As people remake the world's landscapes, cutting forests, draining wetlands, building roads and dams, and pushing the margins of cities ever outward, infectious diseases are gaining new toeholds, cropping up in new places and new hosts, and posing an ever-increasing risk to human and animal health. "Evidence is mounting that deforestation and ecosystem changes have implications for the distribution of many other microorganisms, and the health of human, domestic animal and wildlife populations," according to a report compiled by the Working Group on Land Use Change and Disease Emergence, an international group of infectious disease and environmental health experts.

The first desert locust swarms have left their breeding areas in North Africa and moved south to Mauritania, Senegal, and Mali, threatening the Sahel region with its worst plague in 15 years unless action is taken, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has warned. Mauritania has been spraying swarms of locusts with insecticide since June and a senior agriculture ministry official in neighbouring Senegal told IRIN that the first swarms had already landed in the north of the country.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has sent a mission to northwestern Uganda to assess the situation following an influx of Congolese refugees fleeing renewed fighting in the northeastern district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Hundreds of the refugees were reported to have crossed into the Ugandan district of Nebbi, 500 km northwest of the capital, Kampala. The Kampala office of the UNHCR said it was waiting for the mission's final report on the situation along the northwestern border with the DRC.

A World Trade Organisation deal allowing poor nations to import generic copies of patented drugs is not being implemented, depriving countries of a cheap source of supply, UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot said on Tuesday. The pact, finalised last September, is supposed to allow developing countries with meagre or no drug industries to buy generic drugs from countries such as India or Brazil to combat HIV and other health crises.

The rapidly spreading virus of free trade has proved as fatal to those living with HIV/AIDS as the disease itself according to Health NOW!, a global alliance of activist groups fighting the patenting of life-saving medicine by drug multinationals. Speaking at the XV international AIDS conference in Bangkok a Health NOW! spokesperson argued that millions of lives could be saved if developing world nations were not forced to sign unfair trade agreements by developed countries. Multilateral as well as bilateral free trade pacts he said were devastating the lives of the poor, contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS and compounding the devastation caused by the pandemic.

Although the objective of the World Health Organization's 3 by 5 Initiative - treating three million people with antiretroviral drugs by 2005 - is behind schedule, it is still possible, according to the first progress report for the initiative released on Saturday. The report - released in advance of the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand - estimates that 440,000 people currently are receiving treatment under the program.

This paper argues that studies of the relationship between child labour and poverty, in which poverty is measured by contemporaneous household income, underestimate the extent to which poor households use children’s labour as a risk diversification strategy, smoothing household income over time. The paper suggests that this is particularly likely in environments where markets to insure against risk are thin or absent.

Uganda has been ranked as the eighth country with the worst maternal death rate in the world. The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) country representative, James Kuriah, said Uganda loses 505 women out of every 100,000 live births. Kuriah told New Vision: "This maternal mortality rate has earned Uganda position number eight, compared to other countries that have limited social services due to civil conflict, despite the fact that it has achieved remarkable socio-economic progress over the last 17 years.”

The number of African nurses leaving their jobs to work in private hospitals and research firms within their countries or find better jobs abroad is increasing fast and aggravating the continent's health crisis, the New York Times reports. According to the newspaper, sub-Saharan Africa's low-income countries currently need at least twice as many nurses - around 620,000 - as there are now in order to take care of patients. During a World Health Organization annual assembly in May, African countries said they would seek compensation from developed nations for losing the investment they made on educating the nurses, who leave their countries in search of better opportunities abroad. The issue will be discussed again during the 15th International AIDS Conference.

In recognition of his significant contribution to the image of Ghana in the UK, Mr Isaac Osei, Ghana's High Commissioner to the UK, was presented with the 2004 'Person of the Year' award at the 4th Ghana Professional Achievers Awards (GPA) ceremony in London. The awards scheme exists to honour exceptional performers in various enterprises in a bid to further excellence in the Ghanaian and African Communities.

Since the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 ended 15 years of military rule in Nigeria, at least 10,000 people have been killed and some 800,000 displaced by outbreaks of communal violence across the country. According to government estimates, about 250,000 Nigerians remain displaced today – including up to 60,000 who fled their homes during the latest unrest in Plateau State in May 2004. A safe and conducive environment must be created for IDP return, with emphasis on reconciliation.

