Existing tools to control cholera may soon be supplemented with something new - mass vaccination with an oral cholera vaccine. The idea is being put to the test in a demonstration project in Mozambique by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), Epicentre and the International Vaccine Institute. The vaccine itself has been available for ten years, but this is the first time it has been used so broadly to minimize the devastation of a cholera outbreak.

What are the challenges faced by developing countries in providing for children with special educational needs? How should special schools and units relate to the aims of mainstream educational provision? Are attitudes towards special education still shaped by the colonial legacy? Do ministerial directives on special education actually influence provision?

What happens when African students finish their education? Is there an excess supply of educated labour? What do school-leavers and graduates think about the relevance and quality of their education in light of their subsequent experiences of employment?

The World Health Organisation has announced a plan to expand collaboration between national tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS programs to curb the growing pandemic of TB/HIV co-infection, focusing mainly on Africa, where 70 percent of the world's 14 million co-infected people live. "TB/HIV is a deadly combination and needs to be tackled with an approach treating the whole person," said WHO Director General Lee Jong-wook. "With effective treatment, TB can be cured, HIV managed, and the health of millions of people preserved."

The successful candidate will serve as the technical and programme leader for this high profile, $200 million, five-year HIV/AIDS prevention and care programme. MPH/MS/MA and at least 10 years experience managing large-scale health programmes, to include at least five years senior level field management experience in Africa.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has called for the immediate release of "Al-Ayam" editor-in-chief Mahjoub Mohamed Salih. He was imprisoned on 14 January 2004 because of his newspaper's unpaid tax arrears of 90 million Sudanese pounds. Economic security agents went to the daily's offices on 14 January and demanded the immediate payment of tax arrears. Salih was arrested and jailed because he was unable to pay. His paper has been suspended since 3 December 2003.

Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) officers interrogated Tony Eluemunor, the "Daily Independent" newspaper's Abuja bureau chief, on 12 January in connection with the newspaper's 8 January lead story. The story alluded to links between the presidency and an alleged plot to unseat Anambra State Governor Chris Ngige. On 9 and 10 January, SSS officers made repeated visits to the newspaper's Abuja offices to inquire as to the whereabouts of Eluemunor. When they were informed that the reporter was out of town, they left strict orders for him to report to the director of special operations (DSO) at the SSS headquarters in Abuja.

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, says it is "deeply concerned" over the safety of Alagi Yorro Jallow, managing editor of the private, bi-weekly Independent newspaper. According to information before IPI, Yorro Jallow received a letter, dated 13 January 2004, in which a previously unknown group called the "Green Boys" threatened to "eliminate" him if the Independent continued to publish stories about Baba Jobe, majority leader in the National Assembly.

This paper from the International Food Policy Research Institute examines the effectiveness of the 'conservation farming (CF) system', a package of agronomic practices for smallholders introduced to Zambia in 1996 and advocated by a range of stakeholders from donors, government and private sector. Evidence suggests that the effectiveness of conservation farming will vary not only across regions but also across crops and over time. Therefore, it will be important to establish long-term monitoring efforts for conservation farming and control plots across a broad range of geographic settings, crops and seasons.

Food insecurity is still an issue in post-war Angola, but farmers who have been able to return to their fields are beginning to see results after nearly two years of peace. One success story is the farming association Hua Kinga-mbote Kadissuku ("The one who waits for the good never stumbles" in the local language, Kimbundu) in the northern province of Malanje, led by a charismatic and powerful woman, Maria de Fatima Coimbra. "One year ago we were desperately running toward visitors asking for food. Now we greet them with smiles. We dance and clap our hands," she told IRIN.

Elections were held at the United Nations to choose nine members of an expert panel, which monitors implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Those elected to serve four-year terms include Ralph F. Boyd, Jr. of the U.S, a former government official who dealt with civil rights; José Francisco Cali Tzay, the founder of an indigenous rights programme in Guatemala; and Fatimata-Binta Victoire Dah, a career diplomat from Burkina Faso.

