Kenya's new Minister of Information and Communication, Hon. Raphael Tuju, has announced his support for the liberalisation and advancement of ICT policy in Kenya. Speaking after a week-long ICT policy advocacy workshop in Nairobi the minister noted that "In Kenya, I do realise that we have problems with our telephony connectivity and the snail’s pace in connectivity, as well as the high costs of international calls". The workshop, organised by the Association for Progressive Communications, brought together a range of stakeholders from a total of eight African countries.

Oxfam UK

Oxfam is seeking two programme coordinators to develop and manage the delivery of its humanitarian and development programme in Darfur. Successful candidates will have a proven record of long-term vision and strategic planning as well as proven experience of humanitarian and development planning, preferably within a chronic conflict environment.

International Rescue Committee

Based in the field, the Regional Director will oversee IRC's field programs in West Africa and will provide effective support to field staff by working closely with HQ staff and liasing with the donor community. The successful applicant will have a minimum of five years field work experience in developing countries, including field experience as a Country Director of similar.

Members of the National Union of Eritrean Women in Washington DC are organising a seminar during Festival Eritrea 2004. The seminar aims to enhance the unity of Eritrean Women and will be held on Saturday August 14th. More information is available on the link provided.

AITEC, an organisation which seeks to advance ICT knowledge in Africa, is hosting a conference in Arusha, Tanzania, to promote and support the development of ICT as a tool of change and empowerment for women across Africa. The conference will be held on 5-7th August and AITEC's partners include the Government of Tanzania and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

Brian Chikwava, from Zimbabwe, has won the fifth Caine Prize for African Writing for ‘Seventh Street Alchemy’ from Writing Still, Weaver Press, Harare 2003. The result was announced by the Chair of the judges, Alvaro Ribeiro, at a dinner held this evening (Monday, 19 July) in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Brian is the first winner of the Prize from Zimbabwe.

Civil rights groups in Zimbabwe on Monday slammed moves to introduce a new bill that will give the government greater control over the operations of NGOs and churches. The Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) and Churches Bill is expected to be tabled in the coming parliamentary session.

Hundreds of thousands of Eritrean children are living in extreme poverty due to prolonged drought, the aftermath of border conflict with neighbouring Ethiopia and its impact on the country's economy, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported. UNICEF said in a humanitarian update that an estimated 425,000 children under 14 years of age were affected, mostly in families that were largely dependent on and headed by women.

The 24th International Fundraising Congress will be taking place on 12-15th October 2004 at the NH Leeuwenhorst Hotel, the Netherlands. This year's programme boasts up to 60 world-class speakers and it is expected that up to 800 fundraising professionals will attend, providing an excellent opportunity for networking within the sector.

CAF Southern Africa will be hosting its first conference on Corporate Community Involvement (CCI) on the 28th September 2004 in in Johannesburg. The event will bring together CCI practitioners and non-profit organisations to discuss how time, skills, knowledge and talent can be best used to build meaningful partnerships.

France has decried the rate at which public funds are being embezzled in Uganda and that the corrupt officials are left to get away with it. Speaking during the Bastille Day celebrations, the French Ambassador, Jean-Bernard Thiant, stated that: “Everyone knows that there is corruption...there are very many reports but nothing has been done...the Government should force these people to give back what they steal.”

A recently launched UN human development report argues that respecting cultural diversity could prevent conflict and enhance development. It urges states to adopt policies allowing people to choose their own identities without fear of discrimination.

The Sudanese government is increasingly bringing pressure to bear on internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Darfur region to return to their homes, despite the fact that it has not fulfilled its commitment to improve security, according to UN agencies. Small-scale forcible relocation of IDPs had already started with the movement of about 4,000 people from al-Meshtel camp to Abu Shawk camp outside Al-Fashir, the capital of Northern Darfur State, just hours before UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited on 2 July. A second incident involved the movement of 7,000 people from Nyala, the capital of Southern Darfur, to Kalma camp, the UN reported.