The UK African Women's Leadership Institute (AWLI) is inviting applications for a one week residential training event for African women in the UK from 25th July to 1st August. The event aims to develop the leadership potentials of African women through training in critical thinking on gender issues, personal empowerment and organisational development.

"Lwati" is an isiSwati word meaning information, and this monthly e-newsletter will be used to reflect on completed SANGONeT activities and projects, as well as to highlight and profile new, planned and forthcoming activities and events in line with SANGONeT's four programme areas.

The Endorois Community have lived for centuries around the Lake Bogoria region in the South Baringo and Koibatek Administrative Districts of Kenya. In the 1970s, the Government of Kenya, without effectively consulting the Community, gazetted the Community's traditional lands for the purposes of creating a game reserve. The Community were told by the Government to vacate the land and were forced to move. In doing so, not only were the Community's property rights violated, but spiritual, cultural and economic ties to the land were severed.

Efforts to build women's capacity to work in peace-building must link women's practical needs such as access to clean water and microcredit, with strategic needs related to gendered divisions of labour and power, which require confidence building, training in awareness of human rights, and the creation of organisations and networks. This is according to a report from International Alert that documents a participatory needs assessment undertaken in mid-2002 with women involved in peace-building in the Niger Delta region.

After weeks in international limbo, an aid agency ship carrying 37 shipwrecked African men won permission to dock in Italy. A relief worker and two crew were later arrested, and officials claimed that some immigrants had lied about coming from Darfur in Sudan, which is in a humanitarian crisis. The German aid group Cap Anamur said its ship came across a dinghy carrying the 37 men in the Mediterranean on June 20. The agency said some identified themselves as refugees from Darfur.

Senior public servants are refusing to declare their assets, shares and other interests that could be in conflict with their employment contracts. Their refusal, according to Wits University academic Professor Patrick FitzGerald, makes it difficult to detect corruption among public servants. The Financial Disclosures of Heads of Departments Regulations says that 'any employee who fails to disclose an interest...is guilty of a misconduct.' Despite this, no action has been taken against the 67% of senior public servants who refused to declare their interests.

Evidence shows the benefits of adult literacy for women in a variety of developing countries, but others argue that the results of adult literacy programmes are poor. Research from rural Mali suggests that the participation of women in literacy programmes does not necessarily improve their socio-economic attitudes and practices. Why should this be the case and should development agencies therefore continue to assume that literacy programmes are always a good way to improve the lives of women?

PeaceWomen has announced the launch of a new Women, Peace and Security News Sources index. Women, peace and security issues are making the news everywhere, everyday, it is often simply a matter of knowing where to look. PeaceWomen relies on a variety of websites, listservs, e-newsletters, and other e-news services for information on women, peace and security issues. Some sources provide women, peace and security-specific news updates, some include a regularly updated women and gender category which regularly includes peace and security information, and some are mainstream news services which provide occasional coverage of these issues. If you have suggestions for news sources to include or other comments and suggestions, please email: [email protected].

Belgium has offered to construct a boarding primary school in northern Uganda for former child abductees of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) who are currently receiving counselling to overcome the trauma suffered in captivity. Announcing the initiative, the Belgian Ambassador to Uganda, Koenraad Adam, stated that his government had earmarked US $ 2.4 million for the project which would be sited in Gulu, 360 km north of Kampala.

The lack of access to reliable and clean energy supplies is a major barrier to improving well-being around the globe - there are an estimated 1.6 billion people living in the rural areas of developing countries who lack access to electricity - but so is dependence on fossil fuels. Climate driven "natural" disasters also threaten far worse. Rather than just failing to improve the human condition, we could be about to witness the great reversal of human progress. This is according to the abstract of a recent publication by the New Economics Foundation.

Whilst the guns may have fallen silent in Sierra Leone, the problem of drug use is still a reality, opening a new battlefield for the authorities. Sierra Leone's only psychiatrist, Edward Nahim, told IPS that 'this problem is assuming frightening proportions. If not tackled urgently and decisively it may consume a whole generation of our youths.' To add weight to his concerns, a recent study has revealed that '78% of offenders in police custody tested positive for one or more illegal drugs'. Officials also report that Sierra Leone is becoming a major shipment point for drugs that are smuggled into Europe and America.

