PAMBAZUKA NEWS 126: 'NO LONGER DINNER': AFRICAN ACTIVISTS SPEAK ON CANCUN
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 126: 'NO LONGER DINNER': AFRICAN ACTIVISTS SPEAK ON CANCUN
Access to information and communications technologies (ICTs) is expanding but the majority of people in developing countries are still excluded, says APC in a new book launched last week in the run-up to the first ever United Nations world conference on the information society. At the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be held in Geneva in December, governments will agree on a declaration and action plan that could enhance or hinder access to ICTs for the vast majority of the world’s population.
Lomba is a young journalist living under military rule in Lagos, Nigeria, the most dangerous city in the world. His mind is full of soul music and girls and the lyric novel he is writing. But his roommate is brutally attacked by soldiers; his first love is forced to marry a wealthy general; and his neighbours on Poverty Street are planning a demonstration that is bound to incite riot and arrests. Lomba can no longer bury his head in the sand.
Fifty or more developing countries still depend mainly on the tropical commodities or minerals that they produce. Over the past half century, it has become abundantly clear that: Encouraging so many countries to grow coffee, sugar, cotton and other crops has been a disaster. Small farmers get only a tiny share of the final tag on these commodities on supermarket shelves in the North. Prices have collapsed; terms of trade between North and South widened.
In the face of a pandemic that threatens global security while devastating economies and destroying the social fabric of nations, the leader of the most powerful country must have a comprehensive plan to stop global AIDS. With more than three million deaths expected this year, AIDS must become the highest priority foreign policy issue for any credible candidate seeking the 2004 presidential nomination in the U.S. Join the campaign to make that a priority.
Against a backdrop of donor fatigue and a deadlock on trade between rich and poor countries, African leaders at a summit here renewed a pledge to keep the world's attention on a continent that is grappling with wars and famine, but also faces new opportunities ahead. While the African leaders said that the three-day conference that ended here Wednesday did not produce magic solutions, they agreed that it helps focus attention on the region's needs.
Current statistics reveal that an estimated 29 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV/AIDS. About 58 percent of those infected are women. Gender experts have often maintained that traditions and cultural stereotypes are a major stumbling block in the fight against the pandemic.
The mood is joyful as a group of Somali women break into song and dance to crown Asha Abdi's decision to declare her interest in the presidency, the top job in the land. Asha, who is a delegate at the ongoing Somalia peace talks being held in Nairobi, Kenya, says she is looking forward to uniting her country, which has been embroiled in a bloody civil war since 1991.
There are fears that militia and small rebel groups in Sudan, who have been sidelined from peace talks, could derail any agreement that might be reached between government and the main rebel group in future.
"I cannot see why it is that if an individual uses violence against a state it is seen as terrorism, but if a government uses violence and intimidation against its people it is often viewed as something else. What applies to the one should apply to the other,” says senior researcher at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Anneli Botha. She is arguing that terrorism in Africa cannot only be tackled with tighter security and anti-terrorism legislation.
Dieynaba Hamady Sow, 12, died on May 31 from haemorrhaging caused by sexual intercourse on her wedding night after she was forced to marry her 35-year-old cousin. Sow died six days after her marriage to Moussa Coulibaly in Matam, a town 720 kilometres north of the Senegalese capital, Dakar. The only punishment he received was a two-month prison sentence. The case shocked the nation, where women are increasingly becoming victims of domestic violence.
The announcement this week by Shangani Hospital in Matabeleland South that it would no longer admit patients, because it ran out of food a fortnight ago, is further evidence of Zimbabwe's deepening economic and humanitarian crises. The hospital, situated in a former commercial farming area, serves an estimated 12,500 newly resettled families.
Seven of Guinea's opposition political parties on Monday said they would resume dialogue with the government following a meeting in which the government agreed to look into their grievances including lack of access to state radio and television.
Former rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been authorised to function as political parties, according to Theophile Mbemba, minister of the interior, decentralisation and national security of the nation's recently-inaugurated two-year transitional government.
A national human rights NGO in the Republic of Congo has called for the incorporation of human rights instruction in school curricula. At the conclusion on Saturday of a seminar held to discuss the matter, Christian Mounzeo, interim president of the Congolese Human Rights Observatory (Observatoire congolais des droits de l'homme), said that it was the responsibility of government authorities to take action as soon as possible, recalling that in 1995 the UN had declared a decade of human rights education.
The latest report of the Burundian human rights group, Iteka, says that despite the signing of a ceasefire agreement between the government and the Conseil National pour la Defense de la Democratie/Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) faction of Jean Pierre Nkurunziza, the situation of human rights in the country has not improved.
Landlocked Burkina Faso has launched a ten-year plan to combat desertification and land erosion through district-focused reforestation programmes that would also help local people generate income from the trees.
It used to be that oil and mining companies felt the heat only when it came to questionable payments they made behind closed doors to secure some of the world's most precious natural resources. But in recent years activists have set their sights on legal payments, arguing that if you "publish what you pay" corrupt government officials would find it harder to siphon off funds to their Swiss bank accounts.
A committee investigating the Kenyan judiciary Tuesday told the BBC half of Kenya's judges and nearly a third of its magistrates are corrupt. The committee, led by a judge, has been gathering evidence against five of the country's nine judges in the court of appeals, Kenya's highest court, and against 18 of the 36 in Kenya's high court.
