PAMBAZUKA NEWS 144: CONFRONTING IMPUNITY THROUGH THE ICC: IS AFRICA READY AND WAITING?
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 144: CONFRONTING IMPUNITY THROUGH THE ICC: IS AFRICA READY AND WAITING?
The government of Burundi demobilised on Friday 29 child soldiers, who had served as porters in the country's regular army. The children, aged 13 to 18 years, were demobilised at the paratroop barracks in the capital, Bujumbura, in the presences of representatives of the Ministry of Defence, the UN Children's Fund as well as those from the national Demobilisation, Reintegration and Prevention Project, which targets child soldiers. Although the demobilised children served as porters, they also had the task of observing enemy movements, for which they earned the nickname "Doriya", which loosely translates as spy or sentry.
Thousands of preschool children across the Peninsula are set to go hungry - because their creches have been deemed sub-standard, and from the end of March food subsidies will be stopped. "It's a nightmare. We have about 40 little ones who get breakfast and lunch here every day, and that's the only food they get," said an outraged Christo van Rooyen who manages the finances of Jack and Jill creche in Ocean View. They were presented with a list of essential repairs by the department of social services to secure their food grant, but the criteria have proved impossible to fulfil.
About 300 youth delegates are converging in Benoni, far east of Johannesburg, for the Second National Conference on Youth Development at Local Government Level. Youth development workers, municipal youth managers and leaders of the broader youth sector are attending the three-day conference. The conference is part of the bilateral relationship between South Africa and Flanders and is hosted by the National Youth Commission (NYC) and the South African Youth Council (SAYC).
The National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) says it has taken its mobilisation and advocacy campaigns on girl-child education to six states in the country. Executive Secretary of the commission, Dr (Mrs) Nafisatu Dahiru Mohammed who made this known in an interview with Vanguard said this was as a result of gender disparity in nomadic schools. Mohammed said the states include Enugu, Bauchi, Taraba, Gombe, Adamawa and Yobe. "The gender disparity in our schools is disturbing. Out of a total of 294,951 pupils in the nomadic schools only 124,797 are girls."
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has backed the proposed refugee bill saying it could turn out as an international model of a good refugee law. Erika Feller, the agency's director for international protection, said the bill was a good innovation because it touched on almost all the important aspects of refugee protection. "It is very positive in the way it integrates gender and gender persecution as a ground for refugee status. This is something we have advocated for long. It is positive on family related issues. It's very positive on the right and responsibilities of refugees, it absolves and expands the definition of a refugee," she told The New Vision.
There are fears that large numbers of children may be trafficked into Britain after police discovered up to 30 had been "lost". The BBC has learnt the Metropolitan Police investigation looked at children who came through Heathrow Airport with adults who were not their parents. Until recently few checks have been made by immigration at the airport. Campaigners fear thousands of children are being used as domestic slaves after being brought into Britain. The vast majority of the children were from Nigeria, which is well known among law enforcement officials as being the main source for trafficked children into Britain.
The "collaborative approach," the preferred response of the UN's humanitarian system to the crisis of internal displacement, is not working. Evaluations commissioned within the system describe "egregious failures" to protect and meet the basic needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Yet when pressed to defend the collaborative approach, senior officials of humanitarian agencies and donor governments invariably respond that there are no realistic alternatives to a system of ad hoc efforts on behalf of IDPs, a system characterized by diffuse responsibility and lack of accountability.
At first glance, Dukwi looks like your usual African refugee camp, with children attending school, adults working in a weaving and tailoring project, neighbours chatting and babies playing happily in the mud. But probe deeper into Botswana’s only refugee camp and you’ll find that like no other place in the region, it captures the recent history of southern Africa in a nutshell. Dukwi refugee camp was once a place for exiles from countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe to meet and discuss strategies for a liberated southern Africa. The camp boasts former residents who are prominent leaders in the region today. Today, the camp is still home to some 3,500 people, the largest groups being 1,200 Namibians from the Caprivi Strip and 1,200 refugees from Angola. The rest come from elsewhere in Africa – Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, with a few cases from Kenya and Tanzania.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has issued a call for proposals for the Fourth Round of financing. The proposals should support the scale up of effective existing programs and innovative projects that meet the Global Fund’s criteria and that have a clear demonstration of how the resources sought from the Global Fund will achieve additional results in partnership with existing programs. Proposals for funding must be made through Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCM).
The Global Development Network's new Free Journal Access Portal enables social science researchers based in developing or transitional countries to access a searchable, full-text, online database of more than 120 well-known social-science journals, free of charge.
I do find Pambazuka News and your website very useful. It gives me update information on workshops being held in the Southern African Region, trainings that are very useful to the organisation. Keep up the good work.
Individuals should not have to suffer all losses due to illness! Men, women and children are suffering with HIV/AIDS. We need to assure that these people are cared for, not discriminated against! We must provide funds for proper nutrition, housing and health care for these individuals to aid and contribute to their well-being. We need to get rid of the false perceptions and judgments. Like Doreen Millman said in Vancouver at the 1996 AIDS Conference in reference to how a 63 year old grandmother got AIDS. She said, "It just doesn’t matter!" Neither does an individual’s race, religion or sexual orientation matter! Don’t look for differences; look at how we can help one another.
I do not believe it is naive to think we can make the necessary changes, but rather it is naive to think that we can continue on our current course neglecting those who suffer from poverty, illness and disease. People are judging those who are sick, disabled and poor.
At the X1V International AIDS Conference 2002, Nelson Mandela said, “Stigma, discrimination and ostracism are the real killers.”
People living with illness are no different from anyone else, except for their disease. Prior to this, they were hard working people, contributing to society. Once sick, they are expected to do without and not have those things they had in their life before sickness! Why do we allow this?
Many people have nothing due to the lack of funding and the effort it has taken for them to survive through their illness. People should be entitled to the right to a quality standard of living, which promotes wellness and healing, not death and dying. There are people dying due to the stress on an already stressed and suppressed immune system. There is added stress due to a lack of funds available to support nutritional diet and good health. Proper nutrition is necessary for HIV infected individuals, as those who eat well feel better compared to those who consume a less than adequate diet. Malnutrition can compromise their ability to fight off infection. The stress that people are enduring while trying to maintain a home, food, and health is putting them at risk of continued health problems. This in turn means they are in greater need of medical attention! We should be making good nutrition a high priority in AIDS treatment!
