More than 200 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are dying every day in North and West Darfur in Sudan because of diseases caused by the crowded, unhygienic conditions in camps there or because of violent attacks, according to a survey released by the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO). The agency said the survey's results surpass the accepted threshold for a humanitarian crisis - usually measured at one death per 10,000 people per day - in two of the three regions of Darfur.

In 1991, the Nigerian president announced that his country was going to lead the way in Aids treatment. In many respects his government scheme has been successful, but what happens when the money runs out? It is no surprise that those who are getting the subsidised drugs are enormously grateful - whatever the programme's flaws - and those who are not are desperate to join the scheme. So what is the score-card so far?

South Africa's parliament approved a new law on Thursday to regulate traditional African healers. Millions of South Africans consult more than 200 000 traditional healers, who use rituals and herbal medicines to treat a wide range of illnesses. The Traditional Health Practitioners Bill - which must still be ratified by South Africa's second House - aims to regulate their activities, including barring them from treating fatal diseases such as cancer and Aids. It will also create a council to licence the healers.

The Global Rights Morocco field office, in collaboration with 31 local women's rights groups and development associations, has published the second revised version of its manual, "Making Human Rights Real: A Human Rights Education Program for Women in Morocco." Written in Arabic and 420 pages in length, the new version of the Manual is the result of a four year grassroots level campaign by Global Rights and local Moroccan organizations to promote human rights and to enhance legal awareness among illiterate women in Morocco.

Oil communities and other stakeholders in Delta state rounded up a three-day seminar in Warri on "Multinationals and Ethnic Conflicts in the Niger Delta (Delta)" recently, maintaining that the ways out of the crises in the region are for the oil-bearing communities to be part of the control of their oil resources and the Federal Government to amend the obnoxious, repressive and draconian laws in the statute books that conferred unilateral powers on the centre over the said resources.

South Africa's largest mining company, Anglo American, is seeking to defuse a row after remarks by its chief executive angered President Thabo Mbeki. Tony Trahar said last week that the political risk of investing in South Africa is diminishing, but not gone. President Mbeki reacted accusing the company of paying black workers badly during apartheid and of withholding investment in South Africa. This row has its roots in the political path adopted by the African National Congress after it came to power 10 years ago. It abandoned much of its socialist rhetoric and embraced business friendly, market orientated policies.

The first preliminary meeting for a new international effort to bring peace, stability and development to the Great Lakes region ended on Friday in Burundi's capital, Bujumbura. The key is tolerance, the UN Special Representative to the Great Lakes, Ibrahima Fall, said at a news conference on Friday at the end of the meeting. "By not creating frustrations and exclusion, we will pave the way to good governance and democracy," he said.

The Agenda Feminist Media Project publishes a quarterly thematic journal and is committed to giving women a forum, voice and skills to reflect their experiences and to write about them. The journal which is read throughout the world and South Africa is well respected as one of South Africa's premier feminist publications with a proud history. This year we are running a competition to find outstanding photographic submissions which would be published in our final issue for 2004.

A Zambian court has dropped the charges against former President Frederick Chiluba, of corruption and the theft of more than $41-million of state funds during his tenure from 1991 to 2001. However, several hours later, he was recharged with the theft of one million dollars. According to a prosecution official, the charges were dropped as a strategy to make the trial move faster.

The Field Coordinator will manage the Bunia office and participate in the implementation of the DDR National Program (Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration) for child soldiers in the Ituri district, among other duties related to International Rescue Committee projects.

The Regional Programme Manager will be responsible for introducing a regional management system for the projects in the Region; for the overall management of the projects according to GOAL Ethiopia’s policies and procedures with respect to the financial, administrative and human resource management.

Zwelihle soaps Ndumiso thoroughly, dries him with a frayed face cloth then smears Vaseline over his square little face and body while the seven-year-old giggles and wriggles. For the past 18 months since he was 14, Zwe has been parenting his two younger brothers. Parliament is discussing the Children’s Bill at present, and grappling with how to deal with child-headed households.

The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) invites applications for Masters students in the field of international relations, politics or journalism for the 2005 SAIIA-KAF Research Internship. Interns are registered on a full-time basis at the University of Witwatersrand, whilst working at the SAIIA.

The Department of Health (DoH) in the Limpopo Province and the European Union invite proposals from NPOs providing Primary Health Care and HIV/Aids services in the Bohlabela and Sekhukhune districts only.

Over the past week armed State Security Service (SSS) agents have raided the offices of two independent publications, have confiscated equipment and have arrested and detained editorial staff for their critical reportage on President Olusegun Obasanjo and other government officials.

