Bob Geldof has done an unusual service of getting the key western countries to focus public attention on Africa at the G8 summit. This poses a difficulty for those who see the harm that this kind of focus does to the continent. It conceals the root cause of many of the problems of the continent and perpetuates a view of a continent that is unable to solve its problems. The problems are easy enough to state: complicity between the West and the corrupt leaders who have consistently pillaged the continent; reinforcement of the dependency culture that aid plus neo-liberal economic reform will redeem the continent from poverty, thus maintaining the pauperisation of Africans; suppressing radical people-centred alternative economic opinions opposed to the World Bank / IMF economic orthodoxy; and the subversion of the social and economic development in the interest of repayment of odious debt.

While we accept that good governance is self-evidently desirable, it is also true that the West has been and is still complicit in the corruption that they now disavow. In instances where Africans have democratically elected promising leaders, Western governments have undermined or conspired in their political elimination and replaced them with puppet regimes. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a classic example of this phenomenon. In spite of being duly elected and the preferred choice of his people, the West conspired to eliminate Patrice Lumumba and replaced him with Mobutu Sese Seko. It is therefore impossible to understand the economic and political circumstances in the Congo today without a knowledge of this history. We pose the question: how can it be that the country with the most natural resources in Africa is still amongst the poorest and least developed? Other examples could be cited to show that Africa’s real interests were stymied by the West’s activities in Africa.

We believe that Africa needs neither conditional aid, charity nor pity. Western governments should be held to account for the exploitation of the continent and to make reparations for the pillage that they have inflicted.

Signed:

Patricia Daley, Fellow, Jesus College Oxford
Firoze Manji, Editor Pambazuka News
Paul Okojie, Senior Lecturer in Law, Manchester Metropolitan University and a member of the International Governing Council of the Centre for Democracy and Development
Peter da Costa, PhD Candidate, SOAS, London
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, General_Secretary, Global Pan African Movement
Susan Akono, writer
Abiodun Onadipe, Independent Consultant
Rotimi Sankore, Coordinator of CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights

An edited version of this letter first appeared in the Guardian July 4 2005

Visit http://www.standupforafrica.org.uk/ to sign a petition to make poverty history in Africa.

The African National Congress will adopt a "zero tolerance" approach to corruption - no matter who it involves. This was the commitment made by ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe when he announced that the five serving ANC members of parliament who pleaded guilty to fraud with parliamentary travel vouchers have resigned from parliament.

A recent edition of the Africa Focus Bulletin examines the problem of health resources for Africa. Despite their commitment early this month to write off debts to multilateral institutions by 18 developing countries (see http://www.africafocus.org/docs05/debt0506.php), says the Bulletin, rich countries have barely made a start in meeting the demands to address Africa's needs. "While debate tends to focus under the standard themes of debt, aid, and trade, activists in the health field are taking the lead to stress that the framework needs to be changed to a common obligation to invest in universal rights rather than a narrow conception of charitable "aid" from donors to recipients."

On the 5th of July 2005, in the Johannesburg High Court, Professor Dennis Brutus and Jubilee will make ex-parte applications to the High Court, stating their opposition to the takeover of Absa by Barclays. The anti-apartheid activist and poet Professor Dennis Brutus will approach the Court, advising it that Barclays Bank aiding and abetted the Apartheid Regime and has been misleading in information provided to the JSE and SRP, including the glaring omission that Barclays is the lead defendant in ongoing litigation in the USA.

The United Nations Security Council should strongly declare its full support for the International Criminal Court's investigation into the serious crimes committed in Darfur, Human Rights Watch said before the first-ever briefing of the Council by an ICC prosecutor. When the Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC on March 31, it invited the court's prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, to report on the progress of his investigation within three months.  The International Criminal Court lacks the ability to execute its own requests. Instead, the court must rely on state cooperation to further its investigations. The Security Council should encourage and facilitate this cooperation, which is crucial to the effective pursuit of justice, Human Rights Watch said.

"The African paradox can be simply stated. Africa is widely perceived throughout most of the world as the continent of perpetual socio-political upheavals and tragic military confrontations; yet its people’s commitment to democracy, far from undergoing any erosion, is, at grassroots level in particular, more and more vibrant." Click on the URL provided and read the rest of this article by Congolese writer Kabasubabu Katulondi.

"Behind the politicians and pop stars on display at the Gleneagles summit of the Group of Eight (G8) on 6-8 July, look out for another contingent of professionals: non-government organisations (NGOs). The aid agencies will be there in strength, promoting their solutions for Africa’s ills, rallying their troops and rattling collection-boxes." But this article on www.opendemocracy.net argues that Western NGOs’ desire to help Africans has led them into unhealthy relationships with host countries, donor governments, and media.

Peace may yet be possible in Northern Uganda in 2005, says the International Crisis Group. "Many elements seem to be in place, but they need to be pursued by President Museveni's government in a more comprehensive framework, given stronger international support and - most urgently - be committed to by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the context of a specific process with a clearly definable endgame."

The Congolese army must prevent further violence among its rival factions that has caused unnecessary civilian casualties, Human Rights Watch said after security forces in the eastern city of Goma fired mortars against soldiers based in a crowded neighborhood, killing two children and injuring 10 other civilians. The violence among army factions comes at a time when security forces across the country have been on high alert for weeks. Opposition parties had called for mass protests to force the Congolese transitional government to step down on June 30, the deadline originally set by the 2003 Sun City Accord.

When the leaders of the world's largest industrial nations meet in Scotland, they will debate how to address the HIV/Aids crisis and whether to significantly increase assistance to Africa. But for the summit to have a real impact on the Aids pandemic, the G8 will have to do more than increase funding; they will have to address the economic and social realities that make women and girls a special, high-risk group. Evidence from Africa shows the importance and cost-effectiveness of this strategy.

Officials in Burundi are counting votes following Monday's key parliamentary election, with a former Hutu rebel group looking set to win comfortably. Early results put the FDD well ahead of its main Hutu rival, the Frodebu party of President Domitien Ndayizeye. The polling was largely peaceful and the turnout was 65%.

The Western European prostitution market has become increasingly globalized during the past 15 years. The processes by which Eastern European, Southeast Asian, Latin American, and Sub-Saharan African women end up as sex workers in Western Europe are highly varied. The largest group of prostitutes from Sub-Saharan Africa comes from Nigeria, and they are usually recruited through a specific type of trafficking network. The term "trafficking in persons" is restricted to instances where people are deceived, threatened, or coerced into situations of exploitation, including prostitution. This contrasts with "human smuggling," in which a migrant purchases services to circumvent immigration restrictions, but is not necessarily a victim of deception or exploitation.

Zambian police are investigating charges of sedition and criminal libel against two journalists, raising concern that freedom of expression is under threat. Sipo Kapumba, a spokesman for the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia, told IRIN the police had summoned Fred M'membe, editor of the privately-owned The Post newspaper, on 29 June after a series of editorials critical of President Levy Mwanawasa's government.

The international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) launched two separate reports on Monday, both criticising an Egyptian law that excessively regulates civil society and the activity of NGOs. "Freedom of association is a core political right. One cannot talk about democracy without being able to have an environment that allows people to come together in a free and unrestricted way," Joe Stork, Deputy Director of HRW's Middle East Division, said at a press conference in Cairo.

Two weeks ago Tebogo Malete was publicly flogged at a traditional court in Old Naledi, a village southeast of the Botswana's capital, Gaborone; a photograph of his punishment was published in the weekly newspaper, The Midweek Sun. Malete, 27, a petty thief, had been sentenced to five lashes for housebreaking at the customary court presided over by the village headman. The humiliating newspaper photo showed him with his pants down and a police officer using a lash on his bare buttocks, sparking outrage in human rights circles.

An estimated 200 000 South Africans living with HIV and AIDS are in urgent need of anti-AIDS drugs, but supply is not keeping up with demand. And, despite good nutrition being an essential pre-requisite for starting anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment, only a fraction of HIV and AIDS patients are receiving the supplements and food parcels. This is the finding of a monitoring report compiled by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Aids Law Project, 18 months after the government approved the national HIV and AIDS treatment plan.

The international medical NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), is urging G8 nations and the UN to push for speedy delivery of the cheapest and latest anti-AIDS drugs to developing countries. MSF stressed that this was vital to head off a looming supply and cost crisis, because "access to newer drugs is increasingly critical, as the growing number of people with HIV/AIDS currently on treatment will inevitably develop resistance to first-line treatments".

The discussion group is open to members and non-members. The AFWOSCHO list focuses on debates and exchange of ideas about gender issues in Africa and encourages the dissemination of and response to other related and relevant information (research queries, conferences and workshops, grants, fellowships, courses, programs, scholarships, collaborative work). Request to join can be made on the internet through [email protected] by sending the following message: SUBSCRIBE AFWOSCHO [your name]

A leading campaign group has called for a substantial part of increased aid to Africa to be channelled directly to people, rather than governments. While G8 leaders talk of doubling aid to Africa, "we say that at least half of the doubling should be for more local initiatives," director of the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, Camilla Toulmin, told IPS.

