Donors have started rewarding President Bingu wa Mutharika's efforts to tackle corruption and restore fiscal discipline in Malawi. he World Bank recently announced it had disbursed US $25 million to Malawi in support of the country's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), and this week Norway said it was releasing Norwegian Kroner 20 million (about US $3 million) in balance of payments support to Malawi.

As Burundians struggle to rebuild their war-torn nation, many have been invoking a local proverb: It is easy to light a fire and difficult to extinguish it. Currently, about 1.2 million people lack basic shelter. They are refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and single mothers whose husbands were killed during the war and who have been left to care for their children. Almost 250,000 new homes are urgently needed. So far, almost none of those homes have been built.

Many of Africa's women are trapped in a vicious circle of poverty and environmental destruction. Where will we be in 2015? This week, BBC Africa Live head to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, from where it asked: Why do women damage the environment? And what are women doing to help save the planet? Do women hold the answer to Africa's environmental problems? The debate took place on Wednesday 6 October at 1630 GMT and 1830 GMT, responses and comments can be read online.

In a speech read on his behalf by education deputy minister Gunston Chola during the commemoration of Teachers Day under the theme "Quality Teachers for Quality Education Recruitment and Retention of Qualified Teachers" yesterday, Mulenga said recruitment and retention of qualified teachers was cardinal for the country to achieve quality education. Mulenga said government's failure to recruit more teachers was not intentional, but in order to attain a positive economic environment so that more teachers would be employed.

The technical centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) has published its ICT Update October Issue which includes GenARDIS award-winning projects. Some of these include: an NGO in Ghana which is using video equipment to enable women to devise community plans for natural resource management; computer training to women civil servants in rural areas of Benin and how a database system, an online input calculator, and email are helping women farmers in Malawi to improve agricultural production.

Bonjour! Nous vous faisons parvenir le guide pratique d'informations sur le 1er forum social ouest africain qui se tiendra à Conakry du 28 au 30 novembre 2004. Ce forum s'inscrit dans la dynamique de proposition d'alternatives de développement en Afrique. Il se veut comme un cadre d' excellence de concertation et d'analyse des politiques de développement du continent africain. Pour d'amples informations, veuillez nous envoyer un courriel pour avoir le texte intitulé "Tout sur le Forum Social Ouest Africain - FSOA". La participation est ouverte à tous les acteurs de la société civile du monde notament ceux de l'espace de la CEDEAO. Une Autre Afrique de l'Ouest est possible! Cordialement.

Moussa KOUROUMA Chargé de Programme Droits économiques et culturels (DREC) au Centre du Commerce International pour le Développement (CECIDE). BP: 3768 Conakry. GUINEE FAX: 0015097530807 TEL: (0224)467035/013 404599

A Kenyan woman with HIV has won the first round of a landmark court case claiming discrimination by her former employer. The waitress was sacked by her bosses at Home Park Caterers in Nairobi because, they discovered she had the virus that leads to AIDS from a hospital doctor who told them the results of the HIV test, which had been conducted without her consent, thus violating her right to privacy. In an 18-page ruling announced yesterday, High Court judge Lady Justice Murugi Mugo said the case was sufficiently reasonable to be heard and should go ahead.

Dramatic changes brought about by ICTs have created new economic and social opportunities the world over. Their use, however, continues to be governed by existing power relations. Amidst this inequality are individuals and organisations that are working tirelessly to use these technologies to further gender equality and social justice. The report argues that far-reaching changes towards gender equality and women’s empowerment in the ICT arena are needed at every level ( international, national and programme). Engendering ICTs is not merely about greater use of ICTs by women. It is about transforming the ICT system.

The self-chosen prophet of the World's self-anointed 'Political God' (paraphrasing President Mugabe's recent blunt remarks at the UN General Assembly) otherwise known as Tony Blair, British Prime Minister, is on a mercy mission to Africa. Yesterday he was in Sudan to add whatever is left of British diplomatic and political pressures and his hugely depleted arsenal of personal influence on the Al Bashir regime to stop killing its own citizens. It is very difficult to know who the Khartoum government really responds to, therefore all kinds of pressure needs to be brought to bear from all corners. Why they would listen to Blair I don't know but it gives good footage for Blair's public at home who have become too suspicious of their Prime Minister.

From Sudan Tony moved on to Addis-Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia and head quarters of the African Union. He is attending a meeting of the Commission that he had set up to advise him on his missionary interest in Africa: Blair Commission for Africa.

It is very unAfrican not to show empathy to a man who had recently been hospitalized (Tony has just undergone a 'minor' heart operation) who cares so much about Africa that he did not put off this meeting even though people would have understood if he did. So I must say Pole, Bwana Blair! Karibu Afrika!