Media associations from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia have agreed to form a network to provide support for journalists in the Mano River sub-region of West Africa. During a three-day seminar in August 2004, journalists discussed the need to involve more women in media organizations, the need to develop the capacity of media unions and the role of media in conflict resolution.

Due to the lack of copyright and pornography legislation related to the Internet, many Kenyans continue to view disturbing material in public Internet cafes and offices without the fear of being penalized. While some Internet café operators, parents, schools and libraries have begun to install filtering software, the problem remains to be unregulated by the government.

The Synergos Institute invites candidates who are current staff members of grantmaking foundations from any country, for the Senior Fellows Program, launched in 1999 to build the capacity of institutions and individuals involved in grantmaking and philanthropy. Applying a peer-to-peer learning methodology, the programme creates opportunities for foundation colleagues from around the world to learn from one another, to combine energy on issues of mutual concern, and to share knowledge with others.

Comic Relief has launched an exciting new grants programme to support organisations in Africa to play an active role in the Make Poverty History campaign in 2005. 2005 promises to be a year when international public attention on global poverty and injustice will increase dramatically, providing a huge opportunity for people in Africa to have their voices heard on the world stage.

The UN Security Council has approved the extension of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) for another six months, but outlined the need for the mission to be scaled down. The Security Council is concerned about the lack of progress between the two countries to resolve the dispute on the demarcation of the Ethiopean/Eritrean border. Despite the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement in 12 December 2000, the two countries continue to dispute over the border demarcation.

When not dominated by racism and security issues, the debate on the movement of migrants becomes a debate over the migrant question, in other words over one of the questions which, in reality, as is well known, will never be resolved. The response to the migrant question is above all integration, a response dictated by the conviction that it is indispensable to recognise equal rights to all individuals present on a given territory. Central to such a position is the necessity of recognising migrants as citizens, albeit a particular kind, who should enjoy the rights assigned to every citizen as well as others which would guarantee the continuity of their history and their "culture".

Botswana is constructing an 8-foot high electric fence along its border with Zimbabwe at a time when many Zimbabweans are crossing over to Botswana in search of a better life. On 15 September 2004, BBC Africa Live asked: Do you want tighter border controls in your country? Or should Africans be able to go wherever they want on the continent? What are the consequences of tighter border controls to a more united Africa?

Since February, Lesotho is in a state of emergency due to three years of drought, hunger and a dramatic increase in HIV/Aids cases. On the other, surprising side, however, Lesotho is experiencing an economic growth well above the African average. For several years, the deepening of the country's humanitarian crisis has been paralleled by a strong GDP growth.

The 60th birthday of the Bretton Woods Institutions - the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) - will be formally celebrated early next month, amidst the distraction of the US presidential campaign. Finance ministers and bankers will gather in Washington for the terrible twins' annual meeting, and the DC-based Mobilization for Global Justice and 50 Years is Enough! Network will host some small-scale events. The two major International Financial Institutions (IFIs) continue to show their disdain for societies and environments. Around the world, civil society groups, especially those associated with the "IFI's -OUT!" movement have declared 1-12 October an international protest period.

Senior Zimbabwean officials have inflated the official number of elephants in the country so they can benefit from the ivory trade, a conservationist has said. Johnny Rodrigues of the Zimbabwean Conservation Taskforce said the elephant population had fallen to 60,000 at the most, yet the government put the figure at more than 100,000.

The number of slum dwellers will double to nearly two billion by 2030. Cities overall will grow at a similarly explosive rate, reaching nearly five billion people by 2030 from 2.9 billion in 2001, according to UN-Habitat Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka as she launched "The State of the World's Cities" report. As well as highlighting a widening rich-poor gap, the report attacked the argument that unfettered trade is a sure route to wider developing-world prosperity and warned of a "race to the bottom" as companies seeking cheaper labour shift capital and jobs across borders.

Nine more people died in Bulawayo last month due to hunger amid reports that an estimated 22 of the 58 districts in Zimbabwe have dwindling food supplies. Bulawayo Executive Mayor, Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, told The Standard those who died were mostly children under the age of five, some elderly men and women aged above 60 years. He said the deaths resulting from malnutrition were a weekly occurrence.

Zambians could be forgiven for pleading "constitution fatigue". The constitution that was drawn up for their country at independence in 1964, has been replaced three times in the past 40 years. Now, yet another constitution is up for debate - something that has pitted government against civil society. Over the weekend, President Levy Mwanawasa announced that the latest constitution would only be adopted in 2008.

Several people have been killed in fighting between rival militias in southern Somalia. Militiamen loyal to the Jubba Valley Alliance, which controls the port of Kismayo, clashed with fighters loyal to warlord General Morgan, the only major warlord outside a peace process which has chosen a new Somali parliament. The area has been tense in recent weeks, as Morgan's forces have advanced on Kismayo.

