The United Nations Security Council has traditionally tried to cut off arms supplies to some of the world's politically troubled countries - including Somalia, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone - in order to restore peace and stability in post-conflict situations. But a move to lift the U.N. arms embargo on Somalia - as proposed by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) which brokered that country's reconciliation process - has generated strong warnings from activist groups and Africa-watchers.

Indymedia Sydney reports on some of the responses to the Australian race riots in Sydney suburbs.
* The National Union of Students said: "Racism from some of the media and political leaders have whipped up fear and anger to lead to the disgraceful violence at Cronulla. This rally wants to show that people are fed up with this racist violence and that enough is enough."
* The Australian Arabic Council (AAC) said: "For some time politicians and media commentators have been fanning the flames of racial tension and finger pointing. 'Middle Eastern appearance' despite years of campaigning by the AAC continues to be used by politicians and law enforcement agencies (especially in NSW)."

After months of rumours that opponents of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will wreak havoc on the city, activists here say Hong Kong authorities have launched a targeted campaign of harassment. Trouble for activists could start right at Hong Kong airport, where authorities have rolled out a red carpet for ministerial delegates and high officials. Among those taken aside for interrogation were French farmer and activist Jose Bove, three Thai campaigners and four prominent Filipinos - including leaders of the country's left-wing political movement, its largest feminist organisation and a prominent trade union leader.

The clock is ticking when it comes to current peace talks on Darfur currently taking place in Abuja, writes Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem. But this time its not the Government of Sudan who is the spoiler at the talks, but rather the rebel forces, most of whom do not represent their people and are using their time in Abuja to snuggle up to Western donors and have a holiday at the expense of the international community.

This week is very crucial for the now-on-now-off African Union sponsored peace negotiations on Darfur in Abuja. The agreement on security is supposed to be signed failing which these round of talks could be declared dead and all the negotiators, peace envoys, rebels, government representatives and the assortment of various 'international' (meaning non African and predominantly European and American) supporters of the peace negotiations should do their tax payers a big favour and pack their bags and go home.

It is a big irony that the main culprits for this failure will not be the usual first suspect of everyone: the Government of Sudan. There is no doubt that the government is a bad government that is decapitating its opponents and aiding and abetting atrocities in Darfur and also implicated in the imploding civil war in Chad. While the government of Sudan may deserve most of the criticisms against it the obstacles to peace in Abuja are sadly fully manned by the Darfur rebel groups: JEM (Justice for Equality Movement) and SLA (Sudan Liberation Army) and the way in which their international backers continue to treat them with kid gloves and thereby encourage their belligerence.

So fixed are many on the vile nature of the Khartoum government that by definition anybody opposed to it, for whatever reasons, must be good. So desperate have various sponsors of the negotiations become that they seem prepared to get an agreement at all cost. The obsession with delegitimising the Sudan government even while negotiating with it has produced a mixed signal of inertia. At what stage does the illegitimacy of the NIF/CP government become delegitimation of the Sudan state?

These factors have prevented a more objective appreciation of the situation. The painful truth that must be faced is that neither JEM nor SLA (as presently constituted) and the various factions within and between them with their fluid alliances and struggles for personal power and prestige, are in a position to make any deals that will hold for long. How can one justify the enormous expense of having over a hundred rebels in Abuja for weeks and months with only a few of them able to engage in any serious talks and the majority just playing spoilers or peace vultures? They are becoming to Abuja what, for many years, Burundi rebels or Somali factions became to both Arusha and Nairobi respectively: Permanent tourists sponsored by the international community as a kind of direct aid to the local hospitality and leisure industry.

The rebels' attitude makes it much easier for the Sudan government to do nothing other than just watch its ill-prepared bunch and bands of armed rebels. Consequently Khartoum's representatives and commitment remain untested by the mediators and the rebels on many issues because the rebels are too absorbed in their own self-importance to concentrate or focus on the larger picture. While the Sudan government has in Abuja obviously experienced, informed and well connected security and political figures, the rebel groups have chosen to send largely ineffectual, faction-ridden elements. Give or take half a dozen on both sides, all the rebels could be sent back without any impact on the talks.

After all the months of talks one had expected that these rebels would be gaining in experience and acquiring needed skills in engaging in negotiations, but they are rather stagnating and playing reactionary politics with the lives, blood, sweat and suffering of their peoples.

There is no doubt that the cause of Darfur is just but these rebels claiming to represent the suffering masses of Darfur are not doing so justly. Like the Khartoum government they are not legitimate leaders of the people. They are their self-appointed liberators. But unlike many liberation movements in Africa, which had to depend on the people to build and plan with them, these rebels have too many willing regional and international actors indulging their delusions of grandeur.

There are many weaknesses with the AU force in Darfur and also with the mediation framework but clamouring for its replacement with a UN one instead of helping to strengthen it, is a recipe for prolonged dithering on the part of the rebels and the government. A situation in which the rebels seem to have no faith in the AU and implicit confidence in non-African governments and institutions is playing into the hands of the government. The belief by the rebels that the AU will be replaced by a different force and mediators is actually encouraging the rebels to consider their role in Abuja as mere “walk on parts”, since there will be other forums for them outside of Africa for negotiations. By default they are conceding the diplomatic and political terrain in Africa to Khartoum while putting their faith in non-Africans. They obviously have not learnt anything from the crisis of the opposition in Zimbabwe.

While they are not talking with the AU mediators they are flattered to be the darling of many Westerners in the talks. Like the true colonial-minded leaders they are, they feel gratified to be seen with one western diplomat or the other, no matter how lowly placed. It boosts their sense of self-importance. It also gives the diplomats, security operatives and intelligence gatherers masquerading as supporters of negotiations a ringside seat in playing God with African lives. I honestly think the ritual presence of outsiders (especially so called Donor-countries) in these negotiations is, on the whole, negative. They are not putting pressure on the rebels to engage positively and instead seem to be encouraging their belligerence.

