification that the breakaway republic of Somaliland is seeking international recognition and refusing to rejoin the Transitional National Government in Somalia. While the government of Abdullahi Yusuf is still looking for a suitable capital, Somaliland has been holding regular parliamentary and presidential elections, albeit without the international community paying much attention. Since the disintegration of Somalia provoked by the collapse of the Siad Barre administration in early 1991, leading to the breaking away of Somaliland into a self-declared independent republic, there has been an accelerated process of state building.

Reports of baboons and hyenas attacking communities in drought-stricken Somalia are becoming common. The wild creatures are said to be locked in competition with human beings in search of water as the merciless drought currently affecting the entire Horn of Africa region exhausts both food and water supplies.

Only candidates who scored a B+ of 67 points will make it to Kenya's public universities. This is heartbreaking news for thousands of parents whose children sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination in 2004. The Joint Admissions Board (JAB) broke the news as it announced that more than 47,000 candidates who sat the KCSE examination in 2004 would not join the six public universities although they had met the minimum qualifications. JAB, the team of public university administrators that picks students, said yesterday the institutions would admit 10,632 of the 58,239 who qualified.

Samples from a poultry farm in southern Ethiopia where thousands of chickens have died are to be sent to Europe for further analysis to determine whether the birds died of avian flu, an official said on Tuesday. Local tests have found "flu-like" symptoms in 49 chickens from the farm, but more tests were needed to determine what exactly killed the birds.

A new food regulation by the European Union (EU) has created a non-tariff barrier to products under Uganda's bio trade programme, a bio trade officer has said. Susan Bingi, who is in charge of the programme, said although the regulation was put in place in 1997, it had been largely unknown in developing countries yet they are the main exporters to the EU. "This regulation is intended to ensure food safety. It requires novel foods to be subjected to extensive scientific research to prove food safety beyond doubt. This presents a barrier to exotic foods entering the EU," Bingi said.

Plans by the Kenya government to engage private-sector lawyers to prosecute cases arising from the Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing financial scandals have turned the spotlight on the Attorney-General's procurement procedures, after it turned out six lawyers were paid Ksh72 million ($1 million) to handle a five-day case arising from the constitutional review crisis. The advance payment of Ksh72 million by the Office of the Attorney General last year to a group of six private lawyers has sparked a controversy within the legal fraternity, with questions raised about the manner in which the lucrative contract was shared out and how it was procured.

The Media Council of Kenya has summoned the Standard Weekend Editions Managing Editor, to appear before it over a story the paper published. Kenya's Minister for Information and Communication had described the story as a "fabrication published with ill motive." A government spokesman said the story was meant to injure the integrity of the Presidency and mislead Kenyans. He also demanded, in a statement, that the writer of the story and editors who participated in the story be punished.

The Criminal Investigations Department has taken over investigations into the scandalous acquisition of huge tracts of public land by powerful personalities as documented in the Ndung'u Report. The news broke on the second day of a week that Justice minister Martha Karua declared would be characterised by the arrests of Anglo Leasing and Goldenberg suspects, who have all been asked to surrender their guns and passports.

East Africa could be the site of lightning strikes by US special forces and aerial drone weapons in coming years as part of what the Pentagon is terming "the long war" against Islamist militants. The Horn is specifically cited in the recently completed Quadrennial Defence Review as one of the global regions of growing concern to US strategists.

With billions of dollars pouring in to fight Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic, Tanzanian AIDS counsellor Gandencia Bazil has a simple request. "We need a bicycle," said Bazil, who heads the AIDS committee in this village near Lake Victoria, an area where an estimated 12 percent of people are infected with HIV. This predicament is repeated across Africa, where despite a huge jump in overseas assistance and government AIDS budgets, the cash earmarked to fight the epidemic is often not making it to the desperate people who need it most.

Hundreds of civilians have been displaced by fighting between United Nations-supported government troops and militiamen in the northeastern province of Orientale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bunia, Ituri District. Three hundred displaced persons fled fighting in the town of Tcheyi and arrived in Aveba village, 12 km south, on Monday, Modiba Traore said.

Students in the rebel-held north of Cote d’Ivoire, their educations stopped cold by conflict, have begun sitting school exams after more than two years of doubt. The exams opened to mixed reactions in the northern city of Korhogo, most students and parents happy to move past years of limbo, but others complaining that after such a long wait the government – who announced less than two weeks ago that the exams would go forward – should have given more notice.

Mthatheni Sibanda scribbles in an untidy notebook as he watches over his family's vegetable stand at a mini-market in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city. The 19-year-old is a final year advanced-level student trying to balance the needs of school work with finding the money for his transport to school. Like several Zimbabwean students, Sibanda can only afford to attend class twice a week. "I really would love to be at school with other children, especially since I am preparing for my final examinations," he said.

This event will address in a sincere, interactive dialogue issues in education, health, economic empowerment, politics/government, spirituality, and social / cultural diversity. There will be 30 participants, including 20 women and the rest young adults (males and females). The participants will be coming from Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana and the US.

UNAIDS has launched a new version of its website complete with a new navigation, branding and logo. The website, which will also be available in French, Spanish and Russian, provides content specifically chosen for each audience group; business and labour; civil society; donors; media; people living with HIV/AIDS; policy-makers; researchers; the UN family; and women as well as an easier more intuitive navigation structure.

Provided economic growth remains on track, it is anticipated that global poverty will fall to 10% of the population by 2015, achieving the target. However, worldwide figures mask the true picture. Asia is making good progress, driven by growth in China and India; but there is little movement elsewhere and many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have gone backwards, seeing an increase in the proportion of people in extreme poverty. During the 1990s, millions more people fell into extreme poverty in Sub Saharan Africa, according to the report by DFID.

