This is a report of the findings of Cost Benefit Analyses (CBA) of the gender disparities in literacy and access to agriculture services in Malawi, and the interventions to redress it and also of activities to reduce Gender Based Violence (GBV). The purpose of the study is to provide information to assist in advocating for and planning programs that are gender responsive, and thereby contribute to overall national economic growth and poverty reduction. The objective of the study is to estimate the incremental financial benefits of addressing the gender disparities. A review of the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (MPRSP) process showed that there was no gender rationalization of the allocation of resources and the setting of targets.

One of the pledges that the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government made when it came to power at the end of 2002 was to fight corruption in every way possible. It was with this in mind that President Mwai Kibaki appointed the Goldenberg Commission of Inquiry on Feb. 24 this year. The commission was charged with fully investigating the Goldenberg export compensation scandal, which cost Kenya billions of shillings in the early 1990s when billions in Kenyan shillings was looted from the country’s Central Bank through billionaire Kamlesh Pattni’s Exchange Bank in 1991. As the inquiry has progressed, former president Danial arap Moi, his two sons and a daughter, as well as a host of high-ranking Kenyans, have been implicated.

Business Day reports that Minister of Social Development, Dr Zola Skweyiya, has ordered an investigation into allegations of irregular financial management and recruitment practices at the National Development Agency (NDA). The allegations surfaced after former Pan-Africanist Congress general secretary, Thami ka Plaatjie, was appointed to the agency.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has described the recent police attack on journalists across the country as a clandestine approach to censor the press, and called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of those behind the acts. The union was reacting to the police brutalisation recently of a photojournalist, Mr. Akintunde Akinleye of the Daily Independent newspaper, a Lagos-based national tabloid.

Pretoria judge Eben Jordaan expressed frustration on Tuesday at repeated delays in the Boeremag treason trial, which has still not gotten underway nearly four months after its scheduled starting date. The 22 men stand accused of plotting to overthrow the government as members of the rightwing Boeremag organisation, with the aim of declaring a "Boer" republic.

Consider the following:
* Over 3/4 of people living on less than $1 per day are small farmers (around 900 million people worldwide). The majority of small farmers are women;
* The average European subsidy per cow is $2 per day – billions of people in the world barely subsist on less than this amount;
* Agricultural subsidies in developed countries exceed the total income of sub-Saharan Africa.
Heavily subsidized agricultural products are taking away the livelihoods of millions of female small farmers. Moreover, the WTO Agreement on Agriculture does not guarantee food sovereignty.
At the fifth WTO Ministerial we demand:
* No new issues!
* Democratic governance, transparency and accountability!
* Human development and gender equality-oriented agendas!
* Human development and human rights as the central guiding principles!

Thousands of Eritreans, many of them second- or third-generation exiles, live in refugee camps in the northeast of Sudan. Millions of southern Sudanese have fled to the north where IDP settlements are scattered around urban outskirts. Both groups of displaced people lack adequate education provision. Refugees and IDPs alike are excluded from formal education and employment opportunities due to language barriers, gender/ethnic prejudice and lack of basic skills. Read the full article from the latest edition of Forced Migration Review by clicking on the link provided.

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.

Poverty, unemployment and inequality appear to be increasing in South Africa. At least 45% of the South African population live in absolute poverty, and many households still have unsatisfactory access to clean water, energy, health care and education. This was part of the rationale for a workshop organised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for the further collection of child well-being indicators.

Ethiopia has been awarded US$5 million to help prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies, officials announced on Monday. Health Minister Dr Kebede Tadesse warned that HIV/AIDS could soon become the biggest killer in children under five years old in Ethiopia.

The Siyanda Update is a monthly newsletter featuring the latest gender mainstreaming resources available on the website http://www.siyanda.org/. Siyanda aims to assist busy gender practitioners with locating essential gender mainstreaming resources, quickly and easily. It is also an interactive space where gender practitioners can share ideas, experiences and resources with like-minded colleagues. To subscribe or unsubscribe from the "Siyanda Update", please go to: http://www.siyanda.org/subscribe.htm

e Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it is deeply concerned about the state of press freedom in the Central African Republic. One journalist, Michel Ngokpele, publication director of the privately owned French-language daily Le Quotidien de Bangui, is languishing in prison after receiving a six-month sentence on June 26 for defamation and "inciting ethnic hatred," both deemed offences under the Central African Republic's Press Law.