"The mythology of the new social movements is growing by the day. The exploits of individuals, of organisations, of communities are added to a growing volume of current history that is in a state of constant flux. Participants in the formation of the mythology must take responsibility for ensuring that the myth that endures remains true to the events as they occurred. Maintaining democratic processes, ensuring constant reflection, openness and transparency engagement, principled action, openness to criticism and remaining accountable to constituencies will ensure the sanctity of the myth and the growth of a robust community lead social movement," concludes an article on the website of the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu Natal.

Last week’s article on the Protocol on the Rights of Women and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) provoked reaction from a number of quarters. Here we reproduce an article which argues that legislation aimed at protecting women’s rights should also include the right to practice a certain culture, even if that might include FGM. The author of last week’s editorial, Faiza Mohammed, takes issue with this argument, saying it is well understood that “many African cultural practices are prideful, but FGM is not one of them and must be ended without delay”.

DEBATING FGM: A VIEWPOINT FROM DOREEN LWANGA

I am glad to see that the campaign to get African states to sign the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa is still going on after a month away from my usual access to Pambazuka News. Myself, I have been meaning to add my voice to the traffic of letters and petitions on this topic for the last couple of months.

Once I used to be the first person to sign any petition concerning the protection of women's lives, dignity, equality and human rights. Now, it is taking me more than two-months of great difficulty to convince myself that I should add my signature to the petitions. Believe me you, I am a feminist and a human rights activist but let me reveal my fears regarding what seems to me as women legislating away our (women's) human rights.

I have had the privilege of reading on several occasions the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, once when I was preparing scholarly work. However, there are sections in the Act that are unsettling to me as an African woman, given their significant capacity to erode the human rights of women.

For example, Article 5 relating to the 'Elimination of Harmful Practices', defined in Article 1(g) as “….all behaviour, attitudes and/or practices which negatively affect the fundamental rights of women and girls, such as their right to life, health, dignity, education and physical integrity.” Article 5(b) goes on by stipulating for “…prohibition, through legislative measures backed by sanctions, of ALL forms of female genital mutilation, scarification, medicalisation and para-medicalisation of female genital mutilation and ALL OTHER practices in order to eradicate them.”

What is not clear is what forms of female genital Mutilation (or cutting) fall under this category as 'harmful'? In different African cultures, there are different forms of female genital transformation, some of which have never been harmful to the girl child or woman.

I do not want to sound pretentious that there are no incidences where the FGM practices have produced harmful results, however, that does not make the norm harmful by itself. Malpractice could occur because of using an unsterilised instrument, conduct in uncertain locations for fear of subjective law enforcers and/or just like any other accident happens. The results may become harmful such as bleeding profusely, genital injury or death, although that does not make the norm harmful. Just like the death of a woman while delivering does not make the act of child-delivery harmful and nobody has advocated for an end to pregnancy.

But who are these women that find ALL forms of FGM/C harmful? This coalition includes many African women in positions of political, social, economic and cultural authority. The majority of these women are in the metropolis of their respective countries in Africa or abroad. Most of these women are educated, which in our society imparts on them a level of high intellectual ability and inalienable right to speak on behalf of the 'African woman'.

Thus, there is a need to emphasise that there is a difference between a 'norm' and a 'practice'. If women like us are given the chance to practice our culture without the threats of statutory law, law enforcers and the misguided pity of those who have no understanding and appreciation of our traditions, perhaps the case of harm could be minimized.

Secondly, what is the meaning behind 'Positive Cultural Context' in Art. 17 of the Protocol? How does it relate to the cultural rights of women as human beings? I have argued elsewhere that if any society is moving to codify people's cultural practices and label them harmful, it is wrong to assume that you can take a broad brush of one group (anti-FGM/C or pro-monogamous) and sweep away the aspirations and traditions. While one group of women can gain more legal protection, another group loses its cultural values and traditions.

Already the impacts of such 'legal criminalization' of women's cultural lives (as mentioned above) are felt worldwide. In countries of Europe and North America, African women are rewarded if they can claim that 'they hate their own culture. Anyone who can claim successfully that they run away from their countries for fear of genital cutting or widow inheritance will win themselves asylum under the category of 'Gender-Based Asylum Claims'. That is why I think that the text of the Protocol in Article 17 should be read together with the African Convention on Human and People's Rights in Art.17(b)&(c) on the right of every individual to freely take part in community life, moral and traditional values, Art.19 on equal respect and Art. 22 on the right to cultural development.