Rwanda's ruling party is likely to dominate the country's new parliament, according to interim results announced by the National Electoral Commission. In five out of 12 provinces so far counted, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF-led coalition of parties has achieved 75% of the vote.
Fighting has erupted in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, during a visit to the city by rebel leader Sekou Conneh. Gunmen shot at Mr Conneh's motorcade, triggering an exchange of fire between rebels and government troops, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Related Link:
U.S. forces leave Liberia
http://www.africanconflict.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=723
Funding shortfalls in support of some 15,000 refugees from Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) residing in Nebbi District of northwestern Uganda have impacted negatively on efforts to provide adequate aid, the International Federation of the Red Cross reported on Monday.
The number of Ugandans who have been displaced by the country's 17-year long civil war in the north has now exceeded one million, according to latest figures from the UN's World Food Programme (WFP).
A total of 26 Sudanese refugees, mainly children, have died in West Nile due to various diseases, officials have said. The First Deputy Premier and Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Lt. Gen. Moses Ali, said the refugees died of natural causes and not as a result of their transfer to Kiryandongo, Masindi, West Nile.
The deteriorating security situation in Burundi is hampering efforts to reach tens of thousands of people in dire need of food assistance after they fled their homes in the face of renewed fighting, arson and looting, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on September 26.
The Equinet Newsletter is the newsletter of the Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa. The Newsletter is delivered by e-mail twice a month and includes the following sections: Editorial, Equity and health general, Resource allocation, Public-private subsidies, Household poverty, WTO, economic and social policy, Human resources, Human rights and health, Research and Policy, Popular participation / governance and health, SADC News, Useful Resources, Letters and Comments, and Jobs and Announcements. Subscription is free.
President Olusegun Obasanjo marked Nigeria's National Day on Wednesday with an impassioned defence of his reform programme, as organised labour threatened to strike over fuel price rises.
The National Human Rights Commission has been asked to investigate the alleged detention of a nine-month-old pregnant woman and her husband by the Anambra State police command on the instructions of a Lagos based businessman.
Women from Ikebiri community in Apoi-Olodiama local government area of Bayelsa State have taken over an oil rig (Bintanc Kalamatani) belonging to Farashole Drilling, working for the Nigeria Agip Oil Company. The women, numbering about five hundred, most of them elderly, are protesting against Agip for not implementing parts of the agreement it signed with the community five years ago.
From the 14th to 17th October 2003, Avocats Sans Frontières - ASF (Lawyers Without Borders) will organise in Bujumbura, Burundi, a seminar on the International Justice to the attention of lawyers of the Bar of Burundi. The program of the seminar is available on the ASF's web site.
Dozens have been killed and an estimated 4,000 have been displaced as a result of youths from the Ijaw and Itsekeri ethnic groups fighting in Warri, an oil-rich city in the Niger Delta.
Zimbabwe's leading opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), on Tuesday denied that negotiations had resumed with President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party. "This is media speculation. There are no talks in the country and this has been confirmed by Zanu PF," MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said.
In Kenya, a "zero corruption" initiative has led to the stepping down of Kenya's chief justice, central bank chief and top tax collector. Other countries, including Ghana, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa, also have launched anti-corruption drives. Still, many of the world's most corrupt nations are in Africa, including Nigeria, Madagascar, Kenya, Angola and Uganda, according to a survey of 102 nations by Transparency International.
This paper is about how to harness IT to foster youth employment or livelihood opportunities in developing countries. The central question asked by the author in this paper is: What kind of policies will further the IT revolution in the interest of creating livelihoods for the young people of the developing world.
A UN inter-agency mission dispatched to central Liberia on Tuesday reported that fighting has died down in the region and that displaced Liberians were drifting back to their homes.
A group formed in London has joined the battle to overturn the silencing of Zimbabwe’s only independent daily newspaper, The Daily News, using two weapons: trying to shame the supreme court judges who shut down the paper two weeks ago, and encouraging protests, particularly in the 19 other African members of the 54-nation Commonwealth. "Whether it will work we don’t know. But we are looking at how you put pressure on a government that is not open to peer pressure," said Lindsay Ross, executive director of the Commonwealth Press Union, and an organiser of the Friends of The Daily News.
This article in the International Journal of Refugee Law analyses the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) with regard to refugee witnesses, and in particular to the claims for witness protection for such persons before the Tribunal. It also examines whether the Tribunal has the power to order states or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to grant or facilitate refugee status to witnesses as a protective measure so as to ensure their appearance before it.
For the past six weeks, health officials and specialist advisors have been working late into the night to meet a deadline set by Cabinet to come up with a "detailed operational plan on an anti-retroviral treatment programme". While cynics say the urgency is being fed by the 2004 general election, few in the HIV/AIDS field doubt that South Africa has reached the point of no return on the provision of ARV drugs.
One of the areas that Zambia lags behind in is the provision of health services to people in rural areas. There are not enough hospitals, health centres or clinics to cover the population of the country. Even where these facilities are available, persistent problems of shortage of drugs, inadequate manpower and lack of transport continue to dog the institutions.
The 15-year campaign to eradicate polio is suffering its second major setback in two years, with the disease spreading in Nigeria and spilling into several polio-free countries nearby. The report this week of a case in Togo brings to three the number of West African countries where the polio virus has been reintroduced from a hot spot of the disease in northern Nigeria. The other countries are Ghana and Burkina Faso.