My concern and disappointment is directed at the lack of consideration given to the present situation of poverty, poor nutrition, inadequate sanitation and housing for people living with HIV. These issues are of the utmost importance to individuals who are trying to maintain their health and living. The present situation is driving people below poverty, affecting their health and forcing them to live in standards no one would want to experience! People, who have worked and contributed to society, should not be subjected to living in inadequate conditions due to health and inability to work when diagnosed with a life threatening disease!
A call for action is necessary. The present situation dictates that these are vital necessities for people living with HIV/AIDS throughout the world! Since many people infected with HIV have neither the health nor energy to work towards creating awareness and change, it is my intention to speak through my experience for those whom I hope will benefit. Ignoring the importance of meeting these needs will bring an ever-increasing cost to our health care systems and us worldwide. A simple exercise in these directions and implementation would have an enormous impact on the fight against AIDS!
We are all here together, connected. Nothing is happening to just one of us, but affecting ALL of us! Illness and poverty can strike any one of us, at any time! What is happening affects us all. We can no longer look at others or view other places in the world where people are sick and dying and continue to neglect caring for them, without recognizing how it affects society. We have the means to provide all that is necessary, but we will have to work together to correct the global imbalance. The richer countries have a moral responsibility to help out poorer countries.
We have been warned by science that we are faced with an ever-increasing battle -- the battle against the bug! Every country is at risk of every disease. Here in North America, many people take for granted our quality of life, while others here and elsewhere in the world are faced with poverty, poor sewage and sanitation, famine, drought, environmental devastation and disease, along with millions of people dying. These are problems facing us all. These very same circumstances affect people in every part of the world. We cannot continue to allow millions to suffer and millions to die and expect we will not be affected.
We have to make the necessary changes and care for one another. If HIV and AIDS have not brought this realization, then surely West Nile, SARS, Mad Cow, Monkey Pox and Ebola are convincing enough! It is time to realize that it is only a matter of time before this major global epidemic will affect each and every one of us and that possibly, we will have to deal with some other new bug as well! This is happening already. Look at the impact of SARS and its effects on health care, travel, tourism, jobs, our economy and relationships with other countries. We would do well to pay attention and learn from the enormous poverty, illness and deaths worldwide caused by HIV/AIDS.
At the XIV International AIDS Conference in 2002, Nelson Mandela in his closing speech said, “AIDS is a war against humanity.”
There is no doubt this situation is going to have an enormous effect on all our lives. When will our eyes be opened to what is going on all around us?
A negotiated settlement of the conflict in Darfur must be reached, says a briefing from the European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, a privately-funded organisation that runs advocacy, education and media projects relating to Sudan. "International pressure must be brought to bear upon those external forces that have been fuelling the fighting. The humanitarian needs of those who have been displaced must be met until those affected are able to return to their homes. Khartoum must address the criminality and armed banditry that has undermined law and order in Darfur."
Along the Rwandan national highway there stands a tattered yellow sign caked in dirt and blackened by pollution. It reads “Muhazi Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration Camp, 300 Meters.” The narrow muddy road winds through plush green fields leading those willing to travel its path to a small patch of land lightly guarded by Kalashnikov - wielding Rwandan military personnel. Within the guarded perimeters of this small plot of land along the Rwandan-Congolese border, there lies a small makeshift camp with showers, dormitories, a kitchen, and a meeting hall. Black earth creeps onto everything, leaving dark smears on the walls of buildings and on clothing, even embedding itself in the cracks of calloused hands. It's mid August, around 3pm, already the sun's light is fading, and there is a chill in the air. The camp is the new home of the ex - Forces Armées Rwandaïses (FAR). These men and women were participants in the 1994 genocide. Forced out of the country and into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), they continued a life of ruthless violence. Many began military careers as children. Their stories are sometimes ones of unspeakable horror.
The e-guide is a 'one-stop shop' providing both original articles and links to the best material elsewhere. Designed to inspire dialogue, it will grow as registrants from across the globe add their own resources and tips. Wherever you are in the world, if you are interested in communicating information about science more effectively, this is the guide for you. It already contains a wide range of indispensable information.
Members of Wits' Schools of Business, Economics, Law, Public Health and Social Sciences are organising an interdisciplinary HIV/AIDS in the Workplace Research Symposium. The Symposium aims to provide an opportunity for researchers from all academic disciplines and practitioners conducting 'action research' in work environments to present and discuss their work on HIV/AIDS in the workplace. Locating the Symposium within a university environment provides a unique opportunity to consider the critical issue of HIV/AIDS in the workplace with rigour and freedom of expression.
From preventing environmental damage to halting the spread of disease, many 21st-century problems can be tackled with scientific and technological know-how and capacity. But not all nations possess this, and slow progress on the Millennium Development Goals has badly hampered their development. In this article, Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, calls for a new global partnership between the developed and developing worlds that focuses on science and technology. Several initiatives are showing the way, yet more is needed.
The effectiveness and efficiency of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights will depend on the appointment of highly qualified judges with a strong commitment to human rights, Amnesty International said in a document outlining a checklist of criteria to ensure the appointment of the best qualified candidates for judges. "The judges will be the most visible representatives of the Court. It is essential for the credibility and effective operation of the Court that judges of the highest calibre, with a fair representation of men and women from the main regions and legal systems of Africa, are elected," Amnesty International urged.
Thousands of Rwandans accused of participating in the country's 1994 genocide will be released from prison if they admit their guilt and ask for forgiveness before a deadline next month, the government said Monday. The tiny central African nation has been grappling with the question of justice since 1994, when Hutu extremists slaughtered 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates in around 100 days.
The Coalition for Political Accountability to Women (COPAW) is a non-partisan alliance of rights based organisations and individuals committed to political accountability to women and to socio-political transformation in realising good governance in Uganda. COPAW in collaboration with Uganda Women's Network (UWONET) organised a series of meetings last year (2003) to chart out clear and distinct issues to put to political parties and organisations as Uganda transits to pluralism. The draft memorandum is available through the link below and comments can be sent to [email protected].