Authorities in northern Nigeria’s Kano State said on Sunday the suspension of polio immunisation in the state would remain in force until their fears about the vaccines used were adequately addressed. Reacting to a declaration signed on Thursday by Nigeria’s Minister of Health Eyitayo Lambo, pledging to immunise all Nigerian children against polio, Kano State spokesman Sule Yau Sule said vaccination could only resume in the state when authorities were convinced that the vaccines were safe. Kano State was among three northern states that halted polio immunisation in October following allegations by Islamic leaders that the vaccine to be administered to thousands of children was contaminated with HIV and anti-fertility agents.

A United Kingdom government code of practice restricting National Health Service recruitment of nurses from developing countries may not be succeeding in its aim of reversing a potentially dangerous “brain drain”, according to a recent report. Taking the example of South Africa, the OECD found that, after a fall in nurses leaving for the UK from 1,460 in 1999 to 1,086 in 2000, numbers shot up by 45% in 2001 to reach 2,114 – two and a half times as many as in 1998.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has sent an emergency team from Switzerland to Burundi to explore the possibilities of opening up more field offices in preparation for the possible return of hundreds of thousands of refugees now in Tanzania, the agency reported on Tuesday. The agency reported that the team, comprising a head of operations, a finance and operations officer and a telecommunications/information technology officer, would join a field staff safety adviser. They will travel to areas bordering Tanzania "to assess the situation, review the needs on the ground and prepare for the possible deployment of additional staff".

Refugees repatriating to Angola are returning to a skeleton of a country. Nearly 30 years of brutal civil war reduced most of Angola's homes, schools, hospitals, places of worship, markets, roads, bridges, and commercial and government buildings to rubble. The war also rendered useless hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile agricultural land and countless miles of fish-abundant rivers with millions of landmines and unexploded ordnance, nearly all of which remain in place today. The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) conducted an extensive three-week site visit to Zambia and Angola during November 2003 to examine the repatriation and reintegration of Angolan refugees. As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees pauses for the onset of seasonal rains after phase one of the repatriation program - the agency plans to resume facilitating refugee return in April 2004 - USCR offers timely findings and recommendations on the challenges Angolan refugee returnees face as they attempt to restart their lives in their currently peaceful, but war-devastated homeland.

“We are not poor, we are (being) robbed,” said Nawal el Saddawi, an activist from Egypt , who vehemently criticised the growing imperialism and the concept of Third World and First World countries at the World Social Forum. First World countries are the ones plundering the resources of other countries. Ridiculing the concept of post-colonialism, Saddawi argued that colonialism had never ended. “At present we are witnessing neo-colonialism,” she said. She also criticised the concept of post-modern feminism. Saddawi claimed that the invasion of poor countries in the name of human rights protection and women's liberation was the worst kind of violation of human rights.

They sat patiently. Thousands of delegates who poured in for the inaugural plenary on “Land, Water and Food Sovereignty” on Jan 17, waited for the star cast to emerge on the stage. In the next four days, food security emerged as one of the hot topics of the WSF. Food activist Devinder Sharma writes: "I was amazed to see that in each and every of the 14 sessions that I chaired or spoke at, the halls were overflowing. At the same time, what was more significant was that the audience was not the same that moved from one session to another. Even if I had continued delivering the same speech session after session, I would have found enough takers for my analysis. It is heartening to find the social movements and the civil society realizing the importance of the growing threat to food sovereignty as the main cause to rally around."

The path of economic globalisation must be changed in order to avoid undermining social security. Otherwise it will continue to exacerbate poverty, and therefore violence, warned a number of panellists Monday that included Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate in economics. "The essence of economic globalisation is that it should bring job security. If there were such a commitment, developing countries could have opened markets by explicitly tying market access to job opportunities," said the U.S. expert who served as the World Bank’s chief economist from 1997 to 2000. Stiglitz was speaking at the seminar on ‘Globalisation, economic and social security’, which drew more than 1,000 of the tens of thousands of WSF participants who came to listen to him give a critique of issues that his former employer, the World Bank, has been known to push.

