PAMBAZUKA NEWS 136: PRSPS: POVERTY REDUCTION OR POVERTY REINFORCEMENT?
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 136: PRSPS: POVERTY REDUCTION OR POVERTY REINFORCEMENT?
The Ugandan army has denied reports from local leaders in the country’s troubled northern Lira district that up to 70 bodies from Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) attacks have been recovered in the last week. “This figure is simply false," Lira-based army spokesman Lt Chris Magezi told IRIN. "We know the rebels killed four over this last weekend in a place near Okude, but our investigations in this area revealed nothing further.
The UN head of Emergency Relief Coordination, Jan Egeland, has expressed concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur, western Sudan, and urged the warring sides to desist from deliberately attacking civilians. In a statement issued by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Egeland said insecurity in Darfur had now reached "unprecedented levels", due to fighting between forces loyal to the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).
The government army and rebel forces occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire each withdrew from frontline positions close to the French-patrolled buffer zone between them on Friday ahead of talks on disarmament next week. Hardline youth groups supporting President Laurent Gbagbo meanwhile ended four days of protest demonstrations outside the French military base near Abidjan airport, where they had been demanding the departure of French peacekeepers from the frontline so that government forces could attack the north.
Africa and other parts of the developing world are preparing to negotiate better access to the markets of wealthy countries at the next ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation, Ugandan Agriculture Minister Wilberforce Kisamba-Mugerwa said in Pretoria last week. The minister was interviewed after closing an international conference on successes in African agriculture, held in the South African capital from Dec. 1 to 3. The meeting brought together representatives of government, business, academia and civil society.
The demonstration was brutally put down. Police lashed out, their blows temporarily paralysing slower protesters who couldn't escape the random thrashing. Women were amongst those badly beaten during the demonstration, held in Zimbabwe's second-largest city Bulawayo, last Wednesday. Some were mid-afternoon shoppers who'd been scuttling between stores, searching for scarce commodities like bread to take home to their families. Several were unaware of the protest until it was too late, and they were caught on the wrong side of the police cordon.
The African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) consists of practitioners and promoters who believe the adaptation and adoption of conservation tillage principles is a cost effective method of reducing and reversing the environmental degradation and food insecurity devastating Africa. ACT NOW! is ACT's electronic update on events and findings which may assist accelerate this process.
The NGO manager newsletter provides regular information on tools, research and events related to NGO management.
The debate keynote points to the fact that disempowered population groups, such as mothers and children, are being excluded from access to treatment. Although treatment is likely to become more widely available, it will fall far short of need for many years to come. In the meantime, should medical practitioners alone select candidates for treatment or is there a case for prioritising 'strategically important' groups? The debate raises issues about ethics, about corruption and about the way wealth is being used to jump the queue.
Please note that during the regime of General Sani Abacha and the killing of Ken the Great of the Agoni people the whole Commonwealth was behind expelling Nigeria from the body. Now comes the great Mugabe who has tortured and is torturing the people of Zimbabwe and the African leaders are condoning the suffering of ordinary Zimbabwean men and women. Is this the type of leadership that we expect from our Presidents? For Gods sake wake up SADC and African Commonwealth. You are there to care for all the people not Mugabe alone.
Your article on the commonwealth is spot on (Pambazuka 135: Commonwealth and Human Rights: Contradictions and Weaknesses). The organisation has lost most of its historical rights and today's relevance. It seems to be held together by the UK Queen and her desire (or not) to look important, which she is not. Certainly not in Africa. The North/South issues are far more important to Africa than the desire to keep the commonwealth together. Inconsistencies in its behaviour do help to dismantle this colonial relic.
For the first time since World War II, an international tribunal has found journalists guilty of crimes against humanity through the use of broadcast and print media. The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sentenced two men to life in prison and a third to 35 years for their roles in the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which extremist Hutus massacred between 500,000 and 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.
This report by the Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations (Cango) is based on the proceedings of a workshop hosted to address the constitutional framework for poverty reduction in Swaziland. Its main objective was to raise awareness about the constitution in order to give the Swaziland State a clear framework for developing strategies to fight poverty.