This paper examines gender equity within the 2005 South African budget. The authors highlight that women and girls are often most vulnerable to conditions like HIV/AIDS and poverty, but that programmes to address these conditions will fail without a significant earmarking of funds. Ensuring that there is adequate funding for men's and women's programming does not mean having separate male and female budgets, but rather giving critical consideration to the imbalances that exist in society and respond effectively to addressing these. The authors claim that the South African budget in 2005 gives some consideration to tackling gender inequities, but these interventions tend to be gender-blind.

Today (July 01), the length and breadth of Kampala, Capital of Uganda is soaked with messages of solidarity and the Global Call to Action against Poverty on this second international White Arm-Band Day. As early as 4 a.m. banners were erected in strategic positions of the city calling upon Ugandans to speak out with one voice and send a clear and powerful message to Prime Minister Tony Blair, President George Bush, the rest of the G8 leaders as well as our President Museveni.

Rallying under the themes “no more broken promise” and “ Acha mizengwe timiza malengo ya Millennia”, TANGO and Action-Aid will on 5th July be holding a procession which will culminate into a mass rally at Karimjee Hall grounds. The procession and rally will be part of the Global Call to action Against Poverty, which aims at creating awareness on the content of the Millennium Declaration and the subsequent Development Goals.

I am writing this letter to applaud the Live 8 events that have happened this past weekend in Berlin, London, Philly and elsewhere in the Western world. I have to say that after a long period of living and being exposed to real life in Western countries, I have become a Western- or to put it more specifically "White-pessimist" and developed a very big ego of Afro-optimism. This is particularly due to the way I have watched, observed and received news about Africa in these countries. The media, regular people and the education system mainly potrays its connection with Africa driven by a culture of pity. So, I had become convinced that white people have no intrinsic interest in Africa or Africans.

However, after watching "Live 8" events on TV in London, Berlin and Philly, I felt a change of heart. People coming out in numbers and thinking about Africa, performing for Africa, sweating for Africa, driving miles from the comfort of their homes for Africa. Although some of us Africans who love Africa very much are saddened by the way Africa is represented in Western audiences, today a part of me feels grateful and sad as well. I wrote to friends in Madagascar, in Senegal, in Uganda and in Nigeria, wondering how many cities in Africa have held similiar events? How many, really, how many places in Africa will you go and there is a band or fundraising event for the war in Northern Uganda or Darfur or Congo or Cote D'Ivoire? Yet if P Diddy or U2 or Snoop or 50 Cents were to come to perform in Africa for commercial purposes, many of us would save our salaries to watch their shows, and give our month(s) payment back to the rich when we cannot even raise money for our fellow Africans. Why don't African artists do this in their own countries? Or do we need an Africa International TV to show us that we are raising money for the continent?

One may say we have a lot of problems in our own countries but my goodness how many Ugandans even raise money for the people living in displaced camps in Northern Uganda? Besides those with relatives in these camps, usually it takes the likes of Save the Children to set up bases in Northern Uganda, so that our own media can report the humanitarian assistance. Then we complain that Bono or Paul McCartney are stealing the show....uhm! As Bob Geldof said today, "Don't let them tell you this doesn't work". Because twenty years ago, that girl on the TV screen had only two minutes to live. But this year, she finished her exam and degree in Agriculture in Northern Ethiopia. So, I thought to myself, even though these people's mercy is driven by an annoying culture of pity, I am watching Madonna, Snoop, Destiny's Child, Bono, Paul McCartney, sweating for Africa and raising their voice for Africa's poverty to the G8. And this made me rethink a part of my heart and pessimism about White people and the West. And I felt grateful and a little more certain that this money being raised now has a higher chance of making it to Africa unlike that money Western governments claim to allocate to Africa each year or the so-called humanitarian agencies but ends up paying their own staff and machinery.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has launched a new development drive designed to bring access to information and communication technologies to the estimated one billion people worldwide who are still without access to a telephone. Called 'Connect the World', the initiative is designed to encourage new projects and partnerships to bridge the digital divide.

Climate change could drastically alter the distribution of thousands of plant species across Africa, say scientists. The researchers, led by Jon Lovett of the University of York in the United Kingdom, looked at 5,197 species of African plants — about 10-15 per cent of the continent's plant species. Using computer models that predict future climate, the researchers concluded that by 2085, the habitats in which nearly all of these plants can live would either shrink or shift, often to higher altitudes, as a result of anticipated changes in Africa's climate.

Children are often forced to work due to chronic poverty. Globally, work is the main occupation of almost 20 percent of all children aged under 15. This is considered a major obstacle to achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal primary education by 2015. Research from the University of Oxford in the UK suggests that child labour is often essential to household survival. Children who do household work release adults from domestic responsibilities to earn a wage; those employed outside the home contribute to family income.

In response to changing continuing education needs of agricultural institutions and their personnel in Eastern Africa, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Alemaya University (Ethiopia) are setting up a Center for Agricultural Research Management and Policy Learning for Eastern Africa (CARMPoLEA). This regional center will serve as a home of capacity building initiative to improve the management, organization and leadership of agricultural research and policy making and ultimately support the Agricultural Innovation System (AIS). To launch the center, we are organizing a series of workshops which are aimed at responding to regional knowledge and skill needs in the areas of agricultural research management and policy.

Olive (Organisation Development and Training) is running two - five day sessions on Development Planning and Management on the 15th to 19th August and 14th to 18th November respectively, and altogether covering 5 modules.

"We the undersigned call on the Group of 8 (G8) leaders to recognize and act upon the twin, interlinked crises of debt and global warming. Current G8 energy investments are fundamentally at odds with sound development practice. Ongoing public financing of the fossil fuel industry is increasing debt, poverty, and climate change. Urgent action is now required to substantially reduce emissions, reduce fossil fuel dependence, and protect people around the world, especially the vulnerable, the poor and disappearing nations."

Africa - Up in Smoke?, the second report from the coalition of the UK's top environment and development groups, the Working Group on Climate Change and Development says that efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa will ultimately fail unless urgent action is taken to halt dangerous climate change. The report says that G8 nations have failed to 'join-the-dots' between climate change and Africa. Unless addressed, this could condemn generations in the world’s poorest nations.

"We are writing on behalf of the International Press Institute (IPI) and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), to call for the repeal of Sierra Leone's seditious libel law under which Paul Kamara, editor of For Di People, is currently imprisoned. In October 2004, Mr Kamara, editor and publisher of the independent daily For Di People, was convicted on two counts of seditious libel for articles that appeared in his newspaper focusing on a 1967 Commission of Inquiry, which reportedly implicated you in the embezzlement of public funds."

Security forces have harassed and detained several journalists covering opposition protests in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, according to local sources. A presidential spokesperson told the Committee to Protect Journalists that any journalists detained while doing their work would be released.

While there is no single solution to Africa's need to increase its capacity in science and technology, higher education is a central concern, reports the latest edition of the SciDev.net newsletter. "Though the number of universities has proliferated, teaching quality is often poor (with low salaries and 'brain drain' being contributing factors), and public spending on universities is often small. Equipment and support resources are also lacking. With a Millennium Development Goal focusing on universal primary education, in a few years there will be a crucial need for more and better universities to cater for a more educated population."

Doctors at two of Zimbabwe's largest referral hospitals have embarked on an indefinite strike, demanding a pay rise of more than 100 percent and a special allocation to cover escalating fuel costs caused by the ongoing petrol shortage. Junior and mid-level doctors at Harare's Parirenyatwa and Central hospitals vowed on Wednesday not to resume work until the government had met their demands.

The main human rights NGO in the Republic of Congo, the Congolese Human Rights Observatory (OCDH), pulled out of the state-sponsored National Commission of Human Rights last Thursday to protest what it says is the commission’s inaction on known abuses and lack of government independence. "The government does not consider the commission to be a constitutional institution with administrative and financial autonomy," Roger Bouka-Owoko, the OCDH executive director, said during a news conference to announce the NGO’s decision.

In Uganda in 1967 there were no women members of parliament and in 1980 only one out of the 143 members of Parliament was a woman. In the 1989 National Resistance Council elections, the NRM Government brought significant improvement to women’s political participation and reserved thirty-four seats for women. Uganda, writes Jacqueline Asiimwe, is often given as an example of effective women’s political participation, but there is a long way to go before the playing fields are truly level. Part of the solution is to turn the aspirations of the Millennium Development Goals into action by ratifying the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.

Introduction:

One of the millennium development goals is the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. While limited in nature, the goal addresses gender disparity in education, the share of women in wage employment and the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament. The importance of this goal to human development cannot be over emphasized.

This article explores just one of the aspects of the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women by sharing Uganda’s experience in the area of women’s political leadership.

The Uganda Experience:

Uganda is oft cited as a success story with regard to the issue of women in leadership – specifically political leadership. Indeed the 1995 Constitution has various articles that address women’s [political] leadership. The National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Constitution stipulates that the State shall ensure gender balance and fair representation of marginalized groups on all constitutional and other bodies. Article 32 addresses the need for affirmative action; Article 33 spells out rights specific to women. Article 78 states that every district shall have one woman representative to parliament and article 180(b) ensures that one third of members of each local council shall be women.

