PAMBAZUKA NEWS 157: FROM BEIJING TO AFRICA - IMPLEMENTING THE BEIJING PLATFORM FOR ACTION
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 157: FROM BEIJING TO AFRICA - IMPLEMENTING THE BEIJING PLATFORM FOR ACTION
Handicapped by a lack of donations, the U.N.-backed Roll Back Malaria campaign will likely fall far short of its goal of halving the number of malaria deaths worldwide by 2010, Agence France-Presse reports. The number of malaria deaths has not dropped since 1998, when the campaign was launched by health activists, governments and international agencies including UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, the U.N. Development Program and the World Bank. More than 1 million people die annually, nine-tenths of them in Africa, and most are children under 5.
Rich countries are pushing to regain momentum in international trade talks, and both Europe and the U.S. have recently offered to be more forthcoming on the issue of agricultural subsidies that was key to the collapse of talks in Cancun last fall. But there is still little sign of openness to African demands for separate and urgent resolution of the cotton issue in particular. "This system [of U.S. cotton subsidies] pits a typical Malian producer, farming two hectares of cotton, who is lucky to gross $400 a year, against US farms which receive a subsidy of $250 per hectare," says Oxfam. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) will soon issue a formal ruling, in response to a Brazilian and African challenge, declaring these U.S. subsidies in violation of international trade rules. This changes the climate for international trade talks, but no policy shifts that could directly affect African farmers are yet imminent, says an edition of the AfricaFocus Bulletin, that contains a press release from Oxfam commenting on the WTO ruling and a summary of an Oxfam report on cotton released in March.
The lead story in a recent issue of the Daily Graphic, Ghana's most influential newspaper, was designed to shock: "Four Gay Men Jailed." Homosexual acts are crimes in Ghana - and across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Uganda's leader, Yoweri Museveni, is vehemently opposed to homosexuality. So is Zimbabwe's embattled Robert Mugabe. Namibia's President Sam Nujoma complains that the West wants to impose its decadent sexual values on Africa through the guise of gay tolerance. Indeed, the global movement to fight discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS - which first surfaced as a "gay disease" in the United States - has elicited little sympathy for homosexuals in sub-Saharan Africa. Only in South Africa have gays and lesbians won significant legal protections.
The government of Burkina Faso said last Thursday that 25 suspected cases of yellow fever had been reported in the southeastern city of Bobo-Dioulasso and the nearby town of Gaoua, which is close to the border with Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana and four of them had been confirmed. A Ministry of Health official told IRIN by telephone from the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou that 16 blood samples had been collected from the suspected victims of the mosquito-borne disease. Laboratory tests carried out by the Pasteur Institute in Dakar Senegal had so far confirmed four cases of yellow fever among them.
After months of urging the authorities to set a date for Angola's first post-war general elections, opposition parties have walked out of a commission tasked with laying the groundwork for a national poll. Opposition parties said in statement on Wednesday that they had "decided to suspend, as of 12 May 2004, their participation in the work of the constitutional commission of the National Assembly, until the President consults with the parties and a definite timetable is approved" for holding elections.
The United States and other wealthy countries could bring the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa "under control" by working together, partnering with African nations and contributing more resources and effort, Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said. Sachs said that although HIV/AIDS has been "allowed to run rampant in the poorest countries without almost any attention ... from us until very, very recently," the United States was "starting to act" with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which seeks to provide treatment to two million HIV-positive people living in 14 African and Caribbean countries.
Kenyans living in areas dotted with the country's world famous wildlife said last Thursday they wanted a larger share of tourism revenue and higher compensation for deaths and destruction of their property by the animals. Tourism is one of Kenya's key foreign exchange earners, providing about 500,000 jobs and contributing about 26 billion shillings (US$328 million) to the economy in 2002. People living in areas frequented by elephants, lions, and wildebeest have lost their lives, property, or livestock to the animals.
The HIV prevalence rate has slightly dropped in Nigeria. The release of the 2003 sentinel survey indicated that the prevalence rate has decreased slightly from 5.8 per cent in 2001. Previous surveys have shown that HIV prevalence has been increasing consistently from 1.8 per cent in 1991, to 5.8 per cent in 2001. Researchers, aware that HIV awareness was higher than in previous years but that this had not been translated into behaviour change, anticipated that the 2002 prevalence rate would follow the trend.
Corruption may have sapped as much as $US100 billion from World Bank lending projects to help poor countries, a key US senator has claimed. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar said if the figures presented to his panel by one university professor were accurate, it would seriously undermine the organisation's efforts to fight global poverty. The World Bank hotly disputed the figure of $US100 billion, adding that there was no basis for that estimate, but said the organisation was working to stem corruption.
Corrupt individuals linked to former President Daniel arap Moi's regime are attempting to regroup and re-establish their old networks, governance and ethics permanent secretary, John Githongo, said. He said that even in the current government, a few individuals "may have become captives of these corrupt networks that are trying to regain their hold on the state." Githongo was addressing participants at a conference organized by the International Finance Corporation - the private lending arm of the World Bank - and London-based Financial Times.
Internews has opened a Media Resource Centre in Nairobi, stocked with more than 2000 HIV/AIDS publications, to provide Kenyan journalists with desperately needed resources to produce stories about HIV/AIDS. The Media Resource Centre has five computers with high-speed internet access available for research, and radio digital editing programs for producing stories on HIV/AIDS. An electronic database system makes the publications easily searchable and accessible. All services are available to journalists free of charge.