The priority should be to make the ceasefire effective, stop the massacres and protect the civilians. These can only be achieved through making the African Union troops more effective and expanding their mandate if possible through the UN Security Council. If this is not possible, the AU should do so by itself and seek the necessary international support to carry out the mandate. This also means that the loopholes in the original ceasefire that are being exploited by the government and its killer groups and the rebels too, need to be plugged. It means putting all pressure on Khartoum and the rebels to sign off the security agreement and be held accountable for it. In the worse case scenario, the AU needs to show political courage and call the bluff of the rebels by calling off the talks and advising them to call back when they are ready for serious talks and agreement. Meanwhile the threat of not giving Khartoum the diplomatic and political honour of hosting the next summit, due in Khartoum in January, should be made clear if the government continues to kill its own people. A government and opposition force whose power depends on mass suffering and death of their own peoples should be denied the company of other Africans and all decent peoples the world over.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to

Initial results in Tanzania's parliamentary and presidential elections are expected to be announced shortly following Wednesday's (December 14) poll. Turnout was high and the only reports of violence came from Zanzibar, where opposition protesters were hurt in clashes with police. The governing Chama Cha Mapinduzi party is expected to retain its majority. The election had been delayed for several weeks following the death of a vice-presidential candidate. Campaigning ended on a dramatic note on Tuesday, when presidential frontrunner Jakaya Kikwete collapsed at a rally.

As the Court’s activities move forward on the ground in Africa, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court continues to raise awareness about the International Criminal Court, build civil society support and push more ratifications and implementation of the Rome Statute in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. For a detailed list of activities in these countries, follow the link.

Rudolf Amenga-Etego argues against the privatization of water in Ghana and introduces an example of community driven water delivery managed for the public good instead of profits. In a country where in some parts the average citizen earns only 50 cents a day, but is expected to pay the full market price for water, he argues for a water management system that “incorporates the collective wisdom of the community as an operative rule”.

The neo-liberal ideology that is driving water policy globally is rooted in the in the so-called “Washington Consensus”, which is nothing but a market fundamentalist conspiracy to corner the world’s resources to satisfy the greed of a tiny minority. It is an ideology that puts profits before people, threatens our eco-systems through excessive exploitation and turns the essentials of life into mere articles of trade.

Ghana, a country of 20 million people with 10 million of them earning less than 2 dollars a day, is a typical example of a well-endowed country reduced to begging. After decades of trying to adjust our economy to fit into a global trading system crafted by a few corporations with the complicity of the Bretton Woods institutions and spineless governments at their beck and call, we are consigned to the fringes of humanity where life is cheaper than condoms. There are parts of Ghana, the Upper East region being typical, where the average citizen earns only 50 cents a day and is now also expected to pay the full market price for water.

This is a consequence of the signing of a management service contract in November this year, handing over the management of the water service to the private sector. The signing of the contract is significant in a number of ways:

- It signals a change in the World Bank policy, which hitherto favoured leases and concessions. The assumption then was that the private sector would invest in the water sector. This didn’t happen.
- It is an indication that the water corporations now prefer management service contracts that guarantee upfront payments with little or no risks.
- The World Bank remains essentially the smokescreen behind which the corporations operate.
- To the activist, it means “not yet uhuru”.

Management service contracts are essentially attempts to take over public utilities for the purpose of making money without investment risk. The operational principle remains full cost recovery from consumers, irrespective of the ability to pay. Creative and innovative ways of providing safe water, especially to the poor, are ignored and therefore no investment flows into alternative thinking.

In Ghana, keeping water in public hands is an expression of sovereignty. The country has been declared a “highly indebted poor country” (HIPC) by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, who structurally adjusted her into debt in the first place. This is a country at the mercy of aid agencies. Surrendering her water to foreign corporate control will be the final act of capitulation.

There is no shortage of talent in Ghana. What is needed is a management system that incorporates the collective wisdom of the community as an operative rule. It is by involving people not as mere consumers but as citizens with rights, including the right to participate and to hold the management system accountable that will ensure the changes necessary for good water governance and universal access.

Certain policy interventions are key to eliminating the current neoliberal inequalities in water delivery to better achieve the ‘public good’ aspects of water services. These include:

- no prepaid meters for poor households;
- increased amounts of free water;
- better regulation of tariff structures so that they do not penalize the poor; and
- a non- discriminatory infrastructural plan that ensures that poor areas are equally served.

There should also be increased public funding for improving the efficiency of water systems and access. There should be a programme aimed at promoting public sector alternatives including community-based systems.

A celebrated example in Ghana which clearly demonstrates innovativeness is the Savelugu-Ghana Water Company partnership. In 2000, the Savelugu community and the Ghana Water Company signed an agreement to supply water to the Savelugu Township. Roles for both parties were defined, and the terms of the agreement were negotiated. The agreement involves the supply of bulk potable water to the township, which has the responsibility of retailing the water to community members. The bulk price is negotiated from time to time and a community water and sanitation board meets to set the retail price and discuss exemptions.

The success of the Savelugu experiment derives largely from its underlying principle that a community is able to work with a public utility to provide a service for its members efficiently. A recent base line survey by the Foundation for Grassroots Initiatives in Africa (GrassRootsAfrica) stated some of the ways that the township and the Ghana Water Company have benefited from the partnership as follows:

The township:
- It has guaranteed supply of potable water from a public utility.
- It is relieved from the complex process of producing and treating water as in other small towns practicing community management.
- The means exists to negotiate with the utility on price and quantity of water to be supplied.
- There is democratic decision-making among community members on tariffs and exemption procedures.
- Profits accrued from water sales are used for expansion and other community development projects.
- There is capacity to negotiate with private sector companies to provide services.
- There is the opportunity to benefit from technical support from the public utility at acceptable costs.
- Equitable access to water supply is promoted through participatory decision-making and management processes.
- Women are involved in decisions on water delivery.
- Social control measures are used to check pilfering and illegal connections and ensure prompt detection and containment of leaking pipes to reduce losses.

The Ghana Water Company:
- It saves on the cost of personnel to bill and collect tariffs from the community.
- It attains a relatively higher economic return per unit of water supplied to domestic consumers, as compared to other parts of Tamale.
- Unaccounted for water reduces to a minimum (near zero), as the community pays for all water consumed.
- It enjoys an intimate and healthy relationship with consumers.
- Pilfering and collusion with consumers to manipulate revenue due to the company is eliminated as the community pays to the company through crossed checks.

The argument that there is no efficient way of delivering safe water without the participation of the private sector peels off in the face of the Savelugu example. Shockingly, in spite of this exciting news, the World Bank is refusing to look that way. The World Bank’s privatization fixation is entirely inappropriate in the delivery of water to the people of Ghana. Activists in Ghana have argued that the government of Ghana and the donor community, if they are really serious about addressing the accountability and efficiency issues alleged to be bedeviling the Ghana Water Company, should be investing in the Savelugu model and investigating ways of replicating it. Wholly community-based systems should also be supported as alternatives to privatization.

