PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 90: Latifúndio ilegal em Angola | Repressão policial na Guiné-Bissau
PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 90: Latifúndio ilegal em Angola | Repressão policial na Guiné-Bissau
In line with DFID's new Southern Africa strategy to support poverty elimination, DFID has invested R1 billion in the Eastern Cape. The funding involves a 3-5 year partnership between the Eastern Cape government and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
South Africa could be at a turning point in the war on HIV/Aids: a billion-rand injection of funds to fight the pandemic is within weeks, or perhaps even days, of being deposited into a South African bank account by the Global Fund.
The Japanese Government has given Kenya over Sh7 million to finance health projects across the country. The funds were granted to St John's Ambulance and Irigiro Community Self Help Group (ICSHG) to establish and construct proposed health projects.
With the completion of the third annual Nelson Mandela Invitational golf event at Pecanwood the amount donated to the two charities benefiting from the event over three tournaments has officially passed the astonishing figure of R5 million. The money has been shared between the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and the Player Foundation.
Two Hudson Park High teachers have lost their locks for charity as part of the Cancer Association of South Africa's (Cansa) shave-a-thon fund-raising campaign to help cancer patients nationwide.
The UN Development Programme (UNDP), the oil giant ChevronTexaco Corporation, and the Angolan government have signed an agreement to form a public-private partnership to support small business development in Angola.
A multi-million dollar project to help nomads and communities in three African countries conserve and boost the prospects for native flowers, shrubs and trees has been launched by the United Nations with backing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
For 40 years, international fuel companies have mercilessly polluted the oil-rich Niger Delta. Today, the region which used to be an area of natural beauty is an ecological disaster. Many of its residents - traditionally fishermen, traders and farmers - lack basic necessities like clean drinking water. Edible fish has to be imported. The same region produces some of sub-Saharan Africa's most spectacular art: fabulous sculptures, acrobatic masquerades and elaborate aquatic pageants, with boats as ornately festooned as Rose Bowl floats. These regattas are staged on rivers believed to be the home of water spirits that have the potential to secure communal well-being.
Dozens of poachers were back in Betty's Bay marine reserve on Sunday evening hauling out sackfuls of perlemoen, only hours after Environment Minister Valli Moosa said he would call on all South Africa's law enforcement agencies - including the elite Scorpions unit - to join the war against abalone poaching on the southern Cape coast.
The Nairobi City Council will soon launch a garbage recycling policy to deal with the 1,600 tonnes of waste generated by residents daily. Town Clerk Jack Mbugua at the same time said the council was concerned over the heavy pollution of Nairobi rivers.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has lifted the three-month suspension on the export of wildlife. President Yoweri Museveni wrote to the authority saying the Government could not stop export of wild animals reared on private farms.
"This excellent collection brings us right to the cutting edge of class analysis, social struggle and socio-economic liberation in Africa. For all the progress made these last years in understanding and promoting African social movement mobilisation during the neo-liberal epoch, a missing link has been labour - this book fills that crucial gap." - Patrick Bond, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Adu Boahen has been a leading figure in the writing of African history since the 1950s. His loud insistence that African history should be written from an African perspective has borne considerable fruits. The essays in this volume reveal the wide range of Adu Boahen’s scholarship, namely, a commitment to studying precolonial history, indigenous belief systems, inter-group relations, colonialism, and the challenges facing postcolonial Africa. In this collection, Ghana becomes the window to peer into Africanist scholarship and the world thus envisioned. The contributors are drawn from the students, peers, colleagues and successors of Adu Boahen; as they celebrate his scholarship, they lead us into the New Africa for which Boahen and the pioneers tirelessly worked.
When the government of Mengistu Hailemariam was overthrown and replaced by a new government headed by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in 1991, Eritreans had hoped that there was finally a government in Ethiopia that had foresworn hegemonic ambitions towards Eritrea. The war (1998-2000) shattered this illusion. Eritreans had also hoped that with the conclusion of the war of independence and a presumably friendly new government in Ethiopia, Eritrea would focus on rebuilding political, social, and economic institutions. The war derailed such hopes. By carefully documenting the events of the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the author unravels the complexity of the dispute and places it in the context of both a regional and international political dynamic.