One of the first demands that the women’s movement made of the new NRM regime (The NRM came to power in 1986 and has ruled Uganda since then. It is also known as the Movement Govenrment.) was in the area of women’s political rights. At independence in 1962 there was a 2:88 female to male ratio in parliament. But in 1967 no women served in Parliament; in 1980 only one out of the 143 members of Parliament was a woman. In the 1989 National Resistance Council elections, the NRM Government brought significant improvement to women’s political participation. Thirty-four seats were reserved for women; two women won their seats in open contests against male candidates, three women were nominated by the president and two were historical members, appointed because of their participation in the guerrilla war led by the National Resistance Army. By 1996, 52 women held parliamentary seats, 39 of them reserved and constituting 19 percent of the members of Parliament. By 1995 also, women constituted 17 percent of all ministers, 21 percent of all permanent secretaries, 35 percent of all under secretaries, and 16 percent of all district administrators. Women were also represented on National Commissions such as the Constitutional Commission, the Electoral Commission and the Human Rights Commission as well as on parastatal boards.

Through affirmative action, women made considerable headway in Parliament. Women now make up 24 percent of the parliamentarians in Uganda and despite the ongoing discussion of the merits or demerits of such a policy one of the positive results is that women have been given exposure, political experience and increased confidence. When asked about the changes to women’s status after the 1986 NRM takeover, women overwhelmingly responded that the biggest changes related to women’s participation in politics, standing for office, becoming public and government leaders, and being able to express themselves publicly to a greater degree than in the past.

Despite these gains though, it is still not very easy for women to make it into political offices and prestigious leadership. The major players in politics and decision-making continue to be men despite women’s presence and the issues on women’s political agenda do not feature nor are they deemed a priority. The fact that men predominate in the public/political sphere in Uganda means that its organization and structures are heavily influenced by male values, attitudes and priorities. Very often women are expected to conform to and not transform the structures and norms of the public sphere. Whether the culture and atmosphere of politics is actively antagonistic to women, or simply organized in a way that doesn’t suit them, it can be difficult for women as relative newcomers to challenge. Those who attempt to transform the structures and norms face a quick and brutal backlash.

Further, despite the high numbers of women in politics and in the public space, women are still regarded as intruders in this [male] space and are largely unwelcome in the political domain and for the most part they are endured as a necessary evil rather than an equal partner on the pathway to development. As one person put it:

‘The biggest threat facing the stability of families today is the desire for women to join high-level politics. There are shortcomings to this, most important being the lack of “quality time” and parental love to children…Women should be limited to 10% political representation and should be stopped from voting for presidents and MPs at least for some 200 years. [See Dr. Joy C Kwesiga, Leaders Within Limits: Gender Ideologies and Identities in Uganda Today (research paper under a research program titled “ Consolidating Peace and Development in the Lake Victoria Region and its Environs: The National and Local Responses to Transformation from Turmoil to a More Sustainable Development Process”]

Another person put it this way: “Sometimes when you give financial, economic and social power to women, in most cases it brings problems. Check which type of woman is given power.” (Muhairwe, Ekimeza 23/02/02)

The major scenario with regard to women and leadership has been bureaucratically putting women in places of leadership and authority without any attempts at simultaneously removing the practical and structural obstacles that stand in their way to effective involvement in this arena. In short it is not enough to increase women’s participation in politics/leadership without democratizing the public space where such politics are done. [Sylvia Tamale, Gender and Affirmative Action in Post-195 Uganda: A New Dispensation, or Business as Usual? IN CONSTITUTIONALISM IN AFRICA: CREATING OPPORTUNITIES, FACING CHALLENGES, J.OLOKA OYANGO (Ed) 2001 at221. ] This issue is closely related to tokenism, which is the practice of appointing a few women to positions of power and responsibility, without giving them the requisite support, or eliminating the impediments they face. The following quote illustrates this point:

‘Women are not brought in as an equal partner but as a means of balancing the composition. This is reflected during parliamentary debates where in most circumstances the Speaker or the chairperson is giving women a chance to speak. He will often say ‘let me first gender balance’. When looked at analytically it seems like the speaker has been giving an opportunity to substantive speakers, and then giving women a chance for the sake of balance. [SUPRA Note 7.]

Bringing women into the policy and decision making space does not necessarily mean or lead to power sharing or redress in imbalances at that level. Many women have in fact shared of the struggles in that space, struggles to assert the worth of a woman, struggles to be respected as competent legislators or decision-makers, etc. Take for example Maria Mutagamba’s experience, who in 1996 was a member of the Democratic Party (DP). When she was still with the DP she was chairperson of the presidential elections campaign in 1996 and when she asked Dr. Kawanga Ssemwogerere what he expected of her he said “All you have to do is present yourself at the conference center, welcome me when I come in and introduce me to the gathering.” [WINNIE BYANYIMA AND RICHARD MUGISHA (Eds), THE RISING TIDE: UGANDAN WOMEN’S STRUGGLE FOR A PUBLIC VOICE 1940 – 2002 (2003) at 186] She also recounts the following about her high post in the DP

‘Slowly I was coming face to face with the realities of politics. I had to get my campaign team to accept me first. They had not agreed on me becoming their chairperson. I think that Dr. Ssemwogerere had sat somewhere and thought of a woman for several reasons. One he thought I had money, which would help his campaign. Secondly I think he wanted to appear gender sensitive and appointing a woman head of his team would portray a gender-balanced campaign and thirdly, as I came to realize later, he thought I was a quiet innocent person who could be pushed around easily…At first men close to him did not accept me easily because they had lined up some other people to head the campaign and they did not want a woman to head…’

While the public sphere is opening up to women the private sphere remains intact. By private sphere we mean the family. Difficulties arise because the entry of women into leadership positions is discussed in isolation of these structures. Consequently, while the power centers are shifting, the other institutions in society are not changing. This is particularly so in the case of family structures and household dynamics. People are often quick to remind women where they belong as the following quotation illustrates:

‘However high you have gone politically, socially or economically, your husband is your husband. Even if you become the President of Uganda and your husband is a primary school teacher, he is still entitled to his respect in that capacity. Drop the pride! It smacks of arrogance, conceit and egoism. Its capacity to destroy marriages is unquestionable. [SUPRA Note 18.]

Despite the challenges that women in politics face, it goes without saying that their presence has gone a long way in improving the lives of ordinary Ugandans. Their contribution is summed up as follows:

‘The presence of such an unprecedented number of females in an institution that was traditionally dominated by men has… introduced a gendered perspective to the law-making process…Moreover, the increased visibility of women in positions of leadership is slowly changing the attitudes of Ugandans (both men and women) towards women’s presence in the political arena. This new consciousness forms the crucial basis for a new kind of political self-organisation for women and for a more radical transformation of gender relations in Ugandan society (Tamale: 2001: 220).

Affirmative Action in politics in Uganda has delivered numbers. Presence and action of women has expanded and relatively deepened public concerns. Both at the national and local levels, the relative presence of women has brought new questions on the political agenda. The experience of the constitution making process in 1994 and the resultant 1995 constitution indicate that numerical presence of women in the Constituent Assembly had a lot to contribute to the gendered contestations and outcomes. The outlook of decision-making bodies has changed, ideologically accommodating the construction of a leader as male and female.

Enter the Protocol on Women’s Rights:

With regard to the issue of women’s rights to participate in politics and decision making the Protocol provides that:

1. States Parties shall take specific positive action to promote participative governance and the equal participation of women in the political life of their countries through affirmative action, enabling national legislation and other measures to ensure that:
a. women participate without any discrimination in all elections;
b. women are represented equally at all levels with men in all electoral processes;
c. women are equal partners with men at all levels of development and implementation of State policies and development programs.

2. States Parties shall ensure increased and effective representation and participation of women at all levels of decision-making.

The Millennium Development Goals and the Protocol tie in beautifully because both demand for the equal participation of women in the political life of their countries, part of which includes levels and numbers of representation. No one country can stand tall and proud or even seek to make headway in politics if it continues to exclude or marginalize women. If women are the backbone of our economies, if they are the central to agriculture and food security in our countries, if they are the pivot around which our populations grow and expand, then they must be included in the same measure in politics and decision making.

The Millennium Development Goals and the Protocol on Women’s Rights must not be seen as separate instruments, with governments being able to pick and choose which they will deliver on. They are two sides of the same coin. One cannot be properly implemented without the other and that’s why the clarion call goes out to all African Leaders – we need to ratify the Protocol NOW! Turn the aspirations of the Millennium Development Goals into action by ratifying the Protocol on the Rights of Women.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

In order to make full use of the ten years until the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals, Souad Abdennebi-Abderrahim argues that it is a matter of great urgency for African states to ratify the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and join those who have already done so (The Comoros, Djibouti, Libya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal). Ratifying the Protocol would lead to states preparing an adequate strategy for the implementation of its provisions.

