Pambazuka 169: Mercenaries in Africa: From soldiers of fortune to corporate warriors
Pambazuka 169: Mercenaries in Africa: From soldiers of fortune to corporate warriors
A new radio drama aimed at transforming Swazis' knowledge of AIDS into a change in personal behaviour began broadcasting this week. "The show's purpose is to give information, but I think it is fundamentally different from other attempts at AIDS communication in Swaziland during the past 15 years," said Alan Brody, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) country representative, who is sponsoring the drama.
Togo lies smack bang in the middle of West Africa's main trade and transport corridor and health experts say the tide of people passing through this narrow strip of territory have helped to land it with the third-highest HIV prevalence rate in the region. According to government statistics, six percent of Togo's five million people are HIV positive, putting the country just behind Cote d'Ivoire with 10 percent and Liberia with an estimated eight percent.
South African NGOs involved in gender violence issues are to launch a week-long campaign in Johannesburg on Monday to create public awareness around the Sexual Offences Bill, currently before parliament. "Since the parliament is in session this month, the awareness campaign is also an attempt to lobby for the bill's enactment," Lisa Vetten of the Johannesburg-based Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation told IRIN.
President Thabo Mbeki, the leader of the ANC, this week described the New National Party's decision to join the ANC as an historical development. The NNP announced last Saturday that they would fight all future elections under the banner of the ANC. In a statement released soon afterwards the ANC said that they "view this move as a positive step in South Africa's political development and believe it will contribute to building an inclusive and non-racial society."
Many analysts of international trade decry the concept of a 'social clause' as an attempt by rich developed countries to protect jobs and dominate markets by stipulating minimum labour standards. However, little attention is given to competition between developing countries to gain access to markets in richer countries, which is equally detrimental to labour standards. In the absence of a common set of minimum labour standards, destructive competition deprives workers of the benefits of economic growth.
South Africa's Scorpions have submitted the names of 23 parliamentarians wanted for questioning in connection with a multi-million-rand travel scam estimated at R16-million. In an interview a Scorpions spokesperson, Sipho Ngwena told the press on Wednesday night that “This is the first group of people we want to talk to. There will be more.”
The World Bank and IMF have produced a paper entitled "Enhanced HIPC Initiative - Possible Options Regarding the Sunset Clause". The paper provides a brief background to the sunset clause and discusses the implications of its expiry at the end of the year before going on to discuss four possible policy options and concluding remarks. Eurodad, the European Network on Debt and Development, comments that any extension would: "...embarrassingly for the WB and IMF, represent the fourth extension to the initiative. We argue that this demonstrates the severe technical shortcomings (and therefore credibility) of the initiative."
President Robert Mugabe's succession, for long considered a political hot potato, will not come up for discussion at the ZANU PF congress slated for December, but drastic changes to its supreme decision-making organ, the politburo, and the presidency are in the offing as the party gears up for the 2005 parliamentary poll. Party insiders confirmed this week that President Mugabe and his "inner circle" were mulling far-reaching changes in the politburo.
Stronger action is needed to end the 'ongoing human suffering' in Zimbabwe and Sudan, the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) said this week. “The Catholic bishops decry the ongoing human suffering of their brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe and Sudan, and calls on Southern African Development Community governments, the African Union (AU) and the United Nations to take stronger action, including the consideration of targeted sanctions,” a statement said.
"During and after Cancun, the G20 was seen in some circles as representing a major power shift in the global trading order. Some even saw the G20 as the dynamo for a reinvigorated “New International Economic Order.” The reality is that the G20, and in particular Brazil and India, have been accommodated into the ranks of the key global trading powers, but it is increasingly becoming clear that the price for this has been their diluting the strength of the negotiating position of the South. More than ever, the South needs leadership. Many had expected the leaders of the G20 to fill this role. In the first decisive post-Cancun encounter, the latter have not lived up to expectations." This is according to an article by Walden Bello and Aileen Kwa, Executive Director and Research Associate, respectively, of the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South, about the outcome of the recent post-Cancun WTO meeting in Geneva.
The South African Government has announced that it will convene a second national summit against corruption towards the end of 2004. A spokesperson for the Cabinet announced that “the objectives of the Summit will include an assessment of strategies, achievements as well as challenges in dealing with this scourge”. It was confirmed that the government would consult with the private sector and civil society before convening the summit.
Nigeria's President Oluseun Obasanjo has accused the police of hiring guns to armed robbers for economic gains, his office announced on Wednesday. Obasanjo was quoted as saying at the opening of a two-day security summit in Abuja that a situation whereby 'police hire their guns to robbers' was criminal and worrisome.'
“Jubilee Research has long called for 100 per cent cancellation of the unsustainable debts of poor countries, and we have always considered that the criterion of an ‘unsustainable’ debt is a country’s inability to discharge that debt without infringing the human rights of its population. Since the establishment of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals nearly four years ago, it has also become clear that most of the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) in Sub-Saharan Africa will be unable to reach these goals without a total cancellation of their debt and additional aid.”
The Eldis/HRC HIV/AIDS resource guide has been re-launched with a new look and expanded topic coverage. The guide provides the latest information on HIV and AIDS, with quick access to information and research on a range of issues. New areas of coverage include conflict and emergency, faith, human resources, injecting drug users, and sex workers and the sex industry.
SMS FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS
* Use your mobile phone to sign the petition in support of the ratification of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. Send a message to: +27832933934, with the word ‘petition’ and your name in the message. You will only be charged the cost set by your network provider for sending an international SMS. More information http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/smssocial.php or sign online at http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/
HOW TO SUPPORT THE SMS PETITION
* Send text messages to your colleagues and friends alerting them to the petition and informing them how to sign by SMS. You can also use email and word of mouth to help spread the word.
* Distribute leaflets about this initiative. If you work in a human rights or social justice organisation in Africa, volunteer to distribute leaflets for us about the petition to your networks and contacts. Send your details to [email protected] and we will post you pamphlets to distribute.