Across the world, poor people are facing another attack on their living standards by rich countries and big companies at the WTO. The results of the WTO agreements have already led to more people going without water, electricity, access to land, housing, the right to fish, education, hospitals, medicines and food security. With the current WTO meeting in Mexico governments from Europe and US want to further attack these rights. The biggest threat at this WTO meeting is the attempt to force all countries to privatise all government services, including, transport, water, electricity, housing, education, health and even tourism. On the 13th of September there will be a Global Day of Action to show big companies and governments from the north that their plans will not be accepted.

There is much that is comical in our new Kenya; but the nature of comical statements is often something that invites threats.Years ago, when the late Kariuki Chotara, a Kenyan politician, wanted ìKaro Maxî arrested and detained, we laughed - but this sort of cowboy narrow-mindedness lead to a purge of writers, free-speakers and thinkers that Kenya is still recovering from.

Now a new one: that Chinua Achebe is a pornographer. His book, A Man of the people, which is taught in schools to 16-18 year olds, stands accused by the Catholic Church lobby group and several parents groups. (see http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php? id=16939)

My organisation, kwani? wishes to solicit commentary from writers and writers organisations so we can use this to prevent any action being taken to remove this book, and the other books under threat. We hope to have edited comments published in one of our national newspapers: the East African or The Sunday Standard.

We would need such submissions in by Monday the 15th of September 2003. We will also put up these comments on our website www.kwani.org We are also trying to get in touch with Mr. Achebe urgently so he may give his views on the matter.

Please forward this to any writers or lovers of free speech that you know.

FAHAMU RESPONDS: Fahamu condemns attempts to have three books withdrawn from the school syllabus on the grounds that they are "morally objectionable."

The books are Chinua Achebe's "A Man of the People" and S. A Mohammed's "Kiu" and "Kitumbua Kimeingia Mchanga" - all set-books for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations (KCSE).

Those who want the books removed claim they are sexually explicit and contain pornographic material.

Fahamu would like to point out that Achebe is one of the greatest writers ever to come out of Africa. His book "A Man of the People" was published in 1966 and describes a fictional post-colonial African state. It tackles the issues of political representation in a corrupt state and the problems of an ethnically diverse, economically stratified nation. The other two books are in Kiswahili, the Kenyan national language. All three titles are noted principally for their socially redeeming themes, which is why they were chosen as literary set-books.

Fahamu believes that the banning of the books would set a dangerous precedent and damage fundamental principles related to freedom of expression and the spread of ideas. We support the efforts of education and literary interests opposed to the banning of the books. Fahamu calls on all Pambazuka readers to send letters of solidarity

The lack of assets in rural households struggling with the impact of HIV/AIDS in Malawi and Zambia is making them extremely vulnerable to shocks such as last year's drought, a recent survey has found. The Malawi and Zambia surveys found that about 80 percent of rural households in the two countries could be "classified as 'asset poor' or 'very poor'".

The president of Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG), Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, and four prominent faction leaders met on Tuesday in Mogadishu to discuss the Somali peace talks currently underway in Kenya, one of the leaders told IRIN on Wednesday.

A national conference to draft a new policy on water and forestry in the Central African Republic (CAR) opened on Monday in the capital, Bangui, with 250 delegates in attendance. CAR leader Francois Bozize opened the four-day conference, which the minister for water, forestry, fishing and hunting, Maurice Yondo, said was to "value and guarantee forestry resources" in the country.

Peter Makori knows the smell of a Kenyan prison which has been his home for the past two months. He is being detained in Nyanza province in Western Kenya for alleged implications in the murder of two tribal chiefs. But, Kang'ethe Mungai, a human rights activist and founder of Release Political Prisoners, says Makori has been detained for highlighting human rights abuses. He is an investigative journalist. Makori's case epitomises the extent of human rights abuses in Kenya and the urgent need of a body to monitor such excesses.

West African peacekeepers from Guinea Bissau Wednesday said they were now in full control of the Liberian city of Kakata after days of sporadic battles between government forces and the main rebel group, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Development (LURD). “We had to get the rebels out of Kakata in order to ensure security for the civilians who have been caught in days of crossfire,” a spokesperson for the peacekeepers said Wednesday.