It was only a matter of time. For two years business has rallied behind Nepad, forming corporate councils and pledging to support Africa's blue-ribbon initiative for development. But progress on implementing the key components of Nepad has been slow, and patience among the private sector is wearing thin. When the continent's best thinkers gathered in the capital of Mozambique in early June for the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) annual Africa conference, the disconnect between business and political leaders was more apparent than it had ever been.

Poor growth by African governments during the past 40 years resulted in the worst aggregated economic disaster of the 20th century, according to a new study by the World Economic Forum (WEF). More Africans are trapped in poverty today than when the continent first began shedding the yoke of colonialism in the late 1950s. "The economic growth performance of the African continent has been tragically disappointing," write economists Elsa Artadi and Xavier Sala-i-Martin in the opening chapter of The African Competitiveness Report 2004, released at the WEF Africa summit in Maputo, Mozambique, in early June. "We use the word "tragic" because it has had enormous consequences for human welfare: hundreds of millions of citizens have become poor as a direct consequence of this dismal economic performance."

Communication for social change is an evolving methodology that allows communities to articulate their values, reconcile disparate interests and act upon shared concerns. Because it engages people in dialogue about difficult issues, it can be slow and unpredictable. It can also be difficult to evaluate. This case study makes no effort to analyze the field as a whole. Rather, it offers a narrative account of how stakeholders in one community - Decatur, Ill. - have tried to use the communication for social change methods to spark public and private dialogue, set an agenda, frame public debates and create an environment that is conducive to change.

There are some 130,000 people internally displaced (IDPs) in Ethiopia due to conflicts. This figure includes 62,000 persons in Tigray who have been displaced by the military confrontation which arose from a border dispute in May 1998 between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Since 2003, about 51,000 people in Gambella have been displaced by ethnic clashes and power struggles. As of July 2004 all the displaced people were unable to return to their areas of origin due to insecurity, the presence of landmines, lack of resources and an inability to construct their livelihoods in areas of return.

Kenya is to receive a total of US $60.51 million in grants and loans from the African Development Fund (ADF) for projects aimed at strengthening rural health facilities and improving water-supply and sanitation infrastructure in Rift Valley Province. It is intended to ensure equitable provision of adequate quantity and quality of services to all the user groups at an affordable cost and sustainable basis in Nakuru and in urban, semi-urban and rural communities.

Human rights groups have welcomed Angola signing up for the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). Angola was among three South African countries to join the APRM during the closing ceremony of the African Union Summit, bringing the total number of signatories to the mechanism to 23. The APRM monitors a country's progress towards political and economic reform and its socio-economic development.

The flow of refugees from the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) into Burundi has slowed considerably and some Congolese have gone back home without official help, but the area has not calmed down sufficiently to make "facilitated repatriation" advisable, the United Nations refugee agency said. Refugees who arrived in Burundi after distributions of food and sanitary materials have cited food shortages as their reason for returning to the DRC.

The United States came under attack this week at the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, with some critics saying it is pressuring countries to give up their right to make generic AIDS drugs in return for free-trade pacts. Under WTO rules, developing countries can ignore foreign patents and produce their own versions of expensive drugs in times of health crisis. Yet there is nothing to prevent a country from setting patent restrictions in a bilateral agreement.

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) will hold a five day ICT policy advocacy workshop in Nairobi from 19th - 23rd July. The workshop intends to galvinise the growing interest there is in ICT policy into a network of policy advocates working in their home countries. It will be the first of two regional ICT policy advocacy workshops, the second being held in Dakar, Senegal later this year. "Through the workshop, we hope to kick start concerted policy actions at the national level," says APC executive director, Anriette Esterhuysen. "There's a lot of interest and concern and a lot of expertise out there but not enough collaborative action. We want to do more than just build capacity."

On 9 July 2004, police in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, southern Nigeria, arrested and detained two news magazine reporters, Lawson Heyford of "The Source" and Okafor Ofiebor of "The News". The journalists were arrested for their alleged association with a man identified as Pastor Joe Alatoru, who had accused two senior police officers of taking bribes from him. Alatoru was also arrested by police.