Selected headlines:
* Conflicts and Emergencies: Oil profits behind West’s tears for Darfur
* Human Rights: AU decision should not undermine African Court, Amnesty says
* Women and Gender: Women’s discrimination a global concern
* Elections and Governance: Zimbabwe: Changes to politburo
* Development: G20 leaders succumb to divide and rule tactics
* Corruption: Zimbabwe: Secrecy could threaten access to food
* HIV/AIDS: Senegal: Renewed focus on Aids
* Education: The tragedy of Africa’s education
* Social Welfare: Zambia: Finance minister debates social findings
* Books and Arts: WS: A Life in Full
An article published by Panos has shown the widespread concern amongst civil society, farmers and the rural poor in Senegal towards the government's policy to privatise the groundnut sector. Whilst the government faces pressure from the IMF and the World Bank to speed the process up, Senegal's farmers are still struggling after the government's attempt in 2002 to privatise part of the sector. This move left thousands of rural families on the brink of starvation and the government having to respond with a $23 million bailout package. The groundnut is Senegal's second-largest export earner and contributes 31% of the national GDP.
An article on the BBC's website presents the contrasting emotions in the land reform process in Namibia. Whilst the land minister, Nifikepunye Pohanma, stresses the importance of pushing ahead with the compulsory purchase of white farms to acquire 9m hectares, some of the farmers are concerned at the way the government is going about it and for what lies ahead for them once they leave their farms.
Whilst Angola has seen a 27% rise in cereal production to 713,000 mt, the country is still unable to realise its full agricultural potential according to a United Nations report. A recent joint assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food Programme shows that less than 5% of arable land is cultivated because of landmines and a lack of seeds, fertilisers and draught animals. As a result an estimated 1.12 million Angolans per month need to receive food assistance.
The Kenyan Newspaper, The East African Standard, is alleging that two companies associated with top politicians are to clinch the tender to import 180,000 tonnes of relief maize. Originally six companies were supposed to be picked to import the maize, but according to the newspaper, lobbying by the politicians might have secured it for the two companies. The announcement of the winning companies was due last Monday, but has been delayed by the Government.
The Government has distanced itself from a proposal to place Kenya's wildlife under a commercial company as details emerged of the controversial Sh7 billion plan to reshape game management. Tourism minister Karisa Maitha said the Kenya Wildlife Service was 'not for sale' and dismissed a controversial project proposal drawn up by a British businessman working with local conservation interests.
Just a week after a report predicting that VoIP would be legalised first in West Africa, one of the new breed of 'independents' has had their licence revoked. Guinea Bissau's Eguitel had held a licence for nine months and was about to start carrying international traffic for the new second mobile operator, Spacetel. However, this week the company was contacted by the Regulator and told that the license was being revoked. Eguitel's CEO has vowed to continue operating, saying that the recall of the licence is not legal.
A Panos feature article reports on the concerns held by countries in the developing world of the dominance the US has over the Internet. South Africa is amongst the countries leading the call for the formation of an intergovernmental agency within the UN to take over the functions of the American based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which alone is responsible for administrating the Internet's domain names and address identifiers. According to South African President Thabo Mbeki if the Internet remains under the control of ICANN, 'the world continues to be governed by California law'. The South African Government recently wrested legal control of its country domain (.za) from a local ICANN-appointed Internet pioneer, without seeking ICANN approval.
South Africa is a country with a poor human rights record. This is an understatement. We are a country trying to make right the wrongs of that history - this is also an understatement. But the task is difficult because we come to it scarred by the legacy of our colonial and apartheid history, by the consequences of the systematic denigration and dehumanisation of the majority by the minority. Colonisation laid the foundations of many of the ills that beset our society, apartheid perfected and legislated this base, and even claimed god's blessing for it. We play out still what we did to each other, and learnt from each other, before 1994, no matter which side we fought on (or even if we thought we weren't fighting on any side at all!).
Balanced against our Constitution, our strengthening economy, our increasing global stature, our beautiful country and its wonderful people lie some horrible truths. We have a very high rate of rape and sexual abuse. We have the highest rate of rape homicide in the world (Martin, L, 1999, reporting on her research at the Salt River Mortuary). We have an extraordinarily high rate of family murders. Violence within our communities is endemic. Our HIV crisis is deepening, depleting the economically active population and leaving increasing numbers of children without adult care-givers. Millions of South Africans live in deep poverty, and we have one of the highest (and growing) gaps between the “haves” and the “have nots”. All over South Africa, children are taking turns to eat. Within this context, children are increasingly vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and neglect.
We say that children are our future. The fact is, they are also our present, and their future (and ours) is shaped by present reality. If we are truly to become a whole and humane society, we have to give the next generation a better shot at it. We have to proactively put in place and resource a national agenda which redresses our horrendous past and levels the playing fields. We have to ensure a country “fit for children” (one of the many international promises we have made) - and in so doing, create a country fit for all of us. We know this - why else have we ratified several international conventions which commit us to the protection and promotion of the rights of children?
We have a golden and possibly never-to-be-repeated opportunity of giving that next generation their chance, their shot at it. We have this opportunity because we are currently formulating a new dispensation for children. We are poised to put into place a Children's Bill which will provide the framework within which children will be born and raised for the next 20 to 30 years.
We need this Bill to achieve a great deal, because we know that, in the end, prevention is better than cure, and it's cheaper in every way. We need a Bill which:
- articulates and legislates our international obligations to protect and promote the rights of children;
- places great emphasis on primary prevention and early intervention;
- provides a framework and the means of supporting families to raise physically and emotionally healthy adults;
- enhances the capacity of communities to take greater responsibility for vulnerable children;
- ensures the availability of appropriate, trained and resourced early intervention services; - maintains tertiary-level intervention services for children for whom there is no alternative within their homes and communities - which must include services to facilitate healing and rehabilitation;
- ensures the protection of the most vulnerable children - those living in poverty, those living in violent and abusive homes, those who are disabled or chronically ill, those affected by HIV, those living and working on the street.
If we put our resources and energy into building the capacity and wherewithal in families to raise children who can and will become self-sustaining and productive members of a peaceful, just and democratic society, we will truly fulfill the promise of our young democracy. This means they must have access to nutritious food, shelter and warm clothing, primary health care and education, irrespective of the ability of their parents to provide these things. If we put our resources into developing and maintaining good systems for identifying children and families at risk, and give additional support at that point, we increase the possibility that the family will be able to provide the basics for their children, thus preserving the family and decreasing negative effects of being taken into care.
