A fraudulent aids policy aimed at advancing a neo-colonial agenda was championed, U.S. corporate interests were advanced through the touting of a free trade agreement and the primacy of access to oil over democratic rights was made clear - these were the core issues of the recent visit to Africa by U.S president George W. Bush, according to the World Socialist Web Site.

Comprising of six dancers, the work ‘Ludic Liminality’, will be showcased to a South African audience before moving to the Netherlands for a series of performances there in November and December.

This article looks at Africa's traditional practices of care for infants. It also focuses on children and the elderly, and at how people and policy are struggling to cope with massive change.

We are pleased to announce that the Pambazuka News database is now available on line. More than 15,000 news items, editorials, letters, reviews, etc that have appeared in Pambazuka News during the two years are now available in an easily accessible website. We hope that this information will be of value to activists, researchers, academics, journalists and others. We will be looking at ways to improve the website, so your comments are welcome. The website has been developed by Fahamu.

What are the links between women's access to water and to transport? How can transport services be reshaped to better meet women's needs? In societies with deeply-rooted gender roles, how can women be helped to participate more actively in decision-making processes affecting water and transport?

The African Union's new ambassador for Southern Africa is none other than Robert Mugabe. The AU summit held in Mozambique at the weekend provided an opportunity for Africa to show a commitment to its noble ideals. But it ended on an anticlimax, some observed, with no discussion on the political situation in strife-torn Zimbabwe. While some opposition politicians were "galled" by the election of Mugabe as one of the AU's five vice-chairpersons, others declared themselves "content".

Hosted by the Governance Resource Centre (GRC) of the UK Department for International Development, and compiled by leading international experts, the GRC Exchange provides a focal point for sharing ideas and experience in governance. Information services include: Governance Theme pages – key texts and resources exploring the key governance themes and cross-cutting issues; Information Database – summaries of and access to the best writing in governance.

Produced twice a year by Book Aid International, this newsletter aims to help strengthen links between librarians, publishers and booksellers. It provides a forum for debating relevant topics and includes regular features on key ICT issues, as well as showcasing relevant websites and e-mail addresses. To join the mailing list, please contact the Editor at [email protected]

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation focuses on strengthening middle level organisations in local government, private sector and civil society. “Building Advisory Practice” (BAP) is a new initiative by the SNV country programmes in Eastern Africa to examine the ways we assist our partners and clients to become stronger institutions and better at reaching their goals and objectives. Countries involved in the initiative are Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. Based on preliminary case studies developed during the BAP start-up phase, the initiative will now focus on developing knowledge products that will guide efforts to improve the quality of services. SNV will engage several experts/writers to execute this process. Their main task will be to produce three booklets, involving assessment of current materials, further research and consultations. They may also contribute to production of other materials as needed. The assignment will involve travel to the different countries.

ACORD is working in alliance with others to promote social justice and development. With an income of £8 million p.a. it implements long-term development programmes in 18 African countries that unites practical work with advocacy, research and social action. As a result of the relocation to Nairobi and the restructuring of our Head Office, ACORD is looking for an experienced English and French or Portuguese speaking Human Resource Manager to be based in our Nairobi office.

The annual Highway Africa new media conference will run this year in Grahamstown from 8 - 10 September 2003. This year's theme is Mainstreaming Media in the Information Society and the three-day conference will include discussions, debates, training workshops and evening entertainment. Please visit www.highwayafrica.org.za for more details.

The Human Rights Diploma Programme is an academic programme aimed at strengthening capacity for the promotion, protection and advancement of human rights activities to meet a specific need in human rights advocacy and activism. It builds upon existing theoretical and practical experiences and equips the participants with the capabilities for protecting, enforcing and evaluating the impact of human rights. The Human Rights diploma programme covers a number of substantive fields. These include international human rights law and organisations, where the evolution of international human rights law and practice as well as its current implementations are covered. It also includes domestic instruments for the protection and promotion of human rights which seek to analyse and compare the ways and mechanisms used by various countries to protect human rights. It further analyses the role of state and non-state actors in the enforcement, promotion and protection of human rights, and the use of information and communication technologies in human rights work.

The Nigerian army says its contingent of a West African peacekeeping operation pledged for war-ravaged Liberia is ready for deployment. Nigeria has pledged to send 750 soldiers for the operation. West African nations last week agreed to form the force for war-torn Liberia and send a first contingent of around one thousand within two weeks. The move is aimed at arresting the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country.