It's not about formal skills and it's certainly not about your shape or your size. What it is about is making things happen: having the attitude of mind to deal with impossible problems, being able to mould a team and squeeze money out of investors. That's the low-down on ICT entrepreneurs as contained in a CD-rom called 'Entrepreneurship and ICTs: The Art of Making Things Happen'. The CD-rom, produced by the organisation Balancing Act (http://balancingact-africa.com), aims to help entrepreneurs who want to launch a business in the ICT sector or who are already running an ICT business and want to find ways of developing.
The grim reality of life for AIDS orphans and the urgent need to provide them with alternatives to poverty and prostitution does not seem to be getting through to world leaders, said UNICEF chief Carol Bellamy, who has called the global response thus far "grossly inadequate."
The government of Côte d'Ivoire has responded to an army rebellion by committing abuses against innocent civilians, Human Rights Watch charges in a new report. Government forces have killed and arrested individuals on the basis solely of their ethnicity, religion or support for the opposition party.
The United Nations Security Council has extended its arms embargo on Liberia for another six months, after accusing the government of continuing to import weapons. The ban includes the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd).
A task force investigating the extent of plunder of national resources has frozen 41 bank accounts of implicated individuals.
OSISA, a philanthropic non-profit grant making foundation, is pleased to announce the launch of its new website at the following address: www.osiafrica.org This new look website is filled with information on OSISA, its vision, its mission, its activities, areas of operation and program guidelines.
A coalition of major aid organisations launched an appeal Wednesday for new donations of food assistance for Ethiopia, which is facing its worst hunger crisis since the famine of the mid-1980s.
A virulent flu epidemic in the Nord Ubangui zone of Equateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has claimed 566 lives so far, the government announced on Tuesday.
Fighting broke out on Wednesday in northwestern Cote d'Ivoire between rebels and loyalist forces, army spokesman Lt-Col Jules Yao Yao said in a televised statement.
Government troops in the Central African Republic (CAR), backed by a militia from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have expelled rebels from the northwestern town of Bossembele, 157 km from the capital, Bangui, thereby ending weeks of occupation, state-owned radio reported on Wednesday.
Provincial administrators of Burundi's ministries of education and interior joined local officials on the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the inauguration on Wednesday of a collection of "vital data" on all primary school infrastructures in the country, the UN agency reported.
With Rwandan refugees in Tanzania increasingly eager to go home, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that it had stepped up its operations to facilitate their return.
Some 12.6 percent of children under the age of five years in parts of southern Mauritania suffer from acute malnutrition, according to a study released this week by World Vision, an international non-governmental organisation.
Human rights violations by an ill-equipped and under-trained police force, as well as inflammatory speeches and articles in the press, were some of the causes of last year's political violence in Zanzibar, a presidential commission of inquiry has concluded.
Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Monday that 25 new political parties had applied for registration for general elections to be held next year following a relaxation of stringent eligibility criteria.
General elections are to be held in Guinea-Bissau on 23 February, President Kumba Yala announced on Monday. The announcement came just over a week after Yala dissolved parliament and dismissed the Social Renovation Party (PRS) cabinet led by Prime Minister Almara Nhasse, replacing it with a caretaker administration.
The organisers of the Kenyan-hosted Somali peace conference are reported to be in a buoyant mood after three major clans and minority groups delivered lists of their participants to the six technical committees, a source close to the talks told IRIN on Tuesday.
A 16-day campaign targeting violence against women was launched on Monday in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, by the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), has distributed 2,496 kg of high-protein biscuits to some 1,600 households displaced last Friday by fighting between rebels and government forces in Mount Sion, in Gikungu, the agency's communications officer, Sara Johansson, told IRIN.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has started issuing identity cards to tens of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighbouring Republic of Congo (ROC), the agency reported.
Women must play a pivotal role in bringing an end to wars that have ravaged the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia’s minister for women said on Monday.
Tension is rising in Sool and Sanaag regions of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, to which both Somaliland and the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland have laid claim, a local journalist told IRIN on Monday.