Invoking the sentiments of Alan Paton in his book ‘Cry, the Beloved Country’, some African delegates to the World Social Forum 2004 have used the meetings and networking events, to address issues close to home. Their main concerns: the imbalance in the world political and social systems, and the continued exploitation of the Third World by the powers that pull the global strings. For delegates like John Moru – Policy and Research Advocacy Officer with ActionAid, a nongovernmental organization based in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja - the reality, however, is that after Mumbai they return home to face familiar problems. "How fair developed countries have been in their relations with the less developed South, in terms of trade and economic relations, is a sore issue which has sparked debates and demonstrations here in Mumbai," says Moru.

HIV/AIDS awareness campaigners from developing nations are mobilising themselves to form a strong bloc to confront the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which they claim has made it difficult for people living with the disease to access treatment. They claim that the trade body articulates interests of western nations, which have suppressed developing states, giving way to unfair trade. This, the campaigners say, has made it impossible for poor nations to obtain cheap drugs, especially antiretrovirals (ARVs).

The messages on the giant banners were powerful on the first day of the World Social Forum, drawing stares from the thousands who streamed into the meeting’s venue on opening day. ‘Africa is Not for Sale’ and ‘Solution to Africa Problems are in Africa’, carefully printed on the white clothing, conveyed the agenda of African participants who say they want to bring an end to the continent’s problems as they gathered at the African stand here. Initiated four years ago, this year’s WSF has seen an increase in the size of the African delegation from about 200 last year to approximately 500 this year, according to Prof Edward Oyugi, an official of African Social Forum (ASF).

A paper from the Washington-based CATO Institute critically appraises the 'selective' approach to foreign assistance of the US administration, including the proposed new aid initiative, the Millennium Challenge Account. The selective approach is based on the view that aid directed at countries with good policies is more effective at promoting growth and reducing poverty. The paper concludes that the new aid enthusiasm, though broadly shared, is not justified. It is based on problematic claims about aid's effectiveness and a dubious approach to development.

The Daily News, banned since September 12 2003, has reappeared on the streets. The popular daily paper is published by the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ). The reappearance of the paper follows a High Court order on 21 January ordering that the police leave the premises of the media house and also stop interfering with the operations of the newspaper group.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told his treason trial on Wednesday that he did, as alleged, discuss "eliminating" President Robert Mugabe but was trapped into using a word he only meant in a political sense. Tsvangirai, who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has denied charges of plotting to kill Mugabe and stage a coup d'etat ahead of the country's controversial 2002 general elections. The state's case against Tsvangirai, who could face a death sentence if convicted, hinges mainly on a videotape of a meeting he held with Canadian-based political consultant Ari Ben-Menashe where prosecutors say Mugabe's "elimination" was discussed.

Zimbabwe's political parties have told the BBC that they are unaware of talks, which South African President Thabo Mbeki says they have agreed to. Mr Mbeki said that President Robert Mugabe had agreed to hold formal talks with the opposition to try to solve the country's political impasse. But a senior official of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party told BBC News Online he could not confirm this reported change of position. And a leading figure of the opposition MDC also said it was news to him.

The Nigeria Labour Congress announced Wednesday that it was suspending a nationwide stay away that had been called to protest against a fuel price increase. The strike was scheduled to begin on Wednesday. However, a court of appeal in the capital, Abuja, ordered the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to withdraw its call for a stay away. This followed government's appeal of an earlier judgement that the strike could go ahead. In the latest court decision, Justice Ayo Salami said the strike action could not proceed before Jan. 26, the date which has been set aside for hearing the government's appeal.

Trade unionists in Zambia have threatened industrial action if the government goes ahead with plans to impose a six-month wage freeze on civil servants' salaries. Earlier this month the authorities said the austerity measure was part of broader economic reforms aimed at reigning in government overspending.