The government of Chad has denied claims by the main rebel group to have captured the airport at the northern town of Bardai. The rebel Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJT) said earlier its forces had taken the airport, surrounded the town and killed at least 35 government troops.

The number of environmentally protected areas across the globe adds up to more than 100,000, the United Nations announced Tuesday, as leading environmentalists warned global warming was already causing irreparable damage to many sites. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) published a new database of protected areas at the opening of a 10-day congress on world parks, that kicked off in South Africa's eastern port city of Durban Monday.

The employment of militarism by the U.S. as a means to seek and establish power and control is a troubling phenomenon for African democratic movements, which are struggling against regimes that came to power through military means and have relied on their monopoly of the means of violence to maintain power. For Africa, this paradigmatic shift is problematic given the prevalence of on the continent. Moreover, the economic implications of the Iraq war present troubling prospects for Africa's efforts to combat poverty. Amongst African social movements there is much agreement that the US war in Iraq had nothing to do with Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction, Iraqi support for Al Queda, or Iraqi role in 'terrorism', specifically 11 September. Neither was it been about Iraqi threats to international stability or liberating the people of Iraq. What the war is about, which has not been stated by the dominant media – primarily British and U.S.-owned – is money, power and control. The invasion and occupation of Iraq provides us with the latest and most graphic illustration of how these variables underpin action.

ABOUT MONEY: Some suggest the key motive was the Bush administration's goal of preventing further Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) movement towards the Euro as an oil transaction currency standard. Another monetary cause of the war concerns US corporate interests. American corporations have been jockeying for contracts to rebuild the country following the massive destruction of its infrastructure.

ABOUT POWER: Since the horrific 11 September attacks on the United States, the Bush Administration has sought to garner the international sympathy it engendered to clearly assert its hegemony to cajole and in some cases coerce other nations into supporting the promulgation and militarization of US national interests globally.

ABOUT CONTROL: US invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq is part and parcel of its ambition to control political and economic developments in the Middle East.

IMPLICATIONS FOR AFRICA

We are witnessing the manifestations of the new world (dis)order in which the US can pursue its national interests irrespective of international disapproval and opposition. What does this portend for Africans struggling to end dictatorships on the continent, particularly where desired changes may not include the free market ideology that characterises America's dominant vision? Moreover, what can Africans, who struggle daily under repressive regimes, do or say to 'shame' their leaders into behaving decently if not honourably? If the US can ride over agreed tenets of democratic governance and international law to achieve a much disputed objective, is there not increased legitimacy for tin pot dictators in Africa to characterise every real and perceived enemy as a 'terrorist' and therefore justify violent treatment against them? Already we have witnessed this in a number of African countries – Liberia and Uganda for example.

A second implication of the war in Iraq for Africa is the simple notion that the US will go to extensive lengths to assure its access to oil. It has been suggested that Africa will become a leading exporter of oil to the US. One only has to see the pauperisation of Nigeria, the wretchedness of Angola and the lack of democracy and respect for civil liberties in Gabon to understand the contention that this will lead to more misery. The U.S. Department of Defence is 'reportedly considering redeploying American troops to protect key oil reserves in Africa, particularly Nigeria'. One wonders what these troops will do there to protect US national (i.e. oil) interests. Will they shoot protesting Nigerian women, workers and inhabitants of the Niger Delta who are asking that proceeds from oil revenues be invested in social services?

A third implication might be considered one of declining shares of relief and humanitarian assistance. Humanitarian relief agencies are already stating the well versed and practiced double standard in the allocation of relief assistance. In the words of James Morris, the Executive Director of the World Food Program:

“As much as I don't like it, I cannot escape the thought that we have a double standard. How is it we routinely accept a level of suffering and hopelessness in Africa we would never accept in any other part of the world? We simply cannot let this stand.”

But it will stand! In the recently released 2003 World Development Indicators, the World Bank reported that Sub-Saharan Africa, unlike other regions of the world such as Asia and Eastern Europe and contrary to the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (a set of targets set by the United Nations to halve poverty by the year 2015), will witness an increment in the number of people living in poverty. Whereas:

“…the number of impoverished people in the world was forecast to drop from 1.29 billion people, or 29.6% in 1990, to 809 million, or 13.3% in 2015… in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of impoverished people would swell from 315 million in 1990 to 404 million in 2015.”