If we are creative and more flexible (although no less careful) about where we place those children for whom it is impossible to remain in their family homes, the chance of them growing up in an environment conducive to future happiness is greater.
And if we put our resources into a criminal justice system focussed on restorative justice, victim empathy and rehabilitation, we reduce the number of children who grow up shattered by rape and sexual abuse, by violence in their homes and communities.
What will it cost? I have no idea, although I know that it will be expensive. But we have to try to afford it. Sound prevention strategies can cost around nineteen times less than failure to prevent abuse, neglect and exploitation. A study undertaken in Michigan came to this conclusion after considering factors including birth weight, infant mortality, special education needs, protection services, foster care, juvenile and adult criminality, and social services (Caldwell, R: Child Abuse Prevention: Michigan's' Experience, 1992). We cannot claim to be unable to afford it when the medium and long term advantages will save us so much in financial and human terms.
As the Children's Bill moves through Parliament in August, we urge all concerned to think very carefully about what is put into place, and what we can and cannot afford. We have the opportunity here to make right the wrongs of our traumatic past, and to facilitate an environment for healing and recovery. I trust we are brave enough to do it.
* Carol Bower is Executive Director of RAPCAN
* Please send comments to
Human Rights Watch has written to police in Nigeria to express concern about an incident which occurred on July 10, 2004, in K-Dere, Ogoniland, Rivers State, when two British activists, Tim Concannon and Tim Nunn, were taken into custody, questioned and held for more than ten hours, first by the police, then by the State Security Services (SSS). “Our concern relates not only to this particular incident, which happens to involve two British nationals, but to a broader pattern of harassment and intimidation of Nigerian activists by the security forces, particularly by the police and the SSS,” the letter said.
Zimbabwe’s crisis is not only political and economic; the signs of social disintegration are everywhere, says this article on the site www.sokwanele.com. “Nightly, street children as young as five or six seek the “protection” of older children who act as pimps; cold, hungry and homeless farm workers huddle against each other on the roadside where they have been dumped like a pile of rubbish; a young girl of sixteen with a blank stare cuddles her baby, conceived when she was raped in a youth militia camp; an adult rushes her dying parent to the hospital, because it is cheaper to transport the living than the dead; she will not return when the parent dies, because she cannot afford to bury her; an elderly grandmother weeps when told that a foreign donor will no longer supply food aid – her thirteen grandchildren whom she is keeping have nothing else to eat.”
Foreign or African, mercenaries are back into action in Africa. Having changed their name and their image, today's mercenaries are not any more the rug-tug soldiers of fortune of the past. Since the war against Iraq, “corporate warriors” as the new mercenaries are now called, have come to the fore and offer their services to governments. Gone are the “dogs of war” connotations linked to these “killing machines” of the 1960s and 70s.
Mercenaries of the new millennium are Armani-clad gentlemen who rub shoulders with the greats of this world while running their businesses from glass and chrome offices where Bond girl receptionists welcome business clients. These respected businessmen are highly sophisticated, well read, knowledgeable in world politics and especially very well connected. Combining engineering skills and military know how with business acumen, these former military officers who served in the armies of Britain, Canada, the US, former Soviet republics or South Africa, cultivate good relations with either powerful friends in governments or are themselves political heavies in their respective countries.
Their transformation has been swift and easy. From the ideologically motivated early days, mercenaries were paid to support particular governments or regimes in, for example, Namibia, Angola, Ghana, Zaire and Congo-Brazzaville. These warriors metamorphosed into “security” groups protecting the interests of the multinational mining and oil companies. In the early 1980s, Chevron paid and armed local militias to defend its oil fields in Southern Sudan, but other companies have made use of the services of "security" firms like Executive Outcomes (South Africa) and Sandline International (UK). Their services were already highly paid, but additional revenue was generated when they succeeded in exchanging their services against stakes in the mining concessions they were contracted to protect.
In the 1990s, the mining arm of one of the most active of these “security” companies was Branch Energy Ltd. Established to carry out mining operations in Angola, Sierra Leone and Uganda, Branch Energy was a subsidiary of Diamondworks Ltd., which had a variety of gold and diamond concessions in Sierra Leone and in Angola. Branch Energy was registered as a wholly owned subsidiary of Diamondworks, and the two may not have had corporate links with each other, but directors, partners, owners and/or executives of one entity were also directors, partners, owners and/or executives of the other entities. These arrangements were made in such a way that for each mining venture, be it in Uganda, Sierra Leone or Angola, a company was set up with some government and local businessman/men participation.
For example, in Sierra Leone, Branch Energy had a 60% stake in Branch Energy Sierra Leone, the government had 30% while a local businessman/investor held a small stake of 10%. The same pattern was repeated in Angola and in Uganda. Branch Energy's African assets were mainly concentrated in countries where civil wars and rebellions were raging, so was it just pure luck or coincidence that these countries were selected? In fact the selection appears to have been guided by very defined criteria: the potentials in minerals (diamonds, gold and oil), a bankrupt national economy and armed rebellion threatening the ruling strongman.
With their associates, this Third Generation of mercenaries specialises in security matters, engineering, arms, transportation, finance, recruitment, consultancy, and other businesses related to security and defence. Their network is like a giant octopus that spreads all over the world but more specifically in Africa and the Middle East where the pickings are easy and very lucrative. At the height of the fighting in Sierra Leone, the now disbanded Sandline International was accused of helping the British government to exporting weapons illegally to that country.
Providing high technology military capabilities, their services cover not only like in the past combat operations, but also strategic planning, intelligence gathering and troop training. Specialised magazines such as Soldiers of Fortune or Cover Action advertise the many career opportunities available “both domestically and world-wide” in “international police monitoring in Kosovo, Bosnia and East Timor” to “Qatar Security Guard Forces”. An article published in International Security in 2002 spells out the range of services these businesses can provide. Just like the armed forces of most western powers, they can deploy capabilities ranging “from a team of commandos to a wing of fighter jets”.
Strange as it may sound, these mercenaries do not work any more under cover. They have come out of the closet and operate in the open because governments have come to recognise the role these "private military companies” can have in peacekeeping and peace enforcement. In the corridors of power in Washington or London, the supporters of this new global policing and peacekeeping vision believe that emergency response to conflicts around the world must be “privately provided” as a public service. Though some UN members are still reticent to make use of these private “peacekeepers”, the organisation has also been considering the use of these groups for peacekeeping in conflict areas.
Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, is reported to have said that during the 1994 Rwanda crisis when he was the UN Undersecretary General for peacekeeping he “considered hiring a private firm”. Not long ago, in 2002, Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that a strong and a “reputable private military sector might have a role in enabling the UN to respond more rapidly and effectively to crises”. Opportunities in Africa for these “corporate fighters” are made available by the very fact that national armies in many African states have been transformed into “operetta” armies, good enough only for welcoming state visitors and staging military events.
Next to being pampered, cajoled and looked after, these “Republican Guards” or “Presidential Guards” are hand picked “loyal” fighters from the ethnic group of the elite in power. The relationship that exists between them and their employer is like a vicious circle: as long as their employer remains in power, they will continue enjoying extra privileges and vice-versa. So loyalty depends on how much and how long will the privileges last. When the situation changes and the state disintegrates - Mobuto's Zaire comes to mind - loyalty ceases and these special units disappear in the wilderness, taking with them the last few dollars left in the coffers. In many parts of Africa these “special units” are still active. Often they become “uncontrollable monsters” and continue to operate for their own benefit, even when their employers try to disband them. In Sudan, despite the promised efforts of the regime to disarm the Janjaweed, militias loyal to the regime and accused of genocide in Darfur are still killing people, destroying villages and terrorising refugees in the camps. In Chad, the Guarde Republicaine of President Idriss Deby composed of the Zaghawa tribesmen who helped him into power, have today their own agenda.
According to many observers, some 10,000 trained and highly qualified soldiers of fortune roam the African continent. They have been joined by colleagues from Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics and offer their services - either in the old fashion or in new style operations - to the highest bidder. The 70 suspected mercenaries held in Harare and accused of plotting to overthrow the regime of the Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema are a sad indication that mercenaries in Africa are here to stay.
* Eva Dadrian is an independent broadcaster and Political and Country Risk Analyst for print and broadcast media, who currently works as a consultant for Arab African Affairs (London) and writes on a regular basis for AFRICA ANALYSIS (London), for Al Ahram HEBDO Echos Economiques and Al Ahram WEEKLY (Cairo) and contributes to Africa Service BBC WS (London). Published reports include: Religion and Politics in North Africa; The Horn of Africa: Country Risk Analysis; The Nile Waters: Risk Analysis; State and Church in Ethiopia; Policing the Horn of Africa; Religion and Politics in Sudan; Can South Sudan survive as an independent state?
* Please send comments to
The International Organization of Migration, (IOM) says that Ethiopians in the Diaspora are expressing a profound interest in making contributions to the development endeavors in their country.
Pambazuka News 168: Child Soldiers Challenging sensational stereotypes
Pambazuka News 168: Child Soldiers Challenging sensational stereotypes
“Human Rights Watch has learned that your government may be in the process of forcibly returning Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers in Libya to Eritrea, where they face unlawful detention and probable torture. We have received reports that Eritreans are currently being held in Kufra, Misurath, and Tripoli in anticipation of mass deportation to Eritrea.”
In Zimbabwe economic disruption and political intimidation and harassment have caused 150,000 former farm workers to become internally displaced. As conditions for the former farm workers deteriorate, the Government of Zimbabwe is imposing restrictions and preventing humanitarian agencies from providing them assistance, resulting in a hidden crisis of internal displacement in the country.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has repatriated 283 people to Rwanda in a case involving second-generation Rwandan immigrants living in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo town of Kalehe, a UNHCR official told IRIN on Tuesday. The refugees claimed that Congolese military and local officials had rounded them up from their homes in Kalehe and detained them in a military camp in Bunyakiri, before forcefully expelling them into neighbouring Rwanda, said Mussa Fazil Harerimana, the governor of Cyagungu, a Rwandan town that shares the border with the Congolese town of Bukavu.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court have opened an investigation into war crimes in northern Uganda, where government forces have been battling an 18-year rebellion by the shadowy Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA is notorious for raiding villages, stealing food and abducting children for use as soldiers, workers and sex slaves (Associated Press, July 29). In February the group struck the Barloonyo camp for internally displaced persons, killing more than 200 people, many of whom were burned alive in their huts.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries which have declared war against the second biggest killer disease in Africa, malaria, are winning the fight. Over one million children have been killed by malaria every year, in the sub-Sahara region. Dozens of delegates from global organisations, as well as health experts from the SADC region have gathered in Gaborone to attend this year's malaria control conference.
South Africa has about 1.5 million fewer HIV-positive people than UNAIDS reported earlier this month, according to a new report released Wednesday by the country's governmental statistics agency Stats SA, Reuters reports. According to Stats SA's mid-year statistical report, there are about 3.8 million HIV-positive people in South Africa, and approximately 1.5 million people have died from AIDS-related causes.
Inadequate health infrastructures and "insufficient" involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS pose challenges to African governments in the fight against the epidemic, officials said at the close of the U.N. Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa conference on Tuesday, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. The two-day conference, which was held in Botswana, was the second of five that aim to provide Africa with an opportunity to examine all aspects of the continent's HIV/AIDS epidemic.
On the eve of World Breastfeeding Week UNICEF said that by expanding the number of women who exclusively breastfeed during their child’s first six months, at least 1.3 million infant lives could be saved this year. UNICEF also called for greater global commitment to protect, and promote breastfeeding. Every year more than 10 million children die from mainly preventable causes, including diarrhoea, pneumonia, measles and malaria. If every baby were exclusively breastfed from birth to six months, an estimated 3,500 children’s lives could be saved each day, UNICEF said.
Save the Children, Norway
Save the Children, Norway, is seeking applicants for the post of Child Protection Adviser. You will be responsible for identifying and monitoring child protection issues in Northern Uganda as well as designing and advising on the implementation of child protection programmes in the region. The successful candidate will have experience of social welfare and of designing rehabilitation programmes for children associated with armed forces in developing countries.
Save the Children, UK
Save the Children UK is looking for an experienced Operations Manager to introduce sustainable and efficient management systems for logistics, security, HR, HRD and administration within its Ivory Coast Programme. Successful applicants will have a proven ability to lead and coach a team and possess analytical and problem solving skills. They should also have a good command of the French language.