Over 1,500 doctors have threatened to go on strike this Friday over the failure by the ministries of Health and Education to pay their allowances. The doctors are drawn from the College of Health Services, University of Nairobi and the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
The Generic Anti-Retroviral Procurement Project and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Treatment Project asked multinational pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim this week for permission to import generic nevirapine for use in combination antiretroviral therapy, failing which they will seek compulsory licenses in court.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Angola on Wednesday called for further support from donors for its health and education programmes, warning that the critical shortage of funds was seriously hampering its operations. "Now, more than at any time since independence, Angola possesses enormous potential for recovery and prosperity. But with funding for programmes in health and education floundering at below 10 percent, UNICEF warns that it is fighting to meet the enormous demand created in post-war Angola," the agency said in a statement.
About 131 children died in the paediatric hospital of Ndalatando in northern Kwanza-Norte province over the first six months of this year due to various diseases. This was said by the hospital clinic director, Celestino Teixeira, who added that 65 died from malaria, 35 from respiratory infections and acute diarrhoeas while another 30 died of other diseases.
The plight of children abducted by rebels in northern Uganda is not getting enough international attention, the UN has warned. According to the Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG-CACC), more prominence should be given to the tragedy which has been unfolding for nearly two decades. Over 25,000 children are believed to have been abducted in the course of the 17-year civil war between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the government.
The African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships (ACHAP) project leader, Dr. Donald de Korte, has said that Botswana will have about 200,000 orphans in 2010 if the current situation is not reversed.
Human Rights Watch has launched a campaign to seek the release of abducted children in northern Uganda. Visit the web site provided to find out more information.
In a paper released last week at two major AIDS conferences in Kenya and the United States, the United Nations World Food Programme demonstrates how food aid can bring hope to a generation of orphans and other vulnerable children whose lives are scarred by HIV/AIDS.
Tanzanians have been urged to use their power of influence through mass protests and other available avenues to stop corrupt leaders from using government resources for their personal interests. The call was made by participants in a two-day Social Watch Country Forum 2003 organised by Women’s Legal Aid Centre (WLAC) at Arts and Crafts Centre in Dar es salaam this week.
Goal Eight of the Millennium Development Goals does not have detailed enough targets to define the objectives and actions that are needed in the area of global finance, including the problems of debt, capital flows and a healthy system of financing for development. The emerging paradigm calls for developing countries to take a pragmatic approach to globalisation and liberalisation and to integrating their domestic economies with the global economy in the areas of finance, trade and investment. However, the financial system as a whole -increasingly characterised by the absence of regulations, transparency or a fair set of rules for resolving the conflicts between debtor and creditor countries - requires an overhaul, says this article on the website www.socialwatch.org.
Unicef's Map of Programmes for Adolescent Participation During Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations is an information sharing tool that documents the participation of adolescents in community development and peace-building activities during conflict and post-conflict situations. The Map represents the work of a broad spectrum of partners, including NGO’s, UN agencies, governments, community leaders, teachers, parents and most importantly, young people.
For almost a decade, the World Bank has been pressuring Ghana to privatize its public water system, or to enable some form of "private sector participation" in the water system. Ghana is, of course, not unique in this regard. Over the same period, people throughout the Global South have witnessed World Bank and corporate schemes to wrest control of now-public water systems and deliver them into private hands. Ghana has been one of the hottest flashpoints in the conflict between the people and the Water Barons. There, the National Coalition Against the Privatization of Water (NCAP of Water) has aggressively opposed Bank-advocated privatization proposals.
The streets of Accra and other major cities in the country are dotted with children, who engage in the sale of iced water, electrical gadgets, foodstuffs and anything saleable. These children are daily exposed to near death, injuries, and other accidental consequences as they run after, between and in front of vehicles.
Statements of strong support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) were heard on behalf of over 50 countries as part of a UN Security Council open debate on September 30 on “Justice and the Rule of Law.” Statements reiterated countries’ support for the ICC and called for increased national and international level cooperation with the ICC.
Taking on board the World Bank’s advice to introduce a "credible threat of cutting service" the Johannesburg City Council has been cutting off citizens who cannot afford to be consumers. Several poor communities across Johannesburg, with the active assistance of the Anti Privatisation Forum, have launched Operation Vulamanzi in which the ‘control’ measures such as trickler systems, re-routed water piping and pre-paid meters have been by-passed by community residents in order to retain access to water. ANC politicians have publicly labelled community residents resisting water and electricity privatisation, ‘criminals’ and ‘anarchists’.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) plays a key role in defining how much governments can spend. The Fund’s view of what defines the macro economic stability of a country is the authoritative one for all development partners. Given this, the Fund could and should be playing a dynamic, proactive role in establishing the financing conditions for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. But there are key areas where the Fund is failing to play this role and a radical rethink is needed, says Oxfam in this briefing paper.
Picture this. An island strip of expensive Florida styled hotels, white beaches and brilliant blue skies, disturbed by the violence of wrought iron barriers the length of the Convention Centre and 20,000 armed Mexican police and federal paramilitary. More than 10,000 people land on the island strip for the Inter-ministerial, 3,000 accredited NGO officials - but only 180 from Africa and 30 Africa Peoples Caucus activists on the outside; 1,200 accredited media journalists, of whom fewer than 100 from Africa; roughly 600 European Commission staff, but only 10 African Union staff and consultants. While the Italian delegation consisted of 106 people, there were 45 on the Kenyan delegation and 3 on the Gambian delegation. Throughout the four days, there were 150 parallel NGO workshops within the official NGO hotel; and outside the perimeter, there were daily protests, stunts, marches by Mexican workers, Korean farmers, North American and European activists and the tragic but dignified self-sacrifice of Mr. Lee.