Context

The necessity of fighting global poverty, hunger, unemployment, disease, gender inequalities and the destruction of the environment has become the rallying motif of all development actors, nationally, regionally and internationally. At the dawn of the 21st century, for the first time in history, this consensus of opinion was translated into the adoption of a declaration, identifying priorities intending to resolve the evils that inflict millions of people. Based on this common declaration made by 191 heads of State and governments, eight objectives were highlighted; notably to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, guarantee universal primary education, promote gender equality and the selfdetermination of women, reduce infant mortality, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, safeguard a sustainable environment and to implement a global partnership for development.

The target date for the realisation of these development objectives was fixed as 2015, with the period from the year 1990 set as a framework of reference. The results emanating from the review of progress achieved so far vary from one region to another, from one country to another, and even within countries themselves. The report presented by the ECA at the 38th sitting of African Ministers of Finance held in Abuja from 14 to 15 May 2005, entitled 'Realising the Millennium Development Goals in Africa', illustrates that despite certain advancements, Africa has obtained the worst results. The continent has demonstrated the slowest progress and at the same time shown trends of decline in certain key areas. "In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people living in a situation of extreme poverty (on less than one dollar a day) has increased from 217 million in 1990 to 290 million in 2000. The majority of these people are women and girls. It is estimated that adult life expectancy has fallen, from over 50 years to 46 years…" Elsewhere, the report adds that: "gender inequality remains a concern, whilst the education of women, for example, plays an important role in meeting all the objectives. It should be noted that a large number of countries have not adopted a rights based approach to development, that would accord particular attention to equality and non-discrimination."

The ECA report has identified gender inequality as one of the causes that is hindering development. It is true that since the 4th world conference on women, there has been some progress in women's education and health, and, in certain countries, in institutional and legislative domains. However Africa is still a very long way from reaching the designated objectives, as set out in the final document issuing from the 7th African conference on women, 'Results and Perspectives'.

The situation of African women ten years after Bejing

Evaluating the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action over a decade, this document reveals that "African women, particularly rural and handicapped women, continue to encounter problems of a serious nature. Their weak access to productive resources, such as land, water, energy, credit, means of communication, education and training, health and decent paid work have contributed to a situation whereby African women are still today, as ten years ago, living in poverty, indeed in extreme poverty. The cumulative effects of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, food insecurity, weak economic productivity and low levels of education, as well as a new wave of sexual violence are some of the considerable problems that are rendering African women and girls more vulnerable.

As a fact of their extreme poverty, women are the most exposed to HIV/AIDS infection, besides which they bear the responsibility for taking care of infected and affected persons… Women and girls are once again victims of grave violations of their human rights…" Thus the situation of women is still not particularly bright at a global, and notably at a regional level. However, we must recognise that there has been manifest advancement in one particular area: the cross-cutting nature of gender issues, and their impact on development and the reduction of poverty have been recognised. Nowadays, there is consensus that women must be at the centre of development and that gender inequality decelerates economic growth and poverty reduction. It is conceded more and more that unless development politics take gender equality into consideration, then they will not be efficient. This realisation was consolidated at the time of the Millennium Summit through the adoption of the declaration previously cited, in which all member States of the United Nations committed to promoting gender equality and the self-determination of women as the best means to combat poverty, hunger and disease, and to stimulate development.

The MDGs and the imperative for gender equality

Amongst the eight identified objectives, the question of gender equality is made explicit only in the third objective, but this does not make it any less relevant for the realisation of all the MDGs. Gender equality is considered a condition for sustainable development and economic growth sine qua non. Besides being an objective in its own right, it is equally necessary to achieve the other goals, notwithstanding its positive impact on the gains made in the context of all the goals. In effect, given the fact that the MDGs are interdependent, progress made in one area impacts on progress made in all areas. The successes, for example, of increasing school enrolment have positive repercussions for gender equality; and the benefits obtaining to equality will enable easier realisation of the other objectives. In other words, promoting the rights of women and reinforcing their empowerment are important means of achieving the sum of the Millennium Development Goals.

In fact, the MDGs cannot be met unless countries strive to achieve this equality. Consequentially, understanding the principle of gender equality in all policies and programmes that aim to achieve the millennium objectives is crucial. A human-rights approach should guide the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the MDGs. Adopting a human rights approach for example permits the consideration of maternal mortality, as enunciated in objective 5, as a violation of a human right, and not only a health problem. Consistent with this approach, it becomes imperative to eliminate harmful and discriminatory practices that perpetuate the inequality of women, and to seek to promote social and cultural values and norms that favour equality and equity, as well as justice.

The MDGs in the African context

Following the example of all their peers at a global level, African heads of State have acknowledged the relationship between gender inequality and development. As signed up members of the Millennium Declaration, they also confirmed their position by adopting 'The Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality' at their annual summit in July 2004. Thus they are committed to adopting a series of measures aimed at eliminating all forms of discrimination against women. They have notably decided to 'guarantee the promotion and the protection of all human and women's rights, including the right to development, through awareness raising or applying necessary legislation if need be'. They are further obliged to ratify the additional protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa before the end of 2004 . This regional instrument carries great importance for all Africans; as it constitutes a theoretical framework to identify the obstacles to women's rights, evaluate needs and set goals and objectives. The concept of equality reflected in the protocol extends beyond formal equality, insisting on the creation of equality of access and opportunities: i.e. the realisation of equality de facto. Moreover, the requirements of the Protocol direct States towards measures and actions that must be taken to protect the rights of women effectively.

Consequentially therefore, if Africa wants to make best use of the next ten years to meet the Millennium Development Goals, and to be at the meeting of 2015, it is urgent that African States join the ten countries – Comoros, Djibouti, Libya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal – which have already ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, and prepare an adequate strategy to implement the measures it provides for.

Editors: Our thanks to Stephanie Kitchen for providin the English translation of the original article.

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(French translation)

Les Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement et le Protocole additionnel à la Charte africaine des droits de l'homme et des peuples, relatif aux droits des femmes

Souad Abdennebi-Abderrahim
Conseillère régionale pour
la promotion des droits des femmes
Commission économique pour l’Afrique

Contexte
La nécessité de lutter contre la pauvreté dans le monde, la faim, le chômage, la maladie, les inégalités entre les sexes et la dégradation de l’environnement, est devenue le motif de ralliement de tous les acteurs de développement nationaux, régionaux et internationaux. Cette convergence des points de vue a été traduite pour la première fois dans l’histoire par l’adoption à l’aube de ce millénaire, d’une déclaration dans laquelle des priorités ont été identifiées en vue de résoudre les maux dont souffrent des millions d’individus. A partir de cette déclaration commune des 191 chefs d’Etat et de gouvernements, huit objectifs ont été dégagés. Il s’agit notamment de réduire l’extrême pauvreté et la faim, assurer l’enseignement primaire pour tous, promouvoir l 'égalité des sexes et l’autonomisation des femmes, réduire la mortalité infantile, combattre le VIH/Sida, le paludisme et d 'autres maladies, assurer un environnement durable et mettre en place un partenariat mondial pour le développement.

La date butoir pour la réalisation des ces objectifs de développement a été fixée à 2015 et l'année 1990 a été retenue comme période de référence. Les résultats de la revue des progrès réalisés varient d’une région à l’autre, d’un pays à l‘autre et à l’intérieur des pays eux même. Selon le rapport présenté par la CEA à la 38ème session des ministres africains des finances qui s’est tenue à Abuja du 14 au 15 mai 2005, intitulé "Réaliser les objectifs du Millénaire pour le développement en Afrique », malgré certaines avancées, l’Afrique a obtenu les plus mauvais résultats. Les progrès les plus lents ont été enregistrés de même que d’importantes inversions de la tendance dans certains domaines clefs.

« En Afrique subsaharienne, le nombre de personnes vivant dans une situation d’extrême pauvreté (avec un dollar par jour au moins) a augmenté, passant de 217 millions en 1990 à 290 millions en 2000, dont une majorité de femmes et de jeunes filles. On estime que l’espérance de vie des adultes a reculé, passant de plus de 50 ans à 46 ans… » Par ailleurs Le rapport ajoute que « l’inégalité entre les sexes demeure préoccupante, alors que pour atteindre tous les objectifs, l’éducation des femmes, par exemple joue un rôle important. Il est à noter qu’un grand nombre de pays n’ont pas adopté une approche du développement, fondée sur les droits de l’homme, qui accorde une attention toute particulière à l’égalité et à la non-discrimination. »

Le rapport de la CEA a identifié l’inégalité entre les sexes comme l’une des causes qui entravent le développement. Certes, des progrès ont été enregistrés depuis la 4ème conférence mondiale sur les femmes en matière d'éducation, de santé, et pour certains pays dans le domaine institutionnel et législatif, mais nous sommes encore très loin d'atteindre les objectifs assignés comme l’a démontré le texte final issu de la 7eme conférence africaine sur les femmes « Résultats et perspectives».