Ten years after an orchestrated attempt to exterminate its Tutsi minority led to the deaths of up to a million people over the course of 100 days, the central African state of Rwanda still bears deep scars. The killings, organised by the Hutu government of the day, and carried out amid the total inaction of the international community, claimed up to 10 000 lives a day. The now ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which took power as a rebel group in July 1994, putting an end to the genocide, and its political partners have since placed much emphasis on national security, reconciliation and poverty reduction.
Miss Melany Bokuma, Lawra District Director of Health Services has appealed to Ghanaians to do away with cultural practices that could spread HIV/AIDS. Speaking at the launch of the Lawra district HIV/AIDS activities, at Lawra, organized by the District AIDS committee, Miss Bokuma said the stoppage of such practices would go a long way in enhancing the health status of families and communities. She mentioned some of the practices as inheritance of widows of deceased relatives, female circumcision and polygamy.
Women from Africa's Great Lakes region will spend a day trading ideas on peace and security in Kenya next week in preparation for a meeting of women's organisations in Rwanda later this year, the United Nations reports. "The participants at this one-day brainstorming session are expected to discuss their various inputs, give an update of ongoing efforts by women's organisations and NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and make suggestions on the way forward for a successful meeting of the women's organisations to be held in Kigali in May," the Nairobi-based Office of the Secretary-General's Special Representative for the Great Lakes region said in a statement.
The African National Congress, South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) could be in trouble for displaying racist placards at the court appearance of four men accused of feeding a former employee, Nelson Shisane, to lions. Outside the Phalaborwa magistrate's court in Limpopo province, they displayed printed posters proclaiming "Enough is enough - Kill the farmer, kill the boer"; "Tired with boers"; "Fed up with killer-boers"; and "Castrate boers". The South African Human Rights Commission last year declared the liberation slogan "Kill the boer, kill the farmer" to be hate speech.
Xenophobia and racism are based on the age-old desire of man to find a ready scapegoat and the dislike of anyone who does not readily conform, whether in behaviour, colour or religion. To perpetuate racism and xenophobia through media is not only antisocial and grossly irresponsible, it is well nigh criminal. The attitude of newspapers and broadcasters is a crucial element in race relations and opinion-forming on asylum seekers. This observation is not new and, sadly, neither are racist and xenophobic articles and reports new to newspapers.
The relationship between the South African government and the Clinton Foundation, which helped procure low cost antiretroviral drugs for the country's long-awaited AIDS treatment programme, appears to have broken down. Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang appears to have turned her back on the Clinton Foundation, which has been assisting her department to develop the country's antiretroviral (ARV) drug treatment programme.
Kenyan Health Minister Charity Ngilu last Thursday said that by 2005 the government would provide free antiretroviral drugs to 140,000 HIV-positive individuals, the East African Standard reports. She also said that the government has adopted the World Health Organisation's 3 by 5 Initiative to combat HIV/AIDS.
Basic education is a prerequisite for economic development, individual health, poverty reduction and democracy, according to a report released this week by the Basic Education Coalition, an umbrella group of 19 private and non-governmental development and relief organisations. Based on the most current data from the World Bank, United Nations and other agencies, the report, Teach a Child, Transform a Nation, illustrates the correlations between education and the benchmarks that determine a country’s growth. The report notes that while education alone is not sufficient to generate development, it is a major factor in the ultimate effectiveness of other country investments.
With the support of the U.N. Population Fund, Ugandan first lady Janet Museveni initiated a campaign on Friday to eliminate fistula, a pregnancy-related disability. According to the UNFPA, fistula is caused by obstructed and prolonged labour and exacerbated by improper medical care. The problem is especially acute in Uganda, where only 38 percent of births occur with the assistance of a capable birth attendant and about 60 percent of babies are delivered at home, the UNFPA said.
Owen Mugurungi, program coordinator for the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health and Child Welfare Tuberculosis and AIDS Program, last Thursday announced that the government next month will begin providing antiretroviral drugs to some of its HIV-positive citizens as part of the country's implementation of the World Health Organisation's 3 by 5 Initiative, Xinhua News Agency reports. The $5.5 billion WHO plan aims to treat three million people throughout the world with antiretroviral drugs by 2005.
The world is slipping behind a U.N. goal of supplying fresh water by 2015 to more than a half-billion people in developing nations who currently lack it, the head of a U.N. Commission said Tuesday. Governments agreed at a 2002 Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, to work out by next year national plans for halving the proportion of people with no access to fresh water by 2015, now 1.2 billion people, or one in five of the world population. "These plans will not be in place in all countries by 2005," said Boerge Brende, chairman of the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development which follows up the Johannesburg goals.
There is considerable optimism among Ugandans living abroad following the release of the Sempebwa Report, which recommends dual citizenship for those holding citizenship in another country. Currently only South Africa, Ghana and Egypt have the provision for dual citizenship written in their constitutions. In the amended Citizenship Act (Act 88 of 1995), a South African is allowed to retain his or her South African citizenship when becoming the citizen of another country. Meanwhile, with an estimated 1.5 million Ghanaians living abroad and contributing as much as $400 million to the national coffers annually, Ghana officially launched the Dual Citizenship Regulation Act on July 3, 2002. The only other African countries that informally allow dual citizenship are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Lesotho, Nigeria and Morocco.
The Conference is to be held April 12-14, 2004 at the Washington Hilton Hotel, 1919 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC. More than 2,000 delegates anticipated globally.
Topics include:
· The Critical Role of Local Governments in National Development Political
· Small Enterprise Investments and Entrepreneurship Economic
· Formation of strong Linkages-The Status of the African-American Male Social
· Caribbean Agriculture in the 21st Century Economic
· The Caribbean culture and its role in the Inter-Caribbean Movement Economic
· Investment opportunities through Remittance Socio- Economic
· Iwokrama and Biodiversity for Sustainability Environmental/Economic
· AGOA and the Caribbean Partnership Economic
· Brief Description: Expanding the definition of a Free Trade and the benefits to the Caribbean peoples
· FAATIS - Economic Revitalization through Tourism Economic/Political
· The Role of Nonprofits in Community Development.
With more than 5 million African refugees and internally displaced people preparing to return home, the United Nations refugee agency announced plans to hold a ministerial-level meeting next month on comprehensive regional approaches to repatriation and sustainable reintegration on the continent.