A key Rwanda genocide suspect has been handed over to U.N. prosecutors, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said late on Monday. Gaspard Kanyarukiga, 59, accused of a horrifying attack on a church in which 2,000 people died, was arrested in South Africa on Saturday. Charges against him include genocide, complicity in genocide, and conspiracy to commit genocide.

The Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) is pleased to announce that it will be organising its first annual "ICTs and Civil Society" conference that is to take place from 2-4 March 2005 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In communities grappling with the devastating effects of Aids, women are quietly bearing the brunt, absorbing orphans into their existing families, caring for the ill and running their households.

An estimated 21 000 Namibian children lost one or both their parents last year alone, the majority of which were Aids-related deaths.

This volume examines the prospect of an African regional human rights system as a means to foster the realization of establishing universal human rights norms in Africa. The author argues that although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the role the United Nations plays in promoting global awareness of human rights has had a positive influence in Africa, their institutional, financial and political impediments undercut the ability of a global system to address adequately the crisis in human rights violations occurring in Africa today.

This paper reviews the literature on the performance of commonly found social safety net programs in developing countries. The evidence suggests that universal food subsidies have very limited potential for redistributing income. While targeted food subsidies have greater potential, this can only be realized when adequate attention is given to the design and implementation, as well as to the social and political factors influencing the adoption, of these programs.

The ninth edition of International Justice Tribune, the independent newsletter reporting on international criminal justice, is now available on http://www.justicetribune.com/index_uk.htm

The Commonwealth Secretariat has written to the former President of Zambia, Frederick Chiluba, informing him that his request for foreign observers to monitor his trial has been turned down as it does not have such a mandate. Chiluba, who is standing trial for a raft of corruption charges, including the theft of $41 million from the state during his presidency, has also requested observers from SADC and the AU but neither have yet replied.

Mpumalanga's police commissioner has ordered a top-level investigation into allegations of torture, bribery and corruption within the province's serious and violent crimes unit. The investigation started last week amid allegations of apartheid-era torture methods used by members of the unit against detainees at police cells in Witbank and Middelburg. Police officers are also alleged to be running an extortion racket, arbitrarily detaining people with the intention of extracting ransoms.

Scores of residents who were forcibly removed from their land in Pretoria's eastern suburbs and on the West Rand due to the now-repealed Group Areas Act have been compensated by the government. Residents of Eersterus/Riverside, now part of Newlands, and Munsieville and Madubulaville on the West Rand, will share an estimated R36,9-million which has been paid out by the department of land affairs.

Liberia needs donors to help it find more than US$12 million so it can conduct elections in October 2005 and return to democracy after a long and bitter civil war, the head of the National Elections Commission said on Friday. The number of Liberians entitled to vote is also still not known. Estimates of the country's current population vary between 2.5 and 3 million and over 300,000 are still living in neighbouring countries where they sought refuge during the troubles.

The Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) has said that it accepts government expropriation of farms must take place, but that they remain confident that a consensus on land reform will be reached between the Government, themselves and the farmers. The comments follow notices delivered by the Government to 19 farm owners, advising them that their land had been identified for expropriation and that they should 'come and negotiate the sale'.

Peace talks aimed at ending 17-months of conflict between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups in the Darfur region broke down on Sunday before negotiations had even begun. The talks, which were aimed at finding a political solution to the conflict, had opened two days earlier, on 15 July. The African Union mediators held separate consultations with the Sudanese government representatives and the rebels, after an initial meeting ended in what was reported as a mutual "shouting match".

Djibouti has made significant progress in reducing maternal mortality over the past 10 years, but the number of women who die in childbirth is still high, the Djiboutian national coordinator for reproductive health, Safia Elmi, said. "In 1994, Djibouti's maternal mortality rate was 740 for 100,000 live births. That is a lot. By 2002, it had fallen to 690 deaths per 100,000 live births," Elmi told IRIN.

Thanks!