What is happening right now is that some mothers who want their daughters to have a chance to practice their culture have to 'steal' their daughters away from their locations in big cities of Africa or Europe and North America where the FGM practice is banned. They take them into rural hiding places where opportunities exist for their daughters to continue the customs that they themselves engaged in. Sometimes, the results from sneaky practices have ended up in fatal accidents. Unfortunately, the current text of the Protocol does not protect such women nor offer them a choice to continue the practice.

It is my submission, therefore, that we should include the choice to practice one's own culture and the choice of marital relationship. But it is wrong to argue that women's traditional practices are done to satisfy men. In most cases, when we were girls our mothers told us of the practices and guided us or connected us with girls our age. Even today very few mothers (especially in urban centres) want to tell their 12 or 13 year-olds about men and marriage. It is more 'fashionable', even in rural places, to tell your girl child that 'education is the key to success'. Thus, women activists should not be blind to the fact that whereas there work is highly applauded, there are girls for various reasons that will desire but never have the access to education. So, to deny them a chance of becoming women and/or their future marriages in their traditional ways is shameful. In my opinion, as long as women continue to imagine themselves in the image of men, they will keep themselves for ever subordinate.

This brings me to my final point about Art. 6(c) encouraging monogamy as the preferred form of marriage. Personally, I do not see the need to mention monogamy if indeed the same article goes on to mention protection for women in polygamous marital relationships. By doing so, this Protocol assumes that all African women have trouble with polygamous marital relationships and would prefer to be in a monogamous relationship. There are women who live their lives without trouble of polygamous relationships. I am an advocate for polygamous relationship if this is going to cater for the problems of prostitution, socio-economic stress, unmarried women, barren women, etc. Presently, there are countries that try to accommodate different marital relationships in statutory law. In Senegal, for example, statutory law provides for one to state at the time of marriage the preferred choice of marital relationship - whether monogamy or polygamy. A copy of the agreement is deposited at the registrar of marriages, and with this a man cannot legally marry a second wife, if he indicates monogamy as the preferred choice. In case of violation, his marital wife can file a complaint against him in court. Whereas one may say that this does not solve the ability to marry traditionally, it at least provides grounds for litigation, and is better than nothing.

Surely, we should not misrepresent human rights in the name of women’s emancipation. It is as human to me if I happen to be the second wife to have the protection under marital law as it is to the first wife to enjoy a marriage. I am confident that the only way we are going to remake our history and rewrite women's lives and experiences in Africa, is by critically re-reading our own lives and the lives of the communities with our African lenses. We need to positivise women's lives and livelihoods and celebrate the African woman. I would like to recommend a wonderful reading entitled, “Women in African Colonial Histories”, Edited by Jean Allman, Susan Geiger and Nakanyike Musisi. Funny enough that even in those countries where monogamy is the only accepted marital relationship, men - from men of the highest political class to the ordinary man on the streets - cheat on their wives with women the same age as their own children. If there should be statutory law, it should be to reinforce the unwritten existing regime but not to hurt those women that it is supposed to protect.

* Doreen Lwanga, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA

DEBATING FGM: A RESPONSE FROM FAIZA JAMA MOHAMMED

This is a response to Doreen Lwanga's comment. To use Lwanga's own words, it was quite "unsettling" to see such a response from someone from a prestigious US university and who claims to be a human rights activist, to categorize female genital mutilation (FGM) as not harmful! First and foremost, I would suggest that Lwanga seek information about the work of grassroots and women's movements in Africa, where for the past two decades extraordinary human rights activists have been struggling within their communities across the continent to eradicate FGM. The following are some additional comments in response to Lwanga's letter:

1. First and foremost, FGM is a harmful traditional practice that violates the fundamental human rights of women and girls and deprives them of the recognized legal rights to bodily integrity, freedom from violence, and access to education, health, equality, to name a few of these inalienable rights. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 130 million women and girls are afflicted by FGM and 6,000 girls a day are still subjected to the practice, which causes devastating physical and psychological consequences, including death. The WHO has declared all types of FGM harmful and it is performed in violation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), other international covenants and many African constitutions and national laws, including those in 14 African countries that specifically prohibit FGM.

2. Equality Now manages the Fund for Grassroots Activism to End FGM, which supports the work of organizations on the ground in over a dozen countries in Africa that work within their communities and governments to end FGM. Without exception, these are outstanding human rights activists who take great pride in their respective traditional African culture, but understand firsthand that FGM harms girls and is a traditional culture that must end.

These grassroots organizations work for instance on alternative rites of passage without genital cutting, education of youth, religious leaders and circumcisers on the harmful effects of FGM and ways to end it; they lobby their governments to institute laws against it and use the media effectively to break the silence and spread the word about FGM in their countries and around the world. They support young girls in Kenya and Ethiopia who have run away from the practice and those who were not able to escape the mutilation despite their efforts or the law.