Tens of thousands of women and men around the world launched a 16-day global mobilization Monday to raise awareness about the extent of violence against women and demand that it be halted.
In 1999, Africa’s top resettlement officials filed into a sunlit room in the Joint Voluntary Agency (JVA) compound in Nairobi, Kenya for an important meeting. The topic: Do we resettle the Sudanese “Lost Boys” or the Somali Bantus first? History plays out in such moments, and destinies of thousands of people are shaped and changed. The Sudanese boys would go first. The Somali Bantus would wait three more years. Now, their time has come.
Adisata Ibrahim, a class five student from Ghana tells her story of how an NGO programme in educating girls in rural areas made her join a school. And with flexible hours, education did not come in the way of Adisata helping her mother in household chores.
The Bureau Chief for Agence France Presse, Stephane Barbier, has been given until the end of the week to leave the country after the government refused to renew his work permit.
The first phase of the distribution of food to thousands of drought-affected Namibians has been successfully completed in the Katima Rural and Windhoek Rural constituencies. However, the exercise has yet to get off the ground in the Kavango Region.
The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has issued an alert regarding an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever. The fever has so far killed eight people in Orientale Province. This is a region plagued by fighting among various rebel groups and ethnic factions.
Zimbabwe has become a land of long queues. At the TM Supermarket in Harare's Chadcombe shopping centre, a long line of people stream out of the door. Three other equally long queues stretch across the adjacent road, almost blocking the traffic.
Visions in Action is seeking to fill the position of International Volunteer Coordinator, which involves coordinating volunteer orientations, arranging interviews and placements with local NGOs.
The Non-Profit Partnership wishes to invite applications for the position of Information Officer. Duties will include media relations, graphic design and publishing of internal publications.
The Non-Profit Partnership is looking for a trainer, who will be responsible for developing training material for the programme, conduct workshops for NPO's in all 9 provinces and prepare evaluation reports.
The Hamlet Foundation has a vacancy for a Personnel Assistant. The position requires some Public Relations skills and fund-raising experience.
Ashoka is seeking a Senior Program Manager to direct its Citizen Base Initiative (CBI) and contribute to the growth of Ashoka South Africa.
Recent army massacres of civilians and the bombardment of Bujumbura by the rebel Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD) raises the risk of further widespread killing of civilians in Burundi, Human Rights Watch says in a briefing paper.
Related Link:
Rebels Shell Bujumbura
http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31046
Somali Civil Society News is delivered by email every two weeks and is part of a project that aims for the achievement of permanent respect for human rights, justice through rule of law, pluralism, good governance and sustainable peace in Somalia and Somaliland. For more information on this project visit http://www.somali-civilsociety.org. The newsletter contains links to stories about the Horn of Africa region in various content categories. For free subscription send an email to [email protected]
Police say at least 11 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel near the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. The attack coincided with a failed rocket attack on an Israeli airliner taking off from Mombasa airport.
Since Pambazuka News started 18 months ago, subscribers to the newsletter have grown from a few hundred to nearly 10 000. Those subscribers continue to tell us that we are providing a valuable resource, but we believe there are thousands more people who don’t know about us and would find use in our weekly e-newsletter. That’s why we would like to enlist your help to spread the word about Pambazuka News. We’re asking our subscribers to forward their edition of Pambazuka News to as many of their friends and colleagues as they think may be interested in the newsletter. We’re also asking subscribers to encourage people to visit or to send an email to [email protected] with ‘subscribe’ in the subject line. If all our subscribers recruited only one extra subscriber, we could double our existing subscriber base.
How sad it is to acknowledge that often, the death of one individual on this continent so frequently ignites a spark of hope for the future in the heart of a community, a people, or a nation, and not only among the closely affected peoples themselves but far and wide, triggering off a palpable sigh of relief and optimism that is echoed in the observation caucuses of other nations, sometimes of the most conflicting, incompatible ideologies. One such sigh was heard in recent times after the death of one of the most incalcitrant warlords that the condition of colonialism ever brought to be on this continent. Even while recognising that such moments of hope may be illusory, there is nonetheless an instinctual response that the worst is over, that the route is now open to social recovery, healing, and rebirth. It speaks a lot to the formative character and ongoing dilemma of a continent that the simple demise of one individual or a handful of individuals becomes necessary in order to commence the process of regeneration, or rebirth of a dying community of people. In this case, the individual - Jonas Savimbi - was not even a possessor of the national mantle of leadership.