South Africa's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs has disclosed that SADC is to assist Zimbabwe in creating a climate for free and fair elections, ahead of its polls in March next year. The comments came whilst the minister was holding talks with the South African Council of Churches on the Zimbabwean issue.

In September 2004, the States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child will receive a letter from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on behalf of the Secretary General of the United Nations requesting nominations for members of the Committee. Each State Party has the right to nominate one person from its country. Nominations are due to be submitted by States Parties to the Office of the High Commissioner before the end of November. Although NGOs cannot nominate candidates, they can play a role in lobbying their State Party to nominate a good candidate who meets the criteria.

Developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) run the risk of cutting women off from policy-making debates. Lack of literacy and mobility in male-dominated societies already constrain women's opportunities to be heard. At a time when it is widely recognised that promoting women's involvement in policies is crucial for reducing poverty, resource-poor women risk being further marginalised by their lack of access to ICTs.

On 10 July 2004, the Butembo High Court granted Nicaise Kibel-Bel-Oka, publisher and editor of the Beni-based newspaper "Les Coulisses", a temporary release. The journalist had been detained at the Beni central prison for 21 days. Beni is located in North Kivu province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. On 19 June, a Beni court sentenced Kibel-Bel-Oka to six months in prison and payment of US$5,000 in damages for defamation against Jean-Jacques Kiangu, a high-profile businessman in that part of the country.

The government media’s timidity in demanding accountability from the ruling party leadership when they publicly make potentially harmful pronouncements was exposed by the manner in which they handled President Robert Mugabe’s closing address at the Fourth ZANU PF National Youth Congress, according to the latest edition of the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe's newsletter. "These media merely carried President Mugabe’s speech without analysing it. For instance, The Sunday Mail quoted President Mugabe telling his party youths that they should 'mount a vigorous campaign across the country to push Tony Blair’s midgets out' as ZANU PF 'wanted to teach them a lesson across the whole country that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again'. No attempt was made to disentangle the embedded meaning of such statements."

Lawyers from Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America arrived at Oxford in the United Kingdom this week for the third annual Media Law Advocates Programme. The three week course, organized by the Open Society Justice Initiative and the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at Oxford University’s Wolfson College, will coach the 35 media lawyers in the promotion and defense of media freedom. Classes will cover defamation and libel - including pre-publication proofing, responding to threats of suit and in-court defense techniques - as well as licensing, and the internet.

Lighting plays a fundamental role in our lives, says this feature on the website of the World Watch Institute. "We use lights to illuminate most of our daily activities and to create a safe, comfortable environment." But each kilowatt-hour of electricity releases over two pounds (nearly 1 kilo) of carbon dioxide (CO2). "The buildup of CO2 and other “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere is contributing to global climate change, which is predicted to result in more frequent and severe storms and droughts, the rapid spread of infectious diseases, rising sea levels, and other adverse effects that could harm humans and other life on Earth."

The world's oceans have absorbed nearly half of the carbon dioxide that humans have released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels and manufacturing cement, according to research published in Science this week. As carbon dioxide contributes to global warming, this may sound like good news, but the flipside is that the gas is acidifying the seas and posing a threat to marine life.

South Africa will oppose moves by some member countries of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to return to commercial whale hunting, according to Horst Kleinschmidt, deputy director of the Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism. The country will also not support "scientific" whaling, where whales are killed supposedly for scientific research, particularly by Japan.

Perhaps not unexpectedly my interim report on the then concluding 3rd ordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union, generated a stream of private responses. Many of them were very positive towards the AU but very cautious about its prospects especially given the human and material challenges needed for the new organisation to deliver on its noble objectives. Others queried the basis of my optimism and accused me of being too optimistic. I can only respond with that famous quote: “Pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will”.

While hindsight may dictate caution to us, foresight should inspire us to keep our eyes on the prize. Africa is changing and will continue to change for the better, in our life times.

