Samuel Opong can hardly believe his luck. The 15-year-old was abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels last year, forcibly trained to fight and, soon afterwards, forced to fight. In three fierce battles with the Ugandan army last December, he was hit by bullets in the left leg and arm. The rebels had forced him and other recent recruits to attack an army unit near the Sudan border. "I lost so much blood I started fainting, so they left me," he told IRIN at Gulu Support the Children Organisation (Gusco) counselling centre for former LRA abductees. "I woke up from the cold next morning and then [government] soldiers found me."

More than 1,000 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) nationals have fled into Zambia following fierce fighting by rebels in Dikulushi, 150 kilometres from Nchelenge district. Government has since sent defence personnel to screen them and asked the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to take care of the affected Congolese. Home Affairs Deputy Minister Kennedy Sakeni in an interview in Lusaka described the situation in Nchelenge as "not very serious."

This paper looks at the role of parliaments in the implementation process of Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) in Africa. It describes the complex function of parliaments in national policy making and the way PRS processes have affected this function. It also suggests future approaches for strengthening national parliaments so they can play a productive role in enhancing good national governance.

Women still face higher unemployment rates, receive lower wages than men and represent 60 per cent of the world's 550 million working poor, according to the findings of a new report. The report examines global employment trends for women. It asks whether the fact that women increasingly enter the labour market really means that the gap between male and female participation is closing; whether women who look for work are successful in finding it; and if women do find work, what are the typical characteristics of female work compared to that of male counterparts?

This workbook is a response to the many requests we have received over the years for a ‘toolkit’ to make our exercises and methods transparent. It outlines a developmental process for the reader to undertake with a speaking partner. It is based on the principle that you cannot do with others what you have not been through yourself. Users of this workbook will find that going through this journey will put them in a good position to adapt those exercises and methods which work for them and include them in their own development practice.

HIV/AIDS is affecting Africa’s young people and children hardest, yet they will determine the future course of the epidemic, UNICEF Regional Director Rima Salah said at the opening on Monday of a pan-African youth forum focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention and education. Hosted by the Government of Senegal, the week-long Forum aims to mobilise young, national-level activists in fighting HIV/AIDS across Africa. Forum participants include youth representatives from the seven largest youth movements across Africa, collectively called the “Big 7”. The movements are present in all 51 African countries, and reach at least 20 million young people.

The struggle against trafficking of human beings has gathered considerable momentum over recent years. This research focuses on the situation of Africa, drawing a preliminary mapping of trafficking patterns on the continent and providing an indication of emerging good practices in the area of policy responses and legislative framework. The research took place against a background of lack of reliable estimates and a dearth of trafficking research and methodology tools. The report and findings are anchored in the commitment by Heads of State at the EU-Africa Summit to identify democracy, human rights and good governance as being among an agreed set of eight priority areas for political action.

Mufumbe Mateso Felix, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has set up a non – governmental organisation to help women and children in Johannesburg's Tshepisong Township. Projects range from computer, catering and sewing classes, to a centre for AIDS orphans. When Felix and Portia Manthatha, chairperson of The Power of Women and Children (PoWC), aren't writing proposals and raising funds, they are out and about in Tshepisong doing what they do best – providing support and assistance.

After completing an education project at Dukwi refugee camp, Botswana in July 2003, a team of Stanford University students is now pursuing a unique education programme for refugee youth: the World Refugee Academy (WRA). Its mission is to facilitate the development of young refugees into responsible leaders and candidates for world-renowned universities. WRA aims to provide more and better opportunities for refugee students pursuing higher level education. The project plans to offer an advanced two-year preparatory programme for refugee students who aspire to continue higher academic study at leading universities worldwide. Its curriculum is designed especially for refugee youth and integrates rigorous academics, leadership projects and a mentoring programme.

Ibis is a Danish NGO with a long history of working in Angola going back to pre-independence support for the liberation struggle. The Ibis programme in Angola is clustered around two major areas, Organisational Development of Civil Society and Education for Change. At the moment, we are looking at two positions to be filled: Civil Society Programme and Senior Programme Manager/Consultant.

The United Nations affiliated University for Peace welcomes applications for the position of Director of its Africa Programme. The director will be based in the Addis Ababa office of UPEACE (once launched in 2004), and will be part of a unique university that functions as a global knowledge network, created by a General Assembly resolution of the United Nations two decades ago.

The course entitled "Preparing for the Rehabilitation Effort in Iraq" will target mid to senior level professionals in areas related to community re-building, rehabilitation, humanitarian relief work, and post-conflict reconstruction, especially those who are likely to be deployed to Iraq. It is a two-week course hosted by George Mason University (GMU)’s Peace Operations Policy Program (POPP).