In Zimbabwe, choosing your political affiliation is a matter of life or death, confirms a new report. Political abuse of food is the most serious and widespread human rights violation in Zimbabwe at present, according to a November report from Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark (PHR-DK).
The organisation said its most significant findings related to the abuse of food and warned that if it was not possible to increase non-partisan food supplies into the country, then starvation and eventually death would occur along party political lines in Zimbabwe. “We conclude that in the last four months, manipulation of food was directly related to elections. The threat of being deliberately starved by the government if the opposition won votes, was used to profoundly influence vulnerable rural voters in recent elections in Zimbabwe.”
PHR-DK said in all cases of problematic food distribution, those implicated in politically manipulating access to food were Zanu-PF officials or supporters. The lack of food – a situation maintained by Zanu-PF - served a dual purpose for the party: it allowed political control through controlling who accessed food, and it created a Zanu-PF dominated black market which enriched the party hierarchy.
Covering the period from August to October 2002, the report documents the story of a mother named only as DD, who has nine children under the age of 12. She was an active Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporter before the Presidential elections and had experienced trouble accessing food as a result. Shortly before the rural district elections, she realised that her food situation was desperate and that her children were in serious danger of starving to death. She realised that the MDC was not in a position to help, and that as long as she remained a MDC supporter, she would not get food, because that is what everyone in her ward had repeatedly been told by Zanu-PF officials. She had tried repeatedly during 2002 to get on to World Food Programme feeding lists and was told by the local community leaders responsible for drawing up lists that she was not eligible as she was from the MDC. The kraal head, named as T in the report, came to her home and told her she had to surrender her MDC cards if she wanted to benefit from WFP donor food. This was shortly before the Rural District Council elections. DD said she was made to publicly surrender her card and buy a Zanu-PF card. Immediately on doing this, she was declared as being eligible for WFP food, and was placed on their feeding lists. At the time her child was diagnosed as having kwashiorkor, a condition caused by protein and calorie deficiency.
The report is the third report in 2002 on torture in Zimbabwe written by PHR-DK. In January and May 2002, reports concluded that “mutilating torture” was being practised by government supporters against the political opposition, and that perpetrators operated on the assumption of total impunity.
The January and May reports both reflected concern at the clamp down on the Zimbabwean judiciary, media and civil society and its impact on the flow of information on human rights abuses to the international community. “In May we warned that in the Zimbabwean context, fewer formal reports about abuses did not indicate that fewer abuses were taking place. Rather it indicated that repressive legislation and a growing government campaign against independent voices had succeeded in decreasing the information flow.”
The organisation concluded in its November report that little had changed. “Torture and ill treatment beyond any doubt is still being practised by government supporters against their political opponents in Zimbabwe. The fact that perpetrators continue not to care whether they torture people who can identify them, or whether their acts of torture or ill treatment leave marks that can easily be recognised as caused by torture, underlines a clear assumption on their part, of impunity.”
PHR-DK said current findings reinforced the conclusion of earlier reports – that there was a deliberate policy of torture and impunity by the authorities. The November report documents that attacks on independent voices in the media, the judiciary and civil society have indeed continued, and are predicted to escalate yet further in the next few months, in the form of further repressive legislation, as well as attacks on individuals.
PHR-DK is an independent group of Danish medical doctors founded in 1990 whose goal is to bring the skills of the medical profession to the protection of human rights. Previous reports from the organisation are available at
Related Stories:
* MAIZE-MEAL ONLY SOLD TO ZANU PF CARD HOLDERS
* LEAVE WITH YOUR FOOD, CHIEF TELLS DONORS
The electronic conference for the 'African Networks for Health Research & Development' (AFRO-NETS) was established in 1997 to facilitate exchange of information among different networks active in health research for development in Anglophone Africa, and to facilitate collaboration in the fields of capacity building, planning, and research. Since then, the AFRO-NETS discussion group has grown to 1300 subscribers in 74 countries and now includes a web site. Topics for discussion include: advocacy for health research and development; priority setting; capacity building; resource mobilisation; evaluation; dissemination of results; utilisation of research findings; networking; use of information technology for the health sector; announcement of meetings, training courses and other events of interest to subscribers; and HIV-AIDS issues.