While rich countries develop most of the global strategies for the protection of species, it is vital to remember that the poorest countries harbour most of the world's biodiversity. This means, in essence, that the guardians of these plants and animals are millions of poor indigenous people and local communities. Within these communities, what is considered important by Western scientists might not be understood, or may even be seen as irrelevant.
Impressions that the battle against global warming is being won are misleading. In many ways, the struggle has only just begun, both on the scientific and the political front, while for many developing countries, action to mitigate its potentially disastrous impact is becoming increasingly urgent. A dossier from www.scidev.net provides news, analysis, commentary and background information on current debates about the nature and implications of climate change.
This is a full-time appointment for an initial period of one year as of January 2004, with the possibility of extension. The researcher will be based in one of HRW’s offices (New York, Washington DC, London or Brussels) and should be prepared to travel frequently to the region to monitor violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Angola.
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), based in Dakar, Senegal invites applications for the post of Assistant Editor for its Publications and Communication Department. This position is considered as one of the key posts in the publications programme of CODESRIA. The successful candidate will function as part of a team in the Department of Publications and Communication of the Secretariat. S/he will work under the overall supervision of the Managing Editor and the Head of the Department.
Duties will include: establish the field office; prepare for the rapid expansion of community development and microfinance activities; develop financial projections; set goals for the program; create and execute budgets; oversee daily operations of the new office; manage a staff of host country professionals; develop private sector and key relationships with community leaders.
Responsible for directing and managing the implementation of the Institute's HIV/AIDS prevention and care program in Mozambique. Serves as the FHI representative with relevant private and public agencies, organisations, National AIDS Control Program, USAID, and other donors regarding the Institute's program and activities.
This update includes: From a theory of revolution to the management of a fragile state by Saki Macozoma; From the freedom charter to the Washington Consensus by Dennis Davis; Parties, politics and the future of democracy by Vincent T. Maphai and Keith Gottschalk; and The politics of poverty by David Everatt.
The purpose of this book is to provide a detailed introduction to the process of developing monitoring and evaluation systems which will provide a foundation on which to advance personal and organisational learning. It is based on the work of The International NGO Training and Research Centre (INTRAC) in research, consultancy and training and is rooted in real experiences.
This book draws together the different theoretical approaches underpinning civil society strengthening programmes, the nature of the state and its relations with civil society as well as the role of capacity building in the context of civil society strengthening. The book challenges the monitoring and evaluation of civil society: are programmes being evaluated, what have we learnt and what mechanisms can we use to improve our learning?
Free trade and its virtues are a mantra of contemporary economics, and a fixed point of policy for the World Trade Organisation. But there are many economists who disagree, and there are many ideas for alternative ways of organising world trade and increasing the development chances for poor countries. Little wonder that trade has moved beyond the realms of intellectual dispute, and become a leading campaigning issue for social movements and development NGOs.
After years of civil strife, the Central African Republic (CAR) has, since March 2003, lived through a period of relative calm. This has enabled the transitional government of Francois Bozize to plan a phased demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) process targeting ex-rebel fighters and former government soldiers.
A fully revised and comprehensive overview of the history and global development of tourism, often considered the largest industry in the world. Despite promising great benefits to hosts and guests alike, tourism has often resulted in some very stark and painful consequences for local host communities and the environment. This second edition provides updated information on global tourism and examines how local communities in different parts of the world, especially indigenous peoples, have responded to the challenges and opportunities that tourism and eco-travel brings.
A task force has been established to assist the rapidly increasing number of street children in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. Among the organisations involved in the task force are UNICEF, the Harare city council, the department of social services, Zimbabwe Republic Police, and various NGOs.
Orphaned HIV-positive children in South Africa will be able to access antiretroviral (ARV) treatment more easily after a High Court ruled that permission for such an intervention can now be granted by their caregivers.
The integration of former rebels into a new unified army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) began on Monday at a ceremony in the eastern town of Kisangani. Some 150 soldiers paraded for the occasion in a common uniform. They included 40 men from the former government army, 40 from the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) and 40 from the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo - the two former principal rebel movements.
As world leaders converged recently in Mexico to sign the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, Independent Advocacy Project (IAP), the good governance group, urged the federal government to sign and ratify this global instrument and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. The final text of the UN Convention was recently agreed by state delegates, while African Heads of State adopted the AU Convention last July in Maputo, Mozambique at their 2003 Summit.
The Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) which is an initiative born from the partnership of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and Rhodes University's Highway Africa annual event, will be participating in the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva. HANA, which involves African journalists and students, will provide an African perspective on the negotiations taking place at the World Summit.
As a commercial entity, the popular search engine Google has joined the esteemed ranks of media and academic organisations that have a responsibility to be objective but instead choose to manage information based upon an apparent ingrained partisan and socio-ideological bias, argues this article.
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) provides an important opportunity to raise critical issues about North-South and rich-poor gaps in media ownership, content and access. Unfortunately, the official preparatory processes – and even civil society consultations – have focused too much on computers and Internet, ignoring the fact that the mass media have far greater outreach and power over people’s lives and choices. The crux of the matter is not technology but information itself - how much of information is available, in what relevant and timely manner to how many people at any given time. Immersed in digital hype, governmental and civil society participants at WSIS risk missing this crucial point.
Political wrangling is threatening to derail the first United Nations summit aimed at bridging the digital divide. The aim of the World Summit on the Information Society is to come up with a global plan to ensure everyone has access to information and communications technologies. Groups representing some of the world's poorest people fear that the talks will result in a bland declaration with no real political or funding commitments.
The Ethiopian government, in flagrant violation of the Constitution and international human rights declarations has suspended the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA) and the EFJA's executive committee, which was elected by the organisation's general assembly. EFJA has called on the Ethiopian people and the international community to strongly condemn the measures taken by the government.
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has announced that it has officially joined the investigation into the 21 October 2003 murder in Côte d’Ivoire of Radio France International (RFI) journalist Jean Hélène. The organisation also deplored the climate of hatred and tension fuelled by media on both sides in the country's civil war and noted that it endangers the lives of local and foreign journalists.
The Zanzibar government has threatened to take legal action against the editorial board of the banned weekly "Dira" if it attempts to publish the newspaper on the Internet. At a news conference on 3 December 2003, Zanzibar Information Services Director Enzi Talib said that to continue publishing "Dira" in any form would be contrary to the government's order, which banned the newspaper throughout the United Republic of Tanzania.
According to reports, on 24 November the Khartoum Monitor, Sudan's only English-language daily, was suspended for the seventh time this year under Article 130 (paragraphs 1 and 2) of the 1991 Code of Criminal Procedure. It had recently published articles about slavery and had questioned the independence of the country's judiciary and national peace accords that are currently being negotiated. The Khartoum Monitor has now been suspended for a total of more than six months this year.
Since the closure of The Daily News, the government-controlled media have clearly demonstrated their capacity to omit and distort important news, and in the case of The Herald this week to deliberately publish falsehoods that misinform its readers, points out the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe. While the world's news agencies reported on Tuesday November 25th that Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo had declared that Zimbabwe would not be invited to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Abuja, The Herald (26/11) stated that "Obasanjo reiterated yesterday that he was still to invite President Mugabe."
On 30 November 2003, Bright Chibvuri, an editor for "The Worker" newspaper, was kidnapped by alleged Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) youths and state security agents in Kadoma, approximately 292 kilometres from the capital, Harare. The incident occurred while Chibvuri was covering a parliamentary by-election.
A section of the Ghanaian media have undergone a one day training course on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) at the Ashanti regional capital Kumasi. The training workshop which was organized by the Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS) and PenPlusBytes (International Institute for ICTs Journalism) attracted twenty-five senior journalists from both the print and broadcast media in the northern part of Ghana: Upper east, Upper West, Northern Region, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti Region.
State and national leaders of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the 19 northern states have signed on to the campaign against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, courtesy of a media training programme recently concluded in the ancient city of Kaduna. At the end of a four-day workshop attended by chairmen and secretaries of the union from 16 northern states, the union executives committed themselves to forming action committees on HIV/AIDS in their respective states.
A businessman, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, detained in the United States for allegedly conspiring with Mohammed, son of Sani Abacha, the late military dictator, to steal public funds, has agreed to transfer about $300 million (N40.566 billion) to the federal government. The said amount was deposited in Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Limited Bank on the Isle of Jersey.