Equality Now recently convened an unprecedented meeting with former circumcisers, who have laid down their knives to become anti-FGM activists. These women are a far cry from belonging to the elite and educated "majority" to which Lwanga alludes. These women speak for themselves and to their commitment to prevent other circumcisers and parents to subject girls to the harmful practice. I would suggest Lwanga conduct research and obtain additional information about these local African efforts.

3. In communities where it is practiced, FGM is a social prerequisite to marriage, religious obligation, and the passport to social acceptance by the girl's community. In fact, whether or not FGM is medicalized, FGM is used as a tool to oppress women as women, to deny them of their sexual rights and access to equality. When FGM is practiced as a rite of passage, girls, anywhere from the ages of 8 to 18, are more often than not removed from school and forcibly married shortly thereafter. Lwanga's comment about "consent" is troubling since it is well understood that inalienable human rights can never be "consented" away and under any circumstance can a child freely and knowingly consent to a harmful practice mandated by the ones they love.

4. The African Protocol is unique in that it addresses the concerns of women in Africa. It is a document drafted by African people (men and women) who are extremely knowledgeable on the various injustices and human rights violations committed against African women. All understand that many African cultural practices are prideful, but FGM is not one of them and must be ended without delay.

Lwanga's comparison of the intentional removal of female genitalia to childbirth is shocking, whereby one is a natural process, and the other is imposed on girls in the name of culture and religion, inflicting lifelong and unnecessary suffering. Would Lwanga also support the castration of boys for their subjugation and acceptance as males in society? Slavery was also a cultural tradition in the United States that lasted many centuries; however its acceptance in the fabric of American society did not negate it as a human rights violation.

5. With respect to polygamy, Article 16 of CEDAW states that every woman has the right freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent. Women in polygamous relationships mostly have not been given the right to choose neither their husbands, nor a polygamous situation. Again this begs the question as to whether Lwanga would also support multiple husbands for a woman who would choose other men without her husband's consent? Polygamy is also a form of discrimination against women, that increasingly endangers the lives of women through the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS in situations where women have no control over their sexuality and their bodies.

6. We agree that prostitution and the commercial sale of sex objectifies and degrades women, furthering the exploitation of women and perpetuating gender inequality. We support the prosecution of commercial sex users, pimps and traffickers who are the perpetrators of the exploitation of women trapped in prostitution. States have an obligation to protect women from prostitution by providing adequate economic and educational opportunities and empowering women toward healthier means of income. Linking prostitution to monogamy in any way, shape or form is baseless. Dire poverty, histories of sexual or other abuse, and no other opportunities for income generation, are among factors that contribute to prostitution. In terms of the exploitation of women through prostitution, many men living in communities where FGM is practiced testify that they seek uncircumcised women because they were not getting sexual pleasure with their circumcised wives.

Our role is to bring forth the yet unheard voices across Africa that are working to end violence and discrimination and to support their work in protecting the fundamental rights of women and girls. Every woman and girl must know about her human rights and our duty, as activists, is to impart this outreach and education to ensure girls will make informed choices instead of being misled in the name of culture or a misinterpretation of religion.
Lwanga's pessimistic and defeatist view that since some girls and women would never "make it" anyway, therefore let the status quo perpetuate itself, has little purpose in our collective quest toward equality and justice.

* Faiza Jama Mohamed is Africa Regional Director of Equality Now.

If you would like to contribute to this debate, please send comments to [email protected]

The independent newspaper "Umeseso" has been threatened with temporary closure and one of its reporters has had to flee the country to safety. While the Rwandan government continues to emphasize its commitment to a free press, its actions against Umeseso, for refusing to reveal its sources for some controversial articles, shows otherwise.

The crisis in Darfur intensified this week, as peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebel forces collapsed and China rejected a watered-down draft of a UN Security Council resolution. The US-backed resolution is a modified version of an earlier draft, which contained a direct threat of sanctions if Sudan failed to disarm the Janjaweed, the pro-government Arab militias. The resolution was re-worded on Tuesday in the hope of satisfying China, Algeria and Pakistan, which oppose the idea of sanctions against Sudan.

Nigeria's National Assembly has stopped further deliberations on a draft law, "Journalism Practice Enhancement Bill, 2004", which would threaten media freedom by imposing sanctions, jail terms, fines and suspensions on journalists and media establishments found guilty of sensational reporting on violent conflicts, parliamentary or inter-governmental disputes, natural disasters and other "negative trends and tendencies".