During the recent ICT Policy and Civil Society Workshop in Addis Ababa held between 6th and 8th November 2002, the need for developing a framework for Open Source solutions emerged strongly. Consequently, WOUGNET along with other Civil Society Organisations from all over Africa unanimously resolved to create an interim civil society task force on Open Source software to be called 'Open Source Task Force for Africa - OSTA'. The overall goal of the taskforce is to bring together individuals and organisations working on Open Source in Africa and consequently seek a mandate to establish the 'Open Source Foundation for Africa'.
Picture this. Anastacia Namusonge is over 70 years old, a grandmother and a farmer in Uganda. She has had no formal education but can confidently turn the 'pages' of a CD- ROM on setting up small-scale businesses. The content of the CD-ROM is in her local language, Luganda, and includes text, images and audio messages, and instructions that she can understand. Aware of the surprised responses of those who watch her, Anastacia demonstrates her IT skills with ease and style.
Development through Radio (DTR) is a unique rural radio project in Zimbabwe. Popularly known as the Radio Listeners' Clubs, the DTR project was developed to give rural people access to radio. Groups of women are trained to produce their own radio programmes.
We need someone to organise and deliver Mango's highly-rated training courses. You will work closely with the Training Director, providing training to our International and Southern NGO partners. This includes delivering Mango's core courses and developing in-house courses. It is expected that you will spend up to 12 weeks each year facilitating finance training events in regional centres around the world, often working alone.
Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin has said trade between Africa and China should be on an equal footing whereby both benefit. Addressing a meeting in Addis Ababa on trade between China and the African continent, he said that the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) must play a key role in forging any trade relations between the two.
Migrant workers in Southern Africa contribute to the development of their host countries but cannot rely on laws to protect them from exploitation and discrimination, migration specialists told IRIN. Their plight was under discussion this week in Pretoria, the South African capital, by representatives from business, government and labour, brought together by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO).
PAMBAZUKA NEWS PT 89: Moçambique: um ano sem Nyusi | Oportunidade única de eleger uma mulher em Cabo Verde
PAMBAZUKA NEWS PT 89: Moçambique: um ano sem Nyusi | Oportunidade única de eleger uma mulher em Cabo Verde
Bus-loads of people leaving Ivory Coast for the safety of their own country say they have been fired on during their journey. Some of the 800 who arrived in Mali in the convoy had cuts from flying glass and said their buses were fired on by armed men at checkpoints in Ivory Coast.
Talks between Nigeria and Cameroon, chaired by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, have ended without a final agreement in the Swiss city of Geneva. The presidents of the two countries were attempting to resolve a dispute over an oil-rich section of their border, the Bakassi peninsula, which was awarded to Cameroon last month by the International Court of Justice.
The trial of six men accused of the murder of Mozambique's best-known journalist, Carlos Cardoso, was due to begin on Monday 18 November, on the premises of the city's top security prison. Trial Judge Augusto Paulino has been stalked by unknown men, who were involved in a shootout with the police in front of Paulino's home. This posting includes a collection of articles about the trial distributed by Joseph Hanlon of the Open University.
A bitter row over genetically modified food is casting a shadow over efforts to rush aid to millions of Africans facing starvation. Even as millions of people suffer from malnutrition, thousands of tons of food stockpiles are lying unused - or are even being shipped away. Five of the six southern African countries are imposing tough restrictions on the maize, fearing it either is unsafe to eat or could contaminate their environment.
Leading trade ministers agreed on a plan last Thursday to give the world's poorest nations access to affordable medicines, a breakthrough in the effort to tackle global health crises like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, officials said. The plan would grant waivers on drug patents on a case-by-case basis and seek tight controls on trade in the generic medicines.