... and towards the end, long and anxious hours waiting for the secretive green room discussions to end. The tears ... and then the shouts of joy and relief when the Kenyan Head of Delegation leaked the news of the collapse of the talks at 3pm on Sunday, 14 September. Africa emerged from the talks a major negotiating player, no longer the dinner of other trading partners, but defining the direction and outcome of the talks in Cancun.
At the invitation of Pambazuka News, Irungu Houghton interviewed four Africa activists who had attended the fifth Inter-Ministerial WTO Conference, Cancun, Mexico:
* Mr Gichinga Ndirangu (Kenya national delegate, media and information officer)
* Mr. Moussa Faye (Senegalese delegate)
* Hon. Sheila Kawamara (Member of the East Africa Legislative Assembly member of the Uganda delegation)
* Ms. Crystal Overson (involved with the Africa People Caucus on popular campaigning and media outreach).
IRUNGU: What prepared African negotiators prior to Cancun for the resilience they displayed?
GICHINGA: Firstly, CSO representatives in various countries had strong support from their respective countries. The Senegalese minister remarked about the power of the petition she received from the public in Senegal before leaving. Secondly, the various meetings from the African, Caribbean and Pacific, Africa Union Trade Ministerial and the Heads of State meeting had called for solidarity. Thirdly, a range of groups such as ActionAid, Econews Africa, Seatini, Third World Network-Africa, Heinrich Boll Foundation and Oxfam worked with the Geneva based African negotiators and Ministers to hold a pre-Cancun consultation in August.
CRYSTAL: Alongside the official processes, groups came together in Johannesburg to agree on our position.
IRUNGU: Uganda had been very active during the lead up to Cancun, yet it seemed to get marginalized during the Conference, why was this?
SHEILA: Unlike the official delegations from Kenya and Senegal, our Head of State broke with the consensus that was building up in Cancun by purportedly circulating a letter that urged African countries to stay out of the G21. This prevented Uganda from joining the African countries in the forefront. However, it did not have much impact on the conference as it was so clearly out of step with the positions being taken by the Africa Group and the ACP/LDC alliance. You must realize, this was the first time for African parliamentarians to attend, we were equipped to lobby even if the president gave other orders to the members of the government delegation. That was helpful ... to have parliamentarians on board.
IRUNGU: What was unexpected about the process in Cancun?
SHEILA: The unity of African and least developing countries was unexpected.
MOUSSA: We watched carefully for those countries that seemed likely to break with the African Union position; South Africa, Egypt and some of the francophone countries. When the Green room processes started we thought the coalition would collapse.
GICHINGA: For me it was the total lack of vision on the part of rich countries that was totally unexpected. They completely misread the mood. Instead of issues the majority of delegates wanted discussed, they continued to insist on Singapore issues (For explanation, see notes below). They failed to read the mood up to the last moment.
IRUNGU: For people not familiar with the procedures in the Inter-ministerials, the "Green Rooms" seem very strange processes. What kind of discussions take place?
MOUSSA: The Green Rooms are called arbitrarily by the WTO Chairperson to discuss parts of the Declaration that are contentious. In Cancun, it was announced that a Green Room of 29 Ministers and one Advisor each would start at midnight the same day. We spent time speaking to the African Ministers, urging them to remain strong and determined only to hear at 11.45pm that the format had all changed. Nine Ministers and one Advisor each would now meet alone, not on the whole Declaration but on the 'Singapore Issues' only. The Senegalese Minister was initially part of the 26 and was then dropped. I think she was radicalized by this experience. She went from being a privileged negotiator to a victim of these tactics. From then on, I noticed she seemed to react to African delegates proposing to open negotiations on new issues that they were betraying Africa.
GICHINGA: Cancun reflected the lack of transparency that was behind the collapse of the talks in Seattle and Doha. In Seattle, Green Room meetings took place without African and Caribbean Ministers. In Doha, the process continued, this time with wider representation, but in essence the process was still flawed. In some cases, ministers were denied access to advice from their experts. This is tragic as Ministers are not involved in the day-to-day negotiations of WTO.
MOUSSA: I believe this is a mechanism for arm-twisting. It is very undemocratic.
IRUNGU: How effective was the media? Here in Kenya, all I am asked is whether I went naked on the beach in protest?
CRYSTAL: We in the African Peoples Caucus worked with media organizations from South Africa and the rest of the continent. This way, we were able put Africa on the agenda and assert "Africa is not for sale!" We interpreted some of the technical jargon for social movements to understand, we put it into language that my mother back in South Africa could understand.
IRUNGU: What was the decisive moment in the collapse of the talks?
GICHINGA: The collapse started with the presentation of the revised draft declaration on the third day of the conference. It came too late in the meeting. The text was clearly unrepresentative of the submissions of Africa, Caribbean and least developed countries. I remember the very long queue of people rushing for copies and people became frustrated when they saw no improvement. Heads of delegations met and expressed strong views one after another. I was struck by the words of the Minister from Antigua and Bermuda, Sir Ronald Sanders, when he said and I quote; "My government has a duty to care for its people. Were we to accept this document we would deserve our people's condemnation. For we would not only have gained no relief for them, we would have condemned them to a life of perpetual underdevelopment. That my delegation will not do. I have to advise that this draft does not enjoy the support of my government." I could feel this meeting was headed for collapse.