The premier of Uganda, Mr Apollo Nsibambi, on May13 re-launched the Muljibhai Foundation. The Foundation, a charity organisation registered in Uganda, provides scholarships for scientific and technical education in commerce, agriculture, engineering, medicine, physics, chemistry, biology, economics, legal and information technology.
Few academics can expect to reach the professional heights scaled by the women's rights expert Fareda Banda. Educated in racially segregated schools in Zimbabwe, Dr Banda, 37, became the first black African woman from her country to be awarded a doctorate in law from Oxford University in 1993. But last year, she made an alarming discovery. After a casual enquiry about her pay, she uncovered evidence that, for the six years she had been employed by SOAS, she had been paid up to £10,000 less than her white colleagues. It was a shocking moment in Dr Banda's career and one she says she will never forget.
As South Africa's new government braces itself for the task of extending clean water supplies to more people, environmentalists are warning there may soon be little water to distribute if conservation efforts are not stepped up. They believe the country will run out of water by 2030 unless current water resources are better maintained. A key part of this challenge involves reclaiming areas known as wetlands. Wetlands act as sponges in preventing the evaporation and flow of water especially during summer.
A third and final round of peace talks for East Africa’s most beleaguered country - Somalia - is scheduled to begin on May 20 amidst funding shortfalls and frustration at the antics of faction leaders. The talks, to be held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, are taking place under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a five-member regional organisation. Somalia is currently the only country in the world without a central government, having been ruled by faction leaders since January 1991 when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled.
The land-redistribution programme is stagnating, with government managing to transfer only one-tenth of the 30% of land earmarked for emerging black farmers over the past six years. Government's failure to fast- track redistribution is highlighted in recent research reports, suggesting that at the current rate it will take 80 years for Land Affairs and Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza to reach the 30% target. Didiza's department on Friday acknowledged "lack of progress", blaming "bottlenecks in government's bureaucracy, rocketing prices of farmland and budgetary constraints".
Most Zimbabweans, even white ones, agree that the land acquisition programme that targeted vast white-owned land for redistribution to landless blacks was vital and long overdue. But the manner in which the government of President Robert Mugabe supervised the haphazard take-over was what threw Zimbabwe into chaos. Mugabe chose to turn a blind eye to the brewing crisis and, riding high on the crest of populism, forcibly took back the vast swathes of land. On a tour of Zimbabwe this week, journalists from the East African Standard came face to face with the victims and beneficiaries of the land take-overs that put Harare at loggerheads with London and the Commonwealth.
Police fired tear gas to disperse an anti-government demonstration in Lagos on Saturday and briefly arrested dozens of protesters, including the Nobel prize winning author and playwright Wole Soyinka. A coalition of opposition, human rights and civic groups under the name of Citizens Forum, called the march which began at Campos Square on Lagos Island. Many of the 500 or more protesters bore aloft banners and placards demanding President Olusegun Obasanjo’s resignation and describing last year’s elections that gave him a second term in office as fraudulent.
Rights group Amnesty International on Friday expressed grave concern at the Zimbabwe government's cancellation of a food assessment mission aimed at establishing possible need for relief aid. "The government has told international donors that it will not need food aid this year. On 7 May the government stopped a UN Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission from evaluating the current harvest. This was followed by statements in the state-controlled Herald newspaper, attributed to the Minister for Agriculture, claiming that Zimbabwe has produced more grain than it needs this year," Amnesty said.
Conditions of detention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are such that a prison term of one to five years is tantamount to a death sentence, according to the Human Rights Section of the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC. In a 44-page report titled "Rapport sur la detention en RDC avril 2004", made available to IRIN last Thursday, the human rights section denounced as unacceptable the conditions of detention.
The Namibian government has taken the first steps in its plan to acquire white-owned farmland. At least three farm owners are reported to have received letters asking them to enter into negotiations for the purchase of their land. Earlier this month President Sam Nujoma said some "racist" farmers had been mistreating their black workers. Namibia has hosted advisers from neighbouring Zimbabwe to help plan the redistribution of farmland.
The two articles 'The political economy of regional trade agreements in Africa' and 'Africa needs action not words' (Pambazuka News 155, could be combined in one as they address the same issues from different viewpoints. The statement 'Africa produces what it does not consume and consumes what it does not produce' lies at the core of its continued poverty. When I worked for a timber company in Holland in the sixties, we could easily import logs from Africa. When we needed Oregon pine and Parana pine from the United States we were asked to give the sizes we wanted, as they did not export logs but only planks, one side planed. Primary labour done in the US!
Commodity exports from Africa include billions of lost employment. South Africa ships tons of iron ore to Japan and other places, while we have the facilities to make steel in bars, sheets or any other shape or form. Gold leaves the continent in blocks instead of in the shape of coins or jewellery or any other pre-industrial shape. I wonder what would happen if the African countries would unite and tell the world: you cannot have our raw products, tell us how you want it and we will make it for you! And - by the way - if you want the raw product, this is the price. OPEC did it. Remember the shivers going through the world in the seventies when OPEC laid down the law for oil supplies? Why can Africa not do it?
Ben Laauwen, South Africa
Dear Mr Mugabe,
Please receive notice that the people of Zimbabwe, your employers, hereby advise that your services are no longer required and therefore give immediate notice of termination of your employment. Please relinquish your post, vacate the offices of the people of Zimbabwe, return your vehicles and such monies and material commodities as have been accrued by you during your term of office and vacate the residential premises provided by the tax paying public. The people of Zimbabwe are not compelled to give reasons for the termination of your employment, however, given the serious nature of the breech of conditions of your employment, the following serves to explain this decision, whereafter no further debate will be entered into.