This Partnership Africa Canada report shows how illicit diamond trafficking remains the biggest obstacle on the bumpy road to peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Armed militias smuggled an estimated $200-300 million worth of diamonds out of the country in 2005. Given the importance of the diamond industry in the DRC - it sustains 800,000 people and their families - the Kinshasa government and the UN peacekeeping mission must take action to ensure that benefits reach those who live and work in diamond mining areas.

In this interview, Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku of Zimbabwe discusses the progress that a new Human Rights Council would bring and points out the "sticking points" in the debate. Chidyausiku has concerns that the Council will contain double standards, where countries like the US are not called upon for activities in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, yet developing states are punished for "unsubstantiated and politicized issues." Chidyausiku believes Washington has been unable to control the Human Rights Commission, and hence seeks to change the body.

A new fund will support women's health organizations around that world that have been cut off from US aid because their stance on abortion is not in line with the Bush Administration's. The UK has already pledged $5 million. While the rest of the world is working to mediate the harm of the Global Gag Rule, the United States continues to march down a destructive path by cutting funding to foreign assistance programs that benefit the health and empowerment of women and children.

In a surprise revelation, the Botswana government has said that a diamond mine on the land of the Central Kalahari Bushmen would affect 5,027 square kilometres of land - well over a hundred times more than previously announced, reports Survival International.

Forced by war or humanitarian disasters to flee their homes but keeping within the borders of their own countries, 12 million so-called "internally displaced persons" face a legal and human tragedy in Africa. Calling it "one of the biggest under-addressed challenges facing Africa", Dennis McNamara, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator and director of the Inter-Agency Internal Displacement Division, says urgent attention must be paid to the uprooted civilian population in countries like Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Burundi.

The RHC will 1) facilitate the acquisition of emergency preparedness, mitigation, and response 2) perform the designated activities under the direct supervision and in consultation with the Regional Director as the designated “Humanitarian Lead,” activating Humanitarian Response Department support, coordinating with the regional office, activating the Oxfam International and partner’s network, and otherwise implementing contingency plans 3) The RHC will also support integration of conflict transformation skills.

Exotic tree plantations have earned the name 'green death' from eco-activists, who point out that they displace native species, very few of which can live in plantations. Plantations in the eastern parts of South Africa are particularly notorious for consuming grassland, now considered our most threatened biome.

The United States will not seek to close a free trade agreement with Egypt this year because the "timing" is not right, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said before a trip to Middle East that includes a first stop in Egypt. It was widely believed Washington, which had planned to reach the agreement with the government of President Hosni Mubarak by year’s end, had switched course after what it saw as backsliding on Egyptian promises to reform its political system. There was widespread police-inspired violence during parliamentary elections late last year as the government openly sought to block opposition voters from reaching the polls. Nearly a dozen people were killed in the election violence. Rice, however, denied the trade pact was being withheld to penalize the Egyptian government.

This is an international refereed journal of practice-based analysis and research concerning the social dimensions of development and humanitarianism. It aims to provide a forum for debate and the exchange of ideas among practitioners, academics, and policy shapers, including activists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). By challenging current assumptions, the journal seeks to stimulate new thinking and ways of working.

As international concerns regarding the human rights situation in Ethiopia escalate, Amnesty International has called for the immediate and unconditional release of opposition leaders, human rights defenders and journalists who will face trial on charges that include treason, violent conspiracy and "genocide". "These people are prisoners of conscience, imprisoned solely on account of their non-violent opinions and activities," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme. "It is unacceptable that they are now facing serious criminal charges that could lead to death sentences and possible execution."

Internews Network is currently seeking a Resident Advisor for Gender Issues Reporting for our community radio project and production studio in Chad. The project is designed to ensure that residents of the region (both permanent and temporary) receive accurate, up-to-date information on events and activities taking place within the region. Reports will be disseminated in multiple local languages in order to reach the greatest number of people.

The Mail & Guardian Online has invited South Africa's biggest political players to write blogs, or online diaries, in the run-up to the local elections, thus providing them with a new means of communicating with voters and promoting debate. All major political parties were approached with this offer. The political parties that were not represented, decided not to take up the offer to blog.

When they met in Gaborone last August, heads of state of the Southern African Development Community pledged to make sure that women are equally represented in all areas of decision-making in line with an African Union position. The local government elections taking place in South Africa in March are one of the first test cases for the often glaring gap between the grandstanding of leaders at regional events and what actually happens on the ground. As leader of the African National Congress (ANC) President Thabo Mbeki will not have to hang its head in shame. But other parties have some serious soul searching to do, and as head of state Mbeki will need to ask what can be done to bridge the gap between his party and all the rest.

Reporters Without Borders has noted the release of Hamadi Jebali, editor of the weekly Al Fajr, on 25 February 2006, after 15 years in prison. The Tunisian authorities have also freed the "Zarzis Internet-users" who were jailed in April 2004. Jebali and the group of six so-called "Zarzis Internet-users" were among the 1,600 prisoners who received a presidential pardon, on 25 February 2006. Jebali, whose publication Al Fajr, is the organ of the Islamist movement An Nahda, has been in jail since 1991. He was sentenced to one year in prison for defamation after publishing an article by lawyer Mohammed Nuri calling for the military courts to be abolished.

During her installation on 16 January 2006 as Liberia’s president and Africa’s first elected female president, 67-year old Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said her main preoccupation would be to lead Liberia away from its turbulent past. She promised to end corruption in Liberia and work for its re-building after 14 years of devastating civil war. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf urged Liberians to join her in these tasks so that together Liberians could “begin anew, move forward into a future that is filled with hope and promise”. As concerns corruption in Liberia, she promised to “wage war against corruption regardless of where it exists or by whom it is practiced”.