The leader of the second largest rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean Pierre Bemba, has arrived in Kinshasa, ahead of Thursday's inauguration of the vice-presidents in the new transitional government.
Related Link:
* "No turning back" as vice-presidents sworn in
http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35455

Tanzania still has a long way to go in achieving gender equality and cultures in some communities continue to force women to “marry” another woman in order to bear a son for inheritance purposes. This culture exists among the Kurya tribe in the country's North Western region of Mara bordering Kenya.

"Thank God for arriving home safely,” says 20-year-old Emerson Fowai, who was among 360 Sierra Leoneans evacuated from war-torn Liberia last week. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) commenced the repatriation of Sierra Leonean refugees from Liberia last week. And, so far, close to 700 have been transported in two batches.

About 2,000 gunmen who formerly fought for both government and rebel forces in the west of Cote d'Ivoire are still at large, preying off the civilian population and preventing relief agencies from operating freely in the lawless region close to the Liberian border, according to a source in the French peacekeeping force.

Doctors in Mozambique are hoping that a new malaria vaccine will provide a breakthrough in lowering the toll the disease is taking. Trials starting on Thursday are expected to test the efficacy and safety of the vaccine, known as RTS,S/AS02A, on 2,000 children.

The Rwandan government has registered eight political parties ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 25 August and 29 September respectively, a government minister told IRIN on Monday. The minister for local government and social welfare, Christopher Bazivamo, said the registered parties were free to operate.

When he took over the reins of power on December 30, President Kibaki promised Kenyans that the days of corruption as a national pastime were over and that his administration was committed to a policy of zero-tolerance to corruption. And because he made this declaration in the presence of his predecessor, whose regime is blamed for runaway corruption in the public sector, Kenyans were convinced that things would change for the better. But have they? Is the Government’s war on corruption losing steam? Although it has demonstrated an impressive commitment to erasing the sad legacy of corruption from the public domain, the goals it set for itself may, after all, have been too ambitious, says this commentary from the Daily Nation newspaper.

Congratulations on the launch of Pambazuka News (online database) and thank-you for including me in your mailing list. The weekly summary appears to be comprehensive and exhaustive with the many challenges which face the African continent. My best wishes and I look forward to keeping abreast of African news and hopefully peace and progress.

Ituri, the province where the peace process in Congo now faces its stiffest challenge and where French-led peacekeepers are attempting to halt the bloodshed, has remained a frontier of unbridled capitalism ever since King Leopold of Belgium sent in two Australian gold prospectors 100 years ago. Warlords and adventurers have thrived on the trade in gold, diamonds and timber, receiving arms in exchange from godfathers in Kinshasa, Uganda and Rwanda, all of which have been battling for control of the province through proxies.

This report is the first in a new series of research publications by The Gilbert Centre. It contains previously unpublished material, including: 59 selected and annotated email related online resources; and "Twelve Ways To Fail at Email", the 12 fundamental Dos and Donts.

The cost of a computing device is one of the significant barriers holding back the use of ICT uptake in Africa, whether for personal, corporate or government use. Devices like the simputer have yet to make a significant dent on this barrier. However there are a number of experiments with PDAs that offer tantalising clues to ways in which it might be broken. Visit the Balancing Act web site for the full story.

The Simputer - a cheap, pocket-sized computing device designed for use by rural populations in India - has been hailed as a breakthrough in bringing the world of computing to the poor. But with delays in production, escalating development costs and a dearth of buyers, can this idealistic project ever be pulled off?

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), on the eve of the Assembly of Heads of State at the African Union (AU) summit in Maputo, Mozambique, expressed "deep concern" over the state of press freedom in Africa. "We are dismayed that the issue of press freedom does not appear on the conference agenda. As long as journalists' rights are suppressed, and they are not free to report on official injustices, such as corruption and other hindrances to development, the AU will not be able to fulfil its mandate," said the CPJ.

In what could pass as a face-saving move, President Bakili Muluzi has condemned as "unfortunate" the beating of Daniel Nyirenda, a photojournalist with "The Nation" newspaper, by youths belonging to Muluzi's ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) party.

Amnesty International has called for the immediate and unconditional release of Daher Ahmed Farah, an opposition party leader and director of his party's newspaper. Daher Ahmed Farah, a prisoner of conscience, has been repeatedly arrested because of his peacefully-held political opinions.