The people, the sovereign guardians of democracy in Zimbabwe, deem you guilty of flagrantly disregarding the foundations of freedom; justice and peace in their country; disregarding their inherent dignity, equal and inalienable rights and their security. You show absolute condescension for respect for human rights, resulting in barbarous acts injuring the helpless, maiming the innocent and outraging the consciences of a peace-loving nation. You deny the country the right to enjoy freedom of speech, the right to believe and the right to freedom from fear.
You invoke heinous acts that repudiate all Zimbabweans the right to reject your tyranny and oppression and you deny the people their rights to be protected by the rule of law. The people of Zimbabwe reaffirm their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of their fellow people and the determination they have to promote social and economic progress and better standards of their lives freely, but you deliberately strive to unequivocally destroy all.
The EU sugar regime is in urgent need of reform. It rewards big companies and rich farmers while costing EU consumers and taxpayers billions, and denying farmers in the developing world a chance to work their way out of poverty. The current EU reform options allow big companies to profit from your taxes and to continue dumping sugar on poor countries. The rules must change.
The Task Force on Corruption has disclosed that some local and international law and accounting firms were involved in the plunder of national resources through money laundering activities. Financial analyst Maulu Hamunjele said the trend created a number of difficulties in accessing information because these firms claimed that their clients enjoyed legal professional confidentiality and concealed critical evidence. He was speaking at a public discussion on Public Finance Management and Utilisation organised by Transparency International-Zambia (TI-Zambia) at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Lusaka.
The children of Liberia have been killed, made orphans, maimed, abducted, deprived of education and health care - and recruited and used as child soldiers, Amnesty International said in a new report released this week. The report, entitled "Liberia: The promises of peace for 21,000 child soldiers", calls on the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL), leading representatives of parties to the conflict and the international community to ensure an end to the use of child soldiers and also that the needs of former child soldiers are met fully as the peace process unfolds.
SWAPO has increased its control over Local Authority councils countrywide by three, up from 26 to 29 out of 44 - but had to endure defeat at some towns where the ruling party's head office had forced candidates onto supporters. Following Friday's election, Swapo controls 29 councils, the United Democratic Front (UDF) two and the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) one, while 14 councils did not achieve an absolute majority for any party.
Almost 30 of the militias which have been destabilising the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) north-east Ituri province with ethnic and political violence, agreed at the weekend to lay down arms and join the national peace process. They signed a disarmament agreement in Kinshasa after four days of negotiations with the power-sharing DRC transitional government and the United Nations peacekeeping mission Monuc.
I have read your article with a lot of interest (Pambazuka News 156, Comment and Analysis). It is accurate and very informative. One of the issues you raise about the diverting of "Bush Money" to faith based organisations was also raised as a serious concern by one of the NGOs funded by Ford Foundation at a Ford Grantees Round Table held at the Centre for Basic Research.
Led by the First Lady of Uganda (who is said to be a born-again Christian), faith-based organisations are not only combating the use of Condoms - but also fighting those NGOs who have been active in provision of sex-education - particularly in schools.
It was indicated for instance that books on lessons on reproductive health are not allowed even to have drawings indicating reproductive organs - male or female - and the Ministry of Education has indirectly been "directed" on this.
Therefore, with time - as you have correctly observed, we might be on the backward trend - in the name of religion and particularly preaching of Abstinence. I hope articles of this nature - short and to the point - will reach those in decision-making positions!
Health ministers from several African countries last Thursday while in Rome called on wealthy countries to provide more assistance to deliver "high quality" drug treatment for individuals living with HIV/AIDS and called on pharmaceutical companies to lower antiretroviral drug prices "to the point of being compatible with the weak resources of our countries," Agence France-Presse reports. At a two-day conference sponsored by the Community of Sant'Egidio health ministers from the Central African Republic, Congo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania and Togo released a statement saying that treatment for HIV/AIDS should be considered a "human right," according to Agence France-Presse.
Hospitality and Tourism employees in the North West District have appealed for government's immediate intervention against abuse and maltreatment from their employers. At Sedie Hotel, in Maun, employees accused management of racism and that one of the directors, a foreigner, has a habit of insulting them. Maun Lodge staff also singled out one of the managing directors for insulting them and harbouring racist tendencies.
An estimated 20,000 people have been displaced in Burundi's western province of Bujumbura Rural, following fresh fighting between the army and Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) rebels loyal to Agathon Rwasa. Most of the displaced have sought refuge in schools and at a health centre in the commune of Kabezi, where the administrator, Felix Ntahombaye, said another 30,000 displaced people had sought refuge in April.
Southern Africa has made significant progress in the past decade in institutionalising democracy. This is reflected in a number of developments in SADC countries including the holding of successful multi-party elections in several of them in the past ten years. There is evidence of increased popular participation in governance, and dialogue between governments and stakeholders has taken root. Democratic institutions have been set up and a number of major constitutional, legal and administrative changes have been undertaken with the objective of consolidating and deepening democracy. Notwithstanding these achievements, major challenges remain. There are pockets of conflict in several countries in the region and there have been situations in which election results have not been acceptable to all parties involved, resulting, on occasion, in violence and instability. The draft Principles for Electoral Management, Monitoring and Observation were developed by a Task Team and are premised on the understanding that every country has its own political, legal, social and cultural peculiarities. It is expected that countries will adapt the document to their particular national situations.
The Zambian government Monday expressed its worries about the slow progress made in the return of Rwandan refugees to their home country. "There is not much progress made in the repatriation program of Rwandan refugees. This lack of progress is mainly attributed to the unwillingness of the refugee population in Zambia to voluntary return to their country of origin," said Peter Mumba, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The official attributed the Rwandan refugees' unwilling return home to "unfounded false messages" that there is still war in their country.