The AU is more open than the old OAU. The quality of current leaders may not be equal to the array of icons and inspiring leaders of the anti colonial nationalist era. “The founding fathers” as we call them (unfortunately, all fathers) were leaders thrown up by specific historical circumstances where both their desires and those of the masses were organically linked in the united goal of ridding the continent and its peoples of colonial domination. Whatever method they chose that goal was paramount.

The current leaders are not that lucky. Even those among them who had come from revolutionary, militant pro-people, liberation or anti dictatorship backgrounds and struggles soon made peace with the hegemonic forces of anti-people doctrines and ideology fostered on the world by the IMF/World Bank and now sanctified by the WTO and unbridled exploitation through rapacious globalisation.

It is amazing how previously left leaning so called “new leaders of Africa” have become the new darlings of the Washington twin vultures. While they still sometimes mouth progressive political vocabulary they have become extremist neo liberals in their economic policies. Thus instead of ending hunger, deprivation and eradicating poverty, they are content to “alleviate poverty” through participatory poverty alleviation crap policies in which consultants are the major beneficiaries!

Instead of the old demands for genuinely democratic governance in which the people are both the object and subject of development, today we aspire for “Good Governance” i.e., government without politics! It means running the economy as if the people do not matter and wanting a non-political government of experts! So the progressive African leader of today is at best a political equivalent of a successful Bank Manager. They aspire to run competent states, deliver on macro economic policies dictated by imperialism and trusting somehow that growth will ultimately lead to development for their underdeveloped countries. That is why they cannot be as ambitious, daring and pro active as the immediate post independence leaders.That is why even the best of them are often not loved but either respected or feared or both.

What is evidently emerging even in this essentially conservative governance agenda is the extreme limitation placed by the forces of globalisation on the ability of each of these states to experience growth beyond a very lowly placed ceiling. While they may experience macro economic “miracles” their peoples remain untouched by the wand in their “micro” existence. This is an objective situation that is propelling the new push for deeper regional integration. Most of the states have realized that they cannot, and have no chance of going it alone.

Even those who had thought of themselves as “chosen few” favourites of the West, soon realize they are as dispensable as their predecessors of the cold war period and even more quickly so today.

There is also a shared realisation that as Africans whether ruler or ruled we need to take responsibility for our destiny. Many issues that would have been conveniently swept under the carpet are now discussed openly and action sought to correct them. The continuing growth and confidence of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), of which NGOs are a critical part, and the general opening up of democratic space across the continent is making many things possible and we are beginning to dream again even if there are flashes of recent nightmares.

Maybe as I approach middle age I am becoming more reformist but I see incremental changes and possibilities.

For instance just a few years ago it would have been impossible for Mr. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, to deliver the kind of speech he delivered to our heads of state and government last week. He told them bluntly that they should stop derailing the forward march of their people for democratic development by tinkering with their constitutions to prolong personal rule of some leaders.

There were no talks of “interference in the internal affairs” of a sovereign member state as would have been the stand only a few years ago. There were no calls for apology or threats of walkouts. Instead the outgoing chairperson, Chissano, of Mozambique, picked on the theme in a friendly way and told his fellow leaders that it was time to do the honourable thing and respect the constitution of their various countries.

He also showed what can be done by using his chairmanship to inaugurate Swahili as a working language of the AU . It was recognised so but no serious attempt had previously been made to make it effective. The city of Addis Ababa, through its energetic mayor, Ato Akbede, renewed its commitment as hosts to the OAU/AU by giving land to all African embassies and also renaming avenues after individual countries. It was also gratifying to arrive in Addis without visas and be received through special immigration booths proudly welcoming you as AU guests.

One hopes that this will not just remain a one off arrangement just for conferences but a permanent good practice that should spread across Africa so that we stop being “others” on our own continent.