"On 2 - 4 July 2004, more than 530 delegates - including more than 80 health workers and representing over 60 organisations and institutions - met at the first People's Health Summit (PHS) to discuss the crisis and inequity in the health system and the roll-out of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. While recognising the impact of the legacy of injustice and inequality of apartheid on the health service of our country and our people, delegates to the PHS expressed grave concern that in spite of many good policies, laws and programmes, the public health service is in crisis and the quality of many services is in decline."

The accelerated processes of globalisation that have characterised the last decade and a half in world history and the forces and interests that have emerged to dominate and propel them have brought to the fore a broad range of issues and concerns that touch directly on global and local-level equity and justice both generally as they pertain to the developmental experience and more specifically as they are being played out in the social sectors of which health and education occupy a place of prime importance.

Although, at one level, globalisation appears to promise a great deal of opportunity for progress and advancement, the process, in the way in which it has been shaped in the contemporary period, has also been accompanied, at another level, by a sharpening of socio-economic disparities and inequalities among nations and within countries. Evidence suggests that the main winners from globalisation represent a small and diminishing minority even as millions, including many who once formed part of or aspired for the middle class, have been pushed to the bottom of the social ladder into poverty and misery.

A plethora of explanations have been advanced as to why the process of globalisation has not been accompanied by social gains and has, instead, resulted in the erosion of some of the achievements recorded in an earlier phase of development. While some scholars point to the fact that the current experience of globalisation is driven by the narrow concerns of international financial investors with a strong short-term, speculative orientation that is inimical to the overall interests of the working poor and the real sectors of economies, others have suggested that the problems that have arisen are traceable directly to the neo-liberal ideological principles and doctrinal foundations on the basis of which the process of globalisation is being governed and which has resulted in the enthronement of a narrow and limiting market logic in the policy process.

There is clearly some truth in the various competing explanations which have been offered as to why the problem of inequality would seem to have worsened on the back of globalisation. But over and above these is the question of the state, particularly in the developing countries, and the erosion and delegitimation not only of its role in the developmental process but also the erosion of its broad policy planning and implementational capacities at the same time as the efforts at supplanting it with the private sector and/or non-governmental organisations have failed to live up to expectations.

When this is taken together with the fact that in the African context, the free market orientation of policy premised on deflationary macro-economic principles has failed to deliver growth and has instead widened the boundaries of poverty, it is easy to begin to understand why the problems of inequality and injustice have worsened. It is here, in my view, that the problem ought to be located in the first place.

The Making of the Post-Colonial African State and Social Policy:

The state, whether in developed or developing countries, played an important historical role as a social actor. The high point of the development of the social state came in the period immediately after the Second World War with emergence and spread of different variants of social democratic and welfare regimes in response both to popular domestic pressures by the working poor in Europe and as a direct response to the challenge of an ascendant socialism/communism most eloquently symbolized by the Bolshevik Revolution and its initial spread across Eastern Europe and Asia.

The post-War context of the consolidation of the social state coincided with the period of late colonialism which also witnessed for the first time in the colonial experience, a deliberate and conscious investment of effort in the promotion of “development” which included greater attention to the promotion of infrastructure, the nurturing of local industrial processing and the expansion of health and educational facilities and expenditure.

At independence, African states were, not surprisingly, invested with broad-ranging social responsibilities which were integral to the anti-colonial social contract on the basis of which the nationalist politicians mobilized the populace for the independence struggle. Central to the contract was the promise of the expansion of social policy in a direction which would significantly improve the health and nutritional status of the populace, expand access to education and offer greater opportunities for employment. African countries succeeded in varying degrees in achieving the goals which they defined: in the period to 1980, the livelihood prospects of the populace were generally improved - life expectancy maintained an upward trend even as child and maternal mortality showed improvements.

The expansionary economic policies which African governments pursued in the 1960s and 1970s had a great deal to do with the successes which they recorded. With growth rates averaging 5 to 7 per cent and star economic performers like Cote d’Ivioire and Kenya clocking up to 9 per cent average growth rates, it was possible to expand the social expenditure of the state particularly with regard to health and education. Policy was geared to promote the inclusiveness of marginal groups and subsidies were employed to improve the reach and coverage of the educational and health targets of the state.