In the context of four of the OECD Development Assistance Committee's (DAC) development objectives -- reducing extreme poverty; providing universal primary education; lowering infant and maternal mortality; and transmitting health -- this book is particularly timely. The authors demonstrate that in the case of very poor countries, policies aimed at universal provision of education and health services benefit the poor significantly more than more expensive targeted schemes. The book draws attention to the absolute need for coherence and co-ordination so that schools are not built without teachers and dispensaries without drugs. Moreover, national macroeconomic policies have to be realistic if the health and education sectors are not to be deprived of resources. Finally, the quality of governance is shown to have a direct effect on the efficiency of social spending.
This is a call for applicants for the Adilisha distance learning courses for non-profit human rights and advocacy organisations in the SADC region. Fahamu, in association with the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford, will be offering courses specifically designed to meet the needs of non-profit human rights and advocacy organisations in the SADC region (Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). Developed together with international and regional experts, seven courses will be run in the course of the next 8 months. Applications are now opened for:
* Leadership and management for change
This course is about leading and managing for change. It aims to help you, a manager or a leader in an organisation involved in the struggle for justice, with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to help you to do your work effectively and ethically. Because if you don't do you work effectively and ethically, your struggle will be in vain.
* Fundraising and resource mobilization
Fundraising and resource mobilisation may be a high priority on your list. But in the kind of context you are operating in, the prospects of raising sufficient funds might not be so good. In order to be effective - in order to bring about equity and justice - you need to be able to effectively fundraise and mobilise your resources, and effect change. And yet many of you are not able to do this. That's what this course is for.
Donors’ demands for greater accountability, together with our own need to learn from and build on our own experiences have led to rapid developments within the field of monitoring and evaluation. Participatory methods are growing in importance as the development community recognises the necessity for involving all stakeholders in the process of development, in order that learning takes place which can contribute to sustainable development processes. At the same time, there has been the realisation that the more traditional monitoring and evaluation methods, based on linear, cause effect interpretations of social development, are limited and need to be enriched by contributions of other perceptions and realities.
The Research Triangle Institute (RTI) is looking for a HIV/AIDS Policy/Advocacy Specialist for a 4-year USAID project focusing on behavior change to reduce HIV prevalence and reduce number of partners in Malawi to begin in January 2003.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and its partners are expanding help to more vulnerable children in Burkina Faso. They are providing school materials to 10,000 children this year, up from 850 in 2000. Parents of many of these children died of AIDS. Only about a third of children in Burkina Faso, one of the world's poorest countries, are enrolled in primary school.
Malnutrition rates in Angola have declined, but conditions in the war-ravaged country remain extremely poor, Médecins Sans Frontières said this week. The medical relief agency reported that malnutrition, crude mortality rates, lack of access to health care and food insecurity all remained unacceptably high.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has protested against a nine-month prison sentence imposed on Tuesday on a Sierra Leonean editor, Paul Kamara. His daily newspaper, "For Di People" was closed for six months. Kamara was found guilty of 18 counts of libel and defamation by the High Court in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown.
The Delimitation Commission's report, which was submitted to President Sam Nujoma, is to be discussed by Cabinet before being made public, according to an official at State House. The Delimitation Commission decides on the demarcation of constituencies for elections.
Guinea-Bissau President Kumba Yala said last Thursday he would dissolve parliament, call early elections and seek a popular mandate to strengthen his powers, news organisations reported. Yala accused the legislature of "subversion" and charged his minority Social Renovation Party (PRS) government with corruption, the Portuguese news agency LUSA reported.
A health services rehabilitation project in the war-ravaged Uige Province of Angola has received financing. Uige is one of the parts of Angola that has suffered most during the war with most of its infrastructure destroyed.
An unofficial audit of Kenya's electoral roll shows that nearly 16% of registered voters are dead. The study by the Institute of Education in Democracy (IED) found that an estimated 1.5 million people on the electoral roll of 10.4 million had died.
This Forum aims to provide a framework for exchange of experience and reflection prior to the Conference of the Ministers of Education of African Member States (MINEDAF VIII) to be held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2-6 December 2002.