In addition to the economic factors that are likely to keep Africa in poverty - including structural adjustment type policies of the international financial institutions, unequal trade relations between Africa and the developed world, and Africa's debt overhang – other likely factors include the numerous civil conflicts, the widespread lack of democratic governance on the continent and the global propensity towards militarization.

The U.S. is seeking the cancellation of Iraq's $127 billion debt as part of Iraq's reconstruction. This amazing figure should be compared with the $40 billion for 26 highly indebted poor countries, most of which are in Africa, that the US has agreed along with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to cancel. Even more shocking is the fact that over $80 billion was relatively easily mobilised to intervene in Iraq and destroy much vital infrastructure. $50 billion required to achieve the millennium development goals globally can somehow not be located.

It is clear that while the US pursues its stated mission to 'liberate' Iraq, much of the world - particularly those of us in Africa - recognize that this war is not about making the world safe for 'democracy' or ensuring the security of the majority of Africans who live in hellish conditions on the continent. Rather, it is about the projection of U.S. military power and its assertion of imperial control. The lives of Africans can only be worsened by these actions. It becomes compelling that African leaders and people must, out of necessity, oppose U.S. aggression and occupation of Iraq, and other pursuits of U.S. national interest cloaked as 'international' security. It is of some comfort that two African Presidents, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obassanjo of Nigeria, got it right in opposing the war. Do they have the requisite spine to hold their grounds? We are not holding our breath.

* Ezekiel Pajibo is a Liberian independent researcher and analyst of Africa policy issues who lives in Harare, Zimbabwe.

* Please send comments on this editorial to

This is an edited version of a larger briefing in the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development Volume 1 Number 2, 2003. ISSN 1542-3166 JPD is a new tri-annual refereed Journal providing a forum for the sharing of critical thinking and constructive action on issues at the intersections of conflict, development and peace.

To subscribe to the Journal Write, call, fax or email to the following:

Journal of Peacebuilding and Development
South North Centre for Peacebuilding and Development
P.O. Box HG358, Highlands
Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel/Fax +263 4 746 543
email: [email][email protected]; [email][email protected]
or
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In the week of the WTO 5th Ministerial meeting in Cancun, a GDNet Special Feature highlights research on trade and development from the global south. GDNet is a global network of research and policy institutes working together to address the problems of national and regional development and the feature offers some perspectives from researchers in the global south on key elements of the social and economic impacts of the WTO on developing countries. It features resources from a range of Southern research organisations, which relate to the issues under discussion at Cancun as well as regional research on the broad topic of trade and globalization.

The Ethiopia-Eritrea peace process is at a “critical” juncture with demarcation of the contested 1,000-kilometre border between the two countries just weeks away, the United Nations stated on Thursday.

A high-profile AIDS activist, who had vowed not to take AIDS drugs until the general South African population had access to them, announced Monday he has begun taking the potentially lifesaving medication. Zackie Achmat changed his mind following the government's instructions to the health ministry to plan for the possible distribution of AIDS drugs to the public, the South African Press Association reported.

At least 100 000 people have been displaced and farmland, houses and property destroyed by flooding in northern Nigeria. The area governor's spokesperson, Murtala Surajo, said on Monday: "It is too early to estimate the extent of damage but it won't be out of place to say at least 100 000 people are now homeless."

On 18 August 2003, at the opening of the Nthabiseng Thutuzela Care Centre at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, South Africa, Justice Minister Penuell Maduna said the South African government would not comment on continuing allegations that Deputy President Jacob Zuma tried to solicit a bribe from a French defence contractor linked to South Africa's multi-billion rand arms deal. Maduna also instructed government agencies and persons involved in the investigation not to comment on the issue.

A measles vaccination campaign in Zambia has been hailed as a "spectacular success" by the UN Children's Fund Representative, Dr Stella Goings.

The Southern African Development Community Heads of State has approved the region’s development blueprint for the next five years. The summit held in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, this week, approved the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan.

Nine years after international outrage stopped the cull of elephants in the Kruger National Park, more than 3 000 of the beasts face the new threat of a death sentence -- because science has failed to come up with a cheap elephant contraceptive.