* Rudolf Amenga-Etego is with the Foundation For GrassRoots Initiatives In Africa

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Imagine an educational process that produces 200 graduates with no internal or external funding, where the institution running the course has no offices or support staff and where knowledge is viewed as a negotiated common commodity for all. Impossible? Unrealistic? Read on to find out about how The Swaziland Environmental Justice Agenda developed their course on environmental justice.

The Swaziland Environmental Justice Agenda (SEJA) is a social movement concerned with a variety of social issues. The issue of environmental injustice is central to SEJA’s concerns. SEJA has developed the Swaziland Participatory Course in Environmental Education, known as the ‘environmental course’, which uses an alternative approach to education to develop a critical understanding of environmental injustice.

According to SEJA’s viewpoint, environmental injustice is embedded in the global economic system, a system that is built around non-humanistic values. Over the years, the system has been sweet-coated by policy announcements that do not translate to sustainable support for people or the environment. The recent military actions that have been launched by the architects of the globalization process have proven that the capitalist values are still the same as those that informed the colonialisation process.

Swaziland is a society where people are not on the information super train. Many people in Swaziland, even the middle class, have no economic means to access the information in magazines and books, on the internet, etc. They are thus kept from the issues that define policy directions and programmes.

Swaziland is a country with an education system that is heavily influenced by its colonial past. It is a system which discourages the development of critical thinking. Free speech is banned in Swaziland by a 1973 decree and the education system has been able to enshrine a culture of compliance to this decree.

The Environmental Course

The SEJA environmental course is a humble act of activism to address this reality and start the process of social emancipation. It has opened up several alternatives to the way in which Swaziland society approaches issues of education.

The purpose of the course is to create an opportunity for environmental and development workers and activists to acquire the knowledge base that will allow them to critically debate the issues that define the progressive agenda. The course has been designed to make it possible for marginalized groups in the Swazi society to access tertiary-level education. The fundamental principle informing enrollment is the “open entry open exit” principle. This means that the course participants come from different educational backgrounds and levels.

Teaching a class with, for example, domestic workers, bus conductors and university lecturers is an experience that is sobering in many ways. It challenges our assumption about knowledge and the way knowledge is “developed”. It also requires alternative means on how education is conducted. The approach and methods of this course are not unique, they draw on Paulo Freire’s ideas, articulated in the book, “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed”.

The reason why we developed the course was the realization that many environmental educators and activists have no deep understanding of the issues. International groups are organizing campaigns in several fronts. Swaziland is always being left behind.

The course is structured around four key themes, namely:

- Theme 1: The Environmental Crisis: Issues, Problems and Risks
- Theme 2: The Response to the Environmental Crisis
- Theme 3: Environmental Education: Processes and Methods
- Theme 4: Curriculum and Programme Development

Each theme is introduced by a core text, which provides an overview of the issues and concepts. Every year, the tutors look at the core text and make changes based on the assignments of the past participants. This is done in an attempt to contextualise the core text to the realities of Swaziland.

In addition to the core text, there is an attachment of further readings, which include academic papers, newspaper cuttings, past participant’s assignments, case studies, reports etc. This allows the participants access to a diversity of perspectives, thus enriching the debates.

To use the first theme as an example, the core text introduces the issue of the economic system as the cause of the environmental crisis. Discussion is informed by a Theodor Shanin essay, “Idea of Progress”. The participants engage the question as to whether the international economic regimes result in improvement of the third world. They debate the availability of loans that continue to worsen the debt crisis.

Environmental education includes a four-dimensional framework for analysis of issues, namely the economic, political, social and biophysical dimensions. This framework opens up a broader spectrum for the analysis of issues. It deepens the ethos of critical thinking, which is an essential element of the development of social praxis. Praxis is the ability of participants to translate learned theory to social action and to translate the experience gained into improved theory.

What has become apparent is that most people in Swaziland have an in-built self-censorship. This is a major contributor to the reality that Swaziland is lacking literature that defines its unique political, social, economic and environmental crisis. The course, by allowing an environment of free speech, is helping to heal this problem.

Contextualization, Reflexivity, Praxis and Reflection

The course process is based on four fundamental principles. The first is the contextual principle, based on the view that a socially meaningful educational process should address itself to the issues that are relevant to that society. The course includes four assignments which act as a mechanism by which the participants discuss and review their individual context. This may be drawn from the work that the participant is engaged in, the campaigns that he or she is currently working on, etc. The course has an immediate benefit for various social programmes. It allows the participants to identify the political conditions that enable or disable social progress. It encourages the application of social praxis.

The reflexivity principle is about the internal mobilization of the participants to take appropriate action to mitigate and correct a social problem that is identified in the contextualisation of their reality. To date, Swaziland’s progressive forces have been able to narrate the political, social and economic conditions prevailing in the country. But, definite actions that can address the conditions have not been taken. This is due to a lack of reflexivity, which is embedded in an education system that discourages critical thinking.

The third principle is that of social praxis. There is a huge difference between theory and practice. An approach to social change that is led by a group of intellectuals that are excited by externally-developed theories and ideologies tends to emphasise theories without making the connection to practice. The course teaching and learning is informed by social constructivism. Knowledge is constructed by people in a social setting. This process detects that knowledge development cannot be created by academics to the exclusion of the people and the social reality. Social programmes of meaning are informed by a sound theory and that theory is continuously being informed by the reality.

Swaziland in the mid-nineties saw the progressive movement wage its greatest challenge to the state yet. The actions, including mass stayaways, demonstrations, petitions and boycotts, were informed by a particular revolutionary theory. Unfortunately the leaders of the different groups did not practice praxis. As a result, the masses lost the necessary steam to sustain the action.

It is essential that an educational process empowers the participant with the ability to take time out from the on-going activities, that he or she engages in reflection. In the social milieu, a number of processes are at play. There are many times that you find that the comrades you are working with do not share the same values as you or the movement you all belong to. The revolutionary comrade, Mphandlana Shongwe, once said during a college class boycott, “It is necessary for one to move out of a supposed straight road, in order to verify that it is still a straight road”. The reflection principle is basically about that, being able to think deeply about process. The power of reflection lies in its ability to bring clarity.