Some 83 countries are on track to achieve Education For All (EFA) by the deadline of 2015 set at the World Education Forum in Dakar (Senegal) two and a half years ago. However, on present trends, more than 70 other countries will not make it, and some are even going backwards. This is the conclusion of the 2002 Education For All Global Monitoring Report: Is the World on Track? launched by UNESCO.
These are the words that began one of the most vibrant and challenging discussions about civil society's engagement in ICT policy-making in Africa to date. Organised by the Association for Progressive Communications, and hosted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa with the support of Article 19, the workshop on ICT Policy and Civil Society sparked the formation of a network of ICT policy mobilizers. This is dedicated towards building an inclusive information society in Africa.
The Zimbabwe government has vowed to arrest Zimbabwe citizens working for SW Radio Africa in Britain, if ever they set foot in Zimbabwe.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) is the third largest country in Africa and one of the poorest. Decades of dictatorship under Mobutu and ongoing and unresolved civil war have left much of the national infrastructure in tatters. The current project aims to revitalise existing primary health care services with additional support to referral facilities including a network of 90 health centres and three referral hospitals in 5 health zones targeting a population of 860 000 and full support to the Kindu referral Hospital SMI project in Goma.
Responsibilities will involve: Managing all Field Operational activities in the Kissidougou Field Office; Supervising daily activities of Field Finance Manager and insure compliance with ARC policy on payments, bank transfers, withdrawals and cash reconciliations; Submitting monthly, quarterly and annual reports to the Conakry Office; Attending NGO and Donor meetings on behalf of ARC Kissidougou and act as liaison for the Country Director where required; Organising and chairing staff meetings as well as disseminating information as required to all Coordinators; Ensuring adherence to all Administrative Directives and Policies, as well as the Personnel Policies and Procedures for both expatriate, national and refugee staff and arrange for staff training and development as appropriate.
We seek a passionate and committed person to serve as Programme Representative. As Programme Representative, you will be responsible for representation, meeting quality programme standards by providing strategic and operational management, programme and employee development, security and management of the team, handling the budget and ensuring that capacity work, humanitarian and advocacy programmes are properly operational.
Aids activists have criticised a Zambian official for his proposal to round up everyone infected with HIV and force them into isolation camps. Alex Chama, deputy minister for Luapula province, made his comments during a parliamentary debate Wednesday. Aids activists said it was sad to see a government minister express such attitudes in a country where an estimated 20 percent of people are HIV positive.
Reports from Tanzania say parliament has passed a new anti-terrorism law which gives the police and immigration officials sweeping powers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants or anyone thought to have links with terrorists. Under the new law, passed by the National Assembly in the capital, Dodoma, police will not need warrants to detain people suspected of committing those offences.
South Africa said Thursday it did not deliberately withhold information about elephant poaching at one of its national parks from a U.N. organization deciding whether to allow sales of ivory stockpiles. On Tuesday, the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted to allow South Africa, Botswana and Namibia to stage one-time sales of ivory from their stockpiles in 2004 provided it did not lead to a surge in poaching by criminals hoping to launder fresh tusks among the legitimate sales.
The World Organisations Against Torture, or OMCT, is requesting concerned parties to write to the Mauritanian authorities urging them to halt their intimidation of striking workers and encourage both parties to engage in negotiations. This follows information received by the organisation about intimidation used to break a strike that started on October 19 2002 in Nouakchott.
This posting from Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe comments on media commentary of Zimbabwe's 2003 budget proposal by Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa and coverage of the US/Zimbabwe relations with regards to the warning by the US against alleged politicization of food by ZANU PF. The update also examines the manner in which the media covered the land issue in relation to the country's food security.