To be sure, the post-colonial model of social policy formulation and implementation was not without its problems and some of the problems were to become sources of dysfunctionality that eventually weakened the effectiveness of policy and, eventually, the onset of socio-economic crises. Still, in comparison to the poor growth records of the 1980s and 1990s, the 1960s and 1970s seemed like golden years.

The Onset of Economic Crisis and the Age of Orthodox

The onset of the African economic crisis at the beginning of the 1980s triggered attacks on the social policies of the post-colonial state. While for most African governments, the immediate, almost instinctive response which they had to the crisis in their economies was to curb social expenditures as the core of the austerity measures which they adopted, this attack on the social sectors was carried further and transformed into a dogma in the context of International Monetary Fund/World Bank structural adjustment which had a deflationary, market-oriented thrust that saw and treated the post-colonial state as the problem and not a part of the solution.

The economic crisis management and reform strategy promoted by the IMF and the World Bank drew heavily from an ascendant global neo-liberalism which was one-sidedly anti-state and which was committed to “freeing” the forces of the market under the banner of “getting prices right”, curbing inflation, and promoting the private and/or non-state sector. The consequences of this crisis management strategy were many and devastating from the point of view of the health sector and the health status of the average Africa.

The shift in the structure of incentives which the structural adjustment framework represented and which consisted of efforts at shifting the locus of developmental activities away from the state to market also triggered a brain drain from the social sectors generally and the public health system in particular even as freshly qualified health personnel roamed the streets in many countries unable to find gainful employment.

The immediate post-colonial health system definitely had many problems but there was also a clear vision which underpinned it and which sought to improve livelihood and well-being. During the crisis and adjustment years, this vision was lost and the alternative that seemed to replace it was preoccupied primarily with winning the battle to roll back the frontiers of the state and enthrone the market.

Little initial attention was paid to ways in which the health gains that had been recorded in the lead up to and immediately after independence could be safeguarded. The consequence was that a chaotic situation prevailed in many countries in which the public health system was in a state of collapse and mired in all-round shortages of personnel, equipment and medicaments while the private/non-governmental health system such as it existed proved to be inadequate in many ways even as its services were priced beyond the reach of the working poor.

The decline which was registered in the health status of the average African was dramatic and alarming: diseases which were previously under control or which were well on the way to elimination resurfaced while life expectancy suffered reversals as maternal and infant mortality grew at the same time as the nutritional status of many households declined. The wider framework of economic reform and structural adjustment which was being pursued had clearly taken a toll on the health sector and combined with developments in the health system itself to send alarm bells ringing. Across Africa and the rest of the world, the case began to be made for adjustment with a human face.

The pleas for the modulation of economic reforms in order to give adjustment a human face led to the introduction of a series of interventions which came under the rubric of the social dimensions of adjustment. Overall, most of these programmes failed to achieve the objectives for which they were introduced and there is no greater evidence of this than the worsening of the problems of growing exclusion that they were supposed to help tackle.

The shallowness of the interventions was brought in sharp relief by the outbreak of the HIV/AIDS pandemic which the social dimensions of adjustment were simply unable to address and which accelerated at a time when the capacity of the state and of the public health system had been severely eroded.

Beyond Structural Adjustment and Towards the Social State:

One of the fundamental lessons from the failure of the social dimensions of structural adjustment to have an effect, and a factor which is equally relevant for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) which have been put in place across Africa during the last two years, is that no progressive policy of social advancement can be successful if it is treated as a residual category to serve targeting needs even as the “serious” business of macro-economic policy-making is carried on without a clear social objective in mind.

To be truly effective, social policy must be an integral part of macro-economic policy-making, not a residual add-on. This can only be done if there is a conscious effort to avoid the decoupling of social policy from macro-economic policy formulation as has happened over the last two decades. Such an approach will require, as necessary, the harmonization of economic policies and instruments with the goal of social renewal and advancement built on foundations of equity and justice.

For macro-economic policy-making to succeed in advancing the frontiers of social policy in a manner that is equitable, just and inclusive, it would also require to generate growth without which it will not be possible to expand expenditure. The tragedy for Africa is that the structural adjustment years were characterized by a policy orthodoxy which, by its deflationary logic, stifled growth.