The spokesman for the president of Botswana, Dr Jeff Ramsay, has threatened legal action against a number of organisations over comments attributed to him regarding Botswana's relations with Zimbabwe. In an article entitled "Tetchy cross-border relations with Botswana", Ramsay was reported as saying: ""Botswana has noted with growing concern openly hostile reports against the government and the people of Botswana, which can only be interpreted as a deliberate and systematic attempt to fuel hatred and xenophobia between our people." The comments were actually made by Bostwana's foreign affairs spokesman, Cliff Maribe.
Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano said in Baton Rouge, in the USA state of Louisiana, that the struggle of slave descendants and others for their political and civic rights inspired many nationalists in Africa who, between the 1950s and 1990s, were fighting to decolonise their countries and eradicate racial discrimination. Chissano was invited to the university to be awarded the degree of "Doctor Honoris Causa", in acknowledgement of his role in the fight against colonialism and racism.
African countries must do more to maximize the benefits of trade for development, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), K.Y. Amoako, has said. Addressing a three-day meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Conference of Africa's Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Kampala, Uganda, Amoako said that even though international action was vital to allow Africa to trade more successfully, "domestic bottlenecks" at home must also be addressed.
The newly-appointed Commission for Africa could be a force for good, at a pivotal time in the Continent's development. Sub-Saharan Africa has been going backwards economically for years, the only region of the world to do so. The problems lie both inside the Continent (lack of democracy, misuse of political power, poor investment planning etc) and with its trading partners globally (very poor trade terms going back to the early Colonial period, unbalanced partnerships by investors etc). The Commission for Africa reports by April next year with its recommendations in similar fashion to the Brandt Commission's North-South report.
Here we go again...
On the Commission there is the customary/ritualistic inclusion of a small number of women on the Commission - 3 - as most of the members have been drawn from the usual categories that largely exclude women. Yet again this could mean the rights, abilities and potential contribution of Africa's hundreds of millions of women could easily be overlooked. We at Shevolution with decades of direct experience training future women leaders throughout sub-Saharan and North Africa assert that Africa's women are Africa's best (and probably last) hope.
Would it be a good idea for the international informal sector to take the initiative by forming a shadow 'Women's Commission for Africa', containing a ratio of perhaps 15 women to 3 men who could both inform the more official commission and produce its own report next April?
Would one of the international women's groups like to act as rapporteur for any such shadow Commission for Africa? If so, please contact me, Tim Symonds, at Eyecatcher/Shevolution on [email protected]
HIV/AIDS is having a devastating effect on food security in Africa with families reducing their food intake as the first strategy to cope with the increased financial burden of caring for a sick and dying family member. Dr Emmanuel Ariga of Kenya’s Tropical Institute of Community Health and Development told delegates at the 2nd African Conference on Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research that the disease was also robbing people of the energy and initiative for food production. Based on United Nations' estimates, the disease has killed seven million African farmers, hindering food production throughout the continent.
In 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa', Walter Rodney convincingly argues that much of the "Third World" is a product of European Imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Several points are made in his argument. Among them are the arbitrary borders established by the colonial powers.
Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of independent Kenya, wrote this book as a graduate anthropology student in London. As a primary source, this book is invaluable. It gives detailed analysis of many aspects of pre-Mau Mau Gikuyu cultural ceremonies. However, as it is a product of the structuralist school of anthropology, many of its conclusions and findings are problematic, most notably in its opinion of culture as a fixed entity which determines human behaviour. For students of colonial Africa, this piece will inevitably be of use.
Mining is an activity rarely associated with deforestation and forest degradation. Nor is it usually associated with wars, dictatorships and violation of human rights, and even less with the worsening of poverty and social inequity. On the contrary, mining is presented as the paradigm of wealth (in particular when dealing with gold and diamond mining), while its marketing conceals its terrible social and environmental consequences. However, mining is responsible for such impacts and many others, making it one of the most depredatory activities in the world. For these reasons, it has seemed important to give people a tool to enable them to better understand the various aspects of mining activities in relation to social and environmental issues, as a way of encouraging the adoption of an informed position on this issue, leading to a well-founded opposition to face those who present it as a positive activity for the development of the countries of the South.
The Burundian Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD) has found that the country's internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returning refugees frequently experience psychological trauma due to the severe living conditions they endure. Presenting ACORD's findings at a conference in Bujumbura, researcher Julien Nimubona said the psychological problems the IDPS and refugees experience was compounded by their state of dependence on humanitarian aid and their inability to participate in decision-making.
May 1st was a first for William Owusu, the promising young film director from Kenya who recently attended the Berlinale Film Talent Campus in Berlin. His entry, "The Epilogue", 15 minutes long, has been chosen as the only African film featuring at one of the most renowned short film festivals, the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival. "The Epilogue" joins a host of innovative and original short films which have a tradition in Oberhausen. Most films entered there come from the numerous film academies like Munich, Berlin, Potsdam, Ludwigsburg and other art and media schools in Germany and the rest of the world. Today, about 800 short films are made in Germany alone. Others films have come from as far as Asia and the Americas.
This publication is a compilation of summaries of reports of research surveys conducted under the auspices of the HelpAge International Africa regional nutrition programme, in partnership with academic and training institutions in a number of African countries. The publication of the surveys will provide information and evidence of the nutritional needs of older people in general and those in emergencies and bring about a change in attitudes and practice for their benefit. As of now, older people remain a sidelined lot. For orders write to [email protected].