NGOs and Funding

The course is readily distinguishable from those routinely offered in the non-governmental organization (NGO) sector. Many people have been disillusioned by the reality that social programmes under the leadership of NGOs that are purported to be people driven are all too often nothing of the sort. They are conceived by NGO elites. NGO officers in executive offices in capital cities have been able to define the people’s agenda and content of programmes of action. Practice has shown that, even with NGO-driven educational programmes, the content and scope is also determined in a non-participatory manner.

These activities are entirely dependent on the availability of foreign funding. Moreover, the greatest percentage of funds that goes to NGOs is not taken by project activities but by personnel costs that go to finance the unsustainable lifestyles of the NGO elites. It is a sad reality that NGO offices are generally far removed from the problems experienced by their so-called target groups. These groups are defined in different ways, depending on the current fashionable donor description. People are defined in NGO official documents as marginalized people, Orphans Vulnerable Children (OVCs), etc. These descriptions create a barrier to meaningful consultation with them. In subtle ways, those that use these descriptions elevate themselves above their target groups.

The cost of food, accommodation and travel at many civil society gatherings limits the extent to which these programmes are accessible to the people defined by NGOs as poor and not privileged. This artificial over-costing of civil activities is in effect a marginalisation of the people. I was shocked by the paradox that emerged at the annual Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) conference, namely that members continuously complained about the “poor standard” of conference venues. This is not a comment about the organizational shortfalls of the conference, it is rather an indictment of the materialistic values of those that attended. This is true of many conferences of groupings that work for sustainable development and sustainable living environments. There is a related problem in that many comrades hide their true values behind politically acceptable words in fancy documents, publications, conferences, seminars and workshops, while their actions do not demonstrate a shift from the values of the corporate world.

All too often, social groups are not able to develop programmes that address their issues because there is no external funding. But the lack of financial resources is a challenge that has to be overcome. The Swaziland Environmental Justice Agenda has not received any external or internal funding to support its programmes. More than 200 people have graduated from the environment course without the course having received any funding in the NGO sense.

When SEJA embarked on this course, there was no physical office of the organisation. It was started by a small civic group of people concerned about particular issues or problems. There were eight of us, the majority of whom were not members of any political group. Environmental processes are political in nature, but affiliation to a political grouping was never an issue.

The participants brought food for tutorials and ate together. After participants graduated, many volunteered to become tutors for the next round of participants. The course has continued to depend on the ability of tutors to volunteer their time and knowledge. (By volunteering, we do not mean the existence of allowances that are far more than other people’s salaries. These are the tricks other people perform with our good hearts and intentions.)

The course provides a platform on which a new alternative approach to education can be launched. The educational process is emancipatory in a sense that knowledge is a negotiated common commodity for all. It opens up the boundaries of the course content to all stakeholders. It is truly driven by participants, giving meaning to the philosophical orientation that it a participatory course.

The true value of the course must be measured by the extent to which the participants influence people to approach their context with an attitude based on critical thinking and the degree to which it stimulates civic programmes that are no longer informed by liberal economic ideas.

Sivumelwano Nyembe, [email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Globalisation is often presented as something from which one cannot escape. It is compared to gravity; to resist it is seen as going against gravity. As Margaret Thatcher proclaimed, “There is no alternative” to neo-liberal capitalism. So, mainstreaming in the 1990s and since then has meant joining the bandwagon of capital-led globalisation. It has been widely pronounced to be Africa’s inevitable destiny too, but Alternatives to Neo-liberalism in Southern Africa (ANSA) is an initiative that attempts to provide a framework for alternative policies and strategies, which can bring about sustainable, human development. Their aim is to stimulate the growth of a mass movement which can successfully advocate for a radical alternative for Africa.

Exposing The Myth

A passive acceptance of destiny forced on Africa from outside goes against the grain of Africa’s history. Africans fought to resist colonial occupation, and in some places resistance went on for some three decades after the carving up of Africa at the Berlin Conference of 1884-5. Then, when Africa was finally subjugated and occupied, Africans put up resistance against the occupation itself for another five decades and more, and finally liberated themselves from colonial rule, and its vicious offsprings such as apartheid. In other words, resistance against oppression has been the principal mode of African existence, almost a way of life for most Africans for the best part of a hundred years.

Unfortunately, the first generation political leaders after political independence from 1957 (when Ghana got its independence) through the 1960s and 70s were caught up in the cold war and the ideological battles of the period. Some of them, like Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, tried to experiment with their own versions of African socialism; others like Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya followed the capitalist model; and yet others tried various versions of “scientific socialism”. After the end of the cold war, and the demise of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the capitalist system came out triumphant, and all alternative options appeared to have vanished. Hence the increasingly strident assertion of the unavoidability of neo-liberal globalisation.

However, the myth of the inevitability of globalisation is as misleading as the myth about Africa’s passive acceptance. Globalisation is nothing but a policy response of the capitalist nations in crisis, the beginning of which goes back to the mid-1970s. Contemporary globalisation is part of the strategy of transnational corporations backed by the military, political and institutional (including WTO, WB and IMF amongst others) power of the G8 states, collectively constituting the Empire. Its alleged gravitational property has nothing to do with reality; it is a self-serving myth perpetuated by the imperial nations through systematic media disinformation and fatuous academic discourse.

Indeed, capital-led globalisation is even at the root of the crisis in Africa. It is by now agreed by wide sections of Southern African society that the neo-liberal paradigm of development has failed the people. Poverty has not only been entrenched but it has also deepened, and the gap between the rich and the poor has increased.

The ANSA Initiative

It follows that there must be an alternative and that such an alternative is of vital importance. The Alternatives to Neo-liberalism in Southern Africa (ANSA) initiative represents an attempt to address this need. Its roots reach back as far as 1993, when the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZiCTU) took the initiative to formulate an alternative to the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme, ESAP, which had been introduced in Zimbabwe in 1991.

Based on the experience gained in Zimbabwe, in 2003 the ANSA initiative took off, but now as a regional programme and initiative. Initially, a small group of individuals linked to the ZiCTU worked out the principles of an alternative approach and provided scientific and research materials. The project was gradually broadened until, in January 2005, representatives from affiliates of SATUCC adopted the programme. Since then, the initiative has aimed at and gained wider name and recognition among progressive academics, unions, social movements and beyond, both within and outside Africa.