MOUSSA: For me, the most decisive moment happened in the Africa Union/ ACP meeting around midday on the last day. Minister Nkate of Botswana requested the other delegates to accept one of the Singapore Issues in return for an agreement on agriculture. African and Caribbean countries emphatically asked what part of "NO" they didn't understand.
IRUNGU: Media coverage captured the excitement at the collapse of the talks, what did it feel for you at that moment?
GICHINGA: For me there was a sense of relief. I felt like we were being led to the slaughterhouse. There was sense of victory. We had avoided a bad deal. I was elated and relieved by the outcome.
MOUSSA: I was also relieved but angry that we had not achieved anything. We had gone to Cancun for nothing; we did not make any deals. Yet I guess, we managed to stand firm on our positions and I guess that was a victory. It meant that Europeans and Americans had not reached their goal either.
SHEILA: I was excited. We had done a commendable job in keeping Africa's interests on the table and when this did not look possible, [it contributed] to the end of the talks. After that, a fear come upon me - we had won the victory but how long can we sustain it. It was excitement and fear.
CRYSTAL: Of course on the outside we were happy. It was cause for celebration. Now we need to go back to the drawing board. The hard work starts now. It is no use celebrating - we have to work harder to ensure we take the work forward. We can't sit back; we have to start mobilizing to prepare for what is coming ahead.
IRUNGU: What were your personal lowlights of the conference?
MOUSSA: The night when I learned that the Green Room started, everybody had left and a secret process was going on. I was thinking this is the real conference, and we can do nothing about it. We have no means to influence the secret process and that night I was anxious.
SHEILA: When the greenroom process began. My lowest was when we were told about the changes in the Green Room meeting. I knew we had been beaten. But the following morning things seemed to be coming up.
CRYSTAL: The uncertainty of whether the South Africa delegation would hold to the Africa position, we were certainly not clear on whether South Africa would sell out or support African groupings, but [eventually] it became clear that South Africa did not break ranks with the Africa group.
IRUNGU: What were your personal highlights of the conference?
MOUSSA: As I heard our minister speak on BBC I realized how important her role was and how I could support her in getting her positions across.
GICHINGA: When Minister Nkate listened to the opposition to his proposal to start negotiations on trade investment and then said “well I have heard you, I am going to represent what you have said". The Green room had failed utterly and democratic representation was running the meeting.
SHEILA: My high moment was the collapse of the talks - that was my highest moment.
CRYSTAL: The high moment was when we heard the negotiations had failed.
IRUNGU: What are the dangers ahead for African agriculture, health and wider economies?
GICHINGA: Agriculture - in many African countries the danger is that we are now left with a situation where we do not know what will happen in two years time. We do not have domestic support; there is no motivation or inclination to move forward on this area. It has been a long wait. We have fought for long and in this particular outcome we have no roadmap on how the issue will be addressed.
SHEILA: The issue of regional block. We are now celebrating. But I am sceptical. I think that [many] would rather consider negotiating as individual countries. I think that could undermine the regional block. I think the only way to go is have regional integration.
MOUSSA: I fear that what they could not achieve on a multilateral basis
i.e. negotiating on new issues, could be achieved on a bilateral basis. I am concerned about what ACP negotiations are going on. So, basically, the process in Geneva and bilateral processes are reasons to be worried. What they could not achieve on a multi-lateral basis they will try to do so in negotiations like the Cotonou phase 2 negotiations.
CRYSTAL: Some of the concerns that I have is that we don't know what is going on there and we have to be cautious.
IRUNGU: For the next Inter-ministerial, what should African CSOs do differently?
SHEILA: We need to lobby African governments to include more parliamentarians in their delegation - like in Norway, Britain and Italy. As elected representatives, we speak on behalf of our people.
MOUSSA: Africans need to strengthen themselves by connecting more to grassroots. Negotiators from northern countries negotiate under pressure from lobby groups We need to link up more with northern civil society and work more on subsidies reduction.
CRYSTAL: We need to connect local processes in-countries and international events better. We need to make sure that CSOs are represented on all delegations as in some cases we had no representatives from certain countries.
GICHINGA: Yes, we must engage more with the public and show them why they must make their governments accountable for the positions they take. We need civil society to challenge our governments to take the lead from their Geneva experts. We must insist that the pro-active role must come from Geneva rather than capitals. Next time maybe we should do a dummy ministerial WTO declaration to measure against our expectations.
SHEILA: We shouldn't become somebody else's dinner in these meetings.
We should set an agenda and put our feet down and say this is our Position, we stand by it. I know its tough but that's what we have got to do.
CRYSTAL: Not all of our Governments are accountable yet. We should work hard towards understanding technicalities and ways of unpacking processes and complex ideas, make it clear that negotiations taking place thousands of miles away impact on our livelihoods. Yea, we are sick and tired of being dinner, we should make dinner for a change.
30 September 2003
Our thanks to Emily Nyanjugu for transcribing the interview. Irungu Houghton is Pan-Africa Policy Advisor for Oxfam GB; Gichinga Ndirangu is Media Coordinator for Heinrich Boll Foundation; Moussa Faye is the Programme Coordinator for ActionAid Senegal; and Crystal Overson is a Media activist with AIDC-South Africa. The views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of these organisations.