Information and communication technologies have brought considerable changes and innovations in the creation, management, publishing and dissemination of knowledge. Aware of the importance of these technologies and their effects on the production and dissemination of knowledge, CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa) will organise from 1 to 2 September 2004 in Dakar, Senegal, a conference on the impact of information and communication technologies on electronic publishing and dissemination.

The Centre for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University has announced a call for applications for the 2004 Human Rights Advocates Program. The Human Rights Advocates Program was established in 1989 to build the capacity of grassroots activists worldwide so that they can more effectively address pressing human rights concerns and build linkages with the global human rights community.

The USAID HIV/AIDS E-Newsletter provides monthly updates on USAID's Office of HIV/AIDS and partner activities to prevent and mitigate HIV/AIDS across the developing world. Topics include: briefings on recent and upcoming global events, conferences, workshops, and forums; announcements of newly released publications and online resources; and links to HIV/AIDS-related documents, resources, and USAID partners' Web sites. The newsletter reflects activities exclusively to USAID and its implementing partners.

The Black Media Network (BMN) was co-founded in 2002 by cyberNomads and ISD Berlin e.V. to address the misrepresentation of minorities in the media and the stereotypical use of images of people of African descent, but also to increase the number of voices and debates concerned with positive change in a multi-cultural society.

“Sometimes an editor just knows when he comes across a book that needs to be published” were the words that publisher Robert L. Giron said recently when asked about the new release entitled Literatures of the African Diaspora by Yemi D. Ogunyemi. What makes Literatures of the African Diaspora special is Dr. Ogunyemi’s premise for the book and the manner in which he presents his case that all literatures of the world can find their root in the literatures of Africa in some form or another. In a very tightly written book, Dr. Ogunyemi crosses the globe and finds threads of the African Diaspora across the continents and in world literatures such that one will never think about the concept of a national literature in the same light.

Why were Diasporan Africans excluded from consultation during the process of the formation of the AU? What role does the AU perceive that the millions of Africans in the Diaspora can play in the AU? What do Diasporan Africans expect and demand of the African Union? These will be some of the questions this forum aims to answer.

The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN is disturbed at the prison sentence handed down to journalist Jean-Baptiste Hounkonnou on 16 March 2004 for "defamation". Hounkonnou, the publication director of the daily "Le Nouvel Essor", was sent to Parakou (Centre-Est) prison immediately after the trial to begin serving his sentence. The verdict stems from a December 2003 "Le Nouvel Essor" article in which a woman was accused of adultery.

Civil society’s recently expressed fears that next year’s parliamentary elections will not be free and fair were reinforced in the week under review by more news of politically motivated violence ahead of the Zengeza by-election, scheduled for this month-end, reports the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe. “Once again, only the private media reported this news,” noted the MMPZ. “SW Radio Africa was the only organisation to report three new incidents in the constituency, all of which blamed ZANU PF supporters, while MDC activists, including the party’s candidate, were reported as the victims.”.

Fifty-two Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) activists, arrested in Hillbrow on Sunday during what police called an illegal march to the opening of the Constitutional Court, have been released, police and APF activists said. APF spokesperson Dale McKinley said the 52 were released on R100 bail each, and four minors, aged between 11 and 15, were released without bail or charge.

Preparations for Education for All Week 2004 (19 - 25 April) are well underway. UNESCO is working with the Global Campaign for Education for this event. The focus this year is a lobby by children on behalf of the 104 million children who have no access to education. The Big Lobby is intended to sensitize governments, teachers, parents and children to those who are denied the right to education.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has virtually decreed that the most vulnerable group of children in the educational ladder in the country should go through the first three years of the cycle, the formative years, without textbooks. They should make do with workbooks, the virtually blank books that carry dotted caricatures and no words or content and are primarily used for drawing. Only teachers would have resource books.

A series of African countries speaking before the Commission on Human Rights have decried what they said was a lack of effort on the part of developed nations to carry through on international commitments to combat racism, and called for more action to end discriminatory policies in immigration, education, and employment. A Representative of the Republic of the Congo, speaking on behalf of the African Group, said the Group was very concerned by the increased practice of discrimination in Europe.

On 15 March 2004, cameraman Robert Kadima Baruani, assistant cameraman Milla Dipenga and reporter Eric Ambago were harassed and detained briefly by a group of about 10 police officers at the Wagenia building in Kinshasa/Gombe. In addition, the journalists' equipment was confiscated. The three journalists work for Radiotélévision Kin-Malebo (RTKM), which broadcasts from Kinshasa. According to JED's sources, the RTKM crew had gone to the building to cover an illegal expropriation.