A major cause of Africa's problems is trade policies (Pambazuka 139: How Africa develops Europe). Cheap food imports hamper investment by farmers and cause a rural crisis that drags the rest of society with it. In itself, the situation in rural Africa is not so different from that in, say, 18th century Europe, where population growth also necessitated farmer investment in sustainable agricultural intensification. Like African farmers today, European farmers struggled with bad roads, corrupt officials, traditional property rights, and so on and so forth. However, they had one decisive advantage: population growth still raised the prices of agricultural products. This helped farmers to invest in fertilizing and soil/water conservation in spite of these obstacles.

In our time, the industrial revolution has broken the relation between population and prices. Since the late 19th century, the world has been faced with overproduction and recurrent price falls in international agricultural markets. Western countries responded by erecting high tariff walls behind which their farm progress could continue. Countries like South Korea and Taiwan have followed their example, thereby securing green revolutions that became engines of industrialization. Yet in spite of all this, international financial institutions and their advisers keep pressuring African governments not to protect their farmers. As a consequence, the latter are faced with unfavorable price-ratios that prevent them from investing in sustainable land management, so that increase in population pressure on the land leads to vicious cycles of poverty and soil degradation.

The resulting malaise drives young people to the cities, but as poor rural hinterlands do not stimulate industry, they find little employment and are pushed into marginal service activities and political fights for the public jobs that still remain after structural adjustment. This jostling for jobs leads to persistence of overstaffed bureaucracies that are in their turn paid for by overtaxing the farmers, pushing domestic agricultural prices even below world market levels. For many western development experts, this is the prime cause of Africa's troubles. In reality, it is largely a reinforcing feedback effect of a crisis that has it origins in the non-protection of farmers against low international prices.

Should Africa protect its farmers to revitalize its economy? Orthodox economists say no: protection would reduce efficiency, breed rent-seeking pressure groups, and hurt poor food consumers. In reality, higher agricultural prices would encourage innovation, and reduce over-exploitation of soils and under-utilization of labour. Farmers are too far removed from political power to be able to exploit the rest of society. And higher agricultural prices would reduce poverty because they create employment and raise worker incomes.
For a further elaboration of this viewpoint see

An oil-spill and ongoing fire in the troubled Niger delta region of Nigeria indicates how badly relations between international oil-companies like Shell and oil-producing communities have deteriorated.

Members of the Elikpokwuodu community in Rukpokwu in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, say a rupture in a high-pressure, 28-inch pipeline operated by SPDC (Shell's Nigeria affiliate) in December caused the initial oil-spill. The problem with the pipe dates back to 1963, according to the community.

Rukpokwu is about a 5-10 minute drive from the Port Harcourt airport. The oil-spill is on the fringe of a swampy area, 2km along a dirt road, immediately off the airport road on the outer fringes of the oil-city of Port Harcourt proper. Port Harcourt is Shell's operational base in Rivers State. In other words, the spill is on Shell's doorstep but the company has still to put out the fire and clean up the spill.

According to Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper, Chairman of Elikpokwuodu's Community Development Committee Mr. Clifford Walter said "more than three streams from which we fish are affected. Fishing implements were destroyed and SPDC has not responded to this disaster."

"Our only source of drinking water, fishing stream and farm-lands covering over 300 hectares of land with aquatic lives, fishing nets and traps, farm crops and animals," Nigeria's THISDAY reported the Paramount ruler and Chairman of Mgbuchi Community - Chief Clifford E Enyinda and Azunda Aaron respectively - as saying. "Trees worth several billions of naira are completely destroyed by the spillage and was made worst by the three separate fires that broke out of the spill site."

At the time of Stakeholder Democracy Network's (SDN) visit to the site on January 7th, there was a fire at the centre of the spill that was still burning. This was despite several attempts by Shell staff to put this out. The fire was restricted to an area no larger than approximately 20 metres by 20 metres. Surrounding bush and vegetation was charred and destroyed. No visible measures were in place to prevent the further spread of oil downstream, despite obvious risks from rainfall.

There appears to be a continuing underground fire at the spill-site that is periodically re-igniting on the surface, but the causes of this re-ignition are unclear: it could be that the underground fire is spreading back to the surface, but deliberate sabotage cannot be discounted. Shell has been unwilling - or has felt unable - to post someone at the site to monitor the fire, which would make sabotage less likely.