Repression by the government and an ongoing economic crisis have caused an exodus from the troubled nation.
The September 2003 edition of the electronic journal of governance and innovation contains an excellent overview of recent efforts to effectively mobilise the African diaspora for the benefit of Africa’s development.
The Association of Kenyan Professionals in Atlanta (AKPA) Development Committee's key objective this year is to successfully support one (or more) high impact and actionable projects on Water in Kenya.
Out in the green, rolling hills of eastern Uganda, near the city of Mbale in the shadow of Mount Elgon, the Abayudaya Jews live as Ugandans always have, supporting themselves through subsistence farming and struggling against the elements to bring in the next harvest. These rural Ugandans share much with their neighbours; the surrounding fields bursting with mango trees, sugar cane, banana trees and cassava, the frequent communal festivals to celebrate birth, marriage and death, the uncertainty of rapidly changing national politics and the exhaustion of poverty. A significant difference between the Abayudaya and their countrymen is that when they raise their heads to the heavens in prayer, their God is not Jesus, Allah or any tribal spirit, but the God of Israel. They set themselves apart through devout Judaism and their adherence to the belief that some day they will become an accepted part of the international Jewish community.
Chemonics International, an international development consulting firm, seeks a Women's Legal Rights Advisor to help implement the USAID-funded Women's Legal Rights Initiative in the SADC region. The Women's Legal Rights Advisor will provide guidance on women's legal rights programs and activities in the region and serve as a liaison with the justice sector, government and civil society counterparts.
IRC currently seeks a Civil Society Development Program Coordinator for its Sudan program. The Civil Society Development Program Coordinator, based in the IRC Sudan’s Khartoum headquarters, with frequent visits to the field, will lead the coordination of a major two-year community mobilization, civic education and civil society capacity building program in 12 locations across Sudan and South Sudan.
JSI Research and Training Institute, Inc (JSI R&T), a Boston-based public health management firm dedicated to providing high quality technical and managerial assistance to public health programs throughout the United States and the developing world, is currently recruiting for a potential Chief of Party for an HIV/AIDS Program in Nigeria. JSI is developing a proposal to submit to USAID to support its HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support initiatives, based in Abuja, Nigeria.
More and more local governments across South Africa are privatising their waste management systems. They are doing this because of national government's push to get the private sector more involved in providing basic services, like water and waste management. Municipalities are also privatising to promote black economic empowerment. Who are the winners and who are the losers? Research conducted in Thabazimbi, Sol Plaatje and Johannesburg municipalities shows that both workers and working-class communities suffer as a result of privatisation of basic services. It also shows how, because of the gender division of labour at work and at home, and because women waste management workers employed by private companies are largely left out of collective bargaining agreements, it is women workers who suffer most.
Drawing on examples from around the world - from Africa and Asia to Russia and Latin America - Chua examines how free markets do not spread wealth evenly throughout the whole of these societies. Instead they produce a new class of extremely wealthy plutocrats - individuals as rich as nations. Almost always members of a minority group - Chinese in the Philippines, Croatians in the former Yugoslavia, whites in Latin America, Indians in East Africa, Jews in post-communist Russia - these "market-dominant minorities" have become targets of violent hatred. Adding democracy to this volatile mix unleashes suppressed ethnic hatreds and brings to power ethnonationalist governments that pursue aggressive policies of confiscation and revenge.
'The Movement of Movements' charts the strategic thinking behind the mosaic of movements currently challenging neoliberal globalization. Leading theorists and activists - the Zapatistas' Subcomandante Marcos, Chittaroopa Palit from the Indian Narmada Valley dam protests, Soweto anti-privatization campaigner Trevor Ngwane, Brazilian Sem Terra leader João Pedro Stedile, and many more - discuss their personal formation as radicals, the history of their movements, their analyses of globalization, and the nuts and bolts of mobilizing against a US-dominated world system.
Divided into clear subject chapters, this guide highlights the best links and web sites covering every aspect of African American history, society and culture and Black studies. Each chapter has a brief essay, and extensive annotation on the five best sites for each topic.
This is a study of how the production of history is part of a global process forged by the struggle between colonialism and resistance. The author looks at the 1952 celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the landing of Jan van Riebeeck and the founding of Cape Town. Examining newspapers brochures and pamphlets, the author looks at how history and historical figures were reconstructed and how the ANC and others mounted opposition to it.
The Equinet Newsletter is the newsletter of the Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa and delivers a comprehensive round-up of equity and health issues. You will receive two issues from this mailing list per month. One will contain a briefing of Equinet's activities and the other links to information about equity and health issues in the content categories of Equity in Health;
Values, Policies and Rights; Health equity in economic and trade policies; Poverty and health; Equitable health services; Human Resources; Public-Private Mix; Resource allocation and health financing; Equity and HIV/AIDS; Governance and participation in health and Monitoring equity and research policy. There are also sections that include the latest jobs, conferences and other useful resources related to equity in health. Read the newsletter online by clicking on the URL provided.
The Global Campaign for Education is an independent coalition of NGOs and trade unions campaigning for the right to free, good quality education and immediate action on the Education for All goals. Their email bulletin is produced as an information resource for activists and practitioners. To subscribe, send a message with the word 'subscribe' in the subject line to:
[email][email protected]
According to latest estimates, Africa still has the lowest level of internet access among world regions, accounting for only 1.4% of the estimated 700 million people online worldwide. But the African internet public is large enough to provide much scope for an abundance of diverse ventures to make creative use of new technologies. The latest issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin highlights several such ventures, taken from African projects that placed among the finalists in the Stockholm Challenge, a program that annually honours innovative use of information and communication technology.
The author of the Mydoom virus which is now racing around the net deliberately chose to target home users rather than corporate, government or military users. Home users are 'soft targets' for virus writers. They often barely understand the computer that they have purchased. They use whatever software came with it.