From the beginning, ANSA’s aim has been not to produce another academic report, but to stimulate the growth of a mass movement which can successfully advocate for a radical alternative for our region.

The Root Causes of Underdevelopment

ANSA’s overall economic analysis revolves around dualism and enclavity and external dependency as the root causes of pervasive unemployment, and hence underdevelopment, in Southern Africa.

In plain language, dualism and enclavity describe Southern African economies that are generally characterised by a relatively small formal sector, which co-exists but is separate from a large informal sector, the latter one located both within urban areas and rural regions (the communal sector).

The formal economy consists of capitalists interested in profit making and workers who primarily depend on wages for their sustenance. In Africa it can be assumed that less than 20% of the labour force earns a living in the formal sector. The sector consists of large, medium, small and micro enterprises that are formally registered and recognised; as such they encompass activities in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy.

The urban informal is a residual sector, which has come to have a high degree of permanence in many African countries. It is a sector characterised by easy entry and exit, driven by self-employment activities that reflect linkages with the formal sector and rural sector as well as the ingenuity of the individuals involved in the sector. Levels of productivity are low in terms of returns per hour worked, while wages tend to be below poverty levels. This sector absorbs surplus labour from the rural and the formal sector such as retrenchees. Generally about one third of the labour force in many countries tends to be involved in urban informal sector activities. In some regional countries the informal economy is in fact the ‘mainstream’ economy.

The communal sector is the original traditional or pre-capitalist sector with all the variations this entails in the African context. The present-day communal sector is also highly differentiated and has a number of linkages with the formal and urban informal sectors. However, the majority of the households are involved in low productivity farm and non-farm pursuits in which surplus generation is low and primarily not directed at accumulation but consumption. In most African countries, the majority of the households live and work in what we are labelling the communal sector.

The root problem of under-development now lies in the fact that the majority of the labour force is involved in low productivity pursuits that result in incomes and consumption levels that are close to poverty. The relationship between the three sectors and the external world is such that it tends to reproduce the continued marginalisation of the majority and continues to constrain the development of the economy as a whole.

Internal and External Distortions

Underlying this problem of underdevelopment are internal and external distortions, distortions which the ‘free’ capitalist market system has not been able to solve. Indeed, it has even caused, reproduced and strengthened these distortions. They therefore have to be carefully analysed and understood, after which a successful strategy to solve them can be formulated.

The formal sector shows a bias toward large-scale enterprises and against the evolution of dynamic micro, small, medium enterprise. It favours relatively capital intensive methods of production that are not warranted by the amount of labour available, given high unemployment rates. It is biased toward externally driven demand given that the majority of the domestic population lacks effective demand. It favours imports of capital and intermediary goods as well as high income consumer goods given the inability to produce these locally due to lack of critical minimum level of effective demand.

The formal sector is not able to play its dynamic role in terms of transforming the economy through trickle down effects, since the linkages with the non-formal sector are minimal and mostly restricted to use of cheap labour.

The urban informal sector is well known for its deficiencies in terms of lack of capital, improvised technology, high transaction costs and inadequate access to infrastructure. There is an absence of an adequate facilitating legal, regulatory and institutional regime for assets, intellectual property and market transactions As a consequence, the urban informal sector is prone to lateral expansion, depressed returns that verge toward subsistence, stunted growth and endemic poverty for many.

Although the communal sector may have developed production methods and non-farm activities that are appropriate for the environment in which they live, the sector has not been able to be fully integrated into modern forms of economic organisation. The sector shares a number of the characteristics of the urban informal sector, like the absence of social and economic infrastructure, the absence of an adequate facilitating legal, regulatory and institutional regime, high transaction costs and inadequate access to information useful for participation in the modern economy. There is an outward migration of able-bodied males. In some countries the shortage of land due to land degradation or land appropriation is also resulting in increasing marginalisation of peasants.

Thus, participants in both the urban informal sector and the rural communal sector are unable to lift themselves since their capabilities and their environment is highly compromised. They are also not able to benefit from trickle down effects from the formal sector or abroad in the absence of facilitating interventions.

The global environment has had the tendency to perpetuate the underdevelopment based on enclavity. For example, with regard to its interaction with the formal sector, this has been such that it reinforces both primary export and import dependency in a manner that does not facilitate the transformation and upgrading of the domestic economy. Terms of trade have generally been to the disadvantage of the formal sector in African economies. Monopolistic tendencies and protectionism among the developed countries have made it difficult to acquire competitive advantage that would allow the developing countries to compete on an equal level with the developed countries and even allow them to reconfigure their exports and imports.

More generally the international economy has been dominated by private and public interests which have systemically pushed for economic transaction regimes that work primarily to serve their interest rather than the development needs of countries such as those in Africa.

As another consequence of the above problems, African countries find themselves in a dilemma whereby disarticulations at the national level, coupled with external dependency, militate against effective regional co-operation and national development within a regional context as well.

The ANSA Declaration

This analysis shows why a neo-liberal ‘free’ market system can not solve our problems and, at the same time, provides a concrete framework for alternative policies and strategies, which can indeed bring about sustainable, human development. It is the foundation upon which a comprehensive ANSA Declaration has been developed, which, in turn, serves as the basis for ANSA’s further plans and activities.

The declaration sets out the 10 principles of the ANSA strategy:

1. At political and social level, a people-led strategy (as opposed to IMF-WB-WTO-donor-led).

2. At the economic level, an alternative production system, one that is based on domestic demand and human needs and the use of local resources and domestic savings, that is autocentric development (as opposed to the present system that is dominated by an export-oriented strategy, based on foreign investments and ownership).

3. Grassroots-led regional integration (as opposed to the current fragmentation of the region by the Empire).

4. A strategic, selective delinking from neo-liberal globalisation (as opposed to further deepening of integration within the existing iniquitous global system), and preparing for leveraged negotiated relinking in a restructured and transformed global production and distribution system.

5. An alternative policy on science and technology based on harnessing and owning the collective knowledge and wisdom of the people (as opposed to the present blind emulation of techno-science of the empire).

6. A strategy of alliance and networking with national, regional and global progressive forces (as opposed to the present system of co-optation of social forces in the capital-led globalisation process).

7. A strategy with a politically governed redistribution of the wealth and opportunities from the so-called formal sector in society to the informal sectors (as opposed to the present system of misallocation of resources, and the integration of the informal sectors through their providing cheap inputs and a reservoir of semi-employed labour).