If the World Summit on the Information Society does not acknowledge existing gender divides in its Plan of Action, a truly equitable Information Society will not occur. Gender activists, women and men, from different regions of the world are in Geneva at this UN Summit to urge the International Community to ensure that women enjoy the huge potential for social and economic empowerment offered by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and participate effectively in all aspects of the Information Society. Achievement of this goal will help promote gender equality and further eradication of poverty, promotion of peace and security and the enjoyment of human rights.
Amnesty International's delegation attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) welcomed the general commitments given to human rights objectives on democracy and development, particularly the commitment to promote "machinery to protect human rights" and greater partnership within the Commonwealth to achieve the objectives. The Aso Rock Declaration adopted by the heads of government urges the Commonwealth Ministers and the Secretary-General to work on implementation and requested a progress report to the next CHOGM in Malta in 2005.
The Association François-Xavier Bagnoud, Doctors of the World, and the Global Health Council have partnered to support the Jonathan Mann Award in international health and human rights. The award is presented annually to a leading practitioner in health and human rights, be it an individual or organisation, and is designed to allow its recipients a measure of financial freedom to pursue their work in the area of global health and human rights.
The Democracy in Africa Research Unit (DARU) at the Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR), University of Cape Town, is offering research fellowships to established scholars from universities and research institutes in Africa and around the world. Visiting Fellows will normally spend six to twelve months at UCT. They will be expected to build local research and analytical capacity, conduct systematic research, analyse data and present findings to CSSR seminars.
Nearly 10,000 more Sudanese refugees have fled to eastern Chad to escape an escalation of conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan, bringing total numbers to more than 75,000. Meanwhile, safety concerns have led the UN refugee agency to start developing a site further inland in Chad to relocate the refugees who have been living in sites along the volatile border.
At least 35,000 Angolans face starvation in the central province of Huambo by the end of the year because food stocks are limited and supplies have been interrupted, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Monday. A WFP official told the Roman Catholic Radio Ecclesia that the affected areas were the municipalities of Bailundo, Caala, Cuima, Gove and Catata in Huambo.
The size of the digital divide may have been overestimated, according to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) development report for 2003. "A close link exists between the digital and statistical divide", says Michael Minges, head of the ITU's Market, Economics and Finance Unit and lead author of the report. According to the report, while some developed nations are comfortable conducting information society measurement - tracking factors such as infrastructure, access and usage - many developing nations are struggling to produce even basic indicators. "The number of Internet users in most developing countries is usually based purely on government guesstimates or vague estimates", says ITU telecom analyst Vanessa Gray, co-author of the report.
An International Monetary Fund technical team is in Luanda this week seeking to mend years of problematic relations with Angola. But as fresh signs of rapprochement emerge, a new chapter has opened in a murky saga involving debt deals with Russia, long a stumbling block in the country's relations with the IMF. A rapidly expanding offshore oil industry and abundant other resources make Angola one of Africa's brightest prospects. But the economy has been undermined by decades of civil war and corruption.
The trial of former Zambian President, Frederick Chiluba, charged with 168 counts of theft totalling more than $40m of public money, has begun. Mr Chiluba is accused of conspiring with a number of senior officials to divert public funds into a London bank account for private use.
The state minister for Defence has ordered the army to stop referring to rescued girls as former wives of rebel commanders. Ms Ruth Nankabirwa said such references could traumatize the girls, who were forced to marry the rebel commanders of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). "It has never been their [girls] wish that they get married to those commanders. I want to ask my commanders to change the language of reporting," she said at the army general headquarters in Bombo.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has announced that it will work with a Swiss government agency to set up 150 multimedia centres in marginalized communities in Africa, providing locals with access to information and communication technologies through the Internet. In a statement released at its headquarters in Paris, UNESCO said the community multimedia centres (CMCs), which will have radio, telephone and fax facilities, as well as computers, connected to the Internet, will be built in three countries: Mali, Mozambique and Senegal.
In a bid to empower the people of the Niger Delta with tools for effective communication and social change, Ford Foundation in collaboration with four other partners have begun the training of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) on Information Technology in the region. Under the scheme, 11 NGOs have already completed two months training on Information Technology in the Bayelsa State Capital, Yenagoa.
"They are probably hoping that we die with the weapons they provided", says Somali refugee Warsan Fowzi in a new book published today, called "Listen to the Refugee's Story: How UK Investment Creates Refugees and Aslyum Seekers". The vast majority of refugees today flee conflict, or social or economic oppression. In many cases, British companies, taxpayers and the government directly and indirectly support the human rights abuses that accompany British investment and policies abroad. Many of these abuses ultimately force people to flee their homes and then their countries.