La situation des femmes africaines dix ans après Beijing
Evaluant la décennie de la mise en ?uvre de la Plate-forme d’action de Beijing, ce document a relevé que « Les femmes africaines, en particulier les femmes rurales et les femmes handicapées, rencontrent encore de graves problèmes. Leur faible accès aux ressources productives, comme la terre, l’eau, l’énergie, le crédit, les moyens de communication, l’éducation et à la formation, la santé, et l’emploi rémunéré et décent, a contribué à ce que davantage de femmes africaines qu’il y a 10 ans vivent aujourd’hui dans la pauvreté, voire dans l’extrême pauvreté. Les effets cumulés du VIH/sida, de la tuberculose et du paludisme, de l’insécurité alimentaire, de la faiblesse de la productivité économique et de faibles niveaux d’éducation, ainsi que la recrudescence de la violence sexuelle sont autant de problèmes considérables qui rendent les femmes et les filles africaines plus vulnérables. Les femmes sont les plus exposées à l’infection au VIH/sida, du fait de leur extrême pauvreté, ainsi que de leur responsabilité de prise en charge des personnes infectées et affectées….. Les femmes et les filles sont encore victimes de graves violations de leurs droits humains … »

Ainsi la situation des femmes au niveau mondial et notamment régional n‘est toujours pas brillante. Toutefois, nous devons reconnaître qu’une avancée notoire a été relevée dans un domaine précis qui est celui de la reconnaissance de la nature transversale des questions de genre et leur impact sur le développement et la réduction de la pauvreté. Tout le monde s’accorde aujourd‘hui à dire que la femme est au centre du développement et que l’inégalité des genres retarde la croissance économique et la réduction de la pauvreté. On admet de plus en plus que les politiques de développement qui ne tiennent pas compte des questions de genre et de l’égalité entre les sexes ne sont pas efficientes. Cette prise de conscience s’est concrétisée lors du Sommet du Millénaire par l’adoption de la déclaration auparavant citée dans la quelle tous les Etats membres des Nations Unies se sont engagés à promouvoir l’égalité entre les sexes et l’autonomisation des femmes comme étant le meilleur moyen de combattre la pauvreté, la faim et les maladies et stimuler le développement.

Les OMDS et l’impératif de l’égalité entre les sexes
Parmi les huit objectifs sélectionnés, la question de l’égalité entre les sexes n’apparaît d’une façon évidente qu’au sein de l’objectif 3, mais il n’en demeure pas moins qu’elle est d’une grande acuité pour la réalisation de tous les OMDs. Elle est considérée comme une condition sine qua non pour le développement durable et la croissance économique. Etant elle-même un objectif à atteindre, elle est également nécessaire pour achever les autres cibles, tout en se nourrissant des gains acquis dans le contexte de ces cibles. En effet du fait que les OMDs sont inter-dépendants, les progrès enregistrés dans l’un des domaines affectent les progrès des autres. Les succès au niveau de la scolarisation par exemple se répercuteront d’une manière positive sur l’égalité des sexes. D’autre part, les bénéfices obtenus en matière d’égalité permettront de faciliter la réalisation des autres objectifs. En d‘autres termes promouvoir les droits des femmes et renforcer leur pouvoir d’action sont des moyens important pour la réalisation des objectifs du millénaire pour le développement.

En fait les OMDs ne peuvent être atteints si les pays n’?uvrent pas pour cette égalité. En conséquence la prise en compte du principe de l’égalité entre les sexes dans toutes les politiques et programmes qui visent la réalisation des objectifs du millénaire est cruciale et une démarche fondée sur les droits humains devrait guider la formulation, la mise en ?uvre, le suivi et l’évaluation des OMDs. Adopter une approche fondée sur les droits humains, permettrait par exemple de considérer la mortalité maternelle telle qu’elle est énoncée dans l’objectif 5, comme étant une violation d’un droit humain et non uniquement comme un problème de santé. Selon cette même approche, il devient impérieux d’éliminer les pratiques néfastes et discriminatoires qui perpétuent les inégalités à l’égard des femmes, et chercher à promouvoir des normes et des valeurs sociales et culturelles, qui favorisent l’égalité et l’équité, ainsi que la justice

Les OMDs dans le contexte africain
Les Chefs d’Etat africains, à l’instar de tous leurs pairs au niveau mondial ont reconnu le lien qui existe entre l’égalité des sexes et le développement. Parties intégrantes de la Déclaration du Millénaire, ils ont aussi confirmé leur position, en adoptant lors de leur sommet annuel en juillet 2004, « La Déclaration solennelle pour l’égalité entre les sexes ». Ainsi ils se sont engagés à prendre une série de mesures en vue d’éliminer toutes les discriminations à l’égard des femmes. Ils ont décidé notamment « d’assurer la promotion et la protection de tous les droits de l’homme, des femmes et des filles, y compris le droit au développement par la sensibilisation ou par l’application des lois nécessaires, le cas échéant ». Ils se sont aussi obligés à ratifier avant la fin de l’année 2004, le Protocole additionnel à la Charte africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples, relatif aux droits des femmes. Cet instrument régional est d’une grande importance pour tous les Africains en ce qu’il constitue un cadre théorique qui identifie les obstacles à l’accomplissement des droits des femmes, évalue les besoins, et assigne les buts et les objectifs. Le concept d’égalité qui est reflété dans le Protocole va au-delà de l’égalité formelle, et insiste sur la création des opportunités et l’égalité d’accès. En d’autres termes, il insiste sur la réalisation de l’égalité de fait. En outre, les dispositions du Protocole orientent les Etats vers les mesures et les actions à prendre pour une protection effective des droits des femmes.

Aussi, si nous voulons exploiter efficacement les 10 années à venir pour atteindre les Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement et être au rendez-vous de 2015, il est urgent que les Etats africains rejoignent les 10 pays (Comores, Djibouti, Libye, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibie, Nigeria, Rwanda, Afrique du Sud et Sénégal) qui ont déjà ratifié le Protocole à la Charte africaine sur les droits de l’homme et des peuples, relatif aux droits de la femme, et préparent une stratégie adéquate pour la mise en ?uvre de ses dispositions.

Women have suffered the most as a result of the diversion of funds from social services in order to service debt repayments. In solving the debt crisis and making sure that it never happens again, the political and economic participation of women is crucial. That’s why the Protocol on the Rights of Women must be ratified, says this Pambazuka News article.

In 2005 the issue of debt cancellation has received an enormous amount of attention, with world leaders under pressure to deliver on what has been described as one of the biggest stumbling blocks to Africa’s development.

The argument for debt cancellation is that undemocratic governments contracted the debt and these debts are therefore illegitimate. Repayments prevent governments from channeling money into much needed social services such as health and education. This violates the rights of people to adequate health care, for example.

Continued debt repayments also make a mockery of efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which require substantial financial commitments. As long as governments have to continue paying large amounts to service their debt, the MDGs will remain a pipe dream. Many countries are so mired in debt that they can never realistically hope to fully repay their debts and live a debt free existence. Rich countries have also only been willing to write off debt subject to the adoption of certain conditions by debtor countries, such as Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), which have in turn had a devastating impact on the social fabric of the countries where they have been implemented.

This is why countless statements have been issued over the years calling for unconditional cancellation of third world debt. For example, the Dakar Declaration for the total unconditional cancellation of African and Third World debt adopted in Dakar, Senegal on December 14, 2000 stated that debt and structural adjustment plans (SAPs) constitute the principal causes for the degradation of health, education, nutrition, food security, the environment and socio-cultural values of African populations. Debt and SAPs, said the statement, are the cause of the aggravation of unemployment, the destruction of families, the worsening of women's socio-economic conditions, the ecological degradation of the continent and wars.

It has been clear for many years that the onerous burden of debt has an enormous impact on nearly every aspect of life and none more so than on the lives of women. As Barbara Kalima from the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) in Harare, Zimbabwe has previously pointed out, in Sub-Saharan Africa, women's roles have been increasing in scope because of the impact of economic reforms, wars and crises. Women are not only crucial to the economy, but also play a key role in delivering social services. But Kalima goes on to note that women often live in difficult social and economic conditions. This is amplified by a reliance on the formulations of the Bretton Woods Institutions: “The essence of adjustment conditionality denies women the right to participate in economic policy formulation and to identify the economic models that suit them. The international financial institutions are actively contributing in mortgaging women's well-being.” Kalima states that women's economic rights must be fostered through engendered human development which means that gender biases are corrected through the process of developing people's capacity to enjoy a decent life and be educated.

The often poor economic condition of women is of direct benefit to the market. Yassine Fall notes that women’s inequality has benefited the capitalist system. “Women not only represent a cheap labour force, but they also contribute to the survival of the economic system though their unpaid labour,” she writes. Fall argues that the link between gender and debt can be explained in the impact of the macroeconomic policies such as SAPs on women. “The very things that can help raise their status - education, health care and employment - are being decimated as governments struggle to meet crippling debt repayments to the creditors.”