Mining always seems to have had an exploitative nature, representing massive wealth for some and grinding poverty for others. Take the case of gold mining in South Africa, where under apartheid enormous profits were made by wealthy mineowners while their workers toiled underground for low wages, only to be sent home to die when they developed occupational diseases. The World Bank’s Extractive Industries Review (EIR) was supposed to change all of this, but any hope that it would fizzled out last month with a few outraged NGO press releases. Bank management had met and failed to adopt the recommendations that would have placed people over profit.

This year marks what many activists have dubbed the unhappy birthday of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. It is 60 years since the creation of these institutions in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and in that time period both have come to have a profound and controversial influence on the world. Pambazuka News is profiling a series of articles that aim to examine the role of these institutions in the context of Africa. This week in our Comment and Analysis section we carry the fifth article in this series which looks at Extractive Industries Review of the World Bank. Abdulai Darimani from Third World Network Africa explains some of the political machinations that conspired against the adoption of the review’s recommendations.

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The Extractive Industries Review (EIR) final report was particularly critical of the World Bank’s role in policy reforms in the extractive industry sector which have led to negative impacts on communities, the environment and human rights abuses and recommended that the bank radically change its approach to funding such projects and even stop supporting some.

The President of the World Bank Group Mr. James Wolfenson set up the extractive industries review (EIR) secretariat under the Chairmanship of Dr. Emil Salim, former Environment Minister of Indonesia. The EIR secretariat was tasked to assess the impacts of the World Bank Group’s intervention in the extractive industries, and to recommend its future role in the oil, gas and mining industries. The secretariat was specifically tasked to identify the negative impacts of the Bank’s operations in extractive industries; assess whether the Bank’s activities in these sectors can advance its mandate of poverty reduction through sustainable development; and recommend whether, or under what circumstances, the Bank should continue to support extractive projects.

The review, a consultative process that included regional workshops, research projects, visits to four project sites, attendance at international conferences and informal consultations with a range of rights holders, released its final report following the final consultative meeting in Mid-December 2003. The report affirmed the criticisms and concerns long expressed by African civil society and many other groups across the world.

The recommendations demanded that the Bank adopt significant reforms including doing more to reduce poverty; immediately ceasing funding for coal projects worldwide and phasing out its support for oil production by 2008; enhancing human rights protection; prior informed consent for indigenous peoples and communities affected by extractive sector activity; and an end to support for destructive mining technologies.

The report also recommended that the Bank should prepare and publish net-benefit analyses; update and fully implement the Natural Habitat Policy as a basis for clear No-Go-Zones, and should not finance any oil, gas or mining projects or activities (including through policy lending and technical assistance) that might affect existing World Heritage properties, current official protected areas, or critical natural habitats or areas planned in the future to be designated by national or local officials as protected.

Some African governments and mining industry representatives and their associations viewed these recommendations with scepticism, calling them anti-development indicators for mineral-endowed African countries. During the consultative process some governments and industry tried to water down many of the progressive recommendations. However, facts could not be beaten and African civil society and their global colleagues worked hard to retain them in the report.

In the past years, the World Bank Group (WBG) have promoted extractive sector reforms in Africa through support in trade and investment liberalisation; privatisation of state-owned companies; institution and capacity building; apparently to improve conditions for foreign direct investment in the extractive sector; and direct finances of private sector extractive industry projects through equity investments, loans and guarantees.

The World Bank affiliates have helped fund major but highly controversial private sector extractive projects in Africa. In the oil/gas sector the Bank supported the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project. In the mining sector, the Bank has supported highly-controversial projects in Zambia, and Tanzania. Former artisanal and small-scale miners from Tanzania claimed that a Canadian company and the Tanzanian authorities forced tens of thousands of villagers away from the site of the Kahama Mines in the Bulyanhulu gold tract in 1996. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a private guarantee arm of the World Bank Group, supported this project three years later.

Early this year, a group of African Ministers of Mines meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, expressed misgivings about the recommendations of the EIR final report. They called on the World Bank not to adopt all the recommendations of the EIR final report, which they believed could spell disaster for mineral endowed poor countries banking on mining projects in these sectors for development.

The Ministers were reported to have indicated that the EIR final report had not given sufficient consideration to the fact that the extractive industries are essential to economic growth and poverty reduction, and that for some countries the extractive industries represent a very important means of creating revenue for government programmes. The ministers also expressed concern about the precondition of WBG investment in countries that have robust and transparent governance criteria in place. They believed that a country's inability to meet WBG governance criteria should not prevent that country from gaining access to the support, both financial and structural, that is required in order to develop such governance mechanisms. Otherwise, countries that are most in need of such developmental assistance could be excluded and would either remain mired in poverty or find less desirable paths to develop their extractive potential.