The outreach campaign being conducted by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) represents yet another attempt by the authorities to frustrate aspiring broadcasters through delays. The questionnaire's results are obvious-they will either justify ZBC's unfair monopoly in the sector or give good reason for the need for an alternative government run broadcaster.

Sizani Weza

Tuberculosis remains the single greatest public health challenge associated with HIV worldwide. Despite widespread recognition of this fact, and clinical trials showing that interventions can help few programmes exist to implement such measures, according to a view presented at the International Aids Society Conference in Paris this week.

The cash-strapped Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria fell under the spotlight on Wednesday, when ministers from 14 countries met in Paris, France, to address the fund's financial woes. The fund, which has committed US $1.5 billion to programmes in 92 countries in the last 18 months, faces a lack of money for proposals waiting to be funded in October.

“We, poets of South Africa, declare for all the country and the world to know that a country that does not appreciate poetry is a doomed country. This means that our poetry, just like our music and dance, contributed a great deal to South Africa’s present dispensation. Another reason is that new South African poetry is hardly ever studied in schools and universities; and that our public libraries do not carry sufficient poetry resources. Although there are policies and institutions to support the arts, there has been very little support for poetry and poets. We therefore commit ourselves to building a conscious society that appreciates poetry from primary to higher levels.”

Government has called on the police to work closely with non governmental organisations (NGOs) dealing in child abuse to combat child trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation. Youth, Sport and Child Development Deputy Minister Gunston Chola said the problem of child trafficking required concerted efforts as it was a problem affecting many countries.

There are too many hands of African children holding guns instead of pencils or books, United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) executive director Carol Bellamy has said. Briefing journalists at the African Union (AU) summit in Maputo on the involvement of children in African conflicts, Bellamy said the situation was intolerable because the future of the continent lies in the hands of its children.

In the face of looming water shortages, which threaten to affect billions of the earth’s inhabitants by mid-century, UNESCO is calling for a radical review and reform of water education programmes and for a speedy doubling in the number of water professionals around the world. This call is contained in a speech that the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, will deliver on Thursday July 17.

The Head of the Gender and Economic Reform in Africa (GERA) section of the Third World Network (TWN) Zo Randrianamaro has said women have a larger stake in the upcoming 5th ministrial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Cancun Mexico in September. This is because most WTO rules have had a greater negative impact on women than on men. Randrianamaro said the majority of people in Ghana and Africa at large who have been excluded from benefiting from the proceeds of WTO rules are women.

Mindset Network, a multimedia satellite TV network, has been launched in Johannesburg with corporate support valued at R225 million. Mindset Network is a non-profit organisation which will address the education challenges which face South Africa, including schooling, health and entrepreneurship.

Nelson Mandela, two days before his 85th birthday, says he will continue to seek funding for schools projects and programmes geared at fighting HIV/Aids. "I will spend the rest of my days trying to help secure a more educated and healthier South Africa," Mandela said on Wednesday.

More than 10 years ago, I brought to the attention of editors at The New York Times my expose of cases of journalistic concoctions by reporters and editors during the newspaper’s African news coverage. I was virtually ignored. So you can imagine how I felt when Jayson Blair’s plagiarism and fakery came back to haunt Times editors. Times editors have known for years that reporters and editors committed ugly transgressions in the past. Blair’s only mistake was being caught.

The purpose of this article is to explore the main ways in which HIV and Aids impact on older women and men in developing countries. It also reviews the research, programme and policy implications of including older people in current and future interventions to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 and links them to national and international development targets.

The more involved the U.S. becomes in the crisis-wracked continent of Africa, the clearer it is that Washington isn't the solution - but instead bears responsibility for the civil wars and social catastrophes across Africa. Exhibit A is Liberia.
Related Link:
* Liberia: Ending the Horror
http://www.fpif.org/outside/commentary/2003/0307liberia.html

Especially since the mid-1990s, Southern African civil society organisations have consistently campaigned against poverty and for policy and governance transformation towards defined social development objectives. The Millennium Development Goals correspond directly with the objectives of civil society organisations that have been active in social and economic justice advocacy work in the region. However, Southern African civil society organisations have either ignored or been slow in taking up the Millennium Development Goals framework in their research, service provision, community organisation, and advocacy work. Meanwhile, there is increasing coordinated research, education, and advocacy work beginning to happen among Southern African civil society organisations in regard to the New Partnership for Africa's Development and the African Union.