Algeria's commission on "disappearances" needs greater investigative powers and a broader mandate if it is to be credible and effective, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. The 32-page report, "Truth and Justice on Hold: The New State Commission on 'Disappearances,'" examines the "disappearances" commission announced in September by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. After years of stonewalling on the issue, the Algerian government established the commission to clarify the fate of the more than 7,000 persons who "disappeared"-mostly at the hands of security forces-during the civil conflict of the 1990s.
Kenyan lawmakers have welcomed an historic court ruling, in which a man convicted of raping a four-year-old girl was jailed for life, terming it an important step towards deterring rising cases of sexual violence against children in the country. The 18-year-old offender, Paul Ngure Ngigi, was sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty in a trial described as one of the shortest-ever. This was also the harshest penalty ever served in Kenya for a sexual offence.
The UN head of Emergency Relief Coordination, Jan Egeland, has expressed concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur, western Sudan, and urged the warring sides to desist from deliberately attacking civilians. In a statement issued by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Egeland said insecurity in Darfur had now reached "unprecedented levels", due to fighting between forces loyal to the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).
The Anti-Discrimination Unit and the Human Rights Education Team of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights are launching a pilot project that will fund, through small grants (max. US$ 5,000) projects aimed at promoting respect for diversity. It is hoped that this initiative will strengthen civil society and youth groups in their efforts to combat racial discrimination. The project will be implemented in collaboration with UNDP.
Disappointed that initial promises of equal partnerships between governments and civil societies in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) processes have been empty ones, over 300 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) gathered in Geneva have decided to come up with their own separate Civil Society Declaration to WSIS.
This International Food Policy Research Institute document 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 including donors, government and the private sector.
A human rights association, The Ligue Centrafricaine des Droits de l’Homme [LCDH], has asked the transitional government of Francois Bozize to repatriate armed Chadian forces, whom it described as mercenaries, over their alleged involvement in human rights abuses in the capital, Bangui. The group claim that the Chadian "mercenaries", who supported Bozize in his six-month rebellion against former President Ange-Felix Patasse, were responsible for human right abuses and insecurity prevailing in the country.
More than 1 000 Zimbabwean readers of the Daily News and its sister weekly, Daily News on Sunday, will next week petition the High Court under the Class Action Act to order the reopening of the two newspapers shut down by the government two months ago. At least 1 017 people from various parts of the country had by Tuesday this week appended their signatures to the petition that is being handled by human rights advocacy group, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).
Botswana President Festus Mogae in an interview during the Commonwealth Summit in Nigeria on Saturday said that he was concerned that U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan could be "diverting crucial money" pledged by the Bush administration to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. Botswana is among the 12 African countries targeted by President Bush's five-year, $15 billion global AIDS initiative.
A new report co-published by 13 organisations working on climate change, development, sustainable energy and water management gives a dozen reasons why large hydro should be excluded from global efforts to promote renewable energy. The report cites the negative impacts of large hydro on people, ecosystems, energy security, and efforts to adjust to climate change.
Since the terrible events of September 11, 2001, the human rights cause has faced new challenges and threats. The threat of terrorism hangs over millions of people. Meanwhile, around the world, governments have passed regressive anti-terrorism laws that threaten basic rights. The international human rights system, built over decades by governments themselves, has come under unprecedented strain and Human Rights Day on December 10 should be a time of reflection, rededication and renewal, says Human Rights Watch.
“I'm quite willing to share the story of my "baby" brother Martin. Baby because he was the last born in our family of seven children with me being the only girl. Martin was more my child than my brother. I was responsible for him during his years at the Malawi Polytechnic. I had just graduated myself and had started teaching at a high school." Dr Loveness Kaunda, Dean of Students at the University of Cape Town, is one of a handful of South African leaders prepared to talk openly about HIV/AIDS. Here she shares the story of her younger brother and how his death affected her family.