The quest for a social state will necessarily, therefore, involve a revisiting of the macro-economic fundamentals that inform policy with a view to effecting a radical shift from a growth-retarding orthodoxy to a growth-promoting heterodoxy. In sum, the rebirth of a social state in Africa will also simultaneously involve a re-thinking of policy in a direction that could promote what some have conceptualized as developmental democracies on the continent.

* Adebayo Olukoshi is Professor of International Economic Relations and currently the Executive Secretary of the pan-African Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), which is headquartered in Dakar, Senegal. The above article was based on speaking notes for an address delivered at the third Southern African conference on Equity in Health, Durban, South Africa, June 8 and 9 2004.

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* Click on the link below to read this editorial in Kiswahili.

Some 77 children have died and 2,599 others are infected following an outbreak of gastroenteritis in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a health ministry official. The associate director of epidemiology at the health ministry, Dr Vital Mondonge Makuma, told IRIN on Wednesday that the disease, caused by a strain of the Escherichia coli bacterium, broke out six weeks ago.

In an electric session on Wednesday, conference delegates at the International Aids Conference in Thailand witnessed top South African government officials facing off with leading civil society activists over the use of the antiretroviral drug Nevirapine for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The session eventually brought about a better understanding of this issue. The controversy followed a comment made by South African Health Minister, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, at the opening of the South African stand at the Conference on Sunday. The Minister said that recent studies did not support the use of single-dose Nevirapine for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT).

As 15,000 scientists, policy-makers, advocates and People Living with HIV/AIDS gather in Bangkok for the 15th International AIDS Conference, a rising chorus of critics are challenging the strategy of President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Randall Tobias, US Global AIDS Coordinator, and other US officials in Bangkok are facing daily protests in Bangkok on issues ranging from the purchase of generic drugs through the President’s AIDS Plan to its highly controversial focus on abstinence-based prevention programs. "The international community has come to Bangkok under the banner of ‘Access for All’, but all too often the Administration’s AIDS plan is undermining this critical goal," said Salih Booker, Executive Director of Africa Action.

Eight legislators from a former rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have withdrawn from parliament after demanding an investigation into alleged massacres of Congolese Tutsis, known as Banyamulenge, in the east of the country. The parliamentarians from the former rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie (RCD) have left the capital, Kinshasa, for the eastern town of Goma. They told IRIN on Wednesday that they would not return to parliament.

President Lansana Conte has suspended more than 100 elected officials in the capital Conakry after accusing them of stealing subsidised rice which was meant to be sold cheaply through local government offices to the city's poor. The move followed a spate of attacks on trucks carrying rice by gangs of angry youths. Conte said on Tuesday that the government had reached an agreement with private traders to sell the rice at a controlled price of 40,000 francs (US$14) per 50 kg bag instead. A bag of rice currently sells on the free market for $20.

The final decision on whether Buganda should be granted a federal system of governance lies with Parliament, Information Minister Nsaba Buturo has said. Cabinet's rejection of President Yoweri Museveni's proposal to grant federo to Buganda, drew a strong reaction. The Buganda Lukiiko (Parliament) on Monday voted overwhelmingly to team up with Bunyoro Kingdom to fight for a return to federo, which was abolished in the 1960s.

Kenyans are losing patience and hope in Narc's ability to deliver on its election promises, a new opinion poll shows. In the last three months, the government's approval rating has fallen from 50 per cent to 43 per cent, according to the Gallup poll conducted by Steadman and Associates. The government particularly takes a beating over the twin issues of corruption and constitutional review.

A new Somalia government would be formed in Nairobi by the end of this month, the Intergovernmental Authority and Development (Igad) technical committee has announced. And speaking in Nairobi at a joint Igad facilitating committee and international partners' meeting, Kenya's special envoy to Somalia Bethuel Kiplagat said an all-inclusive government of national unity for the war-torn country was possible by end month.