Political and economic decay in Zimbabwe has become one of the major problems confronting post-apartheid Southern Africa and seriously threatens Africa's resolve to address democratic issues and re-invent its international image. According to Africa's critics and many of its Northern supporters, the lack of assertive action towards Zimbabwe is indicative of the fact that NEPAD and the African Union will be unable to amount to anything more than rhetoric. Despite humanitarian crises and overwhelming pressure for reform, Mr. Mugabe remains in power and apparently continues to enjoy the support of influential regional players. Increasing internal pressure and political dissent from pro-democracy forces have not compelled Mugabe's regime to concede that a crisis exists. How has this regime, which shows increasingly little regard for democratic principles, human rights, rule of law and political pluralism managed to cling to power even when change appears inevitable? asks this report from the Political Information & Monitoring Service of Idasa.

Couched in a new framework of interaction between Africa, industrialised countries, and multilateral organisations like the World Bank, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) has been promoted at all major world economic gatherings since its launch in October 2001. At corporate globalisation forums like the G8 meetings, its advocates have likened Nepad to the Marshal Plan that resurrected Europe after World War Two, claiming that Africa's present development status is as a result of insufficient globalisation, and the therapy is to integrate Africa further into the global economy. By this strategy, can Africa truly claim this millennium? Nowhere is an answer more obvious than in the energy sector, the cornerstone of Nepad.

Energy is of premier importance for economic development in Africa. With global business opportunities totalling trillions of dollars, energy is one of the biggest businesses in the world. In particular, energy consumption in developed countries is expected to swell significantly in the years ahead. With these rosy business prospects, Nepad intends to use energy as a launch pad for Africa into the global economy. Against this, and despite the rich and diverse sources of energy on the continent, per capita consumption of energy in Africa is the least in the world, fronting energy poverty at the root cause of underdevelopment. With about 40 to 45% of the 730 million people in Africa living on less than a dollar a day, access, affordability, and efficiency are the tenets on which any strategy that will align Africa's energy economy on a path to sustainable development must be judged.

Although Nepad makes a token reference to the need to guarantee a sustainable supply of affordable energy as the cornerstone for poverty alleviation, projects envisaged to operationalise the goal run opposite to the energy needs of the majority of Africa's inhabitants. The short-term action plan to dually anchor sustainable energy development and serve as building blocks to the realisation of medium to long-term goals are power systems, and oil and gas transmission projects. The power projects include the Mepanda Uncua Hydro Power Plant, Ethiopia-Sudan Interconnection, West Africa Power Pool (WAAP) Program, Algeria-Morocco-Spain Interconnection, Algeria-Spain Interconnection, Algeria Gas-fired Power Station, and the Mozambique-Malawi Interconnection. The gas and oil transmission projects include: the Kenya-Uganda Oil Pipeline, West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP), and the Libya-Tunisia Gas Pipeline. Firmed on the profiteering devotion of multinational corporations, are these projects really relevant to Africa's development aspirations? Alternatively, will they actually meet the energy needs and aspirations of present and future generations? This article attempts an answer by calibrating the projects on the following sustainability scales:

AFFORDABILITY: PUTTING PROFITS AHEAD OF PEOPLE

The power projects mentioned highlight an unbowed agenda to centralise the supply of electricity in the continent. The seed capital for these projects is the sweeping wave of privatisation of State Owned Enterprises (SOE's) across Africa. Through policy-based lending, most African countries are subscribing to the dictates of international institutions like the World Bank to open the energy sector to foreign investment through privatisation and deregulation. In these circumstances, electricity is treated as a commodity rather than a public service. Hence, the hallmarks of SOE's such as universal service, non-discriminatory pricing between industrial and residential users, and cross-subsidies to urban poor and rural populations are substituted for full cost recovery, the credo of privatised utilities.

At the same time, and in order to maximise profits, multinational corporations are exploring opportunities to transcend geographical barriers. Anchored in neo-liberalism, the Nepad action plan facilitates the lifting of geographical restrictions on electricity trade across Africa. It is worth noting that this is inimical to the livelihoods of the majority of Africans living below two dollars a day. Besides paying the real cost for electricity, unreliable consumers will be priced out of the grid. In sum, markets and customers in the Nepad action plan take precedence over citizenship.