President Bush's deeds have fallen far short of his words in the global fight against HIV and AIDS, women's health advocates argued in Washington last Tuesday. Scoring the Bush administration's record on issues of importance to women around the world, including family planning and maternal health, HIV/AIDS, development aid, and support for women in Afghanistan and Iraq, three prominent women's groups found that the reality has not matched the rhetoric.

Amnesty International has called on all parties responsible for intensifying attacks in Darfur, western Sudan, to immediately halt all deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects. Hundreds of civilians, mainly from sedentary groups such as the Fur, Zaghawa, Masalit and Tungur have been killed or injured and tens of thousands displaced in the past few months. "The Sudanese government must take immediate steps to protect the lives of civilians affected by the conflict, including displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur," Amnesty International said.

The Task Force on Corruption in Zambia last Thursday arrested former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health Kashiwa Bulaya for alleged corruption. A press release from task force spokesperson Betty Mumba said Bulaya was being investigated in connection with a contract worth over 3 billion kwacha (about 600,000 US dollars) awarded to a Bulgarian company for the supply of nutritional supplements to the ministry.

One of the world's biggest hippo populations in the Democratic Republic of Congo faces extinction as poachers and armed factions kill them for their meat and teeth, nature body WWF International said Friday. The Swiss-based body said it was "deeply concerned" about a new census showing the hippo population in the Virunga National Park had dropped 95 percent to around 1,300 from 29,000 less than 30 years ago.

Households with a higher level of education are less likely to be poor, a research project has confirmed. It has also confirmed the finding that returns to education rise with the level of education. The comparative project has shown that there are substantial differences across African economies and that large changes can occur within those economies.

It is no accident that when Nelson Mandela declared his opposition to lawsuits for reparations for the victims of apartheid he did it in the company of Nicky Oppenheimer speaking for De Beers Diamond Mines. So we know clearly, if we had any doubts, that he is on the side of the corporations and not on the side of the workers - many of whom suffered terribly at the hands of the corporation, even while it was making millions. A diamond may be forever, but the lives of the miners was hard, and for many of them unpardonably brief.

Nor is a conjunction with Rhodes House and Rhodes Scholarships inappropriate; Cecil Rhodes made his millions out of Africa, which made possible the many Rhodes Scholars at Oxford University which helped further the imperial project in South Africa and (of course) Rhodesia - as Zimbabwe was once known. (The links between the Oppenheimers and the equally amoral Anglo-American Corporation need surely not be enumerated).

So now we may be fated to see the names of Mandela and Rhodes linked in Mandela-Rhodes Scholarships. And this linking with a ruthless robber-baron may prove not inappropriate in future history, when the Mandela statue is towering over Algoa Bay where I grew up and engaged in resistance with oppression.

An additional thought about timing: South Africa is about to engage in a momentous debate about reparations for the victims of apartheid; that the Mandela denunciation of lawsuits for reparations should come on the eve of a reparations conference exhibits a cynicism worthy of the old robber-baron who dreamed of a British Empire from "Cape to Cairo"!

This conference, incidentally came as the end product of a long and complicated process in which the South African Council of Churches had a curious difficulty in declaring in own position and in finding a convenient date for such a conference - with those who called for a conference such as Jubilee South Africa and Khulumani - finding themselves under snide attack from Rev. Frank Chikane, from the office of President Thabo Mbeki no less, for being "special interest" groups who were not interested in the hardships of the victims of Apartheid.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the Media Foundation of West Africa (MFWA) have issued a joint statement in which they say they are "gravely concerned about the continued illegal and arbitrary closure" of Citizen FM radio station in Banjul, The Gambia. For more than two years, the government of President Yahya Jammeh has stopped Citizen FM from broadcasting on a false claim that the station's owner, Baboucar M. Gaye, has not paid his taxes and licence fees. MISA and MFWA believe this accusation to be a blatant fabrication. Citizen FM has not been charged in court, nor has it been ordered by any court to cease broadcasting based on the authorities' accusations.

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has revealed that he intends to expand his propaganda campaign to continental proportions with the help of satellite communications. Reportedly, Moyo and his Tanzanian counterpart signed an “agreement to co-operate in the media field”, which would see the two set up a 24-hour satellite news channel. ZTV quoted Moyo as saying the station will help in telling the “true African story”. Moyo did not clarify what he meant, but in the past the government’s spin doctor and the media he controls have narrowly defined such issues as the ‘African story’ from a ZANU-PF point of view while dismissing all other interpretations as neo-colonialist and pro-Western, reports the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF), has expressed concern about the numerous attacks on press freedom in Nigeria recently and the growing climate of lawlessness in which journalists have to work, especially outside Lagos. The organisation urged the authorities to ensure greater security for journalists working throughout the country and not to allow abuses and irregularities to go unpunished.