Outlining what she called the "scandal of malnutrition" in the world, U.N. Undersecretary General for Management Catherine Bertini said this week that while the global gross domestic product has increased 100 percent over the last 20 years, "the number of underweight preschoolers has only decreased by 20 percent." "As the world grows richer, we do not keep up in the areas of improvement of nutrition," said Bertini, who was director of the World Food Program before she took her current post.

"We the participants in the 3rd Annual InterCED Conference on ICT and Economic Development, held in Accra, Ghana from March 3 to March 5, 2004 recognize that Information Technology is simply a tool for the realization of the dreams of people. We further recognize that the creation of economic opportunity, jobs, and social capital require that all hands are put to the task and that all sectors of the society have a meaningful role to play in bringing about a renaissance of the African economy."

Donors have been invited this week by the WTO in Cotonou to discuss funding to support the African cotton sector, whose survival is threatened by massive cotton subsidies in rich countries. On the very same week, agricultural negotiations are restarting in Geneva and Europe is discussing its own reform of the cotton sector. West and Central African countries, such as Benin, Chad, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Mali, face direct losses of income of $250m a year because rich country subsidies are depressing world prices.

The Minister of State for Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, has alleged that about 30 per cent of the corruption in the public service is traceable to the Nigeria Customs Service. She also accused officers of the service of contributing to the closure of many manufacturing companies in the country. Usman said if the service could be reformed the larger part of the ongoing economic reforms embarked upon by President Olusegun Obasanjo would have been done.

Major oil companies are still making secret payments to repressive regimes, one year after Tony Blair put his personal authority behind a British-led voluntary disclosure code for the industry, according to a new report from London-based lobby group Global Witness. Corruption is flourishing in desperately poor countries such as Congo Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Angola as the dividends from oil continue to be appropriated by rich and powerful elites.

The number of tuberculosis patients diagnosed and treated under DOTS, the internationally recommended strategy for TB control, is now rising much faster than at any time since DOTS expansion began in 1995, according to a new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Indeed, the past two years have witnessed accelerated growth in the implementation of DOTS programmes worldwide. The 2004 Global Tuberculosis Control report confirms that DOTS programmes are now treating three million TB patients every year, an increase of more than one million patients compared to just two years ago.

Aids experts warned on Tuesday that Africa should stop using a drug which has been hailed as one of the continent's best tools in fighting the HIV pandemic. They said the drug, nevirapine, which reduces the number of mothers transmitting the HIV virus to new-born babies, risks doing more harm than good. Single doses of nevirapine should make way for a much costlier but less risky alternative, said Sant'Egidio, an Italian non-governmental organisation. The single dose might be cheap and easy to administer, but nevirapine left too many babies born with HIV, did not extend the lives of mothers, and was responsible for growing resistance to other anti-Aids drugs, it was claimed.

Few pregnant mothers in Botswana are accessing free HIV/AIDS related services, including free antiretrovirals being provided by the state, says a recent study. The survey of 504 women at ante-natal clinics and in post-natal wards countrywide, revealed that although 95 percent were accessing the health care provided at these facilities, the utilisation of free Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services and voluntary testing was still low - though it had increased from 38 percent in 2002 to 58 percent in 2003.

The Chairman of the Commission for HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA), Dr K.Y. Amoako, has opened a meeting of the Commission in Maputo, Mozambique, with a warning to Africa's governments that HIV/AIDS "poses the greatest threat to sustained economic development in Africa." "We have repeatedly stated that we are an activist Commission. It is time to go out and drive this message home to our governments and to those who can help us get it across," he told the meeting.

Tony Blair, the British prime minister, recently launched a commission for Africa to "take a fresh look at the challenges Africa faces in the context of the global forces in play in the 21st century". The new commission will discuss Africa's development challenges in the areas of the economy, education, conflict resolution, peace building, health, the environment, HIV/AIDS, governance and culture. The distinguished panel of commissioners includes prominent and respected Africans as members. The implications of the new British initiative on Africa are many and varied. First, all the publicly identified core "themes" have been the subject of studies, policy reviews or programmes by various African institutions, bilateral and multilateral agencies. Various United Nations (UN) agencies, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have spent most of the past 25 years studying these issues. It is difficult to predict what new facts the commission will unearth in 12 months, says this commentary in Business Day newspaper.

Leaked information from South African sources reveals confidential plans afoot to permanently remove the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) project from under the remit of the Commission of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa and establish it as an autonomous legal entity to be located in the Republic of South Africa. A 17th November 2003 letter to the AU Commission from Professor Welshman Nkhulu, the South African chairperson of the NEPAD Steering Committee, proposes the establishment of a ‘Forum for the Implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development’ with its own legal persona that is separate from and independent of the AU secretariat.