The Radio Department of the Panos Institute West Africa with support of Unesco, organized a training workshop for its Anglophone radio correspondents in Ghana. The workshops' end result was the design of an Oral Testimony production support project called "Sounds of the Suburbs". The objective of the project was to focus on the life of youngsters in a complex multicultural surrounding. Cities, and especially capitals, tend to expand into an environment characterized by different ethnic, religious, linguistic and social groups. Youth tend to hold a very specific position in these urban areas. As youngsters and participants in the day to day street life, they tend to better integrate into mixed societies. Through this radio production project, Panos West Africa endeavoured to get the views of the youngsters themselves. They are often ignored by traditional urban media, especially if such youngsters come from socially marginalized areas.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has moved to end the more than a year-long wait for travel documents by a refugee and his Namibian wife after the couple last week informed the Government Attorney that they intended to sue the Minister of Home Affairs, Jerry Ekandjo, and the Commissioner for Refugees, Elizabeth Negumbo, because of poor service, incompetence and what they termed "bureaucratic brutality".
The Ethiopian government should end its harassment of an association of independent journalists that has frequently criticized the government's repression of the independent press, Human Rights Watch said in a recent letter to Ethiopia’s prime minister. The Ethiopian Free Journalists Association (EFJA), a group composed of journalists associated with the country’s beleaguered independent press, has come under government attack in recent months for opposing a proposed press law that would tighten government oversight of news reporting. “The Ethiopian government is trying to muffle the independent press,” said Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division.
While many Angolan refugees in Namibia are said to be eager to return to their country of origin, some based outside the border town of Rundu are not entirely convinced that this would be in their best interests. They fled the civil war which ravaged Angola for 27 years and are now reluctant to swop a relatively stable life for the uncertainties of repatriation to Angola.
Télesphore Namukama, a radio programme host with Héritier de la Justice (Heir of Justice), a human rights organisation based in Bukavu, principal city of South Kivu province, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, was arrested on 12 February 2004 by Security and Intelligence Services (Direction de la sécurité et du renseignement, DSR) agents. Namukama also hosts the Swahili-language radio programme "Plaidons pour la justice" ("Let us plead for justice") with the Bukavu-based station Radio Sahuti ya Réhéma (The Voice of Mercy). The DSR has accused the host of "Plaidons pour la justice" of "sowing anxiety within the local population" in the 10 February broadcast of his programme. In the programme, Namukama discussed the recent discovery of arms caches in Bukavu, which cost former provincial governor Xavier Ciribanya his job. Drawing lessons from the situation, Namukama concluded that it is unlikely that peace will return to South Kivu province in the foreseeable future.
The Ugandan Supreme Court has declared that the offence of 'publishing false news' was incompatible with the right to freedom of expression. This means that journalists in Uganda can no longer be charged with "publication of false news". Justice Joseph Mulenga, delivering the lead judgment, ruled that the right to freedom of expression protects not only that which can be proven to be true. He warned that the offence dated from colonial times and that the only reason why it was still on the books was because Parliament had not yet gotten around to reforming the law. He stressed that the prohibition of false news served no meaningful purpose. On the contrary, it was a vaguely formulated offence, open to misinterpretation and abuse on political grounds, that could not be reconciled with basic democratic principles and the right to freedom of expression.
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is seeking five fellows for the 2004 Foster Davis Fellowships for African Journalists who are accomplished journalists positioned for expanded leadership roles. They do not need to be full-time trainers. They do need to have a passion to teach fellow journalists. This means they need already to have acquired some repute as newsroom coaches and mentors. This is important. Unless the applicant has already demonstrated that passion, their application/nomination would be discouraged.
The government-controlled media's tendency to portray a picture of peace and tranquility in the country has resulted in these media ignoring the continued erosion of basic human rights by overzealous ZANU PF fanatics, security force members and the government through its promulgation of unconstitutional laws. According to the latest newsletter from the Zimbabwe Media Monitoring Project, the responsibility for exposing rights abuses has been completely left to the private media. "For instance, this week SW Radio Africa carried 17 stories, which reported 18 cases of rights abuses. Studio 7 had four stories highlighting two incidents of rights violations. ZBC had none. The trend was similar in the print media. While the private papers published 12 reports on human rights abuses, the government Press only carried a single story."
Apparently R. Zoellick, the US Trade representative is in the country (South Africa) next week. The US is responsible along with its co-perpetrators, the EU, of the worst form of structural violence on the most vulnerable Africans, the subsistence/peasant/ small /commercial farmers. The US continues to pursue policies of disarm and bomb, where they disarm our tariffs by demanding reductions, and then bomb our countries with cheap subsidized imports. While Africa is afflicted with various natural challenges, the structural manner in which our food sovereignty is compromised is unacceptable and defies common sense. Our leaders need to wake up to the fact that a modicum of food security is required and that we cannot just prostitute all our productive resources to the export market. This fact is NOT suitably captured in NEPAD or any of the other benevolent initiatives that the rich North promotes so that their constituencies can feel good about themselves.
Zoellik's visit is not just coincidental, it comes at a time when South Africa is pursuing a regional trade agreement with the US, soon after the collapse of the WTO Cancun Ministerial and at a time when the inequalities between rich countries and poor countries are greatest. South Africa has only recently woken up to the fact that the rich North does not believe in the entitlement of "South Africa" to a fair trading system and have sold out our Ministry of Trade and Industry by not abiding by commitments and promises made during negotiations (mainly that we would not get a raw deal). The Minister took a bold step when moving away from the position of Friend of the Chair of the WTO in Cancun (a pseudonym of bully's side-kick) and sided with the Group of 21 Countries. This is a far cry from the Ministries active involvement as Friend of the Chair in Seattle and Doha and adequate reasons for this change of heart have not been given.
Yet to critical experts it is apparent that despite all the niceties, we Africans continue to get a raw deal. There is only so much that could be done within the WTO before it would have become apparent that the Ministry even lacks nationalism/Pan Africanism in the trade negotiations (some have argued that this has already occurred). Furthermore, civil society, to my knowledge, has not been adequately consulted on the US - South African Customs Union (SACU) Free Trade Area Agreement. Despite this, principles of negotiations have already been agreed to and phase 2 of negotiations are to commence. If the outcome is anything like the EU-South Africa Free Trade Agreement then we can expect further job losses and market take-overs by foreign firms. However, Zoellick is here to kick start the disaster that is the WTO so that what little policy flexibility we have can be removed! Whatever cannot be achieved at the multilateral WTO level will be relegated to the regional and bilateral levels where US and EU might can be brought to bear at the expense of African food sovereignty, development and well overdue industrialization.