I hope the lights in the various rooms where he would be meeting his African hosts will be brightly lit and he would be putting on the best magnifying lenses that Her Majesty's Health service can provide so that he can distinguish between these Black people in suits! We would not want him to make the same 'mistake' as his hapless Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, who had shaken the hands of President Mugabe at the UN General Assembly apparently without realizing it was him! One would have thought that given the priority the British government had disproportionately given to encouraging 'regime change' in Zimbabwe and demonizing President Mugabe the British Foreign Minister will recognize him, lit room or unlit! Perhaps David Blunket, the British Home Office Secretary and enforcer of tough immigration rules and other authoritarian law and order regulations, is not the only member of the cabinet visually challenged. I am hoping that Mr. Blair, a great believer in spin that he is would have committed to memory the image of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, President Benjamin Mkapa, the ECA Executive Secretary, Dr KY Amoako and other eminent dark people on the Commission that he will be meeting. Maybe they could make it easier for him by wearing nametags!

The Addis meeting is the first the Commission is holding in Africa since Blair set it up. But holding this session in Africa does not detract from the cynicism that has continued to dodge this commission which many believe to be yet another liberal-do-gooder interventionism manufactured in Europe (London, or more precisely NO 10 Downing Street, in this case). Africans did not decide the agenda and terms of reference of the commission. Blair did not bother to ask many Africans if they wanted yet another Commission on the challenges of our development. If analysis, good intentions and promises alone can deliver, every African will be living in paradise. Why did Blair have to set up another Commission when he was one of the G8 leaders who had encouraged Mbeki and Obasanjo and the other so called Group of 5 African states to be running around with NEPAD (KNEEPAD to critics like me) from one G8 meeting to the other. The African leaders are still on their knees while Blair has removed his pad and has now moved on to his own Commission.

The initial cynicism by many was countered by supporters of Blair's missionary activities as too pessimistic and too hypercritical. They also point at the prospect of Britain and Blair (if he is still British Prime Minster) heading both the EU and the G8 next year as providing opportunity to put Africa at the center stage internationally.

I have no doubt that in his own way Blair does care about Africa (after all did he not declare us 'a scar on the conscience of the world' in a famous triumphalist Labour party conference speech a few years ago). It is what that care translates into that worries me. Does he care more for African children and women than he does for those Iraqis that he and his American gangster boss, Bush, are killing everyday in the name of liberation? It should worry us that his tunnel vision of the world is being transplanted on to Africa. This is a man who believes that he is always right and even when he is proven to have lied or be mistaken he (allegedly the most openly religious Prime Minister in modern British politics) is unwilling to say sorry, let alone show remorse and ask for forgiveness. To be fair, many Africans will recognise that 'know all' mentality in many of our own dealers who like to call themselves leaders across this continent.

Therefore even if one is to suspend disbelief for the time being and give the Blair Commission a hearing because it is coming from Blair, the credibility deficit will not go away. Why should Africans and the rest of the world believe in the innate goodness and honest motives of a Prime Minister distrusted by his own party and country? The messenger has become the message.

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

Some Italians want African illegal immigrants deported, others want them arrested, but theatre director Marco Baliani believes one way to ease Italy's refugee crisis is with a long-nosed wooden puppet. And that's no lie. Baliani is touring Italy with "Black Pinocchio", a fresh spin on the classic tale which he hopes will help Italians better understand the desperation that drives boatloads of Africans to risk their lives to reach Italian shores.

Armed militiamen have surged into a border area near a western village where some of the first Darfur refugees attempting to return to their raided homes headed, UN security officials said on Sunday, raising further concern about how quickly 1.4 million displaced Sudanese will be able to return home. UN authorities were sending a team to the area to try to assess any risk to the refugees, said West Darfur UN refugee security officer Sabir Mughal.

Some 360 Congolese refugees have returned from neighbouring Burundi, despite violent protests from villagers who did not want them back. The refugees, who are ethnic Tutsis, spent two days stranded at the border with DR Congo after protesters blocked roads and threw stones at them. They eventually reached the eastern town of Uvira after troops were deployed to disperse the protests.

The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre has produced a paper which looks at the Darfur conflict as one which has been often over simplified by both international media and world leaders. The paper outlines the dilemmas emerging from a situation where there is a clear international responsibility to protect civilians and how the use of urgent and robust action is necessary to meet this responsibility.

Donor governments gathering today in Oslo to discuss humanitarian needs in Darfur should also take steps to end the serious human rights abuses responsible for the crisis, Human Rights Watch said today. Donors should pledge support for civilian protection under an expanded African Union (AU) mission in Darfur.

The Program Associate, working as a member of the Department of Policy Analysis & Communications, is responsible for research and writing on the organization’s priority areas of interest. The Program Associate collaborates on the development of Africa Action’s positions on policy matters, and media strategies and relations. The incumbent collaborates with the mobilizing department on joint projects.