Oxfam UK
Applicants are sought to manage Oxfam's strategic planning for, and immediate response to, humanitarian emergencies in eastern DRC and to manage emergency response staff in the field. The successful candidate must have at least three years of field experience of humanitarian work, some of it in a management position, as well as knowledge of issues relating to emergency programming, humanitarian law, community involvement and empowerment.
The Nigerian Minister of State for Education, Hajia Binta Ibrahim Musa, has said that students of the National Certificate of Education (NCE) in Colleges of Education must be computer literate by 2005 as a pre-condition of their graduation. Speaking at a conference last week she also said that the country should 'seek to promote the use of ICT and distance education as a cost-effective and affordable way of expanding and improving the quality of education systems.'
A clampdown on illegal immigration to the UK is causing serious problems for a popular North-East cultural festival. Organisers of the 28th Alnwick International Music Festival fear they could be left with a big hole in the year's programme if difficulties in obtaining visas force overseas groups to pull out. Amongst the groups due to perform but still without a visa are Sogo from Ghana. The festival is planned for 7th to 14th August.
A recent report published by the Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees and entitled, 'The Somali community in the UK: what we know and how we know it' has been widely welcomed by the representatives from a number of Somali associations. 'In addition to mapping exactly what has already been written on the Somali community, the report addresses what needs to be done to begin to undermine the seemingly perennial disadvantage Somalis face in the UK', the Independent Race and Refugee News Network reported.
Situated some 750 km from Mali's capital Bamako, patients at Dimbal hospital are now benefiting from the medical opinion of experts in Geneva. This is made possible by the Geolink Access satellite which allows doctors in the hospital to ask questions of experts 6,000kms away in case of difficulties. The network is an initiative for 'la mission archéologique et ethnoarchéologique suisse en Afrique occidentale (Maesao)' and Dimbal is a pilot project.
Following the success of SANGONeT's Thetha initiative, the network is planning its sixth provincial forum on the ICT challenges facing the CSO sector. It will be held on Monday 16th August in the KwaZulu-Natal province. Participants will be introduced to various inputs from government, business and CSOs, highlighting various ICT policy and development issues. For more information please contact Refilwe Rakhibane at SANGONeT by e-mail:
The first Software Freedom Day will be held in South Africa on August 28th. Linux user groups, companies, organisations and individuals from around South Africa will get together to celebrate free and open source software in numerous events to be held throughout the country. The day aims to increase awareness about free software and it is hoped it will become an annual event.
Two weeks ago, in the early morning hours of July 12, hell descended upon the village of Donki Dereisa in South Darfur. Shortly before sunrise, Fatima Ibrahim, a 28-year old woman of noble features and simple ways, awoke from her sleep to the deafening sound of exploding ordnance falling from the sky and the rattle of automatic weapons fire. As she emerged from her mud hut with her ten year old daughter, she saw fires blazing all around and scores of heavily armed men on horseback attacking the village from every direction.
The African Union (AU) announced plans to transform its monitoring mission in Darfur to a fully-fledged peacekeeping mission to tackle the on-going atrocities in western Sudan, where up to 1 million people have been displaced and about 50,000 killed. AU armed forces, however, need transport and logistical support to ensure quick, effective deployment of the monitoring mission which is still not up to full capacity.
While negotiators from the United States and the European Union (EU) declared victory in rescuing global trade talks in the early hours on Sunday at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) denounced the results as a sell-out of poor countries and the environment. "After days of closed-door negotiations, rich countries have delivered a deeply unbalanced text as a take-it-or-leave-it option," said Celine Charveriat, head of Oxfam International's Geneva office. "This puts developing countries in the unfair position of having to accept a bad deal or reject and get blamed by the U.S. and the EU for failure."
Last week, along with a group of about 40 (mostly Africans in Britain) I was a guest at a very beautiful stately guest house, Cumberland Lodge, amidst the luscious green of the picturesque English country side near the Windsor Castle, one of the many palaces of the English crown dotted across the United Kingdom. It is not far from London, if the Lagos -like traffic congestion allows you, but it is a very different and serene place, away from the concrete jungle and human automatons that London is fast becoming.
We were joking among ourselves with some of the other Africans in our group that these Basungus really do not know what a village is. There is electricity, pipe borne water, telephone (though the mobile connection was epileptic, maybe deliberately so to preserve the quiet atmosphere), good tarred roads, some of them connecting just fields or a few houses. There is even internet service for God's sake. With all these in Africa it qualifies to be the nation's capital! Anyway wealth and poverty like urban and rural divide, are merely relative.
But our purpose for invading the tranquil 'village' was not tourism but a consultative meeting of Africans in Britain under the auspices of the Royal Africa Society (RAS). The aim was to find ways and means of making Africans living in the United Kingdom to dialogue among themselves, build some consensus and devise strategies to make themselves more effective players in the affairs of their host community, Britain. People came from different walks of life and originally from different regions of Africa: business, academia, media, NGO and others.
The immediate background to the meeting (and sponsors of the gathering) is the Blair Commission for Africa. It was part of its consultation with different African constituencies. However both the RAS (under its new Africaphile Director, Richard Dowden ) and Africans working with it were clear that the meeting was about wider issues of Africans in Britain. To the extent that the Blair Commission came into it, it is merely as a strategic entry point for Africans in Britain to influence British policy towards Africa.
If the sole object of the meeting was about Blair's commission I doubt if many of the Africans there would have bothered at all. I know I wouldn't have. This because my view of the commission has been clear from the start. I do not think that we need another report on Africa's condition, we have enough gory details around. What Africa needs is not another bonanza for consultants and bureaucrats to feed off our misery but action to remedy the situation. Africa does not need new promises but fulfilment of old ones both those we made to ourselves and the ones others made to us.
I do not think that the Blair commission will make any difference to Africa in spite of the plenty of good will that it may generate because of Blair's presidency of both the European Union and the G8 in 2005. It is clear that Blair wants to showcase Africa but at a time when his international credibility (as a result of his reactionary cheering of Bush and amoral lack of remorse) is in tatters. Who will listen to him? Even if they do how many will believe him?