Shell and the affected community are giving conflicting accounts of what has happened. However, one uncontested fact is that - while the initial spill occurred on December 3rd 2003, and was reported to Shell on December 4th - on January 7th Shell was still negotiating 'relief materials' with the Elikpokwuodu community, i.e.: how many bags of rice and temporary water supplies to supply.

According to members of the community SDN spoke to, when Shell staff and contractors visited, they came with an armed mobile-police escort, firing shots into the air. Shell staff excavated the pipeline, acknowledged that the problem was due to corrosion and sought to place a covering clamp over the pipeline. However, Shell workers found the 'clamp' they had brought was not long enough, so they departed without taking further action.

According to Shell press statements, the community denied Shell access to the site of the spill. Shell alleges that "miscreants" set fire to the spill initially, and have re-lit the fire on several subsequent occasions.

Members of the community seized a Shell vehicle that was being used to fight the fire last week. There are indications the vehicle may be released this week, following three-way discussions between the community, the local authorities and Shell.

Roseline Konya, the Rivers State commissioner for environment, had previously made public criticisms of Shell over the Rukpokwu spill. The government would insist on Shell paying adequate compensation to the community, she said. "We also see negligence, delay and lack of good-will from Shell on this matter," Konya told reporters in Port Harcourt according to Dow Jones on January 9th.

This incident is the latest indication that the 'system' for dealing with spill-response is broken. From the perspective of communities and local human rights groups, this is seen as further evidence of Shell's overall attitude to dealing with these incidents: at their own convenience. There is a perceived double standard. Would Shell respond this way to a spill in Scotland or in Texas?

The incident comes at a time when Nigeria is becoming an increasingly important test of the claims of oil companies like Shell to transparency and Corporate Social Responsibility (or CSR, to give it the acronym favoured by policy wonks in Europe and America.) Shell's senior management is coming under pressure from its shareholders to sort out its Nigerian operations.

Shell announced in mid-January 2004 that 3.9 billion barrels of oil and gas, or one-fifth of its reserves, were no longer 'proved' - meaning they can't be retrieved as quickly as thought - much of which are in Nigeria, which is crucial to Shell's over-all operations. Shell's shares have dropped from 401p to 359p following the announcement.

Shell has so-far failed to explain the sudden re-grading of its reserves to angry shareholders, but shut-downs, spills and community conflicts are likely to be one major factor making it difficult for Shell to guarantee its supplies in the delta. Is this a failure of corporate governance generally, or of Shell's approach to "CSR" and community-relations in places like the Niger delta? Shell investors must wait for a presentation on 5th February for an explanation by chairman Sir Philip Watts, but they had earlier called for the resignation of the man who used to run Shell's Nigeria operations.

The debate on the merits of Shell's CSR claims rages on in developed countries, but in Nigeria the standard responses from all sides - oil companies like Shell, and oil-producer communities - involved in a spill like Rukpokwu seems to be producing the perverse outcome of delaying spill-containment.

There are also good reasons to question whether third-parties to spills, like clean-up operators - the main financial beneficiaries of oil-spills in the short run outside of the affected communities - share an interest with community leaders and activists in minimising the impacts of a spill on the environment, and public health and safety.

For its part, Shell's knee-jerk response to 'sabotage' - which has the effect of delaying spill-responses - is fuelling a lack of trust and sense of general grievance in oil-producing communities.

There is growing concern that the frustration felt by oil-producing communities at the failure of the oil-industry to deal with spills quickly and adequately is combining with general political instability in the region, with possibly calamitous results.

"Ethnic conflicts" rage over land in the oil-producing Warri region - to the north of Port Harcourt - which in reality are also part of a wider war between criminal groups and factions in the army, navy and government for control of black-market oil and a host of other related issues.

Following elections in 2003 that were criticised by international observers as unfair, resentment is simmering in the delta. The oil industry extracts billions of dollars-worth of oil from the impoverished region, but the Nigerian government returns a tiny fraction of this to the producer-communities. Much of this disappears through bribery of government officials. Groups like Transparency International routinely rate Nigeria as one of the world's most corrupt countries.