The Witness Protection Bill 2004 empowers the Attorney-General to provide a new identity, relocate, provide accommodation, transport and a "reasonable financial assistance" to witnesses who testify in graft and terrorism inquiries. If passed by Parliament, the law would usher criminal investigation and prosecution into a new era of public support widely cultivated in developed nations.

RSF has condemned a 22 September 2004 raid by militiamen on a local FM radio station in Mogadishu, in which a security guard was roughed up and a journalist was threatened and detained. The operation was ordered by a local Islamic court, after being prompted by a dispute between two businessmen.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has recently published a report which covers human rights violations for the month of July 2004. It emphasizes continuing high levels of violations, particularly assault of political opponents and general infringement on the right to association and assembly. The report also highlights attacks on teachers, which in the past has been associated with elections in Zimbabwe.

From 2-4 December 2004, the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) and its UN and NGO partners will host this consulation to advocate for the right to education in emergency situations, share good practices and programme strategies and review INEE's purpose and direction.

Ethiopia will hold national elections for its federal parliament on 15 May 2005. Ten national and 57 regional parties will run in the polls, with results announced on 8 June 2005, officials from the National Election Board (NEB) said on September 25th. Ethiopia's Information Minister Bereket Simon said that the elections were likely to be fought on the issues of the economy and democratic reforms, adding that it would allow the electorate to vote on the government’s economic and development record.

Although Uganda has been widely praised for its fight against AIDS in the past, the conflict in the north is threatening its success. HIV/AIDS is twice as common in the war-torn north of Uganda as it is in the rest of the country, says World Vision International.

According to a new report conducted by the government, while the number of South Africans carrying the virus that causes AIDS increased in 2003, the rate of infection, especially amoung teenagers, was stabilizing. "Stability observed particularly amongst teenagers and the non-significant difference between the national figures for HIV prevalence for 2002 to 2003 all point to an epidemic in stabilization phase," the report said.

Chad's refugee camps, already straining at the seams, should steel themselves for the arrival of at least another 100,000 people fleeing Darfur within the next seven months, UN officials said. Chad has already provided a safe haven for almost 200,000 civilians who have escaped the campaign of slaughter, pillaging and rape being waged by the pro-government Janjawid militia in Sudan's Darfur province. But the end is not yet in sight.

According to the latest estimates from the countries in the region, approximately 3.5 million hectares of land have been infested by the desert locust. It is mainly Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, and Niger that have been affected, but Burkina Faso, Chad and Cap Verde are also witnessing the impact of the locusts.

The Freedom of Expression Institute's (FXI) annual report will be presented on 30 September, alerting the European Union to a new "state of emergency" in South Africa in which censorship is on the rise. This led the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) to express deep concerns over this "creeping censorship" of media and the emergence of direct pressures against journalists which threaten editorial independence and protection of sources.

The tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho has one of the most sustainable and innovative approaches to sanitation in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Delegates at the SADC Water Resources, Sanitation and Hygiene Fair (WARSH), held last week in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, heard that sustained political leadership, private sector support and community empowerment were underpinning Lesotho's success in the field.

The Zimbabwe government has continued a campaign against "illegal" settlers on former commercial farms with the eviction of about 200 families from a property 10 km north of Bulawayo, the country's second city. The government has defended its actions, saying it had warned the settlers against erecting permanent structures on the farms they had occupied under the land redistribution programme. It pointed out that a rationalisation exercise was needed, as many did not have the skills to exploit the potential of the commercial farms they had taken over.

The Co-ordinator on Stop Violence Against Women will be co- ordinating AI's work on violence against women and related fields in the start and growth phases of the global campaign. You will need project management experience, first hand knowledge of at least one sub-region in Africa and exposure to work in defence of women's human rights Africa.

Relief International is seeking a health specialist for its Darfur program in the following fields: Primary health, reproductive healthy and health hygiene education. These positions will create and oversee the implementation of RI's health projects, make sure that said projects are appropriately monitored and evaluated, and that reports are written and submitted in a timely manner. They will also ensure that necessary training is provided to health staff.

This report draws on data for 24 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa which shows that large proportions of adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa have inadequate information on how to protect themselves against HIV, and substantial proportions are sexually active and engage in behaviors that place them at risk of becoming infected.

The arrests of two senior Burundi trade union leaders on 24th September 2004, closely followed the leaders' address before workers during which they reportedly criticised government plans to submit a new draft constitution to a national referendum. This led the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) to address the country's President to urge for their immediate and unconditional release.

The Seventh African Regional Conference on Women (Beijing+10) will be held in parallel with the Fourth African Development Forum (ADF IV) on Governance, 6-15 October 2004 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Beijing+10 fits within the global evaluation framework for assessing progress achieved after 10 years of implementing the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action on Women (BPFA). These two conferences mark an important step towards achieving gender equality and equity in Africa through national and regional action.