While the United Nations (UN) Millennium Summit provided the international community with a clear set of development goals, Fall says meaningful development requires the removal of major sources of "unfreedom" - including institutional arrangements that deny people, especially women. “Alleviating poverty, ensuring food security, reducing population growth, improving the quality of a country's future labour force, and properly using the natural resource base all depend substantially on women, and thus major gender policy analysis should not ignore this fact. Without gender analysis, there is little chance that any efforts to reduce and manage external debt will bring about substantial poverty alleviation for both women and men.”

Fall makes some recommendations to redress the gender and debt disparity. Governments should generate economic policies that have a positive impact on employment and income of women workers; governments should seek to mobilize new and additional financial resources in the form of grants and not loans; and explore more effective ways of integrating gender into debt management negotiations and monitoring processes.

How to avoid future manifestations of the debt trap? Gerald Mwale, in an article for One World Africa, argues governments must develop clear guidelines as to how loans will benefit men, women, and children. The location of control also needs to shift from the centre to citizens, who need to become the mechanism of control. “Governments should only obtain loans that are sanctioned by the people through their representatives (parliamentarians) and allow civil society to monitor them,” he writes. Moreover, Mwale continues, debt negotiations ought to consider the link between debt and budgeting for social services. “Last but not least, complicity of borrowers and debtors plus the historical cause of debt must be included in debt analysis,” he concludes.

If women have experienced the worst of the debt crisis in Africa, then their perspective is crucial not only in resolving the situation but also in participating in the process that results in redress and makes sure that history does not repeat itself. The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, which clearly deals with women’s political and economic participation, is an important mechanism in making sure that this happens.

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REFERENCES:

1. Barbara Kalima: Gender, debt and development abstract paper; African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD), June 2002. (http://www.afrodad.org/archive/gender_debt.htm)

2. Yassine Fall: Promoting sustainable human development rights for women in Africa., February 1998. (http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/africa-cn.htm)

3. Gerald Mwale : African women carry the debt burden, One World Africa. May 2005. (http://www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=1...

4. World Development Report 2001: The vicious cycle: Aids and third world debt.

According to Rehabilitation International (RI) the African continent has over 80 million persons with disabilities today. With malnutrition, accidents, crime, diseases and all manner of violent conflicts prevalent on this continent, Africa risks yet another dubious distinction of being the place with the fastest growing number of persons with disabilities in the world. It is estimated that between 350-500 people become amputees due to landmines per day.

G8 member states are undermining their commitments to poverty reduction, stability and human rights with irresponsible arms exports to some of the world's poorest and most conflict-ridden countries, according to new research. G8 weapons have been exported to countries including Sudan, Myanmar (Burma), the Republic of Congo, Colombia and the Philippines. On the eve of a meeting of G8 foreign ministers in London (23-24 June), a new report reveals how the G8 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the USA - are still supplying military equipment, weapons and munitions to destinations where they contribute to gross violations of human rights.

Twenty nine Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) members were arrested in Bulawayo on Saturday during a peaceful procession against Operation Murambatsvina in the run up to World Refugee Day 20 June. Twenty eight were arrested on site with one handing herself in, in solidarity. The women spent 48 hours in custody and appeared in court on Monday charged with Miscellaneous Offices Chapter 3, "Blocking Traffic". They were granted free bail and will go on trial on 11 July 2005 in Provincial Magistrates Court Bulawayo.

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem reports on a week-long commemoration of the life of Walter Rodney, held in Guyana. Rodney was assassinated on June 13, 1980, but continues to be remembered for his principled politics, philosophy of human and self-emancipation, leadership by example and commitment to the masses.

On June 13 it was exactly 25 years since the assassination of the Guyanese scholar-activist, Walter Rodney. To commemorate his life the Walter Rodney International Commemoration Committee headed by Professor Horace Campbell and their local counter parts in Guyana organised a week long series of groundings across the country that culminated in the unveiling of a memorial plaque and opening of a public park around the spot where Rodney was assassinated on June 13 1980, by a remote controlled bomb.

The government of Burnham Forbes claimed that a bombing device he was carrying, allegedly to attack the central prison where some of the activists of his party, Working Peoples Alliance of Guyana (WPA) were being held, killed Rodney. This official lie could have turned his assassination into a perfect murder but for the fact that his brother, Donald, was with him in the fateful car and survived the explosion. A state security operative, Smith, was fingered as the perpetrator of the dastardly act. He was quickly spirited out of the country to French Guyana where he died a few years ago. The murder trail did not begin or end with Smith. Burnham Forbes regime and his party, the PNC, bears responsibility for the assassination and the cover up since then. It is sad that 25 years after the assassination and thirteen years since the PNC was replaced as governing party by the PPP no closure has been brought to the Rodney assassination.

The commemoration was not about Rodney's death but a celebration of his principled politics, philosophy of human and self-emancipation, leadership by example and consistent practice. It was also about Rodney's life-long commitment to the masses. Participants came from several countries and continents including the Caribbean, Europe, North America and Africa. Many of them were people who knew and worked with Rodney and others were those who were influenced by his writing.

Prof. Ali Mazrui was there as was Prof. Loxley. Both of them were at Makerere University when Rodney was at the University of Dar Es Salaam. In a very generous appreciation -despite ideological and political differences with Rodney - Prof. Mazrui paid tribute to Rodney and recounted with great humour and truthfulness the famous Mazrui-Rodney debate at the Great Hall of Makerere University, where for many years Mazrui was the leading academic.

Rodney's widow, Patricia, and their three children: Shaka, Kanini and Asha (the last two were born in Dar es Salaam) were there. Pat and her two daughters (one a medical Doctor and the other a human rights lawyer) were in Guyana for the first time since Rodney's assassination. Shaka (who is in business in Barbados) had been home before in the early years of the PPP government when he staged a hunger strike to force an inquiry into his father's assassination. The government did set up some commission, which soon fizzled out.

At the official opening, Dr Patricia Rodney gave a comprehensive appreciation of her late husband as a human being, imperfect but an ordinary man who did extra ordinary things. It was highly emotional to hear Pat sweeping through their trials and tribulations from Guyana to the UK to Jamaica to Tanzania back to Guyana in 1974 and leading to Walter's assassination 6 years later. The meeting recognised, applauded and saluted Pat's courage, determination and comradeship with Rodney. Often we treat our 'heroes' in isolation of their private lives and forget about their family lives and loves. Sometimes it is as if they died with the hero. Patricia was not just a wife to Rodney but a partner and comrade in arms. The way she has raised their children after his tragic death at a very young age of only 38 is a testimony to her fully shared commitment with Walter that a different world is possible.

For many Africans Walter's legacy remains his influential and seminal book: ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’. A book that was published when Walter was only 29 years old having secured his PHD at the age of 24! By whatever standard -whether professionally or politically - Rodney was an exceptional person whose influence will continue among all struggling peoples desiring a different world and working to make it possible.

In ‘How Europe Undeveloped Africa’ Rodney laid bare the historical process through which Africa became the mess that we see all around us. He established that there was nothing natural or God ordained about the processes. They were man made and therefore changeable by act of human will and determination. He showed how Africa developed before contact with Europeans through slavery (400 years) and colonialism (100 years); what happened under slavery and colonialism and how both led to Africa contributing to the development of Europe while Europe was under developing Africa in the same process.

Rodney was not just a brilliant academic but also a committed political activist who put his knowledge at the service of the masses wherever he was. He was a scholar who proved through his life that the true test of knowledge was a proven capacity for action. Whether in Jamaica where he began his academic career or Tanzania where he became internationally prominent or in Guyana where he returned (initially to teach but the government withdrew the appointment when he arrived) Rodney was part of all the struggles around him.

In Dar, which was then a centre of progressive ideas, Rodney was part of the ferment, supporting the struggles and at times offering critical inputs. He made friends and comrades of many leading radical intellectuals and liberation fighters of the time and influenced generations of students. I wonder though what Rodney would have said to some of his comrades like President Museveni, who have captured state power and instead of building socialism and a new society have made their peace with imperialism and free market.

Sadder still, what would Rodney have made of Tanzania of today where the term Ndugu is more out of jest than the camaraderie of the past, a place where Uhuru "now has a new name …..mobitel" as caricatured in a an advert for mobile phones I saw a few years ago on the streets of Dar.

When he returned to Guyana and he was denied his professorial post at the University he turned to independent research, publishing the first volume of his definite ‘History of the Guyanese Working Class’. He showed how whether Indian or African, the Guyanese workers were exploited first by colonialists and later successive ruling elites - be they African or Indian. From that analysis he sought a solution in building an alliance of workers across the race and ethnic divide. That was how he and other progressive elements formed the Working Peoples Alliance whose aim was social transformation of Guyana. That political stance and his popularity across the divides made him a number one enemy.

But the remembrance has shown that though Rodney is dead his ideas and example continues to live on. It was very symbolic that one of the highlights of the activities was an all-night cultural extravaganza, ‘Rhythm for Rodney’ which was held in Burnham's former house where he and his henchmen were waiting for the news of Walter's assassination on that fateful evening on June 13 1980.