The volume brings together papers by African and Nordic/Scandinavian gender scholars and anthropologists, in attempts to investigate and critically discuss existing lines of thinking about sexuality in Africa, while at the same time creating space for alternative approaches. Issues of colonial and contemporary discourses on 'African sexuality' and on 'female genital mutilation' are being discussed, as well as issues of female agency and of feminists' engagement with HIV/AIDS. The volume contributes to contemporary efforts of re-thinking sexualities in the light of feminist, queer and postcolonial theory.
A refugee who has been away from his motherland is usually preoccupied with survival and would not normally think of education. However, some refugees have realised that education is important regardless of one’s status. No doubt, education is a universal human right that should not be denied to anyone, for whatever reason. This is more so especially in a world where almost everything particularly things such as employment opportunities seem to hinge on educational qualifications. And for countries that have been at war, and are now coming out of it through the re-construction process, highly trained manpower is very much a necessity.
This conference will focus on:
* Providing the participants a platform for sharing regional and international best practices and success stories;
* Bringing people together to discuss and network on issues of common concern;
* Providing fundraisers with the opportunity to learn the basic principles and new skills and techniques of fundraising;
* Promoting fundraising as a profession.
The Public Health in Complex Emergencies training program (PHCE) is a two-week residential course that focuses on critical public health issues faced by NGO/PVO personnel working in complex emergencies. The goal of the course is to enhance the capacity of humanitarian assistance workers and their organizations to respond to the health needs of refugees and internally displaced persons affected by these emergencies.
Dominant conceptualizations of conflict tend to posit it as a temporal state of abnormality. Within the context of the Middle East and Africa this is further nuanced by discourses of belatedness (e.g. Palestinian negotiation of settler-colonialism) or failed projects of modernist statecraft altogether (e.g. sub Saharan Africa). This workshop begins with a premise that questions these temporal modes of understanding conflict. Positing (post) conflict as a non-linear continuum that marks the articulation of diverse modernity projects in these two regions, the workshop seeks to explore ways in which economies, spatialities, sociality, and subjectivity are produced by and negotiate (post) conflict.
The African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) will on 19 and 20 May, 2004 host a workshop for its affiliates and stakeholders to discuss the contents of their latest publication, Reality of Aid, Africa Edition 2003/4, which will be launched at the same event in Pretoria, South Africa. The theme for the workshop will be: "Governance & Promotion of Rights in International Cooperation and Aid" and will provide a space for the 18 participants to review the findings contained in the Africa Edition of the Reality of Aid publication, as well as come up with recommendations for the way forward.
This publication collects 94 annotated resources about modern fundraising. We have sorted those resources into nine key categories, including the use of Email and Community Building.
The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation is looking for two dynamic professionals to fill two posts in its Peace Building in Southern Africa Project. This exciting project aims to build partnerships for peace in Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The project aims to operate as a flagship for CSVR’s vision to develop an integrated approach to peacebuilding which builds on CSVR’s 13 years of experience in violence prevention, transitional justice, trauma healing and reconciliation.
Internews has launched an information technology (IT) training programme for African and Asian women working in the media and other communication sectors. The programme, which provides 430 scholarships, is intended for women in the African countries of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, and the Asian countries of Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
hrights provides a forum for the discussion of human rights issues in general as well as for announcing human rights events and getting your questions about human rights answered. To join, send an empty message to: [email protected]
The Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, is looking for a qualified and motivated person to be its new director. The FMSP is an interdisciplinary research and graduate teaching unit, to be based in the School of Social Sciences, dedicated to exploring and publicising the experiences of people displaced from their homes due to poverty, violence or persecution.
This is the email and web network from The Communication Initiative partnership - The Rockefeller Foundation, UNICEF, USAID, CHANGE, WHO, BBC World Service, CIDA, Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs, The European Union, Soul City, The Panos Institute and UNAIDS. It contains information, ideas, linkages and dialogue on communication, development and change.
Election reporting fatigue appeared to be taking its toll on the media and this was reflected by the way they covered the run-up to the Lupane by-election on the weekend May 15-16, says the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe in its weekly newsletter. While the private media generally have reported political violence and manipulation of the electorate in recent weeks, there were virtually no stories updating their audiences of the situation in the final week leading to the election, and precious little information about the electoral process itself. The government media, as epitomized by The Sunday News, seemed pre-occupied with campaigning exclusively for the ruling party in its two articles, 'Zanu-PF vows to bury MDC in Lupane' and, 'A choice between barren politics of protest and fruitful politics of progress'.
At the Board Meeting of the International Press Institute, held in Warsaw, Poland on 15 May, the Executive Board voted unanimously to add Ethiopia to the IPI Watch List. Zimbabwe is also on the list. IPI Director Johann P. Fritz said, "After a recent fact-finding mission to the country carried out by IPI, we have grave concerns about the deteriorating media freedom situation in Ethiopia. Though the government has expressed its support for diversification of the broadcast media by opening the airwaves to private broadcasters, it has constantly delayed the implementation of this intention and, despite promises to the contrary, there are genuine fears that it will not do so before the next general election in 2005."
Judes Zossé, publication director of the private daily newspaper L'Hirondelle (The Swallow) in the Central African Republic, was released from prison on Friday, May 14, under a presidential pardon. He had served more than two months of a six-month sentence for defaming President François Bozizé. On March 12, Zossé was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine for "insulting the head of state" after his newspaper reprinted an article from the opposition news Web site Centrafrique-presse.com. The report alleged that Bozizé, who came to power after a March 2003 coup, had personally taken over the collection of taxes in the country, prompting two senior Treasury officials to contemplate resignation.