ACCESSIBILITY: NO ROOM FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION

Access to electricity services is a clear marker of the difference between the rich and the poor, between men and women. In fact, 80% of the 500 million Africans without access to electricity live in rural areas. In particular, the rural electrification rate of 16.9% in Africa is the least in the world. The lack of electricity correlates with many indicators of poverty such as poor education, inadequate health care, and hardships imposed on women and children. Electricity services can indeed enhance the quality of life of rural populations in countless ways. For instance: electric light extends the day, providing extra hours for reading and improving exam results in rural areas; refrigeration allows rural clinics to keep needed medicines such as vaccines; and solar dryers can lead to lower post-harvest losses and enable rural farmers to market their produce when prices are higher.

Because of the rates of poverty and low population density in rural areas, relying on grid solutions for lights on is a sure course for lights off. In fact, the energy needs of rural Africa are decentralised. Meeting the energy needs of rural populations requires the exploration of renewable energy sources. In contrast, the Nepad action plan prioritises the centralisation of power supply, the opposite of the decentralised energy needs of rural masses. Driven by profits, privatised utilities have no incentive to extend networks to rural areas, unless government subsidies make up for the financial loses and provide an attractive margin of profit. It is worth noting that the neo-liberal fountain from which Nepad draws its viability is at odds with subsidies. In fact, governments are compelled to shirk their social responsibilities thereby leaving rural populations permanently unconnected to the grid.

EFFICIENCY: PRIVATISATION OF BENEFITS AND SOCIALISATION OF RISKS

The Nepad action plan is based on a resource-led development approach which prioritises the extractive industry sector, paving the way for criss-crossing oil and gas transmission pipelines. The capital intensive nature of these projects is beyond the purse of African states; and the action plan intends to facilitate the establishment of policies and institutional framework favourable for multinational corporations to invest. This could include favourable contractual risk guarantees that profits are placed ahead of public concerns and generous tax exoneration provisions. But the fact is that oil mining does not equate with the prosperity the international financial institutions give it credit for. Even though Nigeria ranks seventh in terms of world oil production, she tailed the human development report in 2002. Another point that cannot escape attention, particularly in the context of the present US-led war against terrorism, is the potential millitarisation of pipeline routes and the inevitable impact on the human rights of nearby communities. Envisaged power projects will significantly impact on the livelihood development of communities. For example, the Mepanda Uncua Hydropower Project will lead to the construction of a 100 square kilometre reservoir that is going to displace 1400 people, while floods are expected to impact on further thousands.

I wouldn't like to conclude without resuscitating the focus of this article: Is Nepad worth its value in sustainable development? Calibrated on the aforementioned points, it is hard to answer in the affirmative. In addition, credence for this pessimism roots in Nepad's engagement with civil society organisations in Africa, international social labour, and environmental movements. In obviating the contributions of these actors, who in their struggle for socio-environmental and economic justice have been able to bring about a modicum of progressive global change, Nepad fails to differ from other multinational corporations' designs to mine Africa's resources and maim its people. Is this the price to be paid in order for Africa to claim this millennium?

* Akong Charles Ndika is an Energy Policy Analyst with Global Village Cameroon.

* Please send comments for publication in the Letters and Comments section of Pambazuka News to [email protected]

Activists from the Mozambican environmentalist NGO "Livaningo" staged a demonstration on Monday in front of the World Bank offices in Maputo, to protest against the bank's support for the building of incinerators to burn toxic waste in developing countries, reports Tuesday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias".

The international criminal court is likely to investigate war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, its chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has said. Mr Moreno Ocampo said that he was "closely following" the situation in Ituri, the north-eastern province where thousands of civilians have been killed in tribal conflicts since last year.

Amnesty International is urging Nigerian authorities to launch an independent public inquiry into the death of at least four people reported to have been killed in Lagos in clashes involving the police and civilians during demonstrations against an increase in the price of fuel. More than seven days after the people were announced dead, no investigation has been carried out.

This issue includes:
-Human Rights Art Student Exchange
- Visiting Artist: Anthony Nkotsi
- Exhibition: South African Bill of Rights in Massachusetts
- Burma in Need for Support
- Human Rights Film Festival
- Coming Up: Images Portfolio in Constitutional Court.

Mafikeng, The North West Provincial department of health is on track with its pursued to improve the provision of primary health care service to rural and farming communities. The MEC for Health Dr Molefi Sefularo has today handed out a fleet of 25 state of the art mobile clinics to the 4 regions in the province to be used in remote areas especially in farms and rural sites. “ Today marks our practical commitment to turn the tide further in our quest to broaden access to quality and decent primary health care for all,” said MEC Sefularo.