Amnesty International is calling on the government of Burundi and the leaders of all current and former armed political groups to immediately cease the use and recruitment of child soldiers and genuinely engage in the demobilisation and reintegration of child soldiers. Military leaders have fuelled Burundi's 10-year armed conflict by recruiting and abducting children, destroying their childhood and jeopardizing their future Amnesty International stated in a new report entitled 'Burundi: Child soldiers - the challenge of demobilisation'.

The international humanitarian medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said that the battle against tuberculosis (TB) is being lost because of reliance on archaic diagnostic tests and drugs. "The HIV/AIDS pandemic has magnified this problem as TB often coincides with, and is made harder to treat by, HIV/AIDS. MSF calls for an urgent increase in worldwide investment in TB research and development," the organisation said.

Nigeria's president has warned that Lake Chad will soon disappear unless immediate action is taken. Olusegun Obasanjo said the shrinking water levels were threatening the livelihood of more than 20 million people in the region.

A new bill has been drafted in Zanzibar imposing stiffer penalties for homosexuality and lesbianism. Deputy attorney general Omar Makungu said if enacted the new law would also ban same sex marriages. Under current laws, homosexuality is already illegal, but Mr Makungu says they want to stop the practice becoming an accepted part of Zanzibari culture.

As the date of South Africa's general election grows closer, the gloves are coming off in campaigning amongst political parties - even though the outcome of the poll is expected to hold few surprises. On April 14, the country will vote to elect a new president and parliament. This will be the third democratic election held in South Africa - and one that has gained special significance from the fact that it coincides with the demise of apartheid a decade ago.

Humanitarian issues occupied a large portion of Finance Minister Majozi Sithole's 2004 budget, which was presented to the parliament of Swaziland on Wednesday. "Issues of social inequities and good governance have to be addressed," Sithole told MPs as he described the requirements for attracting the investment that could bring much needed employment and poverty relief.

A Burundian human rights NGO, Ligue Iteka, said on Monday it had begun the second phase of a programme aimed at training youths in human rights law. Launched at the weekend in collaboration with the French NGO Agir ensemble pour les droits de l'homme (Collective Action for Human Rights), some 25 youths aged 16 to 26 years from 18 human rights organisations will take part in the training.

The World Bank this week denied criticism that its policies had limited the capacity of governments to provide adequate social services to people in developing countries. Addressing delegates at the biennial world assembly of CIVICUS, an umbrella body of civic organisations, in Botswana on Tuesday, Bank Vice President Ian Goldin noted that the institution was the largest single source of outside funding for education, health and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. But critics of the Banks policies remain unconvinced. The Asian Director of Action Aid International, John Samuel, told IRIN: "In spite of progressive rhetoric, the Bank still pursues the neo-liberal agenda of the United States of America and the rich countries."

A spate of weekend bombings on Zanzibar, which hosted visiting German President Johannes Rau on Monday, hit the homes of local political and religious leaders and a restaurant being used by Western diplomats, police said. There were no casualties from the homemade bomb blasts at the house of Zubeir Ali Maulid, a cabinet minister in the Tanzanian semi-autonomous island's government, and the home of Zanzibar's Mufti and top Islamic leader, Harith bin Khelef, said police spokesperson George Kizuguto.

Amnesty International aims to force governments to recognize their complicity in gender-based violence when they fail to create or enforce laws against it. As the latest step in this, the London-based human rights organisation this month launched an international campaign to raise awareness of violence against women as a human rights violation. "Amnesty International has been working on holding governments accountable to prevent, punish and investigate violence against women by state and non-state actors," said Sheila Dauer, director of the Women's Human Rights Program at Amnesty International U.S.A., based in New York City. "This campaign will take on that issue."

Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) has said the glaring failure revealed in the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) report on Zambia justifies the call for more investment in the social sector. Commenting on the contents of the MDG report that was released recently, CSPR assistant co-ordinator Gregory Chikwanka said the report's revelations heralded the need for the government to revisit the resource allocation procedures. The report states that of the 10 MDG targets, Zambia could probably achieve one while possessing the potential to achieve only six others.

Perhaps the most ambitious step so far in the use of Internet Radio was the launch of the Workers Independent News Service (WINS), which can be found on the web at http://www.laborradio.org. WINS is a great idea, but they've limited themselves to producing a daily three minute news summary and some features, and these are made available to "real" radio stations to be played to a large audience.

The government of Liberia has ordered the closure of the “Informer” newspaper. A statement issued and signed by Deputy Information Minister for Administration, Bernard Warity, explained that the paper was not registered with the Ministry of Information. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) regrets that after years of repression under the Taylor regime, the fate of the press in Liberia continues to depend on the disposition and benevolence of the government of the day.