In the Niger delta, local conflicts are combining with a general sense of political and economic disenfranchisement to make a highly combustible mixture. The oil companies must share part of the blame for creating this volatile situation, through their environmental management. The creeks and inlets of the Niger delta are threaded with a network of pipelines, many of which pre-date Shell and other companies' operations in the 1970s. The age and general state of deterioration of pipelines will become a significant issue in the delta more widely, if oil-producing communities' frustration over continuing spills like Rukpokwu build up.

* Tim Concannon is with the Stakeholder Democracy Network

* Please send comments on this editorial - and other events in Africa - to

Malawi has sent a delegation to Washington to try and persuade the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to release crucial development aid frozen three years ago, officials said on Wednesday. Last October the IMF said it would soon resume disbursing $47 million outstanding from an aid package earmarked for the impoverished southern African country under its Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement. Soon afterwards, the European Union (EU) and the Common Approach to Budgetary Support (CABS) - a group of European countries that support Malawi - also announced they would resume aid. But a senior government official said none of the donors which pledged support for Malawi last year had kept their word.

For at least one African activist who attended the just-concluded World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai, India, enough is enough. After attending the last four WSF meetings, Mohau Pheko, a gender and economic activist from South Africa, says she will not be attending the next event. Speaking to Terraviva (http://www.ipsnews.net/focus/tv_mumbai/viewstory.asp?idn=232) , the official newspaper of the World Social Forum, Pheko said: “Until and unless more grassroots people, especially from Africa, become part of this process I don’t honestly see the need to come and mix with the same people and say the same things to each other.” She makes a valid point, questioning how the neo-liberal order is supposed to be replaced by people-centred, people-oriented development when the “people” are absent from the forum that is supposed to shape that very development. "Besides as NGOs we have been delegitimised by our own governments and it will not only be strategic but logical that we stop analyzing on behalf of other people and bring the voices and make visible those who live the experiences we want changed on board,” she says.

War dominated WSF, with strong statements against the United States, such as when Indian author Arundhati Roy (http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=331358) said: "For the first time in history, a single empire with an arsenal of weapons that could obliterate the world in an afternoon, has complete, unipolar, economic and military hegemony…It uses different weapons to break open different markets. There isn't a country on God's earth that is not caught in the cross hairs of the American cruise missile and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) cheque book." From an African point of view, poverty, massive external debt, HIV/AIDS and corruption were some of the key issues placed on the Agenda at the WSF. Although estimates of African attendance at the forum ranged from between 300 and 500 - a small amount out of the total 100 000 delegates and up from only 30 two years ago - WSF organisers say they will examine the possibility of holding the event in Africa in 2006, a decision that will greatly advance Africa's cause within the forum.

The WSF is seen as an important event to enable civil society to form common ground and strategise over common problems related to the global policies that act to the detriment of citizens in the south. But as John Moru - Policy and Research Advocacy Officer with ActionAid, a nongovernmental organisation based in Nigeria's capital city, Abuja, told Terraviva (http://www.ipsnews.net/focus/tv_mumbai/viewstory.asp?idn=269 ): "Recognising the fact that poverty, corruption and ineffective public enterprises pervade the regions that have produced this large Mumbai gathering, it is so sad that going home after this historic event will bring me back to the stark realities of the enormous work to be done towards effecting the various recommendations of this Forum with scanty civil voices that need great amplification.”

Outside of the concerns of the African delegation, debate over the future shape of the World Social Forum is raging. Already, who controls the WSF and how has become a hot topic, as well as what is seen by some as a top-down approach to decision-making and a lack of transparency. This includes a questioning of exactly how open the WSF actually is. As Jai Sen has argued (http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1417.html), instead of being the “open space” that the marketing hype proclaims it to be, it is actually a highly structured and in some cases exclusive gathering, limited to those broadly classified as the 'left'. “In short, we are already witnessing the crystallisation and rise not only of corporatism but also of orthodoxy and dogma, which I suggest constitutes a fundamental challenge to the future of the WSF.”