Zoellick of course must come with his bag of tricks. He will probably remind us of how grateful we must be for AGOA and its extension. AGOA like many trinkets that were brought to this shore by the Dutch East India Company, crack upon closer inspection. It allows African firms duty free market access to the US provided that no American firm complains about the loss of its market share. South African pear canners have been dealt a nasty blow by having their supposed benefits under AGOA terminated. So the real message of AGOA is we will give you room to develop but that development can be taken away on a whim (or what essentially amounts to a whim). The US with its typical Orwellian doublespeak says that it will not accord benefits under AGOA to those states that do not meet its human rights and democracy requirements. Their concern does not extend to the Ministers that they force, bully and coerce into making agreements which have not been the subject of consultations or discussions with domestic stakeholders, which is an important part of democracy.
One of the key issues that lead to the failure of Cancun was the European Union, who insisted on the inclusion of the "New Issues" / "Singapore Issues" (Investment, Competition, Trade Facilitation and Transparency in Government Procurement). Developing countries secured an agreement that these issues will only be discussed if there was "explicit consensus" from the members of the WTO. Much like the Dispute Settlement Body in it's opportunistic search for the "ordinary meaning" of words (by window shopping in various dictionaries to get the meaning they want), the Europeans tried to fudge the meaning of explicit consensus in the face of clear opposition to the New Issues by developing countries. The Financial Times, after Cancun, reported that the inclusion of the New Issues was to poke France in the eye for its intransigence on agriculture, and had very little to do with the need for regulation on these issues (South proponents of the New Issues take note!). The US on the other hand does not share an interest in the New Issues simply because they believe that they have most of the elements for corporate domination of the south in the General Agreement on Trade in Services. We can however look forward to the inclusion of the New Issues under the Economic Partnership Agreements that the EU is steamrolling through with other African states.
Zoellik needs to be reminded that his antics are well known, and while he may be on a state visit he is not welcome. We are not interested in a "New Round" at the WTO and we no longer want our ministers sworn at by US trade officials, not given notices of meetings or not even chairs to sit on during WTO meetings when they have to attend sessions for over 10 hours. We have had enough of this US arrogance and we should let its minions know.
* Riaz Tayob BA Llb Llm is a researcher at the Southern and East African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI). The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of SEATINI.
The University of Zimbabwe opened this week with lecturers vowing not to report for duty unless they are awarded a 300 percent salary increment backdated to July last year. This, however, did not disrupt examinations as temporary staff were invigilating. UZ acting director of information and publicity Mr Daniel Chihombori confirmed that the college had opened but said it was difficult to tell whether the lecturers were present.
Government has announced that it is drawing up an interim policy on the dumping of workers. Cabinet announced last week that it had resolved that while Government was rightly and legally emphasising orderly land reform and resettlement programmes, it should, as a matter of urgency and absolute necessity, introduce a Temporary Intervention Policy of Eviction - pending long-term solutions to the problem. The policy would be aimed at farm labourers and their dependents and would take into account their length of service on the farm.
A global attempt to rescue free trade talks will be put to the test in Africa on Wednesday when some of the world's poorest countries seek common ground with the richest. The meeting at a luxury resort on Kenya's coast aims to help bridge gaps between the United States, Europe and Africa which contributed to 2003's collapse of negotiations to promote free trade, seen as vital to the world economy. African states will tell US and European Union trade chiefs to open markets to goods grown by millions of peasant farmers if they are to win their backing to revive the talks.
For the first time, Mozambique has a woman prime minister. Luisa Diogo was appointed by President Joaquim Chissano on Tuesday to replace Pascoal Mocumbi, who is leaving the government to take up a post at a new international health organisation.
At this time when the Government is restructuring the country for economic recovery and creation of employment and wealth, the importance of land as a primary economic resource and the basis of livelihood for the people should not be ignored. The only way to jump-start the economy is by ensuring that land is held, used and managed in an equitable, efficient, productive and able manner for the benefit of all. Land is the most crucial element defining our life as a nation, as it does not only give people cultural identity, but also nourishes their spiritual life. It provides the foundation of shelter, food and labour, hence, it is fundamental to any strategy for poverty reduction.
Aid agencies are on red alert for a possible food crisis in Malawi as drought threatens to decimate crops, but will not call for an emergency before assessing this year’s harvest. “Everyone is monitoring the country closely to be able to respond to anything that could happen,” Jacob Asens, health and nutrition advisor at Action Against Hunger UK (AAH-UK), told AlertNet.
The Sudanese government expects to sign a peace agreement with rebels within a month, ending more than two decades of civil war that has ravaged the south of Africa's largest country, the foreign minister said on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail was speaking as the two sides opened talks in Kenya on how to share power in the oil-producing country and the status of three disputed areas claimed by both sides.
Burundi may not hold elections by the end of November as stipulated by the peace accord signed in Arusha, a government official has warned. Foreign Affairs Minister Terence Sinunguruza says conditions necessary for a free and fair poll have not been met by the transitional government.
A group of opposition parties in Uganda have announced they intend to form a coalition in an attempt to defeat the Movement Party in the 2006 elections. The G7 in Uganda is set to include the Democratic Party, the Uganda People's Congress, the Conservative Party and the Reform Agenda.
The second trial of former president Frederick Chiluba has been adjourned for two weeks after a request from the state's new prosecution team. President Levy Mwanawasa suspended the chief prosecutor last month after accusations he mishandled the first of the two corruption cases.
African leaders now have a new mechanism for monitoring each other's progress towards political and economic reform but can it work? John Kufuor is allowing Ghana to be assessed first. The move launched last weekend in Rwanda is a step towards implementing the economic recovery plan, the New Partnership for Africa's Development, otherwise known as Nepad. Seventeen African leaders have signed up to the peer review mechanism, saying it will improve governance and accountability.
"We are going to shout about bride price across Africa and we are going to say 'no' to the sale of women,” exclaimed Atuki Turner to a crowded hall at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Turner was speaking at the opening this week of the first international conference on the tradition of bride price. The groundbreaking event was organised by Mifumi, a women's non-governmental organisation (NGO) in rural eastern Uganda. It brought together activists from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Rwanda and South Africa to discuss the effect that payment of bride price has on women. Delegates also talked about ways of eliminating this practice in Africa and elsewhere.