But in spite of my reservations I see the British joint presidency of these key multilateral institutions as providing opportunity for engagement by a number of civil society activists in Britain. The first beneficiaries of this will be the big British international NGOs in the broad development, humanitarian and conflict resolution lobbies. Their activities and priorities are often shaped by humanitarian emergencies (on which they feed) and the policies of the day so they will make extra miles from Blair's showcasing of Africa.
Another set of actors will be African organisations who are a bit visible in Britain and could engage in more guilt tripping of their fellow middle class liberals and thereby gain more resources and/or recognition as a result of the Africa euphoria during Blair's dual presidency. Even African journalists and British journalists with a focus on Africa will find that they are in more demand.
But if thoughtfully and strategically worked out the greatest potential of the Blair Commission could be to renew the so far untapped (beyond individual remittances) potential of the huge African Diaspora in the United Kingdom to become effective players at various policy levels. They have been around for a long time. They are in Britain but many do not feel part of it. Consequently the British government makes policies about Africa with little or no input from this constituency. And worse still African governments relate to the British government as if they do not have people in Britain.
The way some of these Diaspora organisations behave may also make one doubt where their feet are, whether in Africa and Britain. Some of them think because they are in the Diaspora they know best, the same arrogant attitudes they criticise Europeans about. Others think they should have the first and last say on any thing related to Africa and Africans without any mandate to do so from anybody. Still many take British government or NGO money and proclaim their independence! Another miserable lot proclaim revolution in Africa without the slightest idea of the conditions our peoples live in and are confronting. These kinds of posturing must stop.
Imagine the insult of Blair calling African leaders to advise him on Africa. Would an African leader set up a commission on Europe and ask European Presidents and Prime Ministers to serve in it? In the unlikely event that they say yes would you imagine such European leaders arriving in such an African capital without previous briefings from his or her own nationals and the EU intelligence, business , media, diplomatic, NGO and other sources. Would they be in Africa without meeting their nationals who are in that country? Yet this is what is happening with the Blair commission.
To the best of my knowledge Bob Geldof , with all his outbursts and outlandish ways, has been the only commissioner actively seeking engagement of Africans in the work of the commission. He has a track record of speaking truth to power internationally on global poverty, debt and suffering of the third world but Africa in particular. He often robs people the wrong way and sometimes comes across as crying more than the bereaved. He is also too hopeful about the Commission but at least he offers an entry point.
Africans in the Diaspora must learn not to throw the baby away with the birth water. They must engage as British residents and citizens, but more than that work in concert with African groups in Africa to engage the African leaders and others participating in the commission. If they wish to shave our head it should not be behind our backs.
* 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]
Karibu Books and TransAfrica Forum's Writers' Corner are presenting Arthur R Ashe's book, 'A Continent for the Taking', on Friday 6th August at 1426 21st Street, Washington. The book explores the legacy of colonization on contemporary African countries such as the DRC, Liberia, Mali and Nigeria. The event will start from 6.30 and more information is available on the website and by e-mail:
"According to the unanimous testimony of the Ancients, first the Ethiopians and then the Egyptians created and raised to an extraordinary stage of development all the elements of civilization, while other peoples especially the eurasians, were still deep in barbarism. The explanation for this must be sought in the material conditions in which the accident of geography had placed them at the beginning of time. For man to adapt, these conditions required the invention of sciences complemented by the creation of arts and religion."
This timely volume shows that, despite the global spread of neo-liberal economic ideology, the need remains to understand variations in cultural values and political institutions. Are human rights claims prompted by similar values and aspirations? And even if human rights are universal, what are the consequences of claiming them in different historical, cultural and material realities? How does liberal individualism suit different traditions that value sociability, negotiation and conviviality? The contributors to this book address such questions with original research in a variety of African countries whose diversity compels careful thought about the meaning of universal values such as democracy and rights.
It is generally accepted that humans should be assured of the basic human rights of security and subsistence. Therefore, access to clean air and water, land capable of growing uncontaminated food, and a climate that fosters growth are inherent human rights. In this provocative book the author states that the current thrust in both ethics and the law, to a separation between human rights and environmental rights, is profoundly misguided.
This collection of thirteen case studies by international scholars examines the strategies whole societies adopted to slavery over a period of five centuries.
The fight against HIV/Aids in South Africa will receive a major boost when a European Union (EU) body will donate R4,2 bn to the Medical Research Council (MRC), reports the IOL. A spokesperson from the MRC indicated that the funding from the European Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (ECDTP) will be used 'to conduct trials.'
African women writers in this series redefine images of womanhood, provide new visions and reshape the erstwhile distorted characterisation of African women in fiction. The rapid upsurge of writing by African women has been one of the most dynamic, phenomenal trends of African Literature at the end of the twentieth century.
Mmino, a South African-Norwegian Education and Music Programme, invites proposals for music and music education projects in South Africa. Mmino provides funding to support the development of music in South Africa.
For more details contact Anriette Chorn at tel 011 838-1383 or email: [email protected]
The main objective of the workshop is to analyse the role that the diaspora plays in peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction in Congo-DRC. The workshop invites papers in English and French that combine empirical and theoretical perspectives on these topics from Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, Migration Studies and related areas.
Did you know that of the world's 12 million refugees, more than 7 million have been "warehoused"-confined to camps or segregated settlements or otherwise deprived of basic rights-in situations lasting 10 years or more? Check it out at http://www.refugees.org/warehousing. Refugee protection and assistance does not have to involve spatial confinement and enforced idleness.
Civil Society Observer is a bi-monthly package of documentation of various kinds from all political persuasions to keep you informed of developments related to NGOs and civil society.
Online advocacy has been evolving into a comprehensive, systemic approach to growing membership, identifying prospective donors, developing donor relations, building communities, and mobilizing constituencies. Organizations increasingly integrate online and offline efforts, from culture jamming to facilitating gatherings and demonstrations. Now more than ever, a strong Internet presence is vital for small- to medium-sized nonprofits to meet their goals.
Canadian-based charity Macdonald Youth Services (MYS) will publish and distribute to non-profits organizations worldwide, a free and unique, multi-media "how-to" resource about online volunteerism. Worldwide online users are projected to top one billion by the end of 2005. But globally, there are very few resources available now to explain how to tap into this huge, mostly untapped pool of potential online volunteers.