In an essay on the WSF (http://www.choike.org/documentos/wsf_s502_albert.pdf), Michael Albert points out that in contrast to the localized forums worldwide, the WSF has yet to attain the same level of transparency and accountability. This is not to take away from the value of the WSF, he says, but “there are often sharp and even destructive differences between the WSF's layers of participants”. Albert puts forward eleven thoughts for the future of the WSF, which include emphasizing local forums as the foundation of the worldwide process; Mandating that the decision-making leadership at every level should be at least 50 per cent women; Having the Forums from wealthier parts of the world charge delegates and organisations and attendees a tax on their fees to apply to helping finance the Forums in poorer parts of the world; Feature grassroots activists from movements around the world much more prominently in major events and throughout all Forums to strengthen the WSF and local Forums as vehicles for their activity and counter tendencies toward elitism; Mandating that Forums at every level, including the WSF, welcome people from diverse constituencies.

It is clear from these and other articles written about the WSF, that the rapid growth of the WSF has in itself presented real challenges along the lines of governance and representivity that the WSF will have to overcome if it is to avoid being seen in the same light as the exclusive World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the business only meet that the WSF was first set up to counter. In the meantime, and problems aside, as one activist writes “Participatory? I don't think the WSF processes are really participatory in a democratic sense, but it is open, and it is full of mutual respect (almost everywhere), and that is so valuable you forgive all the other problems.”

* Compiled by Patrick Burnett, Fahamu. Please send comments to [email protected]

* See the Women and Gender, Development, HIV/AIDS and Social Welfare sections of Pambazuka News for more stories from the WSF. Visit http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/eventos/1.html for more Up-to-date information on the WSF.

The station manager of Radio Dialogue FM, Father Nigel Johnson, was arrested on January 2 in Bulawayo – approximately 450km from the capital Harare - whilst filming footage for a music video.

London-based CBCAfricaRecruit (www.africarecruit.com) organised the Global Skills Seminar for Africa (GSSA 2003) in Lagos, Nigeria in December which attracted a total of 200 delegates. GSSA 2003 had the aim of looking at the challenges surrounding Africa’s so-called brain drain and developing an action plan to overcome Africa’s skills shortages and reverse the brain drain. The key outcome is agreement to establish a human resource (HR) forum across Africa to support African HR professionals in their battle to nurture, retain, and attract talent.

The London-based African Foundation for Development (AFFORD; www.afford-uk.org) in partnership with Pambazuka publisher Fahamu is launching an innovative distance learning course, “Fundraising and resource mobilisation among the African diaspora in the UK” in February 2004 in a bid to enhance the capacity of African diaspora individuals and organisations in their bid to maximise their contribution to Africa’s development.

Thank you for all the correspondence and updates on African affairs during the course of the year. May I take this opportunity in wishing you all a Blessed Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

With one third of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) occurring through breast-feeding, advice not to breast-feed appears sensible, and is standard practice in well-resourced countries. However in poorly resourced environments breast-feeding offers substantial advantages to all infants in protecting against infectious diseases such as gastrointestinal infection, meningitis, sepsis and bronchiolitis.

Preliminary findings from a government survey show that Kenya may have a lower HIV prevalence rate than previously thought - 6.7 percent compared to a 2003 Health Ministry estimate of 9.4 percent.

A Kenyan judge on Wednesday ordered the Kenyan government and Nyumbani Home - the oldest and largest AIDS orphanage in the country - to develop an agreement that would allow HIV-positive children from the orphanage to be admitted to area primary schools, the AP/Yahoo! News reported. Nyumbani on Wednesday sought a court order against the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the attorney general's office to force state schools to admit HIV-positive children, Nyumbani attorney Ababu Namwamba said.