The latest newsletter from Markle confirms that some African countries are still plagued with disproportionately high Internet cafe costs. The report states that 'whilst often heralded as a simple route online, the cost of one hour of Internet access can wipe out a day's wage.' Of the countries sampled in Africa, Nigeria is the worst hit, with the average hour of access costing $5.40. Only Sweden and Austria are higher ($6.45 and $6.00 respectively). The report also reveals a large variation in the costs across the continent - Ghana's average is the lowest at $0.60.

The U.S. and British subsidiaries of ABB Ltd., a Swiss equipment-maker, pleaded guilty to paying more than $1 million in illegal bribes to win oil contracts in Nigeria, the Justice Department said Tuesday. ABB Vetco Gray Inc. of Houston and ABB Vetco Gray U.K. Ltd. of Aberdeen, Scotland, disclosed the suspicious payments to the government last year and formally pleaded guilty in federal court in Houston. As part of the deal, each company agreed to pay a fine of $5.25 million.

The Kenyan Community Abroad (KCA) says it is "deeply saddened" by the recent spate of excessive force by police on demonstrators in Kenya. KCA has always advocated a zero tolerance stance on police brutality, having previously insisted that no circumstance justifies the shooting of live ammunition. "We, therefore, strongly condemn the shooting to death of two citizens in Kisumu in the past week. We believe that the Kenyan Police authorities have enough resources, manpower and training to control riots without causing unnecessary death, and that the use of live ammunition in Kisumu or any other place in Kenya was totally uncalled for.”

The recommendation from the Parliament of Rwanda that the League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (LIPRODHOR) and five other NGOs be dissolved is misconceived. African Rights urges the Government of Rwanda to reject the suggestion and undertake a fuller investigation. We call upon parliamentarians to move beyond the anger expressed in the heat of the debate and consider how the sensitive and difficult issues the discussion raised may best be addressed in the interests of all the citizens of Rwanda. We encourage them to review their recommendations and to explore, in an open and inclusive manner, constructive responses.

The United Nations mission in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI) has said it is investigating reports of human rights violations in the northern town of Korhogo following bloody clashes between rival rebel factions there last month. Supporters of rebel leader Guillaume Soro clashed with a rival faction in Korhogo and Bouake, the main town in the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire, over a period of two days.

Organizers of a campaign that seeks to pressure African states into ratifying the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa are confident that they will achieve the required number of ratifications for the Protocol to enter into force by the end of the year.

This follows intensive lobbying during the recently ended African Union Executive Council and Assembly meetings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by a broad coalition campaigning for the ratification of the protocol. The coalition is spearheaded by Equality Now, Femnet, Oxfam, Credo for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights and Fahamu. Fifteen ratifications are needed for the protocol to come into force.

Pambazuka News 162, the special edition produced by Fahamu in support of the campaign, was printed out and distributed in Addis Ababa. The edition featured prominently as a campaign tool in lobbying activities.

“It became a popular item at the Executive Council and also on the opening day of the summit. Anyone who could grab a copy did so. Through direct contacts and through the special issue of Pambazuka the activists reached a significant number if not all of the delegates present at the meeting. The activists also presented the special issue to the President of the Pan-African Parliament and AU commissioners urging them to support the campaign by attempting to influence the delegates in their various official capacities,” said a campaign report produced by Equality Now.

Meanwhile, the number of signatories to the online petition hosted on the Pambazuka News website continues to climb and has reached nearly 300. The petition remains active and supporters of the protocol are encouraged to sign.

Firoze Manji, Fahamu Director, said: “The African Union Executive Council and Assembly meetings have ended, but clearly pressure needs to be maintained in order to encourage African governments to ratify the protocol. We will therefore be continuing with the online petition so that people can voice their support for the ongoing campaign. We urge anyone who cares about the rights of women in Africa to immediately sign the petition.”

Fahamu is currently developing technologies to enable people to sign the petition using text-messaging (SMS). We hope to announce the launch shortly.

* Please click on the link below for the full report and details of national campaigns

Sudan's government is set to meet rebels from the Darfur region, in a bid to end the conflict described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Pro-government Arab militia have forced more than a million people from their homes and killed thousands. A ceasefire in Darfur was signed in April, but the fighting has continued. Khartoum, once accused of backing the Janjaweed militia, has vowed to disarm it. But the UN is concerned by reports of the forced relocation of refugees.