Developing countries are now being asked to follow developed countries in the privatisation of goods and services previously provided by the state. It is argued that these countries will gain from the creation of efficient markets which offer their best chance to establish competitiveness, leading to economic growth. But critics claim that privatisation damages the quality of public services and undermines public accountability. Conventional forms of regulation address these two issues; but is it also possible to regulate for development that reduces poverty?
Corruption is deeply embedded in the political culture and poverty of many less developed countries (LDCs). Regulatory bodies are particularly vulnerable to corruption as they have the power to make key decisions on profit-making activities. Corrupt regulatory bodies can thus dangerously impede economic development. And the problem with prescribed remedies is that they are too ambitious. Corruption is likely to remain a factor in many LDCs until substantial changes in their political cultures and economic structures have been achieved.
Following privatisation in developing countries, aid donors such as the European Union have promoted a model of regulatory 'best practice' based on the western European and north American example of regulatory agencies independent of government control. But there is a reality gap here between donors' ideas of best practice and the real legal, administrative, economic and political processes which exist in developing countries.
Mbeki's government has stumbled from one crisis to the next, argues Sipho Seepe, acting vice-chancellor of Vista university. There was the arms deal investigation, the plot hatched against senior members of his party, the controversy around HIV/Aids, heightened tensions within the tripartite alliance highlighted by embarrassing anti-privatisation protests, the Treatment Action Campaign against government and the continued stand-off between government and the media. And tendencies displayed by Mbeki show that a third term may not be out of the question.
WEDO is an international advocacy organisation that seeks to increase the power of women worldwide. WEDO is holding a series of regional meetings in Latin America (November 2003), Africa and Asia (Spring 2004) to assess achievements and challenges in both the global and national/regional women's advocacy and strengthen alliances and strategies among women's organisations. In preparation for the Africa and Asia regional meetings, WEDO will offer an internship in New York City for young women from and based in Africa and Asia.
This research training course is designed to prepare researchers and postgraduate students with requisite knowledge for formulating sound projects to meet the requirements of postgraduate training of the University of the Witwatersrand and other universities.
The one-year course – MA Economic and Governmental Reform - is a unique Masters programme designed to prepare senior civil servants and rising political figures for leadership roles in government. The course includes a forensic examination of why reforms go well or go badly, and examines closely the conflicts that often arise between different types of economic & governmental reform, and within different types of government structures.
In order to examine the gender-based challenges faced by young women living with HIV and AIDS in East and Southern Africa, the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) and the Youth Against AIDS Network (YAAN) are planning a regional meeting in South Africa in February 2004. The meeting will provide a space for 20 young women living with HIV and AIDS from East and Southern Africa to explore the range of issues affecting them.
From Friday the 12th to the 15th of December, learners and youth representing hundreds of social movements, communities and progressive NGOs, will converge on Wits University for the Education Rights Youth Camp. This camp has been organised by the Education Rights Project (ERP), Khanya College and representatives from various community and youth groups. The youth camp comes at a time when campaigns around education have been taken up by various community organisations and social movements around the country.
Amidst growing criticism of the human rights record of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in recent months, the government has denied that there is any restriction on freedom of expression and personal liberties in the country. Meanwhile, Media in Nigeria reports that reporters and cameramen were brutalised at a protest meeting against the just concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, CHOGM, in Abuja.
Djibouti is one of the key players in the ongoing Somali peace talks and they led the Arta Peace Conference in 2002 that resulted in the formation of the Transitional National Government (TNG) – one of the groups who have withdrawn from the current peace talks. Djibouti was a member of the IGAD Technical Committee as a Frontline State but they differed with management of the conference and withdrew from the Technical Committee and any structure within the Frontline States on 18 October 2003. The IGAD Heads of States Summit held in Kampala in October of this year then expanded the management of the conference. They agreed to bring on board the rest of the IGAD member states and renamed the IGAD Facilitation Committee. The Kampala Summit also recommended that a retreat be held for the Somali leaders to provide them with an opportunity to mend their differences. Djibouti's Foreign Minister, Ali Abdi Farah, took part in the IGAD Ministerial Committee meeting. The link below will take readers to the transcript of an interview with Farah conducted by Novib Somalia.
“The Economic Development and Tourism Directorate of the City of Cape Town would like to announce the launch of its Donor Directory 2003/4, a publication aimed at supporting the fundraising activities of local NGOs and CBOs. In recognition of the important role that non-profit organisations play in our society, 4 000 copies of the Directory will be distributed free of charge to NGOs and CBOs.”