Two reasons could have influenced the ministers to present this view. The first is a response in self-defence. The second is the apparent influence from industry and their home governments. For a very long time, the extractive sector in Africa has been one of the areas for endemic corruption and abuse of power. The endemic corruption in the sector benefits those in power and the rich while marginalising the poor and local communities.

The unequal distribution of benefits also explains why many governments in Africa continue to supervise the abuse of community and citizens rights, lowering of standards and net benefits of mining, oil and gas extraction on the continent. The EIR recommendations were a signal not just to the World Bank but also to all major players in extractive industries to put an end to the corruption and abuse of power. Even more so implementation of the recommendations would have set the stage for up-scaling similar recommendations for governments, which would have meant ripping governments of their dictatorial powers and minimising corruption in the sector.

The view of the African ministers was echoed by mining companies and mining industry associations, in particular the London-based International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) and the Mining Industry Associations of Southern Africa (MIASA), which groups chambers of mines from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

These bodies argued that many of the recommendations in the EIR final report were not based on sound research and would, in fact, inhibit poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Mark Moody-Stuart, who served as a member of the EIR advisory group during the second half of last year, expressed the view that the net effect of the EIR final report’s recommendations would be a virtual disengagement of the World Bank from mining, oil and gas.

The ICMM expressed concerns at the proposed governance prerequisites for World Bank investment, which included the quality of the rule of law and the absence – or even risk–of conflict. The Council believed that these could be too demanding even for developed countries. The South African Chamber of Mines CEO Mzolisi Diliza shared the ICMM’s concerns. Writing to the World Bank President, James Wölfensohn, on behalf of MIASA, he noted that much of the content of the EIR report undermined the legitimate role of governments.

They all concluded that adopting the EIR report’s recommendations in their entirety would result in a massive reduction in foreign direct investment going to emerging markets, for which extractive-industries projects are sometimes their only available path to development. This is all industry rhetoric and manipulative tactics rooted in the narrow conception that the only path to economic development is foreign direct investment in the extractive sector. The current paradigm of mineral resource extraction does not benefit mineral endowed African countries. While foreign direct investment in extractive industries in Africa has increased over the last two decades poverty has not reduced, if at all poverty has increased in those countries.

Southern Africa is noted for its mineral potentials and its long historical association with mineral extraction, yet the region’s human development record has not improved. According to the 2003 edition of the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report, an estimated 20-million people – or 19% – of the total population of the six MIASA countries live on less than a dollar a day, while 47-million people – or 44% – live on less than two dollars a day. The current paradigm of mineral resource extraction in Africa is therefore exploitative.

Why was industry so concerned about the World Bank pulling out of extractive industries when the Bank provides less than 5% of the financing required for projects in the mining, oil and gas industries? It sounds amazing how when threatened the industry suddenly became the greatest advocate of the poor when ICMM's Kathryn McPhail (who used to research for the Bank) said: “What worries us most are not the implications for the mining industry as such, but the implications for development in emerging markets”. This argument was carried on by a letter from the Equator Banks, an investment group to the World Bank that says: “We believe that the EIR has not given sufficient consideration to the fact that the extractive industries are essential to global economic growth and poverty reduction.”

Two reasons explain why industry was concerned about the EIR final report’s recommendations. First, the decision could be emulated by other financial institutions’ withdrawal from the sector, which would drastically shrink lending to industry. Secondly, and even more important, was the fear of diminishing influence of the Breton Woods institutions on host governments’ policies and practices which are critical to ensuring low standards for industry. The World Bank influences the development strategies and practices of developing countries by making them compromise their economic policies, investment regulations, and projects that benefit large transnational corporations.

The United States government is by far the most influential force in establishing the priorities of the World Bank. It can veto any significant shifts in policy and by custom appoints its president, who is usually a product of the financial sector. Given the new American imperialist offensive, under the so-called war on terror, the US has thrust Africa’s extractive resources forward as a prize to be controlled as it seeks alternative sources of oil. Along the Gulf of Guinea now referred to as the “New Persian Gulf” the United States aggressively seeks military bases. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that some African governments worked with the World Bank to roll back the progressive recommendations of the report.

Despite support for the recommendations made by the EIR gaining momentum worldwide, the Bank’s board decided in August to act on very few of the recommendations made in the report. It thus failed to change the way the Bank does business in Africa, missing an opportunity to show a genuine commitment to respecting human rights and the needs of communities affected by extractive industries. Considering the World Bank’s own vested interests, the opposition of powerful industry players, the complicity of African governments and the existing global political climate, the decision came as no great surprise.

* Abdulai Darimani is Programme Officer, Environment Unit, Third World Network-Africa. This is an edited and updated version of an article that was published in African Agenda, Issue volume 7 No.3, 2004.