As we reviewed the last Summit with my two good friends and colleagues, Abdul Mohammed and Alex De Waal, we all felt there was something missing. We could not put our hands to it immediately. There were no great passions or roaring speeches to be remembered for decades. But there was a lot of sobriety in articulating the issues and course of action. If that means that Africa is moving from pompous words to serious action not many Africans will complain about not having inspiring leaders at the moment. The dearth of truly inspiring leaders is not confined to Africa. Mandela is virtually a lonely figure in that patented club globally.

* 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]

The 15th international AIDS conference has come and gone, but what will we have hoped to achieve when the world meets again in Toronto in two years time? Unlike the international AIDS conference in Vancouver 1996 when Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) broke new scientific ground and Durban 2000 when equal access to medicines made centre-stage, Bangkok 2004 presented no revolutionary science, no dramatic breakthroughs. But it did get back to basics and the need for an holistic approach. There is no single strategy to address HIV/AIDS. It requires prevention and treatment, activist pressure and government commitment, advanced scientific research and community involvement, and above all, a human rights-based approach designed to support vulnerable individuals and groups.
* Related Link:
What did the HIV conference achieve?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3900597.stm

AIDS has "crippled" at least six Southern African countries, where the life expectancy has fallen to 40 years or less, according to the annual United Nations' Human Development Report (HDR) released last Thursday. The Human Development Index (HDI) in Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe has suffered a reversal since 1990, said the report.

Kano state in northern Nigeria has ended a 10-month boycott of polio immunisations and ordered its health officials to start vaccinating children again. The move, announced on Monday night, had been long awaited by international health experts who have seen the crippling disease ripple around Africa from the Nigerian hot spot.

"We, economists, public health experts and policy makers involved in the fight against AIDS are committed to scaling up access to health care including ARVs for HIV positive people. We consider it a rational economic decision and an absolute priority. The goal set by WHO is to have 3 million people on treatment by the end of 2005. What it will cost, who will do it and how it will be done is still being debated and we have much to learn. There are, of course, major concerns around the scaling up of access to treatment; how can these programs improve the uptake? How can they reach the most vulnerable and poor populations? How can they achieve a high level of adherence to ARV treatments in order to avoid the spread of resistance? This declaration sets out a principle we all should subscribe to and apply: the principle of a comprehensive minimum package of treatment provided for free to all the people living with HIV / AIDS."

Botswana Health Minister Lesego Motsumi last Tuesday at the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, said that the country will meet by next year its target of distributing antiretroviral drugs at no cost to about 50% of those who need them - about 50,000 HIV -positive people, Reuters reports. Currently, 17,400 people are receiving antiretroviral therapy through the country's public health service; an additional 6,700 receive the medications from the private sector.

Split for nearly two years between the rebel-held north and government-controlled south, Ivory Coast is not only divided along political lines but cultural lines too. In the mid 1990s the Ivory Coast Democratic Party (PDCI), which held power from independence in 1960 to 1999, popularised the concept of Ivoirite or Ivorianness. It was an ideology seen by many as xenophobic and those with northern names or origins were frequently accused of not being Ivorian.

Nigeria and Cameroon have exchanged three border villages in the second of a series of moves designed to end a territorial dispute that nearly brought the countries to war. Officials from the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) said on Wednesday that the green and white striped flag of Nigeria had replaced the green, red and yellow of Cameroon in the villages of Bourha-Wango and Ndabakura, about 200 km south of Lake Chad, on Tuesday.

Increased funds, people and supplies are critical now in the Darfur region of Sudan to prevent a major health catastrophe. Cholera, dysentery, and malaria threaten the survival of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people. However, risks to people’s health can be reduced through effective health interventions within an intensified relief programme. This was the conclusion of two top leaders of the World Health Organization as they wrapped up a mission to camps and hospitals in South and West Darfur.

In the first few months of this year alone more than 1 000 nurses in South Africa have asked that their qualifications be sent abroad because they are considering leaving the country in search of better prospects. According to the SA Nursing Council, from January to May more than 1 000 nurses had asked for a verification of their qualifications to be sent to health agencies abroad.