On 27 July 2004, Justice Edmond Cowan, speaker of the Sierra Leonean Parliament, banned the privately-owned "Standard Times" newspaper from covering parliamentary sessions for one month. The speaker's action came after the publication in early July of an article in the newspaper, under the caption, "MP Thrown Out of Parliament", which the legislative body considered disparaging.
The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of International PEN says it has noted the release on 9 July 2004 of Tewodros Kassa. The former editor of the weekly newspaper "Ethop" had served his two-year sentence in full. Kassa was sentenced on 10 July 2002, on the grounds that he had "fabricated information that could incite people to political violence" and that he had defamed a "Mr. Duki" by "disseminating false information through the newspaper". The charges related to three "Ethop" articles published in 2001.
The Benue State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in north central Nigeria has expressed concern over the recent spate of threats against journalists in the state. The Council in a statement issued on July 28, 2004 and signed by Ben Bem Mnguityo, chairman and Owojecho Omoha, secretary, said it has "received complaints from some of its members that they are intimidated and harassed by some persons in the state to the point that journalists now fear their own shadows."
The days of the private media in Zimbabwe are numbered. Soon, readers will wake up to see only state-owned newspapers decorating the newsstands. On June 10, the government controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC) closed The Tribune, leaving at least 60 full-time staff out of work. The Tribune is the third newspaper to shut down in less than a year. Last September armed police shut down The Daily News, a popular newspaper that was a harsh critic of President Robert Mugabe’s government. Its sister publication, The Daily News on Sunday was shut down as well.
The Algerian government has jailed several journalists critical of its president and slapped a "temporary freeze" on the Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera. It is the most severe attack on the freedom of the press since President M. Abdelaziz Bouteflika came to power in April 1999. The North African country has one of the freest print medias in the Arab world.
Newly-freed newspaper editor Madiambal Diagne has said he hopes his two-week spell in prison will bring about changes to media laws in Senegal, whose reputation as a haven of democracy in West Africa has been dented by the episode, according to a report by UN agency IRIN. Diagne, the editor of independent newspaper Le Quotidien, was jailed on 9 July after he published articles about alleged fraud in the customs service and alleged government interference in the judiciary.
Zimbabwe's worsening economic conditions were one of the key reasons for the growing number of children on the streets, according to a recent survey. Results from an assessment of children living and working on the streets in urban areas around the capital, Harare, showed that the majority ended up here as a result of poverty, sexual or physical abuse and family breakdown. Of the 450 children interviewed by Zimbabwe's National Council for the Welfare of Children, with support from UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), 58 percent had become homeless during the last year.
Poor, pregnant and malnourished. These are the three adjectives that best describe Kache Nyoka, a mother of five, who is caught up in the drought that has ravaged Kilifi District in Kenya's Coast Province. Sitting next to the ramshackle mud-and-thatch hut that she calls home, Kache is in deep thought, agonising over what to do about her seven-year old daughter who has been sent away from school because the family cannot afford the ten shillings (US $0.13) that every pupil must contribute to pay the cook hired by the school to prepare meals for the pupils.
Contrary to Sudanese government assertions that the security situation in the troubled western Darfur region has improved, civilians displaced by the conflict insist that violence perpetrated by Janjawid militias is continuing, a United Nations official said. Francis Deng, the UN Secretary-General’s representative on internally displaced persons (IDPs), visited Darfur last week accompanied by Sudanese officials. He said the IDPs talked of "persistent insecurity and human rights violations", including "many accounts" of rape of women outside their camps.
The Rwandan government granted asylum on Friday to 283 people of Rwandan descent whom officials in Kigali have classified as refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The group - 172 children, 62 women and 49 men - were expelled from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo earlier in the week. Local military and civilian officials in the Congo had accused them of being Rwandans.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor will this month lead a South African delegation to a Commonwealth meeting in Britain, where a set of protocols to guide the process of recruiting teachers is to be finalised. The meeting would focus on ways of stemming the flow of teachers from poorer to richer nations, said Pandor after her second Council of Education Minister's meeting in Pretoria.
This paper is motivated by the observation that children in land-rich households are often more likely to be in work than the children of land-poor households. The vast majority of working children in developing countries are in agricultural work, predominantly on farms operated by their families. These facts challenge the common presumption that child labour emerges from the poorest households. This article suggests that this seeming paradox can be explained by failures of the markets for labour and land.
This paper focuses on teacher motivation and incentives in low-income developing countries (LICs) in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. In particular, it assesses the extent to which the material and psychological needs of teachers are being met. This includes overall levels of occupational status, job satisfaction, pay and benefits, recruitment and deployment, attrition, and absenteeism.
Located in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina, the National Humanities Center is a private nonprofit institution that provides an environment for individual research and the exchange of ideas among scholars. During the 2005-06 academic year, the center will offer forty residential fellowships for advanced study in the humanities.
The UN refugee agency is reaching out to some 13,000 Angolans living in South Africa, many of whom are highly educated, to offer help for them to return home, a spokeswoman said Monday. Contrary to other countries in the region where hundreds of thousands of Angolans took refuge during the 27-year civil war, South Africa does not have refugee camps for the Angolans, most of whom live in Cape Town, said Melita Sunjic, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Coordinated by the Transcend Peace University, this training course will aim to introduce students to peace journalism and how it differs from war journalism.
With sub-Saharan Africa on the verge of the largest polio epidemic in recent history, a United Nations-backed campaign to eradicate the virus has hailed resumption of immunization in the Nigerian State of Kano, seen as vital for eliminating the disease that once paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children worldwide each year. Immunization campaigns were suspended in various northern states of Nigeria in August 2003 following concerns by public figures regarding the safety of oral polio vaccine (OPV), including rumours that it was contaminated by the HIV virus or that it could sterilize young girls.
Republic of Congo said it is investigating complaints of extensive illegal fishing by Chinese ships in the West African nation's waters, including alleged fishing with dynamite. Republic of Congo fishers say Chinese vessels are trawling waters officially set aside for traditional fishers and dropping dynamite in the water to produce massive kills of fish, which then float to the surface and are easily scooped from the sea.
Earthlife Africa eThekwini has welcomed the announcement by the Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi, that the Thor Chemicals cleanup is finally being launched. This follows years of action by Earthlife Africa to stop the company from importing toxic mercury waste for incineration which has had a detrimental effect on both the health of workers at Thor Chemicals and the surrounding environment.