The Conferences, Workshops and Cultural Initiative (CWCI) fund, a joint initiative of the National Treasury and the European Union in South Africa, is seeking proposals for conferences, workshops and cultural initiatives directly linked to the commemoration of "A Decade of Democracy in South Africa". The deadline for submission of proposals is Tuesday 27 January 2004 at 4pm.
A new Johannesburg statue in memory of Mahatma Gandhi, the young human rights lawyer from India largely recognised for his struggle against white minority rule in South Africa at the turn of the last century, sparked a furore earlier this year. Critics slammed Gandhi for his alleged contemptuous attitude to black people. So was Gandhi a racist? Not so, says Anil Nauriya, a Pambazuka News reader from New Delhi in India.
After banning abortion in the country, but then leaving an option for its eventual legalization, the new draft constitution typifies the ambiguous feeling most Swazis have toward the procedure. Abortion is unlikely to be seen as a tool to curb population growth any time soon, according to the draft constitution. Under Chapter IV, “Protection and Promotion of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms,” section 16, clause 5 states, “Abortion is unlawful.” However, the word “unlawful” is followed by the qualifying word “except on grounds where the continued pregnancy will endanger the life or constitute a serious threat to the physical health of the woman, where there is a serious threat to the mental health of a woman, or there is serious risk that the child will suffer from physical or mental defect of such a nature that the child will be irreparably seriously handicapped.”
“This is a reminder about a path-breaking research opportunity: the deadline for submitting Letters of Intent under the $200 million Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative is January 9. We very much appreciate all efforts to pass on this information to potentially interested researchers. Detailed program information is available on the Grand Challenges in Global Health Web site.”
Ivorian rebel leaders who met the Prime Minister Seydou Diarra in the commercial capital, Abidjan, on Wednesday discussed the return of the rebels who control the northern half of the country into the government of national unity, diplomatic sources said. The rebel delegation, led by a senior official of the "New Forces" Louis-Andre Dakoury-Tabley, flew into Abidjan in the morning as their colleagues in Bouake, the rebel capital, met a delegation of the Ivorian army.
Bodies of ex-government militiamen lay sprawled in the streets of Liberia's capital Wednesday as U.N. peacekeepers confronted gunmen on a rampage of burning, shooting and looting in Monrovia's bloodiest day since an August peace deal. The violence, launched by militiamen loyal to ousted President Charles Taylor demanding cash to give up their guns, was the first serious threat to a U.N.-backed disarmament project.
Plans to provide anti-AIDS drugs to HIV-positive Namibians are slowly taking shape, but the pace of implementing the government's treatment programme is still cause for concern, activists told IRIN on Wednesday. "Things are happening, but not at the pace we want; treatment is being rolled out, but it is still not country-wide," said Conny Samaria, advocacy manager for Lironga Eparu, an NGO assisting people living with HIV/AIDS.
Long-delayed local council elections in Nigeria have been scheduled for 27 March 2004 throughout the country’s 36 states, officials said. James Omo-Agege, a retired high court judge, who is chairman of the Forum of States Independent Electoral Commissions of Nigeria, told reporters on Tuesday they were yielding to "mounting pressure from various stakeholders" including political parties and civil society groups.
The head of Kenya's state-owned power company plundered the institution for nearly two decades, according to an official Government investigation. Samuel Gichuru, the managing director of Kenya Lighting and Power for 19 years, is said to have stolen millions of Kenyan shillings.
Fears are mounting of renewed fighting between rival ethnic militias in Nigeria’s southern oil town of Warri following reports that one of the groups had broken a two-month-old truce, residents said on Tuesday. Residents of the town, which serves as a base for oil transnationals operating in the oil-rich Niger Delta, said a militia of the Itsekiri ethnic group had attacked six rival ethnic Ijaw riverside settlements last week, killing at least 10 people.
Public school teachers in Mali began a two-day strike on Tuesday to press for better working conditions and higher salaries, paralysing the school system from nursery to university level, officials of the teacher's union said. Teachers in higher institutions of learning, including Mali's sole university, joined the strike barely two months after staging a similar strike.