8. A strategy where women’s rights are in focus as the basis for a healthy and productive society (as opposed to the present system based on the exploitation of women labour).

9. A strategy where education addresses the needs for sustainable human development, and which is aimed at improving the technical and managerial as well as research and development skills of workers and those directly in control of matters of production and governance (as opposed to education for a bureaucratic and academic elite).

10. A strategy where peoples’ mobilisation and visible demonstrations, and open hearings, in support of the evolving ethical and developmental state, are seen as embodying the democratic strength of the society, creating a dynamic, participatory and radical democracy (as opposed to the present system, where mobilisation is seen as a threat to the existing system, and where the representative democracy can sign away the future rights of people).

Framework for an Alternative Policy

Based on the above analysis and guided by the 10 principles, the ANSA Declaration then submits a detailed alternative policy and strategy for sustainable human development in Southern Africa. It does that both in general terms as well as for the various sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, trade and mining; for macro-economics and finance; for policies like education & training, science & technology and infrastructure; and for cross-cutting issues like gender and culture. Unfortunately it is beyond the scope of this article to present them here.

It should be well understood that the ANSA Declaration only sets out the general alternative policy framework for the region. It is necessary that each country will formulate and push for its own specific alternative policy and strategy within this regional framework. The ANSA Programme is actively working towards this follow up. A training and advocacy programme is also being developed.

As said before, the ANSA programme is not a separate academic exercise; it is aimed at stimulating and facilitating the growth of a mass movement, the ideal being that the numerous localised centres of resistance and initiatives for alternatives will in the end pressurise for change from a common perspective.

ANSA therefore seeks active co-operation and mutual reinforcement with progressive individuals, unions, churches, youth and women groups, social movements etc. within the region, the continent and beyond to join forces to pressurise for often very practical and local alternatives, placed within a broader vision and strategy.

A start has been made already with the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) where Trade Unions in the SADC are getting together to deliberately and systematically lobby and campaign for alternatives to the anticipated EPAs which are being imposed on us by the EU. Privatisation and commercialisation issues are definite other possible areas of action and levers for a common demand for an alternative policy.

ANSA is not a grouping, a political party or a movement. It is not an advance party either. You cannot become a member. ANSA is a non-partisan, facilitation project, the function of which is to act as a focal point, guide and catalyst that stimulates people, institutions and movements in the region and beyond to join hands and forge alliances in a common pursuit of an alternative to neo-liberalism.

In January 2006 the ANSA Declaration will be launched at the Africa Social Forum in Bamako, Mali. After that it will become available in print, a full version in English and a popularised version in both English, French and Portuguese.

* This article was compiled by the ANSA Co-ordinating Committee
December, 2005 (For more information about the ANSA-initiative, contact us at [email protected] or, alternatively, at [email protected])

* Please send comments to [email protected]

The Attorney General’s Office of Sao Tome and Principe says it has found “serious flaws” in the way that contracts were awarded to oil companies to explore offshore waters shared with Nigeria. It said in a report published on December 9 that several of the companies chosen six months ago to explore the Joint Development Zone (JDZ) shared by Sao Tome and Nigeria lacked the technical know-how and the financial muscle necessary to carry out the work.

Only one out of every five children in Somalia is enrolled in primary school, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in its State of the World's Children report for 2006. Somali children are further disadvantaged by disease, conflict and harsh environmental conditions, the agency added. "The net primary attendance ratio is lower than anywhere in the world, at just 12 percent for boys and 10 percent for girls," the report said. "Years of underinvestment have left Somalia lagging behind the rest of the developing world in education."

Experts last week said the subject of teaching abstinence to prevent HIV/AIDS led to debate among many attendees at the 14th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa, which took place in Abuja, Nigeria, Agence France-Presse reports. About 7,500 representatives, primarily from African nations, attended the six-day conference, which had the theme "HIV/AIDS and the Family".

Nigeria and other African nations need to provide comprehensive health care, including antiretroviral medications, to HIV-positive people at no cost in order to prevent treatment interruptions and drug resistance, Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Tuesday at a news conference, Reuters reports. MSF this week at the 14th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa in Abuja, Nigeria, released a study that surveyed 122 HIV-positive patients who came to an MSF clinic in Lagos, Nigeria, after receiving treatment from other clinics or hospitals.

The Sudanese National AIDS Control Programme (SNAP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and other partners have launched a campaign focusing on the impact of the disease on children. They said as many as 300,000 people under age 25 in Sudan were living with the HI virus.

On Human Rights Day, Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) officially launched its online Human Rights Learning Centre. It is the result of many years of labour by HREA staff and volunteers in making our large collection of learning tools available in an interactive format. The Human Rights Learning Centre provides activists, educators, students and interested citizens with introductions to hundreds of human rights topics. Visitors can read daily human rights news, find human rights documents, take quizzes, complete opinion polls, or find suggestions for further action or how to teach about a specific human rights issue.

The first in Women's Learning Partnership Translations Series, The Guide to Equality in the Family in the Maghreb, is an innovative advocacy tool for reform of the family law in Muslim-majority societies. The Guide outlines a process that relates meaningful social change to women’s capability to make deliberate and thoughtful choices.

The ACT Project has entered into a new phase in its support for global action to promote human rights education at the field level. The fifth phase (2005-2007) of the ACT Project puts a special emphasis on activities related to human rights education in the primary and secondary school systems (including, for instance, material development/translation; workshop/training course for relevant authorities, teachers and other education personnel; school competitions and debates), although not exclusively supporting grants in this area.

"We, the undersigned organizations and individuals dedicated to protecting and promoting human rights, are watching with keen interest the discussions now underway to create a new Human Rights Council at the United Nations. We are writing to you now, on the eve of International Human Rights Day and in honor of the victims of human rights violations in every corner of the globe, to urge each of your governments to adopt a General Assembly resolution by the end of this year establishing a Human Rights Council that will be stronger and more effective than the Commission on Human Rights."

Some 12 million people in southern Africa, mainly in Zimbabwe and Malawi, need emergency food aid, the United Nations said on Tuesday, saying the situation in the region was serious despite South Africa's bumper harvest. In its latest Africa report, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said good harvests were expected in the Sahel region below the Sahara desert, after a severe food crisis in 2004/05 which hit income and nutrition levels hard.