The Ministry of Local Government (ministère de l'Administration du Territoire et de la Décentralisation, MATD) has banned the sale of the 9 to 15 May 2004 edition (issue 2261) of the news weekly "Jeune Afrique L'Intelligent". This is the second time in the last two weeks that an edition of the newspaper has been prevented from going on sale. According to Media Foundation for West Africa-Guinea, the MATD was displeased with an article entitled, "Searching desperately for François Fall", published on page 12 of the paper.
On 10 May 2004, presidential candidate Bingu Mutharika, of the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) party, threatened to sue the "Weekend Nation" and "The Dispatch" newspapers for what he referred to as "defamatory" articles. In early May, the two newspapers ran a series of stories alleging that Mutharika was fired as secretary-general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) for "abuse of office" and "failure to motivate his management team". The articles were published after President Bakili Muluzi publicly stated that Mutharika is the only qualified candidate who can "scoop Malawi from its economic malaise."
On 11 May 2004, Méité Sindou, a journalist and director-general of the Mayama Group, which publishes the daily "Le Patriote" newspaper, escaped a kidnapping attempt when three assailants abducted another journalist, mistaking him for Sindou. According to Media Foundation for West Africa-Cote d'Ivoire, three unidentified individuals, who had stationed themselves close to the gate of the Mayama Group's offices, accosted Ouattara Kader, general manager of "Le Patriote". They commandeered his car at gunpoint and drove away with him.
The Joint Steering Committee for the formation of the Southern Africa Trust is seeking to attract high quality nominations from across the region. The submission date for the nominations for the Trustees of this new Southern Africa Trust has been extended to the 1 June 2004.
Few poisons have ridden such a roller coaster through environmental history as DDT. Once hailed as a miracle pesticide, DDT is outlawed as one of a "Dirty Dozen" chemicals as of Monday, even as it stays in use as a controversial spray against malaria-spreading mosquitoes. The man who discovered its power to kill insects won a Nobel Prize in 1948, while shock at its damage to wildlife awoke a global environmental movement in the 1960s. Into the 21st century, countries including South Africa and Ethiopia still swear by DDT to combat malaria, which kills a million people a year.
The World Bank has approved its largest environment grant to help the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar protect its unique environment and native species, the bank said on Wednesday. Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island, has a unique array of wildlife, flora and fauna but the impoverished country has few funds available to address conservation concerns. The grant of $49 million will be used to expand protected areas, establish conservation sites in forests and transfer forest management responsibilities to local communities.
More than half of motor fuel now used in Africa is lead-free, according to a World Bank report released at a conference in Nairobi last week. Delegates at the meeting, held by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank, heard that 12 African nations have committed to phase out leaded petrol. Nine countries - Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda and Sudan - have already switched entirely to unleaded fuel.
Throughout the world, thousands of people live under threat and are being denied their most fundamental rights twenty-four hours a day. Leading our work across the sub-Saharan Africa, you will play the role in establishing and protecting their rights. Whether human rights violations are taking place in major cities or in rural areas, you will maintain an in-depth overview of the issues at stake.
Kenya's wildlife policy is being reviewed in line with emerging conservation challenges, Environment minister Newton Kulundu has disclosed. The process will culminate in the Wildlife Bill, Kulundu said, and will involve consultations amongst ministry officials, experts and the public. The process, funded by the United States Agency for International Development, will take six months in its initial stages. Kulundu said the current Wildlife Act was outdated and did not address emerging conservation challenges.
Three hundred community radio activists, programme producers and community managers met on April 26-30 to formalise a National Community Radio Forum for Mozambique. Activities included discussing statutes and other legal and structural issues, as well the sharing of experiences. The membership-based Forum aims to be a facilitating umbrella for all the 45 community radios and Community Multimedia Centres now on air in Mozambique.
The head of Namibia's Government-owned bi-weekly New Era newspaper has scoffed at suggestions that a planned regional publication by his organisation and Zimbabwean state run media will be a propaganda tool to counter "anti-Zimbabwe stories".
The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has approved guidelines on handling aid relating to genetically modified foods (GMs) following recommendations by its advisory committee on biotechnology and biosafety formed last year. According to the guidelines on biotechnology and bio-safety obtained by Zana at the on-going SADC summit on agriculture and food security, member countries recommended that the sourcing of food aid should be within the region. The region should develop and adopt a harmonised transit information and management system for genetically modified aid designed to facilitate trans boundary movement in a safe and expeditious manner.
On May 10 2004, ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) presidential candidate Bingu Mutharika threatened to sue the “Weekend Nation” and “The Dispatch” newspapers for what he called defamatory articles about him.
About 77 percent of young South Africans infected with HIV are women and 62 percent of them had believed they had a small or no chance of contracting the virus. The new figure tallies with a growing worldwide trend showing a far higher incidence of HIV infection among women than men. The figures were the highest authoritative results that local researchers have seen.
Nigeria's parliament was set to debate the state of emergency in the central state of Plateau declared by President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday. The emergency decree must be ratified by the National Assembly within two days to remain in effect. The president ordered the measure to control continuing violence between the state's Muslims and Christians. He said serious action was needed to deal with a situation that he called "near mutual-genocide".
When the African National Congress took power from the white apartheid government in 1994, it placed land reform at the top of its political agenda and launched an ambitious programme of land restitution, redistribution and security of tenure for farm workers. The restitution programme aimed to address wrongs that dated back to the 1913 Land Act, under which whites were allotted 87 percent of South Africa's land - while the majority blacks were crammed into the remaining 13 percent. According to government officials, some three million hectares have been transferred to 700,000 black households and individuals since the advent of democracy in 1994. This includes land transferred through restitution, redistribution and the allocation of state property, says the Department of Land Affairs.