A protest by Guinean women at the rising price of rice and other basic commodities has prompted President Lansana Conte to threaten importers that they will be driven out of business unless food prices come down. Conte, who has his eye on presidential elections due in December, issued the blunt ultimatum last Thursday after a protest march by women through the streets of the capital Conakry 24 hours earlier.

Uganda’s Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme has increased the numbers of children passing through primary school to such an extent that it risks causing a massive bottleneck in secondary school entrance unless steps are taken to increase capacity, Ugandan ministers have said.

ThinkQuest Africa (TQA) www.thinkquestafrica.org is an Internet based extra curuiculla educational program administered and managed by SchoolNet Africa (www.schoolnetafrica.org) to promote a new way of learning through cooperative activities. TQA targets students in the age of 12-19 to form teams from 4 partners and two coaches from Africa to develop an educational web site about a topic of their interest.

President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) submitted to parliament on Thursday a declaration of his wealth, in accordance with the national transition constitution that came out of the inter-Congolese peace and reconciliation dialogue. The contents of Kabila's declaration will be made known only to members of the National Assembly, unless disclosure of the information to anyone else was necessary.

Bookings now open for the following:
* 2 September 2003 - Joburg: Proposal Writing & budget design;
*3 September - Joburg: Special Events planning and implementation;
*4 September - Joburg: Fundraising Administration & Report writing;
* 16 September 2003 - Durban: Introduction to Fundraising & Resource Mobilisation - 1 day fast-track programme to get you started;
* 21-23 September 2003 - Durban: Resource Mobilisation & Fundraising Development;
*28 October - Joburg: Income Generation for NPO's;
* 4-5 November - Joburg: Practical Proposal Writing - effective writing skills and more;
*11-12 November - Joburg: Succinct Report Writing and planning for a logical flow;
*18 November - Joburg, Cape Town and Durban - Planning for Successful Fundraising - Strategies & Approaches;
*20 November - Joburg: Introduction to Fundraising & Resource Mobilisation;
*24-25 November - Cape Town: Train-the-Trainer in Resource Mobilisation & Fundraising Development;
*26-28 November - Cape Town: 3-day Resource Mobilisation & Fundraising Development.
Further information available from Thea at SAIF Education & Training Centre: 27 (0) 11 794 5224 or e-mail [email protected]

An appeal in the case of Amina Lawal, who was sentenced to death by stoning by a Sharia court in Katsina State in Nigeria, was heard on August 27 and postponed to September 25. The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is urging those concerned to write to the Nigerian authorities urging them to: Guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Ms. Amina Lawal and her family; Take all necessary measures to secure respect for the rule of law in Nigeria which includes respect for the prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment, such as the practice of corporal punishment; Guarantee women their human rights, including their right to be free from discrimination and their right to be free from torture and inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment; Ensure in all circumstances the full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with national and international standards.

UNDP intends to recruit an expert for 2 months to support the development of a plan for the library at the University of Hargeisa, with a particular emphasis on the law section.

The position is based at the CABI Africa Regional Centre in Nairobi, which works in 6 thematic areas: rural knowledge systems, smallholder commodity chains, sustainable pest management, alien invasive species, conservation and utilisation of biodiversity, and information & communication technologies.

The top United Nations (UN) human rights envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has called for the creation of a tribunal of national and international judges to try abuses committed in the country. "It is time to end impunity," UN special rapporteur Iulia Motoc told reporters in Bunia this weekend in the DRC's troubled northeastern Ituri province.

A good indicator of a country’s quality-of-life is the way it treats its most vulnerable members. Kids are a good measure of how well government policies percolate to the most sensitive and defenceless segment of society. A new report contains data on all countries with a population of more than ten million, noting that children are more vulnerable than adults to hazards of any form due to their size, physiology and behaviour. Children under age five breathe more air, drink more water and eat more food per unit of body weight than adults, so they experience a greater risk from pathogens and pollutants.