This week, teachers in Kenya vowed to resist by all means any attempt to re-negotiate the contentious 1997 salary award. Kenya National Union of Teachers told the World Bank to keep off the internal affairs of Kenya after the World Bank proposed a number of austerity measures that could be taken to contain ministries that are spending more than their allocations from Treasury.

A pilot survey was conducted in Armenia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Peru and South Africa, monitoring freedom of information to test the limits of government transparency. The survey was released by the Open Society Justice Initiative on September 28, designated "Right to Know Day" by global Freedom Of Information groups.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has condemned a 24 September 2004 attack on two alternative newspapers, the "Weekly Citizen" and "The Independent", in Nairobi. The newspapers were attacked by a gang of masked gunmen claiming to be police officers who ransacked the papers' offices, confiscated material and threatened staff.

Workers at a white-owned farm in Namibia have decided to take over the property in three weeks' time to protest the government's failure to implement a decision to expropriate land owners, a union official said on September 24th. A Namibian newspaper separately said that the workers were also planning to seize several other farms from owners that they say are exploiting them.

Deadline: 14 January 2005

The United-Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, (UNESCO) is calling on young researchers with advanced degrees (M.A., M.Sc. or equivalent) in developing countries to apply to the UNESCO/Keizo Obuchi Research Fellowship Programme for fellowships ranging from US$ 6,000 to US$ 10,000. The amount varies according to duration and place of study. The Programme is financed by Japan through its funds in trust programme for capacity-building of human resources.

The hearing to investigate allegations of racism levelled against the Zimbabwe Cricket Union by the group of rebel players began in Harare on Wedneday. If found guilty, the ZCU could face a range of penalties, including possible expulsion from the ICC. The findings will be presented to the ICC's executive board for discussion at it's next full meeting in October. The ZCU will deny all the charges, and is expected to counter-claim that there is a legacy of racism by whites in Zimbabwe and that previous regimes did nothing to encourage blacks.

In April this year, South Africans for the third time overwhelmingly re-elected the ruling African National Congress, now led by President Thabo Mbeki. Not surprisingly, the elections lacked the euphoria that marked the formal end of apartheid, led by Nelson Mandela, a decade ago. What’s more, the victory of the ANC may be dimmed by its own policy mistakes and the stubborn legacy of apartheid, an albatross that holds the young democracy in a death choke.

In order to emphasize the important intersection of violence against women and women’s health, and particularly that of violence against women and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the 2004 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence theme is: "For the Health of Women, For the Health of the World: No More Violence".

Freedom in the World, the annual global survey of civil liberties and political rights, is now available on Freedom House's website. Covering 192 countries and 18 territories, the survey rates them according to criteria based largely on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the right to freedom of expression. Countries and territories are given a rating of "Free," "Partly Free" or "Not Free."

As part of the series of 10 independent reports called "Three Continents, Four Cultures: Ten years after Cairo, the people take charge," former New York Times United Nations Bureau Chief Barbara Crossette follows a personal story of a pregnant young woman who nearly died during an illegal abortion her boyfriend pressured her into.

Entitled "Unlocking Africa's Trade Potential", this year's Economic Report on Africa (ERA 2004) argues that in order to boost growth and poverty reduction in Africa, countries will have to apply dynamic trade policies, alongside gradual and targeted liberalization schemes. Mauritius, South Africa, Namibia, and Tunisia are cited as Africa's most competitive nations.

Google search engine already supports more than 104 languages or dialects while offering a personalized version of its engine for over 90 countries and it has just added one more country to that list. Google-Kenya available in English and Kiswahili with a Kenya-specific search function is now available at www.google.co.ke

The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is hiring Associate Analysts for its Investigations Division. The job consists basically in analyzing information and evidence on the crimes within the competence of the Court (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes). Although the job description is focused on law enforcement, the broader nature of international crimes may allow room to consider profiles of research, law and social sciences.

Kenya is pushing for an international ban on trade in lion trophies and skins, arguing that the number of the animals has declined sharply over the years as a result of hunting, loss of habitat and lack of prey. Kenya will press world governments to give the African lion maximum protection under an international treaty governing trade in endangered or threatened plants and animals.

Foreign minister Joao Miranda told state media that the international community should stop discriminating against Angola and instead be sensitive to Angola's need for a donor conference as it tried to reconstruct after a devastating 27-year civil war. But western diplomats said the oil-rich country should first prove its commitment to reform.

With the countdown to presidential elections in Cameroon gathering pace, a fierce debate is underway about computerization of the voting process. "We absolutely have to computerize if we want a transparent and credible election. If we can't do that, then the election should be postponed in the interests of the country," says John Fru Ndi, head of the Social Democratic Front (SDF).