The human rights situation in Eritrea has continued to deteriorate, according to a new report by Amnesty International. Torture, arbitrary detentions and political arrests are widespread, says the human rights organisation. Religious persecution and ill treatment of those trying to avoid military service are increasing, Amnesty adds. Next week Eritreans will come together to celebrate 13 years of independence from Ethiopia.
Togo's Justice Minister Foli Bazi-Katare has said there are no political prisoners in the country. "All these prisoners were convicted by the courts as common criminals," he said after talks with the European Union on ending a ban on economic aid. "None of the prisoners had been jailed for expressing divergent political opinions," he said. The EU froze aid to Togo in 2003 over the country's lack of democracy and poor human rights record.
The northern Nigerian state of Kano says it has obtained a "safe" polio vaccine from Indonesia. But Kano government spokesman Sule Yau Sule told BBC News Online the vaccine would be tested further before it is given to children. Kano opted out of an immunisation campaign last year, when some Islamic leaders said it was part of a western plot to render Muslim women infertile.
President Laurent Gbagbo said on Tuesday that he wanted some ministers to leave Cote d'Ivoire's broad-based national reconciliation government and was suspending the salaries of 26 opposition and rebel ministers who have boycotted the cabinet since the security forces killed at least 120 people in Abidjan at the end of March. Gbagbo said in a surprise television broadcast that he had sent Prime Minister Seydou Diarra a list of the ministers who he wanted to remove from government, but he did not reveal their names.
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party took a step closer to gaining a two-thirds parliamentary majority after its victory in a weekend by-election. The seat for the Lupane constituency in the Matabeleland North province became vacant on the death of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MP, David Mpala, earlier this year. ZANU-PF candidate Martin Khumalo beat Njabulo Mguni of the MDC by 883 votes in the two-day poll, taking the ruling party to within two seats of a two-thirds majority in the 150-seat parliament, and the right to amend the constitution, should it wish to do so.
The appointments are six months late and the political infighting revealed the fragile relationships within the transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but the nomination of provincial governors on Sunday has been heralded as an important step in the country's return to peace and democratic elections in July 2005. "The announcement of the list is a great step towards reunification of our country," Crispin Kabasele, a spokesman for Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Goma (RCD-Goma), said. "This is an important step in the restoration of the authority of the state in our country."
Women parliamentarians from Commonwealth countries in Africa are currently reviewing progress on gender equity at a conference in Gaborone, Botswana. At the start of the conference on Monday, delegates acknowledged that much still needed to be done to safeguard the rights of women and address gender imbalances in education, employment and parliamentary representation. The conference takes place two months after the 48th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York from 1 to 12 March 2004, and aims to measure the level of compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly.
The Burundian government, in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) international programme for the eradication of child labour, has launched a three-year programme on the rehabilitation of former child soldiers. During the launch on Monday, Labour Minister Dismas Nditabiriye said the US $1.4-million programme would work in conjunction with a national child demobilisation and rehabilitation programme already in place.
Service delivery at city council hospitals and polyclinics has been disrupted by a nurses strike in Zimbabwe's capital Harare. The nurses went on strike on Monday over a salary dispute with the city council, demanding a second 100 percent salary hike after receiving a similar increase in January. Chairman of the Harare Municipal Workers' Union, Cosmas Bungu, said the 100 percent salary increase awarded to council workers in January this year was not enough to keep pace with the rising cost of living. Inflation has hovered around 600 percent in recent months.
Zambia's anti-corruption task force has come under attack following the flight of two co-accused in the graft trial involving former president Frederick Chiluba. Chiluba has been charged with the theft of tens of millions of US dollars during his 10 years in office. The Task Force on Corruption was set up two years ago by Chiluba's successor, Levy Mwanawasa, to investigate the allegations against the former president. The task force comprises officers from the Drug Enforcement Commission, the state's intelligence service, the police, the Anti-Corruption Commission and state prosecutors.
Zimbabwean men have become increasingly involved in caring for AIDS patients, challenging the stereotype that caring for the terminally ill is women's work. For 48-year-old Luckson Murungweni, until recently it would have been inconceivable that he would one day be actively involved in caring for the chronically ill, let alone those dying from AIDS. Now his attitude is different and he has become the focal point of a home-based care project in rural Goromonzi, some 35 kilometres east of the capital, Harare.
The United Nations has published the official report of its inquiry into the bloody repression of an opposition demonstration on 25 March and has announced plans for a wider probe into human rights abuses since the beginning of the country's civil war in September 2002. The report, which was leaked to Radio France Internationale on 3 May, accused "the highest authority of the state" of orchestrating "the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians by the security forces."
At least six serving state governors and a former governor are under investigation in Nigeria for alleged illegal transfer of state funds abroad, local media reported Sunday. A total amount of about 417.4 million US dollars has been transferred to other countries from the African country.
Fahamu (http://www.fahamu.org) is looking for a volunteer to work on Pambazuka News (http://www.pambazuka.org), our electronic newsletter on social justice in Africa that is distributed weekly to more than 12,000 subscribers.
We are looking for applicants who have:
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The volunteer will be required to use the internet to research information relating to Pambazuka News subject categories for inclusion in the newsletter. Information and guidelines will be provided. Because the newsletter has to keep within strict deadlines, we are looking for someone who will make a clear commitment of 2-3 hours per week. Work will need to be completed each week before Wednesday evening. Applicants may be located anywhere in the world, but preference will be given to those in Africa. Please send CV and a brief covering letter to [email protected]. Please note that we will only reply to successful applicants.