* NOTE FOR READERS: "SINGAPORE ISSUES" :The 1996 Singapore Ministerial Declaration mandated the establishment of working groups to analyse issues related to investment, competition policy and transparency in government procurement. It also directed the Council for Trade in Goods to undertake exploratory and analytical work on the simplification of trade procedures in order to assess the scope for WTO rules in this area. Most developing countries were unconvinced of the necessity or value of negotiating multilateral rules on these issues, which they see as being of primary interest to developed economies. Since the beginning of June 2003, 101 developing countries (including 68 WTO members - well over half of the WTO's developing country embers) have said they did not want negotiations on the Singapore Issues to be agreed in Cancun.
RELATED ARTICLE...
SALVAGING WTO FROM CANCUN COLLAPSE
Devoloping countries need to stand firm and counter divisive tendencies after the Cancun collapse, writes Bhagirath Lal Das for the Third World Network. You can read the article in Equinet News. Visit http://www.equinetafrica.org/newsletter_archive.html.
WEBSITES FOR MORE INFORMATION:
* Focus on the Global South
http://www.focusweb.org/
* Choike: Cancun 2003
http://www.choike.org/cgi-bin/choike/links/page.cgi?p=ver_indepth&id=1236
* Third World Network
http://www.twnside.org.sg/
* Please send comments to [email protected]
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Membership programs can help nonprofits build a constituency, educate the public, raise funds, increase visibility and provide a constant cash flow, according to the latest Association of Fundraising Professionals Audioconference.
The latest issue of New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising takes an atypical look at volunteers and fundraising. One of the chapters focuses on how professionals and volunteers can work together by implementing reciprocal learning in teams. The concept encourages fundraisers not only to teach volunteers about the financial development world but also to be open to learning what volunteers can teach fundraisers about the communities they serve, the business strategies that can be applied in nonprofits and tactics they may have learned elsewhere.
This web site collection of online fundraising resources is the work of Adam Corson-Finnerty and Laura Blanchard, authors of Fundraising and Friend-Raising on the Web. It includes excerpts from the book, a series of essays on the changing online fund-raising scene ("musings"), and teaching materials from classes and presentations.
The Ugandan government must immediately investigate the reported recent execution of four detainees by state security agents, Human Rights Watch says. The authorities should also reveal the whereabouts of 10 others arbitrarily detained, and must charge or release them. The four men reportedly executed were among 14 detained in August by the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATF), a joint unit drawn from several state security agencies. The men were apparently executed because they were accused of having links to a rebel group.
The Maputo Provincial Court on Monday acquitted all seven policemen charged with facilitating the escape from the top security prison in September 2002 of Anibal dos Santos Junior ("Anibalzinho"), who recruited the death squad that murdered Mozambique's top investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso, on 22 November 2000. Judge Carlos Caetano said that the seven men "are just scapegoats to hide the class of untouchables". This posting contains a list of news clippings related to Mozambique.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 125: 11 SEPTEMBER RULING GAGS IMPOVERISHED ZIMBABWE
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 125: 11 SEPTEMBER RULING GAGS IMPOVERISHED ZIMBABWE
President Robert Mugabe's government has refused to issue the licence needed to publish to the Daily News, following the closure of that newspaper last week. By shutting down the country's only privately owned daily publication, the Mugabe regime has struck a blow at the country's struggling free press, which is left with just a couple of independent weekly papers. The Daily News has been shut for the past week and police seized the paper's computers and other equipment in defiance of a high court order that the paper should be allowed to publish.
Thousands of experts gathered in Nairobi on Sunday for a council of war on Africa's battle against Aids, a combat characterised by a relentlessly spreading pandemic but also by some good news at last about funds and access to drugs. Some 8 000 doctors, researchers, policymakers and grassroots campaigners were registered for the 13th International Conference on Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (Icasa), a major forum held every two years.
Racism everywhere remains largely invisible and hugely under-estimated, the issue that barely speaks its name. How can the Economist produce a 15,000-word survey on migration, as it did last year, and hardly mention the word racism? Why does virtually no one talk about the racism suffered by the Williams sisters on the tennis circuit even though the evidence is legion? Why are the deeply racist western attitudes towards Arabs barely mentioned in the context of the occupation of Iraq, carefully hidden behind talk of religion and civilisational values?
The 13th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) is underway in Nairobi, Kenya from September 21-26, under the theme "Access to Care." Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate, under pressure from President Bush, has rejected an amendment to provide $3 billion instead of $2 billion for the first year of President Bush's promised $15 billion HIV/AIDS initiative. The U.S. is currently spending an estimated $1 billion a week in Iraq, and Congress is currently considering a request from President Bush for an additional $89 billion for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. This posting contains a set of talking points released earlier this week by Africa Action, detailing the broken promises of the Bush administration on HIV/AIDS.
The spectre of an independent workers' party that arose from the hopes and aspirations of the embryonic Cosatu and deeply concerned the then-exiled ANC was nowhere in evidence at the eighth Cosatu congress. In its place was the firm commitment to move into the ANC in massive numbers and change the orientation of the governing party. It could hardly have been otherwise, given the organisational weakness of the country's largest labour federation and the ideological orientation of the bulk of its leadership.