"On my second trip up country, a group of armed militia pulled a hitchhiker out of my car and shot him on the spot. They said he was a deserter. On my third trip I saw the beginning of a gang rape; 20 armed men ripping a woman's clothes off and dragging her into a shed." Although it appears the 14-year civil war is now over, the rebel groups that fought Taylor are engaged in their own power struggle; and as Radio Netherlands Vincent ‘t Sas found out when he travelled to Liberia, savagery and fear still rule parts of the West African nation.

Sudanese government and rebel leaders meeting in Naivasha, Kenya, signed a breakthrough agreement January 7 on oil-wealth revenue sharing, as well as clarifying provisions for banking structures in the country. Only two outstanding issues remain in the way of a comprehensive peace agreement: administration of three disputed provinces in central Sudan and power-sharing arrangements. This includes rebel access to jobs in the civil service. As part of the agreement, measures are under way to prepare the south of Sudan for autonomy, including administrative training and the provision of a supplemental budget until oil-revenue wealth kicks in.

In a shocking declaration, President Olusegun Obasanjo seemed to have officially confirmed the widely held view that the Nigerian judiciary, owing to corruption within its ranks, is perhaps one of the major governance institutions in need of urgent reforms. The president said intelligence reports indicated that some judges collect bribes to pervert justice. He described this situation as “a disaster for the judicial system in the country.” This is according to the January edition newsletter of the Independent Advocacy Project, a good governance body.

At least 18 cases of corruption in government were reported to the North West premier in 2003, the government reported on Tuesday. Premier Popo Molefe established a corruption hotline at the beginning of 2003, and urged people to use it. Molefe said it was the role of the public to report "corruption or any deviations from clean and accountable governance" and warned people against being "passive".

The stalled Somali peace talks, which were being held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have been given a new lease of life after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni saved them from collapse. After arriving in Nairobi on 8 January, Museveni, the current chairman of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), immediately held talks with the Somali leaders who were due to take part the next day in a retreat designed to revive the peace talks. He then went on to launch the retreat itself on Friday, an IGAD official told IRIN.

Almost two years after Zimbabwe's government declared a state of emergency over HIV/AIDS to allow the importation and manufacture of generic anti-AIDS drugs, accessing antiretrovirals (ARVs) remains a pipe dream for almost a million people living with HIV/AIDS in the country. With an estimated HIV prevalence rate of 27 percent, Zimbabwe is one of the countries worst hit by the epidemic.

The government has raised the official figure for the turnout in Guinea's controversial presidential election, which was boycotted by the main opposition parties from 82.8 percent to 85.6 percent. The Republican Front for Democratic Change (FRAD) alliance of opposition parties, which refused to take part in the 21 December 21 poll, claimed the turnout was less than 15 percent.

In November 2003, the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IMD), in partnership with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) and the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), held a conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to discuss the democratic movements of the past ten years as well as the future of democracy in the Southern Africa region. Discussion topics range from the fragility of democracies in places like Lesotho and Zambia to the challenges of dominant party rule in the countries of South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana. The conference served as a forum to evaluate lessons learned from the liberation movements and the democratization process that has swept over the region in recent years. Participants also shared ideas on civil society strengthening, conflict resolution, and multi-lateral partnerships.

The Regional Coordinator will have overall responsibility to implement the Coalition's campaign on the continent. Under the supervision of the CICC Program Director and Regional Program Director he/she will work in collaboration with the CICC Outreach Liaisons for Africa to advance the Coalition's campaign goals of ensuring universal ratification, effective domestic legislation, international support for the International Criminal Court (ICC), stronger ICC networks, and support for the integrity of the Rome Statute.

The incumbent's primary tasks will be to manage programme-funded grants, including providing technical assistance regarding planning and implementation and monitoring and evaluating achievement of programme outputs.

Is civil society the big idea for the 21st century? Or will the idea of civil society - confused, conflated and co-opted by elites - prove another false horizon in the search for a better world? By illuminating the uses and abuses of different theories and traditions in clear and engaging prose, this book will help readers of all persuasions to answer this question for themselves. Drawing inspiration and examples from history and contemporary experience, Islam and Christianity, South and North, and activists and academics, this book gives voice to a rich and diverse account of civil society in its many different guises.