On March 21 the state-run Herald Newspaper ran a lengthy analysis explaining why Zimbabwe's ruling party beat its rival, the Movement for Democratic Change, in a by-election in Zengeza township, one of the opposition's urban strongholds in Harare. With characteristic zeal, the newspaper stated: 'African liberation movements which freed people from the yoke of imperialism and colonialism would always get support from the people and that, in Zimbabwe's case, Zanu-PF has that solid track record.' Political parties justify their claim to power in different ways. Some promote a vision, others recite accomplishments in office. African liberation movements often evoke the struggle they waged against foreign or minority oppression, especially when they have been in office too long to remember the ideals they once espoused or can no longer defend the record they have built.
At a time when Africa is struggling to redefine its place in the global village and battling against marginalisation in a world shaken by terrorism, the African Partnership Forum - a vehicle originally established for dialogue between Nepad and the Group of Eight industrialised countries - provides a key window on the continent's progress. The second meeting of the Forum in Maputo on 16-17 April included discussions on peace and security, HIV/AIDS, food security, education and poverty alleviation. Expanded beyond the G-8 and Nepad, the Forum brought together high-level representatives from the African states, the G-8, the UN, the World Bank, seven African regional economic communities, the World Trade Organisation, 11 member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the African Union (AU) and the Nepad Secretariat. The Forum is meant to bring about a new constructive dialogue between Africa and donor countries.
Parliament's mixture of new and long-term MPs were on Friday advised that the tough new anti-corruption bill passed earlier this year applied to them as well - and they could not use their parliamentary privilege to malign anyone outside parliament itself. Anton Meyer, parliament's chief legal adviser, was taking the MPs through the rules and regulations that affect them as office bearers as much as they do ordinary members of the public. The new Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, passed by the previous parliament before the April elections, applied to all South Africans and indicated that government was "very, very serious" about rooting out corruption at all levels of society, Meyer said.
The Global Campaign for Education (DCE), which is a coalition of teachers unions, child rights activists and development organisations around the world, united in their determination to make the right to education a success, has intensified one of the world's biggest lobby ever on education. In Sierra Leone, a similar lobby is also on track as a national coalition comprising of several organisations, together with primary and secondary schools, met members of parliament to brief them on the operation of the campaign, and highlight the importance of education in the country.
Twenty-five years ago WHO promised 'Health for All' through the Alma Ata declaration. However, the UN body abandoned the primary health care agenda in the later years. ‘Health systems, including primary health care’, a new WHO document, endorses the primary health care agenda. It is a welcome return to the basics. Grassroots movements like the People’s Health Movement (PHM) offer a cautious welcome, but say this is not enough. The UN health body’s new ‘road map’ that is being presented during the ongoing World Health Assembly endorses the importance of primary health care - something that grass roots movements like the PHM has been demanding for years.
The UN report entitled "Agricultural Biotechnology, Meeting the needs of the poor" and supplemented by a press release, "The gene revolution; great potential for the poor but no panacea" raises some valid issues. However, due to its inherent ambiguities, it has led to a misplaced emphasis being placed on the potential of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to provide a solution to hunger and poverty in developing nations by most commentators, mainly from the developed world. In fact the report pronounces that GM or even biotechnology cannot be seen as a panacea. Most of the initial international mainstream media emphasis has misrepresented important sections of the UN report. Instead of reporting and commentating, news copy has clearly been influenced by industry aligned PR being run on newswires, that is directed to increase the market penetration of those who already dominate the market in GMO crops.
Zambia was once one of the wealthiest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet after the oil crisis and commodity price collapse of the early 1970s, it was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for assistance. So began some thirty years of Bank and Fund intervention in the Zambian economy, a period of increasing debt, economic stagnation or collapse, and social crisis. From the early 1970s to the late 1980s, Zambia's total external debt rose from US$814 million to US$6,916 million. And yet, by 2003, Zambia had received only 5 per cent of the debt service reduction committed to it under HIPC. A forthcoming World Development Movement report on Zambia clearly demonstrates that the IMF and World Bank's involvement in Zambia has been unsuccessful, undemocratic and unfair. The evidence suggests that the past twenty years of IMF and World Bank intervention have exacerbated rather than ameliorated Zambia's debt crisis.
An attack Sunday by rebels in northern Ugandan on a camp for internally displaced persons killed 39 people and drove thousands from the camp, the United Nations said, calling it an "appalling atrocity." Representatives of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNICEF and the World Food Program travelled to Pagak camp on Monday and found that 544 huts had been burned and that one-third of the camp's 11,000 inhabitants had fled. According to Ugandan army spokesman Shaban Bantariza, members of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army struck the camp Sunday evening in a three-pronged attack targeting residents, guards and patrol units.
According to the latest issue of Education Today Newsletter of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), there were 73 million children at African school desks in 1987. By 2001, the figure had increased to 106 million. If African countries are to meet the goal of universal primary education, their school systems will have to enrol nearly 180 million children in 2015. To cope with this huge challenge, the number of teachers must increase at an even higher rate than the number of pupils, according to the report, 'The Issue of Teaching Staff and Universal Primary Enrolment in 2015 in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) and African Countries having Portuguese as an official language (PALOPs).’
The idea of litigation against companies allegedly complicit in abuses committed by repressive regimes is beginning to shape the international human rights agenda. In recent years, a coalition of rights advocates in the developed world and plaintiffs from the developing world have begun using a litigation-based strategy to enforce global human rights. The litigation tests whether a U.S. corporation can be penalized for knowingly standing by while its overseas commit abuses, even if the company did not actually direct the abuses itself.