People's Popular Theatre (PPT) is a community-based group that uses theatre to raise awareness about discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, or disability. The organisation conducts research on traditional cultural art forms and practices, exploring how they affect gender relations and then working to correct gender imbalances in society through performance art. In addressing these issues, PPT uses African artistic modes to strengthen cultural identity. PPT focuses most of its activities in Kenya.
The cholera epidemic in Liberia has killed 110 people in the capital Monrovia over the past four months and is now gaining ground in the country's second city Buchanan, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
As the World Bank and IMF held their annual meetings to discuss the state of the global economy, The New Economics Foundation released groundbreaking data demonstrating that the global economy - as structured by western politicians and bankers - is acting as a giant “hoover”. The new analysis of global inequalities shows that globalisation is sucking wealth and resources out of the poorest countries and concentrating it in the hands of a few in the richest countries, particularly the United States.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved the creation of a 15,000-strong peacekeeping force for Liberia to take over from a much smaller West African force which is currently struggling to impose peace and security after 14 years of civil war.
Zambia's ruling party, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) has secured a majority in parliament, following its victory in three of the four by-elections held last Thursday. The crucial by-elections were preceded by sporadic clashes between supporters of the ruling party and the opposition parties.
A lobby group, the Kenya Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines, is demanding that the government provide affordable or free antiretrovirals (ARV) for Kenyans. "What we want to see is an expanded programme to treat as many people as possible," said Gitura Mwaura, Chairman of the coalition. "We believe the government has the resources, and can do something," he said. "Its priorities need to change."
A workshop convened by HelpAge International in Nairobi this week showed that support to older carers and orphans and vulnerable children is wanting in Africa. Participants were drawn from Southern and Eastern African countries, representing organisations working with older people, orphans and other vulnerable children, AIDS Control Councils, government representatives, donor agencies, older people and orphaned children. The workshop reviewed evidence regarding the role of older women and men as carers of orphans and vulnerable children affected by AIDS, identified gaps in existing programmes and policies, and mapped out strategies to provide effective support for older people and orphans and vulnerable children.
As World Bank representatives gathered in Dubai for the 2003 World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, Environmental Defence, Friends of the Earth, and International Rivers Network released a report in response to the World Bank's new "high risk/high reward" strategy in the water, forestry, and extractive industries sectors. The report, Gambling With People's Lives, analyzes the World Bank's ability to manage social and environmental risks in high-risk projects and to learn from its past mistakes. The report is available at www.irn.org.
A group of six children and youth who were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda have returned from Sudan, UNICEF Uganda has announced. The ages of the members of the group range from 12 to 22 years. All were abducted from Uganda as children, between 1997 and 2002. After arrival at Entebbe, the group was taken to reception centres in Gulu where they will be provided with psycho-social counselling by the Gulu Support for Children Organisation (GUSCO) and World Vision.
Just a minor correction - If I am right. Pambazuka News 124: Cancun to Dubai should read Cancun to Doha instead. Thanks.
PZ Replies: Yes, Doha could just as easily have been used in the context of the WTO meetings, but the use of Dubai was in reference to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings currently being held there.
A word of warning from a loyal reader! I have noticed that there is an increasing tendency for commercial sites to start charging for access to their pages. The latest - and most annoying for me, sitting in London wanting to keep abreast of South African affairs - is the Mail & Guardian. In the last week or so they have switched to 100% paid access by what they call the Kudu Club that you have to subscribe to (even the London "Financial Times" has a site which has a high proportion of items/pages which are free but not the "M&G"). The result is that some of your links involve putting us through to paid sites, which is time consuming and annoying. I just wonder whether you could put up a warning to readers. Or better still persuade these sites to let us get access for free somehow (I'm not a techie but there must be a way to file pages in a way that allows us access).
What do you think?
PZ Replies: Thanks for pointing this out - it is a worrying trend. We make a point of not linking to paid sites or those that require a difficult or tedious registration, but sometimes they manage to sneak through. We're very aware that many of our readers have limited web access and don't want to spend their time online negotiating paid-for sites. If a story of importance comes up on a paid site, then we do our best to source something similar elsewhere.
The Editorial Board of the above journal welcomes sound academic, original and empirically based research and development efforts focusing on all aspects of farm child, youth development and urban and rural youth in agricultural occupations. The publication is devoted to the rapid all-round development of farm children and capacitating rural youth into becoming sensitive and active for future food security and sustainable self-reliance.
Older people caring for orphans and vulnerable children in countries severely affected by HIV/AIDS face hardship and isolation, and are in urgent need of support, according to a new report by HelpAge International and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. The two organisations highlight the critical role of older carers in sustaining these vulnerable families, whose situation is rarely addressed in the debates around HIV/AIDS. They urge international and national agencies and donors to respond to the needs of these families, and help to ensure the wellbeing of the children who have lost their parents to AIDS.
The Bellagio Publishing Network Discussion Forum is an unmoderated mailing list that provides a forum for engaging questions around publishing in the South. It gathers individuals and organisations willing to discuss not just topical issues impacting on publishing, but also strategies and ways for working towards strengthening indigenous publishing and book development in the South. It stresses a critical understanding of the culture(s) of publishing in practice today - be it in its actors, modes of functioning, forms, goals or visions. It will encapsulate the book in current meanings and formats. The Forum encourages contributions from every perspective and persuasion presented in an accessible, frank and educative mode. We appreciate lively debates that share knowledge about the challenges and joys of publishing in the South. To join Bellpubnet, there are two methods. You can either send a blank message to: [email protected] or subscribe online http://www.bellagiopublishingnetwork.org/forum.htm, if you would like to access the messages online (this option requires registration).