Ungana-afrika have developed a technology planning toolkit for the development community. As explained in the toolkit, technology planning is "the process of strategically deciding what technology should be implemented to best complement an organisation's mission, strategy and activities. It involves a frank assessment of the current environment and an analysis of what can be improved upon with technology tools to improve organisational effectiveness. It is also useful in identifying innovative program delivery opportunities made available through technology."

Kalomo district, some 400 kilometres South of Lusaka, is a hub of hospitality business in the area. The tourist capital Livingstone about 120 Kilometres away and other places of tourist interest makes it a place of tourist attraction. But inadequate infrastructure, especially the bad road conditions, no electricity and lack of communication facilities discourage people from stopping by. To address these issues, Bwacha women ICT club based in the centre of Kalomo town, thought of marketing produce of the local area using the internet in order to make ends meet.

"We, the undersigned human rights activists and representatives of various Nigerian civil society organizations hereby resolve as follows: To launch a campaign of action and challenge of the looming and emerging dictatorship in Nigeria. As we have done in similar circumstances in the past, we as civil society organizations, stand united and will defend our democracy and our fatherland. We are returning to the trenches and to the barricades from where we fought military dictatorship to a standstill, to once again fight another kind of dictatorship, dressed in civilian garbs."

The purpose of this book is to contribute to current policy-making, programme planning and implementation on Gender and Human Rights. It is intended for a wide audience of policy makers, magistrates, judges and lawyers, academics and civil society organisations grappling with these issues, and is published by The Commonwealth organisation. It is also intended as a conceptual and policy-oriented resource for those committed to implementing and supporting the Human Rights goals of the new Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015.

The United Nations tribunal on the 1994 Rwandan genocide today (December 13) sentenced retired lieutenant colonel and former member of parliament Aloys Simba to 25 years in prison after finding him guilty on two counts concerning genocide and crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR) said this was the first case it had decided which specifically concerned the massacres of Tutsi civilians in Gikongoro prefecture and the sentence was based on his participation in the massacres at the Murambi Technical School and in Kaduha Parish.

The One World Trust promotes education and research into the changes required within global organisations in order to achieve the eradication of poverty, injustice and war. It conducts research on practical ways to make global organisations more responsive to the people they affect, and on how the rule of law can be applied equally to all and educates political leaders and opinion-formers about the findings of our research. You may sign up for the newsletter by emailing [email protected].

This briefing paper from the Academy for Educational Development discusses the classification of children with disabilities in educational systems, including how such classifications vary across countries. It argues that the implications of the differing classification criteria affect the provision of educational opportunities for every child, regardless of the nature or level of his or her physical, mental, or sensory disability.

A recently published paper by the Institute of Development Studies summarises the findings of a comparative research project on the contribution of civil society organisations to democratisation in Africa. Drawing primarily on empirical case studies of civil society organisations in South Africa and Uganda, and related material from Ghana, the research examines their ability to influence government policy and legislation through tangible shifts in policy and legislative priorities and their implementation, and to widen the opportunities available to citizens to participate in public affairs, promoting a culture of accountability and challenging the power of the state to dominate decision-making.

After two consecutive five-year terms, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa will retire after elections on 14 December. Known as a brilliant and largely socialist politician, he nonetheless adopted a pragmatic approach in his efforts to improve the country's economy. Mkapa's two terms in office have brought to Tanzania significant economic progress, although much more needs to be achieved if the nation is to be placed on the same economic footing as some other developing countries.

Women in the northern Nigerian state of Kano are ignoring a ban stopping them travelling on public motorbike taxis. On Monday (December 12) religious authorities began implementing the ban passed earlier this year. In accordance with Sharia law, men and women are not allowed to travel together on public transport. The women say there are not enough public transport alternatives in the state that adopted Sharia law in 2000.

The fuel shortage in South Africa has started affecting supplies in neighbouring countries dependant on exports from the regional economic power and some petrol stations in Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique have already run dry. Airlines have been unable to refuel and the shortage has caused flight delays.

Today (December 13) marked the opening of the WTO, with actions inside the building and on the street. For GCAP it was an eventful day. The morning began with the publication of the Nelson Mandela adverts in the Financial Times Asia and the South China Post, with a message to the WTO delegates from Nelson Mandela, an op-ed in the South China Post by Martin Khor and commentary by Henri Valot. Later in the morning, GCAP campaigners made the formal handover of the e-action to EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson . In just three short weeks, the national coalitions of GCAP and the whiteband site managed to get an amazing total of 476,733 e-actions! In front of a huge media scrum, GCAP's trade demands were handed to Peter Mandelson by Sumie Arima, Thomas Deve and Rezual Karim Chowdury inside the WTO centre.

This article examines the legal status and economic livelihoods of Ethiopian and Somali refugees in Nairobi. The article challenges the Government of Kenya's official position and the popular local perception that refugees are an economic burden and argues instead that most urban refugees are successful, self-sufficient entrepreneurs. By highlighting refugee self-sufficiency in Nairobi, this article lends support to the idea of local integration as a viable, durable solution to their situation of protracted exile.

Since the May 15, 2005 election, there has been a historic clash between the yearning by the Ethiopian people to found a democratic order, and the derailment of this democratic process by the incumbent regime in order to perpetuate its tyrannical rule through large-scale repression in Ethiopia. The world must take a stand on this clash between the aspiration of the Ethiopian people to make a new history of democracy or be forced by repression to remain in the old history of dictatorship. The stakes are so high, the decision is so urgent, and the risk of letting repression decide the destiny of this old country to slide into a tyrannical order so great, that all in the whole wide world that have power to contribute to name, shame and expel the Meles dictatorship must do it by acting right now. Tomorrow is too late. Words are not enough. Empathy is not enough. Only action and deed count to make a difference.

More than 150 nations agreed Saturday (December 10) to launch formal talks on mandatory post-2012 reductions in greenhouse gases talks that will exclude an unwilling United States. For its part the Bush administration, which rejects the emissions cutbacks of the current Kyoto Protocol, accepted only a watered-down proposal to enter an exploratory global "dialogue" on future steps to combat climate change. That proposal specifically rules out "negotiations leading to new commitments." The parallel tracks represented a mixed result for the pivotal two-week U.N. conference on global warming, doing little to close the climate gap between Washington on one side, and Europe, Japan and other supporters of the Kyoto Protocol on the other.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1392556

Official webpages of the convention:
http://unfccc.int/2860.php
http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_11/items/3394.php

Blogs written by environmentalists during the convention:
http://climatejustice.blogspot.com/
http://www.itsgettinghotinhere.org

Greenpeace Coverage:
http://climate2005.greenpeace.ca

The purpose of this position is to support effective implementation of the technical aspects of Oxfam's public health response in eastern Chad; to promote gender equity throughout the programme cycle and provide gender analysis to support the implementation of Oxfam's programme.