They form a single file. Some are singing, though their voices have been dwarfed by the hum of the stream. The girls, estimated around 50, are being accompanied home by three middle-aged women from a nearby river. Suddenly the procession is interrupted by irrepressible sobbing. Several teary-eyed, young women have failed their virginity tests. They are dreading the rebukes and curses, likely to follow, once their parents find out about their status. Men eager to marry virgins in this eastern border town, more than 180 kilometres from the capital Harare, must produce documented proof of their HIV-negative status as part of chief Makoni's controversial anti-AIDS campaign. His unorthodox initiative has drawn the ire of women's rights activists and health care workers, to name but a few.
Nigeria's Niger Delta region is one of the largest wetlands in the world. It is a source of great irony, therefore, that people living in the area struggle to get hold of clean drinking water: they take what they can from creeks and rivers. "To drink water in this village is a problem for us. As you come here now, we can't give you the water to drink; if we give it to you we are poisoning you,” says Daniel Akpere of Okuokolo village.
Health workers in Burkina Faso have called for a more open discussion of issues related to sexuality and abortion. This follows the release of a report by the Demographic Research and Study Unit, which found that up to 8,000 illegal abortions take place each year in the country's capital, Ouagadougou. "We need to go out into the communities and talk about abortions to increase awareness," says Jean Lankoande, a gynaecologist at the Yalgado Ouedraogo Hospital in Ouagadougou. "Each time there's an induced abortion, it's a family planning failure," he adds.
A US-based human rights group has claimed that 81 civilians in the war-affected Western Darfur region of Sudan were last week massacred by Arab militia groups aligned with the Sudanese government. The Centre for the Prevention of Genocide (CPG) said it had received confirmation that the massacres were perpetrated by the Janjawid militia, during an attack on the town of Shatatya and its surrounding villages on 10 February.
Aggressive attempts to control a recent outbreak of cholera in Mozambique have paid off, and aid officials are reporting a significant drop in the number of cases. The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday confirmed the decrease in the number of admissions to the Mavalane Cholera Treatment Centre (MCTC), the main cholera facility in the capital, Maputo.
Zambian debt relief monitors have raised concerns over alleged irregularities in spending on poverty relief under the donor-supported Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The independent HIPC Tracking and Monitoring External Team, investigating the use of the funds saved under the debt relief programme, identified alleged abuses involving top civil servants in a report released last week.
A community-based support network is hoping to provide material and emotional support to more than 40,000 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Zimbabwe. The network was initiated in November last year by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society, Family AIDS Caring Trust Mutare (FACT), and the Centre for Total Transformation (CTT).
Representatives of women's organisations in the Great Lakes region have recommended the formation of a regional women's network, which would ensure their effective representation at women's meeting to be held in May in Rwanda and at an international conference for the Great Lakes, planned for later in the year.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has called for the urgent restoration of public services in Liberia's shattered towns and cities to reduce pollution and improve public health. In its first proper post-conflict assessment report in Africa, UNEP also called for tight controls on logging, which has removed vast swathes of forest cover, and poaching, which has seriously endangered the country's rich wildlife.
Extensive drought in the northern Togdheer Region of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, where about 350,000 people live, has forced schools to close, water wells to dry up and the livestock population to decline significantly, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said on Monday.
Across all of the major farming systems in Africa, the need to integrate livelihood needs with biodiversity conservation is becoming a necessity for sustaining productivity, particularly on small-holder farms that dominate rural areas. In the mountain regions of Eastern and Central Africa, land use pressure on fragile ecosystems has led to severe degradation, exposed thousands of poor farmers to food insecurity, and posed a significant threat to native species and habitats. How Africa utilises its resources for development is what will define its ultimate survival. The consequences of a strained environment have manifested themselves in food shortages, conflicts over use of resources, depletion of forest cover, and drought.
DC-Earthworks/Mineral Policy Centre and Oxfam America have announced the launch of "No Dirty Gold," a consumer campaign intended to shake up the gold industry and change the way gold is mined, bought and sold. Gold mining is being targeted as an industry ripe for reform through consumer pressure because of the extensively documented human and environmental costs of gold mining. "Our people have suffered beatings, imprisonment, and murder for standing up for our community rights against multinational mining companies," said Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, a mining activist from the Tarkwa district of Ghana where 30,000 people were displaced by gold mining operations between 1990 and 1998. "We want buyers of gold to support our rights and demand that mining companies adhere to higher ethical standards."
This year is the 10th Anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda. An international campaign is underway to mobilise to mark this anniversary - "REMEMBERING RWANDA". As our contribution to this campaign, we will be featuring this special section called Remembering Rwanda. We also plan to publish a special issue on Rwanda in April 2004. Get involved! Organise an event in your institution, town, village or city. Send us information about what you are doing to commemorate the anniversary and to provide solidarity to the rebuilding of Rwanda.
Remembering Rwanda has been receiving increasing amounts of news about the progress of local commemoration committees, as well as increasing offers of cooperation from friends who want to offer their resources to the commemoration of the genocide. Several of these have photographic exhibitions to share, and they can be found in the Resource section of this website. Local progress can be found in Local Initiatives.
Refugees in Uganda are instructed to stay in the rural agricultural settlements set up for them by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ugandan authorities. Yet a substantial number of refugees are urbanites with entrepreneurial skills and technical qualifications. An estimated 15 000 refugees live in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, but are unable to fully use their skills for the benefit of their families or the Ugandan economy.
The 10th anniversary of the genocide has now been officially recognized by the Africa Union, the entity that replaced the Organisation of Africa Unity. The move resulted from an effort initiated by Remembering Rwanda and spearheaded by our colleague Abdul Mohammed of the InterAfrica Group in Addis Ababa. The resolution calls on all member states, African civil society organisations, as well as the United Nations, to take appropriate steps during the 10th anniversary to commemorate and reflect on the genocide.
The Aegis Trust runs a genocide prevention initiative that aims to promote a fundamental change in the response to genocidal situations, moving away from reactive measures to policies of prevention.
Prevent Genocide International is an Internet-based network of anti-genocide activists. The site contains some useful information and reports.