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Proposals by the US government to re-divert aid funding to pay for the debt cancellation for the world's poorest countries have been criticized by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD). It is understood that the US Treasury Department is going to call for 100% debt cancellation for highly indebted poor countries. However the American proposal calls for the debt relief to be offset against new aid funding for the poverty-stricken countries. Henry Northover, Public Policy Analyst, CAFOD, said: "It's not so much a 100% debt cancellation as a 100% debt makeover. Debt cancellation for the worlds poorest must be paid for by the world's richest."

At the Kenya National Archives, only copies of the controversial Anglo-Maasai treaties of 1904 and 1911 are available, while the originals remain in the UK. The future of the disputed lands looks grim for the Maasai people as according to the treaty copies, Maasai leader Laibon Olonana signed away millions of acres of Maasai land to the colonialists on a 999-year lease.

The Roman Catholic Church has voiced its opposition to the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Gambia, challenging a government-backed prevention campaign based on the distribution of cheap contraceptives to the country's youth. Father Edward Gomez advised the Catholic youths to seek more knowledge about their faith and its teaching on the issue of HIV/AIDS and not be "misled by public opinion that condoms should be made easily accessible for sex".

According to the European Union's profile of Ghana, one-third of the 3 million Ghanaians who live abroad, are in either Europe or North America. According to Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana, Mr. Arie Van Der Wiel, many Ghanaian migrants find their way to their final destinations illegally and are therefore vulnerable to exploitation by migrant traffickers and some employers.

Southern African gender and media activists have challenged their leaders to explain how they intend to make good on the commitment to achieving 30 percent women in decision-making by the end of 2005. In a statement issued at the close of the Southern African Gender and Media summit in Johannesburg, the newly formed Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA) network also called on their leaders to come up with a legally binding framework for ensuring gender balance in all areas of decision- making.

More than 300 delegates from across the African continent are attending the Highway Africa conference in Grahamstown, South Africa. They are debating issues related to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in journalism. For the latest news and information on the conference visit the Highway Africa website.

The Coalition on the International Criminal Court has announced the launch of the 2nd Edition of Insight on the ICC. The Insight primarily focuses on important developments at the International Criminal Court and in The Hague, with the aim of informing interested constituencies and fostering the development of a dedicated ICC community in this host city.

It was none other than Robert Mugabe who once remarked that “absolute power is when a man is starving and you are the only one able to give him food”. Zimbabwe and the world should take note that he and his party are in deadly earnest about demonstrating the truth of this maxim. The suffering which will be inflicted upon millions in the process does not deter him – or them – for one moment. It is a price they are more than willing to pay in pursuit of that hold on absolute power. With the looming 2005 parliamentary poll already casting a deep shadow across the nation, ZANU PF has positioned itself to take total control of the food procurement, storage and distribution process, reports Sokwanele, an online activist website focusing on Zimbabwe.

Amnesty International and medical experts from seven countries have sent an open letter to the heads of government in China, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Philippines, Iran, Sudan and the USA urging them to stop using the death penalty against children. The letter has been signed by 17 medical experts with outstanding credentials in the field of child and adolescent psychology, psychiatry and social development. Endorsing the call of the experts to abolish juvenile executions, Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said, "Child offenders should not be punished as if they were adults. Governments must amend their laws and practices to conform with international human rights standards and end the death penalty for offenders under the age of 18."

Migration in Africa is dynamic and extremely complex. This is reflected in the feminization of migration, diversification of migration destinations, transformation of labour flows into commercial migration, and brain drain from the region. Completing this picture are trafficking in human beings, the changing map of refugee flows, and the increasing role of regional economic organizations in fostering free flows of labour.

The Zimbabwean government should withdraw a proposed law on nongovernmental organizations, Human Rights Watch says. The law would grant a government-appointed body wide power to interfere in the legitimate activities of these civil society groups and sharply curtail local human rights organizations’ access to funding. “The law would unduly restrict the freedoms of association and of expression,” said Georgette Gagnon, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division. “It would also enable the government to intervene in the reasonable activities of NGOs.” A full copy of the Bill is available by clicking on the link below.

African churches in Dublin are growing in size and number. They reflect not only a growing community, but also one that is putting down strong roots, establishing its own amenities and services. It is thought there are around 15,000 Nigerians in Ireland, with most of them living in the capital.

After national protests by teachers last week, the latest negotiations between the union and government have been described as "positive". Talks continued late on Friday night as South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) representatives and officials from the national Department of Education tried to come to a satisfactory agreement. Last Thursday, thousands of teachers around the country took to the streets to show their frustration at the breakdown in negotiations. Almost 90 000 teachers heeded the protest call.