Thirty-seven people have died following an outbreak of diarrhoea in Lomela town in Kasai Oriental Province, central Democratic Republic of the Congo, a medical official told IRIN on Friday. "Some 184 people have been affected and 37 deaths were recorded by 3 December," Dr Benoit Kebela, a departmental director in the Ministry of Health, said.
A South African judge who tried to bring perpetrators of the Rwanda genocide to justice and grassroots Rwandan women's groups that are aiding the victims of the massacres have been honoured with a new women's rights prize. A ceremony was held for the winners to coincide with Human Rights Day. Advisors for the private foundation that awarded the first Women's Rights Prize described Judge Pillay as "a hero for humanity and a special inspiration for women."
The United Nations’ annual World Economic and Social Survey argues that trade protectionism in wealthy countries, especially policies that target agriculture and textiles from the South, present the biggest threat to the people of poorer countries. While recommending more South-South trade, the report warns that “openness and liberalization are not a panacea for poverty reduction.”
On December 10, 1948, the international community, shocked into action after the atrocities committed in the Second World War, unanimously passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as one of the pillars for relationships both within and between states. Fifty-five years on, much more than what the founding fathers and mothers could have expected from the UDHR has been achieved. On the other hand, a lot of atrocities have also occurred in the period since the UDHR became the norm. In Kenya too, the impact of the UDHR has been slow in coming. The urgent task before the government, and before the entire citizenry of Kenya, is to consolidate the gains made, and by institutionalising them, gain the entire gamut of rights promised by the UDHR, argues Maina Kiai, Chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.
Beatrice Mtetwa, a fearless Zimbabwean lawyer who has defended those arrested by President Robert Mugabe's government was named Human Rights Lawyer of the Year this week. Judges at the Human Rights Awards in London paid tribute to her courage in fighting for human rights and press freedom in a dangerous country.
The Zimbabwe government's human rights record is worsening and lawyers are struggling to cope with a growing caseload of rights abuses, a local lawyers' group said at a protest march by about 70 lawyers and law students to mark International Human Rights Day. Nokuthula Moyo, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights chairperson, said dozens of her colleagues had over the past year defended people arrested during political protests against President Robert Mugabe's government. Moyo said some lawyers had been harassed or assaulted by police while performing their duties. "In the worsening human rights climate, tremendous demands have been made on human rights lawyers," she said. Meanwhile, in a week during which Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth following its continued suspension from the organisation, Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, in his end of year message to the people of Zimbabwe, warned of rolling mass action in 2004. Read the full message and further MDC statements on the economic and food situation in the country by clicking on URL below.
The recent ZANU PF annual people’s conference in sleepy Masvingo town turned out to be a mere talk shop as had been widely expected, with ruling party officials ducking critical issues that have made Zimbabwe the focal point in the world. Apart from taking the regrettable step of hurriedly withdrawing Zimbabwe’s membership from the grouping of former British colonies - the Commonwealth - the lavish conference was void of substance despite the gloomy socio-economic situation that demands urgent action. With President Mugabe publicly declaring he was there to stay and his key ZANU PF stalwarts lacking new ideas on how to deal with pressing issues, the indaba degenerated into a sloganeering and war dance showcase.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Tuesday voiced its concern over the Commonwealth's decision to maintain Zimbabwe's suspension, the South African news agency SAPA reported.
Related Link:
* Mugabe on the war path
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=21464
From its humble beginnings when it attracted a mere 135 entries, this year 308 artists entered the 8th Annual Kora All-Africa Music Awards. The event, held in the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on December 6, has over the years grown into the most important platform for African artists to expose their talent. The ceremony is telecast live all over the world.
Guinean authorities continued a three-week swoop on perceived opponents of President Lansana Conte's government arresting a former top army officer, Commandant Kadr Doubuya, last Thursday as he was about to board a plane to neighbouring Mali, military sources said. A former head of Guinea’s paratroopers, Doubuya left the army in 1997 following a conviction by a military tribunal for involvement in a plan to overthrow Conte. Sentenced to five years in jail, he was released after serving two years.
A key decision-making body comprising representatives of Guinea-Bissau's main political parties and the armed forces has set March 28 as the date for legislative elections to return the country to constitutional rule following a coup in September. The National Transitional Council agreed the date last Thursday. Presidential elections are due to follow 12 months later.