The theme of the groundings was ‘A different world is necessary' but it is not only necessary it is possible. The people of Guyana and other Caribbean states simmering under not so hidden racial bigotry and sectarian politics need Rodney's non racialist pro-people politics; Africa needs his non mercenary scholarship and political commitment to the cause of the masses while the world need his message of love for all humanity and optimism about the capacity of ordinary folks supported by organic intellectuals and other progressives to change their conditions for the better.

In addition to many practical resolutions and action points agreed on the final day of the groundings, we adopted two important resolutions. Both of them were directed at the Guyanese people and government but those outside can lend their support through active solidarity. The first resolution asks that Rodney's contribution to Guyana be recognised statutorily by him being declared a national hero.

The second resolution supported the call by Patricia Rodney and their family for a closure to be brought to the assassination through an International Commission of Enquiry. Without truth there cannot be any hope of reconciliation. You can support these calls by writing letters to the President of Guyana or any Guyanese High Commission, Consulate or other diplomatic mission near you. You can urge your foreign minister or Heads of State/ Government to raise these issues with their Guyanese counterparts at various multilateral diplomatic forums where they meet. As another Caribbean radical intellectual activist, CLR James used to say: " There is always something that can be done". Keep Rodney alive by doing something today.

* Visit the Website of the Walter Rodney Commemoration Committee for full reports of the Groundings and also other groundings across the world and related activities:

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

* Please send comments to [email protected]

It is good to clamour for debt forgiveness but it is also important that we begin to think and discuss the dividends of such action.

This is because the suffering of Africans is not directly linked or connected to the debt but the consuming greed in our leaders who are now recycling themselves and making governance a family affair or dynasty.

Post-debt forgiveness experiences should also be given importance. What is the essence if afterall, there is no difference in the lives of our people?

World Refugee Day took place on June 20 and is followed by World Refugee Week from 20-26 June. The week of action is intended to raise awareness about the situation of refugees, who continue to be one of the most marginalised, least heard and worst treated populations. Pambazuka News emailed questions to Barbara Harrell-Bond, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Programme, American University in Cairo.

Pambazuka News: Rwanda and Burundi have recently announced the closure of a refugee camp in Burundi and the repatriation of thousands of Rwandese asylum seekers to Rwanda. The UN has condemned this move as a violation of international refugee law. What are your views?

Barbara Harrell-Bond: Any effort to forcefully repatriate refugees is a breach of international law. In the case of the Rwandans who have recently sought safety in Burundi (and Tanzania and Uganda), they have the right to have their claim for refugee status determined by a fair and just procedure. The notion that people who were not involved in the genocide have no reason to fear the gacaca courts in Rwanda is naïve in the extreme. For example, I currently have a Rwandan of mixed Tutsi/Hutu origins living in my house. His father was studying in Belgium at the time of the genocide. He returned and found his property had been occupied by a member of the RPA. When he tried to reclaim them, he was shot in cold blood. Eventually, all the members of his family – except one sister – disappeared or were killed. Community-based 'justice' is fraught with dangers. Petty jealousies and quarrels or long-standing grievances that are totally unrelated can easily be the basis genocide accusations.

Pambazuka News: You have written several articles about the negative impact of refugee camps on refugees and host communities. Why do you think that they are still being used as the main 'solution' to refugees in Africa?

Barbara Harrell-Bond: Although governments are blamed for the camp policy, in fact, it is UNHCR's policy that refugees usually only receive assistance if they live in camps. The major reasons for camps is the convenience of the agencies supplying the relief programmes and for pursuing UNHCR's main 'durable' solution for refugees, repatriation. As we show in 'Rights in Exile' (see below), confining refugees to camps violates their rights, in particular, their right to freedom of movement which is essential to realize other social and economic rights.

Pambazuka News: What do you propose as alternatives?

Barbara Harrell-Bond: The majority of refugees already take the best alternative, becoming self-settled among their hosts. However, they are denied refugee identification, and their lives are always insecure. In Malawi, UNHCR worked through the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Welfare and most of the 1m Mozambican refugees lived among their hosts. Food aid was delivered at certain points and refugees shared their rations with their neighbours. Confining refugees to camps cuts them off from the opportunity to contribute their expertise and labour to the host's economy. However, since the donors expect the poorest countries to host the refugees today, they should also contribute to their health and education budgets so that host governments can expand their capacity to absorb refugees.

Pambazuka News: Development and humanitarian assistance policy makers often emphasise the importance of participation in project planning. Why do you think we hear so few refugee voices, despite this participation rhetoric?

The problem is that it is just that, rhetoric. The first thing that any agency assisting refugees would have to do to allow them to meaningfully participate in 'planning' is to tell them how much was the budget for a particular project. Can you imagine an Oxfam or a Save the Children or a UNHCR actually sharing such information with refugees?

Pambazuka News: How do you think the international refugee system could be changed to be more accountable to refugees?

UNHCR and its implementing partners enjoy total immunity from any charge that refugees might bring against individuals who have violated their rights. So long as that situation exists there will continue to be no accountability in the refugee system. For example, even some of those refugees who served as witnesses in the corruption scandal in the resettlement programme in Nairobi, are not being protected nor are they able to find protection when they move to neighbouring countries. This is unlike the Special Court in Sierra Leone, where before witnesses are brought into the court, a new identity and a new country has been found for their protection.

Pambazuka News: How successfully is UNHCR playing its protection role, and what shifts in its roles have you noticed in recent years?

Barbara Harrell-Bond: UNHCR is a victim of 'mission creep'; without guaranteed funding of its core budget, it is a victim of what donor governments (and hence UNHCR) perceive to be 'relevant', i.e. becoming the world's humanitarian welfare agency. Protection of refugees and the promotion the 1951 Convention on the Rights of Refugees as laid down in its 1950 Statute, has taken a back seat since the 1980s. I was shocked when the first voice on BBC in the middle of the night (26 December 2004) concerning the tsunami, was a UNHCR spokesman from Sri Lanka, offering to bring supplies from 'as far away' as Ghana. I was equally shocked to see the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, put this natural disaster on its web page.

Pambazuka News: How do you think refugees themselves perceive the refugee system?

Barbara Harrell-Bond: I think you should ask refugees.

Pambazuka News: People often talk about 'Refugees and forced migration' – Pambazuka News even has a section by that name – but people have also criticised us for using that term. What's wrong with that?

Barbara Harrell-Bond: Your critics are right. I have to take the responsibility of introducing the term, forced migration, for which I have profound regrets. One scholar (forgive me, but I do not have a reference at hand, but it was published in the Journal of Refugee Studies), tore the term apart, showing that even in the direst situation, people's choices may be restricted, but they always have some choice, even if it is the choice to stay and die. A refugee is someone who has crossed a border and behind refugees stands international law - the 1951 Convention, the OAU Convention and the Cartegena Declaration. People who have been displaced by war are now termed 'internally displaced people', who are dependent on their own state for protection. There are also people who have been displaced by 'development' projects, who also are dependent on their own states for the exercise of their rights. So who are forced migrants? It is a non-sequitor!

Pambazuka News: You are well-known as the "Activist Academic". But some would say that to be an advocate is to bias the independence of your research? Is there a conflict between these roles?

Barbara Harrell-Bond: I see no conflict between scholarly research and being able to use this research to comment on policy. John Davis, in his 'The Anthropology of Suffering' (1992 Journal of Refugee Studies 5(2): 149-6) laid that notion to rest that there is 'real' anthropology and then 'applied' (or activist) anthropology. He called the two 'types 'the anthropology of maintenance (of the status quo) and the anthropology of 'repair'. In my view, it is not possible to be an honest academic without also doing something about your research findings, especially when the subject with which you are concerned involves such massive suffering. Refugees are among the most voiceless, powerless populations in the world.

Pambazuka News: This is 'Refugee Week'. What difference do you think that makes to refugees?

Barbara Harrell-Bond: I would hope that wherever Refugee Week is being commemorated, that it is used to raise awareness of the situation of refugees around the world.

Pambazuka News: What actions should activists be taking in Africa today that could make a qualitative difference to the lives of refugees in the region?

Barbara Harrell-Bond: I am a researcher because I continue to believe that documenting the situation of refugees is the most powerful tool I have at my hand. But others have many other things that they can do. Providing refugees with legal aid makes a qualitative difference in their lives. Just a few months ago, AMERA, the refugee legal aid project in Cairo was able with UNHCR to save 7 refugees from being refouled to face a certain death sentence. They were saved because 4 of their mates came to AMERA to raise the alarm. The Refugee Legal Aid Project in Uganda, where I am now, is working with a minor who bravely resisted an arranged marriage and fled to Kampala. Journalists, who are informed and prepared, are perhaps the most important to the refugee situation, for without the media, no one is even alerted to crises or to abuses of refugee rights.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

World Refugee Day: Background reading

1. Pambazuka News: World Refugee Day 2004: A time to celebrate
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22709

2. Pambazuka News: Protecting the rights of refugees in Africa: Beginning with the UN gatekeeper
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=182

3. The latest edition of id21 News, a free service that communicates the latest UK-based international development research to decision-makers and practitioners working in developing countries, featured links to articles about refugees. Visit http://www.id21.org or click on the links below.