Even though Gabon has some 800 km of coastline, it is forced to import more than 7,000 tonnes of fish every year. But with a new grant from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the government hopes to change all that. "The US$ 270,000 grant from the FAO will allow Gabon to plan a development strategy for the fishing industry for the long-term, something we've never done before," Georges Mba Asseko, the government official in charge of fisheries, told IRIN in an interview.
President Abdoulaye Wade has cancelled his summer holiday and set up an emergency task force to deal with a plague of locusts that threatens to invade the north of Senegal. Officials said swarms of mature locusts had begun laying eggs in the northern province of Matam, prompting fears of large-scale crop destruction by their offspring in a few weeks' time.
Tanzania is considering legal action after 22 European trawlers were spotted illegally fishing in its waters. The ships were spotted by European Union surveillance planes and the information was passed to the Tanzanian authorities, EU sources say. EU sources estimate that some 70 ships are operating illegally, targeting tuna, kingfish, lobsters and prawns.
Besides holding one of the most difficult jobs in the European Union, president of the European Commission Romano Prodi has also put his name to a book about African rainforests. The dense humid forests of central Africa represent the second largest block of rainforest left on earth - second only to the Amazon forest in Latin America. The forests, which stretch over about 670,000 square kilometres of the Congo, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, are among the richest wilderness areas on earth in terms of biodiversity.
An estimated 25 million people are living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa and although there appears to be a stabilization in HIV prevalence rates this is actually due to a rise in AIDS deaths and a continued increase in new infections. This is according to a UNAIDS report that warns that the number of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has risen in every region of the world during 2003 and last year five million people became newly infected with HIV - more people than any previous year.
This World Bank report focuses on the health and nutrition Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) assessing the progress to date and prospects for achieving these goals. The first part of the report finds that progress towards the MDGs for health has been mixed and that progress in the second half of the 1990 - 2015 window will not necessarily be better. However, the authors argue that improving the rate of progress towards these goals is possible in all regions and countries.
Building health research expertise in developing countries often requires personnel to receive training beyond national borders. For research funding agencies that sponsor this type of training, a major goal is to ensure that trainees return to their country of origin: attaining this objective requires the use of proactive strategies. This paper describes the strategies employed to discourage brain drain.
The UN has described Darfur as 'the world's worst humanitarian crisis'. On 23 July, the US Congress described it as 'genocide'. Characterising the Darfur war as 'Arabs' versus 'Africans' obscures a complicated reality. Darfur's Arabs are black, indigenous, African and Muslim, just like Darfur's non-Arabs, hailing from the Fur, Masalit, Zaghawa and many smaller tribes.
Migration of male workers in South Africa is known to fuel the spread of HIV. This may also be the case for the increasing numbers of migrant women. Research funded by the UK Department for International Development looks at risk factors for HIV infection in migrant and non-migrant women in Carletonville, South Africa.
A critical shortage of health professionals in Swaziland is undermining the public health system's capacity to expand its national antiretroviral (ARV) programme, health officials have warned. A recent situation analysis carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed the extent of the problem in a country with one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world. The WHO study noted there was an overall lack of staff in key areas of the health sector resulting in services either being stopped or quality of care being compromised.
A cholera outbreak in and around N'djamena, the capital of Chad, has infected more than 600 people over the past month and 38 have died, an official of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Belgium said on Friday. "To date, more than 600 people have been infected by cholera and 38 have died,” Josette Benamane, the newly appointed MSF Belgium Coordinator in N'djamena, told IRIN.
In an effort to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Great Lakes region, government ministers from six countries signed a convention on Tuesday establishing a new regional organisation called the Great Lakes Initiatives on AIDS (GLIA). The Great Lakes has the world's second highest incidence of HIV infection after southern Africa.
Uganda's director general of health services has directed the country's National Drug Authority to suspend antiretroviral drugs sales on the open market following reports that some doctors have been selling counterfeit drugs to patients, Xinhua News Agency reports. Peter Mugyenyi, director of the country's Joint Clinical Research Centre, last Thursday at a parliamentary committee meeting on HIV/AIDS said that some people have been selling the counterfeit drugs in containers resembling those used to sell authentic antiretrovirals, Uganda's New Vision reports.
Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo said last Thursday 58 people, suspected to have caught the plague, had died so far this year in the northeastern district of Ituri. They were among the 1,042 suspected plague cases recorded since January, according to a joint Ministry of Health and World Health Organization mission sent to the area from 18 to 26 July.
Female-headed households continue to bear the brunt of poverty and ongoing food shortages in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, according to recent surveys. The Consortium for Southern Africa's Food Emergency (C-SAFE) and the World Food Programme (WFP) released their latest Community and Household Surveillance (CHS) reports, based on information gathered in October 2003 and March 2004, analysing the livelihood and food security status of households and vulnerable groups in the three southern African countries.
If proposed amendments to the country's abortion legislation are passed, nurses will be allowed to conduct complicated abortion procedures, a provision the country's largest nursing organisation has warned against. The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill was debated before parliament's portfolio committee on health by a range of religious and medical organisations.
Applicants are sought for the position of Africa editor / analyst for the Oxford Analytica Daily Brief. The successful candidate should have a firm grounding in the region, probably developed through a postgraduate degree and/or relevant experience. Analytical skills and the ability to write/edit with speed and accuracy are essential. The closing date is 13th August. To apply, send a CV and details of current salary to:
Applications are sought for an epidemiological research assistant. Working under the supervision of the Epidemiologist of the Italian Cooperation, the position holder will be responsible for coordinating surveys to evaluate the activities of the health services in KwaZulu Natal. The successful candidate will hold a first degree in a science discipline, have a valid driver's license and preferably have postgraduate training or working experience in Public Health or a related area.
They meet every week at a small, government-funded health clinic in Kawempe, the poorest and most crowded suburb of the Ugandan capital. They vary in age, but nearly all are married or widowed. Most contracted HIV from a husband or long-term partner. They are members of the Kawempe Positive Women’s Union (KPWU).
The papers in this volume explore the different kinds of partnerships for ending gender-based violence, and men's roles and responsibilities within these. These roles in and responsibilities for change range across the spectrum, from men changing their relationships with their intimate partners to male-dominated institutions changing the way they function in order to better confront issues of gender and violence.