Oil is bringing big changes to Chad, some cultural, others ambitious and practical, like the way the World Bank has staked its reputation on making sure that Chad manages its new wealth prudently. For Chad, among the poorest countries on earth, is now Africa's newest petrostate. Its $3.7 billion underground pipeline, stretching about 1,080 kilometres, or 670 miles, began ferrying crude through the forests of neighbouring Cameroon and to the Atlantic coast last year. It is the largest single private investment in Africa.
Only 14 of the African continent's 53 countries to be featured in a report published by the US's Boston University, which was launched this week in Johannesburg, are considered sufficiently democratic. Last year the first report featured 13 countries, however with the election in Kenya of Mwai Kibaki as president the country finds a place in this year's report. The countries featured are Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, SA, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Eighteen mountain bongo antelopes, a critically endangered species, arrived safely in Mt. Kenya National Park last month from the United States via a special plane through an unprecedented international partnership that hinges on local communities. The wild bongo population was decimated by unrestricted hunting and poaching and lions, and the last sighting was nine years ago. The goal is to re-establish the bongos, bred in captivity in the US, in their species' native habitat, now a World Heritage Site.
Contents include:
* Factional Intrigues and Alliance Politics : The Case of NARC in
Kenya's 2002 elections, by Shumbana Karume
* Legitimising Electoral Process: The Role of Kenya Domestic Observation
Programme (K-DOP) in Kenya's 2002 Election, by Wole Olaleye
* Elections in Nigeria: Is the Third Time a Charm, by A. Carl Levan,
Titi Pitso, Bodunrin Adebo
* Nigeria: Can the Election Tribunals Satisfactorily Resolve the
Disputes Arising out of the 2003 Elections? By Kaniye S.A.Ebeku
* The Electoral System and Conflict in Mozambique, by Luis de Brito
* Adapting to Electoral System Change: Voters in Lesotho, 2002, by Roddy
Fox and Roger Southall
* Missing Cadres? List Voting and the ANC's Management of its
Parliamentarians in the National Assembly, 1999-2003, by Geoffrey Hawker
Subscribe today - two issues @R160 per annum or R80 per issue. The 2004
issues will appear in June and December. All queries and orders, please email [email protected]
Six SADC countries are preparing for elections during the course of the year as the region’s democracy and governance once again comes under the spotlight. Although election dates are not yet confirmed in some of the countries, it is almost certain Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa will hold either presidential or parliamentary elections between March and December 2004. Lesotho will have its local government elections in November.
Since the third wave of democratization that began in 1974, many regions of the world have experienced significant economic and political reforms as policymakers have sought to provide the citizens of their countries with a better life. Little systematic effort has been undertaken to understand the cumulative results of these reforms on a global scale, the extent to which outcomes have matched expectations, the effect of regional contexts on reforms, and the ways in which reforms have perhaps negatively affected the target populations. The Fifth Annual Global Development Conference, which opened on January 27 in Delhi, addressed these critical questions, premised on the belief that a better understanding of past reforms—including their initiation, implementation, and outcome—should inform the design, introduction, and execution of future reforms throughout the developing and transition worlds.
In the last 5 years Mbeki made a conscious and strenuous effort to put his own stamp on the presidency. He revelled in the now clichéd label of the man who was committed to delivery – the cold exponent of technical detail rather than the warm fuzziness of Nelson Mandela. But the state of the nation address didn’t reveal any new plans for ‘delivery’. In fact most of the speech drew on Mandela’s speech at the opening of the first democratic parliament. The looming election meant that he had to account for the failed promises on delivery epitomised in the targets set out in GEAR became a shooting gallery for critics. Mbeki’s solution was to try and disguise his failure by showing that he was ruling in the spirit of Mandela, that he had Mandela’s approval. It was a cheap trick and a clear sign of failure. It is common knowledge that the two biggest challenges facing South Africa are AIDS and unemployment. In now typical fashion both were only mentioned once. And the context was ominous: “Many of our people are unemployed…The burden of disease impacting on our people, including AIDS, continues to be a matter of serious concern, as do issues that relate to the fact that many of our people, including the youth, lack the education and skills that our country and society need.” Once again Mbeki was careful to place the AIDS pandemic on par with other issues. And of course he offered no analysis of the fact that, despite its projections, GEAR has failed to create jobs.
The Africa-America Institute is pleased to announce the International Fellowships Program of the Ford Foundation for resident citizens and residents of South Africa. The International Fellowships Program, which will provide support for up to three years of full-time post-graduate study, is a Program whose fundamental objective is to provide post-graduate opportunities for individuals from social groups and communities that lack systematic access to higher education. Ford International Fellows, as recipients of the Fellowships will be called, are expected to use their education in helping to reduce inequalities and redress historical patterns of injustice.
At the recent 23rd International Fundraising Conference held in the Netherlands, a survey found that more than half of Germans and 20 per cent of Britons under the age of 40 prefer to give donations online. That is good news, especially for those South African NPOs thinking about, or already raising funds online. Unfortunately, raising funds over the Internet is fraught with challenges. The digital divide, insufficient marketing skills and experience, and gaining donor confidence are just some of the difficulties facing NPOs trying to fundraise through the Internet
FEMNET'S Men against Gender Based Violence Programme is in the process of conducting a review of existing men groups in Malawi, South Africa, Kenya and Namibia. The review of male initiatives in support of gender equality is already underway in Kenya. FEMNET will document and share the experiences with other male groups in the continent to encourage formation of more men groups and in the process strengthen the Africa Network of Men for Gender Equality. FEMNET will also share the experience with national, regional and global networks, including the INSTRAW and UNIFEM networks.
Capacity building is necessary to address the root causes of insecurity and conflict, which derive from a complex amalgam of political, economic and social factors. The challenge for building capacity in Africa is, however, made greater when one considers the gender dimension. Commitment to capacity building will have to overcome an ethos that has over the years marginalized, and at times obstructed the involvement of women in issues of defence and security, and in this case in conflict prevention, management and resolution. Clearly, the sustainable implementation of the AU-NEPAD peace and security agenda will depend on the extent to which women, who comprise a critical constituency in Africa, engage fully in matters relating to peace and security in Africa and internationally. This is according to a presentation by Dr. Monica K Juma from SaferAfrica, an organisation that works to secure the long-term security and development needs of Africa and its peoples.