I am a teacher and very interested in agriculture and forestry - to know and discuss these matters with my students and think about globalisation and the South-North relations.
Civil Society participation in education policy debate should be increased by mobilising broad-based constituencies to advocate for quality basic education and increaseing district capacity support for improving the conditions for learning in deprived rural areas. These are two of the recommendations of a CARE International study to discover what types of complimentary education services have been effective in reaching the under-served in Ghana, especially female, populations in rural deprived areas.
HURIDOCS gladly announces the publication of the first volumes in a new series of brief, practical manuals aimed to help build the capacity of human rights organisations with regard to monitoring and documentation. The volumes in this Human Rights Monitoring and Documentation Series are especially designed for small non-governmental human rights organisations which often have limited resources and a small staff who are assigned multiple tasks. The handy size of the manuals makes them excellent reference materials. In addition, they are written in a style that facilitates learning and could serve effectively as materials for training, including individualised and self-initiated learning.
Up to half of Malawi's professional workforce could die of HIV/Aids by 2005, the World Bank has said in a report timed to coincide with the opening of a major conference in Kenya on the pandemic in Africa. Professionals in the education and health sectors are particularly affected in the impoverished Southern African country, as are members of the army and the police, the study says.
If you are a mid-level or senior programme manager, social worker, senior government officer or planner, a health care professional, or have an interest in ageing issues, then this course is for you.
History tells us that genuine solutions to political crises require dialogue and negotiation - so those African leaders working to bring the parties together in Zimbabwe would appear to be on the right track. But after three years of state sponsored political violence, the prospects of finding common ground between Zanu PF and its opponents diminish daily. Yes, they must pursue workable solutions, but they must also identify the source of the problems and speak frankly against the politics of repression.
A regional conference on refugees ended on Wednesday, with governments recommitting themselves to refugee protection, but failing to adopt the principle of "safe havens" and agree on a solution to burden sharing in protracted refugee situations.
"If ever the skyrocketing orphan population- already pushing 13 million is to be brought under control, then treatment is absolutely imperative to success. When WHO says three million people will be treated with anti-retrovirals by 2005, the world must make it happen. Anything less is an ethical abomination," said Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, at the Official Opening of the XIIIth International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa.
International pressure is mounting on Ethiopia and Eritrea to normalise ties, three years after the end of a bloody war, following the UN Security Council's renewal of the six-month mandate of its peacekeeping mission in both countries. The Security Council resolution, passed late last week, that renewed the mandate of UNMEE - the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea - called on the two warring Horn of Africa nations to settle their differences through dialogue.
Slowly, but effectively, the Internet is empowering women in Africa to follow events as they have never witnessed before. The latest case in point is the women in Somalia who have been following their country's peace talks in neighbouring Kenya via Internet usage. “Women in Somalia could not attend that nation's peace talks. They learned of developments via the Horn of Africa Regional Women's Knowledge Network (HAWKNET) on the web, and through this source they became 'virtual participants' in the event.
What's in a name? Married women in Zimbabwe are taking the government to court over a procedure that compels them to adopt their husbands' surnames as a precondition to official documents, including registering the birth of infant children. Under the leadership of the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA), the women have embarked on a class action suit meant to free them from the burden of assuming their husbands' surnames before getting a passport or a child's birth certificate.
Charles Taylor, for six years the warlord president of Liberia, stole or diverted nearly $100 million of his country's wealth, leaving it the poorest nation on earth, a close review of government records and interviews with senior government officials and UN investigators shows. New York Times, quoting senior members of his government, said Taylor stole millions to buy houses, cars and sexual partners.
An arms deal worth about 3.9 billion U.S. dollars concluded between South Africa and several European multinationals has plunged South Africa into its worst post-apartheid political crisis. Last Thursday President Thabo Mbeki announced a judicial commission of inquiry into allegations that the chief investigator of alleged corruption in the course of the deal, Bulelani Ngcuka, was an apartheid spy.
The Gambia has became the first member state of the African Union to sign the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People Rights relating to the right of women in Africa. The Permanent Representative of the Gambia to the African Union, Dr. Oma A. Touray, signed the Protocol on behalf of his Government.
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has called on the Sudanese authorities to stop harassing the daily "Khartoum Monitor" and allow it to resume publication at once, in line with a recent court decision. The English-language newspaper's publishing licence was cancelled on 12 July 2003, but this decision was struck down on appeal during the week of 8 September, and the National Press Council said the paper could resume publishing.
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has expressed concern over the imprisonment of Ibrahim Souley, editor of the weekly "L'Enquêteur", for exposing embezzlement in the handing out of government contracts. The organisation has called for Souley's immediate release. "We do not understand why the authorities have jailed him, since he was simply doing his job of informing the public, which in no way justifies his imprisonment," said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard.
The government’s continued closure and more recently, the seizure of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) equipment using the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) clearly demonstrates the ZANU PF led government’s intolerance of alternative opinion, according to the Media Monitoring Project's latest update.
The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) has threatened to shut down privately-owned radio station Capital Radio, accusing it of carrying out an Outside Broadcasting (OB), contrary to the provisions of its licence. Capital Radio had invited political parties to air their rallies live.