* Integrating refugees locally could be a durable solution
http://www.id21.org/society/s10cjc3g1.html

* Bridging development and humanitarian work in protracted crises
http://www.id21.org/society/s10ajm1g2.html

4. "Internal Refugees" need attention on World Refugee Day
http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/cohenr/20050620.htm

World Refugee Day: Useful Websites

1. Forced Migration Online
http://www.forcedmigration.org/

2. Global IDP Project
http://www.idpproject.org/

3. International Journal of Refugee Law
http://ijrl.oxfordjournals.org/

4. Ockenden International
http://www.ockenden.org.uk/

5. UNHCR
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home

6. US Committee on Refugees
http://www.refugees.org/

7. Human Rights Education Associates feature on World Refugee Day
http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/world-refugee-day.php

In the context of World Refugee Day on June 20 and African Diaspora & Development Day (ad3) on July 02, Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie from the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD), suggests that helping the West to wean itself of African aid would be “a great leap forward for humanity”.

In Western media coverage African (and other) refugees and asylum seekers are frequently vilified as illegal aliens, as leeches sucking all the good out of a generous but gullible West taken for a ride by menacing schemers. Similarly, recent media coverage about Africa has created the distinct impression that Africa is a helpless burden, totally dependent on generous Western aid, constantly needy, lacking in its own agency. And yet the reality is quite the opposite. To understand this, you need to see the story the media never tells.

The bulk of aid to reach ordinary Africans comes from Africans themselves in the form of self-help. Moreover, Africa is in fact a big aid donor to the West. To the extent that Africa is dependent upon aid, the vast majority of the “aid” that actually reaches ordinary Africans and communities comes from Africans themselves – those people living in the diaspora who regularly send money, called remittances, home. Monies that flow in to Africa via a combination of formal and informal channels amounts to roughly $200 billion a year, according to World Bank estimates. Although this figure exceeds both official aid and foreign investment for the continent you will not hear the media talk about Africans being their own biggest aid donors and investors.

Africa’s aid to Britain

But the media’s oversight does not stop there. Africa is also a huge aid donor to the West. Taking Ghana as a case study, researchers for Save the Children Fund, a UK-based charity, estimated that between 1999 and 2004, the total number of doctors registered in the UK and trained in Ghana, doubled from 143 to 293. By 2003/4 an estimated cumulative total of 1021 Ghanaian nurses had registered in the UK. The researchers estimate that Ghana has foregone around £35 million of its training investment in health professionals. In comparison, the UK has saved £65 million in training costs by recruiting Ghanaian doctors since 1998. For all of Africa this subsidy amounts to billions of dollars a year.

However, Africa’s giving does not stop there. Africa sells its commodities at give-away prices because rich countries skew their markets through tariffs and subsidies to ensure that little value can be added to raw products at source in Africa. Other subsidies enable American cotton farmers or European beef farmers to dump their products at artificially low prices on African markets, meaning that it is Africa that is keeping Western farmers in business. Yet more aid from Africa comes in the form of capital flight sent to Swiss and other bank accounts by corrupt officials and of course investors who lack confidence in the stability and profitability of African economies.

African Aid Conditionality Summit

Helping the West wean itself off African aid would in fact be a great leap forward for humanity. What a pity, though, that Africa does not impose its own conditionality upon its aid recipients. Instead, African leaders, civil society activists and others are inadvertently complicit in perpetuating the myth that 2005 is a make-or-break year for Africa and that the G8 summit is terribly important or worth a lot of our energy.

Neither is true. Indeed, even more significant than the G8 summit would be a summit among Africans in Africa and the diaspora to decide how to maximize the impact of the aid that flows from Africa and how to maximize the impact of the aid and investment that flows into Africa.

Here is a win-win-win proposal to achieve the former, given that this is Refugee Week. This is a win for African refugees, a win for Africa and a win for the Western societies where so many refugees find themselves today.

In addition to having the right to safe haven when fleeing persecution in their countries of origin, numerous African refugees and asylum seekers (and, of course, people from other parts of the world) actually arrive in the West with valuable skills and experience. Skills and experience that could further help prop up Britain’s ailing National Health Service or NHS, already heavily dependent upon nurses and doctors from Africa.

And yet, far too many such skilled and experienced refugees and asylum-seekers find themselves languishing on the margins of UK society blocked from active paid employment by a combination of regulatory impediments, institutionally racist attitudes and lack of job-preparedness among potential applicants.

Refugee fighting fund – “Live8419”

We need a fighting fund to enable refugee and asylum groups to tackle these numerous obstacles themselves, whether it’s a question of more and better training or lobbying for changes in the law.

The benefits to refugees and asylum-seekers are obvious – the opportunity to regain a sense of self-confidence, hope and dignity rather than be the focus of constant, vicious media hostility; the opportunity to invest in their own personal development; the opportunity to better support loved ones and friends back home; the opportunity, one day, to deploy enhanced skills back in Africa, where they are so desperately needed.

African governments will win because they will have a better chance of retaining talent at home. Of course, African governments and other employers will have to make far more effort to create the sort of environment that will encourage workers to stay in Africa. Otherwise, they will continue to vote with their feet.

The win for the Western societies in which refugees and asylum-seekers will work are also obvious.

Efforts to create this win-win-win scenario are already underway but we need to do more. This is why as part of its annual African Diaspora & Development Day (ad3) on Saturday 2 July this year the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD) has called on African performers to take to what it has called the “Live8419” stage in London to help raise some money to support this effort.

Of course, under normal circumstances we provide this aid directly to the British government. However, the absence of good governance gives us cause for concern. Amnesty International has recently questioned the legality of the detention of asylum-seekers in Britain. Similarly, the British government is implicated in the scandal of the US-controlled illegal detention camp at Guantanimo Bay in Cuba. In light of these concerns, we shall channel our aid via refugee and asylum-seeker led organisations.

With leading African artists relegated to performing in a village somewhere in Cornwall on 2 July we thought it important – some 11 years after apartheid was finally defeated – for African performers to have a presence in London on that day. The excitement will not stop there as African performers at Live8419 will for the first time ever perform the hit song, “Do they know it’s summertime?” written by AFFORD to raise more African aid for Britain. This world exclusive will undoubtedly set the media world alight.

Enterprise Africa! - ad3 2005

And here is a proposal to help Africans maximize the impact of the support they already provide to counterparts back home in Africa. A 2004 BBC survey of the views of 7,500 Africans living in the urban areas of 10 African countries gave a clear picture of their major concerns. Some 20% of respondents identified securing a well-paid job as their main concern. Two out of three respondents said making money is a priority for them. Far from being an example of avarice or greed, this desire to make money focuses attention upon African peoples’ aspirations to make something of their lives and to enjoy basic economic security.

With a job and reasonable economic security more Africans will take care of their own basic needs of health, education, housing, food, clothing, leisure, etc. More people in productive employment, most likely through small and medium sized enterprises would dramatically reduce dependency on an increasingly bloated and self-serving aid industry. An aid industry that will swell further if official aid to Africa was indeed doubled.

That is why AFFORD’s annual ad3 in 2005 will focus on enterprise in Africa - mobilizing African diaspora resources to help create and sustain enterprises, jobs and wealth in Africa. The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Professor Wangari Maathai, will be on hand to provide the keynote address and share her experience of working with grassroots women and communities to plant over 30 million trees and in the process provide people relegated to the margins of society with increased economic security, dignity, hope and self-confidence.

Self-determination, self-help, self-reliance, self-respect, and self-confidence will be our watchwords on 2 July and beyond. Every African in the diaspora needs to take personal responsibility to invest and help create and sustain just one entrepreneur or job, not through charity but through social enterprise. In less than the 30 years it has taken Professor Maathai’s Green Belt Movement to plant 30 million trees we shall have the equivalent self-sustaining tree of hope, dignity, fulfilling and rewarding human existence in Africa.

* Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie works for the London-based African Foundation for Development (AFFORD), organizers of the annual African Diaspora & Development Day (see www.afford-uk.org) on 2 July at The Rocket, London Metropolitan University

* Please send comments to [email protected]

If you say, why don't you go back

Please don't ask me why don't I go back. Do you think I like staying? For discrimination and xenophobia? Suffering from malaria, cholera and typhoid in a foreign land. Do you think I like staying?

Seeking second hand clothes, If I could help myself, If I could rebuild my homeland. Do you think I like staying? Without my mother, father, sisters, and brother. Please don't ask me why don't I go back?

Understand that it is not simple or easy. I would if I could – world humanitarian community. Avoiding past memories, I can not remove my mind, My traditional culture is my nostalgic torture. The folktales of childhood, never old Never dead, stamped on my mind. I have normal feelings – I suffer for dignity.

Please don't kill my broken heart, by asking me Why don't you go back? I will if I can. I wouldn't stay a moment When the new dawn of peace comes.

- Hassan Ali Said, 6 December 2001. Hassan is an Ethiopian refugee in Uganda