FilmAid International is a non-governmental organization that uses film to promote health, strengthen communities and enrich the lives of the world's vulnerable and uprooted. FilmAid is currently implementing programmes for refugees and their host communities in Kenya and Tanzania.

The congruence of G8 Summit in Scotland, the UN World Summit + 5 and WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong and the revisions of Beijing + 5 and Cairo + 5 led to 2005 being seen as a landmark year in relation to the 2000 Millennium Declaration and the fight against poverty, injustice and exploitation and men and women's rights violations. It was in this context that the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) was established in September 2004 as a means for a joint mobilization and collaboration for the year 2005. One year after the Johannesburg consultation in September 2004, the Global alliance and the national campaigns are confronted with the decision of whether to continue their cooperation beyond 2005 and if so, how to frame a possible next phase (2006-2007) of the call. 2005 is coming to an end, and with it, the global policy platform, global structures and days for global mobilisation days agreed in Johannesburg, September 2004 have expired. TWO EXTERNAL RESEARCHERS are therefore being sought, to carry out a comprehensive review of the campaign to date, with a view to developing a report that will inform further dialogue on the future of GCAP.

President George W. Bush’s administration is drawing up plans to carry out the biggest overhaul of the US foreign aid apparatus in more than 40 years in an attempt to assert more political control over international assistance, according to officials and aid experts. The proposed reorganisation could lead to a takeover by the State Department of the independent US Agency for International Development. Critics in the aid community fear the reorganisation will lead to a politicisation of foreign assistance.

The liberalisation of world trade in textiles has turned the sector on its head and had a devastating social cost, according to a report published on 6 December by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions entitled ‘Stitched Up: How those imposing unfair competition in the textiles and clothing industries are the only winners in this race to the bottom’. As anticipated, China is cashing in on the unfair competition it imposes on its developing country rivals, with exports to the United States and Europe rising by 70% and 45% respectively between January and April 2005. China ’s advantage is mainly due to the unbridled exploitation of the workforce, characterised - amongst other things - by abnormally low salaries, excessive working hours and frequently intolerable health and safety conditions.

On 10 December, three days before the opening of the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong, Global Call to Action against Poverty campaigners across five continents mobilized to demand that the World Trade Organisation Ministerial delivers trade justice for the world’s poor. A wide array of actions from rallies to peoples’ caravans to public performances took place, all with the objective of putting a spotlight on trade injustice. To find out more about what happened in your region and around the world, follow the link.

Displaced people in the strife-torn western region of Darfur continue to be threatened and harassed even after their arrival in camps, aid workers say. Violence, however, is just one side of the coin. Many IDPs suffer more subtle forms of harassment and abuse that make daily life in the camps a constant misery.

Because of resource constraints, refugees are not provided with anti-retroviral therapy and they are no longer on the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme, says Ross Sanoto, the under secretary for political affairs in the Office of the President in Botswana. Initially the expectant mothers had access to PMTCT programme but it was recently halted. Private organisations and individuals willing to help provide refugees with anti-retroviral therapy were free to do so provided they had the capacity to sustain the supplies even when the refugees returned to their countries.

Zimbabwe's ruling party has held its annual conference, backing government moves to clamp down on critics. The resolutions were yet more bad news for the country's political opposition, civil rights groups and other critics. The Zanu-PF meeting called for action against civic groups and NGOs it said were sponsored by Western countries. It urged the government to implement a constitutional amendment allowing the authorities to confiscate the passports of those who it sees as a threat.

A senior Roman Catholic has said voters in Democratic Republic of Congo should reject a draft constitution in next Sunday's (December 18) vote. A "No" vote would delay elections due next year under a deal ending DR Congo's five-year civil war. A BBC correspondent in DR Congo says 55% of the population is Catholic and church leaders are seen as influential. Pierre Anatole Matusila said the constitution had not been explained properly to the population. "When I do not know what it is about, I say 'No'," said a statement released by Mr Matusila's Congress of Congolese Catholic laymen. It added that the 'No' would be a sanction against the way politicians use lies and manipulation to rule the country.

Three decades of increasingly patchy rains and drought are taking a heavy toll on the people of the Sahel nations, the semi-arid countries strung along the southern fringes of the Sahara, according to a group of scientists and specialists on climate change. “We’ve noted an increasing number of extreme events across the Sahel, where you can have heavy rain all of a sudden then nothing for several weeks,” Arona Diedhiou, a research fellow at Senegal’s Institute for Research and Development (IRD), said after a weeklong seminar on climate change organised by the Amma-Afrique project.

A move to reintroduce school fees in Botswana is causing controversy, with politicians and education experts warning that it may be a step backwards. Opposition parties have called on parents to defy the government's decision to reintroduce fees when the new term starts in January 2006. In October, Botswana's parliament approved legislation reintroducing school fees for pupils at junior secondary and senior secondary schools in 2006. Fees were abolished in 1987 in a bid to get more children into schools, and enrolment rates soared. However, the government has said it would have to cut high annual expenditure on basic education. Education Minister Jacob Nkate noted although the state was still committed to the principle of equal access to education, it was no longer economical to continue a wholly subsidised education system.

Last month marked a turning point in the country's turbulent history with the election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as president. But politicians, aid workers, security experts and diplomats agree that the challenges are immense. And many Liberians living in exile have decided to wait and see. One particular concern is the continued presence of jobless ex-combatants throughout Liberia. The refugees are also worried about a lack of assistance upon returning home and a lack of job opportunities in Liberia.

Deng Kual, 4, is the latest person to die as the peaceful protest against the UNHCR enters its third month. The number of protesters has more than doubled since the group decided to stage their demonstration on September 30 near the regional office of UNHCR. The group insists that UNHCR assist in their relocation, saying they can no longer endure the discrimination, inopportunity and abuse they experience in Egypt. However, with the death of Kual and two others before him, the group is now coming under fire, even by activists who are dedicated to defending their rights.