The Anti-Privatisation Forum expresses its full and sincere solidarity with you and your family during these difficult times. As the APF, we have resolved to contribute whatever we are able to assist you, and we will encourage further individual contributions as well as letters of support. You are known and respected by many on the left in South Africa. You have served the working class and poor in Southern Africa with principled commitment for many years. Indeed, you are one of the few who has dedicated your life to work with, and for, the oppressed and marginalized. You have resisted self-enrichment and personal gain. Your stellar work at Khanya College and at the International Labour Research and Information Group helped produce many leading activists and progressive left-leaning professionals in South Africa and facilitated important debates and discussions towards finding a working class way forward following the disorganisation and disorientation of left forces in South Africa due to the ANC ‘s betrayal of the liberation movement and its capitulation to neo-liberalism. We do not feel betrayed, tricked or taken for a ride with the revelation of your earlier activities. Rather, it is your life’s work here in South Africa that serves as the basis for our solidarity and support.
The Supreme Court has dismissed an application made by President Levy Mwanawasa's lawyer, Michael Mundashi, who was seeking the citation of Arthur Simuchoba, editor of the privately-owned newspaper "The Monitor", and Chali Nondo, his chief reporter, for "contempt of court", for commenting on an ongoing election petition against Mwanawasa's election in December 2001.
Women in Sudan have suffered some of the worst forms of abuse, and although women traditionally act as peacemakers in many communities in southern Sudan, there are few women involved in the official peace process, says a report by Operation Lifeline Sudan. The report does not focus solely on the victimization of women and poor representation of women at the peace table, but also looks for a way forward for Sudanese women in the south. According to the report, women have been and could again be a positive force for improvement, but they face many obstacles.
Recognizing that HIV/AIDS has a differential impact on young women and men, the Eastern and Southern African Young Women's symposium on HIV/AIDS is expected to bring together young women from academic institutions in the region, gender-based organisations, NGOs, Donors and governments to reflect on the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on young women and to design strategies for greater practical action to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS among young women. This symposium will coincide with World AIDS Day celebrations. The event is being organized by Strategic Initiatives for Development (STRIDE) and the Kenya Oral Literature Association in preparation for the 2nd International Youth/ Students Conference on AIDS (IYSCA 2003). For more information, contact W. Kaikai at 254-02-245311, or email [email][email protected] or [email][email protected]
Humanitarian assistance has been manipulated cynically and devastatingly as a war strategy by both sides in Sudan, though overwhelmingly by the government, throughout the nineteen-year conflict. There is now an historic opportunity to end these aid restrictions permanently, but it will require immediate, determined and coordinated action by the international community, says the International Crisis Group.
Half the internally displaced primary school-age children in Burundi do not go to school due to a high level of poverty, according to a recent survey conducted by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Africa's plight is not as bad as the world thought, it is worse. More than 30 million people on the continent could be facing famine within months. In Ethiopia, the lengthening of dry spells and the shortening of rainy seasons have cast a long shadow of hunger. In southern Africa food shortages are compounded by pandemic levels of Aids. In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's misguided policies were designed to kill off the opposition, but have ended up starving a region. Meanwhile Congo, Angola, Sudan and the Ivory Coast are all caught between war and peace.
HIV/AIDS treatment activists in Nigeria have expressed serious concern about a meeting in Abuja this week that threatens access to treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS in the country. The activists met on Saturday in Lagos under the auspices of the Treatment Action Movement (TAM), a coalition of civil society groups working in the area of HIV/AIDS treatment and care. The activists say that the meeting, sponsored by the United States Department of Commerce, could erode access to cheap and affordable medicines, especially antiretrovirals (ARV) that are currently being enjoyed by people living with HIV/AIDS.
Women suffer inordinately in times of armed conflict, but are stakeholders in the search for sustainable peace. Their involvement in the peace process is not a luxury, it is an absolute necessity and women's views and strategies must be sought after - from the grassroots up to the top. This should be accompanied by capacity building, while their involvement should not only be based on their training but also on their experiences in conflicts. This is according to the Kampala 2002 Resolution on Women, Peace and Conflict, drafted as agreed upon in the Women, Peace and Conflict track at the Women's Worlds 2002 Conference.
African NGOs are increasingly getting themselves on to the web. However not always for the right reasons. Bev Clark of Kubatana.net outlines the questions you should first ask yourself.
The US State Department on Wednesday condemned human rights abuses in Cote d'Ivoire, including extra-judicial killings, extra-legal activity, harassment, and extortion, which it said were perpetrated by both government and rebel forces.